Jessica Merchant's Blog, page 415

Mini Brunchshop! Our First Ever Creative Workshop.

HI!

I’m super excited to tell you that in a few short weeks, I’ll be hosting our first mini brunchshop with DeLallo Foods! Brunch + creative workshop = brunchshop. We’re talking food, styling, photography, entrepreneurship, passionate creativity and L.O.V.I.N.G. your work. It’s a thing!

For years (seriously… years), I’ve wanted to bring together small groups of like-minded, creative people who are in love with what they do and can’t stop talking about and sharing what they do, in the best way ever. For our first brunchshop, we’re focusing on food styling (and will be in a beautiful open space to do so!), some naturally-lit food photography tips, iPhone photography(!), breaking out creative ruts and working towards finding success as a blogger and entrepreneur.

I am SO excited I can hardly stand it. And I would love for you to come! Registration starts NOW and we’re keeping it small: 12 people only.

THE RUNDOWN

what we’re focusing on: food styling, photo props, food photography tips, iPhone photography, successful authentic blogging, sparking creativity and cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit.

where it’s at: our first brunchshop will be hosted by DeLallo Foods, at a location near their retail store, about 30 minutes east of Pittsburgh. Exact location details will be sent once you’ve registered. Anyone is welcome to attend; travel accommodations are your own responsibility.

time: 9 AM to 1 PM.

cost: $150

Register HERE. Only 12 spots are available! Registration is not refundable.

Confetti Coconut Classic Bunny Cake with M&M’s.

[this post is brought to you by M&M’S®! i’ve partnered with them to create a few recipes for their pinterest page, which i’ll share with you over the next few months! thank you so much for supporting the site.]

I know guys. I know.

Is the whole bunny cake thing terrifying? Or adorable? The question will always be out there, but since mine has sparkle sprinkle eyelashes? I’m going with adorable. (p.s. where can I get myself sparkle sprinkle eyelashes… ?)

There have been some terrifying ones in my day, I’ll tell you that.

This is one old school cake! Please tell me you’ve seen, tried, eaten or have at least walked by the bunny cake at one of your Easter brunches, lunches or dinners over the years. It’s a classic staple around here and almost embarrassingly easy. And fun!

Since Max was born, I feel like I’ve talked tirelessly about wanting to create traditions for him and for us as a little family. It’s no secret that I am ridiculously nostalgic and my family had so many traditions, some purposeful and others accidental, that they truly shaped my (wonderful) childhood. Those traditions ranged from big things, like being lucky enough to go on vacation every summer to more minor things, like eating the same dinner on Thursday nights.

For Easter, we always spent a large chunk of time dyeing eggs and on Easter morning before church, would find the eggs and our baskets that the Easter Bunny hid. My mom will still hide the eggs (okay, actually I think last year one of my brothers hid the eggs… ) and we still spend a few hours dyeing them, it’s just more of a grown up party now. See also: wine.

So this is one new tradition I want to make each year: decorating a bunny cake! Kind of like a gingerbread house for… Easter. You know.

Obviously Max is just a bit too young to really get the whole decorating thing. Later this week, I plan on making another cake here for our brunch and might let him have at it. He LOVED playing with the M&M’S and a part of me wants to serve a cake that he “decorates” himself – a “Max masterpiece” as we call his art here.

I’ve partnered with M&M’S to decorate my bunny cake today because we just love the little pastel morsels so much. Seasonal M&M’s were always a tradition in our house too – my mom always had little bowls filled with them that only lasted a day or two, and never lasted until the actual holiday. Oops. I’ve carried on that tradition with the same bowl-emptying results.

Let’s talk cake!

The base of the cake is a coconut confetti cake – coming from the recipe out of my cookbook, seriously delish. I used the confetti cake and mixed in some good old angelflake coconut, my grandma’s favorite. The frosting is a coconut cream cheese frosting and the entire thing is downright DELICIOUS.

It’s also super easy. All you need to do is bake two round cakes, and I’m not going to tell you that you can’t use boxed mix. If it’s easiest, do it. Mix it up, bake and let cool. The trickiest part comes next.

