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French Fridays with Dorie: Salted Butter Break-Ups
Sometimes, the best things are the simplest things. I think that applies to Salted Butter Break-Ups, this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie.
The ingredient list is very short, just flour, sugar, butter, salt, and ice water. The steps were easy. You pulse the dry ingredients together in the food processor, cut in the butter, and then add the ice water until the dough binds into a ball. After a chilling, you roll out the dough, decorate and bake. I put it together one morning and rolled it out the next evening. The most complicated (and most fun) part was decorating with egg wash and pulling the tines of a fork through the dough. It looked très élégant.
The recipe itself was reminiscent of a pâte brisée, with a lot more sugar and salt. Special salt was called for, French sel gris (gray salt) which, I miraculously had in my pantry. I am obsessed with food. Consequently, I collect ingredients that I don’t have an immediate need for. Often, soon I’ve noticed an unusual or unfamiliar ingredient while browsing recipes, I’ll spot it at a store and can’t resist buying it “just in case”. That must have happened with the French gray sea salt.
I am a big fan of shortbread. The Butter Break-Ups were similar to shortbread, yet not exactly. They reminded me a little of Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies, which, for store-bought cookies, aren’t bad. Of course, these were better.
I expected the salt flavor to come through a little more than it did. The recipe gave a low and high measurement for the salt. I went with the high measurement, but I might increase that next time. Butter is the prevalent flavor, so my other thought is to use one of those fancy butters, like Plugra, because its richness would really shine in this recipe.
I enjoyed these cookies. They definitely resulted in a high payoff for low effort. As I said, the simplest things are often best!
Even with this simple recipe, I know my fellow Doristas (term coined by Trevor at Sis. Boom. [Blog!]) will have creatively tweaked their Salted Butter Break-Ups. I can’t wait to read about their ideas. Check it out for yourself by following their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. It’s a winner.
French Fridays with Dorie: Savory Cheese and Herb Bread
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie is an herby, cheesy quick bread. The version in the book is called Savory Cheese and Chive Bread, but this is one of those recipes that can be a palette for any variety of “adornments”. Dorie’s Bonne Idees in the margins of this recipe give her permission to substitute, though a read through the recipe also makes it clear it’s that kind of recipe.
I never quite made it to the grocery store this week, but this is a recipe I can make from my usual pantry. The one critical ingredient I was missing was cheese. For some reason, I didn’t have any. The week’s travels did include a stop at Costco, but nothing comes in small packages there. I picked up a (giant) block of a cheddar-like Irish table cheese called Dubliner, which will also be good for snacking.
For the herbal factor, I opted for a combination of parsley and sliced scallions. I also didn’t have any milk, but I had some cream from making soup, so I used that instead, making the bread a little more decadent than it might have been. I left out the nuts and threw in the suggested pinch of cayenne for good measure.
This mixes up to an extremely thick batter. I popped it in the oven and, about half an hour later, just as a wonderful aroma starting wafting towards us from the kitchen, the timer buzzed. The dough was looking lovely with its golden brown top contrasting with the flecks of green herbs, and smelling very cheesy.
The bread was moist with a nice crumb. I liked the flecks of green, the parsley and the scallions, throughout. All of the flavors came through, but I think it could have been even cheesier.
This would be delicious with soup or alongside dinner. I’m looking forward to trying this bread again with different cheese and herbs to match other meals. If I have an hour before dinner, I could make this to serve hot out of the oven.
One of the things I like about the FFwD community is their collective creativity. It’s always interesting to see what someone else has done with the same recipe when they don’t have, don’t like, or cannot eat a certain ingredient. The result is usually something interesting and inspiring. Check out my fellow bloggers links for this week’s recipes at French Fridays with Dorie. As always, you could also get your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table and maybe you’ll be inspired to cook along.
Next week’s recipe is the intriguing and exotic sounding Beggar’s Linguine. Stay tuned.
A Plateful of Happiness 