I made these cookies at the cafe I work at, and of course I had to taste one for testing purposes only, and they were just so good that I had to make them at home. At the cafe I made them with chocolate in the middle, but at home I made them with homemade strawberry jam in the middle, and they were delicious! They spread a little more than I would have hoped they would, but they were very yummy. That's why I have in the instructions to put them back in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. They also take longer than you would think to bake so make sure they are all the way baked before you take them out of the oven or else they will be pure shortbread dough in the middle.
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Today the most annoying thing happened. The big news all-day long was how we were going to get hit with this huge summer storm in the afternoon. There was a tornado watch in effect, the national weather service had warnings going all day, they even taped over the national news with the local news to talk more and more about the storm (I hate when they do that)! Guess what we got? Rain. For 2 minutes. Most people I asked didn't even know it rained. I love summer storms and they got me allll excited and then we got rain. So annoying. I'm never going to be a weatherman, they're just so disappointing!
Anyways, on to cookies. I got up at 7:45 p.m. tonight from my couch and said to my dad, "Guess what?". "What, Katherine?". "I'm going to go make cookies!". "Ohhh, awesome. Go do it!". I love when my family members want me to make food. My mom came home and got super annoyed because she's like on a diet or whatever but we can ignore that. These are really good. If you've never used vanilla bean before (it was my first time, too!), it's really easy and so delicious. Everyone's so used to vanilla in their cookies that we don't realize how delicious of a spice it is. I also love the speckled effect. I used a vanilla bean in the cookie dough and then just used vanilla bean paste in the glaze because I like it better and had it on hand, but you can also just follow the recipe. Also enjoy this lovely picture of my brother gnawing on one of my cookies approximately 5 seconds after I said they were done. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, and especially my one and only dad! He is the best, and what do the best dads deserve? Chocolate mousse, of course. We went out to dinner a couple weeks ago to celebrate my graduation and they had chocolate mousse as an option on the dessert menu, and my dad said it was one of his all-time favorite desserts, so he couldn't let it down. So, we ordered it, but I thought to myself, how did I never know chocolate mousse was one of my dad's all-time favorite desserts? It's so easy to make! So, two weeks later, enter the chocolate mousse for Father's Day. He loved it, as he should, it was delicious! I don't have much experience with mousse but I was told it's much denser than most mousse's, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless, chocolate mousse can be made many different ways so this is just one of them, and it was still delicious!
I make this apple crumb tart at the cafe I work at and it is so delicious! I've gotten so many great reviews on it, plus it's one of my personal favorites. The trick is that you cook the apple beforehand, so first of all they're delicious, because you cook them with sugar, butter, and cinnamon so you can be sure the apples have fully incorporated all those ingredients by cooking them with them beforehand. Also, it make it so that the tart doesn't shrink in the oven because all the juices from the apples have already been released. So, it's a win, win. And the crumb topping really makes it. A great summer dessert!
Dessert number three of what I made for my graduation party (out of six). I invited a lot of my friends to the party, so my dad was thinking that I had way too many desserts, but sure enough my friends went ham on them, just as I thought, and we had only one container-full left of them. But as I pointed out to my dad, I think that if you have enough food, whether it's dinner food or dessert, that means that you will have extra. If you have too much food you will have way too much extra, but I think I made the perfect amount, because we really didn't have that much left. Literally the second after I brought out the first 4 of 8 platters, everyone was out of their seats. No joke. I had to get through the crowd to being out the rest of the platters. It was insane, but also so wonderful.
Anyways, red velvet cupcakes. Pretty much heaven on earth. People were asking me, is there really any difference between chocolate cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes except for the food dye? The answer is yes and no. Chocolate cake usually has melted chocolate in it in addition to cocoa powder to really make it chocolate-y, while red velvet cake only has cocoa powder, so it's not as chocolate-y. It also typically has buttermilk and vinegar in it, whereas most chocolate cakes may have buttermilk but almost never have vinegar. Lastly, I think red velvet cake is usually a bit denser than chocolate cake. Most people like fluffy chocolate cake, but red velvet cake is best with fine crumbs and a bit more dense. It is also topped with cream cheese frosting, which is so good. So that's what I interpret as being the difference, but nevertheless, they're both still amazing. Saturday was my graduation party, and of course, I was on charge of all the desserts, yay! It was so much fun to make all the desserts. I made six different desserts: chocolate chip cookies (of course), chocolate chip pecan shortbread cookies (my mom's secret best cookie ever), double chocolate sable cookies, red velvet cupcakes (coming soon), apple crumb tart (also coming soon), and then lemon bars. I had no idea, but everyone was so excited for the lemon bars! It was so many people's favorite desserts! Even my aunt, who is definitely not a dessert person (I know, crazy, right?) loved these and said they were amazing. Also, they're so great for the summer! They're nice and fresh with just the right amount of sweetness and sourness. Even I liked them, and I'm not a huge fan of lemon desserts, so that must mean they're good, right?
