tuesdays with dorie

marquise au chocolat and salsa quitza; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on February 10, 2015February 10, 2015 by alisahuntsman12 Comments

After a weeks absence, I am back in the kitchen, completely. Let’s just say that if you have the chance to avoid the flu-do it. It has been more than 10 years since I was that sick and honestly, I hope it doesn’t happen again for a long time! The simplicity of this recipe was the perfect way to ease back into the kitchen.

The recipe for Marquise au Chocolat makes a large, rich loaf of frozen chocolate mousse which is meant to be served in slices. Since there are just two of us, I cut the recipe and made only a quarter of the batch and since it was so small, I made the decision to press the filling into a six-inch round cake pan that I had lined with lady fingers. This will be the perfect little pick-me-up since I also spiked it with some single barrel Kentucky Bourbon. Finally, a drizzle of blackberry syrup and a few plump berries and dessert is served! Something tells me my husband will not think twice about eating this one!

As I mentioned earlier, I was sick last week, came down with it all so that I was too sick to make the Salsa Quitza which was my plan for Superbowl Sunday. We were supposed to go to a friends house to watch the game but since we were both miserable, we sprawled out on the couch and did not move all day. Needless to say, my plan of making the quitza to bring to the party was cancelled. If you ask me, that wasn’t such a bad thing. Honestly, I was doubting the results as stated in the recipe and after reading the comments from plenty of the other bakers last Tuesday, I am glad I had a chance to follow my personal instincts.

The idea of spreading the dough out into a large cake pan and topping it with cream cheese had me thinking it would be messy to eat and for the two of us, just too cheesey. My bakers sense (kinda like Spiderman’s “spidey” sense…) had me thinking it would make a nice focaccia. Guess what-it did! With just half a batch of dough, I made a quarter sheet pan sized piece of focaccia that was the perfect side dish for our dinner of grilled swordfish and salad.

If you want to make this the way I did, use blue corn meal. Believe it or not, it doesn’t lend any color to the dough but it does add a nice nutty flavor along with dark flecks and crunch. Several bakers commented on the salsa being really wet and I honestly think that the recipe probably should call for “pico de gallo” and not chunky salsa. If you aren’t familiar with pico de gallo, it is a fresh mixture of finely chopped tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro with lemon juice. I measured out nearly a cup and let it sit in a strainer for about an hour to drip dry and then sprinkled it over the top of the dough after shaping. A generous topping of shredded Mexican cheeses over the salsa and then into the oven it went. It baked up fast, just 20 minutes and it was done. After cooling for a while, I sliced off strips and cut them into diamonds; two-bite pieces to pair with dinner.

The dough itself was fairly easy to make with a mixer if you do not have a bread machine. It was a bit soft and sticky but after mixing it for about 2 minutes, I turned the mixer off and let the dough sit in the bowl for 10 minutes. This rest, autolyse is the technical term, let the dough absorb all of moisture and as a result, it was not quite as sticky as it could have been. This is definitely a dough recipe worth having in my repertoire. It just might make another appearance in my kitchen.

To see what the other bakers came up with, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and look for the LYL (leave your links) page. If this seems interesting to you, consider baking along with us as we prepare each of the recipes in Baking with Julia and Baking Chez Moi. You will have to purchase or borrow the books if you do not already have them; out of respect for the author, we do not publish the recipes!

brown butter and vanilla bean weekend cake; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on January 27, 2015January 24, 2015 by alisahuntsman15 Comments

Another dreary, rainy weekend, but it still put a smile on my face. For a change, I would have perfectly diffused light to take photos. As I rummaged through drawers searching for the exact linens needed, I came across an envelope. Tucked inside was a pretty little square of Swedish bobbin lace that my mother-in-law brought home from one of her trips to Europe. For years, that envelope has made appearances as I shuffled things from drawer to drawer and today, with a flash of inspiration I can only blame on the rain, I thought it would be the perfect stencil for my cake.

