Baking With Julia: Gingerbread Baby Cakes

Wow, has it really been two MONTHS since I posted anything?  Life got a little crazy and sad and real for a moment.  I assure you I’ve been baking right along with all of you, I just haven’t gotten around to writing and posting about it.  But now I’m back, my house smells like gingerbread and there’s a bunny nosing around my patio.  Can’t get much better than that.

This was a perfect recipe to return with — simple, comforting and delicious.  We just finished celebrating my son’s 4th birthday and I have to confess that after all the cupcakes and multicolored buttercream frosting, it was nice to indulge in a bit more grown-up dessert.

And another confession —

As I was making these cakes I got a little sentimental over their name.  Baby Cakes.  Because I finally have to admit, my own little baby is not a baby anymore.  My husband spent the birthday weekend breaking down the toddler bed and setting up the new big boy bed.  Which also meant packing away all the baby/toddler sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, etc.  That was followed by an overnight trip to Disneyland — which is where the bigger realization hit.

One year ago his favorite ride was Winnie the Pooh.  We rode it this trip, too.  Except afterwards he didn’t ask to ride it again.   And he didn’t care to go see Pooh and Tigger.  What did he want?  Big Thunder Mountain.  In one year we’ve gone from Winnie the Pooh to roller coasters.

So in honor of my own little “babycake,”  whip up a batch of these sweet treats and enjoy some quiet moments with those you love.

Thanks to Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories for hosting this week.  Visit her blog to see her beautiful version of this recipe as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf

Pumpkin Loaves = Baking fail.

Artsy-craftsy reading reward chart = Mommy win.

That last one is epic for me.  Generally glue sticks and I are not on speaking terms.  Throw in some craft scissors and construction paper, and you get to witness hours of frustration on my part.  But I’m over the moon that my son’s started reading and want to find ways to encourage him.  He loves putting stickers on things (what preschooler doesn’t) so I hunted down some autumn leaf stickers and figured we’ll put a leaf on his tree for each book he reads.  Hopefully it goes better than the bread.

OMG, the bread!

Huge, HUGE disappointment.  All on my end.  I’m seeing the other bakers’ beautiful photos of beautiful loaves and I’m suffering from some serious bread envy.  My dough never seemed to double during the first rise and didn’t really rise at all during the second one.  Oddly, it seemed to rise the most after its overnight chill in the refrigerator.

I can’t figure out what caused the lack of rise on this one.  My kitchen was certainly warm enough (since it was 102 this weekend!) and the yeast I used worked fine for the whole wheat loaves a couple weeks ago.

What’s more frustrating is that this bread is REALLY good.  The texture in mine was all kinds of off but at least I was able to get an idea of what it should taste like.  And I have to say the homey combination of pumpkin, raisins and walnuts combined with the tart punch from the cranberries is perfect for fall.  Which just means that I’m attempting them again.  This time around though I think I’ll leave out the overnight step of chilling the dough.  I’m curious to see if the other bakers found that it added anything to make it worth the extra time.

Oh, and the extra pumpkin from the recipe?  Perfect for making homemade pumpkin spice latte syrup.  🙂

If you want to see what this bread SHOULD look like, check out Rebecca’s post over at This Bountiful Backyard.  She also has a copy of the recipe posted if you’d like to try this one yourself.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Nectarine Upside-Down Chiffon Cake

This recipe got me and my husband feeling all sorts of nostalgic.  Maybe it was the mah jongg exhibit we’d been to earlier.  Maybe it was my mom’s 1960’s cake plate.  Maybe it was the smell of oats and almonds and ginger or maybe it was the ribbon of streusel running through this fluffy little cake.  No matter what it was, it made both of us long for whatever the modern-day equivalent of a bridge club is.  The kind of casual get-together that requires nothing more than a pot of coffee, a simple little cake, and some good old-fashioned conversation.

So friends, let’s get together.  Scrabble, poker, cocktails, game night — come on over.  I’ll make cake.  🙂

Thanks to our hosts this week – Marlise of The Double Trouble Kitchen and Susan of The Little French Bakery.  Check out their blogs to read about their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Peach Raspberry Galette

It was with great sadness that I ate the last slice of the Blueberry Nectarine Pie.  The only thing that stopped me from immediately making another one was the fact that there was a new Tuesdays with Dorie recipe to try this week – Mixed Berry Galette.  For the past couple of years, I’ve been intrigued by the concept of a galette (a kind of free-form pie) and have wanted to try one but never got around to actually making it.  So, thanks to this group, that’s one more thing I can cross off my baking bucket list.

