TWD: BWJ - Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

So, there I was procrastinating again. I was talking with Laurie on Sunday and she assured me that cold butter was needed for the crust. No prep time really to make it. So why was it when she sent me a text with a photo of her gorgeous tart at 4:00 Monday afternoon that I hadn't started the crust yet? I started.

I did my crust in the food processor. I love being able to whir dough together in seconds. I did need to use quite a bit more water than called for. The recipe asks for 1 T, and I ended up using 4 T before the dough would come together. After a 60 minute chill, I cut the dough into six little chunks and pressed them into my tart pans. I know, I know, the directions said to roll. But I was a) lazy and b) wary because of the troubles some of the other bakers had with rolling. I knew I was sacrificing some tenderness, but I did it anyway. I baked my tarts with their bottoms on right on the oven rack. They came out perfectly.

I decided to make only half the filling. (I did make and bake the full dough recipe. I now have three lovely mini chocolate tart shells well wrapped and waiting in the freezer for my next tart experience.) I melted my butter and chocolate in the microwave. (lazy) The rest of the ingredients were duly whipped together and I added the chocolate mix. I didn't have biscotti, so I went with what I did have. Thin mints! (The Girl is a Girl Scout and I was the cookie mom for her troop. I have LOTS of cookies at my house.) I decided to skip the white and milk chocolate because I wanted a more dark/bitter taste to our tarts.

Four hours after beginning, I was done!

We ate the tart while it was still warm, so it was a bit soft. Still, warm minty chocolate on a delicious chocolate crust? Win! The whole gang gave this one a thumbs up.

Lousy photo due to no natural light.

This one was so much easier than I was expecting it to be. It was delicious and just elegant enough for a nice dinner.

For much better photos and the recipe, please visit one of our host's blogs: Jessica, Spike, Jaime, and Steph.

TWD: BWJ - White Loaves

Woo hoo! Woo hoo! It's the first official week of our new book, Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan. Along with Laurie Woodward, I am lucky enough to be one of the group administrators and host for the first recipe. This group is a follow up to the wildly successful run of Tuesdays with Dorie wherein we baked through every recipe in Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours.

I've had this book for forever and have, literally, never baked anything from it. To give you a sense of how long I've owned it - my copy is signed by Julia Child from the 1996 book tour. I am so glad to finally start using it! The book is based on recipes used in Julia Child's Master Chefs television series. Each of these recipes is attributed to a contributing baker.

On to the bread! This bread was lovely. The dough was a breeze to put together. (Thank you Nancy for your food processor tips! I'll detail those in a bit) The dough was silky and rose incredibly easily. One of the nice things about this bread is how versatile it is. The recipe makes two loves. It could easily be halved, but why? I made one loaf according to the recipe and put mini cinnamon chips in the second loaf. My rising times were pretty right on. It smelled incredible while baking. The Girl and Boy could not wait to dive right in and it was very hard on them to wait for it to cool a bit. Warm with butter and a sprinkle of sea salt, this bread is divine. The cinnamon version begged to be toasted and spread with a bit of butter. This is absolutely a keeper recipe.

Here is my bread pre-rise. I found a flour container to use as a rising bucket. I filled it with water and used a Sharpie to mark the lines. Cheap and easy! Right now it's at about the six cup mark.

Post-rise (sorry that it's hard to see) the dough is just about at the 12 cup mark.

Here it is formed and waiting for the second rise. Interesting that both of these pans are labeled as 8.5 x 4.5

Top view. They are not exactly equal. Hmmmm.

Side-ish view. You can see the one on the bottom has a bit of cinnamon spilling out.

Here's a cut side of the cinnamon loaf.

And a cut side of the plain loaf. Gorgeous rise. Tender crumb. Yum.

Toasted with butter.

And more toasted with butter. I'm sorry it's gone.

White Loaves (contributing baker - Craig Kominiak)

Makes 2 - 1 3/4 pound loaves

2 1/2 c. warm water (105-115 degrees F)

1 T. active dry yeast

1 T. sugar

7 c. (approximately) bread flour or unbleached all purpose flour

1 T. salt

1/2 stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Mixing and kneading: Pour 1/2 cup of the water into the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, sprinkle in the yeast and sugar, and whisk to blend. Allow the mixture to rest until the yeast is creamy, about 5 minutes.

