Dorie’s Cookies – Cranberry Five-Spice Cookies

November 20, 2018November 20, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

I baked up a storm the last two weekends, helping stock the bake sale table at the craft fair my mother organizes every year. I made three selections from Dorie’s Cookies this year, including the Cranberry Spice Cookies that were one of this month’s selections. I took out some squash that I’d frozen to make the variation of the Sweet Potato Pie Bars, but my mother got hold of it and turned it into several delicious creations of her own, instead. Luckily, I’ve got a really big squash ready to roast, so I’ll make those bars some time before the holidays.

I also made the Peanut Brownie Sablés and the Melody Cookies (in snowflake form!), along with several batches of cookies from other cookbooks and recipe cards. I managed to taste a couple of cookies along the way (thank goodness for broken cookies!), but I was in production mode, so didn’t take great photos of any of them.

I am going to have to make all of these again, at a time when they’re not earmarked for sale – they were all so delicious that I was sorry all I got was a share of the very few broken bits when they were unpacked. The Cranberry Five-Spice Cookies were especially lovely, because they’re not sweet – amongst all the sugar bombs on the table, they made a nice contrast. I loved the way the butter and cranberries played against the spices. It’s a perfect cookie for a grown up dessert tray or a grown up cocktail nibble.

I may not have gotten to eat many cookies this weekend, but I’m going to steal one of their ideas for my next cookie swap – the mix and match table was a huge hit!

November’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here and here at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Tuesdays with Dorie – September Omnibus Edition

September 19, 2018September 25, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 12 Comments

Summer is fading quickly, but I’m trying to enjoy the last of the flowers before turning my attention to the changing leaves.

For the first time in forever, it seems, I’ve managed to bake all the selections for this month’s Tuesdays with Dorie. Strange that it happened in a month in I was too busy to blog. So, I’m treating (?) you to an omnibus post of all September’s Baking Chez Moi and Dorie’s Cookies treats.

Smoothest, Silkiest, Creamiest, Tartest Lime Tart

I made a full-sized version of this tart for my parents to take to one of their semi-annual get-togethers with some of their oldest friends. I held aside a bit of dough and a bit of filling to make a cook’s treat version for myself and it’s almost prettier than the larger version. To be fair, the one my parents got was whisked off before I could get a very good photo of it, but you can get a sense of how pretty it was even from this shot:

There isn’t much to say about this tart that isn’t expressed in its name, but I’ll add that it was a hit with my parents and their friends. I was left wishing I’d made a full-sized tart to keep on hand for myself. 😉

Basque Macarons

These are delicious in an entirely different way than their more famous (here, at least) cousins. They are crispy around the edges and chewy in the centre, with a caramel note that I can’t resist. Mine aren’t quite what they should be. I got carried away when spooning them out (they’re huge!) and I think I overworked the batter a touch (a byproduct of feeling a little overworked myself, perhaps). They were still delicious, just lacking the shape and crackled texture they should have had.

You can find the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew’s entries on this month’s recipes from Baking Chez Moi here and here.

Double-Buckwheat Double-Chocolate Cookies

I split this dough into two logs, leaving one in my mother’s freezer with baking directions attached. I’m now sorry I did, because I baked these before a meeting and almost missed my chance to try them. My very generous meeting mates saved two for me, though, so I can attest these are delicious. I snuck a spoonful of cocoa nibs into the batter, after A Whisk & A Spoon‘s example, and they added yet another delicious element. Buckwheat on buckwheat with chocolate on chocolate on chocolate, topped with a little sugar and Maldon salt – don’t you wish you had a plateful of that? I do.

Devil’s Food Wafflets with Chocolate Sauce

These are just made for a Sunday brunch potluck. They’d disappear as soon as they came off the iron and the only danger would be streaks of chocolate across your counter as your guests dipped them into the chocolate sauce. I made a half-portion of the chocolate sauce, as I froze most of these, half for my parents and half for my uncle (there are perks to being seniors now, they’ve told me). There was sauce left over after we snacked on about a quarter of the batch, which I’m told made a nice accompaniment for my parents’ ice cream dessert. The waffles are light, rich, and not too sweet – a perfect foil for the chocolate sauce, but I suspect they’d be just as welcome with a dusting of icing sugar.

