April is birthday month!

The Girl and Boy both have birthdays in April.  She turned 11 and he turned 9.  We have a very fun tradition at our house.  Birthday mornings = cake for breakfast!  (Just a side note - you know who doesn't get cake for breakfast....)

The Girl requested carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I went with the newest recipe in Cook's Illustrated.  Truthfully, it was delicious but it was seriously ugly.  The cake was too delicate for the frosting.  I kept pulling up swaths of cake with each swipe of frosting.  Still, The Girl was happy.  

The Boy asked for chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.  His cake was smaller because there was a baseball game (where we gave all the players cupcakes) and a birthday party (more cupcakes and a cookie cake).  Delicious!

It was a lovely month all around.  And thank goodness that it's over.  ;-)

TWD: Hungarian Shortbread

This recipe appeals on SO many levels.  First of all, there are only six ingredients to the shortbread.  It is rich, buttery, crumbly, and smells amazing when it's baking.  Second, you fill the middle with a rhubarb jam.  Rhubarb.  I have long documented my love of all things rhubarb.  This falls firmly into the WIN column.

The recipe was originally baked with Julia by Gale Gand.  She is a wonderful pastry chef who happens to live a couple of towns over from me.  I've had the very good fortune to see her bake in person and to enjoy her treats at one of her Chicago restaurants.  

April is birthday month around here, so there has been a lot of cake baking.  (Look for that in another post ;-)  I wasn't sure I was going to get to this one.  Then I re-read the recipe and realized how simple it was.  I did end up making a few modifications in the name of time saving.  First, I cut the recipe into fourths.  We have cake, cupcakes, cookies, and more cupcakes already in the kitchen.  I didn't want to pass this up, but I didn't need a whole pan.  I initially was going to make this in my 6" square pan.  As I was reaching into my cabinet, I noticed my 3 - 3" round pans.  Oooh, this could be good.  

The dough came together in a snap.  As I finished blending in the flour, I couldn't help but notice that the dough was in lots of small crumbles.  Hmmm.  Instead of squishing them together, freezing the dough, and then grating it, I covered the bowl and put it in the fridge to chill.  An hour later, I greased my mini pans, crumbled in some of the crumbles, and did a 10 minute pre-bake.  (Some of the other bakers commented that the bottom layer didn't always bake through to the shortbread texture that they were after and a pre-bake helped with that.)

Lucky for me, I usually have some rhubarb compote or jam in my fridge.  That went on top of shortbread #1.  #2 got a layer of Scotch marmalade.  #3 was filled with orange/vanilla marmalade that I made over the winter.  The rest of the dough was crumbled on top and they went back into the oven.  


Tah dah!  Three mini shortbreads!

Those crispy brown edges are calling to me.

This little baby shortbread just begging to be eaten.  Which we haven't done yet because I made these too close to dinner. 

These are very good.  The best bite, as voted on by the family, was the rhubarb/berry version.  The orange/vanilla version came in second.  The scotch marmalade was a bit much for all of us - even the scotch drinker.  I could so easily see making these in a mini-muffin tin for a bite-sized treat.  If you'd like the recipe, go check out Lynette at 1smallkitchen or Cher at The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler...

TWD:BWJ Lemon Loaf Cake

I am a sucker for lemon desserts. I love a puckery, assertive lemon flavor offset by a bit of sugar. I was pretty excited for this one. It'sa one bowl/one loaf pan dish. That's my kind of baking!

This recipe had a minor fuss factor. The flour needed to be sifted and stirred in in shifts. But the butter was melted (yay time saver!) The eggs were cracked directly over the sugar. Everything else was added to the one bowl and then poured into the loaf pan. I'm not sure that I beat the batter enough. My cake was pretty squat.

Where I did worry about this recipe, however, was the lemon factor. It only called for the zest from three large lemons. While zest is wonderful and full of flavor, I was skeptical that is was going to be enough. I gilded the lily a bit. I added the juice of one lemon to the batter. (Again, could be part of the reason there wasn't much rise) I also made a glaze with the juice of the remaining two lemons and some powdered sugar. They were naked and sad and begging to be put out of their misery.

I glazed the still-warm cake a number of times. First I took a skewer and poked a bunch of holes in the cake. Each time I glazed, I gathered the run-off and poured it on again.

This was a winner. The glaze made it very moist and the lemon flavor was out of this world.

Having said that, I'm not sure that I'd rush to make it again. I have another recipe that I really enjoy and comes out slightly less dense. Go check out the recipe and lovely photos at the host blogs this week. Truc has the recipe at Treats and Michelle has it at The Beauty of Life.

Now that it's almost Passover...

I forgot to show this year's hamantaschen bake-fest. For the past five years or so, we've had a baking party for Purim and included lots of the Boy's and Girl's friends. This year, we had some sickies, so our party consisted of one good friend. She's been a part of the baking for a few years now, so she's pretty expert.

For the uninitiated, Purim is a spring festival that celebrates people doing the right thing. (Yes, that's a total nutshell. Go visit wikipedia for more details) One of the traditional treats is hamantashen. It's a butter cookie that is filled and then squished together to form a triangle of sorts. Traditional fillings include apricot, poppy, and prune. I have kids. Our fillings are chocolate chips (white, milk, and dark) butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, and apricot, strawberry, and raspberry jams. The combinations are endless.

Two of our intrepid bakers - The Girl and her Friend.

