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Today is Food Revolution Day, as put forward by Jamie Oliver in his continued quest to encourage people to practice their cooking skills and cook not just for themselves but for others. To quote the website, it is “a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills.”
For Doristas, it meant that this week’s assignment was an open-ended one. We were allowed to select whatever recipe we wished to make. All that was asked of us was that we “cook it, share it.” A wonderful idea, really, because one of the best parts of making anything homemade – bread, dessert, entree, whatever – is being able to share it with others. Most of what I make tends to only be shared with Geordie, but that’s where blogging about French Fridays comes in: I’m able to share it with anyone who stumbles across the post!
I’ve missed the last two Fridays in blogging only. I made the dishes, I just haven’t gotten around to writing about them yet. Still working on that. But this one I didn’t want to slip to the wayside. I knew straightaway that I was going to make a dessert of some kind, because desserts are so easy for Geordie to take the work, making them quite shareable, and one of the most shareable desserts I know of are cookies!
Specifically, cocoa sablés.
Remember the olive sablés we made a couple months ago? Well, these are a more traditional sablé, still with the sandy texture but this time flavored with dark cocoa. They’re not overly sweet, but they are a little decadent and I bet they would be delicious served as ice cream sandwiches (as Dorie herself suggests). They are also easy to make, and as I got about 40 from my batch, there are plenty of them for sharing!
I’m afraid I didn’t take many pictures of the process, but it really wasn’t necessary. This is cookie-making at its most basic – and, in my opinion, good cookies are almost always simple and basic.
Butter and sugar are creamed together. Vanilla is added. In goes a mixture of flour, cocoa, and salt. I decided to add in the optional chopped chocolate bits. And thus, the mixing is done. It took me longer to chop the chocolate than it did to mix all the ingredients together.
But now we must wait. The dough is divided into two parts, and each part is rolled into a log and wrapped in plastic. They must sit in the fridge for three hours, thus delaying our chocolate fix.
But that’s okay! My logs went into the fridge around 3:30; by the time dinner was over at 7, they were more than ready to be sliced and baked. After 15 minutes, Geordie and I had a lovely, chocolaty after-dinner treat.
These sablés are very rich. They go down much easier with some milk! As Geordie said, they’re terrific as a dessert – as a slightly sweet closing to a meal – but maybe a little jarring as a snack. As a cookie, I really enjoyed both making them and eating them. I intend to try the basic butter sablé in the near future, because I am finding that I really, really like sablés. I’m pretty sure they’re now my favorite cookies.
Geordie took most of the cocoa sablés to work today – and brought home zero. Yay! Success!
As I said, most of what I make is shared only with Geordie, and that is especially true with the French Friday assignments. It was really nice to send him off to work with these beautiful, delicious cookies. Homemade cookies were made for sharing!
I hope to be able to be a little more involved with the Food Revolution next year. Right now, I’m still not feeling up to cooking as much as I was before. I do what I can, but often, I’m either too tired or just not interested in what I had planned to cook. Raw vegetables still make me queasy. Once they’re cooked, I’m fine! But I have to get them cooked first. I’m hoping I get over that soon.
Anyway, this week’s FFwD assignment was a lot of fun, and because we got to choose our recipes, the Doristas went all out and picked some really good ones! Check out the links to hear their stories and see their delicious dishes.
Happy cooking!
I totally intended to cook more for my in-laws while they were visiting, but between my sleepiness and our busy schedule of enjoying meals at San Antonio restaurants, I didn’t do much cooking. In fact, I made two meals (one of which the in-laws did not eat because they were out that evening playing a gig with old friends), two loaves of bread machine bread, and a pie. Oh, and some granola. Not the most exciting week, cooking-wise!
Monday
Spinach and Ricotta Pizza (from Cooking Season by Season)
My mother-in-law maintains a mostly vegetarian/vegan diet, so I tried to plan meals for the week accordingly (even though I didn’t actually use most of them, ah well). This one was extremely easy to throw together, especially since I already had the pizza dough defrosted and ready to go. Making the spinach was a bit of work, but it was worth it. The pizza isn’t very filling by itself, but my mother-in-law whipped up some guacamole and then sauteed some asparagus I had sitting in the fridge, and that rounded out the meal nicely.
