The week should be winding down, which is good. My head is packed with to-do lists and tasks, and it’s always a good feeling when Friday evening hits and everything comes to a halt. No calls, no texts, no notifications. Just me and the fam!
When life gets crazy, cups of tea are important. Sometimes, I need a little more than just tea to calm down, and that’s where a good cookie companion comes into play. These Eastern European cookies are very similar to biscotti, but they’re built on a smaller scale and have a little more softness to them. The traditional version just contains nuts, but I added chocolate chips and a nice sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top. You can’t go wrong with that!
As I write this, I’m halfway listening to my daughter’s tutoring session. She’s entering first grade, and I’m that crazy mom who wants to make sure that her math and reading are up to par before the school year starts. In case nobody told you, first grade is where things get serious. No more free play or downtime, except for recess. They drive those kids hard. And there’s not really a transition from the free and easy days of yore, so it can be quite a shock for the kids.
Not to mention the parents. I really dislike coming home from a day of teaching to, well, do it some more. I love teaching other people’s kids, but my own? Not so much. There’s too much emotion involved, and it mixes business with personal. Trying to be patient while teaching your own kid to master basic math can send anyone to the loony bin.
So, for the sake of sanity, I hired a tutor. It’ll be easier on my daughter and easier on me, and she’ll be ready for all that homework. It seems like a good solution, even though when I was in first grade, I didn’t know what a tutor was. Times change and all that.
Since working is the opposite of winding down and Friday evenings only come once a week, I’m very into enforced chillaxing. That’s where a tea and cookie break comes into play!
My favorite part of this recipe is that, aside from mixing up in one bowl, it’s also butter-free. In other words, it’s kind of on the healthier side. No objections from this quarter!
I hope you have a relaxing weekend free of all hard work. We all need some chillaxing!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the oil and sugar until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla, stirring until smooth.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture until all ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips.
- Divide the dough into two pieces and form two large logs, about two inches wide and several inches long. Place one log on each baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over the logs.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Slice into strips.
- Cool the mandel bread completely. They will harden as they cool. Store in an airtight container.
I kid you not. I grew up in a family that considered a trip to the ice cream parlor an excellent substitute for lunch, and thank heaven they did. Because my favorite drink in the world is still a Baskin-Robbins Jamoca Almond Fudge milkshake with chocolate syrup. It’s just where life is at.
Today, my friend Megan is celebrating her 100th blog post with a giveaway, and a bunch of her best bloggy friends are taking part! I’ll talk more about Megan in a minute, but for now, enter to win. And while you’re at it, enjoy this no-churn mocha almond fudge ice cream, my own personal loving tribute to Baskin-Robbins!
When I first began blogging a short two and a half years ago, I joined a pretty overwhelmingly large and yet supportive group of food bloggers. There are a bazillion of us out there, and it can be hard to find your way to an audience.
Fairly early in the game, I stumbled upon Megan’s blog, The Emotional Baker. She had some pretty rockin’ donuts up that day, and she was writing about her struggles with a running injury. I’d recently recovered from a stress fracture caused by my own running, so I immediately felt a kinship with her.
Fast-forward to now, and I’m still a big fan. Megan has posted some of my favorite desserts, from these peanut butter pretzel bars to carrot cake pop tarts. And every time I visit her blog, I see yet another idea that pushes the bounds of creativity.
As food bloggers, we’re faced with the constant challenge of coming up with ideas. How many things can you do with a brownie? If you’re a blogger with regular postings, finding ways to switch it up is a constant practice. It can be stressful, joyful, empowering, or all of the above.
That’s why we’re so tightly knit, and so supportive. Only someone who is caught up in the crazy world of blogging can understand, and most of us have full-time jobs as well. We do this for the love of the work, and enjoy our friendships with one another along the crazy, wild ride this is!
One passion many of my fellow bloggers and I share is a love of no-churn ice cream. There’s an ice cream maker somewhere at my parents’ house nearby, but I’ve never had to borrow it. Why? Because of a little miracle known as sweetened condensed milk.
