Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Berry Yogurt Cake
June 16, 2026 at 3:13 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 Comments
Tags: baking, cake
A yogurt cake is a classic French home dessert, so it’s no wonder that, as a part-time Parisian, Dorie has made it a classic dessert of hers as well. Mixed by hand and infinitely adaptable in terms of flavor, it’s a true anytime cake. I think we’ve made at least a few versions by this point in our bake-alongs, but this one– a Berry Yogurt Cake– is particularly suited for summer, when fresh berries are at their peak.
In the cake, I used a combo of the sweet local strawberries that are at the farmers’ markets here now, and the always-in-season frozen blueberries I keep around for my post-workout smoothies. I have a packet of raspberry juice powder that I used to make a fruity, pink glaze. The batter has almond and vanilla extracts plus rose water for an intriguing background flavor. Greek yogurt, oil, and of course those juicy berries keep it moist for days, even if you have to store it in the fridge.
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Tea and Honey Madeleines
June 9, 2026 at 8:24 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, cookies & bars, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 Comments
Tags: baking, cookies
Dorie has lots of good ideas up her sleeves for madeleines, and these Tea and Honey Madeleines are another creative twist on the classic shell-shaped cookie-cakes. Of course we think of dipping our madeleines into tea, but these have the tea built right in. The melted butter in the batter is both browned and infused with Earl Grey tea leaves. A bit of zest further amps up the citrusy notes, and I happened to have some bergamot zest in the freezer (once in a while my little local fancy grocery gets a box of them in), so I used a pinch of that.
When I pulled my mads out of the oven, I was pleased to see the signature humps popping out of the pan, but then my smugness immediately tuned to worry that they were too dark on the shell side. The ups and downs of baking, am I right? In fact, they are perfectly soft, rich and cakey inside, so maybe it was just all that browned tea-butter making them so golden. They are very fragrant and flecked with bits of tea leaf…there’s only one left, so I probably should have made a full batch.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Gemma Cakes
May 19, 2026 at 5:13 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, cupcakes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 7 Comments
Tags: baking, cake
If Dorie Greenspan is your grandma, then it’s a just given that you’re going to get good birthday cakes. I mean, it’s basically your birthright. Thankfully Dorie keeps no secrets (at least not in the food world anyway), so the rest of us, too, can have Gemma Cakes at our next birthday party, even if we have to bake them ourselves. Don’t forget the sprinkles.
What are Gemma Cakes? They are tiny little cupcakes, originally made for Dorie’s first granddaughter, scented with rosewater and glazed with white chocolate…very girlie and very good. There’s also melted white chocolate stirred in to the batter to make a luxuriously plush baby cake. The chocolate, along with a little surprise chunk of fresh strawberry hiding in the middle of each, means no dried out mini muffins here. Not that they will have a chance to stale…you will definitely want a few of these, especially if you are older than one year.
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Olive-Oil Brownies
May 12, 2026 at 2:31 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 Comments
Tags: baking, brownies, cookies
Doesn’t matter how many batches of brownies we’ve made before, they are always a fun bake. It helps that there seems to be an infinite number of twists on the classic. These Olive-Oil Brownies (what’s with that hyphen?) swap out the melted butter for EVOO and add in black pepper and some dried fruit.
You can tell these are a bit different. For starters, they taste less sweet than typical brownies, maybe even slightly savory, likely due to a peppery oil plus actual pepper. Along with the dried fruit bits (I used cherries), this makes for a brownie that I think could hold up to a wine pairing, instead of just a glass of milk. They seemed a little dry on the top, but the inside kept a bit of fudginess. These were nice to try, although I’ll probably go back to a more standard recipe next time.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Meringue Snackers
April 28, 2026 at 9:09 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, general pastry, groups, other sweet, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 Comments
Tags: baking, cookies
Meringue “Snackers” is a funny name. I mean, I do like meringues, but it would never cross my mind to have one as a snack. Kind of like eating air. These big, swirly puffs are pretty to look at though. And you can do lots of things with them…even though I didn’t shape them into pavlovas, I’ll still probably take them from snacks to full-fledged dessert with some berries and cream.
I have some bright pink “raspberry juice powder” that I impulse bought not long ago, and thought I could fold some through the meringue to create a kind of rippled look. Well, that effect was totally lost, so I hit them with some extra powder when they came out of the oven. The powder is tart, so it plays off the meringue’s sugariness well. While I had these in the oven, I was also baking off some of the meringue as small disks to make the Little Marvels I skipped last summer. The two shapes bake and dry at different rates so I was doing a bit of oven juggle and who knows how long these were actually in there for. I took my snackers out when they felt firm, were a bit cracked and peeled off the parchment with no problem. They never got completely dry inside, so they have some chew in the middle, but do I think that’s nicer than a hard meringue.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Maybe-This, Maybe-That Ham and Cheese Loaf
April 22, 2026 at 4:20 pm | Posted in breakfast things, DAC, groups, muffins/quick breads, quick breads, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 Comments
Tags: baking, cake
I’m glad that Dorie was so generous with her headnote suggestions for playing around with this Maybe-This, Maybe-That Ham and Cheese Loaf, because mine was more of a Definitely-Not-This, Definitely-Not-That Loaf. There are lots of add-ins stirred through the batter of this easy savory loaf cake, but the only two from the recipe I actually had on hand were the mozz and parm. What can I say? It was a rainy day and I just wanted to make this without going to the store, so I raided the fridge for swaps. I used Comté as my third cheese, fried turkey bacon bits instead of ham, chopped parsley instead of the other herbs and a mix of sun-dried tomatoes and green olives for the roasted peppers. And guess what– it was delish! Super savory with a golden cheesy crumb and a great crust. We had a couple of pieces with salad, but a future slice will definitely be served with a glass of white wine.
