Coconut Tea Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a lovely, light, coconut bundt cake. We just had a slice and it was really happy-making cake. We are, however, fantasizing about drizzling a bit of Dorie's chocolate sauce over it and I just happen to have some in the fridge!

Dulce de Leche Duos

I very nearly had to skip this week's Tuesdays with Dorie goodie because I have been wrestling with bronchitis for the past week. Who would want to eat anything made by somebody who is coughing and hacking? Just to be ready, though, I made the dulce de leche by the super easy method recommended by Laurie: I put two unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk in a crockpot, covered then with water and cooked on low overnight. What a terrific result!

So back to the Dulce de Leche Duos. They are in the oven now and are coming out pretty well. I did make an error in following the recipe which I didn't catch until I was rereading it to make sure I didn't leave anything out. Somehow I misread the amount of sugar and put in 3/4 cup of white sugar instead of 1/2 cup. I tried pulling some of it out, but had already dumped the dulce de leche into the bowl so extracting the extra sugar was pretty much a lost cause. Maybe the bronchitis fog is thicker in my brain than I think.

Later: The cookies are tasty but rather sweet. (Could it possibly be the extra quarter cup of sugar?!!) Dorie says you'll end up with 30 sandwiches--I have half again that many so either I made them too small or that extra sugar greatly expanded the batter!

Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

It's pi day! And in honor of 3.14 (and because it was this week's Tuesdays with Dorie choice), I made this beautiful chocolate raspberry tart.


Here are the fresh raspberries sprinkled onto the baked crust.



And the two kinds of chocolate chopped fine.



And my piece of pie with a pi symbol on the whipped cream!

Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

Only left over crumbs to show of this scrumptious bread because it was entirely consumed by the group of eight people with whom I had brunch today. This is one of the few Dorie recipes that does not use butter, but it was surprisingly satisfying and yummy. Maybe it's the oatmeal or the applesauce--no, wait a minute, I'm sure it's the pecan/brown sugar/cinnamon topping that made this cake taste so good. I'll have to make it again and snap a picture before I cut into it!

Thumbprints for us Big Guys

Made with ground hazelnuts, these really have a lovely flavor. I was in a bit of a rush and probably made them bigger than I should have--the last batch of small cookies look much prettier.

I really liked the hazelnut/raspberry combination but I can easily see that other ground nuts could be substituted for very good results. One of the Tuesdays with Dorie crowd substituted chocolate for the preserves! Now that's an idea!

Caramel Crunch Bars

Well I just love caramel and these bars also have a layer of chocolate. And they look gorgeous.

The first layer is a cookie crust--with maybe just a bit too much of the espresso powder for my taste. I can't really decide, though, and I guess I'll just have to have another sample!

The next layer is chocolate and I chose to use bittersweet. Milk chocolate would also be a good choice.

The top layer is a sprinkle of Heath toffee bits and that's what gives these bars the caramel crunch name.

Chockablock Cookies

Tonight is our last "soup night" of the season and we usually have 25-35 people show up for soup, bread and desserts. Rich has made 3 soups: carrot, caldo verdi, and Mrs. Albarelli's Italian bean soup. I've made three kinds of cookies--two new ones from Dorie's book and one recipe that I made two years ago. The chockablock cookies are the ones on the left.

I love the name of Chockablock and I fancied that these would be very chocolaty. The dough which has molasses in it, is just enough to hold together the large amount of raisins, coconut, nuts, and chocolate chips. As suggested, I made the dough and froze it in two-tablespoon scoops on a cookie sheet, then froze them so I could bake them this morning.

I thought the name meant "full of chocolate" but it actually seems to mean "chock full of goodies". They are good!

Toasted Coconut Tart

This week the Tuesdays with Dorie crowd is making a tart! I made and froze the crust ahead of time. On Sunday, I made the filling, which is similar to my Mom's coconut cream pie filling but which adds a swig of rum. Knowing that tarts really want to be consumed very soon after they are made, I put off assembling the tart and making the whipped cream topping till the last minute. It was beautiful and very yummy!

Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake

It wasn't anyone's birthday but I wanted to experiment with chocolate cake and white frosting. Is it possible to make a cake, frost it, refrigerate it, and serve it the next day? (For example, at a wedding in August?)

I tried the Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake and used the marshmallow frosting. I've made the frosting before and it is fun to make, cheerfully pretty, smooth, shiny and yummy.



The cake looked pretty good here at home, but was beginning to deteriorate after a night in the fridge. By the time it made a two-hour drive the next day, it had even further deteriorated. It still tasted good, although the cake was very fudgy, the middle layer of frosting had been absorbed by the cake, and the marshmallow frosting itself was neither smooth nor shiny. We each had a piece, but decided this frosting didn't transport well. More experimentation needed!