Tuesdays with Dorie BCM: Canistrelli
August 25, 2020 at 10:39 am | Posted in BCM, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
These Canistrelli were a nice treat to have around for coffee breaks. They are a Corsican cookie, made with olive oil, white wine and pastis. I’d never had Canistrelli before, but something about them was familiar…not sure, but maybe they are similar to a cookie that my in-laws buy from an Italian-American pastry shop? I actually used ouzo (which I keep around to flame off saganaki, one of my favorite treats) in mine instead of pastis, and it worked great to get that bit of anise flavor. They’re easily mixed together and the soft dough is cut up into little cubes or diamonds. They aren’t too sweet, but the nuggets are coated in sugar before baking, so they get a nice crunchy crust when they bake.
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: Biarritz Cookies
August 18, 2020 at 8:10 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
Dorie remembers Pepperidge Farm’s now discontinued Biarrtiz Cookies with such fondness, that she decided to recreate them at home. (A bit of research revealed that they actually still exist, and are made by the Belgian cookie company that originally “invented” them and licensed the rights to make them, and several other cookies, in the US for a time to PF). A traditional Biarritz is a single cookie with a tempered chocolate-coated bottom side, but I went the ganache sandwich route and turned them into something more like a round Milano.
The batter is pretty much a tuile batter, with beaten egg whites and melted butter incorporated into the dry ingredients. It’s flowy and not stiff, but it’s not spread paper thin like a tuile, so it keeps a bit of a rounded shape when baked. I really don’t like using a piping bag if I don’t have to, so I used my small cookie scoop to portion the batter. It worked just fine and I got nicely sized cookies that were pretty consistent in shape (others in the group had mentioned that the quarter-sized bloops Dorie says to pipe make very small finished cookies). I actually had a bit of leftover coffee-flavored ganache in the fridge and I used that up to make my cookie sandwiches. I liked these a lot, even though they were soft and not crisp like I’d expected them to be.
Something I’ve always appreciated about the more delicate Pepperidge Farm cookies is that they are packed into paper cups, so I did the same for photo purposes. 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: Parm Toasts
August 4, 2020 at 12:13 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory, snacks
Parm Toasts really do look like tiny toasts, although no bread was harmed in the making of these. They are cheese biscotti…a simple to make dough loaded with shredded parmesan cheese that’s twice baked. These are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book, and I can confirm that they do go nicely with a white wine spritz. They also make good croutons for salad (Dorie says ditto for crunchy soup floaters, but I’m holding off on that taste test till fall).
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 DC: Coconut-Lime Sablés
July 7, 2020 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, DC, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
For today’s episode of “On the Cooling Rack,” we have Coconut-Lime Sablés…flavors that remind me of a beach vacation, even though I’m sweating it out in my house this summer. These are shortbread cookies with a little chew, thanks to moist shredded coconut in the dough. Lime zest gives them a some zing and coriander gives them some spice. They are baked in a muffin tin for perfect rounds with a delightfully caramelized outer ring.
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.
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: Cocktail Puffs
May 5, 2020 at 8:11 pm | Posted in DC, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory, snacks
In addition to my daily afternoon tea time, I have daily pre-dinner apéro time. That sounds fancier than it is– last night we had popcorn– but the point is that I’m on the look out for some good savory snacks. Cocktail Puffs are in the “cocktail cookies” section of the book and, filled with anything from olive tapenade (my choice) to pesto to cheese, they sounded promising with a half-glass of wine.
The full recipe makes 50 puffs. Even if NYC is quarantined through summer, I don’t know if I can deal with that many! I need some snack variety, so I made just a quarter recipe. The dough is a snap to do in the food processor, and a combo of cold yogurt and butter, plus one fold of the dough, makes it flaky. It’s also soft and requires a lengthy chill time. I know my focus is not the sharpest these days, but I had to read the instructions like 5 times to figure out how the heck to form the puffs. There was a lengthy description of measurements and the cutting of strips, and, as a visual learner, I wished for an illustration. But I think I got it in the end and I was totes ready for a cocktail after that.
When I pulled my puffs out of the oven, I dusted them with a little paprika. I liked them…they were flaky and savory…but I would have liked them a little bigger. They were thimble sized, and I wish they had been double that to get more puff and filling. Also, I couldn’t help but think that they’d work just as well with bought puff pastry. On the flip side, it probably means this dough would be good used in other ways, too, so maybe I’ll give that some thought.
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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