SMiLes by Meg

Tag: cream cheese

Blueberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Buns

We had a very full weekend, and I’m very tired. We spent a lot of time biking around, in the sun, generally enjoying the outdoors, which means I’m sunburnt and ready to go to bed early. But also means I had so much fun, and there’s lots more to come – we’ve got camping trips planned for the next two weekends! So for baking, I was kind of craving some kind of breakfast sweet all weekend. I thought about making pancakes, but then realized this was a blog opportunity, and ended up pulling out my Magnolia Bakery cookbook to see …

Cream Cheese Ice Cream

When I told Erik I was making cream cheese ice cream, he told me it sounded revolting. But I wanted to make ice cream, and BraveTart doesn’t have any bad recipes, so I decided to give it a go. This week was in desperate need of ice cream, especially with some Matzo Crack crumbs left to serve as a topping. Cream cheese ice cream may sound not super appealing, but think of it more as a tangy ice cream. If you like cream cheese frosting on cake, this is the ice cream equivalent. Definitely pairs well with lots of toppings …

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

It’s a rainy day in DC today, and I’m very happy about. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the weeks on end of perfect Fall days, but sometimes you just need an excuse to curl up in cozy clothes all day, drink coffee out of your biggest mug and refuse to leave the apartment. This will be that day. Yesterday was not that day – it was mid-70s, and we had some friends over for pre-dinner roof drinks. After last week’s experiment in keeping the blog post’s baked good for ourselves all week, I was more than ready to …

Blueberry Rhubarb Galette

When I tried to explain to my brother what a galette was, I told him it was kind of like a deconstructed pie. You use pie dough, it’s filled with fruit, but instead of a pie plate you just kind of fold the edges over themselves and leave it a little open in the middle. He responded, “so hipster pie?” That’s kind of right. But I’d never made one before, so I decided to go for it. And i’m glad I did! Because I then had my friends over for dinner (hi, Josh and Sungho!), and served it for dessert, …

Easter Cake

I’m at the stage of Easter where I’m back in my apartment, as full of chocolate as physically possible, and still reaching for another piece because if I just make it go away now I won’t have to eat it later. We’ve all been there. It’s the mark of a truly great day. And I had such a lovely Easter! I got to see so much of my family, which is always a treat, and the weather was nice enough to end with cartwheels in the yard with the next generation of cousins. Plus, I got to spend Saturday making …

Orange Spritz Cookies

For my last in this year’s Christmas cookie series, I bring you something a little fruity to round out your cookie boxes: orange spritz cookies. Everything in my box so far had been either chocolate or butter or ginger or some other traditional warm flavor and I wanted a fruit counterpoint. Usually you can do this with some thumbprints, but I really am not a huge fan of jam cookies (other than hamantaschen). I prefer cookies that rely on the zest of a fruit. I also prefer cookies that let me use my cookie press. These checked both boxes. First, …

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 …

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!

Carrot Bread

What do you do when your boyfriend asks you to pick up his root vegetable CSA? Google carrot recipes, thinking you’ll be able to get through them quickly, and realize that even carrot-based recipes don’t use enough carrots to make a dent in your bag of produce. Guess that means I’ll have to make carrot cake for Easter! (Also, if you can think of any other carrot recipes, any at all, please send them to me. Doesn’t have to bae a baked good!)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

The last of my back up recipes: Pumpkin Cheesecake. I probably had time to bake this weekend, but it was kind of nice to just be lazy instead. We’ve got a long weekend from school, but the rain and general yuckiness stopped us from heading into the mountains as planned. Oh well. Watching High School Musical and exploring the Massachusetts area isn’t a terrible alternative.