TWD (rewind): Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

Over the last few weeks - months, really - I've missed several TWD recipes that I was really looking forward to making. As I get the chance, I'm going to go back and bake a few of them. Starting with this loaf cake.

Chocolate cake rarely impresses me. I usually find it too dry, and lacking in chocolate flavor. Oh boy, did this cake prove all of that wrong! It was amazing in every way: flavor, texture, appearance - even the batter was beautiful; it looked like fluffy chocolate mousse. The cake's inherent deliciousness, is elevated to an even higher level by the elements of filling and frosting. Even with all of that, it manages to seem miraculously light. This cake is a keeper.

The cake itself is deeply chocolate-y, the crumb is moist and tight - very reminiscent of a pound cake. Superb. After baking in a loaf pan, the cake is cut horizontally into 3 layers. Each layer is filled with a tart fruit jam - I used black currant; a perfect complement in flavor and texture to the cake. The frosting is amazingly simple. It is made of nothing more than melted chocolate and sour cream. As it cools it hardens, forming a bittersweet ganache-like texture with a sour cream tang. Wow. I'll be using this frosting again. I'll be making the whole cake again for that matter!

I love that this cake has so many elements, yet is so simple. Perfect for any occasion. Thanks to Amy Ruth of Amy Ruth Bakes for making this wonderful selection. You can find the recipe on her blog.

TWD (rewind): La Palette's Strawberry Tart

The TWD recipe for this week was supposed to be Apple-Apple Bread Pudding (and it was supposed to be posted yesterday - oh, details, details...), but I am just not a fan of bread pudding. Instead of skipping this week entirely, I decided to go back into the archives and bake something the group made before I was a member.

My mind immediately went to this tart. I've thought about it a lot since seeing it for the first time last year. So simple, so perfect. Seeing as I had a tub of local strawberries that needed to be used, I knew this was the perfect choice.

My crust is dark and speckled, because I used palm sugar to sweeten it instead of powdered sugar. I was unsure of how this would affect the outcome, but I wanted my boys to be able to eat it, so I went ahead and tried it out. The crust was fantastic. Crispy, and much more shortbread-like than it is with powdered sugar. Plus, I like the rustic effect the palm sugar lends to it.

The only other elements besides a crust are jam and strawberries. Couldn't be simpler! I used a fruit-only spread for the jam, and tossed my strawberries in a tad of agave, mostly to give them a nice shine - they were so sweet, they didn't need anything!

This tart might be my boys' favorite thing I've ever baked. They couldn't get enough. They ate a third of it in one sitting. Keep in mind they're 1 1/2 and 3 1/2, so that's quite a feat!

It is so perfect in it's simplicity and it is incredibly versatile - you could use any fruit and jam combination you can think up! If you had the tart dough prepared in advance, you could throw this dessert together in no time at all. I'm sure it would be fantastic with some fresh whipped cream on top, but ours didn't last long enough to make any! Dorie also suggests fresh cracked pepper on top. I did try a piece this way, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The pepper was earthy and slightly biting, imparting a lovely contrast to the sweet berries and jam, and I plan on cracking pepper on all manner of desserts from now on.

La Palette's Strawberry Tart

adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours

Best quality strawberry jam

1 quart ripe strawberries - trimmed and halved if they're large, and tossed in 1-2 teaspoons of light agave; just enough to give them a shine, not so much that they're dripping

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough (recipe follows)

Sweet Tart Dough

1 1/2 cups white wheat flour

1/2 cup palm sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick + 1 tablespoon very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

Put flour, palm sugar and salt in bowl of food processor and pulse a couple times to combine. Add butter pieces to bowl, and pulse until butter is coarsely cut in, with pieces of varying sizes. Stir egg yolk to break it up, and add it to food processor a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the whole yolk is in, process in long pulses until the dough begins to clump. Turn dough out onto board, and knead it just enough to incorporate any flour that didn't get mixed in. Press dough into a well-buttered 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Freeze for at least 30 minutes - preferably longer - before baking. Preheat oven to 375. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit it tightly across the crust, buttered side down. Bake for about 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is evenly browned and firm to the touch. Let crust cool completely.

Finishing the tart

Spread an even layer of jam on the crust, add strawberries. Tart is best when eaten immediately after being assembled.

