Retro Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

There's an interesting story behind this recipe. I had it once eating at a friend's residence dining hall at university, and somehow I got so hung up on it that I needed to get the recipe. However, I had no idea who to ask- so I asked one of the kitchen staff, who told me to contact the catering office, which eventually took me through a chain of e-mails to a creepy but cool basement kitchen where a very nice lady gave me a photocopy of the recipe for my beloved pineapple upside-down cake. Turns out it's an old one that used to be printed on the bags from Robin Hood flour, but their recipe has since changed and cannot be found online. It's lucky, then, that I found the source of the old version I liked so much.

Since the recipe given to me was in near-industrial proportions (think 10 cups of butter), I cut it down to a more manageable home-baking size. I also had to figure out the procedure for making it on my own, since no instructions were given. I found that crumbling the butter with the dry ingredients first made for a better texture, and that you had to bake it at a relatively high temperature for a long time for it to cook all the way through.

I made a couple of changes of my own- the rum extract, replacing some of the milk with sour cream for tenderness, and cake flour instead of all-purpose. This cake is even better if you use fresh pineapple, though the canned one is definitely more retro-Americana. Don't skip the cherries if you want the full '50s flair, not that the era had much going for it apart from cake if you ask me. Because it's so pretty, you might want to serve this as the centerpiece dessert for an all-American meal or with coffee when guests with a particularly sweet tooth (there's a lot of butterscotchy caramel in the topping) are over.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

1 3/4 C. Cake flour
1 C. Sugar
1/2 TBSP Baking powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 C. (115 g.) Butter, softened
2 Eggs
1/2 C. Sour cream
1/4-1/3 C. Milk
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 Tsp. Rum extract, optional

Topping:
1 3/4 C. Dark brown sugar
1/2 C. (115 g.) Butter, melted
1 Can pineapple rings, or 1 ripe pineapple cut into thin slices
9 Maraschino or glacé cherries, optional

Preheat oven to 190℃.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Work in butter until crumbly.

Mix the eggs, sour cream, milk and vanilla and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

For the topping, blend the brown sugar and melted butter until well-combined. pour into a 9''x9'' square pan or 10" round pan. Arrange pineapple slices and cherries and pour the batter on top, spreading evenly.

Bake for 45-55 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before inverting the pan onto the serving plate.

Carrot-Almond Squares for Easter

I love carrot cake, and it just seems right to have something with carrots for easter. But these squares are nothing like regular carrot cake, apart from the earthy taste of the carrots, moisture from the oil and mildly spiced flavour. Instead, these are more like blondies- almost fudgy because of how moist they are and not as light as a loaf or layer cake. I use almond extract and slivered almonds to complement the almond flour that helps contribute to the texture.

As an added plus, this recipe is really, really easy- even accounting for the sour cream glaze I made as a slightly tangy alternative to cream cheese frosting, it takes hardly any time to make and only really requires a couple of bowls. Perfect if, like me, you still have a lot of easter baking to get through.

Carrot-Almond Squares
Adapted from chefkoch.de

200 g. Grated carrots
125 g. Flour
125 g. Sugar
1 Tsp. Baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp. Cardamom
100 g. Ground almonds/almond flour
1/2 Tsp. Almond extract
125 ml. Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 C. Unskinned slivered almonds to decorate, if desired

Preheat oven to 180℃ and grease an 8"x8" pan well. 

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix with the remaining ingredients in a food processor or by hand until well combined. 

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a fork poked in comes out clean. Let cool before using a knife to cut around the edges and inverting the pan onto a plate to remove the cake.

For the Sour Cream Glaze:
2 TBSP Sour cream
2/3 C. Powder sugar
Drop each of vanilla extract and lemon juice

Blend all until thoroughly combined and pour onto cooled cake. Sprinkle on slivered almonds if using.

