• Sometimes you have to be a little creative when you’re giving a recipe a title, whether you’re embelishing with an adjective or taking care to mention a special ingredient. You can’t just call everything “cake” or “cookie” - not if you want to tempt other people into trying the recipe! A whisk and a spoon had to shorten the name of her Rhubarb-filled yogurt cupcakes with lemon butter icing and pistachios for the purpose of titling her post, but there is more than enough good stuff packed into that one recipe to grab my attention and put it on my “to-try” list!
• Truth for the ages: “My idea of perfect happiness is clarity about that which fulfills me - plus - I fully believe that desserts should be damn free of all damn calories.” I have to agree completely with Velvet Lava - especially on the last bit there. Fortunately, as she also points out, it’s always free to look, so be sure to take a good long one at her Shortbread Tartlets with Mocha Frosting. They’re certainly not calorie free, but one glance of their decadence is definitely satisfying enough to hold you over for a few hours while you make them.
• Strawberry season is in full swing and you can never have too many recipes that really make good use of a seasonal bounty of ripe berries. A fresh fruit tart is always a good idea and the Strawberry Rhubarb Tart that Dessert First posted looks like a winner. The recipe was originally designed by the ever-brilliant Pierre Herme and DF decided to garnish it with some homemade Brown Sugar Ginger Ice Cream, too.
• Somebody tell Aaplemint that there is only one reason to even consider apologizing for the photo accompanying the recipe posted for Dark Chocolate, Mocha and Chocolate Cake Parfaits and that is not because they are oozing chocolaty goodness down the sides of their parfait glasses. It’s because we can’t taste the finished product from the mouthwatering photograph alone. The bit of melting mousse makes it look more appealing than ever.
• The post-Bake-Off glow has worn off and I’ve returned to posting non-Bake-Off recipes here lately, but I’ll always have a soft spot for old contest-winning recipes. Apparently, so does Fruit Tart. This recipe for Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies was a prize-winner in 1990 and has been reprinted many times since. The cookies have a chocolate dough that is wrapped around a chocolate and caramel candy center. They’re similar to this year’s winning recipe, in that the cookies are filled with something delicious. I guess that’s a recipe for a winner no matter what year it is!
• Finally, you won’t find any recipes at Bent Objects, but you will find some fantastic and witty foodie artwork there. Artist Terry Border uses both organic (like food) and inorganic bits and pieces to put together some excellent works, like Prehistoric Citrus were Very Clever Hunters, Aaaarsh-Mallows, the Red Wine Pistachio Bird and, definitely a favorite, Salad is Murder.

Pie plates are one type of bakeware that generate a fair amount of confusion for home bakers. This is largely because, unlike cookie sheets and regular cake pans, pie pans are always available in a variety of materials and it’s not always clear what is going to give you the best result. Most commercial pies tend to come in metal pie pans (think Marie Callenders’) Pyrex pie pans have been around for decades and are staples in most homes already. Ceramic pie plate look beautiful for serving and are definitely more expensive than the other two.

The goal when baking a pie is to get a well-browned, well-cooked crust. Each material has advantages and disadvantages. Metal pans tend to be very inexpensive and they will last a very long time. Heavier pans tend to brown pie crust better than lighter pans, but with a metal pan it is difficult to tell with a glance whether your pie crust is done or not. Ceramic pie plates give you the same visual problems. They tend to be thick and hold in heat from the oven very well, so you’ll almost always get a very even browning on your pie, you might need a few extra minutes to cook it because the pan actually needs a bit of extra time in the oven to heat up.

My top choice is Pyrex. The heat-treated glass is incredibly strong and durable, sturdier than most metal pans but lighter than ceramic. The pans retain heat very well and usually provide a better browning for a pie crust than metal or ceramic. You can also easily check on the pie’s progress through the sides of the pan itself.

• Call it a cheesecake theme if you wish, but there are too many cream-cheesy posts to pass up this week. For instance, there is a White Chocolate Cheesecake at Velvet Lava. Tall, creamy and - naturally - very decadent, it’s comfort food at its finest. Eat a slice at the end of a bad day to forget about pesky, mundane things like calories and just enjoy!
• As a fan of salted caramel, I almost feel obligated to share What We’re Eating’s Salted Caramel Spilled All Over Cheesecake. The recipe is for a classic, creamy cheesecake that comes with a rich, salt-spiked caramel sauce to drizzle, well, all over it. This is one of the instances where I’m glad that the internet has put some distance between me and the dessert, because I’m positive that this is one irresistible combination.
• This cheesecake dish doesn’t actually involve cheese at all. Instead it uses vegan cream cheese. I’ve used Tofutti cream cheese with great success in my baked vegan cheesecake recipe and I’m not at all surprised to see that it worked out for Could it be Seitan? in her Vegan Cheesecake Pops. She used tofu and soy creamer to replace the milk and eggs with great success, too. The result is a bite-sized dessert that you can really feel good about eating (although it’s just about as rich as the “real” non-vegan thing, for which the recipe is also included).
• Changing over to less cheesecakey topics, The Accidental Scientist has just relocated to Hawaii and made up a decadent-looking, but healthy, island-inspired breakfast treat of Lemony Fruit and Yogurt Cocktails. The dish is a layered parfait, with a base of whole wheat cous cous topped with vanilla yogurt, lemon, mint and fresh fruit. TAS opted for papaya and pineapple - definitely a taste of Hawaii.
• In spite of the fact that those who do it regularly swear that it’s easy, I don’t make preserves very often beyond the occasional small batch of jam and am always impressed when I see someone else putting in the time and effort to make their own. Big Black Dogs’ creative recipe for Zesty Red Onion Jelly is quite tempting. It sounds simple and the product has a gorgeous color, not to mention a tangy-sweet flavor that would go well with both sweet and savory dishes.
• It’s hard not to have a soft spot for crunchy, dunkable cookies when you consume a lot of coffee and tea. Biscotti top my list, but the Italian Polenta Cookies Joe posted at Culinary in the Country have equal appeal. They’re elegant, as a piped cookie, but have a lovely rustic texture to them from coarsely ground cornmeal in the dough. A hint of lemon gives them a flavor boost, though it seems like a good cup of coffee would do exactly the same.

