When I was a kid, she said, hunched over with one hand in the small of her back and the other waving an imaginary cane, they made Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies Differently. They had the chocolate cookie base and the thin chocolate layer, but between them they had a thin layer of mint candy, like one might find in a peppermint patty or Junior Mint. The chocolate cookie base had a slight ridge around the outer edge, so the mint candy fit inside that, and one could scrape one’s…
Because nothing says “I love you” like bulbous homemade doughnut monstrosities that look like they’ve risen from the depths of the ocean. I used a buttermilk cake doughnut recipe from my never-fail Meta Given’s cookbook. It said “chill the dough for 2-3 hours.” At the end of 2.5 hours it was clear that the dough was never going to reach any more substantial firmness than it had. “Roll out to 1/4″ inches,” it said. I tried. It stuck to the rolling pin. I grimly added flour, and more flour, and…
RUSSIAN TEA CAKES (traditional Kenai Russian ladies’ recipe) 1 c softened (not melted) butter 1/2 c sifted powdered sugar 1 tsp vanilla 2 1/2 c flour 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 c finely chopped walnuts Allow the butter to soften to room temperature–do not melt. Sift the powdered sugar & measure. Stir them together using a spoon–do not use a mixer. Stir in the vanilla. Sift and measure the flour, then re-sift with the salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Stir the flour mix into the butter mix. The resulting dough…
We’re doing American Thanksgiving today and although it’s not on my list of usual suspects, I thought I’d try making a pecan pie. Except I have real issues with most pecan pie, which is generally Far Too Sweet (and I have a massive sweet tooth, so if I’m complaining about something being too sweet it’s weird) and doesn’t taste much of pecans. So I went and found a no-corn-syrup recipe, but then I lacked some of the ingredients and anyway, I kind of ended up inventing a pecan pie recipe…
Okay. I had loads of questions about the “Let Them Eat Cake” recipes, especially the gluten free stuff, so I’m doing a round-up on them. Gluten free, vegan carrot cake recipe with ‘cream cheese’ frosting. Contains flax ‘eggs’, which I’d never previously encountered and am now quite enamoured with as a substitution. Also, even fresh, that frosting tastes *remarkably* like cream cheese frosting, and if you stick it in the fridge overnight and serve it cold (it’s soft enough to spread onto a cake even when cold) it tastes exactly…