Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake

It's that time of year again...Shana Tova, or Happy New Year. Last year I made a traditional challah to celebrate the Jewish new year with my family but this year I wanted to do something different. I still wanted to bake something with apples because it is customary to eat apples on Rosh Hashanah and I found a highly rated recipe for an apple cake on allrecipes.com. It was especially appealing to me because it had so many positive reviews and a lot of people commented on how the cake tasted better with age, meaning I could make it a day ahead and serve it the next day knowing it would taste great.

The recipe was quite easy to follow but it was challenging to know how long to bake the cake for because so many of the reviews gave differing opinions. Some commented that the time called for in the recipe was too short, others claimed it was too long and their cake burnt. I think part of the problem was the fact that the cake bakes in a bundt pan and it's very hard to judge when the inside has truly baked through. I used a long wooden kebab skewer as I would a toothpick and that allowed me to poke down all the way through to the bottom of the cake. In the end I actually ended up baking the cake for exactly the time listed in the recipe, though I was watching it like a hawk for the last fifteen minutes making sure I didn't burn it. In fact, for the last ten minutes I covered it in aluminum foil because I could see the top was already done but the skewer was coming out with batter stuck to it every time I tested the cake.

Interestingly enough, I actually wasn't home when my family ate the cake because I had my first clinical shift at the hospital. I had taken some pictures of the cake before I left, but I really wanted to have some pictures of the sliced cake as well and I left that task to my mother. She was quite nervous that she wouldn't be able to capture the cake in a good way that I would like but I assured her that I trusted her photography and food styling skills. Besides, I'm definitely no expert when it comes to food photography and the only reason why I have gotten better at it is because I have a lot more practice now. Although I like to have a good picture, ultimately the food itself and the taste is most important to me; therefore I try my hardest to take a nice shot but in the end I make do with what I have and edit the pictures to look as good as I can given my photographic and editing abilities. I am proud to say that my mother took many wonderful pictures and the one featured above was one that she took.

My family enjoyed the cake and left me some to try when I got home. It had a very strong apple flavor, which is to be expected considering I used four whole apples in the cake, but it was a little too sweet for my taste. I used McIntosh apples because that's what we had on hand but I think that in the future I would prefer to use Grannysmith because I like they way they taste when they're baked better than other types of apples. I noticed that the next day the cake became softer, especially around the bottom where the majority of the apple chunks were concentrated. I'm not sure which texture I liked better but overall I think it was a successful cake. I particularly loved how regal it looked coming out of the bundt pan and I'm going to try and use the bundt pan more often in the future.

Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake
Note: Baking time may vary. Personally, I found 70 minutes to be just right, with the last 10 minutes spent covered, but other reviewers have claimed the time too long or to short. I would start to check on it every 5 minutes around the 45 minute mark in order to make sure it doesn't burn but does get baked through.

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil (can substitute apple sauce like I did)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
• 2 tsp cinnamon



Another picture taken by my mother.

• 5 tsp sugar

1. Combine the apple chunks with the cinnamon and sugar and mix well until all of the apples are evenly coated. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.
3. Mix in the oil (or applesauce if using), eggs, orange juice, and vanilla. The batter will be quite thick.
4. Butter and flour a 10" tube or bundt pan. Alternatively, spray with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Alternate pouring in the batter and topping with apple chunks. You should have three layers of batter and two layers of apples, starting with the batter. Pour the juice from the apple mixture on top of the last layer of batter and lightly spread around.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 70 minutes. To test the doneness of the cake, poke with a long skewer or use a butter knife to reach the deepest parts. Bake until the skewer or knife comes out clean. 
7. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan. To remove, shake the pan back and forth until the cake starts to loosen in the pan then carefully invert it onto a plate. Top with some powdered sugar if desired.
   

Cookies and Cream Cookies

Last Friday it was my friend's birthday so I decided to bake her some cookies and bring them with me to school. I set out on Thursday evening to bake these cookies and cream cookies which my brother had been asking me to make for quite some time. The cookies are kind of like chocolate chip cookies, except instead of using chocolate chips there are Oreo bits mixed in. Since we don't normally have Oreo cookies at my house I made the special effort to go to the store and buy some, pleasantly surprised to find they were on sale.

