olive oil rosemary cake with glace apricots

birthday time for me means lots of edible gifts. mamoo seems to know the best spots for ordering everything so i was really excited when a box arrived full of dried fruit...i knew it would be good stuff. true to her word the dates make your eyes roll back in your head (that's a good thing, guys!), the figs taste like fig newton filling and the glace apricots are maybe a bit sweet to gobble on their own but absolutely perfect to incorporate as part of another dish. in this case, cake!

since the apricots bring a lot of sweetness on their own i wanted to make sure the cake wasn't too sweet which got me thinking about an olive oil cake. then i was thinking about what herbs might be yummy in the mix and rosemary came to mind, i love love love the combination in apple rosemary scones so why not with apricots, right? right!

i found a basic recipe online and tweaked from there. as we all know tweaking baking recipes is much more difficult than tweaking cooking recipes and the resulting cake was a bit denser than i had in mind but i loved the flavor. go into this thinking not of a light and airy desserty cake but rather more of a dessert cakey bread and i think you will be pleased with what you get. rather than cutting up the apricots and hiding them in the batter i wanted them to be the focus so i plopped them right on top of the batter before baking. when the cake came out of the oven they were a bit gooey and ooooooooooh yummy.

olive oil rosemary cake with glace apricots
ingredients:
3 cups flour
3 tablespoons fresh, minced rosemary
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cups almond milk
glace apricots to top

preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a cake pan - i used and 8-inch (i think) springform.

mix together the dry ingredients. add olive oil and milk and mix until the ingredients are all wet.* the batter will be very thick, don't fret just go with it.

pour batter into your prepared pan and top with glace apricots.

bake 50-55 minutes or until done.

*after i did this i realized it felt backwards for a cake. doing this again i would mix together the wet ingredients then gradually add the dry ones. either way, take your pick.

-d

apricot bbq sauce/glaze

A week ago, I was home to belatedly celebrate my mother's birthday, as well as the return of my brother and his wife from a summer in Italy, when I dreamed up this sauce. While my brother has a special place in his heart for all things Italian, I knew he had been craving non-Italian food. I suppose a summer of eating pasta and delicious gelato might do that to you . . . so I wanted to make him a thoroughly American dinner. I made this sauce, to go with a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin (which I served with a green bean salad and made-from-scratch chili cornbread). The sauce nothing earth shaking, but when made with beautiful, farmer's market fresh apricots, it really is something else! You could use it as a condiment with pork, chicken, or a bbq-ed tofu. I also think it might be tasty on a ciabatta (or other crusty bread) sandwich with mild goat cheese and arugula. Enjoy!

1 pint apricots, halved and pitted
1 jalepeno pepper, seeds removed, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and jalepeno, saute until garlic becomes fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add apricots, and cook until they begin to soften and release some of their juices, about 5 minutes.



Add brown sugar, stirring to dissolve, then add orange juice, chili powders, and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until combined and sauce begins to thicken, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Can be made ahead and reheated!



- e

strawberry apricot jam

I have no idea what came over me, but the other day I got home from an afternoon of hanging out with a friend and felt the need to make jam. Maybe it was the dreary weather, or the multiple quarts of fresh strawberries lurking in my kitchen (I eat as many in-season strawberries as is humanly possible to make up for all the tasteless ones I consume throughout the rest of the year). So I made jam.

Now, as a child, I helped my mother make dozens of jars of strawberry jam, after intensive strawberry-picking sessions. We would come home with flats and flats of berries, and since four people could not possibly eat that many pounds of berries, my mom made jam. Lots of it. And stored it in the freezer. It was bright red and sweet and delicious and is still my favorite jam of all time. And this jam, the one I made the other day, comes pretty close to the flavor of that jam.

I worked from a Barefoot Contessa recipe and adapted liberally. The apple adds natural pectin, the goo that holds jam together and gives it that nice glossiness. I threw in the apricot for a bit of tang to off-set the strawberry sweetness. And it's delicious. I might start eating it straight from the jar with a spoon. And am now scheming up a few dessert ideas to use it in, so stay tuned!

