We are not big sliced bread eaters.  Though you will definitely find many baguettes making their way into our kitchen.  The reason we aren’t into sliced bread, is because, we haven’t found any that really makes us want to eat a whole loaf.  Bread should be like sex;  you want more and more!

Recently, Lenny was listening to NPR, when Dorie Greenspan came on.  He anxiously called in, to chat with Ms. Greenspan about my obsession with Tuesdays with Dorie, and how he had to put a stop to it because he has no self control.  Dorie sounds just as adorable as I imagine her in person.  It was great fun listening to them chit chat;  I was a bit envious!  After, that conversation, I suddenly had the bug to bake.  It has been forever since I participated with TWD, and since I have been given the big boot out of the club, I bake on my own these days.

We had some delicious homemade nutella laying around the house, and I knew that the only thing that would go perfectly with it was hot out of the oven brioche.  I turned to my trusted baking book  and flipped through all the sweetness until I found what I was hungry for.  I, love Dorie’s recipes, as they are always right on.  If, the recipe says it will take 2 days, it will take two days.  If, it says it will feed 6 people, it will feed 6 people.  You will always hear me preach about how this is the one basic baking book every one should own.  It’s true.

Back to the brioche.  This is a great recipe.  The dough is silky and buttery.  The crumb is perfect;  not to lose nor too tight.  The flavor is slightly yeasty and not overly sweet;  perfect for sandwiches.  Dorie’s recipe makes 2 large loaves.  I decided to use the adorable brioche pans I brought back from Paris.  The recipe made a dozen mini brioche and two small loaves.  The amount was perfect as the minis barely lasted two days, and the loaf was nearly gone by the third day.  Lucky, for us, I was able to sneak a loaf into the freezer before someone gobbled it up.  For the record, that someone was not me.  The only other change I made to the recipe;  I added a healthy dose of fresh blood orange zest and a sprinkling of lemon sugar (only on the minis).  You can only imagine how wonderful the bread smelled while baking.  Can’t you?  The citrus undertones went really nicely with the Nutella.  I can say with certainty this will become our new “sliced” bread over at Chez Us.  Perfect toasted and perfect on its own.

Recipe:  Brioche

*recipe submitted with permission from Dorie Greenspan

** the dough should e made 1 day ahead and then shaped and baked the next day.  

• 2 packets active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
• 1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch milk (whole)
• 3 3/4 cups ap flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm
• 1 tablespoon blood orange zest – this is optional

Glaze

• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water

1. Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved.
2. Add the flour and salt, and fit the mixer with the dough hook.  Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can – this will save you and the kitchen from being showered in flour.
3. Turn the mixer on and off in a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour, then remove the towel, increase the mixer speed to medium low and mix for a minute or two, just until the flour is moistened.  At this pint you will have a fairly dry, shaggy mass.
4. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and the the eggs, followed by the sugar and the orange zest (if using zest).
5. Increase the mixer sped to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball.  Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2 tablespoon size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next.  You will have a dough that is very soft, almost like a batter.  Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.
6. Lightly butter another bowl and transfer the dough to it, cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, about 40 – 60 minute, depending on how warm your room is.
7. Deflate the dough by lifting it up and around the edges and letting it fall with a slap into the bowl.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator,.  Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the covered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
8. The next day, butter and flour two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pans.
9. Pull the dough from the fridge and divide it into 2 equal pieces.  Cut each piece of dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece into a log about 3 1/2 inches long.  Arrange 4 logs crosswise in the bottom of each pan.  Put the pans on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat, cover the pans lightly with wax paper and leave the loaves at room temperature until the dough almost fills the pans, 1 to 2 hours.
10. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400.
11. Beat the egg with the water.  Using a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the loaves with the glaze.
12. Bake the loaves until they are well risen and deeply golden, 30 – 35 minutes.  Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pans and turn the loaves out onto the racks.  Invert again and cool for at least an hour.
13. Serve. Eat

Using a brioche pan – minis (makes 12 minis and two smaller loaves)

1. Follow step 9 above, but divide the dough in two halves;  one half for these minis and the other half for two small loaves.  Or use the dough for only minis.  If you are like me you would have to bake a dozen, then repeat.
2. Butter 12 3 1/2 inch wide brioche pans.  Divide the half into 12 equal pieces.  Follow these instructions on making your mini brioche, from step 6 – 9.  After brushing with the glaze, lightly sprinkle with sugar, if you desire.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 – 20 minutes.  Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove the brioche to a wire rack to finish cooling.

