Pineapple Coconut Dacquiose

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge was Dorie's Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquiose, chosen by Andrea of Andrea in the Kitchen (who has the recipe within her blog). What a great choice and a wonderfully light, refreshing dessert for the tropical dinner menu I prepared tonight! This was a recipe I was fairly intimidated with but soon felt relieved halfway through.



This dessert consists of thin meringue layers made with egg whites, coconut, and almonds. The egg whites must be whipped to a soft peak consistency...



... while unsweetened coconut, slivered almonds, cornstarch and confectioner's sugar are processed together.



Both these mixtures are folded together to create the basis of the cake's meringue layers.



The recipe called for baking three rectangular layers which will result in one cake. However, I've been into making individual desserts lately to make serving and presentation easier. Rather than layers, I made thin meringue cookies instead.

Other components of the cake include a white chocolate ganache, toasted coconut and thin slices of caramelized pineapple.

To assemble, I took one meringue cookie and topped it with a dollop of the white chocolate ganache, followed by a layer of caramelized pineapple and a sprinkling of the toasted coconut. I repeated this with two other meringue cookies, ending with a dollop of the white chocolate ganache, a sprinkling and a single caramelized pineapple wedge as garnish.


It was a perfect ending to our summer meal! Please check out how the other fellow Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers did with their cake!

Read more »

Honey Peach Ice Cream

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge was Dorie's Honey Peach Ice Cream, chosen by Tommi of Brown Interior (who has the recipe within her blog). What a great choice and a perfect time for ice cream! This was the first ice cream I've made since last year so I certainly appreciated a TWD excuse to crank up my ice cream maker.


To make this ice cream, fresh peaches are softened and blended with honey for a peach puree.



To form a custard base, milk and heavy cream are warmed up in a saucepan...


... while egg yolks and sugar are whisked together in a small bowl.


The peach puree, warmed milk/cream mixture and egg/sugar mixture are then combined to create the ice cream mixture...


Once the mixture is chilled, it's ready to churn in the ice cream maker.


After churning, the ice cream is placed in the freezer to allow the flavors to meld. It's a good idea to plan ahead in making ice cream because I've found the longer it freezes before serving, the better the flavor. I know... it's tempting to wait for homemade ice cream, but trust me when I say it's definitely worth it!

Check out how the other TWD bakers did with the recipe by checking out the Tuesdays With Dorie website!

Read more »

Parisian Caramel Apple Tartlets

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge was Dorie's Parisian Apple Tartlets, chosen by Jessica of My Baking Heart. You really can't go wrong with a pastry made with layers upon layers of butter... and anything topping such a pastry is bound to be delicious. Such is the case as these tarts. Aside from apples, you could make this with pears, peaches, mangoes, pretty much any kind of fruit your heart desires. Be sure to check out how fellow TWD bakers did with this recipe!


Parisian Apple Tartlets involves using puff pastry cut into a circle and topping it with 4 chunks of apple. Bits of butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar grace the apples before baking. The result is a buttery tart with apple in every bite. This is such a great dessert that requires no time at all, and is elegant for any dinner party.


I stuck with the recipe and used apples for the tarts, but topped it with a buttery caramel sauce and some chopped walnuts for more texture. Here's the recipe I used for my caramel sauce:

Caramel Sauce
recipe from Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix the water and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Do not stir. Increase the heat to medium and boil uncovered until the sugar turns a warm chestnut brown (about 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer), about 5 to 7 minutes, gently swirling the pan to stir the mixture. Be careful – the mixture is extremely hot! Watch the mixture very carefully at the end, as it will go from caramel to burnt very quickly. Turn off the heat. Stand back to avoid splattering and slowly add the cream and vanilla. Don't worry - the cream will bubble violently and the caramel will solidify.

Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the caramel dissolves and the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours. It will thicken as it sits.

Read more »

Cinnamon Cakes

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge is the recipe for Cinnamon Squares, chosen by Tracy of Tracy's Culinary Adventures. I really liked this recipe because it called for everyday ingredients and basic staples... making it easy to have a homemade cake at any time. The cake itself involves a buttery cinnamon batter, chocolate chips dusted with cinnamon espresso sugar and topped with more batter before baking. If that wasn't enough, the cake is finished off with a bittersweet chocolate frosting.


Rather than making the cake in an 8"x8" pan, I opted to use my jumbo cupcake/muffin pan to make individual cakes. The recipe was perfect to yield 6 jumbo cupcakes. In the process of carefully removing the cupcakes from the pan, a few of the bottoms stuck to the pan so I decided to served them "bottoms up" (that way I could frost the cracks and hide the imperfections!) Served with some homemade whipped cream, it was a perfect ending to dinner!

