Individual strawberry jam cakes

from MS's Classical Christmas CD
makes 6

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tin
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
2 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
6 tbs strawberry jam or preserves
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a standard 6-cup muffin tin; set aside. In a medium bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, and zest until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time until creamy; set aside. Into a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture and milk in alternating batches to butter mixture; set aside.

2. In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks; fold into batter. Divide half of batter among muffin cups. Make an indentation in the middle of each; fill witih 1 tbs jam. Top with remaining batter.

3. Bake until a cake tester inserted in top cake layer comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Unmold cakeds, and transfer them to a wire rack to cool. In a small bowl, whisk ogether confectioners' sugar and juice. Place rack over parchment paper; drizzle cakes with glaze.

Pear & dried berry clafouti

Made this last nite for DH to take to work -- the L&D folks gave it a thumbs up! One called me, and raved! Some were ok with it, but not thrilled with a "custard." (the idea, mostly)

Normally, this is made with cherries, and the recipe I used as a guide is from Martha Stewart (a Pear & Dried Cherry Baked Custard - see below). Due to the season, I thought the cranberries would be a nice touch, and blueberries are ALWAYS good! I was told the variety of flavors, of sweet and tart, was nice.

I used a porcelain baking dish since my pie plate was too small in diameter. This dish was deeper than a pie plate and my more shallow baking dish is currently MIA -- this may have affected the cooking time. It needed to bake about 10 minutes longer to set, perhaps because the dish is only 8.5-9" rather than the 10" recommended, and therefore the batter was deeper.

I'll make it again in a couple of weeks, for the staff meeting and will post their feedback.

adapted from Pear and Dried Cherry Baked Custard in MS's Dinner at Home (2009):

Serves 4

Unsalted butter, for baking dish

1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 ripe pear, preferably D'Anjou, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cored
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 10-inch fluted tart dish or pie plate. Dust with flour; tap out excess. Put cherries in a bowl; cover with boiling water by 1 inch. Let stand until plump, about 10 minutes.

Cut pear lengthwise into a 1/8-inch-thick slices; fan slices in bottom of prepared dish. Process remaining ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Pour batter over pear slices. Drain cherries; sprinkle over batter. Bake until golden and set, about 25 minutes. Let stand at least 15 minutes before cutting wedges.