Colette's Bakery

French Yule Log

2008-12-29T15:43:00.000-08:00

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

All I can say about this months challange is that it took all day, but it DID taste delicious.

My favorite part was the mousse, the ganache and the praline feuliette.

My chocolate frosting gelatized before I got a chance to spread it all around the cake, so I ended up whipping my leftover cream and plopping it all around the cake to look like snow, then sprinkled powder sugar to add to the affect. It looks frost bitten in this picture, it was still very frozen when I snapped the shots.

Pizza Party!!

2008-10-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

This months darking bakers challenge was pizza! It was really a blast making this challenge. I invited two of my bestest friends, Sarah and Heather over and we tossed pizzas until we dropped them on the floor. (but still ate them anyway)

-AHEM- Video! Here's the video of me tossing the pizza. Sarah and Heather are in it first, then me. I'm with the long, plain, black sleeved shirt. MY VOICE SOUNDS NOTHING LIKE THAT. And notice the flour all over my pants. xD

Sarah and Heather think I'm weird when I photograph my food...^_^;

Anyway, the main problem with my dough is that is wasn't wet enough (as in, the dough didn't have enough water), and it formed a crust in the fridge over night so it wasn't soft and didn't rise well.

BUT.

It tasted AWESOME. Everyone loved it, including myself. I'm definitely making it again and again and again.

Daring Bakers--EXTREMELY late!

2008-10-10T10:36:00.001-07:00

I feel terrible! I've seriously been neglecting my blog. I've been working more hours lately, I'm getting over a cold, school's started, and I was so busy sewing my costume for an anime convection until a few weeks ago. But this is gonna change! Not to mention, just until a few days ago my compter has been down so I wasn't able to find the pictures I took.

Last months daring bakers challenge was Lavash Crackers. I didn't have the time or ingredients to make a dip, sojust salted crackers is what I made.

These crackers were delicious! I can't wait to make them again.

I'm sorry I haven't commented on anyone elses blogs!! This will change, I promise!

Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

2008-08-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

There was a beautiful breeze blowing through my kitchen window on Sunday morning. Everyone in my family was taking a nape, leaving the house was quiet, with the exception of the birds chirping outside, the trees blowing in the wind, and the sound of the an occasional card driving by on this dead end road. It felt so much like autumn I think I should've been baking apple pie instead of blondies!

These blondies are very moist, dense, soft but still chewy, with the wonderful taste of peanut butter and chocolate. I've used this blondie recipe before, and I stole the chocolate frosting recipe from my awesome friend "hollie". The difference? This time instead of nuts and chocolate chunks, put chopped Reeses peanut butter cups in the batter. No, it's not original at all, but it's extremely tastey!

I used a 12 oz. package of reeses minature peanut butter cups and chopped them however I liked. Usually fours, thirds and in half.

Blondies (recipe found here, on SmittenKitchen)

one 12 oz. package of Reeses miniature peanut butter cups.
16 tablespoons butter (2 sticks) , melted
2 cup brown sugar (I used dark)
2 egg
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 Pinch salt
2 cup all-purpose flour

Unwrap Peanut Butter cups and chop into pieces of either fours, thirds, or halfs.
Butter an 9x13 pan
Mix melted butter with brown sugar - beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
Add salt, stir in flour. Stir in chopped Reeses.
Pour and spread into pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. (mine cooked a little longer than this)

While baking, prepare frosting.

Chocolate frosting:

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tbls. boiling water
1 stick butter
3 cups powder sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

add the cocoa powder and water in a medium bowl and stir into a soft mass. Add butter and blend to combine, about 30 seconds. Beat in powder sugar and vanilla on low speed until incorperated. Beat on medium speed until forsting lightens and is fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Let Blondies cool the spread with forsting. WARNING: these won't last long!

Daring Bakers and an award!

2008-07-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this months challenge was Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream. I was excited to find out this cake was from Carole Walter's "Great Cakes".

To start, I made this cake on monday night. I had no idea I was making the cake, but I got an unexpected tip from work.

so I picked up the ingredients at 4 and got to work at 6, after dinner. That's the last time I'm ever staring a daring baker project at 6 in the evening! By the time I was done I was ready to break down and cry myself to sleep. It was almost midnight, and nothing was going my way!

When I woke up the next morning, I was feeling a little better and decorated the cake. The only pastry tip I have is very small, and it kept getting clogged. The big splatter on top were accidents because the butter cream came right out of the top and plopped right on my design...*sigh*

Taste review:
I didn't like it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it.

My sister liked it! Maybe she has a more "adult palette"?

My friend Heather didn't like it, so she brought it home to her mom

My fron "Hollie" didn't like it very much but ate it anyway because she loves me. XD

Needless to say, I won't be making this again! But I'm glad I tried, it was worth the experience!

Luckily, "Hollie" brought over her peanut butter cup cheesecake! AMAZING. I'm seriously going to steel the recipe from her one of these days.

EDIT:
Karen of Do Better awarded me with the smiles award! It made me very happy and definitely put a smile on my face!

Characteristics for the Smile Award:
1. Must display a cheerful attitude. (not necessarily at all times–we are all human)
2. Must love one another3. Must make mistakes
4. Must learn from others
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world
6. Must love life
7. Must love kids

These are the rules:

1. The recipient must link back to the award’s creator (http://www.thebabblingsofmere.blogspot.com/)
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere.
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.

Now I'm not sure if I can do this, but I want to award Karen with the same award! So I give the award to

1. Karen of Do Better. She's an amazing baker and extremely nice. She has 2 children who take after her beauty and her family seems so loving.
2. My very own sister, Christina, of Stuff By Stina. She's beautiful, talented and of the nicest people I've met!! She's great with little kids and when she smiles the whole room glows. (sorry, that was cheesy...but true!)
3. is Mother Bliss. She has a wonderful family and I love reading about her life! She's a great baker and cook, and her kids are adorable.
4. is Daily Delicious! Everything she makes looks so incredibly delicious! I'd love to visit her house for tea one day.
5. is Christina of She Runs She Eats. She's an amazing athlete who knows good food! I lkove to read how she's doing and all her tips. Everything she posts looks great, wether she's eating it or making it herself!

Carrot Cake

2008-07-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

I wish I were about to show you some really beautiful cake, covered in fondant, with gum paste flowers, edible gold and other fancy decorations.

But no.

Here is a carrot cake. The same way My mom's been making it for years. This cake is heavy, dense, very filling (and satisfting) if you eat too much. The cake is so good you could eat it on it's own, without the frosting! Of course, I'd say the same thing about the frosting...I can't remember how many times I've licked the bowl out! It's creamy, rich, thick and smooth.

But it's sloppy. The whole cake, whenever I make it, it looks sloppy. It's just not a naturally beautiful cake. But it's whats inside that counts, right?

