TWD: Mocha Almond Marbled Bundt Cake

Whew! Got this one in under the wire. Passover ended last night, so this cake was first thing on my agenda this morning.

Pretty low on the fuss factor. It requires one batter, half of which is combined with a coffee/chocolate mixture. The original recipe calls for walnuts. I happened to have almond meal, so I made that substitution. I'm not so fabulous on the swirling, but I trusted in Dorie.

Not bad!

While I was baking, I thought about another post for Tricks for Treats. I was spraying my pan with Baker's Joy and started formulating what I would say. I love the stuff. It always works.

See! Isn't that gorgeous. Nice and golden and so smooth.

Fooled ya! Here's the other side. Oops! I think that's the side we'll just eat first. And perhaps I need to do a more thorough job with my Baker's Joy.

I'm saving this one for after dinner, but I did have a little taste. There were some pieces readily available.... YUM! I loved the slight almond taste blended with the mocha. This one is a keeper.

Go check out Erin's blog -- When in Doubt....Leave it at 350 for a much prettier cake and the recipe.

TWD: Coconut Tea Cake

This one will be short and sweet. We just had a seder for 11 people, I've been cooking for the past two days, and I'm a bit tired. (Chicken soup with matzo balls, charoset, hard boiled eggs, grilled asparagus, grilled salmon, matzo farfel kugel, peanut butter cookies, matzo toffee, and strawberry coconut bars) Yeah, pity me. I made the cake a couple of weeks ago because Passover started Monday evening, and there will be no leavened foods in my house for a bit.

This was very easy to put together. I halved the recipe and used a loaf pan. I found coconut milk with no problem. I made the cardamom variation. The girl loved it. Loved it. The husband thought that you couldn't taste the coconut, but he really enjoyed the cardamom aspect. The boy thought it was ok. I didn't taste it. You know me and coconut... I still stand by my "ripening idea" and didn't serve this until a day after it was made. I think it helps.

This was a very moist golden cake.

Thank you Carmen of Carmen Cooks for giving the girl a new favorite.

The girl and her soup (with help from the boy)

The other day the girl made a list of ingredients for me that she thought would make a good soup. The boy chipped in with his ideas.

Here's the list:

tomato

spinach

lobster

seasoning (salt, pepper, ginger)

cream

peas

carrots

potato

On Wednesday we made her soup. I had to do a few minor substitutions (onions for tomatoes, shrimp for lobster, fat free half and half for cream, and we didn't have peas so I skipped those.) You know what? Her soup was fabulous! It was creamy and fresh tasting, and the ginger gave it just a little bite. I'm going to let her create more soup recipes!

Awesome, Delicious, Supreme Spinach Soup

1 T. olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

4 c. chicken broth

1 1/2 - 2 pounds spinach, washed

1/2 c. fat free half and half

4 carrots, chopped and par-cooked (I used the microwave)

1 pound potatoes, chopped and par-cooked

1/2 t. powdered ginger

1/4 t. powdered garlic

salt and pepper to taste

cooked shrimp

In a large dutch oven, brown the onions in the olive oil until they are a golden color. This may take a bit. Add the broth to the onions and bring to a simmer. Add the spinach and cook until tender 6-8 minutes. Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture until it is creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until everything is warmed through. Serve with shrimp (I served it on the side and let everyone add as they saw fit)

I would have pictures, but I didn't think of it until later, and it's gone. Next time!

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

Mmmm. I was very happy about this week's recipe. It's a cookie made with dulce de leche and has the stuff sandwiched in the middle as well. YUM.

Dulce de leche is cooked, sweetened milk. In my case it's cooked sweetened condensed milk. I can buy it in the grocery store, but I prefer to make mine. It's beyond simple. (take the label off a can. Put it in a slow cooker. Cover with water - 2" over the top of the can. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Done) It's amazing on just about anything.

This was a simple cookie to make and bake. I love a one pan drop cookie. I really like that these are slightly off in terms of shape and size. It makes them look more homey. I tried the cookie on its own and with the dulce in the middle. As much as I love the stuff, my preference was the plain cookie. I liked the chewy sweetness without the extra sweet of the dulce. I was the only one at my house, however. The Girl can't get enough of these cookies. The Boy and the Husband like them a lot as well.

Here's a close up. Golden brown cookie with golden brown dulce de leche peeking out.

I would certainly make these again. They make an excellent foil for ice cream. Hmmm, perhaps a dulce de leche cookie with dulce de leche ice cream in the middle....

