"E" Street Kitchen

TWD: CHOCOLATE-CRUNCHED CARAMEL TART

2009-10-01T12:01:00.001-07:00

After taking a licking the last couple of TWD recipes - I was ready for something that I consider a "success"...... whatever that means! LOL

In the interest of keeping my options open for other desserts later on - I choose to make a half-batch of this dessert. Out came a ramekin and a 4+" springform pan (which ended up being my favorite presentation).

I paused for a moment at the "make the caramel" step thinking back to my many caramel failures and thought about resorting to my fail-safe method but decided to give it a go.... SUCCESS!!!! DELICIOUS SUCCESS!!!

The honey roasted nuts were a great addition and have become a pantry staple.

The crusts were over-baked just a little - I liked Dorie's comment that they tended to hold up better - but that really didn't matter.... they were eaten before it became an issue!

I didn't get a nice clean finish on the crust - but nobody complained.....

The only complaint was "why isn't there more?" - and I got my "success".......

TWD: COTTAGE CHEESE PUFFLETS

2009-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

I am calling surrender on soft/sticky doughs... No matter what I tried - these just didn't work for me.

They were chilled for three days and then repeatedly during the rolling/cutting process - they still stuck to everything...

They were pasty white; an egg wash didn't even give them a a nice brown finish...

They didn't puff - not one...

There wasn't even one that was worth taking a photo of.....

They were still on the plate this morning....

I think it is time for a tart.....

Congratulations Tonya!

2009-09-21T13:16:00.001-07:00

Tonya was named "Employee Of The Year" and will be representing the clinic in the statewide "Employee Of The Year" competition.

This called for a celebration and celebrations call for cake!

Two 9x13 layers of Yellow Layer Cake from Baking Illustrated was a terrific starting point - it was very moist, dense and delicious.
Caramel Buttercream Frosting between the layers from a cookbook called "cupcakes" by Shelly Kaldunski - this could become one of my new favorite frostings!
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting from seriouscakes on YouTube - this is definitely one of my favorites (it pipes and holds up well without being too sweet)!
Homemade caramel was drizzled between the rosettes and in the small rectangle in the center of the cake.
A few milk chocolate chips topped the rosettes and added just a little bit of color.

My thought was that this would be a great afternoon snack - there was only one piece left by 11:30.....

Good luck Tonya on the statewide competition - I'm thinking another cake will be in order.....

Wilton Cake Decorating Class - Fondant Cake

2009-09-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Having been on the fence re: taking this class - I decided to give it a go and see what happened....

The last class was about royal frosting (which I really really don't understand - it's just not good to eat). This class is piping, fondant and 80's style stacked (very useful technique though -I think - right?!) cakes.

First cake of the class - the "Package Cake".....

I actually enjoyed working with the fondant.
It was a challenge though - the white fondant shows/picks up EVERYTHING!
The flowers were easy and "fun" (note - I am not using the word "cute")...
I learned how to "marble" the fondant - I think it looks very cool...

I decided to play on the back half of the cake - after all, how many flowers do you need to cut out for a practice cake?

Once again - a little Cornelli Lace...
A little better picture of the "marbled" bow...
I actually think this looks sort of cool and very 2000's... ha ha ha

This is fun process and I am looking forward to working with it some more - like this race car for a friend's baby shower cake.

Blue = copy of the invitation

Yellow = practice version

TWD: FLAKY APPLE TURNOVERS

2009-09-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

This was a love/hate/love project for me....

I loved the idea of apples in "crust" of some sort - this screams fall, football and comfort. The weather Saturday was perfect for the mood.... gray, dreary, breezy, random rain showers..... Fall was in the air!

The idea quickly turned ugly when I started working with the dough. I had nothing but trouble rolling and working with the first batch. It was very sticky and seemed to tear every time I tried to move it...... ugh!

Taking a break - I had (what is in my world anyways) an inspiration and did a couple things differently with the second batch of dough. A little flour on the bottom sheet of waxed paper and letting the dough set a few minutes before rolling made this batch much easier - I would almost say "fun".... almost - to work with. While it wasn't quite love yet, at least we were back on speaking terms...

The first batch was pretty much by the book.

The second batch had some very stiff home-made caramel gobbed on top of the apple mixture.

I was quickly back in love..... the buttery flaky crust was delicious and would be great as Dorie suggests with any variety of fresh seasonal fruit! Toasted nuts would be a tasty addition too!

A little bit of left over dough and apples made a tasty - if not pale - tart that complimented a scoop of carmelized bacon caramel ice cream....

Good + Good + Good <=> Great (or even Good)

2009-09-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning out the fridge/freezer - again (it seems like I do this way too often)...

What to do with a frozen Queen Of Sheba cake, milk chocolate ganache, white chocolate ganache, almond swiss butter cream and a small amount of orange marmalde?

Combine them expecting something great - of course!

Slices of cake split with marmalade between the layers.

A little bit of icing went a long way...

Tight/closed borders are very important when filling an area with chocolate glaze...

A successful attempt at a pastel frosting color. I like the brown/blue combo.

You can't hide an unsteady beginner's hand with that glaze!

These were way too sweet - the combination of cake, frosting and marmalade was too much for all of us!

The same cake, glaze and marmalade but no frosting. It was still a little sweet, but much better!

