TWD: Summer Vegetable Tart

I'm not sure if this counts as a TWD-post because I made so many changes to this "tart", it actually turned out another recipe.

Two problems arose: First, you can't keep this tart. I always bake Sunday and bring my baking goods to work Monday, so this was a problem. And it seemed to be very difficult to make smaller tartes as the dough is not that easy to handle.
Secondly, for me the vegetables in the recipe are no summer vegetables in any way. Maybe I am living in the wrong part of the world, but peppersweets are never in season round here and mushrooms are more associated with autumn in Vienna.

Oh, and a third problem: I really had no idea what the directions for dough treatment ment. As there is no picture of the tart I was absolutely  blank what the recipe wanted me to do. So I had to do a lot of improvisation.

I decided to make nests - my first try. I took smaller pieces of the dough and arranged them randomly in muffin pans. Next time, I learned, I would reverse the pans and put the dough around the "outside" to make sure it is through all the way and not only at the edges.

I filled the nests with a zucchini-tomato mix with a lot of fresh spices and "braid cheese", a very salted version of goat cheese (think dense salted haloumi in very small strips, arranged to a braid).

Like that, I liked it a lot. I served it with some spinach salad (with green beans and dried tomatoes), what made it a perfect summer dinner.

But, as I said at the beginning, I am really not sure this counts as TWD...

If you want to find out what the other bakers did (I do! I am really curiuos what it SHOULD have looked like!) go to the TWD-page. And if you are interested in the original recipe of the Summer Vegetable Tart, just have a look in the book by Dorie Greenspan on  page 436.

TWD: Baked Yogurt Tart

I am late, sooo late. It's Sunday and the tart was due on Tuesday. Honestly, as I always bake on Sundays, I am late one week. Sorry for that.
But here it is. One ordinary tart and some tartelettes, one in a heart-shaped mold. Like that, I culd use all the filling.

The filling is a yogurt mix, what means it has a comparatively low calories level. The recipe asks for non-fat yogurt what did surprise me, because usually dessert recipes ask for fat as a taste-means. And there is no butter in it. So, except for the sugar (with 3/4 c also not too much), there are no calories or fat in it.

If you are looking for a recipe that does not interfere with your bikini-figure this ia a perfect option!

I gave some lemon zest to the filling, but it made no difference in the end. I used blueberries because I really think they are best for all things baked, and gave some toasted coconut shreddes instead of the nuts on the tart. For decoration i Used red currants and made little starts from left-over tart dough.

The filling is really easy, easy, easier. If you have a pre-baked crust in the freezer or at least a ready made dough the tart itself will be ready very quickly!

For my part, I like the taste. But I have to say that I am a big yogurt lover! I prefer frozen yogurt over icecram not for diet-reasons but for the taste. And in summer I could live from yogurt and berries. But I am not sure of other people like the taste just like me. Additionally, the look tricks  you a bit because you might think it's a cheesecake . but it is totally not. And it is nor a very sweet tart. So - as much as I love this tart and yould do it ever and ever again, I can imagine other people wouldn't.

TWD: Cheese&Tomato (and Asparagus) Galette

Cheese and Tomato are fine, but asparagus is (still) in season and during this time of the year I could live from just asparagus and strawberries! So I made some changes and turned this galette into a cheese-tomato-aparagus galette.

Honestly, I did not only make some small changes but many bigger ones. But I think it still counts as a TWD-baking :o]

First, I made mini-galettes. I ended up with 5 pieces. Then I left out the Monterey Jack and spread the galettes with some buffallo ricotta I had left. Instead of fresh tomatos I used dried ones (the soft version), gave some leek and aparagus in small pieces on the dough, spiced it with lemon pepper and tarragon, and finished them with a thin aspargus head.
But hey - that's still a galette with cheese and tomato!!

I liked the dough already very much when we made the berry galette because it's a bit like a tart without tart-problems (like a dough getting to burnt or not enough brown). Here I used polenta, what is more or less the same as cornmeal in the end, but chrunchier.

The taste was just great, even the next day when I brought them to office and me and my colleagues nibbled them away. And I really like recipes that allow a lot of variations.

Try this recipe! It's fast, easy and tasty!

TWD: Savarin

Oh my, I'm definitely loosing track with the group. I'm a bad team-member. In the last weeks I either was on holiday, forgot to bake, forgot to take pics, forgot to blog (or to publish the text...) - or forgot to leave my link. But here we are - hooray!

