TWD: Peanut-iest Blondies (and Caramel Pumpkin Pie)

 This week’s recipe on Tuesdays with Dorie was Peanut-iest Blondies.  They were a hit.  I thought they were very, very good but when I served them to my son’s physics tutor, he thought they were absolutely wonderful and thought he would die if I didn’t give him the recipe.  Don’t worry, he will live.  I gave him the recipe.

Back on October 19th, the group made Caramel Pumpkin Pie.  I am late posting about this recipe, not because I didn’t like it (I did!), but because I am having a confidence crisis.  Not in cooking or baking, mind you, because all of Dorie’s recipes come out good.  My issues are with photography.  I visit everyone elses beautiful blogs, come back and look at my pictures, and I want to quit.  I am thinking of changing the name of this blog to CrappyPhotos <dot> <com>.

But you want to hear about the food.

Caramel Pumpkin Pie:  wonderful!  I will definitely make this again.  I made small tarts using this recipe and that’s what I will do next time.  I’m not usually much of a pumpkin pie fan but the addition of caramel and booze changed this pumpkin pie into something divine.  You can look forward to seeing this one again at Thanksgiving.

Both recipes are from Dorie’s wonderful book: Baking From My Home To Yours.

It’s Thyme to Eat!

Carol

FFWD: Marie Helene Apple Cake

Last week, on French Fridays with Dorie, the group made this wonderful apple cake which is – as Dorie said – more apple than cake.

This recipe is REALLY a winner.  It was absolutely delicious.  It was so good that I snuck back down at bedtime and had another piece.  And, I’m not sorry that I did. 

I loved, loved, loved this recipe.  As much as I loved it on the day it was baked, though, I have to say that it didn’t keep well at all.  By the next day, it wasn’t nearly as good.  So, if you make this one, give yourself permission to have TWO pieces the day you make it.

However, it is such a delicious recipe that I will definitely be making it again and it will be soon.  The recipe can be found in Dorie’s wonderful book, Around My French Table.

It’s Thyme to Eat!

Carol

TWD: Double Apple Bundt Cake

Yum.  Yum.  Yum.

These week, over on Tuesdays with Dorie, we made Dorie’s wonderful Double Apple Bundt Cake.  It turned out really well.

I omitted the raisins as I’m not a huge fan of raisins in cake.  I am, however, craving oatmeal raisin cookies but that is another story.  Back to the cake.  Dorie gives a choice of walnuts or pecans.  I chose walnuts because I was feeling especially lazy and I keep a bag of Trader Joe’s lovely chopped walnuts in my freezer.  The choice for the glaze was lemon or orange scented.  I chose orange.

This is what I thought of that:

Seriously, it was good.  Or, it was seriously good.  Either way, this was a great recipe.  You can find it in Baking From My Home To Yours or you can hop on over to Lynne’s blog,  Honey Muffin.  She’ll have the recipe there.  You’ll have to go there to find out what makes this a “double” apple cake.

It’s Thyme To Eat!

Carol

FFD: A Great Start

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, everyone who has been baking with Dorie is THRILLED that Dorie Greenspan’s latest book, Around My French Table, is now out.  And after the long wait, we are excited to begin cooking from it.  A new group has been formed to do just that.  It’s called French Fridays With Dorie and you are welcome to join us.

The first recipe we are cooking (or baking) as a group is called Goujeres and it truly is a keeper.  Goujeres are extremely light and fluffy cheese puffs.  They are easy to make and my family was really happy to taste test them for me.  What I’m excited about is that I froze half of them to bake later.  Dorie promises they can be baked from straight from the freezer.  If so, we will be eating A LOT of these!

It’s Thyme To Eat!

Carol

TWD: Cranberry (or Peach) Upside-Downer

Oh, be still my heart!  This week’s recipe over on Tuesdays with Dorie was a winner.  The recipe is called a Cranberry Upside-Downer.  In the sidebar, Dorie gives instructions for turning it into a Summery Peach Upside-Downer.  Since peaches are at their peak at the farmer’s markets right now, I went with peach and I sure am glad I did! 

Peaches baked on the bottom of the pan topped with a lucious, rich cake batter.  Yummmmm!  This was really, really good.  Thanks to Sabrina of Superfluous for choosing this winner.  You can find the recipe on Sabrina’s blog or on page 206 of Baking From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Peanut Butter CrissCrosses

Looking for a way to liven up your peanut butter cookies?  You have come to the right place!  This week, over on Tuesdays With Dorie, Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine selected Peanut Butter CrissCrosses as the recipe of the week.  Despite the lousy photography, these were REALLY good peanut butter cookies!  With chopped, salted peanuts inside, these cookies are crunchy and delicious.  Move over Better Homes and Gardens, these are now my favorite pb cookies.

