"Baking: From My Home to Yours" (Part 2)

[iii_bake]

Marmish

I am so ashamed of my clumsiness.

I started listed out all the recipes from the book and intended to make a spreadsheet to mark them out.

I have not finished it as my eye sight are poor, somehow as i went thru one by one...it made me realize there are more than 200 recipes in the book.

Thank you.

Now what to do next?

By the way, Dorie..which recipe you made most often?

Edited November 4, 2007 by iii_bake (log)

[Dorie Greenspan]

I can't believe you've made soooooooooooooooooo many recipes from the book! I don't know how many are listed, but it certainly looks like most of the book. I can't think of anything so say that Emmalish didn't say when she wrote: Yowza!

iii_bake -- I'm not sure what recipe I've made the most times, but I think it must be World Peace Cookies.

Cakewalk -- your madeleines and linzer cookies look fabulous! I'm in Paris and was thinking of making madeleines today to bring to my friend's house for dinner tonight. I think she'll be surprised to have a homemade version of these sweets, since no one I know here bakes them themselves.

Tanita -- I bet the rugelach, which look beautiful, were delicious with your homemade pear jam. I think you might like the savory rugelach recipe I did for the AARP website.

[pax]

I discovered at 6 am yesterday I could not roll out my brioche dough for pecan sticky buns. I must have made it a bit too wet, it stuck badly to the parchment on which I was rolling it out.

Anyway...if you've already got the topping in the pan (which I did) you can throw half the brioche dough in on top of it. Then, add the filling, and on top of that a layer of apples (I confess to cheating, I was not up to peeling apples, I used tinned pie filling.) Add the other half of flattened out brioche dough.

Truth is, I couldn't even flatten mine out, it was so wet, I tore it up in chunks and dotted it around and didn't care if there were holes. If you need to be sparing with the dough, be sparing on the first layer you put in the pan. Think if it as a top crust, you don't have HOLES....you have places to let the steam out. Also, when you flip it over, the filling will have bubbled down.. .up.. whatever and it looks very pretty.

Anyway, I gave it a couple of hours on the kitchen surface and when it appeared to be as puffy as it was going to get, I baked it in a 350 F oven. I think the whole thing took about 40 mins. I just kept watching it and took it out when the top was well browned.

I flipped the pyrex over using two cookie sheets and then lifted the pyrex up with four knives stuck under each side, just enough to get the pecan and topping to pop out of the bottom of the pan but still enough on that I hoped the sides would get firmed up as it cooled, which it did.

I have the world's best coffee cake here. I've been wanting to make sticky buns for company for breakfast but the extra work put me off. I'm going to experiment with putting this in the fridge over night minus the apple and see if I get enough rise out of it if I chuck the whole thing made up in the fridge the night before.

Sorry for the kind of long aside, but I just couldn't bring my myself to either add more flour at that point, nor toss the dough.

Edited (TWICE) for pre-coffee spelling brain!

Edited November 4, 2007 by pax (log)

[Dorie Greenspan]

Pax, I don't know what you did to your dough to end up with it being unrollable, but I do know that you're one resourceful person -- your coffeecake sounds great!

[WandaSue]

iii,  I agree that it would be interesting to see if there is anything that HASN't been tried yet.  There's got to be something!  It might be fun to give that a try.

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I was curious, too. So I went back and started listing what has been made. Here's what we've made to, in order of appearance. I don't think I have duplicates, but a few may have slipped in.

Recipes made in thread:

Recipes made in thread:

