Lazy Susin

Follow Me on Over...

2009-12-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

Long time no see, right? I'm embarrased to say that it's been months on end since I last posted on Lazy Susin...but that's because I'm not a Susin anymore (still lazy, though)!

I am keeping this blog up as an archive for all of my old recipes, but won't be posting here anymore.

Instead, follow me on over to my new blog, Growing Kooky Together, where I tackle everything from baking and married life to projects around the house and taking care of our three "fur babies."

It's a Tart! It's a Pudding! Wait...It's Just Delicious!

2009-06-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was by far my most favorite challenge yet! And trust me, I have some rough challenges under my belt.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I chose to use my rectangle tart pan and had enough dough and fillings left over to make two mini tarts. I devoured one as soon as it had cooled enough to eat. I used extra-delicious Bonne Maman raspberry preserves and literally shoveled this tart into my mouth. Best. Lunch. Ever.

Bakewell Tarts

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spread ability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is light yellow in color and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow color.

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatized for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish. When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

It's Daring...that I tried to make this strudel

2009-05-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Things this challenge taught me: for goodness sakes, follow the directions! When making the dough, the recipe instructs you to use a table cloth as you roll out the dough. It also encourages you to have quite a large work surface available. I had neither. Seriously, you need the table cloth! This dough gets so, so thin. I had managed to get it pretty thin overall, but a small tear soon turned into a large rip. Then, without the aid of the tablecloth, it's next to impossible to roll the strudel up. But what I did end up with was light, flaky and tasty! And that's all that counts in the end, right? Right.

Preparation time

Total: 2 hours 15 minutes – 3 hours 30 minutes
15-20 min to make dough

30-90 min to let dough rest/to prepare the filling

20-30 min to roll out and stretch dough

10 min to fill and roll dough

30 min to bake

30 min to cool

Apple strudel

from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers
2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum

3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided

1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbsstrudel dough (recipe below)

1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts

2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.
3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.
4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.
5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough

from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers
1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed

2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).
3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.
4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers

2009-05-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

Where has my baking head been lately, you ask? With our new pup, Charlie. Having a dog in the house has been quite a handful, and between him and wedding planning, hasn't allowed a lot of time for baking!

When I do manage to make it into the kitchen, I've been whipping up some organic dog treats for Charlie. Since we're taking him to obedience classes right now, he's getting so many treats! I wanted to make sure that we weren't giving him just any old treat we bought at the grocery store. He came to us from the shelter with some tummy problems (now, fortunately, all gone!) so in the beginning it was especially important that we gave him plenty of good stuff.

There are SO MANY great dog treat recipes out there, and most call for very basic ingredients you have handy - whole wheat or all purpose flower, chicken stock, peanut butter, apple sauce, sunflower seeds, etc. So incredibly easy to make and Charlie loves them!

One of his favorites are these "Peanutbutter Puppy Poppers." They only call for 4 ingredients and can be cut out with cute cookie cutters, or cut up (like I did in the picture) into small pieces, perfect for training. Even better - they make your house smell great, like you just made a batch of cookies!

Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers

recipe from bullwrinkle.com

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 T baking powder

1 cup peanut butter (I prefer smooth)

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375'F. In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk, then add to dry ingredients and mix well.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes (or if using for training - cut out circles using a small round cookie cutter or cut small pieces using a pizza cutter).

Bake for 20 minutes on a baking sheet (I didn't grease mine or use parchment and they were fine) until lightly brown. Cool on a rack, then store in an airtight container.

Please note: I did not bake mine for the full 20 minutes - they do have a tendency to burn so you may want to adjust baking time. Also, I usually cut the recipe in half.

A Taste of Spring

2009-04-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hi...it's me! Yes, it's been quite a long time since my last post. Life has gotten endlessly busy, especially with all of this wedding planning to do! But I still had time this weekend to create some fabulous spring cupcakes to display these great cupcake toppers from Etsy's Goose Grease. Love them!

If you're looking for a great way to welcome in spring (if it ever actually arrives!)...make these. You will not be sorry. Especially if you have a huge sweet tooth...these will most definitely hit the spot!

Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes
Adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop
22-24 regular cupcakes
350 degree oven
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
A handful of chopped maraschino cherries
1-2 tablespoons of liquid from the maraschino cherries jar

Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk, extracts, chopped cherries and maraschino cherry liquid (add it until you get the desired taste, depending on how much cherry flavor you want). Mix to combine.
Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
Note: These cupcakes tend to rise quite a bit and will overflow if you put too much batter in the cupcake paper. Keep it under two-thirds full. They also tend to pull away from the papers as they cool. It should be minimal if the cupcakes were baked enough and shouldn’t be an issue.

Cherry Frosting*
Adapted from Bon Apetit
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
2-3 teaspoonds liquid from the maraschino cherry jar (add to taste)

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in another medium bowl until smooth. Beat in the liquids. Spread frosting over cupcakes.

*Please note: you will probably need to double the quantity of frosting if making the full batch of cupcakes per the recipe above. I did not make the full batch of cupcakes and therefore did not need to make additional frosting.

Scoop Me Up Some of That

2009-03-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

I was so excited when I saw the Daring Bakers Challenge for the month of February. Flourless chocolate cake with homemade vanilla bean ice cream - yum! I've always wanted to make my own ice cream but don't have the want or need to invest in an ice cream maker...I mean really, how much would I use that? I was skeptical that this vanilla bean ice cream would taste like the real thing, but it turned out just amazing! It's definitely not as smooth and creamy you'd want out of an ice cream, but the texture is pretty good and the flavor was spot on.

Paring the vanilla bean ice cream with the flourless chocolate cake was fabulous. The cake was super dense and chocolatey. I made this for our Valentine's Day dessert. Steve whipped up some awesome turkey burgers and garlic french fries, and we timed everything out so that the cake came out of the oven just as we finished eating. It was nice 'n' hot against the ice cream. Love it!

Chocolate Valentino
Sweet Treats by Chef Wan
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Classic Vanilla Ice Cream

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

Ingredients
1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Channeling the Girl Scouts

2009-02-15T15:26:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love the Girl Scouts' Thin Mint cookies...the mint flavor is subtle and perfectly combines with the chocolate. With that flavor profile in mind, I scoured the 'net for the perfect mint chocolate cupcake recipe. As this was (yet again!) a last minute project, I had to also find a recipe that did not call for anything wacky that isn't normally in my kitchen (buttermilk, heavy cream, sour cream, etc...we usually just have skim milk and soy milk on hand).

I came across The Repressed Pastry Chef's recipe for Mint Chocolate Cupcakes. I truly questioned the recipe. No eggs? White vinegar? No dairy to speak of?! Hmm. Since I'd made her basic buttercream recipe before and it was absolute perfection, I decided to give this recipe a try.

OH MY GOODNESS. These were amazing! I want to eat them every day. For breakfast. So light and fluffy. Deep dark chocolate color. The mint in the cupcake gave just the lightest minty hint alongside the chocolate. A batter that was so perfectly runny that I could fill the muffin tins with ease. I also used her buttercream frosting recipe (I made a half batch) and added the peppermint extract into the frosting teaspoon by teaspoon to get just the right minty taste.

My only, only kerfluffle when making these cupcakes was that the bowl of batter seemed never ending! After filling my standard-size 12-cup muffin tin, and then my 24-cup mini-muffin tin, I fill two 4-inch mini cake pans, and still had leftover batter! By that point, I just called it quits and (sadly) chucked the rest. So I would definitely made a half or third batch the next time. But hey, what's wrong with a few too many to-die-for cupcakes?!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
from The Repressed Pastry Chef

3 cups flour
2/3 cups Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (or brand of choice)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (pepper)mint extract
2 tablespoons white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F
Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt together.
In a separate bowl whisk together the water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, mint extract and vinegar.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/3 of the dry ingredients with 1/2 of the wet ingredients. After the mixture is thoroughly combined, add half of the remaining dry ingredients with the remaining wet ingredients. Combine thoroughly. Lastly add in the remaining dry ingredients. Once the mixture is thoroughly combined, continue to mix for another 2-3 minutes.
Pour into cupcake liners or for a full cake pour into a 9x13 cake pan prepared with baking spray. Tap the pan against the counter to break any air bubbles that exist.
Bake for 20 minutes (cupcakes) or 25-30 minutes (cake) or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting
adapted from The Repressed Pastry Chef

(1/2 recipe)
1/2 stick salted butter - room temperature
1/2 stick unsalted butter - room temperature
(or just use 1 stick of unsalted butter if that's what you have on hand)
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tablespoon peppermint extract (start with less, add to taste)
1 pound confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
2-3 tablespoons very cold milk
green food coloring (optional)

Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the peppermint extract and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk... one tablespoon at a time, combining very well after each addition (mixer on medium-high to high speed) until you reach the desired consistency.

Pregnant Woman's Dream

2009-01-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

A co-worker asked me to make some cookies for a baby shower she's hosting this weekend, with the cookies to match the pickle and ice cream themed invitations. I was relieved that the pickles actually ended up looking like pickles! I bought a flip flop-shaped cookie cutter and it worked perfectly.

So fun working on a project like this, but I'd forgotten how time consuming this can be -especially when I'm decorating on weeknights! I can definitely use a break from royal icing for awhile :)

Sorry, Daring Bakers

2009-01-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was to make tuiles. I was excited about this challenge because it only took 5 ingredients! After December's challenge, this was a great change of pace. Unfortunately, I just didn't have time to really devote to the challenge - short as it may have been - so my tuiles leave a little bit to be desired.

Let's just put this behind us, Daring Bakers, and please don't hold it against me. I promise I'll do better next month <3

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Oh, Brioche

2009-01-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

Brioche has been on my "hit list" of must bakes for awhile now. I've surprisingly only had brioche once (made into French toast...fabulous!) but it seems like something that is just a baking staple.

When looking for recipes, I stayed away from all of my bread books thinking they would give me the harder way to make this, they always do. And it does turn out that there are more streamlined ways to make brioche. I was happy to see that La Tartine Gourmande had a very down to earth, dare I say easy, brioche recipe. But for my first time, I wanted the full experience.

I found a recipe through Epicurious that seemed like the real mccoy. Let's see - beat in a lot of butter (check). Let is slow rise in the refrigerator overnight (check). Stir the dough once every 30 minutes for 2 hours while slow rising (check). There seemed to be enough hours of both work and waiting to make this recipe feel authentic enough for me.

The experience was awesome, if you can say that about making bread. This dough was one of the best I've ever worked with, probably because of the butter to flour ratio (my flab would rather not think about this). The dough was silky smooth and yet elastic at the time time. I loved it!

I loved the dough, until I baked it and was able to eat it.

OH MY SWEET GOODNESS. Is it a croissant? Or a loaf of bread? This crazy hybrid butter-fest was so light on the tongue and yet so rich. It was worth every minute of prep, and all three sticks of butter (don't think I'm joking!). Maybe next time I'll go for an easier version if I'm in a time crunch, but the process to make this was too much fun.

Golden Brioche

Recipe from Epicurious

1/3 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1/3 cup warm milk (105°F to 115°F)
2 envelopes dry yeast
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, each stick cut into 4 pieces, room temperature
1 egg, beaten to blend with 1 tablespoon water (for glaze)

Place 1/3 cup warm water, warm milk, and yeast in bowl of standing heavy-duty mixer; stir until yeast dissolves. Fit mixer with dough hook. Add flour and salt to bowl; mix on low speed just until flour is moistened, about 10 seconds. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl.

Beat in 3 eggs on low speed, then add sugar. Increase speed to medium and beat until dough comes together, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low.

Add butter, 1 piece at a time, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding next (dough will be soft and batter-like). Increase speed to medium-high and beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 7 minutes.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Lift up dough around edges and allow dough to fall and deflate in bowl. Cover bowl with plastic and chill until dough stops rising, lifting up dough around edges and allowing dough to fall and deflate in bowl every 30 minutes, about 2 hours total. Cover bowl with plastic; chill dough overnight.

Butter and flour three 7 1/2x3 1/2x2-inch loaf pans. Divide dough into 3 equal pieces. Cut each dough piece into 4 equal pieces. Roll each into 3 1/2-inch-long log, forming 12 logs total. Arrange 4 logs crosswise in bottom of each prepared loaf pan. Place loaf pans on baking sheet. Cover pans with waxed paper. Let loaves rise at room temperature until dough almost fills pans, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Gently brush top of loaves with egg glaze. Bake until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes.

Turn loaves out onto racks; cool at least 1 hour. (Can be made ahead. Cool completely. Wrap loaves in foil; place in resealable plastic bags and store at room temperature 1 day or freeze up to 1 month. Rewarm room-temperature or thawed loaves wrapped in foil in 350°F oven about 15 minutes, if desired.)

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels

2009-01-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

Hello baking blog, I've missed you.

It seems like time in the new year has been passing me by and I haven't had time to set foot in the kitchen to get any baking done. Fortunately I have a back log of baking goodness from December, I just...well...have to blog everything!

During the holidays I was watching the Food Network special on holiday cookies, where all of my favorite (and not so favorite) Food Network personalities shared their favorite holiday cookies. Alton Brown (along with Santa!) made these chocolate and peppermint pinwheel cookies, and the process was so simple. Sugar cookie dough. Crushed up candy canes. Peppermint extract. Chocolate. Easy peasy!

Oh Alton Brown, I'm a little disappointed in you (but I still love you!!). Why did you tell me to only refrigerate the dough for 5 minutes before I rolled it?! A sticky, sticky mess. But once I soldiered through it and got everything rolled, the process was a cinch and the cookies were fabulous. I'm definitely putting these on the list for next year - in theory, a cookie easy to make and quick to impress.

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels
Recipe from Food Network

1 batch Sugar Cookies, recipe follows
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup crushed candy canes or peppermint candies

Divide the dough in half and add chocolate and vanilla to 1 half and incorporate with hands. Add egg yolk, peppermint extract, and crushed candy to other half of dough and incorporate with hands.
Cover both with plastic and chill for approximately 5 minutes (note: I would refrigerate longer until dough is firm). Roll out doughs separately to approximately 1/4-inch thickness. Place peppermint dough on top of chocolate and press together around the edges.
Using waxed paper or flexible cutting board underneath, roll dough into log. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove dough from the refrigerator and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Place cookies 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat and bake for 12 to 13 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking time.
Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Sugar Cookie Recipe:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar 1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.

On Following Martha...

2009-01-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Martha Stewart. I think I'm probably not alone in this statement - I feel I can safely assume that there are many out there who feel the same. I'd love to just magically be dropped into a world where I have hours to entertain and hand make each and every element at the table, from hand embroidered linens to perfectly lettered table cards. On the flip side, Martha Stewart Weddings is probably the most accessible wedding magazine out there that I've bought (and trust me, I've checked 'em all out!). Every issue is full of great ideas that - shocker - someone like me can actually accomplish!

So, when it comes to Martha, I take her ideas with a grain of salt and keep my expectations low. But when it comes with cookies, I feel like it's pretty easy to judge on the spot what may or may not work out. When it came to Martha's Outrageous Chocolate Cookies, I figured I wouldn't come up against too many obstacles...I mean, they're drop cookies!

