FIND SOMETHING YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT, AND KEEP TREMENDOUSLY INTERESTED IN IT -JULIA CHILD
I hadn’t noticed the blackberry bushes all over Seattle until my brothers’ recent visit. They rode Lime bikes to the Olympic Sculpture Park and did not make quick progress on their journey because there were so many berries to be had. We made our way …
Being back on the West Coast has proven to be everything I dreamed. I have been able to reconnect with family and friends from all phases of my life in the last month. I am also extremely lucky to have had time to ease into …
Summer in Seattle is magical. I thought I would spend more time baking in my free weekends this summer, but instead have been traveling or entertaining every weekend. In between, Kev and I have been focusing on using all the amazing produce from the Pike Place and Capitol Hill Farmer’s Markets at which I have become a regular. I am trying very hard to prioritize healthy habits as we are starting new lives in a new city and balancing this with being residents. Maybe some day this blog will expand to include fresh meals, but for now I’ll keep up the appearance of the doctor on her way to giving everyone diabetes instead of preventing it.
My brothers are coming to visit this weekend and I am so excited! It has been a long long time since the three of us spent quality time together. They texted specifically asking what I am baking for the weekend… no pressure. Hence, I had an excuse to make these ice cream sandwiches I had been eyeing on Tutti Dolci for a while – I couldn’t make them because I didn’t trust myself to not eat all 12 on my own and they’re a little tough to take to work.
I have a few general recommendations for this recipe. These cookies are a bit of a time investment between browning the butter and several chilling steps, so I would recommend giving yourself two days unless you have a weekend day when you can start in the morning and intermittently pop back into the kitchen. I would also recommend refrigerating the chocolate covered caramels ahead of use so they chop easily. I used salted chocolate covered caramels from Ghirardelli, and I know I’ve seen something similar at Trader Joe’s. I made my ice cream sandwiches with Bourbon Butter Pecan ice cream and they are delicious, but they are SO rich. I will probably use a more subtle ice cream flavor next time. We’ll see what the boys think, though!
I baked my cookies for 9 minutes on a silicone mat (my first time using my silicone mats instead of parchment paper!). They were extremely soft when they came out of the oven but the edges looked set. The first cookie was too gooey (SO hard to not just eat it right then and there) to transfer to a wire rack so I decided to pop them in the freezer straight on the silicone mat to harden. Silicone mats encourage spreading more than parchment paper and also produce a softer bottom, whereas parchment paper produces a crispier edge. The texture came out perfectly for the ice cream sandwiches – the cookies freeze hard so construction is easy and they hold well when eating the sandwich. I worry that if baked until they looked “done”, the final product would be too crispy and might crumble. Also, my cookies totally melted together while baking and are not at all the picture-perfect round that Laura achieved, but they are so good it doesn’t matter. If you want a perfectly round cookie, maybe try parchment paper instead.
Make these. Now. While it is 1 million degrees outside. I promise it will be worth the 10 minutes that your oven is on! Everyone in Seattle seems to be melting, but the Central Californian in me is thoroughly enjoying the 88 degree weather. It helps that I am one of 10 people in Seattle that has central AC… Happy Summer!
I’m breaking in my oven in Seattle this weekend with an old tried & true recipe for a potluck with my new co-residents. There is nothing vegan, gluten-free, organic, or environmentally friendly about these cookies so they don’t scream “Seattle”, but warm cinnamon on a …
After 5 years in the Midwest, I’m very excited to become a West Coaster again! All of my coastal friends and family think of Cincinnati as flyover country (as did I, before I moved here) but I have truly enjoyed experiencing this city as it …
So I’m not ACTUALLY trying to give everyone around me diabetes. My previous ICU month turned into a downward spiral of eating sugary sweets hourly and never working out due to extremely long hours during the influenza season. I started my last ICU month bound and determined to keep doing the things I enjoy (baking) and trying to balance this with a slightly healthier life. I went looking for something savory. Sometimes I search for recipes based on ingredients I have lying around, and I’d over-purchased hazelnuts this fall. I came across a beautiful post from Nik Sharma at A Brown Table, and his photos are absolutely stunning. Will make you want to eat everything that he makes.
This Coffee Hazelnut Tart is creamy and nutty and delicious. It hit the spot, though I might add a little extra sweetness next time =) If you decide to make this, be sure to give yourself time. It is a fairly involved process involving roasting and skinning the hazelnuts, making hazelnut butter (which likely will take less time if you have an actual food processor), caramelizing hazelnuts, and finally the tart itself. I also had some tart filling leftover, so filled small ramekins to keep at home.
This was the first nut butter I’ve ever attempted! Not difficult, but took some time. I made the hazelnut butter in my trusty Ninja blender but I think a food processor is likely more up to the task and will require less finagling of utensils.
I made a whole batch of candied hazelnuts and used the extra as salad toppers for a while. They’re also great crushed over ice cream or for munching on their own…
Full disclosure, I’ve never made jello before. My tart wasn’t hardening and Kevin had to reassure me that all would be well in the morning and this wasn’t a disaster after all that work. Sure enough, I had a perfectly set tart and two small ramekins in the morning! A very proud moment for Kev. The filling for this tart requires only a quick couple minutes on the stove and no time in the oven, which is why we blind-bake the crust. Blind baking can be accomplished with pie weights, a simple bag of dried beans, or sandwiching the crust between two pie plates. I opt for the dry beans as the simplest and cheapest option. I even reuse my baking beans. Here’s a post from King Arthur Flour if you want to learn more about blind baking for future pies.
One more note about this as I’m about to move to the PNW where eating restrictions abound. This tart could easily be made vegan by substituting almond-milk creamer and the gelatin.
Berry season is back!! I was nomming on some delicious blueberries and dreaming of this Blueberry-chia seed jam I made last summer from Bon Appetit. Kevin’s parents got me a subscription as a gift a while back and we have had so much fun trying …
Kev is FINALLY home from his 6 week – Around the world extravaganza and the last week has been filled with long ICU days followed by figuring out logistics of a cross-country move while working in the ED. The good news is that we now …
I have had some fun in the sun this month, and am currently paying for it with a horrible peeling sunburn. Makes me feel somewhat hypocritical when I’m talking to patients about cancer risk. In my defense, I used a whole bottle of sunscreen but that Central American direct sunlight is a force to be reckoned with.
When I returned from Santa Barbara earlier this month, my car was covered in inches of snow and I had to use a New England Journal of Medicine issue to brush the snow off because I’ve managed to avoid ever needing a scraper (probably dumb, should have bought one). When I returned from Belize and Scottsdale, it had at least warmed up a little but we’ve had days of April showers and it’s felt a lot like fall.
April showers, fall flavors? One of my attendings requested baked goods this week and he picked the chocolate chips out of the last banana bread bundt cake (cray, the chocolate chips are the best part), so I needed to bring something of the less-sweet variety. These muffins did not disappoint! Again sourcing from my tried and true Huckleberry cookbook, I have not yet been let down by one of their recipes. My only comment on their recipes is that the oil can usually be cut down with much success and the published baking times are unfailingly too short in my oven. Once I learned this, baking out of this book has been a breeze!
Cake for breakfast? Yes, please. I need to spend the next several weeks choosing recipes focused on using up ingredients that I have stockpiled. We learned the hard way that baking chocolate doesn’t travel well when my med school roommate accidentally took a box of …