TWD: rosey plum cake

The recipe for this week was a dimply plum cake. As soon as I saw it, I thought of the Martha Stewart nectarine tart, and thought I had to make pretty plums too! I was a little worried about the effect that slicing the plums would have, but a quick check of the Q&A assured me that they were quite alright when sliced.

So, onward I went! I must have had fairly large plums, because I only needed 9 halves/5 plums (although I suppose that I could have squeezed more in if I had been determined to). It came together very easily, and the cake baked up nicely around the plum rosettes (although I still think they looked prettier before baking). I did include the cardamom (because it was already in my cabinet - I probably wouldn't have gone to the store just for this, and it was nice to use up some of a spice that I rarely use... perhaps because I have little idea of how to use it). I thought the resulting cake was yummy, if a little rich.

Unfortunately, I bought the plums (at perfect ripeness when I purchased them) a few days before I was able to get around to actually making the cake. So, the plums were a bit past ripe, and didn't taste as wonderful as I'm sure this should. Still, it was fun, and the cake was worth eating out from around the plums. ;)

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

This week's selection - pg. 70 in Baking: from my home to yours

I love these cookies! It's a good chock-full-of-chunks cookie. I started to leave out the raisins and nuts altogether but talked myself out of it and told myself to trust Dorie. Instead, I out the raisins in as called for, but only put the (at most) 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts I had lying around waiting to be used up, and added another cup of semi-sweet chunks to keep it chunky. I wish I had taken the time to throw some peanuts in the food processor and made the recipe as written. The raisins are perfect in it, and it's just missing a peanutty crunch. Ooops. Now I know. Really, really, really, trust Dorie!

TWD (plus an attempt to catch up a little)

This week's recipe was Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops on page 85, chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart.
- yum! This is a delish, rich cookie, and as another TWD'er has already mentioned, the dough is amazing (they were even smart enough to use it to make a cookie dough ice cream - yum!). I take this cookie as the sort of cookie that that I would make an entire batch of and eat myself in a bout of pms - but I can't really see serving it because it's so rich. Also as mentioned by another blogger, they shrink when they cool!

(As a photography note, I have been frustrated by my lack of natural light locations for photo-taking now that I'm in a little apartment without a balcony, and now that I'm at work during most of the daylight hours. But it finally clicked that the natural light lamp I have might be better for lighting pictures... and it is! The above pictures were taken with the lamp light, and they look much better than the flash-lighted pictures!)

Also, last week the recipe was chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution. She chose,
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters on page 73 - another great recipe! I made them last week, but didn't get post on them. They were another good oatmeal cookie, and I like the addition of the peanut butter. Still, I have to say the Bush cookies are my favorite oatmeal cookie - I love that they are so full of stuff!

Dear Dorie:

I was excited about being back at home and somewhat settled in and generally able to get back in the swing of TWD. My new kitchen fought back. I bought a great ice cream made by a local creamery on Sunday night and had everything all nice and planned out. My ice cream tort was going to be the best EVER!!!

My freezer is dying. By Monday afternoon, my ice cream was completely liquid. Ewww! I hate my new fridge. I've called the maintenance people... and I'm still waiting.

TWD: double crusted blueberry pie

This week, Amy of South in Your Mouth selected….
Double Crusted Blueberry Pie on pages 361-363

I loved this recipe! I am not a huge fan of fruit pies, but I absolutely love this crust. I made this once following the recipe, and then again with a cherry filling. And I'm tickled by the way the top crust molded to the shape of the berries. I think it's so cute!

I accidentally left out the bread crumbs, but (perhaps partially because we ate most of it before it had really completely cooled) found that there was just enough soaking by the filling to make the thick crust even more delicious (I say we, but that was really just me). Maybe that's why I had so much trouble cutting it into pretty pieces though...

Having succeeded at the blueberry (and upon finding that the crust came together pretty easily in my food processor (even though it was right at the max capacity), I used the crust again with cherry filling.

I've never made a cherry pie, or had any reason to pit cherries, so this was a new experience. It wasn't as bad as I feared, and was easily done while watching tv, but it definitely changed the color of my hands!

I have a friend who prefers a birthday cherry pie to a birthday cake (I don't understand), so this pie was hers! I even cut her name into the top (although it's hard to see in the picture).Everyone deserves birthday baked goods! Especially when studying for the bar!

Cherry filling:

4 cups cherries, pitted
1 cup sugar (1 1/4 cups for sour cherries)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Put sugar, flour and cinnamon in a large zip-loc bag. Add the cherries and toss to coat.

prodigal TWDer : TWD apple cheddar scones

I felt guilty. So I opted for a late(-ish) night, under-the-wire bit of baking and posting. This may have also been helped along by the fact that I've been craving something other than cereal for breakfast.

First, these were delicious! I opted for sharp cheddar after some serious soul-searching in the dairy section of the supermarket, as I tried to decide between what I'd most like and what I thought would be most popular - self-serving won.

