Life's too short not to eat dessert first

Tropical Crumble (TwD 8/16/2011)

2011-09-06T09:38:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that this crumble contained bananas - the most repugnant fruit on the planet, I found it was rather tasty. It is a much better use for a banana than banana bread.

It was quite easy to put together and baked up in no time. My only issue was with the streusel topping. Imagine my surprise at that, considering that I absolutely adore streusel toppings. I found this one to be a bit too heavy on the butter, though. It really did not make that much of a topping. I felt the butter melted into the filling and did not make a crunchy topping - and that is what I feel streusel should do. In fact, I only used one-half of the streusel on this dish. I saved the other half and mixed it with some oats, flour and additional pecans to make a topping for a blueberry-peach crisp I made last week. Sorry - forgot to take photos of that. It was delicious.

As easy as this is, I cannot imagine myself ever making this again. I despise bananas and I am not overly impressed with the mango. In fact, I am going over to the despising side of mangoes simply because I find them so annoying to cut up. I don't have a mango cutter and I am not going to invest in one just for the few mango recipes that Dorie uses. So, I'm always trying to slice right up against the seed and I either don't cut deeply enough or I cut too deeply.

I was glad to find, however, that there is a method to making bananas more palateable.

Sorry about the lousy photo - it was night and I was tired - plus I am not a good food photographer. Maybe one day . . .

TwD: Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake (6/7/2011)

2011-07-22T11:09:00.000-04:00

Wow, time really does fly, doesn't it? No matter if you are having fun or not - before you know it a month or more has gone by and you haven't posted a notice.

As per usual, I have been baking (for the most part) along with the group, I just haven't been posting my results.

I made this cake several weeks ago and took it into work with me. It was highly popular, moist, tender and chock-full of berries, in fact, I think the next time I make it, I may cut back a tad on the berries. It was so popular my only photo is of an empty pan!

Just the crumbs!

In case you have never seen a Magic Line pan, I wanted you to see it. I have two now - an eight inch square and a nine inch square. These pans are fabulous. They release really well, they are perfectly square and brownies or cakes baked in them just come out as evenly baked as anyone could want. I got mine at Sur La Table and plan to get a couple more of both sizes so that I can do square layer cakes.

This recipe was selected for us by Cindy of Everyday Insanity. The recipe is posted on her superlative site . . . but you know I expected you to have purchased the Book long before now!

FFwD: Bacon, Egg and Asparagus salad (5/20/2011)

2011-05-30T21:16:00.000-04:00

I have been hoarding the last of my Agriberry asparagus to make this salad. I finally remembered to buy eggs at the Farmer's Market this week. Last night I made half this salad for dinner. As I love dressing I made the entire amount of that. I used about half of it last night and the rest on my luncheon salad today. Normally, vinegrettes are not my favorites but this one was really good. I was not able to find sherry vinegar so I subbed in cider vinegar and it was quite tasty.

Farm fresh eggs, thick sliced bacon, yum!!

Either Dorrie likes her asparagus cooked more than I do or her thicker spears were/are a lot thicker than mine, but I found four minutes to be far too long to cook the asparagus. I don't generally boil asparagus, I usually steam it for about two minutes but I went ahead and boiled it for four minutes. I definitely thought it was overcooked. Other than that, I was delighted with this salad. I am not a soft-boiled egg kind of gal, so I faced that idea with a bit of a queasy stomach, but I trust Dorrie and persevered.

I thought my eggs were so pretty. How bright and colorful are these yolks? They are almost orange! If it has an influence (and to the best of my knowledge, it does not) these eggs were brown shelled.

The salad greens I used came from the BJs superstore. They were sold in a large tub (isn't everything?) and marked artisan lettuce (I believe). At any rate, the tub contained some six heads of different "exotic" lettuces which were/are quite lovely. It contained a head of frisse, two heads of something with reddish leaves and three heads of some other green lettuces. I am (obviously) not a lettuce officianado so I do not know the other particulars. If the list of lettuces contained was printed on the packaging, I never noticed it. However, I am quite enjoying this selection and do highly recommend it.

I used thick sliced bacon - I think it is Oscar Meyer - just some grocery store brand, but it worked out quite well, also.

FFwD: Cardamom Rice Pilaf (05/27/2011)

2011-05-30T18:57:00.000-04:00

When are they going to invent the ability to send odors across the internet? You would swoon to smell this fragrant rice dish. It was divine. I served it with tender asparagus spears and baked fish fillets. Yummy. I don't remember how many servings Dorrie told us to expect, but I got two. I had half the rice for dinner and the other half for lunch the next day. Did I tell you I love cardamom? Yep, it is my fave. It even makes rice, which is generally a chore to consume, quite the pleasure. I make have to try cardamom mashed potatoes - it doesn't sound very appealing - but really - two great items? It must be killer - I will let you know.

FFwD: Spinach and Bacon Quiche (05/13/2011)

2011-05-30T18:52:00.000-04:00

You know what the problem with doing the recipes ahead of time is? You forget to post them on time. I must work on my timing. It is abysmal. I am somewhat ahead of the recipes for June, also. Anyone care to take bets on when these little devils will be posted?

Spinach Bacon Quiche - Golden Brown Goodness

Spinach and bacon quiche. I enjoyed you immensely when I parook of you, lo these many weeks ago. I recall you were ridiculously easy to toss together. I had only one minor issue - well, okay two. As is ususal for me, my crust refused to my instructions not to slither down into the pan. What do I have to do to get a crust that remains firmly upright in my tart pan? I know, I know Dorrie the crust goddess implores me not to pull on my crust as this pulling will show up later as shrinkage. I try, really, I try to gently lay the crust into the pan, to ease the excess crust around the pan and to allow ample time for cooling in the fridge or the freezer. I thought I had done all of these things, but shrinkage I had. I also had a mighty tasty shell for my quiche so all is not lost in my land of tart shell assemblage. I shall continue to endeavor to create both a beautiful and tasty shell in the future. But, until both of these qualities merge for me, I am grateful that I at least have the later down pat.

A thin slice of deliciousness

I prefer my quiches to be of the plumper filling variety. I did find that my cravings were not satisfied after eating a serving of this quiche. I would very much recommend accompanying this quiche with a salad or you will be back looking for more fairly soon after eating your fair share. With all of the bacon and spinach - you can see there was little room for the egg!

TWD: Oatmeal nutmeg Scones (5/24/2011)

2011-05-28T17:06:00.001-04:00

These may be my favorite scones that we have made so far. I thought they were incredibly delicate in flavor and texture. I made mini-scones, stealing the idea from one of the other bakers. I've had my mini-scone pan for a number of years, but I don't use it very often. I love the idea of mini-scones, but I hate cleaning the individual little indentations of the pan. It might not be such a pan if the pan weren't so heavy, but it is and they are, so mini-scones don't hit my play plan all that often. I have got to stop being such a lazy slob because mini-scones are absolutely adorable.

I checked my stash of dried fruit and all I had were a variety of raisins, none of which struck my fancy and some dried pineapple, dried paypaya and dried banana chips - I found the thought of any of those repugnant with nutmeg, so I elected to stick with the recipe as written. I was very glad I did. The oatmeal sort of stuck up on me and would give a bit of substance to the bite just as I was thinking, oh these are almost too light. Nope here came oatmeal to say, wait a minute there missy - too light? I think not, here is a bit of down to earth flavor for your little teeth to mull over. They were not too light - not too heavy - just right.

If you are so foolish that you do not own this book, you can find the recipe on Patricia's lovely site: Life with a whisk.

Basic marbled Loaf (5/3/2011)

2011-05-28T12:54:00.000-04:00

I elected to bake the coffee/cardamom variation of this week's selection. Cardamom is fast becoming my very favorite spice. I don't know what my very favorite spice used to be, but now it is far and away cardamom. Lemon is still my favorite flavor profile, followed very closely by mint and then chocolate - but cardamom is such a delightful spice - it works so well in both the sweet and savory world, how can it be beat? And, when paired with coffee? As Tony the Tiger would say . . . it's terrifficcccc - I have no idea how many rr's ff's or cc's Tony would have inserted so I have randomly sprinkled my word, terrific, with so many that I had to use a dictionary to remember how to properly spell it when I wanted to use it correctly!

As per usual, I got carried away when it came to the marbling, so I ended up with something more asking to blobbing it. My bad. The taste of the cardamom was wonderful, but it really overwhelmed the coffee flavoring. The scent of the coffee was there, but the flavor of the coffee was essentially non-existent. I'll up that ante when I try this cake again.

Carol from The Bake More was our hostess and she posted the recipe on that blog, but you purchased the book, right?

TWD: Maple Cornmeal Drop Biscuits (5/17/2011)

2011-05-28T10:18:00.001-04:00

I fully expected not to enjoy these biscuits. I really don't care for the flavor of maple, but either Dorrie has finally made a convert of me or the maple syrup I last purchased was not of superior flavor or the flavor just wasn't pronounced in these little gems. Either way, I quite liked these. I already knew that I love the bite that cornmeal imparts to things like biscuits and biscotti so that was a done deal the maple surprise was an added bonus.

Additionally, I am quite the lazy cook, so I liked not needing to take the time to roll, cut and shape this dough. A quick scoop and plop onto the baking sheet and my biscuits were ready for their appearance in the oven. They looked quite nice - very uniform - I love scoop baking. I have several sizes for (hopefully) any and all occasions. I used my medium scoop on these, I believe. I got twelve as I recall.

This recipe was chosen for us by Lindsey of A little something . . . sweet and she posted the recipe there, check it out.

FFwD: Mustard Batons

2011-04-22T17:24:00.001-04:00

Well, I definitely cannot twirl these batons - at least not as a majorette's baton is twirled - I could perhaps twirl these as Groucho would once twirl his cigar - but it isn't about the twirling - it is about the eating. And, as Alton would say, these are Good Eats.

Supremely easy to make, they can be frozen until needed, and apparently you can fill them with items far more exotic than mere mustard!

I am a plebeian, though, so mine were filled with mustard, as the instructions indicated. I used a grainy Dijon in half my batons and a regular Dijon in the other half. I baked a few of each for sampling. I quite enjoyed them both, but the ones with the grainy mustard are far superior. They have a much more pronounced taste - I also believe I did not use enough mustard. I squirted it on or spread it on, instead of measuring out the proper amount and I think I could have upped the baton's contents by at least another third, if not entirely by half.

Batons masquerading as NE Doggie Rolls

I love the idea of spreading them with other things, a tampenade, as Dorie suggests or a pesto as someone else suggested. And, then filling them with non-savory items is also a possibility. They are a great finger food.

All we need to do is add our imagination to the possible contents and we have a gold mine. I have squirrelled the remainders in the freezer, just waiting for someone to visit so I can wow them with my batons!

And check out this stirling example of my non-existant photography skills - I managed to make mustard batons look like New England Doggie Rolls - which - in case you did not know - are so much better than the average hot dog bun that it is not even remotely funny!

FFwD: Quinoa, fruit and nut salad

2011-04-21T15:02:00.000-04:00

I did not really expect to enjoy this dish very much. I generally find I am not overly fond of dishes like cous-cous and I equated the quinoa with that.

I made a half-batch of the quinoa, nuts and fruit. I accidentally made a full-batch of the dressing. This is fine with me, I do love lemon juice.

I did not serve the quinoa atop salad greens, I just consumed it as a side dish. I thought, hmm, okay, nothing special, but not bad. I found the freshness of the lemon juice to be quite nice. I had not given the dish much time to meld, though. So, I covered it and left it on the counter at room temperature overnight.

This morning, I took out a container of vanilla yogurt (I rarely do plain) and plopped a whole serving of that atop a large bowl of the quinoa. I must say, this stuff makes a wonderful breakfast. I had used raisins and craisins as my fruits and pine nuts and toasted walnuts as my nuts. Excellent choices, though I believe golden raisins would be a better choice than the dark ones I grabbed initially. I still have a bit left and shall have it for breakfast, with yogurt, tomorrow.

It is difficult to eat a healthy breakfast like this while one is busy patting themselves on the back for being so virtuous, but I managed. Truth be told, my shoulder is a tad sore from all that backpatting!

FFwD: Garlicky crumb-coated broccoli

2011-04-19T19:47:00.000-04:00

I love the diversity of recipes in this cookbook. One week it is something extraordinarily challenging and the next week, it is something as simple as steaming broccoli. And, it makes no difference if the recipe is complicated or simple - the food is excellent.

Apparently I did not trim my stalks into small enough sections because it did take an extended time period for my broccoli to tenderize. I could have used a touch more butter or a skosh fewer breadcrumbs, but in general, I thought this combination was interesting and tasty.

I am probably the most boring vegetable cooker on the planet, so anytime someone points me towards an easy way to add flavor to my veggies, I am grateful.

I paired this with the recipe for April 29 and will post those photos on that date. Be forewarned - broccoli and bifstek are a great combination!

TwD: Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp

2011-04-19T19:41:00.001-04:00

I do love me some crisp. When other people are talking about making cobblers, I always think, blah, make a crisp. And, this one was quite nice. I found the taste of the crystallized ginger quite noticeable, though my other tasters did not seem to notice it at all. I thought it added a very interesting punch to the flavors.

I had purchased some frozen rhubarb a while back and used that in this dish. I thawed the sliced rhubarb, drained it, patted it dry and then sliced their slices into thinner slices for my use. The recipe calls for about a pound of rhubarb and my frozen fruit contained just 10 ounces. However, it nicely spread across the top of my crisp.

I am especially fond of crisps which use oatmeal in their topping as I am of the opinion that oatmeal is healthy and therefore I can eat twice as much of this crisp as I could one just covered with a sugary crisp coating.

I was quite disappointed in my strawberries, though. I knew it was early for the berries, but I hoped these would actually have some flavor and be red throughout. No such luck. They looked like strawberries, they even smelled like strawberries, but they were impostors. I hulled them and sliced them and found myself looking at white hearts with a red rim. The only juice produced for the filling came from the liquefied sugar.

However, this week, I am going to pick up some fruit from the Farmer's Market and give this crisp another try. With any luck, I will be able to get fresh rhubarb - if not - I will happily use the frozen again. But, my berries will be lush with flavor. I am sure a crisp that I thought was mighty fine is going to be reclassified as outstanding.

Sarah made this choice for us and has posted the recipe with some very tasty looking photos, here.

FFwD: Scallops with Caramel-Orange Sauce

2011-03-25T17:10:00.000-04:00

Scallops with just a drizzle of Caramel-Orange Sauce

If I could have changed anything about this dish - it would have been the price I paid for these scallops. $19.95/pound! I only made one pounds' worth. They were excellent scallops and they divided nicely among three people. Okay, if I could have changed two things - the second one would have been the amount of sauce I had.

I was not expecting to be delighted with the sauce. I thought it sounded unique, perhaps quirky - no - I am unimaginative, it sounded weird to me. But, Dorie suggested it, so I was definitely intrigued by its possibilities. I loved this sauce.

While making the sauce I had the sugar caramelized nicely. Then I added the orange juice - scared myself half to death because my sugar seized instantly into one rather unappealing blob. I kept the faith, though, and just kept on stirring. As the juice heated the blob disintegrated. Then the magic of reduction occurred and voila - orange caramel sauce!

I then served it as Dorie suggested with the herbed glazed carrots. And, boy were they a hit? My guest liked them so much she asked for them again the next day. SCORE!

This group just keeps getting better and better.

Scallops, Basmati Rice, Spiced Glazed Carrots - YUM!

TwD: Corniest Corn Muffins (3/8/2011)

2011-03-24T19:36:00.001-04:00

I inadvertently used the last bit of my corn on the Monday before we were to make this recipe. Who knows how many trips to the grocery store later, but corn finally made its way back home with me! I used frozen white shoepeg, so you can barely see the kernels in the photo. However, they made a huge difference in the moistness of these muffins.

I can tell you, my mother would have hated them. She had this New Englander's thing about sweetened corn bread (or muffins). She would always say it was wrong, johnny cake is apparently, supposed to be completely unsullied by the introduction of sugar. I swear, I think it must have been like eating grainy sawdust, give me a little sprinkling of sugar any time!

And, feel free to add the corn kernels, as well, because they are such a pleasant surprise. Jill of My Next Life made this very wise selection and has the recipe posted there. I, would, of course, buy the book to have my very own copy, but you do what you think is best.

TwD: Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins (03/15/2011)

2011-03-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

These muffins really clinched it for me. The currant is delightful. I don't ever remember using them before I joined this group, but now I find them indescribably delicious! I don't remember them being commonplace in the market, but perhaps I just wasn't looking. I used the last of my King Arthur's Flour currants in this batch and picked up some new ones at the Fresh Market. What a surprise I got when preparing to make the Beggar's Linguine, the Kroger carries currants as well. (P.S. They also carry dried figs - who knew?)

Citrus is my all time favorite flavor with lemon leading that pack. The freshness that flavor gives to these muffins is great. I will add these to my, must have on a brunch table pile of goodies. Thanks for this great selection, Lauryn, her site Bella Baker has the recipe, as does the book, page 7. Check-out her work for Hamilton Jeweler's Diamond Noir celebration. Her table was elegant, the food she prepared exquisite, I am sure it tasted even better than it looked.

TwD: Honey Nut Brownies

2011-03-22T22:49:00.002-04:00

I expected these brownies to have a rich dark chocolate flavor, but I found they were a bit bland instead. I quite enjoyed the flavor of the toasted nuts but the body of the cookie was a bit disappointing. In fact, if I had to come up with a one word description for them it would be B-O-R-I-N-G.

I ran out of honey at about the 3/4 cup mark so I completed that ingredient by using Lyle's Golden Syrup. I noticed that the syrup was a few shades darker than the honey but other than that, I think it was a good substitute.

It took these brownies at least one hour to finish baking. In fact, when I took them out at about the 65 minute mark they were still testing as unfinished. I could tell that the edges were getting quite well done, though, so I finally removed them anyway. They look almost as if they were made in layers. I think this is because the top portion was slightly underdone. I suppose I could have tried putting foil over the edges of the pan, but it just seemed like too much effort.

I don't think I'll give these a go another time, but I will definitely remember to toast my nuts before using them.

You can find the recipe in the book, of course, or at Suzy Homemaker's website. She chose this week's recipe.

