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Midnight Crackles

This recipe for Midnight Crackles is one that I found in BAKING From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This is a chocolate cookie with a kick (thanks to some unexpected spices)! This smells and tastes like it should be a cookie that should be baked for the holidays. 

Apricot Raspberry Tart

This week's assignment for Tuesdays With Dorie is an Apricot Raspberry Tart from Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Admittedly I was partly apprehensive about making this tart because a photo was not included with this recipe! This tart ended up looking very festive and having a lot of textures to it. If you like apricots, then you'll love this tart.

Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberry sorbet is my favorite kind of sorbet. I'm glad that Serious Eats had a recipe posted, and even happier that it's an easy and delicious recipe! This recipe only requires 4 ingredients, an ice cream maker, and a little bit of time. 

Pear, Riesling, and Ginger Sorbet

It's time for some warm-weather desserts! I found a few sorbet recipes on Serious Eats. One that stood out to me was this recipe for a Pear, Riesling, and Ginger Sorbet. This sorbet is really complex (if my palette is any good) because with one bite, you get refreshing, soft, cold and icy sorbet, but you also get a spicy zing of ginger with a very subtle pear and riesling undertone.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Summer is approaching and there couldn't be a more appropriate way to welcome the warm weather than [making and] ravaging some homemade ice cream! I recently purchased an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer so I looked up "best ice cream recipe" and found something from The New York Times. I read it over and it sounded great! 

Chocolate-Cherry Brownies

I would not have tried making these Chocolate-Cherry Brownies if it wasn't for the Tuesdays With Dorie group. This recipe was not high on my list of recipes to try because I'm not a big fan of dried cherries. However, I was surprised that I liked the taste of these brownies more than I thought I would. The tartness of the dried cherries were subdued by the decadent chocolate. If anything, these should be called "Super Chocolatey Chocolate-Cherry Brownies." This was definitely a fudgy brownie that chocolate lovers would appreciate.

Strawberry Shortcakes Franco-American Style

When I first got Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking Chez Moi, I went through all of the pages and earmarked the recipes that I wanted to try. The photo for the Strawberry Shortcakes Franco-American Style in BCM looked so good that it was one of the first things on my list of recipes to try. It took half a year, but I finally made it. I'm disappointed that I didn't make these sooner! This "shortcake" is actually very easy to make: it's a basically a circle made of ladyfinger batter that's topped with whipped cream, roasted or fresh strawberries, and another ladyfinger circle. The good news is that the ladyfingers can be made well in advance. The bad news is that you'll want to eat them right away because they smell so good fresh out of the oven.

Fudgy Brownies

This is the kind of recipe that's perfect for people who don't have a lot of ingredients to work with. How do I know? My refrigerator only had some eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and experimental baking things in it. When I see these things listed, it seems like I'm big on dairy!

These brownies are great! I'm usually a fan of box brownies because of their texture and taste, but this recipe surpasses the box mixes, hands down. This recipe makes seriously fudgy brownies with a nice crispy crust, crunchy corners and edges (the best part), and a chewy center.

Toffee and Chocolate Chip Cookies

To be honest, this was supposed to be a Brown Butter, Toffee & Chocolate Chip cookie post, but I failed at making brown butter. I browned my butter, but not enough. How do I know this? After I browned my butter, I Googled what it's supposed to look like, and it looked like I didn't have as much brown "stuff" at the bottom of my pot. I just made "almost brown butter." Nonetheless, this recipe worked out great! I was left with a slightly crispy, slightly chewy, sweet and chocolatey cookie that I'm sure would go extremely well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Viennese Sablés

Viennese Sablés remind me of fancy butter cookies. It's impossible to be satisfied eating only one of these cookies; who can resist a crispy, buttery, mildly sweet cookie? This recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi, where she explains some of the different reasons why these cookies are "W"-shaped. In short, it could be either because they came from a pâtissier named Wittamer, or because of the location this cookie was created: Wien (German for Vienna). 

