the barmy baker

Pan Marino (Rosemary Bread)

2009-07-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Ah Rosemary. I love rosemary.
Since moving to California, I've discovered I can have rosemary growing in a pot outside year round. This was a huge discovery, as I'd never been able to keep rosemary alive for the winter months in Wisconsin (perhaps my thumb wasn't green enough, perhaps I wasn't growing it properly, perhaps I should have let the rosemary winter inside...). Anyway, I also love bread. And when one combines rosemary and bread it's just heaven. Heaven on the nose, heaven in the mouth. It has a yum factor of 11 (I know, the yum factor only goes to 10, but it's just that good). So today I present to you Pan Marino! This is my go-to bread for many meals, but mostly I love this bread with soup. I'm making a corn and "sausage" chowder for dinner this evening, so naturally I'm making some rosemary bread to go with it.

I think I've babbled on enough! I'm guessing you understand that I love rosemary and bread and when combined it makes me so very happy! So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Rosemary Bread (Pan Marino), makes 2 Batards:

1 ounce yeast (active dry)
8 ounces (1 cup) H2O
8 ounces (1 cup) Milk
1/4 cup fresh Rosemary, chopped fine (if you like even more rosemary in your bread, by all means add more)
3/4 ounce Salt (I use kosher salt for this, but any salt will do)
2 pounds of Bread Flour
3 ounces Olive Oil
Kosher Salt to sprinkle over the loaves before they go into the oven
-------------------------------------------------
1. Place the active dry yeast, the water and the milk into a large bowl. Whisk to moisten the yeast and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the salt for sprinkling, and mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Turn this out onto a lightly floured work surface (I use a wooden cutting board) and knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. This will take 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Form the dough into a ball and place it into an oiled bowl that is large enough to allow for the dough to double in size. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and allow it to rise for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface:
Gently press the dough down and divide the dough in half:
Shape the loaves...I press each half into a rectangle shape, fold up the bottom third of the loaf and then begin tightly rolling the top of the rectangle towards me. When I am at the end, I press the ends together with the heel of my hand to seal the seams together. I then roll the loaf back and forth a bit to "taper" the ends with my hands. This is how I form a Batard:

5. Place the batards onto a sheet pan that has been sprinkled with corn meal (I use a baking stone, so I place them onto a cutting board that is sprinkled with corn meal, and then use that as a peel when I want to slide the bread onto the stone), spray them lightly with a bit of oil and cover with plastic wrap (or a damp cloth) and let them rest for about 40 minutes, or until you can press your finger lightly into the loaf and the indentation just stays. At this point, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

6. When the loaves are ready to go into the oven, uncover them, spray them lightly with water, sprinkle them lightly with the kosher salt, give them a good few slashes (I use a double edged razor blade attached to the end of a chopstick...a serrated knife will do, or a lame, if you have one):
Place them in the oven (or slide them if you are using a peel and baking stone), if you have a way to add steam to the oven, do so (I have a really old pan that I put in the bottom of the oven, and add hot water to after the bread is on the stone), set the timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, lower the oven temp to 400 degrees F, give the bread a turn, and then let it bake anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes longer, depending on how dark you like your crust. The bread should feel light when you take it out of the oven.

7. Allow the bread to cool, if you are able..really, it's best to let the crumb cool and set up! Although bread right out of the oven is lovely. Slice and serve!

As I mentioned above, this is great with soup..it's also wonderful sliced thin with a drizzle of olive oil, a smear of goat cheese and a little toast time in the oven. Mmmmmm.

Enjoy!

Summer Pudding Unmolded

2009-07-04T19:20:00.001-07:00

In keeping with my promise of photos of the Summer Pudding after it's overnight chill, here you go!

The whole Pud:

Pudding innards:

I have to report that the Summer Pudding was as delicious and light as I had hoped it would be! The perfect berry ending to a wonderful Fourth of July. I garnished it with some unsweetened whipped heavy cream. Yum!

Happy Independence Day to those in the USA!

Well Hello There!

2009-07-03T16:33:00.001-07:00

It's good to see you. How have you been? I know, I know..I've been away a long time. I understand if you don't forgive me, but I thought I'd try to win you over with some nice photos and a little recipe. How does that sound? I understand if you are reluctant...I've been really unreliable about posting anything here for over a year and I cannot say for sure how often I'll be posting again, but I am going to make an effort, I am (my goal is one post per month)! I'll stop apologizing now and get to the recipe!

The 4th of July is tomorrow and I thought I'd try making Summer Pudding. Yes, nothing says Happy Independence Day like a British Dessert! But if you look at my ingredients, they are very patriotic colors, right?

Raspberries, Blueberries and Strawberries are a lovely Red and Blue. Paired with some White Bread (crusts cut off) or Angel Food cake and you've got a great 4th of July color scheme!

So, what does one need for this dessert? It's so simple, and I'm hoping for super delicious, but I won't know until tomorrow when I unmold it (Picture will be posted once the unmolding has taken place...really it will. I know, it's hard to believe me after such a long absence, but a photo will happen).

Summer Pudding:

1 loaf of day old white bread (you want something with a tighter crumb here and stale makes for better soaking of the juices... Wonder bread will not work, it will turn to mush) with the crusts cut off, or one Angel food cake (which is what I am using, bread is traditional, but I thought I'd give the low sugar angel food cake a try)'

2 cups of fresh ripe strawberries
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup fresh blueberries
(I'm saying fresh for all the berries, but I have a feeling that frozen would work just fine. Fresh is what I have on hand, so that's what I'm using)
1/4 cup sugar
Cream or Ice cream to garnish (optional, of course)

So, here's what I did:
1. Line a 6 cup capacity bowl with food film leaving enough to hang over the sides so you can wrap the pudding once you have it assembled. Slice the bread or angel food cake into 1/4 inch slices (cut off the crust if you are using bread). Line the bowls' bottom and sides with the bread (or cake), leaving a few slices for the top:2. Place the Raspberries, blueberries and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the berries release some juice. Remove from heat and let cool:3. Mash the strawberries either in the food processor (just pulse it a few times) or with a potato masher, which is what I did (this is just a photo of the initial mashing. I mushed them up a bit more until they were rather saucey):4. Mix the strawberries together with the raspberry/blueberry mixture, and pour into the bread (or cake) lined bowl:
5. Place a few slices of bread (or cake) over the top to cover the berries like so (or you can be neater about it):
6. Wrap the cling wrap over the top of the bread to seal it in and then place a plate that is just smaller than the bowl on top and place a can of something on that to weigh it down:

(I don't have a photo of it weighed down, but you get the idea)
7. Refridgerate overnight and unmold the next day (I'll show the turned out pudding tomorrow, complete with garnish).

What you are hoping to achieve is a lovely fruit soaked bread-y pudding-y brightly colored dessert. We shall see tomorrow if I have achieved that! Photo's to follow!

Do you forgive me for my absence yet?

Nothing Says "Happy Valentine's Day" Like Tiramisu (Really, Nothing says "Happy Any Day" Like Tiramisu )

2008-02-11T01:06:00.000-08:00

Yes G and I are one of those sappy couples that got engaged on Valentine's Day. I never was a fan of sap, but really, this kind of sap was quite all right for me. So, this year I wanted to be nice and sappy and make one of our favorite desserts, tiramisu. Tiramisu is yum. Tiramisu is comfort dessert. Tiramisu can be made with store-bought ladyfingers, but why use those, when you can make your own fresh ones at home with loads of egg whites, yolks, a piping bag and whipping utensils?

If you want more information about this wonderful dessert, you can check out this entry about Tiramisu at Wikipedia, they also have an informative entry about LadyFingers.

So, to begin your tiramisu, you will need to make (or buy) some ladyfingers (I chose to make them because well, I'm a bit nutty and I like the fresh ones). There is no shame in buying these already made:

Ladyfingers: (I decided to make more of a tiramisu cake then just plain ole tiramisu, so this will make 2 piped layers of lady fingers and then enough fingers to line the outside of the "cake")

8 egg whites
8 egg yolks
7 1/2 ounces granulated sugar, divided in two parts, one being 3 ounces and one being 4 1/2 ounces
6 ounces sifted cake flour (I confess to having no cake flour on hand, so I am using all-purpose, shhhh don't tell the lady finger gods)
________________________
-Preheat oven to 425F.
-Line a few sheet pans with parchment. If you are going to to make this like a cake you will want to pipe circles of the ladyfinger batter the size of your springform pan (or a little smaller actually) by tracing the pans onto the parchment and placing that parchment on the sheet pans marked side down (you don't want ink in your lady finger cake..well, you might, but I don't recommend it). Have a piping bag with a large plain tip ready to go.
-In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whipping attachment (Or you can whisk by hand if you are strong of wrist, I whisked these by hand because, well, as I said earlier, I'm just plain nuts) place the egg yolks and 3 ounces of sugar. Whip on high until the mixture is thick and light lemon colored. This is called a "cold sabayon".-Place the egg whites in the bowl of a mixer with a whip attachment (I used my mixer for these, cause I'm not that crazy, my arm was unhappy with me after doing the sabayon..geesh, I'm out of practice). Begin whipping the whites until they start to become a little foamy and then start to slowly add the 4 1/2 ounces of sugar. Whip a bit between each addition. You want your whites to be a medium peak, like so:-Take 1/4 of the whipped egg whites and fold them into the yolk mixture to lighten it (this is called "sacrificing" always sounds neat to "sacrifice 1/4 of the whites"). Gently fold the remaining whites into the yolks until it is just about blended, then add the sifted flour and fold until it disappears into the batter.-Fill your piping bag with the mixture and pipe out the cake rounds (I'm doing 2 thin ones)

and then pipe out your fingers (you want them to be fairly even in length as they will be used to decorate the outside of the cake). Pipe the rounds so they are about 1 inch smaller than the diameter of your springform pan. You can just make all fingers if you want to go for a more traditional tiramisu layered in a square pan.
-Lightly sprinkle the tops of the ladyfingers with powdered sugar, and bake for about 5 to 10 minutes at 425f.
-Cool on a rack and if not using the same day, store in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers.
*Please note, I had forgotten that my original recipe was more of a production recipe (I haven't made these in ages) so the amount of batter I have is insane. I have halved the recipe here for you, so don't worry if your batter appears to be a bit less than what I have. I have ladyfingers coming out of my ears.....I'll be freezing them. No wonder my arm hurt from whisking the yolks. Don't be surprised if you see them show up in the future*

Now that you have your dainty little ladyfingers, you can make the tiramisu soaking syrup and the wonderful loverly insides.