FFwD: Beggar's Linguine

2011-03-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

Once again Dorie amazes me. I saw the contents of this dish and my first thought was - and she liked this just by hearing about it? How often I am reminded of my completely unsophisticated and unschooled palette. I thought this dish sounded pretty awful up front. Truth be told, I don't know if I have ever eaten a fig that wasn't pureed into the filling of a Newton. (P.S. Fig Newtons are the bananas of the cookie world for me - I don't eat them often, but when I do I pat myself on the back for my healthy choice. Unlike bananas they don't leave one with fuzzy teeth!)

I was too lazy to cut this recipe down into proportions for one so I have a few meals left in the leftover department. I am sure Dorie is correct that these will not be as good as the dish is immediately after cooking - but when you live alone you eat a lot of left-overs that aren't as good as the original. Thankfully some dishes do improve with age.

I was delighted with portions of this recipe. I have tried a brown butter sauce before but was never happy with it. This one was pretty close - the smell was absolutely divine. I had been dithering over whether or not it was the color of hazelnuts - it surely smelled nothing like hazelnuts. So, I kept the sauce simmering away for a few extra minutes. I was so glad I did, suddenly, it came together, the fragrance was terrific and the color was decidedly dark.

In general though, I am on the fence for this one. As usual my coarse chopping looked more like a fine powder, so that needs work. The flavors worked together so much better than I anticipated. But, I found that the tiny little fig seeds were highly intrusive and gave my dish a fairly grainy feel. I did not care for that - while simultaneously being surprised that I liked the sweetness of the figs against the buttery sauce.

I definitely think I would prefer to serve this as a side dish and not as my main dish. I am going to try it again when I have some willing victims to feed. I used the zest of an entire orange and would not have minded even more. I love how the zest brightens a dish. These little things really do make a huge difference.

FFwD: Savory Cheese and Chive Bread

2011-03-06T10:33:00.001-05:00

Another excellent selection from the new book. This quick bread has a bit of an Irish soda bread flavor. It comes together in mere minutes and has a really nice flavor both immediately after baking and a day or so later.

I used two kinds of cheddar cheese for this one. I used an extremely sharp white as the grated cheese and a yellow cheddar for the chunks. A few chopped chives and voila - festive bread.

I actually found that I prefer the center pieces of this bread to the heel of the loaf. Usually I am like a dog with a bone over the heel, so this did surprise me. I found the heel to be a bit crumbly. Still tasty, but the texture was strange to me.

I am eager to try this bread with a new variety of cheeses and some different spices.

TwD: Toasted Almond Scones

2011-02-22T17:29:00.001-05:00

I drove down from Delaware yesterday and stopped at Starbucks. I got a scone along with my latte. Big mistake, I am sure it was made sometime this year, but I am not sure it was made within the week. Talk about dry and tasteless. I swear that company is single-handidly going to ruin the reputation of scones everywhere!

Fortunately, Mike of Living out West, chose Toasted Almond Scones for our weekly baking adventure. These scones taste the way scones are supposed to taste. They have just a touch of sweetness, the toasted almonds are added in three forms, almonds we toast and grind, almonds we toast and chop and almonds which toast themselves on top of the scones while the scones are baking. In addition, we added just a hint of almond extract to the liquid ingredients. Delightful.

Of course since I can't seem to do anything right the first time anymore, I did burn the living daylights out of my first cup of almonds. Honestly, do they have to go from albinos to crispy critters in the blink of eye? I say no, but my eye was probably blinking for more like three minutes than three seconds, so I have only myself to blame.

Luckily I had more almonds in the freezer so I was quickly able to rectify this error. Other than that, I had no problems with this recipe at all. I love that in a recipe.

For those folks who find they overwork their dough trying to incorporate the butter, I do have a suggestion. Keep your butter in the freezer, then when you are making pastry, grate the necessary amount into your flour mixture. It is then super easy to mix into the dry ingredients, it is predisposed to make small chunks and the clumps that stick together make the larger pieces that make pastry so light and flaky. This is especially helpful for unsalted butter since it keeps for such a short time in the refrigerator.

Check Mike's blog for the recipe, some great photos and some serious dedication - five rounds of scones!

TwD: Cardamom Crumb Cake (12/21/10)

2011-02-15T19:39:00.001-05:00

I was late making the cardamom crumb cake. I caught up with the little devil a few weeks ago. I was pre-destined to like this. I love coffeecake type desserts, I love struesel toppings and I think cardamom was invented by the gods and then delivered to earth.

And, all of the above is still true, however, I did find the flavor of this cake to be a tad more subtle than this (hammer wielding) spice nut prefers. I think perhaps my cardamom had some age on it, so I have it on my Penzey's list and will pick some up next time I am there.

I will then redo the cake and see if is as wonderful as I expect it to be.

The recipe was chosen by Jill and is posted on her blog, appropriately named: Jill's Blog.

TwD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

2011-02-15T19:30:00.001-05:00

Hooray, cookies! I do so love a handheld treat. I made a half batch of these little gems. I am also quite enamored of a recipe that splits in half ultra-easily.

I got a yield of about 30 cookies from a half batch. I used my small scoop to form the cookies. I probably should have given them a gentle nudge after putting them on the cookies sheets. One or two were a bit bulbous in the center. They are the chewier version of all I made.

These are quite chocolately, a flavor profile, I heartily endorse. However, I found the appearance of the albino oat flakes to be a bit off-putting. On the other hand, I always claim anything with oats in it is healthy, so I do approve of these cookies being a braggards about their healthy content. These are so chocolately, in fact, that I actually drank that milk (in the photo) when I ate those cookies. I believe that would be second class of milk in the last four or five years!

Caroline and Claire of Bake with Us selected this week's recipe and it can be found on their blog.

Chocolate Almond Tuiles

2011-02-15T19:13:00.001-05:00

My brother gave me a copy of Presidential Cookies (by Bev Young) for Christmas. I have been quite eager to make something, but being alone and baking weekly with Dorie, I rarely have a need for extra sweets. However, last week, I palmed off my bread pudding on my meeting mates and it left me with a few homeless egg whites.

So, I started leafing through my cookie cookbooks. Immediately, I considered making something with a meringue base, but all the recipes I saw called for two egg whites, except one. It called for four (which was how many I had on hand) but it yielded a massive amount of cookies. Since it involved leaving the trays in the oven for a couple of hours, I figured it wouldn't be the best choice. Seriously, how is that supposed to work? You can only fit so many trays into the oven at one time. Are the other shapes just supposed to sit on the counter and wait their turn?

In flipping through Presidential Cookies, I saw a recipe for John F. Kennedy's favorite: Chocolate Almond Tuiles. Now, I missed making tuiles with Dorie a few weeks ago. I can't remember why, but I am sure it was a very good excuse!

So, I thought, perfect, I shall dip into JFK's history and whip these bad boys up. First, let me say, I am underwhelmed with the instructions Ms. Young provides. She says to chill the batter for one hour. I did this, then she says to spread it onto parchment paper. I managed this, but it was difficult. I was unsure of how thick to make the tuiles and was guessing at how much batter to spread. In addition, the batter did not want to spread, it wanted to stick to the parchment and lay in a lump. I persevered and managed to form some fairly round shapes. I then baked them and as suggested, lay them over a rolling pin to form the curved tile appearance. What a pan in the hiney that was, I should have lay them down so that the part from the cookie sheet was forming the curve. Sometimes I did, sometimes I put the top part on the rolling pin. I realized afterwards that one way meant the ugly bottom was the eye catching part of the cookie - duh.

And, let me quote the directions for forming the cookies:
1 -Make a circle template by cutting a circle in a thin piece of cardboard or plastic (about 3.5 inch diameter).
2 -Several other steps are inserted and then -
3 - Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the template on it.
4 - Using a small spatula, spread a small amount of batter evenly over the template. Carefully lift the template off.

Am I dumber than the average bear or is this confusing to you, also? I can assure you, if you spread the batter onto the template there will be no removal of said template from the batter. I finally decided that what I would do would be to draw circles on the back of my parchment paper and then spread the batter within those circles. That worked pretty well. Maybe Bev meant I should place the template under the parchment, but that is just too annoying for words. My circle idea was much closer to genius than her stupid template.

The tuiles tasted okay the first day (I made them Sunday) but I actually prefer them a couple of days later. The first day I found them to be extremely cakey or crispy - depending on their thickness. Now, two days later they are pleasantly chewy.

I remain convinced however, that JFK was so happy with these tuiles because he did not have to form the little bas**rds!

I forgot to mention, the almond flavor in these tuiles comes from almond extract. It will be interesting to substitue a little ground almond for some of the flour to enhance that flavor and alter the cookie's texture, slightly.

TwD: Bourbon Bread Pudding

2011-02-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

I should change the name of this dish - I did not make Bourbon Bread Pudding. I had no bourbon and I wasn't about to go out and buy a bottle just to get one tablespoon. Instead, I made Grand Marnier Bread Pudding and it was a smash hit at my meeting.

This is the only photo I have:

I even tried a bit of the pudding myself. It was okay - mind you I am not particularly fond of bread pudding so okay is a fairly high bread pudding ranking from me!

I used orange extract instead of almond extract to enhance the flavor of the Grand Marnier. I really did not taste the liquor particularly, but it did give the pudding an absolutely fabulous scent. When I checked it in the oven and when I pulled it out of the oven, it smelled excellent.

I used Challah for my bread base. I wanted to use raisin bread but the store only had some incredibly dense form of that and I felt it would not be suitable for this dish.

I found this pudding extremely easy to pull together and like this method much more than some of the other versions we have made.

FFwD: Basque Potato Tortilla

2011-02-04T17:46:00.000-05:00

I was quite looking forward to this one. I love potatoes, I have days when all I eat are potatoes, fried potatoes with cheese for breakfast, boiled potatoes with butter for lunch and a baked potato for dinner. That is my idea of comfort food.

I was not, however, enthralled with the way this turned out. Surprisingly (to me) I really did not have issues with flipping out the tortilla. I used my Le Cruset cast iron frying pan. I use it all the time for oven pancakesand they come out of the pan just fine (but they have lots of incentive, i.e. shortening). I fully expected the eggs to cling tenaciously to the pan and refuse to yield, but other than a slight rim around the top, it came out quite easily. Well, as easily as anything can when one can barely lift the pan to flip it over! I swear, Dorie must have some well developed forearms, because I could not hold the receiving platter and flip the pan simultaneously. I ended up being grateful for the slight hitch around the top. It gave me the time I needed to invert the frying pan over the receiving platter. I used two hands on the frying pan and had the platter waiting eagerly on the counter.

I fried up some crispy bacon to go with the tortilla and set down to enjoy the fruits of my labor. And, then I decided several things had gone wrong. Number one, I subbed a bit of cayenne pepper and smoked paprika for the traditional basque spice. Number one-A, I did not sub enough of those two spices. I barely even noticed they were in the dish. Number two-my potatoes were not done as well as I thought they were. I contemplated cooking them in a non-stick pan and then switching to the oven-proof pan later, but I decided to use the same pan. Next time, I will do the potatoes in a non-stick pan and truly get them golden (all-over). Number three, this dish needs cheese. Come on, eggs, potatoes, what comes next? Cheese. Number four, I prefer this dish closer to hot than to room temperature.

Maybe this is because the temp in my house hovers at around sixty degrees and at room temperature this tasted slightly chilled or maybe it is just because that is what I am accustomed to eating. Either way, I have reheated some of the left-overs and liked them better than the original slice. Reheating served me well, I was able to get my potatoes farther along in the cooking and I tried the dish in a hot state. Next time I reheat a bit it will have some cheese tossed onto the top.

And the next time I make this, from start to finish, I will definitely up the ante on the spices. This dish wasn't a hit right off the bat for me, but I definitely think it has potential.

TwD: Nutty, Chocolatly, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

2011-02-01T19:16:00.000-05:00

Add a dusting of confectioner's sugar

After carefully reviewing the P's & Q's for this recipe I reserved a bit of batter when filling the pan. I think the amount of swirl we made for this cake was a bit extreme. However, I was able to cover my filling with batter thanks to the tips.

Swirly Bundt Slice

Once baked, the swirl was very pronounced, but it did not look as though it were done in multiple layers. This was one of my better slices for showing the distribution of swirl. I will use a bit less swirl the next time so that the division between the layers of swirl will be more obvious. Having said that, I quite enjoyed the flavors and taste of this swirl.

Actually, I quite enjoyed this entire cake. I had a slice while it was still warm from the oven. Oh, my - fantastic. However, I did not think the texture of the cake was anything like a pound cake. Mine was very light and fluffy. It got a bit dryer as time advanced, but it was never as dense as pound cake. I really, really liked this warm. It was good at room temp and good the next few days as well. But, when eaten warm the chocolate in the swirl is still very close to liquid and that is just a real treat.

Mixing the orange zest into the sugar is so smart. It really enhances the taste of citrus. I had never used that tip before baking with Dorie, but I will always do it from here on out. Divine. Jennifer has posted this recipe at her site, Cooking for Comfort.

TWD: Great Grains Muffin

2011-02-01T19:02:00.000-05:00

I love muffins, they are such a delight to make. So many different flavor combinations, quick cooking, and no mixer needed.

I cut this recipe in half and got eight muffins in my batch. I swear I do not know how Dorie only gets one dozen out of the full mixture. I always get at least 18 from a full batch. I even bought new muffin tins a few months ago to ensure I had the proper normal sized ones.

I think the thing that took the longest today was allowing the melted butter to cool. Funny, I was just looking at a biscuit recipe yesterday, it said to mix melted butter into buttermilk before adding it to the dry ingredients. Apparently the cold buttermilk solidifies some of the melted butter. This acts a bit like the cutting of cold butter into flour does, the larger pieces melt slower than the smaller ones giving you a lighter finished product. I haven't made them yet, but they seem a lot like Dorie's cream biscuits (one of my favorite-ultra easy recipes).

At any rate, my biscuits were made with molasses instead of maple syrup. Because I could not find my maple syrup and I wasn't going to go and buy a new bottle. I know I have one somewhere. Plus, I don't care much for maple and I adore molasses, so win-win for me.

The molasses really give you a darker hue to your crumb, but I like that. I also quite liked the al dente crunch provided by the corn meal. I had forgotten I used the meal and when the muffin had the tiny resistance I thought, what is going on -- then of course, my genius kicked in and I remembered. I used a handful of chopped walnuts and a handful of raisins as a bonus in my muffins. You can find this recipe posted by Christine at Happy Tummy. (Love that name.)

FFwD: Chicken B'stilla

2011-01-28T22:12:00.000-05:00

The entire time I was making this recipe I was in love with it. It smelled divine, it looked so good. My sauce was smooth and creamy. I was so eager to taste this, I was sure I was going to make a bad pun about the name - Be stilla my heart - was all I kept thinking. All through my preparation I kept thinking, my God, this smells intoxicating, I can't wait to eat it. And then, I tried it. And, you know what? It wasn't intoxicating anymore. In fact, it was rather a taste let down.

Chicken B'stilla

The dish turned out beautifully. I mean look at it. Perfect shape, fantastic color. And you know? I found it disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't there. It had everything going for it during preparation. The only thing that did not track as I expected was the sauce reduction. That took well over thirty minutes. Maybe I did not have the heat up high enough, it was boiling briskly but the reduction was quite slow to take place. Eventually, though, it was reduced sufficiently. I added the eggs and honey, fearful that I would end up with scrambled eggs - but no - my whisking was sufficient to avoid that horror. But still, when I tasted my slice, I wasn't thrilled. It did not have quite the punch I was expecting. It packs a nice presentation, though, so I will keep it in mind for the future. I'm eager to share it with someone else to see how they feel about it. I don't have high hopes for the longevity of the lovely pastry, but perhaps the filling will evolve (for me) and I will once again be having heart palpitations over this dish.

Chicken B'stilla by the slice

FFwD: Gnocchi a la Parisienne

2011-01-18T23:58:00.000-05:00

I ask you? What is the point of making the recipes on time if one forgets to post about them? In my defense I did go out of town on Friday - however - I made the gnocchi a few days early to accommodate that. Such is life, I am terminally disorganized!

I did not realize that gnocchi came in different flavors or could be made using so many different techniques. I am an avid watcher of Top Chef and have seen Fabio make gnocchi - what? - five times? Whatever, I always thought it had to be made with potatoes. I also thought it was rolled into the snakes and then snipped.

What a surprise to learn that it can be made from pate a choux dough. Such fun. I have only made this one other time -at Sur La Table - when I took a class. We made gougeres, I shall be making them again when I get to that recipe.

I found the gnochi themselves to be very easy to make. I found the bechemel sauce to be a trifle odd. It ended up being inordinately thick. I should have thinned it down, but I thought, let me just bake it and see what happens. I thought it might spread a trifle while in the oven. It really did not. The gnocchi did puff up beautifully. They were light fluffy and delicious. They were also quite rich. I like rich food - I've rarely met a fat I did not like (I'm looking at you margarine) but I think the butter on top pushed this into the too much of a good thing category. Next time, if I put any butter on the top at all, it will be less than half of what this recipe called for.

I definitely want to try freezing the gnocchi for future use. I wish I had only baked a small portion of these and saved the rest. Next time.

TWD: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

2011-01-18T23:47:00.001-05:00

What is it with me? Give me a complicated recipe and I am fine. Give me something as simple as these muffins and I am a disaster zone!

I was a smidge surprised by the batter for these muffins. I whisked together the liquid ingredients and found the mixture to be quite thick. When I added that to the dry ingredients I was a trifle worried that I was overworking the dough. Perhaps I did, incorporating the two mixtures required a bit of elbow grease.

Muffin craters

As always I found that I had more muffins than Dorie projected. I had sixteen versus the twelve the batter was supposed to yield. I tested them after about 13 minutes and they seemed to be done. The inserted tool came out completely clean. The tops were barely showing any color, but I removed the muffins anyway. (Nasty buzzer sound) Not a good idea. After about four minutes many of the muffins had massive craters in their tops and it was apparent that they were in fact still undone in their centers.

Albino muffins - before the rebake

So, back into the muffin tin they went (thankfully I had used paper liners) and back into the oven. Of course, I forgot about them, so they are now a much darker brown color. They are however only slightly dry. The flavor is quite nice. I will definitely make these again, but I think I will use fewer poppy seeds, there just seem to be so many. Thanks for making this choice, Betsey of A cup of sweetness chose these. You can find the recipe on her site or you in the book - page 10.

