Knitter in the Kitchen

Recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. As you may have noticed, I am a tad addicted to her book right now!

This very chocolate-y biscotti reminds me of a brownie, except harder. My initial reaction was slight disappointment. There wasn’t anything wrong with the biscotti, but it didn’t make me swoon and exclaim that it was delicious. However, after a couple of days the flavor grew on me, so perhaps this is one of those items that tastes better overnight.

I baked the original recipe in the book, but I came across a few very talented and inspiring food bloggers who modified it with success. You can find them at Cream Puffs in Venice, Tartelette, Veronica’s Test Kitchen, Jumbo Empanadas, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, and La Mia Cucina.

The Swedish Visiting Cake was another stellar recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The main flavors are almond and lemon. This was a super easy, very quick one-bowl recipe that resulted in a wonderfully delicious cake.  I can definitely see myself baking this cake over and over again.  You can find the recipe here on Dorie’s blog.

Ever since I purchased Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours, I have pored over the recipes and drooled over the lovely photos.  The recipe introductions are written in a chatty and personal tone, and the instructions themselves are very specific and clear.  I could spend many more enjoyable hours reading through this book.

For a birthday dinner this weekend, I decided to bake the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes from Dorie’s book.

As I unmolded the cupcakes from the muffin tins, I noticed that they were a lot darker than the ones shown in the recipe photo.  I pondered this for awhile…and then it dawned on me.  I was supposed to melt two ounces of bittersweet chocolate for the batter and three ounces of it for the frosting…did I mix up the measurements?  Yup.  But fortunately, the cupcakes still turned out just fine!

This is an excellent recipe — simple yet delicious.  Two thumbs up for sure!  If you have this book and you like chocolate, I highly recommend trying these cupcakes.

Stay tuned for another Dorie recipe review later in the week!

I used to have a Quaker Oatmeal recipe booklet.  My sister had given it to me years ago after requesting two free copies from Quaker.  (This was back in the day when we didn’t browse recipes online.)  As I wasn’t a huge oatmeal fan, I only ever used the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe.  Every time I baked the cookies, I “modified” them by throwing in chocolate chips.  That made the cookies bearable for my non-oatmeal-loving-chocoholic self.

Sadly, I trashed my copy of the booklet two years ago because I thought I would never use it again, and my sister can’t find hers.  So last year, I printed Quaker’s recipe for Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and assumed that this was the same recipe I used to have.  Unfortunately, the cookies disappointed me.  They were very flat and quite frankly, ugly.  I am very much partial to fluffy-looking, soft cookies.

Hubby loves oatmeal raisin cookies — they are his favorite — so I set out to find a replacement recipe.  The one from  A Good Cookie by Tish Boyle yielded exactly I wanted.  The unexpected ingredient (at least to me) is shredded coconut.

I didn’t add chocolate chips because Hubby wouldn’t touch the cookies if I did, but my non-oatmeal-loving-chocoholic self is actually eating two or three of these a day.  Which is almost a miracle considering that I don’t usually like oatmeal raisin.  Yup, pretty soon pigs will start flying.

A few months ago, I came across Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for Plum Raspberry Crumble.  Plums were on sale at my supermarket for the first time this season, so it seemed like a good time to try my hand at baking this fruity dessert.

The original recipe yields a crumble that fits in a 9 inch by 12 inch pan, but I wanted less so I halved the ingredients and adjusted the baking time.  Here is my scaled-down version of the recipe. 

1 pound red plums, cut in 1/2, pitted, and cut in 1-inch wedges
1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided 
5/8 cup all-purpose flour, divided 
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1/6 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt 
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup sliced almonds, plus extra for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the sliced plums, 1/6 cup of the granulated sugar, 1/8 cup of the flour, and the orange juice and toss well. Add the raspberries and toss lightly. Pour into a 9 inch by 9 inch baking dish.

For the topping, place the remaining 1/2 cup of flour, the remaining 1/6 cup of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and the salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the oats, and work it with your hands until it’s in large crumbles. Add 1/4 cup of the almonds and mix well.Spread the topping evenly over the plums, making sure the fruit is covered. Sprinkle with some extra almonds. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

While this crumble didn’t turn out perfectly for me — the plums were incredibly tart — it definitely has potential.  The topping is delicious and I love the flavor of the baked raspberries.  Next time, I might try: (1) buying ripe plums or simply waiting until the plums are ripe, and/or (2) increasing the amount of granulated sugar. Reviewers of the recipe also indicated that other fruits would work well.  The whole thing was quite easy to prepare, which is always a plus.

Another reason why I liked the crumble?  I am totally smitten with the color of my new baking dish. Silly of me, isn’t it?