Baking With Dorie: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

Last month all of us in the BWD baking group mutually decided that we needed to adopt a slower pace and bake only once a month instead of every other Monday. For those of us who are trying to cut back on desserts, this is a welcome change! 

I made changes to our baking schedule but I forgot to fix a typing error I'd made when listing this months' recipe. This resulted in a little confusion since I had typed 'strawberry rhubarb crisp' and everyone else in the group either baked the strawberry rhubarb double crisp, or planned for it. So this week we have two different recipes, depending on who baked what. 

I baked the cherry cobbler, replacing rhubarb with granny smith apples since I can't find rhubarb where I live. I made it in advance & we were travelling the next day so I did the math and made just 1/4th of the recipe. This was perfect because it made only two servings. And the cobbler was wonderful - as usual I loved the note of flavor that the addition of ginger lent to this dessert. The tartness of the apples married well with & was subdued by the sweetness from the cherries and both were cooked to flawless deliciousness under the little balls of whole wheat biscuit dough. 

Please head here to find links to what all the other BWD bakers made this week. For the recipe, go over to Ryans' blog The Behr Necessities, or Page 415 of Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. 

Next up we're baking Creme Brulee. If you'd like to join our baking challenges please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along with us! 

Baking With Dorie: Gingered Carrot Cookies

My love for ginger is second only to my love for garlic. 

Which is why I picked Gingered Carrot Cookies for this weeks Baking With Dorie (BWD) Challenge. Dorie describes these cookies as "a delicious case of trying to make one thing and ending up with another." And that is exactly what they are: more cake-like than cookies; with a wonderfully chewy and soft texture. 

The recipe is really easy to put together. Susi warned me that unless I own a KitchenAid, my arm would get a real work out mixing the very thick dough this recipe yields, but I had no trouble at all: I used my hand mixer to blend the butter, sugars and egg with the dry ingredients and mixed in everything else with a spatula. The dough really is very thick, but was very soft and not at all dry which I had expected it to be.

My only complaint is: I was disappointed that the flavor of ground ginger didn't come through much stronger. After I tasted the first batch I had baked, I wanted to go back and add chopped candied ginger to the dough, but was actually too tired to do so. I made the cookie dough late last night & had already pre-scooped tablespoonfuls (dropped on a parchment-lined tray and then covered) for hassle-free baking early in the morning. It just seemed like too much work to go back and experiment with or 'correct' the dough. So I let it go this once but intend to try it with the candied ginger next time.

How I digress! On to the recipe: 

Gingered Carrot Cookies

From Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan (Page 162)

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1.5 sticks (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup shredded carrots

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)

1/2 coarsely chopped pecans, preferably toasted

Preheat oven to 375F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.


Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and nutmeg.

Working with a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and beat for 2 minutes, then add the eggg and beat for another minute. 

Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in the vanilla. Continuing on low speed, add the dry ingredients in 2-3 batches. Beat only till they disappear into the mix. Don't overbeat to incorporate flour - you will end up with a very thick dough. Mix in the carrots, coconut, raisins and pecans.


Spoon the dough onto baking sheets in heaped tablespoonfuls, leaving an inch of space between them. 


Bake 16-18 minutes. The cookies will be light brown and just firm on top. Cool on wire rack. 


Makes approx. 30 (I got 40 because I didn't make very heaped tablespoonfuls).

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[The next BWD challenge is Lots-of-ways-Banana-Cake, Page 204 & 205. If anyone is interested in joining us for the next challenge, please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com]

Baking with Dorie Greenspan

I've been feeling completely bummed.

Imagine my disappointment when I found out, right after ordering Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan, that the original Tuesdays with Dorie baking group is now a closed group and no longer accepting new members.

While I support Laurie's decision to close the group and understand how challenging it has become to handle a group with so many members, I needed to get past my disappointment and find a way to bake along with the group any way. Especially since I ordered the book & know that I would end up not using it enough otherwise. 

So, Susi from Susi's Kochen und Backen and I got talking and decided that we would get together and start making recipes from the book & blogging about them. We decided to call our baking challenge 'Baking with Dorie'.

We won't be following what the TWD group is doing since they are already halfway through the book & Susi and I are just starting out. We will be posting our recipes only twice a month. Anyone who couldn't make it on the TWD group is welcome to join us as we start our baking adventure.

There aren't many rules: 

- Participants would have to own the book 'Baking from my home to yours' by Dorie Greenspan

- We'll be posting on alternate Mondays of the month so that gives everyone time to bake, document and take photos. 

