TWD: Honey- Peach Ice Cream

This will be a quick post because I'm starting to get sooo tired... I'm scheduled for a repeat c-section exactly four weeks from today! Honestly, I'm still hoping a little bit for a VBAC if I happen to go into labor on my own before July 14, but I'm trying to keep an open mind so that I don't feel too sad if do end up with another c-section! Anyway, onto the ice cream. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Tommi of Brown Interior. I'm sad to say that I didn't really like this ice cream. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. I thought it didn't really taste much like peaches and the honey just gave it an odd after-taste. I will say that the texture was fabulous- so smooth and creamy! Many of the TWD bakers did seem to enjoy the flavor combo though- so don't let my personal tastes dissuade you if it sounds good to you!

TWD: Parisian Apple (and Nectarine) Tarts

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jessica of My Baking Heart. I was really excited when I read the recipe because 1) it looked delicious and 2) it looked sooooo easy! Seriously, the only ingredients are puff pastry, butter, brown sugar, and the fruit. Ok, so even though this was insanely easy to throw together I still managed to make it somewhat complicated... I blame the 15 month old pulling at my pants leg the entire time I was trying to put this together. The first thing I did wrong was coring the apple (I have no idea why but I always screw up when I core fruit)- I ended up with a mauled apple half instead of the perfect little apple blossom featured in the book. I did an even worse job with the nectarine tart- the pit made the fruit look very sloppy. But my really pregnancy-brain related mistake was putting the tarts on waxed paper instead of the parchment paper called for in the recipe- of course I ended up with a kitchen filled with smoke and a lovely smokey odor in my home for the rest of the morning! Believe it or not the tarts still turned out nicely! The brown sugar and butter makes a wonderful caramel glaze on the fruit and the result is simply delicious!


I used Peppridge Farm puff pastry even though Dorie specifically says that the tarts are only good with all butter puff pastry. I'm sure that she's right and that if I had an all butter puff pastry to compare it to that I would be disappointed with the Pepperidge Farm pastry- but honestly, it was all that my grocery store carried and I thought it tasted great! I used the extra little puff pastry scraps to wrap my mauled apple and nectarine pieces that didn't make it into the regular sized tarts. I thought these were a great and easy little treat!

TWD: Cinnamon Chocolate Cake

This week's amazing Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. The recipe is actually called Cinnamon Squares but I decided to do it in a round pan and put in on my cake stand because the recipe sounded too delicious to be made into ordinary squares! The combination of a cinnamon batter with a ribbon of cinnamon sugar, espresso powder, and chopped chocolate running through the middle of it and a delicious chocolate frosting is such a beautiful pairing that I cannot believe that I was ambivalent about the cinnamon and chocolate combo! As a matter of fact, many of the TWD bakers weren't impressed with the idea of combining the two potent (but rarely seen together) flavors... then of course they tried a bite and fell in love! Seriously, I am so surprised that I loved this so much!

When I popped my cake out of the pan I was a little nervous because it looked like a fair amount of my chopped chocolate had sunk to the bottom of the cake and the cake itself fell a little in the middle.
It smelled so wonderful though and it still looked presentable so I went ahead and frosted it with the simple chocolate/butter frosting and that dressed it up quite a bit. When I cut into the cake I found that the ribbon actually looked fairly intact (although it was closer to the bottom of the cake than Dorie's picture) once the pieces were sliced up- so I guessed I worried needlessly!


This was such a winner- I honestly think I'm going to make it again tomorrow for my little brother who just graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design last week and will be heading home to NOLA. I just can't stop thinking about that delicious cinnamony chocolaty goodness!