Desserts

maple walnut pie

Growing his own food has always been very important to my grandfather and it shows.

His entire house in surrounded by food. Edible things are everywhere, and as a child, I took it completely for granted.

Now that I’m an adult I realize the value of having access to home grown produce, and pay a hefty premium at New York’s green markets to buy food that someone else grew for me. As a kid though, the stuff was literally growing up out of the ground and falling from the trees. Even today grandpa has more than he and my grandmother could even imagine eating, and give it away for free to anyone who stops by for a visit.

When I was young though, I didn’t even like most of what Grandpa grew. Other than strawberries and grapes, much of what came out of his garden was completely wasted on me. I wasn’t very fond of apples, I thought pears were grainy and disgusting, and I wouldn’t even eat tomato sauce on pasta, let alone eat a fresh tomato from the garden. I hated squash, asparagus, peppers, you name it. As fondly as I remember my childhood, I can’t help but look back on those days with a bit of remorse for the things I could have eaten but didn’t.

Now that I do like most of these foods, I live too far away to take much advantage of the bounty of Grandpa’s garden. I don’t get to take home any of the bags of asparagus and bright juicy berries in the spring, peaches and zucchini and summer squash in the summer, tidy rows of tomatoes ripening on the window sills later in the year, or mountains of butternut squash and branches weighed down by apples and pears in the fall.

The whole coulda, shoulda, woulda, but didn’t thing doesn’t end with the fruits and veggies either. Grandpa also has plenty of nut trees growing on his land too. Big spiky chestnuts litter the yard behind his garage, and he’s locked in a constant battle with squirrels over the English walnuts towering over the gravel driveway across from the house.

Walnuts though, took me even longer to learn to appreciate. I didn’t like nuts as a kid (suprised?) but even after I started eating tomatoes and squash and asparagus, I still hated walnuts. In most baking recipes that called for them, I usually left them out entirely or occasionally might substitute pecans in their place.

While pecans are sweet and subtle, walnuts are bitter and bold in a way that I only learned to love a year or two ago. I think it was my love of dark chocolate that finally taught my palate to appreciate the earthy bitterness of walnuts in baking.

Look at me now, only a few short years later, substituting walnuts for pecans instead of the other way around. I absolutely love pecan pie, especially at Thanksgiving, but I thought adding walnuts might be a fun twist. Pecan pie is sweet and crunchy and buttery and wonderful in every possible way, but I sometimes find it can be a little one note with all that corn syrup and sweet nuts.

This maple walnut pie is basically a Yankee version of the traditional Thanksgiving pecan pie. Rather than just subbing walnuts for pecans, I also swapped the corn syrup for maple syrup and brown sugar. The pie retains every bit of it’s sweet buttery goodness, with crunchy nuts and a crispy flaky crust, but instead of one-note sweetness it has incredible depth. The earthy bitter walnuts are perfectly balanced by the rich sweetness of the caramel-y maple syrup and deep molasses-y brown sugar. Even people who might not love the bitter crunch of walnuts will likely love this pie. I’m reluctant to say that I’ve improved upon the pecan pie that many hold so dear, but this year when I had my fakesgiving dinner this was definitely the fastest pie to disappear.

Just sayin’.

Maple Walnut Pie

Servings: 12-ish
Print

1 single pie crust * see note
2 1/2 cups shelled walnuts
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (light will work fine too)
1 cup REAL maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 425.
Roll out pie crust and gently transfer to a 9 to 9.5″ pie dish. Trim and crimp the edges and freeze the crust for at least 15 or 20 minutes. Fit the crust with a large square of parchment paper and fill the dish with pie weights, dried beans, or even pennies. Bake the crust at 425 for about 15 minutes or until the crust is set and the edges are beginning to brown. This is called blind baking the pie shell. For more info, the Kitchn has a great tutorial. Let cool.

Turn the oven down to 350.
Arrange walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast the nuts until fragrant and oily looking, about 8 to 10 minutes. Be careful they don’t burn or they can become very bitter. Let cool and crush 2 cups of the nuts, keeping 1/2 cup whole if desired.

