Another Galette For Summer

 With so many kinds of fruit available now that stone fruit are coming in and strawberries and other berries are beginning to be available in lavish amounts, it was time for Sweetie to have one of his favorite desserts...the freeform pie I call galette...although that might not be the correct spelling.

The great thing about these pies is that they are easy, go together quickly, and are a great way to showcase whatever is ripe now.

For this one I combined strawberries and apricots from the farm stand on Hwy. 12, just east of Sebastopol, and some raspberries from Costco. I did toss the prepared fruit with a mixture of cornstarch and sugar, but I guess I should have used more cornstarch. When it first came out of the oven this freeform pie had juice all around it. Of course Sweetie just waited until the juices cooled and then scooped them up and ate them, but it did make the bottom a bit...oohhh nooooo...soggy. Next time, more cornstarch when the berries are this juicy.

On the health front, my back is finally better and I again have some energy, so I've been pruning a bit, deadheading the roses, and cleaning the fridge...plus doing plenty of reading of trashy summer vacation books. Fun!

For those of you who keep up with our homemaking and projects, we had tree trimmers come and cut back a few trees, mostly for safety and fire prevention issues and we have a new window on order to replace a single pane one that is original to the house. With the current cost of windows, it will be a while before we replace any more of them!

Apricot-Berry Galette

2 apricots, cut into slices, then halved
2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 cup fresh raspberries, washed and patted dry
1 prepared pie dough round (I use Pillsbury ReadyCrust)
1/4 cup sugar (less if fruit is very sweet)
zest from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon cornstarch (this was too little...try at least 2 tablespoons, maybe even three)
sparkling sugar/sanding sugar (optional)

Put the fruit together in a large bowl. 

 Roll out the pie dough to a 12-inch diameter circle and place on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. I used a pizza pan and parchment. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a smaller bowl put the sugar, add the lemon zest and rub together with your fingers to soak the sugar in the lemon oils from the zest. Mix in the cornstarch. Add the cornstarch mixture to the fruit and toss gently with your clean hands until coated and no more cornstarch is visible. Total amount of filling is about 4.5 - 5 cups. 

Mound the fruit mixture in the center of the dough and pat it down, then fold the edges of the pie dough over the berry mixture (about 4 for my galette), brush dough with some water (about 1 tablespoon) and sprinkle on some sanding sugar (optional) and you have the makings of a delicious dessert that is almost a pie, but easier and rustic looking. Gently pat the folds to keep them together, which holds in the filling.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake until golden brown and cooked through.

Let cool on a rack 10 minutes so you don't burn your tongue. Serve in wedges on plates. Softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is optional but nice.

Enjoying Za'atar

One of the joys of cooking is trying different things...different cooking techniques, different ingredients, different combinations and more.

Last night I was having trouble getting to sleep so I rummaged through a box of old magazines and found the April 2019 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. In it I found a recipe using chicken, greek yogurt, red onions, garlic, and a spice mix called za'atar. Za'atar is a blend of sumac, dried herbs and sesame seeds and is used in Middle Eastern cooking. I have a jar from Penzey's spices which I've used once or twice before, but this recipe sounded like it really showcased the za'atar. Something different! Of course I may have made this before and forgotten all about it...my memory sometimes more closely resembles my years and not my appearance.

It's a fairly easy recipe and most of the work is done by the oven over a period of 1 hour, 15 minutes or so. The recipe as written serves four. I changed it slightly by using three boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of the four whole chicken legs, so we got three servings. I also served directly to plates, so that made it harder to estimate the amount of the yogurt sauce to put on the plate. It also meant that I only needed to roast the chicken for the original 50-60 minutes...with no bones it cooks faster and with no skin it doesn't need to brown up.

Be sure to choose a nice fat head of garlic or two...you will be cutting two in half and cooking it with the chicken. If you love roasted garlic cloves as much as Sweetie and I do you will be making this recipe again! There are some lovely pan juices, too, plus garlic-infused plain Greek yogurt, so naan or a baguette or similar bread to wipe up juices and yogurt adds to the fun and delight.