The recipe for the cake calls for baking it in a 9″x5″ loaf pan but I wanted to make just half the batter-which is still too much for the two of us. After picking through boxes and pans, I settled on a small granite-ware skillet which would make a nice, round cake; a perfectly boring round cake…Luckily, with that flash of brilliance and a tub of powdered sugar, the cake would be anything but ordinary in appearance.

While I have no idea how bobbin lace is made, I am envious of those who are skilled in the craft. The photos I have seen show slender, intricately carved bobbins made from wood or bone and weighted with spangles of glass beads as well as pins, lots of pins. The work is intricate and obviously time-consuming but the results are lovely and delicate; a true work of art.

A lucky break-the square fit perfectly over the cake and left very little space uncovered. The hearts are my favorite part of the design. The way the threads between them make a star or a flower depends on how you look at it.

Sifting powdered sugar using a large wire mesh is the best method. If tapped gently, you can cover a large area with a fine layer of sugar.

Now for the tricky part, removing the lace without ruining the pattern. This is a one and done method. If it doesn’t work the first time, it is unfortunate because once there is some sugar on the surface, you can not move the lace and try again. With fingers crossed, I gently lifted the lace making an effort not to smear the design or dump any of the excess sugar off the lace and onto the surface of the cake.

It truly was my lucky day! Not only did the design transfer well, I was able to lift the lace without incident!!!

The flower pattern between the hearts transferred nicely and so did the delicate scalloped edge. But that square in the center…I just love the little beads of sugar and that barely there dusting in the center. This may not be what the lace was intended for but I can say that I will use it again.

It almost seemed sacrilegious to cut it but I have no will power where cake is concerned! So how did it taste? Well, the recipe calls for browning the butter and I did that, but I think I should have gone a little further with it. Since my supply of vanilla beans is really sparse and I am not sure of a reasonably priced local source, I decided to go with vanilla extract and because we did not have any rum, I used the next best thing, bourbon. In my opinion, it could use more flavor and I do not think it is worth sacrificing a vanilla bean to get that extra punch. Personally, I think a little more butter, maybe an extra tablespoon, browned to a color no less than my tabletop in the photo would help add flavor and a little more moisture. Also, the added fat can help prevent the gluten from developing as the flour is mixed in; my cake had tunnels in it that I am sure were caused by over mixing when I whisked in the flour as directed by the recipe. The amount of vanilla extract initially seemed excessive but now, maybe not, however, it was strong enough that the bourbon was not noticeable. In the future, I might cut the vanilla by 25% and increase the bourbon by 50%. This is a recipe that I can see myself using again when I need a simple cake and because it is basically a blank slate, I can also see it being the base of a shortcake or part of a trifle. And lastly, serving it plain with a simple dusting of sugar is good but I have a feeling it could also stand up to being slathered with buttercream frosting.

If you enjoy reading my Tuesdays with Dorie posts, be sure to visit the website and look for the “LYL” post to see how the other bakers made out with the recipe, and if you are feeling left out, JOIN US!!! Pick up a copy of Baking Chez Moi or Baking with Julia and bake along with us as we work towards our goal of baking every recipe in the two books.

european rye bread; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on January 20, 2015January 20, 2015 by alisahuntsman7 Comments

Rye bread is one of those things people either love or hate. In my opinion, I think it is more likely related to whether or not you like caraway seeds. Most of it would probably be better off labeled caraway bread since the distinct flavor of the seeds is all you can taste in commercially prepared rye bread. However, as a lover of toast, rye bread, loaded with caraway and slathered in salted butter, is one of my favorite breakfasts.

This week, the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are sharing their experiences with European Rye Bread from Baking with Julia. If you recall, we made a similar recipe from the book, Pumpernickel loaves, a while back. Both recipes were contributed by Lauren Groveman and they each call for the unusual step of hanging the loaf in a sling for the final rise of the shaped loaf.