Just picture a stack of these filled with ice cream. Or chocolate. Or frosting. I could go on and on.

Go check out Jodie's blog if you'd like to see the recipe. Or go buy the book and bake along! That is if you don't already. ;-)

Not a TWD: And, I have nothing

Nada. Zip. Zilch. I have nothing delicious to show for myself this week. I made some good meals, and I baked ahead for another week, but I have nothing for this post.

Sorry Rachelle. Go check out her blog, Mommy I'm Hungry. I'm sure you'll see something gorgeous there.

TWD: Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

I'm glad this was finally picked. I've been eyeing this recipe for about as long as I've owned the book. This is essentially a butter cookie filled with jam. What could be bad!?

On the fuss scale, this was really low. The original recipe called for ground hazelnuts, but I can't stand them. And, I have ground almonds on hand. Easy substitution. The dough came together quickly. I made a half batch, so some of my measurements were a bit of a guess. (the flour and nuts were a generous 3/4 cup). The dough was pretty crumbly. It took a bit of squeezing, but I got the dough into 28 balls. I used the end of a fairly wide wooden spoon to make my holes. I've made this kind of cookie before, and I've learned to start with bigger holes because they fill in as they bake.

Here is the unbaked cookie. The hole is pretty deep.

Here it is baked. See how much it spread and leveled out?

I did make a minor change to the recipe. Instead of boiling the jam to make it spreadable, I just put glops on the cookies while they were hot. The jam filled in the holes very easily. I used four jams for variety. Clockwise from the left -- blackberry, apricot, strawberry, and orange-vanilla marmalade (homemade!)

I only tried the marmalade version. I really liked it. The sandy quality of the cookie was a nice contrast to the smooth jam. The Girl liked that the cookie wasn't sweet and the jam was so "it met in the middle." The Boy wasn't so sure about the orange, but he liked the apricot. This wasn't my favorite dough to work with, but the fuss factor was so low I might have to make this again if I need this kind of cookie. They ended up being very pretty, so I could easily see them on a dessert table.

Look for the recipe on Mike's Blog; Ugly Food For an Ugly Dude.

Not a TWD: Instead, we make hamentaschen

This week's recipe for TWD was a Toasted Coconut Custard Tart. I saw some people talking about how this was an amazing recipe that you can't wait to make again. This did not happen in my house. First of all, I can't stand coconut. As in can't eat it at all. I'm pretty sure I've referred to this before, but you know the scene in the movie Big? The one where the Tom Hanks character is at the party and he eats caviar, spits it out, and then has to wipe out his mouth with a napkin? That's me and coconut. So, yeah, it didn't happen. (Sorry, Beryl -- it's not you, it's me. Go check out her blog, Cinemon Girl to see what was supposed to be here.)

So no to coconut and yes to hamentaschen! This Sunday was Purim. Instead of re-posting the Purim story, I'll link to my blog entry from last year that discussed the holiday. I will post new photos of hamentaschen. Normally, we have some kids over to bake with us and eat. This year, we were recovering from the plague, so two dozen of the little beauties was all we could handle. Hamentaschen are essentially filled butter cookies. The traditional fillings are prune and poppy. Here we use strawberry jam, apricot jam, and chocolate chips.

Here's the Boy and Girl (with lots and lots of stuff on the table) filling and forming the cookies.

This is a cookie sheet with filled cookies ready to go into the oven.

Mmmmmm. Delicious!

TWD: Honey Wheat Cookies

I was excited to try this cookie. After all of the super sweet chocolate we've consumed lately, wheat sounded almost... healthy. Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of honey. But, hey, I'm game!

This is intended to be a mildly sweet, lemony, perfect-for-a-cup-of-tea cookie. Except I didn't have lemon. I have lime zest in the freezer, but I wasn't sure it would work. Hmmm, check out the fruit drawer and I find - tangerines. Ok, honey/wheat/tangerine it is!

This was a simple cookie to put together. I had wheat germ left over from my (far too many batches of) granola grabbers, so I didn't have to skip the coating. I really liked rolling these in the wheat germ. I was expecting the finished cookie to be a little fuzzy. You know, the germ pieces would sort of be feathers on the top, but they melted right in.

The cookies smelled wonderful while they were baking. The Girl and the Boy loved the finished product. The pronounced honey flavor was a drawback for me. I might make these again, but I'm not sure. So many cookies so little time!

