Chocolate-Raspberry Roulade

This raspberry roulade is a thin sheet cake spread with raspberry jam and whipped chocolate ganache, sprinkled with fresh raspberries, then rolled up and drizzled with chocolate.  It's the chocolate lover's alternative to yesterday's Blueberry Roulade, and the ganache is crazy good.

You'll want to plan this cake in advance, since the whipped chocolate ganache needs to be chilled for hours. It can also be made a few days in advance.  I've been leafing through Alice Medrich's Bittersweet, and I like her explanations for why chocolate behaves in a certain way, or her adaptations when using a chocolate with a higher or lower cacao percentage.  One thing Medrich points out for this recipe is not to worry if the melted chocolate and cream look too soft to spread, because it won't stiffen until it's whipped -- and it will stiffen more after it's chilled.

I'm going to miss farmers market berries when the cold hits!

Out of these three roulade combinations I've posted, my favorite has been raspberries and cream.  Because I like raspberries more, and the plainer whipped cream really lets the subtle summery flavor shine through.  But this whipped chocolate ganache is so good I'm bookmarking it for other recipes, like piping on top of cupcakes or using as a filling between cake layers.  Use a quality chocolate to really appreciate the flavor.  I used Callebaut.

Braided Lemon Bread

Photo updated December 2013

This braided bread looks sophisticated, and tastes even better.  The slightly sweet bread is filled with cream cheese and lemon curd, and it really brightened up our morning.  Here you can see that I switched up my second loaf with raspberry jam instead.  Both are good, but the lemon is where it's at.

The mock braid is easier to assemble than it looks, and I will definitely be making it again.  A dusting of sanding sugar gives it nice crunch and extra sweetness, and that's what I sprinkled on the lemon loaf.  It's not as pretty or dramatic as the white nonpareils here, but it's better taste- and texture-wise.  (Nonpareils will melt in the oven, unlike sanding sugar, so cool the loaf completely, brush with a bit of corn syrup, and then sprinkle.  I still say, go with the sanding sugar.)  Update Dec. 2013: The new photo at the top uses Swedish pearl sugar, which won't melt in the oven.

The dough before and after its first rise.

Like almost all yeast bread recipes, this one takes time.  But it's well worth it.

The dough rectangle is roughly divided into thirds, and the cream cheese and lemon curd are spread with space left on all sides; a bench scraper is used to cut strips at 1-inch intervals; the top and bottom flaps are tucked in, and then the strips are folded over on alternating sides to form the mock braid.

A bench scraper worked great here, creating straighter edges than a pastry wheel would.  I transferred the braid to a silicone mat, but I recommend assembling and baking on parchment (I didn't have any at the time).  Cutting on a silicone mat can damage it, and moving the braid can make it crooked or mess it up.  For convenience, I used storebought lemon curd.

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Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweets for a Saturday

Ruby Cake with Hidden Chocolate and Raspberry Filling

I made this cake for a potluck at work, and at the end of our glutton-fest and my shift I placed the leftovers in my covered portable cake dome and left it on my desk.  I thought it would be safe there from the daytime shift, and my colleagues could eat the rest the next day.  When I returned that next day and looked at my desk, I was amused to find there was less cake than I remembered!  I put it back out on the communal table, and a few minutes later I saw a higher-up (who shall not be named) pass by and cut a piece, then shove it whole into his mouth.  Hmm ... maybe that explains the cake shrinkage.

The Ruby Cake is a buttery bundt with a dense and moist crumb, and a bit of tang from some sour cream.  It gets its name from a hidden filling of raspberry jam and chocolate.  I'm not sure whether it's the nature of this cake, or if I was too careful with keeping the filling away from the walls of the cake pan so it wouldn't burn, but the filling takes up very little of the cake.  Plus it rose up through the batter while baking.  I simply wanted more of the chocolate and raspberry.

Clockwise from top left: the cake batter; piping in circles of batter; digging a trough and adding jam to it; topping the jam with chopped chocolate.

I LOVE this beater attachment.  If you have a stand mixer, get one of these beaters that scrapes the bowl as it mixes.  No need to stop the mixer and scrape the bowl periodically.

Next, more circles of batter are piped on top, then smoothed. In the final step, a chopstick is inserted into the batter in swirling motions to distribute the chocolate and raspberry filling.

I have to say I think you can dispense with the piping bag and circles, and just scoop the batter in.  The extra steps -- scraping the batter into a bag, piping the batter, then washing the bag later -- seemed unnecessary.

Bundts also call to mind this baking pan I saw recently at the Museum of Science's exhibit on Pompeii.  This is what I would have used in Roman times!

For me this cake was good but not amazing, though that could change by doubling up on the chocolate and raspberry next time.  But that's just my opinion; you might also want to ask the person involved in the cake's disappearing act.

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Tea Party Tuesday
Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweets for a Saturday
Themed Baker's Sunday

Two-tone Linzer Hearts

Every year the twin sister pesters me to make linzers around Christmas.  I think she now expects them around Valentine's Day, too!  I've done linzers a couple times on this blog before, but when I saw these beautiful Chocolate and Vanilla Linzer Hearts on Butteryum I had to make them.  I can just hear the sister complaining about changing up her favorite recipe, but I think she should count herself lucky that she gets any cookies.  I mean, how many people send you linzers without fail every year?

I used my usual King Arthur Flour recipe with the hazelnut dough, but adapted Butteryum's idea to make half of the dough chocolate.  Guittard cocoa powder gives it an intense, chocolatey hit that mortal cocoa powders might not.  The chocolate cookie is further contrasted with the hazelnut layer by a shower of snowy confectioners sugar.  And the little cutout chocolate hearts are pretty darn cute.  I think the sister will enjoy these anyway.

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Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Tea Party Tuesday
Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweets for a Saturday

Raspberry Crumb Bars & Citrus Bars

These raspberry crumb bars got inhaled here at home and will be making a repeat appearance, but those citrus bars?  Never again!  It's not that they weren't good, because what lemon bar isn't good?  Especially one with the addition of lime?  But where the raspberry crumb bars were relatively simple and fun, the citrus bars demanded more elbow grease and then ran into technical issues.

The raspberry crumb bars involved making an almond-y dough that would serve as both the base and topping.  The base gets baked briefly in a cookie sheet lined with parchment, then cooled and spread with jam.  Then the remaining dough is scattered on as a topping and baked.  When cool, a bench scraper works well as a cutter.  They were bagged with the citrus bars as thank-you gifts to volunteers at an event I organized and excitedly received.

The citrus bars?  This one photo speaks to my stress with this recipe.  There were lots of lemons and limes to juice, and the limes took more work.  And then I used a rimmed cookie sheet as directed for the base, but the dough came up to the rim, leaving no room for the pourable fillling!  So I moved and pressed the partially baked dough into this 9x13 pan and the rest into an 8x8 square pan, and poured the filling on top.  It worked, but some dough pieces floated to the top and it wasn't attractive.  But confectioners sugar covers up all sorts of ugly, so I was still able to gift them.

Now I did make this once before, halving the recipe and baking it in this 9x13 pan and it worked out just fine, if you want to try it.  But I'd had enough with this try, plus it's a heart attack special with the 8 eggs, pound of butter, and 4 cups of sugar (which I cut down to 3 cups without a problem).  But I really recommend those raspberry crumb bars!