Egg-celent cookies
I just wasn’t feeling Eastery this year. We didn’t even have an Easter dinner… just a little homemade guacamole and Coronas while watching a movie. I know, I’m a bad wife, but we’ve been so busy with Stephan’s business, it just slipped my mind. Its definitely Wedding season in South Florida! Anyway, instead of making Easter Dinner, I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to make my favorite sugar cookies. I used the same recipe from my Halloween cookies, but ommitted the baking soda. I spent some time decorating them with pink, blue and yellow Royal Icing.
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Blueberry Galette
As usual, I had something on the verge of going bad in my fridge (blueberries) and decided to salvage them by baking something. I found this galette recipe in my Essential Baker cookbook. It’s my kind of recipe… very easy, and not labor intensive. I wish I had the time to make complicated, many step recipes, but its just not in the cards for me. To make this even easier, I made the dough the day before I baked it, and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Can’t get any easier than that!
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Rump Cake
Rum Raisin + Pound Cake = Rump Cake? Hey if Bennifer, TomKat and Brangelina are legit, then so is my rump cake! Mmmmkay!
This recipe came from The Essential Baker by Carole Bloom. Stephan’s favorite ice cream is Rum Raisin, and when I came across this recipe, I knew I would have to try it. The flavor is wonderful, but I think could have used a bit more rum and maybe a splash of vanilla. Also, I was pretty bummed when all my raisins sunk to the bottom. However, it was quite tasty, ridiculously easy and will definitely be made again one day. I served it with caramel sauce.
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Great Balls ‘O Dough
This Daring Baker challenge was a wonderful one! I was seriously hoping it wasn’t a sweet one, as I’m still battling the last few holiday pounds. Our lovely hostesses, Breadchick Mary of Sour Dough and Sara of I Like to Cook chose bread… and just happened to pick my most favorite, French Bread. It just so happens to be one of my favorite chefs too, Julia Child. So from the beginning, I was doubly excited about the challenge. I followed the recipe to the letter, and chose to do Petit Pains (or boules?) instead of baguettes, as I just made baguettes a few months ago.
The recipe came along very nicely, but did take about 8 hours to complete in one day. Next time, I would probably try to stretch this to two days, and retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator. I started very early in the morning, and since I’m such a darn good wife, I actually kneaded the bread by had to avoid waking my sleeping husband with my loud mixer. I should be sainted, right? I haven’t made bread by hand in over 8 years, as I always use my Kitchenaid mixer. It was surprisingly calming to stand in my pajamas, kneading the dough while drinking my morning coffee. Quite peaceful. However, next time… I’ll continue using the mixer!
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You Say Potato…
It seems every time I get in the mood to bake bread, I really don’t have the time for all the rising and proofing. So I flipped through one of my favorite baking books, Baking with Julia and came across this potato bread recipe. I did make a minor change by substituting part of the all-purpose flour with wheat flour. It turned out fabulous! Heavy, chewy… everything I love about homemade bread! The best part was it was all done in about 2 hours… you just can’t get better than that!
The second day, I made pressed turkey sandwiches with this bread and it was heavenly!
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Happy New Year!
For those that are confused, today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.
While flipping through the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week, these Yin-Yang cookies caught my eye. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent the two primal cosmic forces in the universe… plus its pretty! I decided not to use recipe in the paper, but used the one from my checkerboard cookies from this past Christmas. Its actually much easier than the checkerboard cookies and takes less time. The result is really cool!
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Ooooh, What a Tart!
My second Daring Baker challenge was Lemon Meringue Pie. Jen from The Canadian Baker was the host this month, and the recipe came from Wanda’s Pie in the Sky by Wanda Beaver. I decided to do individual tartletts, as I much prefer plating desserts with tartletts than pie or tart slices.
Buttermilk Scones
I received a wonderful new baking book, The Essential Baker by Carole Bloom, from our friends Ryan and Carolina. This scone recipe comes from my new book. Of course, as usual, I had to tweak it a smidgen to my liking. The original recipe called for chopped dried figs, but I didn’t have any, so I used a combination of dried cherries and golden raisins. I also added a handful of toasted slivered almonds and topped them with a few extra slivers. I’m looking forward to trying many more recipes from this book. Thanks Ryan & Carolina!!!
As with most scones, they are a bit dry, but quite lovely served warm with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey. Or you could do like the English and slather them with clotted cream, which sounds horribly unappetizing, but is very tasty. The best part about this recipe, is since you use your food processor, it takes all of about 10 minutes to prepare them, then another 15 or so to bake. Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning!
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My Checkered Past (Part II)
Honestly, I don’t have a checkered past, I swear! It just sounded like a good title! These checkerboard cookies look so complicated and hard to make, but in reality are somewhat simple. OK… they really are not simple, but not as complicated as you would think. Yeah, they are also quite a bit time consuming. For these reasons, I only make these once a year, and that’s for Christmas. It really is a fantastic cookie. They look so cool, with the perfect checkerboard pattern, and each bite you take is slightly crumbly, buttery, chocolaty and vanilla-y. Good stuff.
Please excuse my lazyness before… recipe is now included!
Christmas Biscotti
I’m sure you’ve realized by now that I love biscotti. Its such a great treat, and usually a fraction of the fat of a regular cookie. Not this one, though! There is a nice amount of butter in this recipe that gives it a great flavor. This is the combination of several recipes, using my favorite parts, of course! As usual, I added almond extract… I LOVE that flavor, but you can omit it if you want. This would be prettier if you use dried cranberries, as they are usually more red in color, but all I had was dried cherries. Tasted good, though!
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