Tuesdays with Dorie: Cranberry Lime Galette
November 16, 2010 at 12:29 am | Posted in pies & tarts, sweet things | 16 Comments
My husband was super-excited when I pulled this Cranberry Lime Galette out of the oven. For some reason more excited about it than about other things I’ve made recently. Thank you, ladies of Celestial Confections! I think he’s just pretty happy about Thanksgiving…a couple extra days off work and his mother coming to be the first overnight guest in our house…and the sight of this triggered thoughts of our favorite dinner of the year!
He was right to be excited– this is good stuff! I am a huge fan of tart and snappy cranberry deserts, and with the lime added in, this galette delivered on that. I used some candied ginger chopped into tiny bits in place of fresh, and it had a great spicy ginger punch, too. The crust stayed super crisp, and I think it’s quite pretty in its own rustic way.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on NPR’s website) or Celestial Confections. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
French Fridays with Dorie: Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans
November 12, 2010 at 6:23 pm | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 9 Comments
This French Fridays with Dorie recipe isn’t a dessert flan with caramel, but a savory custard with blue cheese and walnuts. The pumpkin flan base comes together in snap thanks to canned pumpkin and the food processor. I think I was a little aggressive with the whizzing up…my flans looked like I had some tiny air bubbles trapped below the surface. No matter, they still tasted great, and baking them in a water bath ensured a creamy, soft texture. I know I usually think of pie when I think of pumpkin, but really, it’s just squash and goes wonderfully with cheese and nuts. Add a spinach salad, a piece of baguette and maybe a glass of wine, and you have dinner!
For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts (not all of us are doing flan this week)!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake
November 9, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 31 Comments
I am apparently the world’s worst interior decorator. Bought a few rugs for the new house, and totally don’t like them with the furniture. Got a new mattress for the guest bed, and didn’t realize I should have gone with a low-profile boxspring…looks ridiculous…like a princess and the pea bed.
At least I can usually make a cake look nice, although it’s not hard to do when the cake has a layer of gorgeous ruby-red cranberry jam running through it. This Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake that Jessica of Singleton in the Kitchen chose for TWD seemed more puffy cookie than fluffy cake to me, but I was more than happy to gobble it up. It’s very good, and it’s not just for Thanksgiving at all. I really like a nice, tart cranberry sauce, but it could just as easily be filled with fruit jam. In fact, I’m tempted to try it with the lingonberry jam I buy from IKEA, and also to see if a half-recipe with fit in a loaf pan, because I think it would make for nice bars.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Singleton in the Kitchen. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
I have a dentist appointment today…time to see if the past six months of sweets have caught up with me! Eek!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Peanuttiest Blondies
November 2, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 21 Comments
As evidenced by the little bit of blur along the plate rim on the bottom left, I am apparently not quite grown up enough to have a set of unchipped plates. If I did act my age, though, I may not have appreciated these Peanuttiest Blondies as much as I did. With hunks of chocolate and peanuts, and lots of peanut butter, they tasted remarkably like a favorite candy bar of mine (which I ate way too many of on Sunday night, by the way). A nice crackly top and chewy on the inside gives them a homebaked feel. I think I’ll wrap one up and take it to the polls with me today.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Bakeologie, as it was Nicole’s choice for TWD this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll! I’m interested to see if anyone else had this sinking middle (why? they were not underbaked–wacky, right?).
One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
October 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm | Posted in cupcakes | 11 Comments
I don’t equate cupcakes with Halloween, but every year I do whip up a batch to celebrate the day (and possibly come one step closer to using up my never-ending jar of orange and black sprinkles). Last year they were vanilla, this year they’re chocolate. I’d say that I’ve been a little choco-deprived lately, as the last true chocolate treat I made here was back in August…but that would be a total lie, since all week I’ve been pillaging the stash of Reese’s and Kit Kats that I supposedly bought for the neighborhood children!
Really, I’ve been wanting to make Martha Stewart’s One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes for ages…a good friend told me it’s the recipe she always makes for her kids. For something so easy (you go from zero to cake in about 25 minutes), they are surprisingly good. Perfectly moist, not too crumbly (cupcakes that fall to pieces when you unwrap them tick me off) and a fast chocolate fix.
The frosting was just a quickie, no measurements, cream cheese frosting with enough matcha powder added to look the color of Frankenstein’s face, or maybe pond scum. Gruesome, as my grandmother would say (not to mention a little too strong on the matcha). Happy Halloween!!
One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes- makes about 18
adapted from marthastewart.com
Steph’s Note: Don’t worry if your batter seems a little loose or runny…it’ll still become cake in the oven!
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons safflower oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
-Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 18-20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely before frosting.
French Fridays with Dorie: Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake
October 29, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, french fridays w dorie, groups, simple cakes, sweet things | 27 Comments
I mentioned last time we met, that R and I went apple picking in Warwick, NY. Sometimes it’s really nice to escape the city and go to a place that looks like this. It’s also nice to have a bin full of apples at home! The first thing I did with them was to make Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake.
