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

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

*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

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

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

 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

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*

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'.