Cocoa-Nana Bread

Chocolate, (lots of cocoa powder) chocolate chips, and bananas cooked together. What's not to like. My husband ate his with black cherry preserves. My daughter thought it would be good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I just ate mine plain. It's pretty good any way you eat it. Thanks to Steph of Obsessed with Baking for choosing this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie.

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

This weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars and it was chosen by Lillian of Confectiona's Realm. I think that the best word to describe these bar cookies is sinful. At this time of year everyone is thinking about watching calories and trying to shed those extra pounds and along comes these rich bars. Oatmeal cookies, fudge, and peanuts (I left out the raisins). Yum. They are good when they are warm but they are even better after they have cooled. My advice is to cut them in very small pieces and enjoy.



I think maybe the best thing about these cookies is how wonderful they smell as they are baking. My husband is a big fan of the movie Michael with John Travolta . Michael is a bad boy angel that comes to earth. Everyone he meets thinks he smells like something different. Some say sugar cookies, some say cake, but it was always something wonderful and comforting. I believe that this may be what Michael would smell like to me. They smell just like walking into a small bakery in our area that I have been going to since I was a child. They have wonderful glazed dougnuts, cookies, and butterflake rolls. You just can't find a place that smells any more heavenly. It just doesn't get any better.

TWD - Mrs. Vogel's Scherben

This weeks selection for Tuesdays with Dorie is Mrs. Vogel's Scherben and they were chosen by Teanna of Spork or Foon. Scherben are cookies that are made from a simple dough that is rolled very thin, cut into strips and then deep fried. They are then dusted first with a cinnamon sugar mixture and then confections' sugar. Dorie describes them as snowballs or snowflakes.

I love the tradition of the cookies but overall I think that they tasted pretty bland. Be sure to go over to the Tuesdays with Dorie website and see what all the other bakers there did this week.

Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin is the second part of the Tuesdays with Dorie anniversary party. This recipe is super simple with only four ingredients. Apples, butter, sugar, and puff pastry. It's wonderful, try it.

Happy Birthday TWD

Happy Birthday to us. Can you believe that Tuesdays with Dorie is turning 2? What a lot of wonderful things we have baked. Thank you Dorie for providing all the great recipes to make this possible. Thanks to all the fabulous bakers who make up this group. I have enjoyed every week of baking with all of you.

This weeks recipe was voted on by the group and the winner(s) were Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake and Tarte Tatin. This was really a hard choice but in the end I decided on the cake but I'm going to try to make the tart sometime soon. This made a nice 2 layer cake but I found that mine turned out to be just a bit crumbly. I added the extra bittersweet chocolate and was pleased with the chocolate flavor. After reading some of the comments about the frosting I decided to make my regular fudge frosting. The combination was very nice.



I served this cake to my family for dessert on Saturday night and they liked it but said that they preferred my regular chocolate cake that I make for birthdays. I thought that the cake was better after it set overnight.

Here's to another year of great baking.

Perfect Chocolate Frosting (adapted from Southern Living)

1 stick butter


1 cup chocolate chips (I used Hersey's special dark)


1/2 cup half and half


2 1/2 cups powdered sugar



Combine chocolate chips, half and half and butter in a saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat, blend in the powdered sugar. Set saucepan in ice, beat at medium speed of an electric mixer until frosting holds its shape This will take take about 10 minutes.