Dessert By Candy

Kinako Blondie with Nutella Swirl

Italy meets Japan in this very American bar cookie. Kinako Blondie with Nutella Swirl is my contribution to this year’s World Nutella Day. Melting pot, anyone?

Lately I am infatuate with kinako, toasted soy bean flour. This traditional Japanese dessert ingredient is prized for its nutty toasty aroma, reminiscent of roasted nuts. I roll mochi with it and make a creamy warm drink with milk. It didn’t occur to me to use kinako outside of Japanese cuisine until I saw a tweet from Brave Tart a while ago.  As soon as she planted the idea in my head, I could not stop thinking about it. On this special occasion, I decided to create a dessert using kinako and everyone’s favourite chocolate hazelnut spread.

My journey to create these Kinako Blondie with Nutella Swirl was not all smooth sailing. I first began my search for blondie recipes that blend wheat flour with gluten free flour. I found plenty of truly gluten free recipes as well as many 100% wheat flour recipes. The closest I got was BAKED’s Brewer’s Blondies recipe which uses a measly two tablespoons of malted milk powder to enhance the flavour. None of the recipes look persuasive enough to what I had in mind.

Berry Burst Bar

I am so embarrassed. I extol the virtue of whole foods and sing praises for locally sourced ingredients. Today I fall from grace harder than ever before thanks to a batch of Berry Burst Bar. With equal amount of disdain and glee, I put together these holiday treats using highly processed ingredients that covered my whole kitchen counter. Alice Waters, I beg your forgiveness.

It all began innocently enough, as things like this tend to go. I had a craving for Rice Krispies Squares last weekend. My ankle was recovering well from surgery and I could finally walk to the grocery store without much discomfort. I bought a box of cereal and a bag of marshmallows. I made a batch of Malted Browned Butter Rice Krispies Squares (recipe coming next week) which made me ridiculously happy. I was left with half a box of cereal. Then things got out of hand.

Jeni's Splendid Inspiration

Happy National Cookie Day! I did not bake today nor yesterday. Neither did last week, actually. Since my ankle surgery last Monday, I put all effort into recovery and that means I spend the majority of my time sitting or lying down. I am ridiculously restless and develop a habit of talking myself out of cooking or baking anything. I am blessedly stocked up with a beautiful assortment of cookies at home though. My friends and I got together the day prior to my surgery for our annual cookie swap. The selection and quality set a high standard for future years to surpass.

My contribution was Bangkok Peanut Blossom. It was inspired by Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream’s Bangkok Peanut ice cream by way of David Lebovitz’s Peanut Butter Caramel Cookies. Crumbly peanut butter cookies were flavoured with the zing of ground ginger and cayenne. The salted caramel filling was packed with roasted peanuts, coconut, and more cayenne. I made the peanut butter cookies before as per Lebovitz’s recipe and loved the result. My original plan was an encore of this tried-and-true recipe especially since I adore the festive addition of dark chocolate drizzle. I procrastinated for a few days. Out of the blue, I recalled the exotic and unexpected flavour combination I experienced with the Bangkok Peanut ice cream. The rest was history.

Eyes Bigger Than Stomach

Like many of my food loving/obsessed friends, I plan my travels with highly food-centric agendas. A long weekend spent in New York City was the equivalent of pastrami on rye, black and white cookie, and cheesecake for iconic classics. Threw  in a handful of favourite purveyors including BKLYN Larder, Chelsea Market, and Smorgasburg for souvenir shopping. Added a few key destinations like Eleven Madison Park, Sakagura, Shake Shack, and Dominique Ansel Bakery for proper sit-down meals. I was surprised M and I still managed to squeeze in a 100k race and sightseeing at The High Line, Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, Lower East Side, Bryant Park, and Staten Island Ferry.

Good thing we walked everywhere to burn off all those calories.

Cheesecake, Streamlined

I shy away from baking cheesecake for a long time. There was a time when a majestic New York style cheesecake graced my kitchen every few weeks. I was determined to master the craft of homemade cheesecake with mahogany top and creamy centre. And no cracks! That was the holy grail.