TWD: Burnt Palm Sugar Ice Cream

It has been way too long since I've made ice cream. Every time I make it, I wonder why I don't do it more often, it's really so easy! I was really happy that the TWD bakers were tasked to churn some this week, because it forced me to pull out my ice cream maker for the first time in a very long time.

This is basically a caramel ice cream. First you make a simple caramel out of sugar and water, then add the rest of the ingredients to the pan, resulting in your ice cream base. Couldn't be easier!

This is a delicious, rich, deeply flavored creamy treat. One that even my little ones got to enjoy, since I used palm sugar in place of cane sugar.

Thanks so much to Becky of Project Domestication for this fun pick, the recipe can be found on her blog.

Also, my business is having a great giveaway on our Facebook page, enter here!

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

I've always been a bit of a procrastinator. If there's something I'm not 100% excited about doing, I'll wait until the absolute last minute to do it. I actually baked and photographed these cookies on Tuesday. I loved the cookies, but wasn't thrilled with the photos so I've been dragging my heels on writing this post... Here goes...

This week's TWD treat is a delightful cookie with endless possiblilities for playing around! It is an oatmeal cookie with your choice of dried fruit and nuts, plus coconut and chocolate - though in the interest of feeding them to my children, I left the chocolate out. There's a first time for everything...

I used a combination of dates and pecans, which I just love together. Since I omitted the chocolate, I added a little extra of all of the other add-ins. Not surprisingly, I sweetened my cookies with palm sugar and an unbelievable local molasses. I also used all butter instead of part butter, part shortening.

These cookies are thick, soft, chewy, chock full of goodies and almost healthy enough to call breakfast! One of my favorite things about them is that the molasses is a very prominent flavor. It was a welcome surprise! I think using palm sugar as my second sweetener helped to highlight the molasses, as it is itself rather dark in flavor.

Thanks to Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet for choosing this wonderful cookie for us to bake! The recipe is on her blog.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

Got 5 minutes? Then you have enough time to mix, roll and cut these biscuits and pop them into the oven. They are that quick.

I was very pleased to see these as a TWD selection this month. I love biscuits. I was raised on biscuits. We have biscuits at every family function. Small fights break out over who gets the last one. We're biscuit people.

I made these particular biscuits for the first time last summer, and have probably baked them a dozen or more times since. They are just so simple, so fast, so delicious.

That first time I made them I was skeptical, I'll admit. I didn't think they would have the satisfactory fluffy interior, the crispy edges that constitute the perfect biscuit. It was one of the most magical oven transformations I have ever seen. I continue to be awed every time I bake them. I won't say that these are the perfect biscuit - though they're close - but they are perfect for when you're short on time, and considering the minimal effort that is put into these, the result is fairly spectacular.

These biscuits are light, tall and fluffy, with a melt-in-your mouth creamy and tender interior. The edges are crispy, and though they are more delicate than a butter biscuit, they will still stand up to a good drenching in honey.

I omitted the sugar - biscuits shouldn't be sweet, in my opinion - and upped the salt a bit, and used white whole wheat flour. I also used closer to 1 1/4 cup cream - the upper end of the range Dorie gives in the recipe.

These will never replace a butter biscuit for me, but they certainly hold their own, and will continue to be a regular breakfast goody in my house!

Thanks to Melissa from Love at First Bite for hosting this week. This fantastic and simple recipe can be found on her blog.

TWD: Swedish Visiting Cake

I know I'm a little late posting this cake - it was the TWD pick from last week - but I was at the beach, so I didn't get a chance to make it until now. More on the beach later, for now, it's all about the cake. I've paused on the picture of this cake in Baking from My Home to Yours many times, and have been intrigued by its humble appearance, simple ingredients and the harming story that accompanies it.

Dorie was introduced to this cake by a friend who described it as being so easy you can start making it when you see company coming up the driveway, and have it ready to serve by the time they sit down to coffee. It's true! It is a one-bowl cake that is mixed by hand, then baked and served in a cast iron skillet. What could be easier?!

Not only is this cake easy to make, it is delicious. Unbelievably delicious. In fact, it is one of the best cakes I've ever eaten. It isn't too sweet, it has a subtle almond flavor, a delicious paper-thin sugar crust, crunchy outer edge and a light citrus zing. There are no chemical leaveners in this cake, resulting in a texture that is moist and dense, chewy even.

