Another Sunday morning of baking! This week, the recipe of choice from Baked Occasions is Mae's Crescent Cookies. It might be listed under the 12 days of Christmas cookies section, but Mae's crescent cookie should absolutely be baked during every season. I adored this cookie. I'm not the biggest butter cookie fan; I love butter, but I usually prefer chocolate or citrus when it comes to dessert. Nutty, buttery, powdered sugar cookies are present in the cookie catalog of many countries - Caleb's favorite's, Mexican wedding cookies, are what I am most familiar with, but Mae's are some of the best cookies of this type I've tried. They are tender inside and delicately crispy outside, not overly sweet, with the perfect amount of nuttiness. As a bonus, they come together really quickly and don't need to rest before baking, so they are certainly among the easier cookies to make. ...
Tastiest Book Posts
Brown Butter Blondies with Dates and Dried Cherries
These brown butter blondies from Sweeter Off the Vine are incredible. I hesitate to say it, but I think they are even better than the Back in the Day Bakery blondies I've made at least 25 times in the last year. With Yossy's blondies, you get a hint of the browned butter flavor, chewiness from the dried fruit, a hint of mellow bourbon, and fudginess from the chocolate chunks. They smell amazing when they come out of the oven, but you'll miss out on the brown butter flavor if you don't wait for them to cool. I could not stop eating these and one friend actually drooled while eating these, because, he said, they were so good. I had people asking me if there were any left hours after the last piece had disappeared.
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Cherry Poppyseed Yogurt Cake
I have been so impatient to start baking from Sweeter Off the Vine. I love Yossy Arefi's Apt 2B Baking Co blog; I want to make everything she cooks, but the arrival of her cookbook meant I got to test the recipes and post about them here! Reading through Sweeter Off the Vine the day it arrived (last Tuesday), I picked out about 5 things I felt I needed to make immediately and tried to plan my week such that I could pull them all off. I haven't quite had time because work likes to get in the way of my baking plans, but I cannot seem to stop eating what I have baked, and I'll be posting the top three within the week because they were outrageously good and everyone should be baking along with Yossy....
Chocolate Stout Cupcakes: Face-Off
For fun, I made cupcakes out of the two chocolate stout cakes I wrote about a week ago. After comparing the two in my memory and writing about it, I really wanted to know how they compared in reality. After some deliberation, cupcakes seemed like the fairest way to bake both cakes, even though it's a little more work. I planned to bring them into work and have people give me their unbiased opinion by trying both, and cupcake wrappers are a convenient way to keep track of which chocolate cake is which. That way, I wasn't potentially skewing the result by people's subconscious preference for a bundt vs. layer cake. I know I have a preference, but my answer is dependent on the type of cake... it's complicated. I considered doing both as bundts or both as layer cakes and distinguishing the two by frosting color, but I worried some people might have an aversion to particular frosting colors. Also, unofficial observation has shown it's a lot easier to get someone to eat two cupcakes than it is to convince them to eat two slices of cake... I might have spent a little too much time over the past week fretting about this...
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Chocolate Rye Brownies
I've had the recipe for chocolate rye brownies bookmarked from my very first glance through the Violet Bakery cookbook. It's a flavor pairing that deserves a lot more popularity in baking, as the rye highlights the berry notes in (good) dark chocolate while adding an addictive tangy dimension. I first tried the combination of chocolate and rye at Tartine in San Francisco and loved it in their chocolate rye "linzer" bar (which I've tried replicating at home with mixed success). Since Tartine is where Violet says she found her inspiration for these brownies, I was really excited for her version.
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(Whole Wheat) English Muffins
This is the only English muffin recipe you will ever need. I probably should not say that, because this is also the first English muffin recipe I've ever attempted. The thing is, these are so good, I don't want to bother with any other recipe, because it's not possible to make an English muffin that tastes better than these.
...St. Patrick's Drunk Bundt Cake
This Sunday morning's baking is a chocolate stout cake. I used to have doubts about beer in cake, but then one of my college roommates had a Guinness chocolate cake as her wedding cake. It was so scrumptious, I demanded she get the recipe from her friend (who made it for the wedding) the very next day. Yay, you got married, but what I really care about is the cake! I made it pretty much immediately upon my return home, and had to share it with my co-workers so that I didn't eat the whole thing myself. It's funny, I don't like beer as a beverage, but I love it in food. Beer cake, beer bread, beer-braised hamburgers, beer can chicken, Guinness stew, steamed mussels in beer.... bring on the beer.
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Thin Mint Cookies
I was really excited to try the scheduled White Chocolate Pistachio Cheesecake for today's Baked Sunday morning. I have the pistachios, white chocolate, sour cream, cream cheese, and even chocolate graham crackers for the chocolate cookie crust. But between a crazy workload, a visiting boyfriend who only likes plain cheesecake, and a trip to FL to visit friends, including one highly intolerant to lactose, I decided I should postpone this delectable pistachio cheesecake for another time and go rogue instead. I've been planning to post about the chocolate mint cookies from Baked Elements for a while anyway, so it's a perfect opportunity.