The bread is fairly easy to mix and since it is a rye bread, the ingredient list is simple. The only confusing part about it, finding the proper rye flour. Allow me to wish you well with this endeavor. Every rye bread recipe I read calls for a specific type of rye flour and not all millers produce them equally. Essentially, the amount of whole grain used in the flour is the difference and if you would like a better understanding of what each type of rye flour is, this chart from the Whole Grains Council may help you understand it all. While the chart does explain things, they also make it a point to mention, repeatedly, that not all millers produce equal products; the chart is more of a suggestion than a standard. As for my bread, I have only been able to find Hodgson Mill 100% stone ground rye flour which according to the chart makes it a dark rye flour.

The whole grain flour gives the dough a lot of texture and it also makes it a bit denser than I like. Working with a half batch of dough, I made just one loaf and I stuck to the recipe pretty closely. Bread baking is not really my strong point and I really wanted to make a loaf as described by the head note of the recipe, with a brittle crust that snaps into small flakes and a soft, slightly moist and a little springy inside.

Just as the recipe instructed, I hung the shaped loaf in a towel sling and heated the oven. As the bread hung in kitchen, it continued to rise and I could see it splitting and I knew it would not get any better in the oven. Rather than get mad, I decided to take this as a lesson and make another half batch. This time though, I would make a few changes.

First thing I did was to cut back on the amount of rye flour. Since I was using whole grain, I knew it would be denser and I figured a little less would have to do. Second change I made, a lot more kneading but not all at once. After adding the majority of the flour to the yeast and water, I mixed the dough until it came together and formed a ball which took about 2-3 minutes and then I simply turned off the machine and let it sit there for about 10 minutes. Once the dough was allowed to sit and rest, I resumed kneading on medium-low speed for about 12-14 minutes. To be sure I had kneaded it enough, I attempted a window pane test and while it wasn’t perfect, I could see a huge improvement from the first loaf.

After hanging this loaf in the sling, here it is on the peel just before I put it in the oven. This time, I gave it a wash of straight egg whites-no water and plenty of caraway seeds. Just before I slid it into the oven, I gave it a few slashes and crossed my fingers; it couldn’t hurt…

As you can see from the photo, the top loaf is little more than a train wreck. It split all over and really wasn’t very pretty. The second loaf is on the bottom and while it is not perfect, it is easy to see that it worked out much better. This is destined to be one of those recipes I return to multiple times in the hope of getting it right.

The last thing about the recipe that I found difficult to follow from reading it, the shaping method. Rolling, stand it on the side, pinch, poke, and so on. Hospital corners-we are talking about bread, right? For my second loaf, on the left, I just ignored all the fussy instructions and tried to use a little common sense instead. Looks like it worked out okay, it seems to have held the shape better. To see the inside of the loaf, refer to the very first photo above, the second loaf is on the left and I think I like the color of that bread better than the first loaf which is on the right.

To see what the other bakers came up with, be sure to visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and look for the LYL (leave your links) page.

granola energy bars; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on January 13, 2015January 10, 2015 by alisahuntsman13 Comments

For what seems like forever, I have wanted to make my own granola bars. When I had to pack lunches for the girls, I would buy them and occasionally, eat some myself, but a single glance at the ingredient list alway left me cringing. Over the years, I have experimented with granola bars but most of the results just did not give me the chewy but soft texture I was hoping for. My collection of recipes to try has grown quite a bit and when the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers chose to make the recipe for Granola Energy Bars in Baking Chez Moi, I happily baked along.

The recipe is fairly simple and does not have any tricky steps. Toast, boil, mix and bake. Simple ingredients, easy process, what more could a baker want? The added perk, flexibility as far as what you put in the bars. The only must, rice syrup something that most supermarkets with a natural food section carry these days. My thought was to try different combinations of fruits and nuts to make a variety of bars to snack on. The only thing I did not do was use rolled oats. Trader Joe’s sells a whole grain hot cereal blend that is made of rolled oats, wheat, barley and rye. There is almost always a carton on the shelf in my pantry and I decided to use the blend rather than just oats. Working with half the recipe amounts for each batch, I made one batch with dates, cocoa nibs, and walnuts, one batch with Trader Joes Berry Blend (dried cranberries, cherries, golden raisins and blueberries) with almonds and a third batch with mission figs and almonds. For all of them, I included sweetened coconut and pumpkin seeds, substituted coconut oil for the butter and eliminated the sunflower seeds and the vanilla extract.