Rolled and cut dough starting to get filled.

The squishing technique.

Formed hamantaschen waiting to get baked.

Tah dah!

Hamantaschen! Not all of them stayed squished. Those are the ones you eat first.

Everyone's favorite part!

TWD BJW Pizza Rustica

This is called pizza, but it's not like any pizza I've had before. I'm a Chicago girl, so I'm naturally drawn to stuffed pizza. I also like thin crust, and I've been known to eat my share of thick crust pizza. (Maybe this is a post for another time....)

Anyway, this is more like a double crusted quiche than a pizza. This starts with a simple dough, though mine never quite came together. It's sweet, which is interesting for a savory dish. I used four tablespoons of sugar instead of the 1/3 cup that the recipe called for. (The Husband pointed out that this may be part of the reason my crust didn't quite work) It ended up looking more like a cornmeal crust than a flour one. It rolled out ok, but I couldn't do a woven lattice. I ended up laying my lattice strips across the top. The edges of the crust browned nicely, but the top and bottom were still pretty pale.

The filling, as written, was fairly plain. It's made up of ricotta, pecorino, and mozzarella cheeses, some eggs, a bit of prosciutto, and not much seasoning. I decided to make a vegetarian version. I caramelized some onions with thyme, then cooked down some portobello mushrooms and spinach. I added that to the cheese/egg mixture and added a good dose of garlic and pepper.

Mine needed a few extra minutes in the oven. It smelled reallygood when it was baking. The verdict from the whole family was a thumb's up with one small caveat. The Girl liked the crust and she liked the filling, but she didn't like them together. The Boy, who normally HATES mushrooms, ate up the whole thing.

Not so photogenic, but delicious!

I would absolutely make this again. I loved the filling version that I made. I really want to try this crust at least one more time to see if I can get a better roll/lattice.

Check out the recipe at Emily and Raelynn's blogs.

TWD: BWJ - Irish Soda Bread

Round about March 17, everybody and their brother becomes Irish. I have no Irish blood in me, but I do love me some corned beef and (mini) cabbage, which is a traditional (American) Irish dinner for St. Patrick's Day.

This year I made baked corned beef (so so so good), shredded sauteed Brussels sprouts, pan roasted potatoes and Irish soda bread for our celebration. The stout chocolate brownies came today.

Back to the soda bread. This was a recipe that Julia baked with Marion Cunningham. This one is simple beyond simple. It consists of four ingredients - flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. It's a one bowl bread. I even did the minor amount of kneading in my bowl so I didn't dirty the counter. There's no rising time and no special pans needed. Mine baked in a glass 9" pie plate.

This came out a gorgeous golden color. I followed the recipe exactly, but I could see there being a zillion variations. I was gifted with a pound of European butter, and we used some on this bread. Heavenly. I added a small dash of sea salt as well. I could have easily eaten half the loaf with gobs of butter on it.

This will absolutely be added to my recipe rotation. There are nights when I'll take a soup or stew out of the freezer for ease. This is the perfect bread recipe to go along with it.

Clearly not my piece - not enough butter!

Go visit Carla of Chocolate Moosey or Cathy of My Culinary Mission for the recipe.

TWD: BWJ - Rugelach

I am a huge fan of rugelach. (Pronounced at my house as roo-gah-lach with a little throat clearing on the last syllable) It's a staple at Jewish events that require baked goods, which, now that I think about it is just about any Jewish event... Anyway, the traditional style is a cream cheese pastry crescent that is stuffed with a fruit/nut mixture. This version was turned around a bit, and we made ours in a pinwheel.

This is not a difficult recipe, but there are a few steps. The good news is that the steps could be spread out over a couple of days. The first step is to make the dough. I did mine in the food processor. I like doing that because I can use cold dairy. In this case it was three sticks of butter and one brick of cream cheese. Not so low fat, this recipe. It calls for a minimal amount of sugar because the filling is sweet. Once the dough came together, I separated it into two disks and put it in the fridge overnight. This recipe calls for homemade filling called levkar. The traditional versions are apricot and prune. I'll fully cop to being lazy on this one, and I used jam for my filling. The dough rolled out pretty easily with only a small amount of flour. The key here is keeping it cold. I rolled a bitand put it back in the fridge. Then I rolled again and was ready to fill. This version is pretty quick because of the jelly-roll style of filling. I spread apricot jam on the dough and sprinkled it with a cinnamon sugar mix and toasted almonds. The second version used raspberry jam, cinnamon sugar, mini chocolate chips, and toasted pecans. The rolled up dough went back in the fridge for another chill.

Then it was slicing time. Dorie's version calls for a pretty substantial slice. I've made this style before following Smitten Kitchen's recipe. She uses a thinner slice. I like the thinner cookie as opposed to a thicker pastry, so that's how I sliced these. They got a sprinkle of coarse sugar and went into the oven. I had to watch my baking time.

These came out just great. I love the cream cheesy pastry swirled with the sweet jam and nutty fillings. I didn't venture out of my comfort to make these thicker, but I am sure they would have turned out really well. I will note that the Smitten Kitchen recipe uses one less stick of butter. I'm not sure that it was really necessary in the finished product for me.

Here they are side by side.

Here's the apricot/almond version.

And the raspberry/chocolate/pecan version.

Go visit Jessica of My Baking Heart or Margaret of The Urban Hiker for this week's recipe.