Chances are, you have all of the ingredients for this cake in your pantry, so rush right into your kitchen! You won't be sorry!

This cake was chosen by one of my favorite bloggers, Nancy. She has not one, but two fantastic blogs - The Dogs Eat the Crumbs and The Corner Loaf. The latter is devoted solely to bread. Everything she makes is beautiful, and she writes the most thoughtful and descriptive posts. If you haven't read her blogs before, you must check them out! The recipe for this cake is posted on The Dogs Eat the Crumbs.

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos (and my 1 year blogiversary!)

Look at this; it is Tuesday, and I'm actually posting the TWD treat on its appointed day & week!!! Miracles do happen...

So, today is my one year blogiversary... I had big plans... They didn't so much work out... Now I'm left with these horrible photos of some insanely delicious cookies - I can't wait until I get my camera back from being repaired!!!

I always had a lot of interests growing up, and not to toot my own horn, but I was pretty good at everything I tried, so I was always a little confused about what I should do when I grew up. Through the confusion, however, there was always one thing I could unequivocally tell you I would never be: a writer. Writing was always something that I found to be very stressful - unless it was a completely impersonal essay. Those I could crank out by the dozens. I don't know that I consider myself to be a writer, but I do write on a regular basis, and that is certainly something I never thought I would do. Even more surprising is that I actually enjoy it. Love it, in fact.

When I started this blog, I don't know that I ever expected anyone to read it. It still surprises and delights me when I look at the number of hits I've gotten on a given day or week, and the locations from across the globe that I get visitors from.

Having a food blog is one of the most satisfying endeavors I've ever taken on. There are so many stages of activity; finding a recipe, creating the food, photographing it, of course eating it, writing about it, and then waiting a bit for that little piece of yourself to make its way into other people's homes and see how they react to your offering.

The food blogging community is overwhelmingly supportive, accepting, giving. It is something I am incredible proud to be a part of.

All of the interests I have had throughout my life have to do with creating things. When I was 8, I had my first business with a friend. It was called Eternal Light, and we made custom candles and jewelry that we sold to our teachers and classmates. We even had business cards. I've knitted since I was six, cooked from about the same age, taken photographs, done darkroom work, and then for many years I performed. I sang, I danced, I acted. I even studied this in college. Every one of these things from beading to singing was a form of expression, a creative outlet, something that made me who I am.

I had my first son in 2006, when I was 26, and I became so consumed with being a parent that I stopped doing things for myself. I stopped creating. Then came marriage problems, then another baby, throw in a new business and you've got a big stressful mess with no room for anything else. Not to mention, there was never a time that I actually had two hands free to create anything with... Then one day, I looked at my friend Teanna's Facebook page, and saw a link with a funny name and I thought I'd check it out. I was led to Spork or Foon, Teanna's witty, hilarious and beautifully photographed food blog. Her blog led me to discover Tuesdays with Dorie, and a number of other blogs that I love and visit on a regular basis. I toyed with the idea of starting my own, but felt self-conscious about putting myself out there in that way. Then one year ago today I took the dive, and I couldn't be happier about having made that decision.

I have emerged from a several-year funk through having this blog. I have once again found an outlet that is satisfying and nourishing and brings me a sense of purpose aside from being a parent to the two sweetest boys I could ever ask for.

Thank you to everyone who reads my little blog, to everyone who has ever left a comment, a word of encouragement. It means so much to me.

Through this transition into being a single parent, I am trying to find my way back to baking and blogging more. I have less time now, so I have to be more efficient in everything I do. I'm working on it.

In case all you want is to hear what I thought of these cookies, here it is: I have wanted someone to pick these cookies for months. Ever since I first noticed them in the book. Especially after I made dulce de leche for the first time. I was so excited to see them on the March schedule. I baked the first batch, and honestly, wasn't wowed. I used the amount of dough Dorie recommended, and the cookies spread like crazy, and they were just too big, and too soft. So I made them half the size and baked them for a little longer. Magic.

My first thought when biting into one of these cookies was sugar. It was like eating rich caramel-y sugar. Three textures of sugar to be more precise; the center is creamy and gooey, then there is the outside of the cookie which forms a crispy sugary crust when baked, and the inside of the cookie which is dense, chewy, soft. These are amazing. And dangerous. Oh, so dangerous. If you know what's good for you, you won't make them. But if you do, triple the amount of salt in the recipe, it is rather salt-poor (1/4 teaspoon), and needs that extra bit to help off-set some of the sweetness. Even tripled, the cookies aren't salty.

