Tuesdays With Dorie

Today marks my debut with the Tuesdays With Dorie group. For those of you who are not familiar with the "Dorie" in question - it's Dorie Greenspan - pastry chef/cookbook author extrodinaire. Dorie is an American gal living half the year in the US and the other half in Paris. Dorie came out with a baking book a few years ago called "Baking From My Home to Yours" and what a book it is. It is chock full of over 300 recipes with lots of colour photos , clear instructions and lots of personal stories that make the reader feel like they're having a good friend over for some coffee and baking. A few women got together on the net and decided to work through the book, recipe by recipe and discuss their results. It's a fun group and the different interpretations of one recipe are seemingly endless. Dorie herself has made herself available for questions, checks in the progress and has made some helpful tips. Which I think is really neat. I have loved Dorie's cookbooks since she wrote "Baking With Julia" with none other than the late, great, Julia Child. She has worked with the phenomenal Pierre Herme on 2 of his brilliant cookbooks available in English and has authored other books, articles etc. etc...She is a very busy, in demand woman - but can still find time to help Jane average with her baking. Amazing Indeed!

Anywho - this weeks' recipe is for the chocolate gingerbread cake. (As a group policy we don't print the recipe since we're going through the whole book and you wouldn't have to buy it because it would be provided free to you online which is not a really great way to thank an author. So I would suggest you buy the book - there are really an amazing array of recipes and I can assure it's money well-spent.)

The recipe is very simple and easy to put together. Dorie suggests a 9x9 inch square pan to fit the whole recipe in and you'd think that with the 4 million pans I own, I would have such a thing - but NO. So I used my favourite silicone Le Cruset pans:

I got over 18 little cakes and I think they are a nice size. One is a perfect serving, and when you scarf your second, it doesn't seem too bad, but by the 3rd, well, maybe you're pushing it. But if you spread it out over a day....

Bake the cakes and let them cool.

Make a super shiny, not too sweet chocolate glaze - that's got a bit of coffee, some butter and confectioner's sugar dip them in.

Put on a pretty plate and devour!

I love ginger and chocolate together, especially when there is fresh, ground and candied in the recipe. It was an exceptionally easy, quick recipe to throw together and had a nice depth of flavour. I would make it again.

PS: I'm an idiot - the person who chooses the recipe for the week, posts that recipe on their website. You can find this recipe on here: http://sherrytrifle-lovelycats.blogspot.com/ from Heather, at Sherry Trifle.