TWD - Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Coming from page 321 of Baking, is this pie that is a combo of pumpkin and pecan pie. Now, I'm a huge fan of pecan, but not of pumpkin. This turned out to really be a pumpkin pie with some pecan goo on top. Not my style. But I took it to the in-laws house and it all got eaten! That's one in the success column to me.

Please go to La Casserole Carree by Vibi to view the recipe for this pie. You can cut two pies down to one this Thanksgiving and make everyone happy!

The only change I made to the recipe was to leave out the rum. No pictures this time - it all got eaten before I could get one!

TWD - Arborio Rice Pudding

This week's recipe was chosen by Isabelle of Les Gourmands d'Isa. It can be found on pages 412-413 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.




It's a very simple recipe, but I wasn't content to do simply vanilla or chocolate rice pudding - I added 1/4 up pumpkin and the typical spices. It was great!

The texture of the rice was awfully soft, a little more than I'm used to, and it was a little more soupy, but it was fine. I'm actually not a big fan of rice pudding, so I probably won't make it again.

TWD - Rugelach

This week's recipe comes from Piggy of Piggy's Cooking Journal. Rugelach is a typically Jewish dessert made with a tender dough that uses both butter and cream cheese. They bake up very tender and flaky.

I made rugelach several years ago for Christmas from a Martha recipe, and I remember it being a drawn-out mess of a recipe that yielded a fantastic result. I believe we made it with apricot filling... Dorie's uses jam, cinnamon sugar, currants, nuts, AND chocolate. I cut out the currants because I didn't have any, and decided to get creative and use leftover Halloween candy for the chocolate part.



Dainty little pastries

I used Hershey's bars, Baby Ruth, Snickers, and Butterfinger bars, but honestly, when they baked up I couldn't tell much of a difference.

The dough tastes wonderful and very rich, but I didn't care much for the filling. I think I'd rather utilize a pure-fruit filling next time. I know, call me crazy!

The dough gets rolled into a 12-inch circle then cut into sixteenths. This made for very small crescents to get rolled up and I found it to be very fiddly. Next time I'd just cut them in 8 I think.

Not a bad recipe, certainly, but not my favorite.

TWD - Chocolate-chocolate cupcakes

Today's recipe is a chocolate cupcake with a ganache
icing. All hail the new favorite Dorie recipe! She describes them as being more for adult than child palates and I would have to agree - the cake utilizes cocoa and just a smidge of melted chocolate and the ganache is a deep dark, bittersweet glaze. They come off as not very sweet, and there is certainly no cloying buttercream here.

Many bakers commented they had dry cake and pulled their cakes out earlier than recommended, but I had no problems with either. They were great, and the smooth ganache made them easy to decorate.


"pumpkin-themed jimmies and orange sanding sugar"

These were also really easy to make, and an even dozen made it easy to get rid of them. They are on page 215-217 of the book, and were chosen by Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought.

Tuesdays with Dorie-Pumpkin Muffins

This week's recipe is perhaps my favorite recipe so far - Pumpkin Muffins! I just love pumpkin in baked goods and savory things.

The recipe was picked by Kelly from Sounding My Barbaric Gulp and can be found on page 13.

They were incredibly moist and flavorful and were devoured quickly. I left out the nuts because some people are opposed to nuts (I know, crazy, right?!?) and added chocolate chips to half the batch (YUM).

The only thing about them was the cooking temp and time - 400 degrees for 25 minutes. I've never baked muffins at that high a temp and certainly for that long. I went ahead and cooked at 400, but only went for about 19 minutes. They were perfect!

Thanks Kelly for picking this perfect seasonal recipe.



Tasty split and toasted!

TWD - Lenox Almond Biscotti

Today's recipe is brought to you by Gretchen from Canela & Comino, and can be found on pages 141-143 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.


These were not at ALL like biscotti I have made in the past; the dough was very wet and they spread quite a bit on the baking sheet. Other bakers reported the same thing so surely I didn't do it by accident?? ;)



My Big Fat Lenox Biscotti

The biscotti are studded with sliced almonds and have a very strong almond/sweet flavor due to 1 1/2 teaspoons of almond extract. They also have an addition of cornmeal, which is very unusual.

I didn't care for either of those additions, finding the extract too cloying, even after baking, and the cornmeal was left in my mouth long after eating the biscotti. It just felt gritty. I really expected it to bake into the dough more.

I'll stick with my tried-and-true recipe that I always give out at Christmas time from Martha, Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti.

TWD - Caramel Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

This week's recipe was a brownie cake, covered in a caramel with salted peanuts, chosen by Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy on pages 264 and 265.



