TWD: Honey Nut Brownies & Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins

Ruh roh! Somehow two Tuesdays have gone by without me posting my Tuesdays with Dorie treats. I baked them... just didn't post them!

Anyway, this week, Suzy of Suzy Homemaker chose Honey Nut Brownies and last week, Lauryn of Bella Baker chose Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins.


First up, the brownies... from the discussion forum I heard that these "brownies" tasted more of honey than chocolate. Those that baked early advised using a honey you really like because the honey flavor was front and center. Sadly, I'm not in love with the honey I have on hand, so I used Lyle's Golden Syrup instead. Lyle's is, I believe, a British product and tastes of caramel and has a consistency much like honey. I figured it would be a perfect match. I also increased the chocolate by half again, and used cashews to add another level of tastiness.


I must say... boy, were these ever good! Wow! I couldn't stop myself from cutting off a hunk every time I walked by. I'm glad I only made 1/2 batch! Now I need to find a good honey and try them as intended.

Moving on to the Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins, they were aptly named because the day I made them the sun came out after what has seemed like forever! I get so tired of these grey, gloomy, Ohio winter skies, I just crave sunshine so badly this time of year.

Enter the muffins...


I even took them outside, risking a too-bright picture because it was so nice to see some sun.

These tasted lightly of orange and lemon and were nice and soft.


Next time I let the clouds get to me, I'm going to bake another batch of these and see if they will work their magic again on those nasty clouds.

OK, that's all folks. If you'd like to see the recipes, please check out Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, from My Home to Yours", or click on the links in the second paragraph for Suzy and Lauryn's web sites.

TWD: Muffins and Cookies and Cake, Oh my!

Whew! January is almost over, which brings me back to the world of blogging.

Hi. Hello. I've missed seeing all the lovely blogs and even lovlier baked treats. I needed a break from blogging, but I kept up with the baking. It's been a fantastic month of Tuesdays with Dorie recipes, too. There hasn't been one stinker in the bunch.

Here we go in reverse order... first up, or I guess that would be last up, Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort chose Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake.



I wasn't expecting to like this, what with the dreaded cinnamon-chocolate combination in the swirl. But guess, what? I loved it, it was SO fantastic. The cake was nice and moist and the swirl was sweet and tasty. I made a few modifications, namely, leaving out the orange zest from the batter and the nuts and raisins from the swirl. Care was also taken to make sure the swirl was well hidden beneath layers of batter. I also used my 1/2 sized bundt pan for the first time... the cake was so adorable to boot!



Before that, Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness chose Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.


I made these as directed and they were just perfect. Lemony and crunchy from the poppy seeds, moist and tender from the sour cream in the batter. They weren't terribly sweet but that's OK because they were muffins, not cake. No complaints at all with these little yummies.

Next, Margo of Effort to Deliciousness chose Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines.


My madeleines, without their fluff filling, or chocolate glaze were the poor cousins of those lucky madeleines that were made like they were supposed to be. (I soooooo did not need an almost-full jar of marshmallow fluff in my pantry, so I skipped the filling. Plain old laziness dictated that mine would not get a dip in the chocolate pool.) But you know what? They still tasted awesome, like bite-size chocolate cakes.


Of course, they didn't have the much-coveted hump on the back. But, really, who cares? Not me and not my taste buds.

And finally, that brings us to the first recipe of 2011, Midnight Crackles, which were chosen by Laurie of Slush (and founder of TWD) and Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen for the third anniversary of TWD.


It's been a while, but I seem to remember these might have had some spices in them... whatever it was, I left them out. I wanted pure, unadulterated chocolate.

And this cookie delivered just that. They were seriously good. If they would have had some chocoalte chips in them, they would have been the best ever Chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Underbaking them a little was key, by the way.

OK, folks, that's January! In a nutshell. If you'd like to see the recipes, check out the lovely ladies' blogs, or get ahold of a Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking, From my Home to Yours.

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

Happy Tuesday! This week, the Tuesdays with Dorie group made the Tartest Lemon Tart, chosen by Barb of Babette Feasts.

This tart was made from whole lemons. Yep, the lemon pulp, peel, and skin all got thrown into the blender with sugar, egg, cream, cornstarch and butter. It's a dessert for true lemon lovers.