Working in the mixer with the dough hook in place, add the remaining 2 cups water and about 3 1/2 cups flour to the yeast. Turn the mixer on and off a few times just to get the dough going without having the flour fly all over the counter and then, mixing on low speed, and 3 1/2 cups more flour. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat, stopping to scrape down the bowl and hook as needed, until the dough comes together. (If the dough does not come together, add a bit more flour, a tablespoon at a time.) Add the salt and continue to beat and knead at medium speed for about ten minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you prefer, you can mix the dough in the machine for half that time and knead it by hand on a lightly floured surface for 8 to ten minutes. When the dough is thoroughly mixed (return it to the mixer if necessary), add the butter, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until incorporated. Don't be disconcerted if your beautiful dough comes apart the the addition of butter - beating will bring it back together.

First rise: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape it into a ball. Place it in a large buttered or oiled bowl (one that can hold double the amount of dough). Turn the dough around to cover its entire surface with butter or oil, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and let the dough rest at room temperature until it doubles in bulk, about 45 minutes to one hour.

Shaping the dough: Butter two 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pans and set them aside. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough in half and work with one piece at a time. Using the palms of your hands and fingertips, or a rolling pin, pat the dough into a large rectangle about 9 inches wide and 12 inches long, with a short side facing you. Starting at the top, fold the dough about two thirds of the way down the rectangle and fold it again, so that the top edge meets the bottom edge. Seal the seam by pinching it. Turn the roll so that the seam is in the center of the roll, facing up, and turn the ends of the roll in just enough so that it will fit in a buttered loaf pan. Pinch the seams to seal, and turn the loaf over so that the seams are on the bottom, and plump the loaf with your palms to get an even shape. Drop the loaf into the pan, seam side down, and repeat with the other piece of dough.

Second rise: Cover the loaves with oiled plastic wrap, and allow them to rise in a warm place (about 80 F) until they double in size again growing over the tops of the pans, about 45 minutes.

While the loaves rise, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 F

Baking the Bread: When the loaves are fully risen (poke your finger into the dough; the impression should remain), bake them for 35 to 45 minutes, or until they are honey-brown and an instant-read thermometer plunged into the center of the bread (turn a loaf out and plunge the thermometer through the bottom of the bread) measures 200 F. (If you like, 10 minutes or so before you think the loaves should come out, you can turn the loaves out of their pans and let them bake on the oven rack so they brown on the sides) Remove the loaves from their pans as soon as they come from the oven and cool the breads on racks. These should not be cut until they are almost completely cool; just-warm is just right.

Storing: Once completely cool, the breads can be kept in a brown paper bag for a day or two. Once a loaf is sliced, turn it cut side down on the counter or a cutting board and cover with a kitchen towel. For longer storage, wrap the breads airtight and freeze for up to a month. Thaw, still wrapped, at room temperature.

My Notes: I use instant yeast so I skip the proofing step. I have a 13 cup Cuisinart food processor with a dough blade and setting. It's big enough for the full recipe. If you have a smaller FP and want to try this method, I would make one loaf. I added all my dry ingredients (except the salt) and gave it a quick whirl. Because the food processor tends to heat up, I used cold water to get my dough to come together. I added the salt and processed for about 45 seconds. I also used cold butter cut up into small chunks. I processed for about another 45 seconds and I was done! On my cinnamon loaf I scattered mini chips on the dough before I folded it up.

Go check out all the fabulous loaves by stopping by the Tuesdays With Dorie site.

Baking but MIA

I have been baking. Really I have. I just haven't been taking photos or blogging. The other thing I've been doing is setting up for the new Tuesdays With Dorie book. On February 7, we're starting Baking With Julia written by Dorie Greenspan. I'm hosting the first one along with Laurie. Come sign up and bake along if you haven't already.

In the meantime, I've been making bagels. Now, where I live there are some great bagel shops. This is something, however, that I've always wanted to learn to make. They are easy to make with only one added step from bread. You make a stiff dough, let it rise, form it into balls, let it rest, shape them, boil them, top them, and bake them. Wait. Boil them? Yup. Bagels are boiled. The short boil helps set the crust so it's thicker and a bit chewier. I also use non-diastatic malt powder in my bagels. It adds to the bagel taste and helps brown the outside.

