Tuesday, September 8, 2009

TWD Chocolate Souffle


I am excited to be participating in a wonderful baking group, Tuesday's With Dorie (TWD). Each week TWD features a recipe from the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This weeks recipe was chosen by Susan of She's Becoming Doughmesstic.

It is only fitting that my first TWD post would be a recipe with chocolate as the main ingredient. Chocolate is one of my major weaknesses! Chocolate Souffle is a dessert that, to me, says special occasion. The last time I remember ordering one was on the cruise we took to celebrate my 50th Birthday! Now that was truly a special occasion.

Since it's just the two us and a souffle needs to be eaten immediately, a recipe reduction was in order. Several members of TWD posted cutting the recipe in half or even one quarter. I decided to cut the recipe in half. I never have whole milk in the house, I took a chance and used skim milk. I was surprised the souffles didn't fall as quickly as I had anticipated, giving us plenty of time to take photos! Even though the souffle didn't raise as much as I would have liked, it was delicious!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Apple Claufouti

We've lived in this house three summers and every summer we talk about baking something using the apples from the tree in the backyard. They are a smaller, green apple. This year's crop is particularly plentiful. We don't own an apple picker but there are quite a few within arms reach.

My first exposure to a clafouti (kla-foo-TEE) was watching Ina Garten make a cherry one on Barefoot Contessa. A clafouti is a french batter cake. I just love the name, it's such a romantic sounding dessert. How fitting for my first clafouti to be the first dessert made with apples from our tree.



Apple Clafouti
Recipe from Saveur.com

FOR THE BATTER:
3 eggs
1 cup milk or heavy cream
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2⁄3 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄2 tsp. salt
FOR THE APPLES:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1⁄2 cup plus 2 tsp. sugar
2–3 tbsp. brandy
Ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine milk, eggs, 6 tbsp. of the butter, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt into a blender, blend until smooth, and set aside. Grease a 10" pie plate with remaining butter, then set in oven to heat.

For the apples: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and brandy and cook until apples are glazed and warm, about 5 minutes.

Remove pie plate from oven and immediately pour in half the batter. Arrange warm apple slices over batter, reserving juices, then pour remaining batter over apples. Sprinkle remaining sugar and a little cinnamon over batter.

Bake until clafouti is golden and set in the center, 25–30 minutes.

Drizzle with warmed reserved apple juices.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Eating With Your Eyes


So much of the pleasure of eating is also visual. How many times do we say "Oh that looks so good"? or "Just looking at that makes my mouth water"? The plating either adds or detracts from the overall dining experience.

Friday night on our way to Tim's moms house, we stopped at Olive Garden in Sioux City, IA. We don't eat at Olive Garden a lot but when we do, the experience has always been a good one. Tim ordered Short Ribs. I was concerned about the choice because Short Ribs didn't seem to me to be a very Italian dish. As they say, "When in Rome". Maybe he should have ordered pasta?

When our server brought our meals, I took one look at Tim's short ribs and said "That is the most unappealing meal I have ever seen". Tim was trying to make the most of it. He's not as particular as I am but in the end even he admitted it was really bad. To Olive Garden's credit, we told our server the meal was bad and they took the meal off the bill.

Baba Ghanoush

The eggplants were plentiful and very reasonable at the Farmer's Market. Wouldn't it be great to have a Farmer's Market year round? Reasonable prices and locally ground produce instead of expensive, commerically grown produce.

I roasted the eggplant, whole. Poke holes in the eggplant with a fork, coat the outside lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Place on a parchment covered cookie sheet and roast in a 450 degree oven until you can easily pierce with a fork, about 30 - 40 minutes.




Baba Ghanoush

1 large eggplant
1/8 cup tahini
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 pinch ground cumin
dash or two of hot sauce
salt

Allow the eggplant to cool, slightly. Split and scrape the flesh from the inside. Using a food processor mix all ingredients until smooth. Before serving drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with fresh parsley. Serve with pita bread or tortilla chips.

My notes on this recipe: I don't like a strong tahini taste, so I use less tahini. The tahini and lemon juice should be increased or decreased depending on your taste.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for what to do with too many cherry tomatoes. I'd given bags to my friend Linda and was eating as many as I could. Sun-Dried Cherry Tomatoes, what a great idea!!! The best of both worlds basil and sun-dried tomatoes, Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto.


Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

1 cup fresh basil, firmly packed
3/4 cup sun-dried cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon balsalmic vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

Process all ingredients in a food processor until mixed well. Slowly pour in basil and process until incorporated.

Serve with your favorite pasta. I used linguini and mixed a small amount of the pasta water with the sauce.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Peach Crumble

My husband enjoyed the Fresh Peach Muffins but commented I thought you were going to make a cobbler or crisp. The old standby's are his favorites. I had a few peaches remaining from our trip to the orchard, so Tim this crumble is for you!!!

I checked the refrigerator and realized I didn't have any lemons. I do have the bottled lemon juice but don't like to use it in baked goods. I see this bottle of limoncello we purchased after enjoying limoncello on a cruise. Why is it the limoncello we had on the cruise was much tastier than the bottled variety. Maybe it was the ocean air or maybe the bottle of wine we had with dinner?? Anyway, I decided to try limoncello in this recipe as a substution for lemon juice.



Peach Crumble

4 ripe peaches, pitted and sliced
3 tablespoons of Limoncello
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into thin pieces
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Arrange the peach slices in a buttered shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with the limoncello, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a small bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar. With your fingers, blend the butter into the flour-sugar mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in the oats and sprinkle the mixture on top of the sliced peaches. Bake until the peaches are soft and the topping is brown, about 25 minutes.

Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

My First Sweet & Simple Bakes

I have been searching the blogsphere for some baking groups to join. The first one to catch my eye was Sweet & Simple Bakes.

This month's recipe was Jammy Donut Muffins. You can find the recipe here. For the filling, I decided to use some of the delightful strawberry/rhubarb jam , my mother in law made.



My notes on the recipe:

I had a little trouble deciding just how much batter to put in the muffin tins before putting in the jam. I think I used too much for the first few muffins. I didn't need all of the melted butter for dipping but no problem, it will be great for tomorrow morning's French Toast. I don't own a kitchen scale, so the measurements for this recipe were a bit challenging. I did a search and found what I think was the closest conversion possible. I think I need to invest in a scale.

These muffins are melt in your mouth delicious. Next time I want to try them with a cream filling. The muffins are best eaten on the first day, so share with some friends and enjoy!!!

Thanks Rosie and Maria for taking the time to create this group! I look forward to next month's recipe!!!