Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Cinnamon-Raisin Bread
April 25, 2023 at 10:30 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, sweet yeast breads, tuesdays with dorie, yeast breads | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cheese, savory
For the past couple of years, I’ve been playing around with sourdough bread at home. While I enjoy the long process and the suspense of making naturally leavened bread, my results can still be a bit hit-or-miss. Baking a yeast bread, like this Cinnamon-Raisin Bread, every once in a while is kind of nice. I was able to mix this dough up in the morning, give it two quick rises and butter up a nice, thick, squishy slice for my after-lunch snack. Looking to boost the standard white bread flavor of the recipe a bit, I did replace a little of the AP flour with whole wheat (something like 75-100 grams worth) and added in a fat tablespoon of my sourdough discard. Although the black tea idea sounded nice, I soaked my raisins in a combo of hot water, more cinnamon and Combier.
I used my 9″ pullman pan here because I like its straight sides, but it’s a bit smaller than my regular 9″x5″ loaf pan, so this was a seriously high riser. (If I make it in the pullman again, I’ll probably scale the recipe back to 75% of the original.) Nervous that it might explode in the oven, or something like that, I scored the top of the loaf before buttering and cinnamon-sugaring it. My bread came out of the oven sporting a golden brown bouffant. I will definitely be having another slice with breakfast tomorrow, and I’m very much looking forward to it.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Carrot Muffins
March 28, 2023 at 2:59 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, scones
I’ve spent a good chunk of my pastry career working in bakeries (and making lots of muffins), but I don’t work baker’s hours at home. The only muffin that ever gets served for breakfast here is a leftover one. These Carrot Muffins were made as a coffee break snack.
These are not carrot cake masquerading as muffins. Instead of a dense cake filled with add-ins and warm spices, these are really light and springy and are spiced with sunny flavors like ginger, vanilla and orange zest. They have a surprise ingredient, pomegranate molasses, which (surprise!) I didn’t have. I subbed it with date molasses and then turned the sitch into a double date by using dates as my chopped dried fruit component. They’re not just for brekkie- they’re good anytime of day.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Iced Honey-Apple Scones with Spelt
January 24, 2023 at 10:37 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, scones
If I don’t need to blog about scones, then I really don’t make scones (or muffins, for that matter) because I’m never able to get a baked good cranked out by breakfast time. And no way I’m waking up early on a weekend to try, so these Iced Honey-Apple Scones were consumed as dessert. Actually, I froze two of them to be a future microwave-defrosted breakfast treat. These scones contain pretty much what their name says, plus some tangerine zest. I don’t have any spelt flour right now, but do have a box of farro flour, so I made that swap in the the dry ingredients. I cut my apples into quite a small dice, and I had nice little bits running throughout the dough. The dough was sticky, but I liked portioning the scones with a quarter-cup scoop and think the mounded look is quire appealing.
Just a bit of honey sweetened these scones, so the icing was definitely welcome. I have a bottle of boiled cider, and used that as the liquid to make the powdered sugar icing. Instead of bee pollen (come on Dorie, who has that?) as garnish, I just grated on some more flecks tangerine zest since I wanted a bit more of that flavor anyway. For breakfast or dessert, these are good, and not too much in terms of size, sweetness or richness.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Chocolate Babka
December 27, 2022 at 10:38 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, groups, muffins/quick breads, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
I don’t really have a baking bucket list, but if I did, I’d now be able tick babka off it. Any good New Yorker knows that Chocolate Babka is the superior babka, so I was pretty excited (but a little intimidated) to make this. Turns out, it’s not too hard; it just requires some time spread out over a couple of days. Dorie’s buttery brioche dough is the base for this sweet yeasted loaf, and we’ve made that dough a number of times now. Like making cinnamon buns, you roll out your well-chilled dough, smear it with a sweet cocoa paste and then spiral it into a log. Unlike cinnamon buns, you cut the log in half lengthwise to expose long ribbons of the chocolate filling, and then twist the two halves into a ropey thing and squeeze it into a loaf pan to proof. Before going into the oven, Dorie tops her babka with a crust of crisp, rubbly streusel, which not all babkas have and is kind of gilding the lily, but I’m here for it.
My loaf rose and baked tall, and I was so excited to cut into it and see what kind of pattern the chocolate took on. Some slices had stripes and others had swirls. All tasted equally delicious…buttery soft bread with chocolate pockets and crunchy topping. Elaine is right that it is dinner party-worthy.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Cranberry Spice Squares
November 20, 2022 at 11:36 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cake, holiday
Here we are, a couple of days out from Thanksgiving, and I still don’t really know what I’ll be making for dessert (although I have a few ideas). If I hadn’t already baked, frosted and polished off these Cranberry Spice Squares, they’d be contender. Think spiced molasses gingerbread with pops of fresh cranberries and swoops of cream cheese frosting. Good, right? This is a great snacking cake for the holiday season, and if you have leftover crannies after the big dinner, think about putting them towards this. Toasted or candied nuts make a good sprinkle.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Scones Pudding
September 27, 2022 at 4:36 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, pudding, scones
You can give all sorts of baked goods the bread pudding treatment…doughnuts, croissants, cake scrap, bagels, and even scones. All you have to do is chunk them up and bake them in a custard bath. This Scones Pudding is made from leftover Buttermilk Scones, a recipe we baked last month. I tucked two of them into the freezer so I’d be able to do a half batch of pudding with them later. Technically, I was half a scone short for a half batch, but went ahead with 50% of the custard recipe anyway. I sliced my scones as instructed and layered them into a little dish. I did have some gaps because of the missing half scone, but liked the thought of having pockets of straight-up baked custard here and there, since the scones are so dense.
