Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops
February 15, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 24 Comments
I love chocolate. I love oatmeal. Naturally I’d been hoping that we’d get to make these Chocolate Oatmeal Drops sooner rather than later. Yet, when their turn rolled around, I wasn’t at first convinced. They seemed a little dry to me…like maybe the oats had robbed the cookies of some of their moisture. I almost never bake off a whole batch of cookies at once though, so into the freezer went a slew of scooped out raw dough drops.
I pulled a handful of scoops out a few days later and baked them off, shortcutting the recommended time by just a minute or so. They were not at all raw inside, but soft and really chocolatey, just the way I’d hoped they would be. So, now I am convinced: chocolate + oatmeal = tasty cookies.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Bake With Us, as Caroline and Claire picked it this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Bourbon Bread Pudding
February 8, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 20 CommentsTags: baking, dessert, pudding
My husband has been out of town for the last few days at a work conference. This was the first time in many years that I have not had to endure the Super Bowl (although apparently I missed a good rendition of the anthem). I spent Sunday night with four hours of “Emma” on Masterpiece Theater instead (dorky, but so good!) and this big fat slice of Bourbon Bread Pudding. Hellooooo alone time!
Dorie has taught me how to make bread pudding at home. You need lots of the good stuff (cream and egg yolks) for it to come out lush and soft. Now, here’s where I admit to you that I did cut back on the cream by a third (and upped the milk by a third in its place)…but not to worry, there was still plenty of cream and yolks in there. And I used challah bread, which is pretty rich in itself. You can see that I added almonds and dried cherries to mine. You can’t see that I quadrupled the bourbon, but trust me on that. My custard base tasted like eggnog! This was a mighty fine bread pudding, not to mention a most amiable television companion.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Simply Southern, as it was Sharon’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Great Grains Muffins
February 1, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, tuesdays with dorie | 20 CommentsTags: breakfast, muffins
Usually, when I make muffins, I’m trying to sneak a little whole wheat flour into the mix and hoping my husband won’t care. Well, here’s a muffin that’s supposed to be full of grains…whole wheat, corn and oats. Good for you stuff, but with a little AP flour so it doesn’t feel like a brick. I did sneak something else in, though….a tablespoon of ground flaxseed (although wheat germ would be good, too). For dried fruit, I used blueberries and apricots. These aren’t big, high-doming muffins, but I’d be happy to wake up to them anytime. In the book, they’re pictured with a big hunk of cheese, but I think they’re pretty good with a little jam.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Happy Tummy, as it was Christine’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake
January 25, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 21 Comments
It’s cold. So cold that I don’t want to go outside. So cold that I just want to stay at home and bake all day. And that’s just how I spent this past Saturday. First up was this Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake. It’s kind of a cross between a pound cake and a coffee cake…a pound cake-type base with a swirls of sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts and chocolate running through. Dorie’s recipe also calls for raisins, but since I don’t normally go for fruit and chocolate combos, I left them out entirely. However, to totally contradict what I just said, I did add the orange zest (actually I used tangerine), and liked the gentle citrus flavor a lot.
A word of warning…making the cake was easy, making the swirl was easy, but combining them was not. I read about sticking, so I was careful not to let the first layer of the sugar-based swirl mix come in contact with the pan. That wasn’t too tricky, but then when I added the second and final layer of swirl, the cake batter was so stiff, I really couldn’t easily work it over the swirl to cover it. Not wanting to bake it with exposed swirlage (because it would fall out when I flipped the cake), I popped the cake in the oven for about three minutes, until the batter just started to soften. Then it was a breeze to get that swirl covered up with batter.
My husband asked for “big pieces” of this cake. We both liked how it had a nice outer crust with soft cake inside. And course cinnamon, nuts and chocolate, too!
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on NPR) or read Cooking for Comfort, as it was Jennifer’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
January 18, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 20 Comments
I made these muffins– oh, wow– more than a year ago, and have been waiting patently for someone, like Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness, to choose them for TWD. Lemons and poppy seeds are one of the classic combos of the muffin world, and for good reason. Who wouldn’t want to wake up to a cup of coffee and a little lemon cake? In addition to super-cuteness, poppy seeds give a little crunch. Dorie’s recipe has a lemon glaze that is sweet and puckery at the same time…and I was generous with it. I have the world’s biggest jar of poppy seeds (seriously, it’s like PB jar sized!), so I’ll make these again, and when I do, I’m going to try the jam-filled variation.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read A Cup of Sweetness. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines
January 11, 2011 at 12:20 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 26 Comments
Whenever I start a new food job, my new coworkers always seem to ask me where I’m from. I’m going through this phase at my job right now, and sometimes the question makes me scratch my head…like, what was the last place I worked for, or where did I grow up? I’ve come to realize that, more often than not, the person asking has recently moved to NYC from someplace else, and is wondering about my hometown. While I think a lot about the places and people I grew up with, the day I left for college in the early ’90s was the last time I was ever in my childhood home…my parents packed up and moved cross-country a few weeks later. And, apart from the two years I spent in Sydney, I’ve been in New York since 1996. Sometimes I think that I’m more Brooklyn than NoVA now, but I don’t, and wouldn’t ever want to, forget where I’m from.
