Cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake, oh my!

Somehow I managed to miss that yesterday's post was my 100th post in this blog! Hurrah to me!

To celebrate this momentous event, I bring you a most delicious recipe for cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen!

I'm actually going to include the recipe here along with my commentary, because I feel like there is a bit of a trick to preparing this. It's not horrendously difficult or anything, but I did find that this bears some notes. Also my own photos, because as Deb of SK admits buried in her list of many comments, her mum put together the cake she photographed for the post somewhat differently from the recipe instructions, hence the lack of chocolatey goodness on top. So without further ado, read this recipe, get yourself into the kitchen, and make this cake!


Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake

For the cake:
1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, separated (remember: separate them when they're cold, then let them come to room temp!)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 ounces sour cream (I use the low-fat kind and it's just as nice!)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For filling and topping:
12 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9"x13" cake pan.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together. I use a large fine-mesh sieve for sifting. After you sift everything into the bowl, use a whisk to get all your dry ingredients blended together.

In a small bowl, mix together the 1/2 cup of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon. Use a fork to blend them together well, then set this aside.


In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together the softened butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy (2 to 3 minutes), then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla.

Use the whisk attachment of your mixer to beat the egg whites until they're stiff and hold firm peaks. 

Alternately add sour cream and then flour mixture into butter mixture. This will require near-superhuman strength, because this mixture will become incredibly thick and hard to stir. I had to use a wooden spoon and then stop every couple of stirs to scrape it off with a spatula. Really. It is that thick. You will oof and grunt your way through this one, but it's okay! It will look almost like a bread dough rather than a batter. Carry on!

Now the recipe calls for you to fold the egg whites into the batter. Laugh, because there's no way anyone will be able to properly fold the egg whites into the black-hole-dense mass of dough in the bowl in front of you. Do the best you can to incorporate them in a technique that is as close to proper egg white folding as possible. The mixture will become softer as you incorporate the egg whites, but don't get discouraged if you can't do the folding properly. I adore artfully folding egg whites into batters, but this is not one of the times that calls for art. It calls for sheer determination and the use of your biceps.

Mop the sweat from your brow and get that cake pan handy. Plop about half the batter into the pan and spread it around. Again, it's so thick that this isn't going to be easy. I found that it was easiest to blob in gobs of dough all around the pan and use a small spatula to spread it around to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Once you've got the first layer of batter in the pan, use a spoon to sprinkle on about half the cinnamon-sugar mixture you prepared earlier, and then add about half the chocolate chips.

Then gob on the second half of the batter and spread it round again with the spatula. This can get a bit messy because of the chip layer, but I find that if you drop the batter in the pan in small amounts before spreading, it keeps things neater. (See photo!)

Once you've got all the batter in the pan, sprinkle on the rest of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and the rest of the chips. Grumble to yourself about what a pain in the ass it was to put this together, then put it in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Put the pan on a rack and let it cool. Wonder if all the effort was worth it.

It is! It IS worth the effort! The cake is moist and spongy and not overly sweet, and the cinnamon-sugar mix on top gets slightly melty and crisp, and the chocolate chips don't melt all the way and it's just awesome. The first time I made this, Jeremy took some to work and it was extremely popular--so much so that one of his coworker's wives heard tell of it and felt left out so I packed up some for him to take home to her.

So yes... Jeremy and his coworkers are lucky gents, and you and your loved ones will be lucky too if you make one of these coffee cakes! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty sure this is one of the reasons Jeremy is so excited to marry me: a lifetime guaranteed supplier of cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake.

Adventures in Apple Picking: Apple Cake

Oh my! November is just flying by, and I have lots to write about but I've been so busy with work and things that I've not had the time. Naughty, naughty blogger.

I've got lots to write about, like my second Rolf session, books I've been reading, NaNoWriMo, and food, obviously.

One of the things I made recently was an apple cake. I had some more leftover apples left after my apple picking adventure, so I decided to find a good apple cake recipe. I found one that looked decent in one of my baking books, but it called for half butter and half shortening. I didn't have shortening on hand (also, I try to avoid using it if I can, because the consistency weirds me out) and was antsy to get underway with the cake, so I turned to the good old internet to find an alternative.

I found a fabulous recipe on Smitten Kitchen for the blogger's mom's apple cake. It looks like an old-fashioned German or Jewish apple cake recipe, and it's very easy to do. Not to mention it's amaaaaazing! Click on the link above to get the recipe and the adorable story about the blogger and her mom making the cake, as well as an awesome photo of her mom's original handwritten recipe card.

A few things that I did differently. First off, I know it can be a real pain in the ass to fill a large bowl with so many cut-up apples and then try to get them all evenly coated in cinnamony goodness. So instead, I put the apples into a gallon zip-top bag with the sugar and cinnamon and gave them a vigorous heave-ho. This got them all nice and coated and since I could keep the bag sealed, it helped prevent any possible browning.

I didn't have any nuts in the house, but I imagine that this cake would be only more awesome with some nice toasted walnuts or pecans. Some dried cranberries would probably also be very nice.

Also, I don't yet own a tube pan (though I fully intend to get one), so instead I used a 9 x 13 sheet pan. Since the batter was more spread out in that pan, I baked it for just a few minutes over one hour. You can't really get the beautiful layers the blogger did with her tube pan if you use a sheet pan, so I just sort of alternated pouring in batter and adding apples and squooshed everything together with a spatula.

The cake was so, so good. It is not overly sweet, and you can't taste the orange juice much, but it is very moist, and the spiced apples really are the star. The Ginger Golds that I used baked up super soft and tasty, so that they were nearly melting into the cake. Awesome!

