createdbycarlene

BCM Coconut Tapioca

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Created by Carlene

I have fond memories of tapioca pudding from childhood, although I must say, I never had it in a school cafeteria topped with whipped cream. I had homemade “Minute Tapioca”, the one in the red and blue box, and considered it a treat. I was excited to try this recipe which substituted coconut milk for part of the whole milk. I followed the recipe exactly and loved the results. In fact, I loved it so much that I have already made it a second time. I found pearl tapioca in my local health food store. They buy it in bulk and package it with their label, so I don’t know a brand name. Even though it was labeled “medium” instead of “large” as the recipe called for, it seemed just the right size for this recipe. I soaked it overnight in the refrigerator and then drained and cooked it up the next day. It came together so quickly, just a bit of stirring required. The ingredients are simple, milk, coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, and pearl tapioca. Most recipes for tapioca pudding call for eggs to be added, but I really like the simplicity of Dorie’s recipe. And oh yes, you didn’t have the complication of adding eggs to hot pudding. I took Dorie’s suggestion and served the pudding with fresh California strawberries and Spiced Hibiscus Syrup. Excellent choice!

This post participates in the Baking Chez Moi bake-along. To see the other participants results with this assignment visit the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL (Leave your link) blog post. The recipes are not generally posted online. You will need to buy the book for the complete set of recipes.

Posted in Baking Chez Moi, Tuesdays with Dorie | Tagged bakingchezmoi, coconut milk, pearl tapioca, tapioca pudding | 8 Comments

BCM Limoncello Cupcakes

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Created by Carlene

I had mixed results with these cupcakes. Some liked them, some didn’t. Mine were quite dense, not light and fluffy. They weren’t bad, but in my opinion they weren’t good either. They were just “okay”. I gave one to my husband for breakfast and his comment was, “They’re tough” not exactly the response I was expecting. The cupcakes were easy to put together, no difficult techniques, well except for applying the frosting. (Cake decorating is not my thing) I followed the recipe as written with one exception, I added the Limoncello to the syrup while it was still boiling in order to burn off the alcohol since I was planning to take them to work. I’m not sure why mine were so dense. Did I overwork adding the flour? Maybe. I used paper cupcake liners in the pan so when I brushed the hot syrup on the hot cupcakes a good bit of it ran back into the pan on the outside of the paper and was not able to soak into the cake. It might have been better without the liners or with liners that had tall sides so the syrup would stay inside the liner. Or maybe I baked them too long. I only checked them after 20 minutes and they were done! I probably should have checked them sooner. I added orange marmalade to the center, but only a very scant teaspoon, it could have used a full teaspoon. I looked for lemon marmalade and never found any. I considered making my own, but just couldn’t find the time to do it. All that being said, I think I’ll try again and see if I can get better results.

This post participates in the Baking Chez Moi bake-along. To see the other participants results visit the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL (Leave your link) blog post. The recipes are not generally posted online. You will need to buy the book for the complete set of recipes.

Posted in Baking, Baking Chez Moi, Cake, Tuesdays with Dorie | Tagged bakingchezmoi | 10 Comments

BCM Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Created by Carlene

When I read the recipe for this week’s bake-along, I was a bit worried. Caramelized Rice Krispies for the topping! And the phrase in the recipe “The sugar may smoke, but that’s fine–just keep going…” gave me pause. But everything turned out great! I didn’t start a kitchen fire and the end result was really good. These beautiful little bars begin with a very sticky brown sugar cookie dough that is baked. As soon as you remove it from the oven you spread the chopped chocolate over the top and return it to the turned off oven for a minute or two. Then smooth out the chocolate and add the caramelized Rice Krispie topping. I learned from my first experience with caramel that I should not stir the sugar and water excessively when heating it or I would never achieve the beautiful golden caramel state. I loved the caramelized Rice Krispies. As Dorie says in the recipe, it makes double what you really need, but no worries, they are great to snack on. I think I singlehandedly “snacked” all the left over Rice Krispies. I took these bars to work as I feared I might be tempted to eat more than my share!

