TWD: Mainlining Chocolate (Cream Tart)
April 28, 2009 at 6:27 pm | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 14 CommentsGOOD
BETTER
OH MY…
Things I expect to find in the afterlife:
1. Loved ones I have lost and family members gone before I was born, especially those with interesting stories (great great aunt Mary, I am so looking you up).
2. The perfect swimsuit.
3. Justification for a few life events that has so far escaped me.
4. A reasonable explanation for the indestructible packaging on children’s toys, specifically the little gray wires (see also Howie Mandel and cankles).
5. My grandparents as young people.
6. Calorie free ice cream.
7. All of the photographs I have accidentally been part of (courtesy of Jamie).
8. Animals long extinct.
9. The real and proper ending to Deadwood (shame on you, HBO).
10. Chocolate cream tart. Slightly chilled.
For the full recipe go see Kim at Scrumptious Photography. To see other tarts click here.
Next week: tiramisu cake. Back to the gym….
TWD: Overextended Bread Pudding
April 21, 2009 at 5:14 pm | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 18 CommentsTags: tuesdays with dorie; bread pudding
I am not going to complain and whine ‘cuz we are all busy and sometimes everyone is stretched thin. This last week I was almost sprouting holes. Unfortunately, it was also the week for Four Star Bread Pudding. This was on my short list to pick when it was my turn. That picture has been whispering sweet nothings in my ear for months.
Obviously, I should have made this in advance. We have been getting the months worth of recipes for quite awhile now. BUT…Thanks to my own self-induced ridiculousness I had to wait until after Easter. That left me all of one whole week. One busy week.
My original plan was to try to squeeze it in Sunday night after arriving home from a weekend trip to Nebraska (where both of my sons were seen sporting corn cob hats – put that on the list of things I never thought I’d see). Frankly, I was too tired and behind on everything that needed to get done by Monday but was neglected while we were gone. Then the disposal clogged leaving an attractive pool of food sludge in the sink. The joys of home ownership…
Cut to Monday. Homemade brioche? A distant and long abandoned idea. Grocery store “twisted egg loaf” it is. 
To be able to eat this before midnight, I had to try to make it while making dinner, while getting kitchen back in order and while catching up with kids and husband. Chopped chocolate? Extra step. Out. Half bag of milk chocolate chips in cabinet. In. (This was a great plan until I realized that I had halved everything in the recipe BUT the chocolate. I desperately tried to dig out some half melted chips. The sink was sludge free for all of 5 minutes). Raisins – not opened and carmelized onions quickly turning to charred onions. Dried cranberries – waiting and ready.
The upside to rushing? My bread pudding didn’t look like mud or other unmentionables. The milk chocolate was too light. A freak advantage that I wouldn’t have been smart enough to plan in advance. The cranberries cut the sweetness of the milk chocolate – another unplanned success. Mine wasn’t soupy at all. I have no clue how that happened.
In sum, I loved it. My husband and I plowed through a good portion of it just standing in the kitchen. I can’t wait to try the dark chocolate version. TWD has opened my eyes to the wonders of bittersweet chocolate. But, I am making it in ramekins. Portion control is a very good thing.
second helping…
Next week: chocolate tart. (note to self: must go to gym a lot this week). the full recipe for this week is at Lauren’s blog Upper East Side Chronicle.
TWD: Brownie pretender
April 14, 2009 at 11:29 pm | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 13 CommentsTags: almond, torte, tuesdays wit, Tuesdays with Dorie
Easter weekend on the Plaza in KC…
Where is the torte? Well, I made it and we’ll get to it in a minute. Frankly, I am just annoyed with and embarrassed by the photos of the dang thing. Every time I think I am going to purchase a new camera some sizable, but not catastrophic, bill comes my way. Dental work. Car repairs. School registration. More dental work. The list goes on and on. If we were the type to actually create a household budget, we would definitely have to include a line item for “Annoying and unexpected sh**.” I suppose that is life but it doesn’t help me when I am forced to make something at night and suffer the photographic consequences.
Yes, I made this last Thursday night to take to work on Friday. Along with Easter, we celebrated my dad’s birthday on Sunday. Cake is a requirement. Fancy torte does not equal cake in the minds of a 7 and 4 yr old. Birthdays have layers and frosting and candles. Period.
So, I braved on with my World Market amaretti (oh how I heart World Market). My $2.49 purchase somehow increased exponentially with some Mango salad dressing on sale and other “essential items” (no wonder I don’t have a new camera).
The best thing about this torte? I made it with Colin, who was banished to the kitchen by his father and brother after jumping on and over them on the couch one too many times. He loved whirring the food processor. Clearly, I did not even attempt to time the preparation of the 15 minute torte. I think we exceeded the time limit on retrieving stray bits of egg shell alone. Everything did end up coming together smoothly. But, somehow I mucked up the sauce and it was more than a little grainy.
Overall, this looked like a brownie but was not satisfying to me in the fudgy chocolatey heavenly brownie way. Nobody else at home really loved it either. I think the texture of the amaretti and the almonds threw everyone off, including me. Apparently, I have texture issues. I have never thought of myself as someone with “issues” but here we are. It didn’t exactly fly off the table at work either. I was about to declare it a total lost cause when my colleague emailed to tell me how much she liked it. No texture issues for her.
Brownie? Not so fast my friend…
The full recipe is on Holly at Phemomenon’s site. Other tortes at TWD. She has lots of other great stuff too. Next week: Chocolate Bread Pudding. this looks goooood.
TWD: Banana Cream Pie (or is Potassium enough to justify the caloric intake?)
April 7, 2009 at 10:44 pm | In Tuesdays with Dorie | 14 CommentsTags: banana, pie, Tuesdays with Dorie
Do you find that there are some categories of food that you like in one form but not in another? I know, from my experience in this group, that some people have an aversion to cooked fruit. Me? I like peanut butter but peanuts not so much. I like melted cheese but I don’t like it cold. No cheese platter for me. For the longest time, I loved bananas but couldn’t really tolerate banana flavored goods. I am largely over that now but was reminded of my past banana aversion when this week’s TWD selection came up. I realized I had never had actually had Banana Cream Pie. (If Banana Cream Pie is available, Chocolate Cream Pie is usually only inches away. Which would you choose?)
I don’t consider this one of the more exotic offerings in the book so it kind of surprised me to realize I didn’t really know what a successful Banana Cream Pie should taste like. It was thicker and darker than I expected but I liked it. I have only one measly picture and not much time to write this up. One of my taste testers this week was my dear friend Stephanie who was in town from Phoenix. Steph and I were summer associates and junior associates together. We suffered through our first bar exams (I moved to a city bordering two states and took two more – not recommended) and first years of practice together. I know there are some other lawyers on this site and they have immediately recognized from my description that Steph and I are now bonded for life. So, I spent the first part of this week reminiscing with her. I will try to get around to some of the other blogs tomorrow.
For the record, she couldn’t recall ever having Banana Cream Pie either. The novices give it a thumbs up.
PS As I ponder the ingredients, is this the most decadent thing we have made? Who knew a little banana could go so so bad…
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