TWD: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

This week's Tuesday with Dorie pick was made by Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness. And what did that amazingly psychic woman select? Why my all-time favorite Dorie recipe: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Yum.

I want to be buried with one of these muffins.



Their aroma was refreshing, their taste: tangy yet sweet. The only complaint my family had with regards to these muffins was ...

"MORE ICING, PLEASE".

"Lots more icing, PLEASE."

Well at least they're polite.

TWD: Caramelized Apple Shortbread Cake

A few days ago I discovered Dorie Greenspan's Cranberry Shortbread Cake, and I like it so much I decided to make it again, this time with apples.


First I caramelized the apples with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. I wish you could get a whiff of the smells coming from this skillet. Warm, spicy and oh-so Fall-like. Happy, happy, days.


After the apples had cooled, I grated my frozen shortbread cake dough into the pan and topped it with the apples. Yes, grated. I read somewhere that grating the dough creates a lighter, more delicate crust and it is true. Next time give it a try, you won't be sorry. Just watch those finger-tips!

A layer of Apple Butter...

And the rest of the grated shortbread dough. Note: I used too much dough on the bottom, so the top layer looks a little bare.

And if it wasn't sweet enough I topped the finished cake with cinnamon glaze. Can anyone say sugar coma? But hey, what a way to go.



Caramelized Apple Shortbread Cake

Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours pg 208-209 & 408


For the Cake:

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• With an electric mixer beat the butter on medium speed until soft and smooth.
• Add the sugar and continue to beat until the sugar dissolves into the butter.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the eat, beating until it is absorbed.
• Beat in the vanilla.
• Add the flour mixture and using a sturdy rubber spatula mix only until it is incorporated.
  
• Divide the dough in half, pat into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until solid.
  

For the Caramelized Apples:

Ingredients:
3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Ginger

1/4 - 1/2 cup Apple Butter (optional)


Directions:

• In a large skillet over medium-high heat melt the butter, then sprinkle the sugar over the melted butter.
• Cook the butter and sugar for 1 minute or so. You want the sugar to caramelize but not burn.
• Add the sliced apples and spices to the skillet and toss to evenly coat the apples with the spices, and butter/sugar. Cook until they are tender but not soft, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Transfer the apples and buttery liquid to a plate.

Assembly:

• When the dough is frozen solid, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line the bottom and 2 sides of a 9 x 5" loaf pan with parchment paper, allowing 2-3 inches to extend over the 2 sides. Lightly butter the parchment paper and non-covered side of the pan.
• Remove one ball of frozen dough and grate into the prepared pan. Distribute evenly.
• Spoon the caramelized apple on top of the bottom layer of dough.
• Cover the caramelized apples with the Apple Butter (optional).
• Grate the other half of the dough on top of the apples.
• Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes, or until the top of the cake is lightly golden brown.
• Cool for 20 minutes. Run a blunt knife on the two sides of the cake not covered by parchment paper. Lift the cake from the pan using the parchment paper sides as handles.
• Add a glaze if desired.
  

TWD: Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

I just got back from vacation ( a Carnival cruise but thankfully not the one that was stranded at sea with no power and water), so I had to scramble to get this week’s assignment finished on time.

Ta-Da
Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry (Blueberry) Shortbread Cake

This week’s TWD selection was made by Jessica of The Singleton in the Kitchen (click here for recipe). Way to go Jessica, you made a delicious choice.

Because of my late return I didn’t have time to go to the store and get cranberries, so I had to raid the refrigerator and use what was on hand. The only non-moldy fruit I could find in the frig was some slightly expired blueberry fruit spread. It wasn't too, too expired so I decide to take a chance. (I'm such a rebel.)


Like many other TWD bakers, I grated the dough instead of trying to roll it out to the correct size. The grating was a lot easier but also a lot messier.


So how did it taste?

Pretty darn good.

Kinda like a cross between a sugar cookie and a scone. Crunchy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Not too sweet, with a little tartness from the fruit. In the book Dorie also suggest using caramelized apples instead of cranberries. I think I’ll give that a try for Thanksgiving. I’ll let you know how it goes…

TWD: Pea-NOT-tiest Blondies

I made my last Houston-New Orleans commute on Friday, October 29th and the next morning I pulled out my pans and started BAKING. Yahoo! An almost two month exile from my kitchen and my weekly Tuesdays with Dorie fix was finally at an end.

And what was I fortunate enough to get to bake?
Peanuttiest Blondies.
Lucky Me. One of my favorites.

