Tuesday with Dorie: Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies

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This week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie recipe was Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies. You can find the full recipe on Kuchenlatein’s site or by purchasing the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

This recipe frustrated me. The recipe itself is very simple but I couldn’t manage to transfer the cuts outs. They practically melted in my hand. I tried chilling the dough. I tried freezing the dough. It just didn’t work. Finally, I rolled it all into a little log and made the slice and bake cookies. And while not as beautiful, they tasted just as good.

These cookies have Bo’s seal of approval!


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Tuesdays with Dorie: Linzer Sables

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These are officially the “it” cookies to leave for Santa. In the coming years, as Bo becomes more able to help in the kitchen, I hope to have a batch of this dough frozen in sheets and on hand for Christmas Eve cookie baking. I can’t imagine a better activity than making beautiful cookies to set out for Santa on Christmas Eve. I hope that these cookies become a part of our holiday traditions.

A big thank you to Living the Life who chose these cookies this week. You can find the full recipe on her blog or buy purchasing Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

The dough for these cookies was simple to put together. I started by whisking together the dry ingredients. Amazing that the main base for these cookies is pulverized almonds. But I think that is truly what makes them so yummy. The flavor reminds me of the Windmill cookies I loved as a kid.

Meanwhile, I threw the sugar and butter into my trusty KitchenAid and let it work it’s magic.

Then you just add a few eggs and the dry ingredients and presto — dough!

The next step is to divide the dough into two balls and sandwich it between pieces of wax paper.


Then, I rolled the dough out so it was very thin.

I threw the dough in the freezer and tried to make the cookies about an hour later but the dough thaws very quickly. I had much more success after waiting 24 hours and then removing the dough from the freezer one sheet at a time. The cookie cutters I used had delicate edges and only worked well with the dough very cold.

I placed the cutouts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and baked them for 10 minutes.

The results were beautiful cookies that were easy to sandwich together to make the raspberry filled creations above. These cookies taste great too. This recipe receives 5 stars from those of us at Chez Sticky Feet and definitely deserves a place of honor as the cookie that Santa receives for many years to come.

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was a special recipe, just for Thanksgiving. You can find the full recipe at La Casserole Carree or on pg. 321 of Dorie Greenspan’s famous cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Unfortunately, I was so busy with other Thanksgiving prep that I did not take pictures of the pie as I was making it. It was easy to make with basic Thanksgiving pie ingredients.


Sorry for the crappy pictures. Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets this week!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom’s house with my cousins. The food was good and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

My pie received mixed reviews. My cousin, Kelly, thought it was “strangely good”. And my mom ate it and thought it was fine. My piece was good, but I think I would have preferred to have plain pumpkin, like everyone else, who was afraid of my “special” pie.

This one probably won’t become a Thanksgiving staple at our house. But it was good and a different twist on classic Thanksgiving flavors.

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Coffee Drinks

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While I was in Champaign with Mike a few weeks, I stopped by one of the many Dunkin‘ Donuts to purchase a latte. I’d never had a coffee from Dunkin‘ Donuts before, but everyone seems to rave about it so I thought I would try it since I rarely have the opportunity to splurge on such indulgences.

After the first few sips, I thought to myself, “that’s $2.48 that I’ll never get back.” One benefit to living in a small, coffee chain free town, is that I’ve learned to make my own fancy coffee drinks. My favorites are Skinny Vanilla Lattes and Skinny German Chocolate Mochas. The best part, my coffee drinks not only taste better, but are significantly cheaper for more coffee.

I thought I would spread the wealth and tell you about my concoctions today since my Tuesdays with Dorie pie won’t be ready until Friday. Save a buck and make your coffee at home today. Honestly, I really do think it tastes better too.

Skinny Vanilla Latte
1 cup strongly brewed fresh coffee
1 cup skim milk
1 shot sugar free vanilla Torani syrup

You can warm the milk in a pan on the stove and froth as desired. Then mix all ingredients in your favorite mug. I usually just pour the coffee in and then add the milk cold and the syrup. The hot coffee and cold milk combine to make the drink immediately drinkable.

Skinny German Chocolate Mocha
1 cup strongly brewed fresh coffee
1 cup skim milk
1 shot sugar free coconut Torani syrup
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Same directions as above.

