For the most part, I don’t care for flavored coffee or chocolate (there ARE exceptions).  In particular, I dislike cinnamon in chocolate.  So, I really tweaked these brownies a lot.  Eliminated the cinnamon.  Cut down the coffee to 3/4 tsp, and baked for 35 minutes.  These brownies are thin, and incredibly rich, but if you’re having a chocolate craving, they are the way to go.  They are also very fragile, and do best if chilled before serving, or better yet . . . frozen.  Eat them frozen!  Fantastic that way.

Thanks to Lisa of Surviving Oz for this week’s pick (you can find the original recipe on her blog), and as usual, be sure to check out the TWD blogroll!

Tomorrow:  White Chocolate Cherry Scones!

I had everything I needed to make this week’s dish.  Andrea of Andrea In The Kitchen picked Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise, and after reading some of the reviews, I was looking forward to making it.  Until I discovered that a mouse had eaten my coconut.

Let me back up.  Master Chow and I have lived here for going on nine years.  Until the last year, we never saw a mouse.  Then, last year, a field mouse invaded our home.  We finally caught him in a humane trap and released him, but not after I had to throw out quite a bit of food.

Fast forward to the past week.  We’ve had very wet spring, and last week we did a lot of yard work and weeding.  I think the combination of the rain and possible disturbance of a rodent’s abode led a small field mouse to move into our laundry room.

I did a pantry inventory a week ago, and there was no sign of a mouse.  A few days later, I picked up a bag of brown rice and grains of it started to shower onto the floor.  Surprised, I looked at the bag and thought at first that I’d torn it.  But, nooooo.  I saw tell-tale signs of a mouse, namely poop.  Over the course of this past weekend, I discovered that Field Mouse had treated my pantry like a smorgasbord, nibbling here and there, and contaminating a lot of food.

Now, there are some things that I buy in bulk because we eat quite a bit of it.  Oatmeal, for example.  So, when the mouse ate through the cardboard box and sealed bag to take a nibble of some oatmeal, I had to throw out 4.5 POUNDS OF IT.  Below is a partial list of what this fellow munched on, and what I had to discard:

• the aformentioned oatmeal
• A BRAND NEW, 64 OZ. BAG OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS (this find alone nearly made me swoon.  Don’t mess with my chocolate!)
• 2 bags of unsweetened coconut (for this week’s cake, and very hard to find)
• 1 bag of sweetened coconut (for next week’s cake)
• a bag of muesli
• a 5 pound bag of raw peanuts (for assorted sweet and savory uses)

That’s a partial list.  An expensive list.  Needless to say, without coconut, I’m not making this week’s dessert.  I also have to vacuum and wash down our entire laundry room with a bleach solution.

And the mouse?  We set two snap traps and one live-catch trap.  I don’t use sticky traps because they torture the animals to death.  If it’s a choice between my mouse or my family, I pick my family, but I’m not going to torment the animal for trying to survive.  I caught the little bugger in the live-catch trap, and released him into the wild far from my house. Where there is no chocolate, and no coconut.

I am back in town after a trip, so I’ll have a lot of posts going up this week, as I play catch-up with all my cooking groups!  First up:  Tuesdays with Dorie.

This week, Tommi of Brown Interior selected Honey-Peach Ice Cream on page 437 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.  Except I used mangos (peaches are not yet in season) and passion fruit curd, vanilla bean, and forgot to add the honey.  Master Chow had his with one of his beloved Chipster-Topped Brownies, and declared the entire dessert a success.  Thank you, Tommi, for a great pick.  To see what other group members made, check out the TWD blogroll.

Nope.  In the past week, I have gone through 2 pounds of butter.  I am also on my way out of town.  I also weighed myself.  I was not about to indulge in a couple more sticks of butter under the circumstances.  I’ll be back soon, and I’ll have some posts going up in my absence.  I love reading your comments, so check back once in a while!

Another figure-friendly entry this week, featuring only three-and-a-half sticks of butter!

