Peanut Butter and Julie

Butterscotch, Pear, and Hazelnut Sticky Buns (and a commentary on restaurant pet peeves)

One would think that living in a city like Las Vegas means that you have endless options when it comes to dining out.  Well, technically that's true.  We do have hundreds, probably thousands, of restaurants within a thirty minute drive from our house.  Unfortunately, the number of those that I would consider to be "great" are a limited few.  And breakfast places?  Fuggedaboudit.  Being a super early riser though, this doesn't bother me quite so much.   By the time most people are contemplating the contents of their omelet, my thoughts are well on their way to lunch.  Besides, I'd rather create something on my own to enjoy in my pajamas (see photo above and recipe waaaayyyy down the page.)

We used to go out to eat quite often, but lately I've been not so eager to plunk down my credit card for what often ends up being a substandard meal.  While Eric's palate has definitely matured since the day we met (when his refrigerator contents consisted of Ragu, milk, and Pacifico), he's happy eating pretty much anywhere, so long as they have chicken parm or some sort of pasta on the menu.  Me?  I'm not quite so easy to please.

I don't mean to sound like the Grumpy Old Man of restaurant reviews.  It's not even the big things that I am most critical of; it's the little things.  Call me nit-picky if you like, but restaurants are an investment of my time and money, so I think a little nit and a little pick here and there is more than allowed.  The following is a list of some of my restaurant pet peeves (many of which unfortunately seem to be trends), a sort of mental check-list that I go through to determine whether I should just stay home and grill next time:

• Salt and pepper shakers: Chefs, I know that your culinary skills are flawless, and that we shouldn't mess with your creations, but I like salt.  I like pepper even more.  At some point in the last ten years, salt and pepper shakers started to disappear from tables at restaurants, as if to say "Our food is already perfection.  Your personal tastes don't matter.  Enjoy."  This drives me CRAZY.  With a few exceptions, food can usually stand to use a little bit of extra seasoning, and I shouldn't need to flag down our server to locate what should already be on the table.  Maybe I should just start carrying my own set of travel spices with me.  Don't think that I won't!  They even sell them on Amazon! ----->
• Bottled Water:  There's this one restaurant that we occasionally go to, and for the most part it's lovely.  For the most part.  Here's the thing: At the start of the meal, they present you with a Bottled Water menu on a whimsical little clipboard.  Yes, an entire menu devoted to overpriced artistically-shaped bottles with European one-word names.  Pretentious?  You bet.  Am I ordering some?  Not a chance.  Yes, I know that this is a great way for restaurants to (attempt to) increase the average check amount, but please, just bring me some ice water. 
• Bad Bread:  I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bread snob, therefore the bread basket at a restaurant is heavily scrutinized when set on the table.  If I'm just dining with Eric, I have absolutely no sense of shame.  I'll treat the bread basket like my own personal research experiment/buffet, taking one-quarter of each variety so that I can sample them all.  If I'm dining with friends, I really want to do the same thing, but I abstain so that I don't embarrass my husband.  Hard/stale/cold/low quality bread is such a buzz kill at a restaurant.  On the other hand, a selection of warm and fresh artisanal bread alone can merit a repeat visit.  Chefs, if bread baking is not your forte, outsourcing is nothing to be ashamed of.  Just a suggestion.
• Hard Butter:  Remember that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts' character is trying to get a grasp of her escargot with the tongs, and the shell goes flying across the dining room into the awaiting tuxedo-clad server's hand?  Well, I fear that the same basic, but tuxedo-less scenario is going to happen to me any time that I try to cut into a pat of rock-solid butter, which I am then supposed to be able to spread onto my roll.  Providing that the butter doesn't ricochet off of my knife before I even attempt to apply it, my roll inevitably becomes a shredded, squished mess because the butter is, of course, unspreadable.  Five minutes in a warm kitchen, chefs.  That's all it takes.  Just set the butter out for five minutes prior to serving, and future dangerous projectile pats of butter in the dining room can be avoided.
• The dessert "hard sell":  I rarely order dessert at a restaurant.  This is usually because I am too full, but even if I'm not, a bowl of ice cream at home always trumps whatever is on that cute little dessert menu that the server has just placed in front of me with a ceremonial flourish.  Despite the fact that we have already explained that we are not big dessert eaters, we are still given the hard sell, complete with long, drawn out descriptions:  "Oh, but you simply can't resist our [lava molten chocolate cake/study of creme brulees/sugared doughnuts and coffee ice cream]", or insert some other currently ubiquitous sweet.  Ummm....  very convincing performance, but still not interested.  Got a cheese plate?
• Generic sides:  O.K., now I know that this is really picky, but it still bugs me.  When I am at what is supposed to be a "nicer" restaurant, I find it annoying when all of the entrees, whether they are duck or dover sole, lamb chops or lobster, rib-eye or....you get the idea.  As I was saying, I don't like it when every entree is plated with the exact same sides and garnishes.  I'm not exactly sure why this bothers me, but it makes me think of an institutional assembly-line  in the kitchen, where the side dishes have been sitting under a heat lamp for hours, and they are just plopped on the plate right before serving (there's always one of those icky tomato halves with breadcrumbs and a purpose-less sprig of parsley.)  Like I said, it's picky, but worth a mention.

