Self-Rising Baked Pancake with Berries

If you're planning to wake Mom up with something special yet easy for Mother's Day, make this pancake for brunch. Instead of standing at the stove flipping a bunch of smaller pancakes, you stir together a simple batter, drop berries over it, and stick the pan in the oven to bake.  The pancake is moist and tender, and insanely good with the strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries -- topped with maple syrup, of course.  One of these will feed three or four people, with some bacon or scrambled eggs on the side.  If you're feeding a crowd, double the recipe and bake them in two pans at the same time.

I adapted this recipe to use self-rising flour for two reasons: I ran out of all-purpose flour, and I can't find enough uses for my self-rising flour.  I've included directions for using either in the recipe below.  I recently traveled to see my mom and won't be seeing her this Sunday, but I can't help thinking she would love this if I made it for her.  I'll have to give her a rain check.  If you're seeing your mom this Sunday, treat her to this pancake.  She'll love it.

Corn Cakes with Smoked Salmon

If you're looking for a brunch dish that's a little indulgent but not heavy, and just fancy enough for weekend guests, this is it.  I made these on Easter and just loved them, and they'd be great for treating moms on Mother's Day morning.  This savory spin on pancakes is made with cornmeal and corn, topped with slices of smoked salmon, and dolloped with light sour cream.

I also experimented with popovers recently.  These are my first ever.  Look at that pop!  This is a plain one, but I also experimented with crumbled bacon and want to play more with them.

For those of you who prefer a better corn product for the corn cakes, I found an organic yellow cornmeal made by Arrowhead Mills at my local health food store.  No luck in the supermarket organic section.  If you don't eat fish, you can substitute the smoked salmon with slices of ham, or top it with a fried egg.  The recipe is pretty easy, and if you have a large electric griddle you can make all the corn cakes at once in one batch.  That equals a little more time for weekend relaxin'.

Gruyere and Caramelized Onion Pull-Apart Bread

Gruyere, caramelized onions, and thyme -- this could be my favorite out of all the breads I've ever made.  I love a simple country loaf with just butter or olive oil, or naked if the bread is that good, but this pull-apart bread has so much going for it.  There are lots of cheesy pull-apart bread recipes out there, including convenient ones that call for layering storebought bread with cheese and then baking it.  But a yeasted bread you baked from scratch is special.  There's something about the beer-like smell of the yeast, watching the dough rise, and the intoxicating aroma of the gruyere, onions, and butter filling the house.  Have I got you hooked yet?

This bread sure put a smile on my face.  I've been sick for four weeks.  The doctor said it was the flu or a virus like it, and that it came and went in waves because I had gotten the flu shot and saved myself from the full-force flu.  That sounds like a good thing, but week after week of sore throats, sniffles, chills, nausea, and headaches tapped me out.  Never mind the nonstop snowstorms we've had.  But now that I'm almost 100 percent, I wanted to bake.  The hands-on process of bread-making is methodical and soothing, and the result was pure comfort food.  I also finally got around to working on my next dining review for the paper, so I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things again.  At least on all the food front.

This recipe is from Williams-Sonoma's blog, and I didn't change it much.  One problem was that it called for a particular type of flour that is no longer available, so I used a blend of all-purpose and bread flours.  It also called for mustard seeds and I didn't have any, so I subbed in whole-grain Dijon mustard.  I also reduced the butter a tiny bit, but worry not, there's still plenty in there.  The bread will have crusty, cheesy edges, and soft centers sweet with caramelized onions and butter.  The next time a blizzard comes your way, make sure you've got gruyere and onions, then settle in for pure winter comfort.

Flour's Tortilla with Chorizo, Peppers & Potato

I've been making liberal use of my oven during the recent snowstorms and "polar vortex," the better to warm up the house. Icy, grey mornings call for a hearty breakfast or brunch like this tortilla.  Red peppers are sauteed and potatoes get browned before pouring in an egg mixture laced with Parmesan, and then the skillet is thrown in the oven to finish.  You can keep the recipe vegetarian as is, or add some chorizo like I did.  It adds a nice, salty bite.

