Treats for appetites of every size
Vacation baking can be difficult. You’re in a new place. Your kitchen lacks all of your favorite gadgets. You maybe kinda definitely would rather be lying out in the sun. All of these things are magnified when it’s spring break and you’ve dedicated the week to devouring as many books that don’t talk about the law as possible.
I have had my eye on this recipe since I first got my Boozy Baker cookbook. And it’s not like I haven’t had ample opportunity to make it before. I always have whiskey on hand. Donuts are easy to go get. I’m a huge fan of anything that only involves one dish.
This is not an I-had-too-much-work-to-do late post. This is an I-had-lots-of-fun-things-to-do late post. So really the better kind of late post. It was one of those awesome weekends where I spent lots of times with friends, lots of time in the kitchen, and lots of time not reading law cases.
Winter just decided to hit Boston. For the longest time, it had lulled us into a false sense of security with 50 degree days and absolutely zero snow.
I think the only good thing that comes out of the Patriots not being in the Super Bowl is that while the game is on, I’ll be able to get work done. Which means I was able to spend a good amount of the afternoon baking. And, more importantly, baking a recipe my roommate sent me probably in October: Apple Cider Donuts.
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 …
Last week, I told you all about my baking marathon. This weekend, I give you the second installment: s’mores bars. These showed up at Pickett Christmas (my mom’s side of the family Christmas Party) this year by way of my cousin Sharon, and I was addicted. They’re gooey. They’re chocolatey. They’re cookie-y. And if you eat them warm (difficult, but worth it), they capture everything you want out of a s’more.
Friday night was a baking marathon. After a week of birthdays and J-term festivities, I really needed a night where I didn’t have to leave my apartment. Lucky for me, I have friends that felt the same, and were willing to trek to my apartment for a quieter night in.
J-term is Harvard’s gift to 1Ls after the insanity of final exams. After finishing last semester, I had been looking forward to a couple weeks at home to rest and recoup. But breaks usually aren’t actually all that much of a break when you think about it. You have to run all of the errands you ignored for the month you spent in the library. You have lots of family and friends to go see and spend time with. You realize that you haven’t thought about applying to jobs yet and that’s going to sneak up on you faster than …
As much as I love baking, the real cooking accomplishment today was learning how to poach an egg. Since England last summer, where every breakfast seemed to include a poached egg and avocado, I’ve been meaning to learn. Then, when I was in Utah a couple weekends ago, my friend Jeremy made us poached eggs every morning. I was inspired, and finally took the time to learn this morning.