Tahini Coffee Cake

Full article is up on The Nosher.

Tahini Coffee Cake

Makes 1 9x13 cake, serves 15-20

 Prep time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients:

 For the cake-

• 10 Tbsps (141 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1¾ cup sugar

• ⅓ cup tahini

• 4 large eggs, at  room temperature

• 1 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

• 1 Tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tsps vanilla extract

• 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour

• 2 tsps baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ cup milk

For the brown sugar ribbon-

• ½ cup brown sugar

• ¼ cup (62 g) all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp cardamom

For the tahini streusel topping-

• 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup brown sugar

• ¼ cup tahini paste

• 4 Tbsps (56 g) unsalted butter, melted

• ½ tsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp cardamom

• Pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F, and generously grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.

For the cake - To a large bowl, or to the bowl of a stand mixer, add the room temperature butter, sugar, and tahini. Beat together the butter mixture using a handheld mixer, or the paddle attachment on the stand mixer, until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

To the bowl, add 2 eggs, and beat until incorporated. Add 2 more eggs and beat until they are incorporated. Add the sour cream, sesame oil, and vanilla extract, and mix until smooth.

 In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, with half of the milk. Stir until just combined. Add the remaining flour mixture to the batter, and the rest of the milk. Stir until just combined, be careful not to overmix (your batter may be slightly lumpy).

For the brown sugar ribbon - In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, cardamom.

For the tahini streusel- In a bowl, using a fork, combine the flour, brown sugar, tahini, melted butter, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt until the mixture comes together and forms pea-sized crumbles.

To assemble and bake- Add half of the batter to the greased baking dish. Smooth it into an even layer. Top the batter evenly with the brown sugar ribbon mixture. Dollop the remaining batter on top, then carefully smooth it over in an even layer with an offset spatula or knife. Top the cake with the streusel mixture.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool, then serve. Tahini coffee cake can be stored covered at room temperature for 4-5 days, or it can be frozen and defrosted as needed for up to 3 months.

Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies (with Rye flour)

For the full article, head over to .alma

...What I love most about these cookies is that they’re endlessly versatile. I like to add rye flour to the batter for extra nuttiness, and flake salt before baking for a pop of flavor and crunch, but you could easily use entirely all purpose flour and leave the flake salt out completely. If you’re not into chocolate, you could substitute the two cups of chocolate chunks with two cups of chopped dried fruit or chopped nuts. If you’re feeling adventurous (or frisky?) you can even use all three. In keeping with romantic cliches, just as in matters of finding true love, these cookies benefit from patience. If you chill the batter overnight the cookies taste even better when you bake them off the next day. But between you and me, you can break the rules and succumb to instant gratification and make the cookies the same day and they’ll still work out just fine.

I always hope that Valentine’s Day can be less a celebration of coupledom and traditional forms of romantic love, and more of a an excuse to celebrate all love-filled relationships, including with one’s self. I can assure you that whether these are made for your partner, secret crush, lonely hearts club band, or for you yourself and only you, making these cookies in all their tahini-chocolate goodness is a rich expression of love and all things good.

Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup all purpose flour

• ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons rye flour (optional, can substitute this with all purpose flour)

• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ cup tahini

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• ¾ cup brown sugar

• ¼ cup sugar

• 1 large egg, at room temperature

• 2 cups (8 oz) chopped chocolate chunks or chips

• Flake salt, as needed (optional)

Directions:

1.     In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, rye flour if using, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Reserve.

2.     Using a stand-mixer or handheld electric mixer, cream together the tahini, butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. You can also do this by hand, but it will take slightly longer.

3.     Add in the egg, and mix until well incorporated.

4.     On a low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture to the tahini mixture. Mix until just incorporated, be careful not to overmix.

5.     Stir in the chocolate chunks until just incorporated. Ideally, refrigerate the cookie dough for 24 hours or overnight. If you can’t wait that long, let it chill in the fridge for at least one hour.

