Revered American expert on French cooking, Dorie Greenspan, is on tour at the moment promoting her latest cookbook, entitled Baking Chez Moi. She stopped in Chicago over the weekend of November 8 and 9th and I was fortunate enough to hear her speak at an event with the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Several volunteers, me included, had baked recipes from the book for the audience to sample. The result was a generous sampling of homey French treats for the audience to nibble from green tea sablés to Alsatian-style cheesecake made with yogurt.

Gracious and disarming, Dorie Greenspan instantly charms everyone around her. Her first order of business when handed the microphone was to comment on the title of the event, “Paris Confidential: The Sinful Creations that French People Bake Behind Closed Doors.” Dorie pointed out that the French do not view dessert, especially pastries, as sinful, but rather one of the basic pleasures of life. As should we all.

A devoted Francophile, Dorie firmly believes that she was born on the wrong continent. If she had been born in Paris, as she believes she should have been, Dorie would not have had to buy a book on how to tie a scarf and she would be natural at walking down cobblestones in high heels, but she would not have learned to bake. That is because French people do not bake elaborate desserts at home; they buy them at pâtisseries. With shops filled with mouth-watering pastries on every corner of Paris, buying dessert for company must seem like a logical choice. Who can possibly compete with masters like Pierre Hermé and Gérard Mulot?

But it occurred to Dorie that for weeknights, when the French are home with their families, they cannot possibly spend upwards of 30 or 40 Euro on an elaborate pâtisserie dessert. Rather, there must be a whole category of secret desserts that the French bake for themselves at home. And it is those recipes that form the basis of Dorie Greenspan’s latest oeuvre, Baking Chez Moi: recipes for the simple, traditional desserts that the French bake for themselves.

When Dorie sent out to collect the recipes for this latest book, her French friends dismissed her queries. “You don’t want that recipe,” they would tell her. “It’s too simple.” It took begging and even groveling to extract these closely held family recipes from Dorie’s French friends and acquaintances. But what Dorie learned is that these desserts are simple yet wonderful. The book features recipes for things like basic loaf cakes — known as gâteaux voyages because they are perfect to take on a trip — financiers, and homey cookies like palmiers and sablés.

Dorie also recreated some traditional French classics, like crême caramel and even lesser-known regional French desserts, like the Tarte Tropizienne from St-Tropez and a gâteau Basque for this book. And much to her chagrin, her editors insisted that she include a recipe for macarons, the delicate, brightly colored almond-flour confections that are all the rage at the moment.  But even Dorie thinks you should just buy macarons. (I see pretty amazing macarons on offer at the Chicago Food Swap all the time, so they are clearly within reach of some home cooks.)

So if you want to bake like a true French maman or papa, Baking Chez Moi is the book for you. But because this is a book for American audiences, Dorie was very careful to test every recipe using American ingredients, like supermarket butter and all-purpose flour.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Francophile, I cannot wait to dig in to Baking Chez Moi. Having been fortunate enough to live with two different French families during my high school and college years, I know well the kind of homey yet delicious desserts that French mothers bake for their families, but until now have never been able to recreate them.

I have only made one recipe from Baking Chez Moi so far, but I have no hesitation about recommending it because I trust Dorie completely. My other Dorie Greenspan book, Around my French Table, is so well-loved and well-used that when I handed it to Dorie to sign, she chuckled before writing: “Emily, I’m so glad that you’re really using this book.”

And be sure to check the schedule for Dorie’s book tour to see if she will be coming to your city. It is well worth a trip to hear Dorie speak and have her sign your book. You will be as charmed as I was by Dorie’s warm and generous personality and her passion for talking about food.