The change actually happened a few months ago, but somehow I forgot to tell you all about it. I’ve managed to save your emails if you have subscribed for email updates about posts to this site, and will enter them into our new database. Expect an email confirmation from our new service, Feedburner, this weekend.

The new site is www.thenakedbakerkitchen.com, go have a look!

XOXOXOX

I was watching Giada on the Food Network the other day and she put together some interesting little turnovers filled with fresh blueberries and mascarpone cheese.  I used that as a starting point for these little sweets adding a bit of maple and cooking down the berries into a thick and concentrated sauce before mixing in with the cheese.

Here’s what you need:

One recipe of pie dough (my go to recipe is here, but you can probably use store bought for this one)

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 lemon

1 cup fresh organic blueberries (I guess frozen and thawed would be ok)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Enough canola oil to fill a pot about 4″ up

Scoop your mascarpone and sugar into a medium sized bowl.  Zest your lemon into that as well and stir to combine. Set aside.

In a sauce pan, pour maple syrup.

Add your rinsed berries (make sure there aren’t any little stems left on them).

Add the juice from your lemon and the vanilla.

Put this over medium high heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The skins will separate and everything will break down into a thick sauce.

Once the mixture is thickened, remove from heat and let it cool off.

Roll out your dough to about 1/8″ thickness, you don’t want it too thick because the cookies are small, but you don’t want the dough to tear.

Cut out circles about 3 to 4 inches in diameter.

Place these on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Beat your egg in a bowl, and brush the edges of each dough circle.

Mix the blueberry sauce into the mascarpone mixture, and spoon about 1 1/2 tsp onto the center of each circle.

Fold the circles in half, and use a fork to crimp the edges.

Place these in the fridge for a few minutes to set.

Heat up a pot full of oil to 375. Here’s a tip I learned from Giada: If you don’t have a thermometer, a cube of bread will brown in three minutes. Thanks G!

Set up some paper towels next to your pot.

Once the oil is hot, drop a couple of the cookies into the oil and wait a minute or two for them to turn golden and puff up.  Drain them on the paper towels and sprinkle with sugar while they’re still hot.

Let cool and enjoy!

For when you just need to be cozy all day.  It’s like French Toast that doesn’t get yucky after breakfast and is totally acceptable to eat all day long, hot or cold, with ice cream, whipped cream, a tall glass of milk or a little (or big) glass of bourbon.  And it’s surprisingly easy to make.

Bourbon Bread Pudding (adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Here is what you need:

16 oz stale (not too stale, but a little crusty) French bread, about 5 cups of cubes

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup good quality bourbon

First slice your bread into 1 to 2 inch cubes. You can remove the crust, but I like the variation in texture that it adds.

Generously butter a 2 quart glass baking dish and place the bread cubes in it. It should be pretty packed, but the cubes shouldn’t be too smooshed together.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the eggs together.

Add sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.  Whisk together.

Add milk, cream, and bourbon and whisk to combine.

Pour all of this mixture over the bread cubes.

Let it sit for about 45 minutes to an hour for the bread to soak everything up. Every 10 minutes or so, use a big spoon to press down any pieces of bread that are sticking out of the liquid so they don’t get dry.

Preheat to 350.  Get a larger baking dish and set the bread pudding dish inside of it.  Fill the larger dish about half way with water. Place all of this in the oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

It will be puffy and golden and smell amazing.

Let it cool a little, then serve warm with ice cream and/or whipped cream.  Nom. Nom. Nom.

On another note, there are some exciting things coming up:

A new apartment! Which means a new kitchen!

Graduation! In three weeks I will officially be done with college forever (until graduate school…?)

Wednesday morning I have an interview at Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie and Baking School to become a prospective student!

Naked Baker redesign! Though crazy technical difficulties have been making this project pretty frustrating, I’m really close to getting the new site up and running, you guys are going to love it!

I love you all very much and spying on you with Google Analytics makes me feel very loved back.

Hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July weekend and ate lots and lots of food.  I told you before that my favorite thing to bake was pie, and one of my favorite pies to bake is peach.  Now that it’s summer and the peaches are plump, whip one of these babies up to share with all your favorite people.  It makes a great breakfast too!

First make a pie crust, here is the recipe I use.

Next, go buy this stuff!

2.5 lbs white peaches

1 lemon

1/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 cup sugar, plus more for crust

1 Tbsp heavy cream, plus more for crust

1/4 cup butter

Preheat to 400 degrees

Peel and slice your peaches into a bowl.

