Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake

I made a simple cake for tea the other day, a Dorie Greenspan cake – Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake. Blueberries were on sale that week – $1.99 a pint – and they were sweet not tart. Eating them with (or in!) cakes is my favourite way of eating many blueberries at one go!

This cake is called a plain cake – “no crumbs, streusel, nuts, icing or filling” – but it is not plain in taste. It is very moist, with blueberries in almost every bite, and has a strong caramel flavour from the brown sugar. There’s also a hint of cinnamon.

Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake
adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon plus a pinch of salt
2 large eggs, separated
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar (I didn’t pack it)
1/2 cup whole milk
1 pint blueberries – fresh, preferably, or frozen

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Generously butter an 11-x-8-inch baking pan and place it on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and the 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until they form firm, glossy peaks.

Put the butter and sugar in the mixer bowl and beat on medium speed until creamy. Add the egg yolks and beat 2 minutes more. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients, then all of the milk and then the remainder of the dry ingredients, adding each new batch as soon as the previous batch has been incorporated.

Using a large rubber spatula, stir in about one quarter of the stiffly beaten egg whites. Gently fold in the rest of the whites. Still working with a light hand, fold in the blueberries, and scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until it is golden and a thin knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before dusting the top with confectioners’ sugar and serving warm. (I served mine the next day and warmed it up in the microwave.)

 

 

Brownie Buttons

You know how sometimes you are looking for something and you don’t see it even though it’s right in front of your nose? This was the case for me with these brownie buttons. I had some time to kill before dinner and wanted to make a simple brownie recipe. I went looking online and went over to Seasaltwithfood’s website. I know Angie had a brownie pop recipe in there. I found it and what do you know, her recipe was adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours and that book is just sitting on my kitchen counter!

I made Dorie’s Brownie Buttons and they were great little bites for dessert. Best of all, they were quick to make, if you don’t count the glazing. I dressed them with a bittersweet chocolate glaze instead of white chocolate and put sprinkles on them to make my boys and I happy.

In Dorie’s recipe, she said adding grated orange zest is optional but if you love the combination of orange and chocolate, add them. It’s really good!

BROWNIE BUTTONS
(Adapted from Dorie Greenspan – Baking from my home to yours)

Grated zest of 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

Optional Glaze
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted in a small heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lightly butter a 24-cup miniature muffin pan and place it on a baking sheet.

2. If you’re using the orange zest, combine the orange zest with sugar in a small bowl, rubbing them between your fingers to blend. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

3. Melt the butter, chocolate and brown sugar in a medium saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula. When the mixture is smooth, remove from the heat and cool for a minute or two.

4. Stir in the vanilla, egg and the zest into the chocolate mixture. Stir until well blended. Add the flour and stir only until it is incorporated. The batter should be smooth and glossy.

5. Spoon the batter into 16 of the muffin cups, filling them three-quarters full. Put 1 teaspoon of water in each empty cup.

6. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until the tops of the brownie spring back when touched. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 3 minutes before carefully releasing the buttons. Cool to room temperature on the racks.

7. If glazing, dip the tops of the buttons into the melted chocolate, twirling the buttons to coat. Refrigerate the buttons for 15 minutes to set the glaze.

 

Around My French Table/French Fridays with Dorie

My newest cookbook arrived – Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan – and I couldn’t be more excited. There are two reasons for my excitement. First, it’s my première French cookbook and second, I’ve joined an online cooking group to cook through this book! The group is called French Fridays with Dorie (FFwD) and it’s created by the same person behind the group that baked through Dorie’s baking book. This time around Dorie endorses the group right from Day One so it’s more special. Anyway, back to the book, it’s supposed to be homely, unfussy French cooking. Food that Dorie would cook for herself when she’s in Paris. She writes in the book’s introduction that “this is elbows-on-the-table food, dishes you don’t need a Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu to make.” PHEW!

More on FFwD, each week a recipe will be selected and the group members will cook that recipe and post it up (on their own blog or Facebook or on the FFwD website) on the Friday of that week. I’m excited and at the same time nervous. French cooking is new to me and so it will be a challenge. The good part is, there’s no pressure but I would strive to cook each week’s recipe unless I have a good reason not to, a reason that I will not be sheepish to share! The group starts posting their recipes Oct 1. I’m ready to go!