Chewy, Chunky Blondies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.