29 Mar
The Perfect Party Cake
Posted by Michelle as Layer Cakes | 64 Comments
And perfect it was. This was no surprise, given that this is a Dorie Greenspan recipe. Thanks to Tuesdays With Dorie I have become a huge Dorie fan, and have found that all of her recipes are nothing short of foolproof.
This month was hosted by Morven at Food Art and Random Thoughts and we were given quite a bit of leeway for this challenge. It was certainly a nice change of pace, so thank you! The original cake recipe calls for lemon zest and extract, but not being the biggest fan of lemon (as was evidenced by giving away my Lemon Meringue Pie in January), I took the advice of my friend Laurie (otherwise known as quirky cupcake), who thought that orange would be a nice complement to the raspberry used in the recipe. Well, isn’t she a smarty pants, because orange tasted fantastic in this recipe!
Aside from that change, the only other modification I made was the icing, as the original recipe calls for a meringue buttercream, but I thought that a cream cheese frosting would be just wonderful with the citrus and fruit flavors in the cake. It turned out to be perfect, although I would like to give the meringue buttercream a shot one of these days as well.
A number of people reported having problems with the cake not rising, but mine seemed to puff up just as Dorie said it would. The recipe gives the option of using the paddle or whisk attachment of the stand mixer, and I opted for the whisk as I figured it would infuse even more air and fluff into the cake, and whether it was the whisk or not, the resulting cake was perfectly moist and fluffy.
The only problem I really had came during assembly. I found it near impossible to spread the frosting on TOP of the raspberry layer. The frosting just kind of slid around, and raspberry jam slid everywhere. In hindsight, I would put the layers prepared with the raspberry jam in the freezer to set somewhat before trying to frost on top of it. Another friend of mine, Amber, also had a great idea – she reversed the layer and put the frosting on first and then the jam on top. She said this worked very well, so that’s another approach to consider next time.
I loved this cake and couldn’t get enough of it. The flavors complemented each other perfectly and the result was an extremely moist and fluffy cake with both a light taste and texture. I couldn’t think of a better cake for a spring or summer special occasion!
This will certainly be a cake recipe that I keep to use as a base for multiple flavor combinations.
28 Mar
Cupcake Hero: Ambrosia Cupcakes
Posted by Michelle as Cupcakes | 25 Comments
I’d first like to thank Laurie for still being my friend, as this is my first Cupcake Hero entry. I know, I’m a bad, bad friend.
This month’s ingredient theme for Cupcake Hero was marshmallow. The very first thing that came to my mind was smores, and I’m pretty sure that was the first thing that popped into about everyone else’s head. After seeing a number of smores entries show up in my Google Reader, I decided to rethink my approach. I was brainstorming all of the wonderful things that I have eaten that contained marshmallows in some way, shape, or form. A few popped into my mind, but I kept coming back to one – Ambrosia.
For those that have never had it, ambrosia is basically a “salad” of fruit cocktail, Cool Whip, coconut, and miniature marshmallows. My grandma used to make this all of the time around some holidays, but it mostly reminds me of Easter. It’s such a light dessert and Easter is typically the gateway holiday to warmer weather. So here we are, the week after Easter and I had to do something with marshmallows – Ambrosia Cupcakes it was!
These cupcakes are made with a base of fruit cocktail cake, then freshly whipped cream is piped into the centers (you’ll see that I didn’t quite pipe deep enough), topped with a marshmallow creme frosting, sprinkled with coconut, and, just for good measure, topped with a cherry. I had never made homemade marshmallow creme before and, wow, that’s dangerous to have sitting around! So good!
27 Mar
Beef Burgundy, Crockpot Style
Posted by Michelle as Meat | 0 Comments
This was another hit from the Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook. I have made this dish twice now in a very short amount of time, and I really enjoy it. The meat becomes very tender and the sauce is extremely flavorful. The whole pearl onions and mushrooms both cook down and really taste wonderful. And I’m totally sold on using my crock pot – it’s so nice to spend a little time early in the day and have dinner done and waiting for you when you’re ready to sit down and eat!
25 Mar
Caramel-Topped Flan
Posted by Michelle as Puddings and Custard Desserts | 57 Comments
Confession #1: Before this week’s recipe, I had never had flan.
