TWD: Apple Cranberry Galette and Meeting Dorie Greenspan

                  (photo courtesy of Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs)

Last weekend Shane and I met his parents for lunch to celebrate his dad’s birthday.  They’d seen an article about Dorie Greenspan in their newspaper (The Standard Times, for you locals – the article is also online here) and thoughtfully, brought it to share with me.  Later, when we got home, I sat down to read the article, and really enjoyed it.  Dorie visited the author’s home and cooked a few recipes from her new book, Around My French Table, with her while they discussed Dorie’s background, her hopes for the new book and even our “little” baking group (Dorie had very kind words to share), among other things.  I definitely recommend checking the article out if you have a few minutes.

The thing that struck me most about the article, though, was the author’s comment about Dorie’s “humble, charming, sunny persona” – she couldn’t have been more spot-on.  Last week I was fortunate enough to meet Dorie at the lovely RJ Julia Bookstore in Madison, CT, where she spoke about life in Paris and read from the new cookbook.  Afterward she signed our books and chatted with each of us like we were old friends.  After reading the stories and baking the recipes from Baking: From My Home to Yours for years, I knew Dorie would be delightful, but her warmth and genuine happiness upon meeting each of us blew me away.  It was a real treat.

               Dorie made us delicious sable cookies!  
         (poor quality iPhone pic, but a favorite anyway)

Another highlight of the night was meeting Dorie’s delightful husband, Michael, as well as fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs, Audrey of Food From Books, Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet, and French Fridays with Dorie blogger Rebecca of Cooking Lucia Cara.  Lots of thanks to Nancy for being the driving force behind the trip to Madison, CT and to Mary for her hospitality.

Ok, finally, on to this week’s recipe, which was selected by Whitney, April and Elizabeth of Celestial Confections: cranberry lime galette.  I love galettes – they’re basically rustic, no-fuss pies.  When I read through this week’s recipe though, I was bit concerned about how tart it might be with fresh cranberries and lime juice and zest.  Early reports rolled in that the galette was delicious, but quite tart.  I didn’t want to sit out, nor did I have time to fuss with trying to sweeten up the recipe, so I just winged it with my own adaptation.  My filling consisted mostly of apples (Gala and Granny Smith), some dried cranberries, lemon juice and zest, brown sugar and some fresh ginger.  I used half of Dorie’s single crust pie dough recipe to make a mini galette, which I baked for about 30 minutes.  When it emerged from the oven I brushed the fruit with some of the leftover cranberry filling from last week’s shortbread cake (hence, the pinkish/red color) for more cranberry flavor as well as a bit of warmed apricot preserves for shine.

I loved the crust portion of the galette – Dorie’s pie dough recipe continues to be a favorite in the flavor category.  The filling was tasty- a nice combination of flavors, but a little dry.  Next time I might dot the fruit with butter before baking and see if that helps.  This time, though, a big scoop of french vanilla ice cream did the trick 🙂  Because the original recipe received such positive reviews I plan to make it soon too, I just need to find some tasters who will appreciate the tartness.  

Thanks to Whitney, April and Elizabeth for hosting this week!  They’ll share the recipe on their blog today or you can find it on pages 364-365 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.