Soaking syrup for the Ladyfingers:

2 cups of coffee or espresso (I had espresso powder on hand, so I made 2 cups of it)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Rum (some people use marsala in the syrup, some people use rum, some people use other things....depends on how you are feeling or what you have on hand)
________________
-Mix these three together and if you feel the need to adjust sugar amounts or other amounts, do so. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and allow to simmer until the mixture is reduced by about 1/4. Place in a shallow container for dipping if you are using all finger shaped ladyfingers , or in something else if you are using ladyfinger rounds (really like a sponge cake) and will be brushing on the syrup.

And now for the mascarpone goodness...

Tiramisu Filling (I made a double batch of this because I was being very enthusiastic, the single batch listed here should be plenty)

3 large eggs, separated
3/4 cups sugar
1 container mascarpone cheese (16 ounces or about 2 cups)
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp orange liqueur (you don't have to add liqueur to the filling, I just like the slight citrus touch it gives...you could also add marsala wine, or rum, or whatever you feel like adding..)
______________________
-Beat the yolks and 1/2 cup sugar by hand -or with your mixer and a whip attachment- until the yolks are thick and light in color (just like you did for the ladyfingers).
-Add the mascarpone to the yolk mixture and beat until just blended.
-Whip the heavy cream and liqueur (if you are adding booze) in a chilled bowl by hand or machine until it holds soft peaks.
-Whip the egg whites in your mixer with the whisk attachment until they are just foamy and then slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar while whipping on high speed. You want medium peaks again, as for the ladyfingers.
-Fold the heavy cream into the mascarpone and yolk mixture, sacrificing 1/4 of it first to lighten and then gently folding in the rest. Then fold the whites into this mixture.
*the filling does have raw eggs in it, so if this bothers you, there are other recipes you can find online that use no eggs*

Begin Assembly.

Springform mold: Take the first cake layer you piped and place it in the bottom of the spring form mold. Place a ring of ladyfingers around the edge of the pan. Brush the cake layer with the coffee syrup until it has had a fairly good soaking and spread 1/3 of the tiramisu filling over the top. Repeat this with the remaining layers ending with a layer of tiramisu filling.
Generously sift cocoa powder over the top, gently cover and chill for 6 hours or overnight to allow it to set up. Decorate with chocolate shavings or strawberries or however you would like. This is not really a firm set, so if you go this route, take care when you slice the "cake" as it will be soft, but not unmanageable. I skipped the berries and chocolate shavings for my presentation, however I think a few chocolate shavings would be really really nice. And maybe a raspberry or two as well.

Layers of ladyfingers: dip each ladyfinger into the coffee syrup and place in the bottom of a square pan. Cover the layer of fingers with half the mascarpone mixture, do one more layer of ladyfingers, one more layer of mascarpone. Sift cocoa powder over the top and allow to chill for 6 hours to overnight.

Enjoy!
Happy Baking, and Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

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How Barmy Got Her Groove Back

2008-02-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, more like how I'm working on getting my groove back. I decided that I needed to just start browsing my baking books again, this was a daily habit of mine awhile back and when I lost my baking mojo I just kind of let the books sit on the shelf collecting dust. I have now turned to one of my favorite (also a favorite of many many other people)baking books, left my baking mojo to fate and let the book fall open to where it would. As I'm a bit rusty on the blogging bit of things, I'll just get right to it and present you with the Double Apple Bundt Cake from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It was quite a fortunate fall open, as it was a recipe I hadn't tried yet from the book and the ingredient list reads like heaven. So without further ado, on to the recipe!

Double Apple Bundt Cake (from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours) :

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I do think next time I'll add a full teaspoon of cinnamon)
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (I don't really measure my fresh ground nutmeg, I just grate it over the flour and guess when it's enough..mmmmm, fresh ground nutment...)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 Tbsps or 5 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup store bought apple butter, spiced or plain (I didn't have any of this on hand, but I had quite a few apples. I made them into a cranberry applesauce and then cooked that down to apple butter consistency the day before I baked this cake. I used approximately 7 apples peeled and sliced, 1/2 cup cranberries, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and a few grates of fresh nutmeg. Cook it over medium heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan, puree once the apple are soft and then continue to simmer it over low low heat until it reduces by about half.)
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated
1 cups pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (I have my seemingly endless supply of booze soaked raisins, so I used those here...the ones I currently have on hand are soaked in bourbon)
Confectioner's sugar or Icing to finish (optional, Icing recipe to follow)
_______________________

-Preheat oven to 350f and position a rack in the center of the oven.
-Butter and flour a 9 to 10 inch Bundt cake pan.
-Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.
-With a stand mixer and paddle attachment, or a hand held mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for about five minutes on medium speed.
-Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each before adding another beating one minute for each addition.
-Add the apple butter on low speed. The mixture may appear curdled when you add the apple butter, but that's ok!
-Mix in the grated apple on low speed until completely blended in.
-Continuing on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix only until the flour just disappears. Gently fold in the raisins and nuts.
-Scrape the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth it out evenly.
-Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes or until a little knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
-Cool the cake for five minutes on a rack and then turn the cake out of the pan. Let the cake cool to room temperature and then either wrap it up, or dust with confectioner's sugar or ice and serve!

the Icing:
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp or so of fresh orange or lemon juice
____________________
-Mix together until you get a nice smooth consistency and drizzle over the finished cake.

This cake is moist and delicious, the smell of my apartment was just heavenly. I'll make this again and again for company. Really that's all I can say about it...need I say more?

I do hope G's coworkers enjoy it!

Serve it up with your favorite beverage of choice. I enjoyed my little slice o' heaven with a nice cuppa.

Happy Baking!

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My Apologies and Promises of Things to Come...

2008-02-05T09:46:00.000-08:00

The title says it all. First of all I just need to apologize for my long absence with no contact or posts what-so-ever. I know I left some of you hanging and I don't feel good about that. I seem to have fallen out of my serious baking mode and have been waiting for the time when I could jump back into it again. I'd say I am back in, but not all the way...maybe just the tip of my pinky is back in baking mode, but it's something and I'm going to hang onto it and hope it spreads! I believe I'll be baking and posting once a month to start until the rest of me can get fully back into the swing of baking more often. Now this is not to say I haven't baked...I did bake around the holidays (most of the things I baked I had posted last year).

Secondly, I'm sure some of you might wonder what I have been up to the past few months if baking had taken a back seat. Well, I got bit by the knitting bug and was filling my days with some serious knitting for my Etsy store. I then received this beauty for Christmas and have been a fiber-loving-yarn-spinning-and-dyeing fool since it's arrival.

So, look for a new recipe post from me in the next few days! It will be so nice to be back in the swing of things again! I'm thinking perhaps apples....hmmmmm...

My Second Daring Baker's Challenge, and I'm in Love

2007-09-30T03:25:00.000-07:00

I can't express how pleased I was to see this month's challenge. Marce of Pip in the city was this months wonderful hostess and she choose the sticky bun/cinnamon roll recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, a book that I couldn't recommend more. Peter Reinhart was my breads teacher back in 1999, and the man really does an excellent job of sharing his techniques and love of all things yeasty.

Now I've procrastinated this challenge just about down to the last minute. We are all posting this on the 30th, and it is the 29th at 8:30 PM. I have just mixed up my dough, and expect to be shaping these babies in about 2 hours time. I've decided to go with the cinnamon roll version of these, as I've already posted some sticky buns here on my blog awhile back.

The complete recipe can be found on Marce's blog Pip in the city, as it's very late here and I should probably consider sleep sometime soon, I'm just going to go with photos of the process and some comments! So, here goes....

This is the dough just out of the mixer, the bowl is lightly oiled as is the dough. This is a very soft silky lovely to touch kind of dough. I love working with enriched doughs for their feel alone:

After 2 hours and 45 minutes of bulk rising time, the dough looked like this:
It's a bit hard to tell from the shot, but it had indeed doubled in size, It just doubled more out than up.

After the dough has doubled, it gets rolled out to about 12 by 14 inches (well, it did for me, as I was opting to make the larger rolls):
I then sprinkled (well, it's more like spread, this is a lot of cinnamon sugar) the cinnamon sugar mixture over the dough leaving about 1 inch free of sugar so that I could seal it up after I rolled it:
The dough is then rolled up into a nice long roulade and sliced into about 12 pieces(for the larger rolls):
The pieces are left to rise, covered, for about 1 1/2 more hours and are then baked for about 20 to 30 minutes:

The icing for the cinnamon rolls in this recipe makes quite a bit, so I think next time I would only make a half batch of it. I have quite a bit leftover and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it currently. I've found the best way (aside from using my hands) to apply the icing is to dip a fork in it and wave it back and forth quickly over the warm rolls (they should only cool for about ten minutes before you apply the icing). You can make whatever kind of pattern you like with it. I'm a big fan of the crosshatch:

These are delicious cinnamon rolls with a really nice hint of lemon flavor that cuts the sweetness a bit. Best savored with a nice hot cup of tea!

You can see how all the other wonderful Daring Baker's did with their challenges by clicking on the Daring Baker Blogroll link on the right hand side of this blog!
Happy Daring Baking, and a big thanks to Marce for this wonderfully relaxing challenge! And now I'm off to bed...

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A Sure Sign that Fall is Here.........Pumpkin Cheesecake!

2007-09-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of fall. I love the changing colors of the leaves. I love the musky smell of piles of leaves wet on the ground. I love the cooler nights and shorter days. I love using it as an excuse to bake lots of things with pumpkin in them. So today I present to you a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Graham crust finished off with pecan nougatine(fancy word for caramelized sugar with nuts thrown in, usually almonds, but pumpkin and pecan are just so nummy together). I'm not the biggest cheesecake fan, but I do love this one. As I'm feeling a bit short of words today, I'll just give you the recipe!

