Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Crème Brûlée

Crème brûlée. Just saying those words makes me happy. Cool, creamy custard hiding underneath a thin, crunchy coat of caramelized sugar. Yes, Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake chose the recipe that I (and most probably many others) had been wanting to make for such a long time. Tuesdays with Dorie members this week have been playing with fire and I for one can tell you, it sure won't be the last time!

This was the perfect excuse for me to get the kitchen gadget I had always wanted but had, until now, been able to tell myself I didn't really need it. A kitchen torch. And yes, I did get a cute little torch, especially made for the kitchen because I was just too much of a sissy to get a real one! Yes, I like to play with fire but it still kinda scares me, OK? OK. So, with my brand new torch in hand, I made the custards. Easy peasy. They baked a little longer than specified and the recipe made a little less than I thought but I'll tell you, once I had cooled my custrards, sprinkled them with sugar and fired up my torch, I couldn't care less about those little problems! I had so much fun, I could make these everyday! If I could get around the fact that they're made with heavy cream, sugar and lots of egg yolks, that is.

I tried 2 kinds of sugars for the caramel. Demerara sugar and regular granulated sugar. The demerara sugar makes for a nicer looking crust (it's the one I used for the pics in this post) but the granulated sugar makes a glossier and more caramel-like crust. It also has more crunch than the demerara sugar crust. And, I used a trick I read about somewhere (I don't remember where though...) to sprinkle a really thin coat of sugar on the custard, caramelize it and then sprinkle another thin coat of sugar onto the first one and caramelize it again. You get a slightly thicker crust but it doesn't get rock hard.

This dessert is quite impressive in a really easy sort of way. I like that! It was worth the new gadget, I'll certainly be using it more than I thought I might! Visit Mari for the recipe and check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see what the other pyromaniacs have been up to.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Dimply Plum Cake

This cake... This cake... It's driving me nuts. This Dimply Plum Cake, chosen by Michelle, of Bake-En, as this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, is now my new favorite recipe from Baking From My Home to Yours. I never thought that a cake, with plums, could be so delicious.


The first time I made it, I halved the recipe, because, well, I didn't know just how good it would be. And then I realized what a huge mistake I'd made. The combination of plums with the orange zest and tonka bean instead of cardamom, was just fabulous.

And if it wasn't for Isabelle who piqued my curiosity by using tonka bean in her Black and White Banana Loaf, I wouldn't have looked twice at the small container of tonka beans at the farmer's market fancy spice shop. Again, that would have been a huge mistake! Just the smell of the beans is enough to drive anyone nuts. They smell like amaretto and vanilla, and the tiniest amount adds something to a recipe that will have you wondering, what is that?

Along with the tonka beans and orange zest, I used tiny, almost cherry sized plums from, again, my favorite farmer's market. They are incredibly sweet and juicy, and so deeply purple. Being so tiny, they seem to just melt into the cake. So, you see, I had to make it again. And I did, just yesterday. And I keep going back for one more slice. And then, oh, just one more tiny slice.


I'm telling you, this cake is beyond delicious. Have I said that before? It's REALLY delicious! So, Michelle will probably have the recipe up soon, but for now either open up your favorite baking book to page 41 or visit Deb of Smitten Kitchen who made the exact same cake last month. Have fun baking!

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie - Chocolate Chunkers

Alrighty then! It's Tuesday and we all know what that means! Claudia of Fool for Food chose Dorie's Chocolate Chunkers for this week's installment of Tuesdays with Dorie. These cookies are not called chunkers for nothing folks. They are full of "crunchies" as Dorie calls them. Too much crunchies for me, to tell you the truth.

I don't mean to say that these weren't good, because that wouldn't be true. I ate one or two, but I felt it was like eating a handful of cranberries, nuts and chocolate chips. Not enough cookie dough for my tastes. Martin liked them a lot and so did his coworkers. The kids, well, they said I should leave out the cranberries next time. Typical. So I guess we can say the opinions are mixed on this one. Honestly, I'd rather tweak last week's Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops and change the add-ins than make these again.

If you like chunky cookies with lots and lots of "crunchies", turn to page 70 of Baking from my Home to Yours or visit Claudia for the recipe. And don't forget to go see what the rest of the group thought of the cookies! Me, I'll stick with my underbaked Whopper Drops and Peanut Butter Chipsters, thank you very much. :)



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Monday, September 15, 2008

Fashionably Late

Or should that be "Fashionably Last Minute"? In any case, I'm at the last minute, as usual, for a really fun blogging event. Susan from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy is celebrating her first year blogiversary with a Blogiversary Bash. And she's inviting the food blogging community to the party! Isn't that sweet?

So, I thought really hard about what I should send to her, wrote down a few ideas and as usual, time flew by and I forgot. So there I was, this morning, reminded of the deadline and looking through my ideas, frantically trying to find something worthy of a party. Then it hit me. Every party needs some sweet bites and I had recently made a batch of that delicious Ground Cherry Compote I told you guys about a while back.