When SCM (as those of us in the know call it) gets combined with whipped cream and frozen, it turns into ice cream. You can customize flavors at will, too. Some people like to use Cool Whip as a shortcut, but I personally use my KitchenAid to whip up the real thing. It tastes better and creamier.
This ice cream is made with a chocolate-coffee mixture, and then I mixed in roasted almonds, chocolate chunks and hot fudge. Honestly, putting this ice cream away is a real challenge. I keep digging around for more chocolate chunks or almonds.
Here’s wishing Megan many more happy blog posts. Now it’s time to celebrate with some ice cream and a giveaway!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Dissolve the instant coffee in the cold water.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the coffee and the chocolate chips. Heat at 30-second intervals, stirring each time, until everything is melted and smooth. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Do not overdo it!
- Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the heavy cream until a uniform color (no streaks!) appears. Add the sweetened condensed milk and stir until fully combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chunks and almonds.
- Pour the mixture into a large loaf pan. Drop the hot fudge onto the surface in spoonfuls and swirl through with a knife.
- Freeze overnight. Serve when ready. Store frozen.
I’ve teamed up with 15 other bloggers to help celebrate The Emotional Baker’s 100th Recipe! We’re giving away two prizes.
- Grand Prize: $100 Amazon Gift Card.
- 2nd Place: TEB’s Favorite Baking Tools Prize Pack.
The prize pack includes:
- One Camry High Accuracy Digital Kitchen Food Scale // $18.99 value
- One iSi Basics Flex-It Measuring Cups // $24.99 value
- One RSVP Endurance Spice Measuring Spoon Set // $13.95 value
- One Wilton ColorSwirl 3-Color Coupler 9-Piece Decorating Kit // $7.90 value
- One Chef’n Switchit Narrow Silicone Spatula // $9.99 value
Giveaway Made Possible By:
- The Emotional Baker
- Spoonful of Flavor
- Eva Bakes
- FIVEheartHOME
- Cook Nourish Bliss
- Beer Girl Cooks
- The Seasoned Mom
- No Spoon Necessary
- Beaming Baker
- Flavor the Moments
- Like Mother, Like Daughter
- Fresh April Flours
- Vanessa Baked
- Brooklyn Farm Girl
- The Semisweet Sisters
- Just About Baked
Giveaway Rules:
- Enter the giveaway through the Rafflecopter widget below. Earn entries by following the host bloggers on social media. (If you’ve followed in the past, that counts! Just enter the information as prompted.) All entries will be verified. No purchase is necessary to win.
- The giveaway is open until Wednesday, June 29, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. EST. One Grand Prize winner and one Second Place winner will be chosen at random and e-mailed within 48 hours. Winners must claim prize within 48 hours of initial contact. The retail value of the prize is $75. Prizes listed above are the only ones available.
- Grand Prize: Open to USA, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom.
Second Place: Open to U.S. residents with a valid shipping address only.
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Like, I’ve heard that winning the lottery is pretty awesome. But if that happens to you, you’re not supposed to tell anyone or they’ll be trying to bum your winnings. I guess you’re supposed to pretend that the new mansion (complete with pool, personal trainer and stylist) came from a modest amount that a rich uncle left you upon his passing.
Fresh bread is nothing to keep secret. Oh, no. You have to share it liberally, announcing to one and all that you have a fresh loaf to be eaten. Especially a loaf like this one. It’s got a delicious almond chocolate filling, so it bridges the gap between actual food and dessert. I had it for breakfast!
My son’s birthday was this past weekend, following hard on the heels of Purim, a celebratory Jewish holiday. I’ll show you my Cruella DeVil outfit in a bit. Suffice it to say, we had a busy four days of straight partying. My kids are so sugared up that they can’t see straight.
