Recipes I LOVE!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted lately! I actually wrote this over a month ago, but we've had some technical difficulties! But we finally have them fixed and can get caught up. This year is going fast - it seems like we just did our New Year's post and now we're already REALLY late to tell you about Valentine's Day and some other favorites! I LOVE Valentine's Day!!!! I think it's such a cute little holiday and we do such fun stuff. Something that I like about it is that anyone can celebrate it because it's just a holiday about love and appreciation. But first, I'm going to tell you about other things we've made.

One thing that we've really started enjoying is savory scones. I know that we've told you about some in the past, but we have some good new additions. One of them was Gruyere and Black Pepper Scones. I loved how cheesy these were and the pepper gives them some kick. My sister doesn't always really like spicy things, but she liked how these were just a little bit peppery.

The bits of crunchy cheese that ooze out are the best part!

Another savory scone that we had was Date and Gorgonzola Scones. The funkiness of the gorgonzola pairs really well with the sweetness of the dates in these and I tend to really like those kind of combinations, so I thought that these were great!

You can almost see the flaky layers in these - you just have to remember to freeze and grate your butter!

We also tried a new sweeter version, Almond Blueberry Scones. These were kind of a pain to make. We had to add a lot more liquid than the recipe called for and they needed extra cooking time. We froze them unbaked a few days in advance though, and that worked well. We made the glaze by smushing blueberries through a sieve to create blueberry juice and that part grossed me out, so I made my mom do it! But these did turn out well in the end.

I thought that the glaze ended up a pretty color (despite the gross process to make it!)

Another new breakfast that we had was Chewy Honey Granola Bars. I liked these a lot. The honey literally holds them together, but it also ties the flavors of the different ingredients together. The recipe has oats, puffed cereal, chocolate chips, raisins and nuts, but the good thing about this kind of recipe is that you could adjust it and put in whatever you want. I think it would be good to try macadamia nuts and cranberries or coconut and cashews next time.

These hold together really well and aren't too crumbly, which sometimes happens with homemade granola bars. They almost remind me of rice krispie treats!

One of my mom's favorite new breakfast items that we've made recently was Blackberry Breakfast Bars. We actually did a mix of raspberries and blackberries. We first had these for tea time. But the recipe is designed to be a breakfast bar, because they have oats and not too much sugar. They definitely seem like a treat though. They were great for tea time and then it felt special to be able to have them for breakfast too!

These are really delicious AND this is a recipe where the same mixture is used for the crust and the topping, which makes them easy peasy to bake!

We always like looking for breakfast recipes that can be made the day before because they're good for when we have guests staying with us or my mom has to go to work in the morning, so when we saw this recipe for Make-Ahead Coffee Cake, we definitely wanted to try it. This coffee cake was fine, but nothing special. It did make us wonder if we could just make the batter for some of our other coffee cakes the day before though. Maybe we'll try and get back to you on that one!

If we ever made this again, I think we'd double the topping and add a layer of it in the middle of the coffee cake to add more flavor. This cake was a little bit plain.

Another breakfast that got mixed reviews was Cinnamon Roll Donuts. We thought that these were a little bit too cakey. They were just little donut shaped cakes!

These did look cute though! I think I might pipe the icing in a thinner line if we ever made them again.

A really useful recipe that we tried is Game-Changing Muffin Mix, and it actually is game changing! It's a recipe that gives you a muffin base and then you can just add the wet ingredients and whatever mix-ins you want whenever you want muffins! The recipe gives you enough for 36 muffins, so we made a dozen muffins of different types three times.

Our first version was Lemon Raspberry Coconut. We added 1 cup of raspberries, the zest from 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. Then we made a glaze with lemon juice and confectioners sugar.

Our next variation was Maple White Chocolate Pecan. My mom had planned on Maple Walnut, but my sister convinced her to use pecans instead! These were some of the best muffins we have ever made. We used 1/2 cup white chocolate, 1/2 cup pecans, 1 tsp maple extract and 1 tsp of vanilla. Then we made a glaze with maple syrup and confectioners sugar. These were outstanding!

