One Dozen Oatmeal Cookies

4 teaspoons unsalted butter – room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 large egg
3/4 cups flour (I used half white spelt flour for kicks)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a dash of ground mace
a dash of ground cloves
a dash of cardamom
1/2 cup instant oats
1 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup sultanas

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, zest, and vanilla and cream together, about three minutes with an electric mixer. Add egg and beat until mixed. Add the flour, baking soda, and spices and mix on low spead until just combined. Mix in the oats, walnuts, and sultanas. Drop tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

Ice cream solves almost everything.

Pear-Ginger Ice Cream

1/2 cup whole milk
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of cinnamon
2 large pears
crystallized ginger
gingersnaps

1. Put the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Turn off. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds from inside; add to the milk along with the pod. Cover and remove from heat; let infuse for a half hour.

2. Set a strainer over a bowl set in an ice bath and pour the cream into the bowl. Peel one of the pears and puree in a food processor (or press through a sieve). Set aside.

3. In another bowl (ice cream = a million dirty bowls) lightly beat the egg yolks. Remove the vanilla pod from milk and reheat. Pour some of the milk into the yolks to temper them, whisking constantly. Add the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

4. Stir constantly, scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula – about 170 degrees F.

5. Strain the custard into the cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, pear puree, and bourbon, then refrigerate to chill completely. I usually do this overnight, it helps the ice cream freeze better/faster in my cheapo ice cream maker.

6. Freeze in your ice cream maker.

7. While it’s churning, peel and chop the other pear. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Dice the crystallized ginger and mix with the pears. Crush the gingersnaps and add to pear/ginger mix right before you gently swirl the mix into the frozen ice cream.

Notes: Add as much ginger as you like. I find it overpowering so I used two tablespoons at most. I also used turbinado sugar instead of white sugar to give the custard a bit more depth.

* I’m recovering from surgery and couldn’t imagine standing up for five+ hours, protecting my incisions from ebullient elbows the entire time. So I’m sitting this one out. And that’s okay, I’ve seen them before. But it’s been a very long time. Oh well.

Friday is Boss’s Day. Boss’s Day is also perilously close to my own boss’s birthday. Therefore, I usually avoid spending money on the former so I can get her a small trinket for the latter. Since she makes three times what I do, I’m sure she understands.

So I checked the kitchen to see what I had on hand to make some sort of vaguely nutritious dessert-y thing. I had a ton of limes, berries in the freezer, and a bag of almonds desperate to be used. Although I think that lemons would suit the concept better, the limes will do nicely in a berry frangipane muffin.

I’m sure this would work as a cake as well, just dollop the frangipane on top. Personally, I prefer to take single-serving baked goods to the office as a sort of portion control. Greedy-guts are less likely to take two muffins as they are to cut themselves a double (or triple) slice of cake.  And it’s not that I’m an inherently stingy person, it’s just that there are folks in my office who have failed to grasp the idea that if they take more than one, someone else has to go without.

And nobody wants to go without.

Berry-Lime Frangipane Muffins

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups mixed berries (frozen is a-ok!)

Frangipane

2/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper cups.

Heat butter with cream in a small saucepan over low heat until melted, then cool.

Beat eggs, granulated sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on high speed until mixture is thick, pale, and forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 5 minutes with a standing mixer or about 12 minutes with a handheld. Add zest, baking soda, lime juice, and vanilla and mix on low speed until blended.

Add the all-purpose flour and half of butter mixture and mix on low speed until blended. Mix in remaining butter and cake flour in same manner. Increase speed to medium and beat 1 minute with a standing mixer or 2 minutes with a handheld, or until batter is thick and sticky. Add berries and carefully fold in with a rubber spatula until barely combined.  Spoon batter into muffin cups, smoothing the tops slightly.

Finely grind almonds with sugar in processor. Add egg, butter, and extract. Process until batter forms. Add a teaspoonful on the top of each muffin.

Bake in middle of oven until springy to the touch and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack.

Lightly dust with confectioners sugar just before serving. Makes 24 muffins.

- Marinated grilled flank steak
- The best potato salad ever
- Spelt dinner rolls
- David Lebovitz’s salted caramel ice cream
- Macaroni and cheese
- Spiced caramelized pecans
- Apple hand pies
- Dark chocolate brownie bites
- Spicy lime roasted chicken
- Chicken, broccoli, and rice soup
- Strangely disappointing yeasted quick rolls

Yet somehow, I failed to photograph (and therefore will fail to write about) any of them.

Perhaps a starting food blog was a bad idea.