TWD: Hazelnut Biscotti (Pistacchio Cranberry Biscotti)

I am too late with posting, but I made them in time!For these biscotti did opt for the "playing around" options and made Pistachio-Cranberry Biscotti. The combo was great in colour and taste.

The biscotti are very very easy to make and can also be eaten by my lactose intolerant friends, as there is not even butter in the recipe.

I liked them very much and am sure to make them again. I am not sure if I would opt for any other ingredients the next time, because I was so convinced of these, and so were my colleagues at work!

To find out about the (original Hazelnut Biscotti) recipe have a look at our hosts blog: Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome and Katrina of Baking and Boys or have a look at "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan on pp 315-316.

TWD: Oasis Naan

What I really, really like about the new TWD-generation is that we often also bake savory stuff. I used to make a lot of bread some years ago and forgot why I stopped.

These Oasis Naans are really good. I prepared the dough the day before. It didn't rise a lot in the fridge - maybe more yeast is needed. But nevertheless I arrived at making 4 pieces (I made only half the recipe).
I played around a bit with the spices and made one with each: rosemary, coriander seed and nigella.
I made them in the morning and had two of them for breakfast - what a great way to start the day!

They are not a big fuzz, and are very short in the baking (about 10mins - my oven stops at about 450° so I left them in a bit longer), so perfect for making them just the moment before you eat them.

The one with nigella was an experiment, but turned out the best of all. I will definitely make them again, and use more scallion the next time!


For the recipe, have a look at Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking with Julia" - the recipe is on pp.
Or turn to this weeks host's blogs: Maggie of Always Add More Butter and Phyl of Of Cabbages & King Cakes.

TWD: Missed recipe make-up - Quick Berry Tarte

This is a three-tuesday-month, therefore we have a "free ride" today. Since we did not make so many recipe so far from "Baking with Julia" I decided to catch up with one of the recipe I missed with the first round of TWD - Baking: From my home to yours. I decided on the Apple Coconut Family-Cake. For the recipe, turn to Ambers blog "Cobbler du Monde" or have a look into Dorie Greenspan's book on p. 214.

I combined the playing around-version with the original and made a coconut-nut-apple cake. It's a simple, easy in the making and very tasty and moisty cake. Nothing too extraordinary, but that's not always necessary, in my view.
As it was so tasty, it went away at my office faster than I could take pictures :o[

But I made a second recipe, because one of my colleagues finished her master studies and we did celebrate a bit today. We are all pretty proud of her, because we have a quite busy job and she managed to finish her studies while working the same amoutn as everybody else of us. What is a pretty amazing hard piece of work!
I (re)made the Quick Berry Tarte, which looks great, taste delicious, but is not quick at all. Well, it is quick in the making itself as you just have to fill the tarte shell with the cream and spread berries over it. But tarte dough takes time (chilling the butter, freezing the dough, freezing the rolled out dough again, baking, cooling,...) and also for the cream to prepare. In the end, I always need two days for it. But it was a success and worth it anyways! You may find the recipe at Cristine's of Cooking with Cristine or on page 377 of Dorie Greenspan's book.

And I do have pictures of this :o]

TWD: Hungarian Shortbread

Shortbread is probably one of the best inventions ever! Althoug I am living next to Hungary I never recognised it's also a hungarian speciality.

The Hungarian Shortbread is two layers of shortbread dough and self-made rhubarb-jam in the middle. The rhubarb gives a perfect contrast to the sweet dough. I love rhubarb and it is just the perfect time of the year for it, because it grows everywhere at the moment. My jam didn't get the red colour, but that does make no difference for the taste.

I made only half the batch and reduced baking time tehrefore, probably a bit too much because it turned out almost too moisty. But besides that this is just great! I thought it's a bit time-consuming (the recipe is assembled fast, but you have to wait for the jam to cool down and the dough needs chilling, so it takes breaks) but still I am for sure going to do this again and angain!