Crackle-Top Cream Puffs

I know I've been posting quite a bit of choux recipes lately, but I think this will be one of the last ones I do for a while. I was on a mission to figure out how to make pastry cream correctly, and I needed to make something using my successful results. Luckily Dorie Greenspan has a lot of different recipes that include pastry cream-filled goodies in Baking Chez Moi. This recipe looked really good in the cook book, and it turned out pretty well when I made it, too! This is pretty much your standard cream puff, but enhanced by a thin crispy layer of a brown sugar crackle on top. It brings a little bit of sweetness and a little bit of a crunch to the table, both of which I can't resist.

Coconut Tapioca

I have always enjoyed tapioca, but I usually ate it out of a plastic container labeled "Jell-O." Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi includes a recipe for Coconut Tapioca, which I made because it was an assignment for Tuesdays with Dorie.

Mille Feuille

Mille Feuille can be translated as "a thousand leaves" and rightfully so, as you can really feel your teeth sinking into layers and layers of puff pastry in just one bite. Each layer sandwiches a vanilla pastry cream which provides a nice subtle sweetness with a smooth texture to balance out the flaky pastry.

Bubble Éclairs

I originally made these Bubble Éclairs because I wanted to test out Dorie's pasty cream recipe. However, I gave up on the pastry cream after several failed attempts. I ended up making these Éclairs with a cocoa whipped cream filling instead. I also wanted to make these Éclairs because I thought I could knock 2 recipes out in one shot (also making Chouquettes).  All in all, these turned out well and I would make these again.

Chouquettes

Chouquettes are like little cream puff pastries, except without the cream inside. They're topped with pearl sugar (which happen to be my favorite part) and make a perfect bite-sized snack.

Merveilleux

I had never heard of a Merveilleux until a couple of weeks ago, and certainly never tasted one either. I stumbled across a photo of one of these on Instagram or Facebook a couple of weeks ago and I have been obsessing over them ever since, just trying to find a recipe. I looked up photos of Merveilleux on Frederic Vaucamps's website, drooled, and told myself that I absolutely needed to make them. It looked simple enough to make: 3 meringue cookies sandwiching whipped cream, enveloping everything with even more whipped cream, and covered in a layer of shaved chocolate or anything else that might taste delicious.

Limoncello Cupcakes

One of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes for this month is the Limoncello Cupcakes recipe in Baking Chez Moi. Coincidentally, I had a lot of lemons to use, but ironically, there was only a need for one lemon... The Limoncello gives these cupcakes most of its flavor.

Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars (TWD)

This was one of the first recipes I tried out when Baking Chez Moi was released.  Here is a link to that post with my process photos. The caramelized Rice Krispies are outstanding!

Lemon Meringue Tart A New Way

I had just ordered a blowtorch and really wanted to try it out. I thought a lemon meringue pie would be the perfect recipe to use it on. Luckily, there is a recipe in Baking Chez Moi that had exactly what I was looking for!

Cocoa Almond Meringues

 I made these Cocoa Almond Meringues after seeing a picture of the ones in Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours. Her pictures featured these crinkled meringues that I could just taste in my mind, if that makes any sense. I had all of the ingredients anyway, so I figured I should make some for myself (and to share with others, of course).

Fresh Strawberry Pie (for Pi Day)

It's a little bit of a late post, but I made a strawberry pie for pi day (3.14.15). I had 3 baskets of strawberries in my refrigerator that I had to re-purpose, so I figured this would be a great way to use them. The only baking required for this recipe is really the crust. For this, I used Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Crust recipe in Baking Chez Moi.

Chocolate Dobash Cake

I know I just made a chocolate cake, but I wanted something that was a tiny bit sweeter and fluffier. I decided to try my hand at a Chocolate Dobash Cake, Hawaii style.  It has layers of cake and pudding-like frosting that is light and delicious!

Lemon Madeleines

Another first, thanks to Dorie. This time it was making Madeleines.  I had seen these in Parisian stores, but I didn't think of buying them because I was too busy looking for macarons. These little cakes are pretty good; they were soft, moist, and lemony.

