TWD: Chocolate Cheesecake

So this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick by Margaret is actually Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake, but I had a couple issues with that. For one, seriously - is this really a "short" cheesecake?!? Because anything taller than one inch is no longer short in my book. So I was going to shorten it to Lush Chocolate Cheesecake, but then I realized that I was probably not the only one who would then assume it contained massive amounts of alcohol. Which is doesn't (damn, why didn't I think of that?). So here we are, with a relatively unassuming name for this not so unassuming dessert.


Except it wasn't a dessert. It was breakfast. Seriously. I brought it in for the guys at work (yes, again). Just a week after an unfrosted pumpkin spice cheesecake debacle (profanity alert). But in all fairness, this was a different shift of guys, so I felt they would probably appreciate a nice chocolate cheesecake. But I also took it out to them at 8:30a, and it was gone by 10a. Am I the only one whose stomach turns at the idea of cheesecake that early in the morning?


The recipe itself made me a bit skeptical initially, to be honest. I'm slowly getting behind the chocolate + cinnamon thing, so putting cinnamon in the graham cracker crust was okay by me. But the batter itself? I felt like it needed a bit more chocolate - it was so incredibly pale! Even four ounces of bittersweet chocolate didn't really seem like enough, but since I didn't get to try it, I have to take their opinions. Which were universally positive. Surprising, since if they could all eat plain cheesecake with cherries on top they would be happy (it could be that nasty cherry pie filling and they'd be happy, I swear!).


Last Week: Chocolate Pecan Tartlets
Next Week: Doubling up with a Tarte Tatin and Cocoa Buttermilk Cake

December DB Challenge: Gingerbread Houses

Yeah. Gingerbread houses. Such a fantastic WIN by Anna and Y - I've never made one, but they always looked like so much fun! Doing that Daring Baker thang is so worth it some months. I do have to admit, there was dissension in the ranks on this one though. Not from my mom, who had been notified that we were tasked with gingerbread house construction the day after I would arrive home, but from my dad. My mom was quite excited about the mixing and the chilling and the rolling and the baking, but my dad stood unimpressed through the whole ordeal.


You see, I get my baking from my mom, but I get my love of eating from my dad. Seriously, this man has two breakfasts every day! He is why I begin talking about lunch while eating breakfast, dinner while eating lunch, dessert while eating dinner, and breakfast the next day while eating dessert. This used to weird out the fiance, but he's luckily joined in the food-loving and meal-planning, so I've decided that I will actually marry him. As you might realize, he's rather relieved about this.


But getting back to the gingerbread house constructing, since that's sort of the point (right? that is the point, isn't it? because if all you really want from me is rambling, I am so there. I've got that part down.). While Mom and I are rolling and baking, Dad is hovering. "So when do we eat them?" "Well, you don't really want to eat them - they're a bit tough for that." "Well then what's the point?" I attempted to explain that decorating gingerbread houses is fun! and creative! and family friendly! but he just wasn't buying it.


So I hate to break it to all of you, but I gave up. I constructed and decorated my mini houses (based off of Not Martha's stencils), which by the way? WAY harder than you might think! You have to set one "door" piece on its face, and pipe lines of royal icing on the edges. Then you pick two "wall" pieces and set them on the royal icing, balancing them so they stand straight up, perpendicular to the table. Then pipe lines of royal icing on the back of the other "door" piece and set it on top of the walls. Slooooowwwwllly slide it out of the way while you assemble a few more houses, then test to see if the royal icing is dried and the four pieces are cemented together. If they are, set it upright and glue on one "roof" piece followed by the other. Weep because while you were careful in your cutting, your mother was not and every piece she cut ended up lopsided because she squished them in transferring them from cutting board to cookie sheet.


So yeah, sounds like fun, right? I must be crazy, because it seriously was. A baker's dozen of mini gingerbread houses later, I proudly looked at my mini village. Until, that is, my dad walked through and said, "I still don't get it." Sigh. Needless to say, I just cut my losses, decorated them, and took them home to Wisconsin with me. I think my desk at work needs a bit of belated Christmas cheer anyway!


Oh, oh! And the technical details - I used the gingerbread recipe recommended by Y, from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book. It was a bit spicy to actually eat, but smelled amazing while baking and assembling. The dough was a wee bit dry, so I probably dribbled in an addition tablespoon or two of water. It rolled out incredibly easily, and there was minimal shrinkage in the oven. All odd angles and mis-aligned pieces are due to my mom and my ineptitude when it comes to precision baking.


