TWD Rewind: Orange Berry Muffins

I was very excited to see that Laurie, the creator and leader of Tuesdays with Dorie gave us a rewind week for Thanksgiving! I had wanted to make the Fluted Ricotta and Polenta Cake but unfortunately I couldn't get to the store it time so I decided on Orange Berry Muffins which was the 4th recipe chosen by the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers. The recipe calls for blueberries but I have a giant bag of cranberries in my fridge so I subbed them. The muffins had a good light consistency but I can't say that I was very impressed with the orange flavor. This might have to do with the orange I used- I'll probably try these again with a nicer, more fragrant orange and maybe double the zest. I'm probably going to end up rewinding quite a few other recipes from Baking From My Home to Yours for Thanksgiving Day- my only problem is narrowing it down to two or three favorites!

TWD: Not Just For Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

This is going to be very short, because my kids are still sick. They just keep getting one thing after another and we are all very sleep deprived! Hopefully this is the end of it!

This cake was delicious! I knew I was going to love it the moment I read the description- basically it is two layers of shortbread sandwiching a homemade orange cranberry jam. The cake is extremely versatile- you can use caramelized apples or any jam as the filling- but I LOVED the cranberry filling. My only complaint was that the bottom layer did bake up as firmly as I had hoped it would. I think that next time I'll bake the cake without a cookie sheet under the spring-form pan to see if the bottom layer of shortbread might get a bit crisper. I seriously cannot wait to make this cake again! Thanks Jessica of A Singleton in the Kitchen for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe!


I also have to give a shout out to last week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for Peanuttiest Brownies which was selected by Nicole of Bakeologie because they were so incredibly delicious!

TWD: Cranberry Upside-Downer

Today is my darling husband's 26th birthday! Happy Birthday Derrick! So, being the loving wife that I am I spent a good part of the day baking him a giant cheesecake...and then I kind of forgot about the Cranberry Upside-Downer... until about 5 o'clock. But I had to bake this cake! I have been eying the gorgeous photo since I purchased Dorie Greenspan's amazing book and joined Tuesdays with Dorie so I wasn't about to pass it up when Sabrina of Superfluous finally selected it for this week's recipe!


It's a little early for fresh cranberries but I was lucky enough to get my hands on some frozen ones from Whole Foods and they worked perfectly in this Fall take on the classic Pineapple Upside Down Cake. The cake looks impressive because of the beautiful shiny, ruby-red crown but it's very simple to put together. Butter and sugar are cooked together in a saucepan on the stove and then poured into the cake pan, the cranberries and pecans then go directly on top of the butter mixture and the whole thing is topped with a cinnamony cake batter. The cake bakes into the little nooks and crannies in between the cranberries and nuts and the sugar caramelizes around the fruit making a truly outstanding Fall cake! I'm so glad to have this delicious cake to add to my list of favorite cranberry recipes, I will be making it throughout the cranberry season!
It was hard to keep the little hands away from the cake until it was cool enough to eat- I can promise you they will be begging for a piece for breakfast tomorrow too!

TWD: Cran-Apple Crisp

We were supposed to be hit by a hurricane or tropical storm last night, luckily, the storm changed its course and largely dissipated before it hit shore. The unusual thing about Hurricane Ida is that it came at the bitter, bitter end of hurricane season. Growing up in New Orleans, we learned to always hope for the best and to prepare for the worst when a storm heads our way and in lieu of recent storms (ahem Katrina) the city has been especially cautious when anything begins to brew in the Gulf. Because of all of this, Derrick's school closed yesterday just in case the winds got bad enough for driving to be dangerous. Of course, the teachers still had to go in to "prepare" their classrooms so I decided to pack the babies up and go into school with him. It was really fun for the four of us to spend a Monday together even if we were just unplugging computers and moving filing cabinets away from windows. It's so funny how starved I've become for even the most boring outings!

Because I stay home with the girls, our family of four lives off of Derrick's teacher salary (practically nothing...haha); thus, we share one car. When Derrick leaves at 7:15am we say goodbye to all forms of transportation other than the double stroller until between 5:30-8:00pm depending on the day. We take LOTS and LOTS of walks. Seriously though, the three of us are always ready to get out of the house even for the most mundane of activities.

Besides walks to the park and reading books, one of Helen's new favorite things to do during our days at home is help Mommy bake. Baking, for Helen, means one of two things A) sitting on the counter to watch while I mix, measure, and stir or B) gathering up as many cooking utensils as I will allow her to borrow and "baking" pretend cakes on the kitchen floor. The other day, as I peeled and chopped apples for this week's scrumptious Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, Cran-Apple Crisp, Helen was busily stirring her "cake" on the floor when I looked down and discovered that she had gathered up a bunch of pieces of apple peel that had fallen from my cutting board and had mixed them with a stray button, a penny, and a guitar pick in her bowl. To Helen, this is baking, this is what it looks like I'm doing when I bake- pulling out random bags of powders, mashing up sticks of goo, throwing in berries!


This week's recipe was chosen by Pam of Cookies with Boys - it is a mix of apples, fresh cranberries and a bit of sugar topped with a crumb mixture composed of butter, flour, oats, coconut, cinnamon, brown sugar, and ginger. The mix of tart and sweet is just magical! This is such a fantastic Fall dessert- I couldn't recommend it more! Not only is the crisp delicious, it is extraordinarily simple to make, especially if you have a little baking apprentice on the premises.

TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt

I'm very thankful for many things this Thanksgiving season: good health, a new addition to our family, a comfortable place to live, a loving family, and the fact that this month Tuesdays with Dorie is allowing it's members to post November recipes in any order they wish (as long as the post is on a Tuesday)!! I went to Sam's Club on Friday and stocked up on Fall baking supplies. I got a giant bag of crisp, sweet Gala apples, four pounds of butter, a sack of fresh cranberries, and a three pack of pumpkin puree. In retrospect I might have gone a bit overboard...but isn't that what Sam's is all about? So I just had to make this cake which was chosen by Britin of The Nitty Britty (recipe will appear on her blog later this month and can of course be found in Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan). The All in One Holiday Bundt is just that: pumpkin, Fall spices, diced apple, fresh cranberries, and pecans all rolled into a super-moist, flavorful cake.



I will probably make this cake again later this week- it was just that good...and I have plenty of ingredients on hand.