TWD - Sweet Potato Biscuits

This week's TWD was Sweet Potato Biscuits. For me, it was a chance to redeem myself from my failed make-up Monday's biscuits. I gave up on the idea of mixing the butter in with my fingers. I thought last time the heat from my fingers and the time it took to mix it in affected the end result. So I turned to my old trusty stand mixer. By pulsing it, I was able to get the same effect and crumb texture without adding the heat from my fingers.

But honestly, I think two things made these biscuits easier than traditional biscuits - the sweet potatoes and the fact that I didn't really roll them out. I just sort of pressed them out into a circle and cut them.

They puffed up some, not high necessarily, but up, which was a vast improvement from the previous attempt. Not only were these good right out of the oven, they were good the next morning and with dinner tonight, with whipped cream cheese on them. YUM.

This week of biscuits reminds me of a story. My parents are in the same profession. Unfortunately, in the mid-1970s, women were still having a very difficult time in the workplace, particularly the professional workplace. My parents had both just passed the licensing exam. My father had a job but my mother couldn't get a job because she was pregnant with my younger brother. After having my brother in December, my mother was a stay-at-home mother for six months before she found another job.

When asked about that time in her life, she describes it as "the worst six months of her life." She was not cut out to be a stay-at-home mother of a four-year-old (me) and a newborn. (I'm sure it was my brother's fault . . . I was the perfect child.) Since she couldn't find a job, she decided she was going to be a gourmet chef and perfect making biscuits.

I don't know why she chose biscuits. Probably because the ingredients for biscuits are always on hand or because they were relatively quick compared to other baking projects or because they are cheap to make. Anyway, it was a failure. The only things she perfected were gaining weight, being depressed, and yelling at my dad.

It all ended well. She got a job and has worked every day since. I liked having a working mother; she was a great role model. However, she hasn't made biscuits since.

These biscuits might change her mind.

TWD - Make Up Monday - Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits

OK. I made these as part of my make-up Mondays. I'll just put it out there. They sucked. They were like small, beige hockey pucks. Actually, they were small, beige, burned hockey pucks. And that's what they tasted like as well.

I didn't even take pictures because they really weren't pretty, but I did take them camping with us on Saturday. (I made them Friday night.) I figured I could put them in with the bacon and eggs on Sunday morning and they would at least fill us up for hiking. Yeah, well. We ate a few of them but it was mostly because we were really hungry and it was about 34 degrees outside when we got up.

I take complete blame for the failure. I knew I was working the biscuits too hard but I just couldn't let it go . . . I just had to have them rolled out perfectly and evenly. Well, I paid for my perfection streak. BUT, I learned a lot and applied it to the actual Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this week. Coming up next!

TWD - Allspice Crumb Muffins

I've made this recipe twice in the last two weeks. It is one of those recipes that is great because I would almost always have all of the ingredients on hand. I guess the problem would be that, while they are good muffins, they aren't my favorite muffins ever.

The crumb gave me some trouble the first time. It basically melted off all over the muffin tins and burned. The second time, I reduced the amount of butter by a tablespoon and that corrected the problem.

Here is the muffins pre-cooked and fully topped with crumb:


Completely covered, right? Then why did I have this much crumb left over?

Here's the finished muffin - a quick picture before I left for work this morning:

TWD - Make Up Monday - Pumpkin Muffins

I really loved this recipe. First, it was really easy and fast. Second, it tasted almost like pumpkin bread but better with pecans and raisins. Of course, I used my whiskey-soaked raisins which probably helped the flavor. I will definitely make this one again and again.

TWD - Chocolate Crunched Caramel Tart and Split Level Pudding

For the first time in a long time, my job got the better of me last week. I pride myself in maintaining a good balance between work, social, and home life but this past 10 days . . . all I have to say is "I surrender!" Work won - bringing work home every night and working on the weekend. All if it made me not want to be at the computer ever again and consider a job change to toll booth operator.

I think my stress played out in the Chocolate Crunched Caramel Tart. The crust went well until I let it go 30 seconds too long in the oven. Too dark. The pecans (used instead of peanuts, which I don't really like) were perfect until I let them roast a little too long. The ganache was fine.

