Fat Tuesday and Semla!

I prefer these delicious sweet buns filled w/ almond paste and whipped cream to the church pancake supper on Fat Tuesday.  My wonderful neighbor Mattias (pictured above) made some.  Being the wonderful neighbors that he and his wife Lili are, they sent out an email inviting us to partake.  Mattias mentioned that he used the recipe that his mother always used in Sweden.  

Of course I googled Semla -- apparently they sell them at IKEA!  I bet they're not as good as Mattias's.

Cheesecake and Beer!

Have you ever tried the combination?  I don't know why it's not as popular as cheese and wine.  It's one of my favorite food and drink pairings.  

After a nice Valentine concert, my husband and I went to a great local brewery called Hunter-Gatherer.  First of all, they have really good beer.  I switched this past year from the ESB to the Wheat.  

They were serving a blueberry cream cheesecake.  Yum...that's all I really have to say.  I thought that while I was sharing my little pov on baking, I might as well include this too.

Linzer Cookies

I tried making Linzer cookies for Valentine's.  I checked out a new cookbook from the library - The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri.

I thought this dough was the worst.  It was so dry and difficult to work with.  I don't know what I did wrong.  I must have re-read the directions about 10 times.  I feel like I missed out on something.  Since, I found a good looking recipe on The Joy of Baking website.  

I might try that recipe the next time I get a hankering to make linzer cookies.  I always thought they looked pretty for Valentine's day.  These tasted pretty good, but the texture just wasn't great.  One other complaint about the Malgieri recipe...there was an overwhelming amount of clove.  I love clove - but I wished I had been consuming this in either November or December ---that's when I really want my clove.  I'm probably too picky.  

I used a scalloped cutter which I thought looked very pretty.  The picture's not great.  I need to work on that.