Chocolate Chip. Boozy. Nutella Brownies. When it comes to baking supplies, I am a hoarder.
Whether we’re talking about cupcake liners, specialty pans, or candy – my cupboards are overflowing with all the goods. And sometimes inspiration just happens to slap me in the face – literally. Last week, while making a feeble attempt at tidying my baking supplies, several packs of Ferrero Rocher chocolates flew out of the cupboard and straight into my face. In case you aren’t familiar with Ferrero Rocher, allow me to enlighten you. They are a layered chocolate candy that consists of a whole hazelnut surrounded by a smooth chocolate cream inside a wafer shell that is covered with chocolate and bits of hazelnuts. I immediately popped one into my mouth – ya know for quality control. Strawberries and dumplings. Have you met my favorite chicken and dumpling dish?
Black Bottom Banoffee Pie with a Pretzel Crust…from Fields of Cake. Folks…you are in for one heck of a treat today.
My friend Carrie (a true friend, I love her!) Of Fields of Cake has made the most amazing Banoffee Pie for you. Ah-Maze-Ing.
Peanut Butter. Cream Cheese. Candy and Caramel Apple Pie. So sorry.
I wanted to, I did. But I didn’t have a torch. So I thought about using the broiler method, and was going to do it Monday for dessert. Alas, during my baking for the cafe I used all of the heavy cream and had none to make said creme brulee. Nor was there time for a rewind. Spice. Blueberry. Cherry. Pitted Fruit. Lemon and Lime.
Pumpkin. Aunt Norma's Rhubarb Muffins Recipe. Poppyseed Bread from the not so Desperate Housewives. My mother-in-law Sheri has a large tight knit group of friends that have been together through the thick and thin of each other’s lives.
They remind me of the Desperate Housewives without the desperate part. Okay so the only resemblance to the Desperate Housewives is probably the fact that they all live by each other and know everything about each other. The women from Steel Magnolias would be a better fitting description. Candy Bar Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches. Candy Bar Cookies?
Have I gone mad? Well, no but was craving some chocolate….sorry for those of you who are so good and still dieting I used the same technique I’ve been using with those giant Oreo Stuffed Cookies and am just loving it. Homemade Fig Newtons. Creative Loafing Charlotte Browse Music Browse News Browse Arts Browse Food and Drink Browse Film Browse Sex and Love.
Austrian raspberry shortbread. If there is anything I am always on the prowl for–besides artichokes, cookie cutters and green anything–it is variations on classic recipes.
It’s a sticky thing, of course, because the originals earned their prized state for being blissful the way they are. But I can’t help it–I see a twist, a curve, a departure, or in this case, once again, a grater and I can’t resist. In my mind, there are few cookie combinations as satisfying as a butter cookie with raspberry, and whether you make them into bars, sandwiches or thumbprints.
But all varieties have a certain density that attracts shortbread-junkies like me, but repels those who want a less weighty cookie experience. Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Topped Shortbread. There are few things more rewarding than being able to successfully prepare a chewy, buttery caramel. It’s a scary process for many, but, well, I don’t get scared too easily. Let’s determine why NOT to be scared. Butter. Sugar. A little Cream. I have $2. If it fails, it fails. So now let’s go over why you SHOULD make caramel yourself. Potato chip cookies. When I was in the 4th grade, my lunch table mates had a habit of taking the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that their mothers had lovingly prepared, (trimmed of crusts, devoid of frights like gloppy grape jelly) opening them up, arranging some potato chips over the filling and smooshing the sides back together again before eating them.
I don’t have a single other school lunch memory to draw from. Cranberry pecan frangipane tart. I am the first to admit that I do not create nearly enough of my *own* recipes. Oh, I tweak, I adapt. I skip some things and add others. But I don’t often enough decide that I want something enough to go out and find my own way to get there, which is a shame because when I do, it is never nearly the disaster I expect it to be. And when I do, it makes me so happy, so Deb (as I was the only person in this room) let this be a lesson to you: do this more often, okay?
Case in point, vowing to give the fresh whole cranberry more of a spotlight this year, I had been trying to figure out what kind of tart could be made with it for weeks, (Yes, besides that one .) but kept coming back to the idea of burying them in some sort of custard or filling to offset how tart they’d be.