Tuesdays With Dorie: TWOFER PIE

Twofer Pie is the perfect reminder that two is better than one, sometimes.


First, a description. Twofer Pie is a double decker combination of two fall favorites: pumpkin on the bottom, pecan on the top. While being quite good, it won't replace pecan pie as my favorite Thanksgiving treat nor satisfy my hunger for pumpkin pie after the Tofurky and gravy. It looks neat with the pecan filling stacked on top of the pumpkin pie in a sort of split level cohabitation arrangement that all seems very 1970's to me. While it may be economical in the way that you get two for one, neither pie filling is strong enough to be really fantastic. This would be great to take to a holiday party though, where its novelty would be bonus points. I liked it best room temperature, the day after it was made.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Tuesdays With Dorie: WHITE ARBORIO RICE PUDDING

I love pudding. All kinds. So I was a bit excited about making rice pudding for TWD. I love the idea of making it with arborio rice, the kind probably most famous for risotto. Its short, stubby thickness worked really well for the pudding, and I will definitely use it in other rice pudding recipes.

Dorie listed two possible varieties: white or black (vanilla or chocolate). Chocolate rice pudding? I'm not so sure about that one, so I stuck with vanilla and added drunken cranberries and crushed almonds. Delicious! I just made half a recipe so it was a nice little treat waiting in the fridge when my mom and I returned from an afternoon (and evening) of shopping. It was our perfect little ending to a fabulous day.

I ran into a small dilemma when I went to steep the cranberries. I'd never before steeped dried fruit in alcohol and wanted some guidance on it. I googled and searched but found nothing. I tried to use what common sense I have and soaked the fruit in the sherry, then drained it. It added a lovely though strong sherry taste.

Tuesdays With Dorie: KUGELHOPF

This is my very first TWD posting, and let me tell you, for the past eight hours or so I've been questioning what sort of thing I've gotten myself into. I am leaving the country for three weeks and so am doing three posts in as many days, plus packing, attending a friend's wedding, and not getting any sleep. But being part of a blogging community just seems so fun. And it will challenge me to make things I probably wouldn't otherwise...like this lovely bread which has a name beginning with K and ending with...whatever sound pf makes. The way I've been saying it, it's kind of a "pufff" sound. If anyone out there knows, please clue me in. I need help with the pronunciation!

I have blisters on my palms from cooking for the first time ever. Who knew a wooden spoon could be so dangerous?

I mixed and mixed that darn dough for half an hour. I wanted it to turn into an actual dough, not just a sticky, stretchy bowl of dough-type goo. Dorie's directions said to use a machine, but, not having one, I decided man power would suffice. And it did, eventually.

I like this bread. It's not too sweet, and would be great toasted with butter and jam. Great with coffee and tea. I'm not sure if I'll make it again though. It was a lot of work, and while it was great, I wasn't bowled over.

CARROT CAKE BITES

My Granny's 82nd birthday is just a few days away and since I will be out of the country I want to send a gift box with all sorts of goodies. Every girl needs a cake on her birthday, and so I decided to make cake bites and dress them as mini cupcakes for easy packaging and shipping.

I made one layer of carrot cake and one recipe of cream cheese icing, and chilled the combined mixture for several hours before molding them into little cupcakes. Thankfully they didn't dry out a bit, but stayed very moist.

My plain cupcakes look a little like mushrooms. I molded them by pinching the base, but I think a tool would help a lot. I experimented with white and dark chocolate and caramel to cover the cakes. For the carrot cake, the white chocolate was definitley the best. It also formed the nicest coating.

CARROT CAKE

1 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

3/8 cups milk

3/8 cups oil

3/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup of carrots, grated

4 ounces of pineapple with juice, blended

1/2 cup of coconut

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add dry ingredients.
3. Combine carrots, coconut, and pineapple. Add carrot mixture to batter and fold in.
4. Bake for 1 hour at 350^ F.

CREAM CHEESE ICING

1 8-ounce cream cheese

1/4 cup of butter

1 cup of 10X sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Mix all ingredients together until smooth.

After the cake is baked, cool completely. I put mine in the refrigerator. Then crumble the cake in a large bowl and add the frosting. Mix until well combined. Chill for at least one hour, or until ready to mold into balls or cupcakes. I made round balls and then pinched the bottoms to form bases. I dipped the bases in the white chocolate first and laid them bottoms up to dry. Then I dipped the other side in a different color. I wasn't too neat with the white chocolate and it got a little messy. But messy kitchens are fun kitchens and they still looked cute enough to eat.