Lemon Strawberry Pound Cake

This cake will forever have a special place in my heart.  If you read my last post, you can see why.  What was originally intended to be a tasty treat at Easter brunch, turned into a birthday cake for our sweet little Lilly who decided she wanted to be born on Easter.

After realizing we would not be making it to brunch, friends and family snacked on this cake in the waiting room at the hospital. 

I couldn't have picked a better cake for such a special day.  There is no other way to put it... it's the perfect cake.  Fresh and ripe strawberries are complemented by a hint of lemon, and together they give this cake a flavor and texture that tastes like a perfect spring day feels.

This cake is a stand alone star.  A slice of the cake, hot or cold is satisfying all by its lonesome.  However, with my first two attempts, I did not have complete success popping the cake out of the pan.  A big chunk got stuck in the pan.  I quickly scraped the cake out of the pan and sort of packed it back into the cake.  It left part of the top looking less than pretty, so I decided to cover it up with fresh whipped cream.  Not a necessity but delicious and a good tool to have in your back pocket if you need to hide a few imperfections.  See my recipe notes below to avoid the cake coming apart on you.

From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

Lemon Strawberry Pound Cake
Adapted from aspicyperspective.com

Recipe Notes
A note about greek yogurt: It is important to use good quality greek yogurt in this recipe.  I recommend Oikos or Fage brand and you can use 0% fat or 2% fat as well as plain or vanilla. These authentic greek yogurts are thick and will give your cake a great consistency.

A note about cooling time: In my testing, I had only one thing go wrong the first two times around... half the cake got stuck in the pan.  I found that the key is to let the cake cool completely in the pan before turning it out onto a plate. My cake cooled in about an hour, but leave it to cool as long as you possibly can.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
8 oz. plain or vanilla, greek yogurt (see recipe note)
12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
1 cup powdered sugar
Optional
Fresh whipped cream, for serving (click here for recipe)

Step by Step
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a bundt pan with cooking spray or grease with butter and flour.  Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the bundt pan, at least an hour and then turn out onto a wire rack.  See recipe note for notes on cooling time.  Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  Serve cold or reheat individual pieces in the microwave for 15 seconds.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Well, hello there 2013. 

We’ve only been here a day and already I feel like it’s going to be a good one.  I love a new year.  I love thinking about what might happen or what could be in store. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that in this year, we will become a family of three.  There’s always unknowns on January 1 of what is to come, but the anticipation of meeting this little bambino is more than I could have imagined.

In the meantime, I’m trying to stop time.  As much as the future excites me,  I know these quiet moments when it is just the two of us will be fond memories and we can never go back.   So my immediate new year’s resolution is to slow down a bit and take it all in. 

I want to take more naps.  See a few movies.  Take long baths.   Go out to dinner while there is no thought of having to get a baby sitter.  Take a few spontaneous trips.  Sleep late on the weekends and make more pancakes.

These oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes are just what Saturday mornings called for.  I stumbled upon this recipe on a rainy Saturday morning when pancakes sounded like a good idea.  I knew I wanted to make some flapjacks, but I definitely knew I did not want to go to the grocery store to fulfill this craving.  Joy the Baker is the queen of pancakes and I went searching for a recipe that could be made with what was available in my close-to-bare pantry. 

Crossing my fingers that a few substitutions would work, I ended up with these unbelievably hearty and perfect oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes.  My one beef with pancakes is that I often do not feel full from eating a big plate of a close cousin to cake.  The oatmeal in this recipe was a hearty and filling addition that kept me full and is a nice healthy kick at the same time. 

I hope you will join me in slowing this year down and enjoy yourself a nice stack of pancakes. 

From my little kitchen to yours… Enjoy.

A few picture notes related to my personal preferences...

Equal distribution of chocolate chips is a very important feature when it comes to my chocolate chip pancakes.  I like to start the baking process and then evenly place a few chips before flipping.  If you do not find yourself to be quite so nuts, you could stir a whole bunch into the batter.  However, you might find how truly satisfying it is to have complete control over chip placement from pancake to pancake.  Ah, sometimes it's the little things. 

The first picture where those pancakes are getting a healthy drenching of syrup is definitely not my stack.  It's Mr. Hungry's stack.  He would probably prefer if I served these pancakes in a bowl so they could be floating in syrup.  Not me.  My stack is what you see here below.  I believe pancakes (especially ones already studded with chocolate chips) need nothing more than a good slab of butter and a cup of coffee.  But I guess that's what so great about pancakes.  No need to agree on the additional toppings...just don't get near mine with your syrupy sticky mits.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Makes about 6 5-inch pancakes... perfect for two hungry people.

Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
heaping 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (or more if you are really chocolatey)
oil or cooking spray (for cooking)

Step by Step
In a large bowl beat egg. Add buttermilk, butter, honey and vanilla and mix well. Add flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Mix well until mostly smooth. Let batter set for a few minutes.

Heat griddle or nonstick pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil to the pan or spray with cooking spray. You can test to see if the pan is hot enough by adding a few drops of water, when the drops start to dance its hot enough.

Pour 3 tablespoons of batter onto the griddle. Drop as many chocolate chips as you desire into the batter as it cooks.  Cook on the first side until bubbles that form start to pop and the edges set. You can also gently lift up the pancake to make sure the bottom is not overcooking, if it is the pan may be too hot and you will need to adjust the heat. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook until golden brown. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Let cooked pancakes rest on a heat proof plate in a 200 degree F oven until ready to serve.

//Adapted from Joy the Baker's Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

Orange Rolls

Finally, it's December.

I don't think I have ever said that before, but last week just really threw me for a loop.  A whole extra week in November after Thanksgiving?  It just didn't feel like the holidays.  I mean it's still 80 degrees here, but there's no telling how long that will last.  At least we can flip the calendar and start counting down.  So let's start baking treats that only seem legal during the holidays.
You are probably going to want to start a new Christmas tradition and make these sometime in the next 25 days.  Oh man, are they good.  Bake them for immediate consumption, make and refrigerate on Christmas Eve for a perfect Christmas breakfast, or freeze them in advance for any fun holiday brunch.  These rolls are super stars considering you can bake, ice and freeze.  Just pull them out and reheat and no one will be able to tell you did not stay up all night letting yeast rise.

I come from a house divided.  Mr. Hungry won't touch an orange roll if there is a cinnamon roll in the near vicinity.  The good news is that you can make one batch of dough, split it in half and make a half batch of orange rolls and a half batch of cinnamon buns.  Just remember to half the orange filling and cinnamon filling recipes.

Hope your December is off to a good start.

From my little kitchen to yours... Enjoy.

So the first bit will look quite familiar if you delved into the cinnamon bun recipes.  But we will repeat the process just in case.

Here we go...

First, let's gather our dough ingredients.  Let's talk about that milky looking mixture at the bottom right.  It's warm water and yeast.  If you want to get real technical and get out a thermometer, you want warm water between 105 and 115 degrees F.  If you want to get not so techie, run your finger under the hot water.  The water should feel hot, but not too hot where it is burning your finger.

Let's also chat about scalded milk.  Technically, it is milk that has been heated to it's boiling point.  Visually, it looks like the picture below.  If this is a totally foreign concept to you, check out this quick little video.  See the notes section of the recipe below for more detail. 

You can do your mixing with a hand or stand mixer, but I went the old fashioned way with a wooden spoon.  First you throw together the milk, sugar, butter, salt and egg.  Then, add two cups of the flour and mix well.

Add the yeast mixture and mix.  Next up, we are going to slowly add up to two more cups of flour.

Basically you want to keep adding flour until the ball of dough is not overly sticky.  Out of the few times I have made these, I have used all four cups in total and if I have any left at this point, I end up using it during the kneading process if dough still seems sticky.

Time for kneading/ a quick calorie burn.  Put your back into it and you can probably burn enough calories to eat an extra orange roll. Your dough is sufficiently kneaded when you perform the spring test at the bottom right.  Simply press in gently and the dough should spring back at you just a little.  

Lightly grease a large bowl with oil.  I have used olive oil or vegetable oil... just a very thin layer.  Add dough ball and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Allow to dry in a warm dry place for 1 1/2 hours.

While the dough is rising, it is time to get to the best part... the orange icing.  Just a few ingredients will get us there very quickly.

Separate the dough in half so you will have two even balls.  Roll each ball out into a rectangle about 7 inches by 14 inches.
 
Get that icing and let's soak that dough in some orange goodness. Use 1/4 of the icing in the middle of each roll.

Leave about a one inch edge along one of the long sides.

Start to roll it up, starting with the long side with icing to the edge and ending with the side that has a border.

You end up with a nice and snug roll.

Pinch the seam to close it up.



Slice your rolls into 10 equal pieces.  I like to start in the middle and cut to keep them even.

Hurry! Let's get these in the pan before we lose too much orange goodness.

After lightly spraying a pan with cooking spray, stuff these little guys in as close to each other as possible.  
Once, they are baked and  golden brown, it's time to slather on more orange icing.

Put another 1/4 of the icing on each pan.

