Baking Club

So, I'm away at college (only a bit, but I'm not living at home, so it counts!) and it's been only a few days so I haven't figured out how to get to a grocery store without a car yet, so there have been no posts or new recipes! I am sorry ): And thank-you for your patience.
I am excited to announce that I am (trying) to put together a baking club here at Mills! I have talked to some other students who seem really excited, so hopefully I will be posting more about that, our fieldtrips and what we make quite soon!

Spending the day with my bros

I spent some time with Amani and Jordan before I left for school. They are not watching tv or playing video games at the moment, so I was drawing a blank about what to do once we exhausted the board game option. Then of course, a cookie popped into my brain and we set about to make our own recipe! Then we had a delicious snack of soba noodles drizzled with sesame oil, soy sauce and freshly grated meyer lemon zest.
THE CHOCOLATE COOKIE EXPERIMENT

The cookie scientists, enjoying their final product

These chocolatey cookies are crisp on the outside, but soft and chewy inside. Delicious!

Soba

Amani didn't want to be left out of the picture but also has a hard time standing still!

Cutie slurping noodles. Jordy is in a daze back there.

Drizzle cooked buckwheat soba with sesame oil, soy sauce and toss with lemon zest.

Chocolate Almond Softies
Here's our experimental recipe! If you'd like to test it too and post your results here, I'm sure the little scientists would love to hear how it goes (:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened but not melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tbs cocoa powder
1/3 cup almond flour
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tbs baking soda
1 tbs mini chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350F and prep two half sheet pans with spray and parchment. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together. Add the egg and combine. Add the dry ingredients, then stir until it is a thick paste (you may want to sift the ingredients for a smoother cookie, we didn't mind the lumps). Fold in your chocolate chips. You can either chill the cookies for 15 minutes or go ahead and spoon tablespoons of the batter evenly spaced on your pan. We didn't notice much difference with the chilling, but I know this is a standard part of most recipes that use sticky dough. They do spread a bit, so be sure to give them some room to grow.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until crispy on the edges. Rotate pans once halfway through the baketime for even baking.
Enjoy!

Crêpe party!

I am now away at school and having a great time! Before I left, my mom and I put together my going away party and she had the great idea to make a stack of crêpes and a sweet and savory station so that people could construct their lunch and dessert! It was so much fun. I made (I think it was) 8 times this recipe.
My mom made a Greek salad, chicken, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus and a variety of cheeses and sauces for the savory station. Then we set out nutella, melted chocolate, chopped mint, berries, marmalade, jam, mini chocolate chips, freshly whipped cream, powdered sugar, sugar, lemon and butter for the sweet station. It was a great party and so simple to put together, just be ready for a long time at the stove pouring and flipping crêpes! Make these for your sweetheart on Valentine's day or for your next party! <3

The everything crepe: nutella, berries, mini chips, mint and chantilly/whipped cream!

The sweet station

Amani

Avonlea

Jordan (:

Olivia

I try not to post too many repetitive pictures, but this crepe was just so photogenic!

For Molly Katzen's amazing crepe recipe to host your own crepe party check out this post!

Lemon Hummingbird Cookies

Today my mom officially adopted me at the courthouse, which is funny because I am leaving in a week for college! But better late than never! (:
She loves hummingbirds and I like them too, so I made these lemon hummingbird cookies. I adapted the recipe from this awesome book called Paris Patisseries. The book is real eye candy, just gorgeous photographs of famous patissier's creations in Paris. Find it in my books section.

Big turnout from the family (+Max)

Silly balloons my aunt brought.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup + 2 tbs butter, unsalted and softened to room temperature
1 pinch of salt
the zest of a lemon
the zest of a small orange

Blend the sugar, butter and zests together. Add the salt and flour and mix. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Prep three cookie sheets with parchment. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface (it may be crumbly and need to be warmed a little with kneading) to 1/2" thickness or so. Flour the top lightly and begin to punch out your shapes. Place the cookies on the sheets with a little room around them, they don't expand much but they do puff up. Bake until light gold.
Let cool, then drizzle with icing and sugar. I made my icing by adding a little bit of lemon juice and water to a couple cups of powdered sugar, then drizzled it with my fingers over the cookies. Then my boyfriend helped by sprinkling the sugar over the top! (:
C'est fini! Bon appetit mes amis! <3

Crêpes

I fell in love with Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook. I literally read it cover to cover, it was so inspiring and all of the recipes sound very healthy and most have options for lowering fat content.
Among these wonderful recipes was a very simple recipe for crêpes, which was exciting for me because I have always been a little intimidated by the idea of making crêpes but I've always wanted to make them. I tried a few years ago but found it difficult to keep them from sticking to the pan.
This recipe is literally a whiz as it's made in the blender in about 2 seconds. I tried using my new KitchenAid, but the blades of my food processor got rid of the lumps like magic, transforming it into silky smooth batter instantly.

I made Molly Katzen's recipe for my family for breakfast this week and set up a little station of melted chocolate, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, butter and this great lingonberry sauce that my godmother Suyin and my friend Melody gave me as part of my birthday basket of goodies. The tart berry sauce was divine with the chocolate, even competing with my favorite toppings which are butter, lemon juice and sugar(=the best).

Jordan helping himself at the crêpe station.

Chocolate and lingonberry sauce.

My boyfriend Max gave me this awesome crêpe pan for Christmas and it worked perfectly when I made this recipe!

Moosewood Crêpes (find Katzen's book in my books section.)
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cup milk (use low-fat or rice milk as a healthier alternative)
1/4 tsp salt
Pour into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Heat a nonstick pan on the stove until a drop of water sizzles instantly. Brush very lightly with oil over every surface of the pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter and swirl around to coat pan (the amount may vary, I made larger crêpes so I ended up using about 3/8 cup of batter for each). Pour any excess back into the bowl of batter. Let heat about 20 seconds, until cooked and even lightly browned if you like then flip and let the other side cook for a few seconds. Stack on a plate (they won't stick together). Serve with any variety of sweet and savory toppings!
It's so simple isn't it? What a genius recipe, I am officially in love with this book.
Bon appetit!