This cake is easy to make because it’s easy to mix. No creaming required, as it uses melted butter. I actually used browned butter in my cake, which wasn’t entirely intentional (I put it on to melt before I’d had my morning coffee), but as soon as I tasted the cake, I knew it wasn’t a mistake either. Rum and vanilla flavor the apples, and while you could use cinnamon instead if you wanted, I really think that apples and vanilla are a fabulous combination. I went a tad skimpy on the sugar measurement, because although I was using a mix of apple varieties (like Dorie and her friend Marie-Hélène recommend), they were all on the sweet side. There’s really only just enough batter here to hold together all the chunks of apple, and the result is an almost puddingy-soft texture inside. Definitely one I will make again.
For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on Epicurious). Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts!
Want more apple cake? How about Double Apple Bundt Cake, Fresh Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze, Applesauce Spice Bars or Applesauce Snack Cake?
Tuesdays with Dorie: All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie
October 26, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 22 Comments 
Wasn’t I just whinging about having too much kitchen crap? Know what did I do right after that? I bought a new half-size deep dish pie plate! Makes a lot of sense, right? Oh bother…at least I think it will get good use. In fact, I was able to use it right away for this All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie that Emily of Sandmuffin picked for TWD.
I haven’t made a double-crust apple pie in a few years, and this one was so good (the “all-delicious” is an apt description) that it actually made me feel a little sad thinking about what I’ve been missing. This was a true deep-dish pie– it was positively stuffed with apples. In mine, I used a random mix of red and green apples that my husband and I proudly picked ourselves during an orchard outing to Warwick with the in-laws a couple of weeks ago (I probably have enough apples in the fridge to make 20 pies!). I also used flour to thicken mine, although the recipe calls for tapioca…I didn’t want to buy any, but an equal amount of AP flour worked just fine.
These last couple of pie-crusted treats have turned me on to a bad little habit…purposefully leaving myself one last mini-slice to have for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Very naughty.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Sandmuffin. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Spiced Squash, Fennel and Pear Soup for a Celebration!
October 24, 2010 at 12:14 am | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, other stuff, savory things, soups | 20 Comments
Today is a special day for one of my favorite cookbook authors…it’s Dorie Greenspan’s birthday! Happy birthday, Dorie! A few TWDers and FFWDers have put together a sort of virtual progressive dinner party, all made from Dorie’s new book, Around my French Table, to celebrate.
I chose to take on a soup course, and made her Spiced Squash, Fennel and Pear Soup. I’m no stranger to squash soup, and usually I’ll use a butternut, but a crazy lumpy, bumpy golden hubbard caught my eye at the market and wound up coming home with me. I’ve never made squash soup with the additions of pear and fennel before…they brought a delicious sweetness to the pot. Don’t forget to toast up your squash seeds as garnish. This is a great, warming soup that gets even more flavorful the next day.
For the recipe for this delicious soup, see page 80 of Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Holly from Phe.MOM.enon worked hard to coordinate this party, and will have the whole round-up on her site!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel Pumpkin Pie
October 19, 2010 at 9:13 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 25 Comments
It wouldn’t normally occur to me to eat pumpkin pie before Thanksgiving, but when I read that Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs chose Caramel Pumpkin Pie for TWD this week, it sounded like a pretty tasty idea! I wouldn’t say that I have a “favorite” pumpkin pie recipe…I think I just haven’t cooked enough turkey day dinners out on my own yet to have found my idea of squashy perfection (although I’ve rarely met a pumpkin pie I didn’t like!). I am doing dinner here at the house this year, though, so I’m counting this as research.
This twist with this pumpkin pie is that half the sugar is taken to a dark caramel. Between that and the rum that’s added, you get a darker custard and a very different taste than with regular pumpkin pie. I know better than to mess with holiday traditions, so maybe that’s not for everyone, but my husband and I just loved it. Can’t wait to polish it off tonight, chilled, and with a big plop of whipped cream!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Mortensen Family Memoirs. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
French Fridays with Dorie: Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup
October 15, 2010 at 1:48 pm | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, savory things, soups | 18 Comments
I may have skipped last week’s French Fridays with Dorie, but there was no way I was going to skip this week’s. I crave soup went the weather gets cool, and this Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup is full of flavors I love– chiles, cilantro and coconut.
There’s a lot of flavor packed into this coconut broth, as it’s infused with ginger, cilantro stems or root, coriander, star anise and peppercorns. I threw in some lime leaves and a bashed lemongrass stalk, too. I went heavy on the lime juice and fish sauce to give it extra twang. This is the kind of soup where, when you’re almost to the bottom, you set down your spoon and pick up the bowl to slurp up the rest of the broth and noodles.
For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts!
Oh, and by the way, my friend Lauren and I went to one of Dorie’s book events in NYC the other night. She’s so warm and she’s truly happy to meet us. If she’s on the road near you, don’t miss her! And she’s funny, too…if this cookbook thing doesn’t work out for her (ha!), there might be a career in stand-up waiting.
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