A few weeks ago I made the bagels with The Girl. Today I made a new batch with my niece. We learned that, while a KitchenAid stand mixer is a formidable utensil, it will overheat some if you try to mix a double batch of bagel dough. Lesson learned.

Post boil, pre bake, topped with seed mix.

We topped some of the bagels with seed mix, some with salt, and left some plain. I only have the final few photos. Next go round of baking I'll take more pictures so you can see the beginning of the process. Here in Chicago it's pretty snowy with more coming down. Glad I have warm bagels for dinner. And maybe again for breakfast.

Ready for a schmear of cream cheese!

Here is the recipe. You should give it a try!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/bagels-recipe

TWD: Kids' Thumbprints

Sigh. It's the last Tuesday with Dorie and Baking: From My Home to Yours. It's been an incredible journey. I've used pounds (and pounds) of butter, chocolate, flour, sugar, and vanilla. I've tried new things, found new favorites, and made some amazing friends. I'm very sad to see this chapter end, and I'm also excited to start our new adventure.

These cookies were, very surprisingly, not chosen until the end. Dorie Greenspan, herself, is the host this week.

These are thumbprint cookies with a twist. Thumbprint cookies are pretty much what they sound like. You use a thumb (or in this case awooden spoon) to make an indentation in an unbaked cookie. It leaves a lovely dent that begs to be filled with jam or chocolate. These are a little over the top because the base cookie is peanut butter. Peanut butter cookies are The Husband's favorite cookie. He was very happy with the choice. She goes a step further and has us coat the dough balls in peanuts.

The coating was very messy and also very delicious. I did get lazy, though, and only coated the first batch. I used strawberry jam for some of the cookies and chocolate chips in others. For the last few - especially for the husband - I used some single malt Scotch marmalade. Yes, we do have that in our fridge. He was even happier.

Here is an array of all the cookies.

A close up of the peanut rolled cookies. A mini PB & J!

Then I realized that my dish and the cookies looked slightly alien-like. I needed to add to the image. ;-)

Thank you all for baking along, cheering me along, and sharing all the treats. Dorie has the final hosting post here. Have a wonderful, happy, healthy, and sweet new year!

TWD: Rewind!

Since it's a holiday week, and since we'll all be doing a lot of cooking and baking, it was decided that this week's TWD would be a rewind. That means that we can either go back and bake something that we missed or revisit an old favorite. I went with an old favorite.

It's the first day of winter break here, and I thought scones would start the vacation on a nice note. One of my favorite scone recipes is the Honey Nut Scone that we first made (ok, I went through my archives and I couldn't find it - anyone?) This is a lovely, slightly sweet, nutty scone. It calls for whole wheat flour in addition to white flour. Dorie's recipe uses walnuts, but I don't like them and I had almonds in my cabinet that needed using.

These are delicious. They were wonderful warm right out of the oven with nothing added. I don't think that butter or jam would have improved them.



Have a wonderful holiday!

TWD: Puffed Double Plum Tart

Yowsa. Back in May of 2008, I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. I was mostly writing about the CSA box I was getting each week. Then my friend told me about this baking group she had heard about. A woman named Laurie received a cookbook as a present and put out a call to her friends to see if anyone wanted to join her in an ambitious project. They had started in January and were baking a recipe a week from a book by Dorie Greenspan called Baking: From My Home to Yours. Sure, I thought. I love to bake. I signed up that week. And I was hooked. (Almost) every Tuesday, I baked along with a great group of bakers. I think in our heyday there were close to 400 bakers.

Now it's December of 2011, and there is a small but solid core of bakers who are finishing the book with us. We realized about six months ago that we were nearing the end. This week, Laurie and I are hosting two of the last three recipes. She made Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Ice Cream. You'll have to check out her blog to see how delicious it looks.

I made the Puffed Double Plum Tart, and I'm sorry to say that mine doesn't look so good. I think I might have used too much syrup, or I tried to put on too many dried plums (prunes for the rest of you). My puff pastry did not puff. It was Trader Joe's all butter puff pastry, and the other sheet that I used later that day to make a different dessert worked better, but it was not as puffy and the photos on the box would lead me to believe it should be. Maybe it was a combination of only ok puff pastry and user error. The flavor of the plum tart was lovely on the edges. The middle was just kind of goopy. Also, it's December in Chicago, and there is not a fresh plum to be found. I used pear instead. I tried to get artistic with my fruit arrangement. If you loosely interpret artistic, it works.