This cake gets better by the day, becoming more and more moist and appley, and Jeremy and my taste-tester friends all agreed that it was delicious. I'd definitely recommend you try this. I'll be making it again with my next big batch of apples.

Adventures in Apple Picking: Apple Crumble

I can't believe November is upon us! October passed way too quickly for my liking, but I was fortunate to squeeze in an October day of apple picking at Boston Hill Farm with my friends Nicole and Justina. It was a glorious fall afternoon, perfect temperature, bright and sunny, and meant for apples.

Neither Nicole nor Justina had ever gone apple picking when they were growing up, an egregious misfortune that I wanted to remedy. I grew up going apple picking, sometimes several times in one season. My father has an apple obsession that's almost incomprehensible. He takes his apple picking very seriously, overfilling the house with many, many pounds of apples. I too felt the pull to pick this fall. I guess some things are genetic!

So what does one do when she comes home with 12 pounds of apples? Bake! :) I picked a few Macoun apples, but the majority of my bag was lovely ginger gold apples. They're a yellow-green with a pink blush on them and have a wonderful, creamy texture. They are a nice balance of tart and sweet. They're fantastic to just munch on, but everyone knows the addition of butter and sugar makes everything better.

I decided to use a few ginger gold apples in a nice apple crumble (interesting factoid: an apple crisp is basically the same thing as an apple crumble except that the topping on a crisp is a finer, breadcrumb texture and a crumble's topping is chunkier). These apples brown very slowly after you cut them, so even though it was a couple of minutes between the time I finished chopping them and the time I finished combining my ingredients, they hadn't changed color. This recipe would work well with any baking apple. I highly recommend it! It's a simple, unfussy dessert that is extremely hearty and delicious. We ate our warm out of the oven with a dollop of yummy vanilla Greek yogurt. After the leftovers cooled in the pan, we wrapped it in foil and stashed it in the fridge. Just portion out a serving and reheat in the microwave. Yum!

Super Simple Apple Crumble

• 6 ginger gold (or other baking) apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a square baking pan (8x8 or 9x9, whatever you've got).

Combine all the ingredients except for the apples and the butter in a large zip-top plastic bag, seal, and shake to combine. Cut the butter into small bits and add to the bag. Reseal the bag and knead the butter bits into the dry ingredients until the mixture holds together.

Heap the apples into the prepared pan. Crumble the topping all over the apples.

Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and the juices are bubbly. Or, if you're like me and you made enough topping to completely cover your dessert so you can't see the apples, you'll know it's ready when your house starts to smell amaaaaaazing. Carefully scoop out and enjoy the bliss.

 

Stay tuned. My next adventure in apple use is going to be an apple cake! 

Chai spice bread

I love spices of all kinds, so it's no surprise I love chai tea. Lately I've been on a quick bread kick, always keeping a loaf on hand for breakfast or a nice afternoon snack with a cup of tea, so I was delighted when I found the recipe for this chai spice loaf. It combines the best of both worlds: bread that is almost cake, and the warm spice chai tea. It's the perfect treat for fall, when everyone craves dishes full of autumnal spices.

A prevalent spice in chai (and a lot of Indian cooking, which I adore) is cardamom, and this bread tastes strongly of it. It's not terribly sweet, but it's moist and and dense and wonderfully spicy. The recipe linked above recommends making a sweet glaze for it, but I left mine sans glaze and it was still awesome. I found that adding a schmear of pumpkin cream cheese from Trader Joe's was the perfect complement--again, not too sweet, and with its own level of spiciness that worked with the flavor already in the bread. You can use any kind of black tea that you like (I used some decaf chai I had on hand); just brew a cup and then let it cool while you get your ingredients ready.

I shared this with some lady friends in addition to the usual taste-tester of Jeremy and they all agreed it was delicious. Not bad for a first-time effort. (I usually like to taste-test things before sharing them with friends, in case they're dreadful, but this time I got lucky!)

Chai Spice Quick Bread

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup prepared black tea, cooled to room temperature
• 1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Heat oven to 350. Grease just the bottom of a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter with the mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add the eggs, tea, milk, and vanilla at low speed until the ingredients are combined. The mixture will look curdled--that's okay!

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a separate bowl and whisk to blend well. Using a rubber spatula, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just moistened. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly with spatula.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool on the wire rack completely. If you choose to glaze the bread, let it cool just 30 minutes before glazing.

 Artsy shot, by Jeremy, of me making chai bread

Pumpkin brownies

What's better than a brownie?

A brownie made of PUMPKIN.

Don't get me wrong, I can eat chocolate any day, any time. But pumpkin I only really eat during the fall. (Yes, I know that thanks to the glories of canning and freezing I could, theoretically, eat pumpkin any time of year, but it feels more special keeping it associated with the fall. Chocolate is in its own category though. It doesn't need to be associated with anything other than my belly.)

Chocolate and pumpkin actually tends to be a pretty decent combination, but the thing I love most about these brownies is that they just completely leave out the chocolate and are made just with pumpkin, so that the pumpkin is the moist, scrumptious star of the show. I supposed a chocolateless brownie is technically a blondie, but I've always hated the term "blondie" and so I will forever after refer to these delights as pumpkin brownies.

I got the recipe from the Baking Bites site, which to a sweet-toothed lady like me is like a baked goods porn-o-rama. They are denser than a pumpkin bread, but a bit creamier than a pumpkin cake.

I basically followed the recipe except that I whisk together all my dry ingredients before incorporating them with the moist ingredients. Also, I've found that while these are delightful with nuts and etc. mixed in, they're also positively fantastic and totally divine devoid of chunky additions. These are simple to make and I highly recommend them!

