TWD: Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake

 June has arrived! And with June came full summer - and berries! Blueberriess belong to my favourite fruits so I was very excited to bake this. I don't need no fancy dressed up cakes and torte. Give me a plain and simple cake, made with some of my favourite fruit, and you see me happy! Therefore - thanks to Cindy of Everyday Insanity who has chosen Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake for this week's TWD. Go to her page to have a look at the recipe or buy Dorie's book - you find it on page 36.

This cake is not only simple, but also fast in the making. I am sure it would also work with many other fruits and if you like it a bit dressier there are plenty of options that could work out fine - crumbles or just the most obvious, I guess. I am pretty sure my fellow bakers will show you other creative ideas.

I made one loaf that did work out fine. My baking time was a bit longer and the cake still turned out very very soft and mellow. I sprinkled the berries a bit with flour following Nicole's recommendation. Most berries sunk about into the middle of the cake so in the end it looked a bit marbled.

I also made six minis to have "test-pieces" and they did not work so well. I guess the problem is that the molds are a bit hard to handle because they have a heart-shaped bottom, so very humid batters tend so stick in the mold. I am sure, with ordinary muffin-cups it would have worked perfectly!

The cake did taste just great. It was so fast away from my office-kitchen that I had no time to take pictures of single pieces to show you the inner look of the cake. Therefore you must be satisfied with the pictures of cakes and mini-cakes in molds :o]

Verdict: Perfect summer treat!

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: Maple Cornmeal Biscuits

Hmmm, biscuits! I adore biscuits! And I very much like corn-meal, or polenta, what I used instead. Let's make it short and simple, just as these biscuits: They are adorable! The maple syrup gives them a very special touch, and with the polenta they get a bit crunchy, but not too much.

They come together in a snap, it's almost impossible to make something wrong, and they don't have a long baking time. Even though I made them in the evening (lack of time on the last week-end...), I am sure they are perfectperfectperfect for breakfast due to the fastness and simpleness of this recipe.

This was really the right recipe on the right time. I spent my week-end (my usual baking time) in Dortmund in Germany, because even though I am Austrian, my favourite soccer team is a german one. They won the championship this week-end (well, in fact they already "won" it two weeks ago, but on Saturday was the last game and the big party), so I HAD to travel to Dortmund. Luckily, I won tickets (teh stadium has 86.000 seats, but only about 20.000 "free" seats because all the others are reserved for abos and regular visitors - so 400.000 people asking for tickets participated in a lottery for the available seats. Lucky me, I got two for me and a friend...)

Well, nobody who is going to read this knows about european soccer, so - let's not bore you any further. Just so much: Thanks a lot to Lindsay from A Little Something… Sweet for chosing these simple and easy to make Maple Cornmeal Biscuits - I would not have found the time for anything more time-consuming! Go to her page for the recipe or have a look at Dorie's book on page 24.

TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

When I read "Brown Sugar Bundt Cake" I thought: Hm. Dunno. Sounds not too exciting. I usually use brown sugar anyways. But then I read that the recipe calls for prunes and pears - complete change of mind! Prunes and pears are some of my favourite ingredients.

To make it short: This cake tastes wonderful and is easy in the making! I halved the recipe and still got two little children-bundts and three minis. (I use minis as "test-pieces" because I don't want to give somehting to my co-workers I have not tested before.) I made no changes to the original recipe but did cut the baking time due to the smaller mold I used.

Dorie says, the cake will be even better tomorrow, because the taste will spread through the cake. Well - I am looking forward to it! [P.S.: Now it is tomorrow - and Dorie is right, as so often!]
Thanks to Peggy from Pantry Revisited who has chosen this recipe for this week's TWD. Go to her page for the recipe or have a look at Dorie's book page 179.

P.S.: This was a big cooking and baking day for me. First, I made the bundt. Then I made some vanilla frozen yogurt (taken from David Lebovitz great book "Perfect Scoop") - my first frozen yougurt ever. Then I went to the monthly "Guerilla Bakery" - three friends baking once a month in a pop-up "store" (in fact it is their flat) and did taste some great little cakes: mini-cheescake with crumbles, peanutbutter cookies, lime cakelettes, lemon ricotta muffins and coconut-almond muffins. And no, I didn't eat all of it alone ;o]. Back home I started making vegetable soup, which is still simmering in my kitchen, made some strawberry-champagne-sorbet (also adapted from the champagne-raspberry-sorbet by David L.) and strawberry-rhubarb-compote. I guess my duty for this week is done :o] 

TWD: Basic Marbled Loaf Cake

Marbled Cake. How odd. I thought. Am I really going to do this? Hmpf. I got to. I missed so much during pre-Easter lentening. So I thought.

Well, I should have learned by now that it is very often the most unexpected of Dorie's wonderful recipes that leave you most astonished and excited. Again, this time.

I am not so creative as many of my fellow bakers who experimented with colourful variations. Funnily, in fact I thought about using my red and blue sugar for a second, but did not follow this idea. I made the chocolate-orange version.
For the orange batter I took aranzini (Not sure if this word exists in english. I am talking about thick pieces of candied orange peel cut in stripes with a lot of sugar around. They are widely used in fruit loafs for christmas in Europe; picture source: www.gewuerzhaus-altstadt.de) and orange aroma. Next time I would also use some orange flavoured chocolate to support the taste, but it was also very, very good like that.

