Betty's Chocoholic Cake and Tarte Tropezienne

The Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group made two cakes from the Fancy Cakes section of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi this month.

Betty's Chocoholic Cake is dense and very chocolatey.  I went to the chocolatier and got a big bar, but when I got home I realized I needed even more chocolate.

I baked some of the batter in a square pan and then brought two layer cut up squares to a concert reception.  The rest of the batter went into round pans and was assembled in three layers as in the recipe.

It was good with whipped cream and strawberries.

Tarte Tropezienne is made with yeast.  I've made bread before, but nothing like this.  It took all day.  I didn't have pearl sugar for the topping, so I substituted almonds.  The cake looked lovely when it came out of the oven.

Alas many of the almonds fell off when I cut the cake to fill it.  It is chilling in the fridge now and we look forward to tasting it!

Cocoa Crunch Meringue Sandwiches

Dorie Greenspan's Cocoa Crunch Meringue Sandwiches are made with chopped toasted almonds or walnuts, and no flour.  The ingredient list is short, the steps involved are straightforward, and I felt confident heading into this baking project.

My first question arose around beating the egg whites until they start to turn opaque.  I wondered what that looked like exactly, and made my best guess.  After adding the sugar the whites whipped up to nice stiff, shiny peaks.  Next I folded in a sifted mixture of confectioner's sugar and cocoa, and then the almonds.  I did all this folding as gently as possible.

I piped the batter onto the parchment paper, using the 2 inch pencil drawn circles as a guide.  In the end I had enough batter for 14 meringues, with 2 of them quite small, not the expected yield of 16.  I wonder were the egg whites not at room temperature when I started or was I too vigorous when I folded in the sugar, cocoa and nuts?

Feeling ready to get out of the kitchen I didn't make the filling as directed but simply melted some chocolate chips, which worked well to keep the meringues sandwiched together.

Odile's Fresh Orange Cake and Matcha Financiers

Odile's Fresh Orange Cake and Matcha Financiers are the two recipes from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi that the Tuesdays With Dorie online baking group is making this month.

I made the orange cake twice.  The first time I baked it into cupcakes and contributed them as refreshments at a gathering, never taking the opportunity to photograph or taste the cakes.  So I made it again which was easy to do as the ingredients are all basic things that I always have.

The cake comes together quickly and has a lovely taste.  The texture is a bit off due I think to the altitude at which I live.  Had I reduced the sugar the top of the cake might have been smoother.  We had no problem eating this up.





Finding matcha for the Matcha Financiers took a bit of effort.  I have lots of green tea that I rarely drink, so first I wondered if I could pulverize it as a substitute for matcha.  Some internet research revealed this was not a good idea.  I checked two tea shops, where small pouches of matcha were on sale for $30 and $35.  Further research led me to a Korean grocery store, where there was lots of tea but nothing labelled matcha in English.  After studying the labels I decided that the package labelled "super premium Japanese green tea powder" might be matcha and I took the leap and bought it for $10.

At home I looked up the Japanese characters for matcha and found that I had indeed purchased matcha.




As with the orange cake the batter came together quickly.  I was left with 6 egg yolks which I used to make a delicious chocolate pudding.  I baked some of the financiers in mini muffin tins and some in my madeleine pan.  My oven bakes hotter than I realized, and the cakes browned up a bit too much before I could pull them out.  Never having baked with matcha before I used only one teaspoon, and can't really taste it at all.  The flavor is mild, the almond meal is what I notice the most.  I look forward to making these again with 1 1/2 teaspoons matcha.

Hot Chocolate Panna Cotta and Soft-Centered Chocolate Teacup Cakes

Both of the Tuesdays with Dorie February selections from Baking Chez Moi feature chocolate.

I prepared the Hot Chocolate Panna Cotta for Valentine's Day.  I like to make panna cotta because it is easy, yet so elegant.

The recipe really did end up tasting like a cold hot chocolate.  My chocolate was a little granular.  I may have over heated or under melted the bittersweet chocolate, or perhaps I should have sifted the cocoa.  The liquid is strained twice before is is poured into the serving dishes.  I used my finest strainer and still the chocolate was not smooth.  The taste was good nonetheless.