Now, I don't want to give you the wrong idea.  Even if every single one of the items above gets a mental check a a restaurant, I'm an incredibly gracious customer, and I hardly ever complain to the server.  I've waited tables myself in the past, so I know that: A) It's rarely the server's fault, and B) You really don't want to irritate your server.  They can be very creative when it comes to revenge.  So I keep my critique internal.

Now to the breakfast recipe (mentioned waaaaayyyy above in paragraph 1).  I generally stick to a fairly strict healthy diet, but if I am going to splurge on something sweet, I'll likely do it at breakfast.  That way, I have the rest of the day to be "good" and burn it off.  This was my most recent creation, inspired by a recipe that I had clipped from an old Bon Appetit.  Here are some extra tips for making these sticky-sweet breakfast treats:

• I'm going through a bit of a pear phase right now, putting them in salads, sandwiches, and yes, sticky buns.  This recipe would also be great using diced apples, coarsely chopped dried cranberries or cherries, or even a combination of mixed dried fruit.
• If you are all outta Scotch, you can substitute rum or even Grand Marnier for the Scotch whiskey.  If you want to keep the recipe alcohol-free, I suggest orange juice.
• If your kitchen is drafty/chilly, you can place the muffin tray in a warm (not hot!) oven for the resting phase.  Prior to placing the tray in the oven, preheat it for a few minutes, and then turn it off. 
• Although they are best served the day they are prepared, the baked, but not glazed, buns can be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to one week.  Wrap the buns in foil and reheat, then glaze as directed.

Butterscotch, Pear, and Hazelnut Sticky Buns

Makes 12 

Ingredients:

For the dough

3/4 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup sugar

7 tablespoons butter, softened

2 large eggs

4 cups flour (plus additional for dusting)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

One large Bartlett or Anjou pear (not overly ripe, still firm), diced

1 cup chopped blanched hazelnuts, lightly toasted, divided

 For the butterscotch glaze

6 tablespoons butter, in pieces

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons Scotch

2 teaspoons corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

Prepare the dough:  In a microwave safe container, heat the milk until warm (105-110F), about 1 minute.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the heated milk with the yeast, stirring to mix.  Add the sugar and the butter, and mix at medium speed until the butter is broken into small pieces.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then beat in the flour, salt, and cinnamon.  Mix at low speed until all of the ingredients are well-incorporated, about 2 minutes more.  Increase the speed to medium and mix the dough for 2 minutes longer.  Gather the dough into a ball, and place it into a lightly buttered bowl, turning to coat.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F degrees.  Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick baking spray.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out to an (approximately) 9X24-inch rectangle, trimming the edges to make them even.  Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter.  In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, diced pears, and 1/2 cup of the hazelnuts.  Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the melted butter. 