Of course no good deed goes unpunished, or at least in my case without some hiccups. As I was preparing the cookies I happened to be on hold with our cable TV provider due to some problems we were having with our receiver. I left the phone on speaker and carried on about my business, occasionally pausing to listen closely and see if the "on hold music" had stopped without my noticing. I had already been on hold for an hour and a half by the time I put the cookies in the oven. As with most cookies, these ones do not take a long time to bake and I had to rotate the trays halfway through. And that's when it happened...I opened the oven door only to have the handle fall off on one side. At the same time I could tell that I had finally been taken off hold as the phone started eliciting a person's voice saying "Hello, hello?". Frantically I started to yell at the phone while still holding the oven door, trying to make sure that the customer service agent didn't hang up on me and that the oven handle didn't fall off entirely. Acting fast I yelled at my brother to fetch my mom so that she could take over with the oven and I could attend to the phone.

In the end, my mother fixed the oven door and I managed to schedule and appointment for a service technician to come next week and check out our receiver. Somehow, despite the craziness, I still managed to bake the cookies and didn't have to start the process over with a new batch. I'm not going to lie...the cookies weren't the best I've ever made. The taste of the Oreos was quite prominent but other than that they were just regular cookies. However the conditions under which they were prepared were quite amusing and entertaining. I think that a year ago, maybe even a few months ago, I would have found the situation completely frustrating but now I can recognize how hilarious the situation was and just smile and laugh as I recount the story.

Cookies and Cream Cookies
Makes about 30 cookies.

• 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter, room temperature
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 12 Oreos, broken into small pieces

1. Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy using a mixer on medium speed.
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet until just combined.
5. Gently fold in the Oreo pieces. Shape the dough into small balls, about 1-2" in diameter and place on a ungreased baking tray spaced 1-2" apart.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes until the edges just start to brown. If using multiple baking trays, rotate halfway through to ensure even baking. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Raspberry Lemon Bars

After making my white chocolate and raspberry swirl cheesecake last week, to amazing reviews I might add, I had raspberries left over and wanted to use them up. I had seen a recipe for raspberry lemon bars on my favorite food blog Annie's Eats back in August and had made a mental note to try it out at some point in the near future. Looking at my fridge I saw that I had all the right ingredients and knew that the time had come.

I was a little hesitant to make the full recipe because it called for a lot of eggs...six egg whites and two whole eggs to be precise. Instead I opted to make half and see if everyone liked it enough for me to make an entire batch next time. I must have some sort of secret psychic powers unbeknownst to me   because as I started to make the filling, with the dough already in the oven, I realized that I was one egg short. Of course for the half batch this didn't make too much of a difference, I just used a whole egg in place of two egg whites, but if I had been making an entire batch this would have definitely been a bigger problem.

Luckily I don't think the egg swap I made altered the taste in any way because the bars tasted delicious. I must admit it was quite a lengthy process to make them considering that the raspberries had to be strained to remove the seeds and I had to squeeze a lot of lemons to get enough lemon juice. But all that hard work was definitely worth it! The lemon really stood out and gave the bars a nice, tart flavor which coupled well with the buttery crust. My grandpa especially loved the bars and, much to my brother's disappointment, kept the couple of extra pieces that remained. I can't say that the raspberry flavor was too strong, in fact it was quite mild, but it made the bars a beautiful rose color which was quite pleasing to the eye. Seeing how much everyone loved the bars I will be sure to bake a full batch next time. I guess I'll just have to make my creme brulees as well to use up all those egg yolks I'll be left with.

Raspberry Lemon Bars
Note: These proportions reflect the full recipe. To halve it, bake in an 8" x 8" baking pan with a slightly reduced baking time.

