Cherry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Last week I bought the last good batch of cherries from the supermarket, it seems the season is nearly over. I've made a lot of things with cherries over the last two summers and it's become one of my favourite fruit, I also have come to enjoy the process of pitting them ^_^

This time I wasn't in the mood for a pie and I don't like tarts.. plus there was a bar of cream cheese that just about expired in my fridge so I figured the combination could work.

I googled both ingredients on hand and came up with this cake, seemed worth a try! I do love cake so very much. MMmmmmm.

I hope you enjoy the following recipe.

Cherry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Reprinted with permission from “Taste of Home Baking”

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Dough:

2 1/4 CUPS ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

3/4 CUP SUGAR

3/4 CUP COLD BUTTER, CUBED

1/2 TEASPOON BAKING POWDER

1/2 TEASPOON BAKING SODA

1/2 TEASPOON SALT

1 EGG, LIGHTLY BEATEN

3/4 CUP SOUR CREAM (didn't have on hand so I used lebneh which is a middle eastern strained yogurt dip which I made the night before, you can probably use greek yogurt)

1 TEASPOON ALMOND EXTRACT (I used more but the flavour still didn't quite come through, next time I'll use even more)

Filling:

1 PACKAGE (8 OUNCES) CREAM CHEESE, SOFTENED

1/4 CUP SUGAR

1 EGG, LIGHTLY BEATEN

1 CAN (21 OUNCES) CHERRY PIE FILLING (or fresh pitted cherries cooked down with some sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice, I thickened it with a bit of corn starch whisked into a tiny bit of cold water then added into the hot cherries and whisked until thickened a bit - cooled in fridge overnight)

1/2 CUP SLIVERED ALMONDS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Reserve 3/4 cup crumb mixture. Add baking powder, baking soda and salt to remaining crumb mixture. Stir in egg, sour cream and almond extract until blended. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up the sides of an ungreased 9-inch springform pan with removable bottom.

For filling, in a bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar for 1 minute. Add egg; beat just until combined. Spread over crust. Carefully top with pie filling. Top with almonds and reserved crumb mixture.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until center is set. Cool on a wire rack. Carefully run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen; remove sides of pan. Store in the refrigerator.

(Recipe courtesy of Ezra Pound Cake)

Black Currant Scones

Here's an update on my black currant bush which I planted last year... you can see a post about it here when I first planted it.

This year I have a harvest of about 1/3 of a cup, maybe because I was a bit late and the birds ate most of them but at least I managed to pick some and so I made scones and incorporated these little black beauties into a portion of the dough recipe below.

This scone recipe yields a flakey delicious scone and I'm sure it'll be my favourite from now on. Try it and let me know what you think.

.... and of course I couldn't resist adding a few shots of some new neighbourhood cats that wander into my yard from time to time. They're too cute, new friends are always welcome! ^_^

Fruit Scones (recipe adapted from Rock Recipes)

In a food processor, combine:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

6 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Cut in:

¾ cup very cold butter, cubed

Pulse process until this mixture resembles a coarse meal. It is very important that pea sized pieces of butter remain in this mixture.

Mix together:

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Pour this over the surface of the dry mixture. Toss all together gently with a fork only enough to form a dough ball. When the flour is almost incorporated, add

1 1/2 cups desired fruit or berries.

Frozen berries work best because they are less delicate and easier to incorporate into the scone dough It is important that you work this dough as little as possible or the finished scones will be too dense and heavy. Roll to 1 inch thickness and cut out scones with biscuit cutter or in triangles with a sharp knife and place on parchment lined baking sheet.

If desired you can brush the tops of the scones with an egg wash of 1 egg beaten together with 1 tbsp water. You can sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar if desired but this is, of course, optional.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Baking time will vary depending on the size of your biscuit cutter. This recipe makes 8 large scones or about 18 smaller scones as pictured above..

داوود باشا باللبن Dawud Pasha

Lamb meatballs

1 lb ground lamb

Salt and pepper for seasoning

1 clove garlic

1 small onion or 1/4 large onion

Dash of Worstershire sauce or lemon juice

1 tsp Mint (fresh or dried)

1/2 tsp arabic 7 spice (recipe here)

lemon zest (optional)

Oil for frying

Grind or chop the onion and garlic very fine, add to the rest of the ingredients and blend.

Make small meatballs the size of an egg yolk.

Fry the meatballs in some oil until they are browned, remove and set them aside.

Most arabic recipes ask to fry the meatball, simmer in tomato sauce and then bake, but I really don't like to cook the heck out of lamb, but in the middle east we are used to killing our food twice and everyone I know takes their meat well done.

You can adjust the doneness of the meat according to your taste but I found that simply browning them on all sides yields a perfect meatball that is still juicy in the middle.

Traditionally in the recipe Dawud Pasha the meatballs are served in a tomato sauce, sometimes it even contains some pieces of potato that were simmered in the sauce earlier but because I have a mild tomato allergy and have eaten enough tomato this week I opted for a yogurt sauce (below)

Yogurt sauce:

Blend yogurt and heat gently, do not let it split. Pour over the meatballs.

Butter sauce:

Heat about 1 tbsp butter and grate 1 small clove of garlic in it, allow it to become fragrant then remove from heat, sprinkle some paprika in the oil and pour over the yogurt.

Garnish:

Brown some pine nuts and sprinkle over along with chopped parsley.

Serve with white rice and salad, enjoy!

Ginger Chicken Pizza

Ginger Grilled Chicken Pizza

This may sound a little unusual but if you love ginger as much as I do I'm pretty sure you'll be pleasantly surprised by this one.

Recently I tasted a pizza which my mother ordered from a new place and when she first raved about how good it was and how the owner has this special ginger sauce I thought it was a little odd but as soon as I tried it I was hooked!

Here I tried to make a homemade version.

There are no special toppings to go on this pizza, you can put whatever you want but the idea here is to put the ginger in the tomato sauce, and a lot of it!

I simply grated a big piece of ginger right into the homemade tomato sauce before spreading it on the pizza. If you like you can cook the ginger into the sauce as you simmer it, maybe even add a dash of dried ginger too.





For toppings I went with a chicken (seasoned whole deboned chicken thighs, grilled on the bbq and then slicing into pieces, leftovers work great for this!) Mushroom, green pepper and red onion. A small handful of mozarella cheese, it's always best not to pile on too many toppings because it won't cook that well and tends to get soggy.

First I roll out the homemade pizza dough and spread with the ginger tomato sauce, then add some mozarella and neatly arrange all the other toppings.

Bake on 400-450 F very briefly, keeping a close eye on it so it won't burn. I like to make my pizzas on a high temperature for a few moments but if you're worried then lower the temperature a bit.

If you are a fan of seafood I'd suggest some nice shrimp on the pizza with the ginger sauce, it would be quite tasty, I'm sure.

Enjoy!