This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Blueberry Crumb Cake, can be found on pages 192-193, and was chosen by Sihan of Beffudlement. If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Sihan's site above and she will have it posted today. Can you believe my luck...another week with no chocolate, and look ahead, another week again next week! Not only did this recipe not have chocolate, it had blueberries and lemon, two of my favorites. I would love to say I handled this recipe well, but I think I am going to need another go at it. The batter came together so nicely. It was beautiful batter, just a lovely texture, and it smelled of lemon sugar...all those plump little blueberries nestled inside. The topping went together easily and, come on, what's not to love about butter, flour, sugar, and walnuts? I put it all in the pan, carefully calculating the volumes for an 8 inch square pan which I wasn't using, and a 9 inch round springform pan, which I had decided to use (so it would fit nicely in the domed cake stand). I baked it for 55 minutes, the timer went off and the whole house smelled just wonderful...of blueberries, vanilla, warm sugar, lemon, but it was definitely not done in the middle...65 minutes...75 minutes...the middle was supposed to test knife-clean when it was done. When I got to near-enough-for-me-knife-clean, the outside and top of the cake were a little darker in color than what I would have liked. Maybe the round pan was not a good idea...but somehow, I can't see that the round pan was the culprit. Anyway, I cooled the cake, sliced a small piece as a sample (to make sure it was good enough to serve to the guys and all, right?) and it tasted just fine. I am eager to check my favorite TWD bloggers to see if they encountered any similar problems and if so, see if they know how to fix it. In the meantime, the guys were more than happy to put away a fair share of this cake and they said it was very good, with the whipped cream topping or without. (As you can see, Mark is a firm believer in having the whipped cream be at least as high as the actual dessert.) While I liked it, I would have liked it a lot better if it had been less dark in color on the outside...I know: I am way too picky, it's true. Next week's recipe was chosen by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch is Coconut Butter Thins, and can be found on page 145.
Click here and then click on individual bakers' blogs at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways people interpreted their quest. It is too late to join the online TWD baking blog, but you can always join us in spirit as the recipes for upcoming weeks are posted on the site and you can bake along in your own kitchen. See you there!