Peach (or any stonefruit) Quesadillas

It's stone fruit season! Celebrate with cheese! Wrap the season's juiciest peaches, plums or cherries in a flour tortilla with cheese, jalapeno, bacon, and a red onion jam. The combo may be unexpected, but I promise it is sweet, salty, gooey, and a little spicy. Just what we all want in our quesadillas, right?

We all know peaches and bacon are friends, but what about cheese? I was really craving some quesadillas, and then I went to the store and the piles of stonefruit were so fragrant it was distracting, so I thought, why not have both?

I sliced the peaches super thin and layered them in a flour tortilla with some shredded muenster, which is my favorite melting cheese. Then I just added on. Bacon, jalapeno, thyme, and even a red onion jam I had sitting in the fridge. It all went so well together I had to snap some photos to share.

In the end, I think what I love about these the most is they aren’t just cheese bombs. The cheese acts as more of a binder to keep everything together. The juices from the peaches mingle with the jalapeno and the salty bacon, and the red onion jam enhanced the sweetness while adding some acid. You could serve these with some sour cream or yogurt and a squeeze of lime if you must, but I think they were perfectly craveable just as is.

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Peach Quesadillas

Makes 8 quesadillas

For the quesadillas:

• 2 peaches, thinly sliced

• 1 cup shredded muenster

• 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced

• 3 slices bacon, fried until crispy and chopped into small bits

• fresh thyme

• red onion jam (I used this one I had made from Martha)

• 8 flour tortillas (storebought or homemade to really take these to another level)

1. Heat a heavy skillet or cast iron pan over medium heat.

2. Assemble quesadillas: start with some cheese on one half of your tortilla, then sprinkle with some of the bacon and thyme. Lay 3 peach slices across the cheese, then lay on jalapeno, then a bit of the onion jam. Sprinkle with more cheese and transfer to the skillet.

3. Let sit open faced for a minute while the tortilla warms up, then fold over the uncovered half over the filling, to form a half-moon shape. Lay something over top like a pot lid, to press the tortilla down and create a bit of steam to help melt the cheese. When the bottom is nice and golden and crispy, flip the quesadilla, then cook until golden on the bottom, covered with the pot lid.

4. Repeat with remaining ingredients, cut each quesadilla into wedges, and serve hot!

Chocolate Shortbread with Chili Sugar & Lime

I really almost launched into another lengthy essay about how weird this pandemic feels, how time is moving in weird ways, etc etc and I don’t think that’s news for anyone. So instead, here’s some news from my orbit, just a little list of things of interest to me this week.

• I have decided to paint my living room walls navy blue! Mostly because I think it will look amazing, we have tons of windows and a wall of mirrors. It’s why all my cookbooks got bleached by the sun, but it will keep it from feeling too dark. Also, I hear blue helps you concentrate, so if we all go into lockdown again in the Winter I will be able to stare at the walls with real focus.

• Speaking of redecorating, I really can’t seem to stop buying little things to organize and little touches to “improve the surroundings.” I think it must be a symptom of so much time in one space, but it’s not super great for my budget. Although, last week, the one dining chair I splurged on from CB2 inexplicably came with an extra chair in the box…so it was really a BOGO!

• Speaking of budgets though, why can’t I stop buying LEGO sets? I started in the very beginning of July with what I thought would be a one-off purchase of the London Bus, rationalizing it as a change of pace from puzzles and a salve for not being able to travel. Now, 6 weeks later I’ve also done the Fiat and the VW Beetle and have the gingerbread house and haunted house on deck for “seasonal decor” and… why can’t I stop?

• Actually, I know why. It’s because the 8 hours I spent building the bus were the most relaxed I had been in months, and relaxation these days is like a hard to score designer drug. So now I pay cocaine prices for plastic building blocks. (Just kidding, Grandma! I don’t actually know what cocaine costs or even if it’s a designer drug! I have never done drugs! But I hear it’s for rich people so it must be expensive).

• Speaking of puzzles, I finally received the two puzzles I bought two months ago to get me through unemployment! No time to do them now! But they’re here!

• The Sur La Table in my neighborhood is closing, and yesterday I snagged a couple things at the sale. It’s not like I actually needed anything but it felt like a nice gesture to buy something. Plus, I had more interaction with strangers while waiting to pay than I’ve had in months. Apparently they were similarly starved for company because they laughed at all my bad jokes. Everyone is a little punchy these days but it’s great for feeling like you are funny!

• Coincidentally, you may see a bundt cake here in future.

• In TV news, I finally finished TNG despite my erratic viewing schedule, but man that show was hard to get through! But now I’m deep into DS9 so I guess this situation has turned me into a Trekkie! It took 34 years and one global pandemic but my Dad is gonna be so happy.

• KAMALA!

And, finally, in baking news, I almost completely forgot about this shortbread I made months ago! It’s the last recipe from my baking binge in June. It’s not the least, by any measure, but still, I discovered it in my drafts folder and realized I hadn’t already blogged it. I don’t know how, but I don’t really remember June, do you?

So, I present to you the easiest chocolate shortbread ever, crumbly and sandy and chocolatey and, for that quintessential 2020 curveball effect, also citrusy and a wee bit spicy from the chili sugar. Chocolate, lime and chili is a combo I really love, and that moment when sugar gets sprinkled over the warm shortbread is “wow” in the best way. I really recommend!

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Small-Batch Chocolate Chili Shortbread

For the shortbread (adapted from NYT Cooking:

• 1 cup flour

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• 2 tbs rice flour

• 2 1/2 tbs sugar

• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

For the Chili Lime Sugar:

• 1 tbs granulated sugar

• 1 tbs chili sugar (I used a store-bought one, but I also have a recipe here)

• zest 1/2 lime

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees, and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, sugar and salt, then stir in the melted butter. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan and bake until set, about 40 minutes.

