TWD: French Yogurt Cake

Mm mmm mmmm. Cake. I like cake. I've been looking forward to this cake for a while. It just sounded so simple and delicious.

And you know what? It is.

As far as Dorie's fuss factor goes. This was very low. I did it by hand. And I only used *gasp* ONE bowl. Ok, only one that needed washing. I wiped out the bowl with the dry ingredients in it and put it right back in the cabinet.

The boy helped me make this cake. He liked doing the pouring and zesting the lemon. I read that a few people had a problem with the cake sticking. I used a generous amount of Baker's Joy and had no problems at all. I made it a day ahead of when I was serving it. I didn't glaze it because I didn't want the glaze to stick.

And then I never ended up glazing it. Instead, I spooned some orange marmalade (Homemade! By me!) over each slice and topped it with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream. It was divine. The slight bitterness of the marmalade was a great contrast to the gentle sweetness of the cake. The whipped cream brought the whole thing together. I did use the almond meal, and I'm glad for it. It added another little flavor dimension.

This is definitely on my "make again. soon" list. It wasn't heavy as pound cakes can be. We only have one photo. We were too busy eating to care much about photography.

Makes me want to go down to the kitchen and have another slice.



Thank you Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for choosing such a wonderful recipe. Go to her blog to get it for yourself. And then invite me over for some after you bake it.

Adventures in Cookbooking -- Week 4

Again I'm surprised that I own a book this popular, and I've never used it before. This week was How to Bake: Complete Guide to Perfect Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Tarts, Breads, Pizzas, Muffins by Nick Malgieri.

It's a great read. And I know I've looked through it a number of times. But somehow, for some reason, this was the first time I cooked from it.

I chose a recipe called Soft Rolls. Pretty basic, hard to mess up, right? Ok, except I did. I'm not a novice with yeast. I am very comfortable with it. I make bread once or twice a month. Yet I could not get this recipe to work. I have to think it's user error, but I'm not sure where I went wrong.

The recipe gave options for a stand mixer, food processor, bread machine, and by hand. I have a Cuisinart that has a dough setting and a special dough blade. Easy! I follow the instructions. I mix the (maybe) seven ingredients. I put it in a greased bowl in a warm-ish place. I cover with plastic wrap. And nothing. Not a bit of a rise. Not even three hours later.

Ah well. I shaped it into rolls regardless. Maybe now they'll rise! Nope. In the oven with the heat? Yeah! Now they'll rise.

Nope. They were dense little nuggets of dough. I'll put the blame on my shoulders for now. Perhaps I'll test another recipe and see what happens.

So far, it's one keeper recipe as is, one keeper with modifications, one keeper for adults only, and one not-so-keeper. I'm on the look out for an easy roll recipe. We'll see what next week brings!

See, not soft in any way, shape, or form.

Hard, sad little rolls.

Not a TWD. Instead, we celebrate Purim

Purim is a fun Jewish holiday. It's a celebration of a triumph. To help celebrate, the Jews are commanded to eat, drink, and share what we have with gifts of food and drink. I'm sharing our hamentaschen fest.



Here's a nutshell version of the Purim story. By the way, this is stolen word for word from Yael of Yael's Yummies. Her version is succinct and explains it well.

Tuesday is the Jewish holiday of Purim. "Pur" in Hebrew, means "lots" or "lottery". The holiday celebrates the bravery of Queen Esther and how she saved the Jewish people from the evil Haman (an advisor to the king) in Persia in the city of Shushan. He decided to do away with the Jews and drew "lots" to decide which day would be their doomsday. Queen Esther found out about his plan and basically ratted on him to the king (who up until that time didn't even know she was Jewish). Long, complicated story, but in short, she saved the day. The date that was originally chosen for the Jews to be destroyed , now became a day of celebration. It is a joyful, fun holiday , especially for children, who dress in costumes and parade around the city . The story of Queen Esther is read in synagogues throughout the world. It is a tradition that every time the name of Haman is mentioned, children and adults alike, shake noisemakers in the air, yell and shout, so as to drown out his evil name.

Side note: The story of Purim is called the Megillah. So if you've ever heard anyone talk about "the whole Megillah", it comes from reading the whole Purim story.