TWD: Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines

2011-01-11T23:19:00.000-05:00

As is my wont, I failed to carefully read this recipe before starting. I had skimmed over it and thought, lovely, easy recipe. Then I got to the part where it said, chill for at least 3 hours and I thought, well, never mind what I thought, let's just say unladylike words filtered through my brain and one or two may have passed through my lips. It isn't that chilling the dough is difficult. It is that, once again, my photos would have to be taken without the benefit of natural light. Drat! I hang my head with shame each time I look at someone else's elegant photos and I vow to at least take mine with the beneficial natural light. However, being an inveterate sluggard, I rarely manage to stick to that vow.

I was a bit surprised to see the step of chilling, I've never done that before when baking madelines. I've also never made chocolate madelines before. I think previously I have done plain and lemon. I haven't made madelines in a few years. I don't know why not. They are quick easy and impressive.

I thought I had incorporated my melted butter thoroughly before chilling the dough. I found when I removed it from the refrigerator that I had not. My dough had striations of fat running through it. Not very attractive. Nonetheless, I persevered. I loaded the batter into the mold and baked. My madelines were massive. They more than overflowed the pan. I think I could have made at least four more cookies if not six with the batter I had.

For appearances sake, I trimmed the excess baggage from my cookies. Not being a wastrel (just a sluggard) I forced myself to eat the trimmings. I must say, a chocolate madeline is a fine thing.

I let them cool down (one did break when removing them from the pan) and then I proceeded to attempt to stuff them with fluff. I suck at stuffing cookies with fluff. First of all, despite Dorie's instructions to insert the piping tip into the flat side of the cookie, I stuck it in the narrow bottom. This caused one or two of my cookies to split. I shall cleverly eat that evidence. I'm not a big fan of marshmallow fluff so the paucity of this ingredient in the cookie will not be missed by me.

My ganache came together easily and I started dipping the cookies. Looking at some of the other's photos I see that my cookies were not as smooth as theirs - or my dipping is not as pristine. I don't know the specific cause but I see other madelines that look smoothly and professionally covered whilst mine look like they had a hit and run accident with a ganache bowl. I am jealous, but console myself with the fact that my cookies are tasty.

If you want to see professional looking madelines, visit Effort to Deliciousness. Margot selected this recipe for us this week. It was a fine selection.

FFwD: Paris Mushroom Soup and Spiced Butter Glazed Carrots

2011-01-07T23:31:00.001-05:00

Like Laurie I had a bit of trouble getting mushrooms this week. I got them, that wasn't a problem. The problem was they weren't the newest kids on the block. I don't know if you are aware of it, but one of the signs of an older mushroom is that the gills just keep getting darker and darker.

In fact, here is one of the few produce facts I know, if you are purchasing mushrooms, you want to find ones that are totally tight to the stem. The older the mushroom, the more the cap pulls away from the stem, the darker the flesh of the mushroom gets, and the gills get very very dark.

They still taste okay when the gills are a bit dark, but the moisture they eliminate is not especially pleasant to regard. In fact, it will remind you quite a bit of watery mushroom soil. This is, by the way, not something you generally want to contemplate eating!

However, I am accustomed to this and proceeded with my soup preparation, regardless of the color of my mushrooms' liquid waste. I ended up with a soup that will never win any beauty contests. It tasted okay, but I actually prefer my go to mushroom soup recipe. That recipe is in the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook and for whatever reason, it always turns out fantastic for me.

I am definitely going to give this soup another try - when I can get truly white - white mushrooms! I prefer a lot of mushroom slices in my soup, so I pulled a few spoons-ful of sliced mushrooms out before I blended the soup. I topped it with a dollop of sour cream, which proceeded to fall to the bottom of the bowl! I forgot to pick up creme freche. I remedied that today.

A few days ago I made the spiced butter glazed carrots. Carrots are one of my favorite vegetables. These were delightful. I adore cardamom, so I was quite pleased to add it to my pan. I like to cut carrots on the diagonal and then cut those slices into matchsticks. I left these in the diagonal slice condition. A few minutes later and I had tasty fragrant carrots. I am quite enjoying these. Encountering the small slivers of garlic is like finding the prize in the King cake. Happiness.

02/08/2011: Update to the Paris Mushroom Soup: I found pristinely white mushrooms at the store yesterday. So, I scooped them up and ran home to make this soup over again. Just look at how much more appetizing last night's version of this gem was:

I made the salad in my bowl this time and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the green onions. Normally I despise any form of raw onion, but it totally worked with this soup. I am glad I gave it a second chance, the taste was so much better without the debris from the dirty mushroom gills. I still prefer my cream of mushroom soup recipe from Good Housekeeping for cream of mushroom soup - but this is an excellent soup for the days when you want a lighter more springlike flavor.

TWD - Midnight Crackles

2011-01-04T18:30:00.000-05:00

Mmmm, dark chocolate, soft, chewy cookies. Excellent choice! I quite enjoyed these cookies. I used about 3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and 7 ounces of bittersweet chocolate. I wasn't worried about them not being as tasty if I used all bittersweet, I just had a small stash of semi-sweet chocolate that was getting some age on it. Chocolate, unlike wine (which you can't prove by me) does not generally improve with age. I know the bloom doesn't much affect the taste - but it is just so darned ugly.

At any rate, my only issue with these cookies was the initial chocolate melting. We were to melt the butter, sugar (brown) and chocolate over low heat until it was smooth and shiny. Mine was never really smooth. I could always see the crystals from the sugar in the melted mixture. I gave it some extended time on the burner - over 30 minutes, but I saw no evidence that the crystals were going to turn into shiny smoothness, so I finished mixing the dough with the shiny, but gritty chocolate mixture.

The dough seemed to come together with no issues, I divided it and put the two halves in the refrigerator. After an hour or so I pulled it out and began to make balls of dough. The edges of the dough were rather firm, but the center was totally malleable. The only minor issue I had was pressing down the colder balls of dough. I guess the larger lumps were the correct size because some of my smaller ones did more cracking along the edges than in the middle. In general, my cookies were quite a uniform size and did not develop sway-backed centers - they stayed round and puffy.

In a very few instances when I bite a cookie I get a sensation of sugar and wonder if I really should have tried for a totally smooth melted mixture,but it is rare and it is not an unpleasant taste, just a slightly gritty texture.

I have three dozen in the freezer, gave away another dozen today and have been munching on them pretty regularly. The yield was great - close to sixty cookies

I'm back with Beef Daube, Potato Leek Soup and Not Just for Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

2011-01-03T15:10:00.001-05:00

The question is, am I better than ever? Well, one can but dream. I rarely make New Year's Resolutions. For me they tend to be New Year's Eve Resolutions and last about that long! However, this year, I am vowing to be a better blogger.

To that end, I have been trying to catch up on my all of the Dorie recipes. This doesn't just mean Tuesdays with Dorie. I am also now a member of the group French Fridays with Dorie. I have the suspicion that I am going to be a fairly silent partner in this group as I can not get its website to cooperate with me in the least.

Apparently I am a word press moron. I get logged in and get taken to my profile. That's it folks. If I want to see the website contents I have to look from an unlogged in perspective. Rather daunting since we get to vote on these recipes and I love to spread my opinion as far as I can.

I have made two of the French Friday dishes so far. I made the Beef Daube and the Potato Leek Soup. I am accustomed to be stunned by how tasty Dorie's recipes are and the Beef Daube is no exception. It took me a bit longer to pull it all together, than I expected, but the taste was worth it.

After browning the beef cubes, I slowly cooked the onions and shallots. I added the beef, carrots, and parsnips to the pan and prepared to add the red wine. I used a delightful Yellow Tail Shiraz - not because of the taste - I have no wine taste buds. I bought it solely based on price. I know, I know, cook only with something you would drink by the glass - but honestly - they all taste the same to me - that being the case, I figured saving seven or eight bucks was the wise choice.

I then learned that I had no clue how to work my Pampered Chef corkscrew. I am positive I did it wrong because (a) a little metal thing and some plastic shards came off of it and (b) it barely budged the cork. However, with the help of a paring knife and infinite patience I was able to work the blasted cork out of the bottle. Oh, for a saber and the skill to simply lop off the top of the damned bottle! After a quick visit to Sur La Table, I am prepared to open bottles without a sword, once again.

Regardless. The stew simmered for the requisite 2.5 hours and when pulled from the oven, it both smelled and tasted divine. Don't judge it by this mediocre photo. I have been eating the stew for the last few days and it is getting a little forlorn looking.

I am still slightly undecided about the potato leek soup. It has a lovely pale, pale green color to it and a nice flavor. However, it is decidedly leek and not so decidedly potato in nature. I think it may be a soup that is tastier on the second day, so I shall make my ultimate decision after it chills for a time.

I pureed my soup with my immersion blender - a tool I rarely find the opportunity to use but am liking more and more every time that opportunity does arise. I chose to do that because I got a bit sidetracked when making the stew and it boiled longer than necessary. I actually thought it was a lost cause. I swear that blasted milk had separated into water and whey! Tres gros! However, a few quick swirls with the blender and I had creamy loveliness.

If I am still on the fence after my next tasting, I shall boil up a potato or two and toss them into the pot. I am sure their addition will bring this soup from pretty good to fine and dandy.

Finally for Tuesdays with Dorie, where have I been all these weeks? Well, sometimes baking and not posting and sometimes not getting my act together to bake. I have certainly made more of the last few months selections than one can tell from my blogs and I will get those postings online as soon as is feasible. I made the cranberry shortcake several weeks ago. I absolutely loved this cake.

I must have spread my jam more thinly than was anticipated because I had quite a bit of the jam remaining. I wanted to make more of the jam for Christmas presents, but I never saw cranberries in the grocery store this year. Most have been another blight of some kind!

Everyone who had a taste of this cake pronounced it excellent. It was easy and quick to bake and will definitely become part of my go-to repertoire.

Devilish Shortcakes

2010-11-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

Honestly - how can these be devilish when they taste so heavenly? A question for the ages no doubt. This is my kind of recipe. It pulls together in minutes, fills the house with a divine smell and the taste lives up to the advance notice. Excellent!

I made a half-batch. Thank you to whomever posted about whipping a single egg, measuring its volume and then using half. I have often wanted to halve a recipe that used one egg and was always too much of a coward to do so. That idea is genius.

I ended up with six rather hefty shortcakes. I don't care for fruit with my chocolate so I simply whipped up a small batch of coffee-flavored whipped cream and topped one with that. Again, genius!

Tania made this choice. I like her for that. She has posted the recipe on her excellent blog - Love Big, Bake Often. You can find the recipe there or of course, find it in the best place - your copy of Baking from my Home to Yours.

Coffee-Break Muffins

2010-09-21T20:47:00.000-04:00

I loved this recipe. I don't know why I am so in love with the more simple recipes lately,but such is the case. I am delighted with how easy this recipe was to mix together. I forgot to set the timer when I put these in the oven and it seemed like seconds later when I smelled them, tested them, and found them to be perfectly baked. They rose tall and proud in their little muffin papers. I popped them out of the pan a heartbeat later and fiftee minutes later was eating my first one. Okay, my first TWO. Yum. As I look at them I think, bran muffin - that is just what they looked like to me - but oh the flavor. I don't think this one needs any add-ins - but if you tossed in some chunks of chocolate - I would catch them. I think I would only want one then as an afternoon coffee break, but I would still want one. The crumb was light and delicate - these are serious keepers.

Visit Chocoholic Anonymous to see Rhianna's take on this recipe - or buy the book NOW before we start French Fridays - if you wait until then you will be two books behind. That is no doubt a criminal offense.

Cranberry Upside-Downer

2010-09-14T22:50:00.000-04:00

Is this cake in the quick breads section of the cookbook? It definitely has the best attributes of a quick bread - easy to mix, quick to bake, delicious to eat. I snagged a fair amount of cranberries this past season and froze them. I have been on pins and needles waiting for an excuse to use them. Thanks so much Sabrina, you gave me the reason I have been wanting!

I'm so glad Dorie suggests cranberries for this upside-down cake. I have never cared much for a pineapple upside-down cake. I am not overly fond of cooked pineapple - I really only like fresh pineapple. I sometimes used canned pineapple - carrot cake and coleslaw - but mostly I just avoid it! At any rate, this is so much better than the pineapple version.

First of all, the cranberries make it so festive looking. I dug mine out of the freezer and poured them into the pan atop the melted butter. They looked so doggone festive! I was a bit disappointed by how much they cook down - but such is life - cooked fruits are flatter than their raw counterparts. I am learning to live with this staggering disappointment. A few more slices of cake and you should be able to roll me right into a happy place.

I was worried a smidgen because the recipe mentioned nothing about cooling the cake. It just said, take it out of the oven, loosen it from the sides of the pan - and flip it. If some berries come off the top, just scoop them back onto the cake. If a few cranberries stick? I think we have a slight typo here - surely it is supposed to say something more like this: "Loosen the cranberries that are stuck to the pan with a spatula and carefully place them back atop the cranberry upside-downer.

The entire bottom of my pan was covered with stuck-behind pieces of cranberries. No worries - I scooped them up and lay them back on the cake - voila! - crisis avoided. Not having any current jelly on-hand, I skipped the cake glazing step. I am all about the natural look anyway, so I am satisfied with eliminating this step.

I let the cake cool completely before I tried it. I would have loved to have tried it when it was still warm, but I was too full from my lunch at that moment. It is quite tasty at room temperature.

I was slightly worried about flipping the cake onto the plate without letting it cool for any length of time in the pan. I was afraid it would be soggy. Happily, it was not, it was light moist and delicious! Excellent choice Sabrina. You can see the recipe at her blog Superfluous or you could own them all by simply buying the book!

Peanut Butter Criss Cross

2010-09-07T20:12:00.001-04:00

Yeah, more cookies! Love that. I put together a half-batch of the dough this morning before I went to work. It was very soft when it went into the refrigerator and it was firm, but by no means hard, this evening when I baked a few off.

I baked a small sampling of the cookies - a mere dozen! I shall enjoy these for the next few days. I plan to roll out the rest and flash freeze them. They will then be placed in a Ziploc bag for future baking. I think I need to flatten them with the forks before I freeze them. I don't know if I will roll them into the sugar first or not. I think it will be a waste of time to take that step as I would anticipate the dough absorbing the sugar while it is in the freezer. I'll ponder that option deeply before proceeding.

After I bake them I plan to fill them with some chocolate ganache I have in the freezer. I think peanut butter chocolate ganache sandwiches will be indescribably delicious!

I liked these cookies quite a bit. It is funny, isn't it? I think that if a peanut butter cookie does not have a cross-hatch design on the top that it is less of a cookie. Some traditions should never be ignored!

It took me about five minutes to pull together the dough - including peanut butter measurement - so I am quite pleased with this recipe. Jasmine Cuisine selected this recipe and she has posted it here or you can find it in the Book on page 78.

Chocolate Espresso Shortcake

2010-08-31T08:24:00.009-04:00

I made my first post to this group in September 2008. I could not imagine that there would still be recipes left to select almost two years later, but oh there were! And, finally, faster than I had actually imagined, especially for a day I thought would never come, I was choosing the recipe for this fabulous group.

Because I love, chocolate, coffee and shortbread, I thought there could be no better for selection for me than the Espresso Chocolate Shortbread (found on page 125). As I was looking over my blog, I remembered shortbread was the first recipe selected from the book - and the first throw-back I baked. So, what could be more perfect? Nothing. I loved the simplicity of the ingredient list for this recipe. I loved the ease with which the ingredients came together and ultimately I loved the flavor as well.

I knew that I would be choosing a cookie recipe because I love cookies. Generally easy to pull together and then you have a snacking dessert available to you. I debated a few of the remaining recipes in the side of the plate cookie section, but ultimately was drawn to the one that expressed so many of my loves - coffee - chocolate - shortbread. What could go wrong?

I lined the ingredients up for their beauty shot and set to mixing.

I had minor issues rolling out the dough. The batter is flecked with the small delicious pieces of bittersweet chocolate - chopped by the food processor because I chopped my chocolate - painstakingly by hand earlier and then lost it!

Ultimately, I feel I rolled the dough out too thin, but they worked. My only issue was that sometimes my dough would crack as I was trying to cut neat little squares. Speaking of that, I ask forgiveness in advance - straight lines and I are not the best of friends. It must be like that simple math gene. Mine is just slightly wonky - so despite using a straight-edged ruler, I still have (for the most part) rectangles, not squares.

And, apparently I have also lost my ability to read simple sentences because I misread the section about creating holes with the tines of a fork. Dorie said to prick the dough twice with the tines of a fork, ensuring that the tines completely pierced the dough. I read that to be pierce the dough two times with a fork tine. Not having any single or double-tined forks, I used a bamboo skewer to create two holes in my dough. Not a terminal error by any means, but definitely a stupid one!

None of my stupidity however, impacted these little darlings. They do mix divinely with a cup of coffee. They aren't too bad just by themselves - though they do lead one to desiring a beverage. All in all, I am quite pleased with my selection. A bit of time - but for the most part that is hands-off chilling time. And, the result is fine - very fine.

Esspresso Chocolate Shortbread

Makes 32 cookies

I NEVER tire of the satisfying combination of espresso and chocolate and am always pleased when I think of another way to use it. Stirring some instant espresso into a classic shortbread dough and then adding bits of bittersweet chocolate transforms a traditional cookie into a modern treat with an edge.
If you’re new to making shortbread, take a look at the pointers on page 124.

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or ¾ cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)

Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.
Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9-x-10½ -inch rectangle that’s ¼ inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife cut the dough into 1½-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale – they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.
If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Variation: OATMEAL SPICE SHORTBREADS: omit the espresso, boiling water and chopped chocolate. Reduce the flour to 1½ cups, and whisk it together with 2/3 cup old-fashioned oats, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves. Once the butter and confectioners’ sugar are well beaten, add the vanilla, then the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated.

I made this variation as well. Mostly because I knew others would and as hostess I felt I should know what they were going to encounter. These mix together as easily as the espresso chocolate does - easier in fact - as there is no chocolate chopping involved.

However, they do not pack quite as much as a flavor punch as the others do. They are all right - certainly not a cookie to turn your back on - but also not one for which to cross the street. I think these might be improved with a simple cinnamon sugar dusting as they go into the oven, but I did not think of that until I after I made them plain.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bread - Make that Muffins

2010-08-30T18:20:00.002-04:00

When I saw the instructions calling for a loaf I just wasn't feeling it. So, I decided to do muffins instead. I am so glad I did. This made eight or nine, I've forgotten now, giant Texas-sized jumbo muffins.

