{TWD} Maxi Madeleines

This week the other Tuesdays With Dorie selection (earlier today I posted Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie) gives a nod to Dorie Greenspan's French baking roots, with Mini Madeleines. Since I baked the recipe in a madeleine pan with full sized wells and they turned out quite large, I'm calling mine "Maxi Madeleines". But as good as these taste, I'm happy to have a bit more madeleine on the plate!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- This week's madeleine baking session is hosted by my Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook. Click over to her post to see some absolutely adorable mini madeleines, and get the recipe. While you're there, check out her other fabulous baking creations.

- These madeleines have honey and brown sugar and lemon zest among their ingredients - what a fantastic flavor combination.

- I made half recipe, which actually makes 7 or 8 full sized madeleines if your pan has the same sized wells as mine. My pan has only 6 wells; I divided the batter among the 6, and they were over-filled, as you can see from the extended madeleine edges. I probably should have put the extra batter in a ramekin to bake.


- The big issue when baking madeleines is getting the desirable "hump" on the backs of the cookies - that is, the batter should rise and be domed as the madeleines bake. I was lucky that there was a nice hump on the cookies I baked. After I baked mine, I saw a link that Di provided to a post by Dorie with some new madeleine techniques. It's always fun to see new tips to making baked goods even better.

the verdict:

These madeleines had a lovely texture and even lovelier flavor! They were a huge hit with my book group tasters and just about flew off the plate. I'd definitely bake these again!

{TWD} Far Breton ~and~ Honey Nut Scones

The baking group Tuesdays With Dorie began on January 1, 2008, and each week it has presented members with one assigned recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours. Right now we are *this* close to finishing the book, and the group's leaders have decided that we should finish by the end of Calendar Year 2011, making the group exactly 4 years in duration. In order to meet this deadline, we have to double up on weekly recipes for most weeks this month, leaving Thanksgiving week free for us to choose a recipe we might have missed. So there's a lot of baking going on in my kitchen, and each Tuesday's post in November will have not one, but two recipes.

This week's recipes are Far Breton and Honey Nut Scones.

Part 1: Far Breton

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Nicole of Cookies on Friday chose Far Breton, and you can find the recipe on her post.

- Far Breton is a regional dish from Brittany, containing prunes. Apparently the word "far" mean "flour" in Breton, but the batter for this cake is quite egg-centric with very little flour at all.

- I made 1/2 recipe in 6"x3" round cake pan.

- Instead of white sugar, I used granulated golden palm sugar, and duck egg rather than chicken eggs.

- The recipe calls for prunes and raisins, although Dorie gives permission for other dried fruit substitutions. I stuck with the prunes and raisins, cutting the prunes in half before soaking the fruit in very strong black tea. The recipe specifies Early Grey, but I didn't have any (I rooted through the entire tea drawer not once but twice to prove that to myself.) Another option is to infuse the fruit with Armagnac, but I've never been able to locate it in the liquor stores in my hamlet.

- The far puffed a lot as it cooked, and browned beautifully. It took a good hour to bake, even at half the size.

- When I unmolded the far, it fell considerably, like a souffle.


the verdict:

The far was squarely in the delightful no-man's-land between custard and cake, like a baked custard with enough flour added to edge it toward cake territory. Both my husband and I loved the finished product. It was eggy and dense and sweet and fruity. After its long soak in strong tea, the dried fruit was tender and nearly melted away into the custard. We found the far at perfect at room temperature as an after-dinner dessert, and nearly as good, chilled, for breakfast the next morning.

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Part 2: Honey Nut Scones

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The scones recipe was chosen by my baking buddy Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake.

- I stuck closely to Dorie's recipe, with the exception of using I used pecans instead of walnuts.

- Dorie's method for forming scones produces small, individual scones. I prefer a bigger scone with more "inside" and less "outside", so here's how I baked these: After mixing the dough I patted it into a disk in a greased glass cake pan, scored the disk into 6 or 8 wedges with a bench scraper, then baked. When the scones are still hot from the oven, I cut them into separate wedges along the score lines. To me the scones don’t end up dried-out this way.

the verdict:

These scones were a welcome sight for Saturday morning breakfast. And for Sunday and Monday as well! I'm more used to fruit than nuts in a scone, but I really liked the crunch and that the nuts lend to this recipe. This was one of my favorite scone recipes in the book.

{TWD} Chestnut Honey and Toasted Walnut Brownies

Before making this week's recipe for Tuesdays With Dorie, the Honey Nut Brownies, I had a little debate with myself. On the one hand I've never heard of honey as an ingredient in a chocolate brownie. I was skeptical.

On the other hand I like honey. A lot. In fact, I probably have half a dozen different types of honey in my cupboard. And little known fact: honey doesn't expire; it contains some antibiotic-type properties that preserve it indefinitely, apparently.

Back to the original hand, the question remained: Would honey be good with chocolate? Maybe I should cut the amount of honey and fill in with Llyles golden syrup, or sorghum, or even molasses. But that would totally defeat the intention of having honey brownies, wouldn't it? Dorie's unusual-sounding recipes have pleasantly surprised me time and again, so I decided to try the brownies as written and see.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The brownie recipe was chosen by Suzy of Suzy Homemaker. You can click over to her post to find the recipe.

- Since I was embracing the honey-in-brownies concept, I decided to go all-in and use uber-strong chestnut honey, since Dorie said that flavor complements the chocolate in the brownies.

- I made 1/4 recipe in 3.5 x 6 inch pan, which I lined with a non-stick foil sling.

- For nuts I used walnuts, since they have a strong enough flavor to stand up to a bold honey like chestnut.

the verdict:

I took a bit of brownie and thought, "Chestnut honey, and...more chestnut honey." Everything else faded into the background. The brownies forced me to decide how much I really like chestnut honey. David Lebovitz says that chestnut honey tastes "brusque and bitter" and maybe that's how to best describe its strong and unusual flavor.

At that point JDE walked into the kitchen. I asked if she'd be a taste-tester. Her reaction: "I don't think they can be called brownies if they don't have chocolate." Not only was there not enough chocolate to balance the strong honey taste, the chocolate flavor was nearly undetectable. With an undeniably cakey texture, these brownies were more like a snack cake than a typical chocolate brownie.

Although the brownies took me by surprise at first, I came to like them as I tried bite after bite; they were better the second day when the flavors had settled a bit. If you like honey and you're not expecting a strong chocolate hit, you might enjoy these brownies Be sure to use your favorite honey flavor because it will take center stage.

but they kind of grew on me