Cranberry Crackle Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie - Baking Chez Moi

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Cranberry Crackle Tart
Cranberry Crackle Tart

This tart is the reason I love Tuesdays with Dorie.

It has meringue.

You might think I'm excited about the recipe because I love meringue.

But it's quite the opposite. I hate meringue. (It's this sweet, sticky cloud that gets in the way of the lemon filling in a lemon meringue pie). And that's why this group is awesomesauce.

Tuesdays with Dorie makes you bake things outside your taste and comfort zone. If you know me, you know my comfort zone is Bundt cakes, scones, muffins, and Jello. Never, ever meringue. But since this is Recipe #2 of Tuesdays with Dorie/Baking Chez Moi edition, it was time to settle in and get those eggs to room temperature to whisk, whisk, whisk!

By the way, I'm so excited to see so many friendly faces from the first round of Tuesdays with Dorie!! This is a fun baker's reunion! And I'm looking forward to meeting the new faces too! :)

Cranberry Crackle Tart
First, you make sweet tart dough and put it into the tart shell or pie tin. Um, I seem to have moved my rolling pin someplace very very safe and secret...and can't seem to find it. So, garbanzo beans to the rescue! Yes, I was even too lazy to get out the step stool to grab the bottle of vodka on the top shelf of the cabinet!

Dorie reveals her new technique - that I LOVE. Instead of making the dough, forming into a disc and chilling it for a couple hours, THEN rolling it out (which is a pain because it is hard and cold).... Dorie now makes the dough, forms it into a disc and rolls it out between sheets of parchment paper while still soft! Brilliant! She does chill the dough in the pie or tart shell before baking or using it.

Cranberry Crackle Tart
I made a 4" tart and a few mini tarts (I used 1/2 a recipe of sweet tart dough). I did make a two egg white meringue and tossed some of it because I know it is difficult to whip up just one egg white - at least two eggs work better.

A layer of jam is placed at the bottom of the shell and the meringue with cranberries it layered on top.

My tart shells got a little too brown, but they were tasty!

Cranberry Crackle Tart
The tart bakes at 300 degrees for an hour (mine baked for less time because they were smaller).

Cranberry Crackle Tart
I'm not sure if this is how the meringue is supposed to turn out. The crackle top was tasty, but, as I said before, not a fan of the meringue so I didn't care for the eggy middle. I did enjoy the added cranberries - that was a tart treat amid all that meringue.

Cranberry Crackle Tart
The mini minis had very little eggy meringue inside and were mostly crackle crunch (so I liked them best!).

We aren't publishing the recipes on Tuesdays with Dorie...but this recipe happens to be online at The Splendid Table and on Dorie's website.

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and their creations here!

Happy Thanksgiving! - mary the food librarian
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Gingerbread Molasses Scones

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Gingerbread Molasses Scones
Gingerbread Molasses Scones

I'm finally acknowledging that it's fall. Los Angeles is filled with Santa Ana winds (which translates into very hot, dry conditions) and no rain ever (huge drought). By the way, all those covered in snow? California will totally trade you some sunshine for some of your snowpack! :) Now that I see Christmas lights on homes (still too early), I'm finally starting to believe that it really is fall and Thanksgiving is only a week away.

So, to celebrate fall and all its wonderful spices, here are some gingerbread scones.

I found this recipe on the Grandma's Molasses website. It only uses 1/2 stick of butter and regular milk, so it is "lighter" then the usual cream and hella butter scones (not that these scones are health food, but I have a baking blog so what do you expect?!) ;)

Sorry for the photos, I had to use my cell phone and it was dark in the kitchen.

Gingerbread Molasses Scones
The flour, sugar and spices are combined in a large bowl, and the cold butter is cut into the flour.

In a separate bowl, the molasses,milk and egg yolk are combined. The liquid and dry ingredients are quickly combined until just moistened, and then the dough is kneaded a few times. I should have kneaded mine a little more on the floured surface, because my dough was a little too wet.

The original recipe calls for one circle cut into 12 wedges. I made two circles and cut each into six wedges. (Those white pieces in the dough are small pieces of butter)

A quick brush egg white wash and a sprinkle of sugar completes the scone. The original recipe uses granulated sugar, but I substituted sanding sugar for a little extra crunch.

These were a hit with my coworkers at our morning meeting. Next time, I might add some diced crystallized ginger. I hope you make some for your friends and family this autumn.

