Happy New Year

Happy New Year blog friends! I think that one of my new things to try this year is going to be to try putting out shorter posts more frequently. It will hopefully make it easier for me to write and quicker for you to read. I'm not off to a perfect start, but I'm going to try. I have another VERY EXCITING new project that I'm going to try this year too. So stay tuned for more on that very soon.

One of our first recipes of the year, turned out to be a surprise smash success. We made Berry Jam Buns and these are really really really good. My dad and brother loved them and my big-little sister and my mom and I loved them and Chelsea loved them too.

This was the finished product, but it takes a few steps to get there.

First you make a dough and let it rise and then you have to refrigerate it. You can refrigerate it for up to 24 hours though, which I think is great, because it means that you can get that part done the day before. Sometimes the problem with recipes like this is that it can be a lot to get done in the morning.

Then you roll out your dough and cover it with preserves and fruit. We used strawberry preserves because we couldn't find raspberry.

Our baking mat has measurements on it, which makes knowing that you have the right size rectangle much easier.

Then you roll your dough into a log, cut it into 12 rolls, do another rise, and bake your buns.

This is what they looked like out of the oven. The fruit and jam filling bakes into ooey gooey goodness.

And then you top them with a cream cheese frosting and crushed freeze dried berries, which are almost like breakfast sprinkles!

These came out soft and flavorful and delicious. We all thought that this would be a great recipe to make when we have friends visit us this summer!

After the success of the Berry Jam Buns we decided to make Triple Coffee Sweet Rolls. I thought that these were fantastic and Henry thought they might have been the single best thing we've ever made! The filling is strong and has ground espresso in it, but the glaze adds a sweetness and balances out the bitterness perfectly.

First you make a dough and this is another recipe where you can let it rise overnight. Then you roll it into a rectangle and cover it with filling. Next you roll it up into a log, slice it, and let your rolls do a second rise. It's important that you try to roll it up tightly and evenly, so that all your rolls are roughly the same size.

The dough for these is darker than most doughs made with white flour because of the espresso powder.

The glaze was sooooooooo good!!!

A popular ski breakfast that we had over the holidays was Breakfast Sliders. This is a very simple recipe. We modified it a bit and used pretzel rolls and sprinkled the tops of the sliders with everything bagel seasoning. I LOVED these so much, I don't know where to even start. The eggs were perfectly cooked and were like cloudy ribbons. I thought that the seasoning was not too salty and I liked the seeds.

This would be a great breakfast for a crowd.

Another ski breakfast was Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole. This was also good, but I'd probably make some changes if we made it again. I like the concept, but what I think of as a perfect bagel is cream cheese and smoked salmon and sometimes capers or onion. The tomatoes and green pepper seemed a little out of place to me. But everyone else really liked this one, so maybe I was just disappointed because I was expecting it to be more like a bagel and less like an egg casserole.

I have to admit that the casserole was pretty with all of the colors and shapes.

A MASSIVE hit was Glazed Lemon Cranberry Bread. This was probably our most popular quick bread ever. Henry LOVED this and right up until he had the coffee rolls, he said that this might be the single best thing we ever made!! He has been very happy with our creations lately!! But this one was popular all around. We had two loaves and my mom had planned to give one away, but we all made her keep both for us!!

This looks deceptively boring. It's flavorful and really exceptionally good.

This Cranberry French Toast Casserole was also magnificent! I love cranberries so this was right up my alley. This is another overnight French toast recipe and the cranberries make it look very festive. This would be a great choice for Thanksgiving or Christmas morning.

Unfortunately everybody had dug in by the time that I had realized to take a photo.

Another ski breakfast (we did a different ski breakfast every day for more than two weeks, so there were a lot of them!) was Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes, but I thought that they were kind of disappointing. I thought that the texture was great, but the taste felt off, and so it only tasted good with maple syrup. I think that everybody pretty much agreed with me except for my mom and little-little sister. They actually really liked them plain.

These look like normal pancakes, but they are heartier because of the grains.

