Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Double-Pear Picnic Pie
October 28, 2025 at 7:08 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, pie
Even if it’s gotten too chilly for me to bring this Double-Pear Picnic Pie to the park for a long, lazy lunch spread out on a blanket, I do love the idea of a picnic pie. It’s really a slab pie– double-crusted, baked in a sheet tray– and only the second one I think I’ve baked (here’s the first). This has two layers of Sour Cream Pie Dough with a layer of “double-pear” (fresh and dried) filling in between. This filling is a bit trickier than an apple pie filling, in that a) fresh pears can take forever and a day to ripen, and b) dried pears are a bit of a niche item. During the six days my Bartlett pears sat in a paper bag on the counter, I had plenty of time to scour Brooklyn for dried pears. Finally, I found them at one of those bulk nut shops and brought home just a small quantity.
Assembly went fine, and I made a half-recipe in a little eighth size sheet tray. A couple of minutes after I put the pie in the oven, I had a bit of a freakout that I’d forgotten to put thickener in the pear filling. I checked over the recipe and there was no mention of any overlooked flour or cornstarch, so I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the marmalade in the filling helps thicken it? Maybe the slab format (thin layer of fruit, spread over a large surface area) allows for more moisture evaporation? I’m not sure, but the finished pie was anything but a hot mess. Just a few juicy burbles escaped the slits in the crust. By the following day, the crust had gotten a bit soft, but eaten with vanilla ice cream, I don’t think anyone cared.
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 DAC: Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt
October 21, 2025 at 12:01 am | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Dorie must have sensed that we’ve almost polished off the cake section of BWD, because she’s come out with a whole new book of simple cakes with interesting flavors to keep us TWDers busy for another few years. Dorie’s Anytime Cakes is out today, and we are celebrating with a festive bundt! This Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt is our first recipe from the new book, and also the first real fall vibes recipe I’ve made this year.
This bundt is a moist, spiced pumpkin cake with a sweet cocoa swirl running through the middle like a little smile. I made the Glossy Chocolate Glaze to drizzle over the top, but then accidentally let it rest in the bowl until it cooled more to a spreadable consistency than a pouring one. Still tasty, no worries. It’s a perfect cake to keep on the counter for a few days, helping yourself to a slice here and there. Dorie intends all the recipes in the book to be “kitchen cakes”…easy to make, good to eat, comforting to have around…just like this one. Maybe I need to get a cake dome?
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. 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: The Daily Bread: White Bread Edition
October 14, 2025 at 12:01 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, bread
Next time you’re at the store, don’t be tempted by that squishy white bread in the bag with colored polka dots. That stuff is all fluff and no flavor! Leave it on the shelf and make The Daily Bread: White Bread Edition instead.
This homemade sandwich loaf is enriched with a bit of butter, egg and milk (liquid and powdered), so you get softness and flavor. The dough goes through three rises to make the prefect bread for your tuna sandwich, your PB&J and your toast. I have one of those 9″x4″ pullman pans, and I baked my loaf in that. I like the height and the straight sides. These days I’m usually making sourdough loaves (mostly to torture myself, I think), but there’s really something comforting about a soft yeasted bread.
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: Devil’s Food Party Cake
September 23, 2025 at 4:18 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Sure, this Devil’s Food Party Cake would be great for a birthday, but if it’s just a regular Tuesday, the cake is the party. I love a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting…on my dessert top five, for sure. Both the cake and the frosting here are made with cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate, which Dorie says makes everything profoundly chocolatey. That’s all I need to know to start snipping up a stack of parchment rounds.
I cut the 8-inch cake recipe in half to make a 6-incher, my regular move when I’m just slicing for the two of us. I divided the batter between three pans instead of two, for slightly thinner layers without having to split them in half (which stresses me out, tbh). Because even a small cake lasts several days for us, I brushed the layers with coffee liqueur as I stacked them with the tasty American-style cocoa buttercream. This bit of brushed on liquid helps keep cake from drying out as it sits.
Some TWDers said their cakes came out dense and fudgy. I wouldn’t say that about mine, as it was soft, but it did have what I’d call a tight texture that made barely any crumbs when cut. Maybe slicing the layers in half wouldn’t’t have been too painful after all. I decorated my cake with some giant malt balls I had in the cupboard. This was a just the thing to make the week feel like a celebration!
