TWD: Chocolate Caramel Crunch Tart

Top 5 Aspects of Being a Singleton in the Kitchen:

5. It's fun to be in the kitchen by yourself. I find myself brainstorming when I'm in the kitchen or just pondering big & little things.
4. Dance party! (Yup, that's me with a spatula in the kitchen.)
3. There isn't a lot of stress. If what you make is truly awful, you didn't ruin anyone's meal, and a bowl of cereal is just fine.
2. You can get creative, without having to explain what it is you're doing to anyone else.
1. Freedom to make what you want, when you want it, regardless of the needs/likes/wants of others.

5 Biggest Bummers for the Singleton in the Kitchen:

5. Sometimes it gets a little lonely when no one is around to share your dance party.
4. A little feedback now and then is a nice thing.
3. And, when you like to be in the kitchen, it's fun to cook for other people.
2. There's no one around to eat your goodies. If people aren't around to eat your goodies, that means you have to find a place for the goodies to go, otherwise you'll end up eating them all! I often find myself wondering who my next victim will be.
1. Minis.

I can hardly believe that I've come to a place where I'm hating on minis. Moi?! I love diminutive things, and I've been known to say that things are just cuter when they come in a smaller size. But, ohmygoshandgoodness, I am so very tired of scaling back recipes. I just want to look at a recipe and make it as it is. So, no worries, I didn't scale this recipe down this week. I made the whole entire tart, and I ate a sliver, and took the rest to school.

And how was the tart? I'll get to that in a minute. First, can anyone tell me why I only own a 12" (never used, I might add) tart pan? 12" is HUGE. Of course, I didn't know this tart pan was 12" because I always make either mini tarts or teeny tiny tarts around here, certainly not regular tarts. I think I can tell you that my tart pan is 12" because I had a friend who worked at Williams Sonoma one Christmas in college, and she was nice enough to give me the tart pan as a gift. This was before either of us actually made tarts, we just talked about making tarts. So, I'm sure at the time, a bigger tart pan seemed like a better tart pan. For now, though, the 12" tart pan remains unused, as I used my smaller springform pan for this tart.

And, the verdict? This tart is Deeeeeelicious! Wowzah! The caramel peanut layer is nothing short of amazing, it's by far my favorite part of this tart. Honestly, I'd like the ganache to be a thinner layer, I scraped most of mine off, actually. Really, though, this is such a yummy tart. I almost didn't make it, but I'm so glad that I did make it. This will for sure be a repeat performance for me because I just can't imagine people not liking it. If you'd like the recipe, you can go to Carla's blog, Chocolate Moosey, to check it out!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Caramelized Onion, Sage, and Cheddar Muffins

I love savory quick breads for the simple fact that you don't need a plethora of time to get some nice, warm, homemade bread on the table. For texture purposes, I much prefer yeasted breads because they're not as heavy and dense, but I don't always plan far enough in advance to get homemade yeast bread ready for dinner. Maybe someday I'll make a fresh loaf of bread every day, but it certainly won't happen any time soon, as much as I'd like it to. I was slightly wary of these muffins because the Sweet Melissa fresh peach muffins that I made were very, very dense, and I just hate the idea that a muffin that comes out of the Singleton's Kitchen could do physical damage if hurled with enough force. These muffins also call for 10 tablespoons of butter and a cup of heavy cream. That's fantastic, I do love butter, but I hate it on my hips. I spend more time than I'd like to admit sitting down reading and studying for school these days, and I really wanted to lighten these up as much as I could without sacraficing flavor. I ended up making quite a few changes:

1. I subbed 5 tablespoons of non-fat Greek yogurt for 5 tablespoons of the butter.
2. Instead of using 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/2 cup of milk, I used 1 cup of milk.
3. I added 1/2 cup of King Arthur White Whole Wheat in place of the AP flour. I was going to sub 1 cup, but I chickened out. Next time I'd use a cup of WW flour as I think the recipe can handle it.
4. I didn't have any fresh sage, but I did have quite a bit of fresh flat leaf parsley and fresh thyme, so I used about 3 tablespoons of fresh thyme & parsley combination.