Posted in Baking, Baking Chez Moi, Cookies, Tuesdays with Dorie, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

BCM Lemon Madeleines

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Created by Carlene

These madeleines are the perfect little lemon tea cakes made with sponge cake batter! You’ll need a madeleine pan if you want to achieve the classic shape. If you don’t want to invest in a madeleine pan you can use a mini muffin pan. According to Dorie, they need to rise in the oven so that they have a “hump”. Mine rose nicely and had a beautiful “hump”, but when I removed them from the pan to the cooling rack, the cooling rack left a grid mark on my beautiful “hump”. The batter goes together very quickly and is then chilled for at least an hour. I made up the batter one evening after work, chilled it overnight, then baked the madeleines the next day. I chose to glaze them which added even more lemon flavor, the other option is to just dust them with powdered sugar.

Packaged up these were a great little treat to give my girlfriends at a birthday celebration dinner.

Posted in Baking, Baking Chez Moi, Tuesdays with Dorie | Tagged bakingchezmoi | 20 Comments

BCM Pink Grapefruit Tart

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Created by Carlene

After several easy recipes this week’s selection from Baking Chez Moi was a bit more challenging. This beautiful tart begins with a fully baked sweet tart crust. Next, a layer of lemon-almond cream is spread over the crust, then a grapefruit cr̕emeux is spread on top of that and then the grapefruit sections are placed on top of that layer. Even though I ended up making most of this in two days, it could easily be made in steps over three or more days. The lemon-almond cream can be refrigerated for up to three days and the Grapefruit cr̕emeux can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. The crust is a fully baked sweet tart crust which could also be completed a day or so in advance. The lemon-almond cream comes together nicely in a food processor and is then refrigerated for at least an hour before being spread over the tart and baked. Next up is the cr̕emeux. It requires sugar, grapefruit juice and egg yolks being continually whisked over medium heat until they reached 180 degrees (without making scrambled eggs). Then it needs to be refrigerated for at least six hours before being spread over the baked lemon-almond cream. The final step is to place the cut grapefruit sections on the top and then refrigerate the completed tart for another two hours. I did make one modification from the printed recipe, I left out the Campari. This tart was fun to make and delightful to eat. The grapefruit gives it a fresh light taste and I do love the sweet tart dough crust!

Posted in Baking, Baking Chez Moi, Tarts, Tuesdays with Dorie | 15 Comments

BCM Marquise au Chocolat

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Created by Carlene

Oh my! I think this is our new Valentine’s Day dessert tradition. It is really easy to make and the taste is wonderfully smooth, creamy and chocolaty. Even though there is no baking involved, this recipe is in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking Chez Moi, and it was selected for this week’s bake-along recipe. What a great choice! What’s not to like with these ingredients — butter, chocolate, egg yolks, sugar, and heavy whipping cream. It only took me about an hour to put it together. First the butter and chocolate are melted and combined with the sugar and egg yolks. Then the cream is whipped and gently folded into the chocolate mixture. The mix is then spooned into a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for a minimum of six hours. It would be a great dessert to make ahead for a dinner party. Dorie says it can be frozen for up to a month, but it’s not going to last that long at our house. I splurged and used my stashed Scharffen-Berger bittersweet chocolate. It was a great choice, since chocolate is the “star” of this dessert. The only change I made was to cut the recipe in half and use a mini loaf pan.

The bake-along doesn’t post the recipes, but this one was included in an article that was written about Dorie in the Village Voice. You can find the link on Dorie’s website. To see what the bakers in the Tuesdays with Dorie bake-along did with this selection click on over to the LeaveYourLink post.

Posted in Baking Chez Moi, Cooking, Tuesdays with Dorie | Tagged bakingchezmoi, Dorie Greenspan | 6 Comments

BCM Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Created by Carlene

I’m a bit late with this one, so this is just a quick post to get caught back up. I really enjoyed this cake. The texture is similar to pound cake. The flavor is simple and delicious, just perfect with your favorite cup of tea. As the recipe suggests, the flavor develops with aging. It was very simple to put together, the only part that required a bit of extra attention was browning the butter. You need to watch it closely so that the end result is “browned butter” not “black butter”. I used vanilla instead of the vanilla bean, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. I think I will have to make this again when strawberry season arrives. It would be a fabulous cake for strawberry shortcake.

