Ornamental Confectionery

TWD: Not-Really-Mini Madeleines

2011-11-08T23:46:00.001-05:00

Oh my word! I nearly forgot to post today!

These TWD selections get better and better. Out of our two selections this week, I chose to go with the Mini Madeleines selection by Di. I was originally going to go with the squash pie, but upon realizing that it was a pie with squash chunks in it--a fruit pie with squash chunks--I simply couldn't bring myself to waste the ingredients. I just wouldn't be likely to eat that. I don't even know what butternut squash tastes like!

So I went with the madeleines. I bought a pan--a regular-sized one--to make some with a TWD recipe some months ago and never got around to it. So I put it into use, making 12 regular cookies instead of 36 minis.

And now? I would like to make them every day. They were very easy to make--just whisking (by hand) a few things that are easily found in anyone's larder. Then you don't even have to hustle the batter into the oven--it goes into the fridge. I left mine there one day.

The hardest part was flouring the molds. The batter itself just spooned in and went right into the oven.

They baked up beautifully...

and tasted divine, even two days later.

Just perfect. I love them!

I'm so pleased, I'm gonna do as promised and give extra quilt-in-progress photos:

(I sneaked in to the office to sandwich on Sunday. The life of the single and impoverished and living in tiny apartments! Shhhhh.)

Another pic of the top, a bit closer up:

and the back, though this isn't a good photo color-wise. Think shades of pink and coral, ok?

It's all sandwiched and trimmed now, ready to be quilted. At some point.

Snow sewing

2011-11-01T22:34:00.000-04:00

I AM VERY PROUD OF MYSELF. If you go waaaaay back, you'll see that about last Christmas I was cutting out blocks for a quilt--my first bed-sized quilt. It was taking up much of my thoughts and time. And then...it was a LOT of piecing...and I needed clothes...and it got warm out, and, and....that project got abandoned.

But it snowed here this weekend. Nothin to do, nowhere to go. So...guess who now has a brand-new 88" x 88" quilt top? Huh?! Yep that's right! Here's a little peek:

I think I am gonna back it with this Marimekko fabric I bought on SuperSale ($4.95 for SIX YARDS!!) at the Crate and Barrel outlet near my apartment:

It goes from very palest pink at one selvage to deep pink at the other. I'm trying to figure out how to arrange it, since I'll need two lengths of it.

As far as clothing goes: after the yellow dress triumph, I've been in a rut. I've been really irritated by my inability to make my patterns fit the way I want them to. And I'm about done with taking classes. Both the little suit and the floaty cape collar dresses were largely disasters. But I have not quit. I am currently working on these:

I'm making 4599 in green sateen and I've started making the middle version of 5671 (with the tie collar) in grey suiting fabric. Let's see if I can pull these off...

TWD: Far Breton (aka, guess who's back)

2011-11-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hi!

I have not, in fact, fallen off the face of the earth. Sometimes I have felt like I was, but it has not actually happened yet. Work has been OMFG INSANE, and I've been spending my spare moments staring into space and sewing. I've occasionally made a TWD recipe here and there, but haven't been blown away by any of my choices.

I've been sadly off the baking wagon, but since we are nearing the end of the book, let's see if I can get my act together and finish this off--and maybe even join in on the next challenge.

To finish out the book, the group is now choosing two recipes a week. One of this week's recipes, Honey Nut Scones, is one I've made a gazillion times (I LOVE them and highly recommend them; go to Jeannette's for the recipe) so I decided to try the other recipe, which was one I would never otherwise try: Far Breton, chosen by Nicole of Cookies on Friday. I had no idea what a Far Breton was. There's no photo, either, to guide you--and what I do know is that it contains PRUNES and RAISINS--two things I can really, really, live without. I was concerned. Very concerned. But I womaned up and made it.

First of all, it's really easy. The ingredients are all things you probably have sitting around right now.

Everything whips up in the food processor! And then you don't even have to do anything--you just bang it into the fridge for a day or so till you want to bake it. (Which for me was two days). Lazy lazy lazy. CHEAH!

The fruit is soaked till you want to use it. My fruit was already pretty moist, but I steeped in in Earl Grey Tea as directed. At least, I think I did it as directed. The directions weren't really clear here--was "meanwhile" supposed to be while I made the batter, while it rested in the fridge, or while I buttered the pan? I didn't know, so I actually fixed them up first and they soaked about three days (in the fridge of course).

Putting it together was very easy--butter pan, pour in batter, drop in fruit, bang in oven and forget. It even baked right on time--55 minutes for me. It puffed in the oven but sank a little on cooling. Once it was cool, I unmolded and tried it.

Though it's in the "cake" section of the book, it's not really cake at all! It's more like a baked custard.

A REALLY SMOOTH AND DELICIOUS custard. And the prunes are not prune-y--they are just these little juicy bits of...whatever. It's really good! I'm really glad I tried this recipe. Thanks for choosing it, Nicole! A fine way to come back to the TWD fold. :-)

Sewing WIN

2011-08-23T21:10:00.001-04:00

Finally.

This was another one of those outfits that looks much better made up and on a person than it does on the outside of the envelope. It's Butterick 5451, from their "Cut Line" series, which are patterns featuring the exact same design in different lengths (top, tunic, dress). I think I stumbled onto someone's blog and they were wearing this as a top, then I decided to get the pattern and try the dress. I wanted something I could use to practice making bodice adjustments and this looked like a good candidate, as it has a fitted bodice and wrap skirt.

So I got out the pattern and some stretch sateen that I had just ordered on clearance in an otherwise ill-fated order. I get a lot of my fabric from Fabric.com, but I get annoyed sometimes when they have sales, because the site doesn't update in real time, so often I will order something but by the time they get to filling my order they have run out, or only have odd yardages (like, I'll order 4 yards of cotton lawn and they'll only have a 1 1/2 yard piece and a 2 1/2 yard piece). I pulled out the pattern and started adjusting with abandon. I cut the bodice much smaller than I would think I needed so it would fit my shoulders and neck properly, and did a full bust adjustment and took in the back waist and side seams. I also had to move the skirt darts over. A couple don't match up perfectly, but you can't really see that.

I forced myself to not rush this time. I tissue fit the bodice, then cut and stitched up two muslins before deciding the pattern was where I wanted it to be and then cutting the fabric. I even hand-basted the skirt on TWICE: once to see if everything fit and lined up and again after making adjustments and prepping to sew it on. I started sewing before I started my job, so I have been working all year to get out of the expectation that I can get something done in a couple of marathon sessions. I simply don't have the time. And rushing never nets good results. This dress took me about a week and a half to complete, including a birthday weekend where I left work early on a Friday and took two days off.

After cutting out the dress I realized my leftover fabric was not big enough to accommodate the frankly HUGE one piece collar. Seriously. You need about a good two yard piece to cut it. I am kind of obsessed with the white collar, so I used some white stretch poplin I had around. Attaching it was a pain in the butt, but once I had it on and neatly bound with white bias tape I became super excited about what was otherwise just an ok dress. I think it's a lot of fun, it actually fits properly (I didn't even need a camisole!) and was comfortable and people kept stopping me to ask about it all day long, not knowing I had made it.

This weekend I'll be working on the suit from the last post. And more quilting.

More sewing stuff: picking a pattern for class

2011-07-24T21:39:00.002-04:00

Regarding my fitting woes, I'm excited to be taking a pattern fitting class in a couple of weeks. I'm getting tired of fiddling with everything I make; even being aware of some of my quirks and trying to adjust for them beforehand doesn't always work. I'm constantly making things, but they usually get pushed aside towards the end because some little thing is off--the shoulders are too wide, the neckline is too big, the bust isn't big enough, the back is too long or too broad, the waist is too low, you name it. By then I'm ready for the next project, so whatever isn't working gets hidden in the closet. The class is only one afternoon, though, and I can only bring one pattern. I'm trying to decide which pattern to bring.

I really want help fitting this dress:

which I am dying to make for the fall (I even have a fab wine-red stretch sateen for it!) but I think will be a BEAR to fit correctly. It's supposed to be pretty easy to sew, but it has to be roomy in the right places and tailored in others and it's hard to figure it all out from the photos.

There's also this:

the Colette Macaron, which is all over the internets and every aspiring young seamstress has done, but I think with the full bust adjustment series and other fitting notes on Lazy Stitching, I can probably figure it out ok myself.

Other frontrunners include a couple of 1940s dresses that I think will be great for (what's left of) the summer and take me into fall--first, this Vintage Vogue:

I've got some cream-colored stretch crepe especially for this....

And this Retro Butterick, which I want some printed poplin or sateen for:

But the class list says bring a "basic pattern". So I think I will probably arrive with this vintage pattern:

which I guess is pretty basic, and I could use help fitting a sheath dress and a jacket. I've got pink linen for the dress and white linen for the jacket, just like the picture. No gloves, though, alas. I don't think I could quite get away with those.

I'm also really considering driving the hour+ to Hoboken for this "Vintage Pattern of the Month" class in September. They are making this flutter-sleeved confection:

I feel like I'm at a point where I could use actual instruction/tutoring and it is really hard to find sewing classes that go beyond absolute basics. Or that sew things I would want to wear! I think the September dress is totally wearable vintage. Doesn't it look perfect for going out for drinks on some roofdeck or patio somewhere in September?

You saw it here first!

2011-07-24T16:37:00.002-04:00

Hello tiny readership!

I promised a while back that I'd post pictures of stuff I'd been sewing. Predictably, I didn't do much on any of the projects I listed for accountability; however, I have sewn up a bunch of other things, and actually FINISHED them, and some might even see the light of day! I figured I'd post them here first because 1) y'all asked me to and 2) I don't necessarily want my co-workers to know something is my handiwork BEFORE I take it for a workday test drive. Sometimes you can't tell how a garment will go wrong till you wear it out.

I made this one night early this week. It's from this tutorial: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/06/jennifers-fabric-focus-free-summer-top-pattern/. I had this fun cotton lawn lying around and I wanted to do something with it where the print wouldn't get lost in a lot of fussy cutting and fitting, but I didn't have enough to make a dress and it was too thin for a skirt. Enter the Undaunted top. It also gave me a chance to finally try smocking, which is totally easy and totally fun. (You can't see it here, but the bottom hem is smocked about 2 inches.) I had to fiddle with the shoulders a bit so the neckline wasn't stiff and high, and next time I think I'd only sew them in about an inch, so the neckline might drape. I wore it to work last week, and no one went "um, did you make that?" so I guess it's ok.

Heartened by the success of the Undaunted top, this I did the next night this week when particularly bored. It's just a smocked tube top, went together in a couple of hours. I almost never wear straight up tube tops. I am thinking of possibly sewing in some buttons and making straps to attach to it? I think the back is too long, too; I'm getting a lot of fabric pooling at my lower back.

I cut this out last night and finished it up today. It looks better on, I think. I was irritated to discover after cutting it out that the grain is somehow off, resulting in dots that don't quite match up on one side. Still I might try to wear it out and see if anyone notices. Maybe on a day when I know I'll be sitting at my desk all day. A belt might be a good idea, too.

pleats!

I've been so frustrated with my inability to fit things perfectly that I've mostly been making unstructured tops this week and leaving my five zillion dress patterns for later. However, I did finish this little number in something called "Prada Twill" that I had lying about. This is a dress I never would have bothered with based on the envelope, but after seeing Lazy Stitching's renditions I knew I had to have it. (Sometimes I really wonder what the envelope designers are thinking. You are supposed to both make me want the pattern AND let me see the details, please!) I originally went to my usual apparel fabric source, a Sew and Vac down the street from my apartment which has lots of remnants for $2.49 a yard, and picked out a stretchy coral poplin with a leaf print. I wasn't sure about it; it wasn't really my style, but the owner of the store was convinced it'd be great. I went home and after dinner made the bodice. Tried it on--she was right, the fabric was fabulous on me! I forged ahead with the skirt.

Now I have only been sewing for about a year, but I quickly learned two things: 1) be sober when you sew, and 2) stop BEFORE you are tired. Long story short, I cut the panels for the skirt backwards, ruining the tiny bit of irreplaceable fabric I had, and had to trash the coral leaf print. Dug through my stash and found this, which I bought to make my sister a dress but discovered it wasn't stretchy enough. It's ok, I guess.

This fits fine, except as usual the neckline is a hair big and the waist is a hair low. A camisole under the dress will have to do to help the neck and I think a belt will help the waist issue.

So that's it! More to come...

Today's Adventures in Domesticity

2011-06-27T23:30:00.001-04:00

So Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless informed me last night that I need to update this here blog, post haste. I apologize. I didn't realize I had any sort of audience! I've done a few of the recent TWD recipes--the oatmeal nutmeg scones, the maple cornmeal biscuits--but never got around to posting, and here we are in July now!

I probably will do next week's recipe, though it violates all kinds of principles for me. While I get on that wagon, I should remark that I am steadily on the sewing wagon. The number of patterns I have right now is ridiculous. The number of mostly-but-not-quite-finished projects is worse. But here's a peek at what's actively "on the needles," so to speak:

Elizabeth Hartman "Little Leaves" quilt (you can see an example here) as a gift
Elizabeth Hartman "Birthday Cake" quilt for me

I'm still making blocks for each of the quilts.

Clothing in progress:
Vogue wrap dress (needs some taking up at the shoulder, binding at the neck, and buttons to close it)
Colette Sencha top (needs buttons and holes and one back facing attached. I was making this with a friend in Colorado.)
Colette Crepe dress (still working on the muslin for this, trying to get the bodice to fit properly.)
Simplicity Cynthia Rowley top
(technically done, but I want to add the twisty collar and it needs to be handsewn on)
Butterick sundress (just cut this out of black, white, and red stretch sateen)

Pictures to come...maybe...?

TWD: Basic Marbled Loaf Cake

2011-05-02T23:11:00.001-04:00

After an unexpected hiatus (including an expected extended trip to Paris) and a flurry of sewing, I am back to baking this week with our pick by Carol. The recipe for this cake (which I believe you'll find on her blog) is for a plain loaf cake, which you then flavor however you want. I've registered here before that marble cake is one of my favorites, so I was all over it. I've also registered here that I love chocolate and mint together, so when I saw one of the suggestions was a chocolate-peppermint mix I was all over that, too.

The cake was very quick, straightforward and easy to mix together.

Not much to say about that. Just a standard butter cake in composition. I had some Callebaut white blocks that have been sitting around forever, and some slightly bittersweet chips, so I used those for my chocolates.

I mixed half the batter with the bittersweet chocolate and half with the white. I reached into the cabinet and discovered that my peppermint extract is actually peppermint oil. Oh well. I added it anyhow.

Then in a fit of perversity, I decided peppermint cake should be pink.

Then in another fit of perversity, I decided the flavors should not be very mixed.

So I layered the batters and banged the cake, unswirled, into the oven.

I let it bake for the minimum suggested--an hour and 20 minutes. It was crusty and very done by then.

I tried a piece before bed and brought some in my lunch to work today.

Verdict: I dunno what the deal is, but my cake is dry as all get out. I typically love "dry" "plain" cakes, but this one is throwing me. I'm not sure if it baked too long, or if using 2% milk really made a huge difference (I doubt that, though; I usually have that about the house so it's what I typically use) The peppermint is nice and strong (though admittedly mint-flavored cake is a little weird) but though I am not a chocolate freak I think the chocolate needs upping, either from using a stronger chocolate and/or increasing the amount of chocolate batter. I am gonna try it with some chocolate sauce and see if I am happier with it.

TWD: Honey Nut Brownies

2011-03-22T00:05:00.000-04:00

Hi there!

I'm here to report on this week's TWD selection, the Honey Nut Brownies chosen by Suzy! I didn't really know what to expect from this recipe.

First there was the melting of chocolate. I used a Lindt bar (my standby), but then added some bittersweet chips to get the full four ounces. This melted up quickly.

Then there was making the batter. I used a mixed-flower honey in my batter.

After folding in dry stuff and chocolate, I added walnuts, which are my fave nuts for brownies. Then batter to pan. I thought the batter was kinda thin for brownies. There was a lot of it too.

Into the oven, and this is where complications arose: it took a full HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES for my brownies to bake in a 9" metal pan. They came out perfect without tenting--no hard edges or squidgy center--but really, 75 minutes is just unacceptable for a small pan of brownies.

The brownies' thin batter resulted in a very cakey texture. The chocolate...well, there's a reason Dorie suggests adding chocolate frosting. There's not much chocolate flavor in there. What there is is a lot of sugar flavor. A LOT OF SUGAR FLAVOR. I nearly went into shock at my desk.

Verdict: I tried eating these for days before finally decided 1/2 way through the pan that I just didn't really like them. I need my brownies less wishy washy about their identity, I guess. And I ABOMINATES icing on brownies, so I don't like covering them with it to give them an identity. Oh well, can't love 'em all, and I am glad I tried them.

'sup.

2011-03-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

I haven't forgotten about this space. I'm just at a point where I'm not sure what to say on it.

I'm still keeping up with Tuesdays with Dorie, more or less, but I have become one of those annoying people who only gets around to two of the recipes each month. And then I often don't get around to posting about them. Last year, I had time to go hunt for ingredients and spend all day baking and try a recipe over the course of a few days and take decent photos and alla that. Now...well...not so much. Sometimes I have everything but never get around to the recipe (like this week's Pots de Creme, or the madeleines of a few weeks ago, for which I bought a brand new pan!) I kinda hate when I visit other TWD blogs and all there is is a picture and a line or two to say "oh, it was good,"--to me, if we are gonna bake together, I want to see the process and hear about how it worked out for you. But anyhow, I'm trying to decide whether to continue with that. We're well along in the book, and I really enjoy being ~~forced~~ challenged to try stuff I wouldn't otherwise, either because I think it seems unappealing or difficult or the directions require that I have 36 people in my kitchen ready to consume the week's delicacy minutes from the oven.

