Want to make an incredible espresso martini at home? Make this recipe! I’ve fallen in love with espresso martinis lately and perfected my technique. Espresso martinis offer rich, bold coffee flavor with a balanced level of sweetness. They’re a lovely celebratory drink to clink after a long week or before a holiday gathering.

You can tailor your espresso martini to your preferences. You’ll find clues in how you order your morning coffee. Do you like it black or sweetened? Do you prefer espresso or cold brew? When it comes to cocktails, do you enjoy vodka, gin or tequila? My trick to making the best homemade espresso martini is using cold brew coffee! Read on to learn why.

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Let’s warm up with classic Irish coffees! I used to make Irish coffees during my bartending days, and thought it would be fun to revisit the recipe and make them from scratch.

Classic Irish coffees are made with just four ingredients: hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar and whipped cream. Oftentimes in restaurants, Irish coffees are overwhelmingly sweet and rich. I love making them at home because you can make them exactly how you like them.

Plus, Irish coffees are so simple to make. You don’t need bartending experience or any special equipment to whip these up.

My favorite Irish coffees are made with freshly brewed coffee, high-quality Irish whiskey, and topped with real whipped cream, which you can make in about 10 minutes if you have the time. It is worth the effort.

My only twist on the classic recipe is to use real maple syrup instead of sugar. Natural maple syrup flavors play beautifully with coffee and whiskey, and it blends right in since it’s liquid. Easy!

Watch How to Make Irish Coffee

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Cold brew makes the best iced coffee, no doubt about it. It might seem intimidating to make your own, but it’s actually quite simple once you learn how. Today, I’ll guide you through the process from start to finish.

Homemade cold brew coffee is: 

• Smooth, slightly sweet and super refreshing
• Easy to make with basic kitchen equipment
• More affordable than buying at a coffee shop
• Ready-made for busy mornings

You can make cold brew on the weekend, then pour your coffee from the fridge every morning. No boiling water. No fussing with a coffee maker.

As someone who is 100 percent not a morning person, homemade cold brew coffee is a total game-changer.

Let’s make our own cold brew!

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I’ve been meaning to tell you about these blondies for a long time now. They’re from my friend Sarah Kieffer’s book, The Vanilla Bean Baking Book. She has a similarly titled blog called The Vanilla Bean Blog. These blondies are outrageously tasty.

I feel like I’ve committed a crime in keeping them to myself. I could offer you a bunch of excuses. Like, her book got lost on its way to me last fall; I got a cold and couldn’t get my act together enough to share them in time for Valentine’s Day; I tried to save them for when you might be looking for an indulgent treat to share (Easter!); I came home from a long trip with jet lag and a ruptured eardrum. Cute, right?

I’m just plain guilty. Sarah’s book is full of beautiful baked treats, the kind that you make when the calories are easily justified by the special occasion and you’re looking for that I’m-gonna-die-this-is-so-good response. Sarah is a skilled baker and you just know her recipes are going to be stellar. This one certainly is.

Since you all have come to expect healthier treats on my blog, I couldn’t help but make a couple of tweaks to her recipe by substituting whole wheat flour for the all-purpose, and coconut sugar for the brown sugar. I included her original ingredients in the recipe below as well, in case you’d rather make it as she designed. Either way, these chocolate chip pecan blondies made with a splash of coffee are worth every bite.

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Let’s rewind to Valentine’s Day. I’m single. I’m not feeling well. My mom is in town and our plan is to eat dinner and watch movies. As the sun goes down, I decide that I need a brownie—like I really need a brownie, for aforementioned reasons—and proceed to pull every baking book off of my shelves in my search for my ideal brownie recipe.

I wanted rich, dark, chewy, legit café-like brownies with crackly tops. I didn’t want gooey, fall-apart, stick-to-your-front-teeth brownies. I also didn’t want health-ified brownies or brownies swirled with cheesecake. I wanted one perfect brownie. Sometimes a girl just needs a brownie, you know?

I finally found a promising recipe in my copy of Alice Medrich’s Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts. It was a thinner brownie than I wanted, but it looked dark and delicious and had the most magnificent shiny, crackly top. The recipe contains a fair amount of butter, as legit brownies should, and the butter is browned before the addition of sugar and cocoa powder. If you’re going to put a lot of butter in something, you might as well brown it for extra flavor.

Alice’s recipe also called for a lower-than-usual baking temperature (325 degrees) and specified that the brownies be baked in the lower third of the oven. All of the chocolate flavor came from cocoa powder, too. Interesting.

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Do you remember eating no-bake cookies as a kid? I sure do. My brothers and I routinely begged my mother to let us make cookies. She usually indulged us by agreeing to make no-bake cookies. No chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies—just no-bake cookies. She was busy raising three kids and running her own business, so I can’t blame her for wanting to minimize mess and baking time.

Granted, we were in for a treat every time we gathered around the stove to watch the cocoa, butter and peanut butter boil. Since childhood, I’ve tried various homemade versions and they tend to disappoint. They’re either too dry or bland for my more mature taste buds. I pulled out my favorite old recipe from The Muffin Lady and made half batches until I found the perfect ratio of oatmeal, cocoa, peanut butter and extra flavor.

First off, I almost doubled the amount of cocoa powder so the cookies are sufficiently rich. I also wanted to add espresso powder to intensify the flavor of the chocolate, but I couldn’t find any at local stores. I had a packet of Starbucks VIA instant coffee, so I poured that in at the end. Eureka! I substituted turbinado sugar, a less refined sugar, for a more moist cookie with better flavor. And for texture, I chose extra thick rolled oats instead of the instant variety. End result? A grown-up, decadent no-bake cookie, ready to eat in less than twenty minutes flat.

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