Key Lime Pie Bars

I lost these pictures for a while amongst the other things I baked this summer- but I'm glad to find them again, because these are really delicious. I made them with what was left in the pantry just before departing on vacation as a gift for the family watching our cats, and they were extremely popular from the reviews I got.

You need very few ingredients to put these together, provided you can find key limes- but I think they'd probably be pretty good made with regular Persian limes (or maybe meyer lemons!) instead. Another garnish idea is toasted shredded coconut, seeing as coconut and lime go so well together.

Key Lime Pie Bars
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

For the Crust:
1- 1 1/4 C. Graham cracker crumbs
5 TBSP Butter, melted
2 TBSP Sugar

Mix all in a food processor until the consistency is that of wet sand. Pat onto the base and sides of a greased and parchment-lined 8"x8" baking tray. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until set firmly.

For the Filling:
1/2 C. Key lime juice
Zest of 6 key limes
4 Egg yolks
14 Oz. Sweetened condensed milk

Mix juice, zest and yolks with a whisk. Stir in milk and keep whisking until thickened. Pour onto the cooled crust and bake at 170℃ until set but still wobbly when poked, about 15-18 minutes.

For the Topping:
1 C. Sour cream
1/4 C. Powder sugar

Mix well and spread on top of the cooled bars.

Sour Cream Jam Cookies

You see those ugly things on the right? The ones that aren't even stuck together properly, oozing jam and plain as anything? They're fantastic.

Their not-so-attractive exterior belies their deliciousness, meaning that there's a reward for those who don't judge a book by its cover and get all the deliciousness to themselves. Mind you, they can be very pretty if you make them that way- You can roll up the dough with the filling inside to make swirls, or make sandwiches with two pieces of dough and a pretty cut-out design. You can use powder sugar or raw sugar as a garnish, an egg glaze, whatever. But the bottom line is, they're delicious no matter what.

I like the taste of the sour cream dough with fruity jams, but it also goes very well with some other combinations I've tried, such as:

• 1/4 C. Nougat plus  TBSP ground poppyseed, well mixed and spread on before rolling the dough from either end to the centre and slicing to create poppy-nougat palmiers

• 1/4 C. Grated bittersweet chocolate, 1 TBSP cocoa, 2 TBSP sugar and 1 Tsp. cinnamon, sprinkled onto the rolled-out dough and rolled up into a log, then sliced thinly to form chocolate-cinnamon spirals

• Your favourite marmalade, plus powdered sugar on folded-over half-moon pastries

And so on. The dough isn't hard to make, though the folding and chilling takes some time, but is well worth the flakiness of the final product. Make sure you preheat the oven! You'll lose layers of flakiness if you let the cookies in when it's not hot enough (as I did in the above batch- their sequels made from leftover dough at the proper temperature were much prettier, I'll have you know). 

Sour Cream Jam Cookies
Adapted from about.com

3 C. All purpose flour
1 C. Butter, cold
1/4 C. Vanilla sugar, or regular sugar plus 2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 C. Sour cream, preferably 18%
About 1 C. Jam, any kind, or another filling (I used strawberry jam)
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 210℃.

Mix the flour, sugar and salt. In a food processor or with a dough cutter, incorporate the butter until the mixture is crumbly and gravel-like. Add the sour cream and mix until a homogenous mass forms. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and fold in half. Press down flat, rotate 90 degrees and fold in half again. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes. 

Repeat the dough folding above one more time. Roll out the dough again on a floured surface and cut into circles. Add a teaspoon of jam or other filling to the centre of each and press together the edges of the circle to form a small "package". Refrigerate for about 15 minutes once all are finished.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly brown.  Let cool completely, then dust with powder sugar if desired, or leave plain. 