Pecan Graham Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I just whirred a bunch up in my food processor)
1 cup ground pecans (ditto on the above technique)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
___________________
-Prepare a 10" spring form pan by buttering it and placing a parchment paper circle in the bottom.
-Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whirrrrrrrr it until it resembles moist sand.
-Press into the bottom of the spring form pan and set aside.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (filling adapted from Marcel Desaulnier's Death by Chocolate: The Last Word on a Consuming Passion)

2 pounds room temperature cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound (2 cups) pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 tsp ground cloves)
____________________________________________
-Preheat oven to 300f.
-In the bowl of a food processor combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt and process, scraping down the sides every once in awhile, until smooth.
-Add the eggs one at a time, processing well after each addition.
-Add the vanilla, pumpkin puree and spices and process until well blended and smooth.
-Pour the mixture over the crust in the spring form pan, wrap the bottom of the spring form pan in aluminum foil.
Before Baking:
-Place the spring form pan into a baking dish deep enough to hold a water bath that will go about 2 inches up the sides of the spring form pan. Place this into the oven and fill the baking dish with water 2 inches up the sides of the spring form.
-Bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes, or until the cheesecake is slightly pulling away at the sides and jiggles like jello (it will continue to set up as it cools and it will pull away from the sides once it is completely cooled). Turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool inside with the door propped open for about one hour, remove from oven, let cool at room temp another hour, then refrigerate overnight.
After Baking
After chilling overnight and unmolding:Pecan Nougatine:

1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice
1/2 cup pecan pieces
_____________________
-Place sugar, water and cream of tartar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat to boiling and allow to boil, swirling the pan a bit, until the sugar has turned a nice golden brown (also wash down the sides of the pan a bit as the sugar is cooking with a pastry brush and some water, or for the first three minutes of the boil, cover the pan and let the condensation wash down the sides for you).
-Once the sugar is a nice golden brown, stir in the pecan pieces. Pour mixture immediately onto a buttered sheet of aluminum foil or a sheet of parchment paper. Do not touch, it is hot! Allow to cool and then break into desired pieces, and place on pumpkin cheesecake as you like!Slice, dollup with whipped cream if you want and enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea, or cider, or coffee or........

Happy baking!

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Getting High with Hi-Hat Cupcakes

2007-09-13T18:40:00.001-07:00

I believe it was a year or two ago, before I started my little blog, that I first heard of Hi-hat Cupcakes. I then found a recipe for them on Martha Stewart's site. I then searched a bit more and found quite a few people had terrible issues with the recipe on that site (which doesn't surprise me, as the recipes there tend to be hit and miss) and had worked out their own way of making them from trial and error. I set the idea to make them aside and it got buried in my ever churning thought process. Hi-hats seem to have broken through to the surface of my brain with perfect timing. I need an excuse to get out of this terrible slump I've been in. I know you've all noticed it. I haven't baked for weeks. I was lucky that I had baked the tart for my Daring Baker's Challenge early in the month of August, or I don't believe I would have completed my first challenge. I'll just say mid-month August we had a bit of a shake-up here at Casa del Barmy Baker, I was derailed for a bit but now I believe things are returning to some sort of equilibrium. I just need to kick myself in the arse a bit and bake.
I have decided to just combine a few of my favorite things ("Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favorite things....Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels. Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles..." sorry about that, I just had to try get it out of my head by embedding it in yours) and try to come up with something that resembled a Hi-hat. The recipe starts with a chocolate cupcake. No problem there, I have my wonderful, moist fabulous chocolate blackout recipe to use for those(these cupcakes also bake up very flat-topped and i think this will help with the mounds of marshmallow). They are topped with a marshmallow topping that looks suspiciously like a very thick Italian Meringue (where very very hot sugar syrup is whipped into egg whites), which I have no problem making and can pretty much just wing it on that. Then the topping. It seems this is what was giving people the biggest problem. When they tried to dip the cupcakes into the chocolate coating it was too thick and killed the marshmallow. Well, I'm going to try the chocolate and oil mixture to dip them in and see how I fare. If it doesn't work well, I'll try a ganache. So, with those three favorite things of mine, I present to you my idea of how to get high(hat cupcakes).

Chocolate Blackout Cake (makes 20 cupcakes, or one nice 9x12" pan o' cake) This recipe first appeared on my blog here

2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cocoa powder (natural, not dutch-processed)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
4 ounces melted butter
1 cup brewed coffee (I used instant espresso powder in one cup boiling water)
3 large eggs
_____________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f
-Prepare 2 muffin tins by lining with 20 or 21 muffin liners.
-This is just like making a quick bread. Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.
-Mix together the wet ingredients, Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. This will be a fairly wet batter.
-Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling until about a quarter of an inch from the top of the liner.
-Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
-Remove from oven, let cool in pan about 10 minutes and then finish cooling on a rack. Place the room temperature cupcakes in the refrigerator while you make the Italian meringue. These cupcakes (or cake if you make one from this recipe) do tend to taste better the next day after the flavors have all come together.

Italian Meringue: (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

1/2 cup (4 egg's worth) egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp corn syrup
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract (or if you want to flavor this with something else, feel free. As you all know, I have a terrible vanilla habit...the original recipe only calls for 1 Tbsp, but I added 2 as a nod to my addiction)
_______________________
-Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer.
-Place the sugar, water and cream of tartar in a heavy bottomed saucepan with a candy thermometer placed on the side of the pan dipping into the mixture. Bring the mixture to 238F.
-When the sugar syrup is about 10 degrees away from 238F, begin whipping the egg whites to firm shiny peaks. If the whites get to this state before the syrup is at 235, turn your mixer to low speed and just let them keep moving.
-Once the syrup is at 235 and your egg whites are firm and pretty, Carefully (hot sugar=ouch, I know from past experience) and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites with the mixer running on high speed. Don't worry about any spatter on the sides of the bowl, it happens and won't effect the final product. Add the vanilla extract and continue whipping the egg whites until they cool to room temperature (I also add about 1/2 tsp salt, as I like my icing a bit salty with the sweet). Once the mixture is cool, scoop it into a pastry bag fitted with a large piping tip (or you can just use a plastic baggie with the corner cut off to pipe).

-Pipe coil mounds on top of the chilled cupcakes, mounding each high to form the marshmallow "hat". Place the cupcakes in the refrigerator and make your chocolate coating.

The first coil goes on like this:
Then you want to do a second smaller coil:
and a third coil:
Until it looks something like this:
I have yet to decide if these all standing together look like a Michelin Man convention or a forest of soft serve cones:

Chocolate coating:

14 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used a 72%)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
______________________________
-Place chocolate and oil in the top of a double boiler (I just use a stainless steel bowl) and place over just simmering water and let sit about 5 minutes, then stir until chocolate is melted and you have a nice smooth dipping chocolate.
-Scrape the melted chocolate mixture into a deep container (one that is narrow and deep enough to dip the "hats" in). Dip your cupcakes in one at a time, allow excess to drip off and place the cupcakes on a rack over a sheet of parchment to catch the extra drips.
Here is the forest of Hi-hats:

-Put in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to set up. I believe these also can be stored in the fridge for a day or so. G will be taking them to work tomorrow morning, and I'm sure I'll hear how they survived the night in the cooler.

Happy Baking!

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Daring Bakers.....Yep, that's right, I said Daring Bakers....

2007-08-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Normally I'm not a big fan of gangs. I don't condone drive-by shootings or hazing or any of that sort of thing. However, every time I watched this "Gang" in action, I knew I had to get in on some of that. Any gang that thinks slinging hot sugar and beating butter and sugar into submission is my kind of gang. So, my "hazing" begins with this, my first challenge as a Daring Baker. Being a member of this gang means being able to challenge yourself once a month with a recipe chosen by a fellow Daring Baker. Everyone has to follow the same recipe as stated by the host. The nifty thing is seeing how each of us interprets the exact same recipe and how everyone ends up with something just a bit different from everyone else. It is definitely a great way to keep pushing one's skills and knowledge, something I'm very keen on. This month's challenge is being hosted by Veron of Veronica's Test Kitchen and Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen. They have chosen to challenge us with a Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart. Now, I'm not the biggest milk chocolate fan, but paired with caramel and a hazelnut crust, really, how can you go wrong? You can't! We were allowed a few changes to the recipe, the only change that I made was to use less cinnamon in the tart crust (I used half the amount stated in the recipe), otherwise I followed it to a T.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart from Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Baking Time: 30 minutes
Refrigeration time: 1 hour
One 9-inch(24-cm) square pan; 1 10-inch (26-cm) round baking pan

Ingredients
½ lb (250 g) chocolate shortbread pastry (see recipe below)
1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (250 g) heavy cream (30-40 percent butterfat) or crème fraiche
¼ cup (50 g) butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 ½ tablespoons (15 g) flour
1 ¼ cups (300 g) whipping cream
½ lb (250 g) milk chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 325 °F (160 °C).
2. Line the baking pan with the chocolate shortbread pastry and bake blind for 15 minutes.

My tart dough was nicely chilled for rolling:

The dough rolled out quite well for me:I did have a few areas of the tart that I had to patch up (the dough got a bit warm before I was able to transfer it): The shell is lined with parchment and filled with beans for blind baking: The baked tart shell:

3. In a saucepan, caramelize 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar using the dry method until it turns a golden caramel color. Incorporate the heavy cream or crème fraiche and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
Dry method caramel: Put your sugar in a pan:
do not stir it, just swirl the pan as the sugar begins to melt and you will end up with this: I did nuke my heavy cream a bit before adding it to the caramel, because cold cream and caramel just don't mix well (seizing occurs). Even with the cream already heated, it did seize up a bit on me, maybe that was the butter's fault, but I just let it boil a bit as I stirred:
And I ended up with a beautiful deep amber caramel:

4. In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.
5. Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.

6. Spread it out in the tart shell and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Caramel layer before baking:
And after baking (at this point I put the tart into the fridge to cool off for about an hour)
7. Prepare the milk chocolate mousse: beat the whipping cream until stiff. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie, and fold it gently into the whipped cream.
8. Pour the chocolate mousse over the cooled caramel mixture, smoothing it with a spatula. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.
My mousse was a bit on the liquidy side, but it did set up nicely after about two hours in the refrigerator:
The tart sliced nicely after being chilled:
To decorate: melt ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar in a saucepan until it reaches an amber color. Pour it onto waxed paper laid out on a flat surface. Leave to cool. Break it into small fragments and stick them lightly into the top of the tart.
Chocolate Shortbread Pastry

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration :overnight
To make 3 tarts, 9 ½ inches (24 cm) square
or 10 inches (26 cm round)

Ingredients:
1 cup (250g ) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (150 g) confectioners’ sugar
½ cup (50 g) ground hazelnuts
2 level teaspoons (5 g) ground cinnamon
2 eggs
4 ½ cups (400 g) cake flour
2 ½ teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g) cocoa powder

A day ahead
1. In a mixing bowl of a food processor, cream the butter.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar, the ground hazelnuts, and the cinnamon, and mix together
3. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing constantly
4. Sift in the flour, the baking powder, and the cocoa powder, and mix well.
5. Form a ball with the dough, cover in plastic wrap, and chill overnight.
This is how my tart dough looked before I put it in the refrigerator overnight:

All in all the tart was pretty good. I think the crust could have been more chocolatey. The caramel filling was nice, but I thought it tasted a bit eggy. Otherwise, I think this was a wonderful first challenge for me and I look forward to many more fabulous Daring Baker Challenges.