The ingredients just whipped together in a heartbeat and they were all standard pantry items.

I baked them for about 26 minutes and they were light and moist with a delicate, delicious strusel topping. I might elect to include nuts in the body of the muffins the next time I bake them or include a few oak flakes in the strusel.

I took them with me to work and they were gobbled up right away. Thanks Natalie for making this wonderful selection. The recipe is posted at Oven Love. But. by now, you really should have purchased the book!

Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

2010-08-24T23:02:00.003-04:00

I was actually ahead of the game this week having made this tart a couple of weeks ago. I found the tart shell to be as delicious this time as it was the first time I made it. I could have easily eaten nothing but the shell and been pretty happy.

But, I do love peaches, so adding them to the mix made me very happy. I have gotten peaches a couple of times in the share from my fruit CSA so I had them handy. I felt they were a bit smaller than Dorrie suggested so I used an extra one in the tart. Nevertheless, I still felt their appearance was a bit lacking. They tasted fabulous, but I felt the proportion of custard to peach was too high.

It wasn't that the custard wasn't tasty. As custards go, this one is quite nice. It is not overly eggy and it certainly came together easily. I just prefer more fruit to the custard.

I spread my struesel over the entire top of the tart and have seen in the photos of several others that they limited the spreading to the custard area. That made for a very attractive tart. My custard had sort of taken over the entire pan, so that wasn't a viable option for me, but it is definitely something I am going to try and emulate the next time around.

Rachel of sweet tarte made this very excellent selection for the group - Brava!

Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

2010-08-10T21:46:00.002-04:00

Smooth, creamy, decadent - all adjectives I saw on other people's blogs. But, I thought to myself - they won't be applying to your rendition of this treat! Nice to be so wrong, I must say. If I could have an issue with this recipe, I did.

I did not get the custard made yesterday because I found out I had no milk - or rather I had milk, but it had expired about a month ago. I did not even want to open that carton to pour that sludge down the drain, but I did.

So, I was going to go to the store this morning and grab some milk and some more dark chocolate. Then when I awakened this morning I felt like death warmed over and it took me until after 2PM to get myself together enough to face the inferno that has become the norm for our weather this summer. I got back home sometime around 3:30 and started pulling together the recipe.

I was chopping the chocolate while the 3/4 cup of cream heated - no make that - overheated. Do you know how disgusting the stove gets when you boil over heavy cream? No? Lucky you - first of all it stinks and secondly it is difficult to remove from the burner rings.

Second batch, came out just fine. I added it to the whipped eggs slowly and steadily. I then strained this mixture back into the pan to ensure no scrambled eggs were happening. That plan appeared to be successful. However, my custard was very fluffy. I had about two inches of foam atop the custard base. I kept stirring it expecting it to melt down. No, such luck. I finally put a thermometer into the pan because I could not tell if the mixture was thickening.

When it reached the proper temperature I poured it into the ganache. Do you want to know what looks really foul? Scrambled chocolate eggs! What a disaster, this stuff looked so repugnant I almost tossed it down the drain immediately. Instead, I strained it into a new bowl and transferred it to the fridge.

After several hours I checked it - it seemed to be cool - but it did not seem to be smooth. Figuring all I would be wasting was a little electricity and some time, I went ahead and transferred it to the ice cream maker's bowl.

Imagine my shock and delighted surprise when some 30 minutes later I had smooth, creamy, decadent chocolate ganache ice cream! I don't know what I was doing wrong all day to have so many annoying experiences during the ice cream making process, but the end result was worth every annoying second. My friend Debbie is going to love this stuff - she is THE chocolate expert! Thanks for making this choice, Katrina - go to her site - Baking with the Boys for the recipe or of course, you could Buy The Book!

Junior's Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

2010-08-05T09:32:00.011-04:00

A couple of months ago my brother asked me if I could bring my mixer with me and come to his house to make him a cheesecake. He had purchased a copy of the Junior's (from NY) cheesecake cookbook. His reading of the book led him to believe it was best made with a stand mixer and he and his wife do not own one.

I told him that would not be possible as I cannot carry my mixer by myself. However, my sister can move hers and I would ask her to bring it to his house the next time I was up in DE. He considered this for awhile and then decided the best thing to do would be to send me the cookbook and have me make the cheesecake for him when he next time came to Richmond.

I got the book and shortly thereafter saw the recipe he wanted. The man has a serious chocolate habit! Junior's cheesecakes are made on a spongecake base. In this case, the base was a chocolate sponge.

The creamy center is also a chocolate base - 10 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, I might add! My brother was in charge of the chocolate chopping. He is an extremely good chopper. The top of the cake is covered in what Junior's refers to as a fudge mirror and then you make a web of chocolate strips across the top. We used a combination of dark and white chocolate for the webbing. More chopping for the brother! Our web was a little thick due to imprecise cutting of the piping baggie, but nevertheless, I think it looked quite pretty.

This is one massive cake. It says to use a nine inch pan. If you do, it better be at least four inches high. My pan is three inches high and our far cake surpassed that height. Eventually it would be only three inches high, but that was due to an unfortunate incident.

Junior's gives you very precise directions to obtain a perfectly smoothed top cake. I tried to follow those instructions precisely. However, the first oddity I noticed was the sponge itself. I found it to be extremely difficult to blend the chocolate half into the egg whites. I decided not to worry about it and baked the cake. All looked fine, until as the cake cooled it began to pull away from the sides. I knew that meant the bottom of the cake would be a bear to remove from the tray, but you can't fix that midstream.

I then mixed the main batter according to the game plan. All went well, except as I was filling the cake pan, I realized there was a lot of batter. Everything else had been so precise I decided this cake would not rise as most others do. I went ahead and put all the batter into the pan. I have been baking for over 40 years, by now I should know to trust my judgement, but no, I had to listen to the damn recipe. Curses upon my anal little head and its insistence to follow a recipe exactly on the first go-round.

Sure enough as the cake baked it began to rise far above the heights of the pan's sides. I watched through the window nervously for the batter to collapse over the side and fall into the water bath. It remained stable until the time came to test the cake for doneness. I gave it the Junior's test and it appeared to be baked.

Hah! Not so much. As I tried to remove the pan from the water bath without soaking my pot holders I tipped the pan - the layer of batter that had come over the top of the pan was in fact nicely baked. Unfortunately some two inches of it below the pan's sides were still molten liquid chocolate. Slosh over the side and into the water bath - thank God for the water bath - it captured the overflow. It looked disgusting, but at least the mess was contained.

I was quite dismayed about what this was going to do to our smooth cake, but felt I had no choice but to reinsert the cake into the oven. I sent it back to Hades for I believe another 20 minutes or so. With the mess the edges were now in, I knew that removing this cake from the pan was not going to be pleasant. In fact, it was not as horrible as I feared. There was a slight crust formed around the very top edge and I had to do some creative carving to get the cake to release, but overall it came out pretty nicely. The top had a slight indentation, but nothing a little swirl of whipped cream wouldn't cover. The indentation made application of the chocolate mirror slightly difficult, but considering the cavern I expected it was not too daunting.

We let the cake chill appropriately and then we cut into it. As you can see the slices looked quite delectable. Even I, who can chow down on an excessively rich dessert with the best of them, did not want a large slice of this cake. My brother gifted me with the cookbook because as he said, you'll be the one baking them for me! So, now I have this little gem in my hands. I told him I would be happy to make additional cakes for him, but I am not making the same cake every time he comes to visit. Then again, this is the first time he's been down in years, so who knows, maybe by his next visit I will be ready to try and defy death by chocolate once again!

Obviously the next time I bake a Junior's cake I will listen to my instincts and not overfill the pan. I think I will also use my own sponge cake recipe as I found theirs to be a tad dry. I'll do theirs one more time to ensure I did not mix it improperly, but it was much more time consuming than my old stand-by from the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.

I also love that the Junior's cookbook has recipes for individual cakes, made in muffin tins, so I am going to try for them the next time. It will make sending home the extras so easy.

Gingered Carrot Cookies

2010-08-03T20:14:00.006-04:00

Whipped these cookies up after I got home from work today. What an easy recipe to pull together. I agree with Paula, these are nothing like mini-carrot cakes. They are delicious but very different from a carrot cake.

I would not have said they were especially scone-like, but I can't come up with an alternative suggestion, either. I think they are far lighter in texture than the average scone - even my home made scones tend to be a bit drier than these are. I do love scones and make them often. I think my best description would be a cross between the texture of a scone and cake - a cake with the texture say of pound cake.

I quite like the taste - not exactly savory - but definitely not overly sweet. I prefer rich desserts to sweet ones, so that totally works for me. I got 36 cookies - I could have easily made them smaller and gotten closer to 60, but they are not gigantors - just a good size. Also I found them to be exactly as trustworthy as Dorie said - no massive spreading, so I could bake more on one sheet than I normally do.

Over all, an excellent choice by Natalia, she has posted the recipe here. Natlia - congratulations on the new job, it sounds so interesting.

Hah, almost forgot, you know I skipped the coconut, we don't need to keep beating that poor dead horse! I subbed about 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds for the missing coconut and added a few more nuts to as well. I used untoasted walnuts in these because I left them lying on the counter after baking last week and I was too darn lazy to get out the pecans! Of course, you already knew I was lazy the nuts were on the counter for a week!

Chewy, Chunky Blondies

2010-07-27T21:16:00.006-04:00

So, I think I may have mentioned a time or ten thousand that I do not like coconut - so you know I substituted something else for that evil being! In this case I tossed some peanut butter chips in with the chocolate chips, heath bar pieces and nuts. May I just say this was not my brightest decision? I forgot how sweet the heath pieces would be and adding the peanut butter chips just gave it a bit too strong of a nudge into the overly sweet world.

It also hindered the baking process a bit as well. I tested the bars at 35 minutes - dead center and they registered totally baked. Out of the oven they came, a fifteen minute rest and flip - then splat as a third of the pan of brownies slid off the rack and onto the counter. I am grateful they hit there and not on the floor. What a doofus! I always check my baked goods in multiples spots - except of course - for the one time the darned things are underdone!

Oh, well, nothing a bench knife couldn't cure! Oddly enough the other end of the blondies was perfectly fine. Live and learn, live and learn. As you can see from this photo, they just collapsed onto themselves in a temporarily molten pile of hot cookie dough. They are now headed for the great big garbage dump in the sky!

I still prefer my bar cookies to be rich, dense, brownies, but these were fine. If I am baking for a non-chocolate addicted audience I could pull these into the fray. They were easily mixed up, took a fairly short time to bake and were enjoyed by all of my fellow knitters tonight at the community knitting group.

Nicole of Cookies on Friday chose this week's excellent recipe. Go to her blog to view the recipe or finally give in and buy the book!

Tarte Noire

2010-07-20T23:56:00.003-04:00

I am so far behind in my posting, I am actually ashamed! I have been baking fairly regularly, but for some reason I just haven't felt like posting. I'm going to try and bring this blog up to date and stay focused, wish me luck.

I cheated a bit with the tarte noire. I used a store bought crust for this endeavor. I made a couple of mini-tarts and have the extra ganache in the fridge - I will be moving it to the freezer tomorrow.

This was such a delightfully easy treat to make. It would be divine with using one of Dorrie's crusts - but it was no slouch with the roll and bake version, either.

The ganache came together with no effort to speak of and the flavor was just luscious. This is an easy elegant desert, one I plan to remember for the chocoholics in my world. Great choice Dharmagirl.

Tender Shortcakes

2010-06-08T20:51:00.003-04:00

These are fabulous. So easy to pull together and so tasty. They are truly tender and flaky. I loved them with a mix of berries. I used black raspberries, red raspberries and blueberries. Topped with some freshly whipped cream --- yummmm!

Everytime I eat a dessert like this I am shocked when I remember that Rosie O'Donnell used to say that if it had fruit in it she did not consider it a dessert - I pity her.

I made a half-batch of these lovelys. Expecting to get ten from a full batch, I insisted on making five. However, they were a tad on the large side - woe is me - I have to eat a bigger dessert. Boo Hoo. I am having tea with/for some friends on Sunday and I believe mini-versions will be making an appearance.

Go to Cathy's site, the Tortefeaser to view the recipe or make the leap and buy the book!

White Chocolate Brownies

2010-06-01T18:24:00.004-04:00

Boring - at least to me. Now, I confess, I did slightly modify the recipe. First of all, I only made an 8 * 8 batch. I don't much care for white chocolate, so I failed to see the sense in baking a full batch. Secondly, I skipped the meringue. Instead, I made a glaze and coated the top with that. I flavored said glaze with orange juice to heighten the flavor obtained from the zest used with the sugar. Brilliant! Well, at least it was an adequate idea - no - it was scathing brilliant, if I do say so myself.

I baked the brownies for approximately 35 minutes and might have baked them just a few minutes too long. They were a touch brown around the edges, but at 24 minutes they looked like soup in the middle and I prefer to err on the side of well-done.

I found the raspberries to be a bit intrusive - not the flavor - my raspberries were as usual - fabulous (courtesy of my Agriberry fruit share - they taste like fruit on steroids - anyone in central VA should really join this CSA). Their intrusion took the form of serious dents in the batter. I had visions of a glaze similar to that on a Napolean. I was going to glaze the tops of the brownies and then draw a design with raspberry coulis.

But, then I glazed the brownies and the raspberry dents looked like nail heads poking out of drywall, so I skipped the coulis and just left them alone. I was a bit surprised by how thin the brownies were, but of course, mine were not enhanced by the meringue layer.

For some odd reason they were very moist on the bottom. I don't know if the rack they cooled on was too close to the counter top or if the fruit allowed excess juice to seep into the batter. I lean more towards condensation during cooling.

They did not taste soggy - but they were quite sticky on the bottom. I'm a traditionalist, as it turns out. For me, it isn't a brownie unless it is brown! I loved the ease with which these came together, but in the future I'll be using brown chocolate to make my brownies.

Thanks for picking this one Marthe - I wouldn't have tried it on my own. Find the recipe at Culinary Delights or in the book.

Sweet Cream Biscuits

2010-04-20T17:49:00.004-04:00

Hands down this has to be the simpliest recipe of Dorie's that we have ever made. A fork and bowl were the only tools I needed (beyond my measuring cups/spoons). What did it take? Five minutes to pull the dough together? I love that in a recipe.

It seems that numerous people had some trouble with their biscuits not rising as much as expected. I don't know if I have lower expectations than others do or if I just got lucky, but I was quite pleased with how my biscuits looked and even more importantly, how they tasted.

I did not get a lot of biscuits from the dough, I think ten, but they were just fine for me. They were delicious hot - I had a couple with my potato soup - killer combo - and I had two for lunch today. The ones I ate today were stone cold and they were still damn good. These were a very light biscuit - I thought they might taste a tad more like scones than they did, but they were great just as they were.

I brushed the tops with a little of my left-over cream before baking them and I think that helped color the tops. I think I will add a touch more salt the next time I make them, but otherwise I was 100% happy with how these turned out.

These fantastic biscuits were selected for us by Melissa of Love at First Bite. You can find the recipe on her blog or you could be smart and buy the Book!

Swedish Visiting Cake

2010-04-13T15:05:00.005-04:00

What a delightfully simple recipe this turns out to be. Dorie mentions something about ten minutes to bring the recipe together. Usually for me that ends up meaning 30 minutes or more. But, today, ten minutes or less. Another half-an-hour for baking a few minutes to cool and voila - dessert is served.

The cake is moist, rich and delicate. I was unable to flip my cake from the skillet so am serving it au natural - this is no hardship. My skillet was a bit wider than nine inches so my cake is corresponding thinner than might be expected, but it is still very nice. I baked mine for just under 25 minutes and it is perfectly baked. I got a little carried away sprinkling sugar on the top, but that is a minor error.

I may try the apple slice version Dorie highlighted or I may try a different blend of extracts the next time I make this cake. I will definitely bake it the next time I want a quickie non-chocolate dessert. Kudos to Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs for selecting this week's recipe. As she notes on her blog - you can't go wrong buying the Book.

Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

2010-04-06T22:50:00.005-04:00

I seem to be on a roll these days. This week I very carefully measured all of my ingredients, mixed the batter, swirled to a (no doubt) delightful pattern and inserted the cake in the oven. At that point, I turned around and saw the damnable vanilla smirking at me from the countertop!

Aargh! Bat rastard! Out of the oven came the cake. I poured the vanilla over the top and as gently as possible incorporated it into the batter. With my fingers crossed - my God are they cramped after an hour in that position! - I waited to taste the result.

As I feared there are places where the vanilla did not incorporate very well and they taste a bit strange. However, that is just once in a blue bite. Overall, I am quite pleased with this cake. It is extremely moist and both layers are delicious. And, I am shocked to say that my marbling seems to have survived its harrowing experience. Look - I think it is Thomas Jefferson - why oh why did I eat that slice? I could have easily sold that on E-bay and made my fortune. Poor planning, definitely poor planning.

I used my European butter in this cake and I don't know if it accounts for the delightful taste of the white layer, but that layer is really good. I wasn't happy with my ground walnuts. I spun them around, in my food processor, until I feared I was creating walnut butter, but the pieces were still very visible in the batter. They were not so visible in the cake itself, however.

The chocolate layer turned out perfectly baked as well. Erin chose this week's recipe. You can find her version at When in Doubt Leave it at 350. Once you have your very own special copy of The Book, you can find this recipe on pages 180-181.

Coconut Tea Cake

2010-03-30T22:59:00.003-04:00

When I saw Dorrie's suggestion that we bake this cake in our Kugelhof pans I gave a small cheer. This makes the second or third time that I have used this pan in the 15+ years I have owned it. Truth be told I've probably owned it for closer to 25 years. I'm pretty sure I bought it when I lived in MD and that was 17 years ago. Time definitely flies.

Alas, when I attempted to remove the cake from the pan it stuck again! I had the same problem with my Kugelhof. This is extremely frustrating, but it was the only issue I had with this recipe. Well, the second issue - the first one involved my memory - or lack thereof. I made this coconut cake without the coconut! I measured it out and then promptly finished mixing the batter and pouring the cake into the pan without ever adding the coconut to the batter. Oh well, I don't like coconut away, so for me that was a plus.

Without the nasty flakes of coconut this cake is not half bad. It still has a mild coconut flavor, from the milk, but it is not overwhelming and you don't have those little flakes sticking to your mouth to gross you out!

