The volunteers who run the teas do a great job of figuring out what needs to be made and how much to make, so they usually just give me a recipe to produce. Usually it’s scones, but this time I made pecan bars.

These are quite simple – kind of a pecan pie filling in bar form. They’re very sweet but I cut them into tiny squares for the tea.

I love that they’re a one-bowl recipe – with a scale, it’s pretty much just dump and mix. Mine cooked pretty quickly, and I took them out after 20 minutes.

Pecan Bars
Makes 60 small squares.

Ingredients
16 oz. light or dark brown sugar
8 oz. butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups self rising flour
2 cups chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 pan with nonstick baking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar with the melted butter until combined. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the flour and gently mix again. Add the pecans and vanilla and mix well. The batter will be stiff.

Spread the batter in the pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Place pan on a rack to cool completely, then cut into squares.

• Pecan Bars (Sunnyvale Historical Society and Museum)

The perfect waffle is crisp on the outside, light and airy inside. I don’t like to muck up the waffle with any syrup or anything, either. Maybe some butter and that’s it. I thought the malted milk powder would be a great flavor addition to these, but it didn’t really come through very strongly.

We didn’t hate the waffles, but we didn’t love them. They weren’t crisp (maybe that was my fault, the temp on the waffle iron might have been too low). At least they’re super easy to make. If you have the dry ingredients prepped the night before, they can be mixed faster than the waffle iron needs to heat up.

To get the recipe and see the other entries from this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

• Malted Waffles (Baked Explorations, p. 178)

I had no problem finding piloncillo, but grating it is kind of a pain (the ice cream uses a full cone). I started by hand, then quickly realized it would take me all day. I fed it through my food processor grating plate instead, but it made an awful noise and I’m guessing my Cuisinart wasn’t all too happy about it. A better option would be to buy already granulated piloncillo from the fantastic Rancho Gordo. It was out of stock when I was buying ingredients for the ice cream, so I used the cone instead.

I haven’t had great luck making a delicious banana ice cream, but this method works. It uses eight very ripe bananas, but since they’re frozen, you can just store them in the freezer as they ripen. Since I was at a Latin market buying piloncillo, I just picked up bananas there – they tend to sell bananas that are much riper than at mainstream markets.

The result is a frosty treat that has a very clean, not muted or mutated banana flavor. I think it would be fine without pecans but they add a nice nuttiness that compliments the bananas and sugar. Find the recipe at Sweet Talker.

• Banana Pecan Piloncillo Ice Cream (Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, p. 174)

Larry took the lead on this meal and used a recipe from Salad as a Meal as a starting point.

The salad is a nice mixture of flavors with the sweetness of the crab and corn, the creaminess of the avocado and dressing, and the spiciness of the red pepper salt.

We used Meyer Lemons, but normal lemons would probably be fine, although the sweetness of the Meyer Lemons worked well with the crab meat. The original recipe is posted on Serious Eats.

Crab Salad with Meyer Lemon and Avocado
Adapted from: Salad as a Meal, Patricia Wells
Serves 4

1/4 cup Creamy Lemon-Chive Dressing (recipe follows)
1/4 teaspoon Red Hot Salt (recipe follows)
1 pound (2 cups) fresh cooked lump crabmeat
2 large carrots, diced
2 stalks spring onion, diced
1/2 cup roasted corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 large ripe avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, and cut into thin slices
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Creamy Lemon-Chive Dressing
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, preferably Meyer Lemon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup light cream
1/3 cup finely minced fresh chives
Lemon zest from 2 Meyer Lemons

Red Hot Salt
2 teaspoons ground Piment d’Espelette or other ground mild chile pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot-smoked Pimentón de la Vera or other hot smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon mild paprika
1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Instructions
For the Creamy Lemon-Chive Dressing:In a jar, combine the lemon juice and salt. Cover with the lid and shake to dissolve the salt. Add the cream, chives, and lemon zest. Shake to blend. Taste for seasoning. The dressing can be used immediately. Store the dressing in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Shake to blend again before using.

For the Red Hot Salt:Combine all the ingredients in a small plastic container. Cover, shake to blend. Store the salt mixture, sealed, at room temperature for up to 1 month. After that the flavors will begin to fade.

For the Salad: In a large bowl, combine the crabmeat with just enough dressing to lightly coat the crabmeat. Taste for seasoning.