I had really high hopes for this cake, but I started having a bad feeling about it when I went to several stores and couldn't find the 8" springform pan it called for. I baked it in a 9 1/2" pan so it was thinner than it should have been. Then, the caramel took forever to even approach an amber color, then shot to burned tasting in no time. I was very upset with myself.

I ended up taking the cake to a neighborhood party. The caramel had set for a while, but even then, when I cut the first slice, the caramel came oozing off the top into the empty space. I was just disgusted with the cake at that point. I had one bite and didn't even like the brownie part of it.

So - I won't be making this again. I thought it didn't have enough peanuts, and my hubby said he didn't like the peanuts with it at all, that it overpowered the cake. My feelings are just bad about this cake!

TWD - Creme Brulee

Ahh, ye olde standby, creme brulee. Served in every "nice" steakhouse the country over. I used to be wowed by creme brulee. Then I made it - a 10-minute custard with some burnt sugar on top.


It is totally my fault that I'm not big on creme brulee anymore. It's lost all its mystique - like looking behind the curtain and finding the Wizard. But hey, YOU are more than welcome to make it and enjoy it in all its glory. Don't listen to the old bitter lady. ;)

This week's recipe was chosen by Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake and can be found on page 393 of Baking, From My Home to Yours.

The recipe suggested using either sugar or light brown sugar for caramelizing, but the brown sugar clumped and burned and I didn't like it at all. The plain sugar is definitely my pick.

TWD - Chocolate Chunkers

This week's recipe is exactly the way it sounds - chunks with chocolate. Claudia of Fool for Food chose this recipe. (yes, it's in German)



Nuts, chips, chunks, and fruit all made their way into this cookie. I subbed Craisins for raisins (raisins and chocolate just don't go together in my world) and used toasted pecans, although Dorie suggested salted peanuts. I love my pecans, but I really think the peanuts would have been great in this. Next time I'll cut down on the fruit or leave it out entirely, and put in more nuts. I could barely discern the semi-sweet chips and milk chocolate chunks in the cookie because of the chocolate base.

I was really looking forward to these cookies, but they didn't live up to my expectations. They are far from bad I just thought they would be better.

Anyway, my family and friends are enjoying the fruits of my labor...

TWD - not a fan of malt

This week's recipe was a cook with malt powder in the dough and Whoppers chopped up. I do NOT like malt. I don't like to drink malts and I do NOT like Whoppers. bleah. They always taste so chalky.

So instead, because I needed a birthday cake for my mom's party this week, I turned to the Dorie book and on page 250 I found the Perfect Party Cake. Perfect it is!



The recipe as written calls for raspberry preserves but my mom specifically asked for apricot so I used a jar of preserves (way more than the 2/3 cup called for).

I had never made a Swiss meringue buttercream successfully before, but this one came together beautifully.

Everybody loved it, including my mom. I was ok with it, it wasn't up there with my favorites. (I think I am just not a white cake fan). But it is very versatile and bakes up great so I'll use it in the future.



4 layers with buttercream and apricots sandwiched between - yum!

TWD - Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

Isn't that a mouthful? This week's recipe comes courtesy of Stefany of Proceed with Caution. They are almost kitchen sink cookies, with oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, peanuts, and whatever else you feel like adding. (I added salted peanuts and peanut butter chips)

I really felt like the salted peanuts made the cookies. The recipe didn't call for much salt in them, and I felt like it played off the sweetness of the chips (there were a lot of chocolate chips) really well.

Letting the dough chill well was important, as it was much easier to work with and they didn't spread very much.


Ready for the oven!

The peanut butter flavor isn't very pronounced, so don't think of these as a peanut butter cookie with oatmeal. They have cinnamon and nutmeg and I don't know if I added too much nutmeg or because it was freshly ground, but I could really taste it in the end product and it was a really good flavor.

Everyone loved them and I might make these again!

TWD - Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

This week's recipe was chosen by Amy of Food, Family, and Fun. It is on pages 288-289 of Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours.

I just made an ice cream cake for my husband's birthday of chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream. That one fed 20 people, so I did NOT want more ice cream cake hanging around. Mini cakes, it had to be. (and they are so cute, too)

In my opinion, almost any vessel can be used for this dessert. The recipe specifies a springform pan. In the past, I have made ice cream cakes with a springform pan as well, but this past time I took a tip and poured ice cream into the same plastic-lined cake pan I would use to bake my cakes so that I'd have a perfectly frozen same-size round of cake to place on top of my baked cakes. It worked perfectly.

So this time around, I made layers of ice cream and ganache in tiny cake pans and in a mini loaf pan: 2 4-inch cake layers and one mini loaf. I think you will agree they came out too cute!



