Tuesdays With Dorie: A Buche and a Nightcap… December 30, 2014

Came into a bar.

I swear the title sounds like something from a bad joke.

I am a little behind with regard to posting.  I made the Chocolate-Mint Nightcaps (Baking With Julia, page 309) for my husband to take to work, and I actually made them on time.  I ended up making the Gingerbread Buche de Noel (Baking Chez Moi, page 86) for Christmas.

For the nightcaps, I ended up not putting the cap on them because 1) transport would be difficult and 2) piped brown icing ALWAYS looks like poop.

I am sorry.  It really does, and I know I wasn’t the only one thinking it. But I might have been the only one that typed it 🙂

The cookies actually turned out really good.  I think I would have preferred a peppermint oil or extract in the chocolate ganache instead of boiling mint leaves in cream.  It was one of those, what is that interesting flavor and it is throwing me off because I was expecting chocolate and not mint leaf flavor. I ended up rolling the edges in some chocolate sprinkles that I had left over.  I should have rolled them in crushed up candy canes, but then I would have had to smash candy canes.  That would have alerted the villagers that mommy was making cookies and had the chocolate out.

The Gingerbread Buche de Noel surprised me at how many steps there were. I have made rolled cakes before and this is the first time that I have had to pre-roll the cake while warm. I was happy when the cake plopped right out of the pan and onto the powdered sugared towel.  I didn’t expect it to be that easy and it rolled nicely too. With regard to the actual recipe, I was surprised there was no sugar in the filling so I added about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to sweeten it a bit.  For the icing it threw me off 1) that I was making an Italian Meringue and 2) there was cream of tartar in it.  I usually make an Italian Buttercream for the outside of my Buche de Noel’s anyways.  Well I followed the directions, and I didn’t like the icing.  I LOVE meringues so I am thinking it was the addition of the cream of tartar that just made it taste off. So when I eat the gingerbread cake, I just scrap the icing off the outside and I am good 🙂

Tuesdays With Dorie: Savarin June 4, 2013

For the week of June 4, the recipe for Tuesdays With Dorie was Savarin which is located on page 416-417 in Baking With Julia.

For this recipe , I actually didn’t have a Savarin pan so I used my doughnut pan and made 6 mini Savarins. This recipe was actually really easy to make and the rise time for the dough was really short. I made some modifications to the recipe based on ingredients that I had in the house. The recipe called for pear water, which I didn’t have so I left it out of the recipe. For the raspberry puree, I didn’t see the point to making it when I only needed 2 tablespoons, so I tossed fresh raspberries with heated raspberry preserves. I think it turned out just as good. The Savarin dough did have a very yeasty flavor, but it wasn’t anything that bothered me since the simple syrup (rum), whipped cream, and raspberries balanced out the flavors.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cream Scones July 12, 2011

The Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for July 12th was picked by Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu.  She picked Dorie’s Cream Scones which are located on page 27 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  I actually made these the week after the challenge and then never posted, opps.  That is currently the story of my life because of Emma (my zombie baby…one of the many nicknames she has acquired).  She is currently sleep contently in my arms while I type this 🙂

For the Cream Scones, I decided to mix it up a bit and add a little flavor to them.  I stuck with the base of the recipe, but then I made the following additions/deletions:

1) Instead of currants I used chopped pecans

2) Added 3 tbsp of pumpkin puree and 1/4 tsp of pecan extract to the wet ingredients – I had some pumpkin leftover in the fridge 🙂

3) To add that traditional pumpkin pie flavor, I used 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground ginger to the dry ingredients.

I knew this dough was going to be sticky so instead of added extra flour, I decided to use Dorie’s trick for shortbread.  I put the scone dough in a 1-gallon plastic bag, then I rolled it  inside the bag so that it was a even thickness.  I placed the bag in the freezer for about 15 minutes so that it would firm up and be easier to cut into 12 pieces.  Once the dough was firm, I sliced the bag open on the seams, cut it in half and cut each half into thirds (fat rectangles).  Then I cut eat rectangle on the diagonal, to form triangles.

After the scones were done in the oven, I drizzled them with two icing: vanilla and cinnamon.  The vanilla icing was just 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, splash of vanilla extract, and 1-3 tbsp cream.  You mix them together until you get the desired consistency.  For the cinnamon icing, I just added about 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon to the left over vanilla icing.

The scones turned out fantastic.  I was going for the flavor of Starbucks’s Pumpkin Scones and I think I might have hit it on the nose with this one.  I think next time, to make the scones thicker that I won’t roll them out as thin 🙂