Welcoming Fall with Some Snackable Bakes
Hello peeps. Fall feels very much upon us - both in temperature and mindset - and although I am a big fan of sweater weather, as well as fall bakes, I actually feel like I missed summer altogether, and thus can’t quite believe it is over. This was a crazy busy past few months for me, as I rushed to finish up all the recipes for my next cookbook, culminating in two weeks of a photoshoot that lasted from Labor Day until last Friday. Below is a pic of some of the gorgeous and colorful props.
But overall, I am feeling very good that the shoot is over and the recipes, done and now I just have to write the front matter for the book, the intro, etc. and then ces’t fini! Oh, and if learning more about the cookbook-writing process and getting a sneak-peak at the recipes and finding out why I wasn’t permitted to share on insta while the shoot was taking place, sounds like a good time to you, might I suggest you subscribe to my paid newsletter? It is cookbook-to-be focused in all the best ways.
In other, unrelated-to-cookbook news, my second recipe for NYT Cooking was published last week. It is a recipe for four-ingredient Nutella Brownies that take five minutes to assemble. The recipe calls for Nutella, flour, eggs and salt and the resultant brownies are dynamite, if I do say so myself, partly because they require so little time or energy, but also because they are delicious . . . think chewy brownies with crinkly tops and loads o’ hazelnut chocolate vibes (aka heaven).
Funnily enough, my fantastic cookbook photographer, Nico Schinco, was hired by the Times to photograph my brownies and he had no idea they were mine until the recipe was published! Hee hee.
In addition to this brand *new* NYT Cooking recipe of mine (and yes, you’re right: it never gets old mentioning the NYT + a recipe I developed in the same sentence), I also wanted to share an oldie but goodie - one that would have been fab for the Jewish New Year, had I gotten my you-know-what together to post it two weeks ago . . . but is still fab post-new year and is really for everyone who has a heartbeat (not just those ringing in the new year). It’s a recipe for an Apple Honey Challah Pull-Apart Bread and yes: it calls for yeast, but it is still a, dare I say, easy(ish) recipe.
And if yeast is not the least bit scary to you, first, congrats, but second, you might want to check out a recent episode of my baking podcast, She’s My Cherry Pie, in which I discussed all things Braided Finnish Bread (aka Nisu), with my guest Umber Ahmad. Umber is also the founder of Mah Ze Dahr Bakery in Manhattan, and elsewhere, and it is 100% worth a visit, if you have never been.
And in keeping with a “pull-apart” theme, you must check out my cinnamon sugar pull-apart muffins, a recipe that was in the Washington Post this past spring. They are made from an easy-peasy cream biscuit dough which means no cutting in of cold butter and which also means the dough take about a second to stir together and then a bit longer to assemble but WORTH IT.
Finally, even though these biscuit-based muffins do not call for butter, on the off chance you’ve been up all night wondering about the fastest way to soften butter, maybe for a batch of cookies or a cake, I got you. Check out this video where I show you how to soften a stick of butter in the microwave.
Alrighty, then folks. That’s it for this week. See you in two.