I don't think that the roasted lemon quarters added much, but the citrus zest in the za'atar sauce was essential to the success of the dish, so don't skip putting in both kinds of zest.

This is a lovely dish to serve for company who love garlic since you spread the yogurt on a platter, top with the chicken, scatter the cooked onions and garlic cloves around and top with the zesty za'atar oil...it looks so appealing and tastes wonderful!

Za'atar Chicken with Garlicky Yogurt 

Serves 4
From April 2019 Bon Appetit magazine

4 chicken legs (thighs and drumstick; about 2 1/2 lbs. total)
2 medium red onions, cut into 1-inch thick wedges
2 heads of garlic, halved crosswise, plus 2 cloves
1 lemon, quartered, seeds removed
Kosher salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons za'atar
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 325 degree F. Pat chicken legs dry with paper towels.  (If desired, cut into drumstick and thigh pieces for each leg.) Season chicken with salt. Lightly oil bottom of pan. Arrange chicken, onions, halved garlic heads, and lemon in a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Pour in rest of oil over ingredients and toss as necessary to coat. urn garlic cut side down and nestle it in so it is in contact with the baking dish.

Roast, rotating pan halfway through, until meat is almost falling off the bone, 50-60 minutes.

Meanwhile, finely grate 1 garlic clove into a small bowl. Add yogurt, a big pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon water and mix well. Set aside yogurt sauce.

Remove baking dish from oven and transfer onions, garlic, and lemon to a plate. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F and continue to roast chicken until skin is golden brown, 10-15 minutes more. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes. Set aside pan with juices.

Finely grate remaining 1 clove garlic into another small bowl. Add za'atar, coriander, lemon zest, lime zest. Pour reserved pan juices into za'atar mixture until you've reached an oily consistency (about 1/3 cup). Mix in a pinch of salt.

Spread reserved yogurt sauce over a platter and arrange chicken legs on top. Scatter onions, garlic, and lemon around; drizzle with za'atar oil and serve.

Pesto with My Garden's Basil

Pesto made with pine nuts and basil is a classic sauce for a good reason. For one thing, it smells heavenly! The bright green is enticing, too. Best of all are the robust flavors. Since I'm still not eating cheeses, I made my sauce without Parmesan cheese, but I did add nutritional yeast, plus lemon juice and zested lemon peel. Those added some complexity and the lemon added zing. 

My basil started to flower, so it was time to harvest...perhaps past time. Once rinsed, I stripped the leaves off the stem (even tiny ones) and didn't use the flowers. You need a cup, packed, so that's a lot of basil.

One of the keys to this recipe is to use a food processor and to scrape down the sides frequently so that all of the ingredients are incorporated.

This is an intensely flavored sauce, so use sparingly at first until you are familiar with the intensity.

I lightly coated cooked tortellini with this pesto and it was soooo delicious!

No Cheese Pesto

1 cup, packed, fresh basil leaves...stems discarded
2/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon lemon zest
juice from a lemon
1/3 cup olive oil, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor bowl fitted with the steel blade place the basil, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon zest and lemon juice. Process until fairly smooth, scraping down sides as needed. With machine running, use the feed tube and add the olive oil in a thin stream until pesto is to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once.

Leftover can be stored in a small glass jar. Pour a little additional olive oil gently to create a thin layer of oil on top of the pesto. This keep air out and prevents the pesto from turning brown.

Lemon Sheet Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

A little late to the party, but summer is never an easy time to find the right time to bake. As usual, we have a project for the house going on. This July it's a refurbishment of the back deck, which is a three level affair connected by steps. Sweetie and I built it together over 25 years ago, so it has aged enough to no longer be beautiful, nor totally safe.