Beginning at a long end, roll up the dough as tightly as possible, pinching the seam.  Using a very sharp knife, cut the log into 12 even pieces.  Set each piece in a muffin cup, cut sides facing up.  Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Set the muffin pan on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the buns are golden brown and puffed.

Prepare the glaze while the buns are baking:  In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, condensed milk, cream, Scotch, and corn syrup.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.  Simmer the mixture over medium heat until it has thickened slightly, 2-3 minutes.  Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Carefully remove the buns from the pan and place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet.  Spoon the butterscotch evenly over the buns and sprinkle the tops with the remaining hazelnuts.  Allow the buns to soak up the glaze for about 20 minutes.  Serve warm!

 

A Duo of Pumpkin-Apple Delights

So, my previous post might have been a bit premature.  I truly, truly, intended to get back to a consistent blogging schedule after my summer hiatus.  If you could see the stack of torn out recipes, notes, and cookbooks with dog-eared pages that I have on my nightstand, then you would know that my lack of blogging is not due to lack of materials or inspiration.........it's due to lack of time.

I've asked for this before, and now I'm going to ask, very nicely, once again:  Could somebody out there please, please, figure out how to increase my day to 36 hours?  I promise that I will only sleep for a maximum of six.  More than ever, over the past few months, I've found it nearly impossible to even scratch the surface of my constantly growing to-do list.  Or, I should say, to-do LISTS.  I have no fewer than eight of these in my possession: folded and placed in a purse pocket, sitting on my desk, typed into an Excel spreadsheet (I was feeling uber-organized that day), and scrawled on the back of a Whole Foods receipt.  Some of the items are on every list, while some I can't even decipher when rereading, but they were clearly quite important when said list-making occurred (as exhibited by the all-caps in which the item was written followed by three exclamation points.)

9216.  This number is the primary reason why I have been so busy over the past month.  9216 is the number of bags in 768 cases of granola, the amount that was called for in The Fresh Market's opening order.  Oh, and they needed it, like, yesterday.  Don't get me wrong.  I was beyond thrilled to get this account.  Beyond thrilled.  I had been hoping and praying and doing some serious lobbying to get picked up by TFM for months after I met with them at The Fancy Food show.  I just wasn't quite prepared for how large their order would be, or how quickly they would need it. 

Let me put this into perspective for you:  Up until this order, my largest order ever had been for 20 cases.  Two-Zero.  Yes, less than three percent of TFM order.  Gulp. Yikes.  Lucky for me that I love a challenge, because a challenge is what I had.  After four 120+ hour work weeks, including five all-nighters in the kitchen, two nervous breakdowns, and countless cuts, scrapes, bruises, and burns (I looked like I got into, and lost, a serious bar fight), I finally got the order out.  Exhale.  For those of you who happen to have a Fresh Market in your area, I'm jealous, as they have yet to hit the Las Vegas market.  But for those of you who do have one, you can find Julie Anne's Granola on the shelves now!

The first thing that I did after finishing this order was take the world's longest nap.  Boy, was that a great nap.  I haven't been a big napper since kindergarten, but this nap created a great argument as to why I should take up napping again (if I had the time, of course.)  Following my nap, I did what any normal person would do after one month of baking.......I baked.  Not granola, of course.

For those of us who love to bake, the autumn months are THE best time to go wal-nuts in the kitchen.  Back-to-school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas give us plenty of excuses to try out those cinnamon-and-spice-filled, royal icing-decorated, and ganache-covered treats that have been swimming around in our heads since summer wore out its welcome.  At the beginning of October, I had not turned on my Kitchen Aid mixer for months, and I felt like I needed to make up for lost time.

