mix, mix…stir, stir

If tiramisu is offered on a restaurant menu, David and I brace ourselves for the inevitable pitch by our server, “it is the best tiramisu in the city!” Why is tiramisu so competitive?  I don’t hear such claims about other desserts, but nearly without fail we hear it for tiramisu. More often than not the grandness of the claim is directly proportionate to the amount of alcohol the tiramisu is laced with.  A couple tiramisus I have had should have come with a “designated driver needed” warning.

I can play that game. This week’s Tuesday with Dorie Tiramisu Cake is the best tiramisu in any city, ever! Honestly, it’s really good and I would put it up against any restaurant version and probably prefer this one that I can make at home. The hooch is minimal, just enough to provide a nice flavor, but far from enough to get you even slightly buzzed.

I broke free from the recipe in a few places; most notably with the construction. Dorie’s version is a basic 2 layer cake that is fully frosted, but I prefer thinner layers of cake, so I sliced each layer in half. To highlight the layered construction of traditional tiramisu I left the sides unfrosted and made sure to soak the edges of the cake with the coffee syrup so they would be a nice dark contrast to the cream filling.

One of my favorite tiramisus was made by my friend Katja. It didn’t have too much alcohol and it was only subtly sweet.  Because the not very sweet approach worked so well in Katja’s version; I dialed back the sweetness in a few ways. I used bittersweet chocolate to sprinkle between the layers, and I sprinkled on an equal amount of cocoa nibs which have no sweetness at all. I cut down the sugar in the frosting from ½ cup to 1/3 cup and as is traditional for tiramisu, dusted the top with unsweetened cocoa powder. I didn’t change the amount of sugar in the cake because I didn’t want to change the texture of the cake. I did, however, double the salt (1/2 tsp.) and add a ½ tsp. of nutmeg. The nutmeg was surprisingly strong and would have been too much to eat the cake plain, but with the coffee syrup and cream filling it was nicely balanced and added a beautiful warm background flavor.

This is an outstanding cake that is light, not overly rich, not overly sweet, and doesn’t require a designated driver. I guess to some those criteria wouldn’t equate to an outstanding cake, but in my book it was. Because the filling is quite soft and fluffy, this really isn’t a cake that you would want to travel very far with. Thank you to Megan of My Baking Adventures for selecting this week’s baking project. She has the recipe posted on her blog if you want to make your very own “best tiramisu in the city.” You can even make one that requires a designated driver and has extra sugar if that’s the way you like it!

I, along with over 350 other baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 72 recipes completed 149 to go!

What makes Real Butterscotch Pudding real?  Scotch whisky! The Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are probably a bit sauced today because this pudding is creamy, delicious, and packs a punch. This isn’t after school pudding, but grown-up, fit for a fancy dinner pudding.

photo by David Peterman

Surprisingly, pudding is a quick dessert to make, even from scratch. I don’t think it really takes much longer to make pudding from scratch than from a box. I will admit, however, that there are more dishes to wash with homemade pudding but the taste is worth every dirty bowl and pot that ends up in the sink. Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours, is more unique in method than ingredients. Using a food processor to blend the pudding and adding the butter in at the end are the two steps that really make Dorie’s puddings so silky and luscious.

I don’t allow pudding skin, so plastic wrap is pressed right down on the surface of the pudding before it goes in the refrigerator to ensure a leathery top layer doesn’t form. I did end up with plastic wrap wrinkles on the surface of my puddings, but was able to down-play them with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and a dusting of freshly grated nutmeg. Nutmeg works really well with the butterscotch flavor and look nice too.

If you are looking for a comforting but sophisticated dessert for Christmas, Real Butterscotch Pudding is perfect. It is a quick, make a head of time, dessert that will impress; and if you have a house full of visitors, get them to do the dishes! Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases selected the recipe for this week and you can find it posted on her blog or of course in Dories Book, which should be on your Christmas list if you don’t already own a copy.

This week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie activity of baking Pumpkin Muffins led to a pancake and cranberry maple syrup creation all because the grocery store only had large cans of pumpkin. Leftovers generate such creativity!

photo by David Peterman

Muffins first. Dorie’s recipe for pumpkin muffins in Baking: From My Home to Yours, is very good. As usual, my taste preferences drove me to fiddle with it a bit. I substituted half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour, which is a very finely ground flour made from soft wheat that has a low protein level and thus has less gluten forming ability, which results in tender baked goods. Whole wheat pastry flour is a great way to add a touch of whole wheat goodness while avoiding the heavy dense texture that can result with some whole wheat baked goods.

Protein content in flour
Low protein flour is sold as pastry flour or cake flour and is a good choice when baking goods where tenderness is the goal, for example, biscuits, muffins, cakes, and pie crusts. Often a combination of all-purpose flour and pastry flour works nicely. On the other end of the spectrum is bread flour which is high in protein and great for forming the strong gluten bonds necessary for bread to rise and hold its shape. The tricky element is the protein content of flour ranges depending on where the wheat is grown. In the southern region of the U.S, all-purpose flour has much lower protein content than flour in other parts of the country. National brands of all-purpose flour have a protein content of 11-12, but all-purpose flour in the South, such as White Lily brand, has a protein content of only 8-9. Pastry flour generally has a protein level of 8-9 with cake flour at 7-8.  Whole wheat pastry flour has a protein content of 9 vs. anywhere from 11-15 for whole wheat flour. Just for reference, bread flour is in the 12-13 range. So if a recipe works great at home, but bombs when making the same recipe while visiting a different part of the country, it could be the flour, not you!

