Mexican Wedding Cookies!

So when I was little I lived near a Vons Pavillion store and they had an amazing bakery. A-MAZ-ING. Sadly, I left Orange County to go live in the Mojave Desert when I was about 7 (in 1997). And thusly, moved away from the fabulousness of this Grocery Store Bakery. Which is all for the best, I suppose, because I hear the quality has taken a hardcore nosedive.

Anyway, there a two cookies that we still talk about in my family, 16 years later. One is my favorite: the best thumbprint cookie ever. It was soft, yet crumbly. Powdery almost, but not dry. The chocolate filling was rich, thick, and soft like a ganache. But not too rich. It was just perfect, and I have never found a recipe like it. *sadfaced* But at least the other cookie, it would seem, is much easier to replicate. A simple, classic:

Mexican Wedding Cookie!

This one is my mom's favorite. She always talks about how she wished we lived near a Vons Pavillion that still made these fresh on site. But alas, we do not. So I decided to make some for her. They are super easy, incredibly affordable, and absolutely delectable.

Recipe and more photos under the cut! Enjoy! :) 

Strawberry Shortcake!

Omg! I haven't posted in forever. Holidays + Work = No time for fun and cookery. :( But it's January! Yay! I have free time again! :D So in my New Year's plan to really dedicate myself to Pastry in 2013, I have the first bake of the year:

Strawberry Shortcake!

This cake originally was going to be this recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Shortcake, but as there apparently is no Rhubarb in California in the Winter, I had to improvise. Lol. The result was super delicious.  

Recipe and more photos under the cut! Enjoy! :)

Herb French Bread

Hello! Hello! So I'm in a baking community on LiveJournal called BakeBakeBake. And every month they do a theme contest. This month's theme was Yeast. ~ ominous organ music playing in the background ~  So I poked around the internet for a bit and found this great recipe that doesn't require you to proof the yeast. I wanted something easy because I've never used yeast before. It also looked buttery and herby and delicious, so I decided to go for it!

Here's my contest entry!

Recipe and more photos under the cut! Enjoy!

Figgy Tart!

I don't care if it's August and that this is more like a fig tarte tatin. 

Sooo. . .

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Now! bring us some figgy pudding!

Now! bring us some figgy pudding!

Now! bring us some figgy pudding!

and bring it us here

For we all like figgy pudding
so bring some out here!

 

Lol. Anyway. I made a Figgy Tart! This was primarily inspired by the fact that we have a fig tree that is filled to the brim right now. All in all, I was so happy with the way this turned out. It was my first time attempting to bake anything upside down and then flipping it out of the pan, and it worked!. It basically tasted like a big Fig Newton. Lol. I got the recipe from this blog but I tweaked a few things. So without further ado, I give you the recipe and more pictures! Enjoy!

Crêpes with Lingonberry Preserves!

Not quite baking, but still awesome and delicious. Lol. ;)

I was going to make pancakes from a box to put my preserves on, and have that for dinner. But then I decided to do something more tasty and interesting. It was my first attempt at making Crepes ever, so I was a bit worried about how they would turn out. And to tell the truth, I'm not sure how they turned out. Lol. I've only had them twice; when I was seventeen and in Paris as part of a class trip. All I really remember about them is the Nutella and banana filling. (Which was so good!)  But I think I got the hang of it after a few. The first one I had to throw away because there was way too much butter in the pan. 

 This is the second one! 

 A bit too thick and tore up on the sides, but whatever! I'm counting this as my first successful Crepe! 

The rest came out better. I started making them thinner and let them get more color (maybe to crispy in some cases). But all in all, I am very pleased with the way this spur of the moment dinner experiment came out. I spread the preserves on the Crepes and rolled them up like a Ho-Ho. Then I cooked up some savory potato wedges (topped with cheese and salsa) and a fried egg. It was a good counterpart to the sweetness of the crepes. I went with the sweet version and they seriously smelled like vanilla cake when cooking. I got about 10 out of the recipe so I put the leftovers in the freezer (as Alton Brown's recipe says you can). I'm interested to see what they'll be like after being frozen.

Here's the recipe I followed, enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Scones with Lingonberry Preserves!

Hello! Hello! So this post has been inspired by the most amazing store on Earth: IKEA!

I was there last Thursday, buying some new furniture, and I also had to get a jar of Lingonberry preserves and some Lingonberry Juice. They have an awesome Swedish food market with a ton of other items (I wish I could afford it all! But I just stuck with my favorites). I then had the dilemma of deciding what to do with the preserves. I wasn't sure if I should use it as an ingredient, or a topping, or make a sandwich, etc. Ultimately I decided to simply put it on top of something, but what? Luckily, Chef Alton Brown came to my rescue with his super simple, amazingly delicious scone recipe! It's basically the same recipe he used to make biscuits in S1 E7 of Good Eats, "The Dough Also Rises", but with a few adaptations. Even though he doesn't actually make the scones, I found watching what he did in the episode very helpful.

Here's the recipe and more photos! 

Black Forest Cake!

So, I have been craving one of these cakes for months and I finally made one last weekend! I decided to follow this recipe from allrecipes.com but I made a few changes. I didn't make a real German Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, because I didn't use any Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries), or any other alcohol for that matter. One day I would like to try my hand at a cake with Kirschwasser, but in the meantime, this cake was both affordable and delicious!

Recipe and more photos under the cut. Enjoy!