© Denise for Chez Us, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Bread, Brioche, Dorie Greenspan

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First we had Tuesdays with Dorie, or as Lenny liked to call it (lovingly of course) Tuesday with the Devil (because there were too many delicious baked treats around) and now we have French Fridays with Dorie.  You see I love her book Baking From My Home to Yours;  why? Because every recipe is always right now and comes our perfectly.  A little secret, I currently only own her book as my go-to baking book, no others exist in our house.  It is the bible of baking as far as I am concerned.  I remember the day I found out Dorie had a new book coming, I could not contain myself, I told everyone I know.  I just have this warm feeling in my soul that Around My French Table will be just as great as Baking.  I am sure the “French” part of the title has something to do with it, being I love France and all;  but, in all honesty Dorie has never let me down.  Geez, if I could marry her I probably would!

The day the book arrived, the first thought besides, what to make, was “I wonder if anyone will start a virtual cooking club such as TWD”.  I tossed around the idea of maybe I should;  but, then schedules, work, traveling, started clouding over those thoughts.  I was so excited when I saw a little tweet out there that Laurie had started French Fridays with Dorie and I was even more excited to read that there was not the “participation rule” (you see I got the boot out of TWD as my work (and hips) schedule was not allowing me to bake at least 2 – 4 times a month).

The kick off recipe for French Fridays is Gougeres (p. 4 – 6) .  Gougeres are basically a cream puff, similar to the Les Chouquettes I love to make for breakfast;  but they are savory.  I have made them many times as they are the perfect small bite with a nice glass of Floc or Champagne before dinner.  I normally add a bit of dijon or maybe a little fresh cracked black pepper along with what-ever cheese I have on hand.  This time I made them exactly as Dorie specifies in her book with lots of Gruyere or cheddar;  I used Gruyere.  I tossed around the idea of cutting the recipe in half as it said it would make 36 (which it did);  but, decided to just go for it.  Glad I did as Lenny had the first batch finished before dinner was on the table.  I served the puffs with dinner as we were having soup and I wanted something different from the stand in warm loaf of bread.  The Gruyere Gougeres were the perfect companion with a warm bowl of  butternut squash soup.

Don’t be afraid to make this small little bite known as the Gougere.  They are easy to make and Dorie makes them even easier, you don’t have to stand over a stove, beating in your eggs by hand;  her recipe has you using your trusty mixer.  What are you waiting for, whip up a batch this weekend.

Surprise your family and friends with this small treat and let us know what you think of them!

Recipe:  Gougeres
* you must buy Dorie’s book to get her wonderful recipe, which I highly recommend, it is beautiful

If you enjoyed this dish, you may enjoy these others as well:

Gougeres with Mardi

Gougeres with Marie Alice Joan

Gougeres with Cafe Lynnylu

© Denise for Chez Us, 2010. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Appetizer, Around My French Table, Cheese, Dorie Greenspan, French, French Fridays with Dorie, Gougeres, Gruyere

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I made this wonderful tart for a dinner party with our friend’s Chelsea and James.  We love figs and use them very often from the beginning of the season until the very end.  You will often find a big bowl of them on the counter, just for noshing on throughout the day.  I normally make a savory tart of blue cheese and figs but wanted something sweeter for this event and thought the figs would go nicely with a light frangipane; I was right!  Dorie Greenspan’s pate sable recipe is by far my favorite one, as it is lightly sweet and flaky as well it is not too buttery, just prefect.   The recipe is in Dorie’s book Baking From My Home to Yours, you should own this book, it will be the baking cookbook you will ever need, Dorie includes every recipe you will ever need from the basics to the perfect party cake and all the recipes we have tried have been perfect!  I wanted the tart to have a nice shiny glaze, so I melted a little of the marmalade that we have left from Chez Pim’s amazing Bouquet des Fleurs Marmalade collection and I glazed the top during the last 5 minutes of baking.  This my friends, was a wonderful addition to the tart, not only was it shiny but the finished tart had a beautiful floral under-note.