Once you bake the rounds and they are cool, you’ll slice one of them to create the ears and bowtie. This is the hardest part so if you think it’s simple, you’re on your way. And don’t worry about it being even – mine’s a little uneven and let’s just say that it gives the bunny… character.

I was on the fence about the bowtie, honestly. This is a super old-school cake, I don’t even know WHEN it originated. The 70s? The 80s? Tell me! It originated with the bowtie though.

Anyhoo, I wanted to make the bunny without the bowtie but if I did that, hello – what would I do with the extra cake?

Besides devour it, of course.

Myself.

WAH.

Maybe make cake balls? I couldn’t be bothered.

After baking, cover it in your frosting. Then cover it in coconut, at least the face and ears, because bunnies have fur. The coconut tastes better, I swear. After that, get to decorating! The only décor I used was a bag of M&M’S and some sprinkles. I’ve made many a bunny cake where you need specific candy to make the face. And while it’s super cute, you can still make a face with just one type of candy! Easy peasy.

And of course, the next part is the easiest. EAT up.

(Or the hardest, depending on how you feel about cutting bunny cake slices. Whomp whomp.)

Confetti Coconut Classic Bunny Cake

Yield: serves at least 8

Total Time: 3 hours (includes cooling time)

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg + 2 egg whites
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 bag Easter pastel M&M’S
½ cup assorted brightly colored sprinkles, plus some extra for decorating

coconut cream cheese frosting

2 (8-ounce) blocks of cold cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
sweetened shredded coconut



Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set it aside.

Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat it until creamy. Add the sugar and beat with the butter on high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the egg and egg white, mixing well on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Add in the oil and vanilla extract, beating on medium speed for another minute. With the mixer on low speed, add in half of the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk. Add in the other half of the dry ingredients and mix them on medium speed until the batter is combined. Stir in 1 cup of coconut. Use a large spatula to gently stir in the sprinkles.

Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Bake until the tops are set, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely, then gently turn the cakes out on a piece of parchment paper, using a knife to release the edges if needed. Let cool completely before frosting.

To decorate, frost the cake and then immedaitely cover the face and eats with the remaining coconut. Use the M&M'S to decorate the bow tie, make eyes, a mouth, a nose - whatever! I liked to add in little sprinkles for "eyelashes" and pink cheeks.

coconut cream cheese frosting

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add in powdered sugar with the mixer on low speed, increasing the speed once all of the sugar is added. Add in vanilla and coconut extracts, then beat on medium to

medium-high speed for a good 2-3 minutes until creamy, scraping down the sides if needed. If you find the frosting it a bit too thick, add in some milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. If it is too thin, add additional powdered sugar gradually.

[cake from my cupcake recipe in seriously delish]

The best part is how this cake makes you feel like a KID. Super happy.

Currently Crushing On.

What a week! It was filled with both pi day AND Saint Patrick’s Day – which meant that come Monday night I was craving pie (made a lemon meringue one, it was a dream) and come Thursday night I was craving Bailey’s. I did make homemade shamrock shakes for the pioneer woman’s blog, so if you’re feeling green a few days late, doooo it.

That being said, it was a WEEK. It’s no secret that I can manage for a while on little sleep, but when it hits me, it hits me. It slams me in the face. I wish I could take a three day nap! I’m going to aim for three hours to start.

This weekend is birthday parties, easter egg dyeing and brunch! I’ll show you all about it on instagram. What are you up to?

And hi, can you please like my facebook page? thank you i love you bye.

favorites of the week:

when talking about what makes my heart go pitter patter, the best writing pens is/are one them. it’s true.

100% flipping out over these UNICORN CUPCAKES! I mean.

something that makes the weekend go ’round: bourbon and peanut butter chocolate cake!

DIY rainbow edge stationary may very well turn me into a craft person.

planning on creamy stovetop mac and cheese.

how on earth could anything be better than hot corn and bacon beer cheese dip? it’s can’t.

loving on this blueberry baked oatmeal. maybe make a batch for next week?

this trio of smoothie bowls is a dream.

