Breakfast

Toasty Pumpkin Granola

November 17, 2017 by mollygilbert520 1 Comment

BOY am I glad it’s Friday! As Calder might say, “awesome, wow!” (we’ve been listening to a lot of the Hamilton soundtrack lately). So yes, FRIDAY!

This particular Friday means two things: one – I’m on a flight east to start some early Thanksgiving celebrations with my family (hooray!) and two – weekend baking! Double hooray!!

This weekend, I challenge you to make your own granola. It’s easy (the measurements below aren’t set in stone, so take any liberties you like), satisfying, and this pumpkin version in particular will make your house smell like the tiny fairies of Autumn sneezed warm spices everywhere (and I say that with the utmost respect/admiration for those guys).

One batch of this stuff will yield you a healthy, delicious and très seasonal breakfast (either with milk, yogurt, or sprinkled over a warm bowl of oatmeal) for the upcoming week and beyond. It makes a great gift, and also freezes nicely for future breakfasting/snacking.

Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s get to baking!

Toasty Pumpkin Granola…

Kid-Friendly Banana Oat Muffins

October 9, 2017 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

I’m on a muffin bender, and my toddler is VERY happy about it. First was the classic blueberry sort, then I turned Deb’s famous double chocolate banana bread into muffins (holy Popes, Deb!) (Also friends, let me know if you want me to post that recipe here, I will gladly oblige), and then I made these muffins three Friday nights in a row. (On a related note, I may have to get out more.)

I’ve convinced Calder that they’re a treat (chocolate chips help with this illusion, and the enthusiasm with which he asks for a “teat!” these days is both heart warming and slightly terrifying), but the truth is that these little cakes, packed with protein and whole grains (and only a small amount of processed sugar – fresh bananas and applesauce bring plenty of natural sweetness), feel perfectly appropriate for daily toddler consumption.

With my ever-growing mountain of muffins on hand (I find they do pretty well in the freezer, then either briefly microwaved or just left out at room temp to thaw), I’ve taken to doling them out as a post-Sunday-soccer practice “teat” (I have to say that I use the word “soccer” pretty loosely here — a bunch of 18-month-olds chasing bubbles around with orange cones might not fulfill the actual definition), as a welcome afternoon pick-me-up at the playground, or just as part of a “special” weekday breakfast.

If you have kids (or, you know, not) and are looking to get on the muffin train, look no further! These have it all. Bananas, applesauce, Greek yogurt! Oats, whole wheat and buckwheat flours! And some mini chocolate chips for good measure. “Teats” for everyone!

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Classic Blueberry Muffins

September 15, 2017 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

At the beginning of September, as backpacks are filled and schedules are… filled (I excel at writing), everyone loves a good list. I know I do.

As such, I herby present you with my (highly scientific, expertly curated) list of:

Things That Aren’t Actually So Bad About Summer Ending:

It’s time to dip back into our really pretty great sweatshirt collection
Hot coffee, extra splash of cream
One Pot/Pan meals on repeat
Foliage/leaf peeps
Apple picking/pumpkin patch trips
Elections! Know your day to vote.
We can stop wearing those “cold shoulder” tops. What even are those?
Appropriateness of planning toddler Halloween costumes (sidenote, could use some input: garden gnome, fuzzy/non-fuzzy animal, or something else entirely? Might be important to say that my child looks a lot like a garden gnome, but also does a great fish impression.)
Blueberry muffins as lunch treat and/or after school snack!

Number nine is taking center stage in my house this week. There are still a few (a very few, maybe) good fresh blueberries to be found around these parts, but I also just unearthed a giant bag of frozen berries from earlier this summer (score!), and as such, some fresh, tender-crumbed muffins sounded like just the thing.

These are fluffy and dense with berries, with just a small hit of lemon zest throughout. The tops are wonderfully sugar-crunch-capped, so particularly healthy they are probably not, but particularly delicious? You bet.

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Tender Rhubarb Snack Cake

April 25, 2017 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

Sniff sniff, HONK sniff! I think I’ve officially entered the stage of life where someone in my house is always sick. Sniffles and coughs and viruses, oh my! (And Calder’s not even in daycare yet! Oh dear.) It’s all terribly glamorous and attractive, yes it is.