• Butter brickle is a cutesy name for toffee or toffee flavored things. It started out as a trademarked name for some toffee ice cream in the 1920 and gradually got passed to the maker’s of Heat bar and finally on to Hershey’s. Since Heath is still the primary maker of chocolate covered toffee bits - for baking or otherwise - the name pops up with lots of different types of baked goods. Cookie Baker Lynn’s Lynn’s Butter Brickle Munchers use the toffee bits to dress up an already good, moist and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. The toffee highlighted the dough’s browned butter flavor and added a contrasting texture.
• While we’re on the subject of candy, there is a lot more that can be done with a candy bar than just cutting it up and stirring it into cookies, no matter how good those cookies are. Alpineberry baked a Snicker’s Pie, for instance. The ultra-rich pie has layers of fudge, cream cheese and chocolate ganache on top of a graham cracker crust and looks very like the cross section of a snickers. Some actual candy bars are cut up and added to the pie, too.
• I always enjoy making clafoutis because they are simple and quite elegant. Instead of going for elegant, Bron Marshall decided to opt for fun with his latest clafoutis and made Banana Split Clafoutis. He baked halved bananas in boat-shaped bowls, then topped them with chocolate chips, homemade ice cream, whipped cream and walnuts. All that is missing is the cherry!
• 80 Breakfasts also used a boat-shaped dish for a recipe this week. The dishes were lined with puff pastry, then topped with thick-cut bacon, whole eggs, mustard and cheese, then baked into Breakfast Bacon and Egg Pies. The pastry provides and quick and easy crust, making the classic flavors of the other elements look a lot fancier. It’s fast enough for a weekday, but is a perfect brunch dish.
• Just as a lot can be done with puff pastry, a lot can be done with phyllo. Once Upon a Tart has been playing around with it lately and used it in a great recipe for Potato Strudel with Sage and Ham. It doesn’t take long to slice and cook the potatoes, but this is the kind of dish that is a perfect use for leftovers since all the filings can be easily changed and rearranged. A nice - and good looking - alternative to a sandwich for lunch.
• I’ve always been a vanilla cupcake kind of girl, but even if I preferred chocolate, I wouldn’t hesitate to reach for one of Cupcake Bakeshop’s Three-Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Sea Salt. The light and fluffy cupcakes have three types of vanilla in them to give them a very bold, rich vanilla flavor: vanilla extract, vanilla sugar, and vanilla bean. On top of that (quite literally), the cupcake is finished with a sprinkle of vanilla sea salt. The salt can be found at a few specialty stores, but can easily be made by mixing vanilla bean with sea salt and storing it.

I’ve been using my Baker’s Edge pan for a couple of years with great results. The makers say that the pan “eliminate[s] the problems of undercooked middles and burned edges” in various baked goods. In my experience, it cooks everything very evenly and I really prefer brownies and bars baked in it because of the double edge effect that the pan produces because each portion ends up with a nice edge and a fudgy (or chewy, depending on what type of bar you’re making) center. I also like the way it makes serving and slicing so convenient. The Blackberry Cobbler pictured here ended up much neater than batches baked in larger pans.

This month, the Cook’s Illustrated test kitchen tried out the pan for themselves to see if - in their experienced onion and with a comprehensive analysis - the pan is as good as it promises to be. They tested batches of brownies and of lasagna and were very pleased with the results. The pan delivered all that the testers had hoped for and the brownies and baked pasta came out perfectly cooked and more reliably than those baked in a regular 9×13-inch pan. The test kitchen also noted Baker’s Edge lasagna held its shape much better during serving than a larger casserole version, much as my above-mentioned cobbler did.

Spelt flour is one of the more popular non-wheat flours available. It shows up in pastas, breads and in a variety of specifically wheat-free recipes. But what exactly is spelt flour?

Spelt is a cereal grain in the wheat family. The grain has been cultivated for centuries, in both central Europe and the middle east.It looks very similar to wheat in appearance, but it has a much harder outer shell before it has been milled. It has a nutty and slightly sweet flavor, similar to that of whole wheat flour. It does contain some gluten, so one of the reasons that spelt is rather popular is that it is easy to substitute it into all wheat cookie, bread, etc. recipes, where you will get to enjoy the flavor of spelt without compromising the texture of your baked good.

Another reason that spelt flour is popular is that it has a fairly strong nutritional profile. Spelt has slightly fewer calories than wheat flour and is somewhat higher in protein. The flour is easy to digest but is lower in fiber than wheat.

The gluten in spelt flour is a little unusual. Unlike wheat flour, which is quite resiliant and often needs a long kneading time (with breads) to strengthen its gluten and give the bread structure, the gluten in spelt flour breaks down fairly easily. This means that it is pretty critical not to overmix it, or risk having a crumbly texture imparted into whatever you’re making.

Food bloggers, naturally, like to experiment with spelt flour. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Pandolce with Saffron
  
• Vegan Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies
  
• Butternut Squash Muffins
  
• Pear Blueberry Tart with Spelt Crust
  
• Spelt Party Cakes