Recipe:  Frangipane Fig Tart

1/2 cup almonds, raw, organic
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, organic
2 eggs, organic, cage free
1 your favorite pate sable
1 pint of figs, cut in half

I use a Dorie Greenspan recipe for the Pate Sable, using a rectangle tart pan and following her instructions for baking. Preheat oven to 375.  In a food processor combine the almonds and sugar, pulse until coarse. With the processor running, add the butter one tablespoon at a time.  Add the extract and the eggs with the food processor on until mixed.  Pour into a pre-baked tart pan and smooth the top. Lay the cut figs in the pattern of your choice, on top of the Frangipane.  Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before removing the tart from the baking pan.  Serve. Eat.

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Fig, Frangipane, Pate Sable, Recipe, Tart

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Blanc-Manger is a creamy dessert which is made out of milk, sugar, almond flour and thickened with gelatin.  It has a similar texture of a panna cotta.  Dorie includes fresh raspberries that are gently folded in before chilling.

Our sweet friend, Susan, of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy is the hostess of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie challenge.  Susan picked the Raspberry Blanc Manger.   I normally follow a TWD recipes to the T, but this time around, I changed it up.  I decided we did not need one big dessert in our house, so I cut the recipe in half, as well, I did not use a baking dish, I used ramekins.  The only other change was that I used some of the fresh boysenberries that we had picked the week before.

The recipe is pretty simple and after the previous weeks challenge, this was welcomed.  The base of the manger is a mixture of milk, almond flour (I processed almonds, until very fine, which gave the dessert a nice slightly rough texture), a little sugar and gelatin.  After warming and cooling the above mixture, I gently folded in soft peaked whipping cream.  I poured the mixture into ramekins that I lightly sprayed with canola oil, to make the unmolding would be perfect, then I let them sit in the refrigerator for 6 hours.    I served the manger in a pool of boysenberries that I sweetened with a little bit of sugar as they were very ripe and naturally sweet.

The verdict:  wonderfully light dessert, perfect for a hot summer evening when you want something sweet.  Lenny thought the dish was very unique and liked the slightly nutty texture.

Don’t forget to be sure to check out all the other TWD Blanc Mangers - you will not be disappointed.

The recipe can be found over at Susan’s beautiful new site and there is a fantastic interview all about Susan over here!

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blanc Manger, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blogging Event, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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Lightly sweetened brioche dough is pressed into a tart pan and filled with jam and fresh plums, to make a wonderful breakfast treat.

I was so excited to finally be the hostess for the Tuesdays with Dorie challenge.  I have been a big fan of Dorie Greenspan’s must have book, Baking from My Home to Yours, since the first time I made something from it.  If there is not any other baking book to own, this is it, there is everything from yeast recipes to quick and dirty cookie recipes.  I have been secretly hoping for the past year that no one would pick the Brioche Plum Tart recipe as I really wanted to make it;  so happy when I received the email about being the hostess this week.

I love brioche.  It is just one of those simple pastries that one can do so much with, from eating simply with jam to adding fruit.  I was especially excited to try a tart using a yeast based dough and the addition of stone fruit made it even better.  I am such a big fan of summertime stone fruits.  The dough did have be made the day before as you will get better results after letting it set over night.  I liked that the dough was sweeter than a traditional brioche recipe.  The finished dough is filled with jam and then sliced plums.  I could not find plum jam so I used a sour cherry and rhubarb jam, which gave the very sweet summer plums a nice slightly tart taste, reminded me of the candy Sweet Tarts.  As well, I did not use walnuts, instead I used slightly toasted pecans.  I made this tart for an early Saturday morning coffee with my sister and brother in-law and brought the remainder up to Lake Tahoe for our annual get away with our friend’s Evelyn & Will.  It was a huge success with everyone, as who wouldn’t want a little dessert for breakfast!

