Lemon Squares, French Style

Every now and then I'll be at a potluck and someone will bring lemon squares.  They are usually tasty, but occasionally they are too sweet or gloppy.  I looked forward to trying Dorie Greenspan's Lemon Squares, French Style.

Let me just say the these were scrumptious.  The lemon curd was the perfect consistency and very lemon-y without being overly tart.  The crust was lovely, as one might expect with the use of almond flour.  The key here, I think, is that this recipe uses one pound of butter.  With that much butter, how can it not taste great?!

Cooking up the lemon curd.  Notice those hunks of butter?

Rolling out the crust, using a small glass as Dorie suggested.

The crust has baked a bit.

About to spread out the lemon curd.

Ready for the oven with extra crust sprinkled on top and finally topped with chopped, slice almonds.

Out of the oven.

Dorie writes that the edges will caramelize and that they will be the best part.  I figured my guests would think that the edges were "burnt", so I trimmed them off.  And ate them myself.  Yummy!

Here's my husband, setting things up for our first Soup Night of the winter.  The Lemon Squares and Dorie's Apple-Apple Bread Pudding (from Baking From My Home to Yours) are the first things our guests will encounter when they arrive.  My son made the two artisanal breads, and there are two big pots of soup on the stove, Mrs. Albarelli's Italian Bean Soup and Mushroom Bisque.  

For the past twelve years, we have invited friends to our house to share delicious soup, fresh bread, and luscious desserts, for a series of nine Mondays in a row throughout the winter.  It's a chance to fill our house with good food, good friends, and good conversation.  Last night was the first Soup Night of the season and we had 28 guests!  People bring wine, salads, appetizers and side dishes to share.  I send out a bunch of invitations but RSVPs are unnecessary:  I like t be surprised!  It was a wonderful evening!  I learned about new jobs, happy excursions, and overheard conversations about brewing beer, scuba diving, jigsaw puzzles and grandchildren.  All of the desserts and breads were consumed and we had just one quart of soup left over.  It was great to reconnect with our friends on a cold, snowy night and great to share my baking with them.

To see what other Tuesday with Dorie bakers baked this week, check out this link.

Stained Glass Window Cookies

Every year about this time I notice magazines with articles about the best cookies to bake at Christmas.  Often one of those recipes is "Stained Glass" cookies--sugar cookies with cut-outs into which you put crushed candy.  The result, at least in the magazine pictures, looks terrific and fun.  So I was really happy that Dorie's recipe for Stained Glass Cookies was chosen to be baked this December.  I had a holiday party to attend this past Saturday and planned to bake them for the party.

While at the store, I picked out lifesavers from the bulk bin.  I hadn't remembered how many Dorie said I'd need, but I selected several in different colors until I figured I had enough.  When I looked at the recipe she said about 15 and guess what?  I had exactly 15!  It was as if this was confirmation that my cookies were going to be perfect!

I made the dough, rolled it thin, put it in the refrigerator.  Everything was going as planned.

I crushed the lifesavers by color, using my heavy and excellent mortar and pestle.  They looked very pretty indeed.

I rolled out the cookies and cut them into two-inch rounds.  So far so good.

Dorie suggests cutting one or more tiny circles in each cookie, using a 1/4" icing tip.  This was the start of my problems.  I had star shaped tips about that size but that didn't work.  I tried using the tip of a grapefruit knife and that wasn't successful.  I finally used the end of the decorating bag coupler and that worked reasonably well.

Then I used the same coupler as a funnel to fill the holes with crushed candy.  I painted on some egg wash and sprinkled on sugar.

The first results out of the oven were okay, but not great.

The second tray was not so great--I forgot to set the timer and overbaked them, the candy turned brown (as Dorie warned that it would) and the cookies did too.

By the time the too-brown cookies came out of the oven, I had about one hour left before we were leaving for the holiday party.  One thing I've learned from Dorie is that if something isn't coming out as well as you'd planned, it's best to improvise!  I pulled out a simple Christmas tree cookie cutter, cut the cookies and sprinkled on some colored sanding sugar.  (I suppose I could have tried the crushed lifesavers but I really wasn't sure how the candy would melt).

I ended up with a small tray of cookies.  They tasted great and were much appreciated at the party, but weren't the cool looking stained glass cookies I had hoped for.  One thing I've learned, however, is that when someone compliments my baking, I just smile and say thank you.  It's unnecessary to reveal that the result wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I started.  And those overly browned cookies?  My husband thinks they were delicious and has been steadily eating them up.

Check out what the other Tuesdays with Dorie baked this week.  And if you don't have Baking Chez Moi  by Dorie Greenspan, tell everyone you know it would be a perfect gift.

Pear-Cranberry Roll-Up Tart

This tart is beautifully photographed in Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi, and I had high hopes for it.  I was not disappointed!

The tart uses her galette dough which is tasty and easy to roll out.  The filling is pretty simple:  pears, cranberries and the secret ingredients of raspberry preserves and fresh ginger.

