Cocoa Wafers

For my peanut butter pie (you'll hear about it next week), I wanted to make a homemade crust. I searched my books for good chocolate wafer that would serve this purpose. I thought I was successful until I decided to search the internet. The first hit was Cocoa Wafers on Smitten Kitchen's site and I thought, jackpot! What was even more perfect was that I owned the book from where the recipe is taken. Pure Dessert is a book I don't get to use often so I was glad to put it to use and find a great recipe for cocoa wafers! This cookie dough is super easy to make as all the work gets done in a food processor. These cookies are deeply chocolately, you can just smell it and the color doesnt lie, either. Depending on how long you bake them you'll wind up with cookies crisp enough for cookie crust or cookies soft enough to house a vanilla cream filling a la Oreos, definitely worth a try! I made half of this recipe as I really needed it for the pie but a few cookies were left over and I gave them to one of my girls, who happily devoured them. These could be considered icebox cookies so I would allow these a generous overnight rest so that they don't go to wonky on you.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a while since I've attempted anything gluten free. (I really do need to get my hands on a gluten free baking book!!!!) Recently, KAF posted a recipe for gluten free scones. In that post was a link to their other gluten free recipes, one of them being chocolate chip cookies. I immediately bookmarked the recipe to make one day for one of my girls who is gluten intolerant. Yesterday seemed the perfect day to make them. I made the dough in the morning and chilled them until later. The dough pretty much came together as would a regular one, but it felt slightly tacky and the color was a bit lighter than normal. The resulting cookies looked just like their gluten filled counterparts but the texture was chewy and remained so for hours after. I can't say how long that chewiness would have lasted because they all disappeared before I could test that. My gluten free girl gave the seal of approval, saying that they were very good. Almost everyone else who had one couldnt tell at all that they were gluten free, they just pronounced them really delicious. They literally walked off the plate. That's all that matters when it comes to cookies. More importantly though, I feel encouraged by this gluten-free venture. It's nice to be able to help someone who can't eat these things enjoy a treat occasionally. Who knows what's next?

Sticky Buns

For the longest time, I have wanted to make sticky buns. Sticky buns are a close relative to cinnamon buns but better. Who can resist a cinnamon bun coated in sticky goo? This past week, I had a strong urge to knead some bread dough. (I'm weird, what can I say?) It was too early to bake challot for Shabbat but I reaaaally wanted to make dough. Then it hit me- I was going to make sticky buns. When my mom came about a month or so back she brought my copy of Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day and I thought it a good opportunity to try out a recipe. The dough was really easy to make. I loved the fact that the recipe called for vegetable oil and didnt have any eggs- this was a leaner, more virtuous dough, but no less good. I left the dough in the fridge for three days, I figured I'd just bring them for dessert on Shabbat and that's just what I did. Reinhart offers three sticky bun toppings and I chose the simplest one. I expected it to be more sticky and drippy but that could be that I made them the night before I served them and it just melted into the dough. Next time, these babies gotta be served fresh. Anyway, we heated them up on Friday night and dug in. They were super cinnamony and doughy and delicious. I think that's all I have to say on these. Make them. These buns are being sent to Yeastspotting!

Stellar Apple Spice Cakes with Maple Glaze

These Apple Spice Cakes tasted a lot better than they look, I promise. I know I swore off apple desserts, but this time I found the recipe before collecting the apples so it's not like I was desperate to be rid of them! I stumbled on this recipe while flipping through Just a Bite, the same cookbook where I found the Fig Newtons. The Gale Gand calls these cakes stellar, and indeed the girls really enjoyed them, they thought them to be really delicious. I did omit nuts and fruit and I got less than the desired yield as well. I would also cut the apples in smaller pieces than just chunks so that they are more evenly distributed among the final cakes. Lastly, I would add some maple extract to the glaze because the maple syrup itself is just way too understated and it just gets lost. The girls weren't even sure what they were eating-- I hate that. Next time, more dominant maple flavor which I think would better enhance the spices.

Homemade Fig Newtons

Seems I've been slacking off with posting- a lot has been going on in my life these days, so this write up is going to be a bit brief. Last weekend, I went to my sister for Shabbat and as usual, I was baking something. This time, though, she had a verrry specific request and that was for Fig Newtons. I'm not sure where that random request came from but I considered it nonetheless. Strangely, I recalled that Gale Gand has a recipe for homemade fig newtons in one of her books. (I do think it's strange that my brain has the uncanny ability of remembering who has what recipes in their cookbooks. Not so normal!!) Anyway, I pulled out her Just a Bite and sure enough, she had a recipe for what she calls Fig Nortons, but I know the truth- theyre knockoffs of the real things so I decided to retain their original name. The filling consists of cooking together figs, apple juice, orange juice and cinnamon until thick and then pureeing it. The dough was easy to make as well-- I did both parts in advance. My only qualms with this recipe is that 1. the dough is a bit hard to work with- be generous with the flour and 2. the recipe for the filling is far too little for the amount of dough produced, so I would double it.  Otherwise, these are delicious. My brother in law claims they are better than the real thing. How could they not be? Homemade anything always beats store bought. Try them- if you're a fig lover, you'll be won over.