Dorie's Black and White Spidey Cake

Happy Birthday Adam!  Love you!!

Despite the fact that you are sitting beside me now, tears streaming down your face, telling me that you are mad at both of us because when asked what colouring book you want to keep for your grab bag, League of Justice or Batman, said Batman but now want the other...it was still a fun party! I don't think this is the first 4 year old birthday party to end in tears, once all the excitement has stopped. 

On to the cake.  Yum!  I think the decorating turned out rather well.  Easy to make a web.  This is Dorie Greenspan's black and white chocolate cake.  It's a white cake filled with layers of chocolate pastry cream.  The cake is frosted with white chocolate whipped cream and has a middle layer of this as well.  I loved the chocolate pastry cream.  The white chocolate whipped cream not so much, but that's my fault.  I whipped the cream too much and I think it started to seperate.  One second it looked gorgeous and the next it looked like scrambled eggs. A quick call to my friend M and she suggested a little reheat and to mix with some newly whipped cream.  It was ok after that but I think it could have been better.  I look forward to trying this cake again!

Yummy chocolate layers.

michel rostang’s double chocolate mousse cake

This was delicious.  Decided to go with the twice baked and then chilled option.  Although I only managed to cool it for an hour before digging into it last night.  It was even better today with whipped cream.  Must go...more cake to eat!

gnocchi à la parisienne

After some very busy days at work and letting L do the cooking it felt good to be back in the kitchen today and cooking along with the French Friday gang.  This version of gnocchi is not the gnocchi most of us know as it's not a potato based dough but rather like a pâte à choux.  The dough came together nicely.  I used a suggestion from a fellow FFwD member and put the dough in a ziploc bag with the corner cut off.  I squeezed out the dough while L snipped it off in little bits into the boiling water.  Piece of cake...except when the water splashes up into your eye.  I should have listened more to my FFwD members when it came to the béchamel sauce.  Everyone commented how thick it was.  The ratio of butter to flour called for 2 1/2 tablespoons butter to 6 tablespoons of flour.  I normally do an even ratio.  I cut it down to 5 tablespoons but I still found the sauce too think.  It had a nice taste but just too thick and rich.  I actually had some sauce on my plate and D commented it looked like a gnocchi.  Overall not our favourite but the gnocchi were nice and light, willing to give this one a try again someday.

Christmas and all things Dorie

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. I still have gorgonzola in the fridge waiting to be mixed with my pumpkin into something tasty.  Hopefully soon.  I have been busy preparing for Christmas.  Cabbage rolls are in the oven as I type.  Pierogies, lasagna and more cookies to come.  Besides our turkey feast on Christmas day I'll be making dinner for my aunts, uncles and cousins to be served at my mom's house on the 29th.  The previously mentioned cabbage rolls and pierogies will be served along with ham, schnitzel and Dorie's pommes dauphinois.  In the meantime I've been busy with these little goodies.  Sorry I did not get them posted during the past couple of weeks.

Let's start with leek and potato soup, topped with cheddar cheese.  This was my first successful homemade soup.  It was delicious, but does not photograph that well.

Next up were the Speculoos.  I took Dorie's suggestion and sandwiched some of these with Nutella.  Yummy!  I didn't have a small cookie cutter so these are rather large and my son really wanted the reindeer shaped ones.  Let me tell you, this dough was hard enough to work with let alone try to make fancy shapes, but they are the epitome of all things a Christmas cookie should be.



And as a little extra treat I made Dorie's World Peace cookies, which can be found in one of her other cookbooks, Baking - From my home to yours. 

Make these cookies!!! 

Mine were made with a mix of dark and milk chocolate.  For my next batch I plan on trying some orange chocolate.  There are many, many batches in my future. 

If you get a chance Dorie has a wonderful story about these cookies here. 

Merry Christmas, everyone.  Enjoy the holiday season, the wonderful food and most of all, spending time with those you love!