This is one of my favorite cakes. My sister claims she could this off of this, eating nothing more. I tend to agree with her...(If we did, we'd all get really fat! )

Carrot Cake recipe:

2 1/2 cups of flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs

2 cups shredded carrots
8 oz. crush pineapple (from a can)
1 cup rasins or walnuts (optional)

Greese and lightly flour a 13 X 9 pan. *

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat together sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs. Add the flur mixture and beat together just until combined. Do not over beat. Add the shredded carrots, crushed pineapple, and raisin/walnuts. Gently combine together,on very low speed with hand mixer for a few seconds or with a large wooden spoon.

* My mom and I always double the recipe and use 2 9-inch pans. If you do this, you'll have a little leftover which can be baked in a loaf pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, soft
2 1/2 cups powder sugar
6 tbls. butter, soft
1 tsp. vanilla

Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Warning: powder sugar likes to fly out of the bowl and mess up all you counters and measurments. Be sure to use a large bowl, especially if doubled!

Daring Bakers -- Danish Braid!

2008-06-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

The Daring Baker have decided it's time for more yeast. This months challenge was a Danish Braid. I'm going to keep my post short. (I appoligize in advance for the crummy pictures. The lighting in my house was terrible at 9 PM)

I made my braid on Friday. I started around 10 AM and it finished baking at 9 PM. That wouldn't have bothered me so much, but the whole bottom of my braid was burnt. Pitch black. Thankfully that was the one part that burnt. The filling and the top stayed nice and fluffy/flaky. But nearly twelve hours and I burnt it!!

It didn't seem like I had any problem doing the turns, but I'm not sure since this is my first time making anything like this.

The filling was pineapple/cheese, and I got the recipe from Carole Walter's "Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More". I liked the filling a lot, but I should've added more. I added a crumb topping from the same book to the top.

Anway, as for why it burnt, I'm not sure. I didn't have any parchment paper so I wasn't able to use that one the pan. Instead I greased it with margarine. Is that the reason why?

Please go to this months hosts blog for the recipe, as well as great pictures of the process!
Sass and Veracity and What's Cooking

The Bread Baker's Apprentice, French Bread

2008-06-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I realized I had to make a pre-ferment so I could make French Bread the next day. Of course I realized it at quarter to 10 when So You Think You Can Dance was almst over, but like a good baker I got up an made it, because I really didn't feal like going to bed at midnight just so I could watch it and refridgerate it.

I ended up going to bed a midnight anyway because I became hooked on a new anime called Toshokan Sensou....^^;;

Anyway, I started at around 10 I think, and it was out of the oven around 3.

When I pulled the bread out of the oven and saw it grinning it made me grin myself. This is the best I've done so far at cutting the dough before it bakes!

Of course my bread is still inconsistent, and the slashing looks better at the top of the one then on the rest of 'em, but it made me happy!

I was tagged! =3

2008-06-10T04:16:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Sarah from Sweet Endeavors! This is my second time being tagged, first being on DeviantArt a long time ago .

The rules: Each participant answers questions about himself. At the end of the post the participant tags 5 people. Their names are posted letting them know they’ve been tagged. They then have to read the participant’s blog. The tagged let’s the tagger know when he’s posted his answers.

Ok, now for the questions -

What was I doing ten years ago?
Moving into a new house and my current one.

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

1. Go to the orthodontist and hopefully get the X-rays done so I can get rid of these braces!
2. Go to work, and not mess up at all
3. Draw!!
4. Post my vacation photos on this blog
5. Read more manga

Snacks I enjoy:

1. Chocolate chipe cookies
2. apples
3. Cookies and cream ice cream
4. Oreos
5. Cinnamon buns!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Go to Japan and Italy
2. Buy lots 'n lots of Super Dollfies
3. Start a bakery with my friend
4. Move to a large house in ocean city and bring my family with me
5. Get and awesome kitchen with tons of equipment and a pizza oven like they use

Places I have lived:
1. I've lived in about 4 or 5 different house before, where I'm not saying.

Jobs I have had: (paid jobs?)
1. I work with little kids in a place similar to Chukee Cheese
2. Irirsh dance assistant Teacher
I think that's it for paying jobs... Oh, I used to help my dad peel vinal off old signs so he could replace them and sometimes I'd get paid!

Okay, now to tag people!! Sorry if this is a bother! Anyway, I tag-
Mother Bliss
Do Better
She Runs She Eats
Daily Delicious
I can't think of anyothers, since I don't really know anyone on here!

Opera Cake!

2008-05-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation right now and I realized today is the posting date!

This months challenge was an Opera cake. Something I've wanted to make for a long time now. I really didn't think I'd get to make this challenge, seeing as how there were so many ingredients, and most of them were expensive.

Looking though my pantry one day, I realized I had enough ingredients to make 1/4 of the recipe! So, I used what I had, and made one, cute little cake!

I used pecans for the cake, and my favorite ceamcheese butter cream.

I didn't have anything for a glaze or mousse so I ended up making some strange orange/cream cheese curd-jello-thing, then whipped it up after setting it in the fridge.

I want to try making this cake again when I can do the flavors I want!

I apologize for the sloppy post! Blogging is not easy to do on vacation! ;-)

Greeting from the OC!

2008-05-25T05:47:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Ocean City! I'm on vacation right now and I'm having a blast! Every where you go there's the smell of funnel cake and salt water. They have some great food down here and I plan to try them all! (or at least a lot of them)

I woke up this morning at 5:30 and after getting dressed, me and mom went for a walk with the dog. After mass, we went for donuts at my favorite donut shop, Dot's Pastry Shop. As we pulled up to the window I nearly died--they're hiring bakers for the summer! Oh, how I wish I lived here, and was skilled enough! I would just love to go into the back were they bake!

So we got 2 dozen donuts and a bear claw.

Jelly and creme filled powder donuts. Okay, the creme filled were amazing. SO much better then the ones you buy a Dunkin' Donuts, and I have nothing against DD!

The donuts here a really soft and almost melt in your mouth. The glazes and fillings are so sweet and delicious. It's no wonder they're packed on Sunday mornings!!

Last night me, my brothers and my sister went on to the board walk and got some pizza. There ae so many shops to choose from: The famous Mack & Manco, Luigi's, and various others. We went for The 3 brothers Italy, they claim they make the world largest pizza! And boy, was it big!! One slice is really like 2! hat i love though is that it's not just big, it GOOD. I wasn't able to get a picture yesterday, but I'm sure we'll go back later in the week, so hang around for a picture!!

Oh yeah, turned 16 on Thursday! I have change my profile now.

Sweet Sixteen!

2008-05-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Remember my friend Heather, the one me and Sarah made the Kit Kat cake for? Well, her late sweet sixteen party was tonight, and me and Sarah spent all night yesterday ( 5 1/2 hours! while all Heather did was lick the bowls out...) baking her 2 kit kat cakes and a zillion cupcakes to serve her guests. It was a blast! I wasn't able to get pics of the full cakes, but I have a few leftovers I got to bring home to my family!

