TWD Double Up

I'm back! Can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I posted but between moving and unpacking and some trouble getting our internet sorted it's kinda not surprising. We're all settled now in our new home and not a moment too soon as bub #2 is due in less than a month!

I have still been baking these past few weeks though, and with reasonable success given the variables of a new oven. So on to my TWD catch up ...

First up from 5th October, Lynne of Honey Muffin chose the Double Apple Bundt Cake.

Let me just say I adored this cake. Incredibly moist, packed with apple and spice flavours and not too heavy on the butter. I didn't bother with a glaze or even icing sugar. It was absolutely perfect on its own or warm with custard. Mmmmmm.

Next up was the Fold-Over Pear Torte chosen by fabulous fellow Aussie blogger Cakelaw.

I really wanted to love this tart. One of my all time favourite Dorie recipes was the French Pear Tart and I was hoping this would be similar. I love everything in it - pears, apricots, nuts, custard, pastry. Yum. But somehow the combination fell a little short.

Part of my meh-ness about this one has to be the fact it just took soooooo loooooooong to cook. After 2 hours in the oven the middle was still oozy even though the top layer of custard had burnt to a crisp (which actually didn't matter because my foil tent stuck to it and peeled it off making for one butt-ugly tart).

But the pastry, oh the pastry! We splurged on a new food processor (partly because I managed to break the old one while packing) and this baby rocks! This was seriously the. best. pastry. EVER. Light, buttery, flaky and just plain delicious.

I'm so sorry I butchered your pick Cakelaw! If you haven't already, make sure you visit her blog for how it should be done.

I'm looking forward to more cooking/baking (for the next couple of weeks anyway). I really need to get stuck into some freezable meals to get us through those first few insane new baby weeks. I'm also planning on starting my Christmas baking asap so we have some yummy treats to look forward to!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Coffee Break Muffins

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos but these muffin cases actually have little coffee cups on them. Which makes them perfect for this week's Coffee Break Muffins chosen by Rhiani of Chocoholic Anonymous.

We had a garage sale on the weekend and had a bit of a working bee last Wednesday to prepare. What better pick me up than a coffee break muffin for morning tea!

I always replace the espresso powder (which I've never found here) with regular freeze dried instant coffee and I did the same thing here without thinking. This resulted in a lovely speckled muffin but I think hubby was little disappointed the speckles weren't chocolate!


The taste test ...

I'm a decaf drinker but I really enjoy coffee flavoured desserts and these muffins were no exception. Lucky I made a full batch because they disappeared really quickly. Definitely a winner.

Thanks for a great pick Rhiani! Make sure you check out Chocoholic Anonymous for the recipe.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Oatmeal Spice Shortbread

Mmmmm ... shortbread! This week Donna of Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First chose Dorie's Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies. Having made these before (and loved them!) I decided to do the variation which was Oatmeal Spice Shortbread.

Honestly these would probably be a more appropriate pick for Christmas because with all those spices the house smelt wonderful!

Last time I didn't have any ziploc bags and did have problems rolling out the sticky dough. This time though the bag worked a treat and I ended up with perfect little rectangles of shortbread with minimum fuss.

These are a little plain jane in the looks department but the flavour more than makes up for it. I will definitely be making these again and playing around with different flavour combinations.

Thanks for a great pick Donna! You can find the recipe on Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First under today's date.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lots of Ways Banana Cake

Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities chose Dorie's Lots of Ways Banana Cake this week. I adore banana cake (and banana bread and banana pancakes and just plain bananas). My son Oscar is the same. In fact, his third word was banana!

As I have mentioned before, Oscar has a wheat and dairy intolerance. Most of the time it's no problem at all to sub in alternatives but I haven't been too adventurous with baking. And I don't need to be yet. At 15 months old, he's not eating a whole lot of cake!

While I didn't make this cake specifically for Oscar, it's nice for him to be able to have a taste of some of the yummy things I make so I did a wheat and dairy free version with dried apples and a passionfruit icing. Delicious!

