Back to Basics: Croissants

Making croissants has always seemed like a daunting task to me. Pounding butter into a square, freezing, folding, turning, head-spinning confusion, not to mention the seemingly endless waiting periods in between turning. But, I decided to finally just go for it. Go hard or go home, right? I figured if they failed, they'd still be nice....dinner rolls? In the end they came out beautifully! Buttery and flaky and all things croissants should taste like. I'll be honest....all I wanted was to snuggle and eat some warm croissants and jam and watch tv. 

Blackberry and Mango Cream Puffs (Pâte Choux)

Well...my personal summer resolution of posting at least once a week clearly went down the drain. Whooooops. I was able to bake quite a few times this summer, trying new things that I'd never tried before. But as a result, they all either failed entirely or came out looking butt u-g-l-y so I didn't even bother taking pictures (although I regret it now, they probably would have made for some funny posts!). 

Anywayssss, I did make cream puffs inspired by the plethora of fruit always waiting for me at home. I made these around early July but never got around to loading them onto my laptop and editing them. In any case, better late than never, right? Click in to see more pictures!

Apple Pie Pops

Celebrate summer with these cute bite-sized pie pops, a new twist on an old American classic! These pops are easy to customize to individual tastes and are just the perfect size for summer snacking.  Although I've never really made fruit pies before (I usually go for pumpkin), I just couldn't pass up this cute idea. Desserts are infinitely more fun to eat when they're on a stick. Keep reading after the jump for how to make these awesome and easy pie pops! 

Almond Walnut Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I'd been meaning to make biscotti for awhile now but was always either too lazy or lacking ingredients. Ironically, spur of the moment decision to bake them + lazyness to buy ingredients EQUALS scrounging up some leftover chocolate chips (from this endeavor) and a 1/4 of a can of shelled walnuts I found in the pantry. They were delicious and the perfect pairing to a cup o' joe courtesy of Blue Bottle Coffee. Enjoy! 

Banana Zucchini Loaf

A month ago (yes, this post was a little long overdue) our bananas started aging much faster than we expected and morphed into leopard-skinned fruits. Such calls for a baking adventures involving over-ripened bananas. Yeeeee.

1. Decided to rebel and not listen to the recipe when it called for me to 'dehydrate' the zucchini by using whatever means I can find. Did not do that. The loaf was a little too moist.

2. Also decided to rebel and pretend that my bananas weren't "large bananas" and used 3 instead of 2 simply because I wanted to get rid of all these leopard wannabes. The loaf was a little too moist.

3. Essentially, the loaf was a little too moist.

But take that sad bit out and it was pretty delishhhh.

Back to Basics: Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tate's Bake Shop is a bakery located in Southampton, NY on the east end of Long Island. Although I've never been to the bakery itself, Tate's packages and sells its cookies, among other products, in various Whole Foods and other gourmet food stores. Surprisingly, I just found out that the deli I go to almost every morning on the way to work sells Tate's cookies (score!).

The thing about Tate's chocolate chip cookies is that they're crunchy. I love crunchy chocolate chip cookies and people think I'm crazy.

What.

Ever.

But I don't always have a chance to buy their cookies so I thought I'd try making them myself using the recipe from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook. More pictures after the jump!

Raspberry Berry Pie Bars

Summer is here! Berries and fruits galore. Mohohoho~ raspberries and blueberries were on sale today which meant..... I got to try out Bakers Royale's raspberry berry pie bars!