I have a crush…

P “Did you see…”

G “…Tartelette’s Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie!”

P “What’d ya think?”

G “Well, you know me, I don’t like fruit desserts that much. I’d rather make the chocolate coffee tartelettes.”

P “mmm…I think I’m going to have to try them.”

P and G (in unison) “I love Tartelette!”

It may be slightly apparent from this small snippet of a probable but fictional (and slightly overdramatized) conversation with my co-worker that we have a bit of a crush on Tartelette. It was the first blog, I started reading regularly and began my path into the foodie blog world. I love the way she presents her delicious and inventive desserts through interesting witty prose and beautiful photography. I soon became hooked on the Daring Bakers, branched out into many other blogs and then ultimately started my own. Thank you Tartelette for your inspiration! and for my new cookbook!

A few weeks ago, I had the luck and honor to win The Sweet Melissa Baking Book from Tartelette’s random drawing. This book is excellent. I have flipped through it a number of times. In fact, it was on my night stand for a little while so I could read it before bed and hope for some sweet dreams… Each time, I discover something new that I am dying to make. Recently, work has been a little rough and everyone is very stressed. So, I decided that a cake would cure everything or at least give everyone a wonderful sugar rush. After some debate, I settled on the Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake because I was intrigued by the Hazelnut cake layers. It is true, I always gravitate towards chocolate desserts. If I order a dessert at a restaurant, which is rare because I normally walk away feeling like I could do better, it tends to be chocolate. Lately I have been trying to grow as a cook and a person by branching out of my chocolate comfort zone. I’ve even made a few lemon cakes and loved them…trust me I did not like lemon before at all. I thought a hazelnut cake with fruit would be a wonderful new thing to try. When I saw the gorgeous, fresh, and less expensive strawberries, I decided to substitute them for the raspberries.

The cake is phenomenal. The layers were light and fluffy. The buttercream to die for. Cake decoration is not my strong point…I tend to cover all mistakes with more icing. This cake is very forgiving as the buttercream covers all problems and looks great in the process. I am going to enter this into Mike’s Strawberry Seduction event because doesn’t it just tempt you..mmm…maybe its time to break into the extra buttercream!

Hazelnut Strawberry Layer Cake
(adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book)

Cake
1 2/3 cups hazelnuts, toasted and cooled (See P.S.)
2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 large egg whites, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Butter and flour to 9in cake pans. Line each pan with a 9in round of parchment paper.
3. In a food processor, combine the hazelnuts with 2/3 cup sugar and pulse grind until it is a coarse flour.
4. Transfer hazelnut flour into a large bowl. Add the all-purpose flour, an additional 2/3 cup of the sugar and the baking powder, and whisk to combine.
5. Have ready a fine-meshed strainer (I used a sifter). In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, brown the butter over medium heat. When the milk solids have reached a nutty brown color, immediately remove from heat. Using the strainer, strain the butter into the flour mixture. Stir to combine. Discard butter solids. Stir in vanilla.
6. In a clean bowl of an electric mixer with a clean whip attachment, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until they hold soft peaks (I used my hand mixer and it worked but took a while). In a slow steady stream, with the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 2/3 cup of the sugar. Increase the speed to high. Beat until they are firm, not dry, glossy peaks of meringue.
7. Using a rubber spatula, briskly fold on-third of the meringue into the batter to lighten it. Add the remaining meringue and gently fold until just combined.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool in the pans for 20 minutes before turning the layers out onto the rack. Cool completely before filling and frosting.

Strawberry Buttercream

2 cups chopped strawberries
2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 water
3 egg whites, at room temperature
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cup strawberries sliced for decoration and filling

1. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the 2/3 cup of sugar and the water and cook to 240˚F on a candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in another bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the 3 tablespoons sugar and beat until there are medium stiff-but not dry-peaks of meringue.
3. When the sugar syrup reaches 240˚F, decrease the speed of the mixer to medium, and immediately but slowly pour the hot liquid sugar in a steady stream down the side of the and into the meringue. Beat together until stiff glossy peaks form.
4. With the mixer on medium speed, add the butter in pieces to meringue. The mixture will break, but just keep beating and it will come together beautifully.
5. Pour the strawberries into buttercream and beat until combined.

Put it together:
1. Spread buttercream over one layer of cake. Cover with chopped strawberries.
2. Place the second layer onto the first layer. Ice the sides and top. Check out this for tips.

P.S. Toasting Hazelnuts: Preheat oven to 350. Place hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in oven for 7 minutes. Halfway through stir the hazelnuts.