Add cornstarch, sugar, and the juice of one lemon.  Toss until combined and let sit until the mixture thickens slightly.

Roll out half the dough and place it in the pie plate.

Pour in the filling.

Add the cream and the butter in small pieces on top.

Make a lattice top for the pie, brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any drips, and bake for an hour in the lower third of the oven.  If the edges start to burn, gently cover them with foil.

This pie didn’t last long enough for a final photoshoot, and yours probably won’t make it either.  Enjoy!

This is a super easy summer dessert that can be made partially ahead and is perfect for serving lots of hungry friends and family after a killer 4th of July BBQ.

Here’s whatcha need to serve about 4:

2 little baskets of strawberries

1 container creme fraiche

4 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp Port or other dessert wine

1 little loaf of pound cake

4 Tbsp butter, melted

Do ahead:

Rinse and chop your strawberries into pieces.

Toss with 2 Tbsp sugar and put in the fridge.

Empty creme fraiche into a bowl.

Add remaining 2 Tbsp sugar.

Add port.

Mix until incorporated and slightly thinned. Refrigerate.

After dinner, slice your pound cake.  Brush one side with melted butter and set on hot grill pan.

Brush the other side with butter, flip and rotate to create grill marks.

Place two pieces of pound cake on each plate and top with strawberries.

Drizzle with creme fraiche.

Enjoy!

I know you were worried, but I’m here… not kidnapped, or mangled somewhere on the side of the road, or eaten by a tiger, or GOD FORBID cut off from my beloved internetz… and not only am I informing you of my non-death today, I’m also going to show you how to bake something! Woooo!!!

These cookies taste like those little Ferrero Rocher chocolate balls you get in your stocking at xmas! The original recipe, from Martha, didn’t call for chocolate chips, but they definitely need them.  Eat these with your coffee in the morning, because who doesn’t like cookies for breakfast!?

Hazelnut Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Adapted from Martha

Here’s what you need:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur

3 Tbsp instant espresso powder

2 cups hazelnuts, toasted and chopped coarsely

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat to 375.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and sugars until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time.

Add Frangelico.

Add espresso powder.

Your dough will be nice and stiff.

Gradually mix in the flour mixture.

Fold in hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

Drop big spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden, rotating halfway through.

Let cool.

Or don’t.

I had a dinner party recently.  It was nice.  All two of my friends came.  I got to cook for them and sip wine and chat about all kinds of girly things.  We may have listened to a little Jay-Z.  One thing that I love about my friends… is that they love cheese.  So, in honor of summer and the beautiful fresh peaches that are finally available, and in honor of my cheese loving girls, our theme was Peaches and Cheese.

Here was the menu:

Sweet Baguette and Dante Cheese

Baby Spinach Salad and Grilled Peaches Stuffed with Pecan Goat Cheese

Inside Out Summer Cannoli with Carmelized Peaches

Here is what you need to throw a fabulous Peaches and Cheese dinner party for 3 of your own!

1 baguette

Hors d’oeuvre cheese of your choice

Enough baby spinach for three salads

Salad dressing of your choice… something fruity, such as Raspberry Vinaigrette or Apple Poppy Seed

5 ripe peaches

1 log chevre

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 small loaf of pound cake

1 stick butter

1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 Tbsp brown sugar

Lots of white wine

Let your friends help cut up bread and cheese.

First, slice three of your peaches in half and remove the pits.  It takes some coaxing to get them out without destroying the whole peach, but it gets easier the more you practice.

Heat a grill pan.  In a separate cup, melt 1/4 stick of butter and brush it generously over the tops of the peaches.

Set the peaches on the hot grill pan and cook for about five minutes.  Rotate them a quarter turn and continue to cook for another few minutes.  This will give you those nice grill marks.

While the peaches are cooking, mix your chevre and 1/4 cup of pecans in a bowl.  Add 1 Tbsp brown sugar. Add the black pepper to taste.

Toss your spinach with dressing and the remaining 1/4 cup pecans.

Gently remove the peaches from the pan and set two halves on top of each salad.  Stuff with the cheve mixture and top with a few more pecans.

I was having too much fun and working too quickly to take many pictures of the dessert, but this is super easy.

Combine the ricotta, mascarpone, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a bowl.  Fold in the hazelnuts. You can do this before dinner and keep it in the fridge.

Heat your grill pan.  Slice the pound cake into 6 thin pieces.  Brush with melted butter and place on grill pan for about 2 minutes.

Rotate a quarter turn and cook another couple of minutes.

