TWD: Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

I have almost never enjoyed chametz so much. (Chametz is essentially all the stuff you can't eat during Passover, which these cookies absolutely are). It's now over for me, and I jumped right back into baking.

I don't think Dorie has ever steered me wrong with her butter cookie recipes. This one is no exception. These have two wonderful twists that really make them special. First is the cornmeal. It adds a great crunch and a little texture that gives these bite. The second is the fresh lime zest. The recipe called for lemon, but I had a lime, and I love lime and corn together. Her trick of rolling out the cookies in a plastic bag is genius.

I learned that Dorie's butter cookies should be VERY COLD before baking. I cut them into squares and then put them back in the fridge until just before they go in the oven. It's what helps them keep their shape. I didn't bake them until they were very crispy, but I think I enjoyed them with a little chew instead of snap.

Just out of the oven. Mmmmm.

On the plate, where they did not last.

These are definitely going to be made in my house again. Thank you Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine for choosing this recipe.

Not a TWD: It's Passover

So, nothing leavened here. Dinner for 15 tonight, though, so there was some serious cooking going on. In the past four days I made: chicken soup, matzo balls, almond macaroons, matzo toffee, orange chiffon cake, matzo farfel kugel, roasted asparagus, hard boiled 18 eggs, charoset, and roasted salmon.

The seder was lovely. The friends were even lovelier. Passover ends next Monday night, so I'll try to get the next recipe in before posting time.

Looking forward to more matzo at my house!

Go see Jeanette at The Whimsical Cupcake for this week's recipe.

TWD: Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp

I love rhubarb. Love. It. I buy lots of it when it's in season, and I slice and freeze about half of that so I'll have it all winter. I even started growing my own so I would (hopefully) never run out. That's how much I love rhubarb. Right now is the very very beginning of rhubarb season. My freezer, alas, is empty. My go-to-source for frozen? Sold out until more can be grown and processed. I saw people subbing cranberries for the rhubarb. They're tart, right? But no. I wanted rhubarb. Five (5) stores later, I had my rhubarb. Woo hoo!

This particular rhubarb recipe? Outstanding. It's in my top three of all the recipes in the book. It's in my top five of my favorite fruit desserts ever. It combines some of the best flavors in the world - rhubarb, strawberry, ginger (two forms), almond and oats. I've made it a number of times before, and I was very happy to make it again.

Just look at that delicious crust and the ruby fruit peeking out on the sides.

This is a pretty easy recipe. Essentially, you make a crumble that you press into the pan for the bottom crust and sprinkle over the top for the crisp. In the middle is juicy, succulent fruit. There is powdered ginger mixed in with the berries and crystalized ginger in the crust. The strawberries are cooked with a little sugar, water, and cornstarch to thicken. I cut down a bit on the sugar because my berries were pretty sweet. The recipe calls for walnuts, but I really like almonds with this one.

Lots of Dorie's recipes call for placing the baking vessel on a Silpat or parchment covered sheet pan. 99% of the time I ignore that instruction. The first time I made this, I ignored. And I learned very quickly that dripping sugar and fruit goo creates a nasty burning smell when it hits the heating element in the oven. Learn from my mistakes!

This one is a huge hit at my house. Everyone loves it - especially warm with a bit of vanilla ice cream. I am positive that we'll make this one again and again. I couldn't wait for this to really get cool, so it was a little sloppy in the bowl.

If I have it with yogurt, it's breakfast, right?

Thank you Sarah of Teapots and Cakestands for letting me revisit an old favorite.

TWD Extra!

So excited for my friend Laurie, who is the founder of TWD as well as French Fridays with Dorie (featuring another excellent cookbook - Around My French Table). She is featured in an article in O Magazine that showcases both blogs. She is a total rockstar, and I'm thrilled to be able to work with her. Go Laurie!

Not a TWD: I did some other baking instead

Sorry, Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought of the Day. I did not make a coffee ice cream tart. I made Apple Butter Bread. I made nuts spiced with Chinese five spice and cayenne. I made very messy, custardy lemon bars. But there is no ice cream tart in my house.

Please go see her gorgeous tart, make it yourself, and tell me how goofy I was to pass this one up.

TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

I'll make this entry short and sweet - just like this cookie!

I've been making a version of this nut cookie for years. Today I used almonds instead of pecans because they are what I had in the cabinet. I made a half batch, and it fit easily in my mini food processor. I chilled the dough for a couple of hours and then rolled and baked the cookies. I skipped the powdered sugar bath at the end. I guess, really, these are almond powder(less) puffs.

These are not at all photogenic.

While this was a yummy cookie, it won't replace my favorite pecan crescent recipe. Thank you Tia of Buttercream Barbie for hosting this week!

TWD: Honey Nut Brownies

I will admit that I almost didn't make these. I'm not a huge fan of honey. Truth be told, I avoid things with honey in them. (baklava is the only exception) And then I was at Michael's today and I saw this adorable 6" square pan. And I had a 40% off coupon. And I realized that I could easily quarter the recipe. And the butter didn't need softening. I think that I had all the signs that I needed that these brownies were in my future.

Cute 6" pan!

I was warned to choose a good honey because it was front and center. I have a jar of wild Maine raspberry honey and I thought it would be a good fit with the chocolate. Chocolate is really a minor player in this recipe. I chose almonds as my nut of choice because I like almonds, but also raspberry/almond/chocolate is a winning combination. Oh, and spilling honey on your cookbook? Losing combination. Sticky pages and loss of good honey is bad.

These were a snap to put together. They made a fairly thin brownie. Mine were cooked at exactly 40 minutes.

I was surprised by how much I liked these. The chocolate was faint but it added a slight bitterness to offset the sweet of the honey. I think the almonds really added to this. I'm shocked to say it, but I can absolutely see making these again.

Yum!

For the recipe and other details, go visit Suzy of Suzy Homemaker. Thanks for letting me stretch my horizons!

TWD: Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins

Hi! This is The Boy that you've heard my mother talking about. I'm taking her place in cooking today.

Over the weekend, we made the muffins. They were easy to make. I got to use two utensils that I've never used before.

The zester:

The lemon reamer:

I liked stirring the batter. It feels good for some reason.

I didn't use currants. I used a mix of dried fruits.

When the batter was done, I got to scoop the muffins onto the tray and put them in the oven.

Then I baked them for 20 minutes. When they were golden brown, Mom took them out to cool. After they cooled, I used a mini spatula to move them to the cooling rack.

Tah dah! Muffins!

Then I bit into one! It was delicious! My sister had one, too.

Thank you to Lauryn of Bella Baker for choosing this recipe. Can't wait to make them again!

*** Little side note - I did the typing, but the words and baking are all from The Boy. He will be eight next month.

TWD: Corniest Corn Muffins

How corny is corniest? Pretty corny!

These were a snap to put together. I started just about an hour ago, and I have finished photos and everything!

This is a basic, slightly sweet muffin. It's a standard dry mix/wet mix blend. This recipe calls for corn kernels to be added to the batter. It adds a nice little burst of corn flavor. I ate mine plain, but I can only imagine how wonderful these would be with a bit of butter and honey or bacon jam. MMMMMMMMmmmmmm. I may have to go have another...

Thanks, Jill, of My Next Life for this pick.

Not a TWD: I did some other baking instead

Sorry, but there are no Chocolate Pots de Creme to see here. I did enough other baking, that this one fell to the wayside.

Christine of BlackCatCooking has gorgeous photos (I'm sure), so go visit her blog.

TWD: Toasted Almond Scones

I love a good scone. My affair started in Edinburgh, Scotland. I was a student studying in London. A group of us took an overnight bus to Edinburgh. We arrived at about 6:15 am tired but mostly hungry. We walked around for a bit until we saw a cafe. The four of us were standing in the doorway when we realized that it didn't open for about another 15 minutes. The owner saw us, took pity on us, and let us in. She told us that we were welcome to sit for a few minutes until they were ready to open. There was tea, but the scones needed a few more minutes. We were willing to wait. About ten minutes later, she came to our table with a tray piled high with hot scones, clotted cream, and strawberry jam. I don't think I had tasted anything better in my life. It still ranks in the top five of favorite food experiences.

