Tuesdays with Dorie: Toasted-Coconut Tart
March 2, 2010 at 8:49 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 36 Comments
Beryl the Cinemon Girl picked something right up my alley for TWD this week– Dorie’s Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart! Oh yeah…I’ve been waiting for this one for awhile. Not only do I like rummy, coconutty desserts a lot, but these custard tarts gave me the chance to do two of my favorite things in the kitchen: make pastry cream and form tart shells!
This sablée-style sweet tart dough is super easy to work with (I did individual servings here), and it’s crisp sweetness is an important part of the dessert. I don’t normally have sweetened coconut in the cupboard, so I stirred toasted desiccated coconut into the pastry cream filling instead. It became pretty stiff in the fridge, but I just folded in a little of the whipped cream topping, and it loosened right up.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Cinemon Girl. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Honey-Wheat Cookies
February 23, 2010 at 1:19 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 27 Comments
If you’re looking for a nice little tea biscuit to have with your cuppa, then you might want to give these Honey-Wheat Cookies, chosen by Michelle of Flourchild for TWD, a shot. They are soft and cakey in the center and crisp around the bottom egde…a really nicely textured cookie. And they taste like honey, lemons and wheat…just the right thing to nibble on while you destress with a cup of tea and a magazine.
Are you up in the air about buying a jar of wheat germ for this recipe? You can really do a lot of things with it, as long as you remember you have it (not gonna lie, I can be a total space-cadet sometimes)! I store mine in the fridge, and put a tablespoon into things like smoothies and pancake batter. Incorporating a little bit into muffins or crisp topping is nice, too.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Flourchild. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Dorie’s Best Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies
February 16, 2010 at 1:06 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 29 Comments
Frankly, I’m shocked that TWD has been at it for more than two years, and we are only now getting around to the recipe for Dorie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (and that’s thanks to Kait of Kait’s Plate). I really thought that this would be one of the first to cross off the list… but finally here these cookies are, and let me tell you they are worth the wait!
It’s hard to argue with Dorie’s suggestion that chopped bar chocolate makes tastier cookies than chips, so I bought a couple of my favorite Theo 70% bars, and put my knife to work. I left out the nuts and added in espresso powder, as well as a teeny sprinkle of pink salt midway through baking. Some folks had issues with spreading cookies, but mine turned out to be not too flat (although my dough had been in the freezer for a couple days before I baked it). A little chew in the center and lots of gooey chocolate made these a gold medal winner in my books!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Kait’s Plate. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Winter Buckwheat Pancakes
February 11, 2010 at 5:07 pm | Posted in breakfast things, pancakes/waffles | 16 Comments
Yesterday was the messiest, snowiest, slushiest day New York City has seen all winter. A yucky day outside makes for the perfect day to hibernate inside (luckily, I usually have Wednesdays off from work)…and the perfect day to make homemade pancakes! Ummm….have I told you that I love pancakes? I may have mentioned it a few times, right?
I’ve been noticing a lot of buckwheaty recipes lately, so I picked up a bag of buckwheat flour at the shop the other day. I put it to quick work in my first batch of buckwheat pancakes. Normally when I think of buckwheat pancakes, I imagine little yeast-risen blini with caviar or smoked salmon, but these guys are more in-line with buttermilk breakfast pancakes. The buckwheat flour gives them an earthy color and slighty nutty taste. These pancakes are hearty and delicious, and just the thing to make you feel cozy on a snowy day.
P.S.: My friend Lauren and I met up with Dorie Greenspan at her pop-up CookieBar today. She is nicer that I even imagined her to be, and her cookies are damn good, too! I was so excited that I forgot to tell her I’d made (and devoured) these pancakes…the recipe is hers!
Winter Buckwheat Pancakes– makes 4 servings (about 12 pancakes)
from a recipe in Pancakes: From Morning to Midnight by Dorie Greenspan
Steph’s note: You can reduce the butter in the recipe (I used 3T) if you’d like. The recipe halves wonderfully if you are just feeding two.
3/4 c buckwheat flour
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 c milk
3/4 c buttermilk
2 large eggs
4 T unsalted butter, melted
3 T honey
maple syrup or honey and butter, for serving
-In a medium bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In another bowl, thoroughly whisk the milk, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and honey together. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk, stopping when everything is just combined (don’t worry if the batter is a bit lumpy). You will have a thick, dark batter that looks as though powdered coffee has been sprinkled through it; as the batter sits, it will become thicker, stickier and more elastic—that is fine.
-Lightly butter, oil or spray your griddle or skillet; preheat over medium heat or, if using an electric griddle, set to 350°F; if you want to hold the pancakes until serving time, preheat your oven to 200°F.
-Spoon 1/3 cup batter onto the griddle for each pancake, allowing space for spreading and use a spatula or the back of your spoon to lightly press the batter into rounds. When the undersides of the pancakes are golden and the tops are speckled with bubbles that pop and stay open, flip the pancakes over with a wide spatula and cook until the other sides are brown.
-Serve immediately with suggested toppings, or keep the finished pancakes in the preheated oven while you make the rest of the batch.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Rick Katz’s Brownies for Julia
February 9, 2010 at 6:00 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 27 Comments
For some reason, I’ve been having a hard time getting this post up. Writer’s block? I dunno…maybe it’s just that these brownies, chosen by Chocolatechic Tanya for TWD, were too good for words!
