We have a nice mix of bakes in this roundup! Some chocolate, vanilla, breads, savory! I've been in a little bit of a baking rut the past couple months and haven't felt up to baking much. Now that it's Spring maybe I'll get back into making a new dessert every weekend.
Mint Chocolate Cookies
I bought Andes Mints bites around Christmas and still hadn't baked with them so I turned to my Handle the Heat Ultimate Cookie Handbook for a recipe! I ended up doing mostly mint candies and less chocolate chips because I wanted to use all the Andes, but they came out great! I always love a chocolate cookies and Andes are never a bad idea, this was a great mix of the two.
Hamburger Buns
I haven't made these since the Summer so when pulled pork was on the menu I decided to bake instead of buy! They're so easy to make and very tasty! They also freeze quite nicely so after they fully cool I freeze what we don't use and pull them out as needed. For one meal I baked up a pork butt (that we got for 99 cents a pound, woo!) and served on the rolls. SO GOOD! We also used them for veggie burgers.
Poğaça
This is the second recipe I've tried from Turkuaz Kitchen’s cookbook and it did not disappoint! I had too much ground beef defrosted for one of our meals and decided to make a half batch of these savory bread rolls. This version is filled with beef, onions, parsley and green onions as well as mozzarella. I only put mozzarella in half of them because I don't like cheese (in 90% of foods.) We really liked the flavor and I will definitely be making them again!
Pizza with Zucchini, Red Onion and Pesto
I had pepperoni pizza on the menu one week and decided to switch it up and use some leftover zucchini, red onion & pesto we had instead! I used the recipe from our King Arthur Baking School class we took a couple years ago at their Vermont location. To help the zucchini cook faster I sliced it using my mini mandolin slicer. We really liked how it came out, super light and fresh!
Vanilla Cupcakes
For Easter I didn't want to go out and buy any ingredients so I settled on making some simple, yet fancy, vanilla bean cupcakes! I don't usually do cupcakes because I'm horrible at frosting things. This recipe uses vanilla bean paste (which my mom just happened to buy recently) in both the cupcake AND frosting. They were super easy to make and I didn't do too bad with the frosting once I decided to pipe some on and then squish it flat on parchment paper before dunking in sprinkles. The ones I tried to frost normally came out a little messy, ha ha. I also made a couple with chocolate buttercream since my sister doesn't like just vanilla.
Crusty European-Style Hard Rolls - turned into Bunny Buns
We've got a lot of bread in this week's roundup. Guess I've been in a bread mood, ha ha!
Coconut Chocolate Chip Brownies (modified Almond Joy Brownies recipe)
I wanted to use up some unsweetened coconut flakes we had without using a ton of butter (gotta conserve!!) This recipe popped up and sounded interested, but I didn't want to use almonds so instead of an Almond Joy brownie I made a Mounds version, ha ha! I simply left out the almond extract and almonds and followed the rest of the instructions. Since it was almost Valentine's Day I decided to use my heart shaped dutch oven instead of a square tray.
Pain de Mie
I got a 13" Pullman Loaf Pan for Christmas and finally got around to trying a pain de mie - aka sandwhich bread - at the beginning of February. Unfortunately I think the house was a little too cold because the bread did NOT want to rise at all. I ended up leaving it out all night and then putting it by the oven when I made the above brownies to see if that would help it rise. I think I may have to wait for warmer weather to attempt again, or crank our heat up real high. At least it still tasted good! I made it again a couple weeks later and it came out much better! I still need to let it rise a bit more before baking to really fill out the pan but we're getting there. I'm sure in the warmer months it will be much easier.
Blueberry Muffin Bread
I had some sour cream from HelloFresh meals to use (we don't like sour cream sauces so we leave them off) and some frozen blueberries in the freezer so I decided to whip up this bread. the recipe does say not to use frozen blueberries but I'm a rebel, ha ha! I added extra flour and baked it longer as the instructions said to do if you used frozen berries and it came out great. It took about 20 minutes longer than stated, so they really do make a difference (plus I used wild blueberries which are smaller than normal ones, a double whammy!)
Mini Loaf Pan Focaccia
I wanted to make some bread to go with our pasta for Valentine's Day dinner but didn't want to make something big so I searched around for small batch focaccia and found this recipe. It came out REALLY good. Might be one of my favorite focaccia recipes I've made because it's super easy and not a huge portion so we don't have to worry about waste.
