I made toffee on the weekend. I had my former team out for snacks and games on Saturday night, and figured this would make a good contribution to the snack stash. I was not wrong.
Tag: chocolate
Catching up and Chocolate Tarts
I’ve had a busy few weeks. That doesn’t really explain my lack of posting, because it really doesn’t take me long to write up a blog post. It might explain some of the lack of baking, though? To catch up a little bit this week, I’m posting about the ChocolaTea cake, the blueberry buckle, and the mini chocolate ganache tartlets, all from The Baking Bible. I’ll also give you a little bit of a rundown on the stuff I’ve been up to outside of the kitchen, lately.
Mud Turtle Pie
What’s a mud turtle pie, aside from this week’s recipe from Rose’s Alpha Bakers? It’s a pecan pie, with chocolate on top. Think a turtle candy, but the caramel’s a little less chewy. I went with the milk chocolate ganache, rather than the dark option. And I made the ganache long before making any of the rest of the pie. I also made 2 pies, since, as someone pointed out recently, it’s really not that much more work than one pie. I had some pie dough in the freezer, so I just doubled the other parts of the recipe, so that I could leave one at home for Jay while I’m away visiting family this week, and take one into work, sort of in part as a thank you for my co-worker bringing in a rhubarb custard pie on Friday.
Catching up…
It’s strawberry season! I can’t quite keep up with the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks in my patch, so I picked up some berries from Herrle’s Market on Friday night. I love that place, and they just opened for the season while I was in Nashville. This Saturday was the St Agatha strawberry festival as well, so it seemed like the time was ripe (!) for catching up with the strawberry shortcake. I’ve also been slacking on my responsibilities to charity, in delivery of baked goods to Gilad, so I gave him the choice – brioche (which I missed 2 weeks ago), strawberry shortcake (which I missed at Easter), chocolate cake (this weekend’s scheduled “Alpha Bakers” recipe), or… brioche made into cinnamon rolls (inspired by a conversation while travelling). He said it all sounded good, but cinnamon rolls sounded the best, so I knew that was going to go into the plans for the weekend too. Then of course, since I’m trying to catch up, and not trying to fall further behind in my baking, I had to make the double damage oblivion this weekend, too. That’d probably be plenty for a normal weekend, but my parents happen to be in town at the moment, so all of this needed to be planned around spending time with them, too.
Polish Princess Cake
I was chatting with one of my teammates on Friday afternoon, close to the end of the day, and said that I was going home to do some baking. He asked what I was baking, and when I answered, he asked what made it Polish. I suggested it might have something to do with the vodka!
Chocolate Pavarotti With Wicked Good Ganache
Trying out posting from my phone, tonight, because I don’t think I’ll have enough time in front of a computer tonight to get this posted. This week’s selection from the alpha bakers group is a chocolate cake with a spicy ganache.
Continue reading “Chocolate Pavarotti With Wicked Good Ganache”
Chocolate Cuddle Cake
On Saturday morning, I looked at my counter, where you can find: a tin of holiday treats and a bag of chocolates from my friends, a tin of Chocolate Chip Cookies (from The Baking Bible), not one, but TWO gingerbread houses, leftover candy from decorating gingerbread houses, and two boxes of handmade truffles. In the freezer, there are still two pieces of frozen pecan pie, and the fridge had a couple of pieces of fruitcake and a couple of pieces of cheesecake. So, what’s a girl to do, when she’s participating in a bake-through with friends from all over the world? Bake anyway, and plan on taking the bulk of it to work. So, that’s what I did/will do tomorrow.
…I just want to know where this cake gets its name. Continue reading “Chocolate Cuddle Cake”
The Ischler
It turns out I’m bad at remembering to post, until I go to get myself a snack and think “Oh, right, I’m supposed to blog about these.” I don’t remember what I thought about these cookies the first time around, but I do remember baking them as part of testing recipes for The Baking Bible. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lekvar (apricot puree, more or less) that I have in the fridge is from when I was testing recipes. This week, the “alpha” bakers were working on The Ischler. Apparently, this is a cookie that is normally dipped in chocolate, but Rose’s take has an equal amount of chocolate in every bite. You can find the recipe on the blog that Rose has linked to, here.
I decided to make mine star-shaped, for more Christmassyness (yes, that’s a word, now).
Black Chocolate Party Cake
I’m back! I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t been back from our trip for a while, or that I have any excuse for not baking recently, I’ve just been lazy. Well, I was sick last weekend, but aside from that, I’ve just been lazy. On Saturday, I decided to change that. This week, while the rest of the group is baking the Bernachon Palet D’or (which I baked in May 2010, but apparently never tasted), I decided to bake the black chocolate party cake, which Marie baked back in 2009, though I’m not sure when the rest of the group might have done it. I chose this one because of the cakes I have yet to bake it was the one I actually had the right ingredients on hand for.
Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
Just a quick note with a quote and a link to my previous post. Apparently, I neglected to blog about these the first time I made them, but I remember them being really good, so I’ll have to make them again. Here’s what I posted about them the first time (last October):
By the way, I did make the chocolate soufflé/lava cakes last weekend, but neglected to blog about it. We finished up the kitchen reno on Saturday, then spent the weekend in it, cooking, baking, and prepping. Monday, we hosted my grandparents, 2 sets of aunts and uncles, and a couple of cousins for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a fantastic way to celebrate the end of the reno.
And now, off to finish up the packing. Tomorrow night, we’ve booked a car to pick us up and take us to Union Station in Toronto, where we board the train and head west to Jasper, AB, for a 5th anniversary trip, that just happens to coincide with the Jasper Dark Skies festival. I’m so excited!
eatsndrinks.ca 