Category Archives: Baking
french fridays with dorie: cocoa sablés
One of my favorite cookies is Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies from her Baking cookbook.
When I saw Cocoa Sablés on this week’s French Fridays schedule, I assumed that we were making World Peace cookies. I’ve made them many times before and adore them. The AMFT version weren’t exactly a renamed version of the old favorite. They were more like a fraternal twin, and they did not disappoint.
I absolutely love the convenience of homemade slice-and-bake cookies. Stash them in the freezer, and you can have an instant snack on a whim.
This shortbread-like cookie comes together in the stand mixer easily. I accidentally rolled my logs much skinnier than Dorie did. They were a little over an inch, instead of a little under two inches. Honestly, this wasn’t deliberate. The type in the book is small, and even though it said 1¾ inch, I read 1¼. These cookies are rich, so my little coins (they were about the size of quarters) were the perfect size.
My book group came over this week, so I made these cookies as refreshments. The book we read, The Known World by Edward P. Jones, won the 2004 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. This beautifully-written novel about a black family of slave owners in antebellum Virginia told a wonderful, if disturbing, story. As always, we had a lively discussion, some of it related to the book, most of it not. The cookies got positive reviews. So did this lemony artichoke dip.
My yield was nothing like Dorie’s. She said the recipe would make 36 cookies. Granted, my rolls were skinnier. I shaped my dough into more than two rolls, not just because they were thinner, but because I find shorter rolls easier to handle. I baked about half the dough and got over 60 cookies. I plan to put the other rolls in the freezer for later.
I was short on time, so I didn’t coat the logs with egg and roll in sugar as suggested. I’ll have to try that variation when I bake the rolls from the freezer. I can imagine the effect will be pretty.
One thing that always trips me up when I make rolls of icebox cookies is how to store them while chilling or handle them while slicing so that one side doesn’t become flat. Hopefully, I’ll learn a new trick from one of the other participating bloggers’ posts. If you have some thoughts, please share!
To read about the other FFwD bloggers chocolatey experiences, check out their posts at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but you should treat yourself to this book. There are so many winning recipes, it’s worth it.
french fridays with dorie: saint-germain-de-prés onion biscuits
Here’s a quick post on a quick bread for French Fridays with Dorie. I’ve been running at a million miles an hour for the past two weeks, including a short vacation, and even though this week’s recipe was as easy as pie (easier actually), I’m breathing a deep sigh of relief that it got made. And, I am so glad that it did.
I haven’t made many biscuits in my life, but each time I do, I think, “Why don’t I make biscuits more often?” I must have first made them when I was a young teenager, as this is definitely something I learned to make in home ec class, not from my mother. Home ec is where I learned everything I know about sewing too. Though I learned plenty from my mother, why don’t they offer home ec in school anymore? Every week, I still use life skills I learned in that class back in the 7th and 8th grade. But, I digress.
One thing I love about biscuits is that they are fast enough and easy enough to whip up to accompany dinner, fresh from the oven. Knowing I had time constraints, I mixed the dry ingredients together ahead of time so they were ready when I was. I also chopped the onion ahead of time and stashed it in the fridge.
While dinner cooked (a clean-out-the-fridge frittata, more on that this weekend), I sautéed the onions and rubbed the butter into the dry ingredients. Then, I stirred the onion and milk into the mixture, gave it a quick knead, and patted it out on the counter. Then, I cut out biscuits. My cutter was a little less than 2 inches, so I got 22, not the 32 that Dorie did. At this point, I’d only spent 10 minutes pulling these together. After a short bake in the oven, hot fluffy biscuits for dinner! Voilà!
As usual with Dorie’s recipes, I can imagine this as a jumping off point. I’m wondering what these savory treats will be like with roasted red peppers or olives mixed in. Or what about a touch of grated cheese? I see these as a frequent guest at my dinner table in the future.
Next week’s FFwD recipe will be a new challenge for me: Cheese Soufflé. Eggs and cheese are two of my favorite food groups, so I can’t wait to try it.
If you want to see how the other bloggers from French Fridays with Dorie made out with their biscuits, check out their posts here. If you’d like to make these yourself (why wouldn’t you?), the recipe can be found here or in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.
A Plateful of Happiness 