Caramel Crunch bars

Apple pie cake

Arborio rice pudding

Caramel peanut topped brownie cake

World Peace Cookies

Devil’s Food White Out Cake

Marbled banana chocolate loaf cake

Tarte Tatin

Chocolate Crunch Caramel Tart

Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Coconut Tea Cake

Blueberry Cake

Double apple bundt cake

Cinnamon squares

Tartest Lemon Tart

Bittersweet Brownies

Coffee Break Muffins

Russian Grandmother’s Apple Cake

Great Grains Muffins

Dimply Plum Cake

Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Corniest Corn Muffins

Sour Cream Pecan Biscuits

Rum-soaked Vanilla Cakes

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread

Chunky Oatmeal and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chipsters

Basic Biscuits

Cornmeal Maple Biscuits

Chocolate Chip cookies

Carrot Spice Muffins

Honey’s Apple Cake

Cardamom Crumb Cake

Biscotti

Espresso Cheesecake Brownie

Chunky Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chippers

Applesauce Spice Bars

Banana Bundt Cake

Citrus Berry Muffins

Honey Nut Brownies

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake

Apple Muffin Cake

Snickery Squares

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk muffins

Peanuttiest Blondies

Lemon Poppyseed muffins

Midnight Crackle cookies

Almond Cocoa Meringues

Far Breton

Caramel Pumpkin Tart

Lemon Cream Tart

Brrrr-ownies

Apple Coconut Family Cake

Lenox Almond Biscotti

Thumbprints

Amaretti Torte

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones

Chocobanana Bread

Buttermilk biscuits

Rugelach

Cranapple Crisps

Raspberry Coulis

Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

Cinnamon Squares

Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

Pound Cake

Chocolate Chunkers

Quintuple Chocolate Brownies

Sables

Flaky Apple Turnovers

Good for Everything Pie Crust

Holiday Bundt Cake

Vanilla Pound Cake

Chocolate Cupcakes

Mango Bread

Cranberry Upside Downer

Chocolate Sorbet

Linzer Cookies

Dressy Chocolate Loaf

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Mocha Chocolate Bundt Cake?

Almond Scones

Coconut Orange Tea Cake

Cream Scones

Swedish Visiting Cake

Chocolate and Fresh Ginger Gingerbread

Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Katherine Hepburn Brownies

French Brownies

Oatmeal Breakfast Loaf

Lots of Ways Banana Cake

Black and White Banana Loaf

Carmelized Apple Bread Pudding

Chocolate Raspbeerry Tart

Apple Cheddar Scones

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Tiramisu

Nutty Chocolaty Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Salt and Pepper Cocoa Cookies

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

Bill’s Big Carrot Cake

Savoury Corn Muffins

Golden Brioche

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Bostock

Classic Brownies

Orange Current Sunshine Muffins

Cranberry Lime Galette

Buttery Jam cookies

White Chocolate Brownies

Chocolate Biscotti

Earl Grey Madelines

Chestnut Caramel Cake

Molasses Spice Cookies

Brownie Buttons

Almost Fudge Gateau

Yogurt Cake

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows

Caramel Brownie Cake

Toffee Brown Sugar Ice Cream Bars

Peanut Butter Torte

Chocolate Ganache Gelato

Cottage Cheese Puffs

Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake

Vanilla ice cream

Chocolate Mint Chip ice cream

Cornmeal and Fruit Loaf

Chocolate Oatmeal drops

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Fluted Ricotta Cake

White Chocolate Blonde Raspberry Brownies

Coconut Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

Mocha Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

Choco-ginger Crackles

Chocolate Souffle

Split Level Pudding

Chocolate Pudding

Pot de Crème

Caramel Topped Flan

Blueberry Brown Sugar Plain Cake

Normandy Apple Tart

Marbled Pound Cake

Cream Puff Ring

Apple Nut Muffin Cake

Florida Pie

Sugar Cookies

Marbled Cheesecake

Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

Cranberry Shortbread Cake

Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

Sables

Blackberry Cobbler

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

Brioche Raisin Snails

Key Lime Cheesecake

Depth of Fall Butternut Squash Pie

Pear Torte

-edited to complete list

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Here are 2 more additions to your list:

Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

Devilish Shortcakes

I love the Swedish Visiting Cake and have made it several times.

Judy

Edited November 4, 2007 by WandaSue (log)

[forever_young_ca]

I am baking a birthday cake for my mother's 87th birthday this weekend. I have pulled out "Baking" and have narrowed down my choices between "Black and White Chocolate Cake" and "Devil's Food White out Cake".

Many pages ago I read the comments regarding "Devils Food White Out Cake". Has anyone made this since or has anyone made the "Black and White"

Comments would be appreciated.

[emmalish]

A Double Apple Bundt Cake is cooling on a rack in my kitchen right now. First time trying this recipe, but it came together very easily and I didn't have any problems with unmolding it as some people had upthread. I made it with store-bought apple butter (plain), pecans and craisins – I'm not fond of raisins, and cranberries and apples are one of my favourite combinations.

I'll be taking this to work tomorrow, so I'll post reviews later... okay, it's later, and of course my coworkers LOVED this cake. It's so apple-y and deliciously spicy. And so moist! Another winner.

forever_young_ca, sorry but I haven't tried either of those recipes yet. Hopefully someone else will be able to give you a recommendation.

