It's Coming Up Apples, the Juicy Kind

A Zombie in Apple Season

I've missed apple season. It's sad, because I love autumn's flavors and possibilities, bits of sunny warmth studded through cold days the way fresh apple bits might stud a quick loaf with little bursts of sweetness on the tongue.

In a typical year, I would celebrate apple season, making the trek to an orchard or two to pick up apples and then cooking apple dishes for an entire weekend. This is what I like to call AppleFest. But AppleFest didn't happen this year.

Instead, I was busy running red lights (something I don't recall ever doing in my life) as I made my sleepy trip to school in the early morning darkness, arriving to an unlit hallway where my heels echoed across the old-school black and white tiles. Lights. I kept thinking. Lights would be nice. But the special key to turn on the lights doesn't arrive until around 7 am, and so I walk blindly through the dark hallway until I reach my office.

There is undoubtedly something wrong about waking at 4 am and coming home at almost 8 and working some more until you fall asleep, five days per week, then working two full days on Saturday and Sunday. When the 12 or 14 hour work days are not just a phenomenon of the beginning of another school year but the norm for a 12-month year, it can seem crazy. Yet it's a hard problem to see in the darkness of early morning when you've got copies to make, think-alouds to go over in your mind, rooms to set up, students waiting, when the line at the copier at 6:15 includes not just you but five others.

One morning, waking at 3:30 in the now chilly darkness of September and driving in a zombie-esque trance to school, I realized something was not okay. It's hard to see the problem when there are others involved, when normal is 12 hour work days that extend even longer into your bedtime once you get home, when you do it under the noble name of teaching. But that morning, arriving at 5:00 am to a parking lot not empty, I began to wonder what was wrong with all of us. All I could think about were the sweet apples ripening on trees somewhere, apples that might have ripened for me but that I will never taste.

Symbolic Apples and Other Teaching Matters

Apples are supposed to be the symbol of knowledge, of teaching. But, when the only apples I've seen this season are the ones in my mind or the bruised and mealy grocery store apples I throw in my lunch box to be eaten while I'm lesson planning, the ones that lack real juice, I can't help but wonder just what kind of knowledge we're passing on. When apples are a part of their own school lunch, students mostly throw them in the trash, complaining openly of their damaged and inauthentic skins, claiming they are not worthy of being eaten. I can't argue with them: my own lunch box apple looks the same, a product of my not having time, not making time, to pick one off a tree, and I don't particularly want to eat it either.

When our children (1 in 3 born after 2001, you know--thank you, Food, Inc.) grow up with diabetes, will it matter that they have the knowledge of calculus, that they can become lawyers, doctors, teachers themselves? When they can't breathe as they walk up the three flights of stairs to their offices and have to pause on each landing, when they die early leaving children who are themselves diabetic, how much will their Reading, Writing and Arithmetic education help them?

Don't get me wrong: education matters. It matters more than most things in this world, I think. But it doesn't matter more than food, which is the sweet truth of it all. Biting into my Tarte Tatin, my Caramelized Apple Skillet Cake, my Apple Cider Muffins and Apple Cider Loaf, (in a flurry of baking I do this weekend instead of working--an attempt to remind myself that I am a living being who needs real nourishment rather than factory-ripened "food," an attempt to make up for the much-missed apple season), I feel like Eve biting into the proverbial apple: there is a type of monumental sin involved. My lessons will suffer. My students will not "learn" as much this week. There will be several things on my "Priority To Do" list that will remain there, unaccomplished. But I know I must take these small steps toward a saner life, a saner world where students might get to eat real apples with juice inside. Where they might want to eat these apples, where the biting into of an apple will only feel like a sin (because of its damn good sweetness) but will in fact be a piece of a healthy and normal lifestyle. To me, this is what the world needs as much as the three Rs, and I just might be in the wrong movement.

Desire: Going to Work in the Garden of Superheroes

In his book, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan points out that the apple used to provide a sweetness hard to obtain elsewhere before cheap sugar became widely available. In this time before, the apple provided the fulfillment of a natural human survival mechanism: the desire for sweetness. And, this sweetness was nicely balanced with fiber and vitamins.

The author, Michael Pollan (my kind of superhero), and me at the Cornwall, CT farmer's market this past summer. ( I hope I can post his picture on the internet!)

