TWD: Nutty Chocolatey Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

It's hard to go wrong when you have wonderful ingredients and a Bundt pan.

This cake was very good. It's a lovely sour cream coffee cake with some wonderful added flavors (orange and vanilla) and a swirl of cinnamon, sugar, chocolate, and, in my case, almonds. The original recipe called for raisins and pecans. I decided to skip the raisins and use almonds because they were in my pantry. It was a good choice.

The batter came together easily. Caitlin put the fear of God in me with her tale of sticking swirl and broken cake. She begged us all to butter andflour the panto within an inch of its life. I did. I was also warned about using too much batter in the beginning, because it doesn't leave enough to cover the second swirl. I was very careful.

Mine baked for exactly one hour. I held my breath as I unmolded it. WHEW! No sticking. (Thanks, Caitlin!) Golden brown and delicious.

My swirls were more layery and not very swirly.

We decided that the swirl on the right looked like it was smiling.

The (very goofy) Girl and Boy were most definitely smiling. Thumbs up!

Truth be told, I have an absolute go-to sour cream Bundt cake that I am required to bring to family meals. This one won't replace it, but I'm glad to have tried it.

Go see Jennifer's blog, Cooking for Comfort, if you'd like to see the recipe.

I'm a guest poster!

It's National Rhubarb Pie Day, and I have a guest post up at Susan's (Doughmesstic) Food Holidays website.

Go check out my post and all the rest of them because it is SO MUCH FUN. Popcorn day? Yes! Hot Buttered Rum Day? Of course!

TWD: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

What a wonderful, simple recipe for a cold, snowy morning.

These muffins came together in a snap. The most work was zesting and juicing the lemon. The mixing was all done by hand. If you don't own a cookie scoop that doubles as a muffin scoop, you should get one.

I sprinkled them with coarse sugar instead of making the glaze. These had a bright, lemon taste, and I love the added burst of poppyseed flavor. I will say that these are more like cupcakes than muffins to me. They were a bit sweet and the texture was very cake like. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you. These earned a big thumbs up from the Boy and the Girl. I think we'll be making them again.

Thank you Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness for a bright recipe on a wintry day.

I'm going to be guest posting!

Susan, of She's Becoming Dough-mess-tic has a fun new blog. It's all about official food days. For instance, today is Curried Chicken Day. Who knew?

January 23 is National Rhubarb Pie Day. I'm not going to question why it's in January when most midwest rhubarb is under a blanket of snow, but ok. I think they can put it in January because there are people like me who love rhubarb so much that we always keep a stash in our freezer for rhubarb emergencies. Yes. There are rhubarb emergencies. Quit laughing.

I'll be baking a pie and (virtually) sharing it with all of you on the 23rd. Go check out her blog now and be sure to come back on the 23rd to see what I've cooked up.

Teaser! Stolen from iphoto.

TWD: (Not) Fluff Filled Chocolate Madeleines

I'll be blunt. When it comes to certain things, I am lazy. Why make a layer cake that you have to frost when a Bundt cake tastes just as lovely and only needs glaze? Why make a two crust pie when there are crisps and crumbles that just need fruit and a streusel? Are you sensing where this is heading?

I've never made madeleines before. The last time the TWD group made them, I skipped that week. It had something to do with needing special pans or some other excuse. I decided I wasn't skipping this time. I borrowed a pan. (I was going to buy one, then I ran into my sister-in-law at the store. She told me she has four of them. Thanks, A!)

The madeleines were so easy to put together. Seriously. I used one bowl and a few measuring cups/spoon. The batter went into the fridge overnight. Viola! I'm ready to bake. I read about not overfilling the pans, so I wanted to be careful. The recipe says this makes 12 cookies. Normally, I get more than the printed yield. Since I hadn't made these before, I wanted to stick with the right yield. I used my tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out the dough. After 12 minutes in the oven, mine were done. They popped right out of the pan. They looked the way they were supposed to look!

If you look closely, you can see the little ridges.

I thought about using fluff and ganache. I did. And then I lined them up and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. Lazy. And less messy. I was a little worried that the ganache would overpower the more delicate flavor of the cookie, so I can use that as an excuse as well.

These turned out really nicely. Both the Boy and the Girl gave them thumbs up. I think that this is a lovely easy recipe, and I would certainly make it again. I really want to try the traditional version now. I just may have to go out and buy my own pan.