Turn the oven back up to 375.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Add maple syrup and salt, stir, and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
In a medium bowl lightly beat eggs and add vanilla, bourbon, and nutmeg. Mix in butter mixture and the 2 cups of crushed walnuts. Stir until well combined, and pour into baked pie shell. If desired, top with reserved whole walnuts in a circular pattern.
Bake for 45 minutes or until well set and puffed in the center. Cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before serving.

*note:
You can use any recipe you like, or even a store bought crust, but I think all butter crusts have the best flavor. I used my favorite crust recipe, but it makes two single crusts so you can freeze one, make another pie, or use the other for your pumpkin pie.

apple cider doughnut cake

You guys. Break out the streamers and balloons.

Brooklyn Homemaker turns two today!

It has been exactly two years since I started this whole adventure, and I gotta say that I’m really proud of myself and my humble little blog. I think a celebration is in order.

When Brooklyn Homemaker was born I had no idea how far I would come, or could come, or how much I’d learn, or grow, or how many friends I’d make, how many people’s lives I’d touch, or how many people’s lives would touch my own. Day by day, post by post, little by little; I’ve forged new relationships, met new people, tried new things, experimented with new recipes and ingredients, grown as a photographer and recipe developer, and slowly developed a dessert plate hoarding problem that’s beginning to concern my husband. I’ve also learned that while the blogging world is competitive place, it’s also a warm and welcoming place with a strong sense of community. It’s filled with genuinely lovely, charitable, supportive individuals who love to help each other out whenever and however they can.

Over the past two years I’ve also learned a lot about myself and what I want for and from Brooklyn Homemaker. I’ve learned to accept that what I like and what I don’t like is more important to me than what the blogging powers-that-be tell me is important. Lately I’m trying to take a quality over quantity approach when it comes to my posting schedule, and focus on what makes me happy rather than what I’m told will get me more re-pins and likes. I gotta be me. What else can I be?

When my first anniversary rolled around last year I decided to recreate the cake that started it all, the cake that launched 1,000 posts (well, 142 and counting), the incomparable Aunt Sassy cake. While this pistachio dream cake is seriously amazing, I couldn’t do it again because, well you know, been there done that. Twice.

This year I was looking for the perfect way to represent myself and my blog, in big fancy cake form. I wanted something both festive and elegant at the same time. Something refined and adult, but with a bit of fun and nostalgia thrown in for good measure. Being that it’s Fall and all, and being that Fall is the best season ever invented, I also wanted to do something seasonally appropriate. Something with apples…

Is there any better way to add fun and nostalgia to a dessert than to base it on something we ate as kids? I don’t think so. Luckily when I was growing up there were plenty of harvest festivals and county fairs for me to get nostalgic about. Upstate New York is just lousy with them this time of year! There’s the Lafayette Apple Festival, Tomatofest (hosted in my own hometown), the Jordan Fall Festival, countless county fairs, and the great New York State Fair (dat butter sculpture doe), just to name ~~a few~~ several…

Of course the best part of these fairs and festivals is always the food! There’s the staples like fried dough, funnel cakes, and corn dogs; but upstate we have our own regional specialties like salt potatoes, chicken spiedies, and steaming cups of fresh pressed warm apple cider. When it comes to fall festival foods though, my all time favorite is and always will be sweet little apple cider doughnuts fresh and warm from the fryer, sparkling with sugar and cinnamon.

As soon as those chubby little doughnuts crossed my mind I KNEW I had my idea.

Now, you may think that to really translate the essence of a doughnut into cake form it should be round, like a bundt cake. While I’d normally agree with you, I do plenty of bundt cakes around here. This occasion called for a true celebration cake. Something with layers. Something tall.

I’m not usually a huge fan of naked cakes. They can feel a little too hip and trendy for me, but I guess I live in Brooklyn so I should probably just get over that. I also feel like the whole point of icing a cake is to seal it under a thick delicious layer of sugar and fat to keep it from drying out or going stale. This time around though, I had this whole big bright idea to coat the cake layers in cinnamon and sugar rather than icing to really drive home the cider doughnut point.

We all make mistakes.

Even me. Even after two years of blogging.

