Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Amaretti Torte
April 14, 2009 at 2:55 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 40 Comments
Much like the Chocolate Armagnac Cake from last month, I actually made this Chocolate Amaretti Torte while we were still living in Sydney, and I’d been keeping it in my pocket ever since. Hmmm…do we see a pattern here with me jumping the gun on the luxurious chocolate cakes?? I am so glad that Holly chose it for TWD this week, because now I can say out loud that this is one of the best Dorie recipes we’ve made (thank you!)!
Since I was in London last week, I was pretty pleased to have the TWD recipe be one that I’d already made. On the other hand, if I had been home, I would definitely have baked this torte again. It is seriously…soooo…good. And so easy, too, that Dorie dubbed it “fifteen minute magic.” All the ingredients need is a quick whiz in the food processor, and the batter’s done. The cake that comes out of the oven is a low-rider…not very high, but really intensely flavored with chocolate and almonds. (And, by the way, I just used cheapo grocery store armaretti cookies with no problems.) Don’t skip the bittersweet chocolate glaze or the almond whipped cream– with very little effort, you’ll have a dessert that’s fit for a swanky dinner party!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (she also has a take on it here on Epicurious), or read Phe/MOM/enon. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Banana Cream Pie
April 7, 2009 at 2:45 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 45 Comments
I’ve had such a busy week, running all over the city after work and on my days off to get errands done for a trip to the UK. I’ll actually be there by the time you read this (so I might not be able to do much commenting on cream pies, unfortunately). I’m Godmother to a friend’s baby boy. His name is Ian, he lives in London and I had lots of bits and pieces to pick up for the Baptism ceremony, which will be at the end of the week. Not to mention that Friday was my birthday, and on Saturday my husband and I went to see a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, which is currently taping in New York. I’ve listened to the show since I was a kid, so it was fun to see goofy Garrison Keillor do his thing live. And Wynton Marsalis was a guest, so that was a pretty good present, I think.
Of course I still made the time to put together this Banana Cream Pie, Amy’s choice for TWD this week. I’ve said many times before that I don’t like raw bananas, but I like to keep an open mind about trying new things. I’ve never made or even had banana cream pie before, so why not give it a go? I had some homemade pie dough in the freezer anyway (it had been there forever, and I was actually itching to use it up), so the hardest part was already taken care of.
Hey, guess what– I thought this was good (and my husband loved it)! I do have a fondness for cream pies…they are tasty and squidgy, especially fresh, homemade ones. I’m not a banana convert, or anything, so I probably won’t make this one again…raw bananas still are a bit slimy in my book. I did really like the way Dorie uses brown sugar in the custard recipe and sour cream in the whipped cream topping. Yum on both counts there! My personal twist was using a little vanilla bean to flavor both.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Sing for Your Supper. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll, and happy spring holidays to everyone!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Coconut Butter Thins
March 31, 2009 at 2:11 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 53 Comments
If Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch hadn’t chosen Coconut Butter Thins for TWD, I probably never would have baked them. Even though they’re made with some of my favorite things– coconut, coriander and macadamias– they just didn’t sound “substantial” enough for me to have paid them real consideration. I would have missed out, because although they aren’t too fancy, they were just right in so many ways. Just right with lemon curd sandwiched between them; just right with a little bowl of ice cream; just right all on their own. They were golden, crispy, buttery and a little crumbly. Mine didn’t turn lacy like Dorie said they would in her intro description, but that could have been because I parked them in the freezer before baking so they’d hold their square shape.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Daring Bakers in March: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna
March 27, 2009 at 2:00 am | Posted in daring bakers, groups, pasta, savory things | 47 Comments
The Daring Bakers did something a bit unusual this month– we baked lasange! Our hosts Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande chose Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s (from The Splendid Table) Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna. This rich lasagna has layers of homemade spinach pasta, country-style meat ragù, béchamel and Parmigiano-Reggiano. OK, I know that photo is of my unbaked lasagna, but I confess to only having assembled it this afternoon. By the time we sat down for dinner, it was too dark for pictures, so this will have to do.
I make lasagne frequently, and I’ve made my own pasta on occasion, but I’ve never made spinach pasta (what makes this a “lasagne verdi”) before. Since I’ve already confessed to procrastination, I may as well get it all out in the open and also confess to laziness– I used some shortcuts when making the pasta. First, I used frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed well). Next, I made my dough in the food processor and then finished the kneading by hand. Finally, I rolled it with my pasta machine (taken to the thinnest setting) rather than with a rolling pin. Hey–it’s still handmade, if you ask me. The dough came together nicely in the processor. The egg alone wasn’t quite enough liquid to bind it, so I added a couple spoonfuls of the spinach-squeeze water. Let me tell you, the dough was a gorgeous green!
I went with four layers of pasta in total, but I still had several sheets left over. There are so many things that can be done with extra pasta sheets (and I’m sure you’ll see that other DBers have made raviloi, manicotti, etc with their leftovers), but I’m lazy, ya know, so I just took a knife and cut them into thick “rags.” I’ll cook them up like regular fresh noodles and toss them with sauce later in the week.