Unlike Dorrie I pretty much always think a cake is better with some form of icing. I did not do this, but I think this cake would be very interesting if it were split and filled with lime or lemon curd. Then a thin glaze made with the juice of a lime or lemon would be a very nice addition, I think.

The cake was very moist and all of my tasters were very pleased with what they felt was a delicate hint of coconut.

Our friend, Carmen of Carmen Cooks selected this recipe and has it posted on her blog. You can also find the recipe in the Book!

Dulce de Leche Duos

2010-03-23T14:19:00.004-04:00

Yum. I contemplated ending my post at Yum, but that is just not like me - way too concise. On target, but too concise.

I am very VERY fond of dulce de leche. I purchased some from Amazon several months ago and I have made it by boiling the can of condensed milk as well. I am not sure which I prefer - they were both thick and luscious.

I was quite concerned that my cookies would not be round enough to sandwich, but in fact they turned out quite nicely. I used a regular spoon to scoop mine and some of them were on the large side. I think I ended up with just under 60. My cookies turned out very thin and somewhat dark - I like a well-done cookie so that works for me.

I used the remainder of my jar of dulce de leche to fill most of the cookies, but I ran out of leche before I ran out of cookies. I filled the remainder with Nutella. I actually wasn't crazy about that combination. I found it difficult to spread a very thin layer of Nutella and I think it overpowered the caramel taste of the cookies themselves.

I adored the scent of this dough before I formed the cookies and found that baking the cookies a tad more enhanced this flavor.

Excellent choice for this week by Jodie. She has posted the recipe here and of course you can also find it in the book!

Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

2010-03-09T17:23:00.008-05:00

These cookies remind me very much of the Linzer Sables we made a few months ago. This could be because I made mine with ground almonds instead of ground hazelnuts - but I am certainly not complaining about the similarity.

I was shocked by the recipe - could there truly be so few ingredients? No eggs - no liquid, other than the piddling little extracts? Careful rereading showed this to be true. So, I beat and blended and was happily surprised. I suppose I could have done a better job of blending in the nut/flour combo - some of my cookies were rather dry when I was forming them - but all of them (at least the ones I have tried so far) have been excellent to taste. One of the cookies was so dry it just fell apart while cooking. It was, because of this, far more brown the other cookies. As I expected, I liked this very much. Hey - I eat singed toast it should not be a surprise.

I made my cookies a tad on the larger size at first and then realized how low my yield would be so on the last two sheets I made the cookies considerably smaller. I ended up with about 52 cookies, so I did all right in that regard.

I have never made thumbprint cookies before and was wary of pushing a hole through the dough. This concern caused me to make my initial holes too shallow and while baking the cookies rose to make the indentation very faint. While they were cooling on the sheets I went back through them and pushed the dough down to make a deeper indentation. That worked quite well and on the last batch I did much better.

When I was younger my mother would make a cookie called the split second which is very similar to this cookie. There is some difference in the amounts of butter, flour and sugar used, but the recipes are very similar. The main difference between the split second and thumbprint is that you take your split second dough and separate it. You then form each section of dough into a log. Then you press an indentation into the log and fill that indentation with jam. I don't remember my mother ever heating the jam - and these cookies were filled before baking. They are sliced on the diagonal when they come out of the oven. They look like little jewels when they are done. She always said the name came from the speed with which the cookies came together. I found this photo of those cookies on the Taste of Home website.

Jam-filled treats are not my favorite but I filled these with some fantastic blackberry preserves and some three-fruit marmalade so they are rather tasty. I tried melting some chips into one batch (as Dorie did for the small guy thumbprints) but they did not really melt. I think I will make a ganache tomorrow and refill those cookies. I would also like to try some made with a different extract (other than the almond) and fill the cookies with a correspondingly flavored jam. And, of course, I deeply regret not filling any of these with lemon curd. I did think about it, but decided to stick with the fillings I previously discussed. Lemon curd would have been so much more successful than the chips.

This week's recipe was selected by Mike and can be found at his Ugly Food website. Despite his protestations I am not buying that he is, in fact, an ugly dude. All of the recipes are neatly organized and contained in BFMHTY, a book all should own.

Dorie's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-16T15:48:00.006-05:00

I omitted the nuts from my cookies as my sister prefers her cookies blank. I then ended up with cookies that spread an inordinate amount across the pan. I am not sure if I made some other type of error or if the nuts hold the dough together longer.

The dough might have benefited from a visit to the freezer or the refrigerator, but I baked them right after mixing the dough. Next time I will try giving them the cold shoulder for a little while before I bake them up. I believe I may also take Dorie's suggestion and put some ready to bake balls in the freezer for some upcoming chocolate chip emergency. An actual cookie would satisfy that need so much better than a handful of chips!

Their appearance is simply an aesthetic issue, however, the cookies themselves are very good. I baked the first batch for 12 minutes, the next for eleven and each subsequent batch for 10 minutes. I already know I prefer my goods darker than does Dorrie and the color of my cookies reflects that.

I used a combination of chocolate disks and various left-over chips for the chocolate and was happy with how that turned out as well. The cookie portion is crisp and buttery and the chips are plentiful. Combine this with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea or an ice-cold glass of milk and you have a great snack.

This week's recipe was selected by Kaitlin and is posted on her website. Or, of course, you can find it in Baking From My Home to Yours.

Mini Milk Chocolate Bundt Cakes

2010-02-02T23:13:00.003-05:00

I made these last night in my Pampered Chef mini-bundt pan - six wells. It produced some incredibly thin bundt cakes. So thin, that I am tempted to make ganache and sandwich it between two of the cakes!

So, today I made the cake again, but this time I used only four of the wells. Apparently this cake compresses quite a bit as it cools because once again, the cakes are thinner than I expected. They looked like they filled the mold when I took it out of the oven, but after five minutes of cooling they had pulled away from the sides and were about 1/4 - 1/2 inch lower than earlier. They are cute, I will give them that.

They were also very easy to put together. My only dilemma was the milk chocolate. Personally I never eat milk chocolate and at first I thought I would not have any in the house. Then I remembered that I had purchased a large bar from Trader Joe's a few weeks ago. I pulled it out and fortunately had just enough for both batches.

I topped the cake with some leftover peanut butter frosting that I had on hand. It was leftover from some peanut butter chocolate chip cupcakes I made last week. The chocolate flavor was extremely mild, so the peanut butter flavor was far more pronounced. I also dusted one with confectioner's sugar for its photo op.

I liked the "swirl" addition - I used the nuts and cocoa. However, since my cakes were so thin, it was more like a crust than a swirl. I will definitely bake these in a smaller pan the next time - or I will double the batter for the not so mini-bundts I have.

The cake was nice and moist, though the outside was a bit dry. I attribute that to the thinness of the cakes, it was not unpleasant.

You can find the recipe at Kristen's blog, I'm right about everything or in the Book!

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

2010-01-19T19:03:00.007-05:00

Apparently January is not going to be my favorite month for recipes. Last week our recipe was Mrs. Vogel’s Scherben, I skipped this because it was described as tasting like the fried dough from county fairs. The repulsive, so must be avoided, funnel cake. I also did not want to deal with a large quantity of grease.

In lieu of the Scherben I elected to make a recipe from the past - Dorrie's marshmallows. I have made marshmallows a couple of times in the past so I thought I knew what to expect. But, I was disappointed, these marshmallows were not nearly as fluffy as the ones I made previously. To go with them, I made some of Ina Garten's hot chocolate. Turns out once I put the marshmallows into the hot chocolate, I couldn't stomach the sweetness!

I made the cappucino flavored marshmallow - this was my first attempt at a flavored marshmallow. They are a nice color and they have a nice background flavor. However, I was not impressed with the yield, with their strange ability to absorb the dusting sugar and generally with their overall taste. I'll stick to my other recipes and give this one a miss.

Then this week - Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars - oatmeal cookies (not my fav), in bar form (not my fav) and my containing peanuts (not my fav in fact they are my least favorite nut for cooking). Before even beginning my expectations were very low.

I found the cookie base to be a poor carrier of flavor. I did not get the sensation of rich buttery oatmeal cookies - it just seemed to lack cohesion. I liked the hint of cinnamon but that was all. The chocolate layer was okay - it reminded me of today's Chunky candy bar - I prefer the original with the Brazil nuts. So, I did not care much for it. Once the individual sections were combined into one cookie, I hoped the sum of the parts would be larger than the individual components. For me, this did not happen.

I cut the bars into fairly small servings, but my bars were quite tall so even a small cookie was a lot of cookie to eat.

I did find their construction to be surprisingly easy considering all of the elements involved. I will be looking elsewhere to satisfy any oatmeal cookie cravings that I develop. Lilian at Confectiona's Realm selected and posted this recipe. Visit the other TWD blogs to see how our other bakers fared with this recipe and buy the book, if you want to own all of these recipes for yourself.

And next week's recipe is called Cocoa-Nana Bread - now you know that thing is going to have at least one stinking banana in it! Bleech! I can't wait for February's recipes - I know I'll like them better!

Happy Birthday to TWD

2010-01-05T23:37:00.006-05:00

This week marks the second anniversary of Tuesdays with Dorie. I haven't been with the group for the entire time, but what a great journey this has been. To celebrate our anniversary we voted on which recipe we wanted to make next and there were two winners: Tarte Tatin and Cocoa Buttermilk Cake.

I elected to try them both. I made the Tarte Tatin a week or so ago. I used a mixture of apples: pink lady, granny smith and macoun(?). I had neither a cast iron frying pan nor a tarte tatin pan with me - I was pet sitting for a friend - but my sister had a new Calphalon 10-inch skillet that looked like it would be a perfect replacement. Indeed, it worked fantastically. I did let my sugar go a tad too long and my photos appear to show some carbonized apples vs. caramelized apples, but in actuality, the color appears darker than the flavor. This happened because it was taking far longer to caramelize the butter and sugar than I anticipated. I got a bit bored and took my eye off the stove at just the wrong time. Oh, well, live and learn.

I topped the tarte with puff pastry. Oh, did it look fabulous when it was ready to come out of the oven - all poufed up and a gorgeous brown color. I waited the requisite lava cool-down period and then tried a slice. Oh, my God - this is fabulous. I ate it plain, but I can see where the addition of some whipped cream or good vanilla ice cream would take this from fabulous to decadent.

I had no trouble at all flipping the tarte. I did wear hefty oven mitts, but I had nary a stray splash of caramel with which to contend. I did leave a couple of apples behind in the pan, but a quick flip of the spatula and they were back on the crust where they belonged.

This desert looks so elegant but it was so easy to put together, that I am sure I will try it again. I will probably lower the amount of butter and sugar used in the caramelizing process, but it was definitely delicious as Dorie wrote the recipe.

Then today, I made the Cocoa Buttermilk Cake. Well, truth be told, my sister and I had made this cake about a month ago for my brother's 60th birthday party. We made a large sheet cake, half of the batter was from Sky High - the Park Avenue Cake - made completely as white chocolate. The other half was the cocoa buttermilk cake. We must have done something wrong when we made it then, though. The batter was extremely dense and very dark.

The batter was much more fluid this time around and far less dark in color. I also made the cake as cupcakes this time. I got a dozen regular sized cupcakes and nine jumbo cupcakes out of the batter.

I had problems flipping the large cake out of the pan, but I attribute that to (a) failing to line the pan with parchment paper and (b) waiting too long to flip the cake. When I did flip the cake some portion of the chocolate cake stuck to the bottom of the pan. I made some adjustments and salvaged the cake for his party but I know now that regardless of how much heat remains in the pan, you should always flip your cakes at ten minutes and a parchment paper liner never goes out of style.

I found this cake to be a bit dense at Dennis's birthdayparty , but it was much lighter today. The cupcakes baked a bit unevenly though and I ended up leaving them in for about four minutes too long. I had checked them and should have removed them from the oven when a bit of batter was still clinging to the tester. Their residual heat would, no doubt, have finished baking them.

They are still quite tasty, however. I made a whipped cream icing for the cupcakes. One portion was vanilla flavored and the other was coffee flavored. I love the extra tang of the espresso in the whipped cream. Now to find room in the fridge to store the little devils! Well, if that proves too hard, I'll just put them on the back porch - this may be Richmond - but it feels like the frozen tundra these days!

Two great recipes to celebrate a great idea. Thanks for starting this group, Lorie.

Cafe Volcano Cookies

2009-12-15T22:16:00.007-05:00

Like so many of the other bakers, I am just astounded at the ease of making these cookies. I thought I made them just as cited in the recipe, but it turns out I accidentally doubled the espresso powder. Even at that, I thought the taste of coffee was on the backburner. That was no doubt because the taste of sugar was on all of the other burners!

I used walnuts and sliced blanched almonds for my nut mixture. When I make these in the future I use a different nut combination. Walnuts have such an overpowering flavor - a good one when they are roasted - but no way could I taste the almonds in these. I do love a roasted nut though. In addition, I would highly recommend using either whole almonds or almond slivers to make these and when you - don't bother chopping them. I never should have chopped the sliced almonds - they just about melted into the background. That fits with a meringue cookie though as they pretty much just melt when you eat them, anyway.

Super easy and they pack a wallop of flavor. Great choice, MacDuff.

Sablés

2009-12-08T23:24:00.005-05:00

Another easy recipe - just the way I like it. Well, easy to put together, anyway. I did find it just a tad difficult to keep my logs round while cutting the cookies. I just can't seem to master that knack!

My brother, Dennis, celebrated his 60th birthday this past Sunday (his actual birthday was yesterday). He and his wife (Marilyn) hosted a brunch at Deerfield Gold & Tennis Club - formerly DuPont's Louviers Country Club. It was really a lovely event.

Dennis likes a patriotic theme so we decorated the room with those festive trappings. If I do say so myself, it looked quite nice. My sister and I baked the cake and made bags of cookies for everyone take home as a favor.

The sablés were the first cookies we made. Apparently I cut them too thick as I did not get the yield Dorrie suggested. Nevertheless, I found them quite tasty. I rolled them in red & green sugar or red, white, and green nonpareils. I liked the look of the nonpareils best.

Unfortunately I made a packing mistake with these cookies as well. I packed them in a container with some carrot/spice bars. I divided the cookies with parchment paper. Sadly the bars still exuded too much moisture and it caused one entire layer of the cookies to become soggy. So, we had enough for the treat bags but no extras for our own personal munching. We did try one the night we baked them and I can attest to their great taste.

I love shortbread in general so will definitely be adding this cookie to my list of keepers. I do need to fine tune my sugar rolling and my cutting, but other than that, total keeper/success. These delightful morsels were selected by Barbara and the recipe is posted at her site, Bungalow Barbara. Of course, you could also always find it in the book! Enjoy.

All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

2009-11-24T22:19:00.005-05:00

I loved making this cake. It was almost as easy to pull together as a dump cake. I did my mise en place before starting and I have to admit, slacker than I usually am, life is so much simpler if you practice mise en place. No stuttering between steps, just a smooth transition from one part of the process to the other.

I thought my basic bundt pan was the size Dorie suggested, but it is apparently a bit smaller. I baked the cake in the classic bundt, but had batter remaining that would not fit into the pan. I put that into a small bowl from my life with Pampered Chef and the mini-cake baked up very nicely indeed. Surprisingly the cakes were both done quite quickly. The mini-cake took no more than 25 minutes and the regular bundt no more than 45. They both "depanned" with no issues.

The bundt was given to a friend of mine who is moving this week and my sister and I shared the mini-cake. I quite like this cake and will definitely keep it in mind for the future.

This recipe was selected by Britin of the Nitty Britty. She will post it sometime this month or you can find it in the book!

Cran-Apple Crisp

2009-11-18T00:05:00.003-05:00

I love crisps - they are so easy and they have crumble toppings! Does it get any better than that? I do not think so. This one was particularly tasty. I made mine with granny smith apples and for many people it would probably border on the slightly too tart side - in other words - pucker up - but I like it that way. I would use the same apples the next time, but I just might use half brown sugar and half white sugar.

I did use double the spices putting them in both the topping and the apple/cranberry mixture. I was fortunate enough to be able to find fresh cranberries and loved using them. I used raisins as the add-in to the body of the crisp after that. I had found a raisin medley some time back at one of the warehouse stores and I love them. It contains red, yellow, green and normal raisins but they are all on steroids. No joke - they are all at least 3/4 of an inch long. They fascinate me.

I made my crisp in one large pan and it made a very thin layer. I liked it but will also switch to a different pan the next time - just to see how it tastes with a thicker layer of apple/cranberries. I liked the thin layer, I just want to experience a thicker one before I decide which way to make my own. I love the idea of individual layers and if I make this at Christmas, as I very well may, I will probably give that a try. I am definitely rolling this out on a regular basis, moving forward. The recipe can be found in the Book or at Em's.

Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

2009-11-17T23:47:00.005-05:00

Putting these cookies together was quite easy and always being on the look-out for my childhood favorite, the gingersnap I was quite looking forward to these. The finishing touches were a bit too fussy for me. I favor the version where you roll the cookie in the sugar and it flattens as it bakes, giving you a slightly thicker cookie with more pronounced crevices. The cookie of my childhood has a darker hue as well and I have come to learn that in general it will be entitled the molasses chew and not a gingersnap, but when I was growing it, my mother always called it a gingersnap and when she made it, it involved pinched off rounds of dough rolling them in sugar and having them miraculously flatten into dark disks of deliciousness. Ahh, I remember them well.

She always used regular granulated sugar it always had the courtesy to appear on the top of the cookies as a pronounced decorative accent. I rolled these cookies in my sparkling sugar and had I not the cookies would have had a decidedly different appearance after their time in that dessert oasis we like to call the oven! I know this because for the last six cookies I had to resort to regular granulated sugar and my last six cookies lost that sparkling scintillating appearance of the others. Next to the other cookies they look almost Amish! They still have the lovely little crannies of the earlier batches but they bear no shiny plumage to catch the light - they do not sparkle and shine.

