TWD: Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

My apologies to Mitch Albom, as it's been Wednesdays with Dorie around here lately. I know that I've spread myself a little bit thin when I run out of cinnamon. Seriously, now, I. Ran. Out. Of. Cinnamon. In the fall. It's one of my favorite spices, or really one of my favorite flavors, and I use multiple 8 oz Penzey's bags each year. So imagine my surprise when I went to make this recipe and found myself scraping the jar and raiding the cinnamon/sugar container to finish.

These gingersnaps were delicious. They were quick to make, and I stored half the dough in the fridge for more than a week before baking a second mini-batch. As everyone was eating them, dunked in cups of milk, I realized that I ought to take a picture. So here are the last three cookies, which hung around mere minutes after their photo shoot.

TWD: Cran-Apple Crisp

Love Crisp. Don't have the right dishes to make individual servings, so I made the giant crisp. It was delicious. We're fighting over the last bit now...

DB: Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I have to say that there was a lot to like about this challenge. I enjoyed the lack of butter, my procrastinatory tendencies were rewarded with such a quick cookie, and the flavor combinations are endless.

My friend Allison and I shared sifting and piping duties on this one. I can't fault either our sifting or our piping, but our macarons didn't rise nearly as high as we might have hoped. In fact, my lemon macarons bore a remarkable visual resemblance to communion wafers. Fortunately, they tasted a lot better. I planned to fill the lemon ones with raspberry jam, but the cookies were great on their own, so I ate them plain.

For the remainder of our macarons, we considered savory options. Ultimately, we were unable to reconcile the 2 cups of powdered sugar with savory flavorings. We added a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder, and some chili powder for a savory kick. These macarons rose a bit higher, and I filled them with a sour cream, dark chocolate frosting. I ate one. My family finished the rest in mere minutes.

TWD: Cherry Fudge Cake

So Allen went to bring the cake in from the fridge last night. His comment: "what's in this thing, besides butter?" See this cake weighs, oh, 5 lbs. Cutting into it is like cutting into winter squash -- if the cake could roll away, I'd worry about my hand coming into contact with the knife.

This cake is quite good, fudgy and studded with cherries. It's rich enough to benefit from a glass of milk as an accompaniment. It's probably best served as a single, bite-sized desserts.

TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

"Those were surprisingly tasty for sweet potato biscuits," said A.
"They were so good, I didn't even know they had sweet potato in them," added J.
They weren't as puffy as I might have liked, and I added a lot of skim milk to the batter after using two fresh sweet potatoes, but they complemented our creamy lentil soup quite nicely.

Unfortunately, my computer isn't currently recognizing my camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

TWD: Allspice Muffins

So I jumped ahead and made these one evening right after the selections for October were posted. They're delicious, easy, and pantry ready (although I'm now out of Allspice). I've made them three times, adding some chopped apples after a recent trip to the orchard.

TWD: Split Level Pudding

One Word: Yum!