Bee's Sneeze Nuggets

Bee's Sneeze Nuggets are from the Cocktail Cookies section of Dorie's Cookies.  There are lots of interesting looking recipes in this chapter that I am looking forward to baking.

I needed to find a substitute for the gin in the recipe.  Gin is flavored with juniper berries, so at first I was considering some juniper tea that I have.  Then I was reading about substitutes for juniper and saw rosemary suggested.  I went with the rosemary and it worked well.

It was too snowy and cold to go to the store to buy lemons, so I relied on bottled lemon juice and lemon extract for the lemon flavor.  I wish that I had added lemon zest.  The rosemary overpowered the lemon, pepper, and ginger, at least for me.  My taster referred to the nuggets as being ginger flavored, but I couldn't taste the ginger.

These little biscuits were easy and quick to make, and tasty.

Sebastian's Remarkably Wonderful Brownies

Sebastian's Remarkably Wonder Brownies are the first ones in the Brownies, Bars, Break-ups and Biscotti chapter of Dorie's Cookies.  Everything we've made so far from this chapter has been great, and this recipe is no exception.

These brownies are made with cocoa powder.  Preparing the batter involves involves a lot of beating, and I was glad that I have a stand mixer.  As Dorie says in her headnote, the texture of the baked brownies is "neither cakey nor fudgy, but creamy, slightly chewy at the center and slightly crunchy at the edges" - just wonderful.

Cabin-Fever Caramel Banana Bars

I haven't spent much time in the kitchen recently, but a birthday this month led me to baking the banana bars from Dorie's Cookies.

This is a great recipe to use up one ripe banana.  It's like a banana bread, made special with the addition of cardamon and peanuts.

Although we enjoyed the peanuts, I think it would be even better made with walnuts.

Desert Roses

Desert Roses, unbaked candies, are like many other melt and stir recipes that I used to make in December with my children.

The main ingredients are butter, chocolate, and cornflakes, with various add-ins (coconut, dried fruit, nuts).

These candies have a more sophisticated taste than those confections from the past because the chocolate is bittersweet.  Though the recipe calls for sweetened coconut I used unsweetened because that is what I had, and I regretted that.  My candies could have been a little sweeter.

Unable to find dried cherries I used dried cranberries, which I was unable to taste in the finished candy.  The dried apricots were lovely.  I wished I had left the walnuts in larger pieces so that I could taste them.

I brought the Desert Roses to a gathering where they were all eaten and the recipe requested.  This is a recipe I will make again.

Kerrin's Multigrain Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies made with oatmeal, nuts, and other interesting additions are one of my favorite things to bake and to eat.  I was keen to try Kerrin's Multigrain Chocolate Chip Cookies from Dorie Greenspan's Dorie's Cookies.

These cookies use a mixture of white, whole wheat, and buckwheat flour, as well as kasha.  Dorie specifies Wolff's granulated kasha, which I was unable to find.  I substituted finely chopped walnuts, which seemed to disappear on the dough.  The baked cookies were missing the crunchy, satisfying texture that I was anticipating.

I've never baked with buckwheat flour before and look forward to trying other recipes to use up what I bought for the cookies.  I will try this recipe again if I am able to find the kasha.

Classic Jammers

Jammers, cookies that Dorie dreamed of and then baked when she awoke, are indeed special.

The cookies have a shortbread base and a jam center surrounded by streusel.  They are baked in muffin tins which give them a nicely finished round shape.  I was impressed at how good they looked and tasted. 

Unfortunately all the cookies were eaten before I grabbed a photo.  This is a recipe I will make again when I want something that looks like it came from a bakery.

Moka Dupont

"An icebox cake constructed of store-bought cookies, dunked in sweetened espresso and layered with a quickly made buttercream."  That's how Dorie Greenspan describes Moka Dupont.

This easy to make treat is an icebox cake, something I've never eaten or made before.

I was surprised and pleased to find the Petit Beurre cookies at my supermarket.  I soaked the cookies quickly in hot coffee and laid them two by four on the serving plate.

