Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

We've been getting a lot of zucchini in the garden this year and they are HUGE. I've been using some (of one zucchini) for dinner and the rest to try different baked goods. This time it was Jenna's chocolate chip zucchini bread. This recipe has some spices in it so it felt nice for the approach of Autumn. (I made this in the middle of September)

Recreating Trattoria Sostanza's Meringue Cake

When Christian and I were in Florence on our honeymoon we went to Trattoria Sostanza, which I had been to on my first trip to Italy in 2017. I told Christian his life would be changed after eating their pollo al burro (butter chicken.) We also got their "dolce con fragoline" (meringue with strawberries) to share for dessert. It actually came with raspberries but it was DELICIOUS! We didn't know what to expect with that name, but they said it was like a cake. Out came 3 layers of meringue with layers of vanilla semifredo (gelato/ice cream) speckled with chocolate. I was inspired to try and make my own after they kept sharing photos of other diners eating it on their Instagram stories. I already make my version of their butter chicken at least a few times a year, why not this?!

I started by googling Meringata as that is what some of the Italians were calling it in their captions. I found this recipe that seemed pretty good, but it just used whipped cream in the layers.  Then I found a simple semifreddo recipe and pulled out my Native Vanilla Madagascar vanilla beans for that perfect vanilla flavor! I also added in a few chocolate chips since I didn't have a chocolate bar on hand. Instead of freezing it in a loaf pan I used a round spring-form pan since I wanted it to be a circular cake. I also made three meringue discs hoping I would be able to slice the semifreddo in half to make two layers (I didn't know how much the recipe would make.) Unfortunately, it was too thin to split so I only used two of my meringue discs. I used the third for something else.  

Next time I'll double the semifreddo recipe and buy a chocolate bar to shave into pieces for prettier flecks of chocolate. Perhaps I'll make it for this year's Christmas celebration so we don't have to worry too much about it melting, ha ha! Dye the meringue red or green perhaps??

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No Churn Ice Cream 

Not exactly baking, but I still include ice creams since they involve using baking tools, haha! We had leftover heavy cream from the above meringue cake so I wanted to try and recreate my favorite Talenti gelato flavor that they have sadly stopped making - Coconut Almond Chocolate. I found a recipe for a simple chocolate chip ice cream and also added some sweetened coconut flakes and chopped up almonds. Super easy, the hardest part is whipping up the heavy cream.

Conchas

I'm on the King Arthur Baking email list and this month they're focusing on Mexican Pan Dulce ("sweet bread") recipes. Fany Gerson, a Mexico City-born pastry chef created this recipe for the series. They look so fun and pretty so I had to make them! The recipe for the dough was pretty simple, a starter and then a brioche-type method for completion. They're topped with a simple cookie dough, much like craquelin for cream puffs, which I have been wanting to try making for quite a while (I'm not a cream puff fan so the motivation for that particular version was low, ha ha.) I made the topping a little big but they turned out alright after I peeled off the excess. Next time I may make some more slashes in the topping but these came out pretty good for my first try!

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Double Chocolate Halloween Cookies 

I couldn't go through October without making a Halloween-themed recipe.These were part of Handle the Heat's October Baking Challenge so it was fun to know I was baking these cookies along with the rest of her community. They were super easy and came out great! Christian especially enjoyed them because they tasted like Oreo cookies thanks to the black cocoa. Totally worth the splurge for Halloween colored M&Ms, ha ha. I did have a coupon so they weren't full price, but still expensive.

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2 Hour Fastest No Knead Bread

It's been a while since I've made this no knead bread so I decided it was time to skip making sandwich bread this week and turn to this crusty deliciousness! I always double this recipe because I like it to be nice and tall and we have a larger dutch oven. This recipe is great because all you need is a bowl, a couple bowl scrapers (to help shape the dough) and a dutch oven.