Anyway, on to the hamentaschen. Hamentaschen are filled sugar cookies that are traditionally served on Purim. The cookies are three cornered and meant to mimic Hamen's hat. At least that's what I was taught in Sunday School. There are other stories out there.

For the past four years, we've had hamentaschen baking parties. This year we had four five-year-olds and five eight-year-olds come to help us form the cookies. Traditionally, the cookies are filled with poppy or prune fillings. At our house we use chocolate chips, swirled chocolate chips, apricot jam, and raspberry jam. Any and all combinations of said ingredients can be used. One of the girl's friends has an egg allergy, so this is the recipe that I used.

It's a fun afternoon. I'm pretty sure that the kids ate as many chips as they put into the cookies. There was lots of giggling and messes, and it was just as it should be.

Here's a representative sampling of our goodies. The cookies turned out well this year. This just might be the recipe that I keep using, even if we no longer have an egg allergy.







The other TWD bakers made a lovely Lemon Cup Custard chosen by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Check out her blog for the recipe. I'll be back next week with a yummy looking cake.

Adventures in Cookbooking -- Week 4

This week the girl "picked out" the recipe. Really, she wasn't all that interested. So many things to do in her almost-eight-year-old life. I was looking for a side dish this week.

Now that I'm really looking at my cookbooks, I wonder why I have some that I have. This week's book is called A Passion for Potatoes. It's a book where all of the recipes have potatoes of one form or another in them. Including desserts.

Back to the side dish. The recipe this week was Potatoes Gratin with Onions and Beer. See how perhaps the girl was led to this one. It's a pretty straight-forward gratin. Only the liquid is beer instead of cream or milk. I used a mandoline for the potatoes. (Indispensable kitchen item) The potatoes rest in the beer while the onions are caramelized. Then the onion, potato, and cheese are layered in a dish. The beer and potato starch are poured over the top. The whole thing gets baked for 1 1/2 hours.

It smelled great while it was baking. The verdict: good for the adults, not so good for the kids. The beer flavor was just too pronounced. I think it would be great for an adult barbeque. I'm not rushing out to make it again. Ah well.

Side note: I have a convection oven that I hate. Every time I try to use it, it takes longer than the stated cooking time. That isn't supposed to happen! I started this recipe in the oven and had to switch it to the convection. The top started burning almost right away. Anyone use one of these ovens with more success?

Here's the full pan.



A close up of the burnt top.



A serving of the potatoes.



Not the best choice this week. Ah well. There's always another cookbook and another week.

TWD: Chocolate Armagnac Cake

Or, as Dorie also calls it, "The Cake That Got Me Fired." It's a good story. Go buy the cookbook and find out how it happened.

This is a (mostly) flourless chocolate cake with a rather adult edge to it. The original recipe called for whisky soaked raisins and almond meal. Dorie's version calls for Armagnac soaked prunes and pecan meal. Ok, she changed the recipe at the restaurant where she was working. That's why she got fired. Buy the book anyway.

I went with the original recipe. Remember this:



Whisky I had. Raisins I had. Ground almonds, yup, in the cabinet.

As I said before, flourless chocolate cake. I used many many dishes.



My last count was six cooking vessels. It's not a complicated recipe, but you need to know what you are doing. It's a medium-high fuss factor. I was a little confused with the instructions for the whisky soaked raisins. The prunes were boiled in water, steeped in the Armagnac, and then flamed a little. The raisins, as far as I could tell, were just supposed to steep for at least three hours. I decided to flame them before I added them to try to take a little boozy edge off of them. It didn't work.

I didn't follow the "put it on a sheet pan" instruction. I've found that the bottom of things don't cook as well when I do that. I also didn't bother taking it off the bottom of the springform before serving.

This is the finished, fairly unattractive cake.



Here's where I also veered away from the recipe. I chose not to frost it. I thought that it was rich enough without another layer of chocolate. I think it was a good choice.

What I did do was dust the cake slices with powdered sugar. It came out looking just lovely.



The verdict was mixed. The girl did not care for it. The boy ate up his entire piece. The husband, who is the whisky fan, really liked it. The husband's friends finished the rest of the cake. In one night. They liked it. I thought it was good, but the raisins were a little much for me. Ok, raisins would have been fine, it was the serious shot of whisky that came with each raisin that raised my eyebrows. Apparently, the prunes tend to melt into the cake, the raisins stay intact. The chocolate flavor was lovely. The texture was silky with the barest hint of crunch to the crust. I could see this adapting very nicely for Passover.

