Magnolia Bakery Opens in L.A.

Magnolia Bakery opened it's doors in Los Angeles over the weekend. Although I had never before been to Magnolia, I've made many of their delicious desserts with More From Magnolia cookbook (as seen here, here, and here) and was already quite a fan. Whitney and I stopped in on Monday to see the bakery and try their treats and were delighted with what we found. The decor is adorably old fashioned, with black and white checkered floors, fresh flowers, and pastel colored walls. The menu features brownies, cheesecakes, icebox pies, puddings, and cookies as well as their famous cupcakes that started the entire mini-dessert craze. I tested the waters with my two favorite flavors-red velvet and vanilla. While both were decadent and satisfying, I was a little disappointed with the consistency of the cake (a little dry) and the frosting on the red velvet. I found out later that you can specify cream cheese frosting, but the standard red velvet comes with whipped vanilla icing. The chic retro feel of Magnolia won me over in the decor department and I was elated that there wasn't a line. I'll definitely be back to try the cheesecakes and icebox pies, but when it comes to cupcakes, I still prefer Sprinkles.

In other news, the lovely Lisa from In Dramatic Fashion has featured me today on her Style Snapshot. Check it out!

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

As I've said before, the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook never lets me down. I made these cookies yesterday with a recipe from More from Magnolia. The actual recipe is for Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies, which are delicious. But I find that substituting Butterscotch chips makes them divine. They're also easy to make. Try them for yourself!

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats (not regular, old-fashioned rolled oats)
1 cup peanut butter (or butterscotch) chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Stir in the oats and peanut butter chips. Drop by the rounded teaspoonfuls onto the ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion. Bake for 11-13 minutes.
Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pie Heaven

Dotting the apples with butter

Vanilla ice cream is essential with apple pie.
Gabe loves pie.

As I've said before, Gabe loves pie. His favorites are blueberry and apple so I decided to make him an apple pie on Sunday. I used the recipe from More From Magnolia and while I'm still perfecting the crust, the pie tasted delicious. Sarah bought this cookbook for me as a birthday gift one year and I continue to find the best recipes from it. Gabe and I frequently have this "situation" where he'll come home looking forward to eating something and I'll have already eaten it. Thankfully pie isn't my biggest weakness, so hopefully I'll be able to hold back on eating the rest of it before he makes it home again. This reminds me of one of my favorite Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey.

When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmm, boy.