Recipes - Page 9 of 12 - Cloudy Kitchen

Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Macarons

These Raspberry Dark Chocolate French Macarons are perfect for Valentines' day or an any time treat. A macaron shell is filled with a dark chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream and a Raspberry Jam Filling.

Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

Hi! Happy Happy Wednesday! Things have been a little hectic around here - we are preparing to shoot our new collection for the studio this Saturday, which is super exciting, but it wouldn’t be shoot prep without a wee bit of last minute running around trying to get everything sorted (currently waiting for an email from a lady about a fig tree). I wanted to quickly pop by and share this recipe before we post our epic Valentine’s day box for tomorrow, because 1. the recipe takes up loads of space, but 2. these are so delicious and cute that I figured they would need their own post so we could really show them off.

For our February Macaron recipe we kept it kinda cliche Valentines day with Raspberry and Chocolate. I’m really not a huge Valentines fan, but I can’t resist making a whole heap of pink stuff. We went with a pink shell, which we filled with a dark chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream, darkened with a little black cocoa, which turned out to be the most amazing tasting thing ever - all dark chocolate buttercream will have cocoa in it from now on. The inside got a wee dollop of a raspberry quick jam - I made my own, but you can absolutely use a store bought one to save some time!

These Macs were a part of our Valentine’s cookie box, which is coming tomorrow - but they would be perfect on their own, as a valentine’s gift, or just for a little anytime treat.

Components of Macarons

Macaron Shells - Gluten free French Macaron shells. We added some pink food colouring to the shells during the meringue stage.
Raspberry Jam - These Raspberry Dark Chocolate Macarons have a homemade filling, but a store bought would work great too.
Dark Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream - Swiss Meringue Buttercream is named after the Swiss Meringue it is based on. Dark chocolate is added, along with a little black cocoa powder for some depth of flavour.

A few wee tips for Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

Everything I know about Macarons - all the tips and tricks I can think of, are in this post
We used Black cocoa in the buttercream, but a dutch cocoa would work great too if you don’t have black cocoa.
You will have some Swiss Meringue Buttercream left over - you can either half the recipe if you don't want this, or it keeps super well in the fridge if you wanted to use it for another project. I find that making half a batch of buttercream can be a little tricky, depending on your mixer. Plus I think if you're going to go to the effort you might as well make lots to use again! It goes perfectly on a sheet cake - it would be epic on this banana cake.
The Raspberry jam does need a little time to cool, so make sure you account for this. I like to make my own, but store bought is also perfect - you can even get a few flavours to mix up the filling if you like. Again - this will make a bit more than you need, but it’s a great thing to have around.

macarons on surface painted with valentine's images

For more Macaron Recipes, check out:

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Boston Bun (Raisin Brioche Bun with Coconut Icing)

Boston Bun is a raisin brioche bun, covered with vanilla icing, and finished with shredded coconut. It is super easy to make, requires no fancy equipment or dough twisting, and makes the perfect treat with a cup of coffee or to entertain guests. #bostonbun #sallylunn #raisinbrioche

I know there’ s a lot of fancy, swirly bread round here. Knots, and rolls, and babkas. Swirly bread is one of my absolute favourite things to make, but today I’m sharing something a little more simple, but still super delicious - a Boston Bun. I did a little crowd sourced research on Instagram, and discovered that, although it is called a Boston bun, nobody from Boston has ever heard of it - I have no idea where the name came from, but I do know it’s super yum, so lets just go from there.

The Boston bun is essentially one big brioche bun, filled with raisins, and topped with icing and covered in coconut. They are a bakery staple back home - we always used to get them as a special treat from the supermarket for being good and not standing up in the trolley while Mum and Dad shopped. Turns out it’s called two different things in New Zealand which is super weird - from what I can gather, anyone from the South Island or Wellington calls it a Boston Bun, while anyone further North calls it a Sally Lunn. This is one of the few things I can think of where things have different names throughout New Zealand. It’s strange.

Anyway, this is super simple to make, and doesn’t require any fancy folding or knotting or even rolling out of the dough. It starts with a basic enriched dough, which has some raisins kneaded through it. After the first rise, it gets patted into a disc and popped into a ring from a springform pan or a cake tin, which removes the need for any fancy shaping, and makes the bun rise nicely within the confines of the pan. Once it has baked to a fluffy, golden brown bun, it gets loaded up with a vanilla icing, and covered in shredded coconut. It’s essentially just fruity bread with icing, but it’s crazy easy and perfect for morning or afternoon tea treat with a cup of tea or coffee.

A few wee tips:

The first rise for this can be done overnight if you like - you may just have to increase the second rising time by 30-45 minutes to account for cold dough, but this is a great option if you want to serve it for morning tea or breakfast!
If you don’t have a stand mixer this can be done by hand - bring the dough together in a bowl, then turn onto a surface and knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth, then incorporate the raisins.
If you don’t have a ring to bake this in, you can do it in an 8” cake tin too. Just make sure you lightly butter it, and place a parchment paper circle in the bottom.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Olive Oil, Lemon, and Yoghurt Bundt Cake

Olive Oil, Lemon, and Yoghurt Bundt Cake - a simple cake which comes together in two bowls, no fancy equipment required. Perfectly dense, flavoured with tangy greek yoghurt and floral, fruity olive oil. the perfect cake for any occasion.

Olive Oil, Lemon, and Yoghurt Bundt Cake

Hi! Happy Sunday! Things are a little quiet around here - I managed to catch the cold that most of NYC seems to have at the moment, so I have been hiding at home a bit more than usual so I don’t spread it to everyone else that I know!

I had to pop on though, and share this recipe with you, because I’m super excited about it, and don’t think I can wait any longer to get it out in the world. I worked on it all of last week, tweaking and tweaking, until I came up with what I think is the perfect Olive Oil, Lemon, and Yoghurt Bundt Cake recipe. I am a sucker for a pretty cake pan, so purchased a couple of bundt pans a few years ago and haven’t used them anywhere near as much as I would like, and I am determined to change that! I think that lots of people (me included) are scared of bundt cakes because they are worried that they won’t pop out of the tin nicely. After a horrific fail during my first test of the recipe, I think I have a couple of wee tips up my sleeve to help prevent that - more on those later!

Olive Oil, Lemon, and Yoghurt Bundt Cake - a simple cake which comes together in two bowls, no fancy equipment required. Perfectly dense, flavoured with tangy greek yoghurt and floral, fruity olive oil. the perfect cake for any occasion. #bundtcake #lemonbundt

Super easy Lemon Yoghurt Bundt Cake

First, lets talk about this Lemon Bundt Cake. I love all things lemon, and I also love the way that fruity olive oil plays against the tart citrus flavour. I wanted a cake that was perfectly dense, with the perfect amount of moisture, but still super simple to put together. I added some almond meal for texture, and also some greek yoghurt to give some tang and to compliment the smooth olive oil and lemon flavour. This cake comes together in two bowls, with no stand mixer or fancy equipment required - everything is just whisked up, before being poured into the bundt pan and baked until perfectly golden. I finished it with a quick brush of syrup while it was still warm to help drive the lemon flavour home and help lock in some of the moisture of the cake. This cake is perfect for any occasion, and serves loads of people, so would be great to feed a crowd.

A few wee tips for Lemon Olive Oil Bundt Cake - the best way to release a bundt from the pan

I found that there were a few things that helped for an easy release from the bundt pan. The first being the type of recipe - the cake has to be dense enough that it has enough structure to release from the sides. The first test of this recipe I did was far too light in texture, and it stuck something wicked. By the end of the testing, I developed a Lemon Bundt recipe that popped right out of the pan!
The second tip is to adequately grease the tin. You can use a baking spray to get in all the little holes in the bundt pan, then generously dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess, or you can use a baking spray that also contains flour. I am not usually a big fan of the spray with the flour in it, but I do find that it is reassuring to use for bundt pans because you know the cake will not stick.
The cake needs to be baked enough that it will not stick to the sides - make sure that a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean - I like to stick it in a few different spots just to check.
The final tip is turning out the cake while it is still warm. If you wait for it to cool, it will stick. 10 minutes is the sweet spot - I pull it out of the oven, then set a timer for 10 minutes and let it sit in the pan before turning out.
I used a Nordicware Crown Bundt pan, which has a 10 cup capacity. Ensure you double check the size of your pan.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

New Year's Macarons

New Year, uhhh new macaron. There’s not much to say about these ones except they are a bit fancy and very delicious. We took our regular Vanilla Bean French Macaron shell, popped some New Years themed sprinkles on top, then filled it with cute wee blobs of Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and finished it off with a pop rock centre for a little post NYE fireworks.

A few wee tips:

Everything I know about macarons (all the tips and tricks we have learnt along the way) can be found in this post.
Be careful when you are choosing sprinkles to use - if they are solid sugar or chocolate balls, they may get hot and melt through the shells. Go for small balls and baubles in your sprinkles mix if you can!
We added pop rocks just to give a little fancy finish, but this step is totally optional!

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Chocolate Brownie Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut filling and Mocha German Buttercream

I just checked, and I haven’t posted a layer cake in the LONGEST time. Like, in almost a year. Whoopsies. Hopefully posting a super extravagant one will make up for it? Anyway, I don’t intend on leaving it that long again, because I forgot just how fun making layer cakes can be.

This has to be one of the best cakes I have ever made. I took a bunch of my favourite things, and combined them into one perfect (to me) cake. Fudgy brownie cake layers, sandwiched with chocolate hazelnut filling, and a silky mocha German buttercream. I finished it with some fancy gold leaf and buttercream stripes (more on that new technique later), and what has become somewhat of a signature move from me - some french star tip piping. The flavours compliment each other perfectly - the chocolate hazelnut filling is so delicious against fudgy cake layers and silky silky mocha German buttercream. If you haven’t tried German buttercream you should - I love that you can infuse it with whatever you like, in this case some strong coffee. I whipped some melted chocolate into it, and it became almost like room temperature ice cream - silky and amazing. So tempting to eat with a spoon, but even more magical layered into the cake.

It only made sense to then pop it on my favourite cake stand - made by the lovely Amy from Aheirloom. We have been good friends for a while now, and it’s amazing having someone to bounce ideas off and complain about the internet with. The stand I used here is one I’ve been looking forward to for the longest time - the cake plate is 8” in diameter, which makes it perfect to pop 6” cakes on. To kick off the new year, we are giving away two of these cake stands, one here and one over on Instagram! All you have to do is make sure you are following both Aheirloom and I on Instagram, then leave a comment letting me know your favourite type of cake! Competition is open until Friday 25th of January at 8pm EST, and is open to US residents only. Happy caking! x

A few wee tips:

Both the chocolate hazelnut filling and the pastry cream do need some time to cool, so I like to prepare those the day ahead if I can. The layers of the brownie can also be made ahead - I like to wrap the cooled layers in plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight so they are nice and cool for assembly.
The recipe for the chocolate hazelnut filling will make more than you need, but it is an amazing thing to have on hand for no extra effort - store it in an airtight container at room temperature. I use it in a few recipes on the blog - this babka and also these brownie bites, but it is perfect just used like nutella
I gave this cake stripes - I followed this tutorial, using an icing comb. They are a little tricky but they come out super cute. I have included instructions in the recipe for dividing up the buttercream for this, which gives you some coffee buttercream and some mocha, which is a really nice variation in taste. If you don’t want to add stripes, assemble the cake using the mocha buttercream, then add blobs of the coffee on the outside. You can also just skip the step of reserving some coffee buttercream, and make one batch of mocha buttercream to use.
Once you refrigerate the cake, the chocolate hazelnut filling will harden slightly - but it becomes this amazing dense nutella like layer. Make sure you make a good buttercream dam to hold in the chocolate hazelnut filling between layers - if it seems like it is leaking out, quickly patch up the hole and then freeze the cake for 10-15 minutes to help solidify.
These are my favourite cake pans! I have them in both 6” and 8”. I have 3 of each, which makes making layer cakes so much easier than having to divide one cake into several layers.

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Roasted Pear and Vanilla Bean Scones with Salty Honey Glaze

These roasted pear and salted honey scones have giant chunks of pear, held together by tender scone dough. They are topped with an easy salty honey to give your homemade scone-game a lift to the next level.

Because pear, like most fruit, releases liquid when it bakes, I decided to roast the pear chunks slightly first to help get rid of some of the moisture, stopping the final product from being too soggy. The cooled roasted pear chunks are then tossed through the scone dough, and stay firm enough after baking to give an amazing variation in texture. The honey on the top adds a lovely sweetness, and then the flaky salt on top cuts perfectly through the honey, while adding crunch. Because of the giant chunks of pear, the scones are slightly more craggy and rustic than regular scones, but I promise you that this is totally made up for by how they taste. They would make a perfect morning or afternoon treat, and are easy enough that you can quickly whip them up at short notice. Enjoy!

A few wee tips:

These are a little more craggy than traditional scones, because of the moisture provided by the pear. This also makes them super tender and delicious.
Depending on the juiciness of the pear, you may need a little additional liquid in the scones. Add the amount called for in the recipe, then add by the teaspoon as needed, focussing on dry spots. The pears do provide some moisture, so make sure you are aware of this - you won’t need more than 240g (1 cup) of milk total.
Because you don’t want to completely squish the pear, I add three quarters of the milk and mix it into the flour mixture, before tossing in the roasted pear chunks. This helps reduce the chances of breaking up the pear as you mix in the rest of the milk.
Don’t take the honey too far - you only want to boil it for a minute tops. If you take it too far it turns into a hard caramel that is super hard to eat. I took mine to 240°f / 115°c and then left it to stand, where it thickened nicely.

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

One Bowl Gingerbread Sheet Cake

This easy gingerbread cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser, and only takes ten minutes to mix up. This homemade ginger cake is topped with a maple cream cheese frosting and is the perfect any time cake.

Gingerbread Sheet Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting - a warming spiced cake, topped with a silky, maple, ream cheese frosting. A super simple yet delicious cake, perfect for feeding a crowd or for a quick holiday pick me up.

Hi hi! Just popping in to share this super easy gingerbread cake recipe with you! This homemade gingerbread cake is quick to make (comes together in 10 minutes!), and is perfectly moist, so is great to make ahead. It has a rich molasses flavor and is perfectly spiced - I love it so much.

I love making homemade cake recipes, but they often require a lot of time or effort, which is why sheet cakes are the perfect compromise. They bake up as a single layer, and are really easy to transport in the pan that you made them in. My Devil's food cake and my Tiramisu cake are both easy sheet cakes that I make often.

I topped this ginger cake recipe with a super simple maple cream cheese frosting, although it would be delicious as is too! The recipe for this gingerbread cake comes from my friend Brooke Bell's book, “Cake: Layered, Frosted, Sliced and Shared”. I also made it in layer cake form in this gingerbread layer cake.

I hope you love this gingerbread cake! It is amazing any time of the year, but also makes a perfect holiday cake recipe.

