Johnny Cake Cobblers - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 39th Installment.  The recipe is Johnny Cake Cobblers.

Super easy and very tasty!  I made this with regular yellow cornmeal (didn't have a local source of Johnny Cake meal, although living in Massachusetts, I know I have seen it somewhere or other around here, since it is from Rhode Island....).   I added the optional grated ginger to the biscuit topping, which was great.  I did the big dish variation, since I had a crowd to feed.  Everyone loved it.  We were staying in a vacation cottage, and this was easy to make, even with the patchwork of kitchen gear in the cottage.

Plums, nectarines, peaches - before cooking

 I had some plums and nectarines that were not very ripe (and not even local - boo hoo!), and some local peaches that were perfectly ripe.  The cooking on the stove turned them into a nice texture before baking.  I served it with ginger ice cream, which was wonderful with the ginger cobbler topping.  We even ate some for breakfast (of course, with the ice cream - it was vacation after all :-)

After cooking, and before baking

Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 38th Installment.  The recipe is Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas.

Very easy recipe to follow, and delicious.  I made the sponge in the morning, and then mixed up the dough in the late afternoon, followed by making the pizzas in the evening, so the timing worked out well for a weekend day when I was puttering around the house and garden.  It really didn't take much attention at all.  I left the dough slightly sticky, since I didn't want it to dry out.

I think I loaded on a little more filling than the recipe called for, but it was so yummy, and because I used a pound of lamb, technically I had a quadruple recipe, so I had plenty to spare. This pita dough was easy.   I made a full recipe of the dough, and used half for pizza and half for pita which I baked on my baking stone.  A few of the pitas puffed up really well, although most of them did not - I'd still like to figure out the secret of getting pita bread to puff up reliably.  I guess the pizzas don't puff so much because of the filling, or maybe because they are baked on a baking sheet instead of the hot baking stone. 

I think this is more like a side bread course (kind of like a naan bread with onions) or an appetizer, rather than a true main dish pizza, which would have more filling for each crust.  I'd like to try this with different fillings - looking forward to seeing what the creative types in the TWD baking group did with this.

Summer Vegetable Tart - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 37th Installment.  The recipe is Summer Vegetable Tart.

Hmmm...was this a success?  It is a phyllo pie shell, which you pre-bake, and then fill with a lightly cooked vegetable mixture, topped with goat cheese, and then served.  It had a lot of potential.  The flavors were definitely yummy, although I found the whole thing didn't really hold together.  When we sliced it, the phyllo shattered and the loose filling, which wasn't really coherent, fell all over the place, so calling it a "tart" seems like stretching the term.  Also - what's with the edge draped over?  Seems very messy, although part of the problem was my shredding phyllo (see below).  It left me wondering if I did something wrong somewhere along the way.  I will check out the rest of the crowd's attempt at this dish to see if there's some improvement that I can try.

I did experience the dreaded "Phyllo Frustration Syndrome", with the phyllo layers shredding as I attempting to separate them from the pile, butter them, and lay them in the dish.  I patched it together and kept going.  I used whole wheat phyllo from the natural food store - it tasted good, but maybe that contributed to the dryness. 

The shell after baking - not exactly pretty...

When I first started my work life, my housemate and I got on a kick of preparing phyllo-based dishes. It was my first experience with phyllo, and I thought 'it's not as hard as everyone says".  It was relatively easy to work with.  I wonder if we were just getting really good quality, fresh, phyllo, because recently my attempts to bake with phyllo have been very frustrating - the dough is dry and is impossible to manipulate without it completely falling apart.  So, now I'm seeing what everyone was talking about when they said that it's 'hard to bake with phyllo'.  I do love it, so will keep on trying, and maybe looking for places to get it where the phyllo hasn't been in the freezer section for a long time (good excuse for a visit to the Armenian grocery stores!)

Baked Yogurt Tart - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 36th Installment.  The recipe is Baked Yogurt Tart.

