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?)

TWD: Toasted Almond Scones

Oh, how I love, love, love Scones! In Vienna you can buy Scones maybe at Starbucks, but nowhere else. Not in any bakery, not in any other coffeeshop. Just like biscuits, they are not common round here. So I know them more from TWD and my few visits in the US so far. But I ADORE them, every single one. Really. I never met a scone or biscuit I didn't like :o]

So, many thanks to Mike of Living Out West who chose Toasted Almond Scones for this week's TWD. You can find the recipe on this page or in Dorie's book on pages 28 and 29.

I first made them about one year ago because during Lenten Season I was looking for recipes in Dorie's book where you could omit the sugar and this was one of them, and I think that these were definitely the best scones I made so far! I liked them last year, and I love them the now the second time I made them.

Generally, breakfast treats are some of my favourite bakings. Some people are good when it comes to chocolate loaded torte, others master tartes like nobody else. And I guess I am at my best when it comes to scones, biscuits and everything brioche (and icecream, funnily).

The Toasted Almond Scones are easily made. The most time consuming part is toasting the almonds... you can bake them before breakfast on a Sunday morning and enjoy them while they are still warm. Is there a better start for a Sunday ?

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: Great Grains Muffins

Let's make this quick and dirty - Great Grains Muffins, chosen for this week's TWD by Christine of Happy Tummy, are a wonderful breakfast treat! They are not too sweet and even I can mix them together in a snap. And: There are millions of possible varieties, because you can deviate from the basic recipe in a myriad of ways. So, no excuse for not baking them due to any unloved ingredient ;o]

I did stick mainly to the original, despite I mixed the meal-types in slightly different quantities (more cornmeal and only wholewheat). And I omitted the oats, because I did not want to open a 2 pounds package for just a few grams, and used some shredded nuts and grains instead (a mix of sunflower/pumpkin seed and soya beans for salad) . Perfect match! And it additionally supports the breakfast/muesli character of the muffins.

They did almost not rise, but maybe they shouldn't. But who cares anyways... as long as they taste good and look agreable!

Find the recipe at Christine's page or in Dorie's book on pages 8/9.