If you want to check out how the other Daring Bakers fared, and believe me, you do, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll. You'll see many many talented bakers with beautiful blogs!

Happy Daring Baking!

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Happy Birthday, Blog!

2007-08-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today my little baking blog is 1 year old! Break out the party hats and noisemakers and start celebrating! I can't believe it's been a year already. What have I learned in my year of blogging? I've learned that in the world of blogging exist many kind, supportive and incredibly talented individuals. I've learned that my love of photographing food things is not going to fade away. I've learned that I do indeed love encouraging people to try scratch baking in all of it's wonderful forms. I am beginning to learn to be a little less shy (I am terribly shy, I have trouble leaving comments on blogs sometimes, because I'm just that shy). I've learned many other things (a little html, etc...) that I won't bore you with. Instead, as it's my blog's birthday, why don't you check out my first awkward day of posting here(you just need to scroll down to the bottom of the page for my first two posts from August 22). After you check that out, why don't you enjoy a nice piece of cake, put on your silly hat and help my blog blow out it's birthday candle (my blog doesn't have great lungs)! I have loads of apples so today I give you:

Apple Upside Down Chiffon Cake (adapted from Baking with Julia: Sift, Knead, Flute, Flour, And Savor... written by Dorie Greenspan):

The Topping:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
3-4 apples, peeled and cut into 8 pieces each (I'm actually not sure what kind of apple I have for these...they were given to us by G's friends who grow their own. This recipe originally calls for nectarines which would be awesome in this as well)
__________________________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f.
-Wrap the bottom of a springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent any dripping.
-Cut the butter into chunks and put them into a 10" springform pan (3"high) and place over medium low heat to melt the butter. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter and pat it down. Arrange the apples over the sugar in a decorative way (however you like).
-Set aside.

The Streusel:

1/4 cup hazelnuts, peels removed (the recipe calls for almonds, but I have hazelnuts onhand, so that's what I'm using)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 stick cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup quick cooking (not instant) oats
__________________________________________
-Toast your hazelnuts in the oven on a sheet pan for about 8 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and cool before proceeding.
-Line the sheet pan with parchment.
-Put all of the ingredients for the streusel into the bowl of a food processor and pulse just to mix the ingredients and chop the hazelnuts and butter. Should be rough and crumbly.
-Spread the streusel out onto the pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown. It will smell heavenly. Allow to cool while you prepare the cake.

The Chiffon Cake:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt, kosher if you have it
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup vegetable or safflower oil (I'm using vegetable)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites
______________________
-Sift together 1 cup sugar, the flour, baking powder and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, add the salt.
-In a large bowl, whisk together the yolks, oil and lemon juice until blended. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the yolk mixture, whisking. Set aside.
-Beat the 6 egg whites in a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment(or do it by hand if you are feeling strong-of-wrist). Starting at low speed, beat the whites until they are foamy and form very soft peaks. Increase your speed to medium-high and slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until the whites are thick and shiny and hold peaks. Fold about 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it (this is called "sacrificing"), then turn the yolk mixture into the egg whites and fold gently until thoroughly blended.
-Scrape half of the batter into the fruit-lined pan, smooth the top with an offset spatula, and sprinkle the streusel over the top (reserve a little bit to decorate the baked cake). Top with the remaining batter and smooth. Place the pan on a sheet pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, mine actually took a good hour and 10 minutes to bake, the top(bottom) started to get to dark, so I had to tent some aluminum foil over to keep it from getting darker). Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool at least 25 minutes before inverting onto your serving platter.
-Enjoy warm and naked (the dessert, not you...well, if you want to be warm and naked, who am I to question it?), or dress it up with some ice cream or whipped cream.

This cake is good. I mean, wow, it's got a yum factor of 11 out of 10. The hazelnut streusel combined with the moist lucious brown sugar coated apples is out of this world. My blog could not have asked for a better birthday cake!

Happy Baking!

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Sourdough Bread At Last

2007-08-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

So this is the last day of the sourdough bread saga (for now, until I do some other flavors and such). I took the little loaves out of the refrigerator at 10:30am. It is now 2:40pm and the loaves just went into the oven at 500f with some "steam"(I have a really old pan that I sit in the bottom of my oven-it's electric-and let it heat with the oven and the baking stone, when the bread has gone in I dump some already boiling water into the hot pan in the bottom of the oven and then shut the door quickly. I check after 10 minutes and then remove the pan if necessary and turn the oven down at this point). Here's exactly what I did:

Sourdough finale:
-Pull your loaves out of the refrigerator 4 hours before you are going to bake them. Leave them bagged or wrapped in plastic wrap and let them just sit out. If it's very hot where you are this may take a bit less than 4 hours.
-About half hour before you want to bake your loaves, heat your oven with the baking stone (if you have one, if not, turn your loaves out onto a sheet pan sprinkled with cornmeal or polenta) to 500f, or as hot as it will go. If you are going to use a pan for steam, heat this in the oven at this time as well. Get some water simmering.
-Once everything is in place, gently turn your loaves out of their baskets (if you free-formed them, you can bake them right on that sheet pan) onto a peel or other surface coated with coarse ground cornmeal or polenta (this aids in sliding the bread off the surface and onto the baking stone). Slash your loaves however you like (I just did one long slash diagonally down the center), slide them into the oven, pour your hot water into your pan and shut the door to allow the oven to steam up (do this all with caution, if this scares you or you think your oven won't like it, then just maybe use a spray bottle to get a bit of steam going). Leave the door shut for 10 minutes. Turn your oven down to 425f and check the loaves again in 15 minutes, they may need to be rotated. I keep the loaves baking for a total of 45 minutes, with rotating and checking on them about every 15 minutes. When they are a lovely deep brown (I like my breads a deep golden) and they feel light for their size, remove them from the oven and cool to room temperature.I was very pleased with the crust and the crumb of this bread. The crust was chewy and crunchy and the crumb opened up nicely with irregular holes. The flavor of this was actually very light. There are only very faint sour undertones to the bread and it is delicious. I am sure with a little more time Dudley will develop a bit more flavor as he is fed and ages. Yum!
Happy baking!

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Sourdough Bread: Part 2 (Spawn of Dudley Grows Up)

2007-08-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

(snug as a bug in a rug, cute little Dudley spawns) This bread does indeed take 3 days to make(actually it can be done in two, but the second day is a long one), but it is well worth it. Yesterday I made Dudley (the starter) into a firm starter aka Spawn of Dudley (which is just a less hydrated form of the starter). That firm starter rose at room temperature until it was doubled in size (about 4 hours) and then it went into the refrigerator overnight to slow down the yeast and develop flavor (slower fermentation aids in flavor development). That was day one. Today, the firm starter will join up with a bit more flour, water and salt and it will be one step closer to being bread. This is the recipe for Basic Sourdough Bread adapted from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. You will need:

Basic Sourdough Bread (makes two 1 1/2 pound loaves):

firm starter, removed from the refrigerator one hour before you want to mix up the dough, and cut up into 8-10 pieces, covered with plastic wrap (this will help remove the chill from the starter)
1 pound 4 1/4 ounces (4 1/2 cups) unbleached bread flour or high-gluten flour
1/2 ounce (2 tsp) salt
12 to 14 ounces water (the book calls for lukewarm, but I tend to use room temperature or even a little cooler)
_________________________
-Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bow, add the starter and enough water to bring everything together as you mix it (you can use a spoon, your hands, or a mixer with a dough hook on low speed).

-Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled with flour and knead by hand for 12 -15 minutes, adjusting the water and flour as you go.
It will look like this right out of the bowl:
At about 5 minutes into kneading your dough should look about like this:
And after 15 minutes of kneading it will look like this:

You want a somewhat firm and tacky dough. You'll feel it change as you are kneading it, it will become more elastic as the gluten develops and smoother as the flour becomes more hydrated. Alternately you use the mixer with a dough hook and mix for 4 minutes on medium speed, allow the dough to rest for 8-10 minutes and then mix for another 4 minutes). Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled large bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment like that for 3 to 4 hours or until nearly doubled in size:
First in the bowl at 2:55pm (Pacific):The growth of the spawn at about 6:55pm:
-Gently turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it into two pieces (about 22 ounces each).
Shape the dough as you would like. I'm using oval shaped bannetons (which are proofing baskets...you can get expensive ones or you can go to goodwill and get some baskets. Either will work, you just have to line them with cloth-I'm using "flour sack towels" and then dust generously with flour) so I'm shaping my dough into stumpy batards that will fit into the bannetons.Be careful while you shape so as not to knock out too much of the gas that has formed in the dough. You want to degas as little as possible so your sourdough will have lovely fairly open crumb. Also note, that if you are using bannetons or baskets to place the bread in seam side up, make sure your seams are fairly secure. Mmmmm, I can't wait until this is baked tomorrow. You can also do free form loaves, just make sure the sheet pan you are going to have them rise on is dusted with cornmeal or semolina flour. When your loaves are comfortably nestled in their rising apparatus, mist the tops with some pan spray or oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap, or I'll be placing mine in this handy dandy huge 10 gallon zip lock bag (I'm not sure where he got them from, but G found them for me for bread and they rock).
-At this point, you can do one of two things. You can proof your loaves for 2 to 3 hours to bake the same day, or you can retard them in the refrigerator overnight for more flavor development. I prefer to retard them overnight, so into the fridge go the spawn of Dudley, and we will continue with this tomorrow! The first step tomorrow will be to remove the loaves from the refrigerator about 4 hours before you plan on baking them. Fingers crossed that the spawn of Dudley does well and makes some nice loaves...