Today we stopped early enough that I whipped up the Lemon Sheet Cake from The Perfect Cake cookbook (no 'buttermilk' in the title since I didn't use buttermilk). Except for using non-dairy margarine and soy creamer as substitutes for the butter and buttermilk, I followed the recipe exactly. Those substitutions are necessary if I'm going to eat any of the cake, and I soooo enjoyed this cake that I'm glad I did.

This cake is tender, moist and has a heavenly true lemon flavor. The crumb is fairly tight and the crust delicate. I love the lemon sugar glaze even though it does make the cake pretty sweet. The sprinkle of lemon zest enriched granulated sugar over the glaze adds just the right touch of crunch, and even more lemon appeal and sweetness.

Allow some time at the beginning to zest and juice the lemons...takes 5-10 minutes, but is well worth the effort. Otherwise this is a fairly basic cake recipe where you cream the butter with the sugar that has been enriched with the lemon zest, then you add eggs, then the dry ingredients in three parts and the wet ingredients in two parts, with the dry added last. Using cake flour is wonderful since it makes the cake delicate and tender.

I know that quite a few Cake Slice Bakers also make this recipe. Who can blame them? This cake if just fine by itself and even better with a few ripe strawberries or raspberries or blackberries or blueberries and since this is berry season that's easy to do. I added a few  strawberries from our garden and it was the perfect summer treat with the luscious lemon cake!

Do visit the other Cake Slice Bakers to see how their cakes turned out. There is at least on who did the cake pops and one who did the almond meringue layers with fruit. No recipe, but do consider buying the book because every recipe so far has been flawless.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook,  Instagram, and  Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes, or visit our blog where the links are updated each month. If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers are baking from a new book "The Perfect Cake" from America's Test Kitchen.

Our choices this month are...

1. Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake
2. Apricot-Almond Meringue Cake
3. Refined Strawberry Shortcake
4. Party Cake Pops

Visit our members to see what cake choice they baked up! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Italian Almond Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

We had a really nice group of cakes to choose from this month as the Cake Slice Bakers continue to bake from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen. #atkcake

There was the creamy sweetness of the Tres Leches Cake, the tang of lemon in the Lemon Pudding Cakes, wonderful almond flavor in the Italian Almond Cake and fun and pretty Confetti Cake.

I chose the Italian Almond Cake because I wanted a tea cake that I could enjoy over a few days and one that wasn't too complicated since my energy levels continue to be lower than usual.

In the photo that is with the recipe in the book you can see that with the Italian Almond Cake there is a nice crunchy crust with sliced almonds, and lemon sugar. The photo doesn't really show much of the interior of the cake, but mine had a lovely dense crumb, similar to a pound cake and it was really moist. There is plenty of almond flavor in this cake but it has a nice brightness from the lemon zest, too. I did use melted non-dairy margarine instead of butter, but otherwise I baked it exactly as written in the cookbook.

I'm not going to include the recipe since, if you like to bake cakes, this book is worth purchasing. It has all the classics, plus some new and different ones. Each recipe is well written and the Test Kitchen folks  have clearly tested and tested to come up with recipes that work and are delicious. I expect this to be a book I go to again and again over the years.

Be sure to check out the other Cake Slice Bakers posts, too.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes, or visit our blog where the links are updated each month. If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The choices this month were Tres Leches Cake, Lemon Pudding Cake, Italian Almond Cake, and Confetti Cake.

An InLinkz Link-up

Intensely Lemon

This post has been sitting in my files, waiting until I'm feeling better (have had a nasty cold since about Feb. 10), but I think it is getting stale, while I'm still coughing, so posting it anyway! I would probably be completely back to normal but I have kept doing scholarship group work and have even gone out for a couple of meals, so not everything has been on hold. True, I've read a lot of books and spent time in bed...never a terrible thing, right? The lemon bread is long gone, but I will make it again...it was really good!