Be sure to grab a cup of coffee and check out all the other Brioche Plum Tarts over at TWD.  Next, Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy will be tickling our taste buds with a Raspberry Blanc-Manger – cannot wait!

Recipe:  Brioche Plum Tart

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/3 cup whole milk, just warm to the touch

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

about 14 ripe plums, preferably italian prune plums

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts, almonds (I used pecans)

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup plum jam (I used sour cherry with rhubarb)

To make brioche: Put the yeast and warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir until the yeast is dissolved.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, and fit the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one.  Working on low speed, mix for a minute or two, just to get the ingredients together.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 7 – 10 minutes, stopping a few times to scrape down the bowl and the hook, until the dough is stretchy and fairly smooth.  The dough will seem fairly thin, more like a batter than a dough, and it may not be perfectly smooth – that is fine.

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place until nearly doubled in size, 30 – 40 minutes.

Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap into the bowl.  Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator.  Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours.  Then if you’ve got the time, leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight – it will be tastier for the wait.

To Make The Tart: This tart looks prettiest when it’s made in a fluted pan.  You can use either a 9-inch metal tart pan with a removable base or a porcelain baking dish, the kind sometimes called a quiche pan.  Generously butter the pan.

Press the chilled dough into the bottom of the pan and up the sides – don’t worry if it’s not even.  Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the dough is in the refrigerator, prepare the filling.  Halve and pit the plums.  If you are using large plums, cut each half into 2 or 3 slices.  Set aside.  Toss the chopped nuts with the sugar and set aside.

Remove the tart pan from the fridge and push and press the dough up the sides of the pan.  Spoon the jam onto the dough and spread it over the bottom.  Arrange the plums cut side down in a concentric circles covering the jam.  Scatter over the nut mixture, and cover the tart lightly with a piece of plastic wrap.  Place the tart on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat and let it rest in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Uncover the tart and bake for 20 minutes.  Cover it loosely with a foil tent to prevent the crust from getting too dark, and continue baking for another 10 minutes, or until the fruit juices are bubbling and the crust is firm and beautifully browned – it will sound hollow when tapped.  Transfer the tart to a rack to cool for at least 45 minutes before serving.

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 45 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Breakfast and Brunch, Brioche, Brunch, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blogging Event, Plums, Recipe, Stonefruit, Tart, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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Succulent peaches that are slow roasted with deep amber honey flavor this creamy custard based ice cream. Perfect summer time dessert!

Tommi of Brown Interior picked Dorie’s Honey Peach Ice Cream for this weeks Tuesday With Dorie Challenge.  Love Love Love homemade peach ice cream, and this was the perfect summer kick off as peaches are showing up in all of  the farmer’s market around the bay area.

This recipe is a custard based ice cream, which, I feel is the ultimate best.  I took it up a notch by slow roasting half of the peaches with a deep amber honey until they were caramlized and then I pureed them.  The other half of the peaches, I diced into small chunks – I confess, I leave the skin on, I just clean them very well, love the texture.  The ice cream was amazing and this even came from the guy who says he is “allergic” to peaches!

* I think this caramel sauce would be a GREAT addition, if you want to be very very naughty!

Be sure to grab a big bowl and get ready for more homemade ice cream over at TWD!

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dorie Greenspan, Food Blogging Event, Homemade Ice Cream, Honey, Ice Cream, Peach Ice Cream, Peaches, Roasted Peaches, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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The easiest Parisian Apple Tartlet recipe ever!  Dorie Greenspan of Baking, from my home to yours, hit it right on, again with this easy tart recipe:  puff pastry lined with apple chunks, brown sugar and dots of butter, baked to perfection!  A great recipe to have on hand for when you need an easy dessert in a hurry.

Jessica of My Baking Heart is the hostess for this week’s Tuesday With Dorie challenge and she picked the perfect Parisian Apple Tartlet.  As soon as I saw the recipe, I had flash backs to one of our favorite restaurants in Paris,  Au Gamin de Paris.  They have by far the best apple tart I have ever had (little secret I am not a big apple pie fan), it is not overly sweet, the crust is not too flaky and it has a layer of caramel sauce which is so subtle but compliments the apples so incredibly well.  I knew that this recipe would become our Au Gamin de Paris tart and I was absolutely right!