The Savarin is relatively simple and done quickly. Just two short rising periods. Nevertheless I don't become good friends with this cake. I had to read and re-read and read again how it is assembled. Can it be you more or less just put the "filling" beside the cake? - Yes, it can.

Making the batter is also a bit unconventional for me, as you do not cream butter and sugar at first, but put in the butter last.

I had no ring-mold so I made some improvisation and used a usual spring form and put a small soufflée-form in the middle. That worked pretty well. But the dough did rise quite abit during baking and so I ended up with a too high cake. I split it in the middle, but that neither didn't look right. So I brought the two halves together again, spreading some orange jam inbetween the 'layers' to make them stick together. I am pretty convinced that my cake does not look like a Savarin at all.

The taste is ok, but not special and it was ok to try it, but next time I would prefer to do the Babas, which sound much more interesting! But what do I know. And I am sure the other bakers found wonderful ways to dress this cake up a bit more and turn it into something special!

For the recipe have a look at Dorie Greenspan's book at pp 415-416.

TWD: Rhubarb Upside Down Babycakes

To make it short: It's not that I didn't bake in the last weeks. I just either had no time to post or forgot to take pictures. But here we are with 12 very small babycakes and an individual sized cake without the caramel. Both versions turned out great as the cake is very very moisty (I like!) and rhubarb is always a winner when it is in season.

I am just at the airpor, waiting for my flight to NYC, so writing is a bit of a horror, so I leave you with some pics.

TWD: Rustic Potato Loaves

Pfew, long time no blog...

During Lenten Season I eat no sweets and unfortunately I am not able to bake and NOT taste it, so I had to stay away from following the club for some weeks... but I missed almost nothing as I catched up with the cookies (see below).

As I am a bit out of routine, it is alreday Wednesday where I live (in Vienna, Austria) - but in some parts of the US it is still Tuesday (at least in Hawaii ;o]), so it counts, I say. :o]

The Rustic Potato Loaves are great. For a yeasted bread, they are very quick in the making (only to relatively short rising periods) and really easy. I made them with sweet potatos (I know, that's not the original meaning of "rustic" but I had them at home) and half the batch with dried tomatos and some italian spices. I was wondering if the sweet potatos and the italian version match, but it turned out fine.

I like both versions really a lot and will for sure make this recipe again, with some other variations!

For the recipe, head over to the blog of Dawn: Simply Sweet, who is our host for this week. Or have a look in the book by Dorie Greenspan on p. pg 138.

PS.: Can you see the hidden animal in the left picture? Is it a snale? Or a hen? Or am I the only one who sees it??


PPS.: I catched up with the Mocha Cjocolate Chip Cookies. They turned out great with a mix of bittersweet, bitter and white chocolate and were a great hit at the office. Chocolate cookies are always hard to picture, in my view, so I let you with the image in your head of wonderful, overly rich chocolate cookies :o]

TWD: Boca Negra

Beware of this "cake"! Once you taste it, you will never be able to stop from taking another piece, unless everything is eaten. I'm really not sure if the name "cake" is even allowed for this delight, as it is more or less nothing else than chocolate, butter and sugar. Chocolate-in-cake-shape is maybe a more appropriate term. (but I doubt this name will make it's way ;o])

The Boca Negra is a wonderful chocolate creation. I used about 400g mixed chocolate (200g 75% chocolate, 100g 80% chocolate, 70g Dolfin coffee-chocolate (great chocolate!!) and 30g couverture - just what  had at hand). I found it very exhausting to stir in the butter, as the chocolate-alcohol mix is only slightly warm and cooles fast. After the second piece I was tires, and eight more waited to be included. I put the pot on my induction stove on the lowest level and that helped a little. Still, it takes long time until all the butter dissappears in the chocolate.



Baking time was a bit longer, but my cake-form is also slightly bigger than the recipe asks for, so I used a bit more of everything and the longer baking time did not come as a surprise.

Because I had leftovers, I decorated the Boca Negra with white chocolate flakes. In my view, the cake needs some decoration because the top itself  is not very pretty.

The result is a moist chocolate-"cake". I let it wait in the refrigerator until the next day and similar to chocolate-heavy brownies the texture changes slightly to more fudgy. Great!