Mind you they taste mighty fine - they just don't beckon you to bite them, rather they are chosen simply because they are next up on the plate rather than because the sun has hit their enticing granules of taste. Having said that, when I tried the first of these cookies, I wasn't entranced. I found the sparkling sugar taste far too pronounced and was sorry I had used it so liberally. I wished I had dipped my glass in granulated sugar or rather had not dipped my glass at all. But, I knew that I had I tried pressing these flat without dipping the glass that I would never have been able to remove it from the cookies at all. The cookies I pressed with the glass dipped in regular granulated sugar released the best of all - of course all the cookies released with the glass that did not have the inverted bottom released the best - live and learn, people, live and learn! I find that the spice flavor in these becomes more emphasized the more these sit and that the sugar coating becomes less so, so I like these more as time goes by. The recipe is a definite keeper and can be found in the the Book or at Cookies with Boys.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

2009-10-20T20:55:00.002-04:00

These biscuits came together very easily. The dough was even stickier than I expected it to be. I found them to be far more dense than a normal biscuit, but the taste was very interesting. I think I actually preferred them reheated the next day, but they were quite tasty. In fact, I think if anything, their sweet potato taste was over-pronounced. I loved the smell of them baking, though, it was perfect for this time of year. To see the recipe, visit the BOOK or Erin of Prudence Pennywise's blog. To see how the other TWD baker's fared, visit their blogs.

Split Level Pudding

2009-10-06T23:50:00.002-04:00

Just call me Ash . . . my stinking pudding did not set up! It was all my fault. I got sidetracked and forgot to add the cornstarch! What a moron - so few ingredients and yet I managed to omit half of them - what a goober! I tried tossing it in after the fact, but I know cornstarch doesn't mix well with heat. I should have just tossed it into a tablespoon of cold milk but I saw it and just instinctively tossed it into the pot. Sometimes I have very poor instincts.

I'm quite irked with myself about this as I decided to go with the coffee flavored pudding and I thought the two levels would be delightful together. I don't find coffee flavored milk and chocolate ganache nearly as appealing. This is very frustrating - on two levels - hah - split level frustration - I slay me. (1) I hate wasting that very tasty ganache and don't much care to drink my pudding - it isn't as if it is a lemon meringue pie (family joke) and (2) I wasted all the effort of cutting the recipe down to a single serving size. (If you knew how much I suck at math, this would really impress you - hey - maybe I suck more than I knew and this is why it did not set!)

Visit the other TWD bloggers to see how they fared with this recipe selected by Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla.

Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

2009-09-29T20:40:00.004-04:00

My oh my! I get tired of all the superlatives I toss Dorie's way - but each week I am more and more amazed at how fabulous her desserts taste.

I made individual tarts this week, cutting in half the caramel layer and ganache filling. I had a small amount of ganache left over and a spoonful of caramel remaining - I quickly gave that a taste test. It passed.

I used macadamia nuts instead of peanuts because I just don't care much for peanuts. I chopped the nuts fairly finely because I was putting them into a smaller pan. I think that was the right the way to go - plus I am a compulsive chopper and I just don't have a coarse chop in my repertoire!

I was a bit afraid that I had scorched the sugar when I was making the caramel, but it was good - heck - it was very good.

I did overcook the crusts a tad - they do go from pale blond to brunette very quickly - especially when they are tiny - but they are still quite tasty.

This is a very rich dessert and I will be making it for the chocoholics in my world when they need a fix. The recipe was posted online at Chocolate Moosey by Carla or is, of course, available in the Book - Baking From My Home to Yours.

Cottage Cheese Pufflets

2009-09-22T18:22:00.003-04:00

Apparently Dorie knows a lot of divas. She previously introduced us to the egg divas and with this recipe we meet the dough diva! If it gets too warm you might want to put it back in the refrigerator? Where did that if come from? Were they saving the extra two characters from the word when?

Roll it to an eighth of an inch? Are you serious? When I got my dough someplace close to that thickness it started to melt! I ended up with giant cookies. Well, giant turnovers. My brother wanted to know what the difference was between these and my apple turnovers. I told him these were full of marmalade and the turnovers were full of chopped up fresh fruit!

Once baked - and the behemoths took considerably longer than the time Dorie suggested - what a shocker - they were divine to taste. I filled mine with pink grapefruit marmalade - it was remaining from the French Yogurt Cake. It was an excellent pairing with that delicate (yet frustrating) dough.

I still have half the dough left and I am going to try baking up a few smaller cookies tonight - and freezing some for baking later. I am hoping to develop a technique for working with the dough. The cookies, once baked, are just great. I don't mind having to take a lot of time to prep my ingredients or giving them a lot of resting time, but I do ultimately have to be able to manipulate the dough somehow and this dough was just a nightmare for me. I ended up with free form shapes that I was pressing together at will. I was hoping the seams would hold and praying that the tops would cook before the bottoms burned. That is not my version of a successful technique - it certainly isn't one I plan to repeat intentionally if I can help it!

Assuming I can figure out how to work with the dough without pulling my hair out, I will definitely add these cookies to my rotation. Otherwise they will simply be an interesting experiment that gets pulled out only for very special persons.

This recipe was selected by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cake and the recipe is posted there. It is also, as always, available in Baking From My Home to Yours. A book without which, I have decided, no baker's kitchen is complete.

Apple Turnovers

2009-09-15T17:30:00.005-04:00

Ahh, fresh, hot piping from the oven - delicious! At first I thought there would not be much taste to these turnovers because the apples had so little spice on them, but they were really tasty. They were very easy to make, though it was a time consuming process due to the resting periods the dough required.

I've never made a dough of this nature before. I loved the texture of it - both before and after it was baked. It had such a silky feel to it in its raw state and it was most definitely flaky once baked. I baked half the turnovers and plan to freeze the others.

A quick wash with the egg a dusting of the sprinkling sugar and into the oven they went. A few minutes later, a heavenly odor began to waft through the house. Shortly after that Kathy and I were feasting on the delightful treats.

Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen selected this week's recipe, it is available on her blog or of course, it is yours for the taking in the BOOK!

Chocolate Souffle

2009-09-08T19:38:00.007-04:00

I had visions of egg divas dancing through my head, but I am pleased to report that my souffle turned out just fine and dandy!

It seems such a shame to actually serve a successful souffle. You start to dish it out and you just watch it deflate - somewhat like a beach ball that has small hole in it!

I was more an extreme liberal with my sugar coating of the souffle dish. So much so that I found the sugar a bit annoying as I ate the crust. That was truly a shame because I really enjoyed the crust. I just found the extra sugar a trifle exasperating as it added a layer of sweetness to the dessert that I did not think it needed.

I cut the recipe in half - another stress factor for me, but it worked quite well. I ended up baking the souffle for about 26 minutes. I think it's time to invest in an oven thermometer, I don't think half a souffle should have taken quite that long. I was fearful that my checking it twice would cause a collapse but fortunately that did not happen.

Other than the slightly overly sweet taste imparted to the crust by the sugar I found the souffle to have exactly the taste a dark chocolate lover would want. It was really an easy dessert to pull together and makes quite a statement when you pull it out of the oven. It is definitely going to be added to my repertoire. For those of you who are not the proud owners of the Book Susan of She's Becoming Doughmestic has posted the recipe.

Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

2009-09-01T21:53:00.003-04:00

Even though this was a dish that was made in three parts - brownie base, cheesecake, and sour cream topping - I found it to be a very simple recipe to put together. I really liked the contrast of the creamy cheesecake against the dense brownie.

I was a little concerned that I had overcooked the cheesecake, though. It was total soup at 25 minutes and still extremely loose at 35, so I let go for about five more minutes after that. I think I could have taken it out at 35 and let the residual heat finish it off, but I tried that once and received a puddle of unbaked cream cheese for my efforts so I now tend to err on the side of a more well-done cake. It tasted just as creamy as I wanted though, so the only real issue was that it shrank a bit more than expected and was a darker color on top - once covered with the sour cream icing that wasn't an issue anymore anyway - so a win all the way around.

I shaved a little chocolate across the top of brownies before slicing them just to add some interest to the sea of white and think that was a good plan. Melissa posted the recipe at Life in a Peanut Shell and she added all sorts of delightful treats to her brownies - they look fantastic - and adorable - my jealousy gene is creeping out again!

I've often wondered how the sour cream topping was made when I saw it on a cheesecake - I knew it wasn't just straight sour cream and now, thanks to Dorie, I have the basic proportions to use on my cheesecakes whenever the mood strikes.

As always, if you want all of these fantastic recipes in one place, I can't suggest strongly enough that you buy the BOOK - Baking From My Home to Yours - it is a great investment as this recipe proves easily.

Creamiest Lime Meringue Pie

2009-08-25T23:12:00.004-04:00

I always say my favorite flavor if lemon, but I may just have to switch to lime. This lime cream is just divine. I swear - I was licking the blade from the blender after I scraped all I could out of the blender itself - I risked my very tongue itself for this tasty treat!

I made tiny pies this week and still have most of the cream in the fridge for future dispersal. Lord knows if it will make it into a crust or just be devoured by me by the GIANT spoonful.

I am always nervous when making a custard cream, but I had zero problems with this one. It came together for me very quickly - I am sure I was whisking it together over a higher heat (boiling water, probably) than Dorie generally uses. I am just too impatient to wait ten minutes for something to come together. I loved the transfiguration into a velvet-like consistency that the addition of the butter gives you while you are blending the cream.

Linda of Tender Crumb has posted the recipe on her blog. You can buy THE BOOK here and get all the recipes in one place and keep them forever - I highly recommend that choice!

This pie is a definite keeper. I prefer a whipped cream topping to a meringue topping, so I will probably switch to that the next time I make this, but I am in love with this filling.

Blanc Manger

2009-07-21T19:51:00.004-04:00

I seem to be incapable of two things - well far more than two but for now we'll discuss the two that are relevant to this recipe.

(1)My absolute inability to completely incorporate two disparate elements - in this case, the gelatin and the whipped cream mixture.

(2)My utter failure at leveling anything - as a child I demonstrated this by cutting my own hair. I cleverly hid the shorn locks in my toy chest. Sure that no one would notice the few missing golden tresses. Unfortunately, when you cut off all the hair on your head except for the piece in the middle (in the barrette) your mother does notice. And, when she is a red-headed Irish woman, she might not have the temperament for this upset. As time moves on and your wispy scalp begins to regain some fuzz, the virago might settle down, but alas, every time you pull out a toy, out comes another lock of hair which sets off another bout of anger from the red-head. Not the most scathingly brilliant scheme of my childhood schemes - but one that makes me grateful for my position as last child - of course you know that means there are no photos of me! Especially none as a baldino. But, I digress . . . how does that keep happening to me?

I made the Blanc Manger a few weeks ago when my sister came to visit. We agreed that it was far sweeter in taste than we expected it to be. It also went down into our tummies far easier than we expected! So I quickly trucked the remainder into work so that my fellow employees could wolf it down for me. Otherwise we would have eaten the whole thing and trust me - my natural beauty would have had a hard time compensating for my natural fatness!

I swan, this incorporation business is really starting to frustrate me. A few weeks ago we made that cake that required us to gently fold the flour into the stiffly beaten egg whites. And what did I find when I went to transfer the batter into the cake pan prior to baking? Lump upon lump of unincorporated flour - then what happened? Total baking failure that is what.

Thankfully this lack of incorporation was on a much smaller scale and the results were far less of a calamity. When I unmolded the manger I saw some rather strange grayish streaks running across the top of it. I immediately realized that I had failed to incorporate all of the gelatin. After delivering several sharp remarks to the manger which it took quite bravely, I remedied the situation by thickly applying my coulis.

Oh, my God! My coulis - was so fantastic - you are all so jealous of me - my berries were like berries on flavor steroids (but they aren't they are just the best tasting berries on the planet!) - because I get my berries from Agriberry Farms in Studley, Virginia. They are so darn good. I used a blend of red and black raspberries. I used to dislike raspberries but now I am a total convert. I still hate the darn seeds, but that Agriberry sure knows how to grow a raspberry. The flavor of my coulis was so intense I felt a shock down to my toes when I tasted it. Fantastic - and you could neither see nor feel the grayish streaks any longer. Of course, since I can strain something I also had zero seeds - Perfection - okay - not perfection - but darn good.

Agriberry.com - a CSA that still has openings for this year if you are lucky enough to live in the central Virginia area. I am so glad I joined. Every week I get six units of berries or other fruits - the fruit is so fresh it hurts my eyes.

Last week I got two units of blackberries, that were almost as big as two of my thumbs stuck together - (my hands are quite small) - as big as a large man's thumb; two units of blueberries and mixed stone fruits - nectarines and peaches. I think that was last week's selection. There was probably a red raspberry in that mix also because that list seems a package short.

Earlier in the summer we had purple raspberries - if you have never had these and you see them at a market BUY THEM. They are a cross between the red and the black raspberry and they are wonderful. Not exactly sweet and not quite tart, they are almost seedless and they are so smooth and delicate. Larger than either of their parental units, they are the most delightful shade of dark mauve. Sadly their season is now over.

Back to my manger, apparently if I am to ever have any hope of leveling a dessert of this sort, I shall have to mold it in a clear pan. I thought the manger was level until I flipped it from the mold. Then of course it looked like I created it on a slope. Aargh! I screamed (mentally) because I did not want my sister to take me to the mental hospital (no Not again). But, now I have decided that this shall not happen to me again. I can avoid this by careful planning and constant measuring. In the future, nothing gets the final nod of approval until I have measured it six ways to Sunday. I am sick of these desserts claiming they are ready to go only to show up uneven when they are unveiled. I will measure the pans top to bottom and side to side. I will have obedience from my food groups. Oh, my gosh, I feel so much better now that I have a plan. My evil food has been thwarted again! Take that you uneven dishes!

This week's recipe was selected by Susan. She has posted the recipe and far better photos at Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewey go there and check them out if you don't believe me.

What are you nuts?

2009-07-07T22:44:00.003-04:00

These were not the brownies I am used to eating. I am far more accustomed to a thicker cakier brownier. I often eat brownies while they are still quite warm fresh from the oven.

If you like to eat brownies in that condition these are not the brownies for you. But, if you wait until these are completely cooled they are quite tasty. Ultra thin, very rich and dense but good.

I only have one caveat - what's with all the nuts? One cup of nuts? I could, of course, have cut back on this quantity, but I almost never edit a recipe the first time I make it. This extreme quantity of nuts made me question if this recipe was actually a tribute to Kate Hepburn or a subtle manner of Dorie saying she thought Kate was just a tad nuts. I leave the distinction to your palette.

I found the nuts far less intrusive after the brownies cooled, but nonetheless next time I bake these, I will definitely cut back on the quantity I include. Otherwise, this is one quick and easy recipe.

My thanks to Lisa who has posted the recipe at her blog: Surviving Oz. Lisa is the winner of the contest to design a new logo for the Tuesdays with Dorie webpage - visit to see what a lovely design it is.

Parisian Apple Tartletts

2009-06-09T19:31:00.007-04:00

Oh, how I jealous I am of Jessica. I wish I had memories of eating something like this in Paris. I wish I had memories of eating anything in Paris, but alas, I have not visited the City of Lights so far. It's something to dream about.

Go to My Baking Heart, her blog, to see the full recipe for this incredibly easy, delicious and satisfying dessert.

I used Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry; I wanted to try the all-butter version, but I did not see it at the Fresh Market or Kroeger. I will try to stop by Trader Joe's tomorrow when I pick up my fruit and see if they have any. I can't justify the expense of Dufour and if Trader Joe's doesn't have their less expensive version, I'll probably do as many others did and make my own. Because, I am definitely making this again. It is like a sophisticated apple turnover - or should I say an open-faced apple turnover?

Next time I will probably add a little bit of spice to the brown sugar - maybe give the apples a light dusting of cinnamon sugar before I put them in the oven.

I used McIntosh apples. I generally eat Granny Smith apples, but I went with Dorie's suggestion of a sweeter apple. I can't even stand the thought of touching a Golden Delicious apple - I've never had one that wasn't mealy - so the Mac was as sweet as I could go. But, my gosh, what is with the apple growers? I don't want a ten-pound apple for a snack! I cut my apple into sixteen pieces and made four tartletts because a half an apple was just huge.

I had a good bit of pastry left over so I made myself a Nut Duo Tartlett with Nutella. I covered the dough with chopped walnuts and slivered almonds. Then I sprinkled on some brown sugar, cinnamon, and dabbed the top with a little butter. I baked it for about 20 minutes and after it came out of the oven I dabbed on about 2 tablespoons of Nutella. It smells divine and a couple of the nuts fell off so I munched on them. Delightful - gotta love a toasted nut.

Cinnamon Squares

2009-06-02T23:52:00.004-04:00

This was a really simple recipe to put together. I laid out most of the ingredients before I went to work this morning. Then when I came home this evening I added the liquid ingredients and put the cake in the oven. Mine baked in just about five extra minutes.

Time out for an advertisement. I purchased a new 8-inch square pan the other day. It is a brand called Magic Line . It has a cute little magic lamp - like a Genie's lamp on it. I love this pan. I used it tonight for the first time. Perfectly square sides and the pan has little lips that allow you to grab it when you want to take it out of the oven. Very handy. Available at Sur La Table and Amazon to name two. I got mine at Sur La Table.

I quite enjoy the taste of this cake, though I was a tad disappointed in my inability to make a delightful layer of chocolate, espresso and cinnamon sugar like Dorrie showed us. These slices are just acting. The ones in the next row over barely seemed to have a layer of the mixture at all, though all of the edges did bear the marks of the chocolate and espresso. I dusted the chocolate I used with flour before adding my chips to the batter, hoping it would keep them from sinking, but it was not entirely successful.

I would make this again in a heartbeat - for everyone but Debbie, who doesn't like cinnamon!

Visit Tracey at her blog to view the recipe (Tracey's Culinary Adventures) or you could just go way out on a limb and purchase Baking: From My Home to Yours and drown yourself in deliciousness!

Chipster-Topped Brownies

2009-05-26T23:42:00.006-04:00

How I manage to loose the charger or the transfer cord for my camera as frequently as I do is a mystery to me - but manage to loose them I do. Hopefully I will find that dratted charger soon - all I need is a flash of brilliance to remember where (or perhaps when) in God's name I last had it and I know I will remember where I stashed it!

Meanwhile, back at the farm, my camera is deader than a doornail! I shall cut my brownies shortly and save one in the freezer hoping to be able to capture it for posterity's sake before my chocolate cravings require me to consume it!

In a rare fit of organization I actually laid out all of the ingredients I needed for this recipe before I started - a total mise en place. I have no idea what came over me. It was quite exciting.

Once that was done this was an extremely easy recipe to follow and put together. My cookie layer appeared to be quite high when I first removed the brownies from the oven, but it has settled to some degree as the brownies have cooled. I think it is still fairly significant. Assuming the chips haven't burrowed down into the brownies (and appearances don't indicate this behaviour) I think I will be quite pleased with how the recipe turned out. I don't know how either layer tastes baked, but the batter for both (or either) was doggone tasty in the raw!

