Also known as “Da Bug.”  Guarding her loot – a pair of my husband’s socks!

I’m out of town checking in on my auntie, and didn’t get a chance to make the cherry-fudge brownie torte, but take a look at the TWD blogroll to see the results other bakers had with it.  And be sure pop in on Short + Rose by April for the recipe.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This month, the Daring Bakers made macarons, a first for me.  Because I’m a macaron neophyte, I stuck with vanilla macarons.  Where I had fun was with the filling:  lemon curd, one of my favorites!  I am not a big fan of buttercream, and I’m tired of chocolate at the moment (you’ll see why in a couple days – a post that involves over 2 pounds of chocolate!).

Most of my macarons had “feet,” which made me happy.  I took one lousy blurred photo before I left, but I have the macarons and filling stashed in the freezer (frozen separately).  We will see how well the little meringues thaw! I’ll re-take photos and post again.

Be sure to check out the Daring Bakers blogroll!

I have made a lot of biscuits in my day, and they usually rise.  So, I’m pretty confident that my basic biscuit-making skills are decent.  Combine that with a new bottle of baking powder, a wet dough that I handled gently, and shaping said dough with no added flour . . . and you have to color me surprised that I ended up with flat, tender “biscuits” that looked more like hockey pucks or big cookies.

Oh, well.  C’est la vie.  They were tasty, however, because to the halved recipe, I added:  the zest of half an orange, a pinch of cayenne, and 1/2 tsp. of allspice.  If your allspice is fresh, use 1/4 tsp.  Mine was ancient.  So, the biscuits were flavorful, very buttery, and very flat.  A culinary mystery, indeed.  If you want to see what these should look like, head on over to Pink Stripes.  Awesome.  With ice cream, no less! These were interesting, but not on the repeat list.

Thanks to Erin of Prudence Pennywise (check out her blog – it’s a lot of fun) for picking Sweet Potato Biscuits for this week.  You can find the recipe on her blog, and check out the TWD blogroll.

This week, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table chose Allspice Crumb Muffins, pages 16-17 of  Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I got 11 muffins out of the recipe.  And used 13 Tablespoons of butter.  That’s over a tablespoon of butter per muffin.  When my husband bit into one, his first comment was, “There’s a lot of butter in these, isn’t there?”  I refer to it as a comment, because his tone of voice indicated it was a declaratory statement, not really a question.

To which I responded, “Why, yes.  Yes, there is.”

One tip:  don’t skip the lemon zest; it adds a lot to these muffins.

Butter, brown sugar, and allspice.  Lovely allspice.  What more is there to say, other than, “Yum,” and be sure to check out the blogroll?

Life can be hectic, and the pups need baths.  What can I say?

This week for TWD Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes decided on Cottage Cheese Pufflets, on pages 148 and 149 of Baking: From My Home to Yours. FYI, for those of you who hate cottage cheese, you cannot taste it at all, so don’t let that hold you back.

First, this dough is really tough to work with, no matter how many tricks you try. I rolled the dough in a ziplock plastic bag, but it was so sticky that I had to freeze it solid just to be able to cut it out of the bag.  And it turns out that I didn’t let the dough thaw enough, so when I tried to make the little triangles, the dough cracked.  As you can see from the photo below, these did not come out looking too nice.  But despite all that, these little morsels are tasty and addictive!  I would make them again, but I think that next time I’m going to treat the dough like rugelach, and save myself a lot of aggravation.  Great pick, Jacque, my husband and I loved these.

Tips:  chill or freeze the dough a lot during the whole process.  And use a top quality jam because you will definitely taste it.  I used We Love Jam’s Apricot, and Stonewall Kitchen’s Wild Maine Blueberry.  Yum.

And because I never made the World Peace/Korova cookies, I decided to remedy that oversight this week.  I used Pernigotti chocolate and mini chocolate chips.  I really liked these cookies, especially the fleur-de-sel, but I thought the cottage cheese pufflets were a lot better, and that’s saying something!

Between family health issues, appliance failure, and just the general hustle and bustle of everyday life, posting last week for TWD slipped away from me.  But I knew that I just had to make these – Jules from Someone’s in the Kitchen picked Flaky Apple Turnovers, from pages 316 and 317 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I made the full batch of dough, but froze half of it for future use.  I debated swapping the apple filling for a jam filling, but I had a couple old apples sitting about that needed to be used up.  My only changes to the filling recipe were to halve it, and to add the juice of one lemon.  I ended up with about 10 turnovers.

THESE TURNOVERS ARE OUTSTANDING.  Not the best looking pastries I’ve ever made, but delicious.  Definitely, without a doubt, in my top five Dorie favorites, and they will be on the repeat list.  After all, I have half a batch of dough sitting in the freezer!  Check out Jules’s blog for the original recipe.

For the Recipes to Rival recipe, please check the previous post.

If you’re here for some chocolate brownies and espresso cheesecake, kick  back and set a spell.  This week, Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell chose Espresso Cheesecake Brownies, pages 104 and 105 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.  A dense brownie layer, covered with espresso cheesecake and the whole thing topped with a sour cream frosting.  This sounded amazing, but it definitely ended up with mixed reviews.

