TwD - Baking with Julia - Gingerbread Baby Cakes

I'm back!  Its been a couple of months since I participated in Baking with Julia but I've been missing the baking lately so decided to jump back in this month.

Baking with Julia - Gingerbread Baby Cakes

While I really like these little cakes I think they should be called molasses cakes instead of GingerBread Cakes.  I love the dense, chewy texture and the spicy bite provided by the fresh ginger and pepper make for a very sophisticated taste combination.  This is NOT a children's gingerbread cake!

Alas they were not a hit with my husband but that's why there are so many different recipes, right?  So everyone gets what they like!  I paired this with a little scoop of Starbucks Chocolate Chip ice cream and it was divine.

All I had on hand was sorghum and I'm not going to get into the whole sorghum vs molasses debate.  If you're a southerner you know what I mean!  I had sorghum.  I used sorghum.  It was good.  End of story.

Sadly my mustard yellow hand mixer that I received as a shower present from a dear neighbor 41 years ago died recently.  While she was a work horse and wonderful kitchen companion my new mixer is amazing!  Technology has indeed changed!!!

I'm happy to be back and I'm planning some catch up baking.  Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories was the host for Gingerbread Baby Cakes and you can find the recipe on her site.  You can find all the bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie.

TwD - Hazelnut Biscotti

Hazelnut Biscotti
Baking with Julia

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!  We have so much going on here that I didn't get these made in time for posting last Tuesday.  Its okay, though, because I ended up making them while visiting a friend and it was fun to share my baking project!

These were really delicious and easy to make.  They were especially easy since my friend took care of removing the skins from the hazelnuts!  Thank you DeLynn!  Next time I might leave the skins on.  Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything!

I can't wait to make biscotti with other additions.  The possibilities are endless!  Our hosts for this recipe were Jodi and Katrina.  Be sure to go by the Tuesdays with Dorie site and see what the other bakers thought of this recipe!

They were especially delicious with a cup of tea!

I hope you had a happy 4th of July and that your summer is going well:)

TwD - Pecan Sticky Buns - BwJ

Pecan Sticky Buns

I want to say up front that we loved these!  Yes, there is an obscene amount of butter in the recipe but not too much sugar so they are very rich but not cloyingly sweet ( remember Hungarian Shortbread?).

This is a fairly straight forward brioche dough and came together beautifully.  Yes, 15 minutes is a long time for the mixer to knead but my Kitchen-Aid soldiered through it fine.  My dough needed almost another 1/3 cup of flour to come together but come together it did into a silky and elastic mass of loveliness.

My only possible complaint was the sticky topping.  Its very sticky!  I wouldn't mind something less sticky but it was delicious!

I saved the second roll of dough in the freeze to make brioche or something. Our hosts for this recipe are Lynn and Nicole.  Thanks for posting the recipes ladies.  Be sure and check out all the TwD cooks and see what they thought!

I've been reading Real Food, What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck .She tells us fat is not our enemy.  Given all I ingested with these sticky buns that's good news!  Now if I could just find raw dairy from grass fed cows and free range chickens that don't cost $20 a bird I'd be a happy cook:)

TwD - Rugelach - Baking with Julia

My husband joined the Air Force after college.  His first assignment after pilot training was at Beale AFB in California.  It was a long way from home.  Gary and I were in our early 20s and very naive.  On his first day of in processing a very nice major befriended him and showed him the ropes.  The major, Norm and his wife, Lori, became our good friends and mentors.  They made being so far from home much nicer and eased us into the Air Force way of life. And Lori taught me how to make Cream Cheese Cookies.

Lori's Cream Cheese Cookies

This has been our favorite cookie ever since.  The dough is much like the rugelach dough in Baking with Julia.  The cookie dough is rolled after chilling and cut into whatever shape you desire.  Put a dollop of your favorite jam, fold the dough over the filling and bake.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool and enjoy!  Which we did with Norm and Lori again and again.