Ambition fell to the wayside when I had my first taste of the golden standard. A slice of original cheesecake from Brooklyn’s Junior’s Restaurant left me discouraged. It was exactly what I wanted to achieve…without any of the work. Since then, I am happy to enjoy this special treat on my annual trip to New York City. Cheesecake disappeared from my repertoire.

Toys And Cookies

I don’t realize how rare I interact with kids until an occasion came up for Aunt Candy to spoil them. For the under-10 set, what do they like? What can they eat? What do they play with? I’m totally clueless. My hunch tells me that the boys have more toys than I can possibly imagine and probably more savvy with tablets and smartphones that I am. What do I do? Sugar and spice and everything nice! They’re not just for girls, you know.

Last year’s M&M cookies were a hit with the boys but I wasn’t entirely happy with how they turned out. The cookies came out too flat. The boys loved them because the flatter shape meant palm-size monsters. But I think cookies ought to have some heft. Oh yes, these Reese’s Pieces Oatmeal Cookie were just right. Aunt Candy and the boys approved!

Less, Or More?

I received a request to bake more egg-less dessert. So I went ahead and made one without eggs, sugar, flour, or butter…the four pillars of baking. Of course I had help from other cooks who travelled down this road before. Thanks to Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks and her first cookbook Super Natural Cooking, I made a batch of these vegan Carnival Cookies to share.

When you take away eggs, sugar, flour, and butter from a cookie recipe, are you left with a lesser cookie? Seriously, what CAN you use? Apparently, quite a lot of good stuff. How does this list of ingredients sound: oats, ground almond, banana, coconut oil, dark chocolate, cacao nibs, peanuts, popcorn, cinnamon, and vanilla. It is not about what you cannot use but rather all the wonderful things you can add.

Banana Blondies Face Off

I had a bunch of spotty bananas at home last week and came up with the idea to put them through a recipe face off. I always love the fudgy butterscotch taste of blondies and the thought of pairing blondies with bananas was excitement in bite-size form. Dan Lepard’s Banana White Chocolate Blondies with Brazil Nut Toffee has occupied a place on my to-bake list for months. Sourcing the ingredients proved to be tricky because good quality white chocolate and fresh brazil nuts are not just a hop and a skip to the grocery store next door.

The idea of banana blondies may not be ground breaking but certainly not run of the mill either. Coincidentally, Melissa Clark recently published her version of Chocolate-Crusted Banana Blondies. It was the perfect opportunity for a recipe face off.

Improvise

Encounters with inferior chocolate chip cookies in the last few days left me wanting the real thing. They were all made from scratch so it wasn’t for the lack of effort. Quite simply put, the baker’s touch was not up to par. I feel a little sad just thinking of all the ingredients and time that went into baking those cookies.

I do not claim to be an expert but I learned from years of baking experience exactly how I prefer my chocolate chip cookies. When I do not feel like breaking out the stand mixer, Cook’s Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie (check out Brown Eyed Baker’s adaptation) is my reliable choice. For all intents and purposes, I thought I would enjoy a late night snack of milk and chocolate chip cookies yesterday but it was not to be.

I ran out of chocolate chips.

Purple In My Cookie Jar

I crave a pop of colour in my food sometimes. Shopping at farmers’ market in summer satisfies that visual longing with rainbow array of fruit and vegetable. Alas, we are in the waning days of March. The best nature can muster is the intense blue sky on the occasional sunny afternoon. I decided to take matter in my own kitchen.

Not long ago, smitten kitchen made raspberry coconut macaroons with fresh raspberries. I did a double-take at the girlishly pink orbs and marvelled at Perelman’s creativity. Everyone makes coconut macaroons but who would come up with the idea to crush some berries in the batter? Motivation is a funny thing. Although I was incredibly drawn to the recipe, it simply did not rise to the top of my to-bake list. In fact, I totally forgot about the pink macaroons.