The mixture was easy to prepare and the three pans came together quickly. My only wish, that somewhere in the directions it stated how thick they should be in the pan. The dimensions of the pan is slightly uncommon and with my half batches, I was winging it and hoping that my 6″x 6″ were a good choice. Since I have had such a problem with the oven temperatures in other recipes, I set the oven to 300F and it took a long time for them to bake, nearly double the time to get them a nice toasty color on top. This may also have to do with the fact that I did not pretoast my rolled grains; I was hoping to keep them softer.

So what were my results? Really chewy and almost hard bars that despite the different combinations of fruit, all tasted the same. Because I did not want them to taste like vanilla, I left out the extract but now I wonder about whether I should have added something like cinnamon because they had an oily taste that must have come from greasing the pans. In the end, I was a little disappointed with my results but will probably try them again with a full batch of the recipe and a little cinnamon or maybe some pumpkin seed oil and possibly a tiny bit of extract. As for my husband, he couldn’t eat them fast enough and in a couple of days, had devoured at least half of the bars!

To see what the rest of the bakers came up with, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and look for the “leave your links” post.

Published on January 6, 2015January 5, 2015 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

Mixed starter bread from Baking with Julia, baked in early December 2014.

Each Tuesday, the members of the Tuesdays with Dorie blogging group post photos and comments on the challenge of the week. If you are not familiar with the group, we are currently baking our way through two of Dorie Greenspan’s books; Baking with Julia and Baking Chez Moi. The recipes are chosen by the members each month and we post them on alternating Tuesdays, two recipes from each book.

This week, we are posting about our experiences with the Inside-out, Upside-down Tiramisu recipe from Baking with Julia. However, I chose not to make this recipe. Crazy, I know, but over the years, I have made so many batches of tiramisu that I just did not want to make it. We just do not eat that much dairy and with just the two of us, I could not see the point in making it.

Fear not, I will be back again for the second Baking with Julia recipe this month because I love rye bread and the scheduled recipe is the Eastern European Rye bread on page 98. As I mentioned above, I also participate in the Baking Chez Moi recipe challenges and next week, we are baking the Granola Energy Bars on page 328 and they sound interesting enough to me that I am looking forward to the results.

If you are interested in baking along, pick up a copy of either book and visit the website to see the schedule. Be sure to visit the website each Tuesday and look for the “leave your links” post to read the experiences of all the participants. Not only will you get tips and tricks to use when baking, you will get first hand reviews of each recipe, insider information if you will. However, you will have to buy or borrow the books, we make it a rule not to publish the recipes. Join us, we’d love to have you bake along with us!

gingerbread buche de noel; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on December 30, 2014 by alisahuntsman6 Comments

To keep it seasonal, the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers chose to make the Buche de Noel from Baking Chez Moi. This traditional holiday cake roll is frequently decorated to look like a tree log complete with textured bark, leaves, pinecones and even mushrooms. Thankfully, this rendition was much simpler and the only ode to the holiday was the gingerbread spices added to the cake.

Just as you might expect, the holidays came and went faster than anyone could believe was possible. Why is that? Why are we in such a rush to get it done, get it finished so quickly that we scarcely have time to enjoy it? Whatever the reason, I propose that shift it into slow gear for next year, I would really like to enjoy the day a little more! Regardless, I finally had a chance to get the Buche de Noel finished although, it was two days after Christmas; better late than never, right?

For those of us who work in or have worked in bakeries, we know that Yule log cakes are pretty common. Usually, it is a yellow cake spread with a thin layer of chocolate filling and rolled up so that a slice resembles the rings in a tree log. The recipe in Baking Chez Moi is unusual in that the filling is simply a mixture of cream cheese and butter sweetened only with a small amount of finely chopped pecan praline. The differences continue with the use of a marshmallow frosting and a sprinkling of coarsely chopped praline pieces. Somehow, the idea of spreading a mixture of cream cheese and butter into a delicate sponge cake seemed a little heavy to me and I knew I would be making changes. My choice was to whip up a nice, fluffy batch of cream cheese frosting and I am glad i did; we thought it was the perfect filling and frosting for my Buche de Noel.

