Tuesdays with Dorie: Lemon Loaf Cake

Tough day yesterday. Broke, breaking things. Also: Russians and Lemon Loaf Cake.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Truffle Tart

I resisted this tart from beginning to end. Brownies are good, tarts are great, brownies in a tart shell, eh. I love chocolate but desserts that just taste of chocolate and sweet are not my favorite. Too sweet, too one-note, just too...eh. The chocolate tart crust was great, and I'm thinking of filling a small tart with the remainder and some passion curd. The original recipe resembled a riff on Rocky Road, with white chocolate and cookies and chocolate scattered into the brownie mix. I threw in some white chocolate chunks, grape-nuts (why not, I'm from New England), and cacao nibs, which almost always get mistaken for nuts at my office.

Next up, rugelach, which I can pretty much guarantee that I'll prefer.

Tuesdays with Dorie: White Loaves

Got no blogging in me today, but here's the photo. Baking with Julia begins.

TWD Follow-Up: Classic Banana Bundt

Tuesdays with Dorie is in valedictory mode, with Dorie on Talk of the Nation, and articles in major papers all over the country.

The Tuesdays with Dorie group is moving on to Baking with Julia, a twice-monthly affair.

But me. As I’ve pointed out, I’m not done. Not every goal gets finished. Not every cheesecake gets made. Still, I’m keeping my list, like I keep all the lists of my goals, and because this one can be done in small increments, I’m going to keep at it. For what reason? Not sure. But all the same, I do it.

This week, I did it in the form of a banana-pumpkin bundt cake. It was supposed to be a Classic Banana Bundt Cake, but I wanted to save one of my bananas for a smoothie, so the roasted leftovers of our squash chanukkiah were pressed into service.

The original host of this recipe was Mary of The Food Librarian, who later went on to develop quite the bundt cake obsession, making 30 in 30 days two years in a row.

Dorie recommends wrapping the cake and serving it the day after baking, also frosting it with a simple lemon-confectioners sugar glaze. The latter inadvertently helped us do the former, because Matt was put off by the word lemon, and it took him a while to warm to the idea of the cake, which we both loved.

So the project continues. Slowly. Everything happens slowly here lately, perhaps in reaction to the feeling that time is rushing by, out of control. So many big changes are upcoming, it’s good to still have a few bundts to bake.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Far Breton and Honey Nut Scones

Rustic pastry bathed in golden light? Oh yes.

As I may have mentioned, Tuesdays with Dorie is finishing up and doubling up recipes to make it to the end by year's end. This week, both recipes were so appealing that I made them in one night.

Above, we have the Far Breton, a high-level example of what the British call nursery food--custardy batter pocked with sweet dried raisins, craisins, and cherries. The Far was a close cousin of some other good friends of mine, the clafoutis, the popover, and the cup custard, and so completely compelling in its eggy-ness that I ate it all in about 24 hours.

With most of my attention focused on the Far Breton, I didn't have a lot of time for the eating of scones, but these honey-walnut ones won my approval by being very plain and simple. Whole-wheat pastry flour was allowed to shine, and they were a perfect jam vehicle.

Speaking of jam vehicles, nursery custard, and the end of the year, I wanted to take a second to float an idea I've been hatching. (Mixed metaphor alert--unless the idea is perhaps a duck.) Having built a pretty decent reputation in the neighborhood as a provider of delicious things, I'd like to launch a little consignment business for the holiday season, providing pies, cookie plates, and other good things upon request. Perfect for your dinner party or host gift dilemma. More on this shortly, and all suggestions welcome.

Where in the World is Tuesdays with Dorie?

Tuesdays with Dorie, a fixture of my life for over two years, is fast winding down. Although I’ve nearly stopped blogging TWD recipes, and clearly don’t adhere to a Tuesday baking schedule, I still feel a certain regular resonance from that big dirty cookbook with the melted cover. This resonance takes the form of a kind of proprietary fondness, a connection to the tome that goes beyond following printed instructions toward a goal of dessert.

As the good bloggers hurtle their way to the finish line, I remind myself that it’s the journey that makes things interesting. In the interest of making up somewhat for the last few months, a brief overview of the unphotographed portions of the journey. Many were missed, but along the way…

Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet: Very soft, and popular. I found it overly sweet but a good companion to other ice creams of the moment, especially passion fruit and black pepper.

