Rediscovered Treats
During my mini hiatus between school and work, I’ve really been enjoying baking. Unfortunately baking for just two people can be quite wasteful. We don’t want our baked goods to go stale before we can eat them. We also don’t want to be forced into eating the same baked good every day, day after day. Nor is eating that many sweets particularly great for keeping a trim figure (despite the fact that everything was made with whole wheat flour). Consequently, I always try to halve recipes since most recipes yield at least 2 dozen goodies. Halving can be complicated when the original recipe calls for a single egg or strange amounts of other ingredients. Especially in baking, the ratios can be critical for the science behind food to take effect.
Even with halving recipes, sometimes we still end up with a ton of food. So instead of letting everything go stale, I’ve been stuffing my freezer full of delicious treats. But I can’t just keep baking and baking or else freezing my food becomes purposeless, so it’s time to start busting out everything I’ve frozen and get to eating.
For breakfast this week, I defrosted some cherry butter buttermilk scones made with cherry butter from Rustlin’ Rob’s in Fredericksburg, Texas for a taste of home. I had never made scones before, but I had an abundance of extra buttermilk after making chocolate buttermilk waffles, and it seemed like a fun way to kill some time one morning. I threw together ingredients from a bunch of different scone recipes I found online, and while these were pretty good, I think I will search for a better scone recipe next time I want to make them. They were missing the crumbly texture of awesome scones, and the almond milk and sugar glaze I made for them didn’t withstand the freezer.
No breakfast is complete without a tasty beverage that perfectly compliments the sweet treat. We heated some milk on the stove and added some David Rio Elephant Vanilla Chai Tea mix, then used our handheld milk frother to create homemade chai tea lattes. Davio Rio chai is our favorite. We bought a bunch of different flavors (Orca and Tiger Spice as well as the Elephant Vanilla), and are trying them all. My first ever chai tea latte came at Olmos Perk in San Antonio, and it was love at first sip. I probably would not be nearly as obsessed with chai tea lattes if I had not had my first one there because I don’t get that same warm, delicious feeling at any other coffee shop when I order a chai tea latte like I do when we go to Olmos Perk. Before we moved, Dustin went on a recon mission and discovered the brand of chai they use there. We found it on Amazon and have been making chai tea lattes a couple of times of week ever since. Although the texture of our milk isn’t as nice as a coffee shop’s, our drinks are much cheaper and tastier than any chai tea latte we’ve tried out here.
A few weeks ago for the Texans' first preseason game (and the only one being broadcast on national television for us this season), we had some friends over and made wings. I baked up a storm, and I think these Nutella and Reese’s Pieces cookies were the highlight of the evening besides the Texans' victory. I froze half of the batch, but since Dustin was hooked after one bite, he has been begging me to pull these out of the freezer for some time now. To surprise him, I pulled them out and packed him some in his lunch today! I think these cookies were some of the best I’ve ever made.
They are nice and chewy on the inside with a hint of Nutella, but are still crispy on the outside. The Reese’s Pieces are a nice compliment to the Nutella and a refreshing change from chocolate chips. These cookies are even better dunked in chocolate almond milk. Once I make it through all of the other cookie recipes I have compiled to try, I will definitely be making these again.
Still in the freezer are cake donut muffins, banana cupcakes, red velvet cookies, and buttermilk biscuits … all coming soon!