Something did not go well here. Bah and sigh.

I would absolutely try this one again when plums are in season. Thank you to Laurie for her great idea and mostly for a lovely friendship that has blossomed. Thank you to Dorie for writing an amazing cookbook. Thanks to all the bakers for the suggestions, cheers, and gorgeous desserts. We're starting another fabulous book in February (Baking with Julia) Keep an eye out on the TWD site if you'd like more information or if you'd like to join us.

Puffed Double Plum Tart

For the topping:

1/2 c. hearty dry wine, such as Chianti, Rioja or Cabernet

2 wide strips orange zest

juice of 1/2 an orange

2 1/2 T. sugar

1/2 piece star anise (or one 1-inch piece cinnamon stick)

about 18 pitted prunes (dried plums)

about 10 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted

For the pastry:

1 8-ounce sheet frozen puff pastry, preferably all butter

1/2 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature

sugar

1 T. heavy cream or whole milk

To make the topping: Bring the wine, zest, orange juice, sugar, and star anise to a boil in a small saucepan. Boil for 1 to 2 minutes., then add the prunes and boil for 3 minutes more. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the prunes to a bowl. Return the saucepan to medium heat and boil for another 5 minutes or so, until the syrup is reduced a bit and slightly thickened. Remove from the heat, cover, and set aside.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Have a baking sheet at hand, as well as a sheet of parchment paper or silicone mat.

To make the pastry base: Working on the parchment paper or silicone mat, roll the puff pastry into a 9 x 10 inch rectangle or a 9 or 10 inch square - the dimensions are up to you, although if you change the size too much, you may have to adjust the amount of fruit. Lift the pastry, still on its paper or mat, onto the baking sheet. Smear the butter over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1 inch border bare. Sprinkle the buttered area with about 1 t. sugar.

Arrange the prunes and fresh plums in rows across the pastry, leaving the un-buttered border bare. I like to alternate dried and fresh plums and to alternate cut side up and cut side down fresh plums. Using a pastry brush, lightly dab the fresh plums with a bit of syrup. Brush the border of the puff pastry with the cream and sprinkle with about 1 T. sugar.

Bake the tart for 10 minutes, at which point the borders will have puffed some. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake for another 15 minutes, (total baking time is about 25 minutes) or until the fresh plums can be pierced easily with the tip of a knife.

Cool the tart on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before cutting it into quarters and serving with the poaching syrup.

Playing around: The plum duo, complete with wine syrup, can be used as the fruit in the French Pear Tart (p. 368) it's a natural with the almond cream filling.

TWD: Rewind!

This week was a chance to bake something new that you missed or to re-bake an old favorite. I went with option B.

I made the Cranberry Upside Downer. The last time I made this for TWD, I used peaches. I wanted to try again with cranberries.

This was a total win. It was a snap to make. The tartness of the cranberries played nicely with the sweetness of the cake. YUM!

We're winding down here. There are only about six recipes left. Make sure you stay tuned to see how this adventure ends and the next one begins!

TWD: Bittersweet Brownies

This is going to be a short post - partially because this is a SIMPLE recipe and partially because I forgot to take pictures before they were eaten.

As far as brownies go, this was fine. I prefer mine a bit thicker and fudgier, but that's a totally easy fix.

I did not make the Alsatian Apple Tart, which was one of the options for the week. Jessica of Cookbook Habit was the host for this one.

Leslie of Lethally Delicious chose the brownies. Go to her blog to see what they should look like.

TWD: Honey Nut Scones

I hate when life gets in the way of my baking. I was almost not going to get to bake again this week. Boo. It was about 2:00 when I remembered that it was scones, and that they are one of the easiest things in the kitchen to make.

Dorie's recipe called for walnuts. I don't really like them, and I didn't have them handy, so I used almonds. The dough is a mix of whole wheat and regular AP flour. I am really enjoying whole wheat flour these days. It adds just the right something to certain baked goods. These came together in a snap. I patted the dough into two circles and I baked them for 20 minutes without cutting them. I pulled them out of the oven, cut and separated them, and then baked them for about five more minutes. Perfect!

