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.

The Daring Bakers’: Vols-au-Vent September 27, 2009

The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

When I read that we were going to be making Puff Pastry I was a little excited.  I have actually only tried my hand at it once and it didn’t turn out as nice as I would have liked.  I made the typical mistake.  I tried to roll out the dough when the butter was too cold and it broke into pieces and you didn’t get the beautiful flakes.  Well not this time.  It turned out perfectly and it only took me 2.5 hours to make the dough with all 6 turns.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cottage Cheese Pufflets September 22, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes.  She chose Dorie’s Cottage Cheese Pufflets which are located on pages 148-149 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Every time I saw the title to this recipe I kept thinking that it was something savory until I actually read the recipe through.  Like a lot of the members I had problems with this dough being a little sticky, and I even added a little more flour to the dough and covered my table in flour before rolling it out.  It was a little temperamental.  After messing up half the dough and throwing it out, I ended up rolling out really small quantities of dough to make it easier on myself.

I  filled these babies with homemade peach-blackberry jam.  The pufflets are very yummy and perfect when you want a sweet treat that isn’t crazy sweet.  You could probably fill this dough with just about anything and it would taste yummy, sweet or savory.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Flaky Apple Turnovers September 15, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was selected by Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen.  She chose Dorie’s Flaky Apply Turnovers which are located on pages 316-317 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Apples, Cinnamon….what else in this world pairs perfectly together?

Yes, I know a lot of stuff.  But just let me imagine nothing else does

When I made the dough this afternoon, I thought wow this is easy.  While the dough had its rest time in the fridge I watched Buffy and had my rest time on the couch.  I got everything put together and the turnovers looked great before going into the oven.

AND THEN…

I was brushing them with egg wash and a seam starts to come apart and leak yummy apple juice everywhere.  I reseal it and place them in the oven.  I checked the oven a minute later and all of the seams are opening and juice is everywhere.

GRRRR!!!

Now I realize that there is nothing wrong with an ugly apple turnover.  As long as it tastes good, I am a happy camper.  But all of the thick apply goodness is leaking out and that is my favorite part.  While I waited for these to come out of the oven, I was dreading the sticky mess that was leaking all over the sheet pan that I would have to clean later :/ Thank God for Silpat

I ended up baking these bad boys for 25 minutes and they actually look pretty decent and all the filling didn’t completely come out.  I only made 1/3 of the recipe and I ended up with 6 turnovers.  Out of the six, one turned out beautiful it that “I am kinda messy but you can still see the beauty in me” way.  You can actually see the layers in the bottom half of the pastry and it puffed up beautifully.

The results, YUMMY!!!!!

FYI I wrote the end of this post 4 times and the first two times I loved what I wrote and wordpress didn’t save it right.  I swear it wasn’t user error.  I keep having to try to remember what witty comment I made and of course when you try to think back it never comes out as good as it did the first time.