my adventures in baking

Chocolate-lovers Croissants

2012-03-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

Warning: These croissants should only be made and enjoyed by serious chocolate-lovers.

a "scrap" of a croissant with frangipane filling

Sometimes I like to get into long baking projects. I'll get into a mood when I want to experiment by trying something I've never made before or making something with many steps over a full day or two. So when I first got my Baking with Julia cookbook in 1996, one of the first things I made were the croissants. However(!) at the time I didn't realize that there was such a huge difference between the active dry yeast I had in my fridge and the fresh yeast called for in the recipe. Undeterred, and thinking I could just substitute one for the other, I went ahead and used the active dry yeast that I had in the fridge. Big mistake. While the finished croissants were still edible, they were not the light, flaky, bits of buttery heaven I was expecting. So that experience put me off croissant-making for a while.

Then, a few years back I took a laminated doughs* baking class at Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and we made croissants in class. We made our own puff pastry dough to bring home, but since the class was only a few hours long the dough we used to make croissants was already made for us; we just gave it a final turn and then cut and baked the pastries. So it wasn't until about 16 years after my first solo attempt that I dug in, tried again and finally made the perfect, homemade croissant. They were flaky, buttery, light and delicious! My most recent attempt all started a couple of months ago when I stumbled upon Elra's Baking blog and her recipe for croissants made with chocolate dough. They were absolutely beautiful and I thought to myself, "hmmm...I love chocolate and I love croissants, so I think I'd better try this recipe!"

First I needed a plan of attack. From my experience so many years ago, I knew that the process is very long from start to finish. There is a lot of rolling out of dough, resting of dough and chilling of dough. My strategy was to tackle these croissants over my winter vacation. Not only would I have plenty of time to go slow but the cold, dry weather would also work in my favor. Hot and humid conditions are a laminated dough's worst enemy! You want your butter to stay as cold as possible so that it will stay intact and not be incorporated into the dough. The butter is what helps to create the distinct layers* in the finished croissant.

Next, I needed a recipe. Elra's chocolate croissants are Julia Child's recipe with cocoa added to the butter so I knew that meant fresh yeast again. After trying four different grocery stores and coming up empty I needed a plan B, so I hit the internet. My plan B was to look up conversions from fresh compressed yeast to active dry yeast but after a while of searching dozens of websites I decided that there didn't seem to be one standard. It seemed that you needed to take into account how much sugar you were using and with such a complicated (or rather time-consuming) recipe overall, I just didn't want to throw more monkey wrenches into the equation. Okay...plan C, hit the internet again for a different recipe that didn't use fresh yeast (what did we do before the internet!). I ended up using a combination of the Julia Child recipe listed on Elra's site and this recipe for Classic Croissants from Fine Cooking.

The dough was great to work with - it was well behaved and easy to roll out. I recommend working in a very cool room (a hot and humid day will ruin these babies) and remember to always let the dough rest in the fridge between the turns. This is important so the gluten can relax after all of the rolling but also so the butter can harden up again so it doesn't get absorbed into the dough. I also highly recommend either refrigerating your final croissants before baking, or freezing them. I ended up freezing the bulk of them (unbaked) and then would just pop a few into the oven for breakfast when desired. I found that the ones that had been frozen were much more flaky and had more distinct layers than the ones I baked the same day I made the dough (which hadn't been chilled/frozen first).

*What is a laminated dough? A laminated dough is a dough that is made up by creating alternating layers of butter and dough, such as croissant or puff pastry dough. The thin layers of butter in between the thin layers of dough is what makes these doughs flaky because as the dough cooks, the water in the butter is turned into steam and the steam forces the dough layers apart creating the airy flakiness. Croissants are typically given 3-4 "turns" (see below for an explanation of a "turn"), while puff pastry is given 6-7 turns.

Now, on to the fun part, the step-by-step pictures.

Part I: the frangipane filling

I knew I wanted to fill some of the croissants with frangipane (almond creme), some with chocolate and leave some plain. So, first up I made the frangipane. I used the same almond paste and frangipane recipes that I used last fall to make my ABCer's Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake.

mise en place for my almond paste

water, corn syrup and sugar are boiled then the vanilla is added and the mixture is poured over...

these toasted almonds as they are ground in a food processor

mise en place for the frangipane: almond paste, more almonds, butter, sugar and an egg

the nuts are ground and then everything is blended in a food processor

the finished frangipane goes into the fridge to thicken up

Part II: the butter square

following Elra's method, I combined the butter and cocoa powder...

...and then beat with the paddle attachment until smooth

I liked this method of beating the butter with the mixer much better than the traditional method of beating it with a rolling pin. The mixer method worked much better to give the butter a smooth texture than the rolling pin method. It also made it much easier to form it into the square that will go inside your dough. One thing to be careful of though, is to not let the butter get too warm at this stage. You should work quickly and the butter should remain cool to the touch and relatively firm. A note however that if you use this method, you will need to chill the butter longer than you would have to for the rolling pin method. If it is too soft it will ooze out of the dough and make a huge mess...so be patient and let it chill.

my finished butter square

Press the chocolate butter into a 7 inch square, wrap in plastic (butter will easily absorb other odors, so wrap securely), and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Part III: the dough
The dough is very easy to make because you don't have to proof the yeast - just combine all of the ingredients into your mixer's bowl and mix using the dough hook. Mix on low until everything is just combined and then turn to medium and mix for about 4 more minutes until the dough is very smooth and is slapping the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle some flour onto both sides of the dough, place on a pie plate, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for eight hours or overnight.

What I did was to make the frangipane filling, butter square and dough on day one and then refrigerate them all overnight. The rolling, turning, rolling, shaping and baking were all saved for day two.

mise en place for the croissants (and butter square, on the right)

finished dough - easy peasy!

Part IV: incorporating the butter and making your "petit paquet"
On day two, take both the butter square and dough out of the fridge. Let the butter sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes (depending on the temp of your kitchen) while you roll your dough out to an 11 inch square. Don't forget to flour your surface. I mentioned above that you don't want your butter to be too soft, but you also don't want it to be too hard or it will not roll with the dough.

Place your butter square in the center of the dough as indicated below (on the diagonal) then fold each corner of the dough to the middle of the butter so the butter ends up completely enclosed inside the dough. Voila, your petit paquet.

placing the butter onto my dough

It helps here to pinch the edges of your package closed so you don't end up with any butter leakage. It's okay to pull it a little to make sure you close up all the seems- just be careful not to tear your dough. Again, if your butter feels too soft, stop and put the whole thing on a sheet pan and into the fridge for 20 minutes to chill. Patience (and the refrigerator) is your best friend for the first two turns.

here is my little "petit paquet" or little package of butter wrapped up in dough

Now we get rolling (sorry, bad pun). Make sure to flour your surface as needed throughout the rolling process, but don't go overboard as an excess of flour will toughen up your dough. And always brush off any excess flour when you finish rolling and make your turns.

Roll the package out to a rectangle of about 8x24". You should roll the long side to be vertical (as it's easier), but my counter was just not big enough so I rolled the long side horizontally as you'll see in my pictures.

During the rolling process you want to try to keep your dough rectangle with sides and corners as straight as possible. This will keep the butter layers going all the way to the edges. Also, once you incorporate the butter and begin rolling, do not trim the sides of the dough or the butter will start to ooze out of the sides. Just wait until you start shaping to trim the edges.

starting the first turn

To make your first "turn," you are going to fold the dough into thirds, as you would fold a letter. The above picture shows the left third (loosely) folded over the middle third. The below picture shows the completed folding process which is called a turn. You should keep track of your turns either by poking your finger in the corner of the dough or just jot it down on a piece of paper.

Put the dough on a parchment-lined sheet pan then refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour to relax the dough and chill the butter.

turn #1 complete

After the dough is chilled, roll it out to about 11x24". As you are rolling, make sure to lift your dough occasionally to make sure it's not sticking to your surface. As you can see below, I tore my dough with the edge of my rolling pin...no problem, just sprinkle a little flour on the area so the butter doesn't stick to your rolling pin and keep going.

As the dough gets thinner you can start to see that the butter inside is chocolate...yum!

at this point you'll notice the dough starts to get much easier to roll out.

about 11 inches

Rolled out to about 11x24" and time to make the second turn. Once again, fold the left third over the middle third and then the right third over the top.

as you go, be sure to brush off any excess flour

turn #2 complete; then into the fridge to chill

Once again roll the dough out to about 11x24". Looking more and more like chocolate dough!

ready to make the third turn

turn #3 complete; then into the fridge to chill

Roll the dough out to about 11x24" again for the fourth turn (below). Different websites had different instructions on how many turns to give the croissant dough. I ended up going with four, but I think three would have been fine as well.

rolling out my final turn

turn #4 complete; then into the fridge to chill

so beautiful!

Part V: cutting and shaping the croissants
You're going to need a pretty big surface for this part! After the final chill (which you can do overnight, if you wish), roll the dough out to about 13x47". What I was aiming for was a finished (trimmed) rectangle of 12x45".

the dough is smooth and chocolatey

that is one long stretch of dough!

using my ruler and a pizza cutter I cut out my pieces

After cutting the entire length I had two long strips of 6x45 inches, I then cut 5 rows of 5 inches (to make the triangle pieces for plain and almond) and 5 rows of 4 inches (for chocolate). Finally, I cut the 5x6" pieces on the diagonal to make triangles.

all of my slicing done

To shape the plain and almond croissants, take one triangle and cut a little notch into the long end.

cut a small notch

Next, hold the notched end in one hand and using slight pressure with your other hand, gently stretch it out to about 8 inches long. You don't want to pull so hard that you either tear the dough or smoosh your layers together.

hold with one hand and gently stretch

Now it's time to fill the croissants. For the first few I went a little overboard - both frangipane and chocolate! They were absolutely divine.

a bit of the almond filling

I didn't have chocolate batons so I just chopped up some high quality dark chocolate

frangipane and chocolate? Have I gone too far? Never!

