Another month comes to a close and that means it’s time to reveal the Daring Baker Challenge. This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. These are not something considered “everyday” or “ordinary” but I was really surprised at how easy they are to make… which means they might just become more everyday in our household :) {continued}
Traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they’re named. They can be savory or sweet, topped with seeds or flavored with extracts, made into various shapes or curved into somewhat functional bowls.
The ingredients are simple and these are very easy to make. The difficult part is timing the baking so the tuiles are just starting to brown around the edges but not so brown that it’s hard to shape them. It’s important to make only 2-3 at a time since when they come out of the oven they start to cool immediately and the only way to properly shape them is when they’re very hot and malleable. Tuiles can be used as decorative elements on a plated dessert or shaped into scalloped-edge bowls and filled with sorbets, gelatos, fresh fruit, salsas… or berry yogurt and chocolate pudding as I did here :)
If you’d like the recipes, please head over to the blogs of either hostess Karen or hostess Zorra. Also please check out the tuiles made by the other Daring Bakers – there are some incredible creations!
Have a delicious day :)
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Posted in daring bakers, recipes | 20 Comments »
After ten straight days of temps exceeding 80°F… in January… I’ll admit we were getting quite spoiled. Last Thursday it all changed and we had 4 days of rain that was very much needed. The cooler temps made it psychologically much easier to make this week’s Tuesday With Dorie recipe – Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread. Prior to this I’d only had gingerbread as a cookie but this cake-like gem of a baked good covered in a thick layer of chocolate ganache icing turned out to be a real treat. I made this on Sunday night, took it to work on Monday and returned home with an empty tray – my colleagues really enjoyed it! {continued…}
I’ll be upfront and say this was one of the most fussy of recipes and more than once I thought I must have been crazy to have even started it. In the end, however, the only real problem I had was with the icing… but I’ll get to that in a minute ;-)
The recipe for the cake calls for three different kinds of ginger… fresh, ground and stem ginger in syrup. I could not find the stem ginger in syrup so I used some candied ginger instead. Dorie’s recipe also calls for adding both melted chocolate and chopped chocolate to the cake batter. Well, at the time I wasn’t feeling up to melting or chopping chocolate so I tossed in about 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips and called it a day.
After baking the cake and letting it cool it was time to make the icing… no way to avoid melting chocolate at that point ;-) Well, somewhere along the line I misunderstood the part of the directions which said to add one tablespoon of strong coffee to the chocolate being melted. Instead of using coffee I used instant coffee crystals and quite honestly I have absolutely no idea why. My glaze was crunchy for obvious reasons so I thought I’d try and recover by adding a tablespoon of hot water and whisking the livin daylights out of it. That seemed to make it a bit better but oh my word did it have a very strong coffee flavor. At that point it was getting late and I figured I’d just move on to adding the powdered sugar but I was lazy and didn’t sift it and I had very small lumps of sugar that just would not dissolve no matter how much I whisked. I went ahead and used it to glaze the cake hoping upon cooling it wouldn’t be so noticeable. Uh… no, didn’t quite work out that way. The glaze was super thin and not at all smooth. I ended up making the glaze again, this time omitting the coffee and powdered sugar entirely. I poured it over the cake so that it had two layers of chocolate and at that point I was both very tired and somewhat pleased to call it a night! LOL
In terms of flavor this is tasty but the recipe is too fussy for me to make it again. I do like the combination of gingerbread and chocolate… and my DH and co-workers really enjoyed it… so I can see making chocolate gingerbread with ganache icing at some point in the future.
If you’d like the recipe, please visit this week’s host Heather of Sherry Trifle… and while you’re at it please check out the rest of the TwD bakers too.
Have a delicious day!