Far from this desire and balance now, however, we turn away from this natural sweetness, denying ourselves the most basic of all human needs, nourishment, denying ourselves the opportunity to pick apples and make sweet apple cake under the name of work.

Teaching allows us to do this more than other professions with insane work hours because it is, without question, important for the world, for kids, and we work these hours under a noble name. It is one thing to question your excessive work hours when you are a lawyer helping rich people divide their assets in a divorce, when you are a stock broker making a pile of money for money's sake, or when you are managing a company with your sole vision being of the bottom line. But teaching, you say to yourself, that is important. How can I not work every waking moment for the benefit my students, who are behind (my ninth graders read, on average, at a fifth grade level; one reads at a second grade level, one at a third, and several at a fourth). It is undeniably important, acutely so, for them to be able to read. But at the heart of it all is this: their education and my life must be balanced, must mirror the sweet roundness of the apple, equal parts sugar and health. Biting into the apple must not only be okay but must be a way of life for all of us.

Although the apple is the symbol of the organization for which I work, Achievement First, the bold checkmark that slices through it is an illustration of what we are are so badly missing.

It is like the worm that taints a good apple, turning it from candy-like sweetness to rotten flesh, making it unhealthy, driving a hole through its core that will render it inedible. If what we are doing is putting a worm through all that knowledge rather than providing our students with a balanced, juicy bite of nourishment, then something is definitely wrong. If the apple is going to be our symbol then it's got to really be our symbol, and it's got to be real: seeds, juice, and all.

Don't get me wrong. AF, like similar high performing charters, (KIPP, to name one) does amazing things for children. Its problem is really not one that belongs to it as an organization, but to the teaching profession in general. AF and similar high-performing schools run on the sold souls of teachers who have given up their lives to spend nearly every waking moment working towards the success of their students. It asks teachers to be superheroes who sacrifice relationships, home-cooked meals, time with their children, and personal hobbies (think Spiderman giving up the beautiful and sweet Kirsten Dunst). AF's success, in other words, relies on the sick (I mean that in the true sense of the word) minds of individuals with a drive not just to help kids but to somehow prove themselves to the world.

These are people (and I'm not giving myself any kind of amnesty here, mind you) who need some serious therapy: a colleague with whom I've been emailing between the hours of 4 and 5 a.m. for the past week whose most recent email champions our obvious "type A" personalities and includes one of those smily-face symbols; another colleague who brags that she and her husband have begun working late into the night, side by side on the couch while their infant son sleeps, unaware of the life he will lead; a fellow teacher who is still living with his ex-girlfriend despite their recent breakup (his long work hours, such an obvious cause of their breakup, were never mentioned during the actual break-up conversation because they were, as he put it, so "implied" they didn't need to mention them); another colleague who proudly told me her mother had said she needed to "find another profession," as she hardly saw her infant son; and me, who can't help but to hypocritically write about all of this here while simultaneously engaging in the very things I criticize. If all of us were to start going to therapy, I believe our school would fall apart.

And, because the education world currently provides no balanced, happy apple-like medium for teachers and students, sometimes I just want to give up on all of it, pick apples and make Tarte Tatin, remind myself that I am human by nature and not superhuman. Sometimes, and not always while the apple chips are down, but more frequently while I'm riding high on my 4 am email wars or leveling books at 7 pm in quiet hallways, I just want to go and work in the garden, the real kind.

Juicy Apples: The Recipes

Tarte Tatin

from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook

4 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for the pan

all-purpose flour, for dusting

1/2 recipe Pate Brisee (see recipe, below)

1 cup sugar

Dash of lemon juice

2 1/2 medium baking apples, such as Rome or Cortland (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, cored, and cut into quarters

Vanilla ice-cream, whipped cream, or creme fraiche for serving (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Generously butter a 9-inch metal pie plate; set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 9-inch round, about 1/4-inch thick. Place dough on the prepared baking sheet, and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, mix together the sugar, 2 tablespoons cold water, and the lemon juice to form a thick syrup. Bring to a boil over high heat, swirling pan; cook until the mixture turns medium amber, about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from heat, and pour the mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pie plate. Immediately add the butter, distributing evenly.
3. Arrange the apples, rounded sides down, around the bottom of the pan in a circular pattern, starting from the outside and working in, fitting them as close together as possible (the apples will be the top of the tart when served). Drape the chilled dough round over the apples to cover the mixture completely.
4. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, line a rimmed baking sheet with a clean nonstick baking mat. Remove the tart from the oven, and immediately invert onto the mat, working quickly but carefully to avoid contact with the hot caramel. Using tongs, carefully lift the pie plate off of the tart. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm with creme fraiche, if using.

