{TWD} Fresh Mango Bread

This week's TWD baking assignment is Fresh Mango Bread., chosen by Kelly of Baking with the Boys (the recipe will be on her post). This was a new one on me, even though Dorie says it's a Southern specialty and I've lived here in the South for more than 30 years (born a Yankee, though).

To be ready for this bread, I'd ordered a mango from the farm box (organic "from farther afield", as they say). I eat very few fresh mangoes so I had to turn to my good buddy, Google, when it was time to ripen and store my mango. And the internet research turned up this interesting fact: mangoes are the #1 consumed fruit in the world, beating bananas 3 to 1 and apples 10 to 1. Did you know that? I sure didn't, and it makes me think I'd better get on the mango-eating band wagon (besides those fabulous chile spiced dried mangoes from Trader Joes).

n.o.e.'s notes:

-My mango must be the type that Dorie used, because it yielded exactly 2 cups of chopped fruit!

- I made a few typical-for-me substitutions in this recipe:

--- 5 oz light flavor olive oil + 1 oz nonfat yogurt

--- 1 c white whole wheat + 1.5 cups ap flour

- I could not get my head around the combination of fresh fruit and raisins. It just sounded odd to me. Dorie said that she'd tweaked nuts out of the recipe, and I tweaked them back in! They just seemed to go with the raisins. I added 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans to keep the golden raisins (and the mango) company.

- Rather than 3 eggs, I used 2 very very large duck eggs (@75 grams each!) + a few drops of egg substitute.

- Rather than a big loaf, I filled 1 smallish and 1 mini loaf pan. The batter pretty much filled the pans. I should have used another mini pan, but I was too lazy to grease and flour it. My reward? The pans overflowed in the oven.


- The biggest issues with other TWD bakers seemed to be whether to include the raisins (always controversial; people have strong opinions about raisins in their baked goods!) and the hairyness of the cooked mangoes in the bread. I have to say the little strings did take me a bit by surprise, but they weren't a deal breaker for me.

the verdict:

I liked the spiciness of this bread, but not sure I liked the mango in it, which is too bad since that's pretty much the point of the bread. That being said, my husband loved this bread and ate it with his breakfast for a week. I still have the mini loaf in the freezer.

Sweet Melissa's Brooklyn Brownout Cake

This week's assignment for Sweet Melissa Sundays is the Brooklyn Brownout Cake; the recipe is a nod to the legendary Brooklyn Blackout Cake, made famous by Ebinger's bakeries, the last of which closed in 1972. The original version was a 3 layer chocolate cake, filled and iced with chocolate pudding and coated with crumbled cake (from a reserved layer). Over the years, people have tried to re-create the secret recipe, and the cake has inspired many spinoffs. So, I've made Dorie Greenspan's Devil's Food Whiteout Cake (with a fluffy marshmallow frosting and crumbled cake crumbs on the outside) and now Melissa's Brooklyn Brownout cake (with a chocolate ganache and crumbled brownies). I've yet to make the original! For a little history and a recipe for Brooklyn Blackout cake, click here.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The cake is not particularly difficult, but it requires three different elements, and assembly is a bit time-consuming. The separate recipes are for brownies (a few of which are crumbled for filling the cake and coating the outside), cake (for the layers) and ganache (for frosting, and for crumble "glue")

- The first step was making Melissa's Chocolate Brownie recipe. The brownies will be the subject of a future post, but suffice it to say that they are very fudgey - and good! Most of them are now residing in the freezer.

- I had every intention of following the cake recipe to a "T". And I was doing pretty well. The only change was to substitute the 1/2 c sour cream with 1/4 c light sour cream and 1/4 c Greek yogurt (because that's what I had).

- I brewed up a big insulated coffee mug full of hot coffee, which I set aside to keep hot while I mixed the rest of the ingredients, planning to measure out 3/4 c's worth of it when I was ready to add the coffee - which was the last step in the cake batter. No doubt you can guess what happened next. Of course I just added the coffee to the batter, forgetting to measure. I figured I'd added about an extra 1/4 cup of coffee. Now what to do? I added 1/8 c. of egg substitute (equiv of 1/2 egg), hoping that would help the very liquid-y batter to set as it baked.

