It’s getting to be strawberry season in about a months time and I always go PYO strawberry picking and then make at least one kind of jam. Last year, it was Strawberry Lemon Thyme Jam. I had the last jar of it in the pantry and when deciding what to bake, come across the idea to make some more jam pinwheels, and to use this yummy jam. Yes, the thyme is a little unique, but it works well and even better in cookies.
I clearly have this thing for Chocolate Chip cookies, and I seem to be on this never-ending quest to see what combinations I can manage to put in chocolate chips cookies. I also have this affinity for cardamom (favorite spice by far), so this week, I tried the combination of cardamom, coconut (the unsweetened kind) and dried figs. Oh, and oatmeal, to make them “healthy”. Turned out ok, but if I were to make them again, I think I’d add even more cardamom.
Time for Blueberry Thyme Pie. I’ve had a few sleepless nights in the last few days. Lots of worries on my the brain and emotions are running high. This does not bode well for my already light sleep, so I tossed and turned until 1 AM, stared mindlessness through the extra innings of a West Coast Red Sox game and then managed a few hours of actual sleep from 2-4. Then I decided to make pie. Baking always makes me feel better and the bonus of insomnibaking is that one gets to eat pie for breakfast. The herbiness of the thyme balances nicely in this. If you have lemon thyme, that would be even better.
All of a sudden, it seems to be spring. After this winter here in Boston, I never thought that we’d be saying “Gosh, it’s hot!” again, but here we are on May 7 … and it’s downright hot. So, in celebration thereof, I made this here cake. I actually have a bit of a philosophy that I have broken with this cake — which is that I think that a cake should look like a cake, not like something else — but eh, rules are meant to be broken sometimes and I ended up with this cutsie little cake. It’s just a chocolate cake with raspberry filling, chocolate butter cream frosting and lots of mini-M&Ms.