TWD: Cocoa-Nana Bread

Suffice it to say the last few days have been hellish. So instead of anything too exciting, you get pictures. Mostly pictures. Of cocoa-nana bread, which I didn't try. And a distinct lack of pictures of this month's Daring Baker challenge (nanaimo bars). Not because I didn't make them. I did! I halved the custard layer, replaced coconut with oats, and put peanut butter in the custard layer and peanuts in the base layer. They were fabulous. But they stuck to the bottom of the pan. I cursed at them, swore at them, but they wouldn't budge.


So pictures. Pictures, and this post, which seems to have come at the perfect time for me. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon, but until then - pictures.


Last Week: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars
Next Week: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

Yeah. About these "almost candy" bars. Almost? Almost? Riight. Almost. If close only counts in horseshoes, these cookies are so horseshoes. Oatmeal, brown sugar, butter, chocolate, peanuts, raisins... These bars are a pumped-up version of any bar cookie I've ever had. Let's just say that I knew they were destined to be treats at work, just by looking at the ingredient list.


But they weren't really interested in cooperating. Oh no, they didn't want to mix up nicely, calmly creaming brown sugar with butter, then casually incorporating flour and oatmeal before kindly accommodating some peanuts. Nope, they wanted to fling brown sugar-butter around my kitchen (I found some a couple days later, in my bowl of granola). Then they wanted to dust my kitchen with flour. And sprinkle it with nice snow shower of oats. Kind of them, since it's a whopping 31*F here (um winter? please come back...). And the peanuts? They grudgingly shoved themselves into the dough, but they sure took their time doing it.


This is about when I frantically tweeted to fellow TWD'ers that they needed to use a large bowl to mix the cookie dough (and was presented with this 13 qt whopper of a mixing bowl!). And then I realized that not all of us are on Twitter, so I quickly skipped over to the P&Q to mention that you should really use the largest bowl you own to make these things. Learn from others' mistakes, people - I'll give you plenty of mine, don't worry.


It was also when I realized that these were perfect for the guys at work. They're never afraid of bars, don't understand the meanings of "too sweet" or "excessive," and they'd been harassing me about bringing something new in. Almost candy bars it would be! Granted, I tried to rein them in by cutting the half recipe of bars (baked in an 8x8" pan) into 32 pieces, but that was, um, a fail. Major fail. Every single guy grabbed two. And loved them. So if you're trying to please a couple dozen guys who aren't interested in fancy desserts, go for these. They'll love them, and you for bringing them in. Win-win, don't you think?


Last Week: Mrs. Vogel's Scherben
Next Week: Cocoa-Nana Bread

TWD: Mrs. Vogel's Scherben

Okay, please tell me I wasn't the only one who spent the last week or two saying scherben over and over again? Please? Because seriously, that was my favorite part of these cookies. Not to say they weren't interesting and tasty, they were! But how can the flavor live up to the name?

I did cheat a little bit with these though. The simple dough of butter, flour, a large pinch of sugar, a small pinch of salt, and hot water was supposed to be chilled for an hour, rolled thin as could be, cut, refrigerated, and fried. Deep fried. In my apartment. I've done it, but it's a bit of an undertaking, one in which I try to deep fry as many things in a row as I can. But when I've been told to heat three inches of oil in order to fry a measly few cookies? Yeah, I'm going to do something a bit different.


So I did it. I baked them. The heavens didn't fall, hell didn't freeze, and they were still quite tasty. Just a bit less labor intensive because oh I didn't bother chilling them for an hour post-rolling and cutting either. Nope. Roll, cut, into a 400*F oven for 12-13 minutes, although timing is very dependent upon how thin you roll the dough. Just make sure to toss them directly into powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar, right out of the oven. And paradoxically, you need to wait until they're cool before tasting, because otherwise they're a bit chewy. And not in a good way. My eternal apologies to Teanna for bastardizing her recipe, but luckily they turned out wonderfully! Not a cookie that I'd run to make again, but a very fun one to try this once.