Pumpkin Brownies with Pecans

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8×8-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the pumpkin puree. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, and salt and stir this into the moist ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add in pecans (if using) and stir to evenly distribute.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer with a spatula.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the brownies are just just lightly browned at the edges and the center is set (it may look moist, but will not be sticky when lightly pressed). Cool in the pan before slicing.
Cut them into bars or whatever shape strikes your fancy and store in an airtight container. These will keep nice and moist for several days, or several hours, really, because they're just that good.

Nutella bread pudding

Nutella! What glorious stuff, this chocolate hazelnut spread. It's the perfect flavor combination. The sheer genius of the stuff is that it pairs well with just about anything. You can have it on fruit, you can have it on toast, you can have it on a pretzel. It goes with most any dessert. Really, it is so versatile. It's like the friendly and amenable popular kid of spreadable foodstuffs.

I still remember when I first discovered Nutella, back when I was 22 or 23 and living on my own for the first time. I shared an apartment with two school teachers in Doylestown, PA, and I often went with one or the other one to the local supermarket to get groceries. Our closest supermarket was a Redner's Warehouse, which sold most things on the cheap, and which often carried somewhat odd brands of things. Next to the cans of Dole vegetables you'd find bizarre brands you'd never seen anywhere else, like Golden Medal sliced carrots or something. Most of the merchandise and the floor had a thin film of dust. It was a pretty ghetto warehouse supermarket, but we were young and poor, so it was fine with us. It was here that I first discovered Nutella, on the shelf with not-quite-Jif brands of peanut butter and not-really-Smuckers jars of jam. I loved Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates, and really anything that Ferrero makes (Kinder eggs have a special place in my heart), so I figured, why not?

Oh, chocolately glory on a spoon! From the first, I was hooked. It was miraculous. You could eat it on anything! You could even eat it off the spoon and not get bored. I remember a ridiculously caloric concoction I would make involving toast with a layer of cheesecake-flavored cream cheese and another layer of Nutella. It was one step away from self-induced diabetes, and it was heavenly.

I don't always keep a jar of Nutella in the house, mostly because I know it wouldn't last long and would go straight to my thighs (what doesn't though?), but it is an indulgence I like to have around now and again. I recently discovered the Tuscan Pane loaf at Trader Joe's, and it was simply divine spread with a layer of Nutella.

I had some friends visiting this weekend, as I mentioned in my last post, so I decided to feed them some individual Nutella bread puddings that I found on the absolutely fantastic website Baking Bites. If you're ever in the mood to bake something and don't know what to make, go to that site and you will most certainly be sated. Trust me. It was while browsing the site one day that I discovered the glory that is Nutella bread pudding, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I'm not even really a huge fan of bread pudding. Sometimes it's too soggy and custardy for my taste. But these are really a delight. They bake up thick and dense and yet simultaneously fluffy. The custard is the perfect consistency, especially as I tend to be jumpy around gelatinous foods. I made mine with half a loaf of challah bread and I'll probably use the rest of the loaf tonight to make more. And I was fortunate enough to find six adorable ramekins of the proper size at Marshall's to put them in.

They were a big hit with the ladies and with Jeremy, who shares my wariness of traditional bread puddings. They are the perfect portion size and are fantastic with a little dollop of vanilla ice cream. They are also easy to stash in the fridge. I think they taste amazing warm, so definitely nuke them for about a minute each before eating your leftovers. The best part of these is that they are impressive and delicious, and yet so easy to make that you can whip them up while you're waiting to serve dinner. In fact, that's just what I did. They take about 7 minutes to assemble, and that's including the 5 minutes it takes to let the bread soak in the custard mixture. (To be honest, I had cubed my challah bread ahead of time and stashed it in a large baggie, and that's what I recommend you do too.) While we ate dinner, they baked in the oven. (I found that mine took about 25 minutes to set and get gloriously puffy.) While we had seconds and chatted, they sat out and cooled and the ice cream thawed out a bit. And when we ate them, they were deliciously warm, rich, and melty. The Nutella flavor is not overwhelming, so if you want more of it, I'd say go ahead and add some more dollops to the custard batter. But they are truly delicious and so simple that I cannot recommend them highly enough. Get yourself a loaf of bread and a jar of Nutella and get baking. (That is, if you don't first eat the whole loaf of bread slathered in Nutella.)

UPDATE: Here is a poor-quality cell phone picture of one of my bread puddings in one of my new ramekins.

Heartful of cookie love

I love this article, written by an academic, about how she likes the bake because it's the best way for her to express her affection for others.

She talks about how she and her sister used to bake cookies for her mother on nights when she worked late. It made me think about myself when I was young. I used to do the same thing myself. I loved to bake cookies, oddly, because my mother wasn't really into baking and she never once made cookies. But somehow I was really drawn to cookie recipes, probably because they are relatively simple in terms of technique and relatively quick to bake. And also because, let's face it, who DOESN'T love cookies?

One of my favorite recipes was peanut butter blossoms, a recipe I found in a Pillsbury cookies magazine my mother had probably gotten free as part of a supermarket promotion or something. I remember how much I loved those cookies (even though I made them without the kisses on top, because they were the one ingredient we didn't have just sitting around the house), and I also love how much I enjoying tricking my father into eating them. He hates peanut butter, but yet he ate these cookies every time I made them and said they were good, every time. I guess no one can resist a cookie.

