Tuesdays with Dorie: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
September 2, 2008 at 4:09 am | Posted in cookies & bars, events, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 43 Comments
This week for TWD, Stefany of Proceed with Caution chose these Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. They combine the best bits of all my favorite cookies, and even have a little spice in there, too!
Since more cookies are on the baking horizon, I made just a quarter recipe. I have a lot of half-used bits of chocolate floating around, so I put milk chocolate chunks instead of bittersweet in these, purely for the satisfaction of finishing off a bar.
They came out great, thankfully. Anytime I have to bake with my precious stash of Jif (which I bring back on trips the States), I sweat a little that the recipe will be a bomb. The PB is subtle in flavor, but the cookies really smell peanuty, and the little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg gives them a warm flavor. I baked mine on the low end of the recommended time, so they’d stay a little soft, which is how I prefer a chocolate chip cookie to be. Dorie notes that these are great cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with. I totally bet she’s right, but I didn’t have the stomach (or maybe too much of the stomach is really my problem) to try that out!
I’m actually in New Zealand for most of the week and may not be able to go through the TWD Blogroll myself, but you should definitely check it out! And look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Proceed with Caution to find the recipe for these cookies.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte
August 26, 2008 at 4:36 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 54 Comments
I’m just going to admit that I almost pooped out on TWD this week. I’ve been feeling a little weighed down lately, ya know, and I wasn’t so sure that something called a “Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte” was really going to help. But then I felt guilty…I haven’t missed a week for no good reason yet, and thought it best not to go down that road. Besides, I didn’t want to let down Amy of Food, Family and Fun, who chose this week’s recipe. The deal I struck with myself was to make just two individual servings– one for R and one for me.
I knew that my solo portions wouldn’t need to be as tall as Dorie’s large torte, so I could get away with less of everything. I made just 1/8 of the ganache recipe (or enough for one Dorie-sized serving), and divvied it up between my two little molds, which were actually sturdy, straight sided muffin wrappers. (FYI: The truffle cream does use raw eggs, so if you are sensitive to that, then you may want to skip this recipe or seek out pasteurized eggs, or do whatever you would normally do in this case.) Dorie uses raspberry-flavored ice cream in her torte, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been a fan of fruit and chocolate combos. Instead, I bought two scoops of condensed milk ice cream from a Sydney shop called Passion Flower, which has lots of cool Asian-inspired flavors (I wasn’t sure how black sesame or taro would pair with chocolate, so I played it safe). Back at home, I ground up some hazelnut praline, leftover from this cake, and stirred that in to the ice cream.
The key to serving a frozen dessert like this is to it pull it out of the freezer and let it temper on the counter a few minutes beforehand. Obviously you don’t want it to start melting, but if the ice cream begins to soften just a tad, it’s much more pleasant to eat and will actually taste better, too.
I’m so glad I pulled my head out from you-know-where and got this one done! It was fantastic, and a bit more classy than the normal mid-week dessert around these parts. The chocolate ganache doesn’t freeze solid, but becomes almost chewy when cold. And I really loved it in combination with the hazelnut praline, which retained its sweet crunch in the ice cream.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Food, Family and Fun to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Granola Grabbers
August 19, 2008 at 5:46 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 46 Comments
Granola Grabbers– I feel so wholesome. Perhaps Michelle of Bad Girl Baking was going for that good, clean feeling when she chose these for TWD this week.
Whether you are trying to satisfy the after-school crowd, or are just trying to put aside those impure thoughts you’ve been having about Gael García Bernal ever since watching The Motorcycle Diaries a few days ago, these will do the trick. These chubby little cookies are loaded with granola (of course), wheat germ, nuts, coconut and raisins (or dried cranberries, in my case). I also added a pinch of cinnamon to mine. They are chewy, but the granola also makes them crunchy…a very pleasant combination of textures. I only made a third of a recipe, and I briefly thought about patting the dough into a loaf pan and making bars instead, but I have definitely not been getting my recommended daily dose of cookies lately.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or on Bad Girl Baking to find the recipe for Granola Grabbers. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Blueberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream
August 12, 2008 at 5:22 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 64 Comments
I’m back from Hawaii…a couple days in Oahu, a couple Kauai, but most of our time was spent on the Big Island, where my dad’s side of the family descended upon Kona for my uncle’s wedding. I’m sure the area is still recovering from the W family whirlwind. It was a lot of fun, and I have a face full of freckles and a mind full of good memories to show for it. One night, I even had a mai tai for each of you! Trust me when I say that I paid a stiff price for it the next day!