How to make Gingerbread Cake

This gingerbread cake recipe is super easy - the cake itself is a one bowl gingerbread cake recipe, and because it is oil based, which makes it super moist, there is no need to warm up the butter before, so it comes together quickly.

Prep your pan. I use a 9"x13" (20cm x 30cm) pan, and line it with parchment paper which sticks up a little up the sides of the pan to help with easy removal once cooled. If you are serving straight from the pan you could also just spray with some cooking spray or brush with butter.
Combine dry ingredients. You can do this in a mixer or by hand - place them all into the mixer and mix until incorporated.
Add wet ingredients. Make a well in the middle and add your wet ingredients - I like to break up the yolks of the egg with a fork.
Mix to combine. It's almost too easy - mix all the ingredients together and you are good to go!
Bake. Bake the gingerbread cake until a toothpick comes out clean - this should take 28-30 minutes.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I topped this homemade gingerbread cake with a maple cream cheese frosting, as I had some cream cheese that needed using up.

However, the gingerbread cake would be delicious just as is, served with a sprinkle of powdered sugar before serving.

If you wanted to make both components ahead, you could make the the maple cream cheese frosting a few days in advance and store in an airtight container in the fridge and assemble closer to serving.

How to Store Gingerbread

This gingerbread cake is best stored in an airtight container in the fridge because of the cream cheese frosting. If you are making it ahead and just storing the cake, it can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

For more sheet cake recipes, check out:

❤️ Made this recipe and love it? ❤️

I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Christmas Macaron Box

The Ultimate Christmas Macaron Box - filled with all your favourite Christmas flavours. This macaron box utilises one base recipe, and then has a multitude of fillings for a choose your own adventure style holiday box.

The Ultimate Christmas Macaron Box
Christmas Macaron Flavours
The best box to use for a cookie box
A few wee tips:
Flavour / Colour filling Variations for Christmas Macarons
For more Macaron Recipes:

The Ultimate Christmas Macaron Box

We had to sneak in just one more cookie box before Christmas. And it just had to be a macaron box. We made this one over the course of two days, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

We wanted to capture as many flavours of Christmas as we could, and I think we managed to encompass almost all of them. I found this a little easier to make than a standard cookie box, maybe because we were just repeating the same process over and over to create the shells, varying the colouring and finishes, and then just had to worry about making the fillings, rather than thinking about all kinds of different batches of cookies as with the cookie boxes. Macaron boxes like this would make the most amazing gift, particularly if you are baking for someone who is gluten free - and if you’re like me and have still done next to no Christmas shopping, a homemade gift such as a cookie box would be so perfect! Each batch of macarons makes about 24-30, so you could make 5-6 cookie boxes if you made all the flavours. You can also mix it up and add them to a treat box - there are two I have made here and here.

Christmas Macaron Flavours

Candy Cane Macarons - Vanilla bean shell with peppermint Swiss meringue buttercream
Eggnog Macaron - Nutmeg dusted shell with an Eggnog German buttercream
Christmasfetti - Vanilla bean shell with Vanilla bean American buttercream and sprinkles
Gingerbread - Vanilla bean shell with Gingerbread German buttercream
Sugared Cranberry - Vanilla bean shell with Mascarpone frosting and Cranberry Jam

I used this box to make this cookie box - Rich cut me little dividers on the laser cutter, but the craft wood is soft enough that you can use a craft knife and a ruler. I then just taped the dividers in. Packaging stores often sell boxes that are used for things like gifting champagne which would work great too.

You could also use a cardboard box and do little cardboard dividers, or keep it open and put things into little boxes, wrapped up, or just arranged nicely. I have seen things put into cupcake liners which looks really cute!

A few wee tips:

I have added the base recipe we use for the shells down below, then at the end I have put the variations in food colouring or finishing that we did to make each shell ‘flavour’ (they are all vanilla bean flavour). The filling recipes and assembly instructions will be underneath the shell recipe.
Everything I have learnt along the way about making macarons is in the notes of this post - I update it whenever I have something to add. I suggest giving it a good read through before you start if you are new to macs!
We made all the shells on one day, and the pastry cream for the German buttercreams (eggnog and gingerbread), and then the following day made the remainder of the fillings, filled the macarons, and filled and shot the box. If you break up your workload, and prep your ingredients before you start (having enough sheet pans is important), it isn’t too much work!
In terms of work flow, we were able to start the next batch of shells soon after piping out the previous ones. Like I mentioned before, this only works if you have lots of sheet pans!
If you are making something like this and you don’t want to make loads of batches of shells, you can split the batter is mixed - for example we split a batch and piped some plain and dusted with nutmeg for the eggnog flavour, then piped some through a piping bag painted with food colouring for the peppermint. We kept the shells all the same flavour for convenience.
If you are colouring one batch of batter two different colours, mix it part of the way, then split the batter into separate bowls (half a batch of batter weighs 420g), then add the gel food colouring and finish the mixing process.
Store the macaron shells in an airtight container until you are ready to use.
Enjoy! If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to pop them here and I will answer any I can! Merry Christmas x

Flavour / Colour filling Variations for Christmas Macarons

For Candy Cane shells, paint the inside of the piping bag with four stripes of red gel food colouring. I found you need quite a long brush to avoid making a mess, so taped mine onto a chopstick first. Fill with Peppermint Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe follows).
For Eggnog shells - Dust with nutmeg after piping. Fill with Eggnog German Buttercream (recipe follows).
For Christmasfetti shells - Colour the batter green (we used forest green by americolor), and sprinkle with Christmas Sprinkles. Fill with American Buttercream (recipe follows).
For Gingerbread Shells - colour the batter brown (we use chocolate brown by americolour). Fill with Gingerbread German Buttercream (recipe follows).
For Sugared Cranberry Shells - Colour the batter red (we used Super red by americolor), then dust the shells with edible glitter and white sanding sugar after piping. Fill with Cranberry jam and Mascarpone frosting (recipe follows).

For more Macaron Recipes:

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Mixed Nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot

This mixed nut Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot is made from brioche dough with vanilla bean and muscovado sugar. It is then spread with dulce de leche and sprinkled with mixed nuts. The finished knot is dusted with powdered sugar - the perfect holiday treat to feed a crowd.

Brioche dough is spiked with vanilla bean and muscovado sugar, and spread with dulce de leche and sprinkled with mixed nuts. The finished knot is dusted with powdered sugar - the perfect christmas treat to feed a crowd.

Mixed nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot

I do not, in any way, shape, or form, have my shit together for Christmas. We don’t have a single decoration up (and tbh we probably won’t), and I still feel like I have a zillion things to make recipe wise (probably won’t do that either), but I have a few things lined up for you between now and Christmas - starting with this mixed nut and dulce de leche brioche knot. I took my standard brioche dough, spiked it with some vanilla bean and muscovado sugar, and spread it with dulce de leche and sprinkled with mixed nuts. I then rolled it up into a log, cut it lengthwise babka style, then twisted it into a swirly knot. The creamy caramel and crunchy nuts are perfect alongside the fluffy dough - this will give you a little Christmas in your life, even if you have zero of your shit together like me.

How to make this Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot ahead of time

I love brioche because it is super versatile and this is no exception - you can make this all in one day, or you can make the dough the evening before and do the first rise in the fridge, in which case you can skip the step of chilling the dough when it is rolled up, as it should already be cold enough to work with.

A few wee tips for making this brioche knot

I made my own Dulce de Leche by boiling a can of condensed milk. To make this, peel the wrapper off a can of condensed milk, and place it on its side in a large pot. Cover with water by at least 2 inches. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer the can for 3 hours, checking often to make sure the water is well above the level of the can, and topping up when necessary. Remove from the pot with tongs and allow to cool completely, then chill overnight. You can use store bought too if that is easier for you.
This is easier to braid than you think! All you do is cross one end over the other, and then tuck the ends under. You look super fancy, but it's super easy.
Depending on the weather the dough may need a teeny bit more liquid - add this a teaspoon at a time in the first kneading stage if it is having a hard time forming a soft dough.
If you can, don’t skip the toasting of the nuts - they really give them a great depth of flavour.

Other Brioche Recipes

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Earl Grey Sugar Pie

Earl Grey Sugar Pie - Fragrant Earl grey custard is spiked with vanilla bean, and finished with a hefty dusting of powdered sugar. An egg free version of a custard favourite that bakes perfectly flat and will never crack on you.

Earl Grey Sugar Pie

You probably haven’t noticed, but I used to be a bit of a one trick pony when it came to pie. They were almost always double crusted, and always had some sort of fancy border made from a braid or pie stamps. Now I’ve blown my own cover I can explain why - I was scared of crimping.

The crimp is the fancy pattern you make around the border of a pie - either to seal the top and bottom crust, or to provide a pretty pattern for a single crusted pie. And until recently, I was pretty scared of it. So if you go back and look, there are hardly any single crust pies around here, which is 1. a huge shame because they are delicious and I love them, but also 2. going to change because I’m not scared of crimping dough anymore. And I promise to tell you everything I learnt, so we can be not scared together!

How to Make a single Crust Pie

To overcome my fear, I did the same thing I usually do when I want to teach myself something new - just do it a whole heap of times until I’m happy with it. So I made 10 batches of pie dough, and crimped and crimped and crimped until I was happy with my efforts. I strategically timed it with the testing of this pie, which took a zillion tests anyway, so the crusts were getting used.

The other thing I usually do is ask my friend Erin 12,000 questions. I’ve written about Erin on here before, but she is an amazing, amazing baker food stylist, and all around wizard, and an even more amazing friend. She gave me a crash course in crimping when I went to stay with her for our Pie extravaganza, and I managed to video most of it, and saved it to my highlights so it is always accessible. She drops way more pie tips in her amazing book, which coincidentally where this recipe for Earl Grey Sugar pie is adapted from.

What is a Sugar Pie?

If you haven’t had a sugar pie before, now is the time for that to change. They are a custard pie, but, instead of being egg set like a pumpkin pie (and therefore very susceptible to cracking), a sugar pie is flour set, meaning that it bakes up silky smooth and flat every time, and you don’t have to worry about overbaking and running the risk of cracking. It’s super easy to make - you literally just whisk everything up and pour it into your parbaked pie shell. Erin’s version in her book is delicately spiced with nutmeg, but I had to test out my Earl Grey theory (if you can infuse it, you can add earl grey) on the recipe, and it turned out amazingly. Fragrant Earl grey custard is spiked with vanilla bean, and finished with a hefty dusting of powdered sugar. To me, it is perfect.

I finished the pie off with a new obsession of mine - a stencil. I got Richard to cut these ones out on the laser cutter for me out of some thin plastic, but you can definitely make your own shapes out of card or plastic, or use a material such as lace to add a pattern. You can also just give it a quick dust of powdered sugar without a stencil. You do you here.

A few wee tips for Earl Grey Sugar Pie

The Earl grey in this is on the strong ish side, so feel free to drop the amount by 5g if you like. I used In Pursuit of Tea Earl Grey, which is my very very fave to both drink and bake with.
A new pie dough trick I learnt from Erin that is now firmly in my repertoire : After you mix the dough and shape it into discs, rest it in the fridge for about an hour, and then roll it out on a floured surface into a rectangle, fold it in thirds like a letter, then roll again and repeat the folding. Then you shape it into a disc by folding the edges under, rewrap tightly in plastic, and rest for at least two hours before using. What this step does is make the dough homogenous and therefore easy to work with, but also adds layers through the rolling and folding - the same way puff pastry is laminated. It is definitely an optional step but from my experience it makes the world of difference when it comes to rolling out the dough and getting a nice even crimp or lattice work.
You want to make sure that this pie is completely cool before you dust it with powdered sugar and slice, in order to get the cleanest slice possible.
I like to infuse the tea while the crust is par baking or cooling, so it is ready to go.
This is amazing served with a little whipped cream!
When you are par baking your pie crust, chill your crust in the fridge rather than the freezer if you can - according to Erin, a longer chill in the fridge is preferable to a short chill in the freezer.
The pie dough recipe makes a double crust - so enough for two pies. You might as well make the extra while you are at it in my opinion - pie dough freezes well, tightly wrapped, for at least a few months, or lasts a few days in the fridge. Defrost overnight if using from frozen.

For more Earl Grey Recipes:

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Giant Skillet Cinnamon Roll with Cream Cheese Icing

This Giant Skillet Cinnamon Roll is fun and easy to make. A no knead brioche recipe is filled with cinnamon sugar. It is rolled up into a giant cinnamon roll and baked in a skillet. This Skillet cinnamon roll is finished with a cream cheese frosting.

I’ve been wanting to put a giant skillet cinnamon roll on here for ages. Like, since before regular cinnamon rolls were published here. But I never quite got around to it. I kept thinking about it, but it just never happened. Well, here we are. And it’s not just any giant skillet cinnamon roll. It’s the most epic giant skillet cinnamon roll of all, made with a stupid simple dough that requires only 30 seconds of kneading, and can be made up to 5 days in advance. The recipe is from my friend Zoë’s new book - Holiday and Celebration Bread in five minutes a day. This is Zoë’s fifth book, written alongside Jeff Hertzberg, M.D, and I can’t wait to bake my way through it.

The concept of the book is super simple (and super clever) - there are a bunch of base bread recipes, which are all incredibly versatile, and can be prepared in 5 minutes of active time. There are accompanying recipes for each base bread recipes (in a lot of cases you can use multiple doughs to make the same recipe), and the dough can be stored in the fridge, so one quick batch of dough will yield multiple bread projects. I’ve never made an overnight dough that is as easy to work with as these, and it doesn’t require the use of a mixer or loads of kneading. It’s just genius. The focus of this particular book is Holiday and Celebration breads, so it is jam packed full of holiday themed breads from different cultures.

This giant skillet cinnamon roll is pretty similar to the standard cinnamon roll recipe - except instead of rolling the dough up into a log and cutting rolls, you cut the dough into strips, and wind them into a tight spiral, forming one giant cinnamon roll. Once it is baked, it is loaded up with a dreamy cream cheese icing. The whole thing is perfect - super simple to make but an amazing twist on the traditional cinnamon roll. I know what I’m making for Christmas morning. I hope you pick up a copy of the book - there are so many incredible recipes in there, and it is a great introduction to bread if you haven’t made it before, as the base bread formulas and the overnight rest in the recipes produce a dough that is dreamy to work with and produces beautiful bread as a result.

A few wee tips:

The bread recipe here makes enough for two of these cinnamon rolls, or there are a whole heap more recipes in the book you can use the dough for. It will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also halve the recipe if you like.
I tweaked the method slightly - using a little more dough than Zoë calls for, as she made the roll in an 8” skillet and I only had a 10”.
I also added in a wee step just to help keep the roll tight when forming the roll - once the dough is rolled out, you pop it onto a piece of parchment, then add the butter and sugar mixture. The whole thing is then quickly placed in the freezer just to help the dough firm slightly, which makes it a tiny bit easier to work with. You can skip this step if you like, it just makes the dough a bit harder to roll up.
To make this recipe into regular cinnamon rolls, you can roll out the dough, spread with the cinnamon mixture, then roll from the long side into a log, before cutting into rolls, placing into a buttered skillet, and proofing and baking in the same fashion as the giant roll.
If you can, make the recipe by volume - you can literally measure everything directly into the mixing bowl, which reduces dishes.
I used a Danish dough whisk to mix up the dough, but you can use a mixer with the paddle attachment, or a strong spoon.