Banana Cake with Passionfruit Glaze
(Wheat and Dairy Free)
Adapted from Lots of Ways Banana Cake on pp204-5 of Baking: From My Home to Yours

1/2 cup white spelt flour
1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1/3 cup gluten free flour (mine was a blend of maize, rice and soya flours)
1/2 ts xanthum gum
pinch of salt
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts nutmeg
90g nuttelex or other dairy free spread
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1ts vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 oat milk (or soy milk etc)
1/2 cup dried apple, chopped

Preheat your oven to 180/350 degrees. Grease and line an 8 inch round pan and set aside.

Whisk the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and xanthum gum together.

Using a stand mixer, beat the nuttelex and sugar together until creamy. Add the egg and then the vanilla, beating well after each addition. Lower the speed and add the bananas. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients, followed by the milk and beat until just combined. Stir through the dried apple using a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is a deep golden brown and the cake is starting to pull away from the sides. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Passionfruit Glaze

1/2 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
1 passionfruit
hot water

In a small bowl, add the juice and pulp of your passionfruit to the icing sugar and stir. Add just enough hot water (1 -2 ts) to reach the consistency of thick cream. It should coat the spoon but still be easy to spread. Pour over your cooled cake and spread to the edges.

The taste test ...

Awesome. So moist and absolutely packed with flavour. The passionfruit icing finished it off perfectly. This is one cake I will be making again and again!

Tuesdays with Dorie: (Not) Tarte Noire

No your eyes don't deceive you, that is definitely not a chocolate tart! This week's pick was an epic fail for me, resulting in a bowl of black sludge oozing fat. Yech. I have made ganache many times without any problems so I can only think the fat content of my cream was too high. Whatever it was it was totally unusable and ended up in the bin.

Having now run out of both cream and chocolate (soooo glad Lindt was 50% off this week so I only wasted $6 on chocolate instead of $12) I had to come up with another use for my tart shell.

Inspired by the Mystery Box challenges on MasterChef I searched the fridge/pantry and came up with condensed milk, sour cream, eggs, vanilla and lemon. Voila! The baked lemon custard tart was born!

As my tart shell was already fully baked I was a little worried it would get too dark upon baking again but I kept a close eye and had no problems.

Baked Lemon Custard Tart
(makes enough filling for 2 tarts)

400ml sour cream
1 tin of condensed milk
2 eggs
1ts vanilla paste
juice and rind of 1 lemon
2 tbs strawberry jam
Fresh strawberries and icing sugar to serve

Preheat your oven to 180/350 degrees. Place your prebaked tart shell on a baking tray. Brush the base with strawberry jam and set to one side. Combine all other ingredients in the food processor and blitz until very smooth. Pour the filling into the tart shell and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until set (firm but with a slight wobble in the middle). Tent with foil during baking if the crust is becoming too dark.

Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature then refrigerate for a couple of hours.

To serve, carefully remove the tart from the pan and place on a serving plate. Cover the top with sliced strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar.

The taste test ...

An absolute winner! The filling tastes almost exactly like a lemon cheesecake but a lot lighter (obviously without all the cream cheese). The lemon and strawberries complimented each other perfectly and the sweet tart crust was delish as always. Hubby was really looking forward to chocolate tart but even he wasn't too disappointed to get this instead!

My apologies to Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life for completely stuffing up her pick this week! To see how it should have been done visit the other TWD bakers here.

** Blogger seems to be eating my comments for some reason. I'm not sure who you are, but if you were one of the 7 or so people who commented this afternoon and your comment isn't here, that's why! Anyone had this happen before??**

Tuesdays with Dorie: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes, a Trifle and some News

This week Wendy of Pink Stripes chose Dorie's Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes and as usual I tweaked the recipe. Honestly I can't remember the last time I actually made a recipe exactly as stated (apart from the Raisin Swirl Bread which was utter perfection!).

After realising these cakes were a variation on a standard pound cake I immediately thought trifle! We're not huge fans of rum (although I always have a stash for my Christmas baking) so I used just 1 ts in the batter. Surprisingly this was enough to create not only a great taste but a fabulous aroma while baking.

I made half the recipe (1 cake) and ended up with a mountain of perfect little cake cubes.