That is a little ganache piped around the base - but it was easy enough to pick around...

The consensus was that this entire project was a waste of a very good cake - it is too good to bury under frostings, fillings and glazes...

Other than the glaze I made for this project - I wonder what I will find in the fridge in a couple weeks?!

Baby Shower Cake

2009-09-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Some of the girls "at the office" have asked me to make a baby shower cake for a co-worker.

I didn't want anyone to be disappointed - so I made an approval sample...

The cake was Classic White Layer Cake from BI baked in a 9x9 pan (left over batter was used for cupcakes).

I cut the finished cake into 4" wide strips so they would fit on that cool rectangle plate.

White chocolate and milk chocolate ganache was striped onto the first layer.
They were suppose to taste like caramel - they didn't.
The texture and flavor were good
The white chocolate ganache found its way into some ice cream - this was not so good.

A swiss butter cream frosting with almond flavoring.
The Cornelli Lace technique is from class - I like the look but need to refine it...
I think all the borders "over-accessorize" this cake - I seem to do this often...

The cake got the necessary seal of approval - a final version is needed on September 25th.

NOTE - the cupcakes mentioned above were not too popular. They were very very soft and had no body (they actually did not get eaten.....). I don't know if that was a user error (ie - me) or the particular batter. The texture of the cake was, however, excellent!

"Easy" French Bread

2009-09-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

We love bread and eat more than our fair share.

I came across this french bread and had two questions.....

Would it be "easy"? (I am a skeptic)
Would it be "good"? (More important than "easy")

Using two small pans I experimented with a couple different finishes....

Kosher Salt

Sesame seeds and "Sicilian Seasoning" (I don't know what "Sicilian Seasoning" really means - it was in a jar in the back of the cabinet....)

Other than the shape - I am not sure this is technically correct French Bread but it is easy and good.... there were no leftovers!

EASY FRENCH BREAD

1 package quick-acting yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

4 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup water - add to sifted flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.

Add second cup of water (dough will be sticky).

Cover and set bowl aside to let rise until doubled.

Punch dough down and knead twice. Place on greased loaf pan and cover.

Let rise until reaches top of pan.

Brush lightly with melted butter (sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc can be added here)

Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes until crust is golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Note: I thought this dough was too sticky so added about 3 teaspoons extra flour. I might try it next time without this addition.

TWD: CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE

2009-09-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" (thank you Wikipedia) - I never knew this but it makes sense...

Even though I've had the opportunity to travel many places and eat at many "fine" restaurants - I've never eaten a souffle. I'm not sure why...

Saturday's French-food-theme (Country French Stew, French Bread, Cabernet) needed this dessert so the timing was perfect. I was surprised how easy this mysterious dessert was to make (even if it didn't come out quite right).

I was hoping that it would raise more - a few things might have contributed to this...

milk chocolate took the place of bittersweet chocolate,
egg yolks were added after about 1/2 the whites were folded in (why were they across the kitchen near the coffee maker?!) and could have caused some over-mixing,
maybe the rim wasn't clean and they "got stuck",
powder sugar was added before baking.

Unfortunately, nobody really cared for these immediately out of the oven - maybe because of my mis-steps? There was, however, a fight for the leftovers - especially with some Creme Anglaise poured over the top!

I will try these again - just for the leftovers if nothing else!

An interesting thought.....

2009-09-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time - I came across what I thought was a word (starting with a "t" for some reason) but have since discovered that it is really a phrase.......

mise en place

[MEEZ ahn plahs]

A French term referring to having all the ingredients necessary for a dish prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking.

What a great concept!

Based on this definition - I think this is how it should work...

This is how I feel it works in my kitchen...

I have a new goal that doesn't begin with a "T" - ha ha ha!

NOTE: These are not my pictures and I would give credit where it is due - if I could find the sticky note that had the information.......

TWD: ESPRESSO CHEESECAKE BROWNIES

2009-08-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

What's not to love about these brownies? Chocolate, espresso, sour cream - sounds pretty good to me except for one word.... "cheesecake". I can not recall any incident(s) that would create irrational feelings, but that one word just doesn't do anything for me - even after eating some cheesecakes that I would have to say are very good (does that make any sense????).

Thinking about skipping - I decided to humor others around me and give this a go. My compromise was that there would only be a half-batch......

The end result was actually much better than I thought/hoped it would be. There was a tasty combination of flavors that worked very well together with none of them being overpowering.

With a couple adjustments - this was pretty easy although there was a lot of cooling time.

I didn't have espresso powder so I used a cup of left over morning coffee and added a tsp of instant coffee to it. This gave a lot of coffee flavor and without being bitter.
No bittersweet chocolate in the pantry so milk chocolate made its way into the batter.
A panic attack (what would really happen if the knife were "plunged" into the brownie layer - yikes) kept me from making the swirls.

Being somewhat over-indulgent - I ate my piece with the last scoop of chocolate peanut butter toasted coconut hot fudge ice cream..........

Did this change my opinion of cheesecake - probably not, but I have decided to be open minded enough to make it again!

Suggestions..... please

2009-08-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

I was in the baking mood the other day and was looking for something (eventually settling on Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut cookies).....

