This morning, I crossed an important item off my life bucket list: stand up paddleboarding, or SUP, as it’s known to the cooler masses. It felt really good to face my terror and prevail. More on that in a moment.
I figure that as long as I continue to face the challenges that scare me, it’s okay to ease up in other parts of life. Baking has always been that place of respite for me, and this apple cake is no exception. It’s quick, simple, and slathered in an unbelievable brown butter icing.
A couple of years ago, I started seeing pictures of celebrities in my trashy magazines doing something that looked like so much fun. It was SUP, only I didn’t know anything about it at the time. It just seemed so peaceful: standing up on a board with an oar, bonding with nature or the water or whatever. I didn’t really think it through much more, since I figured it was one of those things that people in L.A. do that people in D.C. don’t have access to.
Last summer, I learned that SUP lessons were available right off the Key Bridge in Georgetown, which is a very frou-frou area of the city. Georgetown is full of expensive shops including, of course, the famous Georgetown Cupcake. Want a hint from a local? Next time you’re in town, head toward Baked and Wired instead. It’s also in Georgetown, and it’s worth the trip.
Anyway, this summer I bit the bullet (or paddleboard) and signed Kenny and me both up for a lesson. We were supposed to go a month ago, but then we had a traumatic tubing incident and my body was too sore to do any SUP action just a couple of days later. Our lesson date was moved to September, and I tried not to think too much about the terror.
Good thing too, guys. I didn’t fully allow myself to realize the horror of our situation until we were on the water, leashed onto the board, being told to stand up and look at the horizon. I had two choices: stay on my knees and whimper, or just woman up and do it. Guess which one I picked?
You’ll be happy to learn that over the course of the two hours on the water, I got up and down several times without falling over once. It was scary, and I’m not going to lie. It was very, very far from being relaxing. But it was worth it, and I’m so glad I did it. I’m also so glad that there was apple cake to come home to.
This cake mixes up in one bowl, and it’s absolutely no-fail. To dress it up a little, I added the icing, which just required some brown butter for flair. To make brown butter, cook the butter in a saucepan over low-medium heat, swirling the butter often, for anywhere between five and 10 minutes, depending on how much butter is in the pan. When the butter starts to darken in color and smell nutty, it’s done.
Not everything in life can be so simple, but baking should not be a place where you feel any stress. Save it for the open water as you’re wobbling around on a SUP. That’s where you can face the real fears!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.
- Mix all the cake ingredients together in one bowl, stirring until well combined. Pour the cake batter into the pan.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and set (test the doneness with a toothpick). Let the cake cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, mix brown butter with the powdered sugar and vanilla. Add the milk gradually until the glaze becomes thick but spreadable.
- Pour the glaze over the cake and spread evenly over the surface. Let the glaze set.
- Cut into squares. Store covered.
Today’s offering is inspired by Kenny, a.k.a. my non sugar-craving half, who thinks all desserts are too rich. I love pound cake, but he has two bites and puts it aside. So I decided to halve the butter, brown it, and see what happens. Verdict? Success!
People forget how amazing half can be. Why do you think that combo meals with a cup of soup and half a sandwich are so appealing? Reducing something by half can open up options or completely reframe the way we look at the world. Imagine what life would be like if you always had to do everything wholly at one time. No dividing a project in half and doing the rest later, no eating half the brownie and saving the rest for tomorrow, no dressing partway in black and accenting with red shoes and a red jacket. You get the idea.
Restaurants should definitely serve half portions as a rule. Think how much more customers would be willing to try! You wouldn’t have to stare down a giant plate of pasta, wondering if it could feed a small family. Instead, you could have half of it, and maybe have room for dessert. As a rule of thumb, always save room for dessert! But you’re getting advice from a dessert blogger here.
As for pound cake, putting in a whole pound of butter is definitely called for sometimes, but to be honest, even half that amount still makes for a pretty rich cake. It’s still good for eating by itself, or cutting into chunks to dip in chocolate, or pairing with fruit. You won’t miss that half pound!
In fact, the full half pound isn’t all in the cake itself. You reserve a tablespoon of the browned butter and brush the top of the cake with both that and sugar while it’s baking. It’s pretty much the perfect finish for the cake.
