Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Peanut Brownie Sablés
March 16, 2021 at 2:11 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, chocolate, cookies, nuts
Peanut Brownie Sablés…when two become one. You do actually need to make two different doughs to make this recipe, something that initially sounded very annoying to my lazy self but is actually no biggie. First mix up a peanut butter sablé dough then get cracking on a brownie batter. The brownie just uses cocoa, so there’s no messing with a water bath (also, I followed Mardi’s lead and used room temp butter for that batter). The two separate mixes get paddled together to become the final hybrid dough.
This cookie mash-up was a hit for me. Chocolate and PB is a most winning combo, and these cookies are nice and soft in the middle. I have some more dough in the freezer that I’ll bake off this weekend.
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: Lucky Charm Brownies
February 16, 2021 at 10:27 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, brownies, chocolate
If you are here expecting a brownie topped with pastel mini marshmallows and cereal bits, you will have to look elsewhere (they do exist, I checked the Google). These Lucky Charm Brownies have a different sweet treasure, both on top and in the batter- amaretti cookies.
The brownie batter contains many of the usual suspects…melted chocolate, cocoa, butter, sugar and eggs…but it’s gluten-free, as the flour is replaced with a mix of pulverized almonds and amaretti. The whole batter is actually whizzed up in the food processor, which makes it super quick and easy. It bakes up into a fudgy, truffle-like slab.
You could just stop there and cut them up into rich little squares. But why would you, when you could also dress them up with chocolate glaze and more crushed amaretti cookies? This makes them even richer but also even more irresistible, which is lucky for everyone who gets to try them.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Dark Chocolate Pudding
February 12, 2021 at 9:05 am | Posted in everyday dorie, groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things | 4 CommentsTags: chocolate, everyday dorie, pudding
I do love a good homemade pudding, but I only seem to make it when a recipe rolls around for a blog group. That’s the case today, with this Dark Chocolate Pudding. This is delicious- thick, rich and luxurious. It comes together quickly in a pot and with constant whisking, you can skip the immersion blender whiz at the end (which is great, since I don’t have one). Not all pudding recipes call for eggs, but this one does, so I did push it through a strainer at the end, mostly to make sure all the little egg chalaza squiggle bits were gone.
Dorie suggests serving the pudding with a sprinkling of cocoa streusel crumbs she calls “chocolate crunch,” but I didn’t feel like firing up the oven for something that would have otherwise been a no-bake dessert. I went freezer foraging instead and came up with a handful of leftover misshapen almond macaron shells. I decided to turn them into my own crunchies by roughly crumbling them and coating them in melted chocolate. Once the chocolate set up, I had some nice rubbly bits to scatter on top of the pudding…or on top of the crème fraîche on top of the pudding.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all of our pudding cups this week.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Chocolate-Cranberry and Almond Cookies
January 19, 2021 at 8:50 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, chocolate, cookies
At first glance, to me, the recipe for these Chocolate-Cranberry and Almond Cookies sounded like a bit of a throw-away….not weird, but just some random stuff squished together to make a cookie. But then I made them and tried them, and I really liked them.
These cookies use Dorie’s “Do-Almost-Anything” chocolate dough, which is a nice dough that holds it’s shape well and can be used for cut-outs, pinwheels, thumbprints, whateves. Take the base dough and mix in bits of tart dried cranberries, roll and cut the cookies and top them with a sugary, meringue-like sliced almond topping. In keeping with my on-going pandemic pantry-purge, and in the spirit of this recipe of random stuff, I used what I had when I made these cookies: dried cherries in place of the cranberries and granulated almonds in place of the sliced. I made just half of this recipe, which was a pretty small amount of dough, so I did something I usually avoid at all costs…I formed it into a slice-and-bake log. I don’t normally like messing with that style of cookie formation, but I thought I wouldn’t get a good yield as roll-outs, without re-rolling scrap a zillion times. They aren’t perfect rounds because I stink at slicing, but they tasted good (sweet, tart and chocolatey), and that’s what matters.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.
TWD DC Rewind: World Peace Cookies
December 29, 2020 at 5:00 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: chocolate, cookies
This isn’t the first time I’ve made the famous World Peace Cookies, but I did skip making the recipe again 2017, when they were the pick for Dorie’s Cookies. That a cookie could bring about peace is a sweet sentiment for the end of a weirdly unsettling year, so I whipped up a quick batch of these to say farewell to 2020. They might not achieve world peace, but the delicious lightly salty, extra chocolatey flavor of these cookies certainly gives me a good feeling inside.
After mixing my dough (to which I added a 50/50 combo of chopped chocolate bits and cocoa nibs), I formed it into slice-and-bake logs. Then I put the sliced cookie coins into the cups of a muffin tin for baking (rather than just baking them on a sheet tray). Dorie doesn’t use the muffin tin method in her recipe for this cookie, and having tried it out, I might understand why. After the fact, it dawned on me that this dough has a bit of baking soda in it, which is not typical of a sablé, so it was probably designed to spread more than the cookies she usually bakes in a tin. I think they weren’t able to fully expand within the confines of the muffin cups, as each cookie had a raised rim and a slightly sunken interior. I didn’t let this take away my sense of inner peace, though. I considered the center divots the perfect nesting spot for a little spoonful of vanilla ice cream!