It dawned on me that I only have two baking books (not counting BH&G) -

While the internet is great and full of wonderful ideas - I like to use a book, turn the pages and plan/scheme. It dawned on me - my library needs to be expanded and I would appreciate any/all suggestions. So far - I've received:

Simple Art Of Perfect Baking - Flo Braker (why doesn't B&N have any of these available?!)
Tartine

Suggestions?

Please!

Thank you!

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

2009-08-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Seems like just a couple days ago - I was passing on making a Creamy Lime Tort because there were "too many" sweets in the house?

Monday morning (should that not be enough of a reason to want to do something pleasant) passed and I "needed" to do something productive. I decided to bake something even though there were apple bars, vanilla caramel cupcakes and brownies all setting around, waiting, getting dry.

The answer - Chocolate Coconut Cookies......

Oatmeal cookies with a 50/50 blend of semisweet and milk chocolate chips
White chocolate "frosting"
Toasted coconut

Delicious with a tall glass of cold milk... even better with a bowl of peanut butter/chocolate ice cream!

All this begs the question.... can there really be too many sweets in the house???

Wilton Decorating Class #2

2009-08-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

I have decided to learn how to decorate cakes. The Wilton courses seemed like a good and inexpensive way to take the first step. Having finished Course #1 early this summer - I boldly went for #2 which wrapped up Monday night.

Being one of the two token males in the group (the other being a 14 year old young man who was very passionate and quite talented) we got lots of attention. You would think the others had never heard of Keegan Gerhard, Chef Duff or Buddy!

My moto for the class was "Come on - guys can decorate cakes too - right after we gut that armadillo found along the road" (my sense of humor wasn't always appreciated.....).

The end result (after qualifying that I really don't "do cute") was kind of - well - "cute". Since I was there to learn technique - I did the project but put my own spin on the colors.

Royal frosting flowers but not in nice pastel colors - the brighter the better!
Blue birds were going to be deep purple (another way of saying I added way too much coloring). They broke after falling out of the cabinet. I settled for this version made in an earlier class.
Those orange things in the upper left corner are daffodils - they were a lot of fun to make!
Gotta love classic white frosting - even if it is a little stiff and flaky!

Basket weave! While it looks a little rough - I like the look and the process of putting this finish together.

Rope border - the easy way! We did the "Wilton" way first - then learned a easy motion to speed up the process. The "easy" way gave me a much more consistent pattern.

Clever trick for getting some extra height on a project. This puts it almost eye-level while seated and takes a lot of strain off the back. That really cool "tackle box" was a gift but I think it was intended more as a way of saying "get all this stuff off the counter and out of bowls in the cabinet".

I am debating whether or not to take Course #3 - fondant........

TWD: APPLESAUCE SPICE BARS

2009-08-24T05:40:00.000-07:00

The morning I made these - my first thought when I stepped out the door was "did I miss the lazy hazy end of summer"? It was about 62 degrees, rainy, calm and - well, beautiful! School started the next day, football season was only a week away and there was no humidity. I guess I could have missed a couple weeks since anything is possible.....

It was a perfect day for an apple bar - fall, comfort spices and apples and of course "glaze". I realized it was meant to be when I remembered there was applesauce in the fridge just waiting....

For some reason - I was expecting the bar have more "crumb"

No raisins for me (long and complicated story). I also doubled the spices to enhance the flavor.

Doubling the glaze was a perfect way to top these! Replacing the vanilla with rum (actually doubling the rum to 2 teaspoons - yum!) was a delicious touch and added another layer of flavor.

Making two smaller pans of bars left me with some extra batter which became mini-muffins.

Fresh out of the pan - I actually was a little disappointed. But - the next morning, this bar (which I came to think of as more like a bread similar to banana) was delicious. The flavors blended and mellowed and the glaze was a nice touch.

The little cupcake that almost couldn't......

2009-08-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Seeing mini cupcakes everywhere - made me hungry. I am not sure why but think that is is something about the cake/frosting ratio and yes - frosting is usually my favorite part of any cake.....

Peanut butter and chocolate sounded like a great combination. Being out of peanut butter (not really a surprise - LOL) I made a trip to the store. One thing the local big box does right is they put Nutella right next to the PB - both ended up in the cart.

The plan changed to Nutella and chocolate mini-cupcakes - this plan didn't work.....

I am not sure what this was all about!? The oven temperature was right so I tried again some remaining batter - same result...... could it be the Nutella?

Second attempt was to follow the recipe and use peanut butter. Hmmmm - what is this all about?!

I thought about making some caramel to fill the wholes but the texture turned me off to that idea....

What is happening here?

It was time to break out the old standard - Baking Illustrated - and get something that we could eat (hopefully)...

Success!!!

I made some Blueberry/Lemon Cheesecake Ice Cream earlier in the day so the frosting HAD TO compliment that... A combination of some Blueberry and Raspberry Jam gave the frosting a subtle flavor (but left the color a little "drab").

What was suppose to be stars ended up as a sort of psychedelic flower!

And even better - the left over Valentine's Day sprinkles are gone..... finally!

Surprise.....

2009-08-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Not really being in the mood to cook last night - I thought I would shock everyone who eats with an advance notice of what we were having for dinner. You know - a "you can't say I didn't tell you" sort of thing that I could do easily and quickly with one little e-mail....

I had two goals:

have someone offer to pick up something (pizza, burgers, chicken - it really didn't matter),
have a little fun (and it may seem like a very little bit of fun, but.....)

