TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

have to start implementing better planning for TWD. As it is, I've been leaving it for the day before and then something gets scheduled and I don't feel like baking at the end of the day. This is why I missed last week. I had all of the ingredients too. Here I am again, posting last minute. So that will be a goal for the new year. To start baking the weekly selections ahead of time, leaving me plenty of time to post about it.





I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited about this week's selection. I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread, although I am a fan of ginger. Love it! Gingerbread cookies are okay, but I can easily pass them by. But I already missed last week and I don't want to get too far behind, so on with the show.

I was really surprised at how light the batter was. It was like whipped cream - smooth, light & fluffy.

And the end result wasn't any different. Very light and moist. Oh, and chocolate + gingerbread = yum. I really like this cake. It was very easy to make too. Dorie, I will never doubt you again.

We can thank Heather of Sherry Trifle for this week's selection. And to think I almost passed on this one. Thanks Heather! You can find the recipe on her site and on p. 212 in The Book. Read about what other bloggers are doing here.



Next week: World Peace Cookies

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This week we made Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins. I was looking forward to a savory recipe for a change. I think I've been on a sugar high for the past month (not that that's entirely a bad thing).



This recipe is full of good things. Fresh corn, jalapeno pepper, red bell pepper, cilantro and chili powder. I cut the sugar in half. My parents are from the south and we like our cornbread unsweetened. I could tell I was going to like these muffins by the smell of the batter alone.


And I was right. Delicious! With all of those great ingredients, there are so many layers of flavor. They're spicy, but not spicy hot. Perfectly balanced. I had two today with a salad for lunch. I'm going to freeze the rest for the next time I make chili, stew or soup.

Thanks goes to Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake for picking this week's recipe. You can find the recipe on page 6 of The Book or at Rebecca's site. Be sure to visit other bloggers to see how they liked these muffins!

Dorie (on the downlow)

It's not tuesday, but I have some Dorie recipes. Since I didn't join the club until August, there are more than thirty recipes that I've missed out on making. I'm going to try to slowly catch up. Whenever I make something that's already been made by the group, I'll post it as "Dorie (on the downlow)".

I chose not to make all of the December recipes for Tuesdays with Dorie. I didn't want to add anything more to my to do list during the holiday season. But I did make two recipes for our Christmas dinner.

The Cranberry Spice Bundt Cake wasn't from the cookbook, but from the November issue of Bon Appetit Magazine.




The dry ingredients called for ground almonds which I conveniently had left over from the linzer cookies made earlier in the month. This recipe intrigued me because it calls for Chinese Five-Spice powder. I've never heard of it used in baking.



Mix the dry ingredients with the wet, fold in cranberries and nuts, and you have a very tasty batter. Yum.



This cake is good. It isn't too sweet and has perfect balance of spices.



It's good for breakfast too!

I also made The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart, which is on page 331 in the book.



I loved the smell that came from rubbing the sugar and lemon zest together. That's the real thing. Better than any scented spray or cleaner you can buy. I wish my kitchen could smell like that all of the time.


This tart is delicious! It's a little more involved than the bundt cake, but way worth the effort. I had made the tart shell in advance which made it quicker to put together. I love lemon, so I'll be making this whenever I need a lemon fix. It's rich, creamy and packs a punch of lemony goodness.

I'm looking forward to getting back on my baking schedule starting next week. Dorie, herself, chose the recipe for next week!

TWD: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

I knew I was going to like this week's selection, no if's, and's or but's. Give me butter, sugar, flour with a splash of vanilla....how can it go wrong? Well, my friend Wendy who's also my accupuncturist/nutritionist, could and would list more things than we could imagine. But we won't think about that now.

For now, we're just going to think about the sweet, simple goodness of a sugar cookie. This was an easy, straightforward recipe.

After mixing the dough, Dorie gives you the option of forming it into a disc which can be rolled out for cutout cookies, or rolled into a log which can then be sliced into cookies after it's chilled. I decided to go the log route and discovered my log rolling skills are, um, somewhat lacking. They looked like fat tapered cigars.



See how small the ones in the top left corner are compared to the ones in the middle? How do others get a more even log? Dorie suggested using the tube from the middle of a roll of paper towls, but I didn't have one handy. Work on improving log rolling skills - check.

