Tuesdays with Dorie: Chewy, Chunky Blondies
July 27, 2010 at 12:09 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 22 Comments
I never make blondies (except for this batch, obviously). I don’t know why…they are like chocolate chip cookies on steroids, and who wouldn’t like that? Nicole of Cookies on Friday picked Chewy, Chunky Blondies for TWD, and they are certainly juiced up with chocolate chips, toffee (or butterscotch) chips, walnuts and coconut.
I love butterscotch, but I hate those fake-tasting chips…I still have toffee bits left in the freezer from the Caramel Crunch Bars (yeah, apparently they last forever), and I was happy to use those instead. With all that’s going on in these blondies, I wanted to tame the sweetness a little, so I cut back just a bit on the sugar and used unsweetend coconut flakes.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Cookies on Friday. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake
July 20, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 29 Comments
I think about the two years we spent in Australia everyday, sometimes for bizarre reasons. For example, when I looked at the recipe for this week’s TWD pick, the first thing that popped into my mind was that when we first moved to Sydney, the country was just beginning to recover from a banana shortage. I let my little trip down memory lane steer me in a particular direction while making this cake…it is called “Lots of Ways Banana Cake” afterall, so I didn’t really feel like I was overstepping any bounds by adding macadamias, wattleseed and chocolate to the bananas and coconut already in the mix.
While I could have chosen to go the layered and frosted route with this cake, that wasn’t what I was in the mood for. I just wanted an unfussy snack cake, so I baked half a recipe in an 8″ square pan and left it at that. (It only took 25 minutes to bake, instead of the 45 I was expecting.) It was delicious– soft, and full of things that taste great together!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Kimberly’s post on Only Creative Opportunities. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Tarte Noire
July 6, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 30 Comments
A Tarte Norie is pure and simple, and all about the chocolate, so break out the good stuff! I had a déjà vu moment while making this, and then I realized that it’s the very same thing as the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart we made awhile back, minus the caramel and nuts. Dark ganache inside a crisp, sweet pastry shell…I was perfectly happy to experience that again!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read bliss: towards a delicious life. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cake
June 29, 2010 at 1:30 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 28 Comments
I only have a few words to say about this cake. It has a perfect crust, a perfect crumb and it’s saturated with vanilla and rum. It is simply the best poundy-type cake I’ve baked up. I would be totally happy to devour it plain, but as luck would have it, there were poached cherries in my fridge. Big, no, huge thanks to Wendy for choosing this for TWD!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Pink Stripes. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake
June 22, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 27 Comments
Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes showed us that a loaf cake can be fancy, too, with her choice of Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake for TWD. I baked this the week before I went to London…glad I did, because I packed on a couple extra (now totally unwanted) pounds on that trip, and I may have had a hard time justifying making this afterward!
Both the cake and the frosting contain a good amount of sour cream. Chocolate-sour cream frosting is on my list of “world’s tastiest stuff.” The heaviness of the cake is cut by two layers of jam sandwiched in-between. I don’t usually go nuts for fruit and chocolate combos, but I must say that this was tasty!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Amy Ruth Bakes. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: White Chocolate Brownies
June 1, 2010 at 12:27 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 24 Comments
Ooph…getting this one up late today! Here, I present to you the tenth brownie recipe for this blog. I would say that I’ve exhausted this topic, but you can tell by looking at them that these are definitely not your run-of-the-mill brownie. Marthe of Culinary Delights chose these White Chocolate Brownies with raspberries for TWD this week.
The full recipe makes a BIG batch, and one that a lot of folks had some difficulty getting to cook through. Fearing enough brownies for a lifetime, I scaled it down to a quarter recipe and baked it in a loaf pan. The original version also calls for a baked meringue topping, which I skipped in lieu of a sprinkling of sliced almonds. My meringue-less little batch cooked nicely in about 30 minutes.
