crackly banana bread

There are a lot of good reasons to make banana bread: You have a pile of sad bananas on top of your fridge that have reached their lifes expectancy. You like things that are unquestionably delicious. Its raining and you need something toasty and cake-like to go with your coffee. Youre into recipes you can make with one bowl, and feed a dozen. Youre going to be wildly busy this fall and are hoping to pack your freezer with all sorts of wonders that that can be warmed up whenever the craving strikes, even if youre not around to enjoy them.

There are very few reasons, however, to reinvent banana bread, even when ones original recipe is just shy of six years old, an eternity in blog years. I mean, is there anything new to add to banana bread? Even if there were, should banana bread be mussed with? The answers are, of course, no but due to a confluence of events and yes, 24-hours-from-fruit-flies bananas were one of them; freezer-packing was another I found myself making an updated banana bread last week and it was so lovely that it deserves a new mention.

A few months ago, my editor asked me if I had a recipe for a whole-grain breakfast-y banana bread and I snapped back BUT YOU SAID THE BOOK WAS DOOOONE. You promised! Just kidding! Kinda. Ahem, what I was actually about to say was, havent you seen my jacked-up banana bread recipe? Its so wonderful because it has And then I looked it up again and guys (gasp!), theres bourbon in there. Youre welcome. But seriously, I may love bourbon enough to argue that it should be a food group but I just cannot pull off a bourbon-spiked cake for breakfast and still make it through the day. (Whiskey in my coffee, however, is apparently no bigs.) And you know, its full of white flour and refined sugar and melted butter and its absolutely, unquestionably wonderful but when it comes to breakfast, I like to pretend that that Im not feeding us cake but something wholesome and that recipe makes it hard to pull off.

And so, I got to fussing. I always do. The white flour became whole-wheat flour. The butter became coconut oil in one batch, olive oil in another. The white sugar became maple syrup. The bourbon took a nap. But then I did something Ive been wanting to do for so long, I wish I hadnt waited because its not going to be the same again without it: I made it crackle.

When we talk about food, we often talk about texture: plush cakes, juicy roasts, caramelized onions that sigh against the walls of a quiche and peaches that melt into butter. But we so rarely talk about the crackle of a shattering lid of creme brulee or the edge of a thin, curly slice of bacon. A few months ago ate a muffin that cracked from what I learned was, get this, millet. Like the bird feed! (Not that Ill ever share it with the birds again after trying it in breakfast cake.) In banana bread, the millet creates a texture as satisfying to eat as bubble wrap is to pop. So go on; you know what needs to be done.

One year ago: Apple Pie Cookies
Two years ago: Beef Chili + Cheddar-Sour Cream Biscuits
Three years ago: Snickerdoodles and Date Spice Loaf
Four years ago: Black-and-White Cookies and Summers Last Hurrah Panzanella
Five years ago: Chocolate Babka, Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese Noodle Kugel
Six years ago: Flower Cupcakes

Crackly Banana Bread

The crackle comes from uncooked millet, a seed that can be cooked like a grain in pilafs, but here is left crunchy. Its sold in health food, speciality stores and many larger ones (found mine at Whole Foods). If you dont have t and dont want to seek it out, however, the recipe absolutely works without it and makes a delightful, wholesome spin on banana bread with no less deliciousness than the original.

I suspect a gluten-free flour mix would work well here, but didnt test it out in my kitchen. If youd like to play around a mix of whole-grain flours would make a lovely partial swap too (perhaps some rye, buckwheat or barley flours).

Miss the bourbon and butter? You might like my Jacked-Up Banana Bread too!

3 large ripe-to-over-ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup virgin coconut oil, warmed until it liquefies, or olive oil
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 to 1/3 cup maple syrup (less for less sweetness, of course)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
Salt
1 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour (or flour mixture of your choice, see Note up top)
1/4 cup uncooked millet

Preheat your oven to 350F and butter a 95-inch loaf pan. In the bottom of a large bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon until virtually smooth but a few tiny lumps remain. Whisk in egg, then oil, brown sugar and syrup. Sprinkle baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves over mixture and stir until combined. Stir in flour until just combined, then millet.

Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool loaf in pan on rack.

Do ahead: Loaves keep well in the freezer, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for a month or more. Ours kept at room temperature for a record week, becoming more moist each day.

