Tuesdays with Dorie - Mixed Berry Cobbler

Today's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Beth from Our Sweet Life. You can find the recipe for this classic dessert on her blog.

I am not a fan of berry desserts and since our berries aren't in season quite yet I decided to use a substitute fruit combination in this cobbler. My sister-in-law had just presented us with a large (very large) bag of fresh rhubarb and so I thought a rhubarb-peach combination might be just the thing for this recipe.

Other than the fruit, I made few substitutions or changes to Dorie's recipe. I did add a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg to the dough and used brown instead of white sugar (mostly because I couldn't find the new bag of white sugar I just bought!!!). In the fruit mixture I increased the sugar quite significantly because I was using rhubarb and I used half brown/half white sugar there (found the bag at last...).

The crust was very thick over the fruit and I wasn't sure how that would turn out. I have to admit that I don't make a lot of cobblers. It's a lot more popular to make crisps in this part of the country so I wasn't sure what to expect. The cobblers I've made in the past have been biscuit cobblers where you kind of dollop the dough on top of the fruit randomly. In any case, I gave it a go and popped it in the oven.

I love Dorie's recipes but I swear her oven must be much less hot than mine. I consistently find that the time's posted in the recipes are far too long for my oven. I either have to decrease the temperature or decrease the time. If I'd cooked this for 75 minutes it would have been burnt to a crisp. As it was, at 50 minutes it was toasty brown.

From a taste perspective, this was lovely. The outside of the crust was wonderfully crisp and the part on the inside by the fruit was soft and doughy. The fruit was just the right sweetness and I'm glad I added a little cinnamon for that extra "oomph". My husband really enjoyed it and he doesn't like rhubarb that much. He wants me to make the crust again with a different fruit combo and for him to make that request is pretty significant. My only complaint was that the fruit was a little too liquidy. I think I would add more starch to the mixture in the future.

Check out the other wonderful concoctions by the Tuesdays with Dorie crowd.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie was a Peppermint Cream Puff Ring. This is a beautiful dessert - the photograph in the book is elegant and just makes you want to put it on the dinner table at the end of a fancy dinner party. It was one of the desserts that really attracted me to the book in the first place so I really wanted to make it...but I didn't. I just didn't have a place to serve this ultra-elegant dessert this week and its not the type of thing that lasts long in the fridge.

Instead I took parts of the dessert and made some miniature variations that were easier to give away. I made the paté choux (cream puff pastry) and piped some tiny cream puffs and eclairs. Then I filled them with either lemon cream or a milk chocolate peppermint pastry cream. The little lemon puffs were topped with a white chocolate glaze (the yellow colour is from food colouring) and the peppermint ones got a milk chocolate glaze. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and hopefully they will go over well at hubbies work tomorrow.

Let me just say that pastry cream is da bomb! I've never made it before but it was lovely to prepare and beautifully smooth and creamy. The lemon cream was more cumbersome to make, involving several steps but its got a wonderful, tart flavour. Both recipes can be found in Dorie's book - Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Check out the other wonderful creations for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie at the blog. The recipe for the Peppermint Cream Puff Ring can be found at A Consuming Passion's blog.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sort of....

So, I cheated today. For the first time since I joined the group I decided not to bake the posted recipe. It seems like a perfectly nice recipe (La Palette's Strawberry Tart) but our local strawberries won't be available for another two weeks and it just didn't seem right to bake this with an import variety.

I couldn't let a Tuesday go by without a baking jamoboree so I decided to make Chocolate Chunkies from Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

What can I say about these cookies... Well - they are definately one chocolately cookie. There are not one, not two but five kinds of chocolate in these cookies (white chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate, unsweetened chocolate and cocoa). I made a couple of minor changes to the recipe including using milk and white chocolate chunks (instead of semisweet and white or milk as the recipe suggested) and I used chopped dried cherries in place of the raisins.

This cookie is more chunk then cookie. In fact, the cookie dough is really just there to keep the chunks together in one big lump. There is a scant 1/3 cup of flour in this recipe and they look odd (almost unbaked) when they emerge from the oven, but durn, are they tasty!

Anyway, despite my deliquency, I would encourage you to head on over to Tuesdays With Dorie and check out the wonderful tarts that other members have baked up.

