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.

The Microwave Cake Experiment: Part 1- The Chocolate S'more Cake

As you know, I have been without an oven for about 9 months now. This means I've done a lot of experimenting with stovetop and no bake desserts.

I've whipped up a plethora of yogurt flavors, a few of which I've blogged about here. I also like making cinnamon apples.

Last week, I had an epic fail trying out a stove top cobbler. The bottom was burnt, the top dough was raw.

Soon after, a friend brought by some muffins she made in the microwave. They were delicious! So it got me thinking back to the mug cakes I'd seen floating around the interwebs.

Today, I tried making the 5 Minute Chocolate S'mores cake from How Sweet Eats.

I didn't have graham crackers but I did have a few shortbread cookies leftover so I crumbled them to use as the crumb. In the future, I think if you don't have the graham crackers, just skip the crumb crust.

I layered the batter with marshmallows, as suggested, and it filled about 3/4 of the mug. I was concerned that it was too high, but I also thought that the marshmallows might melt down a bit, like they do when baked in the oven.

I was wrong.  After a minute and twenty seconds in the microwave, the top of the cake exploded out of the mug and all over the microwave.

Once, I got that cleaned up, the cake tasted pretty darn good. It was rich and chocoaltely. Towards the bottom, it was a little dry, but the rest of the cake was great. Maybe next time, I'll omit the cookie crust and start with a layer of marshmallows, to help keep the cake most.

Oh, and unless you are able to torch or broil them there is no need to top the cake with additional marshmallows, they don't get gooey enough.

I drizzled the top of the cake with shortbread cookie chunks rolled in leftover melted chocolate. mmmm----mmmmm good!

 

That cake on the side of the mug? It's leftover from the explosion!

 

Next week I'm planning on trying a blueberry coffee mug cake.

 

Here's to happy baking!

 

PS: Have you had any experiences with microwave baking?

Plum Yummy

I mentioned in this post that I was experimenting with turning my yogurt into dessert to compensate for my lack of oven.

Plums are in season now and are going for much cheaper than my usual summer favorite, peaches. So, I decided to play around.

I peeled, pitted and chopped 4 small plums.
I put them in a pot with a cup of water,  2 tablespoons of sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I let the mixture boil until the plums broke down.
I strained the mixture, retaining the liquid in a separate container.

I chopped and additional small plum or two and mixed with some plain or Greek style yogurt. I added the puree and stirred it in. In the future, I would leave out the extra chopped plum and just relish the creaminess.

The puree is totally delicious enough to eat on its own. It's warm and comforting. It's almost like the plum version of apple sauce.  But, as I mentioned before, I like the melty effect you get when you mix warm fruit and cold yogurt.

If you are using regular sized plums, I would only use two. These were real babies.

I retained the syrup with the intention of pouring it warm over my next yogurt. In the end, I drank it straight from the Tupperware container....mmmm!

As a side note, I also like chopped fresh plums mixed in with plain yogurt. It gives you a nice crisp taste, much like peaches and cream...but with er..plums.

Enjoy!

How do you like your yogurt?

Girl Scout Cookie Challenge

Long overdue, but here is a picture of my Girl Scout Cookie Challenge, for which I decided to make (drumroll)....Samoas Brownies! I used the recipe posted on the Back for Seconds website, and the brownies were super easy and delicious. My friend and her fiance had us over for dinner that day, and usually when we have dinner dates I try to make time to bake something...and then end up running out of time and having to run to the store and buy some yucky pre-made dessert, and then rearrange it on a nice platter to pretend I might have made it...but everyone always knows when they bite into something whether it was store bought or made from scratch at home ;) SO, it was really nice to actually show up with something that I had made with love and care, and that turned out delicious as well. This pictures shows the ganache, which was heavy but still very good. The only thing I might do differently next time is add a little bit more coconut as well....

It's Cookie Time!!!

Luisa,

Your beignets look delicious! I think I'll be trying my hand at some form of fried dough in the near future. 

Your next challenge is to make a dessert incorporating Girl Scout Cookies.

You can make a homemade version of a beloved cookie or use a cookie to add extra oomph to another sweet treat. The choice is yours!



Source : http://www.alannageorge.com/2013/02/20/printable-keep-calm-i-have-girl-scout-cookies/

PS: What's my next challenge to be?

Long Overdue Breakfast Baking Challenge!

In honor of these slightly ridiculous but much appreciated snow days I figured I would go ahead and get caught up on my last baking challenge! What's also nice about this last challenge is that I had some extra help in the kitchen by my cousin, who has moved back in to live with my family and I for a while and is also a natural when it comes to baking!

My challenge was to make a breakfast food...and it took me a long time to figure out what to make! But as I was browsing some options on Pinterest I came across of picture of Beignets, which are kind of like a deep fried donut, French style...and yay recipe! These also remind me of Princess and the Frog, which I just really love! Now, they traditionally considered a dessert food...but really, I think I would eat these for breakfast too!