I’ve returned just in time to make blueberry sour-cream ice cream, this week’s TWD recipe, which comes to us courtesy of Dolores from Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. I was pretty jazzed about this recipe, not only because I jump at any excuse to use my KA ice cream attachment, but also because one of my favorite homemade fruit ice cream recipes is a strawberry-sour cream ice cream I found in Sunset magazine many moons ago. I just love the tang that a whomp of sour cream gives!
This ice cream recipe was pretty simple…no eggs, no making custard, no straining. I used frozen blueberries to make the base. I thought the end product had pretty good flavor, but decided to amp it up a bit before serving with a simple sauce made from, you guessed it, frozen mixed berries.
Dorie notes that this this ice cream is firm in texture. On the day I made it, we ate some within a few hours, when it had that gorgeously soft, smooth feel to it. But on the second day, it was more rock hard than just firm, even after sitting out for awhile. I find that to be a bit unpleasant, and usually put a teeny pinch of xanthan gum, which I get at the health food store, into my homemade ice creams to keep it scoopable for a few days (just a pinch, so it’s never gummy like some store-bought stuff). I was a little PO’d with myself for forgetting it here. If I make this again, I’ll wait till fresh berries are in season and I’ll add a pinch of xanthan gum at the point where the berries are just cooked and still hot.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Black-and-White Banana Loaf
August 5, 2008 at 5:32 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 54 Comments
I love a making loaf cakes (and Bundts, too…wink, wink, nudge, nudge), so I was glad to see that Ashlee of A Year In The Kitchen chose Dorie’s Black-and-White Banana Loaf for TWD this week. Loaf cakes are basically throw together no-brainers, although this one has the extra steps of melting chocolate, mashing a banana and marbling. Still no-brainers, but with a few more bowls to wash at the end.
I also love stuff baked with bananas. I do find this odd, since I don’t like raw bananas at all–ick! But they smell so good baking in the oven, and make for super-moist cakes, breads and muffins. You’ll hear no complaints from me on this cake (it tastes just like you’d expect), although perhaps I could work on my marbling skills…what I did just looks like blobs. Dorie said to make this more white than black, but I paid that no mind and went more black than white.
Did I tell you I found a half-size loaf pan a couple months ago? Really, I don’t even know why I have larger baking pans anymore…they rarely see the light of day. The little guy’s almost as deep as a normal loaf, though, so it doesn’t really shave anything off the baking time.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Ashlee’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
P.S.: I’m still out of town…back in a couple days!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Summer Fruit Galette
July 29, 2008 at 5:19 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 39 Comments
This week, it’s more summer fruit action for TWD, as Michelle from Michelle in Colorado Springs has selected Dorie’s recipe for Summer Fruit Galette. I’m wondering if there are any Southern Hemisphere dwellers coming up in the rotation? Anyone to pick a heavy, wintertime bread pudding, or perhaps a little pumpkin somethin’ somethin’? 
Just kidding…actually, I have something up my sleeve, and it’s one of my absolute favorites. It’s no secret either, because I used it last week— rhubarb.
I so associate rhubarb with spring back in the States, but I mentioned last week that I see it at the farmers’ markets year-round here. Maybe it’s the mild climate or something, I dunno. And I’m talking about thin, red as anything, beautiful stalks, with healthy green leaves (although they’re not healthy to eat–call Mr. Yuck!) still attached. It’s really a veggie, by the way, so perhaps I should call this a “summer vegetable galette”?