Some thoughts on chopped dried apples... They look like scrambled eggs (like the ones you see on a buffet - way too dry)! And they were sticky! They also were very subtle in the scone. I almost forgot there were apples in it.

This also gave me an opportunity to use some of my super-awesome corn meal! I got it in a national park, where it was ground by an historic water-mill. I thought it was so cool at the time, but I've not had nearly enough chance to use it!

TWD: rewind - berry pie

In the interest of getting back on track (and because bar studying/anxiety is frying my nerves), I'm posting last week's this week, and starting next week, I'll actually post the right recipe on the right day - no more awful Wednesday posts, no more rewind posts... I swear. That said, I also have to say that I may be a hit-or-miss with blogging in general, as well as TWD, until at least mid-August, when I'm finished with the bar and have finished moving. But on to happier things...

Mixed Berry Tart!

I liked this recipe. It was a real hit, and it came together very easily. I really wanted to use fresh berries, but I just couldn't justify the cost of berries at the local supermarket. Instead, I went with frozen, and honestly, I couldn't tell any real difference. I imagine that freshly picked berries would be amazing in it though... mmm.

I paired it with some Bryers vanilla bean ice cream, and it was a great combination. The real star of the dish was the topping though. As people were heading out at the end of the night, they were picking 'one last bit' of the topping off. I think that's a great sign!

TWD rewind: Big Bill's Carrot (Cup) Cake

OK. I'm posting the right recipe on the wrong day and the wrong recipe on the right day this week. I swear I'll be better starting next week. I swear! As for this week, TWD will be on Wednesday, and this old TWD recipe will be today. Got it? Good!

I made Big Bill's carrot cake,in cupcakes. I plan to make these for a friend's wedding, and this was the test run. They are the best thing I've ever made. I'm in love. And I really want to eat all of them myself! I just need to figure out how to make the cream cheese icing more stiff so that it will stand up and be pretty for the wedding day.

And yes, they oozed. But the ones in regular cupcake wrappers weren't nearly as bad, and it gave me a good excuse to eat all the bits that overflowed. Yumm!!!

Wednesdays with Dorie

This week's recipe was the peppermint cream puff ring, but I cheated a little and made it a day late and with (milk) chocolate custard instead of peppermint and topped it with powdered sugar instead of chocolate ganache (because I didn't want to run to the store for the 3d time today just to get heavy cream). I definitely had plenty left over for puffs, and made a good overflowing plate of them. Everyone seemed to like them, and they finished them all off.

I realized that I'm not really a fan of puffs in general. I knew that I didn't like frozen or catered cream puffs, but thought that this might be the thing to change my mind. Nah. I loved the custard, and could have eaten it straight, but I just can't get excited about the taste of pate a choix. Now I know. Still, I'm definitely glad I made it, if only so that I know I can.

Bear with me

Due to the perishable nature of this week's TWD, mine will be a Wednesday with Dorie - I'll have people over to eat it tomorrow, and I don't want to eat it all myself today!

Just in the nick of time!

TWD, and it's (barely) still Tuesday! I did re-make the tartlets, and they turn out much better when I actually follow directions! The dough was an entirely different dough with the egg yolk added. I suspect that this is partially to do with the egg yolk and partially to do with the fact that I received my replacement lid for the food processor today (YAY!!!). I was bad and melted the one that came with it by trying to wash it in the dishwasher. Oops. It's better now though. See, pretty dough!
And with good dough, the shells turned out much more beautifully! They had more substance and weren't so crumbly. Again, I'm converted - following directions is soooo worth it!
So, pie crust mission accomplished, just add jam and strawberries (and a little cool whip). Delish!

TWD - coming soon

I am making this week's TWD, I swear! I was terribly on top of things, and made tartlet crusts as soon as this week's recipe was chosen and posted. ... but I was sloppy, and I left the egg out of the recipe... and then I left them out for a few days, waiting for the perfect opportunity to serve them up. Unfortunately, when I tried to take them out of the pans, they all crumbled!

So, tonight, I try again, and this time, I take them out of the pans in a timely fashion and actually include all of the ingredients called for.

TWD - french brownies

Unfortunately, my home internet connection is on the fritz and I'm really having to work hard on bar prep, so this week's post is going to have to be quick.

I tried to do the raisins, because I figured that they were what made these brownies special. Alas, I had no source of fire in my house. I tried. I ran around frantically looking for fire while the run evaporated away. Rather than try to put them in without the burn-off, I dumped them. It seemed safer.

Other than that, it was a pretty straight-forward recipe, and was perfectly fine.

TWD - Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

This week's TWD was chosen by Madam Chow of Madam Chow’s Kitchen, and is the Pecan Honey Sticky Buns on pages 51-53.

I'm a little slow on posting, since I spent the weekend away and only began making the brioche last night. It spent the night rising, and I made them this afternoon. (Yes, I did have big plans of getting up early this morning and making them for breakfast, but I am just not a morning person.)