Happy kneading!
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Spawn of Dudley! (or beginning a sourdough bread from the starter...)

2007-08-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

So, I'm thinking Dudley is mature enough to reproduce. I'm hoping he's got enough character developed, but if not yet, well, then next batch should be better. I'll be using Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread to guide me along the way. So, what you want to do is, before you feed your starter, take out 4 ounces (about 2/3 cup) and set it aside. Then weigh out 8 ounces of your starter and feed it as usual. You will also need: 4 1/2 ounces of unbleached bread flour (or high gluten flour if you have it) and 1 to 2 ounces of water (1/8 to 1/4 cup).

(4 ounces of Dudley, 4 1/2 ounces bread flour, 1 to 2 ounces h2o)
This is for the "Firm Starter" which is just a fancy way of saying a less hydrated bit of starter. You want to mix these ingredients together to form a ball. You only need knead (I've been waiting to use that) this for a little bit until the flour is uniformly hydrated and there are no discernable lumps.
You will then put your spawn of -insert the name of your starter here- in a container that allows it to at least double in size (spray the container with some pan spray), cover the container and allow it to sit out for 4 hours at room temperature (or until it doubles in size..it may take longer or shorter than 4 hours).
After which you will put it in the refrigerator overnight. I'll post photos of the Spawn of Dudley in about 4 hours before he goes into the fridge.

(when we last saw Spawn of Dudley, he was looking like this:)

(and now a bit shy of four hours later, he looks like this:)
(that is his proud papa "Dudley" behind him. Dudley tends to triple in size or more now when I feed him).

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two of the Sourdough Bread!

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Perfectly Pale Green Pistachio Pound Cake

2007-08-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for an excuse to make this wonderful cake. I've had some pistachios left over from a previous baking adventure and had decided that they would be perfect in a pound cake. I've made this particular cake before plain and have used pecans in it as well (I love it with pecans, yum) and decided that it was time to try it out with pistachios. I was hoping they would lend great taste as well as a nifty color to the pound cake. Traditionally pound cake recipes are just that, a pound of butter, a pound of eggs, a pound of flour and a pound of sugar. I've never tried that particular recipe, I think I shall someday soon. Anyway, my excuse to make this comes in the form of getting to meet some of my husband's friends this weekend. They will be joining us for some tea and conversation this Saturday and I will be making a few nice things for us to nosh on. This is one of them:

Pistachio Pound Cake: Makes one 9" cake round or two 7x3" bread pans or one bundt pan (method is important in the making of this pound cake, as there is no chemical leavener used. The creaming of the butter, and beating in of the eggs will help to give the cake rise)

8 ounces (one cup or two sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
12 ounces sugar
optional: one drop of green food coloring (usually I hate to add food coloring to baked things, but I admit that I cheated and added a drop to this)
5 eggs at room temperature
6 ounces all-purpose flour, sifted with the pinch of salt
pinch of salt
1 cup finely ground pistachios (I toast the pistachios at 350f for about 10 minutes and then let them cool before grinding them)
1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste (or you can use the same amount of vanilla extract)
1 cup whole pistachios
_________________________
-Preheat the oven to 325f. Prepare your baking pan of choice with butter and flour.
-Cream together the butter and sugar (and the drop of food coloring if you are using it) until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes.
-Add the first four eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition, reserve the fifth egg. Add the vanilla and blend in.
- Add the flour and salt mixture and the ground pistachios and mix on low speed until the flour has just started to disappear.
-Add the fifth egg and mix to incorporate.
-Fold in the whole pistachios.
-Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when pressed with a finger.
-Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert and finish cooling on a rack. Serve alone or with whipped cream or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

This cake does freeze fairly well. Just wrap it up snug in some saran wrap and freeze it for no more than 2 weeks(you could freeze it longer,but the quality will diminish as it does for most baked goods that are frozen).

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Sourdough Starter: Quick Update

2007-08-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

Dudley the starter is doing well, his feeding will progress today as it has the past few days. Same amounts of flour and bottled water, same discarding half before I stir in the refreshment. The smell of the starter is a nice light sour and the action is quite lively. I'll be feeding him one or two more days, and then I hope to be starting to bake with the starter either mid week or on the weekend. I'll post my sourdough bread baking once I begin...otherwise, feedings will be the same every day!

Bread Baking Day #2 Roundup

2007-08-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

Becke of Columbus Foodie has posted the fabulous roundup for Bread Baking Day #2: Bread with Fruit. So give her a visit and check out all the mouthwatering interpretations of the theme! You'll find quite a few breads there that will make you run to your kitchen and start mixing. Bread Baking Day #3 has been announced and will be hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatien. She has chosen "Bread with Sourdough (preferably rye started..ah well, mine is a wheat starter, but I'll work in some rye)". Should be another great event, join in the fun!

Sourdough Starter #4: Third Feeding

2007-08-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

(24 hours after last night's feeding)

Things are looking very good for Dudley the sourdough starter. He's doubled his size since his last feeding about 24 hours ago. He's developing a light sour smell (to some it may seem a bit much, but to a baker, it's a wonderful scent). He's bubbling away and full of life. This third feeding is the same as the last two. I'll be discarding half of the mixture and whisking in 4 ounces of bottled water (bottled because tap has chemicals that wild yeast doesn't much care for) and 4 ounces of unbleached bread flour, I will be returning him to his home and doing at least one more feeding before I think about making a loaf with him, more than likely I'll do two more feedings(just to make sure the starter is strong enough). Once the startter is where I want it to be, I can refridgerate to make the yeast much more dormant (feedings will still have to take place, but much less often). I'm hoping that I'll be baking with this enough to not have to refridgerate the starter...we shall see.
(after today's feeding)

Tune in for the next feeding tomorrow (I might just post a few photos and a link to these posts, as I feel like I'm being quite redundant now).

(edit: this is Dudley 5 hours after this last feeding, going strong!):

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Sourdough Starter #3: The Second Feeding and Bubbles

2007-08-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

(Bubbly action!)

I was a little over enthusiastic last night when I noticed Dudley growing. He didn't quite double in size, but remained about an inch above his marker line. It's a great sign. He's also got loads of bubbles on his surface and throughout, so he's becoming quite active. So, I'll be feeding him with the same method that I used last night, discarding half of the starter and then stirring in 4 ounces of bottled water and 4 ounces of unbleached bread flour, putting the mixture back into it's home and then waiting to see if there is any growth tonight. When you are measuring the starter to discard it you should also notice that the mixture has been developing gluten. This is most noticable in how elastic and stringy your starter will be. I am predicting there will be, and I'm sure I'll post any considerable movement.

(whisking in the flour and water) (Dudley has now been fed....stay tuned)

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Growth.....

2007-08-04T00:07:00.001-07:00

Dudley, the sourdough starter, is showing good growth about seven hours after his first feeding. He's almost an inch above the rubber band marker now! I'm very excited! So,. he will either be down in the morning or have more growth...time will tell, as always. I'll keep you updated at the next feeding. Yay!

Dudley at his last feeding (last post):

Dudley now (about 6 hours after his first feeding..looking good)

This is sooo cool, he's going to double his size tonight I think! Woooot!

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Sourdough Starter #2: The First Feeding and The Naming..

2007-08-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

(This is the starter before I feed it.)

I must admit at this time that my starter doesn't appear to have a whole lot going on inside. This is pretty normal though. Usually you cannot expect a whole lot of activity after the first 24 hours. I've noticed the smell has changed a little bit, it's still smelling sweet like whole wheat flour does, but it's got a slight (very slight)hint of sourness going on. This smell will pick up and become pretty bad in the next day or two, but then it will mellow over time.

Day 2 feeding:

Scrape the starter into a bowl and discard half of it (about 8 ounces). Add 4 ounces of water and 4 ounces of unbleached bread flour and stir until smooth. scrape contents back into your sourdough container(because we are using unbleached bread flour, the mixture will be a bit more slack, as bread flour doesn't absorb as much water as whole wheat flour does), cover and let rest another 24 hour. Hopefully by tomorrow there will be more signs of life. If there is any extreme bubbling tonight,which I don't expect, I'll snap a photo of it. I think the fact that we keep our apartment fairly cool is making for a slower starter. Or my first start wasn't hydrated enough. Time will tell. It's all an experiment at this point anyway!

Oh yes, and I've named my starter "Dudley". A rather fitting name if he doesn't start showing some action soon (it will fit even if he does kick into action, cause I like the name)!
Cross your fingers and stay tuned until tomorrow....
(this is Dudley after I've fed him, no big difference)

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Because Some Days You Just Need A Lot of Chocolate

2007-08-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days. A bit of a chocolate pick-me-up (no, I'm not making tiramisu, but that would be really good as well) is required to get on with the day. A cookie, not just any sort of chocolate cookie but a super chocolate cookie, an able-to-leap-tall-glasses-of-milk-in-a-single-bound kind of cookie,. Today calls for....

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies (the name is a bit lacking, I know, maybe I'll come up with something more brilliant after I've eaten a few of these) Inspired by a rather blah day:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp coarse sea salt (you can use 1 tsp regular salt, but I was looking for a bit o' salty crunch to these)
16 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped, melted and set aside to cool a bit
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
2 Tbsp instant espresso powder (more if you like, sadly I can only do caffeine in very small doses or get sick)
6 ounces (12 Tbsp or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark because that's what I usually have on hand)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (optional, if you really really want a good chocolate kick in the tookus. This will make these triple chocolate boring name cookies)
1 cup chopped nuts (again, optional)
_________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment.
-Whisk together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder, set aside.
-Cream the butter for about 1 minute, add the sugars and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well to incorporate after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and espresso powder.
-Add the chocolate in a stream and mix well.
-Mix in the flour mixture and combine until the flour just disappears. Fold in the sea salt, chocolate chips and nuts.
-Allow the batter to sit for about 20 minutes or so (this allows it to set up a bit and makes for easier scooping).
-Scoop out the batter with a tablespoon or a small cookie scoop leaving 1 inch between each cookie. Bake for about 10 minutes, let cool on the sheet pan for 10 minutes, and then remove from the tray and finish cooling on a rack (you can also slide the parchment off of the sheet pan onto a cooling rack so you can scoop more cookies). The resulting cookie is cracked and chewy on the outside, soft, chocolatey and salty on the inside. This ended up making a lot of cookies, which you can store in the freezer in an airtight container.

