whole wheat croissants

DSCF3717This was an experiment to see if I could make whole wheat croissants. From doing web research, it seemed like it was not recommended, because whole wheat has less gluten and is generally less heavy, so croissants don’t turn out fluffy and light. I would agree with that, but maybe it was worth the slightly nuttier flavor? Personal preference I suppose, since let’s be real, nobody’s going to say no to a fresh croissant, even if it’s not Costco-level fluffy.
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ricciarelli

DSCF4437HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Ok, so. Josh says these are his favorite cookies that I’ve ever made. I think that’s saying a lot, considering. These ricciarelli (not sure how to pronounce this… “rich”-ee-uh-relly? “rick”-uh-relly? Any Italians in the house?) were inspired by Arizmendi’s, but chewier, with more orange zest. These are gluten free!! Super chewy because of the nut flour and egg whites, with strong aroma.

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method – roll cake

DSCF3129A roll cake! My favorite treat from an Asian supermarket is the coffee flavored roll cakes. But I try not to buy them because that means finishing the entire thing in a few days… I think this was pretty successful! Maybe overbaked the cake just a tad, but relatively easy assembly with fun serving 🙂 This was also my first chiffon cake! Which I haven’t tried in a regular cake shape, but plan on doing soon as the search for a white cake recipe continues.

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strawberry almond muffins

DSCF3847This is off-season, but that’s what I get for archiving a bunch of half-finished posts. Well, you get what you get, readers! (All two of you. Hi.) To be honest, I feel like these muffins were too moist. Maybe I should have baked them a little past set. I mostly needed to find something to use up my overripe strawberries with, so found this recipe. Will probably try something else next year. (Or buy fewer baskets of strawberries…)

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manresa

dscf3098Another new series to provide more filler posts! If I can actually remember to take pictures of my food (apparently I’m very un-Asian), I’ll post all the fancy pants desserts I eat when I go to fancy pants restaurants. Missing from this archive was our experience at Adega (smoked chocolate cake??? It was goddamn delicious. I love it when pastry chefs design these ugly nature-dirt-inspired forest creations for desserts) but I’ll try to do better from now on. To kick it off, Manresa.
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chocolate crinkles

dscf3184I haven’t made chocolate crinkles in years, and I have no idea why not. They’re freaking delicious bites of chocolatey goodness, basically cake in cookie form, with powdered sugar “frosting” to boot. This recipe pretty much inspired me to buy 5 more pounds of Valrhona cocoa powder “just in case” – whatever that means. I’ve adapted this to a one-bowl recipe, which pretty much means I’m going to ignore the fact that they’re considered winter seasonal cookies. The chocolate life discriminates against no season.

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