Oh Martha, why would you not have me refrigerate the dough? Please tell me, how did you tackle spooning the big gooey mess that was this dough onto your lined cookie sheets?! I don't know about you, but I was simply covered in dough (and ok, I'll admit, not the worst thing in the world, it was delicious!). Unfortunately, the struggle to get the first batch onto the cookie sheet was definitely not worth the trouble. They never puffed up and definitely did not get all crackly in the center (the "high sign" that they were ready to come out of the oven). Hence, I ended up with 6 flat, burnt chocolate cookies.

Seeing the struggle with the first batch I stuck the remaining dough in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes, letting it firm up. The gooey batter was so much easier to manage and the cookies actually baked up correctly - crazy, huh?! They got crackly, shiny, firm around the edges. Absolutely perfect. All-in-all, the cookies ended up great and they were definitely outrageous - outrageously awful if you followed Martha's instructions, and outrageously chocolatey if you follow your instincts! (sorry, Martha)

Martha Stewart's Outrageous Chocolate Cookies
Recipe by Martha Stewart

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring in between, until almost melted; do not overheat.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy.
Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets (or, refrigerate for 15 minutes beforehand, as I did).
Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely.

Top Chef in the Kitchen

2008-12-29T18:18:00.000-08:00

Like many of you foodies out there, Steve and I are absolutely obsessed with Bravo's Top Chef. Last season the show hit even closer to home because Stephanie Izard was competing. We were lucky enough to eat at Stephanie's former restaurant, Scylla, just before she closed it. Needless to say, we were rooting for Stephanie from day 1, and watched her get better and better.

For the season finale, Stephanie made a lamb dish that included braised pistachios, maitake mushrooms, a blackberry gastrique and manzanilla olives. Needless to say, Steve has been dying to recreate this dish since since the show aired.

The weekend before Christmas, Steve decided to bite the bullet and attempt the dish. The main variation he made to the dish was not including the manzanilla olives (we couldn't locate them at our Whole Foods).

It was great seeing Steve really into making the dish, and he definitely learned that timing is everything! And seasoning. The final rsult was definitely tasty, but also salty. After the last bite I looked at him and knew immediately that he'd want to make it again for Christmas. He did. And it was faaabulous! Seriously, lamb has never tasted this good. And neither have mushrooms, for that matter. I absolutely hate mushrooms, but the way they were prepared in this dish made them edible even for the pickiest eater.

Conveniently for Christmas I bought Steve the Top Chef Cookbook. Now that he's unleashed his inner top chef, I can't wait to see what amazing dishes are going to be coming out of our kitchen!

Roasted Lamb Medallions

Recipe by Stephanie Izard, found via Bravo TV

1 rack of lamb, removed from bones (reserve bones)

2T yellow miso

Thyme to taste

1/2 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup red wine

2 cups chicken stock

1 pint blackberries

1 cup white balsamic

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup shelled pistachios

Salt to taste

1/4 lb maitake mushrooms

2t olive oil

1t butter

Pepper to taste

1/4 cup manzanilla olives, minced

1 shallot, minced

Clean silverskin from lamb and rub with miso and thyme. Let sit overnight. Brown bones in the oven. Meanwile in saucepot, brown onios and garlic. Deglaze with red wine and let reduce. Add in 1 1/2 cups chicken stock and 1/2 pint blackberries; let simmer. Add in browned bones and reduce to nappe. Season and strain.

Place remaining blackberries in nonreactive pot with white balsamic and sugar. Reduce to thicken and strain.

Place pistachios in remaining chicken stock; season with salt and simmer until nuts are softened.

Break maitakes into bite sized chunks. When time to serve, saute mushrooms in one teaspoons olive oil and butter with salt and pepper.

Wipe miso off of lamb, season and brown all sides. Place in oven for a few minutes then let rest. Mix together olives, shallot and remaining olive oil.

To Serve:

Place mushrooms on plate. Top with sliced lamb and spoon of tapenade. Place a few pistachios on each plate. Pour spoonful of sauce on top and drizzle with blackberry gastrique.

It's a Yule Log...I swear

2008-12-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was a challenge, to say the least. I had wanted to tackle a French yule log last year - the more commonly known sponge cake and buttercream variety - and failed miserably. When I saw that this month's challenge was going to be a different type of yule log full of different layers, I was excited. Something challenging and Christmas-y all in one. Yay!

The yule log I made is comprised of six different components:

1) Almond Dacquoise Biscuit

2) Chocolate Mousse

3) Chocolate Ganache Insert

4) Praline (Crisp) Insert

5) Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee Insert

6) Dark Chocolate Icing

I managed to make each and every element. Other than the cream brulee, that didn't want to set up no matter how long I kept it in the oven, the remaining elements turned out as they were supposed to. And beyond that, they tasted great! Some elements I was able to make ahead of time, like the biscuit, while others had to be made just before I assembled the whole thing.

Unfortunately, I thought that I could make the chocolate mousse component ahead of time and pop it in the fridge. Nowhere in the instructions did it say that you couldn't do this. Unfortunately, the chocolate mousse is the most import component! The mousse fills the gaps and envelops the crispy layers. Because my mousse had been sitting in the fridge for an hour or two, it was just too firm. So, when I unmolded the whole "log" after having it sit in the fridge overnight, it was quite apparent that things did not go as planned and the mousse had not spread out to become flush with the sides of the mold. It looked like some sort of crazy geological science project showing the layers of the Earth. Not exactly the look I was going for.

In any event, the log (or chunks of Earth) tasted phenomenal! It may have been one of the ugliest things I have ever made, but it tasted great and was almost like an ice cream cake. Who knew?

So, am I glad I did the challenge? Yes. Do I have plans to try it again next year? Probably not!

*****

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

Challah, anybody?

2008-12-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I made a whole lot of challah. Well, 5 loaves to be exact. Which in my book was quite a bit, especially since a. I'm not Jewish and b. I've never made, seen, or tasted challah before.

The challah adventure began because I was planning to visit friends on Sunday who just had a new baby and I wanted to bring some sort of baked good (shocker!). Last year there was this braided apple something that was in an issue of Gourmet that I had really wanted to make but never got around to it. And since I didn't save the magazine, I had no clue what it was. Googling "braided apple" didn't bring me any close to finding it, but it did bring up recipes for challah. That was it! I would make an apple challah.

So the hunt for a good challah recipe was on. I love it when I search like this because I always end up discovering great new blogs, and this weekend I came upon Baking and Books. Ari seems to know her stuff when it comes to challah (or I assume so, again, I'm no challah expert).

Her Apple Honey Challah was exactly what I was looking for and I only modified it slightly - after I brushed the loaves with egg and olive oil wash, I sprinkled the top with granulated sugar for extra sweetness. The quantity of dough was perfect for making one large loaf or two medium-sized loaves and is just amazing fresh out of the oven!

As we gave the loaves of challah to our Jewish friends, it was a hit. Everyone seemed to appreciate the homemade challah, and after making the dough over and over again, I believe I have it memorized now. You know, handy for those times I'm challenged to a challah bake off.

Apple Honey Challah

Recipe by Baking and Books

1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup of warm milk (whole is best, low-fat is ok too)
2 eggs + 1 for the glaze
4 tablespoons of olive oil + 1 teaspoon for greasing the bowl and another for the glaze
3/4 tablespoon dark wildflower honey
1/2 cup diced organic dry apples

In a large bowl using a whisk combine the yeast, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1 cup of the flour. Add the warm milk, 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, then the honey. (Add the olive oil first, then use the same measuring spoon to add the honey - residual oil on the spoon will make the honey slide right out.)
Vigorously mix the ingredients until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl halfway through, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with the apples, which should be added in handfuls. Switch to a wooden spoon when the dough becomes too thick for the whisk. Continue mixing the dough until it is too stiff to stir.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft and springy, about 4 minutes. If the dough is sticky, dust with flour 1 tablespoon at a time - just enough to prevent it from sticking to the surface. The dough is done when it’s smooth and small air bubbles show under the skin. If you press your thumb into it the impression should bounce back. This is a slightly firm dough, which is exactly what you want for easy braiding later on.
Place the dough in a deep container greased with 1 tsp of olive oil. Turn the dough once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it with non-stick spray. Gently deflate the dough by pressing your fingers into it, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
Check out Baking and Books for the different ways to braid your loaf (I opted for the classic braid and also the pinwheel.)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and place the braided dough on your baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 30 to 40 minutes. If you are using a loaf pan, likewise loosely cover your dough with plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 30 to 40 minutes.
Just before the rising time has finished whisk together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, this is going to be the glaze for your bread. Gently brush the dough with a thick layer of it. If you want extra sweetness, sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Place the dough in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the bread is a deep golden brown and sounds hollow when you thump it on the bottom. If you are using a loaf pan you can test your bread by covering the pan with a clean kitchen towel then, while wearing oven mitts, flipping the pan over so that the bread falls into the towel. Thump the bottom. If it does not sound hollow place the pan back on the bread, flip it over, and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.
When your bread is done transfer it to a baking rack to cool.

Peppermint Pretties

2008-12-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

I decided last week that I really needed to get myself into the holiday spirit. With Thankgiving being so late, they didn't really give us a whole lot of time to prepare ourselves for the onslaught of holiday festivities. This year is really quite lax for Steve and I, as we just bought our condo, new furniture, and are planning our wedding, so buying piles of presents wasn't really on the agenda. Fortunately we've both been able to do all of our shopping online (thank you, work, for letting me have box after box sent to me at the office!) and stayed away from the madness...but that means we've also stayed a little bit removed from the whole holiday thing.

Joy the Baker really inspired me to make her Peppermint Meringues. Each one just looks so precious, and with the primary ingredients being sugar and eggs, who could really mess this one up? So I thought, anyway.

I've never had meringue cookies before, so I didn't really know what to expect from start to finish, although Joy's instructions were quite straightforward. Obviously the "wow" factor for these is how she painted the inside of her pastry bag so that when the meringues are piped out, they're striped with color. Easy enough.

I think I must have had a combination of the wrong size of star tip that I used to pipe these out with, and maybe meringue that wasn't quite stiff enough, because mind ended up looking more like chocolate kisses and less like cute little stars. Also, the first half that I piped bore almost not color at all, so by the time the color was really pulling through, the bag was almost empty! I had ok luck with refilling the bag, but wow this stuff gets messy! Definitely a one shot deal in my book.

So how did they taste, you ask? Quite minty! And airy. I'm not a crazy-for-mint person, but these were delicious and light on the tongue. And oh, how good would these be to accompany a mocha or hot chocolate?!

It's hard to believe the Christmas countdown is here...time to get wrapping...and hang some decorations (wherever they might be, hmm)!

Brownies to Save the Day

2008-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was struggling with the snow, and in turn, Steve was struggling with me. I was bound and determined not to leave the house on Saturday. I was in for the day and night, and that was that. Steve, on the other hand wanted to go out for dinner at one of the great Middle Eastern joints in our neighborhood. Date nights are great and all, but nothing makes me feel less attractive than trudging around in my snow boots with a red nose.

We went back and forth on options, where we could go, what we could pick up as take out, what could be delivered. Finally, I found that I had won the battle of the dinner! Spicy Thai it would be. After almost two hours spent debating, we weren't prepared for all of the hold ups once we had finally decided. However, every Thai place that we wanted to try kindly told us that they "didn't deliver that far west." Hmph. So we called our old stand by that we knew would deliver to us. Which would have been fine...if they had decided to answer their phone!

Midly worried that the one decent Thai place that doesn't consider us to be inconveniently located might have been shut down (therefore making them not quite as decent as we thought), we were still stuck, now three hours into our predicament and no closer to dinner.

I went and heated up leftovers, abandoning the effort. Steve followed suit and made some oatmeal. Finishing up our sad Saturday night dinner while watching the tacky holiday decorations for sale on QVC, we decided we needed a little pick-me-up.

Baking Bites yet again saves the day with her Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies. I could have eaten that entire bowl of batter, but I restrained myself and decided to bake it instead. Phenomenal! There's still nothing better to me than peanutbutter and chocolate and these brownies give you the perfect dose of both. And the reassurance that even if Steve and I can't decide on where or what to eat, he's still by my side to gobble down brownies on a Saturday night.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies
Recipe by Baking Bites

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all pupose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line a 9×9-in square pan with aluminum foil. Lightly grease the foil with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and peanut butter until smooth, then beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
In a small bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in to peanut butter mixture at a low speed, stopping when just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and scrape batter into pan, spreading into an even layer.
Bake for 26-29 minutes, until set. Edges should feel slightly firm and the center should not look wet or jiggly.
Cool on a wire rack and lit brownies out with the foil when ready to slice. Makes 16 brownies.

Beginning of the Winter Blues

2008-12-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

Oh, Chicago, why are you so cold and pummeling us with rain, sleet, snow and ice?! It's all just too much, especially when it happens all within a 24-hour period! To beat the blues over the weekend, Steve and I teamed up for some good old fashioned comfort food.

He threw a whole lot of things into a pot, let it simmer for a couple of hours, and voila! We had chili. And really good chili to boot. I'm not usually a big chili fan (I have faint memories of being "forced" to eat it as a child, but that's not an uncommon experience for such a picky eater), but it really enjoyed what Steve made. It was warm, hearty and just a little bit spicy.

To excentuate the spice of his chili, I decided to make a jalapeno cheddar cornbread. I just love cornbread - the texture, it's ability to be sweet or spicy or even a little of both. Since I decided to pull this together last minute, I had to really work with what I had in the kitchen. With no creamed corn, buttermilk or sour cream at hand, my choice of recipes was limited.

I kept on coming back to Ina Garten's recipe - practically a million hits when you search for "jalapeno cheddar cornbread." I fought this recipe for as long as possible. As great as the Barefoot Contessa might be, she does love her butter! The recipe called for 2 sticks which seemed so excessive...but then I saw the quantity - enough for a 9 x 13-inch pan. Split it in half, and it was the perfect amount to fill my 9-inch round cake pan and with only 1 stick of butter! And...worth EVERY buttery bite! This is, hands down, the best cornbread I've ever had.

One-Pot Chili
Recipe by Steve

Part 1:
1T extra virgin olive oil
2 medium white onions, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, seeded and minced

Place these ingredients in your pot under very low heat for 5-10 minutes. If the onions start browning, then your heat is too high.

Part 2:
Next, add the following to your pot. The dark chocolate helps give a richness to the chili and counters whatever acidity may be in your tomatoes. The beer helps adds juiciness and a meaty flavor to your protein, which you'll add later. Bring the broth to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture simmer for approximately 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3 cups chicken stock
2 28oz cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
6 T chili powder
1 T brown sugar
1 T cumin
2 oz dark chocolate (60%)
8 oz of a dark beer of your choice
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Part 3:
1.5 pounds of protein of your choice (ground beef, ground turkey, ground bison, venison, etc)
4 15oz cans of beans of your choice (kidney, pinto, or black)
1 T chili powder
Salt
Pepper

Next, brown 1.5 pounds of the protein of your choice. We used 93% lean ground turkey this time, but you can also use lean ground beef, sirloin, bison, venison, or any combination of proteins.Lightly season with salt and pepper. Add the browned protein, along with the beans, the additional chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Let this mixture simmer on low heat for approximately 1 hour.

After this 1 hour, let the chili sit for approximately 7-10 minutes to cool slightly and thicken. Enjoy!

Ina Garten's Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
Recipe from Food Network

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease the pan
8 ounces aged extra-sharp Cheddar, grated, divided
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts, plus extra for garnish, 3 scallions
3 tablespoons seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don't overmix!
Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking pan.Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheddar and extra chopped scallions.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into large squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*Note: I cut the recipe in half to fill a 9-inch round cake pan and also eliminated the scallions because I didn't have any in the kitchen.

