TWD DC Rewind: Sesame-Sea Salt Cookies
June 30, 2020 at 10:21 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: cookies, savory
One year ago, the group made Sesame-Sea Salt Cookies. For some now-forgotten reason, I didn’t. I almost bypassed them now, too (just out of laziness), but I don’t want my list of skipped recipes to grow too long…when I realized I could have this dough done with a few quick zips in the food processor, I thought, “why not?”
Rather than roll out the dough and cut it into rounds, I scooped it into little balls, which I then flattened into pucks and popped into a greased muffin tin to chill before seeding and baking. I quite like this muffin tin method and since I only did one-third of the recipe, it wasn’t much effort for six cookies.
These do have a nice sweet and salty balance to them, and a delicate, buttery shortbread crumb. We had a few last night with white wine and sharp cheddar and I’ll probably do something similar with the rest tonight.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of this week’s rewind on the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Peanut Butter and Fudge Brownies
June 16, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, brownies, chocolate, cookies
I can’t really say much about these Peanut Butter and Fudge Brownies because my mouth is too full- they are crazy good! Peanut-studded dark chocolate brownies with a layer of PB frosting and a chocolate glaze on top…I mean, come on. I made a 1/3 batch in a loaf pan just to save my figure. I took a cheat on the glaze topping and used some (different) chocolate-caramel glaze I had leftover from a Bundt cake I’d made for a friend a couple of weeks ago. It’s softer than the one in Dorie’s recipe, which sounds like it sets up like a firm sheet on top, and you can see that in my picture. I added some rainbow sprinkles because Pride Month!
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan (a similar version is also here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and please join us if you haven’t already!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: They-Might-Be-Breakfast Cookies
June 3, 2020 at 1:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
This will be an even shorter than usual post this week, as cookies aren’t really at the forefront of my mind. They-Might-Be-Breakfast Cookies are tasty, chunky cookie blobs, dense with dried fruit, oats and coconut. I used dried apples and apricots but whatever combo of dried fruit you have would be good. Next time, I’d cut the fruits up a little smaller than I did. They kept wanting to pop out of the cookies.
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: Salt-and-Pepper Sugar-and-Spice Galettes
May 19, 2020 at 12:02 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, snacks
Dorie calls these Salt-and-Pepper Sugar-and-Spice Galettes “winter cookies” because of the warm spices (including cinnamon, sugar, cloves and black pepper), but they are good little sugar cookies any time of year. The leaves on my backyard tree tell me it’s spring out there, and I found these galettes perfectly lovely with a cup of coffee just the other day. In fact, I added an extra bit of the spices, because they didn’t come through that strongly in the dough. A little almond flour makes the baked cookies crumble nicely. They are baked in a muffin tin so they keep that good puck-like shape. I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top before baking.
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 BCM: Fruit and Nut Croquants
May 12, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in BCM, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
These Fruit and Nut Croquants look a lot biscotti…they are full of good tidbits and formed into logs that are baked and sliced just like biscotti. But they are only once-baked, so while croquant means “crunchy,” they aren’t that crunchy. Mine got softer as the days went days went by, and I actually liked that, especially since they still stayed sturdy enough to dip into coffee.
I used whole skin-on almonds, sliced dried figs and raisins and I swapped some of the AP flour for einkorn. They also have vanilla and almond extracts, orange zest, nutmeg and cloves. They had lots of flavor and were just sweet enough.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Every-Way Shortbread Fans: The Lemon-Poppy Seed Version
April 21, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, shortbread
I mentioned last week that I’m now offering coffee or tea service at home every afternoon (don’t you wish you could come over?), and I’m constantly on the lookout for a good saucer treat. Homemade shortbread fits the bill quite nicely. As the name implies, Every-Way Shortbread Fans can go in a lot of different flavor directions. I went down the suggested lemon-poppy seed topped with glaze route. They have a delicious, buttery Scottish shortbread base, flecked with lemon zest and poppy seeds. I love the crisp, sandy texture of these cookies, and baking them in a cake pan is an easy way to form and shape them nicely. Another elevenses winner 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 BCM: Green Tea Sablés
April 14, 2020 at 8:39 am | Posted in BCM, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 9 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Now being home 24/7, elevenses seems to have become a thing I do to break up the day. Green Tea Sablés are a perfect side treat for my new-found tradition. We’ve made many varieties of these buttery, sandy cookies by now, and these ones are flavored, not with matcha, but with more delicate green tea leaves. We have (had? *sniff*) beautiful loose leaf tea at work, including one labeled “Japanese Pan-Fried Green Tea,” which I believe is kamairicha. I brought home a couple of tablespoons just before we closed in anticipation of these cookies.
