Sourdough Vanilla Cake from Farmhouse on Boone

Sourdough Vanilla Cake - made July 24, 2025 from Farmhouse on Boone 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla

1/2 cup sourdough starter

1 cup water or milk

3 large eggs

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Add softened butter and mix to combine.
4. In a separate bowl, combine sourdough starter, milk, eggs, melted coconut oil and vanilla.
5. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the butter-flour mixture. Mix on low speed to incorporate then increase speed to medium. Beat until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even-textured.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Let cool completely before frosting.
7. Make frosting: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat softened butter until smooth and creamy.
8. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix on low speed after each addition. Once all of the powdered sugar has been incorporated, increase speed to medium and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add whipping cream, salt and vanilla and whisk for 1-2 more minutes. Spread evenly onto cooled cake.

I haven't been too thrilled with some of the sourdough discard recipes I've been trying so I might stop for awhile and/or let my starter die. Plus still struggling to write these blog posts because life feels heavy so apologies in advance that some of these posts get curt. I will admit I'm trying to find joy where I can and some days, I don't succeed.

The flavor of this cake was okay but I didn't love the texture. It was cakey, because, hello, it's a cake but I think my preference is for cakes that have more of a pound cake texture. Plus I wasn't wild about the frosting. I'm not a buttercream fan and that's what this was. 

This isn't too sweet so if you want more sweetness, try using a simple vanilla glaze instead of frosting.

Lemon Cake from My Grandma's Pie

Lemon Cake - made July 6, 2025 from My Grandma's Pie 

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup vegetable oil or melted coconut oil

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2-3 tablespoons lemon zest

Optional add-ins for extra moisture and flavor

1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

1/4 cup milk or buttermilk

Lemon Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round or loaf pan.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth and slightly fluffy.
3. Stir in lemon zest and lemon juice. If using sour cream or yogurt, add now for additional moisture.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients, alternating with milk or buttermilk if using. Mix on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Lemon Glaze: whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice util smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake.

In an attempt to bring a little sanity and normalcy to my small corner of the world, I made this lemon cake to share with my fellow volunteers at the food bank. I made a small version for the taste test and the baked the rest of the batter in a loaf pan so I could slice it up and pass out the slices to the volunteers at our mobile harvest distribution.

The texture was a bit dense, which I like, but also probably because I underbaked it just slightly. Not on purpose but because the toothpick test was misleadingly crumb-free when I poked it in the center. It could've used a few minutes longer in the oven.

Still, it was pretty good with the right balance between lemon and vanilla. It was a little fragile though so I'm glad I wrapped each piece in plastic wrap before I gave them out. I added the optional sour cream and buttermilk for the moisture factor and am glad I did as this was a nice moist cake. Don't be shy about using the lemon zest to get that lemon flavor punch. And I always know something’s a hit when one of the volunteers asks me for the recipe. It’s the most sincere compliment a baker can get so I was happy to share both the cake and the recipe.

Chewy Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies from Heart Beet Kitchen

Chewy Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough July 5, 2025 from Heart Beet Kitchen

95 grams unsalted butter, softened

240 grams granulated sugar

40 grams brown sugar

125 grams creamy peanut butter

75 grams sourdough discard

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

185 grams all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon + extra pinch fine salt

1. Cream butter for 1 minute on medium high. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, beating until combined and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
2. Add peanut butter and sourdough discard, mixing until combined.
3. Add egg and vanilla, mixing until just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed after each addition, until no floury streaks remain.
5. Cover dough and chill for 2 hours. Portion into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. In a small bowl, add granulated sugar. Roll each dough ball in the sugar, coating completely. Evenly space on baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Not all the sourdough discard recipes I've tried have turned out but this one did. It's a soft peanut butter cookie that's chewy in the middle and a little bit crisp at the edges. 

I'm not sure it needed to be rolled in sugar before baking unless you want that extra sweetness but that's how peanut butter cookies are usually coated to pair the sugar sweetness with the peanut butter.

As always, if you want to punch up that peanut butter flavor, add peanut butter chips. If you want the peanut butter-chocolate flavor combo, add chocolate chips. This recipe seems pretty versatile so you can get creative with your add ins. It would also hold up well if you want to use chunky peanut butter instead of creamy.

Panera Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Tasty on My Mind

Panera Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough June 29, 2025 from Tasty on My Mind 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat on low speed after each addition just until combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips until evenly disbursed.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let cookies rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm late getting this post up as it's past National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day but, not surprisingly, there are many other things going on and chocolate chip cookies, as much of a comfort food as they are, especially when you're emotionally eating, don't rank as high as human rights, women's bodily autonomy, the disdain towards vaccines in a time of Covid resurgence and measles making a comeback, humanitarian aid being denied to "the least among us" and again, the litany goes on.

