In high school a friend of mine and I would always get Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies at lunch. After our 5:30am swim practice, we’d be practically eating our arms off by the time our lunch period rolled around. So anything was appetizing by that hour. But we were particularly enamored with those little prepackaged cookies. My friend once said that eating those cookies was “like eating a cloud,” which is the best description of eating an oatmeal cream pie that I’ve ever heard.
So when I happened across this recipe online, I knew had to make them. I was a little hesitant to do a sandwich cookie because 1) by sandwiching them, you end up with half the amount of cookies you’d normally get, and 2) it’s generally pretty time-consuming to bake the cookies, cool them, and fill them. However, I’ll say that these cookies are worthwhile on both accounts. I made mine on the smallish side, and I got about 30 sandwich cookies. And as far as time-consuming goes, the cookie part is as easy as can be to put together, and the filling is also super-easy to make. The worst part is waiting for the cookies to cool before you can fill them.
I wrapped mine individually in plastic wrap, just like Little Debbie does. It’s generally a good idea to wrap soft filled cookies like these (and whoopie pies) individually so that the cookies don’t separate and leak filling everywhere. They also kept really well in the fridge that way.
They tasted just like those sweet packaged clouds I remember, but with a bit more body from the oats, cinnamon, and molasses. And to be honest, I think I liked this version better than the store-bought kind. I’ll have to make these again the next time I’m tempted to buy cookies from Little Debbie.
I adore salted caramel anything. I know it’s a really trendy flavor right now, popping up on lots of food blogs. But there’s good reason for it.
My first foray into the salted caramel realm was making this salted caramel frosting recipe to frost a basic chocolate cupcake. I made those for Jeff’s birthday last year, and they were a hit. I love the combination of chocolate and homemade salted caramel — how can you go wrong?
I made these caramel brownies a few months ago and recently rediscovered my photos of them. They turned the chocolate-salted-caramel dial up a notch. They’re almost like a caramel fudge instead of a brownie, so I cut them pretty small. They’re so rich that one 8” x 8” dish fed 20+ people. While I liked the caramel recipe, I think I’d substitute my go-to brownie recipe next time, which makes a larger pan of brownies. This way, it would be more brownie in proportion to the caramel so they’re not quite as rich.
It’s funny, this photo actually brings back fond memories of those brownies. Kind of like looking at vacation photos or something.
Hello! I kind of fell off the digital planet lately. There’s really no good excuse for my lack of contact, apologies. I actually have lots of photos of baked goods and LA-area destinations backed up on my computer, waiting to be annotated and uploaded. I’ll try and be more consistent in the future, fingers crossed.
I thought a nice re-inaugural post might be to show off the Hollywood sign from a side few people see. Jeff and I hiked the Brush Canyon trail, which is a relatively short (about 5-6 miles round trip) but somewhat strenuous hike to the top of Mt. Lee, where the Hollywood sign resides. It’s interesting that the sign is NOT atop Mt. Hollywood, as many people would likely assume (including me, before this hike).
To reach the trail, it’s a quick drive up Canyon Drive through a relatively upscale neighborhood in Los Feliz. The trail begins at the bottom of a shady canyon; and as you continue along the trail, you’ll share the way with equestrian groups and tourists from around the world. After ascending through the canyon, you’ll eventually hit Mount Lee Drive, which is an unexpected bit of paved road in this nature preserve. Following the winding road to the top of the mountain, you’ll straddle Los Angeles on one side and the Valley (Burbank, Glendale, etc.) on the other. It’s striking how the divide between LA and the Valley always seems so much more impenetrable until you literally walk between them.
This was a great hike, and the payoff at the end is worth the bit of work to get to the top. Though it was a hazy day, we were able to admire the Griffith Park Observatory, see the reverse side of the Hollywood sign, and take in some stellar views of greater Los Angeles. And I’d imagine it’s even better on clear days. This would be a cool place to bring out-of-town guests for a different urban experience.
I’ll admit that most, nearly all, of my posts are cookies, brownies, cakes, bars, or other sweets that I make to satisfy my current sweet tooth cravings. But you’ll have to trust me when I tell you I sometimes get savory cravings (apparently going against America’s gendered eating patterns).
So this past weekend, I decided I wanted chili and cornbread for the perfect comfort food meal. Nothing more savory than a big ol’ bowl of meat with some hearty bread. And this bread has some major backbone from the addition of cheddar and jalapenos to the mix.