I tweaked the recipe in two ways; one was successful and the other was not.  First, I added walnuts to the brownie layer, a must at my house.  I know there are nut haters out there, but they do not reside at Chez Chow.  That adaptation was a success.  Next, I used semisweet chocolate instead of bittersweet for the brownies, and that did NOT work – just too sweet with the cheesecake layer, even though I cut back on the sugar to account for the adaptation.  And I didn’t much care for the sour cream topping.

All that being said, I think I would make this recipe again for company, with bittersweet chocolate, as written, but still keep the walnuts.  It would make for a very elegant little dessert with some espresso coffee.

And if you’re wondering what the Classic Banana Bundt Cake, chosen by the Food Librarian (you can find the original recipe there) a few weeks ago, is doing here, I finally had a chance to make it between all my flying about.  I mean, considering the rave reviews it received, how could I NOT make it?  Plus the fact that I am a bundt cake/pan fanatic who looks for every opportunity to make one.  Following Caitlin’s lead, I substituted rice bran oil for the TWO STICKS OF BUTTER in the original recipe.  And I nixed the icing because I thought it wouldn’t be needed.  The result? . . . .

DING! DING! DING! We have another Dorie winner!  My husband LOVED this cake.  In his words, “this is what banana bread is supposed to taste like, but never does.”  Really, what better compliment is there?  My adaptations to the Classic Banana Bundt Cake recipe after the jump.  And be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see what results other bakers achieved with the brownies.
continue reading "TWD -Brownies and Banana Cakes; R2R and Risotto"

Yes, that is Dorie’s brioche recipe you see up there.  No, it’s not Mary, the Food Librarian’s pick of Banana Bundt Cake, but I had to leave town to take care of a sick relative, and I’m posting things that I made before I unexpectedly had to travel.  Thank you, Laurie, for giving us a summer break on the rules.

I had some of Dorie’s brioche dough stashed in the Time Machine, also known as my freezer.  I thawed it in the freezer refrigerator overnight, then rolled it into a rectangle, filled it with cinnamon, and baked it in a pie plate that I’d coated with brown sugar, butter, and walnuts.

Diet food, you see.  I am on the Dorie high-butter diet.

This time, I just improvised the recipe; before, when I made these, I followed it exactly.  The dough had been in the freezer for about five months, and while it had not lost any flavor, it did not rise as much as fresh dough, or brioche that had been frozen for a shorter period of time.  Bottom line:  next time, I’m going to use up frozen brioche dough within two to three months.

Now, if you go to the blogroll, you can see what people did with the banana bundt cake recipe!  I love seeing the creativity and funny stories that everyone has each week.  It keeps me laughing.

And be sure to check out Susan’s weekly roundup of all things yeasty, YeastSpotting.  It is one of the bright spots of my week, particularly when I’m stressed out, as I have been lately.  Thanks, Susan!

Ever since I was a wee sprout and read Louisa May Alcott’s classic, Little Women, I have wondered what “blancmange” was.  In fact, I remember being riveted by everything the March sisters consumed in that book.  See, I was already prepping for Tuesdays with Dorie!

Well, today, the mystery of blancmange, or blanc-manger, has been solved.  And I am in LOVE.  Basically, it is the French version of panna cotta, a cream and gelatin dessert that I adore.  I mean, it has cream, right?  And cream is the precursor to butter?  What’s not to like?

I followed the recipe pretty much, using blueberries, low fat milk (ridiculous, I know, in light of the cream), halving the vanilla extract, and substituting a teaspoon of almond extract for it.  I also used blueberries, and was able to fill two medium sized copper molds that belonged to my mother.  This is not a “light” dessert it terms of calories, but it tastes like one.  I really liked the addition of the almond extract, and the contrast of the blueberries with the cream.  I thought the dessert was refreshing, sophisticated and – thank goodness – not too sweet!

Thanks to Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy for choosing the recipe, and answering the question of “what I blancmange?”  You can find the recipe on her blog, or in Dorie’s book.

Thanks to a loosening of the rules just for the summer, I finally had a chance to make the Perfect Party Cake that came up in the rotation a few weeks ago, chosen by Carol of Mix, Mix, Stir, Stir.  This worked in better with my life/entertaining schedule.

I did not split the layers, thinking that they were too thin, but I realized they were thick enough after I cut into the cake.  I used Wild Maine Blueberry Jam from Stonewall Kitchen,and a butter/cream cheese/lemon zest frosting.  I skipped frosting the sides – calories, people, calories.  The result?  My husband thought it was pretty good, although he didn’t rave about it.  As for me, I know this will shock a lot of cake lovers out there, but I did not like this cake – way too sweet for me.  In the end, I was glad that I had only one layer of jam – two more layers would have been too much.  The way I look at it, I like so many of Dorie’s recipes, that a miss every once in a while isn’t so bad!  And to see what others made this week, be sure to check out the blogroll.