Orange Rolls

Makes 2 pans of 10 rolls each

Ingredients

Dough

1/4-ounce package yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup scalded milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
olive oil, for coating the bowl

Orange FIlling

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup orange juice

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour gradually until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl with olive oil (vegetable oil will work as well).  Place dough in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours. 

While dough is rising, prepare orange filling.  Combine powdered sugar, orange zest, butter, and orange juice in a large bowl.  Divide dough in half and roll each piece into a 14 by 7-inch rectangle.  Spread one-fourth of orange filling onto each rectangle, leaving a 1-inch margin on one long side.  Roll dough jelly-roll fashion, starting at long side with icing to the edge.  Pinch seam to seal, but do not seal ends.  Cut into 10 equal slices per roll, trimming off ends.

To bake in the next 24 hours:
Prepare orange through the step of preparing the pans.  Cover loosely with saran wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.  Refrigerate extra icing for frosting in an airtight container as well. When ready to bake, remove from the refrigerator and allow to sit on the counter for 30 minutes before baking.  Bake and ice as instructed above. 

To freeze:

Rolls can be completely baked and iced and then frozen for up to one month.

When slightly cooled, but still warm, pour the icing over the rolls.  Allow to cool completely.  Tightly wrap in Saran wrap and then foil.  Freeze rolls for up to one month.  When ready to eat, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Reheat orange rolls for about 15 minutes, until heated through.  They taste like they just came out of the oven!

bun(s) in the oven.

I'm pretty sure last weekend will become a permanent life/food memory.

Definition of life/food memory:  When you eat something amazing that happens to be on a perfect day so that the combination of the day and food will forever be remembered if you ever taste the food again.  

Examples: 

Eating a clown cone from Baskin Robbins... immediately takes me back to my eighth birthday where I chose to have these cones instead of a cake.  Really great decision and the day is forever engrained in my head.  

Having a bite of Texas cornbread (need to share the recipe soon)... immediately envision my mushroom haircut-self, wearing a cowboy hat and my favorite red boots, on Go Texan Day in first grade thoroughly enjoying our authentic Cowboy meal. 

Are you with me?  Come on, I know you have some. 

I made these cinnamon buns on a day that I will never forget.  I felt good/normal for the first time in three months, and it was one of the first fall afternoons in Houston where you have to be happy because you are not sweating when you walk to your car.  It is totally engrained.

Now back to that three months of not being here.  Where have I been might you ask?  Trying my hardest to get through each and every day while feeling so nauseous, I wanted to do nothing but cry... not even eat.

I've got a bun in the oven too and it has completely taken me under for a full three months.   So if any of you out there have experienced "morning" sickness morning, noon and night I can totally sympathize with you.  Hallelujah, it is gone for the most part or at least only hits me in waves.  So as you can see, these buns were made on a very historic day for.  Living through three months of misery and finally feeling semi normal again and wanting to cook was a huge and wonderful day in my book.

This surprise little bun is due on April 10, 2013 and we couldn't be happier.

Until then, let's make cinnamon buns!




I use to be totally thrown off by dough recipes with yeast and all those steps so I made sure to do a step by step for all those who love picture steps as much as I do.

Here we go...

First we are going to gather our dough ingredients.  Let's talk about that milky looking mixture at the bottom right.  It's warm water and yeast.  If you want to get real technical and get out a thermometer, you want warm water between 105 and 115 degrees F.  If you want to get not so techie, run your finger under the hot water.  The water should feel hot, but not too hot where it is burning your finger.

Let's also chat about scalded milk.  Technically, it is milk that has been heated to it's boiling point.  Visually, it looks like the picture below.  If this is a totally foreign concept to you, check out this quick little video.  See the notes section of the recipe below for more detail. 

You can do your mixing with a hand or stand mixer, but I went the old fashioned way with a wooden spoon.  First you throw together the milk, sugar, butter, salt and egg.  Then, add two cups of the flour and mix well.

Add the yeast mixture and mix.  Next up, we are going to slowly add up to two more cups of flour.

Basically you want to keep adding flour until the ball of dough is not overly sticky.  Out of the few times I have made these, I have used all four cups in total and if I have any left at this point, I end up using it during the kneading process if dough still seems sticky.

Time for kneading/ a quick calorie burn.  Put your back into it and you can probably burn enough calories to eat an extra cinnamon roll. Your dough is sufficiently kneaded when you perform the spring test at the bottom right.  Simply press in gently and the dough should spring back at you just a little.  

Lightly grease a large bowl with oil.  I have used olive oil or vegetable oil... just a very thin layer.  Add dough ball and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Allow to dry in a warm dry place for 1 1/2 hours.

