MADE: Flambéed Fruit

As far as I can tell, there are five* driving forces behind my current flambé obsession:

1. It's ridiculously easy.
2. It's delicious.
3. It's impressive to talk about the next day.
4. It involves lighting things on fire.
5. It's an excellent excuse to keep rum in the house at all times.

Also, peaches are in season,** and I'm harboring a rather un-secret obsession with the white peaches at the Market. It should come as no surprise, then, that two weeks or so ago, in a fit of sarcasm-turned-reality, Sambert and I facetiously suggested, hesitatingly agreed upon, and rapidly enacted a peach flambé. We have never looked back.

Ingredients 
3 tbsp butter 
3 tbsp white sugar
1/2 cup sliced stone fruits, peels still on (The flambé pictured uses two small peaches, a nectarine, and two adorable apricots. Variations on this theme are allowed--nay, encouraged!)
Rum, to taste (we've been using about a quarter cup, but a bit more might result in a more successful flame)
Ice cream, preferably vanilla or sweet cream

Equipment
Something with which to light a fire (lighter or gas flame, coupled with a long candle, wooden skewer, or just a long match)

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the sugar and whisk or stir until smooth and combined. Then, add the sliced fruit, spreading it out evenly across the pan. Cook the fruit for one minute on one side, then flip it, and cook for 30 seconds more.

For the flaming part of the flambé, it helps to have two people. One person adds the rum, removing the pan from heat and swirling it to get the alcohol evenly distributed throughout. The other brings the lighter or long match to the alcohol vapors at the edge of the pan, igniting them and (ideally) the rest of the surface of the dish shortly thereafter. Ooh and Aah at the blue flame-yness of it all for a while, and then, once the alcohol vapor has burned itself off and the butter-sugar sauce has thickened slightly, serve the warm, gooey, boozey mess over ice cream. DEVOUR.  

EDIT: Apparently, we would have better flaming results if we warmed the rum in the microwave before adding it to the pan. Looks like we've got more flambéing to do, Sambert! To the...Cookmobile?

*This list has been accumulating a little bit like the Spanish Inquisition. But I'm pretty sure I've got all the reasons now. If not, I'll come in again.

**GAH. AND NICE RED UNIFORMS. 

MADE: Grilled Cheese Grilled Cheese

Sometimes, the internet does something so beautiful, so incandescent, that one has to stop, drop everything, and take part in the splendor.

This is one of those things.

Watch this video. Make this grilled cheese sandwich. Don't think. Don't stop to ask questions like "Why?" or "What have I done to deserve such majesty?" Just do it.

I have just made myself one of these sandwiches.
I am eating it now.
The angels are weeping rainbow tears of joy.

EPIC CROWD PLEASER: Marianne's Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

WARNING: THESE CUPCAKES ARE RIDICULOUS IN A VARIETY OF WAYS. YOU WILL WANT TO EAT THE WHOLE BATCH. DON'T EAT THE WHOLE BATCH.

There. Got that off my chest.

The goddess Marianne once--for no terribly good reason, if I remember correctly--gave me an entire box of these. I ate almost the entire box. Sure, I offered them to my family, but I offered them at different times, so that for each family member who ate a cupcake, I also ate a cupcake. I don't know if you guys know how many family members I have, but let's just say that it came out to me eating a ton of cupcakes.

Then Marianne gave me the recipe. And I saw the amount of butter involved. And I added up the amount of cupcakes I'd eaten in the past 12 hours. One of the worst/best days of my life. Best for my taste buds, worst for my heart (the physical one, that doesn't get along with butter so swell...).

This is why I urge again: Don't make these if you don't have a very specific distribution plan. Otherwise, you will pull the pans out of the oven and then wake up three days later from your sugar coma, face and hands sticky with toffee. And then you'll die of a heart attack. But a happy heart attack.

Marianne-is-a-Wicked-Woman Sticky Toffee Cupcakes


Cupcakes
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (wrapper saved to grease tins)
2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for tins
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brandy
8 oz plump, moist dates, halved and pitted
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature

Toffee Glaze* 
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease the tins of a muffin pan with the butter wrapper (and additional butter, if necessary). Flour greased tins and dump out excess.

Bring water, brandy and dates to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium low; cover and cook until dates are very soft--about five minutes. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Let cool fifteen minutes.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is thoroughly mixed in. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of date-brandy puree, and beating until just combined after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake, rotating the muffin pans halfway through the baking process, until a cake tester in the middle comes out clean--should be about 20 to 25 minutes.

Toward the end of the baking time, make the Toffee Glaze. In a medium saucepan, bring cream, brown sugar, and butter to a boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. (I love that direction.) Cook for three minutes. Stir in brandy and salt, and cook one more minute.

As soon as the cupcakes are removed from the oven, use a toothpick to lift one side of each cupcake so that they are all standing on edge, raised slightly out of the tins. Using your fingertips to lift each cupcake a bit more, spoon two tablespoons of glaze into each cup, then nudge the cupcake back into place. Let cool 10 minutes.

