TWD: Carrot Spice Muffins

Oh boy, Tuesday is almost over and I did not blog yet!
So, little bit late, but still on the right day - Carrot Spice Muffins, chosen by Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. You will find the recipe on her page or in Dorie's book on page 14. I was pleased when I saw in on the schedule, because my turn to come has not come yet (and may never come... long story), but these muffins would have been on my Top-3-List.

These are easy to make, but you need some preparation time - for shredding carrots and chopping and toasting nuts. But afterwards this is a quick recipe, that can be done before breakfast. (Well, before Sunday breakfast. Me - I won't ever be able to be as quick that I can do muffins before breakfast on a ordinary weekday!)

The muffins are very moisty thanks to the carrots. Generally, I really like doughs with carrots as they give it a special texture, flavour and moistiness. The coconut in them gave it an additional pretty special touch.
I think, they would also be great without the sugar. They are not too sweet, but I can imagine them without it, too. Therefore I will keep this recipe in mind for the next Lenten season (that will come faster than I can now imagine...)

TWD: Cocoa Almond Meringues

Meringue is something Iusually only make as a side product. I got to admit, normally they are not my favourite treat. But I like doing icecream, and I particularily like doing it French style, but this involves leftover eggwhites. In general, I guess there are more recipes calling for eggyolks than eggwhites, so from time to time I try to make some meringue or some cookies popular in Austria especially around Christmas, called "Kokusbusserl" or "Nussbussserl" which literally means "coconut / nut peck", which are similar to meringue.

This time it was the other way round - I was in need for a recipe to use up the left over eggyolks. So I made icecream. Toasted Coconut Icecream, with folded in sauted sour cherries, again a David Lebovitz recipe from "The perfect Scoop". (increadible good!!!)

But lets get back to the main topic: The meringue went all fine. Iopted for the "playing around" variation and used shredded toasted coconut instead of chocolate. It was easy done, got firm but still chwy in the middle and tastes surprisingly good. I don't know where I lost the coconut shreds. They have a slight taste of it, but not very much. But you know what? I guess I am happy with this little idea of coconut. As overall, I am happy with these. They turned out so much better than expected!

When I see a recipe on the TWD schedule I surely will like, I am eager to do it and can't wait for the week to come. But when I see a recipe that does not sound so appealing to me, I am happy someone has chosen it, because I would have never tried it on my own. And I definitely like experiences that I would not have taken if it was not for someone else.
So - this week props go out to Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude. Turn to his page for the fast and easy recipe or have a look into Dorie's book on page 155.

TWD: Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet

Doing icecream is one of my favourite things to do in summer. I especially like doing french-style icecream, which is not for everybody, as it involves uncooked eggs you have to temper. But I like the creaminess of custard-based icecream more and for me, in the end it is easier to handle. I don't have an ice-machine, therefore Philadelphia style icecream tends to get too hard and have too many ice-crystals.

The same is true for sorbets and sherbets. Therefore, the recipe for Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet choosen by Steph for this weeks TWD was an "oh, I don't know, can't I just make ice-cream?"-recipe. But I decided to stick to my "duties" and try it out. And I am glad I did. The sorbet is in fact a sherbet, as it includes dairy (milk), and ice-crystals were no problem - I guess thanks to the fat in the chocolate. It is really a creamy sorbet - yes, these kind of things exist! :o]
Find the recipe in Dorie's book on p. 431 or go to Steph's page "A Whisk and A Spoon".

I made some fresh/dried-apricot icream (combined from the two recipes in David Lebovitz' "Perfect Scoop"), too, so I am going to bring this mix tomorrow to my office, sprinkled with some roasted pinenuts. If my colleagues don't like it, they don't deserve it!!

This recipe is really a good alternative to "real" icecream because it is so much faster, easier, and does not involve so many pots, bowls and utensils.

TWD: Cream Scones

Scones! I'm in love with those treats ever since I first had them (what is not so long ago, because Scones are not very usual in continental Europe. First scone-experience: February 2010, NYC. No Joke!).

And I can't say it often enough: I'm pretty happy we have so many breakfast treats left to bake. I strongly belive that there are people who make wonderful, exciting cakes and there are people who are good in baking "dry stuff" like bread, Viennoisserie, scones and biscuits. Maybe simple cakes, too. No, I know, these things are not really "dry" at all. It's just to describe the difference to creamy cakes.
Guess I am the second kind of person.

I followed the recipe for Cream Scones just as written in Dorie's book on p. 12 - you can find the recipe on Lynne's page "Cafe LynnyLu", too. She picked this easy, fast and at the same time great recipe for this week's TWD!
The heavy cream gives the rceipe a special touch.