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Banana Oat Cookies Simple Daily Recipes These Banana Oat Cookies remind me of Banana Bread. They're soft and moist, and loaded with chewy golden raisins and a little shredded coconut here and there. Banana Bread with oil instead of butter? [Archive] - CookingLight ... [Archive] Banana Bread with oil instead of butter? Great Food Eyewitness Cook - Salon.com Saturday, Apr 9, 2011 1:01 AM UTC A brilliant chefs potato crisps Michel Bras is a hero because he inspires me to look at simple food a new way. Bake a Loaf of Bread - How To Information eHow.com Don't just sit there scratching your head, find useful info on Bake a Loaf of Bread on eHow. Get essential tips and learn more about everything from How to Decorate ... Lesson: Glazing The Fresh Loaf News and Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts. PoBoy Bread The Fresh Loaf News and Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts. Baby Bobby's Bread Blog Soon I will write a blog post on frugal solutions for bread baking. One of my frugal baking strategies is to use Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) or freebies on ... Banana Bread, Baked Alaska, Egg White Recipes - Eggology, Inc Egg ... Light gourmet dessert recipes including Banana bread and Baked Alaska using egg whites. Nigella Lawson's Banana Bread Sarah Cooks So yes, I have been baking. I'm not usually that keen on banana bread, but we had a few rapidly-ripening bananas sitting in the kitchen and I didn't want them to go ... Sourdough Bread Recipe - Food.com - 85644 Soft crust, tangy sourdough flavor makes this one of my favorite sourdough bread recipes. A response to those who feel the bread is not sour enough. The taste of the ...

homemade wheat thins

So, the problem, if there could be one, with having a slight obsession with making homemade version of snack-aisle favorites goldfish crackers, oreos, graham crackers, pop-tarts, ice-cream sandwiches and the like is that people quite often think youre crazy. And if youre me, someone who already delights in things that most people find awful dicing vegetables, fitting every dish in the dishwasher (triumphantly humming the Tetris music) and, apparently, dotting the eyes of cheddar goldfish with the pointy end of a meat thermometer you probably dont need any help convincing people that youre nuts. Sadly, when people dont think youre crazy, they might be suspicious you have some sort of Sanctimommy/Down With Cheetos-type agenda, but I no more fuss in the kitchen to make others feel bad if they lack the time or inclination to than the woman walking down my street right now with flawless, flowing locks and $300 skinny jeans is there to make me feel bad that I am currently in possession of neither, sigh.

Nevertheless, because of these two things, I tend to be overly cautious before sharing recipes like the one I am today for Wheat Thin-like crackers at home. Lets put one thing out here before I tell you about them: Do we eat exclusively homemade foods and snacks 24/7? Bwah! Even 12/7? Maybe. On good days. But, the thing is, I really love projects like this because, the fact is, we all need a snack from time to time and while the packaged options are hardly universally evil, theres a lot of things in there youd never put in your food at home. Its liberating to be able to make the foods you love in your own kitchen, and its a great idea to tuck away for a rainy day afternoon project when your kid is spinning off their axis again or, you know, when you get a little carried away in advance of your toddlers birthday party.

And these were especially delicious to make at home. As it turns out, wheat thin crackers that you buy in a box are little but thin wheat crackers (see what I did there? oof.) that you can make at home. The dough is a simple combination of butter, whole wheat flour and salt. The trickiest part is rolling them very, very thin. If youre me, youll know this going in and will roll them gorgeously thin, then pat yourself on the back for getting it right the first time. I bet you know where this is going! On your second batch, you will understand that even thinner is the way to go. I briefly considered running the dough through a pasta machine, and definitely want to hear about it if you try this out at home. But fear not, a regular old rolling pin will do the trick.

The result is what Id call a 97 percent match to the original. Of course, I had to compare them to store-bought versions in my test kitchen and found them much less salty and much less yellow. The ingredient list on the box informs me the the hue is from a coloring derived from tumeric, and hey, no harm if you want to throw a pinch in for a warmer color. You can also salt them more generously. I liked these when they came out of the oven but I have to say, the handful that survived the party that Ive been nibbling on these week are even better. With age, the cracker tastes almost like a brown butter wheat thin. They taste rich, luxurious even, which are hardly words Id otherwise associate with crackers but never want to disassociate them again.

