Entries from November 2009
For this weeks TWD bake fest Katya of Second Dinner chose Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake on pages 269-272 of Baking From My Home to Yours.
I considered this cake as my pick and had collected the ingredients over time as I had found them. This is defintely not a spur of the moment treat in Darwin.
The caramel cinnamon chocolate mixture was amazing on its own. I thought it lost some of it’s magic when the butter was beaten in. Maybe that’s just me.
The cake component of this is very good. The brown sugar works well with the chestnut. I could only find tinned chestnuts and they were a little less than perfect for adornment purposes. So I gave that a miss.
The glaze to finish looked pretty (for the 30 seconds before it became a puddle again in 95F heat) but really did push this towards the path of too much being enough.
Generally I scoff at people who complain things are too rich. This cake however almost toppled me over that edge.
Even my faithful testing panel of ravenous sons were pulled up.
That said I liked it- a lot. It was complex and interesting. I am a big fan of chestnut and this was a nice way of putting it together.
Now go and check the TWD blogroll and see what our other happy bakers have been up to
Categories: Uncategorized
For this weeks TWD Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef selected Cran-Apple Crisps on page 422 from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
I have wasted more time than I care to admit trying to see if I could find frozen cranberries. No dice in sunny Darwin. I did see them months ago but it was one of the few times I did not buy and hoard! Anyway, mixed berries were the sub.
I probably should have decreased the sugar a bit in the filling but the crisp topping was stunning. Did I mention stunning…
All in all a great result.
Categories: Uncategorized
For my happy return to TWD baking Pamela of Cookies with Boys decided on Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies on pages 76 and 77 of Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. We are lucky enough to get to pick and choose this months tasty selections in our own order. I love cookies, my boys love cookies it seems like a good fit.
These are lovely and simple although the high butter content meant that even after a couple of hours in the fridge they were melting in our 35C heat in just moments.
Molasses isn’t common in Australia but treacle is in every grocery store so I swapped that out. My other sub was using native pepper berries.They are very similar to pepper but have a really lovely and subtle floral note. To me it has a similar note to juniper.
I am a fan. Matt liked the crispy edges best and I was fond of the chewy centres. Happiness all round. Good to be back and baking again.
Categories: Uncategorized
