Peanut Butter Flax Seed Cookies

I noticed a product at Trader Joe's recently which intrigued me: natural peanut butter with flax seeds. I started wondering what peanut butter cookies baked with this product would be like. High in omega 3s, for one thing, and doesn't everyone need more of that? Studies have suggested that Omega 3 may do everything from prevent cancer to improve mood and lessen depression. Who wouldn't want all that? And in the form a crunchy little peanut butter cookie?  Also, these cookies are gluten free, so hey, you can even make them for your gluten intolerant friends you never know what to bake for...unless of course they are also allergic to peanuts.

I-Love-Lemon Bars

I love lemon. On chicken, on fish, on greens, on pasta, in tea, IN DESSERTS, it just seems you can't go wrong. And lemon bars, rich and creamy, lemony (which may sound redundant, but such genuine lemon flavor is not always present in lemon desserts), not-too-sweet, refreshing served chilled, surprisingly good served slightly warm, seem like the perfect summer-y dessert. Also, their lemon-custard like filling is reminiscent of my great aunt Lossy's lemon pie.

I brought these to an outdoor movie event in a park near my apartment. They were a great snack to pass around and share.

Cherry Blueberry Tart - And How To Salavage A Bad Day

I made this tart with the 4th of July in mind- red cherries, blueberries, and pastry cream seemed like a pretty patriotic combination (though I will admit, the egg yolks, vanilla and liqueur in the pastry cream turned it a bit yellowy/tan rather than white) and since I have been trying to make desserts inspired by holidays this year (my green st. patty's day cake was a hit) I decided to make this to continue the theme.

As it happens, the day I made this was shaping up to be JUST NOT A VERY GOOD DAY. Things were not going my way, and I felt angry and hurt by a series of events that morning. I was hesitant to start a project while feeling that way, worried that I would not be able to concentrate and put my best effort in. After some convincing from my favorite (and only) sister, I ended up discovering that making this tart was in fact just what my day needed. I turned on London Calling (which makes for great "I'm angry and I'm gonna bake things!" music), threw on my apron, and sang along while I worked. And I may have danced a bit. I am sure I looked like a fool, but by the time the tart was done, not only did I have a delicious dessert to show for it, my bad mood had been magically repaired. And I knew how to make pastry cream.

ice cream cookie sandwiches

On a hot, humid summery night can you imagine anything better than this homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich? Me neither. Made with dark chocolate broken into chunks, and a bit of whole wheat flour, these homemade cookies made a perfect base for rich, cold vanilla ice cream. yum.

How to get rid of whipped cream- a story in pictures

simple & good berry crumble recipe here

I also wanted to take this moment to mention that those who can't afford therapy should really try whipping cream.  Positively cleansing, in 7 minutes or less out goes all the anger, and all that is left is a light, fluffy dairy topping.

Sunday afternoon baking- Classic Crinkle Cookies

You all know how I love alliteration. Classic Crinkle Cookies- how can I resist? This is my attempt at the Betty Crocker original, and no, these weren't made at Christmas time in my childhood, I wonder if I was missing out? These chocolate cookies are rolled in powdered sugar, and as they bake they expand, creating a web of cracks that show the dark chocolate center from underneath the powdered coating. The ingredient list is simple, all things I ordinarily stock for baking projects, and while they do take a while to make (up to 4 hours total) most of that time is for the batter to chill, the active prep time is actually quite short, and the preparation itself is simple. Since they require so long to chill in the fridge, I chose to make the batter in the morning and bake them in the late afternoon. In between, a trip to the Children's Museum with some friends seemed like a perfect diversion.

Sunday afternoon baking- Chocolate Fudge Tart

                   Consulting my cookbooks for a good sunday afternoon baking recipe.


There is one reason I will probably never be a great baker. Baking involves math, my worst enemy. If you were to ask me off hand "what is 7 + 45?" I would probably break down crying before I could give you an answer. Especially if counting on fingers isn't allowed. So far, I have managed to get away with doing quite a bit of baking without encountering much math at all. Today that changed.

This morning I decided to bake a simple chocolate tart. I went to the grocery store, and picked up my supplies (the store, by the way, was a mob scene due to the current water emergency in the Boston area, lines down each aisle of people eagerly waiting to buy bottled water, most stores have already sold out) and hurried home to get started. No sooner than I took my ingredients out of the bag was I slapped in the face with a real life, contextual math problem. The kind of thing math teachers always say will happen, how you will use math in your everyday life and be grateful that they taught it in school. Well, I guess that all never really got through to me, because as I thought it through my mind could not make sense of any of it.

If I have a 500 gram bar of chocolate, and the recipe calls for 140 grams, and my bar has 40 squares....how many squares do I need for this recipe? My pulse quickened, and my breathing grew labored. MATH RELATED ANXIETY ATTACK!  How can I ever hope to bake well if I can't figure out how many damn chocolate squares this tart will need?

Plantain-coconut cookies

I first started toying with this cookie recipe a few weeks ago, on a cold day in late march. The furnace in my building had been broken for over a week, and a final day in the 20s was enough to render my usually too warm apartment freezing. My roommates and I bundled in our sweaters and blankets, waiting for the oil company man to arrive. We ended up turning on the oven in an effort to warm up the house a bit. I decided at that moment: wouldn't it be better if we were slowly warming up with the oven on, and there were cookies? Yes. Of course. So I went out in search of interesting ingredients to bake into cookies. The following recipe is not exactly what I made that day, the first batch was a bit too cakey, and seemed to be missing something...This is a reworked version, adding honey and nutmeg to my original recipe, and reducing the flour and white sugar drastically, which I baked up yesterday, one of the warmest days so far this spring.

These cookies are sweet but not too sweet. Oats, chocolate chips, plantain, coconut, walnuts and nutmeg come together to create a wholesome cookie that tastes quite a bit like banana bread. These cookies are crispy at the edges and remain very soft inside.