heart brownie roll-out cookies

as i was prepping the dough for smitten kitchen's brownie roll out cookies (you see, i was determined to make more heart shaped things for valentine's day), i reflected over my aforementioned affection for the holiday.

to be clear, thanksgiving and christmas are on top of my favorite holidays list, but i suppose you could say that valentine's day is third (or dead last considering i couldn't care less about all the other ones.  i think... mainly because none of them are 'pretty'.).

yes, it's true that i have been in a relationship for every valentine's day since 1999, but i really do mean it when i say that has nothing to do with it!  i have never had one of those swoon-worthy, over the top romantic valentine's day, and nor do i particularly want or expect them.  rather, i look to anniversaries for those moments, because those clearly have more meaning.

my fondness for this day primarily stems from childhood-- i have strong memories of decorating treat bags and eating cupcakes from PTO moms at valentine's parties at school.  every year, i went to the store with my mom and carefully picked out the cards i'd be distributing.  i remember many of them, my card selections ranged from strawberry shortcake, bears in sweaters holding a corresponding colored crayon, and cartoony dinosaurs.  this may be why, as an adult, i've tried to mimic these childish joys at the work place.  so, i printed out these free cards to pass out with these cookies. and because ilikethemSOmuch, i left a slew of them around the apartment for bffbf to find. 

these are the simplest roll out cookies i have ever made. generally speaking, i avoid cut-out cookies because typically i find the dough unwieldy even after refrigerating, and once baked, they tend to be hard and sandy, and i prefer soft and chewy.   instead, these have a semi-soft texture when you bite into them, and are quite tasty.  as you can see, i popped in some color by adding large heart sprinkles that i impulsively purchased during a recent grocery run.

i don't normally buy sprinkles. or eat them.  turns out they're disgusting.

disgusting but cute.

happy valentine's day!

earl grey cupcakes with lavender swiss meringue buttercream

happy valentine's day!
whether you love or hate this holiday, there is no denying that at the very least, it is an excellent excuse to eat something sugary and delicious.  i myself have mixed feelings about valentine's day, but always like an opportunity to be a fatty... which is why i made these earl grey cupcakes with lavender swiss meringue buttercream.

i am really into earl grey and lavender.  
separately // or combined // in my desserts

i made these recently, without having a clear idea on how they'd turn out, because i wasn't really sure what i was doing.  luckily, everything went smoothly, and they were well received by a handful of taste-testers.

makes about 52 minis, or roughly 18-20 regular cupcakes
i halved the recipe and made minis

ingredients

1 cup almond milk *

4 earl grey tea bags 

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar 

1 stick of butter, room temp 

4 large eggs

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

a few drops of lavender extract (optional- but also used in the frosting)

in a small saucepan, heat the milk until it's barely bubbling. turn the heat off, and steep the tea bags for about thirty minutes.   i chose tazo earl grey infused bergamot + lavender to pair with the frosting.  squeeze the tea bags as much as possible to get the excess liquid out, so you don't lose too much of the liquid (i capped the milk back up to the full amount before using). discard teabags. set aside prepared milk. 

sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. set aside.

cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated.   add the sifted flour/baking powder/salt mixture in a few batches, alternating with the tea-infused milk, beating until combined.   at this time, you can also add a few drops of lavender extract if you wish to enhance the flavor profile.

spoon batter into prepared cupcake pans until 2/3 full.  bake for 16-22 minutes for mini cupcakes at 350F.  about 22-26 minutes for regular cupcakes (this one is just a rough guess).

