Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Rugelach with (two of) Four Fillings
December 10, 2024 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
The fact that I made two of the fillings for the Rugelach with Four Fillings is probably the closest my little cookie tin is going to get to one of those fancy holiday cookie box assortments that I’ve started to see pop up all over Instagram. No complaints from me though– rugelach is a treat! We’ve made lots of Dorie’s rugelach recipes before, and here we take the easy cream cheese dough and our choice of filling and simply roll them up into slice-and-bake logs. The dough is super thin and flaky, and the filling makes a cute spiral in the middle.
Of the four filling options Dorie gives for her rugelach spirals, I chose the babka one with a cocoa and cinnamon paste and the classic jam one. For the jam filling, I used fig jam, crimson raisins, the cinnamon sugar and walnuts, but I left out the chocolate chips. I brought some of each to my college alumnae association holiday party last week and they all disappeared quickly. I am a rabid chocoholic, so it surprises me to say that I gave a slight edge to the jam-filled ones.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Maple-Walnut Pie
November 30, 2024 at 10:14 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, pie
Over here, Thanksgiving dessert is usually pumpkin pie, but after going off script last year, I decided once again to switch things up. Crazy, right? This time I went with a Maple-Walnut Pie. It’s pecan pie-adjacent, so it feels familiar enough for a holiday with some strict food traditions, but uses walnuts (obvi) and a “goo” made with maple syrup instead of corn syrup. A few weeks ago when I baked my Tarte Tatin, I thought of future me and prepped an extra round of All-Butter Pie Dough for this pie.
Dorie does give a “playing around” option here for a traditional pecan pie, but I really liked the sweetness level of the maple-based filling so much (i.e., it’s less sweet), that from now on, I think I’ll make my pecan pies with it instead. After my pie cooled a bit, I glazed it with a little extra maple syrup for shine and sprinkled on some flaky salt.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Tarte Tatin
November 12, 2024 at 4:00 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, pie
My mom is a very good cook. We rarely went out to eat growing up or were allowed such delicacies as frozen pizza or fish sticks. She made dinner from recipes in newspapers and magazines that caught her eye, or she’d find something nice on sale at the grocery store and take it from there (she still cooks this way, and so do I). Julie has never been quite as into baking, but she does have a few standards she’s perfected over the years and will make from memory when she’s in the mood. Apple pie is one of those standards, but when she says “apple pie” she’s not talking about the traditional American kind…she’s really talking about a Tarte Tatin, made just like this one. In fact, I don’t remember her ever once making a double-crusted apple pie with lots of warm spices. She did live in Paris for a couple of years before I came on the scene, so maybe that’s the backstory of her apple pie, I don’t really know.
Most Tatins are fully made in a skillet, with the apples first cooked down a bit in the caramel before being topped with puff pastry (usually) and stuck in the oven to fully bronze. As soon as it’s done, you put on your longest oven mitts, say a quick prayer and awkwardly flip the hot and heavy skillet with molten, drippy caramel onto a plate to unmold. This version makes things a bit easier and less scary. First, make a caramel, whisk in butter and pour it into the bottom of a cake pan. Then, at your leisure after the caramel has cooled, arrange chunky apple halves or quarters in a nice pattern and top with your choice of pie dough or puff. I took care of both the caramel step and making/rolling out a round of Dorie’s All-Butter Pie Dough the day before I baked my Tatin. (My mother does the same, lining her tin with caramel and making a brisée dough the night before…but her tin is an ancient metal pie plate instead of a cake pan, and she makes a clear caramel instead and then dots the apple chunks with bits of butter as she arranges then in the pie plate.) After the Tatin is fully baked, instead of flipping it right out, you let it sit for half an hour so any excess caramel and juice absorbs back into the apples. By the time you invert it, it’s cool and neat, with soft, caramelized apples and no soggy bottoms! I think Julie would give this her stamp of approval.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Morning Bundt Cake
October 22, 2024 at 7:26 pm | Posted in breakfast things, bundt cakes, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
Any fan of “breakfast cake” should love this Morning Bundt Cake. Great with your first cup of coffee, but not a typical coffee cake, the batter is a mix of all your breakfast staples…except for bacon, I guess…you’ll have to serve that on the side. It has oranges (zest, juice and chopped segments), yogurt, muesli, nuts and dried fruit. I didn’t buy muesli to make this, but instead used some rolled oats, sunflower seeds and a bit of extra dried fruit and nuts. I chose toasted pecans, by the way, and prunes, since they seemed like a good choice for getting the morning going. I subbed about 1/3 of the AP flour with einkorn flour and combined my “muesli” with the yogurt a few hours ahead of time to soften it before mixing the batter (I had to adjust the mixing order slightly because of this, but it was a tip I got from IG bake-alonger Stef).
