Tuesdays with Dorie: Linzer Sables

[recipe here]

I can't believe it's Tuesday already! Thanksgiving absolutely flew by. I had a great time visiting my parents, and I'll put up some pics and a simple recipe for cranberry sauce later this week! But now, it's all about Linzer Sables, this week's TWD recipe that was chosen by noskos of Living the Life.

These classic cookies turned out to be very tasty. Traditionally they're filled with blackcurrant jam, but I went with raspberry jam since that's what was in my grocery store ;) Dorie also suggested a ganache filling, which I definitely would have tried, but my 3" cookie cutter only gave me 14 cookie sandwiches to play with.

The recipe calls for finely chopped nuts, so I broke out the super fine almond flour that I keep in the freezer. The dough was spiced with cinnamon and cloves.





Dorie called for this dough to be rolled out to 1/4" thick, but I rolled it a little thinner based on reviews from the P&Q's.



It was a little hard to work with, especially when it got at all warm, so I had to keep putting it back in the fridge to chill.





As I said before, I got 14 sandwiches, 28 individual cookies. I took Dorie's suggestion and used a piping tip to cut the center peek-a-boo hole.



Fully baked cookie:



I also made a couple of tiny ones for us to taste, since we are giving most of these away.



Once the cookies were cool, I poured on the boiled and slightly cooled jam and water mix. My jam was maybe a little too thin and kept running everywhere... that's what I get for being impatient :-p



When I assembled them, the tops slid around a little bit, but eventually settled down into place.



They turned out to be very pretty! I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top, and set them in the fridge for a few minutes so the jam could set a little bit more.



I really liked the flavors in these cookies and I'm glad I stuck with the classic jam, but I know I would have liked chocolate or Nutella as filling too! Thanks for the pick, noskos — what a great way to kick off the holiday cookie season :) Now go check out the rest of the TWD blogs for their cookies!

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

[recipe here]

This week's TWD recipe is the perfect Thanksgiving compromise: pie with a pecan pie top half and a pumpkin pie bottom half. Vibi of La casserole carrée chose this recipe — thanks, Vibi, for picking a great one!!



We were allowed to post this one late if we made it for Thanksgiving, but since I'm traveling down to my parents' house this year, I wanted to finish it early. Well, that didn't exactly happen, because I was knocked out with the flu most of last week :( I had to hustle on Sunday and Monday night to complete it in time.

Even though it's not the best-looking dessert I've made, it was seriously delicious!! I went out on a limb and substituted white chocolate pieces for the pecans. I was anticipating some sort of melty disaster because of this, but the discs held together and tasted great.

I prepped the crust a day ahead, putting it into the pie pan and wrapping it for an overnight chill.



The crust is ready for par-baking with parchment and pie weights.



In retrospect, I should have used my other pie dish, because this one has no lip and the crust just shrank down the sides during the par-bake :( Lesson learned! I guess this dish will be for double-crusted pies in the future... or maybe I just need to roll a thicker crust!



My counter, all set up for the filling while the crust is in the oven. Um, excuse the mess... at least I totally separated the pumpkin and the pecan ingredients.



Pumpkin stuff and pecan stuff...



I used an immersion blender for the pumpkin half because, seriously, I wasn't about to clean the food processor twice for one recipe.



Finally, pie assembly time! First the pumpkin, then the white chocolate discs, then the sugary, gooey topping.




The pie just out of the oven was super puffy and smelled delicious! It sank down later to become its gooey, sweet, caramelized-top finished self.



This was a really delicious, gooey pie. The white chocolate ended up being a pretty subtle, but delicious, touch. The moisture just kind of oozed into the crust, so it wasn't really flaky at all — I guess I will use just a butter crust next time instead of adding the shortening, because the shortening didn't really do much. I ate it warm, but I'm definitely going to try another piece tomorrow after it chills... hm, maybe for breakfast ;) Thanks again, Vibi, for a great pick! Go and check out everyone else in the blogroll to see their creations.



And to everyone who celebrates, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

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