I’ve mentioned before that I’m not really a traditionalist. So maybe it’s not surprising that I prefer these chocolate chip cookie bars to regular chocolate chip cookies. They’re still the classic combination of sweet buttery cookie dough and rich chocolate chips, but the bar form means they’re nice and golden brown on the outside while staying soft and nearly underbaked on the inside. Plus, they’re easier to make since there’s no measuring out dollops of dough and multiple batches to bake. The sprinkle of sea salt at the end certainly doesn’t hurt either. And you know, just like these cookie bars, these could also be a thoughtful addition to condolence packages, providing a touch of homemade comfort during difficult times.
Category: desserts
Spicy Stawberry Fruit Roll-Ups
Earlier this week, I mentioned my trip to Istanbul and my newfound appreciation for Turkish food. As someone who loves spice, my favorite acquisition from my trip was a large bag of Turkish red pepper. An immensely flavorful twist on the crushed red pepper you may be more familiar with (and can use to substitute here), I’ve been taking any excuse to use it. Turkish red pepper is great with eggs or to add a little extra kick to dips or stews. But I’ve done something a little more unusual here. When I got back in town, strawberries were coming in season, tempting me at every turn, and I was determined to make homemade fruit roll-ups (often called “fruit leather”).
Giant Chocolate Caramel Ice Cream Sandwich
I love cakes. Baking them, eating them, looking at photos of them. They’re extravagant and delicious. But my boyfriend prefers cookies, and it’s long been a source of tension between us. For his recent birthday, however, we came up with a compromise. An ice cream sandwich the size of a cake. All the extravagance of a cake, even layered almost like a cake, yet really just two giant cookies with ice cream. We tossed around flavors for a while before settling on chocolate and caramel, a classic combination. Baking two very large cookies was as simple as filling two cake pans; this also resulted in a denser and chewier cookie, although I imagine you could just drop the batter on two cookie sheets for thinner and more traditional cookies.
Salted Brown Butter Caramel Ice Cream
Three years ago, I pulled my parents’ dusty ice cream maker out of storage and started putting it to use. I began with simple recipes and was astounded to find just how easy it was to make delicious ice cream. I quickly graduated to custard-based recipes and discovered a whole new level of creamy richness. This recipe, however, still made me hesitate. Not only custard-based, but involving two separate batches of caramel pushed right to the edge of burning, it seemed far too complex to be worth it, especially when I could make very tasty ice cream without such a hassle.
Brownie Cookies
Some people love brownies, and some people love cookies, but most people, myself included, love both. For all of them, these are a revelatory dessert. All of the chocolate decadence of a brownie in cookie form. The key to this magical crossover dessert is large quantities of melted chocolate and eggs which give the cookies a fudge-like texture. Simple to make and guaranteed to please, these cookies should most definitely make their way into your life. You’ll never look at brownies or cookies quite the same way again.
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… Read the restGaram Masala Cookies
When it comes to desserts, I much prefer the unusual to the ordinary. I’ve never been one for vanilla ice cream or chocolate chip cookies; they’re tasty, sure, but way too boring for me. Give me something complex and exciting! These garam masala cookies are definitely in line with my dessert philosophy. Yes, they’re sweet, as cookies are meant to be, but they’re also nutty from brown butter and spicy from garam masala. At first, these fragrant cookies are reminiscent of spice cookies, with the familiar flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. But then there are those less familiar notes from the other components of the garam masala.
Candied Kumquats
Kumquats, if you’ve never had them, are a citrus fruit about the size and shape of grapes. Unlike other citruses, you can eat the peel of a kumquat, and in fact, the peel is pleasantly sweet while the flesh itself is quite tart. These flavors make kumquats great for eating straight, but they’re even better when candied. The basic formula for candying citrus is easy – water, sugar, and fruit. But I’ve changed things up a little here for this recipe. Brown sugar and bourbon add extra sweetness and depth while a dried chile lends a little kick. The result is complex and delicious.
Carrot Cake Muffins Baked in Eggshells
Usually I’m all about taste, but every once in a while, I decide to cook something mostly for the visual impact. These muffins baked inside of eggshells were perfect for a spring brunch (where I also served scrambled eggs from the emptied out eggs – waste not, want not). You can use this technique with your favorite muffin or cupcake batter, but I decided that carrot cake muffins (a less sweet and more breakfast friendly take on classic carrot cake) with a “yolk” made from a cream cheese filling seemed like a great fit. I was pretty pleased with how these turned out, but I’d definitely do some things differently next time.
Maple Bacon S’mores
Okay, it might be a little silly for me to post a recipe for s’mores. I know, you already know how to make s’mores. It’s really so simple, just marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. But these were easily the best I’ve ever had. Very different from what I had as a kid (and I wonder what me as a kid would have thought of these). The salty-sweet combination with bacon in the homemade marshmallows and smoked salt on the homemade graham crackers adds another dimension to this classic dessert. As I’ve gotten older, my chocolate preferences have shifted away from milk chocolate and towards dark chocolate, and this was the perfect place to embrace that.
Homemade Graham Crackers
This is probably not shocking to anyone who’s perused this blog, but I can be really ambitious with my cooking projects sometimes. Which is how I found myself in a bind with these graham crackers. I’d committed to making s’mores on an early Saturday afternoon to be the grand finale for the first grill session of the year; I had already invited a couple friends to join and made homemade marshmallows, and I was absolutely determined to make homemade graham crackers for the perfect s’mores. Somehow I easily envisioned myself making the dough on Friday night and baking the crackers on Saturday morning.