I'm glad to have tried it. Thanks to LyB of And Then I do the Dishes for choosing this recipe. Next week is my chosen "skip week." I'll have something else sweet up. Perhaps I'll do a two-fer and make it from a cookbook I've never used!

Adventures in Cookbooking -- Week 3

This week's recipe was chosen by the boy. (He's helping me write this post) The cookbook is called The Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley. It's essentially a compilation of the "best" recipes from the Best of the Best book series. The series seems to be books made up of more compilations of local recipes. Did that make sense?

I told the boy he could choose a main dish or a side dish from this book. He paged through some of the recipes and decided on a beef vegetable soup. Side note -- the recipe is from Van Cliburn's aunt!

It was a straightforward recipe. It was easy to make with ingredients that were easy to find. By the way, they carry beef soup bones at the supermarket. Who knew? It calls for canned or frozen mixed vegetables. I found a great mix at my local supermarket. It's called a fiesta blend. It contains broccoli, carrots, white beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, Italian style green beans, and red peppers.

This was a big thumbs up. It had nice beefy flavor with lots of good vegetables.

Here's the boy's bowl of soup ready to be eaten.



And here's the boy! Eating!



And not to be left behind, here's the girl.



I'll use this book again. There are some nice homestyle/family recipes that looked good. E-mail me if you'd like the recipe.

Come back and see what we choose for next week!

*** edited to add -- The wonderful ladies who edited the book left me a very nice note. The book is for sale ($5!) at their website. Go get a copy!

TWD: Caramel Crunch Bars. And my 100th post!

Woo hoo! Post #100! Woo hoo!

Now on to the cookies. We liked these cookies. We liked them a lot. I will say that I've been making a version of this bar cookie for years and years. It was in my mom's recipe box, and I remember making them as a kid. Mostly because they were incredibly simple to make, but also because they were delicious. Dorie's was slightly more complicated, but for a Dorie recipe, this one was pretty easy and not very dish intensive.



Dorie's recipe isn't far off from my mom's version. This one calls for a little espresso powder and cinnamon in the shortbread, which I thought added a nice flavor note. It also calls for chopped chocolate in the shortbread crust. Dorie likes toffee bits as her finishing touch. We used toasted chopped pecans.



It's very basic construction. A shortbread crust is baked. Chocolate is melted on top. (By the way, don't bother putting it back in the oven to melt. The residual heat will melt the chocolate just fine). Toffee bits are scattered over the melted chocolate. Bingo. Dessert!

You can see the layers pretty clearly here.



I brought these to an Oscar party. All the reviews were favorable. The ones that were left at home were quickly eaten up by the boy, girl, and husband. I could absolutely see myself making these again. I will omit the chocolate from the crust next time. I didn't think it was necessary. I think that flavor got lost because of the chocolate topping. And while I really enjoyed the crunch of the toffee bits, I'll probably use toasted nuts next time. It counteracts the sweetness of the rest of the bar very nicely. Either this crust recipe or my mom's works very well.

Thanks Whitney of What's Left on the Table for choosing this yummy treat. Next week is a chocolate cake with whiskey soaked raisins. Come back and see what happens!

Edited to add:  I can't help but note that today is Fat Tuesday.  Isn't every TWD a fat Tuesday?

Adventures in Cookbooking -- Week 2

First of all, thanks for the name, Nancy! She let me steal her idea.

Week two brings a recipe called New York Spiedies. (pronounced speedy) The book is The Best American Recipes 2002-2003. The husband paged through and found the recipe for us. This is an interesting book. It's actually a compilation of recipes from books, magazines, newspapers, and the interwebs. These two women, Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens, are, respectively a cookbook editor and contributing editor for Fine Cooking. Some recipes in the book are from celebrity cooks and others are from home cooks. I like the mix. Each recipe comes with cook's notes that can be advice on where to find ingredients or variations on the recipe. There's also "serve with" and "to drink" advice with each recipe. I also liked that each recipe has a story that goes with it.