This week’s selection was made by Nicole of Bakeologie. The recipe can be found on page 119 of Dorie Greenspan’s book: BAKING From My Home to Yours, or on Nicole's blog site.

Now I’m a great lover of Peanuts and Peanut Butter, but my family falls more on the “great hater” side of the Peanut Butter fence. So I had to make some minor adjustment to Dorie’s fabulous recipe. I subbed Almond Butter for the Peanut Butter and replaced the peanuts with a medley of four nuts: almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and pecans.

It was yummy. Moist, chewy and oh-so nutty... So my version my not be Peanuttiest Blondies, but they are certainty the Nuttiest Blondies.

TWD: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

This week’s TWD selection was made by Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine and her choice was Peanut Butter Crisscrosses. Thanks Jasmine, Peanut Butter Cookies are one of my favorites.



But as usual I ran into some technical difficulties: this time with the crisscrosses. Those little suckers just wouldn’t stay put. I push my tines deep into the cookie dough, but the baked cookies showed hardly a hint of a PB’s cookie signature mark. Anyone else have this problem? I wonder if my dough was too soft, or if I should have refrigerated the cookie dough after making the tine impressions??? Who knows... Life is a mystery. But with the marks or without, these were some darn good cookies.

I also made a batch with mini chocolate chips. They were good, but not as good as the “classic” version.



Update on the job front: Today is my first day at the new job! Yeah! I can’t wait to get started. The last few months (since the layoffs were announced) have been traumatic and depressing. I lost a lot of hair from the stress, gained 15 pounds, and had constant headaches that bordered on migraines. The last six months have not been fun. But hopefully all my “angst” is over and life can get back to normal. Fingers crossed.

TWD: Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie was selected by Donna of Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First.

Now I’m not a fan of coffee flavored desserts, but these weren’t half bad. A little less coffee/espresso and a little more sugar and these chocolate shortbread cookies would have been perfect for my coffee-adverse taste-buds.



And I was really WOWed by the tip about rolling out the stick dough in a zip-lock bag. Why has it taken me 40+ years to learn that trick? Thanks Dorie, I’m always learning something new from you.



Update on the job front: Only one week till I start my new job!!! Yea!!!

I’ve been working as a “temp” since I was laid off in June. It is/was a good job except for the fact it offered no benefits. And being uninsured really had me worried. I must have had a hundred nightmares about getting into a car accident and having to pay hospital bills out of pocket! Yikes! Come on September 7, I need a good night's sleep.

TWD: Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

This week’s “Tuesday with Dorie” selection of Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart was made by Rachel of sweet tarte (how appropriate).

Now I’m not a fan of custardy desserts, but this tart made a convert out of me. It was delicious. Delicate fruit, creamy custard, crunchy topping, and a flaky crust. The “flaky crust” part is not true to Dorie’s recipe which called for a “Sweet Nut Tart Dough”, but I was lazy and just used a ready made crust instead of making my one. Sorry Donna. Sorry Dorie.

Here are the tarts about to go into the oven. Not knowing if I would like the tart, I cut the recipe in half and made four mini tarts instead of one big tart. I also just diced the peaches instead of making the elegant “fan pattern” that Dorie suggested. I know, I know, I’m a lazy bum.



Here are the tarts just out of the oven. That mess you see on the pan is from the streusel topping that accidentally slid off the tarts (what a waste of good topping). Dorie suggested leaving the pan in the oven as you sprinkle the streusel on top of the tart, but this didn’t work for a klutz like me. I burned my hand in two places reaching into the oven, and I also lost some of the prize streusel as it slid off the mounds of peaches. Poor streusel.



Any here is the final product. Ta-da. Sweet peaches, creamy custard, flaky crust, and crunchy almond topping. What more could a girl ask for?



Side note on the job front... I got a job!!!! I'm starting on September 7th. I have to go to Houston for 2-1/2 months of training, but then I'll be back home in time for Thanksgiving. To celebrate I went on a shopping spree this weekend, buying things that I have been putting off for months: a new garbage disposal (the old one broke a few months back), a new vacuum cleaner (the old kept spitting things back at me), new tires and windshield for my car (need to be safe on my trips back and forth to Houston), and a new purse (just because). Hopefully now my life can settle back into a normal routine. Looking for a job was extremely stressful and VERY frustrating, and I hope to never have to do it again!