The recipe was very simple, I followed this New Orleans Beignet Recipe  from Souther Living which had step by step PICTURES which is always much appreciated because I am a very visual learner. The only slight mishap we had was that the flour was somewhat more sticky than expected, but after a while we just started balling up dough in whatever shape we could get. Fried dough is just that, regardless of what form its in ;) They traditionally are eaten right after being fried, so I made my parents sit at the table and stuff their faces as we made them. Here are some pictures of our adventures...and a special extra one in honor of "snow day 2014".

My special helper, Jenn! She helped me make the batter while I was at work, which was way helpful!

My interpretation of a snowman. #idon'tknowhowtoreallymakeone

Deconstructed Apple Pie a la Mode

As you know, I love to bake.

I also love pie.

Chocolate pie. Blackberry pie. Cold blueberry pie. Peach pie. Chocolate Rum Pecan Pie. Peanut butter pie.
I think you get the picture.

I found some recipes for fried hand pies- apple, pecan and otherwise that I may try later.

To satisfy my craving I concocted this recipe:

I cook apples with butter, sugar and cinnamon until they are tender. I usually make enough apples for two servings.

 

I crumble either a graham cracker, cookie or brown sugar cinnamon Poptart to give me the crust feeling. I've considered crushing them fine, dousing in butter and making a legit cracker crust but it seemed like too much effort at the time.

I layer the apples on top of the "crust".

 

Top with plain yogurt while the apples are still hot. This makes for a gooey  melted ice cream effect.

 

For an extra kick, I sprinkle either cocoa powder or cinnamon or a combination of the two on top.

There is sugar in this treat but you can control how much to your liking. You can also omit the crust altogether, or chose the lighter alternative.  Overall, I'd say it's still a fairly healthy treat, especially compared with the real deal holy field apple pie.

I'm craving...breakfast!

Luisa,

Your next challenge (after you post your wonderful Halloween craftiness) is to make (from scratch) one of the following breakfast items.

Your choices are:

• Doughnuts (baked or fried)
• English Muffins
• Bagels
• Hot Cross Buns
• Danish or Strudel
• Croissants

Enjoy an extra one for me!!

Lime and White Chocolate Cookies

Luisa challenged me to make something tropical inspired.

I tossed around many ideas for desserts starring mango and guava. My mouth was watering!

But living in PA I couldn't find any extracts or concentrates for these fruits.

So I settled for cookies inspired by Legally Delish.

She created lime white chocolate marshmallow sandwich cookies to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

I started by following her original recipe, but ran into trouble when I began to sandwich the cookies. The cookies crumbled apart.

So I sacrificed the sandwich idea and dipped them straight into white chocolate and sprinkled them with lime zest.

Double Trouble Part 2: Chocolate Avocado

Awhile back Lu gave me an either/or challenge but I like both options to much that I decided to try them both. The first, a coconut macaroon cookie came out wonderfully.

The second option was to make something combing both chocolate and avocado. I drooled over chocolate avocado cookies, milkshakes, cakes and truffles. I settled on truffles because I took a clad in Scotland and I haven't made them since I left (the word left just triggered a tear!).

The recipe I used is :
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Candy/AvocadoChocTruffles.htm

And I hated it. Okay....let me explain.

The recipe calls for way to much powdered sugar. Way more than you could ever combine into the other ingredients. I improvised an added some melted butter. I was able to get most of the sugar worked in. The rest that didn't blend went into the trash.

The usable portion did taste good. I used the truffles as 2 layers in a peanut butter chocolate trifle and received good comments on the "really rich bits of chocolate".

Lu challenged me to make something tropical inspired for my next challenge.

Passion Fruit Challenges

On one of my last days in Boston I went to the Danish Pasty House (the one mentioned in my last post!) and in my state of sadness about leaving I ordered a big slice of their passion fruit cake. And it was the BEST slice of cake I've had in a loonnnng time. There's something about the tartness of the filling that makes it very appealing to me, probably because it's not a taste that I've had much exposure to. Anyways, when I got back home I couldn't stop obsessing about the cake so I decided to try and make my own version.

This recipe for Six-Layer Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Filling comes from Food&Wine.com, and it is by far one of the more complex recipes I've tried. There were a lot of ingredients involved and a lot of time periods where I was just waiting (for the cakes to cool, for the filling to firm up, for the frosting to firm up as well....so much waiting!) The other reason this was tricky for me was because it was supposed to have SIX layers, and it was challenging for me to cut through the three original cakes I had made without cutting the layers too thin, because then they would fall apart as I would move them...So as you can see, the six layers were reduced to three because I was much too panicked that I was going to ruin the cake. However, the downside to only having three layers is that each layer was heavier than it was supposed to be, meaning the filling would come out down the sides (!!!)