Both of these can be served over ice for a wonderful iced coffee treat. I also like to mix up the syrups. This time of year I swap out the coconut syrup for peppermint to make a minty mocha treat! 🙂

I bought a reusable travel cup at Starbucks 2 years ago and I love it. It holds my large coffee drink and is portable. It even makes me feel a little green. 🙂 Yet another way to save a few pennies this time of year. 🙂

Tuesdays with Dorie: Arborio Rice Pudding

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Isabella of Les gourmandises d’Isa selected Arborio Rice Pudding as this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. The full recipe can be found on Isabella’s site (in French) or by purchasing Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Before I talk about the recipe a big shout out to Rachel of Raspberry Chip! Rachel’s son, LG is the same age as Bo and I’ve been following her blog since shortly after their birth. She is an phenomenal Mom and was kind enough to run to her local Whole Foods, buy me some Arborio rice and mail it to me! Thanks again, Rachel! I love the blogosphere!

While this recipe did take some time to prepare, it was probably one of the simplest recipes Dorie has ever written (and I somehow managed to screw it up??!!). The first step was to parboil the rice.

After the rice cooked I brought the milk and sugar to boil. Then I added in the rice and let it simmer. While the mixture was simmering I chopped my chocolate. I decided to make both vanilla and chocolate so that I could try both versions of the pudding.

I used two large bowls and added vanilla to one, and chocolate to the other.

Then I spooned the pudding into fancy serving dishes.

Unfortunately, even after sitting in the refrigerator overnight, the pudding did not thicken. It tasted good — but it was like eating milk with sugar and rice, not pudding like. Did anyone else have this issue? My mom and I both love rice pudding but she said this wasn’t one of her favorites. I think I may try it again and add a bit of cornstarch. Thoughts?

Next week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a pie for Thanksgiving. Since I will be making this for our Thanksgiving meal I will not post my recipe until next Friday! So I guess it will be a Friday with Dorie next week.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Kugelhopf

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Yolanda of The All-purpose Girl selected this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe — Kugelhopf. You can find the full recipe on Yolanda’s site or on pg. 61 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I’ll be honest, from the name and the picture this was immediately not a recipe I had a lot of interest in. But then I opened the cookbook to read more about it and found that it is from Alsace (now France, use to be Germany) and this is the area where my ancestors originated. The recipe looked fairly simple, so I decided to give it a whirl.

The first step was to mix the yeast with milk and then add the dry ingredients, eggs, and butter. It has to beat for quite awhile to form a dough. Definitely one of those recipes you really want your KitchenAid for!

I used golden raisins in mine. I had some left from a previous Dorie experiment.
I let the dough do its unique rise and fall for an entire evening and then left the dough to rest in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I buttered a bundt pan and allowed the dough to rise again.

This is what it looked like 3 hours later, right before I put it in the oven.
I baked it and it came out with a nice crisp crust.

I soaked it with butter and sprinkled with sugar.

And then I cut the bread to serve.


Maybe my expectations were too high, but after starting this bread 18 hours earlier, I guess I just expected more. It was fine. But definitely not wow worthy. Even, dare I say, bland?? Mom and Mike both tasted it and they both said this wasn’t a keeper. Sorry Dorie!
However, I am really excited about next week’s recipe – Arborio Rice Pudding! However, I can’t seem to find any of the star ingredient, Arborio rice!! The only place I have found it is Amazon and it is $10 for a box and then $15 shipping. If anyone has found some and is willing to mail me the 1/4 cup needed for this recipe there will be a reward involved!!

Tuesdays with RecipeGirl: Lemon Bars with Kit-Kat Crust

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Yep, I’m bailing on Tuesdays with Dorie this week. I couldn’t find any dried currants. And, those cookies just look a bit strange to me. I’m anxious to see everyone elses results. Head over to TWD if you’re interested in a recipe that contains dried currants.

I decided to take a different route this week. Despite the fact that we had about 175 Trick or Treaters, we did have some candy leftover. And some of those candies just happened to be Kit-Kat bars. I’d already bought the cream cheese for this weeks TWD recipe so when I saw this recipe Saturday morning on Recipegirl.com, I decided it was time for a change of plans. Even better, I had everything I needed for this recipe on hand.

I started by unwrapping the 14 snack size Kit-Kat bars. Doesn’t my pile of wrappers make me look quite pig-like?
Then, I threw the Kit-Kats into the food processer to make a crumb crust.

And I pressed the Kit-Kat crumbs into the bottom of a greased 8×8 pan. I baked the crust for 5 minutes.

Then I mixed up the filling and spread it over the top. Yum. Lemony, creamy cheesey goodness.

Finally, I mixed up the topping and popped it in the oven. Viola! Lemon Bars with a Kit-Kat crust.