Celebrations are nice, but for the people who throw them, they’re nothing short of one thing after another. Like, I forgot the birthday candles. Yep, totally spaced them. Luckily, the boy’s cake was blinged out enough without one.
And my Cruella costume was lacking actual fur. For one thing, I couldn’t bring myself to wear one. For another, it was 75 degrees out.
Okay, back to bread. Say hello to your bread machine, because it does all the work for you! Have I mentioned how in love with my bread machine I am? Have I? Have I?
Yeah, yeah, I know. But this miraculous contraption literally lets me set it and forget it, which not a whole lot of life allows anybody to do. Imagine if we could just set and forget everything, from dinner to housework to actual work. Then we wouldn’t need to win the lottery in order to have personal assistants and whatnot.
This bread is made doubly simple by the filling. It’s simply the almond pastry spread they sell in the bakery aisle combined with mini chocolate chips. See? No effort, folks! I’m down with that!
And who can resist the sprinkling of almonds on top? Not me!
It’s been a crazy week, folks, and now I’m heading for some much-needed downtime over spring break. Join me in relaxing over a slice or two of bread!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Place all the dough ingredients into the bread machine in the order indicated by the manufacturer. Typically, wet ingredients go in the pan first, followed by the dry. Select the dough cycle and press start.
- When the cycle is complete, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Roll the dough out into a large rectangle measuring roughly 16 by 21 inches. Spread the almond pastry filling evenly on top and then sprinkle the miniature chocolate chips over the surface.
- Working with the short end first (you want the bread to be fatter than longer), roll up the dough tightly to form an oblong shape, similar to a cake roll.
- Place the bread on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise until doubled in size, about 30-45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Brush the top of the loaf with beaten egg and sprinkle the almonds on top.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes until golden brown. Cut into slices.
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Purim is on Thursday. Who knows what I’m talking about?
Every spring, the Jewish holiday of Purim occurs. It’s one of the fun ones, following the whole “they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat” mode of celebration. On that day, people dress in costume, deliver baskets of treats to friends, give charity, and eat hamantaschen.
This delightful cookie is named after the villain of the Purim story, Haman. These are triangular-shaped cookies that are traditionally filled with fruit or chocolate, but I’ve switched things up a bit. The dough here has a Linzer cookie twist with ground almonds, and the filling is chocolate raspberry. Talk about celebrating in style!
Holidays are the most fun with children. And I’m not really a kid person, which often surprises people because I both teach for a living and have three children of my own. But really, that’s not relevant. I don’t teach because I love kids; I teach because I want to help them. And as for my children, they’re mine. I love them. But other people’s? Well, depends on how well-behaved they are.
Anyway, I digress. It’s so much fun to see kids get excited about holiday celebrations. For weeks, I’ve been watching my kids prepare for Purim. They’ve been singing songs, making masks, and doing project after project. If I became bored with it all before they were born, now I’m right back into it.
In fact, my costume is all set to go. As long as my daughters insist on being Disney princesses every year (this year it’s Aurora and Rapunzel, while last year was Anna and Belle), I will persist in being a Disney villain. Last year I was Maleficent; this year I am Cruella. It actually works really well in making them less afraid of the evil parade of women Disney loves to share. Because really, they’re all quite terrifying.
Oh, well. We’ll leave the discussion of sexist portrayals of women as evil throughout history for another blog post. I’m already excited about a holiday. Let’s keep the energy there!
Hamantaschen are deceptively hard to make. They seem just like cookies, but the epic fail rate is pretty high for so many people. Among the possible issues you can encounter: dough is too sticky, not sticky enough, puffs up obscenely the oven, the edges open, the filling explodes. See? This Purim thing isn’t all fun and games.
This recipe is foolproof if you follow it. Please don’t improvise! And once your dough is rolled out in circles, pinch those edges together really well. You want almost no filling showing through. When I made these with my kids, they definitely had issues. But they’re kids, so it’s fine. It was fun anyway. The ones they made aren’t pictured here, of course.