Chocolate Lava Cake
For Valentine's Day dessert I changed up from our usual chocohotopots and made a chocolate lava cake for the first time! It was a lot less complicated than I thought it would be, none of that putting something in the middle to the the lava, its literally just the batter and you bake it hot and fast. I love a non-fussy recipe.
Garlic Naan
* I was gifted this product for the purposes of this post, all opinions are my own.
One of the ways I like to decompress at the end of the day is cooking or baking. I know that is opposite to a lot of people, but I like the routine of it. Christian and I are slowly trying to swap out our old and cheap cookware to better quality, easier to maintain pieces. I was very excited when Alva Cookware offered to send me one of their stainless steel pans to test out!
They sent me the Chef 8" stainless steel frying pan which can be used with any heat source, is oven safe (to 392°) and dishwasher safe! I do love easy cleanup. (Alva does recommend hand washing to keep the finish nice, but the pan can be put in the dishwasher.) This size would be perfect for someone cooking for one, but since I usually make larger batches of food it's not the most practical size for me. That being said, the moment I picked up the pan I could tell it was high quality from the weight and feel. The handle is great for gripping and easily moving it around. The 8" is currently sold out but the Alva Chef 9.5" frying pan is available.
A bit of history on the brand - Founded in Belgium in 1949, Alva has been making high-quality cookware from recycled materials. The first pots and pans were made with repurposed materials from World War II and that practice continues today with the brand focusing on sustainability in its products. All Alva products are free of PTFE, PFOA, PFAS, lead, and cadmium, including ceramic-coated products.
Next I've got my eye on their Nesting Cookware Set, 5-ply stainless steel frying pan and Carbon Steel Wok. I make fried rice so often I feel like I could use one!
It’s cooking time! I made crispy gnocchi with veggies since Christian and I are in the middle of a vegetarian dinner month. We love doing this as a way to switch things up—it’s a nice reset. While we usually include a couple of vegetarian meals in our weekly rotation, going completely meat-free for a while feels refreshing.
This dish was super simple and cooked in just one skillet. I started by pan-frying the gnocchi in olive oil until crispy, then sautéed the veggies until they softened before adding the gnocchi back in. Easy peasy!
Cooking with the Alva pan was great! Its solid weight gave me confidence throughout the process, and the high sides made stirring and sautéing a breeze—no veggies escaping! Cleanup was just as smooth. A quick wash with soap and water, and everything came right off.
A couple weeks before Christmas I headed over to my Mom's and we had a full day of cookie baking to prepare for Christmas Eve. Including some of what we made as separate items here because I have links to the recipes, the others I'll just add at the end. Here's an Instagram post I did of our baking day:
Christmas Lofthouse Cookies
You know those horrible sugar cookies at the grocery store that you can't resist and enjoy eating anyway? Well these are a better version of that!
Spritz Cookies
My Mom needed a new spritz recipe this year becasue the one she used the past couple years never turned out right. We went with Sally's recipe and they came out great! After they came out of the oven we added the cute star sprinkles (last year we put them on before baking and they melted, haha!)
Turtle Thumbprint Cookies
I've made these a couple times before and they're always tasty! They also look very impressive and they aren't that hard to make. It was definitely easier to have someone help this time though. Rolling them in the pecans is always a little tricky with one person. With help I was able to coat them in the egg whites and my Mom got the pecans on. Way less messy!
Others we made: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Rugelach and Biscotti! We also made Snickerdoodles
Snowflake Shortbread Cookies
I used my snowflake shortbread and cake pan again, this time to make shortbread. They came out with much more detail than the cake I made with it last time!
Blossom Cookies
We did a cookie swap at my Mom's the Saturday before Christmas and I made these fun kiss cookies. The recipe has 3 flavors but my brother is allergic to peanut butter so I didn't make that variation. These are chocolate, sugar cookie and gingerbread!
Christmas Light Hostess Cupcakes
I made my version of Hostess Cupcakes with some M&Ms to look like Christmas lights for our Christmas Eve celebration. I used the cake recipe I have used in the past which is a couple recipes mashed together and then baked in cupcake tins instead of cake pans. Funny going from cupcakes to a cake inspired by those cupcakes and then back to cupcakes with the inspiration recipe, hah!
Chocolate Mousse Cake
I took a little unplanned break from baking new things the past few months. You'll also notice I didn't really post anything all of November. I was on a bunch of trips on the weekends and some personal stuff came up where I wasn't really in the mood. I tried to get myself back into it but most weekends I was home I didn't bake. Then towards the end of November I started back up again for various holiday gatherings.
