This ice cream (as the name might suggest) is actually magic!  No, really.  I literally put it together in 10 minutes.  (It would have been 8, but I couldn’t find the heavy cream anywhere in my crowded fridge.)  And it combined all of these things that you wouldn’t really think would go into a vanilla ice cream base: white chocolate chips? condensed milk? sour cream?  I was pretty skeptical before I tried it.  But it was luscious and soft and creamy and vanilla-y.  Like soft serve ice cream coming straight out of the freezer.

The hot fudge sauce – well, that recipe had no magic involved – it was instead just magical.  I was swooning over the richness and the depth of this hot fudge sauce.  It was exactly like a McDonald’s sundae, with the soft vanilla ice cream and the thick, rich, droopy glops of chocolate on top.  Mmm.  Oh please, don’t judge – you know exactly what I’m talking about.

So go ahead.  Stick with the norm and have your ice cream in the summertime.  But come cold weather, don’t blame me if you find yourself making this again.

Magic Vanilla Ice Cream (recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Best Summer Desserts)

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

3 tablespoons white chocolate chips

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste

pinch salt

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Stir together white chocolate chips and condensed milk.  Melt in 30 second intervals in the microwave, or in a double boiler, until smooth.  Add sour cream, vanilla and salt and stir until combined.

In another bowl, using an electric or stand mixer, mix cream on medium low speed for about 1 minute.  Raise the speed and whip until stiff peaks form.

Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into condensed milk mixture.  Fold in the remaining whipped cream gently.  Pour mixture into an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours.

Hot Fudge Sauce (adapted from Serious Eats)

2/3 cups cream

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

pinch salt

2 tbsp. butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a small pot, mix together cream, chocolate, light corn syrup, sugar, and salt.  Let it simmer for about 5 minutes.  Take off the heat and mix in butter and vanilla and stir until smooth.  Let cool slightly before serving.

My battle with yeast continues.  Why will my yeast never foam up?  Why can’t I find a warm enough spot to let the dough rise when I always think my apartment is sweltering?!  Does not rising at all actually mean “doubled in size”?  Sigh, it’s a problem.

Good thing that with this recipe, the rising part is not necessary.  I mean, I’m sure these bars would be quite amazing with a fluffy, typically yeasty base, but I wouldn’t know.  But I can certainly attest to the fact that these bars were nothing short of amazing with a flat, stubborn yeast base.  The base of these bars is just the foundation to the amazing, cheesecake textured, star on top.  Kind of like a nut-less pecan pie filling on spread on top of barely sweet bread.  Think s’mores without the chocolate.  Lemon bars without the lemon.  Buttery, sweet and gooey.

The city with the reigning World Series champs (which I willed them to win – but I’ll tell you about that later) has another star!  This winner doesn’t need any help from me, though.  It doesn’t even need working yeast!  Pretty dependable deliciousness, if you ask me.

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cakes (recipe from NY Times)

For the base:

3 tablespoons milk, room temperature

1 3/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the topping:

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large egg

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

1. In a small bowl, mix milk with 2 tablespoons warm water. Add yeast and whisk until yeast dissolves (you know, it may not). Mixture should foam slightly (still will be okay if it doesn’t).

2. Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt.  Beat in the egg.  Alternately add flour and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.  Switch to the dough attachment, and knead dough on medium speed until it forms a smooth mass and pulls away from sides of bowl, 7 to 10 minutes.

3. Press dough into an ungreased 9-by 13-inch baking dish at least 2 inches deep. Cover dish with plastic wrap or clean tea towel, put in a warm place, and allow to rise until doubled, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, mix corn syrup with 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla.  Beat the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes.  Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg.  Alternately add flour and corn syrup mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.

5. Spoon topping in large dollops over risen cake and use a spatula to gently spread it in an even layer. Bake for 30-35 minutes.  The cake will have a golden brown top, but will still be loose in the center.  Allow to cool in pan before sprinkling with confectioners’ sugar for serving.

