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Oh, how things change.

My life has changed incredibly since the last time I posted here, let alone what it was two years ago. Two years ago, I would have given anything to be at the weight I am now.  I had lost about 25lbs. and was working on losing 80.  I have been at my goal weight (15lbs. below it, actually) for about a year and a half.  You know what the sad part is?  I was so much happier two years ago.  Losing

White Chocolate Chip and Toasted Pecan Butterscotch Blondies.

The past couple of weeks have left me craving sweets like crazy but with little time to bake them in.  Luckily blondies are extremely fast to put together, which means they get to my mouth sooner! You really should wait until they're completely cool before cutting them, I recommend using the fridge or freezer if you don't have the willpower to postpone devouring them. I know a lot of recipes

Chocolate Crackles.

Because I love chocolate. Because it's been a crazy week. Because these are delicious and easy and it's the weekend and there's no reason not to make them. Chocolate Crackles 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg Confectioner's sugar In a

Toasted Almond-Honey Ice Box Cookies.

I love ice box cookies, especially in summer.  You make one batch of dough without the worry of having to bake them right away and you've got something you can slice and bake whenever you feel that sweet tooth coming on.  These are the perfect little cookie to accompany anything - coffee, tea, sorbet, ice cream, or ice-cold milk! Almonds and honey are one of my favorite combinations, but as

Cinnamon-Crumble Jam Coffee Cake.

About a month and a half ago, our refrigerator started making very loud humming sounds.  This was a very expensive fridge and very new (bought last summer!)  We looked up information on the internet, we disconnected the fridge overnight, we cleaned, we removed ice, we called, we had a repairman come look at it, he ordered a part that the fridge company didn't have anymore.  Needless to say, we

Chewy Date and Nut Bars.

These happened because I realized I only had 3 sticks of butter left in the fridge and panicked, but I loved them so much that I'd make them even if I had 3lbs. left!  You'd never know there wasn't any butter in these cookies, I swear!  If you're a chewy fan, you must preheat the oven now. Feel free to substitute any nut -  I used almonds, but typically walnuts are the partner for dates.  I'd

Tiny Sugar Saucers.

Even though temperatures were above 90 degrees last week, it didn't lessen my desire to bake and eat sweet things, unfortunately!  I made the dough for these during the day when it was hot, chilled the dough overnight and then baked them in the morning before the house warmed up too much so no one would yell at me :) This recipe comes from Rebecca Rather's Pastry Queen book that I love.  She

Zucchini Bread.

A few days ago, my grandma came by with our first batch of zucchini from her garden.  I knew as soon as it wasn't too lethal to turn on the oven that I'd be making zucchini bread!  (P.S. I am loving this hot weather!!!)  My mom has used this recipe for as long as I can remember and the smell of it baking always reminds me of summertime. Over time I've cut down significantly on the sugar and

Wedding Shower Cookies.

For most of my life, one set of my cousins have lived in a different city from me.  So when one of them gets married, it's a nice excuse to get together with everyone and catch up.  Of course, it's also an excuse to bake! I did a bit of research before making these cookies and found that bloggers seemed to be raving over Peggy Porschen's sugar cookies.  From pictures, they looked like they did

Mini Strawberry Muffins with White Chocolate Chips and Toasted Almonds.

I LOVE fruit and generally I prefer to eat fruit raw.  Especially juicy summer fruit - you don't need to add anything to it to make it any better, it's perfect as-is!  But sometimes I go overboard at the supermarket and buy too much to handle.  This morning while reaching for my morning egg, I saw the strawberries I bought last week getting pretty soft, too soft for a tart or any fresh

Cinnamon-Lime Panna Cotta with Blueberry Sauce.

I originally set out to make a pie this weekend and then remembered I had more than half of a quart of half-and-half leftover from making my sister's cheesecake ice cream last weekend.  I browsed a few cookbooks before deciding on a panna cotta from David Lebovitz's Ripe For Dessert. Panna cotta is a lovely summer desert.  Served chilled, it's a refreshing and lighter alternative to richer and

White Chocolate Chip, Pistachio, Coconut, Guava and Dried Pear Cookies.

As crazy as these cookies sound from the title, they were out of necessity.  I found a cookie recipe that sounded delicious but I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I used what I had and they were amazing.  This makes a very compact cookie, just enough dough to hold everything together.  But sometimes you don't want a plain cookie, sometimes you want a cookie stuffed with lots of good things

Cheesecake Ice Cream with Gluten Free Graham Crackers.

