It turned out after I posted that round-up of all the things I’d baked since the pandemic began, I went and baked a few more things.
I figured if the GBBO contestants could do it, why couldn’t I? Turns out there is a learning curve to piping marshmallow, and coating a cookie entirely with chocolate is hard. My fans didn’t care that Paul Hollywood wouldn’t give me a handshake for these.
Then Purim was upon me and I had to make hamentaschen. Usually I stick to the Joan Nathan prune filling, because that is my favorite (I always double this recipe), but I got on a brown butter kick so I had to give these Smitten Kitchen brown butter apricot hazelnut hamentaschen a try:
Turns out while these are delicious, prune still holds the top spot in my heart. I have a vegan roll out cookie dough recipe I modified years ago from the back of some packaging:
I have been looking for thumbprint cookies recipes forEVER and I finally found the perfect one:
After the thumbprints i was ready to dive back into the marshmallow sandwich cookie, this time a malt chocolate and marshmallow:
At some point I was thinking it would be fun to add cinnamon and a little cayenne for a Mexican hot chocolate twist.
Tea cakes started showing up. I had no control! They just busted in:
Earl Grey tea cake with dark chocolate and orange zest
Followed by a lemony turmeric tea cake:
And then I had to make Ottolenghi’s blueberry, almond and lemon cake, but with raspberries and lime:
I took a little detour into savory, with this chili crisp. If Sohla could do it, so could I. I shared it with two friends, who had to go and make their own batches. It’s pretty easy, just takes a bit of time (in my case it took about 3 hours total).
A friend posted this brownie cookie sandwich with cookie dough buttercream and I HAD to try them:
Another foray into aquafaba macarons with better results:
And a red wine chocolate cake, with that buttercream frosting piped on top (and a layer of ganache hiding underneath). Decadent!
I am almost fully vaccinated, two-weeks post second vaccine shot, and I have a feeling the next thing I bake will be shared with friends in a gathering. I don’t know what to expect, but whatever happens, it will be sweet.
