TWD/BCM: Lemon Squares, French-Style

I love it when Dorie upscales a "normal" recipe!

Warning:

The amount of butter in this recipe is shocking.

Over a pound.

No wonder it's good.

Cut small pieces and nobody gets hurt.

I pulled one of those ancient kitchen tools off the wall. A juicer that did a great job on the lemons, even filtering out all the seeds. Not certain where it came from, but there's a chance it was my mother's. Made me feel good. It's the little things.

 Rolled out the bottom crust with a "shooter" glass. (Not my mother's!)

The crust was pre-baked, then covered with chilled lemon curd, crumbled up bits of the same shortbread dough as the crust, and chopped almonds. A second baking transformed the topping into crunchy wonderfulness. For me, it was the almonds that took it over the top.  I used roughly chopped whole almonds. Didn't worry about blanching them. And liked it that way.

Those dark edges were... chewy, yummy.

You can see what the other Tuesday With Dorie bakers thought about the lemon squares here.

One more thing. I know my photos leave something to be desired. I've edited them on my computer but when I go to upload here, they revert back to the original. Anybody got tips about Mac's new Photos app? I've googled it. Read the Photos help. Nothing addresses this issue. There's probably some simple thing I'm doing wrong. The files don't retain the titles I've given them either. And I have to search for everything. Good grief, I didn't know it would take me this long to make the switch. But Windows got way too user-unfriendly for me. All in all, I love the Mac, just need to figure out Photos. So for now, it's bad photos or nothing. I'm trying to get back to posting. One of these days, I might even do it on the designated Tuesday! There's always hope.

I'll leave you with a shoe. A magical shoe which a friend texted me a picture of. Two days later I found myself in that area and it was still there! Seriously, how many times does one see a blue high heel, sitting upright in the parking lot of a Verizon store? Looks like Cinderella had a problem with her phone.

TWD/BCM: Carrot-Tangerine Cake

OK, so it was supposed to be "Fluted Carrot-Tangerine Cake"

Didn't have the right pan. 

Didn't want to buy one.

Sometimes you make do.

Here's a secret.

I keep ginger in the freezer.

It grates up just fine when frozen.

Sometimes I don't even peel it.

You can gasp now.

My baby loaf pans.

Not fluted.

Used the wrong grater.

Smaller would have been better.

It's not like I didn't have others to choose from.

Added plenty of orange glaze.

We liked this nice little ginger-orange cake. Would have been hard pressed to identify it as carrot cake in a blind taste test. See what the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers thought here.

And now, a shoe:

TWD/BWJ: Cornmeal-Currant Biscotti

Thank goodness there was cornmeal involved.

Our freezer is full of little brown bags of organic cornmeal.

It's wonderful stuff, from the CSA.

But I have a cornbread confession to make:

Martha White Hot-Rize.

With real bacon grease and real buttermilk.

In an iron skillet.

Can't beat it.

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest. 

I don't know about you, but I don't immediately think of cornmeal when I hear the word "Venice". However, it seems that Venice is "known for its cookies, and among the best known are these cornmeal-currant biscotti called zaleti." Never been to Italy. It's at the top of the list. Gotta make that happen. Quick.

For once, I watched the video WHILE I was baking.
Needed some direction on shaping.

No currants in this house, but we did have raisins.
Soaked them a little to plump.

Fast and easy. Which was unexpected for a recipe from Baking With Julia. A welcome surprise.

Check out the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers who made these little gems.

And here's a shoe:

Tuesdays With Dorie: Catch-Up for 2015

This has gone on long enough.

The guilt is eating me alive.

Obviously, I'd rather bake than blog about it.

But it's time to come clean.

So, quick as I can, I'll hit up the recipes from 2015.

Some from Baking With Julia, some from Baking Chez Moi.

Let's do this.

Started to lose my way in February:

BCM: Pink Grapefruit Tart 

Luscious and wonderful, but mostly it

brings back memories of many different

components. Coming together. Just

 as my husband was admitted to the

 hospital for 3 days. Sigh.

Sometimes the timing is off and

there's nothing you can do.

Then came MARCH:

BCM: Lemon Madeleines

easier than the BWJ version we made in 2013

BCM: Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars

Seriously? Caramelized rice crispies on top of a cookie

with chocolate? Dorie is a genius. 

Unfortunately, my scraper paid the price

for my inexperience with very hot sugar.