These were good…sweet, though. I found the texture to be less like a fudgy brownie and more like a tea cake with a little chew. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Culinary Delights. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Banana-Coconut Ice Cream Pie
May 25, 2010 at 1:10 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 21 Comments
I know I’ve told you before that I’ve been turning my nose up at raw bananas since I was a kid. But I try to keep an open mind, and I want to bake along with everyone, so I always give banana recipes a go anyway. Well, guess what. I think I’m starting to accept them…maybe even like them a little. I didn’t at all poo-poo Spike’s choice of Banana-Coconut Ice Cream Pie for TWD this week. In fact, I enjoyed it! What’s happening to me?? 🙂
An ice cream pie is what it sounds like– a crust (cookie-coconut in this case) topped with ice cream. I made mine in a springform rather than a pie plate, but that’s a nitpicky detail. Dorie uses chocolate ice cream as the base in her recipe…I assembled this pie at the same time I made that burnt sugar ice cream, so I used it instead. I didn’t want to miss out entirely on the chocolate, though, and made a cocoa fudge sauce to go on top.
Raw bananas make three different appearances here. There’s a layer of them between the crust and the ice cream, there’s a rum-banana smoosh stirred into the ice cream, and there are a few decorative slices for the top. Further proof that I am beginning to appreciate bananas: I thought the burnt sugar ice cream with rum and bananas stirred in was just killer!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Spike Bakes. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Apple-Apple Bread Pudding
May 18, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Elizabeth of Cake or Death? chose Apple-Apple Bread Pudding for TWD this week, but I actually baked this baby back in October. I’m not really sure anymore why I made it then…probably some combination of warm apple desserts sounding good to me at the time and having a couple of orphaned yolks to use up. Whatever…what’s important is that I remember how good it was. Caramelized apples and custard-soaked bread (or…umm…croissant). So squidgy and good. A little caramel sauce might have been gilding the lily, but I recommend it anyway.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Cake or Death?. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Quick Classic Fruit Tart
May 11, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 36 Comments
My “extended spring break” from work is absolutely lovely, but, to tell the truth, my life is losing a bit of structure. All those things that I had planned to do (spring clean the apartment, organize my digital photos into folders that make some sense, finally get a recipe archive on this blog…just to name a few) are just not getting done. I’ll tell you what is getting done, though…catching up on the DVR list (is anyone else addicted to Sarah’s House??), walking around Tribeca (with a stop for something caffeinated at either Kaffe 1668 or RBC Coffee) and taking afternoon catnaps (yes, even after the coffee). Well, I am enjoying it, because I know it won’t last forever, and I do thank the weekly TWD deadline for keeping my baking in check.
What’s up this week? Cristine of Cooking with Cristine chose a Quick Classic Berry (or Fruit) Tart. This is certainly a classic…I think it was the first tart we learned how to put together in cooking school. I’ve made a couple of these custard–type tarts at home in the recent past. The combination of the crisp cookie-ish crust and the cool pastry cream is killer. Really, I hardly need anything more than that, but a little fruit makes it even better. I fiddled with the traditional glazed berry topping a little bit (since berries are still a tad expensive here) and topped it with some vanilla-caramel roasted pineapple. I am going to tell you how I made this pineapple stuff, because it is easy, it is fab and it could dress up a zillion different things…maybe after my afternoon nap!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Cooking with Cristine. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream
May 4, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 37 Comments
I suppose because I work in the pastry biz, I’m often put on the spot about my favorite desserts. If I’m asked to name my favorite to eat, that’s such a tough question…often the answer that comes to mind is just the last thing I’ve tried! But if I have to name my favorite to make, that’s easy…ice cream! I love the way one simple base recipe can be switched up a million different ways. I love tempering the eggs and watching as they magically thicken the custard (geeky, right?). And I especially love that first taste of soft-serve right out of the machine! Yeah, so, needless to say, Becky’s pick of Burnt Sugar Ice Cream for TWD made me pretty jazzed up.
What is “burnt sugar?” It’s caramel taken half a step further…deep dark and just smoking. Don’t be afraid to take it to this stage for the best flavor. But do be prepared to move fast with your milk and cream when you reach it, or instead of getting the complex sweetness with a bitter edge that you are after, you will wind up with something that is just plain burned (and a pot that’s hard to clean!). Stand back when you add the milk and cream to the hot caramel…it will bubble and spit (you can minimize that by heating the liquids first), but the fury dies down quickly.
If you’ve given up on making ice cream at home because it turns rock hard as it sits in the freezer, give this one a shot. Because of the caramel, it stays luxuriously soft, creamy and easy to scoop. And the taste– oh momma! It’s perfect in an affogato, prefect for leftover DdL cookie sandwiches and perfect on its own, with just a sprinkling of pink salt.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Project Domestication. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
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