Go check out Michelle's blog, Flourchild, to see the recipe and some fun photos.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ok, not my best chocolate chip cookies. Hi, it's Debbie Downer with another "eh" recipe this week. I have been making chocolate chip cookies for many more years than I care to remember. I started with the traditional Toll House recipe. I tweaked. I added. I studied. And now I have a recipe that I swear by. This one is not going to take its place. My favorite recipe makes a chewy centered crispy edged buttery chocolatey little bite of joy. These didn't quite measure up. (Well, sure. With that build up, what could?)

This was an easy recipe with a low fuss factor. I ended up leaving the dough in the fridge for two days. I thought it would improve the texure/flavor. And I made the dough and ran out of time to bake it. It's a simple process to make these -- scoop, place, bake. The only change I made was to sub out half of the chocolate chips for cappuccino chips.

Dorie says that these are flat cookies. I was prepared for flat. I was not prepared for FLAT. These dough mounds really sank to ultra thin dimensions. I thought maybe the oven was too hot, so I lowered it 25 degrees. Nope. Still flat. Hmmmm. Apparently, that's how they are supposed to come out. I thought it might have just been me, but other bakers commented on the total flatitude of these cookies.

I didn't like the way the chips "stuck out." I like for them to be nestled in the cookie. These were not my favorite cookies. I can't say that they even rank in the top ten. Having said that, even an "eh" homemade chocolate chip cookie is good. The flavor was decent. I just can't get past the shape and texture. I like a little more substance to my cookies. These will not find a place in my baking rotation.

All plated up for the Husband's meeting.

Go check out Kait's blog for the recipe and some beautiful photos.

TWD: Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

This week's pick was brownies. A really long name for brownies. I did a whole thing on brownies once where I discussed that I'm a baking snob and I never ever use mixes. Except when it comes to brownies. They are really easy to doctor up and Ghiradelli does a great job. (Because I'm lousy at doing tags, and I don't remember when I wrote it, there's no link)

But hey, I'll make these. I've made other brownies from the book and they've been good. Anyway, so, I read the recipe. And then I re-read it. And then I read it again. It took me about four readings to make sure that I understood it. And I'm sure I read it a few more times when I was in the middle of things. This is a very rich (read-fattening) brownie. And there were a lot of steps. A lot of fussy steps.

I greased the pan (a topic of discussion for some) and baked away. Mine needed an extra few minutes (another topic of discussion) to make sure that the brownies, while gooey, were not liquid in the middle.

In the end, we decided that these were very good brownies. Rich, delicious, fudgy. However, they are not good enough to warrant the effort and dishes. I'll stick to the box. Which for me is saying a lot. Unless you have an easy fabulous recipe for me....

Here's a photo of the cut edge. Very moist. (not great photos to choose from this week. Have I mentioned that I need to work on my photography skills?)

Thanks to Tanya of Chocolatechic for choosing these. I know that she'll have a great photo and story on her blog.

**** Edited to add -- Don't get me wrong, these were excellent brownies. Very chocolatey and moist. Still, I thought they were a lot of effort for, you know, brownies.

TWD: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

Or in my case, dark chocolate mini Bundt cakes. I'm not a huge fan of milk chocolate, and I didn't have any anyway. So dark chocolate it is!

This is a pretty simple cake. It's a chocolate cake that you layer with something. The original recipe called for pecans. I made the buttermilk variation from the "playing around" section. I did stick with the pecans.

I think that I over baked these a bit. While the taste was good, the texture was a bit crumbly. That may also have something to to do with using dark instead of milk chocolate. I left mine unadorned (mostly due to sheer laziness), though the original calls for a chocolate glaze.

I made these once before using dark chocolate. Instead of the pecans, however, I used candied ginger. I much preferred that version. This was very good with a scoop of ice cream plunked right in the hole, though. I think ice cream fixes many baking mistakes.

These ended up with quite a few holes. I think the glaze would have made them much prettier.

Here's a little cross section. You can see the cocoa covered pecans.

Thanks to Kristin of I'm Right About Everything for choosing this week's recipe. Get it at her blog, or go buy the book already!

TWD: Cocoa-Nana Bread

I'm going to come right out and say it. This one was a bit of a disappointment. It was neither cocoa nor banana enough for me. And it certainly wasn't bread. This was cake. Not that that's a bad thing, but the whole name led me to believe that this was going to be something else.

