SMiLes by Meg

Chocolate Banana Pecan Cookies

Do you work with me? If so, these cookies will be in the kitchen tomorrow morning, and you should definitely try to get there before they’re gone. Plus, with banana as the first ingredient, they’re basically breakfast cookies. I’ve been at work for about a week and a half now, and still haven’t brought in any baked goods. It’s very unlike me, really. So hopefully this recipe makes up for it. They’re gooey, chocolatey, crunchy, and just a little banana-y, which is a combination I’ve never really thought of putting in cookie form. Fortunately, Ottolenghi did think of it, and

Magdalenas

I’m not really sure why the weather went from full Summer to deep Fall in the last couple of days, but it has definitely helped ease the transition into my last year of law school. Today, with the rainy coldness that is the outdoors, baking warm cupcakes indoors has been an ideal activity. It would have been a great day to make some sourdough bread, but that would have required much more foresight than I had this week.

Viscotti

I have a new theory in the kitchen: cinnamon belongs in everything. Perhaps controversial, but I’m pretty sold on the stuff. It’s amazing what the addition of some cinnamon does to what would otherwise just be a cakey sugar cookie in this recipe. Literally game changing.

Rosettes

I apologize that you won’t be able to make this. Because there is no way you also have the following box tucked away, unused, in a random drawer of your kitchen:

Ciambelli

This week’s recipe was very much a learning experience. Some important lessons: Whole Foods doesn’t sell regular shortening. So I had to get some weird coconut and palm oil variety. Pro: it was yellow. You can melt shortening. As a former science teacher, this shouldn’t have been as surprising to me as it was. Orange zest has a tendency to stick to the attachment of your stand mixer like hair instead of incorporating into the batter. Even if you fully submerge and douse a cookie in powdered sugar, after it bakes it will still look like you did no such