Tuesdays with Dorie: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses
September 7, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 27 Comments
Sometimes I’ve wondered how I would function if I had to share living space with someone allergic to peanuts. My peanut butter addiction just might force me to move out. I can’t imagine not being able to have a PB&J for lunch or, say, these Peanut Butter Crisscrosses for a treat.
Peanut butter cookies are one of those childhood things that I’ve never tired of (one of many, I will admit!). These ones are soft and chewy, as a good peanut butter cookie should be, and the sugar sprinkled on top gives them just the right amount of crunch. The recipe was pretty clear about not using natural PB here, but that was what I had, so that was what I used. To make it a little more like the kiddie brands, I put in a squeeze of golden syrup. I also swapped a little AP with a little whole wheat flour. I don’t think anyone would be able to call me out on either of these changes.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Jasmine Cuisine, as it was Jasmine’s choice for TWD this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Speaking of peanuts…has anyone noticed the peanut flour Trader Joe’s is now selling in with the baking stuff? Has anyone baked with it? I am curious…
Tuesdays with Dorie: Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
August 31, 2010 at 12:44 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Let me tell you right off the bat: these Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies that Donna of Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First picked for TWD…I love them! Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the first time I had one, it was made by Dorie herself. My friend Lauren and I braved a load of snow to visit Dorie’s pop-up CookieBar back in February, and I bought heaps of cookies. All were delicious, but the Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread was my clear favorite.
I’ve made them a handful of times since, and they’ve come out every bit as good as the ones Dorie made. Of course they taste like coffee and chocolate, which is reason enough to like them, and they have that crisp-yet-melt-in-your-mouth texture of great shortbread. I refuse to think about the winter holidays when it’s 90º outside, but if I were to think about packing up holiday cookies, these would be a great addition to the standards.
Don’t skip out on these cookies– for the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First. And check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart
August 24, 2010 at 9:43 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve suddenly become a very busy girl, with reasons that have nothing to do with working (heck–I am not even working right now…still on a self-proclaimed “summer break”) or blogging. I’m learning a lot of weird stuff that, up until now, I had no reason to know or care about. I think you’d find it a little boring if I went into details about it now, as it’s all more of an idea than a reality at this point, but I’ll fill you in soon.
No matter what’s going on, I’m never to busy to bake, and even if Rachel of sweet tarte hadn’t decided on Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart, I was still planning on making it this month. I think the peaches here have been great this year, and I’ve picked up a tree’s worth of them at the market. This tart combines those peaches (which I didn’t even bother to peel) with custard and almond streusel and puts them all inside a delicious, cookie-like sweet tart (hey– is that why Rachel picked this?) shell. Yeah, I liked this one a lot, even if it didn’t photograph too well.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read sweet tarte. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
The Cake Slice: Johnny C’s Tres Leches Cake
August 20, 2010 at 4:22 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 19 Comments
Who is Johnny C? Yeah, I don’t know. What’s a tres leches cake? That I do know! “Tres leches” actually refers to a soaking sauce usually made of condensed, evaporated and regular milks (sometimes coconut milk or cream gets in there, too) that soaks its way into every pore of a spongy cake. As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of fine cakes from around the globe, pastel de tres leches is truly one of my favorites.
This recipe, though…well, it wasn’t a bad one, but an old coworker, who’s from Columbia, gave me the recipe his sister makes for every family gathering, and I think it’s much better. While this cake is made using the creaming method, hers is more of a separated egg sponge, and it really takes in the soaking liquid in a different way. When you put a fork into hers, you see how spongy and it is, and the milk just barely starts to weep out…it turns almost puddingy if you keep it overnight. Johnny C’s absorbed the milk and just trapped it there…it was a little too heavy for my tastes, but I’ll admit it was much improved with a little rum whipped cream (then again, what isn’t?).
