So I wrote a little bit about this book in my previous post when I selected Chipster-Topped Brownies to make for my husband and for game night. But in all my browsing through the cookbook I knew instantly the recipe that I wanted to make…..the Cranberry Upside Downer. It was bright and vibrant and I knew it would photograph well…plus it looked tasty(the most important thing). It’s a cleaver take on the old pineapple upside down cake, however it is much spicer(there is cinnamon) and of course more tart because of the cranberries. If I had some, cinnamon ice cream would have gone fabulously with this cake. This cake was easy to make and smelled so good baking in the oven that is caused both the dog and me to howl in hunger. The only nervous part is of course flipping the cake, but luckily it came out beautifully. And though it did warn that the berries might stick, mine did not. Once fliped you have a jewel encrusted cake that sure be a stunner at an Fall event you would be hosting.

Like I said in my previous post the directions are very clear and I would be confident that any of my non-baking friends could make this cake, as well as most things in this book. The most refreshing thing about this book is that it uses widely available ingredients. Which is nice because sometimes I really want to try a recipe but can’t find all the specialty ingredients needed to make it.

Cranberry Upside Downer

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup minus 2 TBSP sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans…I used walnuts
2 cups cranberries-fresh or frozen(if frozen, do not thaw)I used fresh
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 whole milk
1/3 cup red currant jelly, for glazing the cake

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Put a 8X2 inch round cake pan on a baking sheet.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Melt 6 TBSP of the butter in a small saucepan. Sprinkle in 6 TBSP of the sugar and cook, stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil. Pour this evenly over the bottom of the cake pan, then scatter over the nuts and top with the cranberries, smoothing the layer and pressing it down gently with your fingertips. Set aside.
Working with a stand mixer, preferabley fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the remaining stick of butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Pour in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Mix in the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Spoon the batter over the cranberries and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove it from the oven and run a blunt knife between the sides of the pan and the cake. Carefully turn the cake out onto a serving platter. If any of the berries stick to the pan-as they might-just scrape them off with a table knife and return them to the cake.
Warm the jelly in a small saucepan over low heat, or do this in a microwave oven. Gently brush the glaze over the hot cake.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

You will see many more recipes from this cookbook popping up on my blog from time to time, for this one has just too many to choose from. I hope you add it to your Christmas wish list…that is if you can wait that long.

Amoung the one I hope to get to are: Chocolate Armagnac Cake, Swedish Visiting Cake, Caramel Crunch Bars, Pecan Honey Sticky Buns, The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart, Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart and the Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise all are things that sound wonderful too me. Those are just some, there are really many more, but then I would just be listing the index

So life has more than caught up with me and has not allowed me to be baking or blogging like I want to. My poor hubby has Bronchitis and is super miserable. Unfortunately for him(and me) he coughs all night, so sleep is not much of an option. This week he started back to work. We only have one car(trying to help out mother Earth) and he usually walks to the park and ride. But being sick I now get up and drive him in the morning. I am horrible at going back to sleep after I get up and so I have been averaging about 3 hours of sleep or less a day for over a week now. Luckily the weekend came and I got to get a little more sleep and therefore start to function once again. Sadly, all week, due to being so tired, I had NO inspiration for my blog. Nothing, nada. Last night I had a girls game night to go to and so I had to force myself to make something.

I turned to the book that I agreed to review as well as post a couple recipes about, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Sara from I Like to Cook asked me if I would be interested and I jumped all over the chance. The nice thing about this cookbook is that it is truly for everyone. It is well written in everyday speak so that non-foodies can understand. But also has great recipes that would inspire any level of cook. The book is HUGE, weighing in a 6 pounds and is chalked full of recipes. I have spent the last few weeks going through the book and breaking them down into categories, the two main ones being: stuff I want to make and stuff my husband will eat…which are usually very different. Since my hubby is sick I decided to make something from his category. I ran across a recipe for Chipster-Topped Brownies. I thought how perfect, my husband loves brownies and he loves chocolate chip cookies and this combines the two. It is a fairly simple recipe with the only hard part being the spreading out the cookie dough over the brownie batter. I must admit that I did not do that well on that part. I think the next time I make these(and I will make them again) I will make a little more cookie dough because I definitely needed some filler around the edges. I’m not sure what I was expecting of these but they did not turn out how I expected. I guess I just assumed there would be a brownie layer and then a cookie layer. But this is really more brownie than cookie and the cookie part forms the most yummy crispy top that is very addicting. My hubby loved them, the girls at game night loved them and the small amount I had(evil diet) was wonderful.