I was going to make my own puff pastry but due to time, I used my favorite frozen brand, Dufour.  As well I opted to use a fluted tart pan as I wanted it to be somewhat elegant;  we were taking it for friend’s for dessert.  I used tart Granny smith apples, which I quartered and kept in chunks and I melted the butter and brown sugar together to form a glaze, which I brushed over the apples and crust before baking.  We served the tart with homemade vanilla bean ice cream (recipe will come separately) and a burnt grey sea salt caramel sauce – it was fantastic!

You will definitely want to over indulge today and check out the TWD site for more Parisian Apple Tartlets!

Recipe:  Parisian Apple Tartlet

This recipe as well as all of the Tuesday with Dorie recipes can be found in this book, which I highly recommend.  If you only need to have one go to cookbook on baking, this is it!   Or you can visit Jessica’s site.

Recipe:  Burnt Grey Sea Salt Caramel Sauce

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Apple, Baking, Burnt Caramel Sauce, Caramel, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blogging Event, Recipe, Salted Caramel Sauce, Sauce, Tart, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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Need an easy breakfast treat?  Here is an easy quick bread that is slightly sweet, very moist and flavored with the addition of fresh mango.

Tuesdays with Dorie, Dorie Greenspan, took us tropical this week.  Kelly of Baking with the Boys picked out Fresh Mango Bread.  I loved the recipe as it was very easy to make.  It has a base of canola oil and eggs, which I contribute with the addition of white and brown sugar, for making the crust slightly crisp but leaving the instead moist.  I was concerned that the mangos would leave the bread too wet, but it left it moist, sweet and very flavorful!  The chunks of fresh mango are a wonderful surprise in every bite.  As always Dorie did not disappoint us.

Be sure to check out rest of the TWD’s Fresh Mango Bread and head over to Kelly’s site for the recipe!

Don’t forget to enter our Give Away in honor of our 2 year blogiversary

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dorie Greenspan, Food Blogging Event, Mango, Mango Bread, quick bread, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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TWD:  French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze.  Gateau au Yaourt, is the first cake a French child learns to make.    The measuring for this cake is all done by using the container that the yogurt comes in, which is approximately 1/2 cup, and in France the yogurt containers are glass and adorable (I have over a dozen that I use for various things from puddings to candle holders).

I was going to sit out this week of Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD) just to give my waistline & thighs a break from all the flour products.  Then I heard it was a French Yogurt cake.  I have had French Yogurt cakes when in Europe and have always wanted to make one but never have, so here we are another Tuesday and another delightful recipe from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Dorie’s recipe called for the option of using 1/2 cup of ground almonds, which I gladly added.  I love the sweetness of almonds as well I thought the nutty texture.  I also used an unprocessed sugar, which is a deep brown color, it gave the cake a nice golden color.  As well I opted not to use lemon as the recipe said and I used blood orange zest and blood orange marmalade that I had left from when I made it last year.  The cake came out delightful.  A wonderful afternoon treat especially with a nice espresso!

Thank you Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for picking out a simple and tasty recipe for this week’s Challenge.  Be sure to check out what the other bakers from TWD came up with!

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Cake, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blog Event, French Cake, Gateau au Yaourt, Marmalade, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD, Yogurt Cake

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Get ready for your weekly sugar fix as it is Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) time again.  Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles picked one of our favorite desserts – custard.  I love making custards.  It screams COMFORT food for us.  As well it is a dessert that is made with basic staples that one always should have on hand – milk, sugar, eggs and some sort of flavoring.

This particular recipe infuses lemon zest with milk.  I did use Meyer Lemon zest and I let it infuse for an hour instead of 30 minutes.  As well I used an unrefined sugar which gave it a small bite of a caramel undertone.  I did not use the optional extract as I wanted the pureness of the Meyer Lemon to be tasted.  The custard is baked in a bain marie, which I am very use to using, the only difference this time, was that Dorie asked us to put a double layer of paper towel in the bottom of the pan. Otherwise, it is a simple and straightforward recipe.