To shape the almond croissants, just roll the triangle straight, starting with the long side. Very easy! Shaping the chocolate filled ones is the same - put your chocolate pieces on the short side of the rectangle and roll. The plain are only slightly harder to roll. You want to slightly spread open the notch (sort of tilt the tips of the triangle upward a little) and then start rolling. When you get to the end, pull the two tips together to create the crescent shape. You want to end with the "open" end of the tip facing upward (see below picture).

plain croissants, ready for their final rise

frangipane-filled croissants

While I was waiting for the final rise of the shaped croissants, I decided to bake up the edge scraps that I created when I trimmed the dough. I filled some with the frangipane and left some plain. They were delicious!

a smear of almond creme on a scrap of dough, rolled up and baked

flaky and delicious

meanwhile the rest of the croissants are set aside to proof for about 2 hours
(depends on the temp of your kitchen)

waiting waiting waiting

The shaped croissants should proof (rise) for about 1-2 hours until they are large and puffy and jiggle slightly when you shake the sheet pan. At this point they can be frozen, which is what I did with the bulk of mine. I actually found that the ones that had been frozen came out much more flaky than the room temperature ones. I think this was because the butter had a chance to chill again so it created better layers when they baked up.

If you are going to bake them right away, beat an egg and brush gently over each croissant just before baking. Bake at about 375 for about 20 minutes. You might need a slightly higher temperature for your oven but I found that if I baked them any hotter the bottoms would burn. Also note that because the dough is chocolate it's a little harder to tell when they are done (vs a plain dough) so you will probably need a little trial and error here to find the exact baking time.

ready to bake

done - gorgeous!

a bit of chocolate melted out of the side...yum

inside a chocolate-filled croissant (I should have waited for them to cool a bit more as
I crushed the layers a little by cutting into it when it was too hot...
but I couldn't wait!)

inside a frangipane-filled croissant

Bye for now...

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 9

2012-03-01T11:08:00.000-05:00

It's Snap Thursday again! My year-long 366 Photo Project adventure continues with the pictures below from February 24-March 1, 2012.

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three
four
five
six, seven & eight

February 24: out for a walk with my 5 year-old niece. She found a piece
of mossy bark

February 25: and a cute little seed pod

February 26: trees against a blue sky

February 27: cute orange buds on a tree branch

February 28: a bikestand for kids. I don't know why
but I thought this was really cute - all of the little trikes and kids bikes in a row

February 29: a snowstorm for leap year

March 1: yesterday's snow has turned into a rainy-sleety mash-up today.
As they say: in like a lion, out like a lamb

Bye for now...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-02-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

I love chocolate chip cookies. And, of course, they are best right out of the oven with the gooey middles still warm and melty...pure delight! I generally use the Toll House Cookie recipe since I know it by heart but I prefer to use better quality chocolate chips and I usually add some nutmeg.

Although I didn't add nuts to this batch, I also like to process the cup of nuts to a fine grind (instead of chopping them) because it gives the cookies a really nice texture and the hint of nutty flavor. And, finally, since chocolate chip cookies are best fresh from the oven, I will never bake up the full batch, but rather just set the unbaked cookies on a sheet pan and them freeze them. Once they are frozen I store them in a freezer bag and just bake up a few whenever I need a little chocolate fix.

Enjoy!

mise en place

creaming the butter and sugar

in go the eggs

then the flour

and finally the chips (and nuts) get stirred in

I use a mini scoop so all of the cookies bake evenly

the first scoop is the same size as the last

ready for the freezer

warm, gooey and delicious!

Bye for now...

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: weeks 6, 7 & 8

2012-02-26T14:49:00.000-05:00

It's my Snap Thursday posting. A little late, and I'm lumping a few weeks together, but here are my photos for my 366 Photo Project from the past two weeks. Weeks 6, 7 & 8, February 3-23, 2012.

I've found it to be really difficult to find something interesting to photograph every day so over the past few weeks I've been taking pictures of things that interest me when I see them and will use those photos to fill in the gaps for days when I didn't see anything that caught my eye. I am also planning to give myself a theme for each month which will lessen my guilt over taking 5 pictures of tree branches in a row ;) About half way into the month I decided that the unofficial theme for the rest of February would be trees, tree branches, things in trees, cute seed pods, etc.

So, my goal is still to take a new photo every day but I'm not going to stress about it anymore...after all, this is meant to be a fun project, right? Right!

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three
four
five

February 3: lightbulb filament close-ups

February 4: hungry birds

February 5: a cory and some goldfish

February 6: funky tree branches

February 7: vines spreading over a wall

February 8: a close-up of the vines

February 9: a lush holly bush

February 10: two sparrows perched in a tree

February 11: lovely limes at the grocery

February 12: this is my iPod, you got that?

February 13: moving day...we finally sold our condo!

February 14: colorful flags in a tree

February 15: cute little "fingers" suctioned to a fence

February 16: witch hazel buds

February 17: I don't know what kind of tree this is but it drop the cutest most alien-like seed pods

February 18: seed pods from the tree above. I just love them!

February 19: ornamental grass

February 20: peely bark on a birch tree

February 21: snowdrops coming up. It's almost spring...so exciting!

February 22: sunset over Harvard and the Charles River

February 23: a burst of bright red berries.

Bye for now...

A Light Supper: Insalata Caprese and a Mushroom, Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

2012-02-03T13:27:00.000-05:00

During my Christmas Cookie Decorating party I served a light supper of a delicious Insalata Caprese and a Mushroom, Onion and Goat Cheese Tart. I wanted something light but tasty to help everyone try to avoid a complete and utter sugar overload.

I got the tart recipe from Martha Stewart and added some thyme to add a little bit of flavor. It was delicious! It was very easy to make and was something that you could do several hours or even a day in advance (make the filling ahead and then assemble and bake the day of).

The Caprese salad was also incredible and the presentation is so pretty. The combination of flavors with the fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato just can't be beat. Add some crusty bread, red wine and that's my idea of a perfect meal. Yum!

mise en place for the Mushroom, Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

for the salad: tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese

then add some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and voila

the finished insalata caprese...Delizioso!

mushrooms, spinach and onions cooked and ready to be layered onto the prepared puff pastry

hot out of the oven

the finished tart...delicious!

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

2012-02-03T12:40:00.000-05:00

This month's Avid Baker's Challenge club are the delicious Glazed Cinnamon Rolls on page 334 of The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge.
Last May, the ABCers made Overnight Cinnamon Buns and I was curious to see how these compared to those wonderfully light and tasty buns.

Overall, each recipe had pros and cons so if I make cinnamon buns again I will try to do a combination of the two and (hopefully!) wind up with THE perfect cinnamon bun.

So, what did I like about these Glazed Cinnamon Rolls? The pros for me were: they were quick and easy to make and the finished dough was so well behaved and easy to roll out. It was soft and manageable and rolled out without even needing any extra flour. I rolled it out between pieces of wax paper, but I don't think I even needed to do that. [My biggest con for the Overnight Cinnamon Buns is that the dough was very sticky and hard to roll out (although I made them in May vs January so the weather may have played a big part there).] The flavor of the cinnamon filling was also quite nice and didn't get absorbed into the dough, which I like.

The cons were that I thought the dough itself was a little bland vs the other cinnamon rolls, which contained orange zest. I did add some nuts to try to create a sort of a nutty-caramelized topping (in the bottom of the pan) and had mixed results with that...disappointing. I was going for something similar to Baking with Julia's Pecan Sticky Buns, but most of my cookbooks are in storage so I just guessed at the ingredients for that and was so way off in terms of how much butter to put in the pan that it's not surprising mine didn't caramelize. Julia's recipe calls for 1 STICK of butter (O.M.G.) to be spread into a 9" pan...I only used about one tablespoon in a 6" pan. So, obviously, mine did not caramelize like the dreamy pictures in Baking with Julia. As much as I love butter, that is a lot of butter! Although...in the big picture, I guess it's only about 1 T per serving so maybe I can convince myself to go through with Julia's method someday!

Anyway, back to these Glazed Cinnamon Rolls. Next time I will add some lemon or orange zest to the dough to jazz it up a bit and also add some nuts to the filling. Here are my pictures.

mise en place for the dough

my well-behaved dough is set aside to rise

ready!

mise en place for the filling

I added some nutmeg as well as cinnamon

I like to mix the butter to the filling because it makes the mixture easier to spread and
it sticks to the dough better than a granulated topping when you start rolling

this dough was a breeze to roll out

my butter-sugar mixture is added

and spread over the dough

and then we roll...

almost there!

I like to use plain dental floss to slice my buns. It slices perfectly
without putting pressure on - and distorting - the dough

look how beautifully this dough slices!

I baked some in a plan dish, as the recipe instructed

and some with sugar, cinnamon and nuts in the bottom of the pan

after the second rise they are ready for the oven now

these were a bit over-done

smells delicious

my non-caramelized topping

they were best right out of the over while still warm

Bye for now...

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 5

2012-02-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

It's Snap Thursday again! Below are the next seven pictures from my 366 Photo Project: week 5, January 27-February 2, 2012.

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three
four

January 27: a close up shot of the narcissus

January 28: some fungi on an old tree stump

January 29: a bite of a warm, homemade cinnamon bun

January 30: my narcissus are fading...

January 31: bare trees reflecting in a glass pyramid

February 1: hello kitty!

February 2: Happy Groundhog Day! Kind of a cheat today as this is just a photo of my computer screen.
But this is kind of a cheat "holiday" since the groundhog ALWAYS sees his shadow...
and coincidence of coincidences, six more weeks of winter
which coincides exactly with the first day of spring. Hmmmm...

Bye for now...

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 4

2012-01-26T15:39:00.003-05:00

It's Snap Thursday again! Below are the next seven pictures from my 366 Photo Project: week 4, January 20-26, 2012.

See previous weeks here:
one & two
three

January 20: paperwhite narcissus starting to bloom

January 21: pretty lights on a tree

January 22: I love birch trees

January 23: the serene after the snow

January 24: a rock garden

January 25: a secret garden

January 26: the banks of the Charles River

Bye for now...

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: week 3

2012-01-19T14:05:00.000-05:00

It's Snap Thursday again! Below are the next seven pictures from my 366 Photo Project: week 3, January 13-19, 2012.

See weeks 1 & 2 here.

January 13: "forcing" paperwhite narcissus...trying to bring a bit of spring indoors

January 14: three geese take flight

January 15: a dried seedhead basking in the sun

January 16: clementines...yum!

January 17: ivy creeps skyward

January 18: winter tree branches reaching for the moon

January 19: Baker Library | Bloomberg Center at Harvard Business School

Bye for now...

