I often pick on my husband because he has a “texture” thing. As in he doesn't eat certain foods because he doesn't like the texture...ie, he doesn't eat soup or beans of any kind. I used to think it was odd(I still do a little) until I made this weeks Tuesday's With Dorie pick....Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake. And I realized, I don't like the texture of polenta in cake. Cornmeal doesn't bother me in cornbread, so I find it weird that I don't like it in cake. But I don't...it's a texture thing. :) Since I am not a fan of polenta cakes I knew I would be giving it away, I decided to use dried blueberries instead of figs, as the person they were going to is not a fig fan. It didn't call for it, but I made a lemon glaze to go over the top of it. I made 4 mini ones that were well received by people who did not have texture issues. Make sure to go and see Caitlin of Engineer Baker, for she picked this recipe so I bet she has a good one. And if you have even more time you can … [Read more...]
Pop Goes The World…
Well, this was a Daring Baker first for me. No, it's not that I haven't made this before, it's that I have never waited until the day it was due to do the challenge! AHHHHH. I thought I had more time, guess not. This month's challenge comes from Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. They selected Cheesecake Pops from one of my newer cookbooks, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. These fell into the messy category as the dipping in the chocolate and the flying sprinkles everywhere got a little messy. Then again, I was in a bit of a hurry. :) These fun little pops would be a great thing to make with your kids or to serve at one of their parties. They can be formed into many shapes. If I had a little more time to be creative, I would have gone that route. Even if you are not a kid, these are certainly tasty...I mean it's cheesecake on a stick...covered in chocolate! Cheesecake Pops Makes 30 ¢â¬â€œ 40 Pops 5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room … [Read more...]
Key Lime Goodness….
So on our “camping” trip to Portland we ate a place that I found on Chowhound. It had lots of positive comments and it was only about 3 blocks from our hotel, um I mean campsite. I wont go into a review of the restaurant as I will have that up on my other blog in about a month. Other blog? Yep, crazy Peabody will have yet another food blog starting June 1st. Now I will give you many more details in an upcoming post(I'm having a giveaway) but it is called Northwest Noshings. It is all things Northwest food. From restaurant reviews to Northwest cooking...and there will be no baking on it. Enough of that for now. So the restaurant specializes in comfort food and the minute I saw the menu I spied the word Key Lime Pie and was a happy girl. For key lime(as long time readers know) is one of my all time favorites. It was completely old school, graham cracker crust with tangy key lime filling and whipped cream pilled sky high. It was heavenly. I craved it the rest of the … [Read more...]
Tuesday’s With Dorie….
So one of my Un-Midas victims was this carrot cake that we were making for Tuesday's With Dorie. Now you are looking at it and saying, doesn't look that bad. Well let me tell you, I went through a lot of cake just to get a semi-decent looking cut out. Every time I went to level it out, I seemed to make it worse...until I just gave up. :) I deviated quite a bit this time. I only used 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour and used almond flour to give it a more dense, torte like texture. Taste wise I was loving the cake, even though aesthetic wise it didn't want to work with me. I changed the cream cheese frosting to a honey crème fraiche cream cheese frosting that goes very well with carrot cake. Oh and I made a peach-apricot sorbet. The last time I had carrot cake at restaurant it was served with an apricot sorbet and it went so very nicely with the cake that I wanted to make it at home. I only had a few frozen apricots so I had to go out and buy some peaches. You can make it with fresh … [Read more...]
