TWD: Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Having just looked around I see that I got my weeks mixed up! I had thought I was making these the right week, but seems I'm behind. In any case these are some delicious cookies! No they are not tollhouse in all its perfection- but still a very strong contender an soon there will be no more trace of them in our house!

So if you haven't already made them last week- get these in.. very nice chewy chocolate chip cookie!

TWD: Brownies for Julia

Hello again!

Well after a hiatus of eons I've finally managed to bake something! I'm really glad I made these brownies as they are delicious fudgy and super chocolatey!

I remember the last dorie brownie recipe I made was a dud in comparison to my old standby one bowl brownies and while these are not a new favorite they were a good change.

I wasn't sure just how gooey they should be out of the oven so I cut a small corner- while the top was done it almost completely filled up again with seeping brownie goo.. So I put it in for another 10 minutes which seemed to do the trick.

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies

This recipe was one that I had my doubts about.. i thought- surely a meringue cookie must need to have whipped egg whites?! I cast my doubts aside and followed Dorie's recipe and found that ah ha.. the volcano action is in the oven - where my little scoop of sticky nuts turns into hot lava and finally solid rock.. i mean cookie.

I had high hopes for these cookies to become my new 'what do I do with all these egg white leftovers' recipe- but alas neither I nor the husband thought them all that great- as further testified by the neglected jar of cookies for over a week (usually 2-3 days is max for baked goods around here!)
However perhaps its just us- the cracky, dry, chock full o nuts cookie is against are usually chewy, moist, chocolaty likes...

TWD:Sables

This month I've made a pledge to get back on track! It also helps that I'm in a cookie making mood and the two recipes that are cookies this month go hand in hand (this one needs 2 egg yolks- next one 2 egg whites!)

These were really simple to make and tasted just like a shortbread cookie to me. I seem to have some issues with rolling a log and not having crevasses in the middle- but thankfully that doesn't seem to have any impact on the taste! Plus putting them on our new wedding dishware seems to make everything more photogenic!

TWD:Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

Oh Dear.. it seems that November completely got away from me.. The first month of life post wedding was such a transition for me that I barely even made it into the kitchen! Let alone posting a wedding/ wedding cake recap!

somehow I did manage to make these in Novemeber- before Thanksgiving.. but then never managed to post until now!... These are delicious.. really make them now- they are very similar to a cookie I grew up making with my mom called molasses crinkles from that much loved 'cookie book'. I ran out of molasses but substituted the last of my treacle.. if anyone can tell me how those two are different.. i'm all ears cause they seem to work interchangably!

I try and get a wedding cake post up soon!

TWD: Chocolate crunched caramel tart

It was a bit hard to get this weeks TWD recipe out. Not for any sane reason, like not wanting to make the recipe.. because believe me that picture looked so good and chocolaty, I knew I wanted to make this one! The real problem you see is that this is the last week before we leave for the USA and get MARRIED! Yup so sorry if this is a kinda lonely blog for awhile but pretty much all of October is wedding and honeymoon.. so come 10/10 you know I'll be digging into my own wedding cake that me and my mom have made- with a little help from some bridesmaids!

As you can see this is pure deliciousness and for once I had no issues with making caramel! Hooray! A quick press in (i love not having to roll it out) cookie tart dough- breezy caramel and super simple ganache and you have something that looks beautiful, tastes like the best candy bar you've ever had and definitely impresses! Make sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll tarts!

TWD: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

We have had a bumper crop of plums this year- so I thought this would be a good excuse for using up some of the jars of jam in the fridge that didn't seal properly.

These were very simple to make and the cottage cheese added an interesting tanginess to things. I think perhaps they might of needed a bit more time in the oven to get flakier, but they were delicious even slightly underdone!

Yum!

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll today.

TWD:Creamiest Lime Meringue Pie

This weeks recipe is a play on lemon meringue or key lime pie as it is topped with meringue in my family recipe. This was a fantastic pie! The ginger really was subtle, but helped to ramp up the lime flavor.

There was a bit of me that was shocked at the amount of butter added to the lime cream and if I make it in future I might just go for the straight lime cream as I thought it was fantastic!

I used a cookie crust- mostly as I knew I wouldn't have enough butter otherwise! Make sure you try this recipe its a very yummy one!

TWD:Bananna Bundt

This weeks recipe was very tasty. A notch up from regular bananna bread it was the perfect thing to slice up for morning tea breaks while also being a pretty damn fine dessert!

This batter was dead simple to throw together and even forgave me for not having quite enough bananna.

However as you can see I had a bit of sticking problems in my supposedly non-stick silicone pan!

Oh well- this left me with a top crust less cake- not going to win any beauty contests, but still fabulous to eat!

Be sure and check out all the rest of the fabulous Dorie bakers this week!

TWD :Va-Lavender Ice Cream

Lavender Honey Ice cream (spicing up the Vanilla!)

This weeks recipe is a great one- so great in fact I had already made the plain jane vanilla and let me tell you it is good! So to make things more interesting I decided to harvest some of the lavender buds from the plants outside and also follow dori's suggestions for a Honey variant (though I did choose a less strong flavored honey this time).

Basically I only changed the recipe by letting the hot cream and milk steep in about 1/3-2/3 cups of lavender buds for approximately 3o minutes before moving on to straining and making the custard.