One of the nice things about this recipe is that the filling is pretty much up to you.  I confess, I almost made it with a blueberry and nectarine filling.  What can I say?  I’m now an addict.  But I executed great restraint and opted for some fresh peaches and raspberries instead.

So, how did it compare?  Here’s an ode to a summer galette —

I love that you’re easy.

Yes, some may take this the wrong way, but it works for you.  No crimping.  No precise measuring.  Just roll, plop, fold and bake.

I love that you’re cute.

I was expecting a pie-sized dessert.  I was not prepared for the tiny little bundle of goodness sitting on my baking sheet.

And tucking the little blanket of dough around the layers of fresh fruit . . .

Next to sticky ice cream kisses from my son, it doesn’t get much cuter.

I love that you’re flexible.

Berries?  Peaches?  Apples?  Cranberries?  You name it, it can work in a galette.    Just toss it in.  Sprinkle with sugar.  And enjoy.  Baking with Julia even includes a variation with tomato and cheese.  If my heirlooms survive our 110 degree heat wave, you better believe I’m trying this.

I love that you’re a willing accomplice to my bad habits.

Take this conversation for example —

My husband:  Are you eating pie for breakfast?

Me:  Unh-uh.   It’s a galette.

See how nice that works?

However, all that being said, last week’s pie has still won my heart.  But it was close, little baby galette.  Real close.

Thanks to our hosts this week — Lisa of Tomato Thymes and Andrea of The Kitchen Lioness.  Check out their blogs to hear their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Blueberry Nectarine Pie

We all know the saying — “Easy as pie.”

Yeah, about that . . .

I had every intention of making this pie last week so I’d have plenty of time to write up my post.  Except work got crazy busy, and I found myself with no time to write about pie much less to make one.

I planned on buying the blueberries and nectarines fresh at the Farmer’s Market on Sunday.  Except I got there too late and there wasn’t a single blueberry to be found.

I convinced myself the sad looking nectarines I scraped together at the Farmer’s Market would be bursting with hidden farm-fresh flavor.  Except they weren’t.  (But on the trip to Sam’s Club to buy the missing blueberries, I discovered their nectarines were amazing.  Who’d have thought?)

After getting the little one down for a nap and making a cup of tea, I planned a leisurely afternoon of baking.  Except my husband called, stranded at work after dropping his keys down an elevator shaft.  Seriously?!  Nap, tea and leisurely baking — all out the window.

I fully intended to follow the recipe’s instructions to let the pie rest for 30 minutes before slicing into it.  Except it was 11:00 at night and I was tired.

The first slice of pie was a runny, gooey mess, but I didn’t care one bit.  I would have slurped this filling up through a straw.  It’s that good.

Ordinarily, blueberry pie is near the bottom of my list, but the nectarines in this have moved it to the top.  (Alright almost to the top.  Cherry pie’s a pretty tough competitor to knock out.)

There’s nothing else to say other than to bake this.  Now.  While the fruit’s at it’s peak and our summer days are still lazy.  (At least until your husband loses his keys.)

Thanks to our hosts this week — Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake and Hilary of Manchego’s Kitchen.  Check out their blogs to hear their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.  Trust me, you want this one.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Coconut Rum Biscotti

Books and biscotti — a perfect combination if you ask me.  Both by nature allow us to jump off the treadmill of our daily lives and relax.  Linger.  I challenge you to eat biscotti in a hurry.  It’s kind of impossible.  Biscotti’s designed to be nibbled, dunked, swirled.  Like a good book, it’s a thing to be savored.  And in our household, these biscotti are most definitely being savored.

I switched up the ingredients for this one a bit.  The original recipe in Baking with Julia is for Hazelnut Biscotti, but with temperatures creeping into the triple digits (yuck!) I didn’t feel like boiling and toasting the hazelnuts.  Macadamia nuts felt a bit more summery.  To go along with them, I swapped out the frangelico called for in the recipe with coconut rum.  Because, again, nothing says summer like a splash of rum.  Oh and don’t worry, I won’t say anything if you decide to add a splash of rum to your weekend coffee as well.  😉

And if you’re looking for a good book to read over the summer, I recommend Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder.  I’m only halfway through, so I can’t speak for the ending yet, but so far I’m completely caught up in the story.  Part Island of Dr. Moreau, part feminist Heart of Darkness, it’s a thrilling journey into the Amazon and the worlds of pharmaceutical research and medical ethics.  I’ve been sneaking downstairs early the past few mornings to squeeze in some extra reading time before the rest of the house is awake.  Now, thanks to Julia, I’ve got a sweet little treat to enjoy on those mornings.