Happy Purim to all of my readers. Whether you celebrate or not, try and get your hands on some hamantaschen! They’re worth the effort!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat again until light and fluffy. Add the egg, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract. Mix until smooth.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and stir until just combined.
- Shape the dough into a flat disc and place in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour or up to two days.
- When you're ready to bake, take the dough out the fridge and let it soften for 10-15 minutes.
- While that's happening ,make the filling. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for one minute. Stir until smooth, microwaving an additional 30 seconds if needed. Mix the melted chocolate with the raspberry preserves and lemon juice until all ingredients are combined. The filling will harden quickly, but you will still be able to use it.
- Place the dough on a floured surface and roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a circular cookie cutter or the top of a drinking glass, make circles in the dough.
- Place about 1/2 tablespoon of filling in the center of each circle. Pinch two sides together at the top, and then fold the bottom side up to meet the other two, forming a triangle. Make sure the sides are pinched well together, leaving very little space in the middle. The hamantaschen will open slightly while baking.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
Whoo boy. This cake will make your holiday season merry and bright! And then some.
In case I’ve never made it blatantly clear enough, pound cake is the happiest of all cakes. It’s fluffy, buttery, and makes a perfect canvas for any flavor.
Do you know what happens if you add 7UP® to pound cake? It gets even lighter and fluffier. And when you add Cherry 7UP® and almond extract, your mouth is in for quite the party.
Now that we’ve cleared Thanksgiving, everyone’s got three weeks to get holiday baking in order. In times like these, the temptation to impress relatives and friends might overwhelm the need to just be practical.
Well, guess what? That isn’t a choice you have to make. Just because a dessert isn’t crazy hard to make doesn’t mean that it can’t be impressive and beautiful. Oh, and delicious. So get your holiday baking in order, but don’t try to be a hero!
Whenever I need to prep for a baking marathon, there’s only one place I need, and that’s Target. They have this special section with all the holiday-themed products and candy. I just stand in the middle of the aisle, staring at everything on the shelves while ideas start hurtling at my head. Then I fill up my cart. It’s probably the closest I ever get to catharsis. Plus, I get to buy everything I need for holiday entertaining, from candy (yesssss, please) to drinks, in just one trip.
This time of year, there’s so much we all need to buy. It’s a lot easier to spend that money if there are coupons involved, and that’s where Ibotta comes in. If you’re not familiar, you need to check it out. Right now, they’re running a special deal on soda: Save $.75 when you buy two 2-liter bottles (varieties include: 7UP®, A&W®, Canada Dry® Ginger Ale, RC® Cola, Sundrop®, Sunkist® Orange, Squirt®, Country Time®, Diet Rite®, Vernors®, Cactus Cooler® and Hawaiian Punch®) and Save $2.00 when you buy four 12-pack cans (varieties include: 7UP®, A&W®, Canada Dry® Ginger Ale, RC® Cola, Sundrop®, Sunkist® Orange, Squirt®, Country Time®, Diet Rite®, Vernors®, Cactus Cooler®, Hawaiian Punch® and Tahitian Treat).
Food bloggers will always give different reasons for why we love what we do. Some enjoy taking photos and editing them. Some love writing the posts, while others enjoy the connections they make with readers and fellow bloggers above all. For me, while I dig all those things, I especially appreciate the constant opportunity to create new desserts and push ideas to their limits. That’s what makes each post exciting, and explains how this cake came to be.
If you add soda to cake, it enhances the cake’s texture. Experimenting with flavor is one of my favorite ways to take a more basic idea and make it really stand out. In this case, Cherry 7UP® gets poured into cake batter. See?
And when all the cake batter gets mixed up (don’t forget that almond extract, it’s key), you get a distinctive holiday cake that will wow your guests. It doesn’t hurt to throw a little sprinkle flair on top of that thick glaze, either. Or to have your cake in a wreath-like shape to bring on happy associations and excitement.