Vodka = Great Pie

2008-12-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

Who knew that vodka could be useful beyond tasty, intoxicating beverages? I started reading a lot about the Cookies Illustrated recipe from November of 2007 for great, flaky pie crust that used vodka. Vodka?! Really? Now this I had to try.

I really like making pie crust. It's something that I didn't learn growing up but had always wanted to give a try. A couple of years ago I finally decided to give it a go and anticipated ending up with a floury mess of crumbling dough. Instead, I ended up with a great dough that was very easy to work with. My first few pies did suffer from too-thin-crustitis, making it difficult to cut slices. I soon learned that making, perhaps, 1 1/2 times the recipe for a little extra "cushion" was incredibly helpful.

Since I don't make pies very often, I've never really experimented with different crust recipes. But since the crust is my favorite part, and I happened to have a bottle of vodka in the freezer, I figured I would test run this recipe. And it's fabulous!! So great to work with, incredibly flaky and just slightly sweet without being over the top. I made an orange cranberry apple pie. I really just threw a lot of ingredients in a bowl and went from there, so the orange was a little overpowering. But no matter, I was really making it for the crust!

Foolproof Pie Dough
Cooks Illustrated, November 2007

Makes enough for one 9-inch double-crust pie

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons sugar

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into small bits

1/4 cup cold vodka

1/4 cup cold water

Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). If you don't like using the food processor simply use your pastry cutter instead. That what I did - I like to get my hands dirty!

Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Cranberry, Apple & Orange Pie with Oatmeal Streusel
Recipe by Lazy Susin
4 Granny Smith Apples, peeled and sliced
1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
Zest of 1/2 of an orange
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chopped
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup light brown sugar

After your apples are prepped, combine with the cranberries and orange zest. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, granulated sugar and cinnamon. Feel free to add more cinnamon or even nutmeg if you want more of a spice presence.
Mix the dry ingredients with the fruit and make sure the flour gets worked in. Add the fruit mixture to the prepared pie crust in a 9-inch pie plate.
In a medium-sized bowl, add the unsalted butter, brown sugar and oatmeal. Using a pastry cutter, combine the ingredients until it's a crumbly mixture.
Distribute the streusel topping evenly over the pie crust.
Bake in a 425-degree oven for around 40 minutes, or until the apples are soft and slightly bubbling. Bake with the crust covered with foil, removing for the last 15 minutes of baking. Let cool and enjoy!

"Throw Your Diet out the Window" Cake

2008-11-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

November's Daring Bakers Challenge was sugar packed, ensuring that anyone even trying to avoid the sweets would gobble this cake down without a second thought. Yes, it was that good! I devoured this like I'd never had cake before.

The challenge was Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake with Carmelized Butter Frosting. If your mouth isn't watering yet, you're obviously not human. The challenge was co-hosted by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Alex of Blondie and Brownie and Jenny of Foray Into Food.

This was SO much fun. The caramel syrup (that was used to flavor both the cake and the frosting) was crazy to make - it was like a science experiment in my very own kitchen! Although, it did make me feel bad that Steve had just scrubbed the stovetop earlier that day. Needless to say, having caramel flying and sputtering about all over the kitchen wasn't the nicest way to say "thank you." Fortunately I had a lot of mini cakes to fork over as a peace offering!

Originally, the recipe just makes one 9-inch cake. Since we really didn't have anything going on last week when I made the cake, I didn't know what we'd do with a big old cake (besides eat ourselves into a stupor). Instead, I made three 4-inch cakes (which I then stacked and frosted) and three heartshaped cakes using my mini heart springform pans. The hearts were harder to frost and I was lacking patience, so they didn't make it to the photo shoot! One of them did, however, make it downstairs to my neighbors who were celebrating 6 months of marriage, aww. Making some "baby" cakes is an easier way to spread the cake love around so you don't end up wondering what to do with the 1,000+ sweet calories sitting in your kitchen.

Overall, a really fun challenge, and a recipe that I would most definitely pull out again when I really want to woo someone with cake.

Back to the Breakfast Basics

2008-11-25T05:43:00.000-08:00

Breakfast has just gotten a little crazy these days. Don't get me wrong - I love going out for breakfast, and of course it's fun to see the wild variations of classics - pancakes with oreos and creme anglaise, french toast made with brioche, piled high with some sort of fruit compote and ice cream. It's all very delicious, indulgent and chock full of creativity (and I won't even begin to think about the calories!).

It's kind of nice, though, to get back to the simple breakfasts of your childhood, where your mom wasn't worried about trying to impress you with what she could pile on and into the pancakes, she just wanted you to have a good, hot breakfast.

Steve and I like to make pancakes every once in awhile, made from scratch (no mixes in our house!) and topped with pure maple syrup. Served with sides of scrambled eggs and fruit, this can feel just as indulgent as the sugar laden variations you'll find in the brunch place down the street. This also happens to be the breakfast that Steve made for me the morning he proposed, so it's sentimental and incredibly tasty all at the same time.

Pancakes

recipe from Betty Crocker's Cookbook: Bridal Edition

1 large egg

1 C all-purpose flour

3/4 C milk

1 T granulated sugar

2 T vegetable oil

3 tsp baking powder

butter for greasing the pan/griddle

Whisk the egg, then add in the milk and vegetable oil and whisk. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to the wet ingredients. Whisk until combined. You may need to add a little more milk depending on how thin you want the batter. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat or to 375 degrees. Grease the griddle with the butter. Pour about 1/4 of a cup of batter onto the pan for each pancake. When the pancake starts bubbling furiously and looks cooked around the edges, it's ready to be flipped. Cook the other side until golden brown.

Note: to keep your pancakes from getting cold if you're making them one at a time, turn a large bowl upside down over the plate of pancakes. This will keep them nice and toasty until you're ready to dig in!

Check out my review of the Betty Crocker's Cookbook: Bridal Edition on Sazze.com!

Make it a Souffle Sunday

2008-11-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

Before Steve and I moved, my bus to and from work would pass by the Blommer Chocolate Company located on Chicago's west side. Most days there would just be an intoxicating smell of chocolate wafting through the air. A great pick-me-up at any time of the day. However, on some days it would be more of a savory, cheesey smell. It always reminded me of a cheese souffle, and of course would make me start craving one.

Souffles are tricky. Not so much because they're hard to make (because they're really not). They just take a lot of planning, because once they're out of the oven, their minutes are numbered before they deflate and lose their dramatic effect. Planning a souffle for a special occasion - as an appetizer or dessert at a dinner party - is not always the best choice. However, whipping up a souffle on a Sunday morning for no other reason than just because you want a souffle? A perfect idea! With the ingredients for a basic cheese souffle being not much more than eggs, cheese, and milk, almost anyone can have on hand what they need for a souffle in a moment's notice.

Some important things to remember if you're planning on making your first souffle. Make sure that you grease the souffle dish well and chill it. This will help ensure your souffle rises easily and doesn't get stuck along the way. Also, make sure that you have all of your ingredients out and as much prepared and mixed ahead of time before you begin. The process moves fast and you almost need to have everything going at once. If you have an extra set of hands available, have him or her get the egg whites and egg yolks going while you start making your based.

And finally, keep the oven door shut until you're ready to take the souffle out of the oven! I mistakenly put my souffle on the top rack of my oven, and with the oven door closed I could not see the top of my souffle, so I had to simply hope that it was rising. I fought the urge to open the oven door to check on it, and when the timer buzzed, I went on faith that it was doon. Thankfully it was perfect, but don't leave yours up to luck!

Cheese Souffle
reciped adapted by Lazy Susin from Alton Brown

Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle dish
3 T unsalted butter
3 T flour
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 1/3 C milk, hot
4 large eggs yolks

6 ounces Cheddar, mild or sharp (whatever you have on hand)
5 egg whites plus 1 T water

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Use room temperature butter to grease an 8-inch souffle mold. Place in refridgerator for about 30 minutes before using.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, dry mustard, garlic powder, and kosher salt. Whisk this mixture into the melted butter. Cook for 2 minutes.
Whisk in the hot milk and turn the heat to high. Once the mixture reaches a boil, remove from the heat.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks to a creamy consistency. Temper the yolks into the milk mixture, constantly whisking. Remove from the heat and add the cheese. Whisk until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, using a mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until glossy and firm. Add 1/4 of the mixture to the base. Continue to add the whites by thirds, folding very gently.
Pour the mixture into the souffle. Fill the souffle to 1/2-inch from the top.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.

Check out my review of my souffle dish on Sazze.com!

Bring on the Orange

2008-11-17T19:12:00.001-08:00

I've been getting jealous of all of the great food that people have been posting lately...involving all of the fabulous produce that's in season right now! So this weekend Steve and I finally decided to get with the program and make up some fun fall food, taking advantage of some great veggies.

Steve gets all of the credit for his butternut squash risotto. I was a little bit skeptical of of this stuff only because I'm more of a picky eater and squash isn't the first thing I would grab for dinner. But this was fabulous! I'm so proud of him and how great this turned out, and thank goodness it was good because he made A LOT of it! Steve pulled his recipe off of Simply Recipes. I couldn't tell you anything about the process for making this, but I can vouch for the fabulous taste.

Since I knew Steve was going to be focusing on his butternut squash, I thought I'd make something that "felt fall" to accompany his dish. Also, since it was a first for me with butternut squash, I thought I'd go for another first and work with sweet potatoes, a vegetable I've never really had either. So I found a recipe for sweet potato biscuits.

After hunting around online, I ended up using a Paul Deen recipe. I know what you're thinking, "You must have used a pound of butter, right?" Wrong! Of the many recipes I came across, this actually took the least amount of butter and did not take Bisquick - score! My only complaint is that Paula instructs you to roll out the dough to 1/2-inch thick and claims you'll get 15-18 biscuits. Umm, no. Unless you're making mini biscuits this probably won't work. So I rolled mine out a bit thinner, so they weren't the big fluffy biscuits I would have liked. Next time I'll definitely double the recipe, but otherwise wouldn't change a thing - the taste was fabulous!

I'm so excited that I tried two new vegetables this weekend and loved 'em both! I can't wait to bust out a lot of cranberries and get some yummy pies made!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

by Paula Deen

1 1/4 C all purpose flour

2 T sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 C mashed cooked sweet potatoes

1/4 C softened butter
2 to 4 T milk (depending on the moisture of the potatoes)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate, large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes and butter. Add the dry mixture to the potato mixture and mix to make a soft dough. Add milk a tablespoon at a time and continue to work together. Turn the dough onto a floured board and toss lightly until the outside of the dough looks smooth. Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased or lined cookie sheet and coat tops with melted butter. Bake for about 15 minutes. If the biscuits are browning too fast, lower the oven temperature.

Since I don't have a biscuit cutter, I used my scalloped circle cutter from my Wilton 101 piece set. Check out my review of this cookie cutter set on Sazze.com!

Add Some Extra Pep to Your Popcorn

2008-11-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

Occasionally in my office, a buzz starts to go from desk to desk because a certain someone in our department has decided to give us a little extra surprise - some to die for rosemary popcorn. This stuff is ridiculously addictive and such a phenomenol pick-me-up when the going gets tough on a Wednesday afternoon.

The best part is that as long as you make sure to have some fresh rosemary in the house (or are savvy enough to have your very own rosemary plant) this is so super simple to throw together - a great for guests at a party or just for you to devour yourself!

Rosemary Popcorn

Freshly popped plain popcorn

A few sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped

1-2 T of unsalted butter

2-3 T of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sea Salt to Taste

Pop your popcorn as you normally would, either in a popcorn maker or a plain bag of microwave popcorn. I use a West Bend "Stir Crazy" popcorn maker.

In a microwave safe container, combine the unsalted butter, extra virgin olive oil and chopped rosemary. Microwave until butter is melted. During this time, it will allow the rosemary flavor to infuse. Give the mixture a good stir and pour over popcorn, stirring with a big wooden spoon as you good.

Sprinkle with sea salt (or regular table salt), to taste.

Note: You may want to adjust the quantities based on the amount of popcorn you make. This recipe is based on approximately 2/3 C unpopped kernels.

Now, the only question is, what move are you going to watch while eating your gourmet popcorn?!

Check out my review of my West Bend Stir Crazy popcorn maker on Sazze.com!

Black & White...and Sweet All Over

2008-11-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

A little market in our old neighborhood always had black and white cookies...all individually packaged and just waiting for us to buy one. When we felt super indulgent we'd pick one up and then race home to gobble it down, passing it back and forth until the last black and white bite was gone.

Since we've moved, we don't have an outlet for these cakey cookies. I mean, Starbucks sells the little packs of mini black and whites, but I'd rather have 'em fresh. These have been on my list for ages to make but I've always avoided attempting it because I thought it would be a big, sticky mess.

My oh my, how wrong I was! These were sooo easy to decorate. The frosting sets up enough that it's pretty easy to keep a clean center line, and using a pastry brush makes it a super simple process. My only regret is that I made a smaller batch of frosting than I should have, so I didn't "paint" these quite as thick as I would have liked to. Didn't want to end up with any naked cookies!

I had randomly searched around for a recipe online, and ended up using a cookie recipe from one site, and a frosting recipe from another. The cookies weren't quite as "cakey" as I would have liked, so I'll probably try another recipe the next time around. I also did these as minis, and used a spoon to portion out the dough. Well, more like batter. It's really quite runny, so I reccomended using a large pastry bag and piping out your cookies. Not only will this make the process go much smoother, but you'll probably end up with more uniform circles.

Black & White Cookies

cookie recipe from All Recipes

Cookie Ingredients

1 C unsalted butter
1 3/4 C white sugar
4 eggs
1 C milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
2 1/2 C cake flour
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line two baking sheets.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk, vanilla, and lemon extract. Combine cake flour and all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually blend into the creamed mixture. Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets or use pastry bag to pipe the dough.
Bake until edges begin to brown, about 20 to 30 minutes. Cool completely.

icing recipe from Epicurious

Icing Ingredients

1 1/2 C confectioners sugar
1 T light corn syrup
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 T water
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Make icings while cookies chill:

Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as white icing.
Ice cookies:

Turn cookies flat sides up, then spread white icing over half of each and chocolate over other half using a pastry brush.

Dare Me? I Dare You.

2008-10-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

Whew! I've just barely made the cut off for this month's Daring Bakers challenge, Bake Your Pizzas Like A Real Pizzaiolo using a pizza dough recipe from “The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread” by Peter Reinhart. Steve actually got me this book for Christmas this year, and I pour over the recipes trying to decide what I can make, and quite honestly, what I have time to make. The recipes definitely take a lot of pre-planning - it's not the book I'd turn to when in need of something quick 'n' easy, but this is a great place to turn to for technique and the background to bread making.

One piece of this month's challenge was to toss the pizza dough like a pro...or something like that. I definitely tossed the dough, but I can't say it landed where it should have! And, overall, if there's one recipe that Peter Reinhart gives in this book that anyone can handle, the pizza dough recipe is as accessible as it can get. I cheated and cut out one of the additional rises and I can't say we noticed the difference.

