SMiLes by Meg

Fig and Olive Oil Challah

This was fun to make. I’m home for the long weekend, having a girl’s weekend with my mom, and she agreed to humor me and make a complicated braided bread on Saturday night. I love challah, she’d never had challah, and the idea of somehow getting a flavor woven into the challah made it a recipe I couldn’t skip. Start by making the base dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the yeast, warm water, and teaspoon of honey. Let sit for 10 minutes until it starts to foam up. Add the remaining honey, olive oil, eggs

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,

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

There really isn’t a whole lot better than baking a pie with fresh ingredients from a farmer’s market. You’re supporting local businesses. Everything is super ripe and perfect. You get to buy the ingredients outdoors. Even someone who doesn’t like pies or fruit-based desserts (that would be me) can appreciate how good it feels to do this. So when we were walking through the farmer’s market at Harvard and a vendor had both strawberries and rhubarb, I couldn’t just not buy them. And, as luck would have it, strawberry rhubarb is Erik’s favorite pie!