tuesdays with dorie

chipster-topped brownies

05/26/2009 By bridget

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(chilled and therefore solid here)

One of my favorite things about the weekend is coffee. On weekdays, I limit myself to a big mug of black tea each day, maybe two mugs on Friday. But I have to be careful with caffeine, because even one mug of black tea makes me a little excited. The day I made these brownies, I had about twice my normal weekend allotment of coffee at home, and then there was some deal at the bookstore, and I ended up getting a medium instead of my normal small cappuccino. Whoa.

I came home and tried to make dinner and these brownies. Dinner wasn’t too complicated, and this dessert is just a basic brownie recipe topped with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. But I couldn’t focus on anything. I kept walking into the kitchen, looking around, and basically thinking, “what should I do, what should I do, what should I do?” Bzzzzzt. That was my brain. Bzzzzt.

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Dinner was sort of a disaster, so I decided to placate myself by skipping right to dessert – only to find that the middle of the pan of brownies was totally raw. That just made me irritated enough to grab a spoon and go to town.

I have no one to blame but myself. I never bothered to check the doneness of the brownies at all. I didn’t pay attention to when they went into the oven, and then at some point later, it occurred to me that I should check on them. I noticed how dark the top was and assumed I’d overcooked them.

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If I had bothered to read the discussion of this recipe on TWD’s site, which of course I hadn’t, I would have known that underdoneness was a common problem. To complicate matters, I made ¼ of the brownie portion and ½ of the cookie portion using a pan ¼ the size of what’s recommended for a full recipe. (Thanks to Caitlin for this advice – it was definitely closer to the ratio of brownie to cookie that I preferred.)

If this is the result, I’m really going to have to be more careful about my caffeine consumption. It’s a good thing that chocolate chip cookie dough is one of my favorite foods, because that and brownie batter is basically what this ended up as.

Chipster-Topped Brownies (from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my Home to Yours)

For the brownie layer:
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1⅔ cups (11.66 ounces) sugar
4 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (4.8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 cup walnuts

For the cookie layer:
1¼ cups (6 ounces) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) butter, room temperature
¾ cup (5.25 ounces) packed brown sugar
⅔ cup (4.66 ounces) sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, either chips or chunks

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan, line it with wax or parchment paper and butter the paper. Put the pan on a baking sheet.

To make the brownie batter:
Put both chocolates and the butter in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stirring occasionally, heat just until the ingredients are melted, shiny and smooth. If the mixture gets too hot, the butter will separate from the chocolate. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Working with a stand mixer, preferable fitted with a paddle attachment, or working with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale, thick and creamy. Beat in the salt and vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate and butter, mixing only until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then, still on low speed, add the flour, mixing only until it disappear into the batter. Using a spatula, fold in the walnuts, and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Set aside.

To make the cookie dough:
Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Working with the stand mixer in the cleaned bowl or with the hand mixer in another large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. One at a time, add the egg and the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the dough. Still on low, mix in the chocolate. Drop the cookie dough by spoonfuls over the brownie batter and, using a spatula and a light touch, spread evenly over the batter.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the cookie top is deep golden brown and firm and thin knife inserted into the brownie layer comes out with only faint streaks of moist chocolate. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.

When the brownies are completely cool, carefully run a knife between the sides of the pan and the brownies, then invert them onto another rack, remove the paper and turn right side up onto a cutting board. Cut into bars about 2 inches by 1 inch.

One year ago: Ricotta Spinach Tofu Ravioli

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Filed Under: chocolate, cookies, dessert, tuesdays with dorie

fresh mango bread

05/19/2009 By bridget

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I recently told someone that neither Dave or I like mangoes. Exactly one week later, Dave brought home four mangoes from work. Um…dude, we don’t like mangoes, remember?

But it turns out that I do like mangoes! I just don’t like the unripe ones I was buying from the grocery store. These were soft and sweet and a little spicy. And now I know how to tell when mangoes are ripe!

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I used the last of those four mangoes in this bread, which is made like a classic quick bread, where the dry and the wet ingredients are mixed separately, then gently combined. I didn’t have raisins, so I skipped those, and I added lightly toasted sliced almonds instead. I didn’t have a lime or ginger either, so I left those out too.

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So it turns out that I like mangoes…and I definitely like quick breads, and the bread part of this was particularly good, subtly spiced and perfectly tender without being too delicate. But I found that I don’t really like mangoes in a quick bread. Mangoes, to me, represent something refreshing and cool. Even once the bread was at room temperature, it didn’t seem like the right venue for mangoes. I didn’t hate it, but in the future, I’ll keep my mangoes and my quick breads separate.

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If you feel differently, check out the recipe on Kelly’s site. She chose this recipe for TWD.