Sprinkle on some chopped scallions and parsley for freshness, then slice into wedges.  I like that the tortilla can be served hot or at room temperature, and that you can make it a day or so in advance and reheat when serving.  Perfect if you want to get a head start before house guests arrive, or for getting one weekend brunch dish out of the way.

Making a Spanish tortilla usually involves flipping the eggs, hot skillet and all, onto a plate, and then sliding the filling back into the skillet to cook the other side.  I'm not a fan of inverting piping-hot cast iron skillets with ingredients that could still be runny, so I'm glad this recipe involves no flipping!  When the next snowfall hits, I hope this is in my oven.  It'll sustain us through lots of shoveling.  Stay warm, friends!

White Chocolate-Macadamia Cookies, plus Christmas Roundup

Happy 2014!  I had plans to cook and bake so many things and share them with you last month, including these White Chocolate-Macadamia Cookies.  That all went out the window as the holiday season got so busy.  I love that time of year, but it's downright stressful and tires me out.  Even my vacation time was hectic since we hadn't gotten around to sending out cards, getting a tree, or shipping out the annual family cookies.  And my sister has to have her cookies -- it was our birthday!  We're Christmas twins and my dad's birthday is in the same week, so it's always a big time of year in my family.

Another thing that kept us busy was our new family member!  Joe and I adopted Betty from the local shelter a few days before Christmas.  Her name is enormously popular among our friends and family, so we'll probably get grief for changing it, but right now we're thinking Katsu.  Yes, like the Japanese pork cutlet. but I've changed it to Dorie, after one of my favorite bakers.  We lost our second cat, Shnooky, in September, and we were ready for another furry love.  She has the prettiest green eyes and a crazy coat striped and patched with marmalade, white, grey, and black.  As you can see, she made herself right at home.  She loves playing with toy mice and the laser pointer, and has taken to drinking from the bathroom faucet.  It took Gandalf a few days to warm up to her, but now they chase each other and play daily at the crack of dawn while we're trying to sleep.  And on Christmas Day we found them snuggling together!  Gandalf, my loveybug, likes to sit under the Christmas tree like he's out in the wild.

But just because I wasn't posting doesn't mean my kitchen wasn't seeing lots of use.  This year we included Hot Chocolate on a Stick (recipe by Giver's Log) in our cookie baskets.  Who wouldn't want hot cocoa with their cookies? You stir it into a mug of hot milk, and it's instant hot chocolate!  I also made homemade Vanilla Marshmallows, and you can kind of see a snowflake-shaped one in the back piped with dark chocolate.

For my friends' British-themed Christmas party, I made Braided Lemon Bread filled with lemon curd.

I also made my Mini-Cornish Beef Pasties for the party.  These are ready to go in the oven.

This year I switched up the Christmas Butter Cookies -- Joe's dad's favorite -- by decorating them with white chocolate instead of royal icing.  White chocolate dries so much faster.

And everybody else's favorite is the Linzer Cookie.  It's labor-intensive for me, so it's reserved for Christmas and maybe Valentine's Day also.  Everybody just loves the hazelnut cookies sandwiched with jam and dusted with snowy sugar.

The new cookie this year was the White Chocolate-Macadamia.  This recipe by chocolate baking expert Alice Medrich is not overly sugary like those storebought versions, and the oats give it some hearty flavor.  The cookies come out soft and chewy with crisp, golden bottoms.  The dough needs to sit in the fridge for at least two hours, so plan ahead.  I didn't love the cookies as I'd hoped, but I should disclose that I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate.  I fall into the camp of people who find it inferior to "real" chocolate.  But if you like white chocolate, this cookie's for you.  You can also make the dough ahead of time, scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, freeze until hard, and bake when needed.  Store them in zip-top bags in the freezer once they've fully hardened.  They'll bake at the same temperature and time, and add a minute or two to the baking time if needed.