Thanks to Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome and Katrina of Baking and Boys for hosting this week.  Check out their blogs to hear their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays with Dorie: French Strawberry Cake

If at first you don’t succeed —

This week’s Baking with Julia recipe calls for a genoise cake layered with homemade strawberry syrup and vanilla whipped cream frosting.  One of the interesting things about genoise is that the cake doesn’t rise at all in the oven.  All the volume is created from beating eggs and sugar into a frothy batter which you try your best not to deflate when you gently fold in the flour.  Reading through the recipe, I was intrigued.  I was pretty sure I’d never made this type of cake before.  However, as I started baking, I realized that genoise and I actually have a long prickly history.

Many, many years ago (I believe it was around 7th grade or so) I attempted to make a Boston Cream Pie.  My mother had invited some friends over to visit, talk, gossip, drink wine coolers (or whatever it was school teachers and librarians did during their summer vacation.)  Somehow I got it in my head that I was going to provide dessert for them.  And it was going to be this Boston Cream Pie illustrated in one of my mom’s cookbooks.  Maybe I thought  it would make me seem grown-up.  Or smart.  Or sophisticated.  I don’t know.  I just know that for whatever reason I HAD to make that cake.

I measured.  I sifted.  I whisked.  And to show for my efforts, I ended up with two flat, flavorless disks.  Probably closer in texture and heft to a discus rather than a cake.  I took some comfort in the fact that once they were layered with custard and drizzled with chocolate, it looked pretty close to the picture.  Maybe, I thought, it wasn’t that bad.  I was wrong.

I hid in the hallway, listening for the sounds of forks sliding against plates and murmurs of “Mmm, this is delicious” and “I know I’m on a diet, but I just have to have another.”  They never came.  Slices were left largely untouched, a couple polite bites taken before the plate had been pushed aside.  I was devastated.  I remember discovering the uneaten globs of cake and custard in the trash can and going to my room and crying.

I tried the recipe once again, determined to get it right.  It didn’t happen.  To this day, I’ve never attempted to make a Boston Cream Pie again.

So back to the Strawberry Cake —

As I opened the oven, the whole memory washed back over me.  There, in front of me was not a spongy cake ready to be sliced  and smothered with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  Instead what stared back at me was that flat, flavorless flop of a Boston Cream Pie.

BUT, this time around, I didn’t cry.  One, because I’m now an adult and like to think I’ve gained a bit more emotional maturity over the years.  And two, because I reminded myself that Julia wouldn’t.  Nope, she’d toss it in the trash with that glorious laugh of hers then roll up her shirtsleeves and start right in whisking some more eggs.  I decided to do the same.

Fortunately, this time around, I was not just older and more experienced — I was armed with Google.  The error, I discovered, was in the eggs.  Or more specifically in beating them.  Dorie’s recipe states to beat the eggs on medium for 4-5 minutes.  I’d actually increased that to 10 minutes for the first cake which obviously didn’t work. For the second one, it was closer to 15 minutes at medium-high speed on my Kitchenaid professional.  I found some online comments from pastry chefs stating that it’s almost impossible to overbeat the whole eggs, especially combined with the sugar.  I trusted that they were right.  And they were.  As you can see cake #2 worked out much better.

As for the final result —

I liked this cake, but I didn’t love it.  I’d actually prefer a good old strawberry shortcake any day.  But, after all these years, I was able to finally declare victory over the genoise.  And that tastes pretty sweet indeed.

Thanks to Sophia of Sophia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine for hosting this week.  Check out their blogs to hear their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Pecan Sticky Buns

Sometimes life is sticky.

Sometimes your husband’s department will have a major upheaval days before you’re due to have houseguests.

Sometimes you’ll experience one of those uncommon side effects from a medication and discover there’s such a thing as drug-induced pneumonia.

Sometimes your three year old will test you like he’s never tested you before while your inlaws are visiting.

Sometimes you’ll wonder if you can list him on ebay.

Sometimes the coyote howls outside will make you cry and worry about bullies and you’ll get out of bed to clutch your child’s tiny hand and kiss his sleeping cheek.

Sometimes you’ll try to remove the thermometer from a freshly roasted chicken with your bare hands.

And sometimes a bit of butter, flour, and cinnamon will make everything better.

Thank you Dorie, Julia and Nancy for showing me that sticky makes us stronger . . .

Sticky shows us what we’re made of  . . .

And sticky can taste oh so sweet.

