Baking... that seems to be what everyone is doing in this pandemic. Including me.
I wanted to highlight a few baking favorites.
Orange Creamsicle Cake:
For my father's birthday (May the Fourth Be With You), I wanted to bake a cake. I found a recipe for a Orange Creamsicle Cake from The View From Great Island. My dad loves creamsicles, so obviously I had to try it out.
I'm wanting to get more into baking cakes and doing cool frosting, but I just started easy with this one. I didn't cut off the top of the cake for that flat cake look because when I'm at home, I just feel like that's a waste. Also, I would add more orange zest to the cake batter itself, as the cake had a subtle orange flavor and I think it would be good with more.
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Dill & Cheddar Sourdough:
So technically, I didn't bake this - my mother did. However, it had to be added to this list. If you are going to make any bread in this pandemic, let it be this one. It's heavenly. It's good with soups, salads, as sandwich bread, what have you.
My mother is trying to make every sourdough recipe in the book, Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa. Today, she's made the Olive, Thyme & Rosemary Bread - I have yet to try it!
It has been a trying time for my mother as of late, because before this pandemic, she had sourdough starter and was making bread regularly. Then the pandemic came, and everyone has bought yeast and flour. To be honest, it doesn't make a lot of sense that everyone is making bread from home. Each week when I go to the grocery store, there is a bread and no short supply of it. I will say though that homemade bread is better than the loaves at the grocery store.
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
My mother had a lot of peanut butter in the pantry and wanted to use it up, but not just in a plain peanut butter cookie, so we used this Barefoot Contessa recipe. I will tell you that the dough was equally as tasty. I mixed the dry ingredients; my mother mixed the wet ingredients. I accidentally put in double the salt (didn't read it correctly), but thankfully it tastes fine.
When the recipe says to bake the cookies for 17 minutes, do so. It seems long, but because the recipe is pretty wet, it's the perfect amount of time.
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Stay safe and healthy! Happy baking!
xx