Fig, Almond, and Peach Breakfast Cake

  

Growing up, there was one snack food in particular that simply didn't appeal to me: Fig Newtons.  As a kid, I didn't like the texture of dried fruit and I couldn't understand how something as mildly sweet as a Fig Newton could be called a "cookie."  That just seemed like false advertising to me.  I can't have been the only one, right?  Fig Newtons just weren't as exciting as chocolate chip cookies, or graham crackers, or even 'Nilla Wafers. 

I still dislike Fig Newtons, but I've come to appreciate figs themselves in their dried form.  And just recently, I've started to enjoy fresh figs, as well.  This was the first year that I remembered fig season early enough to get my hands on some fresh figs.  I was not disappointed.  Fresh figs are both beautiful and delicious.  The exterior is a deep purple, almost black.  And when you cut into them? The fruit is the color of wine, rimmed in creamy ivory and studded with golden-hued seeds.  I really can't think of another fruit that is quite as pretty.  And if the figs are at the peak of ripeness, they will be exquisitely juicy and flavorful.   



Ultimate Ice Cream Sandwich

My husband and his younger brother are quite different from each other in many regards. They look different, have divergent interests, and have unique skill sets. As an amusing example, my husband drives a compact car, while my brother-in-law drives a pick-up truck. My husband's car could likely fit in the bed of his brother's pick up truck, with room to spare.  You get the idea.  

 

 As different as they are, they agree on one thing: these brothers love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. For years, each of them has requested that I bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on their respective birthdays.  I've been using the same recipe since eighth grade, and it's a keeper.  My brother-in-law's birthday was last week and this year, I decided to change up the routine.  What if I were to incorporate the cookies into decadent, homemade ice cream sandwiches?  Two chewy cookies would surround vanilla bean ice cream rippled with a bittersweet fudge ribbon. As Ina Garten would say, "how bad can that be?" 

Peach Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

Sometimes, I am so determined to try a new recipe that I ignore the fact that I am missing some of the ingredients or some of the recommended kitchen appliances.  There’s a little voice inside my head that chirps, “Must try this recipe. Now!  Make this now! Right NOW!  Why aren’t you walking towards your kitchen yet?”  I’m a bit stubborn in this regard.  Once I’ve decided to make a recipe, there’s little that can stop me – even if I have to substitute about half of the ingredients.  I know I should go out and buy whatever it is that I’m missing.  But more often than not, I try to make do with what I have on hand.  Sometimes the results are disastrous.  And sometimes – like with these cupcakes – the result is a pretty tasty concoction. 

Batch 6: Citrus Sugar Cookies

After making the Hawaiian shirt cookies in the last post, I had quite a bit of leftover lime green, yellow, and orange icing.  I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I couldn’t bring myself to dump that much icing down the drain, either.  The excess icing had already been poured into squeeze bottles, so I just stashed them in the fridge and decided to figure out a plan later.

The next day, I had an epiphany: I had seen a tutorial by Marian on Sweetopia for citrus-themed sugar cookies.  What better way to use up a bunch of lime green, lemon yellow, and orange icing? (I’m aware that the word “epiphany” should probably be reserved for topics more serious than sugar cookies.  But it felt like an epiphany at the time, so I’m comfortable with my word usage).   Since I had so much extra orange icing, I decided I could even add a few drops of red food coloring and create blood oranges.  Cute!   

Batch 5: Hawaiian Shirt Sugar Cookies

A few weekends ago, my husband's aunt and uncle invited us to stay with them at their vacation home.  Awesome, right?  I thought it would be nice to bring some vacation-themed munchies to thank them for their hospitality. 


I had seen a Hawaiian shirt tutorial on The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle that was a great source of inspiration.  Honestly, this might be one of my favorite sugar cookie tutorials ever.  The hibiscus flower design looks really intricate and complicated, right?  However, the flowers are created using an unbelievably simple wet-on-wet technique.  What's "wet-on-wet" decorating?  Well, it's basically when you create a design with two or more colors of wet flood icing.  Using toothpicks, you manipulate the icing into a design while it's still wet.  What could be better than that?  It's one of my preferred techniques because of its efficiency and ease.  The more detail you're able to incorporate with flood icing, the less detail you need to add later with piping icing.  Major time saver. 


As  you may have noticed from the post title, this is my fifth batch of sugar cookies.  My cookie decorating skills still have tons of room for improvement at this point, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable with each batch I make.  Trial and error really is a great process.  Here is what I learned with this batch:

Batch 3: Patriotic Fourth of July Sugar Cookies

After making flower cookies for my last two batches of sugar cookies, I was looking forward to trying a few different cookie cutters.  The Fourth of July presented the perfect opportunity.  I realize that posting these cookies in August doesn’t seem as seasonally appropriate as it would have been in July.  However, I think there’s something fun about patriotic displays any time of the year. 

When I made the bridal shower favors, I got lucky with cool weather.  Such was not the case when I made these cookies.  In fact, the temperature in our kitchen was 86-88 degrees, before I turned the oven on.  We live in a 1920s apartment without central air conditioning.  At the time, we did not have an air conditioner in our kitchen.  Have you ever tried rolling out cookie dough in an 86 degree room?  Plain and simple, it's nearly impossible even if you've chilled the dough for a few hours.  The dough might be perfectly cool and firm as you roll it out.  However, it warms and softens so quickly that no amount of flour can prevent it from sticking to the table or to the cookie cutters.  You may manage to cut a clean shape, but then the challenge becomes transferring the cut dough from the table to the cookie sheet without the shapes melting and warping beyond recognition.