But I'm trying to follow the advice of reasonable, rational people like Heather Cox Richardson, Jay Kuo, Dan Rather, Marc Elias, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich and many others. Their advice has been consistent: it's easy to be overwhelmed during these times so it's important to rest and to find joy where you can. Even small pockets of joy can sustain you for the long haul. And we are in it for the long haul.

So my little pocket of joy today is this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies that's billed as a Panera copycat. I haven't had Panera's chocolate chip cookies enough to assess whether this is a reasonable copycat but I can tell you this is a great chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The dough handles beautifully and you can see from the pictures that this stays thick and doesn't spread too much. The edges are crisp and the caramelized brown sugar flavor comes through well. If you want a good amount of chocolate in each bite, go with mini chocolate chips as those mini chips get more evenly disbursed through the dough.

If you're going for comfort food, this one's pretty comforting.

Vanilla Pound Cake from View from Great Island

Vanilla Pound Cake - made June 20, 2025 from View from Great Island 

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla paste or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon milk or more as needed

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9 x 5 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line with parchment paper to be able to easily lift out the loaf.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix in buttermilk.
5. On low speed, add dry ingredients, mixing after each addition until just combined.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool on wire rack.
7. Make the glaze: in a small mixing bowl, whisk powdered sugar and vanilla with milk to create a thick, spreadable glaze with no lumps. Spread over cooled cake. Let glaze set before cutting and serving.

I've had good luck with recipes from View from Great Island before but this one didn't seem to work out for me. The inside texture on mine didn't look as good or fluffy as on their original blog post. Maybe I beat the batter too much and incorporated too much air into it. Or I didn't bake it long enough, as evidenced by the sinking in the middle. 

I also didn't bake it in a single regular-size loaf pan but in a couple of mini ones as well as a little round paper baking cup. The flavor was fine but I didn't love the texture. Plus, yeah, hey, the world is still barreling towards fascism around us so it's hard to get excited about cake. Release the files.

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) from Compadre Cooking School

Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tart) - made May 31, 2025 from Compadre Cooking School

2 large egg yolks

250 ml heavy whipping cream

90 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon flour

1 strip of lemon peel

1 cinnamon stick

300 grams of puff pastry (I used storebought puff pastry sheets)

8 pastel de nata tins

1. Combine egg yolks and heavy cream in medium saucepan and whisk together until combined. Whisk together flour and sugar before adding to cream mixture.
2. Place saucepan over medium heat and add lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Stir occasionally until until mixture thickens and almost boils. When close to boiling point, turn off heat and let cool.
3. Roll thawed puff pastry sheets into a tight log. Keep chilled until ready to use.
4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F if your oven goes that high. If not, preheat to 450 degrees F with your baking sheet inside so it can also heat up. 
5. Slice puff pastry log into circles about the width of your finger. Place each circle in the center of a pastel de nata tin. Using your thumb, press the center of the pastry into the tin to anchor it. Press the dough up the sides of the tin all the way to just over the top edges. Fill each tin with the cooled custard mixture, more than 2/3 full but not all the way to the brim.
6. Remove heated baking sheet from oven and gently place filled pastel de nata tins on top. Place in oven and set oven timer for 10 minutes. Do not open oven door for the first 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, check if they've browned enough on top. Bake another 1-2 minutes if not. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from molds. Serve lukewarm. 

I recently came back from a trip to Portugal. I'd been there before for a work conference and loved it so much I went back for vacation. It's a beautiful country with amazing people and even more amazing food. I discovered the francesinha (huge portion that must be shared or suffer the overeating consequences - but worth every calorie) but my ultimate favorite from my first visit and well into my second one remains the pastel de nata or the Portuguese custard tart. They call it egg tart but to me it's more accurate to call it the custard tart since the filling isn't eggy like a Chinese dim sum egg tart. But pure custard goodness.

What makes a good pastel de nata is the buttery, flaky pastry crust. And no one does that better than the Portuguese with their custard tarts (sorry, France, I know those are fighting words). Pasteis de nata is the plural of pastel de nata and it would be accurate to say I ate pasteis, not just pastel de nata.

One of the highlights of the trip is we had a cooking class at Compadre Cooking School in Lisbon and they taught us how to make a prawn appetizer, a codfish with cream casserole and of course, the pasteis de nata. It was a fantastic evening and if you're ever in Lisbon, I highly recommend booking yourself into one of their classes. The chefs were patient and excellent at what they do and they helped us create delicious food.