Tuesdays with Dorie - French Brownies

So, the recipe du jour is French Brownies. Lovely, I thought, brownies! I adore brownies. C'est magnifique! Then I read the recipe and was aghast - raisins in brownies! That's sacrilege. So, no raisins today.

Instead, I made a little triple chocolate brownie which I think turned out quite nicely. In place of the rum-soaked raisins I used hand chopped milk chocolate, and I topped the whole thing in a white chocolate ganache glaze. Yummy!

This was a pretty straight forward recipe without a great deal of complication. Compared to last week's Daring Baker's Challenge, this seemed about as easy as, well, buying brownies from the corner bakery.

Because I glazed these, I let them cool completely, but I do find that they are quite nice warmed for about 20 seconds in the microwave. I made miniature cakes instead of cut and serve brownies.

The only negative thing I have to say about this recipe is that brownies are hard for me to resist - so if you're a chocolate lover, beware!!!

French Chocolate Brownies
- makes 16 brownies -Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) * Note, I used the cinnamon and found it quite nice with the chocolate. It reminded me of Mexican flavour combos like molé or spiced hot chocolate.

1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden

1 1/2 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better

to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Optional Glaze. As mentioned, I used a white chocolate glaze on mine. The recipe is also in Dorie's cookbook but here it is if you want to use it.

White Chocolate Ganache

10 oz high-quality white chocolate (don't use baking chips), finely chopped

2/3 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces

Heat cream until boiling. Pour over white chocolate and with whisk stir mixture gently and working outwards to larger and larger circles until the chocolate is completely melted. Add butter and stir until melted.

You can cool this to spreading consistency, but I simply poured it over the cooled brownies and let it set.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

Well, its Tuesday, and you know what that means...BAKING!!! This week's recipe was Pecan Honey Sticky Buns which are made with a base dough of Brioche.

I gotta say, my mixer did not like this dough. I took the recipe's advice and used my dough hook and I had no luck. I got a sticky mass of dough on the bottom and a whipped buttery mixture on the top. I switched to my paddle and managed to incorporate the two together. I have a pretty heavy duty stand mixer but this dough was something else.

Regardless, it all seemed to come together in the long run. I chilled the dough overnight and made the buns the next day and they came out of the oven puffy, ooey and chewy. My husband loved them. The only variation I made was to coarsely chop the pecans instead of having them whole.

But what to do with the leftover dough? I have to admit, I'm not a freeze it and bake it later kinda gal and the recipe only took half the brioche recipe. Brioche always reminds me of really good French toast. I decided to try a variation on my husband's favourite breakfast casserole with the remaining dough.

I whipped a brick of cream cheese until it was light and fluffy and then added one egg and a 1/4 cup of maple syrup. It was a bit soupy so I put it in the fridge to firm up a bit to spreading consistancy. Meanwhile, I finely chopped about 1 cup of pecans and tossed them with 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 tbsp of cinnamon. I rolled the dough out a la Pecan Buns and spread it with the cream cheese mixture. Then I sprinkled the nut mixture over the cream cheese. I rolled up the dough, cut it into 1-inch pieces and put it in the oven at 375• for 30 minutes. They turned out great! Not sticky like the pecan buns but creamy and moist centres surrounded by that soft, sweet brioche bread.

Here's the recipe for the Pecan Buns.

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

(from Baking: My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

Makes 15 buns

For the Glaze:
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup honey
1-1/2 cups pecans (whole or pieces)

For the Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the Buns:

1/2 recipe dough for Golden Brioche loaves (see below), chilled and ready to shape (make the full recipe and cut the dough in half after refrigerating it overnight)

Generously butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan (a Pyrex pan is perfect for this).

To make the glaze: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, and honey to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to dissovle the sugar. Pour the glaze into the buttered pan, evening it out asbest you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinle over the pecans.

To make the filling: Mix the sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl. If necessary, in another bowl, work the butter with a spatula until it is soft, smooth and spreadable.

To shape the buns: On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you. Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can. (At this point, you can wrap the dough airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months . . . . Or, if you want to make just part of the recipe now, you can use as much of the dough as you'd like and freeze the remainder. Reduce the glae recipe accordingly).

With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. (Because you trim the ragged ends of the dough, and you may have lost a little length in the rolling, you will get 15 buns, not 16.) Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them.

Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns ahve doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and, in all likelihood, touching one another.

Getting ready to bake: When the buns have almost fully risen , center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden; the glaze will be bubbling away merrily. Pull the pan from the oven.

