TWD: Parisian Apple Tartlet

I heart Jessica of My Baking Heart. I really really heart her. Dorie and her recipes are fabulous. I've tried many new and wonderful things. I've created many many dishes that the husband has to wash. Many dishes. This week's recipe was simple beyond belief. And not only was it simple, it was good. Really good. And versatile.

I needed four things to make this recipe. Four. The dishes? A knife, a cutting board, and a spoon. Four ingredients + three utensils + delicious = a total keeper.

Delicious like this.


And this.


It's frozen puff pastry topped with a few apple chunks, some brown sugar, and a bit of butter. Heaven. I will say that there are a few on the blogroll who couldn't leave well enough alone and made their own puff pastry. I say when there is Pepperidge Farm, why bother. The original recipe does call for a round pastry. If it's possible to be any lazier in this recipe, I found it. I cut squares.

Puff pastry, apples, brown sugar, butter.

I did mess around a little bit. I wanted to see if other toppings would work as well as the apples did. I have some lovely strawberry/vanilla/rhubarb compote in the fridge.

Before:


After:


Also completely delicious. The butter on this one was unnecessary.

And here's one that was just brown sugar and butter. Before:


After:


Very very good. Though I did lose a bit of the caramel. The good news was it stuck to the bottom of the pastry and I got to eat it anyway!

This is a recipe I can see myself making over and over again. It was simple beyond belief. My only note would be to cut the apples a bit smaller. I was afraid to let it bake much longer, and the apples had a bit more crunch than I would have liked.

I usually have puff pastry in the freezer. It would be a snap to pull it out before dinner, let it thaw during dinner, and then assemble the pastries while the table is being cleared and coffee is being made. Instant amazing dessert warm from the oven.

Thank you Jessica! Have I mentioned that I heart you? Next week is honey peach ice cream. The boy and girl are very excited about that one!

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

I have been eyeing this recipe for a long time. I love cinnamon and chocolate together. The husband is not such a fan. So until is was required for me to make it, I just waited patiently.

This is a very cinnamon-y cake. Very. For me, that's a good thing. There's something like three tablespoons of cinnamon in the whole thing. It's only an 8 x 8 pan. It's a cinnamon cake layer, a layer of cinnamon-sugar and chocolate, and then more cake. The Dorie fuss factor was low. I lower it by using dishes for more than one thing (the measuring cup for the milk was also the bowl for the liquids). Other bakers reported problems with baking this in a glass pan. I only had a Pyrex pan in this size, so, choices were limited. The cake came together easily and spread easily in the pan.

Here it is all sprinkled with chocolate, cinnamon, sugar, and espresso powder. Mmmmm.

It smelled amazing when it was baking. I love the smell of cinnamon. It took about ten minutes more than the recipe called for. As it cooled, I could see it sink a bit in the middle. I was a little worried, but it wasn't gooey. Then I flipped it over out of the pan to cool. I had a slight inkling that something wasn't right. I could see spots of chocolate on the bottom. The chocolate was in the middle, right?

So, it cooled. I made the frosting. I know I did something wrong here. It's chocolate and butter. Not many steps involved. Somehow, though, my frosting was not creamy and whipped looking. It was heavy. Like a slightly pliable chocolate bar.

Then it was time for eating. I cut into it. Hmmmm. No wonder there was chocolate on the bottom of the cake! It all sank almost to the pan. Not the layered beauty that was featured in the cookbook for sure.

I brought the cake to a family dinner the next day. The group mostly liked it. The frosting was a little more solid than I would have liked. It actually started to bloom a little on the edges. I really liked the flavor of the cake. One person suggested replacing the chocolate in the middle with pecans and making a brown sugar glaze. I think I might just do that. Or, I was thinking of tossing the powdered ingredients with the chocolate instead of layering it on top of the bits.

I'm pretty sure I'll try this cake again. I think it would be great for a brunch. Thank you Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures for picking this cake. My patience was starting to wear a bit.

