Treats for appetites of every size
When I first started this blog, I think I envisioned myself making a lot more brownies than I actually do. In creating categories for my recipes, I apparently didn’t think “Bar Cookies” was specific enough, and made a whole separate category for “Brownies.” But now I have 23 recipes under Bars and only 11 under Brownies. Let this recipe be a first attempt at remedying this situation.
This week, I baked for the first time in my new kitchen! Spoiler alert: it was awesome. Plenty of counter space. Pretty new toys to play with (read: stainless steel mixing bowls). And a whole new group of people to eat the end product! Plus, central air conditioning, which means turning on the oven was not the horrific experience it could have been in this insanely hot summer we’ve been having.
Ever find yourself in need of a quick dessert for a holiday? This is your solution. All it takes is a quick trip to Michael’s (or whatever other craft store you know of that sells every possible color of Candy Melts), and maybe 30 total minutes of assembly and waiting time. End result looks very impressive, is endlessly adaptable to your tastes, and can be piled in a tupperware without worrying about ruining it. Extra perk? It fills the need at cookouts for something sweet at the end of a big meal without requiring the commitment of a slice of …
To be honest, I did NOT want to turn on the oven today. It is ridiculously hot. And while we have AC in the bedroom, there is not AC in the rest of the apartment. The thought of taking a kitchen that was already 90+° and turning an oven up to 375° seemed insane. But after spending a lot of time looking through no-bake and icebox recipes, I just couldn’t find anything I was actually excited about. And I’ve been meaning to make these cookies for weeks, since I found them and thought they sounded interesting. So I sucked it …
A little late to post this one, but not because I hadn’t baked yet – I was just too busy celebrating my Birthday Eve! After a lovely evening with friends, and a delicious tres leches cake whose only price was wearing a pink sombrero, you won’t blame me for taking a little extra time to write this one. Fortunately, bar studying is largely a day job, which leaves nights for baking adventures and other fun (when I can get up the energy to do anything other than sit on the couch and watch hours of Friends). These cookies were the …
Law school is over! And as we always do when finals are over, Erik and I spent the weekend off the grid in the mountains, camping and hiking. That means I had to get something made before I left, since I wasn’t sure when I’d be back today. I came up with (yet another) Ottolenghi recipe, though this one didn’t go so well.
When I’m baking in my mom’s kitchen, I usually take a break from my normal cookbooks and use one of hers that I like: The Farmhouse Cookbook. What I found out this week is that as cute as the cookbook is, it doesn’t actually have that many dessert recipes. I was flipping through it, trying to decide on something, and thought lemon blueberry bread pudding sounded like a great dessert for the meal my mom was cooking. Almost 5 years into this blog, I decided it would be a good idea to check before starting it. Turned out I had …
Another week, another of Ottolenghi’s Sweet recipes. This time, in looking for something fittingly sophisticated for a book club meeting, I settled on a cookie that looked rich in spices and like it would pair equally well with tea or red wine, depending on what road the night took. Plus, the contrasting colors make for an impressive display, which never hurts when you’re laying out a spread of food for guests.
It’s Spring Break! And Spring Break means fun baking. This week I tackled another Ottolenghi recipe: Tahini Halvah Brownies. Ottolenghi uses tahini a lot, and I am yet to meet a recipe of his where I wish he didn’t. For example, I rarely eat banana bread without some tahini, salt, and honey these days. And his hummus is very tahini forward, which I firmly believe is for the best. So when I saw these brownies, with their swirls of tahini across the top, I knew they’d be one of the first recipes in his baking book that I tackled.
These were really fun. If you don’t know by now, I give up sweets for Lent every year. Which means I try to find people to bake for each week so that I won’t have the temptation around me. This year, Erik made it easy. He wanted to make hamantaschen for Purim so that we could send cookies to a long list of people, all over the country, that he stays in touch with. Sending cookies by mail far from Boston fits in well with my Lenten promise to not eat said cookies. A win-win all around.