Tuesdays with Dorie: Berry Surprise Cake
January 20, 2009 at 1:14 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 32 Comments
Surprise! I love a surprise…the good kind only, of course, and Dorie’s Berry Surprise Cake certainly falls into that category. Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen chose it for TWD this week.
A single layer of genoise sponge is cut in two horizontally, hollowed and filled (bread-bowl style) with a lightly-sweetened cream cheese and fresh berry mixture, then craftily reassembled. Whipped cream frosting hides what’s going on inside (hence the surprise). At Fairway, blackberries were not only the best looking, but also the cheapest, so I went with those and used cassis to flavor my soaking syrup. When berry season rolls around, I’ll be trying out raspberries as well.
From the outside it is pretty unassuming, right? Trust me, it is really delicious…not too sweet, and I love the way genoise kind of takes everything in. We especially liked this cake after a day or two, when it became almost trifle-like.
For the recipe, read Meet Me in the Kitchen or see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins
January 13, 2009 at 2:04 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 44 Comments
Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake chose Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins for TWD this week. I love months where we get a savory or breakfast recipe…one less dessert to squeeze in. I made six muffins. We had a couple for breakfast with scrambled eggs, and a couple with a Mexican-ish tortilla casserole I made for dinner. They were the perfect accompaniment for both.
These muffins are wonderfully spiced from the chili powder, and have lots of good add ins, like corn kernels, jalapeños and red pepper. While I know some people can’t stand the stuff, I am a cilantro fiend and always use a heavy hand with it. If you’re a cornbread purist, you may not go for these. I’m not, so I did…I thought they were best warm.
For the recipe, read Rebecca’s post or see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.
Tuesdays with Dorie: French Pear Tart
January 4, 2009 at 3:33 pm | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 59 Comments
Guess what — this is my 50th Tuesdays with Dorie post!! Seems quite appropriate that my TWD golden anniversary be celebrated with a golden dessert, chosen by none other than Dorie Greenspan herself. Dorie has picked a French Pear Tart for the group to bake this week.
This tart is a classic French dessert. It has three main components: pears, almond cream (frangipane) and a sweet tart dough (pâte sablée). Dorie says that it is most acceptable to make this tart using canned pears, but here I used fresh ones, poached in a sugar syrup until deliciously soft and sweet. Regular pie dough is flaky, but sablée is like a sweet crisp, butter cookie. (Incidentally, we make a type of sweet tart dough at the bakery where I work. It is affectionately referred to as “STD”…we are a classy bunch.) When the almond cream bakes, it puffs up around the pear, becoming almost cake-like.
If you make this and poach your pears, too, please don’t throw out the poaching liquid! I’ve learned from working in restaurants that there are a million uses for poaching liquid. It can be made into a granita or turned into sorbet base. It can be reduced to a thicker syrup, and used in cocktails, over ice cream or to decorate a plate (like I did here). Or it can simply be used to poach more pears. You can also add things to the liquid to give additional flavor, like wine, vanilla bean or whole spices.
I made individual tarts, which I assembled and baked off as needed, since I figured a big one would go soggy before we could get through it. Rather than fanning out cut slices of pear, I just used one of its “cheeks” in each tartlette. Doesn’t it look a little like a fried egg when viewed from above? I served the baked tartlettes with a vanilla goat’s milk ice cream from Laloo’s.
For the recipe for this delicious tart, look on Dorie’s blog or in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (she also has a version of it here on Epicurious). Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.
So, fifty recipes from BFMHTY…what are my favorites so far? Honestly, they’ve almost all been winners, but I regularly daydream about Bill’s Big Carrot Cake and Almost-Fudge Gâteau. What do I hope someone will pick soon? Every month I keep my fingers crossed that Oatmeal Breakfast Bread, Coconut Tea Cake or any of the Bundts will be on our list.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake
December 30, 2008 at 1:52 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, cheesecakes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 45 Comments
When I saw that Anne of AnneStrawberry had chosen Dorie’s Tall and Creamy Cheesecake for TWD, my first reaction was something like “errrgh.” Now, I love me some cheesecake (one of my favorites can be seen here), but I didn’t know how I’d make it fit into my holiday eating plans. Then I realized that my holiday eating plans basically boiled down to eating as much as possible, so cheesecake would actually fit in quite nicely.
