Tuesdays With Dorie - Bill's Big Carrot Cake

I wasn’t even sure I would have time to make the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this week. But am I ever glad I did. Amanda of Slow Like Honey chose Bill’s Big Carrot Cake and I have to say the name is spot on, this is one huge cake!

Three incredible layers full of carrots, coconut, pecans and golden raisins sandwiched in between thick, sweet, dreamy, cream cheese frosting. How could I not make this? I almost omitted the coconut though, not being a big coconut fan myself, but Martin loves it so we compromised and I used the coconut called for in the batter but didn’t use any in the frosting or on top of the cake. The coconut taste is definitely there but not so much that it overpowers the rest of the ingredients. I’m glad I kept as close as possible to the instructions for the look of the cake as it is quite spectacular. I didn’t change the recipe much either except for substituting unsweetened apple sauce for half of the canola oil in the cake, and using low-fat cream cheese in the frosting because that’s what I had in the fridge!

I had eaten carrot cake before but I had never made it myself and this is without a doubt going to be my go to recipe. The cake is moist, just dense enough from all the add-ins and the frosting is fabulous, I mean absolutely fabulous, dahlings! All in all this cake is a keeper! Now go on and see what the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie gang thought of the cake!

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yields 10 servings

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups grated carrots (about 9 carrots, you can grate them in food processor fitted w/ a shredding a blade or use a box grater)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

1/2 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil *or 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce*

4 large eggs

For the frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature *low-fat works well*

1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 pound or 3 and 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Finely chopped toasted nuts and/or toasted shredded coconut (optional)

Getting ready:

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess. Put the two pans on one baking sheet and one on another.

To make the cake:

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

To make the frosting:

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.

If you'd like coconut in the filling, scoop about half of the frosting and stir the coconut into this position.

To assemble the cake:

Put one layer top side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. If you added the coconut to the frosting, use half of the coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer (or generously cover with plain frosting). Use an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer, this time placing the cake stop side down, and frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting or plain frosting. Top with the last layer, right side up, and frost the top- and the sides- of the cake. Finish the top with swirls of frosting. If you want to top the cake with toasted nuts or coconut, sprinkle them on now while the frosting is soft.

Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, just to set the frosting before serving.

Serving:

This cake can be served as soon as the frosting is set. It can also wait, at room temperature and covered with a cake keeper overnight. The cake is best served in thick slices at room temperature and while it's good plain, it's even better with vanilla ice cream or some lemon curd.

Storing:

The cake will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. It can also be frozen. Freeze it uncovered, then when it's firm, wrap airtight and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator.

Ployes for A Taste of Yellow

It is, obviously, my first time participating in A Taste of Yellow, an event to Support LiveSTRONG Day, hosted and created by Barbara of Winos And Foodies. I thought long and hard about the recipe I would be making for the event. I wanted to make a dish that meant something to me, something traditional. And then it hit me: ployes. These griddle cakes are just the right color and I’ve been eating them for as long as I can remember.

Just for the fun of it, I googled ployes to see if I could find anything about them on the net. I was stunned to find recipes for ployes on Food Network Canada, RecipeZaar and various other recipe sites! No two recipes are exactly the same and that’s the way it has always been. There might be as many ways to make ployes as there are people who make them! They can go from thick and crumpet-like to thin as a crêpe, it all depends on who’s at the stove! The shade of yellow the ployes will be depends on the brand of flour and baking powder used to make them. Once, my dad couldn't find his usual brand of baking powder and ended up with bright orange ployes!

My paternal grandmother was a cook in a logging camp when my dad was a small boy and she would make these buckwheat pancakes everyday for the loggers. They’re a tradition in Edmundston New Brunswick, and often served with baked beans, cretons (which is a meat spread), molasses or brown sugar. You can also have a taste at La Foire Brayonne, a yearly fair featuring music, arts and crafts, food, and all sorts of activities. My son and daughter love ployes (the wee one hasn’t tasted them yet!), they even eat them for breakfast with Nutella, but that’s not traditional at all!

So there you have it folks, ployes for A Taste of Yellow. A traditional, comforting family favorite for all our loved ones out there who fight cancer every day.

Ployes (Buckwheat Pancakes)

These are traditionally cooked on a cast iron skillet but an ordinary skillet would do as well. Just make sure not to turn them over when cooking. You’ll know they’re cooked when the surface is dotted with bubbles and dry to the touch. If you find the batter is too thick, just add water until the batter is to your liking.

