Sweet Talk with Francine's Sweets: Episode 17
- Alayna Kendall
- May 1
- 4 min read
Alayna here. We’re back with volume 17 of the sweetest email in your inbox.
I’m talking about Mother’s Day, becoming a cooking show host (LOL), and a baking fail from the week.
Let’s sweet talk.
Last Call for Mother's Day Cookies!
Mother’s Day is next Sunday (May 11th)! If you read that and realized you have nothing for your mom who also happens to love sweets, then listen up! Order her a box of homemade cookies and win daughter or son of the year.
I know you’ve got lots of places to be and people to see, so I make porch pick-up easy! Once I confirm your order, you’ll receive the pick-up address (it’s in the Kentwood/Caledonia area) and your cookies will be in the pink bakery stand for you. You simply have to pull up, grab your cookies, and skedaddle! The quicker the pick-up, the quicker you are to diving into your homemade cookies!
Baking Bites Hits the Meta Big Screen
Baking Bites has gone Hollywood aka I started an IG Reels series where I share all my favorite baking tips, tricks and tools! The reason this cookie business is called Francine’s Sweets is because when I would bake with my mom as a little kid, I’d pretend I was on a cooking show and narrate my steps to an imaginary studio audience. I would tell my “viewers” that my mom was my sous chef, Francine, thus the name Francine’s Sweets. So all this really means is that I used to talk to myself a lot as a kid, and now I’m still doing it as an adult in front of a screen. 😂 Click the picture below to watch! And Magnolia Network if you’re reading this, please send any cooking show proposals to my agent. We’ll be in touch.
Ya Can't Win 'Em All!
The Summer Cookie Collection drop is creeping closer and closer (I’m shooting for the end of May), so I’ve been hard at work testing some different recipe ideas. I’m really trying to get creative with the add-ins because I looooove cookies with lots of chunks and texture.
Now, we are still a ways out from solidifying recipes/flavors, but I thought I’d let you in on what I’ve been up to thus far!
The cookie on the left is a browned butter, white chocolate chip, pecan praline situation. I made a batch of pecan pralines (they’re really similar to those sugary, roasted nuts you get at baseball games), chopped ‘em up and threw them in the dough. I am telling you guys, this cookie is insane. I topped it with flaky sea salt (duh), and have eaten one each day this week, no exaggeration. I did try a version with chocolate chips, but surprisingly I didn’t like it as much. It was a bit too sweet. I’m still workshopping the name, but I am 99% sure that this cookie is going to move on to the final round.
Now, before you think that every recipe I make turns out perfect, let me set the record straight. It doesn’t! Baking has its highs and lows. There are days where baking puts me in a relaxing flow state, and others where I get a shell in the batter, or realize I don’t have an ingredient I need. It happens!
So sadly, my second recipe idea did not go as swimmingly as the first. I’ve been wanting to lean in to a sweet and salty-type of cookie and saw a recipe online that had caramelized Ritz crackers in the cookie batter. It sounded so good in theory! After tasting the Ritz cracker brittle (the pic on the left), I knew it needed more salt, but I also didn’t love the texture. Maybe I’m just not a brittle gal. But I decided to move forward with the recipe regardless. I made a brownie cookie dough, and chopped up Ritz brittle to go in it. The recipe also called for chopped up hazelnuts, but after going to 2 grocery stores and not finding any, I decided to skip that. (PS-who is hoarding all the hazelnuts???) Now the final product, pictured on the right, was actually pretty good….but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted a sweet and salty cookie with lots of crunch and texture. Instead, I got a really rich and chewy brownie cookie (which was tasty in it’s own right, but was too similar to my already existing Chocolate Lava cookie), but the Ritz brittle didn’t really come through much. My other issue was with the Ritz cracker itself. I hesitate to put other types of cookies or crackers into cookie dough, because most store-bought snacks like that are ultra-processed. Since my cookies are fresh, that juxtaposition (can you tell I’m the daughter of an English teacher LOL) of the two isn’t something I enjoy in a cookie. That’s what happened here.
Now, at this point, I was still committed to trying to make this work, so I decided to put the Ritz brittle into a browned butter cookie dough instead, and added my own peanut chocolate bark. Low key, the chocolate bark on it's own was a great snack you could easily make yourself. I melted chocolate, stirred in peanuts and a little salt, then spread it on a cookie sheet, and froze it. I chopped that up and mixed it in the dough along with the Ritz brittle. But this became a classic case of “more is not always better”. Honestly all those elements on their own sound amazing, but together in a cookie? They just didn’t work! Sadly, it’s back to the drawing board and I don’t think the Ritz brittle is going to be on it.
There are a few more ideas rattling around in my brain, so I’ll keep you posted on what I come up with. Can’t wait to share this new collection with you soon!
Thanks for reading!
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