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Super Squash Lasagna
I begged for Jamie Oliver's new Everyday Superfood cookbook for Christmas. The photographs are gorgeous (of course) and I was really intrigued by a lot of the recipes. I confess that I haven't had complete faith in his recipes ever since following his pancake recipe way back in 2007 and being profoundly disappointed with the way-too-eggy results. However, I felt like if at least half of these recipes tasted as good as his photographers made them look, the cookbook would be a keeper. Happily, this squash lasagna is quite good. In fairness, it's not going to replace a rich cheese-y, meat-y lasagna for me, but for a healthy vegetable lasagna, I did not feel deprived in the least.
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Roasted Cauliflower
In case it's not already obvious from my previous posts raving about the Gjelina cookbook, I'm deeply in love. There's no way I've been able to limit myself to cooking only three recipes and then moving on to another cookbook. I want to make all the recipes and I want to add them all to a regular rotation. They're all so yummy, shockingly easy, and (reasonably) healthy. I cannot find a single thing wrong with this cookbook, aside from the fact that you need to plan several days ahead if you want to make the pizza dough. This roasted cauliflower recipe is apparently the most frequent request from his diners, which gives me an excuse to post about it despite having conclusively determined from the first three recipes I tried that I'm never letting go of this cookbook....
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Sweet Cherries
Never in a million years did my 10-year-old self think I would like Brussels sprouts as much as I do now. I still remember my best friend telling me her dad elected to fall asleep at the kitchen table instead of eating his Brussels sprouts, and that pretty much guaranteed my anti-Brussels sprouts stance for the next two-ish decades. I'm not even sure why I started giving them a chance, but now I can't seem to stop cooking them. Actually both Brussels sprouts and cauliflower - two vegetables I was sure I would dislike for life....
Conversation Heart Cakes
I am always a sucker for adorable, delectable sweets, but rarely do I feel like going to the trouble of making them myself. Also, while I have an absurd amount of kitchen gadgetry, I only own single copies of individual dessert pans, so making mini-desserts is not usually a practical option. The great thing about deciding to bake along with the Baked Sunday Mornings group is I have now made two outstanding Baked treats that I never would have attempted on my own. (Side note: A co-worker came up to me last week to say he's still dreaming of the Chinese five-spice scones I made last time).
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Chocolate Tart
If I could only eat one chocolate dessert for the rest of my life, this would be the one. Seriously... the chocolate tart from Gjelina is that good. I've made a lot of chocolate desserts in my lifetime, and this one is so incredibly chocolate-y, I want to just keep making it over and over again, never mind all the other recipes I could be trying. It has a perfect firm shell so you get a little crunch, and then this dense, fudgy interior that is irresistible (to me). A little slice goes a long way, although if you sit for a while with it next to your elbow, you're liable to eat a lot more of it than that.
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Chickpea Stew with Kale
This stew is so incredibly delicious, the recipe alone is worth the cost of the Gjelina cookbook. I'm not joking. I could eat this chickpea stew every day for weeks on end, and I would love it every time (which is unusual - I'm more of a "had it once, on to the next thing" kind of girl). It's satisfying, substantial, amazing with grilled bread (as recommended by the author), over rice/couscous/quinoa, or on its own.
Happily, Gjelina's chickpea stew is not an anomaly in this cookbook. I have enjoyed every single dish I've made from Gjelina (and will post about them soon, I promise). Not only are the recipes outstanding, but they are also remarkably simple and quick to execute. This cookbook wins bonus points for being laid out the way I believe all cookbooks should be; recipes and their accompanying photos are contained on the same two-page spread, so I don't have to flip pages to see how much of what ingredient is called for midway through cooking.
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Chinese Five Spice Scones
I've loved the Baked series of cookbooks since the very first time I opened Baked: New Frontiers. I made their root beer bundt cake and have lusted after their amazing desserts ever since. I pre-ordered each subsequent cookbook, anxious for their delivery. I made my PI their mile-high chocolate cake for his birthday. I got the idea for doing 12 days of cookies before Christmas their 12 days of cookies section in Baked: Occasions. Living close to NYC, I made the crazy long pilgrimage to Red Hook, Brooklyn via public transport to go to the Baked boys' first location. (And the grasshopper bar I bought there did not disappoint.) ...Basically, I am madly in love with these books.
So, last weekend while I was bouncing around baking blogs, I was thrilled to discover Stellina Sweets, and through her, Baked Sunday Mornings, a site dedicated to cooking through these gorgeous cookbooks. Even better, they let anyone join in the fun! So this Sunday's selection of Chinese five spice scones from Baked Occasions (since we're close to Chinese New Year and Baked Occasions is organized by "holidays") obviously had to be made.