This holiday season, make your gatherings a little brighter with a pound cake that’s sure to make some very hungry people come barreling to your house for dessert. Make time to eat cake! And if you’re not feeling creative right now, I’ve got you covered. Want more recipe inspiration with your favorite drinks? Find more ideas from these perfect holiday moments. We could all use a few of those!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a small bundt or tube pan with cooking spray and dust with flour. Set aside
- Combine the melted butter and sugar, stirring until smooth. Add the eggs, lemon juice and almond extract, and mix again. Add the dry ingredients and stir until incorporated. Finally, add the Cherry 7UP® and mix until the batter is without lumps.
- Add the food coloring and mix until the pink color is evenly distributed.
- Pour the batter carefully into the prepared pan and even out the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the top is golden.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- While the cake cools, prepare the glaze. Combine all the glaze ingredients and stir thoroughly until smooth.
- Pour the glaze over the cooled cake, allowing it to spill over the sides. Add the sprinkles.
- Let the glaze set. Cut into slices. Store covered.
Over the past several weeks, I’ve given you quite a few Thanksgiving pie options. But I couldn’t resist adding just one more!
As a baking blogger, the holidays provide inspiration and ideas. I love having the time of year do the recipe brainstorming for me, especially when a tart like this is the result. Guys, I kept my very favorite for last. Yes, I’ll play favorites today.
This past weekend, Kenny and I got away overnight to a posh hotel in historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. We’re lucky to live near all kinds of little getaway spots, and even though it was chilly, it was really lovely to walk on the waterfront and see the boats and pretend it was a lot warmer.
The best part of the hotel was the pool. It was a heated indoor pool, and getting in was like being enveloped in a warm water hug. Maybe I’ve never told you this before, but I love baths. Baths are a daily thing for me, even if I’ve showered too. I love the bubbles, the scalding water, the jets (yep, my tub is tricked out), and the music playing softly in the background as I let all the stress melt out of my tired muscles.
Other than dessert, I have these other material loves in life: a good book, a great workout, and a hot bath. So as I chugged back and forth in that heated pool, I realized that my life would be pretty luxurious if I could come home from work every day, jump into a heated pool, swim for a while, and then dry off in a lounge chair with a book and some truffles.
I just heard Steven Tyler in my head shrieking “Dream On.”
If the pool fantasy can’t come true, I’ll take this tart instead. It’s all my favorite things. Maybe not everyone’s on the marzipan bandwagon, but I really don’t care. This is the best.
The crust is buttery and light, with some almond meal thrown in for kicks. Piled into the crust is raspberry jam, a baked marzipan layer, and thick chocolate ganache with toasted almond flair. If you want an elegant but totally doable dessert to present tomorrow, this is your girl.
Okay, kids. I’ve got more baking to do tonight, so I’ll catch you later. I’m pretty excited to get all those pies lined up on the table, and I hope you are, too. Have a safe, joyful, warm and cozy Thanksgiving with family and friends. From JAB and me to you, happy holiday season!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a tart pan (the kind with the removable bottom) with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Combine the almond meal and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Cream the butter, powdered sugar and egg yolk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Adding each gradually, alternate the flour and the almond mixture until both are fully incorporated.
- Press the dough into the prepared tart pan, working it evenly along the bottom and up the sides.
- Take the raspberry jam and spread it evenly along the bottom of the crust. Set aside.
- Make the marzipan filling. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the almond paste with the brown sugar and egg until well combined.
- Carefully spread the marzipan mixture over the raspberry jam. It will be sticky and some of the jam might come up, but spread lightly and evenly over the surface.
- Bake the tart for 20-25 minutes until the crust and filling begin to turn golden. Remove from the oven to cool.
- Make the ganache. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips and heavy cream for one minute. Stir until smooth, heating an additional 20 seconds if needed.
- Pour the ganache over the baked tart, spreading the chocolate evenly to the edges. Sprinkle the toasted almonds on top. Cool until set.
- Cut into wedges and serve.