These sweet-savory shortbread cookie-crackers are obviously a lot of things rolled into one.  They’re the best of so many worlds squished together to make the most delightful snack to have with your afternoon tea.  You don’t do that?  Well, it’s delightful any time of day, really.

You know those people that take pictures of their food while at a restaurant?  I’m not one of those.  It’s a timing thing, really – I don’t want to waste any of my time there taking pictures when I can instead use that time to be eating.  The eating part usually makes me so delusionally happy that I become bold and instead just ask for the recipe at the end of my meal.  This is usually the awkward part of our dining experience.

Except when I ate these cookie/cracker things.  The chef was so kind and generous that he gave me the recipe on the spot!  And he didn’t even change anything (which is what I was expecting) – these tasted exactly like the ones I was eating at his cafe.  So enjoy these savory sweet snacks and relish in the fact that you’re making restaurant food at home.

Cumin and Caraway Tea Biscuits (recipe from the Leela Mumbai)

I failed to mention that I had these biscuits in India.  Which isn’t actually a relevant part of the story, except when I note that the original recipe called for ajwain seeds, rather than caraway.  And you probably don’t know what they are because there does not seem to be anything equivalent in the western world.  It seems that oregano, thyme and even parsley are acceptable substitutions, but for this particular recipe, I thought that the caraway paired very nicely.  I tried these both ways, and though they did not taste exactly the same, they both were very good.  But if you find yourself at an Indian store, pick some up, eh?  I could have left all of this out.  You didn’t need to know this.  It’s like the awkward end of the meal all over again.

1.5 cups butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2.5 cups all purpose flour

1.5 tsp. salt

1 egg

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. cumin seeds

2 tsp. caraway seeds

Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, cumin seeds and caraway seeds.  Cream together the butter and sugar until light in color.  Add the egg and mix to incorporate.  Slowly fold in all of the dry ingredients until well mixed.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

People, I hate running.  I mean, sure, I’ll do it.  You know, for the health benefits and to get that “amazing” feeling after you complete a run, blah blah.  I’ll even sign up for semi-long distance races just to make sure that I’ll keep on running.  But I’m really not a fan of it.  It’s true.

The only person I know that truly hates running more than I do is my sister.  The only difference is that she doesn’t even lie to herself about it.  She just flat out does not run because the thought of it frightens her.  Ah, but what she does do is walk.  You know, for exercise.  And unfortunately, she doesn’t do it like this, though that would be so much more awesome.  Instead, she just walks and walks being extremely inefficient with her exercise time.

All of this was just fine.  Until she signed us both up for a 32 mile walk.  32 miles!?  That’s insanity.  That’s longer than a marathon.  That’s longer than any run I’ve ever done…put together!  Who walks 32 miles in one day??  Not only did she convince me (or force me, however you want to look at it – she’s the older one, after all) to do this walk, she also persuaded me into doing 20+ mile practice walks with her.  Did I mention that this whole thing is insane?

Anyway.  The walk is this weekend.  And I’m taking these granola bars.  Because goshdarnit, we’re going to need a snack during the 11 hour walking day.  And these may be the only gems that pull me through.  God speed.  (I’m telling myself that.)

Jammin’ Granola Bars (slightly adapted from Flour)

Haha, I came up with the name of these granola bars myself.  Anyway, I don’t think that I emphasized how tasty these bars actually are.  Probably because of my anxiety related to the walk.  Because I’m walking 32 miles this weekend – not sure if you knew that.  Anyway, these are unlike any bars you’ve made because of this amazing jam right in the middle of the bars.  Combined with the crunchy topping (millet!  who knew about this wondrous grain!): It’s like a cross between a fancy Nutri-Grain bar and a Nature Valley granola bar.  I mean, if that didn’t get you running to the kitchen to make these, I don’t know what will.

For the jam:

1 cup dried apple rings

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup dried apricots

1/3 cups sugar

2 cups water

In a medium pot, bring everything to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Take the pot off the heat and let it sit for 1 hour.  Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and mix together until the jam is still chunky, but it is a more even consistency.  This will take about 30 seconds.

