Tuesdays with Dorie: Allspice Crumb Muffins

One of the great things about Tuesdays with Dorie is that it, like the book, is pleasantly inconsistent. Recipes vary from complicated to barely noticeable in terms of effort, tastes vary from rich chocolate to gentle almond or coconut. Some weeks it's three layer cake, some weeks it's streusel muffins or cup custard. Some weeks I carefully create a dessert, some weeks I off-handedly throw some things in a bowl. As long as I don't take it too seriously, TWD is endlessly adaptable to my moods, ingredient stock, and time constraints. And I don't take it too seriously--after all, my goal is a familiar and easy working familiarity with Dorie Greenspan's repertoire and style. This isn't a pastry class, and it isn't a contest. Sometimes I plate, sometimes I gobble. Sometimes I leave off toppings. But slowly and happily, my understanding of the pastry world grows and deepens, and Dorie-in-the-book and I have developed a good working relationship.

She likes cute names and creamy toppings a bit more than I do. But she also knows a lot more about the wonders of sables and pudding than I ever dreamed. And sometimes all that mascarpone really makes it. The chance to gently absorb the work of this woman who has helped the world absorb the work of so many others is always interesting.

This week was one of those stick it in the bowl, figure it will be fine, weeks. And it was. And Matt liked both these buttery beasts of Allspice Crumb Muffins and the fat-free, oat bran heavy, apple muffins from the new Moosewood cookbook equally. My streusel wasn't all that crumbly, but I attribute that to general lack of paying much attention to what I was doing, and to quartering the recipe.