Caramelized-Apple Skillet Cake

from The Craft of Baking

by Karen DeMasco and

Mindy Fox

1 cup sugar

8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft

2 tart baking apples, such as Mutsu or Granny Smith

3/4 tsp. vanilla

2 large eggs, separated

3/4 c plus 3 T unbleached all-purpose flour

3 T coarse yellow cornmeal or fine polenta

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/3 c whole milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In an 8-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably cast iron, combine 1/4 c of sugar with 2 t water, and stir. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar turns a golden brown caramel, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and whisk in 2 T butter.

2. Peel, core, and slice apples into 1/8-inch thick rings. Place the apples in an overlapping ring over the caramel, and work your way from the outside to the center of the pan.

3. In an electric mixer, combine the remaining 3/4 c sugar, remaining 6 T butter, and the vanilla. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg yolks, one at a time.

4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In three additions, add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, to the butter mixture. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the batter into a large bowl.

5. Clean and dry the mixer bowl (fat residue will keep the whites from becoming fluffy). Add the whites and, using the whisk attachment, beat to soft peaks. Fold whites into batter in 3 additions.

6. Spread batter evenly over the apples in the skillet. Bake, rotating the skillet halfway through, until the cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Place skillet on wire rack and cool just until arm, about 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto a plate.

*Cake is best eaten the day it is baked but can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Bake-Over, Make Me Over

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?  yes

Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?  yes

Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?  yes

Are you afraid that if you don't work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?  yes

Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?  yes

Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?  yes

The black bottom cupcakes have helped me to confront these Workaholics Anonymous questions, the yin-yang of the chocolate and vanilla peacefully urging me on to what I might one day call balance in my life.  In other words, I am coming to the slow conclusion that my life needs a make-over.  Which is not a fabulous conclusion to come to at the beginning of the school year when you are a teacher and work for a school whose #1 motto is "Whatever It Takes."  

It's been a while since I've written, or even looked at any baking blogs.  When I was a student and home all day sitting at my computer it was easy to find the time to write and take pictures and bake, but now that I've been sitting in meetings all day and writing lesson plans, it's a bit more difficult.  With all my emotional energy invested in my job, I am, sadly, losing sight of the beloved baked good, of the balanced black bottom cupcake. 

Which is why a bake-over was a good concept.  Sometimes I dream that I won't have any work on a weekend and I can just go home and bake.  Maybe one day I'll get to this point, but for now the "mandatory fun" of a scheduled bake-over seemed just what the Dr. ordered to help make me over into someone who was not work-driven (and, in case you were wondering, if you answered yes to any of the questions above, they do have Workaholics Anonymous clubs.)

Originally Chrissy's (of Cup O' Cake Designs) idea (a variation of the "bake-off," which has a competitive purpose), the "bake-over" is collaborative in nature.  While our husbands drank beer and more beer at a local brewfest, us girls made cheesy crackers 2 ways, peanut-butter chocolate brownies, black-bottom cupcakes, and jam thumbprints.  Woa!  The kitchen was pretty lucky that day, as were the revelers upon coming home and finding our goods.  As for work, at least the kind with which I am familiar, there was none to be had.  And, having a varied tray of yummy desserts and crackers for each person to take home is a major plus.

Chrissy's cheese crackers were decadent, and I couldn't keep my hands off the tray.  I particularly liked the chipotle ones whose smoky chile flavor was a nice compliment to the cheese.  These would be awesome for a party and you could probably freeze the dough ahead of time, then just defrost and cut out when ready to bake.  I also recommend toasting any leftover crackers.  They crisp up pretty quickly and result in the same heavenly salty crunch as when they come straight from the oven.  I know this because Chrissy was kind enough to let Linda and I sample some of the crackers while still piping hot, and because the toasted leftover crackers welcomed me home from work several nights this past week.

The brownies, baked by Linda, have a mountainous peanut-butter topping that literally melts in your mouth.  The underlayer is pure chocolatey goodness.  Even the wary brownie eater will enjoy these I think.  