Thanks to Lynn of Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole of Cookies on Friday for hosting this week.  Check out their blogs to hear their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Hungarian Shortbread

Being half-Hungarian, I knew I had to at least attempt this week’s recipe.  My father fled Hungary during the revolution of 1956, swimming across Lake Neusiedl and spending 2 years in an Austrian refugee camp before finally being able to come to the U.S.  One of my proudest baking moments was serving him a surprise batch of palacsinták (Hungarian crepes) and having him recognize what they were.

As I’m discovering with quite a few of the Baking with Julia recipes, these little babies contain an entire pound of butter.  But don’t let that deter you.  You’ll work every last one of those calories off when you grate the frozen dough.  By hand.

Yes, you read that right.  According to Dorie’s notes:  “There’s little that’s simpler.”  Dorie, you are no longer my friend.

I figured I’d use the time spent grating to try and work out  a scene I was in the middle of writing.  I always find the best ideas happen while your hands are busy and your mind’s free to wander.  Unfortunately, while grating away, the only thing my mind was thinking was “Crap.  I’ve got to do this with the other round of dough, too.”  That was followed by “Crap.  I can’t feel my pinky finger anymore.”  While thawing my hand under some warm water, I baked the first half of the shortbread for about 15 minutes.  (A big thank you to whoever made that suggestion on the TWD chat board.  The bottom layer would have been way undercooked had I not made this adjustment.)

The rhubarb jam wasn’t nearly such an ordeal.  I once again thanked God (or Martha Stewart) for convincing me to buy an angled spatula.  It made it much easier to spread the jam without massacring the partially-cooked, still gooey bottom layer of shortbread.  This small victory spurred me on for the 2nd round of grating.

Everything was then popped it in the oven for another 40 minutes and I rewarded myself with another few chapters of Under the Dome (which I’ve been unable to put down since I started it.)  As the situation started smelling worse for the poor trapped residents of  Chester’s Mill, my  house started to smell amazing.

The final verdict?  These are good.  Really good.  As in I-immediately-invited-over-a-friend-to-please-take-some-home-with-her-so-I-don’t-eat-them-all good.  They’re tart and sweet and cakey and crumbly all at the same time. I’d happily make them again.  Grating and all.  Dorie, we are once again friends.

Thanks to Lynette at 1smallkitchen and Cher at  The Not So Exciting Adventures of  a Dabbler for hosting this week.  Check out their blogs to hear their baking experiences as well as for the recipe itself.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lemon Loaf with Lavender

Since sharing my love of spring and lemons in my previous post, it’s time for a confession.  While I love fresh lemon in savory dishes, in desserts . . . not so much.  That’s not to say I don’t love lemony sweets.  I just don’t like them to be natural.  That’s right, I confess.  When it comes to lemon desserts, I’m a fan of the processed stuff — that bright, artificial, never existed in real life neon yellow of lemon meringue pies and the Girl Scout’s lemon chalet cookies.  That “natural” lemon flavoring that was invented in a lab and is all yellow dye and chemicals I can’t pronounce.  Yep, that one.  Love it.

And it’s for that reason alone I wasn’t all that excited about this recipe.  I’ve made a few lemon loaf type desserts before and haven’t been too excited by them.

I planned on getting this one out of the way early.  Which turned  into procrastinating.  Which led to “Maybe I’ll just skip this week’s recipe” which finally became “Oh, hell, if I don’t like it, I can always have my husband leave it in the kitchen at work.”  (His office kitchen shares similar properties with piranha-infested rivers in the Amazon.  Mainly that anything left there is pretty much a carcass within an hour.)

So I made it.  And I’m really glad I did.

Normally I don’t tweak the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes.  I’m nervous about my improv skills in the kitchen, and I like to see how the recipe’s supposed to work before making any changes or additions.  For this one, though, I decided to vary it up.  A few years ago I came across a recipe for lavender pound cake.  I’ve yet to make it, but every year when Spring rolls around it pops into my head.  Hmm.  Lemon.  Lavender.  Why not?  I minced up a tablespoon and tossed it in with the sugar.

While mixing the batter, I started to get a bit doubtful.  My kitchen had developed the faint whiff of a L’Occitane store.  And (having had the unforgettable experience of getting my mouth washed out with soap when I was little) it wasn’t exactly making my tastebuds water.  Luckily the finished product did not taste like hand soap.

It’s light.  It’s refreshing.  It’s simple yet elegant.  It will make you want to invite Mr. Darcy over for a cup of tea.  But then again, when would you not want to invite Mr. Darcy over for tea?

Thanks to Truc at Treats and Michelle at The Beauty of Life for hosting this week.  You can check out their blogs for more details on the recipe.