TWD/DAC: Mix-It-Up Citrus Loaf Cake

 

 

Lucky quilt group! 

For this month's meeting, I brought Dorie's Mix-It-Up Citrus Loaf Cake.  It was well received, and there wasn't much left to bring home.

I used a blend of citrus:  limes, lemons, and oranges.  The limes and lemons came from my backyard trees; the oranges from my biweekly produce box, since my orange tree is only in the blooming stage.  I always love being able to use my citrus crops.  I did have to bake the cake for an extra ten minutes.

For the glaze, I heated and strained some apricot jam.

 

This is an easy cake to make and works with any combination of citrus fruits.

Stop by Tuesdays with Dorie website to see which February recipe the other bakers made.    

Celebrating the Babes 18th anniversary!

 

 

To celebrate the Babes' eighteenth anniversary, Tanna, our Kitchen of the Month, challenged us to make Kathleen Weber's Della Fattoria Pain de Campagne.

Now, I have a love-hate relationship with making sourdough bread.  When it works, I'm thrilled.  When it doesn't, I curse the waste of ingredients, time, and effort.

This recipe calls for a firm starter.  So, I did my research to see how to make this, and found a recipe on the King Arthur Baking Company website.  It uses discard as a foundation, and I had some in the refrigerator, so i had nothing to lose (except my discard). 

I followed the directions, and ended up with a large lump of dough that did absolutely nothing.  Discouraged, I tossed it into the refrigerator until I figured out a disposal method. I went in search of a yeast-based bread instead.  (To be honest, I'd rather bake with yeast than starter.)   I came across Cathy's recipe for Easy Dutch Oven Pain de Campagne, so that's what I used.  I made the Lemon-Rosemary filling, since I have both lemons and rosemary in the backyard.  The bread worked out fine, although the filling was barely apparent.  That's the way it goes sometimes.

 

Fast forward a few days.  I noticed something strange happening to the firm starter I had tossed back into the fridge.  Was it my imagination, or was the starter actually showing some activity?  Well, yes, it was.  I tried out my new 'toy' to bring it back to life, deciding to try again using the newly revived firm starter.  

The resulting dough was lovely, but it didn't have as much oven spring as I would have liked.  And, once again, the filling disappeared, although I would get hints of lemon with each bite. 

 

It was an interesting experiment.  In the end, I preferred the yeast bread version rather than the sourdough one, based on taste and texture (and success).

For the recipe and description of this bread, go to Tanna's website. 

The other Babes made wonderful versions of this bread, so be sure to check them out.

 

 

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna 
• Bread Experience  - Cathy  
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups – Tanna  (Kitchen of the Month)

 

 

TWD/BWD: Trufflish Nuggets

 

 

For the first February recipe from Baking with Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, I made the Trufflish Nuggets.  

These were really easy to make.  Almonds, coconut, and chocolate were ground up in a food processor, then egg whites were added to bind the ingredients together.  Once baked, they were ready to eat.

While mine had soft centers, they were really hard on the outside.  Still delicious, though, even if it took a bit of effort to bite through them.

This month features two interesting recipes, so stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see which one the other bakers made.

  

TWD/BWD: Whole Wheat and Flax bread

 

 

For today's Tuesdays with Dorie challenge, I made the Daily Bread:  Whole Wheat and Flax Edition.

The Daily Bread, either edition, is such a lovely bread to make. It's great for sandwiches, or, better yet, toasted and buttered.

I decided to use toasted sesame seeds in place of the flaxseeds. Not because I dislike flaxseeds, but the batch I have has such an overpowering flavor that it is a distraction.  I suspect it will languish in the freezer until the apocalypse.

Stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see what the other bakers made.

 

     

TWD/DAC: Pears, Nuts and Rye, Oh My

 

January's cake from Dorie's Anytime Cakes features winter fruits and a delicious combination of flours:  spelt, rye, and hazelnut. The addition of honey and yogurt provide a hint of sweetness and tanginess.

I always have specialty flours in my freezer, and my biweekly produce box just happened to contain pears, so this was the perfect cake to make.  I did end up baking it for about 15 minutes longer to be sure the cake was cooked through.

 

Each piece was served with a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of honey.

 

To learn what the other bakers thought, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie website. 

    

TWD/BWD: World Peace Cookies 2.0

 

 

World Peace Cookies are one of my favorite cookies. Dorie has updated the flavor profile this time, adding in rye flour, cocoa nibs, freeze-dried raspberries, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.  I chose to make the original version this time, but I did update the formation process based on Dorie's recommendation featured in one of her newsletters.

Typically, after you form the dough into logs, you refrigerate or freeze them for several hours before cutting them into discs. The discs have a tendency to crumble with this method.

Here's the updated process:  after forming the dough into logs, freeze them for only 20-30 minutes before cutting them into 1/2-inch discs.  Then, freeze the individual discs, wrapping them well after they are frozen.  Bake as usual.  This eliminates the crumbly dough syndrome.  Plus, you have WPC on demand!

Also, after baking the discs, I immediately used a glass and rotated the cookies to give them a near-perfect round shape. This is definitely my go-to method now!

Check out the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see whether the bakers made the WPC or the loaf of bread. 

  

TWD/BWD: Cocoa-Cranberry Linzer Tart

 

Just in time for the holidays, the Tuesdays with Dorie group baked a Cocoa-Cranberry Linzer Tart.  

The tart resembles a linzer cookie, with raspberry jam and a peek-a-boo top, but adds in chocolate, fresh cranberries, and a crumbly, nutty crust.  It's a delicious combination of sweet and tart and very rich, so just a sliver is enough. It even improves in flavor the next day, so it can be made ahead of time.

 

See which December treat the other bakers made.