Odile's Fresh Orange Cake

The picture in Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi, is absolutely beautiful and I was delighted to bake this lovely fresh orange cake.

It was an easy cake to prepare and I enjoyed cutting up the oranges for the topping.  Dorie says you need 3 oranges--I used 2 1/2.  She's right:  you need three oranges.  While my cake looked pretty fantastic, covering the whole top would have been even more so!  I guess I'll just have to bake this one again!

Getting ready

Straining the oranges for the topping

Oranges on

A sprinkle of powdered sugar

Hot Chocolate Panna Cotta

I was hoping that this month's choices for Tuesdays with Dorie would be something that I could easily serve to a big crowd of guests.  We continue with our once-a-week soup nights and generally about 25 people have been showing up each Monday night.

I baked the Sunday in Paris cakes (my son was traveling to Paris and it seemed like the appropriate thing to bake), and they were a big hit.  But making Panna Cotta or the Soft Centered Chocolate Teacup Cakes for 25 just wasn't going to work.

Sunday in Paris Cakes

So this week I made the  Hot Chocolate Panna Cotta to take to a brunch with a few friends and it was delightful.  

Heating up the milk, cream, and cocoa

Melting the chocolate

Bubbling around the edges

The chocolate is melted and ready to be added to the cream

Allowing the gelatin to bloom

I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished Panna Cotta!  This is the last one.

We enjoyed this recipe:  my husband is a big fan of Panna Cotta and its smooth texture.

Check out the results of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers  here.

Fluted Tangerine-Carrot Cake

Last week I made two cakes for our Soup Night guests:  Dorie's Fluted Tangerine Carrot Cake and  Betty's Chocoholic Cake.  What a contrast in flavors and intensity!

Halfway through Soup Night:  the tangerine cake and the chocolate cake have been equally enjoyed!  By the end of the evening, only crumbs remained.

In my last post, I described how my husband and I host weekly "Soup Nights" during the winter.  We live where it's cold and snowy (Rochester, New York, which is located in western New York, no where near NYC.)  For the past dozen years, we have invited our friends to join us once a week throughout the winter for soup, bread, and desserts.  Folks usually contribute wine or a side dish.  It's a wonderful way to see friends during the stay-at-home months and what could be better than gathering around delicious food?!

This week I made Dorie Greenspan's Fluted Carrot Tangerine Cake.  I thought I took a lot of pictures of the tangerine cake preparations, but I guess I only got the very beginnings! 

I enjoyed making and eating this cake.  It reminded me of Dorie's Swedish Visiting Cake from Baking from my Home to Yours.  Fairly simple to make with subtle but lovely flavors, and beautiful to look at.  I'm sorry that I didn't get a better picture!

I always make two desserts for Soup Night (we have 20+ guests) so I decided that it would be cake night.  Betty's Chocoholic Cake is definitely intense!  Oh so pretty and oh so chocolatey.  If one ate a little slice of the chocolate cake and then a little slice of the tangerine cake, the intensity of the chocolate overpowered the tangerine.  

Our guests enjoyed both cakes--the only leftovers were a few crumbs.

Lemon Squares, French Style

Every now and then I'll be at a potluck and someone will bring lemon squares.  They are usually tasty, but occasionally they are too sweet or gloppy.  I looked forward to trying Dorie Greenspan's Lemon Squares, French Style.

Let me just say the these were scrumptious.  The lemon curd was the perfect consistency and very lemon-y without being overly tart.  The crust was lovely, as one might expect with the use of almond flour.  The key here, I think, is that this recipe uses one pound of butter.  With that much butter, how can it not taste great?!

Cooking up the lemon curd.  Notice those hunks of butter?

Rolling out the crust, using a small glass as Dorie suggested.

The crust has baked a bit.

About to spread out the lemon curd.

Ready for the oven with extra crust sprinkled on top and finally topped with chopped, slice almonds.

Out of the oven.

Dorie writes that the edges will caramelize and that they will be the best part.  I figured my guests would think that the edges were "burnt", so I trimmed them off.  And ate them myself.  Yummy!

Here's my husband, setting things up for our first Soup Night of the winter.  The Lemon Squares and Dorie's Apple-Apple Bread Pudding (from Baking From My Home to Yours) are the first things our guests will encounter when they arrive.  My son made the two artisanal breads, and there are two big pots of soup on the stove, Mrs. Albarelli's Italian Bean Soup and Mushroom Bisque.  