For the bars:

1 cup walnuts, toasted

1 cup oats

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cups whole wheat flour

2/3 cups light brown sugar

2/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 stick butter, softened and cut into pieces

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

6 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons millet

3 tablespoons sunflower seeds

3 tablespoons whole flax seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.  In a food processor, pulse together walnuts, oats, flour, sugar, coconut, salt, cinnamon and butter until it comes together.  If doing by hand, rub in the butter into the dry ingredients.  Pour everything out into a big bowl and mix in the applesauce and honey.

Taking two-thirds of the dough, pat it into the prepared pan.  Bake for about 25 minutes, until it turns a light golden brown.  Place the remaining 1/3 of the dough in the fridge while the rest is baking.

Take the pan out of the oven, and spread all of the prepared jam evenly on top.  Take the rest of the dough out of the fridge and mix it in the millet, sunflower seeds and flax seeds.  Dollop the dough evenly over the jam.

Place back in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top has turned a light golden brown.  Let it cool in the pan for about 2 hours and then slice into bars.  The recipe says that these bars taste even better as they sit, which is good because we’re not walking until this weekend.  But these bars are pretty delicious right now too.

C’mon, you knew it wouldn’t last.  After the week of the juice cleanse, followed by treating my bread as dessert, this was bound to happen.  Of course I was going to stray away from it all and make something indulgent.

Well, here we have it.  In a single bite.

People, there is more cheese in these little things than any other ingredient!  We’re talking 1 1/2 cups of cheese!  And because of that, you get the best part of the pizza – the crispy, slightly burnt edges that I usually pick off the bottom of the pizza box – as the star of the show.  That’s all this is!  Cheesy, chewy bites, that you can dip in pizza sauce.  And without all the fuss of a yeast based dough.

There’s really no turning back now.

Mini Pizza Puffs (recipe from Girl Versus Dough)

Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Pizza sauce, to serve

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray 2 mini muffin tins with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper and salt.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk and egg.  Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Mix in cheeses and allow batter to stand for 10 minutes.

Stir batter and divide evenly among the muffin cups, filling about 3/4 of the way full.  Bake until puffy and golden brown, about 25 minutes. Heat pizza sauce and serve with warm pizza puffs for dipping.

Friends, we all knew this time of year was coming.  The time of year when we are horrified to learn the number of comforting calories we quietly consumed in the cold and dark winter months, only to have them neatly hidden under a trendy, yet oversized, sweater.  The time of year when shorts and maxi dresses, and of course, swim suits are suddenly in your face again.  The time of year when you realize that you should probably lay off the sweets for a bit.

I decided to outsmart this time of year though.  I made a bread.  I mean, a delicious bread that’s barely sweetened with molasses and has all the good stuff that everyone keeps talking about: whole grains and yogurt.  (Yogurt is good for you, right?).  But then I top it with almond butter (it has proten!) and berries, or maybe some nutella (it has protein?) or cream cheese or homemade ricotta with maple syrup, which keeps your sweet tooth satisfied but you can still be on the road to your perfect beach wardrobe.

Ah, who am I kidding?!  I eat this bread because it’s delicious and I make it taste like cake.  But I am weak and I lack discipline and I will probably go back to desserts next week!  But let me have my moment.  Let me try to appreciate this time of year.

Molasses Bread (recipe from Joy the Baker)

1 2/3 cups plain yogurt

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup molasses

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt and baking soda.

In a small bowl whisk together buttermilk or yogurt and molasses.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold until well combined, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not have any leftover flour.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and place in the oven.  Bake loaf for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the top of the bread is a deep brown and a tester comes out clean.

Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes in the loaf pan.  Run a butter knife along the sides of the pan and carefully invert onto a wire rack.

Loaf will keep, well wrapped at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Serve with cream cheese, jam, salted butter, nutella, homemade ricotta, almond butter, or just dip the whole thing in chocolate ganache.