Here's to 2014!

Boston Globe Review: The Corner Stop

Photo by Barry Chin/Globe Staff

My review in today's Globe South in The Boston Globe covers The Corner Stop, a restaurant that sits where the towns of Cohasset, Hull, and Hingham converge.  It's more sophisticated than its humble name suggests, and calls its menu modern American.  I'd call it upscale comfort food.  It's also got remarkable decor and is one of the prettiest restaurants I've seen.

Read the rest of my verdict at: http://b.globe.com/KehTrN

Mini-Cornish Pasty

I'm continuing my autumn pie-mania with a savory turn today: the Cornish pasty.  I know, I know, it's past unofficial pie season and we're now in cookie season!  But this pie lover thinks it should always be pie season.  I also hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as I did.  We got to spend it with our families, which is a treat when you've spent as many Thanksgivings working in a newsroom as I have.  And I started out stressed, thinking about all the things I could cook and bake and how to make everything perfect.  Then I loosened up.  My pumpkin pie looked imperfect.  I helped Mom make the meal instead of interfering with the planning or trying to take over.  I shrugged when the the table wasn't styled like a magazine spread.  Because the whole family was together, and it was a darned good meal.  A plentiful one.  My dad suddenly bought lobsters, of all things, Thanksgiving morning.  My brother went out and bought Italian cookies and a ricotta pie.  "Gee, you think we have enough?" I asked them.  And then we feasted.

My niece, Audrey, on Thanksgiving. She's going to be my apprentice baker one day.

Let's say this is a pie sendoff before I kick off cookie season.  Some friends are throwing a British-themed Christmas party this weekend, and I will be bringing these Cornish pasties.  They're like beef stew in pie form, the flaky pastry filled with beef, carrots, onion, and potato.  And because people will be milling around the party and there will be lots of other food, I made them minis.

Besides scaling them down, I adjusted the filling.  The recipe doesn't call for cooking it before the pies go into the oven, but I figured beef and vegetables steamed in a crust can't taste as good as the pan-seared and sauteed variety.  I put that to the test by making them two ways, and I was right.  The uncooked filling was bland (though Joe was happy to polish those pies off), but the cooked filling was aromatic and full of flavor.  The recipe, from Jamie Oliver's Great Britain, also included zucchini and butternut squash in the filling.  I kept the ingredients closer to that of a traditional beef stew, and I didn't want watery squash or the trouble of dicing hard butternut anyway.  Swap in whatever you like -- the recipe suggests peas, fava beans, or asparagus in spring.

I won't lie -- these are kind of a production.  But worth it!  Don't attempt the whole thing in one day.  Make the dough one or two days ahead, the filling one day ahead or the day of.  Give yourself time to roll and re-roll the dough and assemble the pasties.    They can be fully assembled, frozen, and baked later.  When done, reward yourself with a beer and a couple pasties.  They'll make a great holiday party starter, or a hearty winter lunch.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

You might be asking, another pie??  But it's pie season, and this one is so good!  This is not just any apple pie, but one with homemade salted caramel stirred into the filling, and additional caramel poured on top when served.  The big apple slices hold their shape and juiciness, and the caramel makes the filling wonderfully saucy.

This pie is also different because I finally decided to test-drive a recipe for a yogurt-butter crust, and I can report that it is super flaky and easy to roll out.  It wasn't so easy to assemble.  For the first time I used a handheld pastry blender like the recipe called for, rather than my food processor.  I've concluded that I'm lazy and prefer the machine, plus I feel like the machine works the dough less.  And we all know that working the dough less ensures tender pastry.  Also, while the yogurt works as a tenderizer, there simply wasn't enough moisture to bring the dough together.  I added about a quarter-cup extra water along with another teaspoon of yogurt.  I could chalk this up to the awfully dry conditions at home during fall and winter.  But continuing to work in the extra liquid made me afraid I was overworking the dough.  The pastry still came out tender, but next time I'll go the lazy route and use the machine.

