The Good Hedonist

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

noreply@blogger.com (The Good Hedonist) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:25:00 +0000

December 28, 2009

If you follow The Good Hedonist Twitter account you know I spent a couple of hours this afternoon making my first solo cake! I’ve worked my way up to it from small nibbles to large cookies and on to a full-blown Cranberry Upside-Down Cake.

I have to admit that this was more intense than I could have predicted. Albeit, I probably took double time to complete the recipe because I continually stopped to sip and refill my coffee cup (why is it that coffee or cocktails pair so well with the actual act of cooking/baking?). But, I digress.

Cranberries are a seasonal joy and I laid in a stock of the fresh variety for weeks now but haven’t made good use of them. I stumbled across a wonderful Cooking Light recipe a few weeks ago and, despite issues with the “butterscotch” sauce (read: Brown Sugar and Butter) I went ahead and set aside the time to make it.

My mother surprised me this Christmas with a heavy-duty (as in, could be used as a weapon) electric mixer. The sucker came with two beaters, two dough hooks, a whisk attachment and a spatula attachment. Needless to say, half of those found themselves in the dirty dish pile this afternoon. Without that high-powered mixer this cake wouldn’t be possible. Thanks, Mom!

The recipe:

Ingredients

Topping:
Cooking spray
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
6 ounces fresh or frozen, thawed, cranberries
Cake:
6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk
2 large egg whites

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare topping, lightly coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Heat brown sugar and 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook 2 minutes or until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Pour sugar mixture into prepared cake pan, tilting pan to coat bottom evenly. Arrange cranberries evenly over sugar mixture.

3. To prepare cake, weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

4. Beat the egg whites with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form using clean, dry beaters. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Spoon the batter over the cranberries, spreading evenly. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes on a wire rack. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula. Place a serving plate upside down on top of cake, and invert the cake pan onto the plate. Let stand 5 minutes, and remove the pan. Serve warm.

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2009

First off, the topping recipe takes longer than “2 minutes” to fully melt. As with all recipes, at least double the allotted time is required. Once it did melt I found it hard to get it to move to all sides of the baking dish and had to use my fingers to move it about to my liking…it burnt my fingertips…so, find better options than me!

Also, the cranberries in the photo that came with the recipe seem distantly placed and somehow managed to stay at the bottom of the pan. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN. To use the full 6 ounces of cranberries you will have to fill the bottom of the pan with them. Once the dough is in place, some of the cranberries will rise within it. It doesn’t ruin the cake in any way. But be aware that it won’t look like you expect it to.

The recipe itself reads rather simply but be prepared to put in some elbow grease. The mixtures don’t blend as quickly or easily. Don’t be scared off or deterred from finishing it though, it pays off. Oh, and be prepared to add the first egg yolk into the sugar and butter bowl sooner than prescribed, otherwise the two don’t blend. They require a bonding agent of some sort and once added, the mixture becomes much more manageable.

I’ll admit that this was my first foray into whipping up egg whites. I found it hard to believe that something as fluid as egg whites could be made into something that would make “stiff peaks” but…after a good five minutes, sure enough! Those egg whites were stiff and about three times the volume as they had started out. This is where I made use of my new mixer’s whisk attachment.

As for cooking the actual cake, 55 minutes in my oven was plenty. In fact it came out brown (as opposed to the lovely yellow cake pictured). The cake was not burnt in any way, but, as with all published recipes, it wasn’t as beautiful as expected. I would go as far as to say that cooking it any longer than 55 minutes would cause the “butterscotch” topping to burn at the bottom of the pan. As it were, it turned out as a sort of candied rim on the top of the cake!

I prepared this Cranberry Upside-Down Cake ahead of time and let it cool for 45 minutes before setting it atop the cake serving plate. It fell out easily without any issues. After making dinner two slices were reheated on the same plate for 20 seconds and were perfectly warm and moist.

The cake body is wonderfully flavorful, not overly sweet and the sourness of the fresh cranberries offsets any heavy-handedness that might accompany similar cakes. Overall it was well worth the time and effort.