A galette is a free-form tart. Less muss and fuss than one baked in a ring, it’s easy to make, and even easier when you have enough of Dorie’s pie dough (left over from my mini Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie) stashed in the freezer to do it. I made two individual-sized galettes. After cutting out the rolled dough into two circles, I smeared the centers with a little strawberry rhubarb jam and sprinkled on some almond cookie crumbs. Then I just piled on a heap of cut rhubarb. Because I really liked the bite of ginger in last week’s cobbler, I chopped up a couple of small hunks of baby stem ginger in syrup that I had in the fridge, and dotted it among the rhubarb pieces…it’s pretty potent stuff, so a little goes along way. I folded the edges of the dough up to form pleats, and the galettes looked oddly similar to a stop sign when viewed from above. I wouldn’t exactly say that rhubarb abounds in natural sweetness, so when I sprinkled the dough with raw sugar before putting the galettes in the oven, I also sprinkled some on the rhubarb.
A few minutes before the galette finishes baking, a “custard” of melted butter, egg, sugar and vanilla gets poured on top. I had initially thought about leaving it out, because the combination of ingredients sounded a little weird to me, frankly. Other TWDers said it really added something, though, so I went ahead with it. And I must say, while it had a strange color (some may say “snot-like”), it was quite tasty and it gave a nice sweetness that seeped all around the rhubarb to fill in the gaps.
To serve, I followed Dorie’s suggestion to simply dust some powdered sugar on top and call it day. We really enjoyed this. It’s a great simple dessert, and I’ll definitely have to try it with some stonefruit in another six months! And I have to say (even though I should not praise that which contains shortening), Dorie’s pie dough is super freakin’ flaky.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Michelle’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
P.S.: So sorry, but I may not be able to make the TWD rounds myself for the next couple weeks. I’ll be on vacation when you read this–twelve days in America’s paradise, and without our laptop. Aloha!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler
July 22, 2008 at 5:55 am | Posted in cobbler/crisp/shorties, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 49 Comments
After a quick chocolate fix last week, TWD’s summer fruit theme picks right back up, with Amanda’s (from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake) selection of Dorie’s Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler. Interestingly (and luckily), rhubarb doesn’t seem to have a season here, and I can find it all year-round at the growers’ markets. Fresh cherries, however, are out in force at Christmastime and pretty much non-existent right now…so this, my friends, is when I must turn to the glorious bounty of the frozen food aisle if I wanna keep up. Armed with a bunch of fresh rhubarb and a box of frozen sweet cherries, I thought I was all set to take this cobbler on.
Then d’oh! I did hit a snag when I saw that the cobbler topping includes whole wheat flour. Just before we moved into this new apartment, I used up the last of my whole wheat in a pizza crust. For reasons I’ll get into later when things become more definite, I’ve been hoping to avoid buying any new ingredients that I can’t easily use up in a few months time. I definitely wanted to include the whole wheat component, as it’s something unique from the other Dorie cobbler we’ve baked, so I decided to make a “homemade” version rather than buy another big bag. No, I didn’t go out back to the grist mill and grind my own (that thing’s been broken since the mid-1800’s– ha!)…I just subbed half AP flour and half wheat germ, which I did have already, for the amount of whole wheat.
There were a couple of things I really liked about this cobbler: the cute little rounds of wheaten topping (which I’ll use again, for sure), and the kick from the ground ginger in both the topping and the filling. There was something about the fruit itself that I wasn’t so crazy about, and it had to do with the cherries. Maybe I’m just used to sour cherries in cobblers and pies, and don’t care for baked sweet cherries. Or maybe it’s simply that fresh cherries would have been better than frozen. Who knows? I don’t, but maybe I can compare when fresh cherries are in season.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Amanda’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Pudding
July 15, 2008 at 5:41 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 52 Comments
This week, Melissa from It’s Melissa’s Kitchen put the TWD spotlight on Dorie’s Chocolate Pudding. It may be from the book Baking: From My Home to Yours, but no baking is required for this one, just a little stovetop work.
