BOOKSHELF « A Woman Sconed

Baked Sunday Mornings: Marveling a Marble Bundt Cake

By rahoward, on October 7th, 2018

Marble cake offers the best of both worlds, well, at least the best of both flavors — vanilla and chocolate cake batters are swirled together to bring two favorite tastes in one.

I confess it’s been a long time since I’ve marbled anything — cake or otherwise. I do believe the last marble cake . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Marveling a Marble Bundt Cake

Bread of the Month: Loafing with streusel and scones

By rahoward, on September 30th, 2018

Sometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to get to things. Like recipes. Like a Cinnamon Scone Bread recipe, in particular, which I first saw back in 2014 on the Food52 website, and at that moment declared, “Oooo, I gotta make that!” Just how long could one deny oneself layers of scones sandwiched . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Loafing with streusel and scones

Baked Sunday Mornings: ‘Drowning’ in a coffee dessert

By rahoward, on September 23rd, 2018

I can’t remember which cooking maven (it was either Ina or Nigella) I first saw make affogato. But I never forgot this dessert — as simple as they come — where piping hot coffee or freshly brewed espresso is poured over a creamy mound of freezing cold ice cream. The version I saw used vanilla . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: ‘Drowning’ in a coffee dessert

Baked Sunday Mornings: Sizing up a Monster Cookie

By rahoward, on September 9th, 2018

Many memories were stirred up as I mixed and baked a batch of Monster Cookies for the Baked Sunday Mornings online baking group this week. The recipe (you’ll find it here: http://bakedsundaymornings.com/2018/08/31/in-the-oven-monster-cookies/), from “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking,” by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (2008), is an old-fashioned drop cookie, described as “One part oatmeal . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Sizing up a Monster Cookie

Baked Sunday Mornings: Fixing an oven-free ‘slump’

By rahoward, on July 29th, 2018

Sometimes, when you are in a slump (writing/cooking/baking/working/living), the best thing to do is make one. Never heard of a slump? I had, but had not made one until the Baked Sunday Mornings group put a recipe (see here: http://bakedsundaymornings.com/2018/07/20/in-the-oven-sour-cherry-slump/) for Sour Cherry Slump from “Baked: New Frontiers in Baking” by Matt Lewis and Renato . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Fixing an oven-free ‘slump’

Baked Sunday Mornings: Chilling with granita

By rahoward, on July 15th, 2018

Summer means iced tea — more than any drink — for me. I’ll take a tall glass of a plain black or green tea, but a good flavored iced tea — naturally flavored — like mango, mint, hibiscus or berry adds flavor and variety to the refreshment.

I also love granita. I’ve made a . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Chilling with granita

Baked Sunday Mornings: Doubling up with big biscotti

By rahoward, on June 17th, 2018

Biscotti, by description, seem something that would defy enthusiasm. Their name, derived from the cookie-version of “biscuit” and meaning “twice-baked,” is just an inkling of what they are. This double baking is meant to make them dry and hard (not typically the aim for most baked goods), for a longer shelf-life and desirable (and necessary) . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Doubling up with big biscotti

Baked Sunday Mornings: Tolling up pie’s sweet rewards

By rahoward, on June 3rd, 2018

Nothing matches the satisfaction of making a pie. Cakes are showstoppers. Cookies are always welcome. But they rarely feel as accomplished a feat as setting a humble dish of freshly baked pie, still warm from the oven, on your countertop. The baker’s glow is a different kind here.

Perhaps it is because you follow in . . . → Read More: Baked Sunday Mornings: Tolling up pie’s sweet rewards

Bread of the Month: Brewing up a fruity tea bread

By rahoward, on June 3rd, 2018

Great discoveries can happen in your own backyard, or, in this case, your own bookshelf. I was recently cleaning (gasp!) and re-organizing some books, and I stumbled across a little baking book from Ireland, actually named “The Little Irish Baking Book,” by Ruth Isabel Ross (1995), and, eager to take a break from said cleaning, . . . → Read More: Bread of the Month: Brewing up a fruity tea bread

Making a fool out of strawberries

By rahoward, on May 31st, 2018

Did you know there is a recipe for fool? And it’s so simple! Almost too simple, so that you almost want to pass it by (as I have, many times). Something that easy (and oddly named) certainly cannot be very good. The first recipes I saw for fools — desserts made up pretty much of . . . → Read More: Making a fool out of strawberries

“People ask me: "Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?" . . . The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.”
--M.F.K. Fisher

"It was in a yellow limestone church in Stockdale, Kansas, a crossroads town, that I sat dreaming during summer Sunday sermons, not of heaven or hell, but of the good dinner to come."
--Clementine Paddleford