On Dorie: Also for Christine

A million years ago, I promised Christine a review of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my home to yours. Actually, I just promised to explain what I like about it. Then, I decided I needed to write a review essay, then I made some notes in a document or blog-draft (which I have not bothered to try and locate), then this project-- blown out of proportion-- fell into the abyss.

So, now, let me declare quickly, simply, perhaps anecdotally, what I find so appealing about Dorie.

1) She's a great writer:

• "She stopped next to me for a second, asked if I was new and said, 'How chic-- a thin pastry chef.'" [This line echoes through my mind from time to time.]
  
• "I lost my job because of improvising on this cake, but I got to keep the recipe-- a trade-off I now consider ample."

2) She's a thoughtful crafter of recipes:

• "Don't be tempted to increase the amount of walnuts in the topping--scarcity makes them even more delightful."
• "Just keep in mind that the cookie layer is really a shortbread and, like all shortbread doughs, the less you work it once the flour is added, the more appealingly crumbly the texture will be."

3) Every recipe includes a sidebar with Serving and Storing blurbs. I find the latter to be tremendously helpful:

• "Storing: These are best served within 2 days of baking. If you're going to keep them at room temperature, just cut what you need and keep the remainder wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. To freeze for up to 2 months, wrap the brownies airtight."

4) Many of the recipe's sidebars also include a section entitled Playing Around. Greenspan is a serious baker and a serious teacher of baking, yet she fully embraces that play is integral to the kitchen and essential to building culinary knowledge. She offers a wonderful balance between the recipes of Bittman and Waters, which can be too sparse, too flexible, and recipes that are too rigidly fixed, too focused on preserving and reproducing the chef's product. Mind you, I find these two extremes appealing and useful, each in its own way. What I admire about Greenspan is her ability to stretch between these poles.

5) Audience, audience, audience or, summary of 1-4: she understands writing for an audience and does it brilliantly.

6) She's pleasantly idiosyncratic. She loves brownies and apples, and Baking includes a disproportionate number of recipes for each. I've read complaints about this, but it seems nice and human to me. A reminder that she has a particular perspective, a particular palate. Like most of us.

7) How chic-- a thin pastry chef!