TWD: Brownie Buttons

Lessons learned this week while making the Brownie Buttons, chosen by Jayma over at Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen.

- Dorie follows a "truth in advertising" policy I think. These were very small, literally the size of buttons. Well, buttons worn during the 1980s perhaps, but buttons nonetheless. No rise, which is no surprise (oh - I made a rhyme!) since there was no leavening agent. But once the concept was embraced, I was on board.

- Trust in the power of Dorie. You may think those "optional" ideas sound weird, but I haven't tried one yet that hasn't spoken to me. Instead of orange zest I went with lemon (that is what I had on hand) and I really, really liked it. The balance between the zing of the zest, the richness of the chocolate brownie, and the sweetness of the white chocolate icing really worked.

- Trust your timer. If you set your timer to a particular time, and you hear it alert you to the fact that 14 minutes have come and gone, do not think, "oh, I'll get there in just a minute." Because if you're baking something this small, that extra minute is going to cost you. Second week in a row that "moist" isn't a word used to describe my results.

- If you put a metal bowl inside another metal bowl filled with simmering water, and the white chocolate in the first bowl melts as a result of said simmering water, there is a very good likelihood that picking up the first bowl with the melted chocolate WITHOUT some sort of heat protection isn't a very good idea.

- I am grateful on a daily basis for the quick reflexes and excellent balance I inherited from my father. Without them, my kitchen would be a whole lot messier.

- Still no obvious upside to chubby, short fingers. These little suckers were hard to hold on to! I finally gave up and just frosted them with the back of my spoon. Got the same results with a lot less swearing.

- On the downside theme, tiny desserts are evil. You are lulled into thinking "just one of these adorable little treats can't possibly hurt....." Sixteen of them later - well, 'nuff said.

So there you have it. Another successful TWD project completed, with an extra dose of insight at no extra cost. Sadly my co-workers did not partake in this - both sadly for them and sadly for my hips. Lucky for them, and my hips, the Applesauce Spice bars look like a good "let's share" dessert. I'm looking forward to making them next week. And - I finally got around to making the vanilla ice cream. Full report to follow.

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

I must say I approached this week's pick with a little hesitancy. Don't get me wrong, I like lemon and tart as much as the next girl. But the reports in this week's P&Q section indicated that this was a mighty tart tart!

This recipe gives me the opportunity to introduce the newest member of my family! Apparently I'm not only a stress eater, I'm a stress buyer as well. Last week was the busiest week ever for my company (I'm not exaggerating). In the middle of the hustle and bustle, I took my lunch break and meandered on over to Amazon, where they had a 3 cup Cuisinart food processor on sale. Every time we have a Dorie recipe that says "In a food processor....." I say "oh dang it" (well, maybe something a little stronger) and long for the day when I own one. So this little guy is perfect for my little kitchen and little ol' me. Without a moment's hesitation I clicked "add to shopping cart" and 2 clicks later it was on it's way.

My new toy.....er.....tool made it's maiden voyage this weekend when I made the tart crust for both this recipe and the Chocolate Cream Tart from a few weeks back (more on that later -- made it for Mom's day and it was yummy! Mom is still talking about how good it was). Worked like a dream. Since I'm minus a blender I used this for the filling of the Lemon Tart. I made half of the filling recipe as I was only using two mini-tart pans.

The filling was easy enough, and soon enough the tart was on its way to the oven. I have some filling left over -- hopefully it won't mind an evening in an airtight container enjoying a rest in the fridge.

My only complaint is that this recipe takes a long time to make from beginning to end. I'm really happy I had the pastry dough all ready. My crankiness at the bake time is undoubtedly in direct proportion to my level of tiredness. I thought I'd just suck it up and stick it out tonight, and come home and crash tomorrow. That was before I remembered the season finale of LOST is on tomorrow night, and my Tivo is jammed (that cute little logo is bulging out and his little antennas are droopy). But I digress.....

Due to the hour this is once again a recipe where the components taste yummy, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to know how the whole package will taste. The edges are a little dark, and I'm not sure I cooked it too long, or not long enough. I guess I'll find out in the morning. If nothing else I can think of worse choices for breakfast.

Thanks to Barb at Babette Feasts for picking this recipe. The lemon is such a nice change of pace from all the chocolate, and this looks to be tasty!

ed. added photos from the second attempt, which was much tastier, and prettier, than the first attempt. It's amazing what a little sleep can do for a girl.

