I’ve made these cookies and posted them using the name Bon Appetit used: Cherry and Chocolate Chip Cookies. I made them again and renamed these morsels of goodness to a more (in my opinion) appropriate name: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Drunk Cherries. You take dried cherries, soak them in kirsch, and add them to chocolate chip cookies.
Very popular with everyone. For the recipe go HERE.
Ugh. I have a severe case of blog apathy and writer’s block. These days it seems the only new post I can write is the one for Tuesdays with Dorie. I’m baking and cooking. Sometimes taking pictures, sometimes not. Some are incredibly delicious and I want to share–like Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Cumin (you need to make this) from the May 2010 issue of Food & Wine. Some are for other baking groups.
Anyway, thanks to Cristine of Cooking with Cristine for hosting this week’s recipe– Quick Classic Berry Tart. I made it for Mother’s Day. It’s a simple tart with vanilla pastry cream topped with fresh berries ( I used strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and some jarred cherries). It was very delicious and a big hit with the family. I can see myself making a tropical version in the near future with rum pastry cream and pineapple, mango and kiwi. YUM.
The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.
I had decided not to make this month’s challenge. I had too many things going on both in the baking/blogging world and the real world. So, of course, shortly after I publicly announce I’m not going to participate this month I go ahead and make it.
The strudel was easier than I thought it would be. The instructions were a little intimidating. All the stretching and pulling and holes. I made a 1/4 of the recipe and instead of the traditional apple filling I used fresh blueberries and cherries.
The end result? It looks horrible. My strudel reminds me of Necron Slime. I don’t know what Necron Slime is exactly–just something from a cartoon I vaguely remember from childhood. I now think my strudel looks like a psychedelic sea cucumber. I think it fits my baked strudel.
Update: I also realize I over-stuffed it, which is a problem with me and burritos. Now that I know how to do it right. I’m definitely making again.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection is the Tartest Lemon Tart and I had TART FAILURE.
Okay, I had a glorious run with baking successes. I should be thankful, but…this is what happens with experiments sometimes. I was due one. And let me clear up one point right now. The failure was in aesthetics, not taste. I loved the tart lemon curd (uses whole lemon) and I loved the crust. The disaster tasted wonderful and looked horrible.
I decided I was going to make mini-tarts using my mini-muffin pan. I’ve noticed when I bring in desserts to work, people are lazy about cutting their own slice of something. Even if it is the most delicious thing on earth (Tiramisù Cake). People prefer little single serving things they can just grab and sneak back to their desks.
The tart shells partially-baked perfectly and the lemon curd easily came together. I think my mistake may have been I didn’t fill the tarts with enough of the curd. Or maybe I over baked them and most of the filling bubbled and evaporated away.
I ended up with tart shells lined with tart lemon instead of filled with tart lemon. To make the metaphorical lemonade out of lemons, I used the tart lemon-lined shells to hold ice cream (of course). Dorie Greenspan suggests pairing the tart with crème fraîche, so I made Crème Fraîche Ice Cream.
The ice cream recipe comes from The Perfect Scoop and David Lebovitz suggests pairing the ice cream with Candied Cherries. I used fresh cherries I bought at the farmers’ market and made the candied cherries. One of the by-products of making candied cherries is cherry syrup. YUM.
And let me tell you, Tarty Lemon Curd-Lined Shells filled with Crème Fraîche Ice Cream and topped with Candied Fresh Cherries and Fresh Cherry Syrup are absolutely wonderful.
You can find the recipe for Crème Fraîche Ice Cream HERE.
You can find the recipe for Candied Cherries HERE.
Thank you to Babette of Babette Feasts for choosing this week’s selection. It really is delicious–for the recipe vist her blog.
Pink Stripes 