Sweet Melissa Sundays: Fresh Peach Muffins

I've had an unexpected absence from this blog. This was my last week of work, and it was especially crazy. I also managed to catch a summer bug from someone at work, so my posts were neglected. I haven't posted the winner of the cupcake week giveaway yet, but you can look for it here tomorrow.

In the meantime . . . fresh peach muffins. I grew up with a peach tree in my yard, and every year it produced peaches upon peaches upon peaches. It was in the front yard, and people would frequently stop to pick peaches off of the tree. This always made me happy, as these peaches were very hard and sugary sweet. They lacked the peachy flavor that I was looking for, and I hated that all of the dessert options were composed of some sort of peach. My dad did make peach muffins that were very good, and that was my favorite way to eat those peaches.

In my new, mid-Atlantic surroundings, I've been able to get lovely peaches from Pennsylvania and Virginia. I was so excited to try these muffins. I love a muffin for breakfast anyway -- I think that they're a wonderful convenience food in the mornings. These peachy muffins are super simple to mix up. The batter was very, very stiff, but other than that I didn't have any issues with them. I sprinkled a good amount of cinnamon sugar on the tops for flavor, of course.

The verdict? I liked these, but they weren't quite as peachy as I'd hoped they would be. I used very ripe and flavorful peaches, so I wonder if mashing some of them up would add more flavor to the muffins? Also, my muffins were very, very dense. I would've liked it if they'd been a teensy bit fluffier. All in all, they're a nice breakfast treat that I've been enjoying in the mornings! Thanks to JoVonn of the Givens Chronicles for a fun pick this week.

TWD: Creamiest Lime Cream

But no meringue pie here. I wish that I still lived near my dad. He loves pie more than anyone I know. I'm hard pressed to think of a pie that he doesn't like. He's been known, in moments of hunger-induced weakness, to purchase a pie at the grocery store and squirrel it away in some hidden cupboard of the kitchen (store bought desserts have always been a no-no in my parents' house), only to have my mom find most of it a week or a month later. I, however, don't really like pie. I will happily share a slice, but even a mini pie is too much for me to handle. So I had this brilliant idea . . .


I'd make a lime cream stack of sorts. It was going to be great, actually, but fate intervened. You see, I was going to make this, and then I was going to make this, and then I was really going to make this last night. Alas, I only had salted butter in the fridge. Nope, no can do. So, off I went to the store this morning to get unsalted butter (and other necessary sundries). I made the lime cream when I got home this afternoon. I also made these coconut shortbread cookies to go with the lime cream. I got the idea from Mary Ann -- I knew that I wanted to use some sort of cookie. I pondered gingersnaps, but I ultimately decided on coconut because I personally love the whole lime coconut combination. So, it's a runny messy stack, but it's actually delicious. That coconut shortbread is amazing, and if you happen to like coconut I definitely recommend that you try it. As for the stack, it didn't quite work, but I think that it has potential with more time for the curd to chill. Thanks to Linda for picking this amazing dessert that I've been anxious to try. Check out her blog for her gorgeous interpretation of this pie and the recipe, too.

BBA S&S: Cinnamon Rolls

Oh, y'all, I have a meeting about my thesis this evening after work, and I'm stressed out about it. I'm not sure why I'm stressed about it, other than the fact that I tend to unnecessarily stress about things. Like right now, I know this isn't a big deal, and I know it will be fine . . . but what if it isn't fine? What if he tells me I have to change my topic? What if he tells me it's stupid? Last year when I was on my way to orientation I kept thinking, what if it's a big mistake? What if I get there and they tell me to go home? Luckily I had Dudley walking me down there, distracting me by discussing why Burt Reynolds is the greatest actor, ever.

Even though I'm not actually eating the cinnamon rolls, just looking and writing about them is pretty comforting right now. My BaBa used to make cinnamon rolls, and as far as I'm concerned they're definitely comfort food. They're warm, and soft, seriously tasty, and they remind me of my great grandmother. I kinda wish I'd made the sticky buns, as the glaze doesn't really blow my hair back, but there's always next time. I think that next time I'll leave the lemon zest out of the dough, too, because I felt like the citrus flavor was competing with the cinnamon flavor in these rolls.


So, no offense to BaBa, but I am certain that everyone would agree that these cinnamon rolls are better than hers. She'd probably agree, too; in fact, I think that she'd be so excited with this new recipe. I will definitely make these again -- it might be a few months, I'm definitely overwhelmed by all of the enriched breads right now -- but these cinnamon rolls will reappear.

MSC Ladybug Cupcakes

This coming week is my last week of work, and then next week classes start again. As much as I love the first day of school (and I think I'll always love it, regardless of my age), I do love summer, and I feel as though I blinked and summer came and went. I don't want summer to be over, but I will freely admit that I'm more than ready to give up my summer job. Don't get me wrong, I've loved teaching this summer, but this past session of expository writing has me ready to head for the hills. We were watching a movie yesterday in preparation for writing movie reviews, and my students would.not.stop.talking!! I paused and asked them if they were actually allowed in movie theaters to see movies. One student's response was, "my mom knows discipline." Ha.ha.ha. The volume level in my classroom is deafening at times, and when I get home with ringing ears and a pounding head in the evening, all I want is a little peace and quiet. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at sitting still, so I have to do something else. I've made several of the flavored cupcakes, but this week I thought that it would be fun to bring some "cute" cupcakes to work. I've had my eye on these ladybug cupcakes ever since I first opened Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. At any rate, there's just something very cathartic and mindless about piping icing.

The base cupcake is the yellow buttermilk cupcake. I was a little wary of this cake because Margaret had warned me that they were on the dry side, but I wanted to give it a shot. I watched these like a hawk while they were in the oven, and I pulled them out the second that I thought they were done (just at 20 minutes). The recipe says to let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes, I skipped that step and removed them to the cooling rack right away (when I do this I don't turn the cupcakes out, but I remove them from the tins with a spoon). The result was a very moist and tender cupcake. I would definitely make these again.

The cupcakes are frosted with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I think that's why I tend to stay away from fun and fancy cupcakes -- I really don't care for this frosting. I've worked with it quite often (though it's definitely been awhile) and it pipes very nicely, but I just think that the flavor borders on *meh* -- I can't get excited about it. I'm also not a fan of tinted frosting. The darker the color, the less I like it. I think this is because I know how much tint has to go into the frosting to get that color, and it skeeves me out. These cupcakes were for work, though, and green frosting was pretty essential for the grass. We've had a heatwave in DC for the past couple of weeks, and I'm cheap so I hate to turn on the AC if I can avoid it, so the buttercream wasn't quite as stiff as it could have been. The grass tip for the piping bag takes some getting used to. Here's my tip: rather than starting with the piping bag flush on the cupcake, start squeezing about 1/8" from the surface and pull up as you squeeze. This will give you more defined blades of grass rather than the star shape that you might get if you start on the surface of the cake. At any rate, my grass doesn't look very manicured, does it? It looks like the lady bugs have found a nice abandoned patch of grass.

As for the ladybugs, I didn't make them out of marzipan. King Arthur Flour's Website had these sugar ladybugs on sale quite awhile ago, and I bought some. I think that the marzipan ladybugs are cuter, but these are 100 times easier, and that settles that, doesn't it?


Don't forget to enter the giveaway for cupcake week! Here's the rest of the goodie box:

• Cute Jessie Steele cupcake potholder
• assorted sprinkles
• my favorite India Tree white nonpareils
• Wilton 12 piece cupcake decorating set, set of three stripy cupcake boxes, and stripe and dot paper cup liners
  
• Sur la Table silicone baking cups
  

Two Simple Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes:


I think that at the beginning of this cupcake madness I said that the chocolate chip cupcakes were the first that I made from MSC. I lied. Well, it certainly wasn't intentional; you see, I just forgot about the Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes. They're delicious, but in my mind they're really more of a brownie than a cupcake. I'm not even going to enter the "what is a cupcake, really?" discussion here. It's circular, don't you think? Martha put these in the cupcake book, and for the purposes of this post they're a cupcake . . . with strong brownie tendencies. I wanted to make these right away because they looked super simple, and because they don't require any frosting. I'm a cake girl, I only like frosting when I'm in the mood for frosting.


Forget about the brownie though, the real selling point of these cupcakes happens to be the peanut butter filling. Good heavens, it tastes just like the inside of a Reese's peanut butter cup. Do you remember the commercials that depicted how people liked to eat their Reese's? I only like the center of a Reese's cup. Something about that chocolate is just a little too faux and waxy for my taste. This is why Reese's Eeaster eggs are far superior to the rest of the Reese's offerings: more peanut butter, less chocolate covering. I digress. These chocolate peanut butter filled cupcakes are just fantastic, and they're super simple to make. Just beware, they have a way of distracting you when you least expect it, and before you know it, you're eating another one. It's tricky, and I think that I ate the lion's share of these cupcakes.

Jam Filled Tea Cakes:

I've always been a sucker for nearly anything that has a dollop of jam inside. My very favorite Christmas cookies are thumbprints with strawberry jam in the middle. My mom used to make these every year at Christmas, and she'd ration them out because my brother and I couldn't be trusted around those cookies. I'm dying for the TWD group to pick Dorie's recipes for thumbprints at some point because I'd love to compare and contrast the two. Recently the SMS group made strawberry pink grapefruit preserves. These preserves were so tasty, and I had been pondering a dessert that would do them justice. Enter the tea cakes -- what a wonderful way to use up these scrummy preserves.

These tea cakes are definitely little cakes. The batter is some of the stiffest cake batter I've ever worked with. The process involves making the batter with the yolks, butter, and milk, then whipping the egg whites (each time I hit a recipe that calls for a second KA bowl I vow that someday I'll have an extra bowl), and folding the whites into the batter. The batter was so heavy that I just had a doozy of a time trying to fold in the egg whites, but in the end it seemed to be ok. The batter needs to be very stiff in order to make the little divot for the jam, after all.


The verdict on these? They are definitely tea cakes! These little cakes would be perfect with a cup of tea. My only complaint: I think that they're too big. I would definitely make these as minis rather than the full size cupcake. The cake itself is moist, but it's not the most flavorful cake, and these cupcakes rely on the jam to really deliver the goods. When I was done eating the part of the cake with the jam, I didn't quite know what to do with the rest of the cupcake. I think that minis would solve this problem quite nicely.

CEiMB: Grilled Thai Beef Salad

This week I got to make a salad that I've been eying for quite some time -- the Thai beef salad. It just sounds good, doesn't it? I love a good salad, and I don't make them often enough.

When my brother was visiting, we had T-Bone steaks one night for dinner. I've mentioned here before that I really don't like leftovers. While I'll reheat pasta from time to time, I really hate reheating meat. It just does something funky to the taste, not to mention that the meat is officially overcooked when it's done reheating. We had a steak leftover, and I knew that it was destined for this salad. So, please pardon the pale shade of pink in the steak, I think that's because it was cold. This also means that my steak didn't marinate, but I thought that the dressing was flavorful enough to compensate for the loss of any marinating time. I added some diced sweet peppers to the salad for color, flavor, and a nice crunch. The dressing is everything that's promised at the beginning of the recipe: it's sweet, tart, and spicy. My dressing was very spicy as I got a little overzealous with the sriracha. It's a delicious salad, and I'm sure that I'll make it again.

Thanks to Jen for this fabulous selection. You can find the recipe here.

TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

Finally, the applesauce spice bars . . . errr mini muffins. I finally had a successful trip to the grocery store this afternoon (well, that actually depends on your version of success since my cell phone is still there, and I left without a necessary ingredient for something else -- though not for lack of trying) and I had the applesauce with which to make these treats. People are starting to run and hide when I try to give them baked goods. The AAA man actually turned my box of cookies down the other day, can you believe it? I need new victims, fast. So, I was a little reluctant to make the full recipe with the glaze, as I knew that I'd be responsible for eating these goodies.


I made half of the recipe, and I'd planned to use apple, but Audrey mentioned that she used a peach to great effect in her bars, and that just sounded so nice and summer-ish to me. Not to mention that I have quite a few peaches around here, and I like to use my apples as a snack at work. They're just easier to eat, you know? Here's how the recipe went down:

• half a recipe
• peach instead of apple
• left out the raisins, blech, might sub diced dried apricots or craisins in the future
  
• the regular amount of spices
• half of a recipe makes 23 mini muffins
• Dorie calls for parchment, butter, and flour -- I gave the muffin tins a hefty spray of Baker's Joy and they popped out without any issues
  
• powdered sugar rather than glaze . . . really because I didn't feel like futzing with the glaze tonight

These are delicious little treats. The mini muffins seem like they'd be just right for a little nibble before brunch. They're very cakey, and this way I think that they sort of multi-task as a breakfast or a dessert. I think that I'll definitely make these again when fall rolls around, and I have apples coming out of my ears. Thanks, Karen, for picking such a sweet and hassle-free recipe this week!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Bear with me, I don't have any applesauce sauce bars here yet. I've been having serious personal grocery store issues. They're pretty simple: I don't want to go. You see, I need to go get applesauce, but I still have my essentials, and I just hate grocery shopping. I'm going to try to go after work this evening, and hopefully I'll have the applesauce bars posted later tonight.

In the meantime, it is cupcake week here. Don't forget to leave a comment, I'll be announcing the winner of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes and the fabulous cupcake goody package next week sometime. I made these snickerdoodle cupcakes to take to work for my friend Anthony's last day. Anthony was our TA this summer, and I loved chatting with him while I was making my copies before class each day. He's headed off to U Penn to get a degree in biochem, and I think that's a cupcake worthy endeavor. Anyway, I wanted to make these cupcakes because I love the way they look in the book. I thought that I had a plain piping tip, but I don't. So rather than kisses, my snickerdoodles have swirls.

These cupcakes were a HUGE hit with everyone at work; this is strange because I tasted one and immediately thought: fine, but I'd rather have something else. I think that if you like cinnamon, you'll really like these cupcakes. Also, because these are the same coworkers that couldn't understand how I made cookies in the shapes of fish and lighthouses, you can just imagine their bewilderment when I tried to explain that it was 7 minute frosting. They loved this frosting, but they were just blown away that egg whites, water, and sugar create this icing. One of them told me that she was going to go home and "ponder the chemistry of it all." Far out.

Martha Stewart Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

While I'll freely admit to adapting a rather lax blogging status this summer, it certainly wasn't premeditated. I've actually been making and baking this summer, but it all seems to fall by the wayside when it comes down to posting. I was tweeting around on Saturday, and there was much discussion about the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book that came out earlier this summer. I was lucky enough to receive this book as a gift, and I've actually used it quite a bit so far. In fact, I've built up quite a backlog of cupcakes that should be shared here (that's the point, right?) but I've had zero motivation to post about them in between other blogging commitments.

Last week was the great one sentence blogging week, hosted by the wonderful Miss Nancy, of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. One sentence blogging was terrific motivation to post. In an effort to stay motivated, and deplete my stock of cupcake posts, this week is Cupcake Week in the Singleton's kitchen. Each day I'll post a cupcake that I've tried from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. In order to make this a little more fun, at the end of the week I'll give away a copy of the book along with some other fun cupcake essentials. To enter, just leave a comment on the posts, and I'll announce the winner sometime next week.

First up, chocolate chip cupcakes. This was the first recipe that I made, and it happens to be the first recipe in the book. I was really skeptical about these cupcakes when I made them. I was worried that they would be really dry and flavorless. Happily, though, I was wrong! These cupcakes are absolutely moist and delicious. I brought them to a potluck at work, and my coworkers devoured these goodies. They got rave reviews all the way around. They're made with cake flour, and this results in a very tender crumb cupcake. I used mini chocolate chips, and I think that the minis are the way to go in this recipe. It seems to me that big chocolate chips might get hard and interfere with the tenderness of the cupcakes. I frosted these with the recommended rich chocolate frosting. This is really a ganache, and it tasted wonderful on top of these cupcakes. You can find the recipe for this cupcake here on Martha's website.

I'm not posting the recipes for the cupcakes here this week, but I will provide the links to the recipes on Martha Stewart's website when I can find them. If you're dying for the recipe, email me, and I will send it along.

King Arthur Flour Classic Blueberry Muffins

I wanted to make blueberry muffins when my brother was in town because I'd purchased some lovely blueberries at the market, and because he loves a blueberry muffin -- I was shocked at the dearth of blueberry muffin recipes in my cookbooks (even cookbooks like Martha Stewart's Classic Recipes seemed to leave me high and dry); I knew I wanted to make a "plain" muffin without extras (such as zest or other berries), and once again, The King Arthur Baker's Companion came through for me; Hank and Dudley declared these "the best blueberry muffins ever," and neither one could stop eating them; they have a very traditional blueberry muffin flavor, and if you're looking for a way to use up some blueberries, I recommend you give these a shot.


Classic Blueberry Muffins
pg 68 of The King Arthur Baker's Companion

1 stick (4 oz) butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
cinnamon sugar for the top

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together butter, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the baking powder. Then add the flour alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition. Mash 1/2 cup of blueberries and add them to the batter. Stir in the vanilla at the end, along with the whole blueberries.

Mound the batter into 12 lightly greased or paper lined muffin cups, filling each completely to the top (actually, over the top; the batter is thick enough that it'll hold its shape). Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Remove muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan to cool completely on a rack, or gently flip them sideways in the pan.

If you'd like a printable version of this recipe, please click here.

CEiMB: Stuffed Turkey Burgers (and catch-up Carrot Muffin-Cupcakes)

This week's CEiMB selection comes from Peggy, of Pantry Revisited (I love Peggy's blog, it's always fun, and it just flows so nicely); I luh-luh-love a buger: a tuna burger, a beef burger, a turkey burger -- they're all delicious as far as I'm concerned; in fact, a burger and fries from Taylor's Automatic Refresher is at the top of my list of things to eat at my last meal; I was a little skeptical about this turkey burger as it's just plain old turkey stuffed with cheese and peppers, but plain and simple works: I used pepper jack cheese and finely chopped roasted peppers for the inside, and I loved it (what's this? an absence of a bun? I had just enough turkey in my freezer to make one Singleton burger, and I didn't want to go to the grocery store for buns, so I went bunless, it was still delicious); I ate the turkey burger with Alexia spicy sweet potato fries -- I love sweet potato fries, and if you're not in the mood to cut up your own (e.g. if you're already starving!) Alexia is a great option.


Last week, LeAnne, of Enjoying My Favorite Things, chose Carrot Cupcakes with Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting; of course, I made these last Monday, but I didn't post them on time, so I'll post about them now: I left these unfrosted because a) they really tasted like carrot muffins to me, b) I like carrot muffins, and c) I really don't like cream cheese frosting; so thanks to LeAnne for picking such a great treat!

Green Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Feta (one sentence bloggin continues . . .)

The Half-Price Books at Westheimer and Montrose is a dangerous place for me: the buy back counter is in the cookbook section, eek!; I never leave empty-handed, and last time I left with two books by Art Smith (I never knew that he was the target of so much hatred until he appeared on Top Chef Masters -- he's off my radar but his cookbooks are great, I recommend them), one of which is Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family; seriously, this is a splendid cookbook, and it was a great help when I was looking for something to do with green beans (yellow, too) and tomatoes; perhaps this salad is a no-brainer, but it was delicious, and I'd like to share it here.


Green Bean Salad with Feta and Tomatoes
from Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family by Art Smith

1 1/2 pounds of green beans, washed and trimmed
1/2 pint grape tomatoes (I used regular beefsteak tomatoes)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (don't skip this, the mint adds incredible flavor!)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
(I added a splash of red wine vinegar, too)

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the beans and cook until barely tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Pat the green beans dry with paper towels.

Toss the green beans, tomatoes, feta, shallot, mint, and basil together in a large bowl. Drizzle the mint with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

TWD: Brownie Buttons (& 1 sentence blogging!)

Oh, brownie buttons, I had such high hopes for these, but they fell unfortunately short; I thought that they needed more height and more chocolate; and my white chocolate topping overwhelmed any chocolate flavor that they had.

BBA SOS: Ciabatta

The next step in the effort to move past the C's in The Bread Baker's Apprentice is the noble ciabatta bread. I adore ciabatta bread, and I'd attempted to make it last summer with Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible as my guide. The indicator of great ciabatta is in the great big holes and fabulous texture of the bread. To this end, the dough for ciabatta is very wet and sticky. Last summer I managed a couple of holes, and this past time I managed a couple of holes, but overall the ciabatta still didn't make it close to the ethereal, splintery on the outside, chewy on the inside goodness that I wanted.

On a somewhat related sidenote, my brother was in town for a conference this past week and weekend. On Thursday night we went to Citronelle and tucked into the seven course tasting menu with wine flights. Somehow, in the midst of all of this food and wine (or perhaps because of the wine) I managed to taste the bread, ciabatta, on my plate. It was so insanely good, it may actually have been my favorite part of the meal. Or at least the part that blew my mind the most. The next night, we had people over for cocktails before dinner and I put out the ciabatta with some olive oil. Hank mentioned that he was impressed with the ciabatta. I replied that I wanted to make bread like they serve at Citronelle, and then and there, I had my bubble burst. Apparently that will never happen in a home kitchen . . but a Singelton can dream, right?

Of course, the bread stales pretty quickly, so I made some panzanella with the remaining ciabatta. Panzanella is traditionally made with Tuscan salt-free bread, but I think that ciabatta works just as well. My family loves panzanella, and they eat it all summer long. The recipe that I know comes from Claudia Roden's The Food of Italy: Region by Region. Of course, this book is in Texas, packed up while my parents finish building their house, so I had to think hard to remember the recipe.

Panzanella
loosely adapted from Claudia Roden's The Food of Italy: Region by Region

• 3/4 pound day-old crusty peasant-style bread (such as ciabatta) cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)
• 2 or 3 large tomatoes (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut in a large dice
  
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced and quartered unwaxed cucumber
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
  
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
  
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (or red wine if you prefer)
  
• 10 fresh basil leaves, shredded
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Soak the bread until it’s moist – but not squishy, then crumble it into the bowl – together with the garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, and celery. (If you're squeamish about soaking the bread, I will often just sprinkle the bread with water until it's achieved about the right texture. Many recipes skip this step, but I think that it's a very traditional step in making panzanella.) Add the basil, vinegar, and oil, and mix. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Snickerdoodles!

This week Spike, of Spike Bakes, chose Snickerdoodles for the SMS crew. I always love it when a cookie recipe is chosen for one of my baking groups. As much as I love cookies, aside from the month of December or personal requests, I very rarely bake cookies on a whim. They're much too tempting to me, and before I know it, I've eaten ten or more.

I baked snickerdoodles one time before, when I was about 10 years old at a friend's house. It was her mother's birthday, and she and her sister were trying to make an angel food cake for her -- what a disaster! We weren't allowed to use an electric mixer, so her sister sat there beating the egg whites for what seemed like hours, while we measured out the dry ingredients. When we were combining the flour and sugar with the egg whites, it didn't look like any cake batter we'd ever seen, so we added a little bit of water and milk to thin it out! The cake came out of the oven looking nothing at all like an angel food cake should, so we made snickerdoodles from a recipe in a kid's cookbook, too. That's what happens when you leave two 10 year-olds and an 11 year-old in the kitchen for the afternoon. I wasn't there for the birthday celebration, but I remember asking my friend how the desserts turned out. I remember her giggling and telling me that the cookies were great, but that the cake was just awful!


If three silly girls can make snickerdoodles, it has to be a pretty easy recipe. Melissa's snickerdoodle recipe is no exception. I made the dough for the cookies in about 10 minutes before work, and I baked them the next day. The most labor intensive part of the cookie process is rolling the dough into balls. The cookies are buttery and cinnamon-sugary goodness! Thanks to Spike for choosing such a great recipe this week! You can visit her blog for the recipe.

TWD: Classic Banana Bundt Cake

Singleton Likes: *food . . . dessert . . . bundt cakes
* books . . . libraries . . . librarians
* The Food Librarian

Singleton Dislikes: bananas

Do you see the conundrum for this week's TWD? I loathe bananas. I've mentioned before that I don't like them as fruit, I don't like them as a baked good, and I don't like banana liqueur in my drinks. For that matter, puh-lease keep the banana out of my smoothie, too! I don't care how you disguise it, I can taste the banana. But I do love Mary's blog. I think that any English major has a soft spot for the library, and during my stint at GU I've grown very fond of librarians. I always liked them, but I never knew that they had the power to make my life so much better. Librarians are constantly helping me track down books that I need for projects; moreover, they always seem genuinely interested, and they couldn't be nicer to boot. So, a blog that combines the library with food? Well, for starters you're halfway to my thesis, but otherwise, let me just get all corny and quote Jerry Maguire: "You had me at hello."

The recipe doesn't give options for subbing other fruit. I suppose that strawberries or raspberries might be a viable option, but I decided to do what any good blogger would do: make this and send it packing. The full recipe makes 2 mini bundts and 2 mini loaves. I glazed them up (I made the glaze a little too thin on accident), boxed them up, and sent them along to people that I knew would enjoy a banana cake. I heard from the recipients that the cake was "insanely good" so I'd say it was a big hit. Thanks for this week's pick, Mary! I had fun making the bundts and making people smile with them.

Baked Classic Sugar Cookies

Yes, sugar cookies are baked, but this recipe is from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. I felt a yen to make some sugar cookies, and Baked had been sitting, neglected, on my shelf for most of the summer. I don't have a go-to sugar cookie recipe, I'm always looking for the holy grail of sugar cookies, and I thought I'd try the Baked version of "classic" sugar cookies this time. I have to say, this book is worth every single penny. I have never made a recipe from this book that hasn't been absolutely delicious!


The preface to the recipe promises a "simple, chewy cookie," and I was immediately smitten with that promise. I don't like a crispy sugar cookie, I prefer mine to be soft and buttery (but not too buttery) with a sweet hit of vanilla and sugar. That said, sugar cookies aren't my favorite cookies, and it's hard for me to get really excited about them. When I was in Houston for the big moving preparation in May, I did come back with some extra cookie cutters, though, and I wanted to use them. Summer in Houston isn't exactly a time when one thinks, gosh, I'd really like to bake today. So, I have several cookie cutters with a summery theme that have literally never been used before, such as the whale and the lighthouse.

If this recipe doesn't make the "perfect" sugar cookie, I have to say that it comes darn close. I loved Dorie Greenspan's sugar cookie recipe, but it's fairly difficult to cut out that dough. The Baked recipe might become my go-to sugar cookie recipe. It's nice and soft, and the flavor of the cookie is a perfect mix of sweetness and buttery goodness. The preface to the recipe also states that these cookies are "the perfect canvas for our favorite minimal, almost stark, decoration. A bright white sugar cookie with a few colorful accents really makes a statement when compared with the color overload of most cookies." Well, as you can see, I went for the color overload option. It is summer, after all, and I wanted bright, fun cookies. I had some issues with decorating; I couldn't decide whether or not the fish should have fins or not, but overall this was a fun project.

I brought some of the cookies to a potluck for work, and people looked at me like I had two heads. I think I don't give off the domestic goddess vibe, or something. They were a big hit at work, and there were lots of questions. I have to say, though, my favorite question (and it was asked a couple of times) was: "how do you get the cookies into the shapes?" You can ponder that and decide what you think.


Classic Sugar Cookies
Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
Yield: 15-18 2 1/2" cookies

For the Cookies:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Icing:
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 large egg whites (I subbed meringue powder)
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (you'll have to add a little extra water if you sub meringue powder for the egg whites. Just add it slowly, a little at a time)

Make the Classic Sugar Cookies:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter, shortening, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap the chilled dough, and put it directly on the work surface. Roll the dough to 1/4" thick. Use your favorite cookie cutter to cut shapes in the dough, and transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, until they are set but not browned. Remove from the oven and place the baking sheet on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Make the Basic Royal Icing:
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, egg whites, and lemon juice until the mixture is completely smooth. The mixture should have the texture of a glaze. If the mixture is too thin, add a bit more sugar. If the mixture is too thick, add a few drops of lemon juice. You can add a few drops of food coloring if desired, or you can divide the icing among many mixing bowls if you need more than one color.
The best way to ice sugar cookies is with a pastry bag fitted with a small or medium tip. First, outline the cookie or design, then fill it in. Let the icing harden before serving.
The cookies can be kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Doubling Up

I had to double up this week because I missed the strawberry ruby red grapefruit preserves last week. Technically the participation requirements for SMS are just once a month, but I've already missed posting so many selections this summer, and I hated to miss another one. It just seems very difficult to sit down and blog when the weather is nice outside! So, in addition to the Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies selected by Stephanie, I'm also posting Margo's selection, the strawberry-grapefruit preserves.

First up, the preserves. I had everything ready to make these before last Sunday. I'd done my due diligence, I had strawberries and pink grapefruit ready to go. I almost always have an apple or two lying around because I like to take them to work to eat as a snack, but when I opened the fridge -- no apples! So, pause the jam making until I can get apples. Melissa uses apples as a source of pectin for this recipe, so I knew that there was no way around the missing apples. I made just 1/4 of a recipe because, while I'm very interested in preserving and canning, I just do not have the space for it. I don't have the space for extra jars in my pantry, and I don't have the space for the canning accouterments. Maybe someday . . . but for now these delightful preserves are in my fridge, and they're delicious! I enjoyed some on some toasted homemade challah, and ohmygosh, it was really hard to stop at two slices. Even though I made a smaller recipe, I have quite a lot of preserves left. I'm pondering making these bars with the preserves, what do you think?


Next up, Stephanie, of Ice Cream Before Dinner, chose Chewy Peanut Putter cookies. Now, I usually feel very *meh* about PB cookies. They're okaaaay, but I'd rather have chocolate chip, or at least peanut butter chocolate chip. I checked out the recipe, though, and it's super simple, so why not go for it? And, I'm so glad I made these cookies! They are some seriously good peanut butter cookies! I've been nibbling on them after dinner, and I actually think that they're better frozen (I usually put baked good straight in my freezer after they're cooled. In theory this prevents me from overindulging) then at room temperature.

We're heading to Harper's Ferry this afternoon, and I have the cookies all boxed up to take along. Thanks to Stephanie for picking a recipe that proves that there are some really delicious peanut butter cookies out there!