Category: Recipe Review

Holiday Baking

Thank goodness it’s over!  I really enjoy baking, but when my one-woman kitchen begins to resemble the Tollhouse Factory assembly line I tend to get a wee bit crabby.  I have to figure out a way to attack things better next year.

sour cream cake

I made peppermint bark, and snickerdoodle blossoms, and peanut butter fudge, and Tollhouse pan cookies, and toffee bars (at least, that what we’ve always called them – it’s more of a butter cookie with melted Hershey bars on top), and spiced almonds, and mock turtles, and sour cream cherry coffee cake.  All good, but SO. MANY. DISHES. TO. WASH. And then I had to get it all wrapped up and divvied up and off my dining room table in time to set the table for Christmas Eve dinner.  AACK.

But, dinner was lovely, and ended with Dorie’s All in One Holiday Bundt Cake.  I’ve made this before, but I still loved it just as much the second time around. The cake is surprisingly light considering all the stuff it has to hold (cranberries, nuts and apples), and it absolutely doesn’t need the maple icing Dorie suggests.

All in One holiday bundt

We devoured it after a big pasta dinner, and the leftovers were in great demand for Christmas breakfast. Thanks to The Nitty Bitty for picking it back in November!

TWD: Sugar-topped Molasses Spice Cookies

These were a treat right around Thanksgiving, and given that I have a whole new bottle of molasses in the pantry now, I’m thinking they might be a treat again someday soon!

Spiced Ginger Molasses Cookies

These cookies were chewy and dense and certainly spiced well – you must like ginger snaps to like these cookies, because they offer FAR MORE than your grocery store variety spice cookies.  Also, they were a bit of a handful to get into the baking pan, so definitely chill the dough as Dorie recommends before trying to rol them out (I still ended up with a thin layer of dough on each hand after I rolled a dozen or so out). The woman knows her stuff!

I, of course, was drinking them with milk or weak tea, because that’s how I roll these days. But they would also be lovely with the last of the wine after dinner. They certainly are not overly sweet to where they might compete with the wine.  I served them after brunch (french toast, quiche, sausage and cocktails) with friends for the perfect ending to a delightful Sunday morning.

TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

I am proud to report that this week I followed as few of Dorie’s instructions as possible and I STILL came up with a product that made me eat an otherwise undesirable vegetable. I feel like I am making progress.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Contrary to what the cookbook said I put the sweet potatoes and room temperature butter in the food processor and then mixed the puree with he dry ingredients, including pumpkin pie spice from one of my favorite stores. I then dropped the dough onto a cookie sheet in heaping tablespoons, smoothed the shape with my finger and baked them.

The resulting biscuit probably isn’t as light and flaky as Dorie would like, and it certainly wasn’t as well shaped, but they are as delicious with pot roast as they are with apple cider or my morning coffee, and I am darn proud of my low maintenance technique.

I’ve never been a fan of sweet potatoes, you see, and I know they are good for me when prepared appropriately. Here’s why, according to the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission:

  • The Center for Science in the Public Interest ranked the sweet potato at 184 in nutritional value, more than 100 points ahead of the baked Idaho potato, spinach or broccoli.
  • Sweet potatoes provide twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A
  • Sweet potatoes provide more than one-third of the daily requirements of vitamin C.
  • Sweet potatoes are an important source of beta-carotene, vitamin B6, iron, potassium and fiber.
  • Studies have consistently shown that a high intake of beta carotene-rich vegetables and fruits, like sweet potatoes, can significantly reduce the risks for certain types of cancer.
  • Sweet potatoes contain virtually no fat or sodium.

I imagine, however, that this is all negated by the butter in these biscuits or by the deep fryer in the case of sweet potato fries. DRAT.

Housekeeping

Between working on the house, working at my job, celebrating with family, hosting overnight guests, and just sheer exhaustion, I’m WAY behind on my posting for TWD. But know, dear bakers, that I’ve been eating right alongside you and loving most of our creations.