Dorie suggests spreading the scone slices with lemon curd as you layer them in your baking dish and then arranging apple slices on top of the pudding, but she also says you can play around with that. I gave mine a “summer’s last hurrah” combo of raspberry jam, fresh razzies and nectarine slices. I will not eat an apple if there are still stone fruits to be had. I liked this, and I enjoyed the slightly higher custard to scone ratio I had going on. I wish I’d taken a slice shot, because it was actually kind of pretty with a ripple of red jam running through the center.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Java Mini Mads
September 13, 2022 at 4:17 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, madeleines
When I say that I like to have a little coffee treat on-hand, I mean a little treat to go with my coffee…but when my coffee treat is also a coffee-flavored treat, like these Java Mini Mads, that’s even better! I’ve made lots of Dorie madeleines over the years, and even have both large and small shell-shaped molds for them. Here, though, she has us bake these buttery, espresso-infused bites in a mini muffin tin, which shows you really don’t need that extra stuff cluttering your kitchen.
These are easy to put together, as the batter is mixed by hand. The hardest part of making it is having patience…it needs a long rest in the fridge, a recommended five hours minimum before baking, if you want to achieve the signature “madeleine hump” in the oven. Dorie says the batter will last refrigerated for up to three days, so I baked these off over the course of a couple of days. The photo above is from round one, but for round two, I decided to dunk their humps in cinnamon sugar while they were hot from the oven. Spicy.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Peach Flognarde
September 9, 2022 at 12:09 am | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, everyday dorie, groups, muffins/quick breads, pudding/mousse, simple cakes, sweet things | 6 CommentsTags: custard, everyday dorie
If you’re wondering what a flognarde, join the club. Well, I do know what one is, but only because I just made one. Flognarde is what you call the classic French country dessert clafoutis when it’s made with fruit other than cherries. Here I did a spin on Dorie’s recipe with plums and made a Peach Flognarde.
To make this, a simple crêpe-like batter is poured over sliced fruit. As the batter bakes, it soufflés around the fruit and, as it cools, it settles into something that’s more like a sliceable custard. This one baked really beautifully, truly custardy inside and not rubbery, and I love the edging. I swapped the spices in the recipe for a splash of almond extract and the cognac for a glug of Combier, both of which I thought would pair well with the peaches. Now I want to try this out with all the fruits!
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all of our cakes this week.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Buttermilk Scones
August 23, 2022 at 8:06 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, scones
A quick search tells me we made a Buttermilk Scone recipe before, back in 2014. I have no memory of those (a BWJ recipe), or really of 2014 in general, but apparently I liked them and even said I’d make them again. Well, of course I didn’t, but now I have made these BWD Buttermilk Scones instead.
With only 2 teaspoons of sugar (could that be a typo??), other TWDers said these were more like buttermilk biscuits than sweet pastries. I bumped that up to 2 tablespoons of sugar and also sprinkled the tops with turbinado before baking. They were a sticky-but-easy mix and they got a pretty decent rise in the oven, but they still registered as only very lightly sweetened. While some butter and honey or jam (or 2 or 3 more tablespoons of sugar) would probably give them what they’re missing, they certainly did make me think of a biscuit or a cobbler topping. Since buttermilk is so lean, they also don’t have the same delicate, rich texture as a cream scone. I decided to turn a couple of my scones into strawberry shortcakes with sweetened mascarpone whipped cream and macerated berries and mint. The rest headed into the freezer for Scones Pudding next month.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: S’mores Ice Cream Cake
August 7, 2022 at 3:17 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, groups, muffins/quick breads, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
I live in a house with no central air, so I’m always looking for a way to keep cool in the summer. S’mores Ice Cream Cake is possibly the best way I’ve found yet to get my core temp down. Think: peanut-graham crust, layers of ice cream, fluffernutter goo, fudge sauce and a mountain of toastie marshies. I scaled it down to fit in my six-inch springform, and also only used two layers of ice cream (coffee was my flavor choice) separated by the peanut fluff instead of the original three. It still weighted a ton…this is a substantial treat. The cake takes a bit of time to put together, as it needs freezing after every step, but it is so good! Seriously, my childhood dreams all came true in one fabulous sugar high.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
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