baking reviews

Thumbprint Cookies Without the Pain

Cooking

We love thumbprint cookies for the holidays at our home. However, making the indentions with my thumb into a hot cookie dough is not my idea of a good time. Ouch!

My daughter had a genious idea of how to make the thumbprint without using the thumb. A half teaspoon measuring spoon! What! Yes. It worked like a dream!

By using the back of the spoon, not only did the cookies get indented without pain, it was quicker too. I was worried that the spoons might stick to the dough. No, they worked easily and efficiently.

Thanks daughter-dear for a wonderful hack to making our beloved thumbprint cookies!

As always, Happy Baking!

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Raspberry-Nectarine Bostock Recipe Review

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I picked-up a copy of the May/June 2021 issue of Victoria Magazine – Special French Issue the other day. This issue being devoted to all things French, including the recipes, I was sure to be in for a treat. Oh yummy!

I saw the photo for the Raspberry-Nectarine Bostock and my mouth was watering. While this recipe is suggested as a breakfast item (and I would agree), I decided to make it for a dessert last night. It worked quite well in that department as well. The pairings of the apricots (which I substituted for the nectarines), raspberries, and almond was quite delicious.

The Raspberry-Nectarine Bostock is made up of fruit on top of an almond-paste creme spread over raspberry preserves on a slice of brioche. This is baked in the oven, cooled, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The only substitutes I made to this recipe where (as stated above) using canned apricots instead of nectarines (not in season), frozen raspberries instead of fresh, almonds instead of pistachios, and instead of the vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract. The recipe itself is very easy to make and takes very little time to put together an impressive looking pastry.

The other recipes from the ‘French Breadbasket’ article also look delicious and will soon be put to the test in my kitchen. These recipes include: Chaussons Aux Pommes, Ginger-Cardamom Kouign-Amann, and Escargot Au Chocolat. This issue of Victoria also has recipes for Macarons. Included are: Blackberry-Thyme, Earl Grey, White Chocolate-Mint, Strawberries and Cream, and Raspberry Lemonade. Looks like I will not be coming out of the kitchen for a while.

I highly recommend the recipe for Raspberry-Nectarine Bostock from Victoria Magazine. I am quite sure I will be making this recipe again. As always, Happy Baking!

Gluten-Free Brownie Review

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Last year my family tried making gluten-free recipes for a while. I must say most were a miss. The baked goods tended to turn out dry, crumbly, or in some way not as appealing as our regular recipes. Since there is a shortage of flour in my area right now, I thought I would re-visit the gluten-free options as I still have some other types of flour in my pantry.

I searched for dessert recipes using brown rice flour, as this is one of the types I had on hand. I came across a recipe for ‘Fabulously Fudgy Gluten-Free Chocolate Brownies’. The recipe received good reviews, I had all the ingredients, so I gave them a try. They were really very good. Not dry or crumbly! I did not tell the family that they were gluten-free until afterwards. They all liked them! Hurray!

Did I follow the recipe exactly? Well….pretty much. I used tapioca flour instead of tapioca starch. Is there a difference? Not sure…but that is what I had and it seemed to work. I used the 1 cup of chocolate chips as suggested would work. I also used less vanilla extract. The recipe called for 1 Tablespoon of vanilla! That seemed excessive. Maybe a typo? In any case, I only used 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Here is the link to the recipe for Fabulously Fudgy Gluten-Free Chocolate Brownies: https://www.adayinthekitchen.com/chocolate-brownies/

As always, Happy Baking!

P.S.—I think Chickpea Whipped Cream might be a very good topping to these brownies! (see my earlier post for the recipe)