The cookies are white cake with Oreo crumbs baked into the batter, whipped cream frosting with Oreo in it. YUM!

This time we made the cake rectangular so we could feed more people, more efficiently. Worked out nice!

Fudgy yummy brownies!

2008-05-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

I love Martha Stewart recipes. I often go to her site when looking for a recipe for a specific food. Usually I have a hard time finding one because her searching system stinks, but I found a excellent brownie recipe on there. They're called Super-Fudgy Brownies how could I not make them with a name like that??

They're exactly as she says: moist, fudgy, delicious and chocolatey. Way better than the iced brownies I tried.

The only alteration to recipe were I used milk chocolate, because I didn't have semi-sweet, and I baked them for ony about 30 minutes, rather than 50-60! They probably would have been chocolate bricks if I'd waited any longer.

So, go make them!! Recipe can be found HERE.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2008-05-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today I made the Old-fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits from Carole Walters book. They're incredibly delicious! I spread mine with grape jelly and it tasted great, but would've been better with strawberry jam.

Sicne you're only supposed to role the dough once, I rolled the scraps in melted butter then in a mixture of cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar and cocoa powder. But 'em in a pan and baked. I've seen stuff like this done before and have always wanted to make it. ^^

Cinnamon Rolls...again!?

2008-05-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon rolls, again? Wait--this time it's a new recipe! And they came out wonderful! The dough is sweet and soft, very light and fluffy! Because they don't feel quite so much like a lump in your stomach it's the perfect excuse to eat more than one!

The new recipe I tried was from Allrecipes.com The directions call for a bread machine, but I did it by hand since I don't have one.
Cinnamon Rolls II
(taken from allrecipes.com--recipe HERE)

1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast (I used 1 Tbl. and 1 tsp. of instant yeast.)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs

In a medium bowl, mix whisk together flour and salt, set aside. Place milk, water and butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Bring the liquids to a warm (about 110-115 F) temperature, and swish the butter around to help it melt. Poor the mixture into a large bowl. Add the eggs, and whisk together. Add yeast and sugar, stir. If using active dry, the yeast should bubble. Then add the flour/salt. Using the dough hooks on a hand mixer (or other mixer) mix the dough together, and use the dough hooks to knead for about 5 minutes. Knead the dough on a floured counter for 2 minutes. You made need a bit extra flour.
Let the dough rise until doubled. Took me about 2 hours.
Precede as you would any other cinnamon roll.

Cream cheese frosting
innabon-ish Frosting Recipe

1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 stick butter, room temperature
16 ounces cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Bring a pot of water to a simmer on the stove. Add egg whites and sugar to a large heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over the pot of water and whisk constantly until sugar dissolves, and mixture feel hot , about 3 minutes. Remove from heat beat til cool for 4 minutes, or until mixture turns white like thick marshmallow cream and it's slightly bigger. Add butter and beat till smooth, then add cream cheese, 4 ounces at a time, and beat until smooth, adding the vanilla with the last 4 ounces of cream cheese.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie :0

2008-04-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

It's a chocolate chip coookie. It's a pie. It's a chocolate chip cookie pie! (and it tastes almost like cake!)

When I found this chocolate chip cookie pie recipe on Bakerella, I knew I had to make it. I love chocolate chip cookies. Believe it or not, I'm not a huge fan of pie, mainly because I'd rather have chocolate or cheese(cake!) than fruit. But chocolate chip cookie pie? That's my kind of dessert.

I still don't have chocolate chips, so I did the same method as my previous post and piped them by hand using fudge frosting.

It doesn't look as good as Bakerella's, but it tastes amazing!!
I used this recipe for the pie crust. It's "yum-o!" >.<

No Pops For Me :(

2008-04-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

Due to some issues, I was unable to participate in this months challenge, Cheesecake Pops, but if you came here to see them, check out Karen's! She did an amazing job on them and they're definitely worth checking out!!

Anyway, so this is what I've been up to:

Iced brownies. Too cakey for me and not fudgy enough. I thought I was making the ones Mom usually makes, turns out I was using the wrong recipe! Next time.

Homemade tortilla shells! I didn't taste these, I made them for my brother. I was never of fan of soft tortilla! Next time I'll roll them thinner.

Cookies! With substitute chocolate chips. I made my favorite fudge frosting (in comment) but used milk instead of water, then plopped them on a baking sheet and put them in the freezer while I made My favorite chocolate chip cookies. The leaked a bit, but were incredibly delicious! Perfect for when you don't have chocolate chips!!

Sadly, no pops, but next month I'll be ready and daring!

Pecan Upside-down Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting &

2008-04-22T14:13:00.001-07:00

I made a cake today! Pecan upside-down cake, with the best ever cream cheese frosting! Now, I love Cinnabon Cinnamon buns, and they have the best cream cheese frosting. It's light, fluffy, sweet but not too sweet, melts on top of the hot cinnabon and it's Oh so good!
So I wanted to duplicate that, and this time I've come the closest I've ever gotten, and it's delicious!

The upside down part stuck a bit to the bottom of the pan, so it turned out a bit like brown sugar crumbs! =3

Cinnabon-ish Frosting Recipe

1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
1 stick butter, room tempature
6 ounces cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Bring a pot of water to a simmer on the stove. Add egg whites and sugar to a large heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over the pot of water and whisk constantly until sugar dissolves, and mixture feel hot , about 2 minutes. Remove from heat beattil cool for 4 minutes, or until mixture turns white like thick marshmallow cream and it's slightly bigger. Add butter and beat till smooth, then add cream cheese and beat until smooth.
Recipe frosts the top of two 9 inch cakes.

Frozen Ricotta Cream Pie with Caramel Sauce

2008-04-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I got home from work, thinking about this mixture of sweetened Ricotta that was sitting in the fridge. It was made as an attempt at cannoli filling for a cake, but was way to watery. ( I believe I needed to strain it some how) So, a random idea came and I tried it. I took a little bit of the mixture and but it in a small bowl, covered it, and froze it. a few hours later, I pulled it out and tasted it--and wow! It was like ice cream! It was very good.

So then I wanted to make a dessert with it...and came up with a "Frozen Ricotta Cream Pie" (name courtesy of my sister)

Very refreshing for the warm weather we've been having. Sadly it takes a whole night to set in the freezer, so no pie until Sunday!
Before freezing-

and homemade caramel sauce!

and for sunday dinner, Dad was grilling again- this time Teriyaki Pork, and grilled vegetables

Ricotta Cream Pie Recipe

Pie Crust
(pie crust taken from Great Coffee Cakes, sticky buns, muffins & more by Carole Walter)
This is a streusel recipe, used for a crust ^^

9-10 tablespoon of butter
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 plus 1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/4 plus 1/8 lightly packed brown sugar (light or dark)
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/8 tsp. baking powder
3/8 tsp. salt
3/8 ground cinnamon

In a saucepan over medium heat melt butter, taking care not to burn it, and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
use a fork and stir/toss until crumbs are formed. In a lightly greased pie dish, take crumbs and press into the dish until covered and crust is formed. Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes. Crust will apear sof but will haren a bit once let to sit.

