From Market to Table

Light and Creamy Small-Batch Cheesecake

Cheesecake has never been on my radar to make. Maybe it was the springform pan that always leaks. Or the precarious water bath and resting period to prevent cracking. Or the notion that it takes ‘skill’ to make a standout cheesecake. Anticipating the surmounting cream-cheese-laden leftovers didn’t help either. Make it at home? No. There is a reason the Cheesecake Factory sells cheesecake by the slice.

Lately, I began reimagining what cheesecake could be. It started with Eden Grinshpan’s Cheesecake from Eating Out Loud. Then, Alison Roman’s Citrus Cheesecake. Then, of course, my 9×5-inch loaf pan epiphany. Hide the cracks, add greek yogurt, and make it small-batch. It’s time we all start making cheesecake.

oatmeal cranberry cookie with coconut cookie with a bite taken out of it and a pile of cookies in the background

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies with Coconut

I’m pretty sure the worst thing you can do at 7 pm on a weeknight is deciding to make cookies and then ask for suggestions. No one thinks about the ingredients you have available, the time commitment to make them, or the fact you want a cookie, like now. No, they only think about what they are craving at that moment and how convenient it is that you want to make cookies.

So when I was asked to make a cookie with coconut, I stammered a bit and said that I don’t have a cookie recipe with coconut. Their response “exactly, that’s why you need to make one.” While I found this annoying and inconvenient at best, they had a point. Coconut screams Springtime, despite it being flurrying outside (thank you, Minnesota). I also admitted I was craving coconut too.

Fluffy Oat and Yogurt Pancakes For Two

I never really understood the point of having more than one pancake recipe. After all, I found the one that I make on repeat whenever a pancake craving hits and it ticks all the boxes: small batch, incredibly fluffy, and no fussy steps. Yum.

That is until the grocery store became the world’s crappiest scavenger hunt and milk was out of stock on my regular grocery run. As I stood in the dairy aisle reminiscing about the days when I could go to the store and never question whether a so-called easy-to-find ingredient was available, I realized that having more than one pancake recipe that relies on different ingredients is essential.

small batch brownies cut into triangles sprinkled with salt

Sweet and Salty Small-Batch Brownies

There are times when I get advice on scaling down recipes where I scrunch my face and question someone’s…math.

There, I said it.

This became a full-blown realization when I was making a popular small-batch brownie recipe. I only had one chocolate bar left in the house and the idea of venturing out in -30°F weather to get another one seemed quite ridiculous. So, small-batch it was.

chocolate chip cookie bars cut in squares sprinkled with salt

Old-School Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Heirloom recipes always take me the longest to create. It is not because the recipe is hard to follow per se, but more so because the memory attached to the dish is unforgivable. “They are just not the same,” I heard muttered across the kitchen as I am covered in flour and surrounded by endless batches of chocolate chip cookie bars.

Well, I followed the recipe, I say as I call yet again to figure out what I did wrong. Did I scoop the flour right? Do you use a glass or aluminum pan? What kind of chocolate do you use? Are you sure you wrote down the recipe right? Failure after failure, I began questioning my sanity.

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