However, before I could do anything, I needed to get the cake baked and that my friends, was just the beginning of my troubles! To get things started, I decided to make the cake using my hand mixer because all of the parts of my stand mixer were in the dishwasher. Can I just say that using a hand mixer is not an option when making a genoise. No matter how much I whipped, with the beaters first and then the whip attachment, the eggs and brown sugar just never formed a ribbon which is essential for a genoise. In my opinion, the use of brown sugar did not help since I feel it affected the ph balance of the mixture and prevented the eggs from reaching the proper ribbon stage.

My solution to the whole matter was to make the cake a second time but with a different method. First of all, I used room temperature eggs and white sugar. Heating the eggs and sugar and whipping them on high-speed is the common approach but my experience is that a better, stronger structure is formed from room temperature eggs whipped a little slower. Brown sugar is tricky to use in this instance simply because every brand is different. Have you ever held the different bags together and looked at the colors of them? Even bags from the same manufacturer can be a different shade when compared side by side. There just does not seem to be a true standard of color for light and dark brown sugar. In my book, it makes brown sugar a bit of a wild card and not my first choice for a recipe as fickle as a genoise. The fact that my first cake turned out to be a two toned sheet of rubber confirmed my suspicions and not only will I not use brown sugar but I will also not ever try this with a hand mixer either!!

With a fluffy sheet of genoise cake subtly spiced with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper, I set to work on rolling the sheet as per the directions. Can somebody please tell me why this is done? Over the years, I have made many rolls of cake without ever pre-rolling a single one. I’m sorry but if you ask me, it is a bad move. Just as I suspected, the cake cracked into pieces when I unrolled it to fill it. This really annoyed me after the trouble I had with the cake itself. In the future, I will store my layers in the fridge flat-out on a pan until I need them. As it was, I carefully spread some of my cream cheese frosting over the cake taking care not to damage it any further. To keep it in the spirit of the original recipe, I sprinkled the finely chopped praline over the frosting and rolled the cake back up. Then to finish it off, I spread a generous layer of frosting over the entire log and topped it all of with the remaining praline pieces.

We enjoyed thick slabs of the cake topped with sprinkles of praline while sitting by the fire, the room glowing from the lights of the tree. Finally, we had the chance to enjoy Christmas, too bad it wasn’t until a few days later…

So, here’s to a happy and prosperous New Year! Check out the Tuesdays with Dorie page to see how all of the other bakers made out with the recipe!

Mad About Chocolate; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on December 16, 2014December 16, 2014 by alisahuntsman5 Comments

Cookies at Christmas are a given. How can you not bake them? What would Santa think if he slid down the chimney to find out you didn’t bake him cookies, chocolate cookies, with minty ganache??? Looks like I will find out since I had to sit this round out. Hopefully, my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers can forgive me because even though they sounded amazing, I was too busy to bake up a batch. Truth be told, the thought of having an entire batch of chocolate cookies with a mint ganache filling and topping in the house terrified me; how would I be able to stay away from them???

Luckily for me, I came up with a better idea. The contributing baker, Marcel Desaulniers is a bit of a legend here in Williamsburg. For years, he was responsible for the desserts at the landmark Trellis restaurant, but two years ago, he opened his own shop, Mad about Chocolate. Knowing I did not have the time or the willpower for these cookies, I took a trip to the shop and picked up a few sweets to indulge in.

Centrally located near the Historic Village, Merchants Square and the College of William and Mary, the shop is easy to find and so is the parking. Make a trip in and see the sights and take a short visit to the shop and refuel!
So far, I am having a hard time finding anything I do not like about the historic district. You can wander the streets of the colonial villiage and find plenty of shops and restaurants in Merchants Square and everywhere you go, there are places to sit and enjoy the view. While I do realize this is a tourist destination, so far, I have not encountered crowding and congestion that make it unpleasant, even during August, it was busy but not impossible to get around.