Ricotta Cream
(warning-- as my recipes are imperfect, you may have a little leftover cream! it tastes great as just ice cream though)
24 ounces ricotta cheese
16 ounces confectioners sugar
4 tablespoon very soft butter

Pour the Ricotta cheese into a large bowl and slowly beat in sugar. Taste as you add the sugar to see if you want more or less, or just follow the recipe. Beat in butter.
Poor the ricotta cream into baked pie crust, cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer over night. Keep frozen.

Caramel sauce recipe can be found here, with helpful pictorial.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001979caramel_sauce.php
I suggest the version with the water, as I burnt my first batch without it, but not the second with it.

What do you do when you have no food in the house?

2008-04-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

You throw flour, water, salt and yeast in a bowl until you have a wet, sticky dough...and make no-cheese pizza, because you have no cheese.

I love how airy the crust was!!

And thogu we have no food, Dad brought home cookies someone gave him from work

Yumm....

Chocolate pound cake and the Foodie Blogroll~

2008-04-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wanted something sweet. I've had a cold for the past few days and couldn't go to work on Wednesday, so I needed some cheering up. Nothing says "get better!" like Chocolate cake. With cheesecake filling. And streusel toping.

Okay, so I took the recipe for Black and White Pound Cake from Great Coffee Cakes, and instead of turning less than half the batter chocolate, I doubled the stuff you add to the vanilla batter and made most of it chocolate. Most, because I didn't have the stuff to triple it. I than took 8 ounces cream cheese, 1 egg, half cup sugar and beat it all together. I thought I needed something, so I added some of the leftover vanilla batter to it. Then, in a spring form pan I put 2/3 of the chocolate batter, all the cheesecake batter, then the remaining chocolate batter. When it only had 5 minutes left in the oven I put on Carole's chocolate streusel topping. It was a very good cake.

The batter was so good I could eat it like pudding!

Speaking of batter, I had enough leftover for a whole vanilla pound cake! It don't look so pretty, but it tastes good! I took it out 5 minutes later than I wanted do to my scatter brain.

And I wanted to say I've joined the foodie blogroll! You can join by following the link on the side of my blog.

Kit Kat Kake: Happy Birthday to Heather!

2008-04-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

This is the Kit Kat Kake that me and my friend Sarah made, for Heather.

Inside it's filled with chocolate buttercream and crushed Kit Kats:

Me and Sarah had a blast making this cake. Things really do come out better when from the heart. The cake is chocolate cake, filled with chocolate buttercream and crushed Kit Kats, topped with chocolate fudge icing and with Kit Kats "glued" to edges with more buttercream.

The cake was one of the best cakes I've ever had. My only regret is I only got a small piece because there were a lot of kids. (brought it to a youth get-together at my church) but the most important thing is Heather absolutely loved it.

She's so adorable! <3

The buttercream was SOO yummy in the middle!! And the cake was so fudgy! I always thought I didn't like chocolate cake but I've changed my mind. It's only the boxed cake mix that I don't like.(I love yellow and white box mixes)

Edit:
What do you do with leftover buttercream? Spread it on an Oreo, of course!

Yumm....perfect afternoon snack :)

Dinner Now, and Birthday Cake later

2008-04-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

It was pretty warm today so Dad got out the grill and started some ribs. He let me season 'em and help glaze them. Not without supervision, of course.

Daddy grilling. Isn't he cute?

My Awesome Fluff-ball friend Sarah came over to help me bake a a birthday cake for my friend Heather (who is also Sarah's sister, she's a year older than Sarah.) She's turning 16 on Wednesday! Her favorite candy is Kit Kat, and she's obsessed with chocolate. We baked all day and I think we came up with a good cake. Will post tonight, after we've all tried it. Kit Kats and chocolate cake...where can you go wrong?
Just look at this for now:

No Knead Bread: Fast, easy & fun

2008-04-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

I love bread. If someone asks me what my favorite food is, I'll either answer pizza or bread. I could live off nothing but bread if I had to, and I'd gladly do it. My favorite thing is the crust, so I always ask for the end of the loaf.

Another thing I love about bread, is the ingredients for great bread are so simple! The past two days we had barely anything to eat in the house, so I've made bread.

And now about the new recipe I found!

Monday I wasn't feeling so well. Whenever I moved my head I felt dizzy, but I really felt like some fresh bread without all the work. Then I found the recipe for "simple crusty bread" on the NY times website and gave it a try. It came out beautifuly! Super fast and easy, barley any work on my part.

On Tuesday I was in a hurry getting ready for work, but my mom was making marinara sauce and noodles for dinner and I knew we needed some bread to go with it. I made it again and it was even better this time around! I mixed it and let it rise for about 4 hours, then had my brother place it in the fridge while I was at work. When I got home, I pulled it out, shaped it, and let it rise again for about an hour and a half. Delicious, crusty bread, perfect for when you're in a hurry. (especially when you have no food in the house!)

The recipe can be found by click this sentence.

The Perfece Cake, period.

2008-03-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Boy was I shocked to start visiting peoples blogs, only to realize today was the day to post the daring baker's challenge!

Well, I'm sure you know by now this months recipe Is the Perfect Party Cake, hosted by Morven.

The original recipe is a 4 layer white cake, with raspberry jam filling and white buttercream frosting, with a hint of lemon. Our hostess, Morven, let us take are creativity and do what we wanted with the cake. I was really excited since it didn't sound quite like my sort of cake.

I decided to keep the white cake, eliminating the lemon and using just vanilla extract, I then brushed each layer with a simple syrup spiked with a little rum. On each layer I used pastry cream and cover that with chocolate ganache. I added cocoa powder and melted semi-sweet and milk chocolate to the buttercream to make it chocolate, since cake isn't the same without chocolate frosting. (unless it's cream cheese, which was my second idea I never got to try)

Thanks SO MUCH Morven!!

Original recipe:
Perfect Party Cake:
For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Easter Brunch & Dessert at Auntie Regina's

2008-03-24T04:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the brunch and I had so much fun! Me and my mom got up at 5:45 in the morning to prepare everything and get ready for Easter Mass. I pulled my dinner rolls from the fridge and shaped them, mom boiled the ham so she could bake it later. We straightened the house a bit and got ready for mass, which was at 7:30. By the time we got home it was already 8:30 and we had work to do!

First, we got all the meats cooked:
Ham-

Roast Beef- I didn't get a close up, since I'm not a roast beef fan...