3 ingredient fettuccine alfredo – say what?!

stunningly gorgeous banana dark chocolate rye muffins.

the most delicious dinner idea: sticky seared salmon with asian crunch salad.

irish carbomb chocolate cheesecake for any time of year.

roasted asparagus wheat berry salad! let’s have some health.

Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls with Mascarpone Icing.

Look! It’s breakfast dessert.

We all need breakfast dessert to be a thing.

There is breakfast. And then there is breakfast dessert.

You already know that if you just eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast, you will feel like garbage for the rest of the day. You’ll eat too many because you’re hungry. You’ll be sugar loaded and then crash hard and want to take a nice long carb nap. And wake up craving another cinnamon roll.

BUT. If you eat some avocado toast with eggs first, you can totally have breakfast dessert. Carrot cake cinnamon rolls to the rescue. See? This always works out.

Believe it or not, my distaste for veggies didn’t really begin with green things. It actually began with something as simple as carrots. I just couldn’t do the crunch or something – the texture was a huge no no for me. It might have been worse to serve me carrots with hummus instead of roasted broccoli, to be honest.

And that’s totally weird, since carrots are SWEET! I mean, I didn’t even want roasted carrots. Not with cinnamon, not with butter, not with anything.

I just wanted potatoes. Bah!

But carrot cake.

I wasn’t very exposed to it as a child, and if I was, I probably immediately heard “carrot” and ran in the opposite direction. So I didn’t truly enjoy a piece until my early twenties, and even then I bet you can guess what I wasn’t in to.

The nuts!

And the raisins. Those darn raisins. Is there a theme this week?

Thankfully, most carrot cake I come across is raisinless. The world has listened! And the nuts are usually finely chopped, which thrills me as well. You can absolutely add those ingredients to the filling of these rolls and if you’re a fan, I’m sure it will heighten the flavor and texture even more. They will be a huge hit!

Other things you can add, if you’re looking to trash up your carrot cake (rolls): some pineapple chunks and sweetened flaked coconut. I found the pineapple to be a little too wet for my dough, but if you dice up some fresh chunks it will work. And I have a few coconut-heavy recipes coming up here on the site, and with such a polarizing ingredient, I didn’t want to overdo it. But you can certainly overdo it and then it would almost be like a hummingbird cake!

Whoa. Like a Joey Lawrence WHOA. I’m so hungry right now.

Always being super crazy over cinnamon roll icing is ironic for me because when it comes to cake, frosting is my least favorite part. However, if I start frosting every single thing I own with mascarpone icing, I might eat myself out of house and home.

This stuff is GOLD.

It’s like a slightly lighter cream cheese frosting. Not as tangy. A bit sweeter. And it’s more of an icing than a glaze – it isn’t quite as runny so it doesn’t drip into all the cinnamon crevices. Which could be a sad thing, but it also means a thick lovely frosting hat on top of the cinnamon roll.

Not complaining. At all.

You know me well enough by to now to know one thing:

There are carrots in this dough. There are carrots in the filling!

This is officially a vegetable. So eat your vitamins and minerals.

Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls with Mascarpone Icing

Yield: serves 6 to 8

Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for your workspace
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrot

filling

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
extra melted butter for brushing

mascarpone icing

8 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 to 5 tablespoons milk



Directions:

Heat the milk and water in a small saucepan until just warm. Place it in the bowl of your electric mixer and add the melted butter, the yeast and honey, stirring to combine. Let sit for 15 minutes until the yeast is foamy. Add in 2 1/2 cups of the flour, the egg, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and allspice, then turn your mixer onto low speed with paddle attachment. Stir in about 1/2 cup of the grated carrot. Once everything is combined, add in another 1/2 cup of flour and mix. Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes, gradually adding in the remaining half cup of flour.

Add the dough to a well oiled bowl (you can totally use bacon grease!!) and cover. Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Punch down the down and place it on a floured surface. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, at least 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. Brush the dough with the melted butter. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, sugar,  cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and salt, then sprinkle it all over top of the dough. Add the finely grated carrot evenly over top. Starting at the bottom, tightly roll the dough up into one long roll. Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 1-inch pieces. Place the rolls in a baking dish or pan and cover, allowing them to rise for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, brush the rolls with melted butter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and set on top. Immediately remove from the oven and pour the icing over top. Serve!

mascarpone icing

Add the mascarpone to a large bowl and whisk until creamy. Whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract, then stream in the milk and stir until a glaze forms. You will have to stir for a minute or two to remove any lumps and bring the glaze together. If the mixture still seems too thick, add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking well until smooth. Pour over hot cinnamon rolls.

