There’s no better time than right now to be struck with corn-spiration. Knee high by the Fourth of July, as they say! I can have a one-track mind when it comes to recipe ideating and creation. A few months ago it was black sesame, before that it was peanut butter, then matcha, then strawberry. It can be freeing to not feel the pressure to chase down a bunch of rabbit holes of different flavor combinations or new twists on classics (what I usually like to do) and just zero in on one ingredient and see how many recipes I can make from it. Creativity actually loves rules!

Thanks to my corn cream trifles, Bon Appétit interviewed me last year (among a few of my awesome colleagues) about the corn dessert sensation sweeping the nation. Of course, as with many trends, what’s old is new — corn sweets have been around forever — and they certainly took off in other countries, especially in Asia, long before we caught on.

But I don’t think this trend is going anywhere for a while, so coming up on easygayoven are three very corny recipes. (Follow along for ice cream and madeleines.)

More corn recipes….

When I hacked into the mainframe of easygayoven and combed through the data, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that pies were solidly in the top four (out of about 17) categories of most popular recipes. You people love pie! And whether you’re a cream pie or a fruit pie lover, this will satisfy you.

In this recipe, blueberry filling is cooked in a press-in corn cookie crust (way easier than regular pie dough, just saying) then it’s topped with a corn milk pastry cream to set in the fridge before, optionally, being loaded up with a mountain of whipped cream. It really is a summer produce fever dream, even if I used frozen blueberries; they’re good and cheap — sorry! The oven gets cranked up to only 350°F and the pie is only in there for 25 minutes (I made this on a 97°F day, which is why I’m telling you this) and the rest happens on the stovetop and the fridge.

So, yes, is a hybrid of a baked and cold-set pie. However, initially I attempted to bake it all in stages like my rhubarb custard pie: crust, then crust with rhubarb, then all together with the custard poured on top. This had some disapointing results as the blueberry filling started lifting up and floating to the top in some places and the corn custard never really set. Then I tried cooking the custard on the stove and spreading it onto the baked blueberry filling before slotting it into the fridge. This turned out to be easier, faster and less messy.

Don’t be hesitant to cook your pastry cream until very thick! I know it’s tempting to pull it early once it begins to thicken up, but you need to let it bubble to activate the cornstarch and then cook it for about three more minutes. This makes sure it will hold its shape in a clean slice after chilled. I pulled this batch a little early (and it had slightly less cornstarch than the final) which is why the whipped cream looks like it’s weighing the custard down. It eventually set up fine — and tasted amazing anyway!

Makes one 9-inch pie, about 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

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Last September, I asked the easygayoven audience what their biggest baking frustrations are, and I wrote a Q&A post attempting to solve some of them. I promised to do a Part 2 with even more problem-solving and now, nearly a year later… I’m ready to publish the follow-up. Most of these quandaries have easy fixes, and some, you may be disappointed to hear, are just part of life.

“Different baking trays give me different results with the same batch of cookie dough.”

Absolutely they do! Pan material, color and shape affect the finish bake on cookies — and everything else. Dark cookie sheets will cook your dough faster, leading to overdone outsides and underdone insides. Ceramic and stainless steel pans are worse at conducting heat than aluminum (the preference among bakers). Even factors like whether the cookie sheet has a lip or not can make a difference, as completely flat sheets allow hot air to circulate better around the cookies. I like Nordic Ware Naturals aluminum half-sheet pans as well as Fat Daddio’s.

“When I use slightly different pan sizes than the recipe calls for, the results end up very different.”

It is frustrating to not have the right pan size or shape for a recipe you want to make. For some recipes, you can get away with playing fast and loose with pan size (I do it sometimes!) like subbing in an nine-inch round tin for a eight-inch round tin. For two-inch-deep pans, that’s still a pretty big difference in volume — about 26.6% or about two and a half cups. So is the pan you have tall enough to hold all of your batter, or do you need to split it up lest it overflow? Are you willing to let the cake cook longer so that it’s done on the inside, but maybe a little over-baked on the outside?

All that being said, if you’re going to make swaps, try to opt for a slightly larger pan over a slightly smaller pan, and adjust for a shorter bake time. And don’t overfill tins; doing so means overflowing batters or undercooked insides and overcooked outsides. As a good rule of thumb (not law), keep the batter level at or under about two-thirds tin capacity.

“When a cake burns on top but isn’t cooked inside”

Combining both of the above questions, this is probably caused by an oven that’s too hot, a pan that’s too narrow or too shallow, or a tin that is dark-colored. Get an oven thermometer and the right size pan — light-colored aluminum ones are best.

“I struggle with organization.”

This is something I’ve had to learn over the years. If you can’t easily find your tools or ingredients, it’s almost as bad as not having them at all. Here are some tips that have helped me get organized:

• The IKEA OMAR shelving unit saved me when I started doing baking full-time. It’s versatile, practically indestructible, easy to put together and take apart, and sends the mess upwards and not sprawling outwards.

• I put little bins from The Container Store on the OMAR shelves to separate my cookie cutters, sprinkle collection, camera gear, food colorings and other small stuff I don’t reach for all the time. They’re clear so I can see what’s in them!

• I love my knife mag strip and I’m thinking about getting a peg board!

• I use little drawer inserts from IKEA and The Container Store to easily find my piping tips, mini offset spatulas and measuring spoons. That way they don’t get lose in the sea of bigger utensils.

• I invested in some nice OXO food storage containers for sugar and flours.

• Shelf risers and spice risers are your friend.

• Watch my kitchen tour part 1 and part 2 for more info on how I organize!

“Portions! I’m cooking for max one to two people.”

Imagine how I feel! Unfortunately, scaling down most baking recipes is easier said than done. For starters, some require just one egg, which is annoying and wasteful to divide. Cooking times will also change drastically depending on how much of a recipe component or batch you’re making. Plus, at a certain point, unless you’re working with miniature kitchen equipment, cooking small batches of some things, like pastry cream for instance, just doesn’t make sense. Now is this to say you can’t scale down a muffin or cookie recipe by half? No, go for it! But in general, I’d stick to recipes specifically developed for small servings, of which there is a growing contingent of online. Also Edd Kimber (@theboywhobakes) has a great book on this called Small Batch Bakes.

“Getting great texture with less sugar”

This is not something we think about too much here at EGO HQ, but I realize it is a valid concern. I’m glad you acknowledge that sugar isn’t just about sweetness or flavor, it’s a key factor in giving cakes, cookies, etc, their structure and color. Because of that, simply reducing the amount of sugar in a recipe, without accounting for those factors with other ingredients or techniques, can spell disaster. If I were you, I’d look at Joanne Chang’s Baking with Less Sugar.

“Greasing and lining pans“

I don’t know what to say! You gotta do it. And little differences like baking spray vs. butter, or dusting the tin with flour, or using parchment, really matter. Here’s a tutorial from me on an easy way to line round tins.

After the paywall….

• Dense muffins and breads??

• Baking at high altitudes??

• U.S. to metric??

• Activating yeast???

• Cake-y and/ or puddle cookies??

• Dividing batter between tins???

  

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Welcome to the third installment of Cookie of the Month Club, where I’ll be concocting an inventive new cookie recipe every month. (And as always, you all will be the first to know about them.) To keep it fresh I’m going to organize the series into themed seasons. The season for the next few months: “United States of Cookies,” where I’m making cookies inspired by different U.S. states. We’ve already done Ohio and Massachusetts. Follow along to see if I develop one inspired by yours!

As part of my ideating for this series, I keep a big long list of all the U.S. states. Next to each one I write what I know they’re known for, or what the commenters tell me they think they’re known for, and for Maryland, two food items kept coming up. The first: Berger cookies, the cake-y vanilla cookie topped with a mountain of chocolate frosting, almost reminiscent of a black and white cookie. The second: Old Bay, duh.

Old Bay on toasted pita chips and crab dip? Yes, absolutely. But Old Bay… in my cookies? Let’s just say that had I never done this series, this never would have happened. But Berger cookies are already cookies, and I like to make things hard for myself…

I knew it was going to be hard to steer the overpowering, somewhat herby, and super savory flavor of this spice blend in a direction that would make sense with sweets. I’ve seen it done with cheddar (check out my peanut butter cheddar cookies) gochujang (should out to Eric Kim’s recipe) but this seemed like a stretch. The exact formulation is secret, but Old Bay is a combination of celery salt, paprika, red pepper, black pepper and other herbs and spices. So how do you fight something really savory? Balance it out with something really, really sweet.

I tried three variations of the swirl before landing on one. The first was a combination of butter, sugar and Old Bay (taking inspiration from Eric Kim’s recipe). That held its shape well, but it was still way too salty and bold, and the color was an unappealing salmon hue. I tried a combination of the seasoning, honey and butter, which had a more balanced flavor and more vibrant color, but didn’t hold its shape well. Then I started seeing listings for Old Bay caramel corn in my research (this cookie was almost a caramel corn cookie) which inspired the caramel swirl.

The smokiness of the caramel plays nice with the savory Old Bay, the amber caramel color helps the color of the seasoning shine through, and the sweetness factor is high enough to bridge the gap between a seafood boil and a sugar cookie. And a little lemon zest and (optional) extract in the cookie dough gives it a subtle brightness to lift up all those other heavy flavors. And I will still say: They’re still not for everyone! If you don’t like Old Bay, you won’t like these cookies!