This is so good. It’s moist and quite hearty, with all those breakfast ingredients blended together. A citrus glaze that’s brushed on while the cake’s still hot is a nice final touch that makes the crust as special as what’s inside.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Apple Galette
October 8, 2024 at 8:34 am | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, pie
We are entering peak pie season, and for people like me who just baked crisps all summer long and now need to ease into all that fussy crimp work, thank goodness for galettes. There’s something so easy and do-able about baking a galette, whereas a proper pie feels like a lot of work. This Apple Galette, does have something a little bit extra to prepare in advance, but I think it’s worth it.
A layer of homemade caramel applesauce is a super-yummy surprise hiding beneath all the apple slices. In addition to flavor, it gives a nice textural contrast, especially since the top apple slices soften but don’t really break down much. It can be swapped for store bought applesauce, but having leftovers of this stuff in the fridge is something I’m willing to spend a few additional minutes on…especially if I’m cheating on the dough. I had a round of random pie dough in the freezer and used that here instead of making a new galette dough. It turned out to not be quite enough dough to give me the excess to fold nice pleats, so my galette is sporting more of an outer rim. It was crisp and tasted nice, and making a galette is also saying that imperfection is a-ok, so I didn’t mind. All-in-all, a delicious pie-adjacent dessert to get back in the swing of things.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Alsatian-Style Blueberry Tart
August 27, 2024 at 10:06 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, pie
An Alsatian-Style Blueberry Tart is new to me. I need to travel more. In Dorie’s version, a Sweet Tart Dough crust houses a mountain of blueberries bound together with a quickly-mixed vanilla custard.
The STD crust is one we’ve made a zillion times before, so no problems there. The blueberries, on the other hand…well, I didn’t bother to weigh them since I could tell I was technically short of the recipe’s full amount (which is like a ton). I only bought one container of blueberries and had used some of them in pancakes the previous morning. I had what I had, and I just went with it. Keeping Mardi’s review in my mind, it seemed like plenty anyway. I also added a dribble of almond extract to the egg and cream custard mix that’s poured overtop the berries. Hopefully the Alsatians wouldn’t mind my fiddles. I thought the finished product was delicious, and liked my bloob-to-custard ratio. The tart stayed nice for a few days, too, thanks in part to the cinnamon sugar-almond flour mix sprinkled on the bottom of the crust after par-baking to absorb moisture. Next time, I’ll source a nice Alsatian dessert wine to go with.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Caramel Crunch-Chocolate Chunklet Cookies
August 13, 2024 at 8:51 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Wow– even though it’s almost 10:00 at night, it’s still Tuesday, and that means I’m on time with my post for these Caramel Crunch-Chocolate Chunklet Cookies! My blog stats tell me this is actually my 1,001st post…how I have managed to write so much about cookies and cake, I really don’t know.
If you make this recipe, you might do a double-take of the ingredient list searching for a mention of caramel, or at least brown sugar, but the “caramel crunch” actually comes from the baking technique. Rather than baking free-form, these are baked in a muffin tin, and what you get with all that hot metal contact, are crisp, shortbread-like cookie pucks with caramelized bottoms and sides. (We made some similar, or at least related, cookies using this method when we baked from Dorie’s Cookies.)