I was really stuck on this idea of coating the cake layers in sparkly cinnamon sugar, so I brushed each one with some melted butter and pressed the sugar into it. Then I stacked away and sandwiched a thick blanket of icing between each layer. The icing squeezed out the sides a little as I stacked, and at first looked imperfect and rustic in a charming sort of way. Once I went ahead with the caramel drizzle though, I had a disaster on my hands.

Rather than drizzling evenly and elegantly down the sides of the cake, as soon as the caramel reached the icing it pooled and dripped and ran all over the place. I did my best to control the way I drizzled and poured to get the look I wanted, but to no avail. You’ll just have to trust me when I say that it looked really terrible. Even Russell, who generally knows to bite his tongue when I’m in the kitchen, had to admit that it wasn’t my best work. I mean, it’d still taste great but it certainly wasn’t going to photograph well, and this is a special occasion!

As fate would have it, Russell had friends visiting from LA and of course they rang the buzzer almost at the exact moment that I realized things weren’t going my way. I was already getting frustrated, and with guests coming through the kitchen with suitcases I started to get really embarrassed too. I try to project an image of domestic perfection through my blog, so when things don’t turn out perfectly I feel like it reflects poorly on me and my abilities as a baker and blogger. I was so upset and embarrassed by my cake that I actually just stood in front of it as our guests were coming in, trying to block it from view as they were getting settled. I knew I was being ridiculous, but that just made me feel even worse and I could feel my temper getting away from me. Rather than risk a blowout in front of people I barely knew, I put the cake in the fridge for a few minutes and went to sit and chat with our guests. Once I’d calmed down a little I felt brave enough to take the cake back out of the fridge and see what I could do with it. Luckily I had a bit of icing and caramel left over, so I scraped the mess off the sides and set to work with an icing spatula. Once the sides were nice and smooth, the caramel poured down the cake like a dream!
Phew! Crisis (and tantrum) averted.

This cake. Oh boy. This cake.
What can I say?

This cake is out of control. It’s a true celebration cake in every sense.
The cake itself is unbelievably moist and tender and springy, just like a fresh apple cider doughnut. It’s rich, subtly spiced, and just sweet enough; and just like an apple cider doughnut it has a delicate yet distinct apple-y flavor.
To add an adult, elegant touch I opted for a mascarpone cream icing rather than whipped cream or cream cheese. This was a new recipe to me, which can sometimes be risky, but in this case the risk really paid off. I think this might seriously be my new favorite icing, and it’s the absolute perfect compliment to this cake. Thick, creamy, rich, and just sweet enough. It has a texture almost like whipped cream, but somehow richer and thicker and more decadent (and certainly more stable at room temperature)
Then of course, there’s the caramel sauce. I don’t have words for just how good this stuff is. It’s insane, like eating a caramel apple, in sweet buttery sauce form. It’s made by reducing and reducing and reducing apple cider until thick and syrupy; then adding butter, cream, brown sugar, a bit of spice, and a touch of salt. I should have guessed this, but with this sauce the lost cinnamon sugar coating wasn’t even missed.
The sugary chubby little doughnuts on top aren’t absolutely necessary, but they sure are cute, and I really think they make this cake sing.

I couldn’t have asked for a better cake to celebrate my second anniversary. Here’s to many more to come, and here’s to you guys! Thanks for reading, and commenting, and thanks for coming along for the ride!

Apple Cider Doughnut Layer Cake with Spiced Mascarpone Icing and Apple Cider Caramel Drizzle

Servings: 12 to 20
Print

Apple Cider Doughnut Cake:
(adapted from Serious Eats)
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature (plus more for pans)
2 medium cooking apples like Cortland or MacIntosh, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped
2 cups apple cider
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for pans)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Additional for assembly:
3 fresh apple cider doughnuts (optional)

For the Cake:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Brush the bottoms of 3 eight inch cake pans with butter. Place 8″ circles of parchment in the pans, and generously brush pans all over with butter and coat with flour, tapping out any excess.

In medium saucepan, bring chopped apple and cider to boil over medium-high heat. As apple begins to fall apart, stir and whisk with a fork to try to mash and break it up as much as possible. Reduce heat slightly and simmer and reduce, stirring frequently, until mixture measures exactly 1 1/2 cups, about 20 minutes or so. Cool at least 5 minutes in a large measuring cup before mixing in buttermilk and vanilla. Set aside.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add oil and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with apple mixture, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Increase speed to medium and beat mixture just until combined, about 30 seconds.