Listen, these cookies are not the prettiest girl at the prom. Because caramel expands in the oven, there will be caramel blowouts, and though I have tried to mitigate that as much as possible, it’s just become part of the charm of this recipe. (Tip: Using a cookie scoop will help them stay as round as possible.) You can tidy up any misshapen cookies by either slicing off the lacy caramel skirt with a knife or by pushing it back into the cookie with a rubber spatula. You can also run the rubber spatula along any misshapen edges to make them more circular. Perform both of these cosmetic tricks while the cookies are fresh from the oven.

Lastly, the recipe makes about double the amount caramel you need for the cookies. Don’t be tempted to add more to the dough — the cookie will disintegrate. I compromised here to avoid bizarre measurements and the pain of cooking a very small amount of caramel. But it means you can slice and wrap little bite-size pieces of the caramel once set, so there’s that!

More from United States of Cookies

More Fun Cookies

Makes 14 to 16 large cookies

Ingredients

Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (293 grams)

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup plus two tablespoons granulated sugar (240 grams)

• Zest of 2 lemons

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, gently melted (170 grams)

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoons lemon extract (optional)

Old Bay caramel

• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (123 grams)

• 2 tablespoons water

• 2 tablespoons corn syrup (30 grams)

• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream (75 grams)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes (43 grams)

• 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (1/4 teaspoon for table salt)

• 5 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

Directions

1. Make the caramel. Have all ingredients measured out and ready to go. Prep an eighth-sheet tray or a 9x5-inch loaf pan by greasing it with butter and lining with greased parchment paper.

2. Combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, undisturbed, until the sugar is dissolved, the caramel reaches a deep amber color.

3. Immediately add the cream and butter, stirring vigorously with a whisk or rubber spatula until smooth. Stir in the Old Bay seasoning.

4. Return the saucepan to the stove and cook over medium heat until the caramel reaches 250°F. Immediately pour into the prepared vessel and set aside to cool slightly — but don’t let it sit around to completely firm up.

5. Right away, start on the cookies. Stir together the lemon zest and sugar and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

6. Gently melt the butter in the microwave just until liquid there are a few pads of unmelted butter, about 30 seconds. Do not allow to bubble. Whisk in the lemon-zest sugar until combined.

7. Whisk in the egg, vanilla and lemon extract.

8. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

9. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and continue mixing until the last streaks of flour disappear.

10. Spread the dough along the bottom and up the sides of the bowl. Dot the surface of the dough with tablespoon-dollops of half of the caramel, and swirl them into dough to create ribbons of caramel. You don’t need to swirl that much here: Over-swirling will mean you will lose the variation of color and flavor. Reserve the remaining caramel to cut into candies and wrap with wax paper or parchment.

11. Measure out about 2.5 tablespoons of dough for each cookie (a 1.5-ounce, #24 cookie scoop really helps here) to form about 14 to 16 balls. Chill the dough balls, uncovered, in the refrigerator, until very firm, about 2 hours.

12. When the cookies are almost done chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two half-sheet trays with parchment paper or silicone mats and place 5 or 6 dough balls on one.

13. Bake one tray on the middle rack for about 14 to 15 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. At this point caramel will likely be seeping out of the cookies and some might look misshapen— that’s okay. The cookies are done when they are crisp and golden on the edges, and their centers should be just set.

14. Clean up the cookies by either slicing off the lacy caramel skirt with a knife or by pushing it back into the cookie with a rubber spatula. You can also run the rubber spatula along any misshapen edges to make them more circular.

15. Allow the cookies to cool on their trays for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to complete cooling.

16. Repeat in two more batches with the remaining dough balls on a cool, lined tray, or store them, covered, in the fridge or freezer to bake later.

Sometimes an idea gets stuck in the sick head of a recipe developer and, no matter how stupid it seems, he has to try it. I’m of course talking about myself, and that’s what happened with these focaccia ice cream sandwiches. I just kept imagining the fresh, chewy bread giving way to melty vanilla, a little crunch of salt and some bitter, fruity olive oil to take the edge off??? And there’s really nothing I like to do more in the middle of a heatwave than saunter into my kitchen crank up my oven to 450°F, and then try to film an ice cream recipe! How about you?

Originally, I was going to just bake off the focaccia in a 9-inch square tin, but then I considered ring molds to make the bread of the sandwiches cuter and more individual. I then remembered no normal person has ring molds, so I pulled out my much-neglected muffin tin. When baked into little rolls and slices in half, the focaccia is the perfect size to hold one scoop of ice cream and whatever toppings you like. And the best part is, if you don’t use all of your focaccia buns, a world of possibilities opens to you: Meatball sandwiches, bacon egg and cheeses, turkey clubs, Italian subs! You could also choose to bake this in an oiled 9-inch tin or cast iron (see note) and slice the bread how you like.

I’m also giving you the option to garnish with some macerated berries (tastes like no strawberry shortcake you’ve had before.) Don’t let me dampen your creativity though. Drizzling on hot fudge would be a great idea way to evoke the feel of a profiterole. These could also work with other flavors of ice cream: strawberry, lemon, mint chocolate chip, maybe even a blueberry swirl. (I even wanted to do a basil or mint oil drizzle option, but sadly didn’t have the time and also the store was out of basil.) But the simplicity of just plain vanilla bean ice cream with a drizzle of EVOO and some flakey salt? That was close to perfect.

The one down side to this recipe is you can’t really assemble the sandwiches ahead of time. These are best when the focaccia is only a few hours old; the bread will lose its perfect fluffy texture if frozen with the ice cream. You could, however, schedule things differently to save yourself some time/grief when it comes to serving. The focaccia reheats like a dream, so if it’s been sitting around for more than a few hours, just toast the amount of sliced buns you need in a 350°F-oven for a couple minutes, let them cool slightly, then plop on the ice cream. If you even wanted to prep the ice cream scoops, you could scoop them out onto a frozen sheet pan lined with parchment, cover with plastic wrap and return to the freezer.

Serves 12

Ingredients

Focaccias

Read more

Two of my biggest problems with ice cream cake: One, I don’t like the texture of frozen whipped cream and stores will heap so much on it! Two, there is far too little of the best component of most ice cream cakes: the fudge-y chocolate cookie ripple. So we’re fixing both of those here with this recipe. This recipe was for a partner post on socials, but it’s such a banger I had to also share it here so y’all wouldn’t miss it ahead of the holiday.

We’re using store-bought mint-chip ice cream, a homemade brownie base (a variation on my Best-Ever Brownies 2.0), homemade hot fudge draped over a layer of crushed Oreos…. sorry, I drifted off into my food-vision there. When I tell you It tastes just like a certain mint cookies sold by certain scouts… who are young ladies… I have told you the truth.

The brownie and the hot fudge are both very easy on the teeth and the fork thanks to their sugar content. Please ensure, though, that you give the ice cream lots of time to re-freeze and set up, otherwise it’s going to be a slippery mess cutting in. Here’s me, the week of an historic heatwave, giving you an ice cream cake recipe. Good luck out there!

Serves 12 to 14

Ingredients

Brownie base

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (105 grams)

• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar (70 grams)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (56 grams)

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder ( grams)

• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (about 1/4 teaspoon Morton table salt)

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (65 grams)

Fudge sauce topping/filling

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon slices (85 grams)

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (110 grams)

• 1/3 cup natural or Dutch-process cocoa powder (44 grams)

• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup (38 grams)

• 1/2 cup Lactaid whole milk (150 grams)

• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

• 3 ounces chocolate sandwich cookies, creme removed and crushed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F and place one rack in the middle position. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf tin and line with foil. Lightly grease the surface of the foil.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat eggs until fluffy and pale.

3. Add the butter, oil and chocolate chips to a large, microwave-safe mixing bowl and heat in the microwave for in 15 second intervals until the butter is melted and hot, but not sizzling. Stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. While the mixture is still hot, whisk in the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and salt until smooth.

4. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the butter-cocoa-chocolate mixture while still warm (heat it up again in the microwave if necessary) and beat until completely combined, ensuring to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle the baking powder over the batter and beat it in.

5. Fold in the flour just until the last remaining streaks of white disappear.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth it out so it’s level. Bake for 38 to 40 minutes or until the edges are set and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

7. Allow the brownie layer to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

8. Make the hot fudge sauce. In a saucepan or small pot, stir together the sugar, cocoa and salt until combined. Add and corn syrup and butter and cook over medium heat until the mixture is melted. Pour in the heavy cream and continue cooking and stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth and glossy. Once it begins to bubble, continue cooking and stirring until the mixture hits 220°F and immediately remove from heat. Whisk in the vanilla and chocolate until melted, smooth and homogenous. Set aside and allow to cool to around room temperature.

9. Once the brownie is cool, turn on its side and slice evenly to create two thinner layers.

10. Assemble the ice cream cake. Take the bottom half of the brownie layer and place it, cut-side up in the still-lined tin. Dollop half of the quart of Lactaid Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream onto the brownie base and spread it out evenly. Carve out a small divot down the center of the ice cream and fill with the crushed chocolate cookies, also spreading some on the sides of the divot.

11. Pour about half the hot fudge onto the crushed cookies, trying to not disturb them, focusing on the line where you carved out the divot.

