Pink Cakes and Freeze-Dried Strawberries

My ingredient obsession of the moment: freeze-dried strawberries. Have you tried them yet? You may have had them in your breakfast cereal. They're light as a feather and seem to dissolve instantly on your tongue, and they taste like…well, imagine if you crammed an entire pint of super-ripe strawberries into your mouth along with a couple of strawberry Jolly Ranchers—that's how they taste.

Perhaps it's because strawberry season is three long months away or perhaps it's because freeze-dried strawberries really are that good, but I've been grinding them up and putting them in everything. I love how they turn buttercreams and cake batters technicolor pink. It's like when Dorothy found herself in Oz and suddenly the world was in brilliant color. But with flavor! Three quarters of an ounce of strawberry powder plus a little tinkering transformed my regular financier batter into these lovely treats.


I'm thinking of making pink angel food cake or pink yellow cake frosted with pink whipped cream next.

Strawberry-Almond Teacakes
Printable Recipe

¾ ounce freeze-dried strawberries
5 ½ ounces sugar
2 ½ ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the tins
2 ½ ounces almond meal
5 ounces egg whites, at room temperature
5 ounces (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the tins

Grind the freeze-dried strawberries to a fine powder in a blender, spice mill, or clean coffee grinder. Whisk together the strawberry powder, sugar, flour, and almond meal in a large bowl. Whisk in the egg whites until thoroughly combined and then whisk in the butter until thoroughly combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Butter and flour a standard 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper liners and divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake for 24 to 26 minutes, or until golden brown and the edges of the teacakes start to shrink away from the pan. Let the teacakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Invert onto cooling racks and finish cooling completely.

Makes 1 dozen teacakes. Both the unbaked batter and the finished teacakes have good keeping qualities.

Have a Biscuit

This morning I had a little bit of time to spare, so I decided to bake biscuits. Want one?


But before you dig in, I have to mention that registration for spring Clark College classes just opened. Please join me in the kitchen! I'll be teaching Seafood Primer, Quiche, Sensational Salads for Spring, and Muffins & Scones II. Current class listings can always be found in the Cooking Classes, Book Signings & Appearances sidebar on the right.

Cheddar-Herb Biscuits
Printable Recipe

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 tablespoon minced Italian parsley
2 teaspoons nigella seeds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Generous pinch cayenne pepper
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, shredded
8 ounces (2 cups) shredded sharp cheddar
1 ¾ cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
½ teaspoon paprika

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, chives, parsley, nigella, salt, and cayenne in a large bowl. Add the butter and, using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Toss in the cheddar. Add the buttermilk to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Transfer to a work surface and knead a few times until the dough just holds together. Lightly flour the work surface, pat the dough into a 1-inch thick circle, and cut using a 2 ½-inch round cutter. Arrange the biscuits a couple of inches apart on parchment-lined baking trays. Gather the scraps, knead once or twice, and roll, cut, and arrange on baking trays in the same manner. Lightly brush the biscuits with the cream and sprinkle with the paprika. Bake for 24 to 26 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes about 2 dozen small biscuits. Work quickly and with a light touch to prevent the butter in the pastry from melting. Dip the cutter into a little flour between each cut to prevent the dough from sticking to it. Serve biscuits warm, possibly stuffed with a slice of good ham. Nigella, which can also be known as kalonji or charnushka, tastes very much like thyme and is available at Indian markets and at Penzeys Spices. Biscuits keep for a day or two in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry place.

Chinese Roast Pork Belly

It's all about the skin…

It's also about the unctuous meat beneath…


But really it's all about that marvelous crisp and golden brown skin. It must be manipulated into puffing up like a chicharron. Like a pork doodle. Let me tell you about the process…

But first, I have a few tidbits to share. Fellow food writer Amy Rogers Nazarov quoted me in her article "Social Media" in the February issue of The ASJA Monthly—thanks for the interview, Amy! Michael Natkin over at Herbivoracious blogged these Homemade Caraway Rye Crackers based on my recipe for Semolina Crackers—how cool is that?! And I was featured on Mother Lovely—what an honor! I just have to say that knowing my work can give others inspiration in some small way is such an amazing feeling!