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Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles

Just popping in quickly to share this recipe with you - because I think that it should be right at the very very top of your holiday baking list. This is the cookie that people are going to ask you for the recipe for - the one that is going to make you friends at the holiday party. I know that these are big calls to make, but trust me on this, because these salted caramel snickerdoodles are all kinds of epic.

I developed this recipe for the holiday cookie issue of Bake from Scratch magazine - it was part of the cookie box on the cover, and it is probably the most made recipe of the six that I contributed. The cookie was inspired by a bakery in Wellington, the town where I went to university. They do a salted caramel cookie that is giant, thin, and has chunks of chewy caramel through it. I get one every single time I go home.

I tried something new when I made these - I wanted to really get as much caramel flavour into them as possible, so I made a hard caramel (which is super fun, it comes out like a window pane), then divided it in two once it was set. Half the caramel gets ground up and creamed in with the butter and sugar, and half gets bashed up into chunks, which are then folded through the dough, so that when baked, form these melty pockets of caramel which add to the perfect chew of the snickerdoodle. The whole thing is then rolled in a cinnamon sugar, then, once baked, loaded up with flaky sea salt. There you have, in my opinion, the perfect holiday cookie. Pretty simple to make, but a little bit fancy. The best. The recipe also makes loads (I kept them on the small side), so they are perfect for stocking up for the holiday season!

A few wee tips:

The caramel, once ground, will pull moisture out of the environment very quickly and start to clump, so use the ground caramel fresh out of the food processor.
I like to use a round cookie cutter, slightly larger than the cookie, to place over the cookie and carefully nudge it into a perfectly round shape just after it comes out of the oven.
Pro tip Have everything ready to go for the caramel - there are a few seconds between a toasty caramel and a burnt sugar, so you want to be able to pour out the caramel as soon as it is ready.
If you do not want to bake all of these cookies at once, the dough, once rolled in the cinnamon sugar, can be stored in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Freeze until solid on a baking sheet before transferring to a bag.

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The Ultimate Vanilla Bean Christmas Treat Box

The Ultimate Vanilla Bean Christmas Box. All of the christmas treats for your recipe planning for this upcoming holiday season! Chocolate Shortbread cookies with Vanilla bean Dulce de Leche filling, vanilla bean meringues, vanilla bean macarons, Vanilla bean shortbread, vanilla bean passionfruit fudge, vanilla bean salted caramel nut mix, and vanilla bean marshmallows. The perfect treat box for christmas!

It’s finally (but suddenly already) December, which means it is time for the best part of Christmas - Holiday Cookie Boxes! I’m totally hooked on making these after last year’s one, so was super super excited when Heilala Vanilla asked me to come up with a Christmas treat recipe. I couldn’t help myself and went all out with this vanilla inspired cookie box.

I’ve spoken about Heilala in the past and how much I love not only their products, but the people behind the company and what they stand for, and I couldn’t be prouder to work with them. Not only do they control the production of the Vanilla from cultivation to processing, but they are doing amazing things in Tonga in terms of injecting money into the economy and increasing employment opportunities for Women. The company is New Zealand owned, and run by amazing people who are so passionate about what they do and giving back. Their vanilla truly is the best I have ever used, and I almost can’t bake without it.

I wanted to focus a little more on the treats that are made around Christmas this time around, rather than cookies. In New Zealand, it is hot at Christmas time, so we don’t have the same cozy baking traditions I have come to learn are common over here - everyone is too busy staying cool and spending time at the beach. What we do usually have though, is lots of little yummy bits and pieces to snack on or to bring out when guests come - things that you can make a lot of ahead, and keep in a couple of airtight containers to bring out when needed (that’s what happens in my family anyway).

I started out with a tradition in my family - my Great Great Grandmother’s Shortbread recipe. This was one of the first things I ever learnt to bake with my Grandma, and was always around at Christmas, so I knew it had to be included. They are super simple to make, and the recipe can easily be doubled, so are perfect for times when you will have a lot of people around. I also added my favourite chocolate shortbread cookie, which was sandwiched with a vanilla bean dulce de leche filling. These cookies also make a great roll-out cookie for decorating with royal icing, and are a nice twist on the standard sugar cookie.

Macarons had to make an appearance, so I stuck with a Vanilla Bean macaron with a Vanilla Bean Swiss meringue buttercream. I added some vanilla bean meringues to the lineup - they are super easy to make, and you can pipe out a bunch of different sizes to use as part of desserts through the holiday season too. I then made a quick batch of vanilla bean marshmallows, using honey and Heilala’s Vanilla sugar. These can also be batch made (you can double the recipe I have here very easily), and last forever kept in an airtight container. They also make perfect S’mores!

My favourite parts of this treat box are the Vanilla bean Passionfruit fudge, and the Vanilla bean salted caramel nut mix. Both of these, to me, scream Christmas - little treats to pick at, or to pop out for an easy dessert or sweet addition to a cheese board. Both are pretty easy to put together, and make loads, so you will be fully stocked up, although you’re probably going to need to make more of the nuts - I made a big batch two days ago, took them to the studio, and they got totally destroyed. The passionfruit fudge is a total nod to home for me - it is my absolute favourite fruit, and was the perfect addition to fudge to compliment the Vanilla bean.

So there we are! My Vanilla bean Christmas treat box. These are all perfect in a holiday cookie box, or you can mix and match with some of your favourite recipes too. If you are looking for good christmas gifts or stocking stuffers, I dunno about you but I would be stoked to get a jar of Vanilla. Happy Holidays!

Here’s what we ended up with:

Vanilla bean shortbread
Chocolate shortbread with vanilla bean dulce de leche (plus a few piped with royal icing, and a few cut out with stars)
Vanilla bean meringues
Vanilla bean macarons with a vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream
Vanilla bean marshmallows
Vanilla bean salted caramel nut mix
Vanilla bean and passionfruit fudge

A few wee tips:

I used this box to make this cookie box - Rich cut me little dividers on the laser cutter, but the craft wood is soft enough that you can use a craft knife and a ruler. I then just taped the dividers in.
Most of the components need to be stored in airtight containers, so make sure that if you are making a cookie box, you account for storage!
Mix and match the heck out of this box - use any recipes you like, and arrange the dividers any way you like. There are more ideas here - which actually all utilise vanilla bean too!
If you have any questions whatsoever please please feel free to ask - I will do my very best to help out!

Thank you so much to Heilala Vanilla for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.

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Apple and Cardamom Babka

Apple and Cardamom brioche babka - lightly spiced babka dough is filled with a spiced brown sugar mixture and fresh apple, then rolled into a tight babka swirl. Inspired by the swedish cinnamon roll, this is a perfect fall baking project. #babka #cardamom #brioche

Hiii! I’ve written and re-written this little top bit a bunch of times now, and I can’t think of anything clever, or witty, or funny to say, or any context that goes along with this recipe other than it’s yum and I think that you should make it. It’s been a bit of a long week. I’ve seen on a few different places people complaining about having to scroll past this part of food blogs to get to the recipe, and how they think it’s bullshit. It keeps rolling round in my mind. That we have gotten to a place where we expect instant gratification. That everything should be served up on a platter for us. That all recipes should be free and available on the internet without having to spend an extra 2 seconds of precious life scrolling past the part where the person who puts hours into developing recipes gets to express themselves for a little bit I think it’s always interesting how people find literally ANYTHING to complain about, including having to do two extra finger scrolls to get down to the recipe they are getting for free. Anyway. That’s what is swimming round in my wee brain!

I’m coming at you today with a giant dose of autumn. Last year a friend shared her Mum’s Swedish cinnamon roll recipe with me. They are super cute little knots, loaded up with cardamom and cinnamon, and finished with pearl sugar. I’ve been meaning to turn them into a babka for a while now, so finally here we are.

I took my go-to brioche recipe, laced it with some warming spices, filled it with a similar filling to the Swedish rolls, but scattered some chopped apple over the filling before rolling it up nice and tight. I love how the apple and the spices play together, and I just can’t go past the swirls of a babka. When making babka I generally freeze the dough for an hour or so before rolling out to help the dough stay chilled and keep its shape better when cut, however this time I tried a slightly different method, and rolled out the dough, filled it and rolled it into a sausage, then chilled the rolled sausage for an hour or so to firm it up before cutting. This resulted in a super clean cut when it came to splitting the dough lengthwise, and made the shaping process much easier in my opinion. Definitely going to be my go-to babka method from now on!

A few wee tips:

This dough can be made the night before and proofed in the fridge for the first rise. If you do this you can skip the chilling step!
These would also make epic cinnamon rolls. After you have rolled the dough into a log, cut into 10-12 rolls, arrange in a greased baking pan, and follow the rising and baking directions - you may need to reduce baking time slightly so just keep a close eye!
The swedish sugar isn't necessary, but if you can get your hands on it, it's hugely worthwhile!
If you don’t have an apple on hand, you can omit it if you like!

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Caramelised White Chocolate Macarons

Toasted Sugar Vanilla Bean Macaron shells are sandwiched with a silky, creamy German buttercream loaded with caramelised white chocolate, Subtle elevated flavours makes this a perfect simple recipe that is sure to wow your friends or make the perfect treat or gift. #frenchmacaron #macaronrecipe

Ok, so I’m not sure how it is nearly December, but it is. Like, on Saturday it’s here. This year has simultaneously dragged by and flown past, but for the most part, it’s been a good one. I’ve been working my wee butt off prepping a bunch of Christmas posts for you (last year I left it all till the week before Christmas and it was NOT a wise move), so this year I’m hoping to be a little more prepared. Check back in about two weeks where I probs would have left it till the end and will be scrambling to post everything I’ve been planning for a whole year. Lol.

We had a bunch of toasted sugar using Stella’s method, so we subbed the sugar in the shells for toasted sugar, and upped the Vanilla bean content. The toastyness of the sugar in the shells is subtle, but gives a light caramel flavour. We then filled them with a caramelised white chocolate German buttercream, which complimented the toasted sugar perfectly. Someone recently described German buttercream as “room temperature ice cream” which I think is the perfect description. I love how silky it is, how easily it can be infused, and how well it lends itself to additions such as melted chocolate. It’s by far my fave buttercream - if you haven’t tried it before, you should definitely get onto it. The flavouring in these is definitely a little more subtle than other macs we have done, but I think they are super delicious, and I hope you do too!

A few wee tips:

The recipe for toasted sugar is here. There’s no point re-writing it when Stella does a Stellar (lol, sorry) job of it.
The sugar may clump up a little when stored, so sieve it if needed.
When adding the melted caramelised white chocolate to the german buttercream, you need to make sure that it is cooled, otherwise your buttercream becomes soup very very quickly.
We used Valrhona’s Dulcey Caramelised white chocolate (it comes in both a bar and feves), but you can also make your own! Edd has a great tutorial here.
As per, the post with all of my macaron tips and tricks is here - I add to it as we work things out!

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Sage Salted Caramel Apple Pie with Fresh Sage Crust

I know I am definitely late to the thanksgiving planning party with this one - I am currently par-baking pie crusts as I speak, but if I didn’t stop fluffing around I was never going to get the recipe up here, so here it is! This is a Sage salted caramel apple pie. I wanted to go with a wee twist on the old fave salted caramel apple pie, so I hit it with a sage infused caramel, and added some fresh sage to the pie crust. The toasty caramel balanced out the sage enough (if you go too overboard it can taste a lot like you’re eating a candle), but still allowed the flavour to come through and compliment the apple perfectly.

I first had a sage salted caramel when I made the ice cream pops from Lily’s book, and I have been looking for an excuse to make something similar ever since. The thing I love about caramel is that it can easily be infused with flavour - chai, sage, miso etc. The best. I hope you give this pie a try, even though I’m super late to the party. Thanksgiving aside, this would make a great any time pie.

A few wee tips:

The pie dough I have included here is 1 ½ times by regular crust recipe. The reason I have done this is to ensure that you have enough to do the detailed top if you prefer. If you are doing a more plain top crust, you can make the recipe with 2 ½ cups flour, 2 Tbsp chopped sage, a pinch of salt, 2 tsp sugar, and 2 sticks (225g) of butter, then water to mix (8-10 Tbsp is usually enough). Or you can make the full amount and then make hand pies with the excess. Damn I love hand pies.
Ideally if you can make the pie dough ahead of time, it can do with an overnight rest. It takes a while for the caramel to cool too, so ensure you allow time for this.
I used pie stamps to decorate the border - It is a quick way to look fancy, and extra pie crust is always a bonus. I have this set and this set from Williams Sonoma, and this set from Amazon.

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Chocolate Choux Ice Cream Sandwiches with Double Chocolate Ice Cream

As someone who is a huge fan of both ice cream sandwiches and doughnuts, I figured that they were going to have to be combined at some point along the line. I had some leftover ice cream base after deciding I wanted to make philadelphia style for the project I was working on, so figured it was the perfect time to give them a spin. And ohhh my. The result was these chocolate choux ice cream sandwiches with double chocolate ice cream - a ridiculously indulgent treat, but a total crowd pleaser and an amazing end to a dinner party or a gathering with friends.

I started with a cruller type doughnut - chocolate choux pastry (same as used for eclairs), which I piped into circles with a star tip onto parchment, then froze solid before frying off. Freezing the dough helps it keep a perfect shape whilst being fried. The freshly fried doughnuts are then rolled in sugar, and once cool, sandwiched with a homemade dark chocolate ice cream, which is flecked with shards of dark chocolate. You can absolutely use a store bought ice cream here if you like - the creamy ice cream compliments the light doughnut perfectly.

A few wee tips:

The Chocolate choux dough can be made ahead, frozen solid on the parchment, then transferred to a ziploc bag until you are ready to fry.
A candy thermometer is super important to keep the oil for the frying at the right temperature. I prefer to fry in cast iron because of how consistent it is.
I made the ice cream for these because I had some base on hand, but using store bought ice cream would be just as good!
I found that frying these on one side and then turning half way through caused them to puff up unevenly. Flipping them every minute throughout the frying process helps to keep them nice and flat while they are cooking.
Because these have cocoa in them it is hard to tell when they are done - this is why a thermometer is important. I also recommend frying one off at the start just to double check your frying time.
If you don’t want to make these as ice cream sandwiches, you can pipe circles such as in this cruller recipe, or bake them up as chocolate cream puffs
If you aren’t planning on eating all of these on the day they are made, I suggest storing the frozen dough and frying off as you want them. You can cool the oil and store back in the oil bottle and re-use - because it gets so hot, it is safe to re-use, just don’t use oil that you have used to fry things such as fish as the flavour will transfer.
I included the recipe in grams, as even the slightest amount of differentiation in flour will change the consistency of your mixture.
I have included an extra 'just in case' egg in the ingredients. The reason that this is in there, is that sometimes you need to add extra egg to the pastry if necessary. You want the mixture to be at a consistency where if you dip in the beater of the mixer, the batter will form a 'v' shape and eventually break off. If it is too stiff, and breaks off very quickly, you may need to add another beaten egg, and mix again, before performing the test.