One year ago: Roasted Tomato Soup with Broiled Cheddar and Apple and Honey Challah
Two years ago: Skirt Steak Salad with Blue Cheese and Monkey Cake
Three years ago: Cheesecake-Marbled Brownies (This is the recipe from my article in Octobers Martha Stewart Living, if you were interested.) Grilled Lamb Kebabs + Tzatziki
Four years ago: Braised Romano Beans, Eggs in Tomato Sauce, Spinach Quiche and Bread Without A Timetable
Five years ago: Tortilla de Patatas and Grandmothers of Sils Apple and Yogurt Cake and Chocolate Babka
Six years ago: Summer Squash Soup, Giardinera and Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

Homemade Wheat Thin Crackers
Adapted, just barely, from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

I recommend traditional whole wheat flour for an accurate color but white whole wheat flour for a more delicate texture. I used the regular stuff. The original recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract to be added along with the water, but I dont associate the vanilla flavor with wheat thins at all (nor did I spot it on the ingredient list). Nevertheless, feel free to add this and/or any other seasonings that youd like (onion or garlic powder, thyme or rosemary, black pepper, etc.)

Yield: About 3 dozen. I highly suggest doubling this recipe.

1 1/4 cups (155 grams) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tablespoons (20 grams) sugar
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) table salt, plus additional for topping
1/4 teaspoon paprika
4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter, cold is fine, cut into small bits

In a food processor: Combine the flour, sugar, salt, paprika and butter in a food processor, pulsing the mixture until the butter is evenly disbursed in the crumbs. Drizzle in 1/4 cup (60 ml) cold water with the machine running; run it until the mixture begins to form a ball.

By hand: Combine the flour, sugar, salt, paprika and butter in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the butter into the mixture until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add 1/4 cup (60 ml) cold water, stir with spoon until combined. Knead once or twice on counter.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Either lightly grease baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.

Roll your dough out, half at a time, to a large, very, very thin rectangle-ish shape on a well-floured counter. Did I mention you should roll them thin? Thinner than you even think necessary is best. Frequently check to make sure your dough isnt sticking; if it is, gently scrape a spatula underneath to lift it, then flour the counter again. Using a knife or pastry wheel, cut dough into about 1 1/2-inch squares. Dock crackers all over with a toothpick or pointy end of a thermometer. (Technically speaking, I noted a 9-dot docking pattern, like the 9 sides of a pair of dice, on my store-bought Wheat Thins. I highly recommend you do not drive yourself bonkers trying to emulate this.)

Transfer crackers to baking sheets, spacing them only a little as they really dont spread. Sprinkle with additional table salt if youd like to approximate the salty exteriors of the store-bought crackers. Bake crackers until crisp and bronzed, about 5 to 7 minutes but please keep a close watch on the first batch as thinner crackers (high-five!) will bake faster and thicker ones will take longer.

Cool in baking pans on racks. Crackers will keep in an airtight container officially for a week but ours are in fact two weeks old and still perfect. You can also freeze them in an airtight container between sheets of waxed paper for a couple months.

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Homemade Wheat Thins Homemade Wheat Thins Kitchen Simplicity Looking For Something? Subscribe. Click here to sign up for email updates. Homemade Wheat Thins The Baker Chick I consider myself a pretty productive person. I like to get up early, get things done, and then get even more things done. Now don't get my wrong, I can have lazy ... Homemade Wheat Thins Oh She Glows - Vegan Recipes by Angela ... We are having some unusual warm weather this week and it is giving me Spring Fever like crazy! The snow is melting, our moods are lifted, and I think I should be able ... How to Make Homemade Wheat Thins Crackers: Chicagoist One 14.5-ounce box of Wheat Thins costs about $4. It has about 15 primary ingredients listed, and you're going to make a lot of noise each time you reach your hand in ... Chocolate & Chillies - Easy. Healthy. Halal.: Homemade Wheat Thins The most popular snack in our house is crackers so when I saw this on Oh She Glows I knew it would be perfect! These were surprisingly easy to make and ... Tracey's Culinary Adventures: Homemade Wheat Thins As you've probably noticed by now, I'm sort of obsessed with attempting homemade versions of items I might otherwise buy prepackaged at the store - from ... Homemade Whole Wheat Crackers Recipe: Wheat Thin Style Kitchen ... Ive been teasing my readers about my homemade whole wheat cracker recipe for weeks now, and Im finally dishing it out. Think about crackers you enjoy eating. Homemade Wheat Thins Two Peas & Their Pod Wheat Thins remind me of my high school days. They were my favorite snack. I used to keep a box in my locker, car, and munched on them when my dad forced me to do my ... Homemade Wheat Thins Style Crackers Tammy's Recipes Easy homemade whole wheat crackers that taste remarkably similar to Wheat Thins! Thin, crunchy, and salty -- you will love these crackers! Homemade Wheat Thins - From Away: Cooking and Eating in Maine I picked up my snacking habit from my dad. Beginning when I was a little kid, I would sometimes get to hang out with my father in my parents bedroom, after the ...

