World Peace Cookies

Yet another spectacular recipe from Dorie Greenspan (and Pierre Herme). I loved these cookies. Loved. I loved everything about them. The texture, the flavor, the ease of making them, the fact that they're slice and bakes, the list goes on...

Before I made them, I read over the Tuesdays with Dorie P&Q from February (when the group baked these cookies). A lot of people had problems with the dough being too crumbly, but I had no problems at all - they were a breeze, and formed a log easily.

These are super chocolaty with cocoa in the batter and chocolate chips, but also contain salt - enough so that is a very present flavor. The salt is wonderfully unexpected, and a great complement to the intense chocolate. 

The recipe was chosen by Shari of Whisk: A Food Blog, you can find the recipe here. 

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

After seeing Deb's Raspberry Buttermilk Cake over at Smitten Kitchen, I knew what I would be making for Memorial Day! 

I made a few changes - some intentional, some as necessity:

I subbed strawberries for raspberries, as they are in season, and I had a lot of sweet local ones on hand; I added a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom, though the flavor didn't come through as much as I had hoped it would - next time I'll add more; I omitted the zest, because I had no lemons - if I had had lemons I would have used the zest instead of the cardamom; I subbed homemade yogurt for the buttermilk, as that was all I had.

I loved this cake. The thing that took the longest was washing and cutting the strawberries. Other than that it was fast to prepare and bake - only 25 minutes!

I love the thinness of this cake. You can eat it like pizza - no fork necessary. It is also delicious with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream.

I will definitely be making this again - it has a lot of room in it for playing around - so many possibilities!

Rugelach

I find myself always saying that recipes were simple and easy to put together, but somehow it's always true. This rugelach is no exception.

This recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours, and was chosen by Piggy of Piggy's Cooking Journal back in november of last year for Tuesdays with Dorie. You can find the recipe here.

I used fruit spread without sugar for the filling, along with ground almonds and currants. I omitted the cinnamon and sugar from the entire recipe, as well as the egg wash. They still browned beautifully.

I was really happy with how these turned out, and really surprised at how flaky the dough was. The dough came together quickly and easily, and I think could be used for all manner of pastries. My son loved them, and I will definitely be making them again. And again, and again, and again... 

The Daring Bakers: Strudel

My first Daring Bakers challenge!!!

I almost didn't make it, as it seemed a little intimidating and I wasn't sure I had the time, but stretching the dough was too intriguing to pass up, and I'm glad I went ahead and made it. The dough was fast and easy to make, and the stretching was really fun. I had no problems getting it paper thin, and I had no issues with it tearing. 

Unfortunately, the filling was another story. I realized towards the end of my dough-making that I wasn't sure what to do for a filling. I was running short on time, so I just started throwing things in a bowl: strawberries, currants, ground oats, pistachios, almonds, and a little maple syrup and salt. I think it without the oats it would have been good - or with less - but it ended up tasting too much like oatmeal.

I would really like to try a savory version, hopefully in the next week or so.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Chipster Topped Brownies

Like many of the Tuesday's with Dorie bakers, I had no idea what a "chipster" topped brownie was. When I finally did look it up in Baking, From My Home to Yours, I could hardly contain my excitement: a chocolate chip cookie on top of a brownie - what could be better???!!!

Alas, perhaps my expectations were too high, but the chipster topped brownies were not all that I had hoped they'd be...

The two different components were easy enough to put together, they just didn't work so well once in the oven...

I knew from reading the P&Q that baking times were presenting some problems, and that baking the brownie layer for a bit before adding the cookie dough seemed to help. So, I baked my brownies for 10 minutes by themselves, as one baker had done with perfect results. I had immediate reservations when I started plopping my dough on my partially baked brownie batter - the dough started sinking, and the batter was rising up  everywhere. It helped when I flattened each piece of dough before laying it down. So, back in the oven it went. After another 40 minutes, The whole thing had ballooned up - much more than I had expected it to - and was nowhere near done. I actually lost track of how many more times I set my timer for 10 more minutes, but it was at least 3. Finally, it appeared to be done, so I removed it from the oven, and it was looking pretty tasty, I must say. However, once it had been on the counter for a minute or so it caved, and I saw in the enormous crack that ran the length of it that the thing was still runny on the inside. Back  into the oven it went for another 15 minutes. 