TWD: Chewy, Chunky Blondies

Nicole of Cookies on Friday picked this week’s Tuesday with Dorie selection: Chewy, Chunky Blondies.

Chewey, gooey, and oh-so sweet, but sadly not my favorite “Dorie” recipe. I prefer more “cake-like” brownies/blondies so the gooeyness of these blondies made me a little sad. Sad that I had to eat the whole pan and not enjoy it only little bit. NOT one bit I tell you.



I did love the look and taste of the uncooked cookie dough. Yumm…



Side note on the job front… My 30-day temp job was due to end on July 30th, but today I was added as a speaker for an August 6th meeting??? I’ll have to ask my boss tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. Maybe I’ll be getting a paycheck for a few more weeks.

TWD: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie baking assignment was chosen by Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes.



I’m a lover of all things chocolate, so I had such high hopes for this cake. The batter mixed up like a dream: thick, creamy, and very, very tasty.



But I missed judged the time needed to make the cake ( the cake came out of the oven at 11:15 am and I had to be at our Father’s Day party at noon), so I sliced and frosted the cake while it was still steaming hot. Of course the frosting melted on contact with the hot cake and the suddenly liquid chocolate oozed all over the place.


And the taste?

Well, honestly, I was a little disappointed.

I found the cake bland and the bottom and sides of the loaf were very hard. Maybe I cooked it too long -- I probably cooked it too long. -- I have a very bad habit of doing that :(

Here is a peek at the inside. My cake may not have been the best tasting thing at the party, but I just loved the look of all that warm chocolate oozing out and dripping down the sides. Ahhh chocolate.



Side note on the job situation: Only three more days till the pink slips come out! I wish Friday would hurry up and get here cause I keep swinging from deep depression at losing my paycheck to overwhelming joy at finally getting away from a job that was slowly killing me. I guess this emotionally roller coaster is normal????

So what should I do on my first Monday of unemployment? I think I may go back and start baking all of the TWD recipes I missed!

TWD: Raisin Swirl Bread

Before this week I was a Raisin Bread virgin. I had never tasted a slice in all my (shhh 47) years on this earth.

I was missing so much, so very much. Just take a look...



Soft, tender-crumbed sweet bread with a swirl of cinnamon sugar and plump, juicy raisins. Many thanks to Susan of Food.Baby for selecting such a great baking project.

Job update: Only 8 days till the pink slip arrives. I bought an individual health insurance policy yesterday because COBRA was just too expensive! My work policy ends at midnight on June 30th and the new policy start at 0:01 am on July 1st. Is that cutting it too close? I guess I should have overlapped them by a day but I didn't think about it at the time. Oh well, next time I'll know better.

TWD: Berry Tart

My journey into Tuesdays with Dorie’s Quick Classic Berry Tart started out bad, very, very bad.

1. I forgot the milk boiling on the stove and it boil over and flowed everywhere. What a MESS!!! I ended up with milk baked onto my electric cook top. What a royal MESS!!!
2. I “pulsed” the tart dough a little too much in the food processor and ended up with a gooey paste instead of a sandy, shortbread consistency.
3. The tart shell cooked unevenly and the edges were burnt to a crisp and the center was raw.

I didn’t get a picture of my cook top, but here is the, ummm, tart shell. I removed the foil after 25 minutes of baking and this is what I found...

Doesn’t it look appetizing? Burnt edges and soft, underbaked middle. Yuck.

I started again, and the second time I used my hands to mix the dough instead of the food processor. The shell came out much nicer the second time around. I also decided to use a pie plate instead of the suggested spring-form pan. Here is the second attempt at the tart shell. Much more appealing it think.


In the end (and after much heart ache) the Berry Tart came out quite nice looking. And it tasted pretty damn good to boot.


So many thanks to Cristine of Cooking with Cristine for selecting this week’s TWD challenge. It was well worth the effort.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection was made by Melissa of Love at First Bite. She selected Sweet Cream Biscuits on page 23.



I have to say that I LOVE biscuits. They are my comfort food and rank right up there with chocolate and ice cream. So I'm sorry to say that I didn't like these biscuits at all (sorry Melissa and Dorie). I felt like they were missing something important, something vital.

Here they are about to go into the oven.



And just out. They are a little brown, but that is the way I like them. I love the outside toasty and crunchy and the inside moist and fluffy.



I ate one and felt a big let down. It just tasted so bland and uninspiring. Maybe if I had covered them in gravy or jam they would have tasted better, but just as a standalone biscuit they left a lot to be desired. I'll probably give the recipe another try (one day) just to see if I did something wrong.

