Welcome to TBLSPOON
Follow along as I document my adventures in baking. I hope it inspires you to try something new.
Thanks for visiting,
Sarah
Follow along as I document my adventures in baking. I hope it inspires you to try something new.
Thanks for visiting,
Sarah
All in Cookies / Brownies / Bars
When King Arthur Baking sent out an email announcing their 2024 recipe of the year – these “Supersized, Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies” – they broke the internet. Or at least they broke their own site for a number of hours. So when anyone asks the inevitable question: Does the world really need another chocolate chip cookie recipe? I think the resounding answer must be: Yes. Yes, we do. And really, if the world keeps writing them and I get to keep baking them (read: eating them), I’m on board.
This is a delicious recipe from Bake from Scratch magazine that I served up this past Memorial Day weekend. They really are strawberry shortcake in bar form – fruity, creamy, with crisp, buttery crumbles. I love the combination of sweet, fresh strawberries, and sweet-tart freeze dried strawberries. A very clever touch.
These Neapolitan Cookies from Sarah Kieffer’s “100 Cookies” cookbook have been on my list seemingly forever. I’m so glad I finally found the time to make them because they are even better than I’d expected. The cookie has such a nice texture – that perfect mix of crispiness and chewiness – and I love the contrast of the sweet/tart strawberry with the vanilla and chocolate.
Here’s another idea for a little treat to serve when having friends over for “just a glass of wine.” Savory goat cheese thumbprint cookies. The goat cheese is baked into the cookie dough along with a hint of ground thyme. I rolled some in toasted pecans and others in slivered almonds. The pecan cookies were topped with fig jam and the almond with raspberry jam and a little gold leaf from Barnabas Gold.
I recently had brunch with a couple of girlfriends who kindly shared some saffron and home grown oranges with me. I thought it would be fun to make something using both. Well, that same weekend I received “Sweet” by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh as a birthday gift and wouldn’t ya know, there was a recipe for Saffron, Orange, and Honey Madeleines. Destiny. Out of the oven, they get brushed with honey and dipped in pistachios. Pretty fabulous.
Delicate, buttery cornstarch cookies filled with dulce de leche, Alfajores are popular in many Latin American countries. They are absolutely delicious and addictive, I love the hints of lemon and salt in the cookie and the way both flavors balance the dulce de leche.
Tahini Thumbprint Cookies How is it possible that I’ve never made anything with dulce de leche before? It’s RIDICULOUS! So good. Soooo good. (That needed to be said twice.) And balanced beautifully by the sesame flavored cookie. I made them as part of my 2021 Christmas cookie collection and they didn't last long.
This year my husband and I moved out of our Los Angeles apartment and into a house on a cul-de-sac in Temecula, CA. We've met most of our neighbors and have been lucky to find them universally warm and welcoming. Christmas cookie delivery seemed like a good way to meet those we hadn't yet and show appreciation for those we had. I made Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Citrus Shortbread Cookies, Christmas Tree Blondies, Pecan Shortbread Bars, and Thumbprint Cookies.
These tequila and Grand Marnier infused bars are a creamy, salty, boozy, citrusy treat that you keep in the freezer until you're ready to dig in. They're obviously an ideal spring/summer indulgence, but I'm sure would be appreciated on any bright, sunny day. I mean, is there ever a bad time for a Margarita?
There's something deeply satisfying about sinking your teeth into chewy mochi and these bars are no exception. Tropical coconut mixed with juicy, sweet blueberries make for an explosion of flavors and textures.
Dark chocolate, White chocolate, Pistachios, Unsweetened shredded coconut, Poppyseeds, Old fashioned oats, Rye and all purpose flour, Light brown sugar. Look at the gorgeous texture all of those ingredients create! They're large, bakery style cookies, crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle. The chocolate, coconut, and pistachios balance the intenseness of the rye and poppyseeds. The coconut, brown sugar and oats create the chew. I also may try them again without the poppyseeds and more pistachios one day. (I'm a devoted pistachio fan.) Bake them all at once or freeze the portioned out dough for whenever a cookie craving strikes.
I'm so excited to share this recipe, I just loved the way these shortbread turned out. This one is for pistachio lovers. Ground pistachios and oats replace some of the flour of a typical shortbread recipe, chopped pistachios are mixed in for a nutty crunch, finally more ground pistachios get sifted across the top, for even more pistachio flavor and a hint of green color.
These Hamantashen are my tribute to childhood Hamantashen and my mom's efforts to make all of us happy. Poppyseeds for mom, fruit filling for dad, and chocolate for us (grown) kids all wrapped up in a single triangular cookie.
Crisp-on-the-edges, soft-and-chewy-in-the-middle peanut butter cookies. The waffle cones add crunch and a toasty, almost toffee-like flavor, and the yogurt covered pretzels add a slight salty/sweet tang. The yogurt pretzel coating caramelizes in the oven adding an additional depth of flavor and crispy outer cookie edges. This cookie definitely passed the "do I want to immediately grab another one" test.
There's no holiday gatherings happening in my part of the world thanks to a certain global pandemic, so instead I've been trying to spread some holiday cheer with a variety of cookie gifts. After all, how can you not smile at a gift bag or platter full of beautiful cookies. I like to include a variety of flavors and textures in my cookie collections: think sweet & salty tahini shortbread, cool and crisp peppermint bark, melt in your mouth butter cookies, and raspberry jam and nut filled rugelach. Those are just a few of my favorites that I've been passing out over the last couple of weeks.
Crisp pastry filled with raspberry jam, bittersweet chocolate, toasted pecans, and diced dried cranberries. I made this raspberry rugelach recipe from New York Times Cooking last year and fell in love with the sweet, bite size treats.
Gorgeously spiced gingerbread cookies sweetened with brown sugar and molasses so they have a little bit of a chew to them. Delicious. You’ll definitely have trouble stopping at one!