Black bottom cupcakes were just as satisfying as Fooding Through Life promised they would be with the rich, cheesy creamy centers suspended in an ocean of deep chocolate.  These are satisfying.

As for the cookies, the ones I didn't burn came out well.  The centers bend a bit, sort of like the flexible Pepperidge Farm Verona cookies whose gelled center will stretch rather than break when bent in half.  It's a lovely texture and the sweet raspberry jam filling couples rather nicely with the lemony scent of its butter cookie surroundings.  

So, if you ask me to do something and I tell you I can't because "I have to work," just give me a gentle reminder that a Bake-Over might be a good idea.  

The Recipes

1.  Cheese Crackers

(Instructions courtesy of Chrissy)

1 Stick of Butter – at room temperature

2 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

 

1. Preheat your oven to 325° and get out your food processor.

 


2. Throw all of those ingredients into the food processor and pulse until well mixed, about 10 times.

 


3. Dump the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to bring it together forming a ball of dough.


 

4. If the consistency allows, roll the dough out into a very thin layer.  Maybe 1/8 inch.  If the dough is too loose to roll, toss it into the fridge for 15 minutes.


 

5. Once rolled out, cut the crackers.  You can use cookie cutters here if you would like fancy shapes, but I just used a pizza cutter for basic crackers. It’s your call.


 

6. Place the crackers onto a cookie sheet covered with foil or even better, a Silpat baking mat (if you don't have a Silpat I'm sure you could use parchment paper).


 

7. Bake for 11 minutes or until the crackers start to get just golden on the edges.
8. Place on a cooling rack until the crackers are no longer warm.

2.  Linda's Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies

3.  Black Bottom Cupcakes

from Fooding Through Life

who got them from Baking Bites

4.  Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

In Among Raspberries

Like the peaches, the raspberries have their bodies, too, bodies that, when ripe, willingly slide into my palm as I coax them from their branches.  I've been doing a lot of standing in among those berries, lately, letting the scheming branches slide down my legs as I wade into the middle of the strip lining my dad's driveway.  I don't seem to care about the scratches as I have my eyes on a thick, round berry or a whole cluster of them, taunting me to come closer.  It's kind of a meditative time, really, only I always have a bit of a problem afterwards, if you want to call it that.  Tupperwares full of berries! 

What to do with all of these raspberries, I haven't quite yet figured out, but I've got some ideas going.  I've been freezing them like mad, eating them on cereal, and offering them to everyone around.  I made ice-cream topping and raspberry jam (doughnuts with raspberry jam, bread and jam, peanut butter and jam toasts, raspberry jam tartlets...) and even had to let a slew of the little things go last night that were sitting, wet and moldy, in the bottom of their container.  

Here are a few recipes for you so you can attempt to deal with your own raspberries before they overtake your summer existence (If you are lucky enough to have such a problem.  If not, I recommend buying some from a farmer's market or pick-your-own place and making the problem for yourself!  It's certainly not a bad one to have.)

Recipe 1.  Raspberry Jams, Please

I have only made shelf-stable jam once (with my mother-in-law, who is a pro) and usually do not feel qualified enough to do it by myself.  If you're like me, however, have no fear.  You can make small batches of jam and store it in your refrigerator.  Frozen berries would work just fine.  

This recipe from Epicurious, is, as it turns out, your basic jam recipe.  When I was making it I had my computer out on the kitchen table with the recipe in it and my dad came in from outside, paused long enough to laugh at me for following a recipe, and said, in his "I know EVERYTHING" voice, (he actually admitted to this "fact" once) that of course all you had to do was boil equal parts fruit and sugar. Duh. In any event, I followed the recipe anyway, which, as you can see, calls for equal parts jam and sugar.  It came out beautifully.  I measured the berries before crushing them, as it says to do, then threw in a few handfuls of extra berries and the jam came out just fine.  I tend to like things a little less sweet, so next time I might try crushing the berries before measuring them. You  could probably also skip the sugar-warming step and be fine.  

Therefore, I suppose that if you have a know-it-all father like mine who is an expert on EVERYTHING (and therefore on jam, of course) you could save yourself the trouble of having to listen to him laugh up your recipe by using the following easy to remember in your head recipe:  

Basic Fruit Jam

Measure equal parts fruit and sugar.  Bring to a boil for 5 minutes or until gelled.  Ladle into glass jars (or use a wide-mouth funnel) and allow to cool.  Refrigerate until ready to use.   

