TWD: Double Apple Bundt Cake

Dear TWD,

Yes, I'm still baking. It's the blogging and photography that have gotten the better of me. So I made the chocolate espresso shortbread, and the peach upside-downer. Then my husband and I embarked on the "ships passing in the night" month, where one of us has been out of town for the past 4 (loosely defined) weekends.

So I stayed up late last night, and I baked the double apple bundt cake. Only a day late. I'm enjoying it, even though I was a bit short on the apple butter, and supplemented with a combination of plain yogurt and apple cider. I also added some chopped candied ginger. If there is still some cake left when Allen returns from this week's trip, I'll be surprised.

TWD: Custardy Crunchy Peach Tart

I should know better than to multitask. But I got away with it this time.

I made the tart, popped it in the oven, turned the oven off with about 15 minutes of baking remaining, and went to the gym.

After the gym, I more than deserved my tart.

Yum!

TWD: Lots of Ways Banana Cake

Totally Delicious. I made this cake with dried cranberries, toasted coconut, yogurt, and my mom's chocolate yogurt frosting, which puddles around the edge of the cake.

Chocolate Yogurt Icing

6 tbsp butter

1/4 c. cocoa

1/3 c. plain yogurt

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Combine butter, cocoa, and yogurt in saucepan and bring to rapid boil. Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread over warm cake.

TWD: I've been baking, but not blogging

Here is my orange version of the vanilla cake. I took it to a tennis match, but the leftovers were better, griddled in butter.

The Brrrownies were minty. They travelled well too. But we had so much fun on our trip that we forgot to eat them. So they travelled well home.

DB: Chocolate Pavlovas

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

You're in withdrawal, I know

I know you miss me. All 3 of you regular readers miss me. But I've been busy. I mean someone has to go to the pool. And do the laundry that results from the clothing changes brought on by the pool. I've been cooking too.

A few notable recents:

Strawberry Lime Jam (one of this year's entries for the Downtown Home & Garden Jam Contest)

Strawberry Rhubarb curd

Strawberry Mango Sorbet from David Leibowitz

Pineapple Mint (that's an herb, not a fruit herb combination) Ice Cream

Some serious chocolate dipped coconut macaroons

and chocolate meringues with more leftover eggwhites.

Parsley Salad -- miss 'ya, Alton. I miss you, too blue coat lady.

When I've put chives on everything I can, put the rest in the freezer.

Garlic Scape Pesto (it's just like it sounds, and soooo tasty)

TWD: Dressiest Chocolate Loaf Cakes

I'd rather have almost any brownie from Baking...

Dressed up with black raspberry jam, vanilla ice cream and fresh wild raspberries

TWD: Tender Shortcakes

Loved these shortcakes. I added the powdered and candied ginger for extra oomph. But I went tried and true with the berries and the whipped cream, partially mashing some of the berries with the sugar. For the whipped cream, I used an old Gourmet recipe and whipped heavy cream with some sour cream and powdered sugar.

DB: Piece Montee

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Piece Montee with coffee and vanilla pastry cream fillings, dipped in chocolate and topped with sugar.

TWD: Coconut Banana Ice Cream Pie

Thanks TWD! This is a page I would have skipped right over. I'm glad that I didn't. There's nothing better on a warm day than a dessert that doesn't require anything other than a food processor.

TWD: Apple Bread Pudding

Really, I made this one. A week ago.

I like bread pudding, but I think, like salad, it tastes better when other people make it for me. This was good. A. told me the kids thought it was fine. So I sent the rest to work with him. The kids came home and told me it was the "best dessert ever" and wanted to know why I sent it away.

TWD: Classic Berry Tart

But the berries in the grocery looked terrible. So I grilled the pineapple that was sitting on the counter and used that instead.

Yes, the pineapple/pastry cream combination was a bit unconventional, and my attempts to "Hawaiian-ize" the tart with macadamia nuts and coconut fell victim to an empty pantry (darn chockablock cookies!). I left off the jam glaze, although I might have gone for a ginger preserve in this case.

TWD: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

It tasted so nice that we made it thrice!

I was significantly less gutsy with the "amber" color of my second caramel. The resulting flavor wasn't nearly as intense. I loved the lack of "egginess" in the custard base of this ice cream.

The third version was "skinny" with the last of the whole milk and some skim. With all those egg yolks in the ice cream, I used some of the whites for the Cafe Volcano cookies that I skipped a few months back. They go very well together.

