Back in October 2021, we began baking our way through Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan. I’ve done this several books over now, and those first few months with a new one are a bit daunting, knowing that you’ll spend years making all the recipes, but maybe not quite comprehending how many years or how many recipes. Fast forward to today, almost exactly five years of Tuesdays and well over a hundred bakes later, and we’re closing the book with this Lisbon Chocolate Cake.

This cake has been tempting me from day one, as it’s the book’s cover girl. It’s Dorie’s recreation of a cake she had at Landeau Chocolate in Lisbon. I do love a rich chocolate cake, and this one, with a chocolate trifecta, doesn’t disappoint. It has a fudgy brownie-ish cake base, a creamy mousse-like whipped ganache topping and a heavy-handed dusting of cocoa powder (enough to make you cough) to finish. It’s easy enough to make and definitely fancy enough for a farewell party.

Sticking with this every (other) week is a real effort, but it’s a fun one, doing it as a group. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll to see all our last bakes from this book. Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple moves from my kitchen table to my bookshelf, but we bake on with Dorie’s Anytime Cakes.

With just one more official post till the end of TWD BWD, I am squeezing in my final Rewind recipe on an unsanctioned Tuesday. Now, after next week, I can say I’ve truly baked the whole book before BWD goes from the spot it’s occupied on my kitchen table for the past five years over to the bookshelf. This Twist Bread is a braided take on cinnamon-raisin bread, and I must say that it looks majestic! I wish I could updo my hair half as nicely as this.

After all the multi-day brioche-based recipes we’ve made lately, this bread was a breeze. It starts with the same dough as The Daily Bread: White Bread Edition, which is ready to go in one day instead of two. I replaced the cinnamon-cocoa-sugar filling that becomes the twirled swirl with some pumpkin spice spread that needed using up. It made the twisting and braiding process a bit goopy, but baked in nicely. I used kitchen tweezers to gently tuck any currants (which I used instead of raisins) that popped out of the dough during the final proof back into the twists, so they were less exposed to heat during baking. A benefit of posting late is getting to take the advice of other members, and I remember someone commenting about burned dried fruit.

I felt sad to cut into the beautiful braided bread, but it looks great inside, with ribbons of pumpkin spice spread and currants here and there. It’s soft and sweet and stays perfectly lovely for a few days on the counter. I did wrap half the loaf for the freezer, so I can experiment with French toast as Dorie suggests.

If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it. It’s worth it. Don’t forget to check out the TWD website and join Tuesdays with Dorie!

As a group, we may be only one bake away from finishing BWD, but as a lazy member, I still have a couple more to go. I can now scratch Cream Puffs with Crackle and Cream off my list. Choux pastry is one of my favorite things to make, so I don’t know what took me so long to get to these. In fact, profiteroles have a spot on my dessert top 5, so I was happy to take Dorie’s “Playing Around” suggestion and fill my crackly puffs with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I don’t normally go the extra mile with cream puffs and make the craquelin topping, but since it’s part of the recipe title, I felt I shouldn’t skip it. It’s easy enough, and I must admit the look is fantastic. I served my profiteroles with some strawberry sauce, and they were quite the 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!

Brioche month continues, and this time Dorie’s buttery dough takes a savory spin with Cheese-Swirl Babka Buns. Think cinnamon roll, but with a spiral of cheese! Actually cheeses (plural)- a smoosh up of ricotta, cream cheese, Parmesan and cheddar. Minced shallot and scallion greens break the creaminess a bit. More cheddar appears in the streusel topping, which tastes like Cheez-Its.

As usual, this brioche is a two-day affair, the first day dedicated to making and chilling the dough, and the second day to spiraling, proofing and baking the buns. I made just four buns, and they proofed and baked nicely in my 7″-square pan (which I know is a weird size, but I cut so many recipes in half that I’ve found it comes in handy quite often). The cheese spirals got a bit lost in the centers of the buns, where the cheese seemed to absorb into the bread. That center bit is usually the prize of a sticky bun or cinnamon roll, but no matter. These are rich and savory and especially yummy warm.