TWD: Chipster-Topped Brownies

I have wanted to try a recipe like this for a while. I mean, a layer of chocolate chip cookies over brownies... what could be bad? Certainly not these.

This started out as a slightly fussy recipe, but I lowered it considerably. First, I cut the recipe in half. I used an 8" Pyrex pan, which ended up being a good choice. The brownie layer calls for melting chocolate in a saucepan with butter. I stuck mine in the microwave. Worked like a charm. In a very unlike me move, I added the walnuts. I tend not to like nuts in brownies, especially walnuts, but I wanted to stay fairly true to the recipe. I used regular cooking spray to grease the pan.

Then I started in on the chocolate chip cookie layer. Now this is going to mess with some of you. I used the very same bowl for the cookie layer that I used for the brownie layer. I didn't even wash it. I happen to have mad scraping skilz. And, I'm lazy. I also figured it was all ending up in the same place, so, no washing. I didn't want to mess with half and egg and half an egg yolk that the original recipe called for, so I just used one egg. I cut the amount of chocolate chips in the cookie layer. Adding walnuts, cutting the chips, what's wrong with me this week? I thought that the brownie layer was chocolate enough, and I wanted to try to lessen the chocolate impact so the flavor of the cookie would come through. I used a teaspoon and a finger to put small dollops of dough all over the brownie batter. My favorite small offset spatula made quick work of smoothing the dough,

It went into the oven (not on a baking sheet, though Dorie calls for one) and baked for about 25 minutes. Even with just a spritz of cooking spray, the bars came right out of the pan. I cut the whole thing in half to see if I could differentiate between the layers. I could!

Here's the golden brown top.

And here is a view of the layers. The chocolate chips all sunk to the bottom of the cookie. I wonder if a sprinkling of flour would keep them more in the cookie batter.

Here are a few sliced and stacked.

I liked this recipe, but I'm not sure that I'm rushing out to make it again. The brownie flavor pretty much cancelled out the flavor of the cookie. Perhaps a peanut butter cookie dough might be more of a contrast. Surprisingly for me, I liked the walnuts.

Thanks to Beth of Supplicious for choosing this recipe. Go check out her blog if you'd like to see the recipe. Get this -- all of June is chocolate free! I know a couple of people who are pretty excited about this. I'm kinda looking forward to it myself.

TWD: Mango Bread

In a convergence of "how the hell did this happen?", I actually had all the things I needed to make this bread in the house. I know! I was excited, too!

I was looking forward to making something "everyday" from Dorie's book. Don't get me wrong -- I love the cakes and tarts -- but it's nice to make something that I feel slightly better about eating at three in the afternoon just before my little darlings come home.

On the Dorie scale of fuss, this was fairly low. It's a pretty standard sweet loaf bread/cake. There were some flavor additions that made it more interesting. It has a generous amount of ground ginger in it. The recipe called for golden raisins. I substituted my favorite Trader Joe's blend of dried fruit (golden raisins, blueberries, cherries, and cranberries). And there was fresh mango. My kids love the stuff, and it happened to be on sale last week (50 cents each!), so there it was in my fridge.

It only took two bowls, and I stirred by hand. I measured three different loaf pans until I finally found the right size. It took a long time to bake. And when I make something like this, I tend to err on the longer side. I've have more than a few loaves of something be less than done in the center and very done on the edges. I did have to tent this one to slow the browning.

It did make my kitchen smell wonderful. I was less enamored with the taste. For me, the overwhelming flavor was ginger. And not that that's a bad thing, but I would have liked for the flavors to be more balanced. I think that while the mango added moistness, it didn't bring much flavor to the table. The girl especially loved it. She had it for breakfast and snacks for two or three days. The husband enjoyed it as well. The boy was more on my side. I don't think I'm rushing out to make this again. I have other sweet bread recipes that I like better. Ah well. It was a good experiment.

Here's the loaf out of the oven. I was worried that it wasn't done in the middle and kept looking for it to sink.



Here's a top down view of the sliced loaf. Nice color!


I really like the way the dried fruit looks against the loaf. And you can see the mango chunks.


