TWD: Chocolate Cream Tartelette

I must admit, I'm even getting a little over my head with the dose of chocolate this month with Tuesdays with Dorie. So I can't even imagine how much Kayte is looking forward to a couple months full of fruity crumbles and cakes. I mean, when it comes to chocolate, my first response is yes please! But when you start throwing chocolate into bread puddings and mixing it with amaretti but no flour, I have a second response - enough!


Which is why I took creative liberties with this week's chocolate cream tart, chosen by Kim. Chocolate cream filling in a chocolate crust? Umm... I think that's the reason why I've had a tartelette shell of sweet tart dough sitting in my freezer for a couple months. No chocolate tart dough for me! And then, even with a bittersweet chocolate filling, I really needed to add something in there to brighten things up. Forgoing the whipped cream topping, I decided instead upon a sprinkling of grey salt.


Speaking of whipped cream topping, did anyone else find it odd that the chocolate cream filling in fact had no cream?!? It seems as if cream gets added to every single possible thing, except a recipe for a chocolate cream tart? I was a little confused by that, but I guess that's a good thing. Dorie keeps ya guessing!


As for the tart itself? My initial reactions were these - one, I could eat the filling by itself, and two, this is like a glorified pudding tart. With really fabulous pudding, but still.

Last Week: Chocolate Bread Pudding
Next Week: Tiramisu Cake

April DB Challenge: Cheesecake

Can you believe this? I made the challenge almost right after it was announced, but completely forgot to write up my post on it until I saw that Y had already posted about hers! You would think that the first time I got off my butt and got the challenge done with plenty of time I'd be able to follow through the rest of the way and just get it all wrapped up weeks before I needed it. Ah well, little steps, right?


While I wasn't too incredibly excited about making "Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake," the timing couldn't have been more perfect. You see, we had a bit of a kerfuffle at work right after the first of the month. The department I work in had just reached one year without a recordable incident, and so each shift was going to get a "safety lunch" to celebrate. The shift that was on that first week, however, was a little miffed. We order a lunch from the local grocery, and they get a choice of a meat, a veggie, a starch, and a dessert. They wanted cheesecake as their dessert, which they've gotten before. Unfortunately, the proposed menu was sent back by the plant manager because "cheesecake is too expensive."


Now, I have to say - how much more expensive can cheesecake be? It's either that or brownies, bar cookies, or cupcakes. But no, cheesecake = too expensive. Even weirder, the guys on the floor took up a collection to cover the "extra cost" of getting cheesecake, but evidently we can't do that. So bars it was.


Since this was right after this month's challenge, chosen by Jenny, was announced, I took it as a sign from, well, somewhere. I needed to make them cheesecake to make up for the injustice. After mentioning it to a couple people, I got enthusiastic approval, and off I went. The only drawback? I wanted to make a cheesecake with a lemon curd swirl, but they just wanted cherry cheesecake. Booo-ring! But their wish is my command, so cherry cheesecake it was.


The only stipulation that I put on it was this - no cherry pie filling. Because seriously? Yeeeccchhhh! Luckily, I found a cherry topping that used fresh or frozen cherries, a bit of sugar, and some lemon juice to perk it up. It was easy to mix up, although the texture could have been better. I used frozen cherries, and the structural integrity just wasn't there. The guys on the floor didn't complain though - all I got back was a very clean 13x9" pan!

Cherry Topping (from Culinary in the Country)

2 cups dark sweet cherries
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cornstarch
20 cherries

Puree the 2 cups of cherries in a food processor until smooth. Combine in a saucepan with all other ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute. Allow to cool and place in refrigerator until it is time to serve the cheesecake.

Note: I used frozen cherries, which made for a less robust sauce. If you have cherries in season where you are, by all means use them. The sauce will be all the better for it.
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Carrot Cake Cookies

See, just as promised - carrot cake cookies. I realize that not everyone finds these nearly as exciting as I do, but just bear with me. Cakey, spicy, chunky, and slathered in cream cheese frosting, how can you go wrong? While my favorite way to have carrot cake is definitely in, well, a cake, these definitely fill in for that when I have a craving but don't have the time to make a layered carrot cake.


