Learn from my mistakes!

Not very lovely, is it?  With all my baking of late, there are quite a few mistakes sprinkled in the yummy.  Not that the mistakes taste bad, they just aren't what they should be.

And, unfortunately, I don't know what I could have done differently to fix all the mistakes.  For example why did the center of my Molten Lava Cakes not rise?? Or perhaps they fell?  Either way, they've never done that before!  And I have made A LOT of Molten Lava Cakes!

Or why did my meringue on the Lemon Meringue Pie weep?  Is that even what it's called when the meringue sort of melts?  Was it too hot?  Was it the humidity?  This is the second time (in two different states) that this has happened to me.  Should I just give up on meringue all together and make Lemon Cream Pie instead?

Other mistakes I know EXACTLY what went wrong, and it was completely my fault. My blind bake pie crust seen above is a perfect example.  Please, when you are going to bling bake pie crust, don't put the egg wash onto the pie crust until after you've baked it.  Otherwise the parchment paper holding the dried beans will, in fact, stick to the pie crust and make a huge mess. 

Also, when making Fresh Strawberry Pie (because your pie crust is ruined for the intended Lemon Meringue Pie) and you think it's brilliant to put a chocolate ganache in the bottom of the pie, wait till the ganache is set before putting the strawberries in.  It might taste good either way, but what a frightful looking thing!

Some new recipes should be taken with a grain of salt.  Some techniques need to be improved.

At least the family still enjoyed tasting the experiments!

 Let's eat!

Let it be known...

...I am going back to work!

I had the summer off from working.  I got to play with the family, go to the pool almost everyday, and catch up on a few things.

And what a FUN summer of all this baking!

My super-sweet, amazing, indulgent husband was a trooper through it all!  He didn't complain about the extra heat from the oven being on.  He washed dishes for me.  He put up with loads of baked goods in the house.  Okay, he really liked that part, actually. 

And it was crazy fun for me.  I learned I can tackle any recipe.  I learned to not be afraid of trying new things.  I proved a lot of things to myself as well.

Now, it's not coming to an end.  I still plan to do a lot of baking on the weekends and the occasional weekday here and there.  But it's going to slow down significantly.

PLUS:  I am announcing here that I am going to start taking orders and will bake for you!

I can't run a storefront bakery (yet?), but this is something I can do!  And I am so excited!  I'll be posting a menu and prices soon!

So, if you've liked what you've seen, keep me in mind for special occasions, holidays, or just a fun treat!  And tell your friends!

Unfortunately, Texas laws say I can't ship. :(  But, you are always welcome to come here! ;)

I can't wait to see what my new adventure brings!!

Let's eat!!

Birthday Donuts!

My son had a birthday this week. The beginning of his last year in single digits!  And he's my baby!!

I thought it would be fun to surprise him with donuts when he woke up that morning.  My kids all thought they looked like donuts worthy of Homer Simpson.  I have to say, that's exactly what I was going for...score!

Now, I have to preface this by mentioning that these are baked donuts.  I don't like to make fried foods.  Makes such a mess and I worry about all that hot oil.  But I do have a donut pan! So these work great for me!

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk

Glaze:
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
2-3 tablespoons milk
food coloring and sprinkles (optional)

IN a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer gently whisk together the melted butter, vegetable oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture. And gently sir till  you can't see anymore streaks of flour.

Add half of the milk and gently stir.

Alternate again between the flour, milk, and flour till everything is incorporated.

Spoon or pipe the batter into a well-greased donut pan.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes, till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Completely cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the glaze by whisking together the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and milk until you get your preferred consistency.

Put the glaze into a smaller bowl so it is a little deeper for dipping.

Dip one half of the donut into the glaze, turn over and allow to rest.

But, before it hardens don't forget to decorate with sprinkles!  Or, as my children are calling them now for some reason, jimmies.

Let's eat!

Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy's Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnut.

Raspberry Bombe

The other day was National Raspberry Bombe Day. Seriously.

I thought it would be fun to create an easy to make version.  Really I wanted to see if I could use my mold and have it successfully come out. Spoiler alert: it came out.


Ingredients:

48 oz Raspberry sherbet
1 pint Orange sherbet
Fresh raspberries (optional, but why wouldn't you opt in?)

The trick was oiling the mold really well. Get it in all crevasses. 

Soften the raspberry sherbet by stirring.

Place it in the mold leaving some room in the middle.  As you can see in the finished product I could have pushed the sherbet better into all the nooks and crannies.

Place the mold in the freezer and allow it to freeze over night.

The next morning soften the orange sherbet using the same method.

Place the orange sherbet in the hole in the center of the raspberry sherbet.

Freeze until ready to serve that evening.

Carefully remove the mold.  You may have to pry the sides out a bit.  And it plops right out!

Top with fresh raspberries, cause, YUM!

Not the neatest. But it was fun to do and opens the possibilities of many ice cream cakes in the future!

Let's eat!

Raspberry Blueberry Jam

Raspberries. Blueberries. I'm tempted to call it Blaspberry Jam so as not to stumble over my words and make it cute.  Whatever it's called, it's delicious.

I've used this recipe for years.  It's super easy and super yummy.  However.  It is a refrigerator jam.  I don't know what (or if) you have to change to be able to process and keep in a pantry long term.  But it goes quickly so you can make a couple batches and keep it in the fridge, or give some away to friends! When I made it this time I doubled the recipe and filled 3 pint jars.  Two will be given away!  Much to the chagrin of my children. But such is life.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen raspberries
1 cup fresh blueberries
2/3 cup honey
juice from 1 lemon

Place the frozen raspberries to a saucepan over medium heat. Heat up until the juice begins to come out of the berries. 