July’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here and here at Tuesdays with Dorie.

A whirlwind round up of a month of baking. I may not have had the time to post about them, but I’m glad I made the time to make these recipes. Baking is my most reliable salve for hectic times.

Tuesdays With Dorie – Cold Chocolate Crémeux, Wine-Poached Cherries and Lots of Crumbs & Rosemary-Parm Cookies

August 28, 2018August 28, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

It’s one of those rare months when I’ve had the opportunity to make everything on the schedule for this month’s Tuesdays with Dorie picks. I even managed to post about them, twice!

Cold Chocolate Crémeux, Wine-Poached Cherries and Lots of Crumbs

The first dessert is one I’ve been meaning to try since I got the book. Cherry season is fleeting, though, and I’ve never managed to get ’round to this one until I had the extra prompting of having it on the Baking Chez Moi schedule. I’ve been missing out. All the components of this dessert are delicious in their own right and together they make a beautiful and delicious treat. I made this dessert on the same day as I made the Babas with Pineapple for Cook the Book Fridays. I gave some of each to my parents, with the following instructions:

Baba + pineapple + whipped cream.

Crémeux + cherries + cocoa crumbs.

They quite happily followed (then flouted) my instructions and loved every bit of them.

As did I. The crémeux was a joy to make and managed to be perfectly smooth and creamy without straining. I love the texture that gelatin gave the pudding, which was so rich and chocolatey that it could pass for ganache. The cherries were wonderful poached in wine and I made extra, which gave my morning yogurt a little sophistication once the crémeux was gone.

The crumbs, though. I’m not sure how happy I am to know how easy it is to make them. They were incredible in the dessert and could easily be added to, well, almost everything. It reminds me of whenever I’ve made the caramelized Rice Krispies for Dorie’s Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars. Everyone wants them in everything.

The best part of this week’s dessert is how easy it was to schedule and make an impressive multi-part dessert. I’m considering organizing a neighbourhood dessert party this winter, mostly because it helps me distribute my baked goods. I’d love to have a dessert bar loaded with components of desserts that people can mix and match, as my parents did with the desserts I left for them.

Rosemary-Parm Cookies

I’ve been procrastinating about this one, even though I was the one who suggested it for the schedule. My rosemary plant is prolific, I’ve got all the ingredients on hand, and I can’t wait to try them. What I haven’t had is a good occasion for them. These are cookies I want to pass around, seeing what everyone thinks. So, I’m making them as I write this post – something I do quite a lot, come to think of it. My compromise was to divide the dough into three, one small one to bake off tonight and two larger disks for when the occasion calls for some adventurous cookies.

The dough itself comes together beautifully and my hands and my kitchen are still fragrant with rosemary-sugar. I love Dorie’s trick of rubbing aromatics into sugar more than just for its effectiveness at distributing flavour. It’s a soothing process that engages the senses, making me more attuned to the texture and fragrance of the dough as I work it in turn. The perfume it leaves behind makes its hour-long rest in the refrigerator seem longer, though.

My impatience was warranted, by the way. These cookies are sandy in the best sablé cookie manner, they’re flavour is both delicate and earthy, barely sweet and just a touch salty. The rosemary and Parmesan don’t overwhelm, while the pecans give a nutty undertone rather than taking centre stage.

It’s a balanced, pretty, delicious little cookie and I’m looking forward to taking out the remaining discs of dough when it’s time to share.

You can find the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew’s entries on this month’s recipes from Baking Chez Moi here and here.