For the past twelve years, we have invited friends to our house to share delicious soup, fresh bread, and luscious desserts, for a series of nine Mondays in a row throughout the winter.  It's a chance to fill our house with good food, good friends, and good conversation.  Last night was the first Soup Night of the season and we had 28 guests!  People bring wine, salads, appetizers and side dishes to share.  I send out a bunch of invitations but RSVPs are unnecessary:  I like t be surprised!  It was a wonderful evening!  I learned about new jobs, happy excursions, and overheard conversations about brewing beer, scuba diving, jigsaw puzzles and grandchildren.  All of the desserts and breads were consumed and we had just one quart of soup left over.  It was great to reconnect with our friends on a cold, snowy night and great to share my baking with them.

To see what other Tuesday with Dorie bakers baked this week, check out this link.

Stained Glass Window Cookies

Every year about this time I notice magazines with articles about the best cookies to bake at Christmas.  Often one of those recipes is "Stained Glass" cookies--sugar cookies with cut-outs into which you put crushed candy.  The result, at least in the magazine pictures, looks terrific and fun.  So I was really happy that Dorie's recipe for Stained Glass Cookies was chosen to be baked this December.  I had a holiday party to attend this past Saturday and planned to bake them for the party.

While at the store, I picked out lifesavers from the bulk bin.  I hadn't remembered how many Dorie said I'd need, but I selected several in different colors until I figured I had enough.  When I looked at the recipe she said about 15 and guess what?  I had exactly 15!  It was as if this was confirmation that my cookies were going to be perfect!

I made the dough, rolled it thin, put it in the refrigerator.  Everything was going as planned.

I crushed the lifesavers by color, using my heavy and excellent mortar and pestle.  They looked very pretty indeed.

I rolled out the cookies and cut them into two-inch rounds.  So far so good.

Dorie suggests cutting one or more tiny circles in each cookie, using a 1/4" icing tip.  This was the start of my problems.  I had star shaped tips about that size but that didn't work.  I tried using the tip of a grapefruit knife and that wasn't successful.  I finally used the end of the decorating bag coupler and that worked reasonably well.

Then I used the same coupler as a funnel to fill the holes with crushed candy.  I painted on some egg wash and sprinkled on sugar.

The first results out of the oven were okay, but not great.

The second tray was not so great--I forgot to set the timer and overbaked them, the candy turned brown (as Dorie warned that it would) and the cookies did too.

By the time the too-brown cookies came out of the oven, I had about one hour left before we were leaving for the holiday party.  One thing I've learned from Dorie is that if something isn't coming out as well as you'd planned, it's best to improvise!  I pulled out a simple Christmas tree cookie cutter, cut the cookies and sprinkled on some colored sanding sugar.  (I suppose I could have tried the crushed lifesavers but I really wasn't sure how the candy would melt).

I ended up with a small tray of cookies.  They tasted great and were much appreciated at the party, but weren't the cool looking stained glass cookies I had hoped for.  One thing I've learned, however, is that when someone compliments my baking, I just smile and say thank you.  It's unnecessary to reveal that the result wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I started.  And those overly browned cookies?  My husband thinks they were delicious and has been steadily eating them up.

Check out what the other Tuesdays with Dorie baked this week.  And if you don't have Baking Chez Moi  by Dorie Greenspan, tell everyone you know it would be a perfect gift.

Pear-Cranberry Roll-Up Tart

This tart is beautifully photographed in Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi, and I had high hopes for it.  I was not disappointed!

The tart uses her galette dough which is tasty and easy to roll out.  The filling is pretty simple:  pears, cranberries and the secret ingredients of raspberry preserves and fresh ginger.

My only difficulty was in sealing the ends.  As a result, some of the preserves leaked out and burned on the parchment paper.  But once I moved the tart to a rack to cool, everything was great.

Chocolate Covered Toffee Break Ups

Last fall, when I first got my hands on Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi, I read through the book and marked the recipes I wanted to make right away.  There were lots of post-it notes sticking out of this book!

One of the recipes I wanted to try was Chocolate Covered Toffee Break Ups on page 402.  I love both chocolate and caramel so the combination of chocolate and toffee was especially appealing.  And then there are the almonds, so I could delude myself into thinking that actually this candy was almost healthy!

The first time I made the recipe was around Christmas and I gave a good deal of it away.  It was a good thing, because every time I passed by the container, I found myself taking a little nibble.  It was delicious as I made it last year, but I also wrote a note on the page of the book to try using good milk chocolate instead of semi or bittersweet chocolate.  So that's what I did this week.

Roughly chopping the toasted almonds

Butter and sugar beginning to cook

Chopping the good milk chocolate

The toffee burbling away

Keeping the thermometer handy

Just about ready--lovely color!

The toffee cooling

Chocolate spread on and more nuts added.  Ready for the refrigerator.

The end product.  Only there aren't this many pieces left.

I'd say that this toffee would be great with any kind of chocolate!  Using your favorite is probably the best advice.

To get the recipe, buy Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi.  Click here to see blogs from the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers.