BAKING WITH LOVE

Posted in Cake, Cookies by sallybr

Valentine’s Day is just about here! Today I share a few ideas to sweeten up this special weekend… Make sure to visit my cookie blog tomorrow for a series of cookies that celebrate love. And now, let’s get started, shall we?

I open this post with a Vanilla Pound Cake with Hibiscus Glaze

VANILLA POUND CAKE WITH HIBISCUS GLAZE
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

for the cake:
3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened (room temperature)
8 oz Cream Cheese, at room temperature (one regular package)
2 + 1/2 cups (500g) sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
6 Eggs, at room temperature
3 cups (375g) flour

for the glaze:
3 tablespoons hibiscus tea
200g powdered sugar
squeeze of lemon juice

Heat oven to 325F.

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar with hand mixer until light and fluffy. Pound cakes do not contain leavening agent, so make sure to work the butter until fluffy. Add salt and vanilla, beat well.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Gradually mix in the three cups of flour.

Pour into well greased bundt pan. Bake for about 90 minutes, covering with foil if the top gets too brown before a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Wait for 15 minutes before un-molding over a rack. Let the cake cool completely, then make a glaze whisking all the ingredients. Pour the glaze over the cake, decorate with sprinkles, if desired.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe click here

Comments: The Bundt pan I used is this one. Any cake will look good with a simple dusting of powdered sugar, but I decided to go with a light glaze and sprinkles.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED
BROWNIE HEARTS

If your heart is set on chocolate, but you don’t feel like a simple tray of brownies, here is a very cute idea… Bake the brownies in a heart-shape silicone mold, then use the same mold to coat each piece in chocolate (I went with compound chocolate dyed red). I used these molds to bake and coat the brownies. And my favorite recipe for the little cakes (check here).

When you bake the brownies, the bottom side, that touches the mold, will be super flat. You can flip them when you coat and place the non-flat side touching the chocolate. That will end up smooth, so both sides of your little cakes will be nice and flat.

So the process goes like this: bake the brownies, cool them completely in the mold. Freeze for 10 minutes to make sure the brownie will be nice and firm. Remove cakes. Wash the mold, dry well. Melt compound chocolate in the color of your choice, add a layer to the bottom of the mold and immediately insert the cake back. Push gently all the way down. Make sure you see the chocolate coming up a bit around the edges, no need to come all the way to the top. Freeze for 15 minutes. Un-mold, and decorate.

Once they are coated, you can pipe a drizzle of melted chocolate and add sprinkles.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED OREOS

No need for recipe, just a little festive decoration, made with Royal icing and sanding sugar. Leftover melted chocolate was used to form little hearts using this mold.

VALENTINE’S SQUARE CAKE

I cannot share the recipe, as it is copyrighted. Published as Sunny Sprinkle Layer Cake, it is in a great book by Molly Gilbert called Sheet Pan Sweets. I baked it in a half-sheet pan, then cut 4 squares to make the layers, used a simple American Buttercream to frost it. It was not easy to frost smoothly a square cake, but oh, well. What does not kill you, makes you stronger.

I wish you a wonderful weekend, no matter where you stand on the festivities of February 14th!

ONE YEAR AGO: Baking with the Heart

TWO YEARS AGO: Baking with the Heart

THREE YEARS AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

FOUR YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

FIVE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

SIX YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Blue Moon Milk

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Slow-Cooked Chicken Meatballs

NINE YEARS AGO: Zesty Flourless Chocolate Cake

TEN YEARS AGO: Maple Pumpkin Pecan Snacking Cake

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Sweet Fifteen!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

11Feb2026

MY MOST VERSATILE COOKIE DOUGH

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

I have used this simple recipe in countless ways and it simply never disappoints me. Because it has no leavening agent, it holds its shape either as a cutout or as a stamped cookie. You can also use it for thumbprint cookies. You can paint it, you can stencil it. And of course, you can treat it as a regular sugar cookie and decorate it with Royal icing. I will give you the basic formula and a few variations, but they will all perform exactly the same way.

HAZELNUT COOKIE DOUGH
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

226 g butter
150g total sugar (100 + 50 white and brown or reversed, see comments)
30g egg (must weigh)
1 tsp hazelnut emulsion (variations in comments)
¼ tsp vanilla extract
380g all purpose flour
½ tsp salt

Soften butter on low mixer setting. Add sugars and mix on low until butter is incorporated. Add egg, extracts, mix on low. Add flour and salt and mix until dough comes together.

Form disc, wrap in plastic and place in fridge 10 minutes.

Roll out, press stamps or cut. Refrigerate for 90 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes before baking at 350F until done, depends on size and thickness of your cookie.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Let’s talk extracts. I really love the Hazelnut Bakery Emulsion from LorAnn (click here). It has a strong smell but don’t let that scare you, it bakes with a wonderful flavor. Variations: use Pistachio Bakery Emulsion, or Natural Orange, all from LorAnn. As to sugars, you can either use 100g white and 50g brown, or the opposite. Some brown sugar is important, if you want a slightly crispier cookie, go for higher amount of white sugar. The cookie will also be obviously lighter, so that might be more appropriate for some designs. Finally, it is very important to weight the egg. I know, if you don’t own a scale, it is a problem but if you add one full egg it will be too much. I rarely need to adjust anything in the dough if I follow this recipe to a T. Having covered the basics, let me show you a few ideas to put this baby to use.

STRAWBERRY JAM COOKIES

I used 100g white sugar and 50g brown for this one. Roll the cookie, cut the shape, make little holes with a toothpick for added cuteness. Press your finger twice to form a little heart shape. Fill with jam (do not add too much). Bake. Decorate with Royal icing once cool. If you don’t want to use the decoration, just make a round shape and fill it with jam.

COCOA POWDER STENCILING

Super fun technique. You will brush a little cocoa powder on the raw cookie using a stencil, then bake. I have also used a cocoa paste made with softened butter, powdered sugar and flour, but managed to lose that recipe. Could not retrieve it, don’t remember where I saw it. Very sorry, but cocoa powder by itself works great (you can see my full blog post about it here).

STAMPED COOKIES

For these cookies, I went with 100g brown sugar and 50g white. I wanted a darker shade to start with. After baking, I painted the design with luster powder, either gold or bronze. The cookie stamp is available here.

ROLLED, MOLDED, PRESSED

Higher proportion of white sugar for all of those. Notice how the impression stays nicely, no matter the technique you choose to work with the dough.

SPRINGERLE MOLDS

You can leave the cookie unpainted, or have some fun with colors. I do like luster powder for this type of decoration, it comes with a natural shine I adore. When I leave the cookies unpainted, I sometimes like to spray a little PME luster pearl, but that is totally optional.

PAINTED COOKIES

Those were tiny little cookies, baked, cooled, and painted with different colors of luster powder + vodka. Also pretty cute if left unpainted. But you know I find it hard to resist the call of color…

I hope you will give this recipe a try, and love it as much as I do.

ONE YEAR AGO: White Chicken, a Cantonese Classic

TWO YEARS AGO: Baking with the Heart

THREE YEARS AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

FOUR YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

FIVE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

SIX YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Blue Moon Milk

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Slow-Cooked Chicken Meatballs

NINE YEARS AGO: Zesty Flourless Chocolate Cake

TEN YEARS AGO: Maple Pumpkin Pecan Snacking Cake

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Sweet Fifteen!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

23Jan2026

IRRESISTIBLE PECAN PIE COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

I don’t know how to put this more clearly to you: MAKE THESE COOKIES. Do not hesitate, do not postpone to next week, next month. My friend Dorothy from shockinglydelicious raved about them, and I am so glad I took action. They are incredibly easy to make and OMG-delicious! Addictive. Seriously so. The recipe is not yet in her blog, but I got it through her Facebook (check it out here if you are on FB).

PECAN PIE “CRACK”
(from Dorothy Reinhold)

13 graham cracker rectangles
2 cups pecan halves and pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (or foil). Lay graham crackers to fit, breaking them if you need to. Fill the whole pan. Sprinkle all the pecans over top.

In a medium pot over medium heat, combine brown sugar, butter and salt. Bring to a boil and once boiling, let cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and quickly pour hot mixture over graham cracker and nuts in the pan, making sure all crackers are covered.

Bake 10 minutes; it will be bubbly. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely and break into pieces. This will be screaming hot, so don’t even try tasting it until it is entirely cool.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: As you know, I donate 99% of the sweets I bake, or close to it… But every once in a while I get to taste one, particularly when it is a recipe I’ve never made before. So I did. The nickname “crack” seemed appropriate, not that I ever suffered from drug addiction. The image fit nicely. I had to exercise ALL my will power to put them away, so the poor homeless would have a chance. They are impossibly good. Trust me. As you are making them you will be sure there will be a disaster in the end. Things get furiously bubbly, it looks like chaos. But there will be a super bright and tasty light at the end of that tunnel!

THANK YOU, DOROTHY! THESE ARE AMAZING!

ONE YEAR AGO: Chicken Stir-fry with Cashews and Broccoli

TWO YEARS AGO: It’s not the recipe

THREE YEARS AGO: Pfeffernusse

FOUR YEARS AGO: Clay Pot Pork and Tomatillo Braise

FIVE YEARS AGO: Vegan Chocolate-Dipped Cinnamon Cookies

SIX YEARS AGO: Lemony Barley with Shrimp and Spinach

SEVEN YEARS AGO:Black Rice with Roasted Cauliflower

EIGHT YEARS AGO:La Couronne Bordelaise

NINE YEARS AGO: A Special Birthday Dinner

TEN YEARS AGO: Duck Confit for a Special Occasion

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Tuscan Grilled Chicken and Sausage Skewers

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Celebrate Wednesday with Pork Tenderloin & Apples

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Salmon Wellington

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: The Green Chip Alternative

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Weekend Pita Project

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: Let it snow, let it snow, eggs in snow

13Dec2025

FOR THE LOVE OF CHOCOLATE

Posted in Cake, Chocolate Bonbons, Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Today it is all a celebration of chocolate, so appropriate for the season, don’t you think? Let’s start with another winner of a recipe by Helen Fletcher.

MEXICAN BROWNIES

To get the recipe, pay a visit to her site, where you can get step by step pictures to guide you through the process. One of the tips she gives is pouring the smooth icing on the brownie after flipping it so that the bottom side is up. That ensures a super flat surface for glazing. It is all in the details, my friends!

Moving on, a Celebration Cake I made for the chef who is behind the homeless meals, a person I admire so much! Works tirelessly to offer free meals 7 days/week.

CHOCOLATE CELEBRATION CAKE WITH RASPBERRY FILLING
(inspired by many sources)

for the cake:
1 + 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
1 + 1/2 cups (300g) sugar
3/4 cup (70g) cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

for the buttercream:
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 + 1/2 cups ( 420g) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup ( 45g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 to 3 Tablespoons heavy cream
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the filling:
Raspberry jam (store-bought or homemade)

for optional decoration:
Brazilian brigadeiros (click here for recipe)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 7-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans, or use baking spray.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely before filling and frosting.

Make the frosting:
On a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 4 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, heavy cream, salt, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for 1 full minute. Adjust consistency with more powdered sugar or with heavy cream. Place in a piping bag fitted with appropriate icing tips for the decorations you desire.

Place the first cake on a circular cardboard, add a circle of buttercream as a dam around the perimeter, fill the center with jam. Place second cake on top, repeat the process. Place the last cake on top, cover with a thin crumb cake layer of buttercream and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Finish the buttercream icing, add brigadeiros if so desired, or any other decorations.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I donated this cake whole, so we have not tried it, but I have used this recipe before and it is really a delicious, very moist, intensely chocolate-y cake. The raspberry jam goes very well with it, although it is also outstanding with some salted caramel as the filling.

CHOCOLATE COVERED OREOS, DA VINCI STYLE

These turned out so cool, I was super happy with them. My sister Norma pointed out they reminded her of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions, so that’s the reason for the name. I used a silicone mold I’ve had for many years to make the decorations with dark compound chocolate, later brushed with luster powder copper. I used a very light green to tint the chocolate for the molds.

Finally, I close this post with a series of chocolate cookies decorated according to a tutorial from Tunde Dugantsi. Simple white Royal icing, good practice for fine line piping. It would also work well on gingerbread cookies, keep that in mind. I used my default chocolate cookie recipe for those (find it here).

ONE YEAR AGO: Three Little Cookies for the Holidays

TWO YEARS AGO: Two Festive Cakes, Part One

THREE YEARS AGO: Broccoli Slaw Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

FOUR YEARS AGO: Vegan Blueberry-Lemon Cheesecake

FIVE YEARS AGO: Green Tea Rice with Edamame and Butternut Squash

SIX YEARS AGO: Santa Hat Mini-Mousse Cakes

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Fun with Sourdough

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Pasteis de Nata

NINE YEARS AGO: New Mexico Pork Chile, Crockpot Version

TEN YEARS AGO: Chocolate on Chocolate

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Double Chocolate and Mint Cookies

TWELVE YEARS AGO: The Story of my first Creme Brulle’

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Sourdough Mini-rolls

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Focaccia with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Gorgonzola

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Mediterranean Skewers

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO Fettuccine with Shrimp, Swiss Chard, and Tomatoes

9Dec2025

108 ASIAN COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

I am totally in love with this cookbook! I have a soft spot for baking that is not overly sweet, which might sound strange, as I bake so many sugar cookies, macarons, and cupcakes. But a recipe that calls for adding miso to a cookie gets me dreaming. Salted caramel? Same thing. This is actually my second cookbook from Kat Lieu, and I think both would be a great Christmas gift for bakers (wink, wink).

To order 108 Asian Cookies, click here

To order Modern Asian Baking, click here

Without further ado, here is a wonderfully delicious recipe for Masala Macaroons…

MASALA MACAROONS
(published with permission from 108 Asian Cookies)

One 14-ounce (396 g) can sweetened condensed milk
1 ripe small banana, mashed
1 teaspoon red miso
One 14-ounce (396 g) bag unsweetened shredded coconut
2 teaspoons garam masala
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground ginger
About ⅓ cup (60 g) semisweet chocolate chips, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon neutral oil
Sea salt flakes, for garnish
Sprinkles, for garnish (optional)

Heat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, mix the condensed milk, mashed banana, and miso until combined. Add the shredded coconut, garam masala, cardamom, and ginger and mix until well combined and the dough can hold itself together.

Scoop heaping tablespoons of batter for each macaroon and place on the prepared baking sheet. Keep their rounded mound shapes and give each about 1 inch of space. Bake all the macaroons until the edges are crispy and golden brown and the tops are lightly toasted, 16 to 18 minutes.

Let the macaroons set on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the macaroons are cooling, combine the chocolate chips and oil in a medium heatproof bowl and microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring after each interval, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Dip the bottoms of the cooled macaroons into the melted chocolate. Place them back on the parchment-lined baking sheets to set. Drizzle additional melted chocolate on top of each macaroon. Before the chocolate sets completely, sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt and sprinkles on top of each macaroon.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: These were superb, I confess to stealing one from the donation box and being happy that I did… If you don’t like coconut, of course these are not for you, but if you love them, be ready for a treat! Easy to make, rich and luscious, one will satisfy your sweet tooth, but the spices and miso tone it down substantially. Truly special… You need them in your life.

As a teaser, these are chocolate chip cookies described by Kat as Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever. They take Ovaltine, molasses and miso. To die for, honestly. You need these cookies and this cookbook in your life.