Evenly divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until cake tester inserted in cake comes out clean, rotating cakes halfway through baking, about 30 to 40 minutes. Transfer cakes to cooling rack for about 20 or 30 minutes, before carefully removing the cakes from the pans to cool the rest of the way.

Cool completely, about 1 hour, before assembly. Just before assembly, remove parchment if still stuck to the cakes.

Apple Cider Caramel Sauce:
(adapted from Café Sucre Farine)
2 cups apple cider
½ cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
¾ cup heavy cream
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place apple cider in a medium heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a high simmer, and cook until cider is reduced to ¼ cup. It should get a bit thick and syrupy. The thicker it gets the closer you need to watch it to be sure it doesn’t dry out or burn.
Add butter to the pan and heat until melted. Add the sugar, cream, salt and spices and whisk to combine. Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 7 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove from heat and add vanilla extract, stirring to combine.

Mixture will thicken as it cools.

You’ll likely have more sauce than you need for this cake. Any extra should be kept in the refrigerator to be eaten with a spoon at midnight.

Spiced Mascarpone Cream Icing:
(adapted from Fine Cooking)
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
1 lb. (16 oz) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until it begins to thicken and form soft peaks. In a separate bowl, stir together the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, spices, and salt until smooth and well combined. Transfer mascarpone mixture to bowl with thickened cream and beat on low speed until almost smooth, 30 to 60 seconds. Scrape down the sides and fold to incorporate. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until the mixture is thick and holds firm peaks, another 30 to 60 seconds. Do NOT overbeat or the frosting will become grainy.

Assemble Cake:
Place the first cake layer on an 8″ cardboard cake round, serving plate, or cake stand. If necessary, trim the top with a cake leveler or sharp serrated knife to create a flat surface. Top with about 1/3 of the mascarpone cream icing and evenly smooth out with an icing spatula. Add the next layer, trim and ice with the same amount of icing, then add the third layer and trim flat as necessary. Top the third layer with about half of the remaining icing, and smooth it out as flat as possible. Spread the remaining icing in a very thin smooth layer over the sides of the cake, and put it in the refrigerator to firm up for about 30 minutes.

Top the cake with about 3/4 to 1 cup of the cooled caramel sauce, carefully and evenly drizzling some down the sides.

If desired, top the finished cake with 3 small fresh apple cider doughnuts.

This cake will keep well in a cake saver at room temperature for up to 3 days, if the weather is not too hot or humid. Otherwise, wrap tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature for at least an hour before serving.

earl grey bundt cake with milk and honey glaze #bundtbakers

The first time I ever tried Earl Grey tea I was pretty sure it was one of the most disgusting things I’d ever tasted.

I was waiting tables at a high end restaurant in Ithaca, NY, and the owners took coffee and tea very seriously. They also owned a coffee shop in College Town, so their passion for quality teas translated into their restaurants. We had some fancy imported loose leaf teas that we would bag up and steep to order, and one day I decided to forego my usual latte to see what all the fuss was about.

Earl Grey is very floral, almost perfume-y, and my unrefined pallet didn’t quite know what to make of it. To me, that first sip tasted a bit like soap, or like drinking perfume straight from the bottle. I may have even done a cartoon style spit-take right there in the kitchen, next to the espresso machine. In my defense, at the time I wasn’t really a tea drinker, and besides the occasional glass of iced tea I was strictly a coffee man. I went right back to my latte and didn’t try Earl Grey again for a good long while.

A few years later I started opening up to hot tea, and eventually, I gave the Earl another shot. These days I totally love it and always keep a big jar of loose leaf Earl Grey on the shelf (although I still take it with honey and lots of milk, never black).

Given my newfound love for it, I’ve been wanting to bake with Earl Grey for a long while but the inspiration just hasn’t come to me. I’ve been playing with the idea of making some cute little financiers or tea cakes (get it? Tea flavored tea cakes?) but I just never got around to it. The idea would come back to me every once in a while, but I’d just keep putting it off and waiting for the right moment.