Posted in Baking, Baking Chez Moi, Cake, Tuesdays with Dorie, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

BWJ Eastern European Rye

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Created by Carlene

I haven’t been participating in the Baking with Julia cookbook bake along for quite a while, but when I saw rye bread as the next assignment I had to jump back in. I like to make bread and I really like rye bread. This bread turned out great! What is different about this recipe from other rye breads that I’ve tried, is finely grinding two tablespoons of caraway seeds in a coffee grinder to add to the dough along with the whole caraway seeds. The resulting flavor boost is wonderful. It makes great sandwiches! I didn’t read ahead carefully and had the dough nicely risen and ready to shape when I saw that you were supposed to put the shaped loaves in a towel and suspend the towels from your kitchen cabinets for 30 minutes. Really? I skipped that part and just shaped the loaves and let them rise on a parchment lined baking sheet. When they had risen sufficiently I slashed the tops and slipped them into the oven. Viola, beautiful loaves! I’ll be making this bread again, but my loaves will just have to rise on parchment covered baking sheets. No hanging from the kitchen cabinets for me!

This post participates in the Baking with Julia bake along. The recipe can be found on pages 98-100 of the book or at Karen’s Kitchen Stories. Head on over to the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL post to see what the other bakers did with their loaves.

Posted in Baking, Baking with Julia, Bread, Tuesdays with Dorie | Tagged baking, bakingwithjulia, rye bread | 6 Comments

BCM Granola Energy Bars

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Created by Carlene

These bars were really easy to make and really good. There were no tricky techniques involved in this recipe. I did have to go to the local health food store to find the brown rice syrup, but otherwise I actually had most of the other ingredients on hand. I didn’t have pumpkin seeds and forgot to get them when I was at the health food store, so I just used a bit more of the almonds and the sunflower seeds. For the dried fruit I used a mix of white and dark raisins, dried cranberries, dried figs, and a couple of dried apple slices that I wanted to use up. I had thought about leaving the coconut out, but I’m glad I didn’t. It does add nice flavor to the bars. I didn’t really have any problems with this recipe, however, when I went to remove them from the pan they were very sticky on the bottom. You really do need to line the pan with parchment paper like the recipe says. I don’t think you could get them out in one piece if you didn’t use the parchment paper. There were too many for my husband and I to consume in just a few days, so I wrapped some of them in parchment paper and put them in the freezer. I took one out in a couple of days just to see how it had survived the freezer and was pleased with the results. So even though Dorie doesn’t mention freezing them, I’d say it’s ok if you can’t use them all right away. They make a great mid afternoon snack or a quick morning breakfast substitute.

Posted in Baking, Baking Chez Moi, Tuesdays with Dorie | Tagged bakingchezmoi | 15 Comments

Reflections on a New Blogging Year

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Created by Carlene

When I started this blog in January of 2012 it was for the purpose of participating in Tuesdays With Dorie “Baking with Julia” cookbook bake-along. Two recipes a month were assigned from the book and the idea was all the participants would bake the same recipe and we would post our results on the first and third Tuesday of the month. Well I made it through 2012 and into April of 2013, making most of the assignments and posting my results. Then I bogged down, or maybe I should say blogged down.

I chose the title for my blog “createdbycarlene”, thinking that I might occasionally post about some of my other creations such as knitting, crochet, or photography. This year I am going to try to add a few of those posts.

In November of 2014, Tuesdays With Dorie started a new bake-along with Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Baking Chez Moi. So far I’m off and running with the new bake-along. I love to bake and it’s fun to read everyone’s results with the assigned recipes. So here’s to a new year of blogging…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baking, bakingchezmoi, blogging101 | Leave a comment