Posts tagged as:

Nuts

TWD ~ And the winner is…Rugelach!

by Aimee on November 6, 2008

Here we are again with another challenge from the Tuesdays With Dorie group. Sorry for not posting this on Tuesday, but I’ve been overcome by election mania and glued to the TV for the past two days.

As far as this weeks challenge goes, Grace from Piggy’s Cooking Journal’s pick of Rugelach was a real winner for me. I tried a couple of different fillings with one half of the dough in an effort to see what I liked. I did a combination of the apricot, nuts, (semi-sweet) chocolate and crasins since I couldn’t find currants. I did this version with cinnamon sugar and without. Then I took a lead from I♥cuppycakes! and tried Nutella, nuts and toffee bits. Lastly I did one with just nuts and chocolate. And the winner is…none of them – ha! Actually I found elements that I liked in all of them, but I discovered that what I really liked was apricot, nuts, and chocolate without crasins or cinnamon, so that’s what I made with the other half of my dough.

Also, I never used regular nuts. I had been looking through one of my old magazines filled with Christmas cookie recipes and came across a recipe for Sugared-Almond Truffle Triangles. I liked the idea of sugared nuts and cooked up some sugared pecans to use for the nut component. The unfortunate thing about these nuts is they are TOO GOOD and TOO EASY to make that I ended up gorging myself on some leftovers last night. If you’re the type of person who likes to get their sweet and salt fix at the same time, don’t make these because you’ll end up eating them 24-7. Nuts aside, Rugelach was a real treat and I really enjoyed every version I tried.  Click to continue…

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My first post!

by Aimee on September 23, 2008

No, this isn’t some far off desert wasteland or a new image back from one of the Mars Rovers. This is the reason why I should always use my rolling pin when making any kind of crust.

This was the pâte sablée shell I made for Clotilde’s delicious Plum Tart with Walnut Cream. Très délicieux! (Sorry folks, I don’t speak French. Babel Fish is your friend.) The technique suggested to create the tasty tart shell called for “using the heels of your hands and your fingers” to press the dough into your tart pan. I’m guessing that someday scientists will link this ability to some French genetic marker because this Polish Princess just doesn’t have the knack. So instead of a nice, lightly golden tart shell I ended up with this blasted and barren landscape that could probably give Death Valley a run for its money on most depressing vista.   Click to continue…

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