French Fridays with Dorie: Michel Rostang’s Double Chocolate Mousse Cake
January 21, 2011 at 11:09 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, french fridays w dorie, groups, sweet things | 24 Comments
This is baked chocolate mousse. End of post.
Really, that’s all I think needs to be said. It is dark and silky and my idea of a perfectly elegant chocolate dessert. There are options with this cake, too. You can bake of just part of the mousse as a base, then top it with the remaining mousse and either chill it as-is or bake it again. If you bake it again, you can either eat it warm or pop it in the fridge and eat it cold. Decision tree analysis is not my forte, but in the end I opted for the fully baked variation and enjoyed it chilled (and I think it was a good call). Don’t fret when your cake comes out of the oven puffed and then totally sinks in the middle as it rests. It’s supposed to…and anyway, that dip is the perfect spot to pile on whipped cream!
I think I’ll be making this again for Valentine’s Day. For the recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts (and you might want to check out the P&Q section…some folks had problems with mousee seeping while baking, although I did not experience this)!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
January 18, 2011 at 12:01 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 20 Comments
I made these muffins– oh, wow– more than a year ago, and have been waiting patently for someone, like Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness, to choose them for TWD. Lemons and poppy seeds are one of the classic combos of the muffin world, and for good reason. Who wouldn’t want to wake up to a cup of coffee and a little lemon cake? In addition to super-cuteness, poppy seeds give a little crunch. Dorie’s recipe has a lemon glaze that is sweet and puckery at the same time…and I was generous with it. I have the world’s biggest jar of poppy seeds (seriously, it’s like PB jar sized!), so I’ll make these again, and when I do, I’m going to try the jam-filled variation.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read A Cup of Sweetness. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines
January 11, 2011 at 12:20 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 26 Comments
Whenever I start a new food job, my new coworkers always seem to ask me where I’m from. I’m going through this phase at my job right now, and sometimes the question makes me scratch my head…like, what was the last place I worked for, or where did I grow up? I’ve come to realize that, more often than not, the person asking has recently moved to NYC from someplace else, and is wondering about my hometown. While I think a lot about the places and people I grew up with, the day I left for college in the early ’90s was the last time I was ever in my childhood home…my parents packed up and moved cross-country a few weeks later. And, apart from the two years I spent in Sydney, I’ve been in New York since 1996. Sometimes I think that I’m more Brooklyn than NoVA now, but I don’t, and wouldn’t ever want to, forget where I’m from.
If you asked a Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleine where it’s from, it would probably tell you, that while it was born in France, it has spent the last couple decades living in Texas. A plate of these guys would likely not make Proust remember anything, but one taste would probably shoot most American grown-ups right back to childhood! Apart from their scalloped shape and cakey texture, they are pretty far removed from their French origins, but with ganache and marshie Fluff, they are instantly recognizable to me. A couple of tips if you want to make these yummies at home: if you nuke your Fluff jar for 5-10 seconds, it will be much easier to get the sticky stuff out of the jar and into a piping bag; also, madeleines stale quickly, so if you like them soft, eat them soon after they’re put together.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here on Serious Eats) or read Effort to Deliciousness, as it was Margot’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Midnight Crackles
January 4, 2011 at 12:18 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Is there a sweeter way to celebrate both the new year and the third anniversary of TWD than with chocolatey cookies? These little, soft, dark and spicy Midnight Crackles were Laurie and Julie’s pick for TWD’s anniversary recipe. Here I made the “Playing Around” Chocolate Gingerbread variation, which uses some ginger, allspice and coriander in addition to the cinnamon and cloves that already scent the “regular” dough.
Apart from arming yourself with a glass of milk when you eat these, my one piece of advice is to not chill the raw dough for too long before forming it into balls. The chocolate in dough makes it very firm, very fast. And the just-mixed dough is a lot like Play-Doh and is easy to work with. Bake them on the short end of the time recommendation and they are kind of brownie-like inside. I made just half a batch, but it yielded a heap of cookies, so I have a stash of unbaked dough balls in my freezer– ready for when the midnight munchies strike.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read the TWD blog. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
P.S.: On Dorie’s blog, she has an idea for using this same dough to make roll-out cookies. Take a look!
