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This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart. I must admit that I used to get slightly annoyed when my fellow bakers would select recipes containing out-of-season fruit, but I’ve relaxed my stance for a couple reasons: 1) You should really pick whatever you desire when it’s finally your turn to choose a recipe and 2) There’s invariably a multitude of other ingredients you can substitute in any given recipe. Dorie gives a few suggestions in the “playing around” section of this recipe and the Problems & Questions section of the Tuesdays With Dorie site also had some excellent ideas. I used frozen raspberries in my mini-tart, since I had a bag of them in the freezer. I left a handful of the berries in the refrigerator this morning before I went to work and they were a little gloppy when I returned, so the filling of the tart ended up a little more like jam than whole berries. I lucked out that this was a pretty fuss-free tart, seeing as I didn’t get around to making it until Tuesday night. The recipe called for a mixture of bittersweet and milk chocolate, but I used semisweet, mainly because I had Guittard wafers, which melt beautifully and involve no chopping.
We thought this tart was pretty good, but not great. Maybe if I’d used fresh berries, it would have been better, but I don’t think this one will get a repeat performance here. The tart rated a 7 for Deliciousness and a 3.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2. Many thanks to Rachelle of Mommy? I’m Hungry! (cute name) for hosting this week. You can find the recipe here on Rachelle’s site and visit the TWD blogroll to see more tarts.
Ice cream bowl shot: we have too many desserts right now and I told Josh he needs to finish them all before he leaves for his annual Boyz Trip weekend on Friday.
I am totally behind in my Sweet Melissa posts and once again it’s 11:00 PM on Sunday night. I could go on with my excuses, but really, it’s more poor time management. Anyway, today’s recipe is Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. We have been eating tons of cake around here lately: in addition to last week’s Sweet Melissa selection, Roasted Pecan Cake with Caramel Orange Marmalade and Burnt Orange Buttercream, I made a raspberry-almond cake for my mom’s birthday two weeks ago, and today we had chocolate cake in celebration of Josh’s birthday (that one was made by his mother, though a large chunk came home with us). I hadn’t made a carrot cake for years, though, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to bake one. Besides, I had been buying large bags of carrots to make soup all winter, and with the warmer weather last week, I didn’t make any and had lots of carrots on hand.
The carrot cake was simple enough to make; the only laborious part of a carrot cake is shredding carrots. I do own a food processor, but the recipe said to shred them “medium fine,” so I used my box grater. The recipe called for a tablespoon and a half of cinnamon, which sounded like a lot of cinnamon, but I went with it, plus a small shake each of ground ginger and cloves. I made a mini cake in my 4.5-inch springform pans and the rest into cupcakes. Oh, actually muffins, since I didn’t end up frosting them. Josh left my cupcake courier at his office last time I forced my baked goods on his co-workers and they’ll be easier to transport unfrosted. For the cake, I used a different cream cheese frosting than the one in the book. My bloggy buddy Tracey has raved about Martha Stewart’s Cream Cheese Frosting (click here for the recipe), so I decided to give that one a try this time for the mini-cake. The proportion of sugar to butter and cream cheese in this recipe is much higher, which in my opinion makes it much yummier. It was also much fluffier, which is a good attribute for frosting.This cake rated an 8.5 for Deliciousness and a 4 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.125. Many thanks to Julie of a Little Bit of Everything for giving us a chance to eat more cake! You can find the recipe here on Julie’s site and visit the SMS blogroll to see what the rest of the bakers thought of the cake.
I went for a long run tonight, then had to watch the season finale of "Big Love" and (an abbreviated version of) the Oscars. And now it's almost eleven and I'm too tired to type, so more details on these Sweet Melissa Desserts later.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart. This week was the first time in months that I actually contemplated skipping TWD, since I was mildly stressed and felt like I had a lot of things to do besides bake a tart that Josh would not be terribly enthusiastic about and I would feel guilty eating myself. But then I decided it’s very important to spend time doing things I enjoy and that baking a tart would relax me, so I forged on. Besides, I had tart dough (leftover from last week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays that I didn’t get around to posting) patiently waiting in the refrigerator. I baked the dough in a four-inch tart pan this morning and it totally shrunk, the shell had no walls!
I remembered I had some chocolate pie dough in the freezer, which was also leftover from a Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe I never made (I’m really sounding like a slacker), so baked a mini-pie shell with that in order to properly house the coconut custard. I’m glad I did, ‘cos when I gave the tart to Josh to taste, he said the chocolate part was the best part of it. Overall, I thought the tart was pretty tasty; I liked the mild flavor of rum and the texture the coconut added to the custard.
