Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Moka Dupont
October 10, 2017 at 8:42 pm | Posted in BCM, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: cake, iceboxcake
I have a one-track mind when it comes to sweets and I had been pushing to make this Moka Dupont for months. Finally, the time is now! It’s an icebox cake– creamy chocolate frosting and store-bought cookies dunked in espresso– that melds together after a long rest in the fridge. Apparently it’s very popular in France, where it’s made with Thé Brun cookies (which I happily got to use myself because I asked a friend to bring me a packet back from a trip– my souvenir from Cannes!). Over here, Petit Beurre cookies make a good stand-in. The chocolate buttercream frosting is made with butter, sugar, egg and plenty of melted dark chocolate. This is not a light dessert, but I am not one to complain about something being too rich, so I enjoyed every bite.
You can assemble a big square or rectangular cake, or plate up individual ones like I did. I had some extra cookies and frosting, so I made each babycake four cookies high instead of three. After a night in the refrigerator, I had a lot of fun decorating these with chocolate curls (I used a vegetable peeler) and some wacky decor called “bronze crunch” that I picked up at Waitrose on my last trip to London. Yes, my cabinets are filled with food souvenirs from foreign lands…I know yours are,too.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: French Snacklettes
October 3, 2017 at 12:02 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Snacklettes– isn’t that the best name for a cookie? These French Snacklettes are little buttery chocolate and almond blobs that are super easily made in a food processor. You can just pinch the dough together into haphazard nugget shapes if you want. I tried to get fancy and made mine into pyramids, like the picture in the book, but they slumped in the oven so they wound up more nugget-like after all. I needn’t have bothered, but no matter. After they cooled, I tasted just a crumb off the sheet tray before packing them up for later, and worried that they weren’t very sweet. But after coming home really late (and more than slightly tipsy) that night, I had a whole one and it was sweet and salty and chocolatey and a little crumbly. So then I ate two more! I had very little willpower at that point in the night, but I have to say, they were even better with coffee the next morning.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. It’s also here, as it was Dorie’s Cookies and Kindness recipe last November. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already!
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Simplest Plum Tart
September 26, 2017 at 12:01 am | Posted in BCM, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, fruit, tarts
The Simplest Plum Tart was a recipe that I wanted to try but was skeptical of at the same time. It’s really just a sweet tart shell and plums. Ok, there are also some cake or cookie crumbs to soak up juice and some cinnamon sugar to add sweetness and bring out a bit of said juice. But there’s no real binder here and the plums are no more than halved and pitted (well, washed, too, of course). I thought it might be a little blah, but if you love plums, there is something quite satisfying about biting into a fat, juicy baked plum half. Dorie suggests serving this with crème anglaise, and maybe after throwing together the simplest tart ever, I should put in at least a little effort to make some custard, but I thought store-bought vanilla ice cream was just as good. Let’s not start to complicate things.
I think this would look so pretty baked in a long rectangular tart pan…I do have one, but like most of my good ideas, I didn’t think of it until after the fact. If I make it again, I’ll use that. I’ll also smear the crust with some almond frangipane. I almost always have some in the freezer, so really it’s just as simple as cake or cookie crumbs.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Graham Cracker Cookies
September 19, 2017 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
What’s better than a store-bought Graham Cracker Cookie? A homemade one! The dough for these comes together in the food processor, so it’s a snap to make. It’s a little sticky, but if you work with it chilled, it’s no biggie. Cut, docked and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, the baked cracker-cookies are too good to turn into crumbs. I say schmear them with peanut butter or munch on them with tea. You can see that I didn’t get perfectly squared off corners here, but I ate them first, so you and I are the only ones who know.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Two-Bite One-Chip Cookies
September 5, 2017 at 3:51 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Two-Bite One-Chip Cookies…it’s a pretty self-explanatory name, but here’s the deal anyway…take chocolate chip cookies and miniaturize them into two-bite domes of cookie dough, each with a single chocolate chip (or maybe two, if you push the envelope) hidden inside. I’m pretty sure that these little cuties are very kid-friendly, but I know that they are adult-friendly. If you’re the type who has a lot of willpower, then you’ll have one or two of these and the fact that you had a few chocolatey bites will make you satisfied. If you’re the type who doesn’t, then you’ll be popping them into your mouth one after another. I think you can guess which type I am.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. It’s also here, as it was Dorie’s Cookies and Kindness recipe last September. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already!