3. While shortbread is baking, prepare your sugar topping. Rub together the plain granulated sugar and the lime zest until fragrant and the sugar feels a bit damp. Mix with the chili sugar and stir to combine.

4. Remove shortbread from the oven and sprinkle with the sugar topping. Slice into 8 bars and let cool completely.

Small-Batch Matcha Cupcakes with Rhubarb Filling

I made more cupcakes!

Honestly, I’ve reached the point in this pandemic where I may have burned myself out on baking for a while. I almost turned into a little, one-woman bake shop during my unemployment, and it’s time to lay off for a minute. Plus, I’m really enjoying all the fresh summer fruit at the moment!

And, yes, that’s right, I got a new job! I’m relieved and grateful and so, so lucky, but now someone is actually paying me to do other things during the day instead of turning on my oven.

Before I started my baking hiatus, I did manage to turn out some pretty spectacular cupcakes using one of my early summer favorites, rhubarb! I bought a few stalks sometime in May (I think it was May, who knows anymore?) and cooked them down into a lovely compote flecked with vanilla, and then since I had no plan for it, tucked it away in the freezer until inspiration struck. It didn’t take long, and I soon realized I wanted to pair the rhubarb with a matcha cake and some sort of glazed frosting.

I had some leftover white chocolate glaze in the freezer from a failed cake experiment earlier this year, and used the last of it on my first batch of these, but I felt like the white chocolate was competing too much with the rhubarb and the delicate, subtle matcha flavor of the cake, so I swapped it for a plain vanilla glaze to highlight the vanilla in the filling, and I think it was the right choice.

And let me take a minute to highlight the cake itself. I went for an adaptation of Stella Parks’s white mountain cake because 1) I had all the ingredients and 2) I wanted to use a cake recipe without egg yolks to really let the matcha flavor shine. After scaling her recipe waaaay down, it worked perfectly, and the texture of these cupcakes is sublime. They are light and fluffy, and the matcha flavor is delicate. In fact, if you are going for a full punch of green tea flavor, these are not the cupcakes you are looking for. But I really love how you can tell it’s there, but the matcha compliments the rhubarb while still letting it shine.

And, finally, I topped these with freeze-dried strawberry and black sesame seeds, mostly because I thought it would be pretty. The garnish is totally unnecessary to the final flavor of the cupcakes, but I think it makes them look like Hello Kitty cupcakes, which is very cute, so why not?

I know rhubarb season is all but over, but I am still seeing hothouse rhubarb in some stores, and maybe you also smartly froze some for later? If so, I suggest spinning up a batch of these.

Oh, and the best thing about this recipe is it only makes enough for at most half a dozen cupcakes! As we continue to isolate and minimize social interactions, it’s the perfect recipe to make for just yourself or your family. I vote just for yourself though, you may not want to share!

Discover & share this Matcha Rhubarb Cupcake GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

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Matcha Cupcakes with Rhubarb Filling and Vanilla Glaze

This small-batch recipe for cupcakes is perfect for one or two people or small groups, and uses up those last bits of baking ingredients.

Makes 4-6 cupcakes, but can be easily doubled.

For the Rhubarb Filling (makes extra):

• 8 oz rhubarb (about 2 stalks depending on size)

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out

For the Matcha Cupcakes (adapted very liberally from Stella Parks):

• 1/2 cup bleached cake flour

• 1/2 tbs matcha (food grade)

• 2 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 oz coconut oil, room temperature

• 1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp sugar

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1/8 tsp baking soda

• scant 1/8 tsp kosher salt

• 1 egg white

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/4 cup buttermilk

For the Vanilla Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 2-3 tbs milk or cream

• 1 tsp vanilla

• dried strawberries, for garnish (optional)

• black sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

1. Make the rhubarb filling: toss the rhubarb and sugar together in a medium pot and let sit for 10 minutes. Put the pot over medium heat and add in the vanilla bean seeds and the pod. Cook for ten minutes or until the rhubarb is falling apart. Remove the vanilla pod and set aside to cool completely. Filling can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge or even frozen. Make sure to bring back to room temperature before filling cupcakes.

2. Make the cupcakes: Heat oven to 350 degrees and line 6 cupcake tins with baking cups (see note). Sift flour and matcha together and set aside.

3. To the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter, coconut oil, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until with the paddle attachment on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg white and beat to fully combine, then add the vanilla.

4. With mixer on low speed, add the 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/3 of the buttermilk in alternate batches, starting with the flour and ending with the buttermilk. Divide batter between baking cups and bake 13-15 minutes, until golden on top and toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.

5. When ready to fill, use a cupcake corer or the bottom of a large piping tip to cut a hole out of the top of the cupcakes. Make sure not to cut all the way to the bottom! Fill, 1/2 tsp at a time, until the filling reaches the top of each cupcake. Set aside while you make the glaze. The filling may settle a bit into each cupcake and you can add more if needed to reach the tops of the holes.

6. Make the glaze: in a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk or cream to a smooth consistency, then add the vanilla and whisk in. Divide as much glaze as you like between each cupcake and decorate as desired with garnishes, if using.

Notes:

• If you want slightly taller cupcakes, you can divide batter between four baking cups instead of 6. I like the slightly shorter cupcakes you get from portioning into 6 cupcakes, for a better ratio of rhubarb to cake, and the fact they don’t cup all the way up the sides of the baking cups, leaving you a nice lip to hold the glaze in.