TWD – Cottage Cheese Pufflets

First of all, I want to apologize for missing so many great Tuesdays with Dorie picks this month…espresso cheesecake brownies…chocolate souffle…apple turnovers…they all are things I would love and do plan to make. Just not right now.

Instead, I’m jumping back in with Jacque (of Daisy Lane Cakes–I LOVE her blog!) She chose the cottage cheese pufflets for us to make, and she proved to me that she is a much better baker and all-around more patient person than I am (although we have some of the same feelings about garage sale early birds!)

Like many of the TWD bakers, I found this dough to be like trying to roll out and cut a batter, it just didn’t cooperate for me. At a certain point, I threw up my sticky hands and decided to bake a half dozen of them, take photos and go to work. Mine are filled with Christine Ferber strawberry jam (from our trip to Paris) and/or jalapeno jelly (from Safeway; thanks to Kayte for the inspiration).

I was so frustrated with these that I was prepared to hate them. Imagine my surprise when I loved them! They were crispy and chewy at the same time. The one in which I mixed the strawberry jam and jalapeno jelly was the best…I love that sweet/spicy flavor profile. I will definitely freeze the rest and plan to make this one again. But not until it’s winter. Cooler weather can only help this one stay together better.

If you’d like the recipe, stop by and visit Jacque.

Dorie’s Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

This week, my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are making the Espresso Cheesecake Brownies, selected by Melissa at Life in a Peanut Shell. She makes the most amazing creations! I tried to get these done before taking a blogging break for Ramadan, but the days and hours evaporated. I do plan to make these and will post about them after Ramadan is over.

All is not lost because one thing I did fit is was Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream. I can truly say (and report from others) that this was the most chocolaty ice cream I have ever had. It starts out with making the eponymous ganache, a mixture of cream and chocolate (I used Valrhona Guanaja 70%). Then you make the custard, fold it all together, and chill it in the refrigerator until it’s cool enough to churn in your ice cream maker. Since it’s practically solid after chilling in the fridge, it doesn’t take a long time to turn it into ice cream.

Make sure you leave a little in the bowl for sampling!

If you love chocolate, you need to make this. It’s easy, incredibly delicious, and since it’s so rich, a little goes a long way. Because of its high chocolate content, it needs to sit out on the counter to soften up before serving. Although it’s tempting to sneak a taste, the flavor will be better if it isn’t frozen solid. I mostly served mine unadorned, because topping it with hot fudge was, yes, way over the top.

*******PLEASE NOTE: Lethally Delicious is on hiatus for the month of Ramadan. I won’t be actively blogging, but if you leave a comment, I will visit you. I’ll return around Sept. 22nd, refreshed after the blessed month of fasting and prayer. Peace.

TWD – Creamiest Lime & Mango Cream Pie

This seems to be a recurring refrain here, but when will I learn?

I was lazing around before work, enjoying my coffee, and a thought snuck into my reverie:

“Why don’t I make a teeny little lime cream pie. It will be fun. And easy. Let’s just check the recipe and see if it’s doable.”

And we’re off…

I have these cute mini pie pans that I’ve been dying to use, so I figured I’d make 1/4 of the recipe (the math was easy enough for 6 AM). It all went well until the blending part. Putting a full recipe of the lemon cream in the blender was enough of an adventure. Putting 1/4 of the lime cream…I don’t think so. My brilliant (I thought) work around was to use my smoothie blender. Uh, no. The lime cream nestled at the bottom below the blade. So I went to the smallest tool in the blending arsenal, the mini chopper. I used my smallest spatula to get it all in there, and it worked! A benefit of the mini chopper was the motor is on top so it didn’t heat up the cream while I blended it. The downside is you can’t push a button and walk away.

1/4 of the recipe produced a lot less lime cream than I needed, so I went with Dorie’s playing around suggestion of incorporating mango, but I just put it on the top. I hadn’t added enough butter to my crust, so I was getting crumbs sticking to everything that touched them. Mango just jumps out of my hands and this was no exception. I had carefully measured eyeballed how much I would need to artfully cover the lime cream, but forgetting to use my knife to transfer it to the pie, it all slithered out of my hand and landed all over the board. So now you have the less than artful arrangement of mango on top of this poor little pie.

