Recipe Round-Up ~ Look at all the stuff I missed!

I know, I know. I haven’t been consistent. I’m reeeally going to try and do better. Last week I started to do better, but things fell apart on Wednesday when I was attempting the latest Daring Bakers challenge. It’s funny how the (deceptively) simplest things turn out to be the most difficult.

Here’s a selection of things that have caught my eye over the last couple of months. I hope you find something that wets your appetite.  

Breakfast-ish stuff:

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a scone (gasp!). Pink Stripes has convinced me that I have to try these Glazed Maple-Pecan Oatmeal Scones. The recipe can be found at Ezra Pound Cake.

Bread and other yeasted stuff:

I could kiss La Cerise. Stupid me never took the time to check out the PBS website to see if they had any videos of the FAB-ulous series Baking With Julia. Thanks to La Cerise I now know that PBS has a library of streaming video of what looks to be the ENTIRE series!!! Do you know what this means?! I can free up God knows how many hours of DVR space! Woo-hoo! Ahem, excuse me while I jump for joy, but this is seriously cool. I do highly recommend the series and the book. Before my brain explodes due to excitement (yeah, I don’t get out that much) please do visit La Cerise for an informative post on the very bread I have been considering baking for about two weeks now. She actually shaped it into wheat-stalk baguettes which look absolutely beautiful. I probably would have just thrown down some sort of cylindrical shaped lumps and hoped for the best. Kudos La Cerise!

Cookies:

Cannelle et Vanille couldn’t wait to start baking with the strawberries that have just come into season down here in Florida, so what did she come up with? How ’bout Vanilla Bean Macarons with Strawberry Pate de Fruit and White Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Cream. Talk about kicking Strawberry Shortcake in the pants!

These Seven-Layer Cookies from Smitten Kitchen look like something that would be found at the Un-Birthday Party in Alice In Wonderland.

Considering that I LOVE shortbread, and I’m pretty keen on chocolate (who isn’t?), and I do take a shine to caramel, I’d say that Energetic Chef‘s assessment of “Shortbread + Caramel + Chocolate=Bliss” is spot on for her Chocolate Topped Caramel Shortbread Squares.

Cakes:

It warms my heart when I encounter a kindred spirit, such as I found in Love and Olive Oil and her Double Chocolate Layer Cake with Raspberry Filling. It looks like I’m not the only one with pan conversion issues.

I’ve got to try the Clementine Cake from Smitten Kitchen, looks amazing!

Here’s an antique recipe called Sally Lunn from the Brooklyn Farmhouse.

Mead Chiffon Cupcakes from Dog Hill Kitchen

Mimosa Sunrise Cupcakes from Baking Up Chaos

Chestnut fingers from Flagrante Delícia

Pies, Tarts, etc.:

According to Everyday Food I missed National Pie Day! What a bummer.

Don’t miss out on the very informative Pie Crust series from Smitten Kitchen. She takes you through Pie Crust 101, 102, & 103. Her love of the lowly pastry cutter warms my heart. The bit about the vodka, veeeery interesting and I will have to try on my next pie. I whole-heartedly agree that all butter is better than a butter/shortening combination. I started using shortenting because I was getting inconsistent results with all butter, and it was waaaaaaay embarassing when you needed a chainsaw to cut through my crust.

Vanilla and Cardamom-Flavored Flan Tart from La Tartine Gourmande…you will want to lick the screen when you check out her blog, the best pics!

Spoon! Desserts & Fruit:

We’ve got a couple of pear recipes from :pastry studio. First there’s Pears in Honey and Pine Nut Caramel with Artisanal Cheese and the Bay Leaf Sabayon really caught my eye in the Roasted Pears with Bay Leaf Sabayon. I’m gonna have to try this just because it sounds weird, to me at least.

Candy:

Marzipan Truffles from Jugalbandi…don’t forget to check out their Click! Photo contest

Miscellaneous:

I seriously love posts like Black Quinoa with Jewelry from The Pink Peppercorn. These little intimate portraits into the lives of our bloggers can be quite enchanting and this is one of them.