Another very yummy recipe from this book.  I loved the fruit and nut combination (almonds and blueberries and blackberries). I was surprised by two things about the recipe:

• Lots of vanilla - two whole tablespoons, which tasted great and not overpowering at all






• Non-fat yogurt - it tasted quite rich, kind of like cheesecake, but lighter

I had a bit of trouble figuring out which pan to use - recipe called for a pan with 1 1/2 inch sides, and my springform (which would have been the easiest) was too tall.  I used this cake pan (which has 1 1/2 inch sides), and wonder of wonders, the filled tart came right out of the pan after baking!  You bake the crust, and then fill it and bake some more.  The edge of the crust did drop down a bit in spots while I was pre-baking it (you can see how the filling runs right to the side of the pan at the bottom of this photo of the tart before baking:

I would also say that the Flaky Pie Dough recipe in this book isn't my favorite.  I've now made it twice, and I find it a bit shortening/butter intensive.   I think I'm used to a lower ratio of shortening to flour.  I also never think ahead to chill the shortening, so perhaps that's part of the reason I find it overly soft. (My favorite pie crust is the Flaky Piecrust from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything).

I will definitely bookmark this one to make again - wondering how it will taste with other fruits and nuts.  Looking forward to seeing what the other TWD bakers have done....

Here's how it looked on the plate - how can you go wrong with fresh fruit, nuts, yogurt custard and pie crust?

Cheese and Tomato Galette - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 35th Installment.  The recipe is Cheese and Tomato Galette.

I love this recipe!  I made one of these last year when we did the berry variation, and have made it a couple of times since then.  The crust is easy (although you do need 2 hours lead time to chill it) and absolutely delicious.  It's almost a bit flaky - must be because of the way the butter gets cut in, or maybe it's the sour cream.  This is one of those recipes that is easy to prepare, but tastes and looks amazing, as if you worked for hours.   This time I used regular tomatoes, rather than plum tomatoes - they turned out well, although maybe the filling was a little moister than it would be with plum tomatoes.  My only problem is that people devour it so enthusiastically that there are never any leftovers :-)   

Ready to fold and pleat the edges

Ready to bake

Savarin - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 34th Installment.  The recipe is Savarin.

I made this for the deadline, but then life got the better of me, and I didn't get around to posting it (dance recital!  high school graduation! collapsing on the couch after dance recital and high school graduation! :-)   I think the delay in my posting also reflects a (gasp!) lack of enthusiasm for this recipe.  It was intriguing to make something truly French, with techniques that are new to me, but it seemed like an odd blend of yeast bread and cake.  It was very interesting to see the texture going from sticky, stretchy goo to puffy dough to very light cake/bread.   I didn't love the texture after soaking with sugar syrup.  I made a strawberry rhubarb mix for the fruit component, and whipped cream is always welcome.  Now that I have time, I'm going to go check out some of the other TWD bakers' blogs to see what everyone did with this.  Did I miss something about how wonderful it could be?  Did mine even turn out the way it was supposed to?

Sticky dough

Puffy and ready to bake

Baked and then soaked with sugar syrup

Savory Brioche Pockets - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 33rd Installment.  The recipe is Savory Brioche Pockets.

Believe it or not, I think all this scheduled baking is actually improving some of my skills!  I found myself handling the Brioche dough and thinking it was no big deal.  I've also started planning ahead more, so that I expect baking projects to take two days, and then when they don't, it's a pleasant surprise :-)
These were quite yummy, and I can see the many possibilities - looking forward to seeing what my fellow TWD bakers have stuffed in their pockets.  The potato/goat cheese mix is a good base, and I used both asparagus and roasted red pepper on top of it.  I like the flexibility of having the dough in the fridge overnight, and maybe I'll try putting some in the freezer sometime.  It would be good to pull dough out and make some of these.  
I baked them a little too quickly - had the oven up too high - so they were slightly darker than desired, but there were delicious anyway.

Roasted red pepper strips

Asaparagus