Bostock

My family is split on what to do with leftover challah. There's very strong support for making French Toast. Some prefer to keep it for dips or sandwiches the next day. And I just decided to throw in another option after finding this recipe: Bostock. I found this recipe accidentally but had a feeling I'd enjoy it since I'm a huge fan of marzipan and almond paste. This would work great with leftover brioche or challah. These sliced of almond paste topped challah are somewhere in between crispy and moist and are a fun addition to the leftover bread department.

Pin It Now!

Almond Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

More often than not, I love jam cookies. If it's a bow tie cookie or a linzer cookie, I love the combination of a shortbread style cookie with sweet jam. This recipe proved to be yet another tasty jam treat. I was a little skeptical making these since the dough was drier and more crumbly than I am used to, but bear with it and you will probably love these cookies too. Ideally, you'd make these with a square or round cookie cutter. But oddly enough I could not find a simple shape anywhere, so I opted for stars. Feel free to use whatever jam you like in these cookies. I love raspberry jam, but stick with your personal preference.

Pin It Now!

Swiss Carrot Cake (Rüeblicake)

This is another recipe from Betty Bossi, the brand put on some great Swiss cookbook. The Betty Bossi recipes I use are generally older than me, but they are great. I especially love the Betty Bossi baking books, where I have yet to make a cookie or cake that I dislike (of course I skip over some of the really outdated sounding recipes). This cake is great plain, or you could top it with a cream cheese topping. I sometimes make muffins out of this batter. That way, if it's just me at home, I can freeze most of them and just thaw them when my sweet tooth kicks in.

This is a really simple carrot cake, but it is a flavor I love every time I make it. Though I haven't tried it yet, I would guess you could sub half the butter for applesauce. Somehow I never remember to buy apple sauce before I make this recipe, but while I'm making it I remember that it would have been a good idea. For the almonds, you could use either almond meal (which is just finely ground almonds) or put slivered almonds in a food processor or blender. Either method works, but I usually grind the almonds myself.

Pin It Now!

Duchesse Cookies

This recipe comes from one of my mother's Swiss Betty Bossi cookbooks. The cookbook is solely dedicated to baking cookies and is full of mouthwatering pictures. Even though the recipes in this book are old (this book was published in 1978), they always seems to produce great results. Betty Bossi is kind of like the Martha Stewart meets Betty Crocker of Switzerland. I think every Swiss household has at least one Betty Bossi cookbook in their possession.

This recipe usually creates a cookie that looks pretty different from mine. The cookie is meant to have a chocolate filling that gets sandwiched between cookies. The cookies are also supposed to be piped into the shape of a meringue kiss, so you end up with a three dimensional cookie. I rushed these a bit too much and hastily spooned my batter onto cookie sheets/ sure enough, they turned out flat, but they still tasted amazing. My family prefers these without the chocolate and has these cookies with tea or coffee. If you're trying to make a more elegant cookie, add the chocolate filling. I also apologize that I didn't remember to convert the gram measurements into cups, so hopefully you can get your hands on a scale.

(photo from the cookbook- the intended shape)

Pin It Now!

Almond Coffee Cake

 
I have a thing for almonds and all things almond flavored. Whether it's marzipan, almond extract, or almond paste, I love any baked good with that general flavor. I recently bought a couple tubes of almond paste and knew I wanted to bake a cake with one of them. The last time I baked with almond paste I made amaretti cookies, but the texture was a little too chewy, so this time I wanted to try something new.

This recipe makes a great coffee cake that showcases the delicious flavor of the almond paste. The original recipe comes from an old Junior League cookbook from San Francisco, but it is one of those timeless recipe that will always taste great. My sister described the texture as a combination of cheesecake and angel food cake. It's very moist and a little dense, but it still manages to feel light and airy. The crunchy top contrasts the soft cake, and is a great addition to an otherwise basic cake. If you like almond flavored sweets, you will love this coffee cake.

Pin It Now!

Linzer Cookies

If you haven't already noticed, I have quite the sweet tooth. Today alone I probably consumed more sugar than some people do in a week. A lunch made of ice cream and cake batter is far from healthy, but so, so good. And I just pretend there is no such thing as salmonella while scraping up every last bit of batter. These cookies are another delicious cure for my sweet tooth.

Make these today. Seriously. They are so good. When it comes to making cookies, I am extremely fussy. I find that most homemade cookies are average, or slightly better than average, but not always worth the time they take. So when I find one that I love, it becomes a keeper and now this cookie is at the top of my list. They're adorable (especially if you are a more delicate baker than I am), but a little time consuming. Don't let that put you off of these. They're just as time consuming as most cookies that get cut into cute shapes, I just tend to get impatient.

The trickiest part about these cookies is rolling out the dough. After several failed attempts, I decided it would be easiest to leave the plastic wrap in which they are chilled laying on top of the dough, then rolling. This was what save me from giving up on these cookies. After that it's just a matter of keeping the surface floured and not rolling the dough too thin. The thinner the dough, the more difficult it is to lift the delicate cookies onto the baking sheet. I also realized I only had a really chunky mixed berry jam, so I threw it in the mini food processor to make it smooth before decorating the cookies. Even without the jam, these were really good cookies. I intentionally left a few of mine incomplete and used them as a "dunking" cookie with a cup of tea.

Pin It Now!

Mixed Greens with Goat Cheese and Candied Almonds

Clearly, I've been on a candied nut kick lately. They become dangerously addictive and any recipe that calls for them becomes an instant "must try" on my list. They also add such a great crunch to salads, and since it's 95°F here, salads sound pretty amazing. I promise once it cools down I won't be posting about salad every other day, but remember when it was summer where most of you live? And how sweltering it can get when you don't have an air conditioner?

Anyway, back to the salad I discovered during my candied nut hunt. This is a quick one to throw together, except the dressing requires about 30 minutes to reduce on your stove. You can add more to it, switch cheeses, switch nuts, but it's really the dressing that is great. Try to avoid using extra virgin olive oil (light olive oil would be better), since it overpowers the flavor of the apple cider vinegar and sparkling cider. I cut the recipe in half and it made a great lunch for 3 (assuming not all 3 are starving). The salad dressing makes A LOT more than you need. You can save it in your fridge for another salad, give some away, or scale it back. I decided to save some and give the rest away to my friend who was the guinea pig today. She loved the dressing and was a happy to help get rid of the extra.
Pin It Now!