If you asked a Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleine where it’s from, it would probably tell you, that while it was born in France, it has spent the last couple decades living in Texas. A plate of these guys would likely not make Proust remember anything, but one taste would probably shoot most American grown-ups right back to childhood! Apart from their scalloped shape and cakey texture, they are pretty far removed from their French origins, but with ganache and marshie Fluff, they are instantly recognizable to me. A couple of tips if you want to make these yummies at home: if you nuke your Fluff jar for 5-10 seconds, it will be much easier to get the sticky stuff out of the jar and into a piping bag; also, madeleines stale quickly, so if you like them soft, eat them soon after they’re put together.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on Serious Eats) or read Effort to Deliciousness, as it was Margot’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Midnight Crackles
January 4, 2011 at 12:18 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Is there a sweeter way to celebrate both the new year and the third anniversary of TWD than with chocolatey cookies? These little, soft, dark and spicy Midnight Crackles were Laurie and Julie’s pick for TWD’s anniversary recipe. Here I made the “Playing Around” Chocolate Gingerbread variation, which uses some ginger, allspice and coriander in addition to the cinnamon and cloves that already scent the “regular” dough.
Apart from arming yourself with a glass of milk when you eat these, my one piece of advice is to not chill the raw dough for too long before forming it into balls. The chocolate in dough makes it very firm, very fast. And the just-mixed dough is a lot like Play-Doh and is easy to work with. Bake them on the short end of the time recommendation and they are kind of brownie-like inside. I made just half a batch, but it yielded a heap of cookies, so I have a stash of unbaked dough balls in my freezer– ready for when the midnight munchies strike.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read the TWD blog. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
P.S.: On Dorie’s blog, she has an idea for using this same dough to make roll-out cookies. Take a look!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cardamom Crumb Cake
December 21, 2010 at 12:06 am | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, groups, muffins/quick breads, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 11 Comments
Have I told you what I have been up to lately? I started November wishing I could find a part-time job, and now I have two part-time jobs, totaling way more hours than a typical full-time one. I get very anxious about waking up for job #1 at 5:45 in the morning after I’ve been at job #2 until 11:00 at night. How do I get myself into these things, and why have I started every new food job I’ve had during the super-busy holiday season? Oh well, it won’t last forever…job #2 is only for another few weeks.
For the time being, I do really look forward to the one morning a week when I can drink coffee out of a proper cup and stuff my face with things like Cardamom Crumb Cake for breakfast. I get really happy when folks like Jill pick a breakfast recipe for TWD, and this coffee cake highlights one of my favorite spices. I’d say that this is a simple, plain cake, but cardamom is an interesting flavor and is something a bit more unexpected than cinnamon. Combine it with orange zest, espresso powder and walnut crumb topping, and you’ve got a cake I’d eat any day of the week. Happily, the second half of mine is tucked away in the freezer until Saturday.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Jill’s Blog. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Apple-Coconut Family Cake
December 14, 2010 at 9:37 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 16 Comments
R and I just got ourselves a new desktop computer. After working off laptops for the past six or seven years, my fingers feel very clumsy on a full-size keyboard and I’m not used to a mouse at all. (Can you tell I also haven’t had a desk job in a really long time?) I have to be sure to hit the spell-check button, or this post will be riddled with typos. I’m excited to see all the beautiful Apple-Coconut Family Cakes on a big screen, though!
There’s something about the term “family cake” that sounds really appealing…cute and cozy. And there’s something about the apple-coconut combination that sounds unusual…how often do you see those two paired up? Even though there is quite a lot of coconut in this cake (I used unsweetened desiccated coconut from the health food store, which is more finely grated than the sweetened sheds), I didn’t find its flavor to be that pronounced…I actually thought it tasted more of the rum than coconut. Instead, I noticed most what it gave to the cake’s texture– sturdiness and bit of chew. A heap of diced apples kept it moist and the unsweetened coconut kept it from being too saccharine. This is one I’ll make again.
We are just a family of two, so I only made half a recipe. Despite its small size, my cake took longer to bake than the 45 minutes Dorie recommended for the full version. At the 45 minute mark, the edge was nicely browned, but the middle was still wet, so I put foil over the pan and popped it back in the oven for an extra 5+ minutes. That helped steam up the middle a bit and cooked it through.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Cobbler du Monde, as it was Amber’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Translucent Maple Tuiles
December 7, 2010 at 10:14 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 16 Comments
I’ve had a busy last couple of weeks, with back-to-back sets of houseguests to entertain, take care of and clean up after. It was fun, but I’m glad to be back to my regular routine…and that includes getting my Tuesday TWD post up.
Luckily, this week’s pick, courtesy of Clivia of Bubie’s Little Baker, couldn’t be easier. The world’s simplest cookie dough, made of just maple syrup, brown sugar, butter and flour, gets a quick-mix by hand. After a brief rest in the fridge, and only seven minutes in the oven, Translucent Maple Tuiles are ready! Tuiles are crispy, buttery, lacy-thin cookies. The coolest thing about a tuile is that, while still warm from the oven, it’s pliable. If you don’t want to cool your tuiles flat on a rack, you can gently curve them around a rolling pin, or roll them more tightly, like cannoli tubes.
I followed Clivia’s suggestion to use a “shave” less butter than the recipe called for. They come out of the oven a little greasy, so I was glad I did. R and I enjoyed our maple tuiles with a little bowl of ice cream.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or Bubie’s Little Baker. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
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