For the crust:

• 1 cup (16 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the raspberry lemon filling:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 3 tbsp lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 cups frozen raspberries, thawed
• 6 large egg whites
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. To prepare the crust, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth. 
2. Lower the speed and mix in the flour and salt until just incorporated. The dough will be crumbly but you can work it into a uniform dough using your hands.
3. Press the dough in an even layer into the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking pan lined with parchment or wax paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the crust is a light golden brown.
4. While the crust is baking, combine the sugar, flour, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to blend.
5. Heat the raspberries in a small saucepan over low heat until they break apart then press through a fine mesh sieve to remove all the seeds. Set the raspberry puree aside.
6. Add the egg whites and whole eggs to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk well to incorporate. 
7. Whisk in the raspberry puree and lemon juice until the mixture is completely smooth. It will be quite liquidy in consistency.
8. Pour the filling over the crust and bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the center is just set and no longer jiggles when gently shaken.
9. Cool to room temperature then cover and chill well in the refrigerator for at least two hours. 
10. To serve, use the parchment paper to lift the bars from the pan and slice into bars. Dust the tops with a little bit of powdered sugar if desired.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Looking back over my posts, I can't believe that I haven't baked a cheesecake since the beginning of July, when I made a lime cheesecake with blackberry sauce for my grandfather's birthday. Granted, I have baked plenty of other goodies since then but no cheesecakes, something I used to bake quite often when I first started out in the kitchen. Luckily, this week we celebrated another birthday in the family and I took my chance to create a new cheesecake for the event.

I decided to pair white chocolate with raspberries, creating one batter base and then dividing it in half and mixing in the separate flavors. Since I'm always looking to create not only new flavors but new designs as well, I decided to try a swirl design. I have been to many a restaurant and seen cheesecake served with an interesting swirl on top. Curious, I looked up how to create the swirl and found out that the technique is actually quite easy. The basic concept is to place several polka dots of whatever you want to swirl in on the top of the cake and then use a toothpick or knife to drag it through. This creates a swirl design, so long as you don't mix it around too much. Unfortunately, I think I placed too many polka dots because once the cake went into the oven my swirls kind of blended together and disappeared from the middle. However the edge still showed the design and even though the cheesecake cracked, it actually contributed to the look of the cake.

As for the taste...it was divine! The cake turned out velvety smooth and the white chocolate balanced the slight tartness of the raspberries perfectly. Normally when I bake cheesecakes, or any cakes for that matter, I use a large pan because of the size of my family. Still, there are usually plenty of leftovers because in today's diet conscious world no one wants to take too big of a slice. This time there was no such problem; everyone wanted big pieces and even couples who often share a slice each took their own instead. I think my brother was most disappointed because he always loves having the leftovers of my cakes for several days afterward but this time there was only one piece left. I am so happy that I came up with such a winning combination and hopefully, with more practice, I'll be able to master the technique of swirling in the near future.

Update: I recently made this cake again for my mom's birthday, as per her request. However this time I made a design of concentric circles with hearts instead of the swirl and it looked very nice. To achieve this, I made little dots on the top of the cake with the raspberry sauce going around in a circle. I repeated this until I had several circles and then I used a toothpick and dragged it through the center of each dot along the circle, not lifting the toothpick until I completed the circle. In the end it created little tails that resembled hearts going around the surface of the cake.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

For the crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and then transfer to an 11" springform pan. Gently press down all along the bottom and sides and then bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

For the cheesecake:

• 2 lbs (4 blocks) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 100 grams white chocolate, melted
• 2 cups frozen raspberries, thawed
• 1 tbsp sugar

1. To create the raspberry sauce, combine the thawed raspberries with the tablespoon of sugar in a small saucepan over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium once the mixture starts to boil and continue to heat until the raspberries break down completely. 
2. Strain the seeds out of the sauce using a fine mesh sieve and set it aside to cool. Reserve about 1/8 cup of the sauce for the swirl at the end.
3. Beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed for about a minute, until smooth.
4. Beat in the cup of sugar and then the eggs, one at a time, at low speed. Scape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
5. Beat in the sour cream and then the vanilla and zest and mix on medium speed until everything is well incorporated.
6. Split the batter in half. To one half, add the melted white chocolate and mix well to fully incorporate. To the other half, add the raspberry sauce and mix well to combine.
7. Pour the raspberry batter into the cooled springform pan, making sure it doesn't reach over halfway up the sides. Place the pan in the freezer for about 10 minutes, allowing the raspberry layer to firm up a little before pouring the white chocolate layer on top.
8. Pour the white chocolate layer on top of the raspberry. Then, using the reserved raspberry sauce, dot a ½ teaspoon of the sauce in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Make sure not to create too many dots otherwise they will blend together in the oven. Use a toothpick or a knife to lightly swirl and create a marbled effect.
9. Bake the cheesecake in a water bath, or with a pan of hot water on the lowest rack, for 50 minutes at 325 Fahrenheit.
10. Without opening the oven door, turn off the oven and let the cake sit there for another 1-1/2 hours before removing. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate at least 4 hours, though preferably overnight, before serving.