My only difficulty was in sealing the ends.  As a result, some of the preserves leaked out and burned on the parchment paper.  But once I moved the tart to a rack to cool, everything was great.

Chocolate Covered Toffee Break Ups

Last fall, when I first got my hands on Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi, I read through the book and marked the recipes I wanted to make right away.  There were lots of post-it notes sticking out of this book!

One of the recipes I wanted to try was Chocolate Covered Toffee Break Ups on page 402.  I love both chocolate and caramel so the combination of chocolate and toffee was especially appealing.  And then there are the almonds, so I could delude myself into thinking that actually this candy was almost healthy!

The first time I made the recipe was around Christmas and I gave a good deal of it away.  It was a good thing, because every time I passed by the container, I found myself taking a little nibble.  It was delicious as I made it last year, but I also wrote a note on the page of the book to try using good milk chocolate instead of semi or bittersweet chocolate.  So that's what I did this week.

Roughly chopping the toasted almonds

Butter and sugar beginning to cook

Chopping the good milk chocolate

The toffee burbling away

Keeping the thermometer handy

Just about ready--lovely color!

The toffee cooling

Chocolate spread on and more nuts added.  Ready for the refrigerator.

The end product.  Only there aren't this many pieces left.

I'd say that this toffee would be great with any kind of chocolate!  Using your favorite is probably the best advice.

To get the recipe, buy Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi.  Click here to see blogs from the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers.

Apple Pielets

These little hand pies look so adorable in the picture in Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi.  And it is a perfect time to bake them because apples are readily available in a great many varieties.  As part of my participation with the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, my goal is to bake and post every other Tuesday.  I did bake them on Tuesday (yesterday), but here it is already Wednesday and I am only now beginning to write about it.

Let me say that there are only 3 pie-lets left of the dozen.  And we didn't even eat them for dessert at dinner--it's just that every time someone passed by the kitchen, it was impossible not to grab a pie-let.

The dough was easy, although a little fussy to cut out since I was using make-shift cutters.  I left out the raisins because I wanted to leave them out.  I used two different apples:  Northern Spy, my absolute apple pie apple, and Cortland.  I'm sure to make these again!

Tiger Cakes

One of the very first Dorie Greenspan recipes that I baked was one I found years ago in a magazine.  It was Chocolate Glazed Walnut Tea Cakes.  They were little cakes made with ground walnuts and cinnamon and unbeaten egg whites and baked in muffin tins.  They were topped with a lovely chocolate ganache.  Sound familiar?

Dorie's Chocolate Glazed Walnut Tea Cakes

When I first looked through Baking Chez Moi and saw the recipe for Tiger Cakes I realized that they were a wonderful variation on the Walnut Tea Cakes.  I made them some months ago and was delighted by the flavor but extremely frustrated when these tasty little goodies stuck to the muffin tins.  I made them again the very next day and generously buttered one tin and generously sprayed another.  This time, they came out fairly easily, although I had to run a blade around each cake while it was in the tin.

So yesterday when I was getting ready to bake these cakes I was well aware of the potential sticky problem.  I checked the P&Q on the TWD site and saw a great recommendation from Nancy T. to put a little bit of plain batter in the bottom of the pan.  I decided to do this in addition to spraying the tins thoroughly.

Here's the result:

Most of the Tiger Cakes stuck!

Most of them stuck really badly.  There were only three that came out unscathed after I ran a thin, sharp blade around the edges.  These three were on one side of the tin and I know that my oven heats unevenly.  So maybe these three were a little better baked.  

I decided not to make the chocolate glaze this time because nothing could pretty-up the cakes that fell apart as I removed them from the pan.  I must say, however, that they are very tasty--my husband says "addictive" and he has already eaten half of them.  

I do plan to bake these again but am thinking I may need to invest in a silicone mini-muffin pan.

I'm really looking forward to the experiences of other TWD bakers.  Check out their blogs here.v

Apple Kuchen: A Tall Apple-Custard Tourte

Showy and delicious, those are apt words to describe fall in Rochester, New York and also perfect words to describe Dorie Greenspan's Apple Kuchen.  This is the first apple dessert I have made this fall and it is a winner!

I have been baking along with the Tuesday with Dorie bakers as we work through Dorie's book, Baking Chez Moi.  When I saw the beautiful picture accompanying this recipe, I was very anxious to make it but held off till now--a perfect time with many varieties of apples hitting the farm stands.  And if I do say so myself, my kuchen looks as lovely as the one in the book!  Thanks, Dorie, for such great recipes and easy-to-follow directions!

To see how the other bakers did this week, check out Tuesdays with Dorie.

Dropping the butter into the food processor

Whirring till there are small pieces of butter

Adding the egg yolks and whirring until the machine makes a different sound.

The apples and rum-soaked raisins in the crust.

Into the oven--add the custard in 15 minutes.

Out of the oven

With the sugar and buttery glaze.

Cutting the first piece