Steve and I make pizza almost once a week...we rotate from "Pizza Monday" all the way through "Pizza Thursday" depending on what the week brings for us, and our staple is our whole wheat pizza that we love so much, piled on with toppings including chicken sausage, roasted garlic, mozzarella, and extra veggies for Steve. I dare you to break away from ordering out and have a pizza night at your house, whole wheat or white, whatever you have a taste for. Not only is it easy to make, it's also much easier on your wallet...no delivery charges :)

Pick a Partner

2008-10-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

Like most TasteSpotting devotees, I sift through page after page of fabulous foody pictures and file away the favorites to make at a later date. As the dozens of new and fabulous pictures are uploaded each day, it becomes increasingly difficult to pick the best of the best to want to attempt, and I never make good on my plans to...

However, Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook's Zebra Cake from February stuck in my head. It's so simple and yet spectacular how you can manipulate the chocolate and vanilla batters to play so well together in the pan and create a perfect pattern on par with the real thing.

Since my family and friends were visiting this weekend to go wedding dress shopping with me (and, btw, I found a FABULOUS dress!), and my dad's birthday was last week, I wanted to make a cake. However, it could not be labor intensive but still had to have some fabulousness to it. Ta-da - Zebra Cake! Something I could put together on Friday night in preparation for Saturday morning, did not need any tlc after baking, and not overly sweet.

On Friday after work my goal was to get this baby into the oven before my sister Cheryl made it to my place from the airport. Since she was already getting her luggage by the time I got home I knew I was going to have to hustle. The technique for making this cake is quite simple, and Farida has very simple step-by-step instructions. You're simply alternating between spoonfuls of the chocolate and vanilla cake batter. The batter is very runny so it just spreads perfectly with each spoonful you add.

If I'd had the perfect 3 T ladles that Farida suggests, this process would have flown by a lot faster. I, however, was usually spoons. Dripping batter everywhere (my engagement ring is still covered with it, ugh!) as I dropped in 3 spoonfulls of each per turn, I was literally racing the clock. If Cheryl had arrived 10 minutes earlier, I would have had to make her wait outside until I finished portioning out the batter. Once you start you really can stop, especially toward the end where the cake is just an endless amount of rings. I wish I had a picture of the final cake before it went into the oven, but time was tight and Steve wasn't home!

Pick a partner before you embark on this cake...one takes chocolate, the other vanilla, and you'll be done in no time! Perfect for kids too - so simple and hard to mess up.

As far as the taste...definitely good to have with coffee or tea. I would have liked it to be a little more chocolatey. I did spring for the expensive dutch-processed cocoa powder, but if I make this again I would definitely experiment with a different way to add in the chocolate. The cake is also a little bit on the dry side so I'd probably trouble shoot that as well.

Overall this was a great way to change up a run of the mill cake and I would love to play around with this again and see what other ways I could use this zebra technique! Check out Farida's blog for the recipe and instructions.

Can't get enough of the stuff...

2008-10-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

We're peanut butter people in our house (creamy, not chunky please, and to be more specific, Whole Foods 365 Creamy Organic Peanutbutter). I can't recall ever fiending for peanut butter sandwiches as a kid, but they're definitely a staple in my life now. Every morning at work I mentally count down until I can allow myself to bust out the sandwich...I usually don't make it past 10am before the sandwich is gone. Yes, I've realized that I have no self control. I even cut it into 3 even pieces in a sad attempt to make the highlight of my lunch for as long as possible.

Since we've also been on an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie kick this year as well, and we'd already tried every other combination with peanutbutter (adding it to the batter, gluttonously smearing it on top of oatmeal chocolate chips fresh outta the oven), we decided to do a little reversal. Oatmeal peanutbutter cookies drizzled with chocolate? Niiice. Compared to their chewier counterparts with the chocolate chips, these were a little bit on the crispier side. Delicious and giving the perfect chocolate-peanutbutter combination, I wish I could exchange a handful of these for my peanutbutter on whole wheat any day of the week.

Peanut-Boatmeal Chocolate Drizzle Cookies

Recipe by Lazy Susin

1 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C butter, room temperature

1/2 C peanut butter

1/2 C white sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 C quick cooking oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat in the egg, followed by the the vanilla extract and the peanut butter.
Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture and the oats until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Use hands to portion out and shape the cookies (somewhere between 1/4 - 1/8 of a cup). Flatten the cookies slightly.

Bake for about 10-12 min. Cookies will be light brown at the edges when done.

Let cool on sheet for 3 or 4 minutes and drizzle with the melted chocolate, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size.

Check out my review of Jiff peanut butter on Sazze.com!

Back & Bakin'

2008-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

I was sad to take such a long hiatus from baking and blogging...this seems to be a pattern lately that I need to break! Life has been crazy and hectic and (sadly) expensive, so baking has definitely been on the backburner as I've tried to manage everything else around me. AND to add another stumbling block to the mix, Steve was having camera problems and lost the snapshots of the baking that I actually have been able to do recently.

Thankfully, all was not lost and he was able to recover the files, so now I can happily return to blogging with pictures in hand (because, really, what's a baking blog with no drool-worthy pictures?!).

So back to the blogging task at hand. A few weeks ago our neighbors Rob and Jill had their housewarming party (shout out to Rob if you actually read this as you claim! :) ) and in every circumstance I convince myself that I need to bring baked goods, whether or not others really want 'em. Any excuse to bake and know that it's going to leave my house so I'm not tempted to gorge myself is an opportunity not to be passed up.

Since it's harder to travel with cupcakes, I never get to make them. But with Rob and Jill's place right downstairs, cupcakes it was. Baking Bites is always my go-to for recipes, I can sit for hours going through the archives and weighing my options. So I was excited when I hit upon these Vanilla Brown Butter Cupcakes - very simple to throw together, the brown butter was a little bit of a twist on something ordinary. Done and done. I wanted a frosting that was more suitable for piping on than spreading, so I used this recipe for a basic buttercream on The Repressed Pastry Chef, dividing the recipe in half, using all unsalted butter and adding in a vanilla bean.

The cupcakes baked up well, and I said, very easy to throw together. Buttercream is pretty basic and fool proof as well (not to mention delicious). I decorated all of the cupcakes and they looked beautiful. I knew the frosting tasted great, so the cupcakes were really the wildcard. We took them down to the party...and there they sat, dressed to kill but with not a lot of takers. Steve and I shared one (because one simply must taste test) and they were...ok. Not great, a little heavy, the brown butter was a taste that you couldn't quite put your foot on but weren't quite sure if you wanted to. But how did others know they had a strange and mysterious taste? Everyone at the party must have had stellar baking e.s.p. and just knew these wouldn't be delightly simple vanilla cupcakes

All-in-all I learned that even for cupcakes beauty may only be skin deep, but I simply must do more research in the field to confirm this ;)

A Katie's Ladies Classic

2008-09-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

My formative baking years were spent at a little cafe in my hometown called Katie's Cafe. It was there that I gained a great comfort in the kitchen. Daily tasks included making mass quantities of cookie dough (a double-triple sugar dough recipe included 18 eggs and 18 cups of flour!), cinnamon rolls, scones, herb rolls (enough for the restaurant to use for the day to accompany soups, salads, and sandwiches), all created from scratch and by hand...and I mean literally, by hand. No mixer, just us Katie's ladies armed with spatulas. I quickly learned to multi task, make snap decisions on the go, and not even stop to flinch when a renegade hot tray would sear my arm. It's amazing that part of me, deep down, can actually miss those days...

On the mornings I was the breadmaker, I also had to conserve a portion of my dough to make pepperoni rolls, filled with pepperoni, mozzarella, green peppers and onions, all tightly packaged together. Absolutely delicious and something I can whip up without a second thought. Well...these days I have second thoughts. Pepperoni rolls, if you can believe it, aren't exactly the healthiest options. Since Steve and I make whole wheat pizza almost once a week, why not whole wheat pizza rolls with homemade marinara on the side? Voila! An update on an old favorite to fit with a new lifestyle.

Whole Wheat Pizza Rolls

Recipe by Lazy Susin

1 cup whole wheat flour

1- 2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 package rapid-rise yeast

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup 100 deg. water

fillings for pizza rolls (we use chicken sausage, part skim mozzarella, green peppers, onions, mushrooms)

Add 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour, salt and sugar to large mixing bowl. Mix together.
Add yeast to warm water, stir with a fork and let yeast proof. Add yeast mixture, honey, and olive oil to dry ingredients. Either mix by hand (with hands or spatula) or using stand mixture with dough hook. If sticky add 1/2-1 cup whole wheat flour as needed. If mixing by hand knead lightly on a floured surface. If using dough hook, dough is ready when it comes away from the side of the mixing bowl.

Cover with a dishtowel in a warm spot and let rise for 45 minutes-hour in a bowl lightly greased with olive oil. (If making up a day ahead of time do not allow dough to rise. Place dough into a well-oiled Ziploc bag and place in fridge, let rise for 1 hour before ready to use.)
Whichever method you are doing, after about an hour of rising time the dough is ready to go.

Roll dough on a lightly floured surface until almost as thin as you can make it without holes forming in the dough. Using a small knife, divide the dough into equal squares.

Place toppings in the center of each square of dough. Gather up all of the edges and gently squeeze them all together to seal the edges. This is an acquired skill - if you gather it too tightly, the roll will burst in the oven and all of the cheese will ooze out. You have to make it tight enough to keep everything in, but not make it overly tight.

Place the rolls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise for 15-20 minutes before placing in a 400 degree oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown.

Let cool slightly and enjoy with marinara dipping sauce.

Makes 4-6 pizza rolls, varying by size.

Just a Pinch of Salt

2008-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

I've never been a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies. I mean, I like them and I'll eat them, no need to twist my arm there. But love them, crave them, absolutely have to have them? I've never quite been there.

Until, that is, I discovered Baking Bites' Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. No matter what I do they bake up into perfectly round, couldn't have shaped them better if I tried, discs of wonderfulness. The ratio of brown sugar is just enough to pull through a delightful caramel flavor. And, to take these lovelies just one step further...sprinkling a pinch of sea salt on top pre-baking, just enough to create a salty-sweet combo that can't be beat.

Chewy, salty, sweety, chocolatey...perfect. I've discovered a new love, and a recipe that can support me with as many varieties as I want to throw at it...white chocolate chips? Dried cranberries? Walnuts? The opportunities are endless, the calories are inevitable!

Try, try again...

2008-08-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

I entered this month's Daring Bakers challenge with some trepidation...last month's challenge was a rocky road for me as I struggled to make something that in some way, somehow resembled a delicious dessert that others would want to eat.

When the August challenge was announced, I thought how wonderful this challenge would be. Who doesn't love eclairs? And even if only one of the two dozen turns out well, I can still have a picture perfect baking moment. Things started off smoothly until my perfect puffed eclairs came out of the oven and...de-puffed. Yep. Completely flat and unappetizing, slightly eggy smelling and soft in the center. I hadn't gotten a start on the chocolate pastry cream or the chocolate glaze, so I tossed the flopped desserts into the garbage and stayed away from the kitchen for a week.

I did my research before my next attempt and learned that if your eclairs fall after being removed from the oven, they weren't baked long enough, and it's almost impossible to over bake them. So on my second attempt I left them in as long as I possibly could, certain that my careful and meticulous efforts this time around would ensure that the puffs would stay puffed.

Yet again, almost all of these deflated within moments of being removed from the oven. So I cut my losses and moved forward, whipping together the yummy chocolate pastry cream, the laborious chocolate glaze, and put the whole mess together into a dozen or so chocolate eclairs.

The result? A somewhat picture perfect chocolate-filled moment and a fabulous sugar high Sunday. This time around I confirmed that it is always better to have plenty of extra ingredients on hand, to step away from the oven when verging on insanity, and that there's absolutely nothing better than chocolate pastry cream.

I'd include the recipe, however, it is rather long...it's from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, so check it out when in need of some chocolate goodness.

It's Daring...

2008-07-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

...that I even attempted this Daring Bakers Challenge!

After continuing to see Daring Bakers challenges posted all over I decided to see what it was all about. I joined, and conveniently the first challenge fell around this time of craziness in my life - with vacation, move into the condo, etc.

Despite all of that, I trudged on and Sunday attempted the first challenge - Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walter. I was all ready to bake, had my new kitchen all organized, ingredients lined up and ready to go.

Preparation only took me so far, because the baking gods weren't smiling down on me. The cake just didn't rise up the way I had expected and it was tough, uneven and thin. I'm not positive about what I did wrong, but I think it may not have been mixed as well as it should have been, so it wouldn't rise.

From the point I pulled the cake out of the oven, I knew I was doomed. I actually was ready to cut my losses and stop there, deeming myself not ready for the Daring Bakers, but Steve made me continue on. Continue on to a horrendously ugly cake that I am embarrassed to post. I even encouraged Steve to "accidentally" help the cake meet it's fate - maybe it could fall off the counter? Or one of the cats could inconveniently jump on the counter and place a paw in the middle? No dice. Steve continued with the planned photo shoot, helping to ensure I always have memories of my ugly cake.

On the upside, I've never made Swiss buttercream before, so that was a new technique learned, and it turned out fabulous! I was so proud. I will definitely use this method again as it was tasty and fun to prepare (if whipping eggwhites and sugar over a hot stove can be "fun").

So please enjoy my failed first baking adventure for my first Daring Bakers Challenge...can't wait to amp myself up for next month's challenge...and maybe buy some backup ingredients, you know, just in case...

Moving Day Bliss

2008-07-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Moving generally isn't associated with "bliss" ... but despite the torrential rainstorm we endured while moving out of our apartment last weekend, nothing could have been more blissful than moving into our new condo! Steve and I took the leap into home ownership, and after months of planning and a week of painting we were finally able to move into our new digs.

To help ease the pain for everyone else (as they were not nearly as excited about our new condo, why should they be? They were "voluntarily" lugging boxes in the rain), I said farewell to my much-hated apartment kitchen with one final bake off. Amidst all of the boxes, half-packed ingredients and with cookie sheets strategically balanced on the garbage can, microwave and over the sink, I was able to help our friends feed their faces with some of the BEST chocolate chip cookies I've ever made (and tasted!), a batch of Ginger Chewies, and mini chocolate chip muffins.

Now we've unpacked the last box, have pictures on the wall and yesterday I was finally able to bake for the first time in the new, beloved kitchen. So much counter space! An oven that isn't sitting unevenly on the floor! A garbage disposal! I had forgotten such wonders existed. I hope to post some pictures this week of the new and fabulous kitchen as well as some baking adventures in the new place.

With a Belly Full of Gelato...

2008-07-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

I've returned from Italy with a gelato gut, and it was worth every sinfully delicious bite! Hope to return to the kitchen soon, if only to master some of the delicious dishes I sampled throughout Venice and Tuscany...

Ciao!

After seeing me devour endless amounts of Gelato in Italy, how does it compare to Ciao Bella gelato? Read my review on Sazze.com!

Blueberries & Goodbyes

2008-06-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm leaving on for Italy with my family - a wonderful 10-day trip through Venice, the Chianti region of Tuscany and Florence. My mouth is already watering for all of the gelato I will consume, and I'm anxiously awaiting all of the beautiful sites and sounds. I made a whirlwind trip through Rome and Florence when I was in college, so I'm relieved that this time around I will have plenty of time to relax and really enjoy my time there. And did I mention the gelato?

On the downside, Steve will not be joining us on this trip. I know how much he would love to be there (the pictures he would take would be magnificant), and I'm going to miss having my best friend there with me! Hopefully our kitties will be keeping him company so he won't get too lonely.