Confession #2: After this week’s recipe, I officially do not like flan.
Perhaps it is an acquired taste? I had heard rumors that there existed a love/hate relationship between most people and flan. I thought for sure I would love it. I love pudding, custard, creme brulee, etc. In the end, I had a real problem with the texture and the fact that it was cold. It also tasted a little eggy to me, which may not have come across so much if it wasn’t cold (I’m only guessing). I really didn’t care for it, which was a shame, because it’s such a pretty and elegant-looking dessert!
Thank you to Steph from A Whisk and a Spoon for choosing this week’s recipe because even if I did not necessarily find myself head over heels with the flan, I have conquered yet another first in my kitchen and can now say that I have successfully made flan. I just personally didn’t care for it, but it’s hard to believe that we’ll love every single thing that we ever make! I’m just happy for the opportunity to try out new flavors and techniques.
Next week: Gooey Chocolate Cakes
Last week: Brioche Raisin Snails
19 Mar
Ode to the Golden Brioche Loaf
Posted by Michelle as Yeast Breads | 26 Comments
I can’t believe that I lived almost 28 years without eating a loaf of brioche. Okay, I didn’t actually eat an entire loaf, although I was tempted to. I have had brioche rolls before, but never the actual bread. I was seriously, seriously missing out. This brioche dough was a component of the Brioche Raisin Snails that was made for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie, however only half of the dough recipe was needed. I used the other half to make a loaf of Golden Brioche. One and a half sticks of butter in one loaf of bread? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this bread tastes so amazing!
First, let me thank Dorie for providing such amazing direction in all of her recipes. It’s like she’s standing right next to you, telling you exactly what you should expect at every stage of the recipe. And she has been dead-on every single time. It’s quite reassuring to know that things are moving along as they should. Using my KA to pull this dough together was fairly easy, although incorporating all of the butter did take some time, as it took awhile for each piece to fully meld into the dough/batter. By the time I was done my KA was smoking hot (okay, she didn’t really smoke) and I could only touch the top with a towel! The first rise took just a bit longer than Dorie’s estimates (we keep our house pretty cool), and it stopped rising in the fridge somewhere between an hour and an hour and 30 minutes.
After resting in the fridge overnight, I took the dough out and wow was it dense and hard. I feared that it wasn’t going to budge during its next rise. It certainly took some time, but after 2.5 hours my four little rolls had grown into each other and puffed up to fill the loaf pan. I just love the seemingly magical qualities of yeast. Does it amaze anyone else? It is so neat to me that you mix all this stuff together and it just puff and grows. Baking with yeast is a very fulfilling activity for me 
A quick egg wash and into the oven for 30 minutes… and then, oh the golden buttery glory! I actually restrained myself and let this cool for the full hour (confession: I was actually waiting for my camera battery to charge) and then sliced into it. One bite and I was hooked. I managed to restrain myself for the rest of the day and then made myself an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich on it for dinner. I quickly sliced, wrapped, and froze it to ensure that I didn’t actually consume 1.5 sticks of butter in one day.
Do you see that crust? You can see the buttery, flaky goodness. The ends were like eating croissants… mmmmm… Go make one!! You won’t be sorry!
18 Mar
Brioche Raisin Snails
Posted by Michelle as Pastries | 60 Comments
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, Brioche Raisin Snails, was chosen by Peabody over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. At first I was a little intimidated by this recipe since it combined three different elements: brioche dough, pastry cream, and then the assembly of the actual snails. Sneaky, that Peabody is… she squeezed in three recipes 
I am actually thrilled that she chose this recipe, as brioche has been something on my “must attempt” list and I had never made pastry cream before, so this gave me a perfect reason to try two new things!
