Tag: Baking

Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah

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Honey Cake Recipe for Rosh Hashanah

I’ve barely touched my blog since moving home from Israel to New York – it’s so easy to get swept up in life here! But Rosh Hashanah, which is early this year, is fast approaching and so I’m snapping out of my summer blog hiatus to bring you this incredible honey cake recipe from Cook in Israel: Home Cooking with Orly Ziv (the cookbook that I photographed). Honey is traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah to signify a sweet new year, and honey cake can commonly be found on Jewish tables around the world this time of year. I’m not always a huge fan of honey cake, which can be quite dense, but Orly’s version is light and spongy with lots of wonderful honey flavor that’s not overly sweet. Continue reading “Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah” →

Cranberry Sauce Upside Down Cake and a Thanksgiving Leftovers Blog Hop

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Cranberry Upside Down Cake and More Thanksgiving Leftovers Ideas

Guys, it’s been a long week. The stress of the most recent Israel-Gaza conflict, which went on for eight loud days and sleepless days, was starting to get to me. The uncertainty – and intractability – of the situation was exhausting. But as of Wednesday night, just in time for Thanksgiving, they reached a ceasefire. For that I am beyond thankful. And while I probably won’t have any Thanksgiving leftovers to eat, I came up with this delicious cranberry sauce upside down cake for those of you who will have a few extra cans lying around.

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Garlic Bread Buttermilk Biscuits

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This month I left my Secret Recipe Club recipe until the very last minute – I made it yesterday. I don’t usually leave it to the end like that, but besides having a busy month, I also just couldn’t decide what to make. So many recipes on my assigned blog, Cookin’ Mimi, called out to me. Finally, though, I declared these garlic bread buttermilk biscuits the winner and set to work. These buttery, garlicky biscuits are made almost entirely with pantry staples (I only needed to pick up buttermilk) and are ready from start to finish in about 30 minutes. I totally agree with Mimi when she says that “Piping hot breads and rolls are one of my favorite parts of dinner time.” Besides, garlic bread is one of my husband’s all time favorite foods, so I knew he’d love this recipe.

Garlic Bread Buttermilk Biscuits

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Easy Homemade Pizza and a Pizza Blog Hop

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As soon as I saw this no rise, practically no knead pizza dough recipe on the web I knew I had to try it out (you’ve probably seen it too – it’s got over 84,000 pins on Pinterest!). This easy pizza seemed too good to be true and had an intriguing secret ingredient: Yogurt. I love adding yogurt to everything from baked goods to pasta dishes, and from salad dressings to sauces to make them creamier, healthier, and tastier. But in pizza crust? But wait. It gets better. Besides the yogurt there’s only one other ingredient: Self-rising flour. Two ingredients and five minutes. I had to make it to believe it.

Easy Homemade Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella, Roasted Garlic and Sweet Potatoes

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Sugar Free Sugar Cookies and a Cookie Blog Hop

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I know it sounds crazy even to say – sugar free sugar cookies? It’s a total oxymoron. But when planning a baby shower for a woman with gestational diabetes the usual sweet buffet just won’t do. Beth cut most normal carbs and processed sugars out of her diet, and took regular blood sugar tests so knew that she reacted well to spelt flour and agave nectar. My mission: To make something akin to sugar cookies without all the sugar. I found these healthy sugar cookies, swapped the almond flour for whole wheat spelt flour, and was in business. With only four ingredients and no butter, I knew that these would be about as healthy as cookies could get – but how would they taste?

(Almost) Sugar Free Sugar Cookies {KatherineMartinelli.com}

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Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for World on a Plate

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As soon as Pola announced that the theme for this month’s World on a Plate event I knew I would be making Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, perhaps the most quintessential American summer pie. You already know how I feel about strawberry and rhubarb from my cocktail, and if you have my e-cookbook then you’ve seen my strawberry-rhubarb turnovers. Nothing, though, is more classic – or more delicious – than strawberry-rhubarb pie. Apparently it became popular in the 1800s, some three decades after Benjamin Franklin introduced rhubarb (which he nicknamed “pieplant”) to the US. Fun fact: did you know that rhubarb is a vegetable?

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie from KatherineMartinelli.com

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Guest Post: Pita and a Bread Blog Hop

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Do you have an irrational fear of yeast? Well, it’s time to get over it! See, the yeast does all the work so you don’t have to worry about the kitchen science behind it. As long as it’s fairly fresh, it will do its job. And once you get over that, the whole wide world of baking opens up to you. The Focaccia I made recently is an amazing introduction to making bread and using yeast. This pita is another. Which is why I was excited to finally tackle it when Anuradha from the amazing blog Baker Street asked me to guest post for her Bread 101 series. If you are somehow not familiar with Baker Street, head over there and check it out right now! She posts the most incredible baked goods, including her popular “Muffin Monday” series.

Pita {KatherineMartinelli.com}

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Homemade Focaccia for #BreakingBread

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I’ve wanted to try my hand at homemade focaccia for as long as I’ve been interested in food. I love bread of every shape, flavor, and color, but focaccia is at the top of that list. Yet I’d put off making it, like too many things, for years. And, having finally done it, I’m here to tell you: It’s easy!! I mean that. And this, coming from someone who is only partially recovered from an irrational fear of yeast. Fortunately for me the #BreakingBread Society, started by some of my favorite bloggers – Shulie of Food Wanderings, Lora of Cake Duchess, and Marnely of Cooking with Books – was just the catalyst I needed.

Focaccia

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Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chances are you’ve seen these cookies. I am, in fact, a full two years behind the buzz. See, when Kim Boyce came out with her Good to the Grain cookbook in 2010 the blogosphere went nuts for these whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Orangette was sold. Marisa of Food in Jars raved about them. Sweet Amandine called them home. And me? I kept making my old Martha Stewart standbys like a sucker. Typically baked goods that call for whole wheat flour still use half all purpose flour to keep the texture in check. But these little daredevils use 100% whole wheat flour. Would that really be good? Wouldn’t they be dense little pucks? Continue reading “Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies” →

Homemade Graham Crackers

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Homemade Graham Crackers
Homemade Graham Crackers

Before moving to Israel I had never considered making my own graham crackers (similar to digestive crackers for you Brits). But, like so many products from home, they are unavailable here. And so, like many of my favorite take-out meals, I set out to make them at home. Graham crackers have an interesting history. According to Wikipedia (so, you know, grain of salt), they were invented in 1829 as “Dr. Graham’s Honey Biskets” by Reverend Sylvestor Graham. It was all part of a bland diet that he marketed to try to suppress evil carnal urges (the same theory, by the way, behind Kellog’s corn flakes). This entry also says that you don’t technically have graham crackers without graham flour, another invention of Reverend Graham. So if you want to be technical, I didn’t make graham crackers since graham flour is not widely available outside the United States. But you could have fooled me. Continue reading “Homemade Graham Crackers” →