There are two really posts from Eat A Duck I Must! that really captured my attention. First there’s one on those fascinating flowering teas with some stunning pics. Then there’s the even more fascinating, or should I say stupifying Milk Tea Spheres. I believe that these are in the tradition/method/alchemical practice of El Bulli. Yep, that El Bulli. A name that I’ve only heard spoken in reverent hushed tones. I first heard of El Bulli from Anthony Bourdain and his special on his experience there. What I took away from it was that there’s always a new way of looking at the world, including food, and I appreciate all the views. Hats off to Eat A Duck I Must! for even attempting let alone succeeding at whatever black sorcery is contained in the mind of Ferran Adrià. If I piqued your interest check out a great post on her visit to El Bulli from Chocolate & Zucchini, Anthony Bourdain’s Decoding Ferran Adria, or the other plethora of El Bulli…I want to say cookbooks but that feels wrong, they really are like a rosetta stone for some kind of surrealistic world of food.

Okay, I’m not sure where to put this. We’ve got a fantastic post from Flagrante Delícia that not only has churros in it but hot chocolate as well. “Hot chocolate…what’s the big deal?” you ask? This isn’t your usual hot chocolate. Forget those packets with freeze-dried chocolate flavored dust and that barmaid from Sweden on the package. We’re talking about the kind of hot chocolate that makes you forget about your troubles, the kind you’d travel to Spain just to get a taste of, the kind that doesn’t just coat your spoon but actually clings to it. I first learned about this virtual chocolate ambrosia while watching one of those travel shows on the Travel channel. While the thought of traveling anywhere in Europe makes me wistful to hear the sound of jet engines and train whistles, that chocolate made Spain jump toward the top of my list of European countries I’d like to visit. It’s awesome to come across a recipe that captures what I believe to be one of those experiences that Hemingway might write about in some novel. So thank you Flagrante Delícia for your Churros con chocolate!

She also did this….this thing. Sorry, I never heard of it Chocolate and hazelnut turrón. Apparently it is a nougat confection that is a traditional dessert in Italy, Spain, and Latin America. She lives in Spain so go figure. Oh, and I can’t leave out the chocolate pasta. That’s right, CHOCOLATE PASTA. My tongue actually started to dry out from my jaw dropping to the floor and my mouth remaining open while staring at the sight of Chocolate tagliatelle with chocolate sauce.

Don’t miss Joe Pastry’s gi-normous series on Cornish Pasties which starts with a pronunciation lesson and ends with Oggie, Oggie, Tiddy Oggie!. I have to mention it because it just goes on and on. I didn’t know there was so much to know about Cornish Pasties. There’s another post of his that you won’t want to miss, especially those of us that live away from civilization, How to Make Crème Fraîche. So many times I’ve read, and even baked up, recipes including the renowned crème fraîche. Alas, where I live it is one ingredient that is simply not to be found. I’ve read in several cookbooks methods on making your own, but the idea of leaving dairy on your “relatively warm” counter for twelve hours made me nervous. I always thought of crème fraîche as something I’d leave to the professionals and I’d just have to wait until my ship comes in and I can move back to New York. Well, Joe Pastry has given me the confidence (and lovely photos) to give it a try.

Are you in the mood for a pretzel? Not some dried out husks sold in your local junk food aisle. I’m talking about warm, cushy salted-dough goodness. Pink Stripes has a recipe for Mini Whole-Wheat Parmesan Pretzels. I probably would have never thought to bake pretzels, but upon seeing the cute little twists, well, wouldn’t you want to take one home?

Dianasaur actually has a recipe for homemade Nutella, but she’s calling it Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Spread. I’m going to have to try this simply to see the difference in the taste. I’d love to do this with a reeeeally good quality chocolate.

No recipe here, but I thought you might get a kick out of this art exhibit that Dessert Girl posted about back in December.  The intro on their site reads, “Who hasn’t dreamt of diving in thick chocolate mousse? …of digging a hide-out in a piece of cheese or a fruit …or skiing down a slope of whipped Chantilly cream?” I don’t know about a hide-out, but when I was a kid I’d imagine what it would be like as a mouse living in a big hunk of cheese and taking a bite out of my wall when I got the munchies.

Don’t forget the beverage!

Merry Dionysmas Mulled Wine from Kitchenscraps…I’m lovin’ his artwork!
Rosiest Hot Chocolate from The Pink Peppercorn
Pomegranate Champagne Punch from Brooklyn Farmhouse

Tagged as: RRU