roasted apple spice sheet cake

Yesterday, our little bear turned three which, you know, is impossible since we are unequivocally certain that we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. Seriously, right here, through the door to my right and we put the carrier that he was sleeping deeply within on the table. It looked strange there [Also, we were hungry and unsure of the logistics -- is it rude to eat lunch while your newborn is on the table? Isn't it worse to place him on the floor?] Sure, there were one or two hundred fewer fire engine parts, stuffed hedgehogs and train tracks scattered across the living room carpet, and maybe we looked a little younger and better-rested; I probably didnt have my iPhone wedged between sofa cushions the way I do right now so that my talking-walking-doing things mini-human couldnt co-opt it to watch Elmo videos again (how does he find them?), but otherwise, nothing has changed. Nothing! Dont say it. Didnt your mother teach you to never argue with crazy people?

I know a lot of people who have had babies lately and I feel like I should say something wise here because I understand how utterly hectic the first few months can be, not because newborns are particularly difficult but because youre terrified youre going to break them, or maybe just a little shell-shocked in general. One minute theyre slumped over your shoulder snoring the tiniest snore ever emitted and you feel utterly centered, a sense of all the generations that came before this one gathered invisibly around their squished faces in beaming admiration, and the next theyre red-faced and full of rage, their squawking mouths in a perfect open circle, and you and your significant other are frantically running through the checklist you keep in your heads (hungry? cold? tired? wet?) which grows more complicated every few months (is your swaddle loose? did you roll over in the night again and cant get yourself back? so help us, did we put you to bed with the little George and you wanted the big one?) and more complicated still (Mommy, we have to take Ernie, Bert and Twacktor back to the park. Jacob, its 2 a.m. Please go back to sleep.). I also have a bunch of friends who are quite close to deciding to have babies but theyre so understandably freaked out by everything they read about the crying and the not sleeping and the life will never be the same ever ever again that theyre terrified to move forward. But I cant. I have no wisdom to impart, no pithy catchphrases that will cause it all to make sense. I can only say LOOK AT THIS. I can no longer imagine life any other way.

Ive always found the practice of having themed childrens birthday parties a little strange I mean, isnt the theme the kid? And how awesome they are? and yet when it came time for my own sons party, a salient summary of all of his loves was so evident to us, the party nearly planned itself. You see, hes has had two obsessions in the last year; the first one is horsies, by which he means carousel rides, which means that the location (the prettiest carousel in all the land) was a no-brainer. The second is choo-choo trains, by which he means subways. He does not care where we go or what we do, only that it involves a subway ride. He has turned into the children in this beloved book, occasionally throwing a fit if he wanted to take the N train but it was the 6 that took us where we were going. Its an odd thing for tourists to see, no doubt.

I wont lie, nor could I to people who know me too well: I spent a bit of time planning the cake. You see, I really wanted to do a subway-inspired design but there were so many things I didnt want to do: individual train cars were nixed for seeming like theyd require a frightening amount of decorating and candy; I wanted to use regular cake ingredients and frosting (why eat fondant if you could eat cream cheese frosting?) and no matter how lovely an all-gray (like a subway car!) or largely red/blue/orange/yellow/green (like the subway line colors) would be, I did not, in fact, want to eat a bottle of food dye with dessert. Finally, when our estimated party of 30 turned into an awesome party of 50, I needed a cake that would feed a crowd. And, of course, I didnt want any plain old cake.

When I made a Monkey Cake for my sons first birthday, I hadnt much considered at the time that I was starting a tradition, one in which I would invent him a cake every year based on his current loves. But by the second year a Celebration Cake that now lives in the cookbook, thus I wouldnt want to spoil it I knew this was going to be one of my favorite parts of each birthday. This year, I wanted include even more: a celebration of fall, apples and honey (a nod to the Jewish New Year that falls on his birthday), his obsession with applesauce, his curious affection for deeply spiced cakes this kid, he likes gingerbread. Like, the intense kind, although we kept this one lightly spiced, to not scare the other children). And although I have zero quibbles filling a childs birthday cake with both butter and refined flour (because if not on your birthday, when?), I was still hoping to find some level of moderation. It neednt use all the butter; it shouldnt make teeth ache from with sweetness.