But: I was wondering, where the raisins come in? Must have a blind spot or anything.Well, I changed them for dried apricots, anyway, because I LOVE dried apricots and could not imagine rasins in these.

Wonderful, wonderful recipe! Am going to re-do, and re-do, and re-do...

P.S.: If anybody knows the "flowers" in the picture - that gives an extra 10 points for beeing a bloomer-nerd! Found them at my market. I once read  about this plant, because it has the same name as an cookbook-author, but this was in a spice-context - so I would never have expected them to be sold at the flower stand!

TWD: Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Big surprise!

First surprise: I thought we have chocolate cookies on the schedule, this week again. Didn't read the monthly preview thoroughly.
Second surprise: I am not a huge chocolate lover, so I would never make chocolate muffins on my own. But - I really really liked these!

For the melted chocolate I used bittersweet as in the recipe. But for the chunks I used white chocolate. Not extremely creative, I know, but a bit. Looking at the dough I had the feeling, some more chocolate chunks would do no harm. I took about 3 ounces - more would still have been no problem. Afterwards I saw that some other members also recommended to use more chunks.

Well, I ended up with pretty good Dark-White Chocolate Chunk Muffins, some of the few ones I really like!

Thanks to Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles for chosing this unexpected good and easy recipe! Go to her page for the recipe, or have a look at page 18 in Dorie's book.

TWD: Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies

To begin with: These are not my favourite cookies. They taste like gingerbread or lebkuchen (not sure if there is a difference), event though I did omit the cinnamon.

Maybe it is my recent non-enthusiasm for chocolate. Maybe it is because I am not a huge fan of soft cookies in general and my cookies need "pieces" in it - more than some sprinkled dried cherries (what I used instead of the raisins. The chocolate-cherry combo just won me over when me made the Chocolate Biscotti some weeks ago).

After all - I like cake, I like cookies, I like sour cream, but the combination is not made for me. This is pretty sad, as they are easy to make.  They look a bit like Macaron shells, so maybe they are useful for "false macarons"?

But tastes are different, so let's see what my co-workers will say about them!

This week's "Tuesdays with Dorie" recipe was chosen by Spike of Spike Bakes. Go to her page for the recipe, or have a look at Dorie's book on page 160.

P.S.: Am I the onyl one who sees a comic-cat in the picture above? And a pig in the right picture???

TWD: Date-Nut Loaf

Super!Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet chose Date-Nut Loaf for this week's TWD. You can find the recipe on her page or in Dorie's book on page 228. [personal comment: what are popsicles??]

Easy in the making, great in taste!
I used dates as in the basic recipe. When it was time to fold in the nuts I realized I ran out of them - but I had some pinenuts left. And dates and pinenuts - doesn't sound too bad, or?
I had no time to roast them, what would have given them an extra flavour, but it was good like that, too.

Super moisty and tasty cake! If you haven't already: try it out!

P.S.: I always have the problem that my cakes tend to become tents. I had two recommendations. One said: Obviously the dough has problems to raise at the edges, so you should butter the form better. The other one said the complete opposite: Leave some space at the upper end of the mold free from butter. I tried both, and: even if the first tip sounds more logical, in the end the second one did work out! So, no tents anymore, yay!

TWD: Chocolate Biscotti

 Boy, this was a failure! I have no idea what went wrong. Maybe I had just a bad-baking-day. Guess that happens to the best of us...

The dough went together very easily. I used dried sourcherries, because the chocolate-cherry-combo did sound extremely appealing to me

The baking time was far too long for my dough. No idea what went wrong. So I ended up with almost burnt logs, that were still so soft in the middle, that one of them broke up. How could that happen? Either I did bake it too long (would be an explanation for the almost black surface) or too short (what would be an explanation for the softness in the middle) - but both at a time?

Then I tried to cut them, what was impossible for about 2/3 of the dough.

Putting them back in the oven, for consolidation, it was clear that I had to shorten the baking time. Still, even 5 min. was too long.

So I ended up with about 6 or 7 acceptable biscotti, some "when I am generous you may call them mini-biscotti"-pieces and a whole lot of crumbs.Well, let's store them and make some cookie-icecream soon!

Nevertheless: The crumbs I tested did taste great. Biscotti dough with chocolate, almonds and dried cherries - a wonderful and excellent flavour combination. So don't blame the cookies for my lack af baking-abilities!

Sorry I can't give you better pictures for these (Cherry) Chocolate Biscotti, chosen for this week's TWD by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes. On her page you will not only find the recipe, but far better pictures!
(for the recipe you can also open Dorie's book on page 144)

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!