In another bowl, combine the carrots, spring onion, corn, cilantro, and half of the Red Hot Salt and toss with just enough dressing to lightly coat the vegetables. Taste for seasoning. Combine the contents of the two bowls, mixing gently to blend.

Plating: Arrange the slices from half of an avocado on each plate, and sprinkle with salt to taste. Mound the salad mixture on top of the avocado slices. Sprinkle with ground pepper and Red Hot Salt.

• Crab Salad with Lime & Avocado (Adapted from Salad as a Meal, p. 124)

There was plenty of crabmeat in our delivery, enough for a couple of meals. I had avocado crab salad on the brain, but instead we decided to do something kind of different – a savory concoction of grits, bacon, tomato and leeks, topped with an egg and baked.

The grits are somewhat involved, and they’re more like a mixture of vegetables and flavorings with a few grits added in. They’re good, though. After they’re cooked, crabmeat and tarragon is folded into the mixture and then it’s topped with an egg and baked.

The recipe has one obvious error – it says to cook the egg for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees. In reality, it will take more like 10 minutes or so to get the whites cooked. We liked this but didn’t love it. The crab is overpowered by all the other stuff in the dish, and I tend to like my grits more on the plain side.

• Coddled Egg with Crab, Bacon and Leeks (Tasting Table)

It all started with homemade Oreos. I made a version that was adapted from the book, and they were fantastic. I was intrigued, and as soon as I looked through it (via the library), I knew I needed to have it on my bookshelf.

There are a range of sweets in the book, but there are also savory recipes too – quick breads, yeasted breads, quiche, pizza. I haven’t delved into any of the savory recipes yet – I seem to be focusing mostly on the cookie section first. I love that the recipes include weights for ingredients. Not only that, but metric! Weighing ingredients = better results, and fewer dishes to wash!

The other thing about the book – the recipes are really well-written and well-tested (not always the case with books that come from restaurant chefs, but her collaborator is Christie Matheson – always a good sign). It makes me want to fly to Boston and eat everything on Flour’s menu. And Joanne Chang is terrific – very engaged and responsive via Twitter. Joanne has a second book in the works, and I can’t wait to get it.

Here’s a summary of what I’ve made out of the book so far:

• Sugar & Spice Brioche Buns: Pictured above, I’m pretty sure fresh yeast is part of what makes the brioche from this book so good. These buns are topped with melted butter and sprinkled with a spice mixture, and they’re wonderful straight out of the oven. Go now to the lovely Dessert First blog and get the recipe.
• Homemade Oreos: They really are better than the store-bought version. I’ve only made the adapted version, but will eventually go back and make the recipe straight out of the book.
• Homemade Pop Tarts: Again, better than what I used to scarf down in college (I wasn’t allowed to have any sweet stuff for breakfast as a kid). Easy to make, and incredibly delicious any time of day.
• Ginger Molasses Cookies: Out of the gazillion recipes I’ve tried in my quest to make the perfect ginger molasses cookie, this one came the closest.
• Chocolate Cupcakes with Crispy Magic Frosting: How gorgeous is this buttercream? It forms a sugary crust as it sits and it works great with the chocolate cake.
• Snickerdoodles: Good, but probably my least favorite thing out of the book. And I think it’s because neither Larry or I particularly like snickerdoodles.
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: By far Larry’s all-time favorite type of cookie, and he loved this version.
• Brown Butter-Crispy Rice Treats: See the trend here? I’m drawn to the updated, much better versions of my childhood favorites. Despite my rice allergy, I couldn’t resist these. They are the best Rice Krispy Treat you will ever put in your mouth.
• Cornmeal-Lime Cookies: This book excels in the cookie area. This cookie is different – with a lime glaze and crunch from cornmeal, it will make everyone love you.
• Double Chocolate Cookies: The king of all chocolate cookies. They’re a favorite when I give them out to friends.
• Sticky Sticky Buns: I served these for brunch six months ago and my neighbors are still talking about them. The brioche for these is absolutely gorgeous, and a dream to work with. These buns made my Best of 2011 list.
• Flour’s Famous Banana Bread: I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record, but this is the best banana bread I’ve ever made.
• Super-Pumpkiny Pumpkin Pie: It’s probably the best pumpkin pie in the world, but with my record of ruining pumpkin pies, it’s no surprise that mine didn’t turn out great.
• Lemon Lust Bars: Lemon bars, eh. This is a good recipe, but I’m not a super big lemon bar fan. But the lemon curd from this recipe is fantastic and has become my standard curd recipe. And I make a LOT of lemon curd.
• Nutmeg-Spice Cake with Creamy Rum Buttercream: Larry thought this cake was too boozy, but I thought it was good. Warm spices, and a creamy, rummy buttercream. What’s not to like?
• Chunky Lola Cookies: Pecans, oats and chocolate chunks. Another winner in the cookie section.
• Addictive Bran Muffins with Golden Raisins and “Bird Seed”: Joanne says this is her favorite recipe in the book, and I can see why. Oat bran soaked in creme fraiche and milk? No wonder they’re so good. And I love the seed mixture on top.
• French Lemon-Poppy Pound Cake: Such a lovely little pound cake. Simple and moist.

