Coconut Tapioca

I don't recall ever having eaten tapioca pudding before, so I was curious about this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Coconut Tapioca from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi.

The recipe calls for large-pearl tapioca, which I was unable to find in the supermarket.  The pearls I bought were pea sized.  Based on other cook's comments about the gelatinous nature of their finished puddings I increased the milk by one half cup.  I substituted almond milk for whole milk for the comfort of the other eaters in the household.  I didn't notice until later that the almond milk had added sugar.  One taster thought the pudding was too sweet.

To me the finished product was much like rice pudding, and I wished later that I had sprinkled the top with cinnamon.

Now I will have to investigate other recipes to use up the rest of the tapioca pearls.

Limoncello Cupcakes

This week the Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group made Limoncello Cupcakes from Dorie Greenspan's latest cookbook Baking Chez Moi.

I made an alcohol free version, substituting lemon juice for the limoncello.  The cupcake batter can include cardamom or cracked black pepper.  I used cardamom, but cannot taste it in the finished cupcake.  There is an option to put marmalade in the centre of the cupcakes.  I used an orange, grapefruit, lemon marmalade.

My cupcakes were done in 22 minutes.  I spooned a sugar/water/lemon juice syrup over the warm cupcakes and frosted then as soon as they were cool.

The recipe worked out very well, but didn't top the wonderful taste experience of the lemon madeleines we made last month.