RUSTIC PLUM TART

This is adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe, and Morgan and her 11 year old frend Alexander made it pretty much all by themselves, with a minimum of hovering by us moms. Be sure to taste the plums and adjust sugar accordingly – i.e., tart plums, use more sugar, sweet plums, use less

Crust
1 ¼ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter
ice water

Topping
1 ½ lbs. plums, halved, pitted and sliced
3 – 6 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg, beaten (or egg whites, or milk, or cream0 for glaze

Sitting atop its waxed paper wrapper, cut butter into ¼ inch cubes. Put in freezer while you get things organized. Blend flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse in until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and blend until moist clumps form. Add more water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Gather dough into a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss plums with 3 – 4 tablespoons sugar, ginger and cinnamon (or if you forget to do this, sprinkle it on later as the kids did – still came out good). Taste and adjust sugar. Roll out dough on parchment a to 12 – 13 inch round. Transfer to a baking sheet. Arrange plums beautifully, or randomly, on dough, leaving a 2 inch border. Drizzle with melted butter. Fold edges of dough in toward center, pleating as necessary. Brush with glaze, sprinkle with a bit more sugar. Bake until crust is golden and plums are bubbly and tender, about 45 minutes.

LEMON BREAD

Heavily adapted from a recipe on Epicurious. For all you neighbors who give me lemons…

3 – 4 lemons, zested and then juiced
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
¼ cup vanilla yogurt

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease one loaf or four mini loaf pans
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add lemon zest, ¼ cup juice and yogurt. Mix in dry ingredients. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake until tester inserted into center of bread comes out clean, about 1 hour for one loaf, 30 minutes for mini loaves.
Meanwhile, whisk together remaining juice, about ½ cup and confectioners sugar to make glaze.
Transfer lemon bread to rack. Poke holes in the crust with a skewer. Gradually spoon lemon glaze over hot bread, adding more as glaze is absorbed. Cool lemon bread completely in pan on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Turn bread out onto rack. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature.)

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE PIE WITH CORNMEAL CRUST

I’m pretty sure I found this on Epicurious, but it’s been awhile. I made this for Thanksgiving years ago and it is my favorite pumpkin pie ever. I make it pretty close to the original – just sub in some ww flour and roast my own pumpkin. This year, we used little sugar pumpkins the girls had markered faces on for Halloween. It felt a bit cannibalistic, but I just shaved off their “faces” and then roasted as usual.
This pie was, thankfully, a great one for teaching egg separation. It took Morgan 3 tries to get a yolk separated successfully, but we were able to use the broken ones for the filling! Save the extra whites for future use as a wash on your tart crust, or for an egg white omelet.

Crust
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup yellow cornmeal (I used blue)
1tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter (put in freezer for 10 minutes), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Filling
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup PUMPKIN PUREE (or canned pumpkin), cooled (can be made ahead)
¾ cup half and half
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt

Whisk 3 tablespoons ice water and egg yolk in a small bowl to blend. Mix flours, yellow cornmeal, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add chilled butter. Process only until mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle egg yolk mixture over it. Pulse until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball. Flatten dough into disk; wrap disk in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to a 12-inch round. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Invert dough, paper side up, into 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Remove waxed paper from dough. Crimp dough edges decoratively.

Using an electric mixer, beat 6 ounces cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and egg yolk.. Add remaining ingredients and beat until well blended. Pour filling into prepared crust.
Bake pie until filling is slightly puffed and just set in center, about 55 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. Cover pie and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep pie refrigerated.) Serve pie cold, with HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM if feeling decadent.

RUSTIC PEAR AND APPLE TART

I adapted this from a Bon Appetit recipe. None of the reviewers much liked the mace they called for (and I didn’t have it) so I subbed other spices. Plus it called for lemon zest; I subbed orange as that’s what I had. Also reduced the sugar a lot and doubled the filling in the apples and used whole wheat pastry flour. Excellent crust! Everyone loved this – the textures of the apples and pears came out just right – not too mushy, just toothy enough.