These muffins are super tasty, and they are definitely not lacking in the flavor department. I actually think that I'd really like to make these as minis. There's so much going on with the cheese, caramelized onion, and herb flavors, that I think they'd make perfect little mini bites. Honestly, these were still a little more dense than I'd like them to be, but that could be my fault for 86ing some of the butter fat in the recipe. Thanks to Hanaa for picking this recipe. It was a very nice and welcome change to make something savory! You can visit her blog if you'd like the recipe.

Sweet and Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I love grilled cheese. I've always loved grilled cheese, ever since the days of my very picky childhood. My family would frequently go to New Orleans and grilled cheese was my refuge from turtle soup, gumbo, and etoufee. My dad took my dislike of the cuisine of my birthplace so personally -- especially when he measured me up against my brother and sister, who couldn't get enough of the local delicacies. He could never understand why a child born in that wonderful city would only eat grilled cheese and beignets. In a city with such wonderful food, it's easy for a 7 year old to get a darn tasty grilled cheese sandwich. Why on earth would I eat something as horrific as turtle soup when I can have melty, cheesy goodness between two slices of grilled, buttered bread?


Times have changed, and I'm not the picky eater I once was, but I still LOVE a grilled cheese. Dudley makes an excellent grilled cheese sandwich, by the way. If he makes dinner, chances are that I'll be eating grilled cheese or scrambled eggs -- both delicious, by the way. I didn't have any cheddar on hand for this sandwich, so I used half havarti cheese and half pepper jack. I wish I'd had some pepper jelly, because I definitely think that Leslie's decision to add it to her sandwiches has a lot of merit. I got a Pinapple heirloom tomato at the market because it was described as being very sweet -- this tomato didn't disappoint. Some of the tomatos I've purchased this summer have been very "meh," but this one was fantastic! All in all, the tomato, cheese, and caramelized onion cambination was a fantastic dinner for me. I served it with this corn salad (I have to soak up summer produce as long as I possible can) and this dinner was fantastic. Thanks to Leslie for such a great choice!

TWD: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

Yup, cottage cheese pufflets. I was pretty excited when I saw that Jacque, of Daisy Lane Cakes, chose these cookies. I always stop and give the recipe a glance whenever I flip through the book. You see, I actually really like cottage cheese -- I think it's quite tasty.

After making these cookies, I'm not sure how well cottage cheese translates into dough. You see, this dough was high maintenance for me, to say the least. It required coaxing and pleading. It didn't want to be too hot (it would disintegrate in my hands), and it didn't want to be too cold (it would crack when I tried to fill it). I strained and drained the cottage cheese ahead of time, but this dough was SO VERY STICKY. It just seemed to fall apart on me . . . and nothing I did really seemed to fix that. I filled 1/3 with apricot preserves, 1/3 with raspberry preserves, and 1/3 with a dollop of peanut butter and some chocolate chips. The peanut butter chocolate pufflets were the only cookies that actually "puffed;" the cookies with the preserves seemed to deflate.


The sticky, high maintenance dough is actually delicious, and I loved the taste of these cookies fresh from the oven. My favorite flavor was the raspberry jam, but Dudley was inordinately fond of the chocolate and peanut butter combination. Will I make these again? It's definitely possible. They're so tasty fresh from the oven that I'd be very much inclined to try to make a batch and freeze them for emergency dessert purposes. I love the versatility of the filling options, and it seems like it's very easy to make something for everyone with this dessert. Thanks, Jacque, for this week's fun pick. If you'd like to look at the recipe yourself, you can find it here, on her blog.

