This is a pound cake that is wonderfully lemony on its own without having to dress it up with a glaze (although that would have been good, too!). Delightfully simple:
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| The zest of three lemons. |
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| One lovely loaf. |
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Lemon Loaf Cake
This week's Tuesdays with Dorie treat was a lovely lemon loaf cake. You can find the recipe in Baking with Julia or on the blogs of the hosts this week: Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life.
This is a pound cake that is wonderfully lemony on its own without having to dress it up with a glaze (although that would have been good, too!). Delightfully simple:
This is a pound cake that is wonderfully lemony on its own without having to dress it up with a glaze (although that would have been good, too!). Delightfully simple:
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Pizza Rustica
When I saw the title of this week's choice for the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers I was really excited. We have been conducting weekly pizza experiments in our house--thin crusts, preheating the pizza stone to 500 degrees, lovely toppings--oh, my mouth was watering. And then I looked at it and saw that it was more quiche-like than pizza-like. I must admit to momentary disappointment.
Despite the name tease, this was really delicious. The crust rolled out like a dream, and while not flaky after all that beating, it was perfect. The filling of eggs, ricotta, and prosciutto was just right. And it was fun to do a diagonal lattice that wasn't woven but looked quite pretty.
Despite the name tease, this was really delicious. The crust rolled out like a dream, and while not flaky after all that beating, it was perfect. The filling of eggs, ricotta, and prosciutto was just right. And it was fun to do a diagonal lattice that wasn't woven but looked quite pretty.
I made this exactly according to the recipe in Baking with Julia but I can easily imagine variations: mushrooms, bacon, spinach would all be good.
We ate it warm and then had it cold the next day. They were equally yummy! My husband has mentioned about 5 times that I can make it again any time and I'm sure that I will.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Irish Soda Bread and Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Blueberry Ice Cream for the First day of Spring
I've always been underwhelmed by Irish Soda Bread. I guess it's because I expect something called BREAD will either taste yeasty like a nice, crusty loaf or it will be moist and flavorful like banana bread.
This week's Tuesday's with Dorie pick was Irish Soda Bread. Carla of Chocolate Moosey and Cathy of My Culinary Mission are the hosts and the recipe is available on their blogs.
Quick and easy to make, this bread is tender and flavorful due to the buttermilk. I thought I had enough buttermilk for the recipe, butI didn't have quite as much buttermilk as was needed so I used some milk and yogurt. The texture was soft and the bread tasty. It was rather like a big biscuit! We ate the first slices with cherry preserves for brunch and had the rest for dinner with soup. I don't know whether or not it was good the next day because there was none left!
This week's Tuesday's with Dorie pick was Irish Soda Bread. Carla of Chocolate Moosey and Cathy of My Culinary Mission are the hosts and the recipe is available on their blogs.
Quick and easy to make, this bread is tender and flavorful due to the buttermilk. I thought I had enough buttermilk for the recipe, butI didn't have quite as much buttermilk as was needed so I used some milk and yogurt. The texture was soft and the bread tasty. It was rather like a big biscuit! We ate the first slices with cherry preserves for brunch and had the rest for dinner with soup. I don't know whether or not it was good the next day because there was none left!
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| The dry ingredients. |
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| Ready to go into the oven. |
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| The last few slices to accompany our soup. |
For me, a more certain sign of spring than the Irish Soda Bread was Dorie's Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Ice Cream from Baking from My Home to Yours.
When my kids were small, we started a tradition of having ice cream sundaes for breakfast on the first day of spring. My boys thought this was an absolutely amazing tradition! Now that they're grown, I still have a little dish of ice cream for breakfast on the first day of spring. This year I made Dorie's Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Ice Cream--and it was! Happy Spring!
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| Chilling the custard |
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| Stirring in the blueberry preserves |
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| My little ice cream sundae with blooming daffodils! We are having a very early spring! |
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Rugelach
The new Tuesdays with Dorie project is to bake through Baking with Julia. I'm still not officially finished with Baking from My Home to Yours, although I only have 13 left to bake.
This new group is just getting started and because these recipes tend to be a bit more complex and show-offy, we're doing two a month instead of one every week. On the one hand, that doesn't seem like enough baking, and on the other hand, it gives me an opportunity to re-bake some of my favorites from Baking.
This week's recipe was Rugelach and you can find the complete recipe at Jessica of My Baking Heart or Margaret of The Urban Hiker.
