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Apple Fritter Cake

September 28, 2022 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

Have you heard? I wrote another cookbook! It’s called Sheet Pan Sweets and it hits the shelves October 4th! It’s choc full of recipes to fill your dessert table and bake sale cravings, from sheet cakes to rolled and layered cakes, from cookies and bars to pies and other fruit forward desserts, and there’s even a chapter full of breakfast and brunch goodies, to boot.

Want a sneak peek? HERE YOU GO! This Apple Fritter Cake comes from the breakfast and breads section of the book, and it’s the perfect way to use up all of those apples you hauled home from your recent trip to the apple orchard (when those first hints of fall arrive, it’s time to throw on that flannel – actual temperature be damned – and haul out to the apple farm stat, yes?!).

This cake is dense yet bouncy, studded with pockets of fresh apple and cinnamon and bathed in a milky, maple-y glaze. It’s an homage to the best thing in the case at your local donut shop – the apple fritter, of course – and also to my Grandpa Gene, who loved them so much he’d practically stamp his name on the apple fritter in the big box of donuts he’d bring over for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. This recipe will give you that perfect apple fritter essence without frying, and double bonus? There’ll be more than enough for everyone.

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Soft & Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

April 4, 2020 by mollygilbert520 10 Comments

Well, I’m back with more cookies. We are living through a global pandemic – can you blame me?

I don’t think many people read blogs anymore. Does anyone still read blogs anymore? (I hear it’s too difficult to read wordswordswords before getting FREE recipes! Thoughts on this? Follow up question: is it really that hard to scroll?!) No matter. We need cookies and I need to get some things down.

I want to know how everyone is doing. How are you getting along? We are on day 22 of shelter-in-place at my house, and although we are all safe and healthy, we are grieving for the world, for our community, for healthcare workers, and we are grieving the loss of our old life. No school. No playgrounds. No lake walks, playdates, music class, mid-morning walks to the bakery. No Sunday dinner at Nana’s house. Absolutely no Spring Break trip to see my parents in Philadelphia. I’m actually not sure when I’ll get to see my east coast family again, a thought that absolutely terrifies me. A few months? A year from now? More? For now, all we get is a lot of Facetime-ing, brisk walks around the neighborhood (but don’t touch anything! Cross the street if you see anyone approaching!) and a once-a-week venture to the grocery store, alone – a quick, all-business affair quickly followed by a frenzy of highly regimented hand-washing and car/doorknob/grocery package disinfection. All while desperately trying to both keep up with and avoid the news.

And as weird and scary as it all is, I know that we are lucky. So lucky. We are young(ish), and so far healthy. We have a comfortable home, with a basement and yard where the boys can run and play. We have enough food to eat. We are not essential workers, so we’re shielded from the front lines of this virus. All we have to do is stay home. Ask neighbors if they need anything. Try and support local businesses and friends. It’s fine. We’re fine. The waves of fear and guilt and general unease come regularly, a tide coming and going each day. We’re fine. We watch more cartoons, draw more pictures, tidy up the same areas over and over and over again. We take comfort in baking – a batch of cookies, homemade granola, some bread. We’re clearly not the only ones – the baking aisle at the grocery store is gutted clean – so each kitchen project is chosen thoughtfully, with an eye towards our rations, to avoid the bottom of the flour bin, or package of yeast, cocoa powder, sugar, eggs.

The following recipe – from Shauna Sever’s lovely book, Midwest Made – doesn’t even touch the flour bin, so if you’re running low you needn’t worry! Soft, chewy, sugar-glittered, peanut-buttery cookies are in sight.

It’s bad, yes, but it’s not all bad. (See: cookies). Chin up, everyone.

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Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

July 20, 2019 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Well hello there! I’ve decided to put less pressure on myself to write perfect posts, and just throw some things up here when I have time. Maybe that way it won’t be a whole YEAR before I post again?!

Cool!

