Grandma's Kitchen Table

Tuesdays with Dorie Baking Chez Moi - Pink Grapefruit Tart

      This week's recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Pink Grapefruit Tart, found on page 138 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi book.  

       Ingredient list:  butter, light brown sugar, almond flour, egg, gelatin, water, sugar, grapefruit, Compari, and a Sweet Tart Dough pre-baked crust.  (If you will note in my photo I made a 6" tart which used a third of the dough crust, and I made third of the lemon almond cream, and also a third of the grapefruit filling, which was more than plenty to fill the 6" tart.  This size of tart for the two of us is my favorite size and so easy to work with, this pan is one of the most-used pans in my collection without a doubt.) 

       This grapefruit tart was a new and delicious treat for us, both of us are citrus-lovers so this sounded like a wonderful "burst of sunshine" for these cold dreary winter days.  There are many steps, encompassing many hours, most of which are "sit around and wait hours," but nonetheless, one needs to plan ahead to make this (which is why I have been working on and off since early morning on it as I'm not that good at planning ahead at times, especially as we have a new puppy in the house, so this was one of those times, balancing puppy training with creating a fabulous dessert was interesting to say the least). 

        Was it worth all the steps and hours?  Oh yes, definitely worth it in every single bite.  Every Single Bite.  All that creamy grapefruit goodness, not too sweet, not too tart, just right.  Would I make it again?  Yes, I might, just probably might, as now that I have the process down, it seems a lot easier than when I first started planning for it.  You can stretch it over a couple of days and make it easier yet.  

        Check around with the other bakers and see how they did with the recipe this week.  The blogroll can be found here.

        Come and bake with us from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook:  the next assignments are:  Lemon Madeleines on page 212 for March 10th; Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars on page 324 for March 24th; and Rewind (make any recipe you missed) for March 31st. The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking Chez Moi - Marquise au Chocolat

       This week's recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Marquise au Cocolat, found on page 357 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi book. 

       Ingredient list:  butter, chocolate, egg yolks, sugar, salt, and cream. 

       Although you can't necessarily tell from the photo, this is a frozen dessert, the little loaf setting up in the freezer and being unmolded to serve.  You can see the marks in the dessert where the plastic wrap lining the mold left its little lines, so next time I would try to get that worked out better for appearances sake but I thought I would share that with you now so if you want to make this, you could figure that all out straight off. 

       Chocolate, I knew it was coming soon with the recipe picks because the TWD group loves its chocolate!  Left to my own devices, chocolate would not be making an appearance here but the guys love it, so once in awhile I will toss some chocolate chips into something and call it a chocolate masterpiece.  (This is why I bake in groups, because the choices aren't always made by me so it give us some variety here in a house where the main cook/baker (that would be me) would just cook/bake the same things over and over riding contentedly into the sunset in that manner.)  The guys are always excited about the chocolate picks.  This one was no exception, Mark ate the whole little loaf you see in the photo all by himself all in one sitting.  (He would not be throwing caution to the wind like that if I had not made such a small amount of the original recipe and he would need to eat it repeatedly until it was gone.)  It's good to make those you love happy with food. 

       Since the boys weren't expected home this week and weekend guests were "on a diet," I decided that I would make a quarter of the recipe and form it in my small little bread loaf pans.  This worked out well as the ingredient measurements were easily divided by four.  The batter gave me three little loaves. 

       The notes in the recipe share different suggestions for serving it, and no doubt if you check around the TWD blogs this week you will find even more, but I opted for some freshly whipped cream on the top as I knew that would be most welcome.  And it was.  Definitely a repeat as this was easy, quick, fun, definitely a hit with the chocolate lover here, and something out of the ordinary at the end of the day.  

       Check around with the other bakers and see how they did with the recipe this week.  The blogroll can be found here.

        Come and bake with us from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook:  the next assignment is:  Pink Grapefruit Tart on page 138 for February 24th. The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Tuesdays with Dorie Baking Chez Moi - Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake

         This week's recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake, found on pages 6-7 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi book.  

       Ingredient list:  flour, butter, baking powder, salt, sugar, vanilla, eggs, cream, and rum. 