[adapted from my bacon cinnamon rolls]

Save some for the bunny! (ew don’t hate me.)

Avocado Vanilla Smoothies.

Don’t leave me!

This is super delicious, I promise. Kind of like avocado chocolate pudding! But without the chocolate. Which sounds depressing, but let’s change our tune and say that it’s REFRESHING. It is!

Plus, I figured we needed something green for St. Patrick’s Day, something other than salad and something that didn’t include whiskey, potatoes or lucky charms. We can have all that for dinner. After we have this for breakfast.

The first time I put avocados in smoothies was waaay back when Trader Joes carried the frozen ones years ago. Remember that? Thinking about that now, it was probably the biggest waste of money ever – because I think that there were only two full avocados in the package? And they were so tiny. I don’t think they sell them anymore, but back then (indulge me while I sound like I’m 75 years old) I had a super difficult time finding avocados off-season in my area.

And! I can usually FIND them easily now but they still cost approximately $156 an avocado. Or $2.99. Same thing.

So will you please put your avocados in the blender with me?

This is why: it’s almost like ice cream. I know, I know. That’s a very bold, kind of flakey statement. It’s like saying that kale chips taste “just like potato chips!” Spoiler alert: they do not.

But it’s *like* ice cream. It’s not actually ice cream. It happens to take on this wonderful smooth and creamy texture. If you’ve ever had the old-school banana soft serve (which still frequents my food processor often) which is just, well… bananas – it is similar to that. So creamy and refreshing and delicious.

Also, super satisfying. Seriously.

I threw mine in the blender with my favorite go-to ingredients to make a milk-shake like smoothie:

frozen bananas!

hemp seeds…

and coconut milk. The light kind! I know I always ramble about how full-fat is so much more delicious, but I find that you need more liquid to blend this shake since the ingredients are rich. Light works better, and I definitely recommend the REAL stuff from the can. It’s not necessary to blend a smoothie, but it’s so good.

And for a grand finale, I like to add a drop of vanilla bean paste. I basically add vanilla to everything in my life, so it’s like that.

Shockingly, I don’t need any extra sweetener in this smoothie since I love the frozen bananas. If you want a little more sugar while still keeping it healthy, you can throw in a date or a fig or even just some honey. Yes yes.

Grab a straw and maybe a spoon and maaaaaybe some chocolate chips. ??? Can’t help it.

Avocado Vanilla Bean Smoothie

Yield: serves 2

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 avocados
1 large frozen banana
1 handful of ice
1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk, preferably cold if you like cold smoothies
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
pinch of sea salt



Directions:

Add all ingredients to the blender and... blend!

My pot of gold at the end of the smoothie would be a Lisa Frank notebook.

Lemon Chicken Risotto.

I bring you… spring in a dish.

Sunshine in a dish, with chicken. Uh, yes, OF COURSE I’d like to eat a bowl of sunshine. Let’s do it!

My all-time favorite risotto (at least at this very moment, at 11:16 PM on a Tuesday night in March) is this red wine goat cheese risotto. I remember the exact day I shot the photos, nearly every time I’ve made the recipe, how it tasted the first time I tried it. It’s one of those recipes that really solidified risotto as a simple one-pot, weeknight friendly meal in my kitchen, regardless of the arm workout or how long someone says I need to stand over the stove. Hush hush.

It’s easy! AND. I can add lots of cheese and hide it under all the rice. No one knows about all of that secret cheese.

Almost every single time I make risotto, it acts as a side dish. It’s often vegetarian for me except for the occasional time when I trip and drop a handful of super crunchy bacon into the pot.

Not often though. Nooooo.

So, tell me about Easter brunch! Do you do Easter brunch? Do you serve one? Host one? Attend one? I’m fairly late to the game, but to be real that honestly translates to the fact that I can never make up my mind and don’t like to plan too far in advance. Because what if I want something else?

