Monthly Archives: March 2009

Tuesdays With Dorie: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade

Oh, I love a good loaf…Today’s TWD is a lemony loaf with ground almonds and yogurt, plus a marmalade glaze to finish it off.

The beauty of this is its ease: whisk dry ingredients together. Work zest into sugar, add eggs, yogurt, then oil and bake. Delicious aroma floating from the oven. Mmm.

But. What’s up with the way my cake rose? Kind of like a bridge flat, even a descending approach, big arch, then off again with a flat, even descending approach..not pretty. And, to top it off, it browned up way too quickly, perhaps the fault of dark metal pan?

Because this is such a simple (and very popular recipe in this house) recipe, I’ll make it again trying a different pan and, perhaps a lower temp. The crust was a bit tough, but the crumb was a lovely texture. The almonds lend a moist richness to the the loaf that is wonderful.
A note about the marmalade: Dorie asks for lemon marmalade. Umm. Not a single commenter over at TWD could find it. I couldn’t find it. I know I’ve seen it in my lifetime, but not now. Instead I bought the MOST delicious pink grapefruit marmalade. Now I have a nice bit of it left over…If I could just find a perfect baguette to enjoy with it…Maybe I need to bake a baguette..

Tuesdays With Dorie: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade

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Oh, I love a good loaf…Today’s TWD is a lemony loaf with ground almonds and yogurt, plus a marmalade glaze to finish it off.

The beauty of this is its ease: whisk dry ingredients together. Work zest into sugar, add eggs, yogurt, then oil and bake. Delicious aroma floating from the oven. Mmm.

TWD: Lemon Cup Custard

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Mmm. Lemon is one of my favorite flavors..So bright, so light, so happy, so tart…Custards are so simple in terms of ingredients (milk, sugar, eggs…This one is flavored with lemon zest)…but the trick is in the cooking: low and slow and in a good water bath.

I love that Dorie has us line the roasting pan with paper towels: DUH. Nothing moves, nothing sloshes. I pour boiling water into the pan AFTER it goes into the 325 oven.Bang on 40 minutes, my custards were done. I’ve eaten one at room temp…This is the silky smooth–not thick pudding-y–texture that custards should be. My one regret is that I didn’t have lemon extract or oil to punch up the flavor, because as is, the lemon flavor is very delicate…

I liked the dried lemon slices I did so much a few weeks back that I tossed a few into the oven here, too…Meh. I like the contrast, but it actually distracts from the silky texture.

Enjoy these. What an elegant, easy dessert.

Check out everyone else’s custards, too: Tuesdays With Dorie

TWD: Lemon Cup Custard

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I liked the dried lemon slices I did so much a few weeks back that I tossed a few into the oven here, too…Meh. I like the contrast, but it actually distracts from the silky texture.

Enjoy these. What an elegant, easy dessert.

Check out everyone else’s custards, too: Tuesdays With Dorie

Wake up, Make Soft Pretzels..

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For whatever reason, I woke up this morning and thought how much I’d love a home-baked soft pretzel. The weather here is still cool enough to turn the oven on, so I thought I would take advantage. I also thought: good photos. I was right.

I Googled for recipes, and Alton Brown’s recipe was top on the list. The man hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

As with so many things I’ve written about here: Why don’t I do this more often??? Simplest dough: proof yeast with water and some sugar. Add flour and melted butter. My tip for you readers, don’t know where I learned this, but dump it all in. Cover the entire mixer with a dish towel. Turn mixer on to lowest speed and let it run about one minute, incorporating all the flour. The towel keeps the flour cloud at bay. Then turn to medium, knead with dough hook for 5 minutes. Cover with plastic and walk away.

One hour later, return to beautiful dough. Cut into 8 pieces, roll into long pieces (24 inches), shape into pretzels. Drop each one, one at a time, into boiling water with baking soda. Boil 30 seconds..Actually, Alton? Suggest a slotted spatula for this maneuver. You gotta let the extra water drain back into the pan.

Brush with egg wash, top with salt–I had no pretzel salt so used Sel Gris I had in a sampler pack from The Meadow (Thanks, Mark!)…Quick bake at 450F for 12 to 15 minutes.Cool (only a little…these are so great WARM)…and EAT.

Wake up, Make Soft Pretzels..

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I Googled for recipes, and Alton Brown’s recipe was top on the list. The man hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Armagnac Cake

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Or is that chocolate RUM cake? Because that is what was in my cupboard. And I couldn’t stand the thought of making another stop for the brandy.

Oh, and do you know any other 13-year-old who got chocolate rum cake for her birthday cake? That’s right, readers, I am so obsessed with TWD that I did not even ask her what kind of cake she would like. She was getting chocolate armagnac (or rum) cake that got Dorie fired. And no, in answer to your question, of COURSE she didn’t know there were prunes in the cake.I had to make this while I was also making bimini bread, dressing for a salad, cutting papaya, frying hominy (don’t ask. I fried three times and will probably fry again tomorrow.), making coleslaw, watermelon granita…is there anything else? Because today was prep day for a photo shoot. And my back is KILLING me.

Back to the cake. It was easy…I love these one layer cakes. They aren’t always pretty.Burning off the rum was interesting…because it burned and burned and burned. Guess there’s a lot of alcohol in there. Yum. (Yes, it’s out of focus, but I couldn’t resist trying to get the flame.)

Here’s the thing. I timed it perfectly so it should have come out of the oven at the exact time I had to drop Bryn off at dance class. I came tearing in, timer was going off, I ran up the steps…it got about 5 minutes extra and was looking pretty toasty on top (and my oven really is 375. I have an oven thermometer in there.), but when I moved it, it jiggled. Like undone jiggled. But Dorie’s instructions say it should be wet still…I don’t think she meant jiggling.

Okay. So. Cool ten minutes, take ring off, flip over, take bottom off, flip back upright. Except, a crack and oozing batter appeared when I did that.The cake is now a Chocolate Rum MOLTEN Cake. Not Dorie’s at all. Oops.
But. It is even better than I could have expected. I love how easy the glaze was. It’s like a truffle coating. As if it needed something extra. (Ha.) And really, it’s barely molten at all once it was in the fridge. It’s super rich, but it was a huge hit. Bryn didn’t suspect the prunes, not one bit.