Ref: McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking. New York, Scribner, 2004.
Corriher, Shirley. CookWise. New York, HarperCollins, 1997.
Wing, Daniel and Alan Scott. The Bread Builders Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens. White River Jct., VT, Chelsea Green, 1999.

I added half a cup of fresh cranberries because I had them on hand, and cranberries with pumpkin, well, you just can’t go wrong. Dorie suggests topping the muffins with sunflower seeds, but I stayed true to the pumpkin theme and when with pumpkin seeds (pepitas) then gilded the lily with a sprinkling of ginger sugar to add a nice crunch to the top. I increased the amount of salt to 1/2 tsp. from 1/4, which just didn’t seem like enough for the volume of batter and all the other spices. There were many comments in the group that the 400 degree F oven temperature was too hot; I choose to bake at 350 degrees F with a convection fan, and my muffins baked beautifully in about 22 minutes.

Overall, I love the results. They are flavorful, tender, and most importantly, not greasy. The cranberries add a nice tart zing and great color. A big thank you to Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp for selecting a recipe to get us all in the mood for fall and one that inspired some great pancake improvisation – read on…

photo by David Peterman

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cranberry Maple Syrup

These deliciously dressed up pancakes are the result of leftover pumpkin after making pumpkin muffins. The Cranberry Maple Syrup walks the line between a beautiful jam and syrup, with the whole cranberries offering textural interest and the perfect tartness to play against the sweet maple syrup. The pecans in the pancakes blend seamlessly with the syrup, like a perfect match. This would be a very festive start to Thanksgiving or Christmas day. Leftover pancakes freeze well and reheat nicely in the toaster for a quick mid-week breakfast. 

Makes about 10 six-inch pancakes.

Cranberry Maple Syrup
1 cup whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp. dark rum or bourbon
zest of one orange
2 star anise pods, or a cinnamon stick

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the cranberries begin to pop, cook at a low boil for 5 minutes stirring and mashing the berries occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside. When ready to serve, remove the star anise pods or cinnamon stick and re-warm if necessary.

Pumpkin Pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. clove
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Preheat griddle to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and nuts. Mix well to incorporate the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, pumpkin, and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir just enough to combine. A few lumps and dusty spots are better than over mixed batter.

Ladle batter onto hot oiled griddle or frying pan and cook until golden brown on both sides. Serve with Cranberry Maple Syrup.

Big, thick, chewy, peanutbuttery, chocolaty chunky cookies is what I’m talking about. How could that be anything but good?

photo by David Peterman

The Tuesdays with Dorie group had me making cookies this week. This recipe, which you can find in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours, brings the three classics of chocolate, oatmeal, and peanut butter, together in a delicious and harmonious way without letting one single ingredient steal the spotlight. I really expected these to be peanut butter cookies with stuff in them, but far from it. It could be that the addition of cinnamon and nutmeg ends up keeping all the star ingredients in check.

Two process discoveries I made: I preferred them cooked a bit crispier than I normally bake cookies, and the dough was better after aging in the fridge for two days. Dorie recommends baking at 350 degrees F and because I usually bake with the convection fan on, which makes the oven a bit hotter, I dropped the temp to 325 degrees F. The second batch I baked at 350 with convection and let them go until I saw the tops just starting to brown, and though they were a bit crispy they weren’t dry. The crunchier bite worked becasue of the peanut butter component in the dough.

photo by David Peterman

The idea of cookie dough benefiting from a 24 to 72 hour rest in the fridge was first brought to my attention by a New York Times article on the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I can’t honestly say that I noticed as dramatic a difference as the article set me up to expect when I tried their recipe and baked batches off at different time intervals, but with this dough I did prefer the extended resting period becasue the oats softened and became more integrated into the baked cookie. The hearty thick cut oats I used were a bit toothsome the first day I baked them. I didn’t intend to test the resting period with this dough, it just worked out that I didn’t have the time to bake the whole batch at once and ended up with a happy discovery.

The NYT article did have a permanent impact on my cookie baking, but because of salt not resting time. A light sprinkle of salt on the cookies before baking delivers a perfect delicately salty counterpoint to the sweetness of the dough and chocolate. Though my choice is flake salt, specifically Murray River Flake Salt over sea salt.

It was fun to bake cookies this week. Thanks to Stefany of Proceed with Caution for the great selection.

photo by David Peterman

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking task selected by Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen found me, unfortunately, short of such luck at the store and a bit short on time for baking-worthy ripeness to develop on my bananas, I proceeded none-the-less. Despite not having the perfect banana situation I managed to make some very tasty banana bread. What made this recipe delicious and unique is the addition of nutmeg. What is so lovely and surprising is the nutmeg hangs back letting you experience the chocolate and banana flavors before revealing itself. It is such a delightful bloom of flavor at the finish of each bite.

I found the chocolate portion of the bread less interesting. I suspect if I had a stronger banana flavor from truly ripe bananas, the chocolate flavor would have been better balanced and integrated with the banana flavor in a more interesting way. Either way I found myself coming back for more.