But what if rhubarb cake is a cure-all? Do tender crumb and sweet-tart fruit have healing powers? What if the soft cake is flecked with dark buckwheat flour, some Greek yogurt, and hints of citrus, too?

I’m going with yes. (And even if not, a friend I shared this cake with said it “tastes of unicorns,” so at the very least, we’ve got that going for us.) Join me!

Tender Rhubarb Snack Cake…

Homemade Bagels

March 24, 2017 by mollygilbert520 5 Comments

I’ve lived in Seattle for over three years, and while I love this city, I just have to say: Seattle has a bagel problem. Having moved here from New York City (by way of San Francisco, fine), I admit my standards are high, but Seattle, come on! Get your bagel game together.

I’m looking for a New York style bagel. A bagel bagel. I don’t want one of these “Montreal-style” shenanigans. I’m looking for a bagel that’s bigger than my fist, one with a chewy crust (with just a bit of crackle), and a crumb that’s tender but not overly doughy.

I’M LOOKING FOR LOX AND SCHMEAR. Can I get an amen?

In my dreams, I open up a wildly successful bagel shop here in Seattle. We sell hot, fresh bagels, plain and flavored cream cheese, and lox on lox on lox. Also maybe some black and white cookies, because I miss those, too. Side of fresh OJ and coffee with extra cream?

It’s a nice dream. Until then, these homemade bagels will have to do.

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Deb’s Plum Cake

September 13, 2016 by mollygilbert520 8 Comments

Leave it to Deb to get me back in the kitchen! I mean, when that lady says “jump”, I’m the first to ask “how high?” so it stands to follow that when Deb says “make this plum cake,” I know it’s in my best interest to bust out the butter and search for some plums.

Except, as luck would have it, I didn’t have to search very far, because my neighbor, Martha, happens to have a plum tree in her yard, and Martha also happens to be quite generous (in general, but also specifically in plums), so as it happened, just as soon as I got it in my head to make plum cake, there was Martha, bag of plums in hand, to save the day.

The cake lives up to the hype. It’s a cinch to make (you could easily do it in the short span it takes for, say, a 6-month old to wear himself out on his play mat… just saying), looks beautiful, and tastes like it should — perfectly sweet, warmly spiced, and happily damp with fresh plum. I find it a perfect segue from summer to fall, using both the last of the season’s sweet, juicy fruit, and also a generous dash of warm cinnamon.

I actually made two of these plum cakes in one day — one for some neighbors who just welcomed their own new babe, and one for my own family to gobble up in a single (yep, just one) day. What I’m saying is, we need more plum cake. (Once plums are gone, I may give this another try with pears, although I don’t think Martha has a pear tree. Shoot).

In other news, I feel like I’ve typed “plums” one too many times today and now I can’t look at the word without feeling like it’s spelled wrong. Plums. PLUMS. Plummmmms.

I think it’s time for me to go.

And as an aside, we haven’t given Calder much solid food yet but we let him sort of gum and suck on a (ahem) plum and it was both amazing and hysterical. Boy loves him some PLUM.

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Sour Cream Bran Muffins

June 6, 2016 by mollygilbert520 7 Comments

HELLO! Well, wow. It’s been awhile. It seems I had a kid (!) and everything else (cooking, writing, showering…) fell by the wayside. I’m officially one of those people. Yikes.

But! Lest you think all you’re going to find here is a terrible iPhone picture of a pretty delicious muffin, I’d like to introduce you to someone:

OH hi there! This is Calder. He’s my son and I’m keeping him forever. Incidentally, he’s also a pretty delicious muffin.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly how much of the little guy I want to put out there on the internet, but let’s start here. Calder likes: fresh air, hiccups, the sound of the vacuum cleaner, midnight snacks, bouncing. Dislikes: long car rides, crib naps, wearing socks.

Though I’ve not spent much time in the kitchen, the past three months (three months already! bah.) with this little man have been the most delicious ever – so thanks for bearing with my absence around here.

Before Calder was born, I loaded up my freezer with a few simple meals and snacks (including this soup and these meatballs) that I knew I’d want around post baby, and these muffins proved an excellent call. Parading under the guise of good health (I mean, bran muffins), these are light and tender crumbed cakes packed to the gills with sweet fruit and rich molasses flavor.