This week, Beth of Supplicious decided on Chipster-Topped Brownies on pages 94 and 95 from Baking: From My Home to Yours.  In theory, I should have really liked these, and they were good, but my two layers blended together giving me sort of a chocolate chip cookie bar.  I had a chance to use my Bakers Edge pan, a gift from my in-laws, and I did love the chewy edges that it produced.  In sum, it is not what I had hoped for, but I’m not complaining about chocolate chip cookie bars, if you get my drift.  Ah, the trials and tribulations of baking!  (Update:  my husband LOVED these, and has asked me to put them on the repeat list.  They are better after a day or two in the refrigerator.)

Let me back up a minute.  This recipe consists of two components:  a brownie layer topped by a chocolate chip cookie dough layer.  I mean, really, what’s not to like?  After reading the experiences of others, I knew I was going to want more chocolate chip cookie, so I made the full batch of that, and halved the brownie layer.  I didn’t mess around with the one egg/one yolk thing for the cookies – just used two eggs.  I also added a bit of espresso powder, 1/2 tsp., to ratchet up the chocolate flavor of the brownies.

They were perfectly baked in 50 minutes – the top was golden, not burned, and the brownie layer was not overdone.  And even though the picture shows two distinct layers, the two components blended together, and I really can’t taste the brownie at all. Other bakes had better luck by baking the brownie layer for about 10 minutes, then adding the cookie layer.  One problem I did NOT have was an underdone brownie layer, and I suspect that the pan I used, plus halving the batter amount, had something to do with that.

If you want to givel these a try, I recommend giving the brownie layer a head start in the oven before adding the cookie layer. Be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see how others faired!

This week Kelly of Baking with the Boys selected Fresh Mango Bread for us to bake from Baking: From My Home to Yours.  I thought that I had everything on hand, but Fate interceded, and I had to cobble the recipe together.

First, I thought I had enough mangoes:  two from the store, and two from a friend’s tree in Florida.  I had to throw the store mangoes out because they were so nasty they were an affront to all mangoes.  I lived in Hawaii for almost 13 years and I had a mango tree, so I know a good mango from a bad one.  The Florida mangoes were perfumed perfection, but together they only gave me a little over a cup of fruit, instead of the required 2 cups.  So, I threw in some canned crushed pineapple.

Second, I couldn’t find my ground ginger, so I subbed two tablespoons of diced crystallized ginger.

Third, I realized – in the middle of baking – that I’d used up all my limes, an extraordinarily rare event around here since I have a citrus obsession.  Remedy:  lemon zest.

Fourth, I decided to use my industrial strength Vietnamese cinnamon, so I cut back on that, too, as recommended by Penzeys.

Fifth, I nixed the raisins and added some chopped walnuts.

Finally, I cut back the oil to 1/2 cup from 3/4 cup.  I made up the difference with more crushed pineapple.

The loaf baked to a deep golden brown in an hour and fifteen minutes.  Let me tell you, folks, this smells wonderful when it’s baking.  The top had little bits of caramelized pineapple peeking out.  I had some left over passionfruit buttercream (yes, after a year, it was still good!) from a previous Daring Bakers challenge, so I rather absent-mindedly smeared my first slice of the mango bread with some of it.

DING! DING! DING!  Flavor explosion!  Taste perfection!  I’m writing down everything I did, because I loved this bread and I want to make it again.  None of the spices overwhelmed the moist bread, everything worked together, and the passionfruit buttercream was literally the icing on the cake.  Definitely on the repeat list!  Check out Kelly’s blog for the original recipe, and the TWD website for the blog roll.  My adapted recipe after the jump . . .
continue reading "TWD: Mango -Pineapple Bread with a Little Passionfruit on the Side"

This week, Babette of Babette Feasts picked Tartest Lemon Tart on page 336 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.  In my ongoing effort to reduce the calories in our diet derived from butter just a teensy bit, I made the filling and ditched the crust.  I used organic, thin-skinned lemons, and didn’t blanch the peel or remove the pith, something other bakers had to try because the filling was too bitter.   I think organic lemons or Meyer lemons are definitely the way to go with this tart – it is fabulous, one of my new Dorie favorites, but then I’m a sucker for citrus.  So how did I eat this? Scooped it out onto some toast.  WHOLE WHEAT toast, which cancels out all the butter, sugar, and eggs in the lemon curd.