This was a simple recipe to make (whew!) It calls for a lot of cocoa. More than in most recipes. I use a black cocoa from KAF. It makes dark, rich, wonderful things. Because of all the cocoa, I was hoping for a rich, chocolate taste. The cake also uses two ripe bananas. I just want to show you what a RIPE banana that is ready for baking looks like. (I throw them in the freezer when they start getting black. That's why they look wet)

I used 2 1/2 because that is what I had in the freezer. This was a very thick batter. I was a little surprised with the instructions at the end. Normally, when there is a liquid to add, it is added alternately with the dry ingredients. In this case it was all dry and then the buttermilk. Thanks again to my trusty stand mixer.

I used the full baking time plus a couple of extra minutes. It was tasted the first night by some friends of the husband. They all thought it was ok, but it would have been better with ice cream. The next day it was better. I'm discovering that with certain baked goods, a bit of ripening is helpful. Having said that, I didn't love this. It wasn't strongly cocoa flavored, and it wasn't strongly banana flavored. It's as if the two flavors almost cancelled each other out. I have other things that I love to make when I have black bananas.

Here's the full cake.

Here's a slice begging for some ice cream. Those lighter brown spots are semi-sweet chips. When they say black cocoa, they aren't kidding.

Thank you to Steph of Obsessed with Baking for choosing this one. I don't think this will be joining my baking list any time soon. Ah well. It's good to try new things anyway.

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars

Well, with a title like that, who wouldn't want to make this?! It's almost health food what with the oatmeal and raisins and everything....

This is a bar recipe with two components that make three layers. It is very rich and pretty sweet. The good news is that a little goes a long way.

The base layer calls for a rather large quantities of the chosen ingredients. There's brown sugar, flour, oatmeal, butter, eggs, nuts, and some other stuff. The recipe calls for three cups of oatmeal alone. This is when I was grateful yet again for my KA stand mixer. It handled the job easily. The crust mixture is divided, and most of the mix is pressed into a 13 x 9 pan. The rest is set aside. The chocolate layer was pretty simple to make. I used a homemade double boiler (bowl over pan of simmering water) to melt chocolate, butter, and sweetened condensed milk (not to be confused with evaporated milk. I guess it's a common mistake because I see the warnings in almost every recipe that calls for one or the other.) You add chopped peanuts and raisins to that. I used a mix of almonds and peanuts because that's what I had. I did add the raisins, though other bakers were worried about the sweetness. The chocolate layer is spread over the base layer. The remaining crust mix is crumbled over the top. It didn't need a long bake, but it does require a long cool -- at least three hours.

See, Oatmeal! It's good for you!

Here's the whole pan.

This was my corner piece. It was excellent and chewy.

I cut mine while it was still at room temperature. It was easy to do. Much easier than when it was cold. We also ate it while it was still warm, though Dorie makes a case for eating it cold. I really liked it warm. I liked the contrast of the gooey chocolate and the crunchy top and base. Though, it was pretty darn good the next day right out of the fridge. It wasn't as sweet as I was expecting it to be. I wonder if I just used a different chocolate than some of the other bakers. It does make a lot, so half of my pan went into the freezer for later use. I could certainly see myself making this one again. I might play around with cappuccino chips to replace the raisins and using all almonds. Thank you Lillian of Confectiona's Realm for choosing this recipe. Go to her blog to see the recipe.

Not a TWD: I made a cake, though

This week's recipe was for something called Mrs. Vogel's Scherben. It is essentially fried dough with powdered sugar on top. I am not opposed to frying. I own a deep fryer. I like dough and I like sugar. However, this one didn't appeal to me. I did go to Teanna's blog, Spork or Foon, and saw a lovely photo that made me think I want to try these another day.

I did make a delicious cake, though. I have fairly recently discovered cardamom. It has a sort of herbal, woodsy taste. It's used a lot in Scandinavian baking and Indian cooking. (Thank you Wikipedia!) We had friends over this summer and I made a wonderful cardamom ice cream. I had plenty left over, so when I was trolling blogs, and I found this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it.

The cake was very easy to put together. It has two parts: cake and swirl. I used a whole vanilla bean instead of a half and yogurt in place of the sour cream for the cake. Each component had orange zest and cardamom in it. The swirl ingredients were unchanged. My kitchen smelled amazing while it was baking. I let it "ripen" overnight. (I'm discovering that this is a good trick for most of the cakes I've made lately)

This is an excellent cake.