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Posted in Dorie Greenspan, Tuesdays with Dorie, cake, recipes | 21 Comments »
It’s Inauguration Day in the US. Last November we elected a new leader and today Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States! I used to live in the suburbs of Washington DC have been chatting up a storm with all my friends. I got caught up in the excitement and I’ll admit the week kind of got away from me. It didn’t help that this week’s recipe choice was yet another that I talked myself into… and out of… about a dozen times before deciding to just go for it. Though I baked and photographed yesterday, I didn’t get around to downloading, editing or writing until this morning (nice to have the day off work and not feel totally TwD-rushed on Monday night). So I read the recipe over and over again… it was “fussy” and the other TwD bakers were reporting pretty much nothing but problems as they made it. I hemmed… I hawed… I just didn’t feel like being bothered investing tons of energy in something that would seemingly be so meager in the payoff department. BOY WAS I WRONG… sorta! While yes, the recipe was indeed fussy but OMG the payoff was enormous!!!!!!!! Cake.. berries… whipped cream… m’mmmm…. can’t go wrong with this one :) {continues…}
The basic elements of this cake are a whole-egg genoise, a simple syrup, raspberries, cream cheese filling and a whipped cream topping. Mixed with a bit of sugar, the eggs are whipped…. and whipped… and whipped… and whipped. Dorie’s recipe calls for about 5 minutes of whipping until the egg mixture triples in volume. Well, let me tell you, my experience was that it took about 12-15 minutes before my egg mixture volume tripled. As written, the recipe calls for baking in an 8″ springform pan. I halved it and tried using a 4″ springform – uh unh – wrong – nice try, thanks for playing. My egg mixture *filled* the pan and I still had enough for 4 cupcakes.
After about 5 minutes of baking I peeked thru the oven door and saw the batter had risen past the top of the cake pan and was gracefully oozing down the sides. Uhmmmm yeah, not a good start. Luckily my cupcakes survived and I was able to make “Berry Surprise CUPCAKES” hahahah
Once baked the cakes are cooled then a thin layer of the top is cut away and set aside. The inside is then hollowed out just a bit (taking care to leave a good bit at the bottom), bathed in the syrup and filled with layers of berries and cream cheese filling. Next the top is replaced and the whole cake enrobed in fluffy whipped cream. It’s everything I love… cake, cream and berries. How could this be anything but delicious?
My cream cheese filling was a bit more creamy than fluffy but that’s okay – it was fabulous with the berries. And speaking of berries, I only had frozen raspberries which thawed into a sorry looking state that was most assuredly less than photogenic. Thankfully this had no impact on how tasty this dessert is. I think I’ll try it again when berries are in season and I’ll probably use strawberries with a lemon curd filling. OMG – just thinking of it makes me all drooly!
If you’d like the recipe, please check out the site of this week’s host MaryAnn of Meet Me In The Kitchen. And while you’re at it, please check out the other TwD bakers – they have some lovely creations!
Have a delicious day!
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Posted in Dorie Greenspan, Tuesdays with Dorie, cake, recipes | 18 Comments »
Have I mentioned that I’m finally on Facebook? I was pretty much pestered into it by Mr. Crankypants who bugged me for months despite insistent protests that I would *never* join. And yes, he’s gloating as only Mr. Crankypants can. But I love him just the same :) One thing I don’t love is the weight I gained between Nov 27 and Jan 3rd. Is it just me or is anyone else feeling like those holiday pounds have dug in their heels and are unwilling to fall off? I’ve been good for the two weeks since the holidays ended. I got back on the wagon with Weight Watchers and for the first time in a good 6 weeks I feel in control of my eating – yay! I’ve tried countless diets in my lifetime and can say with certainty that WW is the only thing that really works for me. I don’t like feeling deprived or feeling like there’s foods I can’t eat. With WW I can eat anything I like as long as I control my portion sizes. I won’t lie… portion control is not easy – especially in a society where everything is “super sized”. Even dinner plates are now much larger than they were before. DH read and article about some simple “tricks” to weight loss and one of them was to eat off smaller plates (they trick your mind into thinking you’re having a bigger portion since there’s less white space on the plate). The other day I had a hankerin for cake. I searched the net and came across a poundcake recipe that looked appealing so I decided to tweak it and lighten things up a little. While this might not be the most photogenic loaf-pan cake I’ve ever made the result is so moist, full of flavor and totally delicious that I wanted to share it with you… even if it means sharing my less-than-impressive photos! LOL!! {continues…}