1 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 tablespoons sugar
zest of one orange or lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 stick cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg, separated
2 tablespoons ice water

1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
4 tart apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
2 pears, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
4 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup chilled whipping cream
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar or maple syrup, to taste

Mix flour, sugar, zest, salt and allspice in a food processor. Add butter and cut in using on/off turns until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix egg yolk and water in small bowl. Add to processor and mix in using on/off turns until large moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in waxed paper and freeze 10 minutes.
Roll out dough, on top of a sheet of parchment paper, with waxed paper on top, to a 13-inch round. Refrigerate until filling is ready.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Combine apples and pears in a large bowl. Mix sugar, grated zest and cinnamon in a small bowl. Toss half of sugar mixture with apples and pears. Finely chop slivered almonds in processor. Spread almonds on bottom of crust.
Slide parchment with dough onto a baking sheet. Peel off the waxed paper. Pile fruit onto crust, leaving a two inch border. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture over fruit. Dot with 1 1/2 tablespoons butter. Fold border of crust up and over, pleating and crimping as necessary. The center will remain exposed. Brush crust with reserved beaten egg white.
Bake until the crust is brown and filling bubbles, about 50 minutes.
Just before serving, beat cream and sugar in a large bowl until medium-stiff peaks form. (Can be prepared 4 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)
Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.

PECAN OATMEAL COOKIES

Adapted from “Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics”. The first time my kids have liked oatmeal cookies – and these are very oatmeal-ey. Almost like a granola bar. Hers calls for raisins, which the kids really really don’t like. Although I think they’d be good with raisins, this was a more unique cookie without them. I reduced the sugar quite a bit.

1 ½ cups pecan pieces
2 sticks butter at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour
½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt (kosher or sea)
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 ½ cups raisins, if using

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes, until crisp, but not over-browned. Set aside to cool.

Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla, one at a time.

Whisk dry ingredients, except oats and raisins, together in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients into butter mixture in a few stages, mixing on low. Stir in the oats, pecans (and raisins if using) just until combined.

Using a small ice cream scoop, drop 2 inch mounds of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until lightly browned (they dry out if you over bake.) Transfer to a baking rack to cool.

PUMPKIN PIE

This one is adapted from a recipe I found on the bottom of a pumpkin at TJ’s. I think there will be an alternative recipe – this was really yummy, Audrey loved it!!!! But I want to try one without the sweetened condensed milk.

2 eggs
1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 1/3 cups PUMPKIN PUREE
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cloves

Hink: the pumpkin cooking and the crust making and then chilling take about the same amount of time – but you can get stuff done in between.

Whisk together all filling ingredients until smooth. Roll out and fill a 9“ pie pan with HOMEMADE PIE CRUST. Pour filling into crust. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, until filling is puffed and almost, but not quite, completely set. Cool completely and serve with homemade whipped cream. Or eat with out it for breakfast.

BOUDIN BAKERY BROWNIES

This is adapted from the LA Times’ adaptation of the above bakery’s recipe. I cut the sugar down a bit - 3 cups just seemed ridiculous. Its actually a nice variation on the typical chocolate brownie: rich but not overpoweringly and nicely moist and fudgey. The firefighters at our annual Block Party loved them!

2 sticks butter
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
5 eggs
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups toasted, chopped pecans or walnuts

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish.

In a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the melted chocolate, then the salt and flour just until combined. Gently fold in the nuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven until puffed and almost set, about 45 minutes. A toothpick inserted will be slightly moist. The color is a pale brown – don’t overcook! Cool before cutting.

RUSTIC RASPBERRY TART

from Karen Barker’s SWEET STUFF. I made this pretty much as written, except that I used half the sugar, and I didn’t have graham crackers, so I used ginger wafer cookiess from TJ’s in their stead. It was amazing. Good for breakfast, too.