We rated this tart a 7 for Deliciousness and a 3.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2. Probably not something I’d attempt again, but I had fun making it this week. Many thanks to Beryl of Cinemon Girl for hosting this week. You can find the recipe here on her site and visit the TWD blogroll to see what the rest of the bakers thought of this treat.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Honey Whole Wheat Cookies, the wheat coming from wheat germ rather than whole wheat flour. As someone born to hippie parents in the late seventies, wheat germ was common in our kitchen. I remember eating it with yogurt and bananas, and I’m sure my mom snuck it into other stuff, too. Wheat germ found its way into my current kitchen a while ago and everything I’ve made with it I’ve enjoyed; these cookies are no exception. Since I greatly enjoy the combination of honey and wheat, I was worried the addition of lemon would be disruptive, but it was subtle and added a nice contrast. I’ve been trying to avoid bringing baked goods to work for snacks, in favor of things like fruit and trail mix, but I managed to convince myself these are healthy enough to indulge in. As Josh aptly put it, “you don’t feel sinful eating them.”
We rated these cookies a 7.5 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 3, very good. Many thanks to Michelle of Flourchild for a fun selection. You can find the recipe here on her site – it sure looks like they had fun making the cookies at her house – and see what the rest of the bakers thought of these treats by visiting the TWD blogroll.Oh, and I know I had said I would have my cookie taste-off results up by today, but I just haven’t really had the time to write a detailed post. Hence the fact I didn’t even get around to photographing these cookies until 8:30 PM and posting at close to 10 PM on Tuesday.
Neither the rainy weather we’re having in Northern California nor the not-quite-ripe strawberries I found at Whole Foods were exactly convincing me it was the perfect day to make this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection, Strawberry Lemonade. I skipped last week, though, and I love lemonade and it looked quick to put together, so I went ahead and made it. The recipe instructed to stir the sugar and hot water together, but on the Problems & Questions section of the Sweet Melissa site, Tracey suggested making a simple syrup. I figured it was a lot “simpler” to let the ingredients sit on the stovetop on low for a few minutes rather than whisk furiously to get the sugar to dissolve.
The recipe is from the “After School Snacks” section of the Sweet Melissa Baking Book; coupled with the brownie bites I received from Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook for the February round of Secret Baker, the lemonade did make an excellent afternoon snack. Despite the dreary weather, I managed to go on a long run today and it’s nice to have a refreshing beverage around. I thought the lemonade was a little on the sweet side, so I cut it with some sparkling water and it’s quite good that way. I also think it might be nice spiked with some vodka or limoncello. I rated this recipe a 7 for Deliciousness and gave it a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.8. Many thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for a break from baking this weekend. You can find the recipe here on her site and visit the SMS blogroll to see what the other bakers thought of this treat.
Tuesdays With Dorie has its second classic in a row, this week it’s: My (Dorie’s) Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. Even though the recipes are posted well ahead of time, I pretty much never end up baking the TWD recipe until the Saturday or Sunday before (or occasionally the Monday or Tuesday of) the posting date. However, one night at the end of January, Josh asked if we had any cookie dough in the freezer and we didn’t. Actually, it’s possible somewhere in the very back there might be a tiny stump left, since we are not always great about frozen baked goods. Anyway, of course the one time I bake ahead of schedule, I didn’t manage to take any pictures, so I had to make them again. This wasn’t a huge sacrifice since chocolate chip cookies are quite easy to make and Josh had declared Dorie’s cookies his new favorite, or a close second to the Ad Hoc at Home Chocolate Chips Cookies. But here’s the thing: I’m really beginning to think his “favorite” cookie is whatever I have just handed him straight out of the oven and he’s eating when I ask. I even sometimes try to remind him how much he liked previous treats, based on prior Deliciousness ratings. I decided the best way to figure out what Josh’s actual favorite cookie is was to put several kinds of cookies head-to-head in a blind tasting for him. 
Unfortunately, since it’s late on Tuesday night and Josh actually needs to use the computer for work, I’m going to have to keep this post short and post the taste-off results later this week. Definitely before next Tuesday. A lot of bakers reported that Dorie’s chocolate chip cookies were incredibly thin and crispy. Mine were thin, but nice and chewy. Since Josh has an extreme preference for chewy cookies, I generally take them out a little earlier than the recipe specifies and this was no exception. In her description, Dorie presents them as being of the Tollhouse kin, and they do have that classic chocolate chip cookie taste. The first time I made them, I used pre-cut chocolate chunks, then this time I cut up a Valhrona bar and I love how the uneven little bits spread throughout the entire cookies.
Josh rated this cookie a 9 for Deliciousness and I rated it a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 3.6. Many thanks to Kaitlin of Kait’s Plate for giving us a chance to try a new chocolate chip cookie. You can find the recipe here on Kaitlin’s site and visit the TWD blogroll for more cookies.
Gratuitous photo of Josh’s ice cream bowl: CCC, a morning bun I made last weekend, and melted chocolate. He resisted adding a cake pop, since that would be over-the-top.