Part of my autumn pie madness: puff pastry apple tartlets thrown together at a moment's notice

Finally, the caramel is simple to make, and I didn't even break out my candy thermometer.  But if you're short on time, I think storebought salted caramel would work just as well.  One last tip: I'm always afraid of crystallization when making caramels and syrups, so I put the lid on the pot for 2 minutes during the vigorous stage of boiling -- the steam builds up and washes down the sides, along with any crystals that have formed.  Both the pie dough and the caramel can be made a day or so in advance, and refrigerated until needed. Microwave the caramel to make it warm and pourable before using.  Have a good Thanksgiving, folks, and may it be filled with pie.

Looking for other Thanksgiving dessert ideas?  Here's a few:

Black Bottom Tart

Chocolate Cream Pie

Maple-Glazed Apple Crostata

Pear Custard Tart

Pecan Bars

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart

Vanilla-Bean Pear & Apple Tart

Pear Custard Tart

I've been on a pie-baking frenzy this fall, and I don't think I've run out of steam yet!  The latest is this Pear Custard Tart.  Bartlett pears are poached with vanilla bean and orange peel, then layered in a buttery crust and soaked in a vanilla custard before being baked and topped with toasted almonds.  It sounds amazing, and yet the result is understated.  The first day I found it plain and was a bit disappointed, but on the second day the flavors had developed -- the pears had more of a presence and the custard and almonds complemented them well.

I'm chalking the difference up to using pears that could have been more ripe, and not including the brandy the recipe called for.  We rarely have hard stuff in the house, but this simple tart could use something to punch it up.  I would definitely make it again, using riper pears and the brandy.  The tart doesn't have loud flavors: no chocolate, cinnamon, clove, or cayenne.  Still, it's gorgeous, elegant, and tasty (at least on the second day), and would make a light but showy finish to a Thanksgiving feast.

Boston Globe Review: Thanksgiving-Ready Pies

Some of the premade pies ready to go in my oven. I labeled the parchment to keep track of which pie was which.

I neglected to post about my latest review that ran in Sunday's Globe South in The Boston Globe.  Ever So Humble Pie Company in Walpole sells made-from-scratch frozen pies, and all you do is put them in the oven.  It's a convenient option for Thanksgiving if you want a from-scratch pie but don't have the time to make one.  The fruits and dairy are from local farms, and many of the pies are vegan-friendly.  The photographer's photos in the paper are far better than mine here, of a bunch of personal-sized pies ready to go into my oven (and my belly).

There was lots of pie-eating involved on my part.  It's a tough job, but somebody had to do it!  Check out the review: http://b.globe.com/193xDC1

Three-Bean & Corn Chili

It's getting downright cold here.  Sadly, I know this is nothing compared to the next few months.  Feeling my face hurt in 8-degree cold and shoveling in knee-deep snow are among my least-favorite things.  To warm up, I've been baking up a storm and making lots of soups and stews.  This Three-Bean & Corn Chili from Flour bakery's second cookbook will be making lots of appearances over the next few months.  It's full of cannellini beans, black beans, chickpeas, corn, sweet potato, and carrots.  Pimenton, or smoked Spanish paprika, gives it an unexpected smokiness and depth.  And to mix it up, I used ancho chile powder when the recipe called for chili powder.

I didn't think Joe would like this, expecting his reaction to be along the lines of: "Where's the beef?"  But we loved it.  I'll be making beef chili at some point also, because we love our red meat.  But this bean chili is hearty without weighing you down, and has got loads of flavor.  It's also super-healthy and low in the calorie department, both good things as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach.  If you're vegetarian or vegan, this will be a welcome addition to your repertoire (minus the cheese if you're the latter, of course).  Stay warm, friends!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Tart

Dorie Greenspan's Pumpkin Pie/Tart has been my favorite for years, and I have to have it every fall.  Sometimes it graces our table on Thanksgiving.  I love it cold straight from the fridge, but my mom likes to warm her slice in the oven for a few minutes.  I think it's perfect -- creamy and mellow, the spices fragrant but not too sharp.  I brought one of these tarts in to work last weekend, and one co-worker called it "sublime."  Another said it was "really fockin' tasty."

