TWD: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

For your consideration: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 146-147 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorie.

And there was much rejoicing. Yum yum yum yum yum! FINALLY! A TWD recipe that was easy to make, with no exotic or expensive ingredients (like nuts) AND it actually tasted great, which is always a plus in my book. I was feeling more than a little discouraged over the last few TWD recipes and was dreading making any more "eh, metza metz" things that didn’t put my ingredients to their best use. Q'est que c'est metza metz? It's Italian slang for so-so (which you say while rotating your hand back and forth).

These cookies were such a refreshing change! I made the dough last weekend when I made the Linzer Sables - I also completely trashed the kitchen in the process. I made all three TWD cookies simultaneously; the sables, these sugar cookies and the buttery jam cookies that are next week’s offering and just got them all knocked out at once. I also made the dough for Shirley Corriher’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Bakewise which we've just dished out, sugared up and popped in the oven as we speak.

I grated the rind of an orange into these cookies and decided to do the slice and bake method since I did the cookie cutter thing with the sables and was over that action. I shaped them into a square shape and threw them in the freezer (for 5 days) wrapped in waxed paper until I could get to them (in other words, as today's deadline approached.)

Yesterday I pulled them out and sliced them into ¼” disks and topped them off with Turbinado (raw) sugar. They smelled heavenly and as the scent wafted through the house, the kids were chomping at the bit waiting to tear into them. After they ate their Lentil Soup (coming soon) they were allowed to get at the cookies. They LOVED them! Not too sweet and a very interesting flavor.

Many thanks to Ulrike of Küchenlatein for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with it, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s version of Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostess’s blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Creme Brulee

For your consideration: Crème Brulee from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 393, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

Simple to make, easy elegance. Breakfast of Champions. I waited until the last minute and made these last night. I just (just) toasted these up and needed to taste test them to be sure they passed muster. I have a butane torch (thanks D!), but haven’t quite figured out how to use it yet. I’m a little freaked out by it and am afraid I’ll scar myself for life, but DH said he’d help me work it out. Since it’s 8:00 am and he’s already left for work, here they are brulee’d under the broiler. Yummy, but way too sweet to eat the whole thing before 8:00 am.

I made a half batch (yes I used 1.5 egg yolks) and made 3 ramekins. I followed an idea from Dorie’s Playing Around cooks notes and made espresso brulees, but didn’t feel like cheesecloth, beans and straining, (oh my) and following the recipe to the letter, so I added a small palmful – maybe about 2 tablespoons – of instant espresso powder to the cream mixture before whisking into the egg mixture. Works for me.

This was a good recipe and the caramelized sugar was crunchy and had nice texture. If I make this again, next time I’ll use less sugar in the custard. I can’t be sure if the added sweetness was because I messed with the recipe and cut it in half, or if this is the way it was intended. The espresso powder really adds an interesting flavor that lingers on the tongue.

Side note: Remind me to test the temperature of my oven and then see if I need to (or if I can) recalibrate it. I think it’s off, as this recipe took longer than I think it should have to cook, just like the Dimply Plum Cake.

Thanks to Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with this recipe, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Crème Brulee for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.