a whisk and a spoon

Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Mary’s Maine Bars

Mary’s Maine Bars are a recipe that Dorie’s assistant, recipe tester and friend (and former TWDer) Mary Dodd brought back from a trip to Maine. These chewy bar cookies are full of molasses and warm spices…if you have a taste, you might think they are gingerbread, but actually, they contain no ginger at all. Some others who’ve made them described them as being like brownies in texture, and they seem that way to me, too. They’d make a great holiday cookie for sure, but I like these flavors all winter long.

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: Swedish Dream Cookies

I do dream of going to Sweden, and I hope one day that will happen, but for now my Scandi fantasies will have to be lived out with Swedish Dream Cookies. These cookies are called drömmar in Sweden, and a quick on-line search showed me there are many ways to make these shortbread-esqe treats, but Dorie’s recipe uses browned butter and cardamom for the dreamiest of flavors. They’re made in the food processor, and I zipped up the cardamom and sugar in the machine first to get a bit of extra spice hit. After scooping out rounds of dough, you can press an almond in the center or add a bit of jam, thumbprint-style, if you want them a bit sweeter. I went with the whole almonds and I like the look, but I’m now dreaming of them with a chocolate button on top, since I think that would be good with the browned butter, too.

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: Bruno’s New Year’s Waffles

Maybe we are getting to the point in January where we are no longer really celebrating the new year, but I’m giving it one last toast with Bruno’s New Year’s Waffles. I almost skipped these waffles, which are more like thin wafers, because the recipe uses a pizzelle iron to cook them. I don’t have one. In fact, I think that out of the group, Diane is the only one who does…but that didn’t stop Gaye, who used a sandwich press, or Mardi, who used a griddle pan, from getting them done, so I really didn’t have an excuse to sit them out. With two good ways to hack the cooking process explained, I wondered if there could be a third. Made with a stiff dough rather than a loose batter, these thin, crispy waffles sounded a bit like Dutch stroopwafels (which I have only consumed, never made), especially since Dorie recommends sandwiching them with a filling. I spent some time thinking about how I could get them as thin as reasonably possible and decided to try out my tortilla press. I did only a fourth of the recipe and made them larger than Dorie and Bruno do, getting eight cookies in total. I weighed out my dough balls (about 20g each), gave them each a very firm pressing, and then transferred the resulting circles to my comal to crisp up. I did trim the ratty edges with a cutter while the cookies were still hot.

I’m sure they weren’t as delicate as they would have been in a pizzelle iron, but I was pretty happy with how my waffles came out. They cooled caramelized and crisp, and I sandwiched them with some leftover dark chocolate glaze I had in the fridge. I heated up some classic hot chocolate from Dorie’s xoxoDorie newsletter to enjoy them with, for an extra happy new year treat.

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: Portofignos

I like a good pun, and calling cookies containing port-plumped dried figs “Portofignos” made me giggle. Dorie points out that the chocolate dough that forms the base of these slice-and-bake cookies is similar to that of her famous World Peace Cookies, but that the bits of toasted walnuts and boozy figs that stud it take things in a new direction. Although I’ve been to Italy zero times and to Portugal only one time more that that, I know Portofino is not even close to where port wine is from…but I’m guessing the direction we are headed is somewhere on the sea, enjoying the good life with a glass of fortified sweet wine and couple of chocolate cookies. I’m very happy to go wherever that is right now, even if it’s just in my imagination.

For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!