I COMPLETELY missed last week – no recipe, no comments, no browsing, no nothing.  Just one of those weeks.  I still hope to get to the Chestnut Cake…but I didn’t even get this one done until Monday night (aaahhh…night photography…jealous?).

I subbed in a little almond for the coconut and cut down on the sugar in the filling.  Truthfully, as I was making this, one thought kept occurring to me.  What can you really say about a crisp?  Not much new, I think.  So, I will just say that this was supremely satisfying and leave it at that.

Next week:  Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies.  I am looking forward to these.  The recipe for this week is at The Repressed Pastry Chef  by Em.

More is more where dessert is concerned so we put a little ice cream with it…

There wasn’t really anything about the mousse that didn’t appeal to me – except for the fact that I had to make it…and buy the ingredients…and wait out a long chill time.

What this post is really about is the complications of modern life.  Lack of time coupled with the necessity of placing some restrictions on consumption eliminated the possibility of the mousse.  Let me explain…

It could have used a topping disguise.

Usually, I make TWD goodies on Sunday afternoon.  We spent this weekend in St. Louis (having a great time, BTW).  By the time we got back home there wasn’t time for brownie making AND ingredient buying AND mousse making AND chilling.  Why didn’t I make it last weekend, you ask, when the biscuits (which weren’t really dessert anyway) were a disaster?  Good question.  The boys wanted to make decorated Halloween Cookies.  I wanted some TCBY.  There can only be so much sugary goodness at once…which is why I couldn’t make this dessert for Monday night.

Seeing as I made the brownie part Sunday after St. Louis, I could have stashed it and made the mousse on Monday, right?  Wrong!  We spent the weekend in a hotel.  You know what that means.  Lots of restaurant food.  I was willing to scarf down some brownie torte on Sunday night as an extension of our oh-so-healthful weekend eating but there was no way I would even be able to look at it on Monday.  And, let’s face it, I am baking for my pleasure here.  In fact, when we got home I made a vegetable dish from – no joke – my Monastery cookbook.  Very necessary.

If the mousse measures up to the brownies, however, then I missed out.  Cuz we loved these brownies.  Even Colin.  With the Cherries.  (I peeled some pears and tried to pass them off as apples in his lunch last week.  He wasn’t fooled and told me never to put those “funny apples” in his lunch again.  FOILED!)

Next Week:  chestnut cake.  Oy!  I don’t even know where to start with this one.  I may postpone this one til later in the month when I can wrap my head around what a chestnut would taste like.

Gratuitous family shot of kids at City Museum in St. Louis.  If you have kids and you’re close…GO.

Well, I think these comments about sum it up:

Will (taking a big bite upon discovering them abandoned in the kitchen):  They’re supposed to be biscuits?  Good.  I thought you going to say they were cookies.  (he ate one)

Jamie:  You mean you read that others had problems with them turning out flat and you thought you were going to be the exception?

I tried to make them for a “breakfast for dinner” night Saturday.  I had planned to save one to photograph the next day in the daylight.  BUT, after seeing them, it didn’t really seem worth it.

Next week: Chocolate Cherry Torte.  I will do my best not to overmix…

Dorie Pies + me = Deep infatuation (despite the singular failure of the Twofer Pie)

Dorie Cakes + me = We will be lifelong friends

Dorie Cookies + me =  I dream of the Malted Whopper Drops

Dorie Ice Cream + me = BFF!  Love ya like a sis!

Dorie Brownies + me = Can you marry a brownie?  No?  Guess we will just have to cohabitate in bliss for eternity.

Dorie Muffins + me = Hmmm…friendly co-workers at best at this point.  This is the fourth muffin recipe I have tried from BFMHTY and, while none have been total disasters, none have really knocked it out of the park either.  In fact, my favorite Dorie muffins were when I turned the blueberry crumb cake into muffins.

These were OK.  My streusel sort of melted into the muffin and around the pan.  Whatever we did with the blueberry crumb cake muffins worked better.  And, frankly, this is just personal taste, but these were too buttery for me.  I am not a person who butters bread, pancakes, popcorn or much of anything…so the overwhelming buttery flavor of the topping was a little off putting.  I am happy to report that Will loved them.  I think he ate almost the entire batch over the course of the week.  You can’t argue with that.

