Tomato Cheese Galette

I must confess, I made this last summer when we did the berry galette for Tuesdays with Dorie.  I made both as a dinner-dessert combo; what a fabulously summer meal that was.  I plan to recreate it multiple times this summer as soon as my tomatoes ripen.

Until then, I plan on playing with different fillings as this dough/ recipe begs to.  This is my go-to galette dough recipe.  I find it simple and easy to work with, and I love the addition of the cornmeal.   And galettes are so much easier, so much more forgiving to work with than pies.  They are the lazy person's pie. And they are still show-stoppers; perfect to bring over to a BBQ or a small dinner outing.

CFR

This recipe is part of the Tuesday with Dorie baking group, baking our way through Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan.

Rhiannon eating an ice cream cone as big as her head.  (At least it had real, fresh strawberries in it.)

Savarin

Reading through this recipe I thought it would take just a bit of time: the rise times were short and so was the bake time.  But that is just like me, to underestimate the time something takes.   We had a birthday party to go in the afternoon and I had been gone most of the morning.  I thought I could squeeze this cake in, in between lunch and showers and naps and a birthday gift...  first rise, no problem, second rise, I was counting the minutes until I could shove it in the oven in time for us to leave for the party. It was so flat coming out of the oven, but I didn't have time to think about just then.

I came back to the cake later that night and sampled it (thus the wedge removed from the circle- I figured I could fill it in with whipped cream later).  It tasted awful; it tasted rushed.  It tasted yeasty.  But I thought maybe it could be salvaged by simple syrup.  I thought wrong.  I didn't bother with the berries (why waste good berries on this?) and the whipped cream.  Besides it was 10pm. A gross underestimation of time needed.

I am not sure what went wrong, but most likely I rushed that second rise time and I could have used more dough for my larger bundt pan.  Seeing as we will likely do Babas in the future, I am in no hurry to repeat this recipe now.  

Looking at my last 2 posts, it appears I am hopelessly busy, but I'm not.  I'm just choosing poor times to   make these recipes or rather underestimating the time and commitment they take.  Maybe I need to just add an hour on to every recipe to be realistic.  It will be just like what I have done to estimate leaving times with two toddlers. Want to leave at 9? Start getting ready to leave at 8...

Eating berries meant for the Savarin!

This post is part of the Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia group.

Savory Brioche Pockets

I should not have done this recipe...  not at this moment... not this past weekend.

With a sick husband.
With my parents out of town.
With a house full of 5 guests.

But it is done.

And it doubled as dinner (even if my kiddos didn't eat it).
And it utilized sage and chives from my garden.
And it reminded how much I love working with and eating brioche dough.

This post is a part of Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia cooking group.  See our host, Carrie at Loaves and Stitches, for the full recipe.

And here is Rhiannon!

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake(s)

A cake that I love!  I must admit that I am whole-heartedly not a cake lover (much to my father's chagrin).  I don't like it so much that I had brownies at my wedding instead of cake (my father ordered a cake in addition to the brownies).   Now to be fair, I think this dislike stems from the many bad cakes that I have had: crumbly, dry, no flavor, sugary frosting.  This rhubarb upside down cake was the opposite of all those bad cakes: moist, tender, tart sweetness.

The upside down part is prepared with brown sugar and butter melted with the addition of some bourbon, nut pieces and rhubarb slices.  Since I don't have baby cakes, as per the recipe from Baking with Julia, I decided to use my 8" cast iron pan and put the leftovers in muffin tins.  Using the cast iron pan made this part easy, as I just was able to do it all in the pan and leave most if it in there.

As for the batter, it is a basic butter cake batter.  After creaming the butter and sugar, eventually adding the eggs, I added the dried and wet ingredients in alternating rounds.  The main wet ingredient in this one which created that tender crumb was sour cream (or creme fraiche or plain yogurt).

Then it was just a matter of plopping the batter on top of the rhubarb sugar mixture and baking it.  Flipping the cake was nerve wracking as I completely flopped the Boca Negra at this step.  But these all came out easily and in one piece.

This recipe truly highlighted the spring rhubarb and the tartness of the rhubarb allowed us to eat more before getting over-sugared (for better or for worse).  My dad and I both loved this cake.  Maybe this should have been my wedding cake.

