SMiLes by Meg

Homemade Oreos

This week, I baked for the first time in my new kitchen! Spoiler alert: it was awesome. Plenty of counter space. Pretty new toys to play with (read: stainless steel mixing bowls). And a whole new group of people to eat the end product! Plus, central air conditioning, which means turning on the oven was not the horrific experience it could have been in this insanely hot summer we’ve been having.

Quick Bark

Ever find yourself in need of a quick dessert for a holiday? This is your solution. All it takes is a quick trip to Michael’s (or whatever other craft store you know of that sells every possible color of Candy Melts), and maybe 30 total minutes of assembly and waiting time. End result looks very impressive, is endlessly adaptable to your tastes, and can be piled in a tupperware without worrying about ruining it. Extra perk? It fills the need at cookouts for something sweet at the end of a big meal without requiring the commitment of a slice of

Sesame Seed Cookies

To be honest, I did NOT want to turn on the oven today. It is ridiculously hot. And while we have AC in the bedroom, there is not AC in the rest of the apartment. The thought of taking a kitchen that was already 90+° and turning an oven up to 375° seemed insane. But after spending a lot of time looking through no-bake and icebox recipes, I just couldn’t find anything I was actually excited about. And I’ve been meaning to make these cookies for weeks, since I found them and thought they sounded interesting. So I sucked it

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

A little late to post this one, but not because I hadn’t baked yet – I was just too busy celebrating my Birthday Eve! After a lovely evening with friends, and a delicious tres leches cake whose only price was wearing a pink sombrero, you won’t blame me for taking a little extra time to write this one. Fortunately, bar studying is largely a day job, which leaves nights for baking adventures and other fun (when I can get up the energy to do anything other than sit on the couch and watch hours of Friends). These cookies were the

Amaretti

Yesterday, I got back from a 10-day vacation in Italy with Erik. Last week, I promised a recipe for amaretti cookies, which I thought I’d be making while I was there. We did lots of fun things (biking, hiking, exploring new cities, making pizza dough…), but amaretti baking was not one of those things after all. However, a promise is a promise, and my mom insisted that I should make something with an “Italian flair”, so here’s an amaretti recipe anyways!

Saffron Ice Cream Sandwiches

Law school is over! And as we always do when finals are over, Erik and I spent the weekend off the grid in the mountains, camping and hiking. That means I had to get something made before I left, since I wasn’t sure when I’d be back today. I came up with (yet another) Ottolenghi recipe, though this one didn’t go so well.

Blackberry Brown Sugar Bars

When I’m baking in my mom’s kitchen, I usually take a break from my normal cookbooks and use one of hers that I like: The Farmhouse Cookbook.  What I found out this week is that as cute as the cookbook is, it doesn’t actually have that many dessert recipes. I was flipping through it, trying to decide on something, and thought lemon blueberry bread pudding sounded like a great dessert for the meal my mom was cooking. Almost 5 years into this blog, I decided it would be a good idea to check before starting it. Turned out I had

Speculaas Biscuits

Finals is for procrastibaking. In the last 24 hours, I’ve made 3 different Ottolenghi recipes: banana bread, cauliflower cake, and these cookies. It’s important to take some (read: most) time to destress when you’ve got your last final exams ever coming up. I also am determined to get on Ottolenghi’s Instagram account, where he occasionally posts things people have made of his, but I haven’t had any luck so far. My only chance is to keep baking my way through Sweet!

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.