Pork with Pomegranate Pan Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (The Good Hedonist) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:11:00 +0000

December 27, 2009

As of late I’ve been cooking a lot of pork…and by a lot of pork I mean half the week contains either ham, ham steak or pork chops. I’m not sure why I’m so obsessed with the pig. I guess it may be because pork (maybe not the ham, more so the chops) is possibly the most fickle protein to cook. While I’m sure there are other more *expensive* things to tackle, I have recently found myself trying to figure out how to cook pork without leaving it pink and without leaving it stringy. There is a very fine line between the two.

Last night I found a more than decent recipe, via Cooking Light. Pork with Pomegranate Pan Sauce makes use of pork chops and a family favorite, shallots. I recently cooked something very similar that replaced the pomegranate with cranberries. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the two recipes would be interchangeable to the degree that only the finest palates would be able to distinguish a difference.

Now, before any of you assume that this recipe is expensive to make or fattening, it isn’t. A small bottle of pomegranate juice can be bought in most grocery stores across the U.S. for under $4. Shallots might be a bit harder to find but, trust me, once you do…stock up! As for the nutritional value, this recipe skates in at 232 calories per pork chop. I will say that your typical store-bought pork chops will come with more calories in the end. After all, when was the last time you saw a 4-ounce pork chop!?!?

Here is the recipe and a link to the original:

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut pork loin chops
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/3 cup chopped shallots
3/4 cup pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Preparation

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl; sprinkle over pork chops.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops; cook 3 minutes on each side. Remove and keep warm. Add shallots to pan; cook 45 seconds, stirring constantly. Add juice, 1 tablespoon sugar, and vinegar; bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes or until slightly thick. Serve pork with sauce.

David Bonom, Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2009

I will admit that I didn’t have the required garlic powder. I used granulated garlic instead. The rest of the recipe, I followed perfectly. The thing about cutting recipes in half (I am cooking for two, not four) is that sauces do not willingly lend themselves to such a slice. I made the full sauce recipe…and 90% of it was consumed! Obviously the healthy little fruit gravy was delectable.

I would have to estimate that my pork chops, both, probably weighed double the weight that was prescribed, and, because of that, I had to cook them quadruple times AND covered (the recipe calls for open lid cooking).

In the end, the pork chops (after continuous turning) came out beautifully browned. The spice rub applied was subtle yet notable. Adding on the pomegranate pan sauce was icing on the cake.

Highly recommended. Pairs well with my personal Cajun Corn (recipe to come later) and a small side-salad. Keep in mind that your fruit serving is built into it!

-The Good Hedonist

Who is the Good Hedonist?

noreply@blogger.com (The Good Hedonist) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:19:00 +0000

It is a good question to start things off. This is a foodie blog written by a gourmand who up until two years ago couldn’t even manage to scramble an egg and more often than not burnt things in the microwave despite explicit instructions on the packaging. I was a slave to the instant gratification hunger syndrome. If it came in a bag, a box or brightly colored plastic-wrap, I would eat it. Of course, mind you, I was in school at a rather hippie-esque liberal arts college where bongs were treated like fellow classmates. We even had a school convenience store that was stocked with every munchie imaginable.

Then, one day, something in me changed. I stopped liking junk food and even randomly stopped eating beef. If someone were to ask me what changed my diet so quickly, I wouldn’t have an honest answer. My mother believes it has to do with me developing an affinity for the reality competition show Top Chef. Either way, my health and happiness took a major turn for the better.

So, who is the Good Hedonist? Justin Waldrop’s the name and I cook anything and everything under the sun if it sounds good to me. I tend to enjoy western cuisine more than any other. You won’t find many eastern flavors in my posts but that is just my personal taste. Also, as you probably could’ve guessed, you won’t see ANY foods made with beef. Even the mere scant scent of cooking cow turns my stomach now!

So stick around, subscribe to the feed, leave comments and feel free to take my experiences in the kitchen and the recipes that inspired them for your own use and enjoyment. Bon appetite!

- The Good Hedonist

PS Feel free to find out more about me at my other blog, Motiveless Crime or follow me on Twitter. Hell, if you REALLY want to know about me; find me on Facebook or FriendFeed or even LinkedIn! I’m everywhere.