NBM, Day 7: Holiday Granola

For Christmas this year, my colleague Jill Silverman Hough sent a lovely card with a super appealing recipe she developed, Holiday Granola. Since granola really knows no season — and since I typically eat mango, yogurt, and homemade granola for lunch five days a week — I decided to make a batch of Jill’s granola for day seven of National Baking Month. The flavor combo in this granola includes coconut, almonds, cranberries, dried orange slices, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, with a base of oats. I think it’ll be perfect with my yogurt and mango, especially with Champagne mangos, which will be back in season soon. Here's a link to the granola recipe Jill used to create the holiday variation. Plus, check out her website — so many great recipes!

NBM, Day 6: Classic Birthday Cake

For day six of National Baking Month, I decided to try King Arthur Flour's 2019 recipe of the year, Classic Birthday Cake. Really a nice cake, all in all. I like that this cake is adaptable to both 8-inch and 9-inch pans (if I'd used the 8-inch pans, I'd have been tempted to halve the layers and fill them with a complementary flavor, maybe something peanut butter or raspberry). The cake is made with a combination of butter and oil, which gives it a great spongy texture. The frosting is a chocolate American buttercream made with cocoa powder. I added a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream to lighten the frosting; without the additional cream, I sensed that the frosting would be difficult to spread.

NBM, Day 5: Peanut Butter-Nutella Coffee Cake

While turning the pages of the One-Layer Cakes special issue of Bake from Scratch, I was drawn to this Peanut Butter-Nutella Coffee Cake for its winning combo of flavors. PB? Yes. Nutella? Oh yes. Peanut streusel topping? Bring it. Total keeper. I tweaked one thing: I put most of the batter in the pan before baking rather than half so that the Nutella wouldn’t sink as much as in the magazine photo. I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.

NBM, Day 4: Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

For Day Four of National Baking Month, I went with a classic, certainly my most-baked chocolate cupcake: Magnolia’s Chocolate Cupcakes with their lovely Chocolate Buttercream. These beauties will be going to a kind of sad event, so I hope they put the sweet in the bittersweet for everyone there.

NBM, Day 3: Heirloom Vanilla Sugar Cookies

For day three of National Baking Month, I baked off some cookie dough I’d made and frozen a couple of weeks ago. I love a simple, flavorful sugar cookie, and these Heirloom Vanilla Sugar Cookies, from Shauna Sever’s Pure Vanilla, are top notch. Making these cookies reminded me that I love the big, soft frosted sugar cookie recipe in this book, not to mention the amazing Vanilla Cloud Cake. Fortunately, I have 28 more days of National Baking Month.

NBM, Day 2: Peanut Butter Fingers with Salty Milk Chocolate Glaze

For day 2 of National Baking Month, I plucked a recipe from the fun and inspirational Vintage Baker, which Jessie Sheehan published last year. I’d tried her Chocolate Molasses Crinkles during the holidays and had really wanted to try these chocolate-glazed peanut butter treats because, of course, you can never go wrong with a chocolate-peanut butter combo. The recipe directs to trim the edges off the cookie before cutting it into bars. Not sure if maybe I trimmed off too much, but no worries because the trimmings make for good snacking. The bars are delicate and delicious, and are especially nice with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt on the glaze.

NBM, Day 1: Nutella Fudge Brownies

For National Baking Month 2019, I’m challenging myself to bake something every day. It’s a goofy enough challenge for me, and it also will assist me in attending to my holiday-baking ingredient overage. I’m planning to mix things up, so my intention isn’t necessarily to make just cookies or cakes or breads. I’m aiming for variety.

To get things started, I went with a straight-up simple and delicious favorite from Desserts 4 Today by Abigail Johnson Dodge. These brownies contain only four ingredients: Nutella, an egg, flour, and hazelnuts, but you’d never guess they were that simple. Since I had some leftover ganache in the fridge, I decided to glaze them and then sprinkle the tops with chopped hazelnuts rather than sprinkle the batter with the chopped nuts before baking.