Next week: sweet potato biscuits.  I only became friends with sweet potatoes a couple of years ago but now we are tight.  The full recipe for this week is at Grandma’s Kitchen Table by Kayte.  It is a great site – check it out!  See how she manages to keep up with 47 different cooking groups and be amazed.

Gratuitous family shot.  My spouse, lifelong Cowboys fan, took Will to see them when they came to town to play the Chiefs on Sunday (his first NFL game).  It was ridiculously, horribly, unconscionably, unseasonably cold.  Better them than me.

I usually don’t gaze at a cup of pudding and find it to be a metaphor for my life but this week…I couldn’t help myself.  This week’s TWD was split level pudding.  One happy layer of ganache topped with a complimentary layer of pudding.  Sounds simple, right?  I was immediately drawn to the idea of coffee pudding with the chocolate ganache (coffee + chocolate = heaven).  But then, I had to consider the fact that my kids like pudding but probably wouldn’t be clamoring for coffee.  Since mint is (inexplicably) not universally loved in my house, that left vanilla as the safe choice.

And there you have it – the tension between being a parent and being an individual.  Kelly wants coffee pudding, a condo and some new furniture.  Mom wants to share her desserts, throw the kids outside to play, and sees the folly in investing in new furniture during these destructive formative years.  Kelly loves that everyone can put their own shoes on, use the bathroom and get the food (in theory) into their mouths instead of the floor.  Mom misses seeing little baby bottoms and dies a little inside every time she finds a long forgotten toy.  You don’t think you will miss Elmo but…

The solution?  I don’t know what yours is.  Me?  I made both and everyone got treated to real whipped cream on top (too late for pictures).  It’s great being Kelly and Mom.  We’ll leave the dilemma of new furniture for another day.  Now, if I could just get someone to explain to me why my ganache was perfect last week but runny this week, I could find some peace.    Unfortunately, the runniness had me wishing for the plain chocolate pudding.  I am sure this would be great had I gotten it all right.

Next week:  Allspice Crumb Muffins.  I promise to spare you the allspice analogies.  The full recipe is at Flavor of Vanilla by Garrett.

I am trying to get this one posted before it really gets cold.  I don’t know about you, but we had the coolest summer in a long time.  If the trend holds, winter could be brutal.  I, of course, am happy to eat ice cream any time of year but I realize that not everyone likes a big cold double dip in January.

This is a great ice cream that requires no custard.  I love custard based ice creams but, frankly, the ice cream hits your mouth a little quicker  if you don’t have to mess with that step.  This is sweet and tangy and wonderful.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. milk
• 2 c. heavy cream
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. or more chocolate chips or chunks, if using store bought I like to chop them a little more. Regular chips suddenly seem huge in a spoonful of ice cream.

Put the cream cheese, sugar and milk in a blender.  Blend until smooth.  Slowly add the cream and vanilla.  Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker.  When it is close to finished add the chocolate chips.

Ganache overflow

This tart was sooo rich.

How rich was it?

It was so rich I saw a hundred dollar bill under the caramel.

This tart was sooo rich.

How rich was it?

It was so rich it bought me dinner.

Thanks.  I’ll be here all week.  [and no I am not quitting my day job.]

Throwing a dinner party during a recession?  This is the dessert for you.  For me to remark on how rich something is you know it truly is.  When it comes to my consumption of all things dessert related descriptors like “dainty” “sparingly” and “nibble” don’t usually never come into play.  I have made exactly ONE TWD recipe that I did not taste (I am not counting the rice pudding which nobody tasted) and I have seconds or more of most.  I skipped the Twofer Pie because pecans are not a part of my life and I would prefer they be eliminated from all recipes written or otherwise moving forward.

Crunchless…

On that note, I skipped the crunch.  I briefly considered hazelnuts, which I can tolerate, but decided that was a lot of expense and trouble for something that wouldn’t improve the recipe for me.  I will be curious to see if anyone had success with non-nut crunchables.

