small scale baking for home cooks & pastry nerds
There’s something ridiculously indulgent about having freshly baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast. There’s also something ridiculously annoying about having to wake up hours before the cinnamon rolls are ready. I always wind up hungry long before the rolls are ready to go into the oven. … Read More
There’s a few things I store in excess in my apartment. Massive bars of chocolate from Trader Joes (10 out of 10 would recommend). Rice, because Loml doesn’t seem to realize you can buy bags of rice that aren’t 500 lbs. And flour. Not just … Read More
An elegant dessert for two – this mini tart is filled with toasted pecans, salted caramel and a layer of chocolate. The perfect treat for a date night or special occasion.
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When life gets a bit too stressful it’s important to take a deep breath and then make an unreasonably complicated tart. Loml copes by exercising and meditating, I cope by trying to figure out how many different layers I can fit into a 5-inch mini chocolate tart.
(The 2020 US Election has led to the creation of 1 million new desserts (also 90% of statistics are made up) and this tart is one of them)
As you may have guessed I spent election night flipping through news channels and crafting this little chocolate tart. It’s a small two-person chocolate tart, filled with salted caramel and toasted pecans. I’ve named it “Election Day Tart”, but really it’s a lovely little tart that should be eaten at all times (not just election times).
Normally I stick to pretty simple approachable recipes that you can pull together quickly. This isn’t normally (for a lot of reasons). Instead, I’ve gone for something that uses minimal ingredients, reasonably simple skills, but takes some time to do. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of steps, instead, take your time to work through this recipe and use the time to reflect on life and feel a little meditative.
Bonus: you could definitely order take out, make this little mini chocolate tart and have a brilliant date night because this is a brilliant date night dessert recipe for two (or for one TBH)!
If you’ve never made pastry by hand I’d recommend you look for a youtube video so that you can see the technique. If you’re used to making pastry then dive right on in. Rub the butter into the flour, salt, and sugar. Stir in the water and refrigerate the pastry.
Whip up a really quick caramel. No need for a thermometer for this just melt the sugar and let it brown a bit before you stir in the rest of the ingredients. Salt it to taste and then set it aside.
Line your tart tin with the pastry and fill it with pie weights. I have this tart ring kit because I’m obsessed with cute mini tart pans (and cute huge tart pans let’s be honest here…), but you can definitely make this in a couple smaller tart rings or even in a muffin pan.
Bake the pastry for 15 minutes then remove the weights and bake until the base is golden. I used a 5-inch tart ring for this but you could also make tarts using a normal cupcake pan. If you do that you should be able to make two tarts.
Give your pecans a quick toast and then make the ganache by pouring hot cream over chopped chocolate.
Pour the caramel into the tart, layer in the pecans, and then top with the chocolate ganache. Refrigerate it until set and then enjoy!
They say once you have been to New York you keep a little part of it in your heart forever. Or at least Adele said that on SNL recently. Personally, I think the piece I kept was a deep and undying love for bagels with … Read More
Easy slice and bake cookies with toasted pecans and chocolate. These can be made ahead and baked from frozen! These slice and bake pecan chocolate chip shortbread cookies are honestly some of my favorite cookies. They’re made in a log that you can keep in … Read More
A lovely little coffee and cardamom cake that’s perfect for two people and doesn’t require any special equipment!
This site contains affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links. However, please know that I only provide links to products that I actually use and wholeheartedly recommend!
You know when you’re a young child in middle school and you get home from school and you’re just really craving a nice white chocolate cardamom mousse? No? Weird.
That was totally me.
I was such a weird kid, to be honest, but the love for cardamom has persisted. This cake is a tribute to that love for cardamom and my addiction to coffee. It’s a fantastically light cake that I pair with either tahini icing or coffee frosting depending on my mood.
(Question, is there a difference between icing and frosting ?)
I currently own cake pans in 5 different sizes, which is completely absurd, and I completely realize that most people aren’t quite as cake pan obsessed as me. All this to say I wanted a small cake recipe that didn’t rely on you owning a mini cake pan! So I’ve gone a little rogue with this and made the cake in a loaf pan and then sliced and stacked it to create a layer cake. (If you do have a mini cake pan then I high key recommend this mini chocolate cake recipe
You can totally eat it as a loaf, but if you want to create a cute little layer cake then you should 100% do it! There are two ways to do this. You can either level the top of the loaf and then slice into three rectangles to get a cute little rectangular cake. It’ll look a bit like a strange townhouse….