After many years and many moves and a divorce (them, not us) we lost contact with Norm and Lori.  A couple of years ago Lori found me and our friendship picked up right where we left off.

 Sadly we didn't have much time together.  Lori was sick and died last year.  Many times we talked about meeting again but she lived in North Carolina and I lived in Oklahoma and it wasn't until her daughter called to say Lori was in the hospital and wasn't going to make it that I hurried to see her.  Her daughter said "Mom open your eyes and see who I brought you."  Though she was in a drug induced state she opened her eyes and saw me.  Tears fell, hers and mine.  She didn't look at me again and died the next day.

Prune Ruglach 

These wonderful rugelach brought all that back to me.  The dough is easy to make.  I used the food processor and mixed the dough like a pie crust.  Next time I'll use the mixer and cream the softened butter and cream cheese like a cookie dough.  Still it wasn't difficult and it came together easily using a technique known as fraisage, smearing the dough against the countertop using the heel of your hand.

I made prune and apricot lekvars and both were delicious!  I think the prune is my favorite though. The filling was raisins, figs, and apricots.  I rolled and sliced one batch and the other I made into crescents.  Both worked easily and held the filling quite nicely.

Apricot Rugelach

I love this baking group and this cookbook.  We are in our 2nd month and I've learned so many new things.  The hosts for this recipe are Jessica and Margaret.  Stop by TwD to see what everyone experienced with this recipe.

Latest Project - TwD - White Loaves

Several years ago I bought a beautiful bread book called Dough by Richard Bertinet.  The pictures are gorgeous and he advocates a kneading technique I'd never heard of.  There was even a video to help convey the Bertinet technique.  Problem was my bread didn't come out.  It didn't rise or the texture wasn't right or the flavor didn't pop.  I googled Richard Bertinet trying to figure out where I was going wrong only to learn that he teaches bread classes at his shop in Bath, England.  When my husband suggested I sign up and go I jumped at it!  There I learned many things...not the least of which that mistakes had been made in the translation from metrics to American standard.  In other words most of the problems I had were due to poor recipes, the ratios were wrong!  I've been kind of hard on cookbook authors ever since. (These errors were corrected in subsequent editions, only the first printing has it wrong.  I know you might love him and his books.  I do too but I'm still bothered about the experience!)  I see buying a cookbook as entering into a contract.  I agree to follow the recipe and the author agrees to provide recipes that produce the stated results.  If I DON'T follow the recipe (I know folks, but it happens) I can't blame the author but I DO EXPECT recipes with proper ratios!!  Until my Dough experience I didn't really understand the responsibility a cookbook author has.

Off my soapbox and moving on to Baking With Julia.  Dorie Greenspan wrote this cookbook based on the PBS series of the same name that aired in 1996/97.  I saw a few of the episodes but that was a much busier phase of my life and I was probably at either a soccer or hockey game for most of the episodes.  For over a year Julia Child featured different renown bakers preparing one of their signature products.

Now Tuesdays with Dorie.  I was late to the party for the original cooking group based on Dorie Greenspan's book Baking, From my Home to Yours and organized by Laurie Woodward but now Laurie has launched another Tuesday group based on Baking With Julia!  Here's our first recipe. White Loaves.

This is the best white bread recipe I have ever made.  I want to repeat that.  This is the best white bread I have ever made!  The recipe works like a magic formula that's been handed down from baker to baker in whispers.  I even substituted (see, I told you it could happen!) white whole wheat flour for 1/2 of the bread flour because I have a husband fighting off Type 2 diabetes and I try to complicate every carb I possibly can.  Those simple carbs are the bane of the diabetic!

Anyhow, this bread had it all, rise, texture AND flavor!  Great directions, simple recipe.  I'm a happy Dorista!  Stay tuned for Chocolate Truffle Tartlets in two weeks! All the Tuesday Doristas can be found at Tuesdays with Dorie.