The good thing is now that I have baked, had a little more sleep and will go play hockey tonight….the world is starting to get back to normal. I have a list of things I want to bake now, many of them from this book. So if you don’t own this yet, I highly suggest that you get on Amazon or go to your local bookstore and purchase this cookbook, you wont be sorry.

Chipster-Topped Brownies

For the Brownie Layer

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 2/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp salte
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup walnuts

For the Cookie Layer

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, either chips or chunks

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan, line it with wax or parchment paper and butter the paper. Put the pan on a baking sheet.
To Make the Brownie Batter:
Put both chocolates and the butter in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stirring occasionally, heat just until the ingredients are melted, shiny and smooth. If the mixture gets too hot, the butter will seperate from the chocolate. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with a stand mixer, preferable fitted with a paddle attachement, or working with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale, thick and creamy. Beat in the salt and vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate and butter, mixing only until incorporated. Scraped down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then, still on low speed, add the flour, mixing only until it disapperar into the batter. Using a spatula, fold in the walnuts, and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Set aside.
To Make the Cookei Dough:
Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Working with the stand mixer in the cleaned bowl or with the hand mixer in another large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. One at a time, add the egg and the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the dough. Still on low, mix in the chocolate. Drop the cookie dough by spoonfuls over the brownie batter and, using a spatula and a light touch, spread evenly over the batter.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the cookie top is deep golden brown and firm and thin knife inserted into the brownie layer comes out with only faint streaks of moist chocoalte. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.
When the brownies are completely cool, carefully run a knife between the sides of the pan and the brownies, then invert them onto another rack, remove the paper and turn right side up onto a cutting board. Cut into bars about 2 inchesX1 inch.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

Okay, so I am just getting over being surprised for winning last month’s DMBLGIT edibility cagetory….and low and behold I go to my dashboard and see that I am linked to the Laughing Gastronome. I click on it and find out that once again, I won for edibilitly…holy cow….SOOOOOOOOO wasn’t expecting that. I am so happy that people find my food edible To see all this month’s winners click here.

Oh, and this time I got a cute little sign too.

So wasn’t going to participate in this SHF…just no time. But I figured if I could squeeze in fritters last week for HHDD, I could come up with something for SHF. The theme this time around was little bites of delight. We were to make petits fours. Well that encompasses a lot of things…I’m sure my entry was not one they were thinking of. Over burdened with extra pie crust taking up space in the freezer, I decided that since I had so much luck with the Circus Cookies that I would make homemade Poptarts. Oh how I love Poptarts. So bad for you I know but my first two years of teaching I was so poor I lived off of Poptarts and Stove Top Stuffing. I love the strawberry frosted kind the best, but had to make raspberry because that is the jam I still had left over. I am bad in my pie crust I know because I still do use half shortening, but it really makes the pie crust more flaky. I also apologize that none of my pictures can really let you see that it is mini, but they are, I swear. But the Poptart looked so washed out when it was unopened that I got no quality photos what-so-ever. Head on over to Cook Sister to see all of the SHF participants.

Peabody’s Poptarts

pie crust(recipe follows)

good jam(your choice)

Glaze

Sparkling Sugar

Pie Crust 

1-1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons cold water
Combine flour and salt in bowl. Add shortening or butter and blend with fork, pastry cutter or your fingers until mixture is fairly coarse. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, gently mixing dough after each addition until dough forms a ball. (Dough can also be prepared in food processor. Use the pulse button just until it starts to pull away from the sides. Be very careful not to overwork the dough.) Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a square/rectangle. Cut out long strips about 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Repeat till you run out of dough.

Glaze:

1 cup powder sugar

milk to thin

Place powdered sugar in bowl. Pour milk slowly until it has a consistancy of really thick syrup.

Assemble: Take one pie crust rectangle, fill with a tsp of jam. Cover with another piece of pie crust. Crimpe all four edges. Repeat until you run out of pie crust. Bake at 450F for abou7-8 minutes or until slightly brown. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, pour glaze on to Poptart and decorate iwth sparkling sugar.