SMiLes by Meg

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Tahini Halvah Brownies

It’s Spring Break! And Spring Break means fun baking. This week I tackled another Ottolenghi recipe: Tahini Halvah Brownies. Ottolenghi uses tahini a lot, and I am yet to meet a recipe of his where I wish he didn’t. For example, I rarely eat banana bread without some tahini, salt, and honey these days. And his hummus is very tahini forward, which I firmly believe is for the best. So when I saw these brownies, with their swirls of tahini across the top, I knew they’d be one of the first recipes in his baking book that I tackled.

Lemon Berry Stripe Cake

This weekend I decided to bake something exciting. I had the time. I had a book club (which meant it would disappear quickly). I hadn’t made a cake in far too long. Also, Cate made it a couple weeks ago and I got jealous. So I pulled out Ottolenghi’s Sweet cookbook and found the most colorful, interesting looking cake I could: Lemon Berry Stripe Cake.

Hamantaschen

These were really fun. If you don’t know by now, I give up sweets for Lent every year. Which means I try to find people to bake for each week so that I won’t have the temptation around me. This year, Erik made it easy. He wanted to make hamantaschen for Purim so that we could send cookies to a long list of people, all over the country, that he stays in touch with. Sending cookies by mail far from Boston fits in well with my Lenten promise to not eat said cookies. A win-win all around.

Cinnamon Rolls

I’ve been promising Erik cinnamon rolls for a couple of weeks now, and since this is one of those rare weekends during which I’m actually in Cambridge, it seemed like the right time. Now, these are not to be confused with cinnamon pinwheels, which I’ve made before. Those are more of a cookie than pastry. Cinnamon rolls, on the other hand, are a yeasted dough (more on that later), and are meant to be a lot cakier. And they’re meant to be iced, but since Erik was calling the shots, we didn’t go that route.

Old Fashioned Doughnuts

I think I’m losing my touch. When I first started law school, bringing in treats to class was a surefire way to make them disappear quickly. A short post on my section’s Facebook page, and I could get more people than cookies to come and take said cookies off my hands. It didn’t seem to matter what I baked; I had a willing audience.

Rugelach

Last week, I baked my first recipe out of Sweet, but did so down in DC with Cate and Jonathan. This week, I baked my first recipe out of my own copy of Sweet, and did so here in Cambridge, during a much-needed weekend without travel. I had originally planned on making Torrone, but decided to wait on that. Then, I thought I’d make Ottolenghi’s peanut butter s’more cookies, but again decided it seemed a little too involved. Finally, I settled on Rugelach: impressive looking, but not overly time-consuming. And, as luck would have it, they got one of my …

Rum and Raisin Cake

Finally out of the Christmas cookie posts! And this week, I’ve got a great one, out of Ottolenghi’s new cookbook: Sweet. I have many of his cookbooks, and really have never gone wrong with his recipes. But I never would have known about him if not for my college roommate Cate, who spent the past couple of years in England. When I went out to visit her, she brought me to one of his restaurants, and later got me a cookbook.

Gluten Free Peppermint Whoopie Pies

The last of the Christmas cookies: candy cane whoopie pies. If you read my blog often, you know that for family events with my mom’s siblings, I try to make something gluten free. Usually, this means flourless cake or haystacks or something of that sort, which on their own don’t have flour, but this year I decided to try to use an ingredient I see pop up a lot in gluten free recipes: xantham gum. This stuff is supposed to help mimic a recipe that would otherwise call for flour, so if you want to make something recognizable as a …

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Week three of Christmas cookies. After this, I’ve only got one more recipe to post. But you may have to wait for it – I’m beginning to really miss my weekly baking adventures, and think I’ll have to try something new this week. Not that I haven’t been baking. I made a couple loaves of sourdough bread this morning. I just haven’t made anything new in awhile. But this week’s recipe is fitting for the ridiculously cold weather we’ve been having the past couple of days. Because if you don’t already have a box of hot chocolate on hand, you …