TWD: Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake - and a lot of catching up

I don't post, I don't post, I don't post... bad me :-(
I try to catch up...

Let's start whit the most recent one, the Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake. The probably longest name of a cake I made up to now :-)

I used a special sugar I have from a friend, a "seasoned sugar". What I did not think about was, that the spice-mix included also rosemary and mint, what was not too bad for the cake but for sure dominated the vanilla... and made the cake green. Funnily, I did not even think about that as a possibility until I mixed the sugar into the butter. Big surprise, haha!
The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspans book Baking Chez Moi, p. 6. For the results of the whole group, head over to TWD! (this is true also for the ther recipes mentioned here except the Amnesty Cookies and the Eiffel-Towers!)

As the cake was not quite like the recipe wanted it to be anyways, I decided to top the cake with a creamcheese frosting (from Dorie Greenspans "Big Bill's Carrot Cake" from Baking, from my home to yours). To avoid the cake to loose its flufiness, I split the cake and added some Black Butter, a speciality from Jersey/Channel Islands - a spread made from apple cider, licquorice and spices. That worked very well with the spices from the sugar!

I like this cake very much because it is very easy made and very very moist. Next time I'll try the classic version :-)

What I made some way back are the Granola Energy Bars (Baking Chez Moi, p. 328). I had to use maple syrup and gold syrup so they went dark brown, but the taste was good and I think only the looks differ from the recipe.

Then I made back in December the annual Amnesty Cookies, As usual, they turned out great in taste, as usual, they turned out ugly in looks. But why change a winning team ;-) The recipe can be found at David Lebovitz' page.

And I made "Rugelachs that won over France" (recipe on p. 301 in Baking chez Moi). For the Rugelachs I have to say, that they turned out really really ugly. I don't know why exactly. Rugelachs are a bit finickey to make, but  I made them several times, with different recepies from the other TWD-books, and they turned out better. But in the end Rugelachs are always great, whatever they look like. This is one of the treats I am happy to got to know trough TWD because in Vienna I never saw Rugelachs before.

As I go on writing I see that I actually made a lot the last weeks... I really forgot about it! How good to catch up!

One of my colleagues leaves us and heads over to Paris to start a great job there. She is goint to spend t least two years there with her partner and their adopted child. I am a bit jealous but most of all very happy for them!
For their farewell-party I made plain Sugar Cookies with a bit of lemon taste and used Eiffel-Tower cookie cutters. I glazed some of them and sprinkled them in red, blue, whit, the colours of the french flag. Unfortunately; I have no picture of the sprinkled ones.

Uh, and then there was the Vanilla Hazelnut Cheesecake as a rewind. (Baking with Julia, p.) Very good. Maybe not my all-time favourite cheesecake recipe, as I prefer more cheesecakes with mostly creamcheese and not so much cottage cheese. Unfortunately I used a too big form so it went very flat.  But it was very good - how can a cheesecake not be very good?

Done! Yay!

TWD: Apple-Nut Muffin Cake

October!

Here in Vienna we actually get a full compensation for the terrible summer. Maybe you guys in the US can't belive it, but in Europe we had the probably most awful summer in decades - rain, rain, rain and cold weather. But now it is indian summer, and the "summer" dominates". You can sit outside in the evening and get sunburnt when you stay out around noon. It's not too hot, but just perfect. Wonderful!

Therefore, this week's TWD-recipe, The Apple-Nut Muffin Cake, did correspond perfectly with the calender - but not so much with the weather. Katrina of Baking and Boys has opted for this wonderful autumn-recipe.

This is a good, in my perception almost classic, apple-cake recipe. Nothing too extraordinary, nothing too difficult. Apples, nuts, raisins, that's it. Add some oats and you get an interesting tiny crunchy texture. Go to Katrin's page to find out about the recipe, or have a look into Dorie's book on p. 37.

I have no square pan, so I made it in my loaf form (and additionally one muffin, to have a "test-piece") and it did work out fine. Funnily, when the cake was already in the oven I figured out I completely forgot to add the butter. But to my surprise - I didn't miss it at all! Does this work with all cakes? Or was I just extremely lucky? 

