This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Toasted Almond Scones. On Sunday morning I gave Josh a choice of three things for breakfast: cereal, waffles, or these scones. I was surprised that he didn’t select the option you can (appropriately) cover in maple syrup, though pleased, since I wanted to try these. I would have made them Monday if he had chosen waffles, but the sooner the better. These were terrific scones. I admit, I thought it seemed a little fussy to grind some of the almonds and then chop some – perhaps I’m just lazy. It was totally worth it, though, since the chopped almonds gave the flaky scones some nice texture and added a lot of flavor. These scones were yummy plain and also with a dab of apricot preserves.
This recipe rated a 7.5 for Deliciousness and a 3.25 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.3. Many thanks to Mike of Living Out West for a delightful selection. You can find the recipe here on Mike’s site and visit the TWD site for more scones.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Chocolate Oatmeal Drops. I read reports that the cookies spread a lot, which I always find a little disappointing (my oven kind of crisps things up). In order to prevent this, I turned them into bar cookies. The other reports were that they tasted brownie-esque, so I figured it made sense. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: when you bake (nearly) every single recipe from a book, there are bound to be some that aren’t huge hits, and this was one of them. We may have gotten a little more excited about them if we hadn’t had extra special treats around for Valentine’s Day. These humble cookies were a bit overshadowed by the brioche sticky buns I made from the Flour Bakery cookbook and some insanely good cupcakes Josh brought home last night.
Since I do love both oats and chocolate, they were definitely worth a try, and I’m sure the leftovers will be appreciated by co-workers. We rated these cookies a 6.5 for Deliciousness (I think if I presented them to Josh as “breakfast bars,” he would have given them a higher rating) and I gave them a 2 for Effort, for an EDR of 3.25. Many thanks to Caroline and Claire of Bake with Us for hosting this week. You can find the recipe here on their site, and after a couple weeks off, I am looking forward to seeing how my fellow bakers fared.
Tuesdays With Dorie is wrapping up January with Nutty, Chocolatey, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake. In her recipe notes, Dorie acknowledges that in the years she has been baking, cakes like this have come in and out and back in of fashion. I thought this was funny, because before I joined Tuesdays With Dorie, I thought Bundt cakes were sort of seventies-era, boring potluck food. I now own several Bundt pans and enjoy making Bundt cakes. How can you not love the instant gratification of unmolding a cake from a pan and calling it done? Well, perhaps a quick sprinkle of powdered sugar or glaze, but you know what I mean. Though, that being said, this was the very first time I ever had an issue with a Bundt cake sticking to the pan (despite implementing Flo Braker’s butter, cooking spray, and flouring method to prep the pan), so this one isn’t quite so pretty.
This cake was so good, though, that it doesn’t matter at all what it looks like. I think my favorite part about the cake was the textures. The outer layer browned and had a nice crunch, the inside was nice and soft, and the swirl was perfectly crispy. You really couldn’t have a bad bite with this cake. Last week I skimped on the sour cream in the TWD recipe, using yogurt instead. I was a little disappointed with the results, so didn’t mess around this week (though I did use light sour cream) and it was 100% worth it.This recipe rated a 9 for Deliciousness and a 4 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.25. Many thanks to Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort for hosting this week. I’ve been sick this week and this cake definitely did bring me some comfort. You can find the recipe here on Jennifer’s site and visit the TWD site to see if the other bakers successfully removed their cakes from the pan.
Tuesdays With Dorie is pretty chocolate-heavy this month, so it was nice to see something bright and citrusy, in the form of Lemon Poppyseed Muffins, in the middle of the month. I made these on Sunday morning, and the only difficult part was waiting for the muffins to cool so they could be glazed! I would recommend not lining your muffin tins for this recipe, as my glaze dripped on them a bit. I subbed in plain nonfat yogurt for the sour cream and don’t think the texture suffered tremendously. Okay, they probably would have been a bit richer and softer with it, but I still thought they were a nice treat.
Since Josh consumed the majority of the muffins, I asked him for a Deliciousness rating and he said 7 (enjoyed them, though probably won’t request them again) and I gave the recipe a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.8. A big thank you to Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness for a lovely January selection. You can find the recipe here on Betsy’s site and click over to the TWD site for more muffins.
This week it’s my turn (!!!) to select the Tuesdays With Dorie recipe and I think I managed to choose the only recipe in the book that involves marshmallow crème, Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines. I bought some madeleine pans around the same time I bought Baking (guess which I’ve used more often?), so this is one of the first recipes I put on my “to-make” list and I’m glad that it was still available when it was my turn to host. I must confess that when I was a teenager, my stepsister and I used to eat marshmallow fluff straight from the jar and I still love the stuff. I think this is a slightly more dignified way to eat it. Josh thought it was nice that I made something that looked like a football the weekend of the play-offs.