1 ½ cups of buckwheat flour
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups of warm water

Mix together dry ingredients. Add water and mix well, incorporating as much air as possible (that will help with the bubbles!). The consistency of the batter should not be too thick so add water if necessary. Spoon batter onto a hot skillet. Cook until the bottom is a little crispy and the top is dotted with bubbles and dry to the touch, you shouldn’t need to turn the ployes. Serve warm with butter or anything else you’d like to try them with!

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that the brand of baking powder used might affect the color of your Ployes. I've always used Magic brand baking powder. Hope this helps!

Tuesdays With Dorie - Marshmallows Into Cookies

Judy, of Judy’s Gross Eats, chose a really fun recipe for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie: Marshmallows. At least I thought it would be fun…

I’ve made marshmallows before and they were terrific. My usual recipe doesn’t call for egg whites though and that’s where things went a bit haywire for me. My first attempt turned into marshmallow soup with bits of cooked egg white because I was distracted and my syrup’s temperature went too high. My bad.

My second attempt went really well, the marshmallows were puffy and beautiful. I made half the batch into cappuccino marshmallows and kept the rest vanilla just so I could compare with another batch I’d made with my usual recipe. Once they’d set and cooled and had been cut and rolled in icing sugar, we tasted a few, thought they were delicious, so I put the rest away and came back a few hours later to take some pictures. I was greeted by a mess of soggy, unappetizing and un-photogenic marshmallows. The vanilla ones weren’t too bad but the cappuccino ones were a real mess, like the egg had separated from the rest of the ingredients. Was it the icing sugar? Who knows? I couldn’t salvage the cappuccino marshmallows. I even tried to make Rice Krispies Treats with them. Let’s just say, it wasn’t a success.

What did I do with the vanilla marshmallows? I made a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies, replaced some of the flour with unsweetened cocoa powder for half the batch, used pecans instead of walnuts and made Rocky Road Cookies, Two Ways. Those were a success, oh, yes. They still need to be tweaked though as some of the cookies ended up looking like lace cookies because of the marshmallows melting but once I got the idea to put the dough in the refrigerator for a while, they came out a lot better looking. They all tasted incredible though, even the weird looking ones. So, am I going to make marshmallows again? Yes, but not with Dorie’s recipe. My all gelatin recipe, which I found over at What Geeks Eat, is just so much simpler and they keep for at least a week at room temperature. Those I took pictures of! I hope the other Tuesdays With Dorie members had better luck with their marshmallows than I did! For Dorie's recipe, I'll let you visit the other members' blogs for the ones who were actually successful in their marshmallow making journey!

Marshmallows Recipe
What Geeks Eat

3 envelopes of Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dredging

In the bowl of an electric mixer (preferably a stand mixer), sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture. Brush your

spatula with oil and scrape the mixture onto a sheet pan lined with foil brushed with oil and spread evenly. Cover with another piece of foil brushed with oil.

Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners’ sugar and cut into equal pieces with a chef’s knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in powdered sugar or dip in chocolate.

Rocky Road Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup marshmallows (leave them in big chunks, that will prevent them from melting too much)

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and espresso powder. With a wooden spoon, mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, drop tablespoonfuls of the dough about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Note: To make the Chocolate Rocky Road Cookies, replace 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Endless Possibilities...

Recently I spotted a post by Graeme over at Blood Sugar and then one by Jen of Use Real Butter, about sandwiches and how they love them so. Well, I’m a sandwich lovin’ girl too and I wanted to chime in on my favorite, the croque-monsieur.

Inspired once again by one of Ricardo’s latest recipes, Saturday night, I made these incredible sandwiches. I have always loved these kinds of open-faced sandwiches, covered with cheese and then broiled to get the cheese all golden and delicious. If they were on the menu at a restaurant, they were always my first choice. I tried to recreate them at home but there was always something missing. Saturday night, I finally realised it was the béchamel sauce that was missing from my previous attempts to make croque-monsieurs.