6.     Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

7.     Scoop out the dough, one heaping tablespoon at a time, and roll into equal-sized balls. You can also use a small ice cream scoop to do this. Place the dough balls on the baking sheets a few inches apart - they will spread as they bake. Sprinkle the dough with flake salt, if desired.

8.     Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

9.     Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Pear, Rosemary and Goat Cheese Crostata

I never tire of making crostata's and galettes (as is obvious on this blog). I love that they can be sweet or savory, or walk the line between sweet or savory. I also love that the pastry is simple, with very little wait time. And most importantly, it's a great way to use up some extra ripe fruit.

This pear and goat cheese crostata walks the line between sweet and savory. It's great as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea or coffee (or glass of wine!), or sliced into small wedges as an appetizer at a dinner party. It could also be a dessert, if you're into serving something not too sweet. Also, add more sugar, it will be sweeter. Take away the goat cheese, it will be less savory. The rosemary adds such a nice hit of green and aromatic flavor with or without cheese. If you don't have rosemary, try something else: thyme, black pepper, tarragon, or maybe even marjoram. 

If you don't have a food processor, you can even make the crostata dough by hand (and it's arguably better that way). A food processor helps if you're nervous about mixing it all up evenly and well. Also, good butter helps. This is a good place to splurge on a nicer brand as there really aren't too many ingredients in this pastry. For flour, I prefe King Arthur brand, for its high protein content, but any kind will do. And if you don't want dairy, you could use a quality vegan margarine (like Earth Balance) in the dough; it will make the pastry a little saltier (so omit any additional salt), and it's not quite as great as butter, but it 100% works. 

And lastly, the pears. You want good pears. I like them in this dish when they're really ripe. Even a little bruised is ok. If they're too hard the tart doesn't bake as evenly. You use Bosc, Anjou, or whatever you can get your hands on that's good at the market. You don't need to peel them, and they add such a nice pop of color. 

Pear, Rosemary and Goat Cheese Crostata

Serves 4

For the pastry-

• 1¼  cup all purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cubed

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

• 3 tablespoons ice cold water

• 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

• turbinado or raw sugar, for sprinkling

For the filling-

• 2 pears (about 1 lbs / 450 grams), ripe but still firm, thinly sliced

• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

• 2 tablespoons honey, plus more for garnish (local honey)

• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, roughly chopped

• juice of ½ a lemon

• 4 oz. fresh goat cheese

To a food processor, add the flour sugar and salt. Pulse a few times to combine the mixture. Add the cubed butter to the dry ingredients, pulse until pea-sized pieces of dough are formed. Alternatively, you can use your hands or a pastry cutter to combine the dry ingredients with the butter.

To the dough, add the apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of water at a time. Pulse until the dough comes together into a ball but is not too wet. It should stick together between your fingers when squeezed. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour.

While your dough is chilling, prepare the fruit and cheese. To a bowl, add the sliced pear, sugar, honey, rosemary, and lemon juice.

Preheat your oven to 400°F (205°C)

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper. The dough should roll out to about 12-13 inches in diameter, or about ½ an inch thick. The edges do not have to be perfect. Leaving a 1.5-2 inch border, pile the sliced pears into the middle of the crust. Dollop the goat cheese over the top of the pears. Fold the edges of dough over the pears.

Brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg yolk. Sprinkle the Turbinado or raw sugar over the brushed dough. Transfer the crostata with the parchment paper onto a baking sheet.

Bake the crostata for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the pears are tender. If the crust starts to brown too much before the pears are cooked, cover the the exposed crust with foil. Drizzle a little honey over the hot crostata. Slice and serve warm or room temp.

Peach and Plum Crostata

I never get tired of making crostatas (also sometimes called galettes). They're basically pies... except they're free-form, less dense, and require no blind baking or much fuss.

Due to the warm and dry winter, stone fruit season arrived early in Southern California. I want to take full advantage of everything peach, plum, pluot, apricot and cherry while the season is still here. Of course, the fruit is perfect to eat just as it is... but somehow when I use stone fruit for baking I feel like I'm really doing the season justice.