I’ve made béchamel (white sauce) a thousand times, and can probably do it in my sleep. It’s my go-sauce for things like mac and cheese and pot pies, so I had no problems there. I’m not one for making meat ragù, though, so this was new to me. I don’t eat red meat, and usually go vegetarian with pasta sauces. Here, I decided to swap out the veal, pork and beef in the recipe for a combination of spicy Italian chicken sausage (the raw kind for the butcher) and mushrooms (crimini and reconstituted dried porchini). I minced my onion, carrot and celery base in the food processor, and then did the same with the mushrooms. It made a delicious, thick ragù, and my husband, who certainly is a carnivore, thought it tasted great.
This was such a fun challenge. Silky fresh pasta layered with béchamel, cheese and a tender ragù cooked down in milk, made for a very decadent, lush lasagna. Even though I made just a half-recipe (in an 8″ x 8″ baking dish), between the lasagna and the leftover pasta, I have a few nights’ worth of dinners for my efforts. That’s not bad at all! Visit Beans and Caviar, Melbourne Larder or Io Da Grande for the recipe. And check out the brand spankin’ new Daring Kitchen site– it’s gorgeous, and has lots of fun features to keep you entertained for hours! Thank you, Lisa and Ivonne!!
The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Blueberry Crumb Cake
March 24, 2009 at 9:02 am | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 47 Comments
Homemade crumb cake for breakfast is something I definitley could do with more often. One small problem…I don’t know about you, but it’s awfully hard for me to put together a cake in the morning that takes almost an hour to bake! Solution…make it the night before, have some for dessert and heat the rest up for breakfast the next morning.
Why am I going on about crumb cake? Well, Sihan of Befuddlement chose Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake for TWD this week. It is loaded with berries (I went with the standard blue ones, but next time I just may try cranberries), and has a crumb topping that is sweet, nutty and crisp. I swapped out a little bit of AP flour for whole wheat in both the crumb and the cake. How healthy, right?! Also, I made a half recipe and baked it in a loaf pan. It’s just perfect with coffee.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Befuddlement. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
The Cake Slice: Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake
March 20, 2009 at 3:12 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 44 Comments
What’s three times as good as a lemon chiffon cake? A Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake, of course! The Cake Slice group chose to go for a lemon trifecta this month– three layers of lemon chiffon, filled with rich lemon curd and frosted with lemony whipped cream.
I don’t think that chiffon cake itself has a tremendous amount of flavor, but it has an amazing spongy, moist texture that makes me want to take huge bites! This one one of the most successful chiffons I’ve made…nice and tall, with no shrinkage. When making chiffons, the cake pans are often ungreased so the batter can really climb up the sides, and the baked cakes are left to cool completely in the pans. I’ve learned to (gingerly!) run a thin knife around the edges of the pans about five to ten minutes after the cakes have come out of the oven. This helps the cakes to not tear away from the sides as they cool, which I think can cause them to lose some oomph.
Lemon curd must be one of the tastiest things of all time. Even though I made a six-inch cake (half a recipe), I did a full recipe of the curd…intentional leftovers that were then sandwiched between cookies and used as a dip for fresh strawberries. The frosting is just a simple whipped cream with a portion of the curd folded in. Jodie rightly notes that almost every recipe we’ve made from this book (Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes) has used a whipped cream frosting. It’s a little tricky to work with, and you can see in my photos that even though I took care not to whip it too much, by the time I had smoothly frosted the cake, it looked overworked. Oh well, it happens…at least I didn’t turn it to butter! I realized that while I was freaking out about getting the frosting on as quickly as possible, I had not given a single thought to how I’d decorate this cake, so I just went with a squiggle of curd and some pastel sprinkles. OK, it wasn’t my finest decorating effort, but let me assure you that the cake really did taste great!
Here’s a printable link to the recipe, courtesy of Gigi Cakes. Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne. Don’t forget to cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our lemon cakes this month.
Tuesdays with Dorie: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze
March 17, 2009 at 2:50 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 56 Comments
I always have yogurt in the fridge (a granola/yogurt mush-up is my standard pre-work brekkie), but sometimes the expiration date does sneak up on me. A yogurt loaf cake is the perfect use-it-up recipe, so I’m no stranger to Liliana’s (of My Cookbook Addiction) pick for TWD this week. I’ve actually made a similar version of Dorie’s French Yogurt Cake before. There was also the time I made Ina’s lemon yogurt cake. Oh, and I even did yogurt cupcakes awhile back. See– these cakes have saved a lot of yogurt from the bin!
A yogurt cake is kind of like a pound cake, but without that nagging, butter-filled guilt. I used low-fat (2%) yogurt and cut back on the oil in the recipe by a couple tablespoons. My cake still stayed nice and moist for a few days. Dorie flavors hers with lemon, but since TWD just did lemon custards last week (and I’m doing something else lemon at the end of this week, too), I used orange zest and orange marmalade in mine. Any citrus works great here, to tell the truth.
