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: On the Run

In the midst of all the cake, I do keep making all sorts of things from Baking: From My Home to Yours, and they often turn out to be the most popular. I've made nearly all of the recent TWD recipes, but haven't had time to blog them, and sometimes failed to get the picture. But here they are, all in a row.

Maple Cornmeal Biscuits--crunchy drops, not a lot of staying power, but no problems here.

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones--ahead of the pack. These are more than they seem, nubbly, and nutty, and really, really, good.

Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake -- like muffins in a pyrex dish. Lovely. With rhubarb. Something about the words 'plain cake' just screams the best part of L.M. Montgomery's Avonlea.  So wholesome yet kind of not.

Caramel Pots de Creme--wonderful on the bottom, grainy on the top where the bain marie didn't quite reach. Breakfast. Seriously, why do people eat muffins for breakfast. It's all about custard.

I might skip today's chocolate biscotti, but we'll see. On we barrel, on the way to looking just like a couple of barrels. Custard ho.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Tender Shortcakes

Remember that lullaby from Peter Pan...'Tender shepherd, tender shepherd...'?

The one my sister used to sing as 'Tender Shapar'?

Yes, that one.

The one that has been running through my head on an almost continuous loop during the baking of these Tender Shortcakes for TWD.

The shortcakes were just the way I like them, biscuits. Sponge cake shortcakes are, as I may have mentioned, for sissies. However, following Liana's birthday blowout of whipped cream and strawberries, I opted to keep things simple this time, and ate them with rhubarb curd.

 It's yellow because the rhubarb was green, not pink.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Sweet Cream Biscuits

This TWD was a quick one--in the vein of Rose Levy Beranbaum using whipped cream as the exclusive fat in cake, here Dorie does it with biscuits--I made a small batch of small biscuits, and although I did drown a few in a light sausage gravy, most vanished as an accompaniment to other sorts of sausage preparations. They were quickly here and quickly gone. 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Ooooh, these should have been mine. Thank you Erin of Prudence Pennywise, for getting to them first so that I didn't have to wait. Basic biscuits with a touch of nutmeg, a glop of sweet potato puree, and no one in this house could stop eating them. Those who live nearby (especially in the house) will remember my obsession with Orangette's Sweet Potato Pound Cake. Sweet potato and nutmeg are pretty much my ideal flavor combination. These have the added advantage of speed and sandwich capability. Here's Matt's--turkey, apple butter, cornichons, and dijon mustard.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Apple Cheddar Scones

This is the week of the cheese puff and the cheese puffy thing. For Jill's party the other night, I tried my hand at some impromptu gougeres, crispy cheddary puffs that didn't rise as high as they could have, but were scarfed nonetheless. Whether everyone will forgive me for turning on the oven on an overheated night in the middle of party prep remains to be seen. I really have to think ahead a little more about that, my love of sweaty baking notwithstanding.

Luckily, I have temporarily relocated to Northampton, MA, which is not quite so sticky. Today's Tuesdays With Dorie project, Apple Cheddar Scones, is brought to you from my parents' newly retiled kitchen.
These scones are so sticky that I used the option Dorie included and treated them more like drop biscuits, which the recipe resembles anyway (more butter, less cream). Longer meditation on the differences between a biscuit and a scone is clearly needed. I noted an Australian blogger on the TWD blogroll pondering just that, but her cultural equations just threw me into deeper confusion.
The dough is simple, a mix of all-purpose flour and cornmeal, leavened with baking soda and baking powder, lightly sugared and salted, butter rubbed in, buttermilk, egg and apple cider mixed in, and diced apple (I used fresh instead of the recommended dried) and grated cheddar (or Cheddar Jack pregrated mix) mixed in. The whole is then just scooped onto a baking sheet and is in the oven now, smelling good.
Seriously though, how is this not a biscuit?