Salt and Pepper Shortbread: I make these all the time, they’re a popular Valentines Day cookie in my house, as well as being the go-to choice when out of eggs. It may say something about me that even when out of eggs I’m well stocked with cocoa.

Flip-Over Plum Cake: Buttery crisp-edged, very sweet. Lives somewhere between crisp and clafoutis. Ate it at all hours with a spoon.

Basic Biscuits: Basic. Excellent. Any excuse to make biscuits is warmly welcomed.

Bittersweet Brownies: Whipped up this November recipe quickly the other night. The only alteration I made was to sub in about ¼ cup of Bustelo grounds for the instant espresso powder. This made a big difference in the taste and seemed to leave the texture unaffected. Matt, who should be pretty jaded on the subject of late night desserts by this time, got misty-eyed on being told that hot brownies were available at 11pm, a condition that he described as ‘one of the best things that could happen.’ The morning-afters went to Jill, who had them for breakfast.

The TWD group is continuing the fight in the coming year with an earlier Dorie Greenspan collaboration--Baking With Julia. A companion volume to the PBS show of same name, this book contains contributions from a variety of American cooks and pastry chefs. While the writing will remain Dorie's, I'm looking forward to changing it up with this eclectic collection.

I've been very remiss, obviously, on the photo-taking front, but while you imagine all the the desserts mentioned above, you can admire this shot that my sister dug out of the archives from our 2008 trip to Uganda.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Cupcakes are all very nice, but this is really the sort of cake that we like best in my house--moist, bundty, and filled with fruit and nuts (and cacao nibs). I used frozen red currants, almonds, walnuts, and a handful of my new cacao nibs, which are going to go into everything until they're gone, I have 2lbs.

I read an article in The New Yorker yesterday about Pixar, and what a fun work environment it is there, how obsessive it all is, and how much they all love their jobs. I expected some kind of bitter pill at the end, but clearly the journalist had given in and happily drunk the Kool-Aid. It reminded me a bit of watching the hours of special features on the extended Lord of the Rings DVDs. Before you ask, I've actually done this more than once, and not just because I'm a giant geek, which I am, but because it just gives me such a thrill to see hundreds of people going on and on about how much they love their work. In a certain mood, similar to the one I'm in now, it's been known to make me weep. I'm holding my breath on the job scene right now, and it's taking a lot out of me, but it's useful to remember how much joy some people get out of working, and remember that I must find a way to get that joy. For now, I just admire my elegant bundts.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Marble Loaf Cake

Tuesdays with Dorie this week was classic bake sale fare--marble loaf cake. I went simple, chocolate and vanilla, with some cacao nibs thrown into the chocolate part to add a bit of fruitiness. Not subtle, not fancy, but sweet.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cornmeal Shortbread

Strange. These cookies came out a little...strange. That's probably because I used a very coarse polenta in them instead of a fine cornmeal, underchilled, and threw in a pinch of Ancho chile powder because I did. Instead of lemon zest. On the theory that what's good for the cornbread is good for the cookie.

French Fridays with Dorie: Savory Kek

Just a quick catch-up. Tuesdays with Dorie has been a lot of muffins lately--corn muffins, currant citrus muffins, honey-nut 'brownies' that would have sold much better as honeycake muffins...

French Fridays with Dorie went beyond muffins, into what David Lebovitz swears that the French call 'kek,' a savory quick bread full of scallions, cheese and other nice things. Kek is fun to say. Kek is fun to eat. Actually, I just like to say kek. Kek, kek, kek, kek, kek....

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Pots de Creme

French and I have a tortured relationship. I like the food, and the tablecloths and the attitude and all, but I fear the language. For a pronunciation challenged person like me, the myriad French words in the theater and food worlds are a perpetual minefield. I usually bull my way through by saying them slightly snidely, as if I were mispronouncing them on purpose to show those cheese-eating surrender monkeys. I mean, in the end, you still get cup custard. But I will cop to the fact that my aunt had to teach me how to say Pots de Creme quite recently, and I still feel a little dopey saying it.

(Can't say I'm the only one on the internet--yes I'm looking at you, bloggers who present their creations with a hearty 'Walla!.'  No, I'm still not over this.)