 

roast chicken for les paresseux

This was a great roast chicken!  I don’t know about the ‘for les paresseux’ part as I made this on a Monday night after a long day at work and had to have dinner ready before the family started heading out the door for various activities.  Dorie calls this chicken for lazy people as you put it in a Dutch oven and just forget about it until it’s done.  While the prep was easy, ½ a head of garlic in the cavity and ½ in the bottom of the pot along with some herbs and wine, followed by a simple sprinkle of salt and pepper on the bird, I didn’t have a Dutch oven so I used our normal Pyrex dish (which does not have high sides).  This normally works well but I guess with the addition of a bit of oil in the pan the bird was really splattering and popping, making me check it often for fear of a fire.  I finally took some tin foil and fashioned sides for my Pyrex dish and that seemed to do the trick.  I did add the shallots at the ½ way mark but skipped the veggies as D requested mashed potatoes that night and I don’t like cooked carrots. 

The chicken turned out very crispy and juicy.  Actually L commented that it wasn’t done because it still had juice running from it.  I said the juice just has to be clear.  The crisp skin of a chicken is one of my favourite parts but I declared that night that L does not respect the skin!  He doesn’t eat it so while carving this chicken for me he let it flop around in the pan juices thus loosing some of it’s crispness.  It was still good but I think I’ll take care of that part next time. 

The best part of this for me was the pan drippings.  Yum!  While the chicken was really very similar to how we normally roast I don’t usually add garlic, shallots and wine to the pan.  I did add some more wine while reducing the drippings and turned this into gravy with the addition of a bit of flour and water.  Delicious! 

I’ll add that I liked the bread trick but I’ll leave it up to those readers that don’t have Dorie’s book, Around my French Table, to pick themselves up a copy and find this recipe and all the other wonderful ones.

Who knew one could talk so much about chicken!

FFwD - caramel-topped semolina cake

Oh caramel…you are quickly becoming my arch-nemesis.  I decided to double the caramel after reading others comments about the recipe not producing very much.  The first attempt looked good, but wait, “Poof!”…too dark.  I had better taste to see.  Why do I keep sticking my fingers in hot caramel!  Yuck.  Second try.  Doubled the recipe again.  Stirred it into a frothy mess trying to keep it from burning.  Stirred so much that most of the sugar just crystallized around the sides of the pot.  Didn’t even get enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan.  Third attempt.  Kept the recipe as is and voilà!  Perfect. 

As you can see the turn out on to the plate did not go so well either but that’s ok, I was just happy to have it done and to see some delicious looking caramel sauce.  The ‘cake’ itself was very easy to make and I’ve been enjoying the cream of wheat as my morning meal for a couple of weeks now.  I skipped the raisins, as I didn’t have any on hand. 
I am glad I was eager to taste this as it turns out I really enjoyed it while it was still a bit warm but once it came to room temperature it was too eggy for me.   Looking forward to trying Dorie’s roast chicken for les paresseux (lazy people) this weekend…and with the mess of pots full of hardened caramel sauce waiting for me in the kitchen it sounds like the type of recipe I need!

FFwD - pommes dauphinois

There was a hotel I stayed at several times in Baton Rouge that had a steak restaurant next door that delivered room service.  Yummy steak.  The first time I ordered however I was shocked that I had no choice of potato.  It was a fully loaded baked potato or nothing.  French fries being the only kind I really enjoy I thought I was going to have to just eat steak that night.  Boy was I wrong.  Turned out I like love potatoes when you cover them in butter, cheese bacon and what other yummy ingredients might have been in there.  Turns out I also love potatoes sliced thin and baked in heavy cream infused with garlic and topped with cheddar cheese (I used a white cheddar as that's what I had in the house).  I will not be making these again anytime soon.  Yes you read that correctly.  These were too good.  I had another helping before bed; I had them for lunch the next day.  If I make them too often I'll weigh a tonne!