TWD – Applesauce Spice Bars

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is one sentence blogging week is over. So, while I’ll make an effort not to be as blabby as usual, no promises.

The good news is my back is starting to feel better. I can’t thank all of you who commented enough. I can’t do marathons sessions in the kitchen yet but I can put together an easy recipe…like these applesauce spice bars.

And these babies are EASY. They’re made from ingredients most of us have in our pantry. They smell divine while they bake. There’s fruit in them so they’re healthy. That’s the grand slam of baking, if you ask me. I doubled the glaze and waited to apply it until the bars and the glaze had cooled. I sliced the bars before glazing. Don’t do that. The glaze runs between the slices and then it looks skimpy on top. And you won’t want to waste a drop of this delicious glaze. Although the bars were great without the glaze (check out Pamela’s poem here), they were amazing with it.

This pick came to us from Karen of Something Sweet by Karen, and it was a hit. Thanks, Karen! If you’d like the recipe, she’ll have it for you. Better yet, check out the book we’re baking from, Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

TWD – Classic Banana Bundt Cake

I am living proof that sometimes, learning does not occur.

I looked at the title of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, I thought “how dull.” I mean, I’ve made hundreds of banana breads, cakes, muffins, cupcakes, smoothies, etc. What did I really need with yet another recipe that starts with mashed extra ripe bananas?

Well, those other banana recipes weren’t Dorie’s recipes. You would think I would have learned by now that Dorie’s recipes are in a class by themselves.

I have a banana bread recipe I have made since woolly mammoths roamed the earth. It’s moist, easy and made entirely in the food processor. I’ve never shared it with you, although I have meant to.

Sharing it is now unnecessary.

Say hello to Dorie’s banana bundt cake. It may be the only banana recipe you ever need.

In the interest of fair disclosure, I have to admit I added a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and I topped it with Dorie’s chocolate glaze. For some unknown reason (operator error? serendipity?), the “glaze” didn’t glaze at all. It became semi firm, and I was distraught that I had done that to my lovely cake. I brought it in to work, wrote a note of apology for the Glaze That Didn’t, and went on with my morning.

And then the accolades started rolling in. People were wowed by the cake. They loved the chewy nature of the Glaze That Didn’t. They told me not to change a thing next time. I hadn’t tasted it yet, so I grabbed a taste thinking they were being kind.

It was fantastic, and I agree completely that the chewy Glaze That Didn’t was perfect the way it was. For as many times as I’ve made banana bread, I’m very ambivalent about it. I like my bananas eaten as a piece of fruit. But this cake changed all that.

Mary of The Food Librarian picked this week’s recipe, and she scored big points here. She’ll have the recipe posted, but be sure to spend some time on her blog. I LOVE her photography and I think you will, too.

Barefoot Bloggers – Peach Berry Crumble

This recipe is the best part of a food fantasy. It seems healthy, but it’s not.

It starts with a goodly volume of fruit, kissed with sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. It’s topped with the simplest crumb mixture scented with cinnamon. I doubled the crumb topping, and increased the fruit (I used peaches, cherries, blueberries and blackberries) by about half. The crumb topping melts into the fruit somewhat, so your crumb topping ends up being thinner than you thought it would be. Don’t let this worry you at all. The merging of the fruit with the topping, particularly around the edges, creates an unctuous buttery fruit experience… Excuse me. I need a moment to collect myself.

Where was I? Oh yes. I served this crumble as a breakfast treat, and it was a hit. It would have been far better served warm with vanilla ice cream, but ice cream for breakfast seemed a little over the top, especially when you’re already eating buttery fruit.

I love Barefoot Bloggers. We make recipes from Ina Garten, and they are consistently some of the best things I cook and bake. They’re almost always calorie laden, which is why I resisted her recipes for so long. But they’re always good great. This week’s recipe was selected by Aggie of Aggie’s Kitchen. I love her blog and I encourage you to spend some time there. You can find the recipe here or here. And if you’d like to join us as we cook through Ina’s truly delicious recipes, we’d love to have you! You can find out how to join us here.

