What's Baking?

Over the past month or so I have done a lot of baking and dessert creating!

I made:

• Heart shaped, Chocolate Frosted Brownies with Roasted Cherries

• Creme Brulees with Luisa!

• Beignets with Luisa! (Pro tip: Make sure the oil is the correct temperature)

• Brownies

• Brownie Pie (A brownie crust topped with sliced cherries and blueberries with whipped cream , brownie chunks and a chocolate sauce)

• Cherry Ice Cream

• Chocolate Dipped Meringue Cookies

• Peanut Butter Banana Cake (This was supposed to be my Triple Threat Cake but the chocolate layer crumbed. The crumbled chocolate layer became chocolate cherry dessert!)

• Chocolate Cherry Dessert (I rolled the cake crumbs into balls and topped with cherry whipped cream and walnuts. Yummy!)

• Peanut Butter Pudding (I measured the cornstarch on this one in tablespoons instead of teaspoons. It was like peanut butter flavored glue! Yuck!)

• Mojito Bars

Cinnamon Rolls are Challenging!

Our newest challenge was to make cinnamon rolls. I had a good bit of strawberries sitting in my fridge so I searched Pinterest for some tasty ideas and found this one!

From scratch cinnamon rolls take a lot longer than I anticipated!

Some of my rolls didn't rise as much as I thought they would (research says whole wheat flour rises less) and I think this recipe doesn't make enough of the filling as most of my rolls were not deliciously cinnamon-y until you got to the dead center. However, the frosting and strawberry filling were spot on. The strawberries mixed with cream cheese and cinnamon was a heavenly combination.

As much as I hate the ingredient lists on a lot the pre-made cinnamon roll dough, it would be very easy (and delicious) to "cheat" by using the pre-made dough and spreading in some strawberries!

Lu, let me see your cinnamon rolls :)

Banana Upside Down Cake

For my birthday cake this year I made a banana upside down cake. I made the same banana cake I used in the triple threat challenge with the addition of 1 tsp of cinnamon. Before pouring the cake in the pan, I mixed together 3/4 cup brown sugar and 6 tablespoons melted butter. I spread that in the pan and topped it with slices of banana. I poured the cake batter over that.

I'm baking at my friend's house and she didn't have cake pans so I filled two of her pie pans with the batter. Only one pan had the bananas on the bottom.

After the cakes cooled I stacked them and frosted them with fluffy peanut butter frosting. I decided to pour dark chocolate ganache on top but in the end I wish I hadn't because the ganache was to heavy and rich. This cake is really light. If I made it again, I'd leave off the ganache but add some cinnamon to the brown sugar and butter mixture. I, also, think that if frosted it should be a cinnamon frosting.

Cookie Time!

Since I have been baking from Korea, I have baked exactly twice. My New Year's resolution is to up that number just a tad.

The first thing I made was a hot (spicy) apple pie which was delicious.

The second thing I made was a big batch of black sesame chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. My recipe can be found here and I was inspired by Joy the Baker's chocolate chip cookies.

The black sesame seeds make the cookies taste really toasty and a little nutty. I'm not going to disclose how many of these babies I put away in one day. I think I'm going to have to include black sesame seeds in all my chocolate chip cookies from now on. It can be my secret weapon  ingredient.

So, Ms. Hotglue, now that I am back in the land of ovens and fully stocked grocery stores, I am ready for a new challenge!!

In the Kitchen Goals

This year I want to learn and do:

1. Make vegetable stock regularly.

- I can and do make chicken stock pretty often but I haven't tried making vegetable stock yet.

2. Learn to make beef gravy.

- I have no problems with chicken gravy but for some reason my beef gravy just doesn't turn out right.

3. Make a fried dessert.

-Being oven-less, I figured this is a good way to try and get some baking in. Doughnuts, beignets...any other ideas?

4. Make a rice cooker cake.

-Another option for the oven-less. I gotta learn how to read the buttons first.

5. Try brownie pancakes (with peanut butter sauce?).

-Noticing a theme here? I'm wondering if I can use brownie batter to make pancakes with since I don't care for the texture of microwave brownies.

6. Learn to make tortillas.

-I've made tortillas before but they were a bit on the dry side. I want to perfect the recipe so when I go home I can have tacos and burritos galore.

7. Learn how to make a Korean dish from scratch.

-I really want to learn how to make dakgalbi and miso soup so that Mike can have his two favorite Korean foods after we move home.

Double New Year's Challenge and a Dare

Hotglue!

In the spirit of the new year and making resolutions I have 2 challenges for you:

1. Bake up something that sounds healthy (i.e.: vegetables, fruit, oatmeal or other healthy sounding ingredients play a star role in the name)

2. Create a list of baking and/or cooking resolutions. I'll share mine with you too.


Oh! And I almost forgot the dare.

Dearest Luisa, I double dare you to cook and something from this list of important recipes to know before you're 30. I can't believe how quickly we're approaching that mark.

Stovetop Blueberry Crisp

This recipe was cobbled together by my sister Mara. She was inspired by this recipe from William-Sonoma.

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter
2 packets instant oatmeal (I used maple brown sugar flavor)

Method:

Cook the blueberries in a little water until the juices start to come out. Pour into serving dish.'
Melt the butter. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the sugar is melted. Stir to combine. Pour over the blueberries and serve hot.