While chocolate is the specialty of the house at Mad about Chocolate, the menu does include a few savory options, be sure to check the special board out front on your way in.

Don’t let the sizes of the showcases fool you, while they are small, they are stocked and if you ask me, less is better-they do not overload the cases meaning what you see is freshly baked.
Need a gift? All of Chef Desaulniers books are available, I personally have a copy of Desserts to Die For on my book shelf. The cute seasonal gift packaging makes even a gift of cookies seem extravagant.

While I was in the shop, the man himself came in to chat with the staff. Of course I had to say hello and in the process, told him his recipe was the one chosen for today’s post by the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers. It was a pleasure to meet him and while I am sure he was busy, he took a few minutes to speak with me.

The indoor seating area is very colorful and the artwork is all available for purchase; some of the artwork is by Connie Desaulniers.

Each of the tabletops is made with a different colorful design that appears to be a glass mosaic of sorts.

But let’s not forget why I went to the shop in the first place: cookies, lots of cookies. Starting at the top, bourbon oatmeal, tribe (a William and Mary tribute) and the infamous black mamba. Resting on top, a synergy bar. So let’s take a moment to admire them…

This right here, my new favorite decadent treat. Ordinarily, I do not like oatmeal combined with chocolate, but this, a dark chocolate candy bar with (oatmeal) granola, cacao nibs, chocolate covered coffee beans and coffee is absolutely perfect.

Think they are ordinary cookies? Look at the size of that-and it is just half of it! The bourbon oatmeal is loaded with dried cranberries and there is nothing ordinary about them.
College team names are funny and William and Mary teams are known as The Tribe. While I do not know the history behind the name, I can say this, if you are not a chocolate fan, the Tribe cookie is for you. It has a bit of lemon zest, pistachios and white chocolate in it and it is every bit as decadent as the others.

Since I was losing light on this grey, dismal day, I did not take a photo of the black mamba but all you need to know is that it is dark and chocolatey almost to a fudge brownie extent and chock full of walnuts and pecans. It is also still in the bag-I could not take even one more bite of cookie… This could be a dangerous situation for me; the shop is pretty close to our new house and I can easily get there when I need a chocolate fix; remind me to buy a bicycle…

To learn more about Mad about Chocolate, visit the website. To see what the other bakers came up with, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

the rugelach that won over France; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on December 9, 2014December 9, 2014 by alisahuntsman19 Comments

I have been baking rugelach for at least 25 years. It all started when I worked in a bakery just north of Sausalito, California. We did everything by hand there and the rugelach dough was rolled out into large circles, topped with butter, cinnamon sugar, chopped walnuts and currants. Each round was cut into 12 wedges and then rolled up into crescents. We made them by the hundreds and after the first taste, I was hooked.

Over the years, I have made rugelach to sell in my bakery and to give as gifts during the holidays. While the purpose of making them has changed from time to time, one thing hasn’t, the filling; I always made them with the same combination of ingredients that I first learned years ago. Whenever I would see them for sale with jam fillings, I was always so excited by the choices but in reality, disappointed by the results. I’ve always thought that cinnamon sugar, walnuts (or pecans) and currants make the perfect filling but this week’s recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers put that filling combination to the test.

Upon reading the ingredient list for the filling, I was completely skeptical, a little worried actually; my mother was visiting and she would be tasting them too. While sharing rugelach with your mom sounds harmless, keep in mind that rugelach is one of her favorite things and she likes them the way I make them; no filling upgrades needed or wanted. How could I possibly dump chocolate, coconut and cherries into her idea of perfection? So I compromised. After mixing up a double batch of dough so I could send mom home with a plate of goodies, I rolled out the first portion with cinnamon sugar, pecans and currants. For the second portion, I combined cinnamon sugar, coconut and chocolate chips.