Edited November 9, 2007 by emmalish (log)

[CanadianBakin']

I made the Korova/World Peace Cookies today and OH.MY.GOODNESS are they delicious!! I've made them to be a part of my Christmas baking to give away so I'm going to have to get them in the freezer fast before I eat them all. They are a CHOCOLATE cookie. So often chocolate cookies are kind of blah or they verge on the flourless chocolate cake kind of concept. These are so good! Thanks for the recipe.

edited to add: so I left them on the cookie sheets for about 8 hours, I lost track of time, and now they are just verging on chewy rather than sandy. They still taste good but not as good as they did. Is there any way to get the sandy texture back? For the moment I've just put them in an airtight container and put them in the freezer. I'll know better next time if nothing else.

Edited November 10, 2007 by CanadianBakin' (log)

[gfron1]

My first recipe from the book - I wanted to test it for a kids cooking class. This is totally not what I was expecting, but yeah, its a great cookie.

[RuthWells]

I made the black-and-white banana cake yesterday. Dorie makes it as a loaf; I doubled the recipe and baked it in a turban pan. Delicious and moist, and just the right amount of rum.

[Dianabanana]

Late to the party as usual, but I'm in now! My copy of the book was on my doorstep when I got home last night. I changed right into my jammies, made myself a cup of tea, and settled in for a nice, long read. I was out of most everything normally needed for baking so I thought I was safe--but then ten minutes later there I was sliding Parisian Apple Tarts into the oven. Turns out I had puff pastry scraps in the refrigerator from the night before, and one apple! Thanks, Dorie!

[prasantrin]

I was thinking of making some Korova cookies, and I have some dark chocolate-coated candied lemon and orange peel. Do you think it would work well with the cookies if I chopped it up a bit? It's quite good on its own (from Leonidas), but if I continue eating it on its own, it'll be gone in about half an hour. I'm trying to spread out its deliciousness.

[Dorie Greenspan]

Prasantrin, I bet your candied peel would be delicious in the cookies. Yes, chop it up into tiny bits and maybe cut down the recipe's salt a tad (which seems a shame, but I'm not so sure that salty citrus is great).

Welcome Dianabanana

[prasantrin]

Prasantrin, I bet your candied peel would be delicious in the cookies.  Yes, chop it up into tiny bits and maybe cut down the recipe's salt a tad (which seems a shame, but I'm not so sure that salty citrus is great).

Welcome Dianabanana

←

That was speedy! Great! It's my project for tomorrow, instead of marking papers and cleaning my apartment! What better way to spread out the deliciousness of one product, by incorporating it into the deliciousness of another! I'll have to make two or three batches, though--one plain, one with the orange, and one with the lemon! Poor me!

Edited November 17, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[Dianabanana]

I made the Russian Grandmother's Apple Cake and it was exactly the kind of delicious, homey treat I was after. Dorie's right, it definitely needs to rest before you eat it. The cake part was very dry when it came out of the oven (it was late at night when it came out and I wanted to taste before going to bed), but by morning it was perfectly moist. This is a big cake, but my husband and I polished off the entire pan in two days.

I love how so many of the recipes in this book are more "foodlike" than "candylike," with lots of fruits and nuts.

In a minute here I'm going to get up and make the All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake.

Edit: Back again . . . yum! I'm surprised at how light this is!

Edited November 17, 2007 by Dianabanana (log)

[Simonne]

Katherine Herpburn Brownie

I did some modification , as i dun have coffee/ espresso powder. So i use Kahlua

This brownies is really yummy!

Edited November 19, 2007 by Simonne (log)

[Pat W]

Wow! That brownie looks wonderful.

pat w.

[Chufi]

I made the sour cream pumpkin tart this weekend.

