TWD rewind: Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

So it is Tuesday, and what you see here is... not a regular TWD blog entry. I was really prepared to do the Tourtely Apple Tart, chosen by Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake. You can find the recipe on her page or on pages 306 and 307 in Dorie's book.
I buyed the apples, and had everything else already at home. I was really looking forward to it.

But.

It is still Lenten Season. One more week to go without sugar, alcohol or meat. I already had to skip the Coffee Icecream Tart and the Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp this month, which I both regret a lot. I thought I could handle baking an apple tart without tasting. But in the very last minute it was evident for me: No way. I won't resist. I just can't bake something without tasting the result and the dough in the making. I am sorry.
But I will catch up with as much as possible. That's how it did work last year, and that's what I am going to do this year. I don't want to break my Lenten promise. Not one week before it is over anyway.

So, this week again I had to choose another recipe, one that is do-able without sugar. Mostly this is true for some muffins, some scones and almost all biscuits. I already had a look at this recipe very often because I like nuts, I love sour cream and I adore biscuits.
For the nuts I toasted a nut mix. An in half the batch I folded in some fresh chopped bear's garlic (like last year, I have no idea if this word really exists; LEO says so. But it could be that the real name for it is ramsons or wild garlic. Smells lice garlic, tastes a bit similar but less strong, and is biological no garlic)

The Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits were originally due  long, long time agoe on February 26, 2008. You can find the recipe in Dorie's book on  page 25.

TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

Prologue: Apologies, apologies, apologies. I forgot to take pictures... Shame on me. On the plus side: These where tasty, great, wonderful. But not very pretty. Especially because I did not dust them in sugar, so they looked like brown marbles. 

So we have Cookies on the schedule! Well, not round, thick cookies like you buy them in a coffee shop. The Pecan Poweder Puffs chosen by Tianne of Buttercream Barbie very much resemble a christmas sweet. At the end of march? That might sound strange for the one or the other - but for me, this is a very welcome surprise and something different just before we all start baking tons and tons of tarts, pies and other desserts with berries of all kinds and other spring/summer fruits!

They are really easy to make (especially when you, cough, cheat a bit and use already grounded nuts for the dough...) and they taste extremely good. I did not roll them in sugar before serving because I thought they are sweet enough. But maybe I should have. Not because it would improve them in taste, but their look.
However - my colleagues enjoyed them just as much as I did and also thought of them as w welcome surprise!

I am sure to make them again, they are just too easy not to!

P.S.: I was a bit surprised that Tianne did pick this recipe. She always makes such innovative changes to our recipes and unbelievable tarts, cakes and muffins. I would have guessed she had chosen a more difficult, subtile recipe. But TWD always keeps you surprised and you learn a bit abour your fellow bakers every day :o]

TWD: My favourite pecan pie

This weeks recipe was chosen by Beth from Someone's in the kitchen with Brina.

She opted for a pecan pie ("My favourite Pecan Pie", p. 327 in Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan). In the last weeks I found out that I love pies but I have some trouble getting them right. The dough never does what it should, even if it is a simple, easy dough. For me, something like an easy pie/tarte dough doesn't exist, obviously...
Anyways, I love nuts, so I was looking forward to baking this pie very much!!

As so often, I had difficulties with the ingredients: Corn syrup doesn't exist in Austria (but I found out that it can be exchanged for simple sugar water; I started to use sugar water wiht a bit of agave syrup), and pecans can be bought, but they are very expensive. Therefore, I took ordinary walnuts instead, as they are very similar. Hope it doens't make a difference...

 

So, I prebaked the crust on Sunday and assembled the pie late Monday in the evening. 

Tomorrow (or today for those who are on the strict side...), we have a Christmas lunch for the "youngsters" at the office and I promised to bring pies. I will take the chocolate cheese cake which is scheduled for next week (I know - that's not strictly to the rules, but I will have no time next week and nobody to eat it, so I had to bake it already this week), and two little pecan (walnut) pies. I took half the ingredients and made two small pies.
I have no idea what they taste like. But I stole some chocolate-nuts from the top (some that were  a bit too burned) and they tasted pretty good!

So, cross your fingers for my two pies tomorrow!

TWD: All-in-one Holiday Bundt Cake

I am still a cameo-participant of TWD, but never mind, I go on baking and trying to improve my cake-abilities and maybe someday I will do it on the blog-roll :o]!

This week, the fourth of the November recipes was on the schedule, the All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake from pages 186 and 187, chosen by  Britin of The Nitty Britty.

I had some trouble with the ingredients:
I have never ever seen canned pumpkin purree in my whole life, but some other bakers were so kind to help me out and affirm my decision to take self-made purree. I wasn't sure about the consistence of canned purree, but the self-made version turned out to be fine. I just put the pumpkin in the oven instead of cooking it in a pan, as I would usually do, so it didn't get too moisty.
Then, it is really not that easy to get pecans. DM doesn't have them, the usual supermarkets for sure definitely don't have them. But even at the Naschmarkt I didn't find them, what really came as a surprise as usually there is nothing you can't get there. (Maybe I didn't look thoroughly enough?). At my almost last hope, a high-end bio"grocery", they usually sell it - but they ran out of stock. Finally, I found it in a little shop specialized on sweets and decorations for bakers. It the very last minute.
And then again the cranberries. Cranberries are just not very usual in these latitudes. But I found dried ones, and this time not-sugared ones.
I skipped the optional maple-icing, as maple-syrup is again not very usual (though not that hard to get, but still very expensive).

So I had everything together, but I hope I won't have to do such a schlepp through the city every week!
(I won't, at least in December - I already had a look at the upcoming recipes for next month, and I got to say - wow, I am really already looking forward to December!!)

So, here is how it turned out:
As always I made a "real" one, and some little ones for trial and error and tasting. I halfed the recipe but still got a "children-bundt cake" and some made in a mold for brioche out of it.

Here the big one, straigth out of the oven (will it come out of the mold? Will it break? Will it stick to the pan? Panic!)

No, everything went fine!

And here the inside-look and one of the little ones (some I topped with dark cranberry-chocolate. It was ok, but the chocolate would not have been necessary - made me learn to stick to the recipe...)







I know, I know, I still have to  work on the presentation and the looks of my cakes and tartes, but for the moment I am sososo, well, what to say...  proud is not the rigth word, maybe more: astonished, that it is really me who makes these delicious cakes, that I am satisfied with that.

If you want to see what it looks like if really excellent bakers do it, just have a look at some of the other bakers result! Some Most are really just amazing!!