This week, I’m a little late posting, but I *did* make the Linzer Sables picked by Dennis from Living the Life.

Though I left out the nuts in the cookies, I made up for that by doubling the filling – chocolate plus strawberry jam! Yum.

Yummy chocolate-strawberry filling.

Will I be making these again? Probably not. Too dry and hard for my preferences, and there are so many other cookies that I prefer. But still, they were definitely yummy.

Linzer Sables

I love pumpkin pie. I love pecan pie. So why not both in one?

Even though she isn’t from the US, Vibi of La Casserole Carreé chose the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Very thoughtful of her, because this is perfect for those of us in the US who needed a pie to bring to our Thanksgiving celebrations… like me! (I hope my family likes it as much as Son and I do!)

I know a lot of people had problems with this pie – although I had to bake the pie at 300° for twice as long as the recipe called for, there was no burning and the pie tastes wonderful. Very festive.

Oh, and there were also complaints about having too much filling. I doubled the recipe to make two pies, and with what was left over I made a mini pie in a custard cup… perfect!

Erm, and then there was that issue of rum. Yeah… I don’t drink alcohol. Son doesn’t drink alcohol. So spending that much for a huge bottle of rum that we’ll never use? Definitely not. However… over the summer, we were lucky enough to be invited to an awesome dinner party held by Diane and Todd of White on Rice Couple. There was a gift exchange, and we got a bottle of walnut liqueur from Brooke of Food Woolf. For a while we were scratching our heads, not quite sure what to do with it, but now we’ve finally found a solution! The subtle walnut liqueur works amazingly with the pumpkin pie filling and nutty pecan pie topping.

Here, have a slice of pie.

Plus, I have another reason to love this pie. Before this pie, I have never, ever had a pie turn out well. Either the pie ends up looking more like a turkey, or the filling never sets… it’s never a very pretty pie. Until now!

Pumpkin AND Pecan in one pie… yum!

Kugelhopf, like rugelach, is another baked good that I had never in my life heard of before Yolanda from All-Purpose Girl picked it for TWD. However, I wasn’t too intimidated by this one – I’ve made brioche before (several people said this was similar) and I figure I can deal with any bread studded with chocolate chips.

Just look at those chocolate chips!

Wait, chocolate chips? Didn’t the recipe call for raisins? Well, yes, but I’m not a huge fan of raisins, and didn’t have any in my apartment, so chocolate chips it was.

I’m cutting a slice just for you…

Also, no traditional kugelhopf pan – I can’t justify buying a pan that I’ll probably never use again. But it turned out just as well in a regular loaf pan.

The airy bread would be perfect with a cup of coffee.

I even made a mini loaf of kugelhopf! Unfortunately, no pictures. We ate it as soon as it had cooled – sliced up the mini kugelhopf loaf and bananas, and scattered them atop some ice cream and drizzled it all with chocolate sauce. Seriously guys, it was an amazing way to eat the kugelhopf. The crispy, airy, somewhat dry kugelhopf paired incredibly well with the ice cream and bananas, and what isn’t improved by a little chocolate sauce?

Would you like some?

When I heard this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick by Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal was rugelach, well, I was a bit skeptical. I’ve never even heard of rugelach, never mind actually ever having some. So you can understand why I might be a wee bit nervous about making a brand new sweet, especially when I still have baked goods from previous weeks laying around.

See the gooey jam and chocolate oozing out?

Oh man, were my worries unfounded. Although I was reminded of something I had made before by the way they were rolled, the rugelach were so much better. Seriously. I ate four as soon as they were cool enough to touch. It’s possible that there won’t be any left tomorrow.

Just look at that… yummy, sweet, gooey…

Rather than using the exact fillings that Dorie lists, I used her suggestions more as guidelines. For the jam, I used my favorite jam in the whole wide world – my grandmother’s strawberry jam. Seriously, I’m spoiled. I won’t eat any other jam. (Remind me to get that recipe from her someday… I must learn to make it!) I used just a sprinkling of pecans for the nuts (I’m not a huge nut fan), and a ton of chocolate. What? I like chocolate. Although a lot of the jam melted all over the pan rather than staying in the rugelach, it still turned out wonderfully. And very addictive. I have a feeling these (along with the biscotti) may be making another appearance during the holidays…

Mmmmm… strawberry jam…

Chocolate cupcakes. What’s not to love about chocolate cupcakes? Particularly when the deep chocolate cupcakes are glazed with a dark chocolate ganache.

So yummy.

I’ll say it again. Chocolate. Cupcakes.

Don’t you want one?

This week for Tuesdays with Dorie, Clara from I ♥ Food for Thought picked the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes. Yum, yum, yum. My favorite TWD recipe thus far!

I think I need to have another. Right now. Yum.

Oh, pumpkin muffins. For the first time since I joined the Tuesdays with Dorie group, I didn’t screw up a single thing while making them. Although I did almost miss the posting deadline… oops. I got rather busy in the last week, so I ended up making them this afternoon.

A great accompaniment to a good book.

Yum. These are perfectly autumn-y, great with a hot cup of whatever drink you please and a good book. Although they’re slightly dry on the outside, they are extremely moist when you get to the center. Just plain delicious.

You can find the recipe on Sounding My Barbaric Gulp, or buy the cookbook here.

Yum!

Don’t forget, you have until Friday to enter my Sugoi Garlic Sauce Contest!