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: Tenderest Shortbread Four Ways (the rye-chocolate way)
September 9, 2025 at 12:47 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Dorie says to bake the Tenderest Shortbread you need to make the dough with powdered sugar, egg yolks, and of course lots of butter. She gives four different flavor options for these sablé-like cookies, and I made the Rye-Chocolate Shortbread version, not only because I will rarely pass up chocolate if it’s an option, but also because I really do like the flavor from a bit of whole grain flour in baking. I can’t help myself from adding flakey salt to just about every cookie I make, even though they probably could have handled a sprinkling of coarse sugar instead, as they aren’t very sweet. They are melt-in-your-mouth, as Dorie says, but they are also good keepers– perfect for cookie tin coffee treats!
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: Ricotta-Tomato Tart
August 26, 2025 at 3:12 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
Our second savory tart in August, this Ricotta-Tomato Tart features big chunks of peak-season tomatoes and seasoned ricotta in a “proper” tart shell. I used a mix of red, orange and green tomatoes from the farmers’ market. They kept their juiciness but didn’t sog the tart crust out or bleed much into the cheese filling. The ricotta was seasoned with lemon, parsley and oregano. Another great savory bake for lunch or dinner from this book!
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 twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Vegetable Ribbon Tart
August 12, 2025 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 10 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
This Vegetable Ribbon Tart is basically salad sitting on puff pastry. I like both those things, so I was game to make this for lunch. Not sure that leftovers would hold so well, I decided to make a smaller tart. I didn’t measure anything, but started by baking a rectangle of puff that looked just big enough for two. The base is topped with a thick smear of hummus and lots of thin-sliced and shaved veggies. I used carrots, cukes, red pepper, fennel, tomatoes and roasted beets tossed in a vinaigrette made with za’atar and a splash of sesame oil (this really makes the dressing, imo). It’s light and fresh and a jammy egg or two help make it more filling. If I make this again, I’ll try salt massaging the ribbons of carrot and cucumber to extract a bit of water before I dress them. I think it would make them more pliable and easier to curlicue around the tart.
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 twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Blueberry Biscuits
July 29, 2025 at 3:55 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, biscuits
After being disciplined for months with my New Year’s resolution to post on time, seems like I’m up to my old lazy ricks again. I made these Blueberry Biscuits early in July, but here is the end of the month, and I’m finally sitting down to write something about them.
What makes these biscuits instead of scones? I don’t know. Maybe because they aren’t too sweet? I think you could call them whichever name you wanted to and get away with it. I cut the recipe back to just a third, and while that really should have given me only three biscuits, I patted the dough out enough to cut four squares. Even though my biscuits were a little runty because of this, they were nice and tender and loaded with berries.
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: Park Avenue Brownies
July 9, 2025 at 7:09 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Dorie says these Park Avenue Brownies are named after the “rich and slim” Upper East Side crowd. I think they were made to be packed up in a picnic basket, shuttled uptown and enjoyed in Central Park. Chocolaty and fudgy, everyone who likes brownies will like these.
I made a half recipe in a loaf pan. I go for nuts in my brownies, and here, I added walnuts and flaky salt to the top. I made these a couple of years ago, too, and topped them then with sea salt and pecans. I like to take my brownie slab and, as soon as it’s cool enough to lift out of the pan (but still warm), pop it in the fridge on a cutting board for a couple of hours. Someone I used to work for taught me that…it does seem to make the brownie texture set up really nicely, and of course, brownies cut so sharply when chilled.
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: Double-Chocolate Rhubarb Tart
June 10, 2025 at 7:18 am | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, pie
I’m not the biggest fan of fruit and chocolate combos, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised from time to time so I try to keep an open mind when these recipes pop up. The Double-Chocolate Rhubarb Tart, though, presented a mix my brain would not have thought up. Sounded odd- I was not sure how this one would go.
A chocolate tart shell houses a layer of jam and a layer of chocolate frangipane, with pieces of fresh rhubarb tucked on top. Right now, orange marmalade is the only jam I have in the fridge, and that seemed to be moving too far in the weird direction for me. Instead, I used fresh raspberries that I ripped in half to cover the bottom of the tart shell. They basically turn into their own jam while the tart is in the oven.
Room temp or chilled, this one goes into the “pleasantly surprised” category! The tart shell is like a crisp chocolate cookie, the frangipane is like a fudgy brownie and the sweet-tart thing with the fruit works nicely. My rhubarb stalks were so thin, I probably could have squeezed on a few more pieces (Dorie actually does say to be generous, should have listened instead of being skeptical).
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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