TWD: Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies

The Tuesdays with Dorie recipe of the week was the Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies chosen by Lisa of Surviving Oz. Lisa was the winner of the new logo contest for Tuesdays with Dorie.

Pretty snazzy huh?

I am, as I have said many times, not a huge chocolate lover. But give me a warm, gooey, fudgy brownie and I am all over it. Or rather its all over my face as I devour each scrumptious bite. Unfortunately, its been pretty hard to find a decent homemade brownie that lives up to the delicious taste of a boxed brownie mix. In the past, none of them have managed to come close to the fudginess of the box kind. They either were too cakey or just plain blah.

This time, however, Dorie has an almost complete home run with this babies. While some mentioned that they had issues with underbaking (and I did too a tiny bit), for me, the under baking created that gooey fudgy brownie that I loved from the boxed mixes. They firmed up after chilling in the fridge overnight but that really didn't last long when I heated them up to get the gooeyness back!

I didn't add the nuts to the brownies this time. I was out and wasn't rushing to the store to get some when I had everything else. I like brownies with nuts so next time I'll try to throw some in the batter. I did add the cinnamon and I thought it was a delicious compliment to the chocolate. It was subtle and not overwhelming at all. By the way, mini chocolate chips worked perfectly in these! Most melted but a few stuck around and added a nice bit of texture to the brownie.

Add another to the make again list! To see more brownies, check out the TWD Blogroll! You can also see this weeks recipe at Lisa's blog Surviving Oz.

R2R: Beef (Pork) Wellington

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but I've never had beef wellington before. Its not something that I choose when dining out and it always seemed to fussy and fancy for at home. Content was I to believe this until Madam Chow of Madam Chow's Kitchen chose Beef Wellington for our June Recipes to Rival challenge.

We were able to choose whatever protein we wanted to use for the challenge. I would have preferred to use beef since the dish is in fact called Beef Wellington. However, I had a perfectly sized bacon wrapped pork tenderloin medallion for an individual portion. But soon I would love to try with beef.

I was surprised at how quickly it came together. I seared the meat ahead of time and let in chill out in the fridge until it was time to cook. The duxelles were also prepared ahead of time and joined the pork in the fridge. As soon as the puff pastry was thawed, I rolled it out and assembled everything. Because I chose to do a single serving, it only took a portion of the time to bake. As I was doing this at almost the last minute I was happy it came together and baked quickly.

I can definitely see how this would be a show stopper of an entree for a meal. While the pork was okay, the beef would have been spectacular. I'm a sucker for puff pastry and definitely loved it this time. My duxelles were a big surprise hit with myself. I could have eaten just the duxelles with the puff pastry and been quite happy. I don't like mushrooms at all (its hard to make myself eat fungus) but recently I've tried shitake mushrooms and liked them more than other mushrooms because of their meatier texture. I'm still not a huge mushroom fan by any means but shitake's are infinitely more tolerable than the rest.

More than likely this will be a repeat recipe for me. Next time I will use beef and I'm sure I will love it. Sorry pork! You were just a little too bland for me!

Check out the Recipes to Rival blogroll for more Beef Wellington!

Beef Wellington

For the Duxelles:
3 pints (1 1/2 pounds) white button mushrooms (I used shitake mushrooms)
2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Beef:
1 (3-pound) center cut beef tenderloin (filet mignon), trimmed (I used a pork tenderloin medallion)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Flour, for rolling out puff pastry
1 pound puff pastry, thawed if using frozen (follow directions on the package)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
8 ounces mousse pate, available in specialty cheese and appetizer cases of larger markets (optional)

Directions
To make the Duxelles:

Add mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and thyme to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add butter and olive oil to a large saute pan and set over medium heat. Add the shallot and mushroom mixture and saute for 8 to 10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool completely.

To prepare the beef:

Tie the tenderloin in 4 places so it holds its cylindrical shape while cooking. Drizzle with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper and sear all over, including the ends, in a hot, heavy-based skillet lightly coated with olive oil - about 2 to 3 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula cover evenly with a thin layer of duxelles. Season the surface of the duxelles with salt and pepper and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves. When the beef is seared, remove from heat, cut off twine and smear lightly all over with Dijon mustard. Allow to cool completely.

I made the duxelles and seared the tenderloin about 10 hours in advance, and refrigerated both of them. It is important that these items are cold because you will be working with puff pastry, and if they're warm, they may cause the dough to melt before you get it in the oven.

About an hour before you plan to serve the Beef Wellington,preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. Depending on the size of your sheets you may have to overlap 2 sheets and press them together.

Spread the duxelles mixture down in a column down the middle of the rolled out puff pastry. Thinly slice the mousse and cover the duxelles with it - every square millimeter doesn't have to be covered, but you're trying to make sure that every serving gets beef, duxelle, and mousse.

Remove beef from refrigerator. Set the beef in the center of the pastry and brush all the edges of the pastry with egg wash. Fold the longer sides over the beef, and seal. Trim ends if necessary then brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef - saving ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. Place the beef seam side down on a baking sheet.

Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash then make a couple of slits in the top of the pastry using the tip of a paring knife - this creates vents that will allow the steam to escape when cooking. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown and beef registers 125 degrees F (rare) on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven and rest before cutting into 3/4-inch thick slices.

Daring Bakers: Bakewell Tart

Ok...this post was scheduled to go up at midnight last night...er...today. For some reason, blogger has decided not to cooperate. Sorry for the delay!