I just recently pulled the photos of our Applesauce Spice Bars off of my camera (they were just before my niece’s Christening photos), and they were one of my favorites! I baked them over one of the first really cool fall weekends using Farmer’s Market apples, and they were popular both at home and at work – so popular that I forgot to photograph them before they were all gone:

Applesauce Spice Bars

Mine came out like a thin piece of apple cake with a sticky icing (which I enjoyed – it wasn’t too sweet)  but it made them very difficult to transport to the office in one piece.  We had to scrape the icing off the tin foil covering. Nevertheless, the tart fresh apple bits, plump golden raisins and wonderful fall spice blend made them worth it! I highly recommend these for an at-home treat.

They were F-A-R better then Rachel Ray’s Tiny Grape Upside Down Cakes. Mine tasted like overly dense pancake batter topped with apple jelly, and looked like something you would feel an elementary school classroom’s pet turtle:

Grape Upside Down Cakes

But maybe you’ll have more luck than I did.

Web find: guiltless orange dessert

Hungry Girl calls this dessert Scoopable Creamsicle Crush Pie, but since I turned it into parfaits, I’m not really sure that the name still applies. But it tastes darn good. You can find the recipe at her site in celebration of National Creamsicle Day (Aug. 14).

frozen orange

Two things appealed to me about this recipe: 1) it uses Nilla Wafers, which I love, and 2) it doesn’t mandate anything I din’t usually have in the house – most especially, no mass quantities of Splenda. I made the creamy filing with instant pudding mix, yogurt, Cool Whip and the juice from a can of mandarin oranges, and then layered it with whole orange slices and cookies that she recommended you break up.  I think my way was much better, if only because it dictated single servings in the cute parfait glasses I got at a second hand store for 25 cents a piece.

Plus, I could eat them with the excuse that Baby needed fruit and calcium and maintain some truth to my story – the ingredients are that real. Life is good.

(Alas, the dessert would be far cuter if I had a can of cool whip to spray on top, but that would have mandated another trip to the grocery store, most likely in my pajamas, and nobody wanted that.)

TWD: Brownie Buttons

 These desserts are so tiny, I’m hesitant to say too much in my post: these were not great, but they have a great form and so they may end up in a holiday basket just for their darling appearance.

Brownie Buttons

The chocolate cake is kind of dry and I’m not digging the orange-chocolate combination.  I would have preferred instant espresso powder to deepen the flavor.  BUT, the hard white chocolate topping and mini-muffin cup size is wonderful – totally different from anything else I’ve made, and so I might make them again just for the aesthetics.

You’ll find the recipe at Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen (who photographed them is a darling cake dome!). I have a few suggestions to enhance Dorie’s advice:

1) Use a tablespoon of batter in each mini muffin cup, but a teaspoon. These barely rose at all.

2) Butter the muffin cups really well or else use paper liners.  The batter looked so slick I might have skimped on the Crisco, and I had a really hard time getting them out of the pan. Several buttons were lost in the process.

3) Skip the orange in favor of almond extract, espresso, or mint even.

TWD: Banana Bundt Cake

As I’ve come to expect, Dorie’s creation is moist, delicious, sweet, perfect even without icing, blah blah, blah. It’s also easy to make, and produces few dishes to wash. The Other Eater in my Household likes that part, especially.

Banana Bundt

My challenge will be to find reasons why it is ok to eat this for breakfast the rest of the week. I am proud to say that I made it with fat free yogurt rather than sour cream, which is always nice. Also, the cake does have 4 bananas. These offer potassium, fiber, Vitamin C and Vitamin B, (Thanks, Tao of Good Health).  Practically good for me!

What never fails to amaze me is how other TWD bakers move past the excitement of simply having fresh baked good in the house and think creatively.  Confectiona’s Realm added almond extract and apple butter (and considered other stuff) before putting hers in the oven. Prudence Pennywise added maple extract, wheat flour and nuts. And Ezra Poundcake is thinking about peanut butter cream. A hat tip to you all!