In the end, my fiance loved it, which is good. I didn't like it that much, mostly because I had tasted Jennifer's (from Keep Passing the Open Windows) the night before and hers was P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Melt-in-my-mouth perfect. So mine paled in comparison.


On the other hand, my attempt at Split Level Pudding went well. I used some extra cream in the ganache because I usually find ganache too rich and thick. I made the cinnamon version of the top layer, which was SO good. I was worried that I had to use my stand mixer because I only have a small food processor. It worked just fine and the pudding was the perfect consistency.

Like other people, I only got four pudding coffee cups out of the recipe, but I could be a pudding hog. Whatever. I've been called worse. This week, in fact.

TWD - Make Up Monday - Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

The second make-up recipe was actually a savory recipe rather than a dessert. So, I paired it with dinner (pan-fried tilapia and roasted broccolini). It was a great compliment to both the fish and the vegetable. The only complaint was that the muffins were too crumbly.

My actual Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is coming up!

TWD - Black Raspberry Pufflets

I have officially renamed these. These should not be called Cottage Cheese Pufflets. I mean, really. Look at that picture above. Does that look like it has cottage cheese in it? No.

When I think about cottage cheese (which I love), I think about my paternal grandmother. You see, both of my grandmothers were good cooks. My maternal grandmother was a good cook like in the Mastering the Art of French Cooking way of being a good cook. On the other hand, my paternal grandmother was a good cook like in the Betty Crocker way of being a good cook. Basic, good food. She grew up on a farm. She could kill a chicken and fry it. And she served cottage cheese topped with Western Dressing and half a canned pear. Yum.

Anyway, you can't even tell there is cottage cheese in these yummy little pufflets. And they were soooooo easy. I feel bad for saying that because I have been reading all of the horror stories over at Tuesdays with Dorie. The dough was a dream for me - it worked really, really well. But, I gave in to a lot of its demands. I let it chill for two days after making it. I rolled a third at a time on floured wax paper with lots and lots of flour on the rolling pin. Yeah, it was a demanding diva of a dough, but when I followed it's rules, it was perfect.

So, first I floured a rectangle of wax paper and floured my rolling pin. And rolled out the dough. Then I cut it with a pizza cutter.

Then I tried to peel it off of the wax paper. Nope. But after putting in the freezer for 15 minutes, it was perfect again. Then I flipped it over onto the silpat and peeled off the wax paper.


Then I dolloped on some wonderful Black Raspberry jam from the Farmer's Market. It needed a few moments to thaw a little before folding it over. And yes, I completely suck at making squares free-form. I decided random trapezoids were much more interesting anyway.


Here you can see the variety of wonderful shapes I came up with - just to make things interesting.


But I have one question - why did mine have all these little spots on them??


And they taste even better than they look.

TWD - Make-up Monday - Orange Blueberry Muffins

I have decided that I am going to try to make up some of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes I missed because I didn't join until June of 2009. Or, at least that is what I'm saying this week because I have been uber-motivated to bake all of a sudden. I think it is because fall is upon us and I always want to bake more in the fall.

This weekend, I decided to make Orange Berry Muffins. I was in the mood for muffins and these were very good and very easy. I like buttermilk in muffins because it gives the batter that little tang and makes them very fluffy. My live-in taste tester said he didn't like the batter because it wasn't as good as cake batter. I'm assuming he actually knows that muffins and cakes are two different things. . . .

I was a bit disappointed because the muffins, while very blueberry-y, did not taste orange-y at all. I added the entire zested rind and all of the juice I could squeeze out of the poor orange but got little in flavor-return. After loving orange flavoring in other TWD recipes, I was sad.

But now I know what the problem was . . . bad oranges. I ate one of them at lunch today and it had almost no flavor. So, my hopes are restored that I can have very orange-y muffins using this recipe.

As a side note, you may notice I used silicone muffin cups to make these muffins. I know Dorie often mentions using silicone bakeware and usually says that you do not have to prep silicone bakeware. I would like to know if other people have found this to be true? In my experience (limited to these muffin cups), they only work if they are sprayed with Pam with Flour for Baking. After that prep, they work very well and are much easier to clean than regular muffin tins. These are fairly high-quality silicone muffin cups - I believe my mother bought them for me either at Williams-Sonoma or Crate and Barrel.

Any other silicone experiences?