To see what the fluff filled version looks like, go visit Margo at Effort to Deliciousness.

TWD: Midnight Crackles

I am so lucky and honored to be able to work with Laurie and help her maintain the Tuesdays With Dorie site. Since it's the third anniversary, I thought Laurie should choose the recipe. Since I've been helping her out, she thought I should choose the recipe. We compromised and chose it together. (Well, it was more like this -- Me: "Is there anything you haven't made from this book?" Her - "No" Me- "How do you feel about Midnight Crackles?" Her - "Love 'em!" So Midnight Crackles it was.

The recipe and some lovely comments are over on the TWD site. I did have photos of the cookies, but since my hard drive crashed (AGAIN!), and I hadn't backed up my data for about 10 days (BACK UP YOUR DATA!), I no longer have the photos. Hmmmm, I think that sounds like an excellent excuse to make them again!

Wait! Photos! Thank you CrashPlan for saving them for me!

These were just delicious. They were a rich, dark, deeply chocolate cookie that I will make again. I will say that the cold dough was a bit tough to work with. Next time, I think I'll try some un-chilled dough and some slightly chilled dough and see how it works out.

Happy Anniversary Laurie, Dorie, and all the TWD participants. I hope your new year is sweet and wonderful!

TWD: Rewind!

Just like everyone else, I've been doing A LOT of baking. This is a crazy month. There were some birthdays and cakes and bars baked for said birthdays. There were the usual Dorie assignments. There was also some extra-curricular baking going on. Between this weekend and last I made four cakes, seven-layer bars, cookies, and sweet and spicy nuts. Whew!

Technically, I made five cakes, but we'll get back to that. I decided for my rewind to go seasonal. Back in September, I made a Peach Upside Downer. It was supposed to be cranberry, but they weren't quite in the stores yet and I had some ripe peaches. I thought it was time to try the cranberry version.

This was a snap to put together. I made a lovely caramel-ish sauce and poured it in a cake pan. I piled the cranberries and almonds on top. I made a simple cake batter with almond extract to replace the vanilla. A snap. I was a bit nervous about the unveiling, but it worked! The cake came out beautifully. I put it on one of the stove burners to cool for a minute while I moved some other things around. Uh oh.

Cranberry REALLY Upside Downer.

Sigh. Now, because I have a very stocked kitchen and because I am a little bit crazy. I made the cake again. That night. To prove that I could do it and not mess it up. Well, at least to prove that I can keep it on the counter.

Here it is. It was quite tasty. I must admit, though, that I liked the peach version better. Maybe I was just bitter about the broken plate. Who knows. I'm pretty sure I'll keep making some version of this one!

The color was gorgeous and the cake was so moist!

Hope everyone had a fun and disaster-free holiday!

TWD: Cardamom Crumb Cake

There's a funny thing about baking along with this group with this cookbook. I don't actually tend to look through it much. I know that at some point we'll get to all the recipes, so I don't tempt myself much by reading it. I hadn't remembered that this recipe was in the book. Now, I want to bake and/or eat it every day.

It has such wonderful and wonderfully balanced components. First there's cardamom, which is a floral-ish spice. Add coffee for a dark, slightly bitter counterpart. Toss in some citrus for a little sweet acid. And my finishing touch - pistachios for a buttery flavor and crunchy texture. (Dorie called for walnuts but a) I don't like them and b) I didn't have them.)

This was simple to put together. The crumb topping was a snap. (Dorie suggests that you can use this for a number of different uses. I suggest eating it out of the bowl.) The cake came together with slight effort. Mine baked for the time called.

Here is the finished cake. Its simple looking is hiding great deliciousness.

This cake was (yes, was, it lasted at my house for about a day) amazing. The flavors blended together so well. The cake itself was moist and the crumb added just the right flavor and texture notes. I could easily see whipping this together for a brunch or breakfast. Or a snack. Just for me....

The last piece in the pan. So lovely and so sad. I must make more.

This is definitely going into heavy rotation at my house. Thank you Jill of Jill's Blog for introducing a new favorite.

TWD: Apple Coconut Family Cake

We all know of my dislike of coconut. My family, however, loves the stuff. So while a bite of this would never pass my lips, the rest of the gang was eager.

This was a very simple cake to put together. There was some easy peeling, slicing/dicing, and mixing to get this one done. It was baked in a spring form pan. Dorie suggests that you use unsweetened coconut, but all I had was the sweetened stuff, so that's what I used. I did have to bake this about ten minutes longer than the recipe called for. I also didn't glaze the cake at the end. Truly, I didn't think it was necessary.

