As is usual in later June, usually the first weekend after the summer solstice, I went PYO Strawberry picking today. It wasn’t great weather, and I picked less berries that usual because they seemed smaller, there were less of them, and the impending rain. As usual, I have plans for the berries, so stay tuned. Here is my first recipe: a crumble bar stand-by: Strawberry Almond Crumble Bars. Bursting with fresh strawberry flavor!
Desserts
Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day. Not just for me, but it definitely felt like the entire circle of friends around me had an elevated stress day. It wasn’t good. But you know me with particularly hard days, that usually means that I end up baking something. That “something” this time was cupcakes, Triple Chocolate Cupcakes to be exact. It started with Trish musing about chocolate cake and morphed from there. So, in essence, it’s all Trish’s fault. 😛 For now, though, enjoy the cupcakes: dark chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream frosting and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. While it didn’t make the day less stressful, I was in a better state after making them.
It seems that every where you go, you’re overrun with rhubarb this time of year around here. Apparently it’s been a bumper crop and people are practically giving it away. So here is a new recipe to use some of your harvest. I know that the berry accompaniment tends to be strawberries, but I thought that I would change it up with raspberries. And ginger. Love ginger.
Dessert in a jar! Here’s a clever way of bringing individual little cheesecakes to a picnic or BBQ: bake them in Mason or Weck jars, screw on the lids and voila! Portable! I took these along on a picnic and they worked out great. If strawberries aren’t your thing, top with any other fruit (blueberry or mango might be good options) or even chocolate or caramel sauce. A totally decadent idea!
I think that these might be one of my more favorite cookies that I have developed lately. And I say “more favorite” because I actually have a lot of favorites. These are really dark chocolate with a bit of cinnamon and chili powder kick, not too sweet and then lovely dulce de leche sandwiched between the two cookies. As a last minute thing, I sprinkled these with powdered sugar (not written in the recipe), which added another layer of lovely. I call them “Mexican” but only because of the chocolate with cinnamon and chili, not because I actually think that these come from Mexico. 🙂