Thank you Kelly of Baking With the Boys for getting me to try something new. If you'd like to give it a try, go check out her blog for the recipe.

Delicious Saturday night

The husband and I have some really wonderful friends. This past Saturday, we got together with six of them. I like these people. We always have a great time when we hang out with them. The other big bonus -- we always have great food as well.

We haven't had a dinner with them for a couple of months. Then I saw this recipe. And I knew I had to make it. I sent around an e-mail with the link to get everyone else drooling. We picked a date. I counted down to said date.

We usually do a "first come first served" dibs system. I wanted to make the torte and a pound cake I've been eyeing. One couple provided the house and an amazing smoked pork shoulder. (He uses Alton Brown's flowerpot smoker) Another brought prosciutto and parmesan wrapped green beans and truffled macaroni and cheese also with prosciutto. The third brought a wonderful simple green salad with walnuts, goat cheese, and dried cranberries and a sangria. Do you now see why I really like these people?

The recipes I chose were spectacular. The feta torte was crispy on the outside and creamy and tangy on the inside. I could have eaten so much more than I did. I wanted to. I just knew what was coming and forced myself to walk away.

This is what the finished torte looked like.

And this is a cross section.

I could easily see myself making this again. I've thought about doing it in my mini bundt pans and adding spinach for a brunch. I will warn you that this recipe is not for the faint of heart. It contains three sticks of butter, one pound of feta cheese, three eggs, and one and a half pounds of cottage cheese. It is soooooo worth all the calories, though.

Along with the appetizer, I made the dessert. I've had the book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor for a while now. In keeping with my earlier vow this year to use more of my cookbooks, I decided to pull it out. The recipe for Brown Sugar Pound Cake caught my eye a while ago, but I've never had an occasion to make it. Tonight was the night. It looked simple to make. And it, too, sounded fabulous. It was easy to make. I should warn you that this recipe loaded up the calories as well. This one called for three more sticks of butter, eight ounces of cream cheese, one and a quarter cups of ground almonds, and six eggs. I served it with some rhubarb strawberry vanilla compote that I had made earlier in the day.

Here is my jar of compote.

Mmmmm. Ruby red goodness.

Here is what is left of the cake. It did not last long. Actually, there is nothing left of the cake. It makes me sad. We brought a bit of the cake home for the kids to try. The boy and girl gave it a huge thumbs up. Though, seriously, what's not to like?

It was a wonderful evening all around. Great company, delicious food, and some keeper recipes. Hope everyone else had some great food as well.

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

I love a good citrus dessert. You put lemon, lime, or orange into a dessert, and I'm eating it. I especially love lemon. Lemon cake. Lemon pudding. Lemon sorbet. Lemon bars. Lemon cookies. I love me some lemon.

I was intrigued by this recipe because it calls for a whole lemon. Well, you should take out the seeds first.

The crust couldn't have been simpler. It's basically a cookie crust that gets pressed into the tart pan. Dorie recommended the almond version, but I went with the regular version.

I'd read that some of the other bakers found the tart to be too bitter because of the pith from the lemon. Some recommended blanching it. I peeled my lemon into fairly thick slabs. Then I cut away a decent portion of the pith and followed the rest of the recipe from there. To finish it off, I dusted it with powdered sugar.

The end result was very good. It was just lemony enough with a touch of sweetness. I'm pretty sure that this will go into rotation. I wonder what it would be like with an orange or a lime instead....

Here it is cooling and unadorned.

And here is the finished tart.

Mmmmm. Don't you just want some? Here's your slice.

Thank you to Babette of Babette Feasts for choosing such a bright, summery dessert. Go check out her blog for the recipe. Or better yet, go buy the book and bake along!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope it's a day full of joy and love. Spend it with your mother. Spend it with someone else's mother. Spend it with your kids or grandkids.

Being a mom is tough. Being a mom is wonderful. The things I think are casual conversation now astound me. I rarely even blink when I hear a crying child in a restaurant let alone snark on the parents.

