Archive for the ‘TWD’ Category
I don’t do crust. I have attempted crusts and have always epically failed at them. I do not like to attempt to get the butter and flour into the right combination of coarseness. I do not like the pressure of rolling it out, chilling it, rerolling it, and hoping you don’t overwork something in the process. I don’t do crust.
I did crust this week. It stressed me out a little. I expected the worst. And ya know what? It came out perfectly. I did crust!!!
So my friend Becky was showing me a recipe for sugar cookies that called for sour cream and she asked me if I thought it was weird that the cookies had sour cream in them. A little bell went off in my head and I remembered these little guys had sour cream in them too and it was far stranger to be in a pastry crust than a cookie, right? She wanted to try them and I was going to be watching the Bears game with her and some other friends that night so I figured I could bring these along. I cut it close. All the chilling time and prep time to roll and shape these things made me later than I wanted to be but not the last so it was all good. And everyone LOVED them. I was nervous because I took them straight out of the oven and over to the game so I had no idea what they tasted like. And I suck at crust so it could have ended disastrously.
I made half the batch for Sunday night and didn’t take any pics because I was so rushed to get to the game. And they all got eaten. So I made the other half today for pics (and I may have eaten some…). Sundays were cut into circles as Dorie suggested but I had a lot of scrap. I saw some other TWD posters did squares or triangles to eliminate scraps so I did both of those today. I did not veer from this recipe at all and it was awesome. I think I will do some pear ones with my scraps for my parents. Yum.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or get it from Jules’ blog: Someone’s in the Kitchen. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
So, I wanted to make this one and I was very excited to do it. THEN I read that you have to serve it immediately. Hmmm. I always bake and then bring the goods to my friends and family. So I seriously considered skipping this week, as it seemed to be a waste of eggs for me to sample it and then have it fall flat on its little chocolate face.
BOY WAS I WRONG. Nothing this delicious should ever be considered a waste of eggs! This was possibly the most delicious thing I’ve ever made. Its like a fudge brownie thats lighter than air. YUMMMMM. I will be making this for my Bible Study group when they come over at some point this year. And maybe at other moments just to make it because its that good. My fav Dorie recipe so far. So don’t be scared of it!
I made no changes to the recipe and made sure to use high quality chocolate. I sprinkled the top with powdered sugar but it kind of clumped. I think I used too much or something. My edges got a little dark too and I’m not sure why but it was still delicious. Let’s put it this way-my family and friends missed out majorly by not being in my house when this baby came out! 
Thanks to Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic, who chose chocolate soufflé for TWD this week. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Susan’s blog. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
OK, these were so incredibly delicious!! And I am not a coffee lover by any means. My dad, who is a coffee lover, was completely in love with them and ate most of them. Glad I pawned them off to his fridge and out of mine! The only thing I changed was the size of the pan. I only had an 8×8 so it baked a smidge longer.
So, I realize I am late yet again with my post. I work on the computer ALL DAY so I really hate getting on here when I’m not working so its sometimes hard for me to post on Tuesdays. I will get better at this!! I promise!! You may also notice I missed the Lime Cream Pie. Well, I didn’t really. I almost didn’t make it because I am not a pie eater but at the last moment decided to just make the cream and see how it tasted. It was GREAT! so great in fact, that I ate it all without taking any pics. So, yeah. Kinda failed that one. But I will make the full pie one day for a bake sale or something and then redeem my blog with pics of that one.
Thanks to Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell for choosing Espresso Cheesecake Brownies for TWD. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Life in a Peanut Shell. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Its Tuesday and I’m posting my Tuesday With Dorie recipe!! Whoohoo! I’m not late this week!!!!
There has been a lot of lovely feedback on how Fall-ish this recipe is and I will not disagree. Cinnamon and allspice with apples will always conjur images of Fall for me. I love Fall but am not sure I love it in August. Regardless, these bars are yummy!! Very moist and the perfect amount of sweetness. The best part? Its made in one bowl and no mixer required! I don’t know why but I hate dragging out my mixer. I realize it makes life so much easier but I just dread it for some odd reason.
Anyway, on to my tweaks to the recipe. The only thing I did was left out the nuts. I think I’ve stated this previously but my neice has severe nut allergies so I avoid using them as much as possible. Plus, I don’t LOVE them so no love lost there. I did not line the pan with parchment as indicated in the recipe. I should have. Don’t be lazy like me. Follow the directions. I did not have heavy cream and couldn’t justify spending the money for 2.5 TBS of it so I swapped in half and half for the glaze. Still tastes good! The glaze is very thin, and not like the picture. I’ve read its from putting it on while the cake is still warm and it gets absorbed. I also read that doubling the glaze helps alleviate this problem.