I made the pumpkinpuree from a piece of fresh pumpkin, but it did not yield 2 cups, so I decreased the other filling ingredients slightly. Then I was worried that I would not have enough filling (this was before I read in the introduction to the recipe that if you make this recipe as a tart, not pie, that you would have leftover filling ). I had a piece of butternutsquash in the fridge, I cooked it in the microwave and then sliced it very thinly, and scattered the slices on the tartcrust before pouring in the filling. And then ofcourse I had filling leftover, which I baked along with the tart in small custardcups (they made a luxurious breakfast treat this morning )

Anyway.. the tart was delicious. Pumpkin sweets are not very common over here and my guests could not guess what the main ingredient of the tart was! It´s very rich, creamy and subtly spiced. Here´s a slice of the leftovers where you can see the bits of squash (and where you can also see that in fear of overbaking, I slightly underbaked the crust )

[Malawry]

If I was to make the "pretty darn good" apple pie, and I really couldn't bear to make a special trip just to buy quick-cooking tapioca, what would I need to use to thicken the filling instead?

[CanadianBakin']

If I was to make the "pretty darn good" apple pie, and I really couldn't bear to make a special trip just to buy quick-cooking tapioca, what would I need to use to thicken the filling instead?

←

You could use equal amounts of potato starch, corn starch or if using flour I think you need to double it. The bonus of tapioca starch is that it holds the filling firm when it's warm but the others will thicken just as well.

[Malawry]

OK, I ended up at the store anyway, so I bought Minute Tapioca (which I assumed was quick-cooking, given its brand name and its ingredient label that indicated "precooked tapioca"). I made the pie exactly as directed, including the crusts from the back of the book. Well, there was one change: instead of cutting vents in the top crust, I used a leaf-shaped cookie cutter to cut out three leaf-shaped holes, and then I stuck the leaf cutouts on top of the pie too. So the holes on my top crust are larger than the vents specified in the recipe.

The pie looks great EXCEPT through those leaf cutouts, I can see pieces of tapioca. I fished one piece of apple out and sure enough, there's crunchy tapioca bits that didn't dissolve on there.

Is there any fix for this? The pie is almost completely cooled, and I plan to plastic-wrap it and let it sit out overnight for serving tomorrow. I also plan to warm the pie in a slow oven while we eat dinner. Will the tapioca granules soften on their own overnight from the moisture in the filling?

[prasantrin]

Is there any fix for this? The pie is almost completely cooled, and I plan to plastic-wrap it and let it sit out overnight for serving tomorrow. I also plan to warm the pie in a slow oven while we eat dinner. Will the tapioca granules soften on their own overnight from the moisture in the filling?

←

I think you may have used tapioca as in the little balls one would use to make tapioca pudding. It's quite different from using tapioca starch, which would be in powder form (I think), except maybe you could grind the tapioca balls to make tapioca starch.

Regardless, I think you're stuck. But maybe as your pie sits, the tapioca will soften a bit to make it easier to eat?

[Dorie Greenspan]

Malawry, the tapioca I have says "quick cooking" on the box and it's kind of granulated. The brand is "Bascom's" and I've never had an experience with it being "crunchy." AARRGH. I'm really sorry, especially since I don't think there's anything you can do about it now. Maybe it will soften overnight, but I'm not sure and not hopeful, since tapioca needs heat to soften and dissolve. But I hope that even if your beautiful-looking pie has a little extra crunch, your Thanksgiving will be a good one.

[Malawry]

I didn't see anything powdered at the store. I saw three products: two types of pearl tapioca, and then the Minute Tapioca, which was small granules but definitely not a powdered starch.

Dammit, right now I'm really regretting having used the stuff. I don't even like tapioca pudding and can't imagine what I'll do with the rest of the box.

[prasantrin]

I didn't see anything powdered at the store. I saw three products: two types of pearl tapioca, and then the Minute Tapioca, which was small granules but definitely not a powdered starch.

Dammit, right now I'm really regretting having used the stuff. I don't even like tapioca pudding and can't imagine what I'll do with the rest of the box.

←

I reread your original question, and it sounds like the recipe asked for tapioca balls, not the powdered one, which seems odd to me, but what do I know?

Do the crunchy little balls have any kind of flavour to them? If they don't give the pie a bad flavour, then I would suggest sprinkling something sweet and crunchy on the pie, so people won't be able to tell the difference between the flavourless crunchy bits and the sweet crunchy bits. They'll just think the pie is supposed to be crunchy! As long as the crunchy tapioca balls aren't crunchy enough to chip a tooth, of course.

Who was it that catered a wedding for a bridezilla, and put fresh flowers on the cake only to find that the flowers were infested with snails, which then made their way around the cake? But the bride quite liked the crunchiness, and the "scrolling" on the icing. That was one funny story, and I'm envisioning something like that for your pie (creative camouflaging).