Amy Ruth

Growing up, there were few food choices I disliked.  However, I do remember a handful of occasions when I sat at the table by myself.   The reason, there was something on my plate I did not want to eat or maybe it was the Nestle’s Quick Chocolate Milk I didn’t care to drink.    I honestly can’t remember for sure.  However, I can remember the hint of chocolate was not sufficient enough for me, even then.  That must have been the reason for the solitary minutes I spent at the table trying to talk myself into drinking the milk with the smidgen of Nestle’s Quick .

Funny this cookie does not contain a whiff of chocolate.  It does have a tiny sweet crunch from the small addition of corn meal.  A short bread cookie, rich with butter, and the rest of the typical ingredients one finds in a shortbread recipe. Along with those usual ingredients, cornmeal and citrus zest of lemon, however, I used lime.  I am fond of it and its pretty  and fresh in the dough.  These a a wonderful departure from  chocolate.  Definitely a cookie I will keep in my cookie collection.

Une Gamine dan la Cuisine by Valerie is the featured blogger this week for Tuesdays With Dorie.  A lovely little cookie.

Now you know the recipe is available both on the net and in Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Thank you so much for looking here.

This is a very special post for a very special lady.  Guess who?  Holly of PheMOMenon and Laurie of Slush gathered up their apron strings, wooden spoons and mixing bowls long enough to send out invitations to a surprise virtual birthday party for Dorie. We hope it was a surprise for her.  How do you do that on the internet?   This is my installment featuring the simply beautiful and seasonally appropriate  Marie-Helene’s apple cake on page 432 of Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.

I figure a lot of folks are learning a whole lot because of … a lot of people, but primarily Dorie Greenspan and Laurie Woodward.  Dorie authored the books and Laurie Woodward started the baking blog group, Tuesdays With Dorie and the most recently, French Fridays With Dorie for the book Around My French Table. Today is Dorie’s birthday and I thought she should have a birthday cake, the French way.   Happy Birthday Dorie! (this is the part where the birthday song plays)   I know as you visit around to the virtual Birthday Party you will surely have a big smile on your face.  You are probably running around the country visiting with lots of new faces and making yet more new friends while promoting your new book, Around My French Table. That’s a pretty amazing gift as well.

I could elaborate for a while but I want you to see the photo of this really beautiful, wonderful apple cake from Around My French Table.  No recipe here, you’ll have to buy the book (or maybe its on google….I bought the beautiful book).  I really can’t resist sharing some impressions while I was in the kitchen making Dorie’s recipe.    Among the ingredients is the usual eggs, butter, sugar, and apples.  I do love the smell of butter and sugar.  Did you know sugar actually has an aroma?  I have to confess Dorie, I have resisted buying yet another bottle of liquor for my collection and I finally folded and brought home some dark rum (for this recipe).  Let me just say I am so silly and regret I didn’t have it before for many of the previous recipes.  Its a heavenly aroma.  Can you smell it?  The cake batter is like liquid satin and  I love all the different apples added to the mixture.    After just having a bite, well more than just one bite, this is super delicious and you’ll love the chunky pieces of various apples inside.  Did you hear that apple lovers?

This year for Dorie’s birthday, Holly of PheMOMenon has coordinated this effort and has  the whole birthday party on her blog so make sure to visit  the entire party there,  see all the photos of the food and visit the different blogs to make new friends.

Thank you so much for coming to the Virtual Birthday Party.  Happy Birthday Dorie. Its safe to say that there are lots of folks out there sending you good thoughts and birthday hugs.

Discovering an unfamiliar word sends me right to the kitchen where I keep at least a couple of paperback copies of Webster’s Dictionary.  If I can’t find a pair of readers, I go to the computer and google it.  Anyway, I love looking for definitions.   Just one of my (many) quirks.   I’ve been thinking about this recipe and about the sort of frou frou name “Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake.”  Perception can entice or repel.  Words and definitions both fascinate and entertain.  So why would the name Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake attract little old me?

1.  Chocolate – the other food group, the food of the Gods, a cure for PMS, an aphrodisiac, some say.  Of course, chocolate is almost always my first choice.

2.  Then there is the other descriptive word,  ”dressy.”  It reminds me of way, way back to childhood.  I grew up in Oklahoma.  Is that the south?  Well, either way.   Somehow every Easter, Mom and Dad managed to provide my brother and me new clothes,  complete with shoes and hat (for me, no hat for him, hehe)  for church Easter Sunday.  It was special and the shopping was much anticipated.  I remember standing in the backyard while Mom or Dad stood with the Brownie Hawkeye camera to take photographs.  Yep, in black and white.  All of this is a comforting and happy memory.

This just had to be a happy recipe, right?  Hope you think so too.

Back to the Dressy Cake

Now here is the fun.

For the Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

~

1/3 cup best-quality red raspberry or cherry jam-for filling

1 teaspoon water

For the Frosting

5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 9 1/2 x 5 inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess.  Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked on the top of one another.

To Make the Cake: Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until very light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each one goes in.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the sour cream.  Still working on a low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix only until they disappear into the batter,  Give the batter a last stir with a sturdy rubber spatula and scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.  If, after about 45 minutes, the cake looks as if its browning too quickly, cover it losely with a foil tent.  Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the cake rest for about 5 minutes before turning it out on the to rack.  Cool to room temperature upside down.

To Fill The Cake: Bring the jam and water to a boil over low heat or in a microwave oven.  Stir to smooth it, and keep at hand.

