Wow, It's Been Awhile (Best Ricotta Cake)

Hi. Yes, it's been a long time since I reported anything to le olde blog.  It's more common to put recipes in Instagram captions now, but honestly, I can't keep track of anything on there anymore. And I'm a little scared of turning more of my life over to that little app. But it has bitten me. I'm over there a lot. 

The reality is, things morph. Keeping this blog was, for awhile, an attempt to create a log of loved recipes so things don't live on scrap paper. Some I invented, many I adapted, barely. And things are better shared.

Cooking is cooking, though and it has happened So much more frequently since the pandemic hit us 3 years ago (and I already cooked a lot)--also when I last posted--that talking about cooking/recipes too much rubbed me the wrong way. Did you feel similarly? 

I did write about pineapple and asparagus and edit many recipe galleries.

But this week, I made a ricotta cake and I can't stop thinking about it so I want to show it off a little, photo-shoot style. I'm not sure I need to make any other ricotta cake again. And that, friends, is the intent of my blog-- to find what I like and share it. 

Besides the ricotta, which, if you can get fresh ricotta, the cake will be that much better, the ingredients are scant. I like to swap in a tad of almond flour and add a little cinnamon. Somehow, this addition evoked a slight likeness to the inside of a chocolate-almond croissant or rugelach from Breads Bakery in the city, which I miss dearly. I'm thinking about picking up some things there for old time's sake next time I make it into town. 

What else is new? I'm cooking from Smitten Kitchen Keepers currently. I'm in love with the cover recipe, the spinach-sauced pasta. I wish my son would try it. Also the turkey meatloaf for skeptics is great. 

I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on December 6, making us a quad. 

In Spring 2021, almost 2 years ago, we moved from our Jersey City building of 9 years, to a charming little house with a deck and yard in a town adjacent to where we grew up.

It was a change for sure. It's not the city, but there's space. There's not much in town as far as Main Street goes, but here lives the brick and mortar store for Jersey Girl Cheese (iykyk), which is where I bought the ricotta for this luscious little cake. 

RICOTTA CHIP CAKE

Adapted from Eater.com via Melissa Weller

1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 2⁄3 cups (200 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 2⁄3 cups (367 grams) whole milk ricotta
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks, or 170 grams) unsalted butter, cubed, softened
1 ½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
3 (150 grams) large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Oven to 350. Line a big cake pan with parchment, or 2 smaller ones. Or halve the recipe and use one smaller pan. 

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, eggs one at a time, beating in to completely blend. Scrape down. Add ricotta, blend. 

Sift in dry ingredients. Gently mix on low until flour disappears. Remove mixer and stir in chips gently. Pour into pans, bake an hour-ish or until a tester comes out clean/reading 200 degrees +.

Cool.

Keeps several days and freezes well : )

Brownies for odd times

Like many of you, I've been trying to stay afloat.

Beyond the state of the world, it feels self involved to overly focus on what we are going through individually, and what moment the pandemic hit in our particular lives. But we also need to reflect.

Before state mandates to stay home and save lives, which I support fully,  Jack and I were doing a lot of outings. As a stay-at, work-from home parent, these outings were things I'd rely on for structure and inspiration, plus alone time. I never was thinking more than a few seconds about getting dirty at the park or potentially contaminated surfaces. Just bathe and wash it off.

One thing we would tack onto the park outings is a local bakery for book reading, mama's coffee and splitting of a cookie or brownie. Because, small business is important, and mama doesn't have to make everything everyday :)

But at the moment, I am doing a lot of that, and trying to find ways to extend and next over recipes, shorten time spent, simplify, get bang out of buck, and stock while not overstocking. Oh and there is also the opportunity to try new things.

Long story short, I finally tried a new brownie recipe for the repertoire, and for me, it is the goldilocks of brownies. You know what I mean. And, my son helped stir the batter.

Turmeric Lemon Loaf

I've been lately more interested in addressing the One thing.

And it's harder. Harder than doing all the little things. 

(The chopping wood and carrying water)

I've always been better at that part.

But we live in a chaotic world, and stopping to ask yourself what your priority is that day, or your top three of the week, can transform your day. 

As mama to a toddler, this has become super-evident. I find myself needing to address my time more than ever, as I float from being in the moment with my son and making myself stay there, sitting on the floor being silly and snuggly, blowing raspberries and playing with trucks, when the thought anyone emailing me or what I need to pick up at the grocery store later, or an enticing picture of crazy-looking Christmas cookies on Instagram, tries to sneak in and pull me into distraction. Or the boy knocks over his dish and steps onto is cereal laughing, my coffee spills and I laugh, too. 

I don't have a lot of time to hem and haw. Every minute counts, or so it seems. 

I found myself with a free second to tell you about this cake, though, because a little moment of satisfaction sat with me when I walked by it under the cake dome.

A yogurt loaf cake is one thing that will feed people, can be made quickly, stay for a few days and then park its extra slices-self in the freezer. 

That's a win

Summer and cooking bring up a lot...

On the one hand, there's more time to lounge, farmers markets galore with the bounty of produce, and all of the tempting things you are able to do! Berry pies, peach cobblers, jams, grilling. Then, there's the heat. The dread of heating the oven after a schlep to buy said produce when you're already sweating from carrying it home.

