As we close out the year and head into the next it is the perfect time to reflect. I started baking because I did not know how to bake, but I loved pastries! The first desserts I baked were all inspired by things I loved, but couldn't dream of making. This most recent treat, Kanellängd fits right in that bucket.
I was watching the Great American Baking Show Holiday Edition (quite the mouth full of a title), and watched them make Christmas breads. The Kanellängd looked challenging, but not impossible. So I decided to whip it up for Christmas. It is a Swedish cinnamon bread that resembles cinnamon buns, but is not as sweet. The bread was fun to make because the dessert stays together as one long bread. I highly recommend trying this out and baking it in advance of Christmas morning. Just make sure to allocate enough time for multiple sessions of letting it proof. As always, I made a video of me trying it out for the first time. Take a peak and let me know if you try it out! I went to Maine a few weekends ago and picked up a new cookbook. This book is unique because it is to make charcuterie boards. There are many different items in this book that you can make. One of them is breads and crackers. I was in the mood to bake so I picked the easiest bread I could find. It happened to be a Guinness brown bread. For whatever reason I did not fully think that meant there is Guinness in the bread. So that and buttermilk were the ingredients I needed to pick up. And apparently they do not just sell one bottle of Guinness, you have to buy a whole box. So if any of you want an almost full box of Guinness, let me know. It is still sitting in my car because I did not want to carry the whole thing inside so I grabbed the one bottle I needed for the recipe and left the rest in my car.
But, what is truly amazing about this bread is that it pairs well with SO many things. I was having chili when I was baking it, so it went well with that, but it also went well with peanut butter and honey the next morning. It also went well with honey walnut cream cheese the day after that. I am honestly craving this bread so badly right now. It was the perfect start to my morning because it was satisfying but also healthier than a bagel (I hope). I highly recommend that you give this bad boy a try! And maybe even try it with a charcuterie board like it is supposed to go with! I finally found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. What makes these even more special is that I added my own spin to it. I looked up a recipe for soft chocolate chips cookies and picked one I thought looked good. I think the trick is to whip the butter and sugar in the beginning. We often have to do this for cakes, but I am not sure if I have done it for cookies... so that and the fact each cookies was 3 tablespoons of dough had me sold.
I was also really hungry when I was making these so I wanted a cookie that had more bite to it. To achieve this, at the end I added oatmeal, pistachios and pecans. I also used large chocolate chunks rather than chocolate chips. Of course, I under cooked them in the oven by 1-2 minutes, then let them cool for 10 minutes. I think this is the secret to perfectly cooked desserts. Everything continues to bake once it is out of the oven so I like to take things out when I think they are too underdone and then pray they firm up a bit after letting them cool. Thankfully, they do so I'll keep using this trick for awhile. In my unbiased, actually overly critical opinion, I think these cookies were the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. They were bakery level cookies! I would definitely bring these over to someone's house for a house warming gift. You will shock your friends with how good these are. Chocolate banana pecan cookies are some of my favorite cookies, if not my favorite cookies. They are gooey, chocolatey, and melt in your mouth. I could not ask for any more from cookies. They are a mix between crinkle cookies and chocolate chip cookies so they are the best of both worlds. I don't think they look as appetizing as either, but if you give them a try you will not be disappointed.
The batter does not make as many cookies as I'd like, but they make enough for a small crowd. There are a few extra steps after making the dough. You have to form the balls, coat them in chopped pecans, chill them, then roll them in powdered sugar. You probably could guess that I did not chill them because I hate waiting for things to chill while baking. I want to be able to start and finish baking the cookies all at once. The only time I could imagine letting them chill is if you wanted to make the dough in advance of baking them, then I think chilling them would be preferable. Check out my latest video (vlog #16) for how to make them! I was craving cinnamon rolls for a few days and I figured why not try them out. These just solidified that baking is hard. Getting dough to rise is hard. And knowing how much frosting to use is hard.