Here is a picture of the egg yolks I used – do you see that really bright orange one in the top right-hand corner?  That’s an organic egg from truly free range chickens.  I haven’t seen a yolk that orange since I went to Europe.

Some final thoughts:  this tart would be fabulous with a shortbread crust, and it also freezes very well.  Definitely on the repeat list.  To see what other bakers made, check out the TWD blog, and Babette’s Feast for the recipe.  Next week:  mango bread!

How do you participate in Tuesdays with Dorie when: (1) you’ve been gone for almost two weeks, (2) you feel like a giant ball of fat because you’ve been eating hotel food during that time, and (3) you don’t have much time to bake because your family is out of clean underwear?

You improvise.  Yes, you go to Trader Joe’s, pick up some lady fingers and mascarpone, and make one SMALL dessert.  SMALL.  So you don’t have an entire tiramisu cake around to tempt you, and add to the horror of looking at the bathroom scale.  Okay, I only gained one two pounds on my trip, but at my age, while it took two weeks to put that on, it will take a month to take it off.  Curses!

This week, Megan of My Baking Adventures chose Dorie Greenspan’s Tiramisu Cake on pages 266-268 from Baking: From My Home to Yours.  The verdict?  What’s not to like about tiramisu?  Chocolate, coffee, mascarpone . . . .  Oh, I’m soooooo glad I made one small dessert!

Now, check out what the other TWD bakers did this week!

**UPDATE** A lot of folks had trouble finding Amaretti cookies.  I’m lucky to live in an area where these are not an exotic item, but you know where I get them?  Amazon!**

This week, one of my favorite food bloggers, Holly of Phe/Mom/enon, picked 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte, which you can find on pages 276 and 277 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.  (You can also find the recipe on Holly’s blog.)

DING! DING! DING!  WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!  Now, I know that photo doesn’t look like much, and I eliminated the ganache glaze and the whipped cream topping, but this is one fantastic dessert.  Moist, fudgy, chocolaty with a hint of almond, and great texture because of the ground almonds in the batter.  I would definitely serve this to guests with the glaze and whipped cream – I think it’s that good.

Now, I suggest you go off to the TWD blogroll to see what others did this week!

Banana Cream Pie.  BANANA CREAM PIE.  Just the name sounds wonderful, and I have wanted to make this for more years than I can remember.  This week, thanks to Amy of Sing for Your Supper, I finally made it!  Check out her blog for the recipe.

In the spirit of frugality and in the interest of cleaning out my freezer, I pulled out a blob of dough that represented the remains of several Dorie pie crusts.  Folks, you just CANNOT throw out scraps when they contain so much butter.  Now, re-rolling the crust so many times does make for a tough pastry, but it still tastes oh-so-good.  I couldn’t find my mini-tart pans, so I ended up with something that wouldn’t quite fill a 9-inch pie plate.  In the oven, it flattened out into a pancake.

But I would not be thwarted!  No!  I piled everything on top of said pancake – bananas, pastry cream, bananas, and whipped cream.  The verdict?

Well . . . mixed.  At first, I didn’t like the pastry cream very much.  Why?  I could taste the corn starch.  Blech.  I did like the depth of flavor that the nutmeg and brown sugar added to the dessert, but I really disliked the cinnamon.  After I put the dessert together, everything tasted a lot better – the components work better in concert than individually.

I would make this again, but I’d eliminate the cinnamon and use a whole vanilla bean while boiling the milk to intensify that flavor.  Master Chow felt the same way, and we both agreed that our favorite elements were the bananas, crust, and whipped cream.  To see what other bakers made, check out the  TWD blogroll.  Recipe after the jump.
continue reading "TWD – Part 2 – Banana Cream Pie!"