A few things have changed around here since I made that Brown Sugar Cherry Pound Cake below. Mainly, I have two kids now! A Calder and a Jack. Little man Jack turns ONE next month, and I have so much to say about his first year (and what a wonderful whirlwind it’s been!), but for now let’s just focus on these cookies.

These cookies! They’re so good. Like, I made them once a week for four weeks good. I know the recipe by heart good. I’ll never not have some in my freezer good. Know what I mean?

Everyone has their own idea of what the perfect chocolate chip cookie should be, and these are definitely mine. They’re soft on the inside and chewy at the edges, gorgeously rippled on the surface and full of deep, nutty, caramel flavor within. Plus they’re pockmarked with puddles of pure chocolate, and do I need to keep describing these? Are you just going to make them already? No mixer required! No waiting for butter to soften! No “curing” dough in the fridge for 24-48 hours! You could be eating them in like 20 minutes. Go. Go now.

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Brown Sugar Cherry Pound Cake

July 24, 2018 by mollygilbert520 1 Comment

When Sarah calls you up and asks if you want to bake something, the correct answer is always yes. Yes! You’ll shout into the phone, not caring what day of the week it is or what you might have planned to do that afternoon. New plan: bake with Sarah.

So that’s where I found myself one bright afternoon, sitting with Sarah in my kitchen nook, the two of us staring at a giant bowl of cherries on the countertop and leafing through a mound of cookbooks for inspiration. Pound cake! We decided. What does Ina have to say about it? We wondered.

Ina had a few things to say about her pound cake (honey, pure cake flour, no cherries, etc.), but between Sarah and my meddling the finished recipe was a far cry from the original – laced with almond extract, spelt flour, a healthy amount of brown sugar, and studded throughout with fresh cherry jewels.

We watched season 5 of the Great British Bake Off while our own cake baked, which is something I recommend doing, regardless of whether or not you make this recipe. (A Mel/Sue sandwich is always a good idea, y’know?) Anyway, despite all of the meddling, and the fact that we were distracted by television and missed our baking timers, the finished product – our brown sugar cherry pound cake – turned out to be quite simple and fresh, a perfectly dense and buttery cake, topped with a bright and cheerful glaze in the loveliest (slash trendiest) of summer hues.

Bottom line is it’s scrummy. Will you try it? On your mark, get set, BAKE!

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Summer Corn Chowder with Fresh Herbs

July 10, 2018 by mollygilbert520 12 Comments

Oh, hi. HI! I’m here. Are you still here?

It seems like what started out as a nice, holiday hiatus from writing turned into a nice, half-year long hiatus from writing. Oops. I have lots of reasons. Firstly, I’m (at this point) very pregnant with bebe number two, and for awhile the thought of cooking anything except cheese and crackers made my stomach churn. (If you’ve been looking for more cheese and cracker recipes, I sincerely apologize.)

But mainly, I’ve stayed away from writing here because, with everything happening politically in my country (and the world over, for that matter) I just haven’t felt right posting sunny anecdotes and recipes. I mean, the Idiot in Chief over here (and his spineless idiot administration) is gleefully promoting racism (oh, and sexism, too) as his core agenda, stripping minority groups of basic rights, ignoring common sense gun initiatives (while Americans drown in gun violence), trying to gut the healthcare system, and putting babies in concentration camps, but yes, here, do enjoy this baked chicken. It’s the best baked chicken. Tremendous.

On the other hand… we’ve all got to eat, right? I miss writing here, and I miss the community we’ve built around these stories and recipes. I’m going to be back here more, posting sunny anecdotes and recipes, yes, because food is good for the soul and because we all need an escape now and then. But now you know where I stand, and what else is on my mind (#resistance). We’ll get through this, one way or another — and in the meantime, there’s summer corn chowder.