My 366 Photo Project, Snap Thursday: weeks 1 & 2

2012-01-14T20:07:00.000-05:00

This year my husband and I decided to take a photo a day for one year and post them on our blogs. He blogs at My Amateur Photography Blog and has already taken some really great pictures. With this being a leap-year, it will be 366 pictures in 2012 and my plan is to join in with a couple of fellow bakers - lead by Knitty Baker and ButterYum - and post on Snap Thursday. Of course I am getting a bit of a late start both in getting my first two weeks posted and posting on Thursday.

So, without further ado, here is my first set of pictures from weeks 1 & 2, January 1-12, 2012.

January 1: happy new year

January 2: a mural on the side of a cafe

January 3: rolling out pie crust

January 4: sleepy kitty

January 5: eucalyptus branches

January 6: almost time to take down the Christmas decorations

January 7: a small plaque in the sidewalk: laid by Simpson Bros.

January 8: Christmas trees out for recycling...bye bye Christmas 2011

January 9: the John Hancock building and a bit of the Boston skyline
(full disclosure: I somehow missed a photo for January 9, so this one is from January 11)

January 10: it snowed last night!
This has been such an odd winter - warm temps and only one (early season) snow storm.
This overnight dusting was gone by 9am.

January 11: adorable clematis seed pods from my mom's garden.
They look like a cross between an alien life form and something from a Dr. Seuss story. So cute!

January 12: fresh from getting my hair cut. Curly curly curly!

Bye for now...

A Homemade Christmas 2011, part 4: Aromatherapy Body Butters & Scrubs

2012-01-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

This is the final post in my four-part series detailing a Homemade Christmas 2011. As I mentioned in part one of this series (vanilla extract), I decided to give lots of homemade gifts this year and wanted to document all of these different "crafty" projects. Parts two and three detailed my hand-sewn lavender eye pillows and decorated Christmas cookies. This final post covers Aromatherapy Body Butters & Salt/Sugar Scrubs.

I took a class in November on making your own body butters and scrubs and was hooked! I love giving myself facials and slathering on sweet-smelling lotions, creams and scrubs - anything to help me recreate a spa experience at home. So, this class gave me all sorts of warm fuzzies inside and I knew right away that I'd be adding this to my Christmas gift-giving list.

The class I took was just 1-hour so we only had time to learn about creating the scrubs and bodybutter bases; sadly there wasn't very much time to get into the aromatherapy side of things. The teacher did recommend some combinations of essential oils that blended well together, and had a bunch of oils for us to try, but the first thing I felt I had to do was learn more about aromatherapy and combining and blending of essential oils.

I felt like an alchemist, hunched over my table, mixing the different combinations of essential oils with droppers. It was really fun to try recipes I found online and also of my own imagination and then smell them a few days alter to see how they had melded together...or not. I definitely found some scents that did not play nice with each other! I love using different fonts for things so each different "flavor" of butter/scrub got its own cute font that went with the scent and type of cream ("sharper" fonts for citrusy scents vs more flowing, "softer" fonts for more romantic scents such as ylang ylang or bergamot).

I will share the nice recipes I created myself and the ones I used and liked from other websites in a separate post.

Next up: homemade lip balm! I wanted to make these for Christmas but didn't have enough time so this is next on my list. I ordered some lip balm tubes and tins from Mountain Rose Herbs, I've got all the ingredients and a few recipes to try...can't wait.

Links to websites where I got my supplies, recipes and ideas are below.

essential oils and carrier oils

shea butter (on left), oils and salt and sugar for the scrubs

my essential oil mixtures. I gave each a number and kept a spreadsheet
so I could track the ingredients and see which combinations worked and which didn't

the finished butters. The letters on the label corresponds to my scent spreadsheet

the ones in the round jars were whipped longer so they had a really firm texture and were whiter in color

the top two jars here are sugar scrubs with grapeseed oil. This was one of my favorites!

salt scrubs with a citrus scent

spray bottles filled with herbal aftershave and aromatherapy spritzers

I left the letter identification on each jar while adding the final label,
to make sure they all got the correct tag

more finished jars

this is so fun!

finished spritzers and mists

I felt like I was running an old-timey apothecary when I was done

all of the labels included the ingredients and the date made

Sources for butters, carrier oils, essential oils and containers:
Mountain Rose Herbs - a wonderful site for organic essential oils and carrier oils (amongst many other items including lip balm tubes and tins). The customer service was excellent too!
Brambleberry - for shea butter and disposable droppers. They are primarily are a soap-making supplier but have lots of other fun products.
Specialty Bottle - for glass jars and spritzer bottles. A fabulous site with really cheap prices for bottles, jars, and other containers.

Recommended sites for learning about essential oils and aromatherapy, combining different oils and recipes for body butters, scrubs, lip balms and other homemade body products:
Aura Cacia - a great resource for learning the properties of different essential oils, recipes and suggestions on combining essential oils. They also sell many different products (you can find their essential oils in Whole Foods and other health stores).
AromaWeb - a wonderful site to learn about aromatherapy. There are many, many articles to teach you about blending oils and the properties of different oils. Also has lots of links to books and other websites.
eHow - found some vegan lip balm recipes here.
Make Your Own Cosmetics - a site with user-created recipes for all kinds of creams, butters, scrubs, lip balms and soaps. A really fun place to look around and get ideas.
Mountain Rose Herbs lip balm recipes - in addition to buying oils from this site, I also found an old newsletter detailing several lip balm recipes.

Bye for now...

A Homemade Christmas 2011, part 3: It's a Cookie Decorating Party!

2012-01-06T10:35:00.001-05:00

This post is part three of four in my Homemade Christmas 2011 series. It's time for Christmas cookies! These weren't gifts, per se (although I did give some away to work colleagues), but really just a fun time for everyone to get together and make something by hand. Part one was about yummy vanilla extract, part two was about lavender eye pillows and part four was about body butters and scrubs.

In addition to cookies, we also studded some oranges with cloves (no pictures, sorry!). I used to make these as a child with a family friend so it was a fun activity that brought back some happy memories. It makes the house smell amazing too, even if you are left with a really sore thumb from pressing in the cloves. I ordered some bulk cloves from Mountain Rose Herbs and got some large navel oranges and that project was ready to go.

The main project of the night though was to decorate cookies. Last year we had about a dozen friends come over for a gingerbread house (and cookie) decorating party. It was great fun and all of our friends made some really outrageous houses. The amount of candy on the table was insane! This year is was a little more low-key. Not as many people and not so many candy decorations since we were just going to work on cookies.

Decorating sugar cookies with piped and flooded icing is something I want to work on. I never feel very confident about my drawing skills so trying to reproduce a real image on a cookie would probably just stress me out. However, I was easily able to manage drawing on snowflake shaped cookies and simple decorations on other shapes. I even managed to make some really adorable snowmen as well. So maybe I'm better than I think!

we haven't had any snow yet this year but I still managed to make some snowmen

My favorite recipe for rolled sugar cookies comes from this little book I got on Amazon.com, Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions by Janice Fryer and Valerie Peterson. The cookies they've decorated in this book are insanely adorable and very intricate. I don't think I've quite got the patience to make such fancy cookies, however, the book provides several excellent "base" cookie recipes and royal icing recipes for both piping and flooding. The book also contains lots of inspiring decorating ideas, gorgeous pictures and lots of really helpful tips from rolling out your dough to learning to pipe icing.

The Cookie Craft recipe for Rolled Sugar Cookies (which has lemon undertones) has been my go-to favorite for a while and now I can add the Rolled Nutty Cookie recipe, which I made for the first time, to this list as well. The Nutty Cookies are so delicious! Nuts are toasted first (I used pecans) and then finely ground and incorporated into the dough and the flavor is just wonderful. They are like sugar cookies taken to a whole new level. And - both types of cookies - are just as delicious without any icing at all.

Besides the taste and texture of the cookies (which is almost like a shortbread), the recipes in this book are very simple (you probably have all of the ingredients in your pantry right now) and the doughs are incredibly easy to work with and they roll out like a dream! I also love that you don't need to chill the dough before you roll it out. So it makes the whole process much faster than other recipes that I've used. And, finally - and most importantly - the cookies keep their shapes when baked, which is awesome. They don't spread or lose their sharp corners so if you are using a detailed cookie cutter, you won't lose any detail after they're baked.

mise en place for the sugar cookies

and for the nutty cookies

I think I could actually just eat this dough on its own. It is that good.

rolling between parchment paper keeps your dough from sticking
and avoids having to use flour which will toughen your dough

how gorgeous is this dough?!

the rolled (sugar cookie) dough has chilled and now I can cut the shapes

no spreading or loss of detail when the cookies bake

the amount of cookies I got from 1 batch of sugar and 1 batch of nutty cookies
...that's one heck of a lot of cookies!

One last thing is that the iced cookies stay fresh for quite a while so you can make them several days ahead of gifting or eating them. I just stored them in a ziplock baggie on the counter-top. I will admit though that after about one week I was so sick of so much sugar that I just threw the rest away. Next year I think I'll make them as office gifts since I know I can do them over the course of a week without any loss in taste or freshness.

I also froze some un-iced ones. They are so thin that they only need to defrost at room temperature for about 5-7 minutes and then...munch away. Very convenient!

Here are some of my decorated cookies...

reindeers pulling Santa's sleigh

sparkly little snowmen with silver scarves

ready to head off to work...?

look, it's snowing!

these were easy to decorate - pipe some icing and then spoon some sprinkles over the top

so cute

and delicious...yum!

my husband got me an espresso machine for Christmas

we christened the machine with a cappuccino and cookie

Bye for now...

A Homemade Christmas 2011, part 2: Lavender Aromatherapy Eye Pillows

2012-01-05T14:51:00.003-05:00

This post is part two of four in my Homemade Christmas 2011 series: Lavender Aromatherapy Eye Pillows. Part one covered vanilla extract, part three covered our cookie decorating party and part four covered body butters and scrubs.

I was chatting with a friend at work one day about what kind of gifts we'd be making for everyone this year and when I mentioned that I wanted to make something for my step-dad who had been having some eye problems, she sent me a link to a post (on a very cute blog called Make it Do) detailing how to make Lavender Eye Pillows.

