Strawberry Crumb-Packed Pie

   There are a few foods I have been diligently craving lately...kale, avocados, mounds of salsa, carrots (an odd one, I know), peanut butter, and strawberries. Like lots and lots of strawberries. By themselves, on my salads, in biscuits, mixed in yogurt, with lemon curd...pretty much anywhere really. 

    I needed a solution to my addiction. So obviously, I made a strawberry PACKED pie, no room in rhubarb for this one (my apologies rhubarb, you can play later). I wanted a think, gooey, warm filling of small-diced strawberries, and big thick chunks mixed together. 

      Once that was settled, I knew the next step was deciding just what kind of pie I wanted this to be. Since I was indulging my food visions, I figured why would I dare stray away from my ultimate dessert love-struesel. This pie not only is COVERED with a generous topping of crumbles that can only mean love at first pie sighting, but also, the crust is formed by pressing these crumbs into the pie dish so they are also the base.

     I know most of the time if someone told you the important qualities of pie were the struesel and lots of fruit, you would respond-"Don't be silly, just make a cobbler and forget the crust." But I am stubborn and wanted my fruit surrounded everywhere with happiness. So today, I introduce you to The Strawberry Crumb Packed Pie.

Filling

1 3/4 lb. hulled strawberries

1/2 C granulated sugar

2 TBSP cornstarch

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Crumb Base and Topping

1 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/2 TSP ginger

1/4 TSP salt

1/2 C almond meal (or roughly chopped almonds)

8 TBSP (1 stick) butter, unsalted, room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 425F (at high altitude) or 400 (at sea level) and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse 1 lb. of the strawberries until finely chopped. Using a knife, rough chop the other 3/4 lb. into large chucks.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together all of the strawberries, filling sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice and zest. Set them aside to rest.

4. Clean out the food processor and prepare the crumbs by combining the flour, sugar, ginger, salt and almond meal. Pulse the processor a few times to mix everything together. Cut the butter into chucks and add them to the flour mixture. Pulse the mixture a few times until you have crumbs around the size of large peas. 

5. Scoop half of the crumb mixture into a 9" pie plate and press it into the bottom and edges. (It is sticky, so a wadded paper fowl may help press it down without getting it all over your hands.) Add the strawberries and spread them evenly over the bottom. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs evenly over the pie. 

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the filling is oozing out and the top has golden brown bits. Allow the pie to cool for 2-3 hours before cutting. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

*You can do this recipe by hand, but a food processor makes it faster. If you don't have one, just cut the strawberries by hand. Then mix together the dry ingredients in a small bowl and cut the butter into the mixture until you have crumbs.

Love, 

    Boulder Butter

Apple Cake with Walnut Streusel Topping + Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Streusel Topping

     I have posted a lot of cake-like things on the blog over time and to be honest guys, it is because I absolutely love to have tea cakes, frosted cakes, snacking cakes, cupcakes, muffins, (insert any cake substance here) around. I find them to be one of the most enjoyable treats and some of the most relaxing things for me to make. I enjoy the process and the end results. Teacakes can be a wonderful thing, but sometime they are so simple it seems like just a wah-wah type item. However, once you have a truly delicious base for your teacake, it will change your mind on that completely. 

       This base is perfect! My favorite part is the really unique combination of dairy in it that produces the richest, creamiest and lightest of batters. It is to die for! Part buttermilk, stirred in and part whipped cream, folded in is apparently the key to blissful creaminess.  Plus the cake is made with canola oil instead of butter so the creaminess from the whipping cream shines through since butter is not overpowering anything. It totally transformed my expectations of banana bread a few months ago and now I have adapted it to other flavors. 

     It is delicious enough, that I trusted this simple apple cake to be a shine when I brought it in to a bakery I interviewed with last week. This is a position I have been thinking about all weekend because although I wanted it before I talked to one of the owners, the interview made me unbelievably excited for it. I am trusting this cake, and doing dances to the baking gods in hopeful wishing right now. Maybe if you make it and do a little dance next to your oven, it just might help my cause along the way!

Adapted from Shirley O. Corriher's Banana Bread in "BakeWise"

Makes one 9x5 or 10x4 loaf pan and 3 jumbo muffins or 6 standard muffins

Notes: You can also use bananas and chocolate chips or nuts (2 C mashed bananas-about 5 medium +1 C chocolate chips/nuts). Just fold them in instead of the apples in step 4. I made a double batch here, which yielded two loaves and 6 jumbo muffins. I followed the same method until the add-ins. One was apple with walnut streusel and the other was banana chocolate chip with plain streusel. You can also wrap the muffins and slice the bread and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and they will last wonderfully in the freezer.

Cake

1 3/4 C sifted all-purpose flour

3/4 TSP baking powder-altitude (1 TSP at sea level)

1/4 TSP baking soda

1/2 TSP salt

1 1/2 C sugar

1/2 C canola oil

1 TSP vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 C buttermilk

2 medium granny smith apples, pealed and diced* (see notes)

1/2 heavy cream

Topping

3/4 C walnuts

1 TBSP butter

1/4 TSP salt

1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 TBSP + 1TSP granulated sugar

3 TBSP brown sugar

1 TSP ground cinnamon

6 TBSP (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and butter and flour your loaf pans and muffin tins.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, powder, and salt in a medium bowl. 