Our third version of these was Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting. We had extra cream cheese frosting from another recipe and thought that carrot cake muffins would go well with that. We added 1/2 tbsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg to the dry ingredients. Then we mixed in 2 cups of shredded carrots. These were a big hit, but next time I'd add raisins and nuts to increase the carrot cake flavor.

My mom had seen a bunch of recipes for something called yogurt toast on the internet and asked me if I wanted to try it, so of course I said yes! We settled on this recipe for Custard Yogurt Toast and made it for brunch one weekend. It is very easy to make and everybody loved it, even my brother who doesn't usually like yogurt!

We made this on brioche, which I think is important. Challah would work too, but I don't think it would be as good on regular sandwich bread. It was fun making patterns with the berries!

My favorite breakfast that we've made lately though was Breakfast Yorkshire Puddings. Yorkshire Puddings are a common British side dish. They eat them A LOT in Harry Potter and I've always wondered what they actually are. Well, it turns out that they're very similar to popovers. This version is unique because you make your batter overnight (which of course my mom loved!).

Then in the morning, you cook bacon in an oven-safe skillet.

And pour the batter on top to bake it.

After it comes out of the oven, you add fried eggs on top. This was fantastic and everybody loved it!! I highly recommend.

I thought that this looked very fancy and would be great to serve people for brunch!

We made some other awesome savory dishes recently too. One of our favorites was a Green Goddess Salad. This was a salad with a cabbage and cucumber base and a green goddess dressing. Rachel sent us this recipe and it was a HUGE hit!!!!

You could use this dressing as a dip, it was so delicious! And it actually has nuts in it, so it is kind of similar to pesto.

Another favorite was Korean Cheeseburgers with Sesame Cucumber Pickles. My mom wasn't sure how these were going to go over, but everyone loved them. These were one of the best burgers I've ever had! The sauce adds a very nice touch and all the flavors blend together really well.

These were a bit messy to eat! I had to take off the top of my bun because otherwise I couldn't get everything to fit in my mouth!!

Another recipe that had new flavors for us but was very popular was Turmeric Black Pepper Chicken with Asparagus. This recipe was very easy to make, but had tons of flavor and was a great blend of slightly sweet with mild spice. It's a great weeknight dinner for a family. We used coconut oil to cook the chicken in, and that definitely added a hint of coconut which was a great addition to the flavor profile. We also used rice vinegar (the recipe gives you an option of rice vinegar or soy sauce) and it turned out perfectly, so I'd recommend making it that way, although soy sauce might be good too.

I love the vibrant color from the asparagus - which is one of my favorite vegetables. You could definitely use something else, but I thought that the asparagus went especially well with the sauce.

A much more labor intensive dish that we tried was Chicken and Dumplings. This was also very popular with everyone and I highly recommend it, but it definitely takes more effort than the Turmeric Chicken. Before making this, I hadn't realized that chicken and dumplings is really more like chicken and biscuits! The dumplings are like drop biscuits that are cooked into a chicken stew. My brother was really surprised because he'd been expecting dumplings that had a dough wrapper stuffed with a filling. But he still loved this dish.

First you make a chicken stock, with chicken and vegetables. Then you strain it, add back the chicken meat and drop in spoonfuls of biscuit dough. It doesn't look very pretty at this stage, but it gets better!

Once the biscuits cooked through, we added herbs and that brightened things up!!

This recipe doesn't photograph beautifully, but it tastes totally amazing!!! The broth is extremely flavorful and the biscuits are like little heavenly pillows.

Of course we've baked lots of treats (the best part of every post!). One of the first things we baked this year was Maple Butterscotch Brownies. These actually weren't that great because they didn't have a strong enough flavor. I don't think that I'd bother making them again, but if I did, I'd definitely tweak the recipe to give them more power.

These did cut very nicely however, and my dad enjoyed having them with coffee. They were just a little too simple for me.