And mine, Roast Pork-

All the meat on the table:

Then we had to set the cinnamon rolls out:

Bake the French toast casserole(bad picture alert! Mom kept yelling at me because the guests were hungry...and it was SOOOO good, definitely one of my favorite!!):

The rolls didn't come out looking as good as I'd hope, but they tasted delicious. We had a lot of other thing in the oven, the doors were being opened and closed a lot to check on the other things, so I blame that, partially. You can see the tops didn't brown very well:

Even after we were totally stuffed from our own food, (which we had at 11:00 AM) We went to my amazing aunt's for dessert!
She served a torte cover with whipped cream and layered with coffee icing:

A delicious Babka, which I'm pretty sure is from my new favorite book by Carole Walter ^_-

A Banana bundt cake with chocolate chips, whic I didn't have the pleasure of trying because I was to stuffed:

And strawberry cupcakes, cute and delicious!

Overall I think the guests had a great time. The really, really loved the food and everyone went back for seconds, some thirds. I enjoyed everything and it's sad it has to end. We have a tone of leftovers though, so it'll last for a few days! Haha....I think I'm going to skip cereal for breakfast today and eat a cinnamon bun, since it's still sort of a holiday...<3

But wait! I can't leave without giving the recipe for the Blueberry Cream cheese Coffee cake, since I was asked. It was YUMMY by the way. Everyone loved it, especially my brother and sister, and cousin Maria...lol

Taken from Sunset magazine, 2005:

1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed, or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup apple juice
___________________
1 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. water
___________________
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick cold butter, cut into chunks
_______________________
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
_______________________
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
__________________________
1/4 cup sugar
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg
__________________________
1/2 cup sliced almonds

In a small saucepan, bring the blueberries and apple juice to a boil. Lower heat, and cook until blueberries pop, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tsp. of water. Add to the popped blueberries, and stir until blueberries are thick.

In another bowl, whisk together flour and sugar. Add the butter chunks and cut in butter, with either a pastry blender or 2 knives, until the mixture looks crumbly. Save half a cup of this mixture and set aside for later use.
To the larger half of the mixture, add baking powder, baking soda, salt and grated lemon peel.

In a seperate bowl, mix together yogurt, 1 egg and vanilla until well blended. Stir into flour/baking powder mixture just until incorperated, and the flour is all moisterized. Spread batter in the buttered 9-inch springform pan evenly.

Nows the time to take that 1/2 cup of the flour mixture. To the mixture, add cream cheese, 1 egg, sugar and lemon juice. Mix well with a fork. Spread cream cheese mixture over batter. Spread blueberry mixture over cream cheese mixture, leaving some of the cream cheese visible. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. About 30 minutes through, or when the cake only has 10 minutes left, open the oven on spread streusel around the edges of the pan, with only a thin layer in the middle. Bake the rest of the way.

Streusel topping (from Carole Walter, because the part in the magazine made NO sense!! Tjis way it came out great)

3-4 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2cup sliced almonds, if desired

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a bowl using a whisk. Add almond, floding well until incorperated. Melt buter in a saucepan of med-low heat, keeping an eye that the butter doesn't burn. Let butter cool slightly. Add flour mixture to the butter and use a fork to stir until crumbly.

Prepping for Easter Brunch: Part 3

2008-03-22T14:28:00.001-07:00

Does it even need words? Seriously. I really wish I could upload smells to this blog, it would be so popular then! I nose was driving me crazy the whole time I was baking today, and I can't wait to eat it all up tomorrow!

And speaking of smell, this cake smelt so good. The lemon with the cream cheese and blueberry is to die for! I have no idea how the cake tastes, but the batter before it cooks is so good I would eat over pudding any day. It sits all pretty on it's cake dome tomorrow:

And the extra frosting is so yummy to lick, me and my sister had a ball...

There are 45 cinnamon rolls in total, not including the tasters we baked in a muffin tin and ate today. :)

And last week when I wasn't baking I was sewing! I was working an Irish dance dress for St. Patricks Day. I don't think I've ever mentioned I'm an Irish dancer, but I am!

Here's a picture of me in my dress, in the kitchen where I do all my baking:

And with my sister, in the dress she made:

For now, Happy Easter!!

Prepping for Easter Brunch: Part 2

2008-03-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here's an update, with pictures! =3

We bought Easter yellow tulips and my dad finally made a (beautiful) coffee table for my mom, and my sister painted it:

We got Easter azaleas:

We got the cutest bunny salt and pepper shakers:

Are French Toast Casserole is soaking in the fridge, awaiting it's oh-so-buttery praline topping:

The Roast Pork is sitting in the fridge (and it smells so good!):

And I'm baking all day tomorrow, so I need a good night sleep! We rented August Rush, so I'm gonna sit down with Mommy and Daddy and watch it!

See you tomorrow with fresh baked cinnamon rolls, coffee cake and raisin bread!

Prepping for Easter Brunch

2008-03-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

So, it starts today! 3 days of cooking and baking, all to get ready for Easter. We're and Easter brunch. There will be 14 people in total. My mother and father, 2 brothers and 1 sister, then my 3 cousin and 2 of their husbands and the one's fiance, then my aunt and uncle and myself.

So far, the cinnamon roll dough is sitting in the fridge. The dinner roll dough is sitting in the fridge. My mommy put the pineapples and cherries on tooth picks, getting them ready for the ham she's making. We've bought our favorite French bread for the French Toast Casserole. Tomorrow I'll bake the cinnamon rolls, a coffee cake, and I'm going to see if I can fit in some cinnamon-sugar swirl raisin bread in the evening, so it'll be fresh for Sunday morning.

I'll update later today or tomorrow when I have more.

And here's an update on the menu. We've made a few changes since I last posted it.

I'm making:
Cinnamon Rolls
Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Apple-Cranberry roasted Pork
Dinner Rolls
Cinnamon-sugar Swirl Raisin Bread

Mom's making:
Sausage
French Toast Casserole
Roast Beef With Roasted Potatoes
Ham with Pineapples and Cherries
Green Bean Casserole
Canned Fruit cocktail
Canned Celery Gravy

Drinks: Coffee, Tea, Soda, Milk and Orange Juice

YUM! I can't wait!

Marbled Gifts

2008-03-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

I have four friends, whom I love dearly. Two of them are sisters name Sarah and Heather, the sweetest girls you'll ever meet. The other two are a couple named Tom and Kris. Kris is sort of my adopted Godmother, as she was my sponsor when I made my Confirmation. Tom is a Deacon at my church, also adopted Godfather. I love them all so much, and what says I love you better than a home-baked gift? Especially one with chocolate!

All wrapped up and ready to be given! I can't wait to see if they like them tomorrow. This is the Marbled Pound Cake, from Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. It has a shelf life of around 5 days, so I thought this would work best as a gift. It tastes great too. Had to save one for myself...ya'know, couldn't give something away not knowing if it tasted good or not!

Easy & Yummy Chocolate Bread Pudding

2008-03-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

I feel awful having not updated my blog in over a week! I kept thinking about my poor blog, being neglected. I decided I needed to give it some love today, so I had to make some something chocolaty...ya'know, for the blog. -cough-

This bread pudding is yummy and chocolaty. It's slightly crisp on top, and pudding-like on the bottom, with melted chocolate all over and cinnamon-sugar goodness.

