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 recreation. I’m presently 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 an increasing number of distinguished on my web site, I’ve discovered that I gained’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 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 finished!
So proper now, my staff and I are balancing recipes for 3 completely different time frames. It’s been laborious to mentally arrange 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 gained’t come out till 2024 or 2025.
We dedicate 1 week per thirty 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 initiatives I labored on this yr was my recipe for wholesome bran muffins. I performed round with the quantity of wheat bran, flour, and liquid just a few 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 take a look at batches was tasty, however the batter was fairly skinny and the ensuing muffins had 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 photograph on this submit 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, properly, saucy. 😉
I even have a brand new recipe for lemon cheesecake on my web site. 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 properly—I like making cheesecake.
The Unimaginable 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 primarily based the chocolate cake batter on this recipe for darkish chocolate peanut butter cake, however by chance used 8-inch pans as a substitute of 9-inch pans. Whereas this normally isn’t a giant 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 means and appeared like brains. Completely unintentional, however possibly I’m onto one thing for Halloween? LOL.
The muffins 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 helpful cake pan measurement.
Baking does require utilizing your mind (particularly when doing the mathematics for cake pan sizes and conversions!), however muffins that look like brains had 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-Crammed 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 presumably the very 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 additional moist. Like Hostess cupcakes, with a strawberry twist.
In the event 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 yr. My first batch was supremely flavorful and spiced (simply what I needed!), however the texture was utterly off. They had been fluffy and cake-like, as in the event you had been consuming a heavy sq. of gingerbread cake:
I had a superb feeling in regards to the cookie dough, although. It’s much 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 had 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. Advised 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 telephone name, forgot they had 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 properly underway, and it’s untitled in the meanwhile! This baking cookbook can be my largest but. 100 baking recipes divided amongst chapters together with yeast bread, breakfast, cookies, muffins, fast breads, cupcakes, and extra. The e-book can be largely new and unique recipes to the e-book, and also will embody a handful of the most well-liked recipes on my web site. It will likely 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 in 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 youngsters!
And looking for time to relaxation and recharge so my artistic juices proceed to circulation!
The most recent 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’ll guess these fashionable banana muffins will make an look. I can’t wait to share extra with you! Keep tuned.