Plus I got to learn how to make pasteis de nata firsthand from very experienced chefs. This is a slightly different post in that instead of making this recipe myself when I got home, I'm posting pictures of the ones we made during our cooking class at Compadre Cooking School. Technically, I did help make them since my part was to make the custard. I didn't want to lose the recipe or the experience and memories so I'm posting the recipe and pictures from that evening since I don't know when I'm going to make them myself at home. But just to be authentic for when that day comes, when I got home, I ordered genuine pastel de nata tins (made in Portugal) from The Curated Pantry. I recommend getting it directly from their website rather than amazon as, even with shipping, The Curated Pantry is cheaper. (I'm not affiliated with them and don't make any money if you click on the link to buy it from them.) I got the smaller version as they mentioned that's what shops like Manteigaria use. I've had the pasteis de nata from Manteigaria in Porto, Portugal and can personally attest how excellent they are.

When you get the tins, they have instructions on how to season them before the first use. Basically you crank up your oven to 500 degrees F or as high as it'll go and bake the tins upside down on a baking sheet for 90 minutes. That burns off the solution they coat them with initially to prevent rust while they're on the shelves. The tins darken and are ready for use after that. I followed the instructions and have my authentic pastel de nata tins ready to go.

In terms of the dough, the chefs had already premade the laminated dough for the pastry shells. You roll out the dough into a rectangle then roll it into a tight log. You should be able to see the layers of dough and butter in the roll. Cut the log into finger-width rounds, place a round in the center of each tin and press outward so the shell goes evenly up the lip of each tin. Our chef did it expertly in two or three quick movements. Needless to say, we the students took a little bit longer, ha. Also, as with any laminated dough, keep the dough chilled until you're ready to cut and form them into the shells. That keeps the butter from warming up before you bake and minimizes the butter leakage during baking,

During our cooking class, another person in my tour group and I made the custard filling. After you make it, cool down the filling before you fill the shells, again to keep the butter in the dough from melting from a warm filling before you're ready to bake. Fill the shells about 2/3 full, not all the way to the top as the shells shrink a bit and the filling puffs a little so you don't want to overfill them.

You also want to place the baking sheet you'll be placing the tins on in the oven as it preheats. Having a hot baking pan to start with helps the custards bake more evenly, according to the Compadre Cooking chefs. Our chef instructor also said once you place the baking sheet back into the oven, set a timer for 10 minutes and don't even look at the oven until the timer goes off. That'll help you avoid the temptation to open the oven door and peek in. That would let the heat escape and negatively affect the baking. 

Once the 10 minutes are up, then you can look and decide if you need a few more minutes of baking time. You want to bake until you see the telltale brown spots on top of the custard and the pastry is browned.

Once you take them out of the oven, let them cool in the tins for 10 minutes then take them out. If you seasoned your pastel de nata tins properly, the tarts should come out easily. Proper care of the tins also says to just wipe them clean. Never put them in the dishwasher and only use soap and water if they're really encrusted and can't be wiped off with a paper towel. Make sure you dry them thoroughly to prevent rust.

So there you have pastel de nata. It's easily one of my top 3 favorite desserts now. As long as I can eat them in Portugal.

Crumbl Cookies review #97 - North Carolina Lemon Pie

Crumbl Cookies review #97: North Carolina Lemon Pie - visited July 23, 2025

I should've published this review last week when the lemon pie was available but I didn't get around to it, partly because I wasn't in the mood to do a write up and partly because I was actively working on all my coping mechanisms: I did 4 shifts at the food bank, I went out with friends a couple of times and I baked for those friends for each outing. Plus my double workouts a day take time. Yeah, lots of stress coping going on.

In any case, the Lemon Pie was a new-to-me offering that I hadn't tried before. To cut to the chase, if you like custardy desserts and lemon, this is a good choice. It was tart but not too tart and not too sweet. Bonus if you like whipped cream and the pretty decorations on top.

For myself, I got it to try it but I knew going in that I'm not a big fan of custard desserts or whipped cream. I do like lemon though, if not the decorative slice on top, so flavor-wise, this was fine. But I didn't eat very much of this as the calories weren't worth it. That's not to say this was bad because it wasn't. It's a matter of preference. I really need to stop buying the desserts I know ahead of time I'm probably not going to like. I tell myself I'm keeping an open mind and something might surprise me, like the original Tres Leches Cake did. But this wasn't it.

This had a $1.49 surcharge at my store so it was $5.98 + tax for a total of $6.47.

I'm not sure if I'll get to Crumbl this week although they do have a couple of cookies in this week's lineup that I like, namely the Lemon Bar and Cake Batter Cookie. Plus I want to try the Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie even though I think they've overplayed the skillet cookie concept. So we'll see. I just want a bite of each and don't really want a freezerful of cookie pieces again when I've just cleared out my freezer during my 3-month Crumbl abstinence.