There’s nothing better than a light, airy spin on a chocolate cake. Instead of worrying about layers with icing, making a sheet cake is more time efficient and tastes just as good with a topping of your personal choice.
Category: Desserts
No-Churn Mango Lime Ice Cream (Sugar-Free)
It’s getting warm over here! Time to make your favorite treat for a summer day: Ice Cream! Skip the sugar, and the tedious churning process (for those who don’t have an Ice Cream maker).
Protein Popsicles
We’re finally warming up here, at least in Southern California, so now’s the time to pull out your frozen treats and cool drinks! Most of the time, though, your frozen treats may be things like Otterpops, which are little else than a mixture of corn-syrup and food coloring, or like Kool-Aid, which has ingredients that are impossible to pronounce, and also has food coloring. Sometimes your healthiest option is to make your own, and in this post, I have a recipe for Protein Popsicles! It’s exactly what it sounds like – popsicles with protein powder in them.
Chocolate Mousse Pie
Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
Ever enjoyed the taste of peanut butter and chocolate? Every pondered the extraordinary flavor of peanut butter and chocolate while unconsciously munching upon Reese’s Pieces?
Zesty Fruit Salad
This is a pretty simple but unique recipe for fruit salad, because of the lemon juice and zest, which give it a pleasant zing. Read More »
My First Recipe Ever
What’s the first recipe I’ve made? Answering that question brings me back to way back in time, way back when I was only nine years old.
Christmas Cookies – Whole Wheat
’tis the season for enriched bleached flour, refined white sugars, and other desserts!
Why not try making sugar cookies with whole wheat?
Dutch Apple Pie
Dutch Apple Pie combines the best of both worlds: the even slices and crust of the Apple Pie and the delicious crumb topping of the Apple Crisp.
Many, including me, prefer making apple crisp when they are in a rush – this can be solved by purchasing frozen pie crusts and thawing them ahead of time. However, some also make apple crisp for the sole reason of that sought-after golden crunch: the brown sugar and oats Crumb Topping that layers Apple Crisp and probably gives both of its names; the American name “Apple Crisp” and the British “Apple Crumble.”
Apple Crisp
A delicious dessert (especially with ice cream), this apple crisp is loaded with apples and topped with an irresistible mixture of sugar, butter, and oats.
The types of apples you use are up to you, and each produces a slightly different variance in flavor.
Apple Rose Pastries
Apple Rose Pastries are fun and easy to make, and though they look tough to make, they are actually quite easy and straightforward – the real trick is getting the apple slices thin enough to be flexible – the rest is simple.
For a more detailed tutorial, check out my recipe video (below) which is also on my new YouTube channel!
Apple Rose Pastries recipe – – – – PRINT
5 Tips for Better Cookies
Moving towards summer, there are those, like me, who may start doing more baking as school ends and schedules free up. Something you probably have baked the most (I have) are COOKIES. They come in many shapes and forms, but largely conform to the same principles; Butter with the sugar, then the dry ingredients, the extra crunch, then baking. 
As something you may have done many times routinely, what are some ways you can change up the process and result in cookies with more flavor, and possibly a more desirable texture?
- Tip #1: Brown the butter. You don’t have to brown all of it; Half the amount of
butter you’ll use can go into a saucepan, while the other half simply stays softened. Melt the first half in your saucepan, and keep over heat until it acquires a stronger smell and browns a little. This will give your cookies a deeper richer flavor.
- Tip #2: Add instant coffee grounds. Don’t put too much in. The coffee grounds, like the browned butter, play a similar role to salt and brown sugar, and deepen and bring out a fuller or different flavor. This may not work well in some cookies, but can work swell in different sorts of chocolate cookies as coffee compliments chocolate magnificently. Use your judgement before adding coffee grounds to your cookie batter willy-nilly. And if you decide to use it, mix it with your dry ingredients before adding.
- Tip #3: Subtract an egg white. This one is an idea from America’s Test Kitchen. By leaving out an egg white (via egg separation), you are “bringing out the brown sugar” flavor. I use this method in my recipe “Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies” and it works amazingly.
- Tip #4: Increase oven temperature. This is another great idea from America’s Test
Kitchen. By increasing your oven temperature, you are effectively browning the edges and allowing the middle to stay nice and soft. Don’t go crazy with this – keep your oven at around 375 F.
- Tip #5: Add more vanilla. A bit of advice from my aunt, and I use it as a general rule of thumb for any sugary baking project. If you are using a recipe, it will almost every time benefit if you add around an extra teaspoon than what is called for. Vanilla acts like salt and brings out the full potential of flavor.
There you have it! Feel free to comment with techniques of your own, and please check out my other recipes, including Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Soft Snickerdoodles, and follow my blog to stay updated via email!
Michael's Test Kitchen 