A controversial dish was Cream Cheese Carrot Coffee Cake. I thought that this cake was fantastic! But we used an avocado oil brand that is different from what we usually use and it gave off a very strong smell. It still tasted good, but my dad found the smell off-putting and my big-little sister said it was one of her least favorite breakfasts that we had ever made! My mom and I really liked it though, so we want to try it again with another oil. I bet it would be great with coconut oil! Or even canola oil would at least be more neutral.

First you make a carrot cake base.

And then you cover it with a cream cheese mixture.

And top the whole thing off with a streusel layer.

Then finally, it gets a drizzle of icing after the oven.

I loved how the layers looked once we sliced it and definitely think that this is a coffee cake that's worth making. Just be careful with your choice of oil!

Another coffee cake that was a little bit different from your typical coffee cake was Yeasted Cornmeal Coffee Cake. We were excited to try this because we don't usually make coffee cakes that involve yeast and because the batter includes cooked rice. That was supposed to give it a texture similar to rice pudding, but this isn't really how it turned out. My mom thought that it just tasted like really too-sweet cornbread and was super annoyed that we wasted our time with this one. I really liked it though.

We all agreed that it turned out a beautiful color at least.

The rice definitely just disappears though and doesn't seem to do anything noticeable to the texture.

Another recent experiment was Cranberry Buttermilk Spelt Scones. These scones are different from typical scones in that they're made with spelt flour. I loved these. The way that I would describe it is that the spelt flour added flavor and texture, sort of similar to how whole grain toast has more texture and flavor than white toast. It did make these scones slightly denser than our usual scones, which I don't think my dad loved. But I would make these again.

I think that a blueberry version of these would probably be good as well.

A bigger success with my dad was Eleven Madison Park's Granola recipe. He says that this is amazing and the best granola that he has ever had. The most noteworthy aspect of this granola is that it is quite salty, which is probably why my dad loves it and my mom doesn't! Another really special aspect of this granola is the coconut strips. They're very different from the coconut flakes that you usually see in granola and they make a huge difference.

If you look carefully, you can see how big the pieces of coconut are.

When we went skiing, we also went to a restaurant that had a fantastic salad made with Castelfranco radicchio, pistachios and orange segments. We enjoyed it so much that we asked what went into the dressing and then recreated the salad at home. To make the dressing we just mixed whole milk yogurt, lemon juice, and agrodolce vinegar. My dad thought that our salad was even better than the original and that was probably based on the quality of the vinegar. We ordered a really great vinegar and it was a good reminder that using the highest quality ingredients makes a big difference.

I thought that the colors of the radicchio made this salad look BEAUTIFUL.

Every year my dad and I have a tradition were we go to buy a truffle during truffle season. We usually make a truffle pasta, but this year we made Risotto With White Truffles. Our risotto came out PERFECTLY!!! I absolutely loved it so much I don't have the words. We used carnaroli rice instead of arborio, because even though arborio rice is more frequently used for risotto, carnaroli has a higher starch content and is supposed to make a creamier risotto. The shaved truffle was great and the risotto was the perfect dish to highlight it.

The risotto was a great way to highlight the truffles because the base didn't overwhelm them.

Two summers ago when we went to Rome, we ordered Pasta Amatriciana at almost every restaurant. So when we made the risotto, we made this Pasta Amatriciana too and it was sooo good! Amatriciana is a traditional pasta sauce made with guanciale, pecorino romano cheese and tomato. We all had multiple servings and I think it is in the top five pastas I have ever had!

It looks homey and comforting in the bowl.

I really wanted to like Spaghetti with Broccoli Rabe, Toasted Garlic and Breadcrumbs, but there was nothing memorable about it. There was no strong flavor and I felt like all of the ingredients were background components with no star of the show. But my mom and big-little sister actually loved this! They loved the flavor of the broccoli rabe and the texture of the breadcrumbs.

It looks pretty. I just found it bland.

In an attempt to make this dish more interesting, we added burst tomatoes, and that really did it for me! I thought it was absolutely fantastic with the extra flavors from the tomatoes.

The acidity from the tomatoes added brightness and gave the dish some much-needed pop.

Sheetpan Layerless Lasagna is a fantastic winter dinner that we all enjoyed. My mom thought that we would like it because we all like the crispy edges in baked pasta (we call those parts "cheepy cheesy" which is something I made up when I was little and can't even explain why!) and this creates more of those (sorry Rachel, this probably is not the dish for you!). It's also supposed to be easier than regular lasagna because you break up the noodles, but my mom didn't really think that made a significant difference in the end.