This weekend I bought a massive container of blueberries for a blueberry lemon coffee cake. Everything went smoothly until I realized that the recipe was written for an 8-inch springform pan. Mine is a 9-inch. "What difference could that inch really make?" I asked myself. Apparently a big difference, because the cake ended up very thin, not puffy and beautiful as I had envisioned. However, what the cake lacked in looks, it made up for in taste. I'm not a big blueberry eater but I definitely shoveled slice after slice of this into my mouth!

I hope everyone has fabulous 4th of July holiday, I can't wait to see all of the red, white and blue bakin'! I'll be scarfing down Italian pastries and hopefully bringing some baking inspiration home with me.

Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake

Recipe adapted by Lazy Susin from Joy of Baking

Streusel Topping:
1/3 C all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (4 T) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Lemon zest

Cake Batter:
1 Call purpose flour
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 C milk
2 C fresh blueberries

1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 C (4 T) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 C granulated white sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

1-2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch spring form pan and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
For streusel topping: In a large bowl, mix together the flour and sugar and lemon zest. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside while you make the cake batter.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, and beat only until combined. Stir in lemon juice and zest. Spread the batter into the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.
Evenly arrange the blueberries on top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the streusel topping.
Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Lactose Conciousness

2008-06-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

We don't bring a lot of ice cream into our house, as it tends to bring on the lovely effects of Steve's lactose intolerence. He can have some dairy within reason, but ice cream is a sure-fire way to set it off with a vengeance! Unfortunately, he struggles to control his cravings when faced with the sweet stuff, which led to our impulse trip to Cold Stone last fall, conveniently on the night before we left on our trip to London...needless to say, he was in pain on the whole "L" ride to the airport. Poor guy!

Fortunately, there are a lot of alternatives and recently in our neighborhood a place called Starfruit opened up. Their frozen treats are made from Kefir, a "probiotic dairy beverage." Kind of like yogurt, kind of not, but tummy friendly. It's a little more sour in nature, and quite honestly not a favorite drink of choice for me. But in frozen form? Not so bad. The selection of fresh fruit toppings at Starfruit are amazing and the pomegranate flavored frozen kefir is both tart and delicious.

I don't know if you'd necessarily come a running to Starfruit if lactose wasn't your enemy, but it has proved to be a tasty cold treat that feels at least a little healthy.

It's Smoothie Time!

2008-06-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Steve is a smoothie addict. I think his breakfast, lunch and dinner would subsist of smoothies if he'd let himself. I like them too, mostly after the gym on a Saturday morning. But Steve definitely keeps up his smoothie consumption during the week, which means our grocery bills are continually weighed down with the frozen peaches and strawberries he buys to make these concoctions.

I figure an addiction of this kind is one we can support for the time being, but it does make me a little sad on the weeks I pay for groceries, when the icy cold bags of fruit are piled up on the conveyer belt. Oh, the baking supplies I could buy at Whole Foods in exchange for the fruit! Sigh.

Strawberry & Peanutbutter Smoothie

Recipe by Lazy Susin & Kookybites

Handful of frozen strawberries

2 ice cubes

1 banana

Orange Juice, as needed

1-2 tsp of peanutbutter (smooth, not chunky!)

Add ingredients to the blender. Start with less juice and add more as needed. Crank the blender up to high and see how it goes. Add more orange juice to get the desired thickness.

Enjoy!

Check out my review of our KitchenAid Blender that we use to make smoothies on Sazze.com!

Ginger Chewies

2008-06-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

I've been using my copy of Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies a lot lately. Other than a past chocolate chip cookie disaster I had with one of her recipes, everything else has been smooth sailing.

About every six weeks I have an all-day meeting at work that I have to arrange lunch for. I always make sure that we don't order dessert and I bring something in. The group in the meeting, however, is on a continual health kick, so they don't go in very much for the sweets...so from the meeting the remaining cookies get parked by the coffee pot, and are gone in an instant.

I'm convinced people are taking handfuls at a time for them to disappear that fast...but with the deliciousness of these Chewy Ginger Cookies, I wouldn't be surprised. They're absolutely perfect in taste and texture. I made mine smaller than Klivans' suggestion of 1/4 C of dough per cookie to get more out of them, and I think they would be fabulous if done in small bite-sized form. This is a recipe that I think will see many repeat performances in my kitchen!

Chewy Ginger Cookies

From Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies

2 ¼ cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp cloves

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

¼ cup molasses

about ¼ cup granulated sugar
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.

Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light brown color, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated.
Spread the granulated sugar on a large piece of wax or parchment paper. Roll ¼ cup of dough (more or less depending on size of cookie desired) between the palms of your hands into a 2 inch ball, roll the ball in the sugar and place on one of the prepared baking sheets. Continue making cookies, spacing them 2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm, but they are still soft in the center and there are several large cracks on top, about 14 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 9-12 cookies (more if making small cookies than suggested).

Check out my review of Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies on Sazze.com.

When the Farmer's Market Hands You Strawberries...

2008-06-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

...make strawberry bread!

Steve and I purchased some excellent strawberries this weekend at the Wicker Park Farmer's Market. Even though we'll end up paying just a little bit more for produce from the farmer's market, we're never disappointed with what we bring home. The asparagus is always fresher and plumper, the berries always bright.

It seems like recently all of the strawberries we've been buying, even from Whole Foods, are really lacking in the taste department. This bunch from the farmer's market packed a lot of punch - great, tart flavors perfect for baking. They really held up well and the great strawberry flavors came right through. If I decided to make this bread again I would definitely taste test my berries beforehand, because if they're lacking in flavor from the get-go, I don't think the bread would be nearly as delicious!

Strawberry Bread

Recipe adapted by LazySusin

2 1/4 cup pastry flour (all-purpose flour may be substituted)

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 C + 2 T sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 - 1 1/4 cups fresh strawberries, chopped

1 large egg

1/3 cup cooking oil

2/3 cup milk

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together (except for the berries).

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg with a fork. Stir in the cooking oil, milk, water, and extracts. Add the berries to the liquid mixture and add that to the dry mixture.

With a spatula, mix the two together until moistened. Do not over mix.

Scrape the batter into a well-greased 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan. Spread the batter evenly in the pan.

Sprinkle the top of the loaf with granulated sugar, which will create a subtle sugary crust when baked.

Bake for about an hour to an hour and ten minutes or until done. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into a crack in the center of the loaf. The toothpick will come out clean when done. Let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling completely on a wire rack.

"Little Bites" of Savory Muffins

2008-06-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

We're having a little (last minute) work celebration today, so I volunteered to bring something...something in the category of a "little bite." Umm, ok. I don't really have a lot of appetizers in my repetoire, especially something that would travel easily to work, doesn't need to be served hot, etc. Everything I bring has to commute with me on the bus in the morning, and either has to sit at my desk until it's served or must be wedged into one of our two work fridges that are always overflowing.

With those limitations in mind, last night I made savory cranberry, cheddar and herb mini muffins, recipe found on Whole Foods' site. These easily fit into the genre of "little bites," and are low maintenance in the travel and serving departments.

Of course, it's only appropriate that I taste-test some of these last night...I was curious about the flavors and if everything really came together. I defintely could have kicked up the cayenne for a little more spice, and I think next time I would have topped them off with some shredded chedder before baking so that they would have cheesey tops. Otherwise, the flavors are subtle, but once you get a bite of a cranberry the flavors really come together. Definitely a recipe I will keep on the backburner and play around with a little bit, ready for the next time I need "little bites."

Rosemary Walnut Pesto

2008-06-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

I like to watch the Food Network while working out. Especially Paula Dean. Paula is always cooking something with bacon, so her show is immediate motivation to huff and puff on the elliptical until I've made my goal of 65 minutes/6.75 miles. As a general rule I don't tune into her show outside of the gym. But while I'm working out, I know that if I continue to meet that goal, day after day, week after week, maybe someday I'll let myself eat bacon again. Not that phony turkey bacon, but the real stuff.

After Paula Dean is on, usually Rachael Ray follows. Her food is not nearly as motivating. Beyond her retro-inspired kitchen that I love, the show is hit or miss. Last week I caught the tail end of Rachael making a rosemary walnut pesto, to which she added greens and lamp chops. It caught my attention because I had a whole bunch of rosemary left in the fridge after making rosemary flatbread. I left out the greens, because I don't really like 'em, and the lamp chops, because I didn't have any. Steve made some panko-crusted chicken breasts to accompany the pasta, and voila! Dinner was served.

The rosemary walnut pesto sauce was easy to make and I would use the recipe again, but with some minor adjustments. The sauce lacked a little something...a little oomph. A little lemon juice perhaps? Or maybe after a few more trips on the elliptical, I'll let myself live on the edge and do what Paula Dean has taught me...everything is better with bacon.

Summer Sweets

2008-06-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

With the warm weather (another great weekend!!), Steve and I enjoyed some Whole Foods Pomegranate Sorbet topped with the ripest, reddest strawberries we could find. So delicious! It's nice to actually see great produce in the stores again, and all of the farmers markets starting up in the city.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and wonderful weather...the countdown begins until we have another great weekend, fingers crossed the weather cooperates!

Rosemary Flatbread

2008-05-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

I was on a carb-a-licious kick over the weekend, which was great because I had taken a long break from making bread. I've been wanting to make a flatbread for awhile, so I'll buy a fresh bunch of rosemary on the weekends....and then it sits in my refrigerator all week. This time, however, I kept myself accountable to my rosemary and actually followed through.

Because I wanted to make the flatbread in time for dinner, and I hadn't planned ahead, I didn't have the opportunity to make a more complex recipe that required starters, multiple rises, etc. So I found a recipe for thyme flatbread online and adapted it to my needs. It wasn't a slam dunk, though. I think I would probably hunt around for a different recipe or further adapt the one I found, but on the upside, I pulled it out of the oven just as Steve finished our shrimp and pasta dinner!

Rosemary Flatbread

Recipe adapted by Lazy Susin

1¼ cups warm water (110 to 115°F.)
1½ tsp granulated sugar
1½ tsp active dry yeast
1½ tsp salt
3½ cups all-purpose flour

1-2 T olive oil

Chopped Rosemary

Kosher Salt

Place water into large bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and yeast. Let stand 5 minutes or until yeast is dissolved. Stir in salt, olive oil and half of chopped rosemary. Gradually add flour, stirring until dough forms.
On a lightly floured surface, knead dough 10 to 12 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place dough in large oiled bowl, cover; let rise in warm place until doubled in size; about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Place oven rack in lowest rack position; heat oven to 450°F. Grease a 15x10x1-inch jelly roll pan.
Gently punch down dough to deflate. Place in pan; using palm of hand press dough to cover bottom of the pan. Cover; let rise about 20 minutes or until risen by half. Brush dough with oil; sprinkle generously with coarse salt and other half of chopped rosemary.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown.

Bagels Abound

2008-05-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Steve strongarmed me into making bagels over the weekend...his argument went something to the tune of "my old co-workers got bagels but my new co-workers haven't had any yet." Hmm. Somehow this new job of his is causing some repeat performances in the baking department. I can't say I complained too much, though. There's something completely satisfying when you boil up the bagels and they actually look like...bagels! So perfect, yet so very easy. And it makes me feel kind of like a baking badass. Most people I know would shudder at the thought of spending a day off of work boiling bagels.

Last time I went with Asiago, a personal favorite of mine. This time around I decided to do cinnamon raisin...well, half cinnamon raisin. The other half were, of course, Asiago. Right now we're trying to save money on groceries (ha!), so buying a $10 hunk of Asiago at Whole Foods wasn't a top priority for me, but the end result is too good to resist. Again I used the Nigella Lawson recipe that Confections of a Foodie Bride had adapted, except I eliminated the maple extract and threw in raisins until I was satisfied (just keep on adding until it looks good!) for the cinnamon raisin batch. For the Asiago batch, again, no cinnamon or maple, shredded Asiago on top of the egg wash before baking. The cinnamon raising were amazing.

To keep on top of things when portioning out the dough, I used my handy kitchen scale, weighed the entire ball of dough, and then divided it up from there (each bagel was around 100-110 grams). This is much easier than going by site alone.

Now I just have to work things out so these bagels actually stay with me for enjoyment instead of trotting off with Steve to be devoured at work, and all will be good.

Easy Crab Dip

2008-05-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

We finally had nice weather this weekend (unfortunately the good times didn't last - it's in the 50s today!), so Steve and I decided to make one of our favorite, easy summer treats. This crab dip is quick to make and perfect to have with a bottle of wine in the afternoon. Serve on crackers or, if you really feel like indulging, slice up an Asiago baguette - yum!

Crab Dip

Recipe by LazySusin

Real or Imitation Crabmeat (I prefer imitation)

Veggie Cream Cheese

1 or 2 tsp of milk, more or less as needed

A few drops of Tabsco, to taste

Combine all ingredients, determining quantities based on need. Stir vigorously. Enjoy!

Check this recipe out on The Back Burner

Celebratin' Good Times

2008-05-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend our friends Stacey and Brian hosted a celebratory barbecue for our friend Joe, who recently gradated from UIC. What better way to celebrate Joe's graduation than with Greek Celebration Bread? There are many different versions of this bread from what I've seen, I chose to make the Christopsomos, using raisins and toasted walnuts. The bread was devoured, a good time was had by all at the party, and I was finally able to work from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice, which Steve gave me for Christmas.

Christopsomos - Greek Celebration Bread
Recipe adapted from the Bread Baker's Apprentice
1 C poolish
1 1/4 C unbleached bread flour
3/4 C water, room temperature
1/8 tsp instant yeast
Dough
3 1/2 unbleached bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 C honey
1/4 C olive oil
3/4 C whole or low-fat milk, lukewarm
1/2 C raisings
1/2 C chopped walnuts, lightly toasted
Glaze
2 T water
2 T sugar
2 T honey
1 tsp lemon or orange extract
1 tsp sesame seeds

Combine ingredients for the poolish until it looks like pancake batter. Let it ferment at room temperature for 3-4 hours and then put into fridge for up to 3 days. Make at least 1 day in advance.
Combine flour, salt, yeast, spices in mixing bowl. Add the poolish, extracts/zest, eggs, honey, olive oil and milk. Stir with spoon or on slow speed with mixer using paddle attachment, until forms ball.
Knead teh dough on the counter or use dough hook at medium speed. Use extra milk or flour as needed to form soft ball. Knead for 10 minutes, adding in raisins and walnuts.
Oil a bowl and place dough in, oiling all sides. Cover and let rise for 90 minutes, or until doubles.
Divide the dough into two pieces, one twice the size of the other. Take the smaller piece and place in a plastic bag and put in fridge. With the large piece, form into a boule. Place on parchment-lined baking pan, mist with with olive oil and lightly cover with place wrap. Let rise for 60-90 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
When loaf has doubled in size, take the smaller piece of dough from the fridge and divide into two pieces. Roll each piece into a 10-inch long rope. Cross the two ropes over the top of the boule. Split the ends of each rope and coil them.
Bake for 20 minutes, rotate the pan 180 degrees and then bake for another 20-25 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown and makes a hollow sound.
To make the glaze, combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the honey and extract, turn off the heat. Immediately glaze the loaf after removing from the oven, sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Cool bread on a wrack for at least an hour before serving.
CELEBRATE!

Check out my review of Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice on Sazze.com.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

2008-05-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

You know the rhyme - "Laura and Steve, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage..."