TWD – Raspberry Blanc-Manger

Dorie continues to test our limits and teach us to appreciate the untried. I never ever would have picked this recipe out of a cookbook and said “This one sounds great! I can’t wait to make it!” That’s the beauty of participating in a group like Tuesdays with Dorie. Someone different picks the recipe each week, and we get to try making (and eating) things we’re not familiar with. One thing I’ve learned is that the weeks where I “don’t feel like” making the recipe is the week I absolutely need to make it. Those are the recipes that surprise me the most–in a good way.

My first question this week was “What the heck is a blanc-manger??” It is reminiscent of a coeur a la creme, but has whipping cream and milk with gelatin to stabilize it. This was such an easy recipe to put together. I made it the night before I served it and parked it in the refrigerator overnight.

I went back and forth on whether I should grind blanched almonds or just use my Trader Joe’s ground almonds (which are ground with the skins on). It was obvious from the photo that Dorie used blanched almonds, but I was feeling lazy and decided to go for that rustic look.

The recipe came together very quickly and easily. It took longer to pick through the two baskets of raspberries to trash the ones that were mushy than it did to make the blanc-manger. I smoothed the top diligently, wrapped it with plastic wrap and put it in a drawer of the fridge, away from strong odors. When it was time to unmold it, I soaked it in hot (OK, boiling hot) water, and it popped right out, but the top was very shiny. In the future, I’d use hot tap water and I think I’d get the effect the picture in the book shows.

The raspberry coulis was easier than the blanc-manger (picking through the raspberries again took more time). I forgot to reserve some berries to decorate the top, so I decided to make an amoeba-like design on the top with the coulis. Well, I decided to make a design, but my design skills are pathetic.

This was a hit at work. Once people got over the “What is it?” and had a slice, it disappeared in record time.

This is a not a dessert for anyone watching their weight as its predominant ingredient is whipping cream, but it’s an impressive and refreshing summer dessert. I used the suggested raspberries, but peaches, apricots, strawberries or cantaloupe would all work.

Thanks go to Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy. She picked this dessert for us to make this week, and she’s something of a visionary in my mind. If you’d like the recipe, please visit Susan, or better yet, buy the book and join us in our odyssey to bake our way through it, one recipe at a time.

TWD – Nutella Cherry and Peach Brioche Tartlets

Dorie, I’ve been unfaithful to you.

It was laziness, pure and simple.

I was making brioche from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, and I didn’t want to double up on brioche with just two of us. So I cut off two little pieces and used them for tartlets instead of making your brioche.

I’m sorry.

I’m not a plum lover, but I know you like it when we play around with the recipe, so I made one tartlet with cherries and Nutella and one with white peaches from my tree and Christine Ferber jam I bought at your favorite pastry shop in Paris. Yes, that one. I sampled a few pastries and swooned while I was there, too.

Are we OK?

Good.

I should have checked the tartlets sooner, because after 20 minutes, they were very brown, even underneath (I popped them out to peek at their little bottoms). I cooled them on a rack, then regretted not having any of your vanilla ice cream to have with them. But at the same time I was pinching myself-I couldn’t believe I was making this recipe. When the July recipes were announced, I noticed that one of them required a yeast dough. Yeast and I have never been friends. So I finished the other three recipes by June 30th so I could have the entire month free to stress about making a yeast dough.

Then I made Anne’s yeast rolls, which were easy and delicious. And then I started tackling The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. So making brioche was not the angst-ridden event I had anticipated.

The tartlets? They were fabulous, with the Nutella cherry tartlet the absolute favorite. The Nutella kept the cherry juice in check and the brioche formed a crisp and tender crust under it all. Perfection. The peach was delicious as well. I might as well admit we split the two tartlets for dinner one night. Very decadent, but doesn’t that say “Paris” to you? It does me, and it does to the man I love.