While in the past I have gone all out making a trifle, this time I went simple and no-fuss ... cake, jelly, tinned peaches and custard. I made a drenching syrup using some of the juice from my drained tin of peaches and this was a fabulous addition. I recently discovered Aeroplane jelly has a 25% reduced sugar variety with natural colours and flavours so that's what I used here in raspberry.
So regular readers may have noticed my blogging has become a little sporadic recently. I'm a little embarrassed to see just how long it has been since posting anything other than TWD, Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks.

My excuse? We've been cooking up anther little project around here. Due mid-November. Oh, and it's a boy! :-)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

Let me just say, I loved this cake. LOVED. So a big thank you straight off to Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes for picking it this week!

The name 'Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake' really doesn't do this cake justice. To me it was a cheat's version of a Black Forest Cake (which I adore) just without all the fuss. Ok and without all the booze too.

I made a half batch in an 8 x 4 pan and it still took 50 minutes to cook. I was glad for the chance to use my Wilton layer cake cutter but somehow still managed to end up with wonky layers. Sandwiched together with black cherry conserve, smothered in fabulous chocolate-sour cream frosting and topped with fresh cherries, it didn't matter in the slightest. This was delicious!

The cherries were a bit of an indulgence as it is definitely not cherry season here. These were imported from the USA and about $16 a kilo.

I'm so glad I only made half the recipe. As it was I ate 3 slices.

Great pick, Amy! You can find the recipe at Amy Ruth Bakes under today's date.

My Tuesday with Dorie: Raisin Swirl Bread

First of all, woo-hoo! I had figured it would be my turn to pick sometime this year but getting Laurie's email for June was a huge surprise. I spent a harried 24 hours or so flicking back and forth between recipes, trying to select something that I would not only love to bake but that said something about me.

My very first TWD post was for the Chocolate Puddings back on 15 July 2008. I wasn't even an official member at that stage but was playing along at home until I could order my copy of Baking. My blog was only a few days old and it was less than a month since my mum passed away. Baking and blogging seemed like a wonderful distraction at a really difficult time. Since then I have gotten married, had a baby and reached the 200 post mark.

All of this brings me to my reason for choosing the Raisin Swirl Bread this week. Baking bread is such a comforting, homey thing to do. There's nothing quite like the smell or taste of your own fresh bread and it is something I hope my kids remember from their childhood as I do.

I loved this bread and I hope anyone who was scared of yeast (or raisins!) had a go and was happy with the results!

Raisin Swirl Bread
pp 59-60 of Baking: From My Home to Yours

For the bread:
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar, plus a pinch
1 1/4 cups just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons or 60g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
Grated zest of 1/2 orange (optional)
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
3 3/4 to 4 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

For the swirl:
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)
3 tablespoons (45 grams) unsalted butter, softened to a spreadable consistency

To make the bread:
Put the yeast in a small bowl, toss in the pinch of sugar and stir in 1/4 cup of the warm milk. Let rest for 3 minutes, then stir - the yeast may not have dissolved completely and it may not have bubbled, but it should be soft.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the remaining 1 cup of milk, the butter and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and mix for a minute or two. Add the salt, egg and vanilla, if you are using it, as well as the zest and nutmeg, if you're using them, and mix for a minute. In all likelihood, the mixture will look unpleasantly curdly (it will look even worse when you add the yeast). Add the yeast mixture and beat on low-medium speed for 1 minute more.

Turn the mixer off and add 2 3/4 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed just until you work the flour into the liquids - you'll have a sticky mix. If you've got a dough hook, switch to it now. Add another 1 cup of flour, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the dough for a couple of minutes. If the dough does not come together and almost clean the sides of the bowl, add up to 1/4 cup more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Keep the mixer speed at medium and knead the dough for about 3 minutes, or until it is smooth and has a lovely buttery sheen. The dough will be very soft, much too soft to knead by hand.

Butter a large bowl, turn the dough into a bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Put the bowl in a warm place and let the dough rise until it is doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap it and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm enough to be rolled easily. (At this point, you can instead refrigerate the dough overnight if that is more convenient).

