Bake 52: Week 26

Black and White Cookies.

I have been dying to bake these! Not only were these cookies also featured on one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes (see Babka post - yes, same episode!), but they are so cool looking!  I had no idea what to expect flavor wise - based on reading the recipe I was expecting a very lemony crunchy cookie.  And that still sounded good to me.  So what a treat it was when I tasted the most delectable SOFT, thick, just-the-perfect-amount-of-sweetness cookie with a hint of lemon AND vanilla and chocolate glaze.  YUM!  

I am so excited about this recipe and I am sure I will be making it quite a bit - these are so good, they are easy, and would be so fun to give as a gift or take to a party.  

I loved that the glaze was so thick that you could actually spread it and have it stay where you wanted it, and it also firmed up very quickly.  

 Oh and did I mention these are BIG cookies?  

LOVED this recipe, love these cookies!! Please try them!! Visit Janet's blog for the recipe!

Bake 52: Week 25

I have weird fascinations with numbers, so I will just admit how nerdy I am that I got totally excited that this week it's 52:25 - cool, huh?  :)

So for this cool week we got to bake Southern Skillet Cornbread

I was really excited about this pick because it is a gluten-free cornbread - and looked oh-so-delicious in the book!  We love cornbread around here and I've been on the search for years for the perfect GF cornbread - the flour substitutes usually make it dry and crumbly.

This one was great!!  I learned from the book that the difference between Northern and Southern cornbread - apparently Southern is less sweet but with no flour and Northern is sweeter and with flour.  I do want to bake this again and add a little sugar - just to give it a little bit of a sweeter flavor, but even without, it was really good.  And the texture was great - really love this recipe!

Who can resist warm cornbread with honey?  Mmmmmm!

The only thing I was baffled by is that my bread wouldn't come out of the pan after I baked it.  I thought with as much oil and butter as we put in the pan, it would fall right out.  I will have to try a different pan next time, I'm anxious to see what everyone else baked it in and how it worked out.

 I served it with soup for dinner and the fam loved it!  Can't wait to try again!

Check out Jen's Blog for the recipe!

inlinkz codes for the week 1

Bake 52: Week 24

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

 What is not to love here?

This was a pretty simple recipe and I loved that it was made with all pantry items - I didn't have to shop for anything this week. My biggest dilemma was after rolling the dough up to put in the bread pan...it took a lot of willpower not to cut it up and move forward with actual cinnamon rolls. 

My kids and I melted some white chocolate and drizzle over the top - REALLY delicious!! As far as a sweet bread goes, this was great!  Overall I would prefer an actual cinnamon roll (bring on the cream cheese frosting!).  Oh - and obviously I am going for the tasty choice here, not the healthy one! Give this one a try for sure!

Check out Rebekah's Blog for the recipe!

Bake 52: Week 23

This week's baking selection was

Coconut Macaroons

Upside of this week was that these are gluten-free cookies. That is always a bonus so that I have someone else that eats what I make so I don't eat the whole batch.  It's just not right to be wasteful!  Although I really like coconut, macaroons are just not among my favorite cookies.  My husband really enjoyed these. I thought they were a pretty typical macaroon.  But they were fast and easy, so I could see myself making these again sometime.

Pulse the coconut in food processor until fine:

Then mix together egg whites, sugar, salt and almond extract:

Stir both of those together and form into balls, bake on cookie sheet with sprayed parchment paper:

 There was a variation for Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons.  Add a little chocolate?
Yes, please!

I tried dipping and also drizzling...either way I think the added chocolate was a
definite plus!

Check out Emily's Blog for the recipe!