Baked by Laila

Cookie Bars The other day, I was in my kitchen looking through my pantry to see if I could whip up something fairly quick that would satisfy my sweet tooth. I had a little bit of cookie butter left in a jar, Nutella, and a whole lot of chocolate chips.  Cookie bars it is! I used almond flour as my base because a) I had a lot of it and b) I wouldn't feel as guilty eating these bars... even though the sugar, cookie butter, Nutella, and chocolate chips definitely made up for the guilt. 😅 These bars are chewy, thick, and dreamy. And they will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth if you have these ingredients around in your kitchen! Cookie Bars COOKIE BARS: Yields: approximately 12 squares INGREDIENTS: -1 cup of almond flour - 2 tablespoons of AP flour - 1 cup of sugar - 1 egg - 1/4 cup of cookie butter - 1/4 cup of Nutella - 1/4 cup of milk - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract - 3/4 cup of chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling on top - pinch of salt ...

Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls with Espresso Glaze After taking a looooong break from sharing recipes on my blog, I'm back so that I can share this one.  Why? Because it's too good not to share. It would be selfish of me to keep this AMAZING recipe all to myself, especially when we're all stuck at home with extra time on our hands to make something so time consuming... like these cinnamon rolls. This is my go-to dough recipe for cinnamon rolls. It's adapted from  Ambitious Kitchen's  dough recipe, but I changed it up a bit. I use oat milk in my recipe, and I've also used normal cow's milk. Both work perfectly, and no, you don't taste any difference in the dough if you use oat milk. I've also used both bread flour and AP flour, and both work great. However, if you want suuuuuper fluffy dough, I HIGHLY recommend using bread flour. Another thing I do is add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the dough. I mean, they ARE cinnamon rolls, right? If you lov...

Chicken and Goat Cheese Sandwich with Red Onion Marmalade When I was in Seattle a few weeks ago, I had one of the best sandwiches I've ever had in my entire life from a place called DERU Market. It had chicken, arugula, goat cheese, and cooked down sweet red onions. Everything was stuffed between two pieces of warm, crispy bread. When I came back to North Carolina, I knew I just had to recreate it. And that's exactly what I did! This sandwich is stuffed with creamy goodness from the goat cheese, juicy shredded chicken, and a sweet red onion marmalade. Delicious is an understatement. I hope you give my recipe a try! CHICKEN AND GOAT CHEESE SANDWICH WITH RED ONION MARMALADE Yields: 4 sandwiches INGREDIENTS: - 1 big chicken breast, cleaned and cut into cubes - olive oil - salt - pepper - garlic powder - onion powder - dried oregano  - red onion marmalade, recipe below - 11 ounces of goat cheese - a handful of arugula - 4 rolls of ciabatta bread RED ONION MA...

Vegetarian Grape Leaves (يلنجي) Hello again! I thought I'd share my recipe to my beloved grape leaves today. These are made without meat and I think they're just as delicious (if not even better) than your typical grape leaves stuffed with ground meat!  Vegetarian Grape Leaves (يلنجي) Everyone and their mother has their own traditional grape leaves recipe, and here's mine. I love my leaves tangy, which is why I use a whole (6 ounce) can of tomato paste. Adjust to your taste and liking, of course! YALANJI Yields: almost 1 full jar of grape leaves INGREDIENTS: - 1 jar of grape leaves, stems cut off - 4 cups of short grain rice, rinsed multiple times and soaked for at least 20 minutes - 2 onions, chopped super fine - 5 cloves of garlic, minced super fine - 1 6 ounce can of tomato paste - a handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped (roughly 1/4 cup) - olive oil - salt - pepper - onion powder - garlic powder - cumin - allspice - dried mint - 2 heap...