But if I'm not posting about that, then what?

TWD: Toasted Almond Scones

2011-03-07T21:04:00.002-05:00

I really was quite surprised not to have photos of the almond scones (chosen by Mike at Living Out West) already. I make these, along with the Honey Nut Scones, all the time. For the past couple of years, you could usually find a bag of them in my freezer, all ready for an impromptu teatime.

They are relatively quick to throw together, but what I really love about them is how freezable they are. I usually take a morning and make a few batches, cut and freeze on cookie sheets, wrap them up and stuff them in freezer bags to be baked and eaten one or two at a time. They really do freeze beautifully, and I personally think they bake much better from frozen.

The bits about toasting, grinding, and chopping the almonds are kind of fussy, but not difficult. One must plan ahead a little. I just pile them on a sheet and slide them in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally til they look about right.

The rest, however, goes quickly, even the cutting of butter.

The dough is a little wet, but nothing a very light dusting of flour and some quick handiwork can't handle.

Once I form the triangles, I always bang them in the freezer for a while to firm up. Then I take them out and wrap them well, and put them back. They bake at about the same time specified directly from frozen, and I think they hold their shape and lovely melty texture better, too.

Yum!

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

2011-03-07T21:04:00.001-05:00

Boy, talk about a sleeper.

These cookies did not look or sound very interesting. Actually, they looked like something had gone horribly wrong--a great heap of cookie with a thin, lacy band around it. hmm.

In a fit of TWD Remorse, I made these the same night I made the scones. The scones were old hat for me; I've been making that recipe for years. These were new. We got no pictures, so I couldn't tell much about them other than I had everything necessary on hand, and they sounded brownie-like in preparation.

First, there was melting of butter and sugar and chocolate.

That went fast.

Whisk, whisk in dry stuff and stir in oatmeal. I added some walnuts, too, just because.

Then I scooped onto pans by tablespoons as directed, and here is where things got weird:

For some unknown reason, my dough got all slimy. Eww. I baked them anyway, to see what would happen.

They didn't seem to spread much.

I was afraid they would be raw in the middle, but they were not! They were actually chewy brownielicious goodness that I will most definitely make again. I wasn't expecting much but they very much exceeded expectations. Go 'head, then, Caroline and Claire! (They have the recipe up, if you are interested.)

TWD: Bourbon Bread Pudding

2011-03-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

So I gave it one more go. I think I have mentioned before that I LOVE bread pudding. I understand it is a dish one either loves or hates; but really, how can you hate spiced cream-soaked vanilla-laden baked BREAD? I really think people who hate bread pudding just haven't had decent bread pudding before. There are a lot of bad recipes, and a lot of ways it can go wrong.

The last time I made a bread pudding for TWD, it went wrong. I was really peeved; I spent I don't know how much time and money on it and it failed, miserably. I was hesitant to try this time, but I had all I needed on hand, including some loaves of bread tucked in the freezer so I decided to give it a whirl.

First, I cut up the bread. The usual suggestion is to go for something eggy and maybe sweet; but, um, I think this is a sourdough, or at least a plain white loaf. I weighed the chunks to be sure I had 8 ounces before putting them in my new ceramic loaf pan, purchased just for this recipe.

Then I made the custard. I warmed the eggs in a warm water bath before making the custard as I was petrified of them curdling on me. I mixed them with the sugar and spices

and then alla the other wet stuff

And now the fussy bits. I'm pretty sure when I was growing up, one just dumped the wet stuff in with the bread and slapped the whole thing in the oven. Dorie prefers that you soak the bread in the custard for at least an hour and bake it in a water bath. I'm skeptical, but she has a book, not me, so, a-soakin we will go.

I didn't have a pan big enough or enough water to come halfway up the pan, so I did what I could.

It took a good long while after removing the foil for my pudding to start to brown. I still felt it was awfully pale, but was afraid of overbaking it, so I took it out after about 30 minutes sans foil. I let it cool for a bit and then cut and scooped. Result?

Sigh. Once again, I get scrambled eggs and toast.

Fortunately, it is edible this time, so I am toughing it out. It was inoffensive the night of but actually better the next day; I could taste the bourbon more. I am still very disappointed in the texture. I don't think bread pudding should have visible custard. There was less of it than last time. But I really don't know what I am doing wrong. Not enough bread? Not enough soaking time? Not enough of a water bath? Too much of one? Sigh.

Thanks for this recipe go to Sharon at Simply Southern.

TWD: Great Grains Muffins

2011-01-31T21:51:00.001-05:00

Not much to report here; the snowpocalypse continues apace here in the Mid-Atlantic region. At least once a week we are counseled to take things home in case of snow. The confusion has not yet dampened my enthusiasm for the white stuff, but it does make it a little difficult to get into much of a rhythm at work. I'm not sure I've done a full five day week since like November.

Last Wednesday was the first day I actually worked at home. It was pleasant, but I don't think I'd want to do it every day. I essentially worked at home full time for the past two years. It has its pluses: primary among them is the ability to do things according to your own internal clock. I found last year that I do best when I get up around 8 and putter around leisurely till about 10. Then maybe a long break after lunch, and back to it in late afternoon and after dinner. I do my very best work between 11 and 2 at night.

In addition to making very good use of the wellies I bought last year, I've been ice skating, sewing some

quilt blocks

took a day trip to fabric shop in NYC:

and I have done some baking. In January I made both the lemon poppyseed muffins

and the bundt cake.

(of which I don't seem to have taken a finished photo)

They were both ok. But nooooothing compares---nooothing compares 2 this week's muffins, chosen by Christine at Happy Tummy.

I admit. I wasn't gonna make these at first. They sounded a little too aggressively granola for me: whole wheat flour, oats, corn meal, little sugar, fruit, maple syrup. Not interesting. But once I ascertained that I had all I needed:

I went on ahead anyway. What did I have to lose?

The batter mixed up fast and easy--faster even than the lemon poppyseed muffins. It was a little wetter than I expected but not bad. I cleared the cabinets and put in Craisins, walnuts, and almonds.

Then off to the oven. I got 20 muffins out of the batter.

I'm still getting used to my oven here, but these baked up faster than the recipe stated.

And they are SO GOOD! Perfect texture, not too oily, the different grains give just enough flavor to make them interesting without dominating and the maple syrup takes them over the top. I inhaled 3 of them with butter immediately.YES. I suggest you proceed immediately to Christine's blog for the recipe.

TWD December Rewind: 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte

2010-12-28T00:00:00.073-05:00

In case it was not obvious from my post yesterday, I didn't travel for the holidays this year. A very small number of off days, plus a 15-hour-away family, plus emergency repairs on the Cloudmobile, plus somewhat distressing news about my graduate school situation meant that I stayed put at Thanksgiving and at Christmas.

It was mostly cold, and totally quiet, but I stayed busy this week:

I finished the two baby quilts.

I started laying out a crib duvet cover, and finished tying and attached binding to a little boy quilt.

I cranked out burp cloths and bibs.

And because I am at bottom a Selfish Seamstress, I also cut blocks to make myself a quilt for my bed:

But I did take a break from all of that to fix myself a proper dinner of sorts on Christmas. The one nice thing about not doing Family Christmas is that you can really make yourself WHATEVER you actually want for dinner. I'm pretty sure there has been at least one holiday when I happily had grilled pimiento cheese sandwiches for dinner. In any case, this year there was fondue and my selection for our TWD rewind post: a lovely dessert, made by the group in April 2009 (before I joined) with an slightly unfortunate title that makes it sound like something made of Dream Whip and Ritz Crackers and Campbell's Soup.

It does not contain any of those things. Mind you, I'm no food snob, and I have eaten my share of processed stuff (I've already mentioned my love for Kraft Singles in certain items) and will continue to do so without complaint if you want to feed it to me. But I usually figure if I am gonna cook I might as well cook. This dessert actually only includes one pre-prepared item: amaretti cookies. I had no idea what they were, but hey, I'm in central New Jersey, with an Italian bakery next door (!) and two Italian markets within 5 minutes' drive. Finding them was not hard (it's hard to find non-Italian "ethnic" foods around here). Deciding which brand to get was hard, but finally I just went for the pretty box with the ribbon on it. I've got simple tastes.

The "15-minute magic" portion comes from the fact that being a classic torte, this cake has very few ingredients, mostly relying on ground nuts (almonds in this case) with eggs, butter, and chocolate. And everything is blitzed together in the food processor and then slapped in the oven.

The resulting batter was very thick and filled my 2" pan to about 1.5 inches deep. Dorie said the cake would be "very thin," but mine wasn't. (I wonder if I used too many cookies? Having never seen them I just assumed the ones I used were "mini"--they were only about 2" in diameter--and used all 16 in the box.)

Once it cooled, I made the glaze. I was a little surprised by how thin the glaze was; I had to put it in the fridge to get it to thicken a little, and even then it wasn't the consistency I expected. I might add less water next time, or use a different recipe.

I forgot to save a cookie to decorate with, so I added more almonds (Can never have too many!) and gold dragees because, well, 'tis the season:

I don't usually get very excited about chocolate things, but OMG I LOVE THIS CAKE. I don't think my processor chopped the almonds quite enough (will likely use almond flour next time) but I DO NOT CARE. It is chewy almondy chocolatey goodness--not too sweet, not too bitter, not too fudgy, not overly iced. A perfect easy and fast Christmas dessert that only required me to purchase one item!

I hope we will have more rewinds in the future. I really enjoy them, especially as someone who was kind of a latecomer to the group and who now works 9-5...gives a nice chance to catch up.

TWD SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010 edition: Cardamom Crumb Cake

2010-12-27T15:31:00.004-05:00

Today is my first snow day from work! Yay!

scene from my window Sunday afternoon

Yesterday we were graced with a full-on blizzard. It was very strange. Christmas Day was sunny and not especially cold. I was sitting on the couch as usual on Sunday afternoon, watching the Jets-Bears game and pressing fabric, when a scrolling headline caught my eye: "The Vikings-Eagles game scheduled for 8 PM has been postponed due to weather." What on earth could be going on over in Philly, I thought, to make them cancel an 8 PM game at 1:30? I live only about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia, so anything going on there weatherwise is usually happening here, too. I turned my head to the window 2 feet away and saw the above and was like, ooooooh.

It snowed hard all day and night. No work today--which is more than fine, because I REALLY wanted another day, and anyway I couldn't get out if I wanted to:

(that's my little Cloudmobile on the far left, and again, that was yesterday. It's deeper now.)

So I decided to go ahead and make last week's TWD, which I had been putting off all week: Dorie's Cardamom Crumb Cake, selected by Jill of the appropriately named Jill's Blog.

Now why had I been putting it off? I like crumb cakes, especially if made by me. And I haven't made one in a long while. And this one sounded interesting: cardamom, coffee, and orange all together. But...the recipe sounded awfully fussy and suspiciously time-consuming for a crumb cake. I think of crumb cake as the sugary version of quickbread--something very fast to throw together when you have company coming over or something. This generally follows the quick-mix routine, but it requires a little bit of prep work (butter at room temp, grating orange zest, making and cooling coffee, melting and cooling butter, smooshing zest into sugar), which honestly is often a little more than I can handle when I wake up in the morning and my body is like GRRRRAAAARRR FOOOOD NOOOOWWWW AAAAAAAARGH. I can skip dinners with no problem, but breakfast is non-negotiable.

My Household Supervisor is even more noisy and insistent than my own stomach in the mornings, which also blocks my morning cooking capabilities.

But today I was up late and decided to go on and give it a whirl. First thing I noticed is that I am nearly out of white sugar and I have no oranges. So with the thought that brown sugar generally makes anything better, and tangerines are pretty close to oranges, I subbed with abandon. Don't judge me. I'm snowed in. Applaud my pioneer spirit!

making streusel

Once I had all the fussy bits done, it was quick to mix together.

mixing batter

And wonder of wonders, it actually baked in 30 minutes' time:

All in all, I think it took me about two hours to do.

The cake is...interesting. I had a warm piece and it was nice and moist and the streusel was perfectly crunchy. Despite containing a full cup of sugar and a stick and a half of butter, it's not super sweet or greasy. There are a lot of flavors, though, and though I am no expert they did seem to be doing battle for supremacy: the tangerine, the coffee, the brown sugar, the cardamom. (That's the order in which they seemed to be winning.) I wonder if it will be different when cold; I wonder if it would have been different with more innocuous white sugar or orange zest. I think I like it, but I'm gonna have to think about whether it's a repeater...

TWD: Rewinding Madness (My Favorite Pecan Pie and Devilish Shortcakes)

2010-11-30T00:00:00.002-05:00

Hello y'all!

For the November 23 rewind, I made My Favorite Pecan Pie for a Thanksgiving dinner. I think it was a hit. I'll post about it when I find my camera cord, but in the meantime you can revisit my original triumph and surprise here: My Favorite Pecan Pie

And this week we have Devilish Shortcakes, selected by Tania at Love Big, Bake Often. Well guess what! For once I'm ahead of the curve. I made these in Charleston earlier this summer. Devilish Shortcakes

I also plan to make these again this week...am blanking on a suitable filling though. Perhaps some tangerines or oranges?

I thoroughly enjoyed my four day weekend. I mean, you know, I didn't, like, have any cute little redheaded babies on Thanksgiving or anything (I'm looking at you, M!) but it was cool or whatever. We were let go early on Wednesday. I woke up Wednesday morning looking forward to that like it was Christmas and I was expecting Santa. I got to go home when there was still sun! Amazing.

Aside from Thanksgiving day--which was spent making the pie and then driving out to Bon Jovi's hometown for dinner (not with the Bon Jovis, though) I spent the whole weekend puttering about the house working on a new dress, which is coming together nicely. It's my first time working with knit fabric and I may never sew with woven fabric again. I had planned to crank out three or four dresses this weekend, but I am slowly coming around to the idea that a properly crafted dress takes some time to do and that it really, really helps for me to stop before I get tired and crankypants and then start making stupid mistakes ~~and/or drinking~~. I also pieced and sandwiched a second baby quilt this week, too. It was a pretty good sewing week. Not a bad baking week either. I hope all of you had a lovely holiday.

TWD: Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving-Cranberry Shortbread Cake and other stuff

2010-11-16T23:22:00.003-05:00

found here

Today was a weird little milestone in my adult life. This morning was the first time in probably 10 years or so that I woke up, realized I was sick, and had to really think about whether or not to go in to work. Ah corporate life. In graduate school and on fellowship, this would probably be a day that I'd give up the ghost and stay in bed in the hopes of nipping cooties in the bud before I am full-blown sick, rather than stretching it out until I am convinced I am surely perishing from the grippe. Oh, if I was teaching, I'd probably drag in and entertain the kidlets for the hour or whatever, but I'd hightail it back to bed after, and none of them would be allowed anywhere near me with their Teenage Supergerms. (I'm convinced my immune system is infinitely heartier due to six years of teaching undergraduates.)

I was automatically running through all the pros and cons in my head at 6:45 am, doing all sorts of calculations factoring in my number of sick days left, the number of vacation days I'll have, the likelihood of traveling for Christmas, current approximate level of illness and likelihood that a day of rest is best used today, my upcoming trip to Paris, likelihood of annoying my manager or having something important happen while I am out, level of hassle involved in going all the way downstairs to get the laptop and email that I will be out, possibility that I get ill again in the six weeks before the year is up. All this in the span of about five minutes.

I got some Dayquil and went in, cooties and all, and spent the day sequestered in my office. You know those early days in a potentially bad cold when you are pretty much totally functional but you can almost feel and smell the cloud of germs around you? So you feel more like a threat to others than to yourself? It was one of those days. I felt guilty speaking to anyone--poor hapless unsuspecting coworkers, they are only being friendly and collegial and I am probably dooming them and their families to infection at every breathy "hello."

So now I am home, with every intention of getting to bed early tonight to make up a tiny bit for the rest I didn't really get today. Today's TWD recipe is a cranberry lime galette. After last week's Cranberry Shortbread Cake I think I need a cranberry break. I'm cranberried out. Matter of fact, I need a fruit-dessert-break. So I am reaching back to week before last and making the Peanutty Blondies instead.

The Cranberry Shortbread Cake, however, was spectacular. I wish I had photos of the process, but it was ridiculously easy to do: I made a lovely cranberry-orange jam and then whipped up a soft shortbread, rolled the dough out into two discs and sandwiched them in a springform pan with the jam. I didn't know what to expect but it was deelish, especially the first night, slightly warm with milk. I LOVE SHORTBREAD. OMG.

The shortbread, predictably, got softer and soggier as the week wore on, but it was still quite tasty. I like the cranberries, but I have to figure out a way to make it that involves some other kind of filling that you can bake.

My sewing projects are both moving forward and languishing at the same time. Since I pretty much never have an entire day to work, I have become one of those sewers who starts stuff but doesn't finish; maddeningly, I get almost finished, the thing is completely constructed except for a few finishing bits, and then am ready to move to another thing. (huh. this sounds like another languishing project...) Right now I have a 1950s corduroy jumper dress which needs a hook-and-eye sewn in; an ivory wool cape in need of buttons, buttonholes and hemming; a skirt suit whose skirt is fully done and jacket just needs facings and hemming (I have even hemmed the sleeves). I've also started quilting and have a baby quilt that needs binding; a big boy quilt in need of tying and binding (I can't decide what color to bind it in) another baby quilt that needs piecing; fabric for a quilt for myself that has not been started. And a ton of patterns and fabric for more clothes, including a winter coat. Really, a ton. I had to buy a chest of drawers to hold them and they aren't all in there.