Go ahead, give it a try.  Just be sure to memorize the recipe first.  

Dario, my Dad's kitchen mascot (he knows everything too), with my raspberry jam.

Here is the raspberry jam recipe I used from Epicurious.  If you would like to process the jam to shelf-stabilize it, you will need to click on the recipe title to take you to the link with the complete directions.

Old-Fashioned Raspberry Jam

from www.epicurious.com (2001)

Taken from 

The Complete Book of Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving

by Eleanor Topp and Margaret Howard

1. Place sugar in an ovenproof shallow pan and warm in a 250°F (120°C) oven for 15 minutes. (Warm sugar dissolves better.)

2. Place berries in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a full boil over high heat, mashing berries with a potato masher as they heat. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

3. Add warm sugar, return to a boil, and boil until mixture will form a gel (see tips, below), about 5 minutes.

4. Ladle into sterilized jars and process as directed for Shorter Time Processing Procedure .

Recipe 2.  Easy Honey Doughnuts with Cinnamon-Sugar and Raspberry Jam 

It's best to fry these doughnuts while your eaters sit at the kitchen table waiting.  As they come out of the hot oil and get sugared, your eaters can fight over who is in line for each subsequent doughnut.  This recipe is from Martha Stewart, but I have changed the oil type (I just use canola).  To view the original recipe for "Cinnamon Honey Doughnuts with Raspberry Jam," click here.  You can also make the dough and refrigerate or freeze it before allowing it to rise.  To use, thaw and allow to rise before proceeding with frying instructions.  

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons warm water, (100 degrees to 110 degrees)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon canola oil, plus more for bowl
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 3 cups canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar, for dusting
• 1 12 ounce jar seedless raspberry jam

In a medium bowl, combine yeast with warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Whisk in honey, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, egg, milk, and corn oil. Using a wooden spoon, stir in salt and flour. Mix until dough appears smooth.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Line a baking sheet with parchment, and another one with paper towels; set aside.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead four to five times. Roll dough into a 10-inch circle, about 1/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter or glass, cut dough into 2 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch circles and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Lightly cover with plastic; let rest in a warm place 20 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, heat canola oil until a deep-frying thermometer registers 360 degrees. (Or, simply put some oil in the bottom of a large pot so it comes at least 1/4 inch up sides.  This is how I did it and it worked just fine.)  Working in batches of five or six, fry doughnuts until golden brown on both sides. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper-towel-lined baking sheet to drain BRIEFLY. Fry remaining doughnuts.

In a medium bowl, combine sugar and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Toss the doughnuts lightly in cinnamon sugar quickly after coming out of the pot and draining on paper towels.  Doughnuts are best eaten immediately after coming out of the sizzling oil!

Immediately serve the doughnuts with a dollop of jam on each plate, or with a bowl of jam to pass (this is what I did).  

How-To In Pictures

1.  Milk is mixed with eggs, yeast, and honey. 

2.  Flour is added and mixed. 

3.  The doughnut dough, ready to be set in a warm place to rise.  

4.  Cut circles of doughnut dough, ready to be fried.

5.  A lonely smidge of doughnut dough serving as my Is the Oil Hot Enough? test.

6.  My three snack doughnuts frying.  

7.  When it is golden brown, one of the doughnuts is lifted out of the pan with a slotted metal spoon.  It will then be dried on paper towels and rolled in cinnamon-sugar.  

8.  The doughnuts, ready to feed me for my snack.

Recipe 3.  Raspberry Jam Tartlets

I made this quick tartlet with some leftover tart dough I had frozen.  A dough that is slightly sweet works best.  

Ingredients:

Tart dough

Raspberry jam

Directions:

You will need 1 12-cup muffin tin, preferably one that has shallow cups or a mini-muffin pan.

Roll your dough out to a 1/4 inch thick.  Using a glass or biscuit cutter, cut out circles of dough that are slightly larger than each muffin cup.  Use dough scraps to cut out long strips of dough about a 1/4 inch wide or slightly narrower.  Fit each dough circle into a muffin cup and poke with a fork.  Pre-bake your shell (350 degrees) for about 12 minutes, or depending on tart dough directions.  Remove from oven and fill with raspberry jam.  Top with a criss-cross of the dough strips (cut to fit--see picture).  Finish baking (about another 12 minutes; jam should bubble slightly).  

