Finally, February, and the long-awaited premiere of Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia. If there was an Oscar for recipe books, Baking with Julia written by Dorie Greenspan, would win one of those glitzy golden guys. While my Euros for best picture is on “Hugo”, Martin Scorsese’s magical 1930’s tale set in a bustling Paris train station, my time has been spent in the kitchen, polishing up my basic baking techniques. Focus, Mary, Focus.
For the past 23 years of high-altitude living (Aspen, 8200’), my baking has had issues. “Home-made” turned to “store-bought”. My best cookies, Nabisco’s Oreos. Sara Lee does my pound cakes. The Pillsbury Dough Boy? He’s cute. Lately, older but not wiser, I decided to give-it-a-go-again and joined with 300-some other bloggers to mix, measure, whisk and stir my way through this book based on Julia’s PBS Series. (HINT: My library carries the videos of this Series.)
Twice a month, on Tuesday, my battalion, The Baking 300, will join with me to present and comment on our chosen recipe. I expect to not only brush up on my techniques but also glean a few high-altitude nuggets from this group. And, to my Readers who ask, and, many already have, WHY I would want additional caloric baked goods in my house (thank you, gentle readers, for not adding “at your age”), this is my answer. The majority of the TWD participants are younger than I, from their late 20s to a slow cruise into their 50s. These Bloggers appear to be genuinely concerned about good nutrition, staying fit, and will tweak these recipes down a caloric-notch or two, if need be. I consider this a learning experience.
Don’t We All Love Julia? Buy the Book by Dorie Greenspan. Bake With Us.
My first attempt, Chocolate Truffle Tartlets, was, for me, fun and challenging. Since the recipe called for three different chocolates (bittersweet, white and milk) it helped that Dorie and Julia thought to provide a short tutorial on chocolate (pgs 7-8) in the book. Although Julia used Chocolate Dough, I used Dorie’s plain tart dough recipe from Around my French Table (pgs. 498-9) to take the richness down a beat.
Melting 3 different types of chocolate together is a little tricky.
Having already chilled the tartlet dough, I will prick the crust bottoms with fork tines before baking at 350 degrees.
In the spirit of full disclosure, my recipe analysis is shortened this week because my tarts were “shanghaied and decorated” a little too quickly!
Morals of this Picture: 1)The Cook should never nap while the tarts are cooling. 2)Perhaps Reddiwip shoud NOT be a refrigerator staple.
Last week you may have noticed there was no French Fridays with Dorie Post. My version of the chosen recipe, Quatre-Quarts, a delicious, one-layer, plain-and-simple cake, flopped. It was un désastre. While I have no problem embarrassing myself, and do it often, why do that to Dorie Greenspan?
Let’s just say that you cannot forget to include sugar in this recipe, then, try to add it to the batter as the pan is headed into the oven, stir frantically, and expect to get a good result. If you want to see the successes of other Dorista’s who did include the sugar, according to Greenspan’s instructions, check out:
If you’d like to pull on an apron and jump into an international, group-cooking adventure, here’s your small window of opportunity. Now is the time to register for “Tuesdays with Dorie” which kicks off February 1st. This group is going to whip, knead and sift through the recipes, methods and techniques in “Baking with Julia”, a cookbook written by Greenspan in 1996, in collaboration with and based on the memorable PBS Series hosted by Julia Child.
TUESDAYS WITH DORIE, Baking with Julia
As of today, 210 bakers have registered to join in this on-line recipe romp – a group living throughout the United States, eleven countries and six continents. Hey, Antarctica, we need you! The range: a myriad of ages, professionals and amateurs, bloggers and bakers. While channeling Paula Deen and ever conscious that “baking” does translate into extra, unwanted calories, this group will only bake twice a month. Remember, Julia was all about moderation and portion control. She never deprived herself of enjoying good food.
(UPDATE: Wednesday, January 25: Laurie and Jules, the two women monitoring “Tuesdays with Dorie” just gave me this update: ” So now we are up to 258 blogs with about 270 bakers. We’re still missing folks from nine states (DE, KS, MI, MT, NE, NM, ND, WV, and WY). Countries with bakers outside the US include Australia, Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Canada, Philippines, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Austria, and India! Our youngest baker (that I know of) is nine. Our first recipe posts in two weeks!”
If you wish to be invited into Greenspan’s kitchen, and, lets hear it from the nine states that aren’t represented, go to: http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/
My Love Fest with French Fridays with Dorie
Last May, when I joined FFWD, my on-line group cooking its way through Greenspan’s newest recipe book, “Around my French Table”, I held no expectations. Since I had been doing little cooking and no entertaining for the previous six to seven years and never really adjusted to eating alone, I realized my culinary skills were rusty and my cookbooks, dusty. In other words, joining a cooking group with a weekly purpose would, possibly, “force my issues”.
Whether being force-fed or spoon-fed, a little of both, I think, this nine- month instructive food feast rates 5-stars from me. After reviewing Basics 101, replenishing my ingredient staples and supplies and purchasing new pots ‘n pans, I am remembering everything I love about kitchen living.
More importantly, each week I also must plan who, what, where, when and how, this food is going to be eaten. If it’s Thursday and I’m knocking at my neighbor’s door, they know it’s food. When I invite friends to share supper, odds are, it’s a “Dorie recipe”. When I’m at Trader Joe’s looking for “weird” ingredients, they realize it’s almost Friday. To their credit and my benefit, my friends have become culinary critics. My shoulders are broad!
An unimagined bonus has been my simpatico with other Dorista’s throughout the world, most of whom write blogs. Because we cannot post until 12:00am, (PST, for me) on Friday, it’s the Australian bloggers who post first, followed by an international roll-out of the week’s recipe. Readers, you cannot imagine the cuisine creativity, innovativeness and ambition in the food blogosphere. These cooks, unlike me, are always tweaking and twisting Greenspan’s recipes into something even more delicious or nutritious or less-fattening. We all comment, suggest, help and encourage each other. Ideas. Light-bulb moments. FFWD has it all.
