Bake or Break

The weather here in NYC has been a bit on the damp side this week. All of these rainy days don’t equate to much activity outside the apartment. There seemed to be no shortage of baking activity around the interwebs this week. Narrowing down to just a few to share with you was tough. These are some of my favorites. Enjoy!
[...]

As a big fan of all things brown sugar, I can really get behind a good blondie. These are a bit different from the traditional in that they are baked in muffin pans, much like cupcakes.

Of course, doing that doesn’t make them automatically have the normal texture of a cupcake. They are still dense and very much blondies. In fact, you can bake them in the more traditional way by using a square baking pan.
[...]

I confess that I don’t often bake with whole wheat flour. I think that’s due more to habit than taste. But, it can be a great substitute for traditional flour in many recipes, like this one.

I am fairly confident that if you tasted one of these without knowing the list of ingredients, you’d never guess that they are made with whole wheat flour. In fact, of all the cookies in my recent baking memory, these are probably in the top 10.
[...]

Last weekend was perhaps the most beautiful couple of days I’ve ever experienced in New York. The weather was perfect, and we were actually able to get out and enjoy it. Our very full slate for the weekend included a tour of the old City Hall subway station, a show at City Center, and a game at Yankee Stadium.

This week, however, I spent most of my time inside as I had a brand new experience. Jury duty! I spent a couple of days downtown in the criminal courts building and was eventually excused without ever having my name pulled out of the bingo cage. All of that sitting around gave me plenty of time for taking leisurely strolls around the internet. Here’s a bit of what caught my eye this week.
[...]

Have you ever found a cookie recipe that sounds so good that you decide on the spot not only to make them immediately, but to double the recipe? That’s the position I found myself in when I found this recipe from One Girl Cookies.

Here’s the breakdown. The cookies are a soft, light, chewy shortbread packed with nuts and flavored with our good friend cream cheese. While the original recipe lists walnuts, I opted for pecans. (Insert your shocked comments here.) If we just stopped there, I would be as happy as could be. These little cookies are so flavorful to have such a short list of ingredients.
[...]