It's a very easy recipe to put together. Essentially, you make a marinade, cube some meat, let it soak for up to three days, thread it on a skewer, and cook. It's all pantry items, so that was really a bonus. To serve, you use some squishy Italian bread as the meat remover. Instant sandwich!

This recipe didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. It was completely user error. I think I chose the wrong cut of meat. Sometimes, the labels really flummox me. It's meant to be cooked on the grill or broiled. I tried to use my grill pan and ended up crowding it. The flavor of the meat was wonderful, but the texture was too chewy. I will absolutely make this again in the summer when I can use my grill. Plus, I'll look more carefully at the meat label.

Definitely too crowded in the pan.



It never really got a chance to sear and get brown.



Here's the recipe. This one I'll post because it was previously published in the Washington Post.

New York Spiedies

2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. vinegar
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T. each dried thyme, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder
zest of one lemon
1/2 c. water
5 pounds top round roast, cut into 1 1/2" pieces
1 loaf soft Italian bread, thickly sliced

At least one day ahead, combine everything but the bread and meat and mix well. Reserve 1/2 c. marinade for basting. Add meat to rest of marinade. Cover and refrigerate, turning occasionally, for at least 24 hours and up to three days.

Preheat a grill to high. Transfer the meat to skewers and discard the marinade. Grill the skewers, turning occasionally and basting with the reserved marinade until meat is cooked to liking. Serve immediately with the bread. To eat: fold the bread over the contents of a skewer and pull the skewer out, leaving the meat sandwiched within the bread. I cut this recipe in half.

If you give this a try, let me know. If you have the book and you've made something else, let me know that, too!

TWD: Devil's Food White Out Cake

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have the cover cake.  Here it is.  

This is a three layer cake slathered with marshmallow frosting and coated with more cake crumbs.  Truthfully, what could be bad.

The cake is baked in two layers.  I would say for a Dorie recipe, it was medium fussy.  Funny story, I searched quite a few places trying to find the 8" cake pans that this recipe calls for. Other than slightly expensive options at Williams-Sonoma or the internet with resulting shipping charges, I was not having much luck.  And then I looked in one of my lesser-used cabinets.  And what do I find there, but a checkerboard cake set with, yup, 8" cake pans.  Woo hoo!

Anyway, back to the cake.  The cakes came out lovely and moist.  I didn't put them on a baking sheet.  I find that it doesn't bake as well on the bottom when I do that.  The layers are sliced in half.  I don't have a hard time doing this, though I know it can be daunting.  I just hold it in my hand and go at it with my long serrated knife.  Three of the four layers are used for the cake base. The fourth is crumbled and meant to be squished in the frosting.  That was actually nice because if you screwed up, it was still meant to be crumbled!

The frosting was new to me.  I wasn't part of the group when they made marshmallows, and I've never made marshmallow frosting.  The directions, I thought, were a little vague.  I know that you whip egg whites.  I know that you make a sugar syrup.  I know that you add them together.  When you add them together, however, was not very clear to me.  Regardless, my guessing seems to have worked.  I will say that I think I screwed up by adding the vanilla a little late to the frosting.  It ended up having a slightly alcohol taste to it.  Though, there was much wine drinking the night it was eating, so I'm not sure anyone noticed.  It ended up being easy to frost.  Again, the crumbs were a bonus.  If the frosting was a little crumby on the side, it didn't matter!

Here it is from the top.  It almost looks like Dorie's cake!

Here we are looking at it from the side.

And this is the inside.  Mmmmm.  This is where it stops looking like Dorie's cake.  I have to wonder if she had extra frosting somewhere to make it so thick in the middle.  Ah well.  I also discovered that it was definitely a little squishy when it was sliced.

I enjoyed this cake.  I'm not sure that I'll be rushing to make it again.  Mostly because I don't have a lot of occasions that call for cake, but also because I make a similar one that I like a little better.  I think the cakes are pretty close, but the other one is frosted with whipped cream and coated with toffee.  Winner.

Thank you Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater for choosing this lovely cake.  Up next:  Caramel Crunch Bars.

