Chocolate Biscotti - Tuesdays with Dorie

Chocolate Biscotti

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes picked Chocolate Biscotti from Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I used raw almonds (chopped a bit) and mini chocolate chips. Next time, I'm going to add dried cherries...that would be awesomeness.

Biscotti are twice baked cookies. Bake off a log, let cool for a bit and then cut and bake on its side. This finishes the baking and dries them out...making them crunchy. I like to leave a bit of "soft" in the center.

Grab a couple biscotti and a cup of coffee or tea. Nothing better.

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and see their creations!

Recipe:
Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes blog,
or, Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 144)

Olive Oil Muffins - Giada De Laurentiis

Olive Oil Muffins

Sorry I've been MIA lately. A few things came up, but I hope to get back to blogging and baking. Wishing you a great Memorial Day weekend! :)

Here is fellow UCLA Bruin Giada's Olive Oil Muffins. Giada has a BA in Anthropology - just like me! Goooo Bruins!!!!

Easy to make, they include extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar! Give them a try with a nice espresso or coffee.

Recipe:
Click here for printable recipe
Adapted from Olive Oil Muffin recipe from Food Network - Giada De Laurentiis

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons whole milk
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Powdered sugar, for sifting

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare 12-muffin tin.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat the sugar, eggs, and zests in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes (I used the whisk attachment of my KitchenAid mixer)
4. Beat in the vinegar and milk.
5. Gradually beat in the oil.
6. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended (I did this with a rubber spatula).
7. Crush the almonds with your hands as you add them to the batter and stir until mixed.
8. Fill the muffin tin almost to the top of the paper liners.
9. Bake until golden on top and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 20 to 25 minutes.
10. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins onto a platter and let cool for 5 more minutes.
11. Sift powdered sugar over the muffins and serve.

Swedish Visiting Cake - Tuesdays with Dorie

Swedish Visiting Cake

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs picked Swedish Visiting Cake on page 197 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Nancy is awesome! I've been following her blog for a long time, and all her tweets. Her entries are filled with notes...you know that she made the cake and analyzed it for us. And of course Nancy picks a winner of a cake!

This is a simple and delightful cake. I love tea cakes, and this was super yummy.

You are supposed to make it a 10" cast iron skillet but I made mine in a 10" cake pan. Both still yummy! :)

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

I'm celebrating National Library Week on the Food Librarian blog. Stick around to check out the five days of giveaways this week!

Recipe:
Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs' blog or...
Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, page 197

French Macaron Class with Tartelette

Tartelette in the house! (Well, at least in Southern California).

Thanks to the efforts of Rachael, Gaby and Jenny, Helene Dujardin (Tartelette) came out to Los Angeles to conduct macaron and food photography classes. Whoo hoo!

Having never made French macarons before (but eaten plenty), this class was great. Who knew aged egg whites, almonds, powdered sugar and granulated sugar could make such pretty treats!

The class was fun because I also got to meet a bunch of food bloggers and catch up with ones I met at BlogHerFood.

This is the best "to go" box ever.

Thank you sooo much Rachael, Gaby and Jenny for setting up these classes!
Both classes totally rocked!

Cafe Beaujolais' Buttermilk-Cinnamon Coffeecake

Cafe Beaujolais' Buttermilk-Cinnamon Coffeecake

The Los Angeles Times Food Section has an online feature: Opening the Vault: 25 Years of our Best Recipes.

I needed to bring a coffeecake for work and spotted one on the 1985 list Top 12 recipes of 1985. It is interesting to see what was popular back in 1985...like Nachos!

This is seriously an easy cake to make. Just need a whisk and a couple bowls. It uses oil and buttermilk for the fat and liquid.

Cafe Beaujolais' Buttermilk-Cinnamon Coffeecake
Adapted from LA Times website

2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 + 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon (divided)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I use Penzy's ground ginger)
3/4 cup corn oil (I used canola oil)
1 cup sliced almonds (I used sliced almonds from Trader Joe's)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg (I used 1 large egg)
1 cup buttermilk

Mix flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, salt and ginger. Blend in oil until smooth. Remove 3/4 cup mixture and combine with almonds and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix and set aside.

To remaining flour mixture, add baking powder, baking soda, egg and buttermilk. Blend until smooth. Pour into buttered 13x9-inch baking pan. Sprinkle reserved nut mixture evenly over surface of batter. Bake at 350 degrees 35 to 40 minutes. (Mine took 35 minutes to bake). Place pan on wire rack to cool.

Recipe:

LA Times website
Cafe Beaujolais' Buttermilk-Cinnamon Coffeecake

Nectarine Buckle (Peach Buckle by Everyday Food)

Oh, I'm such a wild girl!

Not.

I've been a pretty boring chica lately. Sometimes, I think my excitement for the day is driving 7 miles over the speed limit (with two hands on the steering wheel...)

Yesterday, I engaged my lead foot and did something crazy in the kitchen.

I switched nectarines for the peach.

I know!! C R A Z Y.

I'm sure this'll be on the next DVD of Fruit Gone Wild.

I replaced the peaches with absolutely delicious mango flavored nectarines from Ken's Top Notch Produce at the farmer's market. This is breeding done right.

