My own tried-and-true recipes for home cooks.
Pistachio-Stuffed Raspberry Cookies
My brain immediately went to Librae Bakery on Cooper Square in Astor Place, famous for their rose-pistachio croissant that perfectly straddles nuttiness and floralness. But with Valentine’s Day coming up, I wanted these cookies to be naturally pink. That’s where incorporating ground-up freeze-dried raspberries into the dough comes into play, imparting lovely fruitiness. So that’s where I ended up—a largely similar recipe to the almond version, with some tweaks for the pistachio fans and the Hallmark-promoted day of love.
Key Lime Pie Cookies
Unlike with my almond and pistachio croissant cookies, key lime pie cookie recipes do exist in some form on the internet and I’m pretty sure Crumbl had a version of these, too. BUT, all of those versions are fake key lime pie cookies. What do I mean by fake? They’re a graham cracker cookie with a key lime pie-flavored frosting spread on top after baking, often made with cream cheese. Yuk! If I’m going to have a key lime pie in cookie form, I want it to be as close to the original as possible, which means baking the filling. The type of cookie most eligible to handle such a task: the humble thumb print. Usually, teeny tiny and crumbly, thumb print cookies are forgettable. When you make them absolutely massive as I do here, and ensure the cookie stays moist through a quick bake time, they become sensational.
Almond Croissant Cookies
From ChatGPT:
"Transform your kitchen into a patisserie with our Almond Croissant Cookies recipe. These delightful treats capture the essence of a traditional almond croissant but in a convenient cookie form. Perfect for any occasion, these cookies are a delightful blend of buttery, flaky layers and rich almond flavor. Let's dive into this simple yet scrumptious recipe that will have your family and friends begging for more."
Apple Butter Babka
Babka is a great thing. As most of you probably know, the two main babka variations are chocolate and cinnamon sugar. It’s obvious that chocolate is the superior of the two (the cinnamon sugar is so…dry? bland? boring?). I’m not trying to dispute the chocolate supremacy with this recipe. I’m merely suggesting that there’s an opportunity to make a babka that’s decidedly less rich and better suited to eating as a snack all day long. Apple butter actually has a great sweet-bitter balance (most of the time) since it’s deeply caramelized, so I thought it would be a great autumnal filling for babka. The pecans and raisins definitely take the bread into cinnamon raisin bread territory, but I sort of like that connection.