I questioned my status as a true lemon lover and decided to remove the pith, the white part between the lemon pulp and the skin. (That's the pith on the left.)


I'll just cut to the chase here, since my review is not a glowing one. I didn't like it. At all. It was bitter... much too bitter to enjoy the tangy lemon flavor.

Sorry! It's bound to happen when you're baking every recipe from a cookbook. There are going to be those that don't make your taste buds dance. It's nothing personal.


I'm sure there were plenty of others that did enjoy this tart, though, so please stop by and see all of the lovely lemon tarts at the Tuesday's with Dorie site. The blogroll is on the right hand side.

If you're interested in the recipe, check out the book "Baking, From My Home to Yours", or visit Babette's site.

Bu-bye for now!

Cookie Carnival: Toasted Almond Lemon Bars

This month, the Cookie Carnival bakers made Toasted Almond Lemon Bars from "The Sweet Melissa Baking Book" by Melissa Murphy. Holly from PheMOMenon was guest host, and you can look for a roundup of all of the bars on her site soon. Thanks, Holly, for a great pick.


(Of course, I forgot the sprinkling of powdered sugar on top. I always forget that part.)

I really enjoyed these lemon bars, they were tangy, lemony, and addictive. The toasted almond base was perfect with the lemon. I thought that toasting the almonds added an extra dimension of flavor. If you try these, definitely don't skip this step.

OK, over and out until next month :)

P.S. I apologize for the short posts lately, I'm having a hard time keeping up these days. I blame the warm weather!

Toasted Almond Lemon Bars

From The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy

Makes 1 dozen bars

"Everyone loves lemon bars. I make mine extra special by adding toasted almonds to the shortbread crust."

For the Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup sliced blanched almonds, lightly toasted
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 Tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

For the Lemon Filling:
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 7 lemons)
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for sprinkling

To Toast the Almonds:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the almonds in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden and you can smell them. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Before You Start:
Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 - inch pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Make a parchment "sling" by cutting two pieces of parchment paper, measuring 16 1/2 inches long by 12 inches wide (you can also use aluminum foil). Place one piece across the length, and the other across the width of the pan, with the excess hanging over the edges. You will use this sling later to lift the finished bar from the pan. Spray the sling with the cooking spray.

To Make the Crust:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse the flour, sugar, almonds, and salt to combine. Add the cold butter in pieces and pulse until the dough comes together in a ball.

2. Turn the dough out into the prepared pan and press evenly into the bottom and 1 1/4 inches up the sides. (This crust, once it is baked, needs to act as a liner in which to pour the liquidy lemon filling. So be sure to do a good job of pressing the dough up the sides - no cracks!). Cover the dough with a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil, and fill with pie weights ( you can use dried beans or uncooked rice as pie weights as well). Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly golden. Carefully remove the pie weights and the liner and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, or until the whole crust is golden. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

To Make the Filling:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until smooth. Add the almond extract and flour, and whisk until smooth. Add the lemon juice, and whisk to combine.

To Complete the Bars:
1. Pour the lemon filling into the prepared crust. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the filling is firm and lightly golden. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

2. When cool use the parchment sling to lift the entire bar from the pan and onto a cutting board. Slice into twelve 3 x 3 1/2 - inch bars. Remove from the pan and, using a small sifter, dust with the confectioners' sugar.

The bars keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. For longer storage, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze well wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for up to 3 weeks. Do not unwrap before defrosting. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

TWD: The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

I'm still playing catchup with the Tuesday's with Dorie recipes. I guess it's my perfectionist side showing... thinking I *must* complete all of the recipes to date. Or maybe I just want to make sure I haven't been left out of any lip-smacking deliciousness. Who knows.

Anyway, I made The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart some time ago. It was really a gorgeous lemon filling... buttery yellow and so smooth. I loved the flavor all the way up until the end, when butter is whizzed into the filling in the blender. The finished filling was still good, don't get me wrong, I just thought the butter diluted the sweet tangy lemon flavor a bit. I would still gladly serve this to guests.

(I could not get a good picture of this tart for the life of me... the filling was more yellow than this.)



OK, over and out! If you'd like to peek at the recipe, check out Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From my Home to Yours", or you can find it on Laurie's site here.

