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Not that you need an excuse to buy good beer this weekend, but here’s a recipe that calls for brown ale. It’s a variation on traditional no-yeast beer bread, but in biscuit form — or rather, muffin form. Because the batter is thin and gloppy, it needs to be baked in a muffin pan to [...]
One of the best things my grandmother made was a dessert called banana split cake. It wasn’t really a cake at all, but a layer of cookie crumbs topped with a creamy custard of some sort, whipped cream, pineapple and bananas. Over the years I’ve tried several versions of the recipe trying to get it [...]
If you’re looking for a recipe that makes a dense, chewy granola bar and doesn’t call for peanut butter or eggs, this one is perfect! Loaded with walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chocolate and cranberries, these bars are held together by a paste made of apricots, butter and honey. The recipe, Chewy Walnut Granola Bars, is originally [...]
In case you missed the news, yesterday was not only National Baking Day, but National Devil’s Food Cake Day. And while I admit to not taking full advantage of the excuse to make a devil’s food cake, I made another type of chocolate cake which was just as good — a mayonnaise cake. If you’ve [...]
For Mother’s Day, Fuzz gave me a bottle of Penzey’s pumpkin pie spice along with a request to make some pumpkin muffins. Because she picked such a sweet present, I took her up on her offer and made a batch of what is currently our favorite pumpkin muffin recipe. It doesn’t call for any crazy [...]
If you like your oatmeal cookies thick and kind of soft in the middle, try these. They don’t spread much, and the pudding keeps them from getting hard. I made mine in a range of sizes and decided I like them about medium, but next time I might try making them as big as scones! [...]
I hadn’t planned on posting the recipe, but these bagels from Whole Grain Vegan Baking: More than 100 Tasty Recipes for Plant-Based Treats Made Even Healthier-From Wholesome Cookies and Cupcakes to Breads, Biscuits, and More were so good that I had to share. Forget the fact they are vegan. They have a very interesting flavor [...]
I’ve eaten my share of delicious vegan cookies, but last week I baked a batch that just might have been the best ever! The cookies, which are dramatically large and perfect for bake sales, are from a book called Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes. It’s a recipe treasure trove for [...]
One of my favorite scratch marble cakes is this Triple Layer Mocha Marble Cake, but last week I had to pull something together quickly for a Girl Scout pot luck and felt like using cake mix. Since I’d had good luck with the enhanced Orangesicle cake, I decided to push that luck a bit by [...]
Today I’m giving away a copy of Julie Hession’s new book, 175 Best Mini Pie Recipes: Sweet to Savory. If you’d like a chance at a free copy (and this giveaway is for USA and Canada. Hooray!), read my review and leave a comment telling me your favorite type of pie. I will pick a [...]
After making a batch of big, soft, ginger cookies and admiring the lovely cracks and crevices, I decided to try converting my ginger cookie recipe to chocolate chip. It took a little experimenting, but I finally got what I was looking for — a dense, chewy cookie with a deep brown color and a top [...]
As part of the Pillsbury Baking giveaway I posted a few days ago, Pillsbury sent me a few boxes of their new cake mixes to experiment with. This cake (along with the White Chocolate Cheesecake Key Lime Bundt Cake) was one of the experiments. I wanted to see how using a popular technique for extending [...]
Hooray! I have yet another fun giveaway from Pillsbury Baking. The theme is “Celebrating Every Day Occasions”, one of which just happens to be the change of seasons. With Spring in full bloom and Summer on the way, Pillsbury is introducing frosting, cake and cookie mixes that capture the essence of warmer months, vacations in [...]
I found this coconut cake recipe yesterday while organizing my big box of recipe clippings. The recipe was clipped from Taste of Home, where it had been submitted by a fellow Texan who found it in an old cookbook. She said she made it once and has since been asked to serve it every Christmas. [...]
This month a little town in Texas called West suffered a devastating fertilizer plant explosion. Lives were lost, many were injured and homes were demolished. As you can imagine, this event has affected many of our friends and family, and the people of Texas are doing whatever they can to help. One event taking place [...]
If you like making Bundt cakes but don’t have a big family to help eat them, treat yourself to a brand new a 6 cup Bundt pan! It took me forever to finally buy one, but Target had them in the baking aisle a few weeks ago and I finally gave in. Now I’m wondering [...]
The first thing I think of when someone mentions St. Louis is The Gateway Arch, but the second would surely be the Gooey Butter Cake. A regional favorite with multiple stories surrounding its origin, the Gooey Butter Cake is a thin, dense, rich coffee cake invented by German bakers in South St. Louis. The original [...]