If you want to find out about the recipe have a look at our TWD-hosts of the week: Lynette of 1smallkitchen and Cher of Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler… or just buy the book "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan and turn to pp.327/328.

TWD: Lemon Loaf Cake

Oh this was great! And as so often - the ones that sound least appealing to you are often the best recipes.
It was not really "not appelaing" to me but it did sound kind of boaring. Lemon Loaf, ok. But the resulty... yummi!

It was very easy in the making. I slightly reduced the amount of melted butter but kept the rest just as foreseen. Finally I did end up with a very moisty loaf cake, that had a perfect texture - soft, but dense enough to cut slices. And the taste was incredible! Three zested lemons make all the difference to an ordinary loaf cake.

If I were not that lazy I would have made an lemon icing (or white chocolate?) to dress it up. But I am. Lazy.

Because it's so easy and in the end so tasty this is really a keeper. What else can you ask for from a cake?

For the recipe have a look at our TWD-host's pages (Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life - both with wonderful pictures!) or open the book Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan on pp 252/253.

TWD: Pizza Rustica

It's Tuesday-with-Dorie-tuesday again and again I almost missed it. Maybe I should start baking something else in the weeks inbetween, because the 2-weekly-routine is just not made for me. Last time, I forgot to leave my link, this time, I almost forgot to blog.

Here is my Pizza Rustica attempt. I like that the new book includes also savory dishes and it perfectly fits the lenten season (I avoid sweets and alcohol during this time). As I don't eat meat I tried a vegetarian version, adding up more of the cheeses and a lot of spices, because the bacon would have brought a lot of salt and flavour I had to replace. (I wouldn't say I am vegetarian - I eat fish. And I would never say that I strictly deny meat always and forever. I just want it to be "worth" it, when I eat it. So, if it happens I eat some meat twice a year, that's still fine with me, but I want it to be "something special")

The "pizza" (I would rather call it a quiche, or tarte) was pretty pretty easy in the making and turned out fine. I liked the taste but am not completely satisfied with just putting in more cheese. I saw that some others used spinach or other vegetables. Dried tomatoes might be a good alternative, too.

If you want to find out about the original recipe, have a look into "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan (pp 430 and 431) or turn to the blogs of our hosts this week, Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home.

TWD: Irish Soda Bread

On the one hand, I really like the new TWD-rules: Baking every other week sounds much more do-able than every week. On the other hand, I get a bit out of the routine and forget - is it baking week, or not?

Well, this week it is baking week and I am glad  I did remember, because I love bread baking.

As with so many american recipes I never heard of "soda bread" before, and have no idea if what I made is near anything it should be. But I followed the recipe as written so I hope I made it right.

However, I liked the bread I got out of the oven. I am especially a fan because it is easy, easy, easy in the making, doesn't involve any waiting time for rising, and I like the taste because I like "sour" breads. When I made some google-search what a soda bread might be, I saw that many are made with more ingredients to fold in and I can imagine doing some of these variatons very soon.

TWD: Rugelachs

This is Rugelachs, part II. I made the Rugelachs from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking" not too long ago as one of the rewinds end of 2011.

Rugelachs are not all that common where I live. But ever since I held "Baking" in my hands for the first time, I was very muched appealled by their looks. I really like them but had always been  a bit timid. They are not really hard in the making and even if you are no heroine in food presentation, they always look good anyways - but: it involves many steps and a lot of waiting time in between. Nevertehless, it is for sure worth the fuzz and if you have the time you should try them!

I made mine with orange marmelade and cranberries and loved them! If you are interested in the recipe, head over to Margarets page "The Urban Hiker" or Jessicas page "My baking heart" - or have a look at pp. 325-327 Dorie Greenspan's/Julia Childs Baking with Julia.

TWD: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

I started the new generation of "Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia" with a  shortfall. I was on the road and didn't plan ahead, so I missed the first recipe of a long, long list of recipes to come. But I love bread baking, therefore I will for sure catch up with the White Loafs!