I don't tend to make scones that often, which is a shame. These were simple to put together. I happened to have heavy cream and whole milk left over from the bread pudding. Bonus! I had almond meal, so instead of grinding my own almonds, I used it. I decided to keep my slivered almonds whole instead of chopping them. 20 minutes or so in the oven, and scones!

I didn't put sliced almonds on the outside. I prefer a coarse sugar to finish things like this. Mmmmm. Craggy and sugary.

A scone flower!

These were just the right amount of sweet for me, which is to say, not very. Other than the coarse sugar on the outside, there was only 2 T. of sugar. Surprisingly, these were not very almond-y. I was expecting more. I wonder if the almond meal was the culprit. Ground toasted almonds may have had a bit more flavor. Perhaps a bit more extract next time?

I can't find a link for Mike's blog, but when I do, you'll be able to see his fabulous photos and the recipe! Here it is!

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

I love me some cookies that I can rationalize. These have oatmeal in them. They're healthy. And you don't have to wait for butter to come to room temp, so they are easy as well. Sounds like a winner!

See, oatmeal. Right on top there. Well, you can sort of see. It's a little blurry...

These cookies had a combo of cocoa powder and melted bittersweet chocolate. These were deeply flavored. Dorie says they're sort of a brownie/cookie. She's right on the money.

I thought these were easy to put together. Apparently, though, I didn't beat up the liquid ingredients quite enough. I had a little butter separation while the dough was waiting to be scooped. It didn't really affect much as far as I can tell. The edges were a bit lacy in some cases - as if they had been fried a bit - but the taste was still delicious. I'd love to try these again.

More goofy kids with goofy photos. Clearly, these were a hit.

Thank you Caroline and Claire of Bake With Us for letting me try this fabulous recipe.

TWD: Bourbon Bread Pudding

I will admit that I had no intention of making this one. Then the Husband was invited to a Super Bowl party, and I realized that I could pawn it off on him and it wouldn't be in my house tempting me.

This was not difficult to put together. I did have to go buy whole milk and heavy cream because those things are rarely in my house. (Those two items combined with six egg yolks, sugar, and challah were the reason I didn't want the bread pudding around.) I weighed out eight ounces of home-baked challah and let it get stale. The custard was easy to put together. The milk and cream were boiled together and then combined with the liquid ingredients. I read in a couple of places that 1 T. of bourbon didn't impart enough flavor. I upped it to 2 T. The custard is poured over the cubed bread and left to soak for an hour.

I got a pan ready for a water bath and baked thepudding for about 10 minutes more than the recommended time. I like mine golden brown. It left the house for the game about 30 minutes after it came out of the oven.

Here it is just out of the oven. Mmmmm.

It was a big hit at the party. It was given a universal thumbs up. However, all of the tasters thought it needed a bit more bourbon flavor. I think a bourbon sauce might be the ticket here. The husband brought a bit home, so I did get to taste it. I prefer a pudding that has a bit different bread to custard ratio. This one won't replace my favorite recipe, but I may need to start adding bourbon to that one...

Ready to celebrate the Super Bowl!

Thanks to Sharon from Simply Southern for picking this one.

TWD: Great Grains Muffins

This is a photo-less post until I get my act together and locate the cord that connects my computer and camera.

Anyway.... this is a tasty, pretty basic muffin. I think that the title implies that this is a "healthy" food item, but one stick of butter and 12 muffins is not a good ratio. This was a snap to put together. The aforementioned grains are wheat (whole and otherwise), oatmeal, and cornmeal. Put together, they make a good muffin. Add in some buttermilk, sugar, and a blend of dried fruit (in my case it was cherry, cranberry, raisins, and blueberries) and it's a cupcake/muffin. They were good hot with some butter and scotch marmalade that the Husband happened to have.

These were enjoyable, but without some tweaks, these won't be joining my rotation. Go to Happy Tummy blog to see the recipe.

TWD: Nutty Chocolatey Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

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

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

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

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

My swirls were more layery and not very swirly.

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

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

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

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

I'm a guest poster!

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

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

TWD: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

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

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

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

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

I'm going to be guest posting!

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

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

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

Teaser! Stolen from iphoto.

TWD: (Not) Fluff Filled Chocolate Madeleines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TWD: Midnight Crackles

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

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

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

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

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