This is our second-to-last recipe from the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, which we have baking our way through since 2021. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!

Well, well. By including Bran-Berry Muffins in a book about cake, Dorie confirms what I’ve suspected all along: muffins are cake for breakfast. But this isn’t just any book about cakes, this is a book about “anytime cakes.” Applying logic similar to the transitive property of equality, I have concluded that these are “anytime muffins.” That’s baking math that works in my favor, as I usually have my muffins for dessert. There’s no way I’m getting up early enough to have them made in the morning.

These muffins were easy to make and didn’t leave a full sink of dishes. If you are a morning person, they are probably pretty do-able. They have whole wheat four, plus bran or germ, yogurt, honey and berries (I used frozen bloobs and raspberries), so I guess we can say they are pretty breakfasty. But they’re also sweet enough that nobody complained when I plated them up after dinner.

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!

I feel like we’ve made Dorie’s brioche dough a zillion times now. Just from the pages of Baking with Dorie, we’ve used it for buns (both sticky and sandwich) and we’ve used it for babka (both chocolate and cheese). What we haven’t used it for, until now, is just a plain loaf of Brioche. Is it fair to call a loaf of brioche plain, though? It’s buttery and sweet and just “plain” irresistible straight out of the oven.

This brioche is a two-day affair, the first day dedicated to making and chilling the dough, and the second day to shaping, proofing and baking the loaf. I shaped mine as a pull-apart, as per Dorie’s “Playing Around” suggestion. Tearing off a warm brioche bubble and slathering it with salty butter and jam is one of life’s true treats.

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!

There are I few “easy” pastry skills that I have yet to master. Marbling is one of them. I’m not mad at the way my Coconut-Milk-Chocolate Marble Cake looks, but you can see on the inside that it is more chunked than marbled. I guess that just means I get nice big pops of each flavor.

This loaf has one yellow cake batter taken two different ways: a chocolate way and a coconut way. I did a little tinkering with each to boost the flavors. I replaced a couple of tablespoons of butter in the cake batter with coconut oil. I mixed dark chocolate instead of milk into the chocolate half. I dripped some coconut extract into the other half and toasted the shredded coconut. I scooped alternating bloops of each flavor into my loaf pan and marbled (but not really, apparently) the whole thing. This is a nice moist cake with a favorite flavor combo.

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!

Biscotti are a favorite to have in my cookie tin. A recipe makes lots, but they keep forever and are perfect with the last few sips of morning coffee. If I didn’t know about the cornmeal in these Cocoa-Cornmeal Biscotti, I probably would never have guessed it’s in the mix. They taste chocolatey, not corny. But since I do know about the cornmeal, I’ll say it gives the biscotti a little extra crunch and craggle. I added a splash of almond extract to go along with the sliced almonds that stud the cookies.

Any other time of year, I would take Dorie up on her suggestion to dip or drizzle these in chocolate. It’s way too hot in my kitchen in the summer for that– even tempered chocolate would wind up a melty mess. I sprinkled my biscotti log with turbinado before baking as a consolation prize.

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. We are almost done with the book, but don’t let that stop you. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!

The final tart from BWD!! Sometimes the last one to be picked turns out to be a surprise superstar, like me on the elementary school kickball team, or like this Candied Almond Tart. This was pretty easy to make– a sweet, cinnamon-scented crust with a simple filling of sliced almonds coated in a quick caramel sauce. Once baked, the crust gets crisp and the filling gets pleasantly chewy. It made me think of a PAYDAY candy bar, with almonds instead of peanuts. I sprinkled a little flaky salt on top. The tart slices super nicely, and we found it’s best to just pick up your slice and eat it by hand…not the best manners, but cleaner and easier than using a fork. Last but not least, this was really good and it kept well for a few days.

This recipe is in Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll over on Tuesdays with Dorie!