One thing though - if you delete a mix-in (like I took out the nuts, since I didn't have any on hand), make sure to up the other extras to compensate. These probably spread a bit more than they would have if I had kept the nuts in or upped the raisins. I even refrigerated the dough, but oh well. They were a bit fragile as well, not as sturdy as a carrot cake.

So here's a sign of how much I love carrot cake. If I can convince my future fiance, I want some of my wedding cake to be carrot cake. If not all. And, of course, I want to make it myself :) We'll see how long both of those resolutions stand though.....


Oh yeah, and there's nothing like watching America's Next Top Model while eating a plate full of frosting-smeared cookies :)

Carrot Cake Cookies (adapted from here)

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
scant 1/4 cup brown sugar
scant 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coarsely grated carrot
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together the butter, both sugars, the egg yolk, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in carrot and raisins on low speed. Slowly add the flour mixture, beating just until combined.

Using a small cookie scoop (or a standard spoon) drop 1/2 Tbsps of batter 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned and the tops are springy to the touch, about 9 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets about one minute, then transfer to a cooling rack.

These are wonderful on their own, but even better with some cream cheese frosting smeared on the bottom. I didn't sandwich them, but don't let that stop you!

NFR: Giveaway, Given Away!

So, just a little while ago (not too long ago!), I decided that a virtual hug was in order. A virtual hug in the form of Molly's book or a mini pan. And today is the day - hugs are being given. Now, before you become sad that you didn't get a mini pan or a superawesome book, realize that another virtual hug is coming in a day or two. Carrot cake cookies. Smeared with cream cheese frosting. My idea of a hug.

But yeah - my first giveaway, and I'm sort of entertained. I asked for your favorite or most wanted mini pan, and here are the results - you guys really like those mini bundts and mini cheesecake pans. Seriously, take a look:


If you can't read it (sorry, Blogger is sucky at resizing and changing resolution on me), here's what it says - 31% of you want mini bundts, 28% of you want mini cheesecake pans, and the balance are a mix of mini cake, loaf, muffin, tart, springform, and tube (!) pans. To the person who mentioned mini angel food cakes, I'm blaming my next pan purchase on you. Seriously, what an awesomely adorable idea!

So, without further ado, the winners:

Molly's Book: Elyse (yay! I stumbled upon Elyse's blog a few weeks ago, and *drool* :) )
Pan of Your Choice: mcnairy, who wants a mini tart pan

So congrats to the two of you, and please email me at piercecl715 (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address so I can send your gifts speeding off to you!

TWD: Chocolate Bread Pudding

Or, the day I decided that bread + fruit + dairy + eggs + chocolate = a balanced dinner and dessert, all in one dish.

I wasn't actually expecting to like this. Like, at all. Sorry Lauren, but you can give me bread any day. You can give me chocolate any day. But why, oh why, would you soak said bread in a chocolate custard and then bake it?!? Seriously, that's just not okay. Mushy bread is not allowed here, mkay?


My skepticism continued through the entire assembly process. I had chopped up my bread a day earlier and let it dry out into sad little croutons. Not that it was much of a loss, as I had decided to seventh the recipe (yes, you read that right) and had just picked up a 3 oz squishy white roll from the deli. Yeecchhhh. Let it never be said that I withhold my opinion, right? Let's just say that after a day they were like raw croutons. A bit like cardboard. And then I made the custard - I don't know about you guys, but my chocolate was not going to melt into a custard after it had been cooling for 30 minutes. So it wasn't exactly a smooth and creamy chocolate custard - more like one with little flecks of chocolate throughout. And then it didn't seem like there was enough custard for the whole amount of bread (1.75 oz after drying). I did the "spoon treatment" and pressed it into the custard every 5 minutes for 30 minutes, but no dice. Oh, and did I mention I subbed prunes in for the raisins? Well, they were there, and I had really liked the chocolate + prune combo, so why the heck not?

