Double Tuesdays with Dorie!

Coconut Butter Thins

Well, I'm finally a member of Tuesdays with Dorie! For those of you who aren't sure what that means, we're an online group of bakers who are working our way through Dorie Greenspan's awesome cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours. This week's assignment was Coconut Butter Thins, a shortbread-type cookie full of lime zest, coconut, and macadamia nuts. Jayne, The Barefoot Kitchen Witch made this week's pick.

I made my dough day before yesterday and kept it in the fridge overnight. I really liked Dorie's suggestion of putting the dough in a big 'ol Ziploc bag and rolling it out. It worked like a charm! I made my cookies in two batches. The first batch was made last night at about 9:30...not prime time for cookie baking in my house! I made them from the dough straight out of the fridge. I felt pretty ridiculous measuring the cookies with a ruler (and I was made fun of by my husband), so I quickly let that go by the wayside and just went after them with a pizza cutter. I made about 15 from that batch, and I was concerned! I never got that lacy look that Dorie said we'd see, but they did get awfully brown! David and I had a couple after they cooled a little, and David said he really liked them. I was honestly underwhelmed, but wasn't too concerned because I put the remaining dough in the fridge for today. I got up this morning, preheated my oven, and got busy cutting more shortbread squares (sans ruler!). Eighteen minutes later...PERFECTION!

How about that! Little browning (like Dorie said!), minimal spreading. And they weren't crunchy like last night's cookies, so I liked these much better. They're no "World Peace Cookie," but pretty good all the same. These cookies came out of the oven at about 9:30 this morning, before I had breakfast. (Now is the perfect time for me to introduce you to someone...her name is Hogatha. She is my alter ego and loves to eat. Especially baked goods. Especially in obscene quantities. She makes regular appearances, but I try to beat her down by feeding her instead with fruits and vegetables and making her run 3 or 4 miles. She doesn't like it.) This is the breakfast that Hogatha wanted this morning:

She really wanted five Coconut Butter Thins and a big cup of coffee. Instead, she got a bowl of Honey Kix and a cup of coffee.

Black and White Banana Loaf

Here's where the "double" Tuesday with Dorie comes in! I had the day off today, had some pretty ripe bananas, and some rum. So I decided to make Dorie's Black and White Banana Loaf. YUM! The picture in the book looks incredible! For this recipe, I decided to do what Dorie suggests, and do the whole mise en place thing. It just means getting all your ingredients measured out and in one place before you begin. This is something I just don't do. Instead, I wander around my kitchen getting out ingredients and cursing the fact that I can't find the 1/2 cup measure. Then I wonder "how many cups of sugar did I put in?" and then cursing again the fact that I am one egg short. So today, I set everything up before I started. I quickly realized that this was A) taking a long time and B) making more dishes for me to hand wash. But as I moved easily (and without cursing even once!) through the recipe with everything right there at my fingertips, I realized I have been converted. Extra time and dishes to wash aside...mise en place is the place to be! Let's have a look-see:

I haven't cut into my beautiful Black and White Banana Loaf yet (because I'm waiting for David to get home), but I do have a picture of it 30 minutes into its 1 hour 30 minute baking time (right before tenting it with foil):

Pretty, huh? Once we dig in, I'll post a picture to show the (hopefully!) beautiful marbling inside!