What resulted was one of my favorite cakes yet, that quickly went under toddler attack; a dense, insanely moist spiced applesauce and honey cake studded with chunks roasted apples. Its covered with a vanilla cream cheese frosting that can easily be tinted to doodle the design of your choice (in this case, an abstract NYC subway map). It tastes like September, like a harvest, like blue skies and a crisp breeze, like the first cool day we took home what we affectionately call The Mop Who Came To Live With Us. It tastes, fittingly, like one of the best things weve ever baked.

A few more party details: Im not sure I encourage this level of insanity, but nevertheless I made a few hundred homemade wheat thins (holler if you want the recipe) and a double-batch of our beloved whole wheat goldfish crackers, freezing them a week before the party. (Id also hoped to make some mini-graham crackers and mini-apple butter pop tarts, but ran out of time.) There were a few subway-ish sugar cookies (originally, Id intended to make them look like the train letters and numbers, then realized that such things were better left to the experts.) We had a ton of chopped vegetables with my favorite buttermilk dressing as a dip, plus more grapes than well get through in a lifetime. My awesome mom made lightly sweetened sun tea and lemonade, neither of which survived the party (drat). And the happy 3rd birthday jacob cake banner was created with some feeble Photoshopping on my part, card stock, bakers twine, a thick needle, two wooden skewers, Joys instructions, and a lot of stringing help from Jacobs babysitter while he graced us with a nap. I made little notches in the skewers so that the three levels of strings would stay in place, but ended up winding the skewers a bit when the strings were too long. And how could I forget? For favors, the kids got subway bags with subway magnets with the first letter of their names, other tiny toys and a little rodent. Just like the real subway.

Martha Stewart Living: In the final weeks before having a baby, I didnt buy burp cloths. I didnt read any parenting or birthing books. But I did make a lot of brownies. I have an essay about this disconnect in the October issue Martha Stewart Living and what with today being all about that once-newborn, it seems a fitting time to mention it here.

Book Tour: Thank you so much for your amazing response to the book tour announcement. I wish I could get to every city, too. Please keep checking back to the book tour main page, as we will be adding and tweaking the details of events as they get closer. We just added a downtown Chicago event in response to those of you that were concerned that the two area events were so far from the center city. It will be posted shortly.

Roasted Apple Spice Sheet Cake

Why roast the apples? I tested this cake both ways and while small (1/2-inch chunks) of apple will cook through in the cakes baking time, a little preroasting gives them the soft pillows of apple pie-like puddles that I think makes this cake better. It also allows for slightly bigger chunks, if desired.

If youd like to make your own applesauce for the cake, I promise, its even easier than going to the store and buying the bottles youll need (though theyll work just fine here). For my standard recipe, a mild, unsweetened one that allows the apples to shine, use 4 pound of any apples you like to bake with, or a mix, peeled, cored and cut into chunks, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, four big lemon peels (you can use a peeler) and 1 cup of water. Bring it to a low simmer, covered, and cook the apples for 30 minutes. Fish out the peels and puree it with an immersion blender. This yields approximately 6 to 7 cups of heavenly, Jacob-approved applesauce.

Yield: The recipe below makes a double-layer sheet cake and more than enough frosting to fill, coat the sides and top and have plenty leftover to decorate. Its a monstrously huge cake, however, and could easily serve 40 to 50. The more logical way to make it would be as a single sheet cake, frosted in the pan (i.e. just on top); a single layer sheet cake will serve 20 to 25. To do this, halve the cake recipe and 1/3 the frosting. Finally, you could also make this cake recipe as a two-layer 9-inch round cake (serving estimate: 16), which I did last night. [Yes, I made another birthday cake to serve with our holiday dinner, since it was his actual day of birthday and a lot of family gathered. Also, because my tenuous grip on sanity has been well-established here.] For this, youll want to use half the cake batter below (then divided between your two round cake pans) and two-thirds of the frosting (to give you enough to coat and fill the cake, plus a bit left to decorate).

