Baking

Growing up, there was one dessert my mom would bring to family gatherings that I just never got: an angel food and pistachio torte (trifle? fluff?).

It was all sorts of things I didn’t really like that much: angel food cake (bland, dry and sticky all at once), pistachios and toffee. This dessert never held much appeal. Also, it was very ugly.

But one party, I finally gave this treat a try and I am not ashamed to say it: My mom was right; this dessert was delicious.

So in honor of Mother’s Day, here is the recipe for this absolutely inexplicable dessert.

Angel Food Pistachio Trifle Recipe

This one of those delightful Midwestern follies full of Jell-O pudding mix, Cool Whip and more. As much as I love scratch-made everything, I’m also a sucker for treats like this. Here’s what you need:

• 1 package of angel food cake mix (preferably the one with the rainbow sprinkles inside)
• 1 tub Cool Whip
• 1 small box Jell-O instant pistachio pudding
• 2 cups milk
• 2 Heath or Skor bars, crushed

Step 1: Bake the Cake

Before you ask, yes, you can absolutely make a homemade angel food cake for this recipe. But if you ask me, now is not the time to fuss with all the eggs and the tedium. This cake gets torn up, coated in fluff and topped with candy.

It’s really OK just to use a boxed mix—these are the best brands to use according to a very scientific test I conducted.

A few things about the cake, homemade or not, make sure not to grease the pan. Also, you want to cool it upside down once it comes out of the oven. It’s all on the box, but these are still some pro tips.

Once the cake is totally cool, remove it from the pan and cut or tear into chunks.

Step 2: Make the Fluff

Now here’s where the Midwestern comes in: Whip up a package of instant pistachio pudding according to the package directions. Once it’s set—about five minutes—fold a tub of Cool whip into the pudding. That’s your fluff.

Step 3: Assemble

All that’s left to do is to put all these pieces together. Grab any serving container you like. My mom uses a 13×9″ pan, but I pulled this Pyrex dish from my collection. You could also make this in a trifle dish or make individual parfaits.

Spoon a bit of the fluff on the bottom, then add some cake. Continue adding layers of the two until it’s all used up. Finally, topped with some crushed toffee bits.

Serving and Saving

Once this dessert is all put together, pop it in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. Then scoop and serve.

This trifle (torte? fluff?) does keep pretty well for a few days; I’d say eat it within three days of making it. It’ll get softer as time goes on, but it still tastes pretty darn good.

This year, I don’t get to celebrate my mom the way she deserves on Mother’s Day (she’s currently in the hospital), but I did get to see her. She even gave me a few tips on this recipe. And making this treat Mother’s Day morning did help me feel a bit better.

Just a reminder to everyone to hug their moms extra today. Like extra on top of the Mother’s Day extra. And then extra every day after that.

I love a good everyday cookie. You know everyday cookies: chocolate chips, gingersnaps, peanut butter… Good ol’ fashioned cookie jar cookies. But there’s one everyday cookie I never liked: oatmeal.

Why? 99% of oatmeal cookies are filled with raisins. Now, I don’t mind raisins, but they have no place in cookies!

But as I was paging through my favorite baking book Midwest Made, I saw there was a recipe for a raisin-free oatmeal cookie. Now that’s something I could be interested in! I made a few tweaks to Shauna Sever’s recipe—not that there was anything wrong with it (all the recipes in her book are amazing), but because I’m a twerp that likes to change things just for fun.

What I got was a chocolate-filled oatmeal cookie worth dunking and snacking. Here’s how to make ’em!

Chocolate-Studded Oatmeal Cookies

To make these cookies, you don’t need anything special! Just some pantry basics:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups chocolate; I used a mix of semi-sweet chips and chopped up the remains of a baking bar

This recipe is definitely on the smaller side. Since it’s just two of us at home, we don’t need dozens of cookies laying around. This recipe makes about 20 cookies.

Step 1: Mix Up the Dough

I don’t need to tell you how to make a cookie dough, right? But I will anyway.

Start by creaming together the butter and sugars. You’ll want to cream them on medium speed with a paddle attachment for about five minutes. Creaming does take longer than you think! Just let ‘er rip and do some other tasks while the mixer runs.

Scrape down the bowl and beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well combined—about another minute more.

Next, add in all those dry ingredients—oats, flour, baking soda, salt—until you’ve got a dough. Don’t over-mix here! And be sure to scrape that bowl!