In the early days when the babe needed to eat every five seconds (or so it seemed), leaving me ravenous at all hours, my nighttime routine included pulling two (or, uh, three) of these muffins from the freezer and setting them by my bedside — they’d thaw just in time for that first, late night nursing session, and I’d descend hungrily on the things after my sweet boy had gotten his fill (of milk, not muffins… little guy didn’t know what he was missing).

I’ve made a few batches since the first to restock the coffers, as it were, and served them, warm from the oven and slathered with butter, to last-minute brunch guests (instead of shoveling them in my mouth at 2am, say), but these muffins will always remind me of those first few amazing, exhausting, terrifying and exhilarating weeks with Calder.

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Creamy Maple Steel Cut Oats

September 25, 2015 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

Oh look! A new recipe! Well hallelujah and glory be.

Is anyone else getting totally zonked by mercury in retrograde this month? If you’d asked me a week ago if I believed in this crock, I’d have told you to take your crock elsewhere, because I wasn’t buying it. But a batch of burned brownies, several stress-induced/bizarro dream-y sleepless nights, and not one but TWO clogged pipes later, the joke seems to be on me.

At least I’ve got a handle on breakfast.

Did you know that oatmeal could be luscious? Because it can! These are steel cut oats, cooked gently in water and milk, with plenty of salt and just a touch of sugar. They’re beautifully simple, but simply perfect – warm, incredibly creamy, just slightly chewy, and doused with a healthy amount of maple syrup. Plus a scatter of roasted pistachios and yeah, okay, maybe a handful of (un-photographed) chocolate chips because IT’S BEEN A WEEK.

Make these oats (or make a double batch!) this weekend, and eat breakfast like a goddess for days. Just store leftovers in the fridge, and scoop out a bowlful each morning to warm with some milk, or even a splash of cream. Because you deserve it! And mercury in retrograde can eat my oats.

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Carrot Apricot Mango Muffins

July 7, 2015 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Home feels good. It’s hot in Seattle, our plants are sad and I’m jet-lagged as hell, but still. Home!

I ate an entire box of macaron cookies from Pierre Hermé on the plane ride back (I mean, what else is a person supposed to do when she’s spent all of her airport time buying chocolate at duty-free instead of a new book to read, and it turns out the plane is an old one and there are NO TVs?!? Pray, tell me), and between that and the endless pounds of jamón I consumed in Spain, I think it’s time for some VEGETABLES up in here.

Or, you know, muffins. Eeeeasing back into it, people.

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Brown Butter Citrus Madeleines

April 14, 2015 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

What do you do on a bumpy plane ride?

I’ll tell you what I don’t do. I definitely don’t freak out. I do NOT insist on staring out the window while counting slowly to one hundred in my head. And by no means do I start listening to Will Smith songs because of the comfort that knowing 100% of the words to “Gettin’ Jiggy With It” brings.

That just doesn’t sound like me.

(But you gotta, Prada, bag with a lotta, stuff in it, give it to your friend let’s spin…)

#whateverittakes

I’m on my way to Philadelphia! To see my parents and do a little book promoting. I’m excited to chat up Sheet Pan Suppers and also tell everyone I come in contact with about the little veggie garden we planted in our backyard last weekend. Look at this!

It’s growing real, actual vegetables! Butter lettuce, spinach, sweet peas, onions and beets! Also some strawberries, raspberries and chives. I’ve never had my own garden before, but last year Ben and I managed to kill every single one of our apartment-sized potted plants, so here’s hoping things are on the up and up for us, green-thumb-wise.

But what am I saying? You guys are here for the cookies, no? Let’s talk about madeleines! I broke in my madeleine pan with these bad boys. (If you don’t have one, not to worry – you can bake these in a muffin tin instead – they won’t have the same shape, obviously, but they’ll be just as delicious.)

I loosely followed Daniel Boulud’s recipe, the one that was published in Bon Appetit a few months ago, and it seems the man knows his madeleines. These are infused with browned butter and orange zest, and they’re soft, cakey and just perfect with a cup of hot coffee or tea. Their one downfall is that they depreciate quickly, losing their light, fluffy texture after just one day at room temperature, but the good news? I found the solution.

…Now excuse me while I eat every single one.

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