a whisk and a spoon

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Pain de Gênes Buttons

Calling these Pain de Gênes Buttons “cookies” is a stretch. These buttons are really baby cakes, not that I mind at all. The star of the flavor show here is the good bit of almond paste that’s incorporated into the batter (the rum I sloshed in was runner-up). My husband loved these because they reminded him of the almondy treats of his childhood from the Italian-American bakeries in Long Island. I liked their flavor, too, and their texture, which was spongy and dense at the same time. These were another winning treat for the WFH coffee station.

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: Honey-and-Tea Jammers

These Honey-and-Tea Jammers are pretty close to Dorie’s famous Classic Jammers, but with tea leaves rubbed into the sugar in the shortbread cookie base. I used a loose leaf spiced chai here– which, to tell the truth, was not that noticeable– with cherry jam in the cookies’ centers. I don’t make many pies or tarts, as I’m squarely on team cake and cookies, but I like that these give the effect of a crumb-topped pie in cookie-form. Just like with pies and tarts, à la mode is a encouraged with these Jammers.

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

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Popcorn Streusel Tops

These Popcorn Streusel Tops are corny little cookies. Actually they are really fun and tasty. A cornmeal-corn kernel shortbread that’s topped with streusel and popcorn makes a cookie dressed for a party. Baked in rings or muffin tins, these reminded me a lot of Dorie’s famous Jammer cookies, but with corn and without jam. I liked them very much, but the wheels in my dessert brain are always spinning, and after tasting them, I am convinced that they can be tweaked very well into the Jammer format. I am imagining making the corn cookie base, adding a bloop of either strawberry or blueberry jam on top of each cookie and then ringing the jam with the popcorn-streusel mix. Sounds good, right? I’ll try this one day and report back.

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: Biarritz Cookies

Dorie remembers Pepperidge Farm’s now discontinued Biarrtiz Cookies with such fondness, that she decided to recreate them at home. (A bit of research revealed that they actually still exist, and are made by the Belgian cookie company that originally “invented” them and licensed the rights to make them, and several other cookies, in the US for a time to PF). A traditional Biarritz is a single cookie with a tempered chocolate-coated bottom side, but I went the ganache sandwich route and turned them into something more like a round Milano.

The batter is pretty much a tuile batter, with beaten egg whites and melted butter incorporated into the dry ingredients. It’s flowy and not stiff, but it’s not spread paper thin like a tuile, so it keeps a bit of a rounded shape when baked. I really don’t like using a piping bag if I don’t have to, so I used my small cookie scoop to portion the batter. It worked just fine and I got nicely sized cookies that were pretty consistent in shape (others in the group had mentioned that the quarter-sized bloops Dorie says to pipe make very small finished cookies). I actually had a bit of leftover coffee-flavored ganache in the fridge and I used that up to make my cookie sandwiches. I liked these a lot, even though they were soft and not crisp like I’d expected them to be.

Something I’ve always appreciated about the more delicate Pepperidge Farm cookies is that they are packed into paper cups, so I did the same for photo purposes. For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.