Author: petebakes

pastry

david eyre’s baked pancake with homemade apple syrup

Post author By petebakes
Post date August 25, 2008
16 Comments on david eyre’s baked pancake with homemade apple syrup

i first saw david eyre’s pancake when it cropped up in the new york times last year and although i had it bookmarked for some time, i never got around to actually making it at home. this weekend i was in the mood for dessert for breakfast (i actually remember eating birthday cake for breakfast several times growing up so it’s nothing new for me), so i fired up the oven and whipped up one of these bad boys. it’s so light that it’s almost like eating a crepe, and the wow factor of an inflated pancake coming out of the oven just seals the deal. i will be making more of these in the very near future. and although it looks very delicate, it’s pretty idiot-proof.

traditionally, the pancakes are doused in lemon juice and sprinkled with a generous amount of confectioner’s sugar before serving. i upped the ante with a simple apple syrup that i first created on one cold morning a few years ago. i was looking for something that would warm me up, and i was bored with maple syrup. basically, you cook down apples until you have a sticky, sweet, bubbly mess in a saucepan, and pour it over anything you want to taste delicious.

bread

zucchini bread

remember my banana bread recipe? chock full of warm-your-belly-and-soul-cinnamon-banana deliciousness? well, here we go again, except this time it’s savory zucchini-y goodness. this is one of those recipes that takes me back to my childhood kitchen, and it’s now become one of my 3-year-old nephew’s favorites (he calls it “kini bread”). and again, like the banana bread recipe, this is one you’ll be able to knock out in your sleep once you master it.

and now that i’ve told you how easy it is, i have a confession. i followed the recipe exactly, but my loaves somehow came up, well…short. literally. they didn’t collapse, but just came out about 1/2 the size they should have. i’m not sure if it had something to do with my baking powder or baking soda, but they didn’t hit more than 2 inches at their highest point.

luckily, the size did not affect the taste at all. the bread is still soft and moist, crumbly in just the right way, and surprisingly not too dense. now that i think about it, i may have been misled about how big these loaves should be. being a little shorter, they are much easier to handle, slice up and take on the go, which is great because i plan on eating a few slices while walking to work in the morning (as well as a few more for each meal of the day).

maple tuiles and homemade honey-peach ice cream

Post author By petebakes
Post date August 14, 2008
7 Comments on maple tuiles and homemade honey-peach ice cream

when’s the last time you’ve been to the library? it had been more than a few years for me, not counting the five or so times i went during my college career. i’ve gotten into the habit lately of just buying books when i want them, and while i like owning and displaying them on my bookshelf, the practice has gotten a bit expensive. so the girl and i ended up at the west end library last weekend in search of recipes. it’s funny, after spending so much time in bookstores, you forget how amazing it is to walk into a library and just take a book home for free. for two hours i ran around the place like a kid in a candy store, realizing they stocked both cookbooks and comic books. walking out, my backpack bursting at the seams, i felt like a thief.

this is how i ended up with a copy of dori greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. her name should sound familiar if you spend any time reading food blogs. i’ve only got the book for a few weeks, so i’ve been studying it intensely for new and interesting treats. she provided both (that’s right, a double dose of goodness) recipes this time. which brings me to the ice cream. the girl got an ice cream maker (still on sale at amazon if you’re interested) for us to share, and surprised me with it last week. we decided the first ice cream had to be refreshing seasonal fruit, and peaches are amazing right now. i really wanted to bake something to go along with with the ice cream and the girl found these tuiles while flipping through the book.

they are virtually idiot-proof. the recipe calls for pure maple syrup, and while i don’t think the syrup that comes out of a giant log cabin shaped bottle is pure, the finished product was incredibly delicious and paired up well with the honey in the ice cream. my advice while baking is to stay on the conservative end of the 5-7 minute span. my first batch burned literally in a matter of seconds. that said, once they come out the oven, these little guys are fun to mold. you can wrap them around anything and they’ll harden in seconds. and although they look brittle, the taste is buttery and rich. now to experiment with new ice cream flavors. i definitely see basil ice cream in our immediate future…