Tuesdays With Dorie: Boca Negra February 19, 2013

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Boca Negra, which is located on page 253 in Baking With Julia.. This recipe is being hosted by Cathy of A Frederick Food Garden.

I actually made this recipe for my 31st Birthday, which just happens to be Valentine’s Day. The recipe calls to use Bourbon (cake and topping) and I was afraid that Mike wouldn’t appreciate it if I used the good stuff. So I used rum in the white chocolate cream, and Chambord in the cake. With the Chambord I was hoping for a raspberry flavor, which it did impart a hint. For the white chocolate cream, which was pretty much a ganache, I didn’t feel comfortable using alcohol since I am 7 months pregnant. I still wanted the flavor so I decided to boil the rum with the cream so that the alcohol could cook out. Once the cream had cooled it had thickened but not enough for my liking, so I poured the cream into a mixing bowl and whipped up the cream to stiff peaks. I preferred the cream this way and it photographed better.

For the cake, I baked it in an 8-inch pan instead of a 9-inch and baked it for 40 minutes (recipe calls for 30 minutes). I was afraid that I might not have baked the cake long enough, especially since it was in a smaller pan. I decided to wait a bit before flipping it out on a serving plate, just in case.

And….

I was right, the cake probably could have used 5 more minutes in the oven because one of the sides wasn’t completely set and when I turned it out onto a plate one side slide out just a little. Which actually made it the shape of the Star Trek Enterprise ship. The fact that I noticed that makes me a complete nerd.

Mike and I ate the cside that slide out and it tasted great, but it is very rich. It was like eating straight chocolate ganache, and the cream on top was nice and cut the richness a bit. Next time I make this I will probably only make half a recipe of the cake and a quarter recipe of the cream because a little of both goes a long way.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Focaccia February 5, 2013

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Focaccia and it is being hosted by Sharmini of Wandering Through. This recipe can be found in Baking With Julia on page 143.

For bread dough this recipe was very simple. Granted it did need to go through two different rises and then rest for 24 hours before baking. I ended up only letting it rest for 12 hours because I was impatient and wanted to eat the Focaccia for lunch. Since the recipe makes three loaves, I decided to only bake one of them and freeze the other two dough balls for later use.

I flavored my focaccia with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Oil from The Olive Press and then sprinkled kosher salt, fresh rosemary and thyme (that happened to be still alive in my garden) on top before baking. I decided to forgo the slits in the dough and just pressed it down before baking.

The Focaccia turned out perfect. The use of the oil and the fresh herbs gave the bread a nice flavor and the texture of the bread was soft and perfect for a sandwich.