Baking with Dorie: Blueberry Biscuits and Park Avenue Brownies

I've been missing from this space for a while.  Phoenix summers are notoriously brutal so we try to get away for several weeks of the worst of it.  I'm catching up a bit this week with both Blueberry Biscuits and Park Avenue Brownies.

Both of these recipes were a joy to make and so quick.  One bowl recipes with ingredients that I keep on hand are such a great surprise, especially when you're playing catch up.

I was really looking forward to the Blueberry Biscuits recipe since I would like to have more biscuit and/or scone recipes in my go to list.  I used a frozen mixed berry blend that worked well, possibly breaking up less during mixing than fresh berries might have.  Dorie cautions that the dough will be somewhat dry and take some work to bring it together.  I added just a small splash extra liquid to make this easier.  I patted the dough into a square and cut nine squareish biscuits for ease and convenience.  I baked four so my family could try them and put the rest in the freezer, unbaked, to enjoy later.  It makes me feel like I'm stealing time to be able to have freshly baked biscuits in just a few minutes.

My husband follows a low sugar diet and but I encouraged him to try these since there is just a small amount of sugar in the recipe.  He really enjoyed them without breaking his eating plan.  I put a bit of honey on mine to make it a bit sweeter but I can see that these would be a versatile dessert as a base for ice cream, whipped cream, jam and other toppings.  As Dorie mentioned, they are a bit cakelike, maybe a little more moist than a traditional scone or biscuit.

The Park Avenue brownies also went together very quickly in one bowl without the need for a mixer.  I whipped these up just in time for an after school snack.  When my son smelled the baking chocolate, he had to go to my open cookbook to see what was in store for him once they cooled.  :-)  I left out the nuts but added a sprinkle of flaked salt.  They had a soft texture and intense chocolate flavor.  This is a great go-to recipe when you want something rich and chocolatey in a flash.

To see the successes of my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, see the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL posts for links.  To try this great classic recipe, check out Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Oatmeal Cookies with Nuts and Chocolate

My family was craving oatmeal cookies (or the Doubletree recipe) so it was a great opportunity to make one of the May recipes a bit early.  Oatmeal cookies are a favorite, so it was fun to try a new version.

Dorie's recipe has less granulated sugar than some recipes but makes up for it with honey.  I thought the flavor of the honey really came through in the finished cookies.  I used walnuts and chocolate chips but skipped the raisins and/or dried fruit.  I thought the amount of chips and nuts seemed a little skimpy so I'd increase those next time, especially if I also omit the fruit.  I would also try the chopped chocolate since it would probably distribute better than the larger chocolate chips.

Once the cookie dough was complete, I scooped it onto parchment paper and refrigerated the cookie balls  for future baking.  I think the other cookie recipes I've made that use this technique result in a better baked product so I was glad to see Dorie's suggestions in that regard.  As an unscientific test (and a way to pace ourselves so these didn't disappear too quickly), I baked a tray of cookies on day 1, 2, and 3.  All of the cookies were good but I thought the day 3 cookies were noticeably better than each prior batch.  The cookies were thicker and more firm.

I look forward to making these again and experimenting with the add-ins, maybe even some coconut flakes.

To see the successes of my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, see the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL posts for links.  To try this great classic recipe, check out Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple.

Tuesdays with Dorie: A Big Banana (Cup)Cake

I was really looking forward to the Big Banana Cake recipe because I've been on the hunt for a long time for a recipe that replicates my memory of my grandmother's banana cupcakes.  She made them for all sorts of occasions and they were a favorite.  Unfortunately, she passed away when I was young and I do not have any of her recipes. I've made lots of banana cake recipes but none of them have the banana flavor and light texture of her cupcakes.

None of my April plans aligned with a "big" cake and I was concerned that the cake would be competing with Easter candy and desserts.  I decided to make one quarter of the recipe and bake it as cupcakes.  

I bought a jar of cookie butter at Trader Joe's and hoped to use some leftover whipped cream cheese to give the frosting a nice flavor and lightness.  I took a cue from Steph and added an equal amount of baking powder to the specified amount of baking soda.  The one-fourth recipe yielded 6 small cupcakes, baked for 17 minutes at 350 degrees.

I was pleased that the cupcakes were lighter than banana bread.  The frosting was a nice complement.  I decorated some with chocolate shavings and some with a few pinches of cinnamon.  They were tasty.  My family enjoyed them too.  

To see the successes of my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, see the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL posts for links.  To try this recipe, check out Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Eclairs

I've been looking forward to making this recipe, for sure.  My mother made cream puffs often (but only very, very rarely filled them).  As kids, we were convinced that the plain, unfilled shells were the best snack. We also thought that uncooked pasta straight from the box was really good too.

I don't think I've ever made choux pastries.   When I see them made on Great British Bake Off, the batter always seems more liquid than the dense ball that my mother would make (and I think Dorie was describing in the recipe).  I love the fact that all of the ingredients are simple pantry staples.  I made a full recipe of pastry cream and eclair shells.   Since it was a fairly small amount of batter for the eclairs, I decided to incorporate the eggs by hand.  I thought it looked as Dorie described but my eclairs didn't expand as much as I expected.  Cutting one open, the interior looked good--not dense and with the expected air pockets.  Possibly my piping opening was too small or just my expectations were wrong.  The baked shells were about the size of larger hot dogs.  I'll need to retry soon (using the standup mixer) and see if I get larger shells.

