Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Cocktail Puffs
May 5, 2020 at 8:11 pm | Posted in DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory, snacks
In addition to my daily afternoon tea time, I have daily pre-dinner apéro time. That sounds fancier than it is– last night we had popcorn– but the point is that I’m on the look out for some good savory snacks. Cocktail Puffs are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book and, filled with anything from olive tapenade (my choice) to pesto to cheese, they sounded promising with a half-glass of wine.
The full recipe makes 50 puffs. Even if NYC is quarantined through summer, I don’t know if I can deal with that many! I need some snack variety, so I made just a quarter recipe. The dough is a snap to do in the food processor, and a combo of cold yogurt and butter, plus one fold of the dough, makes it flaky. It’s also soft and requires a lengthy chill time. I know my focus is not the sharpest these days, but I had to read the instructions like 5 times to figure out how the heck to form the puffs. There was a lengthy description of measurements and the cutting of strips, and, as a visual learner, I wished for an illustration. But I think I got it in the end and I was totes ready for a cocktail after that.
When I pulled my puffs out of the oven, I dusted them with a little paprika. I liked them…they were flaky and savory…but I would have liked them a little bigger. They were thimble sized, and I wish they had been double that to get more puff and filling. Also, I couldn’t help but think that they’d work just as well with bought puff pastry. On the flip side, it probably means this dough would be good used in other ways, too, so maybe I’ll give that some thought.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us anytime!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Puffed Grain and Miso Cookies
January 7, 2020 at 8:26 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
I buy rice cakes on the regular and usually use them as a vehicle for hummus, nut butter or smashed avo, but it had never really occurred to me that I could make my own version, with add-ins so tasty I could enjoy them just on their own. To be fair, these are Puffed Grain and Miso Cookies, not merely rice cakes, and they have a lot going on, even though they come together in a snap once you have all the ingredients. I was sort of hemming and hawing about having to buy both a bag of puffed rice and a bag of puffed barley, as the recipe calls for…then I spotted a box of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs, decided seven grains would be even better than two, and went with that instead. I stirred in sesame seeds, cashews (instead of peanuts) and a mix of dries berries and raisins, along with the miso, brown rice syrup and sesame and olive oils. They bake in muffin cups into light, crispy-chewy, sweet-salty little rounds. No bland or stale rice cakes here!
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: Smoky, Cheesy Cookies
November 19, 2019 at 8:50 pm | Posted in DC, groups, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, cheese, cookies, savory
I’m really enjoying the “cocktail cookies” section of Dorie’s Cookies. Not that I could ever OD on sweets or anything, but it’s also nice to have a salty snack to go with a glass of wine or a green salad. These Smoky, Cheesy Cookies are like cheese and crackers in one. They have sharp cheddar and smoked gouda (or smoked mozzarella, in my case) and some cayenne pepper to give them a little zip. Similar to the Parmesan Galettes we made last month, this dough is made in the food processor. These are roll-out cookies rather than slice-and-bake, though, and they seem a bit sturdier…more crispy and flaky than delicate and sandy.
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: Parmesan Galettes
October 1, 2019 at 8:27 am | Posted in DC, groups, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, cheese, cookies, savory
Not that there’s anything wrong with Cheez-Its (no, nothing at all, really), but if you’re looking for a cheese cracker that’s a bit more elevated, maybe you should really be looking for a cheese cookie. Parmesan Galettes could be a better answer for your next wine and cheese party.
The dough is just butter, four, salt and parm, and it comes together in a snap in the food processor. Rather than hand-grate the cheese, I broke it down to bits in the Cuisinart before I made the dough–double duty! The dough is slice-and-bake and, although it can be baked freeform, baking it in a muffin tin will make perfect rounds. I sometimes find slice-and-bake cookies to be a bit annoying, tbh. I can almost never slice a cold log of dough nicely…I don’t cut it evenly, it always gets flat on one side and the first and last pieces are always wonky. It was easy enough with this dough to just roll it into a log, cut it while soft and press the pieces into the muffin tin. I flattened the tops down with a little juice glass and put the whole tin into the freezer for an hour before baking. I sprinkled on a bit of extra parmesan when I popped them into the oven.
Without an egg to bind the dough, these are very delicate cookies (although I had no problem getting them out of the tin unbroken). They are salty and cheesy and almost melt away when you bite into them. Delicious with a glass of crisp white wine.
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: Triscuity Bites
July 2, 2019 at 5:15 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, savory things, snacks, sweet things | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
Triscuity Bites aren’t cookies that resemble Triscuits, they’re savory “cocktail cookies” with Triscuits in them. They’re made from a cream cheese dough with bits of Triscuit crackers mixed in. Actually, they should be made from a cream cheese dough, but someone didn’t read the recipe before she went to the store…got the Triscuits, but no Philly. I took stock of what like items I had in the fridge, and decided that labneh would probably work as a substitute. I think it was fine.
