She was also the person who made me start baking. I met her at a discussion at the American Library in Paris. To be honest, I was there because of David Lebovitz, in the first place. I was exhausting his blog (and his book on Paris that came out just when I was working in Paris for some month) and already a huge fan of his tips&hints, but also his recipes. I never really did bake or prepare sweets before but with David I started icecream-making (today, one of the few things I dare to say I master really well, even though I still have no ice-making machine). But when I heard Dorie at this event I was amazed by her and had to ask her for an autograph later on. And I asked her about this strange group I somewhere did read about, maybe on David's blog. She encouraged me to try baking and join the group as a good start. How could I not? She was so kind and endearing - everybody would have immediately bought the book and started baking right away!
I met her once again, because when I did visit a friend over in the States, almost two years ago, I just arrived the last day the pop-up cookie-store in NYC sold the fabulous Greenspan&Greenspan-cookies. What a treat! I came to the store, straight from the airport. Must have looked more than curious, some tired looking woman in jeans, hoodie sweater, sneakers and a huge suitcase, running down 5th avenue just do get some cookies...
I tried my best to get this recipe right, as it is "Dorie's" recipe. Unfortunately, my dough was either too crumbly or too sticky, can't decide. It was to sticky to form balls, and too crumbly to keep the balls together. However, I liked the procedure because it was very much like schnitzel-making. Germans make them a bit different, but we Viennese people take the cutlet, put it in eggwhites, and afterwards in a deep dish filled with very fine crumbs. Very similar, isn't it? It was fun doing, and the results were excellent in taste - but as so often with me, not looking the way they should. The molds didn't keep their shape, so I had barely no cookies with molds big enough to fill.So, what I can give you are some cookies with a bit of orange marmelade and some with a bit of macadamia-cream and a lot of plain cookies. "Plain" is a slight understatement, because these fabulous cookies are made with peanutbutter - one of my all-time favourite ingredients.
Therefore, I was not dissappointed at all, although I wish I had managed to get just this last one recipe as perfect as Dorie would deserve it.
This, for sure, is the place to send out big thanks to all the people who initiated TWD, kept it alive and managed everything - a lot of work, done while having jobs, having children, having families. It is also the place to send out a lot of greetings and regards to all fellow bakers, who made such great treats week after week. And it is the place to send thanks to Dorie who gave us this amazing book, the first one with recipse I can handle! You can find the recipe for the "Kids' Thumbprints" on p. 163, or, I guess, on Dorie's page.Hope to see you all for the new book!
