TWD: Perfect Party Cupcakes

I just didn't have it in me to make a layer cake this week. Too much going on, plus I only have one 9- inch cake pan. So to simplify matters, I made cupcakes.

The cake is a white cake flavored with lemon extract. I used lemon juice instead, so it probably wasn't quite as lemony as it would have been with extract, but the lemon flavor was there. 

The only other change I made was the frosting. I made a simple buttercream of butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. It was delicious on the cupcakes.

Some TWDers mentioned that they had rising problems, but I didn't. Mine rose beautifully, and the result was a moist cake with a light lemony flavor and a tender crumb. This was a beautiful cake, and I look forward to making it on many occasions, layers and all!

BBA Challenge: Brioche

The next bread to come along in The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is brioche. 

Brioche is a wonderfully rich French bread, and we had three versions to choose from: Rich Man's, Middle Class and Poor Man's. The difference in them being their butter content. I went middle of the road with the Middle Class (which still contains a none too shabby 1/2 pound of butter! Yikes!)

This was a really fun and easy bread to make. The dough is made in the mixer, then refrigerated overnight to harden the butter enough to make it workable. It is then formed into loaves or brioche a tete (pictured). Clearly, I need a little practice shaping my brioche a tete, but I'm certain I'll get it, because this bread was delicious and I'll definitely be making it again! It was delicious, and my son loved it. 

I should add that the recipe called for 2 tablespoons of sugar and I replaced it with agave. Since it was such a small quantity, I didn't alter the amounts of any of the other ingredients.

SMS: Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

To say that my family is comprised of chocolate lovers would be a gross understatement. It's more like fiends, or fanatics, or devotees. I have an aunt who won't eat any dessert that isn't chocolate, because it isn't worth the calories; when the local chocolate lounge opened in Asheville, I was interviewed for an article the local paper was writing on them because I was such a regular customer; when my husband fills out forms where you pick a password and have a clue for yourself as to what that password is, he picks the question "what is your favorite food" and answers "chocolate." Though he may have to change that now... Anyway, you get the idea... So there is a high bar set for chocolate desserts in my family.

I was really excited to make these cookies, and they came together quickly and easily. They were the darkest cookie dough I've ever made, so needless to say I was anxious to taste them. They looked incredible coming out of the oven: gooey chocolate pools, the dark cracked surface that was a tiny bit crisp, the soft center. I will say that Melissa's cookies have some of the best textures of any cookies I've ever had. 

Now for the taste: I thought they were really good. Definitely something I had no trouble eating several of in a row, but there are definitely some things I would tweak. 

For a cookie that has "cherry" in the title, I thought they were a little cherry poor. I think the quantity could have been doubled easily. I like the juxtaposition of the tart chewy cherries with the dark chocolate. I cut my cherries into raisin-sized pieces, following a tip from a fellow SMSer, though I kind of wish I hadn't. Maybe then I would have gotten more of the cherry punch I was looking for. I also thought the cookies were a tad too sweet, so I will use less sugar when I make them again. I used chopped chocolate chunks instead of chips, which I loved and would definitely do again. 

These were really very good cookies, and had I not made the world peace cookies a few weeks back - another double chocolate cookie, and better than these in my opinion - they probably would have seemed even more outstanding. 

Thanks to Megan of My Baking Adventures for picking these cookies. Find the recipe on her blog.

The Daring Bakers: Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I love almond desserts, so I was looking forward to making this one. 

The bakewell tart is comprised of three elements: a sweet shortcrust pastry, a layer of jam and an almond frangipane filling. All three are quite simple - especially if using store-bought jam - so I was expecting an effortless evening of baking when I set forth with this recipe. Not so. 

The crust went well enough, except that it was so wet once the eggs were in that I omitted water altogether. Also, it was difficult to roll out - even after over an hour in the fridge - so i ended up pressing it into my tart pan. 

I was intending to make my own jam - rose petal, in fact - but I wasn't able to find roses that could be guaranteed unsprayed in time. I have located a source that will have some for me in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned to see how the jam turns out. I ended up using sour cherry jam that I bought, so this was the easiest step of all!

Now to the filling: It came together easily enough, looked great as I poured it into the pan, spread evenly, I had high hopes. After not quite 30 minutes in the oven, it was quite poofy and quite brown, so I removed it from the oven. After it cooled, I cut into it, and the filling all oozed out. Back into the oven it went for about 15 minutes. After which it was still fairly runny, but I thought it would firm up as it cooled. I was wrong. Finally, after another 20+ minutes it was done on the inside.

I enjoyed this tart, but I wasn't crazy for it. Probably not something I'd make again. 