My swirl didn't end up very swirl-like. It sort of clumped. Truth be told, the cake would be fabulous without it. It's a rich cake with hints of cardamom, citrus, and vanilla. The swirl is a little more crunchy with a very concentrated cardamom taste. The cake is very moist.

I would absolutely make this cake again. I might either play with the swirl or take it out completely.

TWD: Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake

Happy 2nd anniversary to Tuesday's With Dorie! It started small with one woman and her Christmas present: Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It expanded slowly with a few bakers joining in to help her bake through the book. Then it exploded. Now hundreds of bakers pull out their well-worn copies and bake along.

This week we had the choice of Tarte Tatin or the Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake. It was a coin flip for me. Both sounded wonderful. The cake won. Since we have been eating plenty of sweets lately, I did at least cut the recipe in half so I could (eat it all in one sitting and no one would know) limit the sugar intake of the boy and girl.

The cake was easy enough to put together. I made a mini version. I have a set of 3" pans that make an adorable layer cake. I had a bit extra so there was also a mini loaf cake for us to snack on. On day one, I was a bit disappointed with the taste. All I really got was sweet. Today, when I was trimming the layers I took a little bite of the crumbs. Much better on day two! The chocolate flavor became a bit more prominent.

I used a simple brown sugar caramel icing. Yum on its own.

This cake is 3" wide and about 6" tall.

Happy anniversary, TWD! We'll cut this tonight and clink our forks in honor of the big day.

*** Edited to add -- this was tasty! The boy and girl especially enjoyed the frosting. The cake was good as well. ;-)

Not a TWD: Too much other stuff

I did not make the cheesecake. Truth be told, I'm not much of a cheesecake fan. Still, I like chocolate, so I would have made it.

If I didn't already have:

pecan pie

gingersnaps

cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake

fudge

cinnamon sugar nuts

and chocolate mint cookies

in my kitchen. And subsequently on my hips and various other anatomical parts.

Go check out Tea and Scones for the recipe and a cheesecake shot!

TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie

This is going to be a drive-by-posting. Just finished baking, and I'm off to see The Addams Family tonight.

Here's a photo of the pie. VERY dark crust. I used Dorie's recipe, but I think I'm going to go back to my favorite. I just find it easier to work with. My family will chomp tonight, I'll taste it tomorrow, and I'll let you know the verdict in an update.

***Edited to add - This pie got mixed reviews. The girl thought there were too many nuts. We did try to tell her it was pecan pie, but ah well. The husband thought it had too much cinnamon. I think the coffee flavor is a bit too pronounced. But I love the texture and the fact that it's not too sweet. I would definitely make it a get with a bit less espresso powder and cinnamon. And the crust that I like better.

Check out Brina's blog, Someone's in the Kitchen with Brina for the recipe.

Kitchen Reader Cookie Exchange

This month, instead of a book review, we're posting a favorite/meaningful/holiday-ish cookie. My cookie is a double gingersnap. I've been making then for more years than... well, for a long time. I got the recipe from this book: The Wellesley Cookie Exchange. Apparently, this is one of the oldest exchanges around. I'm unsure of the actual history, but I know they've been doing it a while and there are two cookbooks based on their treats.

This was my first real taste of ginger. I have absolutely grown to love this cookie like no other. This is my favorite winter cookie. It's the one people request when they ask me to bake for them. They are spicy and sweet, slightly crunchy and chewy, and, I think I need to go bake. I only ever need to look at this recipe once a year, usually in the fall, to refresh my memory. The page in the cookbook is appropriately stained.

I have no photos of the cookies that come from this recipe. I think we just always eat them before I ever get to take any. I'm stealing this photo (with full credits) because mine look just as yummy.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to have some ginger nirvana:

Double Gingersnaps (courtesy of the Wellesley Cookie Exchange cookbook)

3 sticks butter, softened

2 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c. molasses

4 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

2 t. cinnamon

2 t. ground cloves

4 t. ground ginger

*sugar for rolling

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and molasses and mix well. Blend the dry ingredients together. Add carefully to the mix. Stir just until no flour remains. Refrigerate the dough AT LEAST four hours. (I always make this the day before I want to bake.) Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls, and then roll in sugar. Place on ungreased sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes. The cookies will puff up and then shrink and crackle.

*I have experimented with different kinds of sugar - granulated, coarse, ginger (the sugar left from candied ginger). All are delicious.