And I can’t wait to try:

• Deep, Dark, Spicy Gingerbread with Coffee Glaze: The only thing that puts me off is the coffee glaze, but I’m betting the gingerbread is great.
• Milky Way Tart: Genius. I’m a big fan of candy bars turned into pies, tarts, cakes.
• Toasted Coconut Cream Pie with Lime Whipped Cream: That Larry, he doesn’t like the texture of coconut. But I think coconut cream pie is my most favorite pie ever, so I’m going to make this at some point. He can watch me eat it.
• Mom’s Granola: Nothing fancy, just granola. Except I’m a granola junkie so I have to make this.
• Lemon-Raspberry Cake with Lemon Buttercream: This cake intimidates me. But boy, is it beautiful.
• Honey-Cinnamon Ice Cream: With my honey obsession and my constant ice cream making, you’d think I would have made this by now. It’s on my to-do list for sure.
• Brown Sugar Popovers: I love popovers. Larry doesn’t. If I thought I could resist eating an entire batch, I’d probably make these today. The brown sugar intrigues me.

• Sugar & Spice Brioche Buns (Flour, p. 75)

The pizza doesn’t have a sauce – it’s just a seasoned ground meat mixture that’s moist enough to stand on its own. An egg on top is a nice addition (we did one pizza with and one without).

The dough is pretty simple, a honey wheat dough that takes an hour to rise. I had some more fresh yeast on hand so I had to do the math to convert a tablespoon of dry yeast to the fresh equivalent (approximately 23 grams if you’re curious). I don’t mind math, but it sure would make cooking easier if every recipe standardized in metric weights.

We’re still getting kale from the CSA but Larry’s sick of beans and greens. So this time, a raw kale salad from the folks at Foodzie. This is their version of a favorite neighborhood salad. Manchego and pancetta adds salt and flavor. I had seconds of the salad, and I rarely have seconds of anything. It’s that good. If I was in their neighborhood I’d stand in a long line to get it, too.

• Turkish Ground-Lamb Pizzas (Food & Wine, May 2012)
• Survival-of-the-Fittest Kale Salad (Foodzie)

The small, local cookbook I bought in Peru doesn’t have a recipe for Palta Rellena, but there are plenty floating around on the Internet. I took advantage of the great avocados we’ve had at the market lately and crafted my own recipe. This makes a nice light lunch for four, or a heavier dinner for two if it’s made in our house.

Palta Rellena
Adapted from: Inti Aperture
Serves 4.

Ingredients
For the filling:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 carrots, finely diced
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
4 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the avocados:
2 avocados, peeled, pitted, and cut in half
1 lime, halved
1 large egg, hard-boiled and sliced lengthwise
6 oz. mixed green lettuce
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Make the filling:
Place the olive oil and carrots in a medium nonstick skillet with enough water to cover the carrots. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the water is gone. Add additional water as needed until the carrots are tender. Add the the corn and cook briefly, until warm. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cool.

In a medium bowl, gently mix the carrots and corn with the chicken, mayonnaise and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the avocados:
Using a large spoon, spoon out some of the center of the avocado, enlarging the hole from the pit. Reserve the removed avocado for another use. Squeeze a bit of lime juice over the avocado to help preserve its freshness. Add a sprinkle of salt to the top.

Place a handful of mixed green lettuce on each plate. Place one half avocado on each pile of lettuce. Scoop a quarter of the filling into the center of each avocado half, allowing the mixture to overflow on the greens. Place several hard boiled egg slices on top of the filling. Top with a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper.

• Palta Rellena (adapted from Inti Aperture)

There’s a lot of work that goes into the bars. Orange peel to be candied, sweet crust to be made and rolled out, filling to be made – including the sugar, that’s taken to soft ball stage before the chunky stuff is mixed in.