Get yourself a big tall glass of milk and get to dunking! Oh yeah, and I'm renaming them Salty Triple Chocolate Kick in the Arse Cookies!
Happy Baking!

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Trying to Get Things Started....

2007-08-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

Since I've moved to the Bay Area (we are at the very southern tip of the Bay) I've been meaning to get a sourdough starter bubbling. I'm not sure why I've put it off this long, I'll blame general spaciness or forgetfulness. Anyway. A sourdough starter is actually very simple to put together. It's just waiting for the wild yeast and the little bacteria to form that takes a bit of patience. Basically what you are doing is hoping to harness some of the wild yeast that already exists in the world around you (germaphobes, stop reading, or you will be spraying everything with bleach). It's pretty much everywhere. In the air, on us, on fruits and vegetables (that strange dusty looking stuff on the skin of grapes is yeast). It's just waiting for a nice mixture of flour and water to live in and feed on. There is a bit more to it than just that. You also want to invite some bacteria to the party. Lactobacillus (where I am it would be lactobacillus san francisco-well, maybe lactobacillus silliconus vallus- which is what makes San Francisco sourdough so distinctly sour) are the bacteria that create the acidic environment that wild yeast so loves to live in. These little critters live everywhere as well, just in different forms. When I was living in Wisconsin, I was able to get a fabulous sourdough starter going, it had great flavor and was very active (sadly I made the mistake of going out of town for a bit and leaving a friend to baby sit my starter....he forgot to feed it and didn't chill it..I returned to a sad dead hooch filled batch of ick).

( after mixing it looks like paste, but not as appealing:)
There are different ways to try to boost your starter when you begin. One thing some people like to start out with is water that has had organic raisins soaked in it. This isn't necessary, you may get some of the yeast off the raisins, but if you are starting with a good organic rye or whole wheat flour you should have enough to go with. Another way to do this is to add some diastatic malt powder(which helps to break down the starches in the flour for the yeast to feed on). This is also not necessary. I'm just whisking some flour and water together until it is somewhat smooth (small lumps are fine) and then storing it in a plastic or glass container (some metals will react with an acidic starter, so it's best to avoid most of them). This mixture will be sitting for about 24 hours, at which time I'll have a look at it and then discard half of the mixture (if you don't discard, you'll end up with a monster starter, and unless you have a few hundred gallon barrels, I suggest discarding..or you can always share with a friend). So, here's what I'm using (we'll see how it develops in the next few days!):

Sourdough Starter:

8 ounces of water (I've got a bunch of bottled water that needs to rotate out of our earthquake kit...don't ask...so I'll be using this for the starter. Bottled water doesn't contain certain chemicals that live in tap water)
8 ounces of organic whole wheat flour (the next feeding will begin changing the starter over to unbleached bread flour..I just like to start with wheat. Rye works as well)
__________________
-Whisk together the flour and water. Scrape the mixture into glass or plastic container and cover. It will be a bit of a paste consistency.
-I like to take a nice thick rubber band and put it around the container where the mixture rests so I can see if there has been any movement.
-I don't like to name my starters until day two or three...I already have a name picked out for this one, but I'll keep that to myself for now.

(rubber bands from asparagus or broccoli come in handy:)
Let the mixture sit for 24 hours at room temperature(70 and above is ideal, but cooler will work) and then it will be time for a feeding, stay tuned...

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Bread Baking Day #2: Pear, Ginger,and Vanilla Quickbread

2007-07-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

This month's bread baking day is being hosted by Becke of Columbus Foodie. As you can see by my title, she chose "Bread with Fruit" as this month's theme. I had plans to make a bread that begins with a starter made from fermented apples. I forgot about the apples fermenting on the top of my refrigerator and had to toss them out. I'll start that up again soon and make it another time. So, with my busy weekend of Blogathonning I've decided that a quick bread will be my best bet for this event. I love love love ginger and pears aren't too shabby either. This is a recipe I've had for years and years and I'm very happy for the theme this month, as I haven't made it for years and years..I had quite forgotten about it buried in my recipe box. I hope you like it too!

Pear Ginger Quickbread:

1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste (or the same amount of vanilla extract)
1/2 cup small dice crystallized ginger
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest of one lemon, minced
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups pears, peeled and diced (medium dice will do) I used Anjou pears, but most should work in this recipe. I've also used bosc with great success
___________________
-Preheat your oven to 350f. Prepare one 9x7" bread pan by spraying it with pan spray.
-Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
-Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.
-Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating well between each addition, mix in the vanilla.
-Alternate mixing in the sifted flour mixture and the buttermilk, starting with 1/3 flour, then 1/2 the buttermilk and so on ending with the flour, mix until the flour just starts to disappear. Fold in the pears.
-Scrape the batter into the prepared bread pan and bake for 50-60 minutes (check earlier if you don't trust your oven).
-Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack to complete the cooling.
Slice, spread with butter or cream cheese, or eat it naked! I think next time I might try this with blueberries instead of the pears. I believe Becke will be posting a roundup for this event on her site in the next few days, I'll have a link up once it is posted!

Happy Baking!

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Texas Sheet Cake (or: Showing My Appreciation to the Folks at G's Workplace for Their Kind Sponsorship)

2007-07-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Now, before I go into my babble about this recipe, I would like to point out that you can still sponsor me and my charity at the Blogathon website. Sponsorship ends tomorrow(Tuesday July 31st) at midnight Eastern Time (that's 9PM Pacific and everything else in between). If you want to read how my posting every half hour for 24 hours straight turned out for me(there is a bit of wackiness and some things you didn't know about me) check out my posts from July 28th and July 29th, I was here from 6am to 6am (there are 49 posts, so if you have the time...). That said, on with my post!

This is a cake my Mom has made for us since before I can even remember. We always requested it for birthdays (well, until we discovered ice cream cakes...yum). I'm not really sure why it's called a "Texas" sheet cake, so I asked my Mom and she has told me it's because the recipe originated in Texas. My theory is that it's big and big things come from Texas (not always good big things, but in this case it's a very very good thing). It's moist with sour cream, chocolate-y with cocoa powder and it's big. The icing sits on top of the cake like a thin coating of fudge. This is also a great cake for picnics (especially family get-togethers, because..well, it's good and it's big...). I'm making this cake as a big thank you to the folks at G's work who sponsored me (you know who you are, I won't name names..) in my insane 24 hour Blogathon for the wonderful charity First Book (did I mention there is still time to sponsor me?)

Oh, and Mom, I did mess around a bit by upping the cocoa powder in the cake part of the recipe to see if that makes for a more chocolate-y cake (as you said the last time you made it it seemed lighter than you remember). I also added some vanilla bean paste to the cake part (extract can be used)

Texas Sheet Cake (makes one really big jelly roll pan)

1 cup unsalted butter (8 ounces, two sticks)
1 cup water (H2O)
1/2 cup cocoa (I used natural unsweetened for this, and this is twice the amount as stated in our usual recipe)
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c sour cream (I upped this amount from 1/2 cup just in case the extra cocoa tried to dry out the cake)
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (you can also use an equal amount of extract, maybe some that you made a few months ago...maybe like the stuff I made during the Blogathon(why do I almost always type in Blogathong when I type that in? It's a wonder I caught it during the wee hours of the morning during the event)?

Cocoa frosting:
1/2 cup butter (one stick, 4 ounces)
6 Tbsp milk
1/4 cup cocoa
pinch of salt (this is another one of my additions to the recipe, cause a little salt is oh-so-good in icings)
1 lb. confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans are what I am using for this today)
____________________
-Prepare one 15 1/2 x 10 1/2inch jelly roll pan by spraying it with pan spray, or you can line it with parchment paper if you want to lift it out of the pan (I did this, cause I'm a freak for parchment paper, you'd think I had stock in a parchment paper company).
-In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda, set aside.
-Combine butter, water and cocoa in 2-qt. saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Remove from heat.
-Stir in combined flour, sugar and salt. Add sour cream and eggs; mix well. Pour into prepared pan.
-Bake at 375, 20-25 minutes. While warm frost with:

Cocoa Frosting:

-Combine milk, butter, cocoa and pinch of salt in saucepan, bring
to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
-Add sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth, add the nuts, mix until blended.
-Pour over the warm cake, spread out and let it set up.

Cut yourself a big ole slice of the cake and enjoy with a nice glass of milk...or tea (not Texas tea) or coffee. Yum!

Happy big baking! And thank you everyone for your support!

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We made it! Blogathon 2007 is now over

2007-07-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

for those of us in the A Group. There is still the B Group at it, so don't forget to go to Blogathon and check them out and support them! You can also still sponsor me up to 48 hours after this is all over at 9:00pm Pacific time tonight!

And now the things I learned from this year that I will remember to do next year (I hope I remember).
1. Make sure to get a good amount of sleep the night before the blogging starts. The four hours I got before starting yesterday at 6am was no where near enough rest needed to do this kind of thing. I think if I had felt more well rested to start out, I would have gotten a few more things accomplished. But all in all I'm very happy with my performance...I don't think I did too poorly for a newbie.
2. Snacks of veggies and fruits are better than the chocolate things. I really didn't touch the chocolate much though. I haven't really felt very hungry really....more kind of ill or something. I'm guessing that was due to exhaustion rather than anything else.
3. Drink lots of water and tea...I did this, and I think it's one of the reasons I'm still here blogging.
4. Have a great support system in place. I am very blessed to have G, who was willing to stay up all night with me despite my telling him he could sleep over and over and over again. I am very glad he was awake to help me through some tough times. I'm also very thankful for family and friends who were kind enough to comment and to donate. You all seemed to have great timing and knew when I was in need the most. Thank you everyone.
5. Have a few things in your back pocket to post. Or even have some sort of gimmick or theme to follow. I think if I had had a more strict theme, I might have had more relevant posts. I had a few random babbling posts, but then I think we're all entitled to that when we've been awake for 20 plus hours. My camera helped me out of quite a few posts that I wasn't sure about.
6. Have a look around at the other bloggers participating and post comments during the wee hours of the morning. It really helps boost the spirits, and if I do this next year, I'll try to do much more of that than I did (I really quite shy...even if I don't come across that way).
7. Have fun. I don't think I could have survived for 24 hours without any fun! And listen to music! It really helps.
That's about all I can think of for now.....

Despite the few periods of extreme exhaustion, I really had a great experience and would do this again (but give me at least a week to recover).

