Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Babas
January 19, 2016 at 7:43 pm | Posted in BWJ, groups, sweet things, sweet yeast breads, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, bread, cake
I’ve never made rum babas before. I’ve eaten my fair share, though, mostly at Italian bakeries. David Blom’s Babas recipe brought these pastries into my own kitchen.
Babas are little sweet yeast bread pastries, kind of like brioche and often with currants, that are soaked in rum syrup until they are practically oozing it, and then filled with something creamy. In my opinion, what’s not to like? The group made Blom’s Savarin recipe, which is similar but in made in a large cake form, a couple of years ago. For some reason, I skipped it so I am glad to have done this one.
I don’t have baba molds but I still wanted them to have the nice tall shape of the ones in the shops so I used my popover tin. I got half as many babas as the recipe said so I guess that means my tin is bigger than the molds I should have used. Whatevs– R and I split them in half. Once they were cool I gave them a good dunking in simple syrup, adding rum directly to the syrup. And then I brushed more rum all over the outside! Didn’t make the pastry cream filling the recipe called for…too lazy. Instead I whipped some cream and mascarpone together with which to stuff my babas and added a homemade candied cherry on top.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Fluted Carrot-Tangerine Cake
January 12, 2016 at 5:02 pm | Posted in BCM, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 21 CommentsTags: baking, cake
If I think of carrot cake, of course what comes to mind is a layer cake with swirls of cream cheese frosting. Plenty of cream cheese frosting…you know, something like Dorie’s amazeballs Bill’s Big Carrot Cake. Seems that’s not the only carrot cake game in town, though. This Fluted Carrot-Tangerine Cake is another, more subtle take on the most delicious way to get your beta-carotene. Instead of being spicy and earthy and tall, this one is bright and zippy and slim. Ginger, carrot and tangerine (or tangelo in my case) make it the color of sunshine. Okay, so there isn’t any cream cheese frosting, but a quick powdered sugar and juice glaze gives it a nice sweet crust on top. The flavor of the glazed cake reminds me of Fruity Pebbles, but I mean that in a good way!!
This cake does not need to be fluted…I made it in my quiche pan (the removable bottom was no problem), but it can certainly be baked in a regular cake pan. The cute ruffles do give it a bit of pizazz, though, since it’s only a single layer.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Cornmeal-Currant Biscotti
January 5, 2016 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWJ, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Seems it’s been over a year since we’ve made a cookie from BWJ, but now here comes Nick Malgieri’s Cornmeal-Currant Biscotti. These are his take on a classic Venetian cookie called zaletti. They’re rustic, not too sweet, a little lemony and are a nice nibble with coffee, tea or dessert wine. Making the dough was easy to do by hand, but I had to watch the video of the TV episode before I formed and cut them into their traditional diamond shapes. I tried to form them about the same thickness as Malgieri did, but maybe I should have gone a little thinner…I expected them to be crisp and sandy like shortbread, but instead they had a texture reminiscent of a scone, with a bit of grit from the cornmeal. That’s not a bad thing by any means (and three days on, they still seem to keep well), but it left me a bit curious about these cookies. After doing a little more research on zaletti, I saw that the dough is often rolled out thinner before being cut into the diamonds, or else it is simply done in slice-and-bake form. I normally think of something called biscotti as twice-baked, but zaletti just hit the oven once (the recipe does give a twice-baked alternative for those wishing to bake them that way). Forming them thinner would have made them more crisp with their single bake, I’m sure. They have great flavor, though, and we’re still very much enjoying them.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. There’s a video of Nick and Julia making the cookies together. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
TWD BWJ Rewind: Raspberry Swirls
December 29, 2015 at 4:54 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWJ, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, petit fours, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Happy New Year, friends! I want to start 2016 fresh, so it’s time for me to take care of a few pesky things that I’ve left in limbo over the last couple of months. One is Flo Braker’s Raspberry Swirls recipe, which I actually made along with the group in the fall and then never posted. This uses a sheet of genoise that’s been cut and coated with raspberry jam and then rolled up jelly-roll style, the jam forming a little red curlicue in the middle. Like Braker’s Miniature Florentine Squares or Glazed Mini-Rounds her Raspberry Swirls are meant to be cut into one or two bite petits fours, but after I rolled them, I decided to leave them more the size of HoHos (or Yodels or Swiss Rolls, depending on your childhood treat preference). Indeed, these were good…once I glazed them in chocolate and dipped them in coconut and pistachios, they actually reminded me of a rolled up Lamington, an idea I would like to explore further (possibly for Australia Day??).