French Fridays with Dorie: Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts
December 31, 2010 at 3:51 pm | Posted in french fridays w dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 8 Comments
OK, I know it is New Year’s Eve afternoon already, and maybe I’ve missed the boat on telling you about this….but if you happen to be ringing in 2011 by having people over for cocktails, or if you are going to someone else’s place and looking for something to bring, I have just the thing. Dorie’s Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts are fast and easy (provided you have a stash of nuts in your fridge or cupboard), and trust me, they will be gobbled up.
The technique is simple: take a couple cups of your favorite nuts (a mix is best), coat them lightly in a frothed-up egg white and then toss them in a mix of sugar, salt and spices. Bake for half an hour at 300°, making sure they are in a single layer so they don’t stick together. Let cool and enjoy with wine or bubbly.
For the exact recipe, see Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out my fellow francophiles’ posts (not all of us are doing the recipe this week). Happy 2011, and I’ll see you next year!
Glitter Ball Cookies
December 29, 2010 at 5:15 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, sweet things | 12 Comments
I like sparkly things. Sequins, glitter, rhinestones, metallics…totally mesmerizing. Well, ’tis the season for sparkly things, and for New Year’s Eve, why not make cookies with some bling? These little Glitter Balls are just shortbread rounds dressed up in shimmery sugar. Festive little head-turners…and tasty, too.
Happy New Year!!
Glitter Ball Cookies- makes 12 double cookies
adapted from marthastewart.com
Steph’s Note: While the suggested filling here is flavored with ginger, you can flavor it with anything you wish. I actually made mine almond instead (using extract), but vanilla, lemon and rum are other tasty-sounding options.
for the cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
sanding sugar, in assorted colorsfor the filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon honey
-Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
-Beat butter, confectioners’ sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down side of bowl as necessary. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add flour, and mix just until combined. Shape into 3/4-inch balls (chill dough if too sticky).
-Place sanding sugar in shallow bowls. Roll each ball in sanding sugar, and place on baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. If you find that the sugar won’t stick, lightly wet one hand, and roll the cookie first in your hand just to dampen, and then roll in sugar.
-Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are lightly golden, 15 to 18 minutes. let cookies cool completely on a wire rack.
-While the cookies cool, make the filling by beating all ingredients by hand or with an electric mixer on medium high speed until smooth.
– Spread two cookies with just enough filling to allow them to stick together.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cardamom Crumb Cake
December 21, 2010 at 12:06 am | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, groups, muffins/quick breads, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 11 Comments
Have I told you what I have been up to lately? I started November wishing I could find a part-time job, and now I have two part-time jobs, totaling way more hours than a typical full-time one. I get very anxious about waking up for job #1 at 5:45 in the morning after I’ve been at job #2 until 11:00 at night. How do I get myself into these things, and why have I started every new food job I’ve had during the super-busy holiday season? Oh well, it won’t last forever…job #2 is only for another few weeks.
For the time being, I do really look forward to the one morning a week when I can drink coffee out of a proper cup and stuff my face with things like Cardamom Crumb Cake for breakfast. I get really happy when folks like Jill pick a breakfast recipe for TWD, and this coffee cake highlights one of my favorite spices. I’d say that this is a simple, plain cake, but cardamom is an interesting flavor and is something a bit more unexpected than cinnamon. Combine it with orange zest, espresso powder and walnut crumb topping, and you’ve got a cake I’d eat any day of the week. Happily, the second half of mine is tucked away in the freezer until Saturday.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Jill’s Blog. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Apple-Coconut Family Cake
December 14, 2010 at 9:37 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 16 Comments
R and I just got ourselves a new desktop computer. After working off laptops for the past six or seven years, my fingers feel very clumsy on a full-size keyboard and I’m not used to a mouse at all. (Can you tell I also haven’t had a desk job in a really long time?) I have to be sure to hit the spell-check button, or this post will be riddled with typos. I’m excited to see all the beautiful Apple-Coconut Family Cakes on a big screen, though!
