It’s another Tuesday and I actually have something to post!
I missed the last couple of weeks primarily because “Prince Charming” and I were spending some time out of town for the holiday. When I saw that one of the recipes I missed was a brownie recipe I decided I just had to double up this week.
So, let us begin with the Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies found on pages 96-97…
I stayed pretty true to this recipe, with the exception of leaving out the nuts. I never have been a big fan of nuts in my brownies, so I added more chunks of chocolate instead. I am, however, a big fan of the cinnamon and chocolate flavor combination which meant there was no need to mess with the rest of this recipe. Generally speaking I prefer a thicker brownie, but these did not disappoint. They were rich and fudgy, the top had a nice crackle to it and the cinnamon and coffee complemented the chocolate flavor very well. These brownies were a hit with “Prince Charming” and with my co-workers.
Now that I have my chocolate fix, I feel that we can move on to the current TWD assignment. Denise of Chez Us picked the Brioche Plum Tart recipe on pages 54-55 of Dorie’s book. Let me just say, I do not like plums…never have and likely never will. In fact, I like them so very little that I nearly decided to take another pass this week. But, I did find the whole concept of a brioche tart interesting and I haven’t actually made my own brioche before so I decided to give it a go with apples instead of the plums.
Here’s we have the finished product. You can see the lovely flutes on the sides of the tart and I think the slices of apple look quite pretty. I’m afraid that even though I tented foil over the tart earlier than Dorie indicated it still darkened a bit more than I would have liked.
I decided to make a little more of the sugar and nut mixture than the recipe called for so I could do a double layer of the apples with the sugar and nuts. I also substituted brown sugar for half of the white sugar and added just a bit of cinnamon. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the opportunity to try this one on the day it was made.
But we warmed up a slice to try today. Both “Prince Charming” and I agreed that this made for a very tasty breakfast pastry. “Prince Charming” liked the thickness of the crust, and he felt that it rounded it out as a breakfast item rather than a dessert. I’m glad I did a double layer of the apples or I think they wouldn’t have stood up to the brioche crust.
Thank you to Denise for this week’s selection; yet again a fellow TWD-er has chosen something that gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons a bit. Head over to her site to check out the full recipe and don’t forget to explore the TWD blog roll for more interpretations of Brioche Plum Tart.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Both desserts look lovely!