Cookie Carnival: Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Ok, yum.  Seriously, just yum.  This month's recipe is good.  Not just good, but GOOD.  So good, that less than a week after I made the first batch, I made a second one.  On the same day that we were picking up our Girl Scout cookies.  There wasn't going to be a shortage of cookies in my house.  But I needed to have these available to me.  This is a "I can barely pass by the jar without taking one" cookie.

They are very easy to assemble.  Ice cream scoops -- not just for ice cream.  They make portioning out cookies very easy.  I used dried cherries in the first batch, and a mix of dried fruit in the second one.  Normally, I am not a dried fruit fan when it comes to cookies, but this really added a nice dimension.  I used a mix of black and regular cocoa.  It helped to make these extra rich.  I did cut down on the amount of chocolate chunks for the second batch.  I wanted the other flavors to come through a little more.  This recipe is definitely finding a spot in my cookie world.

Thanks, Kate!  Here's the recipe if you'd like to start your own addiction.

My first foray into a new cookbook

So here was my challenge. I own many, many cookbooks. I cook regularly out of three or four. I have cooked out of about 20% my collection. I am determined to cook at least one recipe from each of the cookbooks I own.

Last night was my first meal with a new cookbook. I think I need to shift my expectations. Some of it has to do with my eaters. Some of it has to do with the cookbooks I own. Some has to do with the ingredients on hand. I think I had visions of.... well, I'm not sure. But I was a little embarrassed to realize that my first recipe was for something called Chili Mac. I had ground beef that needed cooking. I had most of the ingredients on hand. I needed dinner.

The cookbook is a Cook's Illustrated book called Cover & Bake. Truthfully, I'm surprised that this was my first recipe from this book. The recipes really look pretty good, and they are tested to within an inch of their little lives.



The Chili Mac was good. The boy and the girl had seconds. I thought it was warm and comforting. Perhaps not gourmet but good.



I made some minor changes. I used a mix of beef and turkey, and I used about half the cheese called for. It's now in the "definitely make it again" pile.

So that's one down, and about 130 to go. Anyone else try a new recipe from their collection this week?

*** I don't post recipes from books. Copyright law and a lawyer husband and all that. If you'd like the recipe, I'm happy to e-mail it to you.

Again, not a TWD. Instead, a challenge

So, this week's pick was Floating Island.  It totally sounds like a cool recipe. Essentially, it's poached meringue lumps served in a custard sauce.  Get it.  Floating island.  And though it does sound like it would be delicious, it did not get made in my house.  Shari, of Whisk:  A Food Blog, who makes sublime and wonderful things, will have a gorgeous photo and the recipe.

What is here, however, is a challenge for me and anyone else who has the same dilemma.  As noted in a previous post, I love food magazines.  I have many subscriptions and many copies. My collection of EVERY Cook's Illustrated magazine predates my husband.  I also have an enormous collection of cookbooks.

I love cookbooks.

I read them like novels.  I love the pictures.  I love the commentary.  I love the possibilities.  Apparently, what I don't love is cooking out of most of them.  I counted today.  I own 168 cookbooks.  I have, to the best of my knowledge, cooked out of 29 of them.  That's 17%.  I always find recipes that sound fun and fabulous.  And then I never cook them.  I rely on the same three or four books and supplement with the magazines and the internet.

I decided that this has to change.  So I am challenging myself.  And you, if you're game.  I have decided that I am going to cook through my collection of books.  It's not going to be a Julie and Julia situation.  I'm not making every recipe.  I'm going to make one recipe from one new book each week.   I'll let you know the name of the book and the recipe I make.  In theory, this is a three year project.  We'll see what gives out first -- my will or my collection of books.  Though the collection seems to be growing all the time....

Come back next week to see the cover recipe from the Dorie cookbook.  And check in every so often to see how I'm doing on my journey.  

TWD: World Peace Cookies

So this week we made Dorie's world famous World Peace cookies. (I'll run off on a quick tangent or two. I didn't realize I had the recipe in another cookbook of mine. I have a copy of Paris Sweets. The original recipe, named Korova cookies, is in that book. I really do need to read my cookbooks again. And to further my tangent, my Paris Sweets book and my Baking From my Home to Yours books -- both are signed by Dorie. Tangents done!)