Thank you again to everyone who sponsored me and supported me along the way! I'm going to go have a nice long nap now.....sweet dreams everyone!

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You remember that Vanilla Extract Demo?

2007-07-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this is what it looks like now. It's just starting to develop that brown color that we all associate with vanilla extract. I did open it up and have a whiff, it's still strongly vodka smelling with really nice vanilla starting to come through. I think in 2 to 4 months it should be pretty nice. I'll have to remember to do an update on it from time to time. Anyway, the How to Make Vanilla Extract post was entertaining as well informative...I suggest you have another look at it!

Only half hour more to go! I can't believe I made it. I am thinking of cool sheets and nice blankies a lot though, I must confess.

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Wow

2007-07-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

364 blogs so far have raised $116,692.19. That's fabulous. That makes Mr. Wooden Figure Guy do a mellow happy dance.
I'm very happy with my total for this first time participating in Blogathon. You've all helped me raise $300 for First Book. That far exceeded my expectations. Huge thank you to everyone. Remember though, it's not quite over yet..there is still time to sponsor!

Stay tuned...we'll be checking in on the vanilla extract I made earlier.....

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It's kind of like I've got my head in the clouds...

2007-07-29T04:29:00.000-07:00

that's how spacey I feel right now. Enjoy these photos taken from an airplane from Colorado home to SFO (not that I live in the airport, I live rather south of the airport...but that's really random babbling...)

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I can almost feel my pillows under my head.....Mmmmm, cool sheets. Getting very close now!

Bender gazed into the crystal ball....

2007-07-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

do you know what he saw? He says the end is nigh! Two hours to go! I think we should all take a nice stretch. I'm planning on a very nice long nap this morning, how about you?

I've been doing all this for a great cause. First Book provides children of low income families with the opportunity to learn to read and own their first books. I don't know where I would be without books, so I'd hate to think of someone else going without! Sponsor a blogger today (maybe me?)!

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Digging into my back pocket

2007-07-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

for something to post. I've decided to do a few photos from our honeymoon. We spent the time in Estes Park, Colorado. I've loved it there since I was a teenager and my family would vacation there. G had never been to Colorado before, so it was a great choice.

Twin Owls (or is it twin sisters...man my brain is not keeping up with me):

Really tasty Burrito from Casa Grande, Estes Park

Final one for this post, Us:

Don't forget to have a look a the blogathon page for updates and to check out other blogs! There is a whole B group of bloggers that started at 9pm Pacific time yesterday, so they'll be continuing on through 9pm Pacific tonight!

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Still working on

2007-07-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

My ice cream, I got it to the perfect softened consistency. Not quite soupy, not solid either. Mmmmmm. Definitely uplifting. I needed it badly. My last 5 minute cuddle break with G had me feeling very much like just packing it in and falling asleep. I'm sure I'll still feel like that off and on for the last few hours..but, it's really down to the last three hours! I can't believe it! And "Dancing Queen" is currently playing on the internet radio station, how can you go wrong with that? No need to answer that question. Nothing like a little silly music in the wee hours of the morning to help one along. And, random babbling begins.

And here's a photo of the moon I took two months ago, enjoy!

Only 3 hours left! Have a look at First Book, it's the charity I've been blogging for for the past 21 hours! Sponsor me if you are awake!

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Been Waiting for this for Hours!

2007-07-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

Yum. It's the mint chocolate chip ice cream I started making way back at post # uh....17, well, you can find it here and it progresses from this post. So, basically what this post is going to be is a whole bunch of gratuitous ice cream photos. Enjoy!
It is really tasty, by the way. Quite worth waiting for..and it's given me a bit of a second or well, I think fourth by now, wind (maybe wind is too strong a word, maybe it's more like a light breeze. Enjoy the photos! Only 3 1/2 hours to go.......must keep blogging, must keep blogging, must keep blogging blogging blogging.....

Feel free to lick the screen if you want.

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Confessions of a 24 hour blogger...

2007-07-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

I'm really really exhausted now. I felt refreshed after the shower and now I could fall asleep at my keyboard any minute. I'm going to keep on going, never fear, but I forsee my posts getting weirder and weirder as the hours go by..... Probably lots more photos, much less typing. Perhaps it's time for some online games.

That is all for now, see ya in half hour (I hope to have ice cream soon, that might give me a bit of a boost)!

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Tim the Enchanter Shows Some Skin

2007-07-29T01:28:00.000-07:00

To prove he's willing to go the extra mile for charity! I'm thinking maybe he needs a calendar with sexy poses like this one (he really knows how to work the camera). I'm also thinking maybe I'm getting a bit punchy. Something to ponder.

Anyway, you don't have to show any skin for charity, you just have to sponsor me or someone else at Blogathon!

The Word on the Ice Cream is:

2007-07-29T01:01:00.000-07:00

Not ready yet. Still a bit on the soft side. I'd call it just about perfect for eating, but I would like to try to get a nice scoop out of it before I partake so I'm having a bit of watermelon to tie me over.

There are now only 5 hours left for me in this blogathon. I can tell my posts are starting to get a bit short, but I'm pretty much past the point of baking anything else, I don't wish to tackle anymore dishes in between posts!

Now to decide which movie to watch, or at least have on as background for the next two hours.....

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I've returned...

2007-07-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

From what might possilbly have been the best best shower I've had in a long long time. I feel much better. A tad more awake and quite refreshed. Think I'll have a big glass of ice water, some tea and some sort of snack now..then I'll be back with an ice cream update, and more than likely a few more photos of one of my little inanimate friends! Oh such promises!

I bet you just can't wait for me to return.

In the meantime, have a look over at the blogathon page if you like. Maybe you might want to sponsor some poor blogger who has been doing this for 18 1/2 hours now, hmmmmmm? You know you want to, so just do it already!

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3/4 Behind Me!

2007-07-29T00:01:00.002-07:00

Well, so far I'm doing ok. There have been down times for me when I've just felt exhausted, but I've kept on plugging away. I think my next step will be a nice shower and then perhaps some sort of fruit snack or something.

I've found most of the amusing food facts on that site I posted in the last post to be kind of not really all that profound, so I'll search on for some other facts to post in the next few hours!

In the mean time, have a look at First Book and think about sponsoring me!

I'm off to shower, then I'll be back with some comment responses!

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6 1/2 Hours to Go

2007-07-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

And I'm waiting for a second wind...well, third wind at this point. I think I'm going to start searching the web for strange food facts and start to post them here. It will help keep my brain a bit on track.

Here is one to start with, taken from this site:

Approximately 71% of American chocolate eaters prefer to eat milk chocolate

Well, that's not really that strange, is it? I mean in the general scope of things. But to me it is a little odd, as I am a fan of dark chocolate. The higher the cacao amount the better (well, I like anything up to about 78 to 80% anyway).

Finally, for this post, I'd like to thank my latest sponsor! It's so nice to get something this time of night after being online for so long. And, of course, a thank you to all of you who have been commenting and sponsoring and supporting me tonight (and all the other bloggers as well!). And Tim has brought me a ball to play fetch with, so I must be off to do that for a bit. See you in half hour, with another silly food fact.

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Here are a Few Things...

2007-07-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

That I bet you didn't know about me.....

1. I am terrified of clowns. The creep me out. I even go so far as to avoid the clowns that make animal balloons at our local farmer's market. I'm not sure why this is, perhaps I had a traumatizing event with a clown when I was a child that I have sinced blacked out. They are very disturbing.

2. I played the violin throughout high school. I was not a protege, but I could keep up with our symphony orchestra!

3. I love to draw, I also love to work with clay, someday I hope to somehow work these and baking all into a career of some sort (very strange combination I think though).

That's all I can think of for now..but I think I'm hitting a bit of a writing block right now. Hopefully I think of something else to write next post, or you will be getting more strange photos of the toys hanging out on my desk (it's a shame my Darth Tater has gone missing!).

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Tim the Enchanter

2007-07-28T22:34:00.001-07:00

Begs you to please go sponsor me, if you are awake that is...or he may just have to go pointing at things and making them blow up! He's a very busy man. I'm doing the Blogathon for First Book, and I think you should go check them out!

Thank you! That is all.

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Only 8 Hours Left to Go and We Have Achieved Ice Cream!

2007-07-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well, just about anyway. It's churned, it looks beautiful, the flavor rocks (fresh mint is definitely the way to go, it has a nice herbal finish instead of an overpowering extract-y finish). It just need to "ripen" in the freezer..or set up, or...freeze.

There will be photos in the wee hours of the morning of scooped lovely ice cream and cookies! Stay tuned...or check tomorrow, as I certainly don't expect anyone to be up at 2 or 3 AM, unless you are a fellow Blogathoner. If you are up at that time, and the full moon has you feeling a bit crazed, feel free to donate in the form of sponsoring me and the charity I'm blogging for. First book, have a look!

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The Cookies are Out and Cooling

2007-07-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

And I've started up the ice cream machine! Wooooooo! So in about half hour I should have semi frozen ice cream that can finish solidifying in my freezer for a few hours. Then I shall have some lovely ice cream to share (photos of) with all of you. It will be so very yum! Stick around....
Chocolate for the ice cream

Chopped Chocolate

Mint chip ice cream churning away (I can never get a good photo of the ice cream machine innards)

Oh, and go check out Blogathon, it's really a great thing!

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Running Low on Steam

2007-07-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm currently really tired and just waiting for dinner to arrive. I think once I've eaten I'll feel more energy. I seem to keep forgetting to have a decent meal. I've had the pancakes at 6am, the pizza rolls around noon..and then a few small munches of the guacamole. I wasn't aware of how much time blogging every half hour took up! I'm having loads of fun though and it feels good to be able to help First Book in even this small way.

So, sponsor me! Or go to the Blogathon website and sponsor someone else who's charity you fancy. Go find some blogs to comment on, it's a great spirit booster!

Cookies should be finished baking by the next post! Stay tuned for "rustic" chocolate shortbread!

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9 1/2 hours to go...or something like that!

2007-07-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

My cookies are in the oven, I have food on it's way. Coffee will be arriving with the food. I think I'll be set for a bit then. yay! My G rocks! Anyway, here are the cookies so far. I must say it's not my best neatest cookie rolling and cutting job, but I'll just call them "rustic" to get around that!

Just had a new sponsor! Thank you so much!!

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Waiting...

