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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar. She selected the Café Volcano Cookies. These are some really interesting cookies so if you would like to see how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers fared with this recipe, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blog.
These are the most unusual cookies that I have ever made. Putting them together, just really can’t imagine that they are going to turn out, but they really do! This was also about the easiest recipe ever selected by the group, which was a nice surprise. All you do is toast some nuts, then put those in a saucepan with egg whites, sugar, and espresso powder, warm them up until they are warm and bake. They just look so odd putting them on the cookie sheet, I guess they sort of look like pralines. You don’t beat the egg whites or anything so I was really wondering how on earth these would rise or anything.
Some sort of magic happens when these are in the oven, because they puff up and look like cookies! They are crispy and crumbly, light and airy. They have a great flavor; the coffee isn’t too strong. When I first took a bite, they flavor was vaguely reminiscent of caramel popcorn, and they are similar in texture, too. You do have to be really careful with these, since they crumble with the slightest touch. I was really glad I had the opportunity to make these cookies this week, since they were so different than anything I had made before.
Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
I went to the bookstore the other day and ended up leaving with a new cookbook and a couple of holiday baking magazines. I just can’t say no! I picked up the Taste of Home magazine because they had a couple of cookies that were interesting variations of classic cookies. I’ve generally had good luck with recipes from this magazine, since they are usually reader recipes. Sometimes recipes developed in professional kitchens just don’t turn out.
This is a type of shortbread cookie, with a cream cheese peppermint filling. I thought they sounded just right for this time of year. The cookie is as simple as can be, but I would substitute peppermint extract for the vanilla, since it needed more peppermint flavor. I refrigerated my dough for longer than an hour and it was really difficult to shape, so don’t refrigerate it too long. It was hard (and really messy) to fill the balls with the filling. Poking a hole in the dough made such a small hole, and then it was so hard to seal the filling in. Some I filled that way and some I halved the dough balls, added filling, and then tried to seal it all up. Neither worked all that well.
I ended up making snowballs with half of the dough and the other half I rolled into balls, flattened, and baked. I made little sandwich cookies with the left over filling, and that worked ok. If you decide to make sandwich cookies, flatten the dough balls so you don’t get too thick of cookie. The elements of this cookie are good, but they don’t taste very pepperminty. I would add peppermint extract to the cookie dough and to the filling to get that strong peppermint taste! They do look fairly festive!
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour
Filling
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk
3 tablespoons crushed peppermints
Additional powdered sugar, for rolling
In a mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and then stir in the flour. Knead dough by hand until it is smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
To make the filling, combine all of the filling ingredients and stir until combined.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls. Poke a hole in the dough and fill with ¼ teaspoon filling. Seal in the filling with additional dough and reshape into balls. Roll in powdered sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until firm.
Recipe from Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara. She chose Sablés, which are a classic French butter cookie. Check out her blog for the complete recipe. Since this cookie lends itself so well to variation, check out how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers fared this week.
This is a very simple butter cookie that you form in a log, refrigerate and bake. They are the perfect cookie for this holiday season since they come together so fast. I wanted to make a variation since this cookie can be changed up so easily. I decided to do the spiced variation, adding ginger, cinnamon and cloves to the dough. I also had espresso-flavored sanding sugar that I wanted to use, so I ended up making espresso spiced sables.
I halved the dough, so there wasn’t a lot of dough for my mixer to work with, but it did ok. The dough comes together with no problem, and I then refrigerated the dough overnight. My espresso sugar didn’t really want to stick, but I was able to get some of it to stick. This was a bit messy though, and I am still cleaning up random sugar crystals off of my counter! I cut the cookies about 1/3” thick and I baked them the time the recipe specifies, but I think I should have taken mine out of the oven a minute or two earlier. They seem a bit too crispy, so next time I will check them a little earlier in the baking time.
Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 131-133
Ah, December! The time of year when I can bake lots and lots of cookies. I have a list of cookies that I want to make, all favorites that I remember from childhood and beyond. My original plan was to make “12 Days of Cookies” but we’ll see if that happens. Of course, if I did the 12 days of Christmas right, I would start posting on December 25 and end on January 6. Since most people are done with the sweets of Christmas by the new year, that probably won’t work. So I’ll make a bunch of cookies now and share them with you as I make them.
Nanaimo is a town in British Columbia, Canada, which isn’t too far from where I live. I’ve actually been to Nanaimo once (to catch a ferry), but I am much more familiar with Nanaimo Bars. I don’t know how regional these are, but they are fairly common in the Seattle area. They do vary somewhat. I’ve found different recipes, but the one I am using here is fairly standard, with a graham cracker crust, custard filling, and a chocolate topping. When you buy them in a coffee shop, they are usually quite thick, but I like these since they are nice and thin.
These layered no-bake cookies take a little bit of patience, but overall they come together without too much effort. You have to be careful when you are assembling the layers. The custard layer has to be spread fairly thin, so take your time with this. I ended up adding a little extra heavy cream to that layer because it was just too thick! These cut easily if you use a knife that’s been dipped on hot water. These thin little bars are very rich, so cut them small!
½ cup butter, melted
¼ firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 egg whites, slightly beaten
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
½ cup chopped pecans
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter, softened
¼ cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons custard powder
2/3 cup chocolate chips
4 tablespoons butter
Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper, allowing the paper to hand over the sides. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder, egg whites, graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and pecans. Mix completely. Press firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Freeze for 30 minutes.
For the second layer, combine the powdered sugar, softened butter, cream and custard powder. Stir until smooth; mixture will be stiff. Spread evenly on top of the graham cracker layer. Refrigerate while making the topping.
For the top layer, melt the chocolate chips and butter, either in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave. Spread the chocolate mixture on top of the other layers and refrigerate until cold.
Grasp the parchment paper and lift the cookies from the pan, and then cut into bars.
Recipe from Nordstrom Friends and Family Cookbook
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Lauren of I’ll Eat You. She selected the beautiful Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart, which you can see from the title of this post, I didn’t make. The tart she picked is lovely, but fairly labor intensive. You poach pears in wine, make a pastry cream, and caramelize pistachios. Lots of good things, but after the Thanksgiving holiday, I just didn’t have time to make it. Check out Lauren’s blog and the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers to see how others faired with this recipe
Instead I am posting this variation of a recipe that was selected in April for Tuesdays with Dorie. I made the cake back then, and it was great! The original recipe called for amaretti, which are great but are hard to find in the store. I had thought about making this with another cookie, and I decided to try it with gingersnaps. The hardest part of this recipe was figuring out how many cookies to use, since I wasn’t sure how many gingersnaps equaled 6 large amaretti. I guessed around 15, and it seemed to work ok.
This turned out really well! It wasn’t quite as soft as the amaretti torte (which was the consistency of softened butter), but it still melted in your mouth. My glaze wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped, and I’m not sure what exactly happened there. It wasn’t that bad, but it looks a little different than when I made the glaze the first time. I made this cake for my friend at work’s birthday and it was a hit. If you are looking for something special, something that’s a bit different, this is the cake for you.
15 crunchy gingersnaps
3/4 cup almonds (I used sliced almonds)
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
For the Glaze:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with wax paper and butter the paper. Dust the inside of the pan with flour, tap out the excess and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat.
Put the gingersnaps and almonds in a food processor and pulse to grind them finely and evenly. Turn out onto a piece of wax paper and set aside.
Put the butter, sugar and eggs into the processor and process for about 3 minutes, until the batter is very smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Pour in the gingersnaps and almonds and the melted chocolate and pulse just until they are thoroughly incorporated. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out almost clean - streaky is more what you're looking for. The cake will dome slightly and the top will look dry; it might even crack - don't worry. Transfer the cake to a rack to cool for 15 minutes.
