A few weeks ago my pal Katie told me about how she was attempting to make a friend an ice cream cake with his favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. I thought that sounded ambitious and delicious, I am a faithful Ben & Jerry’s addict ever since Will made me share a pint with him our first week of dating, destroying my veganism with 16 ounces of dairy heaven. But Katie decided the whole cake thing was not her jam, so being the cookie master she is (I’ve eaten many of her delicious creations) she figured out a way to turn it into a cookie recipe.

I didn’t try one of hers, but after she posted the recipe on her blog, I decided to be the hero at a friend’s birthday in Joshua Tree over the weekend. I don’t really know these friends well, and winning people over with baked goods is my go-to move. Once people were well liquored up, sunstroked and full of desert magic happiness (real thing that happens) – I busted the cookies out of the fridge to the cheers and tears of my fellow party goers (ok maybe not that dramatic but people were pretty excited). They were a hit, but I only got to eat one of them, so naturally I had to make them again this week for a care package I’m sending to a friend. And save half for us, duh. Guys, these cookies are a flippin’ revelation. I would dare to say they rival the most popular blog post I’ve ever posted recipe, and they are so much easier. BUT! They are not for the faint of heart – they are very sweet, and if you don’t like toffee, keep on movin’ (literally, we can’t be friends,this is awkward.)

Let’s do this thing. But before you start I must give you a few tips: cook them nice and big (I put 9 on a pan), and store them in the fridge because they are 100x more delicious out of the fridge.

Espresso Toffee Crunch Cookies by Katie Wilson
(adapted from Ambitious Kitchen’s brown butter cookies, which are life changing)
you’ll need…
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 T instant espresso powder (you can add slightly more at the end for a heavier coffee flavor)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (this is adjusted, as I always have salted butter on hand. If you use unsalted, up to 1/2 tsp)
2 sticks butter, browned and cooled (see instructions below)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg plus 1 yolk
1 T greek yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup toffee pieces (you want these)
directions…
First, brown your butter: heat slowly in a pan over medium heat. Whisk as you go and watch carefully. After a few minutes, the butter will foam and then recede, turning a carmel brown color. It will smell sort of nutty. Don’t let it burn, but be sure it’s actually browned (not just melted) – when you pour it out of the pan and into a bowl to cool, it should be a rich, burnt sienna color. Let the butter fully cool before you start – 20 minutes on the counter should do it.
Meanwhile, mix together all your dry ingredients (flour, espresso powder, baking soda and salt). In a separate bowl, combine your brown butter and sugars thoroughly. Add the egg, yolk, yogurt, and vanilla and stir until smooth. Gradually mix in your dry ingredients about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir in the toffee bits and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Taste liberally. Add more espresso powder if you’re into that sort of thing, but be sure to mix well.
Stick the whole shebang in the fridge for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 375. Roll loosely rounded balls of dough (make sure you get all those chocolate chips in there – sometimes I’ll dot the tops with a few extra) and drop 2-3 inches apart on your pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should look slightly undercooked in the middle, but they will set up within a few minutes of removing from the oven.
Enjoy!

It took everything in me to not post two music posts last week, and I think I’ll have a lot of those moments this spring as it’s going to be a great season of new music.

The new Junip album comes out tomorrow in the US (out now in Europe!), and up until today it was streaming on Pitchfork, so I was obsessively listening to it the last few days. It’s near perfect.

Somehow the new James Blake album, Overgrown, was released without me hearing a blip about it after the Retrograde single stole my heart. I worried that meant it wasn’t the best, but that is not at all the case – it’s spectacular. I’d say that it’s just as haunting, but maybe a bit more approachable and less sparse than the last album, which I love but can only be in certain moods for.

The new Kurt Vile album, Wakin On A Pretty Daze, is just as good as I hoped it would be. I think it will be the anthem of my spring and summer here in LA, I foresee some long drives with the windows down with it playing on the stereo. I have tickets to see him live in a couple weeks, I can’t wait.

Also I love how weirdly adorable this video is and how Kurt is probably a cool dad:

Are you sick of photos of the desert yet? I didn’t think so. Will and I celebrated out last anniversary together as non-married people in Joshua Tree a few weeks ago. I can’t think of a better place to celebrate six years of magic than in the most magical place I know of. Will had never been, and of course, he fell in love and never wanted to leave. We spent hours upon hours driving, rock scrambling, hiking, napping, healing, being, loving. We stayed in a bungalow at the 29 Palms Inn and listened to coyote pups howl to a epically full moon in a crystal clear sky dotted with stars. I still have cholla spines in my sneakers and dust in the cuffs of my pants.