Sesame Seared Tuna

My parents are currently on vacation in beautiful Maui, Hawaii which means that the cooking has fallen solely on my shoulders. Granted I have had a pretty busy week getting ready to return to school and also studying for an exam I have to take soon. As such, I have been preparing meals throughout the week using products I purchased before my parents left, but I haven't had time to restock the fridge with more groceries. According to my brother, he believes we can fit the entire contents of our refrigerator onto one shelf. I can say for certain that we have not been starving, I am simply choosing to use ingredients which we already possess in our fridge and pantry and am not restocking them...therefore giving off the appearance that the food in our house is dwindling.

Last night I had an idea to make a chicken stir-fry with some vegetables and rice noodles for lunch today, and took what I believed to be chicken out of the freezer to thaw. The problem was that I wasn't 100% sure that the contents of the freezer bag were in fact chicken because, although it looked kind of pink in color, I also thought I saw a scale which would indicate fish. I decided to wait until morning to find out which protein I had actually thawed but was not too shocked when I realized it was, indeed, fish. Still, I was unsure what type of fish it was while only partially thawed and thought it might be salmon. I decided to prepare my panko crusted salmon and some tortellini to go alongside it. I got the panko mixture ready, sliced the onions and placed them in the pan, but as I went to retrieve the fish from the freezer bag I was surprised to find tuna, not salmon.

Since I have never cooked tuna before I was a little dumbstruck as to what to do with it. I quickly went to my favorite food website tastespotting.com and typed in "tuna" to see what types of dishes commonly use tuna and how to prepare it. Immediately there were many pictures of tuna salads and seared tuna. Tuna salads use tuna flakes, usually from a can, but seared tuna comes from tuna steaks, which is what I had downstairs in my kitchen. I read through a couple of different posts and realized that seared tuna is actually quite simple and easy to make. Not wanting to waste the panko mixture I had already prepared, I crusted half of the tuna steaks with it and the other half in the more traditional sesame seed coating.

I was a little nervous at the prospect of searing the tuna in a way that would not leave it too raw but at the same time would still have some pink in the middle, like the way they do it in restaurants. My brother avidly watched as I cooked the tuna and even gave me some plating suggestions for my "photo shoot". Once we sat down to eat it we both thought it was great and I had successfully achieved the restaurant experience. Next time I might go a step further and prepare a nice, green salad of arugula and spinach and put the seared tuna on top. However it was good on its own and even better when dipped in a little soy sauce.

Sesame Seared Tuna

• 1 large tuna steak
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• Olive oil
• Salt

1. Put the tuna steak on a cutting board and pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut it into equal sized logs. Depending on how big your steak is this could yield anywhere from 4-8 logs (1/2 lb to 1 lb steak). Each log should be about 2-3 fingers in width, but length doesn't matter.
2. In a wide, shallow bowl combine the sesame seeds with some salt and mix well for even distribution.
3. Place the tuna logs into the bowl and roll around in the sesame seeds to coat evenly.
4. In a large non-stick skillet, heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. 
5. Once hot, reduce the heat to medium-high and place the tuna into the pan. Depending on the thickness of the cut, and how rare you want the tuna to be, sear each side for 40 seconds to a minute. Don't go longer than two minutes per side otherwise the tuna will be too dry. 
6. Remove the logs from the pan and slice the log into pieces about 1 cm wide. Plate over a salad or enjoy with some wasabi, soy sauce, or teriyaki sauce for dipping.

Tip: It's easiest to use tongs to flip the pieces and ensure that all sides get an even sear.

