blueberry coffee cake.

When I was growing up my dad made the best coffee cake. Sometimes the person to do all the baking in the family is the mom. But in my family both my parents like creating things in the kitchen. It’s been one of the highlights of my upbringing. In addition to coffee cake my dad makes super awesome caramel corn, Chex mix, no bake cookies, blueberry crisp, and he can pretty much grill anything you ask him to. There is no shortage of delicious food in my parent’s house. And I am so blessed by it.

My mom also supplies me with delicious ingredients for things. For example: she bought a 5-pound box of blueberries last weekend for my brother and I to share. Brother gave me the whole box, so now I have blueberries forever until he comes to claim some (which I’m hoping is never). It’s hard to figure out what to do with a large box of blueberries though, so don’t be surprised if you see lots of posts about blueberries over the next couple months. Although, half of them are going in the freezer to save for the cold winter months when I just want blueberry muffins.

This recipe turned out way better than expected. I found it online and tweaked it a little bit to change the flavors up, and it was spectacular. This is one of those foods that you can eat for breakfast or dessert or a snack in the middle of the afternoon. Which makes it even better. This also gave me an excuse to make homemade whipped cream…so bonus. The original recipe didn’t have any vanilla extract in it so I added a teaspoon of that as well as half a teaspoon of almond extract because those two flavors together really bring out the complexities of the other. I also added a little cinnamon and nutmeg to the cake part to bump up the flavor. Then I added an extra quarter cup of milk making the cake really moist. And finally I added an extra tablespoon of butter to the topping which melted in the oven and settled into the cake increasing the moist-ness even more. Worth it.

I ate my first piece of this with 3 large dollops of whipped cream while watching the sun set. It was glorious.

Make some coffee cake. Eat some whipped cream. Watch the sunset. Be friendly.

Blueberry Coffee Cake
adapted from allrecpies.com
makes 1 9×9 pan

1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2  teaspoon almond extract
3/4  cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon
2 heaping cups fresh blueberries

For the topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
4 Tablespoons butter, cubed

Preheat the oven to 375°. Butter and flour a 9 inch baking pan and set aside.
In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir to incorporate them.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and extracts and beat for another minute. Add flour and milk alternately starting and ending with flour. Gently fold in blueberries and pour into prepared pan.
In a small bowl combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and pecans. Using your fingers, mix in the butter cubes until a sand-type consistency is reached. Spread over the top of the coffee cake.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick into the center and have it come out clean. Cool slightly. Serve warm topped with homemade whipped cream or ice cream.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

double cookie dough ice cream.

I’ve made homemade ice cream exactly one time. And it wasn’t great. It was pretty mediocre, so I haven’t been super excited about making ice cream again. It’s also kinda stressful and time consuming, so it’s not always on the top of my list of things to do. This place is often reserved for things like showering, eating food, or something that should just be automatic for normal people. But I found this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago and decided that I would treat myself to making it. Also, my boyfriend was visiting and he loves ice cream with cookie dough in it. So I figured why not.

The thing about this ice cream is that it isn’t just vanilla ice cream with cookie dough chunks in it. It’s freaking cookie dough flavored ice cream with cookie dough chunks in it. MIND. BLOWN. I didn’t quite believe that it was possible until I tested it while it was churning. Guys. It’s possible. It’s even delicious without the cookie dough chunks. (At this point I’m seeing how many times I can use ‘chunk’ in one paragraph.)

I also listened to Alton Brown’s podcast this morning (find it on iTunes because it’s awesome) and being almost a week behind it was all about ice cream which was fantastic. Alton Brown is one of my favorite food personalities, so his podcast is one of my favorites right now. So much food nerdy-ness. So awesome.

The really important thing in this recipe is the browned butter which adds the nutty cookie dough flavor to the ice cream. There’s also two kinds of milk fats which makes the ice cream ice cream. And there’s egg yolks which makes this ice cream almost like a custard. In my opinion, that’s better than just milk based ice cream. The thing with egg yolks is making sure you don’t actually cook them. When it’s time to add the hot butter and cream to the egg yolks and brown sugar you have to temper it. That means adding a little bit at a time to gradually bring the egg yolks up to temperature. That will ensure that the egg yolks won’t cook. It’s easy, don’t worry.

