Posts Tagged ‘dorie greenspan’

I love collecting bakeware pieces and I have to admit that I wanted a madeleine pan before I even tasted one. They just looked so dainty and cute. But I finally did and I was in love. So now my quest is to make every single madeleine recipe I can get my hands on until I find “the one”.

First was Dorie Greenspan’s Earl Grey Madeleines. I have the most amazing Earl Grey Cream so I had to use it. You infuse the flavour in the butter and this subtly flavours the madeleines. I think next round I’d like to grind some leaves and put them right in the batter as I could barely taste the flavour.

I’ve heard that silicone or non-stick bakeware is the best way to go when making these little treats, but I love the traditional pans. I didn’t have any trouble with them sticking. I bathed that baby in butter and flour.

The batter has to sit for at least a few hours to help develop the sought-after hump. You can fill the pan up first and refrigerate it, or you can chill the batter in the bowl and scoop it out later. I went for the easiest way and filled them up first.

You can see I really floured these guys. I was afraid of having them all mangled if I didn’t butter and flour properly.

After resting and chilling, they go into a hot oven where minutes later you can enjoy these. It’s best to have them asap to enjoy them at they’re peak. My madeleines came out easily with a little tap to the pan. Not one stuck!

The madeleines were firm enough to dunk into tea without falling apart, but were still moist. I’m not sure if this is my favourite recipe, so the testing continues.

Recipe here.

A day late, but here is my next review: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I like that Dorie Greenspan wasn’t a perfect baker at first and was pretty clueless. While I’m still not a perfect baker, I was just as clueless. I always managed to set off the smoke detector with whatever I made.

There are enough pictures in this book to inspire anyone if they flip through it. This book is filled with her favourite recipes and this gives you extra assurance that anything you make will turn out. I like her “playing around” suggestions where she gives you variations on the recipes. I always like knowing the best way an item should be stored and for all the recipes she gives this info.

This book was on my wishlist for a few years before it was gifted to me. Most of the recipes have turned out (I did have an unfortunate outcome with the maple tuilles) and almost all of them being repeat worthy. The flaky apple turnovers beat out the much more complicated turnovers I made from the Pie and Pastry Bible.

My overall favourite recipe? The caramel-peanut topped brownie cake. It’s one of those recipes I need to make when I’m taking it to a gathering, otherwise I will eat it all.

The recipes for the most part aren’t finicky, but still turn out great. I have many recipes bookmarked to try.

To get more of a feel for the book, be sure to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie group.

I thought maybe if I started making tarts, they wouldn’t look as ugly as my pies. The pre-formed tart shape keeps everything looking the way it’s supposed to and look less like a kitchen accident.

It seems that I can’t show up to a family event empty handed anymore as my relatives anticipate what I’m bringing. It’s my aunt’s 60th birthday so I tried to make something sophisticated. I also wanted something easy with few ingredients involved. This recipe claims sophistication and all I had to buy was some heavy cream and I was all set. Done.

The crust is a sweet tart dough and you can just press it into the pan. This saves me from trying to roll out mis-shapened circles. You pat it into the tart, put foil on it (no weights needed) and bake. Once that’s cool it’s time for the filling.

Do you have chocolate, heavy cream, and butter? That’s the entire list of ingredients for the filling. So make sure that chocolate you’re using is something you’d eat plain. I used 70% Lindt chocolate and I have a feeling this may be too bitter for the kiddies at the party.

To complete the tart, all you have to do is pour the ganache:

Refrigerate for 30 minutes and you’re done. Simple.

The ganache makes it a very rich tart so all you need is a thin slice of it, otherwise it’s too overwhelming. This would also work well as mini tarts. This tart is more adult than kid friendly with the bittersweet, but you can make this with a lower percentage. I think 60% cocoa content would appeal to a wider audience. In the book Dorie says the ganache will taste the same as the chocolate. This was confirmed when my brother in law asked if I had just melted chocolate and poured it right into the tart shell. So use a chocolate you like!

Recipe here.

I’ve wanted a bundt cake pan as I was convinced there were 20 recipes I had but could not make without it. After all you need the special shaped pan so for better heat distribution. Well, I finally received one at my bridal shower and I looked through my books and only found a handful of recipes. Was my bundt pan going to be awkwardly stored in my closet and rarely used?

