Tuesdays With Dorie: Citrus Sablés December 8, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is  brought to you by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara.  She chose Dorie’s Sablés which are located on pages 131-133 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  Sablés are essentially a shortbread cookie.  For this recipe I decided to play around and use the zest of half of an orange and half of a lemon.  I figured since they already had half of their zest gone from last weeks Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart, that I should go ahead and use it

I rolled the Sablés in a mixture of red and green sugars, since I am currently out of plain white decorating sugar.  These little cookies are fantastic.  If I am not careful, I will eat them all.  I might have to make some more and include them in the cookies that I give to my family for Christmas.  More than likely I will be making the same cookies and adding a few more.  Here are the two posts I did last year: Part 1 and Part 2

Tuesdays With Dorie: Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart December 1, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is brought to you by Lauren of I’ll Eat You.  She chose Dorie’s Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart, which is located on pages 370-371 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  The picture of this tart in Dorie’s book is GORGEOUS!!!!  With everything going on I almost completely forgot to make it this week.  Lately, when everything has been going right something craps out with my car.  This time it was the driver’s side back window.  It decided to randomly start rolling itself down while we were driving down the freeway.

In the middle of getting the car fixed yesterday, I actually found time to make this tart.  I decided that since we still have half of a cherry pie and half of a pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving still in the fridge, that I was only going to make half a recipe.  I ended up making 4 small tarts.  I actually only used 1 poached pear for all four so I have 2 poached pears chilling in my fridge waiting to be devoured.  The tarts turned out beautiful.  The lighting outside was actually perfect so I took the tarts outside on the deck and took the pictures.  YAY for no rain today

I will be digging into these later today, so once I have tasted all the components together I will give everyone an update on the flavor

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake November 17, 2009

This weeks out of order Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Katya of Second Dinner.  She chose Dorie’s Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, which is located on pages 269-272 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The picture of this cake in Dorie’s book is beautiful.  I thought about going the same route as Dorie and making it in a square cake pan, but I couldn’t do that to myself.  I do own one.  I think it is because where I work I am use to glazing round cakes with chocolate.  Holding the cake in one hand, while simultaneously pouring chocolate glaze and turning the cake.  It take a bit getting use to, but I knew I could do it and have it come out pretty good.  I also decided to finally use my adjustable round cake form that I got last year for my birthday.

I built the cake inside of the form, place it in the fridge to set up (3 hrs), un-molded the cake, and smoothed out the icing on the top and sides.  I placed the cake in the fridge again to get firm before I poured the glaze over the cake.  I was surprised that everything turned out so well.  I should have taken a picture of the inside of the cake, but I ended up taking to my Nanny’s house and then it went down to the shop so the rest of it would get eaten.  I loved the taste of the cake.  It wasn’t too sweet, and one slice was just enough.

The ingredients for this cake was a little hard to find.  I was surprisingly able to find jarred chestnuts at my local grocery store, however, they didn’t have the spread.  I ended up ordering the Chestnut Spread from The Frenchy Bee.  My order was fulfilled in a timely manner and I got the product rather quickly.  I don’t know if I will ever make this cake again because it is a little pricey, but it was very delicious.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies November 10, 2009

This week marks another Out Of Order Tuesdays with Dorie November.  This week I made Dorie’s Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies, which was chosen by Pamela of Cookies with Boys.  These cookies are located on pages 76-77 in Baking: From My Home to Yours. Pamela has a great blog and I love it that she posts cute pictures of her boys.  They are extremely adorable.  I have to say that I am so happy that she chose these cookies because they are fantastic.

They do spread out a good amount so you need to make sure you give them plenty of room.  I baked 6 to a pan (1/2 sheet pan) and they had plenty of room after they spread.  I loved the crunch of the outside of the cookie and the soft inside.  It was perfect with a cup of tea (50/50 mixture of Haute Chocolate Rooibos and MatéVana Herbal).  The nice spice and the hint of pepper in the cookie was perfect.  These remind me of Fall in a nice little cookie package

Cruise on over to Pamela’s blog, Cookies with Boys, to get the recipe because you will love this recipe and they way it makes your house smell.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cran-Apple Crisps November 3, 2009

For this month, we have been given an option to post about any of the November Recipes as long as it is on a Tuesday.  Since I was having issues finding all the ingredients for the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, I decided to make the Cran-Apple Crips instead.  Fear not, I will be making the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake after I order the Chestnut Spread.  Believe me I checked everywhere: Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and local grocery stories

Todays  Tuesdays With Dorie was chosen by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef.  She chose Dorie’s Cran-Apple Crisps which are located on page 422 in Baking: From My Home to Yours. I was very happy when this recipe popped up because my parents just came to visit and brought me Granny Smith Apples from a local orchard and who doesn’t like apples and cranberries together

For this recipe, I decided to bake it in my large Souffle dish.  Probably wasn’t the best idea, but I did it anyway.  It turned out pretty good except I think it need to cook little longer but the top was starting to darken.  I did cover it in foil and wait until the juices start to bubble. I think next time I will definitely go with a pie pan   I thought that the crisp was fantastic.  I loved the cinnamon and coconut in the crust.  I actually got someone that doesn’t like coconut at all to eat this and he loved it.  I will definitely be making this again.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte October 27, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is brought to you by April of Short + Rose.  She chose Dorie’s Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte which is located on pages 284-285 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  I have been very intrigued by this recipe because Dorie based it off of a Black Forest Cake with a TWIST. For this recipe, I decided to divide it in half and bake it in a 6 x 2 inch round pan.  It baked up perfectly, and then I discovered (after it was almost cool) that the inside wasn’t completely done so I had to put it back in the oven for 15 more minutes.