I'm still very excited to sew, but I think much of the slowness is that I feel like I am kind of stalling out right now; I don't see that I am making a whole lot of progress on the learning curve at this point and the things I think I need to be working on skill-wise, I don't have anyone to teach me and I am freaked out to try on my own for fear of ruining some otherwise well-done garment that I've spent hours constructing. Most classes at fabric stores and sew n vacs focus on things I already know how to do now. I can easily make a pair of pajama pants; I can make a basic skirt; I can make buttonholes manually or install a zipper without much fuss. I'd like lessons in handsewing, or fitting clothes, or altering patterns in ways other than grading (moving between sizes when cutting out fabric). Anyone got a grandma in central New Jersey they can spare?

TWD: All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie

2010-10-26T00:17:00.001-04:00

aka The Day I Learned Where "Easy As Pie" came from

Today's pie was also brought to you by basic supermarket crust. Totally inferior, but one does what she must. I don't generally like fruit pie anyway, so why spend the time? I could be spending that time piecing baby quilts:

Having surrendered to not making crust, I put the pie together after work. I used a mix of Granny Smith, McIntosh and Golden Delicious apples. Apples are EVERYWHERE around here! It was super easy--peeling and chopping the apples was really the most strenuous thing. I found some granular tapioca at my local grocery store, so I used that.

Dumped in crust, covered and tossed in oven. The pie cooked in the minimum time.

However--my industrial crust machinations need some work.

And I forgot to line the crust with graham crackers.

The taste is pretty good, for what it is. I like the addition of the lemon zest to keep the pie from being overly sugary. I don't know if I'd choose to make it again, but that has nothing to do with the pie and everything to do with me. Still working to teach myself to like cooked fruit desserts.

Emily chose this very seasonally appropriate pie. Thanks!

TWD: Caramel Not Pumpkin Pie

2010-10-18T22:33:00.001-04:00

I'm still alive.

To mark one month in my new city I decided to pretend for a moment as though I am settled. My apartment hates me; I'm still living out of boxes; I've suddenly got a new nephew AND niece (who, I'm told, have requested an entire wardrobe of quilts and booties and bibs and hats and so on), I'm being put on a big project at work, I'm supposed to bake and bring four dozen cupcakes to work Wednesday morning and in general you name it, I'm probably ignoring it. But I'm trying to get better about doing stuff, as my "I just moooooved" excuse window is closing fast, so I decided to buckle down and do TWD this week. Well, sorta.

1. I totally cheated on the crust. I know, I know, Dorie's pie crust is very simple and super good--but somehow I just knew that if I waited to make a pie crust...well, I'd still be waitin'. It's been so long since I did a regular 8-5 + commute that I underestimated how little energy I would have when I make it home. (Seriously, I'm mostly living on apples these days.) So the crust is frozen and not a fancy bougie brand either.

2. I cheated on the main ingredient. I think I've blogged here before about not understanding Fall Pumpkin Mania. I've yet to have a pumpkin anything that didn't smell much better than it tastes. So like a good native Southerner I just *happened* to have sweet potatoes in the cabinet, and of course I like sweet potatoes a great deal.

So since I didn't have to fiddle with a crust, I was able to throw the pie together easily after work while I worked on sewing a new winter cape. Multitasking.

It was really easy to make the caramel and I smashed up the potatoes and everything by hand. I realized that I spazzed and caramelized ALL the sugar instead of half, but that would be good, right? I mean, sweet potatoes--this would be plenty sweet already, right? I poured the filling in the partially baked industrial crust and hoped for the best, thinking "gee this looks like a chocolate pie!"

It baked, and baked, and baked. I left it in the oven 10 minutes extra and it was still jiggly but I needed to go to bed. So I took it out, and it turned out to be fine. It still looked like chocolate!

I tried a piece and um, yeah.

Why does my pie taste like chocolate? It totally has the consistency of a sweet potato pie--a rather buttery one--but tastes EXACTLY like a bittersweet chocolate pie. I don't know what to think of it. It's too much for my brain to take. I am thinking I should have 1) not made the sub and/or been more careful about my sugar addition. So it's a fail for me, but I suspect it's the baker, not the recipe. I hope everyone else had better results! Thank you Janell for choosing it!

TWD: Hiatus continues

2010-09-27T21:32:00.000-04:00

Due to the continued flagrant incompetence of my relocation consultants, there shall be no TWD for me today. Hopefully things will turn for the better later in the week.

Right now? I am so angry I have given myself a sick headache.

I'm going to bed.

TWD August Recap and Excuses, Excuses

2010-09-06T22:40:00.001-04:00

Hi y'all.

I'm delinquent. Forgive me. I didn't do this week's TWD assignment, nor Pies with That, and I haven't been posting for a bit. There has been a lot of thumb-twiddling, sewing of garments, gnashing of teeth, and a lot of rushing around here at Chez OC. I have a new job in a new industry in a new state and am in the middle of a very long and drawn out (to me anyway) while simultaneously hyperkinetic and frantic corporate-sponsored relocation four hours away, the panicky past couple of weeks special courtesy of an oh so helpful relocation consultant who doesn't seem capable of getting it together in general, much less doing things and contacting people on time. I kinda thought the point of having a relocation consultant was to make new employees' long distance moves easier and less stressful, but apparently that's what I get for thinking. Pah.

Usually my sister comes with me when I am moving to a new place, which distracts me some from my anxiety, but this time she is all "blahblah school blahblahblah clinicals blahblahblahblah work" so I'm totally on my own this time. The movers are going to pack my stuff tomorrow at the crack of dawn-- "We'll be there between 7 and 8 am!!" chirped the dispatcher, and I'm like "deeearrr Looooord WHHHHYYY, no one EVER needs to be in my space before 8 am"--, and somehow this is more frightening and anxiety inducing than doing it myself. And I HATE packing. I've never had the moving company pack my stuff before, and while I have no desire to do it myself, I also have little idea of what to expect beyond the advice everyone gives to sequester anything you don't want packed even if you think it's obvious that it does not go. They won't come to move the things till Wednesday. It will be very odd, I think, to be in my apartment, the one I've been settled in all year, with EVERYTHING in boxes for two days, and then on Thursday be in a new one in yet another new state (at this rate I don't know that I'll ever get back to Tennessee) with next to nothing for I don't know how many more. I'm not a fan of uncertainty about my stuff.

Anyway, I did have a few words for August's TWD selections, 'cause I did do them.

1) Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

This was kind of fun to make, as it allowed me to clear the cabinets some. It was fast to mix, but baking and cooling were a bit cumbersome for a "breakfast" bread. I didn't really like the end result, however--probably because instead of unsweetened applesauce I used sweetened apple butter, and neglected to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe. D'oh! Bleah. I nearly went into a diabetic coma. User error sent it to the trash immediately.

2) Custardy Peach Tart
It was bitter hard not to make this one. I actually made it last summer as I was trying to work my way up to making pies. I do recall that it was one of my favorite things from the book ever--so easy and so delicious and it kept pretty well, too! Alas, my need to clear the cabinets meant that I had no peaches in the house or much in the way of ingredients for crust or custard. It's been some lean times 'round here folks, as I've been waiting to move. Sadness! It's not living when you can't make a tart just 'cause. It just ain't.

3)Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

This week I was like "hang it all--I'm sick of waiting," and got myself some chocolate and made these. I don't pass up too many opportunities for shortbread, people. I made the recipe just as specified and they are so simple and so good. I am eating the last of them now.

So that's where I am. Not very exciting, but there you have it. I hope that I can get settled in The City That Makes (what exactly?) very soon so I can get back to posting regularly! Now if you'll excuse me I am off to a three hour nap so I can then get up in the middle of the night and freak out about feeling not ready for the packers--whoooosahhhh.

TWD: Chewy Chunky Blondies and Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

2010-08-10T22:45:00.002-04:00

I still am here and I still am baking:

and sewing, too

sometimes AT THE SAME TIME:

(note box o' cupcakes at top left)

though in a rather slapdash, haphazard fashion. Let the record show that I did indeed make the TWD blondies from two weeks ago, and all I have to say about those is YES PLEASE.

I felt sort of extravagant making them when I still had 2/3 of a very good cake in the fridge, but I made them anyway and said banana cake was neglected and forgotten. It still takes up space forlorn and neglected in my fridge.

I did not make last week's gingered carrot cookies, because 1) ew, and 2) wut? and 3) come on--it was my birthday that week! I made vanilla buttermilk cupcakes instead. Much more appropriate.

I just made this week's selection, a chocolate ganache ice cream. I am finishing up a yellow plum sorbet I made for my birthday, so I kind of rode the fence. I like ice cream, don't get me wrong, but I have a Very Bad Habit of forgetting that I have any about the house, and never eating it. I just don't ever really crave the stuff. This ice cream was kinda fussy, too. But I think I like it.

First, we had to make a chocolate ganache. Easy enough except I only had 2 ounces of chocolate on hand so I ran out and got a bar of Lindt. This didn't give me 6 ounces; it gave me 5.5. Terrified of jacking up the ganache (it wasn't until later that I realized it wasn't a true 1:1 ganache anyways) I cut the recipe by 1/4. My cream had a "Sell by!" date of July 11, but considering that there is also a recipe for sour cream ice cream in the book, too, and considering that I TOTALLY did not feel like going out for more, I went with it. It tasted fine.

Then I made the "custard," which I remembered this time is very thin, and mixed it in with the ganache and put it to chill overnight.

This morning, I fired up Ol'Red and got ready to pour in the custard. Except there wasn't going to be any pouring.

There could be spooning, and scraping, and cursing, and coaxing, but no pouring. The custard was really thick. Like the spoon stood up in it thick. I somehow got it all in and let it go for about 18 minutes. I espied a package of almonds sitting limply in a corner looking delinquent, so I put them to work and dumped them in, because everything is better with almonds in it.

I have the hardest time getting my ice cream to freeze evenly in my Cuisinart. The mix on the walls and bottom freezes very hard, but in this case little happened to the bulk of the recipe, which was in the center. Anyone figured out a workaround for this? I just gave up when it seemed lighter and colder and put it in a container for freezing.

I tried some later in the afternoon. It is very smooth and very rich and velvety, like frozen chocolate mousse. I like it! It's a little much for every day, but I wouldn't mind making it for company.

*notice* I am trying my darnedest to stay on schedule but posting might be come a bit intermittent over the next few weeks, 'cuz I am moving. As I so often do.

Thanks this week go to Katrina at Baking and Boys for picking the recipe! Good choice, good lady.

TWD: Lots of Ways Banana Cake

2010-07-19T23:07:00.001-04:00

HELLO SUMMER!!!

I was hesitant to make this one. Banana cake? Meh. I figured it'd be another loaf or bundt cake that I'd try, generally like, but never finish eating. It would take time away from my sewing! Besides, the sewing was making me realize I hadn't actually done a decorated cake in a good while. The last seriously decorated cake I did was a full year ago:

I wondered if I was going to lose all the skills I spent so much time building. As much fun as TWD is, we rarely make anything decoratable. Perhaps I'd make a cake for my upcoming birthday?...But I felt guilty, as I always do when I contemplate skipping a recipe.

So I read the recipe. What is this? A layer cake? With any icing that I want?! Oh now, that's different! I can decorate this cake! Finally! Let's do this!

I made the cake pretty much according to the recipe. I did run out of light brown sugar, so I added about 1/4 c of dark brown. I also didn't want to open a can of coconut milk for a measly 1/2 cup, so I used whole milk instead. Finally, I used my old standby method to prep the pans: grease sides (and I do mean grease; I keep a small can of Crisco for just this purpose) and flour them, and line the bottom with parchment.

I was surprised that it took nearly 45 minutes to bake two 9 inch layers. I was also surprised by how dark they were. I was a little afraid they'd taste burned!

(I didn't get any pics--the camera battery decided to die on me. Le Sigh.)

Once the layers were done, on to decorating. I had a big bowl 'o buttercream in the freezer, made when we did some egg yolk-heavy something or other a while back. I took the design of the cake from the Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook, one of my very favorites, and made the color palette a little lighter than theirs. I piped out chocolate fireflies and moons and iced the cake in blue and green, piping on a green grassy border when I was done. I was pretty happy with it in the end. FUN! Can we do another one soon? Please oh please? Thank you bunches, Kimberly, for picking this one!

As far as the actual taste of the cake: it's not bad. Inoffensive. It reminds me of an okay carrot cake, but with banana instead. I mixed some of the buttercream with chopped pineapple and coconut for the filling (I like pina coladas, sue me) and I like the addition. I'm on my second piece now. The first was too cold but this one is nice and room temperature-y. I think I'm gonna have to think a bit about whether I like it enough to do again...

TWD: Brrrrownies

2010-07-12T23:35:00.000-04:00

or however they are spelled.

I was major mega OMFG Dudes excited about this week's recipe (chosen by Karen) because it involves two of my fave things: 1) homemade brownies and 2) York Peppermint Patties. Both fall squarely under the category of Things I Cannot Have In The House Because I Will Eat Them For Dinner And That Behavior Is Not Becoming In A Person Past Thirty.

The recipe promised to be a quick one, too, extra special hooray good because I was already distracted in my first week back home by a couple of new acquisitions:

Visiting my friend Maura last week got me excited and determined again to work on sewing and quilting. She is absolutely ridonkculous with making fabulous stuff, and while I'll never get there she sure makes it look like fun. I had tried sewing as a kid but quickly got frustrated with things not turning out as I wanted them to, and for some unknown reason it never seemed to occur to me to ask my grandmother, who I only lived with my whole childhood and who only sewed like, I don't know, all the time for assistance or lessons. I can vividly remember watching her lay out and cut material for dresses and quilts on the kitchen table (as well as occasionally reaching into a pile of cloth and coming up stuck with pins, realizing too late I had just tried to grab her latest quilt-top in progress). Anyway, I bought the machine from a collector here. I think I shall name it Phyllis, in homage to her 1971 birth. I got the cabinet at a local thrift store and spent all week stripping, refinishing, and repainting it. It was a lot of work but I think it came out pretty well. And now I have a bunch of books and am blithely neglecting most everything else in my fervor to sew stuff.

But I did squeeze in time to make the brownies. I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave instead of the stove. I only had 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, so I did the "cocoa +butter" sub for the other ounce.

It was all good till I added the eggs, then it seized up something awful. Is it because the eggs were cold?

The finished batter was still really thick--and it only thinly covered the bottom of the pan.

When they were done, I was dismayed. Oh, word? THIS is what they are supposed to look like?

These are without a doubt the fugliest things I have ever baked. But they are also so so SO good! Perfect chewy (NOT fudgy) consistency, though I wasn't super thrilled that they were impossible to get out of the pan. And peppermint patties! YUM. I would like to be able to share them but they are just too hideous. Maybe with a smear of icing--and a better method to keep them from sticking. Or maybe i just make other stuff--chocolate tarts and such--for company and keep these ALL. TO. MYSELF. *sinister laugh*

TWD: Tarte Noire

2010-07-05T20:56:00.001-04:00

So....yeah. TWD. This week. Dharmagirl picked it. I did it. It was pretty good. I'd consider doing it again. But...it just wasn't very exciting, yanno?* It's a tart crust with chocolate ganache in it. Crust, chocolate, cream, butter. Simple. Spartan. Restrained. Minimalist. Best left that way. After weeks and weeks of multiply-adjectived days-of-prep-requiring last-minute-grocery-run-requiring finicky things, I'm left without words. So....how about some pictures?

Since the filling is basically just chocolate, you need to really like what you use. I couldn't find my ever-elusive all-time very favorite eating chocolate, so I subbed this instead:

After I mixed in the cream and butter--gently, as per the recipe's instructions--things were not looking good and ganachy. Check it:

eeeeeewwwwww!

So...I was a Very Bad TWDer, disregarded the instructions, took ahold of that whisk and beat the everlovin' daylights out of it.

yeeeeeeeaaaaah!

I was pleased to find tart crust in the freezer from some other project, so I baked that and filled it.

Half the recipe gave me the perfect amount for two deep 4" tarts. On first eating they were nice and smooth; one half tart was thawed and refrigerated a couple of times and its consistency was grainy and kind of offputting but it still tasted the same. Voila.

*and yes, I realize it's a bit eye-roll inducing to be unexcited about a chocolate tart. Sorry.

TWD on the road: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cake

2010-06-29T11:45:00.001-04:00

This weekend, I was visiting my friends Maura and Jonathan in Burlington, Vermont, another place you really should visit if you have a chance. They were amazingly energetic and enthusiastic hosts and had a kajillion fun ideas, of which we were only able to do a few, since I only had four days. I had such a great time! This has been a really wonderful month. (The cat would disagree, but she doesn't pay rent, so whatever.)

We spent a lot of time doing outdoors stuff. Now, before you wrinkle up your delicate widdle nose, we weren't like camping or kayaking or rolling logs or wrestling moose or anything like that--just walking around some of the area's outdoor attractions, of which there are many. On the penultimate day of my visit, they took me berry picking, WHICH I have been wanting to do for ages but never made it out when I was in North Carolina, and I can't find places to do it here in central Pennsylvania.

We were going for the novelty of it, but what do you think really happens when you put three PhDs in a big field with a big box and say, "put some stuff in here"?

Absolute overkill, that's what happens.