The top of the cake will become the bottom layer, so if it is uneven and your cake rocks a bit on the counter, turn it right side up and use a long serrated knife to level it.  Using the serrated knife, cut the cake into 3 even layers.  Put the first layer (originally the top of the cake) cut side up on a long serving plate and spread half of the jam over it.  Cover with the middle layer and spread that layer with the remaining jam.  Lift the top layer into place, cut side down.  Use a small pastry brush to chase away any crumbs on the top or sides of the cake.

To Make The Frosting: Fit a heatproof bowl into a pan of gently simmering water, add the chocolate and warm, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted.  Still working over the hot water, stir in the sour cream.  Don’t be concerned if the cream tightens-just keep stirring gently and the frosting will become smooth and glossy.

Remove from the heat and cover the sides and top of the cake with the still warm frosting.

Dorie says its ready to serve as soon as it is frosted, but likes to wait about an hour, until the frosting develops the slightest little crust; the frosting underneath the crust will still be soft and velvety.  Serve with a bit of whipped cream and if you’d like a pitcher of the Smooth & Tangy Chocolate Sauce.

Playing Around If you want to serve the cake with a sauce that is perfectly matched to it, double the frosting recipe and use half for the frosting and the other half to make a sauce.

for the sauce: bring about 1 cup whole milk (amount is your preference of consistency) almost to a boil.  Put the bowl of extra frosting back over the pan of hot water and gently whisk in the hot milk a little at a time, adding as much as you want to get the desired consistency.  The sauce is ready to use when it is as thick or thin as you’d like and perfectly smooth.  You can make the sauce in advance and keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days; just warm it gently before serving.

This “Dressy” recipe is brought to you by the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group’s beloved inspiration, Dorie Greenspan. It is from her wonderful book entitled Baking From My Home to Yours. Thank you Dorie for giving all the joy of your kitchen to all of us.  Your book has really enriched many lives.  Just think of all the sharing that goes around.  What Fun!

Be sure and check out all the Tuesday With Dorie bakers and see the phenomenal display of Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cakes.  I assure you there will be some decked out cakes!  hehe

Corbin and I enjoyed taking a lot of photographs for this special occasion of Tuesdays with Dorie. It was my turn among the over 300 bakers to choose the recipe.  I know you’ll love checking them out.  Here they are.  Thank you for visiting and baking with me.

Just a note: Please don’t tell my “gym-rat” friends, this chocolate cake is totally worth the calories, meaning I am willing to work out a little extra just to eat this.  Its that good.  Yum!

Tender, by definition is having a soft or yielding texture : easily broken, cut, or damaged, that is true if you are able to restrain yourself from mixing the dry niblets completely. I know you might think it’s not finished or complete.    You might even think I have to stop stirring now…. as you round the bowl just one more time.  Don’t beat yourself up, its just baking and you can always really listen to that little voice in your head the next time around.  The “less is more” theory does in fact really work here.  Try it, you’ll be amazed.  I dare you.

Pie crust, shortcakes, biscuits, well I think they deserve to be among the morsels falling into the “tender” category.  I like them that way.

So Cathy, of The Tortefeasor,  thank you for choosing the best simple dessert of the season. Basic ingredients standing in as the canvas for beautiful summer berries.  Its perfect for summer.  (smiling)  I love that you got lucky that way, a recipe still lurking around in Baking From My Home to Yours. You constantly amaze me with the level of activity you have in your life with little people, a career and yet you have time to squeeze in wonderful food for your family and blog about it.  Go Cathy!!!  YAY for all the Tuesdays With Dorie bakers!

Today, I mixed up these tender little cakes.  I baked off a couple for photographs just for you.  Maybe a bite or two for me.  After all I do need to report to you that yes, they are worth the calories. Okay, more than a bite or two.  These were perfect for sumptuous strawberries and blueberries.    You should master this practical little shortcake because you can also make up the dough, plop them onto a pan, put them in the freezer for a medium sized snooze ( up to a couple of months) and pull them  for a delightful dessert later.  How perfectly simple.

My apologies for the lack of photos.  So excited was I when, ahead of time folks, ( me, the procrastinator) I wrote my post along with mixing up the summer simple recipe, ( I knew it would be a good recipe) even photographed my half recipe. I froze  the remaining litle gems.  Then as I attempted to download my photos, the hitch of the day.   Ah shucks!   I have a camera who is not getting along with my “old girl” MacBook.  Hmm, maybe if Corbin waves his magic wand he can get the photos downloaded.  Perhaps a new computer?  hehe

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoy your shortcakes too.

Once again, Corbin is my hero.    He bailed me out.  My tech guru… Now, a photo is posted.

Oh yes, and then there is the wonderful cookie like sweet tart crust, cradling the combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate, reforming any purist chocolate lover.  You probably wouldn’t even detect the milk chocolate rounding up the sweetness and nice little red pop of the raspberries.  A quick go- to, put together, simple tart.  It requires few ingredients and steps.  I can’t wait to hear  from my friends who will be eating this selection.  This recipe was chosen by  Rachelle of Mommy?  I’m Hungry! I believe she was encouraged by her husband to make this her choice of recipes or…. was it Rachelle? Either way, I thought it was nice and easy.

If you are curious about those cute little cookies around the sides of the Soft Chocolate Raspberry Tart? They are Thumbprints For Us Big Guys, rounded up by Mike of Ugly Food Dude, and both recipes came from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The next time you are thinking holiday baking, these little cookies are  great on cookies trays.  Plan on keeping that recipe close to your heart.  They are tasty little bites.

Most assuredly there will be some interesting chatter about these desserts on the Tuesdays With Dorie blog roll so travel around and make some new friends.  Thank you very much for stopping by for a visit.