I don't have a sewing machine but have always been able to set a pretty neat stitch - plus I absolutely love lavender - so I thought I would give it a go. The eye pillows were very easy to make - if you like lavender, can thread a needle and sew a straight line (or mostly straight), you can make these wonderfully fragrant little pillows. I've been studying a bit about aromatherapy lately (more to come on that in part 4 of my little Homemade Christmas series) and learned that lavender has a calming effect so these eye pillows will also provide some stress-relief when you need to relax.

The other great thing about these eye pillows is that lavender is a natural moth repellent so if you keep the pillow in your closet when you're not using it, it will both freshen your clothes and keep any moths away. Fabulous!

My sister-in-law, niece and I went to this amazing local fabric store called Gather Here. In addition to offering classes and hosting knitter's/crafter's brunches (they were having a rollicking good time the day we were there!), they sell the most adorable fabrics. It was a little hard to control myself in a place like that and I went a little nuts and ended up getting a small piece of different fabric that suited each person in my family and made an eye pillow for everyone!

In addition to the seven different patterns, I bought some plain white fabric at Gather Here for the inner pillow. The final "ingredients" were four bunches of dried lavender flowers from a local florist and some packages of flax seed at the grocery store (probably about 16-20 oz total). The ratio was supposed to be 2:1 flax seed to lavender, but I just eyeballed it and used as much flax seed as I needed to fill my 7 pillows. The dried lavender was so fragrant that I wasn't worried about the scent being obscured if I added too much flax seed.

The one change I made was that instead of cutting out both a front and back panel (two 4.5" x 10" panels for the inner pillow) I cut out one larger piece and folded it over so I'd only have to sew 3 sides instead of 4. So, my inner pillow panel was 9" x10" and then folded in half.

measuring and cutting my (adorable!) fabric

the plain white inner pillows which will hold the lavender-flax seed mixture

not too bad for having been sewn by hand.
Once I finished, they were turned inside-out so the stitches were on the inside.

To strip off the flowers, I left them in the tied bunch inside in the florist's cellophane wrap. Then I just gently rubbed the whole thing between my hands and the little flowers fell right off into my bowl.

rubbing the flowers off their stems

all done...that was easy!

the lavender smell was incredible and filled the entire house

I left a small opening on one side and filled each inner pillow slightly more than half full.
Then I sewed up opening.

the inside-out view of the outer pillow.

What I did here was to make my length about 4 extra inches (so, 10" x ~14", the 10" side being the side I folded over), then I cut the fabric on the folded side - just for those extra 4 inches - to create two separate pieces at the top. One piece got sewn down on the inside (so that when you looked inside the top of the pillow you'd see the pretty pattern instead of the back of the fabric) -- see picture above. For the other piece, I sewed an edge and then used this neat flap to "seal" the pillow after inserting the inner pillow -- see picture below.

I hope this makes sense...I'm happy to provide more details if you need, just leave a comment.

this was a mini-version, for my 5 year old niece.
Here the inner pillow is being inserted in the outer pillow,
then the flap will be tucked in to secure the inner pillow.

my niece's finished eye pillow

the other, adult-sized, eye pillows - all done!

Bye for now...

A Homemade Christmas 2011, part 1: Vanilla Extract

2012-01-04T14:44:00.002-05:00

This post is part one of four in my Homemade Christmas 2011 series. I hope to add to this series next year with new craft projects.

Part 2: Lavender Aromatherapy Eye Pillows
Part 3: It's a Cookie Decorating Party!
Part 4: Aromatherapy Body Butters & Scrubs

meow!

I love baking! (You're visiting my baking blog, so that's no big surprise, right?) However, I also love dabbling in lots of other creative activities. I took ceramics classes for many years, made my own dipped candles, taught myself how to knit and am always kicking around a few ideas for writing a novel. This Christmas I decided I wanted to make (most of) the presents my husband and I would give at the holidays.

As I've gotten older, I feel like I need less and less "stuff" around the house and so - while I still love to spoil my nieces and nephew - I thought it would be fun to give homemade gifts this year. Now I just needed a plan...What could I make and who would like what?!

First up? Homemade vanilla extract. I knew the extract would need a while to "set up" so I actually started this project last summer. I had made homemade vanilla extract once before, about 20 years ago, when visiting one of my aunts so I knew the basic gist of it (add vanilla beans to vodka and let sit) but wanted more details. I like to gather lots of information whenever I'm trying something new...so off to google I went! There are lots of other people blogging about making vanilla extract but The Italian Dish was the best make-your-own-extract blog post I found. The photos on that site are wonderful and the blog is really well laid out. Her recommendations for buying the vanilla beans and the bottles were also excellent. Both were of great quality but also very inexpensive!

For vanilla beans, visit Beanilla. I bought the Bourbon vanilla beans, but they sell eight(!) different varieties. I got the 1/2 pound pack which was less than $30. This is an amazing value! For comparison, Beanilla sells a single vanilla bean for $1.25...in a grocery store you'd usually pay about $9.00 for 2 beans and the difference in quality is like night and day. My Beanilla beans were soft, pliable and smelled absolutely incredible. Grocery store vanilla beans are often hard and dry and stuck on that bent in half position when you take them out of the bottle. I highly recommend Beanilla for all your vanilla bean needs.

my fresh, delicious vanilla beans. One went straight into my bag of sugar!

The other great recommendation from the Italian Dish was for Specialty Bottle (which you'll see also came in very handy for part four of this Homemade Christmas series). I love wrapping presents and presenting things in pretty and fun packaging, so this site was another fantastic find. For my vanilla extract I used both tall, square bottles (8.5 oz) and short, round bottles (4 oz). The bottles were so cheap too - $1.38 each for the tall ones and .67 cents for the short ones...such a bargain (cap was included)!

my adorable glass bottles, all ready to be filled

All I needed now was the vodka and I was ready to get started. This was such an easy project and when finished, the bottles looked really impressive (quite professional too). Next year I'd like to try some flavored oils: herbs, hot peppers, garlic...yum!

I'm definitely going to need a funnel for this part!

I counted out my vanilla beans then ran the tip of a paring knife down the length of each bean to split them. For each of the tall bottles I used 3 beans; for the small bottles I used 2 beans, cut in half (split them first before cutting).

that was easy!

so cute all lined up together

the short ones...

...and the tall

I put them back in the delivery box (which had cardboard divider sleeves) for storage and then put them away in my pantry. Every couple of weeks I'd pull them out and gently turn the boxes upside-down a couple of times to mix the extract. Six months later...voila, real, homemade vanilla extract. Exciting!

They turned out a gorgeous, rich amber color with a few little vanilla seeds resting on the bottom of the bottles. Gorgeous! And, the smell of the extract was just incredible. Words don't really suffice to convey the fragrant, sweet, floral scent. Heavenly, really.

To finish, I simply typed up some labels (rotating the font sideways), added a border and printed. I thought a rectangle shape would be more elegant than the label's normal rounded corners so I finished by trimming the label around the border's edge. For the wrapping "paper" I wanted something that went with the "to be used in the kitchen" theme so I used several layers of cheese cloth and secured it with a ribbon.

very impressive!

The front of each label says:

homemade
VANILLA EXTRACT

2011

The back of each label says:

This vanilla extract has been steeping for 6 months. It contains vodka and bourbon vanilla beans. Bourbon beans have a creamy, sweet, smooth and mellow flavor.

When your bottle runs low, simply add more unflavored vodka and you will never run out of delicious vanilla extract.

Merry Christmas

a bit of ribbon on each one and...Merry Christmas!

Bye for now...

Homemade Pizzas: Mushroom & Eggplant-Pepperoni

2012-01-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love pizza? Pizza is one of my favorite foods and it's perfect in so many ways. It's warm and comforting and yet still delicious served cold the next day and the toppings are endless. How many foods fit that description?! And, as a cheese lover, I don't think I could turn down something covered in melted cheese.

One of my favorite local pizza places is Za Restaurant in Arlington, MA. They have really unique combinations on the menu, or you can just order whatever toppings you like. My favorite pizza combo is onions, mushrooms, garlic and bacon. Delicious!

I realized a couple of months back that I should try to make my own pizza. It seemed like it would be a fun stay-at-home date night or great for a party. I made my first two pies by buying the frozen pizza dough from Whole Foods and adding the tomato sauce, cheese and toppings, but that wasn't really as satisfying as doing it all myself. So, after searching around on google, I settled on this basic pizza dough recipe on an Italian cooking site. I tried to mix the dough on my counter-top and wow, what hilarity ensued when I added the water to my little flour well. I felt like I was on an episode of I Love Lucy! Next time I'll mix the dough in a bowl.

Here is the ingredient list (the linked-to site above includes a video if you need a walkthrough). The dough was very easy (and fun!) to pull together but was a little bland so next time I think I'll add a bit of honey to give it a little more depth.

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups (500 g) flour
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt
[my change for next time: replace 1 T of water with honey]

yeast is proofed, and a small well is made in the flour

after a bit of panic I was able to corral the
water-yeast mixture back to my flour pile and mixed up my dough

oiled, scored and into a bowl to rise

nice!

"punched" down and turned out onto my bench

then divided into thirds and rolled out into pizza shape.
I froze one third to use another time and made up two pizzas

At this point I kind of diverged from the directions and just baked it on a sheet pan. I didn't worry about using a special pizza pan or pizza stone...and? Came out perfectly!

the first pizza was eggplant and pepperoni

the eggplant was a little dry (next time I'll cook it first) but overall, it was great

molto bene!

next up: mushroom

look at all that yummy cheese...

delizioso!

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake

2012-01-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

My Avid Baker's Challenge club is beginning a new book for 2012, The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge. And (exciting!), the author herself is getting us started with our first recipe, Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake on page 288.

The new book is really interesting because it details the recipes in stages so you can get started one day and finish everything a day or two later. I can see this coming in very handy around the holidays! It's not something I've done much of before, but I'm looking forward to experimenting with baking in stages.

The Nut-Crusted Chocolate-Banana Swirl Cake (half of which is sitting patiently on my counter-top, waiting for me to eat it) is delicious! The finished cake has a dense crumb but isn't heavy and the bananas keep the cake really moist. Plus, bananas equals healthy, right? Right! The banana flavor is really only obvious in the vanilla swirls of the cake while the chocolate swirls taste pretty much like pure chocolate so it's a nice combination of the two flavors. And even my husband - who doesn't like banana bread - declared this cake to be fantastic and has already polished of several slices.