I’ll start out with the basis for this recipe – the brioche dough. I am in love. Seriously. So in love that I am going to dedicate an entire blog post just to my brioche (stay tuned). I have been wanting to try brioche for some time and am glad that I finally got the opportunity. I have to say that I give total kudos to the TWD-ers that made this recipe by hand. My KA sounded as though it was on its last leg and got so hot that I couldn’t even touch the top without burning my hand. I didn’t have any trouble with the rising, however both rises took longer in my kitchen than Dorie estimated (about an hour and 10 minutes for the first rise, and about 2.5 hours after it came out of the fridge). I made a loaf of brioche with the other half of the dough recipe that wasn’t being used for the snails and oh the buttery goodness! This is some seriously good bread. I can’t say enough about it…. but I will try, in another blog post
On to the pastry cream. As I said, I had never made pastry cream before, so this was another first for me. I watched a couple of videos online to make sure that I knew what it should look like at the different stages. While mine looked like the videos, it seemed thick to me. But, it tasted divine and it didn’t cause me any problems, so I assume I did everything just right
And now the raisin snails themselves. I have a confession. I did not flambe the raisins with the rum. I have an enormous, unfounded, and quite ridiculous fear of fire. I can’t explain it. So I merely soaked my raisins in water and let them plump up. Terribly boring, I know. I also took the advice of some others and cut my rolls using dental floss. Genius! I didn’t have to squish them!
The finished product… the Brioche Raisin Snails themselves… were absolutely delicious. They were flaky and tasted like a light, buttery pastry. This may seem like a complicated and time consuming recipe, but each element can be broken down and done easily and fairly quickly. Of course there is the waiting time for the dough to rise, but these rolls are definitely worth it. These would be a wonderful show stopping pastry to set out for breakfast or brunch guests. Trust me, everyone will think you are a domestic goddess!!
EDIT: I just ate another one after dinner tonight and I have to say – these are insanely better the second day! They were incredible when they were freshly made, but after sitting for a day tightly wrapped (as Dorie suggested) the flavors really came together and the dough was remarkably like a danish. YUM!
Our group is still growing, so head on over to the Tuesdays With Dorie blog and scroll through the blogroll to see the snail creations that the rest of the group came up with!
Last week: Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie-Cake
Next week: Caramel-Topped Flan
12 Mar
Pot Roast in the Crock Pot
Posted by Michelle as Meat | 26 Comments
I absolutely adore my crock pot. I love being able to devote a small amount of time in the morning in order to have a hot, hearty, and delicious meal done and waiting when it’s time to sit down and eat. It’s genius, really. That being said, I don’t use it nearly enough. Last Christmas my cousin bought me the Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook for our gift exchange, and it’s full of amazing recipes. I have finally begun to try to get the most out of it and try some new recipes. I can’t say enough good things about this cookbook – there hasn’t been one thing that I’ve tried that I haven’t loved.
I got a late start on getting this into the crock pot and as a result, it ended up cooking for 8 hours instead of 10, but it was still fabulously tender and falling apart. All of the vegetables were cooked to perfection – soft, and incredibly tasty. At first I found it odd that the meat was to marinade in soy sauce, as I was skeptical of an Asian pot roast, but you couldn’t even taste the soy sauce in the finished product. I also didn’t use dried mushrooms, but instead threw some creminis in with the rest of the raw vegetables and simply combined the beef broth with reserved marinade and tomato paste.
Lis over at La Mia Cucina is hosting this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge, and has chosen the theme of Crock Pots, Dutch Ovens, and Pressure Cookers. I couldn’t think of a better dish to enter into this blogging event! So go on and dig through your cookbooks and find a recipe that uses one of these great inventions, and shoot it over to Lis! Goodbye winter! Ta Ta!
11 Mar
Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie-Cake
Posted by Michelle as Cakes, Fruit Pies | 64 Comments
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, Russian Grandmothers’ Apple Pie-Cake, was chosen by Natalie over at Burned Bits. Thanks Natalie, for choosing such a wonderful recipe! Not that a fabulous Dorie recipe is anything of an anomaly; each and every one I have tried has been wonderful. This recipe is labeled as a “pie-cake” due to an apple mixture being sandwiched between two layers of crust (very pie-like) and the crust itself being more of a shortbread-cakey crust than a flaky pastry crust. The combination of these elements was truly spectacular. I am a *huge* crust fan, and I have to admit that after we ate the inaugural pieces, I kept breaking off pieces of crust and eating it. This was a wonderful dessert, and a recipe that I will save, as it would be perfect for a late summer or fall get together. It has a warm, homey, and rustic feel to it.