The recipe follows:

Easy & Yummy Chocolate Bread Pudding
Serves 2 (or one, if you're hungry!)
Calls for 6-inch round baking pan

3-4 slices white bread, such as Wonder Bread
2 1/2 - 3 tbs. butter, melted
____________
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. cocoa powder (add 1/4 tsp. more for extra chocolate-ness)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies, finely crumbled (Or a similar crunchy CC cookie)
___________
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten with a fork
1 tsp. sugar
___________
Semi-sweet choclate chips, as desired. (About a handful)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 6-inch baking pan with butter or margarine.

In a bowl whisk together sugars, cocoa, cinnamon and cookie crumbs, until well distributed. Set aside.

Melt the butter. Using a toaster, toast the bread slices, then cut each piece of bread into fours.
One at a time, dip the first four mini-slices into the butter, then place in the bottom of pan. Sprinkle with sugar mixture, and about a tablespoon of the chocolate chips. Continue this until you've used all your bread.

In another bowl, beat the egg, then add the 1 tsp sugar and 2/3 cup milk.

Pour milk mixture into pan, letting it fall over each piece of bread. Place the pan on a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 23 minutes.

(You may have leftover sugar mixture, but it tastes very good on toast!)

And just because I haven't posted in a week it doesn't mean I didn't bake anything! Last saturday I made a delicious coffee cake from my new book. Unfortunately the camera wouldn't cooperate with me and I couldn't get a good, clear picture. Here's an idea of what it looked like though. You can tell it sunk in the middle a bit. It certainly didn't take away from the taste!

Happy ST. Patrick's day everyone!

Swedish Tea Ring

2008-03-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

I did it. I went out and bought Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. After seeing it at my aunts house I knew I had to have it! It such a wonderful book. My family and I will be eating well for quite a while! Good thing we're all passed the sugar making us hyper.

Yesterday I put together the Rich Sour Cream Dough, that needs to sit in the fridge overnight. Today I turned it into the Swedish Tea Ringe, and because I so wanted to try one of the streusel toppings, and made that too, and threw it on before baking. Topping it all off, I used her Orange Glaze instead of vanilla, because I love orange!

(please ignore the background in this photo)

Here's the recipe. Now, the swedish tea ring doesn't call for the streusel, but that's what I used, and if you use only half the dough, you only need half the recipe for the streusel. It also calls for vanilla glaze, but I liked the orange. This took forever to type!

The Following recipes are taken from Carole Walter's Book: Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. Please support her by buying the book! It's definitely worth every penny.
Rich Sour Cream Dough

4 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour spooned and leveled, (plus 1/4 cup for hand method)
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, plus 1 tsp soft butter for brush top of dough
2 larg eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla exctract

In a large bowl, whisk together the 3 cups of flour, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt. Add the cubed butter. Using you hands or a pastry blender, work in the butter until the mixture looks like fine meal. Make a well in the center.
Disolve the yeast and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in the warm water, making sure it's activated. Using a fork blend together sour cream, eggs, vanilla. Poor the cream mixture and the yeast mixture into the well. Using a wooden spoon, slowly work the crumbs into the liquids, mixing until all the ingedients are incorporated and a rough dough is formed. Sprinkle the work surface with 2 tablespoom flour. Turn the dough onto the floured surface, add the remaining 2 tablespoons flour and knead until smooth. Note: This is a soft dough!

Lightly butter a bowl for storing the dough. Place the dough into the bowl and brush the top with soft butter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator over night. This dough may be kept in the fridge tightly covered for up to 3 days.

Swedish Tea Ring (Note: This recipe only uses half the rich sour cream dough. I doubled the following so I could use all my dough. Mine took long to bake, and I had to cover with tin foil for the last 10 minutes or so.)

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 recipe rich sour cream dough
about 1 tablespoon melted butter

In a bowl, combine the sugars and cinnamon. Set aside. Removce the dough from the refrigerator and knead the cold dough 6-8 times. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 9 x 16 inch rectangle, with the 16 inch side parallel to the counter. Brush the dough with butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture, leaving a 1 inch border in the far side, and gently pat them into the dough. Beginning with the side closest to you, roll the dough tightly, jelly roll style, to form a log. As you roll, be sure to square the ends of the log with a dough scraper to even the thickness of the log. Pinch the seem, sealing it well, and gently roll the log back and forth, elongating it until it measures 16 to 18 inches long. Place the log seam side down on the prepared cookie sheet and form it into a circle, 7 to 8 inches round. To make the ring, brush one of the ends with butter was and seal it to the opposite ends by pinching them together. Place a greased, inverted heat-proof bowl into the center of the ring, to help hold the shape. using sharp scissors, cut 16 to 8 slits about 3 quarters of the way through the dough, spacing them about 1 inches apart. Turn the slices out, so that they lay somewhat flat on the pan. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and a towl, and let rise for 45 to 60 minutes, or until puffy and almost doubled.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of the dough with soft butter and cover with streusel topping*. bake in the oven for 25 to 28 minutes.

Streusel topping:
Carole's Favorite Streusel:
6-7 tablespoon melted unsalted butter(I used margerine)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tso salt
3 tablespoon finely chopped walnuts
with a fork, combine all the ingredients until crumb forms.
While dough is baking, prepare the orange glaze.

Orange Glaze:
1 cupe powdered sugar, 4 to 5 tablespoon hot orange juice, 1 1/2 tsp light corn syrup, 1/3 tsp orange oil, 1/8 tsp vanilla extract. Apply while the dough is hot!

I'm editing this post to add a picture I did for this blog. Sadly it won't fit on the side like I wanted because all the layouts just don't work that way...but I still wanted to post it, since it sort of has to do with baking...sorry it's so big!

Daring baker's challenge: French Bread!

2008-02-29T04:04:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and my first thought was: I can post my bread!! So, I plug in the digital camera, and open up the folder with all the pictures...but to my greatest disappointment, the pictures are gone. Yep, gone. -sigh- I still have one picture,and luckily it was my favorite, but I'm still very upset.

The bread absolutely fabulous. The taste, the texture, the crumb, everything was really great. This was the best bread I've ever made. And thank goodness, too, because it took all day to make! Luckily it was still done by 7 and we were able to have some with dinner. Everyone gobbled it up!

The recipe looks a bit intimidating, but as you read through it you realize you only need half the directions, and they're not that bad. The recipe is VERY long, so I'll link to BreadChick's POST.

I'll I can say is, BRING ON THE NEXT CHALLENGE! Wooh!

Unholy Ciabatta -

2008-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

I attempted the Poolish Ciabatta from Bread Baker's Apprentice today. No big holes, but still pretty yummy. I was wonder, should I have baked it upside down?
I'm trying to figure out why I had such a small crumb. I did my best not to degass it or anything...did I not give it enough of a work out when kneading it? It really left me a bit depressed.