A few years ago, after I graduated from culinary school, one of my gifts was an ice cream maker.  I can't say I use it very often, maybe a few times per summer, but after making this ice cream I was reminded how amazingly easy and delicious homemade ice cream is. I made a cheesecake ice cream for my sister's birthday a couple of years back.  She requested it again this year, but I decided to

S'mores Bars.

Isn't it amazing how much can change in so little time?  Today is America's birthday, the 4th of July.  It's a beautiful summer day here and I can only hope the rest of the summer will be as nice.  But how do you embrace the beauty of things you love when you and the one you love have decided to take some time to be apart?  It hurts too much to even think about going about normal day-to-day

Miss Emma Smith's War Cake.

Perfect for breakfast, brunch, or a snack, this delicious cake is incredibly easy to make and even easier to eat.  It contains no dairy - that is, no eggs, milk, or butter, although I did use butter for the lard originally called for - and you can, and should, make it ahead of time to allow the flavors to develop, which means you can make it when you have time and eat it when you don't!  I

Ginger-Honeyed Apple and Apricot Phyllo Crunch Pie.

This was the dessert I made for Father's Day - a riff on apple crisp and pie, tucked into crisp and buttery phyllo dough. The original idea for this came from somehow finding two boxes of phyllo dough in the freezer but not having enough time to make baklava.  My dad loves apple crisp and apple pie so I wanted to do a more summery version of it - there's very little sugar here, no cinnamon (a

Dried Cherry Buttermilk Scones.

I debated between posting this recipe today or the dessert I made for Father's Day, but ultimately, this was the one I decided on since my dad specifically requests them every year.  I don't remember when I first made dried cherry scones, but my dad decided they were his favorite breakfast treat ever since.  Luckily the recipe is extremely easy and delicious! I honestly don't remember where

Chewy Chili Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.

The beginning of this week started off much too cold for June and everyone agreed a nice dose of chocolate was in order.  I wanted to spice things up a bit, literally, so I devised a comforting chocolate oatmeal cookie and added chili powder and cinnamon to the dough.  I will admit it's not entirely noticeable but it does give the cookies a little extra "something." If I made these again, I

Toasted Pistachio Cinnamon Swirl Cake.

I hate to admit it, but I bake much more often than I blog.  It was quite an effort to even get myself to bring the camera out for these photos on a rainy Sunday morning, but I'm glad I did! Instead of the common walnut or pecan, I substituted beautifully green pistachios in this cake, which means a lovely hit of color when you cut into it.  Toasting them intensifies their unique flavor and

Chocolate Filled Gluten Free Vanilla and Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Today is my grandma's birthday and we're having a celebration later so what better to bring than cupcakes?  Originally I planned on icing half of the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and half with chocolate buttercream but while searching for chocolate frosting recipes, I came across one that looked more like a "custard" (there were no eggs in the recipe) and the idea dawned on me to fill

Cherry Streusel Coffee Cake.

Summer is my favorite season, if you couldn't tell.  So last week when cherries started popping up in stores and markets, we nabbed some up as quickly as possible!  I would say half of them were sweet as can be while the other half needed some improvement, which is where this coffee cake came in handy.  This is a great, simple and easy recipe for any fruit you need to use this summer that might

Gluten Free Lemon Pie Bars.

Something about lemon bars has always screamed warm weather to me - the lemon's yellowness and the scent of them being zested and juiced is complete summery dessert perfection!  Crisp, buttery and tender crust; cold, silky smooth and just-tart-enough lemon curd on top, I urge you to bring these along to any party this summer. I did something a little different here by using a lemon meringue pie

Honey Cake.

Last week I made an orange poppy seed Bundt cake.  Well, I tried to.  When I went to take the cake out of the Bundt pan, of course the top of the cake stuck in the pan and only the bottom half came out.  It was still really delicious and we ate it all but I was really upset about not being able to get the whole cake out of the pan! I was determined to make a Bundt cake that would look as

Sand Dollar Cookies.

  I've been home from North Carolina for almost a week now.  I've baked a few things but quite frankly haven't had the motivation or inspiration to write anything or take pictures until now.  It's pretty rough to come back from warm, beautiful sunny weather to day after day of clouds, rain and cold, not to mention being away from my sweetheart! But life must go on and until I'm able to move

Goodbye, April!

  I haven't baked much this past week besides a small batch of chocolate chip cookies for my sister since tomorrow morning my parents and I are driving to Mount Airy, North Carolina, where I'll be spending 2 weeks with my beloved.  Keep on baking and I'll see you in May :)

Cinnamon Toasted Almond Biscotti.

