Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Baby Buckwheat Bars
August 17, 2021 at 12:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, DC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
The buckwheat flour and chocolate combo is a wonderful one, so I’m excited Baby Buckwheat Bars have finally made center stage. These baby bars are really more like bite-sized cake squares than cookies. Since I don’t need 100 pieces of anything, no matter how teeny, I made just a third of the recipe and baked it in a loaf pan. It was a small amount, so I made it by hand, blatantly ignoring Dorie’s headnote warning that the texture depends on using a stand mixer. I think the baby batch of baby bars came out just fine, but I can see the big kid batch being difficult to hand whip properly. I enjoyed the grainy texture and earthy flavor of these GF bars (a strange-sounding compliment), and the little bits of chocolate throughout. Dorie gives a couple of optional embellishments to this recipe, and I opted for both. One is a nip of booze in the batter. I’m all out of the rum she suggests, but I subbed nocino walnut liqueur. The other is a ganache glaze, which I obviously could not resist and also sprinkled with a little flaky pink salt (I did skip the egg wash on top before baking).
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Drop-Biscuit Peach (and Blueberry) Cobbler
August 13, 2021 at 1:27 pm | Posted in cobbler/crisp/shorties, everyday dorie, groups, sweet things | 7 CommentsTags: cobbler, everyday dorie
Is it even August if you don’t make at least a couple of peach desserts? This Drop-Biscuit Peach Cobbler is a quick and easy way to a summer classic. The cobbler topping here is made from more of a batter than a dough…rather than working butter into the dry ingredients, you just stir in a buttermilk and heavy cream combo. And you don’t pat out and cut the biscuits, you just spoon them on top of your peaches (if you have some berries, throw those in, too). What you get is a lighter, cakier topping than a true biscuit cobbler, but it’s great on the cooked fruit. I also made the biscuit shortcake variation of the recipe earlier in the summer.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all of our cobblers this week.
Everyday Dorie: Oven-Charred Tomato-Stuffed Peppers
July 23, 2021 at 8:51 pm | Posted in breakfast things, cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, veggies | 6 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, vegetables
I have a salad for lunch most weekdays, but sometimes I like to switch it up with something more exciting than a bowl of raw veg and vinaigrette. These Oven-Charred Tomato-Stuffed Peppers were the veggie surprise of the week. Stuffed with anchovy bread crumbs, lots of herbs and cherry tomatoes, these pepper boats get roasted on a bed of garlic and more herbs for the better part of an hour, till everything is soft and collapsed. I love that the dish emerges from the oven transformed and yet still so beautifully colorful. The stuffed peppers are sweet, juicy and flavorful. I sprinkled a little salty feta cheese on top.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Caramel-Sugar Pufflets
July 20, 2021 at 10:27 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, snacks
I am almost too sugared out with my summer recipe testing job to handle these Caramel-Sugar Pufflets this week. If I hadn’t already had a packet of the base dough in the freezer from the Sour Cream Everything Seed Knots, I may have just quietly skipped them. As with the knots, the dough for these pufflets goes through a series of folds and turns to create flaky layers, but instead of salty, seedy sprinkles between each layer, these get hefty sprinklings of sugar that caramelize in the oven. I really gave these the “French bake,” so the are super crisp and have little lacy caramel bits on the edges. My tastes are trending toward the savory right now, as I’m making and tasting three or four sweet recipes a day, but I can appreciate a small nibble with a cup of coffee.
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 anytime!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Sour Cream Everything Seed Knots
July 6, 2021 at 4:40 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory, snacks
As soon as I heard the news that today would be 93° with a heat index of 100, I decided it would be perfect weather to make a rough puff-style dough to bake off these Sour Cream Everything Seed Knots. I plan so well. As it turns out, even without A/C, I didn’t have any issues making the yeasted sour cream dough in the food processor, or completing the set of folds and turns that created the flaky layers and worked in the everything seed blend I stirred together. I think it helped that I made a super small batch, and each step took me only about twenty seconds, so my dough didn’t have the chance to warm up too much. The trickiest part came with forming these knots. I think I did ok, but I don’t have much decorative bread or dough forming experience, so I had to read the instructions like fifty times. Anyway, I had one of these knots along with my lunch salad, and it was a delicious, salty, seedy, garlicky treat. Kind of like a flaky breadstick, I also think they’ll go well with a glass of wine and a piece of cheese for sundown snacks.
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 anytime!