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Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Regular pantry staples are elevated to another level to give this cookie a 'fancy with only a little more effort' vibe. Brown butter is stirred in with toasty muscovado sugar to form a perfect cookie dough, and then hard caramel shards and chocolate chunks are folded in to give the perfect amount of chocolate and caramel per bite. Finished with flaky sea salt, this is a super easy yet satisfying baking recipe.

Brown Butter Salted Caramel Cookies

Earlier this year, I spent a long time recipe testing to come up with what I consider to be my perfect chocolate chip cookie. I took a couple of different ‘fomocookie’ recipes, took what I liked from each, then tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until I found something that I considered to be perfect.

I have since learnt, that while that one recipe IS perfect (to me, anyway), there are a whole bunch of iterations of chocolate chip cookie recipes that are also perfect. Changing up the fats used (such as subbing olive oil for olive oil chocolate chip cookies), adding mix-ins such as peanut butter cups, Nutella chunks, or mini eggs, and browning the butter, along with playing around with the egg, sugar, flour and leavening agent ratios, all can give you variations on a perfect cookie.

And today, I learnt that browning the butter, and stirring in chunks of salted caramel into a chocolate chunk filled cookie mixture, also yield a very, very perfect cookie.

Brown Butter Salted Caramel Cookies
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
A few wee tips for Brown Butter Salted Caramel Cookies

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was making this cookie, I wanted something elevated, and a little fancy, but not something that required crazy ingredients that would leave you with a nearly full bag of something obscure in your cupboard for the next year - the kind of fancy you could achieve with pantry staples. Like when you wear jeans around the house instead of yoga pants kind of fancy. You’ve made a little effort, but didn’t have to go out of your way to achieve it. Just me? Thought so.

I achieved this little bit of fancy by taking ingredients that are already in cookies, and elevating them slightly. I browned the butter, which adds a beautiful toasty note to the cookies, and complimented it with muscovado sugar in the dough. I then made a quick hard caramel, let it set, then bashed it up into chunks.

The caramel chunks were stirred through the mixture, along with some dark chocolate chunks. The caramel is the ultimate bestie for the chocolate chunks - it is chewy and crunchy, adding texture alongside the smooth taste of the chocolate.

These cookies really don’t take a huge amount of extra work, but the few extra steps really do make a huge difference. I also did a bunch of tests and found that the dough can be baked off without a resting period, which means cookies in an instant. The best.

A few wee tips for Brown Butter Salted Caramel Cookies

I have posted the recipe here in grams because that is how I tested it - lots of people don’t realise, but as little as 50g of flour makes a huge amount of difference when it comes to the texture of your cookie, so weighing your ingredients removes the margin of error that comes with measuring by volume. That, and there are far less dishes to do! I would rather you spend $10 on a scale than on ingredients for a cookie that didn’t work out because you didn’t measure your ingredients properly.
Don’t be intimidated by the extra steps of browning the butter and making the caramel. They don’t add a huge amount more time, and you can make the caramel while the brown butter cools!
I like to chop my chocolate so that you have both shards and chunks. You can also use a baking bar here and chop it roughly using a sharp knife.

Why are there two quantities of butter in the recipe?

You will see that there are two different weights of butter called for in the recipe - the starting weight of 225g, and the 175g of brown butter called for in the recipe. When you brown butter you cook off the water, so the starting weight and ending weight are different. The initial quantity of butter accounts for this moisture loss. Measure out 175g of the brown butter to use for your cookie recipe.

How do you store salted caramel cookies?

Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days. I like to re warm mine slightly before serving or serve with a scoop of ice cream!

Can this cookie dough be frozen?

Because of the caramel in the recipe, this cookie dough does not freeze well. The caramel will go super weird and weepy. You are better off baking them all at once. Alternatively, my egg yolk chocolate chip cookie recipe is smaller batch and also has the caramel!

For more cookie recipes, check out:

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Nine of the Best Thanksgiving Pie Recipes

Nine of the Best Thanksgiving Pies: the Ultimate Pie Roundup Post! This roundup post lists some of the best thanksgiving pie recipes - there is literally something for everyone. Make just one or mix and match for the ultimate thanksgiving pie spread

Nine of the Best Thanksgiving Pies

A couple of weeks ago I packed an overnight bag and headed to Jersey for the night for something I’ve never done before, but will hopefully be doing again - a pie sleepover! I went to stay with my good friend Erin, and we put together a one-stop Thanksgiving Pie (or any time pie) post for you! We chose nine of our favourite recipes for this roundup of the best Thanksgiving Pies - some traditional, and some less traditional (I think? I know nothing about Thanksgiving lol), and I think that we managed to come up with something for everyone. Erin is the queen of the pie (She just did an incredible feature in the NEW YORK TIMES!), and we had the best time spending two days together to have a proper catch up rather than just a quick dinner or drink every now and then like we usually manage. I learnt LOADS, ate loads, and if I may say so myself, we put together a fairly epic pie roundup for you - in our opinions, nine of the best pies to make for Thanksgiving!

We have used existing recipes here - either from Erin’s book (which you should get right now if you don’t already own), one of the many recipes she has developed, or recipes from here on my blog, so underneath each photo you will find a link to the recipe, along with any notes we have or changes that we have made. The pies are perfect as singles, but we also wanted to give you recipes that compliment each other, so if you’re hoping to make a pie spread for Thanksgiving, we got you.

Here’s what we ended up with (in the order listed):

Pumpkin Sugar Pie
Nutella French Silk Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Bourbon Apple Galette
Chocolate Cream pie with Peanut Butter Cream
Blood Orange Meringue Pie
Miso Caramel Apple Pie
Concord Grape Pie
Apple Butterscotch Pie

A few wee notes on pie making:

You can read all my tips and tricks on how to make pie crust in my post - foolproof homemade pie crust. I also have a post on how to blind bake pie crust!
Erin taught me an amazing way to make your pie dough smooth and easy to work with, while still being flaky AF: Make the dough as usual (you can keep the butter chunks quite big), wrap it up, rest in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour, then roll it out into a rectangle, fold it like a letter, then repeat the process. You then fold all four corners inward to form the rectangle into a disc, then re-wrap and rest in the fridge until you are ready to roll out! This process is similar to how rough puff is made, and really helps develop layers in the dough, while keeping it smooth and pretty! This technique was an absolute game changer for me, and I’m going to be using it every time I make dough now!
An overnight rest is best if possible for the dough, but if not, a couple of hours will work if you are in a pinch.
If you have a fave dough recipe, go ahead and use that! Otherwise ours are in the recipes!
Take things slow, and keep things cold. The best pies are the ones made where you aren’t in a rush! If you find your dough is warming up, pop it back into the fridge for a bit so that it firms up again slightly. Give your pie a good amount of time to rest in the fridge before you bake it to allow the crust to chill properly.
Some of the pies require a par-bake. We did this the night before, then filled and baked off the day of. This is an easy way to get some of the prep work done ahead of time.
Fruit pies can be made ahead of time - I like to make the filled pie, then freeze it unbaked until it is pie time! I usually freeze it until the crust is solid, then wrap tightly in foil to store in the freezer. It may need a little longer in the oven to account for the freezing.
Some of these pies need time to set - like the Nutella French Silk and Chocolate Cream Pie, so make sure you account for this!
If you want a clean cut on your pie, make sure that it is totally cool before cutting into it.
Erin has about 12 zillion more amazing pie tips in her book, including different ways to crimp your crust! (I also saved all the videos to my highlights on IG if you want a little relaxing video watching session)
If you have any questions, please leave them down below, and I will do my very best to answer everything!

Pumpkin Sugar Pie: The Pumpkin Pie for people who don’t like Pumpkin Pie

Both Erin and I aren’t giant fans of Pumpkin Pie - for me, I would just rather eat something else. I grew up eating savoury pumpkin dishes (we don’t have pumpkin pie / thanksgiving in New Zealand), so I’ve never been super into it. I also find it a little stressful to make, as I worry about it overcooking and cracking, which is caused by the protein in the eggs tightening up too much, causing cracks. This Pumpkin Sugar Pie, however is a bit of a game changer. It is set with flour as opposed to eggs, so you don’t have to worry about it cracking, and has a beautiful silky texture. It’s the best, and I will definitely be making it this year! Plus, drowning things in icing sugar is far too much fun. If you are looking for other sugar pie recipes, Erin just posted two in her NYT feature, and there’s the OG in her book!

Get the recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Nutella French Silk Pie: A twist on the classic French Silk Pie

I developed this one not too long ago, and it might possibly be a top contender for best pie ever in my books. I know Chocolate pie isn’t a traditional thanksgiving staple, but can we make it one? Haha. I think having a chocolate pie to balance out all the fruit pies is essential. This one, unlike most french silk pies, doesn’t use any raw eggs, and it is silky smooth with a good Nutella hit. It’s finished with swirls of whipped cream and chopped hazelnuts. You can’t really go wrong.

Get the recipe: French Silk Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie: A classic Thanksgiving Staple

I don’t know a whole lot about pecan pie, but I do know that 1. It is a Thanksgiving classic, and 2. Erin’s version is epic. She doubled the filling for the recipe linked below, then baked it in a par baked crust, the same way you would do a sugar pie. Erin doubled the recipe for this chocolate pecan galette, and baked it in a par-baked crust (with a fork crimp! So cute!), until the pecans were toasty and the filling was set. Update: I now have a recipe for this on Cloudy Kitchen, the link is below!

Get the recipe: Brown Butter, Black Bottom Pecan Pie

Bourbon apple galette: The apple pie that doesn’t require a lattice

Galettes are the perfect option for those who still want pie, but find making a double crust or crimping dough intimidating. You basically roll out the dough, dump the filling in, and then fold up the sides however you like. This Bourbon Apple Galette is super easy and crazy delicious - you make a lightly spiced bourbon sugar mixture, which is drizzled over the apples before baking, and turns the filling into this amazing caramelised apple situation. We used this recipe, but made it round rather than square. I also have a rectangle apple galette if you're after one!

Get the recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/65346-bourbon-apple-galette

Chocolate cream pie with peanut butter cream: For the peanut butter lover

This pie was the very first thing I made from Erin’s book, and I quickly got hooked on the peanut butter whipped cream on top, and proceeded to put it on everything I made. To make this pie, you fully blind bake a crust, then pour pudding into it and allow it to set, before finishing with peanut butter whipped cream. The cream really finishes it off, so don’t skip it!

Get the recipe: Chocolate Cream Pie

Blood Orange Meringue Pie: The Perfect citrus meringue pie

I love a good lemon meringue pie (I mainly just love burning things with my blow torch), so was super excited when Erin suggested a rework of the grapefruit meringue pie from her book! I love how this one turned out so much - the best part about meringue pies is not having to worry about what the surface of the pie looks like, because you know you’re just going to load it up with meringue anyway. The curd was a beautiful pink colour, and it was an epic twist on the traditional. The recipe for this is the grapefruit meringue pie in Erin’s book - we just subbed blood orange juice for the grapefruit.

Get the recipe: You can buy Erin’s book here , or use my recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie!

Miso Caramel Apple pie: a variation on the traditional caramel apple pie

This pie has been a very firm favourite in our house for a while now - I love caramel apple pie, but there is something about the umami, savoury flavour that the miso caramel gives to this pie that I just can’t go past. The miso caramel recipe makes a little more than you need, which means some very epic ice cream sundaes are going to be in your future. It’s perfect if you are looking for a wee twist on apple pie!

Get the recipe: Miso Caramel Apple Pie

Concord grape pie: for a wee taste of summer

I had Concord Grape pie for the first time a couple of weeks ago at Gramercy Tavern, and was instantly obsessed. Concord grapes are a variety of grape grown here in the USA - if you’re from New Zealand, I would describe them as the same kind of grapes people grow on vines in their garden - the dark purple ones with the kind of waxy finish and the skins that pull away super easily. You know the ones? Good. Erin’s filling is perfect - she had some frozen grapes she used for the filling. I’ve seen them still in season here in NYC, so if you see some, grab them and stash them and make this pie! This recipe is also from Erin’s book, and she did a simple ‘fattice’ on the top (using fat strips), which is a great lattice to use if you’re unsure about weaving pie dough, because it’s super simple, but still so, so pretty! Even though this was my first time trying it, this guy absolutely makes the list of best Thanksgiving Pies.

Get the recipe: You can buy Erin’s book here

Apple butterscotch pie: for when you can’t decide between a cream pie and a fruit pie

This pie was my very very favourite of them all. It’s a cooked apple filling, which is baked in a par baked crust, and then covered with a butterscotch pudding, then set in the fridge and topped with a layer of whipped cream. There’s so many flavours going on - the spiced fruit, the sweet pudding and the whipped cream. It’s like all the best parts about different types of pies had a baby, and this is it. The recipe for this one is in an ebook that Erin is releasing super super soon, so as soon as the link is live I will pop it here for you and update the post! Update: Erin wrote a whole BOOK about pie and it is so magical. I made this pie for my site, the link is below!

Get the recipe: Butterscotch Apple Pie

Happy Happy Thanksgiving, or if you don’t celebrate, happy pie making! I would love to know if you make any of the pies from our list of Best Thanksgiving Pies!

Apple Butter Macarons

The perfect Fall French Macaron - Macaron shells are filled with a smooth apple butter and spiced swiss meringue buttercream. #frenchmacaron #applemacaron

For the last couple of years, we have been part of a CSA. CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture” - essentially a farm upstate grows all the produce, then each week drives a truck down to drop off shares to a bunch of different CSAs. You pay at the start of the year, and then get to pick up seasonal veggies for 22 weeks! Each week is slightly different. It’s a great way to meet people, and the produce is always amazingly fresh. I became part of the volunteer group that runs it a few years ago - we each take turns running the pick-ups.

Anyway, where I am going with this is that I ran the pick-up last week, in the middle of a storm. I froze my wee fingers off, but it ended up being incredibly worth it, because due to the storm a bunch of people didn’t pick up, so I came home with a GIANT crate of apples. Like, crate that they use in the orchard. It’s way more apples than I know what to do with, so I’m going to get to it this weekend making some apple butters and pies so that we have them on hand in the freezer.

So enter these apple macarons. They are filled them with an apple butter, and a swiss meringue buttercream which we spiked with vanilla bean, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and ginger. You can’t really get any more autumn than that. Fall AF.