Oh well...my family still thought it tasted good.

New favorite recipe of an old time classic.

2008-02-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

As I've previously stated, Chocolate Chip Cookies are my favorite cookie. Ever. I could probably eat 2 dozen and still want more. Whenever I made chocolate chip cookies, I always use the Toll House recipe on the chocolate chip bag. I've never, ever tried a different recipe. But since I've starting to really love baking I decided I had to try at least one other recipe. I don't think I need to try another! The "Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe is my new default. It's all summed up into those words, with the addition of "Gooey" My favorite part. Yum. Yum!

In this case, bigger really is better. The texture really makes it, with just the perfect amount of crispness, but so chewy and gooey, and so big and fat. The cookies looked big even in my Dad's hands!

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Taken from Allrecipes.com, RECIPE HERE)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

(Following directions from other reviewers on AllRecipes, I chilled my dough in the refrigerator before baking. They came out perfect! And Don't be afraid to make them big!)

Something Savory...For Dinner!

2008-02-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dinner was Lavash Cracker "pizza". I made Peter Reinhart's Lavash Crackers, then half way through the baking time I put toppings on them.

This dough was super stiff. I had the hardest time kneading it by hand! Being pretty small, with any sort of muscle I have existing in my legs, you can imagine how long it took! I was very tempted to call my big brother down and have him do it. I had to start using my elbows at some points, and puting one hand on the dough, the other on the counter and lifting myself up...I'm not even sure I kneaded it enough! But it tasted fine, so it's all good!

This one I made one layer of cracker, deli sliced ham and swiss cheese, then another lay of cracker, topped with sesame seeds and kosher salt, then baked.

Before ( My sister made my arms look hairy! O__o Grr...)

Half way through baking:

Peter Reinhart's "Lavash Crackers" Recipe:
(Taken from Bread Baker's Apprentice")

1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 cup water, at room temperature

(Directions, in my own words, because from what I heard, I'm aloud to post recipe, but not directions?)

Using a spoon, mix everything together in a bowl. You might not need all of the water, but have it ready just in case. You'll need just enough to make a ball.

Lightly flour the counter, empty the dough onto the counter and knead for around ten minutes, when all the ingredients are well distributed.
Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough in the bowl rolling it to coat it lightly in the oil. Cover with plastic, then a towel, T shirt, apron, whatever is around, and ferment at room temperature until it's doubled in size. About 1 and a half hours.

Once doubled, light mist the counter with some spray oil and pat the dough into a rectangle. Lightly pat some flour on top of the dough and roll it out paper thin with a rolling pin. Place on baking parchment on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Now, I placed mine in, baked it half way, quickly pulled it out and threw on a few toppings. Then baked the rest of the way. It may need more then 20 minutes.

My toppings were: Pepperoni, Mozzerella, and diced tomatoes. The other was
Turkey, swiss, and diced tomatoes.
My favorite was the pepperoni. The crushed tomatoes tasted SO good! I'll have to make this again. It was very easy even though my arms felt like they were going to fall off.

I hope you try and make this!

Blondies and Easter candy~

2008-02-21T18:52:00.000-08:00

So today I made Blondies for the first time in my life. I've never made them, never tasted them. Let me say, I was certainly missing out. They were good. Really good.I used Mark Bittman's recipe, which I tripled, and put in semi-sweet chocolate chunks and walnuts. Just like a thick, chewy, moist chocolate chip cookie! (my absolute favorite cookie)

Smitten Kitchen's Blondies look better than mine, but you can find the recipe on her blog.

Me and my mom were out today, and we had a chance to run into the Candy Barn before picking up my brother from college. As soon as you walk in you get this intense chocolatey smell. It was so tempting me and Mom had to get a few pieces of chocolate to sample, as well as a few things to start our Easter baskets.

Next time I'll get pictures of the actual Candy Store! If I'd known we were going I would've brought the camera.

We also got these adorable candles from Target for our Easter Brunch.

Aren't they cute?

Cinnamon Rolls! Mmmmm.....

2008-02-17T16:54:00.000-08:00

Carole Walter is a genious. Her Simple Sweet Dough is Absolutely delicious! I felt like I was making a pie crust when mixing the dough, not a yeast bread! It's soft, flaky and slightly sweet. Just perfect for cinnamon rolls! And what better to top cinnamon rolls than cream cheese frosting? Nothing. It's got to be a sin to use anything other than cream cheese frosting on cinnamon rolls!

Sunday evening and cinnamon rolls, a fire in the fire place, ahh....what could be better?

They were so gooey and yummy! Recipe for the dough can be found on this blog. I didn't use that filling recipe or icing. Filling was free-style. I used 1 sticks of really soft butter, and spread it all across the rolled out dough. Then sprinkled with a ton of dark brown sugar, maybe about 2 cups. Then sprinkled a fair amount of cinnamon, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup . Frosting was from my mom's carrot cake recipe-

Frosting Recipe:
8 Ounces or cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter (softened works best)
1 tsp. vanilla

The Fireplace:

We got a new tablecloth and new napkins for our Easter brunch we're having at our house. My aunt and uncle are coming over, as well as their grown and married kids. (my cousins)

Here's our WIP menu for our Easter Brunch. Me and my mommy will be doing the cooking/baking. (with some help of Dad and big sis :-) )

Roast Beef with oven roasted potatoes.
Ham, with pineapple and cherries.
Sausage
French Toast casserole (Courtesy of Paula Deen) with our twist of cream cheese dollops and crumb topping, (thanks to a nice chef I met who attended the CIA)
Croissants, with a variety of filling. Chocolate, cherry cream cheese, pinapple cream cheese.
Dinner Rolls
Fruit bowl. (still deciding, it will depend on the prices.)
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet red cabbage, the way grandma makes it.
Blueberry Cream cheese Coffee Cake

Vegetables:
Corn
String Beans

I can't wait for Easter! Plus, I want to make homemade Cadbury Cream Eggs. And we'll buy lots of yummy chocolate and candy. =3

Doughnuts!...sort of...

2008-02-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

I was bored, and we had nothing good for a snack in the house, and I've been dying to try this for weeks now, so I decided to bake some doughnuts. Yes, bake. I'm not exactly aloud to fry with yet, and I really don't trust myself. As it is, I've already burnt my sleeve on the jet while making dinner, I don't need another accident like that!

The chocolate frosting is soooo good!
Yup! Not only did some of they have chocolate on them, they had chocolate in them. Those are chocolate chips!
The last one looks more like a muffin then a donut. I baked it in a cupcake holder.

2008-01-31T15:07:00.000-08:00

We had nothing to go with our pork chops for dinner tonight so I made a loaf of bread.
It tasted pretty good. I would've liked a slightly less tight crumb, but it still tasted pretty good. It had a nice crust. I seriously need to work on my shaping and scoring!

On saturday I'm ordering some instant yeast and bread flour off of King Arthurs website! I'm having a hard time finding instant yeast in my local stores, and bread flour is a bit expensive.