I still enjoy making cookies. I've got some baking books and am enjoying going through them and trying new flavors beyond the usual chocolate chip and oatmeal. I recently made some chocolate gingerbread cookies that were amazingly delicious and took them to a party where they were a big hit. Like Therese Huston in the article, I find that making cookies is like an expression of what I feel inside, a little circular externalization of my emotions. They are a great way for me to nonverbally bring a little comfort and happiness to my friends and loved ones. All cooking, I think, is an expression of love for others, but there's just something about baking that really gets to the heart for me, these little sweet bits of love.

Is there a certain food you like to make that encompasses your love for your friends and family, a food that expresses what you feel inside in an edible way?

Cranberry-orange muffin

I've been feeling somewhat under the weather lately (sinusy evil), so I haven't been much in the mood for cooking, hence the lack of posts extolling the glories of edible goodness. A friend of mine recently asked me for a recipe I've been meaning to post on here for months, so in honor of her and her new mini muffin pans, I share with you the recipe for cranberry-orange muffins from Baking Unplugged. These muffins are delicious: moist, flavorful, and addictive. And they're made with buttermilk, and let's face it: when it comes to baking, what's better than buttermilk?

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, soft
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 1/2 cup fresh or slightly thawed frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt until well combined.

In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. (Note: I use an electric hand mixer for this, because it is much easier and much quicker.) One at a time, whisk in the eggs, then the orange zest and vanilla.

Stir in half the flour mixture and then the buttermilk and orange juice. Dump the remaining flour mixture into the bowl, place the chopped cranberries on top, and then gently stir until the batter just barely comes together. (A silicone spatula works great for this because you can fold the batter up and over easily without breaking the berries or overmixing the batter.)

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the top of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool as soon as you can comfortablyremove them from the pan.

Cranberry-Orange Bread

To make a loaf instead of muffins, reduce the amount of buttermilk by 1/4 cup. Bake the batter in a buttered and floured loaf pan at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Apple oatmeal quick bread

If you're anything like me (and don't think I'm implying that you are), you might be feeling somewhat overindulged, bloated, and downright blarghy after the bingefest that was the holidays, and you've resolved to be healthy. But if you're anything like me, you also don't want to give up on certain pleasures in life, because honestly, you only live once, and woman cannot live by bread alone.

Although if it's this apple oatmeal quick bread I recently discovered, then perhaps you could feel like you live by bread alone. It's that good. I've always loved quick breads, which—let's face it—are just cake in loaf form. But because of their intrinsic cakeyness, quick breads are also often loaded with sugar and butter—two things you don't necessarily want a lot of when you're trying to be healthier. Enter the apple oatmeal quick bread.

I love this recipe because the butter is replaced by low-fat vanilla yogurt, which clearly has a lot less fat than butter, but which also adds a moistness and softness to the cake. The oatmeal and whole wheat flour give it a really hearty, tasty feel, but it doesn't feel heavy. The apples also keep it moist. I discovered this recipe on the back of a Stonyfield yogurt container, and I did do a few slight modifications (adding raisins, using a little more apples, and adding more cinnamon and introducing nutmeg), but it's not very different from the original recipe.

Remember to make sure your egg is room temperature before beginning the recipe, although if you're using just the egg whites, it'll be easier to separate your eggs while they are cold and then allow the whites to come to room temperature before combining. (Stash the yolks, covered, in the fridge for another use; they will keep for a couple of days.)

Apple Oatmeal Bread

1 cup Stonyfield Organic Low Fat French Vanilla Yogurt
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 egg or two egg whites, slightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups finely diced unpeeled apples (I use Granny Smith, which are tangy and lovely!)
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries (I haven't tried it with those yet, but what's better than cranberries and apples together?)

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix together yogurt and oats and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together egg(s), oil and brown sugar.

In another bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir into the egg mixture. Add yogurt mixture. The batter will be lumpy and it will feel like you're stirring a bowl of cement. Do not despair! Put your back into it and fold in apples and raisins or cranberries if you decide to use them. Trust me, the batter will become light, moist, and scrumptious. The first time I made this, I too doubted that this could become something other than concrete in a pan. Pour into greased pan and spread about evenly.

Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown or a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan immediately. Wrap it up in foil; it'll stay moist and soft for about a week and doesn't need refrigerating. I like eating this with some apple-cranberry butter or other fruity jelly or jam on top. It is also a tasty and filling breakfast when you're on the go.

I'll probably be trying some more yogurt baking and cooking in the weeks to come, so stay tuned for the results, good, bad, and everything in between.

A birthday cake fit for a queen

Saturday was my birthday! Not only my birthday, but my partner Jeremy's birthday as well. Yes, we share a birthday--November 21. I absolutely love the fact that we share the day together. To commemorate that fact, I decided that we deserved a cake. Not just any cake: Julia Child's Queen of Sheba cake (the first recipe I've made from MTAFC). It's made with semi-sweet chocolate melted with rum and also contains pulverized almonds. It's very rich and dense, and because you slightly underbake it, it maintains a soft moist quality that is a sheer delight. The whole thing is frosted with a delicious chocolate-rum-butter concoction. You can then press a pattern of blanched almonds into it, which I did with some of the blanched slivered almonds we used to get the pulverized quantity that goes into the cake. Here's what mine looked like:

We finally had some yesterday (Saturday night was devoted to going out to dinner and a bar with friends), and oh my goodness. This cake... this cake is amazing. AMAZING. It is so decadent, not overly sweet, chocolately scrumptious and just positively a delight in every way. The combination of ingredients that goes into it is perfect. I don't tend to like many French desserts because they are custardy or gelatinous, but this! This was perfection. This made me take back every evil thought I've ever happened to have in my head about the French. This, my friends, was probably the best cake I've had. And I'm not just saying that because I made it myself. I really do mean it.

