tuesdays with dorie

apple pielets; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on October 27, 2015October 22, 2015 by alisahuntsman16 Comments

The weather has changed; suddenly, it is fall. The days are getting shorter and the temperatures are cooler. It is also apple season, one of my favorite things of fall. Fresh, crispy, crunchy, juicy… apples with skin of every shade from red and green to yellow and pink. Sliced, or whole; I’ll eat them either way. Baked into pies and cakes, cooked into sauce or spicy butter, layered on peanut butter sandwiches or dipped in thick, creamy caramel; I love all of them.

If you haven’t visited my blog before, then you may not be familiar with Tuesdays with Dorie. We are a large group of bakers who are baking our way through two books written by Dorie Greenspan. We alternate books each week and this week the group chose to make the Apple Pielets from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking Chez Moi which was also the perfect way to add more apples to my diet. To keep up with our baking adventure, visit the website and consider joining us each week.

The recipe calls for using a muffin tin and lining the cups with a galette dough. If only I could find my muffin tin. Perhaps if I finished unpacking…Rather than searching for the pan or buying a new one, I chose to use my mini brioche tins. They were the perfect size and gave them a cute fluted shape. To make the filling, I chose Granny Smith and Sweet Tango apples, diced them, sweetened with dark brown sugar and spiced them with some garam masala. The directions called for rolling the dough between two sheets of parchment or plastic. Can I just say that is my least favorite method to roll out dough? If you ask me, I think that rolling slightly chilled dough out with large amounts of flour is always the way to go. Chilling reduces the stickiness and the flour makes it so much easier to roll out. If you truly go crazy with the flour, you can always brush it away with a soft brush.

After heavily greasing the pans, I lined them with circles of dough and filled the pielets with the apples. A smaller round of dough was laid over the top of the filling and the two pieces of dough were sealed together. To allow the steam to vent, a few small slits were cut into the top crust and the pielets were baked to a lovely, golden brown. It was hard to wait but it was easier to remove them when they had mostly cooled. After pulling the pies out of the pans, I set them aside to finish cooling.

Here’s to another apple season! Join us if you dare, we do this weekly. Visit the website, pick up a copy of the book and get to baking-you won’t regret it!

tourte milanese; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on October 6, 2015October 6, 2015 by alisahuntsman1 Comment

My husband and I found ourselves attending three different potluck dinners in a 10 day run and luckily for us, the most recent Tuesdays with Dorie recipes were perfect choices for a dinner party. The Tourte Milanese from Baking with Julia is on the left while the Apple Kuchen from Baking Chez Moi is on the right. We took these to a potluck party to celebrate the 5th anniversary of PECK, the Peninsula Chicken Keepers association.

The Tourte was not new to me; years ago, I made that recipe when it was featured in one of those best cookbook of the year annuals. While I do not remember what book it was, I could never forget that tourte and thought about making one on many occasions. For this tourte, I followed the recipe pretty closely. My only changes were to use herbs fresh from the garden in the eggs, adding eggplant slices (also from the garden) and mushrooms to the spinach and a few convenience products. The puff pastry was homemade and had been in the freezer for a while so it was time to get it out and put it to use. To save some time, I used a bag of frozen spinach and a bottle of roasted peppers from Trader Joes. If only we had something left to take a photo-I brought home an empty plate and the knowledge that I must make that again and when I do, it will not go any further than my own dining room table so that I can have more than just a little sliver…

The Apple Kuchen is actually a tart packed with apples and a cream custard. To make it a little more fall like, I decided to combine apples and pears. Ordinarily, I love an apple tart. But this one, not so much; it just did not work for me. My instincts told me to add spices but followed the recipe as written. All of that fruit, the custard, the absence of starch in the filling-it added up to a wet filling that I just didn’t care for. The majority of it was eaten at the potluck and I only brought home a small wedge and the knowledge that this recipe would not be on my “make it again list” any time soon.

To see how the other bakers did with the Tourte Milanese, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

Rhubarb Crumb Tart: a Tuesdays with Dorie Rewind

Published on October 1, 2015 by alisahuntsman5 Comments

Way back in August, the Tuesdays with Dorie group baked the Cherry Crumb Tart from Baking Chez Moi. The recipe calls for a frangipane-like filling made with either almond or hazelnut flour, fresh red cherries and a topping of cardamom scented struesel. Put together, it is a perfect marriage of flavors, especially if you are lucky enough to find tart red cherries. Unfortunately, by the time August rolls around, cherry season is done and while you may still find some dark sweet cherries, the tart red ones are impossible to locate. Honestly, I have not had luck finding the tart ones fresh, even at the peak of season and my only option ends up being a canned product unless I want to spring for a mail order bulk purchase requiring overnight shipping. More than once, I have found myself dreaming of a tree in my garden, laden with plump, juicy, tart red cherries.
Rather than letting the disappointment stop me, I chose to make the tart using rhubarb. And yes, rhubarb is another plant that is out of season in August but luckily for me, I can find sliced rhubarb in the freezer section of the grocery store. Because it is just the two of us here, I only made half of the recipe and it was enough to make three 4″ tarts.
Rhubarb is one of those foods that while subtle in flavor, it can pack a tart punch and add a huge amount of moisture making it a great substitute for the hard to find red cherries. The rhubarb released its juices and blended with the almond filling to make a custard like filling. As far as I am concerned, I can live with rhubarb standing in for the cherries, for now, at least until I get that tree planted in the garden…