Gingerbread Molasses Scones
Adapted from the Grandma's Molasses website (Their scones are much lighter colored compared to mine)

2 cups (280 g) flour
3 tablespoons (38 g) brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup cold butter (1/2 stick)

1/3 cup molasses (Grandma's recipe uses the Robust Molasses, but I used the Original Molasses)
1/2 cup milk (I used low-fat milk)
1 egg yolk

Topping:
1 egg white
Sanding sugar or granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F.
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
2. Cut butter into dry ingredients using to knives, pastry cutter or your fingers until butter is the size of peas.
3.  In a medium bowl, combine the molasses, milk, and egg yolk until blended.
4. Add the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir with a fork until just moistened.
5. Turn the mixture onto floured surface and knead 6 - 8 times. Form the dough into a circle. I divide the dough into two balls and made two circles. Cut into wedges. I cut each of my circles into six wedges for a total of 12 scones.
6. Beat the egg white until frothy. Brush the scones with the egg white, and sprinkle with sanding sugar.
7. Bake at 400° for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

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Happy National Bundt Day 2014

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Happy National Bundt Day 2014!

Wishing you and yours a lovely National Bundt Day. I hope you make and share a Bundt today with your friends, family and co-workers. That's what the day is all about - baking and sharing!

Good morning dear friend. Wishing you a lovely #nationalbundtday! I didn't have time for #ilikebigbundts this year, but I hope you find time to bake & share a #bundt today. That's what the day celebrates...baking and sharing! Need a recipe? A boatload are

Happiness is a chocolate cinnamon#bundt! #nationalbundtday #ilikebigbundts #baking

I made my favorite Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt this morning and will deliver it tonight to friends! (I hope I can hold out that long...my friends won't mind if there was a small piece missing :)

If you need recipe ideas, you can find some under the I Like Big Bundts page. Take care and Happy Bundt Day!


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Palets de Dames - Tuesdays with Dorie Baking Chez Moi

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Palets de Dames - Tuesdays with Dorie

Hello. Good morning!
It's Tuesday.
And since it's Tuesday, I'm happy to say it's Tuesday with Dorie Day!

In May 2007, I started this blog to learn how to bake from scratch and drop the cake mixes.

After I started baking, I learned about a group of bakers who were baking their way through Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours. I joined in 2008 and then spent the next few years not only baking many things I might not have made if weren't it for the group, but I also met lots of friends along the way.

Dorie has a new wonderful book Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere and it's time to try to bake my way through this one as well.

The Tuesdays with Dorie group will be making two recipes per month and I hope I can keep up with that schedule. Please visit the Tuesdays with Dorie website and take a look at all the bakers who baked the recipe of the week. And if you're a baker, I hope you join in the fun and bake with Tuesdays with Dorie too. The cookbook is so lovely and I hope we can bake together. Please note that we will not be publishing the recipe on our blog posts, as we want to support Dorie and encourage everyone to purchase her beautiful cookbook.

Palets de Dames - Tuesdays with Dorie


The first recipe is Palets de Dames. These are sweet little butter cookies with a glaze of powdered sugar. They are cakey cookies and are perfect with coffee or tea. You can tint the glaze if you want to suit the occasion, or use sanding sugars to give it an extra sparkle or color - or do both!

Palets de Dames - Tuesdays with Dorie
These cookies are a perfect start to the group because you're quite easy to make. Simply creaming together butter, sugar, eggs and adding just a bit of sifted flour makes the base. When you make these, plan your time because you need to chill the dough for at least one hour or overnight before baking.

Aren't these really cute and sweet? Only bake them until the edges are lightly browned.

Palets de Dames - Tuesdays with Dorie
After the cookies cool, an easy glaze of powdered sugar milk and a few drops of lemon juice (I substituted orange juice because I was out of lemons) is made, and the cookies are dipped in the glaze. I topped some of mine with sanding sugar - clear and pink.

I'm looking forward to another round of Tuesdays with Dorie. I see some old friends already (Di, Katrina, Alisa, Jules, Audrey, Cathy...) - I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU GUYS!!! It's like a bakers reunion!

And I look forward to meeting more "baking interwebs" folks. See this post for links to other baker's posts.

- mary the food librarian

P.S. Dude, buy the book. It's fantastic! Like, crazy fantastic. And it makes the perfect holiday cookbook gift!

P.S.S. If you are new to my blog, I haven't been blogging much lately, but you can always find me on Instagram and Twitter @foodlibrarian



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