TWD DC Rewind: Natasha’s Mum’s Fruit and Walnut Bread Bars
June 29, 2021 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Natasha’s Mum’s Fruit and Walnut Bread Bars wins the award for cutest recipe title. A family recipe given to Dorie by an Aussie friend, these are full of walnuts and dried fruit and definitely have an old-fashioned feel to them. They’re baked off in a loaf pan and cut into slices, and you might at first glance think they are dense fruit and nut bread. But then you bite one, and they are definitely a sweet treat. All the ingredients are bound together by a meringue, and the cookies have a nougat-like chew to them. As for the dried fruit, you can add what you like and what you have on hand. Of course I used walnuts (honestly, pecans or almonds would be great, too, but then you need to change the title), and also dried blueberries and candied ginger. These slice beautifully and are perfect keepers for the cookie tin.
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!
Everyday Dorie: Green Goddess Sipper, Soup or Shots
June 25, 2021 at 8:58 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, savory things, soups | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, soup
It’s summertime, aka salad and chilled soup season. This Green Goddess Sipper, Soup or Shots is a cold soup based on a salad dressing, so it’s peak season over here. To make this, first you need a batch of Dorie’s “Demi-Goddess” dressing, a lighter version of green goddess made with yogurt, buttermilk, avocado, cucumber and lots of herbs. Then you doctor it up with more herbs, another cuke and a zuke, and thin it out with extra buttermilk. All this action takes place in a blender, so you get a creamy, bright green soup you can sip through a straw, eat with a spoon or down as a shot. It’s herbacious and tangy, and a cool way to get your chlorophyll. As a bonus, you can save the “Demi-Goddess” dressing you don’t use in it for your next salad.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Luang Prabang Chicken-Chili Sandwiches
June 11, 2021 at 7:42 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, sandwich, savory
I am not having any problem cooking (or eating) stuff, but these days I can’t write a blog post on time for the life of me. Take these Luang Prabang Chicken-Chili Sandwiches…I made them for lunch almost a month ago and now it’s over a week past our posting date…
Dorie says these sandwiches, which she bought at the night markets in Luang Prabang, are typically wrapped in paper and secured with a rubber band, and I see way– they are stuffed! Take a soft baguette (mine was a little too crusty actually), slather it with mayo and spicy chili sauce, then tuck in shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, cilantro, cukes and sliced chicken drizzled with sweet chili sauce. Add on some extra pickled stuff, like radishes, sliced chili and carrots, if you like (I liked). Wrap it all up and enjoy this fresh sweet and spicy deliciousness.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Coconut Patties
June 1, 2021 at 8:25 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Boy, when TWD Tuesday is the first day of the month, you can really be caught off guard. I would have shown up empty-handed to today’s cookie party had I not actually made these Coconut Patties for a “before times” gym get-together a couple of years ago. Also, this picture is an embarrassment…I think my photos have improved slightly. These patties are a twice-cooked coconut macaroon flavored with lime. The first cooking step takes place on the stovetop, as the sugar-egg white-coconut mixture is heated in a pot. Then after a nice four-hour chill, the pattie rounds are formed and baked. The fact that the mixture is precooked and baked cold, keeps the patties chewy inside…the baking really just dries the outside to make a nice crust.
I remember getting several compliments on these. They’re gluten-free, so they’re a good treat to bring somewhere if you don’t know the whole crowd. Dorie gives a rose-flavored variation of these as well, and I’m sure it’s not too hard to come up with some others, too (something Almond Joy-esq would be tops on my list).
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Tomato Tart with Mustard and Ricotta
May 28, 2021 at 3:26 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, veggies | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, tart
This Tomato Tart with Mustard and Ricotta is a taste of the good summer things to come. It’s pretty much a quiche, with wilted greens and sliced tomatoes in a mustard-custard base and dollops of ricotta on top. I used red and orange tomatoes and threw in a few baby green ones to fill in the gaps. Pretty much everyone in the group noticed that the book’s photo doesn’t really look like what came out of our ovens. I think the food stylist had some tricks up his or her sleeve to make Dorie’s tart look a little less…yellow. At the very least, the ricotta in that photo was not baked and some of the greens were scattered about the top (the recipe instructions have you add them to the bottom of the tart, in which case, they’re all hidden by tomatoes and custard). I did make note of this and set aside some extra cooked spinach to arrange on top after my tart was baked. It was pretty in it’s own way, I guess, and it was totally delicious, even with early tomatoes from the grocery store. It certainly made a nice lunch and leftovers were good the next day with a little glass of white wine.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Baked Fresh Weekly
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.
a whisk and a spoon 