Daring Bakers are NUTS about Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream!

The Daring Bakers are at it again! This month's delectable treat--a Filbert Gateau based upon a recipe in Great Cakes by Carole Walters. Chosen by the lovely chosen by Chris of Mele Cotte. This is my fifth (!) DB challenge!!

Although there was a collective grumble around the world about that dastardly buttercream frosting, we sighed and jumped in.

A chocolate-hazelnut cake was the result. Mine was treated to a coating of homemade pear jelly and a good sousy dunking in pear cognac.

Finding time to make it was my biggest challenge this month--July is filled with vacations! So I split the cake in half to make a 6 inch version, and happily the many components were easy to make.

What I learned from this challenge:

• Pears and chocolate continue to be a fabulous combination!



• The hazelnut praline paste is just a finer grind of nut caramel, something often used to top cakes at my house.



• Using a smooth ganache coating isn't hard at all--if you boil the cream and pour it over chopped chocolate. Other recipes I've used melt the chocolate in the heating cream--always tricky for me.



• I can never get the sides of a cake smooth, no matter how I try!



• I struggle baking (and decorating) during a heatwave.



• Somewhere along the way, reducing a recipe or using my own method to replace another stopped being intimidating.



• We continue to dislike European style cakes. We each had a small sliver and exclaimed how delicious it was, and then shared a bowl of blueberries.

To see more fabulous Daring Baker's creations or get the recipe, click on the DB avatar. Can't wait to see what is up next!!

Michelle from Michelle in Colorado Springs selected Summer Fruit Galette for this week's TWD. Since I'm away, go and visit all my baking buddies at Tuesdays With Dorie and see what marvelous combinations they dreamed up! I'll be back next week!

Watch out, you are probably next!

Kelly at Baking with the Boys has tagged me with a new meme. So, here are the Rules:1. Link to the person who tagged you.2. Post the rules on the blog.3. Write six random things about yourself.4. Tag six people at the end of your post.5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random things about me:

I used to think that chocolate milk came from brown cows. I thought spotted cows were the best because they gave both regular AND chocolate. My theories were dashed when I asked my mother my puzzle--what flavor of milk do black cows make?

Joanne Harris, who wrote Chocolat, has just released a sequel called The Girl With No Shadow. It is sharp and witty and magical. I wish I could write like Joanne Harris.

When my son was little, we could always get a belly laugh out of him whenever we said 'zucchini.' It was so funny, we did it all the time. He was bald and toothless, and boy did that make our baby Buddah laugh and laugh. But now he's a 'big boy' and no one is laughing. What am I going to do with all that CSA zucchini? When it is hot we all get a little surly around here. We're cranky. The zucchini sits innocently in the fridge. There is more coming tomorrow. We're leaving for San Francisco on Thursday. I refuse to turn the oven on. I still have pickled zucchini in the cellar from three summers ago. After it gets dark, I think it might be time for a neighborly zucchini surprise...

I am a night owl. I will always be a night owl. I am not productive until 2:00pm. If I go to bed at 8pm or 3am things are still the same. I am annoyed with people who think they are more virtuous because they are early risers. Lots of people think this, you know. Very irritating.

My hair, once fine and dark and straight, turned corkscrew curly in my twenties. Now it is corkscrew curly and grayish. Ugh.

'The Hunt of the Unicorn' Tapestries bring me to my knees. They are luminous and alive, and provide much solace in their beauty--something no photograph could ever capture. Nothing before or since has had that effect on me.

So, my next victims---

Jess of Cookbook Habit

Tammy of Food on the Food

Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table

Judy of I Cook He Cleans

Susan of She's Becoming a DoughMessTic

Katie of The Summertree Cafe

Be darlings, won't you, and play along!

Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler--get it while it's hot!

For this week's TWD, Amanda from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake selected ….Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler. An unusual and intriguing combination!

It came together quickly, and dropping balls of dough on top of the fruit was the perfect lazy way for me to put this together while pulling dinner together.

The fruit combination was yummy. I wish I had doubled the fruit filling--it was a little less than expected.

The biscuits were a little crunchy, in a good way.

This cobbler was worth turning the oven on, even with my kitchen at 91 balmy degrees!

Click here to see what all the other TWDers thought about this week's recipe!

Slippy Slidey Yum

We loved this week's TWD, chosen by Melissa from Its Melissas Kitchen. Chocolate pudding! Yum!

Camera issues this week, (well, really photographer (me) issues this week) so here is my sole photo of this creamy treat! But it sure was good. Unlike other cornstarch chocolate puddings I have made, this one added melted chocolate to the cocoa powder base. A little thicker than typical, it slid down easily--a nice cooling sensation for the hot and humid weekend. Next time I'm thinking pudding popsicles--a nice summer dessert when you don't want to heat up the kitchen with the oven.

TWD: Humility and some Humble (Double-Crusted Blueberry) Pie

Sometimes little things in life kick you in the ass. You hope and pray it is little things, and not BIG things, that grin at you slyly before making a well-placed swift kick when you are not expecting it, but deserve it, just to get your arrogant self back into balance. So it was with this week's Tuesday With Dorie selection, made by Amy of South in Your Mouth -- Double Crusted Blueberry Pie.

It began, I suspect, last week while I was on vacation. My 7 year old cooked us dinner! He carefully planned the menu, and with a little help made us a creamy salsa with vegetable dippers, shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta, and watermelon soda for dessert. Delicious!

My husband came home with a surprise--a 'homemade' strawberry rhubarb pie (see, even now my baking arrogance is emerging...). When I declined a slice and he asked why, I pointed out the hundred different ways that I couldn't eat it. Too sweet, too gellified, 'fake' crust, suspiciously flat, with manufactured crimp. In short, yuck. While out and about, I pointed to superior pies in several markets. That pie languished in its aluminum tin until it was thrown out, mostly uneaten.

So I suspect this is why my TWD blueberry pie turned out like this:

Well, it serves me right, I suppose. I found the crust a bear! My plans to make a lattice went out the window despite the repeated chilling. In the oven for 2 minutes, the crust had already melted onto the blueberries and was sliding, in slow motion, off of the edge of the pie plate.

Rustic, I guess yes. I do have high hopes that it will be delicious, though...dinnertime will tell. The blueberry sour cream ice cream Dorie suggested as an accompanyment was super simple to make, and is delicious--so I don't think all is lost.

But, it sure is a homemade pie--that's for sure. No one could make a mistake about that! But next time I'll be going back to my favorite, easy to handle all-butter crust. The one that uses 2 sticks butter, instead of an additional 1/2 cup of fat.

And next time, I won't be so quick to judge. About pie, and other things.

TWD: Apple Cheddar Scones

Karina of The Floured Apron chose Apple Cheddar Scones for TWD this week. Thank you Karina oh thank you for selecting a simple recipe this time!

They were easy, and I surprised myself--they were delicious!

I don't like apples, and cheddar makes me sneeze. But they were good! And the boys liked them too. And I only sneezed a little!

And I shall now redirect my attention to the beaches of Cape Cod--our summer home away from home.