Newest Recipe Testing! – Sally’s Baking Habit

Welcome to a different rendition of my Newest Recipe Testing sequence!

By no means have I been within the kitchen a lot, so usually, and with so many flops. It’s a numbers sport. I’m presently testing recipes for proper now, for the vacation baking season, and for my cookbook. So, I’m sure to have extra recipe disasters, proper?

Over the previous a number of years, as the vacation baking season turns into increasingly more distinguished on my web site, I’ve discovered that I gained’t have the ability to sustain except I’ve a inventory of content material able to go. My web site sees essentially the most web site visitors from September via December, and I need to make the most of the need for fall and vacation baking! Final yr I printed about 30 brand-new recipes throughout that point, and I plan for a similar quantity of content material this yr.

I have already got 4 executed!

So proper now, my workforce and I are balancing recipes for 3 completely different time frames. It’s been arduous to mentally arrange when leaping between adorning Valentine’s Day cookies for now, photographing pies for Pie Week later within the yr, and creating new recipes for my cookbook, which gained’t come out till 2024 or 2025.

We dedicate 1 week monthly to every of the three. That’s one of the best ways I’ve discovered to compartmentalize all this content material!

Bran Muffins That Don’t Style Like Cardboard

One of many first tasks I labored on this yr was my recipe for wholesome bran muffins. I performed round with the quantity of wheat bran, flour, and liquid just a few occasions till I reached a pleasant steadiness of hearty and smooth, with out tasting like cardboard. (At all times a pleasant bonus.)

One of many take a look at batches was tasty, however the batter was fairly skinny and the ensuing muffins had been squat and greasy. Including a bit of extra flour bulked up the batter, and the ultimate batch was a hit.

Saucy Blueberry Sauce & Lemon Cheesecake

The primary photograph on this submit is my blueberry sauce topping. This one didn’t want an excessive amount of testing, as I used the swirl from this blueberry swirl cheesecake and topping from this blueberry cream cheese pie as my place to begin. I added significantly extra water so the sauce is, properly, saucy. 😉

I even have a brand new recipe for lemon cheesecake on my web site. For this recipe, I used my key lime cheesecake as the bottom, and infused the sugar with lemon zest for additional taste. This was simple to check as properly—I like making cheesecake.

The Unbelievable Shrinking Cake

I developed this chocolate raspberry cake primarily for the raspberry filling, by fashionable demand. Over time I’ve obtained numerous requests for a raspberry cake filling recipe, and now the reply is… sure, I’ve one!!

I based mostly the chocolate cake batter on this recipe for darkish chocolate peanut butter cake, however by chance used 8-inch pans as an alternative of 9-inch pans. Whereas this often isn’t an enormous deal—simply want to regulate the bake time—I truly overfilled the 8-inch pans, which did nothing in my favor. The cake layers baked up within the strangest approach and appeared like brains. Completely unintentional, however perhaps I’m onto one thing for Halloween? LOL.

The desserts rose up, sank down within the facilities, and completed with unhappy crinkle-wrinkle facilities. The lesson right here is: don’t overfill your cake pans, and use the really helpful cake pan measurement.

Baking does require utilizing your mind (particularly when doing the maths for cake pan sizes and conversions!), however desserts that look like brains had been undoubtedly not what I used to be going for.

Nice information… you may bake a non-brain cake by following my chocolate raspberry cake recipe. 😉

Strawberry Cream-Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes

My recipe for chocolate-covered strawberry cupcakes was initially printed in 2018. I not too long ago modified the chocolate cupcake batter so it matches my cream-filled chocolate cupcakes. (That are fairly presumably the very best cupcakes I’ve ever made, and I stand agency on that.) The up to date batter merely bakes up stronger, and holds the strawberry buttercream a bit of higher. They’re deeply chocolatey and additional moist. Like Hostess cupcakes, with a strawberry twist.

When you liked the previous model, the batter matched these chocolate cupcakes!

Getting a Head Begin on Sally’s Cookie Palooza 2023

I’m actually excited to publish a recipe for gingerbread cookie bars later this yr. My first batch was supremely flavorful and spiced (simply what I wished!), however the texture was utterly off. They had been fluffy and cake-like, as in the event you had been consuming a heavy sq. of gingerbread cake:

I had feeling concerning the cookie dough, although. It’s just like my chewy chocolate chip cookies, and so I made a decision to scale back the flour and bake the dough in a bigger pan. The bars had been thinner, which made them flatter and chewier. That is simply what I wished: dense, chewy, moist, spiced, excellent.

That recipe is coming in December. Instructed you I used to be getting forward!

Nonetheless on a ginger molasses kick, I made a decision to bake a batch of those white chocolate chip molasses cookies in hopes to replace the photographs. Nicely, I forgot to set the oven timer, took a cellphone name, forgot they had been within the oven, turned the oven off, then 2 hours later preheated the oven for one thing else.

As my assistant, Beth, and I went to place some bread within the oven, we discovered a baking sheet of lumpy hockey pucks. The cookies baked as supposed, after which continued their oven journey because the oven cooled down, and preheated once more. I’m unhappy to report that they didn’t survive the whirlwind journey.

Oven timers… time and time once more… show to be helpful. 😉

Q: Have you ever had a recipe fail recently?

Cookbook Sneak Peek

My subsequent cookbook is properly underway, and it’s untitled in the mean time! This baking cookbook shall be my greatest but. 100 baking recipes divided amongst chapters together with yeast bread, breakfast, cookies, desserts, fast breads, cupcakes, and extra. The e-book shall be principally new and unique recipes to the e-book, and also will embrace a handful of the preferred recipes on my web site. Will probably be good to have them professionally printed in a tangible e-book!

My manuscript deadline is a yr away, after which the e-book will proceed within the modifying and design phases earlier than heading to print. Thanks upfront on your endurance. That is the primary time I’ve written such a big manuscript, whereas concurrently managing staff, working a big web site, and elevating youngsters!

And looking for time to relaxation and recharge so my inventive juices proceed to move!

The newest cookbook recipe I examined was a spin on my buttermilk biscuits. Assume bacon, spicy honey, cheddar cheese, and chives. My knees truly went weak on the first style. And also you’ll get pleasure from recipes for smooth jalapeño bread, deeply chocolate cheesecake, one other recipe for chewy molasses cookies (I’m on a kick!), and you may guess these fashionable banana muffins will make an look. I can’t wait to share extra with you! Keep tuned.