Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Apple Pielettes

After baking twice a month with the Tuesdays with Dorie online baking group for the past year I am feeling a bit more confident when it comes to making crusts.  I was looking forward to making Apple Pielettes this week.

The crust for these little pies is Galette Dough, which Dorie says is flaky like American pie dough with the butter flavor of French tart dough.  It is easy to make in a food processor.

I cut the bottom crusts using a mug and fit them into the muffin pan as instructed.

For the filling I improvised, using what I had on hand:  an apple, raisins, apple butter, and freshly made cranberry sauce.  I was only making half the recipe, so one apple seemed like enough to work with.

I cut the top crusts with a glass and fitted them onto the little pies after moistening the the edge of the bottom to stick them together, and baked for 45 minutes.

Pie juice leaked out between the top and bottom crusts which made it a little difficult to get the pies out of the muffin pans.  I was able to extract all six without tearing the crust, and we have been enjoying eating them.

If I make these again I would use more apples and less raisins, and add the dried apricots.  It was fun to bake these little pies.




Thursday, October 15, 2015

Tiger Cakes

Tiger cakes are small cupcakes made with almond flour, chocolate and a lot of butter.  That is what the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group made this week.  The recipe is on page 197 of Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan.

The tiger cakes are easy to mix up and bake.  I am enjoying all the recipes from Baking Chez Moi that use almond flour.  After reading comments mentioning difficulties getting the cakes out of the mini muffin pan I was careful to grease my non stick pan well.  All the cakes came out fine.

I iced one cake warm from the oven with chocolate chips and kept the rest bare.  The cakes are good, but a bit too rich for me.  Perhaps some orange zest or cinnamon might tone the richness down.