My Baking Adventures

This weeks TWD comes to us from Melissa of It’s Melissa’s Kitchen. When I saw her choice, my first reaction was, “How great! Something quick and easy!”

Until I saw the directions. How could something so simple be so complicated? Look, I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box, but what was the point of the whole food processor thing? Pudding should be made from scratch on the cooktop, strained through a sieve and eaten. In that order.

However, in the interest of trying a new method, I acquiesced and used my stick blender since I only made 1/2 of the recipe. And, I had pie dough leftover from last weeks pie-ettes, so I baked up mini crusts and made a chocolate cream pie!

It was very smooth and creamy - and while I will make the pudding again, I will stick with my regular cooking method.

I also have to confess - I only made one pie - I ate the rest of the pudding straight out of the bowl. It was gooooooood!

Yeah, yeah, I know - it’s corny. But I made the cutest little pies for this weeks TWD, chosen by Amy of South in Your Mouth. The recipe is actually Double Crusted Blueberry Pie, but since mine were more like turnovers, I’ve decided to call them “pie-ettes”. The dough was a snap, the filling was easy, and the execution? Flawless.

Ha! Look at them - a little herd!

To give you a size reference, that’s a salad fork the pie is sitting on:

Just look at that crust! I haven’t seen such flakiness since my last visit to L.A.!

I even filled one of the rounds with chocolate chips, and gave it to the kids. Before I could ask how it was, it was gone!

The only change I made was to use all butter for the crust, since shortening gives me the heebee-jeebees. And, I made the pie dough by hand, using the old fashioned pastry cutter. Wow, what a revelation that’s been!

A winner all around! For the recipe, you’ll have to buy the book, which is on sale at amazon.com, with free super saver shipping!

Yes, I know it’s not Tuesday……….but I made these biscuits over a week ago and realized that I never posted them! Like many of the TWD members, I am trying to catch up with the recipes that were made before I joined. What’s funny is that I’ve made quite a few of the recipes in the book that haven’t been chosen yet. But I’ve got 2 years before it’s my turn to select a recipe! Wow, that seems really far away………………

Back to the biscuits. I made them as per the recipe, just left out the pecans. They are very good, with the brown sugar adding quite a bit of flavor. We’re not big biscuit eaters (don’t let the dogs hear that!), so I can’t say I’ll make them again. But I’m glad I tried. These would be good split in half, filled with whipped cream and fruit. Hey - now I know what to do with the biscuits in the freezer!

Well, if you were expecting the Apple Cheddar Scones, SURPRISE!

I didn’t make them - I was having a dinner party last weekend and the scones really wouldn’t have been the appropriate dessert.

I went back and checked out the desserts that had been made before I joined, and I chose the Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte. It looked simple enough and besides, almost everyone likes cheesecake!

Of course, without reading the directions thoroughly first, I pulled out my box of graham crackers and food processor. DUH! So I put those back and out came the flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Dorie describes it as a vanilla cookie type crust, easy enough to either roll out, or press in. Guess which I chose? If you guessed press in - ding! Move onto the next section! I only had a 10″ springform pan, so the crust didn’t make it all the way up the sides of the pan.

After a quick pre-bake, it was ready:

A thin layer of chunky strawberry jam:

Now onto the filling. I subbed ricotta for the cottage cheese, blended it really well, and added a splash of vanilla, and fresh grated nutmeg. Here it is, right after I removed it from the oven:

And a side view:

And one more, after I cut it. I didn’t want my dinner company to see me photographing the desserts, so I waited until they went home, took it from the fridge, and snapped away:

Now for the most exciting part: one of our guests is a professional pastry chef. (Can you say nerve racking? Pressure?) Well, he loved the dessert so much, he said it was balanced and texturally perfect. So the first thing I did was give him half of the torte to take home. Then I gave him a copy of the recipe! This is a dessert I will definitely make again, especially with different flavors of jam. And the crust has so many possibilities! I think it was even better the next day, when everything had a chance to co-mingle.

Oh, and just so you know, I also made the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, without the white chocolate icing. Those were a flop. User error I suppose, my guest informed me that they were overdone by about 5 minutes.

Yes, that was painfully obvious from the first bite!

Coming up next week, Double Crusted Blueberry Pie!! (And I happen to have a freezer full of blueberries!)

