Chocoholic Anonymous

As usual, I’m cutting it pretty close to the wire for my TWD post.  Maybe someday organization and time management will return to my life.  In the mean time, let’s discuss Elizabeth of Cake or Death? selection of Apple-Apple Bread Pudding on pages 408 and 409 of Dorie’s book.

I think I may have mentioned it the last time we did a bread pudding, but in general I would say they aren’t my favorite dessert.  I’m really not sure why – in essence they are a baked french toast and french toast is listed among my favorite breakfast foods.  Maybe that is the issue, maybe bread pudding just seems more like a breakfast than a dessert.  That being said, I was surprised to find that I really did enjoy this particular bread pudding…

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I have a TWD double header going on this week.  I really did make last week’s Dulce de Leche Duos and was all prepared to post about them on Tuesday but instead I had the pleasure of dealing with a broken refrigerator (which didn’t get fixed until the next morning anyway).  After that I just never seemed to find a chance to post about the cookies until it just seemed to make more sense to combine two weeks worth of TWD into one.

And so, here we are…TWD two for one!

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Here we are, Tuesday again and I’ve somehow managed to scrape together the time to make this week’s TWD challenge (that was in doubt for a time this weekend) -  Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart on page 354 chosen by Rachelle of “Mommy? I’m Hungry!“.  As I’m sure you are all well aware by now, as far as I’m concerned fruit and chocolate must be strictly segregated from one another.  But at its heart this recipe was pure decadent chocolate so I felt compelled to make it.

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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.

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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!

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Tuesday keeps coming around so quickly and I always seem to be posting at the last minute but at least I was able to participate this week.

This week’s TWD assignment was selected by Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu.  She chose Vanilla Ice Cream from pages 428-429 in Dorie’s book.  I’m not certain if I’ve mentioned it before, but ice cream is one of my favorite desserts, if not my very favorite.  At any given time I probably have at least a half dozen different flavors gracing my freezer and I generally have some amount of ice cream as part of my dessert every night.  While vanilla is rarely (if ever) my first choice in flavors, I knew I had to participate this week.

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Welcome to today’s somewhat later than intended installment of TWD.  This week’s recipe is Caramel Crunch Bars on pages 112-113 of Dorie’s book.  We have Whitney of What’s Left on the Table to thank for this delicious selection.

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Welcome to the final TWD installment of 2008.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season; I know I am!  I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to participate this week since I am still out of town visiting family, but my mother graciously permitted me to take over her kitchen long enough to make Anne’s  (of AnneStrawberry) choice of Tall and Creamy Cheesecake (found on pages 235-237 of Dorie’s Baking: From My Home to Yours).

Since I’m sitting in my mother’s kitchen on a laptop essentially ignoring my family long enough to write this, I’m going to do my best to keep it short.

Cheesecake is definitely rated among my favorite desserts so I was excited to make this one.  For the most part I followed the recipe as it was written, but I couldn’t resist making a few changes…

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Welcome to the latest installment of Tuesday’s with Dorie.  This week’s recipe is Arborio Rice Pudding selected by Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa. After my difficulty with last week’s recipe I was pretty excited about Isabelle’s choice – I’ve made pudding before, I can do this! I was also very interested in the “black” rice pudding (big surprise, right?), especially since I missed our most recent chocolate recipe.

After reading over the recipe I have to admit that 1/4 cup rice seemed insufficient in proportion to the 3 1/4 cups of milk.  However, because my pudding making experience prior to last night did not include rice pudding I dismissed any doubts and made out my shopping list.  Due to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn’t able to play with this recipe over the weekend as I intended.  So, instead of happily experimenting in my kitchen I sat down rather late on Sunday evening to read the P&Q – and I am so glad I did!  A big thanks to Dorie for her correction and all my fellow TWD-ers for sharing their experiences, it really made a big difference in this recipe.

One thing that was never in doubt was that I was going to make the “black” version of this recipe but I was in the mood to experiment a little so I had to do things just a little different…

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Two things have recently come to my attention:

1) I haven’t actually shared a recipe with you in about a month

2) My last few posts haven’t had very much (if anything) chocolate in them

I simply cannot permit this situation to continue.  This recipe not only rectifies both issues but it satisfies every craving for sweet, gooey, chocolaty goodness that I’ve had lately.  Not to be completely immodest, but these little bars are positively to die for.  And I’m not the only one to hold this belief – they vanished in under a day at the office and every single person gave them a rave review.

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer, grab the recipe here and let’s get baking…

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