- I don't have the 7" cake pans the recipe specifies, so I went a different direction. I decided to use some vintage loaf pans - they are 3.5" x 7.25" (about 3/4 of a standard 4.5" x 8" loaf pan and 1/2 a 9" x 5" pan - I often use them for making a half recipe of quick breads). The batter weighed in at 1200 g, so I put 400 g in each of the two loaf pans. The remaining third of the batter got divided among 6 muffin molds (about 65 grams each). My original plan was to use some of the extra muffins to do a taste test with the devil's food cake from Dorie's Whiteout cake - I still had some of it in the freezer. But now that I messed up this recipe, a taste test wouldn't be valid.


- The cakes and cupcakes rose nicely. The cupcakes were done in 33 min and the loafs in 40 minutes.


- I froze the cupcakes for later, and split the loafs into 2 layers each. I used 3 of the layers for the cake, and froze one layer for later.

- For the ganache I used half Ghiradelli semisweet pieces (58%) - on the left, below - and half Scharffen Berger semisweet baking pieces (62%) - on the right, below. The best part? I didn't need to chop the chocolate!


- Now for the assembly. This is where Melissa lets us down. There's clearly an error in the recipe, as the directions abruptly end about half way through assembling the cake. This was frustrating, especially as there's no picture to see what we're aiming for. A quick Google search didn't turn up many pictures of the cake, either. Oh, well, after all the Sweet Melissa Sundays bakers post there will be lots of images of this cake on the internet!


- So, here's what I did: For the crumbles, I used only brownie crumbs. My cakes cratered rather than domed, so I didn't have anything to trim off. I could have used my extra layer and crumbled it, but decided to just crumble the brownies. Melissa instructions say to crumble the brownies into 3/4 in - 1 in pieces. That would have been really huge crumbles! I made mine mostly about 1/2 inch. The crumbles got mixed with just enough of the ganache to coat them.

- Between the 3 cake layers I used the crumbles as filling.


- Next I spread a layer of ganache over the whole cake, although I didn't take a ton of time to make it smooth and beautiful. I pressed the brownie crumbles on the sides with my fingers.

- I ended up using just over half the ganache and 4 brownies to fill and frost the cake (which in turn used just over half of the devil's food layer recipe). I get to save the extra ganache.

- I let the finished cake set up for several hours in the fridge. When I cut slices, they were veritable slabs of fudginess. In fact, the cake broke my Publix plastic cake cutter in half!

the verdict:

This cake is chocolate overload! It is dense, rich, and intensely chocolate. A little bit goes a loooong way, and you'd be well advised to have a tall glass of milk handy.

My husband commented: "This looks so good it makes me wish I weren't allergic to chocolate."

Elyse of Confectionary Creations chose this recipe, and you can find it on her cake post. Stop by Sweet Melissa Sundays and click on each of the bakers to see how all the different cakes turned out.

{TWD} French Riviera Cake, two ways

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie assignment is the French Yogurt Cake. I have had my eyes on this recipe for a while, so I was excited to get the chance to bake it. The basic cake is an oil- and yogurt-based cake that can be made in just two bowls. After the Chocolate Grand Marnier Cake of a few weeks ago, this was a welcome respite from a sink filled with dishes!

When I read through the recipe, I was immediately drawn to one of the variations. The Riviera Yogurt Cake uses strained (Greek) yogurt, olive oil, and chopped rosemary. I love using savory herbs in my sweets (see last week's Bay Custard Cups), so this sounded perfect to me!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I love the subtle contribution that thyme and rosemary make to my very favorite coffee cake recipe, so I used both herbs in this cake. I chopped some fresh thyme and rosemary leaves very very fine, and rubbed 1/2 tsp of the combination into the sugar with the lemon zest.

- I used ground almonds. Sometimes I have Trader Joe's almond meal on hand, which is very finely ground, but this time I ground some almonds in my food processor, which produced a coarser grind.

- For yogurt, I stirred some lowfat and nonfat Greek yogurts together (mostly nonfat).

- I used regular extra virgin olive oil, but I later remembered that I had some wonderful Italian lemon olive that I should have used! For Christmas last year, my daughters adopted an olive tree for my husband and me. We received shipments of oil from "our" tree; the last shipment contained three different flavored oils - including lemon. I always forget to use them!