       One of my favorite things about this book of Dorie's is that each recipe comes with a little story, some little tidbit about the recipe, some fun little bits of information to make the recipe more interesting, more approachable, and giving it a sense of history.  In France, a "Weekend Cake," according to Dorie, is a cake that can stay tasty for four days so that over the weekend friends and family can help themselves to a slice whenever they like.  I also found interesting that she says that "cake" in France tends to be in this loaf form and the gateaux "cake" is our idea of round fancier cake.

       As you can probably tell from the ingredient list, this is not a fancy cake that takes hours of preparation and assembly, it's just a nice simple plain delicious cake made with ingredients you probably already have on hand. The optional additon of rum guaranteed that my not-too-fond-of-cake husband would be willing to "eat up" on this one, that rum flavor giving it an extra punch of sassiness.  Definitely worthy of a repeat.  We think it would be delightful with fruit and whipped cream as well...although truly it's just great on its own. 

       Check around with the other bakers and see how they did with the recipe this week.  The blogroll can be found here.

        Come and bake with us from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook:  the next assignment is:  Marquise au Chocolat, found on page 357 for February 10.  We will be making the Pink Grapefruit Tart on page 138 for February 24th. The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Tuesdays with Dorie Baking Chez Moi - Granola Energy Bars

       This week's recipe  for Tuesdays with Dorie is Granola Energy Bars, found on pages 328-329 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi book.

       Ingredient list:  old-fashioned oats, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried raisins, dried apricots, dried cranberries, coconut, salt, brown rice syrup, butter, and vanilla. (No pumpkin seeds here so I just doubled up on the sunflower seeds instead, Dorie says you can use any combination of seeds and fruit that you like, so I "liked" not going out into the cold icy snowy weather just to score some pumpkin seeds at the market and instead used the seeds I had on hand. I figured you would all approve, well at least all of you in the it's-winter-and-freezing-out-there-conditions zone.) 

       These are wonderful little bars to make and eat.  Use fresh ingredients because when you end up with your bars, you can truly taste all the separate flavors and you want them nice and fresh tasting.  The recipe could not be easier, especially for those who just like to line up the ingredients and mix them all together and bake with minimal fuss and mess. 

       Mark is going to love having these all week for breakfast, being the no-mess-no-fuss-no-big-commitment breakfast-eater that he is on weekdays.  Definitely a repeat, probably one of those recipes I'm printing off and taping to the inside of my cabinet for easy and frequent access.  Yes, indeed, I recommend you make these soon. 

       Check around with the other bakers and see how they did with the recipe this week.  The blogroll can be found here.

        Come and bake with us from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook:  the next assignment is:  Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake, found on pages 6-7. The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Tuesdays with Dorie Baking Chez Moi - The Rugelach That Won Over France

      The third recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is The Rugelach That Won Over France, found on page 301 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi book.  

       Ingredient list:  flour, butter, cream cheese, salt, coconut, pecans, chocolate, raisins, cinnamon, butter, egg, and sugar. 

       Let me just begin with the fact that I have a Rugelach recipe that I absolutely love.  (Thank you, Ina.)  So, going into this assignment I was curious to see if this one would not only win over France, but also win me over.  That said, I was a little skeptical on the preparation aspect alone...this one seemed a bit fussy and time consuming (something my other recipe is not). 

       As with all Dorie's recipes, the recipe is well-written and easy to follow...you just take one step at a time and end up with a successful product.  No exception here at all, the end product was delicious in taste and texture. The little crusts were crunchy and flaky, tasting of butter and pastry, what's not to love about that combination?  The filling was generous and tasty (okay, I will admit that the ones I tasted might not have had any chocolate in them and Dorie herself says in the book that there are many different filling choices, but others here thought the ones with chocolate were wonderful).

       Will it replace my tried-and-true recipe?  Nope, not this time.  It's not that this recipe has faults (other than fussy preparation), or that it tastes inferior to my other one, it's just that the other one is so easy and delicious and so cute (it is rolled up like little crescents, I'm all about the cute as well as taste in food) that I'm sticking with that one and leaving this one to France, and everyone else who absolutely loved it (and I am certain there will be many).  I enjoyed the opportunity to make a different Rugelach recipe from the one that is my standard and we enjoyed eating them immensely, so I am counting this a successful week. 

      Check around with the other bakers this week and see how they did with the recipe this week.  The blogroll can be found here. 

