I started baking cookies on Mondays for my enjoyment. It has now become expected that I will keep a never ending supply of cookies, but of course not the same ones over and over. I searched this site for cookies and found this recipe.
I wasn’t sure about them so I only made a single batch. Big mistake. I feed what my mother referred to as a horde of locusts, and these cookies just disappeared.
The only change I made was to use a scoop. I used both 50 and 60 scoops. I was afraid the 50s wouldn’t stretch enough so I went with a slightly smaller cookie. One of my sons preferred the smaller cookies. The rest of the hoard were too busy stuffing cookies in their mouths to comment.
The nut meringue slices (Eserhazyschnitten) are a bit of work, but worth it. The banana gugelhupf is a lovely, especially if you use very ripe, sweet fruit. The cheesecake has held up very well and is extremely good. The vanilla sauce is good, but I cut the sugar in half and still find it sweet enough. Marble gugelhupf is quite good. The apple strudel is excellent, just make sure you use clarified butter to brush it with as just melted butter makes it less crisp. I’m glad I have this book in my collection.
First of the season rhubarb upside down cake was made Monday. There were just enough stalks ready in our backyard patch to make one 8x8 cake. Served warm, with vanilla ice cream. The recipe (posted below) is from my husband’s grandmother, and is a family favorite.
Grandma B’s Rhubarb Upside down Cake
350 deg. 40 min.
3- 4 Cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 C. white sugar
1/4 C. brown sugar
Combine the above. Put in 8x8 pan.
Dot with butter - 1 tsp slice cut into 10 tiny bits
Sprinkle with cinnamon - 1/8 - 1/4 tsp. total
Mix batter (ingredients follow), and pour over rhubarb - [Note - don’t double cake for an 8x8 pan - it doesn’t cook evenly]
1 egg
3 T sugar
1/4 C. (1/2 stick) softened margarine or butter
3/4 C. buttermilk (family all use dry SACO Buttermilk Powder - in baking aisle, & water)
3/4 C. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
Bake 350 degrees, 35 minutes – 40 minutes. Cake should be a uniform deep golden brown when done, not just at the edges. While it’s still tasty if you take it out it when it just has pulled away from the edge and has “freckles” in the middle, we like it best when the entire cake top is just a bit crispy.
Hints for Bundt cakes from classses at the Nordic Ware store:
Use a small silicon brush to get the baking spray (Bakers Joy or Pam for Baking) into all the small crevices of the pan before adding the batter.
Allow the baked cake to cool in the pan on a rack 10 minutes, tap the cake pan on a towel-covered counter to loosen, then turn it out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Hint from my baking-buddy - Before turning cake out, use a wooden skewer to gently release cake from center spindle and from any outer-edge spots that look like they might stick.
First chocoflan. A dulce de leche chocoflan, to be precise. Kind of a mess but I’ll get better with practice.
This is the Smitten Kitchen recipe. I had double the flan mixture I could fit into the pan (now I’m wondering if/how I can bake that by itself?!) and it didn’t take anywhere near the length of time stated in the recipe to be complete. I also had to flash-cool it in the freezer, so that made unmolding it even more of a challenge. You can see my finger-mark in the side from where I accidentally marred it while shaking the pan to get it out.
Worst part is I couldn’t try it before I sent it off with Mom to her pot luck. She has strict instructions to bring me back a slice, though
I made the dulce de leche in the oven last night; first time doing that. Man is that stuff delicious.
It’s a LOT of effort and I don’t think the payoff was really there. I had to eat the flan without cake to even taste the dulce de leche, and that was the flavor element I was most interested in. I also baked it far less than the recipe called for, yet found it a little on the dry side.
Thanks. NYT Cooking also has this recipe (from the same cookbook), and some comments there also said the flan was bland. The classic chocoflan puts the caramel or dulce de leche in the bottom of the pan rather than in the flan mixture, so it ends up a topping a la a standard flan, and that would probably help, as might using cajeta for a stronger favor.
I love both chocolate cake and flan, but the combination didn’t work for me taste-wise.
I was trying to figure out what it was… the cake on its own was good, the flan on its own was also good. Buts somehow, put them together and they detracted from each other instead of the sum being more than the parts.
Visually impressive, however, if that is important (which it sometimes is).
(Not a review of this recipe, just my feelings on the dish.)
Local strawberries, crème pat, pâté sucrée…says it all. A swipe of strawberry lemon jam prior to adding the crème patisserie waterproofed the crust a bit. This is a 6” tart so it will get finished today…what a punishment!
