Chocolate - Cardamom Cake

When my husband and I were recently out for dinner, we shared a mini chocolate cake with Turkish coffee ice cream for dessert.  It took a moment or two for us to realize the cake was infused with cardamom.  Interesting.  I had often paired cinnamon and ginger with chocolate, but had never thought about cardamom.  I've had other sweet treats with cardamom before -mostly from a local Scandinavian bakery and I've made a panna cotta with this warm spice, so naturally I had to recreate this lovely chocolate cake at home.

Cardamom is a peppery, citrusy spice, common in Indian food and is a close relative to cinnamon and ginger; and like these spices, it's loaded with health benefits.  Just to name a few, it's an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, aids digestion and detoxification, and if it couldn't get any better, it's also an aphrodisiac.

I loosely based this recipe on my recently posted Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake.  I cut the sugar in half and made a few other adjustments that my taste testing family approved of.  With the warmth of the cardamom, this cake will make a  wonderful accompaniment to the pumpkin pies on your Thanksgiving dessert table.

 

Chocolate-Cardamom Cake

6 Tablespoons good quality cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1/2 cup boiling water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional)

1 cup ground almonds or almond flour/almond meal

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice which is an unrefined, unbleached sugar)

4 eggs

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (plus more for greasing pan)

powdered sugar for dusting

1.) Heat oven to (325 F). Grease a  (9-inch) spring form pan with a little oil and line base with parchment paper cut out in a circle to fit.

2). Measure and sift cocoa powder and espresso powder into a bowl and whisk in boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolaty, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in vanilla, then set aside to cool a little.

3.) In another small bowl, combine almond meal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom.  Set aside.

4.) Put sugar, olive oil and eggs into bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and hand mixer) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.

5.) Turn speed down a little and pour in cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in, you can slowly tip in almond meal/flour mixture.

6.) Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 25 - 30  minutes or until the center puffs up and a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it.  Do not over bake, it can dry out quickly.

 

7.) Let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack still in its pan, and then ease sides of the cake with a butter knife and spring it out of the pan.  Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm.  Dust with powdered sugar and/or serve with whipped cream.

Makes 8 to 12 slices.  

Enjoy!

"The Greatest Wealth is Health" - Virgil

"Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food." - Hippocrates

Charlie Trotter 1959-2013

Today Charlie Trotter's body was laid to rest.  When I heard the news last week of his unexpected passing, I was shocked and saddened.  While I didn't know him personally, I was fortunate enough to eat at his ground-breaking restaurant twice.  Once in 1989, just two years after he opened his famed name-sake, and again in 2001; this time working an event for a friend.  The second visit was unique because not only did I have the meal in his studio kitchen, I actually got paid to eat this amazing food.   

Charlie Trotter, considered one of the finest chefs in the world, changed the fine dining scene in Chicago, helping the city become the food capital it is today.  So many current Chicago (and beyond) chefs have learned so much from this talented, culinary master.  Trotter closed his 60-seat restaurant in August 2012 after 25 incredible years.

Click Here  to read a Chicago Tribune article about the memorial service.

My "take-away" from this intensely, creative chef fits the "youthful eating" philosophy I try to incorporate into my everyday life:

1.)  Trotter strived for excellence, not perfection.  Excellence allows for the human element which will never be perfect.

2.)  Even in his early days, Trotter veered away from cream and butter in favor of vegetable based sauces that didn't mask the flavor of the food as heavier sauces would have.  He also stopped serving foie gras long before Chicago's temporary ban of the luscious fat duck livers, because of the in-humane way it is made.

3.) Trotter did not serve hard alcohol in his restaurant.  He felt that too much alcohol interfered with the appreciation of food.  Wine was served with every course, and champagne to begin, but no hard alcohol.

4.)  While Trotter was known for his degustation menu, 12 courses in one sitting, his portions were small.  This allowed guests to enjoy multiple courses without feeling as if they were in a food coma at the end of the meal.  He wanted people to be energized from his food, not lethargic.

RIP Chef.

Lemon-Lavender Olive Oil Cake

 

 

I love using fresh herbs to cook with, but I especially love using them in baked goods because they're unexpected and deliver amazing flavor. Fresh rosemary and thyme are my favorites for cookies and cakes. 