This was a big hit. All of my coconut lovers really enjoyed it. The girl had a friend over for dinner, and she loved it as well. It looked very moist and seemed to be better on the second day. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't eat it. I made up for the calories with the cookies from a cookie exchange at the yarn shop where I work.

Here's the cake. The little pattern on the top is slightly uneven, but I'll just call it rustic.

The girl loved it.

The boy devoured his.

The Friend was pretty happy. She's the only coconut lover in her house.

Thank you Amber of Cobbler du Monde for giving my family a cake they really enjoyed.

TWD: Translucent Maple Tuiles

Oh. Holy. Smokes. These cookies are crazy good. Good like, the batch makes 40 cookies, and I'm pretty sure that it would only take one sitting for them to disappear.

Initially, this cookie scared me. Not the dough. The dough was a snap. I was given good advice about making sure all the ingredients were room temperature. I was nervous about taking the cookies and placing them gently on something round to make a lovely shaped cookie. I have heard and seen too many horror stories about smushed, scrunched, or otherwise mangled hot cookies.

I got some other good advice and lowered my oven temp to 375. You start out with marble sized balls of dough. I put nine on my baking sheet. I literally sat in front of the oven and watched the first batch bake. It was pretty cool watching them melt and then bubble. At exactly seven minutes, I pulled them out of the oven. I used my thinnest spatula to slide one off. Hmmm, pretty easy. And then I moved it to the (plastic wrap covered - more good advice!) rolling pin. It slid off easily, and I was on to the next cookie! Two more on the pin and the other six on the rack. Wow! I can do this! I made two more batches letting the baking sheet cool COMPLETELY between batches. I have more dough in the fridge.

Here are the cooling cookies. No one counted, did they?

I love most anything maple. Maple and butter even more so. Once these cookies cooled, they turned into a crunchy, maple-y, buttery round of joy. At first I was slightly annoyed by the nine cookie per sheet limit. Then I realized that it was for my own good. If I made more, I would eat more.

Thank you thank you thank you Hindy of Bubie's Little Baker for choosing this recipe!

TWD: Devilish Shortcakes

I just made these this afternoon. When the kids got home from school, they WANTED TO EAT THEM. I made them wait until after dinner. I'm such a mean mom.

I forget how much I like shortcake. I also forget how easy it is. I halved the recipe, and I still got nine pretty decent sized shortcakes. I did make one substitution. The girl is on a total eggnog kick. I found chocolate eggnog at our local Trader Joe's. I thought she would like it. I was wrong. Ah well. I didn't have whole milk, but I did have chocolate eggnog!

The fillings were kid's choice. The Boy chose my mom's pear and cranberry relish. The Girl chose hot chocolate ice cream. Both asked for whipped cream. Both enjoyed it a lot. The real taste comes from the filling. The eggnog flavor is not really discernible. There is a slight eggnoggy taste, but nothing you'd be able to pick out.

I'm not sure that I'd make these again unless I had some really good summer berries. The kids would like it if I made them all the time. Then again, they aren't that picky.

This is a photo of last week's treat:

Thanks to Tania of Love Big, Bake Often for this week's treat.

TWD: Rewind!

Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone! This week we were allowed to choose any of the recipes that have already been made. Scanning through the list made my mouth water. In the end, I decided on some traditional(ish) favorites.

At my house there will be apple pie (this one's not a Dorie recipe), Cranberry Upside Downer (p. 206, The link will get you to a peach version. You'll have to use your imagination for a few more days), and All in One Holiday Bundt Cake (p. 186-187 ) See, since it's only Tuesday, the baking hasn't happened yet. I'll have new photos of the new food on Friday.

Have a wonderful, happy, healthy, thankful holiday!

Not a TWD: I was on a business trip

And this weekend was crazy busy. Fabulous friends in from out of town. A great tailgate (mmm, pumpkin cinnamon rolls!) My birthday ;-). But no TWD.

I'll be back next week!

Go to Celestial Confections to see the recipe.

TWD: Not Just for Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

That is a very long title. Very long. The dessert? Very good. I had a much different picture in my head of what this actually was. Then I read the recipe. Oh! It's two layers of a shortbread cookie with cranberry orange jam sandwiched in between. Yum!