Just be careful not to overcook them (as I did).  You can find the recipe on page 78 of Baking From My Home To Yours or head over to Jasmine’s blog.  It’ll be there.  Enjoy!

It’s Thyme To Eat!

Carol

Big News!

I’m so excited!  Dorie Greenspan’s new book just got published and it’s a beauty:

As you can see, it’s titled “Around My French Table” and it’s a hefty volume with alot of beautiful, mouthwatering pictures.  A new blog group is forming now so that we can cook our way through the recipes (and become better cooks in the process).  Visit French Fridays With Dorie to join us!

Bon Appetit!

Carol 

TWD: Catch-Up Time

Oh good grief!  Where did the summer go?  From my last post until now is one big blur.  Well, never mind that.  Here’s what’s important:  I’ve made several Tuesdays with Dorie recipes since my last post (and even took pictures of a few).  Unfortunately, they never made it to this blog.

So now, I should try to catch-up.  Let’s see…

One of the best was this:

In BFMHTY cookbook, it is labeled “Chocolate Crunched Caramel Tart”.  Beside the title in my copy, it says ***OMG!!!***.  It was that good.  A sweet pastry crust, a layer of caramel and nuts, then a layer of chocolate.  It was truly amazing. 

These babies are called “Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars”.  They were also marvelous and MUST be remade soon at my house.

I had really high hopes for this next one.  Called “Rum Drenched Vanilla Loaves”, it had lots of both.  Here’s my dark rum and Penzey’s vanilla.  I love Penzey’s, especially their vanilla.  But truthfully, this picture is just an excuse to show off my new egg bowl.  An egg bowl?  Who knew?  Ya just never know what you’re going to find that you never knew you needed.

Enough about that.  What about the cake?  It was good, not great.  But almost everyone else on Tuesdays with Dorie loved it so I’m thinking I did something wrong.

 And then there were shortcakes.  As with everything, Dorie makes it better.  For over 20 years now, I’ve made shortcakes using my MIL’s recipe because that’s what Ron wanted.  I tried these and whaddayaknow?  He liked them better!  I must say that I thought they were good, too.  Maybe we should have them again for this holiday weekend!

I almost forgot!  I also made Dorie’s Chewie Chunky Blondies.  One word: Yum!

And we had Dorie’s biscotti and her Quick Classic Berry Tart over and over and over again.  I can’t get enough of those 2 recipes!

So you see, I’ve been spending alot of Tuesdays with Dorie!  I just haven’t been blogging.  That will just have to change!

And now…

It’s Thyme To Eat!

Carol

Barefoot Bloggers: Spring Green Risotto

On Barefoot Bloggers this week, Kimberly from Indulge & Enjoy has chosen Spring Green Risotto.  This is a great recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.  It starts with lots of goodies like leeks and fennel.

Ina uses alot more “greens” in her risotto than I did – she calls for asparagus (which I’m already tired of) and green onions (which I neglected to buy).  Even with the omissions, I ended up with a delicious, lemony risotto.

A word of warning about this recipe – I used HALF the amount of pepper, lemon juice, and lemon zest as recommended and, in my opinion, the dish still had plenty of lemon and pepper.  So, be careful there!

I hope you enjoy this recipe (which can be found in Back to Basics on page 147) as much as I did.  It’s another “keeper” from the Barefoot Contessa.  Thanks for the great pick, Kimberly!

It’s Thyme To Eat!

Carol

TWD: Quick Classic Berry Tart

This week, over on Tuesdays with Dorie, Cristine of Cooking with Cristine picked Quick Classic Berry Tart.  This was a really fun recipe for me because I had never made pastry cream before.  With Dorie’s directions, it  was easy and turned out really, really yummy.  I mean majorly yummy.  The stuff that dreams are made of. 

Aren’t they beautiful?  I chose to make a couple of small tarts instead of the big one in Dorie’s book.  Marthe of Culinary Delights mentioned on Tuesdays with Dorie that she was going to make bite-sized tarts.  Although I didn’t make mine that small, I did make them small and so I thank Marthe for the idea.

The other great thing about this recipe is that they can be made ahead.  The pastry dough is made and then frozen.  The pastry cream can be refrigerated for up to 3 days before use.  The recipe is on page 377 of Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking From My Home to Yours.  Or you can find it on Christine’s website.

This was an awesome recipe.  Even my never-impressed-by-my-cooking husband was impressed with these.  I will definitely be making them again!  And they are company-worthy so, if you’re coming to visit me soon, you’ll probably being seeing these after dinner!

It’s Thyme To Eat!

Carol