It has been a yeastless week.

I must confess a culinary secret: I am afraid of yeast.This is silly, and it is something I want to amend.One of my many New Year’s resolutions this past winter was to conquer one food fear.2008 has seen me conquer the pie crust.I think yeast will be next.

However, fear of yeast does not prevent me from making a number of really delicious baked goods.With an exam approaching, my oven is calling to me on a more and more frequent basis, and in preparation for a small dinner party we went to last night, I made Brownie Chunk Cookies.

This is a recipe from Bon Appetit magazine, a wedding gift that has kept on giving, and boy are we grateful!The really delightful thing about this recipe is that it involves two baking projects.First I made Old Fashioned Brownies (also from Bon Appetit), which turned out really fudgy and dense.They had excellent flavor, but eating them by themselves required large glasses of milk.However, the cookies call for ½ a recipe of the brownies, so after eating some and pawning off the rest at a study session, I cut up the remaining brownies into small chunks and mixed them and a cup of chopped walnuts into the cookie batter.The result is delectable.Topped with vanilla ice cream is even better.

Tonight I made our favorite biscuits: cheese and black pepper biscuits with herbs.This is really a method recipe rather than a strict set of ingredients.I use Bisquick’s heart healthy biscuit recipe, but add a good amount of ground black pepper, half a cup of grated cheese, and a few tablespoons of some herb.Tonight’s additions were an aged sharp cheddar we had left from some cheesy project, and finely chopped green onions.I sprinkle the tops with sea salt and bake them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.They are best eaten soon after removal from the oven.If they still steam when broken in half, you’re doing something right.