I can't help but compare it to Dorie's Rugelach recipe in Baking:
BWJ: butter and cream cheese dough that needed chilling
BFMHTY: butter and cream cheese dough that needed chilling
BWJ: cylinder shape, then cut into 1" pieces
BFMHTY: triangles rolled into crescents
BWJ: homemade apricot lekvar (easy and fun to make ...and very tasty)
BFMHTY: apricot (or raspberry) preserves (also very tasty)
BWJ: lovely variety of nuts
BFMHTY: mostly pecans, because that's my favorite nut
BWJ: options for dried fruit
BFMHTY: options for dried fruit and encouragement to add chocolate!
BWJ: egg wash then roll the rugelach in nut/sugar coating which conceals oozing of filling
BFMHTY: egg wash and endeavor to keep filling from oozing out
BWJ: large portion!
BFMHTY: small portion to tempt you to eat more than one
BWJ: delicious!
BFMHTY: delicious!
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| A lovely assortment of nuts |
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| Rolling this up might be a problem! |
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| Not all that neat, but I didn't think it would matter. |
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| Ready to bake. |
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| Just out of the oven with a little ooze. |
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| Apricot preserves on the dough for the BFMHTY recipe |
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| Filling |
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| The crescent-shaped rugelach from BFMHTY |
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| Two happy little rugelach. |
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| The cheesecake, the rugelach to the right, and Dorie's Chocolate Walnut Teacakes in front. |
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Coconut-roasted Pineapple Dacquoise
Well. This was a project! But each piece can be made ahead which is always a welcome feature in a fancy, multi-step dessert.
Dorie says that a dacquoise is typically two round meringue discs which sandwich something yummy. This has three layers of rectangular meringues--the meringues have coconut and ground almonds in them--which sandwich layers of white chocolate whipped cream, and roasted fresh pineapple. The whole thing is spread with the whipped cream and then the sides are decorated with toasted coconut. Gorgeous! And delicious!
Dorie says that a dacquoise is typically two round meringue discs which sandwich something yummy. This has three layers of rectangular meringues--the meringues have coconut and ground almonds in them--which sandwich layers of white chocolate whipped cream, and roasted fresh pineapple. The whole thing is spread with the whipped cream and then the sides are decorated with toasted coconut. Gorgeous! And delicious!
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| Getting ready to spread the meringue on the parchment paper. |
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| Meringues ready to go into the oven: 3 hours at 225 degrees. |
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| The chopped white chocolate, ready for the 3 cups of boiling heavy cream. |
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| Pineapple! |
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| Cutting up the pineapple. (A few pieces missing--eaten by the baker.) |
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| Building the dacquoise--this is the second layer. |
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| A side view of the finished dacquoise. |
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Chocolate Truffle Tartlets
The sensible part of me wants to avoid buying specialty pans that I won't use very often. Okay, I admit to buying a mini madeleine pan but I'm proud to say that I resisted buying a kugelhopf pan.
This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick is Chocolate Truffle Tartlets. To make this recipe as written you need six 4 1/2 " tartlet pans. Well. I own two 4" pans, one 7 1/2" pan and one 9" pan. I love making tarts because whenever I do, I feel like I have leapt over the dividing wall between home baker and "professional" baker. My tarts always come out beautifully perfect, thanks to Dorie Greenspan's excellent recipes.
So I hemmed and hawed about buying 4 more little tart pans and finally decided I would splurge and do it. My husband and I went to our local cooking supply store and to complicate my decision-making process, they did not have 4 little pans! They did have something that resembled a muffin tin with 4 tarts built in. But somehow, that was not as appealing as 4 little individual tart pans. And it was $26 which seemed like a bit of a splurge for something I didn't really need or want.
Next to the metal pans, they had stiff paper tart pans in assorted sizes--none of which were the size I was looking for! And they seemed pretty pricey for something that you were going to toss away. Plus I wasn't convinced that they'd provide the nice edge that metal tart pans do.
I left the store without having bought a thing! Instead, I did the math and decided to use my two little pans and the 7 1/2 incher that I already owned.
The crust is made ahead and is sort of a cross between a pie dough and a cookie sweet crust.
Okay, so I have no pictures of making the filling because you need to be on your toes and your hands are really busy!
One comment about the texture: when I was preparing the tarts, I had a bit of crust and a bit of filling left over so I put that in a little ramekin and baked it. The recipe says to let cool for 20 minutes and then serve, so after 20 minutes, I tasted the ramekin tart. The filling was gooey--almost pudding-like--and delicious! A couple of hours later when I served the tarts to my guests, the filling was more solid. Still very delicious. I'm anxious to read about other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers' experiences.