If I have one complaint, it's that there's always too much filling unless you bake it in a deep-dish pie pan.  But because I like the fancy-schmancy look, I divided the filling between a round tart and a rectangular tart.  If you do this, you'll need to double the recipe for the dough, and you'll have dough left over.  Shape it into decorative leaves like I did here.  Or roll out the leftover dough, cut it into strips, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake.  Whichever way you make the tart/pie, I think there should always be a dollop of freshly whipped cream.

If this doesn't satisfy your pumpkin fix, here's more:

Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Butter

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

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Pumpkin Fritters with Rosemary and Cheese

Pumpkin Meringue Pie

Vanilla-Bean Pear & Apple Tart

I have a zillion apples to get through after apple picking.  There's something about fall that makes you bypass even the farmers markets and head for the orchards to pick your own.  Is it the gorgeous foliage views, the hay rides, the cider doughnuts?  When we first arrived, the aroma of cider doughnuts was intoxicating, and they tasted just as good as they smelled.  With doughnuts in our bellies, we picked more apples than we needed.  And I knew the purpose most of them were meant for: pies.  With that in mind, the bulk of our apples were Golden Delicious and Mutsu, which hold their shape well when baked.

The orchard; my niece, Audrey; and a cider doughnut.

I was looking for a new way to do apple pie -- I've done traditional double crust, tarts, turnovers, hand pies, and crostatas.  The recipe I chose involved simmering the apples with some Red Devoe pears in a bath of melted butter and vanilla bean, and they were baked into the pie topped with a walnut lattice crust.  Apple, pear, butter, and vanilla bean combined are truly heavenly, and the chunky pieces of fruit were juicy.  Except... the bottom crust was soggy and the recipe called for an unusual lattice that came with no instructions: the strips were wide with no spaces between them.  I've made several lattice pies before so I wrangled one, but it was fussy.  So I set about re-creating the recipe.

Enter this tart.  It's shallower than a pie and has a lot less fruit, so no soggy bottom crust.  No tricky lattice dough to contend with, and no walnuts to blend into it.  I kept the blend of pears and apples, sprinkling them with vanilla sugar and dotting the whole thing with cold butter.  Much easier and faster than the pie, which was a production.  I might cut the fruit thicker next time because I did miss the big, juicy chunks from the pie.  It also didn't have as much vanilla-butter sauciness as the pie, but tarts are generally drier like that.  Don't substitute that vanilla bean with extract!  Go ahead and splurge on a bean, because it makes a world of difference.  Now I've just got to work my way through about a bushel more of apples!

Chocolate-Filled Walnut Cookies

Wow.  I thought I'd like these cookies, but I didn't think they would be quite that good.  I've had these walnut cookie molds for four years now, and they sat wrapped in their plastic packaging until this week.  I don't know why it took me so long to try them out.  Of course it's not the molds that make the cookie great, but the recipe.  When filled with chocolate ganache, the flavor is reminiscent of a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts.  As good as that is, I prefer them unfilled because they actually taste close to pecan pie, with that deep brown sugar and nutty flavor.

Top-left: Shnooky with our current cat, Gandalf the Grey. Bottom-left: Shnooky (left) with his big brother, Baby.

Before I go further, I wanted to dedicate this post to my beloved cat Shnooky, whom we lost three weeks ago.  I've been feeling down and a little lost without him, and we'd been together for one-third of my life.  He was as kooky as his name, and he made me laugh a lot.  He was "little buddy" and "sweet pea" to me, and he loved sunbeams and charging squirrels and birds outside the window with his "battle cry."  I even miss him walking all over me, demanding to be fed, as I slept in the mornings.  We feel sad to have lost two cats in two years, but we try to remember them with smiles instead of tears.

