TWD: Dulce de leche duos, my way

If you're a member of Tuesdays with Dorie, you're probably thinking that your cookies didn't look like the ones above. That's because the ones you can see are NOT Dorie's cookies. I was a bit skeptical about the original recipe, and with good reason, it turns out. These were the ugliest cookies I've ever made! There was no picture of them in the book, either. Very suspicious...

I love dulce de leche and have made it a number of times (from scratch--none of that can-boiling business for me).   The cookie batter just seemed to have too much sugar (white+brown+dulce de leche) so I left the white sugar out, hoping they wouldn't be too sweet. Maybe this is why my cookies didn't really spread, and looked like homely little lumps after baking. I made the second tray smaller, and just ended up with smaller lumps. I added oatmeal to the third tray for the lumpy lump effect and wondered why I hadn't made only half a batch...

Anyway, people seemed to like them, but they were too cakey for me, and I couldn't get past their appearance. So, what to do? Skip posting this week, even though I made the cookies, or make another batch of something? I had some pâte sablée in the freezer, so decided to roll and bake a few of these to fill with dulce de leche. Much better: the cookies were crisp and buttery and the filling didn't just soak in and make them even cakier. If you're still reading this, you deserve a good laugh, so check after the jump for the photo of the original cookies. Better still, head over to the TWD blogroll to see what they were supposed to look like. This week's recipe was chosen by Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake. I bet hers look nice!

Blackberry buckwheat pancakes, or breakfast of the under-employed, part 2

Ah, it's the Monday after March break and I guess all those teachers are feeling sufficiently rested to go to work today! So, no calls for me, but I did get a good sleep, at least until the garbage truck came by. After a cup of tea I decided to have pancakes, and I wanted to use the buckwheat flour I picked up in Montreal. So, I went searching, and found this recipe on A Whisk and a Spoon. The only changes I made were to use yogurt instead of buttermilk, omit the honey, and add a pint of blackberries. Why? Well, I didn't have any buttermilk, I usually don't put sweeteners in my pancakes because I drown them in maple syrup, and blackberries are good (and threatening to go moldy in my fridge). These were delicious--hearty and sweet and tart with the fruit and syrup. The batter was super sticky, and got stickier the longer I let it sit. The buckwheat flavour was mild, and next time I'll use more buckwheat than flour. Happy Monday!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

In celebration of a great holiday, I bring you.... coffee jelly with marsala cream! I had some extra coffee and extra filling from the tiramisu challenge, so this is what I did with it:

Coffee rum jelly:
1 tablespoon gelatin
3 tablespoons water
¼ cup sugar
2 cups strong coffee
rum or liqueur to taste

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a small saucepan and set aside for a few minutes. Add the coffee and sugar, and stir, heating, until the gelatin and sugar are both dissolved completely. This won't take long at all if your coffee is hot. Stir in the rum and pour into glasses or ramekins and chill. Serve with whipped cream. The marsala cream I used had 4 separate components, so I don't recommend making it just for this, but you could always add more booze to your whipped cream.

Oh, and if you were looking for something Irish, I made some wheaten bread a while back. It'd be good with a real pint of Guinness.

Happy ∏ Day!

∏=3.14. Pi Day=March 14 (3.14). Get it? Now, I'm sure that pi is a very useful thing, but I'm all about the pie, so let's get on with it.
:)
It's March break week, which means that all the kids are in Florida, teachers are enjoying a well-earned week off, and us supply teachers are wondering if we'll get any calls when the break is over. I think we always wonder that. Actually, I'm trying to fight off all the germs I caught from the kindergartners, but I won't go into any detail about that.
For Pi Day, I decided to make a maple sugar pie. It's so easy--a pie crust and 3 ingredients, and it helps me use up my maple sugar so I can get some new stuff. It's sugaring off time, and my family live in the 'maple syrup capital of Ontario', I kid you not. There are tons of sugar bushes around, and I visit every year. If they are boiling sap, the smell is heavenly, and you should bring a lawnchair and just camp out beside the boiler. It's like a maple sauna.
My mother and I went this morning and got 4 litres of syrup: 2 each of light and amber. I visited the evaporator room, sampled everything they had and had some taffy on snow too. They didn't have any maple sugar, so that means another trip soon.

Maple Sugar Pie

1 baked pie crust or tart shell, cooled

1 cup maple sugar
¼ cup flour
1½ cups whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350℉. Whisk maple sugar and flour together and add cream. Stir well. Pour into pie crust and bake for 35-45 minutes, until just set. Cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. This is traditionally served with unsweetened cream, whipped or not.

The pie has a creamy, custardy filling, and is very maple-y. Brown sugar can be substituted, but it won't be the same at all. Some versions call for eggs and evaporated milk, but this one has the purest flavour, I think.

TWD: Thumbprints for us big guys

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, so head over to his blog for the recipe. As written, this is a shortbread-style cookie with ground hazelnuts and a raspberry jam filling. I decided to use ground almonds with a lemon curd filling because
a) I had no hazelnuts, and
b) I was taking these to a friend's place.
She has a pathological aversion to raspberry seeds and has passed it on to her children, but they do all love lemon. I also used dark brown sugar instead of white, just because I felt like it. Be sure to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see what variations everyone else has come up with.

I made a half recipe of the lemon curd from Gourmet Today, edited by Ruth Reichl. I chose this lemon curd because it called for whole eggs, but it's a bit pale for that same reason. Tasty enough, though. Here's the recipe:

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)

1 cup sugar

6 large eggs

⅛ teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks ) unsalted butter, cut in cubes

Whisk zest, juice, sugar, eggs and salt together in a heavy saucepan and add butter. Cook over moderately low heat, whisking constantly, until it's thick enough that the whisk leaves visible trails and it just starts to boil, 6 to 8 minutes.

Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, covering surface with wax or parchment paper, and refrigerate.