Though I haven’t used the pans very often, I’ve noticed that some madeleine recipes call for the batter to be chilled before baking and some do not. Dorie explains that chilling the batter increases your chance of the madeleines having their characteristic hump. It always is a good way to separate the work of a recipe over the course of two days, which I am a fan of. After an overnight chill, this batter was very thick and baked up huge madeleines! 
One culinary skill I can use some work at is piping, I am always kind of a mess with a piping bag. I wasn’t able to get as much fluff in the madeleines as I would have liked. Maybe I’m just a glutton, but if anyone has suggestions for getting more filling in madeleines or cupcakes, I would be happy to hear them. I am not complaining about the chocolatiness of this recipe, though! Alone, the madeleines may have been good, but a bit ordinary; however, coated in chocolate ganache they are absolutely fantastic!
We rated this recipe an 8 for Deliciousness and I gave it a 4 for Effort, for an EDR of 2. A huge thank you to all the fabulous bakers who baked along with me this week. Every Tuesday I look forward to seeing the creations this incredibly talented group comes up with and am constantly inspired to try new things; I can’t wait to see all the fluffy goodness this week.
Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines, from pages 170-171 of Baking: From My Home to Yours
For the Madeleines
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (3.375 ounces)
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (.75 ounces)½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt 2 large eggs, at room temperature½ cup sugar (3.5 ounces)
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooledMarshmallow Fluff, for filling and frosting
For the Dip
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
To make the Madeleines: Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together.
Working with a stand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until pale and slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract, then switch to a rubber spatula and gently fold in the sifted dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Put a piece of plastic wrap directly against the surface of the batter and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days. Chilling the batter gives you a better chance of getting the characteristic hump on the back of the cookies.Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Generously butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour, and tap out the excess. Butter and flour or spray the pan even if it is nonstick; skip this step if you are using a silicone pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet.
Spoon the batter into the molds.
Place the pan in the oven and immediately lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, or until they feel springy to the touch. Remove the pan from the oven and rap one side of the madeleine pan against the counter – the plump little cakes should come tumbling out. Gently pry any reluctant cookies out with your fingers or a butter knife. Cool to room temperature on a rack.To Fill the Madeleines: Fit a small pastry bag with a small plain tip and spoon the fluff into the bag. Use the point of the tip to poke a hole in the rounded (plain) side of each madeleine, and pipe enough fluff into each cookie to fill it – stop when the fluff reaches the top of the cake. (You’ll use only a bit of fluff.)To Make the Dip: Put the chocolate in a small deep heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a full boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Wait for 1 minute, then gently whisk the cream into the chocolate: start at the center and slowly work your way out in concentric circles until you have a smooth, shiny mixture. Gently whisk in the butter. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. One by one, hold a madeleine at its narrow end and dip it into the chocolate, then lift it up, let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl and place smooth side down on the wax paper. Slide the baking sheet into the refrigerator to set the glaze, about 15 minutes. (You’ll have more ganache than you need, but making a larger quantity produces a better ganache. The leftover dip can be covered and refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for up to 1 month.) If you’d like, pipe a squiggle of fluff on the top of each madelein once the chocolate is set. Makes 12 Cookies.
Serving: Coffee or every variety, milk, and hot chocolate are all good companions. Storing: Although the batter can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple days, the madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. However, wrapped airtight, they can be frozen – even after they’ve been filled and frosted – for up to 2 months. And stale madeleines, as Proust would be the first to tell you, are good for dunking.Playing Around: Use the same poke-and-pipe technique to fill the madeleines with raspberry jam, lemon curd – homemade (page 462) or store-bought – or Nutella.
Sweet Melissa Sundays are back with cake! Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake, to be precise. I’m surprised this recipe hadn’t been selected yet and it’s a great way for the group to begin 2011. My birthday was Wednesday and Josh is planning on making me a cake and I briefly considered letting this be my birthday cake since I thought it sounded so good, but decided to “save” my special cake for a later date. And don’t worry – we celebrated with cupcakes on my actual birthday! 
There is a raspberry icing recipe in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes that I absolutely love (and so does everyone who tries it), so I thought about using that and then decided I should try the recipe in the Sweet Melissa book. However, the original recipe called for a mixture of whole raspberries and raspberry liqueur to be mixed in and the idea of whole raspberry seeds in the frosting was kind of off-putting to me. I saw Tracey had made a whole raspberry-free frosting and was inspired to stick with my initial instinct and eliminate them as well. I used a scant half cup of seedless raspberry preserves for the raspberry flavor and color, which essentially made it like recipe I usually make. Oh, and Melissa’s recipe does not specify to let the egg/white sugar syrup combination cool down before you add the butter (the syrup is 240 degrees when it goes in), but I recommend chilling it briefly before adding the butter.We rated this recipe an 8.5 for Deliciousness and I gave it a 4.5 for Effort (it may have been slightly higher if I’d had to ice the cake, but Josh was nice enough to do it for me), for an EDR of 1.88. Many thanks to Candy of Candy Girl for a delicious selection. You can find the recipe here on Candy's site and visit the Sweet Melissa site to see how the rest of the group liked this cake.
