Elizabeth's extra cakes - Yiaourtopita and Blueberry Crumb Cake #3

BONUS CAKES! This post is about 2 extra cakes I made this year.

The first is a recipe for Yiaourtopita, which means yogurt cake. (pronounced yeeah-oor-TOH-pee-tah)

I found this recipe on about.com. I was making Greek meatballs for some friends for dinner and I wanted a Greek dessert to finish. If you can't find thick Greek yogurt, the recipe says you can start with plain yogurt and strain it to thicken it. I bought Greek yogurt, but used half of it in a cucumber salad (tasty!), so I had to augment the rest with some plain yogurt that I strained. I hate changing more than one thing in a recipe, BUT I also didn't have a 13" square baking pan. I used two 8" round pans instead.

I don't have any photos! Here's why: I found out our friends were coming to dinner only an hour and a half before dinnertime. I ran to the store for ingredients, cooked dinner, and got the cake into the oven at the very last minute. The cakes cooked while we ate the meatballs. When the cakes came out of the oven, we ate them within 15 minutes and polished them off like nobody's business! (because it was nobody's business, alright? Don't make me come over there!) Hence, no pictures.

I will tell you, though, that this cake rocked! It had a slight sourness to it, because of the yogurt, and that made it FABULOUS! When I was plating it up, it looked very plain, so I sprinkled each slice with powdered sugar and put a single strawberry on the side. They looked lovely and tasted terrific. I'll be making this cake often. I love thicker, European style cakes without frosting. I like to call them "Hand Cakes," because you can hold a slice in your hand without getting all messy. Well, unless you're my 18-month-old. (Recipe at the end of the post.)

My other BONUS cake is another Blueberry Crumb Cake (the second for me this year, and the third overall. ....uh..I mean NUMBER ONE overall! YEAH!!! Woot! Woot!)

This is a Dorie Greenspan recipe. She's my new best friend. I adore her and want to be just like her, minus the short, short hair.

I made this for some other friends of mine. We all sat around my table talking and drinking tea/cocoa and eating this cake. Wonderful.

Here is a picture of it in my trash can. What?! YES, that's right. My husband, who liked it very much, decided after a couple of pieces that what he really liked was the crumb topping, so he ate the top off a piece and threw it away. I couldn't believe it! The bottom was MY favorite part. We could have been like Jack Sprat and his wife, for crying out loud!! But Jeff didn't even ask. The nerve. Oh well. I guess it was his piece, after all.


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The recipes:

Yiaourtopita

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:

* 5 eggs
* 3 cups of all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups of sugar
* 1 1/8 cups of thick yogurt (Greek preferable)
* 1/2 pound of soft margarine (2 1/4 sticks)
* 1 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder
* grated peel of 1 orange or lemon or bergamot orange
* 1 tablespoon of butter
* confectioner's (powdered) sugar (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

In a mixing bowl, beat the margarine with the sugar and butter until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and, alternating between the flour and yogurt, add them slowly to the mix. Mix until smooth and add the grated orange (or lemon or pergamot orange) peel last.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly buttered 13" (or equivalent) cake pan, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes. If desired, when the cake rises, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and cover with foil until done.

Yield: serves 12-15

Note: If the yogurt is not very thick, baking time will need to be increased. Test for doneness.




Blueberry Crumb Cake
Source: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: from My Home to Yours

For the Crumbs:
5 tbsp unsalted butter at room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

For the Cake:
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries (preferably fresh, or frozen, not thawed)
2 cups plus 2 tsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1/2 lemon or 1/4 orange
3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter at room temp
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 8-inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.To make the crumbs: Put all the ingredients except the nuts in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps and curds and holds together when pressed. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir in the nuts and press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface. Refrigerate until needed. (Covered well the crumb mix can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

To make the cake: Using your fingertips, toss the blueberries and 2 tsp of the flour together in a small bowl just to coat the berries; set aside. Whisk together the remaining 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Working in the bowl of a stand mixer or in another large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Don’t be concerned if the batter looks curdled — it will soon smooth out. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients.) You will have a thick, creamy batter. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the berries.

Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the fridge and, with your fingertips, break it into pieces. There’s no need to try to get even pieces — these are crumbs, they’re supposed to be lumpy and bumpy and every shape and size. Scatter the crumbs over the batter, pressing them down ever so slightly.

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool just until it is warm or until it reaches room temperature.

Ann's April Pie - Hippie Pie

I went home to Arizona for a triumphant reunion of all of my siblings during the last week of April. I knew before I left that I wanted to make an Arizona-themed pie to share with the family while I was there, and spent days looking for something appropriate. I considered a southwestern-flavored savory pie or quiche, or something with a name that sounded like it came from my home state: sun, or diamondback, or snake, or desert...you get the idea. I was sure that I'd find something online, but I searched and searched and found nothing. I turned to the archives of Sue Anne's Pie of the Month site, and found a couple of possiblities, the best being Dry Pie. However, you will notice in the recipe that a key ingredient is pumpkin puree. Now I must make a confession: the ONLY food in the world that I hate is pumpkin pie. I loathe it. I try every year to eat some at Thanksgiving and it is just as bad as I remember. Moreover, only my parents like pumpkin pie in my family; my mom has asked every year at Thanksgiving how I can be my father's daughter when I hate pumpkin pie so much. Knowing that I'd be serving my pie to my pumpkin-hating siblings, it didn't seem quite fair to force us all to eat it - and to leave my mom with the entire thing. Therefore, I went with an Arizona theme I could get behind: ice cream pie.

Specifically, I made a family favorite: hippie pie. Hippie pie is not to be confused with hippie pie, which is like the Pizzookie at Oregano's and is perfect and delicious. Hippie pie is an ice cream pie that my family eats after watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. I decided that the best thing I could do for my month's pie would be something that my family would all love and we could enjoy together. There's actually another version of hippie pie that has cherries and chocolate flakes, but this is the one we eat every year.

This is such an easy dessert to make because it's just layering the different ingredients. You start with an Oreo crust and layer vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet, chopped walnuts, blueberry jam, and fruit. Voila! Hippe pie.

Here I am with the finished pie, and two random kids that wanted to hang out with me. Okay, I'm related to them. They're Listle's kids, Badam and Bella.

Can you see why it's called hippie pie? Psychadelic!!!

It tasted just like summer to me. Since I'm not going home for the Fourth of July this year, I was glad to get to share it with my family - we probably won't be in the same place together for a long time (Lee is moving to China with her family, and Pat is moving to Philly), so it was great to be home and remember happy memories. Despite the fact that we all got food poisoning over the next few days from the Mexican take-out we'd had for dinner, it was hot, summery, Arizona perfection.

Enjoy.

Ann's Hippie Pie (not to be confused with Hippie Pie)

1 chocolate cookie crumb crust

Vanilla ice cream

Raspberry sorbet

Walnuts, chopped fine

1 jar blueberry jam

Fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

Fresh blueberries

Spoon vanilla ice cream into the crust until it is halfway full. Smooth to create a solid layer. Spoon a layer of raspberry sorbet over this, then top with more vanilla ice cream, mounding up in a rounded dome. Smooth out. Spoon blueberry jam over the top - be careful, it may spill down the sides, so put a plate underneath the pie shell to catch any drips. It may be a good idea to create a ring of foil around the edge of the shell to keep the jam from spilling over (I didn't do this - I just let it get all over my brother's freezer). Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the top, and then layer the strawberries and blueberries in whatever pattern you'd like. In fact you could use whatever fruit you want - different ice cream flavors, etc., but since this is Fourth of July themed, my family uses this combination. Place in the freezer and allow ice cream to re-harden for several hours before serving- or just eat it when you feel like it. What's the worst that can happen?

Chocolate Cookie Crumb Crust

from America's Test Kitchen

16 Oreo cookies (with filling), broken into rough pieces, about 2 1/2 cups

2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled

1. For the Crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade, process cookies with 15 one-second pulses, then let machine run until crumbs are uniformly fine, about 15 seconds. (Alternatively, place cookies in large zipper-lock plastic bag and crush with rolling pin.) Transfer crumbs to medium bowl, drizzle with butter, and use fingers to combine until butter is evenly distributed.
2. Pour crumbs into 9-inch Pyrex pie plate. Following illustration below, press crumbs evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie plate. Refrigerate lined pie plate 20 minutes to firm crumbs, then bake until crumbs are fragrant and set, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack while preparing filling.

Ann's January Pie: Blueberry - Sour Cream

When I was looking for options for my first pie, I became quite overwhelmed by the vast number of options. Anyone who knows how obsessive I am will understand the hours I spent researching different pies, how many books I checked out from the library about pie, how many websites I perused. But, just as Sue Anne recommended on her website, Ken Haedrich's Pie: 300 Tried and True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie had everything I wanted and needed to guide me in my decision. My options were whittled down considerably when I decided that in fairness to my new roommate, I should use some of the frozen berries that I was currently using to dominate our shared freezer space. I picked blueberries last July and raspberries in, amazingly, October, but had put off using them for the sake of some special event that I was sure would present itself. Instead, berries weren't being eaten and my roommate was dropping hints that she'd really love to get food out of the freezer without half its contents falling on her. So, after consulting with the friend who volunteered to eat the pie, a blueberry - sour cream pie was chosen.















