Michele's Pies

Last Saturday, I was on my way home from Brooklyn via Stamford. I'd been busy all day in Brooklyn and didn't have the opportunity to make any bakery visits. As Claire and I were heading for home, driving north on Route 7 in Norwalk, I caught a glimpse of a man picking up a sandwich-board type sign on the side of the road. I said to Claire, "Was it just me, or did that sign say something about free pie samples?" She concurred, and I replied, "There must be a pie bakery in that plaza." I checked the clock on the dashboard; it read 7:55. I looked for the next available left-hand turn and prayed that the shop would be open til 8 p.m.

Much to our good luck, Michele's Pies in Norwalk was indeed open until 8, and I think we snuck in as the last customers of the day. I definitely wanted something but didn't want to commit to an entire pie. Lucky for me, Michele's carries small pies (probably two servings per pie, unless you're incredibly hungry). I ordered one pineapple crumb and one chocolate peanut-butter dream. In addition to pies, Michele's carries quick breads, savory pies, and cookies, among other items. Claire went for a couple of peanut blossoms, and I also got a couple of pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.

The verdict? Very nice pies. The crust was incredibly flaky. Of the two I ordered, I liked the chocolate peanut-butter pie best. I really liked that the pineapple crumb was made with tidbits of fresh pineapple, but I kind of wished that maybe there had been something binding the pineapple bits together. It's a small gripe, though. Pineapple is a pretty unusual pie ingredient, and I loved having the chance to sample it in that use.

You can find Michele's Pies in the Town Line Center in Norwalk, Conn.

Banana Crunch Cake

Whenever I succumb to the dented-and-dinged banana challenge, I end up racking my brain to remember good banana recipes. One favorite I hadn't made for a while is Banana Crunch Cake from Elinor Klivans's Bake and Freeze Desserts. It's a pretty straightforward banana coffee cake; the crunch comes from a streusel sprinkled in the middle of the cake (applied after half the batter is in the pan) and then on top of the cake. The streusel contains butter, brown sugar, toasted pecans, and crushed dried-banana chips.

While the cake is good as it is, I like to add 3/4 cup of miniature chocolate chips because, really, you usually can't go wrong adding a bit of chocolate to a banana cake.

Lime Buttermilk Pound Cake

For this week's PLTI class (inspired by a bag of limes from the dented-and-dinged rack at Stew's), I went with Lime Buttermilk Pound Cake, a Maida Heatter recipe that appears in Baking From the Heart. The cake contains lime zest. Then, while it's still warm from the oven, the cake is brushed with a lime-sugar glaze. I lucked out and got to try a piece of the cake (there was a little left over); it's definitely worth making again.

This recipe also reminded me how much I enjoy Maida Heatter's recipes. Her manner of writing process is so comforting and welcoming. I need to unearth some of her books and rediscover them.

Banana Muffins

This morning, Claire needed something to bring to share with her skating friends for an early practice, so I made them a batch of Banana Muffins from More Muffins (Leslie Weiner and Barbara Albright). They were supposed to be muffins with a streusel topping, but I opted to sprinkle some mini chocolate chips on top instead. By the time I got there to pick up Claire, the muffins were gone. I understand they were good. (Should have saved one for myself!)

Banana Cupcakes

Despite getting home on the late side last night, I decided to throw together a quick batch of Banana Cupcakes (from Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcakes) for a meeting I need to attend this afternoon. In one of my should-have-known-better moments, I overfilled the cupcake liners a bit, and a few of the cupcakes overflowed, leaving the edges to bake on top of the pan. Subsequently, there was some untoward damage to a few of them during the depanning stage of the process. (When writing about this type of thing, I strive to use passive voice during the "I messed up" portion of the endeavor.)

At the moment, the cupcakes are unfrosted, but I think I can whip up a quick batch of buttercream before the meeting. (I ended up flavoring the buttercream with a little nutmeg, which goes really well with the banana and chocolate.)

Brownies and Banana Cake

Yesterday, I had to get a couple of things ready for Lost Lunch Thursday and the PLTI class session. For Lost Lunch, I decided to try a brownie recipe that recently appeared at the King Arthur Flour blog. I'm pretty sure it's the same brownie recipe from their cookie cookbook, too. I'd always shied away from that recipe because it uses cocoa powder instead of unsweetened chocolate, and to me, that means a cakey brownie instead of a fudgy one. (Seriously, if I want chocolate cake, I'll make a cake, not a brownie.) I like some of the funkiness of the preparation technique for this recipe, namely melting the butter, then adding the sugar and heating up the combination to promote a thin crust on top of the brownie. I let the batter cool down for 20 minutes before I added the chocolate chips because I wanted them to retain their shape and not melt into the batter. When I spread the batter in the pan, I was encouraged by how thick it was, giving me hope for a fudgy brownie.

In the end, the whole thin-crust thing ended up not mattering for two reasons: 1. I sprinkled some of the chocolate chips for the dough on top of the brownie batter before I baked it; and 2. I made a chocolate glaze with chopped peanuts for the top of the brownie.

When all was said and done, I was surprised by how fudgy and, thus, acceptable these brownies are. They also got a big thumbs up from Claire, who enjoyed a couple of them. I guess she has gotten past the "I don't like nuts" phase.



The PLTI cake this week is Banana Toffee Crunch Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze from Quick Chocolate Fixes by Leslie Weiner and Barbara Albright. The recipe calls for 5 1.4-oz. Heath bars, chopped, but I used an 8-oz. bag of chopped Heath bits, and that seemed to work fine. (Yes, I am still making my way through the bag of dented-and-dinged bananas. Only a few left!)

Another Banana Cake

Once again, I was unable to resist the allure of a huge bag of bananas on the dented-and-dinged rack at Stew's. These bananas were very green at the time of purchase a week ago and only now are ripe enough for use in baking. Today, I tried a Banana Cake recipe from the new Dede Wilson birthday-cake book. The cake has some chopped toasted pecans and mini-chocolate chips in it. For filling between the layers, I used some leftover truffle base (dark rum and toasted coconut), and I frosted the cake with a mango-flavored ganache. I really like the voluptuous swirls in the frosting. I think I'll take this to work tomorrow for a belated Lost Lunch Thursday.

I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with the rest of the bananas, but I know I've got several things to bake for before the week is over. No doubt some (most? all?) of it will involve bananas.