Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake

With Spring here and the warmer weather showing its presence, what better way to celebrate than with a light and airy angel food cake with fresh berries? With trying to incorporate more healthy desserts in our lifestyle, I found this recipe from Cooking Light and just added in some vanilla bean. I love the extra vanilla that a vanilla bean gives.

I have talked to people that thought angel food cake was a hard thing to do, but it's really not. With just 6 ingredients, and you should have them all in your pantry, you can whip up this cake in no time and would be perfect a perfect dessert for the Easter weekend!

Angel Food Cake
From: Cooking Light

1 cup sifted cake flour, or all purpose
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
10 egg whites
1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp vanilla extract, or 1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside. Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp at a time, beating until soft peaks form. Sift 1/4 cup flour mixture over egg white mixture, and fold in. Repeat procedure with remaining flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Fold in vanilla.

Spoon batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until cake springs back with lightly touched. Invert pan; cool 40 minutes. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula; invert cake onto a serving plate.

Orange Vanilla Shortbread

We are at week 10 of thee 12 weeks of Christmas cookies. When we first started this, I thought it would take forever to finish it up, but now we only have 2 more weeks! There have been so many great cookie recipes during this and can't wait to see what the next weeks bring!

I saw this recipe in Sherry Yards book The Secret of Baking and was curious about the use of Orange Blossom Water. I had never seen it, much less needed to use it in a recipe. I knew that I wanted to try it. That was about a year ago. I don't know why I haven't made them sooner. I really like the flavor of them. They have a base of orange flavor with a little hint of a floral scent. And then the vanilla mellows it all out. The recipe said to roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into a shape, freeze for 15 minutes then bake. I chose to bake them in an 8x8 square dish and cut them into squares. They turned out a little more fluffy than the shortbread that I have made before. Maybe it is because I didn't roll it out? Not sure, but they still taste yummy! I think I might like to make this recipe and adapt it to this flavor.

Remember to see what Megan, Barbara, Megan, Denise and Kim baked up this week!

Orange Vanilla Shortbread

By: Sherry Yard

2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

2 Tbsp finely grated orange zest

1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp orange flower water

1 large egg, at room temperature

Sift together flour and baking soda in medium bowl and set aside

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and scraped seeds from the bean, orange zest, salt and orange flower water. Cream on medium speed until it is smooth and lump free, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

Add the egg and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, or until fully incorporated. Do not overbeat. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

On low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until all the dry ingredients are incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. The dough will be gooey. Remove the dough from the mixer, scrape it onto a sheet of plastic film, press it into a 1/2-1 inch thick disk, wrap tightly, and chill for at least 1 hour. At this point, the dough will keep nicely, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 month. (Thaw frozen dough at room temperature for about 30 minutes, or until you can slice it.)

Dust a work surface lightly with flour. Place the dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment paper, roll it out 1/4 inch thick, and freeze it for at least 2 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Adjust the rack to the lower third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

When the dough has frozen, carefully peel off the parchment and place the dough on a work surface dusted lightly with flour. Dip a 3 inch round cookie cutter in flour, then cut out the cookies. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets, alternating the rows like a checkerboard. Return the dough to the freezer for 15 minutes or more whenever it becomes too sticky to cut.

Bake one sheet at a time for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges, turning the sheet front to back halfway through the baking. Remove from the oven and carefully slide the parchment directly onto a work surface. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving or 30 minutes before storing the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Vanilla Bean Angel Pillows

I chose this cookie recipe from last years Better Homes and Garden Christmas Cookie magazine. I'm glad that I keep these year from year just for this reason..even if it is 8 years from now, I now that I will find something that I haven't made yet or maybe I will have made the same recipe 10 times. The bottom line here, I guess, is that I really have an addiction. I just had this conversation this week with a friend, and I am glad to know that I am not the only one with this problem. :)

I love the look of the vanilla bean speckles! :)

These cookies are just what the title describes, vanilla bean pillows. They are light and crumbly and sweet, but more buttery than sweet. Once you bite into it, the vanilla sugar on the outside sticks to your lips and chin...really, it get everywhere..but I think it just adds to the yumminess! The recipe said that this would yield 28 cookies, and that is exactly what I got. I normally go for the ones that make more than that, but I couldn't pass these up. These will be going on my platters this year, and maybe I will roll some of them in red and green sugars.

Don't forget to see what Megan, Barbara, Megan, Kim, and Denise baked up this week!

Vanilla Bean Angel Pillows

From Better Home and Gardens

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

1 cup cold butter, cubed

1/4 cup vanilla sugar*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, combine flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Cover and process until combined.

Using the tip of a sharp knife, scrape pulp from vanilla bean. Add vanilla pulp to the flour mixture; add butter. Cover and process with several on/off pulses until mixture starts to cling, stopping once to scrape bowl. Gather mixture into a ball.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven about 12 minutes or just until edges start to brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool for 5 minutes.

Place vanilla sugar in a small bowl. While cookies are warm, roll them in vanilla sugar to coat. Cool completely on wire rack. Makes about 28 cookies.

*To make vanilla sugar, in a small bowl, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 week, giving it a shake every once in awhile.

Vanilla-Lemon Pudding Cakes

Nikki from Crazy Delicious Food also hosts Master Baker, where she chooses an ingredient once a month and you can bake anything that your little heart desires. Nikki does a round up at the end of the month and declares the "Master Baker." Unfortunately, this has been going on for a couple of months now, and this is my first entry. This months theme is Vanilla. This was a hard one for me because, you can use vanilla in just about anything.

Pudding cakes always make me giddy when they are finished baking and you have the cake on top, but the pudding on the bottom. Somehow, magically, the pudding just appears on the bottom! I have no idea how that works out, but I LOVE it! It is like getting a surprise!

So, here is the low down on this cake. You have a vanilla cake on the top and a tart lemon pudding on the bottom. Bakes for 30 minutes, let cool for at least 10 and there you go! Spring in a ramekin! :)

Vanilla-Lemon Pudding Cakes
from Chocolate and Vanilla by Gale Gand:

8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 3/4 cup sugar
5 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole milk
Grated zest of 2 lemons
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Brush eight 4-6 ounce ramekins or custard cups with 3 Tbsp of the butter and place them in a large baking dish. Bring a tea kettle or medium saucepan of water to a boil.

Ina mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the remaining 5 Tbsp butter with 1/3 cup of the sugar until it's light and fluffy. One at a time mix in the egg yolks and then fold in the flour. Don't worry if the mixture separates. On low speed stir in the milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla until combined.

In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (and in a dry, clean bowl), whip the egg whites on medium speed until they're foamy. Gradually add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, whipping on medium speed until the whites are glossy and stiff but not dry. Using a rubber spatula, stir a large spoonful of the whites into the lemon mixture just to lighten it and then fold in the rest of the whites.

Divide the batter among the prepared ramekins, filling them three-quarters full. Pour boiling water in the baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake the puddings for 30 minutes, or until puffed and set.

Remove the puddings from the oven, uncover, and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.