Do yourself a favor, pick up a copy of Baking Chez Moi and bake along with us, or just bake from the book! To see how the other bakers fared, check the original post from August or the rewind post.

rewind; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on June 29, 2015June 30, 2015 by alisahuntsman3 Comments

Can anyone please tell me where the month of June went? Last thing I remember was packing my husbands suitcase for his month-long trip to Germany, and boom, June is gone. Between work and the garden, I didn’t have much time to bake this month and honestly, we had so many days above 95 degrees that baking really wasn’t much of an option.

Twice this month, I got my act together and baked; first the rhubarb upside-down brown sugar cake and then the chocolate cherry brownies, both from Baking Chez Moi. The results; both were good and I would bake either one again.

The day I went shopping in search of fresh rhubarb, I came up empty-handed. Luckily, I was able to find it frozen and honestly, it worked out beautifully in the end. If you make the cake and have to use frozen rhubarb, I suggest you let it thaw completely, drain it well and use towels to pat it dry before proceeding with the recipe. Attempting to cook it while still slightly frozen prevented the pieces from juicing. For the round up of participants, follow this link.

There there were the brownies. Rich, chocolatey, moist. What’s not to love? Only suggestion, use tart dried cherries instead of sweet ones. Most of the dried dark cherries had little to offer in flavor and were over powered by the chocolate even though I soaked them in twice the amount of port; I subbed port for the water to add more flavor.
My mom was staying with me for the month and honestly, we ate the whole batch between us. Granted, it took nearly a week but we did eat them all. Surprisingly, they stayed pretty moist and I can only guess the moist fruit made that possible. To see the round up of participants for this recipe, here is the link.

Here’s to a new month and the hope that I will not blink and miss this one too. To see how the other bakers did this month, visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

cardinal slices; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on May 19, 2015May 19, 2015 by alisahuntsman10 Comments

Hard to believe but we have been baking from the book, Baking with Julia, for more than two years. While I have enjoyed the process and reading posts from the other bakers, not every recipe has excited me and a few were just not an option. But when I read the headnote to the recipe for Cardinal Slices, I was a bit excited; this was a chance to make a classic cake and a caramel syrup. Then I read the entire recipe and saw the suggestion of turning the leftover batter into chocolate dipped ladyfingers called Rothschilds. Now this was what I call a great way to spend a morning!!!

The recipe for the cake layers instructs you to make a meringue first. The meringue is piped with a 1/2 inch tip the length of the baking pan, actually, three long ropes that are fairly close together; the two outer ropes are just three inches apart. The leftover meringue is incorporated into an egg and egg yolk mixture with sugar and whipped to a full ribbon with flour folded in last. This mixture is piped between the meringue stripes and then it is baked.

The espresso caramel syrup is made by burning a small amount of sugar and adding more, bit by bit as you go. This caramel is cooked much darker than you would expect and the final step is to add hot espresso. It is intensely flavored and it can be a little bitter from both the burned sugar and the espresso but the whipped cream will temper the bitter and even if you are skeptical, make it!

The final step is to make a lightly sweetened, whipped cream and flavor it with the espresso caramel syrup. You are instructed to trim the three strips so that they are evenly sized but let me warn you, if it is a humid day, think twice and perhaps bake the strips longer or wait until a dryer day. My strips got pretty sticky and were difficult to trim so I didn’t bother.

Do you remember the mention of ladyfingers? Well let me suggest this, if you do not want to waste leftover batter, cut the recipe in half and do not bother with the lady fingers. There was enough of the batter left to make lots of ladyfingers, three trays, actually. According to the directions, I sifted almond flour over the cookies and placed a pan in the oven with my cake strips. Honestly, I wondered about this because the cake strips were baked at 300 degrees and everything I know about sponge cakes tells me that temp was way too low. My suspicions were correct and after the instructed baking time of 30 minutes, I had lovely, golden brown, ladyfinger shaped strips of sawdust. They were awful, truly awful. Since I noticed that the recipe suggested reading the other ladyfinger recipe in the book for hints, I flipped to it. This recipe called for baking them at 400 and since I really wanted to make the Rothschilds, I cranked up the heat. Sadly, the results were not much better, they weren’t as dry or sawdust like but truth be told, they were not any puffier.