There are only two ways that I can kick off my autumn baking extravaganza: baking with pumpkin or baking with apples.  Because I was trying to make up for lost time, I decided to bake with both.  I had just found a beautiful display of Honeycrisp apples at Trader Joe's -- love, love Honeycrisp apples -- and I couldn't wait to use them.  The first recipe, the Pumpkin-Apple Cake with Streusel, can be used for a sweet breakfast treat or for dessert.  I prefer it warm, but it is also good at room temperature.  The enticing aromas that are created when the apples are cooking and the cake is baking are heavenly.  The bread recipe is a variation on the pumpkin bread recipe that I have been using for years.  Adding the tart chunks of apple make this bread extra-moist, and they bring an additional layer of flavor to the pumpkin, pecans, and spices.  This bread is perfect on its own -- no butter or jam required!  Here are my extra tips for preparing this pumpkin and pomme pair:

• Referencing the line above, "pomme" is French for "apple."  The sentence just sounded better with alliteration.  I knew that my six years of French class would come in handy some day.
• The cake will keep well, tightly covered at room temperature, for 2-3 days.  This is not a dessert for freezing and thawing.
• The pumpkin bread, on the other hand, freezes and thaws beautifully.  This bread actually tastes even better the day after it has been baked, cooled, and tightly wrapped in plastic.  The flavors really come out over time, and it is so moist to begin with that there is no danger of the loaf drying out.  Tightly wrapped, the loaves will freeze for three weeks.  Thaw on the counter overnight.
• For both recipes, you may substitute 2 teasponns pumpkin pie spice for the assorted spices.  I recently found this for a really reasonable price at Trader Joe's (so of course I scooped up a bunch!)
• If you want to add a lovely maple glaze (which I strongly recommend) to the cake, you can do so by mixing about 2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar with 3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup until you reach a drizzling consistency.  You can use a combination of milk and vanilla extract or even orange juice to make the glaze too, depending on your preferred flavor.

Pumpkin-Apple Cake with Streusel Topping

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

For the apples

4 tablespoons butter

4 cups diced Honeycrisp apples (Granny Smith work well too)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cake

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed

8 tablespoons butter, softened, in pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Prepare the apples:  In a large, nonstick skillet, melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add the apples' saute until they begin to brown, 5 minutes.  Add the sugar and the cinnamon and saute until the apples are golden grown, 2-3 minutes more.  Set the mixture aside to cool.

Prepare the cake:  Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.  Spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick baking spray.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt.  Beat the mixture until it resembles coarse meal.  Set 2/3 of the mixture aside for the streusel topping.

Add the pumpkin and the sour cream to the remaining flour mixture, and beat until combined.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Mix in the sugar, spices, baking soda, and vanilla, beating until smooth.  Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Scatter the sauteed apples evenly over the batter in the pan.  Mix the pecans into the reserved streusel mixture, and sprinkle this evenly over the apples. 

Bake the cake until the topping is golden brown and a toothpick/cake tester inserted into the center emerges clean, 55-65 minutes.  Cool the cake in the pan set on a rack for 20 minutes, then release the pan from the sides of the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

 

Spiced Pumpkin-Apple Pecan Bread

Makes 2 large loaves

Ingredients:

1 cup safflower oil

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

4 large eggs

2 cups canned pumpkin

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups diced Honeycrisp apples (or your favorite varietal)

1 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.  Spray two 9X5-inch loaf pans with nonstick baking spray.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitter with the paddle attachment, cream together the oil and both sugars.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Beat in the pumpkin, water, and the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed until well incorporated.  Fold in the diced apples, pecans, and dried cranberries if using.

Divide the mixture between the two prepared pans.  Bake the loaves for 1 hour, or until a toothpick or paring knife inserted into the center emerges clean.  Allow the bread to cool in the pans on a rack.  When the loaves have cooled, remove them from the pans and wrap tightly with plastic wrap to store.