Fortunately, I am just diligent enough a TWDer and they are just indulgent enough hosts that I had already made a loaf from this week's TWD recipe, Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes (chosen by Wendy of Pink Stripes), a lovely simple and delicious recipe that I will most assuredly make again with a new title because I feel a mite silly calling it all of that. Poor titling, but fantastic idea and execution. And very convenient to have when you've got a bounty of fresh berries on hand!

Vanilla beans are ridiculously expensive, and I totally forgot to pack some in my mad dash to get out of the house (I also forgot to pay the cat sitter, go me), but they had some vanilla paste in the cabinet. So I used that instead, and I think it worked well, if it was a bit messy.

Jonathan went out and got a bottle of Barbancourt rum, which I don't think I've had before but thought was pretty good. I'm no rum aficionado, but I do think I've not been able to find any in my liquor stores to match the kind I found on a grocery store shelf in Santo Domingo years ago. I am still clinging to the last couple ounces of that stuff. I will probably have it forever.

I didn't know what to think about this whisking business. Was I to whisk by hand or by Kitchenaid? I had dismaying visions of 19th century women beating up pound cakes by hand (trust me, you don't want to do that) but this was much easier and the batter came out very smooth and familiar.

Though I only did half the recipe, I made the whole recipe of rum syrup. Since I never had the cake before, I chickened out and only used half of it anyway. I was pleased that it soaked up right away. I had had to cover the cake with foil halfway through, but the finished result was still nice and soft when it came out.

I wrapped the finished cake and we let it sit for...two days, I think? before eating it.

We all liked it a lot (or so they said.) Maura said, "I can see craving this cake," and Jonathan was impressed with the restraint of the rum and the vanilla, as was I. You can taste them both but they don't suckerpunch you in the face. (Though I will be waiting on those bourbon balls, M.) Holy mother of sugarcane was this ever good. This is a definite makeagain. And I hope I get to go back to Burlington!

TWD: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cakes

2010-06-21T23:27:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! I'm back in Northeastern Town, for a few days, anyway.

First of all, Louisville? You should SO totally go to there. I am disappointed that I was usually too tired to go exploring much (reading and scoring 125+ exams a day for 6 days will kinda do that to ya), but what little I did see was surprisingly awesome. I have every intention of dragging someone there if for nothing but the Bourbon Trail.

This week's TWD recipe was chosen by Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes. Excellent selection! I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but it was a real winner. It's a quick and easy variation on the humble chocolate layer cake; only this one is done in a loaf pan instead of round or square pans, torted and filled with preserves and then iced with a super easy icing (it's just chocolate and sour cream.). I was able to bang this out in a couple of hours.

I have very few pictures this week. For one, the cake was so fast and easy to do, there really wasn't much of interest to photograph; for two, my bum of a camera finally quit me, in spectacularly dramatic fashion, after a 5 year relationship. Meh. He wasn't no good noway.

The batter was mixed in standard butter cake fashion. It came out to be a pretty thick batter, so I knew it'd be a nice sturdy cake, good for torting. I did half the recipe and got three small loaf pans out of it.

Normally, when I torte cake, I refrigerate the aych out of it first. It makes cutting it neatly so, so much easier. In this case, I was impatient, plus I figured the cakes were small and sturdy enough to not really need it.

I was right. They sliced beautifully with a sharp knife.

For the filling, I used the last of a jar of apricot-raspberry preserves, which went very well with the iced cake. I did the whole recipe of filling and of icing but I still only had enough for two cakes. This was fine by me.

All in all, it's a very simple and satisfying layer cake. The cake itself is a perfect texture, the icing is not overpoweringly sweet or bitter, and the preserves add a nice polite bit of interest. If I was sitting around the house and in the mood for chocolate cake, I'd totally consider making this one. It's a little simpler than my *ahem* State-Fair-blue-ribbon-winning-chocolate cake, but it does the job.

TWD: Raisin Swirl Bread

2010-06-14T22:38:00.001-04:00

I think this modern-day still life bodes well, don't you?

This is gonna be a quick post, too. I'm still on the road in Kentucky, where I am reading and grading Advanced Placement examinations (if you've got a kid who took them this year...um, my apologies in advance. I have their best interests in mind, I swear!). It's a very VERY busy schedule--long days of introspection into the minds of America's sixteen-year-olds will WEAR YOU OUT--so I can't say all I want to about this bread. What I will say is 1) it's easy; 2) it came out perfectly; 3) it's fabulous; 4) thank you Susan, selector of this recipe!

The dough came out the perfect consistency without any extra add-ins of flour or milk. Nice and satiny and non-sticky but still soft.

It also rose much faster than I expected--but then I remembered my yeast was "rapid rise." Oops.

Since I had no oranges, I added a tablespoon of orange juice to the dough and plumped the raisins by simmering them in Grand Marnier.

all ready for the oven

all ready for the rack

all ready for the eatin'

Is there much else to say?

Pies With That: Bourbon Ginger Cream Pie

2010-06-13T23:38:00.005-04:00

I was struggling to come up with an idea for this month's You Want Pies With That? theme, which was "Summery Drinks." Pyrex Priestess Sarah gave me a plethora of ideas, including a bourbon and ginger pie, at which point I was like, um, YEAH! (In case you don't know: A bourbon and ginger is just what it sounds like: ginger ale with a good dose of bourbon in it. Like a rum and coke, but not.)

So alls I had to do was come up with a way to incorporate the taste of a bourbon and ginger into a pie. I wanted to really try to capture the hot-sweet taste of ginger ale and the boozy finish of the bourbon.

First, the crust. I decided to start out big, making a crust from ginger cookies. I haven't made cookie crust in forever and it was easy to toss together but baking was dodgy. It initially seemed too buttery, but it cooled fine.

it ain't pretty but it'll do.

I decided for the filling to go calorie crazy and make a variation of the French Custard from The Whimsical Bakehouse Cookbook. First I made a ginger pastry cream by steeping chopped ginger in heated milk.

This was pleasantly ginger-flavored but wasn't quite enough to give me the really hot taste, so I added about a teaspoon of ginger directly to the finished cream and let it cool. Now it had the proper STRONG make-your-eyes-water-ginger flavor, which was going to be important to keeping the integrity of the flavor in the next step.

When the pastry cream was cold, I stirred in a tablespoon of bourbon and then made a bourbon whipped cream and folded it all together.

This gave me the right taste--gingery with a finish of bourbon. The crust was a perfect accompaniment and I loved the creaminess of it. SO SO GOOD. Hooray!

*Strangely enough, I am typing this from Kentucky. Go me.*

Bourbon-Ginger Cream pie

Crust:

1 1/2 c ginger cookie crumbs
3-4 T butter, melted
1/8 c sugar
Mix all of the above together and pat into 9 inch crust. Bake 7-8 minutes at 375 degrees and set aside to cool.

Filling:
1 cup milk
1T chopped ginger
3 egg yolks
1/3 c sugar
1 pinch salt
2 T cornstarch
2 t chopped ginger
1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
2 T confectioners' sugar
2T bourbon

In saucepan, steep 1 T ginger in milk and heat till boiling. While the milk heats, beat yolks, sugar, and salt on medium till light and fluffy. Add in cornstarch. Slowly beat the hot milk in, then return to saucepan and whisk while returning to a boil over medium-low heat. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in remaining ginger, pour into bowl and place plastic wrap on surface. Refrigerate till cold.

When the pastry cream is cool, whip heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and 1 T bourbon till stiff. Stir remaining bourbon into cold pastry cream and fold pastry cream into whipped cream. Fill and garnish pie. Chill till ready to serve.

TWD (on the road edition): Tender and Devilish Shortcakes

2010-06-08T00:05:00.000-04:00

Today is my first TWD from the road! I'm not on the road right now, but I was when I made these last weekend, when my lovely friend Sarah and her equally awesome husband Tom were gracious enough to feed, shelter, and entertain me on demand for four whole days in their adorable little light-filled townhouse in Charleston.

I am very bad about taking photos when I visit places. I just don't ever think to do so, even when I have my camera in hand; I'm always too busy just living in the experience of the moment. I'm going to be kicking myself repeatedly if I ever get to be an old lady. I'm getting to the point that I forget I've even gone on certain trips. Some months back an old high school classmate posted photos of a band trip on Facebook, tagged me in some of the photos and I could not for the LIFE of me recall where the aych we were. She eventually titled them, so I now know it was Cincinnati, but I still don't remember anything about that trip though it must certainly have been a big deal to me at the time.

So I am afraid I don't have spectacular photos of Charleston to share. I do, however, have pictures of things. I love household stuff, though I have little of it myself, and Sarah and Tom have tons of fun and interesting collectibles all about the house. Every day there was something new and delightful I hadn't noticed before. I had not seem S or T in at least a year when I walked into the house, but I realized my like for them is about 6x more profound than I previously thought when I came into the living room and spied this:

I dare you to tell me that's not one of the best things you have ever seen in a living room.

Sarah also collects vintage dishes and glassware (and best of all, actually uses them) and is particularly--justifiably--proud of her growing collection of vintage Pyrex. I think they are pretty fabulous and berated myself for not thinking of it. Here's a sample:

This is her favorite pattern. I like it too.

I'm a fan of this one, as well.

Anyway, they were also indulgent enough to let me have the kitchen to make my TWD entry for the week on Memorial Day. After hearing T proclaim that "it's not really dessert if there is no chocolate," I decided to make half recipes of the regular shortcakes and the "devilish" ones.

in vintage Pyrex, of course!

I whisked together the dry ingredients and smooshed in the butter and then stuck the bowls in the freezer while we enjoyed dinner. It was fast and easy. Once we were about ready for dessert I took them out to mix up and bake.

It was then that I noticed that the "Devilish" recipe calls for milk and egg, while the "tender" recipe only calls for heavy cream as a binder. Perhaps that is why my results were so wildly different. I tried the "tender" recipe first and could not get the dough to come together at all. I just got tough little lumps. I kept mixing, thinking it was too cold, but it wouldn't cooperate. So I set it aside to move on with the chocolate ones, which came together beautifully.

I got 6 good-sized shortcakes out of it, which baked up perfectly and we went ahead and had them with berries and whipped cream. I think they were a success. They were more cakey than biscuity, but they were fluffy and delicious and just the right amount of sweet.

While those baked, I went back to work with the original recipe. I finally broke down and added milk--I think I added about 1/4 cup--to make the dough look like the chocolate dough. I also added a splash of vanilla. I was petrified by that time that I'd overworked it and they would be all tough and dense, but they came out nicely.

We were all full of homemade pizza and chocolate shortcake by then, but we divided one up and tasted it. They weren't so great when hot; they didn't seem thoroughly cooked, but they tasted wonderful, much like rich buttery shortbread. The next morning we had them for breakfast and with a quick warm in the oven they were heavenly and perfectly baked. This was a very successful recipe, I think. I had a go-to shortcake recipe I liked already, but this might take its place for taste and ease. Thanks to Cathy at The Tortefeasor for this week's selection! (She'll post the recipe there.)

someone appreciates my return

TWD: White Chocolate Brownies (with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing)

2010-06-01T02:31:00.003-04:00

This will be a quick post today, but in short: congrats to CB for FINALLY getting her long-desired post, and to Marthe for picking it. This recipe was super fast and pretty easy, and I like them quite a bit--though I'd maybe argue with calling them "brownies"; they look and taste like "blondies" to me, all buttery and cakey.

yay white chocolate!

I melted the white chocolate in the microwave instead of the stove, and rather than buying an orange I used lemon zest. I thought the pan prep directions were overkill (butter pan, line bottom, butter liner, flour pan and liner) and I still had trouble getting the brownies out. I also had to bake them way long--45 minutes for an 8x8 Pyrex pan and they were still a little damp in the center. If I made them again, I'd probably decrease the oven temp by about 25 degrees.

I knew I was going away for the week so I couldn't really do the meringue (plus I THINK IT'S EVIL); instead I decided on a lemon cream cheese icing that was very good with the brownie, fluffy and not too sweet.

hooray!

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

3 oz cream cheese

1/4 c butter, softened

1 1/2 c 10x sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1/8 tsp salt

Cream butter and cheese together. Beat in sugar. Add lemon juice and zest and salt and beat until fluffy.

TWD: Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

2010-05-17T22:55:00.001-04:00

I don't think it really is, but isn't this cute?

OMG DO I EVER LOVE BREAD PUDDING. It is quite possibly my very favorite dessert of all time. I grew up eating it often as a kid; in the South it's one of those basic things anybody worth a dime can make decently, like peach cobbler or sweet potato pie.

That being said, though the point of bread pudding is that it is a simple dish of leftovers tossed together, my attempts to make it as an adult have been not so great. I find that people have different interpretations of it; different techniques and as such I am never quite sure what I will get in the end. The bread pudding I grew up on was firm, not really discernably custardy; all the custard would cook into the bread, which bakes straight on the over rack with no water bath, to give you soft sweet cinnamony bready goodness. It's usually eaten warm because it's just better that way, though it's not bad at room temp either.

So I was ambivalent about today's TWD (chosen by Elizabeth at Cake or Death; check her blog for the recipe) On the one hand: yay, an excuse to make bread pudding. On the other: um, what is this tomfoolery with paper towels and boiling water? Why does the pudding have to sit for 30 minutes? Cooked apples? These recipes rarely let me down, so I went on ahead.

Surprise #1. Though the recipe is pretty straightforward, it actually takes a good while to get from peeling apples to eating dessert. Don't think you can just whip this out at teatime. You can't.

I made a 1/2 recipe, in Pyrex as suggested. I went out and bought a cinnamon raisin brioche from Local Fancypants Grocery, and then waited for ETERNITY for it to get stale and finally broke down and just left some slices laying around for a couple of days. I have learned that you really need your bread stale for it to work. There's a time consuming thing right there.

Caramelizing the sugar and cooking the apples was simple. I am still working through my fruit aversion, so I chopped the apple in chunks instead. I bought some cute local apple butter (see above) and used that.

Then on to the "custard," which again, wasn't really to me. It was just eggs, milk, and sugar, uncooked. Pour over and let sit.

Baked in the water bath. Surprise #2: using paper towels in the water bath. I guess the paper towels are supposed to keep some water, or make the cooking more gentle, or...I have NO idea why they are there. I was afraid they'd catch fire!

please don't burn down my apartment, please o please

They didn't. I had to cook my pudding for an hour and a half, even though it was a half recipe, and it was still awfully jiggly. I let it cool and then I cut it...

curses! the Curds of Death appear.

Oh NO. no no no. Clumps mean something didn't work right. The pudding tastes OK, but it kind of tastes like something is missing, and I tried to add as much as I can with cinnamon sugar lining the pan and cooking the apples, and cinnamon bread, but I am a little disappointed so far. It's very soft and custardy; no structure at all. perhaps I should have used even more bread. It's not bad, but I've had better. Oh well. We can't love 'em all, can we? I liked the idea; I'll just have to fiddle with the execution to get it to work for me.

You Want Pies With That?: Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza

2010-05-12T23:27:00.002-04:00

This marks my inaugural entry into the You Want Pies With That? monthly baking challenge. This month looked like a good one for tossing my hat into the ring, because the theme is "Pizza Pies," a genre with which I am very intimately familiar. Last year financial circumstances forced me to do a LOT of on the fly cooking, and more often than I liked to admit I was slapping together leftovers to create some kind of pizza. I always had cheese and ingredients for pizza crust on hand.

Of all the variations I made, the one that made the most satisfying comfort food-ie version was this one: a cheeseburger pizza. It's also probably the least healthy, so I haven't made it in ages, but I think it's worth sharing. I do it rather haphazardly, so I hope this is followable!

First, I cook some sort of burger meat. Ground turkey or chicken are what I usually have about the house. Beef is of course totally fine too. I put in a little salt and pepper while it cooks. I also usually brown some diced onions, but to my mortification I found I have none today--what in the world? I usually have 2 or 3 bags of frozen diced onions in the fridge--so I put in a few minced onions instead.

Then, since I had no onions and needed this to be special for y'all somehow, I cooked a couple slices of bacon.

I do this for my culture!

Now that the cooking's done, moving on to the sauce. This is non-negotiable item #1! Don't use tomato sauce; you won't get the "cheeseburger" taste! DO NOT.

I blend ketchup (about 1/8 c here) and about half that amount of mustard and relish (about 1 T each). This is very mustardy. I like mustard better than ketchup so that's cool with me. You should taste to see if you like it and adjust accordingly.

Then I prep the dough. I do know how to make my own dough--and I think I make a fairly kickbutt pizza dough--but I just got back from driving all over the Northeast in four days so please cut me some slack. I will admit that I bought dough from my local fancypants grocery. Don't judge me!

I like to roll/stretch my dough on a lightly floured silpat. The flour is not really necessary but it makes me feel better. The silpat allows me to just flip the dough onto the pizza peel, where I then dress the pizza.

Before putting the pizza on the peel, I dust it liberally with cornmeal. This makes it easier to get onto the hot baking stone.

Now I do: sauce, then meat, then mozzerella cheese. I'm going to go with about 1/2 cup here; this is a fairly small pizza. I crumbled one slice of bacon--you could certainly go with bacon bits instead--and then about an ounce of cheddar diced up.

Nonnegotiable item #2: American cheese. Yes, that's right, good old pale, bland, plasticy, processed cheese food. A cheeseburger is not really a cheeseburger to me without this stuff. It's...well, I don't know what, but not a cheeseburger. Yes, yes, I know you aren't the sort of person who eats such awful things. Buy the Kraft kind that is actually largely made with milk if you must (I do) but you need this. I'm gonna use a slice and a half here and for laziness's sake, slice into strips.