Happy cookies!

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies

Now doesn't that name just scare you a bit? There was no photo of this finished product. I had no idea what to expect. It was a pretty simple recipe with ingredients I had on hand, so it had that going for it. What the heck. I'll try it.

Luckily, we made sables last week, which called for egg yolks. This week's recipe needed egg whites. I love how that worked out!

This was a meringue-like cookie. Instead of beating the egg whites, however, we warmed them up with sugar and, in my case, cocoa. The original recipe called for espresso powder (hence the cafe part of the name). But the boy and girl are not fans of coffee things, so I went with cocoa.

I also used mostly toasted almonds and pistachios in place of the nuts Dorie called for. Since both my nut varieties were pre-toasted, I had even fewer steps to make these!

The whole recipe was made in one saucepan and then baked on a silicon mat. It was close to the easiest Dorie recipe yet. The resulting recipe was surprisingly good. The toasty flavor of the nuts went very well with the cocoa. And I loved the crunchy texture of the cookie. I made a half batch, and it disappeared within a day.

You can see how the cookies is reminiscent of a craggy lava field. But much tastier.

Since I used the girl's painted bowl last week, I had to use the boy's this week.

Thanks to MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar for picking this one. I never would have tried it on my own. It's definitely an option for those extra egg whites left over from the sables that I have to make again.

TWD: Sables

Today's entry is short and sweet. Not unlike this week's recipe! Today I made sables. These are sables with an accent on the e. Not sables with a long a sound. Here's the good news; no matter how you pronounce it, they are delicious!

This is a basic French butter cookie. There were many variations in the book. While in the future I think I'd really enjoy a citrus, pecan, or spice version, for my first round I stuck to the basic recipe. This one was really simple. There were few ingredients. It only took one bowl and one piece of plastic wrap. I made half a recipe because we are full up on cookies here. (chocolate cappuccino and maple almond)

These are simple and lovely. I think next time I'll make them a little thicker to give them a sandier texture. These had a bit of snap because I let them get a bit brown. The edges might look a bit more brown than they are because I rolled them in demerara sugar.

One other bonus to these cookies - you can make the dough ahead of time and roll and freeze it. Then when you need a cookie fix, just roll them in sugar, slice, and bake! Thank you Barbara of Bungalow Barbara for this week's choice. Go check her blog for the recipe. Or go buy the book already!

***Just a little side note -- the girl painted the bowl, and she's loving all of the sweet comments that you are leaving about it!

Not a TWD: But it's Cookie Carnival Time

This week's recipe was supposed to be the Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart. And while it sounds delicious, and the title is fun and alliterative, I didn't make it. The recipe had a little too much going on for me after a weekend of enormous eating. Go see Lauren of I'll Eat You to see the tart. I just stopped by, and it's gorgeous.

This month's Cookie Carnival was a group effort. We voted on the cookie that we'd all bake. The winner: Pecan Pie Cookies courtesy of Land O Lakes butter. This was an incredibly easy cookie to make. It was a one bowl dough. Into the fridge for a bit of chill. The pecan topping was also really easy. I added a splash of maple extract because I love it in pecan pie.

The cookies were rolled into medium size balls. Then I got to stick my finger in the middle. Hehehe. The indention was filled with the pecan mix. A 12 minute bake later I had.... a mess. The cookies really spread and the filling leaked out of a lot of the cookies. They stuck to the baking sheet and it was hard to remove them.

For every one of these:

I had a lot more of these:

And these:

The really big problem with the broken cookies? I couldn't put those in the cookie jar! I wouldn't want anyone to see them. You can see where I'm going with this, can't you? I had to hide the evidence of my bad cookie removal. There was only one thing to do. See, did I mention the fact that these cookies taste AMAZING? I think I ate at least four or five or.... I think I'm going to have to try these again. Maybe freeze the dough this time, or use parchment or lots of spray to help stop the stick.

I'll be back next week with sables. Yum!

The Kitchen Reader

I've joined a new group! This one is called The Kitchen Reader. It's aptly named, because we read together and post reviews about "foodie" books. The book this month is called The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home by Steve Gdula.

It's an interesting read. It talks about how kitchens have grown and evolved according to what was going on in the world. Some things that really struck me was the concept of a "scientific" kitchen. In making things "cleaner" and "sanitized", lots of food traditions were being eroded away. Instead of using familiar ethnic seasonings, people in the early 2oth century were encouraged to use more mass produced foods. It's also interesting to see how certain advances, the microwave for example, came about. I enjoyed this book. In some places it was a little slow, but overall, the information was compelling. I liked following along over the course of the years to see where we've been and where we are going.