Enter the #bundtbakers.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted a bundt recipe in a couple months, basically since confessing that I wanted to take some time to focus on my health. I’ve actually been doing really well and finally feel like I deserve to let myself eat the occasional slice of cake again. Even if I weren’t feeling better I don’t think I could have stayed away from my bundt baking buddies much longer anyway!

When I saw that Laura from Baking in Pyjamas had chosen “Beverages” as the bundt theme for October, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to get back to my bundt baking roots. I’m so so happy to be back, and all these beautiful beverage-y bundts are making me ~~thirsty~~ hungry!

Another reason I wanted to get back into bundt baking is this new pan I just got!

I know I’ve gushed about Nordic Ware bundt pans before, but get ready, here I go again. Their line of cast aluminum pans are sturdy enough that they don’t bend or warp, and just thick enough that they bake super evenly with no irregular browning. They’re super non-stick too, and even though I do always butter and flour my pans before baking anyway, I can honestly say that I’ve never once had a cake stick, even when using super sticky ingredients like marshmallows or caramel. The one time I tried using a different pan though, this happened… They’re also built to last, and even with all the bundt baking I do, all of my pans are just as wonderful and just as non-stick as they were the day I bought them. If all that isn’t enough, their pans are also made right here in the good ol’ US of A.

Nordic Ware bundt pans are also available in a huge selection of beautiful designs and styles, a few of which you’ve already seen here. Their latest pan, the bundt squared, is really fun and I’m so excited to have one of my own! The square shape puts a sort of modern twist on an elegant classic design, and I just love it. I have to admit though, that one of my coworker’s mind was completely blown by the square shape. I posted a preview of this cake on instagram a few weeks ago and she texted me the minute she saw it. “A SQUARE BUNDT????! Is nothing sacred?” Even after getting to taste test the cake, she kept bringing it up. “This cake is really good, but a square bundt pan?”

So, I guess this square shape might not be for the traditionalists among you… Hahaha!
But guess what? Nordic Ware invented the bundt pan, so as far as I’m concerned they can do no wrong.

With the theme and the shape decided on, my next step was to figure out how to get that distinctive Earl Grey tea flavor into my cake. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of just grinding the tea leaves up and putting them directly into the batter, because I wasn’t confident that the flavor would really come through that way. I was also worried that the ground tea leaves wouldn’t soften up enough in baking, and feared that people would be eating a cake with a sandy texture and a bland flavor.

My first thought was to infuse the tea leaves in buttermilk like I did for last year’s hibiscus lime bundt cake, but while wasting too much time on pinterest one day I came across another idea. To my surprise (and relief) there was an entire blog post about baking with tea! I gotta tell you, their solution is absolutely genius, and I never would have thought of it myself.

To extract as much bold tea flavor as possible, they recommend infusing your tea leaves in butter! I cannot sing enough praises for this method. This cake tastes EXACTLY like a warm cup of Earl Grey tea.

This method uses up a lot of tea leaves though, and you want to try to use the freshest, highest quality loose tea that you can find to get the best possible flavor. You’ll also need to use more butter than you think you will, as the leaves will absorb some and you won’t be able to squeeze it all back out. To get 1 cup of butter for my cake I ended up using two and a half sticks of butter and a whole cup of tea leaves.

I was expecting the butter to take on a dark brown tea color, but to my surprise after infusing it the butter took on an olive green tint. In fact, the melted liquid butter really just looked like a dark unfiltered olive oil. You may have noticed the green butter in the photo at the top of the post.

For a little extra Earl Grey oomph, I also added just a touch of bergamot oil. If you’re not familiar, the bergamot orange is the citrus fruit that gives Earl Grey tea it’s distinctive floral scent and flavor. Fresh Bergamot oranges, and even bergamot oil for that matter, can be a little difficult to find, so feel free to leave it out if need be. The infused butter definitely imparts loads of fresh tea flavor, I promise.

I knew before this cake even went into the oven that it was a winner. A stray smudge of batter licked off my finger tasted exactly like a milky, honey sweetened cup of tea. While it was baking away in the oven, my entire apartment smelled like a warm Earl Grey hug. Don’t tell anyone but I may have even put my nose right down into the center of the cake after I turned it out onto the cooling rack.

