Tuesdays with Dorie: Double Apple Bundt Cake
October 5, 2010 at 12:27 am | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 26 Comments
Lynne of Honey Muffin keeps the autumn recipes coming with her Double Apple Bundt pick for TWD. This is kind of a spicy sister to the Fresh Apple Cake I made a couple of weeks ago…that one was flavored with vanilla, but this one has all the classic fall spices goin’ on.
This cake is “double apple” because in addition to fresh apple, it calls for a heaping helping of apple butter. Since I didn’t have nearly enough on hand, I used unsweetened apple sauce instead. I was a little worried, since they’re not really the same consistency, but as it turned out, all was fine. I also swapped out about a quarter of the AP for whole wheat flour, which these days I find myself doing probably more often than I remember to tell you about.
All in all, a delicious fall cake…and it’s a good keeper, too, as it’s super-moist. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Honey Muffin. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
French Fridays with Dorie: Gougères
October 1, 2010 at 5:45 pm | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 21 Comments
Yeah, that’s right– a new Dorie book means a new group! Laurie started up French Fridays with Dorie (which, for some reason, I keep calling “French Fries with Dorie”), a weekly celebration of the recipes in Dorie Greenspan’s gorgeous new book Around my French Table.
Things have been more than a little disorganized here…boxes are everywhere, butcher paper is tied and stacked like bales of hay, and the kitchen counter is pretty messy. I thought I might miss the first party, and have to skip making these gougères. Then I thought again, and realized I could really use a glass of wine and some snacks!
Gougères are little cheesey puffs made with a pâte à choux base. If you’ve never prepared choux paste before, it’s not hard (I even made this batch by hand), and in my opinion it’s one of the most fun things to make! I used gruyère cheese in mine, but you can use whatever grating cheese flots your boat. Salty and good!
For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Tarte Fine
September 28, 2010 at 12:37 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
So, our move is done, and we are now residents of Fort Greene, Brooklyn! Thanks for all the good wishes in your comments last time. Apart from a couple chunks taken out of a hall wall by a dresser, all went surprisingly well. We have moved five times in four years, so I’m pretty good at packing up by now, but I’m looking forward to not doing it again for at least another ten years! Now to finish tackling the home improvements…
These Tartes Fines were the last TWD project to come out of my old apartment oven. I had some puff pastry in the freezer already, so they were fast and so simple to crank out, which I really appreciated last week. (Thanks, Leslie!) If you have made other puff and apple desserts, then you will know what a great combo these two things are. Really browned and crisped puff is the way to go. If you have either a little apple butter or almond frangipane hiding in the fridge, then a schmear underneath the apples is a nice extra touch.
For the recipe for this super easy, yet totally elegant dessert, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Lethally Delicious. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Coffee-Break Muffins
September 21, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, tuesdays with dorie | 27 Comments
There are some mornings when one cup of coffee just won’t do the trick. That’s what these Coffee-Break Muffins are for. They are chock full o’ brewed coffee (Chock Full o’Nuts, perhaps??) and instant espresso, and give you that double-shot kick in the pants that’s sometimes needed.
I’ve been having a lot of these mornings lately. Remember when I said I was busy? Well, I still am…running around so much during the day, my brain can’t switch off when it’s time to go to bed. The reason I haven’t been working this summer is that my husband and I have finally found our own place! Seriously, House Hunters could have done a freakin’ multi-year series on just us, but now we’ve closed the deal on a cool old house in Brooklyn. “Old” being the key word…there are a zillion things that need fixing up, so I’ve been shuttling back and forth to get estimates from painters, plumbers, contractors, floor refinishers, you name it…reasearching and meeting these guys is a full time-time job itself. The work has hardly begun, but our apartment lease is almost up, so we move this weekend–yikes! Oh yeah, and we have almost no furniture…we’ll be eating dinner in camping chairs in the middle of a construction zone for awhile. Should be an adventure!
It’s a good thing I made a full batch of these muffins. They are great freezer food and can be defrosted in a matter of seconds for a quick caffeine jolt! For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Chocoholic Anonymous, as it was Rhiani’s choice for TWD. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
The Cake Slice: Fresh Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze
September 20, 2010 at 12:21 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 19 Comments
OK, I am the first to say that my Fresh Apple Cake cake looks an awful lot like a meatloaf, but it is in fact the perfect sweet way to welcome fall and apple season! I scaled back the recipe to make a standard loaf cake, but to tell the truth, we could have easily polished off a full-sizer. It’s moist texture reminded me of banana bread (and I even swapped a third of the oil for unsweetened applesauce), but the taste here is all about apples, walnuts and vanilla. Yes– vanilla, a welcome change from the usual cinnamon! A brown sugar glaze makes an addictively sticky topping.
This is the last cake the group is baking from Southern Cakes. Not all of the cakes I’ve made from this book have been so successful, so I’m glad to go out on a high note with this one. Speaking of going out on a high note, this is also the last cake I’ll be baking with The Cake Slice group. I’ll certainly still be following the other blogs as they move on to the next book, but I think I need to ease off the baking commitments for a bit. Thanks so much, Katie, for all the hard work in keeping this group going– I’ve had such a great time!
