SMiLes by Meg

Category: Breads

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

This week’s recipe was a request from Madison, and I am so glad she thought of it. Though I was a little late to the pumpkin game this year, Madison is a HUGE pumpkin fan, and thought that there must be a way to make cinnamon rolls pumpkin. She was right, and these are them, and you need them next Sunday morning when you’re looking for something a little sweet and very Fall for breakfast. Start by heating the butter and milk over low heat just until the butter melts. Set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle …

Whiskey Cake

So in case you’ve been living under a rock, it’s September, and everyone in Boston is leaning hard into pretending it’s Fall, even if it’s still weather-appropriate to be in sundresses and sandals. Don’t get me wrong – I love Fall. And I think I finally get why everyone else does, too. You see, at age 28, I have finally found myself in a job where I’m working year round, straight through the summer. No summer vacation (RIP teaching career). No summer internships with big breaks on either end (RIP being a student). Just work. And I’ve found that while …

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Calling this a “bread” feels kind of like lying. Sure, the base of this is a zucchini bread, and there is definitely a LOT of zucchini. Which makes you feel like it’s healthy. But then it’s moist, full of chocolate chips, and seems like a better pair for ice cream than coffee. Which makes you feel like it can’t possibly be healthy. However, I’m not one to make such decisions for you, so if you want to call it a vegetable bread, and therefore basically a salad, I’m not going to stop you. If you want to call it more …

Irish Soda Bread Scones

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Boston is full of people in green, especially in the part of town I live in, so it’s hard to forget. Also, every year I convince myself that Irish Soda Bread is “bread” and therefore not a sweet, so I’ve consumed quite a bit of that in the last couple of days. Now, I’ve made Irish Soda Bread on the blog before. It was my mom’s recipe, and I made it as a surprise for her. Turns out, my mom is rather single-minded when it comes to soda bread: it’s Stop & Shop bakery brand or …

Nutella Babka

So I didn’t actually have time to make babka this weekend. I had errands to run. And work to do. And laundry to fold. But I really wanted to make this babka. It’s so pretty! And full of Nutella! And this Tuesday is Fat Tuesday, so I needed something good to treat myself before my yearly no-sweets-for-Lent challenge. Plus, Cloudy Kitchen, who has an amazing instagram, made it look easy. So I decided to go for it. When I told my mom I was making Nutella Babka, she balked. “You make too many Nutella things,” she accused. First of all, …

Cranberry Lemon Scones

Last week, I told you’d I’d give you a recipe to use with your leftover fresh cranberries. This week, I’m delivering! These scones are quick, foolproof, and wonderfully crumbly. Eat these fresh from the oven, with coffee, or for dessert with a scoop of ice cream. You really can’t go wrong.

Sourdough Bagels

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that I have a sourdough starter that I like to bake with fairly often. Anytime I have a bread-type thing I want to make, I look to see if there’s a sourdough version. This is partly because every time I open my fridge it stares at me, wanting to be fed or used, and I feel bad letting it sit in there too long without doing something useful. (Even yeast cultures deserve to have a purpose in their lives.) But it is also because I despise using dry yeast for …

Mini Pumpkin Bread

Last week, I mentioned that I had made some pumpkin bread. Now that I’m back on the East Coast, where people are as obsessed with pumpkin as I am (I currently have a pumpkin spice candle lit next to my computer), it felt like a good time to post it! Pretty early in the SMiLes by Meg catalog I made a chocolate chip pumpkin bread, but I realized I hadn’t posted any just plain, high quality, pumpkin bread. I wanted a recipe that made its own spice mix, actually looked orange, and had some kind of crunchy topping. More importantly, …

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I have a confession to make: my sourdough starter experiment failed. For three days, it looked perfect – everything was bubbling away just like it should. And then I had to fiddle. The book I bought here, Alaska Sourdough, didn’t really give much guidance when it came to sourdough starter upkeep. I like having directions to follow, and don’t do well with “just let it be for 2 weeks.” I’m the kind of person that has to constantly push around anything I’m cooking on a stovetop. So I felt the need to at least give it a stir once a …

Walnut Halvah Cake

Fun fact for my Instagram followers (@smilesbymeg): while 76 of you took the time to watch my Instagram story in which I made this cake, only 24 of you could bring yourselves to like the post itself. I’m not really sure what that says about my respective video/photo editing abilities, but I think it means I have to work on my food photography. Also, despite now having posted 7 different Ottolenghi recipes, I still haven’t been selected in his #IBakedOttolenghi compilations. Further proof that my food photography needs work. Looks like I have my project for post-bar-exam life!