Not only does this cake have amazing flavor, but thanks to a bit of oil, it’s also super moist with an incredibly tender crumb. To top it all off and drive home the cup of tea theme, I made a simple milk and honey glaze. I happened to only have buckwheat honey on hand, which is why the glaze came out the color of milky tea. It was not intentional I swear!

Earl Grey Bundt Cake with Milk and Honey Glaze

Servings: 12 to 16
Print

2 1/2 sticks (20 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1.5 oz (about 1 cup) loose leaf Earl Grey tea (best quality possible)
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup peanut oil or vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon bergamot oil (optional) *see note
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk, at room
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Milk and honey glaze:
2 tablespoons honey (buckwheat honey adds flavor and color, but any honey will work)
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Make tea infused butter:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Once fully melted turn the heat down to low and add the tea leaves. Stir and heat over low for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Place a small fine mesh strainer over a measuring cup and strain the butter. Press the tea leaves with a spatula or spoon to squeeze as much butter out as possible. You want to measure out exactly one cup of butter. If necessary add enough additional butter to make 1 cup. Discard tea leaves and refrigerate butter until completely firm.

Once firm let butter soften at room temperature for at least an hour before baking. Cold butter can be made several days ahead if kept refrigerated in a well sealed air tight container.

Make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter and flour a 10-12 cup bundt pan.

With the paddle attachment in an electric mixer, cream 1 cup of softened tea infused butter with sugar for about 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add oil, honey, and bergamot oil and mix until well combined. On low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, until just combined.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl (or measuring cup), combine the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Pour batter into prepared pan and tap on the counter to even the batter and remove air bubbles. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool for an hour or more before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Make the milk and honey glaze:
To make the glaze combine honey, 1 tablespoon milk, and vanilla in a small bowl. Whisk in confectioner’s sugar and continue to whisk until combined and free of lumps. If too thick, you can add a few more drops (up to an additional tablespoon) of milk to thin it for easy pouring. Pour over the top of the completely cooled cake and serve.

Cake should keep, well sealed in an air tight container, for 3 to 4 days at a cool room temperature.

*note:
Different brands of bergamot oil can have different potencies, so start with no more than 1/4 teaspoon, and taste the batter before baking and see if you might enjoy a few drops more. If you can find it, the zest of fresh bergamot orange would be even better. Start with about a teaspoon of zest and taste to see if you’d like more.

There are so many absolutely delicious bundts this month! Please take a moment to check them out!

Apple Cider Bundt Cake from That’s My Home
Apple Cider Bundt Cake w/ Caramelized Apples from The Freshman Cook
Apple Cider Bundt Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Apple Cider Pound Cake from Sew You Think You Can Cook
Apple Juice Spice Bundt with Caramel Apple Glaze from Our Good Life
Apple Spice Latte Bundt from Living the Gourmet
Black Forest Hot Chocolate Bundt from Baking in Pyjamas
Cava Bundt Cake from La mejor manera de hacer…
Chai Bundt Cake from Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
Chocolate Chai Bundt Cake from Basic n Delicious
Chocolate Expresso Bundt Cake from En la cocina de Caro
Dark ‘n Stormy Bundt Cake from Eat, Drink, and Be Mighty
Earl Grey Bundt Cake with Milk and Honey Glaze from Brooklyn Homemaker
Margarita Bundt Cake with Candied Limes from How to Philosophize with Cake
Mexican Hot Chocolate Rose Cake from Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
Milo and Condensed Milk Bundt Cake from Passion Kneaded
Mojito Bundt Cake from Baking Yummies
Orange Juice Pine Nut Bundt Cake from A Kingdom for a Cake
Pacharán & Apple Bundlettes from I love Bundt Cakes
Pumpkin Coffee Bundt Cake from Los Chatos Chefs
Pumpkin Spice Latte Bundt Cake from Liv for Cake
Red Wine Chocolate Bundt Cake from Brunch with Joy
Root Beer Float Bundt from Food Lust People Love
Tiramisu Bundt Cake from Patty’s Cake
Vanilla Chai Honey Latte Bundt from Tartacadabra
White Chocolate and Espresso Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze from Taking On Magazines
White Russian Mini Bundt Cakes from Magnolia Days

.
#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundtsby following our Pinterest Board.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

zucchini peach bread

It’s officially September you guys. I know.