If you’ve made this recipe, or have even read through it, then you’ll have noticed something unusual…it requires a mixer to whip the heck out of the eggs and sugar! These are certainly fudgy brownies, but whereas the brownies I make at work are quite dense, you can feel what the whipped-in air does to these…they have a softer texutre and some chew. I read some reports of underbaked goo, so I baked my batch in a slightly larger pan than the recipe calls for, left them in the oven for a few extra insurance minutes and popped them in the fridge for half an hour before cutting into them. Perfect squares of deliciousness, with a paper-thin top crust.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Chocolatechic. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Milk Chocolate Bundt Cake
February 2, 2010 at 10:45 am | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 41 Comments
Although Kristin of I’m Right About Everything chose Dorie’s Milk Chocolate Mini Bundts for TWD this week, here I present you not with multiple mini bundts, but with one mini-ish bundt. I do actually have a mini bundt pan, but it’s one of many, many things that have been boxed up in storage since we moved back from Australia. Our apartment is just not big enough for too many non-essentials, so I made do here by baking the full amount of batter in my 6-cup bundt tin. Still kinda mini, but really cute!
I don’t often bake with milk chocolate. It doesn’t give you that in-your-face chocolate flavor, but instead something more subtle and light. Sometimes that’s all I need, though, and much like when I made milk chocolate brownies, I found the flavor of this cake to be quite pleasant. I left out the nut swirl in the original recipe and used buttermilk instead of regular. My glaze started out a little wackadoo (something I think many of us experienced), but I smoothed it out with a couple spoonfuls of hot water. When I’m finally able to retrieve that mini bundt pan, and I make this again, I’ll try a ganache-style glaze instead.
I have to say that in terms of both looks and taste, this reminded me of a big fat chocolate cake doughnut, and I can’t say that I minded one bit! For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read I’m Right About Everything. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cocoa-Nana Bread
January 26, 2010 at 1:00 am | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, groups, muffins/quick breads, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 36 Comments
Wow–super-busy week at work. If I hadn’t made this Cocoa-Nana Bread, chosen for TWD by fellow Steph of Obsessed with Baking, early last week, it just wouldn’t have happened for me. The bakery I work for was featured in a segment on national TV a few days ago, and it sent mail orders for our brownies pouring in all weekend. Terrific for business, but the owners neglected to give the kitchen the heads-up that it was airing! Saying we we’ve been in the weeds would be an understatement, and my arms are about to fall off from so much brownie mixing. Anyway, back to matters at hand…
A healthy dose of cocoa powder makes this loaf pumpernickel-dark. And bananas make it moist. It’s really much more cocoa than nana….and also more loaf cake than bread. Dorie intends it to be for breakfast, but we thought it made a fine dessert. Leftovers are a yummy trifle base, BTW.
To all my Aussie friends–happy Australia Day! I’ll be celebrating here with homemade sausage rolls, a Cooper’s Sparkling and some good tennis!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Obsessed with Baking. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
The Cake Slice: Red Velvet Cake
January 20, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 20 Comments
The Cake Slice Bakers are baking up a true slice of Americana this month– Red Velvet Cake. Even though this cake has been super trendy in recent years, and I even though make a giant batch of it at work every day, I’ve never been so enthusiastic about red velvet. All that food coloring makes me a bit uneasy. A good thing about making it at home, though, is that you can control how much Red 40 does or does not go into it. Just like the other time I made red velvet here, I used only a couple drops of gel coloring…more of a “rust velvet,” I guess.
I generally think cream cheese frosting and red velvet go hand-in-hand (although where I work, we use a cinnamon buttercream), but this recipe has a boiled milk frosting with coconut and pecans. That’s new to me, but I really do think the frosting made it the best red velvet I’ve ever had (probably because it reminded me of my most favorite cake, German chocolate)! And the texture of the cake’s crumb was great, too…soft and, of course, velvety.
Here’s a printable link to the recipe. Or get your hands on a copy of Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our red velvet cakes this month!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars
January 19, 2010 at 1:04 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 30 Comments 
I am the type who is already daydreaming about Halloween in January, so Lillian’s choice of Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars for TWD was alright by me! Chocolatey, peanutty goo sandwiched between two layers of oatmeal chew make for a fine candy bar approximation, especially when cut into fun-size bars.
The original recipe yields a bit too much (actually a lot too much!) for just two people, so I made a third of it in a loaf pan. For me it was a little too heavy on the oat mixture. If I make it again, I’ll go with 1/4 of the oat mixture and 1/3 of the chocolate goo. A little extra chocolate is always a good thing! Also, I left out the raisins in the chocolate layer. Something about that was a little too reminiscent of a Chunky Bar…despite what Nestlé’s website says, that combo does not bring back fond memories. The peanuts alone were plenty tasty.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Confectiona’s Realm. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Mrs. Vogel’s Scherben
January 12, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, sweet things | 30 Comments
Whoosie-whatsit?? I was wondering when someone would have us make these little bits of deep-fried goodness with the crazy name. Then along comes Teanna of Spork or Foon? to banish our fears of frying.
Little strips of fried dough, scherben are easy to make. They don’t taste like much naked, but if you toss them in cinnamon sugar when they are just out of the oil and then sprinkle them with 10x, yeah, they’re pretty addictive…which is good, because if you live in an apartment where the windows don’t open and the stovetop doesn’t vent to the outside, you will be reminded of your frying escapades for days to come.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Spork or Foon? Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
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