Every time we’ve visited Poland we have been treated to one of my favorite desserts (anywhere), a cake my husband’s family refers to as Krakow Cake. It’s a recipe developed a world away from anything we know now, with the absence of overpowering sweetness that we’ve come to expect in American desserts. After a big meal this moist and slightly tart (depending on the jam you use) cake can really hit the spot.

When we’re in Poland I can be found eating this cake several times a day. I admit it’s one of my favorite breakfast items. We can call it a breakfast pastry, right?

A big thank you to That Husband’s family for allowing me to share this recipe with all of you. If you try it I know they would love it if you would come back and share your thoughts with them in the comment section below. Read more →

Cooking club has been really fun, but it hasn’t really been growing, and the past few months interest in attending has been so low that I’ve cancelled. I find this embarrassing, yes, but I’ve decided that I’m not going to let fear of failure hold me back. And really, is it failing if there are 3-4 women in my life who I spend a few hours with once a month and have a fantastic time with?

I admit, I hope that things go better in San Francisco though.

Back in November, my friend taught us how to make sushi. It was so easy! I then tried to make it myself, using brown rice, which left me with very loose rolls and not-quite-right rice, but I know it would have taken me a lot longer to try it if she hadn’t shown me how easy it is. Similar instructions to what she provided can be found here.

She also took some time to show how how to make dumplings. A bit time intensive with all of the folding (and making them look as pretty as she does is definitely an art) but worth the effort. A great tutorial similar to the one she gave us can be found here.

And that’s what we do at cooking club! Does it sound like what you were expecting when I introduced the idea a few months ago?

I love step-by-step cooking tutorial posts, but I tend to avoid them due to our current windowless kitchen situation (the resulting photos depress me a little bit). Because I love this soup so much though, I am willing to put up with the awful lighting and hope that you will give it a try.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Chop up about 1 lb of carrots. I use this mandoline and it makes the process go so much faster. I then use my olive-oil mister to cover the carrots with a light coat of olive oil. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper on top.

After an amount of time that I haven’t recorded, your carrots will look a bit shriveled and blackened on the edges like this. Take the black ones, bite off the good parts (try it, they’re kind of like carrot chips) and set the rest aside.

Chop up some onions and throw them in a big pot with some olive oil, stir until translucent and a bit browned. Add in your ginger and stir that around a bit as well.

Add a container of vegetable broth, salt, and coriander. Simmer until the carrots are tender.

Pour in a half can of coconut milk (or a whole can if you’re indulgent like me).

Blend it up (I also highly recommend getting a hand blender if you’re going to make soup a lot. Dumping boiling ingredients into a food processer/blender can be so hazardous (and means cleaning up yet another dish).

I reserved a carrot as a garnish, but I like blending them all up.

This is one of my favorite soups ever, and so easy. Roasting the carrots is extra work, but it brings out a richness that you wouldn’t get if you boiled the carrots raw.

A little behind-the-scenes glimpse into what it’s like for me to get pictures like this.

Coconut Carrot and Ginger Soup

Inspired by Eat Live Run’s Carrot and Ginger Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced

2 T minced fresh ginger

1 T olive oil

1 onion (preferably sweet) chopped

3-4 cups vegetable broth

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp coriander

1 can coconut milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the carrots out on a baking sheet, spray with olive oil, and put in the oven until the carrot slices on the edges start to blacken. Remove from the oven.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent and starting to brown. Add the ginger.

Add the roasted carrots, broth, coriander and salt and bring to a boil.

Boil until carrots are completely tender and the broth is looking opaque. Add in the coconut milk. Blend.

We hosted dessert night for our fellow Mormon business school students and their families. It was inspired by dessert nights we used to have with some of the Mormons families at Company X, and it was awesome. Something like 10 couples and 12 kids all in our apartment living room at one time. Toys were broken, way too much dessert was eaten, and the only rule was to bring something sweet (or savory) when you showed up.

I decided to make this caramel apple cake, as seen on Pinterest of course, but made a few changes that I think are worth following. The apple spiral pattern on top? I’m pretty sure that was lying dormant in my brain somewhere based on this very old post by Orangette. She arranges food so beautifully. I think the holes in top look a little bit funny, but don’t skip out on them. They really help the caramel soak in, and none of my guests knew this was a whole wheat flour dessert.

Whole Wheat Caramel Apple Cake

Adapted from Lick the Bowl Good

Apple Cake:
1 1/2 100% whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil (or other neutral oil, like Grapeseed)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples

Caramel Glaze:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
8 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons heavy cream

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a stick of butter to prepare and grease your pan.
Mix together the dry ingredients. Flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl use a mixer to beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Add the oil and vanilla and beat on high until mixed well. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed. Add in the apple chunks and mix until apple chunks are combined well.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. It will be difficult to tell when it’s done, because it is so dark. Make sure you don’t overcook it!
Poke holes in the top of your cake with a wooden spoon to allow caramel to soak all the way through (very essential with the 100% whole wheat flour). While the cake cools, prepare your caramel glaze.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat, add in the brown sugar and vanilla. Cook until combined, and then spoon in the heavy cream. Simmer for 2-3 minutes at a gentle boil.

Pour the glaze on top of the cake. Let cool for about 30 minutes, but serve warm. Would be delicious with a spoon of ice cream on the side. (I will do that next time.)

Up until a few weeks ago, I had never made my own applesauce. I think I placed it on a pedestal next to canning. Lots of work, lots of dishes, not worth it. Then my favorite blogger, Skip, mentioned that Martha Stewart has his recipe on her website. I clicked over, and it has two steps. Two? That doesn’t sound anything like canning in terms of difficulty. In fact, the most difficult thing about applesauce is peeling the apples, but I tell myself it’s manual labor (which equals more calories burned) and don’t mind the work. If you have the space you can always get one of these apple peelers my mom used when I was a kid.

In case you didn’t believe me, I took some step-by-step picture to show you how easy this is.

1. Gather up your apples. No need to wash them because you are peeling them anyway. Or if you are my mom you will wash them because you are crazy about germs and such. (Love you mom!)

2. Peel your apples.

3. Core your apples and but them into chunks. (As you can see above, I used the apple corer to do this in one genius move.)

4. Dump in a pot of boiling water. When they are fork-tender, drain.

5. Juice several oranges. I used 4 the first time, but only had two the second time. The amount of orange juice will determine both how runny it is, and how sweet it is (without sugar).

6. Next, dump in your brown sugar and your apple pie spice. Or you can just use cinnamon, but I like using apple pie spice because it feels more like I’m eating dessert.

7. Mash with a potato masher.

8. Store in the fridge.

Applesauce with Orange Juice

Adapted from Skip’s Homemade Applesauce

About 10 apples
Juice from 2-4 oranges
1/4 cup brown sugar, add more as desired
2 teaspoons apple pie spice or cinnamon

Start a pot of water to boil, while that is working peel, core, and cut up your apples (quartering them is fine).

Boil until fork goes right through. Drain. Dump into a bowl and mash together with orange juice, sugar, and apple pie spice. Add more sugar to reach the amount of sweetness you desire.

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This recipe is crazy flexible. In fact, you can vary every single ingredient to figure out the kind of taste you want. More apples, less sugar, more spices, make it runnier with more orange juice. You can also make this with skins on, and feed it through the food processor until it’s smooth (which would increase the fiber), but I like the slight chunkiness that comes from gently mashing peel-free boiled apples.