The original recipe can be found here and intrigued me from the moment I saw it! I love using yogurt or cream cheese in cakes because it gives such a boost to the moisture content. I also love to eat yogurt so rarely is there a day when you won’t find a few cartons of it in my fridge. The day I made this I just happened to have a bag of frozen raspberries on hand for another recipe that I’m supposed to make this week (but probably won’t) so I decided to go with what I had on hand… almond yogurt and raspberries :)
When defrosting the berries it quickly became clear that these frozen berries weren’t going to make it in a whole or semi whole state. The best I could hope for was to create a pureé that could be drained somewhat well and folded in to the completed batter. Worked like a charm! While I love the flavor of raspberries it’s those pesky seeds which drive me batty! Recall from the Raspberry Cream Cake post that I’ve complained about raspberry seeds before. Hey, I’m nothing if not consistent! Anyway, I went ahead with the raspberries – but if anyone knows of a seedless variety of raspberries, please do let me know! As for the picture below, I’ve been playing around with light -&- shadows lately… not sure how I feel about it but I’ll keep playing :)
This recipe is extremely versatile and you can use whatever combination of fruit and yogurt flavors that strike your fancy :) Listed below is how I made it this time. Next time I’ll make additional substitutions to cut down on the fat and calories. I’ll use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (instead of full-fat butter) and I’ll use all Egg Beaters (instead of whole eggs). Again, this is how I made it. There’s no reason you have to make any substitutions at all. Feel free to use granulated sugar instead of Splenda… 4 whole eggs instead of 2 eggs and 1/2c Egg Beaters… whole fat yogurt instead of non-fat. It’s versatile… and it’s good… so do whatcha like :)
Raspberry Almond Yogurt Poundcake
Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup granulated Splenda
2 eggs
1/2 cup Egg Beaters
6oz non-fat almond yogurt
1 1/2c frozen raspberries, thawed, drained
Method
Preheat oven to 325°F
Prepare a loaf pan with baking spray (or grease & flour)
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and Splenda until light and fluffy
Add in the eggs, Egg Beaters and yogurt until well blended
Add in the flour mixture, 1/2c at a time, blending well after each addition
Using a rubber spatula, fold in the raspberries
Spread evenly in prepared pan and bake for about 70 minutes until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes
Remove from pan and cool completely.
Have a delicious day!
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Posted in cake, recipes | 4 Comments »
I’ve always had an affinity for cookies. When I was very young it was a special treat to get cookies from the bakery. I loved looking at the different varieties in the display case trying to decide just which ones I’d choose. More often than not it was butter cookies… decorated with sprinkles or non-pareils or a dollop of chocolate or a even a cherry… it didn’t much matter. They were pretty and they were delicious. Now I’m all grown up and can make cookies whenever I please which is something that pleases my family LOL. This past Christmas when I was making treats for the goodie-baskets I gave as gifts, I wanted a delicate, tender cookie that reminded me of those bakery cookies I had as a young girl. When I made these whipped shortbread cookies I needed to look no further because these could not have been more perfect!
I discovered the recipe just by searching the internet one day for nothing in particular, just different kinds of not-your-everyday cookies. The method was rather intriguing since you combine most of the ingredients and whip, whip, whip… whip, whip for a loooooooooooooong time… ten whole minutes, which seems like an obscenely long time when you’re doing it. But the end result is so totally worth it. I put the creamy batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 1M tip and piped a random formation onto a silpat-lined cookie sheet, baking as directed. The only modification I made to the recipe was adding probably 1tsp of cornstarch to keep the cookies from being so delicate they’d fall apart in transit.
These cookies are so very good – they’re melt-in-your-mouth, jump-back-&-kiss-yourself good. If you’re interested, the recipe can be found here and I highly recommend making them. Aside from the long mixing time (which really isn’t that long) they come together quickly and extremely easily. If you don’t have a pastry bag, no worries, just put the creamy batter into a big plastic bag and snip off a corner. I’m confident you can make a beautifully simple drop cookie that way and top them with sprinkles or whatever you like. However you do it, they’ll be fantastic!
Have a delicious day,
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Posted in cookies, recipes | 12 Comments »