Last Week: Tarte Tatin and Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake (I'm still contemplating making that cake again...)
Next Week: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars (yes please)

TWD: Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake

So as it happens, two years ago two days ago (got that?) Tuesdays with Dorie was launched. And two years ago one day ago, this blog launched. Yeah. Holy effing shit. Needless to say, my slightly less ladylike actual response can stay off the blog. And since this is my ladylike response, um, I'm sorry? That's what I get for spending day after day chatting with guys on the floor. Ladylike goes out the window.

But this isn't about looking back (although seriously, holy shit! okay, I'm done). It's about looking forward. I was reading a post by someone, which I unfortunately lost, talking about how, instead of beating ourselves up for what happened before, we should just pay attention to the possibilities and opportunities that lay ahead. Stay positive and keep looking forward. Looking backward just leads to walking into poles, and that's a wee bit uncomfortable. It also reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend at work about sunk costs and how you shouldn't look at the money you've spent on a project when determining if you will continue trying to install SAP in a business that is patently unsuited for it. *ahem*


Moving on past my issues with management sometimes, this cake was made for not one, but TWO birthdays! Yeah, talk about multi-tasking. It followed the most fun dinner party I've ever helped throw - 6 courses of tapas, this, and a gingerbread cake. We began baking and cooking at 1p and didn't finish until 7p. I've decided that making dinner in stages like that is probably the best thing ever. It's laidback, fun, and please tell me that I'm not the only one who wants the kitchen to be the main hangout place in the house?


Even better? This cake was the quintessential birthday cake, in my opinion. While yes, the cake was a bit dry, it is the only recipe I've ever made where the layers were perfectly flat. It domed in the oven, which worried me, but the minute it came out? Each layer settled right back down into pancake flatness. We didn't make the frosting recipe as written (aka, two more sticks of butter?!?), instead making the frosting recipe off the back of the cocoa tin, adding in 1/4 cup chocolate malted milk powder. And sprinkles on top? Yes please!


Cocoa Frosting (adapted from Hershey's - scroll down for frosting recipe)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup cocoa
1/4 cup chocolate malted milk powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Using a hand mixer, cream the butter with the malted milk powder. Mix in the cocoa powder. Add the powdered sugar alternately with the milk, beating until it reaches a spreading consistency. Mix in additional milk or powdered sugar to adjust if needed. Stir in the vanilla. Makes enough frosting for a 9" two layer cake.

Last Week: Chocolate Cheesecake
Two Days Ago: Tarte Tatin
Next Week: Mrs. Vogel's Scherben

TWD: Tarte Tatin

I'm not going to lie here - I stuffed the ballot box when we began voting for Tuesdays with Dorie's two year anniversary treat. Not to say I'm as bad as Clara - she took to the streets (aka Twitter) to lobby for white chocolate raspberry brownies! But seriously, how could they beat out heavily caramelized apples topped in puff pastry, baked, and inverted so that caramel goes everywhere? Two words - they can't.


This was my New Year's Eve dessert, since the fiance and I had a couple friends coming up from the Milwaukee area to celebrate with us. Well, celebrate might be stretching it. Basically, we ate, ate some more, played a board game, ate and drank, watched the ball drop, and went to bed. Yeah, we're exciting folks! But what does it matter when you have homemade baguettes being served alongside pasta all'Amatriciana, a glass of wine, and a slice of tarte tatin? Who really cares about a ball dropping at that point? If you still care about the ball dropping, I just have to come out and say it - you probably hate freedom and puppies. Just sayin'.


The best part was definitely being able to make a half recipe in my smaller cast iron skillet. I used natural cane sugar and a bit less than half the butter called for, and got the caramel [thisclose] to burnt before popping the puff pastry on top and baking it. Because very little can be better than dark, dark caramel on top of sweet apples, right? Needless to say though, I had to foist the remainder of the tarte upon my friends, as it was way too dangerous to have sitting around, even without any New Year's resolutions.


Last Week: Chocolate Cheesecake
This Week: Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake (for a birthday even!)
Next Week: Mrs. Vogel's Scherben (the only thing making deep frying these okay is saying the word "scherben" over and over again)