One year ago: Hash Browns with Sautéed Vegetables and Poached Eggs

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Filed Under: bread, breakfast, freezer friendly, fruit, quick bread, tuesdays with dorie

tartest lemon tart

05/14/2009 By bridget

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You know how a lot of citrus recipes warn you to be careful not to get any of the white pith when you zest the fruit, because it’s bitter? Well, guess what?

Bitter is good.

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This was my first whole lemon dessert, where everything but the seeds is included. It was simple. Blend sugar and lemons together, then add the rest of the ingredients – eggs and cream, cornstarch and of course butter – to the blender and mix it all together. Then bake it, supposedly until it sets, but it never set for me. The filling boiled instead, until the crust was quite a bit darker than I like and I figured I’d better take the tart out of the oven, bubbling or not.

It did set up once it cooled, and it was delicious. I loved it. I didn’t think it was exceptionally tart, but it’s possible that I either had a lemon that was on the milder side, or my smallish organic lemons had a very thin layer of pith. It was just the slightest bit bitter, which was perfectly balanced by sour and sweet, adding an extra dimension to the dessert without dominating it. I am definitely sold on the idea of whole lemon desserts – so much so that I made another one two days later!

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Barb chose this tart for Tuesdays (or Thursdays, if you’ve been ignoring your blog while entertaining a guest) with Dorie, and she has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Caesar Salad and Snickerdoodles

Tartest Lemon Tart (adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Tartest Lemon Tart recipe found in Baking from My Home to Yours)

Sweet Tart Dough with Nuts:
1¼ cups (6 ounces) all purpose flour
¼ cup ground almonds (or pecans, walnuts or pistachios)
½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 stick, plus 1 tbsp (9 tbsp) very cold or frozen unsalted butter, diced
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

Filling:
1½ lemons, scrubbed and dried
1½ cups (10.5 ounces) sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1½ tbsp cornstarch
½ cup heavy cream
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. For the dough: Put the flour, ground almonds, confectioners’ sugar and salt in a food processor, pulsing a few times to combine. Scatter the butter pieces over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses— about 10 seconds each — until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change — heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

2. To press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don’t be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

3. To partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch. Transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

4. For the filling: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place tart pan on baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone mat.

5. Slice whole lemon in half and pull out seeds from it and the half. Then cut lemons into small pieces. The filling is best made in a blender, but you can use a food processor. Put lemons and sugar in the blender or processor and pulse, blending and scraping down the sides until you have smooth mix. Add the remaining filling ingredients and pulse and blend until the filling is homogeneous. Rap bowl on counter several times to de-bubble the filling as much as possible, and pour it into your prepared partially baked crust.

6. Very carefully – tart shell will be full – transfer baking sheet to the oven. Bake 20 minutes, then increase the oven temp to 350 degrees and bake the tart for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. (The total time is 45 to 50 minutes). Don’t be alarmed when the filling starts to bubble up. (It might even bubble over the edge of tart – that’s okay.) When tart is properly baked, it should be set, although perhaps still shaky in center, and most of top will have formed a light sugary crust.

7. Transfer the tart pan to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Chill, if you’d like, before serving with cream or a dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

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Filed Under: citrus, custard, dessert, fruit, pie, tuesdays with dorie

tiramisu cake

05/05/2009 By bridget

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I would be curious to see a statistical analysis of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes chosen so far. I figure we’ve made our way through about a third of the book, maybe a little less. But we’ve made 12 out of 18 of the celebration cakes (and that’s not including the Perfect Party Cake, which a good portion of the members made for the Daring Bakers). I also wouldn’t be surprised if a higher proportion of recipes with pictures have been chosen compared to those without.

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The problem with celebration cakes is that I generally don’t have a celebration for them. Without people to share with, I have to get creative with fractions and pan sizes. This time, I made half of the recipe into two 4-inch round layer cakes.

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I took some shortcuts here and there. I skipped the chocolate, mostly out of laziness. I used half mascarpone and half cream cheese, because I had bits of both leftover from other things. I know cream cheese isn’t authentic in this, but I honestly just really like cream cheese. Then I added all of the espresso extract to the syrup mixture instead of saving some for the topping because I didn’t read the recipe carefully. And, I didn’t use all of the syrup to soak the cake layers.

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None of those tweaks, save maybe the cream cheese, improved the dessert. That being said, the only one that I really regretted was using less of the coffee mixture than Dorie intended. I was concerned about soggy cake, plus the smooth untrimmed tops of my layers weren’t soaking up much liquid.

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But a little less coffee flavor couldn’t ruin a dessert like this. The cake was light, but sturdy enough to soak up plenty of espresso syrup. The filling was creamy and light and just sweet enough. Everything was accented by bitter coffee and boozy brandy. You shouldn’t wait for a celebration to enjoy cake like this.