Run a knife around the sides of the pan and unmold the cake onto the rack. Peel off the paper liner, invert the cake and cool to room temperature right side up. When you are ready to glaze the cake, put the cake, still on the rack, over a sheet of wax paper (the drip catcher).
To Make the Glaze:
Put the chopped chocolate in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup or in a bowl with a spout.
Stir the cream, sugar and water together in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate and wait for 1 minute, then, using a small rubber spatula, gently stir until the glaze is smooth, blended and shiny. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake and, with a long metal icing spatula, spread it over the top, allowing it to spill over the sides of the cake; then smooth the glaze over the sides. Press additional gingersnap crumbs around the edge of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes to set the glaze.
Recipe adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan
I was looking for something different to make for Thanksgiving dinner, and I decided to make this chocolate hazelnut tart. I think that you can make anything in a tart pan and it looks fancy! Many people like pecan pie, and in many ways this is similar to that. You just use hazelnuts instead of pecans and add dark chocolate chips. This pie is very rich, so you can only eat a small portion, but the flavors are great.
For this tart, I used hazelnuts from Holmquist Hazelnut Orchards, which is a hazelnut orchard in Lynden, Washington. I’ve compared these hazelnuts to ones that I bought at the store and they taste so much better. They are bigger and sweeter than other ones I have bought. Holmquist sells their hazelnuts at farmer’s markets in my area, and also at the Pike Place Market. They also sell online, which is a nice convenience! I love hazelnuts, so I go through a lot of them and I’m glad that these are always available to me.
This tart is really simple to make. Just line a tart pan with pastry, mix all of the filling ingredients together, pour in the shell and bake. It looks impressive and tastes that way too, but it’s really an easy pie to put together. If you’d like, you could whip some cream to serve with the tart, if you feel compelled to make dishes to wash. Or serve it with vanilla ice cream. Any way you choose to serve it, this tart is a show stopper.
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped hazelnuts
8 ounces dark chocolate chips
1 cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Piecrust for a 10-inch tart pan (unbaked)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 10-inch tart pan with fluted sides with piecrust. Set aside.
In a bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, eggs, hazelnuts, chocolate chips, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, and salt. Make sure the mixture is well combined. Carefully pour the mixture into the pie crust. Don’t fill the crust too full. Bake for 1 hour.
Cool the tart for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Recipe from The Food Network
I hope all of my American readers enjoyed Thanksgiving yesterday! I made a chocolate hazelnut tart and I will post that sometime soon. We had a great quantity of food at the dinner and my in-laws were great hosts. I had originally planned to bake these cookies and take them to have at dinner on Thanksgiving, but I ran out of time and ended up making them once I got home from Thanksgiving dinner. We had plenty of food, so I’m kind of glad that I didn’t end up bringing them.
I don’t like pumpkin pie very much, but I don’t mind using pumpkin in other types of baked goods. I found this recipe for pumpkin biscotti and I thought it sounded really good. The original recipe called for pumpkin pie spice, which I didn’t have on hand. I substituted cinnamon, ginger, and a little bit of cloves. The recipe also called for you to toast macadamia nuts in the 2 tablespoons of butter and add those to the dough. I just added the melted butter to the dough and substituted chocolate chips for the macadamia nuts.
These aren’t very pumpkin-y, but I’m ok with that. The chocolate chips really dominate the flavor, and I guess I would be interested in trying these with the macadamia nuts, since those wouldn’t be so strong in their flavor. I think these would be a good choice if you wanted to make something with pumpkin, but wanted something a little more interesting than pumpkin pie.
3-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixer bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice; stir well. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk. Slowly add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened.) Add the melt the butter; stir to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Lightly flour hands and shape the dough into two logs, about 3” x 13" long log. Place logs 3" apart on a cookie sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Bake for 25 minutes; cool logs 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300. Cut each log diagonally into 1" slices using a serrated knife. Place slices on the cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.
Recipe from Christmas Cookies.com
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