Today at work we a had a little of both (except for the kissing in trees part) - my boss is getting married next weekend and another member of our department has a little one very close on the way, so we has a surprise shower for both of them. Being the Friday before a holiday we ended up having a lot of people out of the office, but it ended up being a great celebration and chance for everyone to relax a bit on a Friday afternoon. Both ladies were surprised by the shower, and we have a very well-rounded and delicious potluck lunch.

As party planner I nabbed desserts for my contribution and made some little onesie cookies and wedding cake cookies. I forget how time consuming these can be, so I'll definitely only be "whipping" these up for special occasions.

A great way to end the week, now I'm ready for the 3-day weekend to begin!

Check out my review of this wedding cake cookie cutter on Sazze.com!

Peanut Butter Bliss

2008-05-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

All winter long, Steve and I have "treated" ourselves with one version or another of Baking Bites' Low Fat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. It's a great snack that we can feel slightly less guilty about, with its minimal use of butter, but it still feels like we're indulging in something that's really bad for us.

We started off making individual cookies and eventually transitioned into throwing the dough into an 8x8-inch baking pan and making cookie bars, allowing for quicker access to the good stuff. No time spent lining baking sheets with parchment paper or portioning out the dough, just straight into the pan and into the oven.

One night we were making peanutbutter sandwiches for work the next day (yes, we do this everyevening!), and we were snacking on cookies bars at the same time. It didn't take long to put the two together...soon we were spreading peanut butter all over the cookie bars - the treat almost seemed sinful!

To recreate this dangerously good combination, we now add a 1/4 cup of peanutbutter straight into the dough and the peanutbutter flavor really shines through. Although, don't be afraid to grab that jar of peanut butter and smear a little more on top...

Cherry, Chocolate & Almond Cookies

2008-05-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually a big fan of making chocolate chip cookies - don't get me wrong, I love to eat them, but making them? It seems like there are so many other recipes to try, I usually don't touch on this classic.

Steve wanted me to do something with chocolate chips and almonds so we found Baking Bites' Chocolate Chip and Almond Cookies - a great recipe from a few years back. I can't resist cherries, chocolate and almonds, so we chopped up some dried cherries and added those to the batter as well.

These baked up golden brown and delicious, and I'll definitely be using versions of this recipe in the future - whenever I decide I need to get back to the classics.

Lemony Gingerness

2008-05-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't sent any baked goods to work with Steve recently, so hopefully they will enjoy seeing some cookies in the office tomorrow morning.

I've worked out of Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies before with mixed results. Her Butterscotch Marble Blondies I blogged earlier this winter were tasty and easy to replicate. But I had some messy results with her Chocolate-Chip Stuffed cookies, where a mound of chocolate chips were sandwiched between chocolate chip cookie dough, to bake up with gooey chocolate in the center. Against my better judgement I followed her recipe exactly and did not refrigerate the dough, so it was way too sticky to work with and the cookies were flat, sad pancakes (on the upside, the dough was phenomenal).

So, with a little bit of hesitation I pulled out Big Fat Cookies again today to make Lemon-Ginger Cookie Sandwiches. The dough was incredibly easy to work with and everything was perfect from start to finish. I was able to find every single ingredient in my pantry, but was still able to make a fabulous cookie with unique flavors.

Lemon-Ginger Cookie Sandwiches

from Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies

2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 C unsalted butter, room temperature

1 C powdered sugar

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 C (4 oz) whole blanched almonds, toasted and finely ground

Filling

1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 T fresh lemon juice

Sift the flower, salt, ginger and cinnamon into a bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar in a mixer until smooth. On low speed, mix in lemon zest, vanilla, almonds. Mix in the flour mixture until the flour is incorporated and the dough holds together and away from the side of the bowl.

Divide the dough in half and form two 6-inch disks. Wrap each one in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough until it is cold and firm enough to roll, about 40 minutes.

Preheat the over to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap one piece of dough. Flour the rolling surface and roll out dough about 1/4 inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter with scalloped edges, 3 1/4 to 3 1/2-inch circles or smaller, depending on how many cookies you want. Unwrap the other piece of dough and cut out remaining cookies, to have an even number. Cut a circle or other shape from the center of half of the cookies.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are light brown and tops firm, about 20 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to cooling racks.

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice until smooth. Spread the frosting onto those that do not have the holes in the center and make sandwiches with those that do have holes.

Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

*Makes 9 cookie sandwiches with 3 1/2-inch circle cookies, makes 15 cookie sandwiches with 2 1/2-inch circle cookies.

May Flowers...

2008-05-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

With May flowers in tow, I return to blogging after a month-long hiatus. Between a crazy-busy month at work, trying to nail down the reception site for my wedding and condo-hunting with Steve, I had to stay far, far away from the kitchen.

Soon the reception will be booked and I'll officially have "the date" and we've now successfully negotiated for our first home. Done and done. Now I can direct my energy back into baking and prepare for the many baking projects I'll have ahead of me in the new condo, where I'll have beautiful black granite countertops and plenty of counter and cabinet space - I can't wait!

Hopefully we've made our way through all of the April showers and can enjoy the great weather to come...in the meantime, I'll enjoy these delicious sugar cookies with lemon royal icing.

A Twist on Turkey Burgers

2008-03-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

We alway have a package of extra lean ground turkey in the freezer. Usually we cook it up to add to our spaghetti, or when we have enough time on our hands, we make meatballs (my favorite!). But after awhile, the extra lean turkey begins to feel just that - extra lean and extra boring.

Ellie Krieger, yet again, has saved the day with her recipe for Stuffed Turkey Burgers. Steve and I have modified the recipe just a little bit, with extra-delicious results. This is a perfect way to spice up the ground turkey and these can all be cooked up ahead of time and then reheated during the week for easy dinners.

Mozzarella & Red Pepper Turkey Burgers

Reciped adapted by Lazy Susin

1 1/4 pounds lean ground turkey breast
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoons salt

Crushed Red Peper
Freshly ground black pepper
Mix all of the ingredients together in a big bowl and form 6-8 equal patties. Grill or broil until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

See my review of my Global knife on Sazze.com!

Banana Bread Monday

2008-03-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

Steve has been wanting banana bread (sadly, it's not my favorite treat to make or eat), so I promised him I would help him make some over the weekend to take into work today. We did a little TasteSpotting search to see what kind of banana bread bloggers are making these days, and came across the chocolate marble banana bread from Eating Out Loud and the beautiful banana bread/cake from Rasa Malaysia. We used the wonderful recipe from Eating Out Loud and the great idea of the banana slices on the top of the bread from Rasa Malaysia and we were set!

I love the swirl of the chocolate throughout the loaf and for a non-banana bread eater, it was actually pretty good (chocolate always helps, doesn't it?). The added banana slices on top make it look extra fancy!

Mac'n'Cheese...'n'Cauliflower?

2008-03-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Steve continues to keep me good, which of course means that I've long ago given up one of my great foodie loves, macaroni and cheese. One of the best comfort foods out there, it's a little lacking in the health food department so it doesn't make its way into our house very much.

Last week I caught the end of an episode of Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger as she was making classic dishes just a little bit healthy. I decided to make Ellie's version of macaroni and cheese, but substituted her choice of squash for cauliflower in hopes of drowning out as much of the vegetable taste as possible.

The end result was good, but not great...it wasn't nearly as cheesy as I would have hoped, so next time around I think I would use a little less ricotta and sprinkle some of the shredded cheese into the mixture rather than melting it all beforehand.

So, my hankering for macaroni and cheese wasn't quite satisfied, but I do feel good that I was able to hide some vegetables into my dinner - if I hadn't been the cook I would have never known :)

Ellie Krieger's Macaroni and 4 Cheeses
adapted by Lazy Susin

Cooking spray
1 pound elbow macaroni (I used whole wheat)
1/2 c cauliflower puree or 2 10-ounce packages of pureed winter squash

2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk

4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)

2 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated (about 2/3 cup)

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until tender but firm, about 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, place the frozen squash and milk into a large saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until it is defrosted. Or steam cauliflower for 8 minutes, puree in a food processor until smooth and add to the milk. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Cheddar, jack cheese, ricotta cheese, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Pour cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine. Transfer the macaroni and cheese to the baking dish. Add more shredded cheese if looking for a cheesier dish.

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned.

Wedding Bells

2008-03-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I made my first cake that I was "hired" to make, for a friend's cousin's bridal shower. What pressure! And with pressure...came disaster. One layer decided not to bake all the way and had to quickly be remade and replaced, another layer decided to crack as it was being positioned on top of another (thanks to the powers of buttercream, it was saved). There's a laundry list of setbacks - not enough buttercream to go around, uncooperative fondant. You name it, I experienced it.

But I finished, and at the very least, the cake was tall. And tall is good, right? And I know the cake is tasty - bottom tier of white butter cake and strawberry filling, top tier of chocolate butter cake with Oreo buttercream filling, slathered in buttercream and wrapped in mm fondant. Delicious! And, of course, topped off with a cute little gum paste bow and surrounded by fondant pearls, who can resist?

But I definitely learned not to bite off more than I can chew - the next cake will be one fabulous tier that I can perfect and make beautiful. I'll just make it an extra-tall tier for dramatic effect!

Look at my review of Wilton's Gum Paste that I used to make this bow with on Sazze.com!

International Women's Day...Smile!

2008-03-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

International Women's Day was yesterday, so I have belatedly made some bright n yellow smiley face cookies. Simple sugar cookie dough, dyed yellow, decorated with chocolate smiley faces. Just cute enough to make you smile, too. With making a cake yesterday for a bridal shower (to be blogged later) I've just barely made the cutoff for the International Women's Day roundup.

Baking Survival Kit

2008-03-05T12:54:00.000-08:00

Having the essentials in my kitchen is important, although this time I think I might have gone a bit overboard :)

Well, there is a little rhyme and reason as to why have have 5 bags of marshmallows and endless pounds of powdered sugar sitting in my pantry right now. I'm making a cake this weekend for a bridal shower...needless to say, Saturday should be an all day kitchen adventure (with hopefully beautiful pictures to post)!

Baking & Bling

2008-03-03T07:03:00.000-08:00

I've never had to worry about getting my bling dirty while baking. Why? Because I've never had any bling before. Until yesterday when Steve gave me the best bling of all...

Oh yes, a beautiful ring I have to try my darndest to keep fondant-free and gleaming in the sun!

Scraping the Bean

2008-02-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

The lure of baking products is always high for me, from intricate cake pans to gadgets and extracts. I generally manage to control my spending and buy just a few things at a time. This weekend I picked up a "vial" of bourbon vanilla beans and decided to make some vanilla bean cupcakes, topped off with cherry blossoms I made out of gum paste.

I've admired Cake Journal's cupcakes covered with poured fondant, and since she gives such a great tutorial on the process, I decided to give it a try. I used Chockylit's basic vanilla cupcake recipe, with the addition of my vanilla bean and a little extra vanilla extract to give them a little more vanilla-y oomph, and used the following pour fondant recipe (although there are a lot of variations out there):

Pour Fondant
1/4 c water
1/8 c light corn syrup
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
Combine the water and corn syrup in a sauce pan and heat over medium/medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Whisk in powdered sugar, cup by cup, until mixture is smooth. Add food coloring if desired.

If making a large batch of cupcakes I would double or triple the recipe (I made a small batch because I only baked up a dozen cupcakes).

These were an amazing sugary treat for a Sunday afternoon, and I would definitely give this a try again. I think the trick to the fondant is getting the right temperature and consistency. Amazingly, one kitchen gadget I haven't purchased (but is next on the list) is a candy thermometer, which will help me pinpoint correct temperature. At the right temperature I think it will be easier to cover the cupcakes more evenly.

Oh, if only I weren't on a diet...

Check out my review of bourbon vanilla beans on Sazze.com!

I <3 ...

2008-02-14T05:38:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day has to be one of my most favorite holidays (even though up until last year I was always without a Valentine), I love all of the pink and hearts, and I do believe that if you just stick a heart on anything, it will automatically be cute.

With that said, I had so much fun last night decorating cookies. One of my goals this year was to learn how to really decorate cookies and make them beautiful. I had read about "flooding" cookies with royal icing, and held out until Valentine's Day to give it a try. I used the royal icing recipe from Joy of Baking and learned the technique from What's Cooking America (also my go-to for MM Fondant). The process was just about what I had expected - piping on whatever designs I wanted, letting them dry for about 5 minutes, then "flooding" the surface with royal icing that was made to a thinner consistency and put into a squeeze bottle. I think the hardest part was getting the right consistency to make sure the icing was thin enough to really spread well, and because the outer color contrasted from the inner color I had to be careful not to let the pinks and reds flood OVER the white outline.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day, and I'm looking forward to spending a quiet evening at home making dinner with Steve and watching Lost, what a perfect evening :)

(I just read about the Heart for Your Valentine blog event [thanks Rah Cha Chow] so I'm going to submit...yay!)

I've FINALLY Been Taste Spotted!

2008-02-13T06:01:00.000-08:00

I didn't hear about TasteSpotting until recently, and once I saw the site I was in love. So many pretty pictures, beautiful food, and page after page to gaze at. I've submitted a few pictures in the past with no luck. Yesterday I submitted my pizza picture and much to my amazement, I checked the site last night and saw my creation! While it's probably silly of me to be posting about it, I was quite proud. For those of you who don't know of TasteSpotting, check it out once and you'll become addicted...

Cheesy, easy pizza

2008-02-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

Steve and I love to make pizza at home, but we're always struggling to get the crust "just right." We prefer whole wheat for health reasons, but 100% whole wheat pizza crust tends to fall flat. A basic white crust is great, and there's no question of its ability to puff up beautifully in the oven, but it's not the healthiest alternative. Last night, I think I unlocked the secret of a great semi-whole wheat pizza crust that delivers the best of both worlds.

I topped my pizza off (above) with roasted garlic, sundried tomato and basil chicken sausage, part skim mozzarella, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil (Steve also added fresh mushrooms and onion to his) - phenomenal! Honestly beats out ordering out pizza any day of the week, because not only was it tasty, I didn't feel full, fat, 'n guilty afterwards.

Perfectly Puffy Wheat Pizza Dough

by Lazy Susin

1-2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 package rapid-rise yeast
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup 100 deg. water
coarse cornmeal
toppings for pizza

Add 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour, salt and sugar to large mixing bowl. Mix together.

Add yeast to warm water, stir with a fork and let yeast proof. Add yeast mixture, honey, and olive oil to dry ingredients. Either mix by hand (with hands or spatula) or using stand mixture with dough hook. If sticky add 1/2-1 cup whole wheat flour as needed. If mixing by hand knead lightly on a floured surface. If using dough hook, dough is ready when it comes away from the side of the mixing bowl.
Cover with a dishtowel in a warm spot and let rise for 45 minutes-hour in a bowl lightly greased with olive oil. Divide into two parts. If making up a day ahead of time do not allow dough to rise. Place dough into a well-oiled Ziploc bag and place in fridge (can divide into two parts if making 2 pizzas).

If refrigerating overnight, remove dough from fridge about an hour before planning to bake and place in oiled bowls and allow to rise in a warm place.

Whichever method you are doing, after about an hour of rising time the dough is ready to go. Each half makes approximately a 12" pizza. Stretch out onto a pizza pan or sheet pan that has been generously sprinkled with coarse cornmeal.

Bake each crust at 450 degrees for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and add toppings and return to oven and bake for another 8-10 minutes, until crust is brown and toppings are fully cooked and cheese is starting to brown up.

Cut and enjoy!