Here’s a printable link to the recipe. Or get your hands on a copy of Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our apple cakes this month!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Summery Peach Upside-Downer
September 14, 2010 at 12:06 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 30 Comments
Sabrina of Superfluous chose Cranberry Upside-Downer For TWD this week. This cranberry cake sounds sooo good, but it will have to wait for cooler weather (and cranberry season). In the meantime, I made Dorie’s summertime version with peaches and raspberries for Labor Day weekend. I don’t know about you, but I think it looks like sunshine!
The topping isn’t caramelized like it is in a pineapple upside-down cake, but it infuses the fruit with buttery sweetness, all the same. And the cake is soft and full of cinnamon. I made a half recipe, and it was all R & I could do not to eat it all in one go! The cranberry version is definitely making my fall baking list.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Superfluous. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses
September 7, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 27 Comments
Sometimes I’ve wondered how I would function if I had to share living space with someone allergic to peanuts. My peanut butter addiction just might force me to move out. I can’t imagine not being able to have a PB&J for lunch or, say, these Peanut Butter Crisscrosses for a treat.
Peanut butter cookies are one of those childhood things that I’ve never tired of (one of many, I will admit!). These ones are soft and chewy, as a good peanut butter cookie should be, and the sugar sprinkled on top gives them just the right amount of crunch. The recipe was pretty clear about not using natural PB here, but that was what I had, so that was what I used. To make it a little more like the kiddie brands, I put in a squeeze of golden syrup. I also swapped a little AP with a little whole wheat flour. I don’t think anyone would be able to call me out on either of these changes.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Jasmine Cuisine, as it was Jasmine’s choice for TWD this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Speaking of peanuts…has anyone noticed the peanut flour Trader Joe’s is now selling in with the baking stuff? Has anyone baked with it? I am curious…
Tuesdays with Dorie: Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
August 31, 2010 at 12:44 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Let me tell you right off the bat: these Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies that Donna of Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First picked for TWD…I love them! Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the first time I had one, it was made by Dorie herself. My friend Lauren and I braved a load of snow to visit Dorie’s pop-up CookieBar back in February, and I bought heaps of cookies. All were delicious, but the Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread was my clear favorite.
I’ve made them a handful of times since, and they’ve come out every bit as good as the ones Dorie made. Of course they taste like coffee and chocolate, which is reason enough to like them, and they have that crisp-yet-melt-in-your-mouth texture of great shortbread. I refuse to think about the winter holidays when it’s 90º outside, but if I were to think about packing up holiday cookies, these would be a great addition to the standards.
Don’t skip out on these cookies– for the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First. And check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart
August 24, 2010 at 9:43 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve suddenly become a very busy girl, with reasons that have nothing to do with working (heck–I am not even working right now…still on a self-proclaimed “summer break”) or blogging. I’m learning a lot of weird stuff that, up until now, I had no reason to know or care about. I think you’d find it a little boring if I went into details about it now, as it’s all more of an idea than a reality at this point, but I’ll fill you in soon.
No matter what’s going on, I’m never to busy to bake, and even if Rachel of sweet tarte hadn’t decided on Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart, I was still planning on making it this month. I think the peaches here have been great this year, and I’ve picked up a tree’s worth of them at the market. This tart combines those peaches (which I didn’t even bother to peel) with custard and almond streusel and puts them all inside a delicious, cookie-like sweet tart (hey– is that why Rachel picked this?) shell. Yeah, I liked this one a lot, even if it didn’t photograph too well.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read sweet tarte. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
The Cake Slice: Johnny C’s Tres Leches Cake
August 20, 2010 at 4:22 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 19 Comments
Who is Johnny C? Yeah, I don’t know. What’s a tres leches cake? That I do know! “Tres leches” actually refers to a soaking sauce usually made of condensed, evaporated and regular milks (sometimes coconut milk or cream gets in there, too) that soaks its way into every pore of a spongy cake. As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of fine cakes from around the globe, pastel de tres leches is truly one of my favorites.
This recipe, though…well, it wasn’t a bad one, but an old coworker, who’s from Columbia, gave me the recipe his sister makes for every family gathering, and I think it’s much better. While this cake is made using the creaming method, hers is more of a separated egg sponge, and it really takes in the soaking liquid in a different way. When you put a fork into hers, you see how spongy and it is, and the milk just barely starts to weep out…it turns almost puddingy if you keep it overnight. Johnny C’s absorbed the milk and just trapped it there…it was a little too heavy for my tastes, but I’ll admit it was much improved with a little rum whipped cream (then again, what isn’t?).
I’ll stick to my preferred version of pastel de tres leches (I’ll post it sometime, I promise!), but if you want to give Johnny C’s a go, here’s a printable link to the recipe, or get your hands on a copy of Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our tres leches cakes this month!
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