Megan has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Double/Triple Chocolate Cookies

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Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, italian, tuesdays with dorie

chocolate cream tart

04/28/2009 By bridget

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Chocolate cream tart seems like an appropriate way to cap off this month of chocolate, with a bitter chocolate crust and rich chocolate pastry cream balanced by lightly sweetened whipped cream and topped off with decorations of pure bittersweet chocolate. It’s a good thing that I don’t get tired of chocolate or have problems with rich desserts.

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But I was concerned that Dave, who, after eating his umpteenth brownie, mentioned he’s actually not the biggest chocolate fan, wouldn’t like this. Fortunately, I’d forgotten how much he does like custard and pie, which apparently overshadowed his lukewarm feelings toward chocolate.

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I’m always intrigued by Dorie’s tart dough, which calls for almost no liquid, and instead comes together through far more processing than is usually recommended in crust recipes. She then recommends pressing the dough into the pan instead of rolling it out. Am I the only one who hates pressing dough into pans? I don’t think it’s any less work than rolling it out. I did have to roll it out for the little brioche pans, because in my experience, pressing crusts into these deeply fluted edges results in a huge buildup of crust in the ridges. I pressed the crust into the flat tart pans, and I like both crusts equally.

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The pastry cream is pretty luscious stuff. I did reduce the cornstarch a bit, remembering how the last few times I’ve made a cornstarch-containing custard from Dorie, the cornstarch didn’t seem to completely dissolve. I don’t mind a softer pastry cream anyway. Also, I missed that the chocolate was supposed to be melted before it was added to the pastry cream until it was too late to do anything about it, so I just finely chopped it and stirred it into the hot cream. It worked great, so this a timesaving trick I’ll keep in mind for the future.

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Overall, I thought the tart was pretty great. Some TWD members indicated that they would have rather had a regular tart crust instead of the chocolate crust, and I wholeheartedly disagree. Usually I think tart crusts just get in the way of the filling, but I felt like the chocolate crust complimented, rather than detracted, from this dessert. All of the components, bitter and sweet, rich and light, balanced each other well.

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Kim has posted the recipe.

One year ago: Carrot Cake

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Filed Under: chocolate, custard, dessert, tuesdays with dorie

chocolate bread pudding

04/21/2009 By bridget

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My first bread pudding experience involved Dessert Envy, when Dave and my brother and I went out for dessert and beer a few years ago. I ordered something rich and chocolately and otherwise unmemorable, and my brother ordered pumpkin bread pudding. I had one bite, my first taste ever of bread pudding, and was immediately smitten. Regrettably, I’ve only had it once since, another bite of someone else’s dessert order in a restaurant.

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Finally, thanks to TWD, I’ve made my own bread pudding, and even got to eat a full serving instead of a single bite! But since this was my first time making it, I couldn’t troubleshoot as I baked.

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Mostly I was surprised by how much liquid there was compared to the amount of bread. I weighed out the bread before leaving it out to stale, but it lost 33% of its weight by the time I baked with it, so I probably should have used more bread. It probably should have been drier too; it was still a little soft in the middle.

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As a result, the bread wasn’t able to soak up all of the custard. (Is it supposed to? I’m assuming so, but I don’t know for sure.) The puddings baked up with a layer of pure custard on the bottom of the pan.

I still really enjoyed it though. Bread and custard sounds like an unlikely combination, but when the bread is saturated with the liquid, it forms, well, pudding. And pudding is good.

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Lauren has the recipe posted. Next time I’ll use a darker chocolate (than the 60% cocao that I used), as the chocolate flavor was a little weak. And like I said, you’ll want 12 ounces of bread after it’s stale, not before.

One year ago: Marshmallows – I made this again and had some problems. Now I want to try a marshmallow recipe that doesn’t have egg whites.

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Filed Under: bread, chocolate, custard, dessert, tuesdays with dorie

chocolate amaretti torte

04/14/2009 By bridget

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My cake is ring-shaped! Because I’m creative! Because I have a plethora of interesting-shaped pans to choose from! Because, um.

It’s actually because I totally botched this week’s recipe.

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The torte is made by grinding store-bought Italian amaretti cookies with almonds in a food processor. Then butter, sugar, eggs, and chocolate are blended in the food processor and the ground cookies and almonds are mixed in. Then you bake it.

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Which is where I messed up. First, I made 2/3 of the recipe in a pan just about 2/3 the size that the original recipe calls for. So I thought it would take less time to bake than the full recipe. Second, I used a Pyrex pan, and the last several times I’ve baked in Pyrex, my dessert has overcooked. So I lowered the oven temperature by 25 degrees.

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I baked my (6-inch round) torte for 25 minutes, which is the lower end of the range for a full (8-inch round) recipe, and the same amount of time that Dorie recommends for 4-inch mini-tortes. I tested it with a knife, which came out cleanish (Dorie says it should be streaky, not quite dry). I took the torte out of the oven and let it set in the pan for 15 minutes or so.