Back to the decadence.  I can usually handle those over the top desserts with ease.  I have been known to have thirds of cheesecake and hot fudge was a welcome addition to my last cherry malt (heaven).  So, imagine my surprise when one slice of tart turned out to be more than plenty.  It could be partly related to the hour and circumstances under which I consumed it.  I started the tart Sunday evening after we arrived back from a weekend in Nebraska**.  During the course of tart making I burnt my finger on some hot caramel.  And, for the record, hot caramel?  BURNS.  I accidentally hit my finger with a spatula covered in caramel as I was spooning in the butter.  Don’t do that.  I had to peel the caramel off my finger.

The missing test slice.

By the time I was done melting chocolate, chilling caramel and burning flesh (a convenient reason to skip that second load of laundy btw), it was about 9:00pm.  I probably should have called it a night but, damn it, I had to know if the tart was good after all that.  And, yes, it was.  Good and…rich.  Enjoy.

Right sized slice

The full recipe is Chocolate Moosey by Carla.  Next week:  split level pudding.  Will my desire to make coffee pudding trump my instinct to make it kid friendly?  We shall see…

**Nebraska trip:  My husband was born and raised in Lincoln, NE which really is the college football capital of the world.  Before you naysayers start rolling your eyes, I will tell you that we were there for the 300th consecutive home sell-out.  That is not a misprint.  The streak started in Nov. 1962.  My dad was a FRESHMAN in college.  He is now retirement age.  The Beatles were unknown in America.  The Cuban Missile Crisis had just ended.  And the stadium isn’t small.  It has held between 70,000 – 86,000 (renovations) people during that time.  Ponder that for a moment.

Saturday – 8:00am:  I had to go two (2!) grocery stores to find cottage cheese.  I can unequivocally state that I have never purchased it before so had never noticed that there wasn’t any at my regular store.  I briefly considered using ricotta as sub but the recipe is called Cotttage Cheese Pufflets, not Ricotta Pufflets.  I persevered.  Fortunately, I was going to the second store anyway.

I thought about making the dough that morning but we were hustling to get to the pumpkin patch, so I bought the cottage cheese and forgot about it.  I realize it is a little early for the pumpkin patch but our cable company was having a customer appreciation day for FREE.  Free trumps early.  If you are thinking that all your cable company does for you is jack up the rates when they add stupid new channels, you need to get a second cable company in your area.  Sometimes a little competition is a good thing.

Saturday – 1:00pm:  Home from the pumpkin patch, I put the butter out to soften.  Then I decided to take the boys to the neighborhood fall festival so Jamie could watch the Husker game in peace.  We arrived home in time for the last few minutes of the game.  The less said about that the better, but I got distracted enough that I forgot about my butter.

Saturday – 7:00pm: The butter was so soft, I had to chill it up a little and then finally got to work on the dough.  Honestly, who eats cottage cheese?  I don’t think I have ever seen anyone under 70 eat it.  It is seriously unappetizing.  I guess I should consider it a blessing that I didn’t care for the dough.  At all.

Sunday morning: dusting (yippee!); yardwork (hooray!); laundry (are we having fun yet?).  No time for pufflets.

Sunday afternoon: Much to my younger son’s dismay, the hapless Chiefs lost AT HOME to the equally hapless Raiders.  We went to the park with the kids, with a sidetrip to TCBY.  Dough still in fridge.

Sunday – 5:00pm:  I will try to sum up the tedium of the next two hours lest you decide to spork your eye after the full description.  A lot of chilling, rolling, chilling, cutting, chilling, cursing, forming, cursing, filling, chilling, sighing, etc.

Sunday – 7:00pm: Pufflets in the oven.  I am not confident.  I am thinking maybe I should have had some frozen yogurt when I had the chance.

Would this inspire confidence in you?

Sunday – 7:15pm:  First batch out and my fears have been confirmed.  The blackberry jam was clearly a mistake.  I am at once grateful for silicone mats.

Sunday – 7:30pm:  Taste testing.  Jamie, lifelong Cowboys fan, eats a few while watching the Cowboys game.  Showing the good sense he was born with, he gives up on the Pufflets and the Cowboys and calls it night.  They taste better than they look, admittedly a very low bar to cross.  They do not, however, taste good enough to justify the 5:00 – 7:00pm effort.  I am sorry to say I will be crossing this one off the list.  The baker and the football teams should have quit while we were ahead.