Anyway, back to the cookies. I found these to be a pretty basic, pretty easy to put together chocolate butter cookie. The thing that sets it apart from other cookies? Fleur de sel. That's a fancy name for sea salt. (Oooh! Another tangent opportunity! About seven years ago, we were on a vacation in Vermont. We made a pilgrimage to the King Arthur store. I was in awe. And slightly overwhelmed. I really wanted to buy something, but I didn't know what it should be. I walked away with an assortment of salt. I know. All those choices, and I buy salt. But I finally used the last of the "Fine Sea Salt" up!) These are a "slice and bake" cookie, which is one of my favorite kinds. Easy peasy! The dough was very crumbly, but a bit of mashing around and rolling fixed that right up.

I stored mine in the fridge for a couple of days. I didn't end up with slicing problems the way some other bakers did. I think the fridge time may have helped. I actually got 36 cookies, just like the recipe says.



Here they are! (I hope my tye-dyed background won't go unnoticed. You know, peace cookies. Tye-dye. Ok, so it's not really a theme. I tried.)

I have to say, that while this are a nice, tasty cookie, we didn't go crazy for them. We all liked them, but there are other cookies I would make before I made these again. They don't call to me the way others do. I can actually walk past the cookie jar and not grab one. The husband liked them better the second day.

Thank you to Jessica of Cookbookhabit for choosing this recipe. I've decided to skip next week's recipe. I love to bake, but I can't rationalize baking more than once a week. And some weeks, quite frankly, I'd like to try a recipe from another cookbook. Blasphemous, I know. On average, I bake three Dorie recipes to one "other" recipe. That sounds fair. Come look. I'll have "other" deliciousness here!

Mmmmmm. Dark chocolate. Good dark chocolate.

I am a dark chocolate kind of girl. Milk chocolate has a tiny little place in my world, but dark chocolate is king.

So imagine my delight when I received a free bar of dark chocolate from Amano Artisan Chocolate. (Thanks Blake!) It's a bar called Jembrana.

Holy smokes. And holy smokes I say again.



It's a single origin chocolate. It's made in small batches, and the passion clearly shows. It was dark and creamy and luscious, and I haven't shared any yet. Too bad I didn't eat it all before I posted this. This is the kind of bar to be savored.

Thanks Amano for giving me a chance to try it. Go check out their website to see the Jembrana bar and some of their other bars.

TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

I was really excited when I saw this recipe. Chocolate? YUM! Ginger? YUM! Chocolate and ginger? YUMYUMYUM. This recipe did not disappoint.

My favorite ginger recipe of all time is for Double Gingersnaps. I've been making this cookie recipe for forever. I haven't ventured much into other ginger baked goods. There are three types of ginger in this recipe: fresh, powdered, and candied. The chocolate is in chunks in the cake, melted and added to the batter, and in the frosting on top.

This was a slightly fussy recipe. Only slightly, though. The fresh ginger needed to be chopped fine and mixed with some sugar (1). The dry ingredients needed to be mixed together (2). The chocolate had to be melted (3). The chocolate that wasn't melted had to be chopped (4). Then all of the components eventually had to be mixed together (5). Plus there was the baking pan. That's SIX cooking vessels for one recipe. Thank goodness the husband does the dishes! (Thanks, Honey! Love you!)

Anyway, I followed the recipe as written, except I didn't put the cake on a baking sheet. That usually messes with my baking. The house smelled wonderful as it was baking and for quite a while after.

This was baked in a 9-inch square pan. Dorie advises turning the cake out on to a rack to cool and then flipping it over to ice. I didn't even bother. I had a lovely square cake bottom looking up at me. After it was cooled, I made the icing. It was much more glaze-like. (tangent -- what's the difference between frosting/icing/glaze?) This was EASY icing to make. As a matter of fact, I think this is my new go-to glaze for things like tube or Bundt cakes.

I decided to put my cake right on the serving plate. Dorie noted that we might want to trim off any brown edges, and she cuts the cake into squares before serving. I did not. The icing had a lovely glossy sheen. I poured it on top and let it drip down the sides a little.



Here is a cross section of the newly sliced cake.



Here's my slice. Don't even think about trying to take it from me!



A slightly different view where you can see the icing.