I baked the second recipe, the Soft-Centered Chocolate Teacup Cakes, yesterday.  These were extremely easy to put together: melt butter and chocolate, beat eggs with icing sugar, add flour to the egg mixture, and then add the melted chocolate mixture.  I wasn't sure how my teacups would fare in the oven so I baked the cakes in Pyrex custard cups.  These cakes are really delicious.  I will definitely make them again.

Carrot-Orange Cake and Lemon Squares, French Style

The Tuesdays With Dorie online baking group made Fluted Carrot-Tangerine Cake and Lemon Squares, French Style this month.

The cake is in the Simple Cakes section of Baking Chez Moi and it comes together very easily.  I used an orange instead of a tangerine, as well as the medium carrot and grated fresh ginger called for in the recipe.

I baked the cake in a 9" round cake pan and served it dusted with confectioner's sugar.  I found it very sweet, with a flavor oddly reminiscent of Fruit Loops.  I'd like to try making this again with less sugar and a bit more ginger.



In recent years I have come to love lemon and was excited to make the Lemon Squares, French Style.  The recipe didn't work out very well for me, unfortunately.

Usually I make lemon curd to use up egg yolks after making an angel food cake or meringues.  Dorie's curd recipe uses 4 whole eggs (yolks and whites) as well as 9 ounces of butter.  I made the curd with no problem and set it aside in the fridge.

The crust uses another 9 ounces of butter.  I was a bit concerned about all this butter.  I followed the recipe and pulled the crust out of the oven when it was a pale golden color.

The next day I stirred the curd, spread it over the crust, and topped it with the reserved crust, in small pieces, and the slivered almonds.  I baked it 45 minutes and it looked beautiful.

Alas, when I started to cut the squares some hours later I found the crust was over baked, hard and greasy, while the filling in the center part of the pan was very soft.  I had planned to take the squares to a dessert potluck and was very disappointed with the results.  I don't know what went wrong.

Stained Glass Cookies and Chocolate-Chestnut Tart with Chestnut-Vanilla Syrup

The December 2015 recipes for the Tuesdays With Dorie online baking group are Stained Glass Cookies and Chocolate-Chestnut Tart with Chestnut-Vanilla Syrup from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi.  I made both within the past week.

We've got so many cookies here that I only made half a recipe of the cookies.  The frozen dough was easy to work with.  I don't have the pastry tip that Dorie recommends for cutting out the windows, and wasn't able to find a good small cookie cutter.  The windows of the three cookies pictured were cut free hand.  The green centre was an entire lime Lifesaver, uncrushed.  It melted nicely.
I loved the taste of the baked cookies.  I will make these again in the future.

The Chocolate-Chestnut Tart was fun to make.  Chestnuts are a bit hard to find here but we located some at a store with lots of imported food.  The can had enough chestnuts for two recipes so I made a Jamie Oliver nut roast before tackling the tart.  All went well with the Sweet Tart Dough crust and candying the chestnuts.  While preparing the filling I dumped the heated butter and cream into the bowl with the chestnut syrup instead of the bowl with the chopped chocolate.  With the extra liquid/chestnut syrup in the filling the tart took longer to bake, but turned out delicious.

Pear-Cranberry Roll-Up Tart and Catch Up

Pear-Cranberry Roll-Up Tart, from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi, looks like a strudel but it's not.  The pastry is made with Galette Dough, which comes together easily in the food processor.

For the filling I used apples, cranberries, and home made rhubarb jam that was strongly flavored with ginger.

I had a bit of trouble rolling the tart, as the dough was sticking to the parchment paper.  I persevered and it rolled up nicely with no tearing.

After baking the tart for 40 minutes at 390 degrees it looked lovely but alas the bottom was burned and the tart started to come apart when I pried it off the cookie sheet.

It still tastes good, with the burnt bottom scraped off.

Also this past week I made Chocolate-Covered Toffee Breakups, our recipe for November 10.

I didn't know making toffee was so easy!  I followed the recipe as written and was very pleased with how it turned out.