I’ll stick to my preferred version of pastel de tres leches (I’ll post it sometime, I promise!), but if you want to give Johnny C’s a go, 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 tres leches cakes this month!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread
August 17, 2010 at 12:06 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 22 Comments
Thank you, Natalie of Oven Love, for choosing Oatmeal Breakfast Bread for TWD! I have dropped a couple of hints in the past that this is one recipe I’ve been itching to make…not only that, but I’m always happy when someone chooses a brekkie thing, as I kinda feel we ignore this section of the book.
I’m pleased to report that this oatmeal bread was everything I hoped it would be! It’s really soft and nicely spiced, and completely perfect with coffee…you can cut into slices like a bread or bigger chunks like a coffee cake. I used dried apples and pecans in mine, and baked it the night before (who wants to get up at 5am to do it, especially when it keeps so well?). I baked a half recipe, and it took a little less time to cook than Dorie indicated for a full batch. I can’t wait to make it again in cooler weather…a whole recipe next time, for sure!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Oven Love. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream
August 10, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 24 Comments
It’s not often that I crank out straight-up chocolate ice cream, so it took Katrina’s pick of Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream to make me remember how insanely good it really is. After letting it temper a bit, you need nothing but a cone or a spoon to enjoy it in its purest form. But you can also turn it into wicked treats, like sundaes topped with marshie fluff and salty peanuts, or boozy bourbon milkshakes.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Baking and Boys. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Gingered Carrot Cookies
August 3, 2010 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 30 Comments
Natalia of gatti fili e farina chose Gingered Carrot Cookies for TWD— an overlooked recipe whose time I’m glad has come. These cookies are full of tasty bits and are just sweet enough. At first glance, the recipe looks like it might make carrot cake in cookie form. Shredded carrots and coconut, raisins, ginger and pecans…I was certainly surprised to see mine bake up as little hearty, lumpy-bumpy mounds instead. Dorie says these are scone-like, and she’s right (of course she is– it’s her recipe afterall). If I’d thought to scoop out a couple of triple-size ones, I bet they would have made a great breakfast!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read gatti fili e farina. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chewy, Chunky Blondies
July 27, 2010 at 12:09 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 22 Comments
I never make blondies (except for this batch, obviously). I don’t know why…they are like chocolate chip cookies on steroids, and who wouldn’t like that? Nicole of Cookies on Friday picked Chewy, Chunky Blondies for TWD, and they are certainly juiced up with chocolate chips, toffee (or butterscotch) chips, walnuts and coconut.
I love butterscotch, but I hate those fake-tasting chips…I still have toffee bits left in the freezer from the Caramel Crunch Bars (yeah, apparently they last forever), and I was happy to use those instead. With all that’s going on in these blondies, I wanted to tame the sweetness a little, so I cut back just a bit on the sugar and used unsweetend coconut flakes.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Cookies on Friday. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake
July 20, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 29 Comments
I think about the two years we spent in Australia everyday, sometimes for bizarre reasons. For example, when I looked at the recipe for this week’s TWD pick, the first thing that popped into my mind was that when we first moved to Sydney, the country was just beginning to recover from a banana shortage. I let my little trip down memory lane steer me in a particular direction while making this cake…it is called “Lots of Ways Banana Cake” afterall, so I didn’t really feel like I was overstepping any bounds by adding macadamias, wattleseed and chocolate to the bananas and coconut already in the mix.
While I could have chosen to go the layered and frosted route with this cake, that wasn’t what I was in the mood for. I just wanted an unfussy snack cake, so I baked half a recipe in an 8″ square pan and left it at that. (It only took 25 minutes to bake, instead of the 45 I was expecting.) It was delicious– soft, and full of things that taste great together!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Kimberly’s post on Only Creative Opportunities. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Tarte Noire
July 6, 2010 at 1:01 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 30 Comments
A Tarte Norie is pure and simple, and all about the chocolate, so break out the good stuff! I had a déjà vu moment while making this, and then I realized that it’s the very same thing as the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart we made awhile back, minus the caramel and nuts. Dark ganache inside a crisp, sweet pastry shell…I was perfectly happy to experience that again!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read bliss: towards a delicious life. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
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