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll to see if anyone else did a rewind this week, and see the links page from the Raspberry Swirls week a few months ago!
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Chocolate-Chestnut Tart with Chestnut-Vanilla Syrup
December 22, 2015 at 10:12 pm | Posted in BCM, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 14 CommentsTags: baking, chocolate, tarts
I’ve unfortunately (or maybe not, since I was on vacation) missed the last two TWD postings but I’m hoping to come back strong with this Chocolate-Chestnut Tart. Don’t let my terrible photo (boo to winter afternoon lighting!) fool you, this tart is darn delicious. If I were in charge of cooking Christmas dinner, I’d be making it a second time this week.
We’ve used Dorie’s Sweet Tart Dough many times by now, and here it’s filled with candied chestnuts and a rich, truffle-like baked chocolate filling. The chestnuts are candied during a long, slow poach in vanilla simple syrup. I was able to easily find vacuum packed chestnuts in a neighborhood gourmet store (I think I’ve even seen them at Trader Joe’s recently). I candied my entire package, which was more than the recipe called for. In addition to the sliced chestnuts hiding under the chocolate filling, I decorated the top of the tart with some of the extras, brushed with gold dust for a little holiday bling. Served with a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of the awesome reduced chestnut poaching syrup, this was a fine way to end a meal.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll. And happy holidays!!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Camembert in Brioche
December 1, 2015 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWJ, groups, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie, yeast breads | 8 CommentsTags: appetizers, baking, bread
The idea of chesse en croute kind of makes me giggle….seems like something from another dinner party era to me. I do love a good retro treat though, so I was pretty excited to make Lora Brody’s Camembert (or Brie) in Brioche for Thanksgivng pre-dinner snacks.
The recipe in the book calls for making the brioche dough in a bread machine and caramelizing the onions in a slow cooker, but despite my ever-growing collection of gadgets and small appliances, I don’t have either of those in my kitchen arsenal. I made the dough in my stand mixer instead (subbing warmed lowfat milk for the milk powder and water), with no problem, and followed the instructions to chill it immediately (without letting it rise first) before shaping. I caramelized the onions in the oven with some thyme…even though I used small Cipollini onions, they did take a couple of hours, and next time I’ll probably just caramelize regular sliced onions on the stovetop.
I didn’t think we could take down the 9-inch wheel of brie the recipe uses, but I wanted a whole wheel rather than just a wedge, so I found a little 4-inch round of camembert and used that. I only needed to make 1/3 of the brioche dough and use a few Cipollinis to cover it. My 6-inch cake pans seemed too big to bake the cheese in, so I did it free-form, rolling the dough out into one round parcel that wrapped up the cheese, and making a little decorative twist out of some trim scrap. Everything held shape very nicely in the oven, I’m happy to report. Letting it rest for half an hour or so out of the oven keeps the cheese from being too runny and just spilling out of the crust.
Maybe this isn’t so much something from a bygone era as it is a classic. Gooey, salty baked cheese, sweet onions and buttery brioche…it’s really so very good. And quite stunning, too…a perfect holiday appetizer for a crowd. I even reheated a leftover hunk on Friday, wrapped in foil in a low oven, and it was still just the thing with a glass of wine.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. I do think this is the final recipe in the “Savory Pastries” section of the book….wow! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Pear-Cranberry Roll-Up Tart
November 24, 2015 at 12:01 am | Posted in BCM, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 10 CommentsTags: baking, fruit, holiday, tart
I’ve had my Thanksgiving dessert plotted out for weeks now (predictably, it will be a pumpkin pie), but if I didn’t, I think that this Pear-Cranberry Roll-Up Tart would be making another appearance on Thursday. Yes, a “roll-up tart”…intriguing, right? I’ve never made a roll-up tart before. I imagined forming it would be like making a strudel with pie dough, but actually it was more like rolling up a burrito.
The filling here is made from seasonally appropriate pears– I used Bosc– and cranberries. I think baked pear desserts are pretty awesome, and the orange and ginger flavorings in this filling really compliment the pears (and the cranberries, too).
