Thank you! Speaking of experimenting, I like the blondies without the milk powder better. I find the flavor stands out separately from just brown butter. It would be interesting to add half the amount and see if that provides a better balance.
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Brown butter Meyer lemon bars from Tutti Dolci. Absolutely loved this recipe.
I don’t know why I don’t make more lemon bars; they’re two of my very favorite things (shortbread and lemon) in one. These are especially delicious with floral Meyers and the extra oomph of browned butter.
I will make these again in a few days for an event Mom needs them for, but here are notes from this test run:
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Next time, grease the pan even though it’s lined with parchment, because this batch stuck (the filling part, not the crust part) where it contacted the pan.
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I needed the juice of 3 regular-sized Meyers to get the half-cup called for.
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I increased the salt in the filling by a bit, because I’ve been influenced by @Shellybean .
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I didn’t let the parbaked crust get terribly golden because I was worried about overcooking it with the double bake, and that was the right decision.
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I only needed the minimum time for the bars to be done, and possibly could’ve taken them out a minute or two sooner.
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They look luscious!!
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@Shellybean and @tweetie - I’d be interested in your reaction to / thoughts on this 1940’s/50’s family recipe from my Mom’s mom, for “Blond Brownies”. I remember that I prefer them without chocolate chips but haven’t made them in the past decade or more. This discussion has me craving some.
Blonde Brownies
350 degrees 30 minutes
2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2/3 cup melted shortening (this is just under 11 T)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup nuts
Mix all ingredients and put batter in an ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Bake 350 degrees, 30 minutes.
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Thanks. They’re really good.
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Sliding in a couple of things I baked earlier in the month but neglected to post, while it’s still February.
First up, the ginger-stout layer cake with buttermilk ermine icing from Claudia Fleming’s Delectable. I love her original version of this cake from The Last Course, so I was intrigued that she reworked it as a layer cake. I sincerely hope she or her publisher issues an errata page for the book, though, because there are some obvious errors, like the flour amount given here. Obviously, 140g does not three 8-inch layers make. Since the only other change from the original is doubling the baking soda to support the higher yield of the recipe, I went ahead and tripled the flour to 420g, similar to other recipes for the same number and size layers, and they baked up just fine with a lighter crumb than the original, appropriate to a layer cake. I initially served this the day after baking the layers, but as with the original I found the texture and flavor of the cake improved with time. I had a little trouble with the icing, in that it had a strange, slightly curdled appearance (though the texture to touch and in mouthful was fine) and was a bit gloppy despite the butter and cooked flour mixture being at cool room temperature. I beat in the dregs of a container of sour cream to help smooth the texture and keep the tang, and threw it in the fridge to firm up a bit. It could have done with a bit more fridge time, but I had to put the cake together quickly before family arrived from out of town, hence the sloppiness. Nevertheless, it was quite a success. I used orange zest in the icing in place of vanilla, which gave it that irresistible creamsicle flavor, which worked great with the buttermilk tang. In future when I want this flavor, I’ll use buttermilk in my usual ermine recipe. The cake and icing recipes are reprinted here.
More recently, I baked pecan brown butter cupcakes iced with ganache, which I made with a combination of 54% and 72% chocolates. This was a riff on my previous riff on a hazelnut cupcake recipe in the first Ottolenghi cookbook, and the one further change I’ll make is to swap maple syrup for some sugar next time, since it goes so well with the other flavors.
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I pity anyone who buys this cookbook and decides to make this cake. If they don’t have your vast experience, what a mess they will have. There’s no excuse for this kind of error in a published cookbook.
I’m glad you were pleased with final outcome. It doesn’t look sloppy, just casual, natural chic.
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Thanks. I really hope they make some corrections before future printings, given how hotly anticipated the book has been.
I had the book in my hot little hands last weekend, and wound up forgetting I’d asked the clerk to hold it for me, so I ultimately didn’t buy. Sounds like a happy accident.
I got it as an ebook loan from my library and it didn’t grab me.
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There is a lot in it that I find appealing, but I’ll be reading the recipes with a sharp eye.
I read the reviews on Amazon and decided I’d wait until future printings so that hopefully they get everything sorted out, because lots of people reported errors.
Thank goodness for libraries and their partner consortiums! I hope their powers that be don’t start challenging cook books!
I Love those crackers. I use za‘atar and have real problems refraining from eating them all right from the oven
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Za‘atar is a great idea - thanks for that! I’ve made a note for future baking.
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Yum! And thanks for posting the recipe link. My kids are going to love this.
But your second photo - how was it taken? It looks like an optical illusion, sort of like it’s floating in mid-air, making my eyes want to cross…
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Lol, just with my tablet. The bread was well received and is gone. Going into my rotation.
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The oven gods were in my favor that day.
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