Add the fresh blueberries, honey, and lemon juice.   Mix well and cook for about 5-7 minutes over medium heat.

 
Reduce the temperature to low and cook until the berries have all exploded.  I like to help the berries explode by smooshing them up against the side of the pan.  I like them to cook at this point over very low heat for quite a while, up to 30 minutes sometimes. 

Carefully spoon the hot mixture into clean jars.  Cover loosely and let sit on the counter till mostly cool.

Then cover tightly and store in the refrigerator up to two weeks.  Share with a friend if you make too much!

 Let's eat! Spread on a yummy bread.  My kids loved it on the toasted Sourdough Bread I recently made.

Recipe adapted from PaleOMG's Raspberry Blueberry Jam.

Sourdough Bread Attempt #1

Okay, so this recipe gave me some trouble.  I believe it was due to my sourdough starter....failed starter.  But after some finagling I was able to make a decent bread rather than throw out the dough.

I'll post the original recipe that I started with and if you have a working starter, you'll have more success than I.  I'll also put the changes that I made.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 cups active starter
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt

Measure the milk, water, melted butter, and honey together in a glass measuring cup.

Measure out the sourdough starter and put in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add the wet ingredients to the starter, whisk together.  Then add the whole wheat flour and the all-purpose flour. 

Mix thoroughly.  Cover and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes add the salt and knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes.

Transfer to an oiled bowl and allow to rise 3-4 hours.

{Now, here's where I had problems.  My dough wouldn't rise.  Even if I put it in a warm spot...no rise.  So, I had to improvise, cause I didn't want to through this dough in the trash.

I put a cup of warm water (110-115 degrees F) in the clean bowl of a stand mixer along with 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Over the top I sprinkled 1 tablespoon of yeast and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  When it was all foamy I added 2 cups of all-purpose flour.  When it was all incorporated I started adding my other dough a little at a time, along with a bit more flour as needed. 

There was so much dough after this that I had to remove it from the mixer to hand knead it, adding more flour (the cup of water may have been too much) until it reached a good soft, springy dough.  I put the dough in an oiled bowl, covered, and let it rise for 45-60 minutes.  This time it doubled in size!!  Hooray!}

Divide the dough into 2 loaves {my amended dough made 4 loaves}, shape into an oblong loaf, put on a parchment lined and floured  baking sheet.  Put a little more flour on top of the loaves.  Use a serrated knife and cut marks on the top. Allow to rise another 45 minutes, covered with a clean, dry towel.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 30 to 40 minutes.  {If making more than 2 loaves you'll need to bake them at the same time, so switch sheets top to bottom, etc., halfway through the bake time.  Also halfway through rotate the sheets front to back.}  Another thing I did was to spray water into the oven every 5-8 minutes to create steam to help the loaves get a nice chewy crust.

Despite all my problems it came out really nice, with a great texture and crumb.  And my family loved the flavor!

Not quite the sourdough I envisioned.  Guess I'll have to give it another whirl!

Let's eat!

Recipe adapted from Home Joys Soft Sourdough Bread.

Cinnamon Zucchini Cake with Browned Butter Frosting Part 2: Frosting

Browned Butter.

It is one of my all-time favorite flavors.  It's rich and nutty, almost smelling of toffee.  So different than plain butter. And so unique.  I have plans to try browned butter in many ways!

If you've never browned butter before it can be tricky, because you have to watch it very closely.  It seems like it's never going to get there. Then, all of a sudden, it's perfect. Then, suddenly, it's burned.  And you have to take it off the heat at the right moment.  I took a ton of (pretty awful) pictures.  But I think they get the stages across pretty well.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter (I use salted...I like the flavor better)
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup cream
5 1/2 - 6 cups powdered sugar

In a small saucepan over medium low heat begin to melt the butter.

Once the butter is completely melted turn the heat down to low.

The melted butter starts to get pretty bubbly.

Then begins to foam up.  Stir frequently at this point so you can see the bottom of the pan under the foam.

Even more foam!  Keep stirring!

All of a sudden, you see tiny brown bits as you stir.

Take it off the heat.  The bottom of the pan has little browned bits when you move the foam out of the way.

That, my friends, is browned butter.  Smell it. Delicious, right?

Allow the hot butter to cool for 10 minutes. Then add to the bowl of a standing mixer.  Add the vanilla and 1/4 cup of the cream.  Then add half of the powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.
 

Add the remaining 1/4 cup of cream and mix.  Add the rest of the powdered sugar (adding in more if desired) till you reach the consistency you want.

The browned butter gives a nice color to the frosting and, again, a rich taste that is simply divine.  Can you tell yet that I kinda like browned butter?

Spread over the cooled cake.  This recipe only makes enough for the top of a 9x13 inch cake.  So if you are making a layered cake you'll want to double or triple the recipe depending on what filling you use.

Let's eat!

Cinnamon Zucchini Cake with Browned Butter Frosting Part 1: Cake

Heaven. That's what this is.

I've been gearing up for fall coming looking at all the yummy spicy things to bake and just couldn't wait on this one, because zucchini are on sale and looking good NOW!

I'll be posting just the cake recipe today.  Tomorrow you'll get part 2 with the best frosting ever...Browned Butter Frosting. You are in for a treat.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or butter!...that would be delish!)
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups (2 medium) shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl beat the eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, both sugars, and vanilla.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold in gently until there are no longer any streaks of flour.

 Add the shredded zucchini to the cake batter and fold in.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. 

Bake for 3-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.

Tomorrow....Browned. Butter. Frosting. Mmmmm.....

Let's eat!

Recipe adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff Cinnamon Zucchini Cake.