 

TWD: Pineapple...

This week's TWD recipe was for a coconut-roasted pineapple dacquoise. The recipe just didn't appeal to me... Too many eggs... The pineapple part, however, was enticing. After seeing this cake at Smitten Kitchen and finding a ripe pineapple, I knew I had to make it. 

The last time I made a pineapple upside-down cake was when I was 16. It was my grandfather's favorite dessert, and I made it for his birthday. He passed away just over 8 years ago, so I made this cake with him in mind. 

It was a hit. I made it for a family dinner, and it was gobbled up within minutes. The picture above is the second one I made in as many weeks. I made it for my husband for Father's Day (along with blueberries and dumplings, fried green tomatoes and cheese grits - none of which I was able to photograph, unfortunately). Turns out, it's one of his favorites, too!

The cake is delicious - moist, fresh, great texture. It will definitely become a regular in our house.

I used apple juice instead of pineapple as the recipe called for - just because that's what I had. I baked it in a 9" springform as Deb did - my cast iron skillet was too big. 

The first time I made it I didn't have and light brown sugar, so I used granulated for the topping. The second time I did have it, but we agreed that it was better with the granulated. 

The cake is delicious - moist, fresh, great texture. It will definitely become a regular in our house.

Here is the recipe. Visit the TWD blogroll to see some lovely dacquioses, and thanks to Andrea of Andrea in the Kitchen for choosing it and hosting this week. You can find the dacquoise recipe on her blog.

SMS: Not Exactly Butterscotch Cashew Bars

This week's recipe was for butterscotch cashew bars. I knew I'd have a problem when I saw the list of ingredients, because it called for butterscotch chips. We're very dedicated to eating all organic food, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to find organic butterscotch chips. I was right. 

So, I was trying to decide how I could alter the recipe. I thought I could double the other ingredients in the topping, but after a second look, that didn't seem like it would work. I considered using chocolate chips, but I was looking forward to a caramely flavor. So I thought I'd find a recipe for caramel and top the crust with that - caramel is something I've wanted to try my hand at for a ong time. But because I've wanted to try it for so long, I wanted some on its own, without a crust. I didn't want to make one pan with a crust and one without, so I settled for just making caramel. So that I would be making something remotely resembling what the other SMSers were doing, I topped part of my caramel with roasted salted cashews. (The rest of it was topped with fancy sea salt I got from a great little salt/chocolate/flower shop called The Meadow, on a trip to Portland, OR last year).

I found the caramel recipe on the wonderful blog Baking Obsession. It is a variation of an Alice Medrich recipe. I didn't steep my milk with cardamom pods, because I didn't have any - though I think that would be delicious, and I'll definitely do it next time I make these - and I used brown rice syrup to avoid heating honey. These caramels took a whole lot longer to make than I thought they would, but they were worth it. They are delicious!!! Please visit Baking Obsession for the recipe. 

Thanks to Pamela for chosing this week's recipe - sorry I didn't exactly make it!!! The recipe for butterscotch cashew bars can be found on her blog Cookies with Boys.

Take a look here if you want to see what was supposed to be made this week.

TWD: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

I was pretty excited to see this recipe in the June TWD line-up. Peaches are just coming into season, and it gave me a chance to pull out my all-too-infrequently-used ice cream maker.

Luckily, I planned ahead for this recipe better than I did for the cobbler of a couple weeks ago, and bought peaches early enough in advance so that they would ripen in time to make this ice cream. I am so glad I did. The ice cream is amazing.

Peach is not a flavor of ice cream that I ever buy at the store, or order at an ice cream parlor, but it is so delicious when homemade, so quintessentially summery. It was one of my grandfather's favorite flavors, so making and eating it made me think about him, wish he could be eating it with me... 

I made a few changes to the recipe:

- I cooked the peaches in maple syrup instead of honey - I grew up ascribing to the ancient Indian system of health called Ayurveda, in which the heating of honey is said to have negative health effects.

- I pureed all of the peaches after reading the P&Qs - people commented on the chopped peaches becoming icy chunks that weren't too pleasant

- I omitted the sugar from the custard and used a couple tablespoons of maple syrup. After tasting the peach mixture, I felt it was sweet enough, and without the sugar my 2 1/2 year old - who has never had sugar - would be able to eat it. 

I loved this ice cream. It was smooth, creamy, fresh, light, subtle, refreshing, amazing. Seeing as this is just the beginning of peach season, I think this ice cream will be making a few more appearances this summer.

Thank you to Tommi of Brown Interior for picking this wonderful recipe. Visit the TWD blogroll to see everyone else's ice creams.

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