I am making them sound a lot worse than they were. They were delicious. But I was surprised how difficult they were to make. I imagined I would make these in the morning for someone's birthday but with how long they take and the fact that they taste no better than the Pillsbury ones, I might suggest just using the ones from the can. Now I know why everyone has their own secret recipes. Once you find a recipe you really like, you need to stick to it. Maybe I'll try a different recipe and see if I can get the dough to rise because mine did not really rise until they were in the oven. Vlog #15 I don’t know why I haven't tried making tiramisu before, but today I finally did! It wasn't as hard as I thought, but still a bit tricky. Thankfully, tiramisu does not need to bake, but it does need to chill overnight.
It is a classic dessert that I think I would make more moving forward. Maybe I would try making it in little containers so it is easier to serve. The tiramisu is currently in the fridge firming up before I add the cacao powder over top. Once the cacao powder is on top, then it will chill in the fridge until tomorrow. This is the second week that I am making a caffeinated dessert so proceed with caution on the time of day you consume it. Vlog #14 These cakes were definitely a stretch for me. They were complex and took several hours to prep. They did get good reviews from my taste tester, Quinn, but I was a bit harsher on them. I think the more I bake the more critical I am on the treats. Quinn gave them a 9/10 and I think they came in at a 7/10. I was expecting them to have a sponge like texture and in reality they had a bread like consistency.
The frosting was my favorite part though! It was a really rich espresso icing. I absolutely love espresso so it make sense that I would enjoy the frosting so much. I will warn you and say be careful what time of day you eat these because of the caffeine. They are well suited to pair with your morning coffee or afternoon tea. We all need that pick me up around 2 PM and these will do the trick. Here is the link for my latest video, vlog #13. I used to say the French Apple Cake was the the dessert I would bring to a dinner party. But, I did not think about what I would bake if I were hosting a dinner party. This past weekend I realized there is a vast difference between what you make if you are going somewhere versus what you have time to make if you are the one having people over.
Snickerdoodle cookies are the perfect, quick and easy dessert to make if you are also buying the groceries, cleaning the house and cooking the food. They smell delicious and are even easier than chocolate chip cookies. I also like that you can make the dough in advance and enlist the help of your friends to coat them in the cinnamon and sugar. Take the dough out of the fridge once dinner is over and set up your assembly line. Roll them into 1-inch balls and coat them in the sugar mixture then place them onto the tray. They also only take 8 minutes in the oven so no fuss! To follow along with me, checkout one of my first videos. All the way back to vlog #4! ![]() I admittedly have never baked with tahini before this past weekend. I did not realize how uncommon it was to bake with until a few people asked me about it. I had to do a lot of googling to see if there were different types and there are in fact different types of tahini. I bought both raw and toasted to see the difference for myself. The toasted tahini is much sweeter so I ended up using that one. My favorite part about these brownies is the marble effect on top. It is an elegant topping for a very decadent dessert. The design looks very intricate and complex, but I learned it is very simple to execute. You simply dollop the tahini on top and take a fork and slowly swirl it into the batter. That is all it takes, dollop and swirl! One small thing I want to highlight is that I used half vegan butter and half regular butter. I only did this because I did not have enough regular butter on hand. I don't think it made much of a difference other than the brownies coming out a bit lighter in color. Here is the link to vlog #12 to follow along with me. This past weekend I made cranberry oat biscuits. They were supposed to have a white chocolate top, but I could not find white chocolate chips so I used funfetti vanilla cake chips instead. Ultimately, they were not an apples to apples alternative, but I am glad I at least had some sort of topping.
Even though these were not a homerun, I am glad I tried out a few new techniques. I hadn't tempered chocolate and coated biscuits with them before. It was harder than it looks. I had to spoon the melted chocolate on top of the biscuits and spread them out evenly. I just saw a video with Martha Stewart holding the cookie and dipping it into the frosting to get an even coating. I am not sure if that would have worked with the consistency of the funfetti chocolate, but I'd try it out next time. I should also highlight that these were not traditional cookies, they were biscuits. Which essentially means drier cookies... but that is okay, I think everyone needs a break from a sickeningly sweet treat every once and awhile. I do actually think the biscuits might have been better without the chocolate, but I wanted to follow the recipe. I think these would pair perfectly with a cup of tea on a snowy Sunday afternoon. Check out vlog #11 for how to make them! |
RACHEl QuinnFeeding my soul |