Now, I can’t stop thinking of all the different toppings I could use to make my next golden, crunchy croque-monsieur. Saturday night it was asparagus with capicolo, emmenthaler and parmesan cheese on a slice of sourdough. Sunday for lunch, I had some béchamel left over so I replaced the asparagus with tomatoes and had a totally different sandwich. You could use any kind of cheese, veggies or cold-cuts you want. Endless possibilities…

Asparagus Croque-Monsieur
Adapted from Ricardo volume 6 number 3

Cheese Béchamel
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 tbsp grated Emmenthaler cheese
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Croque-Monsieur
Bunch of asparagus, cleaned and tough part of stem removed
Olive oil
4 slices capicolo
4 slices of sourdough bread (approximately the same length as the asparagus)
Dijon mustard
Grated Emmenthaler and parmesan to top the sandwiches

For the cheese béchamel:

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add milk and whisk until it boils. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the cheeses and nutmeg. Stir to melt the cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

For the croque-monsieur:

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat broiler to 500F.

Spread asparagus on a baking sheet in a single layer and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until the asparagus are al dente and start to get golden. Remove asparagus from the baking sheet and set aside.

On the same baking sheet, grill the bread slices on both sides. Spread a little Dijon mustard on each slice of bread then coat with a little béchamel sauce.

Divide the asparagus spears evenly between the 4 capicolo slices then roll the capicolo slices around the asparagus. Place the bundles on the bread slices then top with the grated cheeses.

Broil for 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.

Tuesdays With Dorie - The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart. That is the kind of recipe you gawk at while going through your brand new cookbook and think to yourself: “Wow, that would be so good. Naw, I couldn’t, that’s just too much butter…” .

And then you join a baking club and someone, in this case Mary of Starting From Scratch, chooses that recipe and you’re all like: “Yes! Finally, I have an excuse to make it!”. This week we had the option of making The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart or the Fresh Orange Cream Tart. Since I’m really bad at taking decisions, I didn’t. I made both of them. On the same day. Yes, I know, sooooo much butter! And citrus too, let’s not forget about the citrus fruit in these recipes.

We found blood oranges at the grocery store this week, it was fate I tell you! And the most gorgeous, fattest, yellowest lemons I’d seen in a while. I loved making the lemon and orange creams, the smell of the zest was all over the place, and the colors, incredible. I don’t know how I could have made these without a blender though, beating the butter into the zest, juice and egg mixture was extremely easy with it. This is one of the few times since I got my blender, ages ago, that I was actually happy I had it! Of course, since I made both recipes, I took a little liberty with one of them. I couldn’t help pairing the orange cream with a bit of chocolate. A thin layer of ganache poured onto the cooled crust before the cream, and I skipped the glaze entirely. Wow. The sweet bitterness of the chocolate paired really well with the tart sweetness of the orange and the texture of the ganache was very nice against the creaminess of the filling.

The lemon cream, I left as is, aside from a little drizzle of strawberry coulis to make the colors pop. The lemony filling was just tart enough, not overly sweet, just perfect. And then there was the crust. I’m so bad with pie doughs, tart doughs, pâtes sucrées, sablées, call them what you will, they don’t like me. I don’t have a food processor, so I made the dough by hand but I knew, after reading the recipe the first time, that I would have trouble with it. Not enough wet ingredients, I knew I couldn’t make the dough hold together. So I had a bowl of ice cold water at hand just in case, and I added at least 3 tablespoons of water before the dough came together. I don’t know if it’s me or the fact that it’s very dry in my apartment but in any case, I don’t think the texture of the dough was affected. I rolled it out to make the full sized orange cream and pressed it into my mini tart pans to make the lemon creams. Pressing it seemed to prevent shrinkage, I don’t know why exactly, but rolling it gave me a more even thickness. Either way, it made for an incredibly tasty, flaky, buttery crust. Both these recipes are very impressive and, if you can decide which one to make, they’re pretty easy to execute. I just hope you’re all more decisive than I am because I can’t even tell you which one was my favorite, I loved them both! So go see if the other members of Tuesdays with Dorie are better at taking decisions than I am!

The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart
Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4 - 5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough (recipe follows)

GETTING READY: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk—you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point—the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days and, or tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell. Serve the tart, or refrigerate 'until needed.

Fresh Orange Cream Tart
Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 oranges
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 large eggs
Scant 3/4 cup fresh blood-orange juice or Valencia orange juice
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 tbsp cold water
2 3/4 sticks (11 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough (recipe follows)

3 orange segments, for decoration
1/3 cup quince or apple jelly mixed with ½ tsp of water, for glazing

GETTING READY: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and orange and lemon zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zests together between your fingertips until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the orange and lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan, and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk—you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point—the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience—depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest.

