Lemon Loaf Cake [TWD]

I didn't participate in the last two "Tuesdays with Dorie" recipes, because the Irish Soda bread just didn't appeal to me and the Pizza Rustica sounded good, but it's a savory dish and I want to keep this blog sweet. I am sure I will bake it some day. So, I was more than happy when I saw this weeks recipe, as I really like to bake with lemon.

The Lemon Loaf Cake was really good, had a great lemon taste and was moist for several days. I also added some lemon juice to the recipe, since the recipe only asked for the zest. I read later that the lemon juice would prevent the cake from rising, but I had no problems.

You can find the recipe on the websites of our weekly hosts, which are Truc of Treatsand Michelle of The Beauty of Life.

On a side-note Jen of "The Caffeinated Kitchen" rewarded me with the "Liebster Blog Award". I am very happy for that and am sending a big thank you to Jen. She also bakes along with "Tuesdays with Dorie", and you should check out her beautiful lemon cake.

The conditions for the acceptance of this award are as follows:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value. (It's a great way to get the word out there about other blogs!)
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have received this award.

I am gonna pass the award on to five fellow TWD bakers, which all made beautiful lemon loafs today:

1. Peggy the Baker
2. Cher Rockwell
3. Soup Addict
4. Oven Chaos
5. My Culinary Mission

Please have a look at their blogs and give them some nice comments for their good work.

Enjoy and Guten Appetit!

Rugelach [TWD]

This week of Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia we made Rugelach. If you haven't heard of it before, rugelach is a jewish pastry usually crescent-shaped. It is made with a cream cheese dough and filled with different kinds of fruit preserves, dried fruit and nuts, sometimes also with chocolate.

I have eaten rugelach before at a jewish pastry store, but this recipe was even more delicious. I made the traditional crescent-shape and filled them with plum-butter, cinnamon-sugar, almonds, macadamia nuts and dried cranberries. I honestly just looked in my pantry and combined what I had and thought would be good together. They tasted best the first day, the dough was very flaky almost like puff pastry, but were still good two days later.

This week is hosted by Margaret of The Urban Hiker and Jessica of My Baking Heart. Please check out their pages, where you can also find the recipe of the rugelach.

Enjoy and Guten Appetit!

Chocolate Truffle Tartlets [TWD]

On our second date with "Baking with Julia" (Tusdays with Dorie) we were making Chocolate Truffle Tartlets. They are a perfect Valentine's Day dessert. The chocolate pastry shell contains a baked chocolate filling made with egg yolks. The additon of white and milk chocolate pieces and amaretti cookies gave an interesting texture with a little crunch. I could imagine to also add some kind of soft caramel pieces the next time.

I made the full recipe for the tart dough and half of the filling. I managed to get six 3-inch tartlets with that and a little bit leftover pastry dough to freeze for later use.

They were not a as sweet as a chocolate ganache tartlet, but still very rich. To offset the sweetness I served it with vanilla bean ice-cream, which was a great combination.

This weeks baking adventure was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon, Spike of spike.does.stuff, Jaime of Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats and Jessica of Cookbookhabit. Please check out their blog posts, where you can also find the delicious recipe.

Enjoy and Guten Appetit!

White Loaves [TWD]

If you are a regular reader of food blogs, you probably heard of the baking group "Tuesdays with Dorie". For several years this group baked their way to Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours. They finally finished their endeavor and now there is time for a new project. They chose another book from Dorie, "Baking with Julia". It's a classic, which is on my bookshelf for some time now. It has wonderful recipes collected by Julia Child from all kinds of famous American bakers. I always use her recipe for puff pastry, it's wonderful.

In my infinite wisdom I jumped on the chance and joined the group. We are gonna bake two recipes of the book each month. I hope I can participate at most of them, since it is a really interesting book, with a lot of general recipes, which are nice to learn.

We started of with baking white loaves. It is a nice bread, and goes well for breakfast or sandwiches. It was easy to make and a good bicep training, since my standmixer couldn't handle it. I made the bread as directed, just substituted the dry yeast for fresh yeast. I usually try to use fresh yeast, since I like the process and taste better. If you want to use it you can substitute 1 teaspoon of dry yeast with 10 g of fresh yeast. I know that it is quite difficult to get in North America, but I had always luck when I asked at a local bakery.

We are not gonna post each recipe we are making, but you can find it on each weeks hosting blog or go get the book "Baking with Julia", it's worth it. This week is hosted by Laurie of Slush and Jules of Someone’s in the Kitchen. Please also check out the results of my fellow bakers.