More Food!
I've been baking more lately and have some fantastic recipes to share! I'll leave out the not-so-great recipes I've come across--lookin at you banana cobbler...
First is a delicious Shepherd's Pie. I've made this a few times and it turns out great every time. I seriously could've eaten that entire cheesy crust on top in one go.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/24202/shepherds-pie-vi/
Next is a sweet take on something I've always made savory--focaccia! I was 100% expecting this recipe to not be great but WOW was I wrong. This single loaf is one of my favorite things I've ever made. There's really not many things that beat fresh bread and this was fresh and all the ingredients went so well together.
Cassie Waltman
Next up is a delicious banana cobbler (the one pictured below). I actually tried making banana cobbler twice. The first recipe, and I kid you not, directs you to sprinkle the raw cake mix onto the banana mixture then to sprinkle the melted butter on top of that... and that's it... not to mix in anything... nothing. I'm not sure know why I kept following the directions, but it turned out exactly like you'd imagine.
I had to try banana cobbler again though and the next recipe (linked below) turned out AMAZING!
This banana cobbler with some whipped cream or ice cream is DIVINE (something my wife might say).
jasmine
Next up are two of the more difficult things I've tried making recently--snickerdoodle cake and macarons. The cake actually wasn't too hard, the macarons were SO DAMN HARD! Those tiny little cookies are SO DELICATE!
She ain't pretty, but it did taste pretty good.
I've been addicted to watching PreppyKitchen videos on youtube and this is a recipe straight from John himself. I'm not crazy about cream cheese frosting, but the cake overall turned out pretty great. I left the top crust on the bottom cake and that mixed with the cream cheese frosting right in the middle of the cake was probably my favorite part.
https://preppykitchen.com/snickerdoodle-cake/
The macarons... those damn macarons.... I knew I was doomed from the beginning when I realized I didn't have any vanilla extra left. I even recently made a few batches of homemade vanilla extract but those won't be ready for at least a few more months. So I kept it simple and left it to almond flavor with plain french buttercream and then a few with some local pumpkin spice caramel (SHOUTOUT TO BUTLER'S ORCHARD!).
Probably the only easy part.... It got way more delicate, complicated, and intricate from here. I'll spare you the gory details.
Piping these guys was SO HARD. You can't really see but the mat these are on even have nice little circles to guide everything... nope... still ended up with a bunch that were touching. I've had this happen with cookies in the past and it's usually not a problem. Well, with macarons, those cookies are basically ruined. I mean I still ate every single one of those ruined ones but I wasn't able to make the actual final product you all have grown to love.
Only a handful survived... But I know exactly what I did wrong and am ready to take on that next challenge.
https://preppykitchen.com/french-macarons/#recipe
Notes for my future self and anyone else who might be struggling with macarons:
- Don't underbake them... Don't be afraid to let them bake for a few more minutes if you think they need more time. I definitely underbaked mine and probably could've let them cool for a little longer too
- That damn buttercream... I definitely didn't let my butter warm up to room temperature. Hopefully you can't see it in the pictures because the buttercream looked ATROCIOUS... but it tasted amazing! I'd just use the microwave at 50% power for a few seconds till it was more pliable