I did jazz up the basic recipe to make it a bit more festive. Rather than a graham cracker crust, I made a gingersnap one. Then, I topped each piece with homemade cranberry sauce (because I love it, and must have it more often than just at Thanksgiving).
This cheesecake is fantastically good! Thanks, Anne and, it probably goes without saying, Dorie! I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese (you know, that “Neufchâtel” stuff) to make mine. Combined with full fat sour cream, it was just perfect. One more note: I like to use the food processor, rather than a mixer, to make cheesecake batter. It still requires a scrape or two, but as long as your cream cheese and eggs are room temperature, you will never get a lump. Oh, yeah, I also wanted to say that a half recipe works nicely in a high-sided six-inch springform.
Did anyone find the instruction to let the cheesecake “luxuriate in its water bath” amusing? I was jealous– I would like to luxuriate in a water bath!
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (she also has it here on Serious Eats). You can find it on AnneStrawberry, too. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.
Happy New Year!!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Real Butterscotch Pudding
December 23, 2008 at 1:47 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 29 Comments
Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases chose Real Butterscotch Pudding for TWD. Delightful, Donna– how did you know butterscotch is one of my favorite flavors (for candy, ice cream sauce, pudding, whatever)?!? I love the brown sugar sweetness and the boozy kick (I used good ol’ JD here) of this old-fashioned treat.
Usually I just make half-batches of the TWD recipes, but butterscotch is worthy of full-batch treatment, I think! I’ve made butterscotch tarts for you before, so this time I just went with my little old-school Pyrex cups. I did go the extra mile, with whipping up cream and toasting some pecans in butter, brown sugar and a sprinkle of salt. The sweet and salty crunch was perfect with the smooth pudding. The only thing I’ll tweak with Dorie’s recipe next time will be to go half and half on light and dark brown sugar, just to boost the color a bit.
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. You can find it on Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases, too. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Happy holidays, everyone!!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Buttery Jam Cookies
December 16, 2008 at 1:33 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 33 Comments
TWD’s holiday cookie extravaganza continues, with Heather of Randomosity and the Girl choosing Buttery Jam Cookies as this week’s recipe. These are pleasantly chewy, sturdy little cookies, with a surprisingly delicate flavor. Lightly sweet and jam-kissed (I used peach-apricot jam from Sarabeth’s), they keep their shape in the oven, so what you scoop is what you get. I’ll certainly make them again– they were perfect with chamomile tea.
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. You can find it on Randomosity and the Girl, too. Check out the TWD Blogroll to see lots of jammy cookies!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies
December 9, 2008 at 1:05 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 45 Comments
For TWD this week, one of my favorite bloggers, Ulrike of Küchenlatein, chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies. These may technically be “all-occasion,” but I bet that Ulrike knows they’re exactly what Santa hopes to find waiting for him on Christmas Eve.
These are sweet and buttery…great with tea, hot chocolate, eggnog…Thank you, Dorie’s grandma!! You can cut them out in fancy shapes and decorate them a zillion ways, but I took the easy route and just did slice-and-bake. I made a little glaze from powdered sugar and bourbon (naughty but in the nicest way, right?), and shook on some sprinkles.
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (she also has it here on The Splendid Table site). You can find it on Küchenlatein, too. Check out the TWD Blogroll to see lots of well-decorated sugar cookies!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Linzer Sablés
December 2, 2008 at 12:34 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 47 Comments
Seems the next few weeks of TWD will be dedicated to cookies. Very holiday-appropriate, no? Despite my best intentions, I never make a multitude of Christmas cookies…when the time comes, this little elf just doesn’t really feel up to the task, so I guess this will give me a bit of a shove. First up, we have Linzer Sablés, chosen for us by noskos of Living the Life. If you’ve ever had a linzer cookie or torte, you will know that they usually have a pastry made with cinnamon and ground nuts, and some type of jammy filling (often raspberry). I love this combo…I even made linzer cupcakes once.