As always, on Tuesdays, it’s time to post the Tuesdays with Dorie pictures. This week, Canela y Comino chose biscotti. Normally, I am not a huge biscotti fan. I find that it’s too hard to bite into, and in general, not very enjoyable for me. My mother, however… she’s on the other end of the spectrum. She loves biscotti. So my first thought when I heard that this week’s TWD recipe was biscotti was… mom?

Since my mother would be the one eating most of the biscotti, I decided that it would be best to call her and determine what flavor combination she would prefer. Let me just say, my mother is a genius. The substitutions she picked resulted in some amazing biscotti.

Instead of almond extract, I used orange, and replaced the almond slivers with chopped pecans. Once the biscotti were twice-baked and cooled, I dipped them in melted semi-sweet chocolate – a perfect finishing touch. I brought them to a family gathering, and everyone loved them. Want to make them yourself? You can buy the cookbook here!

Such delicious biscotti!

Welcome to week two of Allison screws up the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe! Last week, the crème brûlée had all it’s parts, tasted delicious, but just wasn’t very pretty. This week, however… oh dear. The recipe was for Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake – sounds simple, right? Well, that which *should* have gone wrong turned out fine, while that which should have been easy-peasy failed miserably.

I do not own a springform pan. I did not have time to go out and buy a springform pan. The recipe says to use a springform pan. Um… oops? Instead, I used an 8″ circular cake pan. You know I breathed a sigh of relief when the cake turned out beautifully. I don’t think anything was lost by using a different pan! *whew* Thank goodness I at least got the base of the recipe right!

Caramel Chocolate-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

Well, let’s see. If I got the cake right, what else could I possibly mess up? That’s right, the topping. I was *supposed* to make a caramel topping for the cake. Should have been pretty simple, right? Or not. The recipe said to cook the caramel 5-10 min before putting the heavy cream and butter in. I cooked it 20 minutes, and it still wasn’t darkening much, so I put the dairy in. Crudmonkeys. Bad idea. The topping turned out to be a soupy mess, and cooking it longer in hopes that it might caramelize only turned it into a *stinky* soupy mess. Dang.

Normally, I would have tossed it and tried again. But, um, that was the last of my heavy cream. And I didn’t have time to go to the store, because I had to leave on *another* trip. Shoot. After a few moments of panic (what the heck am I going to top this cake with?!?!), I called my mother in hopes that she had a frosting/glaze recipe that was easy and that I wouldn’t have to buy extra ingredients for. My mother is a lifesaver. She has a chocolate glaze recipe that she uses quite often that worked wonderfully with the cake. And I managed not to screw it up. Yay!

Although I’ll bet the caramel topping would have been wonderful, I thoroughly enjoyed the cake with the chocolate glaze, garnished with peanut halves. Yum.

Delicious and chocolate-y!

The original recipe for the Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake can be found on Wee Treats By Tammy. I give to you the recipe for the chocolate glaze:

Ingredients

• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar

Cooking Directions

1. In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter together.
2. Add the hot water.
3. Quickly stir in the powdered sugar.
4. Pour the glaze over the cake, let cool.

I’m so ashamed. I joined the Tuesday’s With Dorie baking group and I was so excited about being able to bake along with them! But then… I miss a week. And not just any week… my first week. How terrible is that?

It really wasn’t my fault, I swear! I was already to bake this week’s recipe, so I headed over to my local grocery store to buy the ingredients that I didn’t have… the whole milk and the heavy cream. I went over to the dairy section, and… nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. The dairy section was almost completely empty. I’m guessing they had some sort of power outage so they had to get rid of all the diary… unfortunately, this meant no crème brûlée for me. No way would I be able to make it in time.

Lucky for me, I was able to get to another grocery store today and get the dairy products I needed. So although they are just a little late… they’re here. Just for you. Yay!

So, on to the food. And the recipe, since that’s what you really care about. Hmmm. I wanted to tell you about the first time I ever had crème brûlée, and how much I adore the dessert, but… I actually have no recollection of ever trying it. Really? Wow. I have had crème brûlée *flavored* mochilato (like mochi ice cream but with gelato instead of ice cream), but I don’t think I’ve ever had crème brûlée. This is astonishing. Crazy. Really, have I never had it? *Wracks her brain one more time for crème brûlée memories*… nope. Never.

Cracking the sugar topping with a spoon

Which is why my first time trying crème brûlée (today!) was amazing. Wonderful. Delicious. Despite all the setbacks, (inability to find dairy products, can’t find the right dishes, and no flamethrower blowtorch!) they were entirely worth it. Perhaps these may make another appearance for a certain someone’s birthday?

Since I didn’t have the traditional crème brûlée dishes, I used glass custard cups instead, which gave me four servings instead of six. Unfortunately, this also meant they took longer to cook. A lot longer. Also, I have no blowtorch. I don’t know anyone who lives very close to me who has a blowtorch. Thus, I couldn’t use a flame to caramelize the sugar topping. Oh well, broiler it was. Probably a bit more work than using a blowtorch, and not quite as pretty, but it still worked fantastically.

Digging in… yum!

Oh, and the recipe? It can be found here. Really, though, I think you should buy the book. It’s a fantastic cookbook… you’ll be seeing many more desserts from “Baking From My Home To Yours” in the coming weeks! Also, if you would like to join the Tuesday’s With Dorie baking group and bake with us, you have until October 31! After that, they’re closing the doors and not allowing any more new members.