TWD - Flaky Apple Turnovers, Michelle Obama's Arms, Chocolate Souffle, How to Talk to Bears, and Assaulting Sarah Palin

"Honey, no pressure but I just told everyone in my office you were making apple turnovers tonight. They are so excited to taste them tomorrow." Greeeeaaattt.

Anyway, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie was Flaky Apple Turnovers. I was very excited because I love a good turnover. (Hell, I love a bad turnover too . . . he he.) However, in the end, it was more like pie than a turnover. But very good. I had no problems with the dough-making. I blended everything with my fingers, as I do for most doughs like this. It was still a little crumbly when I divided it and pressed it into a rectangle, but it came together nicely.

I made the dough Monday night, let it rest overnight, rolled it the first time Tuesday morning, let it rest, and then rolled it last after dinner. Let me tell you . . . if I rolled dough like this daily, I would have arms twice-as-nice as Michelle Obama's arms. Good grief, it was hard work. But that's the problem with butter-rich dough. It firms up intensely when chilled but won't roll unless chilled, which makes it harder to roll. It's a vicious cycle.

For both the first and second roll-outs, I rolled it between two pieces of wax paper, which worked fairly well and kept the mess to a minimum. Whenever I roll dough with flour, I get as much flour on myself and the floor as I do on the counter and the dough. So, wax paper works well for me. I also use a handleless, uncontoured rolling pin, which I think works much better than a pin with handles. (You can see it in the apple peel picture above, just to the left of the apples. It is one of my favorite kitchen things.)

Speaking of the apple peel picture (pay no attention to the green beans on the right - they were for dinner . . . but green bean turnovers sound interesting, no?), I took that picture for two reasons. First, I love peeling apples and I'm always sad to throw away the peels. Isn't there some recipe that uses apple peels as the main ingredient? Second, I was convinced at this point that four Fuji apples was wayyyyyy too many apples. And it was. I probably could have been fine with just two apples.

After rolling out the dough, I cut it with my four inch tartlett pans. They have scalloped edges which I thought would make the turnovers extra pretty. Well . . . sort of. I put too many apples in and that kind of stretched the dough too far, so "pretty" was relative. Here they are after forming but before the egg wash:

I didn't dot the apples with butter (mostly because I forgot) but, seriously. Did this recipe need MORE than the three sticks of butter in the dough? I don't think so.

Mine baked for less than the 20 minutes called for, but my oven runs hot so I count on less baking time in general. They got a huge vote of approval from myself, my fiance, and his office mates. They were very pretty in the end:

I still have dough and apples left over. I can't handle another arm work out, though, so I think I'm going to put the apples in a pie plate, make loosely formed circles with the dough and put them on top and then bake it.

Oh, by the way, I did make the Chocolate Souffle last week, but was so busy I forgot to post about it. Here is the picture:

It turned out pretty well, despite the fact that I beat the eggs a smidge too long. But, in my defense, I was distracted by talking to my dad on the phone. He called right in the middle of the egg beating. Ordinarily, I would have not answered the phone, but they just got back from 10 days in Alaska, during which time they stayed in a Bear Lodge. And by Bear Lodge, I mean a place that you have to fly a bush plane to get to that is designed to put you right in the middle of bear country.

I was distracted by my dad telling me how they had to take a class in "How to Talk to a Bear." Apparently, if you meet a bear on the path, you are supposed to avoid eye contact and sweet talk them. "Nice bear, pretty bear, good bear."

I think anyone would have been distracted from egg beating while hearing that story.

Also, they went to Wasilla but didn't meet Sarah Palin, which is a good thing since I would have had to fly to Alaska to bail both my parents out of jail for assault if they had met her.

TWD - Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe was delightfully simple - brownies topped with espresso cheesecake topped with sweet sour cream. Frankly, my favorite part of the recipe was the sweet sour cream. It reminded me of a good friend who served fresh strawberries with sour cream swirled with brown sugar. I've never eaten strawberries with regular cream and sugar again.

The picture above was taken after the brownies/cheesecake had cooled, just before I put the sour cream on top. It seemed a shame to cover up such a pretty swirl, but the sour cream layer really made this dessert, so I was glad I did.


The brownie layer was very similar to the Brownie Buttons recipe we made a few weeks ago. The cheesecake layer was so easy, I felt bad for making people clear out of the kitchen while I made it.