So yes. Skepticism.

And then it went in the oven. You know what? My skepticism started disappearing. It smelled good. Like, chocolate cake good. But with bread, which happens to be my BFF. So out of the oven it came, after 25 minutes. The shortened time is due to some mini pans that I can't believe I haven't used yet - mini pie pans. Seriously, cutest things ever. My mom is the greatest mom EVER for getting these for me.


Right, back to the pudding. Dorie said that she liked it better at room temp or cold, so I restrained myself. And then I was distracted by vanilla ice cream with peanut butter patties (David Lebovitz, how I love you...). So it wasn't until Monday night that I managed to try this. I photographed it while my dinner was heating up, and of course had to try a spoonful. And that's when it hit me - my quinoa risotto with sage, peas, and shrimp just didn't sound nearly as good as that chocolate bread pudding. In case you were wondering, that risotto was hella good, so that shows you how strongly I feel about this bread pudding.

We might be BFFs.

Last Week: Amaretti Torte
Next Week: Chocolate Cream Tart

PS - You know what I said not too long ago? Yeah, I've come over to the dark side. Twitter. Blame it 100% on Y, but thanks CB for popping that twitter cherry o' mine :) I'm @engineerbaker

NFR: A Giveaway

Because I love each and every one of you. There are many reasons - you put up with my rambling, my incoherency, my love of spreadsheets and scaling and mini things, my random hyperactivity when writing posts after a couple cups of coffee, my kitchen disasters...

So here's what I'm proposing. Because, well, I can't just give each and every one of you a hug (because if I could, I totally would), I feel an overwhelming urge to show my love for you by randomly picking 2 people and sending them, well, fun and exciting baking things. (Although, for serious, if you're ever in Oshkosh, WI, I'd totally take you out to dinner and give you a hug. Because that would be super cool.)

So in honor of my love of mini things, one of those gifts will be a mini baking pan of some sort (mini loaf, mini cupcake, mini bundt, etc). And because I really really love you guys, The other person will get a book that I love and know you will too - Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. It is seriously awesome.

Just leave a comment here with the type of mini pan you most lust after. It can be a mini cheesecake pan, mini loaf pan, mini bundt, whatever - Just do it by 11:30p CST on Sunday, so we don't drag a good thing out too long. This is applicable within the continental US only (sorry!) and I'll be back soon with my good friend random.org to let you guys know who the two lucky people are.

Bake on!

TWD: Amaretti Torte

Now, the prefix on this recipe is "15 Minute Magic." Let me tell you, if the process is supposed to be magical, this is not the kind of magic I'm interested in. Supposedly, it takes 15 minutes to whip this thing together in a food processor. Reasons why it didn't take this little time for me? Let me count the ways...


1. Had to make my own amaretti cookies. 20 min bake, 20 min rest in oven, 10 min cool. Taste really awesome though.
2. Had to melt chocolate in double boiler. Realized this after I'd ground the amaretti and almonds, and whipped together the butter, sugar, and eggs. Swore a bit. Melted and let cool. 10 min melt, 10 min cool.
3. While food processing said amaretti and almonds, burnt out motor on PITA mini-prep food processor. More swearing. Figure the chunks of almond will provide "textural contrast." Dump food processor in the trash.
4. Use blender for mixing together batter. Does not mix anything above the bottom one inch of batter. More swearing, this time under my breath so the boyfriend doesn't think I'm mad at him.
5. Yank out spatula and mix batter up inside blender. Get hand and wrist covered in batter. Mutter more swear words.
6. Dump batter in un-parchment-lined cake pan because I ran out of parchment paper yesterday. Cross fingers that it won't stick, but figure it's a goner. Don't really care because I'm too busy trying to scrape batter out from under the itty bitty blades at the bottom of the food processor.
7. Grumble as I wash all the myriad appliances, bowls, and spoons that it took to make some "magic."
8. Swear more under my breath when I realize it won't come out of the pan. Stupid parchment paper-less apartment. Cross fingers (again!) that slices will come out neatly at least.