BBA S&S: Cornbread

I've had the recipe for cornbread marked in the Bread Baker's Apprentice since the day that I got it. I love, love, love a little cornbread in my life, and I was excited to see what Peter Reinhart was going to do for cornbread. I'd planned on making this cornbread a couple of times last winter, but each time I opened the book to the cornbread recipe, and then I saw that there was an overnight autolyse of cornbread and buttermilk to get the cornbread going. Then I'd stomp my foot, and move on to a cornbread recipe that didn't require advance planning.


Well, this time around, I was ready. I gave myself the extra time, and I planned a meal of ribs and coleslaw to round out the cornbread. The cornbread is really very simple, it's a quick bread, and it was a nice break from all of the kneading that's been going on. Perhaps the most shocking thing about this recipe is the amount of sugar it calls for: 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, and 2 tablespoons of honey! Woah Nellie! I was a teensy bit worried that this was going to be a sugary sweet cornbread. (I'm not going to get into the sweet vs. not sweet cornbread debate here. I'll just say I like mine sweet-ish with a pat of salted butter.) Not to worry, this cornbread is just about perfect! The crumb is tender, it's just sweet enough, but not too sweet, and it was very well received around these parts!

Cornbread always makes me think of Scarlet O'Hara -- it seems like she's always eating a square of cornbread at any given point in Gone With the Wind. I think that Scarlett would approve of this bread. I thought it was just about perfect for anyone north or south of the Mason Dixon line, and I'm looking forward to making it again soon!

Tate's Bakeshop Chocolate Chip Cookies

A lot of my food-blogger friends have been chatting about chocolate chip cookies this week. Specifically, quite a few of them got together and made the NYT Jacques Torres uber chocolate chip cookie. That recipe might be the holy grail of chocolate chip cookie recipes for me as it yields a pretty much perfect chocolate chip cookie, in my opinion. I was in New York City over Labor Day weekend for my Aunt Candy's 60th birthday, and my sister, my dad, and I made a pilgrimage to Jacques's shop (unfortunately, we didn't have time to make it to the original shop in DUMBO). In addition to purchasing some lovely chocolates, we sampled the real deal,uber chocolate chip cookie, and it was so incredibly good! It convinced me that the next time I make them, I'll shell out for the bittersweet chocolate feves.

The Singleton & Sis at Jacques Torres Chocolate. We were on day 3 of wining, dining, and late, late nights here, can you tell?

Well, the Jacques Torres recipe might be my uber chocolate chip cookie, but there are still many good cookies to be had! I think that the Tate's Bakeshop chocolate chip cookie might be the exact opposite of the NYT cookie: it's thin and crispy -- it almost melts in the oven. I first read about this cookie on Cookie Madness, and I was instantly intrigued. Anna makes a lot of cookies, and when she raves about a particular chocolate chip cookie recipe, it really makes me want to try it. I got a used copy of the Tate's Bakeshop Cookbook for a very good price, and I was in business. The first time I made these cookies, I didn't even get a chance to take a picture -- I literally ate them that quickly. I froze half of them, and let me tell you, a bag of these frozen cookies can be a really great self-indulgent dinner! Not that I'd know anything about eating cookies for dinner, not me. So, I immediately placed these in the "very dangerous to make because I can't keep my hands off of them" category, and I didn't make them again for awhile. Then I needed to make some cookies to bring as a hostess gift, and I thought that these would be a great choice. The thing that I really, really like about these cookies for giving purposes is that, because they're already thin and crispy, they have a much better shelf life. I didn't have to worry about people eating them before they got stale (although, really, once you try them, they're seriously addictive).

Tate's Bakeshop Chocolate Chip Cookies
from the Tate's Bakeshop Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose pour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the water and vanilla. Mix the ingredients until they are just combined. Add the eggs and mix them lightly. Stir in the flour mixture until just blended. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop the cookies 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets using two tablespoons . Bake for 12 to 17 minutes or until the edges and centers are golden brown. Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool.