A few wee tips:

I have included notes to make apple butter (which is really just reduced apple sauce!) in both the instant pot and the slow cooker. You may or may not have to reduce down the mixture using the slow cooker - it depends on your apples. You are looking for a thick apple puree or sauce consistency. Remember that it will thicken in the fridge slightly!
Using the instant pot you will have to reduce it more because the water does not evaporate. You can do this on the saute function, however I find this a little inconsistent in heat delivery, so prefer to switch it to the pot.
The Apple butter needs to cool down before it can be used - overnight is ideal. You will be left with extra - but it is amazing on toast or baking!

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Spinach, Feta, and Basil Pesto Pull-apart Bread

Delicious homemade Spinach, Feta, and Basil Pesto Pull-apart Bread. Quick and easy loaf pan recipe that is perfect to share!

Spinach, Feta and Basil pesto Pull-apart bread. This pull apart loaf is super easy to put together, while being very impressive at the same time! A simple dough is filled with a spinach, feta and basil pesto filling, then cut into rectangles and layered into a loaf tin for the perfect pull apart bread. #pullapartbread #basilpestobread #spinachloaf

I made this pull-apart bread for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and have been tweaking the rolling and filling directions to make it as easy as possible. Lots of pull-apart breads will have you roll out the bread and cut circles, which you then fold into half-moons and stack into the loaf pan, but I didn’t want to have the leftover waste, so opted for rolling out the dough, spreading the filling, and then cutting into rectangles which are folded and stacked in. This process is super easy, and results in a fancy looking loaf that is fun to eat - you literally pull it apart and eat it layer by layer.

A few wee tips:

I used cooked spinach in this recipe - I just placed the spinach in a microwave safe bowl with a plate on top, then microwaved until it was wilted and reduced down. I then roughly chopped it, and set it over a sieve to drain out until I was ready to use it. Spinach contains loads of moisture, so you want to get most of this out before you use it so it doesn’t make your bread soggy.
The first rise for the bread can easily be done overnight.
I blended the filling using a stick blender - if you don’t want to do this step you can skip it, or you can use a food processor to do this too. It really helped to break down the spinach and make the filling easy to spread.
You may have a wee bit of filling left over depending on how thick you spread it - I stirred it into a pasta sauce and it was perfect!
I used a standard 1 pound loaf tin for this recipe - don’t worry if the pieces of dough look like they aren’t filling it up enough, as they rise they will take up the rest of the space.
This is best eaten the day it is made, but if you have leftovers, pop them in the microwave just for 30 seconds or so to refresh before eating.

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Chocolate Chunk Olive Oil Ricotta Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream

Oye. It’s kind of taking a while to get back into the swing of things since we’ve gotten home from New Zealand. Although I refuse to admit it, the trip back kind of took it out of me this time. Home was amazing, but there was a big to-do list waiting for me, that is kinda looming. But I feel like i’ve finally caught up on sleep, and am getting back into a routine (and we got a new foster cat this week, so all is right with the world!), so enough complaining, and let’s talk loaf cakes. Specifically, this chocolate chunk olive oil ricotta cake with dark chocolate buttercream. Yes it’s a mouthful. Literally. A delicious, chocolate, ricotta olive oil cake mouthful.

This is the perfect cake for if you want something easy to make, but still a little fancy. Because the cake is olive oil based, there is no need to cream butter and sugar. I added a little almond meal in to help give it that perfect dense texture, and the ricotta plays perfectly with the fruity olive oil. I topped it with a quick dark chocolate buttercream, which comes together super quickly, but utilises melted chocolate to help keep it silky. It’s amazing without the buttercream, but even more amazing with. You do you.

A few wee tips:

There aren’t really too many tips for this one! I made it in a pound sized loaf tin, and tented it just toward the end.
A good quality dark chocolate and good quality olive oil really make a difference here, so if you can, get a good quality of both!
This does make quite a bit of buttercream, which I like, but feel free to scale it back by a third if you want a little less ( I wouldn’t if I were you, but you choose!)

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I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!

Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Perfectly Chewy Soft Pretzels with Cheese Dip

Soft pretzels with cheese sauce dip. The pretzels are baked until perfectly golden brown, then served alongside an easy, creamy, cheesy mustard pretzel dipping sauce that comes together extremely quickly. These are the perfect snack for a crowd.

Soft Pretzels with Cheese Sauce Dip
How to make Homemade Pretzels
How to shape a soft pretzel
Baking Pretzels on Silpat Vs Parchment
Baking Soda Vs Lye in Baked Pretzels
Pretzel Cheese Dip
FAQ for Homemade Soft Pretzels
Recipes related to this soft pretzel recipe:
Recipe for Homemade Soft Pretzels with Cheese Dip

Soft Pretzels with Cheese Sauce Dip

Hi hi! Just popping in to share this soft pretzel recipe with you! If you haven't made your own homemade pretzels before now is a great time to start - they are a super fun from scratch baking project, and the dough is super versatile. I use this one master dough to make my Pizza Pretzels, Homemade Pretzel Bites, and Chewy Pretzel buns, so you can make one batch and finish these however you like!

I serve my soft pretzels with a really easy Pretzel cheese dip, which is great to make ahead and warm up as needed, or you can serve these soft pretzels alongside your favourite condiment - you do you here!

How to make Homemade Pretzels

This recipe is a pretty stiff dough, so I like to make it in the stand mixer with the dough hook. I haven't tried making it by hand. It would be quite hard to knead it by hand I think. You are welcome to try but please know it has not been tested so I cannot guarantee the results.

Make the Pretzel Dough. This can be done either the day before, or the same day. Leave to rise.
Divide the dough and shape the pretzels. I did traditional pretzel shapes, but these would work great just as pretzel sticks or twists too.
Second rise. I do the second rise for pretzels uncovered, in order to let the pretzels develop a bit of a skin. This helps them stand up to the water bath.
Chill. Slightly chilled dough is a little less floppy and easier to work with when putting the pretzels in the water bath. Popping the risen pretzels into the fridge helps with this.
Baking Soda bath. This step gives the pretzels their pretzel taste and helps them to get golden brown in the oven. I used baked baking soda for this step.
Bake. Bake the pretzels until they are a deep golden brown, then enjoy!

Authentic pretzels, baked until perfectly soft and golden brown, dipped in a super easy cheesy mustard dipping sauce that comes together extremely quickly. The perfect snack for a crowd. #pretzels #cheesesauce #cheesedip #americancheese #bread #homemadepretzels #bakingsodadip

How to shape a soft pretzel

Pretzels are easy to shape once you get the hang of it. I've added a shaping video down below, or you can follow these steps:

Divide the dough into the number of pretzels that you want to make.
Shape each piece of dough into a ball and place under a piece of plastic wrap to rest.
Flatten or roll each ball into a rectangle and then roll into a log. Place back under the plastic wrap.
Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll the log out to a 30" rope. This will seem long but remember that the pretzel will puff up.
Shape the log of dough into a 'U' shape.
Cross the two ends over each other twice, to form a twist.
Bring the ends down and press onto the rounded part of the pretzel.
Carefully transfer to a sheet pan
Repeat with the remaining pretzels

Baking Pretzels on Silpat Vs Parchment

I use Silpat mats (silicone mats) when I am making pretzels as it stops them from sticking. I came across this in testing. After the pretzels came out of the water bath, if I put them directly onto the parchment, they were sticking super, super badly.

There are two ways around this - either drain the pretzels for a few minutes on a wire rack after dipping and then transfer to lightly oiled parchment paper, or line the baking sheets with silpats or silicone baking sheets rather than baking paper.

I found baking on silicone to be the easiest option - once the pretzels come out of the dip they are a little delicate, so moving them from the rack to the baking sheet can be a little stressful. It works though! A few silpats or silicone baking mats are a great investment!

Baking Soda Vs Lye in Baked Pretzels

Some pretzel recipes will have you use lye to soak the pretzels in. Giving the pretzels a wee bath in lye (sodium hydroxide) helps to speed up the Maillard reaction, which gives the pretzels that lovely brown colour and chew. However, lye is caustic (alkaline) and scary, so I used something a little less alkaline but still very effective - baked baking soda. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is moderately alkaline, but baking it produces sodium carbonate, which is slightly more alkaline, so therefore perfect for dipping your pretzels without having to worry about the safety risk of using Lye. Yay chemistry!

To make baked baking soda: Line a sheet pan with foil, and spread 1 cup of baking soda evenly over it. Bake at 250˚f / 121˚c for one hour, then transfer to an airtight container. This will be enough for four batches of pretzels - you use ¼ cup at a time.

Pretzel Cheese Dip

I often serve this soft pretzel recipe with a super easy Pretzel cheese dip, which is basically a cheese sauce, using american style cheese and cream cheese for smoothness. It is super creamy, and you can use any cheese that you like - just make sure the total cheese weight is the same as in the recipe.

The cheese dip for the pretzels can be made ahead of time - store in an airtight container in the fridge with a piece of plastic wrap over the surface to ensure it doesn't get a skin. When you are ready to serve, either microwave or warm gently on the stove.

FAQ for Homemade Soft Pretzels

Can I replace instant yeast with active dry?
Yes. If you only have active dry yeast, it works as a 1:1 sub in the recipe. However you will need to activate it. Bring the milk to a lukewarm temperature, then add the sugar and the yeast. Leave for 10-15 minutes until it gets foamy, then add the rest of the ingredients and continue with the recipe.

What is Bread flour?
Bread flour is flour with a higher percentage of protein. If you are in NZ or the UK it is 'high grade flour' or 'strong flour'. These soft pretzels can be made with all-purpose flour if it is all you have on hand.

What is pretzel salt?
Pretzel salt is a coarse salt - it is opaque (which I think comes from having some air in it), so it gives a textural crunch. You can use a fine coarse salt too if you can't find pretzel salt

Can Cheese dip for pretzels be made ahead?
Yes - you can make it up to a few days ahead and store in the fridge. Re-warm when needed. If you have extra leftover, it is great as the filling for these cheese buns!

How to do you store pretzels?
Pretzels are best eaten on the day that they are made, but you can store pretzels lightly covered at room temperature. Re-warm before you eat them. If you are planning on making some to eat later than the day you make them, leave off the salt so that they don't go soggy.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Recipe for Homemade Soft Pretzels with Cheese Dip

Mint Chocolate Chip Macarons

Our time in New Zealand has almost, almost come to an end. And this time more than ever, I am equal parts ‘can’t wait to get back to nyc and get back into a routine’, and ‘OMG I can’t wait until I actually live here for realsies’. The grand plan (!!) is to eventually move back to the motherland (being NZ) - we have thrown round 2020 as being our year to do so. We have spent the last couple of days in Wellington, where Rich and I met (we both went to Uni here), and today we are looking at open homes! We probably won’t buy just yet, but hopefully in the next year or so, so that we have something to move into when we get back. I love NYC with all my heart, but I really can’t wait to have a big kitchen that’s all mine, along with some grass and a lemon tree.

These Mint Chocolate Chip Macarons with German Buttercream came about when we were making these wee Peach Streusel dudes. We finally worked out that the air con was making them come out all kinds of weird shapes, so these were the batch to prove that we had solved the problem! I love mint chip ice cream more than almost anything in the world, so I was super stoked to make this flavour - and the buttercream came out tasting just just like the ice cream. The thing I love about German Buttercream is that it isn’t super super buttery tasting, because the butter is mellowed out a little by the pastry cream base. We added some peppermint extract and finely chopped chocolate, and ended up with a mint chip german buttercream that I couldn’t stop eating by the spoonful. The best. I can’t wait to put the buttercream on a cake, because it is all kinds of delicious.

A few wee tips:

Everything I ever learnt about Macarons is in this post - I keep it all in one place because the list is getting super super long.
The pastry cream needs a wee bit of time to cool before you add the butter, so make sure you account for that! Otherwise you can cool it quicker in an ice bath, or by spreading it in a quarter baking sheet lined with plastic, covering the surface of the pastry cream with another piece of plastic wrap, and chilling it in the freezer until cool. The larger surface area and shallow baking sheet mean that it cools much faster.
Because you start with cool pastry cream (as opposed to slightly warm meringue as you would for a SMBC), make sure that your butter is very room temperature. If it isn't quite soft enough and you find your buttercream is seizing, you can remove about ⅓ cup of the buttercream, melt in the microwave, and then add back in and continue whipping. The heat from the melted buttercream is often enough to bring it all back together into the silky niceness you are after.
I like to make the pastry cream, then make the macaron shells, arrange them all, then finish up the buttercream before assembly.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Earl Grey Crullers with Earl Grey Glaze

We are having the best time ever in NZ visiting family, so I will keep this short - but I couldn’t wait any longer to share this recipe for Earl Grey Crullers with you! I hid away at home on my birthday making these and honestly couldn’t think of a better way to spend the day.

I love a lot of things - my foster kittens, being able to live where we do, my husband, my library card etc (in that order haha), and Earl Grey tea. I love the flavour of it, and how versatile it is. I love how it can easily adapt to fit in a huge number of flavour profiles. And I love how it makes these Earl Grey Crullers with Earl Grey Glaze taste. If you were ever looking for a cup of tea in doughnut form, look no further. Because this recipe is a doozy.

If you haven’t had a cruller before, it is essentially just fried choux dough. Same thing used to make cream puffs and eclairs, but instead of baking it so that it becomes puffy and crisp, it gets fried. And it is epic. The result is something a little more denser than a cream puff or eclair - it doesn’t have as much of a hollow inside, but just so insanely delicious. It manages to be light and heavy all at the same time, and with loads of texture on the golden brown outside to hold on to loads of tea infused glaze. Crullers or choux pastry are perfect for infusing flavour - because it doesn’t have to compete with yeast, the flavour is able to shine right through. I injected as much earl grey flavour into these as I could - by infusing the milk used to make the dough, and then infusing the cream used for the glaze. The result was a perfectly delicately flavoured doughnut, drowned in a sweet, strongly flavoured glaze. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out, and I hope you love them too!

A few wee tips:

I have included an extra 'just in case' egg in the ingredients. The reason that this is in there, is that sometimes you need to add extra egg to the pastry if necessary. You want the mixture to be at a consistency where if you dip in the beater of the mixer, the batter will form a 'v' shape and eventually break off. If it is too stiff, and breaks off very quickly, you may need to add another beaten egg, and mix again, before performing the test.
These can be made ahead and frozen until you are ready to fry - just freeze solid then transfer to a piping bag.
If you would like to make these just a plain flavour (rather than earl grey), just skip the step where you infuse with tea.
I prefer to deep fry in cast iron because it helps to keep the temperature constant, but a heavy bottomed pot will work well too.
If you don’t want to make all of these as doughnuts, you can pipe some as either rings or mounds onto parchment paper, and follow these instructions for baking them as cream puffs.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

No Bake Mixed Berry Cheesecake Bars

No Bake Mixed Berry Cheesecake Bars are super easy to make. They have a graham cracker crust, topped with a silky vanilla bean no bake filling, and finished with a beautiful marbled swirl of mixed berry coulis. perfect No bake, low effort dessert for any time of the year.

