No TWD this week

I'm all baked-out from Memorial Day festivities. I'll be back next week.

TWD - Fresh Mango Bread

This week Kelly of Baking with the Boys chose Dorie's Fresh Mango bread for us to make. For once I actually had the special ingredient (aka mangoes) ahead of time - like last Thursday. This is a big step for me. Not like I made the loaf early or anything, I definitely only made it today. Howeeeever, this was a snap to put together. I like how Dorie branched out to include recipes in BFMHTY that don't require a food processor or stand mixer...it's nice to go lo-tech every now and then ;).

As far as fiddling with the recipe, I left out raisins altogether, upped the amount of zest to that of a whole lime, subbed applesauce for half of the oil, and used maybe 3/4 tsp of fresh grated ginger rather than ground ginger. I don't think the end result had an overpoweringly gingery taste, but I like ginger anyway so it might not have really been a problem. I didn't end up using a foil tent so the top got nice and brown; it has a great crunch which I think might be partially due to the brown sugar. The loaf turned out nice and moist; it'll be great for breakfast...and second breakfast...and elevensies too.

Stop by Kelly's blog for the recipe and the blogroll for everybody's results!

TWD - Tartest Lemon Tart

These are some tasty tasty tarts. Barb, you picked a great recipe to break up all the chocolate madness.

Because I sometimes get overly ambitious (which results in the tarts coming out of the oven after midnight), I decided to do two things with these tarts. First, I made four mini tarts; second, I made two with a Meyer lemon and two with a regular lemon. You could really only tell the difference pre-baking in the color but the tarts with Meyer lemon are definitely not as tart as the others. The texture of the tarts reminds me of lemon bars but the crust is way better. Mine stayed nice and crumbly and fortunately didn't overbake in the oven.

The point of the "mini" tarts was so that hopefully I would eat less at a time but I'm not sure how that's going to work out. Oh well. Time to lace up the tennis shoes.

Check out Babette Feasts for the recipe and the blogroll for everyone elses tarts!

TWD - Tiramisu Cake

This week's choice was great and when I ate some this evening after getting off work, it definitely lived up to its name as a pick me up. Good call Megan (I'm Megan too!) on your choice.

I finally broke down this week and got some 6" cake pans so that I can make mini cakes and not feel so guilty about having a huge (full size) cake sitting around. The recipe was easy to halve and I just ended up using 2 eggs for it, as well as just using cream cheese for the mascarpone. I probably let my cakes stay in the oven for the recommended baking time because although they tested done a few minutes earlier they were still very pale looking instead of golden.

In general the cake was very easy to put together. Yes there were several steps to assemble all the components, but nothing was that difficult. What I did have an issue with was trying to whip "light cream" to stiff peaks. That was a no go and I had to dash out to the store to get more cream before I had to run to the airport. That being said, it all came together well and I put it in the fridge before heading to work.

On tasting the cake, I wish I had added more of the espresso syrup to the cake layers. You can taste the flavor well, but I just wish there was more! This cake definitely gets the seal of approval from my family.

The recipe can be found on Megan's blog at My Baking Adventures.

TWD - Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

Well, it would have been four stars if I hadn't put the raisins in it. WHY did I do that? I sort of questioned it beforehand but went ahead and added them. Raisins and chocolate do not go together like this. Other than that, this is a super tasty dessert. I made a half recipe today in an 8x8 pan and it's almost half gone already. Aside from having to toast the bread before mixing everything together, it was a very simple and straightforward recipe, but then again most bread puddings are. I do think this would benefit from a creme anglaise as Dorie suggests...I'll have to work on that for next time.

Pictures to come!

TWD and a Celebration 2.0

I originally didn't think I was going to have time to make the Banana Cream Pie for this week, chosen by Amy at Sing for Your Supper, because I was in Chapel Hill all weekend and this happened:

Followed by this:

Needless to say it was freaking awesome watching my boys win the national championship for the second time in five years, but it was also awesome that I did have time to make the pie!

I chose to make a vanilla wafer crust instead of a regular dough crust after seeing the suggestion made in the P's and Q's...this is essentially a banana pudding anyway. I think the banana cream pies I've had in the past are the cafeteria style ones that don't actually contain any banana, so at first I looked askance at the inclusion of real pieces of banana! Everything came together pretty easily, though my pudding tasted kind of like pumpkin pie because of the spices. This recipe did leave quite a trail of destruction through my kitchen from the cornstarch that went poof to the 34 pots and bowls it took to mix everything together.

But - this is tasty and I'm thinking it will get better in a day or so when the banana flavor spreads all through the pudding...if it lasts that long.

This post brought to you by Gwen Stefani.

Alas...

Due to work constraints I wasn't able to make the coconut butter thins, but hopefully I'll get to enjoy their tastiness later.

In the meantime, please watch the best commerical EVAR! (especially since Duke lost)



(for those who don't rabidly follow college basketball, from L to R that's UNC coach Roy Williams (yay!), Louisville coach Rick Pitino, former coach Bobby Knight and Duke coach Krazywisky, aka Rat-face)