While the dough is rising, make the cinnamon mixture filling (a.k.a. the best part).  You want the egg whites to be nice and frothy.  Beat for a few minutes until they go from yellow and translucent to light, bubbly and pale. 

Punch down the dough.  Pull off pieces of dough and form small balls, 1 1/2-inches round.

Press each ball down to flatten slightly. 

Make an indentation in the middle of each ball. 

Put a heaping spoonful of the mixture into each thumbprint. 

 (I went for 1 1/2 teaspoons in each... the more the merrier)

At this point, you have two options.  Allow to rise for an additional 20 minutes and then bake.  Or cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.  When ready to bake, allow to sit on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes. Really you have three options... freezing is another... we will discuss in the recipe.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the edges are slightly golden brown. 

Time to make the icing.  You can use a pastry blender or a fork to cut the butter into the sugar.  

Spoon over rolls while still warm. 

Admire. 

Eat while they are still nice and warm. 

Cinnamon Buns
Adapted from the Junior League of Houston's Stop and Smell the Rosemary and Paula Deen's Cinnamon Rolls
Note about yeast/ water mixture:  Do not be intimidated by yeast recipes.  Once you get the temperature of the water down, you will never fail.  If you have any sort of thermometer, I would use it the first couple of times so that you get the hang of what 105-115 degree F water feels like.  If you do not, there is no need skip this recipe.  My highly scientific way of finding the right temperature, goes as follows.  Turn on your hot water.  Run you finger underneath it.  You are looking for the hottest water that your finger can handle and stay there.  If it starts to burn at any point, the water is too hot.  But I have found you need pretty warm water because you once you add it to a cold bowl, the water will cool off a bit.

Note about kneading dough:  Whether you are making pizza, bread or cinnamon buns, the act of kneading the dough is all the same.  Depending on many factors, you might need to adjust your process.  If the dough feels really sticky once you get it on your floured surface, add a little extra flour at a time.  Once you feel that your dough is sufficiently kneaded, you can perform the spring test.  Ball up the dough and lightly press your finger into the dough.  It should bounce back a little... not completely bounce back, but it should not stay indented with no movement.

Note about cutting butter into sugar: When you make the icing, you will need to "cut butter into the sugar."  If you have a pastry blender, this is definitely the time to use it.  If you do not, a fork can perform the job just fine.

Yield:  12 to 14 buns
Ingredients

Dough

1/4-ounce package yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup scalded milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
olive oil, for coating the bowl

Cinnamon Mixture

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup ground pecans

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 egg whites, beaten and frothy

Icing

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

2 large egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

4 teaspoons milk

Step by Step
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour gradually until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl with olive oil (vegetable oil will work as well).  Place dough in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

While dough is rising, make the cinnamon mixture.  Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, pecans, butter and egg whites in a small bowl.

When doubled in size, punch down dough.  Pinch off pieces of dough and shape into 1 1/2-inch balls.  Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper about 3 inches apart.  Press each ball down to flatten slightly.  Make an indentation in the center of each ball.  Top with a heaping spoonful of cinnamon mixture... at least 1 1/2 teaspoons.  You can pile the mixture high on the dough and it will bake nicely into the hole.  Allow to rise for an additional 20 minutes on the counter while you make the rest of the cinnamon rolls.  Bake for about 30 minutes, until the edges are slightly golden brown.

While cinnamon buns are baking, make the icing.  Cut butter into sugar, using a pastry blender or a fork, until it resembles cornmeal.  Add egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar.  Beat until thoroughly combined, slowly adding milk.  Set aside.  Remove buns from baking sheet immediately.  Spoon icing over each bun while still warm.

To bake in the next 24 hours:
Prepare buns through the step of adding a heaping cinnamon mixture in the middle of each one.  Cover loosely with saran wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.  When ready to bake, remove from the refrigerator and allow to sit on the counter for 30 minutes before baking.

To freeze:
Buns can be completely baked and iced and then frozen for up to one month.

Lightly grease two 9-inch cake or pie pan (any shallow pan with edges will work such as a square or rectangular cake pan).  When buns come out of the oven, remove from the baking sheet immediately and place as many as possible in the greased pan, tucked in tightly next to each other.  When slightly cooled, but still warm, pour the icing over the rolls.  Allow to cool completely.  Tightly wrap in Saran wrap and then foil.  Freeze rolls for up to one month.  When ready to eat, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Reheat cinnamon rolls for about 15 minutes, until heated through.  They taste like they just came out of the oven!