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If you catch a whiff of almond extract and you want to drink the bottle, then you love marzipan. If not, well, yep. Sorry. You can come back next week when I have some fun spooky treats set to go!
These are buttery cookie bars topped with a gooey layer of baked marzipan and toasted almonds. I’ve had to hide these in a dark corner of the freezer to avoid consuming every last one.
Like marzipan, acquired tastes abound, and not just in food. I made the mistake of recommending Pitch Perfect to my parents last week. When I saw that movie with Kenny and my brother at the movie theater, we fell out of our seats with tears streaming down our cheeks. We were laughing that hard.
The night my parents sat down to watch the movie, I got a very short e-mail from my mom along the lines of, “This movie sucks.” She informed me that it wasn’t funny, had bad music, and that she and my dad just didn’t get it.
I’m assuming that it must be a generational issue, right? Because people in my age group (not to mention my beloved high school students) loved that movie. And the music, too. I mean, college a capella is so strongly embedded in our culture nowadays, but it probably wasn’t back when my parents were pursuing higher education.
So the movie didn’t mean much to them, and I’m okay with that. I still think that a girl doing snow angels in vomit is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
After all, don’t so many things take time to appreciate? Like Ugg boots, or kale? But once we’re there, we’re there. And I’ve been appreciating marzipan since I was little tiny, thanks to my German grandparents.
Yep, marzipan is a German thing. But I’ve managed to add American flair by putting it on a cookie bar. Because, as you know by now if you read my blog, bars are my jam.
The key to making a good cookie bar is to make it nice and thick. Then it’s just so much fun to bite into. The sticky marzipan topping along with the crunch of the toasted almonds means that your texture senses will be so happy right along with your taste buds.
Just be wary of the marzipan. You want to brown it, but don’t let it go too long. The top should be firm, but underneath will be that fantastic gooey layer right before you get to the soft, thick cookie bar.
Not everyone has the same taste, which is a mercy. And it can take some time to fall in love with something, which is why I became obsessed with sushi after years of not wanting it. Just be glad that some tastes are acquired. They just want to take the time to get to know us!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil, leaving enough to hang over the sides. Coat with cooking spray.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extracts and mix again. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just incorporated.
- Pat the cookie dough onto the prepared pan evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven.
- While the bars are baking, make the topping. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the almond paste with the brown sugar and egg until well combined.
- Spread the mixture over the bars after they come out of the oven. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.
- Bake for another 15-20 minutes until the marzipan topping is browned and set.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely. Cut into bars. Store in an airtight container.
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The problem is, they’re called pound cakes for a reason. As in, the pound of butter that gets thrown in per loaf. Dessert blogger or not, I just can’t get behind that unless it’s a very special occasion. But for a pound cake lover, what to do?
This is my second half-pound cake posting. The first had browned butter in it, and I loved it. This one is bursting with almond flavor. The best part is, you can literally cut the butter in half and not miss it. This I swear to you.
We often think we’ll miss things that we wind up not noticing at all. To be honest, I don’t miss Coke. I really thought I would when I gave it up a few years back, but nope. And I don’t miss Sunday morning hangovers, which were an occasional product of my single years. Nope. Not a fun feeling. And for sure I do not miss the days when women weren’t given more choices and rights. Not that I fully remember those days, not having been born yet and all.
When I got married, I chose to (as it’s called) “keep” my name. Luckily, my mother’s generation paved the way for this practice to become a possibility, but I still field way too many questions and raised eyebrows for my taste. When women get married and choose to take their husbands’ names, I don’t question it. It’s a nice practice, and I’m not knocking it at all. It’s just not the path I wanted to take.
My husband’s name happens to be even more difficult to spell and/or understand than mine, which was a practical motivation for my not changing the unusual Russian surname I was born with. That aside, I grew up with an identity strongly tied into my name, and I also established my professional credibility with that name. By the time I got married, I’d been teaching in my county for several years. I knew who I was, and for some reason, my last name was a huge part of that.
