I Scream, You Scream

Who doesn't scream for ice cream, right?  With the early spring we've been having around here lately, ice cream sounded like a nice treat.  The Artist and I were at the mall, strolling along, debating whether we wanted cookies or ice cream.  My vote for ice cream won, but I decided I didn't want to drop big bucks for only a scoop or two.  Besides, homemade sundaes are always better, and you're not limited to what's in those stale looking containers.

And...I had this recipe for chocolate syrup that I wanted to try.  I found this recipe (from Small Notebook) via a pin on Pinterest.  [Sidenote: I love Pinterest!  I find so many things to try that I wouldn't have found on my own, let alone thought of!]

The chocolate syrup was fabulously simple and absolutely delicious.  My little pictures don't do it justice.  I made one substitution by using Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder instead of regular cocoa powder.

Four simple ingredients, plus water!

Brownie sundae supreme

Daring Baker's Challenge - Feb. 2012: Quick Bread

Things have been slow around here.  School is hard!  I feel like I've done plenty of baking, but either it wasn't blog worthy, or didn't take pictures.  I do have a couple of yummy things pending, though!

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I was cool with this month's challenge -- I could do my own thing, and keep the ingredient budget under control.  Besides that, quick breads are great!  Who doesn't love a good slice of banana bread?  But, sorry, no banana bread here.  We've been on a smoothie kick around here, so no over ripe bananas.  But I did have a single, sad sweet potato staring at me, left over from sometime before Christmas.

I didn't have a recipe for sweet potato bread, but found a recipe for pumpkin bread.  I figured that would be closest to what I was looking for, and already had a starting point to balance the measurements of cinnamon and nutmeg.

It was more orange colored in real life.

This was so good!  It tasted like sweet potato pie but in a nice dense cakey package. 
Sweet Potato Loaf
Adapted from Streaming Gourmet

Makes 1 9x5 loaf
Ingredients:
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg
.25 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking soda
.25 tsp baking powder
1.5 c sugar
.5 c browned butter
2 eggs
1 medium/large sweet potato, roasted and mashed (about 1 cup)
nuts are optional


My modifications: Obviously, I swapped in sweet potato for pumpkin. I halved the recipe and used 2 eggs.  I also used all whole wheat flour instead of the all purpose flour.  The original recipe called for ground cloves.  I only had whole cloves with no way to grind them, so I left them out.

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2.  In medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
3.  Cream the butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time until well combined.
4.  Add the mashed sweet potato and mix until combined.
5.  In batches, add the dry ingredients.  Mix just until combined.
6.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 55-60 minutes until cake tester comes out clean.
7.  Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes.  Turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack.  Cool completely.
8.  Enjoy!

Well, Bless Your Biscuits

Happy New Year (since I haven't posted since December)!

This month's Daring Baker Challenge was biscuits.  Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens! Audax Artifex hails from the land down under, and what they call scones are what us Southerners call biscuits.

I was happy to begin the challenge because while I do love biscuits, I've never really been good at making them.  So,  I made several variations.

Yes, I could have cut these a little smaller...



Inside view of a fresh baked biscuit

 Batch 1: I followed the challenge recipe and instructions. The biscuits had a nice texture, but I thought there was something of a weird aftertaste.


Batch 2: Cinnamon raisin biscuits -- based on "soda biscuits" -- A while back, I found a recipe on Pinterest described as tasting like biscuits from Popeye's fried chicken. That was the hook. Reading the ingredients, I was curious how Bisquick, 7-Up (or Sprite) and sour cream played out in a biscuit. Consider that the line and the sinker. I made them for the first time in December, and they were absolutely the best biscuits I'd ever had. Light, fluffy, moist, buttery...MMMM!!  Adding some raisins, a pinch of cinnamon, and a vanilla glaze turned breakfast biscuits into dessert. These were like what you'd get at Hardee's or Bojangles (if you're in the South), but better.

 

I know you don't actually SEE any raisins in this picture, but they're in there.

Batch 3: Modified soda biscuits. I used the standard recipe and used sour cream and Sprite instead of milk. Better than batch 1, but still not as good as the original soda biscuits. 


