woensdag 27 augustus 2008

TWD: Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte



This weeks treat from 'Baking: From my Home to Yours' by Dorie Greenspan was picked by Amy from Food, Family and Fun. The recipe can be found on Amy's blog.
I swapped the frozen raspberries for frozen summerfruits: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and cherries. Since I bought way too much fruit I used the leftovers for a coulis to decorate the tortes with when serving them. I also used 'slagroomijs' instead of vanilla, translated that would be whipped-cream-ice-cream.

I made 4 small tortes, muffin size, and 2 somewhat larger (but still tiny) springforms. The muffin size tortes consisted of two layers of ganache and a layer of ice cream in the middle. The twoo smaller springforms consisted of three layers ganache and two layers of ice cream.

As delicious as the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte looks in Dorie's book, it disappointed me a little at first.

Yesterday I tried one muffin size torte and found the ganache overpowering, way too chocolately ( I never thought I would say that!!!). But then again, maybe that's because I'm not a big fan of semi-sweet chocolate, I prefer milk chocolate!!
Today I brought a small springform torte to my parents, to my surprise I liked this one much better, probably because the ganache layers were much thinner!!


I'm looking forward to the next two challenges:

For September 2, Stefany of Proceed with Caution chose,
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters on page 73.
For September 9, Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose,
Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops on page 85.

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers on: Tuesdays with Dorie

woensdag 20 augustus 2008

Quintuple Chocolate Brownies



Another great recipe from Dorie Greenspan, more information will follow but here are some pictures! These taste really great!!
Dad's verdict: 7 out of 10

The recipe for these brownies can be found here, here and here

dinsdag 19 augustus 2008

TWD: Granola Grabbers




I'm so excited....! My first post for Tuesdays with Dorie!!! This weeks recipe was Granola Grabber (page 82 of Baking: From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan).



I didn't receive the book on time, but was able to find the recipe online and made these cookies Sunday. At first I wasn't very enthusiastic about making the Granola Grabbers, as I am not a big fan of granola, but they turned out great!!!




Ofcourse I made some small changes in the recipe:


  • I used granola with fruit, because otherwise I wouldn't have had enough to make the cookies. The granola I used is from the brand Cruesli and is called Zomerzin, which has a watermelonflavour and contains pieces of kiwifruit, apple and cranberry.

  • I also used 3/8 cup golden raisins an 3/8 cup of cranberries instead of 3/4 cup raisins.



The grabbers were also a huge hit with my family, friends and co-workers.
Dad's verdict: 7 out of 10






donderdag 14 augustus 2008

Strawberry-Guave Cheesecake Cookies


When I stumbled upon this recipe on Leslie's blog (http://thehungryhousewife.blogspot.com/) I instantly knew I had to give these a try. The name alone intrigued me: Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies..... What are they: minicakes? cookies?? They look great, but what will they taste like?

I mostly followed Leslies recipe, with a few adaptations in quantities. This is mainly because I don't have a digital scale.... Also I used strawberry-guave jam instead of plain strawberry, because that's the one I had in my cupboard. I only managed to produce 2 dozen instead of three, I think my portionsize was a bit too big. Because of this I had to bake the cookies for 25 minutes instead of 12-14.

They actually taste great: not too sweet, the edges are nice and sort of crunchy whereas the centre is nice ans soft cake-like. I'm certainly making these again!


Ingredients

½ cup cream cheese, soft
½ cup butter, soft
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
Jam(what ever flavor you fancy)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese. Gradually beat in sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and salt. Whisk together baking powder and flour in a small bowl and, mixing by hand or at low speed, add to cream cheese mixture.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet. Bake at 180 for 12-14 minutes, until the bottom edge just barely turns brown. Makes about 3 dozen.


P.S. My pictures aren't the greatest, but bad pictures are better than no pictures at all!!!

donderdag 7 augustus 2008

Ravioli with home-made sweet tomatosauce

Very easy recipe to try with your pasta, I had it at a friends house a long time ago and thought I would be able to recreate it. Because I didn't have a lot of vegetables in my fridge I went for a very simple version yesterday, but you can add more vegetables or meat to the sauce if you prefer it that way! I had this sauce with fresh pasta from the supermarket: ravioli rossi filled with cheese and basil.



125 grams mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 tbsp brown sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 can (400 grams) diced tomatos

1,5 can (100 grams in total) tomato puree

250 grams ravioli rossi

1/2 cup grated cheddar



Cut the mushrooms in quarters and brown them in a pan over medium heat with the onion and garlic. Mix in basil, brown sugar, salt, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Let this cook very slowly ond low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.



Cook the pasta for 4 minutes (check the label on your pasta, because this was fresh pasta it would take less time to cook than dried pasta) and drain.



Serve half of the pasta with half of the sauce, top it with some grated cheddar



This receipe will feed 2 people.

woensdag 6 augustus 2008

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins




I love doughnuts, I also love muffins; but what do you think about: Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins.... Sounds great huh? It is absolutely fantastic! The first attempt was a big succes with my col-workers. The second attempt I added some cinnamon to the batter, because I am a huge fan of cinnamon. This resulted in an actual wedding proposal!


The orginal recipe I found on Laura's beautiful blog: http://laurarebeccaskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/06/cinnamon-sugar-donut-muffins.html



This is my version:

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins (appr. 12 muffins)

Batter
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 to 8 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla

Topping
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Position oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 205 degrees Celsius. Line a standard muffin pan with paper cups.Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and mix with light strokes until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Don't overmix; batters should not be smooth.

Divide batter among the muffin cups and bake until a toothpick inserted in one or two of the muffins come out clean, 12-15 minutes.

While the muffins are baking, melt 1/2 stick butter and place in a bowl just large enough to hold a muffin. Combine ½ cup of sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a small, shallow bowl.

As soon as the muffing are done, dip them one at a time in the melted butter and then roll in the sugar mixture.

Set on a rack to cool.