There’s something about the term “family cake” that sounds really appealing…cute and cozy. And there’s something about the apple-coconut combination that sounds unusual…how often do you see those two paired up? Even though there is quite a lot of coconut in this cake (I used unsweetened desiccated coconut from the health food store, which is more finely grated than the sweetened sheds), I didn’t find its flavor to be that pronounced…I actually thought it tasted more of the rum than coconut. Instead, I noticed most what it gave to the cake’s texture– sturdiness and bit of chew. A heap of diced apples kept it moist and the unsweetened coconut kept it from being too saccharine. This is one I’ll make again.
We are just a family of two, so I only made half a recipe. Despite its small size, my cake took longer to bake than the 45 minutes Dorie recommended for the full version. At the 45 minute mark, the edge was nicely browned, but the middle was still wet, so I put foil over the pan and popped it back in the oven for an extra 5+ minutes. That helped steam up the middle a bit and cooked it through.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Cobbler du Monde, as it was Amber’s pick this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Eggnog Snickerdoodles
December 10, 2010 at 5:28 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, sweet things | 7 Comments
Every December I have these grand plans for holiday cookie baking…and that’s as far as I get. Plans, but no cookies. What I should really do is host a cookie swap– make one big batch of cookies and invite my other baker friends over to trade away for a fabulous variety. I’ll work on getting that together next year, because I think it would be tons of fun (especially if Christmas cocktails are involved!), and I’ll be sure to consult my new book The Cookie Party Cookbook by Robin Olson for the organizational low-down. Did you know there are rules to hosting a cookie swap? Glad I have the book, because I had no idea. My cookie exchange would have been lawless, sugar-fueled chaos!
This book is not just about rules and tips, of course. It has heaps of recipes…homey recipes, straight from the kitchens of the author and the friends and family she’s been exchanging with for years. Some of the recipes are not my really style, but I tape-flagged a whole mess of them that I’m eager to try. I couldn’t resist making Eggnog Scickerdoodles first. The boozy, nutmeg flavor of eggnog gets me jazzed about Christmas, and I’ve already declared my love for snickerdoodles here. These are buttery, chewy and really do remind me of eggnog. A definite contender for next year’s cookie exchange!
Eggnog Snickerdoodles- makes about 40 cookies
adapted from The Cookie Party Cookbook by Robin Olson
Steph’s Note: While I usually think I can find anything I could ever want in NYC, sometimes that’s just not true. I couldn’t find rum or bandy extracts in my local grocery stores, so I just subbed a teaspoon each of the real things.
for the dough
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon rum extract
1/2 teaspoon brandy extract
2 large eggsfor the nutmeg-sugar mixture
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar, colored or plain
-Heat oven to 400°F/200°C. Line baking sheets with parchment.
-In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and beat well, followed by the extracts. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat until well blended.
-Stir together the nutmeg and sugar in small bowl. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart onto the lined cookie sheets.
-Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned (less time if you prefer softer cookies). Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Please note that the publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin, sent me a copy of this book.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Translucent Maple Tuiles
December 7, 2010 at 10:14 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 16 Comments
I’ve had a busy last couple of weeks, with back-to-back sets of houseguests to entertain, take care of and clean up after. It was fun, but I’m glad to be back to my regular routine…and that includes getting my Tuesday TWD post up.
Luckily, this week’s pick, courtesy of Clivia of Bubie’s Little Baker, couldn’t be easier. The world’s simplest cookie dough, made of just maple syrup, brown sugar, butter and flour, gets a quick-mix by hand. After a brief rest in the fridge, and only seven minutes in the oven, Translucent Maple Tuiles are ready! Tuiles are crispy, buttery, lacy-thin cookies. The coolest thing about a tuile is that, while still warm from the oven, it’s pliable. If you don’t want to cool your tuiles flat on a rack, you can gently curve them around a rolling pin, or roll them more tightly, like cannoli tubes.
I followed Clivia’s suggestion to use a “shave” less butter than the recipe called for. They come out of the oven a little greasy, so I was glad I did. R and I enjoyed our maple tuiles with a little bowl of ice cream.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or Bubie’s Little Baker. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
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