FFWD: Caramel- Topped Semolina Cake

Another month down, another month of 100% recipe completion at French Fridays with Dorie. My posts may not be exactly on time, but I'm glad I get them up!!


So, here is my Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake. I used small diced apples, sauteed in butter in place of the raisins, which worked beautifully with the caramel. I really enjoyed this cake. It was right up my alley dessert-wise. I'm a big fan of flans and custards, and this was that type of treat!

To check out the group, head over to French Fridays With Dorie. And to buy the book (which you should!) head over to amazon.

Nutella Hot Chocolate

As much as I love the summer, I love the cooler months for things like hot chocolate. Although, there is frozen hot chocolate to be had in the summer, and that stuff is pretty incredible, too. But, there is something to be said about settling in to watch TV after a long day with a mug of hot cocoa.

The urge struck me recently for the first time this season. I didn't have any powdered mixes in the kitchen, and usually when this is the case, I'll do the milk/cocoa/sugar mix on the stove. But, when i was digging through the cabinets I spotted the Nutella, and I thought... mmmm, Nutella would be perfect in hot chocolate.

So, I dug out the cocoa and the Nutella, and pulled out espresso powder as well. I often add a bit of espresso powder to my hot cocoa, so I thought I'd try it here too! The result was a satisfying, creamy drink for dessert on one of the first cool nights of the season. I'm sure I'll be enjoying this drink for months to come.



















Nutella Hot Chocolate


Ingredients

1 cup 2% milk
1 tbsp nutella
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp espresso powder

Preparation

Heat milk on stovetop, being careful not to boil. Add Nutella, unsweetened cocoa, and espresso powder. Whisk until combined and heated to desired temperature.

Top with marshmallows or whipped cream and savour.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Ahhhh... fall. Cooler weather. Pumpkins, apples, squash, baking, soups, all my favorite things. I love summer weather, I love the heat, the grill, ice cream... but this summer was unlike any other I can remember. It must have been 90 degrees and humid every. single. day. My oven was feeling neglected. There was no break from it, and fall is now completely welcome.

This pumpkin bread was perfectly spiced, moist and delicious, with little studs of chocolately goodness.

Adapted from Cooking Light

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (about 15 ounces)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (I used the buttermilk substitute - just under 1/2 cup 2% milk, and about 1/2 tbsp vinegar)
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

2 cups milk-chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through allspice) in a bowl.

Place sugar, oil, buttermilk, and eggs in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add 2/3 cup water and pumpkin, beating at low speed until blended. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into 2 (9 x 5-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans.

Cool completely on wire rack.

Crunchy & Custardy Peach Tart

Stop reading. Go make this tart. Now.

It was that good. Sweet and creamy with a little crunch, heavenly. I picked up a bag of peaches at the farmers market yesterday and have been dying to bake - I knew I'd use some of these beauties in a dessert. I've been taking an exceptionally difficult graduate class over the last 13 weeks, and I finally finished! My treat - baking, an entire tart. So with my fresh, ripe peaches ready to go, I grabbed my favorite cookbook - Dorie's Baking - From My Home to
Yours - flipped to the index, looked up peaches, and found this tart.

Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

from ‘Baking From My Home to Yours’ by Dorie Greenspan

1 9” tart crust, partially baked and cooled* (See recipe below.)

Streusel Topping:

2 Tbsp. All-purpose Flour

2 Tbsp. packed light brown sugar

2 Tbsp. chopped almonds (I had slivered on hand and roughly chopped those)

2 Tbsp. Cold unsalted butter cut into pieces

Filling:

3 large ripe peaches, peeled, halved and pitted

½ cup heavy cream

1 large egg

¼ cup sugar

1/8 tsp. Almond extract

Place the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat.

Preheat the Oven to 425F

To make the streusel: Working with your fingertips, blend all the ingredients together in a small bowl until evenly combined. Cover the streusel tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until needed. (Wrapped well, the streusel can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

To make the tart: Slice 5 of the peach halves crosswise. The best way to do this is to place each peach half cut side down on a cutting board and slice it crosswise into thin slices, keeping the sliced half intact. Then lift each half on a spatula, press down on the half lightly to fan it just a bit and place it in the crust, with the edge of the outer peach slice almost touching the edge of the crust, so you have 5 peach "spokes" and an empty space in the center. Trim the remaining unsliced peach half so it will fit into the center of the tart and, using the tip of your knife, cut a little tic-tac-toe pattern in the center of the peach. Set aside while you make the creamy filling.

(Okay - so Dorie's method for fanning the peaches was not translating for me. I just thinnly sliced the peaches and arranged them attractively over the crust. In reality, the layout of your peaches is mostly hidden by the streusel topping, so I wouldn't worry too much about how pretty it looks!)

Whisk the cream, egg, sugar and almond extract together in a small bowl. When blended, rap the bowl on the counter to knock out the air bubbles, and pour the filling over and around the peaches.

Bake the tart for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and bake the tart tor another 20 minutes, at which point you should add the streusel.

Remove the streusel from the refrigerator and using your fingers break it up into small bits. Carefully pull the baking sheet to the front of the oven and sprinkle the streusel evenly over the creamy parts of the tart.

Bake for another 20 to 25 minutes (total baking time is 50 to 55 minutes), or until the filling is set and the streusel is golden. Remove the tart from the oven and transfer t he pan to a rack to cool until barely warm or at room temperature.