*sigh*

may I just say - I totally want a reason to need to mix up 5# of brioche dough

Luckily, it smelled absolutely wonderful in the oven. If it hadn't, I might have hurt someone. Or just written nasty messages in Dorie's book to remind myself never to make this again. As it is, I think I'll just stick with a hand mixer next time around - there will probably be less swearing involved.

P.S. I realized how much more I swear now that I spend all my time in a plant. While at a meeting at our corporate offices, I had to stop myself a couple words into multiple sentences in a row before just giving up and not saying anything until I could get my "office filter" in place on my vocabulary. That filter? Yeah, it doesn't really work at home.

and how did that get in there? oh those blue eyes, they get me every time...

P.P.S. No, I didn't make the ganache. Or the almond whipped cream. So sue me, but there was no way I was dirtying more things or spending more time on this. It was good enough without, so I'm not complaining.

Last Week: Banana Cream Pie
Next Week: Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

Easter Egg Cake Balls

Yes, I know. I'm late to the party. Not only has Bakerella come out with all sorts of adorable Easter creatures and creations, but Susan and Clara (twice!) both beat me to the punch as well! Luckily, I had something extra up my sleeve...

No, not just any easter egg cake balls. These were a labor of love. An idea popped into my head while I was on the treadmill, not long after I had decided that I wanted to make Easter cake pops. Luckily, a good friend of mine was willing to play along. I didn't want to make just any Easter eggs. There are plenty of chocolate eggs running around during this time of year, and not enough real eggs - right?


So we decided to make more realistic eggs. You know, yolk, white, and shell. So off we went. Well, off I went. In order to get things done in a timely manner (so we could go drink margaritas and eat Mexican for dinner), I baked up a white cake mix and a yellow cake mix the night before. Cooled, wrapped, and packaged away for Saturday, day two of the cake ball adventure.


Each mix was crumbled up in the food processor and mixed with 3/4 of a container of storebought cream cheese frosting. Then we used 1/2 tsp measuring spoons to portion out our yellow cake mixture. Rolled into little balls, these became our yolks.



After some chill time, we measured out heaping teaspoons of white cake mixture and formed them around our chilled yolks. With a bit of dexterity, we then molded the cake ball into an egg-like shape. Let me tell you - this was waaaay more complicated than you might think! After a while, our hands got too coated with the cake mixture and we had to wash them off before diving back in.



Back into the fridge or freezer (depending on if the cookie sheets fit into one or the other) for another hour or so. In fact, we went on a nice walk while they chilled out. What can I say, it got above 40 degrees and we got a little giddy!


Next step - coating with chocolate! And this is where things went terribly wrong. We should have totally thinned out our white chocolate coating with some shortening after coloring it purple, green, blue, and yellow. Since we didn't, things got a little... gloppy. There's really no better way of describing it. It was ugly. There was carnage. Cake eggs lost. Eggs half coated.


But we persevered. Out of the carnage came a few successful cake eggs. Granted, we couldn't really appreciate them at that point - our teeth were practically getting cavities just from the sugar we breathed in throughout the day! The next day though... Well, let's just say there are very few cake eggs left now.....

Happy Easter Everyone!

TWD: Banana Cream Pie

Oh internets, I am le tired. I just came off one heck of a weekend, full of dizzying highs, lows, and everything in between. There were airplane mechanical problems, pilots saying they were going to "try to make it this time," cancelled flights, delayed flights, hotel rooms that wouldn't open, and knee injuries that wouldn't go away.


But there were also fun times, buying of dresses, wandering around Charlottesville, running my mom and my sister in on a 10 mile race, the best biscuits ever, good old pulled pork sandwiches, stunning hikes, sun, and a fantastic tour of Monticello.