I decided to use rum instead of kirsch since I had rum on hand and didn’t feel like buying a 750 ml of Kirsch because the liquor store didn’t carry airplane bottles of it   I was hoping to finish this recipe in time to take it to my Nanny and PaPa’s but with having to bake it again it threw off my whole planning schedule.  While I was making this I was also putting together a birthday cake and doing my Daring Bakers’ Challenge.  Can you say procrastinator?

This turned out pretty good.  I liked the flavor, however, it is rich so I can only have it is small doses.  I have no idea what to do with it now because I currently have no one to give it away to now.

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Macarons October 27, 2009

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.  I love macarons.  They don’t take long to make, but it takes patients and knowledge about the process to get the perfect macaron.  I have made them a few times, but I haven’t taken the time to perfect them yet.  I have been lucky enough to get little feet on them every time, but I think I have over worked the batter because they are more flat than the traditional almost boxy look.

Since Halloween is on Saturday, I decided to make them a little festive.  I made the macaron chocolate and dyed it black with black powdered color, and then I made a white chocolate ganache filling that I dyed orange.  They turned about pretty good, but I think next time I will use a higher quality white chocolate.  To get the pretty swirl design set aside a small amount of the batter before you add the cocoa powder and dye to it.  Once you have the macarons piped out take a toothpick and swirl the white into the piped macarons.

Macarons

Source: Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern

Ingredients

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)

Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)

Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)

Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

1 tbsp Black Cocoa Powder

1 tbsp powdered Black food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Pumpkin Biscuits…Vegan Style October 20, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Erin of Prudence Pennywise.  She chose Dorie’s Sweet Potato Biscuits which are located on page 26 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  All last week, I kept thinking if making these pumpkin would be okay.  Then I strolled on over to the comments section and somebody asked the question I was thinking, and Laurie actually came back with what to do via Dorie.

Yeah, that sounded completely confusing

I ended up making these late last night.  Yay, for procrastination baking.

If you want to make the recipe pumpkin you have to add the following to the recipe: 2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp granulated sugar, and 3/4 – 1 cup pumpkin puree.   I also decided to up the spices and I added a pinch of the following: ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.  The spices added a hint of that pumpkin spice flavor in the background.  Finally, to make these vegan I just substituted 6 tbsp of  Earth Balance Vegan  Buttery Sticks for the 6 tbsp of unsalted butter.

These turned out GREAT.  I heated a few up in the microwave :SHOCK: and added some spread to them this morning for breakfast.  I have to say that mine were not as flakey as others, but I would be to blame on that front.  I man handled the dough   But as biscuits go, I would more than likely make these again if I had some extra pumpkin on hand.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Vegan Apple Allspice Muffins October 13, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is brought to you by Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table.  She chose Dorie’s Allspice Muffins which are located on pages 16-17 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  I was really looking forward to making this recipe  and then I tasted a Vegan Apple Struesel Muffin at Ellwood’s Coffee, and it was fantastic.  I knew at that moment that I was going to try to recreate the muffin using Dorie’s recipe.  I also chose the vegan options because this month is Vegan Month of Food (VeganMoFo).

To make this recipe vegan I substituted canola oil for the butter in the batter, used Ener-G Egg Replacer for the eggs, and Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks for the crumb topping.  I also added one Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced to the batter.

I thought that these muffins would be a little bit better with some cinnamon added to the batter.  However, I decided not to add it to the batter since the title dictates that these be allspice muffins, so I refrained.  The final product was very moist and yummy.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart September 29, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Carla of Chocolate Moosey.  She picked Dorie’s Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart which is located on pages 355-357 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  Once you see the picture to these in Dorie’s book, you are going to want to make these.  On top of that there is caramel, honey roasted peanuts, AND chocolate.  You have to be crazy not to want to try these.

I haven’t had honey roasted peanuts in FOREVER.  I love them.  I remember when I was a kid and I would visit my grandparents there would always be a can of honey roasted peanuts.  I always had to be careful not to eat them all because they were also my grandpa’s favorites

WOW!!!!

I love these.  The combination of the dark chocolate ganache and the caramel and peanuts is AWESOME.   I made 1/2 a recipe and ended up making 5 mini tarts.  I used all the caramel, but I did have some left over ganache.  I would definitely make these again and they actually didn’t take very long too make.