They make me laugh and cry. They are smart and funny. They are adorable and infuriating. They take my stuff and never put it away. They run to see me when they get off the school bus. They roll their eyes as if I know NOTHING. They ask me a million questions about everything. They are my pride and joy.

It's fitting that the photo has the kids munching on some of Dorie's Granola Grabbers.

Not a TWD: Instead, I bake seven cakes in 14 days

April is birthday month in these parts. The girl celebrates on the 18th and the boy on the 29th. What it means for the kids: cake and presents. What it means for me: baking.

We have a really fun tradition in our house. On birthday morning, we have cake for breakfast. The husband usually goes for a coffee cake or fruity cake of some sort.

The girl wanted yellow cake with peanut butter frosting.

Cake #1

For her party she chose mini cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla frosting.

Cake #2 (or just lots of cupcakes)

We have a family party the weekend in between the birthdays. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents come to share a meal and eat some cake.

The boy chose carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Cake #3

The girl wanted a Heath bar coffee chocolate whipped cream cake .

Cake #4

The boy's breakfast cake was banana with peanut butter chocolate frosting.

Cake #5

The boy's party had a Lego theme this year. You know what's coming.

Cakes #6 and 7

It's two cakes cut up and frosted to look like Lego blocks. (I'll have a "how I did it" post soon. I don't have one on why I did it, but that's a whole other thing)

What all this really means is that I just did not have it in me to make Dorie's Tiramisu Cake. I'm sure it was delicious. I feel especially bad because Megan of My Baking Adventures has become an internet friend of mine. Sorry, Megan! I promise I'll try it another time! Go check out her blog to see the cake in all its wonderful glory.

Oh, and if baking all those cakes wasn't enough, it's Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm on the committee. That means a breakfast casserole for Monday morning, Buttered Rum Meltaways for Tuesday lunch, and Ginger Cheesecake, chocolate dipped bananas, lemon lime frosted cookies, and browned butter brown sugar shortbread for lunch Thursday. WHEW!

I'll be back next week for an amazing sounding Tartest Lemon Tart.

TWD: Chocolate Cream Tart

Ok, truth be told, I wasn't very excited about making this recipe. I wasn't in the mood to make a crust. It's birthday central around here, and I have cakes coming out the wazoo. Really. But I skipped the previous week, so I'll make a tart.
This is a chocolate cream layered in a chocolate crust with whipped cream on top. What could be bad?

The crust was easy to make in the food processor. I decided to make the full amount of crust because I knew the extra would freeze easily. I found these adorable mini tart pans, so I joined many of the TWD bakers and made mine mini. And then I found my even mini-er pans and made some individual tarts. I took Dorie's advice and froze three of the mini tart pans full of uncooked dough. Now, when I have a chocolate crust emergency, I have some in the freezer. The crust baked up easily. Upon tasting one of the baked crusts, however, I was a little nervous. It was a bitter chocolate taste. I hoped that the chocolate cream and whipped cream would offset it.

I only made a 1/4 of the cream. Luckily, it was easy to reduce the recipe. I simplified the recipe (by mistake) and had some good results. I boiled the milk in the microwave. Worked great! I added the hot milk to the sugar, corn starch, and egg yolk and brought it to a boil. I added the un-melted chocolate to the pan (whoops!) and it worked out just fine. Into a bowl and into the fridge. Done.
I copped out on making whipped cream. I just didn't have enough stuff to cover. I opted for that faux standby -- Cool Whip.

So, it's time to assemble. I layer in the chocoate cream to the mini tart pan. Good. I spoon it into the individuals. Ooops! Should have taken those out of the pans first. Ah well. I'll remove the mini ring from the pan before I finish. I take off the outer ring. Good. I, for some unknown reason, decided to remove the metal plate from the bottom of the tart.

And then I got this.

Dang! About 1/4 of it fell into the sink. Dang!


So the rest gets covered with Cool Whip.


And the mini minis get covered as well.

