Believe it or not, I actually have a better reason than the usual, “Sorry, we’re busy” for not posting much lately. If you keep an eye on the flickr site, you might’ve noticed that food pictures have been appearing there but never migrating over to the site. Well, the reason is that I’ve had a side project going on — I’ve been making a cookbook! My good friend Jessica is getting married today, and as a wedding present for her, I gathered recipes from her friends and family and put them together in a cookbook that I had printed over at blurb.com. I didn’t have time to make everything myself, but we did test out and photograph some of the recipes, so those are what you may have seen show up on flickr. I wanted to share some of these delicious recipes with you, too, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for Jessica, who I think might read this here blog occasionally. But the beautiful wedding was yesterday today, so the cat’s finally out of the bag. The next several posts will be recipes shared by Jessica’s friends and family.

First up is this Irish cream poundcake from Katrin Baker, an advisor to both Jessica and me when we were in the Honors program at NCSU. I couldn’t resist adding some chopped chocolate to Katrin’s recipe, though I’m sure it would be delicious either way. As Katrin says, this cake actually gets better after it sits for a day or two. I especially liked it toasted. Thanks, Katrin!

Chocolate Chip Irish Cream Poundcake
adapted from Katrin Baker, originally from Cooking Light, she thinks

2 3/4 cups cake flour (about 11 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup low-fat or fat-free cream cheese, softened
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chip (optional)
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Beat together cream cheese and butter with a mixer at high speed. Beat in granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs, 1 at a time; beat well after each addition. Beat on high speed 1 minute.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture and liqueur alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mixing well after each addition. Stir in chopped chocolate, if using.

Pour batter into a 12-cup Bundt pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 325 F for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. If desired, sift powdered sugar over cake.

Let’s just ignore the fact that I haven’t put anything up here in over a month and just move on with our lives, shall we? I know it’s getting late to share this with you, but maybe you can still find a few end of the season stone fruits left at your market? If not, I could imagine trying a similar concept with some upcoming fall fruit, like maybe pears, or persimmons.

I got the idea of adding creme fraiche to a pie from Smitten Kitchen, who in turn got it from Martha Stewart. I really liked the way it thickened things up and made them a bit richer and tangier, and a little less sweet. I used nectarines and blueberries, since that’s what we had on hand, and it was a lovely combination, but there are many other combinations you could try that might be more seasonally appropriate. I’m just now thinking maybe pears and cranberries might be good, when the cranberries start popping up before too much longer. Is it really fall already?!

Nectarine Blueberry Pie
adapted from the Smitten Kitchen

One pie crust (I cheated and used store-bought)

For filling:
4 nectarines, cut into wedges
1/2 cup of blueberries
2 T sugar (or to taste)
1 t lemon zest
pinch of cardamom
1/2 c creme fraiche

For streusel:
1/4 c powdered sugar
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 c finely chopped pecans
3 T flour
1/2 stick cold salted butter (or unsalted plus a pinch of salt)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Sprinkle the nectarine slices and blueberries with sugar, lemon zest, and cardamom and let macerate while you prepare the rest of the pie.

Roll out crust and place it in a pie pan. Combine the ingredients for the streusel except the butter, and then cut in the butter. Spread half of the creme fraiche on the bottom of the pie pan and sprinkle half the streusel on top. Arrange nectarine slices and blueberries over the top. Dollop with the rest of the creme fraiche, and sprinkle the rest of the streusel over the top.

Bake at 375 F for about an hour, until the filling is bubbly and the crust and streusel are golden. Let cool a bit before serving. With the creme fraiche, I really didn’t think it needed ice cream or whipped cream or anything, though I guess that never hurts.

One of Matt’s favorite desserts is lemon squares, but when I made them this time, I decided to change it up and use lime juice instead.  I also added some ginger, again going for that ginger-lime combination I use for sherbet a few weeks ago.  This time, I again didn’t add enough ginger though, so if you want that to come through, add more!  Fresh ginger in the filling might help, too.

Everyone enjoyed the flavor of these with lime instead of lemon.  In fact I think I might like them even better than the original!  The extra tang from the lime just seems particularly summery.

Lime Squares

If you’d rather have more classic lemon bars, just use lemon juice instead of lime juice, and leave out the ginger.

For the crust:
2 sticks salted butter (or, use unsalted and add a pinch of salt to the dry ingredients, below)
2 c flour
1/4 c ultra fine sugar
1/2 t ground ginger

For the filling:
4 eggs
1/2 c fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
1 T flour
1/2 t baking powder
2 c sugar
1 t ground ginger

powdered sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 325 F. In a 13″ x 9″ pyrex dish, melt the butter. Stir in flour, ultrafine sugar, and 1/2 t ginger. Press into the bottom of the pan. Bake 325 F for fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs until frothy, and then add the juice. Beat in the flour, baking powder, and sugar, until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour over the crust, and bake at 325 F for 40-50 minutes, until set and barely coloring. Sift powdered sugar over the top while they’re still warm. Once cool, cut into squares.