I was pretty sure it would work after I sent this picture....

Not to disrespect any culture or culinary style - but - I just couldn't get my hands around anything in this dish except the ear of corn (which did come into play.... read on).

There never was an intention of making this.....

The plan sort of worked......

With the exception of "one" - everyone was a little surprised but very polite in their "thanks, but no thanks" responses,
the "one" son was completely put off and didn't even try to be polite,
everybody settled for leftovers from the fridge (no take-out, but no cooking so I consider this a a lose/win outcome)!

But I did have a surprise - a real surprise inspired by that ear of corn...

... homemade Sweet Corn Frozen Yogurt complete with a sprinkling of bacon crumbles!

How could this be anything but delicious?

Frozen yogurt - check!
Fresh sweet corn right off the cob - check!
Bacon - check!

Surprise - this just didn't work! Separately, everything was great and delicious! Unfortunately something happened in transition...... ugh.......

My advice - don't try this yogurt at home and enjoy the corn with butter, salt & pepper!

Summer lovin'.......

2009-08-11T10:53:00.001-07:00

Summer vegetables are hard to beat. They're great from the local farmer's market - but even better if they're from the back yard!

Home grown --- green beans, yellow squash, zucchini

Local market --- onions, garlic

I even splurged on whole wheat pasta and a "gourmet" parmesan/romano cheese blend; these ingredients are - after all - the best summer has to offer...

The leftovers made a great salad mixed with some warm-off-the-vine Beefsteak Tomato wedges...

Surprisingly, the meat wasn't even missed...

TWD: BROWNIE BUTTONS

2009-08-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Gotta love brownies - especially if they're tasty, delicious and sort-of bite size! While the orange zest sounded good - I skipped this step so I could say that I had everything I needed to make this recipe without going to the store... YEAH!

We don't do "dainty" around here (or tea for that matter) and so that description just won't work here... I had to beef them up a little bit. The word "buttons" was actually a stretch too.

I got 9 "brownies" instead of 16.

Batch #1 - these lasted about 10 minutes - the caramel drizzle version went first.

Batch #2 - looked really good. Looks can be deceiving though - unsweetened baking chocolate DOES NOT MAKE GOOD BROWNIES!

They kind of boiled while in the over - that should have been a clue. They quickly went into the trash...

Batch #3 - perfect brownies, the embellishment should have stopped.... The "who shot the brownie and why wasn't the bleeding stopped" comments didn't help them stay around for very long! I guess I should have stopped with just adding a blueberry which actually looked pretty good...

For the love of bacon.....

2009-08-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

Is it a cake or a bread? Is it a meal, snack or dessert?

I don't know - too many decisions involved in those two questions. The simple answer is, "who cares" LOL?! Speaking from experience - it all of these and delicious to boot!

Pineapple pound cake

Pineapple glaze

Bacon

I forgot to poke holes so the glaze would ooze into the cake....

Yes - bacon!

Best served at room temperature or slightly warmed!

Next time - mini-loaves would be a good choice.....

I wonder what sort of jam would go well??? Maybe a better question is what sort of jam wouldn't go well!!!

Who ate the cake?

2009-08-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

*** 8/07 - changed frosting type to "cream cheese frosting"; I had originally described it as butter cream..... sorry for confusion.

I was cleaning ice out of the freezer (over time - it had gone everywhere) Sunday morning and found two frozen white cakes. Not surprisingly - one was 6" and one was 8", but they were both white and that larger cake could easily be put in its 6" place. YEAH - I was in the mood for a slice of cake after dinner!

After being outside most of the day - I forged ahead. I got a little lazy (and tired) towards the end so it's not so pretty, but it apparently tasted good...

First of four layers. This one was filled with homemade caramel.

Layer #3 filled with caramel. Layer #2 and top were frosted with almond cream cheese frosting.

Is that caramel oozing from layer #1?! It's starting to get ugly...

"Dirty" iced and heading to the fridge to chill a bit before covering with almond cream cheese frosting.

And yes - that is caramel oozing out......

"Finished" - sort of. That clever band around the "middle" (I obviously was not thinking clearly - ha ha ha) was intended to keep caramel in place.... it really didn't work.

By the time it got to this point - I didn't want a piece of cake anymore...

The remains Monday morning... I guess someone - several of them actually - really didn't care how it looked!

I'll take that as a compliment...

2009-08-03T12:26:00.001-07:00

I love original Oreo cookies! Plain ol' Oreos and a glass of cold milk..... yum!

Home alone Friday night - I wasn't in the mood for TV or a movie and couldn't find anything to read (requiring a trip to B&N Saturday). Looking around the junk drawer for twisties - I found a recipe for homemade Oreos wadded up at the bottom...... I was sure this was an omen and so got busy!

15 homemade "oreos" with creamy fluffy white filling...

Left over Valentine's Day sprinkles add a little sparkle and fun...

I think we will need some more milk......

Banana Bread (but it's not TWD Banana Bundt Cake...)

2009-07-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

We want to eat something for breakfast every day. It may be a bagel, a bowl of cereal and occasionally - bacon and eggs (but this happens at dinner more often than breakfast).