CINNAMON GRAHAM PASTRY

6 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons graham cracker crumbs
3 cups fresh raspberries
1 ½ Tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
cream for brushing

Preheat oven to 400. Only a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into a 12” round, about 1/8” thick. Ease it over to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Sprinkle the surface of the dough with about 2 Tablespoons sugar. Sprinkle graham cracker (or cookie) crumbs over the sugar and arrange the raspberries on top, leaving a 1 ½ “ border around the perimeter. Dot the berries with butter and sprinkle with an additional 2 Tablespoons sugar.

Fold the edges of the dough up over the filling, pleating and lightly pressing the edges together. The center will be open. Brush the edges of the pastry with cream and sprinkle with remaining 1 – 2 Tablespoons sugar. Bake at 400 for about 35 minutes, until pastry edges are brown and berry juices are bubbly. Cool slightly or serve at room temperature, with fresh whipped cream, or ice cream, of course.

CINNAMON GRAHAM PASTRY

This is also from Karen Barker’s SWEET STUFF and as she actually used whole wheat flour and not too much sugar, I made it as is! To be used for rustic pies or tarts of all sizes. This makes enough for one large tart.

1 cup flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
12 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 ½ tablespoons ice cold water

Combine the flours, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a food processor with the steel blade. Pulse to blend. Add the butter and pulse in, until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the water and pulse briefly to blend. The dough should come together when you pinch it, but don’t over process.

Remove the dough from the processor and gather into a flat round (I had to knead a little bit here to get it to be a nice ball and not flaking apart.) Wrap in plastic and chill for a few hours or overnight. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before rolling out (this is where you get your good upper body workout!).

OATMEAL PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

Based on a Gourmet March 1996 recipe, I reduced the sugar, did my usual flour sub and didn’t use as much chocolate. These are very satisfying, nicely crun-chewy and a nice variation on regular old chocolate chip. I think they would be good with raisins, too, but my kids hate dried fruit.

1 ½ cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
¾ cup peanut butter (ish – hard to measure so I guessed)
2 large eggs
1 cup dark chocolate chunks (or whatever)

In a food processor pulse 1 cup of the oats until ground pretty fine (this seems like a pain, but reading reviews and then doing it myself, I think it does make a difference in texture). In a large bowl, stir together all oats, flours, baking powder and soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, then mix in peanut butter and vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then add in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks. You are supposed to chill for 2 hours at this point, but I made one batch pre- and one post-chill (because I had impatient play date children) and I could not tell a difference.

Plop onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I love my cookie dough scooper now) and bake for 12 – 15 minutes (depending on how crunchy you want them) at 350 degrees.

NOT-QUITE-AS-HEART-STOPPING-AS-THE-FARM BROWNIES

Gourmet just calls these Deep Chocolate Brownies, but those of you who know me well, know what I’m talking about. The CHOCOLATE BROWNIE recipe elsewhere in this blog is out of this world but just a bit too much for every day brownie enjoyment. I’ve been looking for an alternative, and this one fits the bill. Easy, too – so stop using those mixes! The original recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, but the unsweetened baking chocolate worked fine (if you use bittersweet, decrease the sugar for sure). As a fun alternative, push some fresh raspberries into the batter after you’ve poured it into the pan. yum.

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
8 ounces fine-quality unsweetened chocolate, broken into pieces
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 large eggs
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a simmer. (or the bottom of a double boiler) Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl resting over the simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into the chocolate mixture and stir until combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 – 45 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

MOLASSES GINGER COOKIES

This I adapted from an LA Times recipe, adapted from the Model Bakery’s recipe. The girls loved forming the balls and rolling them in the sugar, and liked them better than other ginger snaps because they had a good balance of crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.


2 sticks butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 cup turbinado,coarse or sanding sugar, more as needed

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until each is incorporated. Add in the molasses and vanilla.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger.

Add the dry ingredients, a little at a time, until fully incorporated to form a dough. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. (or overnight)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough into small balls, then roll them in your hands until smooth. Roll each ball in the coarse sugar, then place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie.

Bake the cookies until set, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool the cookies, then store in an airtight container.