The verdict -- these are really good. Really good. The slight bitterness of the crust is offset by the sweetness of the cream. The crust was incredibly crumbly. It wasn't bad, but I would have liked the structure to have been a little more stable. It was really easy to make the cream, and I do have three crusts in the freezer. I could see myself making this again. Or I could just bake off the crusts and fill them with ice cream. Could go either way.

Thank you Kim of Scrumptious Photography for picking this yummy recipe. Go check out her blog to see the recipe and to drool. Her photos really are fabulous.
I'm skipping next week. It's a Tiramisu cake. I'm sure it's amazing. But as I said above, I have cake coming out the wazoo. I have baked (or still have to bake) a total of six birthday cakes all in the last two weeks. All for two kids. That's my next post.

No TWD this week. Too much crazy.

Apparently, this is my skip week. I meant to make the bread pudding. I did. But somehow, I didn't.

It's been a crazy week. My niece and I made some Bakerella candy cupcakes (photos coming), we celebrated the girl's eighth birthday, and the husband took the boy to the ER for five stitches. Plus, I got my geek on with the Hearty Boys.

Truth be told, I have a bread pudding recipe that I love, so it's not horrible that I didn't try this one.

Sorry, Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle that I let you down. But go to her site, and you'll get the recipe and see some wonderful photos. I'll be back next week.

Edited to add: The boy is fine. He's up running around playing Star Wars/Power Rangers with no notice of his wound. Stitches are under his right brow bone. They come out on Thursday.

Best ever foodie Saturday night

Last night I got to let my food geek run wild. I was a volunteer along with a friend at a charity benefit for a local adoption agency. (The Cradle in Evanston, IL. Go check 'em out) It was held at a local appliance store, though that is a misnomer. Abt in Glenview is my fantasy land. They have room after room of electronics, appliances, and kitchenware. There are little nooks along one wall that each house a different kitchen set up with various cabinets, counter tops, and appliances. The nooks were each taken up with a local restaurant, caterer, or pastry shop.

I, along with my friend and a few other people, was assigned as an assistant. One of us in each kitchen. I hit the jackpot. I was assigned to work with Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, also known as The Hearty Boys. Just in case you aren't addicted to the Food Channel like I am, these guys were the winners of the first season of The Next Food Network Star.

Let me just start by saying that these guys are just so genuine, gracious, and nice. Oh, and the food they prepared was amazing. They made two appetizers for the crowd. I'd never eaten raw fish. Ever. Dan made Ahi Poke Rolls. For Steve, I tried it. And it was good. Really good. It was sweet and spicy and creamy and there was a little hint of salt. Really good. The other appetizer they served was a Chicken Satay Skewer. These were so good with a creamy peanut sauce and black sesame seeds and just a little green onion.

The crowd was equally wowed. Dan and Steve did a cooking demo of their two treats. And they left me alone at the station. I got to skewer and garnish the chicken and plate and garnish the Ahi. I know. I'm a dork. But here are these guys who are nationally known for their food, and they left me in charge of it! Good thing it was pretty foolproof. The crowd couldn't get enough of it.

They both humored me and smiled when we talked about baking and cooking. I left last night with two big hugs and an autographed cookbook. (Yes, another cookbook) Steve suggested that I start with the cocktails. I think I'll do just that. It's an amazing looking book. If you'd ever like to cook along, just let me know. Hearty Boys Monday anyone?

If you're in Chicago on a Sunday, go check out the brunch. The friend who volunteered with me and I are already planning our visit.

TWD: 15 Minute Chocolate Amaretti Torte

This was not one of my more successful baking endeavors. Well, I take that back a little. In the end, the torte was delicious. It was really, really, ugly, though. And slightly underbaked. And the glaze never set. And.... you get the picture.

First off, I was so excited that this was a "good for Passover" recipe. Strictly speaking, it's not K for P, but it fits into my Passover parameters. The cake has amaretti cookies as one of the ingredients. I found mine at Cost Plus. Straight up, I liked these cookies. They had a nice almond flavor. The other bonus to this was right in the title. It takes little or no time to put the cake together and in to the oven.

