Boston

Last weekend I took a brief trip to Boston! Boston is such a great city with so many delectable hot spots to please your palate! I had the opportunity to visit the Flour Bakery not once, but twice! The first visit was for an afternoon pick me up! I ordered a "Chunky Lola" Cookie, my sister ordered a cookie with dried cherries and white chocolate, and my mother order a meringue cloud with chocolate! We all thoroughly enjoyed our cookies, I did not think I would like the meringue as much as I did! Normally I don't go for meringues, but this one was so airy and cloud-like that it truly melted in my mouth. Here are some pictures from our afternoon visit!

Including some great advice from Joanne!

Here are our good eats!

And their fabulous logo!

The next morning my mom and I went back to Flour for breakfast! I ordered the "sweet panini" with seasonal fruit and mascarpone cheese! The bread was grilled perfectly crispy and the filling so sweet and delicious! My mom loved her steel cut oats special with seasonal fruit! 

Together we shared a ginger-peach muffin, which was a little bland. Probably a little lackluster given it is the end of peach season and I recently bought a dud batch of peaches at the Farmer's Market. So I forgive Flour! 

I love their display and cannot wait to open my own bakery some day if the finances allow it! 

Now for some dinner eats! We walked around looking for a restaurant in Boston's South End for almost an hour. My shoes were not fully broken in yet so I was not a happy camper and was ready to sit down and eat. All of the restaurants we initially tried had waits of at least 45 minutes, finally my sister suggested we try a Thai place that she had enjoyed before. She called and they had no wait so we gave it a go! I ordered the mango fried rice, it was very good, but I think it may not have been fresh mango, given that it was a little mushy. Otherwise we enjoyed it, as you can tell from the pictures below. 

Here was an interesting menu feature...

 Our empty plates...

Now for the quote of the night....after a few glasses of wine, my mother asks the waiter, "do you have any fortune cookies?" He gave an uncomfortable laugh and said he did not. We all gave my mother a look of what was she thinking, we were in a Thai restaurant, not a chinese restaurant. I would highly recommend this although I was not thrilled with the quality of my mango. The chicken satay was very very good! The restaurant was called Equator, try it if you are in the area! 

While in Boston, I also had the chance to visit a great market aptly named Foodies! They had an amazing selection and variety of goods that included a wide selection of Bob's Red Mill products! I grabbed some xanthan gum for some special recipes I will be sharing soon! Here are some pictures from my Foodie adventure! The store's atmosphere was fabulous! They had charming wood floors and chalkboard signs, I may have looked out of place taking pictures, but how could I not with such a great atmosphere! 

Those floors...I love 'em! 

Such a great sign!

And these sweetie pies waiting for their owner outside! 

"Did you remember our treats?" 

Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoyed this different kind of post!

Have you been on any great food adventures recently? I want to hear about them, so please share! 

Enjoy!

Molly 

M&M Cookies

I have had a bag of mini M&Ms sitting in my pantry for over two months, you may remember my first post where I attempted to make M&M cookies, but failed miserably. This time I decided to try a new recipe and I happily succeeded! These buttery cookies remind me of the sweetness of the store bought variety, but with a kick of homemade flavor! These were so simple to make there is no need to ever buy store bought cookies again! The chewy texture comes from slightly under-baking the cookies and letting them cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet to complete the cooking process! Any kid will enjoy these delicate cookies speckled with multicolored chocolate candies!

While taking pictures the other morning (before 8:30), I took a bite of one of the cookies to get that iconic cookie shot with a monster bite taken out of it! Well, that one bite just was not enough I proceeded to eat the entire cookie. Now these are not some small two bite cookies, I made these ginormous so it was a big deal for me to eat a whole one before 8:30! Guess what I did this morning? Ate another whole cookie before 9:00! Take my word, these are really good and really addicting! Let me know if you enjoy these as much as I did! Do you have any addicting recipes you would like to share? I would love to try them!

Enjoy!
Molly

Oh...and here is a cookie sunrise picture! 

Recipe:
Ingredients:

• 1 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 C mini M&Ms

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. Cream together the butter and both sugars, then mix in eggs and vanilla extract. 
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until well blended. 
4. Mix in 3/4 C of the M&Ms.
5. Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets by large cookie scoopfuls. Slightly push down the cookies, then push a few more of the remaining M&Ms on top of the dough. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges begin to become golden brown and tops begin to look cooked. 

Adapted from Six Sister's Stuff

Vanilla-Banana Muffins

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This is the tragic glorious story of four overripe bananas who resided on the MollyCakes kitchen counter.  Why would this be a tragic story, well I had to mash up those little suckers....ANYWAYS, these banana martyrs produced delicious results! Now in this delightful story the bananas are mashed up, then combined with brown sugar and vanilla Greek yogurt! There is no butter in these, so eat as many as you want! According to Chobani, there are only 180 calories in each, practically guilt free!

These muffins combine some of my favorite baking ingredients, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. While there is no vanilla extract in the muffins, you get a warm hint of vanilla from the yogurt! Hope you enjoy these as much as I do! Now I am off to eat more of them!
Enjoy!
Molly

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt
• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1 C white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 1 large egg

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line muffin pan with paper cups or spray with cooking spray. 
2. In a medium bowl combine both flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set this aside.
3. Beat or mix by hand the bananas, yogurt, brown sugar, canola oil and egg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until just combined. 
4. Divide batter evenly into muffin cups, bake for 20-22 minutes, or until muffins bounce back when pushed or a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are golden brown. Cool a few minutes in pan and then cool completely on wire rack. 