Even so, this was a huge hit. The tartness of the lime with the sweetness of the mango was perfect. M. loved it, and he requested I make the full recipe next time. I don’t think I’d change a thing since it was so perfect with the mango.

This week’s recipe was selected by Linda at Tender Crumb. If you’d like the recipe, she’ll have it posted today.

******PLEASE NOTE: Lethally Delicious is on hiatus for the month of Ramadan. While I have a couple of posts that I completed in advance (like this one), I will be staying away from active blogging. If you leave me a comment, I will try to stop by and visit you. I’ll be back around Sept. 20th, reenergized and ready to make bigger and better messes in the kitchen. Peace.

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 – Brownie Buttons My Way

Allie is modeling (but not tasting) this week’s TWD pick, Brownie Buttons, chosen for us by Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen, though I experimented by making these with the Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies recipe, resulting in perfect little morsels of brownie deliciousness, no dipping or glazing needed or desired.

TWD deferred and brevity

I’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.

I’ve been unusually quiet, because I’m working a gazillion hours.

To all of you who have visited and left comments, thanks, your comments make my day (and my days have needed making!) and I will get back to visit your blogs soon.

Yesterday, I screwed up my back, and now moving is difficult/painful.

The doctor gave me drugs (no, nothing for pain; I’m allergic to almost all pain meds) so hopefully I’ll be able to bend and twist without whimpering soon.

But that begs a question…just how easy are the brownie buttons? Can I do them with limited twisting and bending? And are they worth it? How long does it take to throw them together (without gorgeous decorating, because you all know I don’t do that)?

I planned to keep this brief, in keeping with Nancy’s one line blog post week. But since I had ‘splainin’ to do, it took a little longer. I’m a brevity work in progress.

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.

TWD – Caramel Swirl and Coconut Macadamia Ice Creams

Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu chose this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, vanilla ice cream. When the recipes were announced, I thought the bookends of the month, the first and last recipes, were a natural together. I planned to make the Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies and serve them with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Then peer pressure took over.

I started thinking, what will my fellow TWD-ers do with this recipe? It’s practically a blank canvas, and Dorie’s playing around suggestions encourage us to take off in many directions, including mix ins and swirl ins. I could have done one of those, but I had to do something different so that maybe you would stop here and go “Wow! Look what Leslie did with this! I never thought of making it with sriracha.”

OK, maybe not that different. So I decided to make my caramel sauce (recipe to come), which is ridiculously easy, and swirl it in after the ice cream chilled some.

I made this ice cream on the same day I made the brownies. The high that day was 102, we don’t have air conditioning, and I appreciated this one didn’t require turning the oven on.

Until I decided toasted macadamias and toasted coconut would be perfect compliments to the rich vanilla base. The oven went back on.

The custard base was super simple. The star players were heavy cream and whole milk with a vanilla bean (its vanilla caviar, as Gail Gand would say, stripped out and added to the mixture). Egg yolks added richness and stabilized the mixture; the custard was cooked until it thickened slightly. Once cooled, the custard is churned in an ice cream maker.

As I poured the churned mixture, still soft and bursting with flecks of vanilla, into two separate containers, I put aside the dasher to taste once the ice cream was safely in the freezer.

Oh. My. I wanted to climb in the freezer and be with it, it was that good. Better, yes indeed, than the Bouchon vanilla ice cream I made a few years ago. So good, I didn’t want to serve it with the brownies. Or add anything that would take away from its pure vanilla flavor. But I did.

The caramel was swirled in after the ice cream froze for a half hour. I may have been a little heavy handed with the caramel, but I knew the vanilla base could stand up to the aggressive bite of the bitter caramel sauce.

Then I chopped the toasted macadamias and added them and the toasted coconut to the other half of the base. Mix lightly and back in the freezer for both flavors.

Then wait. Waiting is hard.

Sneak a bite…

After tasting the caramel swirl, I knew the coconut macadamia could never live up to it. The caramel was rich and almost bitter from being taken practically to the edge of burning before the cream was added. No namby pamby sweet caramel for me. It lends a complexity that the vanilla plays up without competing with it. This ice cream is some of the best I have ever eaten.

