TWD—It’s a Twofer: Mini Madeleines and Depths-of-Fall Butternut Squash Pie

 

Do those look mini to you?  They’re not.  I don’t have a mini madeleine pan, but decided to make the cookies in my regular madeleine pan anyway, I missed the week for TWD when they made the Traditional Madeleines (page 166).  The recipe for the minis turned out well.  I liked the lemon flavor.  The only thing I thought was that they needed to be a little sweeter.  So, I made a simple lemon glaze (with just fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar until it was the consistency I wanted).  Ah, better! ;) 

The recipe made about 16 regular sized madeleines.  The very last one was made with just a little bit of the remaining batter and turned out well as a mini.  It would have been fun and worked well to have made a bunch of them with the smaller size.  They were good either way.

A few of them, including the mini in the front there were baked more since it was smaller and was in the same pan as the rest of them, but I preferred the ones that were just slightly more crisp on the outside.

Want the recipe for these?  Di at Di's Kitchen Notebook will have the recipe on her blog. 

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Next up—Depths-of-Fall Butternut Squash Pie, chosen by Valerie whose blog is une Gamine dans la Cuisine.  She’ll have the recipe on her blog. 

I decided to only make half the recipe.  But how would I make half a pie?  I made a galette!

I used a different pie crust recipe instead of Dorie’s, which IS a good recipe and makes great crust.  I used this pate brisee recipe (basic pie dough) from Paige’s blog, A Cooking Life.   She gives a wonderful tutorial on how to make a perfect tender, flaky all butter pie crust.  I’ve made it many times, but now she has recently put a step-by-step on her blog that is so helpful and informative.  (Check it out.)

I made enough dough for one pie crust.  Knowing I was just make a smaller galette, and that Dorie’s pie has a top and a bottom, I knew this would be enough dough to almost completely cover it and I was happy with the way it turned out.  I thought the flavors in Dorie’s pie were interesting with butternut squash, pear, dried cranberries, cinnamon and nutmeg and walnuts.  I made the recipe just as it was written. 

 

Don’t get me wrong here.  I like the pie.  It’s good.  But I decided something while tasting it—I prefer squash in savory foods.  I think I would like pumpkin or maybe even sweet potatoes in this instead of the butternut squash.   Actually, what I really think would be best for this pie is just pears (or apples) and cranberries and walnuts.   So there. ;)

Check out Valerie’s gorgeous pie, especially if you want the recipe (linked above).

Tuesdays With Dorie is coming right down to the wire!

TWD—Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines

Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines were chosen for TWD this week by Margot from Effort to Deliciousness.

I’ve never made madeleines.  Have always thought they are pretty.  Decided to finally buy a pan.  It came a good week ago.  I just made the cookies Monday afternoon.

 

I have decided that I wish Dorie’s recipes would tell how many cookies a recipe should make.  Seems like I’ve wondered before on some other recipes in the book, Baking From My Home to Yours.  I also didn’t know with madeleines how much cookie dough/batter should go in each little mold.  So I used all the dough for 12, since the recipe says one pan. 

I think the molds were a little overfilled.  I think the recipe would make 16-18 cookies better than 12.  The cookies took 21 minutes until I decided they were done.  They came right out of the pan, which I did butter and flour well.  The cookies seem huge.

I followed the recipe exactly.  So these are fluff-filled, but you can’t really tell.  I tried to show the inside, but never did get a good picture of it.  But I will say this—these are mighty tasty.  They definitely need the ganache for that added kick. I think I would rather have them filled with ganache and dipped in it.  I drizzled a fun little S on the ganache with some melted white chocolate. 

You can get the recipe for these on Margot’s blog.  Check out the other TWD bakers' madeleines, too.