Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (Baking with Dorie)

There's an unspoken rule about desserts in my household. It goes like this: Don't Serve Anything Without Chocolate.

I don't dare serve fruit desserts to my children for fear of being stoned. There is a certain truth to their arguments. When you're eating dessert, you want decadence. Richness. Amazingness.

I love fruit. Very much. But I'll admit that it is rarely decadent. So how did I get away with making this here crisp as a dessert? Simple. I made it on an ordinary weeknight, when the kids don't feel they are 'entitled' to dessert. (I NEVER serve dessert during the week with the exception of birthdays.)

With that mind-set, my children were the very willing consumers of this lovely crisp. And I learned that a fruit desserts is a great way to add some fun to an ordinary week!

Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp, adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
The original recipe calls for more sugar than this, but I found it overly sweet. My kids, on the other hand, were perfectly happy with the original quantities. Use a full cup of sugar in the filling (instead of 3/4) if you want a sweeter version. I also substituted pecans for the walnuts, and fresh grated ginger for crystallized and ground ginger. 

TOPPING AND CRUST
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 stick butter, melted

FILLING
5 stalks rhubarb, trimmed, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
3 cups (about 12 ounces) strawberries, hulled and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350*.

Now, make the topping and crust. Mix together all of the TOPPING AND CRUST  ingredients besides the butter. Add the melted butter and then use a fork to stir the ingredients will well combined.

Spoon half of the mixture into a round pie plate and pat it down to form a crust.

Next, make the filling. Spread the rhubarb over the crust in the pan. Dissolve the cornstarch in water and set it aside.

Combine the strawberries, sugar and ginger in a medium pot and heat gently, over medium-low heat. As it heats up, use a fork or potato masher to gently mash the berries and release some of their juices. When the mixture comes to a full boil, pour in the dissolved cornstarch and stir with a whisk while returning to a boil. Let the mixture cook for just a couple of minutes till it's thick and the cornstarch is well combined. Stir in the vanilla.

Pour the berry mixture over the rhubarb as evenly as you can. Scatter the remaining TOPPING AND CRUST mix evenly over the filling.

Bake for about an hour, until the topping is golden and the filling is bubbling. Cool for at least 15 minutes, or longer. (The crisp is also wonderful as leftovers. We enjoyed ours all week!)

Linking this up to Weekend Bloggy Reading, Yummy Mummy, Bizzy Bakes, Sweet Tooth Friday, and Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms.

Read my fellow bloggers' posts over at Baking with Dorie! 

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Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies (Baking with Dorie)

It's every cook's nightmare. You buy a whole bunch of lemons. You run into one recipe after another that calls for lemon zest. The first calls for the zest of one lemon. The second calls for a teaspoon of zest. The third calls for six strips of lemon rind.

But here's where it falls apart.

There is suddenly a shortage of recipes that call for lemon juice. All of the vinaigrettes are vinegar based. The kids have no interest in lemonade. So all the lemons are hanging out, stripped of their zest, naked and exposed, waiting to be juiced.

It is a sad state of affairs. Anyway, the bad news is that if you're looking for a lemon juice recipe, you've come to the wrong place. This is yet another lemon zest recipe that will do nothing to help with your unfortunate predicament.

But it's a really good one. Lemony and incredibly textured. It's from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook - Baking: From My Home to Yours. In Dorie's words, it has an 'appealing tickle-your-tongue roughness.' Couldn't have said it better myself.


Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies, adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
The original recipe doesn't call for dipping in chocolate, but my kids laugh at me when I serve a dessert that doesn't have some chocolate. I left a few of the cookies un-dipped for some of the more boring adult members of the family. But the chocolate dipped ones are so much prettier!


1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 sticks margarine, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1/8 teaspoon oil
Non-pareils (optional)

Stir the flour, corn starch, salt and cornmeal together in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and zest into the bowl of your stand mixer. User your fingers to rub the two together till your hands smell lovely and the sugar is nice and moist. Add the margarine and vanilla to the same mixing bowl and use the paddle attachment of your mixer to mix well, on medium speed, for 3-4 minutes, scraping down a couple of times.

Turn off the mixer and pour in the dry ingredients. Mix on low for a minute or less, just to combine the ingredients. Don't over-mix, you want the dry ingredients JUST incorporated.

Scrape the dough into a large (1-gallon size) ziploc bag. Before you zip the bag shut, put it on a flat surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin. You should end up with a 10x10 inch (or so) rectangle.

Seal the bag and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, and up to 2 days.

When you're ready to bake, line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350*.

Put the bag on a cutting board and use a serrated knife to slit it open. Turn the dough out onto the cutting board and discard the bag. Use a ruler to guide you, and cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Carefully prick each square with a fork so the fork goes all the way through to the cutting board.

Transfer the cookies to the baking sheets and place in the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 300* and bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes until just set.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave. Once it's melted, stir in the oil. Use a spoon or knife to smear the chocolate over half of each cookie. Before the chocolate has set, sprinkle some non-pareils over the cookies, if desired. Allow to set before eating.

Read my fellow bloggers' recipes over at Baking with Dorie! 

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Baking with Dorie: Brrrr-ownies

Have you ever tried working in the kitchen with a toddler? How about baking? Baking chocolate brownies with loads of sugar and chocolate? I did today, and it was fun. Crazy, but fun. 

This week's Baking with Dorie recipe was a perfect one to try with Baby Zipora because it was super easy. A one-bowl recipe, no electric mixer required.

And she was delighted to help. She mixed, chopped and tasted. She was especially good at tasting. 

This recipe's a real keeper. Chocolaty. Minty. And so easy even a two-year-old could make it.  

Brrrr-ownies, adapted from the recipe on page 103 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking
The original recipe calls for York Peppermint Pattie bites, but I wanted a non-dairy version so I used Paskesz Mint Thins. It also calls for a combination of bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate, which I didn't have on hand. I substituted chocolate chips and reduced the sugar. Guess what? The recipe came out just perfect. And it was in the oven in less than 10 minutes from when I started!


5 tablespoons margarine
6 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/3 cup flour
6 ounces York peppermint pattie bites, or 1 package Paskesz mint thins, chopped in bits


Preheat the oven to 325*. Line an 8-inch baking pan with foil and spray the foil with some Pam. 


Combine the margarine and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for a couple of minutes, till melted and smooth but not so hot that the margarine separates. 


Stir in the sugar (don't worry if it gets grainy). Whisk in the eggs, and then add the vanilla. Whisk for another minute or so.


Stir in the flour and the peppermint bits. 


Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth out the top. Bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack and cool to room temperature. 


Peel away the foil and cut into 16 squares. 

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