I'll just be having the one small piece, though. The primary reason is that I don't like cheesecake. I can understand why people like cheesecake, I just don't. It is too thick for my taste. The secondary reason is that my fiance has been bugging me to let him bring one of my TWD desserts to his office. This is the perfect one - it travels well and I don't have a desire to hide in my closet and eat the whole thing because I can't stop eating it.

Maybe I should join a weekly cheesecake making club . . . then I wouldn't have to worry about eating everything I made.

TWD - Applesauce Spice Bars

I seem to have terrible trouble posting on Tuesdays for Tuesdays with Dorie. Thursdays seem to work much better . . . so here I am posting on Thursday.

This week's recipe was Applesauce Spice Bars. They are like traditional spice cake with raisins and pecans and are supposed to have a brown sugar glaze. I had trouble with proportions again this week. I followed the recipe exactly and did not have enough glaze to come close to covering the cake. You can see the result here:


Sure - it still tasted good, but I was really looking forward to the brown sugar glaze and it wasn't even noticable in the final product. Next time, I will double the glaze recipes.

The only change I made was that I soaked the raisins for about 8 hours in whiskey before using them in the cake. This was mostly because the recipe called for "moist plump raisins" and I only had hard nearly stale raisins in the back of the cupboard (neither I nor my children are big raisin fans.) So, I made them plump and moist with whiskey. Very similar to the way I used to catch men in college.

Anyway, it was also very good with ice cream:

TWD - Brownie Buttons

Wow. Summer has just not been good for blogging. We are in the process of a lot of home improvement and moving and a garage sale last week and on and on and on. I actually made the Banana Cake last week but didn't have the energy to post about it after all of the painting and other home improvements. (Plus, I was disappointed because it basically tasted like banana bread to me and, frankly . . . there was an awful lot of banana cake in that recipe!)

And, now this week's Tuesdays with Dorie post is late too! But only a day late, I will add. Let me just say first that these Brownie Buttons were deadly delicious! I seriously thought about making another batch right after the first one cooled. I made them with the orange zest, which was WONDERFUL and added the white chocolate on top. They were perfect little snacks and would be very fancy to take to a party or something.

The only problem is that I doubled the recipe and only got 24 mini-muffin sized brownies out of it. And I would like to know what kind of mini-muffin tins are 3/4 full after adding only a teaspoon of batter? I must have abnormally large mini-muffins tins or Dorie has abnormally small ones.

Perhaps I should not be a glutton and want a super-sized portion of the perfect mini-brownie bite, but these were good! And I would have to make a quadruple batch if I wanted to take a respectable amount to a party. I guess that isn't the worst thing that has ever happened to me, but after the portion sizes on some of the other recipes in this book (i.e., Pineapple Dacquoise and the Perfect Party Cake), it was odd that this one was so small.

Anyway, the next time I make these brownies, I am totally hiding them in my car so only I can enjoy them. They were that good!

TWD - Rosemary Honey Ice Cream

Better late than never, huh? Several things kept me from posting on Tuesday, but the biggest one was that I was not able to actually make the ice cream until Wednesday.

So, starting at the beginning. . . . This week's TWD recipe was picked by LinnyLu and it was Vanilla Ice Cream. Meh. I've made vanilla ice cream more times than I can count in my lifetime, so I decided to jazz it up a little. Three months ago, we were out for dinner . . . a very expensive dinner that wasn't very good. But the dessert was fabulous - it was rosemary gelato. The rosemary was so intense that I could still taste it on my breath after I brushed my teeth before bed.

But I liked the flavor, so I decided to try and make rosemary ice cream. The only recipe I could find was Charlie Trotter's recipe. I didn't use it because that's not really the point of belong to Tuesday with Dorie and using someone else's recipe. But I used the infusion method he recommended. After heating the milk, I let about 1/4 cup of rosemary sprigs sit in the hot milk for half an hour. Then I continued with the rest of Dorie's recipe.

I was a little concerned because after I slowly combined the milk mixture with the egg mixture and started to heat it up again, it got lumpy. Not bad lumpy, but lumpy. Out of the hundreds of times I have made ice cream, this is the only time I have come close to curdling the custard. I'm still not sure it actually curdled, though. It was kind of lumpy, but not weird looking otherwise and tasted just fine.

