Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake

The Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group made a vanilla loaf cake from Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan.

I baked this cake in early January during a snow storm.  I didn't have the heavy cream called for in the recipe and didn't want to venture out to buy it.  I substituted canned full fat coconut milk with very good results.

For me it was the first time making brown butter.  I followed the recipe directions and it worked out fine.

This is a lovely, plain cake, very good toasted.  I wonder if  the cake would have been more flavorful if my vanilla bean had been bigger?

Granola Energy Bars

This week the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group made Granola Energy Bars from Baking Chez Moi.

The recipe worked very well.  I used peanuts, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds for the nut/seed portion and raisins and dried cranberries for the dried fruit portion.

As promised the brown rice syrup really sticks everything together.

My bars came out quite firm and were a bit of a challenge to cut.  They taste delicious.  I will make this recipe again soon.

Gingerbread Buche de Noel

I was away for Christmas so I made the Buche de Noel from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi yesterday for New Year's Eve.

The buche has four components:  praline, cake, filling, and frosting.

I was a bit concerned about pulling the sugar syrup off the stove at the right time.  I followed the directions as written and the praline worked out fine.  I used walnuts instead of pecans.

This was the first time I have used my stand mixer.  I knew I needed to use it for the cake because the egg mixture is beaten for awhile.

I wasn't worried about the cake because I have made a rolled cake before with no problem, but it did not turn out very well this time.  As the photo shows the cake broke when I rolled it.  I baked it the minimum time listed in the recipe.  I don't know why it was so dry and fragile.

The filling is a simple mixture of cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, and chopped praline.

The frosting was the most fun to make.  I have never made a cooked frosting before.  The sugar and water was cooking and cooking and then suddenly it was the right temperature.  Again I just followed the recipe's directions and the frosting turned out beautifully.

The break in the cake made it look more like a real log.

Here is the buche, icing slightly damaged in transit, ready for our celebration.

The Rugelach that Won Over France from Baking Chez Moi

The Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group made rugelach this week.  I like to eat rugelach but I have never made it before.

First you mix up the dough in the food processor and refrigerate it.  I left mine in the fridge for two days until I had the time and patience to roll it out.  

The filling is an unusual one for rugelach as it contains coconut.  I mixed the filling in the food processor, hoping that the chocolate and raisins would get ground up.  I would have been better off making the effort to hand chop the filling ingredients.

It took awhile to roll out the dough and fill it.  It was easier to roll out the second square of dough that had been sitting on the counter while I worked on the first square.  I had filling left over.   I didn't want to overfill and then have the cookies unroll in the oven.

Some other bakers commented that freezing the filled dough for an hour made it hard to slice, so I just refrigerated the rolls.  It was easy to slice in 1/2 inch sections as written in the recipe.

Unfortunately many of the slices tipped over in the oven.  The side that was against the baking sheet came out very dark.  Only about 1/3 of the cookies are nice enough to share.

Cranberry Crackle Tart from Baking Chez Moi

The Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group is baking its way through Dorie Greenspan's latest book, Baking Chez Moi.  This is the second recipe.

First you make the crust.  This is the first time I have ever mixed a pie crust in the food processor.  I also had never rolled out pastry between sheets of parchment paper.  Both techniques worked well.  The crust got a bit too brown although I pulled it out of the oven before the full time given in the recipe.

The cooled crust is covered with jam.  I used raspberry jam.  Then you whip egg whites with sugar, fold in cranberries, and bake.   My tart is not exactly beautiful, but it is delicious.  The combination of the sweet meringue and tart cranberries is so good.

Palets des Dames, Lille Style, from Baking Chez Moi

The Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group is starting on Dorie Greenspan's newest book, Baking Chez Moi.  The first selection is Palets des Dames, Lille Style, a soft round vanilla cookie.

The dough is very soft, so you chill it before baking.  My first batch came out nicely rounded.  After icing the cookies with a mixture of confectioners' sugar, milk and lemon juice I decorated them with edible flower petals.

Paris Mushroom Soup

It was fun to get back to cooking with French Fridays With Dorie after a month's absence.  The recipe for Jan. 7, 2011 is Paris Mushroom Soup from page 72 of Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  January is a great month for eating soup, and this soup is perfect.  It is easy to make, and tastes great, with no fattening ingredients like cream.