TWD/DAC: Pears, Nuts and Rye, Oh My

 

January's cake from Dorie's Anytime Cakes features winter fruits and a delicious combination of flours:  spelt, rye, and hazelnut. The addition of honey and yogurt provide a hint of sweetness and tanginess.

I always have specialty flours in my freezer, and my biweekly produce box just happened to contain pears, so this was the perfect cake to make.  I did end up baking it for about 15 minutes longer to be sure the cake was cooked through.

 

Each piece was served with a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of honey.

 

To learn what the other bakers thought, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie website. 

    

TWD/BWD: World Peace Cookies 2.0

 

 

World Peace Cookies are one of my favorite cookies. Dorie has updated the flavor profile this time, adding in rye flour, cocoa nibs, freeze-dried raspberries, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.  I chose to make the original version this time, but I did update the formation process based on Dorie's recommendation featured in one of her newsletters.

Typically, after you form the dough into logs, you refrigerate or freeze them for several hours before cutting them into discs. The discs have a tendency to crumble with this method.

Here's the updated process:  after forming the dough into logs, freeze them for only 20-30 minutes before cutting them into 1/2-inch discs.  Then, freeze the individual discs, wrapping them well after they are frozen.  Bake as usual.  This eliminates the crumbly dough syndrome.  Plus, you have WPC on demand!

Also, after baking the discs, I immediately used a glass and rotated the cookies to give them a near-perfect round shape. This is definitely my go-to method now!

Check out the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see whether the bakers made the WPC or the loaf of bread.