There isn’t anything wrong with these. They’re nice, kind of like a sticky granola bar. I like the honey flavor and the sweet dough. But it’s probably more work than I’m willing to put in for a bar that isn’t the best one I’ve ever eaten. The recipe is posted on Leite’s Culinaria.

• Honeycomb Bars (Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, p. 126)

Larry took over shredding duties and agreed – the texture was weird for a cut of meat that’s normally fall-off-the-bone tender. It smelled great, though.

I made flour tortillas, using more of that duck fat that’s in my refrigerator. It works fine in place of lard. We used the tortillas to make a wrap of the pork, with some of the cilantro sauce (which is good enough to eat with a spoon), black beans and avocado. The mojo sauce was okay but very liquid and citrus-y and we left it off.

I was grumbling about the loser dinner and the stupid roast until I took a bite of the wrap. And I changed my tune. They turned out great, somehow! Fantastic flavor, and because the pork is shredded the texture issues disappear. It goes great with the cilantro sauce too.

• Pork Shoulder Roast with Citrus Mojo & Green Sauce (Food & Wine, May 2012)
• Creamy Cilantro Lime Sauce (Food & Wine, May 2012)
• Handmade Flour Tortillas (Fine Cooking #79, July 2006, p. 74)

I love this version, but I made a couple of changes. I don’t like hazelnuts or cooked raisins. So out they went, replaced with pepitas and dried blueberries instead. I like that there’s a generous amount of honey in this one too. I admit that I’ve been eating this out of the jar as a snack, instead of putting it into a bowl with milk like a normal person.

The recipe is posted on Cookstr. I’m the type that likes my granola clumpy, so I cut back on the flipping and stirring, and pressed it into the pan once it came out of the oven to cool.

• Easy Homemade Granola (Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, p. 47)

Before I get into details about the cake, I should mention the roasted potatoes that came before dessert. Fingerlings, cut in half and tossed with salt, pepper and chopped rosemary. Normally I’d use olive oil, but I had this duck fat sitting in the refrigerator… and it makes a nice potato. A really, really good potato.

Roasted cut-side down until the potatoes were brown and crispy, the duck fat adds a richness but doesn’t overpower with it’s own flavor. It’s got a high smoke point so it’s great for frying or sautéing. I rendered my own because I had pulled the skin off of a couple of duck breasts (don’t judge me – I don’t like duck but Coco gets it occasionally as a high-value treat for training!).

We’ve got a bit of a lemon-poppyseed thing in this house. Years and years ago, I could cook just fine but I wasn’t much of a baker. I had three desserts in my arsenal – raspberry chocolate cheesecake, sour cream chocolate sheet cake, and a lemon poppyseed Bundt cake. I remember the first time I made the lemon cake for Larry – he loved it, and has asked for it regularly ever since.

My dirty secret with that cake is that it was based on a cake mix. Oh, I added my own stuff to it – sour cream, poppy seeds, other things I can no longer remember. It was a good cake. But when I eventually became a better baker, I quit buying cake mixes and I’ve never looked back. So now I’m always looking for something that will replace that yummy, simple cake I used to make.

Like every other recipe I’ve made from Flour, this doesn’t disappoint. It’s moist, simple, and has a nice flavor. I prefer a Bundt shape, I think – but the loaf is nice too. Makes for easy transport.

Find the recipe for the cake (along with a ton of other great recipes and baking posts) at the fabulous Real Baking with Rose.

• Grilled Filet Mignon
• Duck Fat-Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Rosemary
• Leaf Lettuce with Ranch Dressing (The Best Light Recipe, p. 37)
• French Lemon-Poppy Pound Cake (Flour, p. 70)

These muffins are interesting in that they don’t contain the typical bran cereal that most bran muffins have. Instead, wheat bran is softened in milk, creme fraiche and eggs. There are the traditional raisins (golden, in this case) – not my favorite but I put them in anyway, and the topping is a delicious, crunch mixture of flax, sunflower seeds and millet (half of which ended up all over my kitchen – these are messy to make).

The title is appropriate – these are great muffins. They rose up really nicely in the oven, and they’re moist and flavorful. And addictive. Find the recipe at Yummy Yoo-Hoo!.

• Addictive Bran Muffins with Golden Raisins and “Bird Seed” (Flour, p. 58)

The burgers seem complicated on first glance – there’s a hand-made salsa and cheese sauce, but both are really quick to make. Once those are ready, the cheese sauce cools and thickens while the burgers cook on the grill. Add sliced, pickled jalapeños and blue corn chips along with the salsa and cheese sauce, and the nacho burger is complete. And it’s good. Really, surprisingly good. I’m not a huge fan of cheese on a burger, but I like it in the form of a sauce.

