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.

TWD: Gingerbread Baby Cakes

I am moving - so this is my last post from my old kitchen.  I am used to cooking with gas what is not possible in the new house. No idea if I will ever get used to the induction cooker. I love the gas stove :o[
I'm going to miss it, as my whole apartment. However, the new one is wonderful. And I am going to get used to my new kitchen, too.
And: The new baking oven comes with pyrolysis (self)cleaning - so much looking forward!

Anyhow, the real topic today are Gingerbread Baby Cakes. I had to make some changes and adaption for this:

First, I have no baby-cake mold. And the flour-leftover I had was not enough for a whole recipe. So I made about 60% and filled the batter in pretty paper molds, more like for baby-pound cakes, but that was what I had (still) at hand. Calculating baking time was very difficult due to the different form and amount of batter in each mold. In the end it took about 45mins.

Than I had to sub the molasse as it is very uncommon in Austria. I used 3/4 maple syrup and 1/4 corn syrup, just what I had at hand. Hope it comes near what it should be.

I switched to ordinary sugar so I didn't have to open a new bag of brown sugar four days befor I move. I guess brown sugar is better, but the ordinary sugar did no harm.

I topped the cakes with "schudde buikjes" - a bread topping I recently buyed in Amsterdam. They come with speculos taste at this time of the year. Perfect match!

These cakes are very easy to make. The coffee taste is a bit more dominant than I am used to, maybe because there is no chocolate in it and most receipes I know use the coffee to support chocolate taste. The second unusual experience is that it is a bit spicy due to the black pepper and fresh ginger.

It is a bit uncommon, but really good and very seasonal.

For the recipe, have a look at Dorie Greenspan's book on pp. 247/248or head over to our host's blog Karen: Karen’s Kitchen Stories.

(belated) TWD: Buttermilk-Crumb Muffins

I have to bake a week behind the rest of the group in November, therefore I'm not going to leave my link. But at least I want to have the record I made it for myself.

When I read the recipe for Buttermilk-Crumb Muffins I thought "How boring". I regularily tend to forget that it is very often the oddest-sounding recipes that turn out best.

And: These muffins are really a hit and a alltime-favourite!

They are more than easy in the making, delicious due to the crumbs and moist and soft on the inside. Perfect. Who needs more from a muffin?

For the recipe, got to Alisa's page Easier Than Pie  who hosted the November 6-recipe of TWD-"Baking with Julia"- or have a look at Dorie Greenspans book.

TWD rewind: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart and World Peace Cookies

I didn't do the Bagels lately, so I made two rewinds in October. Both recipes I wanted to try for a long time.

The Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart ist just marvellous. It is a bit work, because you have to chop nuts, prepare the caramel and make the chocolate ganache. But once you have all the parts ready, you just have to assemble them - and you're done! I stored it over night in the fridge and think this was a really good idea. Like that, the ganache got more dense and eventually a different texture to what was foreseen in the recipe. But it also gives you the chance to have a chocolate ganache that can be cut with a knife and a tart-filling that does not run out.

I liked it very muched, but would salt the caramel even more next time because I just love salt in sweets!
Besides: This was the first time I really REALLY managed the tart dough! Hooray! Finally! For the recipe, have a look at Carla of Chocolate Moosey who did host the week of Sept 29th 2009 (click), or buy the book by Dorie Greenspan and go to pp. 355-357.

My second rewind are World Peace Cookies. I am not so much a chocolate lover (funny both recipes this week are heavily chocolate loaded, though). But I wanted to try these because they are one of these "special" recipes. Some recipes in Dorie's book are paired with a special story, a very personal one. Like the Chocolate Armagnac Cake. The Rugelachs. Or - the World Peace Cookies. So I gave them a try.

For chocolate cookies, they are quite good. I'm not a chocolate lover, but a big shortbread/sablé-fan so I liked these. They are easy in the making. I used half bittersweet chocolate and half orange-infused bittersweet chocolate with tiny candied dried orange pieces.

Baking time was somewath shorter (more lik 6-10 mins, depending on the batch).
As so often, they do not look perfect but I really liked the texture - the cookie itself is more on the dry side, but there are very soft chocolate pieces in it, and I like texture-mixes.

Sorry for the bad pic. I am unable to get good pictures of chocoalte cookies. But if you google "World peace Cookies" and "Tuesdays with Dorie" you will get a hole lot of  of brilliant pictures! Some of them are by Jessica of cookbookhabit who did host the week of Feb. 3rd 2009 in "TWD-the first season". She has the recipe in her blog - or have a look on pp 138/139 in Dorie Greenspan's "Baking - From my home to yours".

TWD: Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf

Bread-baking is great! Usually I'm more on the quick-bread side, but because I am ill I had some time to do this. I stretched the procedure over three days but you could do it in two.
This was the first time my dough did really rise. Maybe because it reckognized that I have time, too :o]
I read that for many other TWD-ers it dind't work and some didn't especially like the recipe - well, I'm one of the lovers! But I have to admit, that on the one side I am tempted to do this again and again, and on the other side I guess the Cranberry Walnut Pumpik Loaf is just too time consuming.

I made the pumpkin-puree myself as it is almost impossible to get canned one in Austria. But that's fine, because it's easy in the making anyways.

I quite like how it turned out. I made half the recipe and ended up with a mini and one normal loaf. Huge amount, for half the recipe... Besides the time-factor it is easy in the making  and the taste-combo of pumpkin (only slightly), nuts and cranberries (more dominant) is convincing. If you like bread-baking, try this perfect autumn-recipe!

For the recipe, head over to the blog by this weeks host Rebecca: This Bountiful Backyard.
Or have a look to the wonderful book "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan on pp. 108/109.