This would be a great dish for a big family dinner.

My brother doesn't really love soup and so we made T'chicha (Barley and Tomato Soup) more like a stew, and that was probably a mistake. My brother didn't really like it anyway and my dad thought that it was too thick this way and more like a barley side dish. I thought it would have been better with more broth too.

It definitely didn't come out looking like a soup, but the flavors were good and so I'd still recommend it, just make it brothier!!

One of my favorite dinners that we've ever made was Sheet Pan Chicken and Cauliflower "Shawarma". We actually made it with shrimp and added roasted onions and purple sweet potatoes and served it with Cucumber Raita. I loved the spice rub on the vegetables and shrimp and how the raita was cooling with it. My big-little sister loved the shrimp.

We also had the vegetables on salad the next day for lunch and that was a great use of leftovers.

Another dinner that I liked a lot was Thai Coconut Salmon Curry. This had great flavor and everybody enjoyed it. We got the recipe from Food52, and it doesn't seem to be available online anymore, but I can send it to anyone who wants it!

Adding the cilantro on top before serving definitely made this look much prettier.

Sweet Chile Grain Bowl with Tofu was another recent favorite. The sauce for this is fantastic. I like bowls that have lots of different flavors and textures and this one did for sure. It makes it similar to a really good salad, in that you get different good combinations with every bite.

You can see that there's a lot going on here, but it all works together well.

We ran out of tofu, but had sauce left over and so my mom roasted chickpeas with it and then served a version of the bowl with those and a runny fried egg on top. She gave it to my dad for lunch the next day and he really liked it.

I think that a fried egg with a runny yolk makes pretty much anything better!

Our elves who visit us in December are named Eldridge and Edwina and one morning we found them playing jenga with Kit Kats! They left us the candy even when they went back to the North Pole and we didn't want it to go to waste and so we used Kit Kats instead of chocolate in Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. This was another recipe that my brother freaked out about. He said that these were maybe the best cookies that we had ever made.

We pushed extra Kit Kat pieces into the tops so that people could tell what was in the cookies.

Given what a success these were, we made them again with regular chocolate chips, but this time we turned them into sandwich cookies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting. We got into a ridiculous situation where we thought that we had extra chocolate peanut butter frosting in the freezer and wanted to use it up, so we made these cookies to make sandwich cookies with it. But once we started we realized that what we defrosted wasn't frosting after all and we STILL cannot figure out what it actually was!!! It was definitely chocolate peanut butter, but it was way too loose to be frosting so maybe it was some sort of batter?? Except that none of us can figure out why that would have been frozen in the first place. It's a baking mystery! But by the time we realized that we didn't have the frosting, we'd made the cookies and so then we just ended up making the frosting that we started the whole project because we thought we already had!

The whole fiasco was totally worth it though because these were awesome!

But THEN we had extra frosting for real!!!! So we were just in this ridiculous cycle of chasing cookies and frosting trying to get it all to come out even! We wanted to do something different with the real leftover frosting and try another cookie. Now I am probably overly obsessed with peanut butter, but these Soft & Thick Peanut Butter Cookies were right up my alley. Sometimes peanut butter cookies or bars have a tendency to be dry, but these have a nice texture.

I love the traditional cross-hatch pattern for peanut butter cookies on top. I learned that it is done to flatten the cookies into the proper shape and thickness. I'd always thought it was just a tradition that looked cool!

A sandwich cookie with a completely different flavor profile was Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies. These have a brown butter cream cheese frosting. My big-little sister loved these. I did too, but I wish the cookies had been a teensy bit thicker.

Sandwich cookies are my mom's favorite, probably because she loves frosting!

We started making Peep Stuffed Easter Cookies using two regular marshmallows instead of a Peep in the center and this has rapidly become our signature house cookie!! We have literally made these now more times than I can count. They are huge, but people love them. Kids at the Middle School told my brother that they'd pay for more of these after he brought some to one of his games. The rolled cookies have to refrigerate overnight and so they're a great cookie to have prepped and bake quickly in the morning before you want to bring them somewhere. We roll them smaller than the recipe states so we get around 11 or 12 cookies per batch and bake them for about 12 minutes. You do need to allow enough time for these to cool on the cookie sheet though. They're very very soft when they come out and fall apart if you try to transfer them. We learned that the hard way!