So, a very happy new year to you!! For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan (or get it here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of this week’s rewind on the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Mint Chocolate Sablés
December 1, 2020 at 5:26 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, chocolate, cookies, holiday
I’d say that the first of December marks the start of cookie season, but isn’t it always cookie season around here? I’ll just put a more festive spin on things this month, starting with these Mint Chocolate Sablés. We make this type of buttery French shortbread on the regular, but this particular sablé has a chocolate base jazzed up with mint oil or extract and little bits of chopped chocolate. Chocolate and mint is a pretty winning combo in my books. If it had occurred to me in advance, I would have bought a nice mint chocolate bar to cut up for the added bits, but, as per usual, my best ideas happen just as I’m about to put something in the oven. These are really good anyway, and I could actually smell their minty-ness while baking…I did add some gold glitter sugar for sparkle, so there’s that. I’m having a cookie tonight with vanilla ice cream and am very much looking forward to it.
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: Carrèment Chocolat, The Fancy Cake
November 10, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in BCM, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 12 CommentsTags: baking, cake, chocolate
Wow– after six years, this is our final Tuesdays with Dorie recipe from Baking Chez Moi. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Okay, I’m definitely crying, but a slice of Carrèment Chocolat, The Fancy Cake will make me feel better.
This is a chocolate cake that is sleek and slim, but rich and luxurious. A single pan of chocolate cake is sliced into two thin layers, brushed with syrup (which for me was Kahlúa) sandwiched with chocolate pastry cream, glazed in ganache and topped with homemade salted chocolate shards. It’s no wonder that it’s the book’s cover girl, and it’s no wonder that we saved her for our grand finale. I actually made this over the summer for my husband’s birthday. It seemed like a nice treat for a quarantine celebration and a fun project for me. We savored every bite.
My copy of BCM has lived on my kitchen counter for the last six years. It’ll go on the bookshelf now, but I’m sure I’ll take it down often (and, if I’m being truthful, I do have a few things to rewind). We have made close to 150 recipes, and it would be really, really hard for me to pick a favorite..maybe the Caramel-Topped Rice Pudding Cake, maybe the Chocolate Crème Caramel. Clearly I fancy upside-down puddings sitting in a caramel puddle, but I’ve had such fun baking and sharing all kinds of treats with our small group on Tuesdays. Thank you, it’s a highlight of my week. Also, of course, merci to Dorie for teaching, inspiring and encouraging us, and to Laurie, who started TWD back in 2008 with BFMHTY.
For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out our last BCM TWD Blogroll! We bake on with Dorie’s Cookies, but for this one, c’est fini.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Thanksgiving Bars
October 20, 2020 at 8:37 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 1 CommentTags: baking, chocolate, cookies, holiday
I’m often pretty meh on fruit and chocolates combinations, so I thought about passing on these Thanksgiving Bars, which have a cranberry-raspberry filling inside a walnut and cocoa double-crust. Also, I thought they sounded kind of weird and I don’t normally associate raspberries with Thanksgiving. My TWD friends who made them for the last posting all gave them excellent reviews though, so I didn’t want to skip a good thing…FOMO baking, I guess.
As it turns out, I do like these! That’s probably predictable, though, right? Haha. I reduced the sugar in the cranberry jam by about a third because I prefer it not to be too sweet, although I didn’t skimp on the sparkly sugar coating on the top crust. I like the way that top layer of dough conforms while baking around the whole raspberries in the filling, giving it pretty bumps. These are good with a scoop of ice cream or a cup of coffee.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Salted-Chocolate Hot Fudge Sundaes
September 25, 2020 at 2:13 pm | Posted in everyday dorie, groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things | 10 CommentsTags: chocolate, everyday dorie, ice cream, sundae
Since I can’t saddle up to the sundae bar at Morgenstern’s right now, I’m bringing the sundae bar home with these Salted-Chocolate Hot Fudge Sundaes. Sure, you can make a sundae with just a scoop or two of ice cream and a glug of sauce on top, and I often do simply that, but why not put a little more care into it on a Friday night? This sundae has a scoop each of coffee and vanilla ice creams, toasted slivered almonds, chocolate bits sprinkled with smoked sea salt and a generous amount of homemade hot fudge sauce. A whipped cream squiggle and a cherry on top finish it off. Where’s my spoon?
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all of our ice cream treats this week.
Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Caramelized Cinnamon-Milk Chocolate Tart
September 8, 2020 at 12:04 am | Posted in BCM, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, chocolate, tarts
This Caramelized Cinnamon-Milk Chocolate Tart was a yummy treat. The ganache filling (made with milk chocolate and cinnamon-infused caramel…I used ground cinny instead of a stick) reminded me of a candy bar, so that made we want to top it with salty peanuts. I’ll make this one again when I have some extra sweet tart dough around. For the recipe, see Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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