The dough for these sablés is easily made by hand…like, the butter is actually rubbed in with your fingers, which are the cleanest they have even been, I’m sure. Then it is rolled into logs, chilled, and sliced. Okay, is it just me, or are slice-and-bake cookies infuriating? I feel like they are supposed to be the easiest way to cute round cookies, but, in fact, they always totally crumble when I slice them and then I have to press them back into some sloppy, patched together blobs. Or I cut them slanted. Or some cookies are too thick and others are too thin. Rather than let slice-and-bake cookies make me feel totally lame, I have picked up a few tricks from all of our DC baking and did these sablés in a muffin tin to get a nice coin shape. I only made a quarter-recipe of this dough (my lockdown freezer is stacked up with the half-finished coffee cakes and hot cross buns I am apparently hoarding for the apocalypse), so I took out my mini muffin pan and made these petits sablés.
I had enough of that green tea left over to not only make a small pot to go along with the cookies for elevenses, but also to make a bit of green tea sugar for garnish. Because I was baking the sablés in a tin instead of free-form, rather than roll my log in sugar before slicing, I sprinkled the tops of each cookie with it before baking.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Little Rascals
April 7, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
“Little Rascals” brings to mind the goofy gang of kids I used to watch on the tube on weekend mornings. These Little Rascals are jam sandwich cookies, though. Very much like Austrian Linzer cookies, this version’s made with walnuts. The dough comes together with a few zips in the food processor before it’s rolled and chilled. Actually, it’s so soft that it’s easiest to with it frozen. I decided to skip over my set of round cutters and reach for my knife to cut these rascals into rectangles. That way, it was one and done, and I didn’t have to deal with any scrap or re-rolling. I have some plum jam in the fridge and I used that here to make my sandwiches. These are sweet and nutty…crisp on the day they are made, softer the day after that, but both ways delicious.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies (it’s also here) by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.
TWD DC Rewind: Puffed Grain and Peanut Butter Cookies
March 31, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: cookies, nuts
I have a few “harder” recipes to make up for TWD, like Rum Babas and Cannelés, that perhaps I should be tackling with my new found free time, but I still have half a box of puffed mixed grain cereal from when we made Puffed Grain and Miso Cookies back in January (don’t judge) and I want it outta here! Back when we made those miso cookies, I couldn’t help but think that the recipe could be fiddled with and that a sweeter version might be good, too. Now’s the time to revisit that recipe and try my idea out.
I basically just one-for-one swapped out the savory ingredients for sweeter ones. I kept the puffed grains, chopped nuts and dried fruit (I used cherries here), but used a combo of cocoa nibs and shredded coconut for the sesame seeds. For the binding syrup mixture, I kept the brown rice syrup, but used peanut butter for the miso paste, coconut oil for the olive oil, and vanilla for the sesame oil. I turned the oven temperature down to 300° and baked them for 15 minutes, because I thought the original time and temp were a bit too much for the miso cookies. There isn’t anything that really needs to cook here, the baking step is just to glue the ingredients together. I like this lightly sweet version…they remind me of little trail mix pucks.
For the base recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of this week’s rewind on the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Garam Grahams
March 17, 2020 at 10:29 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Boy– a lot has happened in a week! The restaurant I cook for in the now-ghost town of NYC is closed, and while my job is 86’d for the time being, I am thankful to be healthy and will try to put my self-isolated energy into some long-neglected household organization projects, as well as some more fun cooking and baking stuff. I’ll start here….with cinnamon and honey and earthy notes of cumin and coriander, these Garam Grahams ride the line between sweet and savory and are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book. Like the last time we made graham crackers, these are speedily whizzed together in the food processor. Unlike the last time we made them, though these have garam masala and black pepper for a funky Indian-ish twist. Sounds weird, but tastes good.
They’re finished off with a dusting of sugar, salt and pepper before going into the oven. I don’t know if you can really tell from the photo, but I used a coarse gold sanding sugar to give them a bit of Bollywood sparkle. I think they go as well with wine or beer as they do with a cup of chai or coffee…whichever best helps calm anxious nerves.
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!
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