• Nacho Burgers (Food & Wine, January 2012)

I made the dough because I had a bunch of yolks leftover from making angel food cupcakes. I thought I might make a ravioli out of it, but at the last minute I decided to go simple. The sauce for this pasta contains just cheese, pepper, butter and olive oil, but it’s emulsified into a silky sauce via the leftover hot pasta water.

I used my Kitchen Aid pasta attachment to make the linguine, but this dough is easy to roll out and cut by hand. We loved the pasta, but next time I’ll probably cut the pepper in half. The recipe calls for a substantial amount – 1/4 cup. I use a strong Tellicherry pepper (extra bold from Penzey’s) and a little goes a long way.

For the pasta dough recipe, check out Care’s Kitchen. The recipe for the Cacio e Pepe can be found at iVillage.

• Pasta Dough (Ad Hoc at Home, p. 338)
• Linguine with Cacio e Pepe (Molto Gusto, p. 148)
• Red Leaf Lettuce with Ranch Dressing (The Best Light Recipe, p. 37)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

I used smoked paprika and manchego cheese in my version for this scramble – no herbs. And I used fingerling potatoes instead of red, because that’s what I had. For the recipe, click on over to Cookie & Kate.

• Skillet Potatoes and Eggs (Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals, p. 48)
• Red Leaf Lettuce with Ranch Dressing (The Best Light Recipe, p. 37)

Back to Jeni’s ice cream – I like the method and the silky texture of the ice creams out of this book. I also like that there isn’t any need to strain the base.

What I don’t like is that it doesn’t use any egg yolks – sometimes I have leftover yolks and need to find a way to use them up. I mean, pasta and lemon curd are good, but given a choice I’ll take ice cream any day.

This isn’t a typical Jeni’s recipe – no cream cheese included. Instead, there’s evaporated milk.

The result isn’t a milk chocolate ice cream, but an intense chocolate ice cream that’s milky. Think frozen chocolate pudding. It’s really, really good, although I’m a sucker for chocolate.

For the recipe, take a look at Wee Eats.

• The Milkiest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World (Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, p. 156)

I’d love to say this was all my idea, but I got it from Ryan over at The Spinning Cook. His post went up last September, and I don’t know why I didn’t make this sooner.

I used salty butter for this, because we like salt in this house. No need to be exact – I eyeballed the amount of butter (on the generous side, I’m sure), but I did measure out the popcorn to be sure I didn’t overflow. My 6-quart stock pot will pop a cup of uncooked popcorn without overflowing. I know this from experience.

The method is simple – brown some butter, pour off the solids (no need to be super exact here either), and then pop the corn in the sort-of clarified brown butter with a bit of salt. A lid is required, of course. And I put the heat just above medium and regularly shake the pot until the pops slow way down. I’d rather have a few unpopped kernels than a bunch of burnt popcorn.

Those brown butter solids don’t go to waste – they go on top of the popcorn once it’s popped. Feel free to adjust the amount of butter based on your taste – a tablespoon and a half to a half cup unpopped corn will be just lightly buttered with a subtle nutty flavor. And no weird microwave popcorn chemicals – in about the same amount of time.

The only issue with the recipe is that it says it serves 4. I mentioned to Ryan that this is an obvious error, because it only served two in this house.

• Ultimate Brown Butter Stovetop Popcorn(The Spinning Cook)

Larry and I brainstormed over this cake. I could have gone the obvious route, taunting everyone with my never-ending supply of Meyer lemons. But instead, we started with an idea for the caramel sauce – swapping out the Grand Marnier for Licor 43. Spanish again, I know. But this is one of our favorite liqueurs, with its vanilla and citrus undertones.

The caramel with the Licor 43 itself was a strong flavor and would have overpowered the angel food cake. So I made a buttercream, based on the one from Baked Explorations, and added the caramel sauce to that. For the cake, we thought just plain vanilla would be just fine. And it was. I made cupcakes instead of a cake, and they turned out great. It’s another keeper, for sure.

Take a look at the rest of this month’s Bake Together goodies at Abby’s Pinterest board!