Just before serving, dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Sweet Tart Dough With Nuts

Makes enough for one 9-inch crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup finely ground almonds
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in--you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses--about 10- seconds each--until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change--heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

To Press the Dough into the Pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed--press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To Partially or Fully Bake the Crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet, and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

To Fully Bake the Crust: Bake for another 8 minutes or so, until it is firm and golden brown. (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I often keep the crust in the oven just a little longer. If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust's progress--it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.) Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

To Patch a Partially or Fully Baked Crust, If Necessary: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.

Storing: Well wrapped, the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer--it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.

Enjoy!

TWD: Black and White Banana Loaf

For my first TWD recipe, the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream was the recipe, chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. Well, I don't have an ice cream maker, and have never made ice cream any other way, and I didn't want my very first TWD to result in a sloppy disaster. So, I opted to do last weeks recipe, the Black and White banana loaf, chosen by Ashlee at A Year in the Kitchen, which is where you can find the recipe. When I first got Baking - From My Home to Yours, I was immediately drawn to this recipe. Bananas and chocolate is a heavenly combination in my opinion! When I saw that it was chosen a a TWD recipe, I decided to join. I have been hesitating for awhile, not sure if I can commit 100%, but I am going to try, and I figure you really one HAVE to bake twice a month, not every week, and that I can definitely handle!

So, back to the banana loaf.



I read through a few of last week posts about this recipe, and I have to say I baked this with some serious reservations. A lot of people seemed to dislike this recipe. I went in with the understanding that this was NOT a typical banana bread. Didn't taste like one, didn't have the texture of one. That, I was fine with. I love chocolate and bananas!! I did cook it for the full hour and a half, since many people thought it came out runny, and I had no problems. I also only used about 1 1/4 medium sized bananas to cut back on the liquid as well. It wasn't runny at all, and the texture seemed perfect to me. I honestly loved this banana loaf. It has a unique banana, rum, chocolate flavor, each very distinct. The nutmug also comes through. It really was unlike anything I expected when I first saw the recipe, but I loved it none the less! Coming next week: Granola Grabbers! Chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking (love that name!!).

Pate Brisee

Source: Martha Stewart

As Seen On: Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

Makes two 8- to 10-inch single-crust pies or one 8- to 10-inch double-crust pie
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions:

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, and process for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the ice water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube, just until the dough holds together. Do not process for more than 30 seconds.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Divide in two. Place each half on a sheet of plastic wrap. Flatten, and form two discs. Wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.

Blueberry Pie

Source:  Williams Sonoma

As Seen on:  Brown Eyed Baker

This was the very first pie, and pie dough I have ever attempted!  I can say that the taste was overwhelmingly positive for both!  As you can see from my photo, it is NOT the most beautiful pie, but maybe I meant for it to be "rustic" looking, yeah.  It's a rustic pie.  I can practice on the presentation later, I wanted to get the taste right this time around! 

Ingredients:
2 rolled-out rounds of basic pie dough (see Pate Brisee recipe here)
4 cups blueberries
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, strained
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:
Fold 1 dough round in half and carefully transfer to a 9-inch pie dish. Unfold and ease the round into the pan, without stretching it, and pat it firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Using kitchen scissors, trim the edge of the dough, leaving 3/4 inch of overhang.

Set the dough-lined pan aside, along with the other dough round, in a cool place until ready to use. Place the blueberries in a large bowl, sprinkle with the lemon juice and toss to coat evenly. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, salt and cinnamon. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the berries and toss to distribute evenly. 

Immediately transfer to the dough-lined pan. Dot with the butter. Fold the reserved dough round in half and carefully position it over half of the filled pie. Unfold and trim the edge neatly, leaving 1 inch of overhang, then fold the edge of the top round under the edge of the bottom round and crimp the edges to seal. Using a small, sharp knife, cut an asterisk 4 to 5 inches across in the center of the top to allow steam to escape during baking. 

Refrigerate the pie until the dough is firm, 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake the pie until the crust is golden and the filling is thick and bubbling, 50 to 60 minutes. 

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely to set, 1 to 2 hours. Serve at room temperature or rewarm in a 350°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes just before serving. 

Makes one 9-inch pie; serves 8. Note: If fresh blueberries are unavailable, use frozen blueberries (without thawing them first) and increase the baking time by 10 to 15 minutes.

Dorie's Chewy Blondies

Source:  Baking From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan

Yum.

I am not a part of Tuesdays with Dorie. I would love to be, but just the idea of having a new baked good in my house every week makes my pants tighter, so no TWD for me. But, I was inspired to buy the book!! And, in keeping with the TWD theme, and because I think it is the right thing to do, I will not post Dorie's recipe here.

I made these twice over 4th of July weekend. Once to bring to a cookout, I tried one, and loved it. Dorie calls for about a cup of 4 mix-ins in her recipe. Chocolate chunks, Heath bits, coconut, and walnuts. I bought a bag of each, and used roughly 1/2 of each bag to make one batch of blondies. I knew these would sit and waste away in my cabinet, so the day after the cookout, I made ANOTHER batch. This batch was for us at home to enjoy. And boy were they were good!

I did have to add about 7 minutes to Dorie's baking time, and I also let it sit in the pan about 5 extra minutes more than Dorie recommended, as I thought it would fall apart, but I think they came out perfect. Buttery, Chewy, Chocolately, Sweet, just delicious.