12. Return to the freezer to set. Dollop half of the quart of Lactaid Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream onto the set fudge, spread it out evenly, then top with the second brownie base. Return to the freezer for one hour, then unmould it from its tin, invert it onto a serving tray or cutting board so the bottom is now the top, and spread on a layer of the remaining fudge. Return to the freezer to set completely, at least 3 to 4 hours but preferably overnight, before serving.

This is not the gay food blogger you’re looking for!

For this week’s post, we’re doing a Substack Freaky Friday where Harrison Wallace from The Dinner Club is taking over easygayoven. Don’t worry, he’ll be back at home mixing yet another martini before you know it. Meanwhile, Eric is bringing his crave-able, approachable baking to Harrison’s Substack with a recipe for Fruit Pizza with Sugar Cookie Crust. Harrison stopped by EGO HQ in Brooklyn on his trip to NYC last week and chaos ensued (keep your eyes peeled on social for the video evidence.)

A hanger steak is an often overlooked cut that I think is perfect for easy entertaining. One hanger steak should serve two people pretty comfortably, and this recipe is easy to scale up if you’re cooking for a bigger crowd this summer. Pair this with a salad and one of Eric’s many incredible desserts, and you have the ideal summer dinner party menu.

Hanger steak cooks rapidly, is extremely flavorful and is very tender when cooked and sliced properly. It’s also been referred to as a “butcher’s steak” because many butchers would keep this particular cut for themselves (and who can blame them!) This recipe in particular is one that you can have on the table in about 20 minutes, not counting the time it takes to bring the steaks to room temperature. Which, by the way, is not a step I’d recommend skipping. Cooking steaks straight from the fridge means you’re more likely to have a steak that’s overcooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside.

The blistered shishito “chimichurri” is inspired by the steak and eggs on the breakfast menu at my favorite hotel in Las Vegas (I am a proud Vegas apologist and will not be elaborating further!). They serve a single blistered shishito on top of each steak, and it’s the perfect sorta spicy accompaniment that cuts through the richness and fat of the beef. Shishitos themselves are sort of a Vegas metaphor in a way– most are mild, but about one out of every ten peppers packs a real punch.

While the steaks rest, you can make the chimichurri and assemble the whole thing just before serving. If you think you’ll be in a rush at your next party, the chimichurri can absolutely be made in advance if needed. Save any leftovers to spoon over some fried eggs the next morning!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 hanger steaks (about 12 ounces each)

• 2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 tablespoon neutral oil

• 12 shishito peppers

• Half a shallot

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1 cup cilantro

• ½ cup mint

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• ½ cup olive oil

Instructions:

1. Remove the hanger steaks from the fridge and season them generously with the 2 teaspoons of salt. Set aside and allow them to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before cooking. When you’re ready to cook, preheat a large skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Pat the steaks very dry with a paper towel on all sides, then season with the 1 teaspoon black pepper.

2. Add the neutral oil to the skillet, and allow it to heat through for about 15 to 30 seconds, or until the oil is shimmery, and just starting to smoke. Carefully lay the steaks in the pan and allow them to sear for about 45 seconds to a minute before flipping. Continuously flip, rotate and and move the steaks around the pan every 20 seconds or so. This will develop an even crust all over the surface of the steak, and ensure that the inside is evenly cooked.

3. Cook the steaks for about 8 minutes in total, or until the interior reaches 125°F. Transfer the steaks to a plate to rest, and cover loosely with aluminum foil. In the meantime, make the blistered shishito chimichurri.

4. Place the shishito peppers in the hot skillet and allow them to blister and char, undisturbed, for about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the peppers, and char on the other side. Deglaze the pan with a splash of water, and scrape up the browned bits, tossing the peppers in the pan to coat them in the browned bits.

5. Turn the heat off and transfer the peppers to a cutting board. Carefully trim off the tops of the peppers, and then add them to the bowl of a food processor. Add the shallot and garlic cloves to the food processor, and pulse a few times to chop them into fine pieces. Add the cilantro and mint and pulse again until the herbs are finely chopped. Add the red wine vinegar and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Blend until well combined.

6. By now, the steaks are well rested. Slice them against the grain on a slight diagonal angle and arrange on a serving platter. Spoon over the chimichurri and serve.
   

Welcome to the second installment of Cookie of the Month Club, where I’ll be concocting an inventive new cookie recipe every month. (And as always, you all will be the first to know about them.) To keep it fresh I’m going to organize the series into themed seasons. The season for the next few months: “United States of Cookies,” where I’m making cookies inspired by different U.S. states. Follow along to see if I develop one inspired by yours!

When I asked what should be the follow up to our first cookie in the “United States of Cookies, folks had so many great ideas for states and their unique flavors. I didn’t realize how many people would be upset, though, that I wasn’t planning on doing all 50 states. I had no idea this is what would get me canceled. Joking— I’m so glad folks are excited about this series, but I’m sorry I’m just one guy in his kitchen: If I did one of these every month for all 50 states, it would take four years. Even if I put out one cookie every week, it would take until … well, a year from now. And that would mean no other recipes, which I know you wonderful subscribers don’t want.

All that being said, many folks wrote in and said Boston Cream Pie Cookies for Massachusetts, this was already on my list admittedly, as a variation on whoopie pies. And when slotting it into my schedule, I knew June would be the perfect month for its publication. June, as I’m sure you know, is Pride month (in many locations) and Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to legalize gay marriage. I’m even more intent on spotlighting this after some recent national news: After two decades of increasing support for gay marriage, the percent of Americans who say same-sex marriage should be legal is either flatlining among Democrats and Independents, or falling amongst Republicans. And it’s no secret that after coming for abortion and affirmative action, the conservative justices, and several state legislatures, also desperately want a case that lets them overturn the landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which ruled the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples.

That doesn’t even touch on the many other ways the states and our federal government are targeting LGBTQ+ people in other ways, aiming especially at trans people. But that’s why, even when it’s no longer cool for the corporations to change their logos to rainbow mode and do sponsorships with queer creators, we still have Pride. This one goes out to Massachusetts — which one day I’ll learn how to spell on the first try. It takes guts to be the first!

Landing on a base cookie and pastry cream formula for these Boston Cream Whoopie Pies was pretty straightforward. I wanted the cookie to be cakey and a little tangy — like a black and white, but with a higher loft. And I needed a lush pastry cream that would hold its shape as to not sploosh out. But the chocolate crown was eluding me.

I tested four toppings: One, a simple chocolate icing made with melted butter, milk, cocoa and powdered sugar. Two, a classic ganache comprised of chocolate and heavy cream. (This is how most Boston Cream Pies are made, but the original didn’t use it.) Three, a snappy melted chocolate coating, made snappier with the addition of coconut oil (I wasn’t going to make you temper chocolate). The icing was super chocolatey and stood up to the pastry cream, but was dull and ugly looking. The ganache was beautifully shiny and spread on like a dream — but lacked enough flavor to shine through. The snappy coating was a textural delight, but not great looking and I knew wasn’t close enough to this classic recipe’s roots.

The fourth test was a cooked chocolate fudge icing, sort of like how the one in my chocolate birthday cake starts. It checked all the boxes. The sugars get all melty to bring out the shine, butter keeps it tasting rich but not cloying, melted chocolate and cocoa combine to maximize their joint slay, and the mixture drips beautifully to evoke the classic look of the OG BCP.

Makes 15 whoopie pies

Ingredients

Read more

This was not supposed to be the recipe for this week. In fact, these started as matcha crumble cake cookies, where chewy matcha-scented cookies were topped with a slightly-crisp-slightly-crumbly streusel topping. Then I brought them over to my trusty tastetester friends who said, “Damn, you’ve really been on a matcha kick lately. And you know what? They are right.

So in the spirit of trying to keep things fresh for you crowd, I thought about how I could pivot, eventually retrofitting the recipe to work with the OG crumble-topped cake: coffee cake. So if you were looking forward to the matcha cookies, you know who to blame. Don’t worry, I might post them one day.

In this recipe, soft, chewy cookies are swirled with a substantial cinnamon-brown-sugar swirl and topped with a super simple streusel. The sour cream in the cookie dough gives it the tang of a coffee cake and a tenderness that balances the final product right on the tight rope between chewy and cakey — not dense, not dry, but still a texture you can leave teeth marks in.

There are two keys to this recipe. The pictures above may seem like overkill re: the amount of streusel, but really to get a good coating you have to pack it on. I even found that pressing the dough balls down a bit to create a flat-ish surface helped the crumbles stick better. And don’t neglect the sides!

The second key is to swirl the cinnamon-brown sugar ripple way less than you think you need to. By simply moving your scoop or spoon through the dough, you will distribute it more than enough. Save a bit for before streusel-sprinkling so that if you find one or two dough balls that don’t have much swirl, you can go in and add a bit more to the top.

I swear, they smell and taste just like coffee cake — just in a richer, more portable format, making them perfect for breakfast, brunch and dessert.

Want more recipes like this?

Makes 13 to 14 cookies

Ingredients

Read more

One of my favorite things to do is pick one of the hottest days of the year, walk into my lightly air-conditioned kitchen, and attempt to make puff-pastry while my oven is blasting at 400°F. Because of this, working ahead (or using store-bought put pastry) will work to your advantage. I recommend making the puff pastry the day before, or even the morning of. You can roll it out, cut it to the size of your baking dish, place it on a parchment lined tray, arrange any decorations on top, cover, and keep in the fridge or freezer until ready to use. Just don’t let cold pastry sit on top of warm filling for longer than a minute or so without it going directly into the oven, otherwise the butter layers in the pastry will melt and not puff up like we want. Alternatively, you can cool the filling down to room temperature before topping with the pastry, covering, and keeping in the fridge until ready to bake.