This was a simple recipe. The cranberry jam was a snap to make and could easily stand alone. I didn't have an orange (oops) so I used orange juice that I had and a drop of orange oil. I like a tart counterpoint to the shortbread, so I only used a half cup of sugar. The shortbread was also a cinch. I made the dough, divided it into two disks and stuck it in the fridge.

Dorie calls for a springform pan, though I could easily see making this in a square pan and cutting it into bars instead of slices. I pressed the bottom layer of dough into the pan and then spread the cranberry jam on top. I pressed out the top layer between two sheets of plastic wrap and then placed it on top of the jam. I sprinkled the top layer with coarse sugar.

The baking times messed with me a little. The edges were a nice golden brown, and the top was lightly golden. What I didn't realize was that the middle was still a bit squishy. Definitely needed a few more minutes in the oven. The layers weren't exactly even, which may also have contributed to the underdone middle.

The presentation of the cake is lovely. The Boy said that "It was one of the most delicious things in the world." I really liked it as well. We brought it to a friend's house for dinner, and it was universally enjoyed. Funny enough, I have a similar recipe for a shortbread bar with jelly/jam in the middle that I make in a 13 x 9 pan. This is sort of a more refined cousin to that one.

I could see this making a return trip to our table. Especially if The Boy has anything to say about it. Thanks to Jessica of Singleton in the Kitchen for this lovely recipe.

TWD: Peanuttiest Blondies

Yowsa. Yes, that's a word. As in, "Yowsa, these were amazing!" Seriously, though, when you have a blondie made with peanuts, peanut butter, and chocolate, what could be bad?

This was a simple recipe to put together. I used my favorite chunky peanut butter, lots of chopped peanuts and mini chocolate chips. The recipe calls for a 9 x 9 pan which makes a very thick blondie. I could see making these in a 13 x 9 for a thinner bar. I wholeheartedly agree with the use of the mini chips in this recipe. The peanuts are the star with the chocolate adding a little flavor note.

I was a little worried about the baking time because these smelled done while they were still a bit jiggly in the middle. They were pretty brown looking on the top, too. I ended up baking them for about 45 minutes and leaving them in the turned off oven for about another 10. Perfect. They were chewy without being soggy. The peanuts gave just the right amount of crunch.

The Husband had some friends over the day I made these, and they were a huge hit. I won't say how many each person ate, but there weren't too many leftovers.

These are absolutely going to be made again in my house. Thanks Nicole of Bakologie for picking such a great recipe.

TWD: All American, All Delicious Apple Pie

Apple pie is just about my favorite dessert ever. Top it with some vanilla ice cream, and you'll reach Nirvana. Ok, I will. I have a couple of tried and true recipes that I make every fall. One uses a double crust, and one has an oatmeal/apple cider crust and a streusel top.

Truthfully, Dorie's recipe wasn't so far off the "traditional" recipe. It calls for apples, cinnamon, lemon juice, a bit of sugar, and tapioca. The tapioca is used as a thickening agent. I didn't want to buy it just for this recipe, so I used corn starch. Worked like a charm. I'm sure that Dorie's Good for Everything Pie Crust is just that, but I refuse to use anything other than the one from Cook's Illustrated. I've had success too manytimes with it to use another.

Does anything smell as good as an apple pie baking in the oven? This one turned out lovely and delicious.

The only drawback for me was that I needed more apples. I used my deep dish pan, and the apples did a magic shrinking trick. There was quite a cavern between the crust and apples. I didn't use Granny Smith apples this time, and that could be part of the problem.

Flaky flaky crust. This one is just waiting for its best friend, vanilla ice cream.

Will this recipe drag me from my standard version? Probably not. Was a I happy to have a reason to make apple pie? Of course!

Thank you to Emily of Sandmuffin for getting more pie into my house.

Coolest thing around

There is a very special day coming up. It's Dorie Greenspan's birthday! Dorie of Tuesdays With Dorie and French Fridays With Dorie. (FFWD is a cook-along with Dorie's fabulous new book, Around My French Table) To celebrate this wonderful event, some of us created a multi-course meal that we are (virtually) sharing with Dorie.

I made an appetizer from her book. While tzatsiki is not, strictly speaking, French, this wonderful Greek treat can be found at many markets in Paris. (Mind you, I'm taking her word on this. Or perhaps I need to go to Paris to find out for myself....)

