TWD- Caramel Crunch Bars

For this weeks TWD bake Whitney of What’s left on the table? chose Caramel Crunch Bars, page 112-113 of Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Dorie calls for a chocolate coffee shortbread base topped by chopped chocolate melted on top then because for Dorie there is no problem in guilding the lily you top it off with Heath (or in my case Daim) Bar chips.

Heath Bars are something I remember from childhood in the States.  Daim bars are the European equivalent.   There really isn’t an Australian candy equivilent.  My Daim bars came from Ikea.  My closest Ikea is about 3000km away.  My mother in law is always mildly amused with how much I jam in my bags when I visit Sydney.

I am embarassed by how many of these I felt compelled to eat.  Given my Daim bars were covered in chocolate I think for future reference I would skip the chocolate layer.   Now go and check out the TWD blogroll and follow the trail of cookie crumbs.

TWD- Devils Food White Out Cake

Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater chose Devils Food White Out Cake, on page 247-249 of Baking From My Home To Yours By Dorie Greenspan.

I was so lucky that this cake and a family birthday party co-incided (Happy Birthday to Gemma).   This cake combines seriously rich devils food cake spiked with shards of chocolate topped with marshmallow frosting.  The combination is a good balance but very sweet.  Perfect party food really.  But I do get a rather serious look on my face when cutting cake!

I think I liked the look of the cake only half covered in crumbs best but once I started throwing around the crumbs I was committed.

I had a slight change of method for the frosting from Dorie.  I used the cream of tartar in the eggs to protect them from overwhipping.  I wasn’t sure the reason it was used in the sugar solution.

The good news is my computer is back on deck and I lashed out and got a Canon Ixus 980.  I haven’t had a chance for a really good play yet but I am really happy thus far.

Now go  and check out the TWD blogroll and see the yummy cakes out there.

TWD- Floating Islands

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie choice is made by  Shari of Whisk: a food blog.  She chose Floating Islands, on page 401-402 from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Floating Islands are a lovely mix of smooth creme anglaise (Matt says just call it custard),  meringue poached in milk topped with strands of crispy caramel.  This is a lovely desert.  My only drama is I may have cooked my caramel too long.  Fab flavour but not happy to form itself into polite strands in the Darwin humidity.

I just tried to upload pictures for this and it wouldn’t work.  This leads me to another tech drama story.  I am currently using my good husbands computer.  This is because all my mac would do is flash a folder with a question mark at me.  I have been told this probably means my hard drive is gone.  Thankfully it is all backed up  (and under warranty)  BUT, I need a computer to house all that data so I am playing the waiting game.

So maybe I will post pictures soon.  Until then I will sigh in the general direction of the expensive gadgets that I dearly love but that have let me down.  In the scheme of things it is not that bad but annoying all the same.

Now go check out the TWD blogroll to see the pretty floating island pictures.

TWD- World Peace Cookies

This week the TWD recipe was chosen by Jessica of cookbookhabit chose World Peace Cookies, page 138-139 of Baking From My Home to Yours By Dorie Greenspan.

This weeks Tuesday With Dorie is close to my heart it is the first recipe I wrote about on my blog.  I made it again because I dearly love this cookie.  This time I used microwaved heat treated flour in the spirit of experimentation.  Bleached flour is not available in Australia and the first time I made these cookies it was with unbleached flour.  I think the texture was sandier but it was probably not worth the fuss about.

I get the crumbles on slicing but this dough responds well to being wodged together.

Thus far this is my favourite TWD recipe I get to pick the recipe in another 20 weeks or so so lets see if anything else takes my fancy between now and June.

Still in camera limbo land.  Tossing up another point and shoot or making the leap into digital SLR land.  I have dual purposes.  Food shots (man at camera store tried to tell me no one needs to get closer than 17 inches from their subject and made a face when I tried to explain a crumb shot…) and wide angle lens so I can take pictures of interior spaces (for my day job).   Decisions, decsions…