What if I feel like chocolate croissants instead of cinnamon rolls? It’s that type of thing. Hence why I’m still working on my Easter brunch menu.

This is a contender though! For so many reasons: tastes like spring, can be made in one pot, acts as a full meal, thus leaving me room to serve lots of empty extras like sticky buns and bacon wrapped figs and chocolate peanut butter filled eggs.

I didn’t solely make it for that purpose, since it also makes a fantastic mid-week meal. It sort of feels fancy, but it’s not. It’s not unhealthy, which works for Monday through Thursday (I know you feel me). It’s comfort food, but not super heavy comfort food. It’s the kind that helps carry you into warmer weather, when the mornings are 33 degrees and then you’re sweating in the sun come two o-clock.

And also! Here’s a secret. It even tastes good COLD. Oooh. Write that down.

Lemon Chicken Risotto

Yield: serves 4

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
4 to 5 cups low-sodium chicken stock, warmed
4 scallions, sliced into 1-inch long pieces
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil, plus extra for topping
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, plus extra for topping
salt and pepper for seasoning
lemon wedges for serving



Directions:

Pat the chicken completely dry with paper towels. Season with the salt, garlic powder and lemon pepper. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, add the chicken and cook on both sides until golden brown and cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Remove the chicken and plate it on a cutting board. Once cool, slice into pieces.

With the saucepan still hot, add the butter. Add the rice and stirring often, toast the rice until it's somewhat translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the white wine, constantly stirring or at least stirring every minute or do, until the rice absorbs the wine. Once the wine is absorbed, add in 1 1/2 cups of the stock, stirring until the rice absorbs the liquid like it did with the wine. Repeat this 2 to 3 more times, until all stock has been added and the rice is al dente. You want it to appear "hydrated" - and want there to be some liquid left when serving. This process should take about 15 to 20 minutes.

Stir in the scallions, lemon zest, parmesan, basil and parsley. Taste and season the rice additionally, more salt or pepper if needed. This will differ on the salt level in your stock, so don't be afraid to add more. Stir in the sliced chicken. Serve immedaitely with extra chopped herbs on top and lemon wedges on the side.

Take the biggest bite!

Tuesday Things.

1. Majorly elevated avocado toast with chimichurri and a poached egg. This is me begging for that.

2. Setting my bi yearly bad example: it’s ulta’s 21 days of beauty! Wanting all the things.

3. I love the extra hour(s) of sunlight we are getting this week thanks to DST – but… I never remember my parents or anyone freaking out about it when I was a kid. Or a tween. Or a teen! Is it just all over the place since social media ruins everything? I think it’s the best week of the year. Says she who lives in a very darkly lit home. Darkly lit? Pretty sure that is not the correct wording.

4. Can we talk about dying Easter Eggs? Tell me some kid friendly ways! Or some fun kid ways! Should I just sit him outside on a ton of newspaper? Just joking. Kind of.

5. Holy cow Walking Dead. Seriously my emotions are SPENT by the end of these episodes. I get so scared that I’ve taken to watching the Talking Dead first to prepare myself. Also, Billions?! The ending? So tricky. What are your thoughts on GIRLS? I’m just over Hannah. Over her. And Nashville comes back this week. Eeeeeep!

6. Um, kind of like TV – I’m a bit unreasonably excited to see my big fat greek wedding 2. Normally, second movies ending up being the worst, but I think the fact that they waited so long? It might be funny. Unless they are just putting all of the funny bits in the previews.

7. How to just START. Loving this.

8. Big question – what is ONE thing that your dream kitchen would include?

Soda Bread with Milk Chocolate and Salted Honey Butter.

Bread is never my choice of snack… until now.

There have been countless other posts over the years where I’ve flakily declared “I’m a bread person!” and this one may not be any different.

But there is a sliiiiight difference. This bread makes me want to SNACK.

And I’m not talking about a snack of delicious things piled on toast. We all know that’s something I’m embarrassingly basic about. Give me all sorts of things piled on top of toast and we’re good to go. But just plain bread or toast? Rarely.