So, try this recipe. Its worth it! For this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection, you can find the recipe on Karen’s blog: Something Sweet by Karen or look on page 117 of Dorie’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.
So, here I am, a day late yet again for my TWD posting. I just can’t help it… By the time I got these beauties covered in chocolate and their pics taken, I had to leave the house to deliver them to my chocolate loving nieces and get to my martial arts classes. So, I post late again. Better than not posting at all, yes?
This recipe was super easy and just uses one bowl. I made some slight modifications. I left out the orange zest because I had no oranges. Instead of 2.5 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, I used 1 oz. bittersweet and 2 oz. semi-sweet. I am not a huge lover of dark chocolate so I had to kick up the sweetness level a bit! Also, I didn’t have any white chocolate as that darn stuff tends to jump into my mouth everytime I buy some. What the heck? LOL. So I melted some regular chocolate chips and used those with some cutie star sprinkles. These were a HUGE hit with my sister and her girls. I will be making them again! Next time I will make a variety of flavors like cherry, mint, and peanut butter. YUM!!
Thanks to Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection. Check out the blogroll to see how others did with this week’s recipe!
Banana Bundt Cake
So after a somewhat long sabbatical, I am back. I have been baking but I keep forgetting to post and/or forget to take pics before its all gobbled up! I did make the last TWD, the vanilla ice cream but had no pics and forgot to post. And I’m posting on a Wednesday because, yes, I forgot yesterday! I need my blog to be able to meow at me like the cats do when they are hungry! haha.
So this cake was SUPER delicious. I gave some (most) to my TKD instructor and he and his family had it gobbled up within 30 minutes of it arriving home!! His brother said it was some of the best banana cake he’s ever had. So moral of the story? BAKE IT! Its so delicious! It will definitely be a fall back recipe for me when I need to use some black bananas! Very moist and dense. Wish I still had some laying around!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read The Food Librarian. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie-Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies
Posted by: Liss
I have never found a brownie recipe I absolutely LOVE. Even the best of my recipes were just OK for me. So when I saw brownies as the TWD pick, I sighed a little bit and decided to give it another try, even though I expected the worst.
Boy, was I surprised!! These were awesome. Very thin but oh so fudgy! I was nervous about adding cinnamon to a brownie but it makes it amazing!! My taste testers picked up on the subtle difference that the cinnamon added but they liked them a lot. I served them warm with homemade vanilla ice cream.Yum!! I did tweak the recipe by only adding half the coffee granules. Coffee and I do not get along but I appreciate the fact that it heightens the taste of chocolate. I also did half bittersweet chocolate, half semi-sweet. I am not a dark chocolate girl so I had to sweeten it up a bit! I also left out the nuts because I really don’t like nuts and my family has some severe nut allergies so I pretty much keep them out of my kitchen all the time. I baked mine in a 9″ square pan and it took about 35 minutes. I know some people reported problems with the gooey-ness of theirs. Mine came out just right!
If you want the recipe, you can buy Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or you can check it out on with Lisa of Surviving Oz (who chose this week’s recipe). Check out how others did on the TWD Blogroll!
This is my first official TWD post. Yay!! This is also the second recipe I ever made out of her book since I just got it (for the sole purpose of participating in TWD). Wow, this cake is yummy!! I was very skeptical about the lemon because the only thing lemon I like is lemonade. No desserts, no candy, not even lemon in my water. I was super close to leaving it out and then I remembered I was giving most of it away anyway so I might as well follow the directions and then ad lib later.
Well, I’m certainly glad I played along! This cake is so light and delicious and not at all overpowering with the lemon. There is lemon juice in the frosting as well but its very good. Two thumbs up from this non-lemon lover!!
That being said, I did break the rules a tiny bit. I didn’t do the parchment circle because I never have sticking problems with my pans. Well, one layer stuck. Ugh. So I couldn’t slice them in half since I was piecing together one layer as is. Plus, they are pretty thin layers and slicing them in half would have made me very nervous. So mine is a 2 layer cake, not a 4.
I also tweaked the buttercream. I read some reviews about it being too buttery (3 sticks is A LOT of butter!) so I only used 2 sticks and then thickened it up with powdered sugar in the end. It came out a nice texture and not at all over powering butter flavored. Don’t ask how much sugar I added, I ‘feel’ my buttercream and never ever measure the sugar. I know I use far less than my original recipe calls for but I never add milk to it at the end either.
When it came to assembly, I left off the coconut. I have no idea if the recipients of the cake enjoy coconut so I didn’t want to taint the cake if they don’t. I decorated with extra raspberry instead.
If you want the recipe, please see Carol at mix, mix… stir, stir since this was her TWD selection. If you want to see how others did, check out the TWD blog roll
