TWD: Dimply Plum Cake

I actually took Dorie's advice on this one and ate a piece for breakfast the day after I baked it. This is one delicious cake. If you're looking for something not too heavy or sweet, with that tangy plum taste that comes with fall, you will love this cake. I used prune plums and also used the cardamom. The plums wouldn't completely suck back in their juices while it was cooling, but that's ok; they weren't to dribbly anyways.

TWD: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

Ok so here's the deal...
I though I had missed a week of TWD. I really did. Tuesday was crazy at my house; I was making cupcakes for a friend, and my moms birthday cake (which I will post pictures of later). I though this week was the Chocolate Chunkers and I was so upset that I had missed them. Except as I looked through the other blogs, I realized that yesterday was the Whopper Drops! I must have done them so far in advance that I completely forgot about them. Anyways...here they are. Sorry about that!

These cookies were soft, incredibly chocolatey, and so so good. If I made them again I think I would leave out the Whoppers though- I know, that's sacrilegious cause it has Whopper in the name- I just thought they got kind of crunchy and oozed out the sides of the cookies and didn't really add much. I would up the amount of malt powder in the cookie and add more chocolate chunks, yum!

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

No school today- a water main broke and flooded the school. Five day weekend!
These cookies were delicious straight out of the oven and dunked in milk. I made them with a friend, and cut the recipe in half cause honestly we don't need 60 cookies lying around. These were quite simple but delicious, and I love the flavor combo of chocolate and peanut butter.

TWD: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

I use butter pecan ice cream - if I did this again I would use something with a stronger flavor. Really good but time consuming. Sorry about the short post; school starts tomorrow and I've been busy all day doing last-minute summer lounging.

TWD: Granola Grabbers

I usually make granola for my mom every couple of weeks, and we had just run out when this became the recipe of the week. So I made some granola, and got started on these cookies. I substituted pecans for peanuts because that's what I had on hand. I also was too impatient to wait for the baking sheets to cool down in between batches, so I stuck the remaining half of the batter into the fridge and made the rest two days later.
My parents like them a lot, I actually haven't tried more than a crumb that fell off the cooling rack cause I'm not a big fan of granola. I guess I'll have to eat one soon though, there are so many and not enough people in the house to eat them!

TWD: Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

I've never made sticky buns before. In fact, even after 5 months of working for Panera Bread, I've never eaten a sticky bun! Sure I loved to snag the pralines off the baking pan when my evil manager wasn't looking but...the whole thing? It looked like a crusty swirl with glop and nuts on top. Well...essentially that is a sticky bun. But trust me, the ones I sold were not appealing. So when I asked my parents to pick from the Tuesdays with Dorie list of already made recipes and they unanimously chose the sticky buns, I knew I was in for a treat.
They were hard. I didn't have a KitchenAid that I could use, because my parents keep a kosher house and our KitchenAid is parve, meaning no dairy or meat can go in it. And boy does this dough have a lot of butter. So I got to work out my arms with a wooden spoon and some seriously sticky dough.
In the end, these were SO GOOD. I didn't let the glaze boil quite enough, so it was a bit grainy, but otherwise these were ooey gooey perfection. The soft brioche dough combined with the crunch of the pecans and the sweet sweet glaze took these buns over the top. Lesson learned- I will never judge a sticky bun by Panera's nastyness again.

TWD: Black and White Banana Loaf

Sorry I waited until the last minute to post - I was in New York visiting my grandparents.
Anyways, this loaf was simple and smells delicious. It's cooling as I type; I'll make sure to post about how good it is when we get around to dessert. That might not be til around 9 though, so hold your horses!
I used the "drop by teaspoons" marbling method, after reading the other ones on p. 229, figuring that would be the most obsessive-compulsive friendly :)I have my first Wilton Cake decorating class tonight at 6:30, and I started the Baking series at Cambridge Culinary yesterday. We made cream puffs, except I forgot the flour for the cream so...it broke when Chef Marcos tried to add it afterwards. It's ok though - I went home and immediately made another batch, which ended up being perfect.

TWD: Summer Fruit Galette

One word: delicious.
This free-from pie was stunning in presentation and taste. I had never made Dorie's pie crust before and found it incredibly tender and buttery. The custard was a good accent to the nectarines, and the blueberry jam rounded everything out without being overwhelming. I would definitely make this again.
I couldn't halve the nectarines like the recipe called for; when I tried they turned into a lot of mush. Also, the recipe called for 8-10 nectarines, but there was no way all of those would have fit. I used 6 and it was perfect, I was able to fit about half the custard into the galette.
My dad was at the Red Sox - Yankees game so I took these unattractive pictures on my 2.0 mega pixel phone. They don't do this delectable dessert justice.