I took a cue from some of the other bakers and went the mini route. Cutting the recipe in half was easy. Dorie's recipe calls for a food processor. Mine has a 13 cup bowl. It's great for a lot of things. Half of this recipe was not one of them. Instead I used the hated mini prep for the amaretti and almond grinding. The rest I mixed with my equally hated hand mixer. It did come together easily. I used Baker's Joy (best thing for baking ever) to prep my pans. I used three 3" pans, and half a recipe fit just fine. Because my tortes were so small, I was a little overly cautious about baking time. I could really smell the tortes with about six minutes left on the timer. That tends to make me nervous. And when I looked at them, they looked dry on top, just as Dorie suggested they might. I cooled them on the counter.

And this is what the torte looked like.

I don't think I can adequately describe the canyon in the middle of the torte. I tried to photograph it, but it didn't really come across.

After it cooled, I flipped it out of the pan only to find a similar canyon on the other side. It's hard to describe. A weird hourglass lying on its side? A chocolate torte bow tie? A chocolate torte bialy? Again, the photo doesn't do it justice.

Anyway, on to the glaze. Just a bit of helpful advice here -- when a recipe calls for heavy cream, don't try to substitute skim milk. I thought you should know that. See, when you use skim milk, your glaze never quite solidifies. (On a side note, when you use this recipe and substitute skim milk, you get an amazing hot chocolate.)

Here it is "glazed". I think the canyon is coming through a bit more.

And one last shot, a little closer up.

Even with the underbaking, thin glaze, and canyons, this was a delicious cake. The almond flavor came through just enough to compliment the chocolate. The glaze tasted rich and chocolately. I skipped the almond whipped cream. I certainly wasn't going to try to substitute skim milk there. I would absolutely try this cake again. Next time, maybe I'll get it right.

Thanks to the fabulous Holly of Phe/MOM/enon for choosing this recipe. Go to her blog if you want to see what this is supposed to look like.

In which I revisit matzo brei

So, I had some raging discussions on Facebook. World Peace? No. White Sox vs. Cubs? No. Deep dish vs. thin crust? Nope. Savory vs. sweet matzo brei? You bet.

There are two definite camps out there. I fall firmly and completely into the savory camp. Sweet matzo brei is just.... wrong. I just don't understand how anyone can pour syrup or spread jam on fried matzo. Their argument: It's just like French toast. Only instead of bread, you use matzo. I will even admit to using it as a point of reference in my last post. That doesn't mean I would ever eat it that way. So here I have an illustrated version of my savory recipe. So you can all see how delicious it is and join me in the savory camp.

This is matzo in its whole cracker form.

Here it is in a bowl just before I added water.

This is the cubed salami frying with the the onions. I used the word "saute" yesterday when I was talking about it. It's not a saute, it's a fry.

Having forgotten a few photo steps, here is the delicious finished product. It's not a great picture. It doesn't quite convey the deliciousness that is fried matzo.

It's creamy and still slightly crunchy at the same time. The onions and salami add a sweet/salty flavor to the eggs and matzo. This is a recipe that I will make even when it's not Passover. That's how good it is. Go try it. Really.

This isn't a recipe so much as it's a guide.
Julie's Matzo Brei

Some onion, diced.
Some salami, diced. (Note: you have to buy a block of salami and cube it. You can't used sliced from the deli. I would highly recommend Hebrew National)
Matzo
Eggs, one per square of matzo
butter
salt and pepper to taste

Place the matzo in a bowl. Break it into bite sized pieces. Add water and let sit. Meanwhile, melt butter in frying pan. And onion and cook until it's softened. When the matzo is a little soft (about two minutes), drain the water. Add salami to the onion and cook until it's slightly browned. I add the eggs right into the matzo and blend them. Pour the matzo/egg into the frying pan and cook until the eggs are done to your liking. Salt and pepper to taste.
For those of you who like to commit sacrilege, you can omit the onion and salami. Add some cinnamon and vanilla to the eggs/matzo mixture, cook as you would scrambled eggs, and then serve with jam or syrup. But only if you like being wrong.

