TWD: Cran-Apple Crisps

As I am no official member yet, I reserve myself the right to deviate a bit from the rules - and blog on Monday.
(Tuesday's gonna really be a problem... but let's see how it works out )

I am still a bit afraid of all these intimidating recipes and cookies with a lot of cream and preparation. So I tried again one of the easier tasks for November - the Cran-Apple Crisps


As usually, my attempts do not really look very well.
For the moment, I don't care. For the moment I am fine if the test objects turn into something someone may want to eat.

And the crisp did.

I love the coconut-topping! But I saved the bigger part for the next day and over night, the crisp seems to get even sweeter than it was straight from the oven.
This is not such a good point as I had used dried cranberries, that were heavily sugared, which I did not figure out before I tasted the extremely sweet crisp today.

Moreover, it seemes that everything I tried out so far turns out to be very, very sweet. Maybe this is because upt to now my significant experiments were all American recipes, and it seems that Americans like their sweets much sweeter than the ordinary European taste. And, I do not really got for extra-sweet stuff anyways. So, I am going to reduce the sugar-amount for the next recipes and hope it doesn't spoil the result.

And now, bon courage, because at some point I have to make my attemps official...

Teatime - by Pain de Sucre

When I was in Paris last week (what I, as always, enjoyed, enjoyed, enjoyed), I ate my way through many of the great bakeries I got to know when I was living in Paris this summer. (I will post a list of some of them some other day.)

At a book reading I attended (also something I should come back to the next days...) I heard a young women praising a place that was definitely not on this list. I more or less ignored since I once went there in May and had the feeling that (i) the shop itself was very snobby, (ii) the staff was very unfriendly, even by Parisian standards (I don't like to be treated like inferior to the salesperson - no matter if it is an high-end clothing store or a patisserie), and (iii) the products didn't offset the first two points. They didn't have any normal bread (well, ok, it's a patisserie, not a boulangerie. But still - they make sort of "bread", but did look very snotty if asked for petits pains), they had a lot of strange-flavoured marshmallows (and I don't even go for "normal" marshmallows) and besides that only big cakes and no individuelles (and, sorry, but what should I do with a whole cake?)

But the podium as well as audience supported the young women's valuation.
So I decided to give it one more try.
I went there last Saturday. And on Sunday, I couldn't wait the opened up so I could come back.

What a misconception!
The salespersons where just lovely and nice. Both times.
The cakes came in every size.
I dind't spot any marshmallow in the whole shop.
I had wonderful filled little breads.
And the best little cake-something I ate in a long, long time - the Teatime.

Maybe the red-green combination is not that crazy and innovative. Maybe it's not that singular to combine pistachio and cherries.
But it was so humid, so fruity, and the different tastes did match so perfectly...

So, thanks to the unknown young women for being so enthusiastic about Pain de Sucre!

Getting Started - TWD: Sugar-Topped Molasse Spice Cookies

So, the ultimate reason why I start this blog is that I would like to participate at "Tuesday with Dorie" - kind of an internet-club, where people bake their way through "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dori Greenspan.Up to now, they don't know about my aspiration, as I am still kind of too shy to "reveal". But I decided, after following the site some time, I am going to get started, without officially joining yet. What gives me the time to try it out and see if it works for me.

Why I want to participate is easy. I like baking (what I did not really figure out until very recently), I like to become a better baker, and I need some fix dates in my life and commitments, otherwise I never stick to what I once decided.
So, here is the commitment: Blog every Tuesday the recipe of the week. That's all.

Well, on Monday, when I thought about starting this week, I had a look at the recipe of the week.
And decided, to start next week.
Lucky me, in November participants are exceptionally allowed to pick any November-recipe and switch weeks. Lucky me, because when today I read some of the blogs, I found out that the actual recipe for this week was obviously not only too demanding for me. Not that all the others didn't arrive at making it perfectly right. But at least I saw some comments like "it was the most demanding I ever made for TWD", "I never spent so much time for only one cake" or "it was a two-days-project".
So. As I am no official participant I granted myself the right to start on Wednesday and pick out the November recipe that sounded most like I could manage it.

And here we are.

Sugar-Topped Molasse Spice Cookies

My first baking tray was, um, how to say...

Looks like a pizza, you say?
Or a football?

Yeah, right.




But the second and third tray turned out pretty well.

Or, at least I am mostly satisfied with it! And, most importantly, they are tasty! Cookies don't have to look picture-perfect anyways.
(and I am not only saying that because mine don't! ;o])










And don't they perfectly match with my kitchen furniture??

Quitten-Tarte

Quitten pochieren.
Quitten einlegen.
Quitten ziehen lassen
Warten.
...
Tage später:
Teig rühren.
Pochier-Flüssigkeit eindicken.
Obstspalten auf den Teig.
Flüssigkeit drüber.
Ab in den Ofen.
Warten.
...
Fertig!!

Rezept(e) gefunden bei David Lebowitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/11/rosy_poached_quince.html
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/11/quince_tarte_tatin.html