Peanut butter jelly cookies

Behold the wonder that is peanut butter and jelly in cookie form!

Recipe from Martha:

http://www.marthastewart.com/316916/peanut-butter-and-jelly-thumbprints

First blend the butter and peanut butter.

Add egg and vanilla. Then gradually add flour mixture

Roll dough into balls, then roll in sugar

Half way through baking you pull the cookies out and create the indentation that will hold the jelly. 

The recipe said to warm the jelly, but I just spooned it in and it was fine.

Blue velvet cake

I was stumped on what dessert to make for Mother's Day.  My sister suggested this recipe for blue velvet cake. It was unique and looked good so I couldn't resist!

Ingredients included most of the usual pantry staples + blueberries. 

First mixing butter and sugar

Separately mix dry ingredients. Recipe only had 1 Tbsp cocoa powder so chocolate taste was pretty much nonexistent!

I kept adding blue food coloring, but it never got very saturated. 

Gently fold in blueberries. 

Bake in 2 9" cake pans. 

First cake layer on plate 

Next the cream cheese frosting!

Layer of frosting. 

Add second round of cake. 

Frost sides and top of cake. 

I thought it looked too plain so I decorated with some jasmine flowers. 

It reminded me of a blueberry muffin. The cake was not too sweet. Also this made a huge cake so be prepared for leftovers unless you have a huge crowd of people to feed.

Liege Belgian Waffles

I'm surprised it has taken me this long to make these waffles! I first experienced this style of crunchy caramelized waffle at The Waffle Window in Portland.  It was a life changing experience. Anyways, the secret to these waffles is Belgian pearl sugar.

This brand- available online- makes life easy and includes a recipe on the back.  It didn't however give you info on how many waffles the recipe makes.  It made I think 5 waffles-but giant and rich. You could definitely split in half. 

Another secret ingredient was yeast. Just mix into warm milk, then incorporate into flour mixture. 

Then you let the dough rise for about 30 minutes and it should double in size. 

I covered it- which was it mentioned in the recipe, but I felt like it is part of the normal procedure in letting dough rise. 

While we wait for the dough to rise.. Just thought I would showcase my new table cloths that my grandma made for me before they became covered in maple syrup.

Ok dough has risen. Last step is to mix in the pearl sugar. 

These came out really good!  Crunchy exterior that stayed crunchy even after they cooled down.

Brunch success! Waffle weekend!

Lemon Cookie

I was gifted some lemons from my coworker Carolyn from her lemon tree and decided that I would put them to good use and bake something with them.

I've made lemon bars fairly recently so I wanted to try something different.  I decided on a recipe for lemon sugar cookies. 

The recipe used the usual baking staples that I already had on hand in my cupboard. 

First mix 1/2 c. softened butter and 1c. sugar until fluffy.

Then add zest of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 egg.

Then add 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda,  and gradually 2 c. Flour.

Then cover the dough and chill. 

Then roll dough into balls, roll in sugar, and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack. 

These came out soft and fluffy like a snicker doodle, but with a bright lemon flavor. Thanks for the lemons and the inspiration Carolyn ;) !!!

Baking with miso

Ever since I've heard of sweets with miso I have been intrigued. Miso is fermented soy bean paste used in Japanese cuisine.   I have used it before to make miso soup and I have also used in a marinade for salmon. I looked at a variety of baked goods recipes and found some for brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies with miso. Originally I was going to make chocolate chip cookies, then I changed my mind and thought that oatmeal looked good. In the end I combined the two recipes and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 

The recipe used 1/4 cup miso paste.  The umami flavor was very subtle, but gave these a little something extra. I'm glad that the miso flavor was not too salty or overpowering.  I think that most of my Guinea pigs would not have guessed what the secret ingredient was.  I would be curious to try brownies with miso next. 

Quiche with goat cheese

So I have made two quiches recently- both inspired by the bounty of my Easter basket. This year my mom gave me a wine and cheese themed Easter basket that contained a variety of trader joes cheeses.  I saved the best for last and ended up with goat cheese being the last cheese left in my fridge. Found this recipe on food gawker. http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2016/03/11/goat-cheese-spinach-sun-dried-tomato-quiche/

I didn't follow the instructions for the crust and used my own favorite recipe instead.

Also, I couldn't find my pie plate! So I used a 9" cake pan instead. First I pre baked the pie crust for 8 minutes at 350.

 

Sautéed spinach with garlic.

The quiche had 4 eggs and 1 cup of milk. Then added 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, the spinach, goat cheese and some fresh ground pepper. 

Baked at 350 for 50 minutes.

Another quiche success story!

Here is the quiche I made before this one. It had spinach, tomatoes and Gouda. Also crust from scratch!