TWD: Lemon Cup Custard - and - Caramel-Topped Flan

I did something new yesterday. I finally sat down and counted the recipes in Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking: From my Home to Yours". It's surprising I haven't done this yet, since I'm a sorter and organizer and counter of things.

Maybe I hadn't done it because if I knew how many recipes there were, I wouldn't have joined the Tuesday's with Dorie group. It's a daunting task, baking your way through an entire cookbook. Baking Every. Single. Recipe.

Now that I'm forty recipes in, I guess it's safe to say I'm committed to the effort.


By my count, there are 208 recipes, not including variations. I think I missed a few, but still, we're talking roughly 4 years to get through the cookbook (at one recipe per week). OK, so we'll be done at the end of 2011! Wow.

I wonder how many folks will be left standing at the end. How many people will be able to say "I baked EVERY recipe from that book", or even "I baked almost every recipe from that book".

I hope to be one of them. But to do that, not only do I have to stay the course, but I also have to make up the recipes done before I started the group last May.


That's why you're seeing a custardy friend hanging out with my Lemon Cup Custard, this week's recipe, chosen by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Readers, meet Caramel-Topped Flan.



I was glad for the opportunity to compare and contrast the two different types of custard. Although the base was similar, the flavoring was quite different. For the lemon version, the lemon zest was to be steeped in the hot milk. With the flan, sugar was cooked to an amber hue and placed in the baking dish ahead of the custard.

The verdict? I thought the lemon custard was quite tasty. However, I thought the flan was fantastic. (My neighbor thought the lemon custard was the better of the two.) One qualifier... you have to like custard (i.e. "eggy") to enjoy these desserts. (I do, my husband doesn't. ) I would definitely make either of these again.

Baking Notes:

I baked the flan according to the directions in the book. I baked the lemon custard slightly different, based on comments from the TWD bakers that tried it ahead of me. Most commented that it was very eggy and bland. I substituted half of the milk with cream to make it more creamy. I used twice the lemon zest called for, I gave it a squeeze of fresh lemon, and I added a little lemon extract. This made for a lightly lemon flavored dessert. I also took it out of the oven right at 40 minutes, while it was still noticeably jiggly, so as not to over cook.



For the Lemon Custard recipe, please refer to Dorie's book, or Bridget's site, above. For the Flan recipe, please refer to Stephanie's site at Whisk: A Food Blog (Steph chose this recipe back in March, 2008).

OK, two more recipes down, only (about) 140 more!

Lemon (-Lime) Meringue Tart 2

I can't believe I joined yet another baking group, but I did. It's called "You Want Pies with That?" and, surpise, surprise, the focus is on pies and tarts.

I couldn't help it!

I'd really love to master pies and tarts and figured this would be a good chance. Plus, come on... who doesn't love pie? Anyone? (crickets chirping)

See?

This group has a neat twist... there's a monthly theme. The inaugural month's theme was "I Love that Movie", meaning our pies were to tie in with a movie. How fun is that?

My pie is based on a scene from the movie "The Breakup", starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, who also broke up in real life (bonus points!). Remember the scene? It's the one where Jennifer's character is starting to freak because Vince's character only picked up 3 lemons when she asked for 12, to make a 12 lemon centerpiece. It's another one of those classic "Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars" moments. She asked for 12 lemons, all he heard was "lemons".


I kind of cheated because I made this tart before. However, the first time around was scaled back to make two mini tarts and this time I wanted to test it out with a full sized tart. I had good success with the mini tarts, but was unsure how a larger version would fare.


But, shock of shocks, it turned out really nice. The filling was just set, and not runny. Almost like, if I'd have used any less cornstarch, it might have been runny. But I was happy with it. I don't like rubbery lemon filling. Or lemon-lime as in this case.

The second day, the meringue had started to bead a little. But it still tasted darned good.


Feel free to vary the relative amounts of lemon and lime juice. If you want more of a lemony flavor, then use more lemon. Likewise with the lime. If you try it, please let me know how it turned out. I'd love to hear.

LEMON-LIME MERINGUE TART

Filling
8 egg yolks
1-1/3 C. sugar
8 tsp. cornstarch
1-1/3 C. water
1/2 C. fresh lemon juice
1/4 C. fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. lemon/lime zest (to taste)
1-1/2 tbsp. butter


Meringue
(from "the perfect recipe", by Pam Anderson)
4 large egg whites
½ C. sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/3 C. water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Makes enough for one 10-inch tart plus two ramekins, or (probably) one 11-inch tart.