Cake
6 medium apples, any variety you like to bake with, peeled, halved and cored
7 1/2 cups (940 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons (10 grams) table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking soda
2 tablespoons (30 grams) baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons (3 grams) ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon (1 gram) ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon (1 gram) freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 cups (505 grams) honey
4 1/2 cups (585 grams) applesauce
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed (285 grams) dark-brown sugar
6 large eggs

Frosting
3 8-ounce (675 grams total) blocks cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks, 3/4 pound or 340 grams) butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
6 cups (720 grams) powdered sugar, sifted

Bake cake layers: Heat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet or roasting pan with parchment paper. Arrange apple halves face down on paper and roast in a single layer until they feel dry to the touch and look a little browned underneath, about 20 minutes. Slide parchment paper with apples onto a cooling rack and set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350&176F.

Butter two 913-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with a fitted rectangle of parchment paper. Butter the paper as well. Feel free to use a nonstick baking spray instead of butter, too. [If you, like most people, only have one cake pan, don't fret. Just bake half the batter and as soon as you can flip the cake out of the pan, wash it and start again with a fresh piece of parchment, baking the remaining batter.]

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. In a medium bowl, whisk together applesauce and honey.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and dark brown sugar until very fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl between every other addition. Add one third of the flour-spice mixture and mix it until just combined. Add half the applesauce-honey mixture, again mixing it until combined. [At this point, if you, like me, have a 5-quart KitchenAid, things are going to get a little full in the bowl. I suggest stirring in the remaining additions carefully by hand.] Add the second third of the flour-spice mixture, the remaining applesauce-honey mixture, and the remaining flour-spice mixture, stirring between each addition.

Chop roasted apples into smallish chunks (1/2 to 2/3-inches) and fold into batter. Divide batter between baking pans and bake cake layers, rotating the cake pans top to bottom and back-to-front halfway through the baking time, about 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer baking pans to cooling racks and let rest for 10 minutes, before flipping out of the pans onto racks, removing the parchment paper lining, and cooling the cakes right-side-up.

[Do ahead: I pause my cake-making all of the time here. I freeze the cake layers overnight, or until needed (up to two weeks, longer if your freezer doesn't make things smell freezer-y for a while), wrapped in a double-layer of plastic wrap. When you're ready to decorate them, you can do so while the cake is still frozen -- it will be easier to handle/move/trim. Simply leave it at room temperature for a few hours once it is decorated or in the fridge for a day to fully defrost. More layer cake tips live here.]

Make the frosting: Whip butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixture until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar and beat again until smooth and light.

Decorate your cake: Arrange first cake layer on cake board or serving platter, tucking pieces of waxed paper underneath the outer edges to keep your platter clean while you decorate (which I forgot to do, typically). Use a serrated knife to level the top, removing any dome so that the next layer will rest neatly on top. Thickly spread about 1/3 of frosting on the bottom layer, then transfer the cake to the freezer for just 5 or 10 minutes, to firm up the filling. Place the second cake layer on top of the filling. Trim the top again until level (if desired; seeing as youre not adding another layer, it would be for a neat appearance, not for cake stability). If the sides dont align perfectly with the bottom layer, you can trim them until straight as well. Thinly apply a coat of frosting over entire exterior of cake. Once again, you can get this to set quickly by sliding the cake into the freezer for 5 minutes. One set, add your final coat of frosting, a thicker more decorative one. (This is of course where you can add any decorations desired. You should have plenty of leftover frosting to go to town with.)

Remove bits of waxed paper and serve with a big ta-da! Should any survive the party, this cake keeps exceptionally well in the fridge. Five days out, our leftover pieces are, if possible, more moist than one day one.