My favorite finishing touch is a sprinkling of coarse sugar. Yum! These were done and cooled just in time for a yummy after school snack.

Thanks to Jeannette of Whimsical Cupcake for choosing this one. I didn't get to the Far Breton, which was chosen by Nicole of Cookies on Friday.

TWD: Ginger Jazzed Brownies

We have a love for all things ginger in this house. We use ginger syrup on our pancakes. We sprinkle ginger sugar on our toast. My kids eat candied ginger as a treat. And, you can certainly never go wrong with chocolate or brownies. I've put the two together a number of times with great results. This was no exception.

I started out with a bit of difficulty because as I began to bake, I realized that I was out of unsweetened baking chocolate. So, I went to my handy substitutions bible. To replace one ounce of unsweetened chocolate, you substitute 3 T. of cocoa powder and 1 T. butter. Ok, I can do that. Then I realized that the the ratio of unsweetened to bittersweet chocolate was opposite what I thought. Lucky for me, I found a second substitution - remove 3 T. of sugar and 1 t. of butter for each ounce of bittersweet that you add in. Fingers crossed that this was going to work out!

The third substitution was because I got lazy. Instead of going all the way into the basement fridge to get my knob of ginger (I store it in sherry, which by the way is fabulous for cooking once the ginger is gone), I used 1 t. of dried ginger, and I diced up about a quarter of a cup of candied ginger and stirred it in.

I cheated on the pan prep. A simple spray of Everbake did the trick just fine. Mine baked in about 30 minutes.

After they cooled came the moment of truth. Did all the substitutions work?

I'll take that as a YES! The Boy really loved them. The Girl did as well, but she was at swim team practice while I was taking pictures, so her thumbs up came later. He made a scale of how gingery the brownies were. On a scale of "no ginger" to "tons 'o ginger", these came in just below neutral or medium. We'll see tomorrow how much the ginger flavor has intensified.

I love the texture on these. They aren't gooey, but they have a bit of a fudginess. They aren't cakey, but there's a bit of a spring when you bite into it. I can certainly see making these again.

Thank you Hindy of Bubie's Little Baker for choosing the recipe this week.

TWD: Twofer - Basic Biscuits and Apple Nut Muffin Cake

Basic Biscuits is such an innocent name. But it's recipes like this that make me nervous. It's the ones that seem so simple that can often be the hardest. In general biscuits are pretty straightforward. The ingredients are easy to find. It only took one bowl to mix up, so there were few dishes.

But, and there is a BUT, the biscuits are made or broken with the mixing. Dorie warned us a number of times that a light hand is what makes the difference. Mix less, knead less, fuss less, and you get better biscuits. I'm not good at that. I like a cohesive dough (I'm also lousy at leaving lumps in the pancake/waffle batter like everyone says). I was doing great up until the "knead three or four times" instruction. My dough was not coming together. So I did some more kneading. And then a bit more.

And my gentle patting to get my biscuit dough to a 1/2" was, perhaps, a bit forceful. I cut out my biscuits, and then re-patted the dough for the second round. And then I did it again. I wasn't so confident at this point. Into the oven they went.

Boy was I surprised when they came out of the oven.

Ta dah! Those are actually layers!

Apparently, this dough is rather forgiving. So good to know for future baking! It takes down the intimidation factor just a bit. The flavor was wonderful. I did the buttermilk version. These were lovely warm out of the oven. The few that are left will be breakfast for the Boy and Girl with eggs and cheese. (The request has already been made)

So pleased with the way these rose and split.

The arrangement for the dinner table. The Girl wanted to make sure you saw her placement handiwork. ;-) The Boy painted the plate.

Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort was the host for the biscuits. Thanks, Jennifer!

Due to some family stuff, I wasn't able to post last week's recipe. I did bake it though, so I wanted to share.

More apple baking! Yay! This, apparently, was supposed to be muffins. And then Dorie ran out of time, so it became a cake. Either way, I think it's yummy.

So so moist and delicious. A sprinkling of coarse sugar adds a little crunch to the top.

This was pretty darn easy to put together. Rather a few dishes, but the end result was worth it. I subbed in cinnamon chips for the nuts, and I think it was rather inspired. This was a perfect after school snack for the Girl and Boy. And then breakfast the next morning.

