I love waffles. There’s just something so satisfying about pouring batter into a waffle iron and watching a waffle magically appear. They are so much easier than pancakes, in my opinion. I get too impatient with pancakes. I either flip them prematurely or not soon enough. A waffle iron keeps me stress free and that something I appreciate when I’m not fully caffeinated in the morning. This recipe for Buckwheat Belgium waffles comes from a street vendor called Moxie Rx in Portland, Oregon. They were featured in the March ’09 issue of Sunset magazine, who thankfully shared the recipe with us. The waffles are incredibly light and perfectly crisp! I could easily eat 3 in one sitting because they are so airy and delicate! The buckwheat isn’t a very dominant flavor, so if that scares you, don’t fret! It just adds a hint of nuttiness to the waffle and doesn’t make it seem like a health food.
You need to make the batter 24 hours before you make the waffles, so plan on that! If you want a sweet waffle, you’re supposed to put the batter in the fridge overnight (which is what I did). If you want a more sourdoughy waffle, you let the batter sit on your kitchen counter overnight. I topped our waffles with cinnamon sugar, bananas, Greek yogurt & a really fast blueberry sauce. If that sounds like too much for you, they are just as great on their own with some butter & the cinnamon sugar. Trust me.
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Have a craving for oatmeal raisin cookies but feeling too lazy to whip out a batch of cookies? These oatmeal raisin bars will do the trick! This recipe produces a dense bar that is perfect as a breakfast treat! Who says oatmeal cookies aren’t OK for breakfast? Fool those crazy people with these bars! Eat one or two or three…and get away with it cuz they totally aren’t cookies! They’re bars! Got a BBQ to go to? Bring these! They’ll hold up well in the heat!
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You need to make these NOW.
Make them for dinner if you have to! They are fantastic! And that orange maple butter is OFF THE HOOK! You will seriously find every excuse to eat the leftovers all week long. And please do, because the recipe makes a good amount! I’ll totally kick your ass if any goes to waste! So how are the pancakes? Scrumptious! They taste like a cross between breakfast polenta, a blueberry muffin, and a pancake with a fancy high noon tea vibe (thanks to that butter!) Every now and then you get a little crunch from the cornmeal. It pleases me and I bet you will be pleased too. By the way–your taste buds called and they said their sick of plain old regular pancakes. Throw them a bone and make them something new and different! Do it!
Come on! Look at that BUTTER!!!
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Yes you read that correctly. BACON! These cookies were a birthday treat for my precious bacon-loving friend, Whitney. They were a hit at her pre-birthday tapas celebration last week! Six of us ladies scarfed them down for dessert. Ca-caw!
The recipe comes from my best baking friend, Joy! She’s my go-to person when I want to bake something sweet and different! I love her. I love bacon. I love peanut butter. I love super easy recipes. So it’s a match made in heaven!
Let’s talk about how IN-CRED-IBLE these cookies are! The salty sweet combo is WICKED! They are chewy because of the brown sugar, crispy because of the bacon, and crunchy because of the light sugar coating! My mouth waters as I type this…I really wish I saved a secret stash of them. If you are a bacon lover, this recipe will not disappoint. I’m pretty sure Elvis would have been tickled for a tray full of these!
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Somehow I got the idea that you need an occasion to make a cake. Like you can’t just make a cake because it’s a Thursday and you want one. That’s bad. That kind of thinking gets you into trouble. In a perfect world every day is worthy of cake, isn’t it? My excuse/occasion for making this cake was that my husband has been working his ass off for the past few weeks at work and deserved one. And thank god he’s been working hard, because if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have this heavenly recipe to share!
Carrot cake! We loooooove carrot cake. A carrot bundt cake? I’m intrigued! A few weeks ago, I showed Casey the photo of this cake from the magazine and he insisted that there wasn’t enough frosting. NOT TRUE. There’s tons! Like a ridiculous amount of it. There was a pool of frosting in the middle of the bundt hole and yes, I went for it. No one witnessed my moment of gluttony so it might not have happened. So how did it go? Extremely well! The best part of this cake? The crunchy caramelized edges you get from using a bundt pan! It reminds me of a cross between a pineapple upside down cake, a coffee cake and carrot cake! Three of my favorites! The tang of the sour cream is a perfect substitution for the classic carrot cake’s cream cheese frosting. Total winner. It’s going in the cake rotation fo’sho!