Needless to say, my dreams of chocolate dipped Rothschilds were crushed. In the future, I will probably try making them from the other recipe in the book, the one written by Flo Braker and if I, or should I say when I, make this cake recipe again, I will skip that step and just make half the cake recipe.
Oh, one more thing, totally worth the calories. Try this one if you can-you will not regret it! To see how the other bakers did, check the Tuesdays with Dorie website and look for the LYL page.

pink grapefruit tart; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on February 24, 2015 by alisahuntsman9 Comments

While procrastinating, a favorite pastime of mine, I came across a list of what people were planning to give up for Lent. My favorite answer on the list; winter. Yes, I think giving up winter for Lent sounds like a great idea and as I sit here on my couch watching more snow fall and accumulate, I really cannot wait for winter to end! Even so, there is one good thing to come from winter other than Christmas presents, it is actually peak season for citrus fruits.

Growing up, my mother would always treat us to grapefruits, usually white ones, and I can remember cutting them in half, pouring sugar over the top and eating the sections. When I went out on my own, I found I preferred ruby red grapefruits to the white ones from my childhood but these days, I skip the sugar and just peel them and eat the segments. Occasionally, I will pick up some juice but, I buy small quantities so that it does not go to waste. However, taking those lovely fruits and making a cooked curd filled tart topped with yet more fresh grapefruit segments never really occurred to me. After reading the recipe, I was rather skeptical that this would work for me.

Even though I read the recipe before starting on this tart, I was surprised by just how much time it took to come together. The recipe calls for using a food processor to make the dough for the tart shell, my favorite method for tart and pie dough. My other favorite tart/pie method; using coffee filters and marbles when prebaking the shell. Believe it or not, coffee filters are really the best choice for the task. Parchment paper becomes brittle when baked, creases in a piece of foil can cut the shell and break it and wax paper is covered in wax-who wants that in a tart shell? Coffee filters are very strong; they hold the weight of wet coffee as water pours through it. If you can get restaurant sized filters, you will only need one otherwise you will need to use about 4 of the 8-12 cup filters. The butter in the tart shell will keep the filter from sticking to the dough but if the shell is frozen and allowed to thaw before baking, give the inside of the shell a spritz of spray. Keep in mind that the flour you rolled the dough out with and any condensation that forms on the surface make a thin layer of paste that can glue the filter in place making it difficult to remove and you could either leave some of the filter behind or it could take sections of the crust with it. So if you are worried, err on the side of caution and give it a spritz.

Then there is the question of marbles as pie weights. Well let’s just call them a solution to a dilemma I had; I couldn’t justify using a bag of beans or rice once and then tossing them when I remembered I had a collection of glass marbles. The marbles stepped up to the plate and I have been using them ever since. They conduct heat pretty well, they do not shatter in the oven-at least mine haven’t in all the years I have used them as weights and they are easy to clean. The only down side; marbles bounce. Trust me, if you drop them, they will bounce a few times before disappearing and finally rolling down the basement stairs for the cat to play with…Yes, I have lost a few of my marbles over the years but, I still have enough to do the job.

The whole point of this post is the tart, so how did it taste? Let’s just say that it is not my most favorite tart ever. The use of two fillings may seem excessive but it is actually close to genius if you ask this pastry chef. The lemon-almond filling serves to buffer the crust from the moisture of the grapefruit cremeux. There is nothing worse than realizing that your crust is soggy and gummy from the filling! The lemon-almond filling is almost like a frangipan and I toasted the almond flour to give it a little more flavor. The grapefruit cremeux was extremely flavorful but I wonder if it could be made more like a curd and stiffer without the use of gelatin, something I do not enjoy working with-especially now that I do not have a microwave in my kitchen. At first, I wondered about the addition of Campari; I was not sure of the actual flavor of it and decided to taste it and I suggest you learn from my experience and do not drink it straight. However, I am now completely aware of why it is called “bitters” and I was shocked at how well it blended with the grapefruit flavor of the cremeux without making it bitter.

The final step is to slice up the fruit so that you have segments to work with. Because the grapefruits are so juicy, they need to be laid out on paper towels and allowed to dry for a few hours. The dry segments are arranged over the two fillings in the baked shell. My fruits varied in color and I was hoping to make an ombre pattern over the top but had to settle for just two shades of pink. All the components come together to give you a strong grapefruit flavor with creamy and sandy textures wrapped around the fresh fruit. It was nice, but not my favorite. Having seen a few photos of some of the other bakers tarts as they prepared them this past weekend, I thought the use of blood oranges or tangerines just for the top might have been better. However, If I make this one again, I am thinking I might like to use fresh raspberries on top of the grapefruit cremeux.

You can see the layers; the crisp tart shell, the softer and sandy lemon-almond filling, the creamy grapefruit cremeux and the fresh grapefruit segments. The bright flavors of winter’s bounty will have to get us through the snowy weather and cold temperatures but let this be a warning to that rodent in Pennsylvania-your days are numbered…

To see how the other bakers fared with this recipe, be sure to visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website. Want to bake with us? Pick up the book and get to work! We post the upcoming recipes on the website and you can bake some of the recipes or all of them-you decide. Our only request, buy the book because we do not post 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.

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!