French Fridays with Dorie - quartre-quarts

Only one picture this week.  That's because this fairly simple and incredibly yummy cake disappeared before I could click the camera twice!  While I was making this cake (quartre-quarts means 4/4 and the cake is based on equal measurements of eggs, flour, sugar and butter), I thought it was going to be a little plain...so I was going to make a blueberry compote to go on top.  But, I was making Sunday dinner and completely forgot to make the compote.  Good thing, because this little baby is terrific all by itself.  I did use rum instead of vanilla, as Dorie suggests.  I think that made all the difference.

If you are looking to make a simple cake with ingredients you always have on hand...look no further.  To see if any of my fellow Doristas modified this recipe, take a look here.

French Fridays with Dorie - m. jacques' armagnac chicken

This week's Dorie recipe is a total winner!  We had this for our Sunday dinner with the whole crew, so I had to cook two chickens.  Let's just say, I should have cooked three!  Everyone loved the flavor of the chicken and the vegetables (personally, I think the onions and carrots for absolutely amazing!)  I didn't get any great pictures as I was rushing a bit to get dinner on the table.  The chickens took a little longer since I put two in my giant le creuset pot.  Oh well, they were so worth the wait.  I used brandy instead of Armagnac as I am on a food budget and trying to use things I already have instead of buying new single use ingredients.  Tasted amazing...don't think it made too much of a difference.  I also served stuffing from Thanksgiving (we had so much left, I froze a bunch...oh my gosh...it was so much better than on Thanksgiving...our new secret is going to be to make it a month ahead of time & freeze it.)  I also made my wonderful no-knead bread.  Every one's happy when I put a loaf of this fabulous bread on the table.  All in all, it was a really terrific dinner.

Wondering if everyone else in FFWD loved this as much as we did?  Check out their posts here.

French Fridays with Dorie - bubble top brioche rolls

A new year...a time for a little reflection and a lot of looking forward.  Many of us will be starting new eating and exercise plans.  For those of us who are, this week's recipe from Dorie really won't fit into your plans.  Unless you are on the eat as much delicious bread as you possibly can plan.  Which I am.  Lucky me.  And lucky for my family.

The dough for this recipe takes a bit of time.  Certainly glad I read the recipe early on, so that I would know it would take two days to make this, with active interaction on my part for the first day.  All that rising and slapping down.  I had to stay up late to get this dough beat into submission, but it finally stopped rising...allowing me to go to sleep.

As I was making the dough, I gave it a little taste.  I don't typically eat bread dough, given that it's usually just yeast and flour and water and salt.  But this dough....this dough had eggs and butter and a bit of sugar.  I knew the dough would be good...and it was...and I hoped it was a harbinger of things to come!

Alas, I hate to say it.  Our bread was not fabulous.  It wasn't even that great.  It looked & smelled great and the texture was perfect.  The taste, not so much.  We were all quite disappointed.  I was expecting a yeasty sweet flavor.  I got kind of blah.  What a bummer.  In addition to rolls, I also made a loaf.  I plan on making one of Dorie's other recipes that calls for brioche with it.  We'll see how that goes.  See if my fellow Doristas had better luck this week.