Sugar Cookies
I made these cookies for a collaboration post with Ocean State Job Lot that I posted in November. They're super easy to make, I just need to work on my frosting skills, ha ha. This time the border icing was a little thick so I wasn't able to get super smooth lines. But the flood icing was perfect!
Muffaletta Roll Ups
Christian loves Muffuletta sandwiches so when I saw this recipe pop up on Budget Bytes I knew we had to make it! We also love stromboli so this seemed like a perfect match. The only problem I had with it was I didn't love the flavor of the Muffaletta Salad we bought. Next time I'll try to make my own like the recipe says (we wanted it to be a quicker meal and the pre-made was on sale, ha ha!)
Sweet Potato Bread with Meringue Frosting
I made sweet potato muffins with leftover mashed sweet potatoes a couple years ago so when this recipe popped up on Jenna's Instagram I knew I would enjoy it. It was a fun Thanksgiving dessert! I don't have a kitchen torch so I improvised on the toasted meringue topping with a heavy duty lighter, hah! Then when I got to my Mom's I remembered she had one so I touched up a bit. The slideshow below also includes photos of the other 2 Thanksgiving bakes I did.
Jamaican Toto Cake
For Thanksgiving #2 with my Dad's side of the family we went with a Jamaican theme for our meal instead of traditional. Fun fact: my Dad's side of the family has some Jamaican heritage (among many other nationalities, ha ha) I googled Jamaican desserts and this one sounded fun and easy. It was tasty but the family thought it could use some sort of icing.
Honey & Olive Oil Rosemary Cornbread
I don't usually make recipes that are only posted on Instagram, but this one was too pretty to resist when it came up on my suggested Reels. I made this for Thanksgiving #2 (even though it didn't really go with the Jamaican theme) because one of my aunt's is lactose intolerant and this is diary free because it uses almond milk! It could also be gluten free but I used regular flour. They were a little cakier than I like for a cornbread but super tasty!
Almond Snowflake Cake
I got this shortbread and cake pan from the King Arthur Baking store on my birthday weekend and I wasn't exactly sure what to make in it first. I decided to just google snowflake cake and see what google popped out. I found this recipe for an almond cake and then decided to search America's Test Kitchen for an almond cake recipe to see if they were similar, since I had never heard of the blog before. I was originally going to go with the Test Kitchen recipe because it used less butter but when I actually went to bake it I didn't have enough almond flour so I went back to the original recipe I found. I also only had enough butter out for the original recipe so I had to do 2/3 of the recipe. What a struggle! (AND I used almond milk instead of regular since I had a ton leftover from the cornbread)
Unfortunately it didn't want to come out of the pan nicely even though I vigorously sprayed it. I guess next time I'll flour it too even though the recipe said just spray. But the flavor was great! Just not the best fit for the pan. Most of it came out clean but it wasn't the right texture for all the intricate details to be fully visible. I think I need something denser. Guess I'll try shortbread next since that's it's main purpose!
Chocolate Pecan Pie
I've had this pie recipe saved for a few years and finally got around to making it over Labor Day weekend. Christian helped me make it because he wants to perfect making pie crust. It was delicious and everyone who had a piece said it was good! They might have been being nice, but I believe them, ha ha! There's not much chocolate in it but you can definitely taste it! Sadly you need an America's Test Kitchen account for the recipe. I had downloaded it when I did a free trial in 2020. Might be time to get it again to refresh my recipes!
Coffee Cake
We barely needed sour cream for the pie crust recipe above but I didn't want to go off recipe so we bought it and I planned to make this coffee cake with the rest! I made it on a slow Monday morning (they're usually slow for me with the end of the week being busier) and had a piece for lunch, so good! I had to freeze half of it because I was leaving for a business trip in a few days so I got to enjoy the rest when I was home!
Hostess Sheet Cake as Birthday Cake
I made this back in June and Christian loved it so much he wanted it for his birthday cake. I made it into an 8x8 square so it would be more cake-like. This did present a bit of a problem because the cake was thicker and heavier so the filling oozed out a bit. I saved it by putting it back into the cake pan, so it's not the most photogenic cake, but was still delicious! As with last time I combined two recipes My Messy Kitchenn for the cake batter and Bakerella for the rest! (my phone was not cooperating so the colors are way off in this picture)
Giant Pretzel Bread
One weekend when I was over at my parents house my mom & I decided to make her giant pretzel bread. This is always a hit when she makes it, so fluffy with a healthy amount of salt (obviously you can put less on if you don't like salty pretzels.) I don't know where she got the recipe so typed it out if anyone wants to make it. It's super simple.