Despite any expectations on size, the glaze, shells and pastry cream were all delicious.  My husband said they were something he'd hope to get in an upscale restaurant and my son the chocoholic enjoyed them too.  I didn't have time to pipe the pastry cream but the tasters didn't mind.  Please forgive the late night photo.  

To see the successes of my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, see the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL posts for links.  To try this great classic recipe, check out Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Biscuits Rose

In her book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple, Dorie tells us that these cookies have been made since the seventeenth century, starting in France's Champagne region. She describes that the recipe is successful due to various "drying" processes such as adding sugar to egg whites and yolks and, also, by baking them twice like biscotti (once traditionally and secondly by leaving them to dehydrate in the cooling oven after baking). Traditionally, these are a rosy pink but I did not add food coloring. 

This week's recipe was a little intimidating, although I'm not sure why. I read through the recipe several times and prepped the different components and the piping bag. Given the small quantity of ingredients, it probably would have been more effective to use a smaller bowl and a handheld mixer but I only have a standing mixer so I made it work. Once I had folded the egg whites with the egg yolks and started adding the dry ingredients, it was interesting how the batter kept changing in texture, from fluffy to sticky to lumpy to a bit gluey. By the time the ingredients were combined, it reminded me of something between choux pastry and spaetzle batter. I didn't expect it to be thin enough to run out of the pastry bag but I made it work, using the one inch marks on the parchment paper. The piping was a little inexact, but the powdered sugar covered many of my sins. 

By the time I put the cookies in the oven, I was concerned that they would not puff up. They looked very deflated and thin on the cookie sheet. When I turned the cookies at the halfway point, I felt more confident that I would get something fairly close to Dorie's photos. Like Mardi, I got 15 cookies from this recipe. 

The finished cookies have a really unique and interesting texture (in a good way), sort of crunchy and airy but not hard like some biscotti can be. I liked the crispness of the narrower cookies but the wider ones were slightly bready.  Overall, I enjoyed their simplicity and vanilla flavor.

 

To see the successes of my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers, see the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL posts for links.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Marbled Cheesecake

 I am away for spring break this week so I will make my post brief.

This week, I made the marbled cheesecake recipe.  Cheesecake has been one of my signature desserts, so I was curious to try a different recipe.  Since there are just three of us and we would be traveling, I made a 6" cake with a half recipe of batter.

I was surprised to see that there was espresso powder in the crust and the chocolate portion of the batter.  I usually eyeball the butter to crumbs ratio for the crust but it was much more sensible to follow Dorie's proportions. I was also glad to see her note that there is always water that creeps into the foil sleeve.  I thought it was just me.

I looked at other recipes to decide whether to adjust the baking time for the smaller cake. I decided to take it out 10 minutes early but, when I checked it at that point, it was still underbaked.  I baked the half recipe for the amount specified for the full cake and it was perfectly done.

I cut the cake into 8 small slices and it was perfect for each of us to get a few bites here and there with the smaller slices.  The espresso flavor came through and added a nice complexity to the chocolate batter.

Give this one a try from the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Brioche Sandwich Buns (and bonus Chocolate Babka)

In our house, we are always at a loss when it comes to "what's for dinner"?  We can get a rut. For this week, I planned the sandwich buns to line up with my husband's plan to try to make smashburgers at home. Luckily, his plan was to make these outside and not make a splattery mess in the kitchen.

I've made challah before but never brioche.  I read others' posts about their experience with this recipe.  I must have been using small bits of butter because incorporating it into the dough took almost 20 minutes rather than 10 that Dorie describes. After the dough was finished and had proofed, I got caught up on late night tv waiting for each of the "flips".  I must have skimmed over that part when I read the recipe.  :-)

The dough was much more dense than the other bread dough recipes I've made but it had no trouble rising after I'd shaped the buns.  I thought I'd shaped them into smooth rolls but they had quite a bit of character from the baking process.  I used half of the dough to make 6 buns.  Dorie's instructions said to bake for 23-28 minutes.  I checked the temperature of mine at the 20 minute mark and they were 200 degrees exactly.  I wondered if the deep golden brown color meant that I'd overbaked them but they were perfectly soft and tasty.  We sized the burgers to the buns and had a delicious dinner.  Our teenaged son (the smashburger connoisseur) approved.

As a bonus, I decided to use the other half of the dough recipe to make the chocolate babka.  I read through others' posts from December 2022 to get a few tips.  I was looking for a prominent chocolate flavor so I planned to follow Dorie's advice to add chopped chocolate with the filling ... and then I promptly forgot until the dough was rolled and filled.  I increased the cocoa to 2 tablespoons, though.  I chilled the filled roll for almost an hour then sliced and braided it.  What a dramatic pattern!  I couldn't wait to see what it looked like as it proofed. 

 

In the meantime, I made the streusel topping.  I double-checked my measurements because it seemed as if I had too much dry ingredients to incorporate into the butter.  I added the streusel to the proofed loaf, following Dorie's suggestion to press it into clumps.  Once baked, I really liked the texture that her ratio provided--less hard and crunchy, super-sugary pieces and instead a more delicate crunch and pleasantly sweet topping. 

The baked loaf was as dramatic as I'd hoped.  It is a very impressive looking bread with an amazing texture.  Next time I'll add the chopped chocolate or maybe add some hazelnut spread to amp up the chocolate flavor.  I took the babka to a gathering and it was a crowd-pleaser!

Check out these classic recipes in Dorie's book, Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple!