well hello! Nice to be back in action with you all! I hope you had a quiet and cozy winter break and are feeling ready to tackle some new and exciting bakes with me for (at least!) another year ;-)
new on bbs
Lemon Shortbread
Crumbly, buttery and bursting with lemon. This basic but perfect shortbread has none of the bombastic appeal of a chocolate bake but will nestle itself firmly into that lemon-loving crook of your heart. Fresh zest, lemon extract and lemon juice in the glaze plus, this dough is rested twice for optimal lemon flavor.
light & citrusy
Olive Oil Cookies
Chewy & crinkly - skip the butter! This recipe went viral on tiktok and every now and then I get a comment complaining that the cookies tasted… like olive oil ;p I think if you choose a good quality (and you consider the title of the recipe!) you’ll love these :D
easy & elevated
Tahini Chocolate Banana Muffins
These aren’t your average basic banana bread muffins. Banana bread but make it chocolate and add some nutty tahini and then chunks of marbled halva.
reader review
Black Cocoa Cookies
“I love this recipe! I did a bunch of looking for “Oreo” cookies and this is super! I roll the dough out about 1/8″ thick. I do the double backing – love the crispy result, and do a chocolate mint butter cream as well – like it a bit better than the vanilla but both disappear pretty quickly!” - Frances
reads & notes
“One of us prepares the dough, the next cuts it into loaves. We prepare the bread to be put over the fire. We have no fuel, so we must cook outdoors over the fire. The smoke burns our skin and lungs, it makes our eyes water and our throats sore. This would be challenging enough, but we must also bake under Israeli shelling. It seems like the sound of Israeli bombs never stops. Fear is a constant companion. We work with our heads down, hoping to avoid being struck by shrapnel.” - Electronic Intifada
“Rising global temperatures – 2023 is expected to be widely confirmed as the hottest year ever recorded – are fueling droughts and other extreme weather that affect food yields, including that of sugar. The price hike has already started to filter down to chocolate, sweets and other desserts.” …“The issue will be affordability. In the US and other high-income countries, there will be an increased cost of food that will be felt by households, particularly poorer households, but it’s a different story for countries where 40% of expenditures are on food, which will be dramatically affected.” - The Guardian.
So…I did get distracted by lemons. I sat down on Jan 2nd and made a list of recipes I wanted to develop this year and, err… twenty something of them were lemon based. Which meant that I had to kick off with one of them stat 😅
Speaking of lemons, this meyer lemon sumac bundt has been popping off lately and I had a couple of complaints about how the recipe is written and how the photos look (the recipe itself is solid; I won’t change it - just the text and photos), so I’m working on updating it. If something is ever unclear or confusing, please leave me a comment and I’ll fix & update as soon as I can. (If it’s a bigger project and has serious issues you might see the recipe disappear until I can tackle it).
After six years of saying I just couldn’t bear to do it I decided I’d channel the backed up knowledge I had from taking a class and make croissants. I used Saffitz’ recipe as a base and laminated the way I remembered. They turned our gorgeous! The second batch I made (in which I went really rogue) did not turn out cute at all (more like overgrown snails than croissants lol) but were still delicious. I’ve had people say to me, why go through the trouble when you can easily buy them? And yes, it’s a two day process and while most of it is rest/chill, it can be laborious. But I think there is something to be said for wanting to give your two hands a challenge: seeing the result of your hard work and feeling that rush of, look what I made. I know mine will never be as good as the (good) bakeries but, a. they’re defo better than grocery store croissants, and b. I get so much joy from seeing all my work come to fruition. I want to do more tasks like that this year (I think I might try to make pasta!)
and for members
Baklava Rolls
Supersoft cinnamon rolls meet the nutty, sticky & sweet flavors of baklava.
Took a cinnamon roll and filled it with nuts and spices then doused it in a simple honey syrup! These are my milk bread rolls filled with brown butter, brown sugar, finely ground pecans and pistachios, spiced with cardamom and lots of cinnamon. They get baked in a orange blossom scented cream and post bake, just like baklava, doused in a sweet syrup.