You’ll find the recipe for Dorie’s masterpiece at The Food Librarian, where Mary touts all things Bundt.  I kind of agree that I love my bundt pan and the beauty it brings to the table without icing or frosting or in-some-other-way polishing a less-than-perfect dessert. I’m going to have to check out some of the other 10 bundts she’s blogged about this year…

Side Note: While looking for reasons to eat more of this cake, I found that:

  • An average American eats 26 pounds of bananas every year – that’s about 150 bananas.
  • Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the early years (1892-1920s) were given bananas to eat. Many had never seen them and didn’t know how to eat them – some ate the whole thing, peel and all.
  • Bananas were introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the same expo that introduced Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone.

grilled potato salad is better than it looks

Does that ever happen to anyone else? I made Real Simple magazine’s grilled potato and onion salad and it was delicious.  Just as simple as they promised, too, and a nice way to christen The Other Eater’s birthday gift, a mesh grill pan.  However, I think I need a dinner stylist. Because while dinner was delightful, it didn’t look so good:

626-005.JPG

I hope my art won’t stop you from trying the potato salad, though.  It’s a good find.

 

TWD: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

oh, honey-peach ice cream, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…This was seriously the best weekend treat I could have asked for.  I fire up the ice cream maker a lot during the summer, and previously my favorite was Nutella ice cream.  But now that Dorie has given me this, I’m not so sure.

honey peach ice cream

Even though I used frozen peaches (it’s too easly for fresh peaches in this part of the country, and frozen peaches come already skinned. SCORE!) for this treat, I found it wonderful.  I like to think it’s the locally produced farmers market honey I used,  rather than that flavorless glop that comes in the plastic bear.  The ice cream was rich and fresh and summer-tasting.  I can’t wait to make it again!

So, to justify my passion, I found several health benefits to my indulgence (via DinineCaroline and Health24):

  • Peaches are low in calories and one 100 g peach provides almost three quarters of the daily vitamin C requirement.
  • The fruit has a gentle laxative effect.
  • Peaches are also rich in iron and potassium.
  • When allergy season hits, locally-produced raw honey may be an effective treatment. Local honey works best, according to some, because it contains pollen from the same local grass and trees that are making you sneeze. However, few controlled studies support the efficacy of honey as an allergy treatment beyond those showing that it works as well as a placebo. If you have severe seasonal allergies, consult an allergist before self-medicating with honey.
  • Honey might improve your oral health. Studies have shown that the anti-microbial properties of manuka honey, thanks to enzymes, can help clear bacteria from infected wounds and can be used to treat gum disease and gingivitis.
  • Honey contains the same level of antioxidants as spinach and strawberries, according to some research.  The antioxidants in a gram of honey equal the antioxidants in a gram of fruit.

So, eat up, readers! Visit Brown Interior for the recipe – she added amaretto to her ice cream! Might this be another place for my beloved bourbon?

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

Oh, baking friends, where do the weeks go? I SWEAR there was no Tuesday this week – nope…skipped right from Monday to Wednesday.  That’s GOT to be the reason I am so far behind in these lovely desserts.

I’ve got a few to catch up on, so here goes.

Cinnamon Squares

The cinnamon squares were a hit, especially because they fill only a 9″ pan. Any more I think would be overload, but the cake is not dry, the chocolate is not too bitter, and the cinnamon is it spectacular self! It is my favorite flavor in the whole world. Thanks to Tracey for selecting it and posting the recipe on her Web site.

I once heard that a fraternity hazed freshman by making them swallow a whole tablespoon of cinnamon, and it didn’t sound too bad to me – that’s how much I love the flavor. I buy good cinnamon, too, from the Spice House.  It’s so much more flavorful than the stale stuff in the grocery store.  One whiff inside the store and you understand why it’s worth the trip (or the shipping charge if you buy online).

But I think the cake is perfect not just because of the featured ingredient but because of the combination of cinnamon and chocolate in such perfect proportions (even though I clearly need to practice scooping half of the batter into the pan before I sprinkle in the cinnamon/coffee/sugar/chocolate layer, as you can see that mine is a little too close to the bottom of the pan. Oops).  The chocolate frosting is this hardened combination of chocolate and butter that I hope to replicate on many dessert. I can see it on cupcakes, banana bread, peanut butter cookies…