Won't you be my neighbor?

I envision neighbors as friendships that enhance the neighborhood and the life lived in my home.

It's very 1950's of me, I know.

Throughout my life, my neighbors have been an exotic dancer who practiced her routines at crazy hours of the day and night, a divorced single father who enjoyed his girlfriend a little too much, a single mother with young kids who thought the floor was a trampoline, and most recently, an engaged couple with young kids who would prefer to ignore us rather than acknowledge our existence. Not exactly black-and-white-television worthy.

So, when we recently heard a young couple was moving into our duplex, Husband and I were cautiously hopeful. Maybe we will have real neighbors...people we could actually be friends with. Heck, we would even settle for amicable, quiet neighbors.

In hopes of starting off on the right foot, Husband suggested that I bake something for them. I definitely don't need an excuse to bake, so the other day I did some neighbor-worthy baking.

I decided to do macaroons with apricot jam & dark chocolate ganache. Macaroons are my go to cookie when entertaining, and sometimes, my back up when dessert goes awry. Husband and I hosted a Kentucky Derby Party last month and on the dessert menu was a lemon cornmeal cake topped with blueberry sauce. I had made it successfully a few weeks earlier and, boy, was it out of this world. But on this particular day (and of course in a time crunch), I somehow pulled out the cake too early. I didn't realize this until I started frosting it and a sinkhole began forming in the middle of the cake. This sinkhole became a real hole as the cake and frosting fell through the grates of my cooling rack. It was a sad, sticky mess. I had no time to mourn and asked Husband to kindly dispose of it. I had to move on. Instead, I whipped up macaroons with grapefruit zest. They saved the day.

The second item I decided to bake was a sweet Irish soda bread. I'm definitely a newbie in the bread baking department. I feel like I'm trying to back my way into it as working with yeast sort of intimidates me. Irish soda bread has no yeast, therefore, no intimidation. This bread, when baked, looks like the world's largest scone with it's craggly, bumpy exterior, flecked with dried fruit and, in this case, caraway seeds. It is a tasty and easy trek into bread baking.

Unfortunately, after I made the treats, our new neighbors were never around when we were awake to give it to them. Instead, we had to leave it in front of their door (which thankfully was inside, out of the heat). The next afternoon, I heard a knock on the door. It was our neighbors to thank us for the goodies. I, hilariously, answered the door in a starched, white button-down shirt and a vintage-inspired apron, sprinkled with flour from an afternoon of baking. If I had been wearing pearls, it would've been perfect. I've decided -- I'm bringing the 50's back. Maybe Justin Timberlake will write a song about that.

American-Style Irish Soda Bread with Caraway Seeds & Craisins
adapted from Joy of Baking

With this recipe, you can choose to make it more free form and bake it on a large baking sheet or you can uniformly bake it in a loaf pan. I chose the baking sheet as it was all a part of the adventure for me.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F if you are baking with the baking sheet and 350 if you are using the loaf pan (6 cup). Grease your desired pan.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup craisins (or raisins if you prefer)
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
4 tbsp melted unsalted butter

In a big bowl, whisk together the first five ingredients. Add in the craisins and caraway seeds. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and butter. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened. The batter will be sticky but should also be stiff. Scrape the batter onto the baking sheet. Wet hands with water or cooking spray before forming the dough into a circle with a 6 to 7 inch diameter. Use a sharp knife to slice a large X in the top of the dough. Bake on the center rack until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, 25-30 minutes on the sheet, 45-50 minutes for the loaf pan. If using the loaf pan, let it cool for 5 minutes in the pan before removing to cool completely on a rack.

One piece of advice: when stirring make sure you stir the ingredients well enough so that flour doesn't stick to the dried fruit you choose to put in. If you look closely to my picture above, you can see some nice flour pockets in the middle of my craisins. It didn't affect the taste, just the appearance.

Macaroons with Apricot Jam & Dark Chocolate Ganache
adapted from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper & Sally Swift

2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup apricot jam (I prefer All-Fruit)
Dark Chocolate Ganache (recipe to follow)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cover with cooking spray or parchment paper. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Stir in the coconut until it is completely moistened. The coconut gathers in small clumps and will not look like a normal batter. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. The macaroons will be golden with crispy edges. Set on a cooling rack.

While the macaroons are baking, make the ganache.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup whipping cream

Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil and remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Stir until smooth and let it sit for 10 more minutes.

While waiting for the ganache to be ready, put the apricot jam in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally as it warms and thins out a bit. It will still be a little chunky.

After you put the macaroons on a rack, spoon a teaspoon of jam on top of each macaroon. It will run down the sides a little. After you finish this, let sit for 10 minutes. Dip the top of each macaroon in the ganache and set back on the cooling rack. Let it set for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.

Will make about 18 macaroons.