I think linzer dough is most tasty and flavorful when made with hazelnuts. Alas, I still do not have my food processor, and pre-ground hazelnut meal is hard to find here. Almond meal’s pretty easy to source (I got a nice speckled one, made with skin-on almonds, from TJ’s), so I went with that this go-round.
I made half a batch of dough, but guess I forgot what I was doing when it came time to add the cinnamon. Luckily I caught myself before the full 1 1/2 teaspoons went in, but my dough was dark with the extra spice. It actually had great flavor! I used mixed berry preserves from Sarabeth’s as my filling. I was careful to roll my dough to a thickness 1/4-inch, as Dorie states. After sandwiching the cookies, I wished I’d rolled them thinner. Too much cookie and not enough jam. Next time, I’ll go about 1/8-inch instead.
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. You can also find it on Living the Life. Check out the TWD Blogroll to find plenty of other baking tips for these cookies!
Tuesdays with Dorie (on Thursday!): Thanksgiving Twofer Pie
November 27, 2008 at 10:42 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 18 Comments
Pumpkin or pecan? Pecan or pumpkin? What to do? Which to eat? If you’re as bad at making these major life decisions as I am, then maybe Dorie’s Thanksgiving Twofer pie (chosen for us by the lovely Vibi of La casserole carrée) is for you. It starts with a pumpkin pie custard, and then gets topped with a pecan pie goo– no need to choose!
Okay, so it is not the most beautiful pie I have ever made (even though I tried to gussy it up with a little powdered sugar for its photo session). No matter– it’s what’s inside that counts, right? And what’s inside is really tasty. To tell the truth, it was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought the two layers would stay separate and distinct. The nuts themselves remained suspended on top, but the pecan goo intermingled with the pumpkin custard…it was really quite delicious, though. I spiked mine with bourbon instead of rum (cause that’s what I like with pecan pie), and piled the whipped cream high!
I made half a recipe and used my new cute little red dish. Tracy from Cake Batter and Crumbs sent it to me, and I just love it!! My only beef with Dorie’s recipe is that it took much longer to bake than she indicated, even with the small size. I kept upping the oven timer…five more minutes, five more minutes. I feel like I did it a zillion times, but I probably tacked on an extra 15 to 20 minutes in all. I was a little worried it was overkill and that I’d wind up with a curdled mess, but I can give thanks that my Thanksgiving pie came out just right.
I wish all of my American friends a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Even though everything feels a bit more challenging this year than last, everyday (and with every news broadcast) I’m reminded of just how much I have to be thankful for. For the pie recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. You can also find it in Vibi’s post. Check out the TWD Blogroll to find plenty of other baking tips for this pie!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Arborio Rice Pudding
November 18, 2008 at 1:42 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 41 Comments
Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa chose Dorie’s Arborio Rice Pudding for this week’s TWD. Cool and creamy, I’m a huge fan of rice pudding…but I don’t make it often, so I was really looking forward to Isa’s pick!
Dorie’s recipe calls for parboiling arborio rice, the type often used in risotto, before cooking it down in sweetened milk. By the way, if you have her book, you will see the cooking time listed as 30 minutes…after some reading some tales of rice soup on the TWD comment board, Dorie herself told our group that this is an error. Cooking time is more like 55 minutes. She only uses 1/4 cup of rice for four servings (and 3 1/4 cups milk). I like my rice pudding, well, ricey, so I doubled the amount of arborio, keeping the milk the same. Doing this cut my cooking time dramatically, as the extra rice absorbed the liquid pretty quickly. The trick to a creamy (instead of stiff) rice pudding is to cut off the heat when you can begin to see the grains of rice peeking through the liquid. The rice won’t have absorbed all the milk…the mixture will still look relatively loose, but as it chills in the fridge, the starch should thicken it up nicely.
My mum puts rum into her rice pudding (ahh…fond childhood memories!). I love it that way, but I haven’t rebuilt my liquor stash just yet. Instead, I steeped two cardamom pods in the milk, and stirred in a healthy dose of vanilla extract and some dried cherries at the end. This was a tasty treat. The arborio held its shape and texture without turning to mush, and the milk thickened into a cardamom-perfumed cream.
The recipe, of course, is in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. You can also find it in Isabelle’s post. Check out the TWD Blogroll to see what the rest of the group had to say!
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