AND

August’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here and here at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Dorie’s Cookies – Chocolate-Raspberry Thumbprints

August 7, 2018August 7, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 11 Comments

I’ve been working a lot in the vegetable garden lately: moving my decade-old thyme from a pot that it literally burst out of to a bed near my fig tree; repotting the miraculously long-lived oregano that was the thyme’s companion; training my squash and mouse melon vines along their trellises; harvesting whatever’s been ripening along the way (quite a lot of kale this year). But, I’ve also been planting more pollinator-friendly perennials and leaving a lot of my plants to the bees this year. I’m grateful for all the goodness pollinators give us and I want to nourish them as long as I can before this neighbourhood is converted to a tower-filled concrete heat island.

I’ve not harvested many squash blossoms this year and I’ve let more of my herbs go to seed than is prudent for human purposes. In return, my fruits and vegetables have been plentiful (though I didn’t plant as much as I would have liked this year). I’ve also worked my way through loads of berries, cherries (sour and sweet), figs (from my own tree), and am deep into stone fruit now. I just picked a tromboncino squash that barely fits into my refrigerator and I have almost more green beans than I know what to do with. That’s a lie, there are never enough freshly picked green beans.

I’ve managed to do a bit of baking, too. This week’s cookie might not include anything from my own garden, but its ingredients are pollinators’ gifts that I’m grateful for. The combination of raspberry and chocolate is a classic and irresistible one and these cookies showcase that beautifully.

Dorie’s Do-Almost-Anything doughs are ones to keep in mind any time you’ve got a lot of cookie-baking in mind. Both the vanilla and chocolate produce quadruple batches of cookie dough and Dorie provides four recipes for each in Dorie’s Cookies.

At this time of year, my freezer is a little full, so I only made a half batch of the chocolate dough. I only baked 15 cookies, though, so I still have a bag bursting full of the prepared balls for future cookies. I’ll make more of these, for certain, but I may also experiment with fillings and toppings, too.

I sent a dozen of the cookies home with my parents, who have reported that they love them, and kept three for myself to enjoy. Normally, I would not be so abstemious, but I have at least a pound of cherries in the fridge, a fig version of Feast’s lunar cake just baked, and a tiny apple pie, too. So, I’m going to wait to bake more of these cookies, even though I wish I hadn’t sent so many of them out of the house!

I’ve made rolled out cookies with this dough in the past and have found it very easy to work with. It’s even easier to form into balls and press the indentation for the jam with a knuckle. I used a raspberry jam that only ran a little, firming up nicely once the cookies had cooled. After drizzling a bit of melted chocolate on each, they were done and delicious.

I can’t promise I’ll make it all the way to fall without making some more of these, even if it’s high stone fruit season and I really should be making some pies…

July’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Dorie’s Cookies – Cast-Iron Pan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

July 17, 2018July 18, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 11 Comments

My plan for today was to come home, bake the Pistachio-Berry Slims and do a two-in-one Dorie’s Cookies post for today’s Tuesdays with Dorie. Instead, I hopped on the 99 bus, switched to the Number 15, and climbed the hill at Queen Elizabeth Park to Bloedel Conservatory. A once-in-a-decade event is happening right now and I decided to do a little bandwagoneering.

The corpse flower only blooms for a day or two, so it’s not something that can wait until the weekend. I managed to get there during a lull in the line up and was able to spend some time with the (surprisingly not smelly) bloom, along with the plants and birds that inhabit the conservatory. It’s quite a beautiful flower, even when not completely open as I saw it, the fabled scent associated with it gives its viewers an air of bravado, and its size is impressive. It’s also a rare flower, both in timing and number. But, I don’t think that’s the whole of its appeal. Its ephemerality ties the rest of these qualities together, making it irresistible to news outlets and spectators alike. There’s a powerful metaphorical appeal when something this singular takes so long to come to fruition, then withers in so short a span.

Or at least, that’s where my thoughts turned afterward, over an Aperol Spritz and artichoke leaves at Seasons in the Park. I went there to escape from the heat and fortify myself for a stroll through the quarry gardens and then the trek back to my side of town. Thank goodness for the lounges of fine dining restaurants. You can come in as you are (in my case, post-corpse flower viewing) and have access to the full menu. It was a good afternoon, but by the time I got home, I had just enough left in me to water the garden and have a proper bit of dinner. Baking was not in the cards.