Recipe 4.  Hurricane Katrina Raspberry Ice-Cream Topping

I started making fruit ice-cream toppings several years ago during Katrina (yes, as in the hurricane--I lived in Baton Rouge for a couple of years).  This was the scene:  my roommates and I (3 girls) had invited a house of our fellow teaching friends (3 boys--one of whom was to be my future husband) over for a couple of days to wait out the storm.  When our power went out we determined rather quickly that we had to start eating our way through the refrigerator and freezer, and one of the things we made was fruit topping with the frozen berries we had in our freezer for our melting ice-cream.  I have been making it with all different kinds of berries since, and it is quick and delicious.  My favorite combos:  strawberry or blueberry topping with vanilla ice-cream or raspberry topping with chocolate ice-cream.

Berry Topping:

In a small saucepan, mix together:

Fresh or frozen berries (I've been using fresh raspberries lately)

Sugar

Freshly squeezed lemon juice (be careful with this and only add a little at first; otherwise, you will make the topping rather sour!)

Simmer until berries are slightly thickened and the sauce has come together (they will not thicken up that much).

My doughnut snack (yes, I ate three). 

Beer (and cake) For My Birthday

Today is August 3, otherwise known as the joyous day of my birth.  This is the day I joined my parents and two sisters, making them all wonder what they had gotten themselves into.  I almost died a few days later and left them forever, but since I didn't, since I instead stuck around to cause years and years of headache for them (sorry, family), happy 27th birthday to me.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  The best thing about birthdays is cake.  Usually it's me making the cake for someone else, but yesterday I felt like the luckiest woman in the world when my husband baked me a Chocolate Stout Cake.  The cake turned out pretty impressively for a novice (he's been known to bake me a cake before on my birthday, but as cakes go, he has probably  made fewer than five).  Plus, making the cake gave my husband an excuse to go for a trip to the liquor store and ponder over the best stout for the job. The final winner?  A Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout.  Who could object to that? 

I think my husband knows me rather well because when I got back from a hot run yesterday and his cake was in the oven, he had a mini glass bowl of batter for me with a little spoon in it. Batter=yum. Sister F take note. (Said sister has previously denied me fluffy, happy spoonfuls of poppy seed cake batter, fearful of her precious creation being ruined by the absence of a few spoonfuls of batter. Perhaps she just needs a little more experience to know that 1) it hardly makes a difference and 2) cake is made to be enjoyed?)  

Chocolate Stout Cake

This cake comes from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, MA, but is on the Epicurious website.  This is a good cake.  It is what chocolate cake should be, particularly chocolate birthday cake:  dense, very moist, impressively large like an imposing mansion, (yes, this is, without a doubt, the mansion of chocolate cakes) and intensely chocolatey, with a chocolate ganache filling and frosting (ganache is just a fancy name for heavy cream mixed with melted chocolate until it glistens).  No one else claimed to be able to taste the stout in this cake, but I swear I could.  And then there is the addition of sour cream, whose tanginess is a perfect foil to the sweetness of the chocolate and the bitterness of the stout.  I'm not just saying all of these nice things because my husband made it or because it is my birthday cake.  If you have been searching for the perfect chocolate cake, I have a hunch your search might be over.  I think you will be rather pleased with the result.

How-To In Pictures:

The recipe

The ingredients

Making the Cake Batter:

The butter is melted with the stout over the stovetop before it is mixed with the dry ingredients.

Stout and butter form an attractive swirl before coming to a simmer.

Chocolate tower.

Making the Ganache:

Heavy cream heating up before chopped chocolate is whisked in.

The iced and finished cake.

Birthday candles in place and fired up, ready for my wish.

All pictures courtesy of Brewfus Alewise.

The Recipe:

(I copied and pasted this from the Epicurious website; if you want to check out people's comments, click here for the link.)  Also, you can read about the cake from a brewer's perspective (my husband's) in a few days by clicking here. 

Cake

• 2 cups stout (such as Guinness)
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream

Icing

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped (Steve used Baker's Semisweet)

preparation

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. Butter paper. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.

Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.