See what a litte sour cream can do?



Batch 4: Cheddar biscuits -- These obviously were meant to imitate what you'd get at a certain seafood restaurant chain.  But these didn't spend any time under a heat lamp waiting for your server to bring them out.  They didn't spend much time on the table, either!

Batch 5: Whole wheat biscuits -- by the end of the month, I finally ran out of Bisquick!  So....back to the original recipe.  After measuring out half my flour, I found myself scraping the bag.  I had an unopened bag, but decided to go for one last experiment, and use half whole wheat flour.  You may be thinking they would be hard and inedible.  WRONG.  Just as light and fluffy as before, with a nice flavor from whole wheat.



Biscuits
Servings: about eight 2-inch or five 3-inch biscuits

Can be doubled

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons frozen grated butter
Approximately ½ cup cold milk
Optional 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
3. Rub the frozen grated butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. Knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)
6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick.  Using a well-floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out without twisting six 2-inch rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch and cut two more scones.  Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

7-Up Biscuits (Yields 9 biscuits)
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup lemon lime soda (Sprite, 7-up, etc).
1/2 stick butter

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2.  Stir sour cream into baking mix with a fork.
3.  Add soda to bowl and stir until just mixed.  Do not overmix!  Dough will be very wet and sticky.  Don't add more flour.
3.  Turn out onto floured work surface and knead a few times with floured hands. 
4.  Use a well floured biscuit cutter to cut out.  You should get about 9 biscuits.
5.  Melt butter in 8" square baking pan. 
6.  Place biscuits in pan and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Notes:  If you'd like, you can skip the kneading in step 3 and make drop biscuits.  OR, dump it all into your buttered pan and it'll be like cake.  That worked well for the cinnamon raising biscuits.
Cinnamon raisin variation: Stir in a cup or so of raisins and a teaspoon of cinnamon before kneading.  Top with a quick vanilla glaze: Mix togerther 1 tablespoon softened butter or margarine, with about 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar to make a smooth frosting like mixture.  Stir in a teaspoon or two of milk to thin to a glaze. Spread the glaze over warm but not hot biscuits.

Cheese variation: Add a good sized handful of cheese and a stalks worth of chopped green onions before kneading.  You can also add a little garlic powder.

Enjoy!  See you next time.

Daring Bakers - December 2011: Sourdough Bread

Courtesy of King Arthur Flour

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Let me first say that I love sourdough bread.  Anytime I see a grilled toasty sandwich on sourdough, I'll take it!  As for the sourdough making process, I can't say it was an enjoyable process.  Even the science nerd in me was kind of grossed out.

unlike regular bread, sourdough bread is made from a starter, and has no yeast.  No yeast?  Well, you ask, how does it rise?  The starter is a mass of fermented water and flour.  The recipe Jessica provided consisted of flour and water left to ferment in a covered container for several days.  Periodically, you feed the starter with more flour and water. 

All starter well in the beginning, I could see it starting to bubble away on the counter, and I dutifully fed it each day.  However, by day 4, it had stopped bubbling, and a layer of greyish liquid had formed on top.  Not sure what to do, I proceeded with the recipe, hoping it would still do something.  After the final feeding/refreshing, I was ready to bake.  It looked like the thing that ate Manhattan, and stank to high heaven!  But, reading other DBers' posting who said that it would be an extremely wet and loose dough, I kept going.  I don't have any pictures of the blob because it would have dripped off the counter onto the flour if I'd tried to take pictures.

I waited for it to proof and rise.  And waited...and waited... and waited.  Nothing.  I hoped it would have some oven spring.  Nope.  My final project was flat, dense, greyish in color, and not at all edible.

Happy Halloween!

When you were a kid, what candy in the trick or treat bag made your day?  For me, it was chocolate, of course. And it couldn't be just any chocolate, either.  It had to be the good stuff - the name brand chocolate.  You name it..Snickers, Reese's, and of course, Butterfinger.

We don't have any trick or treaters of our own yet, and we're the type to eat any candy we buy for the trick or treaters a week before Halloween.  So,...we typically don't buy any (until after Halloween, that is).  But, the past few weeks, I've been seeing pins on Pinterest for homemade butterfinger candy bars.  One recipe has lots of ingredients, and the other so simple you don't believe it could possibly work.

The science geek in me really wanted to see how candy corn plus peanut butter equaled butterfinger bars!  But, yes, ladies and gentlemen, it works.  And, if I do say so myself, the homemade version is better than the original.  (But just as bad for you, LOL)

The "real" butterfinger is on the right.  Doppelganger on the left.

Homemade Butterfingers
16 oz candy corn

16 oz peanut butter

Chocolate coating (Candy Melts, Chocolate Bark, whatever you please)

Microwave the candy corn and peanut butter in a glass bowl until it starts to melt.  Stir.  Continue melting and stirring.  The candy corn will not melt as easily as the peanut butter, but you shouldn't need more than a minute and a half of microwaving total.  Keep stirring until the candy corn is completely melted and combined with the peanut butter.  The mixture will start out pretty grainy, and you'll think you're going to have to toss your bowl out. But, pretty soon, it comes together into a smooth ball, and very little candy sticks to the bowl. You can now press the mixture into a pan or candy molds to set, or scoop them into bonbons.  Let cool completely before covering in your melted candy coating.

I used a 5 oz bag of candy corn and about a half cup of peanut butter and got 5 "fun size" candy bars plus three small bonbons.  The homemade butterfingers are the size that fun size candy bars used to be when I was a kid (Don't you think they've gotten smaller?), had a stronger flavor, but had a softer texture.  You still get the crunchiness, but they don't get stuck in your teeth as much as the original. 

Daring Baker October 2011 - Povitica

Before I start, this wonderful sweet bread, spelled povitica is pronounced po-vi-teet-sa.

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

And, best of all, not too hard to make.  And once you taste the povitica, you have to learn t make it.  These bad boys go for $27 apiece online!  The hardest part was making and rolling out the dough, and this one was pretty easy to work with.  And pretty tasty to eat.  This was one of those things you have to sneak a taste of everytime you pass through the kitchen.  It didn't make it through the weekend.

Here's the recipe that Jenni put together. NOTE: The amounts referred to in the instructions do not match the recipe amounts.  Jenni's original recipe made FOUR loaves!

Povitica (Makes one loaf 1.25 lbs/565 grams)

To activate the Yeast:
½ Teaspoon (2½ ml/2¼ gm) Sugar
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/¾ gm) All-Purpose (Plain) Flour
2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Warm Water
1½ Teaspoons (7½ ml/3½ gm/0.125 oz/½ sachet) Dry Yeast


1. In a small bowl, stir 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon flour, and the yeast into ½ cup warm water and cover with plastic wrap.
2. Allow to stand for 5 minutes


Dough:
½ Cup (120 ml) Whole Milk
3 Tablespoons (45 ml/43 gm/1½ oz) Sugar
¾ Teaspoon (3¾ ml/9 gm/0.17 oz) Table Salt
1 Large Egg
1 tablespoon (30 ml/30 gm/¼ stick/1 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted
2 cups (480 ml/280 gm/10 oz/0.62 lb) All-Purpose Flour, measure first then sift, divided
To Make the Dough:


3. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk up to just below boiling (about 180°F/82°C), stirring constantly so that a film does not form on the top of the milk. You want it hot enough to scald you, but not boiling. Allow to cool slightly, until it is about 110°F/43°C.
4. In a large bowl, mix the scalded milk, ¾ cup (180 gm/170 gm/6 oz) sugar, and the salt until combined.
5. Add the beaten eggs, yeast mixture, melted butter, and 2 cups (480 ml/280 gm/10 oz) of flour.
6. Blend thoroughly and slowly add remaining flour, mixing well until the dough starts to clean the bowl.
7. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead, gradually adding flour a little at a time, until smooth and does not stick.
8. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces (they will each weight about 1.25 pounds/565 grams)

9. Place dough in 4 lightly oiled bowls, cover loosely with a layer of plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel and let rise an hour and a half in a warm place, until doubled in size.