Friday
Creamy Mushrooms and Eggs (from Around My French Table)
This was the week’s French Friday recipe, which I did not actually get around to making until Friday. I’m sure I will eventually get around to writing a post about it. In the meantime, I assure you that it was tasty. Certainly better than I thought it would be – and I had thought it would be pretty good anyway. Mushrooms are sauteed and then doused in cream. Lightly toasted brioche is placed on a plate and topped with scrambled eggs. (The original recipe called for poached eggs, which is how I prefer my eggs to be cooked. But, as we ended up using non-pasteurized eggs, we opted for scrambled. Not something I usually worry about, but no sense taking chances right now.) The creamed mushrooms are then spooned over the eggs, and that is that. A simple but delicious and irresistibly elegant meal. I could see us doing this for brunch on the weekends in the future. We both enjoyed it a great deal.
Saturday
Blueberry Cream Pie (from A Cozy Kitchen)
The 4th was Kentucky Derby day, one of my favorite days of the year. I had intended to make a Kentucky Hot Brown Tart (because hot browns are the best thing ever, but they definitely aren’t healthy!), but we had such a large lunch that none of us felt like eating much for dinner. So I made a pie instead. After all, I had the crust defrosted, I needed to do something with it! This is a simple pie that doesn’t require much effort. It just involves waiting. It’s a cold pie, so the crust needs to be pre-baked and then cooled completely. Then the filling is made and put in the crust, and that needs to chill. But once it’s done, it’s very tasty. It has lots of cream (heavy cream and cream cheese) but only three tablespoons of sugar, so it’s not overly sweet. Not exactly traditional for Derby Day but it turned out rather well.
I’ll confess: I made these today. Like, this morning.
This is not something I normally do for the Tuesday and Friday cooking assignments, but this past week – these past two weeks, really – have been a struggle as far as focus is concerned. Check out yesterday’s post, and you might understand why.
But I made them, I got them done. I still need something to occupy my time and my mind, and baking and cooking still seems like a pretty good way to do that. When I can, anyway – who knows what kind of food aversions may pop up in the next few weeks, but so far so good. There’s nothing in madeleines that seems likely to offend.
Okay, and now I’ll be honest: my madeleines were just okay.
I’m not sure how many madeleines I’ve actually eaten. Not many. I don’t remember anything about them, whether I liked them or not.
Really, the only thing I’ve ever known about madeleines is that they’re soft, kinda cake-y cookies that have their own little pan. Oh, and they’re French. Obviously.
That’s about it, really. Not only do I not know much about madeleines, I don’t have much to say about them. I know how to make them now, and I know that I don’t think they’re terrific. I liked the financiers I made last week better. Those had a more nuanced flavor, a hint of nuttiness that accompanied the egginess. They were way more interesting to eat.
Also, I think the baking time was off. My first batch burnt at seven minutes. I kept an eye on my second batch (pictured above) but they still got a little on the brown side. I realize they’re supposed to get a little browned, but probably not that browned. And I don’t think I was under-filling the cups, because the batter was almost overflowing when I spooned it into the molds. So, once again, this book and my oven don’t get along. This time around, however, it’s too much time; usually, it’s not enough.
I don’t know. It’s not that I dislike the madeleines – I did like them. But I didn’t love them. And I probably wouldn’t go to the trouble of making this recipe again. I’m wondering if I just need a different recipe. A lot of the recent recipes from Baking with Julia have been rather underwhelming for me lately. These didn’t do it for me. Maybe a different recipe would. Or maybe a variation on the recipe. I’ve seen flavored madeleines out there, and maybe that’s something I need to try. Because, by themselves?
Meh.
Maybe with coffee. I realize tea is more traditional, but I don’t drink tea, so it will have to be coffee. Maybe that’s what it’s missing.
Again, this might just be me. To see how the other Dorista bakers feel about these madeleines, check out the Tuesday with Dorie links, especially our hosts at Counter Dog, who made very lovely madeleines indeed. Don’t give up on madeleines on my account! I’ll give them another try in the future. Happy baking!
