Tea, anyone?

I was invited to a baby shower over the weekend and thought it was the perfect excuse to make scones.  I've been missing scones since leaving England so I was very ready to indulge in one.  As an avid fan of the "Great British Bake Off," I had to use the queen of baking, Mary Berry's recipe.  It is a really straight forward recipe and I was pleased with the results.  Now to just have the willpower to not eat all the leftovers!

Cooking with grandma

Over Christmas I had the pleasure of doing a bit of baking with my grandmother.  My grandma is originally from Slovakia and the holidays have always been a time where we've enjoyed some Slovak favorites.  She would often make nut rolls or apricot squares.  This year we made mini versions of the nut rolls.  The are called kolaches and are a perfect treat to enjoy and share.

I used this recipe for the dough.  We filled ours with both apricot filling and walnut filling.  I am definitely partial to the walnut filling.  It is SO GOOD!  Below is how I made the walnut filling.

Walnut filling:
1/2 pound ground walnuts
1 egg white
1 cup honey

Please let me know if you try this recipe - I'd love to know what you think!  

The Dipytch Project: Baking

The Diptych Project: two friends (once neighbors & now an ocean apart), one theme

(Top photo: Evie, Bottom photo: Ann)

Recently I have been reading a lot about french parenting and cooking through books such as Bringing up Bebe, French Kids Eat Everything and French Women Don't Get Fat.  I have really enjoyed them as I have felt more inspired to make our meal times a special family time and to make more of an effort to use fresh ingredients that are in season in my cooking.  I've also decided that I want to learn to bake bread for our family.  

My photo above shows my first attempt at a classic french baguette.  

Please visit Evie's blog to learn more about what inspired her photo.

Sweet Tooth

Yesterday I baked "Muffins that taste like donuts"...and they really do! This was a recipe that my mom made when I was growing up and seemed like the perfect thing to bake to bring along to brunch at a friend's home this week.

They are super easy to make and took less than 40 minutes to make including baking time. The only problem with these is that they are so hard to resist. Sitting in the house with one and not eating it is taking all of my willpower. I know that I have already had my share and my husband has only had one, but would he really mind?

I am so tempted to bake another batch....

Granola time

I can check the first item off my get creative list... #16. I saw the Toasted Almond Granola from Joy the Baker over the weekend and decided to get baking. The delicious aroma in the flat was enough to make me want to bake this again. Granola is actually really easy to make. The trickiest part was getting the mixture to crisp up without burning. At the moment my tummy is stuffed with granola and is very happy. The only problem is that I am finding it very hard to save some for Adrian who had a wisdom tooth removed on Friday and can't partake in the granola merriment at the moment.