Thank you to Seremoni for sponsoring this recipe and post! When they reached out and asked if I’d make something using their Black Cod, I knew this was my chance to recreate a dish from a certain animation about a young witch who… brings people things… that I can’t name for legal reasons. Instead of herring and pumpkin, we’re making a very spring forward, herby cream filling with potatoes, leeks, spinach and peas and their Seremoni Grade Black Cod. There are plenty of reasons to support this brand if you love eating fish: they work with independent American fishermen. They are humanely harvested to reduce suffering using a centuries-old Japanese method called ike jime, which you can read more about here. And because of that, shelf-life is improved meaning more of the harvest is usable and doesn’t go to waste — big for sustainability.

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

Rough Puff Pastry (see note)

• 18 tablespoons cold, salted butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes (255 grams)

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (324 grams)

• 1/2 cup ice-cold water (113 grams)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons white distilled vinegar

• 1 egg, whisked (for egg-wash)

Filling

• 4 tablespoons salted butter

• 1 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped into half-inch pieces

• 1 leek, washed well and chopped (only the white part)

• Salt

• Pepper

• 1 tablespoon minced thyme

• 1 tablespoon chopped dill

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup white wine or chicken, vegetable or seafood stock

• 1/2 tablespoon whole grain mustard

• 3/4 cup whole milk

• 3/4 cup heavy cream

• 18 ounces Seremoni Grade Black Cod, skinned, deboned and cut into one-inch pieces

• 3/4 cup frozen peas

• 4 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and strained
  

Directions

1. Make the rough puff pastry (if not using store-bought). Add the flour to a food processor with the blade attachment then add in the butter cubes and pulse just until the butter pieces are broken up a bit but are still about the size of hazelnuts. You can also do this in a bowl with a pastry cutter or two knives.

2. Transfer the flour and butter mixture to a medium-size bowl. Whisk together the salt, water and vinegar until the salt has dissolved. Slowly drizzle half the liquid all over the flour and butter and fluff the mixture with a fork until combined. Repeat with about half the remaining liquid. Drizzle in the remaining water, focusing on just the dry areas, and fluff one more time. (You may need 1 tablespoon more or less depending on humidity, flour brand and how incorporated the butter is.) You should end up with a shaggy dough with very little unincorporated flour.

3. If at any time the butter becomes too warm, slack or greasy, stick the bowl in the fridge to cool off. Dump the dough onto a clean work surface and press into a rectangle about an inch thick. Pick up any unincorporated butter/flour pieces and press them into the top (a bench scraper helps here). Wrap the dough in a piece of plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours, however long it takes for the dough to get cold and firm.

4. Remove the pastry from the fridge and dust your work surface with flour. Complete a letter fold: Using a lightly floured pin, roll out the pastry into a long rectangle, about 4 by 12 inches. Using your hands or the bench scraper, pick up the top third of the pastry and fold it over towards you. Then take the bottom third and fold that over the top third. Pause to chill the pastry again, if necessary.

5. If the pastry is still cool, rotate the pastry 90 degrees so the seams are facing your left and right. Complete another letter fold. Press down the top of the dough gently, re-wrap in plastic, and return to the fridge to chill for another 30 minutes or so.

6. Once the pastry is chilled, rotate the dough 90 degrees again. Complete a book fold: Roll out the dough to a rectangle about 10 by 16 inches. Fold one quarter of the pastry over on the short side, then fold the other three quarters up to meet it. Fold the pastry in half like a book so both raw edges are encased. Chill for 30 minutes. (If at any point the dough tightens up and is resistant to rolling, return to the fridge to chill for another hour.)

7. Optionally, repeat Step 6.

8. Make the filling. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the potatoes and leeks to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the leaks are translucent and the potatoes are softening up.

9. Add the fresh herbs and cook for one minute, then stir in the flour until all the ingredients are well coated. Continue cooking and stirring, scraping up the bottom of the pan, for another minute or so to cook off the raw flour. While stirring, pour in the stock/wine and mustard to deglaze and continue stirring until the mixture looks saucy and creamy.

10. While stirring, slowly stream in the milk and cream into the mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil then immediately turn down to simmer until very, very thick — even thicker than a thick shower; it’ll loosen up in the oven.

11. Fold the pieces of the Seremoni Black Cod into the cream and cook on a gentle simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in the peas and the spinach.

12. Roll out your pastry to a thickness of ⅛-¼ an inch. Use the top of your 2-quart baking dish to cut out a topper of pastry (it will shrink slightly in the oven). Use the remaining pastry to cut out decorations (like a fish!) and affix them to the top using egg wash.

13. Transfer the filling to the baking dish.

14. You can either wait for the filling to cool down to room temperature in the fridge, then top it with the pastry and allow to chill in the fridge before you’re ready to bake. Alternatively, you can add the still-warm filling to the baking dish, and assemble the pastry top on a parchment-lined half-sheet tray, freezing it before you top the warm filling, and then immediately baking.

15. About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 400. Brush the pastry all over with egg wash. Bake the pie on the middle rack until the pastry is puffed and deep golden brown all over, about 35 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Note:

• If you just want a pastry topping with no decorations, you can halve the rough puff pastry recipe, noting that the size of the rolled-out rectangles will decrease. If you make no decoration, you’ll have a lot of leftover pastry, which is awesome! Roll out the pastry and use what you need. Then wrap what’s left well with plastic wrap, place in a freezer bag and store in the freezer to use for more pot pies, pastries, tarts, homemade pop-tarts, etc.

• To save some time, you can prep make the filling in between your folds of rough puff pastry. Once cools down to warm, stick it in the fridge until ready to assemble.

One pain point of being a pro baking recipe developer (I have got to find a better job title) is the fool’s dream of baking for all your loved ones’ important events. Trust me, I want to be able to use my skills to celebrate them and show I care with a birthday cake, especially since I don’t have the best reputation for remembering gifts! I’m blessed with many close friends, but I can’t make one for each of them — I can’t even always do it for my immediate family — and that is stressful.

So at this point, those closest to me don’t ask — they would never even expect it from me because they’re that understanding. They know that while I bake all the time … I bake all the time. And despite what some people (not you guys, never you guys) still seem to think after four years of me doing this full-time, it is my only job! So baking for easygayoven can’t really take a backseat. It really is the horrific irony of turning one’s love of baking for friends and family into a career.

I’m flattered to be asked occasionally if I sell my bakes or if I’d make a custom cake for a stranger or brand. I don’t, and I probably wouldn’t (but hey, if you’re a brand or a stranger with deep pockets, shoot your shot!). Truthfully, I don’t know how cake sellers make it work. I admire them and they should all charge more :)

Truthfully, the baking of it all usually isn’t even the hardest part; it’s the transport. I once smuggled an intricately decorated birthday cake in a stockpot to the Poconos via car and train, using a sling of plastic wrap to lift it in and out. Now I use cake boxes. But any baker who has ridden with 10 pounds of melting sugar, butter and flour in the back of an Uber will tell you, it’s not for the faint of heart.

Considering all of that, plus my perfectionist streak, the whole thing takes a lot out of me. So when I have offered to make cakes for friends, it’s been for big events — and only if I have ample time that week. (I will still probably never make a wedding cake; Way too much pressure.) And of course when I do, I never let them pay.

But in April, two of my best judies, turned 30 — big! Their joint party needed a cake, so I volunteered to make one. The tax, apparently? I get to make a video and write a post about it. Keep scrolling for photos from the party.

It’s a good idea to split up the work when you’re making a more involved layer cake so I actually made the cake layers a day or two in advance, and wrapped them really well. This is an all-oil cake so it stays super moist and tender even after a day or two in the fridge. That’s because oil is liquid when cold, unlike butter. If this were a vanilla cake, I’d probably want to throw some butter in that fat ratio to make up for some flavor. I also love how the buttermilk and baking soda create a really nice dense crumb that holds up to the chocolate fudge icing.

I feel like there’s a dearth of frostings like the one featured in this recipe. Most chocolate frostings are either buttercream with melted chocolate and or cocoa powder mixed in which are great but not as thick and fudge as I wanted for this cake and/or they’re whipped chocolate ganaches, which can get really chalky and almost too rich for me. I wanted this to be like the fudge icing you get on a Texas sheet cake but that is glossy and buttery but holds its shape better.

Remember: increasing the surface area of a hot liquid will help it cool down faster, so if you want to speed things along, you can always pour the hot fudge onto a half-sheet tray or 9x13-inch pan, cover, and chill before transferring to a bowl to beat it.

This frosting looks slightly matte while cold, but once at room temperature turns glossy. It was the hottest day of the year so far (85°F) and my kitchen was still without AC, so if the piped decoration looks a bit… lax, that’s why. If at any point your frosting is getting too loose, you can always stick it back in the fridge to firm up for 10 minutes, beat it a few times with a rubber spatula, and keep frosting.

