Not Your Grandma's Grahams

I’ve been raving about homemade graham crackers since I first made them for January’s Bakers’ Challenge. I’ve made them several times since then and will tell anyone who will listen how much better they are than store-bought, even defending them against someone that insinuated I’m a grandma because I get so excited about them and love to share their awesomeness.

I’ve pretty much got the process down and have added the recipe to my recipe box, so I thought I’d give them their own blog post.

Poking holes in the dough with one of my vintage angel food cake cutters…

This batch went to friends and family that put me up on a recent trip to California, so I dressed them up with chocolate drizzles. A couple of them got a light sprinkle of salt.

You see? Definitely not your grandma's grahams.

Going Green

I’ve had Irish soda bread on the brain lately, so I decided to use St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to bake it. After some cursory investigating I realized the version I’m familiar with is an Irish American version, made with raisins and caraway seeds. Well, that’s what I like about it, so I decided to stick with it.

I made three mini loaves for the neighbors, one for my husband, who is house-sitting in a nearby town, and two big muffins to keep for myself.

The recipe I decided on came from King Arthur, but called for a full cup of sugar. Way too much for me, so I cut it in half. The end result...the texture was more like cake -- very tender, not crumbly like a scone, which I thought I would be getting. Don’t get me wrong, they still taste wonderful. I’ll try a different recipe next time, or figure out what it was about this one that made it so tender. I’ll also double the amount of caraway seeds from one tablespoon to two. A friend suggested serving it with a slice of sharp cheddar on the side, so that might be on the menu for this afternoon’s espresso break. I suppose a nice Irish tea would be more appropriate, but I prefer strong, strong coffee.

Vacation Baking

I'm visiting family and friends in California this week, and will eventually end up in San Francisco for a work-related convention. I really wanted to bring some baked goods with me, but didn't have the time or the space, so I refrained. My first night here, however, my brother and uncle cooked dinner, so I offered to make dessert. My cousin has a Meyer lemon tree in her back yard -- in her back yard! -- and a vegetable drawer in her refrigerator full of them, so I decided on lemon upside down cake from Luscious Lemon Desserts.


This is the first time I'd used a microplane grater. It just moved to the top of my kitchen gadget wish list.


Cooking lemon slices with butter and brown sugar.



My cousin collects vintage dishware. These belonged to her grandmother...


This 1930s platter belonged to my uncle's mother, who used to serve his birthday cake on it.


The cake was good, and I was pleasantly surprised with the caramelized lemons. However, the 50-year-old cast iron pan I used tainted some of it with hints of savory flavors, so I made some lemon curd to mask mask the mystery flavor.



I'm not sure that I'll get another opportunity to bake while I'm away from home, but I'm glad I was able to bake for family I rarely see.

Daring Bakers: Tiramisu

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

This was a challenge. Not because it was so difficult, necessarily, but because there were so many steps, involving several days of prep, and like anyone with a job and other responsibilities, the challenge was timing. Making Tiramisu is one thing; making the lady fingers, the pastry cream, zabaglione, and marscapone over a period of a few days is quite another. And oh yeah – we had plans to visit friends in Eastern Washington (the site of my very first baking challenge http://julineb.blogspot.com/search/label/cheesecake , in an inadequately equipped kitchen, no less), so the plan was to make as much as possible before leaving and assemble the Tiramisu when I got there.

Wednesday night I made lady fingers. Not many ingredients in lady fingers.

They didn’t take too long, so I also made the pastry cream. I’d made this a few weeks ago to use as filling in a pink champagne cake and used what I had left over to make pâte à choux. But this recipe produced a kind of grayish, not-very-attractive-looking pastry cream. Tasted good, though.

Thursday between work shifts I made zabaglione. It never did resemble “thick custard,” but I ran out of time and had to go back to work, so I called it done.

On Friday we traveled halfway across the state and I set out to make marscapone at about 10p. I neglected to bring a lot of my own kitchen tools (like a double boiler, among other things), and it took for-EV-er.

I couldn’t get it above 90 degrees. I finally resorted to the microwave. I cooked it for a minute on high power, added the lemon, stirred, cooked another one minute. It refused to curdle, so I blasted it two more times before I gave up. I poured it into a cheesecloth-lined pasta strainer, stuck it in the refrigerator, and went to bed. And in the morning woke up marscapone!

One thing this kitchen did have was an espresso machine. Gotta love that.

Dipping the lady fingers into espresso, rum, and sugar.

Back to the marscapone. It was to be mixed with the zabaglione, pastry cream, and whipped cream. Did you catch that? Was. I forgot to add it! I added a little of the leftover espresso-rum and spooned it over the finished dessert, but that made it more of a sauce.

Finally...

(Something else I didn't have with me was some kind of sieve or sifter for the cocoa powder.)

Reviews were good. It tasted great. But it wasn’t pretty, and the layers between the lady fingers had no stability. I dubbed it Tiramisoup. I’d like to try it again, but like books…so many desserts, so little time. We went wine tasting this weekend and I tasted a port wine that I’m dying to incorporate into a cheesecake. Stay tuned.