Next month instead of a book, we'll be sharing a favorite holiday cookie recipe. See you then!

Not a TWD: Instead, I do some experimenting for Thanksgiving

The only recipe I didn't complete for the month of November was the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake. It looked lovely in the book, but the recipe had a few more steps than I was willing to deal with. This week's host is Britin, who chose the holiday bundt cake I made two weeks ago. Confused? Sorry. We'll be back on track next week.

I have been assigned a side dish and rolls for dinner on Thursday. I went to the source of all things good when it comes to side dishes and let Alton Brown guide me. I chose his green bean casserole, and I gave it a test run last night. There is nary a can in sight in his version. Yes, I know that millions have used this recipe for years. However, I like to cook from scratch as much as possible. Alton's recipe is similar. You make a creamy sauce, add the beans, and then top with crunchy onions. The crunchy onions did give me a bit of trouble. And I grabbed the wrong can of chicken stock and it wasn't low sodium. Regardless of those two little bumps, I really like this one. I'm going to double it and bring it on Thursday.

This is Alton's photo. Had I taken a photo, you would have seen mine looking just as yummy.

I tried making rolls. For some reason, the bread gods are frowning on me this week. I found this recipe. It sounded really good, easy, and versatile. I followed the instructions and instead of dough I got... glop. I added some flour to make it more dough like. It never rose. I baked some anyway to see if they might rise in the oven. Nope. I threw it all away.

Today I tried David Lebovitz's recipe for dinner rolls. This one was in the food processor. Easy! It took F O R E V E R for it to rise. So I stuck that one in the fridge to do an overnight proof/rise. I'll bake them off in the morning and see how they turn out. I did do a test on my yeast. Since neither dough really rose, perhaps my yeast was no good. Nope. It did just fine in a bowl of warm water with a teaspoon of sugar added.

Ah well. I'll keep looking, and hopefully I'll get something good before Thursday. Have a wonderful holiday, all. Enjoy good food. Watch some football if you are so inclined. And (if all is right with the world) celebrate with some good people.

Happy Thanksgiving!

TWD: Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

Hey! I'm in synch this week! This week's cookies were amazing. They were perfect for fall.

I was a bit skeptical at first. I have an absolute favorite gingersnap recipe (the one that everyone asks for). I already had a recipe for this kind of cookie, so why do I need another? I'll tell you why. Though this has ginger in it, it's not the focus. The molasses was really the star. This also had a secret ingredient that really added to the spiciness of the cookie.

This one was easy to put together. Dry ingredients in one bowl. Wet stuff in the mixer. Combine. Refrigerate. I've learned with a cookie like this to leave it overnight before baking. Better flavor. Plus, the dough was much easier to work with when it was cold. Getting back to those dry ingredients -- here's where the secret flavor came in. In addition to the ginger and cinnamon, Dorie had us add black pepper. It really added to the final cookie! I was hesitant, but I'm glad I added it.

According to the recipe, this makes 24 cookies. I have to add that it makes 24 HUGE cookies. I made mine a bit smaller, and they were still big! I think I got 48 cookies. Dorie cautioned us that they would spread like crazy. She was absolutely right. The dough balls were to be rolled in sugar and then flattened on the cookie sheet. I did a little sugar experiment. I rolled some in demerara sugar and some in sparkling sugar. Truthfully, in the end, we couldn't tell a difference.

Only eight to a cookie sheet. They got big! I should have taken an "after" photo for comparison.

You can see a bit of the sparkling sugar on the outside. They were thin, dark, and delicious.

Same cookies but showcased on a fall plate that the girl made.

Everyone who tried one of these cookies loved them. They were very thin and crispy with just a bit of chew in the center. If you can get them to last, they get better with age. The flavors blend and mellow and really stand out. On Saturday I made a maple pumpkin filling to go in some pecan cookie tart shells. It also went fabulously well spread out on one of these cookies.

Thank you to Pamela of Cookies With Boys for broadening my horizons.

TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

Out of order again! This time, instead of the crisp (which I made last week), I made this fabulous bundt cake. This one is a keeper. It was enjoyed by all.