I was quite excited to make this weeks TWD selection - I like cobblers. They are fun to make, and fun to eat.

They are, however, a cool-weather dessert - and with the temperatures averaging 107 degrees, it’s not the first dessert that comes to mind. So with that thought lingering in the back of my head, I asked David which kind of berry he would like in his cobbler - and before I could finish the sentence, he said “peach”.

At first I thought maybe he misunderstood. So I said, “The recipe calls for berries!” And he kept saying “peach”. So guess what? HE WAS GOING TO GET PEACH!

So being the modern-day domesticated girl that I am, I simply walked to the pantry and pulled out 2 cans of sliced peaches. What, did you think I was going to waltz into the spacious orchard in my backyard, pull them screaming off the tree, and peel them? Not in this lifetime. Please, I can’t even keep mint alive - I stand no chance of growing anything else!

I can impress you with the fact that I made the cobbler crust by hand. And I mean literally by hand. I resisted the urge to break out the food processor, and used my old-fashioned pastry blender to get this going.

See, here’s the proof!

It was fun for the first minute, and then I wished I hadn’t been so ambitious. But since it was a half batch, it really didn’t take too long.

Looking good! At this point, however, I realized that there wasn’t any “flavor enhancer” in the dough. No vanilla, no cinnamon, no nutmeg - NOTHING. But I trusted Dorie not to let me down - so I slid the dough onto the peaches, and just for good measure, I sprinkled the top with sugar to make it sparkle.

Oooh, look! You can see the bubbles on the left side - I had just taken it out of the oven! It smelled wonderful and I couldn’t wait to throw it serve it to David.

Well, he was so happy to get his cobbler - I even topped it with a little vanilla ice cream. But much to my dismay, it really was bland. It needed something to give it flavor. I can’t imagine that the berries could do any more for it than the peaches. Was I wrong? Based upon the P&Q’s, it seems everyone had a similar complaint.

Would I make it again? Absolutely - but next time I’ll spice up the dough.

Thanks to Beth for choosing this weeks recipe.

Next week? Apple Cheddar scones.

Reader note: this post is originally from June 3 - however wordpress didn’t transfer it, so I am reposting it.

French Chocolate Brownies were the recipe of choice for this weeks TWD. Many thanks to Di for selecting these! Anything with chocolate is a personal favorite of mine, so I couldn’t wait to get these going!

I decided against the “flaming raisins”, since they don’t have a big fan base in our house, but you better believe I added the rum. Extra rum. Delicious spiced rum. Yum.

I did notice the absence of vanilla, but I figured I should probably follow the recipe for a change. Being the rule-breaker that I am, though, I couldn’t help myself and left out the cinnamon too.

After their time in the oven, I cut off a square and tried one. Hmmm. I could taste the rum (bonus!), but the consistency is definitely more like a cake than any brownie I’ve ever made. Don’t get me wrong, though. I cut off another piece just to make sure it was as delicious as I thought it was the first time around.

So now you are probably wondering where the trickey comes in. My parents came over for dinner that night, and Alexander told my mother that we have brownies for dessert. “Oh no, I don’t like chocolate, or brownies”, she said. Well, I was in the kitchen during this dialogue and overheard Sabrina telling him it wasn’t a brownie, it was cake. So I cut off a piece, plated it nicely and presented it to my mother with “Look, I made a new chocolate cake today. Would you try it?” She wrinkled her nose, and took a bite. Then another bite. “Oh, this is really good, it’s very light. And you know how I feel about chocolate cake.”

So the big question here - is it cake? Or brownie?

Ah, a lovely TWD choice this week from Marie from A Year At Oak Cottage. This dessert was so brilliant in its simplicity - and that’s why it was such a pleasant surprise. It proved that dessert doesn’t have to be complicated to be impressive.

Like many of the members seem to be doing these days, I made individual tarts - but I rolled my dough flat and cut out rounds since I don’t have tartlet pans.

I skipped the liqueur and pepper and topped the tarts with whipped cream - since creme fraiche is $7.00 for an 8 oz. container. Ouch! I like it, but not that much! I’ve heard of ways to make it at home but have never attempted it. If someone has a recipe, please send it over!