Makowiec- Poppyseed Roll

Now that Christmas is long over, and I've had plenty of time to consider the champions of the recipes I've tested, I can safely say that this is one of my favourites. It's not as pretty as a store-bought makowiec, but admittedly that's mostly due to my sloppiness. But- the dough! Definitely my favourite dough for a poppyseed cake. It's soft, moist, and tender. It's got a nice yellow colour, and holds up well against the poppyseed filling. With my favourite poppyseed mixture inside and a bit of powdered sugar on top, this is probably tied for my favourite holiday baked good, along with my new champion-of-all-stollens.

Makowiec
For the Dough:
Adapted from About.com

30 g. Fresh yeast
1/4 C. Warm water
2 1/4 C. Type 550 or all-purpose flour
1.4 C. (55 g.) Butter
1/4 C. Sugar
1 Egg and 1 Yolk
1/4 C. Sour Cream
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Zest of 1/2 a lemon

Dissolve yeast in water. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Mix egg, yolk, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream. Add yeast mixture and flour and mix with a dough hook until smooth.

Add the butter, in small pieces, until all is incorporated. Mix the dough until smooth.

Let the dough rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled.

For Filling:
200 g. Ground poppyseed
About 1/2 C. Milk
1/4 C. Sugar
2 TBSP Honey
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 TBSP Rum
 Zest of 1/2 a lemon
2 TBSP Butter
1/4 C. Sultanas
1/4 C. Walnut pieces
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon (optional)

To Finish:
1 Egg white, beaten
Powder sugar, to dust

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until steaming, then remove from heat and let cool. Add enough liquid so that it has the consistency of a thick paste.

Once dough has risen, punch down and roll out into a large rectangle. Brush the rectangle with beaten egg white. Spread the centre with the poppyseed filling, avoiding the edges.

Roll up the dough and tuck the edges under the loaf. Proof, covered, for about 20 minutes.

Brush with the remainder of the egg white. Bake for about 45-55 minutes at 180℃, covering with foil if it browns too quickly.

Let cool and dust with powder sugar.

Yeast Strudel with Cheese-Strawberry Filling and Streusel

We had our first proper snow of the year this weekend, and the water has finally frozen over on the pond, which is a sign that winter is finally settling in after a relatively warm November. Right now it still all seems lovely, the powder-sugar look of the snow and the promise of Christmas (and winter break!) around the corner, but soon enough I'm sure I'll be fed up with it. After all, I hate the cold. Hate it. 

Anyways, I stay indoors as much as physically possible in the months from October to March, preferably in the nice, warm kitchen. I wanted to bake something nice with a slightly summery taste, but all the butteriness and warmth that winter demands. So I made a simple strudel with a filling of Polish fresh cheese (tvarog), lemon zest, and a thickened mixture of frozen berries picked in the summertime, sugar and lemon juice. The whole thing was topped with a very crumbly streusel and though it kind of exploded in the oven (too much filling; I've corrected for that in the ingredients list) it still tasted fantastic, with the flavour of the warmer months from the berries and the lemon zest to brighten things up. The cheese filling is very good, but would have been even better if I'd used a cheese with greater fat content- try to look for something creamy. The streusel gives some extra textural appeal.

The fruit filling can be highly variable, with fresh fruit being a wonderful substitution if available, and I'll be trying it with other berries in the future, rhubarb as well. I really like the dough- it's very soft and tender, and has just enough structure to hold up all the filling. This is the kind of cake you can even eat for breakfast reasonably, since it's got all your food groups. 

Until Christmas baking proper begins (all I've got thus far is Stollen) I eat my strudel and think of the long winter ahead.

You can't see it, but there's  a thin layer of snow on the deck.

Yeast Strudel with Cheese-Strawberry Filling and Streusel
Adapted from Moje Wypieki

For the Dough:
1 1/2 C. Bread flour
1/4 C. Buttermilk or kefir, warmed slightly
1 Large egg
2 TBSP Sugar, or vanilla sugar
Pinch of salt
30 g. Oil, or melted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tsp. Active dry yeast, or 20 g. Fresh yeast

Mix yeast and buttermilk/ kefir. Add sugar, vanilla and egg. Mix in flour and salt and knead until a cohesive dough forms (you might need more liquid). Add oil and knead until elastic. Let rise in a greased, covered bowl about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled. Punch down and roll into a 25 x 35 cm rectangle.

