Chocolate Cream Tart

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe was for a chocolate cream tart. 

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of custardy desserts, never have been. I can't stand the texture. I decided to give this tart a try, however, because I had never made pastry cream and wanted to give it a shot, plus the comments from the official TWD members were so positive that I thought maybe this tart would change my mind. 

I am so glad I gave this tart a shot. It consists of a bittersweet chocolate shortbread crust, chocolate pastry cream filling, and a whipped cream topping. It is delicious. Incredibly rich, but not heavy, and the texture of the filling was silky and divine.

All of the elements were fairly simple to put together, and I had so much fun making the pastry cream. 

I made a few changes to the recipe, but nothing major: the crust calls for 1 egg yolk, though in my excitement I neglected to notice the word "yolk" and put in an entire egg. It worked great anyway, and I baked it an extra 4 minutes to make sure it would be crunchy, not cakey; the pastry cream calls for bittersweet chocolate, but all I had on hand was semisweet so I used that and reduced the sugar from 6 tablespoons to 4 so it wouldn't be too sweet; the whipped topping calls for confectioner's sugar, but I prefer to put just a touch of honey in mine. All of the components of this tart work beautifully together, this recipe is definitely another winner! 

The above photo does not do this tart justice - I waited too long to photograph it, and it started to dry out around the edges... oh well... I promise it tastes a lot better than it looks in this photo. (It also looked a lot better 3 days ago when I made it)

Kim of Scrumptious Photography chose this recipe. You can find the recipe here.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Granola Breakfast Cookies

Anytime I can have an excuse for eating cookies for breakfast, I'll take it! This week's recipe for the SMS baking group was for these yummy cookies made with granola. I used all molasses instead of molasses and honey - my cookies are probably browner than other people's because of that, and used some all purpose flour instead of all whole wheat - I had no idea I was running so low on wheat - but otherwise I stayed true to the recipe. These cookies are incredibly easy and fast to make - not taking into account the time it takes to make the granola - and quite yummy. The granola has a lot of variety in it - pumpkin seeds, almonds, rye flakes, dried cherries, etc... so there are a lot of great textures and flavors in the cookie. They are nice and crisp on the outside, and wonderfully chewy on the inside. All in all, a very tasty cookie - and sugar-free, so my 2 1/2 year old son can eat them! (He loved them, by the way). Thank you to Jessica of A Singleton in the Kitchen for choosing this recipe. You can find the recipe here on Jessica's blog, and if you'd like to see the other SMS baker's creations, look here.

Mediterranean Pizza (with Broccoli)

After seeing the delectable asparagus, fingerling potato and goat cheese pizza on Wendy's blog Pink Stripes I was inspired to make pizza of my own this week. 

For my crust, I used the same recipe she did from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart . It was the October 2008 Daring Bakers challenge, and let me say how fantastic it is. It is unbelievably simple to make - especially in a stand mixer. The dough takes less than 10 minutes to put together, nd doesn't require multiple turns of kneading and rising - simple, simple, simple! This recipe calls for tossing the dough. I had never tossed pizza dough before, but I was eager to give it try. It wasn't a terribly graceful operation, but it was  lot of fun, and it worked! I used 2 of the 6 balls of dough that the recipe makes, and ended up with pizzas approximately 12" in diameter. 

I went a little crazy with the toppings, but it all worked together, and the pizzas were delicious. I topped them with locally made tomato sauce, broccoli, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh parmesan, fresh mozzarella, gorgonzola, walnuts and fresh basil. So yummy. The recipe for the crust can be found here at Rosa's Yummy Yums

No Sweet Melissa Sundays today...

My 2 1/2 year old and I both had a stomach bug for the last week - hence the lack of postings... He's completely over it, and I'm pretty much over it, but didn't quite feel up to baking :( 

I'm hoping to make the turnovers later this week and post them then. 

Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Wow, this has been a chocolate-filled week! No complaints here... This Tuesdays with Dorie recipe - a baking group that I am not officially a member of, but I'm baking along with them anyway - was chosen by Holly of Phemomenon, and it is a winner! As the recipe states, it is very easy to make - the whole thing is done in a food processor, and only takes about 15 minutes. It is then baked and topped with a rich ganache (which is about half as thick as the torte itself!). As compared with my Brooklyn Brownout Cake, this one turned out beautifully, and I am not at all embarrassed to take a photo of the whole thing. This is ganache as it should be - shiny and smooth. This torte is rich, dense and has a lovely almond flavor that comes from the amaretti cookies and almonds that are part of the batter. You can find the recipe on Holly's blog. This dessert is so easy and delicious, it is great for any occasion - and so beautiful, anyone you serve it to will think it took hours! This one is a keeper for sure!

Double Chocolate Brownies

This is a fabulous, super-chocolaty brownie recipe, courtesy of marthastewart.com. I made these for my Brooklyn Brownout Cake instead of the brownies in the Sweet Melissa book. I had made them before, and knew that I loved them - they are everything  brownie should be: dense and rich with a lovely flaky top. I waited a little too long to take photos so they dried out a bit - they are actually more fudgy than they appear to be. You can find the recipe here. 

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Brooklyn Brownout Cake

I'm becoming a cake convert. This week's recipe for the Sweet Melissa Sunday bakers is for a delicious, dense, decadent chocolate cake filled with a brownie and ganache mixture, and topped with ganache. There isn't much you could do to make this cake more chocolaty. Right up my alley. I'll post the brownie recipe I used later this week. I baked this cake in two rectangular pans - one large, one small - and made two squareish cakes. 

So, I was a bit off my game today when making this cake. For starters, I forgot to measure my hot coffee, and ended up pouring too much in - I'm not sure how much, but I think it was around 1/4 cup or so. I compensated by adding an extra 2 tablespoons of flour. It seemed to work, because the cake was moist and delicious and done in 35 minutes exactly. Then I had a ganache mishap - not once but twice! I've made perfect ganache many times, but I just couldn't do it today. I think I over-mixed it, because it started separating and getting very oily. I used it anyway, and after the cake was refrigerated for about 30 minutes it firmed up nicely. Though there were some whitish spots where the oily parts of the ganache had hardened... 

Elyse of Elyse's Confectionary Creations chose this week's recipe, and let me say, her cake turned out to be much, MUCH more attractive than mine... Mine is so embarrassingly ugly, I couldn't even bring myself to take a shot of the whole cake. Looks aren't everything, though, and what it lacks in beauty, it more than makes up for in taste. Thanks to Elyse for choosing this scrumptious cake. Please visit Elyse's blog for the recipe. Also, be sure to check out the cakes that the other SMS bakers made this week.