Daribg Baker's Challenge, January 08: Lemon Meringue Pie!

2008-01-28T04:17:00.000-08:00

This is it--my first Daring Bakers Challenge! I joined for the December challenge, but unfortunately I was unable to compete. But now January, 2008 is here, and it's a new year that I officially dedicate to making myself a better baker and artist. I hope joining the Daring Bakers willl help this, and so far I think it will, I really do!

This months challenge was hosted by http://canadianbaker.blogspot.com/

So, onto the story!

I started out with making the crust. I didn't have and fancy food processor or pastry cutter so I had to use the ol' two knife method, which I've only sort of witnessed, never practiced. I thought I wouldn't be able to get the "course meal" to stick together, but I somehow managed to force most of it into a ball long enough to put it in a container and chill it for the given time. half hour later, I rolled it out and put it in the pie pan. It was uneven and definitely not the prettiest, but when I tried playing around with it, it wanted to break. So I stuck with it. I used rice instead of dried beans or pie weights for the blind baking, as that was the only thing I had. First time doing a blind bake. After removing the tin foil I found a slight puttle of sizzling butter on the crust but let it continue baking a while longer. Pieces that were hovering out of the pie pan broke and fell onto the oven bottom, which caused a fire in the oven about 5 minutes before I baked the meringue. Thanks goodness for Daddy! LOL.

The filling cam out beautiful and delicious. Definitely a keeper!

Meringue: love, love, love it! SO fluffy and yummy with the sligt crisp brown parts.

I wanted to make this pie more eye-pleasing, but I was running out of time. The pie was in the oven at 6:08 and I hade to be somewhere at 6:30, and I hadn't even eaten dinner yet! Next time, I'll make sure I have more time.

First time ever tasting this kind of pie, I really couldn't stop myself from having two pieces! I had to make sure it was fit for my family, ya'know? ^-^

I had a tiny bit of left over pie crust, so I made my brother a little cherry tart-thing. Made me wish I did all tarts, no big pie!

Bakery Sweet Treats

2008-01-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight for a snack I got some sweet treats from my favorite bakery. I've only sampled 2 of their pastries before so I was excited to try more tonight. I picked out the chocolate chip cookie and the chocolate cannoli. My sister got some other pastry filled with a cannoli filling topped with a pretty cherry. Last time I sampled one of those and a lobster tail and both were quite yummy.

Cookie: It really wasn't my favorite. I prefer Mrs. Fields. The inside was a bit to cakey, in a sort of dry way. Not very Moist and chewey-ooey-gooey, which is how I like them.
Cannoli: Yum! I have to admit, I don't really like cannolis, but it's been a while since I had one. The chocolate one, however, was awesome! The filling was very light and fluffy, not heavy at all, unlike the lobster tail I had. The outside was crunchy and chocolatey. Perfect combo!
Unknown Name Pastry: I didn't have it this time, but last time I loved it. If you know what it's called, let me know!
Lobster Tail: Was very crunchy, very filling, very, very good. I think I'll get another one next time!
I'm trying their eclair next time!

The Cookie She Forgot...

2008-01-24T15:38:00.000-08:00

First the first time in my life, I made Meringue Cookies! They were definitely yummy-yummy, too! Way too sweet for my brother, but just sweet enough for me. Next time I make these I'll be a little more interesting and put chocolate chips or nuts in them. I wasn't really sure how they'd come out and didn't want to waste any ingredients.

The color is a bit more purple-y in person but the lighting in my house is awful, especially when it's dark outside.

I did manage to get a fairly decent picture of my lunch though! I wish I could say I made te bread, but it came from my local ShopRite. It was made by a place called "La Brea Bakery" And they bake the breads 80% before shipping them off to supermarkets and such, where they finish baking them. Their website is www.labreabakery.com Not as good as the bakery close by, but still delicious.

Banana Nut....Yeast Bread?

2008-01-17T04:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I felt like experimenting. My mom always makes Banana Bread. But it never as any yeast in it. It seems almost like banana cake, rather than bread. Actually, it's quite good with cream cheese frosting...
After looking online, and finding no banana bread made with yeast, I new I had to try it. So I did. It was weird...It actually wasn't that bad. I kept cutting myself more pieces with dinner, so I must ave liked it a little. My family said they liked it, and that was before I told tem I made up the recipe, so that was pretty good. I tink it could have been a bit sweeter. If I ever had the desire to make it again I'd alter the recipe a little.

Onto the pictures!

Does the inside seem a little uncooked to anyone? It may have tasted a tad doughy.

Haven't cut into the loaf yet...I'm curious to see how that one came out!

2008-01-04T05:01:00.000-08:00

You know that bread I was making? Turned out amazing. That was the best raisin bread I have ever had in my entire life. The recipe makes two loaves, both of which were gone before the end of the night! I need to start doubling recipes! I made it with the optional cinnamon sugar swirl and sugar crunch top. My sisted thought it needed a glaze, so I pulled out the powdered sugar and milk!

Here's the dough divided -

Ready for baking:

2008-01-03T11:45:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! It's been a little while since my last post, but I'm still baking! Rght now I have some Cinnamon Raison Walnut Swirl bread from Peter Reinhart's " The Bread Baker's Apprentice" proofing in some loaf pans. (which I got from my gran'ma and gran'pa for Christmas.) Pictures to come later!

Last week I made 3 French baguettes from TBBA. They actually came out pretty good. My family loved them, especially Mom and Dad. I think my dad ate almost a whole loaf himself! I wasn't complaining.

On News Years Eve I made Pretzels following the recipe on The Fresh Loaf. They were delicious, even better then the first time I made them. I have pictures of them!

Adventures in Bread Baking.

2007-12-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

Well, today I made my first loaf of bread! It was very strange, I wasn't expecting it to bake well once I saw that it had barely even doubled while proofing, but it did! It came out crispy on the outside, chewy and bread-like on the inside. Very yummy! My brother and sister said they wouldn't have guessed it was homemade if I hadn't told them. Unfortunately, my mom turned some store bought bread into garlic cheese bread, so my bread was kind of pale in comparison and everyone had mostly the garlic bread. Oh well, I thought it tasted great!

I didn't exactly have a recipe for it, I was just fooling with some techniques I had read about on www.Thefreshloaf.com
Here are some pictures:

Toasted, with butter:

Halloween Yummies!

2007-11-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

We had our Halloween party on Sunday! It was a blast! We have so many leftovers it's not even funny. We were expecting more people but had a few cancellations. Oh well, more for me!

These are the cupcakes my mom and I baked, sister and I decorated. Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens: Halloween Tricks & Treats issue.

Brownies my sister and I made.

All together.

Overall it was a delicious party. The brownies were made using a scratch recipe. I thought they were a bit dry, maybe I baked them to long? They were still yummy though. For christmas time we make them with an oaty bottom and the best chocolate icing EVER.