This cookie was chosen by Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake. The recipe can be found on her blog.

TWD: Pistachio & Sicilian Orange Thumbprints

I know, I know, I'm almost two weeks late here... This is the cookie that all of the other TWDers baked week before last, and I really didn't want to skip it. I have a cookbook that has pistachio thumbprints filled with rose petal jam, and I was planning on that combo, but when I opened my rose petal jam, it had mold in it... The only other jam I had was Sicilian Orange. I was skeptical at first about combining it with the pistachios, but in the end it was a fantastic choice. These are some seriously delicious cookies.

Please, no fried egg comments, I know what my little cookies resemble... You'll have to forgive them their appearance, because they really are something special. The Sicilian Orange jam has an almost bitter tartness that plays beautifully off of the creamy sweet pistachios. The cookie is a soft nutty shortbread that almost melts in your mouth. I had to get them out of the house promptly, because I found myself gobbling up one after another. After another...

I'm going to have to make these again one day soon using palm sugar, because I know my boys would be crazy for them, too. I didn't use palm sugar this time because the jam I was planning on using had sugar in it...

The only thing I might do differently next time is to leave out the almond extract and see what that does. Though there isn't a lot, it is a prominent - though tasty - flavor, and I'd like to see how the cookie is affected by removing it. Other than that, these are wonderful.

So, thanks so much to Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude for picking this fantastic cookie for us all to bake! The recipe is on his blog.

And with this, I'm really hoping to be back into the TWD swing of things, I've missed it the past few weeks!

The next TWD treat on the agenda is Dulce de Leche duos. Stay tuned, you won't want to miss this one!

TWD: Dorie's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week the TWD bakers made one of my all-time favorite treats; chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate chip cookies played a large part in shaping my childhood. My mom and I baked them together regularly, they were her specialty. They're still the only thing she bakes. I probably make chocolate chip cookies more frequently than any other treat.

I enjoyed these cookies quite a lot. It is no surprise, as Dorie mentions that it is a tweaked version of the Tollhouse recipe, which is the recipe I grew up on. I thought the flavor was wonderful - rich and caramel-y; the texture was good - crispy around the edges and chewy in the center. The only problem I had with these cookies was that they are too thin. I like to have a little more to sink my teeth into. Proving once again that the New York Times recipe is the perfect chocolate chip cookie!

Thanks to Kait of Kait's Plate for hosting this week. You can find the recipe for these yummy cookies on her blog.

TWD: Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

This week for TWD, we made brownies! Ah, any excuse to make and eat a brownie is okay by me.

At first taste, I didn't think I was a huge fan of these brownies. I actually wrote an entire post - but didn't publish it - about how I didn't really like them. Then I started looking at other people's blogs to see what everyone else thought, and they were all crazy about them. I decided to give them another shot. Not ten minutes ago, I went into the kitchen and ate a brownie, and I must say I have changed my mind. These are really delicious. The texture is very different from any other brownie I've ever had. They are fudgey, but light at the same time due to the whipped eggs that are folded into the batter. I tend to prefer a denser brownie, so I can't say that I've found my new favorite, but these were definitely a lovely surprise.

This recipe was chosen by Tanya of Chocolatechic, and can be found on her blog.

TWD: Bittersweet Chocolate Mini-Bundts

I've been on the search for the perfect chocolate cake. Though I love chocolate in just about all forms, chocolate cake isn't usually my thing. It isn't ever chocolate-y enough. I am always willing to try a new recipe, however, hoping to close in on that ever-elusive perfection that I hope is out there.

I made 1/3 of the recipe, thanks to Nancy's meticulous math, and it fit nicely into one cup of my new mini bundt pan.

I read reports of a lack of chocolate flavor in this cake as written - milk chocolate, that is - so I went darker.

I topped my little cake with a ganache instead of the glaze in the book, as there were also lots of people who had issues with it.

The flavor of the cake was good - it actually tasted like chocolate - though it was a little dry. I may have over-baked it, but dryness was also a common complaint among the other TWDers, so I don't know. Nancy added some yogurt to her batter to help combat the feared dryness. Perhaps with that in mind, I'll attempt this again. We'll see how that works.