*i used almond milk, but you can use reg milk

i used martha stewart's swiss meringue buttercream recipe for the frosting, and added lavender extract at the end, during the final blending (and followed her instructions about the coloring).  i suggest starting with a conservative 1/4 tsp of lavender extract and taste, working your way up to a strength that you like.

the result is a not too sweet, moist cupcake with subtle (but notable) flavors. 

enjoy!

if you find yourself desperate for a card today, it's not too late-- download and print my free valentine's day card.   

cashew butter cups

i made these over christmas but thought i'd share them now as another dessert filled holiday will be shortly upon us (we should really space these out better).  

like all americans, i am a big fan of peanut butter, but i am also quite partial to the fancy cashew butter.  so when i added this recipe to my holiday baking list, i thought that cashew butter cups would be nice twist on a classic favorite.

just substitute cashew butter for the peanut butter in the recipe. i also suggest using dark chocolate to combat the sweetness.

any baking plans for valentine's?

berry + toasted rice white chocolate bark recipe

i thought of this festive looking white chocolate bark mixture a couple weeks ago, while i was taking a long walk on the beach.  there are still/only four days until christmas, but it is definitely not too late to make a batch of this berry + toasted rice white chocolate bark.  

bark is easy to make, and there are recipes all over the web that are all pretty much identical... but here is the way i made mine.

ingredients
about 32 oz of white chocolate (i used ghiradelli white chocolate candy dipping and baking bar, which is 40oz, available at sam's club if you have a membership- or know someone that does)
toasted rice cereal
freeze dried strawberries (i used trader joe's freeze dried berries, see picture below)
freeze dried raspberries

line a 9"x12" rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
melt the chocolate (i used the heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water method).
pour in some toasted rice cereal and stir it up (look at me, trying to be different). i just eyeballed the amount, but it was probably at least 2-3 cups.
spread the white chocolate/rice cereal mixture into the prepared pan, and smooth into an even layer.
sprinkle more rice cereal and the freeze dried berries all over the top, until evenly covered.*  let the bark set- you can speed it up by sticking it in the fridge for a little while. break or chop the bark into pieces.
package it up alone or with some other homemade treats.

*the freeze dried berries are unsweetened and rather tart, but i think that the tartness helps balance the intense sweetness of the white chocolate.  i found that one 1.2oz bag of each berry was more than enough for for one batch.  quite a lot of the berries had been crushed into powder on the bottom, and i also sprinkled the powder all over to add color and texture contrast.  

thanksgiving

partially actualized christmas baking fantasies

every christmas i suffer from baking fantasies. i daydream about packing up perfect boxes with a large variety of delicious treats, and promptly becoming the most celebrated and loved person in the office and among my friends. this of course never happens. there usually is way too much going on and the holiday baking dreams fall to the wayside, and i become a slave to my sewing machine.

however, this year i was determined to do something. last year, under the influence of my hopeful delusions, i had purchased a couple of new cookie cutters, that i failed to even remove from the packaging. last week, i decided i couldn't let another whole year slide by without using them... so i made gingerbread men and snowflakes for the work folks using this recipe, (the chewy version). if i made these again, i think i'd add a lot more spice in it, but that's just how i prefer my gingerbread cookies.

aside from the fact that i made a complete mess of my kitchen two days in a row, and i discovered that taking one wilton cake decorating class almost ten years ago does not mean that decorating cookies will be a breeze, i'd consider it to be a moderate success. i packaged them individually in cellophane bags with twisty ties and made little round stickers that said "i hope you like gingerbread. i'm really sorry if you don't. happy holidays!". not quite the elaborate boxes of decadent treats, but as they say, it's the thought that counts, right?

the comments i have received about the gingerbread have been sending me into fits of laughter, mostly because of their cannabalistic references (not that actual cannabalism is funny...). 

take this comment, for example from one coworker:

"i went for the arm first, but then i couldn't stand him looking at me,  so then i ate the head."

and this e-mail from another:

"thank you for the gingerbread man! it’s REALLY good. i ate its' head and will probably save his body for j, or maybe, just save one foot for him."

thank you bakingbites for the gingerbread man + scarf idea.

who loves macarons?

i do! do you?

