We've got an interesting mix this week, including some garden grown eats! We don't have a lot of variety growing in our garden this year (a lot didn't make it) but we've got plenty of basil, cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini!
Peanut Butter Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal
We were getting a lot of zucchini in the garden so I decided to try out this baked oatmeal recipe for breakfasts! The hardest part was grating the zucchini (aka - the recipe was very simple!) After I made one batch I went ahead and made a second and froze individual squares to reheat on demand. I don't usually eat breakfast during the week but I could definitely see myself making this a regular thing.
Pullman Loaf Bread / Pain de Mie
I got a Pullman loaf pan for Christmas this past year and have been trying to make a perfect loaf. The first few times I used a King Arthur recipe but it just wasn't working for me. I thought it was because I was making errors somehow or it was too cold to rise properly, but I tried this new recipe and it worked perfectly! The flavor of the King Arthur version was great, it just never filled the pan for me. I could probably adjust the recipe to make more dough but now that I found this recipe I don't really need to.
Flourless Chocolate Cookies
I saw someone post these on reddit and they looked simple and tasty so I decided to try them out! They were a little messy to portion out because it is super liquidy, but they came out tasty! It's also a small batch of only 8 cookies so good if you don't want to make a ton. Not sure I'll make them again because they were tough to get off the parchment, but the flavor was good.
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart Shortbread
I have had this recipe saved for a while and finally decided to make it! Brown sugar pop tarts are definitely the best flavor, but I always hate how little frosting they had on them. This recipe solved that by having every bit frosted, plus its easier than making pie dough.
Milk Street's Stovetop Chocolate Cake
I don't remember where I first saw this recipe mentioned, but it sounded fun and easy so I gave it a shot one night before making dinner! Christopher Kimball, formerly of America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated/etc., started Milk Street in 2016 to continue his culinary career. If you don't have a membership you can also find the recipe here (I signed up for 12 weeks for $1!)
I only had an 8in pan instead of 9 so I knew I would have to steam it a little longer. It ended up taking 60-ish minutes instead of 23. It was delicious! Christian thought the texture was weird, but I enjoyed how steaming made it soft and light!
Mini Loaf Pan Focaccia
Our garden was in tomato producing mode so I decided to make some focaccia with them. I found this small batch recipe a while ago (I think I posted it once already) and find it's easier for us since there's only two of us. I make one for each of us and we can eat it all at once or in 2 servings. Along with the tomatoes I used basil from the garden! I almost could have used garden rosemary too but I had to buy some a couple weeks before when ours wasn't ready so I wanted to finish that up. I went a little extra and put our initials on them, ha ha.
Brookies
I first made these when they were a newsletter subscriber exclusive, but she has since posted the recipe on the blog! Jenna of Butternut Bakery shared herself testing these on her Instagram stories in May and I knew I would have to make them the moment she posted the recipe. Sadly, for me, she said in the post that they wouldn't be posted until after her maternity leave. THEN she got so much love for them that she decided to release the recipe for email subscribers only before she created the full blog post. I was missing one ingredient so I had to wait until after our next grocery store trip to make them. They were so easy to make and super delicious! I slightly underbaked them (my pan was a little smaller than what the recipe called for) at first so I threw them back in the oven for about 10 minutes the next day and that fixed them up! The brownie layer is super fudgy and the cookie on top had almost a brownie-like crackle on top. So perfect!
S'mores Fudge Bars
Easy Blueberry Muffin Cake
Birthday Cake Confetti Cookie Bars
My brother's birthday was during our annual family camping trip so I decided to make him a little birthday treat! This recipe is from Handle the Heat's The Ultimate Cookie Handbook. I increased the recipe to fit in my large Le Creuset dish because there were 12 of us. They were quite a hit with our whole group, almost everyone had two. Christian and I had the last few for breakfast the next morning, haha! It's such a fun, colorful and easy birthday treat to make instead of a cake.
Moist Chocolate Cake (aka Matilda Cake)
Buckeyes
We're getting closer to Summer which means trying some lighter bakes. I remade some past favorites and also tried some new recipes that will definitely be added into the rotation.
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Every few months I'll mix up a batch of these cookies, let the dough marinate, form the cookies and then freeze them so we can have fresh cookies whenever we want. They are so good and always come out perfect. What's not to love about a chewy, buttery, chocolatey cookie!?
Strawberry Lemonade Bars
These popped up a King Arthur Baking email and I knew Christian would love them. I still had some freeze dried strawberries in the pantry and we had some extra lemons hanging around so I decided to try them out! They were super easy to make, bars and frosting, so I was able to do it on a Monday in between work tasks. Christian really enjoyed it and I wasn't a huge fan of the frosting. I'm not a huge buttercream person so that's probably why.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
I made these super quick one night because we were heading to my aunt's house the next day and I figured I should bring a tasty dessert! I wasn't in the mood to make cookies or a brownie but cookie bars sounded pretty good! I think I found my new "I want cookies but I don't want to make cookies" recipe, ha ha! I forgot to take a good picture after we cut them up, so a post-bake shot will do.
Strawberry Bundt Cake
This bake has become a "welcome to Spring" tradition bake for me. I made it for Mother's Day this year and as usual the family devoured it. So delicious. I love that it uses real strawberries in the batter and the freeze-dried strawberries in the frosting really bring the strawberry flavor punch.
ChocohotoPots
Whenever we don't have dessert in the house and are really craving something sweet I whip up a batch of chocohotopots! They last us two nights because I bake 2 the night of and then we have 2 more in the fridge that I'll bake fresh next time. These are from the past couple times I've made them this year.
Chocolate Fudge Cake Doughnuts
It's been a while since I used my donut pan and when Christian and I were watching something on TV they had donuts and we thought "maybe we should have some." I decided to try a King Arthur recipe for chocolate donuts with chocolate frosting this time. They came out so great! Little pops of chocolate chips were a nice surprise. (Previously I made chocolate donuts with glaze that were also pretty tasty.)
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