I'm usually pretty laid back in all aspects of life, but not with my baking. And I was probably the most Type A I've ever been while baking this cake (my family and boyfriend evacuated the kitchen because I was just awful!) I get very bossy and very irked when things don't go my way, and in addition to the layer trouble I also had some challenges with the frosting, which I may have overwhipped because it was a little difficult to spread. But overall, the cake turned out well given all the challenges! I do wish I had made the filling a little sweeter because it was a little more tart than expected, but the cake itself without anything added was soooo delicious, it was moist and soft it's a good recipe to hold onto for other baking challenges.

I added some toasted coconut on top and ta-da! It was well worth the headache.

My next challenge is to make a dessert that is "wet and cold" and dense, like a tres leches cake or something along those lines...Rachel sent me some recipes so I'll decide soon!

2 Baking Challenges...One Post!

So, my banana bread challenge was from March...my Pinterest challenge in May and I gave myself a "wet and cold" challenge for July...so here they are all together all at once, in order to make up for my procrastination!

However, first I wanted to mention some fun baking-related adventures I had in Boston, since they were delicious and fun memories that I would like to preserve and share with others.

If anyone is ever visiting Boston and wants to try a deeeelicious bakery, one great one that I visited was Flour Bakery + Cafe. There are several locations, with the original being in Boston proper and the other in Cambridge, which is the one I visited. My roommate and I had heard great things about their sticky buns so we ventured out one Sunday and were lucky enough to grab some seats and sticky buns! They lived up to the hype and were incredibly messy!

The other place I wanted to mention isn't as popular as Flour because it is in Medford, which is several miles outside of Boston and right down the street from my apartment! The Danish Pastry House was a really cute cafe that I would go to frequently while I was at Tufts, and while their danishes and kringles were always yummy, my favorite thing to get there was their carrot cake:

The decoration is wonderful, which is something about my own baking that I would like to improve on. Their frosting always looks neat and smooth!

Okay, so now for my challenges:

Challenge 1: To make a variation of banana bread

Result 1: I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the outcome, but I made this banana bread back in April one one of the weekends when we were STILL getting snow! I got the recipe from My Baking Addiction for Rum Coconut Banana Bread (!) and it turned out very well for me. Rachel and I are two rum lovers and the taste of the rum was subtle but still present in the bread. It was a really cool twist on traditional banana bread that gives it a tropical flavor, which was really neat. 

Challenge 2: To make a recipe off of Rachel's Pinterest Board

Result 2: For this challenge I chose to make Cheesecake in Jar, which is one of the challenges I saw Rachel had pinned. This dessert was so simple and truly adorable:

 

I just realized I must be a fan of My Baking Addiction, because that's where this recipe came from too! I would recommend using smaller mason jars than the ones I did...I'm on a poor girl's budget and had to make do with what I had! Additionally, I like my cheesecake with caramel or fudge...something wet on it. That's just personal preference but I would recommend including that, and also using graham cracker crumbs in the recipe because I think some crunch always makes things better. 

Homemade Nutter Butters

I came across a pin of these last week and knew I had to make them. I traced the pin back to its original source and, lo and behold, it came from one of my all time favorite websites- Kitchen Belleicious.

I just love her motto "Fearless in the kitchen." And it pays off so well for her too!

So I challenged myself to be fearless and to make a batch of homemade Nutter Butters, a cookie that I adored as a child and that my mom uses in her banana pudding. Her website cautions against making the full batch of cookies as it makes so many. So, I decided to make banana pudding to use a good many of the cookies and then I took the rest in to work today. Boy did they fly off the plate!

They weren't as cute as I'd hoped but they tasted AWE-SOME. Way better than actual Nutter Butters.

They aren't as crunchy, but you could use crunchy peanut butter in your filling to give you more of that effect. The recipe can be found on her website, but I'll share my pictures with you here.

Make logs and roll in sugar

Use a fork to make the crisscross pattern

Pinch the middles to make the peanut shape.

Bake, fill and EAT!

 

 

Fresh Peach Turnovers

Oh man!

These puppies are GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

Luisa challenged me to make a turnover, my choice of flavor. I looked at nutella, blackberry, apple, cherry and mango recipes.

And then I walked through Aldi and could smell the fresh peaches. I had to have them. I had to have them seasoned with nutmeg and enveloped in warm flaky dough.

holy moly

I would make these just to be able to drink the "juice" from cooking the peaches in nutmeg and cinnamon. Mostly the nutmeg. I love that stuff.

I am also a huge fan of using fresh fruit whenever possible. It is so much...well fresher.

I used my handy dandy "empanada maker" to shape the pastries and it worked fabulolusly.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-peach-turnovers-126965?layout=desktop

PS: these are 17 year old nephew approved. (not saying much since the kid puts sugar in his grits!)