Photos by Kate Miss, taken on an Ikon Ikoflex with Fuji Fujichrome Velvia 100

Exactly six months ago Laure, Makoto and I drove to a tiny (emphasis on tiny) town in the Searles Valley for a magical one time a year event called Gem O Rama where you dig and collect gems and go to a big gem show. I took a roll of film on my Ikoflex but had two damn shots left, and the camera sat in my closet for weeks until recently. I didn’t take photos of the actual event as I didn’t want to ruin my camera, but here are some photos of the drive. We gave ourselves lots of time so we could make fun stops along the way. The evening we went to a Benny Hanna-type restaurant in the town where we quickly discovered half of the town’s high school kids were at before going to prom. It was an experience to remember. On the way back we stopped at a not so fabulous apple and pear orchard where we bought rock hard pears and apples the size of walnuts riddled with holes. But it didn’t matter because it was so fun. We drove back on the winding, beautiful Angeles Crest Highway and I thanked my lucky stars to live in the greatest state in America. We already have so very many takers for this year’s trip and I can’t wait to make this a yearly thing.

Photos by Kate Miss, taken with a Ikon Ikoflex with Kodak Portra 160 film.

Lovely Bre asked me to share what essentials I carry in my Scout & Catalogue Mañana Clutch, which you can read about over on her blog. I am normally a plain jane with accessories but have been branching out lately with fun stuff, like studded flats and this animal print-reminiscent clutch. It’s perfect for karaoke nights, if I do say so myself.

There is a little peek here of a new necklace that is coming very soon.

It’s time for another grab bag, people. Not really new music, think of it more as a mini mix of stuff I’ve favorited on Spotify lately. Mostly for wedding reception purposes, I must admit. My brain is consumed, save me?

Bjork/Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)

Aloe Blacc/If I

Luke Temple/Make Right With You

Low/Plastic Cup

Melody Gardot/Goodnite

Buena Vista Social Club/Candela

Have a great weekend!

Hey friends, did you know that I make Big Cartel shops? I customized my two shops, as well as others using purchased themes and fancy trickery I’ve taught myself over the years. The #1 email I get each week is “how did you make your shop?” and one of my buddies from Big Cartel emailed me recently to tell me the fun fact that when people email Big Cartel asking for design help, the biggest request is to make their shop look like mine. Blush. That makes me sound really fancy except for the fact that people do not often equate that with the fact that they should hire me to fancy up their own shop.

They recently listed me on their page of designers to contact for customization help, so I decided to get organized and create a structure of options and prices and then actually tell people about it as I’m really not the best at promoting my design work. In fact, most people think that I’m just a jewelry designer but that is not even close to my bread and butter. I’ve discovered that helping people with their shops is one of my favorite things to do! So let’s make something together, eh? You can have an existing shop already (like Etsy), no shop at all, need a logo, have a logo, sell two things or 50 things. Something that some don’t know about the shops is it’s the perfect place to host both your shop and portfolio/display your past collections using slideshows and galleries (you could even hide the shop til you’re ready to use it.) Maybe you’ve looked at purchasing a theme and customizing it yourself and it made your head spin? Or you just don’t have a minute to spare to figure it out? You just want something simple but beautiful! I’m here for you. And even if you want something kind of fancy, I have developers on hand to help us with getting fancy.

katemiss at gmail.com – let’s do it.

If you don’t need a shop/don’t care/are annoyed that this post is void of pretty pictures, may I direct your attention to a baby sloth?

Two albums on rotate this week that are in a similar vein:

The new Phosphorescent album, Muchacho. I love the opening song, “Sun, Arise.”

I’ve always been just a fringe Devendra Banhart fan, but his new album, Mala, really hits the spot for me. I’m obsessed.

While I was shooting Zinzi for my jewelry collection, I shot some photos of her and her amazing beagle Ruby just for fun so she could have new head shots as she is a professional bizness lady. Her place in Mount Washington is aptly nicknamed “the treehouse” and it causes jealousy to rage inside me that I have to keep cool about when I’m there. I mean, damn, girl.

Zinzi is also in the best band, Kisses, which has a new album coming out soon and you should listen to the new singles this very moment.

Photos by Kate Miss, taken with a Mamiya 645AF with Kodak Portra 160 film.