For the last week of 2010, the Tuesdays With Dorie bakers were treated to another rewind recipe and could select any previously-selected recipe, which was very welcome during the busy holiday season. I had been asked to bring a dessert (naturally) to my family’s Christmas dinner, which I was happy to do. I made these phenomenal Caramel Pecan Bars (sans curry powder) for Thanksgiving and they were such a hit that I knew I must make them again for Christmas. Despite the fact that I was pretty time-challenged, I thought it would also be nice to also bring something with chocolate. I had seen a few bakers make the Almost-Fudge Gateau from Baking last time we did a rewind, and it seemed like it would be perfect for Christmas. This recipe was chosen in February 2008 by Nikki of Crazy Delicious Food and you can find the recipe here. Due to an incredibly large and delicious dinner, and several other desserts competing for its attention, not a ton of the cake was eaten on Christmas, but we’re certainly not complaining about having leftovers.
This lovely chocolate dessert was very quick to put together and only baked for thirty-five minutes, though I think it probably could have done with a couple minutes less, as the inside wasn’t quite as fudgy as I anticipated. (My oven, or rather the thermometer, has been a bit unreliable lately). Nonetheless, we are enjoying slivers of it for dessert each night and Josh rated it an 8 for Deliciousness. I gave the recipe a 3 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.66. I can’t wait to check out the Leave Your Link section of the TWD site to see what the other bakers made this week!
I always say the best way measure of how delicious a treat is to see how quickly it disappears. We first cut into this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection, Cardamom Crumb Cake, on Sunday afternoon and when I looked at the pan last night it was nearly two-thirds finished – by two people. I say that’s a darn good indication of an excellent crumb cake. I have not baked with cardamom much and find it can be a bit intense, but there was just the right amount in this cake. The cardamom blended amazingly well with the orange zest and coffee, each bite was interesting and left you wanting just a little bit more. I also enjoyed that this was not a very sweet cake.
This recipe rated an 8.5 for Deliciousness and a 3 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.83. Many thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, Jill of Jill’s Blog for a superb choice. You can find the recipe here on Jill’s site, plus lots of other unique kitchen creations, and visit the TWD site to see if it was a hit in the other bakers’ kitchens.
I think I’ve managed to refrain from complaining about this on the blog, but a couple months ago, I developed a condition called Plantar Fasciitis in my left heel and have not been able to run very much recently. Since I like to stay active (and go a little crazy without running), I have been trying a lot of other forms of exercise, one of which is power yoga. During the beginning of class on Sunday morning, the instructor asked us to focus on humility and challenged us to think of anything in our lives we could be less prideful and more humble about – little things to let go of. Naturally, I couldn’t think of anything at the time. Several hours later, when I took this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection, Apple (or in my case pineapple) Coconut Family Cake, out of the oven, my first thought was that it looked absolutely terrible – can you say overflow? – and that I needed to remake it, since it wasn’t “perfect” and I needed to photograph it for my blog.
But then I thought about what was said in class that morning and realized I didn’t want to spend precious end-of-the-weekend minutes remaking a quarter of a cake that I wasn’t that excited about to begin with. I mean, the baking group is about having fun and sharing our experiences – not having amazingly photogenic baked goods (though that is always a plus). So, I did not remake the cake and I’m glad I did not, because I actually did not like it very much. I kind of suspect I did something wrong. I made the double-nut version and used unsweetened coconut. I did enjoy the crunchy edges, but something about the flavor and the texture of the inside was a bit off for me. Josh doesn’t like coconut and didn’t think the cake looked very appealing (I am sparing y’all photos of the inside) and didn’t even bother trying it. This recipe rated a 3 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 1.2. Thank you to Amber of Cobbler du Monde for hosting this week. You can find the recipe here on Amber’s site and visit the TWD site to see how this turned out for the rest of the group.