For the Cheese Filling:
200 g. Twarog/farmer's cheese
1 Yolk, white reserved
1/4 C. Sugar
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon
25 g. Butter, softened
3 TBSP 18% Sour cream, or 14% plus 1 Tsp. butter (if your cheese is lower-fat; if it's at least 10%, skip this step!)

Mix all together well. Use food processor for a smoother texture, or simply a spoon to keep the curds intact. If the mixture seems too liquid, add a small spoonful of cornstarch.

For the Fruit Filling:
200-300 g. Strawberries, from frozen, thawed
1 TBSP Cornstarch
1 TBSP Sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Mix lemon juice, cornstarch, and sugar. In a small pot, cook the strawberries until the juices run on medium-low heat. Add the cornstarch mixture and stir constantly until thickened. Let cool.

(For fresh strawberries, simply tossing them in the other ingredients ought to be enough)

To assemble, brush the dough rectangle with the reserved egg white, whisked until foamy, in a thin layer all over. In the lower half of the rectangle, spread the cheese filling evenly, but leave about 2 cm around the perimeters empty. Top with the fruit filling and fold the other dough flap over it, pressing down on the clean edges to seal them and tucking them under the roll. Transfer to a sheet lined with baking parchment and let rise covered for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190℃.

For the Streusel:
100 g. Flour
50 g. Sugar
1 Sachet vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade
60 g. Butter, melted

Crumble all together by hand or with a pastry cutter, or with two forks in a small bowl.

Before baking, brush the strudel with what's left of the egg white (if there isn't any, or you want a brighter coloured loaf, use a whole beaten egg with a tablespoon of milk). Use a very sharp knife to make a long cut lengthwise along the top of the strudel and sprinkle on the streusel.

Bake for 30 minutes and let cool before cutting. Powder with sugar if desired.

Kluski na Parze/Polish Steamed Dumplings with Berry Sauce and Sour Cream

Though my family regularly ate traditional Polish foods since I was young, we were typically limited to ready-made foods available in the GTA's numerous Central/Eastern European markets. That meant lots of pierogi, borscht from concentrate, potato dumplings with plums, and so on. But the first time that I had the steamed buns that were apparently quite common was at my aunt's home in Poland. She somehow had access to frozen ones, which made me wonder why I never saw them around Mississauga- maybe because I wasn't looking! But in any case, I wanted to try making them myself.

The sweet version I show here is not the only way that they can be served- a sauce made with meat or mushrooms is also an option, though according to my father nobody eats them savoury where he's from in the Southwest. It does bear some similarity to the Germknödel of Austria, so perhaps sweet main courses are typical of the more mountainous parts of Central Europe. 

The best way to serve these, in my opinion, is with a simple berry sauce made from pureed fruit only lightly sweetened, and some sour cream. There are many other ways to make steamed dumplings, such as by frying with butter and sugar and sprinkling with sweetened ground poppyseed or breadcrumbs, but this is ideal for the berry season. You can have them as a main course or dessert, and freeze the finished dumplings to steam again later on. 

Polish Steamed Buns
From Senses in the Kitchen

500 g. Flour
250 ml. Milk
3 TBSP Butter
2 Eggs
21 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/4 Tsp. Active dry yeast
2 Tsp. Vanilla sugar (or 1/2 Tsp. plain sugar for savoury buns)
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Berry Sauce
1 C. Raspberries
1 C. Chopped strawberries
1-2 TBSP Sugar
1 TBSP Rum

About 1/2 C. 18% Sour cream

Cook together the raspberries and strawberries. Add the rum and sugar to taste, depending on the sweetness of the berries. Let cook on low until slightly thickened and serve alongside buns, with vanilla sauce or sour cream.


Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Heat the milk until steaming and mix in the butter to dissolve. Let cool until lukewarm and dissolve the yeast. Add the milk mixture and eggs to the flour mixture and knead until smooth and elastic.

Let rise about 1 hour, or until doubled. Divide into 12 pieces on a floured surface and form smooth balls. Let rise covered for 20 minutes.

Heat a pot of water to boiling with a large colander or tearag secured on top. Alternatively, use a bamboo steamer. Place each bun on a square of baking parchment and steam about 3 at a time, covered with a a lid, or better, a lightly dampened tearag. Try and find a lid that minimized the chances of water dripping onto the buns, as this makes them sieze and become wrinkly- the tearag method works well for this reason.

Serve with sauce and sour cream while warm.

Banana Coconut Pancakes with Quick Ginger Butterscotch Sauce

I wanted to make a nice Sunday breakfast with only two eggs and no milk- I also had a bag of frozen bananas that had been hanging on my conscience. As a result, this recipe evolved from whatever I had in the kitchen that might go well together.

I didn't have much flour left, but I didn't need a lot- just enough to bind the chunks of banana. I also had an abundance of coconut (it was on sale...), some rum, a bit of sour cream, and a lot of cinnamon. I thought that the somewhat tropical theme in my pantry was too good of a coincidence to not take advantage of.

Sure enough, the flavours all went together fantastically. The texture is also nice, light except for the dense banana chunks, and the coconut giving it a bit of meatiness and rich taste. Normally I'd make banana pancakes with walnuts or chocolate, but here the coconut added plenty enough flavour, along with the warm cinnamon and rum combo.

There's also this ultra-easy butterscotch sauce with ginger. I had a bit of butter and cream, as well as golden syrup, so I thought I'd let it cook while I was frying the pancakes- it makes a fantastic partner, carrying its own spicy notes and adding richness. You won't need extra butter- though it does taste very good paired with roasted almond butter.

One small issue with these types of pancakes is that they sometimes fry on the outside faster than they cook on the inside- that's why I keep the pan covered for the first half of their cooking time, so that before I flip them I can judge if they're sufficiently cooked inside.

Though they're small, these pancakes are nice and filling, and warm one up on a sadistically cold summer's morning (like today). I have plans to use the leftover sauce, along with some other overripe bananas and my coconut cinnamon evaporated milk buns, to make a fantastic and somewhat tropical bread pudding. Ah, efficiency.
Banana Coconut Pancakes
makes about 16 small pancakes

1 - 1 1/4 C. All purpose flour
1 TBSP Cornstarch
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
2 Tsp. Vanilla sugar, or 2 Tsp. sugar and 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp. Salt
2 1/4 Tsp. Baking powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking soda
1/2 C. Unsweetened desiccated coconut
2 Eggs
2 TBSP Dark rum
2 TBSP Sour cream
4 bananas, mushed up but still chunky (frozen and thawed works well)
Oil, to fry

Mix 1 C. of the flour, the cornstarch, cinnamon, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Sift into a large bowl and whisk in the coconut. Add the eggs, sour cream, rum and bananas. Add as much extra flour as needed to make a thick batter, about as thick as cupcake batter. If your bananas are not very mushy and wet, you may need to add some milk or water instead.

Heat up a large skillet, or your best pan for pancakes, on medium heat. Add some oil and spoon on as many pancakes as will comfortably fit with a 1/4 cup scoop or a large tablespoon. Cover with a lid and let cook about a minute per side, uncovered after flipping once.

Flip the finished pancakes onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil and moisture.

Keep warm in an 80℃ oven until all of the pancakes are done.

Quick Ginger Butterscotch Sauce
From Raspberri Cupcakes

30 g. Butter
1/2 C. Dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. 18% Cream (pouring cream)
3 TBSP Golden syrup (golden corn syrup will do in a pinch)
1 Tsp. Ginger
Pinch of salt

Mix all in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until thickened and smooth. Serve warm.