To make the swirl and shape the loaf:
Butter a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and cocoa, if you're using it. Check that the raisins are nice and moist; if they're not, steam them for a minute, then dry them well.

Put the dough on a large work surface lightly dusted with flour, lightly dust the top of the dough and roll the dough into a rectangle about 12 x 18 inches.

Gently smear 2 tablespoons of the butter over the surface of the dough - this is most easily done with your fingers. Sprinkle over the sugar mixture and scatter over the raisins. Starting from a short side of the dough, roll the dough up jelly-roll fashion, making sure to roll the dough snugly. Fit the dough into the buttered pan, seam side down, and tuck the ends under the loaf.

Cover the pan loosely with wax paper and set in a warm place; let the dough rise until it comes just a little above the edges of the pan, about 45 minutes.

Getting ready to bake:
When the dough has almost fully risen, centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees Celsius). Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter, and brush the top of the loaf with the butter. Put the pan on the baking sheet and bake the bread for about 20 minutes. Cover loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 25 minutes or so, until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when the bottom of the pan is tapped. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, then unmold. Invert the bread and cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

I have to confess to slicing my bread while it was still warm and I ended up with raisins scattered everywhere. But it was totally worth it ... it is sensational straight from the oven!

Oh and it also makes spectacular cinnamon toast the next day!

Thank you in advance to everyone who baked along with me this week and huge thanks to Laurie for creating such a wonderful group and Dorie for her fabulous book! :-)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Strawberry Shortcakes

So this week Cathy of The Tortefeasor chose Dorie's Tender Shortcakes. I, having no real idea what a shortcake was, wasn't particularly enthused. Till I figured out they were big, buttery scones covered with cream and berries!

These are incredibly quick to make but just as with the Sweet Cream Biscuits from a few weeks ago, the amount of liquid/cream in the recipe was woefully inadequate. I had to add a full 1/4 cup extra to get something even resembling a crumbly, scone dough. Certainly nothing like a soft dough that you scoop out and plop on the baking tray.

No matter. These baked up buttery, golden and melt-in-the-mouth tender. Smothered with diced strawberries and a big dollop of sweetened whipped cream, you have something truly sensational!

I made just a half batch and got 7 gigantic shortcakes. Some are headed straight for the freezer.

You will find the recipe at The Tortefeasor under today's date. Thanks for a great pick Cathy!

Next week we have Raisin Swirl Bread chosen by ... ME!

Tuesdays with Dorie: White Chocolate Brownies

This week's pick was Dorie's White Chocolate Brownies, as chosen by delightful Marthe of Culinary Delights. Now certain people have been waiting for these brownies to be chosen forever, so I hope everyone else enjoyed them as much as I did!

You'll notice my brownies are naked. I just wasn't up for meringue this week and I was sure that it would make them too sweet for me anyway. As it was, I could have easily devoured my half batch in one sitting!

I used frozen raspberries here (the fresh ones are ridiculously expensive even in season) and had no problems. Knowing they tended to underbake, I cooked mine for 30 minutes (I used and 8 x 8 pan) and they were perfect.

Thanks for a fabulous pick, Marthe! The white chocolate, raspberries and orange flavours were a match made in baking heaven. I will definitely be making these again!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Choc-Orange Bundt Cake

This week Erin of When in Doubt ... Leave it at 350 chose Dorie's Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake. As tasty as that sounded, with all the chocolate that would be sitting around over the Easter weekend I wanted to make something a little lighter and fresher. So I chose to make a Choc-Orange Bundt cake instead.

I used ground almonds, replaced the coffee with orange juice and rubbed the zest of a whole orange into the sugar. The resulting cake was a gorgeous colour and richly fragrant with citrus.

As you can see from the photo I need to work on my marbling skills! I didn't want to overmix it so I pretty much ended up with a choc-orange layer cake instead.

I only made half the recipe but did it in a full-size bundt pan. It just made a flattish bundt that cooked in 30 minutes.

The taste test ...

Yum! I adore citrus so of course I was going to enjoy this. The orange flavour really shone through and paired perfectly with the chocolate. I don't know whether it was just because of the changes I made but this cake had the texture of a pound cake. Really moist and dense. I loved it!