Thanks for giving us a dessert that made us remember our trip just two months ago.

*******

Once the brioche dough was made, this is an ultra-easy and impressive dessert. I honestly did very little according to the recipe because M. had just gotten home from a trip and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time away from him. So all the rising and slapping down of the dough didn’t happen. I let the dough rest in the fridge, then put it in the tartlet pans and added the fillings and let it rise before baking it off. I can’t express how wonderful the Nutella tartlet smelled while it was in the oven. I think the next one I try will have a Nutella filling and be served with ice cream or creme fraiche.

We have Denise of Chez Us to thank for selecting this delectable tart for us to make. I’m sure I wasn’t the only TWD baker who looked at this one with trepidation, but I again learned that the ones I want to opt out of are the ones I need to make. They’re the ones that surprise me, teach me new skills and give me an appreciation of new desserts.

TWD – Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

I thought about skipping this one. I’m not a huge fan of white “chocolate,” and I was afraid it would taste of white “chocolate,” but I decided I could always pawn it off on my unsuspecting coworkers. I learned a lot with this dessert:

1. Always unload the dishwasher, then load the dishes in the sink before baking.

2. Shortcuts aren’t.

3. Dorie’s cookie sheets are larger than mine.

4. Don’t separate egg whites into the mixing bowl to save time. It doesn’t.

5. Do laundry, or bake. Not both at the same time.

6. Pick a recipe. Make it. Then pick another. Repeat. Don’t do them all at the same time.
7. Trust Dorie.

Onward to the dacquoise. If you live in earthquake country as I do, it’s important to make this recipe on a day that you plan to be at home for a while. The meringues bake for 3 hours, and in California, it’s never a good idea to leave the house while the oven is on. I’m not saying I’ve never violated this rule, but you’ve been warned.

I only had extra large eggs since that’s what my CSA gave me, so I checked the handy table in the back of The Cake Bible and learned that one large egg white weighs 30 grams, so I started cracking eggs and putting the whites in the mixing bowl (which I placed on the scale-saving time and saving dishes!) Then, on the third egg, I must have whacked it extra hard and the yolk broke, polluting the whites in the mixing bowl, as well as the mixing bowl itself. Pause, unload dishwasher, put dirty dishes in dishwasher, wash mixing bowl and dry it. Oops, the laundry is done and needs to be attended to. Come back, separate the eggs (each into a ramekin – coincidentally no yolk breakage this time.) Draw three 12×6 rectangles using two pieces of parchment paper…err, I don’t think so. Fortunately, I was using the back of a sheet pan to do this since parts of my counter top were off limits (stains on my new-guaranteed-not-to-stain-for-10-years granite are being treated), because I could tell right away that two 12×6 rectangles weren’t fitting on one of my sheet pans. I use sheet pans instead of cookie sheets, so I just put one rectangle on each of three sheet pans. Are you still with me?

At this point, I was questioning the wisdom of making this recipe. But I had bought unsweetened coconut, white “chocolate,” and already sacrificed almost a dozen eggs, so I was committed.

With stencils drawn and sheet pans dried, I prepared the dry ingredients in the food processor, then beat the egg whites and cream of tartar, adding powdered sugar when they reached the soft peak stage. The dry ingredients were gently folded in, and the meringue was divided between the sheet pans. I had to improvise to keep the parchment from rolling up before I got the meringue spread out.

After three hours, the meringues were done and after they cooled, I covered them with parchment, made the white chocolate ganache and went to bed, planning (with my usual mix of optimism and idiocy) to complete the dacquoise the next morning and take it to work for my coworkers to enjoy. This plan wasn’t as insane as it sounds, since all I had to do was whip the ganache, cut the pineapple (I bought prepackaged fresh pineapple at Trader Joe’s) and broil it. What could go wrong?