New York Cheesecake with Cherry Topping

As a kid, my favourite cake was American-style cheesecake. I especially loved it when there was a fruity topping to contrast the tart, creamy cheese and slightly spiced graham cracker crust. I always thought it must be healthy (I was raised in a very pro-cheese household, and cream cheese was still kind of cheese)- at about ten years of age I was scandalized to find that was not the case. It's still delicious, though.

 I've long been cautious about making my own cheesecake, because of the price of the ingredients, but since organic cream cheese went on sale at my grocery store last week I decided it was time to attempt my dearly beloved dessert at home. I decided to use a sour cherry topping, because it's not only delicious but also covers up the brownness (and potentially, cracks) of the cake's top. I used homemade graham crackers to max out the homemadeness of this cake, as well as because I don't trust storebought graham crackers- had I been a bit lazier, I would've used good quality whole grain biscuits like digestive biscuits with cinnamon and sugar to taste.

Though I didn't use a water bath (I didn't have a container larger than my springform) the cake still didn't crack, to my great surprise and glee. It did get a bit too brown on top, but I just skimmed that layer off with a sharp knife and doused the whole thing in cherries anyways.

In any case, the cheesecake was a success. I made it for a get-together and it was wildly popular- later my family had some, and even those who normally only like the lighter European-style cheesecakes thought it was great. I think it comes down to the simplicity of the recipe, tasting fresh and bright, mainly consisting of cream cheese and high fat sour cream with no flour to thicken it. The lemon and vanilla add an extra bit of flavour without too many frills, so that the main centre of attention is still the tangy cheesy goodness.

It wasn't nearly as hard to make a good cheesecake as I previously thought- I hope that organic cream cheese goes on sale more often. One of the best parts of being an adult is having your favourite cake on demand (and one of the greatest tribulations is learning restraint...)

I didn't have time to take a picture of the cake when it was whole, but take that as a testament to its irresistability. Mmmm.


New York Cheesecake with Cherry Topping
Adapted from Moje Wypieki

For the Bottom:
100 g. Butter, melted
200 g. Graham crackers or digestive biscuits

Grind the graham crackers into crumbs using a food processor. Add the butter and blend until the mixture has the consistency of wet sand.

Press the mixture firmly onto the base of a 9" or 10" springform pan. If using a water bath, double-wrap the bottom of the springform securely in two layers of aluminium foil. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

For the Cheesecake:
750 g. Cream cheese, not reduced fat
180 g. Sour cream, 18% (I used 19%. A mixture of 14% sour cream and creme frâiche in a 3:1 ratio might also work well.)
220 g. Extrafine caster sugar
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
60 ml. Lemon juice
3 Eggs

Preheat the oven to 170℃.

Make sure that all the ingredients are about the same temperature to prevent lumpiness.

Blend all with a paddle attachment on medium-low until well-combined. Take care not to incorporate air into the mixture.

Pour onto the chilled base. If using a water bath, place the springform into a larger heatproof vessel and surround it with water. Bake for 75-90 minutes, until firm. Cover with aluminium foil if it is browning too quickly. Let cool gradually inside the oven, with its door wide open.

Refrigerate the cheesecake, without removing the springform or foil, overnight.

For the Topping:
1/2 Jar of sour cherries in light syrup, about 2 cups
2 TBSP Sugar
1 TBSP Cornstarch
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 Tsp. Almond extract, optional

Mix the cornstarch and sugar. Dissolve in some of the light syrup from the cherries, then mix it back in with the rest. In a small saucepan, bring to a boil. Cook until thickened- the cloudiness of the starch will go away and the mixture will be translucent.

Let cool while stirring off heat. Add the lemon juice and Almond extract. Pour onto the cheesecake while still warm and refrigerate 30 minutes to set.