Back to the less-sad subject of cookies.  Don't have walnut molds and don't want to buy them?  You don't need to.  After I filled all 50 molds, I used a cookie scoop to make 3 more mounds, and they baked up on the cookie sheet just fine.  I can't tell you about the experience of filling those with ganache, because we ate them first.  Take note, though, that you can't use those cookie scoops (even the "teaspoon-sized" ones) to fill the walnut molds; those will give you too much dough.  Use the teaspoon in your measuring spoon set.  I would have preferred the ease of a spring-loaded scoop.  I also thought I would include these in our Christmas cookie baskets this year, but they appear too fragile to hold up in the mail.  Still, they would make a lovely gift hand-delivered for the holidays.  Or just good for eating on any old afternoon.

Boston Globe Review: Fancy That tearoom

Shirley Goh/Globe Staff

Have you ever had afternoon tea?  It's one of my most favorite ways to pass the time.  I love the carefully brewed tea, the leisurely pace, the beautiful china.  And of course, the finger sandwiches, scones, and miniature sweets.

Fancy That, a Walpole vintage rental shop, just opened its tearoom in May.  Read my verdict in today's Globe South in The Boston Globe: http://b.globe.com/175PueM

Peach-Raspberry Slab Pie

I just love peach pie, and I've been intending to try my hand at making a slab pie for some time.  I was planning my desk's annual Labor Day indoor cookout (gotta find some way to shake up holidays at work), and I wanted a summery dessert that would feed a crowd.  A slab pie is essentially a sheet pan pie, made bigger and flatter so it will feed many and takes less time to make.  So the thinking goes.

I found it just as laborious as making a traditional pie, and kind of a pain.  It started out well when I rolled out the bottom crust easily despite the big dimensions the recipe called for.  But then when I rolled out the top crust the dough started tearing, and I started grumbling.  And by the time I sliced all the peaches and then assembled the whole thing, I was tired.  Why does anyone assume a slab pie will be easier?  It's a huge, double-crust pie.  I've made easier tarts and crostatas.  I did like the combination of raspberries with peaches.  The sides and corners were nice and flaky, but the bottom crust in the middle was unfortunately soft.  The slab pie wasn't bad, it just didn't blow me away.

I liked these much better.  I used the leftover dough another day to make hand pies filled with berry jam and Greek cream cheese.  I just winged it, but they came out great.  I'm still holding out hope for doing one more summery peach pie, but I better act fast -- apples and pumpkins are already threatening to take over!

Looking for more peach goodness?  Try White Peach and Prosecco Gelatina, Lattice-top Peach Pie, Peach-Vanilla Bean Cobbler with Sugar Crunch Lattice, or Peach and Plum Crumble.

Turkey Burgers with Tomato-Onion Jam

I've been doing quite a bit of home cooking since I got home from my trip a few days ago, and these Turkey Burgers with Tomato-Onion Jam are the latest.  But can I tell you how I ate like a king last week?  I had such a great time at the Asian American Journalists Association's annual convention in New York City.  I caught up with so many old friends, made some great new connections, and got some ideas to think about.  I've never stayed at a hotel in my hometown before, and I figured if I'm going to eat out, I'm going to eat out.

Top row: Bouchon sweets and Havana Central shrimp mofongo. Bottom row: Pie Face hand pies and Ippudo ramen.

And boy, did I!  I had the lamb burger at The Breslin with my friend Bao, dinner with my mom and sis at Havana Central (not my favorite), and sweet treats at Bouchon.  I went to a dinner for 50 "fascinating" people at Zengo (good food, but terrible and rude service), and amused myself by wondering how I'd scored an invite.  I braved the summer heat for a bowl of the Akamaru modern ramen at Ippudo Westside, and made repeat visits to Pie Face.  The beef with tomato chutney, the pear with ricotta, and the chocolate hand pies make me swoon.