This is my brother holding one at a squash match after we brought them for his squash team.

A simpler but good cookie was Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies. These are warm and homey and a great fall or winter cookie. My big-little sister said that the gingerbread and oats together were "scrumpdiddliumtious."

I like the texture that the oats add in this.

When we were in Montana, we didn't have enough cookie sheets and so we had to get creative! We started baking cookies in muffin tins and creating little cookie muffin cups. Our first version was Iced Oatmeal Cookies. These were good. My mom actually liked the thicker muffin cup version, but Alec preferred the regular cookies with the crispy edges. This dough can chill in the refrigerator for up to four days, which is especially great for the busy weeks around the holidays when you want to do as much as you can ahead.

I think that the muffin cup version would look nice mixed into an assorted cookie tray to add some variety.

We used the same technique for Brown Butter Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles and I loved these. These have caramels in the middle and are excellent!

I cannot believe that I forgot to take a picture of a half cookie so that you could see the caramel in the center! Maybe we'll just have to make them again...

We also made Foolproof Chocolate Fudge around the holidays. Alec and my dad really liked this, but my mom thought that the texture wasn't creamy enough. It's risky to title a recipe "foolproof" because there really are quite a lot of ways to mess up baking! My mom was the only one who thought that this didn't come out quite right though. Everyone else liked it.

The flaky sea salt on top adds a lot and we used fairly dark semisweet chocolate, so this wasn't too sweet.

Recently we made Chocolate Covered Pretzel Brownies and this is a great brownie base. We are definitely going to try just the brownie recipe with some other variations. The pretzels were good too but we always find baking with pretzels difficult. They tend to break and fall off and don't stay crispy.

If you make these, I would probably double the melted chocolate over the top to help glue the pretzels on better. Ours created a pretzel graveyard when we cut them!!!!

These are snowman marshmallows. I made these up so there's no link. First you take two marshmallows and glue them together with melted chocolate and then use the melted chocolate and an m&m and chocolate-covered pretzel sticks to decorate with.

We put the mouth too high on this one, but you get the idea! And you may be seeing more details about this recipe in the near future related to our upcoming exciting project, hint hint!!!!

We served these with Homemade Hot Chocolate after skiing and they were a big success.

They sunk into the whipped cream quickly though so it was hard to capture, but they looked super cute.

But Grinch cupcakes were definitely DEFINITELY my favorite recipe from around the holidays!! First we made this 8x8 Classic Vanilla Sheet Cake, added red food coloring and then cut out hearts.

We didn't have the right size cookie cutter, but Grazzy did an amazing job cutting them free-form.

Then we made Simply Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes, dyed the batter green and set a heart in the middle of each cupcake.

Some of the hearts were easier to place than others!

And then we used our Favorite Vanilla Buttercream to decorate these to look like the Grinch!!

Are these not the cutest holiday cupcakes EVER?!!!

My little-little sister surprised us dressed up in a Grinch costume and we had a Grinch party for our ski instructors and it was so much fun!

Grazzy also had the great idea to wrap an empty box to serve them on and it looked awesome!

Once we got back from skiing, I wanted to make some festive New Year treats for our friends and so we made this Toffee Pretzel Bark. This recipe was easy and awesome and I actually think that we're going to make it for end-of-the-year teacher treats. If any of my teachers are reading this, just forget that part please!!!

It doesn't come across well in the picture, but we used metallic nonpareils and they looked very New Year celebratory and appropriate!

We actually liked the sprinkles so much, that we went for a similar look, but added stars, when we made Peanut Butter Rocky Road Bars. These are very rich, but excellent and another recipe that's very easy to make.

We photographed this on a white cutting board which is why it looks like it's floating in space!!

These cut very nicely too, which I always appreciate!

I hope that everyone's year is off to a great start and I'll be back soon with some fun Valentine's Day baking. And hopefully we'll be able to tell you about the other project that we've been working on in our next post too!! Bye for now!