This is the way
parbaking is, so far as I’ve ever done it successfully (which is, like, twice), is to get all the rise/spring part done. It’s getting all those holes you’ve put in your dough/batter to open up and then solidify that structure, whether they’re there from yeast or baking powder or butter and steam.
The second bake can be all about browning and getting whatever Maillard reaction color and flavors you want in the final thing.
Something creative. I used a basic muffin recipe to get the wet and dry ingredient proportions correct, and then riffed on some thing that I am deeming an updated peanut butter and jelly muffin. It includes tahini, black sesame seeds, and a little dollop of grape jam that I made earlier in the year from unripened grapes that were knocked off of our vines prematurely.
PI was given as a gift a box of goodies from local emporium Oaktown Spice Shop which included orange extract (something I’ve never bought, nor would it occur to me to buy) and their potent vanilla sugar, which includes ground vanilla beans. So I made a batch of soft and chewy orange-vanilla sugar cookies, flavored with a lot of orange zest rubbed into the sugar, along with vanilla extract and a lesser amount of orange extract, rolled in organic sugar with more orange zest and some of the vanilla sugar. The flavor came out very well, and they’ve been popular with friends and family. I started the vanilla sugar cookie recipe in 100 Cookies, less around 25% of the sugar in the dough. They’re still on the edge of too sweet for me, so I might skip the rolling in sugar (though the the texture’s nice) and add some of the vanilla sugar to the dough instead if I make them again.
Savory Puff Pastry Spirals — not sure whether to call these Bombay Sandwich Spirals or Samosa Spirals or Batatavada Spirals, but the potato mixture is so darn delicious I’m not sure it even needs a formal name 
Puff pastry (from some pre-pandemic year, amazing that it held up so long in the freezer), heavily spiced potato mixture, thick green chutney, a bit of grated cheese to bind.
I thought I might need to top these with more chutney, but it’s already a flavor bomb, so they’ll be served as is. Off to write down what I did while I remember, so I can replicate it again 
I love your recipe but I’ve changed it a bit. (My friends are wild for them too. I bake, cool, wrap in plastic wrap, then foil, into freezer bag, reheat from frozen state.) I’ve gotten better at rolling and now prefer smaller ones.
Now, no potato, use fresh mint, parsley, cilantro in Cuisinart, shallots, garlic, softened cream cheese. After, I mix in chopped water chestnuts and some shredded cheddar cheese. If anyone wants amounts, let me know.
That sounds great too, but every inspiration I had for my version is an Indian potato snack - batavada, samosa, my mom’s potato sandwich, and the Bombay sandwich - so I won’t be skipping the potato 
(Did I mention I love potatoes, yes, yes I believe I did because @LindaWhit asked, lol.)
I LOVE potatoes every which way but I thought it made it harder for me to roll up, everything too woozy.
I put some finely chopped serranos too, not too hot.
A really perfect appetizer.
Drooling on my keyboard…
I’m going to try to get some pumpkin date bread done this weekend and start on some Day of the Dead skull shaped sugar cookies with colorful decorations. Pictures to follow. I did bake some 'Cowboy ’ cookies the other day for the people who can eat those in this house. Saved out a dozen for a visiting child.
Today is my girlfriend’s birthday. She requested a chocolate cake with vanilla icing and shredded coconut.
Peanut butter ingots from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.
These are financiers with the addition of peanut butter, and how could brown butter and peanut butter not make for something delicious?
Well, in my view, if no salt were included that could do it. 
So I used salted butter and I added 1.5 grams of salt. And honestly I think another .5 grams of salt would be even better. Peanut butter in particular just cries out for salt to reach its full potential in baked goods.
Still, these are wonderful and a great way to use up some egg whites. The power briefly went out before these were done baking, so the larger ones aren’t as brown as the ones I made in mini aluminum tart pans, but I baked all of them a bit longer than Rose called for because I like financiers to be brown and they are moist by design, so there’s no danger of drying out.
My mom took one of these financiers with her and happened to share a piece with someone who told her to tell me to send him more of them. So I’m making another batch since I have egg whites that still need using. This time I only browned 115 g of butter and I got the 105 needed. Rose has you brown 142 g to account for loss. The batter definitely tastes better with 2 full grams of salt this time (in addition to using salted butter again).
I’ll try to give them at least 2 hours of chill time since I think they come out better with an overnight rest, ideally.
Gorgeous cake, the texture looks so nice!
I’m glad, because they looked wonderful!
Very cute, what recipes did you use and would you use them again? I’m always on the look out for a go to chocolate cake.
Yes, I’ve used this recipe in the past and will definitely use it, again. It’s a quick & easy chocolate dump cake; I got the recipe/instructions from Martha Stewart’s web-site. Yummy!!
2 weeks ago I made a pinot noir grape pie with the last of the grapes leftover after harvest. Maybe my last one ever because I’ve moved and I don’t know how I’ll get access to these kind of grapes again unless I can successfully plant them.
The new place does have 2 crab apple trees and a cherry tree, so that’s exciting.
My very favorite chocolate cake for all sorts of layer cakes is Flo Braker’s American chocolate cake. It’s very moist, fine crumbed, chocolatey, and I like that it’s a butter cake since I know most people these days insist on using oil for chocolate cakes.
Thanks for the kind words!
Gorgeous pie! Grape pie is one of my absolute favorite pies, and one I miss due to not being able to access grapes. I did see some nice black grapes that would at least make a good focaccia. I’m waiting for them to be available again!
Recipe here:
Thank you! Especially for taking the time to find the recipe for me
Looks terrific. Can’t you settle for Concord grapes from a market?