To finish, invert the cupcakes onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet (or just onto a baking sheet, if you don't have a wire rack handy) and spoon two more tablespoons of glaze over each one. Let set for about five minutes (if you can wait that long) and then DEVOUR. But Please--SHARE!

*The Toffee Glaze is AMAZING even on its own--probably has something to do with the fact that it's nothing but brandy, cream, and sugar. Oh, and butter. Any leftover glaze CANNOT be thrown out. Instead, put it on ice cream, toast, scones, a spoon, or anything else that needs a bit more deliciousness.

CURRENT OBSESSION: Apple Cheddar Scones

Woah woah WOAH Woah woah. Upon looking through my old posts to spruce them up with pictures--now that I FINALLY have all the relevant bits of gadgetry necessary to create, transfer, convert, and upload photographic evidence of my foodery--I have discovered that I NEVER MANAGED TO PUT UP THE APPLE CHEDDAR SCONE RECIPE.

Major. Fail.

If you've so much as brushed past my internet presence in the past three months you've probably heard me rave about these scones. If you've been in my actual presence, it's quite possible that I've baked them for you. (Really, it's less generosity and more a realization of the overwhelming guilt that ensues when one consumes an entire batch of scones in one sitting. Not that that's ever happened...)

The amazing Smitten Kitchen introduced me to them, of course, and I made my own little tweaks. SK calls them "October on a parchment-lined baking sheet," but I've been making them since waay past October, and I've never lined my baking sheets with parchment. Both choices have turned out pretty okay for me.*

Apple Cheddar Scones (Will Haunt You Forever)
2 firm apples (I used Galas most of the time, but that's just because they were around), cored, peeled, and chopped into small chunks
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 tbsp cubes
1/2 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Core and peel the apples, then chop them into smallish chunks. The original recipe called for them to be in 1/16ths, but those chunks seemed huge, and just had to be chopped down later. (Also, the smallish chunks cook faster. Bonus when you're really hungry for some sconey goodness.) Spread apple chunks evenly on a baking sheet and bake at the center of the oven for about 15 minutes, until dry to the touch and just beginning to turn goldeny brown. Remove from oven and cool completely, leaving oven on--if you're going to make the scones right away, that is. Turn it off otherwise. Sheesh.

Baked Apple Chunks--Health food, right?

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
With a pastry blender, cut in the cubes of chilled butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat in cream and one egg until just combined. Mix in the shredded cheese as well.

Chop up the apple chunks a bit more until you'd feel comfortable encountering them in a scone, then mix the chunks in as well. You should have a delightful, sticky mess on your hands, just forming a ball. Toss that onto a floured surface and flatten slightly, until you've formed a circle about 1" thick and 8" in diameter. Slice the circle into six wedges--or eight, if you're feeling generous. Place dough wedges onto greased baking sheets, leaving about 2" between them for spreading.
For an egg wash (which is optional, but quite tasty), beat together the remaining egg and a pinch of salt. Spread the mixture over the top of each scone. Sprinkle each washed scone with sugar. Or, if it's Christmas Eve morning, sprinkle them with sugar and Christmas sprinkles! Bake for about 30 minutes, until the scones are nice and golden. Then DEVOUR. Also share. You might as well get as many people to understand the addiction as possible...

If you are keeping them to yourself, though, freezing several of the dough wedges is a good idea--the scones are really best when eaten immediately, and it's great to have scones ready-for-baking in the freezer on a bleary morning...

*In case you're wondering, though, ovens get really angry at you if you try to substitute wax paper for parchment. It wasn't for this recipe--don't worry--but every mention of parchment paper in cooking makes me flash back to that experience. Eeesch, the smell...

CURRENT OBSESSION: Sarah Salad

I'd had variations on this salad before (spinach/feta/fruit/vinaigrette dressing), but the particular specimen that my friend Sarah brought to my potluck a few weeks back captured my stomach and my conscience (a recipe that DOESN'T involve several tablespoons of butter as a base? Novel!).

Sarah Salad:

Bowl full of baby spinach (about 2 cups, loose)

1/5 apple, diced into 1/4-inch chunks (I used Braeburn apples--firm and just a little tart)

1 tbsp. dried cranberries, coarsely chopped*

1 tbsp. pecans, coarsely chopped*

Splash of raspberry vinaigrette dressing

1/2 tbsp. crumbled feta

Toss together first five ingredients. Sprinkle feta over the top. Consume with the smug satisfaction of someone eating delicious healthy food.

*Note: Instead of these two, I've been throwing in a chopped handful of Trader Joe's Rosemary Pecans and Cranberries. Delicious!

Additional, non-asterisked note: The salad is also great with a bit of crumbled bacon, and Sarah recommends diced chicken. Adding meat to a salad, however, nullifies much of my healthy eating smugness, however, which is something I hate to sacrifice.