It's Passover, so you know what that means....

Actually, it means some pretty darn good food! I often hear about bland, boring food for Passover. (If you're unfamiliar, here's a decent link that will give you some of the rules for eating during Passover.) In a nutshell, we can't eat any food that is leavened. No bread. No pasta. No crackers. Mostly, we eat matzo.

This year I've found some wonderful recipes. They are mostly kosher for Passover. I use butter instead of margarine, I don't use K for P (shorthand!) vanilla, and I am not strict about only using ingredients (spices, milk products etc) that are K for P.

Having said that, these recipes meet my standards. I was very lax about photos, but the lovely people whose recipes I've used have photos for me.

David Lebovitz makes the most incredible matzo toffee. I could eat it by the panful. And I would if the other people in my house didn't demand their share.

I made my cinnamon/sugar nuts from some of the leftover egg whites. Again, I could eat the whole thing. (It's in the same post as the butterscotch pudding. Scroll down for the recipe.)

I made a great matzo farfel kugel. Farfel is broken pieces of matzo. A kugel is a pudding. This is the recipe I used. I did change it up a bit and added a 10 oz. package of frozen spinach and some diced roasted red pepper for color. It was very tasty.

I made vanilla bean meringue cookies with the rest of the egg whites. These were the "meh" food this time around. I didn't cook them long enough, so they are a slightly weird texture. User error this time around. I've made them before and they were very good.

Passover would not be complete without a meal of matzo brie. It's a Passover version of French Toast. You soak broken pieces of matzo in an egg mixture and then fry it. I make mine savory, however. I don't really use a recipe. Here's how I do it: Dice some onion, saute in oil until softened. Add some diced salami. Cook until the salami starts to brown. In the meantime, break up some matzo, put it in a bowl, pour water over it, and let it sit until slightly softened. Drain the water. I beat one egg per piece of matzo. Mix the egg into the matzo. Add this to the frying pan. Cook. Salt and pepper at the table. I'm making it tonight, so perhaps I'll add some photos later.

This coming TWD recipe can be made K for P! Very excited. I'll have that in a few days.

TWD: Banana Cream Pie

I love banana cream pie. Love. It. Here's what's funny, though. I've never made it. I don't tend to eat it very often, either. I don't know why. I think I may have to start, though.

This is a good pie. It's medium to high on the fussy scale. I did make a minor change to Dorie's recipe. I was really intrigued by a Nilla Wafer crust that I saw someone else talking about. I've made Dorie's pie crust before. It's good. But I really wanted to try this one. Easy enough. Crushed Nilla Wafers, confectioner's sugar, and butter. Baked. Done.

The custard was next. This seemed pretty standard. Boiled milk added to egg yolks and sugar. And cinnamon and nutmeg. I was curious to see how those flavors would blend with the banana. I discovered the same problem that some of the other bakers had. The custard got really thick really fast. Mine never had a chance to boil. I crossed my fingers that there wouldn't be a cornstarch taste. Into the fridge, and part two was done.

Assembly was next. The custard came out the fridge. It was pretty solid. Dorie recommends beating it vigorously to loosen it. I did that. And then I added about three tablespoons of milk. That's what finally did the trick. The custard is layered in with the bananas. Part three done.

The final step is to make the whipped/sour cream topping. It's pretty straightforward. The little secret is the sour cream. It adds a lovely little tang to the topping. This got spread on the top of the pie.

Tah dah! Pie!

Dorie recommends cutting it very soon after assembly. Problem is that right after assembly, it's still pretty fluid. And your slices end up looking like this:

And the pie left in the plate looks like this:

After a night in the fridge, however, it looks like this:

Much better.

This was a thumbs from all eaters. I enjoyed the Nilla Wafer crust, but it didn't hold together very well the first day. Next time around I think I will use a pastry crust. I discovered that I really enjoyed the cinnamon taste with the bananas. Though, I may drop down the amount a tiny bit next time. It was pretty pronounced. This was not a low-calorie diet dish. Two cups of whole milk, six egg yolks, one stick of butter, and one cup of heavy cream are just part of the recipe. That may be another reason why I don't eat this very often.... Lucky for me it's Passover this week and next so I'll have some good uses for the six egg whites left over.