The sticky buns must be unmolded minutes after they come out of the oven. If you do not have a rimmed platter large enough to hold them, use a baking sheet lined with a silicone mate or buttered foil. Be careful - the glaze is super-hot and super-sticky.

What You'll Need for the Golden Brioche Dough (this recipe makes enough for two brioche loaves. If you divide the dough in half, you would use half for the sticky buns, and you can freeze the other half for a later date, or make a brioche loaf out of it!):

2 packets active dry yeast (each packet of yeast contains approx. 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm
What You'll Need for the Glaze (you would brush this on brioche loaves, but not on the sticky buns):
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water

To Make The Brioche: Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and fit into the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one. Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can-- this will help keep you, the counter and your kitchen floor from being showered in flour. Turn the mixer on and off a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour (yes, you can peek to see how you're doing), then remove the towel, increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for a minute or two, just until the flour is moistened. At this point, you'll have a fairly dry, shaggy mess.

Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You'll have a dough that is very soft, almost like batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (or wash out the mixer bowl and use it), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.

Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight. (After this, you can proceed with the recipe to make the brioche loaves, or make the sticky buns instead, or freeze all or part of the dough for later use.)

The next day, butter and flour two 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch pans.

Pull the dough from the fridge and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cut each piece of the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece into a log about 3 1/2 inches long. Arrange 4 logs crosswise in the bottom of each pan. Put the pans on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat, cover the pans lightly with wax paper and leave the loaves at room temperature until the dough almost fills the pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Again, rising time with depend on how warm the room is.)
Getting Ready To Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

To Make the Glaze: Beat the egg with the water. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the loaves with the glaze.

Bake the loaves until they are well risen and deeply golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pans and turn the loaves out onto the racks. Invert again and cool for at least 1 hour.

Enjoy and check out the other baker's creations from the blogroll on Tuesdays With Dorie.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

Okay, so I had every intention of baking this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe which was traditional Madeleines. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I was unable to locate a Madeleine pan in time. Its funny, because its one of those items I'm sure I've seen a hundred times when out shopping, but the minute I need one they were no where in site!!!

So, instead I baked the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart. This is a nice little tart with a caramel base (loaded with candied peanuts) and a ganached topping in a sweet pastry crust. I should have known I would be in trouble when I read the words "...contents may smoke. This is normal...". I've never made caramel from scratch before and I definately need more practise, but it was an interesting experience.

I had no luck with the sweet pastry recipe found in the book. She uses a food processor to make it and mine came out clumpy and I know it would be tough and not tender so into the garbage it went. I used a tried and true recipe and mixed it by hand with a pastry blender...ah...much better.

Overall, the tart got good reviews. Despite the ingredients it was not overwhelmingly sweet. The bittersweet chocolate and the crunchy caramel layer seemed to be a nice balance for each other. It was, however, extremely rich and we could only manage the thinnest sliver of tart in a single sitting.

Check out the rest of the Tuesday bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Florida Pie

You put the lime in the coconut..

I meant to post this yesterday but I have been fighting a nasty migraine for the past couple of days and the thought of facing my computer just wasn't doing it for me. Anyway - here is my latest installment of Tuesdays with Dorie.

This was an interesting one to bake. I made this for my Mother's Day brunch along with another tart for an afternoon dessert. What amazed me about making this pie was how easy it was for me to find the ingredients for what is essentially a tropical dessert, in early spring, in Western Canada. I was even able to find true key limes - amazing!

This was quite tasty, not too sweet and definately a dominant flavour of lime in the dessert. I put toasted coconut into the graham cracker crust as well as the meringue to carry the coconut flavour throughout. The one problem I encountered was that the coconut cream seemed to congrugate into the edges of the pie plate after freezing rather than staying as a layer under the lime. It made for a sweet coconut bite as you approached the crust.

Florida Pie

What You'll Need:
1 9-inch graham cracker crust (page 235), fully baked and cooled, or a store-bought crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs, separated
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh Key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes)
1/4 cup of sugar

Getting Ready to Make the Pie:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment of a silicone mat.

Put the cream and 1 cup of the coconut in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue to cook and stir until the cream is reduced by half and the mixture is slightly thickened. Scrape the coconut cream into a bowl and set it aside while you prepare the lime filling.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl beat the egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the condensed milk. Still on low, add half of the lime juice. When it is incorporated, add the remaining juice, again mixing until it is blended. Spread the coconut cream in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, and pour over the lime filling.

