Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars - Tuesday with Dorie

Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars

Whew! I made it by 2 hours! I'm back with Tuesdays with Dorie. Oh, I lost a couple months due to the holidays and a full week of the flu...but I couldn't miss today! It's a bar with Rice Krispies on top!

These were super simple to make. A brown sugar shortbread is baked until golden brown. Then, you spread chopped chocolate (I used Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate block) on top and let it melt a bit. A quick spread of the chocolate creates a space for your cereal!

You can put a caramelized cereal topping too. Look at the book for this yummy option.

Tuesdays with Dorie doesn't publish the recipe. You should get Dorie's book: Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere (this recipe is on page 324)! I love all the recipes in the book and Dorie's kind words and encouragement. In this recipe, she says, "show it who's boss" referring the shortbread dough. Love it!

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and their take on this yummy recipe!

P.S. I love my 8 x 8 x 2 pan. It's by Magic Line/Parrish. The edges are perfectly square so you get sharp edges on brownies, cakes, etc. I have 8" and 9" square pans, as well as 9" x 13" rectangle pans too. And they are made in Los Angeles! (I've visited the factory store...here's a post about it)

Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake - Tuesdays with Dorie

Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake

It's time for Tuesdays with Dorie! I made this last month and work really enjoyed it. I'm pretty exhausted so this is going to be super short.

Tuesdays with Dorie group does not post the recipes as we want to support the great work of Dorie Greenspan so please purchase the book, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere and turn to page 6 for this fun recipe!

Brown butter is always nerve racking to make. Is it ready? Is it too far? What's that smell? Is that toasty or is that burnt?


This is supposed to be baked in a loaf pan, but I couldn't get to it. I tweeted a plea for help and professional baker and author @janeofmanytrade came to the rescue. She said I could use an 8" round. Thanks Alisa!

I didn't have a vanilla bean, so I used 2 teaspoons of both Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract and vanilla paste. Do you have the paste? I love it. More economical than getting vanilla beans and you get all the yummy flakes. I also skipped the alcohol (dark rum or amaretto).

I topped mine with some powdered sugar so it didn't look so plain.

I have a bunch of other stuff to post, and I hope to get to it next month (there are some good oatmeal scones coming up).

Good luck to Dorie Greenspan and all my friends on the East Coast as you get through this snowstorm!

See you next time,
Mary the Food Librarian

Granola Energy Bars - Tuesdays with Dorie / Baking Chez Moi

Granola Energy Bars

It's time for Tuesdays with Dorie! I missed December's recipes (two words: Mochi Day) but I hope to get back to them. It'll be fun to make a buche de noel in summertime! This week, it's Granola Energy Bars! These are super easy to make and I'm sure your kids would love helping you. Tuesdays with Dorie group does not post the recipes as we want to support the great work of Dorie Greenspan so please purchase the book, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere and turn to page 328 for this fun recipe!

These bars are very versatile and you can add your favorite dried fruits. I used dried blueberries, dried cranberries and dried apricots. I also skipped the coconut because it feels like dental floss (I like coconut flavored stuff but can't handle the strands).

  Luckily, I live near a Sprouts Market with the bulk bins so I was able to buy small bits of the ingredients needed: slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and dried fruits. It also carried the brown rice syrup. This is an easy substitute for melted marshmallows in a rice krispie treat; I've been wanting to try it, and Dorie gave me a perfect reason to pick up a bottle. After measuring out your ingredients, it is a simple mix together and bake. Easy peasy and enjoy! Happy New Year everyone! And to those in TWD, I made the next recipe too (what?! I know, new year's resolution to have a tad less procrastination...) and it was delicious!

See you soon, Mary the Food Librarian

P.S. If you didn't get this book for the holidays from Santa or your family, then buy it! You deserve to start the new year with awesome recipes. :)

Cranberry Crackle Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie - Baking Chez Moi

Cranberry Crackle Tart

This tart is the reason I love Tuesdays with Dorie.

It has meringue.

You might think I'm excited about the recipe because I love meringue.

But it's quite the opposite. I hate meringue. (It's this sweet, sticky cloud that gets in the way of the lemon filling in a lemon meringue pie). And that's why this group is awesomesauce.

Tuesdays with Dorie makes you bake things outside your taste and comfort zone. If you know me, you know my comfort zone is Bundt cakes, scones, muffins, and Jello. Never, ever meringue. But since this is Recipe #2 of Tuesdays with Dorie/Baking Chez Moi edition, it was time to settle in and get those eggs to room temperature to whisk, whisk, whisk!

By the way, I'm so excited to see so many friendly faces from the first round of Tuesdays with Dorie!! This is a fun baker's reunion! And I'm looking forward to meeting the new faces too! :)

First, you make sweet tart dough and put it into the tart shell or pie tin. Um, I seem to have moved my rolling pin someplace very very safe and secret...and can't seem to find it. So, garbanzo beans to the rescue! Yes, I was even too lazy to get out the step stool to grab the bottle of vodka on the top shelf of the cabinet!

Dorie reveals her new technique - that I LOVE. Instead of making the dough, forming into a disc and chilling it for a couple hours, THEN rolling it out (which is a pain because it is hard and cold).... Dorie now makes the dough, forms it into a disc and rolls it out between sheets of parchment paper while still soft! Brilliant! She does chill the dough in the pie or tart shell before baking or using it.

I made a 4" tart and a few mini tarts (I used 1/2 a recipe of sweet tart dough). I did make a two egg white meringue and tossed some of it because I know it is difficult to whip up just one egg white - at least two eggs work better.

A layer of jam is placed at the bottom of the shell and the meringue with cranberries it layered on top.

My tart shells got a little too brown, but they were tasty!


The tart bakes at 300 degrees for an hour (mine baked for less time because they were smaller).

I'm not sure if this is how the meringue is supposed to turn out. The crackle top was tasty, but, as I said before, not a fan of the meringue so I didn't care for the eggy middle. I did enjoy the added cranberries - that was a tart treat amid all that meringue.

The mini minis had very little eggy meringue inside and were mostly crackle crunch (so I liked them best!).

We aren't publishing the recipes on Tuesdays with Dorie...but this recipe happens to be online at The Splendid Table and on Dorie's website.

Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and their creations here!

Happy Thanksgiving! - mary the food librarian