Filling Ingredients (enough filling for one loaf)
1¾ Cups (420 ml/280 gm/10 oz) Ground English Walnuts
¼ Cup (60 ml) Whole Milk
¼ Cup (60 ml/58 gm/½ stick/2 oz) Unsalted Butter
1 Egg Yolk From A Large Egg, Beaten
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml) Pure Vanilla Extract
½ Cup (120 ml/115 gm/4 oz) Sugar
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/1 gm) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
¼ Teaspoon (1¼ ml/¾ gm) Cinnamon

To Make the Filling
10. In a large bowl mix together the ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and cocoa.
11. Heat the milk and butter to boiling.
12. Pour the liquid over the nut/sugar mixture.
13. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
14. Allow to stand at room temperature until ready to be spread on the dough.
15. If the mixture thickens, add a small amount of warm milk.

To Roll and Assemble the Dough:


16. Spread a clean sheet or cloth over your entire table so that it is covered.
17. Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons to a handful of flour (use flour sparingly)
18. Place the dough on the sheet and roll the dough out with a rolling pin, starting in the middle and working your way out, until it measures roughly 10-12 inches (25½ cm by 30½ cm) in diameter.
19. Spoon 1 to 1.5 teaspoons (5ml to 7 ½ ml/4 gm to 7 gm) of melted butter on top.
20. Using the tops of your hands, stretch dough out from the center until the dough is thin and uniformly opaque. You can also use your rolling pin, if you prefer.
21. As you work, continually pick up the dough from the table, not only to help in stretching it out, but also to make sure that it isn’t sticking.
22. When you think it the dough is thin enough, try to get it a little thinner. It should be so thin that you can see the color and perhaps the pattern of the sheet underneath.
23. Spoon filling (see below for recipe) evenly over dough until covered.
24. Lift the edge of the cloth and gently roll the dough like a jelly roll.
25. Once the dough is rolled up into a rope, gently lift it up and place it into a greased loaf pan in the shape of a “U”, with the ends meeting in the middle. You want to coil the dough around itself, as this will give the dough its characteristic look when sliced.
27. Brush the top of loaf with a mixture of ½ cup (120 ml) of cold STRONG coffee and 2 tablespoons (30ml/28 gm/1 oz) of sugar. If you prefer, you can also use egg whites in place of this.
28. Cover pan lightly will plastic wrap and allow to rest for approximately 15 minutes.
29. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
30. Remove plastic wrap from dough and place into the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes.
31. Turn down the oven temperature to slow 300°F/150°C/gas mark 2 and bake for an additional 45 minutes, or until done.
32. Remove bread from oven and brush with melted butter.
33. Check the bread at 30 minutes to ensure that the bread is not getting too brown. You may cover the loaves with a sheet of aluminum foil if you need to.
34. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes, still in the bread pan. Remember, the bread weighs about 2.5 and it needs to be able to hold its own weight, which is difficult when still warm and fresh out of the oven. Allowing it to cool in the pan helps the loaf to hold its shape.

35. It is recommended that the best way to cut Povitica loaves into slices is by turning the loaf upside down and slicing with a serrated knife.

The money shot!

Taste of Atlanta 2011

Have you been to the Taste of Atlanta?  If not, you need to go next year! 

The Taste of Atlanta is our favorite fall food festival.  It's a weekend full of fantastic food -- more than you can even think about eating in a  single afternoon.  This year was the tenth anniversary, and over 80 restaurants were featured.  With your general admission ticket, you receive 10 "taste tickets" which you can redeem at the different booths for samples of their yum yum yummies.  To get the most of our taste tickets, the Artist and I always go in with a plan:

1.  Scope out the entire festival.  Who's got the good stuff, and how many tickets is it? 
This step is crucial, it's way to easy to use up all of your tickets before you even get through the first block!  I mean, really!  Sublime Doughnuts and Jim 'n Nick's BBQ met us at the entrance gate!

2.  Have a tasting strategy.
We usually share things that are more than a bite or two.  That way, we don't both fork over 3 or 4 tickets for the same thing.  Also, it's hard to do, but don't load up on desserts first.  I speak this one from experience.  Last year, I was stuffed...uncomfortably so, and way before I was ready to go home!

