Savory Brioche Pockets

Baking these made me feel like I was on a cooking show…I mean wow are these gourmet, and filled with such deliciousness!  For my “twice monthly baking and blogging world”, these were interesting and challenging…and turned out very tasty.  For my “real world, baking in my own kitchen for my family”…can’t see these happening again.  I mean…they were delicious…and held some great surprises…one unexpected, but they just took a lot of time.  If you would like the recipe, check out Carrie’s blog.

I’d say they had four steps, taking two days:

• The first day, prepare the brioche dough.  Create the starter, allow the first rise, and then overnight it in the fridge for the second rise.

• Second day: prepare the filling.  Steam potatoes; add goat cheese and chives, caramelize onions, blanche asparagus

• While the filling is cooling, roll out and cut the dough.  I didn’t have a biscuit cutter, so I used a 4 in pyrex bowl.  I felt like I was making sugar cookies. 🙂

• Next, was to fill the dough and then cover it to create the pocket.  Lastly giving them an egg yolk wash and popping them into the oven.

I wasn’t thrilled with the way my egg wash turned out but cutting into one and taking a bite showed that it didn’t matter how beautiful the outside turned out.  These were such a surprise.  The onions, potatoes, and asparagus in the middle were just delicious!…and so gourmet to go with our Thursday night dinner of pork chops haha!

So, the middle of the pocket was one of the hidden surprises but the extra surprise was that I found I had quite a lot of pieces of brioche leftover after creating these pockets.  I put them all together and chilled them again….and…made dessert.  Sticky buns!!  YUM 🙂

Fresh Rhubarb Upside-Down Baby Cakes

I have to start out by saying this recipe was so good!!  My parents, who are part of my faithful tasting group, sent me a text after they had the cake saying they loved it and hoped the recipe wasn’t too hard because they would like to have it again. 🙂

That being said…I have to admit that once I saw in the recipe “in fact there is nothing sacred about rhubarb; you can vary the fruit as you choose…try using apples” And then this… “The batter is perfect for a 12 in round cake pan” that is as far as I needed to read.  I made Fresh APPLE Upside-Down BIG Cake haha!!  If you would like the recipe check out Erin’s blog.

For such a pretty and tasty cake, it was really easy to make.

• Cook up the brown sugar and butter and add pecans

• Arrange the apples

• Beat the butter and sugar, until fluffy and pale and then add in the dry ingredients alternating with the cream.

• Spoon the batter over the apples, smoothing the top.

• Bake the cake.  I added 20-25 minutes to my cook time since I had one large cake instead of the baby cakes. Turn the cake out of the pan as soon as you remove it from the oven.

• Send texts that dessert is ready…I always think of that saying in the movie Field of Dreams…If you build it they will come…I say…Send the text and they show up!! 🙂

This was so easy and really very moist and delicious.  It reminded me of the Nectarine Upside Down Chiffon Cake…without the streusel in the middle.  So Mom and Dad…I will make this one again for you…It’s a keeper! 🙂