- 4 - 4½ cups flour
- 1 pkg. yeast
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 ½ tsp. salt
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup water
- 2 Tbsp. oil or melted butter
- 1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp. water
- Coarse salt
- In a large bowl, mix 1 ½ cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
- Heat milk, water and oil to 120-125° and add to dry ingredients.
- Beat 2 minutes on low, then increase to high and beat 2 minutes more.
- Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough.
- Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic (5 minutes).
- Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size (40-50 min).
- Punch dough down.
- Roll dough to 1" diameter rope (5 ½' long)
- Shape into a pretzel on greased baking sheet.
- Cover and let rest 15 minutes.
- Brush with beaten egg mixture and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake 375° for 25-30 minutes.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
I wasn't going to include these but thought it was funny! I went to a marketing convention at the end of last month and one of the exhibitors was giving out cookie mixes. Of course I had to grab one to see how they were. I ended up with shortbread cookies and chocolate chip because my client gave me his bag. I made the shortbread first with my mom & we used salted butter because I always do. Big mistake. They were SO SALTY. I couldn't even eat them after making a lemon glaze. When I made the chocolate chip cookies I decided to use my homemade butter that I left unsalted. Even that was not enough. If I took a bite of a cookie without a chocolate chip it was pure salt. GROSS! Note to self: don't trust pre-made mixes anymore. At least I have an amusing story to tell.
Birthday Cake
Saving the best for last. My birthday was last Friday and Christian insisted on making me a cake because I always make something for him. So cute! He used Butternut Bakery's funfetti cake recipe and it came out great! (he used unsalted butter and the frosting tasted a little funky to me becasue I don't like unsalted butter, haha! Funny how I don't like the butter you're supposed to use) We ate a couple slices and then froze the rest so we could enjoy it slowly.
It's been a while (exactly 2 months) since my last baking roundup! With our vacation to Florida at the beginning of July and a lot of weekend plans I haven't had much time to bake on the weekends. We have a wide variety of bakes this time, which is always fun to see! Of course I baked some of my old standbys, like the focaccia, but there are also a few new recipes here. One of which Christian has declared one of his favorite bakes ever...
Lemon Blueberry Loaf
The first time I made this I used small wild blueberries and they made it too dense. This time I used regular sized blueberries and it worked much better. Which is a shame because I actually don't like large blueberries, haha! So I may have to figure out a solution to use wild ones, probably half the amount.
Whipped Cream Dream Cake
This recipe popped up on King Arthur's Instagram and since I had some leftover cream from another recipe it was perfect timing! It was super easy to make, although I accidentally set the oven to 350 instead of 375 - oh no! I baked it a bit longer until it bounced back and a toothpick came out clean so no harm done. But I definitely panicked for a minute. The topping was a fun added touch to the super fluffy cake. Will definitely be making this again any time I have extra heavy cream.
Pillsbury Boxed Brownies - Upgraded
Sometimes you just want a quick and easy dessert. I always grab some boxed brownie mix if its on good sale for those nights when I want dessert but don't feel like actually baking. In this instance I did make a few modifications. I added chocolate chips and made a quick frosting (recipe from Butternut Bakery's Lunch Lady Brownies.) It only took a few extra minutes and made the boxed brownies feel even more homemade!
Rosemary Focaccia
I looooove focaccia and whenever we have little tomatoes ready to harvest from the garden I like to make a rosemary focaccia and sprinkle them on top as well. I can't remember if I had used this recipe before because I usually want a quick focaccia and this recipe has a longer rise. It can rest in the fridge until I am ready to bake. I made the dough on Sunday and baked it up on Tuesday for the rest of our weekly lunches! Since extra virgin olive oil is one of the main ingredients in focaccia, I figured it was the perfect time to use our super fancy California Olive Ranch Reserve Collection: Arbequina olive oil.
Lemon Love Notes
I wanted to make something light for a last minute barbecue my mom had. I looked in one of my few actual cookbooks - Bar Cookies A to Z - and found these lemon love notes bars. We had a lemon I wanted to use up as well as sweetened coconut flakes so it was perfect! I halved the recipe and made it in my Le Creuset Heritage Rectangle dish instead of a 9x13in pan.
Homemade Fudge Rounds
The second Christian saw photos of these cookies pop up on my feed he said I had to make them. They were also part of Handle the Heat's August Baking Challenge so I entered a giveaway when making them! You can still enter for a few more days just by baking them and submitting a photo on her site (linked above!) They were super easy to make and Christian declared them a top 5 dessert. High praise!