The buttercream recipe includes a raw egg which I left out, adding a bit of extra butter and chocolate in an effort to add volume.

As described in the recipe I built the cake with three layers of cookies with buttercream in between.

The cake was not very tall but looked festive and tasted great.

Crumb-Topped Apple Bars

Dorie's recipe for apple bars topped with crumbs is a great one to throw together with what you've got in your kitchen.  The crust and crumbs are a buttery sugar cookie dough, with cut up apples in between.  I'd like to try repeating this recipe with other fruit like peaches or blueberries.

Next time I will use the mixer instead of the food processor, shorten the baking time on the crust, and add more fruit.

French Snacklettes

French Snacklettes, from the every day section of Dorie's Cookies, are a plain chocolate cookie with ground almonds and cinnamon.  Not finding any almonds in my freezer I made these with almond flour.

The dough was very crumbly.  I kept mixing and mixing and finally it sort of stuck together when I pinched a piece.  I didn't add the chopped chocolate because I thought the dough would not hold it.

I wanted to shape the dough into pyramids as illustrated in Dorie's Cookies but it was so crumbly and difficult to press together that I abandoned that idea.

The cookies don't look like much but the taste is chocolatey and rich.  These will be great for anyone who loves chocolate.

Two-Bite One-Chip Cookies

These are tiny little cookies made from a chocolate chip cookie dough, shaped around a single chocolate chip.  Each cookie uses one teaspoon of dough.  It takes some time to scoop the dough, roll it into a ball, press the chocolate chip into the dough, and then reshape the dough.  Baking time is only 6-7 minutes.  The end result is a whole bunch of cute cookies, perfect for a potluck.  I was glad I added the optional cinnamon.  It made the cookies taste special.

Crash-O-Cookies

These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are named for a family friend of Dorie Greenspan.  An unusual ingredient is raisins soaked in hot water, red wine, brandy, cognac, rum, or black tea.  I kept it simple and used hot water but I would like to try tea.  One of my favourite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipes is from an old edition of The Joy of Cooking and contains orange peel.  I wonder what the raisins would taste like after a soaking in Constant Comment tea?

Anytime Tarragon-Apricot Cookies

These Tarragon-Apricot Cookies are the second cookie we've baked from the Cocktail Cookies section of Dorie's Cookies.

I just love them.  A shortbread cookie with dried apricots, fresh tarragon, olive oil, and salt - it sounds strange but tastes so good.

My cookies are more rustic in appearance than Dorie's because I rolled the dough into a log and sliced it into cookies.  The dough was in the fridge for several days before I baked it.  I wondered if that would make the cookies taste strongly of tarragon, but no, they have a delicate flavor.

I am looking forward to baking more interesting and unusual cocktail cookies in the coming months.

Lavender Galettes

A galette can be a lot of different things.  Lavender Galettes, from Baking Chez Moi, are a thin, not too sweet, irregularly shaped cookie.

I found these cookies to be a delightful surprise.  Lavender doesn't usually hold much appeal to me.  Certainly baking cookies with lavender was not high on my list of things to do in the midst of summer.  But I was intrigued by Dorie's recipe, and stopped in at the spice merchant to buy a small amount of lavender buds.

I liked the technique of rolling out each cookie on a small piece of parchment paper.  Cutting out cookies is tedious.  This method gives a lovely thin and crisp cookie without all the fuss.

The cookies have an intriguing flavor or lavender, orange, olive oil, and vanilla.  The texture and the taste is very special.

Coffee Malteds

In her recipe for Coffee Malteds cookies Dorie Greenspan explains that she remembers drinking coffee malteds as a child.  When I was young I loved the flavor of coffee, especially coffee ice cream which remains my favorite.

We couldn't find a key ingredient in this recipe, unflavored malted milk powder.  Instead I baked these cookies using Ovaltine, a chocolate malted milk powder.  For the coffee flavor I used instant coffee.

The cookies turned out small and chewy, with a good mocha flavor.  The malt is a tiny hint in the background.  I think they'd be great topped with a bit of melted chocolate.

