Nutella Tartine

Time for French Fridays with Dorie! This week I learned something new, a tartine is a French open faced sandwich. I had no idea really, I thought it was some sort of dessert between a torte and a tart or something. Now I know. I love learning new things, always on that quest for knowledge, 'ya know? ;)

I also learned that this...

loaf of freshly baked by me brioche

PLUS

butter, nutella, sea salt (I currently have no Fleur de sel), and plain ole Smuckers Sweet Orange Marmalade (I have no bitter orange marmalade and couldn't find any)

EQUALS


DELICIOUS

and just to switch things up a touch, I made one with Strawberry Peach Champagne Jam, a special one for mommy...

These were happily gobbled up, after I cut them into fourths, the first quarter was gobbled up inside...

(Above is my sweet Kindergartner who was sent home from school early after sustaining a classroom fall, ouch! My poor baby with a goose egg on his forehead. )

and the remaining three quarters were delivered to the back yard, where the kids requested their after school snack while enjoying this unusually warm and sunny February day.

The end :)

Banana Hazelnut Bread

This recipe is my pick for I Heart Cooking Clubs November Potluck. We love banana bread at our house and I am always up for trying a new recipe even though we have a favorite. I had some extra bananas on their way out so I figured I'd give Tessa's Banana Bread recipe a try and add some hazelnuts, as were suggested in the recipe preface...

Banana Hazelnut Bread

Tessa Kiros -- Apples for Jam page 349

1/4 pound plus 1 tablespoon butter

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

3 or 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed -- I used 3

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons warm milk

approx 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (optional of course, if you are not a nut fan)

Preheat the oven to 350 and butter a 12 by 4 inch loaf pan. I do not have a 12 by 4 inch loaf pan but recently purchased this Kaiser 10 by 4 inch loaf pan so gave it a try with this recipe and it worked perfectly.

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and then whisk in the mashed bananas. Add the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt and whisk in well. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and beat until smooth. Mix the baking soda into the milk and stir into the batter. Stir in nuts if using.

Scrape the mixture into the pan...

and bake for about 50 minutes, until the bread is crusty on the top and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool. Serve warm or cold, plain or toasted with butter, but allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container, where it will keep well for several days. I doubt it was last that long, our loaf didn't :)

I thought that this was a delicious version of banana bread that I wouldn't hesitate to make again.  It's nice for me to think of humble homey banana bread, a family favorite, being baked in kitchens around the world.  I personally loved the hazelnuts in the bread, but picky husband picked them out, sorry honey! Anyway, the kids liked this one as much as I did, so it was a winner in my book :)

Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

Time for Sweet Melissa Sundays! We've been on a break and are just starting back up baking through the remaining 16 recipes of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. Our pick this week is Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake, chosen for us to try by Candy of Candy Girl, thank you Candy! You can find the recipe here at Candy's site if you do not have the book.

Although this was a fun baking project, this is a pretty complicated cake and took lots of time and patience to complete. It is definitely one of the more complicated cakes I've ever baked, and I've baked a lot! It is also very indulgent with 5 sticks of butter and 15 eggs between the cake and Italian buttercream (meringue cooked with hot sugar syrup) frosting -- you're probably thinking, "Whoa!," and that would be a correct statement regarding this cake :)

The cake features hazelnuts and raspberries, a combination I don't think I've had before (possibly in cookie form but never in a cake). Believe it or not, picky husband actually likes both hazelnuts and raspberries so I didn't feel too guilty making this, knowing he would at least try it, and I'm sure the kids will love it.

My five year old daughter declared the cake "so beautiful" and asked me to make it for her next birthday, still months away -- I told her that if after she tried she liked it, I would love to make it again for her special day :)

The raspberries in the frosting are soaked in a raspberry liquor before being blended into the buttercream.

This was a fun baking project even if it led me out of my comfort zone a little bit. I accidentally let the hot sugar syrup for frosting get 10 degrees higher than called for. It still seemed to come together just fine, I hope it didn't mess something up taste wise. We haven't tried this cake yet, it is for dessert after dinner, but I thought I'd better get it posted while I have a minute...
The only tiny change I made to the recipe was to use three 9 by 1 1/2 inch pans instead of two 9 by 2 inch pans since I was a little worried the 9 1/2 inch pans I have wouldn't be tall enough for only two layers that needed to be sliced. So with that change my cake has only three layers and I didn't have to split any of them, whew!


I'll have to report back later on my family's reaction to this one but I have a feeling it will be positive, if not, just look at how pretty it is, that will have to be enough :)