Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Devil’s Thumbprints
October 24, 2023 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, holiday
Regardless of what Devil’s Thumbprints actually are, the name alone sounds like a pretty good potential Halloween recipe to me. Turns out they’re brownie-like chocolate thumbprint cookies, filled with jam, more chocolate, or whatever you like. The devil on my shoulder told me to chose more chocolate. I made the dough/batter the day before baking the cookies and they held shape pretty well. I have some dark chocolate buttons that are basically the same size as the cookies’ indentations so I just popped a button into the center of each cookie while they were still hot from the oven. The buttons melted right into the divots, and there was no fussing around with melting and spooning on chopped chocolate. Instead, I was able to fuss around with yellow googly eyes.
I made these thumbprints two years ago for Halloween as well. That time around, I gave them white chocolate-cream cheese bellies and cherry jam blood. I also rolled the unbaked cookies in granulated sugar instead of the turbinado I used this time, and I liked that finer sugar better, as the coarser turbinado made kind of a hard crust on the outside.
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 Everything Cake
October 10, 2023 at 1:01 am | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Dorie’s The Everything Cake is really a base recipe, made to be tinkered with according to what you want it to be. It’s a blank canvas for add-ins like citrus, berries and nuts. I decided to do my own thing and brown the melted butter, as well as add some malt powder to the mix. I planned to glaze the cake with some leftover chocolate ganache I had in the fridge and throw malt balls all over the top. All that sounded good, and then I took my “playing around” a bit too far…
About a month ago, I did the baking work for a cookbook photo shoot and wound up accidentally scaling out the dry ingredients for a scone recipe twice. Rather than discard a quart container of flour mixed with salt and baking powder, I brought it home at the end of the shoot to make things like pancakes and fritters with– stuff I would just eyeball measurements for anyway. As I was making this cake, I thought, “Why not use up some of that pre-mixed stuff in place of the flour, salt and BP in the recipe? What could really go wrong?” Well, I think my dry mix for scones contained more leavening than was ideal for a cake, because it rose nice and tall around the outside but sank big-time in the middle. Oopsies!
I did the only thing I could think of to do with a cake with a crater in the middle– I filled it with ice cream. The ganache and malt balls still got used, and I have to say it was excellent. Do you really learn a lesson when your screw-up results in an ice cream cake? I’m not so sure, but I would like to try this again sometime as a more level cake.
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: Szarlotka
September 25, 2023 at 8:27 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, pies & tarts, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, scones
What is a Szarlotka? It’s a traditional Polish apple dessert that’s kind of a cake and kind of a pie. Kind of, kind of. It actually reminds me more of jam bars I like to make that use the same dough for both the crust and the topping than either of those. Here, a sticky, sweet dough is rolled out and pressed into a cake pan, filled with a mix of sweetened apples and raisins and then sprinkled with more of that dough, grated this time for a crumbly topping.
I thought I got a bit of the “French bake” on the sides and bottom of my szarlotka, where the dough was in contact with the metal cake pan, and I was worried it was too dark. Thankfully, it didn’t taste over-toasted at all and was super good, with the consistency of a cakey cookie. Every September, I hold off on buying apples until there is pretty much no other trace of summer fruit left to be found, so this was my first apple dessert of autumn 2023, and I’d say it was a winner.
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: Banana Breakfast Squares
September 12, 2023 at 8:30 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, muffins/quick breads, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, scones
This Banana Breakfast Squares recipe is banana bread with all the healthy, hearty, sweet-but-not-too-sweet things you need for a morning boost. In addition to bananas, there’s whole wheat flour, oats, pecans, dates, flax seeds and the most essential thing for brekkie– espresso powder. I made just a third of the recipe in my six-inch square pan and still got nine soft and chubby squares out it. TBH, I’m never up early enough to actually make breakfast treats for breakfast. When I make muffins or scones, I usually just wind up having breakfast for dessert, which these squares are fine for, too, but they’re such good keepers that I actually have been able to enjoy them with my morning coffee for the last couple of days.
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: Double-Corn Tomato Crisp
August 22, 2023 at 7:45 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
Dorie’s Double-Corn Tomato Crisp may make you do a double-take if you see it on the counter. This sports a rubbly crisp topping made with cornmeal, but underneath you won’t find peaches or blueberries. Instead fresh corn kernels mingle with summer tomatoes and herbs. It proves that crisps aren’t just for dessert…they can be lovely savory side dishes, or even main courses, as we ate ours with a dollop of sour cream, a salad and a glass of wine.