Tart Shell
I used Dorie Greenspan's "Sweet Tart Crust", which you can find by clicking the link which takes you to Dorie's post on the blog "Serious Eats. Make the crust as directed and prebake it. Let it cool to room temperature before filling.

Directions
Whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Add egg yolks, then immediately but gradually whisk in water. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally at the beginning and then more frequently as mixture begins to thicken, 8-10 minutes. Whisk in zest, then lemon juice and finally butter. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat, placing plastic wrap directly on surface of filling.

Mix cornstarch and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly. When mixture starts to simmer and turn translucent, remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix cream of tartar and sugar together. Beat egg whites with vanilla until frothy. Beat in sugar mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time until sugar is incorporated and whites form soft peaks. Drop in warm cornstarch mixture 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue to beat meringue to stiff peaks.

Pour warm filling into tart shell, then top with meringue. Use the back of a spoon or your fingers to form decorative peaks, or pipe the meringue on using a piping bag and tip as I have. Place tart on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake until peaks are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Alternatively, place tart under broiler or use a hand held kitchen torch to brown the meringue.

Recipe notes: Filling seems quite runny when added to the tart shell while warm. You must let the tart sit for a number of hours until completely cooled to room temperature for filling to be set.

Lemon (-Lime) Meringue Tart

My mom is one of those “more is better” types. This was totally evident the one and only time I remember her making lemon meringue pie. It was soooo lemony and tart. Mom laughs when she tells the story of walking into my bedroom just in time to see me scooping my piece of pie into the trash (and I’m not normally one to toss out sweets).

Fortunately, my grandma made excellent lemon meringue pie.

My first attempt at lemon meringue pie turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. There are a few things I might tweak, but I’ve got a good starting point.

I combined, fiddled with, and scaled down two different recipes to make enough for two 5” mini-tarts. My sources of inspiration were the Texas Big Hairs Lemon-Lime Meringue Tarts from the “The Pastry Queen” by Rebecca Rather (that’s her lemon-lime meringue tart on the front cover there) and The Ultimate Lemon Meringue Pie from “The Perfect Recipe” by Pam Anderson.

I used my one remaining tart shell from the “La Palette Strawberry Tart” post. Dorie's sweet tart dough is definitely going to be my go-to pie and tart dough in the future. It’s made me realize I really don’t like standard pie crust. Dorie’s cookie-like crust is much more appealing to me.

The verdict? Mmm, mmm, good! I really like the addition of lime, I think it adds a depth of flavor without being too tart.

Here is the recipe, which is perfect for two 5-inch mini-tarts. If you're looking for a bigger lemon flavor (like my mom) you might want to use lemon in place of the lime. At some later date, I plan to make a full size tart and I’ll publish the revised measurements then. (I realize most of you don't have two mini-tart shells just hanging around... sorry about that. I'd like to test it out at full size before posting the scaled up version.)

Filling
2 egg yolks
1/3 C. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
½ C. water
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
pinch of salt
1 to 2 tsp. lemon zest (to taste)
1 tsp. butter

Meringue
(makes slightly more than you need for two tart shells)
2 egg whites
½ C. sugar
1/8 tsp. cream of tarter
1 ½ tsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. plus 1 ½ tsp. water
¼ tsp. vanilla

Directions
Whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Add egg yolks, then immediately but gradually whisk in water. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking the whole time. Whisk until mixture begins to thicken. Whisk in zest, then lemon juice and finally butter. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat, placing plastic wrap directly on surface of filling.

Mix egg whites, sugar, and cream of tarter in a double boiler placed over a pan with water simmering in bottom. Be sure water doesn't touch bottom of double boiler. Stir continuously until sugar dissolves in egg whites. You can rub a little of the mixture between to fingers to ensure there are no more sugar crystals. Place mixture in bowl of stand mixer and whisk at low speed for about 5 minutes, then at high speed until meringue holds it's shape, about 5 minutes.

Place warm filling in tart shell, then top with meringue. Use the back of a spoon or your fingers to form decorative peaks. Place tart under broiler until peaks are browned. Alternatively, use a hand held kitchen torch to brown the meringue.