PS – for those of you who might want to tell me to stick to food, leave politics out of it, blah blah, please save it. Politics are everywhere, whether you realize it or not — from your clothing choices to your favorite brand of coffee. And now is the time to engage. (Plus this is my blog and I’ll write what I want to. Don’t @ me, bruh.) LOVE YOU MEAN IT xox

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Orange Chocolate Almond Biscotti

December 21, 2017 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, I don’t think you could have paid me to eat biscotti.

To kid-me, an oblong brick of a “cookie” filled to the brim with nuts and dried fruits (and any other non-chocolate addition) merited every last quotation around the word.

Give me chocolate chip! Give me snickerdoodle! Hell, give me a fig newton, but keep that biscotti away from me, will you?

Oh, how times change. I’ve lived, guys, and I’ve learned. It turns out that biscotti don’t have to be tooth-breakingly hard. They don’t have to contain aniseed, or any other flavors/spice you dislike.

Biscotti can be tender and crumbly and even worthy of the chocolate chip! And dunked in some coffee, tea, or a cold glass of milk? Ho ho ho, everybody. Merry almost-Christmas to me!

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I Think Thursday 12.21.17

December 21, 2017 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

Happy last Thursday before Christmas! I’m hoping to get you at least one more cookie recipe for the big man comes down from the North Pole, but I’m notoriously bad at blogging so let’s see, shall we?

Here, some links for you!

Looking for a delicious, make-ahead holiday meal? Truffle Mushroom Lasagna!
Speaking of Truffle Mushroom Lasagna, I should mention that One Pan & Done (also Sheet Pan Suppers, obvs) make excellent holiday gifts! 😉
Aretha sings Adele? OKAY.
A real cheese-tastrophy.
I could watch this all daaaaaay.
If Joy says bake, we bake.
An important reminder.
And this, too.

White Chocolate & Peppermint Dipped Chocolate Roll-Outs

December 18, 2017 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

More cookies! Because honestly, why not?

I’ve loved these Chocolate Roll-Out cookies since I discovered them (thanks, as always, Deb!) a few years ago. They’re soft and brownie-like, but in a rollable cookie form, which means fun shapes and glazes and toppings galore.

I should note that they’re also fantastic plain, without any of that kind of fanfare.

But it’s the season for fanfare! In the form of a smooth white chocolate dunk, and then a heavy sprinkle of crushed candy canes. It’s Christmas in a cookie – absolute perfection.

White Chocolate & Peppermint Dipped Chocolate Roll-Outs…

I Think Thursday 12.14.17

December 14, 2017 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

It’s the third-to-last Thursday of the year! Wowza. I am, very appropriately, drowning in cookies and latkes this week. It’s a delicious sort of suffocation.

How about some links, yes?

Need a nice homemade hostess gift – or maybe just a gift to yourself? Meyer Lemon Almond Loaf Cake!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
I still love these memes. The Gryffindor one 😂
Adding to my to-make list.
This is really important.
The enduring power of aunties.
Ugh.
For the love of poems/doughnuts.
But like, why?

Citrus Chicken with Olives & Herbs

December 13, 2017 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

We’re not even halfway through December, but I’ve already eaten so. many. cookies!

My freezer is stocked with buttery balls of dough, and there might be hints of chocolate and/or molasses running through my veins as we speak.

I’m not complaining – I feel pretty good about it, actually – but there comes a time when something a little more savory is in order. A proper dinner!

A simple roasted chicken dish, warm and bright with fresh citrus, briny olives and green herbs, fits the bill.

This one is easy enough to throw together on a weeknight, but it’s also elegant enough for company. It’s richly flavored and soul-warming, though the ingredient list is short and simple.

During this month of holiday cheer (complete with heavy plates and yes, maybe too many cookies), this is a good recipe to have on hand.

Consider this the final installment (part 4, if you will) of my seasonal “Whole Bird Cooking” series! In case you missed them, here are parts 1 and 2 and 3!

In partnership with Draper Valley Farms. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Dunk & Crumble!…