espresso chocolate shortbread

I couldn't help myself. With the scrumptious results of the shortbread earlier this week, I had to try another of Dorie's shortbread recipes. And what better one than a recipe with two daily necessities?

Coffee and chocolate.

The very minor addition was a pinch of salt. After mixing up the batter, I tasted it and thought, "Oooh, flat." I don't know if that was an intentional omission, but a little salt is always needed in shortbread.

shortbread cookies {bwd}

We are huge shortbread fans here. Huge, as in Costco-sized Walkers 5-pound Tins Huge. I assume they are meant for holiday entertaining, but we, The Family, manage to entertain just ourselves and plow through them all. Walkers bakes them in differing shapes— finger, petticoat triangles, rounds —and I am partial to the finger. They present the oh-so-perfect bite, with no mess around the edges.

citrus-almond pound cake

Do you cut out recipes from magazines and newspapers? Or are you fully paperless now- downloading recipes as needed?

I am firmly in the paper camp and cannot imagine life without my scraps and slips- torn, yellowed, stained and dog-eared. One such piece — actually, newspaper section— was tucked into my junk basket, and stumbling on it was like finding a precious treasure.

fluted honey ricotta cake {bwd}

For this week's Baking With Dorie assignment, we were transported to Tuscany with a recipe using ricotta, figs, honey, lemon zest, cornmeal. Can you imagine eating this under a grape arbor, sipping some prosecco? Mmm.

cherry clafoutis tart {sms}

Oh my, it's been a very long time since I've participated with my Sweet Melissa Baking Group. I've been MIA since Thanksgiving! I have not forgotten about you guys, I've just been disorganized with all my baking projects and worse, facing some health issues. (Read: less baking/blogging, supposedly more exercising. Believe me, I'd rather be doing the former.) All overwhelming, but this past week, I had some clarity and actually looked ahead to the baking assignments.  I could not pass it up— a buttery tart crust with a creamy custard filling with sweet cherries.

A traditional clafoutis (pronounced klah-foo-tee, and try saying that five times fast!) would involve a little flour combined with the milk/cream/eggs mixture. The cherries would be enrobed in a pudding/flan like pancake batter. Melissa Murphy puts her spin on it by putting the fruit and flan into a tart shell. I'm curious how this will turn out.

alligator cupcakes

The Dear Son requested a special birthday treat- cupcakes in the form of an alligator. Hello, Cupcake! is a veritable treasure trove of AMAZING creations, and it had Old Swampy in its lineup. After hunting down all the decorative candies and treats, we were set.

heartland turtle bars

Butter, caramel, pecans and chocolate. Four loves of my life. All in one cookie. Swoon.