Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Clam Chowder Pie

February 24, 2026 at 6:24 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | Leave a comment
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clam chowder pie

Clam Chowder Pie– I can see this being a polarizing bake. I wouldn’t even bother trying to give this to my father. He hates clams and would probably frisbee his plate straight out the window. Using shrimp instead may have more broad appeal, but I think this is a cool idea. I mean New England-style chowder isn’t too far off the mark from pot pie filling, and the buttery oyster cracker topping is a cute and fun touch.

I think my husband would have been up for trying this, but I made it while he was out of town. I had a mini pie tin in the freezer lined with scrap dough from something or other, so I just made myself a single serve, à la Marie Callendar’s, to eat while watching TV. Clam chowder girl dinner, I guess. Speaking of girl dinner, I love tinned fish of all sorts, but canned clams are one sound kind of weird to me. I can easily buy fresh littlenecks and they’re so easy to cook, so I got a bag to steam and just ate what ever I didn’t need for the pie as chef’s treat. This post is making me sound unhinged.

I didn’t need a whole lot of filling for my baby pie, so I eyeballed things a bit. It has a few strong ingredients I don’t normally see in creamy chowders, like Old Bay, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Egg turns it into a custard that I imagine helps with sliceability in a large pie. Lots of veggies are in here, too…no potatoes, but celery, bell pepper, peas and scallions. Making it as a mini pie probably meant I had a bit more crust to filling than intended, but it was a fun and tasty way to end the savory baking chapter of BWD.

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: Trufflish Nuggets

February 10, 2026 at 5:55 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 Comments
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trufflish nuggets

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and while a dozen roses would be fine, I’m more of a dozen chocolates kind of girl. There are no surprises, though, when you’ve been married for over 20 years. I know that if I want any chocolate, I’m the one who has to take care of it, regardless of the day. Trufflish Nuggets should do…a funny name, but they are macaroons, made with coconut, almonds, cinnamon and, most importantly, two kinds of chocolate. They are super easy to make; just a quick blitz in the food processor and the dough is made. I scooped my nuggies a bit bigger than Dorie did and baked them a bit less. At 20 minutes they seemed done to me. The half recipe I made gave me that perfect dozen chewy chocolate 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: The Daily Bread: Whole Wheat and Flax Edition

February 3, 2026 at 4:39 pm | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 2 Comments
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whole wheat and flax daily bread

Wow, we are having a real winter here for the first time in years. I’ve gone into carb-loading, sweatpants-wearing hibernation mode. Baking my own bread so I don’t have to go outside…that sort of thing. This Whole Wheat and Flax Daily Bread helped keep my kitchen warm during our most recent snowstorm.

Whole wheat flour, wheatgerm, flax seed and a bit of honey give this sandwich loaf a wholesome feel, but butter and milk keep it from feeling like punishment. This bread slices nicely, toasts nicely, and is just all-around nice. I usually have flax seeds at home because I like a spoonful in my post-workout smoothies, but I’d like to try this one again with sunflower seeds, which Dorie lists as an alternative.

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: World Peace Cookies 2.0

January 17, 2026 at 4:33 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 Comments
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world peace cookies 2.0

We all know and love Dorie’s World Peace Cookies, a recipe originally from Pierre Hermé that has been spreading happiness around the globe for more than two decades. We’ve made it twice already in our TWD journey, and I’m pretty sure it’s what’s kept the Earth spinning since the early 2000s. Judging from the sad and scary state of current global affairs, however, it’s clear that we need to take more action– enter World Peace Cookies 2.0.

Dorie has taken her famous sea salt-sprinkled, chocolate chip-loaded cocoa shortbreads and added rye flour, cacoa nibs, a dash of spicy chili pepper and freeze dried raspberries. It’s a bit of an odd-sounding mix, but trust Dorie and you’ll find that everything lives in harmony in this cookie. She gives a bonus tip in one of her newsletters to make slicing the logs of dough, which used to be a messy process, a breeze…don’t freeze the logs rock-solid for hours before you slice them. An hour in the fridge does the trick (even just 30 minutes works fine, I found), and then you can freeze the cookie pucks on a sheet tray before baking. New flavors, new method, and new hope for a new year.

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: Cocoa-Cranberry Linzer Tart

December 23, 2025 at 7:56 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 Comments
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cocoa-cranberry linzer tart

I’m glad that Diane pointed out that this Cocoa-Cranberry Linzer Tart is a lot like the yummy Thanksgiving Bars we made years ago. A cranberry-raspberry filling inside a chocolate-nut crust sounded familiar to me, but if left to my own brain-dredging I never would have remembered exactly why. Chocolate and fruit combos can be iffy for me, so I was also happy for the spoiler alert that I’d like it.