Thank you Amy of Sing for Your Supper for picking such a yummy recipe. If you'd like to try it, go to her website for the recipe.

TWD: Nope! I'm on vacation!

Sorry, folks, if you were looking for coconut butter thins. First of all, my dislike of coconut is well documented. But more importantly, I'm on vacation in lovely South Carolina. Sorry all you Chicago people who got six inches of snow over the weekend!

Now that I told the people with whom I'm vacationing that I was supposed to make these cookies, I may end up making them anyway.

I'll be back next week with a delicious banana cream pie. Yum!

TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

I was very happy to see another cake. Especially coffee cake. Especially coffee cake with a streusel topping. I'm not generally a big fan of blueberries, but between Dorie's blueberry pie and this cake, I could be a convert.

Medium-low fuss factor this week. It was pretty easy with few components. First, the streusel gets made and put in the fridge. The recipe calls for walnuts, but I really don't like them, so I used almonds instead. I tried to do it in my Cuisinart mini-prep. It did not work well. I ended up finishing it by hand. Had I started it that way, I could have had fewer dishes. Ah well.

The cake came together in a snap. I love the way fresh lemon zest smells. Dorie put in a notation to use 2 tsp. of flour to mix with the berries. It's an important step. When the berries are coated in flour, they tend to sink less. I went with frozen berries this time around. I just find that the frozen berries from Trader Joe's are really good and fresh tasting.

Decent mix of berries to cake ratio. No sinking here!

You do have to be careful when mixing in blueberries. The batter can take on a really odd purple tinge. I kept my berries frozen until just before they were mixed in. I think it minimized the purple. The streusel got crumbled on top, and the cake went into the oven. Again, no sheet pan underneath. Mine cooked for 60 minutes.

The house smelled lovely. I brought it to a friend's for an open house. It received rave reviews there. And the pieces that I brought home were very quickly eaten by the husband and his two friends. This is definitely a keeper recipe. I may have to make it again next week for a vacation breakfast. The streusel topping alone was fabulous. Mixed with the cake it was scrumptious.

Mmmmmm. Streusel.

Dorie suggests that this should make nine servings. I cut mine into 16 pieces, and they were just right. Well, except for the husband and his friends. I think they would have preferred that I cut it into three pieces.

Golden brown and delicious.

You can find the recipe at Sihan's blog, Fundamentally Flawed. Good thing, too. You'll want to make this one.

Adventures in Cookbooking -- Week 5

And here we are with another cookbook that I'm surprised I haven't used before. It's 500 Five-Ingredient Recipes. Truthfully, it looks like a great springboard for meals. I can see adding fresh herbs or vegetables to some of these. It's not five ingredients any more, but I can live with that. By the way -- salt and pepper -- not included on the list of five ingredients. Is that cheating?

The recipe we chose was for orange molasses chicken. I would say that I used the essence of the idea and the ingredients, but I kind of changed it.

The idea is to make a glaze out of frozen concentrated oj, molasses, and onion powder. You broil some chicken and brush the glaze on it.

I needed to get the chicken cooked quickly, so I sliced it and sauteed it in some butter and olive oil. The boy helped me turn the chicken on the stove. Not bad for an almost-six-year-old! I made a sauce from regular oj, pomegranate molasses, and onion powder. We used it to deglaze the pan. I let it thicken a minute, added the collected chicken juices back in, and let it thicken some more. Then we poured it over the sliced chicken.

It was really good! It was simple and tasty, and everyone voted this on our "Let's make it again" list. I could see adding a few fresh herbs to make it even better. I served it with brown rice, and the nutty flavor of the rice blended very well with the sweet tang of the chicken sauce.

There's not much recipe to post. This one is pretty easily faked.

I'm off next week. We'll be on vacation. I'll continue my challenge after we return.