The Singleton's Notes:

Isn't it interesting that the dough has water in it?! This dough is very sticky, though, and I have found that for my purposes, I prefer to roll the dough into logs wrapped in parchment paper and let it chill a bit before I slice the logs into cookies.

You have to watch these cookies carefully towards the end of their baking time. They're so thin that they go from almost done to over done very, very quickly!

They have a wonderful, almost caramel flavor to them, and they're very addictive. I packaged my last batch up as part of a hostess gift, and everyone raved about them!

Black Bean Mexican-Style Pizza

I've mentioned it here before, but I used to hate beans. I'll be honest, they still don't blow my hair back. There's just something about the texture that makes me wince just thinking about it. I was born in New Orleans, and while my parents are from the north, they really love Cajun food. One thing that they brought with them when we moved to Houston was red beans and rice. Traditionally, red beans and rice are a Monday dish, but I think we just ate them during the winter (which, thankfully, is a very short season in Houston). Mind you, I wasn't forced to eat it, but I hated the smell, and I from there I realized that I didn't like beans at all. Beans are the ubiquitous side dish at Mexican restaurants, barbecue dinners, and potlucks. They were unavoidable, and I just despised them.

Then I met a boy that I liked a lot, and he liked to order nachos with everything on them. If you don't know, this means beans. And I liked him so much that I didn't want to be that picky girl who objects and has to order things a special way. So we'd go to lunch on Sundays, and he'd order nachos, and I ate them and pretended that beans didn't bother me. Then the funniest thing happened, I realized that the beans weren't nearly as awful as I thought, and I could almost ignore the horrible, gritty texture. So, really, I have Dudley and his love of loaded nachos to thank for my slow, but steady, foray into the world of dried legumes.

The Singleton & Dudley

Don't get me wrong, I still don't like red beans and rice. I have a strategy for opening my mind to beans: I currently like black beans, lentils are next on my list, then white beans, and kidney and pinto beans are in the very back. I expect it will be a couple of years before you catch me writing about baked beans on this blog. I love black bean dip though, and while I usually use a Whole Foods knock-off recipe, Ellie's black bean dip is fabulous. I literally ate it with a spoon. These pizzas are easy peasy to make. I used blue corn tortillas, and I added some diced sweet pepper to the tomato and cabbage that top off the pizza. I also put some queso fresco crumbles on top because I love queso fresco; and, to be honest, cheese just makes me happy. Hey, it's all in moderation, right?

Thanks so much to Joanne of Apple Crumbles for choosing this recipe. I loved it! If you'd like to try it for yourself, just click here for the link.

TWD: Flaky Peach Turnovers

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.
-- Ada Louise Huxtable

While I'm looking forward to fall, I'm most definitely not looking forward to winter, and I'm definitely sad that summer is coming to a close. I just couldn't bring myself to make apple turnovers this week, and Dorie says that all sorts of fruits are compatible with these turnovers, so peach it is.

I'm hard pressed to think of a fruit that I don't like. There are fruits that I enjoy more than others, but I love all fruit. I've never had durian, though, and I think it's possible that I might not like that fruit. For now though, we'll establish that I like fruit, and while I find it difficult to pick a favorite, apples are right up there. I heart apples. I like to eat them plain, I like them in savory dishes, I like them in desserts, I just like them. Apples are in season at the market right now . . . but apples will be in season, too. Soon I'll be stuck in apple and orange land, and then I'll make apple turnovers. For now, peaches are still calling my name, and these peach turnovers are a perfect way to say farewell to summer.