The search is still on for the perfect chocolate cake.

Thanks to Kristin from I'm Right About Everything for hosting this week. You can find the recipe on her blog.

TWD: Chocolate-Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars

This week's TWD selection is an oatmeal crumb bar filled with a rich chocolate fudge. It was supposed to have raisins and peanuts in it, but I'm not a big fan of peanuts, and raisins in chocolate are definitely not my thing. I've never actually been a fan of candy bars - just too much going on in them - so I thought I would really love these. I almost did.

I loved the texture - wonderfully dense from the oats, nice and crunchy on top, crispy on the edges and creamy in the center. They are rich as well as earthy, and just sweet enough - lots of people complained about them being too sweet with the addition of the raisins; yet another reason I left them out.

So, where did these bars go wrong for me? In a word, cinnamon.

As I was adding the cinnamon to the dough, I was looking forward to the addition it would make - I usually enjoy the combination of cinnamon and chocolate. However, as I took my first bite, I found the flavors to be conflicting in these bars. For some reason, they reminded me of these mesquite chocolate chip cookies (which I did not enjoy at all).

I may try these again at some point - without the cinnamon - as I think they are something I could love.

Thank you to Lillian of Confectiona's Realm for hosting this week. Take a look at her blog for the recipe.

TWD: Mrs.Vogel's Scherben

We have a rather unusual TWD pick this week - a deep-fried sugar-coated treat similar to funnel cake. Or so I'm told, but I think I've only had funnel cake once and I don't really remember anything but grease, so to me these are in a class by themselves. I don't usually do deep-fried, but these were chosen by the one and only Teanna of Spork or Foon, so I couldn't not make them! Actually, I was even looking forward to making them - they looked unique and fun, and I never would have chosen them on my own so I was excited to try something different.

Teanna and I went to college together, and after reading her blog for a few months I decided to start my own! She is also the way I found out about TWD. My life has been hugely impacted by becoming a food blogger, and without Teanna I may never have discovered this incredible community.

This scherben - is there a more fun name for a treat out there?! Say it with me, scherben, scherben, scherben! - is perfectly crispy (even almost 24 hours after frying them), and hardly sweet at all until tossed in powdered sugar. It is amazingly light for something that has been deep-fried, making it entirely too easy to pop into your mouth, one after another. After another. I used powdered sugar on most of it, but I did also top some with a blend of cardamom and granulated sugar, which was a really sublime combination.

It isn't the easiest recipe to scale down, given that it has one egg and one tablespoon of butter - though the amazing Nancy figured out the measurements for a 1/4 recipe - so I hesitantly made a full batch. Thankfully, I was able to give a lot of it away.

Though these aren't something I would normally have chosen to make, I loved them. I couldn't believe how much fun I had deep-frying them, too. It helps to have a pot that is deep enough to assuage any fears of boiling oil jumping onto my skin. I had welts for weeks after making my Apple Cider Doughnuts a few months back. I don't see myself making them again any time soon, as they are a little fussy, but I'm so glad to have made them and I'll keep them in mind in case an occasion arises in the future that they would be appropriate for.

Many thanks to Teanna for picking such a fun recipe, and of course, for introducing me to the food blog world. (You'll hear more about all of this in several weeks, when I celebrate my first blogiversary!) You can find the recipe for the scherben on Teanna's wonderful and terribly funny blog!

TWD: Tarte Tatin

Happy Second Anniversary Tuesdays with Dorie! This is a very special week for TWD, because it marks the two year point in this baking adventure (though it wasn't my baking adventure until just under a year ago. I feel so fortunate to have stumbled upon and become a part of such a remarkable, dedicated and supportive group of bakers. Thank you so much to Laurie for being the brains behind the operation, and Dorie for writing this incredible baking book that never ceases to amaze me.

Because of the special occasion, there was a vote choose this week's recipe. The winner was a Tarte Tatin! (We also had the option of making a Cocoa-Buttermilk Cake, since that's what Laurie wanted to make.) I wasn't honestly that excited about this selection, but wanted to be a part of the festivities (plus I had a lot of apples), so I went ahead and made it. I have no idea how I couldn't have been thrilled to make this, especially considering what an apple pie lover I am. It is one of the best desserts I've ever had.

I used this crust, and made a half recipe in my 6" cast iron skillet. Let me tell you, I really wish I had made the full recipe. If you make this, don't scale it down! You'll be sorry!