TWD: Chockablock cookies

Made and photographed by a trio of 5th grade boys.

(and with a new computer I can't figure out how to upload the pictures, so you'll have to trust me -- they were cakey and kind of, well, not our favorite. No one's hankering to make the rest of the batter in the fridge.)

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

Mid Morning Snack...

TWD: Swedish Visiting Cake

We don't have any Swedes coming to visit, but we enjoyed the cake while discussing the Civil War.

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

Ok, so we were supposed to make these, maybe a month ago? I wanted to, but life got in the way. And while I was busy with non-baking essentials, I also went through a grocery store funk. One of those, "ok-I-know-that-there-is-something-I-can-make-into-dinner-here-so-that-I-can-avoid-the-grocery-store-for-at-least-one-more-day" funks. It lasted until we had finished every single frozen fruit and vegetable in the freezer. We also ran out of flour. So then I remembered to buy the sweetened condensed milk.

These cookies were great. I shared them, and ate them. And didn't photograph them.

TWD: Soft Chocolate Tart with Raspberries

It wasn't as soft as Dorie intended. And I used home-frozen raspberries. It was a perfect, although perhaps less traditional way to celebrate Pi Day.

TWD: Thumbprints for us big guys

These lived up to their name.
The little kids threw them in the trash after one bite.
Everyone over 10 thought they were wonderful.
I'll vote with the "over 10" crowd, although I'll admit that I came down with the stomach flu after making them am still working past tea and toast.
Fortunately, my cookies, filled with brandy spiked chocolate ganache, didn't seem to make anyone sick.

DB: Tiramisu

My husband and I had a bit of a disagreement as I was making the tiramisu. Convinced that the rum flavor should be front and center, he turned to wikipedia. And he introduced to me to a type of tiramisu previously unknown.

That's right, Tyra Misoux, porn star.

I'm sure if you google her, there are fancier photos.

Let's just say that this led to LOTS of laughter.

Don't know that my version, yummy as it was, stacked up in quite the same way.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

The Very Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

It was mighty gutsy of Dorie to put these on the line. I mean, everyone, everyone has a "best" chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I must tell you I loved these. They spread thin, rather than puffed up cake-like and the streaks and occasional bites of chocolate hit the spot!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here it was, my lone attempt to celebrate a Hallmark holiday. I made Sunday morning pancakes in the shape of hearts. While I really love light, buttery pancakes, made with egg whites whipped tall, I've been making these recently. They take only one bowl and there's something about that cottage cheese that makes me feel a bit less guilty for passing over the bowl of low fat, high fiber cardboard pieces. The recipe came from my cousin Jen, who served them with delicious Oregon blackberry jam, instead of Michigan maple syrup.

2 c cottage cheese
4 eggs
4 tbsp melted butter, cooled
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
Whip cottage cheese in mixer to break up curds, add eggs and butter, and mix until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix to combine. Cook on griddle heated to medium high.

TWD: Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

I like a fudgy brownie, and I worried that these would be cake like. I worried that Dorie forgot to tell me to butter the pan. I worried that these would be a let-down. When the timer went off, I worried because the center was quite wet. I worried when it took at least 10 minutes more in baking time.

But I worried needlessly. Fudgy interior, but not too dense. Flaky, crusty top. They might have been even better had I not forgotten the semisweet chocolate altogether.

College Pasta

I started cooking while A and I were students at Hopkins. The campus food was no great shakes, and it didn't take too much time in the apartment kitchen to learn that I could make better food for far less money. There were some interesting concoctions along the way. During my dorm years, when cooking was limited to a single burner, small toaster oven and the microwave, we had "special sauce". Take one meal card and coat with big pockets into the cafeteria. Walk out with a few cooked hamburgers, and lots of veggies from the salad bar. Mixed with a jar of Prego and served over spaghetti, it wasn't bad.
By the time I was a senior, I had a few standards under my belt. Pasta with orange and mushroom sauce was one of them. It came from a long-discarded book, that to my memory, yielded no other memorable recipes. Here's the version that I served for dinner last night:

Boil water for pasta, and cook 1 lb of spaghetti until al dente.

In large skillet, heat 1 tbsp and some olive oil, add 1 lb sliced white mushrooms and 1/2 lb slice shiitakes. (Vary this based on what you've got). Saute with some salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes until the mushrooms are tender. Reduce heat to low, and add some heavy cream, or some cream and some 1/2 & 1/2, about 3/4 of a cup. Add the grated zest of one orange. When it is heated through, add 3/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese.