I love pudding (I was especially nuts for JELL-O’s pistachio flavored mix growing up), but I have an awkward relationship with it. I can eat pudding that I make, but I cannot eat other people’s pudding. No, no…I am not down with OPP. I can pinpoint the exact reason for this, too, which goes back to a childhood visit to my mum’s Aunt R. Aunt R served me something that was more skin than pudding, and it was all I could do not to gag at the table. I need to know that my pudding will have no trace of skin on it…therefore, I must make it myself.
When I first read the instructions for this recipe, I noticed that a lot of ins and outs of the food processor were required. I thought that sounded like a bit of a pain in the butt, but it was really no big deal. And the using the food processor is the best way to get an uber-smooth pudding. You can bet I pressed plastic on the surface straight away before refrigerating it!
I made mine with low-fat (not skim) milk, instead of whole, and I thought it worked great. The chocolate I used was from a dark chocolate bar infused with mint that I had in the pantry. Sorry George Costanza, no pudding skin singles here…just super-smooth, super-chocolatey, sightly minty, totally delicious pudding!
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here on Dorie’s blog to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out Melissa’s post and the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie
July 8, 2008 at 4:47 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 70 Comments
I may not have had fireworks this Fourth of July, but I still had homemade blueberry pie! As you can tell, I’m back in action in my new kitchen…although the day we moved in, we got some news that makes us wonder if we should bother to unpack, but that’s a different story for a different time…I’m here now to talk about Dorie’s Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie, which Amy from South in Your Mouth selected for TWD. Look at that pie with its little blueberry juice scar–it’s so homely, it’s almost cute!
The recipe for Dorie’s pie dough calls for mostly butter with a small amount of shortening. I’ve actually never made a pie crust with shortening before, but since I do have some the fridge (why, I cannot remember), I decided to give it go. I won’t lie…it’s a great crust. It’s crispy and flaky and all that, but I do generally have the shortening creeps, and will probably stick with my normal all-butter recipe going forward. Due to the fact that fresh blueberries are hard to find here right now, and break-the-bank expensive when you do, I took a gamble and used frozen ones in the filling. I do think, by the way, that fresh blueberries make a noticeably better pie filling, but in a pinch, these were acceptable. Besides the frozen berries and the fact that I made a mini pie, I followed Dorie’s recipe to a tee. I served up our slices with vanilla whipped cream.
Thanks to everyone who left comments here last week! Dorie herself commented on my Apple Cheddar Scones post–I almost choked on my coffee when I saw that! Now, off to the TWD blogroll for all the other pies out there! And check out Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or Amy’s post for the recipe for her Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Apple Cheddar Scones
July 1, 2008 at 5:10 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, groups, tuesdays with dorie | 43 Comments
These are the last treats baked in the oven of my old apartment (sniff). Karina of The Floured Apron has chosen Dorie’s Apple Cheddar Scones for TWD this week. If it weren’t for the group, I probably wouldn’t have made this recipe. Not that doesn’t sound good to me, it actually sounds quite good, but I just know I wouldn’t have gotten around to it. I’m so glad I got the push I needed, because I thought they were fantastic!
Apples and cheddar cheese are a classic combination. I used to think it was a southern thing…then I thought it was a New England thing. I have no idea what kind of thing it is now, except for a good thing. This recipe calls for dried apples, which hold their form well in the scones, and grated cheddar (I used white), which melts into the background. The dried fruit and cheddar cheese, along with apple juice, make for a slightly sweet and salty combo that I love. Cornmeal in the dough makes them bake up golden and gives them texture. If I make them again, I’ll either scoop out the sticky dough in rounds or pat it out a bit fatter, but that’s purely for looks. I served mine with a little honey butter on the side–tasty!
Sorry to keep this so short, but as I write this, I’m still in the midst of packing. A big thanks to Karina for this week’s pick! My internet connection may be down for several days due to the move, so I might not be able to check out the TWD blogroll myself this week, but you should! And check out Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or Karina’s post for the recipe for these Apple Cheddar Scones.
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