Chinese Roast Pork Belly
Printable Recipe

1 2 ½ pound piece skin-on pork belly
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
Kosher salt

Using a pair of fish tweezers, remove any bristles from the skin of the pork belly. Mix together the baking soda and 1 tablespoon of water in a dish that's just large enough to hold the pork belly. Add the pork belly skin side down, sprinkle the flesh side with the five-spice, and scatter over the garlic. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Discard the garlic. Transfer the pork to a paper towel-lined plate skin side down and drain for about a minute. Transfer the pork to a cutting board skin side up, brush the skin with the rice vinegar, and pat dry with paper towels. With a knife, score the skin with a diamond pattern, being careful not to pierce the flesh. Season the pork generously with salt. Transfer the pork to a rack on a roasting pan skin side up and refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Remove the pork from the refrigerator and set aside at room temperature for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Roast the pork for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature to 375°F and roast for another 35 to 45 minutes, or until cooked through. Turn the broiler on and cook, maneuvering the pork under the broiler as necessary so that it browns evenly, for 8 to 10 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and puffed all over. Remove the pork to a cutting board and allow to rest uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes before cutting. Cut the pork into bite-size pieces and serve immediately.

Serves 6 to 8. Start this recipe 2 days before you intend to serve it. Select a meaty piece of pork belly. The thick skin would ordinarily cook up hard and chewy. So how do we coax it into becoming an irresistible light crackling instead? It's a matter of breaking down the skin and drying it out (i.e. drawing out as much moisture as possible) before it goes into the oven and then using very high heat to cook it. This is accomplished with baking soda, vinegar, salt, refrigerating uncovered, and high heat roasting and broiling. (Many recipes call for scalding the pork skin by pouring boiling hot water over it as a first step, but I find this to be unnecessary if the pork is impeccably fresh and of the highest quality. I've also heard of people using baking powder, lye water, and even vodka for processing the skin.) Encouraging the fat to render, which is done by scoring (though you can pierce the skin all over, like hundreds of times, instead), is also key. Take care measuring and applying the baking soda as excess can react with the fat in the heat of the oven and cause a soapy off flavor. Incidentally, one purpose of the vinegar in this recipe is to neutralize the baking soda to prevent that from happening. The pork must sit level on the roasting rack so that fat can run off as it renders—pooling fat will inhibit formation of the crackling—and so that it broils evenly. If it is not level, prop up the low spots with some wadded up pieces of foil. Position the pan on the center rack of the oven for the duration of the cooking time—do not move it up for the broiling step. One last thing, when the pork comes out of the oven, don't tent it with foil as it rests to prevent condensation from forming and sogging out the crackling.

Twiks Bars

Forget the heart-shaped box of chocolates. Your sweetie would rather have these…


You would rather have these…


To all the romantics out there, happy Valentine's Day!

Twiks Bars
Printable Recipe

For the shortbread crust:
12 ounces (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced, plus more for greasing the baking dish
15 ounces all-purpose flour
3 ounces sugar
¾ teaspoon kosher salt

For the caramel layer:
10 ounces sugar
4 ounces water
3 ounces heavy cream
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1/8 teaspoon fleur de sel

For the chocolate layer:
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped or scant 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces unsalted (¾ stick) butter, diced

Make the shortbread crust:
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish and line with parchment paper. Combine all of the ingredients in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low for 8 to 9 minutes, or until the dough comes together. Transfer the dough to the baking dish and press into an even layer. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

Make the caramel layer:
Combine the sugar and water in a small, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, brush down the sides of the pan with water, and boil for 11 to 13 minutes, or until caramelized. The sugar will be fragrant and a deep amber color when it is caramelized. Remove the pan from the heat and dip the bottom into an ice water bath for a second or two. Slowly stir in the cream and butter and then stir in the fleur de sel. Pour the caramel over the shortbread and spread evenly. Let cool to room temperature.

Make the chocolate layer:
Combine the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl, place the bowl over a small pan of simmering water, and heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Pour the chocolate mixture over the caramel layer and spread evenly. Let cool for a couple of hours, or until set.

To serve:
Using the parchment paper, lift the bars out of the pan and transfer them to a cutting board. Cut into portions and serve.

Makes 24 bars. Inspired by a certain well-known and well-loved candy bar: Twix. For a professional-looking presentation, cut the bars using a hot knife and wipe it clean between cuts. Bars keep for several days in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry place.