The taste of the ice cream is fantastic- rich and cream from the custard base- but then amazing floral/lavender taste with just a tiny bouquet of honey. Its good..folks- very sophisticated!

Next time I will have to make mint chip after reading all the glowing reviews!
Thanks to Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu who chose Vanilla Ice Cream as this weeks recipe!

TWD: Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies

I was happy to see a bit of an easier, simple recipe this week as a choice. I admit when flipping through the cookbook I had noted this recipe with interest, purely given the name and anticdotes. I was happy to find this an easy one bowl (saucepan) recipe!

I ommited the nuts as I've never been a fan, but used some of my stash of beligan chocolate which made delicious gooey globs of chocolate! As you can see they cooked up with a nice texture with just the barest of crust- think normal brownies underbaked. I loved them the cinnamon and coffee really heightened the flavor of the chocolate for me. (Fiance also gives them 2 thumbs up!)

Make sure you bake these soon!

TWD: Perfect Party Cake

This is one aptly named recipe! I made Dorie's perfect party cake for a dinner party a few weeks back and it became the best one I've ever thrown! People who hadn't met before stayed chatting until nearly 2am- despite having been stuffed full of a huge smorgasboard of different recipes I had wanted to try!

It baked up pretty well- though I was at first worried about how small my layers were going to be with cutting in half- but this was no problem as in the end the fillings to cake ratio was divine!

If you haven't made this already get going! It is an incredibly forgiving cake! I discovered the best strawberry jam when making this (yes it really was worth spending £1more for it- Duchy organics if you're curious)
and the final dusting of coconut (unsweetened as its impossible to find sweetened in theUK) gives it a flawless finish that my icing would not have made-- *(why is it that I never have enough left from recipes to give a really good final coat?!)*

In any case this was a perfect party on the tongue slight lemon strawberry fluffy white cake with a nice texture of coconut to finish!
What are you waiting for?! check out the rest of the TWD blogroll and make this yourself!

ps this went pretty nicely with the peach honey ice cream!

TWD: Honey Peach Ice cream

Honey Peach Ice Cream

Please ignore that slab of cake and focus on the glorious peachy ice cream.

I recently got the ice cream attachment for my Kenwood Chef and man is it ever my favorite toy now! Making your own ice cream is pretty easy- just need to give things time to cool down and then chuck into the machine for a good freeze churn. I really liked this recipe. The honey taste was super strong - more so than the peach, perhaps due to icky British no properly ripe peaches or maybe due to the recipe putting half of the peaches in as frozen chunks. While this was good I probably wouldn't make it again, but if I did all the peaches would be pureed.

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll!

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

TWD:Cinnamon Squares

I was so glad that this recipe was chosen this month. I've had a marker in this page ever since first buying the book and thought if it came round to it I would choose it myself. This was really simple to bake up and a delicious easy cake to go well with coffee. I highly recommend it!

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll and see all these yummy cakes!

TWD: Chipster Brownie

TWD:Chipster Brownie

Ah.. a recipe that seeks to meld a concentrated dose of good ole American favorites into baked harmony. It made me wonder if I could just cobble together my favorite one bowl brownies and cowboy cookies as well-- but then that would be a dangerously large pan of calories for which I'm sure I would have no will power for. But what am I saying the below is a very dangerous pan of calories for which I have no will power for!- Which is why I'm pawning it off on the cello section at orchestra tonight.

This was pretty straight forward to make- especially if you (like most of us?) have made cc cookies and brownies dozens of times since you were old enough to spread flour from one end of the counter top to another.. i mean bake...

I used the fan assist setting on my oven- which might have made for a bit of a dry cookie top? or its the recipe (which seemed very sugary)

In any case a winner.. a dangerous tasty recipe from Dorie!

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll!

TWD: Chocolate creme pie

Chocolate Creme Pie

This weeks recipe is almost the exact same as what we did earlier in the month for banana creme pie. I think I can almost safely say I've now got the hang of custard making. The flavor on this was incredibly rich and I think if I had to do it again, I would go with a plain crust just for a (dare I say it) respite from the chocolate attack.. don't get me wrong I freaking love chocolate- but not when its battling on my fork.

Sorry for the terrible pictures, I must of been hurrying to eat this! I made two 4" pies from a half recipe.. they were gobbled up immediately! Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll for other great pies!

TWD Bananna Cream Pie

This weeks recipe, Bananna Cream Pie. Now I've never made one of these before, and typically its not something I'd go for. But because of this, I thought I would make it- as often homemade versions of things are so much better. This was quite easy to make and has me looking forward to the chocolate version coming up later this month!

Be sure and check out the rest of the TWD blogroll for all the yummy pies!

TWD:French Yogurt Cake with Marmelade Glaze

I just barely made this weeks TWD in time (for my yogurt that is) seems the stuff was ready to go off! I'm knee deep in cake making for my trial wedding cake at the moment, but as this seemed so nice and my fiance has been looking very hurt at all the baking and no cake for him to eat ;) I decide to give this a go!.

It was a cinch to make, but I was worried about the darkness of the top. Well despite its color it was not crisp or burned tasting. I found my cooking time was almost an additional 15 minutes the max recommended

I had no trouble finding some lemon marmelade to use for the glaze and it was delicious! I also increased the lemon in the batter with a good tsp of lemon extract in addition to the zest.

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else got on with their cakes!