Crumbs in the Kitchen

While knitting started to be afoot on New Year's Day, obviously, I was also trying to do a little digital clean up and closing of the recipes that I've been hauling around as open tabs for months. As the Philosopher pointed out to me a few weeks back I'm a performer as opposed to an artist -- I like to make things that I find turned out well over and over again rather than always to be trying something brand new. This very clearly carries over to my knitting where I am currently working my 90th pair of socks-- at least 80 of which are 1x1 ribbing, top down, basic socks. 

There were a few highlights on the baking front and since you too may be looking for some quick and delicious baked goods in 2020: 

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

• https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/10/salted-peanut-butter-cookies/
• Not sure how I discovered these; might have been while looking for some gluten free options over the summer but they are now a staple and fast favorite.  I've gone through a surprising amount of peanut butter and coarse grained salt and they tend to disappear almost instantly. 

2 Ingredient Cream Biscuits

• https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/09/two-ingredient-never-fail-cream-biscuit-recipe.html
• Okay, so these aren't really "new"; I've been making them for a couple of years now. These meant the official advent of keeping self-rising flour and large quantities of heavy cream in our home at all time.  This year I tried a few new things: I discovered that Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 baking flour (when properly doctored with baking soda and salt) makes quite a decent biscuit as well.  Also, I started making cheddar and cheddar/bacon biscuits.  So now we also go through pounds of shredded cheddar at Chez Hedgehog.  

Snickerdoodle Bread

• http://healthyprintablerecipes.com/snickerdoodle-bread-is-pure-heaven-recipe/
• This recipe shows up on a myriad of websites if you look for the title "Snickerdoodle bread is pure heaven"  but we all got quite the laugh out of the "healthy" and "printable" being the big sellers in the URL. That said, I've made this bread three times and it's incredibly delicious!  I leave out the cinnamon chips -- they always taste funny.  And I've always done mini loaves. I think for 2020 I'm going to try (a) a version with ginger rather than cinnamon and (b ) muffins.  

The Usual Cream Scones

• http://orangette.net/2007/01/the-usual-2/
• I didn't make these as often, and you'll notice they look very similar to the Serious Eats recipe. The difference here is mostly the cream ratio and whipping it, plus sugar and dried fruit. This is an excellent way to use up dried fruit, btw.  I have some dried mango that has been sitting around that might need to be mango scones this weekend. Suddenly I'm hungry.... 

This year I did more with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 flour and everything I tried (when properly prepared-- we won't discuss the "I forgot that flour != self rising" moment) turned out really well.  

I missed cookie baking day this year and while a colleague brought me a tray, it still felt like a missing piece in my holiday season; so I will probably be looking for some additional cookies recipes in the new year.  After I finish those mango scones.