Yum and yum!

This pick was Katrina of Baking and Boys.

TWD: Flip Over Apple Cake

This was really supposed to be a plum cake. But we went apple picking on Saturday and we are long on apples.

This cake was simple beyond simple. You melt some butter right in a baking dish, add some sugar to your cut up fruit, mix up a simple batter, pour the batter over the butter, pour the fruit over the batter and butter (this is starting to sound a little Seussian) and then bake! Easy!

I have a little back story to my saying that baking something is "easy." Like a lot of you, I bake often - once or twice a week. So what is easy for me might not be for other people. Too many times my stock answer to a compliment about my baking is "it was easy." I have one particular friend who rolls her eyes every time I say that. But in this case, this really was an easy cake!

I made some substitutions. Again, I used apples for the plums, and instead of using almond extract, I used all vanilla. I think I used the wrong size pan, and it still worked. Dorie calls for a 9 x 12 pan, and instead of grabbing my 9 x 13 pan, I used my 11 x 7. It was, perhaps a bit thicker than it was supposed to be, but it was delicious regardless.

I brought the cake to a friend's house, and it was an instant hit. We fought (sort of) over the crusty, golden corners. It's not the prettiest dessert, but it more than makes up for it in taste.

I have a very similar recipe to this one where you cook the fruit a bit first. I could easily see converting to this one.

Go see Becky's blog, Project Domestication to see what a plum version looks like.

TWD: Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbread

This was an intriguing recipe for me. I have made chocolate cookies before with a touch of cayenne in them, so pepper in cookies wasn't an entirely foreign idea. And I've tried fleur de sel on sweets, so that one was a known quantity. But I've never had them combined in a cookie.

This was a basic shortbread. I love that this type of cookie comes together so easily. I used coarse ground pepper and fine sea salt in the cookies. In the original recipe, Dorie has us roll the dough into two logs before refrigerating it. I went with my favorite technique of hers for shortbread and I spooned the dough into a gallon size zip top bag. It gets rolled flat and stored in the fridge until baking time. Then I just cut it into squares and bake them off. Dorie's original recipe said the yield was 24 cookies. I got 64. Hmmmm.

Before baking, I sprinkled one cookie sheet worth of dough with Portuguese Cream Salt. It was recommended to be the last time I was at The Spice House. (LOVE that place) I think some coarse sugar would have been good as well.

Mmmmm.

This is a really good cookie. I would certainly label it a "grown-up" cookie, but The Boy and The Girl gave it big thumbs up. It's not very sweet, and the salt taste hits the tongue pretty strongly. But then there's this... something. A slight burn, maybe, from the pepper. It really adds up to some excellent flavor.

I think the problem with making them smaller and making more of them is wanting to eat more of them. Ooops.

Thank you Tia of Buttercream Barbie for choosing this one!

TWD: Classic Brownies

I needed a dessert for an event this weekend. Since brownies are one of the most popular sweets around, I thought it was excellent timing.

This is a simple brownie. I love a recipe that uses melted butter, so when I get home at 9:00 on a Friday night and need to bake, it's much easier. This has unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate as part of the batter. The amount of sugar added is very low. It also has a scant amount of flour. I am not a fan of walnuts in general or nuts at all in my brownies. Instead, I substituted some white chocolate and milk chocolate chips. I liked the idea of the visual, and I thought the sweetness would counter the richness of the batter well.

These were tricky to take out of the pan because they were SO moist. I will admit to having to eat some evidence of imperfect squares. These were a huge hit. People at the BBQ who were "stuffed to the gills" managed to put away a couple of brownies. This recipe just might replace the Ghirardelli mix that I keep in my cabinet.

Thanks Anne of Anne Strawberry for the pick!

TWD: Chocolate Spice Quickies

I'm all for truth in advertising. Unfortunately, I don't think these cookies lived up to the name.

This is essentially a sable with some cocoa powder, ground almonds, and ground clove added in. On paper, this is a great cookie. It's a log cookie, which means that it's easy to get to cookies - you just slice and bake. I think the "quickie" part of the name is for the time between slicing and baking, because there's a four hour window between making the dough and slicing. It was easy to put the dough together, and my "cookie dough into a log" technique is much improved.