The thing that makes the Tarte Tatin so amazing is that the crust is baked on top of the apples, so it doesn't absorb any of the juices from the fruit, thereby remaining perfectly crispy and flaky. The apples are cooked on the stovetop in a mixture of sugar (or palm sugar, in my case) and butter, making a delicious caramel sauce that thickens as the tart is baked in the oven. It is a perfect balance of sweet and tart, soft and crispy. In short, it is perfect. It can be made with several different fruits, and I can't wait to try other variations! The only thing that could have made this tart better would have been a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Ah well, perhaps next time!

This is a treat that I will be making again and again. And again. My boys both loved it which means it will definitely be repeated.

The recipe for this amazing tart can be found here. But seriously, if you don't already have the book, you need to make it a part of your collection pronto!

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies

Meringues are not really my thing. If these cookies weren't so incredibly easy to make, I probably would have skipped them, as these are a coffee-flavored meringue cookie. A few things persuaded me to go forward anyway: as I mentioned, they are incredibly easy - mix chopped nuts, sugar, espresso powder and egg white in pan until just warm, spoon onto baking sheet, bake; they are coffee flavored - I'm pretty much a sucker for coffee-flavored anything; Dorie describes them as higgledy-piggledy. How could I possibly skip something with such a wonderful description?! So, I whipped them up in about 5 minutes + baking time.

They aren't the most attractive cookies - Dorie pretty much hit the nail on the head with "higgledy-piggledy" but what about the taste?

It took 3 cookies for me to figure out whether I liked them or not. Actually, I'm still not entirely sure. I guess the thing is this - I didn't immediately love them, but I didn't necessarily dislike them either. I enjoyed the melt-in-your-mouthiness of them, but they were a little crunchy for my taste. The coffee could have been a bit stronger, as it was it added a bitterness that wasn't necessarily discernible as coffee. I think a little cocoa could have improved things. I found these cookies interesting, but given my lackluster reaction to them, they probably aren't something I would make again. As a side-note, they are gluten-free and they would be easy to flavor in different ways, so they might be something to think about for the holidays if you are avoiding gluten.

I am glad I tried them, because I found the technique fascinating and fun, so thanks to MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar for choosing this recipe. Visit the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else's cookies turned out.

TWD: Spice Sables

This week's TWD pick was sables - a sandy-textured cookie that is a relative of shortbread, though sables contain egg yolks. There are several flavor options in Baking from My Home to Yours, all of which sounded great. Though I want to try all of them, this time around I went with the spice version, which has a combination of cinnamon, ginger and freshly grated nutmeg.

I only made a half recipe, though I kind of wish I'd made more - especially since I included some of these in my secret baker package. I'm pretty sure my bakee isn't a TWD member... These are deceptively delicious cookies. You take one bite and think, "Mmm, these are good cookies." After another bite, you're saying, "Wow! These are fantastic!" After one more bite, you're done for and pretty soon you've eaten 5.

These sables are firmer in texture than shortbread, they have a little more crispiness on the surface. They are gently and perfectly spiced, and the outside of them is coated in a sugar and allspice mixture which adds just a bit of crunch.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn't like these cookies. Don't let their simplicity fool you, they are outstanding.

Thanks to Barbara of Bungalow Barbara for picking these fantastic cookies, which will certainly be making frequent appearances in my home from now on. You can find the recipe and all of its variations on her blog. There is a parmesan version that I'm dying to try...

TWD: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

Around the time I started my blog, I was on the search for the perfect Ginger-Molasses Cookie. I never found it. Until now. I should have known it would be Dorie that would provide me with the recipe.

These cookies are unbelievable. They are crispy around the edges, chewy on the inside, complexly flavored with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper.

I doubled the amount of cinnamon, allspice and black pepper, and added 1 teaspoon of ground ginger. The only other thing I might try is to up to black pepper - I couldn't really taste it, and I was longing for that kick. A peppery cookie is not what I would want on a regular basis, however, so as a general rule I'll stick to the recipe (basically) as Dorie wrote it.

I will make these cookies every chance I get. Birthdays, holidays, weekends, you name it.

Thanks so much to Pamela of Cookies with Boys for choosing this fantastic cookie recipe, which can be found on her blog.

I don't know what else to say about these, except go make them. Now.