The only bundt pan I have is this Nordic Ware Heritage bundt pan and I was a little concerned with trying to press my ground nuts into all the small crevices, so I chose instead to make 2 loaf cakes instead of 1 bundt cake. It was easy peasy to butter and nut the plain pans and I think the loaf shape - wrapped in some clear cellophane and a pretty ribbon - would be great for gifting. With the change in pan shape, I had to bake the cakes for an additional 15 minutes (until an inserted toothpick came out with a few crumbs).

The other change I made was to follow our ABC leader Hanaâ's suggestion of creaming the butter and sugar before adding the banana (I also squished up the banana first). I got a little nervous when adding the banana - as the batter seemed to separate - but all was well in the end. Overall I was very pleased with our first Weekend Baker cake and I can't wait for next month's Glazed Cinnamon Rolls! I'm curious to see how they'll compare to my Overnight Cinnamon Buns (which I loved) from last year's ABC book, Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker.

mise en place

my two loaf pans, generously buttered and "nutted"

hmmm...getting nervous here as the batter separated
when the bananas were added

half the finished batter is separated and the melted chocolate is mixed in

spoonfuls of the vanilla/banana and chocolate batters are marbled together

the finished loaves...the whole house smelled delightful

I couldn't wait for it to cool...

moist, tender...and delicious!

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake

2012-01-02T19:34:00.000-05:00

Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions was the 2011 Avid Baker's Challenge book and I wrapped up my participation with the October selection...the delicious Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake (page 335).

This cake was a real adventure to make because I also decided to make the almond paste - from scratch - which goes into the frangipane. Now, full disclosure, I have never been a fan of almond flavored baked goods...plain almonds? Great! Chocolate covered almonds? Yum! But marzipan? No thanks! But last year I got my first inkling that maybe, just maybe, it's actually almond extract flavoring that I don't like and/or I had just been served some really bad marzipan as a child. My perhaps-almonds-are-not-so-bad revelation happened in one of my CSCA baking classes last winter when we made a pear-frangipane tart and, while the pear was mushy and flavorless, the frangipane was amazing. Ditto in another class when we made croissants and (to my utter shock and disbelief) the almond croissants were my favorite! I was still not totally convinced though, to the point that when I made a Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake for the HCB ring last June, I omitted the almond cream. I know now that was a big mistake.

I decided that for this cake I was going to go all in - including the almond paste - no substitutions allowed. The ABC's fearless leader, Hanaâ, recommended a great almond paste recipe from imafoodblog.com. And not only was the almond paste very easy to make, it was so incredibly yummy that I ate the leftover 2 ounces on its own over the next couple of days! It was so rich and delicious that a small pinch felt like a big treat.

Another great example that only good things can come from being adventurous in the kitchen.

mise en place for the almond paste

and, voila, homemade almond paste...so delicious!

additional ingredients for the frangipane

my frangipane, ready to go

mise en place for the chocolate cake

butter and sugar, creamed for 4-5 minutes

the finished batter

laying down the second layer of the frangipane

and...topped with the rest of the batter

done! It smelled divine.

I love this bundt pan...makes the prettiest crusty-edges

here's my frangipane "ripple"

looks beautiful when sliced

and tastes delicious when eaten!

We're moving on to a new book for the Avid Baker's Challenge 2012 - The Weekend Baker by Abby Dodge - and the first recipe was chosen for us from the author herself! Can't wait to get baking.

Bye for now...

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

2012 fireworks over Boston, MA
photo from firstnight.org

Happy 2012. It's really hard to believe a new year is here. I remember so clearly how the world freaked out about Y2K and now it's more than a decade later. Time goes by so fast. I'm not much into new year's resolutions, but I will put it on record that I'm planning to spend this year doing a couple of things I've been procrastinating on for far too long...getting fit, eating healthier and traveling more (including a trip to Japan).

I'll also be kicking off the new year by jumping back into blogging. The end of last year was a very busy one for me but things have calmed down a bit and I'm looking forward to sharing more of my kitchen adventures with you! My camera memory card is completely full, so I've got lots to post, including some other craft projects I've been getting into, including homemade vanilla extract, lavender eye pillows (sewn by hand!) and homemade body butters and scrubs. I decided to make almost all of our Christmas presents this year and really enjoyed both the making and giving of everything.

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Cupid's Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream

2011-10-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

The second Avid Baker's Challenge September cake is Cupid's Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream on page 314 of Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. I actually made this cake a few months ago for a party but saved the photos for this month. This is going to be a quick post with just the pictures as I'm so overdue in getting this posted.

I made the cake on a hot and humid June day so the cream cheese buttercream frosting didn't participate too well - even after chilling in the fridge. However, this is partly my fault because I refuse to use gelatin, so I'm sure it would have set up better with the called-for gelatin. In the end though, the super soft buttercream didn't really matter because the overall cake was absolutely delicious! I made the cake for a wine and cheese party (aka my bookclub) along with the HCB Mud Turtle Cupcakes and both were a hit. I loved the yellow cake - moist and light but sturdy - perfect for filling with jam. And the other flavors - the cream cheese frosting with a hint of lemon, jam and strawberries - all went together really well. Another hit from Flo!

mise en place for the cake

creaming the butter and sugar until very pale

in go the eggs then the rest of the ingredients

into the oven

out of the oven...golden brown

mise en place for the buttercream

cream cheese and butter, whipped

whipping the egg yolks

water-sugar mixture is boiled to soft-ball stage and added, then whipped some more

the cream cheese mixture is added

fresh strawberries and jam

ready to slice - with my new 18" long cake knife - and assemble

first layer, sliced in half, waiting for a layer of jam

in the middle of the cake, strawberries get sandwiched between buttercream

the finished cake

seems a shame to cut it!

but I've got to have a taste...delicious!

Bye for now...

Homemade Chocolate Sherbet

2011-09-15T10:37:00.000-04:00

I bought a new kitchen gadget at the beginning of the summer - an ice cream maker...Fun! I'm kind of addicted to buying kitchen gadgets. My mom bought me my KitchenAid stand mixer about 20 years ago right after college and it still works...I love it so (is it wrong to love an inanimate object?). I love to bake (obviously!) and think that everything is much easier when you have the right equipment. My friend V has an ice cream maker and after hearing of all of her imaginative frozen treats, I had to have one for myself.

The machine itself is super easy to use. You mix up the ingredients (make sure they're cold!) and then pour them into the frozen tub and the machine does the rest in about 20 minutes. After it mixes, you can enjoy it right away as super soft ice cream or put in the freezer to let it firm up a bit. The only real drawback is that you have to have lots of space in the freezer - space for the ice cream maker tub, and space for the container you're going to store the ice cream in (I use a glass container so it makes a huge difference to chill the container first, before adding the ice cream...otherwise it starts to melt right away since the glass is room temp). When it's 85 and humid, it also helps to keep your serving dishes in the freezer. I use ramekins so they are pretty easy to tuck into little nooks in the freezer.

So far I've made David Lebovitz's delicious chocolate sherbet several times. It's very chocolatey and creamy, and since it's only made with whole milk so I can pretend that it's good for me. It's made using both cocoa powder and dark chocolate so it's great for my fellow chocolate lovers out there; you really only need a little to fulfill that chocolate craving. I've also made a coffee and vanilla bean sherbet. While it tasted quite delicious, I left it in the ice cream maker for far to long so it got really icy. After that debacle I make sure to always set a timer.

Next on the list are some more interesting flavors - grapefruit and honey sorbet sounds delicious! EatingWell has some really interesting sorbet combinations. Yum!

mise en place - so simple!

cocoa powder is melted in 1/2 the milk

the chocolate is melted in and the vanilla, coffee liquor and remaining milk are added

into the ice cream maker

starting to freeze

almost there...

done and dusted. And delicious!

Bye for now...

British Flapjacks aka Chewy Granola Bars

2011-09-08T15:02:00.000-04:00

I belong to a great group called a Time Trade Circle (Timebank). I think it originally started in Chicago, but there are groups all over the country now. It's sort like a bartering circle - a great local group where you can earn hours doing things for people and then you can spend the time you've earned to have people do things for you. But the genius thing is that you don't have to trade hours with the same person. So, for example, I can bake the bars in this blogpost for person A and earn some hours and then spend the hours having person B paint my livingroom.

So far I've made baked goods, given a few manicures and helped someone organize their clutter to earn hours. I've spent my hours having someone do some heavy gardening for me, getting acupuncture, meeting with a nutritionist and even getting some stairs built off my back deck! There are people offering everything from general skills (drive car-less people to the grocery store, internet research) to really specific skills (bellydancing lessons(!), foreign language lessons). It's fantastic to get to meet new people, feel like you're helping your neighbors and then also to get services at no financial expense.

So, anyway, on to my chewy granola bars! This recipe were specifically requested from someone in the timebank but since I'd never made anything like it before I wanted to give them a test run. The recipe (from Bon Appétit) calls them British Flapjacks but to me a flapjack is a pancake, so I've just been calling these oat bars or chewy granola bars, which is what they remind me of. You could also easily add nuts, sunflower seeds, etc. to make them more like a trail bar and would just need to up the butter and golden syrup a little so they are moist enough (otherwise they come really dry and hard).

I'm glad a made a test run recipe because otherwise I never would have discovered that I absolutely LOVE British flapjacks! I've made them several times already over the last six weeks or so and eat them for breakfast, as a snack and even for dessert. They also keep for almost a full week so I bring some to work and leave in my desk for breakfast everyday. Easy!

I've made a couple of changes from the Bon Appétit recipe, so I'll list my ingredients and directions below. The recipe calls for using quick oats (not rolled/old fashioned) but quick oats don't have as much nutritional benefit so now I use a combination of both quick oats and old fashioned oats, I also add some oat bran for some additional fiber. I do like the finished texture of the quick oats better than the old fashioned oats, but I'm trying to be healthier so am opting for the higher fiber option of the mix. The other change I made is that I added cranberries and then switched from cranberries to raisins because the cranberries are sweetened themselves so it can be a little too much (raisins are also cheaper!). I get all four of those items in the bulk department at Whole Foods.

