TWD | Baking Chez Moi | Cranberry Crackle Tart

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking Chez Moi
by Dorie Greenspan

This cranberry crackle tart may look fancy, but really, it is unbelievably simple.

The filling is made up of just two egg whites and some sugar and salt, and whipped until soft peaks are formed. Then fresh cranberries are carefully folded in. Next time, I would add more cranberries.

The meringue mixture is placed in a pre-cooked tart shell made with a sweet tart dough that has been spread with jam - Dorie suggests chunky cherry, raspberry, or strawberry. I used a sour cherry and rhubarb jam.

I used the back of a spoon, by pressing it into the filling and lifting up, to give it it's fluffy, swirly texture. 

It may not look like much, even Dorie mentions in the book that this tart is homey looking. 

This made for a nice light dessert after our always, overabundant Thanksgiving meal. Everyone said they enjoyed it - I may have liked it more if I used more cranberries and jam. I found it to be rather bland. 

Visit my fellow bakers to see how they fared with this recipe by clicking here.

It is the rule of TWD not to post the recipes here on our blogs. However, the recipe can be found online here.

TWD: Cranberry-Walnut Pumpkin Loaves

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Recipe by Steve Sullivan



This bread has to be good. The contributing baker is Steve Sullivan, founder of Acme Bread.
Acme supplies breads to our local restaurants and grocery stores, and Steve once worked baking bread at Alice Waters' famed Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA.

I have yet to make it over to Chez Panisse, something I have wanted to do for quite some time. A friend of mine eats there a few times a year and I always question her as to what she had, from appetizer to dessert. Always the menu sounds fabulous! The one thing I look forward to beside the awesome food is that they ask that you refrain from using your cell phone or laptops at the table (a pet peeve of mine) - this request is even printed on the menu! I must get there soon..

Sorry to digress - back to the topic at hand: Cranberry-Walnut Pumpkin Loaves.

This recipe screams fall - pumpkin, cranberry, yeast breads. I'm so ready for fall foods, but we have been having such nice awesome weather (high 70's to low 80's) that it just has not been cool enough for soups, stews and the like, but bread I can handle.

The recipe is pretty straight forward. Just plan on two days to make this bread. You need to refrigerate the dough overnight between risings, though I read here that "merrybaker" skipped the refrigeration. I'm a novice bread maker so I followed Mr. Sullivan's directions.

The bread is moist and soft the day of baking, and like the whole wheat loaves they start to become dry by the next day. Maybe that is how it is with homemade bread (i.e. no preservatives). Unfortunately the pumpkin flavor is not very pronounced. Toasted with butter, this is reminiscent to the raisin bread I had as a child, with a slight twang from the cranberries.

Once again, as with the whole wheat loaves we made recently, this is just OK. I feel this bread was not worth the time invested; I was also hoping for more of a pumpkin essence. I'll stick with the awesome quick-bread recipe of Pumpkin Bran Bread which has a lot more flavor, a lot less time to make, and stays moist for several days after baking.

Success meter (1-3): 2

Tip:

Grate your nutmeg into a measuring cup.

I find it easier to get the ground nutmeg 

into the measuring spoon this way.

I had a hard time keeping the cranberries

incorporated in the dough. They kept

wriggling their way out.

After an overnight rest in the refrigerator,

divide your dough and shape into loaves.

The cranberries just want to keep poppin' out!

Originally I was going to use two standard size

loaf pans until I found these burried in the back

of my cupboard. :)

All tucked in and ready to rise.

An hour later - beautiful!

If you're interested in the recipe visit the site of our host:

Rebecca at This Bountiful Backyard

You may also want to check out the LYL link for my fellow

blogger's trials and triumphs of this recipe.

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TWD: Hungarian Shortbread

Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Gale Gand


                                     Hungarian Shortbread

Our Tuesdays with Dorie hosts this week are Lynette of 1smallkitchen and Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler…. Visit their blogs for the recipe and their take on this creation.

Separate your egg whites into individual dishes

then freeze. Once frozen warm bowls to loosen

 and transfer to a Ziplock bag to use later.

Light and fluffy.

With five bags of cranberries in my freezer I

decided to make cranberry jam rather than the

rhubarb jam called for in the recipe.

I rolled the dough thin enough to fit in the feed tube

 of a food processor as suggested by this fellow baker.

First layer of grated dough.

I pre-baked the first layer just until it started

to change in color before adding the filling.

I was hoping to have some leftover

jam for toast it was so good.

Bwahaaha...

The first piece cut after a few

 hours of cooling fell apart.

By the next day they held together beautifully.

The cranberry jam had wonderful flavor

before baking. After baking it seemed to

lose its tartness.

I consumed more of these then I wanted to trying to determine if I liked them. The answer was right there on my tastebuds. If I did like them there would be no question and I could have stopped at the first piece (or not.) I kept sampling over and over again trying to find the intense flavor I so imagined these would have and unfortunately it was not found in these bars.

The shortbread turned out softer than I was expecting and my filling did not pack much of a punch. The flavor of the jam really did not come through at all now that I think about it. These I find are a bit on the bland side. (Update: I took the leftovers to our girls-night. Everyone loved them - except me.)

I'm thinking I should change my success meter from numbers to "Is it worth the fat and calories?"

Success meter (1-3): 1/No



My version did not impress me but reading other bakers comments they were happy with their outcome. So don't just take my word on this recipe, try it out for yourself by going to our host's sites mentioned at the beginning of this post to obtain the recipe or you can purchase Baking with Julia at your local independent bookseller or on-line.

On another note I once again have been bestowed upon with another blogger award! This one is from Sabine of Berry Lovely. Thank you Sabine. I am deeply touched by your generous gift. Sabine has a beautiful blog and is an amazing photographer. Take the time to check her site out - her photos are visually captivating.

Book Sixty-One: Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2009

                      Cranberry-Oatmeal Bars

As I was looking for something to make for dinner these appeared before my eyes; and I have been wanting to bring a treat to the girls at the bank for some time, and cranberry bars fit the bill perfectly this time of year.

The filling for these bars tastes out of this world. Cranberry and orange together is what peanut butter is to jelly - the perfect combination. The scent of these bars baking alone puts you in a state of bliss.

Why do recipes say "cool completely"? Is it to protect themselves from a lawsuit if one is burned? When something smells as good as these cranberry bars do it is impossible to wait till completely cool to have a nibble. These are good - though a bit sweet - could probably cut the sugar by half. However I will not be sending these to the girls at the bank for I overcooked them a tad and I want perfection when I give my baked goods as a gift.

I'm sure the boys will enjoy them.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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Look at all the yummy bits of orange zest!