I do believe I will be making this cake for Christmas Eve dinner, as it seems like the perfect seasonal dessert. And I do believe my family might pass out with joy when they eat it. And I will be happy.

Zucchini lemon cookies + kitchen sink pasta with zucchini and white wine cream sauce

Hurrah for zucchini! I'm going out of town tomorrow (heading to PA for a week of vacation and going to a friend's wedding), so I wanted to use up the second zucchini from the farmers' market before leaving.

I found this recipe for zucchini lemon cookies that looked really simple--plus I had some lemons at home so I figured, why not? These cookies were pretty easy to put together; the only time-consuming tasks were grating the lemon zest and zucchini, but my microplane and mandolin made easy work of those.

I'd suggest doing the same parchment paper trick when you go to bake these cookies, and putting them in a 375 degree oven won't be a problem. I baked mine for about 13-14 minutes and they came out really well: light brown on the bottom with pale, puffed centers. These cookies are scrumptious... really like soft little tea cakes. They stay very soft and moist, thanks to the zucchini. And speaking of which, they do mostly taste of lemon (there's a lot of zest in there!), but they have a little hint of the zucchini here and there. And they just look beautiful, with the bits of yellow and green speckling the pale rounded surfaces. Highly recommended! I took some to work and they were gobbled up. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by the flavor combo and the softness.

I used the other half of the zucchini with some pasta. We had leftover linguine from our grown-up hamburger helper, and while that cooked I steamed the zucchini (sliced into thin rounds). After the pasta cooked, I melted the bit of butter left over from the cookies and sauteed a clove of garlic with the zucchini. Then I added some dry white wine, a bit of heavy cream, and a grating of fresh parmesan cheese. I threw in a spoonful of flour to thicken the sauce, and added some salt.

Like whoa. For being a meal of leftovers ("kitchen sink" pasta, as Jeremy calls these dishes when we throw together a bunch of stuff with pasta), it was really quite delicious. Anything made with cream is always delicious. When white wine is added, even more so. I was pretty pleased that I found a way to use up a bunch of leftovers in a delicious, make-it-up-as-I-go kind of way.

So I'm off to PA tomorrow! I'm hoping to have lots of foodie adventures while I'm home, so I'll be sure to share as many as I can here. Bon voyage to myself!

The bran muffin, reinvented

Is there anything un-sexier than bran? Perhaps the effects of eating a lot of it, but I digress! Bran is an oft-disparaged food yet it's important to our diets. We could all use more fiber, but let's face it: it can be really freaking difficult to fill oneself with all that roughagey goodness.

And is there any muffin more un-thrilling than the bran muffin? I thought this, placing them in my head low down in the muffin pecking order below chocolate, blueberry, and corn. That's until I discovered the bran muffin recipe in Nicole Rees's absolutely fantastic Baking Unplugged (my new bible of all things baked). The woman makes them with bran cereal soaked in buttermilk. Wait. Read that line again. Buttermilk. YES. EVERYTHING is made better with buttermilk!

These muffins are delicious. They are filling, and yet they stay moist and fluffy, thanks to the buttermilk, and they also have a slightly sweet taste to them that isn't cloying or desserty. This ain't your typical dark brown, super dense, saw-dusty, jaw-workout bran muffin!

I made a batch on Sunday and tossed each muffin in a zipper-top sandwich baggie, keeping a few out for quick mid-morning snacks at work, and stowing the rest in the freezer. To serve, just pop the frozen muffin in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute. No need to thaw.

Hurrah! Don't delay; make these muffins today. Your digestive system will thank you.

Bran Cereal Muffins by Nicole Rees

• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups All-Bran cereal
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional; I didn't use them)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin pan. (I use the spray that's available now that's specifically for baking, that already has flour in it. It's good stuff.) In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, egg, and sugar until smooth. Stir in the cereal and soak for 15 minutes; cereal will swell and soften in the liquid.

2. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well combined. Stir in raisins if desired.

3. Gently fold the flour mixture into the wet cereal mixture until just combined. The batter will thicken almost immediately as the baking soda reacts with the buttermilk. Do not stir after this point to avoid deflating the batter.

4. Get out your trusty ice cream scoop and dole the batter out into the muffin cups. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Bite into a warm muffin and revel in the goodness that is the bran muffin, reinvented.

Lemon Blueberry Bread + Mexican hot chocolate

What can I say? It was a weekend of indulgence!

Saturday we slept late and then I decided to make a breakfasty treat using some of the pint of blueberries I bought last week at the Harvard farmers' market. I found this recipe for lemon blueberry bread with lemon glaze and it was amazing! (The recipe, according to the blogger, is from a 1991 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. An oldie but a goodie.) I love the combination of lemon and blueberry---I generally tend to love anything with citrus flavors---so I was particularly happy to find a blueberry bread recipe with lemon in it.

Granted, my bread ended up being like lemon AND blueberry bread because all my blueberries sank to the bottom of the loaf. I think next time I'll perhaps reserve some of the berries and add them to my batter at the end, after pouring it into the pan. Doesn't really affect the deliciousness of the end product though. And don't skimp on doing the glaze. It MAKES this bread! The glaze cooks pretty quickly, at least it did for me, so I'd suggest waiting until right before you take the bread out of the oven to make this.

To complement our bread, I also made some Mexican-style hot chocolate, using a Taza chocolate disc. Taza is a local company in Somerville that makes stone-ground chocolate. It's good stuff---not the sweet, soft stuff a lot of people are used to, but intense, dark, gritty chocolate. I got one disc of the vanilla Taza chocolate (there are two thin discs inside the package).