Kind of festive, no?

Put pizza on stone, bake till brown and bubbly and and apply to face.

TWD: Quick Classic Berry (mini)Tarts, two ways

2010-05-10T23:45:00.000-04:00

Tarts! Eaux, how I do love them so. I was very excited about this week's recipe. Nothing new to see here, but it gave me an opportunity to work on some things we've made several times before: tart shells and pastry cream. Still in the middle of traveling, so mini tarts it was.

I gave Yellow Processor one more try with the tart shell dough. I finally figured out: metal blade ONLY for the processor when making dough.

Now if I can just figure out how to keep the blasted thing from coughing up flour...

I used half the dough and made four tart shells, rolling them out insead of pressing them into the pans. Rolling circles on silicone and then fitting them into the pans works *so* much better for me.

I put them in the freezer while I made pastry cream.

For the pastry cream, I had a mind to do something different from the usual vanilla. Originally, I thought I would do the ginger pastry cream from the cookbook, but at the last minute I had two ideas for variations. I couldn't decide between them, so I made both in half batches.

1. St. Germain pastry cream

I happened upon a minibottle of St. Germain for the first time last week in Nashville, where a very nice, very knowledgeable, and very cute clerk was helping me spend too much money on red wine. It looked interesting--I'm a sucker for a pretty Art Deco piece of frippery--so I bought it. The tag on the bottle said something about "elderflower" and "hints of citrus." Ok. I don't really know what elderflower tastes like, but it sounds like something that would go well with blackberries, so I decide to try it. I open the bottle and take a tiny sip and SWEET NECTAR OF THE GODS WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE. I had to put the bottle down and leave the kitchen. It is that delicious.

I followed Dorie's instructions for "liqueur scented pastry cream," adding about 2 teaspoons to the cream. It came out very light and smooth and bright yellow.

2) Madagascar Vanilla Tea pastry cream

I kind of got this idea from Dorie. The Paris Sweets book has two recipes for tea-flavored tarts, one vanilla and one darjeeling. Neither is made with pastry cream--if I recall correctly they are baked custardy tarts--but why can't I make pastry cream that tastes like tea, I thought? I have a ton of teas that I buy loose from A Southern Season--one of my little extravagances is that I order all my teas from there. I have at least twelve varieties right now. I decided the Madagascar Vanilla was the safest bet to go along with fruit, though I thought hard about the Jasmine Black.

I decided the best thing to do would be to infuse the tea flavor by steeping the leaves in the milk as it heated and boiled. I put a couple teaspoons into a tea ball, poured over the milk (in this case, a blend of whole, skim, and half and half) and let it go.

It was nice and dark when it got to a boil, and the resulting cream is caramel brown, deeply, aromatically infused with the vanilla black tea. It's deep and complex and rich compared to the St.Germain cream's airy brightness.

For testing, I decided to try both flavors with the berries and jam.

My pigginess only goes so far, so I combined both flavors in one tart, topped with berries, and glazed them with my favorite jam: a spiced ginger marmalade.

Both are fabulous. The berries, though not at their very sweetest yet, went well with each flavor, as did the plain shortbread crust. I had a tart the next day with just the tea cream and whipped cream and that was awfully tasty too. I think it would also be sensational with some sort of streusel, such as that on Dorie's darjeeling tart. The St. Germain tart filling tastes like a very pleasant vanilla at first and then the St. Germain hits you at the end. YUM. It's light and fruity and delicious with the blackberries. I noticed that the St. Germain flavor seemed to fade after a day or so, so next time I will be less dainty and light-handed and just slug some in. That one I think would go well with any number of fruits.

Today's thankyuhvurymuch for choosing this week's recipe goes out to Cristine. Hat tip to ya!

TWD: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

2010-05-04T17:56:00.001-04:00

I've now successfully--though very reluctantly--escaped from Nashlantis, so I can post my TWD entry (chosen by Becky over at Project Domestication) for the week. I know I owe a ton of you lovelies comments from the last couple posts--I haven't forgotten! And I promise I am not usually this uncouth.

I've made ice cream before, but not since I was a kid. My grandmother had the old-fashioned-big-wooden-bucket-with-crank-requiring-rock-salt kind of ice cream maker, which I recall being used once or twice when I was very small, and as a preteen I can clearly remember making ice cream with my younger sisters in this:

and the chairs become DISHES!!!!

I've tried making mango sorbet using the freeze-and-stir method, but I wasn't pleased with the icy result at all. The last thing I need right now is to buy more expensive kitchen appliances with limited uses. However, I had to do TWD, right?

First I made the caramel custard. Dorie suggested it could take up to 8 minutes to cook the sugar properly. Um, how about FORTY FIVE, is what it took me to get to somewhere around"dark amber" stage. I may never really get the hang of cooking on an electric stove.

starting off with promise

about THREE DAYS LATER

eh, bump it. I'm tired of standing here. Moving on...

I had a hard time gauging the proper custard consistency. I think the term "custard" is throwing me off. I think "custard" I think "thick and solid." Can we call it something else? Pre cream sludge? I might have cooked it a tad long, but it tasted good. In to the fridge it goes.

Making the ice cream in the Cuisinart was the EASIEST THING EVER! You just turn it on, pour it in, and go about your business for 30 minutes or so. Cheah!

first

second

eh, that'll do.

After a couple hours in the freezer, I tried it. It tasted nice--a bit sweeter than expected. I don't think I cooked the caramel quite enough to get the "burnt" flavor; mine was just caramelly, like dulce de leche ice cream. It was quite rich, and though I still had some ice crystals, was generally pretty smooth. Thumbs up. I think once I get the hang of making the custard, I will use the Cuisinart more often--especially for company.

TWD April Mega-Post: I live, and I bake. I just don't post on Monday night.

2010-04-26T23:59:00.002-04:00

So, um, yeah. Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. This is a fairly hectic time for me; I'm traveling much, MUCH more than usual for the next couple of months. In the past two weeks I've been to New Orleans, Durham, and DC, and will be in Nashville and Memphis this upcoming weekend. Am also hoping to make it to Charleston, Gatlinburg, and Burlington very soon! Though I've been a-wanderin', I have been keeping up with the Tuesdays With Dorie challenges for April. I usually realize on Tuesday night that I didn't post, can't find my memory stick or don't have access to wireless or am deaddog tired, and don't get it up here. But I shall make up for my lack, like so, like NOW:

1. Swedish Visiting Cake

As a preteen, I was ~~obsessed with~~ thoroughly charmed by Cheaper by the Dozen, the chronicle of the Gilbreth family of efficiency experts and their 12 (well, 11; one died young) children. Do not ask me why. Anyway, one of the things I most remember from the book (written by two of the middle children) was that Lillian Gilbreth, their mother, despite having impressively produced twelve children and lived to prosper in a fantastic career, could not cook to save her life, except for a very few things. One of the things she could make was a certain kind of apple cake, a sort of quick-fix-one-bowl operation that was her husband, Frank's favorite thing. Sometimes when they were up late at night, coming up with more bizarro ways to streamline their chaotic home life, she would throw together this apple cake to snack on.

All that to say, while I was making this cake, I kept thinking of that moment, which I always found really touching. This is the kind of cake you could replicate that with. "I'm kinda hungry." *rummage through cabinet* "uhhh, I can make some cake real quick. You want some cake?" "Ok, that'll work." If you cook at all, everything you need, you probably have on hand. Only one bowl and the very laziest of mixing is required. You don't even need to have a proper cake pan. You don't need icing or glaze or sauce. (and I wouldn't really even bother.) You can bang it out in under an hour from "Huh. I'm getting a little hungry" to eating. And IT IS FABULOUS.

I got my lesson about those dried lemon peels when making the Honey Wheat Cookies, so real zest for the lemon sugar today. I had decided to make only half the recipe, as I was still feeling the (pleasant) effects of eating real Southern food again for four straight days, so I thought I should have some restraint. I still went with a whole lemon, though; just made it a small one.

I used both almond and vanilla extracts in the batter. I don't have a cast-iron skillet (I know, bad Southerner, I know; they're kind of a pain in the butt and I don't make cornbread that often, ok?) so what to do? Well, I figured a 6-inch pan would do just fine, so I used my favorite one and topped the cake with the slivered almonds I had in the pantry (could have sworn I had more sliced ones in there!) and sprinkled with vanilla sugar. Came out beautifully and smelled SO VERY GOOD.

And, I am not one to gossip, but it is possible that this delicious lemony almondy thing might have disappeared in two days. I don't really know, though. That's just hearsay. It is also possible that the baker has had to restrain herself from making another every day since. You know how people talk.

2. Sweet ~~Cream~~ Assortment of Real Dairy Product Biscuits

I've recounted before my biscuit making woes. No more, those days. This recipe was SO EASY: mix up some dry stuff, pour in some cream till it feels right, pat, cut, bake--and SO PERFECT that I could just cry. Ok, so they aren't buttery, but they are fluffy and flaky and tender and brown lightly and freeze beautifully, and have just the right amount of sugar to make them taste like something other than flour. I bought more cream yesterday so that I can make more and stash them in the freezer.

Evidence of my dedication to TWDing:

And it's not the afternoon, people. I was heading out of town the next afternoon, but I wanted to get these done before going. I made the dough, cut out rounds and froze them on the sheet overnight/overmorning.

They looked pretty good but I wasn't expecting much. I had run out of cream before the dough looked wet enough, so I added half-and half and then whole milk till it seemed right.

The next day, I tentatively baked a couple. Lo! Behold!

The thumbs, they are up.

3. Chockablock Cookies

And NOW I am on schedule again. These are some nice little "cookies," and by "cookie" I mean "roundish, sweet baked conglomeration of totally random stuff you dug out of the pantry held together by butter and sugar and flour." For some reason, I kept putting these cookies off. I'd take out the butter and an egg (I also made a 1/2 recipe here) and had the shortening out of the freezer for days, but every day I'd think "eh, never mind," and put them all back.

Finally I forced myself to do my mise en place. I wish I'd gotten a photo. But it involved: chocolate bars, walnuts, almonds, pecans, dried apricots, craisins, currants, coconut and oats. Yeesh. In comparison, there was alarmingly little batter, and what there was was very soft. It seemed to just be there to keep the cookies together.

The jury's still out on these. I've eaten nearly all of them. They get cakier as time goes on. I don't really get all the molasses aversion out there (seriously people: HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE MOLASSES?! It is the Alpha and the Omega. It is what honey wishes it had the nerve to be), so I liked the flavor of the cookie. They are tasty. 2 things: I already mentioned my aversion to "stuff on top of stuff" and these qualify. Also, I would think the success of the cookie would depend heavily on the particular combination of ingredients, and that is just too much plotting possibility for a chronic overplanner such as myself. I'm not that easygoing about my projects; and that, my friends, is why I bake. They were very fast, though, and simple to make. This gets a "eh, maybe revisit".

Thank yous to Nancy, Melissa, and Mary for their selections!

la la la

2010-04-13T13:06:00.000-04:00

*taps mic* Is this thing on?

I'm on the road yet again, traversing my beloved Southeastern US, so no TWD post today. Still deciding whether to do so later in the week. In the meantime, you can find other bakers here!

TWD: Mocha Walnut Marbled Cake

2010-04-06T00:12:00.001-04:00

Ok, so full disclosure: Marble cake is definitely one of my Top 3 Cake Choices Of All Time (Of All Time). So especially after last week's disappointment, I was again looking forward to this week's TWD challonj, though perhaps my enthusiasm was a mite more measured than last. This time, I decided to only do a half recipe rather than get carried away and do a whole. I can only take so much kitchen sad.

Desperate Housecats agree.

So I proceeded onward!

The steps to make this cake seemed unnecessarily cumbersome to me for some reason. First there was grinding walnuts (which as usual for me was more like "chopping" walnuts. Maybe I should start using the coffee grinder.)

Then melting chocolate for chocolate batter. But wait! I need to make coffee for it! Shoot! And heat water to melt over! You want the pan buttered AND floured?! I'm gonna be UP ALL NIGHT! This cake is already FAIL!

(Though I know I could probably do it just as effectively in the microwave, I get a little suspicious when that isn't mentioned in the recipe).

Now batter must be made. I don't know what to think about the instructions to "beat 3 min at medium speed but don't really like cream it or nothin'" stuff. Mine still came out pretty light and fairly fluffy, not pasty at all. I kept it movin'.

Now half goes to make chocolate batter and half to make vanilla.

And to go in pans. As much as I love marble cake, getting it to actually...you know, MARBLE is often tricky, so today I sez, "eh, I'ma do it MY WAY" and checkerboarded the batter before swirling.

It worked pretty well, I think.

I baked the little pans on the sheet for about 40 minutes. They puffed a bit but popped right on out of the pans:

And they were actually MARBLED! Lo!

I made Dorie's Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce to go over. I ran out of heavy cream and had to sub half and half. The texture was a little bit odd--it looks like unset pudding--but it tastes very good and compliments the cake well.

Really, there isn't too much to say about this but YUUUUUM. It wiped away all my sadness. This is, I think, hands down the best cake we've made since I joined TWD, and possibly the best cake I've ever made from this book (though the Black and White Cake, when it actually works, is mighty effing rad.) It is fluffy and buttery and melty and full of flavor. Perfect marble cake. Loves it! WILL make again. Most def.

Thanks to Erin at When in Doubt...Leave it at 350 for picking this one! *hugs*

TWD: Coconut (Lime) Tea Cake

2010-03-30T00:00:00.004-04:00

Whoops! I almost forgot to post about this week's TWD recipe, chosen by Carmen. You see, I was so excited about this cake that I baked it super early--last Tuesday instead of this past Saturday as I usually do. I too like "plain" "dry" cakes, so I was amped and even did the full recipe instead of halving it. Hope level was HIGH. Code Red Expectations over here.

I love coconut, and I love lime, so I decided to use that variation on the recipe.

lime sugar smells SO GOOD!

This cake was a little unconventional in its preparation. You start off beating sugar and eggs and then adding flour and leavening, but here you add hot (coconut) milk, too, after you add the flour. This seemed dodgy as you generally try to handle batter as little as possible once the flour is in. There is also very little butter and it is melted in the coconut milk. I used "lite" milk, so I suppose my cake was kind of lowfat? It was late, so I didn't bother toasting the coconut, though now I kinda wish I had to cut some of the sweetness.

The batter was really thin. Surprisingly so. I wasn't sure what would happen and I was afraid the lime zest would all migrate to the bottom of the pan. It was bubbly, too.

My fear was unfounded. The cake came out beautifully.

Taste: was ok but disappointing. It looked fantastic, was very, very moist and very coconutty and very limey--but somehow it wasn't nearly as compelling as I expected. I tasted a LOT of sugar. I couldn't taste the rum at all. I made it, had a slice, thought, "not too shabby," and promptly forgot about it for a week. That's not a good sign. If I were to make again I'd definitely do a lime glaze for it, at the least. But I don't think I'll be making it again.

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

2010-03-23T00:00:00.091-04:00

a plateful of WIN+++++

More cookies! This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, chosen by Jodie, are two dulce de leche flavored butter cookies sandwiched with more of the caramelly spread.

Instead of trying to buy dulce de leche, I decided it was simpler and faster to just make my own. I've done so several times before and it's so easy, I have a hard time believing it is at all authentic (weird, I know). But you get something usable and yummy from it, so....eh. I try not to obsess too much about it.

Usually when I make dulce de leche, I do so by stripping a can of condensed milk, sitting the unopened can in a big ol' pot full of water, bringing the water to a boil, turning it down to a simmer, and letting it boil for a good 3-4 hours. I've done this several times with no casualties yet, but I am also careful to keep the water topped up and not to open the can until it is plenty cool. The result is a nice soft, smooth, medium brown sauce that thickens upon standing.

stovetop dulce de leche

This time, I decided to try it a couple of new ways. First, the oven method, which involves opening the can and pouring the contents into a pie plate or casserole dish, setting it in a hot water bath, covering and baking until it's as you like it.

I think you're supposed to use a flatter dish, but this is what I had.

I baked mine for about two hours. Doing it this way meant that I could add stuff if I wanted; I threw in a cinnamon stick to infuse mine but I bet a healthy dose of salt would be good, too. I found that I had to beat this dulce de leche to get it to be smooth; and it was the lightest in color and the most liquid of the three.

oven-baked dulce de leche

The second new method was much like my stove version, just in the Crock-Pot rather than on the stove.

I place a can in a crock filled with water on low overnight, and then turned it off and let it sit in the water all day till cool. I let mine cook longer than most, almost 12 hours, and so it came out quite dark and spreadable, but still tasted caramelly rather than burned (it was close, though; another hour would probably have killed it).

Crockpot dulce de leche

I wasn't thrilled with the big ol' ring-o-rust left in my crock, but it washed out without a problem.

Since several commenters at TWD complained that the cookies themselves needed more flavor, I decided to use the superdark dulce de leche in them. I think it was a good decision, because I felt the cookies were quite caramelly and buttery. YUM.

This gives you a better sense of the color of it.

My dough was really soft. I mean REALLY soft. So soft I was sure I had forgotten some important dry ingredient. You can't really tell here, but it was somewhere between "cookie" and "pound cake" in consistency.

I was very afraid to scoop the cookies, but I did so anyway. It firmed up as time went on, but even the initial softness came out just fine.

I got way more cookies than needed for 30 sandwiches out of the dough; so many that I lost count. When it came time to sandwich them, I mixed the dark, stiff crockpot stuff with the lighter, saucier oven stuff to get a very nice medium filling.