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Roasted Alaskan Salmon with Granny Smith Apple Butter Sauce, and ... Get this all-star, easy-to-follow Food Network Roasted Alaskan Salmon with Granny Smith Apple Butter Sauce, and Herbed Potato Cakes recipe from Emeril Lagasse. Apple Spice Cake Apple Spice Cake Recipe gastronomy My boys been in Canada for the past week attending a solar physics conference. Although I missed him quite a lot, being home alone definitely had its merits. Apple Spice Apple Spice Junction delivers on time, every time. Even same day orders of our famous fresh baked bread, sandwiches, salads & hot catering make any event one to remember. Fragrance Page This list represents a few of the over 5000 fragrances in stock. Special versions or lower priced modifications are available upon request. +++Cupcake Tuesday +++ Apple Pie Spice Cupcakes The pie season is almost upon us, and as you know, pie goes with everything. Including, cupcakes!! These lovelies are made with my apple pie filling which ... Big Mama's Home Kitchen: Upside Down Apple Spice Cake with Coconut So here's my prep list for tomorrow to get ready for Thanksgiving: Cranberry Sauce Sweet Potato Casserole Pecan Pie Coconut Cream Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel ... Baked Peanut Butter Apple Oatmeal Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice Baked oatmeal is a special treat for breakfast and perfectly acceptable to eat at any and all hours of the day including for dessert! Cubes of apple laced with peanut ... My New Roots: Happy Birthday to Me! Pumpkin Spice Cake with ... I know what youre thinking, but its my birthday. And this year, I just felt like doing something crazy like making a gigantic, over-the-top ... Apple Spice Cake With Caramel Sauce Recipes Yummly Find Quick & Easy Apple Spice Cake With Caramel Sauce Recipes! Choose from over 34 Apple Spice Cake With Caramel Sauce recipes from sites like Epicurious and Allrecipes. Secret Ingredient Apple-Spice Cake: King Arthur Flour A dense, moist bundt-style cake, studded with apples and subtly flavored with cherry juice.

fig, olive oil and sea salt challah + book tour!

Last week, this little url turned six years old, though I am absolutely, unequivocally certain that the day I started typo-ing typing away here was a lifetime ago. Id been married for almost a year. I was terrified to cook most things without a recipe. I kind of hated my day job (but loved my coworkers still!). And this little guy more on him next week well, he wasnt even a glimmer in our (still well-rested) eyes yet. While some things havent changed (for example, I have no idea what the buttons on my camera do, still), 801 recipes and over 151,000 comments later, I am fairly certain that what comes next is the last place Id imagined this conversation going back then. And yet:

Over the years, I have occasionally written about cooking too much of something and have invited you to come over and help us with the feast, because wouldnt it be fun if we could all cram in my tiny kitchen together and hang out? I realize youve probably thought I was joking. Obviously, throwing a huge party in a kitchen that barely fits me and the toddler-mounted trike thats always in there anyway would be a disaster. But the thing is, I wasnt. I just didnt let the logistical implausibility in any way diminish my insistence that, given the chance, I think wed all get along famously.

Which brings me to The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook Book Tour: As it turns out, we can hang out and cook and chat, even if we cant do it in my pathetically tiny kitchen. I am so excited about this part; I have joked more than once that its the entire reason I wrote a book. Plus, its important that you see before your own eyes what a complete and total normal person super-professional grown-up dork I am.

So, without further ado, let me direct you over to the Events & Book Tour Page, and then, I do hope youll hurry right back because this bread, its kind of a big deal.

There are recipes in the book that showed up in my head long before there was even a book proposal and others that I added when I realized that (gasp!) a cookbook deserved a beloved grilled cheese sandwich and that I totally forgot to tell you about this chocolate pie my mom used to make. I love both groups of recipes but I have a extra level of sentimentality attached to the first ones. This idea of a fig, olive oil, and sea salt challah came to me one day when my tiny (!) newborn Jacob had fallen asleep in my arms again and like all silly new mamas, I felt a little bummed because there was so much Id hope to get done but I was now glued in place for a while. It lived in the back of my head through all those early sleepless nights and the flummoxed daytimes when I thought, No way I am ever going to have time to cook again. And about six months later, when I finally had the chance to make it happen, I sprung forth into the kitchen and, well, Id like to tell you it was a home run. All of that pining had to amount to something, right?

The challah always tasted good, but there were logistical challenges across the board as tried to figure out how to insert figs into a challah without dotting the dough with unpleasant fig lumps or having such an elaborate assembly that nobody would ever bother with it. I even put it down for several months, concluding that not all premonitions that come to you while on human crib duty are meant to be. And then last year, I made you an Apple and Honey Challah and figuring the logistics of apple-ing up that challah is what finally made the fig version click for me. Finishing the challah from there was a cinch. Okay, I lied. It still took four more rounds. I began showing up at preschool drop-off with gigantic, still warm-from-the-oven challahs to dump on the other parents because I could no longer fit them in my kitchen.