        Come and bake with us from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook:  the remaining December assignments are as follows.  December 23 - Gingerbread Buche de Noel, page 86.  Since there is an extra Tuesday in December, the group will use that Tuesday (December 30) to Rewind (the opportunity to make up a missed recipe) or bake another recipe from another of Dorie's baking books or just take the week off.  The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking Chez Moi - Cranberry Crackle Tart

       The second recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Cranberry Crackle Tart, found on pages 135-137 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi book.  Dorie has also published this recipe on her website, so you can click here to get this week's recipe from her.  

       Ingredient list:  for the sweet tart dough (flour, powdered sugar, salt, unsalted butter, and egg yolk), for the filling (jam, egg white, salt, sugar, cranberries), for the optional topping (powdered sugar). 

       There are just two of us here now that the boys are off at college and such, so I have been learning the art of making "mini" or smaller portions of desserts.  I first started experimenting with this when I was doing the first round of TWD Baking From My Home To Yours and found that Dorie's recipes have always worked for me when I reduced them by halves or thirds or even fourths.  I manage to get good results every time, which is not always the case with reducing recipes. So, kudos to Dorie for that. 

       For this recipe, I chose to make it in a 6" tart pan (for which I used a third of the dough recipe and a half of the filling recipe).  This half-size baked in the oven for about the same amount of time, about 10 minutes less than stated in the recipe. 

       The recipe was easy to follow and execute and the results were delicious (a nice tart/sweet sensation with the unsweetened cranberries and the sugar in the recipe).  It was also very pretty, always a plus in my book...I'm all about the cute in food. The cranberries make it perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Would I make this recipe again?  Absolutely, definitely a keeper.

       Check around with the other bakers this week and see how they did with the recipe this week.  The blogroll can be found here.  

        Come and bake with us from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi cookbook:  the December assignments are as follows.  December 9  - The Rugelach That Won Over France, page 30, and December 23 - Gingerbread Buche de Noel, page 86.  Since there is an extra Tuesday in December, the group will use that Tuesday (December 30) to Rewind (the opportunity to make up a missed recipe) or bake another recipe from another of Dorie's baking books or just take the week off.  The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking Chez Moi - Palets de Dames Lille Style

       When I started baking with the original Tuesdays with Dorie group in 2008, my intention was to learn how to bake for my family as the most I could manage on my own over the years had been boxed brownies or cake and a half dozen cookie recipes from scratch, that was it.  Over the course of those four years I learned how to bake things I never thought I would ever learn how to bake.  I learned more than I can ever recount.  I also made baking friends who remain friends to this day...those weekly baking sessions saw us through birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, children's births, deaths, graduations, holidays, vacations, some scary times, some growing times, but most all happy wonderful times that we all shared with one another in the course of baking together week after week for four years.  We became a baking family.  So, without further reminiscing, I will just say, "We're BACK!!"  Not all of us, and some are new friends to meet and come to know, but I can't describe how happy I am to be baking with old friends gathered around Dorie's latest baking book, Baking Chez Moi:  Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere.  I can't help wondering what the next years of baking together will bring for all of us...I have missed everyone dearly, it's good to be back.

       The first recipe for this round of Tuesdays with Dorie is Palets de Dames Lille Style, found on pages 272-274 of the Baking Chez Moi book.   Ingredient list:  butter, sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, confectioner's sugar, milk, and lemon juice.  You probably have all these in your pantry at any given moment. 

       The recipe goes together very easily and the dough is wonderful to work with...that said I had a mixed batch of results with this recipe.  The taste and texture were wonderful but I had a bit of a difficult time with the baking process.  Some of my cookies spread out into an unsightly mess (yes, I chilled the dough), some were not spreading at all, and some were the proverbial "just right."  I chose some of those to photo.  The others were happily eaten with nary a complaint, all tasted buttery and sugary with a bit of lemon in the icing.  What's not to love about all that in a cookie? 

       Will this particular recipe be a repeat?  Possibly yes from flavor standpoint, but I do need to figure out the inconsistencies I had in baking...in all fairness I am operating with a new-to-me oven and that could possibly be the culprit.  Check around with the other bakers this week and see how they did.  The blogroll can be found here.  

        Come and bake with us, the next assignment:  November 25  - Cranberry Crackle Tart, pages 135-137.    The Tuesdays with Dorie group information for joining the group, recipe selection, and general information can be found here.