To prepare it the Mexican way (for two), heat 2 cups of milk (I used 2%) over medium low heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Once the milk is warm, add about 3 ounces of coarsely chopped chocolate (1 of the Taza packages  of 2 thin discs equals 3 ounces). Whisk it into the milk for a few minutes until it's completely melted and the milk is frothy, and immediately divide the drink into 2 mugs and sip. OMG. It is SO indulgent and scrumptious! Creamy, rich, and intense. The perfect sipping chocolate.

We did some more cooking over the weekend (deceptively delicious bran muffins, homemade hummus, a spaghetti skillet casserole, and zucchini fritters), but I'll add those recipes in separate posts.

More soup + peanut butter cookies, two ways

A batch of muffins, a pot of soup, and two batches of cookies. Yeah, I spent the weekend in the kitchen.

For soup, I made a variation of Mama Pidal's lentil soup, except using the cleverly packaged Goya 16-bean soup mix. I love bean soups because they are filling and also freeze excellently for future meals. I added the usual mirepoix, plus spinach and two packets of Goya sazon, along with some onion and garlic salts and the requisite salt and pepper. It made a LOT of soup, which is living in a giant pot on my stove top. In my dream world, I would have a giant pot of soup simmering on my stove top every day. One of my favorite smells is the blend of aromatics as they hit the soup pot, before they start cooking. If I could bottle it and sell it, I would. I'd call it Essence of Soup Pot---you could just have the odor of fresh soup pervading your kitchen, whether you were cooking or not. Yum.

Jeremy was an absolute gem today and cleaned the house while I sat on my ass drinking pumpkin spice coffee watching Project Runway on On Demand. So as a reward, I made him not one but two batches of peanut butter cookies. Because why stop at just one peanut-buttery treat? He deserves double the fatty delicious love. I made a batch of peanut butter oatmeal cookies and another of peanut butter molasses. I've made the latter before and brought them to work to share, and they were literally such a hit that the pile of them disappeared in just a couple of hours. I saw that I was on to something really good here, so I think these might be my secret weapon cookie. I feel like I could win wars (and hearts) with these things. (I also feel this way about my red velvet cupcake recipe.) So unfortunately, I'm keeping that recipe to myself.

But fortunately for you, I'm not a total selfish brat, so I do want to share the peanut butter oatmeal recipe with you. These cookies are AMAZING! They are so dense and filling. The recipe author, Nicole Rees, suggests arming yourself with a glass of milk, and I agree. So, make haste! Get thee to the oven and make these cookies. They are scrumptious.

CHEWY PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL COOKIES - by Nicole Rees

• 3/4 cup oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins or chocolate chips (note: I skipped these and found the cookies perfect without them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat oil, water, and sugars, until smooth. Beat in peanut butter until well combined. Stir in egg, vanilla and salt until smooth and creamy.

Stir in flour and baking soda until almost all combined. Stir in the oats and raisins or chips if you're using. At this point, it will be a workout for your biceps to get a spoon through the dough. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.* Drop walnut-sized chunks of dough, about 2 tablespoons, onto baking sheets, spacing at least 1 1/2 inches apart. (I found it easiest to scoop up a glob of dough with a metal dining spoon and then gently shaping it into a ball with my fingers; don't overhandle or the dough will get melty.) These cookies don't spread very much, which is nice

Bake for 13 to 14 minutes, until golden at the edges and puffed in the centers but not quite set. Don't overbake! Allow to cool for 3 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

*Using parchment paper on cookie sheets? A revelation. No need to grease the sheets, which always leads to greasy clean-up later. No burnt bottoms. No cookies sticking to the sheet. All around a fabulous tip. I'll never grease cookie sheets again, and neither should you. Thank you, Nicole Rees.

Yield: dozens of cookies ahead

So when you decide to make cookies, before you do anything else, read the yield.

As in the part of the recipe that tells you how many cookies the batter you make will produce. Because last night I decided to make some cookies (oatmeal with pomegranate jelly) and was halfway through the batter before I noticed this all-important number.

You'd think that after preparing and beginning to make a batter that calls for two sticks of butter and three cups of flour that I'd realize there would be a serious amount of cookies resulting, but no. I thought it was a little odd, but not extraordinary. But then I looked at the yield, after creaming said two sticks of butter into two kinds of sugar: 4 1/2 to 5 dozen cookies.

SIXTY COOKIES? WTF!

In for a penny, in for a pound (of butter, it felt like). So I soldiered on. And the cookies actually turned out really well. Yes, I was in the kitchen for like two hours, but once things turned into an assembly line sort of system, it really wasn't so bad.

Here's something I discovered. I only own two cookie sheets, and for this particular recipe, I could fit 12 cookies on a sheet. So I baked one sheet at a time, and after removing the cookies, I put the hot, empty sheet in the fridge for a few minutes while the second sheet baked. This cooled the sheet to room temperature so that I could add more dough to the sheet. (You should never put raw dough on a hot cookie sheet, because it'll melt the fats in your dough and mess it up.) After refrigerating, I was also able to scrub off any jelly spills with a wet paper towel. This made the baking process go much faster because I didn't have to wait for each sheet to cool for who knows how long before proceeding.

Here's the recipe. It originally called for raspberry preserves, but I had a jar of pomegranate jelly in my kitchen that just wasn't getting used up (it's not terribly compatible with peanut butter), so I used that instead. And please note that it really does make like 60 cookies or so. They are small cookies, and yummy, so that shouldn't be a bad thing.