I feel just fine eating it, though, and was pleased when it was this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick. I halved the recipe, and screwed it up somewhat by adding too much milk to the ganache at first, and refusing to skim and cover the baking cups, but the final product, though not picturesque, was some good pud. For those of you don't share my Francophobia, here's the recipe.

Normal as Blueberry Pie

If there's a better thing than the classic American musical, I may have yet to see it, and I've seen Macchu Picchu, Lake Victoria, Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, and one or two other things. But for a combination of sheer verve, skill, abandon, and riotous desire to make everyone happy, RIGHT NOW, the American musical comedy is it. It has its dark lows too, its broken dreams and bitter underbelly--nothing reaches heights without hitting real bottoms. 


I've spent the better part of my life involved in what may or may not be 'avant-garde' theater. I see any number of quite serious plays, strange in formula and unusual in topic. It's my not-so-well-concealed scrubbed-clean secret that if there's Rogers and Hammerstein playing next door, I'm pushing my way through the caged rabbits or badmitton birdies, the on-set camera wires and the stray architectural models to get there. Give me 'Wonderful Guy,' and I'm good for days. 

I can't dance for anything, and despite a quite decent singing voice I was rarely cast advantageously in school productions (to be honest, I have a long record of specializing in the characters who shout and don't get songs...the boss from Pajama Game all the way through to the mother in Crazy for You). Perhaps my greatest feat was wobbling around on roller skates through the first act of Funny Girl. At least that's the one immortalized in the hallway of my old high school, flapper rig and all. And it was awesome. If anyone offered me part in any musical anywhere, right now, libraries and bakeries could shove it (for a while, anyway). 


As things are, I find other ways to channel my madness, and to glam it up with passion and power (oddly, I've never watched Glee). Mostly, I keep on cooking, for that other kind of pure pleasure that lights up faces when you hand them the chocolate chip cookie. For the rush of hard work as it smells good out of the oven. For the burn of chile heat. And because I'm still kind of Dorie Greenspan's willing slave. 

This week, I did a little Tuesdays with Dorie in the form of some Almond Scones with Dried Cherries, which were perfect in taste, and perhaps just a little loose in texture...I've gotten addicted to stiff scones (that sounds awkward). 

I also did a little French Fridays with Dorie, to the tune of Short Ribs in Red Wine and (no) Port. Yes, despite recent excursions to Lisbon I have no port in the house, and wasn't about to pour out my Ginjinha into the mix. The grocery store was down to one tiny one pound package of short ribs, so I cut the recipe down to approximately one ninth, and made some substitutions. Somehow I got a few wrinkled bulbs of celariac into the vegetable aromatic mixture, but forgot the actual celery that I'd bought for the purpose. The finished dish, in my house, was small and unceremonious, but Matt was a fan. He also suggested that the meat would be great shredded and put into a pita with some yogurt sauce, but as we had so little meat to begin with, we didn't get the chance to go all Greek on its ass. It also made the whole kitchen smell great when it was cooking--the best thing about a braise is the anticipation. And the bones.

I was also very happy with the method, which eschewed a stovetop browning of the meat--always a messy affair, with a few minutes under the broiler before and after the braise. I'm going to see if I can adapt this one to other recipes. 


It was a triumph! A belly laugh! A wild ride! A balaboosta! Applause! 
Excuse me, I have to go watch some more youtube videos of my favorite songs now.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

Back into the Tuesdays with Dorie fold, with some cookie action. Nothing says happy Valentines Day like piles of chocolate cookies. I've been so busy and stressed lately that I haven't even had time to post the Lisbon photos (check out franksvolvo.tumblr.com for some of Matt's), but apparently nothing stops the baking.

And I bought a wok, so very little has stood in the way of the stir-frying, either. Next step is to work on the fact that most of my stir-fries taste the same, but right now I'm just happy swishing them around in there. Hey, any excuse to eat rice...

Oh, these cookies? They were good. The oatmeal seemed a little out of place (and I love oatmeal in cookies), but did no harm. I also made some chocolate sables.

 I was going all out and cutting out little hearts, but gave it up after a while and cut rectangles. That's how much I love you.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cocoa Madeleines

It was a quiet day, and I found myself a little uninspired by the Tuesdays with Dorie pick of the week, which was meant to be chocolate madeleines, filled with marshmallow fluff and dipped in chocolate ganache. I made it as far as the cocoa madeleines, but no further. This will be one I'll have to come back to.