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Its a pudding...no wait...its a tart...um...well I guess it just depends on where you are in the world! When I was studying abroad in London (gah! 4 years ago!), I was already some what familiar with the idea of that they called dessert puddings but it was still a new experience. Pudding growing up to me was creamy and custardy not a cake or tart. But I like...no...love desserts of almost any kind so whether you called it a pudding or a tart, I was more than likely going to eat it. My favorite pudding while in London just happened to be spotted dick....a dessert which caused no small amount of giggles for my roommate and myself. I'm still on the look out for a good recipe for that by the way.

A long time ago, I read in some book where the main character's favorite pudding was a Bakewell Tart. I remember wondering what it was but it was before I really got into my baking phase so I promptly forgot about it. It was always in the back of my mind to check out though so I was very surprised and happy to have our DB for this month be the Bakewell Tart. Plus, it is a traditional British recipe so that was an even bigger point in its favor. I was also hoping for something not too difficult and this was a perfect recipe.

Of course, I couldn't just do the recipe early and have the post written up ahead of time. Where's the fun in that? No, I decided to wait until the Wednesday before posting day to make my tart. And naturally, the night before to actually type up the post. Thank goodness this was not a long drawn out recipe. I was able to make the crust, the frangipane, and assemble everything in one evening after work. The crust could also be made ahead of time to make things even easier. Oh...and grating butter in a pain in the rear. I think that took the longest of everything. So not fun.

This was quite the tasty tart. The strawberry freezer jam that I used was just the right amount of tart and sweet. I was glad that the rest of the tart was not overwhelmingly sweet because it would have been too much with the sweet jam. You might have to add more sugar to the rest is you were going with a less sweet jam. Or it could be just fine without the extra sugar. I think the really great thing about this tart is that flexibility with taste you would get with different jams. The strawberry was a great combination but I have a homemade caramel apple jam that would no doubt be scrumptious.

Mine baked for a lot longer than the recipe states. It didn't puff up as much as I expected and at the end of the set time, it was still going jiggly in the middle. I covered it with some foil to keep if from over browning and let it bake for a about 10 more minutes. It was still a tiny bit jiggly but I didn't want to let it over bake so I pulled it. It was so hard not to cut into it right away but I made myself in the hope that it would set up more while it cooled. For the most part it did thank goodness. I thought the tart was best after a rest in the fridge where it really firmed up for me. Slightly chilled the tart was fantastic.

Thanks to our hosts for a tantalizing tart! Check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll for more mouth-watering tarts!

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability (I used a strawberry freezer jam)
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds (I forgot all about these...oops!)

Assembling the tart

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.

Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional) (I used vanilla)

15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

TWD: Honey Apricot Ice Cream

I had every intention of making this with peaches as the recipe calls for. But apparently on the day I went shopping, the grocery store was determined to only have small, nasty, mushy peaches! yuck! So I reached for the nice, pretty, firm apricots right beside the peaches. Apricots sounded delicious in this ice cream and I was on a dried apricot kick at home (thanks Mom!) so I grabbed what I hoped was the right amount and went on my merry way.

Naturally when I got home and began the ice cream, I only had half the amount I needed. After a moment of panic, I re-read the directions (always a good idea) and saw that half the fruit was to be used for the custard and the rest chopped to be chunks. In a moment of inspiration, I used the fresh apricots for the custard and substituted the dried apricots for the rest of the fresh.

BEST IDEA EVER!!! I am quite proud of myself as you can tell. The tartness from the fresh apricots in the base and the slight chewiness of the dried apricots was an amazing combination. My favorite part had to be the dried apricot bits. The didn't get hard or icy like I feared they might. I didn't really notice the honey. Maybe it toned down the tartness of the apricots instead of being a pronounced flavor.

I will absolutely be making this again. I was quite sad when I ate the last of the batch the other night. If I didn't have other kitchen projects planned, I'd be making another batch right now!

Thanks to Tommi of Brown Interior for this amazing pick! It may be my new favorite! Check out the TWD Blogroll for more ice cream goodness!

Daring Cooks: Dumplings

For the second edition of the Daring Cooks, our host Jen of Use Real Butter, chose Chinese Dumplings. At first I was a little disappointed with the challenge as I had done it before in another group (my recipe pick at the time actually). But after I thought about it, I was eager to give the pleating another try as I failed miserably last time.

I stuck with the recipe as written even though we could be creative as we wanted with the fillings (I used the pork option). Taking into account my experience last time with the dumpling dough, I went small and only made enough for a small batch. I still couldn't get the dough rolled out to the proper thickness so my dumplings ended up being a little doughy after steaming. I did a little better (depends on your definition of better) with the pleating this time but nothing really to be proud of. They still look a bit of a mess!

I considered trying to bake the dumplings but went ahead with just steaming them (I love my bamboo steamer!). Next time I'll attempt baking to see how they fare. Pan fried dumplings are delicious but I thought it would be better to steam them so they would be sure to get cooked all the way through (the doughy-ness remember?). Plus I had this gorgeous head of cabbage that I picked up to line the steamer (unlike last time when the dumplings stuck!).

Sorry for the crapola presentation. I just could make myself try and pretty up something so blah looking. Obviously these aren't the better pleated ones. They still stunk.

Taste wise these were just fine (if you ignore the doughy bit). The filling was obviously the best part. I'll definitely keep it in mind when I make dumplings again.

Dumplings are definitely something I would like to make more often. They are perfect for a quick and easy weeknight dinner when you make them from scratch and freeze them. The next time I do however, I will be buying the wrappers. Its just so much easier and they are the correct thickness. I don't think I could stand to eat another doughy dumpling! I know its all my fault for being a crappy wrapper maker. I'm sure in the hands of someone who won't mess it up, homemade wrappers would be perfect!

To see this June's recipe, head over to see Jen at Use Real Butter. You can also find it here at the Daring Kitchen. To see more variations on the potstickers/dumplings at the Daring Cooks Blogroll!