I hope everyone who celebrated Easter had as lovely a holiday as I did!  Although last week's weather here certainly didn't feel like spring, my family and I began our Easter preparations anyway, hard-boiling and dyeing eggs, baking Easter egg bread, and buying Wardynski sausage for Sunday brunch.  Somehow it slipped my mind to take photos of our feast of brown sugar and mustard-glazed spiral

Orange Cupcakes Filled with Orange Curd.

For some reason, orange and citrus in general, scream warmer weather to me.  I didn't realize it until I cut one of these open, but the slightly oozy orange curd reminds me of an egg yolk - perfect for Easter, don't you think? :) I used the buttery orange cake and orange curd recipes from the Orange Grove Cake in The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  I don't get to use this book as often as I'd like

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies... finally!

I've been searching for a great gluten free sugar cookie for at least 3 years now - since my brother and sister-in-law got engaged.  I attempted to make engagement cookies in wedding cookie shapes, conjoined heart shapes, even little tiny hearts.  I could get them off of the baking sheets if I was incredibly careful but decorating was an entirely different story - they crumbled to bits and

Ricotta Honey Oatmeal Muffins.

These are light, springy muffins that go perfectly with tea or coffee for breakfast and brunch.  They reminded me of what graham crackers would taste like in muffin form, I suppose from the honey-oat combination, and they were delicious. I hate to keep bringing up the weather but I wish it would just make up its mind already!  This past week had days near 60, but today it's been snowy and rainy

Sedgemoor Easter Biscuits.

While on a search for traditional Easter recipes, I found this one.  I have to say, I like these more than the last batch of hot cross buns I made a couple of years ago!  They're called biscuits, but because it's a British recipe, this means cookie in America.  The dough is put together like a biscuit dough, however, and they come out with an amazing combination of chewy dried fruit and tender

Sapelo Island Hard Time Cake.

Sometimes I take for granted what a luxury it is to bake.  Baking ingredients aren't a necessity like vegetables and fruit are for healthy, substantial meals.  Butter, sugar, flour, chocolate, nuts - these ingredients are an indulgence to keep in the cupboard and sometimes it takes an unfortunate instance to bring us back to reality.  It's not that anything earth-shattering happened but last

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I had to get my chocolate fix in somehow ;) I added peanut butter and milk chocolate chips just to use up half of a bag I had in the cupboard, but feel free to add semisweet, bittersweet, white, mint chips, toasted walnuts or pecans, dried cherries, whatever makes you happiest!  I like to make these tiny for some reason but I imagine they'd make amazing ice cream sandwiches if you're feeling

Polish Easter Placek.

Placek (plah-sek) in Polish just means cake, but placek around Buffalo (and probably other cities with a high Polish population) refers to a sweet yeast bread topped with sugary crumble, with or without golden raisins served on Easter.  It seems like paczki have found their way around the blog world fairly easily (I assume because everyone has an obsession with doughnuts and things cooked in hot

Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Today is my brother Andy's birthday!!!  We had a celebration for him over the weekend and he requested carrot cake again this year and I used the gluten free carrot cake recipe from last year, with a few minor changes as well as my go-to cream cheese frosting.  This is one recipe I feel like I have nailed down for good - I prefer this carrot cake over one with wheat flour any day and I urge you

Apricot-Raisin Oatmeal Bars.

  Last night I had a craving for chocolate.  So I looked through some recipes and decided on a chocolate drop cookie that seemed like it would be delicious with white chocolate chips in the dough and coated in confectioner's sugar before baking.  The recipe was unfortunately a disaster.  The dough came out dry and sandy, I had to knead it in order to get any cookies out of it at all, then after

Orange Buttermilk Chess Tarts.

 It might be 20 degrees, but at least we have sunshine this weekend! :) Although citrus fruits are typically seasonal to winter, they help bring brightness to cold days and I figured I might as well use those sweet, delicious, juicy naval oranges before they go all dry and bitter for the season. I really liked the ease in preparation for this crust, I plan on using it in the future.  I didn't

Banana Pistachio Cakes with Guava-Pear Compote.

A few weeks ago, a lovely person from Oh! Nuts contacted me and asked if they could send me some of their products for me to use in a recipe.  No one has ever asked me to do something like that before, I was thrilled!  After much debate, I asked them to send me shelled roasted unsalted pistachios, dried pears, and dried guava squares, all of which arrived very quickly! Due to mid-March madness

Teacakes with Springy Glaze.