The cookie uses ground almonds as part of the mix. I didn't taste almond. I didn't taste much chocolate or spice, either. Mostly this was a sweet, tender cookie without a distinct flavor. It didn't stop me from eating them, because I did enjoy them. However, I don't think I'll be making these again. I'd rather have a more assertive flavor somewhere in them, be it chocolate, almond, or clove.

Jessica of My Baking Heart has photos worth looking at and the recipe.

A new baking adventure: Sourdough

About a week ago, my sister-in-law decided that she needed to try making sourdough bread. NOW. I followed right along. I was placing an order at King Arthur, and that's where she saw that they sell a live starter. We ordered. It arrived.

She has a great statement about sourdough starter. She decreed that it was "the puppy of the baking world." Which, when you think about it is eerily descriptive. You have to constantly feed and coddle it. At least it doesn't need to be walked....

If you don't plan on refrigerating your starter, you need to feed it twice a day. Considering that you throw some out or bake every time you feed it, there was no way that was happening. I was lucky and my starter was somewhat trained when I got it. At one point instead of throwing out a portion, my sister-in-law gave it to me as my base. Refrigerated starter needs to be "revived" a bit before baking, so that does take some advanced planning.

I'm going to try to bake something sourdough every week. Or ten days. Or two weeks. We'll see how it goes. Check back to see how the adventure continues!

TWD: Cornmeal and Fruit Loaf

Back in the saddle! I (sadly) missed the last two weeks of TWD due to work, travel, and life getting in the way. I'm in a slight work lull right now, so I was able to get in some baking.

This one was good. I love the crunch that cornmeal brings to baked goods. This loaf ended up being a slightly sweet, apple-y bread that was perfect for snacking.

It was a snap to put together. The recipecalls for fresh as well as dried apple. I have to say that I didn't really see the benefit of the dried apple. I think next time I would leave it out. And I'm pretty sure there will be a next time. I added a sprinkling of coarse sugar on the top of the loaf. It added just the right texture and sweetness.

You can see the darker bits of dried apple vs. the lighter fresh apple. I think this would be equally good with pears.

Thank you Caitlin of Engineer Baker for choosing this delicious recipe. Go see her blog for much better photos.

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I've been crazy busy lately. Between work, travel, and family stuff, baking has fallen off my radar. I'll be back to it one of these days.

Cookie Carnival: Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies

I haven't baked along with the cookie carnival group for a while, but when I saw this recipe, I knew that I had to make it.

Actually, I've made it three times in the last month. That's how good these cookies are. This is an intensely chocolate cookie. It is also an incredibly versatile cookie.

The first time I made it, I followed the recipe pretty exactly. I added more espresso powder (1 T more) because I wanted a really strongly flavored cookie. It was perfect. It was a slightly bitter really chocolatey cookie. Yum. The second time I made it I used cappuccino chips for the mix in along with the higher ratio of espresso powder. The third time I used milk chocolate chips for the mix in and got a great cookiewith a hint of sweetness.

Here's the cappuccino chip version.

My imagination can only go from what I've done so far. Reducing the espresso powder back to 1 T. would make a rich chocolate cookie without the coffee hint, so any chip could be fabulous (mint? cherry? toffee bits? dried fruit?)

You wish this was on your counter.

I know that this will be a recipe that I go back to often.

Tami will have the round of of all the bakers. Go see what the other bakers did!

WWD: Cocoa Almond Meringues

This is turning into a bad habit. It's not Wednesdays With Dorie, and yet, that's where I've been for the last two weeks. Do I get any sympathy if I tell you that my air conditioning isn't working and it was 95 yesterday? Just checking.

I know meringues are a like 'em/hate 'em thing for a lot of people. I fall firmly into the like 'em camp. I'm really lousy at making them, though. For some reason, I can never get the whites to whip up the right way. I use a perfectly clean bowl and beaters. I bet them for a long time. I add the sugar in small amounts. Maybe the humidity defeated me on this one.

No crags or mountains. More like small sand dunes?

Mine taste good, but they don't look anything like Dorie's. There is almost no rise to them. I like the subtle cocoa flavor with the bites of semi sweet every so often. I don't taste the almond at all. I wonder if a little almond extract might be better than vanilla in these if you are looking for that taste.

Thanks to Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude for choosing this one.