Thanks for a great pick Erin! I'm sure the Mocha-Walnut original was great but I'm really happy with my orange version. You can find the recipe on Erin's blog.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Almond Tea Cake

This week Carmen of Carmen Cooks chose Dorie's Coconut Tea Cake. I know a few weeks ago I raved about the toasted coconut custard tart but in reality, that was enough coconut to last me about a year. So, rather than skip a week I simply skipped the coconut!

I opted to make an almond tea cake instead and it was wonderful.

All I did was use regular milk instead of the coconut and flaked almonds both in and on top of my little cake. And I do mean little - the photos are quite deceptive because I made just 1/4 of the recipe in a baby loaf pan, about the size of a muffin!

The taste test ...

I love 'plain' cakes like this. To me they are so satisfying and comforting and like Dorie says, they are something you can cut a slice from every time you walk through the kitchen. I was a little worried how it would turn out because the cake mix was like a runny pancake batter but it baked up beautifully and was fabulously moist.

While it was still warm I brushed the top with melted butter and dusted over some cinnamon sugar. It really doesn't get much better than that!

Thanks for a great pick Carmen!

And also my apologies to Jody of Beansy Loves Cake for skipping the Dulce de Leche Duos. My grandmother passed away last week, aged 84, and my heart just wasn't into baking.

I really have to credit my grandma for my love of cooking. While my mum was a pretty good cook she never really enjoyed it. Grandma, on the other hand, seemed to find it therapeutic rather than a chore and turned out some wonderful meals. I took Oscar to see her in hospital a few days before she died and she was thrilled to see him. She will be missed :-(

Daring Bakers March - Orange Tian

Have you heard of a tian? I hadn't either but what a lovely dessert this turned out to be!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

This dessert involved making several components including a citrus caramel, whipped cream filling and biscuit base, but the one that had me really excited was the marmalade. Yep, we had to make our own marmalade for this challenge!

I love jam and making it has been on my to-do list for years. I think the fact you need to sterilise jars and so on has scared me away but really, you can just make a small amount to store in the fridge and eat within a couple of weeks.

Almost everything for the tian came together really easily and I prepared all the components in one day. I opted to make just one small (4") tian as were in dessert overload that week.

In the end the only element I struggled with was the marmalade. I wasn't sure where to get pectin from but I had seen a jam setting sugar at the supermarket in the past so I went hunting for that. Once I had the sugar I needed oranges (obviously) and chose some lovely looking navel oranges. Now I think these were the wrong type to get because the pith was about 1cm thick on all of them. I blanched the oranges 5 times to hopefully remove any bitterness and it turned out fine. My issue was with the final taste. For some reason this tasted like jam that had been sitting around in a cupboard for too long. The sugar was still 1 year within the use-by date but I am not convinced. I still don't know whether it was the sugar or the oranges that gave the marmalade its strange aftertaste BUT I do know I am no longer scared of making jam!

The taste test ...

Surprisingly light! Lovely contrast between the crunchy base, smooth cream filling and fresh orange segments. I did add the citrus caramel after I took the photo but I think it was unnecessary and really dialled up the sweetness into excess.

This would be a wonderful dinner party desssert as not only does it look and taste spectacular, it can be totally prepared in advance.

Thank you Jennifer for a wonderful challenge!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Honey-Wheat Cookies

Oh Dorie, I do love it when you surprise me! The lovely Michelle of Flourchild chose Dorie's Honey-Wheat Cookies this week and I admit I wasn't expecting much. This is one of those recipes I have flipped past many times without taking too much notice.

I made a few slight changes to the recipe, first using raw sugar instead of white for a richer flavour, and also upping the citrus. I used the zest of a whole lemon and a whole orange and let me tell you, the aroma wafting up from that bowl of zest and sugar was divine!

I left the dough in the fridge overnight before baking these up first thing in the morning. Dorie said the recipe makes 36 and usually I'm nowhere near it. So this time I actually weighed the dough (yes, apparently I do have too much time on my hands!). My cookies averaged 20g each and I got 35. Close enough.

The taste test ...