This recipe makes really flaky not too sweet pastry. The fruit is great, but honestly the crust is my favorite part of the dessert (but I am a pastry and baked-good fiend). I don't like my filling too sweet, but if you prefer a sweeter fruit you can add 1/4 cup of sugar instead of 2-3 tablespoons. Also, taste your fruit. Some stone fruit is sweeter, some is pretty tart. Mine were on the sour side, and I don't mind that too much, but next time I want a slightly sweeter fruit to start with. The natural flavor of the fruit can't be masked when it is baked: a sweet fruit will be sweeter, and a sour fruit will stay pretty tart. Also, if you find that you have those dry mealy flavorless peaches and plums they won't really get much better when they are baked. This is a simple dish so each ingredient should be the best it can be.

This is the perfect sweet thing to serve on a day when summer is coming, but it's still not too hot to bake. Or... suffer the heat, just make sure to serve yourself a slice with a big scoop of cold vanilla ice cream.

Peach and Plum Crostata

makes 2 crostatas

recipe can be halved - each crostata serves 6-8 (depending on slice size preference)

for the crust-

2½ cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons sugar

1½ teaspoons salt

1 cup butter (2 sticks), very cold diced into cubes

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, very cold

4-6 tablespoons ice water

1 egg yolk

1 splash of water

for the fruit filling-

1½ lbs. (about 9-10 small) plums or pluots, pitted and cut into equal sized slices

1 lb. peaches (about 4 medium) peaches, pitted and cut into equal sized sliced

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2-3 tablespoons turbinado sugar plus more for garnish, depending on preference and how sweet the fruit is

1 tablespoon honey, plus more for garnish

zest of 1 organic lemon (if you're using the zest, organic is important)

juice of ½ a lemon

2 tablespoons butter, divided

for the crust-

In a food processor or using a whisk and a bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar together. To the dry ingredients add

the cubed butter, pulse until pea-sized pieces of dough are formed. Or, use a pastry cutter and combine the butter and flour mixture until the same pea-sized pieces of dough are formed.

To the dough, add the apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of water at a time. Pulse in the food processor, or mix with your hands, until the dough comes together but is not too wet. It should look kind of crumbly but will easily stick together between your fingers when squeezed. Transfer the dough onto a lightly flour dusted clean flat surface. Divide the dough in half. Form the dough into two equal-sized disks (flatter disks are easier to roll out than balls of dough). Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour (two to three hours is ideal). 

for the filling-

Slice the stone fruit so that they are all roughly the same thickness. Transfer the fruit to a large bowl and add the flour, sugar, honey, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Lightly toss the mixture; be careful not to break the fruit.

assemble and bake-

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the racks on the top and bottom third parts of the oven.

Place parchment paper on a flat surface and lightly dust it with flour (the parchment paper will help you transfer the dough onto a baking sheet - I usually do this and forgot this time and it was fine just trickier). Roll out one of your disks into a large circle about 13-14 inches in diameter, and about 1/2 an inch thick. The edges do not have to be perfectly round. It can actually be prettier if the edges are slightly broken and uneven.

Fill the center of the rolled out dough with half of the fruit filling mixture. Dot the top of the fruit mixture with little bits of butter (about 1 tablespoon per crostata). Leave a 2-3 inch border of dough around the fruit.

Fold the border of dough over the fruit (see below). Again, this doesn't have to be perfect... you just want the dough to fold over and cover part of the fruit. Transfer the finished crostata onto a baking sheet (line with parchment paper if you didn't roll the dough out onto to begin with). Repeat the process with the second disc of dough, and the rest of the fruit filling. Transfer the crostata onto a second baking sheet.

Make an egg wash by beating together 1 large egg yolk with a splash of water. Brush the egg yolk onto the dough. Sprinkle more turbinado sugar (or any coarse sugar) onto the the brushed dough.

