Quarantine Cookbook

After making such a fun focaccia, I was really craving something sweet. I was deciding between making cinnamon rolls and macarons. I've always wanted to take on something as difficult as macarons, but everyone I asked told me I just had to make cinnamon rolls ...and it turned out to be the best decision yet. I started out with some of the wet ingredients: 1 cup warm milk 2 tbsp sugar 1 packet yeast The recipe called for whole milk, but I didn't have any so I made a buttermilk by mixing 1 cup soy milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice. The recipe also calls for warming up the milk and sugar in a saucepan, but I'm lazy so I just microwaved the milk until it was warm to the touch (about 45 seconds) and mixed in the rest of the ingredients.  While I was letting that mixture sit so the yeast could bloom, I started on the dry ingredients: 4 cups flour 2 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/4 tsp salt After quickly mixing these together, I added the milk m

After making so many different types of bread in quarantine, I've come to realize that focaccia is probably the easiest bread I've made. It comes together with only a few simple ingredients, requires only one real rise, and can be made and eaten in the span of about two hours. And, it's delicious. I hadn't started this blog yet when I made focaccia for the first time, so it seemed like a good idea to make it again. I also had a lot of people asking me to make artsy, decorated focaccia, which is a trend that is going around social media right now. So, of course, I had to do it. Per the recipe , I began by making an herbed olive oil: 1 tbsp rosemary 3 cloves garlic 1/4 tsp black pepper 1/2 cup olive oil I cut a bunch of sprigs of rosemary from my garden, and de-stemmed and chopped the rosemary. I used a lot of rosemary, in place of using both rosemary and thyme, like it suggests in the recipe. I also added an addition clove of garlic, and chopped up 3 ins

When I was in preschool, my favorite snack was hamantaschen. Those little cookies, filled with jam or sweet seeds always made my day. I've found hamantaschen at a few bakeries here and there, and it's always a fun surprise. Today, I decided to make these cookies that bring me so much joy. Ideally, I would've made a strawberry jam or apricot filling, because those were always my favorite flavors, but I didn't have the right ingredients for that. I did, however, have poppy seeds, which are another popular hamantaschen flavor, so I decided on a poppy seed filling . I got out the ingredients that I needed for the filling: 8 oz poppy seeds 1/4 cup butter 1 cup milk 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup honey 1/4 tsp salt 2 eggs I started out by grinding the poppy seeds in a coffee grinder so they were fine and powdery. Then, I melted the butter in a saucepan, and added in the milk, sugar, honey, and salt. I waited until the sugar and honey were dissolved before moving

First, I started off with what I know and like. Avocado toast with a fried egg.    I lightly toasted a thick piece of homemade challah, and prepped my avocado: 1/2 avocado 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp olive oil 1/2 tsp oregano 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp garlic powder The rest of the ingredients I needed: 4 cherry tomatoes 1 egg hot sauce, to taste I spread this on top of the challah and topped it with the few halved cherry tomatoes. On top, I added my fried egg (sprinkled with salt and pepper) and drizzled some hot sauce over it all. This combination is frankly unbeatable. But, I wanted to have fun with trying out new ideas and combinations, so I moved on to my next creation.  Sweet avocado crostinis.   For this one, I sliced up a homemade baguette and toasted three slices. On top, I slathered the avocado spread, which was a little simpler this time: 1/2 avocado 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp olive oil 1/2 tsp salt + pe

Today, the temperature is in the high 50's, and it's raining outside. This is completely unprecedented weather for May in the south. In fact, our spring and early summer have been much milder than usual, in general. The weather is so out of place that it reminds me of fall. When I think of fall, I think of cozy tea, autumn leaves, and apple cider doughnuts. The thought of those doughnuts started a strong craving for them, and I knew that my craving wouldn't subside until I'd had one. And thus, today I made apple cider doughnuts . I started out by mixing together the dry ingredients: 1 3/4 cup flour 1 1/4 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg Then, in a separate bowl, I mixed together the wet ingredients: 10 tbsp butter 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup cane sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract I added the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, beating the batter until smooth. The batter was super lightly and fluffy.