Luckily, I’d made the cast-iron pan chocolate chip bars a few weeks ago, which put me in the (rare for me) position of being ready for the week’s post. Just like today’s activities, my version of these bars was a deviation from plan. I have a very small cast-iron pan, so I already knew I’d be making them in a springform. What I sacrificed in caramelly browning, I gained in cakey moistness. I was also low on shredded coconut, so rather than go to the store, I threw in some cocoa nibs. The squares still had a pleasing coconut taste, but the nibs amped up the chocolate flavour and added a bit of crunch, too.

I sliced these up in thin wedges and can attest that they’re equally good served with berries and whipped cream or unadorned. I gave three large portions away and still had more than a few days’ worth of dessert for myself. Another example of a successful detour, I’d say.

July’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here and here at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Dorie’s Cookies – Cocoa-Tahini Cookies with Sesame Crunch

June 19, 2018June 20, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

We’re in the midst of a heatwave, so I baked these cookies quite late this evening and I only baked three of them. Luckily, they all turned out beautifully, because I wouldn’t have had much leeway for outtakes. And even more luckily, this cookie dough holds well in the refrigerator, so I can wait a day or two for the temperature to drop before baking off the rest. I left them in the oven just long enough to become slightly crunchy around the edges, which is a wonderful thing in a cookie.

These almost didn’t get made, because the sesame crunch reminded me so much of one of my favourite supermarket treats, Sesame Snaps. (In fact, those who are intimidated by caramel-making might pick up a pack of Sesame Snaps to use in place of the homemade crunch. But, you shouldn’t be intimidated – hot sugar is easier to work with than people realize.) I kept my baser instincts in check and saved the crunch for baking. It adds so much to the texture of this cookie and plays so well against the give of the chopped chocolate.

I’ll make these again, perhaps for this year’s cookie swap season. I suspect they’ll be popular.

I’ve been pretty behind with blogging and I have been wondering when I’d make the Swedish Visiting Cake Bars this month. But then, I realized I already have (and loved them) way back in November of 2016. I’m not sure why I haven’t made them again, except that there are so many recipes to try and so few treat-eaters in my life. So, I’ve actually completed both Dorie’s Cookies recipe selections for this month! Here’s what I said about it on Instagram at the time, “It’s a thin layer of butter-rich cake flavoured with vanilla and almond topped by a meringue of egg white, powdered sugar, and sliced almonds – so good!”

Just a short post tonight, as I have been feeling a bit sapped of energy and optimism this week, the former lapped up by the heat and the latter ground out by the news. Cookies help.

June’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here and here at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Tuesdays With Dorie – Viennese Shortbread & Some Catching Up

April 10, 2018April 11, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 14 Comments

Viennese Sablés

Hot on the heels of my Cook the Book Fridays catch up, here is the Tuesdays with Dorie edition.

Today’s treat is Viennese Sablés from Baking Chez Moi, though I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to guess from my photo above. During some spring cleaning and organizing, I decided to move my box of piping tips from the drawer that they’ve never quite fit into – trouble is, I don’t remember where I decided to move them. So, after a quick attempt at piping them through a snipped zip bag, which did not make for an appetizing presentation, I decided to lightly shape them into rounds. They don’t have quite the lightness that they would if I’d piped them properly, but they still have that Danish cookie-from-the-tin flavour and even that texture, in their pillowy interiors.

Apple Weekend Cake

Just before going out to visit family for the Easter weekend, I baked one large loaf and four small loaves of Dorie’s Apple Weekend Cake from Baking Chez Moi. One of the small loaves disappeared before I made it out of town (I had help from friends, I swear), and the rest of the mini-loaves were eaten by ravenous relatives. The large loaf got popped into the freezer, awaiting my mother’s next Board meeting. Along with the carrot cake I told you about on Friday from My Paris Kitchen, and a generous slathering of cream cheese-mascarpone icing on everything, this apple cake may have assured my mother another Presidential term. Apple Weekend Cake is similar to family favourite, Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake, but this cake is sturdy enough to bring on a picnic or pack in a lunch box while still being tender and moist.