But, it had a happy ending. This may not be a challah our grandparents may recognize, it may even be a little risky to suggest that one would shirk tradition (often, round raisin challahs for the New Year) for something with a little imported sea salt, but I will go out on a limb for this challah. I think its worth it. And should any of it survive the evening meal, I want you to know that its leftovers make the finest French toast weve yet to have especially good with a hint of orange zest, drizzle of warm honey and dollop of fresh ricotta on top.

Cookbook previews, previously: For those of you following along at home, this is a third preview from the cookbook. The first was the Cinnamon Toast French Toast. The second, for Leek-Vegetables with Lemon Cream appeared in a New York Times article a couple months ago (in the book, theyre leek fritters; in the newspaper, they have other vegetables too and are absolutely stunning). And this is the third. Now, I realize from the two previews on this site make it seem like the book is nothing but sweet stuff, but the split is more like 1/3-2/3, leaning towards the savory. The next preview will include one of my favorite fall dinner recipes.

One year ago: Red Wine Chocolate Cake
Two years ago: Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto
Three years ago: Chocolate Pudding Pie
Four years ago: The Baked Brownie, Spiced Up
Five years ago: Lemon Layer Cake
Six years ago: Key Lime Tartlets and Romaine Pesto and Egg-Stuffed Tomatoes

Fig, Olive Oil and Sea Salt Challah
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Yield: 1 large loaf

Bread
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet 1/4 ounce or 7 grams) active dry yeast
1/4 cup (85 grams) plus 1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup (80 ml) olive oil, plus more for the bowl
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, or 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
4 cups (500 grams) all-purpose flour

Fig Filling
1 cup (5 1/2 ounces or 155 grams) stemmed and roughly chopped dried figs
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest, or more as desired
1/4 cup (60 ml) orange juice
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
Few grinds black pepper

Egg wash
1 large egg
Coarse or flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

To make dough with a stand mixer: Whisk the yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water (110 to 116 degrees), and let it stand for a few minutes, until foamy. In a large mixer bowl, combine the yeast mixture with remaining honey, 1/3 cup olive oil, and eggs. Add the salt and flour, and mix until dough begins to hold together. Switch to a dough hook, and run at low speed for 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to an olive-oil coated bowl (or rest the dough briefly on the counter and oil your mixer bowl to use for rising, so that youll use fewer dishes), cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size.

To make the dough by hand: Proof the yeast as directed above. Mix the wet ingredients with a whisk, then add the salt and flour. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. Turn the mixture out onto a floured counter, and knead for 5 to 10 minutes, until a smooth and elastic dough is formed. Let rise as directed above.

Meanwhile, make fix paste: In a small saucepan, combine the figs, zest, 1/2 cup water, juice, salt, and a few grinds of black peper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the figs are soft and tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat, and let cool to lukewarm. PRocess fig mixture in a food processor until it resembles a fine paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Set aside to cool.

Insert figs: After your dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured counter and divide it in half. Roll the first half of the dough into a wide and totally imperfect rectangle (really, the shape doesnt matter). Spread half the fig filling evenly over the dough, stopping short of the edge. Roll the dough into a long, tight log, trapping the filling within. Then gently stretch the log as wide as feels comfortable (I take mine to my max counter width, a pathetic three feet), a divide it in half. Repeat with remaining dough and fig filling.

Weave your challah: Arrange two ropes in each direction, perpendicular to each other, like a tight tic-tac-toe board. Weave them so that one side is over, and the other is under, where they meet. So, now youve got an eight-legged woven-headed octopus. Take the four legs that come from underneath the center and move the leg to their right i.e., jumping it. Take the legs that were on the right and, again, jump each over the leg before, this time to the left. If you have extra length in your ropes, you can repeat these left-right jumps until you run out of rope. Tuck the corners or odd bumps under the dough with the sides of your hands to form a round.

Transfer the dough to a parchment-cover heavy baking sheet, or, if youll be using a bread stone, a bakers peel. Beat egg until smooth, and brush over challah. Let challah rise for another hour, but 45 minutes into this rise, preheat your oven to 375F.

Bake your loaf: Before baking, brush loaf one more time with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in middle of oven for 35 to 40 minutes. It should be beautifully bronzed; if yours starts getting too dark too quickly, cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking time. The very best way to check for doneness is with an instant-read thermometer the center of the loaf should be 195 degrees.

Cool loaf on a rack before serving. Or, well, good luck with that.

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