The fruit is rolled inside the very same galette dough we used for our Apple Pielettes last month. I’m big on this dough. It couldn’t be easier to handle and it bakes up really flaky (the sanding sugar on top here is a nice sparkly, crispy touch). Also, it slices cleanly, so you get a good presentation instead of a crumbly mess. I’ll certainly be trying it out on a regular pie at some point.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll. Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Hazelnut Baby Loaves
November 3, 2015 at 2:36 pm | Posted in BWJ, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cake
For all the yapping I did last week about wanting my own dessert, I have to admit that I shared one of Johanne Killeen’s individual Hazelnut Baby Cakes. It wasn’t that I didn’t want a whole little loaf cake all to myself…it’s just that a mini loaf is actually kind of a lot of cake.
These mini loaves were easy to make. I did take them out of the oven a few minutes before the time noted in the recipe, and I did replace one tablespoon of butter with this lovely hazelnut oil that I bough a while back to use in vinaigrettes and keep forgetting about. Other than that, I followed the recipe as-is. I was pleased to use my mini loaf pans, which almost never see the light of day.
The cakes themselves aren’t too sweet, so it’s nice to serve them with a little something. In addition to the suggested mascarpone-whipped cream (sans grappa, thank you), we had our baby cakes with poached pear slices and candied hazelnuts. Speaking of that cream, after I made my husband a birthday cannoli cake a few months ago and frosted it with mascarpone whipped cream, I decided that adding a nice blob of mascarpone is the best way to stabilize whipped cream. It’s light, tastes delicious and holds up perfectly for a few days. I highly recommend.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. There’s also a video of the TV episode. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Apple Pielettes
October 27, 2015 at 7:00 am | Posted in BCM, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 21 CommentsTags: baking, fruit, pie
Sometimes I just don’t want to share a dessert. When I want my very own cake, I have a cupcake. When I want a pie all to myself–let’s not talk about the time I ate an entire Mrs. Smith’s for dinner– these Apple Pielettes, made in a muffin tin, will fit the bill nicely.
This recipe uses Dorie’s galette dough. I don’t think we’ve made it before, but it was easy to do in the food processor and easy to work with. Remembering the kuchen from a few weeks ago, I was mentally prepared to be annoyed fitting the dough into cavities of the muffin tin, but this was actually no problem at all (although you’ll probably find that you need to cut your dough circles slightly larger than the recipe states if you really want to fill the tins). The dough baked flaky and crisp…I’d use it for big-girl pies, too.
The filling is nice, with apple, of course, (which I didn’t bother to peel) and flavors from dried apricots, raisins and a bit of orange marmalade. If you are an all-American apple pie purist, I’m sure you could fiddle with the insides to get just what you want. After all, it’s your very own pie.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Tiger Cakes
October 13, 2015 at 6:10 pm | Posted in BCM, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 CommentsTags: baking, cake
I first had a Tiger Cake a couple of years ago at a beautiful bakery in Montreal, but I had no idea what it was called. I don’t think there was a sign and I just pointed to it and I took it to-go. When I ate it I thought it was so delicious– moist and chewy with ganache in the center– that I kicked myself for not having gotten its name. I could tell that it had almond flour in it and its texture seemed like a financier, so I immediately Googled around in English and French (it’s limited, but thanks to my fluent mother, I can speak some– especially food words!). I found exactly what I was looking for on several French sites, les tigrés au chocolat. Although I once posted about a tiger cake, it was a very different animal, and I never did make les tigrés at home. I didn’t forget about them, though, and was delighted to see a recipe for Tiger Cakes in Baking Chez Moi. I have nominated the recipe several for TWD times now, and I am really glad that its time has come!
This batter is a lot like a financier, or maybe more like a friand, with melted butter and egg whites. It stirs together in just a few seconds. Dorie’s recipe has finely chopped chocolate mixed into the batter to give the tiger cakes their stripes, but a bunch of those French recipes I saw called for chocolate vermicelli instead. Makes sense to me…jimmies do look like stripes. I have a box of nice Dutch dark chocolate ones, so I went ahead and used them (and also saved the trouble of chopping up chocolate into tiny flecks). I just eyeballed the amount. Some folks had trouble getting their baked tigers out of the tin, and recommended greasing well. My mini muffin mold is non-stick and has only been used a couple of times so it’s still pretty slick. I used a bit of spray for added insurance and I didn’t have any sticking issues. The ganache on top isn’t strictly necessary, but it sure is good.
These were great…just what I remember from Montreal. Cute, too. I will definitely repeat this one.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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