I love the addition of almond meal in this version of the cake…très French, I think. The marmalade glaze gives it some bittersweet stickiness. Dorie says to strain the marmalade first. I’m not sure why…I like the zesty bits, so I didn’t bother.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read My Cookbook Addiction. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Lemon-Clove Cup Custard
March 10, 2009 at 2:58 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 47 Comments
Bridget, from the gorgeous blog The Way the Cookie Crumbles, chose Dorie’s Lemon Cup Custard for TWD this week. I opted to go for the lemon-clove “Playing Around” suggestion in the book, and since it is a cup custard, I naturally baked mine in a cup.
I actually don’t have too much to say on this one, but there was a lot of talk (mostly not-so-positive) on the comment board. For group members who didn’t like the recipe, the main problem was the “egginess” of the custard. I happen to love eggy custards. In fact, I chose Dorie’s flan when my turn to pick came around last March (I was worried that if I didn’t, no one would!). These little cups are prepared similarly to flan custard, and their texture and eggy taste did remind me of flan. But without the caramel sauce, they were rather unremarkable. This recipe was not bad by any means, just a bit boring.
If you’d like to check it out for yourself, read The Way the Cookie Crumbles or see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan for the recipe. Don’t forget to scroll through the TWD Blogroll.
Applesauce Snack Cake
March 6, 2009 at 6:05 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, simple cakes, sweet things | 27 Comments
No one is jonseing for spring more than I am. I was plucked from the Sydney winter and plopped right into the New York winter, so I am completely sick of the cold at this point. Spring may be just around the corner, but we had a mountain of snow dumped on us earlier in the week, so I’m still eating like I’m prepping for hibernation. Until I see the first rhubarb at the greenmarket, apples and warm spices are what I’m wanting.
I saw the America’s Test Kitchen crew make Applesauce Snack Cake on TV awhile back, and have been thinking about it ever since. No time like the present whip one up, I’d say. Their recipe contains a fair bit of butter, so it’s certainly not one of those low-cal applesauce cakes, but it’s moist and nicely spiced…perfect for snacking or, in my case, for desserting. A little sugar and spice mixture sprinkled over the top before baking makes every thing truly nice (“nice” taking the form of a crispy, crackly, sweet crust). I made half a recipe, which is the right amount for two people, and it fit nicely into a loaf pan.
Applesauce Snack Cake– makes one 8-inch square cake
adapted from Cooks Illustrated (September 2006)
3/4 cup dried apples (2 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup apple cider
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup sugar (4 3/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup unsweetened applesauce , room temperature
1 large egg , room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 16-inch length parchment paper or aluminum foil and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.
-Bring dried apples and cider to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat; cook until liquid evaporates and mixture appears dry, about 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
-Whisk flour and baking soda in medium bowl to combine; set aside. In second medium bowl, whisk sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Measure 2 tablespoons sugar-spice mixture into small bowl and set aside for topping.
-In food processor, process cooled dried-apple mixture and applesauce until smooth, 20 to 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl as needed; set aside. Whisk egg and salt in large bowl to combine. Add sugar-spice mixture and whisk continuously until well combined and light colored, about 20 seconds. Add butter in three additions, whisking after each. Add applesauce mixture and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients; using rubber spatula, fold gently until just combined and evenly moistened.
-Turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with rubber spatula. Sprinkle reserved 2 tablespoons sugar-spice mixture evenly over batter. Bake until wooden skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
-Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours. Run knife along cake edges without parchment to release. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang and transfer to cutting board. Cut cake and serve.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Armagnac Cake
March 3, 2009 at 2:44 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 58 Comments
I’ve been waiting for more than a year for someone to choose Dorie’s Chocolate Armagnac Cake for TWD! Not just hoping it would be chosen for the sake of trying it…it was actually the very first recipe I made from BFMHTY, when I was still living in Sydney and I hadn’t yet joined TWD. A couple of weeks later, I signed on to the group and have been waiting patiently, holding on to the picture, ever since. Finally LyB of And then I do the dishes came through and picked it for this week’s recipe!
It was my brother who requested this cake. I was looking for something to make for dessert while he was staying in Sydney with us, and asked him to choose a recipe from the book. I think he did it on picture alone, because he sure was surprised to see me chopping up prunes! That’s right, prunes. Armagnac-flamed prunes are part of what gives this cake it’s little something-something, and a great texture. I actually didn’t use Armagnac here but used Jameson instead, which thanks to my father (yeah, please don’t ask), I had already had on-hand.
This is another dense, chocoholic type of cake. (There have been a lot of those lately, right?) Really good, as far as I can remember, and a bit of glaze puts it over the top. If you are baking for someone who’s anti-prune, sub another dried fruit, like raisins, or just keep it hush-hush…they’ll probably never pin it down.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (read Dorie’s funny story about the cake, too). It will also be on And then I do the dishes. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.
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