Filling was easy. The cookies came out nice and round, so it wasn't too hard to match cookies, and the filling hardened enough to make them movable and packable soon after sandwiching.

I took the resulting cookies to a party. Only a few people tried them, as a bunch of other people had brought storebought desserts, but I did successfully pawn all the cookies off on my hostess, except a few I had at home and tried later...and was not happy till I finished them all. I didn't know what to expect and didn't expect much but OH MY WORD THESE ARE DELICIOUS. They were buttery and chewy and indeed, instead of being cloying the little layer of filling really makes them shine. I tried a bit of Nutella on one cookie and I have to agree with Kristen and Becky O.: it didn't really work. Never thought there was anything Nutella could not improve, but there you have it. You must either eat these plain or use dulce de leche.

Fortunately, I am too lazy to make three cans of dulce de leche very often and it's hard to find in the stores here, so I don't think I'll have a problem with slipping into the kitchen to make any more soon, but one day. ONE DAY. Yum.

TWD: Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts

2010-03-16T00:00:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure if this is what Rachelle had in mind when she chose this recipe, but Happy Belated Pi Day, y'all! I was actually interested in this week's TWD selection. I really, really, really like tarts. And this one promised to be different from the usual pastry-cream-filled tarts I am so accustomed to, plus it featured fresh raspberries, so yay! Even though I was away most of the week on a completely undeserved Spring Break, I came home and made it in time for the "holiday".

Bonus Awesome Points if you can tell us where I was!

I was also pleased to see that this recipe was one I could halve without too much trouble. I'm trying to avoid having stuff sitting around the house to go bad and get scary in the fridge--like the coconut custard tart is doing right now, thanks to my impromptu vacay--so I am going to work harder at making sure to make smaller portions when I can from here on out.

I had a small quantity of chocolate tart dough left from the custard tart, so I decided to use that and be all thrifty and Good Housekeeperish instead of making more. I think I have some Sweet Tart Dough With Nuts banging around the freezer somewhere, too, but I couldn't find it. I got two thin minitart shells out of the dough. Froze 'em, foiled 'em, stuffed with beans (how many times can you reuse beans before you should toss them?) and baked.

Um. They didn't turn out so well. Too thin, I think. The crust came off in patches when I removed the foil to finish baking. Seriously the ugliest tart shells I've ever made. Oh well. I figured I wasn't gonna share them anyway, so what did it matter?

Next day I made the filling. It came together really fast. I didn't use "premium milk chocolate", just regular ol' Hershey's*, but I think it was fine. It seemed suspiciously like thin brownie batter, what with the undissolved sugar and all the eggs and whatnot. I halved the extra yolk with a spoon. I got enough batter for exactly two tarts--perfect!

But the batter floats on top. Underneath is the fruit. Now I love me some raspberries, yes I do--but it's early March. Raspberries in the stores now are 1) expensive and 2) not very good and 3) probably came from somewhere shamefully far off. I couldn't do it. So instead I went to the jar of maraschino cherries that's been sitting in the fridge since the cherry brownie torte and used those.

I love the look of maraschino cherries--such a beautiful vibrant red! I just wanna stare at them.

STARE.

Now the regular 9-inch tart recipe calls for a 30 minute bake. I figure, half the recipe, divided into smaller pans, should be 15, 20 minutes tops, right?

Nope. Try 27 minutes. I guess they were maybe a lil thicker than the 9 inch tart.

They even looked brownie-like upon emergence, all puffy and shiny and pebbly.

that's interesting.

I was not sure what the consistency would be. I didn't do a very good job of banging out all the bubbles in the batter (woohoo alliteration!), but I swear those jokers just started forming out of nowhere on me.

After they cooled, I tried half a tart.

I liked it. The milk chocolate kept it from being overpowering. The consistency was smooth and...well...soft. Like a flourless brownie, or maybe a souffle. I was surprised, however, that I couldn't really taste the cherries. I had a pretty good-sized layer of 'em in there, and dude, they are maraschino cherries. I think if you're gonna do this, you need some really, really robustly flavored fruit and I might also consider a slosh of some kind of liqueur or juice in the filling to boost. I wanted more contrast but wasn't getting it. Surely the chocolate crust didn't help matters, but---ah, shaddup. It's a good "company" dessert. Fast to throw together, no exotic ingredients, guaranteed (adult) crowd pleaser. Unless your crowd doesn't like chocolate.

*I keep a bar or two in the cabinet because: I am a secret S'mores FIEND. Next to bread pudding, S'mores are my very favorite dessert. I eat them ALL THE TIME. And only Hershey chocolate will do for those. I have tried making them with fancy chocolate and they SUCKED. I know, it's very non-foodie of me, but I did say I wasn't one, didn't I?

TWD: Thumbprints For Us Big Guys*

2010-03-08T23:08:00.003-05:00

Today's TWD post is brought to you courtesy of Mike at Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude (tee hee).

Thumbprints! A cookie that has always left me feeling ".....eh." They're super cute. They are otherwise underachieving. Yeah, you'll eat them if they are presented to you. But no one ever thinks "gee I sure wish I had me some thumbprints right about now." I don't really like jam-filled stuff (surprise, surprise; see: my fruit dessert aversion) but reminded myself AGAIN about the spirit of TWD and bought a $10 bag of almond meal/flour/whatever you wanna call it to make them.

After buying the bag of almond...grindings, I looked in the fridge and realized I had leftover dough for THREE different TWD cookies in there. I was surely gonna have to pawn it off on somebody. And why not pawn these off, too? Once that was arranged, I set about making the cookies.

This was one of the fastest recipes from start to finish that we've done in a while. I beat the aych out of the butter and sugar and it came together nicely.

Some TWDers complained about crumbliness, but my dough somehow was a perfect consistency for hand-rolling (*pops collar*):

so I didn't chill it as some others suggested. I did give it a few turns with a rubber spatula to be sure it was all together. I scooped out the teaspoons of dough and rolled them, thinking these cookies were gonna be really really tiny!

The picture in the book didn't make them look so small.

Those of you who know me in real life know I have ridiculously skinny alien fingers, which though they are not useful for much are good for 1) threading needles and 2) poking tiny holes in things.

Baked the cookies for 12 minutes. They spread a bit but a respectable amount, not bad, and the holes stayed pretty intact. I did press them down to make them even but they were fine.

Apparently there was a Bonne Maman sale at some point, as I discovered THREE different kinds of it at my house.

In my indecision, I went with the Four-Fruit preserve, which after boiling was easy to spoon by 1/4 tsp into the cookies and gelled nicely. I totally forgot to sprinkle the powdered sugar while the cookies were hot, but it still stayed in place and stayed white for a few days afterwards.

My verdict: an ok, inoffensive cookie. Very pretty; nice to serve with tea...if I ever did that sort of thing. The cookie itself is kind of dry and tasteless; some salt would really have improved it for me. As is, some type of filling--and the powdered sugar garnish--are NON NEGOTIABLE. They gave the cookie the interest and complexity necessary to make it eatable. I didn't hate them, but as a non-thumbprint lover they didn't pull me over to the Dark Jammy Side. I don't anticipate making them again.

I asked my tastetester for an opinion and got the following:

K,

So my careful (and scientific) tasting of the thumbprint cookies has concluded and I am pleased to communicate the results of my inquiry: I think that the cookie achieves a nice balance between cookie and jam. The cookie was neither a vessel for delivering the jam, nor did the jam serve as decoration for a variation on a shortbread cookie. The texture was grainy which made it more cookie than pastry, which I suspect was the desired effect. Although my preference is for over-the-top-butter-saturated-artery-clogging shortbread, I found the cookie to be quite a nice substitute to my usual indulgence. A good simple cookie that nicely provides variety to a cookie plate.

(This is what happens when you ask people with PhDs to review cookies for you.)

*what's up with that title? Do y'all associate thumbprints with little kids? Because they make me think of little old ladies. I'm just sayin'.

TWD Spinoff: Les Macarons

2010-03-03T23:00:00.003-05:00

Revered White Chocolate Brownie Campaign Manager CB of I Heart Cuppycakes proposed on the TWD blog that since we'd have so many egg whites (SEVEN!) leftover from the coconut tart, that we make macarons, the little ubertrendy Parisian sandwich cookies that everyone loves and everyone is afraid to make.

And with good reason. Macarons have a reputation for being trying to the soul, even though they are made of only four ingredients. It seems it is not so much that they are fussy or complicated as it is that no one seems to be able to write out really good beginner directions. A lot of the stuff that makes them successful or flops depends, I guess, on your just knowing what to look for. I have tried making macarons once before, with the pistachio macarons recipe from How to Be A Domestic Goddess, a book I usually have pretty good results with. I was prepping for my first trip to Paris and everyone seemed to rave about these cookies, so not really knowing what they were supposed to be like, I tried them. I might not have known what they were supposed to be, or what I did wrong but I knew what I got wasn't it: I got very tasty, very chewy, very flat round discs.

I barely got to try any while in Paris--too many tarts to be eaten and wine to be sloshed, and I never made it to Pierre Herme or Laduree or any of the other places where you are supposed to get your macarons. Even when I saw a darling Laduree cart pushing cookies outside an exhibit on Marie Antoinette, I kept it moving, off to get chocolate l'africain at Angelina.

After returning to the states, I was still intrigued by the trepidation over the cookies and set about doing some research, determined to make some myself. The amount of advice and techniques and recipes and methods and how-tos online was so daunting, I never bothered to settle on one, but I knew I'd come back to it sometime.

So here we are. Caitlin at Engineer Baker recommended Helen's recipes at Tartelette, so I studied them all and also studied other online advice about making the suckers. And on Tuesday evening I went for it.

go #1

First I tried the basic almond meringue recipe. I had just enough almond flour to do it. I weighed my ingredients as best I could, noting for the first time that my scale only goes to 50g increments. I'll need to invest in a small digital one if I keep this up.

I beat the whites till they were sudsy and added the sugar gradually; then realized I didn't know how much to whip the whites.

umm...err...

Afraid of overbeating, I stopped while they were still very soft, and folded in the sugar and almond flour with a bit of coloring. The mixture was very runny, but I thought it looked lava-esque (everyone says it should look like magma, whatever that means) so I piped away...and watched my cookies run into one another.

DANGIT!

I was CLEARLY gonna have to re-do, but determined to see these through, so I let them sit an hour and baked anyway to see if a miracle would unfold.

Lo and behold! They rose and they got feets!

But I didn't have the right time for baking--I remembered that Tartelette's times vary widely, from 8 minutes to 25 minutes--so in addition to being ugly, they never came off the sheet. Ho hum.

go#2

I thought I'd wait till the next day, but considering how frightened I was by this whole "leave-day-old-whites-out-on-the-counter-for-24-to-48-hours" thing and its kinda scary result:

it'sjustwaterit'sjustwaterit'sjustwater, not some evil organisms breathing and breeding

I came back pretty much immediately with Tartelette's pistachio macaron recipe. Out of almond flour, and having no ground 'stachios, I pulled out the processor. Will there be love today?

Alas, no. I was quite disappointed in my processor's grinding ability. I let it go for over an hour and still had to sift, only to have this much stuff left:

What am I doing wrong? Why won't you let me love you?

After reconsulting my source, I whipped the whites to soft peaks this time, hoping that structure would make up for the nuts and sugar still in my sieve.

The cookies still spread on piping but in the oven they did indeed rise and pick up feet. I let them bake for close to 25 minutes. They got a little brown, but I could take them off the sheet. Yay!

I should have tapped the sheet for bubbles before baking.

Still got a ways to go, methinks, but maybe getting there?

I sandwiched them with some chocolate American buttercream I had sitting in the refrigerator and put in the fridge overnight.

And, um, YUM! They have airy tops, thin crackly domes covering dense, chewy centers.

I still have no idea if that is how they should be, but I like them anyway, SO THERE.

I bet Richard Wright liked macarons, too.

TWD: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

2010-03-02T00:51:00.000-05:00

Two words: Aw YEAH!

TWD this month has, as someone noted, largely swung away from chocolatey things; this month we have lots of coconut, which I LIKES. Today's entry is a lovely silky smooth custard tart, flavored with a heaping helping of toasted coconut and a lil' bit of rum. Which I also LIKES. It also meant I got to christen the ol' new processor, yippee!

I have now made Dorie's sweet tart dough with nuts a bazillion times, and the regular dough, too. So since the instructions indicated that the crust was an important part of this pie, I decided something new was in order:

yes ma'am, CHOCOLATE tart crust.

It came together fine but...um...I actually think my lil' chopper did a better job *ducks* Next time I will use the metal blade instead of the plastic "dough blade" (hmph) to cut in the butter. ALSO--there was Spillage of Ingredients, even with the cover locked into place! HATE HATE HATE.

NOT. COOL!

I have the hardest time gauging thickness, so I rolled out the dough on silicone with a piece of wax paper on top and flipped it into the pan, which worked well enough.

Froze overnight and baked with beans as I always get puffiness otherwise.

I toasted the coconut in the oven: a few minutes at 350, stirring when I could pry the cat off my lap. It got a little more than "lightly" brown, but oh well.

Later that night--the custard, which was a really straightforward basic pastry cream.

whisk whisk whisk! By the way, this whisk is probably one of my all time fave kitchen tools.

Some TWDers complained about the coriander and rum. I must use crappy coriander and drink too many rum n cokes because I didn't really taste either.

Folded in coconut and let it chill.

I love making pastry cream. It's so simple!

Then the whipped cream. I didn't really taste the rum here, either, and I even used my super-special-can't-find-it-in-the-States-special-Barcelo Dominican rum. I do use fresh cream from a local dairy, so sometimes its hard to get past the "mmmm, GRASS and DIRT and OUTSIDE" taste for a city girl such as myself.

I have been having the hardest time with whipped cream of late--I always seem to overbeat it to near-butter stage. It goes from liquid to airy chunky-looking mess in a flash. What gives? Must I go back to industrial store brand cream?

Anyway, tart assembly was a snap:

alpha

omega

Just divine creamy goodness with a healthy dose of coconut for interest. Yum yum yum--and even better the second day! Must NOT have more than ONE slice per day...

Thank you, Beryl, for choosing this recipe. Thank you, mayne. I would eat this every day if I could.

TWD: OMG MEGA POST: February is Kind of a Wack Month, Anyway

2010-02-23T23:55:00.002-05:00

So just as I started picking up some occasional readers on this here blog, I get ghost. Not altogether atypical of me, but as a blog reader, I do so hate that! There really hasn't been much going on (besides a general complete and utter lack of motivation to do much of anything--your hostess is Not At Her Best these days), and I have been keeping up with TWD; just not always in time to post for Tuesday.

So today--even though it's late--I'm gonna do a catchup post on the last three TWD entries*, all of which were cookies, so of course I made them all, and I've got the dough in the fridge to show for it. Enjoy!

1. Brownies for Julia

My very first substantial post here at OC was about brownies. I love brownies, but (surprise surprise) I am very particular about them. I don't care for brownies masquerading as cake, nor do I like squares of frosting or fudge pretending to be brownies. The post gave my favorite recipe, an old one from the 1950ish Betty Crocker Cookbook. These brownies, to me, are perfect--shiny-topped, nice and easy to cut and sticky-chewy chocolate goodness--basic box brownie consistency but a 100% better taste.

I was a little iffy when I saw TWD posts describing these brownies as "gooey", and also when I saw the rather intensive process involved in making them. But I signed up for this group for a reason--to challenge myself to try the recipes I might not ordinarily gravitate towards. So I bought the chocolate and off I went.

I did a half recipe in an 8x8 pan. I lined it with parchment to avoid sticking.

I also baked them a little longer than the directions called for. The edges were good and cookie-like; the middle was squishier but still had some texture to it.

Verdict: good. Very buttery, some chewiness; the more fudgy sections in the middle were still edible enough. I was glad I used the half-recipe-in-similar-pan edit; if I had twice the batter I think they would have been too fudgy to be edible for me. I don't think these will replace my BCC recipe in the everyday repetoire--for one thing, they are too fussy--but they might get a repeat viewing if I want a slightly different brownie.

2. My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

If I am exacting about brownies, it stands to reason that I'm exacting about chocolate chip cookies, too. Like my brownies, I like them chewy and buttery. I also like a HEALTHY dose of brown sugar and salt--to me, it's those things that make chocolate chip cookies exciting and addictively delicious, not the chips, which I really often think people go overboard with.

Looking over this recipe, it's a lot like the basic Toll House recipe, the one I usually use, but with a decreased brown-to-white sugar ratio and more exacting directions. There's really not much to say about putting them together--chocolate chip cookies are about the most basic things ever. My only real tweaks: I did go for full salt, I added about a cup of walnuts, and my chocolate chips/chunks were a mix of 60% chocolate, 70% chocolate, and a few milk chocolate chips I had leftover from something a while back.

Verdict: Excelente.

I could definitely taste the difference--the decreased brown sugar flavor--right away, but after a day or so I didn't really miss it. The salt is a must. The texture was great--they were nice and chewy and the mix of chocolates was very good. A lot of TWDers complained that their cookies were flat; I don't know why, but mine were not flat at all but lovely little plump discs that held the exact shape they were scooped into.

yeah, yeah, I know. I took the polish off, ok?

They get a bit more crunchy after a day, but they are still chewy in the middle. I've now had the dough in the fridge for over a week and every so often I scoop out a pan and bake twelve, a very nice plus, especially since I cannot stop eating them. (Which reminds me why I never make chocolate chip cookies--it's not just because I can't decorate them.) I don't have to toss my beloved Toll House recipe overboard, but I likes. An entirely acceptable alternative.