TWD BCM Rewind: Profiteroles, Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce, Benoit Style
August 29, 2017 at 7:50 pm | Posted in BCM, general pastry, groups, other sweet, puddings, custards, mousses, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, choux
This major sweet tooth has a hard time picking out an absolute favorite dessert, but ice cream profiteroles are definitely on the shortlist. In fact, I get a little angry if I go to a French bistro-style restaurant and they aren’t on the menu! Choux is fun to make at home though, so I’m happy to take care of my profiterole cravings myself every once in a while. These Profiteroles, Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce have an extra twist…the choux puffs are actually filled with pastry cream. Cream puffs and profiteroles in one– a twofer! That’s more than I need, really, but I’d never say no. I had choux piped out in the freezer, I made the chocolate sauce ahead of time and I used shop-bought ice cream, so making a little pastry cream was no big deal. This was a great dessert, of course, and I’m glad I got a chance to make it.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll to see what other folks caught up on this week!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Crash-O-Cookies
August 15, 2017 at 4:25 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Crash-O-Cookies are the kind of cookie I think pretty much everyone likes…oatmeal with cinnamon, milk chocolate chunks and plumped raisins. And for those who happen to not be crazy about a particular add-in, they can swap it out or leave it out. I actually used dried cherries when I realized I didn’t have any raisins, and think that dark chocolate would be pretty darn good in these next time, too. They were easy to put together. I did forget to flatten my scoops a bit, so my cookies likely baked up a bit more chubby than they would have otherwise, but I think this actually kept them nice and chewy.
In the spirit of #cookiesandkindness, I shared these with a friend who was in from out of town. He always bugs me for treats when he’s around, but I usually show up empty-handed. He liked these so much, that now he’s bugging me for the recipe! I told him he could see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, but that since it was also Dorie’s #cookiesandkindness selection for the month of July, the Crash-O recipe and backstory is on her site, too. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already!
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Double-Corn Tea Cake
August 8, 2017 at 5:05 pm | Posted in BCM, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Double-Corn Tea Cake is a simple summer loaf cake that’s easy to put together and is great with fruit. This recipe is made with both corn kernels and corn flour (not to be confused with cornstarch), which is much more fine than cornmeal. I don’t know that I’ve ever noticed corn flour at the grocery store, but I found it from one of the millers at the Union Square Greenmarket. I’ll have to look for some more ways to use up the bag.
I suppose you could serve this cake like cornbread, although it’s a bit sweeter and more buttery than what I’m used to. I liked it with roasted strawberry sauce and whipped cream and I’ll probably try it toasted with cherry jam, too.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Anytime Lemon Thyme-Apricot Cookies
August 1, 2017 at 12:33 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
I’ve decided that I’m a fan of what Dorie calls “cocktail cookies”…cookies that that tiptoe the edge between sweet and savory. Like these Anytime Lemon Thyme-Apricot Cookies, that are perfect with a glass of white wine or on a cheese plate. They’re a little sweet and a little salty with the texture of good shortbread. Dorie makes them with fresh tarragon in her recipe, but the herb can be swapped around. I went with lemon thyme, which I had on hand, but I’ve seen that a few TWDers used rosemary, too. Come to think of it, the dried fruit can probably also be played with, but the dried Turkish apricots are lovely here. These are roll-out cookies, and you can certainly cut them into rounds. I went with squares so I could bake off the dough in one go, without any re-rolling or wasted scrap. More snacks, less work. That’s my motto.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. It’s also here. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Lavender Galettes
July 25, 2017 at 12:01 am | Posted in BCM, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Usually I think of something else when I hear the word galette, but these Lavender Galettes are almost paper-thin crisps, straddling the line between cookie and cracker. I don’t really use lavender much at home, but the bar at work keeps candied lavender on hand for cocktail purposes, and I swiped (after asking, of course- haha) a couple of teaspoons to make these. The dough comes together easily by hand and is flavored with orange zest and olive oil, in addition to the lavender. To get them so thin, each cookie is rolled individually on its own parchment square. This sounds a bit fiddly, but the dough is easy to roll and isn’t too messy when done this way. They bake up flat and light as air, not too sweet and with nice floral notes. We ate them with blackberry ice cream that I sprinkled with a little bit of the candied lavender I had left over. Delicious!
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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