I’ve made soda bread before – brown butter whole wheat! soda bread to be exact. It’s gooood. I shared it along with a full conversation of our fun Saturday nights of the past, which involved watching Suze Orman and eating froyo.

Things aren’t much different and oh wow are we boring.

Eddie is a huge snacker of bread. Not in the way that he eats an entire loaf of bread and can’t control himself, but more in the way that he loves a piece of toast or three with butter or sometimes jam before bed.

Oh but. He does this terrible thing.

This terrible horrible no good very bad thing.

Wait for it.

Even if we eat dinner late, a lot of nights he will make some toast around 9 or so. No matter what though? He ALWAYS leaves the jar of jam out on the counter.

Like always. It is maddening. Sometimes he leaves the jar out, OPEN, with a knife inside. ON THE COUNTER. All night long.

It’s become such a huge joke and so standard and funny in our house that I’ve stopped putting the jam back in the fridge to make my point. Which meant I had to buy separate jars of jam for Max and I so we wouldn’t get all that sat-out-overnight bacteria spread on our toast. #health

It doesn’t phase him.

That last part isn’t necessarily an issue since every summer we end up buying twelve or thirteen jars of preserves from American spoon. But still. I make sure we have separate jars.

It is kinda funny now, Eddie and his jam jar scandals. Or maybe I’m choosing to look at it as a funny thing, as opposed to an enraging thing. It’s a highly discussed topic of conversation or something that I’m just generally obnoxious about when I feel like throwing him under the bus. You know? #marriage

But this bread!

This bread is doing that. Makin’ me snack. It’s bad. But good. But bad. But good.

It even has been doing that for my mom, who also doesn’t really care about snacking on bread or toast. She had two pieces of this the afternoon that I made the bread and took them down quicker than anything I’ve ever seen her eat. She is notoriously the slowest eater in our family, and I really wish that I inherited that trait.

Sooooo…. I KNOW.

I know that since I added chocolate, this isn’t technically soda bread. Right? It’s… *technically*… tea cake?

But guys. I mean… raisins. Really? RAISINS?

No thanks. Not ever. In life. Never ever ever.

It’s just one ingredient. Puhhhlease let me have it.

Oh and the butter! Salted. Honey. Butter.

Use unsalted butter – that way you can control the salt. Add a bunch of honey to sweeten it up. Then add the salt. As much or as little as you’d like.

I practically wanted to eat this butter with a spoon, much like how I watched my brother eat an entire STICK of butter when I was five years old. Back then I was quite judgmental, but now I’m thinking that maybe he had the right idea…

Soda Bread with Milk Chocolate and Salted Honey Butter

Yield: makes 1 loaf, serves at least 4

Total Time: 1 1/2 hours

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3 cups milk chocolate chunks/chips

salted honey butter

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 to 3 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more, or less!)



Directions:

Preheat the oven the 375 degrees F.

In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in the milk mixture. Mix on medium  speed until the dough comes together. Toss the chocolate chunks with a bit of extra flour and add them to dough. Stir to mix.

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead it a few times, using some extra flour if it's super sticky. Form it into a round and slice an X on the top - I place mine in a dutch oven, so made it about 8 inches wide. You can also place it on a parchment-covered baking sheet.

Bake the dough for about 45 to 55 minutes, until golden on top and set. I cooled mine in the dutch oven it was baked in. You can serve it warm or let it cool completely!

salted honey butter

Stir together ingredients until combined. Sprinkle extra salt on top if desired!

if you make this recipe, be sure to post a photo on instagram and tag it with #howsweeteats to share! and share a photo to the how sweet facebook wall. 

[adapted from ina]

That seems like an appropriate bread-to-butter ratio.

Currently Crushing On.

{via}

What’s up what’s up!

This weekend is the best time in a food photographer’s life: daylight savings time! More light FINALLY. Woohoo! I’m sure it will make Max’s sleep all wacky but as long as we have more sunshine, I don’t mind. Since it’s going to be in the 60s, I’m hoping we can stay outside alllllll weekend long. Also, big St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown but noooo green beer for me. Would rather have green ice cream.