I must confess that when I started researching pies, I got a little intimidated by the idea of making a pastry crust for my first pie attempt of the year. So lame! I should be fearless - so many suggestions from pie pros have said to approach the pie without fear if you want success. Next month, I'll do better. In the meantime, I decided to ease into the year by going with a standard graham cracker crust. Look, this proves that I made it by hand!














I made one crust and put it in a pie plate, but it was worried that it wouldn't all fit, so I transfered the crumbs into another plate. Unfortunately, I realized once I cooked the filling that the the crust was now too big! Perhaps it would have helped had I measured one pound of frozen blueberries on something other than a bathroom scale. (Note: Yes, I will accept donations for a kitchen scale.) To flesh out the filling a bit, I bought a very expensive 4 ounces of fresh blueberries to layer on top of the cooked berry filling. The recipe gave this as an optional step, and I'm glad I took the suggestion. Otherwise, I'd have had the thinnest, saddest pie ever.














The next morning, I made the sour cream - cream cheese topping, flecked with cheerful bits of lemon zest that fell effortlessly from my Microplane. As you can see from the picture, it wasn't the cleanest assembly, so I carefully loosened the excess crust from the edges of the plate and allowed the crumbs to overlap the outer edge of the topping by 3/4 inch. Uh, I, guess I didn't take a picture of that, but I swear, it looked much better than this picture!

I took the finished pie to a couple of different places. First, it made an appearance at a journal making party, where the first piece fell apart as I lifted it out, but the remaining slices were beautifully layered.



Oh, there you can see the overlapping crust!

Later, I tried the pie with my volunteer, C. Here he is, I think enjoying the pie.



He had just finished watching Office Space and was trying to replicate one of Jennifer Aniston's facial expressions. Attractive.


Finally, my friend D., Ph.D., had a small sliver at British Sunday and proclaimed it "really good", and my roommate finished it off as we held our almost-nightly ritual of sitting on opposite couches with our laptops and telling each other funny things we find online.



I thought the pie was wonderful. I felt a bit nervous as I was making it because small setbacks (the crust, the scale, etc.) seemed to endanger the final product, but I was amazed at how well the pure flavors came through: the sweetness of the blueberries, the sour lemon zest, the tang of sour cream. It's a classic flavor combination, but it still surprised me how pleasant it was to taste each element individually yet simultaneously. The uncooked, fresh berry layer was also a favorite amongst tasters - each berry popped with juice as you bit into it before melting into the cooked blueberries, creating a textural contrast that, for me, took the pie from "really crazy good" to "I can't talk right now..."

All in all, I was really proud of my first attempt, and I learned more about my equipment to make sure that things are easier in February.


Blueberry - Sour Cream Pie
from Pie: 300 Tried and True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie by Ken Haedrich

1 recipe Graham Cracker Crumb Crust


Filling:
One 1-lb bag individually frozen blueberries (not packaged in syrup)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Handful of fresh blueberries (optional)


Cream cheese - sour cream topping:
One 8-ounce package full-fat cream cheese, softened (note: I used Neufchatel, and thought it was perfectly fine)
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup full-fat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


Garnish:
Handful of fresh blueberries or threads of lemon zest (optional)


1. Prepare the crust and press it into the bottom and up the side of a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie pan. Refrigerate, prebake, and let cool as directed.

2. Combine the frozen blueberries and lemon juice in a medium-size nonreactive saucepan. Cover, and cook over medium to low heat until the blueberries are almost simmering in their own liquid. Mix the granulated sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the berries. Bring the fruit to a boil, stirring. Once the fruit starts to boil, reduce the heat a little and cook, stirring nonstop, for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Scrape the fruit into a shallow bowl and let cool for 15 minutes.

3. Spoon the partially cooled filling into the cooled pie shell and smooth with a spoon. If you're using fresh berries, scatter them over the fruit and press them into the cooked berries. Refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make the topping. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugars, and lemon zest together in a medium-size bowl until smooth. Add the sour cream and vanilla and blend briefly until smooth. Spoon the filling over the chilled pie and smooth the top with a spoon. Cover with loosely tented aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

5. Just before serving, garnish with the blueberries or lemon zest, if desired.


Graham Cracker Crumb Crust

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Big pinch of salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted


1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter pie pan and set aside.

2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Mix briefly with your fingers. Add the butter and incorporate well, mixing first with a fork, then with your hands, rubbing thoroughly to form evenly dampened crumbs.

3. Spread the crumbs evenly and loosely in the pan, pressing them into the bottom and up the side. Refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Place on the center oven rack and bake for 7 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before filling.