Apparently today is a holiday. Or a “holiday”, as it were. The first Friday in June is apparently National Doughnut Day in the US. Yes, just what we as a generally overweight nation need: a day in celebration of the doughnut. And yet, when I heard that Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme were giving the little gems away, I decided that I could one up them by simply making my own, hence these Glazed Ricotta Doughnuts. For Breakfast. Before work. On a holiday.
I really like Florentine-style chocolate chip cookies … the thin and crispy kind. The trick to this, I think, is to make the dough and then make the cookies straight away. Letting it cool in the refrigerator firms up the butter again and then you get more “puff” to the cookies themselves. These, while not really chocolate chip cookies as their primary flavor, definitely are florentine style. The toffee bits make them even crispier. Quite yummy, if I do say so myself.
As an aside, maple extract is my new favorite flavor. If you can’t find the extract, simply boil down some syrup until it is thicker and more concentrated. Just be careful when you are doing that, as you don’t want to cause a “burned pan” disaster.
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.
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.