3.  Plan to buy more taste tickets!
Because really, 10 tickets is not going to be enough

Seafood Bisque



Cheesesteak



Orange Dream Doughnut

Soft Pretzel w/Beer Cheese Dip

Lamb Slider

Banh Mi

Mississippi Delta Tamale

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

Orange Kissed Frozen Yogurt



Lemon Pepper Wings and Fries



Even going in with a plan, there's always something you want to taste but don't.  Ri Ra's line for fish and chips stayed a block long for the entire afternoon!  I wanted to try the arroncini, but 1 tiny rice ball wasn't really worth 2 tickets, was it?

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

It's that time of year....it's still hot as Hades, but I still am optimistically believing that I can "feel" fall in the air.  It seems this year that Labor Day was literally the switch for fall, it's been in the low 70s all week since, while just two days before Labor Day, it was 95!

As the final hurrah to summer, I made ice cream.  Sort of.  As much as ice cream can be made without an ice cream maker.  And as much as ice cream can be made in a plastic freezer bag.  I've seen this several times before, most often in family oriented magazines under "Things to Keep the Kids Busy".  No kids here, just a science nerd and foodie who is still fascinated by the butter we made in a jar in the 2nd grade.  I followed this recipe from 2 little hooligans.

It turned out to be a runny soft-servish consistency.  At this point, ice cream maker ice cream would also be soft and you'd put it in the freezer to finish up.  I put this in the freezer and it got too hard and lost any creaminess it started out with.  Not bad in a pinch, but the stuff from the store works for me.

The same day, to usher in fall, I made white chocolate pumpkin scones.  I'm usually not a scone girl.  For me, I classify them as snacks/dessert, and my baked snacks/dessert should be sweet.  All of the scones I've had have been of the Starbucks/Panera variety, which means dry triangular biscuits with something either in them or on them.  These however, were AWESOME.  Rich, buttery, flaky.  I also was finally able to understand what the descriptor "tender" means in relation to baked goods.

I doubled the recipe from Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers, and skipped the glaze.   I only skipped the glaze because I only had a handful of white chips, and they went inside the scones.

Changing gears, today is the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  Do you remember where you were?  How has your life changed? 

Take-out Fake-out: Red Thai Curry

Here's a first at the Great Cakescapade: A RECIPE! And not only a recipe, but a take-out favorite, Thai Curry. I like red curry, but would never in a million years have thought it would be so easy to make at home. A few weeks ago, I was visiting my mom, and snatched a couple of magazines to read on the plane back home. Fine Cooking had a spread on DIY Thai curry, including a matrix to mix and match your own custom curry that can be found here.
This recipe is totally easy and doable, with very little in the way of 'odd' ingredients. I think I spent more time chopping than cooking.

Red Chicken Curry (adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine)
*Curry Base
14 oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup red curry paste
1 cup chicken broth
*Aromatics
3 slices of ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 4-inch pieces and bruised (I hit it with a meat mallet a couple times)
*Protein
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
*Other stuff
2 TBS brown sugar
1 tsp fish sauce (I realized at the last minute we didn't have any. I left it out completely and couldn't tell you it was missing)
*Veggies
3 cups chopped vegetables : I used carrots, onions, bell peppers, and sugar snap peas


To make the curry base, simmer 1/2 a cup of the coconut milk until it is thickened and reduced by half. Whisk in the curry paste, cook 1 minute, then whisk in the remaining coconut milk and chicken broth.

Add the ginger, lemongrass, and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the brown sugar, then start adding the remaining ingredients according to cooking time. The chicken went in first, then the carrots, peppers, and onion. Snap peas went in last, as they don't take too long. Let the whole wok simmer until everything is done! Serve over rice, and supper is ready.

The Fine Cooking Magazine matrix is easy to follow and really lets you realize how customizable the recipe is. The Artist, who had never before had Thai curry, really enjoyed it, and so did I.