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Bouikos
Three recipes in a row from the same cookbook! This is probably the way I should have been posting all along. The thing is, Honey & Co.
made it so easy. This cookbook has got to be one of the best random cookbook purchases I have ever made. The recipes are so interesting, so different from what I usually cook, the stories are sweet and work well, and the food is really delicious. It's not perfect - there are certainly some places where clarity of instruction is lacking. But since every time I've made something it has turned out great, it is pretty difficult to judge them harshly. Cooking from Honey & Co. has forced me to stretch and really consider where I am going with the dish, which is certainly a bonus. In fact, I am so enthralled, I special ordered the Honey & Co: Baking cookbook from the UK (since it's not available here) so that I have an excuse to keep posting their recipes here.
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Mushroom and Cumin Sfiha
Mushroom sfiha, the second recipe I chose from Honey & Co., is defined by the ever-helpful Wikipedia as a type of open-faced savory pie (aka a pizza) originating from the Eastern Mediterranean. Historically lamb-based, Honey & Co.'s version is within their vegetarian mains section and features mushrooms as the main topping. I picked this recipe for two reasons - well, maybe three. I love bread-based dishes, I like pretty much any dish that includes mushrooms, and most importantly, Itamar and Sarit write that if you only cook one dish from their cookbook, it should be this one.
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Lamb Siniya
What do you make for dinner when snowbound by 2016's first blizzard? A hearty, satisfying casserole, of course! Casseroles may be intended for sharing, but they are pretty terrific for digging into by yourself on a warm couch while watching the snow too. Since I wasn't going to be going grocery shopping, I needed to choose something I had all the ingredients for already. Enter two heads of cauliflower, kale, ground lamb, tahini paste, Greek yogurt, eggs, and parsley. Not the makings of any casserole I'd ever heard of...until I read Honey & Co.
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Exceedingly Chocolate Crinkles
Chocolate crinkle cookies are one of my favorite cookies from growing up. My friend's mom would make them during the holidays, and I liked them so much, even at the age of ten I apparently asked for the recipe. I still have my friend's mom's recipe on a 3x5 card somewhere in my parents' garage. When I decided to bake 12 days of cookies to celebrate the holiday season at work, revisiting these old favorites was at the top of my list. Happily, the boys from Baked have a whole section on holiday cookies in their Baked Occasions, and day 4 are the "exceedingly chocolate crinkles".
These chocolate crinkle cookies were a huge success, both in my opinion, and that of my co-workers. Out of the 14 cookies I wound up baking, these definitely ranked among the top 4. They are fudgy, rich, complex, and utterly perfect when you're craving a little something chocolate.
...Salt-baked Steelhead with Fresh Herbs and Lemon
Salt-baked steelhead from Heartlandia has revolutionized my outlook on preparing fish at home. This is, hands-down, the most amazing fish I've ever cooked at home and it's up there with some of the best fish I've ever eaten, including fancy restaurant fish. Heartlandia's salt-baked steelhead is easy to throw together, and doesn't require much clean up or much attention while it cooks. You don't have to worry about flash-frying or pan-searing and running the risk of leaving the fish 30 seconds too long and overcooking it. It also doesn't make your apartment smell of fish. The baking process is comparable to the parchment bag technique, only you don't even need to bother with folding your parchment paper into a bag.
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Caramel Sauce
This caramel sauce can be used for just about anything (including the delicious bread pudding it originally accompanied). It also taught me several key lessons about cooking with sugar and making caramel (some of which I really ought to have known already):
- Never walk away from your caramel sauce
- Never touch hot caramel sauce
- Not every home has a candy thermometer
- There is a fine line between "rich caramel color" and burned caramel sauce
- Adding hot butter and cream to boiling sugar is much better than adding cold/lukewarm butter and cream to boiling sugar (the former is much less likely to cause your caramel sauce to seize and clump together into impossible balls of hard sugar)
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Bread Pudding
Bread pudding is the ultimate comfort food dessert. Years ago, I was trying to decide between buying Williams-Sonoma's Breakfast Comforts versus their Home Baked Comfort cookbook. Clearly, I wanted to cook some comfort food. I don't remember why I went with the latter, but the first recipe I made from Home Baked Comfort was this bread pudding because a certain someone loves good, old-fashioned desserts. It was an instant keeper, and I've made it (and the caramel sauce that goes along with it) many times since.
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Caramel Apple Cake
This caramel apple cake is possibly the world's most phenomenal cake. It smells like autumn and is next to impossible to stop eating. I made this cake for someone's birthday at work, and when I finished frosting it, I thought - "This thing is huge! It's a three layer cake with over three cups of frosting... there's going to be so much leftover..." By 3pm, there were crumbs left. Caramel apple cake is a serious crowd-pleaser.
Brownie Cups
Brownie cups, otherwise known as a dense, fudgy single-serve brownie baked in a muffin tin.
Really, it's hard to go wrong with brownies. It's not like these were bad. It's just that they weren't exceptional. They were pretty good, but I've made a lot of better brownies over the years (like Thomas Keller's bouchons). The timing on the recipe was also off. The author suggests 15 minutes for baking, but it took at least 20, and my brownies still fell quite a bit once they cooled. They were fully baked though and they firmed up nicely after an hour in the fridge post-cooling (which is a something I believe improves most brownies - I like fudgy brownies, not cakey ones).
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