Final Happy Birthday to Kookybites (& Joe!)

2008-01-28T06:01:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had the final celebration for Steve's birthday. Our friend Joe is also celebrating a January birthday, so what better way to celebrate both than with a joint birthday cake? Steve and Joe are both photographers, hence the photography-themed cake.

I normally just make MM fondant, cover the cake, and call it a day. However, I wanted to try my hand at making a cake that was a little more fun and tackle molding people and animals out of fondant, so I bought a little box of Wilton fondant for that and stuck with the MM fondant for covering the cake. Having now worked with storebought fondant, I don't think I would choose to cover a cake with it unless I had to - the chemical smell was a bit much!

I've recently discovered a new blog of someone who is a complete fondant artist - The Journal of a Girl who Loves to Cook. Her B-Boy Cake is a great example of her ability to work with fondant at a great level of detail. My first attempt (ok, about third by the time I was done), was not quite as beautiful to look at.

But he at least looked like a person. And I was quite proud of his hair. The ad hoc leather messenger bag I made out of the leftovers was loved by everyone (hooray for last-minute additions).

The penguins came a bit easier, but again, they're not exactly works of art. But Steve loves penguins, so he was happy.

Overall, the cake was a hit with everyone at the party, but didn't receive an 'A' from my critical eye. I do feel like my craftsmanship has greatly improved - I'm getting the height I've wanted from my cakes, and am much more successful at creating a level, flat cake. And, it didn't taste too bad either - chocolate butter cake with Oreo buttercream filling (because who doesn't love Oreos?!).

Happy Birthday Kookybites...take 2

2008-01-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

One of Steve's requests for his birthday was Chocolate & Zucchini's Orange Ginger cake. I made this a year ago (in my pre-blog days) for an office party, and held a slice back for Steve. He loved it, and has been asking for it again every since. So, to grant his birthday request, I made this on Sunday.

This cake is a process, boiling the oranges and all, but nothing too hard to tackle on a Sunday afternoon. Because you are using the entire orange in the puree - peel and all - the cake is more of a bitter orange flavor rather than light and citrus, and is balanced by the spiciness of the ginger.

I have one more cake planned - a fondant-covered monstrosity - for a party this weekend, and then we'll call Steve's birthday celebration officially over! He'd better not expect this royal treatment every year...

Butterscotch Marble Blondie Drops

2008-01-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Taking every advantage of opportunities to bake, I decided to make some cookies for a meeting today. My workplace cannot has the inability to function without food during meetings, so lunch is always catered in if the meeting gets anywhere near the 12 o'clock hour. Why pay for cookies if I can bring them in...thus satisfying my baking obsession without being stuck with 2 dozen cookies at home, taunting me.

For Christmas I received Big Fat Cookies, which I love. These cookies are perfect for meetings, to ensure that whatever I bring in can stand up to the jumbo-sized cookies we would otherwise order. Fast and easy, this recipe turned out to be a great weeknight baking project - the dough didn't need to be chilled and the chocolated swirled in perfectly. The recipe claims you'll get 2 dozen out of this, but I got about 15 and I felt like I did a (fairly) good job of measuring these out. The dough is pretty sticky though, so there's only so much you can do to get 3 even tablespoons-worth of dough per cookie.

Butterscotch Marble Blondie Drops

from Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies

4 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 C unsalted butter, softened

2 C packed light brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

Melt chocolate in a double boiler until melted and smooth. Set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Beat together the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and mix until blended.

On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until incorporated.

Drop heaping tablespoons (about 3 level tablespoons each) of dough 3 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Drizzle about 1/2 tsp of the melted chocolate over the top of each cookie. Use a small, sharp knife to gently swirl the chocolate through the cookie to marbleize.

Bake the cookies in a 350-degree oven until edges are brown, about 11 minutes. The tops will still be a little soft. Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

*Note: The chocolate had hardened up quite a bit by the time I was ready to drizzle over the second cookie sheet, so I had to reheat. I would probably wait and melt the chocolate after making the dough, not beforehand.

Cupcakes for Kookybites!

2008-01-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

Today is Steve's birthday, so what better way to celebrate than with cupcakes?! I love drooling over the great cupcakes I see online, but I rarely have the opportunity to make them - cupcakes + the CTA bus is an unfortunate combination. What's the point of making them so pretty if they're going to get shmooshed in transit? Since Steve has the luxury (in my eyes) of driving to work every day, it was easy to send him off to work with two dozen cupcakes.

I love Chockylit's blog...is is the ultimate cupcake droolfest. So, I decided to make her peanutbutter filled chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache. Simple, right? Of course - sort of...

I thought cutting the cupcakes open and filling them would be difficult, but that was a snap. They were chilled from the fridge, so it was easy to carve out the center...

...and fill with the (to die for) peanutbutter filling...

However, the chocolate ganache was a different story. After making it I thought it was a little too soft (silly me), so I popped it into the fridge for a bit. Needless to say, it completely hardened up and could not, would not, pipe onto the cupcakes. I tried to whip it up a bit and get some air into it, and added a little milk to the equation, but the results were still sub-par in my opinion. They just didn't look pretty enough...

However, taste completely wins out over beauty this time, because these cupcakes were absolutely phenomenal.

Thankfully this isn't my only opportunity to celebrate Steve's birthday via baking. I'm making two cakes over the next two weeks - one at his request for us to have at home and one to take to a party next weekend. In the meantime, I need to brush up on my cupcake skills...

Asiago Cheese Bagels

2008-01-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

I've been dying to make bagels for the longest time, but had to wait until I had plenty of time on my hands. However, I learned today that the process wasn't nearly as involved as I'd thought. I mixed up the dough this morning, put it up to rise for an hour while Steve and I went for a run (hooray for 50-degree weather in January!), and came home to roll, boil, and bake my bagels.

There are many different recipes out there for bagels and I think the one I went with is on the easier side of things - Confections of a Foodie Bride had adapted a recipe of Nigella Lawson's for French Toast Bagels. I made a few tweaks to this recipe, opting for savory over sweet. I eliminated the maple extract and the cinnamon and added a 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp baking soda to the water I poached the bagels in. I also made sure that I let the bagels dry a bit after boiling them before returning them to the baking sheets.

The final touch was shredded Asiago cheese sprinkled on top after the egg wash, and into the oven they went. The end result? Beautiful golden brown bagels that (in my opinion) could have come straight from a bakery. Toasted and smothered in cream cheese (or butter, my preference) and Steve and I were in heaven - what a great way to spend a Sunday!

Bakin' a Resolution

2008-01-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

With the launch of 2008, I thought it would be appropriate to making some baking resolutions. I'm usually all over the place with what I want to do, so hopefully this top ten list will keep me focused:

A Charlotte
Bagels
Crumpets
Develop a perfect pizza dough recipe
Perfect my cookie decorating skills
Chocolate Souffle
Buche de Noel (my first attempt this last year was a flop!)
Cake Eggs - the way Grandma used to make them
Brioche
Improve on leveling cake layers

In addition to these baking projects, I have another project underway. Over the Christmas holiday while at my parents' house, we started to go through my grandmother's massive recipe collection. From the looks of things, she had clipped out of the paper every recipe she found from the 1960s-1980s. From sorting through everything, we managed to find a collection of recipes that grandma made regularly - some family favorites that we haven't had for years since she passed away. Right now I'm working to type up the recipes and lay them out in a cookbook format. Then the fun will begin when I'll actually start the baking and cooking to check out the recipes and take pictures to use in the cookbook. So, hopefully there will be some posts soon sharing some recipes from Grandma Susin's kitchen!

Wedding Shower Test Cake

2007-12-30T18:06:00.000-08:00

A co-worker has "hired" me to make a cake for her cousin's wedding shower in March. Eek. A whole lot of pressure, making a cake for someone I haven't met - what if I ruin her shower with a crooked, squashy cake?!

To ensure I'm up for the challenge, I made a test cake today. After completely trashing the kitchen, I emerged with this cute little package, which will accompany Steve and I to a New Year's party tomorrow. It's a butter cake with strawberry filling - nothing too crazy, but hopefully tasty. The actual cake will be similar, but will be two stacked packages, very close in size, and I think maybe two different shades of pink. The bow is made out of gum paste, and I'm pretty proud of my first bow adventure. Gum paste is amazing stuff to work with. The cake is covered with a layer of buttercream frosting and mm fondant.

This day of baking was filling with challenges - a layer that (I) broke in half and had to remake, fondant that just didn't set up the way it usually does and was a nightmare to work with, accidentally dying some frosting hot pink (which I used to write on the gift tag with). But overall, I think it's heads and shoulders above the cake I made for Darcie's shower in August, and with a few refinements I'll be ready to go in March!

Check out my review of Jet-Puffed Marshmallows on Sazze.com!

Punkin' Pie

2007-12-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday! Mine was definitely relaxing, I ate plenty and gave and received lots of presents, so a definite improvement over my Thanksgiving (no flu!).

This year I made my first-ever pumpkin pie. I wanted to branch out from the usual recipe (I believe the one from the back of the can of Libby's pumpkin pie filling). This was met with a lot of gripes from family members who didn't want me to do anything "weird" with the pie. Now, I don't eat pumpkin pie myself, so I couldn't tell you if what I did was wild and crazy, but I knew that Rose Levy Beranbaum would not steer me wrong with her pumpkin pie recipe. The result? C'est magnifique! There were no complaints around the table, and much praise to the ground gingersnap/pecan mixture that lined the crust. Compared to some of Rose's more complicated recipes, this one proved to be very easy, and everyone loved Rose's suggestion of doing the checkerboard crust. Definitely a recipe to keep on hand for next year!

Now you can find me...

2007-12-17T10:28:00.000-08:00

... at my .com!

Steve and I exchanged any early Christmas gift with each other. On the sly, he bought www.lazysusin.com for me! What a great gift idea, and something I wouldn't have thought to do myself.

Hear's to many more presents to open next week, as well as all of the baking I get to do in preparation for the holiday! :)

Gingerbread Love <3

2007-12-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of both the holidays and competition, I decided to make up some gingerbread cookies this weekend. Baking Bites is having a gingerbread cookie contest, so a perfect excuse for baking. I had imagined a line of cute little gingerbread boys with gingerbread girls, a little boy (ginger) boy meets (ginger) girl story. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that gingerbread boys and girls have no torso! And with no torso, it becomes difficult to "dress" them. So, I'm not thrilled with the end result...but I did learn that I'm totally ready for Valentine's Day - my hearts were adorable, if I do say so myself.

I had only baked up half the dough on Friday, so today I made up the rest - trees, candy canes, and circles. I like how these turned out... I spent a long time finding the best way to pipe snowflakes (there were a lot of uglies in the group!). The icing I was using was a little runnier than I would have liked, so I lost a little on the detail. I don't know if these will win any awards, but any excuse to make up some Christmas cookies is ok by me!

Cranberry Goodness

2007-12-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

How does one fight the snow and slush outside? Orange Cranberry muffins...a little bitter from the orange, a little tart from the cranberry, a lot of yummy in the tummy. A small consolation prize for having to venture out into the winter storm.

A Boasting Baker

2007-12-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

I'm always proud of my boyfriend Steve, like when he recently entered into the world of baking with an enviable oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. However, I like to think that even though he's the love of my life, my opinion isn't biased. In the case of his growing passion with photography, I couldn't be prouder. He just completed his first photo shoots - an engagement shoot and a family photo shoot - and his final product is phenomenal.

So, this is my little advertisement for Steve Koo Photography. If you're in the Chicago area and need pictures for a special occasion, check out his website - his photography blows his oatmeal chocolate chip cookies out of the water, and that's saying a lot!

Nutella Bliss

2007-11-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

I love Nutella for any occasion. For breakfast? Wonderful. Lunch? Fabulous. You can't beat it. It reminds me of a my first trip to Europe, when I left feeling so sophisticated that I knew about this great treat. In biscotti Nutella shines just a brightly.

I was a little surprised I ended up with any cookies, because I ate far too much of the dough. Judging by the way my coworkers gobbled these treats down, they love Nutella just as much as I do. Thank you to Baking Bites for yet another great recipe.

Check out my Nutella review on Sazze.com!

Thanksgiving pies....take two

2007-11-24T16:51:00.000-08:00

Because Steve and I weren't able to enjoy Thanksgiving this week (and because I had loads of apples ready to go into a pie), I made a couple of mini cranberry almond apple pies. Steve didn't get to taste any pie last weekend so these little pies were his treat after days of eating pb & j.

In return for pie, Steve designed the header for my blog so it looks a little less lame than the generic header.

Alright, must plan out the gingerbread house I want to make...any ideas for a theme?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday Steve and I hosted a Thanksgiving party for our friends. Lots of fun, a heated game of Taboo, and lots of food.

It was my first try at making a turkey, and it was a crazy amount of work. Who knew?! I can't say I would jump to make another one any time soon, but the end result turned out quite tasty.

We ended the evening with everyone's favorite - PIE! I made a cranberry almond apple, which I also made last year and is really yummy (the bottom of the crust is lined with almond paste, which is absolutely deeeelicious).

Unfortunately, shortly after our party Steve came down with the flu, and I succumbed shortly after. We've now been holed up in our apartment for almost a week and have missed Thanksgiving down in Peoria with my parents. With a lack of groceries (as we hadn't planned on being here), Thanksgiving "dinner" consisted of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and toast. With our health (almost) back, I'm ready to do some baking and ... get out of the apartment!

Mmmm for Oreos...kind of

2007-11-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love a delicious homemade "Oreo" of sorts, two thin but rich chocolate cookies with white chocolate ganache sandwiched in the middle? Thanks to Dessert First for posting this recipe. Amazingly my co-workers didn't gobble these up (I blame it on the Halloween candy that is still lingering in our office and the open bag of caramel corn competing for attention) ... I wasn't too upset to have a few extras to bring back home.

Anyone need a cake?!

2007-11-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to make some mini cakes (with 4-inch cake pans and a mini heart-shaped pan) this weekend for decorating practice. I had forgotten how much work goes into the process - whether the cake is 4 or 14-inches. Cake batter, marshmallow fondant, buttercream icing and royal icing...it was an all-day affair and a lot of work. In the end, I had fun, the pieces I made with gum paste turned out well, and I'm ready to make another cake for a special occasion.

I like this squiggle cake - not nearly as good as the example I had in a book, but a lot of fun, and the gum paste flowers look cute on top.

If I had a baby shower for someone coming up, I could totally do a larger version of this cake... (after painstakingly working on this bear for nearly an hour, I watched a youtube video where a woman showed how to make one in a matter of minutes. Who knew?!). I've never really worked with icing before, so I'm slowly learning how to work with the different tips. I'm not quite ready for flowers yet, but this border came out pretty well (for a beginner).

Now I'm ready for some real cakes. I feel like I keep on learning and learning, and have come leaps and bounds since I made the baby shower cake in August. Anyone with a party coming up who wants me to make them a cake?!

Check out my review of my heart shaped mini springform pan on Sazze.com!

Halloween has come and gone...

2007-11-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

...and now it's November!! How do the months keep zipping by? I think in part I've been "working for the weekend" a little too much lately, causing me to lose weeks at a time.

I did stop myself long enough to celebrate Halloween - in baking, however, not in spirit. This year, I did not consume copius amounts of alcohol while running around the city with wreckless abandon. I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to share with the world the "sexy version" of my favorite childhood storybook character or favorite animal. Because, you know, who doesn't love a sexy mouse or sexy Rainbow Bright?

