Return to Maida Heatter

What a great name, right? "Maida Heatter" - a name fitting for such a big personality!

I answered a cute pre-date questionnaire once (sent by the bachelor on his own accord) that asked if I preferred regular or mini cupcakes. Unfortunately, our opposite responses were indicative of the relationship which was short-lived. I responded that I was more into "regular" cupcakes as, to be quite honest, I love cake! (I'm pretty sure I've declared this many times before!) Sometimes I find the mountain of icing to be distracting from what should be the true star of the dessert - the cake. Icing is comprised of ingredients that are all delicious on their own - butter, sugar, flavouring, and if you're lucky - maybe a touch of meringue. But cake is a whole different story - it takes some skill and chemistry to create something special. Too much of one ingredient and you're stuck with a cake that's either too wet, alkaline, dry, the list goes on.

Oh yeah, cake. Maida Heatter. Anyway - I had a craving for cake! Good, dense, cake. The only thing that could cure my itch was a cool slab of pound cake. Mmmmmm, maybe with a touch of lemon and sugary glaze. And the only one who could write me a prescription for what ails me was her, Maida Heatter. So out came the cookbook and the page was opened to a recipe for a "Sand Torte". The name for "traditional" pound cake is derived from the ingredients needed - a pound of eggs, butter, sugar, and flour! That's four pounds of ingredients right there! This dense and fine-crumbed cake is usually served with tea but I've always enjoyed it warmed up a bit with some fruit and ice cream. This Sand Torte called for a similar amount of ingredients, but luckily not quite all four pounds! Instead of a full portion of flour, it was divided between flour and cornstarch, which created a lighter and tighter crumb which contributed to the "sand" texture (fine grain) of the cake, which to be honest, tended to the dry side. My Sand Torte came out a bit dry, I'm not sure if that is the standard, but I think next time I may try it with a touch of flavoured syrup.

Another reason it is called Sand Torte is that it calls for the pan to be dusted with breadcrumbs! I didn't have any on hand, so I used panko instead (haha, Japanese honey-ed breadcrumbs) but I didn't find that it made a difference. Either the batter swallowed up the crumbs or the panko didn't 'show up' enough.

I finished the cake (which came out BEAUTIFULLY golden brown) with a quick strawberry jam-based glaze. It looked like a giant donut - but just a bit more decadent.

An Oldie, but a Goodie

Continuing on my Kitchen Resolutions path, I decided to attempt a recipe I haven't tried before. On one hand - inspiration can come very easy, whether it's a new recipe in the latest Martha or Bon Appetit or discovering frozen blueberries in my freezer. But sometimes, it can be like pulling teeth. This occasion was somewhere in the middle - I didn't have a new recipe I wanted to attempt and I had a craving for something familiar. Like chocolate chip cookies. Or classic raisin oatmeal ones.

Last year, I took a trip with T and another friend down to Portland to check out the local food scene and shop. At Powell's ( :0...... <--- that's me with drool dripping down, haha! Powell's is an amaaaazing bookstore.) I picked up some classic and not-so-classic cookbooks that I've had my eye on. A modern-take-on-classic Chinese, a Rick Bayless (new Mexican, or should I say - nuevo Mexican?), and a Maida Heatter classic.

(I just painted my nails...I'm just showin' off the manicure a bit :P)

The recipe of choice was the Belgian Almond Cookie - a thin, crisp cookie studded with almonds. The end result I envisioned were the kind of cookies that are a medium nutty brown, with the cross-sections of almonds interspersed. Usually crisp but very delicate - almost like a thick tuile. Ya know what I'm talking about? I'm not sure if the cookie really was ever meant to be like that - for starters, I should have ground the almonds more! The recipe did as for a finely ground almond meal, but mine was visibly chunkier. But I kind of liked that - at least you knew where your cookie came from. These are kind of like fancy "slice 'n bake" cookies - but you have to make and form the dough before freezing, slicing, and then baking. One advantage is that very little dough yields quite a few cookies! (They are thin, after all!) The disadvantage? I have about 3/4 of the original log still in my freezer.

I guess that's not such a bad thing.

(A stack of cookies. I was having trouble shooting in my kitchen - the lights are NOT forgiving, and it was night so....I had to make do with partially shading the shot with my hand. Not recommended. Must get some vellum to soften the light.)