Opa! Daring Baker Challenge - June 2011

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Homemade phyllo? Now, that's a challenge. Challenge number one was when the recipe said to knead by hand for 20 minutes (the alternative when you don't own a stand mixer). I was resourceful and had my bread machine do the kneading. The dough was a bit sticky, but was wonderfully smooth and silky -- much nicer than it looks when I make actual bread!

After letting the dough rest for a couple of hours, I was ready to rock and roll. I thought getting the phyllo sheets paper thin would be no big deal -- I roll fondant and gumpaste that thin for flowers. This just was not the same. It seemed at some points that, while the dough didn't seem thin enough, the rolling pin wasn't doing anything, and I had to put my weight into it. As you can see in the picture below, I need to invest in a cute, frilly apron.

Eventually, I was tired of rolling phyllo dough. But finally, I had about 12 thin enough sheets of phyllo, which I was able to cut down to 18 sheets the size of my small baking dish. After the dough rolling, assembling the baklava was simple: layers of phyllo brushed with melted butter, alternating with layers of finely chopped nuts and cinnamon.

I knew going into the challenge that I was not a big baklava fan. I think if I made it again, I would go with my usual store bought whole wheat phyllo, and use something other than honey in the soaking syrup.

Thanks for the challenge (and upper body workout), Erica! Stay tuned for July's challenge.

Not your regular graduation cake

My baby sister's all grown up! This past weekend, L graduated from high school. I was 13 when she was born, and still remember life before she was around. I hadn't had the opportunity to share the perks of my cake baking hobby with my mom and sister, and decided to whip up something for the occasion.

Harder than it sounds because L is a notoriously picky eater.

Me:What kind of cake do you want?

Crickets...It took her forever to decide.

L:White cake with vanilla frosting.

Seriously? White on white?

L: Well, you can color the frosting.

Me: Alrighty, then. What kind of design do you want?

L is a budding artist, and of course, had to come up with something extreme. This is the description she sent via Facebook:

"Can you just make me a BAD-ASS manticore cake with vicious teeth in a creepy smile, yellow cat-like eyes with black pupils, a dirty blond main thats really messy and flops around, human-like paws, blueish purple hind-quarters with digit grade back legs, deep blus scorpion tail dripping poison, and lightning bolt stripes of electric blue. Oh, and can you make him a hipster?"

Me: WTF???

So...yeah....what I decided to do was merge our respective hobbies in the middle. We split a box of fondant and each created a manticore (which, BTW, is a chimera like creature). Best manticore would go on the cake. And MINE WENT ON THE CAKE!

And quite the tasty cake, too. An ice cream cake! Chocolate cake (I talked her into living a little), cookies and creme ice cream, and white frosting. I need to plan the ice cream cake process a little better; it started to melt and wouldn't firm up without an overnight freeze. But, I think it turned out pretty good, despite the drips and bulges, considering I frosted it with a plastic knife! The plastic knife was because I wasn't sure if my cake spatulas would make it past the TSA screeners.

Congratulations, little sister!

Small Batch Baking

Sometimes, baking is not just to quench the craving of my sweet tooth. (Often, it is, but not always!). Truth be told, I just really enjoy the act of baking. Feeling the mixer buzz in my hand, or turning the bowl as I mix ingredients, is strangely soothing.

And, when it's not the sugar high that I seek, a cookie recipe that yields 4 dozen is just way to much! So, when I saw Debbie Maugan's two cookbooks centered around baking for two -- say, 6 cupcakes or a dozen cookies, I was game.

This weekend, I tried out two recipe from Debbie's Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The chocolate sandwich cookies were, of course, supposed to compete with those famously addictive Oreo cookies. This recipe will not replace the Oreos in my shopping cart, but the Artist and I both thought they were quite tasty. I tweaked the recipe to use chocolate that I had on hand, and used milk chocolate instead of the semi-sweet specified. I think the darker chocolate would calm the overly sweet taste of the filling. Will have to try these again...



Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? This recipe was great. They made a dozen little cookies full of chocolate and nuts that would give the $20/pound cookies from a local gourmet shop a run for their money! A plus was that using my cookie scoop, I got exactly one dozen cookies rather than the 8 predicted by the recipe. Too many chips? Chewy, crispy, chocolaty, nutty, with the addition of creme bouquet flavoring rather than regular old vanilla extract, these cookies were great!