Oatmeal and Jelly Cookies
4 1/2 to 5 dozen

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter (two sticks), softened
1/2 cup water
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose/unbleached flour
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
fruit preserves, jam, or jelly (I really think any flavor will work!)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.

Add water, almond extract, and eggs and blend well. The mixture will look curdled and watery.

Stir in the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix well. The mixture will thicken and look lumpy

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With a spoon, make an imprint in the center of each cookie and fill the imprint with 1/2 teaspoon of preserves. Drop a bit of dough over the preserves on each cookie.

Bake for 6 to 9 minutes until the cookies are a light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets and allow to cool on a rack.

Cheesecake, or, What a difference a bath makes

Ah, cheesecake! That cheesiest of desserts! I have always loved cheesecake, because it combines two of my favorite foods (cheese and cake) and because there are so many variations on it. One of my favorites is the banana caramel fried cheesecake that comes and goes (and I boo when it goes) from the menu at the Great American Diner in BucksCo. (Note: As of this writing, it's back on the menu. Phew! The giant chocolate tostada sundae, which Brie and I once nearly demolished all of, is sadly no longer on the menu.)

It's easy to find places offering cheesecake, but hard to find places offering exceptional cheesecake. The Cheesecake Factory, for instance, despite its name, offers what I think are mediocre cheesecakes; I had one once and found the cheese filling to be a little gummy. And herein lies the downfall of the cheesecake: the texture of the filling. No matter how delightful the flavor combinations might be, if the filling isn't melt-in-your-mouth creamy-soft, it's just not a perfect cheesecake.

I have attempted cheesecakes before, in bygone years. One that particularly stands out is one I made with a pecan pumpkin butter that was mixed into the filling, which was good, but not exceptional. And I must ashamedly admit that once or twice I was guilty of the buy the Philadelphia Cream Cheese cheesecake filling in a tub and fill a pre-made graham cracker crust. I hang my head in shame still. Seeing as how this is one of my favorite desserts, I thought it was high time that I attempt it again, but the right way this time. It is good to know how to make a delectable homemade version of your favorite dessert. And as Jeremy and I had been invited over to Derrick's for dinner with him and Chris and I was asked to bring dessert, the opportunity presented itself.

I'd originally thought of perhaps attempting a stone fruit cobbler or crisp or pie or tart, but nixed the idea after some thought. Dinner on Friday only a couple of hours after getting home from a day in the office didn't afford me the time to make something day-of, so I needed to make something that would keep overnight, but I am also cursed with a kitchen devoid in counter space, so I couldn't really roll out a respectable crust. While flipping through my basic kitchen primer bible (Bitty's How to Cook Everything), I found a recipe for a lemon cheesecake. It required 3 blocks of cream cheese, 4 eggs, a topping made of sour cream, and a bath. I was intrigued. And determined. This was the first homemade dinner at Derrick's new(ish) place, and by god if I wasn't determined to impress.

Thursday afternoon, Jeremy got out of work early and bought the ingredients we needed and I found a lovely Rubbermaid cake holder at Tags during my lunch hour, so we were ready to go. Almost. It took me FOREVER to get home due to a series of disasters with the bus, so it was nearly 7 pm when we began baking--a full hour after I'd imagined we'd be underway. Bah!

We got the crust underway, doubling Bitty's recipe as instructed (thank the baby Jesus for pre-crumbled graham cracker crumbs, an innovation that saved us lots of time) and popping the crust into the oven. It's rather fun to press a crumb crust into a buttery springform pan, which sort of confirms my suspicion that people like to cook and bake as much as they do because it's an adult-sanctified form of making a mess (and also the end results are deliciously edible). Jeremy was immensely helpful, zesting and juicing the lemon (using my enamelled lemon press, which is fab!) and helping me to measure and dole out ingredients. I separated the 4 eggs (I cheated and used an egg separator), and despite the cream cheese being a little too soft, as it had been sitting out and waiting for me to use it and I was delayed in getting to it because of my bus woes, the batter making went relatively smoothly.

Once the filling was poured into the lovely, browned, crumbly crust, the real challenge began. Bitty instructs us to bake the cheesecake for an hour in a warm water bath, meaning that one puts the springform pan into a large roasting pan of warm water. The springform pan is heavy, even heavier when full of dense cake batter, and the whole thing is made heavier still when placed in a pan full of water. We don't own a metal roasting pan, so we used one of those foil ones you can buy in the market, which is much lighter, but which is still rather cumbersome when full of water and cake. Let's just say I'm grateful for Jeremy and his work-developed guns, which safely got the whole thing into and then out of the oven.

When the cake and accoutrements came out of the oven, I ladeled the hot water out of the pan into a bowl to make it easier to remove the cake and we set to cool briefly while I whipped up the topping: a container of sour cream with vanilla and a little sugar. Sounds odd but it's delicious! After topping the cake with a layer of it, it goes back in the oven for a bit, then you turn off the oven, let it sit there for a half hour, then take it out to cool more before plastic-wrapping the top and putting it in the fridge. The entire thing took us till about 10:30, and I was pooped and MOST ready for bed by then.

We hit a slight snafu Friday before the party, as I had planned to artfully embed some fresh raspberries in the cream topping (my idea, but I think Bitty would find it a nice touch), but it was no longer creamy (having sat in the fridge overnight), but thankfully my Cuban ingenuity kicked in (thanks, Mom!) and I remembered that we had a container with some leftover sour cream topping in it. I spread a thin layer over the top of the cake and was able to add my raspberries. We kept the cake in the springform to protect it during transport to Derrick's and were on our way.