I've been having a somewhat lazy week, interspersed with bouts of household activity. I've vacuumed, laundered, and tidied, but am pretty reluctant to leave the house. The calm before the storm, perhaps.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Midnight Crackles

Photo by Matt Korahais.

My sister mentioned to me that she'd been telling her co-workers about my hobbies obsessions, and that they were jealous. While I won't question what kind of slow day at work had her detailing her sister's hobbies, it is perhaps needless to say that I felt the implied challenge. And luckily had a tin of these Midnight Crackles ready to go. Dorie suggests that it is better to under than over cook these, and I went the light route, making them very soft, somewhere between a brownie and a cookie. Enjoy, co-workers, and here's hoping someone else's siblings have hobbies like winning the lottery and running fabulous inns in warm places.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cardamom Crumb Muffins

Photo by Matt Korahais

A simple quick Tuesdays with Dorie, cardamom scented coffee cake. It kind of got lost in the shuffle of last week, but the little I tasted of these streusel-ed muffins was good. Perhaps to be better appreciated another time.

The Recipe in My Head

Photo by Matt Korahais.

There's an essay in Mouth Wide Open where John Thorne talks about seeing a recipe printed on the back of a pasta box as "a dish wildly signalling me from the other side, begging to be let out," rather than "instructions for making a dish." I feel like somehow that's the way I approached this week's Tuesdays with Dorie cake, which was supposed to be an apple coconut cake but somehow wound up a cranberry chestnut cake. It was less of my usual substitution and more of the process described above for one reason--I went shopping twice with this cake in mind, and both times stubbornly refused to buy apples. And I really like apples and wish I had some in the house right now. But something didn't want this cake to be made as specified.

Photo by Matt Korahais.

 It may be because it has similarities to my favorite yogurt cake, which I frequently make with cranberries. The (local!)chestnuts were leftover from a late batch of stuffing. The cake was good, though probably drier than Dorie was going for.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lingonberry Shortbread Cake

You know what makes great cranberry sauce? Lingonberries. Ikea lingonberry jam is a great cranberry substitute in almost all conditions. Worked like a charm in this jammy little cake, with crumbly shortbread crust. Just the way we like it. You can find the recipe here.

Photo by Matt.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Peanuttiest Blondies

I just realized that it's been over a month since I posted anything but cooking club posts. This ends soon. Now that I'm back from the Halloween whirlwing tour-guiding, it's time to tell you about many delicious things I've been cooking, and some ideas and dreams and pursuits I've been pursuing.

For now, though, there's Dorie Greenspan's Peanuttiest Blondies. I didn't have chocolate chips, so my blondies were blonde indeed, and I think they could have used something to offset the richness of the peanut butter and peanuts.

Halloween really was nuts, with 11 tours in two weekends, including one that was three and a half hours long, guest appearances from my aunt Nicki and uncle Joe, from Marie and Jim of Heavenly Cake Place, and from Matt, who checked out the tour for the first time and lent his keen directorial eye and New York loving sensibility to making it even better. My tour was ambushed by zombies not once but twice, the second time in the middle of the afternoon, when the foul fiends crept up behind me and were this close to chewing on my neck. I was heckled, applauded, and exhausted. Peter Stuyvesant, Edgar Allen Poe, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire victims all got their due, McSorley's Old Ale House provided drinks, and I was far too busy walking at night to get half the halloween candy that I wanted. I did, however, get steaming tamales from the Day of the Dead celebration going on at the St. Marks Church, and in the end, I think that's a win.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Eat MORE Pie

Back on the pie crust train. We had a bag of 'utility' Macouns on the counter and a butter/margarine crust ready to go. And go we did.

I actually took this pie down to Libby and Rob's, re-living the time when my wonderful testers lived right here in-house. Full of butter, apples, vietnamese cinnamon, and not much else (ok, ok, I threw in a pear), this was pie at its purest.

The next evening, Rob, who hadn't been there for dinner, put it to me thus: "I was reading my horoscope, and it said I would be finding a new love and beginning a new relationship. And I now know that it was true--your pie."