Lemon poppy muffins. From Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan This is an old favorite. Converted
recipe to weights by searching amounts in one of her newer books where she has weights.
recipe to weights by searching amounts in one of her newer books where she has weights.
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Taste report - a bit disappointed in the chai spiced banana bread, warm from the oven (one of 2 suggested “best served” modes). Not enough banana flavor comes through, and the level of spice isn’t strong enough to be clearly “chai spiced”. We’ll let it cool completely and try some toasted.
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So happy to hear you will be a 6” cake pan fan! May I recommend King Arthur’s “Super Simple Strawberry cake” . It halves easily and is a lovely cake. I’m planning on using raspberries since strawberry season is finally over, but even supermarket strawberries would probably be tasty. I also love that Maida Heatter cake, yours looks delicious!
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That is one gorgeous looking cake! Lucky Mom!
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I remember loving that cake! Glad it turned out well…
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I finally made these rolls:
And they are delicious. I made them bigger since I wanted sandwich rolls. I would go with 120 g per rolls next time rather than the 100 I mostly did.
I also baked these cookies and everyone liked them, but I wasn’t crazy about them. I think I just don’t like oatmeal cookies that have chocolate in them, and the malted milk also felt like an afterthought rather than an inspired addition. I skipped the espresso powder because Ruth seems to add it to a lot of her cookies and I’ve found it distracting in the past and felt it was out of place here.
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Chai spice banana bread was better 2nd day, either cold or toasted, but still not strongly banana flavored.
A mystery since banana usually takes charge no matter what else is combined. Those chai spices aren’t individually noticeable, but perhaps serve only to tone-down the banana.
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I think you can only go so far with oatmeal cookies…
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Yeah I like fruit and warm spices. My favorite are dried cherries, but apricots (like Stella Parks calls for in one variation) are also good, and I don’t hate raisins as a lot of people do. At most I don’t mind white chocolate in them.
Last week, for the first time this year, fully ripe Hachiya persimmons were available at the farmers’ market. My husband eats unseemly quantities standing over the sink.
I was able to save enough to make James Beard’s persimmon bread. It is a fantastic recipe. It is flavorful and moist. The flavors keep getting better over the next few days.
I use pecans for the nuts, bourbon for the booze and dried tart cherries for the dried fruit. I use the higher amount of sugar; it still doesn’t come out too sweet.
I cut the recipe in half and made one loaf. Previously, I’ve made two loaves and frozen one. This recipe freezes well and it’s nice to have one in the freezer in case of emergency. 
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Tried the James beard cold oven popovers. They puffed up but were tougher and flatter tasting than normal popovers. Worth trying - I was surprised they puffed as much as they did.
Not inedible but not repeatable.
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If you believe that you can only go so far with oatmeal cookies, you haven’t made Claire Saffitz’s Oatmeal and Pecan Brittle Cookies. Everyone I shared them with declared them perfect.
I wasn’t planning on buying Dessert Person as I’d been disappointed in two baking-centric cookbook purchases, Midwest Made and Zoe Bakes Cakes.
David Lebovitz posted this recipe; I made them and immediately ordered Dessert Person which was a great decision. I have made many wonderful recipes from it.
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I made oatmeal cookies from Midwest Made, the crisp ones that are supposed to have icing. I found them plenty sweet, so no icing, but they are kind of boring. They are delicious dipped in hot tea, and the real star is the unbaked dough.
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As we’ve previously discussed, I am also a fan of this persimmon bread. I also use pecans and bourbon, and golden raisins for the dried fruit. I always use the lower amount of sugar. I like that, unlike many recipes, it’s not heavily spiced, since a lot of spice obscures the persimmon flavor. I have used and liked cardamom in place of nutmeg or mace (Beard calls for mace in Beard on Bread), though the latter are good, too.
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I don’t have a problem with additions like that as I usually put nuts in oatmeal cookies. I just don’t think chocolate and malted milk beat out fruit and warm spices.
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Persimmon tangent. We were recently in the city and able to buy a dozen persimmons at an Asian grocery. I didn’t notice the label and they turned out to be “chocolate” variety. They were delicious and texturally pleasing, but looked awful inside. Really brown/orange almost like they were rotten. I kept some seeds to try to grow a plant and then threw them away, deciding I didn’t want to spend the time on something that I would feel awkward presenting to company. Has anyone run into this variety?
That sounds like black sapote, which is grown here. O don’t like regular sapotes as they’re too sweet, and these I found even blander when I tried them.
I thought the flavor was very similar to a typical, orange fleshed fuyu persimmon. Not everyone’s cup of tea.
I had no idea it was a rarity! There was a huge pile at H Mart. That was the grocery. And they were delicious. Just ugly.