Chocolate Layer Cake

I felt like I needed to take a break from making cookies and realized that I don't have a good chocolate cake recipe at hand. There are thousands of search results on the internet for chocolate cakes, but my colleague forwarded this Chocolate Layer Cake recipe to me, and naturally I wanted to try it out. This is a recipe that comes from Emily Luchetti, a two-time James Beard Award recipient. 

Pink Grapefruit Tart

When I saw that the Pink Grapefruit Tart was one of the assignments for Tuesdays With Dorie, I thought I would sit this one out. It seemed like a complicated recipe and I was not a huge fan of grapefruit. I thought it over for half the month and decided that I should give it a try anyway. I'm glad that I changed my mind. This tart turned out to be not only visually stunning, but it tasted great, too!

Galette des Rois

I was asked to make a Galette des Rois with a request to make it not taste like almonds. Luckily, Dorie has a recipe in Baking Chez Moi for a Galette des Rois which includes either lemon or orange zest.  I thought that using orange zest would make a tasty Galette, but later I decided that a Galette with orange zest AND vanilla beans would be even better!

Desert Roses or Roses des Sables

Desert Roses or Roses des Sables are what I think the easiest things to make in Baking Chez Mois, and it tastes delicious, too! This recipe is basically melted chocolate poured over cornflakes. I didn't follow Dorie's recipe, at least by not adding dried fruits and nuts, and kept it very simple. This recipe is what she described the Rice Krispies treats of Paris; in fact, the recipe is included on the cornflakes boxes in France!

Rice Krispies Cookies

Happy Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year! I decided to make one of my favorite cookies: Rice Krispies Cookies. They're crispy and buttery and very addictive!

Valentine's Day Dessert

Valentine's Day came and went, but I was lucky enough to spend it with good friends. For dessert, we had Marquise au Chocolat with Creme Anglaise, Macarons with Rose buttercream and Macarons with a Vanilla and White Chocolate Ganache, and what Dorie calls Macaron Biscotti (inspired by Sadaharu Aoki).

Snickery Squares

I felt like taking a short break from Baking Chez Moi, so I started going through Baking: From My Home To Yours. I came across the recipe for Snicker Squares and immediately started drooling. It might have been the mention of dulce de leche or it might have been the candied peanuts. Either way, both the photo and the recipe caught my attention and made me want to eat it.

Marquise au Chocolat

The first time I had eaten Marquise au Chocolate was when a friend made it for a small group of us for New Year's last year.  It was incredibly delicious, but we didn't know what the proper name for it was - we called it "fondant." When I got Baking Chez Moi, I read through this recipe and thought it sounded extremely familiar, so I was very happy that it was a selection for the Tuesdays With Dorie group, and can confirm that it was like the "fondant" we had.

This is pretty much a fancy frozen chocolate mousse that I served with vanilla crème anglaise.  I was so happy that I made the crème anglaise because it really complements the chocolate well - I cannot express in words how good these two taste together! 

Soft Japanese Cheesecake

Today felt like a cheesecake kind of day, but more of the lighter Japanese souffle type of cheesecake kind of day.  This is really a moist and fluffy cheesecake that is pretty easy to make if you have all of your ingredients ready to go. I had all of the ingredients and some time so I decided to whip up a cake.

Edouard's Chocolate Chip Cookies (again)

I made Edouard's Chocolate Chip Cookies again. I think these are pretty good. They're crispy on the outside and a little soft in the middle. The almond flour adds a nice nutty flavor, too. I'm thinking these might taste good sprinkled with a little bit of salt on top, too. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is the Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake. It is the very first recipe in Baking Chez Moi. It doesn't require many ingredients, but it makes a pretty tasty cake. I think that the rum was a little overpowering for my taste, so if I were to make it again, I'd omit it completely. 

Granola Energy Bars

Happy New Year! The first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe of 2015 is for Granola Energy Bars. This was another first for me; I had eaten many energy bars before, but I never thought I would make them. What was interesting about this recipe was that it called for Brown Rice Syrup. I had never heard of such a thing until reading this recipe. Luckily I found it pretty easily at my local grocery store alongside the honey and syrup. I had to modify the recipe a little only because I did not have a 7x11 inch baking pan (I only have a 9x13 inch pan), so I increased everything by 35%.