  

  

 

This past weekend I did some baking for my niece's college graduation party and decided to try a new recipe.  Ever since I made Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake, I've been wanting to try a lemon version of it and I've noticed dried lavender paired with lemon before, so I knew it'd be the perfect addition to this cake, and it was.  I will definitely be making this one again. 

The single-layer cake tasted like something I would imagine is served during Afternoon Tea at the Plaza Hotel. If I had a daughter, she would be serving this to her dolls with a miniature tea set.  It's very light with a subtle lemon-lavender flavor that isn't too floral or too sweet.  Just lovely.

If you don't grow and dry your own lavender, you can find dried lavender in the spice section of your grocery store.  Target's Archer Farms brand is actually pretty good (and the one that I use).  Although I used mostly almond flour with a small amount of all-purpose flour, you could use all almond or all regular flour.  If you can't find almond flour, you can make it by grounding raw almonds in a food processor.  Really, any flour will work in this simple, easy recipe.

Enjoy!

Lemon-Lavender Olive Oil Cake

• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup natural cane sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• zest of one lemon
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 Tablespoon dried lavender
• powdered sugar to dust top of cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8-inch spring form pan with olive oil.  Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan and trim it so it lays flat.          
2. With the whisk attachment of an electric mixer or an electric hand-mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until they are light, fluffy and pale yellow - about 2-3 minutes.               
3. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and vanilla extract. Beat well.
4. Add the almond flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda               
5. Mix just until combined and then add the dried lavender.
6.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top no longer feels jiggly to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with crumbs attached. The top of the cake will be quite dark.
7.  When the cake is cool, remove the outside of the spring form pan. Just before serving, sprinkle the top of the cake with powdered sugar shaken through a small sieve or tea strainer.                                                

     

 "The Greatest Wealth is Health" - Roman Poet Virgil

"Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food." - Hippocrates

Nigella's Chocolate-Olive Oil Cake (and meeting her Highness!)

chocolate-olive oil cake

I'm a huge fan of Nigella Lawson "the UK's domestic goddess" so when the opportunity arose to hear her speak about her new Italian-inspired cookbook Nigellissima, I jumped at the chance.  On a very cold February night, I ventured out to the Union League Club in Chicago for a fun and interesting evening.  While Nigella signed copies of her book, the guests were treated to a sampling of recipes from Nigellissima.  Then she took the stage and was interviewed by long-time Chicago restaurateur, Ina Pickney. 

The first time I watched one of Nigella's cooking shows I was hooked.  I loved her unbridled passion for food and her "free-form" way of getting around a kitchen.  She makes no claims to be a chef, or that she's had any formal training.  Unapologetically, she is a home-cook who needs to get supper on the table for her family.  

While it was awesome to listen to her talk about her career and how she was influenced by Italian food while living in Italy, the main take-away I got from the entire experience was a bit melancholy. She talked about her mother who had an eating disorder and eventually died of cancer at the age of 48. While her mother was a great cook, food was always a source of stress and, more often, guilt. Her mother never ate with the enjoyment and pure bliss Nigella is so famous for. In fact, Nigella said the only time her mother ever ate food with joy or pleasure was when she knew she only had two weeks to live. Nigella swore she would never be that kind of person which is why she takes such delight in food - whether she is cooking for her family, friends or just for herself.

I found this revelation about Nigella's mother to be very sad. If we're making the effort to eat healthy most of the time and taking care of ourselves as best we can, we should be able to enjoy the occasional treat without feeling guilty about it, right? I know for myself, if I can't have pizza and ice cream every now and again, I'm not living.

In addition to Nigella's ability to make food sexy, I love that her recipes are simple and uncomplicated to prepare. She focuses on real, whole foods - nothing fat-free or artificial. And, I love how she claims to be "greedy" about food saying she doesn't like to waste any meals on eating something that isn't delicious. "It's never worth cooking anything for supper unless it can stand on equal footing with one of life's great and simplest gastro-delights, boiled egg on toast." Not that she wants to eat it every day; "...however little time or effort I can expend on the day's supper, I have to know it will deliver nothing less than pure pleasure." I agree.



Nigella & me

At the moment I've only tried a couple recipes from her new book - but so far so good.  Here is the recipe for her Chocolate-Olive Oil Cake which is amazing!  It's surprisingly light and healthy; it's flour-less and dairy free, but filled with ground almonds, chocolate and olive oil.  It's very, very easy and you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen.  It's delicious served warm with some raspberries on the side, as well as a dollop of fresh whipped cream, mascarpone or ice cream - but I've found it's also just as good, if not better, the next day.  Enjoy!