Place both sheet pans into the oven. After 20 minutes, rotate and switch the sheet pans so the top crostata moves to the bottom and the bottom crostata bakes at the top. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the crostatas are golden brown and the fruit is tender. If the crust starts to brown too much before the fruit is cooked, cover the the exposed crust with foil. 

Once baked, drizzle a little honey over the fruit-exposed part of the hot crostata. Slice and serve warm or at room temp.

Simple Salted Butter Cookies

Remember those Danish sugar cookies that come in the blue tins? I haven't had them in forever, but they were THE staple cookie of my childhood. My parents and my grandparents often had them on hand for a sweet treat and their tins were always repurposed into excellent storage containers. I liked the crinkly paper that contained the different shapes of cookies that all tasted exactly the same. I never thought much of them because they were so unassuming and plain, but before I'd know it I'd eat ten of them. They were addictively satisfying in their simplicity.

That's the inspiration for these cookies. I just wanted to make a cookie that had almost no frills and tasted mostly of butter. Good butter.

If you've made pie crust from scratch then this recipe will feel familiar. If you have never made pie dough, this recipe is still on the easy end of the baking spectrum. A food processor helps the cause, but a pastry cutter or hands will work too.

The key for simple dishes is that all of the ingredients should be great. For these cookies you'll want to invest in very good butter above all else. A nice fleur de sel, sel gris, or flake salt would be helpful, too. And that's it... anyway, there are only about 5 ingredients in this cookie. It's the perfect recipe for when you're in a baking mood but not in a going-to-the-store-to-get-what-you-need mood.

These buttery crumbly crisp things are especially perfect dunked into a hot beverage. Good strong black tea or coffee with a drop of cream.

Salted Butter Cookies

Adapted from

Dorie Greenspan's

Salted Butter Breakups

 recipe

Makes 22-24 cookies, depending on size (or one sheet-pan's worth)

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

• 1/3 cup vanilla sugar or regular granulated sugar (I throw discarded vanilla bean pods into a jar and fill it with sugar. Voila! Vanilla sugar is born and used all the time)

• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar (I like the texture of this - it's usually coarser - and I like it in baking. You can use 100% vanilla sugar, 100% cane sugar, 100% regular sugar)

• 1 teaspoon flake salt or sel gris (gray salt), or flake salt, or 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) very cold good quality unsalted butter, small cubed

• 3-5 tablespoons ice cold water

• 1 cold egg yolk + a few drops of cold water beaten together

• Turbinado sugar to sprinkle on in the end (optional)

In a food processor (or using a whisk), pulse the flour, sugars, and salt together.

Cube the butter into small chunks and drop them into the processor. Pulse a few times until the pea-sized clusters form. You want this pretty coarse so that you don't overwork the butter. Small chunks of butter will be visible in the finished dough. If you don't have a food processor, you can combine the butter and flour mixture using a pastry cutter, or you can even use your hands.

Add the cold water to the food processor one tablespoon at a time and pulse again. Pulse until the mixture sticks together when you press it with your hands (or using your hands to combine if you're skipping the FP). Only pulse to combine everything. Again, don't overmix or your dough will be tough and gross instead of crumbly and wonderful.

Transfer your mixture to a flat surface. Form it into a large disc or ball (flatter round disks are easier to roll out later). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Here's where patience is a virtue: refrigerate for at least 1 hour. You could keep it in the fridge for hours before you're ready to use it, but definitely you need at least one solid hour of chilling.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Lightly dust a flat surface with flour. Roll the dough out until it is 1/4-1/3-inch in thickness. Using a fork, run the tines of the fork into long stripes in the dough. I go in one direction and then I do the second direction after. I like a crisscross shape (see cookie above). This step is so optional... it's mostly for aesthetics but it is also nice texturally. You can go pretty deep, the dough will rise and the lines fade as it bakes.

Cut out the cookies and transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet. I used a square cookie cutter, but you can use any size/shape/style cookie cutter you'd like. Alternatively, you could cut it into squares using a knife.