This book and I will be getting to know each other very well. Debbie features cakes, pies, brownies, and more (even a chocolate cocktail or two). I'll probably eventually try them all!More to come....

Daring Baker Challenge - April 2011

What an interesting challenge this month! Maple mousse in an edible container.

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com/!

Hint, hint...vote for me!

Some of the suggestions for edible containers included weaving bacon strips together and baking into little cups, or nut tartlet shells. Obviously, I wanted to take it in my own direction. But what?

I was inspired one day as I passed by my mega shelf of cake supplies: CANDY BARS! I thought they would fit the bill: handheld, bite sized, and definitely contained. Trying to think of what kind of candy bar, I sort of combined the idea of a Snickers bar, and Maple Nut Goodies.

My candy bars were the maple mousse, toasted pecans, and caramel, all covered in white chocolate. I must say, while the mousse was not something I could eat by itself, the flavors in the candy bars went together quite nicely! I was pleased, as was The Artist.

Daring Baker Challenge - March 2011

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. When I found out the challenge, I was curious and intrigued. Ria and Jamie challenged us to fill the coffee cake with meringue and whatever filling of choice. I'd never made meringue before, as I never really have cared for it. And what to pair it with? I thought about a lemon curd, as a twist on lemon meringue. Then, I found an old Cooking Light recipe for triple berry curd, and decided to go with that. Another idea I considered was Nutella and orange zest, which I well try on another day. My first try at meringue was a success; it whipped up with no problem. But, when spreading it on my dough, I overfilled it, and couldn't roll it up. I wound up sort of shaping it into a circle and scooped it into a round cake pan. It was pretty and swirly when done, but not the vision I had originally. But, isn't that the story of my kitchen adventures? In short, I would make the yeasted coffee cake again, minus the meringue. Other Daring Bakers described it as baking to a nougaty finish, but mine didn't do that. It just took away from the berry curd which was absolutely awesome on its own.

Daring Bakers' Challenge - December 2010

The 2010 December Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie's Baking. She chose to challenge the Daring Bakers to make Stollen. She adapted a friend's family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinharts book....and Martha Stewart's demonstration.

I was especially excited for this month's DB challenge, being December and all. Many in the group, including myself, were afraid it would be fruit cake. Though stollen, a German Christmas bread, contains fruit and nuts, it's bread, not that nasty rum soaked door stop of a cake.

Having never made stollen before, I stuck pretty close to the original recipe, using raisins, orange scented dried cranberries, candied citrus peel, and almonds. Be warned: this makes quite a hunk of dough. As you can see, my regular wooden rolling pin was no match, and I had to break out my 20" pin I use for fondant. When all was said and done, the dough, when rolled out completely, was larger than the 20" pin! Part of the challenge was to shape the dough like a wreath. This was a lovely touch for the holiday season. To top it all off, the bread is traditionally coated in alternating layers of melted butter and powdered sugar -- 3 layers each. I figured one fairly generous layer of butter and sugar would be more than enough, and it most certainly was.

This recipe is definitely a keeper, but only for company, 'cause this thing was huge (I baked it on a 16" pizza pan)!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Daring Bakers' Challenge - Nvember 2010

The 2010 November Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers' to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi's Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Though I make many things from scratch, I had never made any type of pie crust. I'd heard enough horror stories, and decided it wasn't worth the fuss. Especially since I'm not really a pie kind of girl. For this month's challenge, we were to make pasta frolla, as sweet pie/tart dough, and shape it into a crostata, an Italian tart. The filling was up to the baker, and I immediately knew I wanted to use Dorie Greenspan's recipe for almond cream. Just before receiving the challenge, I'd been reading DG's Baking, and it sounded amazing. I paired the almond cream with cherry preserves. Not a bad filling, but entirely too sweet! Yes, too sweet, even for me! The Artist thought is was good and ate nearly the whole thing.

