Spring Baking Championship

 My three favorite TV shows recently are basically different variations on the same thing: Halloween Baking Championship, Holiday Baking Championship, and Spring Baking Championship. I began earnestly watching during COVID, and now they are the highlight of my Mondays.

In 2015, I got the cookbook How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which has inspired me to be more creative and experiment in cooking and baking. The book and the Food Network shows make me want to try new things. So I baked three Easter-inspired goodies this week.

First up was carrot oatmeal cookies.

I've actually been making these since 2016, since the recipe is in my cookbook. They are soft and not too sweet, and I love cookies with an oatmeal base. What was different this time was that I added Hershey's cream cheese baking chips, which are a relatively new product.

Of course, I'm not the only person to make carrot cookies at this time of year, and I'm happy to see so many places embracing the carrot.

Sugar Fix, which you can find at certain gas stations

Twisted Sugar

RubySnap. This one's a coconut carrot curry cookie.

Crumbl

Cutler's

Crave. Do you like how I took my own container to the store to avoid the single-use plastic containers?

Back in 2021, I had a hot cross bun from Parsons' Bakery for the first time. Of course, the song "Hot Cross Buns" is required playing for fifth-grade recorder symphonies, but I never actually knew what a hot cross bun was until I was an adult. They're a traditional Good Friday/Easter food in British-aligned countries. I decided I wanted to try to make my own, using a recipe I found online. But I omitted the orange zest because I didn't have any oranges, and I replaced some of the raisins with dried cranberries and cut-up prunes.

This was actually my first attempt at making a bread with yeast. The thought of letting my bread rise always scared me away. Unfortunately, I don't think my buns rose properly. I Googled causes for bread not rising, and these hot cross buns had many ingredients that can mess with yeast. All-purpose flour? Check. Cinnamon? Check. Dried fruit? Check. I guess if I want to bake a yeast bread, I should start with an easier, simpler bread recipe. But even though the texture is a little off, I like the way they look, and they have a nice flavor. 

The ones I got from Parsons' Bakery (I went back this year) were better for eating. But they took the lazy way out by making the crosses out of icing, instead of baking it onto the rolls like I did.

Recently I was sitting in a group therapy session, and the other men were talking about their boyfriends; but since I don't have a boyfriend, my mind was wandering, and I was thinking about cookies. I was thinking about the different places that put Cadbury Mini Eggs in cookies.

Chip

Crave

Thirst

I like these cookies, but they're kind of boring, because they're similar to regular chocolate chip cookies. I wondered why more places don't use more flavorful candies like jelly beans. But then I remembered that my mom has a deteriorating Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from the 1970s that has a recipe for gumdrop cookies. I've wanted to try those at Christmastime. But gumdrops and jelly beans are confectionarily similar, so I decided to make the cookies with jelly beans instead.

At first, I started by cutting the jelly beans into smaller pieces. But jelly beans are small and hard, and they roll around, so cutting them up was a disaster waiting to happen. So I just put the rest of the jelly beans in whole.

I really was pleased with the result. They are flavorful, chewy cookies. I can see how they might be too chewy for some people, but I think I will have to make these again another Easter.

And speaking of Easter, here is the best secular Easter song ever made. Enjoy while you're home with the ones you love.