Category Archives: Baking

yarn love challenge

12 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Baking, Crafting on the web, designer, Designing, Knitting

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With February nearly half over, this post is definitely overdue, but hey – better late than never!

During the entire month of February on Instagram, the fiber/yarn/knitting/crafting community is participating in the “Yarn Love Challenge.” Each day, participants in the challenge post a photo related to a prompt or keyword, such as “style,” “colorwork,” “designer,” and so on. It’s a great way to think more about how your crafting habits impact your daily life and it’s an even better way to find new photos and Instagrammers that inspire you! Anyone who has an Instagram profile can participate, of course, and you can see my feed (and my most recent photo) on the left sidebar here. Just click it to be taken to Instagram where you can join in the fun.

In general, I find Instagram to be a convenient mini-blogging platform. For a busy mama, or anyone who is short on time, it’s a great avenue to share a quick photo and thought or to take a couple stolen moments to be inspired by other people’s photos and comments. You’ll find all kinds of photos in my feed (my username is makewisedesigns), although it probably wouldn’t be surprising to discover that my photos mostly center around knitting, sugar, and the kids. Since the blog is often quiet, I’d invite you to follow along on my Instagram feed to see what I’m up to lately!

Hope everyone has a good week and hoping Spring arrives soon,
xoxo Danielle

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happy holidays!

24 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Baking, Holidays

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Well, we’ve got the baking nearly squared away around here, with my very favorite gingerbread cookies being finished up yesterday. Decorating isn’t my strong suit, but they still taste good 🙂 And I’d say that we could use a little snow to get us in the “White Christmas” mood, but I don’t think that that’s going to happen with 70+ degree temperatures!

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas, and a New Year filled with creativity, good health, and lots of laughter.

Happy Holidays!
xoxo Danielle

apple pie time

27 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by in Baking, Family, Holidays, Home, Seasons

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Hi all! I hope that Summer treated you well!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already Autumn, but early Autumn means apple pie time around here, so I got to work yesterday in the kitchen. You might recall that I first wrote about our family apple pie recipe here.

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I call the above scene “yes, I’m making a mess. Bear with me.” (There was probably also a shih tzu lurking invisibly nearby).

My mom had sent me eight enormous “20-ouncer” apples for this year, and it turned out that I only needed three of them to make one Thanksgiving pie.

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As you can see from the above, my crust-making skills still leave something to be desired, but I’m hoping that the taste won’t suffer as a result 🙂

I used three more of the apples to make two “drunches,” as we call them in my house. I baked off one drunch to enjoy now and one to put in the freezer for later.

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A drunch may not be much to look at in the beauty department, but it sure is delicious. The good part about these is that you can still get that apple pie flavor/crust/effect, but in a smaller portion if you don’t need to feed a crowd. It’s just a single crust folded loosely up around half a pie’s worth of apples. I’m not sure where the word “drunch” comes from, but as you can see it’s really just like a free form galette. Does anyone else call these “drunches”?

Hope everyone has a great early Autumn weekend!
xoxo Danielle

blueberry cake

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in Baking

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Hi all!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!  Just a quick post to share a great recipe that I found online yesterday.

I managed to score some organically-grown blueberries from Maine at the Sea Cliff Farmers Market. And while I thought muffins might be a good use for them, I realized that what I really wanted instead was cake. (Don’t we all feel this way deep down inside?)

So I took this recipe and modified it by doubling the amount of milk from 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Et voilà! Blueberry cake!

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This recipe is fantastic, very simple and produces a wonderfully tender cake. I definitely recommend the sugar & nutmeg sprinkled on top, it compliments the blueberries nicely.

As you can see, I used a square baking dish and so I needed to increase the baking time to about 35 minutes, but just keep an eye on the cake and it’s done when the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. (Also, I was slightly nervous when I poured the batter into the dish that it would overflow as it baked, so I stuck a cookie sheet in the oven below the dish to catch any spills, but there was no need to be concerned.)

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We’ve managed to restrain ourselves and haven’t done too much damage since I baked it yesterday, but I’m sure this cake doesn’t have long.
xoxo
Danielle

cookie jar, take two

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Baking, Recipes

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Remember those Biscotti Bites I told you about last time? Well, it didn’t take us long to gobble up the first batch and make up the second batch with a delicious spin…..

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Behold the lime-and-white-chocolate variation! They are so so so so so so so delicious, it should be illegal.

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Before I had even baked this batch, I had already noticed how much “sunnier” this version was. By that, I mean that this flavor combination is lighter and brighter and generally more suited for a summer dessert (not to mention sweeter than the darker version).

As you can see, the white chocolate doesn’t interrupt the yellow-tinged batter the way the dark chocolate did in the original combination. Not that that’s a bad thing – don’t get me wrong. I covet chocolate in all of its forms. And yes, I dipped their bottoms in white chocolate, too 😉

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Similarly, the lime flavor is less dominant than the orange flavor was. Again – not a bad thing – but an altogether wonderful substitution.

Just look at that texture……

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The fact that both of these flavor combos work so well tells me that this is just a GREAT cookie recipe that’s versatile enough to hold up to many more creative substitutions. So if I didn’t convince you last time to try them, I hope I have now!
xoxo Danielle

one for the cookie jar

14 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by in Baking

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Just a quick post to share a new cookie recipe that I came across and can’t get enough of! What you see above are “Biscotti Bites,” from a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living. And they are ingenious!