3. In a larger bowl, mix together the oil and sugar until combined. Next mix in the extract, eggs, and buttermilk until everything is combined. 

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and making large stirs, combine the two with as few strokes as possible. Once almost all of the flour is incorporated, fold in the apple pieces.

5. In a small bowl, beat the whipping cream to medium-stiff peaks and then add a small amount to the batter and gentle fold that in using large sweeping motions around the edges. Add the rest of the whipped cream and repeat. Your goal it to keep the air in the whipped cream and not collapse it so gently folding it in is key. 

6. Divide the batter into the prepared pans and muffin tins.

Topping

7. Toast the walnuts on a sheet tray at 350 for 3-5 minutes until you can smell the nutty-ness and they are just beginning to brown. Pull them from the oven, transfer them to a bowl and toss them with the 1/4 TSP salt and 1 TBSP butter. Set aside to cool.

8. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugars, flour, and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter, of your fingers incorporate the butter, until it is homogenous and crumbly. 

9. Sprinkle the streusel over the loaf and muffins, followed by the walnut pieces. 

10. Place the loaf and muffins in the oven and bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean (rotate half way through). Continue to bake the loaf for an additional 15-25 minutes until the skewer comes out clean (rotate when you pull the muffins).

11. Allow both things to cool for about 20 minutes before inverting them! Enjoy.

Love,

Boulder Butter

Gingerbread Cake with Cranberry Streusel

       So it may seem I once again disappeared between posts for a while, but I can assure you this recipe is worth the wait. Last week, I tested a new baking book's banana muffins, not intending to blog them since it was my first time using that source. They were brilliant: little nuanced additions and techniques created the most decadently creamy and moist banana bread I've ever had. Alas, I had no photos, so I could not share them. (Not to fret, that recipe will come.) Then three days of dedicated banana muffin eating passed by and I reentered the kitchen with a new baking project. I prepared a post, took photos and was excited to share, only to find out in the end, my peanut butter ice cream was a disaster I could bare pretend worth sharing. So finally, at the start of a bitterly cold week in Colorado, I made the ideal winter snacking cake-and it is absolutely worth sharing.

       It is a deep ginger bread cake, with robust dark molasses, which needlessly to say, pairs well with the heavy ginger spices. Other notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove dance around to add complimentary warmth. The molasses is met with equal parts honey that brings of a more floral sweetness to the cake, particularly around the edges where the heat directly caramelizes it. However, it is the most subtle difference which will enhance the cakes tons, but be the ingredient that people cannot figure out what is slightly different. 

        Then comes my favorite part: the topping. The cake is covered with a crunchy, light streusel. It forms crunchy bites of sweetness sprinkled all over. Next to the natural bitterness of molasses and ginger, it could not be a more perfect compliment. I know if most people add dried fruit to gingerbread, the go with candied ginger, but I am telling you, cranberries will quickly change your mind. They are equally warm in profile to the cake base, enhancing its natural and desirable qualities. They then give a sticky, soft contrast to the crunchy streusel and tartness to the sweet. The bottom is warm and happy and the top is to die for. Digging your fork through them both and getting a thick bite is just what you should do to survive this horrendous cold. Serve it with tea and you are in business. 

Cake portion adapted from Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

**This cake is very specific to high altitude adjustments. You can use the streusel topping anywhere, but if you are not at altitude, please read the changes at the bottom of the page. Then follow the normal instructions starting at #7. 

Ingredients: 
Cake: 
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour, sifted
3/4 TSP baking soda
1/2 TSP salt
1/4 TSP cinnamon
1/4 TSP nutmeg
1/8 TSP clove
1 TSP ginger
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1/3 C+ 1 TBSP dark molasses
1/3 C + 1 TBSP honey
2/3 C boiling water

Topping: 
3 TBSP cold butter
3 TBSP flour
6 TBSP sugar
1 TSP cinnamon
1/3 C dried cranberries

Instructions: 
1. Grease and line a 9" round baking pan. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, then beat for another 30 seconds on high, until light and fluffy.
5. Add in the molasses and honey, then beat until fully incorporated. 
6. Switch to a spatula. In 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 additions of boiling water, add the two alternating (starting and ending with the flour) to the liquids. Mix in the ingredients until fully combined, mixing and scraping down the sides between each addition.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, even out the top and set it aside.
8. In a small bowl, cut together the butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon until they have broken into large pea sized clumps.
9. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over top, then sprinkle the cranberries on top as well. 
10. Bake for 40-50 minutes, removing when an inserted knife or toothpick comes out clean of the middle.
11. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then invert the cake to remove it from the pan and turn over once more to serve streusel side up. 
The cake is best warm and would be heavenly with a dollop of whipped cream (then again most things would be heavenly with a dollop of whipped cream.)

**For those not at altitude (changes are italicized):
1/2 C Butter
1/2 C Sugar
1 Egg
2 1/2 C AP flour (sifted)
1 1/2 TSP baking soda
1 TSP ginger
1/4 TSP each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/8 TSP clove
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 C dark molasses
1/2 C honey
1 C boiling water

1. Melt the butter and allow to cool.
2. Beat together the egg and sugar.
3. Stir in the butter to the eggs and sugar.
4. In a separate bowl sift all the dry ingredients together.
5.  In another bowl, combine the molasses, honey and water.
6. Add the dry mixture and wet mixtures alternating as described in step 6 above. 
   Continue with the recipe as normal from here.