Instead, I made some not-so-sexy chocolate "mummy" cookies, a great idea from Baking Bites. And, although I can't stomach the real candy corn, I fully support the rights of these cookies to "dress up" like candy corn - what an ingenious (and tasty!) idea!

I've started experimenting with gum paste and spent about an hour last night creating a teddy bear. Yeesh. I hope to make some cute little mini cakes this weekend to play around a little bit - what fun!

Oh what a chunk!

2007-10-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

Oh my, how big Zach has grown. Is this the same little skinny guy from July?? He's like a whole different baby.

He's probably already grown out of this cute little stripey getup I bought him last month.

Ooh, the cuteness - can't wait to see the little guy at Thanksgiving!

Truffles, pastries, petit fours, AND pasta... oh my!

2007-10-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

So, I spent a lot more of the weekend in the kitchen. I think that I need to start pushing myself more and more each weekend to just bake away ... so if I show up at your door toting some mocha fudge 3-layer concoction, please don't turn me away!

To start off the weekend I worked on some petit fours. When I was 12 or so I really wanted to make petit fours. So my mom and I busted out the Betty Crocker, the cookbook of choice in our home. We cut the cake into diamonds and circles, and as we poured the glaze over the top, it was a miserable mess. My dreams of teeny, perfectly iced cakes were dashed. In searching for a fun Halloween treat to bring into work (and one that looks like it takes a decent amount of skill to produce) I discovered a picture of petit fours decorated with bats, spiders, etc. It seems that recipes vary tremendously. So, I went straight to my Betty Crocker! (I found the glaze online....somewhere...)

I struggled to get a good orange - this is VERY peach - and the glaze was horrible. I still need to do some experimenting. I did, however, find a great pan. It makes 24 individual cakes, perfect for this task!

Always wanting to try my hand at homemade pasta, this was task number two for the weekend.

Not having any special tools, my rolling pin could only get the dough so thin. But, the end result was pretty tasty.

Planning for upcoming holiday gifts, I thought I would try my hand at making truffles. I'm not ready to tackle tempering chocolate, but the rest of the process was quite easy. delicious:days has a great recipe for Earl Grey truffles, which smelled amazing and tasted even better. And, for the record - while Steve is usually my photographer, I took this picture myself and I'm quite proud of it!

Finally, I had one last project in me. This summer I had made some excellent Danish pastries that I pulled from a pastry book I really like. The filling is a coffee/almond mixture that is just spectacular. The filling is paired with a pretty traditional puff pastry. Not up for the work of puff pastry, I pulled the recipe from Baking Bites for Nutella Scrolls. This dough is so simple to make - 5 minutes or less - and was perfect with this filling. I sent these off to work with Steve so I didn't get to enjoy any of their coffee goodness (well, except for that "test" roll...).

My appointment with Kendall College is this Saturday. I've gone back and forth on this - it would be a great opportunity, but I don't think this is the opportune time. I was recently promoted at work, I have a great workout routine that I'd like to have the time to stick to, and I think being committed to classes 3-times a week just won't make sense for me right now. I'm going to look into other opportunities, possibly class through Wilton or other schools in the area. I think this is the right plan for me, and even more of a reason to keep the baking going over the weekends.

Taking a leap!

2007-10-18T18:50:00.001-07:00

So, I'm about to take the first steps toward getting some schoolin' in this whole baking thing. Kendall College offers a Baking & Pastry Certificate, which seems to be geared toward people with full-time jobs with evening classes. I have a meeting next week with the admissions advisor so I can learn more specifics about the program and determine when I would want to start. I'm tired of being too scared to try something new, or push myself beyond what I do from 8-4pm. I want to make 18 types of tarts, learn how to temper chocolate, ice a cake and make the puffiest puff pastry. It's nice to feel like I have something I'm passionate about, and I want to follow that passion. I love my day job, but making spreadsheets and pushing paper, no matter how great the cause is that I'm working for, doesn't equal the feeling of making the perfect loaf of bread.

Current Status:

I ran 2.5 miles tonight, on my own without relying on Steve to motivate me;
Currently reading Capote's In Cold Blood (excellent, but depressing, read);
Planning to bake mini caramel apple tarts, earl grey truffles, and Danish pastries this weekend;
Steve and I will be carving our pumkin, Jacques, this weekend (this is Steve's FIRST pumkin-carving experience!), and I plan on roasting up the seeds to munch on while we have a horror-movie fest.

TGIF tomorrow...I'm ready for a break!

Happy Fall (if only it weren't so darn hot...)!

2007-10-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of fall and in hoping that at some point it will actually feel like fall and I can bust out the piles of new fall clothes I've recently purchased, I decided to make some leafy sugar cookies. I've never worked with a pastry bag and doing detail work with frosting, so it was a fun experiment to see if I a. have the talent for this and b. have the patience. I definitely passed the patience test because I (sadly) haven't had that much fun in a long time. I don't know about the talent piece, but I think these, were at the very least, respectable. I didn't love the color, though, and got sick of the peachy-orange by the end. I used this wonderful Royal Icing recipe (I opted to use meringue powder), and with my BRAND NEW, beautiful KitchenAid mixer, the icing turned out great.

Now I'll just sit and wait until the real leaves that are lying on the ground are not matched with 90-degree weather and the air conditioning running non-stop in my apartment! Oh the horror if we go straight from summer to winter...

Want to buy this cookie cutter? Check out my review of the cutter on Sazze.com!

Cherry Tomato Tart

2007-10-01T09:56:00.001-07:00

Tart
Originally uploaded by Lazy Susin

I am truly devoted to La Tartine Gormande and desperately wanted to make this tart in April...however, I needed something for a party at work, so decided to make little round tartlettes. I even slaved over making puff pastry! And it turned out just a mess - rounds all puffed up, filling oozing all over the place. A complete and utter disaster.

Ever since then I've been wanting to make a second attempt at this. I've been dying to have a rectangle tart pan. Mine finally arrived in the mail last week and to celebrate (and to have something to bring to a bbq!), I whipped this up on Saturday, and am incredibly proud of how it turned out...and judging by the way it was devoured, everyone else was pleased as well. Due to the short noticed I didn't have time to make my own puff pastry, but all-in-all, a good effort.

In other news - I purchased a cobalt blue KitchenAid online last night. I will be anxiously awaiting it's arrival, and in the meantime I will need to seek out a home in my kitchen for this beautiful piece of machinery!

Thinking about buying a rectangular tart pan? Check out my review of my pan on Sazze.com!

A disastrous day of baking...

2007-09-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

I just discovered a new blog this week - Tartlette - and after drooling and drooling over her amazing pages of desserts, I decided to make macarons. You will not see pictures of my macarons here, as I made a big gloppy mess in the kitchen, threw a tantrum, and vowed I would never bake again.

...brief timeout from the kitchen...

I decided to return to the kitchen and make some White Chocolate Brownies. As a twist to what Tartlette did, I made them in mini brioche pans (I've been dying to use these!). The brownie recipe yielded about 11 brownies using the brioche pans.

In the midst of baking, a full bottle of olive oil came crashing out of a cabinet at my feet, youch. Needless today, not the great day of baking in the kitchen as I hoped, but at least I have something to show for the day.

I'm still excited to have another go at macarons, but I'll have to set some rules for myself - no throwing kitchen utensils in a rage.

In other news, I just got back from London, and am ready to move there. I think I've found a Baking & Pastry Certificate that I can complete while working full-time. I'm gearing up to run my first 5K (8 lbs lost this summer and still going!).

Check out my review of my mini brioche pans on Sazze.com!

Onesie Cookies

2007-09-04T10:26:00.001-07:00

If Syeda approves, I'll be making many of these yummy onesie sugar cookies for an upcoming babyshower....

I baked me a cake...a purty cake...

2007-08-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

So, little Zachary's baby shower has come and gone, and I found myself all day on Friday in Washington, working on the cake. I'd forgotten how nice it was to have big counter tops, a double sink (for the mass of dirty dishes I created), and a big clean fridge. Oh, and no Daisy or Basil underfoot.

Anyway, so I made this cake. For a first go around, I feel ok about it. Definite room for improvement, but still, a vast improvement over what I've done before, and I definitely learned the fundamentals for doing a presentable cake. The bottom tier on this one is white butter cake with strawberry buttercream, and the to tier is chocolate butter cake with mint buttercream.

All-in-all, a good attempt, and hopefully in the future I'll be able to continue experimenting. Maybe by Zachary's first or second birthday I'll be able to make him a cool dinosaur or truck cake. Oh yah, and Zachary and Darcie are doing great, and he couldn't be cuter (and getting bigger by the day!!).

Zachary David Irish...come on down!

2007-08-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

I finally have a couple of pictures of the little guy I'll be making the cake for (the second picture is of him and his momma!) .... I was able to hang out with him tonight and I was even trusted enough to hold him for about a half an hour while he dozed off .... so adorable and I can't wait to see how big he'll be by the time of his party at the end of August - he'll be a whole month old by then!

Danish Pastries, mmm mmm

2007-07-29T18:32:00.001-07:00

Wandering through the bargain section at Borders, I happened across a pastry book. For $5.00 I thought I'd take a chance on it, and it has turned out to be phenomenal! I don't have it in front of me to give credit where credit is due, but the book is great. I made some excellent Danish pastries today, filled with an almond coffee mixture. Brushed with an apricot glaze and with some coffee frosting drizzled over top, delicious! Hope my co-workers enjoy tomorrow ... nice start to a Monday morning!

Baby shower cake, take 2

2007-07-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

Now that little Zachary Irish has been welcomed into the world, it's time to get serious on this cake so that his upcoming baby shower is glorious as he gets all kinds of great swag. My first practice cake was something ugly. It leaned. The top was bumpy. I used a cake mix. It was all kinds of horrible. This time around I did my research, purchased a copy of the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and baked away. I'm happy with what's currently sitting in my kitchen. The layers were solid with no air bubbles to speak of and baked up even. No big dome in the center, woo hoo! Because I had some leftover fondant I was able to decorate this, but I wasn't really going on looks here. If I can't achieve a good cake, it doesn't matter how well I can cover it with some fondant! So, I feel like I'm ready to make some cake for the shower in August, and make little Zachary proud!

Cherry Almond Bread

2007-07-09T10:06:00.001-07:00

Cherry Almond Bread
Originally uploaded by Lazy Susin

I must be on a bread kick lately, but it's just so much fun, especially with all of the great fresh and dried fruit I seem to accumulate in my kitchen. At the request to bring some bread to a barbeque, I pulled together a Cherry Almond bread using this great recipe, which is an awesome bases for any fruit and nut bread. I also threw together a couple of loaves of yummy white bread (you can see 'em in the background), which is always a favorite.

Now if only I could get my cakes to look as pretty...

Baby Shower cake....take 1

2007-07-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

So, I'll be making a cake for a baby shower at the end of August. I started practicing this week and when finished decided I had made the world's ugliest cake. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. But I've figured out what I need to learn and how I can go from my sad ugly tilted cake to something like this beautiful cake I found on Pink Cake Boxes. Making the fondant is surprisingly easy, the hard part I've found is just getting the cakes to bake up big, nice, and somewhat even on top. I'll be making a lot of cake this month in "practice." Fortunately my neighbor has a great fondness for cakes and will welcome anything I bring down, so at least they won't go to waste!

So, I started with making the fondant, with a pretty simple recipe I found that involves melting down a bag of marshmallows and mixing that goo with a bag of powdered sugar, sticky!

Once done, it's surprisingly easy to work with, add food coloring to (this can be a little tricky) and roll out...

So, while I think I've mastered the art of fondant creation and application, you can't really do much if the cake is crooked, lumpy, too small, etc etc. I definitely have some work in front of me. Sigh. It was so beautiful in my head!

Blueberry Orange Bread

2007-07-01T18:25:00.001-07:00

Blueberry Orange Bread
Originally uploaded by Lazy Susin

I finally got some baking done this weekend ... not what I planned on doing, but still good ... Steve and I had some extra blueberries from the Wicker Park Farmer's Market that needed to be used up, so I whipped up a blueberry orange bread. Steve's going to take it to work tomorrow to share with co-workers, but I'm hoping he'll save me a slice ;)

Thanks to about.com for this great recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1/4 cup boiling water
* 1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
* 1/2 cup orange juice
* 1 egg
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) blueberries

Topping:

* 1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
* 2 tablespoons orange juice
* 2 tablespoons honey

PREPARATION:
Combine butter and boiling water in a small bowl; add 1 tablespoon grated orange peel and 1/2 cup orange juice.

In a mixing bowl, beat egg and granulated sugar with an electric hand-held mixer until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt; add to egg mixture a little at a time, alternating with orange juice mixture, ending with flour mixture.

Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.. Cool bread in pan 10 minutes; remove to wire rack.

Combine 1 teaspoon orange rind, 2 tablespoons orange juice, and 2 tablespoons honey, mixing well. Spoon over hot bread; let cool.

Enjoy!

Holy Cannoli!

2007-06-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

So, Steve and I moved in together on Saturday (woo hoo!) after a lot of anticipating and planning (and whining, on my part). But now we're all settled in, and with the exception of living as a house divided with my cat Daisy in one room and his cat Basil in the other, we're doing ok.

However, I didn't fully consider with this big move how I was going to handle the "loss" of my early morning hours. Yesterday and today Steve somehow managed to get me up and out the door at 5 am for a little dose of good, old fashioned exercise ... yesterday was a traditional neighborhood run, this morning we hit up the gym we just joined, Cheetah Gym. While I know in the end that this is great for me, it's still hard to not be a wee bit resentful about the loss of my mornings ... we'll see how well Steve and I do after a few more days of my verbal abuse when the alarm dings at 4:45am! I have to say though ... once I'm up and out, it doesn't feel that early. I looked at the time on the news this morning as I was peddling away on the elliptical, and was shocked to see that it was 5:30am ... how could it possibly be that early and I was exercising ... what a crazy idea!

In the oven...
Tonight I'll be busting out a loaf of cherry almond bread and this weekend I'm going to try my hand at crumpets ... pictures to come!

5:15 am .. what were you doing?

2007-06-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know what you all were doing at 5:15 this morning, but I was running. Yes, Steve actually managed to drag me outta bed and into a pair of running shoes. Now, I won't disclose how far we ran (because, trust me, it won't impress you), but I was most definitely out and moving my feet for 45 minutes, which isn't half bad for that early in the morning.

Beyond being my food blog, this will also have to be my running blog, because I figure if I get to write about it, then I'll do it more, and the more I do it the more I can eat what I bake. That's the logic behind it anyway.

Hmm, I need to bake something this week so I can take some pictures ...

My first official blog EVER

2007-06-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

So, I've had this blog for a few months now. And finally, I feel confident enough to actually use the blog, which is quite the adventure ...

I've quickly become inspired by all of the food blogs that I stumbled upon by accident and quickly grew to love. I want to bake the beautiful desserts that they put together on what seems like a daily basis ... and better yet, I want to take pictures of these treats that are equally as beautiful (I'm not likely to accomplish this second part, as I commonly have my finger covering part of the lens). La Tartine Gormande was the first "food blog" I ever read, and I've been in love ever since. Mine may not be as beautiful, nor my food as fancy or creative, but at least I'm drawing from great inspiration!

Hopefully this will help show off my baking and figure out if, some day, I want to leave my beloved office job behind and venture down the path of a pastry chef ... we'll see what happens!