One of us (not me fortunately) leaves for work at 6:30 in the morning and usually eats something at the office. Wanting to put an end to the question "bagel again?", I got out the trusty "I Am The Bread Of Life" cookbook about 18 months ago and found the perfect solution.... Banana Nut Bread. The book was put together in 1994 by the good cooks at First Baptist Church in Greenwood, AR and is full of recipes that Grandma might have made if she cooked - which mine did not :-( The recipes aren't necessarily "pretty", "trendy" or "glamorous" - but they are always - always - always very good!

The recipe is simple - bananas (obviously), butter, eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla. Two things keep this fresh each week (yes, I make it each week)... nuts and chips.

Pick a nut (pecans, walnuts, macadamia, hazlenuts - maybe mix flavors and sizes).

Choose a chip (chocolate, peanut butter, peanut/butter, butterscotch - maybe a mix of these too).

In less than one hour there are 4 mini-loaves ready for the mornings! To really shake things up - a simple glaze can be toasted on the loaves under the broiler...... yum!

Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce

2009-07-30T08:01:00.001-07:00

We do - actually - eat more than dessert here! I will admit that dessert gets a lot of attention - pretty much equal to the main course.... sort of..... maybe.......

Anyways - the tomato plants are churning out fresh tomatoes pretty regularly and I needed a way to use some up and get them off the table. Tomato sauce made in the slow cooker seemed like a great idea.

Tomatoes and green peppers - fresh off the vine that morning!

The onions and carrots came from the big box market - our (sort of) "green thumb" couldn't pull these off this year. They are still in the ground - setting there, waiting, doing nothing - their days are numbered....

The basil's been in the fridge for a few days. While it looks a little worse for the wear - it was awesome and the smell filled the kitchen.... ahhh!

A glass of wine, some rotisserie chicken and a piece of bread..... the only thing missing is dessert!

TWD: Vanilla Ice Cream

2009-07-28T11:42:00.001-07:00

I love ice cream.... it is its own food group in my world. I have never been able to make it at home in a way that made me happy - Blue Bunny Premium Vanilla has a permanent spot in the freezer. How excited was I after reading some of the adjectives in the P&O.... maybe this was it!?

There were only two things I did not follow to the letter in the directions:

I don't have a fine mesh strainer so I skipped the "strain the custard" step. This didn't seem like a problem since I couldn't see any curds or chunks in the mix.
Looking at previous P&O for Honey Peach Ice Cream - I added 1.5 tsp vodka to help keep it smooth.

After a few hours in the freezer - we were ready to give it a try. Just to be safe though - there was a fresh container of BB ready, waiting.....

I was not disappointed - not too much anyways! With my expectations being described to me as "totally unrealistic" - I do have to admit that this ice cream was a complete success! Everyone loved it and it didn't last 24 hours. "When are you making more" has become the common ice cream question over the last couple of days.

The Bunny has not been opened; the Bunny is Blue :-(

I will continue to ponder these questions as I make the next batch.....

Did I heat the custard too quickly making it a little "grainy" (in my opinion)?
Should it have mixed longer before going into the freezer (see "grainy" concern)?
Too much vodka? Not enough vodka?
What about amaretto - would it have the same effect as vodka?
Not enough vanilla flavor? Would a bean make it better?

and the most important question of all......

what can I add in the next batch? LOL

Thursday morning coffee....

2009-07-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

A buddy was going to stop by for coffee this morning. We usually get together every week to stay in touch with each other's lives and talk about those we feel need to be talked about (we usually solve many of their problems too - ha ha ha)! He is always willing to try whatever I put on a plate and he is - like my son - a fair and honest critic with a very big sweet-tooth!

Having nothing in the house from the sweet's category for the last couple of days - I decided to make cinnamon rolls. I also wanted to play around with Dorie's brioche dough since it is a relatively easy recipe. One idea quickly "morphed" to two and all of a sudden - there had to be lemon rolls too! I wish I could stay focused........

After the dough rested overnight, I took the trusty rolling pin and rolled two pieces out to "about" 8x12 (can you use the word "artisan" to describe rolled dough?) and stuck them back in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

I filled the cinnamon rolls with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and some pecans. I was a little afraid that they would not have a good gooey filling since there was nothing in this mix to make them messy. I added a little butter but should have done something different (see below).

My step-mom makes the world's best orange rolls - but they are a lot of work! I stole from her recipe (she doesn't like it if I say "inspired" - to her that is some sort of fraud) for the lemon rolls. The filling was butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. As I was putting this together - I thought it would have been tasty to add some brown sugar and cinnamon to the filling.... next time.

A little left over glaze and they were ready!

These were very gooey, messy and delicious - just like the cinnamon rolls will be next time!

Too bad my buddy had to cancel at the last minute this morning..... more for us!

TWD: RASPBERRY BLANC-MANGER

2009-07-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

I have to say that when I read the ingredient list - I just about skipped this one. There are two words that were a total turn-off.... "unflavored gelatin". Being a self-professed carnivore it has nothing to do with vegetarian concerns. It's all about gelatin - I can see nothing worthwhile about this substance (other than homemade marshmallows and a certain strawberry pie)! I think it's because of the Christmas dinner side-dish nightmare of my youth... shrimp aspic.

Being a good sport and intent to get "out of the box" (hmmmm - I think that is why I decided to participate in TWD) - I set out on this project.