And it still is. I also decline to be addressed by the title “Mrs.” and instead go for the “Ms.” of 1970s-era women’s rights invention. If someone calls me by the other title I don’t say anything or get offended, but I’ve always preferred “Ms.” because it’s the exact equivalent as “Mr.” for men. In other words, it doesn’t indicate marital status. I’m happy to be married, but I don’t want my title to say anything about my personal life if my husband’s doesn’t, either.
But all of these are choices, which is great. We used to live in a time when there were fewer options and when people got put into categorical boxes. People should be able to choose how they want to be perceived, what they want to be called, and what constitutes their identity. Unless, of course, that identity is grounded in violating somebody else’s peace or safety.
At the risk of over-preaching, I’ll sit back and take a break from that and get back to what I don’t miss. I don’t miss my last name because I never got rid of it. And I don’t miss the extra half-pound of butter in this cake because it doesn’t need it.
This recipe gets a lot of extra richness from sour cream. I used the reduced-fat kind, but I also wonder how Greek yogurt would work out. My guess is that it would be great. In addition to everything else, almond meal gets mixed into the batter. While you can make almond meal for cheap by grinding your own almonds, I like to buy mine at Trader Joe’s. It saves a lot of food processor time.
When this cake is all done, it’s pretty elegant. You can serve it by itself, top it with vanilla ice cream, or dip chunks into chocolate. And the whole cake is full of little almond flecks. It looks so tasty. The almonds on top get nicely toasted, too. It’s an almond lover’s dream!
If almonds were to disappear tomorrow, I would totally miss them. Much more than Coke, or VHS, or those baby t-shirts that I wore in high school and thought were the best articles of clothing ever invented. Ultimately, we all decide who we want to be, and we reserve the right to make the choices that are best for us. Otherwise, we might miss out on what we really like, who we are, and who we want to become.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Pour half of the dry mixture into the batter and mix. Add the sour cream and beat again. Add the remaining flour and mix until smooth.
- Pour in the almond meal and mix until just incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the almonds on top. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool and release from the pan. Cut into slices.
For years, I’ve been a chocolate bark addict. It’s even deadlier when you fill it with almonds. Hey, you need your protein! This is practically a health food, y’all. I’m sure Gwyneth would approve. Not that I need her approval, or want it.
I used to be a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan. She made this movie called Sliding Doors about a woman who lives through two different life scenarios, all starting when one version of her makes a train while the other version misses it. I friggin’ love that movie. If you haven’t seen it, add it to whatever list you keep on hand. It was made quite some time ago, back when Gwyneth was acting instead of telling real women that her life is much harder than theirs.
Sorry if I’m sounding a little nasty, but I still find it hard to believe that a celebrity with endless help and resources actually tried to one-up mothers in this country by stating that her life is more complex and difficult to manage. First of all, I doubt that’s true. But even if her existence is really fraught with more challenges than mine or anyone else’s, I know for a fact that she’s being paid a lot more for the trouble.
That aside, I’m not sure where anyone gets off playing the my-life-is-harder-than-your-life game. Whatever people see out there in the world isn’t really what’s happening behind closed doors. A lot of people look like they have perfect lives with everything together, but people struggle privately. Nobody can really say for certain what it’s like to be somebody else.
I once had a teacher who told us that there was a study in which people were told to write down their troubles on a piece of paper and put it on a table in front of the other participants. Then, they were told they could pick out a new list of problems from the table, any list at all that someone else had created. Every single person took her own paper back.
You see, we all have our problems, but we’re used to them, and we also fear the unknown. We also have no business borrowing trouble. So, Gwyneth Paltrow, get back to making movies I like and stop with all the lifestyle stuff. I don’t want to hear about why it’s tougher to be you. It’s just not cool.
What is totally cool is making this bark. If I’m pretending to be a lifestyle guru for point two seconds, I’ll suggest that this makes a great gift for a fraction of the cost of any other purchased gourmet food gift. That should be motivation enough to get you going.