Back to school season. Pumpkin spice everything. Sweaters in store windows…

While some people lament the end of summer and others celebrate the onset of fall, for all intents and purposes, it’s actually still summer. Like SUMMER. Dog days style.

Here in Brooklyn we’re in the midst of yet another record-breaking heat wave. My backyard looks incredibly parched, sad, and droopy; and the heat over the past few days has felt downright oppressive and just generally awful. In fact, the other day many schools in the area announced they’d be letting out early because of a heat advisory, in their first week back!

Trying to take full advantage of the extended summery weather, Russell and I took a trip to the farmer’s market over the weekend. I’ve been really stumped about what to do and make for the ol’ blog lately, because I’m having such a hard time deciding what would be considered seasonally appropriate right now. Last week I posted a recipe for some hot and steamy soup, and then the weather decided to follow my lead and went all hot and soupy too.

I figured I should just go and see what spoke to me, and hoped I’d be able to make a plan from there.

Wandering the stalls of the market I was met with piles of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and bushels of ripe sweet corn, but for some reason stacks of bright green zucchini were what called out to me, along with some seriously beautiful local peaches. But, what the heck could I do with peaches and zucchini in the same dish? I thought about just making a peach crumble or something, and then using the zucchini for dinner later on. I paid up and was on my way, and by the time I got home I knew what I had to do.

When I was little I was a big fan of banana bread, especially my grandma’s banana bread. As I got older I started to develop a “distaste” for bananas that eventually blossomed into an intense hatred for bananas and anything banana related.

I usually pride myself in my openness to any food available to me, and my willingness to try anything someone might dare me to eat, but bananas are just an absolute no-no. I don’t know why, but I really can’t stand them. The tiniest piece of banana snuck into a smoothie deems it unfit for anything but the trash bin. Even the smell of them makes me retch, and my co-workers are well aware that eating a banana anywhere near me is absolutely forbidden.

For the past few years there has been a banana bread shaped hole in my heart, but thankfully zucchini bread has stepped in to fill that giant void in my life.

So those bright green beauties fresh from some local farm had a clear and bright future, grated and baked inside a loaf of warm nutty quick bread, along with the tastiest peaches summer had to offer. (Thankfully we recently got a new AC unit so turning on the oven didn’t turn our tiny apartment into a sweltering inferno)

These loaves are every bit as tender and moist and delicious as you could want, with a wonderful crunchy top thanks to the addition of some demerara sugar sprinkled on just before baking. They’re really the perfect transitional food between summer and fall. The zucchini and peaches are bright and fresh and summery, but they’re paired with warm autumnal spices and crunchy bitter walnuts. I never liked walnuts in my breads when I was younger, but I’ve learned to absolutely love the contrasting texture and flavor. I think the bright sweetness from the peaches really calls for the slight bitterness of the walnuts for balance, so I really recommend you don’t skip them.

The peaches aren’t really the stars of the show here, but take a backseat to the zucchini. The flavor is very similar to a normal (albeit really delicious) zucchini bread, with an added touch of sweet peachiness. I personally love the subtle addition of summer fruitiness, but if you’re looking for something with bright peach-forward flavor, I’m not sure this is the recipe for you. I added a little bit of wheat flour to soak up some of the extra moisture, but I fear that adding too many more peaches to the recipe could render your loaves dense and soggy.

Zucchini Peach Bread

Servings: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins
Print

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup finely diced peaches
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1/4 cup demerara sugar (or other coarse sanding sugar)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Liberally butter and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans. Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar. Add zucchini and peaches and stir to combine.

Combine flours, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and walnuts. Whisk to combine. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour egg mixture in. Gently fold and stir just to combine. Do not over mix. Divide the batter into prepared pans and sprinkle each with demerara sugar.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. If making muffins instead, they should bake for approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before removing from pans, and cool for at least 30 minutes more before slicing.