Sneak a bite of the other flavor…

Impossible. The saltiness of the macadamias (which I accidentally left in the oven a bit too long, until they were brown) and the sweet toasted coconut with the rich vanilla backdrop made a flavor as subtle and complex as the caramel was in-your-face.

Not to overstate it, but this recipe blew me away. As written, it’s the very best vanilla ice cream you could ever hope to eat or make. But when you let your imagination carry you away, it’s transformed from the star to a supporting role. Your flavors can shine because the foundation is solid.

I never thought I could make great ice cream, but Dorie has taught me I can make a lot of great things. All it takes is the right teacher, and letting your mind wander until you find the flavors that speak to you.

If you’d like the recipe, check out Lynne’s blog. Or better yet, buy the book. We’re cooking from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It’s filled with amazing, fun and even some challenging recipes that will increase your baking repertoire.

TWD – Caramel Swirl and Coconut Macadamia Ice Creams

Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu chose this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, vanilla ice cream. When the recipes were announced, I thought the bookends of the month, the first and last recipes, were a natural together. I planned to make the Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies and serve them with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Then peer pressure took over.

I started thinking, what will my fellow TWD-ers do with this recipe? It’s practically a blank canvas, and Dorie’s playing around suggestions encourage us to take off in many directions, including mix ins and swirl ins. I could have done one of those, but I had to do something different so that maybe you would stop here and go “Wow! Look what Leslie did with this! I never thought of making it with sriracha.”

OK, maybe not that different. So I decided to make my caramel sauce (recipe to come), which is ridiculously easy, and swirl it in after the ice cream chilled some.

I made this ice cream on the same day I made the brownies. The high that day was 102, we don’t have air conditioning, and I appreciated this one didn’t require turning the oven on.

Until I decided toasted macadamias and toasted coconut would be perfect compliments to the rich vanilla base. The oven went back on.

The custard base was super simple. The star players were heavy cream and whole milk with a vanilla bean (its vanilla caviar, as Gail Gand would say, stripped out and added to the mixture). Egg yolks added richness and stabilized the mixture; the custard was cooked until it thickened slightly. Once cooled, the custard is churned in an ice cream maker.

As I poured the churned mixture, still soft and bursting with flecks of vanilla, into two separate containers, I put aside the dasher to taste once the ice cream was safely in the freezer.

Oh. My. I wanted to climb in the freezer and be with it, it was that good. Better, yes indeed, than the Bouchon vanilla ice cream I made a few years ago. So good, I didn’t want to serve it with the brownies. Or add anything that would take away from its pure vanilla flavor. But I did.

The caramel was swirled in after the ice cream froze for a half hour. I may have been a little heavy handed with the caramel, but I knew the vanilla base could stand up to the aggressive bite of the bitter caramel sauce.

Then I chopped the toasted macadamias and added them and the toasted coconut to the other half of the base. Mix lightly and back in the freezer for both flavors.

Then wait. Waiting is hard.

Sneak a bite…

After tasting the caramel swirl, I knew the coconut macadamia could never live up to it. The caramel was rich and almost bitter from being taken practically to the edge of burning before the cream was added. No namby pamby sweet caramel for me. It lends a complexity that the vanilla plays up without competing with it. This ice cream is some of the best I have ever eaten.

Sneak a bite of the other flavor…

Impossible. The saltiness of the macadamias (which I accidentally left in the oven a bit too long, until they were brown) and the sweet toasted coconut with the rich vanilla backdrop made a flavor as subtle and complex as the caramel was in-your-face.

Not to overstate it, but this recipe blew me away. As written, it’s the very best vanilla ice cream you could ever hope to eat or make. But when you let your imagination carry you away, it’s transformed from the star to a supporting role. Your flavors can shine because the foundation is solid.

I never thought I could make great ice cream, but Dorie has taught me I can make a lot of great things. All it takes is the right teacher, and letting your mind wander until you find the flavors that speak to you.

If you’d like the recipe, check out Lynne’s blog. Or better yet, buy the book. We’re cooking from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It’s filled with amazing, fun and even some challenging recipes that will increase your baking repertoire.

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.