Unexpectedly delicious! These have a really well balanced flavour with the honey, citrus and wheat germ shining through. Perfect with a cup of tea. I ate 4 before stopping myself. I froze most of the batch but I have a feeling these will taste great great frozen as well!

Thank you Michelle for a wonderful pick this week! It was a lovely break from all the chocolate this month and I will definitely be baking these again. You can find the recipe on Michelle's blog.

Tuesdays with Dorie: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week Kait of Kait's Plate chose Dorie's My best Chocolate Chip Cookies. With a name like that I had high expectations! Unfortunately these fell a little short. Or is that flat?

I made half the recipe and got 22 flat-as-a-pancake cookies. They somehow managed to be crumbly, crunchy and cakey all at once. I used dark brown sugar which gave them good colour. I also used an entire block of Whittaker's dark chocolate. So I can't figure out where these went wrong and why I didn't love them!

My ultimate chocolate chip cookie is a bit chunky, crunchy around the edges, chewy in the middle, studded with chocolate rather than filled with it, has peanuts for extra texture and a slight hint of caramel. If you know of a recipe like that please let me know :)

Thanks for an interesting pick this week Kait. I'm sorry to say these weren't a success for me but I know lots of people loved them! You can find the recipe on Kait's blog.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Mini Chocolate Cakes

Well, this is my first TWD back after a whole month off and I really missed you all!

Kristin of I'm Right About Everything chose Dorie's Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes this week and as usual I didn't make them as per the recipe. I totally forgot about the 'milk' part and used dark chocolate instead. I also wasn't about to buy yet another baking pan so I used these cute little red and gold cake wrappers I bought at Christmas. I got 8 little cakes from the full recipe.

Oh and I skipped the glaze too! I made a simple chocolate icing to go with these:

120g pure icing sugar
25g cocoa powder
25g butter, melted
1-2 tbs milk

Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa. Add the melted butter and mix together, then add enough milk to reach the consistency you want for the icing.

The taste test ...

Oh my god. So rich, so moist and sooo chocolate-y! I loved the cocoa-nut swirl through the middle. I think this is one the best chocolate cakes I've ever made which is a total surprise. I let my butter get so soft it almost melted (by accident) and I'm thinking this actually worked in its favour, giving the cakes a fudgy rather than cakey quality. Whatever, it was delicious!

Thanks for the great pick Kristin! You can find the recipe on her blog under today's date.

TWD 2nd Anniversary - Tarte Tatin

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of Tuesdays with Dorie! Two years ago I didn't have a blog and had only just discovered that food blogs even existed. It didn't take long for me to stumble across the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and to want a piece of the pie. And shortbread. And cheesecake. (Oh, the brown sugar apple cheesecake!)

Laurie's idea to bake her way through Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours was a great one. So many of us have cookbooks that sit on the shelf despite our best intentions to use them regularly. Baking and blogging together has been a fabulous experience for me and I am looking forward and letting us all have a turn selecting a recipe was inspired. I am number 133 in the list (we are up to 96 now) so I still have a little wait for my turn.

In honour of the anniversary we voted for our recipe this week and I was thrilled the Tarte Tatin won out! (I made the Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake for my 30th last year). As I mentioned a few days ago I am taking a baking hiatus for January, but I couldn't let this one slip by so I made it for our New Year's Eve dinner.

First off, the actual dinner was spectacular! We made a slow roasted pork belly with caramelised vinegar, sauteed pears and potatos and baby broccoli. Honestly if I ordered this in a restaurant I would have been thrilled. The photo really doesn't do it justice. You'll just have to trust me!

I was a little worried about making the tarte tatin but it was a breeze. I used a square baking dish so I didn't even have to trim my pastry sheet. The caramel cooked up beautifully, nothing burnt and it turned out of the dish easily as well. The only problem came with the eating...

The taste test

It was SOOOOOOO sweet. As in tooth-aching, I-don't-think-I-can-eat-my-whole-piece sweet. Which is such a shame! I did in fact manage to eat my piece but I didn't have any for breakfast the next day as I was hoping to. Hubby didn't mind though, he polished off the rest in no time flat.