Daring Bakers' Challenge - October 2010

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I was very excited about this challenge, looking to kick it up a notch from the National Doughnut Day adventure. At The Artist's request, I got things rolling with chocolate doughnuts.

They looked pretty good, but the dough was pretty gooey, so when I went to fry them, they formed a battered crust on the outside. They also got a bit burned, so the outsides were very crispy. I don't fry all that often, and it showed with this challenge.

SOOOOO...to redeem myself, I went out to Sur La Table and bought a mini doughnut pan. This pan baked up the cutest little pumpkin doughnuts! Much tastier, and much easier. The doughnuts bake up in only five minutes. You're never far from doughnuts with this pan.

I quickly dusted the pumpkin doughnuts with cinnamon sugar. Soft and yummy, it's way too easy to eat a whole dozen; especially when they're only about an inch wide =).

No Knead to Exagerrate

Hmmm...Remember in the spring, wen I was quite intrigued by the books Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes s Day? Well, not so much, anymore. At the time, I was willing to accept the books' premise: You could make perfectly good bread by stirring a few things together, and wait for it to rise WITH NO KNEADING.

Not anymore. I was making pumpkin pie brioche from Healthy Bread, and after nearly 2 hours, all I had was a dry-ish scraggly looling lump of dough that had not risen at all. Something told me to knead it, though the authors adamantly tell you in their books not to do so. What could it hurt? Kneading it would either improve it, or leave me with the same scraggly lump of dough. Still mindful of the authors' warning, I lightly kneaded for a minute or two, then covered it with plastic wrap. I swear I could see it start to rise immediately. I left it there for about half an hour, poked it. Rolled it out , spread with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter...shaped it into cinnamon rolls....let them proof....popped them into the over for 20 minutes. These were awesome!

I have to admit, while I absolutely love cooking and baking, bread baking had never been my forte, so...these books seemed to cut out the middleman (kneading). The resulting flavor was OK, but kind of hard and dry if any more than 20 minutes out of the oven. And not much to look at, either. My loaves were higher than a cracker, but not as lofty as a full loaf of bread. As a result, I haven't made much more than pizza dough since spring.

After my kneading experiment, I had full, pillowy rolls that were still a nice, soft texture. I'm now a believer in kneading!

BUT -- to the artisans of the Bread in 5 Series....no 'knead' to exaggerate your techniques to sell a book.

Fall is in the Air

Ahhh, fall. There's something about fall and 'fall' foods, like pumpkin. I've never picked a pumpkin, been to a pumpkin patch, or carved a jack o' lantern, but I love pumpkin baked goods -- muffins, bread, cake, donuts, etc. I had the better part of a can of pure pumpkin in the fridge (leftover from the DB doughnut challenge), and was trying to figure out how to use it. So, my eyes were peeled for any pumpkin goodies that sounded interesting. After seeing a few similar posts, I decided that pumpkin cinnamon rolls were in order.

To go the easy route, I chose the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Brioche from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. (This recipe was the lynchpin in my Healthy Bread in 5 rant from a few posts back.)

For the filling, I threw together some brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkled it on to the dough after smearing it with a smidge of butter -- sorry, no measurements!

Let the sliced rolls rise, bake, and voila!

Daring Baker Challenge - Sept 2010

The September 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge was hosted by Mandy of "What the Fruitcake?!" Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and the Joy of Baking.







While sugar cookies are not a new challenge for me, the theme of the cookies was "September". Hmmmm, what does 'September' mean? I thought of bushel baskets of leaves, acorns, and apples. Red ones, and green ones, and caramel covered ones!

I wanted to add to the September/apple theme, I wanted to make an apple-y flavored cookie -- something like cinnamon sugar cookies with apple filling. Sounded good, but I made sandwich cookies with a fall spice buttercream instead.

My first DAring Baker challenge was a lot of fun, and if I do say so myself, was a success! CAn't wait for the October challenge.

Bagel BLTs

Continuing on my bread baking journey, I decided to try my hand at bagels!

Modifying a recipe from Cooking Light, I made whole wheat 'everything' bagels. And what to do with them once they were done? Well, bacon makes everything better. So,....Bagel BLTs!