TWD: Gingersnaps

I'm not a fan. The taste was reminiscent of ginger but no snap.  A devil to roll and then transfer.  I would not make again.  I'm in a pattern to have one holiday Baking with Julia not turn out.  Last year the Gingerbread was a nightmare for the tongue. I made the White Bread Loaves to soothe my baking soul.





 

TWD: Challah

Challah perfection.  Honestly a great recipe.  We gave a pipping hot loaf as a host gift for a holiday party at a neighbor's house.  The other loaf was devoured on Christmas Day morning and later in the day alongside the Pumpernickel with smoked salmon.

TWD: Pumpernickel Loaves

So many ingredients! Very good just cooled, sliced, toasted and slathered with butter.  I froze one of the loaves and served on Christmas Day with a smoked salmon and a lemon caper cream cheese.  Delish!

TWD: Double Chocolate Cookies

Dark chocolate brownie cookies is what these should be called.  My husband loved these, not too sweet.  My brother's niece (my niece-in-law?) Shannon ate about 10 of these on Christmas day; very much a hit.

TWD: X - Cookies

Broad Brook Bakers have been absent for a while. We've been doing some of the recipes but I've had a difficult last quarter of 2013 in terms of work/life balance.  Enjoy the next few back to back blog entries (they may seem more like twitter posts!)...we've made up some ground and hope to take the rest of the break to fully catch up. 

We did these together back in October.  The kids were not crazy about the ingredients for the filling so we used poppyseed. 

The kids loved making these but thought they were rather plain. I felt the same although they were tasty with a cup of Earl Gray tea.

TWD: Blueberry Muffins

This is the second time I've made blueberry muffins this summer. The first was with fresh New Jersey berries. We gobbled these up faster than I could make them. The second time was a few weeks ago for this Tuesdays with Dorie entry. With this batch I used frozen berries.  The taste is the same but it is hard to prevent most of the berries from sinking to the bottom.












Regardless of frozen or fresh they are hard to keep around. They are delicate, buttery and filled with berry goodness.

What's not to like?

TWD: Johnny Cake Cobbler

After eating the Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas for dinner we had this for dessert.  I had planned to make ramekin-sized portions but having received an invitation for sitting by a neighbor's fire pit I decided to make a large one and share. 



I used peaches that we picked last year and froze, blueberries that we did the same and fresh raspberries and blackberries. 



I loved the crunchiness of the corn meal in the top crust.  The best was when it was still warm but whipped cream makes everything still good if there is any left over.

TWD: Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas

We had high hopes of keeping up with our baking while on our August vacation by the beach.  I took pictures of the recipes on my smart phone before we left. I did lots of cooking with the kids and with my husband.  On one of our first days my son picked Swedish meatballs of all things for dinner.  We were going through the frozen food aisle at the one of two grocery stores on the island. Nathan happens upon the Stouffer's section and is captivated by the Swedish meatballs. We ended up making a homemade version that we assume now will be in our monthly dinner rotation.  We simply did not get the call to bake again until we returned.



I let the sponge go for about 4 hours and when I opened up the plastic wrap there was that wonderful yeasty beer-like smell.



For the first time in quite a while my husband assisted.  He's our family pizza maker so it was apropos.



I used tomatoes from our garden.  Our crop this year has been scant but the fruit that we have are a wonderful quality.



I put the pine nuts on ours and for the kids I left out.



We added a generous drizzling of olive oil and some feta cheese after we plated.




We all enjoyed.  I would reduce the amount of whole wheat flour next time we make this.  I liked the bit of bite that the whole wheat gave but I would have preferred a more tender dough. We loved the combination of the lamb with the tomatoes, garlic and shallots.  We will likely make on a rewind but make some tweaks here and there.

TWD: Summer Vegetable Tart

This was incredibly easy.  Perhaps beginners luck but I also simply did not fuss with it. I used a vadilia onion, sliced orange and yellow pepper in thin strips and a Hungarian wax pepper from our garden.



Halfway through the cooking I placed in a half of box of mushrooms.



I keep phyllo dough on hand. I only put butter here and there in between the layers. I baked in the oven for a few minutes longer than recommended in the recipe in order to get the shell properly golden brown.



After stirring the goat cheese into the vegetables.  Wala! It's complete!



We served this with my husband's famous baby-back ribs. I loved the creaminess of the goat cheese, the crunch of the vegetables and phyllo dough contrasted with the spiciness of the ribs. Perfect balanced meal for summer with very little time required in the kitchen.

Cheers,
Broad Brook Baker

TWD: Baked Yogurt Tart

The July 4th holiday weekend was very hot here in Connecticut.  We spent lots of time in the pool.  Lazy days of summer but there is always time for baking.



I set my sights on making this for the 4th as dessert.  We had family over and made pork tenderloin and ribs. I made the flaky pie crust dough the night before in the Cuisinart.  I rolled out the dough and blind-baked it.



Unfortunately due to rushing, I forgot to put the parchment under the beans and when I tried to remove the beans....disaster.



Good thing I keep store-bought dough in the freezer.



We had lots of fresh berries and peaches to add.  Here it is pre-baked.



And here is the final product.  I enjoyed this tart very much. I liked how light it was on a hot summer day.  It was like cheesecake without the heaviness.  Don't get me wrong, I like cheesecake but when it is 90 degrees out this really hits the spot.

Happy Independence Day Weekend!

Warmly,
Broad Brook Baker

TWD: Tomato Galette

There are a few recipes in Baking with Julia that I've gone back to again and again.  This is one of them.  



The dough is fantastic, those tablespoons of sour cream and the corn meal make it so unique. The texture is lovely. It is a complete must in my opinion to put the dough in the refrigerator overnight. 



I will make this again with native tomatoes but I did already have fresh basil from our garden.



I like the combination of the mozzarella with cheddar. We had this galette with steak for Father's Day dinner.  It was fantastic together. 

Broad Brook Baker

TWD: Savarin

This was a very interesting recipe and I ended up having a lot of fun with it.  The dough seemed so thin and I was rather perplexed how this was going to work out.  





I do not have a ring mold and the mold that I was going to use I could not get clean enough!  So I opted to do individual savarins using a muffin pan.  I was inspired by those diminutive sponge cakes that they always have displayed with strawberries this time of year.



I took two cups of frozen strawberries, blended well and then added a half cup of sugar and cooked to make the less-than-just-simple-syrup.



I soaked the cake well with the syrup and plated with strawberries and whipped cream.



This was truly a hit with the family.  My husband especially who  loved the texture of the cake and how it was not overly sweet.

Happy Spring!  (at least for a few more days!)

Broad Brook Baker