TWD: Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones (and rewind: Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte)

Breakfast treats, breakfast treats, breakfast treats. This month is full of ... right: Breakfast treats! I love them. I admire them. I adore to eat them, I adore their easiness in the making, they are just perfect for me. Scones (just like biscuits) are more or less unknown in Austria, where I live, so I am never sure if I get the shape and size right. But as far as I remember from my trips to New York, scones look like triangles in the States (and more like american biscuits in England, but that's another story...)

I wasn't sure if oatmeal and nutmeg are ingredients I could fall in love with, but they match wonderfully. I made these scones with dried apricots and I am very happy I've chosen them as an extra ingredient. They make this more or less savory delight a tiny little bit sweet. And dried apricots still work perfect with cheese, so you have all options for what to eat with them still open - jam, butter, ham, cheese, whatever you like!

For my part I got to say that I like these scones best plain, or with a bit goat cheese. I know, that's not very American. But after all - I am not, so: Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones with dried apricots and goat cheese - we are going to have several dates in the future!!

For the original recipe of the Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones , go to Patricia's page Life with a Whisk - she has chosen this amazing recipe for this week's TWD. or - buy Dorie's book and have a look at page 30.

P.S.: Football season is oer now, so I don't really know what to do with my time (same problem every year - last for about, uhm, 10 days :o]). I made the Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte, from pages 240-242 - a recipe I was always wondering what it is like. It was originally due way way back in January 2008. In fact, it was the second recipe on the rotation, can you imagine? Jamie of Good Eats n' Sweet Treats did choose it. She has 136 posts labeled with "TWD" - gosh, what a great record!

This cheesecake is just wonderful! I used blueberry jam and added some fresh berries, too. Cheesecake is great anyways, but this recipe is maybe the best cheesecake I ever ate (at least, it is the best I ever made). If you haven't - go and bake it! 

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

This TWD week has two host: Caroline and Claire of Bake With Us chose Chocolate Oatmeal Drops (got there for the recipe or have a look at page 75 in Dorie Greenspan's book).

This is an excellent choice for this week, as Dorie herself will have been involved into heavy cookie baking this last week... I have been in NYC by chance, when the Cookie Bar did pop up last year. What a great experience! The cookies are great and it is nice watching Dorie and her son talking with baking friends.

So, now what about this week's TWD-recipe?
Generally, I love doing cookies, but I am not all too much into chocolate in the batter. I like chocolate chunks, I like chocolate chips, but I am not thrilled by chocolate cookie dough.

Taking this into account, these cookies are very good. The combo of dark chocolate cookies and oats is a fine one, and gives the cookies a special texture.

They are easy to prepare and don't need a lot of baking experience. But don't misinterprete them as "healthy", just because they have some fiber in it :o]

(P.S.: If you wonder why some of the Drops in the first picture seem to be completely pale - these are Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters, originally due long time ago in September 2008. I was looking for a way to bake something with the oat-leftovers, and peanutbutter is my all-time-favourite baking ingredient, so the choice was easy!)

TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

I don't know how it happened - but I forgot to take pictures, so - sorry for the awful pics of the rest of the rest...
For this TWD-week, Natalie of Oven Love selected Oatmeal Breakfast Bread (you can find it on page 44 in Dorie's book or on Natlie's page).

I was really looking forward to making this, because it is chocolate-free and - I know, that's not the way how to make friends in a baking group ;o] - but in summer I do not need too much chocolate. And last week was already chocolate-packed.
I made some minor changes - a bit less sugar, some more fruits (about 1/4 cup more - still more would have been even better). Used dried figues and apricots (no good idea - usually I like it more to stick with one taste. And there is good reason for...). Then I recognized my "oats" (I wanted to use spelt, what I always have at home) were not useable anymore. So I had to substitute them for 1/2 cup shredded almonds and 1/2 cup flour, what worked out.

I had to bake the bread a bit longer (about 70 mins), and then the consistency was perfect, but the crust became too crusty - for not to say, briquette-like. I am exaggerating a bit. It was still ok. But far away from perfect. What is no problem, because most of my baking is always far away from perfect. But bread is something I master a bit better than the rest, because I bake bread for a comparatively long time, so it was a bit a disappointment.

Despite the bread was ok, I am not jumping and hooraying. It is fruit bread. A good one. But still fruit bread. I think of it as a good basic recipe. I can imagine it with creamcheese and jam. But when it comes to sweet (or at least not completely savory) breads, I like brioche based recipes more.