Makes one, two-layer eight-inch cake

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup olive oil (227 grams, see note)

• 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar (250 grams)

• 1 cup granulated sugar (210 grams)

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (357.5 grams)

• 1 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (84 grams)

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature (227 grams)

• 2 teaspoons instant espresso

• 1 cup hot water (227 grams)

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

• 2 cups light brown sugar (420 grams)

• 2/3 cup natural cocoa powder (57 grams)

• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream (283 grams)

• 1/2 cup light corn syrup (156 grams)

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon slices

• 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans by greasing with butter and lining the bottom of the tin with a round of parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk together the sugar and oil, then mix in the eggs and vanilla. Sift in cocoa powder and whisk just until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low, alternate adding one-third of the flour and one-half of the buttermilk at a time, beginning with the flour, until both are gone.

4. Microwave the water until very hot, but not quite boiling, then stir in the instant espresso. With the mixer on low, stream in the hot liquid. Mix just until fully combined and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure everything is homogenous.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and tap it on the counter to pop any large air bubbles. Bake on the middle rack for 40 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a wooden toothpick comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.

6. Allow the cakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then run a knife around the edges of the cakes to loosen them. Turn out the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Make the fudge frosting. In a saucepan, pot or dutch oven at least 2 quarts large, stir together the sugar, cocoa and salt until combined. Add in the heavy whipping cream and corn syrup and cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth, glossy, and just beginning to bubble around the edges. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla. Add the butter, two tablespoons at a time, mixing until completely combined. Add the chocolate and whisk until melted, smooth and homogenous.

8. Transfer to a large mixing bowl (if you have a hand mixer) or the bowl of a stand mixer, cover the surface with plastic wrap and chill for three to four hours or until thick and firm. (To speed this up, stir the mixture a few times while chilling or, alternately, pour the hot fudge over a half sheet tray, cover and chill, then transfer to a large mixing bowl/stand mixer bowl.)

9. Once the cakes are fully cool, trim off the dome tops with a serrated knife to create a level surface for stacking.

10. With a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with the beater attachment, beat the chilled fudge on medium-high speed until lightened in color and spreadable. It will take a bit to get loosened up — let it sit a minute or two at room temperature if it’s too thick.

11. Place a small dollop of frosting on your cake plate or board, and center the first cake layer cut side up. Cover the cake top in a thick layer of frosting, all the way to the edges. Gently place the second cake layer on top, cut side down.

12. Cover the whole cake with a very thin layer of frosting. (This is called the crumb coat as it traps all the crumbs.) Refrigerate for an hour so the cake can firm up, then spread on a top coat using almost all the remaining frosting.

13. Decorate the cake by piping on designs of any remaining frosting and/or sprinkling on nonpareils. Store in the refrigerator and set out at room temperature one hour before serving.

Notes:

• You can use canola, vegetable, avocado or any other neutral-tasting cooking oil in place of olive oil.

As I wrote in a previous post, this recipe was the product of a recent “free-will” tear I’ve been on lately. (By the way, I’ve now spent like $150 more on sewing supplies. Does anyone have any good starter projects?) Half the time, the hardest part of developing a recipe is getting started — especially on a recipe you aren’t sure will even work in the end. Some recipes, like these buckeye cookies, are pretty surefire; I know, despite however many tests I have to do, that they will turn out eventually. Others, like this caramel cheddar snack mix, could have very well been buried in the recipe graveyard next to my “salt and vinegar potato chip” cookies.

But with this recipe, I didn’t drag my feet on starting because I didn’t treat it like my normal developing process. I didn’t write anything down or do loads of research — I just got into the kitchen and started working because I was genuinely curious and thought the experiment would be fun! Of course, after that I had to test and tweak until it was right, but at least the hard part, starting, was over. This is just one battle in the war of my creative process — analysis paralysis, imposter syndrome, writer’s block — and one I hope other creatives are inspired by. Sometimes the easiest way to get back to work is to treat it like anything other than work.

There are two black goos that make this recipe what it is. First black sesame seeds are ground up and sweetened to create a paste that is steeped in the hot custard base, imparting a earthy, nutty flavor. Then, Oreo cookies are ground up (in the same, unwashed food processor bowl) along with some other ingredients to create a smooth, sticky ripple that is folded into the ice cream.

Small amounts of xantham gum, corn syrup and honey prevent the formation of large ice crystals, keeping everything creamy and making the ice cream easy to scoop. You can find xantham gum at any baking specialty store, online, or if you’re lucky, the baking aisle of your grocery store. (I actually found some at Michaels.) But because I know it’s pretty uncommon, you can omit it in a pinch.

This recipe does require some kind of ice cream maker — whether it’s a KitchenAid freezer bowl attachment, a machine with a freezer bowl, or a machine with a compressor. A good stand mixer freezer bowl attachment is pretty affordable as are machines with freezer bowls (and people online are always selling both at steep discounts). Most people, unless they are ice cream connoisseurs making batch after batch, don’t need a machine with a compressor (which are bulky and expensive — so why do I have one?).

Want more recipes like this?

Makes 1 quart of ice cream

Read more

And we’re back with another edition of EGO Recommends! These posts include a mix of stuff I’m reading, watching, listening to, using, consuming; silly and serious; superfluous and practical.

It’s been a few months since the last “Recommends” post so this one is lengthy.

Product: Centella Sunscreen

Again, no one asks for my skincare routine, but my IG crush @dermarktologist recommended this K-Beauty sunscreen brand that is SPF 50, leaves no white-cast, doesn’t sting my eyes, and isn’t $1 million. The link above is affiliate, so if you use it to buy, there’s a chance that I might see a tiny, near negligible amount of money from it.

Youtube: Interior Motives
The premise is simple but genius. Viewers submit their (sometimes absolutely batshit insane) rooms and host Ben Mara and his comedian guests have to identify the habitant’s gender, location, age and sexuality.

Reading: Two Pieces from Food Power-Couple Ham and Sohla El-Waylly
One, a few months old at this point, featuring Sohla lambasting the New York Times for their jaw-dropping treatment of her. The other, from Ham, about why it’s nearly impossible to make even great new restaurants work in New York City.

Hot Dish with Sohla

sorry about your cookies

There are few users on reddit who love to hate me. Yes, I lurk there. Although I overwhelmingly receive nothing but support and positivity, those few voices are the ones that ring out. I search out their comments and read them on repeat. They all say the same thing I’ve heard all my life, that girl must be difficult…

Read more

8 months ago · 6234 likes · 724 comments · Sohla El-Waylly

Ham's Substack

The Math Doesn’t Work

I have a game I play when I walk past a closed restaurant in New York City. I try to guess how long it lasted. Butcher paper on the windows, a faded sign, a phone number that now connects you to a nail salon. How long did someone’s dream survive in that space before the city quietly swallowed it whole…

Read more

5 months ago · 1231 likes · 62 comments · Ham El-Waylly

Reading: Two Pieces by Derek Thompson
Listen, I wouldn’t call myself Abundance-pillled, but Derek Thompson has a way of taking the half-ideas that tumble around in my head, things I have a feeling about but can’t name or prove, and writing something that actually addresses them. Here are two pieces on his Substack I recently loved, and I’ll just include the most distilling quote from each to entice you.

Derek Thompson

Everything Is Television

A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning into television. Three examples…

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9 months ago · 2616 likes · 36 comments · Derek Thompson

“94 percent of YouTube views come from 4 percent of videos, and 89 percent of TikTok views come from 5 percent of videos.“

Derek Thompson

The End of Thinking

This is an expanded and revised version of an essay that originally ran in The Argument, an online magazine where I am a contributing writer…

Read more

10 months ago · 1685 likes · 122 comments · Derek Thompson

“I decided that the article I would write wouldn’t be about technology taking jobs from capable humans. It would be about how humans take away their own capabilities in the presence of new machines”

Social Media: Two Very Different Makers

@TheDoorknobGirl makes crafting videos with funny, but also eerie, voiceovers that mix charm with a sense of existential unease.

I go to Youtube shorts when I want to tap into my handy side and watch tile-grouting videos — and on one of those scroll-binges I found these guys. You know those annoying problems you have with everyday objects that almost seem too dumb to fix, like a pen clip that doesn’t bend far enough or wine keys that you have to adjust halfway through opening the bottle? This manufacturer takes the time to fix them — and they make pretty engaging videos about the process.

Music: ELIO
I got really into ELIO last year — and they have a few songs you’ve probably heard before, such as “Jackie Onasis”. “Lucky October,” “Sugar, Baby,” and “I Got the Boy” are all some recent faves.

Music: Robyn, Sexistential
Swedish pop icon returns for her first album in eight years, and it’s pretty much a no-skips.

Music: “Outbound” by After
TikTok proves it is a music marketing powerhouse since I’ve started streaming this song from a relatively unknown (to me) band after hearing it backtracking this Panera nostalgia fan-edit. The song also exudes early-aughts singer-songwriter nostalgia for me and I’m excited to listen to more of their music!

@afterjlw14aSong is outbound by After #2000smusic #2000snostalgia #2000score #millenial

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Television: This 60 Minutes special on Havana Syndrome
If we didn’t live in hell; if the 24-hour news cycle wasn’t focused on the dumpster fire of this presidential administration; if social media could look up from their Summer House obsession, this absolute bombshell of a a story might have made a bigger splash than it did.

Reading: They Found Banksy, I Guess?
Another story that, if our algorithms, cable channels, and brains weren’t totally pickled, might have been a bigger deal.

Reading: An Article that Expanded My View on NYC’s Housing Crisis
If you live in NYC, you care about housing policy — or at least you should —because it’s the reason your rent is astronomical. This interview was a response to a study that Hell Gate (which I subscribe to!) featured and I think is a pretty good primer on the debate between those who believe more rent control and tenant protections is the solution, and those that believe that simply building more housing (no matter the consequences) is more important.