TWD: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

Welcome to another "how many minutes 'til midnight?!?!?" TWD posting. Once again I'm starting this near the end of a Tuesday. The lateness of the post has nothing to do with my enthusiasm for this week's pick (thanks to Liliana at My Cookbook Addiction for choosing another non-chocolate, lemon (yay!) dessert). I was really looking forward to it, but made a critical error - I used the last of my oil for dinner Saturday night, didn't realize my error until Monday night (oops!), prompting an emergency after-work stop at the store and the last minute rush for cakey-goodness.

Maybe it was the last minute rush that made me feel like the Swedish chef this evening - instruments going here, flour going there (happily nothing came to life like in this example!). I think I caught myself singing the little song at some point. Regardless of which Muppet I was channeling (usually it's either Waldorf or Statler) this cake was fun. I liked how easy it was, and surprisingly, I really liked how it was mixed by hand (no KitchenAid to do the work). And the aroma - ah, the aroma. My house smelled like a little slice of heaven. After a rough week (yes, I know it's only Tuesday!) I found it all of this very therapeutic.

A small bit of trouble getting the cake out of the pan (whole, that is). I'll just blame that on spending too much time reading other blogs and not enough at reading the directions (take the cake out of the oven and put on rack, NOT put on top of oven on hot baking sheet and walk away). Since this cake isn't going anywhere there's no reason to panic over a little cake left in the pan (a little something to nibble on).

I have no lemon marmalade for the glaze (I want to find some though as it sure sounds good), and my bread pan was a little bigger than the directions, so the end result required a bit of improvising. I do love how Dorie gives some ideas, and other TWDers are so creative and share theirs too. I culled from the group and went with a little lemon curd (store bought from Trader Joe's - not the same as home made, but still very good), with some strawberries for color and variety. I decided not to "curd" the whole cake as I wanted to put some in the freezer, so I only worked with what I wanted to eat.....um.......should eat..... soon.

Since I like the look of pictures with natural light much better than the lousy lighting I have in my kitchen at night, I'll update my photos in the morning (guess what I'm having for breakfast!). This cake is easy and yummy. The only thing I would do differently is either buy almond meal or use all AP flour. The cake was a little nuttier than I liked -- not horrible or anything, just a bit too much -- and I'm sure that has to do with my shabby little grinder not making them fine enough. No worries -- just a great excuse to make this again!

TWD: Lemon Cup Custard

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie pick is from Bridget over at The Way the Cookie Crumbles. I must confess I got very distracted over there by all of her beautiful photography. WOW! I skimmed the Photography Tips section and will definitely go back with camera in hand to read that section more carefully.

This week's pick created a lot of conversation in the P&Q section: lots of discussion about the "eggy-ness" of the custard, questions about whether or not to participate, even Dorie left a comment about the recipe! I felt kind of bad for Bridget -- I can imagine it's a lot of pressure to pick the week's recipe (I won't be picking for another 4 years, I think) and to get such a strong reaction to your pick must be kind of tough. Despite the chatter of eggy-ness, I was determined to try this recipe. I love lemon flavored anything, there was no chocolate to chop (YAY!) and heck, I went out and bought ramekins for goodness sake! I was in!

New Ramekins in my shiny new Roasting Pan - pretty!

The recipe is quite easy (see Bridget's blog for it) and didn't take much time to put together - although at one point I wished I had a third hand (one to pour the hot liquid into the eggs, one to hold the strainer, and one to whisk so that the eggs didn't cook). I made half of the recipe, and I think I overcooked it as there was no jiggle in my custard when it came out of the oven. I didn't take into account the smaller batch, or the larger than necessary ramekins which caused the custard to be done sooner than I was counting on. As a result it didn't jiggle and it didn't look "flan-like" either.

No jiggle

That said, the taste wasn't bad. Yes, it was a bit eggy, but I did have just the right amount of lemon flavor (I added a little lemon extract). I loved the color, and with a little sprucing up it looks like a very grown up dessert. It also tastes AMAZING with the whipped cream and the strawberry, and I liked it the next day much better than the day I made it. I'd definitely make it again -- I'm always cooking with lemon, so it would be a great way to use the left over zest from other recipes (and have a themed dinner menu).

Hopefully those of you who tried it liked it, and those of you who didn't try it might in the future.

It's worth it!

** I just posted this at 12:01pm my time on Tuesday -- it has the saved draft date and time for some reason. Just don't want anyone to think I cheated!