The cornbread recipe is from Ina Garten, goddess of the Hamptons. I like using Ina’s recipes whenever I can because they almost always turn out perfectly or near-perfectly. This woman really knows how to cook everything.
This bread has great moisture from the milk and the cheddar and spicy kick from the japapenos. And it stays moist for days afterward. It’s a very high-yield recipe, so you’ll have lots of leftovers. Not that it’s a problem — I brought plenty of it to work with me for lunch. I love that I can make this on the weekend and enjoy it over the following week. Pair it with the perfect bowl of chili, and you’ll be one happy camper. I’d imagine that the pairing of chili and cornbread would be even more satisfying in the fall when the weather is cooler.
I rarely take pictures before the baked goods are finished. It just seems to clutter the post to spend time on the process of putting together the baked goods (for a few notable exceptions, see here and here). Besides, my photography skills are lacking; so trying to make batter look pretty is completely beyond my rudimentary “rule of thirds” framing and aperture/focal length adjusting skills. Maybe when I finally save some up enough money, I’ll get a nice DSLR camera to take gorgeous photos my ingredients on the counter (perhaps I can someday even make jars of mayonnaise and sticks of butter look like a work of art). But that’s for another post.
So imagine my surprise when I felt an exception should be made to my strict “finished product” rule. This caramel banana cream pie is the bees knees, and it just screamed for a photo of what lies beneath the custard and whipped cream. I bought a can of dulce de leche and layered its sweet caramely goodness below a layer of bananas, toffee pieces, and caramel custard. Then I topped it all off with a healthy dollop of sweetened whipped cream. It makes me happy just thinking about it.
I used this recipe for the graham cracker crust. Some purists will argue that only a pastry crust is fitting for a banana cream pie, but I’ve always leaned toward the sweet crunch of graham crackers paired with cream pies. And heaven knows that I’d never turn down a s’more or anything else made with graham crackers.
The photos don’t really do this pie justice since I let it sit overnight to firm up the custard (and the bananas got a little brown). But this pie was some of the best comfort food around.
Gosh, these posts are backed up. Moving and starting a new job have gotten in the way lately. But I haven’t stopped baking! I just needed to find some time to write interesting posts. And tumblr decided to spontaneously post the same thing (from a few weeks ago) four times in a row. I’m not that crazy about car-baked cookies, I promise you.
So I give you the strawberry-rhubarb pie I made at a friend’s place in Berkeley back in July. I was up for a visit, and strawberries and rhubarb were in season. What better excuse to head over to Berkeley Bowl and make a pie? I had never worked with rhubarb before making this pie, and it’s not nearly as tricky as you might think.
I cheated with store-bought pie dough, but the rest was homemade from the recipe above. Though I’d be lying if I said it was difficult to make this pie. It’s just a matter of slicing your rhubarb and berries, mixing with a little flour, sugar, and vanilla, and pouring into the crust. Then you cover the top with pie crust and bake for a half an hour. The fruit becomes soft, sweet, and syrupy, no stove top cooking required. The pie is not much to look at from these photos, but it sure was tasty.
Fruit pies are some of the easiest pies you can put together. The hardest part is waiting for the fruit to be in season. I feel like I should get a move on and bake more fruity pies before all the fantastic summer fruits are out of season (and $6 a pint). Or maybe I could experiment with frozen berries to see if these sweet treats can be thrown together year-round.
These cinnamon rolls were amazing. Unfortunately, they’re best eaten minutes out of the oven, so I couldn’t get a picture of the pan before we dug in. I’ve been trying to find a good recipe for cinnamon rolls that doesn’t take all day to make. This recipe fit the bill: I was finished in under 2 hours, which includes rising and baking time. Not to mention there was no kneading involved since I had a stand mixer at my disposal. Check out the recipe for some great tips on how to make the process even easier.
But don’t be fooled by how quickly these came together. The dough was perfectly soft, and the filling had a great cinnamon flavor. I recommend using fresh cinnamon in these; I prefer Saigon cinnamon (from my favorite shop in Chicago) since it has a sweeter flavor than the generic cinnamon you can find at the grocery store.
If you’re looking for a nice weekend project to bake fresh cinnamon rolls by the afternoon, you should definitely try this one. The recipe does make a dozen rolls (which, being so large, could feed an army), but they refrigerate well and are fantastic warmed up in the microwave.
