Orange Blossom Madeleines

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Madeleines are a classic french butter cake/cookie. This recipe yields light and wonderful madeleines that have a hint of orange blossom in them. Super easy to whip up and a reliable crowd-pleaser!

Orange Blossom Madeleine

I have always wanted to make madeleines but since I did not have a madeleine pan I never attempted them. I have posted my mom’s english madeleine recipe on the blog, and while I love that recipe, english madeleines differ from their french counterpart. Both absolutely delicious but in different respects.

I finally invested in a madeleine pan and had been waiting to try a recipe for these. I knew as my first try I wanted to make the classic version, and keep the more complicated and fancier sounding madeleines for later. I had recently bought orange blossom water from amazon for another recipe, and never got around to making the recipe I bought the water for. From reviews of the madeleine recipes I had read online, I knew I had found the perfect way to use the orange blossom water lying in my cupboard.

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Sweet Tahini Buns

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Sweet Tahini buns or halva buns are a Turkish bread made from tahini, brown sugar and pastry dough.

Sweet Tahini Buns

If you know me I am a cookbook hoarder. And whenever I get a new cookbook I love going through it, oggling at the pictures, making mental notes of what I want to make from them and getting inspired. I have a fairly good collection of cookbooks and put a lot of thought before picking a cookbook out. Recently I got to a review copy for Food with Friends by Leela Cyd. I love cookbooks with beautiful pictures (well, you do eat with your eyes first, don’t you) and this one doesn’t disappoint at all. Each recipe is accompanied with perfectly styled photographs, tempting me to bookmark each and every recipe.

“Leela Cyd is from Santa Barbara, California. She is a lifestyle and food photographer, shooting for editorial clients such as Sweet Paul magazine, Kinfolk and Conde Nast Traveler. Food with Friends: The Art of Simple Gatherings focuses on accessible, quick and joyful food to share.”

At a very young Leela traveled  with her photographer dad as an assistant visiting countries like Spain, Morocco, Laos, Myanmar and South India, and you can find a lot of influence from her travels in the recipes that she shares in her cookbook, which is what I love about this cookbook.

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Aah Friday! And I have just the right thing for you to bake this weekend- chocolate zucchini bread. I love when I can eat my vegetables in baked goods. It kind of makes me feel a little less guilty eating them. I know the purists would consider it cheating but it does help when the baked good has whole wheat in it and wheat germ, besides the lovely goodness of chocolate, right?

Moist and chocolatey is what this bread is all about. You don’t taste the zucchini, but enjoy the moistness it lends to the bread. Zucchini like carrots adds moisture to quick breads, making them utterly delicious and difficult to refuse.

I have posted a zucchini lime coconut bread before and shared it recently with my friends at TooBu.org , and this time thought will make the equally delicious chocolate version. This recipe is adapted from the Double Chocolate Zucchini bread on Sally’s Baking Blog. I did not add the chocolate chips since I was out of them and even though I am sure they would have made this bread double special, I was still really happy with it.

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