Chocolate-Olive Oil Cake

2/3 cup olive oil (plus more for greasing)

6 Tablespoons good quality cocoa powder

 (unsweetened)

1/2 cup boiling water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

powdered sugar for dusting

 1.) Heat oven to (325 F). Grease a  (9-inch) spring form pan with a little oil and line base with parchment.

2). Measure and sift cocoa powder into a bowl and whisk in boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in vanilla, then set aside to cool a little.

3.) In another smallish bowl, combine almond meal with baking soda and salt.

4.) Put sugar, olive oil and eggs into bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.

5.) Turn speed down a little and pour in cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in, you can slowly tip in almond meal mixture.

6.) Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until sides are set and the very center on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.

7.) Let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its pan, and then ease sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the pan.  Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm - center will be very moist, almost pudding like.

Makes 8 to 12 slices.

"The Greatest Wealth is Health" - Virgil

 "Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food." - Hippocrates

Chocolate Bark

dark chocolate bark with cranberries, pistachios and sea salt

If you're thinking about making a chocolate treat for your loved ones this Valentines Day, there's still time to make this easy chocolate bark recipe.  Chances are you have all the ingredients in your pantry.  All you need for the bare-bones version is a bag of chocolate chips and some dried fruit or nuts!

Of course if you're like me, you may want to fancy it up a bit, but still the ingredients are very basic and simple.  I like to start with dark chocolate that's at least 70% cocoa for the health benefits, but you can use whatever chocolate you like - milk, dark or white.  If you're going to use nuts, make sure they are roasted and lightly salted to bring out their flavor.  For the rest of the toppings, it's completely up to you and your taste buds.  Here's a list of ingredients that work well for chocolate bark:

Roasted, chopped nuts:  almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, peanuts
Chopped dried fruit:  apricots, cranberries, cherries
Orange zest (my favorite with chocolate!), candied ginger, sea salt

1.) To start, you'll need to melt the chocolate.  You can do so in the microwave, but I prefer the stove-top method.  You don't need a double boiler, but to create the effect, fill a stainless steel pot with about 1-2 inches of water.  Set a glass bowl on top of the pot so the bottom of the glass bowl just barely touches the water.  Add about 2 cups of chopped chocolate to the bowl and heat on a low to medium flame.

2.) Stir the chocolate with a wooden spoon until it is almost melted.  Carefully remove the glass bowl and continue to stir the chocolate until it is fully melted.  At this point if you are going to add orange zest, do so now. 

3.) Let the chocolate cool slightly, then pour onto a rimmed baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.  Try to keep it an inch or so from the edges.  Sprinkle the toppings evenly over the unset chocolate.  I always add a bit of coarse sea salt over the top to bring out all the flavors.

dark chocolate bark with orange zest, apricots and walnuts

3.) Let the bark sit to harden for an hour or so before cutting.  You should be able to drag the parchment paper onto a cutting board easily.

Enjoy! 

"The Greatest Wealth is Health" - Roman Poet Virgil

 "Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food." - Hippocrates

Almond-Walnut Butter

I've been buying almond butter at Trader Joe's for years since it's a staple in my picky son Jack's diet - and by staple I mean he eats it every day.  I usually have a pretty impressive stash of it in my pantry but for some reason Trader Joe's has been out of it for a while.  At first I panicked because almond butter is fairly pricey at most grocery stores compared to Trader Joe's.  However, the situation, and I'm sure you can see where this is going, forced me to make my own, and made me realize I should have been doing this years ago!  It's super easy and delicious.  If Jack eats it - not even noticing that anything has changed - I know it's good. 

He will eat peanut butter but since he eats it every day I wanted him to have  a variety, and it has more health benefits than peanut butter.  Almond butter has less saturated fat, eight times as much calcium, four times the amount of Vitamin E and twice the amount of iron than peanut butter.  Also, almonds are a powerful anti-oxidant and have anti-inflammatory properties. So almond butter is the clear winner here - especially for my son who eats a limited variety of foods.

I make this easy almond butter recipe almost once a week as Jack and I go through it pretty fast.  On my second batch, I thought I'd add some walnuts to pump up the healthy omega-3 fatty acids and as it turns out it's a great combination.  Next, I may try adding some sunflower seeds or ground flax seeds - any kind of nut or seed should work.

Enjoy!

 

Almond-Walnut Butter

1 lb raw, unsalted almonds
1 cup raw, unsalted walnut halves or pieces
2 teaspoons grape seed oil
coarse ground sea salt - to taste

1.)  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and spread almonds and walnuts out on an un-greased cookie or baking sheet and season with sea salt

 

2.)  Toast nuts in oven for 7-9 minutes - just until you can smell them, make sure they don't burn and let them cool for about 10 minutes.  You may want to add more sea salt at this point depending on your taste.

3.) When cool, add to food processor and pulse for a few minutes while stopping to scrape down the sides.  Mixture should be a coarse grain at this point. 

4.)  Add 2 teaspoons of the oil and pulse again for a few minutes until the nuts release their oils and a paste forms.  Keep on pulse until the level of consistency you desire is achieved.

5.)  Store in air-tight glass jars in refrigerator.

 

"The Greatest Wealth is Health" - Roman Poet Virgil

 

"Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food." - Hippocrates

Jack's Ginger Snaps (and picky eaters!)

My oldest son Jack is the pickiest eater in the world.  I know I'm not alone and that many parents are dealing with their own picky eaters, but my son won't even eat "normal" kid foods.  No pizza, pasta, macaroni & cheese, grilled cheese or worst of all - no fruits or vegetables of any kind.  This drives me crazy.  Our pediatrician says he's growing just fine and not to worry, he'll grow out of it.  Well, I do worry, and I'm not quite sure what to do about it.  I do, however, make sure that of the limited foods he does eat, that they are as nutritious as possible even if it's the same foods day in and day out:

For breakfast it's organic milk and homemade waffles (loaded with extra eggs, ground flax, oatmeal and applesauce.)  Lunch is organic, sprouted-grain bread with almond butter.  For diner it's organic chicken nuggets.  I also make sure he has a daily multi-vitamin, a fruit & vegetable "pill", omega-3 tablets and extra Vitamin C.
 

We have tried to get him to eat other things, and he did when he was very young, but as he grew up he got pickier and pickier and the nightly food battles were getting us nowhere and causing tremendous stress in our family.  He claims his taste buds are "different" than ours and that's why he eats the way he does.  I will always worry about his limited eating habits, but he is growing fine and doing well in school, so we'll keep doing what we're doing and hope and pray he branches out with his food choices.  (For the record, my youngest son eats everything: sushi/sashimi, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, pickled ginger, sardines, anchovies...quite the extreme)

Because of Jack's "special taste buds" there isn't much I can cook or bake for him that he will eat, so when we discovered that he loved my Ginger Snaps we were thrilled and surprised at the same time because they are rather spicy.  (I know it's just a cookie and who wouldn't love a cookie? but believe me, Jack won't eat just any cookie)   So every year for Christmas I make these Ginger Snaps specially for Jack who thinks they're "awesome."

While I've been baking these cookies for years, I've always felt bad about using one ingredient:  shortening.  There is plenty of butter in the cookie, which is fine, but the shortening is needed to make the cookie perfectly round.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist (perhaps a little OCD) when I bake.  Although Crisco claims to be "trans-fat free" it's full of hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated crap that I just don't feel good about using even if it's a small amount. This year I used coconut oil instead (in the winter months coconut oil has the same consistency as Crisco) and I'm happy to report the cookies not only taste great but are perfectly round and beautiful!  

  Enjoy!

 

Jack's Ginger Snaps

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of sugar reserved for rolling
4 cups of all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons ground ginger
1/2 cup dark molasses
2 large eggs, beaten


1.)  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

2.)  In a bowl, cream butter, coconut oil, and 2 cups of sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed.  In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.

3.)  Add molasses to butter mixture;  beat to combine.   Beat in eggs until well combined.  Reduce mixer speed to low;  slowly add the reserved flour mixture, a little at a time until well blended.

4.) Place the remaining cup of sugar in a small bowl.  Measure about 2 teaspoons of dough;  roll into a ball and roll dough in sugar.  Transfer to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Repeat, spacing balls 3 inches apart.  Bake for 11 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

"The Greatest Wealth is Health" - Roman Poet Virgil

"Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food." - Hippocrates