No Bake Mixed Berry Cheesecake Bars

I know that I post a fair bit of fancy shit. Intricate pie lattices, multi layer cakes, things with more components than they probably need to have just because I’m being extra. But this time, I am here to save your life (not really haha) with a crazy easy dessert that is super simple to put together, but still tastes amazing and makes you look super, super fancy. I made these no bake mixed berry cheesecake bars a few weeks back, and haven’t stopped thinking about them or possible variations of them since.

I grew up on no-bake cheesecake - to me, it is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of cheesecake. I haven’t quite been able to get behind baked cheesecake yet, because I’m not sure that anything will ever stand up to a really well done no-bake version. That, and I always hear people worry about cracking their cheesecake. This isn’t even a slight issue here. I got you. The thing that I really love about this recipe is how versatile it is - you could swirl literally anything you like through the top of it. I went with a mixed berry coulis swirl, but it would be epic with fudge, or nutella, or a quick lemon or passionfruit curd.

I started with a simple graham cracker crust, then topped it with a silky vanilla bean cheesecake filling, which is super easy and comes together quickly in the mixer. This alone would be the perfect dessert, but I had some berries that needed using up in the freezer, so popped together a quick coulis to swirl on the top, which turned out to be a very, very good idea.

I was initally aiming for a white top with just a small swirl of the berry, but I used too much the first time around, so just mixed it in and tried again and it worked out for the better - the berry flavour was much more prominent, and the top came out so marbled and beautiful. Give this dude a try if you can - I promise you will look super fancy with hardly any effort.

A few wee tips for Mixed Berry Cheesecake Bars:

Make the berry coulis topping first, and allow to cool slightly before you make the cheesecake.
This is a great base cheesecake recipe - you could do a passionfruit top, or a lemon curd, peanut butter, etc etc.
Make sure that your cream cheese is at room temperature to allow you to beat it very smooth.
If you can’t get graham crackers, digestive biscuits work perfectly!

Other No Bake Cheesecake Recipes

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Vanilla Bean Old Fashioned Doughnuts with Vanilla Bean Glaze

Vanilla Bean Old Fashioned Doughnuts - made as a cake doughnut rather than it's friend the yeast raised doughnut, old fashioned doughnuts are cakey and dense, fried to golden perfection, and then finished with a vanilla bean glaze. #oldfashioned #doughnuts #cakedoughnuts #cakedonut #vanillabean #staub

So. I thought I had a nice variety of recipes shot before I left for NZ so that I could share while I was away. Turns out that over a third of those are doughnut recipes. So hold onto your butts, maybe this will become a doughnut blog for the month. It’s going to be good though - there’s an earl grey cruller situation, and a chocolate choux ice cream sandwich (which is as much an ice cream sandwich as a doughnut so maybe we are good?), and then there are these dudes - vanilla bean old fashioned doughnuts with a vanilla bean glaze.

The recipe for these comes out of the beautiful new Staub cookbook! The book was written by my lovely friend Amanda Frederickson and is filled with a whole heap of amazing recipes, utilising Staub Cookware. Amanda makes the most delicious looking food, and her recipes are super easy to follow, and there are also recipes from a few super cool contributors. If you haven’t heard of Staub before, it is a french made cast iron enamel cookware, and it is one of my most favourite things to cook with. The book is jam packed with recipes I can’t wait to try - there are some super cozy looking ones in there too, so I can see myself working my way through them this winter!

This was the first time I had made Old-Fashioned doughnuts, but it most certainly won’t be the last. We have eaten them loads - there is an epic old school bakery near us called Peter Pan Donut shop, and they have a red velvet cake doughnut which is my fave thing ever. They differ to yeast raised doughnuts in that they are a cake-like batter rather than a dough. You mix the batter together, then give it a rest in the fridge to firm it up before rolling it out, cutting out doughnuts, and frying until golden. Because they don’t have any yeast in them, old fashioned doughnuts are much denser, and the surface turns into craggy amazingness when they are fried, which is perfect for grabbing onto the vanilla bean glaze.

A few wee tips:

Ideally these need an overnight rest, but you can give them 4 hours if you are in a pinch.
A candy / frying thermometer is super important for these so you can keep the oil a consistent temperature. I also always fry in cast iron to help with this too.
These are best eaten on the day that they are made!

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Basil Pesto and Feta Stuffed Savoury Brioche Doughnuts

Doughnuts are such a fun thing to make for a morning or afternoon tea - still nice and simple, but different enough that everyone is always super excited by them. Up until now I have only really made sweet doughnuts before (I actually have three doughnut recipes up and coming for you!), but wanted to try a savoury version this time, so turned to the classic combination of Pesto and Feta. And let me tell you right now - I'm hooked.

I used my go-to brioche dough, which is insanely versatile and can be used for knots, babkas, twists, doughnuts, hamburger buns, you name it, it probably works. I developed it maybe a year or so ago, and I love how reliable and adaptable it is. I added a little lemon zest and cracked pepper to the dough, then once it had done its first rise, I divided it into 12 balls, then stuffed each one with some feta, and pesto. The combination of Pesto and feta is a well-loved one, but it never gets old. The salty feta compliments the herby pesto, making the perfect filling for so many things, including savoury doughnuts. It is such a nice change to have a doughnut that isn't sweet or fruit filled - these will be making their way into my recipe rotation, and I do hope that you give them a try!

A few wee tips:

If you want to make these early in the day, you can do the first rise in the fridge - the dough may just need to sit out slightly before you start working with it.
When you roll these, you kind of cup your hand over the roll and move it in a circle so that the friction between the dough and the surface seals off the filling. Make sure to give it a good pinch too. Because you need the friction, don't heavily flour your surface.
I use a dutch oven to fry doughnuts in and love it because of how well and evenly it retains the heat. A digital or candy thermometer that clips onto the side is also very helpful - make sure your oil is deep enough and that the tip of the thermometer is in the middle of the oil in order to get an accurate reading.

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S'mores Philadelphia style Ice Cream

Making your own ice cream is super fun for a few reasons. One, you feel like a total badass. Two, you can make it whatever flavour you like. And Three (or maybe two and a half), it's great for using up little extras you may have leftover from baking projects. It is a great way to use up cream. Extra chocolate can get stirred in, or maybe a handful of nuts. You can swirl in the little bit of peanut butter leftover, or add some fruit that is on it's last legs. Or, of course, you can make S'mores Ice Cream. S'mores Philadelphia Ice Cream, to be specific. (More on the Philadelphia part in a second).

This S'mores Philadelphia Style Ice cream came about after a day of making these S'mores Macarons. We were left with a bunch of weird shaped marshmallow pieces, and a couple of graham crackers, and S'mores on the mind. I had been meaning to try out a Philadelphia style ice cream for a while. Philadelphia style differs from 'traditional' ice cream base, in that it doesn't use any egg yolks. This means that it is much easier to prepare, and gives you a lighter ice cream both in colour and in taste - anglaise ice cream is amazing too, but it can get kind of intense, and is often a creamy colour, as opposed to this Philadelphia Style, which is white due to the absence of the egg yolks. Both types of ice cream have their place, but I have a feeling Philadelphia Style is going to definitely become a part of the repertoire from here on out. I loved how easy it was to prepare, it didn't leave you with any extra whites (although an anglaise is my fave way to use up eggs), and I loved the taste it produced. It's as easy as no churn ice cream to prepare (although does require the use of an ice cream machine), but in my opinion, tastes far far better. Philadelphia Style is the new no churn. I'm calling it.

Because the ice cream base was so easy to make, putting together this ice cream was stupid simple. All I did was churn the ice cream, then layer with the marshmallow pieces, which I lightly toasted, some graham cracker chunks, and some chopped chocolate. All you have to do is layer it lasagna style, freeze until solid, and you are good to go. I used homemade marshies but store bought would 100% work perfectly here too, and make the process even easier. If you haven't ventured into homemade ice cream before, this would be a great place to start.

A few wee tips:

There aren't many ingredients in this, so for the base, if possible, use the best quality ingredients that you can.
This is 100% customisable - add whatever you like to it!
Ice Cream makers seem like a weird investment but I promise you, once you make your first batch you're going to be hooked! I just have the one which connects to my Kitchenaid, but the counter top ones work great too.
Don't forget to freeze your ice cream bowl ahead of time

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Apricot Pop Tarts with Vanilla Bean Icing

Hi hi from Montauk! We are up here for few days with Richard's Mum and Sisters who are over visiting from home! So far we've eaten a couple of giant salads made with ingredients from the local farm stand, a few fish tacos, and have indulged in a lot of blobbing about. It's going to be so nice to have a wee break from the city!

I just wanted to pop by and share this recipe with you while we are still in stone fruit season here in the states, although it can be made with a jar of your fave preserves. I had some extra puff pastry left over from a project, and a bowl full of amazingly fresh apricots, so pop tarts really were a great mistake waiting to happen. This recipe is incredibly versatile and can really be made with any type of puff pastry - fresh or home made, or a store bought jam, or one you have made yourself. However you choose to make them, I promise they will be delicious. If you haven't made your own jam before I really do encourage you to give it a try - it's super easy and the most amazing way to preserve fruit when it is at its peak long after the season ends. And you can't go wrong with the butteriest, flakiest of puff pastries, and a vanilla bean icing. Enjoy!

A few wee tips:

The apricot jam does take some time to cool, so ensure that you leave time for this. If you need it to cool faster, you can place it into a shallow dish to increase the surface area.
Make sure you sterilise your jars and lids - I like to put the jars in the oven at about 300˚f for 15 mins to kill off any germs. I then put the lids in boiling water and leave them in there until I am ready to use them.
This recipe is easily customisable - you can use store bought puff, and definitely can use a regular store bought jar of jam or preserves inside.
It is also very easy to scale - the recipe makes about 3 jars of jam, so make as few or as many as you like. They do freeze very well too - freeze until solid then transfer to an airtight container, then bake when you are ready.
I use a homemade puff pastry in this recipe because that is what I had leftover, but since making and shooting these I have also been playing around with a rough puff pastry recipe which is a bit easier to make and just as delicious, so you could absolutely use that too.
Apparently people put pop tarts in the toaster? I definitely wouldn't recommend that with these - if you would like to reheat, a few minutes in a preheated oven would help crisp them up a little - just bear in mind the icing might get a bit melty.

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S'mores Macarons with Toasted Marshmallow

I love developing new French macaron flavor ideas! These super-fun
s’mores macarons bring together the flavors of toasted marshmallow, graham crackers, and a creamy dark chocolate ganache. This macaron recipe looks impressive, and is absolutely delicious.

macarons with chocolate ganache and toasted marshmallow on a white background

S'mores Macarons
Components of S'mores Macarons
How to toast marshmallows at home
Can French Macarons be made ahead of time?

macarons on a skewer being held by a hand

S'mores Macarons

Hi hi! I am just popping in to share the recipe for these S'mores French Macarons! These are a super fun twist on a classic homemade macaron - it is made up of a vanilla bean french macaron shell dusted with graham cracker crumbs, a disc of toasted marshmallow, and a silky chocolate ganache.

Once you have learnt how to make French Macarons, the flavour and filling options are endless. There are some really fun French macaron flavour ideas, and you can make a big batch of shells then fill them with whatever you like.

Some other fun variations on French macarons I have made include Cereal Milk Macarons, Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Macarons, and Strawberry Macarons. Mix and match as you like!

macaron shells on a brown background with graham cracker crumbs

Components of S'mores Macarons

These S'mores French macarons have a few components to them, but you can make them ahead and assemble when you are ready.

Graham Cracker Macaron Shells. I used my go-to french macaron shell, and dusted it with crushed graham crackers before baking.
Chocolate Ganache. This is a super easy chocolate ganache recipe, made by melting together cream, chocolate and butter for a super smooth ganache that is easy to pipe.
Toasted Marshmallow. I love making recipes using marshmallow, and it is super easy to make your own homemade version. This S'mores macaron recipe uses discs of marshmallow - you make it in a flat pan and then cut out the circles of marshmallow to toast. If you don't want to make your own marshmallow you could use store bought marshmallows and toast them, or pipe on some marshmallow fluff or marshmallow frosting (this will get sticky so be careful)

How to toast marshmallows at home

If you haven't made your own toasted marshmallow before, I highly recommend you give it a try, as it is so fun and easy. Toasting homemade marshmallow is particularly delicious - the toasty flavour is just so, so good.

I toast my marshmallow using a torch - I prefer one from the hardware store rather than a kitchen torch, but if you need to you can pop the marshmallow onto a skewer and toast over the stove top.

Can French Macarons be made ahead of time?

These macarons can be made ahead of time, but I suggest making the components separately and assembling when you are ready to serve. The marshmallow needs time to cure, and the shells need time to bake, so you could make both the shells and marshmallow the day before you serve and then assemble the day of.

These macarons are best eaten on the day that they are made - I suggest storing components separately and assembling when ready to eat.

skewers with macarons on a sheet pan with parchment paper

Tips for making S'mores Macarons

Check out my ultimate How-to guide for macarons for more detail.
Start with making the marshmallow first, so it has time to cure while you make the shells. If you like, the shells and mallow can be made ahead of time and stored separately.
Have everything ready to go before you start the marshmallow - grease and dust your pan, have your utensils nearby etc. Things go quickly, and can get very very sticky if you aren't prepared.
You're going to be left with a bit of marshmallow leftover but it keeps for a really long time in an airtight container.
If you don't yet have a blow torch, don't waste your money on a 'kitchen torch' just get a propane torch with an adjustable flame from the hardware store. They are way cheaper and way better.
We torched the marshmallow on a cake turntable to help keep it even! Only do this if your turntable is metal, otherwise prop up a heatproof surface on something like an upside down bowl so you don't melt your turntable.

If you find your shells are sticking to the parchment paper when you remove the macarons from the oven even though they are baked, transfer the pan to the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This should help the shells release cleanly.

Toasted macarons with ganache and toasted marshmallow

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Chicken, Leek and Sun dried Tomato Pesto Pie with Homemade Rough Puff Pastry

What a wonderfull homemade chicken, leek and sun dried tomato pesto pie. Leeks are so underrated - they give a very subtle onion flavour, and cook down to be lovely and soft, giving substance to the filling without being overwhelming. I also added the usual suspects - bacon, celery and carrot, then thickened the filling with a little flour, chicken stock and cream. The last step which really helped elevate this to the next level was a big dollop of Tomato Pesto, which added another flavour profile into the mix to give this a tiny twist on the standard chicken pie.

A regular pie dough is usually my go to for a savoury pie, but I have been wanting to try making rough puff (I always want it to be called Ruff Puff!) for a long time now, so figured this would be a great time to do it! There are loads and loads of recipes for it on the internet, all with their own methods and ingredient ratios, so I figured I might as well go ahead and add my own! Traditional puff pastry is super fun to make but it is a little time consuming and can be tricky in the summer due to the butter melting quickly. Rough puff is a great alternative - it is much more forgiving, and a little less time consuming to make. It does still involve a little time in terms of resting and chilling the dough, but the actual active time is very small. I think this is going to be my new go to for a savoury pie - it is flaky and tender, and bakes up to be amazingly golden brown. It is 100% worth the effort, promise.