I’m pretty sure I’ve tried this recipe at some point, but for some reason it didn’t make an impression. Maybe the brownies weren’t tall enough? Maybe I made them back-to-back with a recipe I just happened to like better? I don’t know, but I made them again on this dreary Tuesday and decided they were [...]
Today’s creation resulted from my attempt to use up half a can of crushed pineapple that had been hanging out in the refrigerator. At first I was going to make regular pineapple muffins, but since I eat baked goods during the day rather than at breakfast, I decided to go with something a little more [...]
Fuzz had a new friend over yesterday, so I decided to make a good impression by baking fresh cinnamon rolls and infusing the whole house with their lovely fragrance. But my timing was very, very bad. I started making the rolls a few minutes after our friend arrived, put them away for an hour and [...]
Here’s another reason I like the BIG cupcake wrappers. They hold more filling! In this case, that filling is peanut butter pie. I got the idea after reading a reference to peanut butter pie and thinking “I’ll never be able to make that” because the only person around here who really likes peanut butter is [...]
If you haven’t entered the Happy Birthday Funfetti Giveaway, go for it! I’m collecting party tips in the comment section and will pick one comment Saturday morning. Good luck! And if you’re a Facebook user, you might want to check out the promotion on the Pillsbury Baking Facebook page, too. But back to business. Let’s [...]
Put on your sunglasses because the baking aisle just got a little bit brighter! In honor of Funfetti’s 25th birthday, Pillsbury has created four bold and vibrantly colored Funfetti frostings. You can read more about the Funfetti promotion on Facebook, but take a minute to enter this giveaway for Cookie Madness readers. It includes the [...]
After testing at least five different recipes for cinnamon swirl bread, I think I’ve finally found a favorite. And while my original goal was to find a recipe similar to the one served in my old elementary school cafeteria — a bread that was baked free-form and served warm with icing, what I realized was [...]
This recipe put a dent in my Hershey’s Macadamia Kisses supply, and that is a-okay. I want to use them while they’re still fresh, and right now the macadamias inside the Kisses are fresher than any of the ones I’ve purchased here in Austin. Thanks again to Stephanie, who brought the special Kisses home from [...]
This recipe combines two of my favorite desserts, white chocolate raspberry cheesecake and fudge brownies. I made it this weekend using a brownie technique I learned in One Sweet Cookie and topping the brownies with white chocolate raspberry cheesecake batter. The interesting brownie technique is to make the brownie batter, spread it in the pan, [...]
Today’s cookies were baked in honor of our friend Stephanie, who went to Hawaii and brought us back a giant bag of Macadamia Nut Hershey’s Kisses. Did you even know that such a Kiss existed? I had no idea, but from what I’ve read you can purchase them in Hawaii and in a few select [...]
It’s National Coffee Cake Day, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, I have baked my favorite sour cream coffee cake in mini Bundt pans and jumbo muffin cups. They’re inverted, as you see. The Bundt pans measure about 4×2 and the jumbo muffin papers I used were the Reynolds foil lined 3 1/2 inch type. [...]
A few days ago I stumbled upon my new favorite website, Wayne’s This and That. Wayne, whom I’ve never met, has lots of interesting information (Todd’s enjoying his Addams Family Pinball section), but what drew me in were his cake mix comparisons. I could tell before reading the rest of the site that he was [...]
Here’s a way to test your self control: Bake a batch of cinnamon swirl bread, let it cool for a few minutes and turn it from the pan. Now try — just try to restrain yourself from slicing into it. I really thought I could, but after baking a loaf using Dorie Greenspan’s recipe I [...]
I thought I’d be testing carrot cupcakes all week, but thanks to Sue and The Silver Palate Cookbook, the search has ended. Sorry in advance to Todd’s coworkers who have been enjoying the carrot cake tests, but I promise I will send in some of these. They’re brownish in color rather than bright orange, sweet [...]
Happy Peanut Butter and Jelly Day! I know it’s a little late in the day to give you the recipe, but now you’ll be all set for next year when National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day rolls around. Or maybe you could make these tonight? The ingredients are things you probably have in the pantry. [...]
Well, here we go with another carrot cake cupcake. I’m hoping these comparisons might help some of you choose a recipe, but I think the truth is that I just really, really like making carrot cake. It’s relaxing, and it’s nice not having to pull out the stand mixer or cream the butter. My goal, [...]