a nice slap on the ear

as we find ourselves facing june, i can't ignore the looming texas summer any longer. the heat. the humidity. the utter nastiness.... causing me to experience an overwhelming amount of reverse homesickness for finland, and finnish treats, of course. i suggested to the husband that we take a stab at making korvapuusti (a finnish pastry reminiscent of a cinnamon bun), and he was immediately on board. roughly translated, korvapuusti means "slap on the ear".  this is a very common sweet bread that you can find easily in a grocery store, either in the bakery section or the frozen food section in finland. it is also easily found in cafes, pretty much everywhere in the country (as far as i have seen, at least). korvapuusti is part of a larger, more general term for sweet breads, pulla, which can either be similar to the korvapuusti, or more closely resemble what americans consider 'danishes'.

it was my first time working with yeast, and the results weren't too shabby.

the coffee time menu

happy may day!
in my last post, i babbled about our last coffee time, and promised you details on the menu. i am here to deliver that promise. be warned. this is going to be long.

we served the following:
coffee and tea
finnish chocolates
white chocolate + lemon- orange cake
flourless chocolate cake (which became a flourless chili chocolate cake but you couldn't taste the chili, really)
zucchini + goat cheese muffins
ham + cheese crisps

afternoon tea- i mean, coffee- time

one of the things i miss about living in finland is the tradition of having coffee time in your home. coffee time is the same idea as the traditional english tea time, but the finns are much more fervent coffee drinkers than tea drinkers. i think i once heard somewhere that finns drink more coffee per person than any other country in the world. you would think that finnish coffee is superb with that kind of ranking, but i'm sorry to report that it's not. it's really not. in fact, it's closer to awful, and i assure you, i am not the only non-finn who will heartily agree. however, the tradition itself is lovely, and you always have the option of taking tea, and normally have an opportunity to have some kind of sweet or savory pastry.

globetrotting adventures - finland ii - christmas star pastries

one of the most traditional foods during the christmas holidays in finland is the "tähti torttu", or star pastry. the husband and i have always called them christmas stars. it is basically what an american would call a danish, with jam (plum) in the center of a puff pastry. with ready made ingredients, this is a very simple and delicious treat that finns enjoy during coffee time between christmas eve and boxing day.

to make these tasty treats, all you need is ready made puff pastry from your freezer section and some plum jam (and an egg for an egg wash). plum jam is something i have never come across in the u.s., but many other jams would make an appropriate filling, such as apricot, blackberry or raspberry. in finland, this pastry is so common that you can buy the puff pastry in pre-cut sheets with instructions on how to make the pastry on the box.

cupcake pops

i just want to show off the cupcake pops that my friend and i made a couple weeks ago. they were my first batch ever and her third (she was very ambitious that week). many of you have probably heard of the famous bakerella. i have always been interested in trying out her cake pop tutorials, but never had the patience to test them out.

our cupcake pops were strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting inside. incredibly sweet, but tasty! if you're interested in making some yourself, check out this page from bakerella's site.

mint-filled brownie cupcakes

my friend's birthday was last week and i wanted to surprise him with something delicious. i wanted something that would be somewhat durable in the texas heat, in case he wasn't home, so i could just drop it off on the door step. who doesn't like to come home to a bundle of treats?

i was pretty certain that i wanted to go with cupcakes. the problem with most cupcakes is that they have icing, which would not hold up in 100+ F degrees. naturally, i went to my martha stewart cupcake cookbook (where else?!) and found an interesting recipe for mint filled brownie cupcakes. i had no idea if my friend likes mint, but i took the risk and went with it anyway!
the best part of this recipe is that it can all be done with one bowl! if you don't have the book, you can find the recipe here.

the ingredients (note the special, genius, yet simple filling):

making the brownies:
final product:

taste test: the husband loved it. i loved it.

i bought some pretty boxes from michaels (also martha brand) for packaging and carted them on over to my friend's house the next day. he was pretty surprised. and pleased. i think. he also claimed to love the brownies, so i'll consider this recipe a success.