Bake the pie for 12 minutes. Transfer the pie to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes, then freeze the pie for at least 1 hour.

To Finish the Pie with Meringue:
Put the 4 egg whites and the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking all the while, until the whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the whites to a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer in a large bowl, and beat the whites at high speed until they reach room temperature and hold firm peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining 1/2 cup coconut into the meringue.

Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, and run the pie under the broiler until the top of the meringue is golden brown. (Or, if you've got a blowtorch, you can use it to brown the meringue.) Return the pie to the freezer for another 30 minutes or for up to 3 hours before serving.

My family loved this pie. Best thing about it for me was definately the coconut cream. Most annoying thing was juicing those tiny little limes!

Check out the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie gangs' Florida Pies!!!

Tuesdays with Dorie - Peanut Butter Torte

This week's recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was for a Peanut Butter Torte. This is one of those spectacular looking desserts that is ooey, gooey, oh so creamy and exceedingly rich. The recipe calls for salted peanuts, which I'm not a fan of in sweet desserts so I ommitted them and used finely chopped miniature Reeses Peanut Butter cups in their place. Honestly, I don't really enjoy hard textured items in soft textured desserts and I'm not a huge salt person.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out but boy was it rich. We got 16 servings out of this cake (made in a 9-inch springform). My husband and I had it for dinner with family one night and then he took the rest to work the next day to share with the co-workers. He got rid of it so I guess it must have been reasonably okay. You definately need to be a peanut butter and chocolate fan to enjoy this though.

I didn't run into any particular problems while making this. Some folks mentioned that the Oreo cookies didn't go far for the crust. I would recommend increasing by 1/2 dozen or more to make sure you have enough to cover the sides.

Peanut Butter Torte
from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 ¼ c. finely chopped salted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder (or finely ground instant coffee)¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
½ c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 ½ c. heavy cream (I used whipping cream)
1 ¼ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ c salted peanut butter – crunchy or smooth (not natural; I use Skippy)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Getting ready: center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.Toss ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chops together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Put the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Crape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you have one, or continue with the hand mixer, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, ¼ cup of the chopped peanuts and the milk.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream.Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To Finish The Torte: put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and , working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the Springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Be sure and check out the rest of the Tuesday with Dorie groups version of this scrumptious dessert!

**For some reason I'm having troubles posting the pictures for this - I'll try again later...

Tuesdays with Dorie - Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

I've joined an online baking community/challenge called Tuesdays with Dorie. Each week the group bakes a recipe from the fabulous book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I have to admit that I was quite skeptical about this weeks recipe which calls for cornmeal of all things. I would never have picked out this recipe myself - which is part of the reason I joined this group - to get out of my comfort zone! Anyway, despite my trepidations, this cake is delicious. I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out and the cornmeal gives it a really nice crunchy texture that you don't normally find in a dessert. I really couldn't discern the ricotta at all but overall the cake was very moist, sweet and mouth friendly.

Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

From Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

About 16 moist, plump dried Mission or Kadota figs, stemmed

1 c. medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal

1/2c. all-purpose flour1 tsp baking powder

1 c. ricotta

1/3 c. tepid water

3/4 C. sugar

3/4 c. honey (if you’re a real honey lover, use a full-flavored honey such as chestnut, pine, or buckwheat)

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

1 stick butter, cut into tiny bits

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 10 -inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Check that the figs are, indeed, moist and plump. If they are the least bit hard, toss them into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then drain and pat dry. If the figs are large (bigger than a bite), snip them in half.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top.

Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

My notes

I used dried apricots in this recipe instead of the figs - primarily because I couldn't find figs. I suspect that any plump, dried fruit would work fine in this recipe.

This recipe is very, very sweet - if you don't have the sweet tooth that I do you could probably reduce the sugar quite significantly. The honey is a must though.

My cake wasn't anywhere near done at the 40 minute mark. I baked it another 10 minutes before it had set and begun to brown around the edges. At 40 minutes the centre was still jiggling!

I didn't really fiddle too much with this recipe (being a newbie and all) but there are some great ideas from other bakers in the group. Check out their blogs from the TWD Bakers List on Tuesdays with Dorie.