Vanilla-Caramel Angel Food Cupcakes
Adapted from: Abby Dodge
Makes 30 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 cup (4 ounces) cake flour
1 1/4 cup (5 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla paste (or the seeds from two fresh vanilla beans)
11 large (1 1/3 cups) egg whites, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

For the sauce (makes 1 1/2 cups – enough for the buttercream, plus plenty leftover):
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream, warmed
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons Licor 43
Good pinch of Fleur de Sel

For the buttercream:
3/4 cups sugar
8 teaspoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cups whole milk
8 teaspoons heavy cream
6 oz. (1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup caramel sauce at room temperature (recipe above)

To make the cupcakes:
Heat oven to 350. Have ready three standard-sized muffin pans with cupcake liners.

Sift ( just a regular old sieve will work here) together the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt three times (no joke – THREE times) onto a sheet of parchment, waxed paper or foil and set aside.

In a food processor, pulse the sugar and vanilla paste (or vanilla bean seeds) together until well-mixed.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium-low speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, increasing speed to medium, and beat until whites are opaque and climbing about half way up the bowl (the tracks from the whisk will be beginning to hold their shape) forming very soft peaks. Continue beating while slowly and continuously adding the vanilla sugar. Beat on medium high until the whites are thick, shiny and form medium-firm, fluffy peaks. (The peaks should droop over gently.) Do not over beat. You want to leave some room for those whites to expand in the oven. Add the tangerine zest and vanilla. Beat just until blended, about 10 seconds.

Sift 1/4 of the flour mixture over the beaten whites. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the whites. Repeat with remaining flour mixture, one quarter at a time.

Using a large portion scoop or spoon, fill each cupcake liner to the top. Smooth the top. Bake until the cupcakes are light golden brown and the cake is springy when touched, about 12 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan to cool completely on the rack..

To make the caramel sauce:
In a medium, heavy skillet, spread the sugar in an even layer. Cook over low heat until the sugar is melted and the caramel is deep brown, about 10 minutes. Stop stirring, increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. If sugar crystals form around the edge of the pan, wash down with a clean pastry brush dipped in water. Boil without stirring until the liquid turns deep amber in color, about 5 minutes.

As the mixture darkens, gently swirling (not stirring) the pan over the heat to caramelize evenly. (I like to test the color by putting a drop or two on a white plate. If the caramel is too light in color, the sauce will be too sweet – too dark and it will be bitter.) Slide the pan from the heat and slowly add the heavy cream. Be careful as the mixture will bubble and spatter and the steam will be very hot. Using a long-handled wooden spoon, stir gently until the caramel is completely melted and the sauce is smooth.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, Licor 43 and salt. Set aside to cool to room temperature. It can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

To make the buttercream:
In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until cool. Reduce speed to low and add the butter and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Add 1/3 cup of the caramel sauce and continue mixing until combined. If the frosting is too soft, put the bowl in the refrigerator to chill slightly, then beat again until it is the proper consistency. If the frosting is too firm, set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes using a pastry bag and tip, or just spoon and smooth it onto the top of the cupcakes.

• Vanilla-Caramel Angel Food Cupcakes (adapted from Abby Dodge)

This bread pudding came about because I had leftover challah from Easter. And some ripe bananas. We like banana, we like maple. Maybe this would work.

This is a quick dessert to make, and it’s not bad warm out of the oven. But neither Larry or I loved it, and most of it went untouched.

If you’re the type of person who likes bread pudding, you can find the recipe posted here.

• Maple-Banana Bread Pudding (The New York Times Dessert Cookbook, p. 426)

It’s good on its own, or in a sandwich – we like it just on bread with avocado, or in a wrap with avocado. The point is, it goes really well with avocado.

The recipe suggests making a spicy sun dried tomato spread for the sandwich – I didn’t, but I think it would be really good with the tempeh. For the recipe (along with additional instructions for making a spread to go on the sandwich), head over to Food & Wine.

• Barbecued Tempeh Sandwich (The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, p. 375)

I was really tempted to make cupcakes like several in the group did, but since I finally have three 8″ cake pans I wasn’t going to do anything but a damn 3-layer cake.

The cake itself is ultra-moist and dense, and not too sweet. It’s got applesauce in it – I just used store-bought, but it’s not hard to make your own for the cake, either.

The buttercream is the terrific Baked buttercream – stable, creamy, light. I had no issues with curdling this time. A bit of caramel sauce is mixed in to the buttercream just before spreading it on the cake, and it pairs great with the cake.

To get the recipe for the cake, find it at Cupcakes Take the Cake.