My official tasters (Mike and my mom) both liked these a lot. Mom liked the Kit-Kat crust but Mike felt that it would have been better with a regular graham cracker crust. I don’t think the Kit-Kats added much to the recipe. While my mom said she could taste the chocolate, I really couldn’t because of all of the lemon.
The filling and topping were great but if I were to make this again (when I don’t have leftover Halloween candy) I’d just use graham crackers for the crust.

***Instead of more political propaganda, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you to go vote!! :)***

Halloween Oatmeal

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Happy Halloween! Bo and I decided to scare you with pictures of an 11 month old trying to eat pumpkin spice oatmeal on his own. Oh, the mess. It’s scary.


In truth, it’s been awhile since I’ve rambled on about Bo’s eating habits. Let’s just say, we’ve got a growing Bo on our hands. He will eat anything and he eats, and eats, and eats. Seriously, I’m beginning to wonder if he ever gets full.

Bo has been enjoying a bit of whatever we are having for dinner each evening, along with an extra veggie and fruit. He likes pasta, chicken, chicken pot pie, soup, chili. You name it, he’ll eat it. 🙂 Pasta seems to be the hands down favorite thus far. I always make the whole wheat kind at home.

For lunch, he usually has yogurt, fruit, a veggie, and some whole grain crackers.

Veggies he currently enjoys: mashed squash, mashed sweet potato, chopped broccoli, peas, diced carrots, corn, beans, etc.

Fruits he currently enjoys: banana, plum, melon, grapes (cut up, of course), apple slices, berries, kiwi, etc.

We started oatmeal for breakfast at around 10 months. I’m not a fan of all of the added sugar** in the instant packets of flavored oatmeal so I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make traditional oats more flavorful. This week’s concoction is “Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal”. I just added about a 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin and some pumpkin pie spice to regular oats. He also enjoys “Plum Good Oatmeal” – add chopped plums. “Banana Bread Oatmeal” – add mashed banana and nutmeg. “Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal” – add applesauce and cinnamon. Any other ideas??

I’m gradually trying to introduce spices so that Bo will recognize the flavors and appreciate that everything doesn’t have to be “plain.”

**I’m not anti all sugar. He does get treats and he will have a full-sugar cupcake on his birthday. Lots of times he tries my weekly baking experiment. I’m not a sugar Nazi, but I just don’t see the point of that much sugar for breakfast.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes – Happy Halloween!!

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Happy Halloween!!

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought. You can find the full recipe on Clara’s site or by purchasing the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

First, I mixed up the batter in my KitchenAid. Love, love, love my mixer. 🙂
Then I used my ice cream scoop to evenly divide the batter into 12 cupcakes and threw them in the oven.

They came out of the oven and seemed kinda — well — flat. They didn’t rise much at all. Does it seem weird that baking soda and baking powder were both in this recipe? Can someone explain to me how these ingredients work?
But anyway, I had short cupcakes.

But I made ganache and frosted them anyway.


Then, I picked the orange M & M’s out of a bag to put on top of the cupcakes to give them a “halloweenie” feel. I only ate one of these and I thought it was pretty good. Very rich and chocolaty. I took them to the yearbook girls yesterday and they just picked at them. I think it was too much chocolate for their taste buds.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Pumpkin Muffins

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This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was perfect for the season! Thank you to Kelly from Sounding my Barbaric Gulp for choosing pumpkin muffins this week! The full recipe can be found on Kelly’s site or on page 13 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

A big thank you goes out to my hubby, Mike, for making the batter for these bad boys. My ear has been bothering me and I was quite whiny about it (honestly, I think it may fall off soon) so he made the batter while I played with Bo. I finished the cupcakes up because Bo needed some daddy time, otherwise, these would have been a total Mike creation. All of the photos were taken by him as well!

Mike is a much more meticulous baker than I am. He set out all of the ingredients first and was all prepared before he began the recipe. I’m more of a dump it in as you go type, but his organization did make for a nice picture. 🙂

Mike combined all of the ingredients to make the batter, but only added the raisins after a firm reminder. I think he’s still scared because of Dorie’s French Chocolate Brownies that I made earlier in the year!
I took over and scooped the batter into the muffin molds and sprinkled on the sunflower seeds.
And here is one of our muffins, getting ready to head into the fiery inferno.
Viola! Beautiful pumpkin muffins!
I really enjoyed the muffins. The pumpkin flavor was good. The texture was good. The raisins didn’t creep me out and I loved the sunflower seeds on top. Definitely best warmed up with a little butter!

I took them to school to share yesterday but Jason’s chocolate chip cookies won out. One of the yearbook girls was brave and she thought it was quite tasty. Anyone want a muffin? I’ve got 8 left.