Peaches or Nectarines are folded into the batter. The topping is sugar, cinnamon and sliced almonds. I've also made a Peach and Blueberry Buckle - that's yum too.

And why did I pick the Peach Buckle?

I don't want to go all TMI on you, but my gums are pathetic. For some reason, one speck of plaque on my teeth cause much, much misery. I need to get my teeth cleaned four times a year. I see my hygienist more than my relatives. I'm supposed to floss twice a day, Sonicare after every meal, use a prescription toothpaste ($17 a tube!), Waterpik, Sulcabrush and not snack too much (that one I can't handle). I'm probably the only one in the library with an electric toothbrush on my desk (behind my monitor - not next to the reference books, thank you very much). But last month I had more dental issues and mega sensitivity on one of my molars. My dentist said they need to cover the exposed nerves with a "buckle."

And what did I think when I hear "buckle"? Novocaine? No...Fruit Buckle!!

However, I later learned that my dentist was probably talking about the buccal surface of the tooth...oh well, I'm calling this My Buckle for My Buccal!

Got peaches? Got nectarines? Got blueberries?
Got bad gums or need dental work?
Make this buckle! (and then brush and floss your teeth)

Recipe:
Peach Buckle
from Everyday Food

French Pear Tart (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Dorie Greenspan's French Pear Tart

Happy Anniversary Tuesday with Dorie group! We're one year old! I didn't start at the beginning (need to go back and make the recipes I missed) but I have learned so so so much! I tried different recipes that I would have (sorry, Dorie) completely skipped over! I just love this group!

And guess who picked this week's recipe?
Dorie herself!! How cool is that?!

So, go to Dorie's cool blog for the recipe of the French Pear Tart...or better yet, buy her fantastic book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 368-369).

This delicious tart uses Dorie's partially baked sweet tart crust, an almond cream made with ground blanched almonds, and canned pears (you can also use fresh or poached pears too). This is similar to the Partridge in a Pear Tart I made last month. Both are sooooo delicious. I'd like to poach my own pears in the future too. I decided to mix it up and use my rectangle tart pan!

Thanks TWD group for all the great baking fun! Looking forward to another year of recipes! Be sure check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Partridge in a Pear Tart (You Want Pies with That?)

It's the first day of Christmas and you get a partridge in a pear tart!

Have you had one of those days (months? years? lifetimes?) where you think:
1. I'm going to the dentist on Monday at noon.
2. I'm going to lunch with Sunshine on the 8th.
And completely not make the connection that Monday is the 8th?!

Well, I thought I had til the 8th to post my pie for the monthly group "You Want Pie With That?" It turns out we post by the 3rd and then vote for our favorite by the 8th. Sigh.

Although I'm late in submitting (due at 3:14 EST - get it? Pi? 3.14??), I wanted to get my pie on! It's my birthday week (yes, I'm going to mention this until my actual birthday on Sunday) and I need to make pie (or tart)!

This month's theme was selected by Anne of Anne Strawberry (such a great blog!!) and it's Holiday Songs!

I mixed several recipes and ideas to come up with this pie inspired by the high-rotation song, "Twelve Days of Christmas."

I used Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Pastry dough and popped it into the freezer for 20 minutes (remember, I was late in my post!)

Then I adapted Bon Appetit's recipe for Pear and Almond Tart to make the almond filling.
Pulsed together:
1/2 cup almond paste (I still have some leftover from making the pignoli cookies)
1/4 c sugar
Then pulsed:
1/4 c flour
1/2 stick of butter
Then added:
2 eggs
1/2 t vanilla
2 T sour cream (addition to recipe based on someone's comment)

And since real pears don't ripen in the 20 minutes, I used John's Pear and Almond-Cream Tart from Everyday Food's recipe and got a few cans of pears! I brushed a little melted butter on top of the pears before baking at 375 for 45 minutes.

And the best part? This is super darn tasty!! It has a strong almond flavor but it is also delicate and lovely. It is a great 4-days-before-my-birthday treat! (see, I can mention my birthday all week). I want to try it with real pears, apples, and my favorite Asian pears.

Be sure to check out the other "You Want Pies with That?" bakers! They are all super creative with this month's theme!

Lenox Almond Biscotti (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Lenox Almond Biscotti

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Gretchen of Canela & Comino chose Lenox Almond Biscotti on page 141-143 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I made the basic recipe and added 1/3 cup of dried cranberries. I also cut the almond extract to 1/2 t and added 1/2 t vanilla. This was the second time I made this...the first batch was an undercooked disaster and tasted too "almondy." I baked this batch for almost double the time (perhaps a little too much because they are a little brown!)

Dorie's recipe says, "Return the slices to the baking sheet - this time standing them up like a marching band." (I didn't understand this the first time, but after reading the TWD comments, I think this is what she means). However, I was able to get them into the oven....

But when I went to check on them after a few minutes, my marching band disbanded themselves.

Then I went to Plan B. I heard someone baked them on a rack to allow air flow. I added the "marching band" biscotti to ones I cut on the bias and flipped them several times during the second bake.

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!