And now for something completely different! Christmas dinner was 100% chosen by me, and a 50/50 job with my Dad. Is there anything better than cooking and baking with parents? Because the Christmas cookies? Made 'em with Mom. So here was the menu:

Prime Rib with an Herb Crust (Serious Eats seriously pulled this one out for me - perfect medium rare, and a mere 1/4" of seared meat around the outside)
Roasted Beets with Orange, Thyme, and Rosemary (because I like having vividly pink fingertips, I swear)
Hashed Brussels Sprouts (for serious, it was the most. popular. dish this Christmas - whoda thunk? oohhh, and we added capers - definitely a good move)
Mashed Potatoes (because Christmas isn't Christmas without mashed potatoes)
Poached Pear and Almond Souffle Cakes (oh so wonderfully light after all of the dinner-type foods)

As for cookies? We had cinnamon almond cookies, chocolate ginger biscotti, and jam thumbprints around the house this week. I restrained myself from making macarons, sables, or anything else. Let me tell you, that was DIFFICULT. Only things that made it easier? Attempting to explain to my father why meringue powder was so necessary I had to cart it from Wisconsin to Indiana, while he tried to explain why he doesn't own a scale. Bad father. Bad, bad father.

In sum, a wonderful Christmas. I think I'll just ignore the high winds and freezing rain and the fact that the fiance was in Jamaica with his family (hee - it rained there half the time too...) and focus on what really mattered - family, friends, and food. So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and lots of love to all!

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.

TWD: Chocolate Pecan Tartlets

I was a bit wary of Dorie's favorite pecan pie recipe, for a number of reasons. Not only was it pecan pie, which has always given me the heebie jeebies with the quantity of sugar in it (and there are never enough pecans, imo), but she also added in cinnamon, espresso powder, and chocolate. Seriously, chocolate? Espresso? I can sorta get behind the cinnamon, but the other two gave me a bit of pause.

Here's the difference from my normal modus operandi though - I'm at home. Home home. South Bend, IN home. The location where I was birthed. The particular zip code that my parents claim as their own. And so I've been spending hour after hour baking and cooking with my parents - days full of lentil soup, Moroccan tagines, almond cookies, thimble cookies, and now pecan pies. Days spent with mugs of tea in hand, sitting and reading in front of the wood burning stove. So when I mentioned offhand to my dad that I was planning on removing the chocolate and espresso and making a more plain Jane version, there was mutiny. Mutiny.


My father is the sole reason why I have a love of chocolate, I'm convinced. If not for him, I would have grown up on fruit pies, shortbreads, and jam cookies. With him though, chocolate is never just an option, it's a necessity. So I sighed, caved, and baked these with chocolate and instant coffee (no espresso powder in this home). Was it worth it? In a word, yes - I made a third of a recipe, which nicely filled two of my little tart rings and a larger ramekin just perfectly. They baked up quite quickly, and were cute and puffy, encased by a wonderfully flaky pie crust (100% whole wheat!!). So thanks go to Beth for choosing this perfectly seasonal recipe - thanks from me and my father!


Last Week: Chocolate Volcano Cookies
Next Week: Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake

TWD: Chocolate Volcano Cookies

You know, there are just times when you shouldn't put off writing a post. I made these, oh, two weeks ago. It was the very same day I made the spice sables and some chocolate chip cookies, come to think of it! The fiance was a very happy cookie eater for the next week thanks to all of those... But getting back to why I shouldn't wait to write posts. It's not normally a problem, but occasionally I look back at things I've made and go - man, I could use one of those right now. Or two, or three. Okay, maybe a handful - it's the holidays, damnit!


Even worse, I totally didn't have faith in these cookies. No offense to Macduff (never any offense, she's one awesomely hilarious gal), but um... these looked a bit suspect. Egg white, sugar, nuts, and espresso powder? That can't make a cookie. Especially not with the random step of heating the batter on the stove before portioning the cookies out. These were going to be flops, flops I tell you!


Except they weren't. Even with my brazen substitution of two tablespoons of cocoa powder for the scant teaspoon of espresso powder (I halved the recipe). They were chewy, nutty, crispy, and chocolatey. We won't go into how, once they came out of the oven, I made the fiance try them first to see if they were any good. Nope, not going into that at all.Total faith here, people, total faith. So here I am, reliving my surprise, and you know what? I just want a cookie. A nutty, chocolatey, chewy, crispy cookie. My kingdom, my kingdom for a cookie!