Getting together with others often involves being out. Or the days when you're laying out by the pool, then ordering takeout and blasting the AC at home seems like the right next move.

I always have maximized ideas for cooking projects, then find reasons to put them off. I  prefer free-styling when the moment strikes.

Big fruit desserts haven't happened much yet.

If it happens once or twice the rest of the summer, that works. I am ok with that.

There is precious time to be had with my 21 month old.
I'm celebrating the fact that I do manage to cook as much as I do with him running around.

I find myself approaching a day of cooking/feeding my family with the question:
What can I eliminate here?

One of the things that can become an unexpected witching hour is the breakfast hour. If I don't breathe through the morning it can send me on a tailspin before I've gotten dressed. I recently described it as feeling like a parade.

My son is up and bouncing off the walls, my husband needs to get out the door, I need to start my day. The tot would love if he could run outside the bedroom and be at the park already so I have to get him immediately engaged.

I've taken to getting straight out the door with him some mornings, with a stop at our local bakery to split a "chasson" (croissant) or kougin, which has become a little ritual for us when it happens. He isn't a strong one with table manners--wants to wander off the patio and knock on the cheese shop window, but these outings offer practice since it gets him excited and isn't about a formal "dinner."

But my wallet can't handle that every day and I want my kitchen to feed us as much as it can. One Saturday morning that didn't feel like a parade, I popped a few trays of these pancake bites into the oven. The batter assembles in a few minutes, and there's no flipping while standing at the stove. They are the perfect vehicle for dunking in maple syrup.


That's a win.

PANCAKE BITES

Note: I usually make half this recipe. But I know half eggs are annoying for people. The recipe below makes up to 48 if you make them small.

1 egg
4 Tbs butter, melted
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

Big pinch salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups/(250 grams) flour
3 Tb (36 grams) sugar.

Mix wet and dry, then combine until just together. Let batter sit 3 minutes while you grease mini muffin wells.
Dollop into mini muffin wells and top with a few blueberries (or chocolate chips?)
Bake in a 350 oven for 10-15 mins.
Cool, then serve with maple.

Crumble Bars, Redux

Sometimes, there's a point in the everyday cooking process where you feel like the purpose of it all is to audition and figure out what to keep and replay those hits on rotation. Shh, I just deleted an old crumble bar recipe off of here from 5 years ago, and I am adding this one, instead. Karen DeMasco's crumble bars, via Food + Wine and Genius Recipes via Food52, are the only one's I'll make now.


Jam and Oat Bars

1 cup nuts, coarsely chopped and toasted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
scant 1/3 cup granulated sugar
scant 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
1 cup any preserves

Oven to 350 and line a 9 inch pan with parchment. Stir flour, nuts, oats, sugars, salt and baking soda together, then add butter and stir until clumps form. Pat 2/3 in the pan, spread with jam and top with other 1/3. Bake about 45 until golden. Cool completely and slice!

One thing: Lime Bliss Balls

There used to be just Lara Bars. Now there are so many varieties of fruit-nut bars and balls out there and they don't cost a penny. They are great for on-the-go, but I'd much rather work with whole ingredients. Over the years I've whizzed dates and nuts in the food processor on occasion, pressed and cut them and within a few days between hubs and I, they were gone! It's always a thing I wish I did every week as part of #mealprep. Because in my best life I do meal prep. Ha. Usually not. BUT. I'm a mom now, and time and windows have never been of the utmost importance. If I can do one thing that is uncomplicated for which my later self will thank me, I do it. Like these balls. Yum. A couple ingredients--lime zest and a little juice, unsweetened coconut, dates and almonds, and you've got yourself that portable fruit and nut snack in a package. Don't skip the lime, it really flavors it.

Tahini Shortbread

The other day, when my 9 month old (what? what? how has it been that long?) was doing one of his I have-no-idea-how-long-this-will-be naps, I thought I'd get ahead in the kitchen.  You know those moments, though, when the second you start doing something, bebe wakes up, and those other moments when, it seems, they just conk for two hours and you have yourself some Time. The trouble is, you never know which of them it will be. So you have to be quick and not get yourself in too deep. Making dough for this shortbread is done in ten minutes. Then it sits in the fridge overnight, and gets baked off the next morning. This shortbread is my new favorite. I don't know why this recipe isn't more popular? NYT by way of Soframiz by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick. I love, love sesame seeds and tahini, in baked goods, more and more (they are my new favorite banana bread compliment) and the complex simplicity, if you will, in sandy, tender shortbread, is just fab.

It is waiting for you

I keep three cookbooks on top of my fridge at the moment: Smitten Kitchen Everyday, Small Victories, and Little Foodie, about baby food--which, I have yet to open and "cook" from (couple more months... but I like the reminder). I've been opening the first two more often than I've expected over the past few months. I love to riff, and time and again I don't cook from recipes, but there is something about simplifying the game by picking something printed, leaving it open on the counter, going about your day, and coming back to it when you have a chance. It is waiting for you. I am getting tired of reading recipes on my phone mid-recipe. 😙😙😙 I want to open a book these days.