This was the first torte, right after unmolding. I like to think it was my practice one. I wised up after this, and returned the torte to the freezer after unmolding to re-harden. I also didn't run as much water over the bottom of the pan to unmold. The ganache doesn't hard-set thanks to eggs and it really didn't need much coaxing to get soft enough to unmold.



This is the second cake-shaped mini torte. I really loved how it came out, and the inside looks GREAT.

I used homemade vanilla with Godiva liqueur and lots of mix-ins here. You can see a cross-section of the chips and nuts.

For the mini-loaf, I used Blue Bell Moolennium Crunch ice cream, which is another vanilla base with lots of nuts and chips.



Do you remember those desserts in the nineties called Viennetta? I remember the commercials - slicing into a loaf-shaped dessert that seemed to have layers of something crunchy. Well, they apparently don't sell them in the US anymore. If we go back to the UK I'll have to get one. This very much reminded me of the Viennetta!



My husband just absolutely loved these tortes. He was so excited to know that after dinner every day for about 6 days he got torte for dessert. Besides, who doesn't like saying the word "torte"! I feel fancy just saying I made one. That thickest layer of ganache up there on the loaf suuuuure is good. ;)

TWD-Granola Grabbers

This week's Dorie recipe was for Granola Grabbers - cookies made from granola, fruit, nuts, and coconut. They were chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking.

These were kind of unusual cookies as they had no leavening, just the good stuff, butter, egg, and a little flour. They were actually really sticky and kind of gross when I was making them into the cookies, and came out greasy on the cookie sheet.

Now, 2 days later, they are much better and have set up into a nice, chewy cookie. I would probably make them with less sweet fruit next time, up the salt, and maybe add some chips. They are pretty sweet. All the better to go with a glass of milk!



I really liked the play of the salty peanuts against the sweetness, hence why I think it could do with even more salty goodness.

Next week is an ice cream torte. I think I'm going to have to at least half that recipe, given our ingestion of ice cream around here lately...

TWD - Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

This week's Dorie Greenspan recipe was chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. I was pretty excited about this recipe because I haven't used my Cuisinart ice cream maker in a while.

I'm usually not a big blueberry fan, but they went really well with the sour cream. I tasted the base before it went into the fridge and I knew I was going to like the ice cream - I also knew I wanted to try other fruits!

It's a very rich ice cream, and has that characteristic twang from the sour cream. I don't think everyone would like it, but my husband and I enjoyed both flavors we made.



(The deep rich color of the blueberry - which turned out to be more of a raspberry color - in the background, and the delicate strawberry flavor in the foreground.)

For the strawberry version, I used a cup of cut up strawberries and followed the recipe for the ice cream, but used only 1/4 cup sugar. I also had to partially sub half and half for the heavy cream. It turned out great, if a bit tart. The sour cream flavor worked completely differently for the strawberries.

You don't need much of this ice cream, it's rich and flavorful and satisfies easily.

Tuesdays with Dorie

This is the first of my recipes for Tuesdays with Dorie, a baking group wherein we bake a recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan each week, then blog about it. (I can't tell you how much I am in love with this book, I keep calling it my food porn - I mean LOOK at the cover!!)

Dorie won a James Beard award for this book last year as well - it has to be good.

This week the recipe that was chosen was Black and White Banana Loaf. It's an unusual marbled cake baked in a loaf pan. The base is a banana/rum cake that is half-flavored with melted bittersweet chocolate for the marbled effect.



I had fun making this cake. I was very careful and patient with my technique, and felt like at each stage it looked the way that Dorie described. (so often I am NOT patient - I don't cream for as long as I should, don't add my eggs to the batter one by one...) I didn't hurry my oven and put the cake in before it should (my oven runs hot and it takes way longer to preheat to the correct temperature than the little beeper would have you believe).

Look at that beauuuuutiful marbling! ;)



That being said, I made two changes to the recipe-

1. I left out the lemon juice and zest from the banana/rum mixture. The idea of the lemon mixing with the chocolate just ooged me out entirely. (plus I didn't have a lemon)
   
2. In reading some of the early reviews of the recipe on the website, it seemed several people had problems with the cake setting up and excess banana seemed to be the issue. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 bananas (I wish a volume measurement had been given like my banana bread recipe, which calls 1 1/4 cups) so my frozen banana being LARGE, I opted for just the one mashed banana and decided I would check out the consistency when I was done. It was good, not too thin!

I had part trepidation and part fascination with this cake because of the unusual flavor profile. I didn't really ever taste the banana or rum, and the chocolate is very mild. It does make for a very pretty cake when cut, and I wouldn't hesitate to give it to friends as a gift or take to a potluck. The flavor however, just doesn't wow me enough for me to make this again just for us to eat.