Every couple of months, I do a juice cleanse.  You know, when you drink about 5-6 juices a day, in a specific order to, supposedly, gain energy and give your digestive system a break.  I love the idea of this right before I’m about to start.  I’m always so pumped to get ready for 5 full days of not eating, not worrying about cooking, and doing something good for myself.

Then, every single time I do a cleanse, after about, say, 1.5 days, when my energy is never up, I start thinking about what I’m going to eat 4 days later.  What will I cook?  Should I eat out?  Can I have cheese?!  This always begins a downward spiral leading me to break the cleanse about 3 days in every time (c’mon!  3 days is a long weekend for your digestive system…it can easily take a road trip!).

Anyway, I just finished a pretty rough cleanse.  I blame this cake for that.  This was the last thing I ate before I was on my liquid diet.  This incredibly moist orange chocolate cake (yes, another one!) with chocolate ganache on top was incredible.  Dreaming of this cake made me get through the (3 day) cleanse (and tortured me throughout), and if I hadn’t eaten all of the cakes pre-cleanse, I would have eaten this immediately after I was done.  Only to feel like I need to do a cleanse again.  Ah, but it’s worth it.

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake (recipe from Barefoot Contessa)

• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. grated orange zest
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon (divided)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 ounces (just over 1/3 cup) buttermilk or yogurt, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chunks

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

• 4 ounces good semisweet or dark chocolate (chips or chopped from a bar)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a standard 12 cup muffin tin.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time, then the orange zest.

Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture.  Add flour alternately in thirds and buttermilk in halves to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the flour.  Toss the chocolate chunks with 1 tablespoon flour and stir into the batter. Pour into muffin tin, filling about 3/4 of way up, smooth the tops, and bake for 20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the molds on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

While the cakes are baking, make the syrup. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the sugar with the orange juice until the sugar dissolves.  Carefully remove the cake from the pans, using an offset spatula, or a butter knife to help them out, and put them upside down on a rack over a tray.  Poke each cake lightly with a toothpick.  Pour the warm syrup over the cakes and allow the cakes to soak in the syrup.  Allow the cakes to cool completely.

For the ganache, melt the chocolate, cream, and coffee in the microwave, in 30 second intervals, or in a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.  Spoon over the top of the cakes.

The thing about having a food blog is that you have to have a story to tell about the food you’re posting.  Or explain why it’s appropriate to make that time of year.  Or how the ingredients are really fresh and seasonal.  And that’s just fine.  Because I am usually okay with all of these requirements!

But sometimes…sometimes you just want a cheesy, spinachy, flaky, savory pastry and want other people to have it too.  Sometimes, you just want to make something just because it tastes real good.

This is one of those times.  This does taste real good!  And you’ll be so pleased if you make it yourself.  Yum!

Spanikopita (recipe from David Lebovitz)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced finely
12 ounces fresh spinach
salt and freshly-ground pepper
8-10 ounces fresh feta cheese
2 tablespoons finely-chopped flat leaf parsley
pinch of freshly-grated nutmeg
1 large egg, at room temperature
freshly squeezed lemon juice

16 sheets thawed filo dough

Melted butter, about 1/2 stick

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a pan.  Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5-7 minutes.

2. Add the spinach, and season with salt and pepper.  Cover the pan and cook until the spinach is completely wilted, stirring once or twice to make sure that the spinach doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

3. Turn off the heat and let the spinach mixture cool completely.  Transfer the spinach mixture into a colander and squeeze out all of the excess liquid.  Chop the spinach until it is in bite sized pieces.

4. Mix the spinach in a small bowl with the feta and parsley.  Taste, and add nutmeg and a dash of lemon juice, plus more salt and pepper if needed.  Stir in the egg.

5. Unwrap and unroll the filo and keep it covered with a damp tea towel.

6. Lay one sheet of filo on the counter and brush it lightly with butter. Lay another sheet on top of it and brush it with butter as well.