I've always loved the flavor of fresh lemon. Lemonade is still one of my favorite beverages and lemon sugar cookies were my favorite as a child, even more than chocolate chip. Our local dairy made a lemon custard ice cream to die for. There is something fresh and bold about lemon that wakes things up.

Recently a friend gave me some Meyer lemons from her home garden. It took me longer than I would have liked to get to this next recipe, but life has been super busy, so what can you do?

Although I've made lemon quick breads before, this time I tried a new recipe from Rosemary of An Italian In My Kitchen. I was intrigued that you cut soft butter into the dry ingredients as you do for pie crust, then add the egg-milk mixture. I really wanted to see how that turned out! It also meant that I could do everything by hand and in just two bowls...one for the egg-milk mixture one one for the batter. Of course I used soy milk and cut in soft non-dairy margarine, but I'll bet it would be even better with unsalted butter and whole milk. Keep an eye on it toward the end of baking time. There is enough sugar in the batter that it burns easily. Check it with a toothpick earlier than the suggested time, just to be sure.

This is a delicious, intensely lemon flavored loaf, with the texture of a pound cake. I doubled the amount of lemon zest called for and doubled the amount of syrup for brushing on after the loaf is finished, while still warm. I also poked some thin holes all over the top before adding the syrup, so that it could penetrate into the loaf. All of that added to the lemon effect and to making each bite moist and delicious. With a cup of hot tea it's pure heaven!

If you only have one lemon, I'm sure that you could follow the recipe and it would still be a yummy lemon loaf. This would make a wonderful gift, too, and it is dense enough that it would probably ship well. Extra lemons? Make one to give and one to keep!

Fresh Lemon Bread
adapted from Rosemary at An Italian In My Kitchen

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (zest from one lemon) (I used zest from 2 lemons)
4 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice (22 ml) (I used about twice this amount, juice from two lemons)
2 1/4 cups flour (270 grams)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (7 1/2 grams)
3/4 teaspoon salt (4 grams)
1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons sugar, divided (276 grams)(I added another tablespoon for the pan)
3/4 cup butter softened (170 grams) (I used non-dairy margarine)
3 eggs, large
3/4 cup milk (177 ml) (I used soy milk)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C), grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. (I sprinkled a tablespoon extra of sugar over the part I greased, but it would be fine without and might not burn so easily).

In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and 1 1/4 cups sugar, add the softened butter and, with a pastry blender, blend until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the lemon peel.

In a small bowl, put the eggs and beat lightly with a fork, add milk, and mix until combined, then pour this mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until flour is moistened.

In the prepared loaf pan add the batter. Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours (or until toothpick comes out clean). Cool, then move to a wire rack.

In a small pot add 4 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir to combine. Over medium heat, stirring constantly, bring to a boil until thickened. With a pastry brush, brush syrup over the top of the bread. (I poked holes with a wooden skewer while bread was warm and then brushed on the syrup over the warm bread until it was all absorbed. I let it sit in the pan until cool, then turned it out onto a serving board.)

Tightly wrap any leftovers and store in the refrigerator.

Oh Baby!

Last time I was at the library they had three new cookbooks displayed that looked good to me. To start with I chose two recipes from Eating Up the West Coast, by Sunset magazine folks and combined them. The first was from the far northern California section, and it was for pancakes made with almond milk and almond flour and just a little all-purpose flour. There was no oil and they looked delicious. The second recipe was from the Washington state section, Port Townsend, Owl Spirit Cafe and it was for a blueberry Dutch baby topped with lemon curd.

Since Sweetie has been very successful with his recent diet, I decided that tempting him with lemon curd would be cruel, but that a low-cal Dutch baby with fresh raspberries would be just fine.

I decreased the almond flour from the pancake recipe because I wanted to make sure that the baby rose in the pan and I used the three eggs from the baby recipe, plus the tablespoon of sugar. I added a grating of lemon zest because I think that citrus zing brings out the best in raspberries (and no lemon curd :( ). The pancake rose up beautifully and the berries cooked and released a little juice. The texture was puffy and the flavor was extraordinary!