The white-chocolate-cream was very good, but I had to beat it after it was could so it gets the consistence as in the picture in the book. Next time, I would use less chocolate because the cream is very, very sweet, alsmost too sweet for my taste, and the cake is sweet enougb for itself.

After all, this was an easy but time-consuming recipe, worth any effort, highly appraised from everybody at the office, a winner, a riskless cake for any occassion, birthday, new years eve, whatsoever. Go to grab the recipe at Cathys blog 'A Frederick Food Garden', who is our host this week, or buy the book by Dorie Greenspan and have a look at pp. 253/254.

TWD: French Apple Tart

For years, I had big troubles with tartes and pies, because I never managed to get the dough right. With the "new" book, it seems I finally found the one recipe I am able to master! I made the Flaky Pie Dough for the second time now, and for so far everything went fine. Good news, as I like tartes and pies. And - this recipe is also good for non-sweet tartes, so it is kind of a multi-tasking dough :o]

The French Apple Tart is a tart filled with kind of a home-made apple-sauce and the usual apple slices on top. It takes some time because additionally to the shell you also have to do the apple-sauce. But it is very simple and the result looks great!

I made half the recipe and got a small tart (but still about 8 slices or 12 very thin slices) and an individual tart. I could have used a bit more sauce - I used three apples, one very big one, two normal ones, and it was fine, but more would have been also ok.
Baking time was a bit longer than the recipe tells, what is unusual. It was more like 40 minutes. But I only slightly pre-baked the crust so maybe that's the point.

I brought it to the office the next day and absolutely everybody fell in love with it! I wouldn't say it looses over night, but for sure, a warm apple tart is always extraordinary as well.
If you want to find out about the recipe turn to Gaye's blog "Law of the Kitchen" or have a look at the book by Dorie Greenspan on pp 379-381.

TWD: Pizza with Onion Confit

The Pizza with Onion Confit is one of the reasons I like the "new" book (in fact, it is really not that new at all, anymore...) - making also savory dishes from time to time is really a nice change and after all the Christmas-sweets just right.

I made the Onion Confit with pearl onion, because I had leftovers from the New Years-eve raclette. I know, this is a bit like betraying, because I might be the only one without red swollen and tearful eyes. But the pickles had to vanish and if I find an easy way out - I confess - I take it.

It was pretty easy to cook, but takes some time, about an hour. The red wine and vinegar give the onions a wonderful, dark red/violet colour. Instead of wine-vinegar and cream de cassis I used cassis-vinegar. I felt really clever when I found the small bottle of cassis vinegar and had this smart idea. :o]

The pizza dough is not too difficult. It was my first pizza but turned out fine. I can imagine including some more herbs in the dough next time. Because I have a pizza function in my oven, the baking sheet has to go into the middle of it, not in the lower third. Something I learned...

For the topping I used the onion confit, sour cream, cocktail tomatos, black olive rings and salmon. And some seasoning, of course. How delicious!

I am eager to find out about all the different variations of toppings the group made!

Our host this week ist Paul of The Boy Can Bake - obviously one of the few men in the group. Head over to his blog to find out about the recipe, or buy the book by Dorie Greenspan! (it's on pp 159/160).

TWD: Finnish Pulla

 With the Finnish Pulla we finish (haha) this 2012-TWD-year.

When I saw the picture I was afraid it is one of these very much time consuming, almost not possible to knead with a hand-mixer brioche breads.

Well, it's not. It takes some time for resting and rising, but compared to other yeasted breads the rising times are not too long (two times 45 mins), so you can easily do it in a half a day.
And the dough is not so extremely dense as a brioche. Additionally, you can easily knead it with your hands. What is, after all, a nice experience.

The Pulla (is it simply called Pulla? or Pulla Bread?) is a basic recipe, not too much fuzz, and still a bit exraordinary due to the cardamom in it. The almonds and sugar on top makes it look very lovely.

I made only half the recipe, so my strands were not long enough to make a circle. But the book also gives a picture of a "loaf" so I guess it's ok to shape it like I did.

All in all, this is an excellent recipe for a brioche-like bread! And: Although I like to bake seasonally, I am also very thankful for having a recipe this week that is NOT overloaded with sugar, almond paste, cinamon and nuts. I was in the need of a break. Seriously.

For the recipe, head over to Erin's blog The Daily Morsel or have a look at pp 106/107 in Dorie Greenspan's book.