Blue Cheese Bites | Baking with Dorie

The blue cheese bites are two-bite morsels which deliver a cheesy and fruity flavor. In Baking with Dorie, the suggested ingredients for the blue cheese bites are blue cheese and fresh figs. In addition, there are detailed lists of cheeses and fruits to choose from. Here is how Dorie explains it:

Use whatever blue cheese you like best or, if you’re not wild about blue, choose a soft goat or a flavorful cow’s milk cheese—a ripe, runny Brie works really well. My preference here is for the tender, mellow French blue Fourme d’Ambert, or a spoonable Gorgonzola dolce.

Figs are a treat, but not always easy to find and the good ones come around only in the fall. Use them if you can, but know that small cubes of fresh pears or moist plump dried apricot, cherries or prunes will be equally delicious with the olive oil and cheese.

Dorie Greenspan on blue cheese bites in Baking with Dorie, p302

It’s unusual for cookbook authors to give bakers the autonomy to choose almost any combinations of ingredients to use. Dorie must have done extensive recipe testing in order to offer us different options to play with — which I appreciate. In fact, Dorie has provided multiple recipes on this one page “blue cheese bites” writeup. Voila, the master recipe works, the cheese morsels set properly in the mini muffin tins. For this bake, my ingredient picks are brie and prune; they come together quite brilliantly!

Looking under the hood, the muffin batter is roughly equal parts of flour (102g), egg (2) and olive oil (110ml). The batter is quite thick since there is no liquid in it. All the batter ingredients (including sugar and seasonings) are stirred together by hand and leavened with baking powder (3/4 teaspoon for 102 grams of all-purpose flour). Lastly, gently fold in the flavor components of your choice: cheese (57g) and a few pieces of fruits, cut into small bits.

Plan ahead: the batter should be chilled for at least 2 hours. Then bake at 375°F for 10-13 minutes.

Tips: there are many similarities between this batter and that of java mini mads we made last month, in terms of the ratios, the method of mixing and the chilling. I wish I’ve generously buttered and prepped the muffin tins as much as I did for the madeleines. I say that because the cheese bites stick to the tins so much so that every cake needs some prying with a knife to release.

Baking with Dorie