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GO HEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a huge Tar Heel fan!!! I was born under the Carolina blue sky in Chapel Hill. By the way, did you know that God is a Tar Heel? Of course he is because the sky is Carolina blue! Yes, I grew up spouting such lines in constant support of my Heels. In kindergarten, I fell in love with a Duke fan! Shock! It was tragic! I felt like I was betraying my team as I chased him around the playground (but I’m also always a sucker for beautiful eyes, even then). For those of you who are not as into college basketball, the UNC-Duke rivalry is one of the largest ones in sporting history. Many a day, I have defended my Heels against an evil Duke fan! The past two weeks have been fun as I have watched my boys crush their competition. Even though their opponents will be getting tougher, I always believe they can win the tournament! GO HEELS!!!!!

Of course, when watching basketball games you need to have some good food. My sister and I made her Salsa, when I was home last week. We ate it while watching DUKE lose!!! It is really good and very typical of my sister’s style of cooking. She just throws it all in and it turns out great! Pretty spicy! She did the photos, too. I am currently housesitting and went on memory for the recipe. I’ll double check it when I am home tomorrow and update the post.

Resa’s Salsa

2 jalapeno peppers
1 serrano pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 lime, squeezed (other half cut perfectly for coronas)
3 roma tomatoes (roughly diced)
1/2 cartoon chopped Pome tomatoes (liquid reserved)

1. Cut the peppers carefully because of the strong oils (we often do this outside) and remove the seeds.
2. Pulse the peppers in the food processor until roughly chopped.
3. Add the reserved liquid from the chopped tomatoes, the roma tomatoes, cumin, lime juice and garlic.
4. Continue to pulse until chopped to your desired chunkiness.
5. Add in chopped tomatoes and pulse until chopped to how you like it.
6. Put out some chips, grab a beer and enjoy the game!

P.S. My favorite part of going to a Carolina game in Chapel Hill is when the band plays the Alma Mater, “Hark The Sound” at the end of the game, as the fans are leaving. Everyone joins in shouting “N-C-U.” Hopefully, I can get the music up here but until then…GO HEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Buona Festa di San Giuseppe e Buona Pasqua!

St. Joseph’s Day or La Festa di San Giuseppe is an important day to my family. We come from a small town near Messina in Sicily. I love this day because it is one of the strongest traditions we have in my family. Susan from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso both had beautiful posts recently about their family traditions and the treat Zeppole. I wanted to share my family’s tradition. We make Giusppetti, which are fried pieces of dough, stuffed with raisins and rolled in sugar.

Growing up in NC, away from our family, we continued the tradition. St. Joseph’s Day turned into a huge party, where friends and neighbors would join us in eating Giusppetti and welcoming Spring. My mother would man the deep fryer, often frying up five batches of dough. It was my job to roll them in sugar and then put them in baskets for my brother and sister to pass out among our guests. We always had a large spread of fruit, cheeses and meats. I loved these days and maybe it is where I first began to cultivate my love of feeding all my friends.

This weekend, my family and I made Giusppetti together on the back porch. Our recipe is something my mother adapted because the original recipe has disappeared or possibly never existed. Many poorer Italians would use leftover scraps of dough when making these, so the exact dough recipe is unknown. Regardless, we try to maintain the intent of the tradition, turning it into a day of celebrating and friendship. This may have been the hardest photo shoot as my family members are not as polite as my roommates and just ate my models. I was trying to pile them on a plate to look nice but everyone kept grabbing them and eating them. They were also quite opinionated about how we should be photographing the few left. Check out my sister’s flickr account to see the full series of pictures and our “artist” stylings. Also, my brother decided to eat them over my head so I ended up covered in sugar. It was fun! They are very delicious!

St. Joseph’s Day Giuspetti
(adapted by my mother from the Fleishman’s yeast book)

3-3 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons margarine
2 eggs at room temperature
1 cup raisins
1 cup sugar (for rolling)

1. In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix 1 1/2 cup flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast.
2. Combine milk, 1/4 cup water and margarine in a saucepan.
3. Heat over low heat until liquids are very warm (120-130 degrees F). Margarine does not have to melt.
4. Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally.
5. Add egg and 1/2 cup flour.
6. Beat at high speed, 2 minutes, scraping bowl.
7. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff batter and stir the raisins about 1 cup or to taste.
8. Cover bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about hour.

9. Stir batter down.
10. Drop by rounded soup spoon into hot oil (I use Canola oil and solid Crico in the fryer about half and half).

11. Drain on paper towels.

12. Roll in sugar.

P.S. Happy Easter!!!!

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