Reading: An Insane True Crime Story about Surrogacy
Okay, let’s be honest, I listened to this article as a podcast on The New Yorker’s website. It centers on a wealthy LA couple who had dozens of children through surrogacy — and the bizarre situation that lead to many of the surrogate mothers trying to get them back.

Youtube: A Mini-Doc Exposing The Shadowy Boys Cub that Runs Our Country
The doc — on a real secret society of elites (judges, billionaires, presidents) and their weird little camping trips — again had me asking, Why aren’t we talking about this more?? It’s a good reminder that the term “conspiracy theory” only makes sense if it’s just a theory; If it’s proven, then it’s just called a “conspiracy”.

And you can read more about it below.

Deeper States

At The Grove, A Summertime Party For Wartime Elites

This Article Originally Appeared In Responsible State Craft…

Read more

4 months ago · 29 likes · 8 comments · Dan Boguslaw

If there’s one thing I know about the easygayoven subscriber base it’s that you all. love. cookies. Those recipes are consistently the ones you all like, subscribe for, and make — and in the survey I sent out a few months ago, you overwhelmingly said you wanted more. And I understand why! I try my best to create fun new twists on the form that are approachable but still impressive.

Because of that, I’m introducing a new monthly series, Cookie of the Month Club, where I’ll be concocting an inventive new cookie recipe every month — and as always, you all will be the first to know about them. To keep it fresh I’m going to organize the series into themed seasons. The season for the next few months: “United States of Cookies,” where I’m making cookies inspired by different U.S. states. Follow along to see if I develop one inspired by yours!

Those familiar with easygayoven lore will know that I spent the first 18 years of my life in Ohio, the “Buckeye State.” You probably know the word Buckeye as it relates to the mascot of The Ohio State University (I could lose my high school diploma if I don’t write it like that) — paying homage to Ohio’s native buckeye tree, which became the official state tree in 1953.

But the OSU mascot everyone knows, Brutus Buckeye, is actually modeled after the nut of the tree: dark brown on the outside with a revealed circle of tan. And if you’ve ever lived in Ohio, you’ve probably had the eponymous confection inspired by the nut: a fudge-like peanut butter center (almost completely) covered in chocolate. I actually made some with the leftover filling from testing. Don’t look too close.

Similar to their namesake, these cookies will have centers of peanut butter filling encased in a rich, chewy chocolate cookie. I’ve actually decided to give you two different ways to make the filling: traditional and alternative. The traditional version resembles the way normal buckeye filling is made: peanut butter, powdered sugar and butter, just in a slightly different ratio so they spread better in the oven. This filling has a fudgier, sweeter, dense texture that holds its shape. The alternative uses peanut butter, butter and white chocolate to create a filling that is creamier, has more peanut flavor and is less sweet. I liked both for different reasons, but if you want the more nostalgic version, definitely go with the traditional. (See visual comparison above.)

Want more recipes like this?

Makes 16-18 cookies

Ingredients

Cookie dough

• 12 tablespoons salted butter, melted (170 grams)

• 1 cup dark brown sugar (210 grams)

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (55 grams)

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (50 grams)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (227 grams)

Peanut butter filling (traditional)

• 1 cup smooth peanut butter (270 grams)

• 8 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature (113 grams)

• 1 cup powdered sugar (113 grams)

• 3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Peanut butter filling (alternative)

• 1 cup smooth peanut butter (270 grams)

• 4 ounces white chocolate, chopped

• 4 tablespoons salted butter (56 grams)

Directions

1. Make the peanut butter filling. For the traditional filling: In a medium mixing bowl with a hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar and salt until they form a very thick paste.

2. For the alternative filling: Heat the peanut butter, white chocolate, butter and a pinch of salt in the microwave for about 30 to 45 seconds, or until the butter is liquid and the chocolate is starting to melt. Stir until smooth, cover and refrigerate until firm.

3. Dole out as many 1-tablespoon portions of filling as you can, placing them on a parchment lined plate, trying your best to make them round. Freeze until firm.

4. Make the cookies. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted warm butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the vanilla, egg and cocoa powder until smooth.

5. Dump in the flour and fold together with the wet ingredients using a rubber spatula, stopping just when the last streaks of white disappear.

6. Dole out around 16 to 18 balls of dough, about 2 scant tablespoons each (I used my 1.5 ounce scoop but under-filled it.) If the dough is too slack, chill the dough, covered, for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

7. Wrap a portion of peanut butter filling in each dough ball, forming the dough around the filling but leaving a half-inch or so of filling visible. Chill the dough balls, covered, for at least an hour.

8. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two half-sheet trays with parchment paper. Chill the dough balls again, covered, for 15 minutes in the freezer or 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

9. Place 6 cookies on a tray and bake on the middle rack for 7 minutes, then rotate the tray and bake for 7 more minutes. Allow to cool on the sheet for 4 or 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough balls.

If you’re online at all, you know that “exercising free will” has become a meme of sorts — whether it’s folks posting about leaving their desks to get a Wendy’s Diet Coke (so crazy!) or just acting bizarre in public to get a reaction from strangers. What free will is — and if it even exists — is the subject of heated debate, but the idea is clearly compelling to people in this cultural moment. You could probably chalk this up to the way much chance, serendipity, kismet, or spontaneity has been sucked out of our lives thanks to increasingly small social circles, work-from-home, the phone-laptop-headphones bubbles we all travel in when we’re out and about, the increasing cost of third spaces, and a growing culture of over-optimization.

As a response to this, even I’ve noticed myself becoming less rigid about what it means to be productive, avoiding stopping to ask myself, is this the most efficient or best way to do this?

This weekend, instead of doing what I usually do on Saturday mornings (watch RuPaul’s Drag Race recaps on the couch) I felt a force moving me to the kitchen. This is unusual only because, if I’m not “working” on a given day, I usually don’t conduct food experiments for fun — which sucks! But on that morning, I thought it would be fun to transform some of the heavy cream and black sesame paste in my fridge (I knew would soon go bad) into some black sesame-Oreo ice cream.

I paused while I had a bunch of the ingredients balanced in my arms, is this the best use of my time today? Then I thought, what if you just did what makes you happy today? Reader, I rarely think about that. I wasn’t even going to post about the process, but when I did, you all went berserk over on my IG Story. So I’m taking that as a sign you want the recipe — and also that some of the most interesting work can come when I’m just putzing around.

Another example? I recently bought a sewing machine. I didn’t think about it for long, I just didn’t want to keep shelling out for alterations on my clothes and got the impulse to hit “buy”. This is out of character for me for many reasons. 1) I’m pretty cheap, which might explain why I think this machine will pay itself off in a few hems. 2) I don’t like when I have to store an appliance I don’t use often. 3) I am patient zero of analysis paralysis — I will spend months deciding on what drapes to buy. I’ve never sewed before, and up until recently, I didn’t have an interest in it. But I’m excited to learn something new because, once I monetized my little baking habit, the one hobby I had went poof. Since then, I’ve kind of been hobby-less for five years (unless you count going to the gym as a hobby, which...)

Most days, I take the bus home from the gym. But the other day — even though I was exhausted — I decided it was such a nice day that I should just walk the 35 minutes back to my apartment, which I never do. And you know what? It didn’t take me that much longer than waiting around for the bus — and it felt great!

Yesterday, I got so stressed out about finding a new barber. (Remember that thing about analysis paralysis?) Since I moved, I can’t make it to my old one as often and, for me, finding a new one takes recommendations from other gay guys in Brooklyn, having to develop a relationship with the new stylist, not to mention facing increasing prices. I decided it would be better (and also maybe a little fun) to just cut it myself. Yeah, it’s reckless, yeah, my bathroom now looks like Cousin It exploded, yeah my hair… does not look great! But I freed myself from the paralysis, at least for another three weeks or so.

(As I write this, I wonder to myself, Is the experience I’m describing actually mania? Or is this how everyone feels when the temperature is above 60 for a consecutive week?)

Whether these are examples of me exercising my free will or not, I don’t think it really matters. They are more-so examples of me listening to my impulses; not the base ones that signal you’re tired or you’re hungry — the ones beneath those that whisper wouldn’t it be cool if we painted the office Shrek green?

I attended a board game night this weekend and one of the partygoers asked me what made these matcha lemon bars different from regular lemon bars. I replied, without any irony, “The amount of matcha in them.” This may have been a you-had-to-be-there moment but I couldn’t. stop. laughing. about. it. Every few minutes, someone would ask a new question about how much matcha was in each batch and I, through tears, would say, “The ones that are more green… those have more matcha. The difference between the batches is the amount of matcha.” Okay, you definitely had to be there.

The only thing you need to know is all the board game players that night agreed that the amount of matcha in the final recipe was perfect. There’s matcha mixed into the shortbread crust, blended into half of the curd (then marbled with the lemon-only curd), and if you’re a real fiend for the green stuff, you can even sift some on top at the end.

This recipe packs a unique flavor and visual punch — but only takes about 45 minutes in active time to make. The bars genuinely taste like a $9 matcha-lemonade from the most Williamsburg coffee shop you can find — and I can say that because I recently left Williamsburg.