I took the advice of some of our other members and did bake the brownie layer for the few minutes it took me to put together the chocolate chip layer. I then baked the whole layer for 50 minutes more. I also tented the pan for the last 15 minutes or so. in aluminum foil. The cookie layer is a luscious shade of brown. Maybe one day you'll get to see that for yourself.

This recipe was selected by Beth who posted the recipe at her blog, Supplicious. Oddly enough, the recipe is also available in THE BOOK, I highly recommend you buy it.

Update! The lost sheep has returned. Turns out, my suspicions have once again been confirmed. I am a lousy housekeeper. The charger cord was in my computer room the whole time - buried under mounds of paper. If I ever disappear - just keep moving the piles of clothes or paper - I'm probably in there somewhere!

I enjoyed the taste of these brownies, but I did not find the layers to be individually distinctive. I don't know if it was because they were a couple of days old before I tried one or if it was because my chipster layer wasn't as thick as I originally thought it was or not. It was a very good brownie, but the chipster layer just seemed to be a crunchy sweet top that I was breaking through on my way to the brownie. I would/will make them again - but they did not make me swoon.

Fresh Mango Bread (5/19/09)

2009-05-26T23:23:00.003-04:00

Like most of the "quick" breads in the book, this came together rapidly and easily. It was only quick in the preparatory sense however as it took well over an hour to bake.

It smelled fantastic as it was baking.

I don't care for mangoes personally so I just could not get into the idea of trying it. I took it to work and it was gone in a snap. My friend Kathy also tried a slice and she quite enjoyed it.

One of the ladies at work felt it had a ginger bread taste to it, but Kathy did not feel that was so. She really liked the pieces of fruit inside, though.

My lack of expertise with mangoes was obvious in my fruit selection. I chose two mangoes to ensure I would have enough diced mango to make two cups. The first mango I chopped was juicy and a deep orange color. It was so attractive I was slightly tempted to try the cake. However, my second choice was of second quality - at best. It was far from ripe, barely yellow and had no juice whatsoever. Having already cut into its flesh and having no other mangoes nearby I decided to go with it. My theory was that this mango would soften during the cooking process, though it might not add any juice or flavor to the bread/cake; it would also not detract from the flavor. That seemed to be proven by the response to the cake.

I won't be making this again unless I happen upon a stash of mangoes or get a specific request for it. It was easy enough and well liked enough - it just doesn't suit my palette.

Kelly chose this recipe and it can be found on her website, Baking with the Boys. Or you could buy the book - Baking from my home to yours.

Pucker Up - Lemon Tart!!

2009-05-12T23:36:00.006-04:00

I don't really know how much pucker this tart is going to produce, I haven't tried the finished product yet. It is still cooling down. I made it with Meyer lemons and I tried to remove as much pith as I could from the peel. I am hoping that I managed to capture the tartness of the lemon while avoiding the nasty bitter flavor of the pith. I do love lemon flavoring.

I was very excited when I made the crust for this tart because it actually came together for me and I did not end up putting piles of sand into the tart pan! Turns out that in the past I have not processed the dough long enough. I just could not believe I had to process the butter, flour and egg so long to get it to come together. I will probably switch to making the dough by hand. It doesn't seem right to process it for so long in the food processor. If I were doing it by hand I would not handle it for as long a period of time as I whirled it this evening. I just hope it tastes as good as it usually does. I used almonds in the base.

This is a fantastically easy recipe to make - as long as you follow Dorrie's suggestion to put a pan under the tart pan while it is baking. If I had not, I would have had one ungodly mess in my oven, because I definitely overflowed my tart pan.

I have my fingers crossed that this tastes tongue tingling tart because tomorrow I am going to pick up strawberries from my CSA and I think they will taste just fabulously with this tart. You'll read all about it here.

To see many other versions of this tart go to Tuesdays with Dorrie . Many thanks to Babette of Babette Feasts for choosing this week's recipe. She has posted the recipe on her blog, but you can own it by simply buying the book, Baking From My Home to Yours.

Post Eating Report: Well, first things first - did I mention this did "boil" up over the sides of the tart pan? Well, it did - and let me tell you -if in a pinch you need some really strong adhesive - try using baked on lemon tart filling. My GOD! I absolutely could not get the tart out of the pan.

I ended up slicing the pieces and serving them without the edge crust. They were a tad difficult to remove, until I cleared some space, and they looked so lonesome without the attractive fluted edge of crust . . . but they were very well received.

For me, they were way too mild in the lemon taste. I think this is the payoff from using Meyer lemons. I definitely like the recipe and I will try it again - with regular - really sassy lemons - and I will be sure to be wary of overfilling the crust. For me, it was just a nice tart with a hint of lemon, but most of the fellows who were trying it thought it had just enough lemon - what do they know?

Tiramisu

2009-05-05T21:00:00.005-04:00

OMG, I think I found my favorite recipe. Lemon anything is my favorite flavor. But, when I go out tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts. I haven't tried a slice of the cake yet, but I do love this flavored whipped cream. I am not a generally a fan of sweetened whipped cream, but the bitterness of the espresso eliminates any sweetness the confectioners sugar has added to this icing.

I've made tiramisu with the ladyfingers before and though it was extremely easy, I wasn't crazy about it. The cookies were too soggy, the whipped cream wasn't flavorful enough. This promises to be just right - assuming the cake doesn't get too soggy overnight. We shall see.

I was/am a bit worried about the cake. I am not sure it rose enough. My layers are extraordinarily thin. It seemed pretty spongy when I pushed on it, so I will just have to wait and see. They were nice and even when they came out of the oven though, so I did not even have to do any leveling.

Like so many others, I am delighted that Megan of My Baking Adventures made this selection for us. She has posted the recipe on her blog, or you could buy the book - Baking From My Home to Yours.

Not only was this my favorite recipe so far, but it was apparently the favorite of my co-workers as well. Everyone who tried this cake absolutely loved it. Most people said something like, "What was that cake you made yesterday? My God, that was so good." Or, was that tiramisu? It was fantastic.

The next time I make it, I will use a heavier hand putting soaking the cake layers. I was afraid I would make them soggy, but they can take more liquid than I initially thought.

Chocolate Overload

2009-04-28T21:35:00.006-04:00

Last week I came home from work and made my bread pudding. I had planned to make my pudding early, but I purchased French bread for the pudding and then read on some others' blogs that this bread was not a good choice for the pudding. I had wanted to follow Dorrie's suggestions of Challah or Brioche but purchased the French in desperation because Panera had no other type of white bread available.

But, after reading of the dismal results others had with the French bread, I decided to try once more to find Challah or Brioche. So, back to the markets I traveled. This time the Fresh Market came through. But, now I was making the pudding on Tuesday evening and I was tired. I did not get home from work and my errands until after 8PM, I set to work immediately. The first thing I learned is that Challah is one heck of a lot lighter than French bread. I must have picked up a one pound loaf of Challah. It took almost the full loaf of Challah to make 12 ounces of cubes. It took three slices of the French bread to make 12 ounces.

Of course, I needed to "stale" up my Challah. Like a fool I put all of the cubes on one sheet pan and stuck that in the oven. This meant that rather than taking a few minutes to develop a tray of stale crusts it took me almost 45 minutes. Sometimes those little gray cells are just pasty white and totally uncooperative! Nevertheless I persevered and got the cubes looking very toasty.

I whipped up the chocolate custard with minimal fuss and I believe no eggy bits! I poured this over the bread cubes and commenced drowning my cubes. I fully expected all of the cubes to be brown by the time the pudding was finished soaking and baking. The cubes absorbed just about all of the liquid before I put the pan into the oven.

I took it out of the oven and was waiting for it to cool to room temperature so I could try a taste when the inevitable happened. Well, it is inevitable when you get to be my age. I fell asleep, I woke up around 1AM. I put some plastic wrap on the pudding, put in the refrigerator and called it a night.

The pudding was a smash hit at work. People who have been turning down my treats, because "I'm making them fat" were eager to try this dish. The pan was scraped clean in minutes. I'll definitely give this another try if ever my guests are craving bread pudding. Visit Lauren's Blog and find the recipe or buy the book.

My personal tastes lean more to tonight's selection, Chocolate Cream Tart. I made the filling last night and either I am the queen of pastry cream, or I need to watch my heat. That stuff came together so fast it made my head spin. I was literally dizzy standing there in front of the stove! It was extremely disconcerting.

On the other hand, this tart crust continues to elude me. It never comes together. I end up pouring dust into the tart pan and pressing it down. If it weren't for the melting butter turning the crust into one solid piece, I would have nothing to show for my efforts but a pile of flour and some lumps! I had this same issue the last time I made one of Dorrie's tart crusts. I obviously need a lot more practice with this recipe. It is just way too dry - and I use extra large eggs! I would probably have the Mojave dessert going on if I tried using an actual large egg! I wouldn't be able to see the food processor for the dust that would be getting kicked up!

(Tart Dust Prior to Baking when it will morph

into an actual crust - the magic of baking!!!)

I am going to combine all of the elements tomorrow morning and bring the pie into work. I don't want the dust/crust to get soggy. I will report back tomorrow on how it tastes. The crust looks fine now that it has melted into an actual crust and is no longer just a pile of non-cohesive ingredients. Sigh - pastry is usually one of my better areas of expertise - oh well - another area to improve on . . . sadly there are oh, so many!

Everyone loved this tart! Before I was finished slicing it Karl was back sneaking a second slice. His office is right next to the break room. He said being able to do that was his perk of location. I was very happy with the taste of the tart. I liked everything about it except for my utter failure at making the tart dough itself! It taste fine, it just doesn't come together for me.

I'll just have to keep practicing. I'm sure my friends at work, will
be willing to make the sacrifice and eat my trials - as long as the
errors continue to taste as good as this!

Thanks to Kim for choosing this recipe. She has posted the recipe on her blog Scrumptious Photography. Or as I said above, you could buy the book! I'll let you know how the pie was received tomorrow.

15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte

2009-04-14T21:48:00.011-04:00

For today's recipe, please visit Holly at Phe/Mom/enon. What a great choice this was. I haven't had an official slice of the cake yet, but the crumbs and the glaze are fabulous! I am saving the cake for my "Whine and Cheese" party at work on Thursday. It is National Library Week and I wanted to have an event to celebrate, so I am having an open house.

We aren't allowed to spend any money, so I am generously giving away a few books I found in my storage area - I am way too kind! And, for refreshments I am making some snacks and supplying some cheese and crackers. I'm fairly confident my co-workers will be able to supply plenty of their own whine. If not, I have purchased the juice of the grape - Paul Newman's very own - the best Costco had to offer - and they can partake of that or get a cup of water from the bubbler - nothing but the best for one of my parties! I couldn't see the sense in eating the cake on Tuesday when I could get brownie points for it on Thursday, so I am saving it! It is quite the hardship, let me tell you, the crumbs are just divine.

This was a fabulous cake to make, once I found the cookies. As many folks mentioned in the P&Q, these were a bit difficult to find. Though in all honesty, I saw them in Starbucks quite early in the week. I just refused to give $5.95 for 1.76 ounces of cookies, after having read that Dorie said we needed 2.75 ounces. My mind wouldn't let me use that quantity of cookies and my pocketbook wouldn't let me buy two boxes!

My plan was to bake my own cookies, but with Easter on the calendar and visitors in the house that just wasn't happening. This was complicated by the fact that I came down with a vicious cold on Thursday and spent two days semi-conscious so time just really slipped away from me.

However, last night after knitting class I stopped by the Fresh Market and snagged these lovely little gems - $3.99 for 7 ounces. Interestingly enough, the ingredients list apricot kernals, not almonds as the key ingredient. They don't contain almonds at all. Yet, they taste overwhelmingly of almonds. Very strange.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to make the almond whipped cream or not. I probably won't since I am going to take the cake to work and the whipped cream would just be one more thing to carry.

I'm definitely going to add this cake to my list of fast desserts to have on hand for guests though. It's easy to make, if I keep these cookies in the freezer, I'll be able to whip it up on a moment's notice and it seems to taste great in any stage - warm from the oven, at room temperature or even chilled - life doesn't get much better than that.

Don't forget - all of the Tuesday with Dorie recipes and all of their variations can be found all in one place, the book. Baking from My Home to Yours - buy it, you'll be glad you did!

Banana Cream Pie

2009-04-08T00:05:00.004-04:00

I missed last week's recipe because I was on vacation. That worked out fine for me because I really don't like coconut. But, then I come back and find that this week we are making banana cream pie. Guess what else I really don't like? Yes, it is the banana, but I decided to persevere anyway.

Of course, Dinny Dimwit that I am, I forgot to chill my pie crust before baking it. Don't ever do that. If you do, it is going to shrink . . . A LOT! So, my photos look like kaka, and my crust could only hold two bananas.

I could not believe how fast the custard came together. First nothing was happening, the next thing I knew, I could barely move the whisk. I was petrified for a few minutes thinking I wasn't going to be able to smooth it back out but as I added the butter things began to improve.

The custard tastes very good and if the bananas were omitted this pie would be a definite keeper. But, the spices are off for me. To me they denote fall and a cream pie denotes summer, so I think the combination fights that dichotomy. I liked the custard, I think I would just try a different spice combination with fruit to make it seem more summery.

Amy from Sing for your Supper made this week's selection. The recipe can be found here or in the BOOK.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

2009-03-25T00:09:00.004-04:00

This week's recipe was selected by Sihan of Befuddlement. Though she did not feel her cake was a total success, I am delighted with her choice.

The only thing that displeased me about this recipe was the blueberries. First of all, what is with these darn people who package goods anymore? I expect to purchase blueberries by the pint or half-pint - or if we get really carried away, by the pound. I do not expect to pick up a "half-pint" container and learn that it has be "under-sized" to seven ounces! And, on top of that National Disgrace, I had to pay $3.50 for the tiny little thing!

Well, my sister did, she kindly picked the berries up for me and I kindly forgot to pay her for them. If you practice this, you will save a lot of money over the course of a year, but you will probably annoy the heck out of your siblings. My sister, of course, is a saint who never gets annoyed with me - she knows that is useless - I am incurable. She was calling these the gold-plated blueberries. I am happy to say that the berries themselves were quite nice.

The cake had a great rise, it was light and fluffy and I loved the hint of nutmeg in every bite. I would have liked my berries to be a bit more evenly distributed, they did sink to the bottom a good bit, but even with the undersized pint, there were plenty of them in the cake. And, do I love me some crumble crust? Yes, I do, and this one is great. I will be making this cake again . . . and again, and again...

Go to here to find the recipe on Sihan's site or BUY THE BOOK! Cooking From My Home to Yours by Dorrie Greenspan.

French yogurt cake

2009-03-17T23:10:00.004-04:00

Many thanks to Liliana of My Cookbook Obsession for selecting this week's recipe. I swear this cake comes together easier than a muffin does! It doesn't even require the KitchenAid - how weird!

Well, it comes together easily if you can find the darned marmalade! Click on the link to visit her website and see both her delightful mini-loaves and the recipe. Of course, you could just buy THE BOOK - Baking From my Home to Yours.

Dorrie suggests lemon marmalade. I could not find that in any of the stores I tried and did not want to battle the traffic to get to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. But, today I tried Ellwood Thompson, a local organic grocer, and found that they carry Pink Grapefruit Marmalade. I had resigned myself to making the cake with an orange marmalade glaze, but I so wanted to be exotic!

Yes, my life is truly so sad and boring that I feel finding grapefruit marmalade and using it in a recipe is an exotic thrill. I weep for myself, no need for anyone else to tear up.

Of course I paid no attention to my poor little camera yesterday when I was taking photos of the giant pileated woodpeckers that were trying to fell my tree so I did not realize I had drained its battery. I will update this post with a photo of the cake tomorrow and report on the taste then.

I read on a few of the other blogs that the cake tastes better the next day, anyway. See you next week.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos of the birds and the tree - just so you can see what two active beaks can do in about, oh, say 20 minutes:

Cake Update: Yum! Normally I am not much for jam in or on desserts. I was thinking just this morning of how I once heard Rosie O'Donnell say that she doesn't consider anything with fruit in it a dessert. Of course that is insane - fruit pies and cobblers are among my favorite desserts - but I am semi- in that ballpark with jams. Or I was until I tasted this cake. I am beginning to come to the jam side or at least the Pink Grapefruit Marmalade side! The cake itself had a very delicate taste of citrus, but my God, the smell was divine. It wasn't overpowering by any means but it was so tantilizing. The cake was moist and the marmalade was exquistely tart. I don't think much of orange marmalade, but I am totally keeping this stuff around from now!

Lemon Cup Custard

2009-03-10T23:27:00.003-04:00

I was very torn about this recipe. On the one hand, I lLOVE lemon flavored items. On the other hand, I am not especially fond of custard - especially custard that is flan-like in texture. I decided that my custard would be more pudding-like and commenced to blending.

After having read the various comments I knew that I needed to up the ante to get a more intense lemon flavor so I doubled the lemon zest - steeping the zest of one lemon for an hour to enhance that flavor and mixing the zest of another lemon into the sugar to brighten its flavor. I also used Fiori Di Sicili extract in the egg/milk mixture.

This all resulted in a very enticing delightfully scented custard. My custards baked in less time than I expected. I set the timer for 35 minutes, but I should have checked them at about 30. I think they are just a hair over done. I think they are more solid than they should be - they don't really have much jiggle left!

The tops actually seem to have a very slight skin, but underneath that they are very silky.

They have an initial eggy taste but then the lemon taste takes over - they are definite keepers and are super easy to whip up. I think I may give the espresso variation a try. Thanks to Bridget of the Way the Cookie Crumbles for making this selection. She has posted the recipe here or you could buy THE BOOK! Baking from my Home to Yours.

Caramel Crunch Bars

2009-02-24T23:23:00.006-05:00

All I could think of when I was reading this recipe was those cookie/snacks you make by melting the butter over the saltines, then melting the chocolate chips on top and covering that with chopped nuts! I love that cookie/snack, but I am delighted to report that these Caramel Crunch Bars bear little resemblance to them!

It is so nice when a recipe can just about spring to life on its own. If not for the chopping of the chocolate I think everything could be ready for this recipe in about five minutes. If I weren't so anal about chopping finely I suspect most people could have it ready in ten or fifteen minutes. I am sure it took me about 30! On the other hand, I had chocolate dust to add to my batter. Which means my shortbread base is very chocolaty indeed!