Add the pasta and toss to combine. Top with slivered fresh basil and more Parmesan.

TWD: Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

According to Dorie, these should be milk chocolate, mini bundt cakes. But honestly, milk chocolate is fine, unless dark chocolate is available. So I made these with 70% dark chocolate, in a bite size bundt pan (thanks, lastbite!). Half of my batch had a cinnamon walnut swirl, the other half an orange ginger one. Neither one was a swirl, so much as a flavoring. Like many other TWD bakers, I struggled with the consistency of the glaze, and ended up adding a tbsp of butter and almost 1/2 cup heated skim milk to the chocolate and corn syrup. This ganache-like glaze worked looked best when I dipped the cake directly into the pan.

While you're at it, add some Whole Foods ginger gelato to each bite.

TWD: Coco-nana Bread

Full disclosure: This is not bread. Not even close.

• Hungry helpers meant that we weren't going to hang out for 75 minutes of baking. Muffin time!


• At some point in my childhood, I associated bread with the grain group. Now the food pyramid has been turned on its head, but coco-nana bread isn't in the grain group.


• Quick breads are good for breakfast. This one is so rich, it's more like a dessert.

So go ahead, eat it for dessert. It's a bit like dense chocolate cake, with closing banana flavor. Best with milk.

Daring Bakers: Grahams

Do you prefer your graham crackers chocolate dipped, or plain?

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

The one in which I use my waffle maker

It's been at least a week since I hit a dinner "home run". I say that because while my children might count grocery store pasta with Rao's sauce and baby carrots as a great meal, to me it was merely sustenance on a busy night.

A and I are coming up on our 14th wedding anniversary. Through 14 years , 2 children, 2 houses, 2 states, 3 goldfish and 1 dog, we've held onto almost all of our wedding gifts. Some I use daily, like my silverware, and my knives. Some hold sentimental meaning, like the chafing dish from my late godmother. Others are comic relief, both used and unused (I'm thinking of you leopard print bowl and crab-shaped platter.) Like many couples, A and I were blessed with a waffle maker as one of our wedding gifts. Once upon a time, I routinely used it, cranking out Belgian beauties on weekend mornings. Then it went to the basement. And it had been there, likely more than a year.

I've been following the waffleizer on twitter. Bread pudding was interesting, s'mores, tempting. But when he made Indian bread in the waffle maker, I was sold. So I made alloo parantha for dinner, and I topped it with the cilantro chutney. In the middle, I added some Indian spiced lentils. I heated some peanut oil, added a bit of garam masala, and simmered the lentils until they were tender. Before serving, I mixed in some more of the onion mixture from the bread filling ( I tripled that recipe), and some spinach sauteed in ginger infused canola oil.

TWD: Not Scherben and Chocolate Oat Almost Candy Bars

Last week, I almost made a stop a Gourmet Garden, seeking out the fried won tons. You know, camera angles can lie, and I'm still convinced that I might have fooled you into thinking that I made the scherben. But I didn't lie, and I didn't make them.
So when the almost-candy cookies didn't get my oven lit, I fought on. I baked them, subbing walnuts for my dreaded peanuts. They weren't bad, although, surprisingly, J immediately found the raisins hidden in the fudge. After deciding that I'd prefer my chocolate and my oatmeal cookies as separate events, I stashed the rest in the freezer.

TWD: Tarte Tatin

I first learned to make this at a cooking class almost a decade ago, and it became one of my standards. I knew the recipe by heart, I knew the dish would turn out perfectly. I almost always had the ingredients in the house. But I fell away from tart tatin, for no good reason. I'm glad that TWD brought it back. The apples caramelized on low heat. The remainder of my Daring Bakers Puff Pastry stretched over top. I scraped the remaining caramel from the side of the plate. Please don't tell my scale, or my orthodontist.

I don't have a picture, as my camera is headed for repair just in the nick of warranty.

A little leftover

Wasted food drives me nuts. I hate to throw it out, which is why we now have thousands of worms living in the laundry room. I really loved our Christmas sweet potatoes, as they even used the skins.

With all sorts of little nibbles left over from New Year's Eve, this was our Sunday lunch:

Zingerman's baugette grilled brie with basil and roasted peppers. Yum!