Tag: baking

A Homemade King Cake

LaurenLeave a comment

I live life in the future.  As in, my body might be in the present, but my mind is one week, two weeks, three weeks, A MONTH in the future.  Lots of times, this is not ideal.  Like when I’m turning onto the highway, thinking about what kind of Oscars snacks I wanna eat and completely miss the fact that the highway is at A DEAD STOP and I should have noticed BEFORE I got in the turn lane because now it’s too late.

But other times, like when I stumble across a King Cake recipe two months before Mardi Gras, and have ample time to buy plastic babies online, locate purple glitter and carve myself out an entire day to make said cake, then my tendency to live in the future really comes in handy.  It just means I’ve got my shit together  I’m mentally and physically prepared for stuff.  Or that’s what I’m telling myself, at least 🙂

Anyway, I found this King Cake recipe on Joy the Baker’s website and though she’s not a New Orleans native, she lived in the French Quarter for a bit, which I think accelerates your NOLA cred, AND I felt good about getting a cake recipe from someone with “the Baker” in their title.  Also, she adapted her recipe from John Besh’s and I feel like he probably knows his way around a King Cake.  This is all to say, I felt like this was a recipe I trusted.  And after using it with success, I 100% recommend it.

Yeast scares the heck out of me but this dough rose just as it was supposed to and OH MY GOD, it smelled HEAVENLY.  Better than the $1 cinnamon buns smelled at IKEA the day before.

I tried mixing the filling (with perfectly softened butter!) with a spoon and then said “forget it!” and used my hands.  It was oddly satisfying and also felt like the best sugar scrub when I washed it off afterwards.  

The dough didn’t give me ANY trouble when I rolled it out, spread it with cinnamon-sugar butter and re-rolled it.  HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF.

Would you believe this was my first braided bread attempt?  Okay, my end connecting could use some work, but otherwise I was pretty proud of myself.  I let this rise for half an hour and took myself on a run, because: balance!

Baked it for about 5 minutes longer than the recipe said and it was nice and toasty looking on the outside but so tender and soft on the inside.  Bakers always be saying “don’t be afraid to let your dough get some color” and I was afraid but it all turned out just fine.

Once it was fully cooled (and my house smelled fully intoxicating), I mixed up the glaze, which honestly seemed just a tad too thin, and poured it over.  Cut to Joey and I spooning it from the sides back over the top for several minutes.  There was a glaze jacuzzi in the middle that I wanted to swim in.  Then sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles.  They were all different coarsenesses (is that a word?), but whatever!

Joey directed me where to cut the first piece and I hit that baby, even though I was the one who put it in and should have known exactly where it was.  Doh!

Honestly, I was so excited for this little King Cake project and it couldn’t have gone better.  It was surprisingly easy and totally paid off because this tasted so good!  I’m trying to think back on all the King Cakes I’ve eaten in this life — no joke, when my sister and I went to Mardi Gras in 2012, we ate something like five different King Cakes — and I feel like most have been of the soft bread-y texture.  This one definitely had more of a crispy exterior, but I kinda LOVED that about it!  Mostly, I’m excited to know I don’t have to debate shelling out a bunch of money to ship myself one from NOLA every year, because I can just make one myself.

Also, I had lunch with my mom yesterday and gave her a big old piece and it made my heart so happy to share a piece of New Orleans with the person who passed her love for that city down to me ♥

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Make This Now: Cold Weather Favorites

Lauren4 Comments

With a new season comes new cooking inspiration and the return of some old favorites.

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Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Putting a batch of cookies in the freezer is one of the best things you can do for yourself.  It took me 26 years to learn this, but now that I know, I’m not wasting another second of this life without cookies stashed in the freezer.  These ones ooze fall flavor, and chocolate chunks — are you kidding me?!  So much better than chocolate chips!  I just take one out of the freezer at dinner time and by dessert time, they are perfectly soft.

5 Ingredient Coconut Curry

Kinda forgot how much we used to make/love this quick curry recipe.  Do yourself a favor and use full fat coconut milk because that creaminess is so worth the extra fat/calories.  This time around, I didn’t even mix in the water/cornstarch because I didn’t really want the sauce to thicken up and I’m doing that every time from now on.

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Roasted Vegetables with Nutritional Yeast

Joey and I might be the unofficial spokespeople of nutritional yeast.  I know it sounds (and looks and smells) weird, but GAH, IT IS SO DELICIOUS.  For this recipe, you roast some squash (or broccoli, but I prefer the squash) then toss it in nutritional yeast and prepare your tastebuds for pure delight.

White Bean & Hominy

We made this a handful of times last fall/winter and we love it so much!  The recipe calls for meatless sausage but that sounds ew so we just leave it out and it is so so good.  Eat a bowl + a jalapeño cheddar corn muffin for the most perfect winter dinner.

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Pumpkin Maple Pecan Granola

I’m on something like my fourth batch of this granola and I eat it EVERY SINGLE MORNING.  It’s on the softer side, so if you’re looking for big crunchy clusters, this isn’t it, but if you’re looking for fall spices and that perfect blend of oats and nuts, HERE YOU GO!  Also, you mix chopped dates into the mixture after it’s done baking and I kinda never want to eat granola without dates ever again.

United States of Meatloaf

Never thought I would wax poetic about meatloaf until I tasted this one.  If tender is a word you can use to describe meatloaf, that’s exactly what this tastes like.  Sautéing the onion and garlic before mixing it into the meat and adding a delicious glaze on top are serious game-changers.  Jeff Mauro, I love you for this recipe.

P.S. I use half beef, half pork and nix the veal, I use panko instead of Saltines and have left the sriracha out of the glaze when I made the horrible mistake of leaving the bottle at work.  It still turned out perfectly.

Ginger Cashew Chicken Curry

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I turned down an invitation to get a manicure with my sister for this chicken curry.  And it was so luxurious, decadent and flavorful that I almost cried upon first tasting it.  You know when you eat something and with every bite, you feel like yelling “HOW’S THIS SO GOOD??” This is that meal but with the added bonus of having MADE IT YOURSELF.

Kale Salad Bowl with Tahini

Alright, I’m not sure a kale salad fits in the winter comfort food category, but this one has lots of cheese, sauce and roasted sweet potatoes so it’s about as comforting as a salad can get.  Plus I just gave you a list of sweets, stews and meatloaf, so our palate could probably use a salad, right?  I ate this every day for lunch last week and would do a little salad happiness dance while eating it.  It’s that good.

Happy Winter Eating!