We published a spring recipe round-up a couple of weeks ago, and it was so popular we thought we’d do it again! I peruse far too many blogs on a daily basis, and bookmark thousands of recipes for future cooking/baking projects, so it’s a lot of fun for me to curate a shortlist of some of the best to share with you!

Easter is right around the corner, so in case you haven’t figured out what you’re making for the holiday, these recipes can provide some guidance and inspiration. Not celebrating Easter? No worries! Most of these  recipes double as seasonal spring recipes too :)

Breakfast/Brunch

Easter Bread with decorative eggs (from Bon Appetit)

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Recently I shared a tutorial on how to make pastry cream, so the next natural step was to make pâte a choux. Pâte a choux is a basic cooking technique, something that is relatively simple to assemble, and can be used in a variety of sweet and savory applications. The most well-known use of pâte a choux for sweet recipes is of course the cream puff or eclair. Pâte a choux puffs can be filled with any number of things – ice cream for profiteroles, pastry cream for eclairs, cream for cream puffs – and personally I think these applications show off the buttery, lighter-than-air texture best. But the base dough can also be used to make savory things like cheese puffs, often referred to as gougères, and also lend themselves ncely to a variety of herbs and spices.

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Spicy molasses cookies are my holiday favorite. Ginger molasses, gingersnaps, ginger chews, gingerbread – anything that’s loaded with the warm spices of winter is a total home run in my book. So it was only natural that I wanted to feature this outstanding Ginger Molasses Cookie recipe from the Flour Bakery Cookbook. When possible for this blog, we love to do things locally – so the fact that this recipe comes from a local chef makes these cookies even better.

Cookie scoop and Duralex glass bowl from Local Root

While these cookies are served in all of the Flour bakery locations year-round, the feel most fitting for the holiday season. They’re thin but not dry or brittle, and instead are ultra-chewy, with the perfect balance of sweet and spice, and plenty of buttery goodness. They are good enjoyed any which way – warm, cold, or at room temperature, as a morning, mid-day, afternoon or evening snack. Continue Reading

I think above all others, decorated sugar cookies are the quintessential holiday cookie. Cut into seasonal shapes – gingerbread men, Christmas trees, snowflakes and more – and decked out in bright reds and greens, there is no cookie that better represents this season. I’m generally not a big sugar cookie fan, but around the holidays I can’t get enough of them! They represent a time of year and a season that is very merry and beloved.

The recipe we used for these cookies has a great flavor – super buttery, not too sweet, and crispy but not brittle. If you cook them a bit less, they stay ever so slightly soft in the centers, which is my personal preference. Unlike some sugar cookie recipes, they spread a bit when baking, so they don’t have perfectly defined borders – more soft edges. That’s definitely a feature I love about them! Continue Reading