We all really liked this cake. This is definitely a recipe that will be made again at our house. We were divided on the frosting, however. The boy and I liked the cake with the icing. The husband and the girl didn't mind it, but thought it might be better without. Or maybe with some sweetened whipped cream instead. Regardless, it didn't last long in my house. I'm glad we didn't cut off the brown edges. They were really good. Maybe I should have, and then I wouldn't have had to share.... Anyway, this cake gave us about 16 slices and not the nine that Dorie called for. Those would have been pretty big slices.

Thanks, Heather, of Sherry Trifle for picking such a great recipe. I'm glad to add another ginger recipe to my arsenal. Next week -- the world famous World Peace cookies. Looking forward to it!

Not a TWD. Instead, I show you another cake

I did not make Dorie's Berry Surprise Cake this week. I'll start with the excuses. First off, I'm lazy. There I said it. This was a cake that had four separate components. That sounded fussy to me, and I rarely do fussy. The second reason had to do with many of the other bakers. This was a recipe that just did not do what they wanted it to do. Too many problems with sunken cake and bland cream. Thirdly, have I mentioned that I'm lazy?

Instead of the berry cake, I will show you the cake that I made for my friend Dave's birthday. It just looks fussy.

Here is the unassuming backside. Ah, just look at all those toffee bits smooshed into the coffee whipped cream.


And then, when you turn it around and look at the cut edge.....


Mmmmmm. Six layers of chocolate deliciousness separated by more whipped cream and toffee.



And the beauty of this cake? It just looks fussy. It's an amazingly easy three layer buttermilk chocolate cake, filled with flavored whipped cream and pre-crushed Heath bars.

The trickiest part is cutting the cake layers into more cake layers. And that's not so tricky when you use a long serrated knife and a round metal tart pan bottom.

The cake received raves from the dinner group. I really liked it as well. The cake is moist and wonderful. The whipped cream with flavored just enough to add a little something. And the taste and the crunch of the toffee candy pull the whole thing together.

I didn't post the recipe for various and sundry reasons most having to do with having a husband who is an Intellectual Property Lawyer. It's from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that is OLD. If you'd like the specific recipe, e-mail me, and I'll send it to you. If you'd like to fake it, use your favorite three layer chocolate cake recipe. Whip up some cream with a little instant coffee or espresso. Sprinkle with chopped up Heath bars.

I will definitely be participating next week when the main ingredients are ginger and chocolate. YUM!

Magazines

For some reason, I've been thinking about cooking magazines today. And for some reason, I've assigned all of my magazines a relationship status. Let me explain.

Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country are my BFFs. I have, literally, every copy of each of these magazines. I love them. I actually use them. I have gotten some of my favorite recipes from these magazines. They are well written, have good recipes and tips, and help me to be a better cook.

Another steady is Cooking Pleasures. It, too, has good recipes. It's a nice standby. Oh, and it has lovely glossy photos. On a side note, they do one thing that just mystifies me. When you subscribe to this magazine, you join their "club". Occasionally, I receive offers to make me a life member. It's around $300. I'll get certain benefits and a subscription for life. One of the benefits is a "gourmet cookware set valued at $370". Here's the thing, if you are a cook, and I am, don't you already have a set of cookware? (All-Clad here) How about if they keep the cookware, and just let me be a life member for free? Anyway....

Bon Appetit and I are friends with benefits. We stray, and then every so often, when they offer me a really cheap subscription, I sign up again. I can't take all the ads, though, which is why I'm not a consistent reader.

I have flirted with Everyday Food, Gourmet, Cooking Light, Eating Well, Saveur, and probably a few others. (At magazines.com you can find most of these magazines)

So, internet, is there a cooking magazine that is your BFF? The one you look forward to every month? Is there one that you had to break up with because of just too many disappointments? Curious readers want to know!

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This was some good timing. Right now in Chicago it's very snowy and cold. Mind you, I'm not complaining. I need to have a change of seasons. Check back with me in two months when I just DO NOT WANT TO SHOVEL ANY MORE. But for now, I'm enjoying it. I was so glad to have the chance to make something savory. We enjoy cornbread a lot at our house. The girl and boy like anything bread-like. But the girl really likes mini corn muffins.



Good thing I have a mini muffin pan!