Crumb-Topped Apple Bars

Thank goodness for citrus season and really good storage apples. They get me through that last little bit of winter/early spring before the rhubarb shows up in the markets. (The rhubarb in my garden takes a bit longer to grow, so it will be some time before I’m picking it.) I picked up a bag of fantastic Pink Lady apples a few weeks ago, when my longing for rhubarb and spring was at its height and the perfect tartness of these apples helped, eaten out of hand and as the star of these bars from Dorie’s Cookies. Of course, they also put me in mind of Hungarian Shortbread with its rhubarb filling, so I’m glad it’s finally rhubarb season now.

Sebastian’s Remarkably Wonderful Brownies

I froze these brownies right after making them, then pulled them out for a game day (board games, not team sports). By the end of our session of all ages Telestrations, the brownies had disappeared. These are fudgey, but they also have a little of the quality of the centre of a pavlova. I think it’s because the eggs are whipped for five minutes with the butter, sugar, and salt. It’s hard to stop at one of these, as my fellow game-players can attest. You can find the recipe here or in your copy of Dorie’s Cookies.

Bee’s Sneeze Nuggets

The TwD group hasn’t delved too deeply into the savoury cookie section of Dorie’s Cookies as yet, but if these biscuit-y cookies are any indication, we should be spending more time there. Based on a cocktail, they make a great accompaniment to one. They’re also a great alternative to a cocktail, if you’re in the mood for the flavour without the buzz (so to speak). They’ve got all the botanical notes of gin, braced with lemon and subtly sweetened with honey. I took Dorie’s suggestion and served them with a bowl of honey for dipping and wouldn’t have them any other way.

I’ll leave you with a shot of my neighbourhood in its spring finery. Walking the dog is even more of a pleasure than usual these days.

You can find the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew’s entries on this month’s recipes here.

Dorie’s Cookies – Chunkers

January 16, 2018January 17, 2018 ~ Teresa ~ 11 Comments

In some ways, I’ve been old all my life. Physically, I was born with a slight hearing deficit, near-sightedness has been with me since Grade Four, and my hair started turning grey when I was still in high school. My behaviour has often been grannyish, too – tea-drinking since twelve, defiantly knitting in my twenties and thirties, and pushing baked goods on all comers since I was old enough to stir a batter. For most of my life, those aspects of myself were characterized as quirks and sometimes even adorable emblems of my individuality. More recently, they’ve become evidence of my status as an oldster.

Now it’s my politics, my way of life, and many of my experiences that are seen as incongruous. Feminism in those over forty is getting a drubbing this week, in particular, thanks to Caitlin Flanagan and her disavowal of any understanding of how young women date these days.

At least I can take solace in baking, which is where this particular train of thought began. (You were wondering when I’d get to the cookies, weren’t you?) Taking a photo of these proved challenging and I’m once again impressed with the production team behind Dorie’s Cookies – the photo in the book is tantalizing.

However, these cookies are much more than they seem. They’re brownie-like in the centre surrounded by a shatteringly thin, crisp crust. They’re filled with chopped milk and dark chocolate, plump dried cherries, and cashews. Every bite is a tiny bit different, though equally delicious.

The worst thing about these cookies is that you have to wait for about 30 minutes for them to set after coming out of the oven. The best thing about them is that the unbaked cookies freeze well, so I’ve got a bag full of them in the freezer awaiting my next chocolate craving.

So, to wrap everything up in a neat bow, don’t reject a cookie because it doesn’t photograph well. Remember that there is a diversity of experience and belief at every age. And looking ahead, don’t dismiss a senior’s quirks and foibles as a symptom of age. It’s pretty likely they’ve been that way all along and that their life experiences might seem as up-to-date as your own, upon closer examination.

January’s Dorie’s Cookies goodness can be found here and here at Tuesdays with Dorie.