The directions call for rolling out a very thin sheet of dough that is 12″x6″ and then topped and shaped into a foot long spiral that is about an inch or so thick as well as tall. If you cut them as instructed, you get a lot of single bite pastries making this a great treat to give as gifts or share at a cookie swap. But for rugelach connoisseurs like us, bite sized wasn’t going to cut it.

The secret to perfect rugelach, use lots of flour to roll it out but brush it off both sides or it will make them taste doughy.

As I mentioned, I compromised, I added currants rather than cherries but kept the coconut, pecans and chocolate and spread them over a liberal dusting of cinnamon sugar.

In my opinion, the more pronounced the spiral, the better the flavors blend. To achieve this, I rolled out the rectangle of dough a little wider so that mine was about 12″x 8″ and only about 1/8″ thick. Despite this fact, the dough was still cool enough to work with and it rolled up easily.

One step I completely eliminated was to freeze the rolled and filled dough. Honestly, that sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. With my spiral still on the table, I quickly cut it into thick slices, on the bias. This change affected the yield greatly; my batch of dough only made about 18 thick slices.

One other change I made, no egg wash. The leftover melted butter wasn’t going to be wasted on my watch and I brushed it over each roll along with a dusting of cinnamon sugar before they went into the oven.

Once again, the recipe called for baking the rolls at 400F and that worried me. When I prepared the last Baking Chez Moi recipe, Cranberry Crackle Tart, the instructions to bake at 400F turned out badly for me. Perhaps the oven in our new home is a little hot, or maybe Dorie’s oven is a little cool, either way, I wasn’t taking any chances and I baked them at 375F. Oddly enough, at this temperature, they baked in the time called for in the recipe. Looks like I will be paying close attention to the oven temperature in the recipes from now on!

And as Dorie suggests, the perfect companion to a cup of tea on a dreary winter day.

To see what the other bakers came up with, be sure to visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and if you like, buy one of the two books we are baking from and bake along with us!

mixed starter bread; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on December 2, 2014 by alisahuntsman6 Comments

This is the Tuesdays with Dorie/Baking with Julia tale of two breads; the train wreck version and the fingers crossed I hope it works version.

Bread baking has always been one aspect of my career that I completely lack confidence in. There are so many variables and so many ways for it to go wrong and yes, baking in general is often a disaster waiting to happen, but bread is where I have had so many more failures. As you know, baking is science oriented and when you add a living creature, yeast specifically, there are just so many more rules that must be followed. In my world, a baguette has always fallen into the buy it not bake it category because I have never achieved good results when baking one at home.

So it was with the greatest of expectations and hopes that I set off to bake this bread. When I read the instructions, I saw that I could actually make four different shapes if I followed the recipe, and I was determined to make at least three of the shapes. But, as the Steinbeck wrote, “even the best laid schemes of mice and men, often go awry.”

First mistake; no bread dough to make the starter with. Not a problem, I subbed a small amount (1/4 cup) of my homemade starter. While this sounds good in theory, it made the starter very wet and it set the stage for more problems as I followed the recipe. In the final rise stage, my dough was simply too soft and probably could have used another half cup of flour to make up for the added moisture in the starter I used. However, the mistakes are not all mine. Did anyone else notice the rather large discrepancy between the photo tutorial on page 116 and the directions in the recipe on page 117?

Give me a moment to vent and then I shall stumble down off my soapbox. First let me state that I admire Dorie greatly. She has helped put women bakers up in front of the crowd and to show the world that yes, women can be pastry chefs too. She has in a lot of ways done for baking what women like Alice Waters and Julia Child did for cooking as far as convincing the world that women can do this and do it just as well if not better than men. But editing is editing and as a published cookbook author, I can say that if the words under the photo do not match the words in the recipe, we’ve got a problem. While this may have been fixed in later editions, my $3 flea market find is actually a first edition and I had a major mishap as a result.

My complaint is simple, step 3 of the photo tutorial instructs you to fold the dough down again (the folding process starts in step 2) and to seal the seam…it then goes on to tell you to repeat this process once or twice to form a short log shape with a tight skin. That right there is it, one of the largest factors that my bread dough simply spread out rather than rise up and why it was not possible to get it off the floured towel without deflating it. If you read the recipe, it only tells you to complete the folding and rolling once. The tight skin is crucial not only to the success of a crispy, flaky skin but to the shape and the height of the loaf as well.