Fresh peaches ripening on the counter sounded like a good idea.
Skinning the almonds seemed like way to much work (as described in various comments on TWD) so I used the food processor and ground up almonds with the skin.... I am all about the "artisan" look!
The Perfect Party Cake flavored with almond extract instead of lemon seemed like a good way to play around with this recipe. The extra batter was baked off in 6" pans and frozen for later use.

A 4.5" springform pan seemed like the perfect size
The note "70 gr" is amount of cake batter I used on this version - it resulted in a 5/8" layer. In the fridge - there is a "100 gr" version with a 1" cake layer.
There was enough mixture to also make a full 4.5" pan (no cake) and three individual ramekins.

I thought about adding a layer of blueberry jam before topping the cake with blanc-manger but choose not to "invest" any more. I was still trying to get past the image of shrimp aspic that was floating around in my mind (regardless of how tasty the samples were up to this point).

A few peaches into the FP along with some sugar, lemon juice and a little more sugar for a peach coulis.
Version #2 (the one with 1" cake layer) will have a blueberry glaze on the top.
The finishing touches on the non-cake versions are still up in the air..........

I read somewhere that blanc-manger originated in the Middle Ages and was often fixed with chicken, milk, rice and various other seasonings. They said it was good for the sick. All this seems to take it back way too close to my shrimp aspic nightmares!

It seemed reasonably simple........

2009-07-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

The idea was a simple cake to take to the office as a stress-reliever during a busy tension-filled week. It sounded like "fun" and I thought it would be a great learning experience. Most off all - it was important that it look good (to me anyways) and taste good!

The basic premise was a 4-layer frosted chocolate cake filled with pecan/coconut filling. The chocolate cake and filling came from "Baking Illustrated" (a favorite as it talks about the process involved in fine-tuning the recipe). I was expecting the frosting would be a challenge...

Well - there is that saying about "best laid plans" (or is it "good intentions"?). Whatever the case may be, there were a few challenges - but - some great learning opportunities for me!

#1 - While the cakes were baking (no problems so far), I started the pecan/coconut filling. Not really wanting green accents in the filling - I had to toss the moldy coconut and plan a quick trip (there is no such thing here) to the store. This was a surprise... the dacquois wasn't THAT long ago!

#2 - The chocolate cakes didn't rise as much as I hoped and I was hesitant to slice the layers. No big deal - right? To get the height I wanted - I pulled an extra white cake layer from the freezer and sliced the top off. Problem solved (actually, that should be "sort of solved") and the 4-layer chocolate cake became a "3-layer chocolate & white" cake.

#3 - Frosting (this word is starting to scare me)......... On a recent trip to B&N - I checked out Martha's cake book and she used Swiss Meringue Buttercream all the time. Trusting just about all things Martha, I figured that is the direction I would go! After one completely failed attempt and another not-so-quick trip to the store for eggs, it was on to batch #2. This one came out well but did seem a little soft.

#4 - Hmmm, the white cake was 8" round, the chocolate cakes were 9" round. I figured this out after the first layer was filled and the white cake was stacked. A serrated steak knife (I later found my serrated kitchen knife in the dishwasher... why it was there, I am not sure) made quick easy work of trimming the top layer. Clever I thought not realizing the challenge to come later.....

#5 - The assembled cake now looked like a mutant wedding cake - one big layer and two smaller layers. A few slices and I had an 8" 3-layer cake! Again, I was thinking about how clever I was!

#6 - The frosting did not want to stick to the crumbs on the cleverly trimmed chocolate cakes so things got pretty messy (obviously). Having recently watched a DVR'd episode of Cake Boss - I tried "dirty icing" the cake. It was dirty - very dirty - but after a few minutes in the fridge to set the frosting - it worked well and I even got a pretty smooth finish on the sides (although it doesn't look that way in photo below).

#7 - Little scraps of butter wrapping accidently left in the frosting do not let piping tips work to their full potential!

Next time, I think I will try a very thin layer of frosting on top and bottom of each layer to help keep the filling "clean"..... any thoughts?

I WILL DOUBLE CHECK INGREDIENTS!

I AM GOING TO TRY STEPH'S (at whisk/spoon) SUGGESTIONS RE: FROSTING

The cake got good compliments and really was a great learning process for me! I am anxious to try it (or something like it) again soon!

TWD: BRIOCHE PLUM TART

2009-07-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

What did I learn this week?

"paucity" - n. smallness of quantity; scarcity (dictionary.com)
"Brioche" - n. A soft, light-textured bread made from eggs, butter, flour, and yeast and formed into a roll or a bun (dictionary.com)
"plums"

I had no idea what "paucity" meant. I am not a student of the English language, but it doesn't really seem like a noun - more of an adjective or something else. I don't see how the above definition is either a person, place or thing. But, I could be wrong.......

Having heard the word "brioche" several times, I had never thought about it or what it really means. I can't say that now, but (honestly) can not say that I understand it either...

Plums - hmmm, not so much! They are too expensive and too "iffy" for my tastes. There had to be another option (and the good bakers on TWD had a great suggestion).

I settled on a 2-part approach....

This dough sort of scared me - it was nothing like I had worked with before. But, I followed the directions and maintained hope for the results.

The only tart pan that I had was a 14" x 4" rectangle. The dough fit pretty well (I think) in the pan. A scrap gave me the ability to separate the two flavors.