But let's talk about this week. The new rules for TWD include we only do two recipes a month, an easier one and one that is more difficult. The Chocolate Truffle Tartlets are for sure on the more difficult, at least more time-consuming, side.

I am not a huge fan of tarte-baking - not that I don't like them, au contraire! But I am the biggest looser in tart shell baking. This dough recipe took me a long, long time do do (I did freeze it a bit longer, shaved it and pressed the curls in the form. Time consuming, but easy!) And in the end it is the first tarte dough I managed not to burn or ruin in another way.  - I like!

The filling sounds more than decadent - and meets the expectations also in taste!

I had to do some changes: Instead of Cantuccini I used milk-nut chocolate and sesame brittle because that was what I had at hand. I made one big tarte instead of 6 tartlets, because I don't posess 6 tartlet forms. I don't think it made a big difference. I increased baking time to about 20 mins. Maybe I should have added  a bit more, because the filling was very, very moisty, almost liquid. But oh so good!! Think Mousse au chocolat made of theree different chocolates with crunchy pieces in tarte. Mhhhh!
I chilled it and brought it to my office the next day. The texture was different, more chewy, but again more than yummi!

It was really worth all the fuzz I had with the tart shell!

You may find the recipe on pages 382-383 in "Baking with Julia" or on the pages of this weeks hostesses:   Steph, Spike, Jaime and Jessica.

TWD: Kids' Thumbprints

So here we are, at the very end of the book. There was obviously not much left to decide, but Dorie herself will be our host for this week - quel honneur!

She was also the person who made me start baking. I met her at a discussion at the American Library in Paris. To be honest, I was there because of David Lebovitz, in the first place. I was exhausting his blog (and his book on Paris that came out just when I was working in Paris for some month) and already a huge fan of his tips&hints, but also his recipes. I never really did bake or prepare sweets before but with David I started icecream-making (today, one of the few things I dare to say I master really well, even though I still have no ice-making machine). But when I heard Dorie at this event I was amazed by her and had to ask her for an autograph later on. And I asked her about this strange group I somewhere did read about, maybe on David's blog. She encouraged me to try baking and join the group as a good start. How could I not? She was so kind and endearing - everybody would have immediately bought the book and started baking right away!

I met her once again, because when I did visit a friend over in the States, almost two years ago, I just arrived the last day the pop-up cookie-store in NYC sold the fabulous Greenspan&Greenspan-cookies. What a treat! I came to the store, straight from the airport. Must have looked more than curious, some tired looking woman in jeans, hoodie sweater, sneakers and a huge suitcase, running down 5th avenue just do get some cookies...

I tried my best to get this recipe right, as it is "Dorie's" recipe. Unfortunately, my dough was either too crumbly or too sticky, can't decide. It was to sticky to form balls, and too crumbly to keep the balls together. However, I liked the procedure because it was very much like schnitzel-making. Germans make them a bit different, but we Viennese people take the cutlet, put it in eggwhites, and afterwards in a deep dish filled with very fine crumbs. Very similar, isn't it? It was fun doing, and the results were excellent in taste - but as so often with me, not looking the way they should. The molds didn't keep their shape, so I had barely no cookies with molds big enough to fill.
So, what I can give you are some cookies with a bit of orange marmelade and some with a bit of macadamia-cream and a lot of plain cookies. "Plain" is a slight understatement, because these fabulous cookies are made with peanutbutter - one of my all-time favourite ingredients.
Therefore, I was not dissappointed at all, although I wish I had managed to get just this last one recipe as perfect as Dorie would deserve it.

This, for sure, is the place to send out big thanks to all the people who initiated TWD, kept it alive and managed everything - a lot of work, done while having jobs, having children, having families. It is also the place to send out a lot of greetings and regards to all fellow bakers, who made such great treats week after week. And it is the place to send thanks to Dorie who gave us this amazing book, the first one with recipse I can handle! You can find the recipe for the "Kids' Thumbprints" on p. 163, or, I guess, on Dorie's page.

Hope to see you all for the new book!