These cookies held a perfect shape in the oven. I was pretty pleased that my squares stayed square. They are nicely salty and have that sort of airy crunch that Triscuits do. More rich than plain, out-of-the-box Triscuits, I ate these on their own. On their own, with wine, I mean.
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: Old Bay Pretzel-and-Cheese Cookies
May 21, 2019 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
I grew up in Northern Virginia and when I was a kid, my dad and a friend from Maryland co-owned a boat together on the Chesapeake Bay. My mother would wrinkle her nose at this, but Old Bay is a flavor of my childhood, I guess, and one I still like lot today. Now I mostly sprinkle it on corn or oven fries, but here it’s used in savory Old Bay Pretzel-and-Cheese Cookies. With chunks of pretzel rods and bits of cheddar cheese, too, they’re just the thing to have with a beer or a Bloody Mary, or even a bowl of tomato soup.
The dough is like a shortbread and is made in the food processor. I actually had a hard time getting mine to come together, even before adding the pretzel bits, and wound up adding a blob of sour cream for a bit of extra moisture to make it less crumbly. It’s slice-and-bake, so I managed to finagle the dough into a rough log, but then it crumbled again when i sliced it. I wound up having to hand-form my cookie crumbles into little nuggets on the sheet tray. When baked, I’m happy to report that they finally held together! They’re salty and savory and crunchy, and if I find myself going boating again anytime soon, they’ll find their way into my snack bag.
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: Honey-Blue Cheese Madeleines
March 5, 2019 at 2:59 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
I like the chance to break out my madeleine pan, and here’s an interesting reason– Honey-Blue Cheese Madeleines. A sweet and savory combo, Dorie says she was inspired to create these mads after enjoying blue cheese and honey together on a cheese plate at a wine bar. That in turn inspired me to pair them with some typical cheese plate accompaniments: a few slices of pear (mine were poached) and some dried fruit and nuts. Vin santo, too, although I think they’d go nicely with most wines, or with a dirty martini, if that’s your jam. These are “cocktail cookies,” after all.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already.
Everyday Dorie: Roasted Squash Hummus
December 14, 2018 at 10:21 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, savory things, snacks, veggies | 14 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, vegetables
You know I’m having an exciting Friday night when I’m writing up a blog post about hummus! At least this Roasted Squash Hummus has a little something different going on. In place of the traditional chickpeas, this hummus gets its body from a roasted squash. Of course there’s tahini and lemon, but also some cool ingredients like za’atar and pomegranate molasses. I used a small carnival squash, and although Dorie just has you mash together the ingredients with a fork, I put everything into my mini food processor and gave it a whiz. I plated it up with a smear of thick yogurt, drizzles of olive oil and more pom molasses and a sprinkling of toasted pumpkin seeds. It’s earthy and creamy with a touch of sweetness. This was more interesting than my normal Sunday football food, and I thought it made a nice dip for veggies and pita chips.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Cranberry Five-Spice Cookies
November 6, 2018 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
When these Cranberry Five-Spice Cookies were being floated around in the month’s nominations, I didn’t realize that they are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book. This is the section where the cookies lean more savory than sweet…nibbles to go with a glass of wine or an aperitif. These ones have the texture of sugar cookies, but they are only very lightly sweetened, and are flavored with tart fresh cranberries, salty peanuts and Chinese five-spice powder, an exotic mixture of ground cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise and Szechuan pepper.
A lot of times, I like to cut roll-out cookies like these into squares rather than rounds so I don’t have any waste. I sprinkled these with a little mix of extra sugar, salt and five-spice before baking. Even though they weren’t quite what I had in mind when I cracked open the book to make them, I did like them. I thought a bit of spreadable goat cheese on top went rather nicely.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: My Newest Gougères
October 26, 2018 at 7:37 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, savory things, snacks | 20 CommentsTags: choux, everydaydorie, savory
In case you can’t tell from the over four hundred posts I’ve written, dedicated to the over four hundred recipes I’ve made from her books, Dorie Greenspan is one of my favorite cookbook authors. Anytime she comes out with a new title, I can’t wait to dive in, and of course that’s the case with her beautiful brand-new Everyday Dorie! I have at least two dozen recipes I need to get down to business with soon, but I’m beginning with what she calls “My Newest Gougères,” and I’m making them along with the Cook the Book Fridays group. They’re starting today to cook their way though Everyday Dorie, and I’ll join in as often as I can.
Gougères are made with choux paste, one of my favorite things to make. This newest version is a cheese puff not only loaded with cheese (of course), but also chopped nuts and a bit of Dijon mustard. You can play around with the cheese and nuts. I went pretty classic with a Gruyère and walnut combo. These make a great salty, cheesy snack to have with a glass of rosè. The nuts give them more substance than other gougères I’ve made. I have some more in the freezer and I think they’ll go really nicely with a bowl of tomato soup, too.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (you can even watch her make them in this video), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group kicks this one off!
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