Blueberry-Buttermilk Pie Bars

Blueberry-Buttermilk Pie Bars from Dorie's Cookies are an easy to make two layer square.

The crust is unusual in that it has cornmeal and cornstarch in addition to the usual butter, sugar, and flour.  The topping is a custard made with buttermilk, eggs, butter, and sugar, plus blueberries.

The people I shared this treat with wondered if it was cheesecake.  It tastes great and is something I will plan to bake again.

Streusel-Topped Rhubarb Lime Tart

Most of the time for these Tuesdays With Dorie baking projects I stick fairly closely to the recipe.  This week with the rhubarb lime tart I had to make a change because I really don't like lime.  I substituted orange zest and juice.  Also I left out the tart shell, making this a crisp rather than a tart.  And then I didn't have heavy cream and substituted plain Greek yogurt mixed with milk.

The dessert turned out well, though the orange flavor does over power the tartness of the rhubarb.  Dorie mentions this issue in her introduction to the recipe on page 160 of Baking Chez Moi.  "Rhubarb's tricky:  Mix it with too much sugar, and you mask its character; mix it with too little, and you risk letting its acidity run roughshod over your dessert."  More rhubarb, less orange zest, and a little less sugar might have given me the right taste balance.

I used 4 cups of rhubarb, just over 1 lb. in weight. The custard is light and holds the rhubarb nicely.  The streusel is delicious.  I wonder if cinnamon would be a nice addition.  All in all, a fun experiment.

Dorie's Newest Chocolate Chip Cookies

This chocolate chip recipe, from Dorie Greenspan's Dorie's Cookies, uses white and whole wheat flours and white and brown sugar, with the interesting addition of nutmeg and coriander.  Other spice variations are suggested (instant espresso, cinnamon, or Chinese five-spice powder) but I wanted to try the recipe as written.

The dough is very stiff and I wished I had used the stand mixer instead of the hand mixer.  Dorie recommends refrigerating the dough for at least a day before baking, which I did.  I found the cold dough very difficult to scoop.

I baked the cookies for 10 minutes.  They were puffed, set around the edges but still soft in the middle.  As the cookies cooled they firmed up to a nice, chewy texture.  I can't really taste the spices, there is just a tiny trace of special flavor.

I like heavier chocolate chip cookies made with oatmeal, wheat germ, and coconut.  While this recipe is not my new favorite it certainly was fun to try.

Pistachio and Berry Gratins

This baked fruit dessert is a combination of berries, lemon zest and sugar with nut cream.  Previously in Tuesdays with Dorie we've seen almond cream in tarts.  In this berry gratin there is no tart shell, only the berries and the cream.  Pistachios are used instead of almonds, with wonderful results.

It won't be berry season where I live for a couple of months, so I used frozen blueberries.  The dessert would have tasted better with fresh berries.  Lemon, blueberry, and pistachio are three flavours that I love, the the combination was delightful.

Goat Cheese and Chive Cookies

Dorie Greenspan's latest cookbook, Dorie's Cookies, includes 25 savory recipes in a section entitled Cocktail Cookies.  All the recipes are intriguing and I've been looking forward to trying them.  This week for Tuesdays with Dorie I baked Goat Cheese and Chive Cookies.

I have chives growing outside.  It was satisfying to add the freshly cut chives to the dough.



I used a plain black pepper.  The only thing I would change would be using a different, more interesting kind of pepper next time.



As one of my tasters commented, anything with lots of butter and cheese is going to taste good.  We all loved the richness of these cookies.

Plain and Simple Almond Cake

I baked this plain and simple almond cake for a potluck on the weekend.

Made with eggs, sugar, and almond flour with vanilla and a pinch of salt, it is a modest, tan cake.

It is gluten-free.

I dusted the top with confectioners' sugar and served it with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce, another recipe from Baking Chez Moi.

Everyone at the dinner liked this cake.  So much so that I was left with an empty plate.  No photo today.