I just do not understand why all my cakes, no matter what mold I use, tend to form a tent. A friend suggested that I might not butter the mold enough, because obviously the batter sticks to the mold. But today I buttered the mold like mad, but still - there is a tent. If anybody has a hint, I would be grateful!

I followed the "lay stripes and zigzag 6-7 times"-method, but it didn't marble a lot, so it looks more like checkers-cake than marble cake, but who cares.

So, thanks a lot to Carol from The Bake More for chosing this surprisingly good recipe. Have a look at her page for the recipe, or go to Dorie's book to pages 230 and 231. 

TWD: Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies (and catching up with the Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp)

(Lenten season is over - hooray! So I can finally get back in track and bake along with the Tuesdays with Dorie-group, instead of doing some sugar-less rewind...)
And what a re-start - shortbread! I am a huge shortbread fan, and some of my colleagues (who are always the beneficiaries of all my baking) are, too. So, thanks a lot to Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine for chosing Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies. For the recipe, go to Valerie's page or have a look in Dorie Greenspan's fantastic book on page 130.

I used polenta instead of cornmeal (and idea I had stolen from Heather of Sherry Trifle and Cats), merely for getting-rid-of-it reasons. I cooked the polenta, because I thought it would be too granular and hard otherwise. The only other change I made is that I sprinkled about half of them with roasted, chopped nuts. They were great with and without the nuts. But maybe the plain version is even better.

They turned out just great, wonderful, marvelous. But, it's shortbread - what else can you expect?

And here comes a "sorry it is Lenten season, so no baking for me"-related catch-up rewind: I made the Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp, chosen by Sarah of Teapots and Cakestands. I HAD to do this as soon as possible, because in spring I merely live from strawberry-rhubarb compote, sometimes with vanilla sauce or joghurt, sometimes with some lemon balm, sometimes just plain. And I am a huge crisp/cobbler fan. So - perfect recipe for me. For the filling I made 1 1/2 recipes, and for the streusel I doubled everything, because for me there can never be too much streusel and I am always afraid it won't be enough. I tossed the sliced strawberries in some lemon-mint-lemonpepper-tinybitofchampagne-juice and let it in the refrigerator for some hours.
For the streusel I exchanged about half the nuts by coconut. I didn't look at the recipe thoroughly enough, so I didn't see it calls for candied ginger, which therefor I did not have at home and just omitted.

For the original recipe, go to Sarah's page or have a look in Dorie's book at pages 420 and 421.

And, btw, this is perfection!! Love it. Hope my colleagues will too, tomorrow. But let's face it: They get strawberry rhubarb crisp and shortbread. If they are not happy with that, I don't know what could please them....

Unfortunately, my pictures are not able to catch the superbness of this dessert.
(If I really have to give the grinch: It was, as often, too sweet. But maybe this is also due to the fact I didn't eat any sugar in the last seven weeks, so my senses are extremely sharpened at the moment).

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: Honey Nut Brownies

I am really happy, that there are so many breakfast treats left for the remaining TWD-recipies! They are made fast, you can easily store them for a day and bring them to work, and they are perfect for a Sunday morning breakfast. I can somehow understand that many TWDers prefer to choose more sublime, subtile recipes that challenge your baking abilities. But for me, when it comes to baking, the simple things are not the worst!

For this week, Suzy of Suzy Homemaker opted for Honey Nut Brownies. You may find the recipe on her page, or in Dorie's book on  page 102.

I changed the recipe only slightly by reducing the sugar, because with all the honey and chocolate, I think of them as sweet enough.
For the nuts, I just used a nut mix, so I went with any nuts possible.

In the end, I like them, but they might not be my all-time favourite brownies. I love very moist and fudgy, almost mellow and creamy brownies, and these are more cake-like. Maybe this is because they have not so much chocolate in it, and the eggs are not seperated nor are the egg whites beaten seperately. But I know there are zillions of cake-like-brownie-lovers out there, and for them this is an extremely wonderful recipe, with a decent but still remarkable honey flavour!

TWD: Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins

 Muffin Time! Great, great, great.
I love eating muffins, I love making muffins.
I don't love taking pictures of muffins, that's why I have to bother you with these bad pics...

Anyhow. Citurs Currant Sunshine Muffins are just great. I used whole-wheat flour, because I had to get rid of it (that's why the muffins looke a bit "sprinkled" in the pictures), and swapped the orange juice for pink grapefruit juice. And I had to skip the currants (not available round here...). Instead, I did include some orange jam into half of them - yummi!

Generally, I love citrus flavouverd sweets, and so I love these, too. They are like all muffins easy to make and fast and perfect for sunday morning breakfast! maybe I should have used some other dried fruits, instead of currants, mybe raisins or apricots. Next time!

P.S.: Some of my molds (they are more cupcake-molds, but I use them for all "small cakes") have a heart on the bottom. Unfortunately, I took some of them out too early, so the bottom did stay in the mold. One came out almost completely, except for the heart. So I got a muffin heart. Cute, isn't it?)