This tart has a cookie-like crust that’s made with almonds, cocoa and chopped chocolate bits. The fruit filling is an easy cranberry sauce mixed with store-bought raspberry jam. I opted to add the fresh raspberries in as well, but I kind of tore them up so they’d lie in a flat layer under the top crust. Dorie intends for this tart to baked in a cake pan like a jam sandwich, with the fruity filling peeking out between two flat layers of Linzer crust. Sounded a bit messy, and I worried about leaky, caramelized jam fusing the tart to the cake pan, so I decided to make this one as a traditional (enclosed) tart in a fluted tart pan instead.

cocoa-cranberry linzer tart

This is such a good winter holiday dessert. A cool twist on a classic, it’s not too sweet, great with coffee (probably also with dessert wine), and lasts nicely for a few days in the fridge. This recipe is in Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll over on Tuesdays with Dorie!

Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Pistachio-Matcha Financiers

December 9, 2025 at 8:48 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, general pastry, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 Comments
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pistachio-matcha financiers

To me, financiers represent a “quiet luxury” of the pastry world. Classic, timeless, but understated, you have to be in the know to recognize just how rich and indulgent they are. These Pistachio-Matcha Financiers are spendy treats to be sure, made with lots of butter and pistachios, but compared to so many of the pastries going viral today, they are not in-your-face flashy.

Dorie parks this recipe in the cookie chapter, but financiers, like madeleines, are soft and cake-like. While they are traditionally made in rectangular bar molds, these are baked in a mini muffin tin. I have a mini muffin pan that makes 24 baby cakes. This recipe yields 28, which would require me to cool, wash, dry and re-butter and flour my tin to get the few extra. Guess what I’m not doing. That…I’m not doing that. I’m doing math instead. I went with 2/3 the recipe, which just used a full stick of butter and made 18 or so. (To be fair, I could have made the full recipe and easily baked off the extra blob of batter in one of my little individual pie tins to make a tiny cake, but the smaller amount of financiers was plenty.)

I always associate financiers with browned butter, although Dorie only states to bring it to a boil here. I did decide to take my butter to a light, early-stage browning. Dressed up in white chocolate glaze and freeze dried raspberry crumbles, the finished financiers are perfect festive treats to serve to a discerning crowd.

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: My Favorite Pumpkin Pie

November 29, 2025 at 7:15 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 Comments
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my favorite pumpkin pie

Thanksgiving was a couple of days ago now, and I just finished off the last remaining slice of My Favorite Pumpkin Pie…eaten directly from the pie plate, of course. This is a rich pie, with lots of cream and sour cream in the pumpkin custard. Dorie’s favorite does away with the traditional cinnamon-based pumpkin pie spice blend (although you can certain substitute it), and replaces it with ginger and star anise. I do like the flavor of star anise but I swapped it for cloves, my favorite, non-negotiable spice in a pumpkin pie. I had an extra round of Sour Cream Pie Dough in the freezer after making the Double-Pear Picnic Pie, and used that for the crust.

I did use the corrected version of this recipe (see below for link), but my pie cracked a little anyway. No matter– the filling was very smooth and the crack miraculously disappeared with a big bloop of whipped cream on top. I pretended like it never happened and totally got away with it.

This recipe is in Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, but it contains an error and the corrected version can be found here. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll over on Tuesdays with Dorie!

Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Custardy Apple and Kale Cake

November 11, 2025 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie, veggies | 6 Comments
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custardy apple and kale cake

I eat a lot of kale salad in the cooler months, and I always like for it to include a sharp cheese and some type of sweet component, like apple, pear or dried fruit. This Custardy Apple and Kale Cake pretty much takes my typical winter lunch, and turns it out of a bowl and into a cake pan. This isn’t really a quick bread and it isn’t really a frittata…it’s some in-between thing…kind of a thick, loaded up pancake.

The veggies– shallots and kale– get a quick precook in a sauté pan. Once again, Dorie calls for the perplexing step of rinsing raw onions/shallot before sautéing, and also straining the cooked veggies of excess liquid. I did neither of these (well, I would have strained the cooked veg, but I didn’t have any visible liquid left in the pan). I used sharp cheddar and a Jonagold apple, which I didn’t peel because it had beautiful red skin. All this gets mixed into a simple batter and baked in a springform. This is rustic, sweet and savory and delicious any time of the day. And you don’t even need a salad on the side, which my husband would say is the best part of all.

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: Double-Pear Picnic Pie

October 28, 2025 at 7:08 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 Comments
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double-pear picnic 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.

double-pear picnic pie

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: 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 Comments
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the daily bread: white bread edition

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.

the daily bread: white bread edition

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!

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