So, now they are out of the oven, and I can finally post. It was fun to try something new, and get out of my comfort zone. I tend to avoid recipes that require this kind of planning, but some of my favorite recipes are those that do take a little more time. I do still have trouble rolling dough. It was also fun to try a yeast recipe. AND, I got to break in my dough hook! My KA danced! See!

All in all, I'm not sure I'd make this again. Others complained that it was too sweet and had too much butter. I don't believe in too much butter, and I didn't think that this was overly-sweet. In fact, I thought it might should have been a little sweeter.

My changes: I used 2 8x8 Pyrex's instead of one larger, just because I didn't have on large enough. I followed others' suggestions and barely warmed the oven and then let the dough do its final rise in there - it was a great warm spot! It didn't seem to take nearly 10 minutes of beating for the dough to pull away from the sides, so I probably stopped around 10 minutes. I also took another suggestion from another blogger and chilled the dough a bit more before cutting. It seemed to make it a little easier. Also, because I suck so badly at rolling (and I think I just plain sprinkled too much cinnamon sugar), I re-rolled a few of the buns after cutting to get them tighter.

Mix Dough (Yay for appliances that do all the work for me!). Let rise and slap down a lot! :)

Make glaze and pour into the bottom of the pyrex. Put in pecans.

Roll out dough (half of brioche recipe) and cover in butter and cinnamon sugar. Roll, and cut.

Place rolls in pan over the topping, let rise, and then bake.

See! Done! Flip immediately and devour.

TWD: Florida Pie

Diane of Diane's Dishes chose the Florida pie for this week's recipe. It was a fantastic combination of coconut and lime! I enjoyed it, but definitely had some bumps along the way, and I'm pretty sure I'd make changes next time.

The recipe itself was pretty straight-forward. There's a graham cracker crust, topped with a layer of reduced coconut cream. This smells like coconut milk while it's cooking, and I think I might try substituting some coconut milk for some of the coconut flakes in this step in the future. I love coconut milk. It's an unhealthy obsession, I know.

You top the layer of coconut goodness with the key lime pie part. I couldn't get my hands on key limes, and I always prefer the real, fresh thing to bottled juices, so I used regular lime juice here. I am torn on this substitution. I might try it with the bottled key lime juice next time, as some people out there in internet land seem to suggest. It just feels wrong to use juice from a bottle... and I happen to find juicing citus incredibly theraputic. Still, great pie. I loved this part.

Next, it's on to the merengue. This was new territory to me. I understand the concept, and I've whipped egg whites for other purposes before, but I have never actually made merengue. I was conflicted about this topping. This is mostly because my results were less than amazing. First, I found that the egg whites deflated significantly, and just plain weren't as pretty, when I folded in the coconut. I imagine that this has something to do with my inability to fold perfectly, but I think I'll save myself the heartache in the future and just put the coconut in an extra layer, either on the top or between the lime pie and the merengue, rather than try to fold it in. It was ugly.

Then I managed to burn it trying to toast the top in the oven. This didn't affect the taste of the pie in any noticable way, but it wasn't pretty. I like my food to be pretty.

I blame the oven. I think this means that I need to buy a kitchen torch! And as long as I'm buying the torch, I might as well buy the entire creme brulee set, right? (And this line of thought it what finally let to my creation of an Amazon wish list. I feel better about avoiding these impulse purchases when I create a list that reminds me that I can buy them later.)

Tuesdays with Dorie!

I stumbled on Tuesdays with Dorie while in class one day perusing other baking blogs. The recipes and pictures were incredibly tempting, so of course, I ordered a copy of the requisite Baking, from My Home to Yours cookbook. Now that I have it in my possession, I'm even more blown away.

This week is my first chance to participate, and they picked a positively irresistible recipe!



Peanut Butter Torte on pages 282-283

Of course, I was still suffering from exam-time brain mush when I made it, so there were some unplanned modifications. I love the way it turned out though! I accidentally added an additional 1/2 cup of cream in the beginning, and I think the end result was lighter and a little less rich. Still it was plenty rich and delicious. The sad effect of this is that it is a bit too mushy when it has been out of the fridge for a bit, so if you do this, definitely cut right out ofthe fridge.


I also made the crust with chocolate-filled oreos, and it is wonderful. I could eat just the crust and be incredibly happy.

I'm a mess.

I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and make the peanut butter torte for this week's TWD so that it would be done tomorrow when people come over. I'll be done with exams forever, so it'll be a good excuse to celebrate and have a piece. It'll also be a good way to get rid of most of it, so that I don't eat it all by myself!

However, during exams, my brain totally shuts off. I accidentally put in an extra 1/2 cup of cream, but I choose to think that will make it more light and fluffy. Then, I accidentally started sifting the powdered sugar over the stove without anything under it. I covered the coils in powdered sugar, and ended up having to clean much more than I intended. Sigh. I can be smart next week.