Soften the gelatin in the cold water, then dissolve it by heating it for 15 seconds in a microwave oven (or do this in a saucepan over extremely low heat). Add the gelatin to the filling and pulse once just to blend, then let the filling cool to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. (The cream can be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 5 days and, or frozen for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to construct the tart, whisk the cream vigorously to loosen it. Spread the cream evenly in the crust. Arrange the orange segments in the center of the tart and prepare the glaze: bring the water and jelly to a boil. Use a pastry brush or a pastry feather to lightly spread the jelly over the orange segments and cream. Serve now or refrigerate the tart until needed.

Sweet Tart Dough
Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

TO PRESS THE DOUGH INTO THE PAN: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

TO PARTIALLY OR FULLY BAKE THE CRUST: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

TO FULLY BAKE THE CRUST: Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I often keep the crust in the oven just a little longer. If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust's progress—it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.) Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

TO PATCH A PARTIALLY OR FULLY BAKED CRUST, IF NECESSARY: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.

The Perfect Crunch

Last week, when I told you about Baking From My Home To Yours, I also told you I got another book at the same time. Here it is: David Lebovitz’ The Perfect Scoop.

Let’s just say my KitchenAid’s ice cream attachment is going to be busy this summer! Ice cream, like candy, is one of those things that, up until recently, I never thought could be so easy to make in a home kitchen. I had never tasted homemade ice cream until I made it myself and, boy, was that ever a revelation. Since my ice cream maker wasn’t in the freezer (still isn’t, darn tiny freezer) the day I got The Perfect Scoop, I chose a recipe from the “Mix-ins” section of the book.

A Buttercrunch Toffee recipe so easy, soooooo delicious, we ate the whole batch within 2 days. Never mind stirring it into homemade ice cream, this stuff is perfect as is! David says in the book that he first posted the recipe on his blog.

Man, have I been missing out! No matter, I’m catching up and I promise, next time I talk about ice cream, I’ll post an ice cream recipe!

Buttercrunch Toffee
The Perfect Scoop, David Lebovitz

1 cup, almonds, toasted and finely chopped
1 tablespoon water
4 tbsp butter, salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp packed light or dark brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips, or 3 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Using half of the chopped almonds, form an 8-inch circle in an even layer on an ungreased baking sheet.

Fit a small, heavy-duty saucepan with a candy thermometer, then add the water, butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, mixing them together. Have the baking soda and vanilla measured and ready.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring as little as possible. When the mixture reaches 300F, remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in the baking soda and vanilla. Mix just until combined; don’t overstir.

Right away, pour the hot toffee mixture over the circle of almonds on the baking sheet. Using as little movement as possible, spread the toffee to cover the circle.

Scatter the chocolate pieces over the toffee and wait 2 minutes to allow them to melt. Use a spatula to spread the chocolate into an even layer, then scatter the remaining chopped almonds on top, pressing them into the chocolate. Cool completely until the chocolate is firm. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, you may need to cool it in the refrigerator. Remove it once the chocolate has hardened.

Dinner, Not Dessert

Just so you guys know it’s not all Gooey Chocolate Cakes, Doughnuts and Maple Pudding Cakes around here, I decided to tell you about our dinner last night.

I just love to make risotto. Not just because I like the fact that it’s so versatile you can put almost anything you want in it, but also because I like to prepare it. I do. I like to stand in front of a pot of butter coated Arborio rice and carefully ladle warm chicken broth into it, watch it bubble, ladle some more broth in, stir it all up. Until the rice is tender and creamy and perfect. Then the fun part begins because after adding the required amount of Parmesan cheese, or in my case Grana Padano, you can add the ingredients you want to make it your own. Tonight it was Spicy Shrimp and Roasted Asparagus Risotto and it was oh, so delicious! The spiciness of the shrimp was perfect against the creaminess of the risotto and the asparagus with their coating of garlic and olive oil added just the right amount of texture to the rice. Of course, if you want even less complicated you could make the whole thing into a risotto cake, I'm sure it would work really well. Make your own variation of this versatile dish and I’m sure it will become one of your favorites too!

