I’m sure you’ve heard me say that I prefer a somewhat healthy muffin.  I know that I’ve told you before how I feel about overly sweet muffins – that if I wanted dessert, I’d rather just have a cupcake.  But I did it anyway.  I made these sweet, delicious muffins that offer very few nutritional benefits and really can’t be classified as anything but dessert.

You know what?  I don’t regret it one bit.

These are the best muffins I’ve ever made and I wouldn’t change a thing about them.  The banana and white chocolate are perfect together and the tart cherries help to balance the extra sweetness from the white chocolate.  The streusel topping, perfect. Continue reading →

Remember my first madeleines from the beginning of the year?  Well, I decided to give them another try – this time with a completely different recipe.  The result?  Madeleines that are even better than the first batch!   I used this recipe from Bitten, and the only real change I made was to substitute lemon zest for orange zest.

I didn’t bother piping the filling into the molds, a spoon worked just fine.  Just make sure you don’t overfill them like I did!  The recipe says it yields 12 to 15, but I think you could probably get up to 18 full-size madeleines if you scrape the bowl (and don’t overfill the molds like I did). Continue reading →

This soft, light sandwich loaf is the 18th bread I’ve baked for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  Yes, I’m slowly but surely plowing through the book, and although there are still 28 breads ahead of me, I am confident I will finish the book…eventually!

Mr. Reinhart’s Light Wheat Bread was definitely a crowd pleaser – easy to make, easy to eat, and not too bad to look at, either.  The proud loaf that came out of my oven puts store-bought sandwich bread to shame and the simple formula is perfect for beginning bread bakers. Continue reading →

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

On a whim, I decided to try making heart-shaped cinnamon rolls for a fun Valentine’s Day treat.  I had no idea if it would work, but I was thrilled  with the results.  They turned out so cute, I had to share the technique with you even if it’s a bit late to make them for today’s Valentine’s breakfast.

But who says you can only eat heart-shaped food on Valentine’s Day?

You can make heart-shaped rolls from any regular cinnamon roll recipe, but I happen to really like a dough made with buttermilk.  I improvised the dough for these rolls from the cinnamon bun recipe in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Enjoy! Continue reading →

Flatbread is the star of this week’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge post, and these lavash crackers were fun and easy to make, beautiful to look at, and absolutely delicious. I have tasted the soft version of lavash before, but was completely unfamiliar with crackers like these.  The dough is very similar to pita dough, but it is rolled thinner and baked longer than pita.  The crackers can be left plain or adorned with salt, seeds and/or spices – I chose to use everything.  While not quite as crisp as traditional American crackers, the flavor was outstanding and they would make a perfect accompaniment to your favorite dip or spread. Continue reading →

I was searching through old photos today and found these whole wheat blueberry muffins I made a while back.  Since I remember them tasting just as delicious as they look, I decided that they shouldn’t be kept hidden on my hard drive any longer.

The muffin recipe came from Elise at Simply Recipes and the only change I made was to use King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat Flour instead of all-purpose flour.  If you haven’t started baking with white whole wheat flour yet, now is the time to start! Continue reading →

Sometimes I think I would be perfectly happy in the kitchen making nothing but muffins all day long.  Quick to prepare and endlessly adaptable, muffins are fun, easy, and delicious – and I believe everyone should learn to bake them.

If you’ve been reading about my kitchen adventures for any length of time, you already know that I tend to make a lot of whole grain muffins.  While I do love sweet, cake-like muffins, I decided long ago that if I’m going to snack on something that tastes like dessert, I’d almost always rather go for an actual cupcake. Continue reading →

We’re back to the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge! Today I’m sharing my experience with the 16th bread in the challenge:  Kaiser Rolls.  I enjoyed these rolls so much I’ve made them twice already!  Like many of the breads in the book, these rolls do take two days to make, but they aren’t difficult and I found that they were both easy and a lot of fun to shape.

Kaiser rolls, also called New York hard rolls or Vienna rolls, are known for the distinctive star pattern on the top of the roll.  The traditional method for achieving the classic kaiser roll shape requires a series of overlapping folds that intimidates me quite a bit. Luckily, the book offers a couple of other options for creating beautiful kaiser rolls. Continue reading →