The custard came out creamy, light and very fresh.  The perfect spring time dessert.

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Custard, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blog Event, Food Blogging Event, Lemons, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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This weeks challenge was brought to us by Lyb of And then I do the dishes and she picked the cake that Dorie got fired over: the Chocolate Armagnac Cake.

I have to say right off, I am glad that Dorie got fired over the creation of this cake – it is FANTASTIC!  Basically, Dorie got bored day in and day out of making the same thing and decided to get a little creative when making this cake, in the end she was fired for being creative!  I love that!  Not, that you lost your job, Dorie;  but, the part about being creative and taking a chance.

The past couple of weeks I have made two incredibly dense chocolate cakes that require very little flour if any at all, which I find interesting as the texture is really amazingly light, so different from your tradition cake.  This particular recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate and I used the deepest I could find, Scharffen Berger 70% as well it uses ground pecans.  I did toast the pecans a bit before grinding which gave them a nice toasty and warm taste.  As well we got to flambe prunes in Armagnac, this is the second recipe of Dorie’s that I have gotten to flambe and it is a very fun addition to your baking afternoon.  Now you may be thinking to yourself, prunes in a cake?  This addition made the cake incredibly moist.  The cake is frosted with a simple glaze of more chocolate, very little sugar and butter.

This is a recipe that will become a fall back onto for us.  It was ultra moist, dense, nice bite of deep bittersweet chocolate and not overly sweet.   With the addition of prunes we like to think it is healthier for us as well, after all we all could use some fiber with our chocolate!  It really is a fantastic recipe.

Be sure to check out all the other wonderful Tuesday With Dorie bakers!

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Armagnac Cake, Baking, Chocolate, Chocolate Armagnac Cake, Dessert, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blog Event, Food Blogging Event, Prunes, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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Anyone who loves Devils Food cake will surely love this chocolaty, moist and light cake that is frosted with a mildly sweet homemade marshmallow fluff.  The best part is that there is also devil’s food cake crumbs pressed all over the outside of the frosting:  an ultimate party cake.

I always wondered who would pick this outrageous cake for our Tuesdays with Dorie challenge as it is on the cover of the Dorie cookbook.  Stephanie over at Confessions of a City Eater did just that!  I was going to sit this week out but when I saw what the challenge was I knew I had to make it.  The only problem was … I knew Lenny would not want a big gooey cake sitting around the house so I needed a great reason and I had the perfect one, my friend Evelyn’s birthday.  What made this challenge even better was that I got to involve MEM (Evelyn’s too cute kids) in the process.

We made the cake over a two day period since we had school and work schedules to deal with.  MEM helped with the cake making process and we had tons of fun.  From little fingers tasting everything to chocolate cake batter spattering all over the kitchen and us when I added the hot water on to high of a speed – we just laughed and laughed about it and they just kept tasting and tasting!

The second part of the cake building process I did on my own, which was too bad, because MEM would have loved this part.  The frosting for the cake was a meringue that was made with a hot sugary syrup which you drizzled over the peaked meringue while beating constantly.  The end result was marshmallow fluff!  To put the cake together, I had to slice each cake in half, leaving 4 layers.  The fun part and the part that MEM would have loved was taking one layer and crumbling it into little crumbs.  Now I know they would have had a great time doing this, I am just not sure how much cake would have been left. The remaining layers were then frosted with the fluffy meringue and then the crumbs were sprinkled all over the cake.  This is a great project to do with kids as there is no way around getting messy and making a mess.  The messier it is the more crumby the cake!

The cake was really good.  Not overly sweet.  Very chocolaty.  Very moist.  Very light.

The littlest M (Maggie), a self proclaimed *foodie* said the next day that she thought it would be good with chocolate frosting.  I have to agree.  Maybe next time we will add chocolate powder to the meringue, who wouldn’t like chocolate marshmallow fluff!

© Denise for Chez Us, 2009. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baking, Dessert, Devils Food Cake, Dorie Greenspan, Food Blogging Event, marshmallow fluff, Tuesdays with Dorie, TWD

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