The key to making good chocolate bark is to remember a few things. Rule number one: use a good-quality chocolate. I like to buy the nicer baking chocolate bars in the grocery store. Rule number two: instead of sprinkling the almonds on top, mix them into the melted chocolate before pouring it onto your surface to set. Rule number three: don’t spread the melted chocolate too thin. You want a nice, thick bark. And finally, if you don’t have a silicone baking mat, use parchment paper. Otherwise, you could be dealing with a sticky mess at the end.
If you want to have a really good evening, make this bark and eat it along with a viewing of Sliding Doors. I want to love Gwyneth again, I really do. And the best way for us to be friends again us for me to remember what a good actress she can be. Then nobody has to compare her life with anyone else’s to come out on top. That’s a dangerous game, my friends!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- Chop the chocolate into small chunks. Place in a microwave-safe bowl.
- Heat the chocolate for two minutes. Stir until smooth. If not melted, heat an additional 20 seconds and stir again.
- Mix in the almonds.
- Pour the melted chocolate onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread out the chocolate into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. If you like to go thicker, that's fine. Just don't make the chocolate any thinner.
- Place the bark in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes until set.
- Using a sharp knife, cut into squares or, if preferred, break into jagged edges.
- Store in an airtight container. If you're in a hot or humid environment, store chilled.
Okay, I’m kidding. About the exclamation points, not the scones. I’ll try and control myself, but it can be hard sometimes.
When you’re a parent, weekends are often more tiring and hectic than the weekdays. Most people head home Friday afternoon with happy plans to sleep and kick back. Or at least, that’s the perception I get. But our weekends are quite different.
This past Saturday, I got hit with a migraine. My whole life, migraines have hit after periods of stress. So after each baby was born, bam! Migraine. After I finish a stressful project? Bam again. And after a long work week with lots of conflict and worry, along comes another. I’m used to them by now. They’re just kind of hard to recover from when you’re home with three noisy kids. Screaming, screeching kids.
By Saturday night, I knew I had to bake. I was listlessly paging through cookbooks, looking for inspiration, trying to avoid the dessert I’d promised myself I would bake. That happens sometimes. I get excited about baking, but then there are 20 steps involved and I just. Can. Not.
Suddenly, I remembered my baking cabinet. It’s a candy lover’s dream. Kenny has strict instructions not to raid my baking cabinet, and he doesn’t really follow the rules. I often find him with his hand inside, pulling out handfuls of mini M & Ms or peanut butter chips. And he wonders why our grocery lists always include more of that stuff.
Sitting in that cabinet was an acquisition I had yet to try: the cherry-flavored Nestle brand of filled chocolate chips. My mind combined those chips with almond meal, and it all came together. After all, the next day was Mother’s Day, and my mother loves almond. Cherry almond scones would be perfect.
Scones are not difficult to make, despite daunting pictures everywhere of shaved frozen butter. You can definitely use frozen butter, but if you work quickly, cold butter works. I would recommend a pastry blender if you have one, but if not, life goes on.
As for the base, I substituted some of the regular flour for almond meal. That, along with almond extract, provides a perfect pairing with those cherry-filled chocolate chips. And it’s a very springtime-esque scone to present to anyone!
Weekends are crazy, and sometimes I can’t decide what to bake until the last minute. But somehow, everything turns out okay, migraine or not. And when the headache fades and the work week starts, I can relax with a bunch of baked goods. It is what it is, friends!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, almond meal, sugar, and baking powder. Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut in the chunks of butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Mix in the almond extract, egg, milk and cherry-filled chocolate chips until a dough starts to form. Knead the dough in the bowl several times until everything is smooth and incorporated.
- Form the dough into a 6-inch circle. Place it on the cookie sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into eight wedges.
- Sprinkle the dough with sugar and almonds. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the scones are golden at the edges.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.