BANANA MUFFINS OR BREAD

This came from a few different recipes on Epicurious, and I made my usual changes. I have resisted putting something with bananas on the site as I don’t think there is a place in the US where bananas are local produce, but, sometimes, you know, your husband buys bananas and nobody eats them and they get brown and really chocolate chip banana bread is the best course of action in that situation.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda (1/2 teaspoon if using buttermilk)
2 large eggs
½ cup whole milk, low fat milk or buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar (I use a combo of granulated, brown and/or honey)
1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (3 – 5 bananas)

1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped (optional)
½ cup mini-chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a loaf pan, or muffin tins. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. In a larger bowl, beat eggs, then beat in milk, vanilla, oil and eggs. Add bananas and mix in well. Pour wet mixture over dry and stir until just blended. Fold in nuts and/or chocolate if using. Transfer to prepared pan or muffin tins.

Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean: 25 - 30 minutes for muffins, 60 – 70 minutes for a loaf. Cool 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

BERRY GOOD PIE

Oh, I loved this pie. Even without ice cream. Adapted mostly from a recipe in SIMPLY ORGANIC, but I used one third the sugar and I thought it was perfect. The sugar just served to heighten the berry taste, rather than overwhelm it.

3 pints fresh blueberries, blackberries and/or raspberries
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons tapioca or flour or cornstarch
zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

ALL-BUTTER PIE CRUST
2 tablespoons cream or 1 egg, beaten
coarse sugar for sprinkling

Roll out one disk of dough and fill pie plate with pastry. Chill while preparing filling. Combine first five filling ingredients in a bowl well, tossing gently.

Spoon the filling into the crust. Roll out other disk and place on top, crimping edges. Cut vents into top crust. Brush with cream or egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 350 for about one hour, until crust is golden and filling is bubbling. Cool 30 minutes.

ALL-BUTTER PIE CRUST

This is adapted from the July 09 Gourmet magazine. I subbed the whole wheat pastry flour. Unfortunately, Gourmet doesn't include the pictures from the magazine article online. Someday I will add my own when I figure that out, but the key for me in using the food processor was to pulse only minimally after adding the flour. It should still look like coarse meal (not a ball of dough), just a meal that holds together when you squeeze a small handful together. This way, using the processor actually helps keep the dough cool and avoids over-working it.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp sugar
¾ tsp salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
1/3 cup plus ice water

Pulse dry ingredients in the food processor. Pulse in butter just until most of the mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle 1/3 cup ice wather over mixture and pulse until incorporated.
Squeeze a small handful of dough – if it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water 1 Tb at a time, pulsing until just incorporated, and test again. Do not overwork.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 portions. Smear each portion once or twice with the heel of the hand to help distribute fat. Gather dough together into two disks. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 – 24 hours. Let stand 20 minutes before rolling out.

GINGER PECAN LEMON BARS

I tried these because the lemon bars I’ve made in the past just had a scary amount of sugar in them. These still have a goodly amount, but they are more interesting and I got A LOT of good feedback on them when we brought them to our piano recital.

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup finely chopped pecans
1/8 - ¼ cup finely chopped candied ginger
1 ½ sticks chilled butter

1 ½ cups sugar
3 tablespoons unbleached flour
pinch salt
4 eggs
zest of 4 lemons
¾ cup lemon juice
¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Crust: Sift together flours, confectioner’s sugar and salt. Add pecans and ginger. Cut butter in until it resembles a coarse meal (or just put dry ingredients in a food processor and then pulse in butter). Scrape into prepared baking dish, spread out and press down well. Bake 20 minutes, until lightly golden.

Topping: Combine sugar, flour and salt in a bowl. Mix in eggs, then stir in zest, lemon juice, milk.

Pour topping mixture over the hot crust. Bake 20 minutes, until topping is just set.