3. Honey-Wheat Cookies

These seemed more exciting. Definitely not somthing I'd choose to make; who the heck has wheat germ sitting around the house? I'm not even sure what it is used for; I am just old enough that I do vaguely remember when "wheat germ" was code for "crunchy granola hippie weirdo food" and since our household was neither crunchy nor granola nor hippie-esque, there was no place for such in the larder. Plus the stuff goes bad! Really?

But! I found a small-ish bag of wheat germ at the local Snooty Chain Supermarket in this here Tiny Town, and all the other ingredients I did have on hand, so I got to work.

I had lemons in the fridge, but I didn't feel like zesting them (see: motivation, complete lack thereof) so I broke out my little bottle of dehydrated lemon zest and rehydrated them suckers.

I also found I had two kinds of honey in the cabinet. I'm not even sure what the difference is in various types of honey, but I went halfsies on each.

The dough was very very soft, but I got it into the fridge without incident and left it for about 4 hours.

I liked forming the cookies, though the dough got all melty on my hands. It reminded me of something I would have made with/for my sisters when they were very little--I seem to recall some "healthy" "no-bake cookie" concoctions involving peanut butter, honey, and oatmeal...

The cookies are like little honeyed wheaty teacakes. Kept their shape, light brown on the bottom and pale on the top.

Verdict: I just made these, so jury is still out. They are nice (and cute!) but I'm not yet certain they are addictive. Not much butter flavor; really I just taste SWEET and WHEAT. If I make them again I'm definitely going for the real lemon zest; you can barely taste it. I'll have a better sense in a couple of days, I think.

Now I'm all caught up. Let's see if I can get back on track this weekend...

*thank yous go to Tanya at Chocolatechic, Kaitlin of Kait's Plate, and Michelle of Flourchild for all the cookie goodness!

I'm still alive.

2010-02-15T00:40:00.000-05:00

However, I am on the road. Will hopefully make up by posting double on Tuesday or Wednesday, for realzies! I made last week's TWD recipe and I plan to do this week's, too. Bake on, party people!

TWD: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundts

2010-02-01T22:26:00.002-05:00

This was the first TWD assignment (chosen by Kristen) since I've joined that is not new to me. I've met and done battle with these cakes once before. The last time was a last-minute emergency dessert effort. I think I was wanting something chocolate, but needing to clean out the cupboard, and all I had on hand was some bars of milk chocolate for baking that I'd had forever. I recall being less than impressed with the cake, though I love milk chocolate*; it sort of reminded me of german chocolate cake (which I LOVE) but only kinda sorta. I was in a hurry, though, and didn't really take any notes.

I thought I'd try it again. I bought fresh chocolate and had everything sit at room temp all day, while I labored in vain to set up my DVD/VCR to work with (rather than in spite of) my cable system. Urgh! This should NOT be this hard.

why you treat me so bad? I don't ask y'all for much. I just wanna watch some football. A little Peyton, a bit of Who Dat. Is that really too much?

My electronics were failing me, but I refused to let the cake follow suit. THIS was going to WORK, dangit!
The batter mixed up easily and is possibly the tastiest cake batter ever. I don't have a minibundt pan, just four small pans, and the batter just filled them all; batter, swirl, batter.

Into the oven they went for about 35 minutes.

I took them out and let one sit for five minutes before turning out. It broke. Waited 10 minutes on the second. Ditto. I left the other two until I happened to think about them again and they fared much better. UGH! They still looked terrible. I couldn't even take a photo.

Having seen all kinds of complaints about the glaze, I used an alternative from another Dorie recipe, with half and half. It worked well. Thanks to Peggy the Baker for sharing!

The cake is quite yummy, but kind of dry and I don't like how it stuck to the pans. Worth keeping but in need of some tweaks; maybe I'll add a finger or two more milk next time.

Also! This week--Friday, as a matter of fact--is my half birthday. I got myself a present:

'tis ON NOW!

*I really wish milk chocolate would come back in style. I know Lindt is not super-premium quality, but there just isn't much selection for milk chocolate (and I like Lindt anyway). I am getting right TIRED of bittersweet everything. Who's with me?

TWD: Cocoa-Nana Bread; or, Why This Isn't Really A Food Blog

2010-01-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

I love to cook, but I'm not really a foodie.

I've come to realize that I spend about as much space complaining about food here as I do saying nice things about it. I never thought of myself as a picky eater. Most stuff, if I went to your house and it's what you were serving, I would eat without complaint. (Unless it was, you know, banana pudding. I'd shoot you Eyedaggers of Death for trying to feed me banana pudding. And talk about you bad later.)

That said, there are some things that I simply CANNOT co-sign. Chocolate things for breakfast are one of them. Chocolate before noon may only come in one of the following three forms:

1) Reese's Puffs cereal (always welcome)
2) Milk-based beverages (chocolate milk/soymilk, cocoa, hot chocolate, chocolate chai tea are acceptable here; must be in the mood and paired with appropriate non-sugary food item)
3) Nutella (limited usage: lightly spread on toast or crepes)

Chocolate does not belong in pancakes or waffles and it does not belong in breakfast bread! Chocolate muffins? C'mon, son! I mean, if you want a cupcake, have a cupcake! Cupcakes have frosting!

And I speak as a person who would cheerfully eat breakfast three times a day. Heck, I had breakfast at 2 today.

So it was with trepidation and a wary eye that I mixed up this week's TWD assignment, the chocolate-banana concoction called Cocoa-Nana Bread. I had about everything on hand. It's quickbread; not much to say about the process. The whole point of quickbread is to be easy and foolproof. I do actually like bananas and chocolate together, so I was fine with the combo.

I love cinnamon with bananas AND I like cinnamon with chocolate, so why not add some here?

I had a lot of bananas, but they were kinda small, so I used 3 instead of two.

'nanners!

post-'nanner

post-cocoa

Peeping Dorie's tendency to be a little happier with the chocolate than I might like, I nixed the chocolate chips in favor of walnuts, which I like better.

As seems to be the usual case for me, baking took longer than anticipated. Maybe I need to check the temp on my oven. My second bake took about 60 minutes before I was satisfied.

pre bake. It was a LOT of batter.

bake 1: whew, no overflow.

bake 2; a bread only a mother could love

Several commenters said it was more like pound cake than bread. I'm not so certain of that. The taste is definitely very much like chocolate pound cake--it's that same sort of relentless O HAI I'M CHOCOLATE SUGARINESS flavor you can get from pound cake, but the texture is definitely more like banana bread. Pound cake is dense, but it has a tight crumb; this is dense but fluffier somehow.

I'm not sure what I think of it. It's tasty. I like the cinnamon and walnut additions. I think I am ultimately unable to get over my fundamental disagreement with chocolate breakfast bread, though I have mostly been eating it in the afternoons. Or maybe it's that I still am eating the almost-candy bars from last week and I just liked them so very much that this is paling in comparison. I'm just not very interested in it. Dah well. I bet the leftovers would be good crumbled up in some whipped cream.

Thanks go out to Steph at Obsessed with Baking for choosing this one. More chocolate next week, but not for morning consumption, so it's ok. Next week's is the first recipe we've done that I've made before! And to think I've had this book for years now.

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

2010-01-19T00:00:00.049-05:00

Hi all. I'm back this week, sort of. Took a few days off from really even trying to do any work on my Project That Will Not End, to redo my bed and order and hang pictures in the townhouse I've already been living in for 5 months. Perhaps I'll say more about that later. For now, we have a TWD recipe to report on, and yea, it was good.

I was giving this recipe the side-eye. I am not usually a big fan of "junk food on top of junk food, infused with more junk and glazed with junk" type creations, and that's what this sounded like: oatmeal and peanuts and brown sugar sandwiching chocolate chips and raisins and peanuts. That is mighty busy for the kid. I decided to make a half recipe, and would have cut it to a quarter recipe had I had the correct size pan.

Anyway. Pulling it together was pretty easy. The dough was nice and non-sticky, very simple to pat down into the pan. It smelled like those mysterious peanut butter crispie bars we used to get in school as a kid. (does anyone else remember those?)

The chocolate layer was slightly more stressful. I had to wash the bowl right before using it to melt the chocolate--I had been using it to hold the dry ingredients for the bottom layer--and I was terrified that I hadn't dried it thoroughly enough and my chocolate would seize.

It was very, very thick and never looked as smooth as I thought it should, but after a while I felt like it might start to stick or seize up or something, so I took it off anyway, figuring that stirring off the heat would do just as well for any small pieces, and whatever didn't melt smoothly would be undetectable due to the peanuts and Craisins I mixed in (I also do not really like raisins).

It spread over the dough without incident, and I had enough dough left over to totally cover the top. I recommend setting aside the larger amount of dough (1 cup in this case).

I baked my bars for the full time specified, cooled on the counter for 2 hours and flipped out (they came in one piece, nothing lost) wrapped in Saran Wrap and refrigerated before cutting. Heeding the warnings of others on TWD about richness, I cut the half-size recipe into 32 bars instead of 16. Though I still seem to eat them two at a time. Go figure. In all the meanings of that phrase.

They are very, very yummy! Sort of like a deconstructed oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. And super CHEWY, which I AM a big big fan of. I'd definitely make these to take to a party, or when feeling particularly fragile (as I was this week). You do need a good bit of lead time due to all the time for chilling, but they are little actual work, so quite worth it. And do add the raisins/craisins; I think they take away from what could be an overwhelmingly sweet treat (I don't know how y'all who added butterscotch chips managed.) Thanks to Lillian for picking this one! (Go see her blog for the recipe.)

TWD: Sorry, Kiddos; and a sort of Rewind, I think?

2010-01-12T22:56:00.000-05:00

Yep. There shall be no TWD post from me today. I can't get up the energy to make this week's assignment at all--just not feeling very good and so not in a baking mood this weekend or today. This whole "New Year" thing isn't doing much for me yet. I'm barely eating these days; so making dough, chilling it, rolling and cutting, chilling, heating a bunch of oil to a proper temp without a thermometer or deep fryer, frying dough, sugaring it twice, eating it before it gets stale or limp--ugh, I'm tired out just typing that. Not this week. No can do.

The most I could muster was a version of Dorie's Parisian Apple Tartlets, thrown together at 2:45 AM:

and this didn't even really brown or puff properly. Harumph.

I am not super amped about the next recipe, but who knows? I'll plan on making it anyway. Harumph harumph harumph.

In the meanwhile, if you are interested in what I am skipping, check out Teanna's full-of-awesome process and recipe post at Spork or Foon?

TWD Birthday Party: Tarte Tatin

2010-01-05T00:56:00.001-05:00

Today is the 2nd anniversary of Tuesdays With Dorie, and in celebration we had two recipes to choose from, after a highly competitive voting process. I voted that we make the Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake, but after seeing a long list of complaints on the site about the cake being dry and the icing not turning out properly, I decided at the last minute to try the other recipe, Tarte Tatin. I've complained here before about fruit desserts, but I'm trying, y'all. I'm really trying.

This recipe was another super simple one, in ingredients and technique. For the crust we were invited to use pie crust, tart crust, or puff pastry. I went with puff pastry, which makes up in ease for what it lacks in longetivity. I used a cake pan to cut out a circle roughly the same size as the 8"-ish pan I was using.

I was a little hasty with the unrolling of the dough there.

Then I melted butter in my stainless pan, sprinkled in some sugar, and layered in cut yellow apples.

mmm. butter.

hoorah! apples!

2 gether 4 eva

It took longer than anticipated for my sugar to caramelize; I must have let it cook for about 25 minutes. Sometimes I really miss having a gas stove and being able to see the heat level.

Once the sugar was nice and brown, I plopped the pastry circle on top, and slid the whole into the oven for 30 minutes.

before

after

I burned the AYCH out of my hand turning this out, but the pain was (somewhat) ameliorated when I saw that it came out perfectly.

No stuck apples, no runover. Yay! I had been concerned because the pastry shrank; but there was no hangover and the tarte was just lovely, all golden brown and shiny. My caramel was liquidy at first, too; but I didn't lose much of it.

The taste is divine. The apples cooked down perfectly and the puff pastry makes it seem like fruited baklava. A definite make-again, especially if the leftovers hold up. I banged this out in less than two hours' time. Next time I might try a mite less butter and sugar. I am trying to figure out a way to take it to a party. I wonder if I can do everything short of baking and stick the pan in the fridge with the dough on top?

I still might make the cake...we shall see! I'm not sure if I'll do next week's deep-fried cookies...

Thanks to Laurie for founding TWD! I've only been baking along since October and it's been great fun.

TWD: Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake

2009-12-29T20:58:00.000-05:00

I was really looking forward to this week's TWD; so much so that even though I was going to be away from home all weekend and I still had pecan pie left, I rushed to make this cheesecake, chosen by The Tea Lady, for Christmas.

I took it upon myself to use my very favorite cheesecake crust ingredient here: Chocolate Teddy Grahams. They went perfectly with the cinnamon in the crust, and the whole thing came together perfectly.

The batter took a little more ingenuity. The directions called for mixing in a food processor. I had to use the KitchenAid. I used the directions for a couple of Dorie's other cheesecakes for mixing guidelines.

The batter was very thick. I've only made "water bath" cheesecake before, so I figured that was normal. Baked as directed, cooled, popped in fridge overnight. It looked GREAT!

Thus I was really disappointed when unmolding the cake to discover that it was crumbly.

I had a really hard time getting it out of the pan and cut into a slice. There were chunks of cake falling unappetizingly everywhere.

No bueno!

The taste is...meh. Not bad, not very memorable either. It's a light chocolate, so I am glad I made the chocolate crust. (The crust is fab.) It's kinda dry. I am wondering if I did something wrong; besides making up the mixing procedure, I used the reduced fat cream cheese for 2 of the 3 sticks, so I wonder if that affected the texture. I don't think I'll make another to find out, though.

TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie

2009-12-22T00:00:00.057-05:00

I thought for a long time about passing on this TWD assignment.

1) I am not a pie enthusiast. Though I think my tastes may be shifting a bit in my not-yet-middle-age (or maybe because I am learning to make them myself instead of trying them when out, so they are just plain better), I have not ever been a fan of fruit desserts and fruit pie is like OMG THE MOST BORING DESSERT EVER. It's like punishment dessert. Puddingy pies are OK, but I always liked them with graham cracker crusts and FOR PETE'S SAKE NO MERINGUE. Bleah.

I love tarts though. Yeah, I dunno either.

2) I have never understood pecan pie. I mean, I loves me some pecans (pronounced "pa-CAHNS", thank you) but pecan pie is just like pecans in congealed syrup, right? It's one of those things that I would really like a detailed history of. Surely it was some kitchen experiment gone wrong? I mean, who thought that was cool?

3) I don't know how to make a pie. I can bake cookies, cakes, tarts, breads, tarts of all descriptions with the greatest of ease but pie? yeah. no. Making pie crust terrifies me, mostly because I don't have a good sense of what a good pie crust should be like, or how to bake it just so so it will all be evenly cooked and browned instead of raw at the bottom and burned on the edges. Dorie's recipe doesn't even tell you how thin a rolled-out crust should be (*mean mug*). Also, all the recipes I have from cookbooks I trust--including Dorie's-- cheerfully insist you use a food processor to mix the dough. Um, I don't have a processor, so I gotta go by hand, and I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure people have been making pie crust for ages without the Cuisinart, though I don't doubt that it makes the work easier and more foolproof.

I also don't really have a good gauge for the consistency of the filling and how to cook it. I can look at a cake batter and tell if the cake will be high or flat, fluffy or dense, whether it will need careful watching or I can just let it go a while. I can look at a cake in the oven and go, "ehh..that's gonna need 'bout 5.293 more minutes" and be correct. Pie? #kanyeshrug

But since I dug in my heels about the Cafe Volcano Cookies last week, and I am here alone for Christmas week with a TON of work to do and freaking out about various and sundry other things, I am baking a pecan pie. This effort is helped along by a friend serving a pecan pie for Thanksgiving that also had chunks of chocolate baked in, and I made myself try it with this upcoming recipe in mind, and I liked it. Amazing.

I was gonna punk out and buy a pie crust, as I usually do, but the purpose of this exercise is to try new stuff and learn, right? So lesson one: the 9-inch single-crust Dorie pie dough is just a bit too much for a tiny 2-cup cheapy chopper machine to blend. So I ended up rubbing in the shortening and frozen butter with my hands, much like with the biscuits. My dough had HUGE chunks of butter in it--it looked like white chunk cookie dough instead of pie crust--but the directions said big lumps were OK, plus I kept seeing in my head all this advice about needing to have lumps of butter to get a "good" crust.

hmmm.

So I let it ride, even after I realized I only used 8 T of butter, not 10. Oops.

After an hour and a half of fridge time I rolled it out. I tried to flute it but the butter pats made it impossible, so I did the old-fashioned, unimaginative fork deco. Wrapped it in buttered foil and dumped in a buncha black beans and baked for a few.

It looked promising! I did have to do a little patching when I took off the foil, but no ginourmous holes were left from the butter melting, and I could swear I was starting to see actual flakes in the pan.

yay!

Once it was cool, I whipped up the filling in the KA. Fast and easy, nothing fussy about it at all. It didn't seem like a lot of batter, but I had to be very careful at the end to get it all in.

I baked the crust a little more after the preceding photo. Here's the filled pie.

And into the oven it went for its first bake.

looks good so far...

Then I turned the oven down for the second bake, and roughly added my homemade pie shield.

