Hello everyone! Today I have so many baking adventures to share with you!
I totally thought that I wasn’t going to have a lot to share, but I did end up baking a ton this month! I tried making shortbread cookies, tried a no bake bars recipe, used almond flour for the first time, made scones for the first time, and then did so many strawberry bakes! Okay two strawberry bakes but it was really exciting for me!
Oh, just so you know, I always find the recipes I use on Pinterest (they’ll be pinned on my “Yummy” board if you’re following me and my Pinterest will be linked in my signature). However, I’ll say the name of the actual site I got the recipe from as well as the name of the recipe from that site. I’ll stop rambling and get into each bake now.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
I was craving shortbread cookies so I decided to make some! I found the recipe through a blog called Julie Blanner, titled “Lemon Shortbread Cookies”. Not healthy at all but I wanted some! Heads up though, the website that the recipe came from is super annoying. It has full videos that pop up and you can’t close out of them for a good ten seconds, ads everywhere, and the page freezes often. It’s dreadful!
Recipe Pros and Cons
The recipe was easy to follow but that’s about it for the pros. Overall, it wasn’t great. The cookies came out like butter cookies, not shortbread at all. They were still good, but it wasn’t what I wanted at all.
Results
Here they are! I made them to be heart shaped, because that was the only non-Christmas cookie cutter we had, and tree shaped, because I thought maybe it would just look like a regular tree and not specifically a Christmas tree (that didn’t work). The hearts were more popular, probably because it was bigger.
Thoughts
Like I said, these came out more like flat butter cookies than the more fluffy (that might not be exactly the word I want but it’s the only one I can think of at the moment) so I will not be using this recipe again. Plus, as I said the website was horrible to use!
Honey Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
I wanted to try some “no bake” baking recipes in June. Mostly because it’s getting hotter now that it’s summer so I want avoid using the oven on really hot days but still have options for stuff to make. I found this recipe on a site called Renee Nicole’s Kitchen under “No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars”.
Recipe Pros and Cons
I liked the recipe! Like most recipe posts there was a ton of “how I came up with this recipe” along with the dreaded ads that slow down the page but I liked that first part because of how many other options the recipe gave. It also gave suggestions on which types of honey or peanut butter for example, and was overall very helpful. There weren’t really any cons except the number of ads, but that’s unfortunately normal in the baking focused sites.
Results
Tada! The recipe said it would make 12 bars, and I don’t recall how many exactly I cut but I think it could easily make 12 if I didn’t. I might have made them a bit bigger and gotten 10 but I really don’t remember. I think they were good but not sweet enough for me.
Thoughts
If I make this again, which I would probably do, I would actually prefer to add more honey to make it sweeter. I would also use crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy because although I love the chewy bars, they do need some crunch! They make a great snack but my parents really didn’t like them as much as I expected them to.
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Scones
I have wanted to try using flour alternatives for awhile now, specifically almond flour. So I looked up a few recipes and settled on a recipe through a site called Elizabeth Rider under “Almond Flour Scone Recipe with Chocolate Chips (Gluten-Free)”. I’d never made scones before but I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to try some!
Recipe Pros and Cons
I loved this recipe! It was super easy to follow along and didn’t have a ton of ingredients, which I found was the case for a lot of other recipes that used almond flour. Where there were still the horrendous ad takeover on the page, the recipe itself was easy to follow and there wasn’t a ton of “how to” at the start so it was easy to navigate. I guess the only real “con” is that the recipe is overloaded with “organic” or “vegan” options and so on which can be annoying when you want a mostly normal recipe but just with almond flour instead, however, almond flour is a more pricey “healthy” alternative. I imagine if someone is going through the effort to use it that it’s likely because they do adhere to more unusual dietary restrictions. You can’t really switch out regular flour with almond flour or vice versa so if you want to try to use almond flour, I do suggest looking up specific recipes for it even if you have to dig to find something without a ton of other less used ingredients.
Results
Here they are! I thought they looked quite beautiful! I actually doubled the recipe as it only makes 8 and I wanted them to last awhile. With three people in the house, stuff tends to get eaten pretty quickly! I’m quite proud of how these turned out but they were fairly easy to make.
Thoughts
I could definitely tell the difference with the flour! My parents thought they were good but they weren’t real big fans of these. They always ask for healthier options then don’t like it! I think that they are quite pricy to make because of the almond flour. For example, I bought a little bag for $7 at Target (the store brand) and used the entire bag for this recipe because I doubled it. I had wanted to use the bag for a few things so I was surprised when I ended up using the entire bag. However, I really liked these scones and I totally want to make them again, but I do think they’ll be a special treat due to the almond flour price.
Lemon Strawberry Blondies
Remember how I went strawberry picking at the end of June? Well, since I had a ton of strawberries, I decided to try baking with them! I haven’t done a ton of baking with fruits, so I was excited! I found a recipe to try on a site called The View From Great Island called “Strawberry Lemon Blondies”.
Recipe Pros and Cons
The recipe was easy to follow and straightforward! I will say it uses a lot more ingredients and prep than I’m typically used to because of the glaze as well as the lemon juice. However, it is not difficult at all and still very easy to make. For a con, the recipe does have some typos but it’s easy to know what it means. For example, one of the instructions says “when the egg is full incorporated”. It’s easy to know it means “fully incorporated” but still a typo!
Results
Here’s the blondie with the glaze! I wish I’d gotten this more at an angle to show the blondie but ah well. I think it looks beautiful! My parents get quite annoyed when I insist they wait to eat the treats until after they’ve cooled down (for obvious reasons) and then until the glaze sets (for aesthetic reasons). They got over it though and did wait.
Thoughts
I really liked these! I think I used a bit too much lemon but it was really good overall. My parents weren’t big fans, my dad likely thought it was too sweet and my mom was mostly fine with it but didn’t really like the lemon part. Oh! And I keep saying lemon but I actually used lime because that’s all I had.
Lemon Strawberry Pound Cake
Again, I had a ton of strawberries so I found another recipe! This time, a pound cake. The recipe is from a site called House of Yumm called “Strawberry Lemon Pound Cake”.
Recipe Pros and Cons
I will start with the biggest con, the LEMON ZEST. I hate zesting lemons, or in this case limes. However, my lovely mother stepped in to save the day and zest the limes for me. She’s the real MVP. The recipe was easy to follow, just like the blondies. And like the blondies, it had a lot of ingredients but it wasn’t so bad. The glaze was also easy to make.
Results
Tada! I loved this pound cake. It looked so pretty and baked so well. Plus the glaze was delicious. I really enjoyed this recipe a ton.
Thoughts
Again, I used lime and not lemon but I think it was still good. I did use a bit too much lime I think but I think it worked out. I also used Key Lime greek yogurt and not plain because that’s all I had and again, it was fine. This recipe was quite forgiving! I think my parents liked this one a lot more because it wasn’t as sweet. I think I’ll actually try to make this one again and stick to the limes!
So those are all my June bakes! Amazing how much I can bake when I’m unemployed LOL. I do really enjoy it though so maybe once I get a new job I can still try to bake at least one or two things a month.
Thanks for reading!
Pamela
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