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Apricot and Pistachio-Olive Oil Cake
April 14, 2026 at 7:17 pm | Posted in BWD, cakes & tortes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 Comments
Tags: baking, cake
This Apricot and Pistachio-Olive Oil Cake is loaded with fragrant flavors of the Mediterranean. I added Dorie’s suggested pinch of saffron to the batter, which, combined with orange zest and olive oil, gave it a sunny yellow color. The baked cake gets sliced in half to make two layers, and the cross section was truly fantastic. That yellow cake studded with orange apricot bits and bright green Sicilian pistachios– I should have photo’ed it. Some apricot jam is spread between the layers and on top of the cake, along with an extra tumble of chopped pistachios. This one’s great with tea or coffee and it stays moist thanks to EVOO, butter and Greek yogurt in the batter (not to mention it’s sort of sealed with jam).
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan yet, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Brioche Sticky Buns
March 31, 2026 at 11:00 am | Posted in breakfast things, BWD, general pastry, groups, other sweet, sweet yeast breads, tuesdays with dorie | 3 Comments
Tags: baking, bread
I’d like to be that person who wakes up at 5:30 on a Sunday morning to bake off Brioche Sticky Buns before the sun comes up, but, even when I worked in bakeries, I am absolutely not that person. In my house, morning pastries are eaten for dessert, unless there are leftovers. I recommend planning for leftovers with these, because they sure are good with a cup of coffee.
These sticky buns are a two-day affair, the first day dedicated to making Dorie’s brioche dough, and the second day to assembling, proofing and baking. I feel like we’ve made her brioche dough a zillion times now, and indeed in the course of TWD history, we’ve even made sticky buns with it twice before. These have a cinnamon-sugar filling and a brown sugar caramel topping. Warm from the oven, they are soft and buttery and gooey. I did make a scaled back batch, but was sure to have a couple leftover to warm up for the next day’s coffee treat.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Banana Cappuccino Cake
March 17, 2026 at 10:00 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 Comments
Tags: baking, cake
My normal coffee shop order is a bit boring– a cortado with regular milk, or basically a baby cappuccino. My fantasy order, however, is a grande mocha topped with a mountain of whipped cream. Alas, I must pick and choose my daily sugar battles, and if there’s gonna be cake at home, I’ll just stick with the boring coffee order. But maybe with cake I can actually have it all, by turning a Banana Cappuccino Cake into a Mochaccino one.
Dorie takes an easy banana cake and adds espresso powder and coconut to play up the tropical feel. Almost a year ago(!), we baked A Big Banana Cake, and looking at the ingredient list, I thought it could use some baking powder. This cake recipe is very similar, and I wish I had thought to add baking powder here, too. My only quibble with the cake is that was a bit dense, and maybe a little extra leavening would have given it some more height and fluff. I’ll note it in my book in case future Steph makes it again.
I had some chocolate frosting in the freezer leftover from the Devil’s Food Party Cake we made back in the fall. It wasn’t much– really just enough to frost a single layer cake. Since Dorie employed the “what grows together goes together” flavor philosophy with her banana-coconut-cinnamon combo, I figured why not add chocolate to that list. I needed to rewhip the buttercream after it defrosted, so I took that opportunity to bring it more in line with the frosting in the recipe. I added in a shake of espresso powder, a dash of cinnamon and a little knob of cream cheese. Hard to go wrong with all these flavors together, I must say. The espresso taste didn’t come through much in the cake itself, but in the frosting it was definitely there, giving me my mocha vibes.
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
March 10, 2026 at 7:33 pm | Posted in BWD, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 Comments
Tags: baking, cookies
We’ve made lots of Dorie’s chocolate chip cookies over the years. Some have oats, some have peanut butter, some have spices and seeds, some have a shortbread base, some are baked in a skillet. But these are her Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies, ones she describes as jazzed-up Toll House Cookies. Sounds like something I want in my cookie tin.
As classic as these cookies are, in her headnote, she encourages us to play around with them a bit. I know how I like my CCCs, so I subbed about 25% of the AP flour in the dough with whole wheat pastry flour and added a sprinkle of flaky salt just before baking. They did spread quite a lot in the oven, so I also gave them the “cookie scoot” while still hot. I love this trick and I use it a lot. Not only does it round-out misshapen cookies, but it kind of compress them a bit, making for a thicker edge and chewier texture. I did choose to use the optional toasted walnuts in these, but the focus here is on a lot of chopped chocolate. Everyone I shared them with liked them, so maybe I’ve found my own personal classic.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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