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: Raspberry Cheesecake-Chocolate No-Bake Pie
August 22, 2023 at 7:23 pm | Posted in BWD, cheesecakes, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, pie
Ok, well, there was a little bit of baking that went on to create this Raspberry Cheesecake-Chocolate No-Bake Pie. I opted to crank the oven for a few to make a homemade Chocolate Tart Dough crust, because even though there is a layer of dark ganache hiding inside this tart, more is more if chocolate is involved. Dorie goes with strawberries as the fruit component in her tart, but I found some black raspberries at the market and couldn’t resist swapping them here (also, I am not the biggest fruit and chocolate fan, but razzies I can do). I didn’t have quite enough to also use them as the second surprise layer hiding beneath the filling, so I just spread raspberry jam on top of the ganache and saved my black raspberries to tumble on top of the finished tart.
I am often suspicious of no-bake cheesecakes, because sometimes “no-bake” means the filling is set with gelatin, which I don’t like. This one thankfully skips that, and is kind of mousse-like, with whipped cream and melted white chocolate folded into cream cheese and sour cream. It is really a very sophisticated and lighter cheesecake for Summer 2023.
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: Lamingtons
July 25, 2023 at 8:34 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Lamingtons are a treat I became well-acquainted with during the two years I lived in Sydney. Cake, chocolate and coconut…all my favorite things in one delicious square, and I could find them everywhere I sat down to a flat white. Back in this hemisphere, I have made lamingtons myself several times, although they are easier to buy in NYC now than they used to be, since a few Bourke Street Bakery locations have opened in the last few years and Aussie cafes continue to be all the rage. Lamington Day was on July 21, so I decided it was time to make a celebratory batch!
Dorie’s version of lamingtons uses a genoise sponge, made the day before, so the cake is less crumbly when cubing and coating in chocolate glaze. Sometimes, before getting dipped in glaze and rolled in coconut, the cake cubes are cut in half and sandwiched together with jam or cream (or jam and cream), but these ones are straight-up cake. The process of dipping and coconutting is a bit messy, but the set-up and procedure is not too dissimilar to a breading station for chicken cutlets. You have to wash your hands a few times along the way… it’s worth it. Desiccated coconut shreds are the usual shaggy covering for these treats, but I added a few larger chips to my mix as well, and for a friend who doesn’t like coconut, I coated a couple in chocolate flake sprinkles instead (an idea I took straight from MaddiCakes). These were so tasty, and I think that rather than getting drier over the next day or two, they got softer as the cake absorbed moisture from the liquidy glaze.
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! You can also find this recipe here. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll (be sure to visit our friend Mardi for lots more info on lamingtons!) and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Cottage Peach and Strawberry Cobbler
July 11, 2023 at 9:32 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, pie
Of course I bake a pie every now and then, but in the summer when I buy too much fruit (if there even is such a thing) at the farmers’ market, what I really like to bake are cobblers, crisps and crumbles. So much easier than pie, IMO, and every bit as good, with whatever fruit you have in abundance. I took Dorie’s Cottage Berry Cobbler and, taking inspo from her “Playing Around” variation, swapped a combo of peaches and strawberries for the mixed berries. If you wonder what a “cottage cobbler” is, the cobbler biscuits here have cottage cheese in the mix…a sweeter take on the Cottage Cheese Biscuits we made last year. Diane pointed out a typo in the cobbler biscuit recipe, which I saw too late, so mine didn’t have quite the amount of flour they should have had. The cobbler was totally delicious anyway, but mine definitely looks like it came out of an old cottage kitchen oven…the biscuits didn’t hold the same modern, cool-looking and well-defined shape the photo in the book shows. There’s plenty of time left his summer to try again, though!
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: Cheddar-Scallion Scones
June 27, 2023 at 11:17 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, scones
I have a job through the summer testing recipes for a savory baking cookbook, and my freezer is stuffed with odds and ends of different breads, puff pastry hand pies and cheese muffins. You’d think maybe I wouldn’t have the appetite for one more savory breakfast treat (and you’d be mostly right), but these Cheddar-Scallion Scones looked to good to skip out on.
Cheddar cheese and a bit of paprika make these bake up beautiful golden. I egg washed my biscuits and decorated them with some extra scallion greens. I was annoyed to forget the mustard powder in the dough (what kind of lousy recipe tester am I?!), so I sprinkled a bit on top at the half-time baking rotation. This cheddar-scallion combo makes these good for not just a scrambled egg breakfast, but as a sidekick to any number of things…we had a couple with BBQ chicken the other night. I made six petite scones from a 1/3 batch, so I have a few added to my freezer stash of savory goodies, but I have a feeling they still won’t last very long.
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: Rhubarb-Bottom, Strawberry-Top Tart
June 13, 2023 at 7:13 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, pie
Right now is the right time, at least if you live around these parts, to be making this Rhubarb-Bottom, Strawberry-Top Tart. Dorie’s famous Sweet Tart Dough is the base of this springtime tart, with a layer of candied poached rhubarb hiding under a strawberry pastry cream. I halved a bunch more berries, tossed them in the rhubarb poaching liquid and let them land where they wanted to on top of the tart. I probably could have had triple the rhubarb going on in here, I love it so, but this was a delicious beauty.
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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