I cut this recipe in half, using an 8×8 pan and ended up baking it for around 50 minutes. I used all Gala apples, and I thought the flavor was perfect in this dish. A number of people mentioned having some problems with sticky dough, but mine came together soft and just about perfect. I used all of the flour, as Dorie states is almost always the case, and just a smidgen more sugar than the recipe called for. Again, this was such a wonderful dessert. Dorie also suggests that this could be made into individual turnovers… I think this would be great in that form, or even in individual ramekins. So many wonderful options!
Tuesdays With Dorie continues to grow by leaps and bounds! We are now at over 70 members; head on over to the Tuesdays With Dorie blog and click through the blogroll to see how everyone else did with this week’s recipe.
Next week: Brioche Raisin Snails
08 Mar
Royal Crown’s Tortano
Posted by Michelle as Yeast Breads | 32 Comments
I noticed a few weeks ago that a new food blogging group had formed – the Bread Baking Babes. They tackle a new type of bread each month and then blog about it and encourage readers to give it a shot within the following week to become a Bread Baking Buddy. The first month of BBB was hosted by Baking Soda over at Bake My Day! and the introductory bread was the Maggie Glazer’s Royal Crown’s Tortano, which is a rustic bread and a signature of the Royal Crown Bakery in Brooklyn, NY. I’m not sure if I’m a “Buddy” since it took me more than a week to make this, but I wanted to thank Mary over at The Sour Dough for being patient with me as I asked a ton of questions through email, and also for posting a bunch of pictures of the process. These helped me tremendously, and in hind sight I should have done the same, but if you attempt this bread definitely check out Mary’s post to get an idea of what the dough should look like at each stage.
My first attempt to start the preferment didn’t go very far, as after I woke up I realized that nothing really happened and my yeast was probably bad (the jar had been around for quite some time). I went to the store and got some brand new yeast and started over. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I stuck with it, because aside from being an amazing loaf of bread, I also got to experiment with a different type of dough and new techniques.
To say that this was a wet dough was putting it mildly! I have never seen dough actually look like a liquid mass before coming together. I crossed my fingers that I was moving along the right way and was so excited after each step to realize that was was supposed to happen was indeed happening. I am going to include my thoughts/comments/tips throughout each section of the recipe, since that’s easier than trying to summarize it all here. One thing I do think that I need to work on is my slashing. Perhaps my knives aren’t sharp enough and I need to get a razor? This happened with the French bread as well – the slits were barely noticeable and didn’t open up. Any tips from you bread geniuses out there??
Overall thoughts on this bread… FABULOUS! It turned out exactly the way I imagined it should. The crust was crisp and crunchy, and the inside warm, chewy, and full of big air holes. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this bread and of learning many new things in the process!
05 Mar
Tiramisu
Posted by Michelle as Cakes | 52 Comments
Better late than never, right? After a power outage kept me from actually getting on my computer, I bring you… Tiramisu!
A few months ago I came across a tiramisu recipe in the most recent Cook’s Illustrated issue, and I made sure to save it, knowing that someday I would try to redeem myself. That someday finally came! I’ve got to admit that I am becoming quite smitten with Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchens. It seems that everything I have made has come out absolutely perfect. I’m pretty convinced that their recipes are spot-on and foolproof. The only modification that I made to the tiramisu was to substitute Kahlua in place of the rum, and cut that amount in half. The CI recipe notes that its recipe results in a strong rum flavoring, and to create a more subtle flavor to cut the amount in the coffee/espresso mixture in half. I also decided to cut in half the amount that went into the cream mixture. I think this was a good decision, as there was still a distinct flavor, but it complemented the other flavors and was not overpowering. I was initially nervous about using completely raw eggs, but a friend made a great suggestion and told me I should just buy pasteurized eggs, which I did, and my fears resolved themselves
This tiramisu was absolutely fabulous. The savoiardi were perfectly soft and loaded with flavor, while the mascarpone mixture had a light and smooth flavor, as well as texture, which I attribute to the addition of the whipped cream that is incorporated. The dish received high praise, and it is easily just as good, if not better, than tiramisu you would find at the nicest of Italian restaurants. Cook’s Illustrated definitely perfected this recipe.