7.  Place about 1/4 cup  of the filling in the center, about 1-inch (3cm) from the edge of the sheets of filo, then roll the two edges of the dough over, lengthwise, to encase the filling. You should have a long rectangle with filling underneath the top far end.

8. Brush the exposed surface of the filo with butter and fold one corner diagonally over the filling, then continue folding keeping the triangle shape (as you’d fold a flag) and brushing the exposed surfaces of the filo with butter, until you have a neat triangle. Brush the top with butter and set on a baking sheet.

9. Continue making more spanakopitas with the remaining filling.

10. Preheat the oven to 350F.   Bake for 25 minutes, or until deeply-golden brown.

I did a quick search and it turned out that popovers were all the rage!  Ina made them; Martha has a recipe; Paula loves them; they were even all over the food blogs!  These were a must-try.  Also, my sister had them during her trip and told me that I must make them in order for me to get my jam.  I like jam.

Popovers, people.  Seriously, are you ready for these?  They are basically the perfect breakfast carb.  They are between a muffin and a buttery yeast bread.  They have the properties of a pastry or a doughnut if treated correctly.  And you must eat them with jam!  Breakfast!  In a perfectly perfect way.

Hot Chocolate Popovers (slightly adapted from Joy the Baker)

I lie.  These particular popovers are probably best without jam.  They have marshmallows and chocolate chips, though!  I’m doing you one better.  But there are a plethora of recipes out there for plain popovers, sugar crusted popovers, savory popovers, that you should look into if you want a bit of variety.  But seriously.  Marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Did I really need to say that again?

2 tablespoons butter, melted plus more for greasing the pan

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

12 large marshmallows.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease the individual muffin cups of a standard muffin tin with butter.  Set aside.

In a blender, blend together butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, salt, cocoa powder, and flour.

Add the flour mixture to the blender and blend until no lumps remain and the mixture is frothy.  Fill muffin tin cups one-half to two-thirds full.  Bake for 30 minutes without opening the oven door.  This is important for the “pop” and the “over” part to occur.

After 30 minutes, remove the popovers from the oven and immediately set oven to broiler.

Carefully add a sprinkling (maybe 2 tsp.) chocolate chips into the center of the popover, and top with a marshmallow, pressing down gently.

Place pan under the broiler. Keep and eye on the toasting marshmallows.  They’ll only need about a minute under the broiler.  Feel free to rotate the pan as necessary.

Remove toasted popovers from the oven.  Let cool for about 5 minutes.  Use a butter knife to gently remove the popovers.  Serve warm.

No, people.  I’m not just posting about a regular ol’ cereal treat, and just swapping out the type of cereal.  I’m not just posting a recipe that you’ve made thousands of times in the past.  I’m amping up the volume.  You will want to know about these.  Because these little beauties changed my life.

I kid you not.  While most elementary school children came to school with the run-of-the-mill Rice Krispie treats, my mom made these.  Cheerio treats – with peanut butter, m&m’s and, of course, marshmallows (there was no concern about kids getting too much sugar in those days).  These treats made me instant friends when I switched schools in 5th grade.  These treats allowed me to be the first picked for any teams.  I even think that these treats were the reason I got “most likely to succeed” when graduating.

And you should not be surprised, because these treats do exactly that: they lead you to success.  It’s so unexpected, but when you take a bite, and you taste the mellow peanut butter flavor to cut the usual sweetness of these treats, and then see the colored candies that remind you of your childhood, you just know that you’ve found a winner.  A cereal treat winner.

Cheerio Treats (recipe from my mom)

3 tbsp. butter

1 package marshmallows

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 cups Cheerios

1 cup M&M’s

Lightly butter a 9×13 inch pan.  Set aside.  In a large pot, over low heat, melt butter.  When the butter is melted, add marshmallows and stir until completely melted and smooth.  Add peanut butter and stir to incorporate.  Turn off the heat and stir in Cheerios.  Stir until the marshmallow and peanut butter mixture has coated all of the cereal.  Add the candy and stir to distribute evenly.  Turn out into the prepared pan and pat down.  Cool slightly before cutting.