To be honest, I might have let this go in the oven just a touch too long. My baking projects are usually punctuated with needy children, so I would advise you to keep a close eye on the cake. You want a toothpick to come out clean, but that’s it. Don’t wait for it to brown too much.
If we had a chance to do everything more halfway, some parts of life would suffer. But think about how much potential lies in half. After all, we can’t have everything!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Turn the heat down to medium-low and continue to let it cook, swirling the butter often, until it becomes golden in color and fragrant (about 10-12 minutes). Remove from the heat.
- Combine the browned butter (reserve one tablespoon) and sugar, stirring until smooth. Add the eggs and lemon juice, and mix again. Add the dry ingredients and stir until incorporated. Finally, add the milk and mix until the batter is without lumps.
- Bake for 35 minutes. Brush the remaining tablespoon of browned butter on top along with a sprinkling of sugar. Continue to bake for 10-15 minutes until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- Cut into slices and serve. Store covered at room temperature for up to one week!
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Yes, I just used slang from somewhere in the 90s. Don’t hate. Perhaps these browned butter M & M blondies will get you back on my side?
In a few days, Passover begins, and if you aren’t really familiar, it’s like the biggest holiday you can think of on steroids. The food is different, you have to use different dishes, and the spring cleaning involved is insane. Example: me behind the fridge with a toothbrush and a lot of cleaning fluid.
For those of you who are looking for Passover dessert recipes, check out my Passover edition category on this blog. And if you’d like more, I’ll be posting three more dessert recipes for the holiday next week! They have no flour and they actually taste really good. So stay tuned!
But while I’m immersed in prepping for this insane holiday, I am not very fun to talk to. It’s one too many nights cleaning out all my cabinets (which yes, are very messy) and of convincing my hoarder son that no, he really doesn’t need to keep every cereal box prize he’s ever broken. Maybe just keep the ones that work? If that actually ever happens?
These blondies will keep me sane, that’s for sure. They’re made with browned butter, of course. And all the other ingredients get mixed in by hand. It’s pretty easy! And what could be better than adding M & Ms? That’s always a good decision.
In case you’re wondering what all this browned butter hoopla is since you’ve never made browned butter, you need to try it. It’s pretty easy, requires no special equipment, and tastes like angels are singing. That’s by itself. When you add browned butter as an ingredient to anything, the entire baked good turns into something that somehow has stayed legal in this country.
As I scramble to get ready for Passover and prep some wonderful treats for you next week, enjoy the rest of browned butter week here on JAB. And if you’ve never browned butter, try it. It’s a lot easier than cooking for an eight-day holiday that has weird food rules!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8-in. square pan with foil, leaving enough to hang over the sides, and coat with cooking spray.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Turn the heat down to medium-low and continue to let it cook, swirling the butter often, until it becomes golden in color and fragrant (about 10-12 minutes). Remove from the heat.
- Mix the browned butter with both sugars, stirring until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla and lemon juice, stirring again. Add the dry ingredients and mix until everything is incorporated. Fold in the M & Ms.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and even out the top with a spaturla. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Do not overbake.
- Cut into squares and serve. Store in an airtight container.
Yep, JAB is my super-cool acronym for Just About Baked. Feel free to use it with all of your friends. Make it a thing.
After posting last week’s browned butter sandwich cookies, I kind of got into the flavor so much that I decided to create a whole week around the stuff. Why not? Remember, never answer that question. Just go with it. And first up today are these incredible, rich (Kenny’s word because all desserts are rich to him, the weirdo), yeast-free rolls.
Rules are meant to be broken, after all. Cinnamon rolls don’t need yeast. Anna doesn’t need the kiss of true love to save her from being frozen to death. And I definitely don’t need a few days off…nope, wait. I reallyreally do.
March is such a stupid month. There are no holidays that get us out of work and school (yes, I know I’ve gone on about this before), the temperatures are completely bipolar, and it’s work all the time. All work and no play makes me reach even more for cinnamon rolls. And look at pictures of beaches online.
But since I can’t have a day off, much less a beach vacation, these are the next best thing. Let me get warmed up here, because this dessert is so. Dang. Exciting.
The dough itself has browned butter in it. The filling has browned butter in it. And I’ve drizzled brown butter over the top before baking. Finally (drum roll, please), that’s browned butter glaze on top. And there are toffee bits in there! This is a view of the bottom, with all those toffee bits:
I tried to eat one bite. I really tried. I failed. Because as always, even though my rule is to taste my desserts but not eat them all, rules are meant to be broken. How could I stop at just a bite? These things are deadly.
