August Blues?

Maybe it’s from childhood years and school being around the corner, but to me.. August always has kind of felt like a Sunday. Summer is coming (not officially) to a close and the busy coming months will be full of things. Whether it’s school or the holidays, the end of the year feels like it is going to creep right in before we know it.

I don’t know if there is really a theme to the recipes this month, but there’s definitely something to make for the kids who are going back to school. Something to use the summer fruits in season. Something for pizza & movie nights and then just something that tastes awesome. I’d say that’s a pretty good mix!

Here’s what’s coming this month:

1.  Breadsticks - Who doesn’t love a good breadstick? I wanted to make a copycat of a childhood favorite. They may not be an identical match but they are close, and even more they are delicious in their own right.

2. Brown Butter Pistachio Scones - These scones may have jumped up into my top 3 scones recipes. Pistachio has great flavor, and when paired with brown butter? OMG. If you love scones, these are a must bake!

3. Potato Bread Loaf - I have both a honey white sandwich loaf and an oat wheat sandwich loaf. I wanted to create an ultra soft potato sandwich bread like the kind I love to buy in the store and I definitely succeeded.

4. Blackberry Peach Crumble - Two of my most favorite summer fruits combined together with a brown sugar cinnamon crumble topping? I had to “test” this many times jusssst to make sure it was perfect (it was the first time ;))

In Yeast We Trust

I know the feeling of looking at a recipe, thinking it looks and sounds wonderful and pulling it out of the oven and it’s ugly. And you just know you did it wrong. There were hundreds of comments saying it was so easy and it worked perfectly, so why does yours look like a toddler had a busy day in the kitchen. I know when you look at my photos, it might also seem like “yeah right”.

But I fail in the kitchen all the time.

When I post a recipe, you don’t see all those failures in black and white, but many of them are there in the blog. It’s why I know that you shouldn’t substitute an ingredient, or why it might take longer to bake, or why you need to do something in a specific order. Because I tried it. Rarely is a recipe I’m writing perfect on the first try. Even if I get a recipe right on the first try, I still have to bake it again to make sure it works, or to make it LOOK prettier. It takes me another try, or another 5 tries to get it right. And then I have the power of 25 years of photography experience (that made me feel old lol) to know how to photograph something to hide imperfections.

All this to say, even experienced bakers have baking fails. I have things I bake all the time and don’t need to look at the recipe and sometimes I burn it, or mis-measure something, or forget an ingredient. Don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t work out on the first try. Also, it honestly doesn’t matter what it looks like if it TASTES good. All that to say - I am always happy to answer questions on a recipe. Leave a comment, send me an email or an Instagram DM. I might not know all the answers but I may know where would be a good place to check, or what you could try to help you succeed.

Is there a recipe you’d love to see on the blog or something you can’t work out on an existing recipe? Let me know! Until next month, happy baking!