Dinner at Derrick's was fab. We had some yummy crusty bread with manchego cheese and serrano ham, there was foie gras (I'm not a fan; I'd rather get my fat from my ham), and a tasty simple salad with beans, tomatoes, and super salami. Then we stuffed ourselves with my cheesecake.

I have to say, it was rather astounding. The filling was just vaguely hinted with lemon, not overly sweet nor sour, the texture was firm yet silky, like a good custard, and the sour cream topping was a perfect complement. The crust had set nicely and was buttery delicious. And the raspberries on top went really well with it. It was an awesome ending to the meal. (And considering that dinner had been pleasantly light, though filling, it didn't make anyone feel that bloated over-fullness that comes from having a heavy meal with a dense, rich dessert.) I really think that what made this cake so special was following Mark Bittman's advice and baking the cheesecake in the pan, no matter how odious or hard it may have seemed to do so. It cooked evenly and kept the texture just right.

So. My first serious attempt at cheesecake was a success, and I am excited to try the recipe again for other friends. And to go eat the leftovers in my fridge. There is something so gratifying about making something with time and care. You really can taste the difference, and it makes you feel proud about the effort you put into it.

Baking: the good, the bad, and the buttery

It's been a baking kind of week. Monday was my coworker Rosie's surprise birthday party at work, so I made my now-famous red velvet cupcakes for her party. I don't mind tooting my own horn and saying that they are DELICIOUS! And come on, who doesn't love cream cheese icing? How can one not love an icing that consists of a block of cream cheese, a stick of butter, and cups of powdered sugar? YUM. So those were a big hit. Some people even had seconds. All hail the cupcake queen! I'm actually thinking of making red velvet cupcakes for our Christmas Eve dinner party. How cute would those be for dessert, especially with some nice green sugar sprinkles on top? I also just like the portion control of cupcakes. We have our relatives over for Christmas Eve dinner at my parents' house, and by the time we're all done stuffing ourselves (separate entry on the food tk), most people can't fathom eating a slice of cake for dessert. But there's something about a cupcake that makes it okay to just eat it up. Not to mention that the red, white, and green would be super cute. I've taken to making dessert because my aunt always used to be in charge of making it, and she would make and bring a flan. Now I know there are some people out there who love flan, but I sort of hate it. The texture is just gross. And after eating such a big, heavy dinner, no one really wants this dense, rich piece of custard. So red velvets it will be. I considered making an orange spice cake with a glaze, but honestly, I can't say no to an opportunity to make cupcakes.

Today is a cookie swap at work, and so last night I attempted to make orange cream cheese cookies. I say "attempted" because the whole experience was just sort of a disaster. I decided to make two separate batches, because sometimes doubling a recipe can just be horrific, so here I was thinking I was smart. Turns out, not so much. First I grated off part of my right thumb knuckle while trying to grate some orange zest. So I rinsed off my thumb and tried again on a different part of the grater. And I grated the same spot, AGAIN. After applying a band-aid and then grating the rest of the orange as carefully as possible, I discovered that the recipe called for not one stick of butter, as I'd originally thought, but two. Dear LORD. I'd already had one sitting out for what I thought would be the second batch, so at least it was ready to go, but as I tossed things into the bowl to mix, I realized that these cookies were going to consist of butter and not much else. Don't let the name fool you, friends: there is barely any cream cheese (not even half a block!) and even less orange in these things. They are ALL BUTTER. UGH! Paula Deen would be so proud. Of course I discovered this too late. And the portion of batter I tasted must have been the only spot where orange zest and juice happened to get mixed in, because after I pulled these things out of the oven, they just tasted like butter cookies.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Rewind. I finished mixing the decidedly cream-cheese-and-orange-devoid butter batter and doled out one sheet of cookies. Part of the reason I chose to bake these things is because the first time I made them they were delicious, and the other reason is because they only take 10 minutes or less to bake per batch. This short baking time, I figured, would allow me to make the 30 or so cookies in the first batch and then pop in the second batch without ending up going to bed at 1 am. This was my plan. But unfortunately, when I pulled out the first tray, the pot holder somehow slipped out of my left hand and I ended up planting my left thumb DIRECTLY on the burning-hot cookie sheet. Dear GOD, that was painful. So now I was out ANOTHER thumb, and I still had cookies to put in the oven and continue doling out. Thankfully Jeremy came to my rescue. He put the other tray of cookies in the oven, tended to my wounded thumb with a frozen gel pack, and washed the sticky, buttery mess of dishes I'd made. He also removed the first round of cookies from the cookie sheet, washed that, and then (with my expert tutelage) doled out the last of the dough to bake the last of the cookies. All while I moaned and iced my thumb and squeezed aloe gel all over it.

So I ended up with only about 30 cookies, which is less than what I'm supposed to have for the swap, and out two thumbs. There was no way I was going to try and make ANOTHER batch of evil, butter-centric batter while I had one shredded thumb and one burnt one, not to mention the fact that I was going to try and make some lentil soup for dinner. So I ended up with an extra orange, a nearly full carton of orange juice, one and a half packages of cream cheese, and less cookies than I needed, not to mention eating just cereal for dinner.

So I'm sparing everyone by not sharing the recipe for these cookies, because honestly, they are crap. I sort of hate butter cookies, and these hardly taste like anything else. I swear that last time I made them they were so much better. Perhaps it's because then I had a stand mixer at my mom's house and now I only have a hand mixer. It's a decent hand mixer, but it's just not the same as having a stand mixer. Maybe someday, when I have money and counter space, I'll actually have a stand mixer. But until then, I'll just have butter-covered, bandaged thumbs.