M. is on a business trip and he Skyped me from the road thinking I might want to talk to him (which I did, but can’t we do it after I finish assembling my cake…?) Needless to say, I halfway paid attention to him while I assembled, frosted, layered the pineapple, etc., pausing occasionally to ask him if he wanted to see it. I’m sure he was asking himself why he left an important meeting to call me if all I was going to do was babble on about my dessert.

It actually didn’t look half bad:

I put it in back of the car and headed off to work. Halfway there, I heard the sickening sound of my tote bag (with my lunch, coffee mug, a yogurt, box of crackers, etc.) fall ON TOP OF the dacquoise. I pulled the car over and opened the back of the car and could have cried. My beautiful dessert was a misshapen shadow of its glamorous self. It was largely intact but obviously had cushioned the fall of something heavier.

When I served it at work, you wouldn’t believe how many people commented on how it looked, as in, how good it looked. Nobody said “That’s a strange shape” or “Why didn’t you smooth out the frosting?” They oooed and ahhed and politely waited for a small piece. And then a hush fell over my coworkers, except for the occasional “Mmmm.”

The white chocolate that I vilified? It and the cream created a light cloak for the crisp and chewy meringues. The pineapple, lightly charred with the caramelized sugar, flavored the whole dessert. The almonds weren’t detectable, but lent a subtle crunch to the meringue.

Once again, I learned lesson #7. Trust Dorie. Trust her palate. Trust her instructions. Trust her sense of the impact a simple but elegant dessert can have over a room of people, holding out their plates expectantly, holding their breath until they take that first bite.

CSA – One week, one box, many opportunities

I have been getting a box from J&P Organics, a local CSA, for a couple of months now. For those of you who haven’t heard of CSA, it stands for community supported agriculture. Farmers grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and sell them directly to consumers in what is basically a variety pack each week. For those of us who are idealistic, it’s a way of helping family farmers survive in a nation of mega factory farms.

I like belonging to a CSA not just because we’re helping to preserve family farms, but because you get to have a personal relationship with the farmer, in addition to having organic fruits and vegetables picked at their peak.

I’m not always good about finishing all of the bounty that comes to me in my box each week (and I don’t always order weekly, I usually order every other week–because the produce was picked that day, it generally lasts two weeks). In order to spur myself to finish all of the box this week, I’m going to post the contents of this week’s box, and post updates daily on how I’m using my veggies (we get less fruit, so I generally don’t have a problem finishing that!)

Here’s what we got this week:

eggs (available if we want to order them with our box)

golden raspberries

strawberries

yellow globe squash

green squash (maybe tatuma?)

sweet potatoes

new potatoes

red spring onion

Swiss chard

oranges

broccoli

carrots

green leaf lettuce

spinach

M. is gone for a couple of weeks, so it’s up to me to finish off this week’s box! I’d love to hear your suggestions especially for the swiss chard as I’ve not cooked with it much before.

For my A.M. pick-me-up, I’m having a Green Monster with about a cup each of chard and spinach, a banana, unsweetened Almond Breeze and a T of flax seeds. Since I’m not yet sure how I’ll cook the chard, I decided to add it to a Green Monster to take advantage of its nutritional benefits (it’s high in folate, thiamin and zinc, plus lots of vitamins). I first learned about Green Monsters on Caitlin’s blog Healthy Tipping Point, and although I thought anything with pureed greens would be revolting, the banana and Almond Breeze add great flavor so you don’t even taste the greens. I loved GMs from the very first one I made. It feels virtuous to get in 2 cups of leafy greens without even tasting them!

My usual summer breakfast is muesli:

1/2 cup oatmeal (NOT steel cut)

1/2 cup 1% milk

1/2 cup fat free yogurt (I’m using plain, but I usually use vanilla)

1 T maple syrup

Combine ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.

Today, I’m topping my muesli with strawberries and golden raspberries from my CSA and a couple of toasted pecans.

