Jam Filled Sandwich Cookies

When Dorie's book, Baking Chez Moi,  came out late last fall I started baking tons of recipes.  How could I wait for the twice a month Tuesday with Dorie baking??!!  So last February I made these cookies and they were lovely.

It's really hot this summer (I'm not complaining) so I've been reluctant to turn on the oven.  Since I made these last winter and even remembered to take a couple of pictures once they came out of the oven, I decided not to bake them again this week.

They are two delicious, thin cookies with a bit of jam in the middle.  My notes in the margins of the book remind me to press on the sides of the cookies before baking so as not to squish out the jam.  What else can I say?  They turned out great!

Here are a couple of pictures of the just-baked cookies and of the view outside my window when I baked the cookies in February!

Delicious cookies . . .

. . . and winter in Rochester, NY

Bubble Eclairs

Eclairs always look so fancy in the pastry shop window, but having a little experience baking from Dorie Greenspan's books made me confident that mine would both taste great and look fabulous.

Cream puff dough is surprisingly easy to make and I am so happy that I own OXO cookie scoops because I was able to scoop up three "bubbles" with no problem.

Because there were only three of us for dinner, I made just four eclairs, then scooped out the rest of the dough to be frozen and baked later this week for my birthday celebration treats!

I topped our bubble eclairs with crackle top cookies and filled them with ice cream and chocolate sauce.  Then each of us had one, then 1/3 more and they were gone!  Will bake up the frozen ones on Saturday and I'm sure they will be a hit.

Yummy!

To see what the other Tuesday with Dorie bakers did this week, click here.

Cherry Crumb Tart

I am committed to baking through Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi, with the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, but I missed the July bakes!  The first miss was due to an absence of apricots, and the second was due to an absence of me (vacation).  But I am home now and happy to be back on the baking bus.

This week's recipe is a Cherry Crumb Tart.  Dorie introduced me to baking tarts in Baking from My Home to Yours and I love them because they are beautiful, parts of them can be made ahead, and above all, they are delicious.  The Cherry Crumb Tart was a bit of a project, but it was thoroughly enjoyable to bake.

Dorie suggests using a square tart pan and I had to resist the urge to walk down to the nearby Cook's World and buy one.  But I already own a variety of round tart pans so decided I'd make due with what I had.

In this new book, Dorie says she likes to roll out the tart dough.  I've grown quite fond of her alternative method which is to pat the dough into the pan so that's what I did here.  Once it was in the freezer, I started on the other components of the tart.

I made the streusel topping, using the optional orange zest.  At first I thought the amount of zest would make the topping too orange-y but of course it was just the right amount of tanginess on the finished tart.

Once the streusel was in the refrigerator I made the filling, which was quite easy to do once I found the almond flour which I had sensibly hidden in the freezer.  Since I had the food processor out, I intended to use that but discovered that there was so little butter (only 6 Tbsp.) that the whirling blade didn't reach the butter so I got out my reliable stand mixer.  Using the right tool made it easy.  I intended to use vanilla but after searching through the little bottles of alcohol--all of which we have acquired for cooking and baking--I found the kirsch so in it went.

Later in the day I partially baked the tart shells, then pitted the cherries.  My mother owned a really wonderful cherry pitter which I still have.  Unfortunately, it seems to be missing a critical piece on the pit-plunger so it no longer works!  The hand-held OXO pitter is  functional, but it's not as cool to splat the cherry pits into a bowl as it is to plunk them into a mason jar.

Filling on the partially baked tart shell

My old cherry pitter and the new OXO

The pitted cherries

Tart into the oven

I assembled the tart except for the streusel and popped it into the oven.  I wish I'd taken a picture of how it looked when the filling puffed up around the cherries before I added the streusel.  It was beautiful!

Out of the oven

The finished tart was also beautiful and everyone enjoyed it after dinner.  Another winner as far as I'm concerned.

Onto the serving plate

Click here to see what the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers have to say about this tart and rush right out to buy Baking Chez Moi if you want this recipe and lots more fabulous recipes from Dorie Greenspan.

Strawberry Shortcakes Franco-American Style

Strawberry season is so short that I always find myself making everything with strawberries during the few weeks when the local berries are available.  This week the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers had the opportunity to make Strawberry Shortcakes Franco-American Style, found on page 338 of Baking Chez Moi.

The fun part for me was using that open star decorating tip that I bought to decorate the Limoncello mini-cupcakes a few weeks ago.  Who knew that a little $2 purchase could bring so much pleasure?!
I used it this time to pipe on the whipped cream.  Messy, but really fun to do.

We enjoyed these shortcakes very much.  They were lighter than the usual American biscuit-type shortcake and oh, so delicious!

For more scrumptious strawberry pictures, check out the blogs of other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Making the meringue

piping them on to the baking sheet

The leftovers

Out of the oven

The finished product!

Fun with piping on the whipped cream!

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

There are few desserts that I enjoy more than brownies.  When I baked through Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours,  I was delighted to find several brownie recipes, each different from the other and each wonderful in its own way.  So when her new book, Baking Chez Moi arrived last fall, one of the first recipes I baked was the only new brownie recipe:  Chocolate Cherry Brownies.

I've learned so much about baking from Dorie and from this recipe I learned that it doesn't take much wine to really ramp up the flavor of dried fruit!  The cherries were delicious in these brownies!

The Tuesdays with Dorie bakers baked these brownies this week.  I have to admit that I did not, but only because I was on an airplane traveling home to Rochester, NY from the west coast.   So the only picture I can provide this time is the page in the book with my notes from November:

Add caption

Notice the note:  11-17-2014
                            Very dense, very tasty.

If you want to see what the other Tuesday with Dorie bakers have to say about these brownies, and see their wonderful pictures, go here.

Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake

Rhubarb season is so short where we live (upstate New York).  So when the Tuesday with Dorie bakers decided to bake with rhubarb this week, I was a little concerned.  I sent my husband off to Wegmans in search of rhubarb and none was to be had.  But somehow in conversation with friends the search for rhubarb came up and my friend Carol advised me that her former neighbor had tons of it in her backyard and wouldn't mind at all if we took some.  So we went knocking on said neighbor's door and I left not only with rhubarb, but also several heirloom tomato plants!

This cake was easy to bake.  The interesting part was preparing the rhubarb.  It is peeled, then cut up, then allowed to sit for half an hour combined with a half a cup of sugar.  The rhubarb gave up quite a bit of juice which Dorie recommends using as a syrup in various drinks.  I used it to flavor some water and it was delightful!

The rhubarb is caramelized and then distributed in a 9" round pan.  Then the very easy-to-make batter is poured over.

I don't think mine was a particularly beautiful and the rhubarb makes it quite tangy.  Dorie recommends serving it with ice cream or strawberries.  I served mine with strawberry ice cream and it was wonderful!

Nutella Buttons

I have been conscientious about baking and posting with the other Tuesday with Dorie bakers, but nevertheless,  I'm in a period of life that is just hurry, hurry, hurry.  I baked these last week, but only ate one before I carried them out the door to our local contra dance.  They were all consumed and many compliments found their way back to me.

These were easy and looked lovely, especially with the ganache.  I'll be making them again and keeping more than one for myself!

The egg whites and the yolk-y batter

Beginning to fold in the whites

A few left to add the top bit of batter

The glazed buttons