Alpha Bakers: Irish Cream Scones

I am beginning to realize that the easier the recipe is, the more disorganized I become. Especially on recipes that are tagged Q&E. It's like it's screaming at me: "hey, I'm easy, you can whip me up in no time and still have the rest of the day left to do whatever."

In the case of this recipe, I skimmed through the recipe a few days before the weekend, was pleased to discover that I have all the ingredients on hand. No need to buy additional stuff from the store. I also decided to make the full recipe, since these are scones (bread-types) and can be frozen and I have friends who was complaining that I always make cakes and should make more bread/pastry type things so I proceeded with full recipe. And while prepping the ingredients I realize that I am 3 oz of cream short. And I don't have any lemons. Or honey. Rats.

In my defense I have long given up buying honey, just because I buy them, use 2 tablespoon, then the bottle of honey sits in the pantry, where it slowly and surely crystallize until 3, 6, 9 months later when I need it and it's hard as rock. In the rock-crystallized state it's usually still usable, provided we use it in warm beverage or baking. But it's not really something that we can pour over bread or toasted bread. And crystallized honey is not pretty. Considering it's freaking expensive to purchase, I decided that we will just support the fair trade agave bottle business that cost a 1/2 of what honey cost and does not crystallized. Having said that, I have a sad-looking bottle of maple syrup that fortunately have not crystallized but been in the pantry for a year now.

Alpha Bakers: Sour Cherry Pie

I am making 1/4 recipe of Cherries and Raspberries Pie instead of Sour Cherry Pie, made from frozen fruits. There are no fresh cherries this time of year. I know there is a variation in the book to use canned sour cherries but I dislike canned stuff and prefer to avoid using it, if possible. Somehow frozen feels better. There are fresh raspberries from California but it has the california price, ha! I have frozen raspberries in the freezer so I thought I add it to the pie to give it a more sour taste.

I wish we are making this pie in the summer instead of now. We have a cherry tree in our backyard that produced sour cherries. But it is only the middle of March now and the cherry tree is still hibernating, so we have to settle with frozen sweet cherries from the grocery store.

I love making these. Kinda funny to say that since I'm not a pie fan. Perhaps, like Marie have said, Rose will make a convert out of me. But I do have a strong bias towards any pretty dessert. Sometimes I feel I don't care much if I like the taste as long as it looks pretty for the pictures. I know this puts me in an odd category but I really don't care.

Doesn't the below picture makes you want to eat it!? :)

ABC: Raspberry-Almond Braided Bread

Hello ABC-er! I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. I actually made the Blueberry Hand Pies last month but never got around to processing the photos and posting! I will add the photos to my next ABC post.

For this bread, the recipe yield 2 breads and they looked huge! So I made 1/2. I was so excited about it. It looked and sounded so good and I figured I could use my stash of homemade lemon curd that I made earlier this year. Except, the lemon curd had turned bad. The top part has turned brown and the consistency is more like lemon butter. Also, the lemon smell is totally gone. So I had to throw it away. Sniff sniff....

I didn't feel like going to the store just to get lemon curd, so I improvised. I cooked a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries with some sugar. I didn't measure any of them, just sort of eye-balled it.

HCB: Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

Moist Chocolate Genoise used to be my favorite chocolate cake. It has since been replaced by Miette Tomboy. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to this trifle. What's not to love? Chocolate genoise + chambord infused sugar syrup + creme anglaise + fresh raspberries = yummyness (this is a new word I made up.) And just when you think it could not possibly get any better, add raspberry flavored whipped cream to it = heavenly yummyness.

This trifle - like the Saint Honore Trifle, feeds 16-20 people. I don't have that many people to feed, so naturally I want to halve the recipe. But there's still the question of what to use as a serving dish. When I made the Saint Honore Trifle, I baked the cake in a cupcake pan and used wine glasses. It worked pretty well. But we have since then broken almost all our wine glasses, except for one. So I went to Walmart over the weekend to get more wine glasses. I found a set of 4 goblets for $5. As I walked away from the aisle, I saw some small plates and stuff that caught my attention. I stopped to check them out, and then I saw these cute mini trifle dish for less than $2. SCORE! I grabbed two of them and abandoned the goblets.