Oh, but internets, it was tiring. And now, after an inadvertent skipping of work on Monday because I was still trying to get back to Wisconsin, I am out of time. Because I just spent the last three hours attempting to sort through the 1000+ posts in my Google Reader. Luckily for me, it doesn't depress you any further once you get to 1000 posts. It just says you have 1000+ posts to read. Le sigh.


So it's times like these where I just collapse. I want something comforting, something soothing. And that's why I thank my lucky stars I had this one little dessert waiting for me when I got back. One sixth of this week's TWD recipe (yes, that's all I made), in all of its banana-y, pudding-y glory. Oh yeah, with a nice little bit of chocolate, thanks to the mini chocolate pie shells that I found in the grocery store and bought on a whim. Because everything's better with chocolate.


Last Week: Coconut Butter Thins
Next Week: 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte

POMegranate Petit Fours

Let me tell you, there are just some things that are dangerous for me. Chocolate, in many forms. Caramel, especially salted. Coffee, in anything. Note how all of those things are rather heavy flavors and, well, not so very much healthy for you. But with spring coming (hopefully, we'll just ignore that snow is forecasted for the next week), even my mind turns to lighter things. Fruit. Lemonade. Coffee. Okay, so coffee stays, but you can understand, right?


So that's why I was thrilled when I was contacted to try POM Wonderful's pomegranate juice. And also because the bottle just looks so cool. Seriously, best marketing decision ever, right? But then I had a problem. What to make. Pomegranate juice goes so well in savory dishes, giving that tart but sweet fruity flavor that's just perfect. And really, it's made for mixed drinks. And sangria. But this is a baking blog, right? So I had to think of something to bake using this juice. After I had drank a bottle of it straight. Health benefits, right? Well, it's awesome that it's good for you, because it tasted like candy.


I ended up deciding on petit fours, pomegranate cake drizzled with a pomegranate poured fondant. I halved the cupcake recipe below and baked it in a 8" square pan, which made for a very thin cake (maybe an inch thick. maybe). Oddly enough, the cake turned a bit green , but nobody really seemed to notice but me. Halving the poured fondant recipe was a bit of a problem though, because I didn't take into account the amount of waste involved in drizzling these little suckers with it. Seriously, half of it ended up on the parchment beneath the cakes.


Even better, I had to label these cuties "Pomegranate Petit Fours" before I could stick them out for coworkers to sample. Which cleared up the flavor question, but led to many people asking what petit fours were. Seriously, Wisconsin lives under a rock. Petit fours? I knew what those were when I was 5! Itty bitty cake, whole lotta frosting. Can't get too much better than that!


And the petit fours? They were gone in 2 hours. After I put them out at 7:30a. Evidently, these people like their sweets no matter the time of day! Thanks, POM Wonderful, for letting me try out the 100% pomegranate juice - me and my coworkers thank you!

Pomegranate Cupcakes (from here)

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 c pomegranate juice
2 tsp grated lime peel
1/2 c Greek-style yogurt
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Line a cupcake/muffin pan with paper liners.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat sugar and butter with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in 1/2 C pomegranate juice and 2 tsp lime peel. Mixture may appear curdled. Beat flour mixture until just blended. Stir in yogurt.

Drop batter into cupcake liners. Bake until tester comes out clean. ~25 minutes, possibly longer. Let cool for 15 minutes or so.

Remove cooled cupcakes from pan and carefully remove silicon liners. Place cupcakes on wire rack.

Pomegranate Pourable Fondant (from here)

4 cups confectioners sugar (about a pound)
1/3 cup pomegranate juice
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in a double boiler. Stir over boiling water until the mixture becomes slightly warm, enough so that it is pourable. You know it is the right consistency when it forms ribbons on the fondant as you lift the spoon.

Pour over cake pieces. Let dry and put on another coat if necessary.