 It takes a bit of pre-planning to make this Dutch Baby because you need to make the batter ahead and let it sit an hour, plus the oven needs to be preheated to 450 degrees, which can take a bit of time in a cool kitchen like mine is in the morning.

To serve I went with a locally produced raspberry syrup...just a small puddle...and we didn't really need anything else.

Raspberry Baby

3 eggs
3/4 cup almond milk (I used vanilla flavored, but plain would work)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour (finely ground almonds)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon neutral flavored oil or melted butter
1 cup raspberries, rinsed and drained on paper towel


Whisk together the eggs, almond milk, vanilla and sugar.

In a large bowl or pitcher sift together the flour, almond flour and salt. Add the zest and whisk briefly to mix. Whisk the egg mixture into the dry ingredients until smooth. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour.

About 20 minutes before the end of the batter resting hour, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Once the oven has reached 450, put a 9" or 10"cast iron skillet into the oven to heat for 10 minutes.

At the end of the 10 minutes, carefully, with oven mitts on, remove the skillet from the oven. Add the oil to the skillet and swirl to coat the bottom and up the sides a bit. Then pour in the batter and scatter the raspberries over the batter. Carefully return the hot skillet to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Batter will puff up and the top at the edges will be golden brown when done.

Carefully remove the pan from the oven and cut into servings. Serve at once with a sprinkle of confectioners sugar, your favorite syrup, or (decadent!) lemon curd.

Warm Blueberries

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I used to have a muffin company. I baked wholesale muffins for a couple of coffee shops, mostly to keep my brain active when my kids were very young. Although my lemon ricotta mega-muffin was my best seller, the next favorite was fresh blueberry muffins. It's been ages since I baked any kind of muffin, but the blueberries in the produce section called to me this week, so on Saturday morning I baked up a batch of fresh blueberry muffins, with some Meyer lemon zest since they go so well with blueberries. When I ate my first bite, the muffins still had warm blueberries...a most delicious and decadent flavor. The muffins were not the airy, overly sweet cakey kind that you often find these days. The texture is delicate but firm, the flavors are of the fruit, lemon and butter, and they were gone in a flash.

One of the keys with muffins is much the same as with most quick breads...delicate care in handling the batter. If you whisk together the dry ingredients, toss in the rinsed blueberries, then toss gently to cover them with flour, all you need to do when you add the mixed wet ingredients is to barely combine the ingredients. Do have your pans prepared and your oven hot. In no time you will have delectable warm blueberries in a lightly lemon, buttery muffin. What a lovely way to start the day.

Blueberry Muffins

based on Basic Muffins in Marion Cunningham's The Fannie Farmer Baking Book

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 cup firm fresh blueberries, rinsed
2 eggs, slightly beaten, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons white sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin pans or line with paper baking cups.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add the lemon zest and whisk to combine. Add the fresh blueberries and toss to coat lightly with the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In another bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredient/blueberry mixture. Pour in the egg mixture and stir to combine, just long enough to blend. Batter will not be smooth.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup about two-thirds full. If desired, sprinkle sanding sugar on the tops of each muffin.

Bake muffins for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pans and serve warm.

Makes 12 muffins

With the unseasonable weather we have been having the seedlings in the sunspace are growing very rapidly. All of the squash seedlings are now in larger peat pots, having outgrown the cell they started in. Some of the squash seeds wrapped in damp paper towels didn't germinate in time to be put into the cells, but are now large enough to go right into the pots! That is vigorous sprouting! I expect great things of these squash plants once they are settled into the garden once the soil warms enough. That might be a while...we have been having frost most nights, even if the days are warm and sunny. Some peopel are yammering on about not enough rain, but we had far more than needed in the fall and early winter, so this is just balancing things out. Bet that March is rainy again.