Irish Soda Bread
With St. Patrick's day coming up, I wanted to try out some new Irish soda bread recipes. My standby has been Simply Recipes', but a couple new ones caught my eye. Why not bake a few and compare? So that's what I did.
Read MoreCoconut crusted brown butter banana cake
The coconut topping gets caramelized during baking and creates a sweet, buttery, chewy topping. The browned butter adds depth of flavor and the cake is moist and tender. It's like the dressed up sister of banana bread. Plus, it passes for dessert and is still totally acceptable for breakfast.
Read MoreUsing Leftover Egg Whites
The three of us often have been in the position of making a recipe that uses only part of an egg. We've been in both situations: either having way too many egg whites to deal with or an abundance of yolks. Here are some recipes most of which we've used and recommend -- just in case you find yourself in a similar predicament!
Read MoreSourdough English Muffins
Store bought English muffins will seem like flavorless cardboard compared to these delicious homemade English muffins! Just a tad more involved than bread but worth it!
Read MoreHazelnut caramel Meringue cake
This is my favorite aspect of making cakes: coming up with all the elements. I love looking at cake recipes in cookbooks and on blogs, but I usually end up picking and choosing from a number of different sources for my own vision or what have you. This hazelnut cake is really fantastic, which you'd expect from Cook's Country. Ganache and meringue are pretty standard recipes. The frosting, though ... I could go on and on about this frosting. It's my go-to. I find it to have the lightness of a Swiss meringue buttercream but without the fussiness of the egg whites. The cooked flour method dates way back so, really, it's a tried and true recipe.
Read MoreQuick & Easy Biscuits
Few things surpass a buttery, perfectly flaky, multi-layered biscuit. They are well worth the effort of thorough prepping -- freezing small-sized pieces of butter (perhaps even the flour as well), ensuring the liquid ingredients are sufficiently chilled, meticulously avoiding overworking the dough, using a razor sharp cutter, and only rolling the dough out once.
But.....
Read Morepeppermint fudge brownies
So, for a few months there this was my favorite brownie recipe. But over the weekend I revisited my old favorite brownie recipe and, well, it's back to being my favorite. Because it is truly amazing. I don't know what I was thinking.
Actually, I do know what I was thinking. That other recipe is so quick to make, and comes out more like a standard brownie box mix. No-fuss, simple plain-old brownie goodness. Something you wouldn't feel bad about scooping ice cream on top. Or layering in an ice cream cake.
THIS Peppermint Fudge Brownie, on the other hand, stands alone. With a deep cocoa flavor, fudge-like consistency, peppermint filling and laden with chocolate chips, it would border on obscene to serve it with anything else.
Read MoreYeasted Pumpkin Rolls
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, this roll recipe is worth sharing. I first discovered this recipe last fall and loved its yeasted crumb and pumpkin flavor which is distinct, but not overwhelming. Even better, the bread can be either sweet (buttered with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar is absolutely scrumptious) or savory (left plain, it makes a fitting accompaniment to any dinner).
Read MoreBaked Brie Bites
These baked brie bites hold their shape, the melty gooey brie is neatly contained within, and the exposed jelly adds a welcome pop of color. Bonus: they do away with the need for crackers or apple slices as conveyers!
Read MoreFamily Recipes: road trip & hiking snacks
As I mentioned in my last post, we recently took a family vacation up north to New Hampshire. The White Mountains specifically were my family's vacationing destination growing up. We went there every summer we could. A couple years, we did winter vacations instead. Philip and I went by ourselves in October when expecting Edith, right at the start of gorgeous autumn foliage. But going in November was quite a different experience.
Read MoreHamburger Buns
Hamburgers are supposed to be an easy, no-fuss meal so why complicate things, right? Wrong. These hamburger buns replace the waste-of-space which is most supermarket buns with a soft, tender, delicious bread, elevating the hamburger from meat sandwiched between two flavorless dry sponges into something more complete and, frankly, worth eating.
Read MoreFall Flavors & A Fantastic Kitchen Tool
We finally had our first frost in Maryland just a couple weeks ago. Fall has been pretty delayed. For our gardening business, it was pretty great! But, for the love of cooler weather and all the joys that entails, it was a touch sad.
Read MoreBanana Bread
This is the recipe you turn to when you have brown mushy bananas that you need to use up. This is the recipe you turn to when you're craving a moist, delicious banana bread with great flavor. This is the recipe you turn to when you only want to have to wash ONE bowl. You've probably caught on to this by now, but in my opinion sometimes basic is best. No frills, no whistles, just flavor and texture.
Read Morepumpkin cranberry cake with brown butter frosting
This is a recipe I discovered in a food magazine in high school, and I've been making it every fall ever since. The cake batter is so easy to mix up (no mixing aid required). It uses one full can of pumpkin puree (no leftovers to deal with). The pumpkin flavor is not overpowering, adding a subtle earthiness and a delicious moistness to the cake. The cranberries add a bit of zing, and the Brown Butter Frosting takes this treat to the next level.
Read Morealmond cranberry biscotti
Biscotti is just an excuse to have cookies for breakfast, and I am 100% okay with that. This recipe for biscotti has no pretenses to anything other than a sweet, crunchy bite. Heck! It even has chocolate drizzled on top. But they are also loaded with almonds and cranberries, which makes them both satisfying and nutritious. They are just tender enough to be eaten on their own without breaking any teeth, but they hold up extremely well--and perhaps are improved--when dipped in coffee, which brings them into the breakfast realm, which, like I said, is fine by me.
Read MorePumpkin bread, two ways
It's autumn (in some places, at least) and that means one thing: pumpkin everything. It's a little annoying, isn't it? But then again, pumpkin is delicious in every baked good form so I can't complain too much...
Read MoreMillionaire Bars
I love millionaire bars. Buttery crumbly shortbread crust, a creamy sticky caramel middle, and a smear of ganache on top. You literally can't go wrong here.
Read Morelemon & lime drops
Like Maria mentioned, we all have our favorite variations of the Joy of Cooking's Sugar Drop Cookies with Oil. The original recipe is perfect, so I don't typically mess with it. At the most, I might add some vanilla bean powder to the sugar that the cookies are rolled in, giving them a pretty vanilla-flecked exterior. But sometimes for a party I think it's fun to have a whole spread of the same cookie in different variations. Since these are so simple to mix up, and quick to bake, you can churn out a bunch of different variations within an hour.
Read MoreBasic granola
This recipe allows for a lot of adaptation so feel free to take creative liberties!
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