 Coming soon meals and fun from my trip to Boston!

TGIF and Pins

Hello! Thank God it's Friday! While the weather has been beautiful, I am exhausted and need my beauty sleep! Haha! Well today I wanted to say hello and share some delicious looking pins I have come across!

Blueberry Pancake Cupcakes these look like so much fun! They have a maple buttercream frosting! A new spin on breakfast that allows me to have cupcakes at all times of the day! Cannot wait to whip these up!

Chocolate Muffins made with Chobani I have some plain Chobani sitting in my fridge that needs to be used up soon, and this sounds like the perfectly chocolaty way to use it up!

Apple Pie Cookies I just bought a "peck" of apples to make these! These are too cute, they look like mini apple pies, but they are cookies!

Coconut Quick Bread I may or may not have a ridiculous obsession with coconut! I love its fresh, tropical flavor and I love quick breads! This would make the perfect addition to breakfast or a yummy mid-morning snack! I must try this soon!

Homemade Oreos Who doesn't love oreos? I find oreos so hard to resist because of their crispy chocolate cookie layers that sandwich a creamy layer of sugary filling! Real oreos are full of processed junk and fat, but with these you know what is going into them, which makes them much more enjoyable!

Hope you are inspired by my recent pins! I sure have been and will be attempting these and other pins in the next few days! Also, don't forget to "like" the MollyCakes facebook page!

Do you have any drool worthy pins? I would love hear about them and possibly attempt them! So please share in the comments!

Enjoy!
Molly

Peach Cobbler

So the other day, I went peach picking!! It was a beautiful sunny day while picking and I was so excited to bake with them. Well, by the time I lugged my bushels home, I wasn't as ecstatic, instead I was very very tired and the peaches sat on the counter for awhile. They continued sit there....and sit there. Well, finally I decided to make something with the peaches, so I hoped onto the internet and headed over to one of my favorite blogs, BrownEyedBaker, and scrolled through her compilation of her favorite peach recipes. I decided upon this one! Its both sweet and spicy because of the hint of nutmeg and cinnamon! The biscuit-like topping is a perfectly simple almost bland complement to the peaches. I do wish I had more peaches as I seemed to have a lot of topping and not much peaches, anyways I still thoroughly enjoyed it! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Ingredients: 
For the Peach Filling:
6 peaches, peeled, pitted & sliced into ¼- to ½-inch slices
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons instant tapioca, (ground up a bit)

For the Cobbler Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
¾ cup buttermilk

Directions:

1.  Preheat  your oven to 350 degrees F, and grab a large oven safe baking dish. 
2. In a bowl mix together the peaches, lemon juice, sugar, spices, salt and tapioca. Stir together and let sit for 15 minutes. 
3. To make the cobbler topping, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, suagar and salt, then mix in the butter with your hands. Keep mixing until the mixture resembles a corse meal with small bits of butter. Then pour in the buttermilk and mix with a fork. 
4. Dump the peach mixture into your baking dish, then drop the cobbler topping over the peach mixture (I used a large cookie dough scoop). 
5. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, the peaches will bubble and the top should become golden brown. 

Adapted From BrownEyedBaker

Funfetti Inspired Sandwich Cookies

For a labor day party yesterday I needed to make some desserts, so I made the standard chocolate chip cookie (post coming soon) and then I felt like I should make another type of cookie, maybe one for the kids? Well, then I remembered around the fourth of July seeing these delightful cookies on the blog Two peas and their Pod. I also then remembered I had some leftover frosting in the fridge, hmmm I had found my next cookie recipe!
These scratch cookies taste just like the box or store bought! The hint of almond extract makes all the difference by giving the cookies a super sweet taste reminiscent of childhood!!

Enjoy!
Molly

Ingredients For Cookies:

• 1 cup butter (I used one stick unsalted and the other salted), room temperature 
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 3/4 cup rainbow sprinkles/ jimmies/ shots
• 2 TBS nonpareil sprinkles
• 3 TBS star decorative sprinkles

Directions for Cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Beat the butter for a few minutes with an electric mixer. Then cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy! Beat in the egg, vanilla and almond extracts. 
3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar 3 additions.
4. Lightly stir in the sprinkles, if you over mix the sprinkles will begin to bleed into the batter.
5. Using a melon baller, scoop the cookie dough and roll the dough in your hands then place on baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, do not overcook because the cookies will continue to cook while resting on the baking sheet. Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then cool cookie completely on cookie sheets.

Ingredients for Frosting:

• 3 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• Food Coloring if Desired

Directions for Frosting:

1. Beat the butter on medium-speed for five minutes, it should become very pale and creamy.
2. Add all of the other ingredients, and mix on a low speed for about a minute, then for 5 minutes beat on high. 
3. Add food coloring.
4. Best if used immediately, but it can be frozen for later use. 

Cookies Adapted from Two Peas and their Pod
Frosting Adapted from Sweetapolita