Tuesdays with SORRY!

Forgive me, Pickle my blog-mate, for I have sucked. It has been – ohmigod has it really been that long since I posted? Jeez, I really do suck. I wouldn’t be speaking to me if I were you. I’m not speaking to me, in fact. Especially after I essentially dessert-bombed your first Mother’s Day with your MIL. Wowza. (Y’know, I don’t trust Malgieri either. I had a big dinner party flop from one of his recipes a good ten years ago and I still haven’t forgiven him. Also, do you ever find it harder to do your own challenge? It’s like tickling yourself, it’s just harder to get off on your own challenge! AND there have been raccoons in my attic, a new and disturbing fascination with making over my garden and which points to the fact that my mother IS colonizing me, speech therapy and assorted childhood diseases for Pretzel, teething for Peanut, major computer problems - and lotsa deadlines for a certain mutual friend who likes things turned around fast…)

This slowness on my part is also a testament to the fact that I seem to have a mental block and think anything with a crust is far more difficult than it is. I kept waiting for an expanse of time to make my chocolate-crusted tart – and the fact is that I didn’t need anything near an ‘expanse’. I whipped off this quite lovely Chocolate Crusted Strawberry Rhubarb Tart in a very economical half-an-hour!!! The recipe is courtesy of Caprial Pence, who I remember from the very early days of Food Network as a little stiff on the hosting side, and anything but stiff on creating delicate French-esque flavour combos. And this tart does remind me of the enviable way a french girl dresses - classic and well put together, but with an unexpected, understated twist. The chocolate crust.

Speaking of, I know what you’re thinking. Chocolate and rhubarb. Weird. Potentially barf-worthy. I was full of trepidation – but I also had a yard full of rhubarb and I’m too bone-lazy to freeze it. I hoped that the strawberry would somehow marry the two. But the strawberry was a light flavour, and the surprise ingredient was another thing that filled my trepidation basket. Orange peel. Orange and chocolate are friends, orange and rhubarb are friends… Together, it was an elegant and juicy combo. Mr. Salty said he couldn’t believe the amount of work I’d put into this ‘clearly difficult dessert’. I let him have his illusions. Hey, marriage must have its mysteries.

I’d recommend trying this crust, it’s got quite a delicate flavour with only two tablespoons of cocoa and it just kind of rich-ed up (what’s the actual word I want there?) the whole tart. It was a nice and easy press-in crust and I felt silly for having not made it earlier. Mental baking blocks – who knew? Maybe I need some kind of a coach.

It’s not like I haven’t been baking since posting the challenge.
I also kept up with some of the Tuesdays with Dorie challenges. Here is a platter (beautiful cake plate courtesy of YOU!) that I took to a parenting group evening I had to go to – this is what you get when you ask me to provide snacks for one meeting. I mean, you do have to put up with the subversive mom rolling her eyes in the back corner and laughing at inappropriate moments in what is meant to be a sincere forum. But in exchange you get this (instead of the perfunctory box of Timbits some of the other parents have brought when it was their turn. Tsk.) In the foreground are Cappuccino Squares, a variant of Cinnamon Squares. These were – meh. Nice and simple and appealing in a snacking cake way, topped with fast and impressive ganache - and yet, a little dry. And I know I didn’t overmix, I tend to undermix if anything. Meh. I have a few more in the freezer if you want to come by (I know, I’m sooooo good at invitations.)

In the middle, some Rhubarb Squares. Because I DO honestly have a yard full of rhubarb. These aren’t a Dorie recipe but were nice and old-fashioned and simple, a shortbread crust with a super-fast version of pie filling. (Some of these in the freezer too!)

In the back, and unfortunately not-too-visible, another Dorie special – Chipster-Topped Brownies. Dude, these should not exist and trust me, there are none left in the freezer. Because they are – get this – brownies that are topped with chocolate chip cookies. This is insane. Forget gilding the lily. Honestly, these are like gilding the UNICORN. Chewy cookie, gooey brownie, 8,000 calories of butter. Holy heck. I made people faint at the parent group and at work. Unlike the tart, though, these are a lot of work and it maybe doesn’t show as much as you'd like when you've slaved away. You have to make two full batters. So I won’t be rushing to make them again – which is a good thing, considering I am probably responsible for a number of pounds of parent and coworker weight gain.

Here is some of Dorie’s Mango Bread, which I gather is like Banana or Zucchini Bread for those who get to live in exotic Florida (where they have rhubarb problems year-round…) I was not a big fan of this on first taste as it has a lot of spice, lime and raisins. It was – GASP! – a little fruitcake-y. Ugh. This made Mr. Salty (who loves his fruitcakes) happy but made me very sad. But then, two days later, a revelation. This cake aged beautifully, all of the flavours mellowing out and letting the mango come through. Quite nice! Will definitely try again.

Here are some of her Coconut Thins, made with a rather unique technique of rolling out between two plastic baggies. Delicate, stuffed with macadamia nuts, coconut and lime and completely at home alongside tea. But I’m afraid they were too delicate for my tastes – I’m more an unsubtle brownie type, apparently!

In between I also made Oatmeal Cookies for a playgroup that Pretzel was in and some tasty Baked Bars from the new Baked Bakeshop Cookbook – like 7-layer bars, but THICK, like two inches thick, and insane with three kinds of chips (chocolate, butterscotch and white chocolate. Can you believe this? I told you – I’m unsubtle to the core.) I am obviously reaching some kind of new baking cardio fitness level and will be all over your cookie jar challenge! The boys at my house thank you for issuing it! (And ‘Magaloo’? Cutest name ever - to go with the cutest little thing ever!)

I promise to try and write WAY more often.

Miss you,

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