Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

Soft molasses cookies I was intrigued when I saw  this cookie recipe  on Sprinkle Bakes' blog.  I love molasses cookies and thought they would make a nice change from the traditional Christmas sugar cookies with royal icing. Especially because of the work involved in icing cookies, the price of meringue powder these days, and the fact that my family just isn't that into the taste of decorated cookies.  I also wanted a chance to use my mom's cookie cutters that I inherited. These 1970's vintage impression cutters are so cute and I haven't had much success with them before. I thought this recipe might do the trick, based on the blog photos. Since there's only the 3 of us and I wasn't gifting any cookies, I decided to make only half the recipe.  It turned out to be very difficult to use the impression cutters because the dough is pretty soft and the cutters are very detailed, making it virtually impossible to release the cookies. I had to scrap the Santa Claus ...

  Ingredients Yield: 16 to 24 servings For the cake 1 cup/240 milliliters extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan 1 ½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea (from about 6 tea bags) 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) 2 cups/480 grams sour cream or whole-milk plain Greek yogurt 3 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract  3 cups/384 grams all-purpose flour For the streusel 1 cup/128 grams all-purpose flour 1 cup packed/220 grams light or dark brown sugar 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom ½ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter, melted Add ingredients to Grocery List Shop ingredients on Instacart Your first order gets $20 off and free delivery. Instacart terms apply. Ingredient Substitution Guide Nutritional Information OUR LATEST NEWSLETTER Miso and Mushrooms and Leeks, Oh My Get the Cooking Newsletter Opt out or  contact us  anytim...

It was a Monday dinner and movie night with my friends who are fans of chocolate and pistachio.  Time to try Martha Stewart's Milk Chocolate and Pistachio Tart ! Pistachio & Chocolate Tart Here is a link to the recipe:  Milk Chocolate-Pistachio Tart Recipe First change, the recipe says to spray the tart pan with cooking spray. I've never had a problem with a tart not releasing from my Gobel tart pan with removable bottom, but just in case I did lightly cover the bottom and sides of the pan with butter.  Second change, instead of using all milk chocolate, I used half bittersweet and half milk chocolate, for a deeper flavor. The bittersweet chocolate is Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate, and the milk chocolate is Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips.  Third change, when making the crust, I processed the pistachios into a powder with small grains instead of using chopped pistachios. I felt this would make for a smoother bite and an easier-to-work-with dough. I...

  For the Lemon Curd 1 tablespoon lemon zest 1 teaspoon orange zest ¾ cup/150 grams sugar ¾ cup/170 grams unsalted butter   ¾ cup/180 milliliters lemon juice (from 5 or 6 large lemons) ¼ cup/60 milliliters orange juice (from 2 large oranges) 4 large eggs, at room temperature For the Sponge Cake Softened butter, for greasing the pan 4 large eggs, at room temperature ⅔ cup/130 grams sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup/130 grams all-purpose flour or cake flour 1 teaspoon baking powder Pinch of salt For Frosting 1 cup/240 milliliters heavy cream 2 teaspoons sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Preparation Step 1 Heat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the lemon curd: Put lemon zest, orange zest, sugar, butter, lemon juice and orange juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until mixture steams, 5 to 6 minutes. Turn heat to low. Step 2 Beat eggs in a small mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of the lemon mixture into eggs to temper them, then add everything to the saucepan...

Little bowl of Pumpkin Custard. I had a bit of leftover pumpkin pie filling sitting in the refrigerator for two days. I decided to try making it into a Pumpkin Custard , both to avoid it going to waste and to keep trying out the new oven. I put it into a small round Pyrex container and baked it at 375 for 20 minutes. It was done by then, and likely overcooked since it immediately developed a crack in the middle. Next time, bake it at 350 and see what happens.  That'll be next year. An idea for an easy Thanksgiving or Fall dessert would be a pumpkin custard baked in individual ramekins or on a large bowl for each person to scoop out their own portion, topped with whipped cream and served with cookies.  Maybe we'll try this next year!

Rustic Pumpkin Pie with  Whipped Cream and Heart Accents I was delighted to finally be hosting Thanksgiving at our house, instead of having to schlepp to Grandpa's house.  My Sis and BIL were visiting, and I heard he was hoping for a traditional Pumpkin Pie . I decided to stick to my tried and true  recipe  from Sally's Bake Blog. I made the pie dough on the Tuesday, using this recipe  from Sally's Baking for an all-butter crust. I had to make two crusts, actually, because I made a mistake while mentally halving the recipe and used 1/4 cup more flour than I needed.  I quickly saw that crust wasn't ever going to come together!  I made a second crust and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The next day, on Wednesday, the crew drove over to a nearby farm to pick up a locally raised turkey breast for our meal.  There were only 5 of us, so we didn't want to deal with a whole turkey. Meanwhile, I made the pie.  Rolling out the crust and making the ...