So, for all you yeast-fearers out there, give these a stab. You won’t regret it, unless you’re trying not to eat too much these days. Then I can’t help you. But browned butter week lives on, so if you can’t beat ’em here on JAB (yes, I just did it again, sue me), join ’em!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil, coat with cooking spray, and set aside.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, cook all 10 tablespoons of butter, swirling the pan often, until the butter becomes fragrant and golden in color. This process usually takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on the butter. When it reaches the right color, turn off the heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the dry dough ingredients. Pour the buttermilk and 4 tablespoons of the melted butter into the dry ingredients, and mix until a dough starts to form.
- When the dough has come together, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for another minute. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about the size of the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch pan.
- Combine the filling ingredients except the toffee bits, being sure that the ingredients are well-mixed. Spread the filling onto the dough rectangle evenly. Sprinkle on the toffee bits.
- Roll the dough up lengthwise (like a jellyroll), pinching the ends. Cut into even pieces.
- Place the pieces in the pan and drizzle on one tablespoon of the browned butter, leaving the remaining two for the glaze.
- Bake for 20 minutes. The rolls will not be too browned. Do not overbake.
- While the rolls are cooling, mix the remaining browned butter with the powdered sugar and vanilla. Add the milk gradually until the glaze becomes thick but spreadable.
- Spread the glaze over the cooled cinnamon rolls. Serve immediately, or you can microwave them later if you like your rolls warm and gooey.
As a baking blogger, I sure eat a lot of cookies, so you can take me very seriously when I tell you that these are special. Once in a lifetime. If you ever make anything I put up here, make these! Now.
Whoops, I got kind of intense there. But I had to. You see, this recipe is something I can share with you, and I love sharing. In fact, I realized the other day that I probably balance out everything I overshare with the secrets I keep forever.
Yes, I have secrets. Quite a few, and that’s no joking matter.
I’ll try to explain. Whenever I’m watching a TV show and a character doesn’t expose a secret that could help clear her name, I get really frustrated. Why would somebody ever keep a secret that would make her look worse? But then I remember that I’ve done the exact same thing.
Without getting too specific (duh, it’s a secret), I once allowed a friend to believe something terrible about me, a complete untruth, in order to save her relationship with someone more important to her. I figured it was better to help her and let her think I was to blame than to expose the truth.
Years later, I look back at that decision with no regret. Do I wish, to this day, that she knew the truth? For my own sake and the sake of our damaged friendship, yes. For the sake of her own happiness and her future, no. Sometimes, we make really hard decisions.
But when we guard important secrets carefully, we have to share other things liberally. So in other areas of life, I don’t hold back. I let it all go. And these cookies are a perfect tribute to the joy of sharing.
This is not a recipe I invented, but one that was passed on to me by another valued friend. These cookies won the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in the 1950s, and boy, can I see why. Apparently, they really could bake like gangbusters back in the 50s!
The cookies are intensely buttery, like Russian tea cakes, and bursting with caramel flavor. And the cream in between has a browned butter base. If you’ve never made browned butter, you’re missing out. It’s easy, and it makes one heck of a frosting.
The only change I made to the original recipe was to chill the dough longer. That resulted in thicker and taller cookies, which aren’t as pretty, but which are infinitely more fun to bite into. One of these sandwich cookies will go a long way toward stomping on your sugar cravings.
To be honest, many aspects of my past haunt me, as do my secrets. But I try to even the balance by sharing bits and pieces of my life, and my baking, with everyone. These cookies are definitely not to be missed. Share them!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Cream the butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Add the egg yolk and blend. Add the flour, stirring until the mixture becomes cookie dough.
- Chill anywhere from 15 minutes (for flatter cookies) to an hour (puffier cookies).
- When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325. Line two cookie sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into one-inch balls and place them on the cookie sheet. Press down lightly with a fork to indent the tops.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool.
- While the cookies are cooling, make the filling. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and let it cook until golden in color, anywhere from 3-5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla and gradually add the milk until the mixture becomes spreadable. If the mixture is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add more milk.
- Sandwich the frosting between the cooled cookies. Serve or store in an airtight container.