Make some ice cream. Share with dear friends. Be a nerd. Enjoy your summer.

Double Cookie Dough Ice Cream
recipe from beantownbaker
makes about 1 quart

for the cookie dough:
5 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Combine the melted butter, salt, and brown sugar in a bowl with a spatula until creamy. Stir in the flour until a dough forms. Add vanilla. Add chocolate chips and combine. Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a rectangle. Store in the refrigerator.

for the ice cream:
3 Tablespoons butter
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups whole milk

In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. After the butter melts it will begin to bubble and crack. The butter will start to brown and begin smelling nutty. Keep an eye on it because it can burn really quickly. When the butter is browned add the cream and whisk well to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
In a medium sized bowl combine the brown sugar, egg yolks, and salt. Whisk together to combine. When the cream and butter mixture is at a simmer, add a couple tablespoons to the egg mixture and whisk constantly. Keep whisking and slowly add more cream to the egg mixture. Eventually you’ll add a little under half the cream. Add the egg mixture back into the saucepan and put over medium-low heat. Stir the mixture constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. This took me about 10-15 minutes. Be patient.
Strain the mixture into a heat-proof bowl and stir in the whole milk and vanilla. Place in the fridge until chilled (for best results chill overnight).
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Chop the cookie dough into small pieces. Transfer chilled ice cream into air-tight container for freezer storage and mix in cookie dough pieces. Freeze until firm.
Ice cream will keep in the freezer for 1-2 months.

an update. finally.

Okay everyone. I’m still here. It’s been quite a long time since I posted last, so I figured I would give you a little update about what’s been happening over the last couple months since obviously, I haven’t been keeping up well with this whole blogging thing.  My bad.

May was full of excitement about finally graduating and starting life in the real world. It was really exciting because I got an apartment with my friend and I’d been working on organizing and job hunting and everything like that. May very quickly turned into June which was no good because I still didn’t have a job at all and had no prospects. Of all the job applications I turned in, exactly none of them contacted me at all about interviews or anything. Very discouraging. I did get to spend a lot of weekends traveling to Michigan to see my boyfriend, which was awesome because long distance relationships suck.

In June I finally heard from one of the job applications I turned in and got an interview and subsequent job at a grocery store in town in the bake shop. Pretty exciting because I kinda like baking and all that stuff. So I started my new job about halfway through June and it’s been a really interesting experience. Everyone has been very encouraging and helpful but I always feel like I’m bothering everyone with all my questions about where things are and if we have specific things and all that stuff. I am very thankful for this job, even though it is very tiring sometimes. I do really like it.

June also very quickly turned into July and with that came rent payments and I finally broke down one day and realized that I couldn’t pay my rent. (Guys. Real life is fricken’ hard.) So I called my loving mother and told her that I needed help. She graciously lent me money so I could actually pay my rent and everything was okay again. I also haven’t had any money to buy ingredients to bake with and often just eat pasta or other boring things for meals and you don’t want to read a blog about that. Hence the no blogging thing. I now also have a second job with my alma mater working with the marching band, which is very exciting. I am really excited to still have that family of crazy marching band people around me. I’m doing purely administrative work and it will be very fun.

There have been many weeks where I feel like I’m failing adulthood and that I don’t have a purpose here and all those things. But as those around me say it’s a lot harder than it looks. Life doesn’t fall right into place like you want it to. You have to work at it and no, you cannot just sit in your room and watch Netflix all day. (Unless it’s your day off. Then I say go for it.) I’m still learning how this living thing actually works. Taking care of yourself is hard work, but I’m assuming it’s worth it in the end. I hope you stick with me to hear about all the adventures I’m having and about the new lessons life is teaching me. There will be cookies. And a pretty good soundtrack.