Beat together one cold egg yolk with a few cold drops of water. Using a pastry brush, lightly (!) brush the tops of the dough with the egg wash. Sprinkle the cookies with Turbinado sugar (or coarse sugar) if you like that kind of thing. You can skip this step and it will be fine. You can also sprinkle with a tiny bit more salt if you're into saltier cookies.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the pan after 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Watch carefully, ovens vary and you don't want them to get too dark/browned. Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack and let them fully cool. The texture will be better once they're room temp.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 2-3 days (or longer if you can make them last that long).

Brown Butter, Salted, Chocolate Chip Cookies - Part 2

I'm not sure that I'll ever have enough chocolate chip cookie recipes.

. For me, the chocolate chip cookie platonic ideal has remained unchanged: crisped on the outside, soft on the inside, with lots of caramel flavor and a touch of salt.

Each time I make a batch of cookies I learn something new. The other day I was helping my friend cater a small event and we were serving chocolate chip cookies as part of the desert. I am always picking up great tips from her, and she often figures out how to make recipes as simple as possible. She said she uses 3 sticks of 100% browned butter, and she mixes everything up without a mixer. I took a cue from her, and revisited my cookie recipe.  I used more butter (but also more flour), cut out any electric mixers, and I added some molasses (just a touch) to the batter to add another layer of caramel flavor. 

Here's a few things I've learned about making soft/crispy cookies:

1. The darkness of the sheet pan matters. I prefer a lighter pan because it will keep the cookies from getting too hard/crisp. Darker pans make darker cookies (seriously).

2. Don't over bake. Take these guys out as soon as they start to color but still look a little underdone.

3. Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for a few minutes, but not for too long... 5 minutes max.

4. Using more brown sugar than white sugar helps with the gooey texture/caramel flavor. Molasses helps, too.

5. Use really good chocolate... I like 60-70% dark or bittersweet chocolate Guittard or Guirardelli for chips... You could use a good quality dark chocolate if you want to do chunks instead.

I'm sure this won't be my last round of chocolate chip cookie testing... but for the time being this recipe will definitely do the trick.

Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies

• 1½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks)

• 1 cup light brown sugar

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 2¾ cups all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon table salt

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons molasses

• 2 eggs

• 1 10-12 oz. bag chocolate chips (238-340 grams)

• flake salt to sprinkle at the end

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place the racks in the top 1/3 and lower 1/3 of the oven. Line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. This recipe will make about 4 sheets worth of cookies.

In a saucepan that is light in color (like stainless steel or ceramic... you want to make sure you can see the color of the butter) make the brown butter. Start by melting the butter over low heat. Once the butter is melted you can raise the heat to medium. The butter will start to get foamy, swirl it around or stir; this will help make sure all the moisture and bubbles get released. Watch the butter closely, once it turns brown with little sand-like flecks you have brown butter. It will smell very nutty and aromatic. Remove it from the heat, transfer it into a heat-proof mixing bowl and add the sugar to the brown butter. Stir and let the mixture cool a bit while you prepare the other ingredients. 

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Once the butter-sugar mixture has cooled slightly, add the vanilla and molasses. Stir until incorporated. Add two eggs. Stir until the eggs are fully incorporated. Slowly add in the the flour mixture. Stir until the batter just comes together, be careful not to over mix. Add the chocolate chips and stir until they are evenly distributed. Let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or even overnight. You can also scoop out the dough, freeze it on the tray, transfer it to the bag, and save for when you're ready to bake cookies.

Using a 1½ tablespoon ice cream scoop, or using a heaping tablespoon, scoop out the dough onto the parchment-lined sheet pan. Make sure each scoop is at about 2 inches apart from each other. The cookies will spread as they bake. Sprinkle the dough with flake salt.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until the cookies just start to turn golden but still appear soft. Let the cookies sit on the sheet pan for 3 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a rack to cool.

Eat warm or at room temp and enjoy!