One of my mom's very favorite things to get when we go to New York is black and white cookies. We always get them from our favorite bagel store, and they're the best. They are more like light vanilla cakes than cookies and my brother LOVES them too, so we decided to make our own. Our Black and White Cookies were good, but they definitely weren't as good as I know they can be. The chocolate and vanilla frostings were actually excellent and I'd use that part of the recipe again. The recipe says to use regular cocoa powder, but we had black cocoa powder that we'd purchased to use for another recipe, and that's definitely what you need to get the right color for the frosting. Otherwise they're more like Brown and White Cookies! But the problem with this recipe is that the cookie base needs to be more cakey. So I'll have to try another version and let you know how it goes!

I like to eat the chocolate half first because I like the vanilla part best. But if you ever split a Black and White cookie with someone, you definitely need to break it so that everyone gets both flavors!

We had leftover chocolate frosting from our cookies and didn't want it to go to waste. So we made Chewy Peanut Butter Pan Squares. We liked that these weren't too sweet, but they also weren't super flavorful. So topping them with the Black & White Cookie frosting added a lot.

We should have let these bars get colder before cutting them so that the frosting would have set better. These looked drippy but still tasted good!

We also tried a new chocolate and peanut butter cookie recipe. Can you tell that we really like chocolate and peanut butter?! You might remember that the winning recipe from our first chocolate chip cookie contest was from Levain Bakery. So based on that, we were excited to try Copycat Levain Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. This is the recipe that we bought the black cocoa powder for! It definitely helps give them a very dark color. We were divided on these cookies. They're not too sweet, and my dad and brother liked them a lot. My mom thought that they were just okay.

Can you tell that their extra dark from the black cocoa powder?

A recipe that came out way better than we expected was Soft and Chewy M&M Cookies. My mom brought them to her friend Nicole who freaked out about how good they were and wanted the recipe. We all loved them!

My mom brought these for us in the car for an after school snack one day and got hungry and ate them all! I didn't even know that story until she told me while I was writing this!!! Thanks mommy!!!!!!

Another new cookie that we tried was Biscoff White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. These were good. They were soft, which I liked, and have a strong white chocolate flavor. The only thing that I didn't love about them is that they were on the thin side. I like a thicker cookie. So I think next time I might try to shape them differently.

It's important to use high quality white chocolate for baking. We use either Callebaut chips or Lindt bars.

One of the best recipes we've tried lately is Salted Caramel Apple Sheet Cake. My mom thought this was the best apple item that we've ever baked (and we've baked with apples A LOT!!!!!). When we used to go to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, we would get an amazing caramel layer cake. My mom tried to order one once and it just wasn't the same. But this frosting was exactly like the Pawleys Island frosting, so my mom said that maybe we could use it sometime and try to recreate the Pawleys cake!

This frosting was messy, but it was so delicious that it didn't matter. I think these would have cut cleaner if we'd made the squares bigger though.

We went through a definite gingerbread phase this winter. At the end of it, my dad mentioned that he actually doesn't like gingerbread that much - sorry daddy! But even he thought that these recipes were really good. First we made Gingerbread Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting. These were awesome. And this is what we had leftover cream cheese frosting from for our carrot muffins!

The best part about these bars is that they actually have a chewy bar texture. It seems like a lot of "bar" recipes are really just square pieces of cake!

Of course part of our gingerbread phase had to involve a Gingerbread Whoopie Pie! These came out mixed. The cook time in the recipe is too long, so if you make this, definitely start testing the cookies much earlier than the recipe says. Some of ours came out too hard, but the ones that were soft were awesome, so I think these would be really good if you just cooked them for shorter.

A great thing about making whoopie pies is that they always look special!

We like making all kinds of sandwich cookies and so another one that we made recently was Oatmeal Creme Pies. The flavor in these was good, but the cookies were more thin and crispy. I like a thicker, softer cookie - probably why I like whoopie pies.

If you like thin cookies though, you'll love these because they have great flavor.

My brother loves Whoppers, which are malted milk balls, and so a very cool whoopie pie that we tried was Whopper Whoopie Pies. My parents surprised us with a trip to Disney World, which was very exciting and so special, since we haven't been to anyplace like that in years because of covid. My mom made these before we left because they look like Mickey Mouse ears!