A few wee tips:

I kind of combined the recipe of a rough puff but incorporated some of the folds that a traditional puff pastry has. It's way way less stressful to make, because you don't have to worry about your butter block being too warm or cold and breaking up and coming to the surface.
I used a food processor to grate my frozen butter which worked great (grate? I'll stop now) but if you grate by hand, put your grater in the freezer for a wee bit before you start so it is nice and cold. If you can though, I would absolutely recommend using the whizz!
The pastry will look super shaggy at the beginning but I promise that it will be lovely and smooth by the time you are finished with your turns. I do a total of 6 turns - if your dough is cool enough and you work quickly you can usually get away with doing two at a time, but if you are working in the summer, you may have to pop it back in the fridge just for a little bit. Don't be intimidated - because there's no butter to break up because it's all incorporated, a quick rest in the fridge fixes everything!
If you want to make this with store bought puff pastry, you will need about 1kg. Home made pie dough will also work amazingly! This quantity will work - leave out the sugar. I did do a fairly tight lattice, which means that you need double the area of the top of the pie to make enough strips (full size of the top for the horizontal, and full for the vertical) which means the top is quite crust heavy, but I love a good pastry to filling ratio, so you can do a wider lattice if you would like less pastry.
I put a bottom crust on this but if you like you could just do a top crust and do it as a big pot pie - add a little strip of pastry around the edge of the tin and fold down over the filling a little so that the top crust has something to join onto.
The Rough puff gets a bit hard to work with if it gets too warm from the filling, so ideally give your filling a little time to cool before you assemble.
This is great to make ahead - you can prep the filling and then assemble the pie, then just pop it in the fridge until you are ready. It will likely need an extra 10-15 minutes in the oven to compensate for this, but just keep an eye on it. You want the filling to be bubbling when you take it out. Don't egg wash it until just before you bake.
Sun dried Tomato pesto is best for this recipe but if you aren't able to get sundried tomato, a tablespoon of dried or a small handful of fresh thyme is a great alternative.

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Toasted Coconut Ice Cream Pops with Passionfruit Magic Shell

Friday marked 3 months we haven't had gas to our apartment. And ohhhhh boy I am pissed off about it. Cooking on a wee camping style element is ok, until you have to make two things at once. Or, say, you would like all the components of dinner ready at the same time. A lady in my building told me she's just been eating tacos for three months. While we aren't that extreme, it's definitely annoying. But instead of coming here to complain more (lol, too late), I'm gonna pop this recipe here that still requires the use of a burner, but only one at a time and just for a wee bit - these toasted coconut ice cream pops with a passionfruit magic shell.

A couple of months ago I was invited along to the Valrhona USA headquarters to have a play with their new inspiration line! Turns out it's just in Brooklyn, same as me! This is what happens when you don't get out much - you don't realise things are just under your nose. Anyways, it was a super fun night, we got to meet their amazing pastry chef who showed us all sorts of fancy things, and we learnt all about their new line of fruit and nut couvertures (which is a fancy name for chocolate with a high cocoa butter content). They have recently released an almond and a passionfruit (!!) flavour, both of which taste insanely good, and also happen to be vegan if that sort of thing floats your boat. The release of these is going to be an exciting new development for vegan desserts, but also super exciting for people like me who are addicted to passionfruit, but also equally sad that they are almost impossible to get hold of here in NYC. So this is the next best option. The Passionfruit couverture is made with cocoa butter and passionfruit juice, meaning that it has an insanely punchy passionfruit taste, with the flavour not being drowned out by sugar as it would be in a nectar or juice.

One of the things that we were shown while we were there was a passionfruit magic shell. Magic shell is essentially chocolate warmed with a neutral oil, which means that when it comes into contact with something cold (like ice cream), it solidifies into an amazing, crunchy crackly shell. The pastry chef had made a passionfruit magic shell, which we dipped teeny little perfect bars of coconut sorbet into. My mind was blown, and I knew it had to be replicated at home, and so here we are!

I wanted to kind of keep the same flavour profile going as we tasted at Valrhona, but wanted to make it an ice cream base rather than a sorbet (because I like to think I'm fancy, but I'm not that fancy). So, I went with a toasted coconut ice cream - essentially an anglaise (custard), which you infuse overnight with toasted coconut before churning in your ice cream maker and freezing into popsicle moulds. Once they have frozen down, I took them out of the moulds, let them chill out in the freezer for a bit, and then melted down some grapeseed oil and the passionfruit chocolate, let it cool, then dunked the pops in. It's kind of stressful to dunk but also super fun to watch the shell set almost immediately into a perfectly smooth form. I then drizzled them with some white chocolate (totally optional but another step to make you look fancy), and we were all done! The toastyness of the coconut ice cream paired so perfectly with the punchy chocolate shell - these are going to be firmly on repeat whenever I feel the need to impress someone.

A few wee tips:

The toasted coconut ice cream base ideally needs overnight to infuse the coconut flavour, so you will need to account for this. If you are in a pinch you can just chill it down with the coconut, and once chilled, strain it out.
I made the magic shell using Valrhona Passionfruit Couverture, but if you aren't able to get that, a white chocolate, or milk / dark chocolate would also make an amazing magic shell coating to pair with the toasted coconut. The ratio for the magic shell is approximately 1 part neutral oil to 5 parts chocolate, by weight.
These are the pop moulds that I used. I love how fancy they look, and they are the perfect size! This recipe will work in any pop mould though!

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Halloumi Tarts with Homemade Puff Pastry

For these tarts I started with some homemade puff pastry, which, if you are up for it, is a super fun wee project, and actually not as hard as most people think. If you like, you can absolutely use store bought puff here too. I then rolled it out, cut it into rectangles, then spread with a thin layer of hot chili pesto, before topping it with a mushroom and garlic mixture, and some roasted red pepper strips. Once baked, it was topped with some fried halloumi cubes, and finished with a wee sprig of thyme.

A few wee tips:

If you aren't keen on making your own puff pastry, you can definitely use store bought! I used 700g for this recipe. I have added a link to the recipe here
Most of the components for this can be made ahead - the peppers can be roasted ahead, and the mushroom mixture can also be done ahead.
You can add the halloumi on before you bake if you like, but I prefer it fried so added it once it was already baked. Feta would work great too.
Feel free to customise these to your liking! They could be done with any type of filling that you like!

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Answers to your baking questions

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Roasted Peach Streusel Macarons

Back here with another peach recipe! They really are so good at the moment that it would be a shame not to make the most of them. Also back here with another Macaron recipe - once again, on the last day of the month. Whoops. But also - Roasted Peach Streusel Macarons. These Peach cobbler inspired treats are the perfect wee summer treat!

We wanted to really jam a strong peach flavour into these wee babes, so we went with my fave - a vanilla bean german buttercream, which we then added a whole load of roasted peaches to. The key to adding fruit to a buttercream and avoiding the separation due to the liquid is removing as much of that liquid as you can first. You can do this by using freeze dried fruit, or cooking the fruit down into a puree or compote. We roasted the peaches with a little vanilla bean, sugar, and a pinch of salt, until they were delicious and soft, and then added that to the buttercream. I love roasted peaches as is, but added to a buttery, custardy german buttercream - the best.

We wanted to go for a bit of a peach cobbler vibe, so toped the shells of the macs with a brown butter streusel. The toasty streusel paired perfectly with the chewy shell and the fruity buttercream, to create the most delicious little bite! I do hope you give these a try - they are so, so good! I can't wait to add the streusel / roasted peach german buttercream to a whole lot of things this summer!

A few wee tips:

Everything I can think of that will make macaron making easier has been added to this post - I update it as I go!
The ideal order for making these is: Make the pastry cream, roasted peaches and streusel the night before, then make the mac shells and mix up the buttercream the day of! Everything can definitely be done the day of, but it is a couple of different components so may take some time. If you do it day of, make pastry cream first, then prep the streusel while the peaches are roasting, and then get that on once the peaches are done. Then make your mac shells, and whip up the buttercream while they are baking!
I was originally grinding the almond meal and powdered sugar together, but then realised it really only needed sifting, I just had the wrong sized sieve! You want one with a medium sized mesh (I ordered this one), and make sure you sift twice to remove any big lumps and aerate the mixture.
We also discovered an amazing parchment - and haven't had a single mac stick since we started using it. It's a non-stick parchment paper - we used this one.
The pastry cream for the buttercream ideally needs overnight so ensure you plan for this, otherwise you can cool it quicker in an ice bath, or by spreading it in a quarter baking sheet lined with plastic, covering the surface of the pastry cream with another piece of plastic wrap, and chilling it in the freezer until cool. The larger surface area and shallow baking sheet mean that it cools much faster.
Adjust the sugar depending on the sweetness / juiciness of your peaches!
Because you start with cool pastry cream (as opposed to slightly warm meringue as you would for a SMBC), make sure that your butter is very room temperature. If it isn't quite soft enough and you find your buttercream is seizing, you can remove about ⅓ cup of the buttercream, melt in the microwave, and then add back in and continue whipping. The heat from the melted buttercream is often enough to bring it all back together into the silky niceness you are after.
You will have some streusel leftover - store in an airtight container. It's amazing on ice cream!
If you need a template, print two of these and stick them together to use as a guide.

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Peach and Thyme Hand Pies

Ok so I just checked, and I have 21 pie recipes on this blog. TWENTY ONE. There's like, 150 something recipes total, 21 of which are pies. Whoopsies. And it's probably only going to get worse sorry - I promise not to double up on you, but there's just something that really gets me going about spending an afternoon pottering round in the kitchen rolling out dough, or working out a lattice, or cutting out shapes. Pie is the best way (in my opinion) to quickly turn an in season fruit into a beautiful dessert, while still maintaining the integrity of the fruit itself - adding starch and sugar, and wrapping it up in a flaky pie crust is only going to make something more delicious. You're not tucking it into a cake or hiding it in a muffin - pie really lets you hero what you are working with. Plus I will never get sick of pretty intricate lattices. So as long as you guys are ok with it, there's going to be more pie. Actually, even if you're not ok with it, it's going to be here anyway.

I can't help myself when peaches are in season, and so when I found myself, yet again, with a good few kilos of super ripe peaches, some pie dough in the freezer, and a brand spanking new thyme plant / balcony garden, I really didn't have a choice but to make pie. I love a regular sized pie, but I love pie dough more, so hand pies are one of my favourite ways to really exploit the filling to crust ratio. The addition of thyme was a great move on my part - the thyme is super delicate, and gives the filling a little something extra.

I kept these ones super simple - no pastry stamps in sight, just two circles of dough, filled, and pressed together. Crazy easy, and can be done well ahead of time - they actually freeze super well so if you wanted to make a bunch, you could freeze them then bake on demand.

A few wee tips:

I peeled my peaches by boiling a large pot of water, and preparing an ice bath. I then scored a cross in the bottom of each peach, placed them in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then transferred immediately to the ice bath. The skins should slide right off. If you want to keep the skins on, that works too!
I have also made these with frozen peaches - I just thawed them and then chopped them up and it worked just fine!
If you can, make your pie dough overnight. I actually took this dough from the freezer and thawed it overnight before using.
I like to layer up the circles as I cut them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper - to make a second layer, make sure you place another piece of baking paper between the circles.
Work with one hand pie at a time - so fill it and seal it up, and then move onto the next one rather than making a production line. That way you reduce your chances of the juice going everywhere.
If your peaches are super ripe or crazy juicy you may need to add a little more starch - add an extra tablespoon or so and see how you go if it is looking kinda soupy.
I have a little tip to help make the dough easier to work with - it is optional but especially helpful for wee pies like this where you want the dough to be flaky but still really easy to work with. I make the dough, rest it in the fridge wrapped for about an hour, then remove it and roll it out into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. I then give it a letter fold (as you would a letter), roll out to a rectangle, letter fold again, then roll out once more and shape into a rectangle. I then re-wrap it, and leave it to rest overnight. This makes the dough more homogenous without compromising the flaky texture that you want in the pie dough, and it makes it a total dream to work with, and shaping it into a rectangle gives you a head start when you go to roll out your dough for assembling the pies.

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Roasted Garlic, Tomato and Ricotta Pesto Brioche Knot

Fluffy Brioche filled with Roasted Garlic, Tomato and Ricotta Pesto. Rolled up and twisted into a knot, and baked to golden, puffy perfection. Perfect on it's own or as an addition to a lunch or alongside a bowl of soup.

Fluffy Brioche knots filled with Roasted Garlic, Tomato and Ricotta Pesto. Rolled up and twisted into knots, and baked to golden, puffy perfection. Perfect on their own or as an addition to a lunch or alongside a bowl of soup. #brioche #briocheknot #pestobrioche

Roasted Garlic, Tomato and Ricotta Pesto Brioche Knot

I've always had a thing with bread. Mum and Dad have a bread maker, and for as long as I remember, have been making this epic focaccia that gets served alongside almost every meal when we have visitors around. I went through a sourdough phase for a while (which I can't wait to get back into once our oven is fixed!), and a year or so ago I discovered the magic of babka - a fluffy brioche dough, filled with whatever magic you fancy, and twirled up into swirly shapes before being baked off. I am always amazed at how pretty the sliced dough is, and I love how versatile it can be. Can't stop, won't stop babkaing. I went down the savoury road this time, and made this roasted garlic, tomato and ricotta pesto brioche knot, and some little baby ones to go alongside it, just in case mini bread is your kind of thing.

I was a little nervous at first about notting this but quickly realised it's really just as simple as crossing one end over the other, and tucking the ends in nicely. Easy easy! I also made it into some wee knots - same recipe and process, just in mini. I've included both versions in the instructions. The bread is fluffy and the filling is super yum - this would be perfect for a lunch, or alongside a meal. We had ours with some homemade tomato soup, and it was crazy delicious.

A few wee tips for this Pesto Brioche Knot:

This is easier to braid than you think! All you do is cross one end over the other, and then tuck the ends under. You look super fancy, but it's super easy.
I have included an hour rest in the freezer with this. This makes the dough firm and much easier to roll out thin. If you don't want to do this step, you can make the dough the night before, and give it its first rise overnight in the fridge. Then the next day all you need to do is roll it out, fill it, then roll it up and shape, before giving it its second proof before baking.
Depending on the weather the dough may need a teeny bit more liquid - add this a teaspoon at a time in the first kneading stage if it is having a hard time forming a soft dough.
This recipe includes roasted garlic, which is super delicious - I love how mellow it is. This needs some time to cool before going into the filling so either prep it ahead or pop it in when you start the dough - you can make a whole bunch all at once and use them for all sorts of things! If you don't want to roast the garlic you can leave it out.
I finished this off with pretzel salt because I love it, but a flaky sea salt will work perfectly.

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Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart with Peanut Butter Whipped Cream

I'm gonna start this post off by apologising. I've been sitting on this recipe for far longer than is fair. You need this recipe in your life. It's a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart, which is topped with a Peanut Butter Whipped Cream. Sounds like a mouthful? Wait until you have the actual thing in your mouth.

