Some Snackable Bakes such as an Easy Tres Leches Cake, a No-Bake Cannoli Cheesecake, some Double Ginger Scones with Currants and a baking tip!

Hello peeps and welcome to Snackable Bakes. This one is my first over here with Substack and I couldn’t be more excited. Being on Substack has SO many perks (in case you did not know), the best one being we can now chit chat on the regular. Leave your comments below and get ready for loads o’ fascinating responses from yours truly. 

Moreover, although this newsletter and all of its wonderfully snackable content will remain free free free FOREVER, I will be offering paid content as well. If you become a paid subscriber, and absolutely no pressure to become one – though all the cool cats ARE doing it FYI (joke) – you will get to travel along with me behind the scenes on my 4^th cookbook writing adventure. The book is of the savory variety, as I’ve mentioned before, but first and foremost it is easy-peasy: I’ll be sharing about the recipe development process, the testing process, the flops and winners, the difficulty I’m having in using my spice drawer on the regular (I’m a sweets girl and reaching into my spice drawer to zhoosh up my baked goods is a challenge), recipes I’m loving that you’ll get early access to and MORE!

Okay, enough substack housekeeping . . . how about some RECIPES!! I’ve recently started developing recipes (and photographing the finished baked goods!!) for Today Food – not exactly the same thing as being on the Today Show, though I have had the pleasure of doing that, too, but a treat never the less. And the first two recipes I’m sharing here are for Today (pun intended).

So, up first is my Easy Tres Leches Cake. Tres Leches Cake is my idea of a very good time, as it calls for sweetened condensed milk which is one of my all-time favorite ingredients. My particular version also happens to be very easy, as rather than make a sponge cake (which often involves separating eggs and a stand mixer) mine calls for whole eggs and requires nothing more than a bowl and a whisk (you’re welcome). After baking, the cake is literally soaked with the above mentioned sweetened condensed milk, plus evaporated milk and heavy cream. The cake absorbs the milk while resting in the fridge and is topped with billowy whipped cream (another favorite thing o’ mine: whipped cream . . .) and voila: you slice this cutie up and your friends and fam go crazy cause it’s so darn good.

Next up is a recipe for a No-Bake Cannoli Cheesecake that I also developed recently for Today.com. I am not a huge fan of cheesecakes (sorry haters) but I have to say that when the cheesecake is no-bake (read: easy) and ricotta, cream cheese, pistachios and chocolate chips are in the mix, well then you can count me in. This cutie has a vanilla wafer crust – which gives me all the cannoli shell vibes – and the filling is a combo of the above-mentioned ricotta, cream cheese and chocolate chips (minis, please), plus a little orange zest thrown in for good measure. Make this for the Italian pastry lovers in your life.

Today’s final recipe is from Snackable Bakes and was recently featured on Epicurious. It is a recipe for Double Ginger Scones with Currants and they are wildly delicious. Both candied ginger and ginger powder make an appearance in these treats and the effect is spicy and sweet and well, perfect. I love the currants for the little pop of fruit-flavor that they provide, but raisins or really any dried fruit – cranberries, cherries – would work too.

BAKING TIP!!! Alrighty, that’s it for recipe content for this week, but I did want to share a baking tip with you. I’ve been sharing a lot of tips over on Instagram, where I sadly spend an inordinate amount of time, but in case you do not, I thought I’d share them here, too. So this week’s tip is about how to soften butter in the microwave. I am very pro-microwave (ie:  I use it all the time to melt butter and chocolate and coconut oil and to make oatmeal and heat up dinner, etc.). But this tip is not about melting something, but about softening it. When you need to soften butter stat because you are in the middle of a recipe but forgot to take it out of the fridge or freezer and it is rock hard (been there done that), here’s what you do: you place the still-wrapped butter on its side on a small plate and stick it in the microwave. On high power, microwave the butter in four 10 second intervals, rotating the butter onto each of its sides as you do so. After 40 seconds, the butter will be softened and ready to bake with . . . you’re welcome. 

@jessiesheehanbakesSoften butter quickly and PROPERLY in the microwave. (IG: @jessiesheehanbakes). #softenbutter #microwaverecipes #snackablebakes #bakingvideo #professionalbaker #bakingexpert #bakersoftiktok #letmeteachyou #bakingtips #bakinghack

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Okay, recipes and tips have been shared, but before I sign off I did want to mention that I’d love it if you gave my new baking podcast a listen over on your favorite podcast platform. It’s called She’s My Cherry Pie and I chat all things baking with all the best bakers around – and I think you might dig it/love it.

And there we have it. Hope you give one or three (or even two) of these recipes a go; that this week’s baking tip comes in handy; and, that you give my “pod” (I think that is what the cool kids call it) a listen – and yes that is a lot of hoping, but I am nothing if not hopeful. Also, leave a comment and let me know what snackable bakes you’d like to see in these newsy letters going forward and I’m looking forward to being back in touch in two weeks.