Two Pies and some cupcakes . . .
Hello hello! Not sure if you noticed or not, but this week’s letter is a week late and the reason is this: March has been a tad on the crazy side. I traveled for work to Florida, Philadelphia and DC and also recorded about a trillion episodes of She’s My Cherry Pie, all while developing recipes for Today Food, as well as the Washington Post, and putting the finishing touches on the third pass of my new easy-peasy savory baking book (hitting shelves on 9/24/24); and as such was just feeling a tad overwhelmed. The good news is that I am back (and dare I say, better than ever!) with another extremely newsy letter. First up, I wanted to catch you up on the last few episodes of She’s My Cherry Pie (the baking podcast I host for the Cherry Bombe Podcast Network, beginning with my chat with the amazing Camari Mick.
Camari is an award-winning pastry chef at the Michelin-starred Musket Room in NYC and at Raf’s, and she and I talk all about her goat tres leches cake with jerk ice cream (pictured above) . . . hope you’ll give it a listen. I also had the pleasure of chatting with Gemma Stafford of the blog, Bigger Bolder Baking, as well as the You Tube Channel (with over 2.75 million subscribers) of the same name.
Gemma is Irish and many celebrated St. Paddy’s Day recently (including Gemma) and so we talked Irish scones (natch) - check out our chat here. And because many of us celebrated Pi(e) day a few weeks ago, as well, I also had the good fortune to chat with the Lauren Ko, the author of the bestselling Piometry and the mother of the “modern-lattice” (see below!).
Hope you’ll give my chat with Lauren a listen, too. Alrighty, now lest you think I only want to share podcast news with you, never fear! Here are some fun springy (easy) recipes for your baking pleasure.
First up is my no-bake lemon icebox pie with a shortbread crust. The pie takes very little time to assemble and calls for pantry-friendly ingredients (do I sound like a broken-record or what?) and has the brightest, most tart, yet sweet lemony vibes around. I’d suggest making it stat and if you want to watch me make it first, for moral support, you can check that out here. Another pie I’d also be pleased to see you make some time soon, is my no-bake grasshopper pie with a mint oreo crust.
No-bake is a theme here, yes, as I really love a dessert that does not require an oven - do you agree? This one is also easy-peasy and is def for all the mint-chocolate lovers in your house (my number one lover of mint/choc is away at college, but when he saw me make this on Instagram (and you can too) he DM’d me to say he would like to be eating this right now . . . and who can blame him? A final bonus recipe for this week does require an oven, but - wait for it- does not require any sugar!!! It’s my friend Brian Levy’s recipe for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
These cuties are sweetened entirely with fruit - dates and prunes to be exact (and if you did not know, I am a HUGE prune fan and eat my weight in them daily). Brian was a guest on my podcast and we chatted all about this recipe and I am thrilled to be sharing it with you here.
Chocolate cupcakes:
¾ cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour
½ cup (40 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
6½ tablespoons (80 grams) neutral vegetable oil, such as grapeseed
2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
Scant 1¼ cups (175 grams) Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
⅔ cup (95 grams) prunes, chopped
½ cup (125 grams) hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate frosting:
Recipe here.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 12 cups of a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix them with a whisk and set the bowl aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the oil and butter on low speed to combine. Add the eggs, gradually increase the speed to medium, and beat for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the dates, prunes, and hot water. Let the fruit soften for a couple of minutes if it’s firm. Add the vanilla and puree until very smooth and room temperature, about 3 minutes.
Add the dry ingredients to the oil-egg mixture in the stand mixer bowl and begin mixing on low speed. Increase the speed to medium and mix until just a bit of flour is left unmixed. Add the fruit puree and beat on low speed until it’s fully incorporated, then increase the speed to medium for about 30 seconds to develop the cake’s structure. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and smooth the tops.
Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. To ensure even baking, rotate the pan front to back after 10 minutes in the oven.
To assemble: Allow the cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes in their pan, then place them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting. Frost with the chocolate ermine frosting using a small offset spatula or a piping bag with a ½-inch tip.
Frosted cupcakes will keep in the refrigerator for up to a few days. Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Now, before I cut out and send you on your merry baking way, I do want to mention that I am going to Provence in October (in partnership with Modern Adventures) from the 23rd through the 29th and that I would REALLY like you to go with me.
All the details are here but all you really need to know is that it is going to be LOADS of fun. From medieval villages and churches to the art of Van Gogh, Dali and Cezanne; to family-run vineyards and farmers markets; to bakeries, patisseries, cheese shops, Michelin-starred restaurants and more - I think it is fair to say it will be a blast.
Alright peeps, time to sign off. See you in two weeks!