Consensus? Definitely a keeper. Again, it is so simple, yet I would never have thought to do this.

By the way, I’m still waiting for my blog to be fully transferred, so I am aware of the fact that I don’t have any pictures past June 1. In hindsight, there were 10 other ways to do it, but I seem to have found the most time-consuming and difficult way to do it. So I suppose congratulations are in order!!! Yay me!!

I have been fortunate enough to have several comments from a few TWD visitors advising me to bake up the leftover brioche dough from last weeks round of sticky buns. I kept staring at the dough, thinking, today? No. Next day? No.

However, with my Friday night pizza dough rising, I took the opportunity to let them have a chat and rise side by side. I figured they would cheer each other on and maybe have a competition to see who would rise the highest first.

I found my cute little brioche pans that I bought a few years ago and still haven’t used - so this was the perfect opportunity to break them in.

How cute are these? I set them up next to the pizza dough and left them for several hours. Three hours later they still hadn’t risen very much (the pizza dough clearly won the rising challenge!!) but I forged ahead and baked them anyways.

They looked great, but for some reason, they had that funny yeast smell that comes from the dough not rising enough. Now, my sticky buns didn’t have that problem, so I’m not sure where I went wrong. I thought 3 hours would have been enough time, but maybe I should have left them longer.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Welcome back for another tasty round from the TWD gang. This weeks selection was Pecan Honey Sticky Buns from Madam Chow’s Kitchen. What a great recipe! What a lot of work!

Now, after reading the directions just for the brioche dough, I know why anyone that didn’t have a stand mixer was excused from this project. I was a bit concerned for my own mixer after I could smell the heat from the motor. Of course, that would have meant another trip to Sur La Table to exchange another mixer. However, it all came together (in a manner of speaking) and onward I went in my journey to honey-bun-land.

I decided to ditch the pecans (for Sabrina’s sake) and make “mini-stickies”. They were TASTY! The brioche dough by itself was delicious, but add in the syrup and the filling and I’m surprised we didn’t combust from the sugar rush! Holy moly!

Sabrina and I ate them right out of the oven, between mouthfuls of “ohmygoshthisissohot” to “oh my gosh these are so good!” The boys didn’t try them, so I quickly wrapped up what was left to keep us from demolishing the rest of them. I cut the remaining dough into manageable chunks and froze it, and I’m looking forward to baking up that dough as a loaf of bread.

Umm-umm good! I can’t say I would make the buns again, but the brioche dough definitely was worth the effort. For the recipe, please click here.

Coming up next week - French Chocolate Brownies!

Oui! Another tasty selection from the TWD group. Thankfully, this week it wasn’t a big cake, pie or torte. I don’t think I could handle another round of math to downsize the recipe.

No, mademoiselle, this week we are making madeleines! Everyone knows about Proust and how the little cakes became famous, so I won’t bore you with the details. What I will tell you - is that I’ve never read the story, so I’m going stick with the version that Dorie tells in the intro to the recipe.

Some time ago, I bought the nicest madeleine pan from Sur La Table. I love that store. To me, it’s more dangerous than Williams Sonoma. But unfortunately, I haven’t used the pan as much as I would have liked. Which translates into the pan being pushed to the back of the cabinet.

But now, the pan is making its triumphant return. Brought back from the depths of the cabinet, into the light of the kitchen - ahhh, my eyes - too bright! Just kidding.

I made the batter before I took the kids to school so it would have ample time to chill. So after letting the batter rest for the requisite 3 hours, I spooned the dough into the molds, and popped them into the oven.

And just as quickly, it was over. They emerged from the oven looking like this!

They seemed to overflow more than I would have liked, however I got exactly 12 from the recipe and really, how often does that happen?

So the proof is in the taste test, and my mom was quite anxious to try one. I dusted them with a little powdered sugar and presented them:

And did she like them? Oh yes! So much, in fact, she asked me to make the lavender madeleines for her. She gave me dried lavender and I steeped the leaves in butter, per the recipe. I also added the lemon zest and a bit of vanilla.

The lavender flavor didn’t come through as strong as I’d hoped, but next time I’ll mash up the leaves in the butter and perhaps that will impart more flavor.

I don’t have pictures of the lavender madeleines because my mom took them home. But I can offer this:

Tasty!!