I sprinkled blue sanding sugar on them before baking. They're delicious, even though they are shaped funny. Or, as Dorie would say, they're rustic. They're sweet and buttery, like a good sugar cookie should be.

Ulrike of Küchenlatein chose this week's recipe. You can find the recipe in Baking From My Home to Yours. You can also find it at Ulrike's site. Check out the TWD blogroll to see hundreds of different versions of these cookies!

TWD: Linzer Sables

This week's recipe is Linzer Sables chosen by Dennis of Living the Life.

I have to say, these are my favorite cookies that we've made so far. I'm surprised because they're so simple to make. The flavors compliment each other perfectly.




The recipe gives you the option of using finely chopped almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts. I wanted to try hazelnuts, but Trader Joes didn't have them, so I used almonds.



Of course, I had to try the batter as a preview of how the cookie will taste. It was good. It has ground cloves and cinnamon which adds a hint of spice. Very mellow, but it gives it a nice flavor.



I used a two inch cookie cutter as Dorie suggested and made 27 sandwich cookies. Added some raspberry jam and a sprinkle of powdered sugar and, voila...



They taste as good as they look. Jeff gave them a thumbs up too. I want to make these again using hazelnuts with a chocolate filling. Yum.

For the recipe, you can check out Dennis' blog with the link above or buy the book if you don't already have it. It's totally worth having. See what other TWD members are doing here. Thanks Dennis! You picked a winner. :)

TWD: Arborio Rice Pudding

This week's recipe was chosen by Isabelle of Les Gourmandises d'Isa. As always, you can find the recipe listed on her site and you can see what other TWD bloggers did here.


I'm a huge fan of pudding, so I looked forward to this week. I've never made rice pudding and I've eaten it only a couple of times. I like it! The arborio rice adds substantial texture to the pudding compared to other rice puddings I've had.


Thanks to the P&Q section of the website, I learned from other bloggers that the pudding takes longer to cook than the recipe states. Dorie herself commented that there was an error in the printed recipe and it was actually supposed to cook for 55 min., not 30. Thanks Dorie! Mine only took 45 minutes.



This was a simple recipe with only four ingredients. The end result - delicious!


Next week is Thanksgiving. There's going to be a whole lot of baking going on. Our next TWD recipe is the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie - pumpkin and pecan combined, oh my!

TWD: Kugelhopf

Kugelhopf is from the Alsace region of France. It's part bread, part cake. Similar to brioche, but not as rich.

I waited until the last minute on this one. I thought I would whip it up Tuesday morning as I often do....until I read the recipe. Oops. This is one that requires planning ahead. Having missed the last 2 weeks I forged ahead anyway.





What takes so much time in this recipe is all of the rising of the dough that needs to happen. I got a nice rise the first time around. I used the oven trick for a little insurance that other members had suggested. I heated it on it's lowest setting for 10 minutes then turned it off and put the dough inside. Worked like a charm.

I wasn't so lucky once the dough went into the pan and was supposed to rise to the top. I used a bundt pan since I don't have a kugelhopf pan. I skipped refridgerating it overnight as the recipe suggested. No time for that and in hindsight, I don't think it would have made a difference in getting a better rise. I could be wrong. I used the oven trick again and it did rise some, just not as much as I think it was supposed to. I left it in there for four hours. I don't think anything more was going to happen with more time so onto the baking I went. That's the easy part!





When it's done, you brush it all over with melted butter and dust it with sugar. And then, powdered sugar. Yum.




I had it for breakfast this morning. I added extra powdered sugar because I don't think it's sweet enough. I like the texture and the delicate crust. I'm not sure if I will make it again, but I'm glad I tried it. I had never even heard of kugelhopf before. I might try making some french toast with the rest of it.

This week's recipe was chosen by Yolanda of The All Purpose Girl. You can get the recipe from her site. Click here to see what other TWD bloggers had to say about this recipe.

Part of my absence was because Jeff and I went to NYC for a week. He ran in the NY Marathon which was the reason for the trip. We had a great time. We ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill which did not disappoint. I have an extensive cookbook collection and I was happy to discover when I got home that I have this cookbook! Now I can make this delicious food at home.

We also ate at a small restaurant in the village called The Spotted Pig for lunch. And being the pizza lover that I am, we ate at Lombardi's. Twice. Check out what I found in the dining room downstairs.



How's that for a mixer?!