This is when things got dodgy. My pie plate is glass, so I had been doing everything 25 degrees lower than the recipe called for. For some reason adjusting to 325 was a feat my oven refused to perform, but even at 350 I had to leave the pie in for about 15 minutes longer to get to the point specified in the recipe. I was so afraid the crust would be burned to a crisp.

It wasn't, though it was plenty brown. The pie looked pretty good, if a bit rough around the edges. Must work on edges.

I had a piece when it was still warm and again today with it cold. I liked it better cold; you can taste it more that way. The filling is surprisingly not super sweet, despite the fact that is is basically corn syrup, brown sugar, and chocolate. It definitely has a "puddingy" consistency that took a little getting used to. But overall, this is a definite winner--the best TWD recipe I've tried in a few weeks. Woo hoo. And the crust is very buttery and flaky, so I think I did pretty well with it, chunks and all. Yay! Now to figure out how to dispose of all this pie in the next couple of days...

Thanks to Beth for this week's selection!

WWK (Wednesday with kate): Cookie Christmas Ornaments

2009-12-16T21:03:00.004-05:00

I'm rebelling, y'all. For the first time since joining the group, I didn't bake the TWD selection. (Sorry MacDuff! I loved your writeup!) Yeah, yeah, I know it was a super easy one. I even had everything I needed here at the house. But...um...I had an irresistable craving for a Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, so I made that, and it was LOVELY. It also meant I didn't need/wouldn't eat the cookies, plus they sounded like meringues and I do NOT like meringues. I do plan to get right with Dorie this weekend and make next week's assignment, but for now...

What else did I do? Well, in addition to the cake, and my first ever from scratch macaroni and cheese, I read and revised and decided this week not to go "home" for Christmas. So I figured I should acquire a tree for myself. I've done it before, and it can be an enormously time and money-consuming endeavor when you are starting with nothing. Knowing I was only gonna have the stuff up briefly, and I'd be gone for at least 3 days, and not knowing whether I'd be reusing any of it next year, I wanted to go economical and simple. So I got a little 4 foot, pre-lit fake tree, and I decided to reduce the number of ornaments I had to buy by making my own ornaments out of cookies.

I am (I think) a pretty skilled sugar-cookie baker, but I've only made cookies for eating (and I think I make a kickbutt sugar cookie!)

objects are deliciouser than they appear

This would be an experiment. The cookies to be nice and sturdy for decorating and hanging, but I don't want them to look clumsy and they don't need to taste good. And the point is to do it on the cheap. With the latter goals in mind, I didn't want to use my usual recipe, which is a little temperamental and calls for all kinds of expensive things to make them tasty.

Searching online I found mostly 3 different kinds of recipes: recipes for regular edible cookies, pleasant but a waste of good ingredients; cinnamon cookies, simple and inedible but I have none of the ingredients on hand. The third recipe that I kept finding was for "salt dough" cookies, which sounded promising except that everyone expects you to decorate with acrylic paint, of which I have none. I really wanted to do my decorations in sugar, which I have plenty of!

So I turned to my cookbooks until I found a suitably simple and home ingredient-friendly recipe. I settled on Peggy Porschen's "Basic Sugar Cookie" recipe from Beautiful Cakes. She frequently uses cookies as hanging decorations, so I knew it was sturdy enough to work. The absence of baking powder told me they probably wouldn't poof and get out of shape, and the ingredient list is short: butter. sugar, flour, egg, flavoring. I left out the flavoring and subbed shortening for the butter and the cookies came out perfectly, (if tasteless)!

Decorating. I had limited time--I do have other work going on after all--so I decided to speed things up by using fondant bases for all the cookies instead of flooding them by hand with icing.

waiting for cookies to come out of the oven

For things I won't eat, I really like to use the basic Wilton fondant you can get at the craft store. It is not the best-tasting commercial fondant AT ALL, but it's really a dream to work with.

rolls out nice and smooth and is easy to pick up

also, probably the best texture for modeling/detail work!

I attached them to the cookies and added dragees where necessary. Then I let them sit overnight to harden.

The next day, I decided to paint details on some of the cookies with luster dust. I was also going to use some royal icing and do some piping, but I accidentally dumped out too much dust, so I figured that was A Sign that I needed to keep it simple, and just stuck to painting in gold and using dragees, edible glitter, and fondant to embellish.

Next day, I beribboned and photographed. Now they are ready for the tree! Here's a sample:

I really like how they turned out, and they were fun to do.

Now if I can only get my hands on some unbuttered microwave popcorn, I can finish this tree...

TWD: Brown Sugar-Almond Sables

2009-12-08T00:00:00.017-05:00

I love cookies. There is a special place in my heart for buttery shortbready cookies. They are so simple, so versatile, and always so good.

So I was excited about today's TWD selection. The original recipe is for plain butter sables, but Dorie suggests several variations, including a savory one with Parmesan. I decided to do a little playing around myself, making brown sugar almond sables by subbing in brown sugar and almond meal.

As is my usual wont, I made a 1/2 recipe. It took me all of about 15 minutes to toss together. My dough was kind of wet and creamy, but with the help of my trusty silpat and some Saran Wrap, I got my 9-inch roll of dough in the fridge.

Took it out after a couple days, and it sliced perfectly into 1/2 inch rounds. I didn't do the extra sugar coating because I don't really care for sugar sprinkles. Mine got a little extra brown around the edges, but I didn't care. They are SO YUMMY! Crispy around the edges, tender in the middle and super buttery (but not oily). A definite make-again. These are competing with the spice cookies as my fave TWD assignment so far.

Want to make some yourself? Barbara's got the recipe. Next week: more cookies!

Persian Butta Luv Cake

2009-12-05T03:06:00.003-05:00

man, that's a terrible photo. Sorry y'all. My camera was trippin'. That's all I got.

Hello bakers! Sometimes I do bake things that are not Dorie-esque. I was gonna make another Rosy Pear Tart this weekend, but a combination of my not being enthused with the amount of work nor the results, and the hostess of the party I was attending exclaiming that "I've had my heart set on one of your cakes!" made me junk that idea. Since we were to have Indian food for dinner, I needed something that would go well with it. I decided on the Persian Love Cake from Epicurious, a recipe I've been eyeing for a good while.

The cake as presented in the recipe is a lemon-cardamom chiffon cake, iced in saffron and rosewater-scented whipped cream and decorated with pistachios and candied rose petals. I actually had most of the ingredients on hand, including some saffron threads I picked up at World Market long ago.

Problem #1. I was eager to make the candied petals but...it occurred to me that I had NO idea where to find edible roses in this town. Nor did I want to spend several days (because I totally will) running around looking for and then paying like $20 each for them. What to do? I remembered that I do actually know how to make full roses out of sugar dough. So I grabbed a roll of marzipan, tinted it, and made petals out of it.

it's about to get SERIOUS!

Nice mindless drudgery while I waited for the chicken and dumplings I was making for dinner (YUM) to cook. Problem more or less solved. Everyone guessed immediately that they were petals. I was worried when I put them on the cake that they wouldn't get it. All right now!

Problem #2

The next night I set about making the cake. I don't know that I've ever made chiffon cake, but I followed the recipe as given. I was a little concerned when after folding in carefully whipped whites, I still had only like 3 cups of batter.

hmm. There is entirely too much empty space here.

I usually fill pans to 1/2 or even 3/4 full, so I was afraid, but I thought "well maybe it rises a lot in the oven? People keep talking about the cake climbing." Um, yeah, no.

Oh NO.

These might not look so bad, but trust me, they are about a 1/2 inch thick. Didn't rise at ALL. By now it is very late and I have another "All-In-One Holiday Cake" to bake (don't judge; I needed to get rid of some fruit). I would need like four more of these to get a presentable cake. The texture, inexplicably, was nice and soft and springy, though. I decide to sleep on it.

The next day I decide--hang it. I used my go-to white butter cake recipe (the one that never fails me), and added lemon and cardamom in proportional amounts. Result?

CHEAH!

Two lovely springy two-inch layers, which taste much like the ill fated ones of the night before.

Problem #3

I made the saffron and rosewater cream, using a whole tablespoon of rosewater (which, by the way, smells DIVINE; I want to wear it) but I blinked for a second and got a weird texture. Instead of soft smooth cream, I got a yellow pile of stuff that looked separated.

ICK.

NO WAY could I give that to anyone. The mouthfeel was perfectly fine, but it did not look good at ALL. I used it to fill and crumbcoat, so we could still get the saffron flavor. I whipped up some rosewater whipped cream (no time to make more saffron cream) and covered the cake. It gave me a bit of a weird texture too, as you can see in the top photo, but not as bad.

I was afraid the guests would find it weird--lemon/cardamom/saffron/rosewater/pistachio/butter cake with whipped cream? MAD busy--but they raved over it. I liked it pretty well too. Definitely worth keeping in the file. The use of the butter cake instead of chiffon inspired the title. Still gotta figure out that whipped cream, though...

extra: the Holiday cake

looks pretty good, no? I was proud.

TWD: Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tarts; in which our heroine makes up for her tardiness by providing lots of photos.

2009-12-01T20:22:00.002-05:00

OK, so I lied. I can't be that slack. The Tuesdays with Dorie assignment (selected by Lauren at I'll Eat You) this week is a tart with pistachio pastry cream and wine-poached pears. I LOVE pears and I LOVE pistachios, (and wine is cool, too) so I couldn't resist trying this one out. In order not to feel like a little piggy, I made minitarts.

still life with excessive turnovers

I love recipes that can be made bit by fiddly bit and stored away for later. First I poached the pears in shiraz, sugar, orange peel and lemon peel while watching a basketball game.

Doesn't this look so Capable Homemaker-y?

I used Bosc pears, and I had to simmer mine for about 50 minutes for them to get to what I would call "tender".

Hello fall!

They were so pretty and red! Very festive.

Once they were done and cooling, I whipped up the pastry cream.

pre-cooking

Annoying: I had the worst time finding unshelled pistachios in this town. And the ones I finally found were salted. Bleah! I only have a little "chopper" thingie, not a real processor (um HI SANTA!), so my pistachios were not as fine as I might have liked. I also forgot and blitzed all of the sugar with the nuts, not half.

pre-blitzing

Oops. It all came out fine, though it was very thick. I also forgot to whisk in the butter. That's what happens when you're doing cheers and baking at the same time, my friends.

Pears and pastry cream were refrigerated overnight.

Next day, I made the tart dough, and decided at the last minute to use mini pans instead of the big pan. I usually make Dorie's tart shell dough with nuts, but I tried the regular sweet tart dough today. It was a little easier to work with than the nut dough.

I baked the shells for about 22 minutes. At 15 minutes they had puffed up, despite having been in the freezer over an hour prior.

these are SO yummy.

I tried to press them down some with a fork. Good thing they will be filled!

I also made caramel-coated pistachios.

This took about 15 minutes to do. Three ingredients. New party snack!

Yum! I might just start making these on GP.

Finally--Tuesday. I put it all together and made a sauce from the poaching liquid. My pastry cream was super thick, so I had to add a little sour cream, as instructed, to thin it out a bit. It was still pretty sturdy, probably from the lack of butter.

filled tarts

poached pears

much fiddliness later -- but still not finished!

Verdict: I'm a little disappointed. It's pleasant. But a little too much work (and too much money) for what you get. I ended up only using 1/2 the pears I poached, and I won't need nearly the amount of sauce I have. The pastry cream is surprisingly blah. I definitely agree that the caramel pistachios are non-negotiable and I do think the sauce helps too. The components themselves are nice but together they aren't giving me much. I had planned to bring this to a dinner party this weekend, but...yeah, I don't think I'll be making this again. I don't even think I'll eat them all. Oh well!

Next week: we're back to cookies. Those shall be on time, as they are a kind of cookie I love.

TWD: All In One Holiday Bundt Cake

2009-11-24T00:00:00.009-05:00

well, aren't you cute?

This week's bit of oven-fresh Dorie Greenspan goodness comes courtesy of Britin at The Nitty Britty (I love that). The title isn't as adjective-happy as Dorie's recipes sometimes are, and I appreciate that. I'm an advocate of fewer modifiers in recipe titles. As a matter of fact, I'd like to see us go back to naming recipes after people, or named for what they look like or remind us of. Like, you know, "Lady Baltimore" cake, or "Hummingbird" cake, or my favorite, "Better Than Sex" cake. Yeah! Let's bring inappropriate and/or random (but memorable!) back!

Anyway. What this is is a bundt cake, not in the "tunnel of stuff" way, but a standard cake-all-the-way-but-not-as-dense-as-pound-cake bundt cake. The "All-in-One-Holiday" descriptor attests to its "fruitcake-xtralite" style; it's essentially a pumpkin cake, with a little apple, a few cut-up cranberries, a few chopped up pecans. It's easy to put together: cream butter and sugar, add wet stuff, add dry, add chunks, bake--but for some reason it took me a long time. Probably because I didn't really bother to do any mise en place but chopped fruit and so on as I went along.

I decided to do a half recipe, which was easy enough; I got enough batter to completely fill four good-sized mini bundt pans. They didn't rise much, so no overflow.

I think I baked them for about 35 minutes in the little pans. I kind of just checked until they seemed just done. I let them cool for the prescribed 10 minutes before turning them out. Several people complained that their cake stuck. I buttered the living daylights out of my pans and only had one of mine stick a little, and I think that was primarily because it had a clump of cranberries at the top. The other 3 came out beautifully.

the ugly duckling tries to push itself into the picture. Isn't that always the way?

After they cooled, I made the suggested maple glaze: a little powdered sugar, a little maple syrup. It was a good addition, but I think next time I'd maybe add a drop of vanilla and/or half-and-half to cut the slightly metallic confectioners' sugar taste.

The taste was...pretty good. Inoffensive.

I have to insert this disclaimer: I don't get the mania for pumpkin, like at ALL. It just tastes like the physical embodiment of "meh." Things with pumpkin always smell so promising--but when I eat them all I taste is wasted potential and failed aspirations. Like they should be more flavorful, but the blandness of the pumpkin just overwhelms everything with mediocrity.

And so it was with this cake for me. It was like 92% really good, and 8% blah, totally because of the pumpkin. (I love pecans, so that bumped up the 92% some.) The texture was nice and fluffy and spongy, very moist.

So overall, the jury's out on whether I would repeat this one. It's easy, and this time of year not too expensive. It's a cake I bet other people (those who grew up eating pumpkin) would like, but I might not find myself wanting some in the middle of the night. If someone else brought it to a potluck, I'd eat some, I'd compliment the baker if I happened to run across him, but I wouldn't make a special effort to find out who brought it, nor would I give it a second thought. It's an inoffensive cake. Polite.

Next week's post will likely be late. The recipe is a lovely tart I've been wanting to try and suspect I will LOVE, but the recipe supposedly needs to be eaten same day, and I have TWO holiday potlucks on that Saturday to attend--so though I know it's against the rules, I'm gonna throw in my Single Head Of Household card and say it's really best for me to make something like that when I can pawn it off on other people. I hope that's ok!

ornamentation

2009-11-21T13:02:00.002-05:00

I called my blog "Ornamental" Confectionery, because in addition to general baking, I also like decorating cakes and cookies. A decorating project can be a nice distraction--a very concrete and exact thing to focus on in contrast to the very abstract and fuzzy stuff I do as my Day Job. I think that is what I really love about baking. I'm not even that crazy about eating stuff (which is why I don't really read many "food" blogs). I like making things, and I gravitate towards the largely unrelenting exactitude of baking. In baking and decorating, it has to be right. Your measurements and temperature of ingredients have to be correct. When decorating, your icing needs to be the proper consistency; your cakes must be balanced just so, with this consistency of filling, in order to remain stable.

That's not to say there isn't some room for improvisation--especially in decorating, you have to make things up on the fly all the time--but you have to have a really good understanding of what will work and why before you can predict what will work.

All that is to say: I haven't really decorated anything in a looong while! As I am winding down the Abstract Project To End All Abstract Projects, I'm thinking I need to come up with a reason to decorate soon. TWD is already providing me with more baked goods than I can eat or dispose of--as of right now I have a serving of Cran-Apple Crisp, about two slices of chestnut cake, half the spice cookie dough, and mini cakes from this upcoming Tuesday's recipe in my fridge. I fully expect the upcoming cookie doughs for December will also find homes in the freezer. And most of the recipes aren't really conducive to decorating, at least not the kind I do, with lots of piping.

That said, watch this space. I'll come up with something. I think.

TWD: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

2009-11-17T00:00:00.001-05:00

Today's TWD assignment is a very simple spice cookie recipe, which you can find at Pam's awesomely-named blog, Cookies with Boys. There's not much to say about it--it's fast, it's easy, it's good. The recipe called for pepper. I used two pinches of pepper in mine but still can't really taste it--but that's ok.

The instructions said the dough would be "very soft." That was no joke, as what I ended up with looked like brownie batter. I let it sit in the fridge for about two hours, and had to work fast to form the cookies.
Heeding all the warnings about spreading, I only put 6 cookies on my sheet and that was perfect. They did indeed spread A LOT.

just before baking

just after baking. um, wow.

The cookies are thin, sweet, and buttery, with a perfect cookie texture--crisp outside, chewy in the middle. I felt they were a little more bland than my usual gingerbread cookie recipe, so I might experiment with the spices next time, but I will definitely be making these again. Since the dough is refrigerated, and the full recipe only makes 24 cookies, I can easily have dough in the freezer to make myself a few cookies here and there. WIN.

Next week is another cake, a bundt cake this time. I'm not super excited about it, but it'll probably not be so bad.