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
So I LOVE caramel. Like more than chocolate!! I ordered the Dulce de Leche cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory (see obsession with their pumpernickel bread as well…) and it was amazing. Maybe the best thing I ever put in my mouth. Not even joking here. I was so stuffed from my dinner (even tho I really really tried to save room!) but I still managed to finish it all. It was painful at some points and there may have been moments where I thought I was going to die, but I am a champ and came through. I talked a big talk before we ordered about how great of an eater I am and how I can pack it away. Guess its been a while since I ate so big!
I knew going into this that the cheesecake would not be the same. CF has a whipped version with some sort of caramel mousse or something on top. But I would settle for something even half as good because it would still be amazing! And this one lived up to the hype! Its awesome (even if the pic is less than stellar…)
My mom stopped over while I was mixing up the batter. She was like, what are you making now?!? haha. Guess I bake a lot? She actually came to pick up her and my dad’s samples of all the ice cream I’ve been whipping up so they obviously appreciate my loving, sharing attitude towards my creations. (shhh, don’t tell her, but I only share so I won’t weigh 400 lbs!)
This was my first attempt at making dulce de leche and it was very easy. But time consuming. So plan ahead cuz it takes an hour and half plus the time it takes to bake and cool a cheesecake. Its an all day deal, folks!
One of the world’s best pairings is chocolate and mint. Its almost as great as chocolate and peanut butter! I started making this as a regular chocolate ganache ice cream (because that’s very common, you know) but at the last moment, I had to add the peppermint. It really took it to the next level!
I had 3 egg whites sitting in my fridge from some honey peach (TWD) ice cream I made. I didn’t enjoy that one and the whole tub went to my parents. I saw a recipe for 6 egg angel food cake and was very interested in trying it. I needed 3 more egg whites. I am the type of girl who loves angel food cake enough that I will sacrifice the yolks for the cake. It seems the recipe came from someone looking to use leftover whites because of all the ice cream she was making. Well, it did not meet my standards. It was dry and sunk in the middle. It was too dense and it was square. I should have known not to make an angel food cake in a square pan…
Anyways… I figured I might as well make some more ice cream to use the yolks I would have on hand, especially since my ice cream maker bowl was already frozen. Turns out, that after thought of ice cream was a ton better than the cake it started with! Go figure, right?
The recipe originally suggested bittersweet chocolate but that is not my style. I think the bitterness of the semi-sweet was what made me want to add the peppermint. Guess I just like my chocolate extra milky? haha.
I recently went to the Cheesecake Factory with my high school youth group kids and another YG that was in town from Michigan. We took them to downtown Chicago to get a taste of the city and a taste of the yummy cheesecake!! I had the bread that they put out and it was AMAZING!! I knew I had to replicate it!
A couple days (weeks?) later I finally got some ingredients together to try my hand at replicating their bread. I searched the Internet for copy cat recipes and turned up empty handed. There seemed to be a standard pumpernickel recipe that everyone suggested as the replica but I knew it wouldn’t have the sweetness of CF’s bread.
I first tried the original recipe that was going around so I knew exactly where I had to tweak things. I hate caraway seeds so I eliminated those right off the bat. Plus, the CF’s bread was not over the top rye flavored so I knew for certain these would kill the taste I was going for. The initial recipe was OK, but not the match I was looking for. So on to Number 2.
I didn’t have to change a ton of things, just make it way more sweet. So in the honey went and other ingredients were adjusted to accommodate the new liquid and stickiness. I can’t remember what else got tweaked since I’m posted a week after I made it. But at least there is a recipe!! 
The second round was sooo yummy and almost there. I’m not sure what else to tweak to get it exactly right but I already had 2 loaves of bread and didn’t want to add a third! So I gave it to my taste testers and while both ranked well, the sweet version beat out the more traditional.
Summer is here and its time to bust out the ice cream maker!! I saw the Busty Baker make this recipe and knew I had to try it out. I had strawberries and everything so I was pumped. Then I realized my ice cream maker was sitting in a cabinet since last Fall. I did not have a frozen bowl so I had to WAIT to make my ice cream. What a bummer. But it was better that way since it wasn’t done so far in advance that I ate it all and shared with no one. Not that that would ever happen….
I somehow have made it a tradition to make my dad ice cream for Father’s Day. Now by tradition, I mean this is the second year. haha! My dad is a purest and only loves vanilla. But I am a rebel child and refuse to cooperate with his tastes, even on Father’s Day. Shame on me but he needs to broaden his horizons. Two stubborn Germans face off! He always likes the other flavors (or just tells me he does cuz I’m his kid…) but it proves that sometimes stubbornness limits you (my dad) and other times is an advantage to helping others try new things (me).
The ice cream was a hit! My dad loved it and actually kept the left overs and were eating it last night as I was suffering at my martial arts endurance test. But at least they were thinking of me!
I had the most delicious honeydew melon the other day and it was SCREAMING to be made into a sorbet. I researched some options and compiled a reciped that I thought would be delicious. I was so happy with the results! It was like freezing summer!
This was my first sorbet. I’ve dabbled in ice creams before but can probably count how many I’ve done on my fingers. I loved how super easy it was and it was quick too. I did have a wooden spoon mishap along the way but all in all, this was a quick throw together yesterday morning. Thankfully I had to freeze it a little more when it came out of the machine otherwise I would have had some sorbet for breakfast! (not too bad if you subtract the booze…)
Chocolate Cherry Coke Hi-Hats (from The Busty Baker)
The finished product
As soon as I saw these beautiful little cupcakes, I knew I HAD to bake them! They were so delicious and a huge hit! I agree with the Busty Baker though, they are not picnic cupcakes. They need to stay cold or else things start to droop and melt all over!
The chocolate cake is very moist with just a hint of the cherry cola flavoring. There is a hint of the red coloring from the cherry juice and pop color, which makes it a lovely shade of dark reddish brown. Maybe I need to bring one in to my hairdresser and tell her to give me that color!
The meringue frosting is absolutely delicious, very marshmallow-y with a nice pink color and cherry flavor. It held up well to the dipping.
My camera that was used for the in process pics does not do the frosting color justice. Its really a pretty shade of pink but the lighting/cheap camera didn’t mix well.