The only hard part, in terms of ingredients, is finding the golden syrup called for in the recipe. Golden syrup is a British syrup made from sugar, so it's not the same as corn syrup (which I believe to be horrible for your body and I try really hard to avoid). I used Lyle's Golden Syrup when I made Sticky Toffee Pudding back in February - so I knew it was sold around here - but for some reason had a harder time finding it than before. I finally found it at the second "regular" grocery store I tried (after not finding it at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's) and bought 6 jars of it...that's how serious I am about loving these oat bars!

A couple of other changes I might make in the future are to bake in a tart ring and then cut into "pie" slices and to add nuts and bake as a crumbled mix on a sheet pan and use as granola (serve as cereal with milk or with yogurt).

You can find the Bon Appétit recipe for British Flapjacks here; my changes are...

Chewy Granola Bars
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed (light or dark) brown sugar
1/4 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup
Pinch of salt
1 1/3 cups quick-cooking oats (not instant)
2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup oat bran
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

Put a piece of parchment into a square 8x8" pan (fold so it's 8" in one direction but hangs off edges in other direction - see my photo below). The original recipe calls for buttering the pan, but - if you use parchment - I found that it was unnecessary to butter even the non-parchment sides of the pan. You may need to loosen the non-parchment sides with a knife, but the parchment allows you to lift the whole thing right out and onto the cooling rack.

In a saucepan, heat the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup over medium heat until the butter melts. Continue cooking, stirring often, until the sugar melts (look for any granules on the back of a spoon). When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and add the pinch of salt, stir. Add oats, oat bran and raisins and stir until all the oats are fully coated (a large, heat-resistant spatula helps here).

Scrape the mixture out of the saucepan into your prepared pan and then press firmly into the pan (you want to press hard enough so it stays in bar form once it's cooked). I found that tearing off a strip of parchment, placing that on the mixture and then using my hand was the best way to press it into the pan (especially the corners). Just be careful because it's hot! The mixture is pretty sticky at this point so using the back of a spoon doesn't work very well.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes - don't overbake or it will start to dry out.

Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes and then slice into 16 pieces (slice across and down and then slice each of those 4 squares from corner to corner so you end up with 16 small triangles). Let cool another 5-10 minute and then lift out of the pan using the parchment ends and let cool on a rack. Do not wait for it to completely cool before you cut it as it will be too hard when it cools.

Enjoy!

mise en place

melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup

add the oats and cranberries, raisins or other additions

spread in the pan

yum!

press into the pan and bake

smells so good

tastes even better!

Bye for now...

Quick Lentil Stew and Focaccia

2011-09-08T11:36:00.000-04:00

Last week a work colleague had a lentil salad for lunch - it looked delicious. So delicious that I wanted to try something similar myself. I bought some French lentils (I like them because they cook faster) and threw together a quick lentil stew and some focaccia this weekend.

The focaccia recipe I used was cobbled together from a Julia Child (Baking with Julia) recipe and one from a bread class at Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. The lentil stew recipe I made up on the fly, so I'll list it below. In terms of the ingredients I just threw together what I had around the kitchen and pantry. I called it a stew instead of a soup because I wanted it to be thick hearty rather than brothy but if you prefer more broth you can add more water or stock. I wanted to use stock but didn't have any and worried that the water would make for a bland stew, but it actually was very flavorful so I'm glad I went ahead and made it without waiting to use stock.

Quick & Easy Lentil Stew
Ingredients
French green lentils - I used about 3 cups worth (rinsed and picked over)
1 large onion, chopped (I used a huge vadalia, but I love onions, so use more/less as you like)
5 small carrots, chopped into bite sized pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can whole tomatoes, chopped
smoked thick cut Canadian bacon cut into bite sized pieces (any other meat you like would work...or no meat!)
olive oil
~5 cups water to cover lentils (more or less depending on how much lentils you use and/or how much broth you want)
salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
~1/2 t oregano
I didn't think of it at the time but some hot sauce might be good to give it a little kick. Frank's Red Hot is my fav.

Directions
Heat olive oil in a large pot, add onions and carrots. Cover and cook for about 5-10 minutes - stirring occasionally - until the onions are translucent and carrots begin to soften. Add garlic, salt and pepper and stir.

Add the remaining ingredients (lentils, tomatoes, Canadian bacon, bay leaves, oregano, water) and give it a good stir. Cook for about 30 minutes - stirring occasionally and adding more water, if neccessary - until the sauce is thickened and the lentils are soft.

Enjoy with some focaccia, crusty french bread or some tortilla chips and a glass of red wine. I've been bringing leftovers to work this week and it's just as delicious!

the finished stew - onions and carrots and lentils, oh my!

into the bowl

yummy!

focaccia - brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and chopped rosemary...
ready for baking

smells delicious

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: German Chocolate Cake (free choice)

2011-09-06T15:49:00.000-04:00

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake was free choice. I haven't been baking much lately - a combination of it being super hot and humid, having an unusually busy summer and then being on vacation in Montreal (joy!) - so I thought I would choose a cake that my fellow HCBers made while I was away. I chose the German Chocolate Cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I've never made a German Chocolate cake before and this seemed pretty straightforward so I decided to give it a go.

The cake was dead easy to make and had a very unconventional way of mixing. Normally cakes have milk which is added to the creamed butter/sugar/eggs mixture in 3 or 4 parts alternating with flour. This cake has no milk. Instead, it calls for oil and extra egg whites. The eggs are separated and the egg whites are added at the end. Worked like a charm!

I decided to make cupcakes instead of a layer cake and they came out nice and moist. They were chocolaty, without being too chocolaty (which can also be delicious!) and the crumb was light and spongy. The light texture went well with the heavier coconut frosting. The frosting was good, but very thick and sweet and I could taste the evaporated milk quite clearly. On the one hand I thought I might not have cooked it down enough (because of the flavor coming through) but on the other hand I thought I cooked it too long (because it was so thick). I used a flake coconut (instead of shredded) but I think the larger flakes would have worked better on a large cake instead of the cupcakes. Next time I might try part shredded and part large flakes. Or I might just use a buttercream frosting instead. My husband had a plain cupcake with vanilla ice cream on top and declared it delicious!

mise en place for the chocolate cake

the cocoa is melted with boiling water and then the yolks and oil are mixed in...

until it's light, fluffy and almost resembles a buttercream frosting

then the flour is added and you get this thick sticky batter.
Finally the egg whites are added (no photo) and you get a very thin, liquidy batter!

finished cupcakes...light and moist

mise en place for the coconut frosting

evaporated milk, sugar and egg yolks get cooked, then coconut and pecans are added

my husband said: "it looks like pasta"

voila!

delicious

Bye for now...

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-07-24T20:52:00.000-04:00

It was my birthday earlier this month and I felt like baking for it (what else is new?!) so we had a small family dinner party which turned into a bit of a potluck/takeout party because the heat was just too much to have the oven on all day. I did, however, manage to make a few things and of course a birthday cake (well, cupcakes)...24-Karat Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Icing from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions (page 239). These cupcakes were wonderful! They were moist and flavorful and topped with a delicious citrusy cream cheese frosting.

The roasted carrots pictures are actually from a few months ago but I stumbled on them when sorting through some pictures and thought they were so pretty that I wanted to share. I get a vegetable/fruit delivery from Boston Organics every other week but for a while was doing all vegetables on a weekly basis and was getting a TON of carrots, so roasted carrots and onions became my "thing." I love Boston Organics - a shot of the inside of my 2/3 vegetable, 1/3 fruit box is below. They deliver right to my door and I can even add on items like organic strawberries (fav!), other fruit/veg, fresh bread, coffee beans or chocolate bars. Love!

my cats showing their party spirit...I guess it's too hot for them too.

my delivery...oh, yum

carrots and rosemary

chopped and into the pan

salt, pepper, olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar go over the top and get stirred in

I roast them at a pretty high temp to get some good caramelizing action going on

yum!

this is my new favorite rice - 6 different grains! I get it from the Japanese grocery store

all the different grains

I usually mix in some white sushi rice (1/4-1/3 of the total amount)

my wonderful rice cooker - perfect rice every time!

rinse, add water to the line corresponding to the number of cups of rice, let soak for several hours...
and then the rice cooker does the rest

now on to my birthday cupcakes!

everything mixed together except the carrots and nuts

fold in the carrots and nuts

into their little paper cups and...

...voila, cute little carrot cupcakes

the cream cheese frosting has both lemon and orange zest...it was amazing!

frosted and ready to enjoy

moist and delicious!

Bye for now...

Sugar-Crusted Popovers

2011-07-22T10:12:00.000-04:00

In addition to the buttery-almondy-lemony Gâteau Breton I made in my baking frenzy last weekend, I also made these amazingly addictive, over-the-top yummy, incredible Sugar-Crusted Popovers. The recipe is courtesy of David Lebovitz (his recipe is adapted, in part, from a Maida Heatter popover recipe). The only change I made was to the baking temperature. My usual popover recipe is from Julia Child's Baking with Julia and she calls for baking at a higher temp to start and then lowering the temp to dry out the inside a bit. So that's what I did.

With the dusting of cinnamon sugar, they kind of reminded me of a fresher, moister, eggier fried dough. They were absolutely delicious and I was on a sugar high all day. They'd be wonderful for a brunch party - some baked eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, coffee and, of course, these wonderful sugary popovers.

They were super fast and easy to make - everything except the flour goes into the blender...whirl...add flour...whirl again. Done! I didn't have a popover pan so I baked them in a cupcake pan. Easy! Bake them up, brush with melted butter, dredge in sugar. Delicious!

mise en place...so simple.

giving it a whirl

then the batter is poured into a buttered pan

the melted butter and cinnamon and sugar for the crust

I love popovers

gorgeous...

...and incredibly tasty!

Bye for now...

Gâteau Breton (RHC)

2011-07-22T09:42:00.001-04:00

I've been taking a little break from weekly baking because it's been a bit of a challenge for me, weight-wise, to have such delicious treats in the house constantly. Unlike many of my fellow HCB and ABC bakers, I haven't masted the math of dividing the recipes into smaller proportions so I usually end up making the full size called for in the recipe. I think my husband and I need to start having more dinner parties and "book club" meetings so I can share more of these sweets with family and friends.