TWD: Swedish Visting Cake

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. Nancy selected Dorie’s Swedish Visiting Cake which is located on page 197 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Thank you Nancy!

This cake as moist, almond-y, and oh so good. In fact it is one of the best things I've tasted in a long, long time.

All hail Dorie and her Swedish Visting Cake. Those cake toting Sweds can visit me any time.

TWD: Mocha-Walnut Marbled (Bundt) Cup Cakes

This week's TWD was hosted by Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350. She chose Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake on pages 180 and 181 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: from my home to yours.


After last week's Coconut Bundt Cake I didn't want to do another Bundt, so I made Mocha-Walnut Marbled Cup Cakes instead. And in honor of Easter I topped my cupcakes with a chocolate ganache bird's nest loaded with pastel eggs (aka Jelly Belly). Too cute, the idea came from Simplebites.


Taste-wise the cakes were good but not great (I liked last week's Coconut cake better). I really couldn't taste the ground up walnuts that were added to the batter..


And I found the mocha-chocolate component a little bland (read: needs more chocolate).


Here are the cupcakes about to go into the oven.


And a freshly baked cuppie with steam still escaping. Hot, hot, hot.


The cup cakes were moist, dense and very heavy. In hind-sight baking them as cupcakes my not have been the wisest choice. I'm sure they would have tasted a lot better as a Bundt cake.

But they still looked cute even though they weren't the best tasting things in the world.

TWD: Coconut Tea Cake

This week's Tuesday with Dorie assignment, Coconut Tea Cake, was selected by Carmen of Carmen Cooks. Let me say that I love coconut and I adore cake so I was in heaven. Yummm. I also had some leftover Strawberry Marmalade and some flavored whipped cream from the March 2010 Daring Bakers' assignment so I slathered it on my Coconut Tea Cake as well.

Triple Yummmm.


Here is the batter being prepared. The recipe called for Coconut Milk, which I had a hard time finding. Wally-World had sweetened coconut water and sweetened coconut cream, but no unsweetened coconut milk. I almost had to make my own (go figure, I was able to find instruction/recipe on the web), but my next-door-neighbor just happened to have a can. What luck. I traded her half a Coconut Tea Cake for a can of coconut milk.



Here is the cake about to go into the oven. The batter looked a little thin and watery, but I have faith in Dorie's recipes so I didn't worry.


I did fret about the length of cooking time. Dorie suggested 60-65 minutes, but I have a oven possessed by temperature demons so I started checking the cake at 45 minutes. At 50 minutes my cake tester came out clean so out of the oven came the cake. It was nicely brown and smelled like a coconut dream. Dorie didn't suggest a glaze for her tea cake, but in my book everything taste better with glaze/frosting/icing so I found a glaze recipe that used up the extra coconut milk. Not content with just a glaze, I encrusted the coconut cake and more shredded coconut.



Ahhh, life is good thanks to Tuesday with Dorie.

TWD: Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

This week's Tuesday With Dorie assignment was "Thumbprints for Us Big Guys".

Sigh, I must have done something wrong, because here are my cookies before baking...


and after...

Before, After. Before, After. Please scroll back and forth and as you view my latest baking misadventure make soothing sounds of pity and comfort. On days like this I need all the pity and comfort I can get.

Honestly I don't know what went wrong. The dough went together with out any mishaps, and (as instructed by Dorie) I rotated my two cookie trays half way through the suggested baking time. When my timer went off at 14 minutes (suggested baking time was 15-18 minutes), I checked my cookies and found confusing mix of results. Some of the cookies were round and puffy with a nice little depression in the middle, while others were as flat and crispy as tuiles. Even on the same cookie tray some were showpieces and others were flops. Huh????

Was the butter the culprit? If I didn't mix the butter and flour well enough would random chucks of butter cause some cookies flatten during baking? I guess that is a question for Dorie and other baking gods and goddesses out there. Hellooooo anyone out there?

But from my two trays I did find a few cookies that were presentable. Here they are sprinkled with powder sugar and waiting for the jam to be poured into the thumbprint depression.


One great trick I did learn from this recipe was to fill the cookie depression with boiled jam. The heat liquefies the jam so that it pours like water.


And once the liquefied jam cools, it jells into a smooth, mirror like surface. Amazing. Astounding. Jam-marvelous. Isn't astounding the things you can learn from cooking blogs?