It was easy to put together. There are quite a few components, but none of it was tough to deal with. This recipe calls for pumpkin, pecans, cranberries - fresh and dried, diced apples, and the usual cake ingredient suspects. I had never worked with fresh cranberries before. Really. They were pretty cool looking on the inside. The batter came together quickly in my stand mixer. Then into a greased bundt to bake for about an hour. This is a cake that makes the kitchen smell wonderful.

It came out of the pan with no sticking. Here's where I did a smart thing. I baked the cake the day before I needed it. I wrapped it tightly and left it on the counter so the flavors could ripen and meld a bit. Good call! I made a glaze with maple syrup, powdered sugar, and vanilla. It was a little on the thin side, but I liked it when it had hardened.

Very thin glaze. It made it shiny.

I am not a fan of pumpkin. At all. But this was so good! All of the flavors worked so well together. And since it had so much fruit in it, I was able to convince myself that it was healthy and therefore a good breakfast option.

See, there's the golden pumpkin and cranberries right there. Healthy!

Breakfast of champion. And bakers.

Thanks to Britin of the Nitty Britty for choosing such a great cake. (She made the crisp this week, but check back at her site for the recipe)

TWD: Cran-Apple Crisp

Yea! I have a hard drive again. Mind you the old one is still AWOL, but I'm working on it. Actually I'm spending obscene amounts of money to have someone else work on it, but I digress. Back up your data, folks!

On to the food! This month, because of the holiday, we are allowed to move things around a bit. The four recipes can be made and presented in any order. The husband liked the sound of the crisp, so that one came up first.

I love a good crisp. There's the contrast of the textures and, in this one, the contrast of the tart cranberries and sweet apples. The apple chunks took on a bit of a rosy hue.

Crisps also scream "Fall!" to me. They are homey and the perfect dessert for a cool autumn evening. This one was easy to make. The topping came together in an instant in the food processor. The cranberries and apples were tossed with a few ingredients in a bowl and then poured into a baking dish. Dorie's original recipe calls for individual crisps, but I just went with one big one. I was all about the easy. I was very happy to find fresh cranberries in my grocery store. And they were on sale! This baked for about 50 minutes. My kitchen smelled amazing.

It came out looking really good. The crisp crust was a gorgeous golden brown. I could just bake this stuff up and eat it as is.

It was hard to let it cool before eating it. I added a scoop of good vanilla ice cream, and... WOW! This was very good. Very. Good. I hate coconut. There was coconut in the topping. I didn't even really notice it. It just added a "something." I would absolutely make this again. I don't think I'd change anything.

Thank you, Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef for picking such a winner! Go see Katya's blog, Second Dinner for the official recipe for this week.

TWD: Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte

First off, I'm typing on the husband's computer, so I have no photos. They are on my computer. The one with the crashed hard drive. Keep your fingers crossed that the data recovery magicians can pull off a miracle.

On to the food! Want to know what's a really good idea? (Other than backing up your computer. Often.) Reading the recipe. It's helpful. It tells you little things. Things about saving four ounces of chopped chocolate to add at the end. Things about the mousse part needing at least four hours to chill. Oy.

This ended up being a really rich brownie cake studded with cherries and a hint of rum. It was slightly fussy. The chocolate and butter needed melting. (only seven ounces of chocolate!) The dry ingredients needed blending. The cherries needed boiling and flambeeing. And then it all needed to be mixed together.

Mine baked for about an hour. It came out cleanly from the pan. I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top and served it as is. I think that the mousse would have been tasty, but this was really rich on its own. The extra chocolate melted in added to the richness, I'm sure.

Thank you to April of Short + Rose for picking this recipe. Go to her blog to see what this should look like. Hmmm, I seem to be saying that a lot lately....

I'm writing a new feature for the TWD site!

So excited! In an effort to spice up the TWD site a bit, the moderators asked for some suggestions and volunteers to help add content. I'm writing a feature (name! I need a name!) on ingredients and kitchen tools. Those you love, those you don't know how to use, those you need to expand on a bit, and those you covet. Go check it out. I post the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month.

Any ideas or suggestions for the feature? (column? post?) let me know!

TWD: Not this week

Sorry folks. If you came here looking for Sweet Potato Biscuits, you will be disappointed. I got to spend a glorious weekend away with the husband, and other people did all the cooking for me. Baking is a little more than I could get to right now. Once I climb over the mountains of laundry, I might be able to get back to the kitchen.

Go visit Erin's blog to see the recipe and what these delicious biscuits look like. I'll be back soon!