I so wanted to use plain Heath(r) bits for this recipe but all I could find were the ones with that stupid milk chocolate attached to them. I used them anyway and my only regret with this recipe is not correspondingly reducing the chocolate on top to offset this.

At this point, my chocolate has still not set firmly, so perhaps in the morning the cookies will have a less prominent chocolate taste and the caramel taste will come through more cleanly. Right now, it is more like a buttery after-taste in your mouth. Delicious but subtle - not a bad thing at all - but I would like it to be a bit stronger.

And, of course, my bag of Heath(r) bits was more Heath(r) dust than bits so bars were not as clearly defined as Dorie's were. The bane of the photo - you so desperately want one so you know if your food came out properly than you berate your food if it doesn't match precisely.

These cookies are definite keepers - I only hope most of them make it to work so I don't keep them as added weight - something I definitely don't need - but I could easily eat the entire batch - and I did make the entire batch.

My thanks to Whitney of What's Left on the Table for choosing the recipe. You can find it on her website or in THE BOOK, pg. 112-113.

Devil's Food White-out Cake

2009-02-24T20:32:00.006-05:00

I was so late finishing my cake last week that I never got it posted. I finished it about midnight but I was just too tired to comment on it and I hadn't tried it yet, so I decided to wait until this week to discuss the "Cover" girl.

We can thank Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater for finally making this fabulous choice. She has posted the recipe here or of course, you could buy THE BOOK and keep it forever as your very own!

I thought this was a really easy recipe. The cake came together with no problems whatsoever - I just got started late. I wasn't crazy though about the execution of the final decorating. I got too carried away with using up the crumbs. First off, let me say that I am not fond of vertical stick-ons! I hate smashing stuff into the sides of my cakes. Plus, my cake had so much icing on it, that when I smushed on the crumbs I ended up really whacking my cake out of shape!

Next time I make this cake, I will steal a little cake from the layers and save that to crumble delicately across the top of the cake, leaving the rest a pristine white!

Trust me, I'll have enough to ice four layers easily if my icing yield is anywhere close to what it was this time. I saw that a few bloggers felt this recipe did not produce enough icing. I can't imagine the size of their cakes or perhaps their icing just did not explode like mine did. I must say I love that reaction.

I looked in the bowl and the egg whites were whipping along, but not really taking up all that much of the batter bowl. Then I began pouring the stream of sugar syrup into the bowl. Poof! All of a sudden I was thinking, is this bowl big enough? Everything was fine, it did not overflow, but it was close to an inch from the top of the bowl. Apparently I know my stuff when it comes to marshmallow fluff! Too bad I don't like the taste of it! It is very pretty though.

I had so much icing remaining that I made eighteen cupcakes the next day and gave them the royal marshmallow fluff treatment and still had close to a pint of the white stuff left!

The cake was well appreciated by the folks at work. Some of whom tried to create a small mutiny by harrassing the folks who did not receive a slice of cake. Those folks did not recieve a cupcake the following day!

2009-02-23T17:00:00.003-05:00

I was browsing the web today looking at some quilting websites and I saw a link to this site. Gin1906 runs this website which features handmade quilted purses and lunch totes. She is having a give-away until next week of one of her beautiful bags. Follow the link above to the site to enter yourself in the contest. The bags are absolutely divine and certainly worth a trip across the world wide web, after all, you can do it in your PJs!

World Peace Cookies

2009-02-03T23:43:00.002-05:00

This week's recipe was selected by Jessica of Cookbookhabit and can be found here or in The Book.

I don't know if I believe these cookies would bring world peace, but they are certainly satisfying. I definitely know they wouldn't be bringing peace to those who baked them. No, those folks would find themselves frustrated by the rambunctious reluctance of the dough to come together in a cohesive log and stay that way!

The recipe is an easy one to mix. I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, so my cookies are dark as midnight. However, my dough was quite crumbly. I did what I could and turned it into two logs of the same weight, but different diameters.

I chilled the logs overnight in the fridge and what I thought were round logs on Monday turned out to be somewhat less circular on Tuesday! I had a bit of a crumbling problem when I tried to slice these babies. I'm not sure I trust that these should be sliced into 1/2 inch rounds. My yield was 26 cookies, but I concede my second log was probably closer to 2" in diameter than to 1.5".

Regardless, the cookies are melt in your mouth delicious and certainly worth making again. I don't think I will chill them for quite as long the next time and I may add a tablespoon of butter to see if I can get them to hold together better.

Though they cracked and split while I was cutting them, I really had minor issues getting them back into a roughly circular shape. As individual cookies they yielded pretty readily to the warmth of my hands and I was able to reshape them fairly quickly. I will cut them slightly thinner next time, but will allow my logs to be about 2" in diameter. I like the size of that batch best.

Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

2009-01-27T23:06:00.003-05:00

Heather of Sherry Trifle selected this week's recipe, which can be found here or on page 212 of the Book.

Like most of the other bakers I did not use the stem ginger in my recipe. The primary reason for this is that I do not pay enough attention when I am reading though the recipes and that ingredient did not register on my brain cells! Had it done so, I would have been scouring the town for it, as I always love to find new and esoteric items to add to my collection of one-dish wonders! (That is what I call those ingredients that you need for one dish and one dish only!)

I was totally psyched to make this dessert. I adore anything with molasses in it and I am particularly fond of gingerbread. The combination of chocolate and gingerbread struck me as quite strange, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, after all, it was bittersweet chocolate.

I did not have any problems mixing the cake. I had to bake it for close to fifty minutes before the center was set and the edges were somewhat crispy by that point. Before adding the glaze, I did elect to trim those carbonized fossils. Actually, they were not too overdone, I have been munching on them and they are rather tasty.

Once again, I do not find the ginger taste overwhelming, but that is how it goes with me. If I like a flavor I like it in large doses. If I don't like a flavor you can show the label to my food and I will gag at the taste! Okay, I'm not quite that reactive, but I am borderline psychotic when it comes to certain flavors - like coconut or banana and any artificial red flavors - gross.

Anyhoo, back to this cake. I had a spot of trouble removing it from the pan, which quite annoyed me, but also gave me a preview of the taste. I also think it is a tad on the dry side. A side effect from having to cook it so long to get the middle set. I may try taking it out before it is quite set the next time I make it.

I like how the glaze came together, mine was as smooth and glossy as I could have hoped and the taste is divine. I liked this, but I still think that gingerbread is best topped with freshly made whipped cream.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

2009-01-21T00:44:00.007-05:00

Egg Divas? Dorie calls them egg divas? She is so nice. I would call them something else, but I am going to pretend that my New Year's resolution was to clean-up my trash mouth - besides I have to eat with this mouth, so I don't want to sully it too much.

There they were pretending to be nice and airy - holding their ribbon shape - no pool of melted butter for me - no sirree Bob. Instead of melted butter, I had a nice, deep, hidden pocket of unfolded flour! As I am pouring the batter into the pan I see that my folding skills have atrophied and the batter is far from blended. I futilely tried to blend that pocket of flour into the batter remaining, but I knew my goose was cooked. I could see the batter deflating before my very eyes.

Teasingly it raised in the oven until the last ten minutes or so of cooking and then it collapsed into a pile of brown crud. Mind you some portions of the previously sky-high batter tenaciously clung to the sides of the pan to taunt me when I removed the cake from the oven. It isn't enough to suffer the indignity of being incapable of folding? The food has to taunt me from the counter top? Divas, who needs them? Well, of course, we do if we plan to make the berry surprise. Our mission - and I wasn't about to let it be an impossible one - was to make the Hidden Berry Surprise.

For comic relief - and to make those of you who think you are the only one whose cake fell feel better - I give you:

Exhibit A - a close up shot of the island of flour that remained unmixed in the cake and did not get absorbed during baking.

Exhibit B - a profile view of the ultra thin cake. Due to my lack of photographic skill you can't see the lovely - almost lace like - rim of somewhat charred cake that formed from the rise and fall of the cake in the pan. On the plus side, this cake was remarkably even. On the negative side, I have no current use for a doorstop - especially one that is prone to attracting rodents.

It was not my original game plan to make this cake all in one day. No, for once I was going to be organized. For once I was going to make the cake a day ahead and do the finishing the next day. I scoff at me! For here I sit at 12:45AM - it is now Wednesday - just finishing up.

Never let it be said that I am a quitter. I went back to the bowl and cajoled the new divas into formation. With great trepidation and even greater care I blended the flour into the eggs. The flour tried to hide in those pockets again, but I carefully and gently located them and removed them.

I finished incorporating the dry ingredients and then on tiptoes I placed the cake on the sheet pan and placed it in the oven. I crept out of the kitchen and stealthily back in every 15 minutes to check the progress.

Eureka! The divas were not entirely pleased with my performance, there was a slight collapse in the center of the cake, but I pretended not to notice this rude gesture and proceeded with the remaining steps of the recipe, which was selected by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen. See the recipe here or BUY the BOOK!

I loved the filling for this cake, though I used only about half of it to fill the cake. I fear that though this cake was much higher than my original attempt it still fell short of the height anticipated by this recipe.

I mixed the remainder with the cake I removed to make the cubby hole and ate it for an impromptu dessert. I thought the cake was a tad on the dry side and I cooked it for only 27 minutes. When eaten with a mouthful of filling it was very tasty so I have high hopes that it will not be found lacking by my tasters at work.

I'm not a huge fan of raspberries, but at this time of year, I was fairly certain they would be more tasty than the strawberries I saw for sale so I went with them despite my personal feelings. Besides that, I always figure whipped cream - which can hide a multitude of sins, you don't see any crater, do you?, can also offset them with flavor.

I'll update this post tomorrow after I find out how the cake is received by the hungry hordes at work.

Results update: The cake has been cut and slices have been delivered. Comments ranged from "this is your best effort to date" to "Oh my God, this is delicious!" I love it when a plan comes together! From my perspective it smells divine when you cut into those berries. They are incredibly tart which melds nicely with the filling and the whipped topping. Unlike many of the others I felt the filling was more than adequately sweetened. But, then again, I prefer my whipped cream with no sugar at all, so I have a low sensitivity to that.

I have this on my radar screen for the fall. I've made genoise before and haven't had as many problems as this. I think I may have gotten my eggs too hot - something I will have to be wary of the next time - but I will give it another go. If however, the divas are being divas, I'll just switch to the other genoise recipes I've used successfully and relegate this one to no man's land.

Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

2009-01-13T23:27:00.002-05:00

This week Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake (click to find the recipe) selected the Savory Corn Muffin for our recipe. These muffins, like all of Dorie's muffin recipes I have tried, were quick easy and delicious.

In addition, these are festive to look at! Being a total spice wimp I substituted another sweet pepper for the jalapeno. Most of the other bakers declared that their muffins had just a hint of heat from the jalapeno they used and many planned to add more jalapenos the next time they tried this one. But, I know my taste buds - they can't handle the heat - so I was glad I elected to avoid the possibility of too much heat and will stick with the sweet peppers instead.

The muffins were a great side to my chili which I just happened to make late last week. I will definitely make these muffins again. To see the myriad other chillies the group made to serve with these muffins, visit the many other TWD baker's blogs. Chili did seem to be the vehicle of choice to accompany this tasty muffin - great minds apparently not only bake alike, we make the same accompanying dishes as well! There were many other companion dishes made, of course, and when I make these muffins the next time, I think I'll visit a few of these TWD bakers to get some inspiration for my main course!

TwoFer Pie

2009-01-08T22:12:00.002-05:00

A lot of people had trouble with the TwoFer pie overflowing their pie plate. If this was an issue for you, I highly recommend the Pampered Chef pie plate. That is what I used for the pie and it fit with no problems whatsoever.

I tried to convince myself to try this pie, but I ultimately, I just couldn't do it. I don't like pumpkin pie or pecan pie and the thought of the two together just revolted me.

It was an extremely easy recipe to make, as always, Dorie's crust was a dream and was greatly appreciated by all who tasted the pie.

My favorite comment was from Pete. He really liked the pie. He is very fond of both flavors and said that the combo was great. "Normally I can only eat a sliver of pecan pie because it is too sweet. This was great, the pumpkin layer really cut the sweetness of the pecan. Made like this I think I might even be able to have two slices of pie!"

I would make it again, if I were bringing pie to a dinner, it smells divine while it is baking.

French Pear Tart

2009-01-07T18:43:00.004-05:00

I know, I know, today is Wednesday not Tuesday. What can I say? I've been on vacation for too long and did not quite get back into the groove on time!

Technically I did make the tart on Tuesday, but I finished too late to make a post. I have got to learn to manage my time better. Mind you, I've been saying that for nigh onto 35 years and so far I am still a horrible procrastinator - pretty good baker - but I'm always pushing my deadlines. I must be getting old - I used to push them but never miss them, now I wave at them as they pass by and just hope I won't be too late to be included in the fun!

How exciting for the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. Dorie Greenspan, the author of "Baking From My Home To Yours" chose this week's recipe! You can find the recipe for this elegant dessert at her blog or on pages 368-369 of the the book.

Overall, I found this to be an extremely simple recipe to follow. I had a different idea of what the almond cream was going to be before I read the recipe so I was a bit surprised by its texture - especially after I chilled it for a couple of hours. It almost looked like marzipan after two hours in the fridge!

My only actual issue was with the crust. It never came together for me. It was too dry to clump properly. Essentially I ended up with sand that I then pressed into the tart pan. I think I might have compressed it a bit too thoroughly and perhaps piled it on a bit too thick, but my oh my, do I love me some crust! It tasted fantastic and baked up like a champ.

Well, speaking of baking, therein lies another habit I need to improve upon! I baked the tart for the shorter of the suggested time periods. I checked it a few times during baking, but did not check it in the last fifteen to twenty minutes. Consequently, the almond cream was a bit more brown (and therefore slightly drier) than I believe it should have been.

However, like the crust, the taste was sublime. I saved some and plan to give the crust another go this weekend. I will then use my remaining almond cream to make a mini-tart. I think I'll try mixing the crust by hand this time. I think that will give me more control.

I actually poached the ripe pears - at least most of them were ripe! I thought about poaching them in cranberry flavored water just to give the pears some color, but as always when I make a recipe for the first time, I ended up not tinkering with Dorie's suggested combination of flavors.

This is a delightful dessert, selected by a wonderful woman who not only took the time to choose a recipe for the anniversary of TWD, but also took the time to answer all of the questions our previous selectors would like to ask her. This was a great start to what will be another fabulous year of baking!

Buttery Jam Cookies

2008-12-16T23:29:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been away for so long and now I've misplaced the cable to connect my camera to the computer so after all of these weeks with no posting, I'm posting without photos! Hah, found it! See photo above to see how utterly non-delightful my little gems turned out to be!

I have managed to make all of the recipes since Thanksgiving's TwoFer Pie, I just haven't blogged about any of them yet.

But, this week, I was going to get back on the straight and narrow. I made my cookies on time and I took a picture for posterity. it wasn't until I went to post that I realized I had no idea where my cable is!

Suffice it to say, these cookies are easy to make, but they are boring and bland. I did not find anything to recommend them - I used the Apricot jam suggested in the recipe and I could not taste it at all. I like the thought of these cookies, a simple cookie with the sweet addition of a jam or marmalade, but in practice, I just thought, these were so what? The folks at work seemed to enjoy them far more than I.

Yin and Yang

2008-11-19T00:00:00.004-05:00

I don't normally like rice pudding so I almost passed on this week's recipe. But, I finally decided I would give it a shot. I have it cooling in the refrigerator now. I could not decide whether I wanted to make the vanilla or the chocolate flavor so I made them both.

I thought it would be funny to make the pudding into a yin and yang design in the bowl, so I did.

I had read all of the comments about the pudding before starting so I knew to greatly extend my cooking time. I had no problems with it thickening, but it did want to create a skin while it was cooking - which just revolted me.

We have Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa to thank for choosing this week's recipe.

Prancing Penguins

2008-11-18T21:06:00.004-05:00

I was reading my Baker's Sheet from King Arthur's Flour the other day and they had directions for making these adorable penquins from olives, cream cheese and carrots.

I was hosting a Pampered Chef party on Saturday so I decided I had to have these as appetizers at my party. The directions called for jumbo olives and small olives. I had extra large olives on hand and I figured I would pick up small olives when I went to the Fresh Market to nab a few last minute items. Who knew the Fresh Market would not carry canned olives?

They do however, have an olive bar, so I grabbed some Kalmatta olives from that bar and brought them home to make my little penguin soldiers. All you do is soften the cream cheese, cut the carrots into coins, then cut a small triangle out of the coin. This coin then becomes the base/foot of the penguin, the larger olive his body, the smaller one his head, the small triangle from the carrot becomes his beak.

I thought they looked very attractive standing drunkenly between the salad!

Kugelhopf

2008-11-11T22:46:00.003-05:00

I don't know if I have ever worked so hard for so little reward! This recipe takes so many hours. You have to allow the dough to rise and deflate, then refrigerate it overnight, finally it rises again and you bake it for a surprisingly short time.

Unlike many of the TWD baker's I found that I did indeed own a Kugelhopf pan. I think this marks the second time I have ever used it - when I purchaed it I was in a molded dessert phased and I thought it would make a lovely form for chocolate mousse!

I have been on vacation so I took the ingredients (and the pan) with me and baked the Kugelhopf while I was away. I did not have any problems with the recipe - it behaved exactly as Dorrie described - until it came time for the final rise. Then the dough just decided it was done. After about four hours it was close to the top of the design in the pan, but it wasn't climbing any higher. I baked it anyway.

It puffed up a bit more and browned beautifully. Then came the moment of truth - the great unmolding! Semi-disaster - apparently I don't know what generous buttering consists of, because I could not get the Kugelhopf to release. Finally after much prodding and poking with a knife and a spatula I got the Kugelhopf out of the pan. I lost a bit off the side, but it was minor.

I immediately tried that bit but otherwise I actually did not try the cake/bread for two more days. As Dorrie says, it makes lovely toast. Really delicate light slices of toast. It isn't toast I would wait two days to get but it was lovely. Fresh from the oven my immediate thought was, boy this smells good . . . God this is bland. I'm glad Yolanda from All-purpose girl chose this recipe so I could find out what my pan was for and learn the ins and outs of Kugelhopf-ing!

I did not actually dislike the experience of baking it, I am just not sure it is worth all the time invested. I doubt I will be making Kugelhopf again - I think that pan is destined for a life of non-utility!