Lemon and Currant Brioches

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope everyone had wonderful holidays with lots of delicious baked goods. I did make a lot of cookies, of course, but travel and family occupied my time and so I didn't do a great job of documenting them. I do have some delicious recipes for the new year, though, including some experiments with my brand new waffle maker (which I am very excited about). Here is a slightly older recipe for a lemon and currant brioche. It looks beautiful and was very good but I think this recipe was a better one so I'd recommend adding 1/3 cup of currants (I actually used  raisins) and the zest of 1 lemon to that recipe. The dough in the previous recipe was sticky so it was harder to work with, but this result was more dense. It could also be that I didn't knead it quite as well as I ought.

Walnut and Honey Soda Bread

Seattle's summer may finally be coming to an end. We had our first day of rain in 48 days (3 days from the longest dry spell in 1951). I know it isn't officially fall yet but there is definitely a different feel in the air today and in honor of that I am posting this very Fall recipe.

Danishes

 Two friends of mine got married, which was lovely. They had a potluck brunch for their wedding reception. The groom is particularly big in the swing dance scene. It was probably the most impressive wedding I've been to. When the dancing started the dance floor was immediately full of people who clearly knew what they were doing. Girls were being thrown in the air. Basically it looked like a movie in a wedding. It was pretty fantastic.

Pear Muffins

And now for something completely different from macarons, which seem to be elusively difficult to get right these muffins are basically impossible to get wrong.The most challenging part is chopping up the walnuts, which always results in my kitchen having walnut pieces in the oddest places. I could by walnuts already chopped, but I like them to be a bit chunkier than the ones you can find. I like some good substantial pieces of walnuts in my muffins.

Cinnamon Mini-Muffins

I brought these mini-muffins to the Game of Thrones season 2 premier at my friends house. They were a big hit. I read all the books in the series and gradually hated myself more and more for it. The author is a good suspense builder but not really a good writer or storyteller. I'm a huge book snob and could (and have) spend a great amount of time ranting about badly written but popular books so I will restrain myself to saying; do not read the books. Please. For me. Spend your time reading something better like the King Killer Chronicles.

Cinnamon Rolls

A friend of mine organized a 12 bars of Christmas pub crawl. I made it to 8 bars and then had to give up but I think some people hung in the whole time, over 12 hours. We also wore ugly Christmas sweaters. Anyway, in hopes to offset the quantities of drinking I decided to have some brunch at my house first and hopefully get some food in everyone's stomach.

Blueberry Orange Bundt Cake

 I am totally behind with my posts. I have so many delicious recipes for you. But then I wen to Italy (and got even more recipes) and have been bad about keeping up. Anyway, I'll try to get all these old recipes posted along with the new ones from Italy.

Blueberry Pancakes

Blueberry pancakes! I am so excited for them. I may have eaten them for breakfast three times in the last week and a half. I may have finished breakfast and eaten the last couple without silverware or syrup even though I was full on my way out the door. I may have done that at least twice. But let us not dwell on who may have eaten how many blueberry pancakes. Let us instead dwell on the sheer awesomeness of these pancakes and the fact that I will never ever make pancakes out of a mix again and you shouldn't either.

Strawberries and Yogurt

This isn't really a recipe, more like a serving suggestion but it was so delicious that I had to share it. I didn't actually measure very carefully when I was making it, so these are approximates. Play with the proportions until it tastes good to you. I was lucky in that I had fresh, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth strawberries from my CSA which makes this even more amazing. I think substituting vanilla ice cream for the yogurt or using these strawberries to fill some strawberry shortcakes would also be amazing.

Berry Muffins

First off, I want to wish Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all the other moms out there.  My mom is the greatest.  If I didn't live six hours away, I might make her something like these muffins for breakfast in bed.  As it is she'll have to settle for a call-out in my blog, a phone call and a (belated, oops) gift.

Brioche

 This is another recipe from the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook and it is a winner.  I love brioche, a rich, slightly sweet French bread.  I've tried to make it before but with not a lot of success but this recipe is not only amazingly delicious but easy too, especially if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook.

Cherry Oat Scones

 Last Sunday I had the most lovely afternoon at my friend Sarah's house.  We had tea and I made scones while she did some gardening.  It was wonderful to have a relaxing visit with good conversation and no stress before a long and hectic week.  It reminded me of my freshman year in college because that year I was living in the dorms and didn't have an oven.  That was depressing for me so I would go over to friends' houses and bake there.  Perhaps not surprisingly, none on my friends really seemed to mind having me disappear into their kitchens and return with baked goodies. 

Chocolate Chip Scones

 I am very particular about my scones and so I was a little worried about these, because they have a lot more liquid than typical and also chocolate chips seem a little out of place in a scone.  But in honor of chocolate month I wanted something with chocolate and although I wouldn't see this slightly down-to-earth scones at a high tea, they are excellent nonetheless.

Raspberry Muffins

In my real life, I work at a large software company.  This summer I switched from one software company where I did not write any code to a different one where I did.  It has been a really fun and hard transition and I've survived thanks in large part to the smart and helpful people on my team who do not mind if I ask stupid questions.  They also do not mind when I bring in baked goods I made for my blog.

Rice and Egg Casserole

I like cereal as much as the next person but it can get a little old after a while.  It is easy to get into a bit of a rut with breakfast but this recipe will give shake things up.

Plum Clafoutis

I have no idea how to describe this dish to you.  It is sort of like French toast crossed with a Dutch baby pancake.  With plums and powdered sugar on top.  Or like bread pudding but with no actual bread.  However it is described though, it is really really tasty. 

Kale and Leek Quiche

Quiche is something that seems way fancier than the effort involved in preparing it.  I did cheat with this one and get a prepared pie crust, but even with making homemade pie crust, quiche provides a lot of gratification for a little effort. 

Bagels

This is my uncle Charlie. He went to Alaska and caught a lot of salmon. He had a bunch of it made into lox. I went and visited and I made bagels to go with the lox. It was absolutely delicious.

Scones

I have been making this scone recipe for a very long time.  It is from one of my mom's friends, Gillian, who is English so they are authentic and delicious.  If you have ever had from Starbucks one of the dry, over-sweet giant triangles that purport to be scones you have been sadly mislead.  These scones are light and delicate, barely sweet with a dollop of devonshire cream and jam.  These are the real thing!

Berry Coffee Cake

I baked this coffee cake on Friday.  I meant to post about it this weekend and then was just too busy having an amazing weekend.  I hope everyone had as wonderful of a 4th as I did, despite the pouring rain.  It is Seattle, after all.  If it didn't rain on the 4th of July no one would know what to do with themselves.