HCB: Miette Tomboy

This is the very pink Miette Tomboy from RHC, baked in 2 6 inch pans. I have been looking forward to this cake since we started the bake off. It looks so pretty in the book and I love the name!

I opted to make the alternative raspberry version as vanilla mousseline tasted too plain to me. Instead of using raspberry jam, I thought of making my own sauce with recipe from TCB. I poured a bag (10 oz) of frozen raspberries in a strainer over a saucepan - and left it on the countertop to thaw overnight. By morning the raspberries is completely thawed, and I got only 1/4 of liquid, so I didn't bother reducing it. Don't own a food mill so I strained the raspberries with a fine mesh and got about 1/3 of cup of raspberry puree. The puree was flavorful enough so I used only the puree for the mousseline.

I was very nervous about the mousseline. The last time I made it was back in July, it curdled and looked horrible. It tasted good but looked funny. And I remembered that once before that, I made it and it was a complete failure - and had to toss it. I blame both failure on hot weather, but this weekend it was pretty warm here, about 66 degrees at 8 AM. I read the recipe 4 times during the week, and read it again on Sunday morning before I started.

I had placed the frozen egg whites and butter on the counter overnight to thaw and soften. My plan was to start bright and early. So 8 AM I was in the kitchen and started the sugar syrup. Everything when smoothy until I added the egg whites into the butter. It curdled. I checked the temperature and it’s 66 degrees, so it should be ok, but it was a bit watery. Since this is within the 65-70 degrees range that Rose said, I didn’t know what to do. So I put it over simmering water while mixing it and it started watering even more. I placed it in an ice bath until it’s about 65, whisk again and it still curdled. I was so frustrated and wanted to give up. Sad images of chucking it into the trash came through my head. But if I trash it, what do I frost the cake with? I can’t imagine starting over, don’t feel like it, plus I have no time. I thought, I could frost the cake with whipped cream, but I don’t have any. And I don’t want to run to the store. Yes I know I was in a sour mood!

So I decided, let’s try to save it.
I tried chilling it faster. I put it in the fridge until the temperature was 63. Then I tried to whisk it (on high with the hand mixer) and it came back together. PHEW!!! I added the raspberry sauce, it curdled again!!

$*%&^ $&#*%&!

Checked the temperature and it’s 61 degrees. So it’s too cold. The oven was preheating for the cake so I placed it on top of the stove (heat from the oven). I mix it a few times to even out the temperature. When it’s 63 degrees I whisked it again with the hand mixer and it came back together. I immediately put it away from the stove.

Felt really good to have a successful mousseline. I’ve tried the RHC recipe once before and it curdled. And I threw it out! Felt so silly now for giving up that fast back then. But I felt I learned a valuable lesson this time - of trying to save it and and succeeding - it’s a good feeling to have :).

The cake itself is pretty straight forward. It calls for melting some chocolate by pouring boiling water over it. I had my doubts for a second because the amount of chocolate is so little compared to the water that the mixture is very watery. Unlike the usual method of combining boiling water with cocoa that produced a thicker mixture. I kept looking back to the weight measurement to make sure that I had the correct amount.

The next step is to combine all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and leavening. This cake used quite a bit of cocoa powder. I was excited about that, knowing that it will be a pretty chocolate-y cake, :).

Then mix the single egg in the mixer on high speed until it's pale, add in the canola oil and buttermilk and mix. I don't have buttermilk and don't want to buy a whole bottle for one time use. Plus Rose said to use non-low fat ones, and I haven't seen those in the store. So I took whole milk, added 1 tsp of lemon juice, and let it sit for a few minutes. Once it's mixed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.

I wonder why we don't have to add the dry ingredients in 2 additions like some other recipes. I'm not complaining though, it's faster like this but just curious as to why.

I love that Rose said how much the batter should weigh for each pan, it makes it easier to split it.

Decorating the cake is really easy. It looks so fancy in the book but it’s super easy. I love that I don’t have to do crumb coat and smooth out the sides - since that usually takes the longest.

 

Tasting impressions:
So good! The chocolate cake is so moist and chocolate-y. This chocolate cake is now one of my favorite in the book. I love the texture so much more than the DFC’s chocolate cake. Tastewise, I don’t remember how it would compare. I think I need to make DFC soon LOL. The mousseline is very good, love the raspberry flavor.

Now this makes me crave for lemon curd mousseline...