Once cooled, we had a slice with some vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good, but not amazing. The brownie part was delicious, but the cookie part was quite a disappointment. Way too crunchy, not very cookie like at all. 

I will try this again, because I think it could be incredible, and because several of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers (of which I am still not officially a member, by the way - can't get an email response to save my life...) had great results. I think the brownie layer needs more like 20 minutes on its own. 

Thanks to Beth of Supplicious for choosing this recipe. 

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Sour Cherry Pie with Pistachio Crumble

When we started baking through The Sweet Melissa Baking Book several weeks ago, this recipe was the one that jumped out at me the most. I was hoping to pick it when it was my turn, but Michelle of Flourchild beat me to it!!! Needless to say, I couldn't wait to make it.

I had some concerns about the cherries - all I could find was frozen sweet cherries. Other people seemed to have the same experience, however, and commented that theirs had turned out great, so I forged ahead! 

I made quite a few changes to this recipe:

Crust:

I didn't use Melissa's flaky crust recipe as suggested, or any of her crust recipes for that matter. I don't use shortening, so I just stuck with my tried and true crust recipe from Heaven's Banquet by Miriam Hospodar.

Filling:

The recipe called for sour cherries, but as I couldn't find any - canned, jarred or otherwise - I used frozen sweet cherries. I also omitted the sugar altogether. I figured the cherries would be sweet enough, and without sugar my 2 1/2 year old - who has never had sugar - would be able to eat it.

Topping:

I left the sugar out of the topping as well, but replaced it with maple syrup. I added it to taste, so I'm not sure how much I used, but my guess is ht it was about 1/4 cup, maybe a little less. Also, I substituted cardamom for cinnamon in the topping. I thought it would pair better with the pistachios, and I loooooove cardamom. 

I was slightly disappointed, because when my pie came out of the oven it was very liquidy - even after cooling completely - and this made the bottom of the crust soggy. The crust was very nicely browned, and the topping was quite dark in places, so I was afraid to leave it in any longer, though I think that would have solved the runny problem. Other than that I did love it. My crust was great, the flavor of the cherries was great, and the topping was insanely delicious. As I was eating it, all I could think of was all of the other things I could make as an excuse to eat this topping again. It was that good. 

***UPDATE***

I popped my pie back in the oven for another 40!!! minutes, and it came out perfect!

Thanks to Michelle for picking this great recipe! Look here for the rest of the SMS bakers' pies.

Fresh Mango Bread

I was so excited about this recipe when I saw that it was a pick for Tuesdays with Dorie this month. I couldn't wait to make it! I love love love mango, and quick-breads are definitely a favorite of mine to make. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to find any ripe mangos, but I was able to find some small, perfectly ripe, not at all stringy, sweet wonderful ones. I used three and yielded about 1 3/4 cups. I would have liked that extra 1/4 cup, but the bread was delicious nonetheless. 

I decided to make the bread sugar-free, so I made a few substitutions. I used 1 cup of maple syrup instead of the sugars, I upped the flour to 3 cups (from 2 1/2) and I used 1/2 cup of oil instead of 3/4 cup. I did tent my bread about half way through, as it was browning quite a bit. Also, I left out the raisins, and I would do that again, though I think some walnuts will make it into my next batch. Perhaps some coconut as well. It was a difficult hour and a half of waiting as the bread baked, as I was anxious to taste it, though it was worth every minute. It is delicious. I will definitely be making this again, though I will make a couple of changes: I really love citrus zest, and couldn't taste it at all in this bread - even though the recipe called for the zest of 1/2 a lime and I used 1 whole lime; also, I will use fresh grated ginger next time, because it wasn't gingery enough for me. I think I'll also try to make an eggless version.  I'm not a huge egg fan - I'll only eat them in things - and I've had a lot of success with eggless quick-breads.

I highly recommend this bread. 

Thanks so much to Kelly of Baking with the Boys for choosing this fantastic recipe.