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.
To see how others in the TWD baking battalion fared, visit http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/
Yes, the chocolate truffle journey…always good to have one in your tool belt! Good job.
This is my first TWD post as well and I must say, I think we picked a rather challenging, yet delicious, recipe! But I had so much fun making these tartlets and it’s been great reading through everyone’s experiences. See you next month!
Jess, I am a French Fridays with Dorie recruit ( http://www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com/) and I will share one of my best tips from being with those talented Doristas. Every week I read through their recipe comments and glean the tweaks, twists, variations and ideas that would most benefit me. I jot those notes into the recipe book page (yes, into Dorie’s recipe books, with pen) and, when I try the recipe again, it’s all “on the same page”, so to speak. I also date the chosen recipe, when we made it. Just a thought, one of Life’s simple measures……..
Good to see you here 🙂 And with the additional challenge of baking from the top of Mt. Everest… And we are not going to talk about the Redi Whip. My girls love that stuff & are very creative about sneaking it in – it’s a constant battle to keep it out of the house.
I’m right up there with you (well, age, not quite altitude). I teach baking here in Boulder, and will post suggestions on altitude adjustment (although yours will be a little more extreme)! Love your humor!
Oh, Wow, thank you. You are bookmarked, my dear. How lucky you are to live in Boulder. Good food. Innovative restaurants Long ago, I took the Series at the Cooking School of the Rockies. Frasca Food and Wine’s master sommelier Bobby Stuckey worked at Aspen’s Little Nell hotel prior to moving to Boulder. Our loss, your gain. I will be appreciative of any altitude assistance.
Nicely done!
Carmen
http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com
Brilliant idea to change out the tart recipe- I too found the truffle with choc. dough way too rich- and spoken from a true chocolate chick!