Before inverting the cake

After much pressure from my neighbours I made the Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour cream bundt cake from Dorie Greenspan’sBaking: From my home to yours to take to their bbq. In the recipe you’re required to rub the zest in the sugar using your fingers. I guess this method distributes the oil more evenly? It was fragrant, just like the recipe said. Coffee cake batters are ridiculously thick and it’s always a poor attempt by me to have the batter in the pan evenly touching all the edges. You then take a spoon and run it through the batter to make room for the swirl and then try and cover it with the batter. It seemed like I made a lot of swirl and I was only able to cover a little bit of it with batter. And by little bit I mean 2%.

While the weather didn’t cooperate with the bbq it didn’t affect the tastiness of the food at all. No pictures of the food, I was too busy eating course after course. With such a big bbq feast I was sure that the cake I brought over wasn’t going to be eaten. I asked if everyone still had room for cake. Everyone said yes and I brought out the cake.

It’s tough to know whether a cake is hit or miss because I rarely test the recipe out before baking it for a large crowd. The cake had a subtle orange flavour with a swirl of bittersweet chocolate and a lot of pecans. It was good, not too sweet and very moist. One of the bbq hosts said that this was probably one of my best cakes so far. I can’t decide what cake I’ve made that I like the best. But that Caramel-topped brownie cake always calls to me.

Recipe for bundt cake here.

Out of all the cakes I have made so far, fancy or simple, this cake is THE best cake I have ever made. Maybe because it involves 3 of my favourite things: chocolate, peanuts, and caramel. This cake is so good I need to erase it from my memory so I will be able to fit into my wedding dress. I have never made a cake without a special occasion or reason like a test run, but flipping through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home To Yours the picture caught my attention and never let go. I spent weeks thinking about making the cake before actually making it. Movie Man was also bugging me to make some brownies so I figured a brownie cake was a good compromise (he still wants brownies after this, the nerve!).

The cake was simple to put together, but making caramel sauce always makes me nervous because it usually takes me two or three times to get it right and not burn the sucker. It didn’t get the dark amber it was supposed to because I was impatient and Movie Man didn’t want me to burn it. It was a light caramel and it was still really good. In the directions, Dorie says not to worry if the cake sinks or has a small crater in the cake. My cake definitely had a crater:

When it came to the filling, there was definitely more caramel in the middle, but it was all good. The cake was definitely like a brownie, dense, moist and not too sweet (I used 70% bittersweet chocolate which I recommend). The batter is very thick, jiggling it will not help smooth it out, you’ll need to use a spatula. The next day the caramel crystallized. I’m not too sure if it was from being impatient or just technique (I didn’t wet down the sides, but I never do and don’t run into problems).

You must, must make this recipe. If you really want to take this recipe a step further, throw in some fleur de sel in the caramel for some salted caramel goodness. But please don’t hate me if you can’t stop thinking about this cake — I warned you it was good.

Recipe here

I decided to make the Devil’s Food White-Out Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours for a neighbour’s birthday. I needed more cake to do the “adornments” (Uh, let’s just say it was an “adult” cake) so I had to multiply the recipe 1.5 times. I used the filling and then did a chocolate glaze (from the Bittersweet book). I’m getting better at getting a smooth glaze and a turntable definitely helps!

I liked the devil’s food cake, it has chocolate chip bits in it.  I wasn’t too fond of the vanilla in the filling, I felt that the alcohol in the vanilla overpowered it.  I like Martha Stewart’s Seven Minute Frosting better.  

This cake turned out so good!  Movie Man helped me level the cake so it was nice and flat and the turntable was a huge help.  I’ve just discovered McCall’s a cake supply place that also has cake decorating lessons. They also have Callebaut and Lindt chocolate in bulk!

Here is the cake without the “extras”:

Devil’s Food White Out Cake recipe here

This is what happened to my unit:

My whole kitchen is in disarray (and they’ll be removing the kitchen) so the baking is on hold.  Cooking also feels like an unecessary chore as we no longer have a place to chop things.  Before the disaster, I made this:

From Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.  It’s the marbled banana loaf and I’ve been dying to make something marbled for the longest time.  Who knew it’d be so easy?  I randomly dropped batter into the pan and zig zagged my knife through it.  The best kind of marbling effect is to do it sparingly, so I resisted the temptation to do all sorts of other patterns with my knife.  It was very yummy and the rum in the recipe really added something to it.  It also helped stave off hunger when we couldn’t make anything to eat.

Recipe here