Slice your remaining two peaches into wedges.

Melt 1/4 stick of butter in a saucepan and add the remaining 3 Tbsp brown sugar.  Add in the peaches and cook, gently stirring for about 5 minutes.  They will get all caramelized and yummy smelling.

Put the grilled pound cake on a plate.  Top with some peaches (be sure to get some of the butter from the pan on there!) and finish with a couple dollops of the sweet cheese mixture.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend with lots of sun and lots of yummy food.  XOXO

My parents just had their house remodeled and their kitchen is beautiful.  I went down for a visit over memorial day and helped my dad break it in.  We made salmon.  It was delicious.  And you can make delicious salmon too, as long as you buy it as fresh as possible.

My dad is kind of a salmon expert, and one of his favorite ways to cook it is breaded with cornmeal and topped with a pepper jelly sauce.

Here is what you need:

1 Big Salmon Fillet (super fresh and not fishy smelling!)

Butter

Fine Grind Cornmeal

Asparagus

Jalapeño or Raspberry Pepper Jelly

Rice Wine Vinegar or White Wine

Hardware:  A super sharp knife and some pliers.  If you want to be a bad ass like my dad is, use (cleaned) Snap On pliers from your tool box.

First, you want to use an extra, extra, dangerously sharp knife to remove the skin from the meat.

Now run your hand along the meat to find the bones.  Use pliers to pull them out, being sure to pull them in the same direction that they are naturally pointing so as not to break them off in the meat.

Now cut into pieces.

Melt a generous amount of butter in a pan.  Bread your fish with the cornmeal.

Cook for a few minutes, until golden around the bottom edges.

Then flip and cook the other side for a few minutes.

Remove from the pan when golden and crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside.  Let them rest for a few minutes before serving.

Prepare some asparagus by cutting off the bottoms, rinsing and drying, and tossing with olive oil.

Throw these on a hot grill pan and cook for about 10 minutes, then flip and cook the other side for about 10 minutes.

This pepper jelly sauce is super easy and really compliments the fish well.  Just take a few spoonfuls of the jelly and mix it in a bowl with either a couple splashes of rice wine vinegar, or just some white wine if you don’t have the vinegar around.

Spoon this on top of the fish, serve with asparagus and enjoy!

Hi! Happy Donut Day! If I haven’t made it clear enough here and here, I love a fresh, yummy donut every once in awhile.  Treat yourself to one today and celebrate! Woo woo!

In other news, since school let out I’ve been doing a lot of, uh…

Cheese

Yeah, and some Salumi

Some sweet beets…

Fennel sausage and extra thin prosciutto pizza!

Even eggs…

And biscuits sent straight from heaven with a side of honey butter!

Cocktails and calamari…

Cute and tasty!

Tomorrow’s post has something to do with this… and yes, those are dad hands.

Don’t worry I tried to eat some fruits and veggies this week…

And I’ve managed to keep hydrated…

But there is just no excuse for this last one.  Tart panna gelato lovingly drizzled with the finest extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with the flakiest sea salt… dangerous and delicious.

The classic “I just ate cheese in every single meal today!” look of panic.  We have a lot of jogging to do.

After reading about seasoned and fried chickpeas over at Aggie’s Kitchen, I just had to try these.  These little beans are so versatile and I’ve used them to make hummus, veggie patties, soup, and salads, but have never even thought of breading and frying them.

Rather than try the suggested Cajun style seasoning, I decided to use my trusty “Organic Taco Seasoning” and fry these up to replace the ground beef in some vegetarian tacos.  It was a great success!

To fry the beans, first rinse and thoroughly dry one can of garbanzo beans.

Pour some flour into a cereal-sized bowl and add about 1 Tbsp “taco seasoning” or whatever you feel like using.

Toss the chick peas around in the flour until coated.

Heat a pan of vegetable oil, and once it is nice and hot, throw in half of the coated chick peas.  Let them cook for about 4 minutes until golden and crispy.

Transfer to a bowl and toss with a little salt and a little more of the seasoning.

These little crispies are a great snack on their own, but to add to tacos, first fry up some corn tortillas into taco shells.  Do this before frying the chickpeas, so the oil is clean.  Shaping taco shells takes a lot of practice, but fresh shells are so much more satisfying than store bought.

Chop up some tomatoes and avocado.

Grate some cheese.  Or just buy the “5 Cheese Mexican Blend” or whatever it’s called.

Place the chickpeas in the shell first.

Top with tomato, avo, and cheese.  Enjoy!