For this recipe, rush right out and buy Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Julia or visit this week's Tuesdays with Dorie hosts,Spike of Spike Bakes or Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon.
This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick is Chocolate Truffle Tartlets. To make this recipe as written you need six 4 1/2 " tartlet pans. Well. I own two 4" pans, one 7 1/2" pan and one 9" pan. I love making tarts because whenever I do, I feel like I have leapt over the dividing wall between home baker and "professional" baker. My tarts always come out beautifully perfect, thanks to Dorie Greenspan's excellent recipes.
So I hemmed and hawed about buying 4 more little tart pans and finally decided I would splurge and do it. My husband and I went to our local cooking supply store and to complicate my decision-making process, they did not have 4 little pans! They did have something that resembled a muffin tin with 4 tarts built in. But somehow, that was not as appealing as 4 little individual tart pans. And it was $26 which seemed like a bit of a splurge for something I didn't really need or want.
Next to the metal pans, they had stiff paper tart pans in assorted sizes--none of which were the size I was looking for! And they seemed pretty pricey for something that you were going to toss away. Plus I wasn't convinced that they'd provide the nice edge that metal tart pans do.
I left the store without having bought a thing! Instead, I did the math and decided to use my two little pans and the 7 1/2 incher that I already owned.
The crust is made ahead and is sort of a cross between a pie dough and a cookie sweet crust.
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| Fitting the crust into one of the cute little 4" pans |
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| Rolling out the dough onto freezer paper--a brilliant idea which prevented the dough from sticking. |
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| I was so pleased with the dough! |
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| I rolled the dough onto the rolling pin to move it to the pan. |
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| The chopped white chocolate, milk chocolate, and homemade biscotti--ready to be stirred into the filling. |
Okay, so I have no pictures of making the filling because you need to be on your toes and your hands are really busy!
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| The cooling tarts. |
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| Ready for my guests which somebody called a Mickey Mouse arrangement (!) with additional choices of chocolate biscotti and heart-shaped speculoos. |
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| Before the large tart was entirely eaten! |
One comment about the texture: when I was preparing the tarts, I had a bit of crust and a bit of filling left over so I put that in a little ramekin and baked it. The recipe says to let cool for 20 minutes and then serve, so after 20 minutes, I tasted the ramekin tart. The filling was gooey--almost pudding-like--and delicious! A couple of hours later when I served the tarts to my guests, the filling was more solid. Still very delicious. I'm anxious to read about other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers' experiences.
For this recipe, rush right out and buy Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Julia or visit this week's Tuesdays with Dorie hosts,Spike of Spike Bakes or Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Basic White Loaves
So here we go! My Baking with Julia book by Dorie Greenspan is pristine--no chocolate splotches, nor flour in the page creases, nor cover slick with a patina of butter. I'm ready to begin baking through the book with over 300 other bakers who have joined Tuesdays with Dorie. (And, since I have just over a dozen recipes to finish up in Dorie's fabulous Baking from My Home to Yours, I'll sneak in a few reports as I finish up those recipes.)
This week, we started out with Basic White Loaves, chosen by our founding mother, Laurie, and her able co-mother, Jules.
First, you must know that my husband and two of my sons have embarked on experiments baking artisan breads. On the weekends, we have heated pizza stones, spritz bottles to add steam, razor blades for cutting decorative tops, and most noticeably, bowls of yeasty starter dough rising around the kitchen. All well and good, but I what I loved about this recipe was its simplicity.
Short and sweet:
I used the dough hook on my mixer. No hand kneading necessary!
I let the dough rise, then formed it and let it rise again.
The two loaves were perfect in appearance and wonderful, basic white bread!
This week, we started out with Basic White Loaves, chosen by our founding mother, Laurie, and her able co-mother, Jules.
First, you must know that my husband and two of my sons have embarked on experiments baking artisan breads. On the weekends, we have heated pizza stones, spritz bottles to add steam, razor blades for cutting decorative tops, and most noticeably, bowls of yeasty starter dough rising around the kitchen. All well and good, but I what I loved about this recipe was its simplicity.
Short and sweet:
I used the dough hook on my mixer. No hand kneading necessary!
I let the dough rise, then formed it and let it rise again.
This week I also baked Dorie's Chocolate Cream Tart, a delicious tart with a chocolate sweet tart crust, a lovely creamy chocolate filling, whipped cream on top, a a generous scattering of chocolate shavings. Dorie says to eat this within two hours of serving which was not a problem for my Monday night guests. In fact, one was seen scraping the last bit of chocolate off the serving plate with her finger!
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