Thursday, February 12, 2015

Almond Sugar Cookies



I love Valentine's Day. It's a very weird thing for me. If you know me, you know that I don't love a lot of things . . . especially anything that's a spectacle or a holiday. Working 5 years at a bakery and making sugar cookies in every holiday's special shape thousands of time over really sucks the holiday love right out of a person . . . but not Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day has just always been very cheery and cute. I love the little valentines that kids hand out at school and EVERYONE is included. I love that my mom would always get my brothers and I sweet and thoughtful gifts (my first ever CD was a Valentine's gift -- Hanson!). And my friends have recently joined in, thoughtful as they are, buying me cute gifts to celebrate this holiday of love.

I just love it. And I love the people in my community that I get to do life with, and so I made them almond sugar cookies with the cutest mini heart sprinkles.

Embrace the commercialism. Accept the love. Make the cookies.

Happy Valentine's Day!
XXOOXXOO

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Proper (Gluten-Free) Scones


I like to think of myself as "The One Who Can Make All of Your Pastry Dreams Come True". It is a big title, I realize, but when a friend tells me they haven't had ______ since leaving home ages ago, it is entirely too sad for me to handle. I must fix this problem and fill the need for a food they once found so lovely and comforting.

This is what happened with my friend Heather. She is from England but has been in The States for many years now. She recently told me that she's not had a "proper scone" in her entire time here. American scones, I am told, are filled with too many things, are entirely too large, and "why are they all shaped like triangles??"

And so I was determined to find the simplest scone recipe I could find. Thankfully, I remembered seeing a "simple scones" recipe in Alice Medrich's new cookbook. They were small and round and looked "proper" enough to me. I just made a few adjustments before baking and delivering them along with some créme fraîche and raspberry jam. They were Brit approved, and another pastry dream was made reality.

About Me

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Salt Lake City, Utah
As a pastry chef by trade and by hobby, being diagnosed with Celiac Disease has not been easy. But through some experimental baking and a whole lot of faith, I'm living a full(er) life.