Still, I can say that I have mastered the Tarte Tatin and now I know I can do it, I will be making it again, just with less sugar! (I have since looked at some other tartin recipes and they all use less than half the amount of butter and sugar as this one).

Thank you Laurie! I am proud to be a part of this fabulous group of bakers and I'm looking forward to another great year!

Daring Bakers December - Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Wow, what a great challenge for December! I chose Y's recipe and it was an absolute breeze to put together. I will let my photos do most of the talking for this post :)

My house plan - found of recipelink.com Click above for all the details

In progress

My little helper guarding the pieces

Welcome to my home!

Step on down the tic tac path to be greeted by the gingerbread zombie

Do you like what I've done with the place? These chuppa chup shrubs are all the rage!

A little snow dusting the freckle covered roof and wonky chimney

Thanks for stopping by!

And thanks to Anna and Y for a fabulous festive challenge for December! You can find the recipes and instructions on each of their blogs.

I had a lot of fun doing this and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it might. If you haven't made a gingerbread house before I challenge you to have a go!

Individual Rum Christmas Cakes

I have to confess, I am one of those people. Those people who actually like fruitcake! There is a lot of anti-fruitcake sentiment out there, particularly at this time of year, but around here we are in fruitcake heaven.

In addition to making the full size cakes I make every year, I decided to try a new recipe and make some smaller cakes to go in our gift hampers. These little beauties are rich and moist and fragrant. And oh yeah, they are also packed with rum!

Individual Rum* Christmas Cakes
Recipe source TBA

840g mixed dried fruit (apricots, cherries, figs, raisins, currants, cranberries, sultanas or whatever takes your fancy)
3/4 cup rum
250g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup treacle
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
2 ts ground nutmeg
2 ts ground ginger
2 ts ground cinnamon
12 tbs rum, extra

Chop all the dried fruit into small pieces. Place in a large bowl with the rum and mix well. Cover and leave overnight (I left mine for a week), stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to slow (150 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 x 1 cup muffin holes and line the bases with a circle of baking paper.

Beat the butter, sugar and treacle in a large bowl until just combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the soaked fruit mixture, pecans and then the sifted flours and spices and mix well.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the tins, smoothing the surface of each with wet fingers. Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cover the tops of the cakes with foil if over-browning. Once cooked and still hot, brush the tops the cakes with half the extra rum, cover with baking paper, then seal firmly with foil and cool completely in the tins.

Once cool, remove from the tins, brush with remaining rum and wrap firmly with cling film and leave for 2 weeks before decorating.

Decorating Options

1. Soft Icing - Roll out 100g of soft, ready made white icing the the size of each cake. Brush the cakes with warmed apricot jam, then lay the icing over the top and smooth down. Decorate with ribbon.

2. Royal Icing - Beat 1 egg white with a wooden spoon, gradually adding 2 cups of pure icing sugar, beating until smooth. Drizzle in 2-3 ts lemon juice until the icing becomes a little runny. Spread a tablespoon of the icing over each cake, allowing it to run down the sides a little. Top with holly and berries before the icing sets hard.

* The original recipe called for bourbon. We're not big bourbon drinkers in this house so we used good old Bundy Rum instead!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cafe Volcano Cookies

A really interesting pick this week for TWD. MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar chose Dorie's Cafe Volcano Cookies and without a photo, I had no idea what I was actually making! I had to laugh though when I read the storing instructions, essentially 'Humidity will make these go soggy.' Living in Brisbane in December, high humidity is pretty much a given!

So what are volcano cookies? Very similar to a coconut macaroon but with nuts instead of coconut, these cookies aren't exactly photogenic. Probably why there's no picture in the book! I used cocoa instead of espresso powder so my cookies are a rich chocolately colour.

I made a half batch and kept a close eye on them while baking. Just 16 minutes and they were done.

The taste test ...

Totally unexpected but absolutely delicious! I ate 3 before I could stop myself! Very light, the meringue disolves on your tongue leaving crisp toasty nuts and a hint of chocolate. I knew these would be really sweet so I'm glad I added just a pinch of salt. These were a real winner.

Thanks for a great pick, MacDuff! You can find the recipe at The Lonely Sidecar under today's date.