These were not standard corn muffins. They called for sweet red pepper, cilantro, chili powder, and jalapeno (Which I skipped. Too spicy for the kids. My kids, anyway.) It added a really nice touch of color. I also used a more coarsely ground cornmeal. It gave the muffins and extra bit of crunch to the texture. I did use the full three tablespoons of sugar. I like the crust on the muffin when sugar is added. They were incredibly easy to make. Two bowls, one muffin tin, and one rubber spatula brought it all together.



The red of the pepper and the green of the cilantro added to the appearance of the muffins. You can even see the specks of chili powder.



These ended up being nicely corn flavored but pretty mild in terms of the other flavors. Maybe I should have added the hot peppers.

We enjoyed this recipe. I would certainly make it again. I will admit to having a favorite recipe that goes into my cast iron skillet. But, if I wanted to make a muffin version, I would certainly try this again.

Thanks Rebecca from Ezra Pound Cake for choosing this recipe. You can find how to make these on her web site. I'm pretty sure I'm skipping next week's recipe. It's fairly labor intensive. Mostly, I need to have fewer sweets in my house so I'll eat less. That's the theory, anyway. We'll see what I end up doing.

TWD: French Pear Tart

This is so cool! Because it was the first anniversary of Tuesdays with Dorie, Dorie herself chose the recipe! So cool!

As I've said before, I'm not much into the fuss factor. This recipe was chock full of components, but none of them were very difficult. There are essentially three parts to this recipe: the crust, the almond cream, and the pears.

The crust was very easy. It's a cookie crust that gets pressed into the pan. No rolling involved! I love that. It sat in the freezer while I made the almond cream. Oh, and I used the same (read - not cleaned in between) food processor for the crust and cream. The almond cream came together in seconds. It went into the fridge while I worked on the next step. The pears could have been much easier, but I did chose the most difficult of the three options.

Apparently, very often canned pears are used for this recipe. I happened to have a big bag of pears that the boy wanted me to buy and then never wanted to eat. Option two was to use the fresh pears as is. I went with option three, which was to poach the pears. This was also much easier than I was expecting.

While the pears were poaching, I partially baked the crust. That way they could be cooling at the same time. I will note that my crust could have stood a little more baking. When the crust was cool, I spread in my almond cream. The cutting of the pears worried me a little. There wasn't a picture in the book of the finished tart. I guessed. Apparently from other pictures I've seen, I guessed wrong. However, I like the way mine came out. It bakes for an hour. And then you get this:



The almond cream puffed up just the way it was supposed to.



Here's a close-up of my pear fan.

I needed to dry my pears a little more so that the almond cream wouldn't be as soupy. All in all, though, it's a great recipe. I would absolutely make this again. It was easy enough to do, and almost all the parts can be made ahead.

Thanks for thinking up and choosing such a great recipe, Dorie! You can see her tart and the recipe here.

Google Reader is overwhelming me

I have a terrible guilt complex.  Google Reader is not helping.  All of the TWD blogs are right there for me to read on Google Reader.

Every Tuesday I have such high hopes.  I start early in the day reading TWD blogs and commenting on as many as I can.  I love to see the comments that people leave for me, so I assume that it's the same for others.

Then maybe I'll come back on Tuesday night.  And the 46 or so active posts have become 120 or so.  So I try to get through some more.

Then on Wednesday there are even more posts.  Some of them aren't even TWD!  (Where do these people find the time and topics?)  So I fall further and further behind.  By Friday I just try to comment on any post from blogs that I missed on Tuesday or Wednesday.  This is murder on the control freak in me.

And now it's Sunday.  I just cleared my Google Reader in preparation for the next TWD.  I erased over 400 active posts.  

I need to get over the idea that I can comment on all the TWD posts.  I will make my peace with Google Reader one day.  In the meantime, sorry for the posts I haven't read, the comments I haven't left, and the recipes that I've missed.

And next week I'll try again.

•••• Edited to add:  The control freak in me had a field-day this afternoon.  I (literally, possibly sadly) looked at every blog on the TWD blogroll.  Originally, I had 478 blogs listed.  If the blogger hadn't posted a TWD post for the month of December, I deleted it from my list.  Now the only people on my list are TWD bloggers.  I still won't comment on everyone, but my narrowed list makes me feel better.  Control freak.