Tzatsiki is very versatile. It can be used for a dip, dressing, or as a lovely snack. I often just eat it with a spoon. It's made from simple ingredients, so it's important that they be high quality. The good news is that Greek yogurt can be found at almost any supermarket these days. It comes together very easily.

My food styling is not quite up to par, but the tzatsiki is wonderful!

Happy birthday, Dorie! I hope you enjoy the tzatsiki and the rest of the meal.

Holly at Phenomenon has the whole menu. Enjoy!

TWD: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

This was not a recipe that called out to me. I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie. Although I've lately come to enjoy pumpkin baked treats (whoopie pies, blondies, and quick bread), I'm not a pumpkin pie girl. I skipped last week due to totally forseen circumstances (helloooo cruise to the Bahamas), and I wasn't about the skip again. That meant pumpkin pie. Or did it....

I am going to fully cop to not being organized enough to make this recipe well. First off, I didn't have heavy cream.I did have evaporated milk, which I'vesubstituted before, so I was willing to try it. I didn't fully read the recipe before I started baking, so I was in a bit of a tizzy gathering and getting ingredients ready. I also didn't want to deal with pie crust. I know. It's not hard. I make it often enough not to be afraid of it. Mostly I was lazy. And, you know, the whole "pumpkin pie" thing. I was thrilled to see another baker post an idea for pumpkin custard in ramekins. I'm in!

But back to why I needed the heavy cream. We had to make caramel. Just melted sugar caramel. That scares the bejeezus out of me.It goes from mahogany to black likethat. Plus, Dorie tells us to use a non-stick skillet. Mine has a black bottom. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to judge the color when the background is black. So I rebelled and used a regular saucepan. Rebel. It actually got to the necessary color and everything! I stirred in the butter, milk, and rum, and stirred until smooth. I was nervous because mine was pretty liquidy. But I didn't see an instruction to cook until it thickened.

I finished out the recipe, combined all the ingredients,poured the mixture into the ramekins, and hoped for the best.

I decided that a little crunch would be good, so I crumbled up some ginger cookies and sprinkled them in the bottom of the ramekins.

Here is a finished custard. Not a very appealing photo for sure.

Here's the dark inside with a hint of the Cool Whip that we ate with it. Yes. Cool Whip.

Well, I have to say that I am not a big fan. Perhaps I cooked the sugar too long and the caramel not enough. There is a bitter edge that I don't like and the rum flavor is pretty pronounced. This could all be user error. I really like the concept, and once I got going, it wasn't hard. I haven't decided if this is a keeper or not. The substitution didn't seem to effect the texture, so that was good. Ah well. There's always next week.

Thanks Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs for getting me to try something new!

TWD: Double Apple Bundt Cake

There are so many things to love about Bundt cakes. They have a fun design that help you cut the slices nice and even. (Big pieces for me - little pieces for everyone else) They look really cool when you drizzle glaze on them. And, especially in the case of this cake, they taste wonderful. We recently went apple picking, so I've made a bunch of apple recipes in the past two weeks. I was very happy to add this to my baking list.

This was a great fall cake to make. The "double apple" idea isn't two apples (really, it was more than that for me) but apples and apple butter. It's also full of seasonal spices. Yum! This came together really easily. The original recipe called for raisins and pecans. I said no to the raisins. I only like them in oatmeal cookies or cinnamon raisin bread. I used half pecans and I subbed one of my favorite ingredients (maple flav-r-bites**) for the other half cup.

The cake was very moist and so tasty. I made it the day before I planned to serve it to let the flavors blend. A few days later, the little bit that was left tasted just as wonderful. I would absolutely make this again. Though, I would use fewer of the bites. The maple flavor almost overwhelmed the apple. Not that it was a bad thing, mind you because I love maple. But I really wanted the apple to shine through.

Not a very photogenic cake. But it is tasty!

Photogenic children, though! Also, a bit goofy. Please ignore the mess at the breakfast table.

Thank you Lynne from Honey Muffin for choosing this recipe.

** Flav-r-bites are these little nuggets bursting with either cinnamon or maple flavor. They are wheat based, so unlike chips, they don't melt. I highly recommend them!

Not a TWD: I did some other baking instead

This week I made an apple slab and pumpkin blondies.

Although my photos would never ever be as good, my treats look remarkably similar to those in the blogs. I would highly recommend either recipe.

Next week I'll be back on the TWD wagon.