Am starting to see why no photos in the book…

Next week:  We travel to Lincoln for the Huskers’ 300^th consecutive sell-out (that number is correct – my parents were in high school last time there were empty seats) and I tackle the chocolate crackle tart.  Let’s hope both fare better next weekend.  Thanks to Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes (TWD) for picking something that had piqued my curiosity from the beginning.  The recipe is on her site.  I have some cottage cheese you can have.

I have been making a variation of these muffins for years and years but, up until now, they have never been chocolatized.  That changed last weekend when I had some berries about to take a turn for the worse and a craving for something chocolate but not super decadent.  Without further ado, I introduce you to Chocolate Berry Bites.  We all know muffins are usually just dessert masquerading as breakfast food but a mini-muffin?  Not quite so guilt inducing, right?

These are adapted from Martha Stewart’s Fresh Berry Muffins.  The recipe is pretty old (1995??).  I admit I only did a very quick search but I didn’t see the exact recipe on her website.  My variation is below.  I made both blueberry and cherry and preferred the cherry.  I usually use a combination of blueberries and raspberries when I make the full size and I think raspberries would work equally well in these.  If you despise filling mini-muffin cups as much as I do just remind yourself that it is easier than working off the calories of a full muffin.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Berry Bites

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Fresh Berry Muffins

1. 1^2/3 c. AP flour
2. 1/3 c. cocoa powder
3. 2 tsp. baking powder
4. 1/4 tsp. salt
5. 1 stick of butter
6. 2 eggs
7. 1 tsp. vanilla extract
8. ½ c. milk
9. 24 pitted cherries or 2 c. fresh berries

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease mini muffin tin or line with paper liners.  Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl.  In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla but don’t overmix.  Add the flour and milk alternately, starting with 1/3 of the flour, then ½ the milk, ending with the flour.  For berries, fold them into the batter.  If using cherries, fill the muffin cups 2/3 to ¾ full and add one cherry to each cup.  Starting checking for doneness around 12 minutes.  Enjoy!

The reasons why I will never be a professional baker are too numerous to recount in their entirety but let’s go over a few shall we:

1. Lack of, you know, actual knowledge. Photos like the one below just perplex me.  I don’t immediately think – “If I add XYZ, that will work.”  I just shrug, pop it in the fridge and hope for the best.  If it goes wrong, and that is always a distinct possibility, I can’t even usually pinpoint the failure.

2.  Refusal to succumb to the details. I try; I really do.  I always start out with great intentions.  I bust out my thermometer/ruler/rolling pin/etc with the greatest alacrity.  This will be the week I really roll it out to 1/8 in/bring it to 180 degrees/make a perfect rectangle of dough.  Somewhere between sifting (yeah, right) the dry ingredients, supervising my “cleaning helper” in the sink and checking on the dinner that is inevitably behind schedule, I lose my enthusiasm for perfection or even following the bare directions.  This week I 1) failed to get my dough to 1/8 in.; 2) didn’t even pretend to measure the cinnamon and sugar for the apples; and 3) threw in an extra “gob” of sour cream.  A gob would be about 2.5 plops for those unfamiliar with such technical measurements.

3.  Complete and total lack of artistic skill.  If you have read this blog before, this one needs no further explanation.

4.  Oh, and I hear that bakers have to be up early.  Yeah, that’s a deal breaker.

BUT (and it is a big one) despite all of these shortcomings, I will always love to bake.  You know why?  Because, sometimes (often enough to keep me going) it all just works.  I don’t know why and I don’t question.  These turnovers are a perfect example.  That crumbly mess with the extra “gob” of sour cream turned into a flaky pastry.  Miraculous!  Big thumbs up in our house.

You know what else?  When you are the baker you get to make what you like.  You might, say, like chocolate.  You might, theoretically, sneak a few raisins into a chocolate one (mmmmm….).

These were from the second roll-out and they were still good…

So, thanks to Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen for picking these turnovers.  I made a half recipe and it is probably a good thing I didn’t make more.

Next week: Cottage Cheese Pufflets.  These were on my short list of recipes out of sheer curiousity.  Tune in next week to see if dumb luck strikes again.