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Leena Bakes: Banana Bourbon Chocolate Muffins!

Leena Bakes: Banana Bourbon Chocolate Muffins!

Best muffin of 2012 thus far! Sweet banana with a kick of bourbon and a hint of milk chocolate.

Not too long ago, a pal and fellow food blogger Emily Hanhan of Nomnivorous hosted the first of many supper clubs called Whisky and Salt in the NYC area. In her awesome and drool-inducing post about it, she revealed that she made whisky and chocolate chip muffins as take home gifts from the supper club. I have been looking for an excuse to pop these bad boys out, and a small party with some fellow parents and babies on NYE gave the perfect excuse. But let’s be honest, vacuuming the living room is the perfect excuse for these muffins, they are that damn good.

The recipe and heaps of food porn after the jump.

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Leena Bakes: Soft Lemon Sugar Cookies for her growing bellah!

Leena Bakes: Soft Lemon Sugar Cookies for her growing bellah!

If awesome came in a small package, it would look a helluva lot like these soft lemon sugar cookies. Tiny tangy citrus bombs!

Damn, I’ve been baking a lot of sweets lately, haven’t I? Apparently, this is the part of the pregnancy where women are encourage to go wild and eat to their heart’s delight. Which? I’m totally game for.

I’m just afraid to ask who is gonna work on losing all this weight it’s packing on for me. In the mean time, let them eat cookies! I was craving something sweet and light, and these little citrus bombs really deliver–especially if you make sure to just barely bake them through (helps them stay nice and soft).

Plenty of food porn and the recipe after the click.

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Leena Bakes: Dark chocolate pear cake with pistachio ice cream

Leena Bakes: Dark chocolate pear cake with pistachio ice cream

A slice of my dark chocolate pear cake with pistachio ice cream (recipes from Smitten Kitchen and Chow.com)

One of the worst things about being pregnant and me is that I can literally cook or bake ANYTHING I am craving at the time. Like cookies. And Chex Mix. And more cookies. It’s dangerous, really.

Mainly because I hate sharing. I blame the baby for this.

My cravings have definitely had a sweet edge to them, so when an old friend came into town, I used it as an excuse to make some delicious cake and ice cream. I have explored the use of this particular flavor combination, dark chocolate, pear and pistachio, in several desserts in the past, like this one and this one. I love the balance of the slightly bitter chocolate, the syrupy sweet pear and the salt from the pistachio, I figured it would be a good in cake form.

For more food porn and the recipes, click on!
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Leena Bakes: Ginger Cupcakes with Cranberry Cream Cheese frosting

Leena Bakes: Ginger Cupcakes with Cranberry Cream Cheese frosting

My ginger cupcake with cranberry cream cheese frosting- winter in a cute little paper cup!

For the first three months of my pregnancy, I almost went crazy with pregnancy nausea, and cooking was the LAST thing on my mind. Once it finally did cross my mind, baked goods were about all that seemed appetizing. Enter my ginger cupcake with cranberry cream cheese frosting.

The recipe and food porn after the click.

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Leena Bakes: the Best Damn Apple Pie EVER

Leena Bakes: the Best Damn Apple Pie EVER

The makings of a great apple pie.

Please enjoy this last day of cooking for the holidays with one of my favorite apple pie recipes! Happy holidays!

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Apple pie–it’s something so simple and yet so satisfying, especially when served warm from the oven with a scoop of cold ice cream. This is the review of a recipe I made from FoodTV.com, and even though I had a bitch of a time with the dough (I don’t think I made it moist enough–it kept crumbling) this recipe still yielded a delicious, flakey crust and one helluva pie.

For the recipe and more, click on!

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Leena Cooks the Holidays: Apple, Pear and Cranberry Five Spice Crisp

Leena Cooks the Holidays: Apple, Pear and Cranberry Five Spice Crisp

This recipe is a repost, but I wanted to share it with you for the holidays. Enjoy my week-0-holidays recipes!

The recipe after the jump.

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Leena Bakes: Thanksgiving pt.3 Dessert- Cranberry upside down cake

Leena Bakes: Thanksgiving pt.3 Dessert  Cranberry upside down cake

One of my new favorite recipes--cranberry upside down cake from Chez Panisse Fruit cookbook!

This has to be my new favorite holiday dessert. It’s a bit sweet and a bit tart  five spice cranberry upside cake, inspired by a recipe in my Chez Panisse Fruits cookbook and from this post on The Joy of Baking. And if you are lucky enough to live in the U.S., you know that cranberries are a native fruit, making it the perfect fruit to focus on for a holiday dessert.

Food porn and the recipe after the jump.

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Leena Cooks n Cans: Chinese five spice pickled cherries for Tigress Can Jam June

Leena Cooks n Cans: Chinese five spice pickled cherries for Tigress Can Jam June

My pitted dark cherries, ready and waiting to be pickled!

Leena Cooks n Cans: Chinese five spice pickled cherries for Tigress Can Jam June

(note- this recipe was originally posted on July 28, 2009, but it is too good not repost for this month’s Tigress Can Jam: Berries. Photos and recipe the same, but content has changed. Enjoy!)

It is time once again for this month’s Tigress Can Jam, and the topic is berries. Since I am OBSESSED with my kick-ass five spice pickled cherries, and cherries have just come into season in California ($2 a pound, baby!), I figured this month’s can jam would be a great excuse to make my seasonal stock of pickled cherries.

These cherries are sweet and tart, tangy and addictive. They rock in both sweet and savory food applications, as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. And no joke? They will change your life. Even if you hate pickles.

More food porn, tips and the recipe after the jump

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Leena Bakes: Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Frosting for Memorial Day!

Leena Bakes: Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Frosting for Memorial Day!

My vanilla cupcake with fresh strawberry frosting. Yay spring!

Cheap strawberries are everywhere in Northern California right now, signaling that spring is here. With Memorial Day barbecues just around the corner, I wanted to create a cupcake that would celebrate the delicious flavor of a fresh strawberry, and this is what I came up with: a light vanilla cupcake and a fresh strawberry frosting, both inspired by Cheryl at Cupcake Bakeshop, my favorite cupcake blogger.

This cupcake may look tame, but don’t be fooled. The light vanilla cupcake perfectly supports a strawberry frosting that smacks you across the face with fresh strawberry flavor first and asks questions later. And frankly, that’s the way I like my frosting. Light and bitchy.

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Drowning in Stone Fruit with my mouth wide open: Baked Peaches

Drowning in Stone Fruit with my mouth wide open: Baked Peaches

My ginger and cinnamon-baked peach with vanilla bean ice cream.

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you know you want my crisp

you know you want my crisp

I was in a warm fruit mood, and since we are half way between winter and spring here in Adelaide (it was 70 F/21C today!!), apples, pears and strawberries seem to be the most abundant fruit around me. So I decided to make an apple, pear and strawberry crisp with five spice and fresh vanilla bean ice cream. Read the rest of this entry »

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