This morning Buffalonians woke up to the ground covered in snow. Disappointing, of course, but not a big deal. I shoveled the heavy, wet snow off of our driveway by 11AM and thought "Yeah, take that, snow!" Not an hour later it started snowing again and hasn't stopped since.  I can't help but be discouraged about spring being here when I look out my window and all I see is falling snow and

Gnocchi Mac 'N Cheese.

Last week I had my boy visiting me for 8 glorious days. I had every intention of taking pictures and posting recipes of the things I prepared ahead of time (paczki doughnuts, cinnamon pecan swirl coffee cake, triple chocolate biscotti, Irish brown bread, among other things) but the weather here was so goddamn dark and gloomy.  It is this week as well so far.  I'm pretty sure last week was a fluke

Old Fashioned Soft Sugar Cookies.

Although I know warmer weather is on its way, this time of year still requires a lot of comforting.  Comfort in knowing winter is almost over, comfort in the fact that pretty soon you'll be able to take walks outside without wearing gloves, a scarf, boots and a heavy winter coat.  These cookies are comfort cookies, for sure.  I don't know where they originated, but the recipe my mom had in her

Brownies with Mint Chips.

When I made these yesterday, I didn't even think about the green chips being representative of St. Patrick's Day quite yet... I was thinking more along the lines of spring.  Green grass, green leaves, green flowers, NO MORE SNOW.  I can't wait for the snow to melt here, can you tell?  While it might take some time before it looks like spring here in Buffalo, these brownies helped lift my spirits

White Whole Wheat Apricot Muffins.

One of the biggest side effects of losing weight for me is that now I will basically click the "x" in Firefox if I see a recipe with more than a stick of butter.  This recipe is one of those that make me realize you don't need a lot of butter to make baked goods taste really amazing.  In fact, these muffins taste buttery!  With only 4 tablespoons of butter!  They don't requ...

Nutella and Toasted Coconut Bread.

I know, I know.  World Nutella Day was back on February 5th!  But to be honest, I didn't have any in the pantry at the time and there was a snow storm that day if I remember correctly.  But now that I had some, I wanted to do something different with it.  The website has a lot of great recipes listed, but I'd say 95% of them are way too decadent for what I had in mind.  I found this recipe

Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies with Dulce De Leche.

Last weekend I found 4 cans of sweetened condensed milk in the cupboards.  With one of the cans, I decided to make some dulce de leche.  It was super easy (just pour a can into a large microwave-safe bowl, zap for 10-15 minutes on 30% power, stirring every few minutes until it's golden), but left me with a jar of dulce de leche.  So last night I had this genius idea to make some brown butter

About Me.

  Hello!  My name is Beth Hyzy and I've loved to bake for as long as I can remember.  There aren't many things better in this world than the warm scent of cinnamon bread baking in the oven or the sight of chocolate cupcakes being frosted with big gobs of swirly, fluffy buttercream. In the fall of 2004, I attended a 2-year culinary arts associate's degree program at Erie Community College and

Go-To Gluten Free Chocolate Cake.

 I used to really dislike gluten free recipes that called for a pre-made mixture of flours rather than the flours separately.  In general, I still prefer to use separate flours because I think they give gluten free baked goods a better texture.  Recently though, going through Bette Hagman's Deliciously Gluten Free, I thought of what a waste it was to have this book and never use any of the

Best Basic Biscotti.

 Normally I don't like to claim things are the best because I know and you know that I'll be posting more biscotti recipes down the line.  But this recipe is so perfect for adaptations - add any nut you'd like, toasted.  Add the zest of any citrus, add any dried fruit, add any spice or mixture of spices.  For this batch I added the zest of an orange to brighten up the dark wintery day (once

Orange Poppy Seed Loaves.

Quick, just sweet enough and relatively healthy, these little poppy seed loaf cakes are super simple to put together and even easier to eat.  Along with a cup of tea or coffee, they made today seem less gray and wintery and taste like the beginning of spring.  Feel free to substitute lemon zest and juice if that's what you have - I never keep lemons around unless I buy them for a specific recipe

Banana Cake with Cocoa Frosting.

  Although I had been making heart-shaped things all last week, I didn't have anything for Valentine's Day proper.  We had 4 very black bananas on the counter, so naturally, banana cake!  This recipe translated very well to a 10" heart-shaped pan made by Wilton, but the original is baked in a 9x9 square.  The only thing I'd change next time is to either increase the amount of sugar in the batter