Risotto
Adapted from The Food Network

1 onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp butter
5 cups or more of chicken broth
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan or Grana Padano Cheese

Melt the butter in a 4 to 5 quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring regularly. Add the onion, continuing to stir, until it turns soft and translucent. Turn the heat down if the onion starts to brown.

Meanwhile, pour the chicken broth into a separate saucepan, set over medium heat, and bring to a gentle simmer. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain this simmer the whole time you are preparing the risotto.

Once the onion is soft, add the rice and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary -- if the rice is cooked at too high a heat, it will turn brown and take on an undesirable flavor.

Using a ladle, scoop up about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of broth. Pour it in the pan with the rice, stirring constantly with a spoon. After the first addition of broth, the rice mixture will look a bit soupy.

As the rice begins to cook, stir it constantly, making sure that you scrape along the bottom of the pan so that it does not stick. You should see little bubbles popping up on the liquid from time to time. If it bubbles more vigorously than this, turn the heat down to medium-low.

When most of the liquid is absorbed into the rice and the rice begins to look a bit dry, add another ladle of broth to the pan and stir constantly, as before.

Continue to add the broth in 1/2-to-3/4-cup batches and stir the rice until you have used most of the broth (this will probably take about 20 minutes). It is now time to test whether the risotto is cooked. Spoon up a grain of rice and bite into it -- it should be tender without being too mushy. If it is still crunchy and tastes a bit starchy, you will need to continue adding liquid and cooking further.

If it looks as if you will run out of chicken broth and your rice is still not cooked, don't be alarmed. Because of variations in individual stoves and cooking temperatures, you may need more liquid than called for in the recipe. Simply heat up another cup or 2 of chicken broth. If you run out of broth, use hot water.

When the rice is tender and the risotto has a creamy consistency, almost like thick oatmeal, it is done.

Add salt and pepper to the risotto, about 1/4 teaspoon at a time, until it seems well seasoned to you. Stir.

Add the grated Parmesan cheese and stir well.

Serve the risotto immediately in warm bowls and have extra grated Parmesan on hand.

Roasted Asparagus
1 bunch of asparagus, cleaned and tough part of the stem removed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the broiler to 500F. Place the oven rack on the setting that is about 6 inches from the broiler.

Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and mix everything together until the asparagus are well coated.

Cook, under the broiler until the asparagus are tender, about 20 minutes but the cooking time will depend on the size of the asparagus. Shake the pan a few times during cooking.

Remove from the oven, place the asparagus on a cutting board and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Stir into the risotto.

Spicy Shrimp
1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined, you can remove the tails or not
2 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Chili flakes, to taste

In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil, over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp, garlic and chili flakes. Stir everything around. When the shrimp turn pink, add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with the risotto.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Gooey Chocolate Cakes

I was so happy to learn that my very first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, chosen by Leigh of Lemon Tartlet, was Gooey Chocolate Cakes. When I first browsed Baking From My Home To Yours it was one of the recipes that caught my eye, or made my stomach growl but that’s pretty much the same thing. So I couldn’t wait to make these beauties.

On Sunday morning, I got all my ingredients ready and waited for it to be an acceptable time to make chocolate cake. Eleven AM sounded about right so after making a few sandwiches for lunch, I got started on my cakes. The batter part was fairly straight forward, kind of like making brownies, but better. As I slowly added all the melted chocolate, the batter got darker and gooier and even more delicious than I could have imagined. I filled buttered and floured muffin pans with the silky batter, sprinkled the tops with more chocolate, and into the stove it all went.

I promise you the aroma of the cakes baking into dark little treasures was by itself worth making these. The most stressful part for me was the unmolding of the cakes. I was afraid that half the cakes would remain stuck to the muffin tins. But all the cakes unmolded perfectly into little mounds of chocolate heaven. Heaven. Truly.

As Dorie advises, you do have to use the best quality chocolate you can find and also the one you most like to eat as the taste of the chocolate is what really comes out. I loved tasting the different textures within the cake and with a dollop of whipped cream, I thought they were perfect. Don’t forget to check out what the other Tuesdays with Dorie members thought about the cakes. I can’t wait for next Tuesday!

Gooey Chocolate Cakes
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate,
4 ounces coarsely chopped,
1 ounce very finely chopped
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tablespoons of sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. butter (or spray – it’s easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogenous. Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs. Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.

Bake the cakes for 13 minutes. Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)

Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board. Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.