Option two is to use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles of cake. If you want to do it this way I’d recommend leveling the cake first and then cutting the circles in half to get two thinner circles. You can then stack these circles to get a more traditional looking round cake!
And that’s it! It’s a super simple recipe in terms of equipment!
Combine the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in a second. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir together to combine.
Grease and flour a loaf pan and then fill with the cake batter. Bake on 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Choose whether you’d like to make the tahini or coffee icing and then just beat together all the ingredients either by hand with a whisk or with an electric mixer.
Start by leveling the top of the cake and if you want really straight sides then level the sides too so you get a perfect rectangular prism.
Now slice the rectangular into three even slices. Layer icing onto one piece, stack the second piece on top, and spread with more icing. Add your final layer and top with the last of the icing. Decorate with sprinkles or whatever takes your fancy!
Grab the largest round cookie cutter you have (but make sure it isn’t too big to fit on the loaf!). Level the top of the cake and then cut out two circles from the loaf. You can then slice these two down the middle to get a total of four rounds. If you have a smaller cookie cutter you may be able to get more layers – you could even make two individual-sized cakes if your cutters are really small!
Once you have all your circles you can stack them with icing between each layer of cake. Finish with a final layer of icing on the top and then decorate with sprinkles (sort of optional – mostly not optional)
Recently I’ve been trying (really trying here) to bake a reasonable amount for two people (instead of 10). Initially, I was reducing recipes by literally just using smaller quantities, but then I started needing “1/7th of an egg” and obnoxious things like that. So now … Read More
This super simple apple tart is made by layering apple sauce and apples on top of store bought puff pastry and baking until crispy and delicious. It’s incredibly easy to make but looks impressive! I believe that the best desserts are chocolate desserts. I just … Read More
I think we can all agree that fall more or less exists so that we can enjoy fall baking. I’m so excited for everything apple-flavored. I’m already looking forward to making spice cakes and pumpkin bread. And of course, I adore having apple cider donuts.
I love that in fall people just seem to have a general desire to eat baked goods and feel cozy. I’m really not a cold weather person, but I’m so excited for cold weather baking!
In celebration of the season, Loml and I are in full-on apple consumption mode. We had apple pancakes for breakfast the other day. We’ve been guzzling apple cider. And recently I made a batch of the best apple cider donuts (or really the best apple cider donut holes) that we devoured in two days.
There are a few things that make this recipe really work. The first is concentrating the apple cider, which is always a great way to improve any apple cider based recipe!
But there’s one trick I use here that I’d recommend using in most baked donut recipes.
I add apple cider vinegar to the milk.
This turns your milk into a buttermilk substitute, which results in super fluffy donuts. You could also use buttermilk but I don’t normally stock buttermilk in my fridge because it just feels like one more thing I need to find space for. Instead, just add a tiny bit of vinegar to your milk and you get quasi buttermilk that does awesome things to the texture of your donuts.
Pour 2/3 of a cup apple cider into a pan and simmer it on medium-low heat until it’s reduced in volume to 1/4 of a cup. This intensifies the flavor of the apple cider and lets you increase the apple cider flavor of your donut without including too much extra liquid!
While the cider is simmering preheat the oven to 350 F and prep your mini muffin pan by greasing the cavities with butter. You could definitely use a donut pan if you have one, you’ll just need to increase your cooking time by a few minutes.
Start by combining the sugars, melted butter, egg white, milk, and vinegar in one bowl. In a second bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk it well to make sure everything is evenly combined.
Let the cider cool for five minutes before whisking it into the wet ingredients.
Pour all of the wet ingredients into the dry ones and whisk until just combined.
Spoon your batter into the donut pan, filling each cavity about 3/4 of the way full.
Pop the donuts in the oven and bake them for 8-10 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. When they’re ready, if you press gently on the top they should spring back into shape.
While the donuts are cooking, combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping.
Let the donuts cool for a few minutes before popping them out of the pan and dropping them straight into the sugar. Toss them around a bit to coat them before moving them to a cooling rack.
These will stay fresh for at least two days at room temperature (keep them covered) so you can make them ahead if you want!
A fall brunch for two people (or an ode to the Apple Pancake) I think Saturday morning brunches are potentially the definition of happiness. There’s just something so insanely perfect about having good food (ideally an apple pancake) and the whole weekend stretching out ahead … Read More