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Lemon Jammies: cookies, not pajamas

4/29/2015

This week's assignment was Rose's Lemon Jammies--lovely buttery cookies sandwiched with one of several possible fillings. Included in the book is a recipe for Lemon Neoclassic Buttercream. I haven't made the lemon version, but I love Rose's Neoclassic Buttercream!

I found this recipe to be very simple to make. The dough can be made in the food processor or with a mixer. I used my food processor and it took just a few minutes.

The simple, buttery dough is flavored with lemon zest and vanilla and well chilled before rolling.

Half of the cookies are cut again with a smaller circle to show the filling. I am using a large piping tip for this.

The deceptively plain looking cookies are cooling on a rack.

Filling the cookies with Rose's Lemon Curd (the Cake Bible p. 340). There might be something more heavenly than tart, brightly flavored lemon curd on a sunny spring day, but I couldn't think of anything while finishing these cookies!

The finished cookies taste like sunshine! Rose's recipe indicates that they can also be filled with her Lemon Neoclassic Buttercream or jam, both of which sound delicious.

Definitely adding these cookies to the list of favorites!

NEXT UP: Blue-Rhu Pie

Thank you so much for visiting my Artful Oven and leaving your comments!

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Polish Princess cake

4/22/2015

6 Comments

To my knowledge, my only connection with Poland is my fellow Alpha Baker Lois, who blogs from her home in Phoenix, Arizona. Her blog is a charming collection of recipes, travel notes and memories of living in Poland and Spain, and tips for Americans who live abroad. Please visit Lois' blog--you will enjoy it! www.polishhousewife.com

This has been a great week! My good friend Paula came to visit from Tucson, Arizona. She was my mother's best friend, and when my mom passed away several years ago, Paula and I inherited each other! I have known her for about 40 years, and we have become very close. I am so lucky to have such good friends in my life!

Here's a picture of Paula and my mom.

My kitchen draped in drop cloths and plastic sheeting while being painted! It wasn't an easy time to bake, or take photos. Fortunately, this cake was a simple project, despite the multiple pages of instructions.

The simple golden sponge cake was a single layer baked in the bottom of a springform pan. The cake was brushed with a sugar syrup laced with tea and vodka.
The two layers of buttercream are both based on a delicious cooked vanilla custard. I particularly loved the way they were layered on the cake. I DO have photos of this!

My husband Smitty doesn't like raisins, so I omitted them from the recipe and increased the amount of chopped chocolate in the top buttercream layer. He also prefers sweet chocolate, so I used a mixture of mixture of milk and semisweet chocolates.

The side of the pan is clipped back on once the cake is cooled and brushed with syrup. Here you can glimpse the second layer of buttercream--vanilla with chopped chocolate--being spread in the pan on top of the first layer. The first layer is flavored with cocoa and sliced, toasted walnuts. No one except Rose Levy Beranbaum could persuade me to slice walnut halves!

At this point, the cake is wrapped and refrigerated for a minimum of eight hours. Several times during this waiting period I was sorely tempted to cut it short, but it was a good thing I didn't. Rose knows best!

Any time I get to use this little torch I feel like a real kitchen hot shot (pun intended)! The torch is applied briefly to warm the sides of the pan of the well-chilled cake to make it easy to remove.

The cake emerges from the pan with its layers of buttercream. I threw in a generous extra handful of walnuts and the bottom layer isn't as smooth as it should be.

See that chunky first layer of buttercream? Untidy, but oh, so delicious!

The cake is light and the buttercream layers are surprisingly light and fluffy. I think it would be a great dessert after a heavy meal, because although it looks impressive, it's really not filling.

My tasters this week included the three painters working in my house, all of whom declared the Polish Princess to be wonderful. My daughter Jessica and her friend loved it. I thought that was particularly significant because Jessica typically doesn't care for cakes iced with buttercream, preferring instead cakes with a simple glaze or even no icing, like pound cake.

On the downside, Paula, didn't care for the way all the icing was on top. She would have preferred layers of cake with the buttercream in between.

Although the tea and vodka syrup smelled heavenly when I made it, the flavors were all but undetectable in the finished dessert.

One note, this cake is fragile and perishable. It only keeps for a couple of days, cannot be frozen, and must be refrigerated.

I will definitely make this recipe again!

NEXT UP: Lemon Jammies (cookies, not pajamas!)

Thank you, everyone, for visiting my blog and posting your comments!

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Date and Almond Meringues--"Dattelkonfekt"

4/16/2015

5 Comments

Although the name reads like something from IKEA, it is actually a German confection, a meringue cookie made with dates and almonds.

I have to admit...these aren't my favorites. I love dates and almonds and was anxious to try this recipe. My cookies didn't turn out looking anything like the ones in the book, and I am disappointed by that! I was looking forward to the crisp meringue crust and the chewy center promised by the recipe. Mine turned out flat!

Egg whites are beaten into a soft meringue. I am curious--why aren't we making a stiffer meringue for this?

Next a mixture of finely minced almonds and dates are blended into the meringue along with vanilla extract. The resulting batter is very thick. It resembles steel cut oatmeal.

Rose's instructions called for two-inch circles to be piped on to cookie sheets lined with parchment. In order to create consistent circles, I printed out a template for two-inch macarons and slipped it underneath the parchment paper. You can see the tab I used to pull it out from under the parchment (with a circle on it) on the right.

Out of the oven, my cookies are flat, and cooling on the cookie sheet per the instructions.

The cookies are nothing like the photo in the book, and don't seem to match the description of the recipe either. However, they are tasty. Not sure I would make them again, unless I could figure out why they didn't turn out puffy and crispy. I do like the almond and date combination!

So, this is my least favorite recipe thus far from the Baking Bible. They are easy to make, but I will say that the almonds and dates make them a bit of a pricey cookie.
NEXT UP: The Polish Princess

Thanks so much for visiting and for your comments!

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Cran-Raspberry Upside Down Cake with Raspberry Italian Meringue

4/7/2015

6 Comments

After returning home from a glorious week in central and Tampa Bay area of Florida, I have been in a rush to bake and blog! So here is my review of the Cran-Raspberry Upside Down Cake from The Baking Bible. The cake is accompanied by Rose's heavenly Raspberry Italian Meringue.

The cranberry topping consists of a simple caramelized sugar syrup that is poured into the bottom of the prepared cake pan. I had frozen these cranberries previously--so they were just waiting for the chance to star in this delicious recipe! Here a handful of them are strewn over the caramel.

The cake batter was thicker than I expected! Full of sour cream, it must be spread on top of the berries in the pan, not poured.

The cake is brushed with raspberry glaze when it emerges from the oven. Seedless raspberry jam is also beaten into the heavenly Italian Meringue, which is served in dollops on the side.

This cake is wonderful! The cake is firm and moist, reminiscent of a Southern-style pound cake. The tart cranberries are the perfect foil for the sweet glazed cake.

My favorite part might be the Raspberry Italian Meringue! A hot sugar syrup is beaten into meringue and then flavored with raspberry. Note to self--next time make a double batch of the meringue!

This recipe is comparatively simple to prepare and includes a rhubarb variation with strawberry glaze. I will have to try that one when my friend Barbie's rhubarb crop is ready this summer!

NEXT UP: STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE GENOISE for Easter!

Thanks so much for stopping be and leaving comments!

6 Comments

Lemon Jammies: cookies, not pajamas

Polish Princess cake

﻿Date and Almond Meringues--"Dattelkonfekt"

Cran-Raspberry Upside Down Cake with Raspberry Italian Meringue

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Date and Almond Meringues--"Dattelkonfekt"