Last Week: SPICE Sables
Next Week: My Favorite Pecan Pie

TWD: Spice Sables

People might shoot me for this one, but I really should get it out there - I like butter. Ah, but there's a caveat! I like the texture that butter gives things, not necessarily the flavor. But that's only true in baked goods - cook something, and you should drown that baby in butter. Garlic bread? Better with butter. Caramelized onions? Better with butter. Roasted veggies? Better with butter. Pasta? Better with butter. You get the idea. But cookies? Um, no thanks. I don't actually like the taste of butter in a cookie, let alone that slight (or sometimes not so slight) greasiness that you get when you make shortbread. Yech. And before anyone mentions it, yes I have tried cultured butter. I've tried Plugra. I've tried other European-style butters. None of them make me want to eat a wedge of shortbread

And so whenever I make shortbread, I'm a bit disappointed. All those wonderful ingredients! Flour, sugar, butter - it's like the holy trinity of baking. With our powers combined and all that. But in the end, all I get is meh. A slightly greasy meh. Especially when the shortbread melt and lose their shape, even after obsessive under-mixing, freezing, slicing, and re-freezing prior to baking. I am so over finicky.


But these sables? Oh, these are good. Man are they good. They're richer, thanks to the addition of egg yolk and a bit more sugar, and I sortakindamaybe amped up the spices quite a bit in my version. Dorie calls for 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg for the whole recipe. Well, I think that's wimpy (no offense, Dorie, I just don't have a subtle palate when it comes to fall spices!), so I made a half recipe with 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp each of nutmeg and allspice. Oh yes. Yes yes yes. These made the apartment smell of Christmas, and it was a wonderful thing. Man was I excited when I tried them too - wonderfully sandy, rich, and flavorful, with none of the greasy buttery taste that shortbread leaves me with. I do believe I've found my latest favorite cookie! A big thank you to Barbara for picking these wonderfully simple and tasty cookies!


Last Week: Cranberry Pistachio Tart
Next Week: Cafe Volcano Cookies (two words - pleasantly surprised)

TWD: Cranberry Pistachio Tart

It's pet peeve time, here on the Engineer Baker. And I'd bet so so many of you share one of mine - that one that crops up whenever you read reviews of recipes online, or receive emails from people who've tried your recipes. C'mon, you don't know where I'm going with this? Well, here's a hint - this tart? It's supposed to be a "rosy poached pear and pistachio tart." Doesn't really look like one, does it?

Exactly. Those reviewers who "try a recipe" and say they hate it. Oh, but they used 1/4 of the sugar called for, replaced the butter with butter flavored spread (or *shudder* applesauce), cooked it in a crockpot instead of in the oven, and oh don't forget that they also used iceberg lettuce instead of spinach. Because, y'know, that's all they had on hand. But they HATED IT. *dislike dislike dislike* Makes you want to smack them upside the head, doesn't it? Because hello, butter always tastes better, crockpots are for stews, and iceberg lettuce is only good when drenched in bleu cheese dressing and maybe with some bacon on top.


But this is a redeeming story, I promise. We're all about redemption and happiness and kittens 'round here, right? Right. Because this tart was fabulous. Fab-u-lous. There's buttery buttery tart dough (my hands-down favorite tart dough ever), not-too-sweet cranberry pomegranate compote, and caramelized pistachios. Yes, yes, and yes. I know it's no red-wine poached pear, but to be honest, I like my pears tasting of, well, pear. Not wine. And pastry cream? That requires whisking and work and stuff, whereas compote requires sitting. And right now, I'm a big fan of sitting. Bonus! while sitting, you get to hear cranberries go POP. POP. POPPOPPOP. Seriously one of the best sounds ever. Right up there with bacon sizzling and soup burbling.

Yeah, yeah, I know this is supposed to be Tuesdays with Dorie, not Saturdays with Dorie. But work and sickness and lethargy have been kicking my ass the last few days, so you get what you get. Cranberry-pomegranate compote. Pistachios. Tastiness. What more could you want? Oh, right. The source of those pistachios. Because really, what with the tiredness and crankiness and all, the idea of shelling a few dozen pistachios was not really top of my list. Luckily, the superawesomekindgenerous people over at Oh Nuts! sent me a bag of raw shelled pistachios along with other goodies which will be showing up throughout the next few weeks. These are seriously awesome. Dangerously awesome. Because once you no longer have to shell them (the worst part of eating nuts, in my opinion) they are ridiculously easy to mainline. And without the added salt, they don't make your lips burn after eating large amounts of them, not that that has ever happened to me...

Last Week: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake
Next Week: Sables