There is malted milk powder in the filling which really adds to the flavor.

We also made a couple of very good lemon desserts recently. The first was Lemon Brownies. When I first heard about this recipe, I thought it was a funny name, because to me, brownies are chocolatey. And the recipe describes the brownies as being "fudgy," which to me definitely means chocolatey. But we tried them and once you taste them, you totally understand how something not-chocolate can have a fudgy texture because these definitely do!! Instead of being a traditional lemon bar with a shortbread crust and lemon curd layer on top, these really are lemon bars with a brownie texture.

These are so good that we've have made double batches four more times since we first made them to give to people!!

Another lemon dessert that we made recently was Creamy Lemon Squares. These are closer to typical lemon bars, but they're still different in that the lemon layer is creamy, instead of just a lemon curd. These were outstanding. The shortbread crust is buttery and tastes great and the lemon layer is perfect. These bars are a recipe from Martha Stewart and the most amazing thing happened earlier this year. I MET MARTHA STEWART IN NEW YORK!!!!! It was extremely exciting. She was so nice and friendly and I told her all about my blog. So Martha, if you happen to be reading this, I loved meeting you and I loved making your Creamy Lemon Squares!!!!!

These cut beautifully and have an amazing silky texture.

A different kind of bar that we tried was Coconut Cheesecake Bars. These were just okay. They were too much work for cheesecake, which usually has the big advantage of being easy to make! And they didn't even have a strong coconut flavor. They weren't bad; they just weren't special. There are better cheesecake recipes and definitely better coconut dessert recipes out there.

I liked pretending that the coconut was snow while I sprinkled it on!

These weren't our very favorite, but they were still beautiful and I would absolutely be excited if someone else gave me one!

And now we can finally talk about Valentine's Day! For breakfast we had Raspberry Cream Cheese Heart Tarts. This is a great recipe because you can form the hearts in advance. My mom had to work on Valentine's Day, so she had these all made for us the night before. You definitely need to make your own pie crust for these to be good though.

You could definitely make this recipe with other shapes. Cupcakes would be fun for a birthday breakfast. And you could do flowers in the summer, which would work well with the red raspberry icing!

My mom makes us special lunch boxes for holidays and usually I don't include them on the blog because they're not really cooking or baking and because I don't help since they're surprises, but for this one she did something called Fairy Bread that I really want to tell you about! Fairy Bread is a treat for kids that is popular in Australia and New Zealand. I've never been to either of those places, but I'd like to go! Anyway, Fairy Bread is just white bread with butter and sprinkles. We made ours with cookie butter, because we didn't think we'd like regular butter.

I loved the stripes of different sprinkles.

We found a Valentine's Day version of our very favorite Rice Krispie Treats. We have tried lots of different Rice Krispie treats and How to Make Cereal Treats DEFINITELY has the best recipe!

We made red ones too, but they were all gone before we remembered to take a picture!

We also made Sugar Cookie Bark. This isn't specifically a Valentine's Day recipe, but we used Valentine's Day sprinkles. This looked very pretty and my brother really liked it, but my mom thought it was too sweet. I don't know that we would make it again, but it's an easy recipe that can be festive for any holiday, just using different colored sprinkles.

This would be great for St. Patrick's Day with green sprinkles!

Our last Valentine's Day recipe was Cookie Dough Hearts. Unfortunately, this was another recipe that probably looked better than it tasted. The problem with this was that the cookie dough tasted too floury and not right. I think that was because it didn't have eggs in it, to make it safe to eat raw. Do you remember when we pasteurized our own eggs during covid? I wonder if you could make a recipe doing that and then making regular cookie dough to use for the hearts. Maybe next year we'll try that!

These looked great though and if we could improve the cookie dough a little bit, they'd be awesome!

It seems silly that I'm talking about Valentine's Day when we're publishing on Easter, but I'm definitely excited to start some spring baking. And I'll try to keep up with my blog better! Who's ready for some rhubarb????!!!!!!!!