Ratatouille

So apparently the amount of time I spend in the kitchen is either inversely or directly proportional to the amount of studying I have to do...the problem is that I can't quite figure out which is true. I find that when I have to study a lot I either have absolutely no time or energy for cooking, therefore resulting in an inverse relationship, or I find myself retreating to the kitchen to bake and take a break from studying, producing a direct correlation. Based on the amount of food I have recently cooked and baked I would say that this time, my studying vs. cooking has produced a direct, linearly proportional relationship. Although this may not be good for my studying, I don't think my faithful food testers mind.

I had actually come across recipes for ratatouille many months ago and had been meaning to make it but somehow it had slipped through the cracks until last week, when I saw some beautiful yellow zucchini at the market and was instantly reminded of my desire to make this dish. There are many different versions of ratatouille, ranging from stews to terrines to tarts. I made mine loosely based on Thomas Keller's Confit Byaldi, which he carefully explains how to make in one of the DVD extras of the Pixar movie Ratatouille. I say loosely based because I took my own liberties with the ingredients I used in the piperade, the tomato and pepper layer that comprises the main substance of the dish. Also, because I am slightly impatient and do not have many consecutive hours to spend in the kitchen I split my work over two days; I made the piperade the night before and then the next day I layered the sliced vegetables and baked it.

While I was preparing the piperade the night before, it was extremely difficult not to eat it up as soon as I made it because it smelled delicious and the tiny sample I tasted was amazing. The thyme and parsley leaves gave it a great flavor, reminiscent of Greek food though ratatouille is actually a French dish, and the roasted pepper was very smooth and sweet tasting. I think that in the future I might just even make the piperade as its own dish and skip the vegetable slices on top if I don't have the time to wait for the ratatouille to bake.

I was fortunate enough to have a new palette tasting my cooking as my friend came over for dinner. We are both entering the nursing program at University of British Columbia this fall, or rather in one week, and today was our first day of orientation. After spending the day being bombarded with information it was nice to come home and get back in the kitchen...my happy place and domain of relaxation. My friend said she greatly enjoyed dinner and I loved being able to share my cooking with her as she is usually only privy to sampling my baking. Now that she has moved to Vancouver and lives so close to me I hope that we can have dinners together more often and she will get to sample even more of my cooking, as well as my baking of course.

Ratatouille

For the Piperade:

• 2 large red bell peppers, seeds and ribs removed
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-5 large button mushrooms, chopped
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 1-2 small bay leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil

1. Cut the bell peppers in half and place, cut side down, on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray.
2. Bake the peppers at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, until the skins become charred. Remove from the oven and allow the peppers to cool before gently peeling off the skins and slicing the peppers.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium heat and then add the onion and cook until translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Make sure to keep stirring so that the pieces do not brown. 
4. Add the garlic and saute for another minute before proceeding to add the mushrooms. Continue to cook until the mushrooms turn brown, about another 5 minutes.
5. Add the crushed tomatoes, thyme, parsley flakes, and bay leaves and mix well to incorporate all of the ingredients. Reduce the heat to low and allow the mixture to simmer for 15-20 minutes, giving it an occasional stir. 
6. In the last five minutes, add the sliced bell peppers and stir well to incorporate. Season with salt and pepper accordingly. Once finished, remove from the heat and set aside to allow the piperade to cool and thicken.

For the Ratatouille:

• Piperade from above
• 1 Japanese eggplant (the long, skinny kind)
• 1 long zucchini
• 1 long yellow zucchini (also called Summer squash)
• Note: It helps if all of the vegetables are roughly the same size in diameter

1. Slice each of the vegetables into extremely thin slices, about 1/16" thick. The easiest way to ensure uniform slices is to use a mandolin or the slice disk on a food processor...I used the latter and had all of my vegetables sliced in 5 minutes.
2. Spread the piperade in the bottom of a 9" pie plate, reserving the juices for the top of the ratatouille.
3. Arrange the vegetables in a concentric circle on top, alternating slices and overlapping them so that about 1/4" peaks out. Repeat until the entire pan is covered and no piperade is visible. Note: you may not have to use all of the vegetable slices up to achieve this.
4. Drizzle the piperade juices over the top of the vegetable slices and cover the pan with aluminum foil.
5. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour, or until the vegetables on top are tender. In the last 15 minutes, uncover the pan and allow the top to crisp up a little.