• Baked Explorations, p. 138)

There isn’t anything particularly special about making the sandwiches – a liberal coating of salty butter (Kerrygold, to be specific – it’s very salty and creamy) on the bread, shredded cheese (sharp aged cheddar, gruyere and Cordobes Mitica) and some time between the grates of the panino press makes for a terrific bite.

And of course, the classic pairing with grilled cheese is tomato soup. I veered away from my standard vegan bisque and made a version that gets smoky undertones from bacon fat-sauteed onions, smoked paprika, and a bit of crumbled bacon on top. It’s really good.

And one last thing – a shout-out to our local hero and grilled cheese champ, GrilledCheezGuy. Happy Grilled Cheese Day to you!

• Smoky Tomato-Bacon Soup (Fine Cooking Big Buy Cooking, p. 27)
• Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

As an adult we’ve held Easter brunch on occasion, as we did this year. I love brunch parties – Easter is really just an excuse to have one, and every time we have one I wonder why we don’t do it more often. By necessity (unless I want to get up at 3am), most of the work needs to be done ahead of time, so there’s minimal preparation in the morning. And there’s no late-night cleanup (or next morning cleanup) – once it’s over, the rest of the afternoon is yours to enjoy.

Our semi-regular Christmas neighborhood group came over again this year for brunch – Dan, Assana, Chris. I love cooking for this group. It’s great company, it’s casual and no pressure, and just a lot of fun. We all talk at once, there’s a lot of laughter and inappropriate conversation and teasing. It’s family.

We started with a rich, chocolatey hot chocolate (it’s like liquid pudding!) for Dan and I, and the rest of the group drank hot tea. Chris brought a refreshing fruit salad with mint, and I made bacon and scones and stuffed French toast.

The scones are whole grain. They’re not heavy at all and maple is a good match for the earthy mix of grains. I made maple cream to smear on the scones by heating maple syrup until it was concentrated and the water had boiled off of it, then mixing it (by hand at first, until I gave up and went with the stand mixer) until it turns thick and opaque. It’s delicious, the essence of maple. And amazing that it’s just syrup that’s been heated and beaten.

I’m not a huge fan of French toast but this is a great recipe to make the night ahead. The bread is stuffed with a creamy apple-cinnamon filling and it sits in the custard overnight. In the morning all that needs to be done is brown the bread on both sides stove-top, then it goes into the oven for a short time to warm up.

I suppose it’s not Easter without colored eggs. But we don’t have kids and I don’t have the patience to color eggs. However, I don’t mind having hard boiled eggs around, so I made what I’m calling Hipster Easter Eggs. That’s just hard boiled eggs with funky temporary tattoos applied to each one. I used Tattly cooking-themed tattoos – kitchen utensils, a mixer, Bundt pan, oven mitt.

• Hipster Easter Eggs
• Cocoa Nib Hot Chocolate (Good Eats, Turn on the Dark)
• Oven-roasted bacon
• Fruit Salad with Mint
• Maple Cream (America’s Test Kitchen)
• Maple Scones (Oprah.com)
• Apple-Stuffed French Toast with Cider Syrup (Fine Cooking #36, January 2000, p. 36)

These candies were super easy to make. A bit of time is required to coat the candy cups, but I didn’t mind it at all. The chocolate coating is a mix of dark and milk chocolates – not tempered. I considered using tempered chocolate but got lazy when it came time to make these.

Once the cups are coated, they go into the refrigerator to harden. The marshmallow filling – homemade, not some reincarnation of store-bought marshmallows – is piped into the cups, which are then coated by more chocolate. Super cute, super delicious.

To get the recipe and see the other entries from this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

• Marshmallow Chocolate Cups (Baked Explorations, p. 178)

I skipped the chocolate dipped part of the recipe, only because I was lazy. I think a bit of chocolate coating on these cookies would be terrific. And I used Maldon salt, sprinkled on top just as the cookies came out. The texture is softer than a peanut butter cookie, but I like the flavor of the almond butter. And look at how puffy they are! Cookies that aren’t flat!

This recipe got me thinking about using other nut butters – I’d definitely like to try cashew butter and sunflower seed butter. And I’ve got some marcona almond butter that I think would be great. I love that Siobhan’s version of this recipe was inspired by Big Girls Small Kitchen… which was inspired by a recipe by Alice Medrich. This is why I love the cooking community – creativity and inspiration.

