SMiLes by Meg

Tag: sugar

Cardamom Coffee Cake

Sunday Scaries are a weird thing. I had the most perfect weekend, and in particular a great Sunday, mostly because we turned the clocks back, and I had a full extra hour to be productive, which gave me extra time to be lazy. But it’s that time of year where, as corporate lawyer, clients start wanting things done by end of year, and there’s a general impending sense of a storm. So as Sunday has worn on, I’ve gotten that pit of dread in the bottom of my stomach. Fortunately, I know the perfect way to combat Sunday Scaries: Cake …

Apple Cider Donut Holes

This weekend, I was reunited with my favorite sous chef, the one and only Laura Bakst! Despite living on the same coast, I visited her for the first time since law school (which is slightly embarrassing – I blame her work schedule), and had just the perfect weekend. We walked all around, baked, ate good food, drank good wine, stumbled upon a pickle festival and generally got to just catch up on each other’s lives. I never realize how much I’m craving friend time until I get an uninterrupted weekend of it. When that friend time also includes frying donut …

Gingerbread Snickerdoodles

Big soft ginger cookies and snickerdoodles have always felt like related cookies to me. It’s probably the cinnamon and the texture and the sugar on the outside. But because I think of them as similar, I’m kind of upset that I never thought to combine them before. Alas, the New York Times beat me to it, and rubbed it in my face by including the recipe in a compilation of Fall recipes I was looking at to find something to make for dinner. Cookies can be dinner, right? So start by whisking together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, …

Whiskey Cake

So in case you’ve been living under a rock, it’s September, and everyone in Boston is leaning hard into pretending it’s Fall, even if it’s still weather-appropriate to be in sundresses and sandals. Don’t get me wrong – I love Fall. And I think I finally get why everyone else does, too. You see, at age 28, I have finally found myself in a job where I’m working year round, straight through the summer. No summer vacation (RIP teaching career). No summer internships with big breaks on either end (RIP being a student). Just work. And I’ve found that while …

Banana, Date and Walnut Tin Can Cake

This is a recipe I’ve been excited to make since getting the Sweet by Ottolenghi cookbook. I started saving tin cans as soon as I saw it, and finally had an extra banana and some time to give it a go. And I’m so glad I did – this is like banana bread but better. There’s banana. There are walnuts. AND THERE ARE DATES. Which I love, and think make all things better. So this one starts by briefly toasting the walnuts. Spread them out on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. …

Blueberry Rhubarb Compote

People will probably have a number of complaints about this post. For example, you may be thinking, “Meg, you just made a Blueberry Rhubarb Galette. You can’t repeat flavor combinations so quickly.” If you have that complaint, you obviously aren’t in Alaska right now. When I arrived in Alaska last week, Erik had acquired, no joke, an entire trash bag full of rhubarb, cut out of a friend’s yard: And then, while I was there, another friend, Nate, brought over a full Tupperware of blueberries he had picked himself along a trail somewhere. When you have access to rhubarb and …

Simple Chocolate Cake

I know that today is National Ice Cream Day. And that it’s ridiculously hot up and down the east coast, and no one wants to turn on their oven. But I have ignored both of those things, and today I bring you something that you should start just keeping all of the ingredients on hand for: Simple Chocolate Cake. I’ve made other chocolate cakes in the past, but this one has fewer than 10 ingredients, can be made in one bowl, and can be dressed up as much as you want, or left alone without any fuss. It is, of …

Strawberry Fool

What a difference a week makes! Today, I came home from 3 days on Nantucket with my mom, where we shopped, biked, and ate/drank particularly well. Then, when we got back to Duxbury, I got to see my cousin, Jim, get married! And now I’m sitting on my couch, watching Stranger Things (don’t worry, Erik, I’m rewatching the first couple with my mom, not watching new ones), and tomorrow I still have another day to enjoy the sun! Now, everything hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies (though there were definitely a lot of both). If you were in the Boston …

Maple Pecan Cookies

This week was a lesson in I-should-have-listened-to-my-five-years-of-baking-blog-experience-gut. I made the batter. I knew it looked too runny to be cookie dough. I triple checked the recipe. I tried to bake it anyway thinking “maybe it won’t spread.” It did spread. And I ended up with cookie pie rather than cookies, and not even good cookie pie at that. Come with me on this journey. First, melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan, swirling occasionally. Pour into a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. …

Olive Oil Ice Cream

A realistic snapshot into my life: It’s Thursday at 10:32pm. I’m sitting on my bed, having just finished up (kind of) work for the day. I’m doing laundry because I realized too late that I didn’t have any clothes to pack for a trip to Philly. I fly out tomorrow morning at 6:45am. I can’t finish packing until my laundry is done. But at least I’ve already made ice cream! When I told my mom I was making olive oil ice cream this week, she said, “That is the most disgusting thing you have ever said to me.” My roommate, …