Welcome to this week’s installment of TWD ! This makes 3 weeks in a row for me (after my somewhat unexpected month long absence); which might just mean I’m back on track again. Of course, it is pretty easy for me to stay on track when my fellow bakers seem to be on a chocolate streak. Seriously, I am absolutely loving our current chocolate trend.
This week, Kristin of I’m Right About Everything continued that trend with Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes (pages 188 and 189)…
This week we have Steph of Obsessed with Baking to thank for choosing Cocoa-Nana Bread on page 46 of Dorie’s book. I’m sure you’ve seen me write (over and over again) on this blog that chocolate and fruit should never be combined – but as the old adage goes, there is an exception to every rule. I have to admit that I enjoy some variations of banana and chocolate and I cannot deny that bananas are, in fact, fruit.
As a general rule I prefer my banana bread with chocolate chips in it (and with a little peanut butter on it), so, as soon as I saw this recipe on the schedule I was convinced I would enjoy it…
First – apologies for my unannounced (and unplanned) disappearance for the past month-ish. I did make the pecan pie back in December (actually I made it for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful), but we left town the day the post was due and I never got around to posting it in all of our travel chaos. I truly wanted to make the chocolate cheesecake but there was no way I could bring Dorie’s book in my luggage and I clean forgot to make a copy of the recipe before we left. Next thing I know, here it is mid January and I haven’t posted since mid December.
Anyway, enough with the excuses, right? This week Lillian of Confectiona’s Realm picked Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars on pages 114 and 115. This is one of many recipes in the book that doesn’t have a drool inspiring photo paired with it so I have often missed it as I flipped through but I am glad that Lillian selected it.
With all my holiday baking this week I find myself right down to the wire for my TWD post (not that a last minute post is so terribly unusual for me, but I’m taking a break from baking for a few moments to get this posted before midnight). This week Macduff of The Lonely Sidecar selected Cafe Volcano Cookies (page 153). Without further ado, let’s get to the good stuff…
This week Barbara of Bungalow Barbara selected sablés from pages 131-133. As I was rather pressed for time this week, all I can say is I’m glad these are so quick to whip up!
The final recipe for this month (for me anyway) is Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake chosen by Katya of Second Dinner. I decided to take advantage of the leniency in the TWD posting rules for this month, and this week in particular, so that I could have this beautiful cake on my Thanksgiving menu.
I very nearly did not make this cake because I was not able to find the chestnuts or chestnut paste the recipe called for and it looked like a very time consuming recipe, but the picture in the book looked gorgeous and, as I’m sure you’re all well aware by now, I find it very difficult to pass up anything chocolate.
This week I decided to make the Cran-Apple Crisps selected by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef. I was rather excited about this one. I love the cranberry apple combination and I really appreciated the idea of the individual crisps.
This week’s recipe, Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies (pg 76-77) selected by Pamela of Cookies with Boys turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise. Before I even made these cookies I told “Prince Charming” that I was sending them into work with him because I didn’t think I was going to like them.
Why not you ask?
Well, the picture along side the recipe showed a very thin flat cookie that looked very much like it was going to be a crisp cookie. In my book, cookies should be soft and chewy, never crispy or crumbly. So it was with that preconceived notion that I began making these cookies…
I think November is my favorite TWD month. Our November hosts go out of their way to pick holiday friendly recipes and I really enjoy the more free form structure of being able to bake/post the TWD assignments for the month in whatever order I please.
“Prince Charming” and I decided we would start out the month with the All In One Holiday Bundt Cake chosen by Britin of The Nitty Britty.
This week’s TWD hostess is April of Short + Rose and she chose the Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte. Unlike our lovely hostess I really prefer not to sully my chocolate with cherries (or any other kind of fruit for that matter).
After reading the recipe I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to attempt this one or not – it was a more complicated and time consuming recipe which I wasn’t certain the little prince would give me the opportunity to complete and I wouldn’t even get to enjoy the fruits of my labor. But “Prince Charming” was very supportive and nearly insisted that I should get back on my TWD wagon…of course he absolutely loves cherries and chocolate so I think his motives may have been somewhat suspect!