After having nurtured this dough along for 2 days, arranging our day around the baking schedule and then having such a flop that I had to go out and buy bread for dinner, I was truly annoyed with myself for not succeeding. As I dumped half of the batch in the trash, I made the decision to save a piece of the dough and start again. Then, while standing there in my kitchen peeling the rest of the dough off of a floured towel, I could not bring myself to tossing it in the trash. Stubborn determination had me grabbing my basket and shaping the remaining dough. The dough was soft and a little sticky at first but as I worked at shaping it into a smooth ball, I saw a change in the texture, it was no longer soft and shapeless and it was now tight and structured. It rose beautifully in the basket and when it had doubled, I dumped it out on to the baking peel, slashed the top, slid it onto the heated stone in the oven and poured the water into the pan in the bottom of the oven. Voila! Picture perfect bread, and a lesson learned!

The crust was thin and crispy, just like a good baguette and despite the many missteps and the extra rise time, it has absolutely no sour taste.

Just look at the interior of the loaf, all of the open bubbles you would expect after reading the recipe, but not the photo tutorial as it does not advise you to retain the open structure and air bubbles by handling it gently and not to deflate or mash it. In the end, I am better prepared to make a baguette and my second batch is nearing the final rise. Stay tuned fellow bakers, I will post additional photos when I get a decent loaf!

To see what the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers came up with, visit the website.

cranberry crackle tart; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on November 25, 2014 by alisahuntsman18 Comments

Cranberries are a vital part of the holiday season for many Americans. In my family, we cook them up into a sweet sauce flavored with oranges, vanilla bean and spices and the kids eat them by the bowl full. It is one tradition that I really will miss this holiday season. We relocated from Nashville to Williamsburg and our family group that gathered together each Thanksgiving and Christmas is now separated by nearly 700 miles. Even so, I couldn’t resist buying a bag or two, or four of cranberries and had to find a tasty way to use so many fresh cranberries. Thankfully, this recipe used more than half of a bag, and now I only have 3 and a half more bags in the fridge…

The recipe gives you some good options and I decided to test some of them out. With two different dough recipes to choose from, I decided to mix up a batch of the sweet tart dough and as I mixed it, I chose to follow the recipe suggested in the “Bonne Idee” sidebar; it gave the option of using a small portion nut flour in place of the all purpose flour called for in the recipe. It was quick to mix up in the food processor but I really think the amount of dough it produces was about double what was needed to make the pie shell. As a result, I formed a patty with the leftover dough and tucked it away in the freezer.

As a person who literally has rolled out hundreds of pie shells by hand, this dough was very pleasant to work with and I did not have any sticking or crumbling or tearing. It was so easy to work with that I had the crust rolled and in the pan in a matter of minutes. Where I had issues, the baking time. When I read the instructions and saw 20 minutes at 400, I was skeptical, it seemed like a long time for such a high temp. In hindsight, I wish I had listened to my inner voice. My crust came out of the oven a little black around the edges. Luckily, I had not trimmed it down by one-third as the recipe called for and had enough to trim away the burnt edges and still have a side crust.

The filling of a marshmallowy meringue was such a small amount that I had trouble mixing it in my 6qt kitchen aid bowl; it just wasn’t enough volume for the beater to really come in contact with it at first. After a really long time, it finally came together. Since I did not want to buy any jam-I have two dozen jars of homemade blackberry jelly in my pantry, I just used some of my own from the open jar in the fridge.

As the tart baked in the oven, it puffed and cracked and finally, it was a nice, light golden shade and had a few deep cracks across the top. Carefully, I removed the pan from the oven, closed the door and set it down to cool. A quick glance at the clock, 11:12pm; we wouldn’t be tasting this pie tonight. Off to bed, to sleep and to dream of crunchy, crackly meringue and tart pockets of ruby red berries…