confections and musings

i’ve made these cookies once before, and when my dear friend, jessica, was sad to have missed my lemon loaf, i thought, hey! i should make those yummy lemon cookies for her! the recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis (see below). these aren’t just lemon cookies, they’re lemon ricotta cookies. i don’t know exactly what the ricotta does, but man, they are like little soft cakes of angelic deliciousness. wonderful zippy lemon flavor…and topped with more scrumptious lemony glaze. there is the zest of 2 lemons in the cookies, and the zest of 2 lemons in the glaze. that’s a lot of zest. not to mention the lemon juice in both as well. if you love lemon, ya gots to try these. i must say they are impressive looking too…i shared them with several friends and everyone was oohing and ahhing.***

lemon ricotta cookies

2 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 c sugar

2 eggs

1 – 15-oz. container whole milk ricotta cheese

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

glaze:

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

as i said to an old pal the other day, ‘i saw those near rotten nanners sittin’ there, and i just got this hankerin’ for muffins. had to have ‘em.’

that about sums it up.  i searched for a quick & easy recipe, landed on this one at simply recipes, and literally, in about 30 minutes flat, muffs were mixed, baked & cooling.  yes, my desire for banana muffins was very quickly satisfied.  moist, tasty, wonderful nanner flavor.  direct quote from the hubs: ‘it just tastes the way a banana muffin should taste.’

i paired mine with a scoop of natural vanilla ice cream.  deeeeelish.

i think that i may be buying ‘too many bananas’ at the grocery store from now on, just so i have a few rotten ones to make these bad boys.  that’s right.***

ever since i saw my friend desiree’s blog post ‘meyer lemon blueberry cake‘, i have been itching to make a sweet & tangy loaf myself.  a ladies’ brunch at church seemed to be a good opportunity.  the recipe comes from ina garten (barefoot contessa), who seriously can do no wrong in the kitchen.  she is definitely one of my fave bakers ever.  ina’s recipe does not suggest blueberries, but i thought desiree’s addition of them was a fab idea!

once my husband realized i was planning on baking only one loaf to bring to a brunch, i could see he was disappointed.  so like a good wife should, i doubled the recipe so he could have a loaf too.  i don’t know if i have ever dirtied more bowls whilst baking than i did with this one.  sheesh!  well worth it though.  after baking, you cook up a lemony syrup to drizzle all over the hot cake.  and after that, there is a lemony glaze that gets poured over top.  wow!!!  talk about sweet lemony zingy goodness!  and so moist!!!  if you’re a lemon fan, you’ve got to try this one.  perfect with a hot cup of coffee or tea.  lovely.***

for my family’s birthdays, i always offer to make them whatever sweet treat they desire.  last week my dad turned 61!  his request was for either a chocolate & caramel cake or a chocolate & orange cake.  i’ve done chocolate & caramel before, which is delicious, but i wanted a challenge, so i picked the chocolate & orange.  i searched for recipes for days, and just wasn’t very satisfied with my findings.  i almost made Ina Garten’s orange chocolate chunk cake.  but that didn’t seem like a traditional birthday cake to me….i really wanted to make a layer cake.  after studying several recipes, i decided to wing it, and make my own version of chocolate & orange cake.

i made the chocolate cake i always make, but added the zest & juice of 2 oranges (the juice was subbed for the boiling water).  i do have to say that the juice changed the texture of the cake slightly….and i did have an issue with one of my layers sinking a bit in the middle.  but frosting covered that up without a problem.  i again chose to make my favorite BEB vanilla buttercream frosting….but instead of vanilla, i added the juice of 1 orange and the zest of two.  magnifique!  i was pretty pleased with the outcome.  in fact, there may have been a little too much orange flavor for my taste.  i especially appreciate all of the orange bits in the frosting…so pretty!  i’d say he looks pleased.***

you may remember a few weeks ago i made the amazingly delicious snickerdoodle blondies by the brown eyed baker (aka BEB).  they were so fantastically yummy that i named that post ‘best sweet treat ever.’  to say i love them does not come close to how i feel about them.  so it should come as no surprise that late at night, i was dreaming about them.  and in my dreams, i imagined snickerdoodle blondie dough transformed into cookies….then i imagined BEB’s to-die-for vanilla buttercream frosting sandwiched between two snickies…..then i thought, hmmmm….could i really pull this off???  i thought about it for about a week.  then a couple of days ago, i decided it was time for my baking experiment.  i whipped up the snickerdoodle blondie dough, then used my 1 1/2 Tbsp scooper to scoop up the dough.  i rolled each cookie into a cinnamon/sugar mixture, then dropped them onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  it’s a good idea to stick the pan of cookie dough in the fridge for a few minutes before baking.  it helps the cookies to not get too flat & crispy, which i do not prefer.  (was that too many negatives?)  anywho…i baked the cookies for 12 minutes and they came out perfect.  i don’t normally toot my own horn, but in this case, it’s definitely necessary.  so after the cookies were cooled, i made BEB’s vanilla buttercream, which is for reals the best frosting i have ever had.  no doubt about it.  crazy easy and so fluffy.  ya just gotta make it.  then i scooped up the frosting, shoved it into a quart size ziploc bag with my spatula, snipped off a corner, and squirted little clouds of heaven onto the snicks, and of course, topped them with more snicks.  i was downright giddy that these came out perfect.  so giddy, in fact, that i decided to name them ‘snickydoody whoopdeedoos!’

we had our friends, stephen & sara, over for dinner that night and i was redonkulously excited for them to partake of my creation.  they did not let me down.  watching them scarf my babies down was so wonderful.  they both shared several quotes about the joy of eating the whoopdeedoos.  and now i will share those quotes with you…

‘it’s like heaven in my mouth.’
‘it’s like eating an angel.’
‘these are absurdly delicious.’
‘i’m going to eat all of them.’
‘more please.’
‘this is so freaking good.’
‘the cookies are so good and the frosting is so good and together my mind is blown.’

i don’t know if i can explain to you how happy hearing all of this made me.  one of the main reasons i love to bake is just to see the look on my friends’ faces when they bite into something scrumptious.  it seriously makes me so happy.  those are some of my proudest moments in life.  to know i have made something with my hands, shared it with people i love, and have them experience joy whilst indulging.  ahhhh.***