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Today I needed to make a sweet treat in a super short period of time because I had an impromptu date with my neighbors outside in the sun and didn’t want to show up empty handed. They supply the drinks, I supply the treats! It’s a pretty good deal, huh? I found this recipe in an Everday Food Magazine (which is my go-to publication when I need something speedy) and was super stoked that I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen. Serendipity!
They were SCRUMPTIOUS and they didn’t last long! The crust is so simple and buttery. It’s crispy on the bottom and the top is nice and crumbly. The raspberry jam provides the perfect amount of tart to balance out the sweetness in the crust. There’s something about the butter/flour/almond combo that reminds me of baklava. It’s utterly amazing. Go ahead and make them. You deserve them. And maybe your neighbors do too? Maybe you could trade a batch of these for that ladder they keep forgetting to give back to you?
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If the culprit for my college “Freshman 15″ had to be named, it would be ridiculous amount of hazelnut lattes I consumed. When I lost the extra weight, I lost the taste for hazelnut flavoring and hazelnuts in general. Many many MANY years later, I saw this recipe and thought it could be a good test to see if the adult Tracy still liked hazelnuts—in moderation of course! And yes, thanks to this recipe, I still do. If I had to do college over again, I would have made these cookies weekly! I also wouldn’t have lived with my roommate who was the mayor of PSYCHOVILLE for over 2 years, but we’ll save that for another time.
These cookies are everything I look for in a cookie. They’ve got crispy crunchy edges with a nice chewy center. Such a great bite! No need to worry, the espresso flavor isn’t too bold. It’s like a light buttery hazelnut latte with a few crunchy toasted nuts every now and then. There’s also a subtle hint of malt flavoring in them. I don’t know where that came from, but I enjoyed it immensely.
A few more notes about these cookies-
-The description in the Everyday Food: Fresh Flavors Fast cookbook says that these cookies are more of an adult cookie. NOT TRUE. Eleven of the twelve cookies I gave to my neighbor were eaten by her children. Those kids saved ONE for their mom. How ROTTEN! Tell your kids that there’s spinach in them. Get their paws away from your cookies. Eat them during their nap time or when they are down for the night. Hide them where you hide their Christmas presents! Seems Coop wanted to get his little fingers on them too… NO WAY!
-The scent that will fill your kitchen when you bake these resembles the smell of hot buttery pancakes served with a freshly brewed pot of coffee. Close your eyes and meditate on that one. Is there anything more comforting than that? NOPE.
-They aren’t ridiculously sweet. Which is great! And that’s probably one of the reasons they are considered an adult cookie. If you want something on the sweeter side and want to indulge yourself even more, add some chocolate chips. DO IT. I will if you do!
-Roasting the hazelnuts wasn’t as hard and annoying as I thought it would be. The skins peel right off if you use the technique described in the recipe! The steaming in the dish towel trick is pretty cool.
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Ellie Krieger gives fair warning in her latest cookbook that this topping is addictive. Don’t even think about second guessing her because she’s totally right! I can guarantee that my jar will be empty tomorrow because I want to eat it by the heaping spoonful and top it on EVERTHING. Yogurt, pancakes, rice pudding, fruit, ice cream, my toothbrush!! Here I come!
It reminds me of the Honey Nut Squares I made, but with a lot less fuss! It takes less than 10 minutes to make this sticky crunchy gooey treat. The toasted sesames are quite fun too! There’s a subtle halvah taste to it. I think you’ll like it!
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We had a rainy Easter day here in the Bay Area. I can’t remember the last time it rained here on an Easter. It was totally bizarre! Luckily we had this Strawberry Icebox Pie to channel sunny warm Easter weather. The strawberries were super sweet and tangy! Such a dream paired with fresh whipped cream on a graham cracker crust. It was like an ice cream combo I would have ordered at Cold Stone Creamery. Think strawberry cheesecake ice cream– but lighter! This recipe says it serves 8, but it only served 5 at my house. Which means REALLY REALLY liked it. I bet it would be great on a hot summer day when you want something sweet that’s a bit cool and refreshing too! This is definitely going in my dessert rotation.
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