Cool completely and cut to serve. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

PEACH BERRY COBBLER

Peaches are already so gorgeous here and although my friend Catherine made us a peach blueberry pie this week, I hadn’t had enough so had to make a cobbler for dinner with my parents. I used Karen Barker’s (“Sweet Stuff”) recipe as a jumping off point – basically used her biscuits – but improvised my own fruit. It was AMAZING with vanilla ice cream and even left over by itself eaten out of the dish.

5 – 6 peaches (about 2 ½ lbs.)
1 – 2 pints blueberries, blackberries and/or raspberries
½ cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
few shakes nutmeg
3 tablespoons flour
zest of one lemon

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 ½ teaspoons sugar
5 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into pieces
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 2 quart baking dish.
Prepare filling: peel peaches and cut into bite-sized pieces. Wash berries well. Toss fruit with next five ingredients and pour into baking dish.

Prepare biscuit topping: whisk together dry ingredients. Cut butter into the mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. Stir in enough milk to form a moist but not too sticky dough. Knead briefly on a floured surface. Roll out to about ½ “ thick and cut into biscuits.

Place biscuits on top of filling. Brush with a bit of milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until fruit juices are bubbling and biscuits are brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

ORANGE FLAVORED SHORTCAKES WITH STRAWBERRIES

This is adapted from a recipe in the LA Times. It included hard boiled egg yolks which I just couldn’t bring myself to add, and sugar dusted on top, which I forgot. We all loved them very very much this way.

2 cups flour (half whole wheat)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
zest of one large orange
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream, plus extra for brushing

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor bowl, pulse together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold cubed butter and the egg yolks and pulse together just until the mixture has the texture of lightly moistened cornmeal. There may be a few pea-sized chunks of butter remaining; that's fine. Pour over 3/4 cup heavy cream and then pulse 4 to 6 times just to moisten the dough. Do not over mix or the dough will be tough. (I did this all by hand, to give the kids a chance to work with the pastry cutter, but they found it very difficult.) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gather into a shaggy mass. Knead 3 to 4 times to make it cohesive and then pat into a rough circle 6 to 7 inches in diameter and a fairly consistent 3/4 to 1 inch in thickness. Using a sharp knife, cut the circle into 6 wedges. Brush the tops very lightly with heavy cream (there should be enough left in the measuring cup). Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake until risen and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Turn the pan around halfway through to ensure even cooking. Remove to a cooling rack.

Strawberries and assembly
3 pints strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice

HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM

While the shortcakes are baking, toss the strawberries, sugar and orange juice together in a bowl. Let stand several minutes. (If the strawberries are extremely firm, do this 30 minutes in advance.) Split the shortcakes in half horizontally and set the tops aside. Place the bottoms on dessert plates and heap strawberries over them. Spoon whipped cream generously over the strawberries and replace the shortcake tops. Serve immediately with any remaining whipped cream on the side.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

I got this recipe from Gourmet years ago, who published it when someone asked for The Farm of Beverly Hills (and the Grove)’s recipe for brownies. I make them only for special occasions or as gifts because they are really really rich. The comment I get most often is, “I thought I had the best brownie recipe, but...” My kids of course love these, but I don't keep them in the house because they have too much caffeine! Good ingredients are important, and make sure you let them sit at least 2 hours before cutting or you’ll just have a big mess. Otherwise, its an easy as pie recipe (way easier, actually).

3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces
12 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
6 large eggs
1 1/4 cups cake or pastry flour (not self-rising)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 13- by 9- by 2-inch metal baking pan, knocking out excess flour. Melt butter with chocolate in a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from pan and whisk in eggs, 1 at a time. Sift together flour and cocoa powder in a separate bowl and stir into batter with sugar and salt. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven until top is firm and a tester inserted into center comes out with crumbs adhering, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hours, before cutting into 20 squares.

JERRY RIGGED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

This is the traditional Toll House cookie recipe. I have made the flour substitution for years but just last week tried the honey sub to great results. They don’t get crispy, they stay somewhat chewy, and have a light honey flavor.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup almond meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Whisk together first five ingredients. Beat butter and brown sugar together. Beat in honey and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in flour mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. Drop onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 9 – 11 minutes. Cool on racks.