Maple Olive Oil Gingersnaps

These cookies were in response to a special request from my mom, who, upon reading about my Ginger Honey Cookies, suddenly realized that it had been years since she has had homemade gingersnaps. She requested actual gingersnaps, but, even though I'm a wonderful daughter (of course!!) I had to go and mess with a good thing. Once again, I took up the Kitchenaid at the very last minute, so when I discovered (yet again) the lack of molasses I shrugged my shoulders and reached for the honey. But when I found that I only had a measly 1/4 cup of butter left over in the fridge, I figured - what the heck, let's throw the ol' honey gingersnaps into the wind and just go all out in trying something totally different.

To replace the dark syrupy sweetness of molasses I reached for maple syrup - this was going to be a strong, powerful cookie. A little richer than the ginger honey cookies. If you make these, be sure to use the good stuff - that cornstarchy nonsense that passes for syrup won't do you any favors. And instead of butter, I've used olive oil in the past for cakes with excellent results, so olive oil it was. Nudge the ginger honey cookies here and there, and this is what you get:

The result? Rich flavors from the maple syrup and ginger, more crispness because of the olive oil, and still a bit of nice chew and bite. Delish.

Peach Tea Muffins

You know, sometimes the unthinkable happens, and you end up with a surplus of peaches.

I know, sacrilege! How did this happen?!

Perhaps it was the fact that it's finally fig season!

Perhaps it was the fact that I got distracted by custard apples found in Chinatown...

Perhaps it was the fact that a pluot found its way into my cart...

Perhaps it was the fact that sometimes grapes taste like cotton candy...

No, seriously - they taste EXACTLY like cotton candy. So much so that you can't eat more than five at a time.
My cotton candy snarfing days are behind me I guess.

Whatever it was, I ended up with extra peaches on hand that were in imminent danger of becoming inedibly overripe. That, friends, would obviously be unacceptable. And when one is faced with a cloudy lazy end-of-summer Sunday, there is only one thing to set about: baking.

Cardamom Shortbread Cookies for a Cloudy Afternoon

Ouuuuuf this cloudy dreary day is quite depressing!

You know what would help? Some quick and easy cookies with a nice hot cup of tea.

An Impromptu Cream Tea

In preparation for afternoon tea tomorrow, JLee decided to come over and help me figure out my first ever batch of scones. Whew I'm glad she was there to give extremely important input on what "coarse meal" is supposed to look like and whether freezing butter is a good idea (it is! for scones that is). Later in the afternoon while we were making honey butter to go with the scones, Y came over and we ended up having a mini afternoon tea of our own :-) 

Birthday Baking - Peach Pie

Birthday week!

My dad’s birthday is the day before mine, so mid-July is generally “birthday week” for us! This one was a lovely birthday – got a pedicure, D took me out for a delicious dinner, and then he surprised me with Sleep No More! Fantastic! And over the weekend, my parents are coming over to spend the day.

As always, any celebration must occur around food, so lunch is on the books. But it’s birthday week, after all, so I thought maybe something extra was called for. And look at these delicious peaches and plumogranates (have you ever heard of them?) that FreshDirect* had on offer!! 

Yum. Combine that with pie week on TheKitchn, and you’ve got a craving for a delicious peach pie right there. Of course what started with peach pie could only grow bigger, so right now I’m planning an “afternoon tea” with peach pie, blueberry scones, and cucumber-mint-cream cheese tea sandwiches. All rounded out with a pot of good ol’ black tea and maybe some pomegranate tea if we’re feeling fancy (aka if we want to do more dishes).