Step 2: Stir in the Chocolate

You can use whatever kind of chocolate floats your boat for this recipe. Dark chocolate, semi-sweet, mini chips—whatever’s in the pantry as long as it gives you 3/4 of a cup.

In my cookies, I chopped up the remainder of a dark chocolate baking bar I had in the cupboard (leftover from a babka) and then some semi-sweet chips to top it all off. I like the variation in size and flavors of chocolate. But you do you!

Because my mom always did this when I was growing up, I mix in the chips by hand. But you can use your mixer.

Step 3: Bake!

All that’s left is to portion out the cookies and bake! Grab your favorite cookie scoop and plop portions of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, just drop heaping spoonfuls of dough onto your pan. It’s all good!

Bake at 350ºF for 10-12 minutes. Move to a wire rack to cool (yeah right—just eat one while it’s warm!).

Let me be clear with these cookies: Just because I’m posting this in December doesn’t mean I consider these Christmas cookies. Christmas cookies are supposed to be special! That means you won’t find chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies or plain ol’ peanut butter cookies on my cookie tray. But these chewy chocolate oatmeal cookies will tide me over until my holiday baking starts in earnest.

I have a few tried-and-true recipes that I make on a regular basis: cookie brittle, compost cake, this piña colada zucchini bread. Time to add another regular bake to the list: chive and garlic focaccia.

I started making this bread back in the spring when the only plant growing in our garden was chives. I never considered myself much of a chive fan, but I decided to make use of the one fresh thing I had by tossing it in a bread dough. Now, I’m a big fan of chives, and I’ve made this bread probably ten times in the last four months.

This bread is super easy to make and doesn’t require any out of the ordinary ingredients. I bet you already have everything you need right in the pantry.

What You Need for Chive and Garlic Focaccia

As I said, you don’t need a lot to make this bread, and like many of my favorite recipes, you can make some pretty easy substitutions.

• 1⅓ cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• Packet of yeast
• 3½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup olive oil + more to top
• 2 teaspoons sea salt + more flaky salt to top
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Fistful of fresh chives, finely chopped

If you don’t care for chives or don’t have them, sub in another herb. Rosemary, oregano, basil or even dill would be great in this dough. If you don’t have fresh herbs, dried work! Just don’t go overboard—a tablespoon total is enough.

Full disclosure: I used the minced garlic you find in a jar. I add a heaping spoonful and call it good. I say it’s about four cloves worth.

Another substitution: You can use a heaping teaspoon of quick-rise yeast if you don’t have active dry yeast at home. This recipe is pretty forgiving, so don’t be worried if you need to make some small changes.

Step 1: Proof the Yeast

If you’re new to bread, using yeast is the most daunting part, but really don’t fret too much. Just fill up a measuring cup with warm water. I go by feel, but if you want to be precise, just be sure not to go over 110ºF. Any hotter and you’ll kill the yeast.

Stir in the sugar and yeast and let it sit for a few minutes until it begins to froth.

Step 2: Stir Up the Dough

This dough is so easy to put together. Just mix together the flour, water-sugar-yeast mix and olive oil with the dough hook of your stand mixer. Then add the salt, garlic and all the chives and mix until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and creeps up the hook.

Step 3: Knead and Rest

Next, turn out the dough onto a floured worktop and knead for five minutes. A lot of breads require a lot of kneading, but not this focaccia. You want it to be fairly tender, so there’s no reason to keep laboring over it to develop a ton of gluten. Five minutes of work is enough.

When you’re done kneading, pop the dough into a greased bowl and let it rise for an hour.

Step 4: Press into the Pan

After the dough has pretty much doubled in size, press it into a 13×9 sheet pan, cover and let it rise again. The second rise on this bread is pretty short: 20 minutes will do the trick.

Step 5: Add Dimples, Oil and Salt

This part is my favorite. Once the dough has puffed up a little bit, press dimples into the dough with your fingertips. You’ll want to press until you can feel the bottom of the pan (but don’t rip through the dough). Make little divots all over the bread.

Then take your extra virgin olive oil and drizzle oil into all of those dimples. Sprinkle some flaky sea salt over the top and toss this in the oven.

Toss in a 400ºF oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

When it’s cool enough to remove from the pan, take it out and enjoy! I love a slice or two while the bread is still warm. The dough is so soft and tender thanks to the short knead time and ample amounts of olive oil. I like when I find a salty slice—it gives it a nice little crunch on top!