I made this a month or so ago to take to a friend's house. I always get excited when we go places for dinner, not because we have no friends (maybe that too? It's the little things, lol), but because it gives me an excuse to make something super elaborate and actually have people there to eat it! As per usual I was put on dessert duty, and i've been wanting to try a chocolate peanut butter tart for a long time, so here we are.

This was insanely easy to make, everyone went back for thirds, and it was just as amazing the next day. A chocolate tart like this is a great wee recipe to have up your sleeve - it is super easy to prepare in advance, and always, always a crowd pleaser. You could leave out the peanut butter and hit it with a big dollop of whipped cream, or just leave it as is, and sprinkle a little salt over the top to have a plain chocolate tart. The possibilities are endless. You should make it. It's crazy easy, but you're going to look super fancy. Promise.

A few wee tips:

The crust for this is a graham cracker crust, made into a 'chocolate' crust by adding some cocoa. I have a brown butter graham cracker situation here too if that's more your jam.
This can absolutely be made ahead by at least a day - but add the peanut butter whipped cream on the day that you serve.
Good quality chocolate really makes a difference here. I usually go for something about 70% cocoa solids, but if you wanted a slightly more mellow chocolate taste, milk chocolate would work great too.
Good quality peanut butter also makes this taste extra yum - go for something that is just peanuts and salt. I used Pic's in this - a brand from my hometown in NZ! You can get it on Amazon too.
If you're in a place where Graham Crackers aren't easy to find, digestive biscuits work great.
I used an ateco #866 tip on the top of this. French star tips are my secret weapon - I have a bunch of them and highly recommend!

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Cherry Pie

Hi Hi! I am currently sitting on my butt on a plane somewhere over the middle of America, on my way back to NYC after an amazing few days in Yakima Valley, Washington. I was super stoked to be asked to attend this year’s cherry harvest with Domex Superfresh Growers - they hosted myself and a bunch of bloggers in Yakima, where we visited their orchard and factories (I popped some photos at the end of the post!), and got to learn all about their company and how they process their fruit. We toured the orchards, picked some cherries for ourselves, and then were given an amazing tour of their production facility. Each year they produce 60 million pounds of cherries - their factory is able to handle 45,000 cherries per MINUTE. The process is so amazingly streamlined, from the picking of the fruit to the shipping out from the factory, and I learnt so many interesting things and met so many amazing people! Yakima Valley is insanely beautiful and actually reminded me a whole lot of home - the town I am from in New Zealand has similar geology (I was nerding out), the same horticultural focus and produces the same things - hops, tree fruit and wine, so it was so nice to be surrounded by all these things so far away from home.

To celebrate the trip and the cherry harvest, I have teamed up with Superfresh Growers to bring you this cherry pie recipe! I originally had something fancy and intricate planned with the fruit, but the second a giant box of the Superfresh Cherries showed up on my doorstep, I took one bite and knew that they were destined for pie. You really can’t beat a pie made with beautiful fresh fruit - all you need is a touch of sugar and starch, and the fruit really does shine through. The two-bite cherries really are that - big and juicy and perfect for pie.

I kept things super simple with this pie, which I like to do when I have amazing produce, and fancied things up a little with the pie lattice instead of an intricate recipe. I have a few vintage pie tins I have been dying to use for the longest time, so instead of making one big pie I opted for four smaller pies. This recipe makes enough for four smaller 7” pies, or you can use it to make two regular 9” pies instead, whatever you feel like. I got the pie tins on Ebay - from what I saw the 7” size is a fairly standard size for vintage pie tins, so they shouldn’t be too hard to get hold of if you wanted some of your own (Looks like Amazon has them too). Cherry pie is definitely one of my new favorite things - it really is the taste of summer. Whether you go all out with fancy pie lattice or just keep it simple - it’s going to taste bomb either way.

A few wee tips:

I used vintage pie tins to make these which I got on ebay - they were 7 inches across. This recipe makes four 7" pies. I measured the volume, and if you wanted, this recipe would also make 2 x regular sized 9 inch pies.
I love using tapioca starch in pies as it makes a super smooth filling that isn't gluey or goopy. If you don't have any, I would suggest you get some rather than substituting with corn starch - they behave differently.
I actually divided all the filling ingredients into four and mixed them up just before I put the lattices on each pie, because I didn't want the sugar to pull the moisture out of the fruit as it sat, meaning that the last pie would be much juicier than the first, and the starch may not distribute evenly, leading to a difference in texture of the cooked pie.
I made the pies the day before I baked them and stored them in the fridge overnight before baking. The only reason I did this was because a giant rain storm came in as I was shooting and I lost my light. 30 mins in the fridge (which is what I have included in the recipe) is fine!
The cherries from Superfresh were exactly that - they take two bites, so I chopped them in half before making them into the filling, as large cherries can mean that they don't pack in well, and spaces between filling can lead to all sorts of pie flop problems. If your cherries are smaller and pack well, then you may not need to chop - before you mix them with the other ingredients, pour them into your pie dish and check!
I used cutters for the cut-outs - These are the flowers, and I have a couple of leaf sets, including these and these
Make the pie dough in two batches. If you make it as one large batch you run the risk of your butter getting too hot, and overworking the dough. Making it in two batches reduces this risk.
I like to cut all the strips for lattices at the start, and then use the last pie to use up all the extra strips in an uneven lattice (the one with the cut-outs), but if you like then you can definitely cut them as you go. I store them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper until I am ready to use them.

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Thank you so much to Superfresh Growers for sponsoring this post and for having me for the most amazing trip to Yakima Valley! All opinions are my own.

Banana Sheet Cake with Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache

There are very few things I would change about my Husband Rich. He's the consistent to my rollercoaster moods, the calm to my crazy. But he has horrific taste in frosting. Unless it's what we call "shitty chocolate icing" (I've since managed to at least get him to agree to a chocolate american buttercream), he doesn't want anything to do with it. He will scrape the buttercream off cakes, chop it off the top of cupcakes, or just flat out refuse anything involving swiss meringue buttercream. Last weekend I was taking a cake for a friends birthday and he asked if he could BRING HIS OWN FROSTING. And as much as I try to not let it bug me, I always get a little bummed out when he scrapes frosting off or eats around it. My theory is that the fancier it is, the longer it took me, or the more components it has, the higher the chances are of him not liking it. Banana bread? He will eat a whole loaf in a day. Multi component choux buns? He's gonna ask me to leave him some unfilled so he can eat them plain. Luckily I have loads of friends who aren't as basic in baking preferences as Rich, but I always have to remind myself when presenting him with something that's taken me ages or is super intricate, that he's probably not going to like it because he's a monster. Is it just me? Or does this happen to other people too?

I did however manage to sneak this banana sheet cake with whipped dark chocolate ganache past him the other day. Granted, he did request an american buttercream when I made it for him for his birthday, but at least this one didn't get scraped off (I don't know what's wrong with him, honestly, because the ganache is the best part). Banana cake is a huge favourite around our house, probably because it's just banana bread in a different form.

The cake itself is super super easy, and all I have done is fancied it up a little with a whipped dark chocolate ganache. The ganache is dark and rich, and balances the sweet, moist cake. Feel free to add a different buttercream to this (Rich recommends a double batch of this one, but a dark chocolate swiss meringue situation would also be amazing), but I do encourage you to give the ganache a go. It's worth it.

A few wee tips:

The Ganache does need some time to firm up in the fridge - you want to give it a little time on the bench first to reduce the condensation when you put on the plastic wrap. I like to let it firm up, stirring occasionally, until it is thick and fudgy, and then whip it - It usually needs about half an hour on the bench and then another 60-90 minutes in the fridge.
If you have another mixing bowl that would be great for this, alternatively I like to get the cake in the oven, and then wash out my mixer bowl, and make the ganache directly in it, so when it comes time to whip it, it's already in the right bowl.
If you let your ganache sit a little too long and it gets too firm, then as you are whipping it, take a little out, heat up in the microwave until soft and slightly warm, then add to the cold mixture. Mix it in, and repeat if needed to make the ganache the right consistency.

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Cherry Chocolate Macarons

Black Forest inspired Macarons - chocolate macarons with Dark Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Cherry Compote Filling. #Chocolate #Macaron #Blackforest #cherry #compote #Frenchmacaron

Hiiii! How on EARTH is is July tomorrow? I swear it was just Christmas? I have been a little preoccupied around here - shooting christmas content for a magazine, which was super fun but took up a fair whack of time, particularly as I had to do the whole lot in my counter top oven. I'm not the best with pressure (highly strung / just a stresser in general) so I will be stoked once it is all submitted. I can't wait to share when the time come. We also just got new foster kittens! They are super cute, but full of worms. I've dealt with more poop in the last week than I have in a very, very long time. Who knew so much wormy poop could come out of such tiny little babies! It's gross, but all part of the fostering process. Thankfully they seem to be feeling better, so hopefully all the shitty problems clear up and I can snuggle them without having to hold my nose very soon!

Just popping by to share this month's macaron recipe! I am sure nobody else is invested in this whatsoever, but I love the fun wee challenge of coming up with a new flavour combo each month.

We kept things pretty simple this time and went for a black forest inspired situation with a dark chocolate macaron with a cherry filling - chocolate shell, silky chocolate swiss meringue buttercream, and a cherry compote. Cherry season is in full swing here now, so it only made sense to incorporate them somehow! I love the combination of cherries and chocolate - we kept the compote simple to really let the flavour shine through. Happy end of June!

A few wee tips:

All my Mac tips are here! The chocolate macaron shells can be a little finicky, particularly in the humidity, but I promise they are worth the effort!
Ideally the cherry compote will chill overnight, but if you are in a pinch, you can spread it onto a quarter sheet pan, place a piece of plastic wrap over the surface, and pop it in the freezer until cold.
You will have some Swiss Meringue Buttercream left over - you can either half the recipe if you don't want this, or it keeps super well in the fridge if you wanted to use it for another project. I find that making half a batch of buttercream can be a little tricky, depending on your mixer. Plus I think if you're going to go to the effort you might as well make lots to use again!
Good quality cocoa powder makes a difference!

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Rocky Road Ice Cream Pops

Hi! Just popping in quickly to share the recipe for these Rocky Road Ice Cream Pops! The last few weeks have been crazy busy - i've been furiously testing for a fun project coming up (extra fun with no oven), and preparing to create a giant grazing table for a fundraiser we are holding this weekend to help raise money for Kitten Season!

However, as ridiculous as things are, I will always always be one who suffers from FOMO, and so I sure as shit am not missing out on Popsicle Week, which is organised by the amazing Billy of Wit and Vinegar! You can check out everyone elses's popsicles here! Last year I made Lemon Meringue Pie Pops, which were ridiculously amazing. This year, we went with a rocky road ice cream pop, which give our old friends lemon meringue pops a serious run for their money.

I was originally going to make choc bars for this - a take on a NZ ice block I grew up on, but I've been playing around with a few rocky road recipes recently, which got me wondering what it would be like as an ice cream! And I can confirm - potentially better than the real thing. I started off with a dark chocolate custard, which, when churned in the ice cream maker, made an OUT OF THIS WORLD chocolate ice cream. You could stop there and just hit it with a spoon and be very, very happy. I then added in some chopped up turkish delight, and some chopped marshmallows, and popped the mixture into some fancy schmancy new silicone popsicle moulds I got recently.

Once they were set, I popped them out of the moulds, let them re-freeze for a hot minute, and then dunked them in milk chocolate, which I melted down with a little coconut oil, and then left to cool slightly so that I had less of a melty mess on my hands. I made a last minute decision to add to the 'rocky road' look of the pops and added some of my fave things ever - crispy pearls. (just a note that the quantity in that link will set you up with these for at least a year). This gave the outside a kinda rugged look, which I loved, because it adds to the 'rocky road' situation we already have going on! Even if the ice cream doesn't make it to the popsicle moulds, you have yourself a banging rocky road ice cream recipe!

A few wee tips:

Just putting it out there - I spell Mould differently. Same with Colour, Yoghurt, Flavour, etc etc. Someone thought they needed to email me to let me know. Already aware. Lol.
The Ice Cream base by itself is BOMB. I'm going to definitely be making it again this summer and just make it into ice cream. Or put it in these fancy popsicle moulds seeing as I now have 12.
These are the moulds I got! I got 3 boxes, thinking that there were 2 in each - there's 4! I promised Rich I would return them then accidentally made a batch of ice cream pops that needed 10 of them. My bad.
I used some homemade marshmallows I had from recipe testing. You can either make your own, (It's fun - you could do about half that recipe, or make the whole lot and have marshmallows all summer) or buy them! Just chop them roughly.
I ordered some of my fave turkish delight from an english store here in the states - the brand is Fry's! We get it at home too, and it's super yum because its only slightly rose flavoured, so doesn't taste too much like hand cream. You could use your fave brand, or if you don't like it, feel free to throw some more marshies or other lollies / candy in there!
The best part about Rocky Road is that you can add whatever you like - feel free to add chopped nuts, freeze dried berries, etc etc.
If you can't get your hands on the crispy pearls, then you can either leave them off, or you can add in something else to the chocolate! Chopped Malteasers or something would be yummmm
Do the dipping of the pops in two batches - melt all the chocolate at once, stir in the pearls, then transfer about half of it to a tall glass or jar, and do the dipping. Top up as needed.

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Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

Components of Macarons

A few wee tips for Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

For more Macaron Recipes, check out:

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Olive Oil, Lemon, and Yoghurt Bundt Cake

Super easy Lemon Yoghurt Bundt Cake

A few wee tips for Lemon Olive Oil Bundt Cake - the best way to release a bundt from the pan

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How to make Gingerbread Cake

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

How to Store Gingerbread

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Table of contents

The Ultimate Christmas Macaron Box

Christmas Macaron Flavours

The best box to use for a cookie box

A few wee tips:

Flavour / Colour filling Variations for Christmas Macarons

For more Macaron Recipes:

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Mixed nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot

How to make this Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot ahead of time

A few wee tips for making this brioche knot

Other Brioche Recipes

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Earl Grey Sugar Pie

How to Make a single Crust Pie

What is a Sugar Pie?

A few wee tips for Earl Grey Sugar Pie

For more Earl Grey Recipes:

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Brown Butter Salted Caramel Cookies

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few wee tips for Brown Butter Salted Caramel Cookies

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Nine of the Best Thanksgiving Pies

A few wee notes on pie making:

Pumpkin Sugar Pie: The Pumpkin Pie for people who don’t like Pumpkin Pie

Nutella French Silk Pie: A twist on the classic French Silk Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie: A classic Thanksgiving Staple

Bourbon apple galette: The apple pie that doesn’t require a lattice

Chocolate cream pie with peanut butter cream: For the peanut butter lover

Blood Orange Meringue Pie: The Perfect citrus meringue pie

Miso Caramel Apple pie: a variation on the traditional caramel apple pie

Concord grape pie: for a wee taste of summer

Apple butterscotch pie: for when you can’t decide between a cream pie and a fruit pie

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