I chose blueberries and strawberries. Both were in the refrigerator and needed to be used.

Blueberries and home-made blueberry jam

Strawberries and Nutella (thank you TWD bakers)

Even though the pictures are awful - it was sort of "pretty" before its last proofing.

I have no idea if this is how brioche is suppose to look!? But, I will try these again and do know that they tasted very good. I am not sure there is a flavor winner in our house (but the Strawberry and Nutella was awesome (and is my favorite)).

An authentic brioche will be tried - first opportunity I have!

A little red, white and blue..... sort of

2009-07-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Mike's Independence Cake at GTA Living Out West - I decided to try something new (for me anyways) in the same vein. Having no star pans - I settled for a plain old 8" round pan and used Martha's Perfect White Cake. The frosting was her cream cheese frosting - WOW... what a great combination!

Having just completed my first four piping classes - this is only the 2nd cake I have decorated. I think it came out pretty well.

My plan was to use raspberries for the red but I couldn't find any. Leftover jam from the TWD: Perfect Party Cake worked just fine.

I thought the spiral pattern was fun and each slice would have some frosting, blueberries and raspberry flavor. Too bad I didn't scrape off the small star borders and the top shell border - I think I would have liked the result of using a larger tip - say #21...

This cake ended up being 3 layers - each separated with frosting and the same seedless raspberry jam used on the top.

The frosting was difficult for me to work with (although this could have been a "user error"... ha ha ha) but it was a great experience for me and best of all - it tastes great!

PS - thanks Mike for your input and advice.... both are very much appreciated!

TWD: Katherine Hepburn Inspired Brownies

2009-07-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

These are some of the best brownies I have ever had! The combination of coffee, cinnamon and chocolate really hit home. They were rich, moist and gooey - what a great combination - and the only way to improve on it was with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

I had some trouble getting the brownie out of the pan. After much prodding - it came loose but a few pieces hit the floor (how sad is that???) but otherwise all was good. Next time - I would probably try to line the entire pan - not just the bottom... The top was "papery" and the inside was gooey after 28 minutes in the oven (once they cooled - that is about how long the lasted too!).

I substituted semi-sweet chocolate in place of bittersweet chocolate as a personal preference. Big surprise was the chopped macadamia nuts I found on the grocer's shelf! I love macadamias and thought it would be a fun change - we were not disappointed!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

4th of July - our day to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy and usually take for granted (speaking for myself anyways). Shouldn't we celebrate our freedom and the liberties we have every day? Earlier this year - we decided to fly the flag at our house every day - it is our simple way of saying we are proud of this great country!I love to drive up and see it fluttering in the wind...

I came across Martha's flag cookie recipe the other day. Even though I have never worked with royal icing, I decided to give them a try. They came out much better than I had hoped (the finished pictures really don't do them justice) and best of all - they taste great!

The recipe called for sugar cookies. Not being a fan of sugar cookies - I used the Swedish Spritz recipe my boys love. The shape was cut out of cardboard and I put shipping tape on one side to keep it clean. To mark the lines for piping the wells - I poked holes in the cardboard - these holes transferred to the dough. A quick slice with a small knife connected the dots and gave me guides on the baked cookie to follow.

The cookie on the bottom was #1 with piping efforts; top cookie is #16 - big improvement with a little practice!

Blue and white frosting "flooded" into outlines. This took a couple of hours but with some fun music playing, the time passed quickly (those who didn't care for my vocal contributions as I sang along usually left the room!).

These sat and hardened for about 3 hours while we went out for a late lunch/early dinner.

FINISHED!

Thank to all veterans, soldiers and soldier's families for giving us the freedoms we enjoy! We could not celebrate this day without your sacrifices and hard work! Happy 4th of July!

FINGER LICKING GOOD!

2009-06-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

I had a mission Sunday - there was a craving that needed to be satisfied... fried chicken. Not something from a drive-thru or "deli" but the home-made real deal complete with gravy and mashed potatoes. Nothing could stop me except "being chicken" (ha ha ha - sorry) - afraid of my past failures. There was no choice but to be brave - the craving had to be satisfied!

Inspiration came from the strangest place... I was watching one of my favorite shows (it's sort a secret indulgence of mine actually - LOL) on the DVR Saturday afternoon. In this particular episode, the star was visiting Paula Deen at her home in Savannah and they were looking around the garden previously maintained by Paula's drunk but hilarious assistant Brandon. When the star wanted to try out the "switching" technique Paula says she uses on her assistant - the star accidently whopped PD in the face with the switch!!! While it doesn't sound so funny - it really was (to me anyways) and in my case - inspiring! In the episode PD prepared fried chicken and it came to me - "if PD can't fry a chicken - it's probably a lost art and I should just order a pizza....."

A quick trip to the computer and then to the store got me prepared. Was I up for the challenge? Would I be disappointed? Would I wish I had ordered pizza?

Four simple words answer those questions...... "THANK YOU PAULA DEEN!"

It was the best fried chicken ever! Don't trust a yankee's opinion? How about a true southern gentleman's? Todd (born and raised in the south and an expert on real southern food) had this to say - "this the best fried chicken I have ever eaten!"

Enough said - except for maybe my apology to Grandma McC!

