a whisk and a spoon

Tuesdays with Dorie: Brownie Buttons

Boy, are we cruising through the brownie section of BFMHTY.  Who knew there were so many types of brownies out there?  The latest take on these little squares of chocolatey goodness are actually not squares at all, but Brownie Buttons, chosen by Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen.

Baking the batter in a mini-muffin tin is all it really takes to turn your brownies into “buttons.”  There is some optional orange zest in this batter…I’m not usually a fan of fruit and chocolate, so I opted out.  I said “yes, please” to the white chocolate topping, though.

These gave a good little chocolate pop, but I won’t lie and say that I was only able to eat one at a time!  For that reason, I’ll probably stick to regular brownies (OMG– who else made these?!?), but I can see myself making these again if I need to do a cookie platter.

For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Tribute-to-Katharine-Hepburn Brownies

As a child, there were a few movies I was a bit obsessed with…so you don’t think I’m too demented, I won’t mention that as a six-year-old I could recite lines from The Elephant Man or pretty much the entirety of Mommy Dearest.  Instead I will tell you that I’ve seen On Golden Pond, starring none other than Katharine Hepburn, more times than I can count.  So for years I’ve known what a wonderful actress she was, but until Lisa of Surviving Oz chose Tribute-to-Katharine-Hepburn Brownies for TWD, I did not know that she was also an accomplished brownie-baker.  (By the way, our guest hostess Lisa designed our fantastic new TWD logo, which you can see over there in my sidebar.)

These dark, deeply chocolate brownies are made with cocoa powder and lots of bittersweet chunks.  They’re on the thin side, and since they have very little flour (one of Miss Hepburn’s tips for good brownies), they are really fudgy.  I know that some people fervently oppose nuts in brownies, but I’m a die-hard with-walnuts fan, so I was glad to see them here.  I also liked the strong hit of coffee from the espresso powder in the recipe, but I left out the suggested cinnamon so I wouldn’t have too many competing flavors.  After reading a comment from Caitlin, I cut back on the butter by a tablespoon, and they were still wonderfully rich.  A half-recipe baked up nicely in a loaf pan, although these were so good, we could easily have polished off a full batch! 

The recipe, of course, is in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, but she also has it here on NPR’s site, and Lisa of Surviving Oz has it as well.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chipster-Topped Brownies

OK, so I totally thought that a Chipster-Topped Brownie was a brownie with some chocolate chips scattered on top (what can I say…my mum does that all the time to jazz up plain brownies).  It wasn’t until Beth of Supplicious chose them for TWD, and I checked out the ingredient list to see if I needed to buy anything prior to baking, that I saw that they are actually brownies with chocolate chip cookies on top.  Whaaat?  Dorie, you crazy!

Once I had that sorted, I developed in my head an expectation of what they would be like– specifically, a fudgy brownie base topped with a big, soft, brown-sugary chocolate chip cookie.  Chalk it up to an overactive imagination, but oftentimes in life, and in baking, I just don’t get what I expect…this was one of those times.  That golden cookie top you see in the picture was actually just a super-crisp, thin crust, and underneath it was a large pocket.  It pretty much shattered when I cut into the bars.  The piece in the photo was the only one who’s top halfway held together.  And apart from that outer shell and the presence of chocolate chips on top and walnuts on the bottom, the two layers didn’t visually appear very distinct.  The top did have a different texture than the brownie, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it “cookie-like.”  The bottom, though, was most definitely brownie.

I had no problems with the cookie batter, and no difficulty spreading it nicely over the brownie.  What went on here, I just don’t know.  The bars were tasty, though, and my husband liked them a lot.  I probably won’t make them again (even if they had come out the way I’d envisioned, I still prefer my brownies as just plain ol’ brownies), but I am curious to see all the other outcomes from the TWD Blogroll.  For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Supplicious.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Coconut Butter Thins

If Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch hadn’t chosen Coconut Butter Thins for TWD, I probably never would have baked them.  Even though they’re made with some of my favorite things– coconut, coriander and macadamias– they just didn’t sound “substantial” enough for me to have paid them real consideration.  I would have missed out, because although they aren’t too fancy, they were just right in so many ways.  Just right with lemon curd sandwiched between them; just right with a little bowl of ice cream; just right all on their own.  They were golden, crispy, buttery and a little crumbly.  Mine didn’t turn lacy like Dorie said they would in her intro description, but that could have been because I parked them in the freezer before baking so they’d hold their square shape.

For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read The Barefoot Kitchen Witch.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel Crunch Bars

We have another yummy cookie for TWD this week.  Whitney of What’s Left on the Table? had me putting caramel crunch bars on my table, and trust me, nothing’s left!

This cookie does have a lot of crunch.  It’s a brown sugar shortbread, flavored with a little cinnamon and espresso powder and a lot of chopped chocolate.  On top there’s melted dark chocolate and a generous sprinkle of toffee bits.  I have never bought Heath Toffee Bits before, and was completely amused by the package.  Not only does it say “Bits o’ Brickle,” which is enormously funny to me, but it also says “finest quality English toffee” in one spot and then “artificially flavored” in another.  Hmmm…

In the book, Dorie suggests using these for ice cream sandwiches.  I had a little homemade fresh mint ice cream, so I decided to give it a try.  I topped the bars that I was using for the sandwiches with cocoa nibs instead of toffee (these I scattered sparingly, because they are kinda bitter).  Tasty?  Yes, but also a little hard to eat.  I thought the bars were a little too crunchy for ice cream sandwiches.  They were difficult to bite into frozen…I think I prefer a softer, more yielding cookie for that purpose.  The caramel crunch bars are sweet enough and rich enough on their own, that I preferred them just as they were.  Well, with a cup of herbal tea, that is.

For the recipe, read What’s Left on the Table? or see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.

Tuesdays with Dorie: World Peace Cookies

I know these cookies.  Not that I’d ever made them myself before Jessica of cookbookhabit chose them for this week’s TWD, but a few summers ago, I spent a couple of days in Paris visiting a friend.  It was August and several of the shops I hoped to visit were closed for their own vacations.  That was a bummer, but I was happy to find that Pierre Hermé on rue Bonatparte was open.  I pretty much scarfed down the entire macaroon display, and then moved on to the shelves, where I picked up a little baggie of chocolate sablés for the plane trip home.  I hadn’t a clue that these cookies were super-famous, but I knew after tasting them that they should be!  Honestly, I couldn’t believe how good they were– crumbly and chocolaty…but it’s the hit of salt that really made me say, “Oh la vache!”

I used Sel de Guérande in these cookies, but if you don’t have fleur de sel, don’t worry.  I maybe wouldn’t recommend regular table salt (which is too harshly salty– if that makes sense–for my tastes, even for everyday cooking), but a “softer” salt, like Kosher or sea salt, will work just fine.  The recipe has a bit of chopped dark chocolate folded in at the end…you can be experimental with this bit, if you want.  I used a combo of chopped bittersweet chocolate and cocoa nibs, so that there would be a little gooey melted chocolate and a little bitter crunch in each bite.

Can world peace really be achieved through a cookie?  Oh, if only it were that simple…but if the new Administration wants to give it a go, I’ll happy accept the position of Secretary of Snacks!  To feel like you’ve gone to Paris without leaving home, read cookbookhabit or see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan for the recipe (she also has it here on The Splendid Table’s website).  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Buttery Jam Cookies

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!