- In lieu of the 3 eggs in the recipe, I substituted 3/4 cup Egg Beaters. With the mono-unsaturated olive oil, the mostly-nonfat yogurt, and the egg subsitute, this cake was actually pretty low in fat, and the Greek yogurt and almonds increased the protein content. Practically a health food! Next time I might throw in some white whole wheat flour.

- In keeping with the Riviera theme, I left the cake topless.

- Truth be told, I completely ran out of steam when it came time to contemplate a topping glaze. I knew I didn't have lemon marmalade. I also knew that I was not going to purchase lemon marmalade, given my vast jam holdings (which by the way, grew by several jars over the holidays). The final thing I knew is that I wasn't going to get creative and devise an alternate topping. This cake was going to have to stand on its own without the help of a glaze.

- I sliced up half and served it to my book group plain, and popped the leftover half loaf in the freezer. [more about that second half, below]

the verdict:

The cake is sturdy, dense, and moist. And very good! And very easy!!

In the Riveriera variation, the almonds and olive oil each lent their subtle flavor, the herbs gave just the slightest woody hint, and the sunny lemon shone through everything.

I will make this cake again (and again) in this Riviera version - the recipe is so easy, moist, healthy, and good.

I'd also like to make the regular version of this recipe as a layer cake with a simple frosting, perhaps cocoa buttercream.

I love this cake!

...read on....

Riviera cake 2.0:

I initially baked this cake the very day that the recipe was selected (as part of my marathon Pre-Lenten baking frenzy) and served it that evening. I can now report that this cake freezes and thaws beautifully. Last Thursday I served the second half of the cake (also to my book group) but this time I decided to give it a proper covering. I made a glaze of 1/4 c. grapefruit marmalade (which I had in my fridge), which I thinned with about a teaspoon of Meyer lemon juice, then heated in a small saucepan with 1/2 tsp of chopped thyme. I strained it directly onto the cake top.

The citrus glaze was a fantastic complement to the basic cake. I think everyone liked the glazed cake, although they had really enjoyed the cake plain at the previous meeting.

Another time I'd like to experiment with a fig and thyme glaze.

I need to thank Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for choosing the French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze. If you'd like to try this recipe, it's on pages 224-225 of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours, or check out Liliana's post where you will find it online.

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I had fond hopes of baking up a wonderful Irish Soda Bread, and even had a recipe all printed out, but it just didn't happen. I did, however, use Irish cheddar cheese this past weekend in my macaroni and cheese and in my scrambled eggs (they were not green, Sam-I-Am)!

Note to my fellow food bloggers - In addition to giving up sweets for Lent I've also given up Google Reader and general surfing of other cooking blogs. So that's the reason that you've seen fewer of my comments lately. I've been following the maxim"speak when spoken to;" if you comment on my blog, I'll likely visit you and return the favor.

{TWD} Chocolate-Banded Coffee Toffee Ice Cream Torte

{UPDATE: I packed this with ice packs in a cooler and brought it to an impromptu family gathering this evening. It stayed solidly frozen and sliced beautifully (see picture above, although the Bailey's layer was a bit softer than everything else). The relatives loved the torte - gave it a "10" rating. They patiently waited while I photographed the slices. I felt like such a dork! My brother-in-law told me I needed some mint for garnish and he went into the garden and cut me some! The best part: I got to leave the leftovers in their freezer for them to finish.}


For this week's Tuesdays With Dorie challenge Amy of Food, Family and Fun chose: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte on pages 288-289 of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. You can also find the recipe in Amy's post of her beautiful version of this torte.

I love the way this torte looks in Dorie's book, and I immediately started to think of wonderful flavor combinations. Coffee ice cream is my favorite, and it would go beautifully with the chocolate ganache. yummmm.

But then I realized that while I was heading into a bunch of entertaining, none of the events lent themselves to this dessert. I gave serious consideration to sitting this one out (after doing the first 5 challenges that have come up since I joined). But the coffee/chocolate combination was calling to me, so I made the torte, and will keep it in the freezer until "needed"!