What better way to showcase it than on a thin slice of French bread, toasted lightly and topped with a good Gruyère cheese. The sweet, savory pairing works really well here and makes a nice addition the usual party bites. Plus, they're really easy to make, especially if you're caught at the last minute. So if you're like me, you've got until tonight to send in your party food suggestions to Susan. It's not too late to join the party!


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Thursday, September 11, 2008

As Luck Would Have It...

I love getting comments on my posts. I mean, don't we all? One of the reasons I love this so much is because then I discover new blogs with incredible recipes. One of these new blogs I recently discovered is Baking-Haven. Abeer left a comment on my Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters post and I clicked on over to her blog. She has some great recipes, and I intend to go through her archives!

But the thing that caught my eye right away was the Vietnamese Chicken Meatballs recipe. We all love meatballs around here and a new recipe is always welcome. And as luck would have it, I had pretty much all the ingredients in my refrigerator. So I made these fabulous little chunks of chicken with just a few minor variations. I used all parsley as I didn't have mint and I don't like cilantro, and I used already ground chicken instead of grounding my own. No food-processor, you see. The meatballs were fantastic! I was a bit unsure of the sugar coating at first but it really helped caramelize the meatballs and it gave them just a tad of sweetness. All in all, a success, all thanks to Abeer and a nice comment on my blog. Doesn't it just make you want to click on over to some new blogs you've never read? Go on, you might just find something to spice up your weekly menu. And don't forget to visit Abeer's blog!

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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

Hello dear readers. Are you ready for another Tuesdays with Dorie? Are you sure? Because Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose a doozy of a recipe! Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. Yes, malted milk powder, chocolate chips and chocolate covered malted milk balls combined in a fabulously chocolatey cookie.

I hadn't had a Whopper in ages and there was a reason for that. I can't be trusted around an opened package of Whoppers. I even decided that I would try Maltesers as well just to compare and see how different they were from Whoppers. The Maltesers are actually lighter and fluffier, for lack of a better word, than the Whoppers. But you know what? I love'em both! Martin doesn't like Whoppers but he actually liked their lighter counterparts so I decided to use the Maltesers for the cookies. The kids couldn't have cared less which ones I used as long as they could eat the leftover candy!

I used Chocolate Ovaltine instead of malted milk as I have never even seen malted milk in any grocery store around here. I was actually quite surprised to find Ovaltine, for that matter, and I almost did a little dance right there in the store. But I didn't want to embarrass the kids so I refrained.

The cookie dough came together quite easily. I actually refrigerated the dough overnight and when it came time to bake, I kept the dough cold, rolled it into balls and I didn't flatten them because I wanted to get really thick cookies. I underbaked them a little bit and once they'd cooled, they were like brownies in cookie form! I found that because I underbaked them a bit, the Maltesers didn't caramelize so much and didn't get sticky. And, although I really liked these, I might try using pecans or walnuts instead of Maltesers or Whoppers next time. This dough was just fabulous, and I'm sure other add-ins would work really well with it.

A word to the wise: these are really sweet cookies so make sure you have someone to share them with! I was lucky enough to have my mom visiting this past week-end and I sent her home with cookies to share with my dad. So go ahead and give Rachel a visit for the recipe and then you'll have the perfect excuse to get those Whoppers you haven't had in such a long time!


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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie - Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

I know I've said this before but I'll say it again. I'm not a big fan of peanut butter in baked goods with the exception of peanut butter cookies. I don't know what it is about peanut butter that I don't like in recipes but I'm pretty sure I like peanut butter cookies because of the crunch factor.

In any case, I have to thank Stefany of Proceed with Caution for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe as these cookies are fabulous. I even added some peanuts to these after baking my first batch because they needed the extra peanut taste. If I have one thing to say about this recipe, it's don't overbake these cookies! I baked my first batch for 15 minutes and they became hard as rocks upon cooling.

For the next batch, I kept the batter cold and I didn't flatten the balls of dough before baking them. I took them out of the oven after just under 12 minutes and let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transfering them to cooling racks and they were perfect. They won't look done and they'll have no color at all and that's what you want. They stay moist and chewy once they've cooled. And if you're like me and PB in baked goods isn't your thing, the peanut butter taste in these is barely there. Maybe it's the chocolate or maybe it's the oatmeal that is overpowering but the peanut butter is really only an after taste. I implore you not to make the same mistake I did and taste these cookies just out of the oven, because you won't be able to stop. The texture of these cookies while they are still warm is just perfect. The chocolate is melted, they are crispy outside, soft inside and with a glass of cold milk, well, you'll never want to eat anything else, ever, again.

So now that you've been warned, you can turn to page 73 of Baking from my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (or check out Stefany's blog) and make the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters, right now and eat nothing else for the next few days or you can control yourselves and wait for next week's recipe, Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. As for me, I'm not sure I'll have any more self control by then!

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