Read more »

Chipster Topped Brownies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe came at a great time! I prepared the Chipster Topped Brownie for our friends' Memorial Day Dinner. It was a perfect dessert for the weekend and was so easy to make. Thanks goes out to Beth of Supplicious for choosing this week's recipe!


Why debate over making chocolate chip cookies or brownies when you can have both! The recipe involves preparing a walnut brownie batter and topping it with a chocolate chip cookie dough batter. This combination of 2 favorite classics are baked for about an hour and then enjoyed with a nice cold glass of milk.


I really enjoyed this recipe because of how easy it was to make. The only change I made was to make the recipe in a 9"x9" square pan, because I like my brownies and bars on the thick side. It also prevents me from overbaking them. I also enjoy a slightly underdone bar... you get both the gooey chocolate brownie and chocolate chip cookie dough mixed together and it's complete heaven!


Be sure to check out the other bakers who made this delicious dessert!

Read more »

Mangolicious Bread

This week for our Tuesdays With Dorie baking challenge, Kelly of Baking with the Boys chose Dorie's recipe for Fresh Mango Bread. It's a delicious recipe that is more reminiscent of a cake than a (quick) bread.


This recipe involves preparing a dough of the usual suspects - eggs, oil, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. The fun part comes when ground ginger, ground cinnamon, fresh lime zest and fresh mangoes get added in.

I didn't have much luck finding good, juicy mangoes at the grocery store, so I settled for frozen mango chunks... but not just plain mango chunks. This package of "Mangolicious" frozen mangoes caught my eye which included some frozen raspberries and blueberries.


The dough wasn't exactly a batter, as one would assume for this supposed quick bread. It was rather crumbly, especially when the fruit was introduced. I was sure I botched something along the way since I packed the dough into my loaf pan...


But after baking for almost an hour and a half (which I thought was rather long), it did come out nicely. I liked how the raspberries and blueberries gave the bread some bursts of color and I look forward to making french toast with this later in the week!

Be sure to check out how the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers did with their Fresh Mango Bread!

Read more »

Tartest Lemon Tart

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie baking challenge fell right around Mother's Day, allowing me to make something delicious for my mother in law. I would have baked for my mom, but she's enjoying the tropical sunshine and delicious foods overseas (so jealous!). These Tartest Lemon Tarts were the perfect gift, or "a labor of love" (as my mother in law puts it), making our Mother's Day gift something she enjoyed.


To make the tart, a whole lemon and a half was used - peel and all! It's no wonder that these definitely live up to it's name as being the Tartest Lemon Tarts.


The recipe calls for placing a whole lemon and a half into a blender with sugar. Thankfully, my Vitamix blender did a fine job with no problem.


Once blended to a pulp, an egg, egg yolks, cornstarch, heavy cream and melted butter is added to the mix. It takes another whirl in the blender before pouring into a pre-baked tart shell.


After it baked for under an hour, I let them cool, chill and garnished with a dusting of powdered sugar and a fresh mint leaf from my Aerogarden.


Changes I made to the original recipe was reducing the amount of filling and dough to make enough tart dough for 3 smaller tarts, since I knew my mother in law wouldn't be able to finish a whole one. It was the perfect amount that fit nicely in the box I used.


For an additional treat, I made my mother in law some chocolate covered strawberries too. They came out okay and she definitely loved everything. Thanks to Babette of Babette Feasts for choosing this recipe! Be sure to check out how other Tuesday With Dorie bakers did with their tarts!

Read more »

Tiramisu (Birthday) Cake!

It's another Tuesdays with Dorie and I love that this week's baking challenge fell so close to my birthday... It made it easier for me to come up with a cake flavor to make and celebrate with! For this week, fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers made her Tiramisu Cake, chosen by Megan, of My Baking Adventures.



This cake involved making the cake batter, espresso extract, espresso syrup, mascarpone filling and frosting. Once finished, it needed to chill to allow the flavors to meld. For garnish, I used bittersweet chocolate chips to coat the edges, dusted the top with unsweetened cocoa and added some chocolate covered espresso beans for good measure.

Overall, I thought the cake was good with a really nice crumb. If there was anything I would do differently if I made this again, I would double the filling/frosting (because that's my favorite part of tiramisu)! Be sure to check out how the tiramisu cake turned out for other TWD bakers!

Read more »