TWD: Perfect Party Cake

2009-06-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

"Perfect"? Hmmmmm - not sure about that but it is very very close to deserving that title! The cake had great flavor - it was moist and "solid"! The frosting (a rich creamy "real" buttercream) was out of this world and tasted great off a spoon, spatula and a finger! It was even better on the cake!

I am not sure the cake rose like it should. The recipe called for 2-9" pans.... I used 2-6" pans thinking I might get a total of six layers (something for later!). The cake almost ended up being two layers but I took the plunge and split them to make four..... I am glad I did! Each layer is separated by seedless raspberry jam and a thin layer of frosting. The top and sides are covered in frosting (that delicious buttercream - yeah baby!!!!) and a light sprinkling of sweetened coconut..... This cake is so good that it doesn't even need ice cream - really!

Many filling variations come to mind on this cake.... lemon or orange curd, chocolate ganache, any sort of other seedless jam (strawberry, grape, apricot/pineapple....) Hmmm - something like a german chocolate cake filling? I've seen some mention fresh fruit but it seems a shame to waste the cake and frosting with something "healthy" - LOL!

How about the frosting - instead of vanilla - would something different (beside almond flavoring) work?

My very first TWD effort........

2009-06-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

When I first came across TWD - man, was I excited! A chance to try new things, learn from others with a shared passion, share my results (in a virtual way anyways) with other lovers of baking and practice, practice, practice!

The first recipe I came to when I flipped open BFMHTY for the first time was Coconut Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise. I loved the picture and thought it looked like an great summer dessert except for the meringue part (I have never been a fan of meringue other than when it is on Lemon Meringue Pie). How cool would it be to make this my first attempt as a member of TWD!?

Not only has everyone moved on the The Party Cake - I have to admit that I basically cheated on the entire recipe yesterday - not exactly what I had planned for my first attempt. The name I came up with for my attempt was “faux-quoise - it didn’t seem fair to call my attempt a “duquoise”.

Changes I made were:

Meringue - there was no way I was going to turn on the oven for three hours in the middle of our current humidity and heat wave. I substituted baked puff pastry squares that had been brushed with an egg mixture and then sprinkled with the coconut blend.
White Chocolate Ganache - not being a huge fan of white chocolate in big doses, a stabilized whip cream was used between the layers.
(Fresh) Pineapple - there wasn’t one to be found anywhere in the local retailers that even seemed to be anything close to “fresh”. They were all green, hard as a rock and absolutely NO pineapple smell. I went with canned chunks (I meant to get rings).
Since I didn’t get enough pineapple, I also used a quickly made sauce using dark cherries that I had in the freezer.

To my surprise - the end result was pretty good and it seems that we have a new summer dessert to enjoy here on E Street! I have been thinking that the “faux-quoise” would be pretty tasty with a sauce made from fresh strawberries, raspberries or blueberries - maybe even a mixture of all three!

Strawberries, sweet cream & chocolate.....

2009-06-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

I came across the recipe for Strawberries & Cream pie while looking through some baking blogs that I had just found. This one is from "The Way The Cookie Crumbles" - what a great combination of not-too-sweet sweets......

The recipe was for a full-size pie. For some reason, I like to take "full-size" desserts and down-size them to single servings. I don't know - maybe it's because it makes them a more personal experience. Maybe it's because it gives me a "re-do" opportunity to make changes and improvements as each one is done; maybe it's flexibility? I don't know - but so far, no one has complained...

Because of its small size, using whole strawberries as instructed in the recipe just wouldn't work. A few simple slices to each berry allowed me to completely cover the cream filling. Another version used chopped berries that were heaped on top of the cream filling (this was actually my favorite as I thought the flavor was best). Because my "drizzles" using a fork always seem to end up looking gloppy and messy - I put the melted chocolate mixture into a parchment piping bag fitted with a #3 tip and "drizzled" away - it firmed up nicely (without cracking) when it was chilled. THE PICTURE ABOVE DOESN'T DO THIS DESSERT JUSTICE!

When I ran out of pie crusts - I picked up some pre-made graham cracker crusts at the local market. It took just a couple minutes to make a quick-last minute dessert with the last of the filling - a bottle of chocolate syrup provided the finishing touch.

It is fun to think of other ways to make this dessert..... raspberries, blueberries, kiwi, cherries, pineapple - what else could there be when combined with white chocolate, whipped cream (plain or flavored)........

FIRST POST - EVER!

2009-06-16T10:18:00.001-07:00

We bought a "vintage" house just before Thanksgiving 2008. The entire time until mid-March was spent working on the inside. With a couple days of nice weather - we put in a small garden along the driveway and planted beans, carrots, onions, peas and cucumbers (with a couple okra plants in the mix to respect our Southern location!). On June 7, we had our first bean and pea harvest - the beans were DELICIOUS slow cooked with some bacon, onion powder and garlic salt! Another harvest is coming soon and we planted two more packages of seeds (yes - they were that good)!

The peas are a different story! After a "harvest" of about 10 pods - we decided to over-plant this section with beans..... maybe next year for the fresh peas!

The new raised bed in the back lot has tomatoes (4 varieties including those great little cherry tomatoes), some raspberry bushes and more okra. I was hoping for a fresh tomato by the 4th of July but am thinking that may not happen. The asparagus starts we planted have the "fun" little fern-like growths - they remind me of the ditches we played in when I was young! Cantaloupe and watermelon round out the assortment.......