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Brown Butter
Brown butter. You’ve probably noticed it in recipes and on restaurant menus a lot lately. It’s become a popular ingredient in recent years, and for good reason – it makes everything more delicious. I mean, butter itself makes everything better, so it makes sense that butter, heated until it browns and gives off a deliciously nutty scent, would improve everything it touches. Browning butter is not complicated – all you need is butter, a heavy-bottomed, preferably light-colored saucepan, and a rubber spatula. The only tricky part is making sure your butter turns nicely brown without burning. This, I’ve found, really just takes patience and practice. Steps Melt your butter in…
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Biscotti – A Cookie Made for Dunking
I’m a dunker. I love dunking a crispy cookie into a steaming cup of coffee (or better yet, espresso!). When I bake cookies and inevitably leave a batch in the oven too long, I don’t consider them ruined – they’re perfect for dunking. Are you a dunker? If so, you probably already love biscotti. But if you haven’t made your own at home yet, you’ll want to keep reading. Biscotti is one of my favorite treats to dunk. These crispy Italian cookies are sort of like the crouton of the dessert world. They’re supposed to be REALLY crunchy – to the point where it’s hard to bite into them without…
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Dark Chocolate S’mores Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt
Spring has sprung in Duluth, though we’re not quite out of the woods for snowstorms yet (we often get blizzards in April!). Still, I’m already dreaming of summer – sunshine, green grass, sandy beaches, long wooded walks, and s’mores around the campfire. I love a perfectly toasted marshmallow (or even a burnt one, I’m not that picky). On its own it’s delicious enough, but add some melty chocolate and graham crackers and I’m in heaven! Since it’s not quite campfire season, I decided to create these dark chocolate s’mores cookies to tide me over until summer. And oh boy, are they good! These cookies are rich and fudgy with chocolate…
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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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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