Dorie says you can add nuts along with the chocolate chunks to the mix, and I went with toasted hazelnuts, a good chunklet choice. I scaled back the recipe and just made a third of the dough. Since I only needed to complete one round in my muffin tin, I also didn’t bother with the slice and bake step, one that always frustrates me anyway. I simply scooped the just-made dough straight into the tin and gave each cookie a little pat down to flatten and fill the cavities before popping the setup in the fridge to chill pre-bake. As advertised, these were caramelized, crunchy, chocolatey and chunky. They were also good keepers and I enjoyed them with morning coffee. I added a pinch of flaky salt to the top of each cookie before baking because I love that little salt hit on a chocolate chip cookie.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Parfait-Layered Vacherin
July 23, 2024 at 10:16 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
If you open your freezer looking for a treat that’s sweet and creamy, but also light and airy, this Parfait-Layered Vacherin might be exactly what you hope to find. It’s something like an ice cream cake, with whipped cream parfait instead of ice cream and crunchy meringue bits instead of cake. It’s cold, but it never freezes too hard, and a drizzle of caramel sauce over the top really does take it over the top.
First thing to do for this is to buy or make a batch of meringues and then break them up into bits, big and small. The parfait is made from whipped egg yolks, whipped cream and whipped whites, gently folded together to make a feather-light mix. Layer the meringue bits and the parfait mix in a springform and freeze for several hours. Dorie finishes her vacherin with a drizzle of caramel sauce and a sprinkle of toasted almonds. I had some passion fruit caramel leftover from another dessert and I repurposed it here to save myself a step. The caramel had a bit of a tart edge to it from the passion fruit juice, and I think it balanced out the sweet meringue bits nicely. My almonds didn’t make it to the photoshoot because I annoyingly forgot them in the kitchen, but a few strawberries managed to come along for the ride. What a delight this is…pretty easy to make, kinda fancy, very nice to slice and definitely great to eat. I can imagine taking the parfait mix in various flavor directions, too.
You can watch Dorie make this dessert here. If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Lemony Yogurt Muffins with Blueberries
July 23, 2024 at 9:50 pm | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, groups, muffins/quick breads, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, muffins
How do people get up early enough to make muffins for breakfast? I am not a weekend early bird. Unless brekkie is at 10:00, I don’t think I have it in me to crank out freshly-baked muffins. These Lemony Yogurt Muffins started off as evening dessert…but leftovers made it to the breakfast table the next morning.
Even if I don’t function well enough to bake after I’ve stumbled out of bed, these did come together really easily. I admit I didn’t have the key ingredient– I was out of yogurt! I subbed plain kefir, which I worried would make the batter too thin, but I don’t think it did any harm at all. Dorie says the blueberries are an optional add to the lemon-scented batter, which I had to go for. It’s a lot of blueberries– like a truckload– and I can’t even imagine what these muffins would be like without them. These are really moist and delicious and bursting with berries (the berry bulk also yielded extra muffins). I actually made this recipe a couple of years ago and thought they got a bit too crusty on top, so for this round I reduced the baking temperature to 375°. I glazed the hot muffins with marmalade, as Dorie suggested. The chunky peel bits on the muffin tops aren’t my favorite look, but the sweet-tart marmalade on top sure did taste good, and I think it helped keep the muffins really soft overnight.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Jelly Roll Cake
June 25, 2024 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, brekkie, cake
This month we have a Jelly Roll Cake to celebrate two TWD June birthdays– Margaret’s and Kim’s. Jelly rolls are also called “Swiss rolls” or “roulades” and can have a variety of fillings rolled up in sheet of flexible sponge cake. Dorie, indeed, gives several variations to consider (hello ice cream roll-up!), but I went with the jam and whipped cream-filled classic. I had my fun playing around with flavor options. I had an unopened jar of yuzu marmalade in the cupboard, which became my jam component. The pulp of a fresh passionfruit went into the whipped cream. All rolled up in a lemon-scented sponge, I was very excited to see the cut slices reveal a tidy spiral of passionfruit-flecked cream. I have lots more ideas for filling and flavor combos, and since this was relatively easy (and extremely tasty), I might just have to have my own “playing around” session with the old-fashioned jelly roll.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
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