This post is part of the Baking with Julia/ Tuesdays with Dorie baking group.  See Erin's blog for the full recipe.

And here is Rhiannon...

Madeleines

Prior to making these this past weekend, I have eaten Madeleines only once.  There is a cute, little, serious restaurant in town here that bakes them up to order in the mornings.  A year ago, I went there with the sole purpose of ordering those Madeleines.  I remember them being deliciously fresh baked but underwhelming treats.    The same goes for this home-baked version.  They worked, they were fresh, but I could take them or leave them.

This was my second go at a genoise batter.  My first was a disaster (French Strawberry Cake) so I was a bit intimidated to try it again.  But I DO have my new mixer and I was certain to cool my melted butter down this time.  It all worked.  The basic genoise pattern goes like this.

Sift the dry, sifted stuff (flour, salt, some sugar).

Whip the eggs and yolks with the sugar until they are tripled in volume.

Gently fold in the dry ingredients in 3 sessions.

Then incorporate melted butter by first mellowing it with some of the already-mixed batter before fully incorporating it.

Then it is ready.

For this recipe it was ready to be filled into the Madeleine plaques and chilled overnight.  Now, according to the recipe book, this was supposed to be baked right away, but listening to some of our expert Madeleine bakers in the group, chilling the batter is the only way to get the characteristic puffed shell shape, so I chilled it.  I also prepped my Madeleine plaque with two coats of melted butter, instead of butter and flour for the same reason.   Like I said, it all worked.  I had beautiful, puffed Madeleines that released easily from their pan.

I truly wished I liked them more.  They would be a terrific tea party cake (when do I ever have tea parties?).  Thank goodness I borrowed the Madeleine plaque from a friend, because I am not sure when I would use it next.

For the full recipe and other Baking with Julia bloggers' experiences, see Katie and Amy of Counter Dog and Tuesdays with Dorie respectively.


And Rhiannon:

Rustic Potato Loaves

I just barely made this one.  We just had spring break; we had company; we traveled; and I honestly thought I had another week to do this recipe.   This may explain the dearth of pictures.  I was just getting it done, no extras.  I forgot photos completely until I was about to cut the bread for dinner.

But I am so thankful I eked it out.  This bread was surprisingly wonderful to eat.  The texture was so chewy and the flavor from the potatoes gave it depth not normally found in white bread.  And it wasn't difficult, although it's artisan looks belie this.  It did take some time: boiling potatoes, cooling/ drying them, two rises and 40-45 minutes in the oven.  (The book claims this recipe can be done on a whim, last-minute-like (maybe).)

My new mixer is definitely getting a work out between this and pizza dough and cupcakes and such; it is well broken in already.  But I am still keeping my grandma's mixer for now; I can't let go of it yet. 

For the full recipe and excellent pictures, see our host, Dawn,  at Simply Sweet.

And here is Rhiannon... I think she's eating... or maybe feeding her toes?

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

After tackling croissants with our last TWD recipe, this seemed too simple.  A basic cookie dough recipe: whisk together dry ingredients, including the essential instant coffee powder, cream the butter, sugar and eggs;  mix them together; add chocolate and the optional apricot pieces.   The few tricks or extras needed for this recipe were to let the dough chill in the fridge before baking and to double up the baking pans to prevent burning on the bottoms.  Easy.

They turned out just fine.  They were a bit thinner than my perfect cookie but they had the right ratio of chewiness to crunchiness.  And the chocolate chunks were heavenly when just warm out of the oven.  As for the apricots, I could take them or leave them.  If I use them next time, I would add a touch more salt to balance out their sweetness.

On a total side note.  This may be my last recipe using my grandma's mixer.  I just got a new, heavier- duty Kitchen Aid mixer (Thanks, Sorrel!).  I absolutely love using my grandma's mixer because I know it's history, and it provides some connection to her for me.  But the fact is, the motor smells and burns if I use it anywhere above medium speed...  maybe I will just use it until it completely dies, knowing that I have a replacement in the ready.  We'll see.  I still have her rolling pin and that is not going anywhere...

For this recipe, see our host's site here:  http://galettista.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/mocha-chocolate-chips/

Rhiannon and Quinn