When I got home, I was faced once again with my surplus of garden tomatoes.  I had bookmarked the turkey burgers to try, and thought the tomato-onion jam would be a great use for my little orange tomatoes.  The recipe calls for plum tomatoes, but these tiny tomatoes worked just as well.  It will look like they've released way too much water, but that will evaporate by the last few minutes of cooking.  It's like ketchup meets caramelized onions, but chunkier, fresher, and naturally sweeter.  I'll be making more jars of this stuff as my garden gives us tomatoes faster than we can eat them.

And you can see while the burgers were still raw just how much stuff was packed into them.  They don't quite hit the spot for me like a red meat burger can, yet they're super moist and loaded with flavor.  Look at the herbs, chunks of feta, and chipotle pepper.  And if your spice tolerance tends to be mild, I would halve the amount of chipotle.  They're also a bit fussier to make than your ordinary burger, since they're seared and then baked, and you have to cook some onion and garlic first.  But they're well worth it.  Turkey can be plain and dry, but all the steps and ingredients ensure a juicy and flavorful burger.  And don't skip making that tomato-onion jam.  You'll miss out, big time.

Chocolate Hazelnut Melting Moments

As promised from last time, here are the Chocolate Hazelnut Melting Moments.  Chocolate-hazelnut cookies sandwich a creamy chocolate-hazelnut filling.  I'm not sure how these are hazelnut variations of Melting Moments, which I made previously.  The recipes aren't similar, and this hazelnut recipe lacks the cornstarch or Bird's custard powder that you often see in Melting Moments recipes.  The taste and consistency are different, though wonderful in their own way.  They're chocolate and hazelnut, so how could they not be?  They just deserve their own name.

The dough can be a little fussy to work with.  Once the dough starts to get melty and tear, and the rounds don't hold their shape when handled, toss the remaining dough into the freezer, parchment sheets and all, to firm up before cutting again.  It's a little labor intensive, but they are well worth it.

Melting Moments tea cookies

Melting Moments: The name is corny, but the sandwiched cookie is divine.  When my friend Bryanna was clearing her apartment for her big move to New York, she offered me a book of afternoon tea recipes.  Everything looked good, but the Melting Moments caught my attention immediately.  They're crisp yet light-textured cookies filled with buttercream.  I had made them months ago with another recipe, which used Bird's custard powder and added jam on top of the buttercream.  I like this recipe better, which uses cornstarch and vanilla instead so there wasn't the subtle chalky taste or texture I got from the Bird's.  I made some other minor tweaks and added the jam to this version also. Trust me, jam plus buttercream induces satisfied groans.  Thanks, Bry!  Maybe I'll make these next time you're in town.

Also, if you're a fan of chocolate and hazelnut together, check back here in a few days for the Hazelnut Melting Moments I also made from this book!

I'm catching up on following all your posts.  It's been a busy summer, especially with the visit of family.  I had fun grilling and chilling with my dad, even if we disagree on how long it takes to cook meat on the grill and how harmful char is.  It's all good -- by a certain age and with living in different states, you overlook the little stuff and enjoy your time together.  And Sis and I had been waiting all summer for a beach outing together.  She brought her little one, who would run around yelling, "Auntie, where arrre yoou?  A-yi, where arrre yoou?"  In these pictures Audrey is hanging with Grandpa, her best friend.  In the one on the left, she's using one of her favorite expressions, "Wooo-ooow!" while she watches the waves.

And my garden has been rewarding me with tomatoes!  There's loads of these little Sun Sugar tomatoes, some big heirloom Brandywine tomatoes, cherry peppers, and the occasional strawberry.  On the right is a sauce I made from the yellow tomatoes, and a salsa behind it from the Brandywines and cherry peppers.  I've been hitting up the farmers market for blueberries, summer squash, and fragrant peaches with the fuzz still on them.  I'm trying, as usual, to milk every moment out of summer before it gets too cold for my favorite produce, beaches, and barbeques.