So, I let it sit overnight to cool and it was still a little lumpy, but tasted just fine. I froze it and it wasn't lumpy at all. So I don't really know what happened, but it all turned out just fine in the end. I really liked the rosemary and honey together. It was refreshing and comforting all at the same time. I think I might try other herbs. I've had lemongrass, bay leaf, lavender, thyme, and basil ice cream (not all together) and they were all good. I don't know if I would pair them with honey or just plain sugar and vanilla.

One thing I'm dying to try is cayenne pepper chocolate ice cream. When I lived in Minneapolis in the early 90s, there was an independent ice cream store across the street from our apartment building. It was some of the best ice cream I've ever had. My favorite flavor was called Coyote Chocolate and it was cayenne and dark chocolate ice cream. It was a slow heat spicy but sweet as well. Someday, I hope to perfect that recipe.

I have a picture of the rosemary honey ice cream, but it is on my camera, which is at my house, where I am not. I am sitting in a bar and currently waiting for my fourth or fifth Captain and Coke to be served. I'm a little drunk.

TWD - Blueberry Blankety-Blank Manger and Newlyweds

This week’s TWD is Blanc Manger, picked by Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy. I’ve never made Blanc Manger and I’m not sure if I have ever eaten Blanc Manger. I’m a big fan of all pudding like desserts - creme brulee, custard, panna cotta - so I was pretty sure I would like Blanc Manger.

The word "blanc" makes me laugh, however, because it is part of a running joke in our family. There is a type of champagne called "Blanc de Blanc" which is pronounced "blonk duh blonk" but my mother insists on pronouncing it "blankety blank." It has something to do with the champagne tasting dinners my grandfather threw during my parents’ engagement to determine which champagne would be served at their wedding. I’m sure no one got drunk during these dinners. Therefore, despite more than six years of French classes, I really want to pronounce Blanc Manger "blankety blank" manger because it’s funny.

Anyway. Frankly, I’m getting a little tired of red fruits and almonds in the TWD recipes, so I used blueberries for my Blanc Manger, copying from Jennifer of KPOW, who brought her mixed fruit Blanc Manger to book club on Sunday night. Next week, I hope to get away from almonds, particularly ground almonds, which proved to be my downfall in this recipe and last week’s recipe.

I didn’t take very many pictures of the process because there was nothing really visually stunning about the process, although the end result was very pretty. You can see the almond chunks that settled to the bottom and then became the top of the dessert.

Of course, after I made it, I read on the TWD that some people used almond flour. I had no idea such a thing existed and I will use that next time, if I can find it locally. With the almond chunks, the texture was like undercooked tapioca. But really good flavor.


I saw this recipe when I first purchased the cookbook and read the description right away to see how difficult it would be to make. I was floored by one of the statements in the description: this dessert is "beloved, particularly, I'm told, by newlyweds with no kitchen experience, because it is positively foolproof." There was something that really bothered me about that notion. I've been thinking about it all week.

I think it raises my feminist flag when I hear that because it relies on the 1950's concept that women marry young, only learn to cook to satisfy their prospective husbands and the husbands' work colleagues and families, and that upon getting married, adults' lives become stereotypical versions of the perfect home life.

Sure, that's probably true of some women who get married in 2009, just like it probably wasn't true of all women who got married in 1954. But the facts are that women (and men) are getting married later and most people who get married have lived on their own for some time before getting married. And most people find themselves in the situation of needing to feed themselves, wanting to feed others and entertain, and needing to know how to make a good dessert (or knowing where to buy one.)

Perhaps this is fueled by that streak of anger I still have about being unmarried and nearly 38. Granted, my life has taken a wonderful turn in the last year and marriage is in my future. But that doesn't immediately erase the 20 years of wondering and worrying if it would ever happen. In those 20 years, I had to grow up and be an adult without getting married. I had to learn how to feed myself on a budget without eating out every night, how to host a party, how to make a kick-ass dessert to bring to an office pot-luck, and how to manage a household on my own.

In all honesty, I had to stock a kitchen with tools without getting everything as bonus prizes off my registery for getting married.

But that's not all of it. Why couldn't it just say that this recipe is beloved by those just learning to cook or those newly discovering baking? Why does it have to play to a stereotype?