The cookies make very clever use of equal parts flour and cornmeal to achieve that twice-baked crispiness of traditional biscotti without the need for (a) two trips through the oven; or (b) a perilous slicing episode in-between (or at least perilous if you know me and knives…) You can see the effect that the cornmeal has on the crunchy texture of the cookie better here:

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Of course, because I’m me, I can’t follow the recipe as written. So I did the following:

–substituted orange zest for grapefruit zest because I loooove orange and chocolate together;

–made the cookies using a tablespoon-sized scoop instead of a teaspoon-sized scoop because if I’m going to have a cookie, I’m going to have a cookie! (This leads to about 40-45 cookies instead of the 100 that the original recipe quotes, and increases the baking time to about 22-25 minutes instead); and

–reduced and changed the amount of chocolate called for the recipe. “11 ozs” is not a very convenient amount when chocolate usually comes in 4-oz bar increments. So for the cookie dough itself, I used 4 oz (1 bar) of bittersweet chocolate and for the chocolate dip at the end, I used 4 oz (1 bar) of semisweet chocolate because that’s what I had available. This proved to be sufficient amounts for both steps of the recipe – they are plenty chocolate-y!

I can’t rave about these cookies enough. The texture is both crisp and chewy (thanks to the coconut) and the combination of flavors from the chocolate, orange, coconut, as well as the cornmeal, make these unique. Just be sure to abide by the directions to refrigerate the dough/cookies at each step – it really does make a difference in the final product.

Andrew and I have already been brainstorming different combinations…lime with white chocolate and coconut? I told you I couldn’t leave the recipe alone!

nothing says summer…

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Baking, Home, Recipes, Seasons, Uncategorized

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…like homemade, monster-sized and still-warm-from-the-oven strawberry shortcakes. With fresh whipped cream and strawberries macerated in sugar and orange zest, of course!

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The recipe is from the gorgeous new cookbook, Home Made Summer by Yvette van Boven. And while the dough needed a LOT more liquid to come together than what the recipe specifies, fear not: the end results were still delish.

Happy summery Sunday, all!

just another day

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Baking, Cooking, NYC, Uncategorized

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Yep, it was just another day. You know, just one of those days where I do things like work, the dishes, the laundry….oh, and chat with Nigella Lawson while she signs my copy of her newest cookbook, Nigellissima, during her appearance this week at the Union Square Barnes & Noble.

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And NO, I did not say any of the things that were giddily racing through my head. Things such as “Oh my god I love you I have all your cookbooks and you’ve signed some of them and I think you’re brilliant and funny and inspiring and I want to be you when I grow up and do you want to hang out and I love your dress and…..”

Because that just would’ve been creepy.

I do think, however, that I managed to say “Thank you.” At least I hope I did. Nigella, you know I heart you.

Have a great weekend, all!

let the baking begin

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Baking, Holidays, Recipes

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Let’s be honest: Christmas is waaay better because of all the baking. The cookies, the cakes, the cinnamon rolls….I’ll stop there. So when it came time to decorate our tree this year, we knew that one thing would make the decorating task better/easier: cookies.

I’d been wanting to try a new-to-me recipe from King Arthur Flour for chocolate gingerbread cookies. Don’t those sound delish? You can find the recipe HERE. And boy oh boy, they did not disappoint. Below, the pre-baked beauty shot:

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There are a few things that make these cookies worth considering as part of your holiday repertoire:

(1) They have chocolate in them, in the form of cocoa and mini chocolate chips. And molasses too. And a bevy of spices also. Maybe this is enough of a reason, it was for me. 🙂

(2) They are super simple to make. As in: make the dough, scoop it out, plop it on the tray, and have cookies in less than one hour total. What’s particularly special about this recipe is that it doesn’t include eggs, which I think makes the cookies less likely to rise and gives them more of a chewy than cakey finished texture, if that makes sense. They keep very very well on the counter, so you could easily make a batch ahead of time.

(3) You roll the dough in these hard sugar crystals, called “pearl sugar” by KAF, similar to what you see on the top of French brioche rolls. The pearl sugar gives a nice crunchy counterpoint to the softness of the cookie itself. Rolling the dough in sugar is very easy, so these would be a great recipe to try out with young kids who are eager to get involved in the holiday kitchen. And with the lack of raw eggs in the recipe, it’ll also be ok if the kids sneak a couple bites of the dough as they’re working.

Below, the post-baking deliciousness:

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They baked up in exactly the time specified in the recipe and appeared nearly identical to what the recipe depicted, so I call that a very reliable recipe. I got nearly 30 cookies out of one batch, so I’ll definitely be looking to make a double batch of these at some point, be still my beating sweet tooth. Next time, I might reduce the salt amount ever so slightly, but not a lot, as the salt definitely gives some of the flavor punch here.

And, oh look, a breakfast of champions; just add coffee.

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Don’t say you wouldn’t. So as you can see, we’re in full holiday mode around here. And here’s a peek at our happy little tree, all decked out and ready for our annual party that will be here before we know it:

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Happy Holidays, everyone – we hope you have a very happy season of celebrations!