Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 52
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Happy New Year!! As our last week of cooking through Magnolia Table comes to an end, I am blown away that we have cooked through all 139 recipes detailed throughout the Magnolia Table cookbook. While it still hasn’t quite hit me that we are finished, I do know that this cooking through an entire cookbook challenge became one of my favorite accomplishments of 2022. From rating recipes each week to sharing meals with family and friends, this challenge turned out to be everything I could have hoped for and now is successfully checked off my bucket list! Our last week of recipes proved to be a strong conclusion with a plethora of desserts to ring in the new year: Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies (p.311), Lemon & Lavender Icebox Cookies (p.313) and Lemon Poppy Seed Bread (p.317).
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies
Soft, buttery and deliciously rich, these Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies are simply wonderful! Ever since planning out our recipe progression back in December of 2021, I have been looking forward to trying these cookies. Strategically, I planned them for the last week of the year as I knew that over the holidays my family would devour them quickly. Thankfully, these cookies did not disappoint in the slightest and were all wiped out in less than a day! The shortbread cookie is everything you could hope for with a soft center and butter filled flavoring. Joanna Gaines pairings of this amazing cookie with the chocolate is a wonderful choice and the half dipped cookie is perfectly balanced. If you wanted even a little less richness, you could just drizzle half of the cookie with chocolate instead of dipping the entire half, but either way the results will be fabulous.
Crowd Average Rating:
With scores ranging from a 7 to a 10, these Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies gained a crowd average rating of an 8! While these cookies received several 9 and 10 ratings to leave them just as they were, some around the table felt they should have a little more chocolate and some felt they should have a little less. Thankfully, the half-dipped method of the cookies helps to satisfy most, however if you wanted to change it up a bit, you could dip some cookies ¾ of the way in chocolate and just drizzle the chocolate on half of other cookies to provide a variation for those wanting more or less rich chocolate flavor.
Lemon & Lavender Icebox Cookies
While the Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies above were an instant success, these Lemon & Lavender Icebox Cookies take a bit more of an adventurous palette with the introduction of dried lavender. Quick and easy, I absolutely loved how these cookies could be made and frozen up to 30 days in advance and then just cut and baked when ready to serve. Few desserts get as simple as that! Much like the shortbread cookies, these Icebox cookies are buttery and simply delicious with a cup of tea. If you happen to pick your own lavender at our local Twin Creeks Lavender Farm, this recipe is perfect for all of your culinary lavender creations!
Crowd Average Rating:
Coming in solidly in the middle, these Lemon & Lavender Icebox Cookies gained an average rating of 5! As most within my family had not eaten lavender recipes, these cookies came in slightly lower due to some of them feeling like they were more related to a candle or soap simply due to the lavender flavoring. That being said, I enjoy lavender recipes and thought they were quite tasty. Since lavender can be more polarizing for people, I definitely want to try the Key Lime Icebox Cookie variation that Joanna mentions as I believe those would be delicious. The lemon portion of this cookie was tremendous, so I imagine that an entire Key Lime variation would be just as good and might be better received with picky eaters.
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
Ever since beginning our Magnolia Table journey, my best friend has recommended this recipe. So after seeing that it was our very last recipe of the year, I have been in anticipation of trying it out all year! Definitely more of a bread than a cake, this Lemon Poppy Seed Bread has a soft texture and a wonderfully lemon icing packed with flavor. While it is delicious as a dessert, I believe it is even better as a breakfast bread or paired with afternoon tea or coffee. Regardless, it is a great option to snack on all day and definitely is worth trying.
Crowd Average Rating:
Coming in between the Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies and the Lemon & Lavender Icebox Cookies, this Lemon Poppy Seed Bread received a crowd average rating of 6.5! While this bread is delicious, I did run into a few problems during its cooking. First off, I was making this recipe out of town at my parents house and I know that their oven cooks slightly differently, so I had to add at least 30 minutes to the cooking time for it to fully cook.
That being said, it had started to overflow the baking dish, so I had placed a cookie sheet underneath it to prevent a total mess which could have also contributed to the longer baking time. Finally, when testing if the bread was done, the center began to fall in some, and while this did not affect the taste, it definitely did the presentation. When icing the bread, I just kept it flipped over and no one knew (until they got to the center!) the difference, so if it happens to you as well, just turn it over and likely people won’t be able to tell. Overall, this last recipe of 2022 gave me a run for my money, but on the whole was quite tasty.
Final Thoughts
While I don’t have a list of ingredients to help fuel next week’s recipes, I am definitely looking forward to the final cookbook review from the entire year, so stay tuned for that post later this week! This journey has been such a blast and one that I will treasure always. In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, have you decided on any? I would love to know what they are in the comment section below! This cooking through a cookbook in a year resolution may not help you achieve your health goals, but I promise it will expand your palette, give you many good laughs, fun times with friends and family and new ways to approach the intersection of life and food. All in all, it has been entirely worth it.
Happy cooking!
Chloe
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