These turnovers weren't too tricky to make, but the dough did give me fits at the beginning. It was so crumbly and dry, not at all soft as it's described in the book. I added about 2-3 tablespoons more of sour cream, and while the dough was still crumbly, I managed to get it into some plastic wrap and into the refrigerator to chill. Aahhh, it's amazing what a little time will do for dough, isn't it? It makes chocolate chip cookies tastier, and it gave my crumbly butter and flour mixture a chance to soak up the moisture in the sour cream. I made these in two parts. The first night, I cut them into the circles as shown. I know that they're supposed to be "turnovers," but I sealed mine together like ravioli because peaches can be sort of slippery. I knew that the peaches would scatter around, and this seemed like the best way to get them to stick together with minimal freaking out on my part. As for the peaches, they're ripe and delicious so I just diced them and tossed with flour and sugar. I left the butter out, and I skipped the cinnamon too because I didn't want anything to compete with the peach flavor. I brushed the little circles with cream (I think it's just habit because I brush my pies with cream or milk, too) and sprinkled them with sugar. Oh.my.goodness. These are delicious!

But, oh, my grandmothers would be so disappointed with all of the dough that got wasted on these little circles. So, I cut squares in my next batch, and folded them into triangles. The peaches did slip hither and yon, but all of the dough was used, and I felt better about that. I don't have a picture of the triangles. You see, it was really too dark for a picture, and it was time for dessert, and, well, you can probably guess what happened. I ate them (with a little help, of course).

Thanks to Jules, of Someone's in the Kitchen, for picking this fabulous recipe (you can check her blog for the recipe). I loved these, and I will definitely make them again with apples and other fruit.

BBA S&S: Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I didn't have the greatest attitude about making this bread because I am tired of sweet breads. In fact, when it came to this bread (and the cranberry walnut bread that's right behind it) I felt my inner 5 year-old coming out -- to the tune of "I don't WANT to make it!" Usually, if it's something I don't want, I'll just give it away, but I think that fresh bread is uber-tricky in that respect. The shelf life is about 0-30 seconds. Well, it's a little bit longer, but the next day it's certainly past it's prime. In fact, these pictures were taken the next day, and I can state with absolute certainty that the bread was much prettier the first day. That big hole in the middle wasn't nearly as big, for starters, and the cinnamon swirl was much more prominent.

Enough complaining, though, because for all of my whining and foot stomping, this bread is actually pretty fantastic. I liked it more than the cinnamon rolls because it wasn't quite as overwhelmingly sweet. This is actually a great bread that I'll definitely make again. It's not complicated to put together, and it's delicious when it's just out of the oven. All in all, I think it's rather appropriate that this bread taught my whiny inner 5 year old that timeless lesson: try it, you might like it.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Doubling Up (again)

I have to double up this week. Last Sunday I was in NYC celebrating my Aunt Candy's 60th birthday, and I did get the post up for the Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake up before I left. This post has two very different parts, so in the interest of clarity, let's divide them up, ok?

Part I: Perfect Poundcake

I took a philosophy class, I think it was called "philosophy of the human person," and my professor was awesome. Talk about a life-changing experience . . . one of the many things that I learned in that class was that absolute perfection isn't attainable, but that we can strive for excellence. I always, always, always had the perfection complex, and then if I couldn't do something perfectly I didn't want to do it at all. I just gave up. So, taking that class was great for me, because it helped me understand (what I think most people already understand) that it's ok if you don't reach "perfect," and then I started to really have fun and live a little. When I first met Dudley he introduced me to this great quote by Faulkner that I think just about sums it up: "All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible."

So, what does this have to do with the Perfect Poundcake? Let's just say that if I had to sum up my Perfect Poundcake experience it would probably read something like this: The Perfect Butterless Poundcake That's Not-So Perfect Because it Doesn't Have Any Butter, a Very Necessary Ingredient for Poundcake. Any questions?