I really wanted to do two different flavors of ice cream - one for each of the layers, so I picked up a pint of Haagen-Dazs Bailey's and a pint of Haagen-Dazs Coffee. And some Heath Bits 'O Brickle Toffee Bits for the very top.

The ganache wasn't difficult; melt the chocolate and butter, whisk in sugar, then add a bunch of eggs (pasteurized):


It tasted good, but I kept thinking of the 14 T. butter and the eight eggs. Yipes!

I decided to make the torte in a rectangular pan, so I did some volume calculations and decided that my trusty slim loaf pans would hold about as much as an 8" springform (which I don't own). This loaf shape will be easier to store in my freezer, and I thought the slices would look good. I oiled the pan and lined it with parchment paper to help with the eventual un-molding.


I softened the ice cream in their containers in the fridge, and stirred with a wooden spoon until it was spreading consistency. The coffee ice cream:


My ganache measured just over 750ml (3+ cups), so I used 250ml for each of the three chocolate layers. When I added the ganache it seemed to melt the ice cream under it, and the ice cream seeped up around the sides a bit. I tried to get the layers smooth so the slices would show even layers.


There was just enough room in the loaf pan for the final ganache layer!


The Verdict:

I wanted my two different flavors of ice cream to look different in the torte, but unfortunately the coffee ice cream and the Bailey's ice cream were the same color.

I missed the part about freezing the torte for at least 6 hours, so I unmolded it and tried to cut it too soon :( Even with a warm knife, the ice cream squished out the sides under the pressure from the knife. It's back in the freezer now, and I'm going to see if it will harden correctly. However, I can report that the flavor is wonderful: chocolate + coffee + Bailey's + Heath = sophisticated mocha delicousness punctuated with crunchy toffee.

Yum!!!

I might be bringing this to a family gathering Tuesday evening (not sure if it can travel the 15 minute drive without melting too much) and will report back on how people liked it.

Cool and refreshing

It's been Hot, Hot, Hot in these parts, so here's a wonderful summer dessert. This 4-fork recipe from Epicurious, is called Frozen Mango, Blackberry Cassis, and Vanilla Mosaic, or in my case, Frozen Mango, Blackberry Cassis, and Raspberry Sorbet Mosaic. (whew, that's a mouthful!) Using all sorbet kept it light and healthy, and just as pretty.

I served it to guests a few weeks, ago, and have some left in the freezer. (The mosaic got a little beat up in my very full freezer, but the photo gives an idea of how it looked in its former glory.) I made the mosaic in my wonderful slim loaf pans, and I love how it has nice straight sides (well, it did have).

The layering was simple to do: just drop in random spoonfuls of the softened sorbet and drizzle the sauce into the gaps. It actually wasn't that different from marbling, come to think of it.

The Verdict:
This was elegant looking and really delicious tasting. At the same time, it's dead easy to make. I definitely would make it again, but I'd change the name to Sorbet Terrine!

Here's the recipe:

Frozen Mango, Blackberry Cassis, and Vanilla Mosaic

2 pints mango sorbet (4 cups)
1 pint vanilla ice cream (2 cups) I used raspberry sorbet
6 ounces fresh blackberries (1 ½ cups)
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons crème de cassis (black-currant liqueur)

Equipment: a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan or other 7- to 8-cup capacity mold

1. Put sorbet and ice cream in refrigerator until evenly softened, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, purée blackberries, sugar, and cassis in a blender until smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Freeze to thicken slightly until ice cream is ready, 20 to 40 minutes, then stir until smooth.

3. Lightly oil loaf pan, then cut a piece of parchment to fit bottom and long sides of pan, leaving at least 3 inches of overhang on each side.

4. Fill pan decoratively with spoonfuls of sorbet and ice cream, pressing down and filling empty spaces with blackberry purée as you go. Smooth top, pressing down with back of spoon to eliminate air spaces, then fold parchment flaps over top and freeze until solid, at least 3 hours.

5. To unmold, run a thin knife along short sides of pan to loosen mosaic, then open parchment and invert onto a flat serving dish, discarding parchment.

6. Cut mosaic into 1/2-inch-thick slices.

Cooks' note: Mosaic can be made 5 days ahead and frozen, covered with plastic wrap.