I’m still on the hunt for the perfect carrot cupcake; specifically, one that will make me stop looking. Who knows? That may be impossible, but I’m having fun in the process! My ideal carrot cupcake is sweet, but not cloying so; dense rather that light, because I like a good dense carrot cake; and stuffed [...]
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake was everywhere ten years ago, but the place I mostly remember eating it was at the bookstore coffee shop where it would either be stellar or stale depending on the time of day or from whom they ordered it. At some point I guess I had too many stale pieces because [...]
If you like baking with sweeteners other than sugar and enjoy scones, you will love today’s recipe. It’s for rich, buttery, scones sweetened with maple syrup and loaded with pecans and dried fruit (or in this case, chocolate chips). The recipe is from a new cookbook called Modern Maple, written by Teresa Marrone and published [...]
This may not be your typical Easter cake, but it is the perfect post-Easter cake because you can make it with leftover milk chocolate eggs or chopped up chocolate bunnies! Or you could just do it the old fashioned way and use actual Hershey bars. Whatever type of milk chocolate you use, the result is [...]
After a string of failed baking experiments yesterday, I was happy to receive this tried and true, grade A+ recipe from a reader named Steven. Steven knew I had a lot of recipes for quick breads, but because he’d made this bread three times in the past few days and because it was so popular [...]
I’ve learned a few things about frosting over the years, one being that I really don’t care for true buttercream frosting. And by that I mean true Swiss buttercream – the kind made with eggs, granulated sugar and butter and which to me, is just too buttery. As a sandwich cookie filling it’s okay, but [...]
After having dinner at a steakhouse last week, we decided to share dessert. Todd wanted Key lime pie and I wanted cheesecake. Fuzz’s job was to break the tie, but since she was indifferent we settled on cheesecake so long as I promised to make a Key lime pie later in the week. This dessert [...]
Last September White Lily Flour celebrated National Biscuit Month with a campaign called “Save The Biscuit”. The goal was not only to celebrate the “iconic” quick bread, but to put the spotlight on memorable times spent in the kitchen sharing family meals or learning new cooking techniques. Well, it’s March. I obviously missed the [...]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! And Happy “End of Spring Break” for others. I think St. Patrick’s Day is more worthy of a celebration in this case, so here are a few recipe for cakes you can whip up in a hurry. The one I always make (and an excellent excuse to buy a bottle of [...]
If you ever run out of cupcake papers or just want to try something new, here’s a trick I learned last week while watching a Martha Stewart video. Instead of cupcake wrappers, you can stick 5 inch squares of parchment paper into the cupcake cups, press them down with the bottom of a drinking glass, [...]
This recipe was a test to see how self-rising flour would work in a double chocolate cookie. Regular all-purpose flour mixed with baking powder and salt would have been just fine, but I wanted to see if the soft winter wheat used to make White Lily would have any impact on the overall result. The [...]
Today’s recipe is made with White Lily, a soft wheat flour popular in the South. For the past few weeks I’ve been using all-purpose, but this week I switched to self-rising White Lily and am loving the results. In America, it seems that most bakers use all-purpose flour mixed with a combination of baking powder [...]
It’s starting to feel like Spring around here, so how about a nice lemony dessert? Er, sort of. This dessert doesn’t contain any actual lemons, but rather a box of instant lemon pudding, Cool Whip and cream cheese. In other words, it’s Todd’s favorite type of dessert. The recipe is called Lemon Lush and the [...]
These oatmeal cookies might be a little different than what you’re used to. With more butter and less egg, they’re thick and dense, but still soft in the center. The ones in this picture are what I’d call regular size, as they’re made with a rounded tablespoon of dough…. But for the second batch, I [...]
Not that you need an excuse, but it’s National Pound Cake Day so bake a pound cake! That is, if you like pound cake. It’s actually not my favorite type of cake, but it’s a good complement to the berries that have been on sale lately. That, plus I’ve been searching for top pound cakes [...]
If you have a celebration coming up or are just looking for a flashy but easy fruit dessert, I heartily recommend the Triple Berry Mousse Tart from Orchard’s Finest. After trying it this week, Todd proclaimed it one of the best desserts ever. (!!) Now he could have meant one of one hundred best [...]
A few weeks ago I stopped by a local thrift store to look around. There were the usual old clothes, used jewelry and old appliances from the ’70s, but the real find was in the book section. Hidden on the bottom shelf was a stack of 12 issues of Cook’s Illustrated from 2000 to about [...]
