Good morning! I have a special announcement.
-
My cookbook “Cookies” comes out in three days! Pre-order it wherever you get your books.
-
If you happen to be in any of these cities, come see me on tour.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Nigella Lawson on TV. As a theater kid, I was obsessed with her accent, but I was equally drawn to how she moved through the kitchen with confidence, and to how much fun she seemed to have while cooking. As an adult (just as dramatic as I was as a child), I try to channel that confidence as I’m baking, but I also make a point to have fun. (I will also never pronounce “microwave” the same way again.)
Nigella recently celebrated 25 years of her baking classic “How to Be a Domestic Goddess.” In honor of that, and to gear up for the spookiest week of the year, I made her Halloween monster cookies. They are 10 out of 10, no-notes oatmeal cookies with nuts and Reese’s Pieces folded in.
How could I ever improve on something so classic and on-theme? Googly it.
I love Halloween because, well, candy. But it’s also a time where I get to tap into a whimsy I don’t really afford myself in the day-to-day. Sometimes you have to live a little! Once I put googly eyes on the monster cookies, I turned into a monster myself. I started putting little candy eyes on just about everything I could think of, even surprising my boyfriend with them on top of our eggs one morning (I don’t recommend that). A quick tip: It’s better to gently press googly eyes into cookies when they’re fresh from the oven. If you add them before baking the cookies, they sink into the dough (spooky!).
There’s something freeing about the ridiculousness and immaturity of something so silly. So this is your call to put edible googly eyes on everything you bake from now until Halloween. Here are a few ideas:
Cupcake Critters
Putting eyes on a chocolate-frosted cupcake makes it look like a critter in the night, like an owl or a lemur peering at you from the darkness, and that makes me giggle. These cupcakes are from “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts,” which turned 50 last year, and they remain extremely popular.
Admittedly, I’m not the biggest cupcake fan, but these are topped with a silky ganache rather than an inappropriate amount of frosting, and the rich, moist crumb reminds me of a real slice of cake. We also have a vegan version, another five-star recipe that one of our readers, Heather, says she makes almost every week. I want to be more like Heather.
Speaking of cake, I have to shout out my good friend and culinary North Star, Sam Seneviratne, for her incredibly comprehensive how-to on the fundamentals of cake baking for our series “Cooking 101.” She’s made hundreds of cakes over her years in the food industry, and here she shares her best tips for how to make your cakes look — and taste — professional.
The Thrills Have Eyes
Much to my surprise, the googly eyes I bought at N.Y. Cake, my go-to baking supplies haunt in Manhattan, had a mix of sizes. I was wracking my brain for a fun recipe that I could use the big eyes on, and then I remembered these peanut laddoo buckeye balls my colleague Priya Krishna adapted from a staple in my kitchen, Hetal Vasavada’s “Milk & Cardamom.”
It’s a no-bake treat, which is an automatic yes from me, and the texture is like a Butterfinger (another yes). I’m no Ohioan, but I do love a buckeye, and the combination of cardamom, ghee and jaggery in this recipe create a beautiful twist on the classic. Put your candies on top, and you have a Halloween treat everyone will be eyeing.
Make Sugar Cookie Sullies
If chocolate’s not your thing, might I suggest these sugar cookie bars? My colleague Margaux Laskey adapted them from the “American Girl Cookies” cookbook, and when she brought them into the office I think I ate five of them. They’re a true crowd-pleaser, and everyone from Kit to Ivy to Melody thinks so. I haven’t put googly eyes on these yet, but when I do, I think I’m going to double the frosting, break out my grass piping tip and make them look like Sully from “Monsters, Inc.”
Thank you for bearing with all the terrible puns this week. I have a Notes app with many more, but I value my job. Even if you don’t celebrate Halloween, let loose and have fun with your bakes just as Nigella would. Now it’s time for me to turn into a pumpkin — I get the feeling somebody’s watching me. (Last one, I promise.)
The Monthly Bake
Marcia Made the Cake!
Next week we have a new Monthly Bake (!), but the boozy apple crunch cake is forever. This week’s Star Baker is the actress Marcia Gay Harden, who asked for my help, but didn’t really need it at all. Watch her triumph here, and keep sending your photos to [email protected] and tagging me on Instagram @vaughn!
Thanks for reading (and baking)! Ta ta for now.
Was this email forwarded to you? You can sign up for Bake Time here.
Thanks for reading and cooking. If you like the work we do at New York Times Cooking, please subscribe! (Or give a subscription as a gift!) You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, or follow me on Instagram. Reach out to my colleagues at [email protected] if you have any questions about your account.
The post The Thrills Have Eyes appeared first on New York Times.