I was mixing and stirring and sifting and feeling, I might add, very proud of myself for sifting (a step I will skip 9 times out of 10 if I think I can get away with it). I was organized, and I was dominating the perfect poundcake. Did I mention I was sifting, mixing, sifting, mixing? I was planning how I was going to wrap this up, give it away, and basically change lives in the process. Those of you who've read this blog for awhile might know that I'm an inveterate batter taster. I got my little spoon and had a taste, and goodness gracious, that batter was tasty. I was really going to change lives with this little poundcake. The recipe said the batter would be silky smooth -- mine certainly was. I poured the batter into 2 little mini loaf pans, popped it in the oven, and I started to clean up the mess. I put away the cookbook, and as I was returning to the counter I saw it: the bowl of melted butter sitting, waiting for me to pour it into the batter. I couldn't believe it. Surely this was a typo, Melissa left out the add-the-melted-butter step and that's why it didn't make it in! I pulled the book back out, reread the recipe, and I saw it, right before the silky smooth batter was the addition of the melted butter. Well, there's certainly nothing to be done about it then, except hope that a "low fat" version of the pouncake with just eggs and heavy cream is somehow a fabulous mistake, like the Post-It Note. Sorry to say, not so much a happy mistake here. Poundcake without butter is edible and veers slightly towards the spongecake end of the cake spectrum. As in, it's very spongy -- tough like kitchen-spongy. Definitely not worth the reduced calories, but all-in-all, a kind of randomly fun experiment. To sum it up, my Perfect Poundcake was most definitely NOT perfect, but that's ok, right? Now I know with empirical certainty that poundcake simply must have butter. Thanks to Michelle of Veggie Num Nums for picking this week's recipe. Visit her blog for the recipe, and to check out what a Perfect Pouncake looks like.

Part II: Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake


Well, mistakes make life more interesting, but success is nice every once in awhile! I made the souffle cake for work, and I didn't get a chance to try it, but everyone just raved about it. The cake was super easy to make -- I'll just say that 8 eggs later and a mixer bowl-washing later, I hope it's tasty! It looked very moist and chocolatey, and I would definitely make this again. I loved that I could make it the night before and have it be super pretty and presentable the next day. This falls into the "perfect dinner party dessert" category for me. Sarah, of Blue Ridge Baker, chose this recipe. You can get the recipe here, or check out her blog anyway because it's one of my very favorites.

CEiMB: Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

OK. I'm back. While I won't admit that it's the end of the summer (that's September 22 -- I have 13 more days of summer, thank you very much) there has been a lot of "end-of-summer" activity going on around here, and it's been difficult to catch my breath. Now that we're past Labor Day, I think that things should return to their usual pace, and I have some catching up to do! First off, this week Pam, of Cookies with Boys, chose these pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. I love Pam's blog because she routinely makes really delicious looking, healthy food, and these sandwiches were no exception! I'd pondered cooking my own skinless chicken breasts, but I ran out of time so I picked up the rotisserie chicken that the recipe calls for. The recipe is seriously easy, the only time consuming part is making the sauce, and even that isn't too bad. I don't have liquid smoke, and truthfully, liquid smoke is so strange to me. So, I subbed chipotle powder for some added kick and smoke. I thought the sauce needed some help, some extra salt,a little sugar, and some spices; other than that, this is a great, super easy recipe. I served it with coleslaw, and it was a delicious dinner. Thanks to Pam for such a great pick, you can find the recipe here or head over to Cookies with Boys and check it out.

I'll be back!

Sorry for the prolonged absence. I'm just a teensy bit busy right now, but I'll be back next week!

TWD: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

You know, two out of three isn't bad, but sometimes two out of three just can't close the deal. I love brownies, I love espresso, but I really don't like cheesecake. I can have a couple of bites of cheesecake paired with fruit, but cheesecake and chocolate is just the strangest combination to me. So, these brownies were just not meant to be a hit with yours truly. As luck would have it, I know someone who likes this combination: Dudley. I made these brownies, and I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them. I thought maybe I'd bring them to work, or to the party we were going to over the weekend. Dudley saw these, though, and he loved them. In fact, I had every intention of putting the sour cream topping on these babies, but I didn't get a chance to. I had to admonish him very sternly to leave me enough to take a picture. So, while I didn't try them, I'm told they're very good!