• Salted Almond Butter Cookies (Food Fixe)

Larry doesn’t love mole, but that didn’t stop me from making this simplified version of black mole. I made it using tempeh only, although it can be made with chicken, or even both, to accommodate a variety of food preferences. It’s part of why I love this cookbook so much.

The mole itself isnt complicated, especially for a mole, which tends to have a mile-long list of ingredients. I skipped the blender part of the recipe and just used an immersion blender.

We loved this with avocados. I made tortillas – using lard, ironically. Shortening-based tortillas would make this a great vegan dish. I like to make a little burrito of the tempeh in mole with avocado.

Tempeh in Mole Negro
Source: The Flexitarian Table, Peter Berley

Ingredients
For the mole
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large dried ancho chilies
3 cups hot water
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts
1/4 cup blanched whole almonds
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, seeded
Sea salt or kosher salt
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces or coarsely chopped
1 cinnamon stick

For the tempeh
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 8-ounce packages tempeh, cut into 1-inch squares
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

Directions
Pepare the mole
In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the ancho chilies and fry, turning with tongs, until they blister (take care not to burn them). Transfer to a plate to cool. Set the skillet of oil aside.

When the ancho chilies are cool enough to handle, break them open and discard the seeds. Place the chilies in a bowl and cover with the water. Let soak until soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Return the skillet to medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the peanuts, almonds, raisins, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cumin seeds and stir and toast until the nuts and seeds are fragrant and the raisins are puffed, 8 to 10 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape the contents of the pan into a blender (set the skillet aside). Add the chipotle chilies and 1 teaspoon salt, then add the softened ancho chilies and 1 cup of the reserved liquid. Puree, gradually adding the remaining liquid, until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the puree back into the skillet and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Add the cinnamon stick, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently until the mole thickens, about 20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and discard the cinnamon stick. Season the mole with additional salt to taste, and set aside.

Prepare the tempeh
In another heavy 10-inch skillet or 3-quart casserole, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the tempeh and cook, turning frequently, until lightly browned all over, about 10 minutes. Add the water and salt to the pan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 8 minutes.

Drain the tempeh and return it to the pan. Pour in the mole and bring to a simmer. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Serve the mole garnished with chopped cilantro and/or scallions, with the lime wedges alongside.

• Tempeh in Mole Negro (The Flexitarian Table, p. 324)
• Handmade Flour Tortillas (Fine Cooking #79, July 2006, p. 74)

I take the blame for the problems with the cake – the baking soda needed to be added to the liquid, but instead I added it to the dry ingredients. And then while it was baking, I accidentally turned off the oven timer so I had to keep checking it over and over again.

The result was an overflowing cake, all over the oven… and then, it sunk. Spectacularly. Ah well – it’s a Bundt cake, so the sunken part went on the bottom, and it came out looking okay. I used my odd little stump de Noel Bundt – perfect for a deep brown cake, I think.

It tastes decent, but the texture isn’t quite right. I’d say this cake deserves another chance.

• Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread (Gourmet, February 2000)

While I was rolling the dough and cutting fresh mozzarella into slices, Larry prepared the topping – already cooked chicken that we had shredded into chunks, and BBQ sauce. Mix together. That’s it. He sliced up some scallions, I tore up a few leaves of basil. We had tomato sauce already made up, but if we didn’t I would have just used canned crushed tomatoes.

Our pizza was ready to go into the oven way before the oven was preheated. I had time to whip up a batch of cookie dough while I was waiting. And then eight minutes in the oven, we had dinner. Delicious.

• BBQ Chicken Pizza with Lean Pizza Dough (Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, p. 61)

But then K&L Wines came out with Faultline, their own limited brand of gin, made by local favorite St. George Sprits. Hmm, gin. I’ve never been a gin drinker but I bought a bottle and I’ve been thinking about the best way to sample it in a cocktail.

I was originally thinking a gin & tonic, but by the time I finally acquired suitable tonic, I had come across this recipe for what is essentially a gin mojito. Mint, lime and simple syrup are muddled together, add gin and shake before topping it off with a splash of club soda. Oh dang, this is one good drink. Refreshing, and I love the herbaciousness of the gin alongside the mint.

The gin itself is terrific too. I sipped a bit on its own and I liked it enough to grab another bottle. G&Ts are in our future. As are martinis. The Southside is reason enough to keep a batch of simple syrup in the refrigerator at all times.

Here’s a similar version of the drink – I just used a splash of club soda instead of several ounces as suggested.

• Southside Cocktail (Frank Stitt’s Bottega Favorita)