APRIL:

OK, not Tuesdays with Dorie at all. These are the

Pioneer Woman's Blueberry Lemon Sweet Rolls. 

I don't mind telling you that Ree knows her stuff.

BCM: Limoncello Cupcakes

Confession - never bought a bottle of Limoncello before.

What a great excuse!

BWJ: Sweet Ricotta Pie

Wish I remembered more about this one. Wait -

licorice-flavored liqueur. I do remember. Another trip to

the liquor store. I liked the Limoncello better.

BCM: Coconut Tapioca, the adventure begins. First

try was a total bust. Just nasty.

Went to lots of interesting stores looking for the
large pearl tapioca. Bought them all.
Even the black kind. 

In the end, I never found one that I liked.

Think I'll stick with Minute Tapioca.

MAY:

BCM: Nutella buttons, little nuggets of heaven

BCM: Rhubarb Upside-Down Baby Cakes

Much as I try, upside-down cakes rarely

do it for me. This was no exception.

Not bad, just not my favorite.

A brief intermisson to tell you about the Rolling Stones concert at Georgia Tech in June. Can't remember the last time we went to an outdoor stadium concert. If there was ever a time to sit at the top of the stadium, this was it. Georgia Tech is right in the middle of Atlanta. The night view of the city was fantastic. And the Stones - what can I say? They were amazing! EVERY favorite song. Mick still has the moves and more energy than many men half his age. A couple of pictures, then we'll get back to baking.

JUNE:

Totally not TWD, but aren't these dinosaur

cookies adorable? We were very proud of ourselves.

Picked up the cookie cutters in the gift shop at Fernbank

Natural History Museum. One of our favorite places.

My mother's famous Peach Pie. Technically, it's

the apple pie recipe from the old red-plaid Better

Homes and Gardens cookbook. But with peaches.

There's one TWD recipe I don't seem to have a picture of. Lost in the cross-over between old (Windows) computer and new Macbook. Still haven't figured it all out. But sometime in there BCM's Chocolate-Cherry Brownies got lost. I seem to recall that they needed extra time in the oven. Tasty though. I mean, how could that go wrong?

I did manage to come up with a blog post for the Strawberry Shortcake, Franco-American Style.

Here's a reminder.

JULY:

BWJ: White Chocolate Patty Cake was made at my

sister's house while I was on a visit there. Another 

recipe that seemed unnecessarily... complicated. But

it was good. And it didn't go to waste.

BCM: Vanilla Mango Panna Cotta

One of the easiest recipes of the year. 

Pretty much congealed cream with fruit 

on the bottom. Seemed a little fatty for my taste.

BCM: "Apricot Raspberry Tart"

Actually, this one was Peach Blueberry Tart, 

with an almond cream layer (one of Dorie's suggestions) 

AUGUST:

BWJ: Miniature Florentine Squares

Not at all what I expected. Thought there'd be

spinach involved, LOL! For the record, they were

pretty good little petit fours. Decorated in "Paris"

style by my daughter who had just returned from

5 weeks there, studying art. Color me jealous.

BCM: Cherry Crumb Tart

Finished baking just in time to take it with us to move

art-student daughter into a new apartment at college.

How were we to know that the one thing her new roommate

was allergic to was... wait for it... cherries. What are the odds?

SEPTEMBER:

BCM: Jam-filled Sandwich Cookies

Got their own blog post! This is just a reminder.

BCM: Apple Kuchen

It was good. Husband like it. He's picky.

OCTOBER:

BCM: Tiger Cakes

Mine didn't look quite as good

as the picture in the book, Ha Ha!

Tasted good though. I love little bites.

Another little intermission. We're almost finished. Hang in there. Here are a couple of pictures from the Taylor Swift concert. Because, well, Taylor Swift. We saw her with 56,000 other folks in the Georgia Dome, which is not long for this world. They're building it's replacement now. 

DECEMBER:

BCM: Chocolate Chestnut Tart

with coffee ice cream and

vanilla-chestnut syrup. Ahhh.

BWJ: Vanilla-Hazelnut Cheesecake

I added a crust of Biscoff crumbs and

baked it in a springform pan 

without the water bath. Came out fine.

and finally!...

BCM: Stained Glass Cookies

ta-da!!!

Now that the slate is clean, I feel SO much better! Will honestly try to do better about posting in 2016. Hope everyone has a wonderful year. And now, a shoe. There were so many good ones this year that I haven't shared. That's something to look forward to. For now, a holiday version.