Makes about 16-20 squares

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Are monkey breads too 2016-BuzzFeed-heyday coded? Even if they are, I’m not letting that stop me from publishing this recipe. And you shouldn’t let it stop you from making it for Easter or for whatever you have going on this weekend.

The recipe starts off with pureed cooked carrots folded into a supple, enriched dough. The carrots, along with some warms spices, lend it that traditional carrot cake flavor and color. Then there’s the cinnamon sugar coating between each piece of dough, as well as the morsels of cream cheese that are wrapped inside them, that really make this showstopper sing.

Then things take a turn from the traditional with some salty, buttery toffee sauce that gets poured onto the monkey bread bottom-side up right when it comes out of the oven, and then over the top once it gets turned out.

This recipe is the perfect centerpiece for a brunch where you want to impress — or just a slow morning of your family picking pieces off one by one. If you don’t have a bundt pan, you can also bake it in a large cast iron skillet, two cake tins, two loaf tins, or a 9x13-inch pan. If you’re really crazy and out there, you could even try adding a cup or so of raisins to the dough — or sprinkle the top with toasted chopped pecans.

Serves 12 to 14

Ingredients

Carrot bread

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I’ve had crepe cakes on the brain. Last week, I was fighting with a black sesame crepe cake that I’m just not sure will ever see the light of day. I was working on a cream cheese filling for that recipe when, halfway through, I thought, this would be way better with blueberries. I started thinking about blintzes, the Eastern European Jewish dish comprised of a creamy filling wrapped in a thin pancake and baked, often topped with a berry sauce. This blueberry crepe cake became a play on that delicious breakfast/brunch fare — and to take it over the top, lemon juice and lemon zest flavor the crepe batter and cream cheese filling.

For the batch I shot for these photos and videoed for my socials, I didn’t add the gelatin to the blueberry filling, and you might be able to tell that the blueberries oozed out a bit too much, leading to a final product that was delicious, but didn’t cut easily with a fork. (I also didn’t allow it to set for the full three to four hours.) That’s why I added in that tiny bit of gelatin, so the layers wouldn’t slide off in sheets when you went to cut it, and so that the striations we worked so hard for would be neater. If you omit the gelatin, it won’t be the end of the world and it will still taste and look great.

I realize this isn’t the most streamlined recipe. It’s a lot of components and you will use many of your dishes and utensils. You’ll also be spending about an hour cooking the crepes. I’m just trying to level with you.

But take it as a meditative opportunity — it can be pretty relaxing once you get into the groove of it. As for the cream cheese and blueberry filling, those come together in 10 to 15 minutes. You can make this recipe easier by simply replacing the blueberry filling with your favorite berry preserves or jam — it just might not hold together as neatly.

(Serves 8-10)

Ingredients

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The platonic ideal mac ‘n’ cheese has long been the subject of heated debate. Everyone prefers one format over the others: creamy and cooked solely over the stovetop, baked with a breadcrumb topping, or structurally beefed up with some eggs whisked into the mixture. It can be a personal, emotionally charged topic. In many families, bringing an over-baked dish of the stuff to a potluck or Thanksgiving can ensure you never get asked to make it again.

Sadly, many homemade macaroni and cheese recipes turn out soupy, gritty and split, or even worse — dry. A few years ago, I set out to make my dream version: bouncy, springy noodles, a creamy but flavorful cheese sauce, baked under a blanked of crusty cheesy breadcrumbs.

After publishing this recipe in 2023, making it for a few Thanksgivings, and re-testing it recently, I’ve some tweaks to it and re-pubbed it below. More importantly, I’ve also distilled all the best mac ‘n’ cheese intel I’ve learned in the process into the following tips.

1. Selecting Pasta Shapes (This Could Get Ugly.)

You already know which pasta shapes belong in mac ‘n’ cheese. Medium-length, tubed pasta works best. Obviously, regular elbow macaroni is classic, and at this point, is vintage enough to be cool again. I love using cavatappi. They’re like if elbows had like ten more elbows. One of my favorite macs in the world was at a now-closed Lubo House in Norfolk, VA. It was loaded with gorgonzola and used gemelli — an underrated shape in the mac world. A wildcard choice: radiatori!

Rotini and fusili are passable, but kind of on thin ice for me. For some reason, in my mind, penne and rigatoni just doesn’t belong with mac ‘n’ cheese. Long shapes like spaghetti — or short shapes like ditalini, farfalle or orecchhiete — are a no.

2. Be Choosy about Cheesy

Some cheeses are better for melting than others, and a big factor in meltability is age. Hard cheeses like parmesan are aged for a long time (more than a year) which reduces their moisture and changes their texture, leading to that crumbly, grit we know and love. As that happens, the flavor becomes deeper and more complex as enzymes and microbes develop and “help transform lactose into lactic acid and build other amino acids,” according Wisconsin Cheese.

Another byproduct of the aging process: gradually, some of the proteins in the cheese break down. This “matrix” of proteins is responsible for holding the oil in place, maintaining the emulsion. So when the cheese melts, the degraded matrix can’t hold onto as much oil, and the fat separates out. This is why the mouth feel of aged cheeses isn’t as creamy, and it’s also why hard cheeses don’t melt as well as soft cheeses. And the more separated oil that is introduced to your sauce, the thinner it will be.

On the other hand, soft and semi-soft cheeses such as some cheddars, American cheese, or fontina are usually only aged for a couple months. They have developed some flavor, but they haven’t lost as much moisture, they’ve maintained their protein structure, and they will still stay creamy when melted. You can use hard cheeses like parm and gruyere in mac ‘n’ cheese — they are absolute flavor bombs! But varieties like these shouldn’t make up the majority of cheese if you want a creamy sauce.

I give exact quantities for the types of cheese in my recipe, but use that more as a guide to adjust to your flavor preferences. I realize buying four or five different types of cheese is a lot of money; there’s no reason you couldn’t do this with 2 or 3 different cheeses in the sauce (for example, cheddar and American). You can also forgo the parm in the breadcrumb topping — or just top the mac with a layer of more cheddar. I recommend having a good balance of cheeses — soft, semi-soft, semi-hard and hard — across different components of mac ‘n’ cheese. Here is a non-exhaustive list:

For the sauce:

• Fontina: earthy, grassy, melty

• Cheddar: a good balance of solid, sharp flavor as well as a creamy texture. It’s why it’s a classic for mac ‘n’ cheese!

• American: mild, but ultimate meltability thanks to sodium citrate (see below)

• Gorgonzola/Blue: pungent, soft, creamy, tangy

• Gruyere: rich, nutty — great for flavor but doesn’t melt super well

For layering:

• Gruyere: powerful flavor

• Muenster: very stretchy, mild

• Mozzarella: stretchy, melty, fresh

• Jarlsberg (or other Swiss style cheeses): these melt into beautiful, stretchy strands but don’t dissolve into the sauce as well as I was hoping. Layering them in between layers of the sauce-y noodles would be a good way to incorporate the cheese pull and Swiss flavor.

For breadcrumb topping:

• Parmesan

• Parmigiano Reggiano

• Romano

• Asiago

• Grana Padano

3. Shred Your Own Cheese

Absolutely do not, under any circumstances, use pre-shredded cheese from the bag. The shreds are coated in a powder that dries them and prevents them from sticking to each other, which also prevents them from melting and dissolving into the sauce. (One exception would be if you’re just using that cheese for the topping or layering.)

Avoid a gloppy mess by shredding your own cheese. I like to get my cheese shreds small so that the cheese melts faster, meaning I don’t have to overheat the béchamel (see below). It also means I don’t have to over-stir the cheese sauce, which can cause the sauce to split.

4. Don’t Count out Velveeta!

Listen, no one is above Velveeta. American cheese, like Kraft singles, gets a bad rap because it’s ubiquitous — and not super interesting. However, it has a secret weapon that makes it a boon to all cheese sauces (nacho, fondue, etc.) not just the mornay sauce of mac ‘n’ cheese. “Sodium citrate is an extremely common emulsifying salt that is used to keep the cheese creamy as it melts,” J. Kenji López-Alt writes in Serious Eats. You can learn more about the actual molecular science in this article.

If you’ve ever had mac ‘n’ cheese that’s oily or gritty, it was probably split. I talk more about why that happens in other tips, but the great thing about sodium citrate is it prevents splitting — a.k.a. keeps things emulsified (creamy). Of course, you can buy sodium citrate from many online retailers in this day and age, making it easy to turn almost any cheese into a smooth sauce, but I know many people don’t want to order a special ingredient online that they’ll rarely use and will collect dust in their pantry. The great thing is, Velveeta and other American cheeses already contain sodium citrate (as well as other emulsifying ingredients) so even dropping in a Kraft single or two, will help keep your sauce emulsified — without bringing a noticeable flavor.

5. Watch Your Temper(ature)

When I was developing my ultimate mac ‘n’ cheese recipe, I spent test after test kicking myself wondering why my cheese sauce kept splitting. Almost every time, it was because of temperature. Your béchamel doesn’t need to be ripping hot to melt cheese, especially if you are using the right kind of cheese and its in small enough pieces. I have found the happy temperature zone for the béchamel, before the cheese is added, is about 150°F. Any cooler and you’ll be standing over the pot waiting for the cheese to melt forever and you might just end up over-working it, causing it to split. Any hotter and the oils from the cheese will be expelled, leading the emulsion to break and turning your thick, luscious sauce into soup.

