Les Whoopies page 200

I had never heard of this cookie/cake before this blog.  I was not sure if I would bake it since I do not have a whoopie pie pan and did not want to add a new mold to my stash that I might never use again (I have a few of those).

So I was happy to read that a special pie pan was not necessary.  I used my 2 tsp cookie scoop and as you can see they did spread in the oven.

 

 

 

I did not have any peanut butter on hand so I did the Bonne Idée on page 203 and made the salted caramel filling on page 436.

Note to self read the whole recipe before starting and don’t assume, know.  I somehow got it in my head that it was the same method as to making  the salted caramel sauce on page 447 and did the sauce method but was a bit surprised at the amount of butter and dumped all the butter in the pan.  So there was no piping it was so runny and I was impatient and did not wait for it to cool down.

 

So this is my version of a whoopie.  They are very delicious and I put some of them in the freezer in case I make the peanut butter filling.

Lentil salad with goat cheese and walnuts p. 233

I love lentils and I have made the lentil salad from Dorie’s book many times.  I brought back a bag of puy lentils from France last summer as we do not have this kind in the stores here.  We do not have goat cheese available in our store, only in a specialty stores.  This was the only kind they had:

It was very good.  I could not find any good carrots so I did not use them and I only had yellow onion.   All the same the salad looks and tasted great.  Full of iron and good vitamins.

Streusal-Topped Rhubarb Lime Tart p 160

I got fresh rhubarb from my friend’s house, the one in my garden is too small and I only have like one plant.  My friend came over and we had this great tart together.

I made the tart shell a few days before I assembled the tart and I put it in the freezer.  I was a bit skeptical when I read that the tart shell would be baked for close to an hour and a half.  As it turned out it was not a problem.

I also got a  visit from my sister and her family so all together we were 12 eating the tart and needless to say there was nothing left.  In my opinion this tart is too time consuming.  I liked the  Rhubarb Upside Down Brown Sugar Cake on pages 24-25 better.

 

Hummus page 60

 

This was an easy make since I used canned chick peas.  It only took about 20 min.  Everything in the food processor and voilá.

I had to add more liquid and added some very cold water, water from the can and a bit more lemon juice.  If I were to do this again I would add more tahini and more lemon juice, I found this to be a bit blend.

Black and White Marbled Madeleines page 215

This was not hard to make but I was put off with the one hour chilling time.  I could not eye ball the amount of dough per mold so the last madeleines had more chocolate than the first ones.  Not a problem.  As can be seen for the first photo I was a bit messy.  They were just lovely, my DH prefers them with only butter and vanilla but I like the variety.

 

Pistachio and berry gratins, page 345

This was an easy one.  I used fresh blue berries and a few strawberries.  I´m sure you can use frozen as well since it is a gratin.

I used a 9 inch baking dish since I do not have gratin dishes for 5 people only 3.

I served this dish warm and the verdict was:  “This is like eating warm jam”.  I served it the day after cold and still the verdict was this is like jam.  I liked it, but will not be making it again.

Multigrain bread page 241

I love making bread but it is so time consuming that I never give me time. Another reason I do not make my own bread: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/reykjavik-bakeries-iceland/.  I go to Brauð og Co if I´m not going to my local bakery.

 

I bought a salad blend and used it in the bread I did not bother with buying all the stuff David recommended.  To me this bread was too dry probably because I did not use bread flour but all purpose flour and whole flour.  This is the first time I use a starter and like in the no knead bread David uses so little of dry yeast, I really like that.