I graduate from high school in 2 days!! I'm so excited! I used to be in the orchestra and so I would go to graduation to play pomp and circumstance and just couldn't wait until I was one of those kids in the ugly maroon gowns. Well, this Sunday, I am, and I'm really happy about it. So, what do I do to celebrate? Make cake, of course. We are going out to dinner tonight at this nice French restaurant and I'm really excited. I looked at their menu online and it all looks so yummy. So, I made this cake to come home to for dessert. And, there is a surprise inside the cake. Well, it probably doesn't come as much of a surprise given the name of the cake, but there are sprinkles in the cake! It looked so awesome. I used confetti/quin sprinkles, which I think work really well because they look awesome but don't bleed into the batter to give you weird, ucky ranbow bake. It was also delicious, as per usual. A great cake for birthday celebrations, too!
Right now I am on the paleo diet, which means I successfully made a whole batch of delicious chocolate cookies without having ANY of the dough. It was hard, I have to say. There were times when I took a little piece and stared at it for a solid minute before just throwing it in the sink so I couldn't eat it. However, I did try like one-sixth of one of the cookies to make sure they were good. They looked good, but if I was going to put them on my blog I had to know they were good. And guess what, they were... they were really good. They have the texture and look of a chewy gingersnap but they taste like pure chocolate heaven. They do have to refrigerate, but other than that these are super easy and quick to make!
Anyone else know of Peanut Butter Patties? They are the beloved Girl Scout cookies that have a circular piece of shortbread with peanut butter and dipped completely in chocolate. One day we saw them being sold outside of Shaw's, and having been a Girl Scout for so many years I just had to buy at least one box to support them, so I bought a box of peanut butter patties, thin mints, and caramel delites, which are the three best flavors, trust me. The peanut butter patties were gone by the end of the night, the caramel delites by the next morning, and the thin mints by the day after. My family was mostly responsible for this, but nevertheless, peanut butter patties have always been my favorite, Peanut butter and chocolate is a match made in heaven, I mean seriously.
These bars are extremely easy, take only about 15 minutes of preparation, and they look so impressive after slicing them! I mean look at those pictures, I was so proud. And, next time you're really in the mood for those iconic Girl Scout cookies, you can get them right from your kitchen! I haven't blogged a recipe for a while now, and I apologize to all the people who are just desperately waiting for a new one to come out, I know you missed me. If you're wondering, I actually have been baking a lot, but not new recipes. I made chocolate chip cookies, cream puffs, brownies, and what not for events or other things, but I haven't made a new recipe to put on here. So, today I wanted to not only make a new recipe but one that was kind of summer-y because it is such a beautiful spring day out. Also because this past Friday was my very last day of high school, so I'm done! So now it's practically summer for me, which means I am working more shifts at the cafe I work at and therefore baking a lot more (I bake for a cafe)! I'm really excited, plus I have all these fun senior activities coming up soon and my graduation is in less than a month, so I'll be having lots of fun.
Anyways, back to the recipe, these bars are soooo quick and easy, and they're so delicious! I love the little touch of cinnamon. You wouldn't think it goes but it does. My one tip would be wait probably at least an hour before slicing the bars, or maybe only half an hour to slice and then an hour to remove them from the pan. They don't stick to the pan but they're not very firm they're kind of like a slightly firmer crumble, so they need to firm up before they can look like bars when you remove them so give them time. Otherwise, great, delicious recipe! |
AuthorMy name is Katherine and I love, love, love to bake! You can find all my baking adventures on this blog, plus you can follow me on Social Media by clicking below! Archives
January 2016
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