But, as always, the kitchen beckoned me back and I went a little crazy baking this past weekend. I wanted something quick and easy and light - it's supposed to be 100 degrees today...eek! - so made a Gâteau Breton from Rose's Heavenly Cakes (page 69). I also made some amazing Sugar-Crusted Popovers from a David Lebovitz recipe. I love his blog!

Other than toasting and grinding the nuts - I hate dirtying my food processor just to grind up a bit of nuts! - the Gâteau Breton was really easy to make. It was similar to shortbread but not as buttery or dense. The recipe said it would get more like a shortbread the day after it was made, but I didn't really find that to be true (or maybe I was expecting it to get a lot more dense than it did). Mine stayed pretty much the same as the day it was made with more of a crumbly texture but not cake-like either. I guess it was kind of in between a dense cake and a shortbread. The recipe called for higher fat, European-style butter...I only had a small bit of that type of butter left so I used what I had and then just regular American-style butter. So, perhaps if I had used all higher-fat butter, the texture might have more closely matched the recipe's description. I'll probably make this again for a dinner party since it can be made the morning of and then just sit on the counter, so I'll go for the fancy European-style butter next time and see if it comes out differently.

The flavor was very nice - light with almond and rum undertones...yum. I also added some lemon zest because...well, most things are just better with some lemon zest! It was delicious on its own, but also would have been nice with some lemon or raspberry-flavored whipped cream or even a scoop of ice cream.

mise en place

creaming the butter and sugar - it was gorgeous - fluffy and bright yellow

adding the flour

the finished batter was very thick and dense

the batter is spread into a pie tin, brushed with an egg wash and scored with fork tines

baked to a golden brown. It was gorgeous and smelled wonderful!

now...a bite...yum!

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake

2011-07-15T10:31:00.000-04:00

July's Avid Baker's Challenge cake was the swirlific Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake on page 100 of Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. I've been feeling all caked out lately so I was planning to skip this one, but after reading about my fellow ABCers experiences I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. As always, it was pretty easy to pull together and tasted great. The dough was light in texture and the spices were lovely. Enough to be noticeable but not too overbearing. And then, of course there was the sugary butterscotch topping. Yum.

Based on ABCers recommendations I upped both the spices and the amount of butterscotch topping. I made a couple of other changes by adding some pecans and baking the dough in two 6" rounds instead of one big pan. I had some problems with getting the butterscotch to caramelize properly in the pan (not sure if that was because of the added nuts?) so if I make this one again, I'd probably roll the nuts up in the spiral and then just do straight butterscotch in the pan. This might help keep the layers a little more separated as well.

I had the problem of grainy caramelized topping/butterscotch once before when I made a sweet potato pie with caramelized pecans for thanksgiving last year, so I think I need to look into this a bit more to see why it's not coming together properly.

mise en place for the dough...so easy!

it was super sticky but I was hesitant to add too much flour for fear that it would get tough.
It didn't help that it was super hot and humid the day I made this.

with a little more flour during kneading, it finally came together...now it rises

mise en place for the butterscotch topping...

...which goes into the bottom of my two buttered pans

At this point I realized that having a slab of marble that I could chill would really help me when rolling out dough in the summer. The weather this day was hot and steamy and so the dough was super soft and hard to work with. Rolling it out was mostly fine, but slicing it into strips, lifting the strips and then trying to coil them into the two pans was a nightmare! Things would have gone a lot smoother - and been much prettier - if I was working with chilled dough (or it was winter). But oh well...it all tasted fine in the end.

the dough is rolled out and a butter-spices mixture is brushed on

finally into the pans and ready to rise again

the spices smell amazing

pretty!

once you flip the rolls out onto a plate their sugary topping is revealed

yum!

The dough was light and tender and the topping was was sweet and nutty.
All I need now is a cup of coffee.

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Mud Turtle Cupcakes

2011-06-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake was Mud Turtle Cupcakes on page 377 of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. This was a multi-stepped dessert which took me several hours from start to finish. However, a lot of the time was spent, as usual, waiting for the ganache to set up. After the ganache was ready there was more waiting, this time for the caramel blobs on the turtles to get firm enough to hold the pecans in place and support another dollop of caramel...the fact that it was 85 degrees out and very humid did nothing to help the situation!

I served them to my girlfriends that night at a wine and cheese party - er, I mean a book club meeting - and both the presentation and taste got rave reviews.

A couple of things I realized when making these cupcakes:
One, I need a better thermometer! Because I was only making a small amount of caramel, my old fashioned candy thermometer didn't reach the sugar syrup and I had to keep tilting the pan to take the temperature. Tilting the pan causes crystals to form on the sides of the pan. You then have to brush the sides down with water and, I think, this tilting business messed with my caramel in general, since you are supposed to let it boil undisturbed. So, while I really hate the idea of spending almost $100 on a Thermapen...it may be necessary if I am to gain any confidence in the world of caramel...

Two, speaking of caramel...I am kind of intimidated by working with sugar! In one of my CSCA baking classes we were making an Italian meringue and the instructor asked if anyone wanted to dip their fingers into the pot of boiling sugar-water (and then in the nearby bowl of water) to see if it was at soft ball or hard ball stage. Me: "um...are you NUTS?!" I guess I should have been more brave that day and maybe my caramel for the turtles would have turned out better ;) Anyway, at about 280 degrees, my caramel started to smell like it was burning so I was too afraid to let it go all the way to 360 degrees as instructed. I think I made it to about 330-340 or so and then it started smoking - which freaked me out - so I declared it done and stirred in the heavy cream, butter and vanilla. The resulting caramel tasted a bit too strong to me and never got very firm in the end so I'm not sure whether this was how it was meant to be or I should have cooked it longer. It would have made a great topping for ice cream, but for the turtles - where I was trying to get the pecans to stay stuck on the top of the cupcakes - it was a little bit too soft.

But, three, cupcakes are really fun to make! While these turtle cupcakes were very time consuming, I did enjoy myself. I love small things and once my little turtle buddies were all done, they looked pretty adorable all lined up on a tray.

A few months ago, my 4 year old niece drew me a picture of everyone in the family each walking a turtle on a leash...these cupcakes reminded me of her and that drawing. Little turtles on parade.

turtles on parade

a close up

From the beginning...

toasting the pecans

making the ganache

it was super runny at first, giving me absolutely no confidence that it would ever firm up...but

...finally, after about 5 hours, my ganache has set up

mise en place for the cupcakes

wet ingredients mixed until

it resembles thick brownie batter

gorgeous cupcake batter!

I like to use a scoop so they are all the same size. Much faster and neater this way too.

they were slightly domed just out of the oven

but then they fell a bit and left a convenient little dip in the middle...just right for a bit of ganache

mise en place for the caramel

is it ready yet? nope. is it ready yet? nope. is it ready yet? nope. is it ready yet? nope.

it's GOT to be ready now...I'm too nervous to let it go any longer!

cream has been added, now it's butter's turn

oh, yum!

a dollop of ganache goes down on each

they'd be quite good like this, topped with just ganache

next, some caramel

then pecans

at this point they actually looked like flowers to me

but with another dollop of each caramel and then ganache they begin to look like little turtles...

cute!

ready for the party!

but first, I'll have to try one...

each bite has a bit of soft ganache, sweet caramel, moist cupcake and
the crunchy toasted pecans...delicious!

instead of making 16 cupcakes, I made 12 and a 6" cake

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake (free choice)

2011-06-14T15:43:00.000-04:00

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake was a free choice. I chose the Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake on page 55 of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. The cake itself was delicious. Very moist, not too sweet, with a light vanilla flavor. The addition of the sour cream gave the cake some depth of flavor as well - yum! The ring of chocolate was a great addition and gave it some interest when sliced.

There are, however, a few things I'd change next time. I am not a fan of chocolate and cinnamon together, and - knowing this about myself - I should have omitted the cinnamon or used another flavor. I chose to follow the recipe to the letter though and, yep, I still don't like chocolate and cinnamon together. I think an extract or liqueur, some lemon or orange zest, or some ground almonds or pecans would go very well instead of the cinnamon. I'll give that a try next time (a ring of ganache would also be really good instead...I wonder how that would bake up). The other thing about the chocolate ring that didn't turn out as expected/desired was that the texture was very grainy - but this may have been because I didn't have Muscovado brown sugar, so I used regular brown sugar. I think using Muscovado, which has a finer texture, would probably have solved this issue.

So, overall, with a few small changes, this recipe is a keeper.

mise en place for the cake...so simple!

the chocolate filling

adding the eggs

pretty batter - so light and fluffy

a bit of batter goes into the pan

then the ring of chocolate and the rest of the batter

into the oven now...

smells so delicious!

hey! There's chocolate inside. Yum.

such a nice, tender crumb

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Favorite Buttermilk Cake

2011-06-09T11:36:00.000-04:00

This month's Avid Baker's Challenge cake was the delicious, tender, and SUPER easy Favorite Buttermilk Cake on page 344 of Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. I can see why she calls it a favorite! I continue to be impressed by this cookbook (especially since most recipes are so straightforward and easy to make).

It looked pretty plain when baked, but it has a wonderful crumb and it is a sturdy cake that would be easy to layer and would do well with a filling, frosting or a topping of any variety. And, best of all, the flavor of the cake was so wonderful. It is a plain vanilla-ish cake, but the buttermilk adds a nice depth of flavor and gives it a little more dimension than just a plain cake. This is definitely one of my favorites so far.

The day I made it I served it with the HCB raspberry sauce that I love so much and that was a great pairing...however it is equally delicious just on its own. I imagine it would be great with a chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting, as a strawberry shortcake, etc. etc. And it would take the addition of any flavoring (to the cake itself) really well. I grated in about 1/8-1/4 of a teaspoon of fresh nutmeg which added a really nice undertone to the cake. Hanaâ added orange zest and served it with strawberries - love that idea too!

mise en place

I didn't have an 8" square pan so used two 6" pans instead

I may have overbaked them slightly, but they were still very moist and perfectly done on the inside

yum! popped right out of the pan even though I forgot to add parchment...

gorgeous!

served with a drizzle of raspberry sauce...

...delicious!

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

2011-06-08T09:25:00.000-04:00

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake was the Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake on page 58 of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I am not much on a fan of cakes with fruit in them and I hate marzipan - which I assumed was the same as almond paste although, after a bit more research I discovered it isn't - so I wasn't holding out much hope for this cake. But, of course, I shouldn't have doubted Rose.