How to Serve Focaccia and How to Store It

I think this is a pretty good focaccia recipe, so I eat this bread without adornment (and I eat it for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner). It’s just so good.

However, if you want to not live on bread alone, you can serve this focaccia up alongside a big salad or a tasty Italian dish. I like to make it with this skillet zucchini lasagna from Half Baked Harvest.

If the bread is a bit past it’s prime, I toast it up and cover it with butter and garlic powder for easy garlic bread. You could just toast it plain and use it for sandwiches, too.

As for the timeline on this bread, it’s definitely at it’s best the first day, but if you wrap it tightly, it’s good for about three. After three days, it starts to dry out. But that’s where the garlic bread and toast ideas come in!

I’d consider myself a regular home baker. I always have baking essentials in the pantry and the fridge. Sometimes I have things that go beyond essentials—which is why I have a big bag of dried currants hanging out in my baking basket.

Currants are definitely not a baking staple for me, but they ended up in my cupboard during my annual dried fruit shopping spree (I always buy too many fruits for fruitcake). Sheltering in place, though, has me baking like everyone else and looking into the recesses of the pantry like everyone else.

I decided the best way to use these dried zante currants (which are actually a kind of grape not real currants which frustrates me to no end) was to toss them in a scone. My favorite scone from Colectivo has dried blueberries, so this is a good way to approximate them with what I have on hand.

My Recipe for Currant Scones

Making scones is pretty simple business. You don’t need any fancy equipment, just a bowl, a spatula and a pastry blender (you can use a fork if you don’t have one of those). This recipe takes about 15 minutes to prep and then it’s about 40 minutes of hands-off time. And if you don’t have currants—and why would you?—use dried cranberries or even fresh blueberries.

• 2¾ cups flour
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup dried currants
• Zest of half an orange (or lemon or lime)
• ½ cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk + 2 tablespoons coarse sugar to top, optional

Yield: 6-8 scones, depending on how you slice.

Step 1: Mix the Dry Ingredients

First up, whisk together the dry ingredients—thats flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the zest.

The zest here is optional, but I think it makes the scone taste a bit fresher and gives it a touch more personality. Use whatever citrus you have on hand.

Step 2: Cut in the Butter

Next, grab your cold butter and cut it into cubes. Make sure it’s good and cold—not oh it sat on the counter for 15 minutes while I measured cold.

Use a pastry blender or a fork and cut the cubed butter into the dry ingredients. Keep cutting in until the butter is about pea-sized. If you make homemade biscuits, this is all standard procedure.

Step 3: Add Milk + Currants

After cutting in the butter, add your buttermilk and vanilla along with your currants. Give them a quick toss in a few teaspoons of flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the scone.

Stir until just combined. Don’t overwork the dough, just get everyone in the bowl introduced.

If you don’t have buttermilk, milk or half and half is fine. You can make your own buttermilk substitute, too.

Also, use good vanilla always. Yeah, the good stuff is pricey, but it’s worth every penny if you ask me. I used Nielsen-Massey Indonesian vanilla extract here. I typically prefer the Mexican kind, but the Indonesian vanilla goes well with fruit (also I’m out of the Mexican variety right now).

Step 4: Give It a Few Turns + Chill

With your scone dough made, turn it out onto a clean countertop and pat it flat. Then fold it over itself. Repeat three or four times and shape the dough into a round on the final fold (or turn). The round should be about ¾-inch thick.

Then using a knife or a bench scraper, slice the round into wedges. I opted for six which yields pretty generous scones. Cutting this batch into eight would also work (I’d actually recommend that).

When your done cutting, you can pop the scones into the fridge or freezer for 20 minutes. This will let the butter solidify a bit so you get flakier, more tender scones.

Step 5: Brush + Bake

After hanging out in the ol’ chill chest, you can prep the scones for baking. They can go in the oven as-is or you can give them a quick brush with milk or cream and then a quick sprinkle of coarse sugar. This part is totally optional, but I like the crunch that the coarse sugar gives the scones. Also, I’ve got a full bag of demerara sugar hanging out in my pantry that also needs to be put to use.

From there, pop the scones into a 400ºF oven for 15-20 minutes—or until golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack and eat them within a few days. You can always freeze any extras.

As far as back-of-the-pantry bakes go, this one’s pretty good. It helps me rid myself of why did I buy that? ingredients and now I’ve got a tasty breakfast that makes quarantine a little less glum.