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 presently testing recipes for proper now, for the vacation baking season, and for my cookbook. So, I’m sure 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 realized that I received’t have the ability to sustain except I’ve a inventory of content material able to go. My web site sees probably the most web site site visitors from September by means of December, and I wish to reap the benefits of the need for fall and vacation baking! Final yr I printed about 30 brand-new recipes throughout that point, and I plan for a similar quantity of content material this yr.
I have already got 4 completed!
So proper now, my crew and I are balancing recipes for 3 completely different time frames. It’s been exhausting to mentally manage when leaping between adorning Valentine’s Day cookies for now, photographing pies for Pie Week later within the yr, and growing new recipes for my cookbook, which received’t come out till 2024 or 2025.
We dedicate 1 week per 30 days 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 yr was my recipe for wholesome bran muffins. I performed round with the quantity of wheat bran, flour, and liquid a couple of instances till I reached a pleasant stability of hearty and tender, with out tasting like cardboard. (At all times a pleasant bonus.)
One of many take a look at batches was tasty, however the batter was fairly skinny and the ensuing muffins have been squat and greasy. Including a little bit extra flour bulked up the batter, and the ultimate batch was successful.
Saucy Blueberry Sauce & Lemon Cheesecake
The primary picture 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 place to begin. 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 straightforward to check as nicely—I like making cheesecake.
The Unimaginable Shrinking Cake
I developed this chocolate raspberry cake primarily for the raspberry filling, by standard demand. Over time I’ve acquired a number of 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 unintentionally used 8-inch pans as an alternative of 9-inch pans. Whereas this normally 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 regarded like brains. Completely unintentional, however possibly 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 really useful 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 may 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 printed in 2018. I just lately modified the chocolate cupcake batter so it matches my cream-filled chocolate cupcakes. (That are fairly probably one of the best 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 little bit higher. They’re deeply chocolatey and further moist. Like Hostess cupcakes, with a strawberry twist.
If you happen to beloved the outdated 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 yr. My first batch was supremely flavorful and spiced (simply what I needed!), however the texture was fully off. They have been fluffy and cake-like, as if you happen to have been consuming a heavy sq. of gingerbread cake:
I had a very good feeling in regards to the cookie dough, although. It’s just like my chewy chocolate chip cookies, and so I made a decision to scale 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, excellent.
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 photographs. Properly, I forgot to set the oven timer, took a telephone 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 meant, 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 these days?
Cookbook Sneak Peek
My subsequent cookbook is nicely underway, and it’s untitled in the mean time! This baking cookbook might be my largest but. 100 baking recipes divided amongst chapters together with yeast bread, breakfast, cookies, truffles, fast breads, cupcakes, and extra. The e-book might be principally new and unique recipes to the e-book, and also will embody a handful of the most well-liked recipes on my web site. Will probably be good to have them professionally printed in a tangible e-book!
My manuscript deadline is a yr away, after which the e-book will proceed within the enhancing and design phases earlier than heading to print. Thanks upfront on your persistence. That is the primary time I’ve written such a big manuscript, whereas concurrently managing workers, working a big web site, and elevating children!
And looking for time to relaxation and recharge so my artistic juices proceed to move!
The most recent cookbook recipe I examined was a spin on my buttermilk biscuits. Suppose bacon, spicy honey, cheddar cheese, and chives. My knees truly went weak on the first style. And also you’ll get pleasure from recipes for tender jalapeño bread, deeply chocolate cheesecake, one other recipe for chewy molasses cookies (I’m on a kick!), and you’ll wager these standard banana muffins will make an look. I can’t wait to share extra with you! Keep tuned.
