Ladyfingers - Tuesdays with Dorie

One of this month's choices from the book Baking Chez Moi is a delicate, sponge cake-like cookie. The beauty of these "cookies" is their ability to absorb liquid without disintegrating despite their lightness.

I made them last summer for the Espresso-Espresso Tiramisu Tart. Most of them were used to absorb the boozy coffee in the tart and we enjoyed the remainder dunked in espresso.

Visit here to see what everyone else in TWD made.

Crème Brûlée Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie

This was such a delicious tart. I included the (optional) raspberries which were a bright and fresh contrast to the classic sweet and rich crème filling.

My sad little kitchen torch wasn't up to the job of brûléeing the sugar but my oven broiler was quite effective, though I must remember to protect the tart crust edges with foil next time.

The recipe is from the book, Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Visit TWD to see this week's other bakes.

Fruit and Nut Croquants - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Baking Chez Moi project, we made crunchy, nut and fruit-filled cookies. It's the type of recipe that adapts easily to whatever nuts, dried fruits, and even flavourings you may have in your pantry. I made them with almonds and sour cherries and flavoured the dough with fiori di Sicilia and vanilla.

They looked like biscotti, and held up well to dunking like biscotti, but they had a softer and chewier texture that improved with time. We loved them!

Visit here to see what the other TWD bakers made.

Caramel Pots de Crème - Tuesdays with Dorie

This week's choice from the book, Baking Chez Moi, was tea and honey pots de crème and again I turned to Dorie's bonne idée for alternative flavours. There were so many to choose from! I went with something I knew everyone would like: caramel.

This version involved making a caramel from sugar alone, using it to flavour the cream and egg custard. It had a beautifully creamy and silky texture and very nice flavour. Everyone was happy with my choice!

Visit TWD to see what everyone else made.

Green Tea Sablés - Tuesdays with Dorie

All that was needed to make this week's cookie recipe from the book Baking Chez Moi was butter, sugar, flour, salt, and flavoured green tea. 

It took a bit of effort to shape the crumbly dough into a log, but once that was done, they were an easy slice-and-bake cookie. I used lemon green tea; the lemon flavour didn't come through at all and the tea flavour was only very subtle so these were rather plain, sweet, buttery cookies. Family who like that kind of cookie enjoyed them.

Visit here to see the other TWD bakes.