This also means being patient. If you’re cooking in a Dutch oven, the residual heat from the cast iron will probably be enough to melt the cheese, so just give it time. I usually add the cheese off the stove, but if you need, stick it over the still-hot burner to use up some of that heat. If that’s still enough, I turn the burner to the lowest it will go and stir for just a minute or two. And if your sauce still has some bits of visible cheese floating around, that’s okay! It will melt in the oven, or even better, turn into a gorgeous melty strand when a spoonful of hot mac is lifted out of the dish.

6. What if My Sauce Splits?

Okay, so somehow after following all these tips your sauce still broke and became curdled and grainy. I have been able to at the very least get sauces to thicken back up using an immersion blender (don’t use a regular blender unless it has a vent on top.) I could still detect some graininess in the sauce, but you could try it in a pinch.

Bonus: Layer in Cheese

And that’s why I tuck a layer of cheese shreds, usually gruyère or muenster (the ultimate stretching cheese) to add a little bit of texture and flavor interest and to achieve the aforementioned gorgeous melty strands.

(Okay, it’s technically five cheeses)

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

Breadcrumb topping

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese finely grated (optional)

• Salt

Mac and Cheese

• ½ pound cavatappi or other tubed pasta

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (25 grams)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (42 grams)

• 1 cup whole milk (227 milliliters)

• 1 cup heavy cream (227 milliliters)

• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard

• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 4 ounces cheddar cheese, finely shredded (1 heaping cup)

• 4 ounces Velveeta or other American cheese, chopped into tablespoon-size pieces

• 4 ounces gruyère cheese, finely shredded (1 heaping cup)
  

• 4 ounces muenster cheese, shredded (about 1 cup, for layering)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and move one rack to the second highest position.

• Make the breadcrumb topping. Heat the butter in the microwave just until melted. Pour over the bread crumbs and mix together with a fork until the crumbs are totally coated in butter. Mix in the parmesan and a hefty pinch of salt. Set aside.

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until just before al dente. Drain and set aside.

• Make the roux. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, melt the butter on medium-low heat, then dump in the flour. Continuously stir the butter and flour for a minute or so until the raw flour smell has faded and the roux has darkened in color.

• Combine the milk, heavy cream, paprika, ground mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a liquid measuring cup. Drizzle the liquid into the roux a little at a time, whisking to break up any lumps. Once the roux and the liquid are combined and starting to thicken, add more liquid. Repeat until all the liquid is added.

• Keep stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Do not let the mixture begin to bubble — remove from heat once it reads 150°F on an instant read thermometer. If the mixture is too hot, it will split when the cheese is added.

• One handful at a time, add in the Velveeta, sharp cheddar, and gruyère, stirring in between each addition until combined. If the mixture’s temperature drops too much, you can return it to the stove on the still-hot burner or over the lowest heat (even on the smallest burner) to encourage more cheese to melt. (Again, overcooking the sauce at this point will cause it to split.) If some of the cheese strands are not totally dissolving, that’s okay. It’s better to have a few strands of unincorporated cheese in an emulsified sauce than a gritty, split soup.

• Off the heat, add the pasta to the cheese sauce, and fold together. Then, fold in the shredded muenster just until evenly dispersed but not dissolved.

• Pour the mac and cheese into a greased 9×9-inch tin or 2-quart baking dish. (Alternatively, if your sauce-pan is oven-safe and big enough, you can just bake the mac and cheese in that.) Level it off, and sprinkle on the breadcrumb topping.

• Bake on the second highest rack from the top for around 20 minutes, or until the edges are bubbling and the top is turning golden brown.

• Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

A major problem bakers run into when adding fruit flavor to cookies, cakes, and more is dealing with extra moisture. Fruits are comprised of mostly water — and when you’re making quick breads like banana or pumpkin bread, that’s a boon. Fruit and vegetable purees (or grated flesh like zucchini or carrot) not only bring flavor and color, but they’re also great at holding onto their water during the bake and keeping the finished product moist for a long time.

But sometimes, there’s too high a ratio of water to actual flavor. Recipe developers chase after pumpkin cookies that are chewy, not cakey, but still taste like pumpkin. But chewy cookies require low moisture, so we’ve figured out that you need to remove some of the moisture from the pumpkin by cooking it on the stovetop or oven-roasting it. Fruit flavors can also be more diluted than we want them to be after adding them to a mixture like, for example, buttercream. That’s why, in my lavender blackberry chocolate bars, we cook down the blackberry puree, concentrating its flavor before adding it to the buttercream.

In October 2024, I published a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies made famous in my circle by a friend who grew up eating and making the recipe (which came to her from a family friend). They are so simple — elegantly so. Everything comes together in one bowl. There’s no browning butter. There’s no dough chill-time. You don’t have to cook the pumpkin down — and it uses exactly one can. You don’t even need eggs!

When I promoted them on social media, likely more than 100 people commented saying that they grew up with cookies similar to these, or that their family member had a recipe like it. That makes total sense — these types of family recipes usually share one or two common points of origin like a magazine or cookbook, and then get passed down and changed over the years. Regardless, it’s still one of the most popular recipes on the blog and on here because it’s so simple — and so good.

Some people, however, lamented at the fact that these were “cakey” cookies and wondered if there was a way to make them flatter and chewier — which, for me, completely defeats the purpose. I love flat and chewy cookies like any other self-respecting foodie influencer, but these are supposed to be cakey!

All that being said, an vision popped into my head a few weeks ago of a banana cookie that resembled the dome of a banana nut muffin. I wondered if I could replicate the look and feel of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe with mashed banana, and after several tests, it worked. (Spoiler, it was not as easy as replacing the pumpkin puree with banana.)

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients

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Settling into my kitchen over the past few weeks has been, dare I say, fun. I want to make it a lean, mean machine that functions as a studio just as well as it does the place where I air-fry Trader Joe’s spicy chicken nuggets. I’m all about highs and lows, baby. I’m thinking about how I want to show it to you all, and I’m also working on ways to show you how I’m organizing it (and all my baking stuff) as well as how I’m stocking my pantry and refrigerator. Until then, read on…

Support Our Anti-ICE Cookbook Zine

I’m contributing a recipe to Fiery Recipes to Abolish ICE, a cooking zine that includes 10 spicy recipes from 10 different food writers. Watch my the video I made for my recipe, hot honey pepperoni pretzels, below! You have until February 28 to order a copy, and you can read more about it here.

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This recipe is inspired by creations of two other great food creators. First, the peanut butter shaken espressos made internet-famous by Reilly Meehan. Second, the Maple Sea Salt Latte Tart from Audrey Leonard (@redcurrantbakery) that I couldn’t get out of my head for months!

Peanut butter is a powerful flavor. It’s great at playing off of fruity and acidic ingredients like chocolate or jams, but it can tend to overwhelm whatever it’s paired with. That’s why there’s less PB in this filling than you might think, but the flavor is still undeniable.

Getting the coffee flavor to come through was another story. I tried to just use instant coffee, which is great because it’s super strong and dissolved quickly without adding more water to the custard. However, the flavor can be pretty one note. Then I tried mixing actual brewed espresso into the custard. This was a non-starter because, next to the peanut butter, I couldn’t taste the coffee flavor at all. Doing what I’ve done in other coffee recipes, I decided to coarsely crush some dark roast coffee beans and steep them in the cream. That did the trick. We got all the freshly brewed coffee taste and you could still detect it despite the overpowering peanut butter. I’m also giving you the option to add even more coffee flavor by adding a bit of instant coffee to the custard.

Okay, let me quickly explain something I learned during this recipe R&D. Espresso powder, ground espresso, and instant coffee/espresso are not the same thing. And many people online are confused by this. Here are the differences as best I can tell from my research. Ground espresso is just ground coffee beans, which has a very fine texture as required by the espresso method of making coffee. Espresso powder is a specialty food/baking ingredient that is used in baked goods like brownies or cakes, or even sometimes in meat rubs, that is made from espresso grounds that have already been brewed, dried and then pulverized. Instant coffee/espresso is made from a special liquid coffee extract that is either spray or freeze-dried to create tiny granules. These granules are no longer coffee bean grounds and completely dissolve in water. Now you know!

I was trying to be cute here and do a little stripe design with some finely ground coffee and two things went wrong: 1) the parchment strips stuck (???) to the filling and peeled off the top when I took them off. 2) The coffee beans were gritty (I should have known, dumb mistake.) Next time I would use stiffer straight edges to make the stripes so the tart’s surface wasn’t disturbed — and I’d just sift instant espresso/coffee powder, which has a better flavor and no gritty texture.

A note on pan sizes:

I made this in a 10-inch tart/quiche tin, 2 inches deep, with a 7.5-cup capacity. If you don’t have one of those, you have some options. Using a smaller or shallower tart pan will still work, you’ll just have extra crust/filling and you’ll need to bake the filling for less time — more like 25 to 30 minutes, but use the visual cues I give over that time range. Alternately, a 9 or 10-inch springform pan would work in a pinch, or even a pie dish — which just wouldn’t produce as neat slices.

Makes one 10-inch, 2-inch deep tart

Ingredients

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I want to start off by thanking you for being a paying easygayoven subscriber! You are truly what keeps this operation moving, and a huge reason why I can rely less on branded/sponsored content to keep the business afloat. And I know your inbox real estate is valuable so I appreciate you letting me in a few times a month.

I promised myself that in the Ne…

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