I feel it is my duty to introduce you to my latest pastry fav: The Kouign Amann (queen ah-MAHN “queen-yah-manh”). Imagine a croissant, but instead of thin sheets of dough layered with butter, it’s layered with butter and sugar. Together, they bake up into a delightful pastry with golden layers of caramelized goodness crisping and flaking in your mouth. MmmmmMmm!
My favorite is the chocolate kouign amann. Just imagine the one above with some chocolate in the middle. I have no good pictures because I keep polishing them off before remembering that I wanted to snap a picture for you. Oops =P.
I tried my first kouign amann two years ago after one of my BFFs (and fellow dessert-lover) emailed me: i want to take you to get a kouign amman (have you had one yet??) from a neighborhood store!
Truth be told, I wasn’t all that excited about it. I couldn’t figure out how to pronounce the words in my head or out loud, which somehow made it less exciting to me. But do you see those two question marks? That was her subtle way of saying “Have you had one yet? Because if you haven’t YOU REALLY SHOULD! YOU WOULD LOVE IT!!!” I know this because we’ve been BFF-ing it for over 15 years. Yup.
And she was totally right. She took me to get one the next day, and I LOVED IT:
yummmmmmmmmmmm the toasted chocolate kouign amman was SO yummy! we toasted it and ben devoured almost the whole thing. he loves it. you’re right, it develops such a nice crunchy crust! i told him i’d ask you to bring one down with you next weekend… and he asked me to ask for two haha :).
I love the way the whole house feels when I make this banana bread loaf cake. Every room is infused with this amazingly warm, spicy aroma that makes you feel all cozy and homey and delicious and wonderful when this is in the oven. Sometimes I make it a point to bake it before Ben gets home from work so that I can look forward to him walking into the house, inhaling deeply, and saying, “Mmmm smells gooood in here! …Banana bread?!?!”
If that’s not the very picture of domestic bliss, I don’t know what is.
I’ve been eating this for breakfast for the last couple of weeks. Getting my probiotics in… some fruit, some protein, chia seeds… good stuff! I guess “pudding” makes it sound more like a dessert, but I definitely think of it as a yogurt. It’s made with healthful ingredients: almond milk, yogurt, and chia seeds!
I like the texture of the chia seeds once they’ve absorbed some of the liquid. It reminds me of small tapioca pearls I enjoy in desserts. The hint of maple syrup is just right, and this is a nice alternative if you’re trying to avoid refined sugars. The original recipe calls for Greek yogurt, so I’m sure that works well, but I’ve been using plain whole milk yogurt. It’s a bit runny when I first stir everything up, but thickens up nicely by the morning.
I have been a sucker for scones ever since my Auntie S. made a batch of blueberry scones when I was in elementary school. I begged her to share her recipe with me, and I even invented my own little technique for stuffing blueberries in the middle of the scones. It was my solution for the messy, purple, staining mess that came with mixing blueberries into the dough. I don’t do that anymore (although my mom says she liked it that way), but I do still love to make cream scones!
I have always dreamed of opening my own bakery. It’s probably not going to happen, because in addition to loving baked goods, I also love to sleep, and I hear being a baker + sleeping in are not compatible. Still, I love the idea of making treats and seeing that people would actually be willing to pay money for my stuff. That means they’re not just eating it out of niceness, but because they really LIKE IT!
A few summers ago, I decided to open up a virtual bakery, and I called it Sweet Dreams.
Made an angel food cake, egg white omelette, or some macarons and have leftover egg yolks? Here are ideas for using ’em up! I love rich, creamy desserts, and here are some of my all-time favorites! Bookmark or pin them so they’re handy the next time you need this!
Using up egg yolks is easy for me. Ice cream, creme brulee, pastry cream… these are all some of my favorite things. I’m always left with a bowl full of egg whites, so I’ve had to find ways to finish off up to sixteen egg yolks at a time! Here are my favorite ways to not waste those whites. Bookmark or pin them so they’re handy the next time you need this!
Yeah, I totally just added “breakfast” as one of the categories for this treat… and why not? Peanut butter? Bananas?? Sounds like 2/3 of a complete breakfast to me!
This is a similar concept to the chocolate-dipped frozen bananas concept I posted yesterday, but smaller, cuter, and stuffed with peanut butter! I also made my own “magic shell” this time with chocolate chips and a little bit of coconut oil. Overall, it’s a little more work, but it makes a much prettier result, don’t you think?
Slice bananas and pipe some PB onto half of them. I find a piping bag quicker, cleaner, and easier than spreading peanut butter on with a butter knife. Of course, a butter knife totally works!
Frozen Bananas. The very thought of them makes me feel summer sunshine, vacation, and strolls near Laguna Beach. They always felt like a splurge, but never one that I regretted. They are incredibly easy to make, though, so no need to splurge! Now you can bring this carnival treat home to share with your friends!
I wonder if this is a SoCal thing, because when I made these for my NorCal friends, most of them had never heard of it before. Regardless of where you live, they’re a tasty summer treat and really easy to make. As an added bonus, kids will have a lot of fun poking, dipping, and eating these as well! Not to mention that they’re pretty healthy for you– bananas, nuts, and a leeeetle bit of chocolate. What’s not to love?
There are only three ingredients:
When I went to visit my third graders a few weeks ago, they kept asking me to sign their yearbooks. I usually try to write more personalized messages for my students, but it had been over half a year since I last taught them, so it was hard to come up with something meaningful. Which is why I fell back to good ‘ol middle school-lazy H.A.G.S: have a great summer!
One of the great things about teaching kids is that you get to be the first to introduce them to a lot of things, like the solar system and fractions and onomatopœias and… silly yearbook acronyms.
At first, they read it slowly, confused with my short message:
“…Hags…?“
“Yep! It stands for Have A Great Summer: HAGS!” I explain, pointing to each letter as I huff my H, Tony-the-Tiger my Gr-, and ssssnake my S.
“Oh… HAGS! HAHAHHAHA!! I GET IT! HAGS! Look, Diana, HAGS! Have. A. Great. Summer!” the child would cry out in delight, showing anyone in a five foot radius, “LOOK! Mark! Look! HAGS! HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!”
Again and again and again.
They crack me up. Aw I miss those little buggers!
Well, I DO hope that everyone Has A Great Summer! Summer officially began this past weekend on June 21, although in my head, summer starts at the end of May… or at least by the time school gets out.
Or maybe in my head, summer is in February, because apparently that’s when I started posting summery recipes like ice creams and berry tarts. Anyway I figure most people who come by this blog have not made it that far back in my post history, so I’m taking the liberty of re-sharing four of my favorite summertime recipes with you!
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