Tuesday 2 June 2009

Cinnamon, Cinnamon, lovely Cinnamon . . .



Welcome to Tuesday's With Dorie, yes . . . that fantastic baking group I belong to, "THE" baking group of all baking groups! Once a week we all bake in unison, one delicious recipe chosen by one of our members from that deliciously wonderful baking book, "Baking, from my home to yours," which was written by the equally delicious Ms Dorie Greenspan, herself! I just love belonging to this group. Not only have I gotten to meet a lot of really wonderful people through it, but I am finally really, (I mean REALLY) using one of my cookbooks the way a good cookbook should be used!

This week Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose Cinnamon Squares on pages 210 and 211.

Mmm . . . cinnamon one of my most favouritest of the baking spices. I could eat cinnamon until it comes out my ears. Just the smell alone is enough to make my tastebud's start tingling.



Cinnamon, and its relative cassia, have long been prized for both flavor and medicine. Romans used cinnamon to make their strong, bitter wine palatable, Greeks to season meat and vegetable dishes, Arabs in tea, and nearly everyone in baked goods. English nobility hoarded delicate Ceylon cinnamon to flavor breads and puddings.

Most of the cinnamon that we use today comes from the Indonesian Cassia tree and it not really true cinnamon, although to be sure, selective plantings, cuttings, pruning and choice locations have enabled its cultivation into a superlative product. This is the type of cinnamon I normally use.



When I really want the cinnamon flavour to shine through though, I use Saigon Cinnamon. This superior cinnamon comes from Vietnam and is much stronger than your normal cinnamon, with a sweet and spicy heat, not unlike that of red hots. For this recipe I used a combination of the two.



What can I say about this recipe? I loved it! The cake batter was very easy to put together as was the streusal mixture that was layered in the middle. We don't do coffee here, so there was no espresso powder to put in with the streusal. I did use the chocolate though. I used Lindt dark chocolate with 70% minimum of cocoa solids. I'm not sure if that is what caused my problem or not, but as you can clearly see, my streusal ended up on the bottom of my cake, which still tasted good, but was not as pretty to look at as it should have been . . . disappointment, truly . . .



The cake was fabulous though, and I would make this again, except maybe next time I will leave out the chocolate in the struesal and see what happens . . . One thing for sure, it smelt heavenly when it was baking and the frosting is . . . TO . . . DIE . . . FOR!

If you'd like to make the recipe yourself, be sure to hop on over to Tracey's page and check it out, and be sure to check out the Tuesdays With Dorie Blogroll as well and see how all the other ladies did!



Next week Jessica of My Baking Heart has picked the Parisian Apple Tartlet on page 319. Todd's gonna really love that. He's a fool for apple anything, especially when it comes to pie! A tart is almost the same thing, well . . . nearly.


22 comments:

  1. LONG LIVE DORIE!!!!!!!!

    love, Angie, xx

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  2. Woops, didn't mean to publish! I didn't know there were different sorts of cinnamon. Mine comes out of an Asda jar so it's probably the ordinary sort.

    A mix of demerara sugar and cinnamon thickly sprinkled round the edge of a dish of rice pudding made without any other sugar makes a lovely lunch dish.

    love, Angie, xx

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  3. That cake looks and sounds really yummy Marie. I will have to give that Saigon cinnamon a try.

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  4. Cinnamon is one of my favourites too.

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  5. We loved the cinnamon-y flavour of this one too. I'm going to have to scour the city for the other cinnamons. Thanks.

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  6. I love cinnamon and it's supposed to be good for you too. I didn't know that there were different kinds and appreciate your little history of cinnamon this morning.
    Hope your Tuesday is a great one.

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  7. My ribbon sank to the bottom of my pan as well. Loved the cinnamon taste.

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  8. This looks very yummy! I love cinnamon... And very interesting cinnamon info you shared here. So great to finally catch up with you here after being away a couple of weeks. :o) Love you heaps, dear friend! ((BIG HUGS))

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  9. this looks like heaven! in a cake!

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  10. I'm with Angie...

    Long live Dorie!

    This was fabulous.

    Where do you get your good Saigon cinnamon?

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  11. Stopping by to take a peek! Spiced cakes are not my fav, so I only used about 1 tsp. Glad you liked it! Looks great.

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  12. Wow - your cinnamon cake looks so delicious Marie. It was interesting about the different types of cinnamon you used. I am reading a book right now about trading companies in the 1500's that transported spices around the world. Fascinating.

    Hope you are having a wonderful day my friend!

    XOXO
    Jen

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  13. I love cinnamon, well Marie you know Canela means Cinnamon, is my favorite spice in the kitchen, now Im cooking some apples with cinnamon, only to eat as a simple meal.

    Love this recipe.
    SEnd you huggs and kisses and I love your new site,xoxoxo Gloria

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  14. Just being able to see these recipes is really wonderful. Somehow it is very satisfying even though I am on Weight Watchers. I find the same is true of shopping. Sometimes I just photograph things I want to buy and it makes me happy too. Weird, huh? I guess I am just a very visual person. And your photos, among other things, keep me coming back for more!

    Hugs to you, Marie! I appreciate your diligence in posting regularly~it is so nice to look forward to each day.

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  15. It looks so pretty and the frosting looks incredibly rich and delicious. My swirl sunk to the bottom, too. It was such a delicious cake, I didn't mind at all.

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  16. I am hungry and that cake looks so good to me. How I would love it with a glass of milk.

    Marla has taken the baby to his 1 week dr. apt. I am here with little Davey playing wii. He is beating my like crazy.. so does Austin at home. What does that tell you about my wii skills.

    The girls will be home from school before long. This is their last week. It is a joy to share this time with them.

    I have been cooking up a storm. If Marls has the ingredients needed I will make that cake with the girls when they get home. I am going to be sad to leave them Fri. but thrilled that I could make this unexpected trip.

    I send you my love as always. Have a good day. I surely missed calling you this morning. XOXOX Lura

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  17. I like to think of a pie and a tart as siblings. Tasty, tasty siblings.

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  18. I really like this cake Mrie, it's comfort food!

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  19. Your Cinnamon Square is Fabulous! And I don't think you should leave out the chocolate next time, just put more batter on the bottom layer. I used Saigon cinnamon for the first time and loved it! I'm with you on being a major fan of cinnamon!

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  20. Thanks for baking with me this week! Your squares are gorgeous and I'm so glad you were such a big fan!

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  21. Yummie cinnamon!! Paris was wonderful!

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  22. This group is such fun! I have some Vietnamese cinnamon that I used for this, too. Very tasty.

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Your comments mean the world to me, and while I may not be able to address each one individually, each one is important to me and each one counts. Thanks so much!