I skipped adding any almond paste or almond flavoring and decided to include the pear as instructed and while the cake part of the cake was delicious with a very tender crumb, the overall was kind of a crap shoot.

The cake did not brown well in my bundt pan (it very well could be the pan, as it's pretty lightweight) and the top part, where the pears were, completely stuck to the pan...so the presentation was pretty sad. I'm not sure if it was a lack of the almond flavor giving it some depth, but I also found that the pears were pretty tasteless. The cake itself though was very nice. It was light and airy in texture with a simple, straightforward flavor.

In one of my baking classes a few months back we made a frangipane pear tart using canned pears and I remember thinking at the time that the pears were really mushy and bland but that I thought it would be delicious with fresh pears...Well, now I think that's not the case since the fresh pears in this cake were also really mushy and bland. Maybe my pear was overripe? Not sure, but if I do make this cake again I'd probably just leave out the fruit all together.

mise en place

my "well" for the pears

pears are layered in...I tried to make a pretty design but it didn't make any difference in the end

looking good so far....

d'oh! not sure if I didn't prepare the pan properly or it's just a bad pan but this was disappointing.
It didn't brown well at all (other than the open end) even though it was
cooked through so I'm going to blame the pan.

most of the pears stayed in the pan

the cake itself though was great! Very light and tender.

Bye for now...

Avid Baker's Challenge: Overnight Cinnamon Buns

2011-05-25T12:07:00.000-04:00

I've been really busy with work these past 6 weeks or so and haven't been able to bake as much as I would have liked. I was sad to miss the last assignment of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, Zach's LaBomba - thank you Marie, this has been a lot of fun! And, luckily for us HCBakers who came late to the kitchen and haven't yet finished the book, Knitty Baker is picking up the torch.

For now though, I'm very late to the party for the Avid Baker's Challenge this month, but hey, better late than never! May's assignment was Overnight Cinnamon Buns from the wonderful Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. Although I've only made a few recipes so far from this book, they really do seem pretty fool-proof. My only continuing complaint is the lack of pictures in the book. *lightbulb!! I should print out a picture of each recipe I make and tape it into my book.*

Overall, these cinnamon buns were fantastic and I will definitely be making them again! They were pretty easy to make which was nice because I've always thought that cinnamon buns = hard and intimidating. And they made me want to throw a brunch party, because, really, there's not much else better than pulling a hot tray of cinnamon buns out of the oven, drizzling on a sugary glaze and them serving hot to the ooohs and aaahs of hungry family and friends! The texture was light and airy (due to the potato?!) and the flavor was great - a hint of orange, cinnamony but not too sweet, and a yummy glaze. Next time though I think I'd like a bit more filling and a bit more glaze.

I was too impatient to make this a true overnight baking adventure so I went with a more traditional rising cycle. I checked a few other similar recipes in the book and "about an hour/doubled in size/until your finger pressed into the dough leaves an indent" seemed to be the standard, so that's what I did. I let it rise for about 50 minutes until it was a bit more than doubled in size. The dough was still a bit sticky so I wasn't able to see if my finger would leave an indent but since the other telltale signs were there I figured I was good to deflate and roll it out. Flo's doughs are always so nice (and easy) to work with! The only thing I was confused about was - unless I somehow missed after several readings - the recipe never indicated when/where to add the orange zest. I ended up just adding it to the dough at the last minute. I think it also would have been nice added to the filling mixture.

mise en place

mixing the potato, milk, butter while the yeast proofs

yeast gets added to the potato mixture and after a bit gets all light and foamy...I love baking
because it's really a big science experiment!

finished dough, ready to rise. It was a little sticky at this point, but
I didn't want to toughen it up by adding more flour and continuing to knead it
so I kind of just left it alone...all good in the end.

while it's rising, I'll make the filling. I used pecans instead of macadamia nuts
and added a bit of cardamom in with the cinnamon and nutmeg.

risen!

divided in half and ready to roll out

filling sprinkled on

rolled up and ready to slice. I used the dental floss technique to slice it
(sorry for the blurry picture - I was trying to slice and take the picture at the same time)

I didn't have two quarter sheet pans so I used a half sheet pan and put all the buns on together...
worked perfectly!

after the second rise...ready to bake

smells delicious

mise en place for the glaze

I like the addition of nutmeg to the glaze...
it's my favorite spice, but I never would have thought to add it to a glaze.

glazed and ready for eatin'!

yum!

such a light and tender crumb

Bye for now...

Baklava

2011-05-08T00:02:00.003-04:00

I am an absolute baklava fanatic...and a bit of a baklava snob. I hate dry baklava and I hate artificial tasting baklava - you know, the kind that leaves a film on your tongue and is all grainy (I think when made with oil instead of butter)? Yuck.

So what was a budding young baker to do? Into the kitchen and learn to make it myself! Years ago I found a recipe and gave it a go and boy, oh boy, fresh baklava is just amazingly delicious. It's nutty (obviously!) and sweet - but not super sweet like in many restaurants - and the honey syrup has a light lemony flavor which seems to get lost when it's commercially produced. Sadly, I've lost that wonderful recipe from so many years ago (and also whatever skill I might have had with cutting the perfectly shaped piece - as you will see below) so I turned to the ever-handy google in search of a new recipe. I came across these 2 that looked pretty decent (from allrecipes and epicurious), and adapted them to better fit my tastes (and what happened to be in my pantry). If anyone wants my full recipe, leave me a comment and I'll email it to you.

mise en place (I used a combination of walnuts, pecans
and blanched almonds and lightly toasted them before grinding them)
my spice mixture includes cardamom and freshly ground nutmeg

lemon zest added to the ground nuts

I added lemon peel, cinnamon sticks and a vanilla bean to the syrup mixture

8 buttered filo layers go down as the bottom and top
(although next time I'll add about 5-7 more to both bottom/top)

a sprinkling of nuts then 2 more buttered filo, repeat until you run out of nuts

top with 8-15 more buttered filo layers and slice before baking
here you can see my insanely weird (and too large) slices

baked to a golden brown

pour the cooled honey-sugar-lemon syrup over the hot baklava

delicious!

it's calling my name...

the top and bottom layers were crispy and the middle, nut-filled layers were soft and chewy...YUM!

I originally made this baklava about a month ago and decided to make it again this morning. This time I got the slicing down perfectly! A few pictures from this morning...

ahhh...these pieces look much better than those above!

for this batch I used more nuts and more layers on the top and bottom so the slices are a bit taller

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Golden Lemon Almond Cake (free choice)

2011-04-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake is a free choice. Since I was so bowled over by the Golden Lemon Almond Cake (page 37) from Rose's in-person demonstration the week prior, I had to try my hand at it. My bundt pan is not nearly as intricate as Rose's was, but the cake came out beautifully.

The cake has an amazing lemon flavor and delicious buttery undertones. The ground almonds add some texture to the tender crumb of the cake and, I think, also add to its moistness (it stayed tender and moist for a full week!). It really is a sublime cake and was very easy to make. Upon tasting it, my husband said this was the best cake yet and was ridiculously moist. This one is going on the "make again soon" list. In fact...perhaps this weekend!

mise en place for the cake. I didn't have cream cheese so used crème fraîche instead...delicious!

almonds are toasted and then ground with a little of the sugar.
Rose also recommended tossing in the lemon zest to break up the zest a bit more

the butter and part of the crème fraîche is added to the dry ingredients;
then the egg mixture is added in

one third of the batter is poured into the pan

and then smoothed out to force it into the pan's crevices

the rest of the batter is poured in

while the cake is baking, the lemon syrup is made: lemon juice and sugar...yum!

the hot cake is poked with a skewer and then...

a third of the syrup is brushed over the top and left to drip into the holes

after the cake is turned out, the rest of the syrup is brushed over the top of the cake and
forms a lemony-sugary coating. My crust didn't come out as well-done as the picture
in the book, but it was still fabulous!

so tender and delicious, it doesn't even need any embellishment!

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Meeting Rose Levy Beranbaum

2011-04-23T13:31:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, this Heavenly Cake Baker got a wonderful treat...an in-person demonstration with the one and only Rose Levy Beranbaum! Rose, and assistant Woody Wolston, came to the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts for the class and baked two delicious cakes: the Golden Lemon Almond Cake (page 37) and the Deep Chocolate Passion (Wedding) Cake (page 409), both from Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

There were several other special guests there as well, including Joanne Chang, of the wonderful Flour Bakery (who I wished I had gotten the chance to meet!) and little Isabelle, from page 379 of the cookbook. And I even met another foodie/baker who'll be blogging soon at Eating In Or Out...maybe we can convince her to join the second round the Heavenly Cake Baker club!

In the end, while both cakes were - of course - delicious, my favorite of the two was the Golden Lemon Almond Cake. So good in fact, that I've chosen to make it again this weekend as my free choice for the HCB club.

Here are my pictures (lots!) from the event. My entry for the Golden Lemon Almond Cake will follow later this weekend.

mise en place, prepared by the CSCA chefs

Bye for now...

Heavenly Cake Baker: Southern Coconut Cake...oops...

2011-04-11T21:35:00.000-04:00

This week's Heavenly Cake Baker cake was Miette's Tomboy on page 145 of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes, but for some unknown reason I thought this week was the Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream, on page 23. I'm not sure exactly what happened but I must have had coconut on the brain and so it was coconut in the oven as well!

I was craving chocolate and thought it would be a good combination with the coconut so I made a ganache frosting instead of a buttercream. The combo was delicious at first, when the ganache was still pretty soft and liquidy, but I should have listened to the professional because once it set up, the ganache was way too heavy for the tender crumb of the coconut cake. So, overall - besides the fact that I made the entirely wrong cake - this week was kind of hit and miss for me. I am glad though to be able to read through the other HCBers' experiences with Miette's Tomboy before I get started on that one for next week.

mise en place for the ganache...a splash of framboise can't hurt

smooth and silky ganache

mise en place for the coconut cake

adding the coconut flakes

the batter made cupcakes...and

...two 6" rounds. That's a lot of batter!

smells delicious

the 6" cakes are so adorable!

topped with some ganache and coconut flakes

looks great!

a light and tender crumb

Bye for now...