- Participants would have to have a blog to share their baking experiences and photos on

- We're starting with the Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins on Page 10 & 11 of the book on March 1st. 

Please email me if you would like to join the challenge. 

See you there! 

Happy Anniversary

Ever since I came across the recipe for Cheesecake with salted butter caramel sauce on Tartelette's blog, I have been dreaming delicious dreams of this cake. And with an anniversary coming up, it seemed I had found the perfect moment to indulge my craving for what sounded and looked like a truly decadent dessert. 

But since I went and completely lost my sense of smell and taste (and no way was I going to make that cheesecake and not enjoy it), I had to settle for making something else. 

I didn't want to make anything too labor intensive since I'm not really up to it like I mentioned in my earlier post today. So, it had to be something simple ... and chocolaty - there's no such thing as too much chocolate, right? Maybe with a hint of orange in the frosting or otherwise... 

Bring out the Sun!

With everyone around me falling ill including myself, there really hasn't been anything interesting going on food-wise or otherwise. And I do so dislike cloudy winter days: they make me plummet into the gloomiest of moods right away.

Our apartment doesn't get a lot of bright sunlight. At least the living area, where we spend our entire day, doesn't. And so, on cloudy days, it gets dark and oppressive indoors. And that makes me crabby. Add to that picture: whiny kids. And the beginning of a much-too-long Spring Break for my Kindergartner.

Playing Florence Nightingale to 2 little children and a grown up man can make anyone crazy. However, I do suppose I should get their perspective on it at as well since I don't have the most charming bedside manner when I'm unwell. 

In order to retain my sanity, I've taken a week-long hiatus. I've been sleeping till noon with the kids, reading a lot, thinking a lot and watching old movies. I haven't cooked or cleaned or lifted a finger to do anything else that needs to be done & have laid all anal-retentive tendencies to rest while I get through this phase. Which will be over as soon as we have that first, completely sunny day! 


Since I didn't cook or bake, there's nothing blog-worthy to post. However, I dug out an old photo of something I will be making tomorrow. I won't get any good photos under fluorescent light in the dark and gloomy kitchen, so this old one will have to do. 

I just didn't want to take too long a break from blogging when I've just managed to start and who knew Facebook-addiction can be cured by blogging? ;-)

So, here's what I'm going to make tomorrow: Jessica Seinfeld's Blueberry Oatmeal bars. 

Ingredients

Non-stick cooking spray
2 cups old-fashioned Oats
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup trans-fat free soft-tub margarine spread, chilled
1 cup low sugar blueberry preserves
1/2 cup spinach puree

Preheat oven to 375F. Coat an 8x8 inch pan with cooking spray. 

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and vanilla and stir to mix well.  

Add the margarine and cut it into the dry ingredients with two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal and is no longer powdery. Do not over-mix: bits of the margarine should still be visible. 

Set aside half of the oat mixture; press the rest firmly into the pan. Bake until slightly browned along the edges, 13 to 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, mix the preserves with the spinach puree in a small bowl. 

Spread the blueberry mixture over the partially baked oat layer, then sprinkle with the remaining oat mixture. Bake until the topping is slightly brown, 20 - 25 minutes. 

Set on a rack to cool completely before cutting into 12 bars. 

(Note: when I took this photo, I had used quick cooking oats in place of old-fashioned (I think I had run out of the latter), which is why the bars look crumbly and mushy. But otherwise, they were pretty darn good and you can't taste the spinach at all. Not even a trace.)

500 Cupcake Challenge

I recently purchased this book and going through Clara's blog one day at http://iheartcuppycakes.wordpress.com, I discovered she had started and then abandoned the 500 cupcake challenge. (http://iheartcuppycakes.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/500-cupcake-challenge/). So .. I decided to convince her to start once again. And so she and I will be starting at the beginning of the month and anyone else is welcome to jump on the bandwagon.

Here are some rules that I've thought of:

• Participants would have to own the book 500 cupcakes by Fergel Connolly.
• We could post any time during the first half of the month. Posting times will be flexible initially - we could change the rule if/as the challenge grows.
• Participants would have to have a blog to post baking experiences on.
• We could start with Recipe #1 on page 19 - which makes it easier to keep track.
  
• We could substitute ingredients/improvise if suddenly out of an ingredient.
  

That's really it, I can't think of anything else.

However, I have to note here that I've tried a few recipes from the book and so far the 2-3 I tried were exactly the same except for frosting. So it may not be worth it to make each and every one? We'll have to see as we go along, I guess.