A Bakery of Blood Cells!

Isa Humble is my hero. One of them. She bakes the most delicious-looking cookies, and, even better, she blogs about it at Not So Humble Pie. Best of all, she is fond of baking biology themed cookies. Below, a petri dish and a cephalopod.

But now, she has teamed up with histology lecturer Joanne Masterer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to create a video explaining all the different cells that make up your bloodstream. It's delightfully delicious and dorky!




via Boing Boing

Almond Cheesecake Apple Bars

Today's recipe!

Ingredients
For the crust and topping:
13/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp table salt
2 oz (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, well softened
2 oz (4 tbsp) cream cheese, well softened
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar
3 oz (3/4 cup) slivered almonds, coarsely chopped

For the filling:
4 oz (8 tbsp) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
a pinch of table salt
1 lb (about 2 medium) Braeburn, Gala, or Roma apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/8 inch-thick slices (to yield 21/2 cups)

Bake
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut a piece of parchment into a 9x14-inch rectangle. Line a 9 inch-square baking pan with the parchment (it will extend beyond the pan). Butter the parchment and the unlined sides of the pan.

Make the crust and topping:
1. Set aside 2 tbsp of the flour in a small dish. Whisk together the remaining 11/4 cups flour and the salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the cream cheese and almond extract and beat on medium until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed, about 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup each of the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium speed until blended, scraping as needed. Add the flour-salt mixture and 1/3 cup of the almonds and beat on medium low just until the flour is absorbed and the mixture starts to come together in clumps.
2. Set aside 2/3 cup of the dough in another bowl and press the remaining dough into the prepared pan in a thin but even layer. Prick it all over with a fork. Bake until the crust is golden, especially around the edges, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, but keep the oven on.
3. While the crust bakes, add the 2 tbsp reserved flour and the remaining 2 tsp each of the granulated and brown sugars to the reserved dough. Mix with your fingertips until well combined and then squeeze the dough together into one clump.

Make the filling:
1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat on medium until completed, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat until combined, scraping the bowl as needed. Beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt.
2. Spread the apple slices evenly on the bottom crust and pour the cream cheese filling on top, gently spreading it with a rubber spatula to cover the apples. Crumble the remaining dough on top. The pieces can be fairly large, about the size of a cherry, and the topping needn't be completely cover the filling. Sprinkle with the remaining almonds. Bake until the topping and almonds are light golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Let the bars cool in the pan until warm, about 30 minutes. Remove from the pan using the parchment sling and set on a wire rack to cool completely. Transfer the bars, still on the parchment, to a cutting board. Slide a long metal spatula between the bars and parchment to separate them, and slide the parchment out. Cut into 16 bars.

The bars came out super delicious!

Note to the co-founder of PLOC and the entire ELSD: I will bake for you soon, I promise!

Little Martha Stewart

So I bake for the science department in my high school every week, and I figure I may as well start posting my recipes.

This week's treat: Pumpkin and Cornmeal Cake with Orange Syrup

Ingredients:
For the cake -
8 oz (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbs. finely grated orange zest
1 large egg
2 large eggs, separated
8 oz (1 cup) canned pure solid-pack pumpkin
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 cup fine-ground yellow cornmeal
sifted confectioners' sugar for garnish

For the syrup and for serving -
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 granulated sugar
vanilla yogurt or vanilla ice cream (optional)

Make the cake
1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 350 F.
2. Butter a 9-inch Bundt pan.
3. With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, and orange zest until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. One at a time, add the egg and egg yolks (remember to reserve the whites), beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition.
5. Beat in the pumpkin and vanilla.
6. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir in the cornmeal. Add this mixture to the pumpkin batter in three stages, stirring gently but thoroughly with a rubber spatula after each addition; don't overwork the batter.
7. In a clean bowl with a very clean whisk or a hand mixer, whip the reserved egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Gently fold the whites into the batter with the spatula until you no longer see streaks of white.
8. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan; smooth the surface.
9. Bake until the top of the cake is springy when lightly touched, the sides are beginning to pull away from the pan, and a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes.
10. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust the cake with sifted confectioners' sugar.

Make the syrup
1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the orange juice and sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to medium high. Boil without stirring for 2 minutes.
2. Serve each slice of cake drizzled with syrup and, if you like, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!!