Strawberry Apricot Jam
adapted from Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics
make 3 cups

3 pints fresh strawberries
3 ripe apricots
3 cups superfine sugar (I used plain old granulated and it was just fine)
1/2 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced
zest and juice of 1 orange

Rinse the strawberries. Drain and hull. Cut the larger ones in quarters, smaller ones in halves. Cut the apricots in half, remove pit, and cut into half-inch or so chunks. Place berries and apricots in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot and toss with sugar. Let macerate for 10 minutes or so.

Bring the berry mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Add the apple, orange zest and juice, and continue to keep the mixture at a rolling boil, stirring occasionally, until the jam reaches 220 degrees on a candy thermometer. This should take 25 to 35 minutes. Skim and discard any foam that rises to the top.

Allow mixture to cool to room temperature, then store covered in the refrigerator. The jam will keep at least 2 weeks. If you would like it to last a bit longer, pack and seal in canning jars according to the manufacturers instructions.

Enjoy!

- e

apricot frangipane tart

I am so excited for the arrival of summer and fresh local fruits and veggies. Farmers markets come a bit later to New England, due to the cold weather that often stretches into May. But finally the farmers markets are up and running, with things like these beautiful local strawberries.



(I really wish Smell-o-vision existed and you could smell these. They remind me of summer, and picking strawberries as a kid and ending up with dirty knees and berry-stained fingers).

Because these are too good to do anything but eat, straight out of their little pint container, I went to my produce man and bought these today:



And decided to make a tart with them. But what kind of tart? Oh, the choices. First, I thought about a crostata. Rustic, satisfying, nothing but luscious fruit. But no, I wanted something with a bit more structure. And I remembered (or so I thought) the Barefoot Contessa making some kind of almond apricot tart. Yet try as I might - looking in cookbooks AND online - I could not find such a recipe from my idol Ina. So I turned to epicurious.com, where I found a passable recipe, but no, still not quite right. On to foodtv.com where I found this, which I co-opted. But what about the crust, you ask? This time, I flipped open Mark Bittman's always reliable How to Cook Everything Vegetarian for his delicious sweet tart crust. And as this blind-baked, my kitchen filled with the most wonderful buttery-rich smells that I was tempted to forget the apricots and the frangipane and eat the crust on its own. But I refrained, and ended up with one of the most delightful, satisfying desserts I have ever made. The slight sweetness of the cookie-like crust pair perfectly with the almondy filling and the nice, tart apricots. I think the frangipane would also work nicely with raspberries, if you wanted to mix things up a bit!



Sweet Tart Crust
from Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

makes enough for one 8- to 10- inch tart

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
10 tbsp frozen or cold butter, cut into chunks
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp ice water, plus more if necessary

1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse once or twice. (note: you could do this by hand, of course. The food processor just makes things infinitely easier and speeds up the process!) Add the butter all at once; process until mixture is uniform, about 10 seconds (do not overprocess). Add the egg and process for another few seconds.

2. Put the mixture in a bowl and add the ice water; mix with your hands until the dough forms into a ball, adding another tablespoon or two if necessary (if you overdo it and the mixture is too wet, add a bit more flour). Form into a ball, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

3. Sprinkle a countertop with flour and put the dough on it; sprinkle the top of the dough with a little flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a large circle, to a diameter about 2 inches larger than that of your tart pan. Move the dough into the tart pan by draping it over the rolling pin and moving into the pan. Press the dough into the nooks and crannies of your tart pan, being careful not to overwork it. Use a knife to trim any excess dough at the rim of the pan. Refrigerate for about an hour before filling.

4. For this recipe, you will blind-bake the tart. What this means is baking an empty tart shell. First, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Make sure your crust is pressed firmly into the tart pan, and throughly pricked with a fork. This will help the crust retain its safe and will help prevent bubbling. Butter one side a piece of foil large enough to cover the crust; press the foil onto the crust, butter side down. Weight the foil with a pile of dried beans or rice. Bake for 12 minutes, remove from oven, turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and continue baking until the crust is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove and let cool before filling.



Frangipane Filling
from Gale Gand

1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. To make the frangipane, place the almonds and the sugar in a food processor and grind until sandy. Add the butter and continue mixing then add the egg, vanilla, and the flour and mix until smooth.

3. Spread the almond frangipane in the prebaked tart shell (see above). Firmly place the apricot halves into the frangipane spacing them evenly around the tart. Dot the spaces between the apricots with the whole almonds.

4. Bake until golden brown on the top and puffy, about 30 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.