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I inverted the cake onto a cooling rack. And then the middle inch or two dripped through the cooling rack onto the counter. Then another inch, and another, until I was left with just a thin ring – a ring that was delicate and broke in several places when I moved it. Yeesh.

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Thank goodness for the ganache coating. And the fact that the torte was so tasty that it could stand up to all the abuse.

Holly chose this recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie and has it posted on her sit e.

One year ago: Lemon Cream Tart

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Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, gluten free, italian, nuts, tuesdays with dorie

banana cream pie

04/07/2009 By bridget

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Poor Dave. His favorite dessert is banana cream pie, and I just don’t make it very often. For one thing, it’s kind of a lot of work, what with the crust and the pastry cream and the whipped topping. (Okay, so whipped cream isn’t hard to make. But still.) Plus, it doesn’t have a long shelf life and it isn’t an easy recipe to scale down, so it’s tricky to make for just the two of us. I pretty much only make banana cream pie on his birthday.

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To avoid watery separated whipped cream and old browned bananas, I made and baked the pie crust and spread the pastry cream in it, without adding the bananas and topping. I sliced bananas and whipped cream each time we ate pie, instead of doing it all at once.

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A number of people have said that their pastry cream was too thick, and they added extra milk to thin it. I think I’ll use less cornstarch instead. It seemed like there was a little chalkiness in the pastry cream, which I’m thinking is due to undissolved cornstarch.

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Other than that, I thought the pie was really good. The cinnamon and nutmeg in the pastry cream was subtle; in the future, I think I’ll keep the nutmeg, but maybe not the cinnamon. The small amount of sour cream in the whipped cream added a nice tangy flavor. With just the two of us, it took us, um, less than 2 days to get through the whole pie. Maybe I didn’t need to worry about the pie not storing well after all…

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I’ll be sure to make this again. Next year. For Dave’s birthday.

Amy, who chose this recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie, has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Scotch Eggs

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Filed Under: custard, dessert, fruit, pie, tuesdays with dorie

coconut butter thins

03/31/2009 By bridget

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There was some confusion among the Tuesdays with Dorie group about this recipe. Are the cookies supposed to retain their shape as they’re baked, like a classic shortbread cookie? Or are they supposed to become thin, as the title implies, and wafery and lacy, as Dorie describes them? I think it’s clear what side of the debate I’m on…

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The cookies are mixed like shortbread, with no eggs and no leavener. Coconut, macadamia nuts, and lime zest is added to give them a tropical flavor. The dough is rolled out in a ziploc bag, chilled, then cut into squares and baked.

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The cookies go into the oven with a thickness of ¼-inch, and, for me, they came out substantially thinner. But, again, Dorie makes clear that there’s supposed to be a lot of room between the cookies on the sheet, and they are called Coconut Butter Thins, after all. If you’d like them to look more like a classic shortbread, I’d increase the baking temperature to 375F, decrease the baking time substantially, and freeze the dough before baking.

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I increased the salt a bit, because I’ve found that I like my sweets saltier than Dorie. I also forgot to buy a lime (twice), so I just sprinkled in some lemon extract instead of using lime zest.

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I thought they were pretty great. The edges were crispy and the center was tender. The coconut flavor was subtle, but that and the nuts gave the cookie some depth. Jayne has the recipe posted.

One year ago: Bagels

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Filed Under: cookies, dessert, fruit, tuesdays with dorie

blueberry crumb cake

03/23/2009 By bridget

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Dave and I decided to walk 1000 miles this year. It works out to about 20 miles per week, just under 3 miles per day. It’s an ambitious goal, but not unattainable. The problem is, we’re way behind. By the end of February, we were already half a month’s worth of miles behind where we should have been. And since our work schedules prohibit us from catching up during the week, our only option is to do a whole lot of walking on the weekends. Which works out great, because I feel a lot better about having a big piece of blueberry cake for breakfast when I walk 7½ miles right afterward.

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This crumb cake follows the same process as many layer cakes – the butter and sugar are creamed together, the eggs and vanilla are slowly added, then the dry ingredients and liquid ingredients are added alternately. It’s topped with a buttery sugary nut mixture before being baked.

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I thought it was very good. I’m always a big fan of blueberries (and cake), and I liked the walnuts quite a bit. The crumb topping was an enjoyable crisp contrast to the tender cake. It was maybe just the tiniest bit too sweet for me, so I think next time, I’ll actually reduce the crumb topping by half. And since I have a lot of miles to make up still, next time could be very very soon. Sihan has posted the recipe.

One year ago: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

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Filed Under: breakfast, cake, dessert, fruit, tuesdays with dorie