a whisk and a spoon

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Leckerli

One of the many things I’ve liked about baking from Dorie’s Cookies is finding out about cookies from far off places. I haven’t gone anywhere in ages, but I can still explore the sweets of the world. Here, we have Leckerli, a spice cookie from Switzerland. With plenty of mixed spice, candied orange peel, honey, almonds and kirsch, the dough is made, rolled into a slab and rested for up to two days before baking to “age” the flavors. Then it’s baked, glazed (more kirsch!) and cut into tiles. They might look like firm, crisp cookies, but they are actually dense and chewy, and while they do have those holiday vibes, I’d be happy to have them in the cookie tin anytime of year.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Mary’s Maine Bars

Mary’s Maine Bars are a recipe that Dorie’s assistant, recipe tester and friend (and former TWDer) Mary Dodd brought back from a trip to Maine. These chewy bar cookies are full of molasses and warm spices…if you have a taste, you might think they are gingerbread, but actually, they contain no ginger at all. Some others who’ve made them described them as being like brownies in texture, and they seem that way to me, too. They’d make a great holiday cookie for sure, but I like these flavors all winter long.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Swedish Dream Cookies

I do dream of going to Sweden, and I hope one day that will happen, but for now my Scandi fantasies will have to be lived out with Swedish Dream Cookies. These cookies are called drömmar in Sweden, and a quick on-line search showed me there are many ways to make these shortbread-esqe treats, but Dorie’s recipe uses browned butter and cardamom for the dreamiest of flavors. They’re made in the food processor, and I zipped up the cardamom and sugar in the machine first to get a bit of extra spice hit. After scooping out rounds of dough, you can press an almond in the center or add a bit of jam, thumbprint-style, if you want them a bit sweeter. I went with the whole almonds and I like the look, but I’m now dreaming of them with a chocolate button on top, since I think that would be good with the browned butter, too.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Bruno’s New Year’s Waffles

Maybe we are getting to the point in January where we are no longer really celebrating the new year, but I’m giving it one last toast with Bruno’s New Year’s Waffles. I almost skipped these waffles, which are more like thin wafers, because the recipe uses a pizzelle iron to cook them. I don’t have one. In fact, I think that out of the group, Diane is the only one who does…but that didn’t stop Gaye, who used a sandwich press, or Mardi, who used a griddle pan, from getting them done, so I really didn’t have an excuse to sit them out. With two good ways to hack the cooking process explained, I wondered if there could be a third. Made with a stiff dough rather than a loose batter, these thin, crispy waffles sounded a bit like Dutch stroopwafels (which I have only consumed, never made), especially since Dorie recommends sandwiching them with a filling. I spent some time thinking about how I could get them as thin as reasonably possible and decided to try out my tortilla press. I did only a fourth of the recipe and made them larger than Dorie and Bruno do, getting eight cookies in total. I weighed out my dough balls (about 20g each), gave them each a very firm pressing, and then transferred the resulting circles to my comal to crisp up. I did trim the ratty edges with a cutter while the cookies were still hot.

I’m sure they weren’t as delicate as they would have been in a pizzelle iron, but I was pretty happy with how my waffles came out. They cooled caramelized and crisp, and I sandwiched them with some leftover dark chocolate glaze I had in the fridge. I heated up some classic hot chocolate from Dorie’s xoxoDorie newsletter to enjoy them with, for an extra happy new year treat.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Portofignos

I like a good pun, and calling cookies containing port-plumped dried figs “Portofignos” made me giggle. Dorie points out that the chocolate dough that forms the base of these slice-and-bake cookies is similar to that of her famous World Peace Cookies, but that the bits of toasted walnuts and boozy figs that stud it take things in a new direction. Although I’ve been to Italy zero times and to Portugal only one time more that that, I know Portofino is not even close to where port wine is from…but I’m guessing the direction we are headed is somewhere on the sea, enjoying the good life with a glass of fortified sweet wine and couple of chocolate cookies. I’m very happy to go wherever that is right now, even if it’s just in my imagination.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Mulled Wine Jammers

Baking with TWD, I’ve made Dorie’s jammers every which way over the years, once even as a galette. No matter the variation in flavor or shape, the formula is the same: a sweet and sandy sablé base is topped with jam and ringed with sweet streusel. Mulled Wine Jammers are the winter holiday edition of the classic fave. A semi-homemade mulled wine filling, made by jazzing up shop-bought cherry jam with red wine, spices and dried fruit, is the star of the show here.

Dorie forms these jammers in the usual round fashion, as cookies baked in a muffin tin…but I remembered seeing Joy the Baker make her own version of the recipe baked as bar cookies a couple of years ago, and I never got that good idea out of my head. I knew I wanted to give it a shot when the recipe finally rolled around for us. (Shall I say I’d been “mulling” it over for some time?) I only wanted to make half a recipe, so I pressed the crust into a 6-inch square pan, and proceeded like normal. Baking them off as bars took out a bit of the fiddly work needed to form them individually, but they are delicious, however you make them!

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

TWD DC Rewind: Cherry-Nut Chocolate Pinwheels

I pulled what now seems to be my signature move on these Cherry-Nut Chocolate Pinwheels: I baked them on time and then totally didn’t feel like writing a post about them. I guess now I easily have something to post for Rewind week. Please don’t think that means I didn’t like these. Not so– I actually liked them a lot! A cooked down dried cherry and walnut paste is rolled up inside Dorie’s Do-Almost-Anything Chocolate Dough. What’s not to like? They even held their shape (a fear of mine with pinwheels, and slice and bake cookies in general)! I decided to decorate them with the optional white chocolate drizzle, but it sort of hides the spiral of goodies going on. These have kind of a fruit cake vibe, and I think they would make great holiday cookies.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check the TWD Blogroll!