I usually get up around 5:00 AM and have a small snack then eat breakfast at my desk around 8-ish, so this will be all ready for me when I get hungry. With a breakfast this yummy, I’ll be ready to face whatever problems crop up (the last couple of days have been insane at work!)

TWD – Honey Peach Ice Cream

We’re well into our June recipes with Tuesdays with Dorie, and this week we’re making ice cream. This week’s recipe was chosen by Tommi of Brown Interior, and I think a lot of us were jumping for joy when we saw this one. Ice cream! Peaches! Honey! OK, when can I start?

I found nice organic yellow peaches at Whole Foods, and their perfume fragranced the house as they ripened on the counter. Welcome, summer!

As with many of Dorie’s recipes, this one was easy and lent itself to preparing in stages. I made the custard and peach puree before leaving for work in the morning, and put it in the ice cream maker when I got home from work. Now, I’m not always functioning at 100% while I’m getting ready for work, and I not only heated the custard too much, but I also didn’t combine the custard and peach puree before refrigerating.

But it all worked out in the end. The freshness of the peaches, paired with my favorite vanilla bean paste, gave this ice cream the heady scent of summer. Be sure to DICE or puree your peaches, instead of cutting them in chunks as I did, because they are rather icy when you chew on them. In fact, my ice cream was a bit icy if I didn’t let it soften somewhat. Softened slightly, it was creamy and delicious, and a sprinkling of chopped candied ginger give it a nice bite. Another winner from Dorie!

TWD – Honey Peach Ice Cream

We’re well into our June recipes with Tuesdays with Dorie, and this week we’re making ice cream. This week’s recipe was chosen by Tommi of Brown Interior, and I think a lot of us were jumping for joy when we saw this one. Ice cream! Peaches! Honey! OK, when can I start?

I found nice organic yellow peaches at Whole Foods, and their perfume fragranced the house as they ripened on the counter. Welcome, summer!

As with many of Dorie’s recipes, this one was easy and lent itself to preparing in stages. I made the custard and peach puree before leaving for work in the morning, and put it in the ice cream maker when I got home from work. Now, I’m not always functioning at 100% while I’m getting ready for work, and I not only heated the custard too much, but I also didn’t combine the custard and peach puree before refrigerating.

But it all worked out in the end. The freshness of the peaches, paired with my favorite vanilla bean paste, gave this ice cream the heady scent of summer. Be sure to DICE or puree your peaches, instead of cutting them in chunks as I did, because they are rather icy when you chew on them. In fact, my ice cream was a bit icy if I didn’t let it soften somewhat. Softened slightly, it was creamy and delicious, and a sprinkling of chopped candied ginger give it a nice bite. Another winner from Dorie!

TWD – Parisian Raspberry and Peach Tartlets

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick is the easiest one to date. I can’t imagine an easier dessert, nor one more simply elegant.

I made this to serve with next week’s Honey Peach Ice Cream, and as a result, I bought peaches instead of apples. They’re in season now, and they speak to me of warmer weather with hints of summer’s coming bounties. The recipe calls for placing your fruit on a round of puff pastry, sprinkling it with some brown sugar, dotting with butter and baking. That’s it. Let it cool, serve it with ice cream, or just a spoon. Sharing, while possible, is difficult with a precious little pastry that oozes with butter and has hints of caramel where the sugar burns along the edges.

The peach tartlet was delicious, but the raspberry one I made as an afterthought, indulging an unexplained silent urging from the berries in my fridge, was the sleeper hit. The berries weren’t heavy enough to weigh down the pastry and it puffed up as it baked, tumbling the ruby jewels to the baking sheet. They scooped up just fine and topped with the ice cream melting into the mess of recovered berries, this dessert was as satisfying as simple perfection can be.

My thanks go out to Jessica of My Baking Heart for choosing this special recipe for us this week. If you’d like the recipe, check out Jessica’s blog. And then go shopping for the fruit that speaks to you, and some puff pastry to adorn with it.