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Irish Coffee Truffles
Irish Coffee – that iconic combination of strong black coffee and whiskey with a dollop of slightly sweetened cream on top – is an amazing combination of flavors in and of itself, but add those flavors to chocolate? DIVINE. Enter Irish Coffee Truffles. Silky, creamy, and slightly boozy, these truffles will make your St. Patrick’s Day this year – trust me. And if you are generous enough to share with your friends, they’ll think you’ve found the end of the rainbow. That’s how good they are. Plus, they only have 4 ingredients and are incredibly easy to make. Have I convinced you yet? Good. Let’s make Irish Coffee Truffles! Basic…
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Kimchi
File this under “foods I eat when I’ve had too much sugar”. Or “foods I eat all the time because they’re delicious”. Both work. Kimchi has become one of my favorite foods over the past few years – so much so that I had to start making my own because my kimchi habit was costing me a fortune! It’s a good thing I did, because now I get to enjoy both the eating of kimchi and the process of making it. Win-win. Kimchi Background and Resources Kimchi, if you’re not familiar with it, is a spicy fermented cabbage, most often used as a side dish or condiment. If you’ve had…
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Meringues
Meringues are one of my favorite desserts. Meringue is an amazing thing: It can take many different forms, from the soft, slightly toasted fluff on a pie to crisp-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside pavlova to light, airy, melt-in-your-mouth morsels that crumble to bits as you eat them. Today we’re taking a look at the last one. These light-as-air treats are a delight to eat on their own and also make great decorations for other desserts like cakes, cupcakes, and tarts. They’re incredibly versatile, as you can make them pretty much any size and shape you like, with endless flavor options. Meringue can be tricky to make – I’ve personally been working on perfecting…
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Kahlua Chocolate Chip Cookies
For the past two years, my sweet landlords have given me a large bottle of Kahlua for Christmas. While I do like Kahlua, I just don’t use it often (a person can only drink so many White Russians), so I’ve been trying to think of ways to use it up. I’ve put it in my coffee, in cocoa, and made truffles with it. All delicious, but I still have SO MUCH Kahlua! The other day I had an epiphany – why haven’t I been adding it to my chocolate chip cookies? I mean, two of my favorite things are coffee and chocolate – you’d think I’d have thought of this…
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Salted Caramel Brownies
It is insanely cold in Duluth right now. As I write this, it’s -20°F outside (yep, you read that right, 20 degrees BELOW zero). And that’s the actual air temperature, not including wind chill. It’s the kind of cold where you get an instant ice cream headache just from walking outside. It is awfully pretty though. There’s something in me that loves this kind of cold. Partly because of how beautiful it is, partly because just going to the grocery store feels like an adventure, and partly because it’s a great excuse to stay home and enjoy some of my favorite indoor activities. It’s supposed to stay this cold for…
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Homemade Dulce de Leche
I’m a big caramel fan. I love it all – caramel lattes, caramel apples, caramel corn, even fake caramel-flavored coffee (though I’m embarrassed to admit that!). But my absolute, hands-down favorite is the thick, creamy, completely addicting caramel sauce known as Dulce de Leche (Spanish for “candy of milk”). This treat is made by slowly cooking sweetened milk until it caramelizes and thickens, resulting in one of the most delicious things ever. This recipe is the simplest way I’ve seen to make Dulce de Leche. You boil UNOPENED (yes, really) cans of sweetened condensed milk in a water bath for a few hours, and BAM! Just like magic, you have…
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Sour Cream Sugar Cookies: An Ode to My Grandmother
For my first blog post, it only makes sense to start with one of my Grandmother’s recipes, since she is the one from whom I inherited my love of baking, along with my red hair, feisty nature, and much more. She was a brilliant baker and cook, a master Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit player (seriously—she knew every answer!), and an all-around gem of a woman. I started making these Sour Cream Sugar Cookies once a year after she passed away as a way to remember her and connect to her through something we both loved. I’m lucky enough to have her rolling pin, which makes my baking that much more…
Recipes and Musings from the Zenith City
