Welcome to a different rendition of my Newest Recipe Testing sequence!
By no means have I been within the kitchen a lot, so usually, and with so many flops. It’s a numbers sport. I’m at present testing recipes for proper now, for the vacation baking season, and for my cookbook. So, I’m certain to have extra recipe disasters, proper?
Over the previous a number of years, as the vacation baking season turns into increasingly more outstanding on my web site, I’ve discovered that I received’t be capable of sustain until I’ve a inventory of content material able to go. My web site sees essentially the most web site visitors from September by means of December, and I need to reap the benefits of the will for fall and vacation baking! Final 12 months I revealed about 30 brand-new recipes throughout that point, and I plan for a similar quantity of content material this 12 months.
I have already got 4 achieved!
So proper now, my staff and I are balancing recipes for 3 totally different time frames. It’s been laborious to mentally manage when leaping between adorning Valentine’s Day cookies for now, photographing pies for Pie Week later within the 12 months, and creating new recipes for my cookbook, which received’t come out till 2024 or 2025.
We dedicate 1 week monthly to every of the three. That’s one of the best ways I’ve discovered to compartmentalize all this content material!
Bran Muffins That Don’t Style Like Cardboard
One of many first tasks I labored on this 12 months was my recipe for wholesome bran muffins. I performed round with the quantity of wheat bran, flour, and liquid a number of instances till I reached a pleasant steadiness of hearty and tender, with out tasting like cardboard. (At all times a pleasant bonus.)
One of many check batches was tasty, however the batter was fairly skinny and the ensuing muffins have been squat and greasy. Including a bit extra flour bulked up the batter, and the ultimate batch was successful.
Saucy Blueberry Sauce & Lemon Cheesecake
The primary photograph on this put up is my blueberry sauce topping. This one didn’t want an excessive amount of testing, as I used the swirl from this blueberry swirl cheesecake and topping from this blueberry cream cheese pie as my start line. I added significantly extra water so the sauce is, nicely, saucy. 😉
I even have a brand new recipe for lemon cheesecake on my website. For this recipe, I used my key lime cheesecake as the bottom, and infused the sugar with lemon zest for further taste. This was simple to check as nicely—I like making cheesecake.
The Unbelievable Shrinking Cake
I developed this chocolate raspberry cake primarily for the raspberry filling, by fashionable demand. Over time I’ve acquired numerous requests for a raspberry cake filling recipe, and now the reply is… sure, I’ve one!!
I based mostly the chocolate cake batter on this recipe for darkish chocolate peanut butter cake, however by accident used 8-inch pans as an alternative of 9-inch pans. Whereas this often isn’t an enormous deal—simply want to regulate the bake time—I truly overfilled the 8-inch pans, which did nothing in my favor. The cake layers baked up within the strangest method and appeared like brains. Completely unintentional, however perhaps I’m onto one thing for Halloween? LOL.
The truffles rose up, sank down within the facilities, and completed with unhappy crinkle-wrinkle facilities. The lesson right here is: don’t overfill your cake pans, and use the advisable cake pan dimension.
Baking does require utilizing your mind (particularly when doing the maths for cake pan sizes and conversions!), however truffles that look like brains have been undoubtedly not what I used to be going for.
Nice information… you’ll be able to bake a non-brain cake by following my chocolate raspberry cake recipe. 😉
Strawberry Cream-Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes
My recipe for chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes was initially revealed in 2018. I just lately modified the chocolate cupcake batter so it matches my cream-filled chocolate cupcakes. (That are fairly presumably the perfect cupcakes I’ve ever made, and I stand agency on that.) The up to date batter merely bakes up stronger, and holds the strawberry buttercream a bit higher. They’re deeply chocolatey and additional moist. Like Hostess cupcakes, with a strawberry twist.
In case you beloved the previous model, the batter matched these chocolate cupcakes!
Getting a Head Begin on Sally’s Cookie Palooza 2023
I’m actually excited to publish a recipe for gingerbread cookie bars later this 12 months. My first batch was supremely flavorful and spiced (simply what I needed!), however the texture was utterly off. They have been fluffy and cake-like, as in the event you have been consuming a heavy sq. of gingerbread cake:
I had a superb feeling in regards to the cookie dough, although. It’s just like my chewy chocolate chip cookies, and so I made a decision to cut back the flour and bake the dough in a bigger pan. The bars have been thinner, which made them flatter and chewier. That is simply what I needed: dense, chewy, moist, spiced, good.
That recipe is coming in December. Instructed you I used to be getting forward!
Nonetheless on a ginger molasses kick, I made a decision to bake a batch of those white chocolate chip molasses cookies in hopes to replace the pictures. Nicely, I forgot to set the oven timer, took a cellphone name, forgot they have been within the oven, turned the oven off, then 2 hours later preheated the oven for one thing else.
As my assistant, Beth, and I went to place some bread within the oven, we discovered a baking sheet of lumpy hockey pucks. The cookies baked as supposed, after which continued their oven journey because the oven cooled down, and preheated once more. I’m unhappy to report that they didn’t survive the whirlwind journey.
Oven timers… time and time once more… show to be helpful. 😉
Q: Have you ever had a recipe fail currently?
Cookbook Sneak Peek
My subsequent cookbook is nicely underway, and it’s untitled in the intervening time! This baking cookbook can be my greatest but. 100 baking recipes divided amongst chapters together with yeast bread, breakfast, cookies, truffles, fast breads, cupcakes, and extra. The ebook can be principally new and unique recipes to the ebook, and also will embody a handful of the preferred recipes on my web site. It will likely be good to have them professionally printed in a tangible ebook!
My manuscript deadline is a 12 months away, after which the ebook will proceed within the modifying and design phases earlier than heading to print. Thanks prematurely to your endurance. That is the primary time I’ve written such a big manuscript, whereas concurrently managing staff, working a big web site, and elevating children!
And looking for time to relaxation and recharge so my artistic juices proceed to circulate!
The newest cookbook recipe I examined was a spin on my buttermilk biscuits. Assume bacon, spicy honey, cheddar cheese, and chives. My knees truly went weak on the first style. And also you’ll take pleasure in recipes for tender jalapeño bread, deeply chocolate cheesecake, one other recipe for chewy molasses cookies (I’m on a kick!), and you may wager these fashionable banana muffins will make an look. I can’t wait to share extra with you! Keep tuned.