Most importantly, what are your plans?!

lovely internet things this week:

absolutely stunning: this lavender earl grey cake.

so super intrigued by this turmeric latte. want to try.

is this real life?! gigantic cinnamon toast crunch.

treats for breakfast! carrot quinoa oatmeal breakfast cookies.

really craving these hot pastrami sliders today.

DIY sugar flower cake! oh my gosh, yes. p.s. alllll about the cakes today.

oooooh red wine marshmallows with dark chocolate! holy cow.

these DIY circus animal cookie pillows are too adorable.

some thai peanut hummus makes every tastebud happy.

best weeknight meal – baked rigatoni with sausage and spinach.

cute little irish soda bread scones.

this superfood salad with poppyseed dressing? lovely.

since it’s the weekend, one big maple belgian waffle cake is in order.

kimchi fried rice is definitely on my list.

please give me patience to make a sunny grapefruit layer cake! so pretty.

can i have a ? i think i might.

Pistachio Ice Cream with Nutella Fudge Swirls.

See also: how I know that I’m old.

I’m voluntarily making and eating ice cream with NUTS in it! I don’t know if I love or hate myself. Is this adulthood?

Perhaps you have been following along with my pistachio saga here on the blog over the last few years? From the time when I went from thinking that all things pistachio are gross and only for the elderly and ANY dessert made with nuts is an abomination, to being absolutely obsessed with all the pistachio things – sweet and savory alike.

That’s how it goes for me: loathe an ingredient to the point of offending others and then losing my mind because I love it so much. SORRY.

This ice cream!

My favorite pistachio flavor is probably by Talenti (ugh, so good) – but I have yet to have a pistachio ice cream filled with things other than, well… pistachio.

Changing that right now.

This one is laced with nutella fudge chunks. It’s dreamy. It also has a little bit of almond extract (p.s. I won’t hate you if you use amaretto?) which I’m finding mught just be the secret to pistachio desserts. You know how many store-bought pistachio things can taste absolutely delicious but then you find out that they are made with pistachio pudding mixture while also being a lovely shade of bright green?

Why does the fake stuff have to taste so good… WAH.

But anyway – adding a bit of almond extract made this ice cream taste like delicious pistachio boxed cake (don’t lie, it’s tasty) in a good way. Not a gross way. Does that make sense?!

We are so so sooooo close to ice cream season that I can (almost literally) taste it. Not that it really NEEDS to be warm for me to eat ice cream – I’ll eat it when it’s freezing out too. Why discriminate?!

But eating ice cream outside, the time is coming. I’m a soft serve girl all the way when it comes to ordering out and I’ve been craving a chocolate vanilla swirl like whoa. But for a harder ice cream, give me pistachio or give me none.

This is also huge because I refused to eat nutella for basically my entire life until last year. And now I can’t get enough. Now it’s kind of ruining my entire life. Swimsuit or spoon in the nutella jar? DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE.

AH. I love you.

Pistachio Ice Cream with Nutella Fudge

Yield: makes about 1 quart

Total Time: 6 hours

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted, salted shelled pistachios
1 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup roasted, salted pistachios, chopped

nutella fudge

1/2 cup nutella
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
drop of vanilla extract



Directions:

Place the pistachios and 1/2 cup sugar in a food processor. Blend until the pistachios are in finely ground, but not turning into pistachio butter. You want pistachio powder!

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk, 1/2 cup cream and the ground pistachios. Bring the mixture to a bowl while stirring constantly. Remove it from the heat once boiling.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Slowly whisk in half of the hot pistachio milk mixture until combined, then pour everything back into the saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Don't let it boil! Remove it from the heat and strain into a large bowl. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 2 hours.

After 2 hours, add to your ice cream maker and churn the mixture according to the directions. I use the kitchenaid attachment for my mixture and churn for 25 minutes.

Scoop the ice-cream into a freezer safe container. Swirl in the nutella fudge and stir in almost all of the chopped pistachios. Cover the top with a few drizzles of nutella and remaining chopped pistachios. Freeze for 4 to 6 hours before serving.

nutella fudge

Whisk together the nutella, cream, corn syrup and vanilla until combined.

[adapted from bon appetit]

I’m feeling lucky.