TWD: Cinnamon Squares, Day 10 of my TWD Marathon

OK, folks, this wraps up my Tuesday's with Dorie marathon. I've now baked all of the recipes chosen so far, which is around 110. And let me tell you, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I have baked things I've never heard of, things I didn't think I would like, things that were utter failures and surprising successes. And I'd say about 80% of the recipes, I've really enjoyed. That's pretty amazing, when you think of it. Dorie is to be commended on having hit recipe after hit recipe. Girlfriend knows her baking!


Anyway, Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures picked Cinnamon Squares in June, 2009. This was one of those recipes I didn't think I would like, since I'm not a big fan of the cinnamon-chocolate combo. Well, as it turns out, I think what I don't like is a predominantly chocolate recipe with too much cinnamon in it. Chocolate with a little cinnamon is OK, and mostly cinnamon with a little chocolate is OK.

I guess that's why I ended up liking this cake. Well, without the chocolate frosting... I was afraid it would push it into the bad cinnamon-chocolate range, so I left it off. I didn't include the espresso powder either, since I don't like coffee at all.


The cake consisted of a super-cinnamony cake with a layer of chopped chocolate and cinnamon sugar in the middle. You can see that layer here (half of the batter is underneath)...


The chopped chocolate and cinnamon-sugar is covered with the remaining cake batter. Since I halved the recipe, I used my adjustable cake pan that I got from a friend in England. I'm not sure if those pans are available here in the US or not.


I was surprised to see that the ribbon of chocolate and cinnamon was wavy, like in the picture in the book. Don't ask me how that happens, but it does, and I'm glad. If you'd like to see the recipe, please check out Tracey's blog or Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

All right, I'm going to wrap up with my top 5 favorite Dorie recipes so far. These are the ones that left me saying "wow!" over and over.

1. French Pear Tart

2. Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart

3. Coconut Butter Thins

4. Butterscotch Pudding

5. Tarte Tatin

There were also a few runners up...

- Banana Cream Pie

- Blueberry Pie

- Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

- Lenox Almond Biscotti

(So, I read through some of these old posts and have come to the conclusion that my old posts are WAY more entertaining than my current posts. I need to get back to the witty and entertaining. I'm just boring now, LOL. )

Thanks so much for following along, I really do appreciate folks stopping by. Hope you all have a really fantastic day!

January & February Roundup

Hi folks, I'm doing my "best of" for January and February. Every month or so, I go back and pick my favorites from the previous month's recipes. I do this as much for myself as anything else. That way, years from now, if I'm still blogging, my favorites won't slip through the cracks (of my brain) and be forgotten.


I also thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce you to our dog, Astro. He's a Bichon Frise who was rescued from a puppy mill when he was about one, and we've had him since (2 years now). He's a super sweet dog, but he still bears some emotional scars. He's jumpy and can be skittish and is often slow to warm up to strangers. He loves my husband to pieces and is hubby's little shadow. We love him too and can't imagine life without him.

So anyway, here are my favorites from January and February:

January Faves
1. French Pear Tart - this may be my new all time favorite from TWD
2. I gotta go with all of the cookies from Operation Baking Gals, Round 5
3. The sugared pecans from the Banana Cake with Praline Filling, etc.

February Faves
1. Divinity
2. Peach Pie
3. Cream Cheese Buttercream from the Southern Coconut Cake
4. Floating Islands
5. Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Dried Cherries and Toffee

November and December Roundup

While I'm between baking assignments, I thought I'd post my favorite recipes of those I've baked the last few months.

I wanted to share one of my favorite random photos first, though. I can see myself and one side of my kitchen reflected in the mixing bowl. Which is totally by accident. If I'd have been trying to do that, it probably wouldn't have turned out.



Anyway, my favorites from December were:

1. Apple Crumb Pie
2. Real Butterscotch Pudding
3. Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

My November favorites were:

1. The icing from Caramel Cake
2. Cyndi Lauper Checkerboard Hair Pie
3. Ultimate Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
4. Rugelach

(There appears to be a "Pie and Cookies" theme emerging here.)

September & October Recipe Roundup and Awards!

Whew! its' been a blogging marathon this week! Before I forget (like last month) I wanted to post my favorites for the month.

September was a good month for desserts. Lots of winners here! In fact, I had such a hard time deciding which was my favorite, there was a two way tie for first.

1. Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops
1. Creme Brulee
2. Pink Grapefruit sandwich cookies
3. Chocolate Chunkers
4. Peanut Butter Cookies

October was an interesting month... not as many home-runs, in my opinion, but a few stars shone through.

My favorites for October were:

1. Lenox Almond Biscotti
2. Lemon-Lime Meringue Tart
3. Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Operation Baking Gals, round three

Lastly, but definitely not least, a number of very sweet bakers have given me some awards. I can't tell you how much these please and humble me. To be thought of by talented and generous bakers really makes my day.

Lucy from sweets, savories, etc. has given me the Excellent Blog Award. Lucy recently posted her pizelle cookies, which seriously look like they belong in an art gallery. They're gorgeous! Thanks so much, Lucy!

Cathy at The Tortefeasor has given me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Cathy is so funny, she always makes me laugh and lightens my day. Thanks, Cathy!


Pamela from Cookies with Boys and Nancy at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs have given me the Premio Artey Pico award. Thanks so much, Pamela and Nancy! I love Pamela's often playful take on her food, and she's got some seriously adorable boys. Nancy always has such interesting discussions on her blog. I go there and come away having learned something new.



The Excellent Blog award, I'm giving to Heather at Cakes, Kids, and a Lens. Heather is an awesome cake decorator, a really nice person, and she makes a mean pot of jambalaya!
The rules for the award are:

Find 5 blogs, of any kind that you love to read.
Write a post about the blogs you picked, linking back to them.
Make sure you let them know you gave them an award.

The premio artey pico award, I'm giving to Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake. Rebecca doesn't know this but she kept me on this side of insanity today with her timely post about PMS Wrangler cookies (a.k.a no-bake chocolate cookies).

The rules are:
This award was created in Uruguay by a fellow blogger who makes dolls exclusively from recycled materials. Her blog can be reached by clicking here. The rules for this award include the following:

Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language. Advertise the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
Award-winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of “Arte y pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

The Kreativ Blogger award has a "meme" attached to this award, in the form of lists of sevens. OK, I am going to have to think about this one, LOL. So I will get back with the lucky recipient of this award. And my list... my brain is plumb tuckered out right now, so I will get back to this also.

Here is the list to be filled out by the recipients. If you want to give this a go, just let me know... LOL, I'll give you the award!

7 things I did before

7 things I do now

7 things I want to do

7 things that attract me about the opposite sex

7 Favorite Foods

7 things I Say Most Often:

7 Tags (and award too; pick one up)

August Recipe Roundup (and June and July)

I don’t know how long this blog thing is going to last, but in the event that I’m doing this years from now, I thought I’d take a moment and look back each month and rate the recipes. Because we all know I won’t actually remember!

For August, my favorites were as follows, with a tie for first:

1. Congo Bars
1. Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
2. Cherry Pie
3. Granola Grabbers
4. Blueberry Sour Cream Ice cream
5. Toffee Crumb Bars

For July, I’d say my favorites are as follows. It was tough ranking them, there were some great recipes:

1. Blueberry Pie
2. Summer Fruit Galette
3. Cinnamon Rolls
4. Pecan Tart
5. Famous Hammus Chocolate Chip Cookies

For June:

1. La Palette Strawberry Tart
2. Fresh Apple Cookies
3. Lemon (-Lime) Meringue Tart
4. Danish Braid

Over and out!