2007-07-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am currently waiting for cookie dough to chill and ice cream mix to be ready to churn..I figure another hour or so for both of these. G is going to be a spectacular husband and venture out for some sandwiches (sarnies) and some form of coffee substance very soon. I'd just like to take this post to thank everyone again for their supportive posts and their sponsorship. You have all kept me going and made this much more fun than I had even imagined! Thank you! I'll be back in 30 with more dough photos, I hope!

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The Dough is in the Freezer

2007-07-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

And I haven't had any new sponsors for ages. I am very happy with what I've raised so far though, so I won't complain! I will beg and plead without shame some more at the bottom of this post!

I've made the shortbread dough, as you can see from these photos:

The dough was a bit too soft to roll out (my butter was very very soft) so I've popped it into the freezer for a quick chill. Hope to have them baking in the next hour!

I'm not sure what number post this is....Hmmmmm. I'll have a count at 8:00 Pacific time.

Check out First Book, I am blogging to raise money for them today. Feel free to sponsor me. 49 posts in 24 hours, and I'm just a little bit more than halfway there! I'll be here until 6am Pacific time, so do feel free to drop in and leave a comment or two, it really helps boost my spirits!

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Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

2007-07-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

Since I'm making that mint chocolate chip ice cream I figured I should make something nice to go with it. I might as well treat myself to a nice treat around 2am when I'm starting to feel a bit sluggish, right? So I've found a recipe here. It seems very straightforward and has very few ingredients so I figure it's will be a snap to throw together in a half hour or so! I'll be starting these cookies for the next post! Tune in :D.

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Seeing as I'm Blogathoning for First Book...

2007-07-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

I figured I should have some photos of books or something like that! My husband G is currently camped out on our couch reading and was kind enough to let me take his photo! And what follows is a photo of a few of my cookbooks (I have an addiction, I can't help it..there is another bookcase just about full of cookbooks as well).

So, read a book, sponsor me and help some children in need get their own bad (really it's good!) book habit!

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12 hours down, 12 to go!!

2007-07-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I've made it this far. Yikes! Well I look a little more awake than I did at 6 this morning..at least I think maybe I do! Just figured I would jolt you all awake with a scary photo of me! There are a few nice rays of sunlight across my face as the sun has come around. I'll be heading outside again to relax and take some photos for the next post. Can't wait until I can churn that mint ice cream!

Please Sponsor me! First Book will thank you!

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Post # uh...uh...# 24, yeah, that's it!

2007-07-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

So, in case you haven't been following all the bazillion posts I've been making today, I'll fill you in on what's going on. It's called Blogathon 2007. It's where quite a few bloggers (I believe there are currently 396 participants) take 24 hours, post every half hour on their blog all in the name of whichever charity they have chosen. It's a good thing. I've chosen First Book as my charity, and if you don't know anything about First Book, I suggest you check them out at their website. They are a great cause and I'm very happy to be blogging today on their behalf. Everything that you pledge goes to the charity. You will have to sign up for an "account" on the Blogathon site, but they share no information of yours with anyone! After the blogathon, you will receive an email reminder from them and instructions on how to fulfill your pledge. Very easy, no fuss :D. So, jump on in and sponsor me or another blogger on the site. It's easy, we are very entertaining to read (or so I think..it will probably get much more entertaining as the late hours creep in and sleep deprivation takes over). Thank you all for doing what you can to help out! It feels good!

*The photo is just of some grapes in my garden starting to turn purple...Pretty!

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The Making of the Custard (more Mint Ice Cream)

2007-07-28T17:01:00.001-07:00

Ok, I have made the ice cream base as stated at this recipe. I am happy to say the cream/milk with the mint steeped in it for 2 hours made a wonderfully minty flavor..the mint even gave the ice cream a slight green tint. Yum.

This is the strained milk/cream/mint/sugar mixture with a split vanilla bean coming up to a simmer:

These are the egg yolks waiting to be tempered in:

This is the tempering of the yolks (basically you want to slowly whisk the hot liquid into the yolks to avoid them scrambling on you) Thank you G for taking this one:

This is the finished ice cream base, I've strained it into a 9x13" pan to facilitate faster cooling. With any luck I can churn this stuff in about 4 hours or so!

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Snack Attack #2

2007-07-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the need to fuel myself stuck again. All of us Blogathoners are now in the 10th and one half hour. I decided to make some fresh guacamole. I had three avocadoes, took out their yumminess, placed it in a bowl. I then squeezed the life out of one lime into the bowl and added a pinch of salt. I took a potato masher to the avocadoes (I do like a chunky guac) and just smooshed it all together until it was the consistency that I like. I did add one dash of hot sauce, but that's about all (had I some cilantro that also may have been added). I love my guacamole very simple so the avocado flavor can be most appreciated. Photos of the process:

Now go on and sponsor me if you would like! I'm blogging for a great cause!

*ice cream update in next post*

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More Shameless Cat Exploitation..

2007-07-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

I had hoped for a few more photos of her from today, but Mabel has been extremely camera shy as of late. She can hear the camera turn on from about one room away and then tends to look at it as if it is going to do something weird to her. She's always been skittish, this is just a new form of it for us. I did manage to capture her sunning herself from afar, and the other photo is from about two weeks ago when I was able to sneak up on her while she was sleeping. Anyway, on with the Blogathon!

*update on the steeping mint: I tasted it just a little while ago and the mint flavor is very nice but still a little too subtle for me. I'm letting it steep one more hour, then I will continue with the ice cream base!

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Mabel says "Meeeeoooowmeooow" (sponsor me)

Shameless Cat Exploitation!!

2007-07-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

That's right, I'll do whatever it takes to get a post up during the Blogathon. If that means that my kitties have to have their photos put up on the internet, well, then that's what I'll do! This is Tim. Tim is doing what I would like to be doing in a few hours, but will have to wait until tomorrow to do. He's great at vegging on the couch. He also likes to play fetch, but I'm just not good at taking action shots of him running towards me with his ball in his mouth. I do however have a photo of his fetching balls (yes yes...have a good chuckle at that one, then enjoy the photo and maybe think about sponsoring me in my 24 hour quest to raise money for First Book)

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Steeping the Mint (Post #19..I think)

2007-07-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

I do envy those little mint leaves. Soaking in a nice warm bath of cream, milk and sugar. Perhaps that will be me sometime tomorrow afternoon or even tomorrow morning, minus the milk, cream and sugar plus some warm water and some bubbles....

The mint/cream/milk/sugar mixture needs to steep for 1 to 3 hours. I'll be giving it a taste and sniff test in about an hour..in the mean time I'll be vegging a bit and finding a few things to photograph for your visual pleasure. Enjoy!

Blogathon 2007, check it out, sponsor me or someone else!

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Bruising the Mint

2007-07-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I haven't gotten very far yet in the recipe.....posting every half hour really isn't as easy as one might think!

So,my mint was quite dirty, so after I took it off the stems, I had to give it a good dip in some water and then a spin in my salad thinga-ma-jig. It's now dry and is in the process of being bruised....bruising it brings out the aroma and flavor a bit more. I'm using the top part of my mortar and pestle to give it all a little grind.

And I'd like to say thank you to the last two people that have donate! You've pushed me up to around $220 to go towards First Book! Thank you so much to everyone who has helped out so far!

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Ice Cream Beginnings...

2007-07-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous post (my my, aren't I posting a lot today? Why could that be? Oh yes, it's this thing called Blogathon and you should really think about sponsoring me, I'm in this for 24 hours and 49 posts...I'd appreciate any sort of donation to the wonderful charity First Book..and now back to the post) I would really like to make some Mint Chip Ice Cream. As I'm a bit busy with all these posts, I haven't had a lot of time to dig through my various recipes and cookbooks, but happily I found what looks like the perfect recipe for this ice cream here. I have gathered a bunch of mint from my garden (as you can see) and I will be going through the steps in photos for the next few posts. Then the ice cream mix will be chilled and hopefully I can churn it tonight, could make for an excellent late night snack!

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List of Things I Want to Bake and Post but Haven't Yet...

2007-07-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Do you have anything you'd like to see me bake in the near future (which means in the next few weeks..)? I've got quite a few things I want to make but haven't gotten around to just yet...
-Mint chip ice cream (if I get around to picking some mint today, I just might be able to make some...I found a great looking recipe)
-Homemade granola, or granola bars
-Something seriously chocolate (it's been awhile since I've done anything with crazy amounts of chocolate)
-Lemon tart or lemon meringue pie or something similar (that will have to wait until my Meyer lemons ripen)
-Lime bars
-Sourdough (I need to get a starter going...perhaps I can do that today as well....) bread
The list is going to go on and on (and I must admit that I might post more of this later on...when my brain just can't think of anything else).

Go check out Blogathon and sponsor someone today!

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Grape Redemption...

2007-07-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Mr Wooden Figure Guy and I have moved outside...I must say he's still a bit disappointed that my donations are 23 dollars shy of $200, but I've given him some grapes and he seems pretty satisfied with the offering.

Please sponsor me! First book is a wonderful charity and you won't regret it! Just think of the first book you remember reading! The first book I remember as my absolute favorite (I think I tried to steal it from the library, I was a bad bad girl!) was Harold and the Purple Crayon. I hope that some child will be able to start and nurture a love of books through this charity.

Oh, and thank you so much for any comments so far, they rock! Thank you also for those who have donated!

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Not a snack to be proud of...

2007-07-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

But, sometimes one needs a bit o' junk, right (they aren't even really that tasty, but I wanted something easy on hand)? I'll be making some fresh guacamole later and having it with baked chips, just to feel a bit more healthy, I've also got loads of grapes to help me along my way..but for now, the pizza rolls will have to do! The vitamins I took a little while ago and the water I've been downing seem to be helping..I think I'm perking up a bit (in case anyone really was interested in that).

Go on over to the Blogathon main page and support some of the hundreds of other bloggers taking part! It really does help just to have a few kind words :D.

Six hours down! 18 more to go!

2007-07-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

I think I'll be moving myself outside fairly soon....For now I'm feeling a bit tired, but I'm hoping that passes soon. Blog on, Blogathoners!

sponsor me please...

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How to Make Your Own Vanilla Extract.....

2007-07-28T11:11:00.001-07:00

Normally I would avoid playing with alcohol before Noon, but when playing with alcohol will give me a nice homemade vanilla extract in a few months, I cannot say no!

What you need to make vanilla extract:

One bottle of vodka, any brand will do really. As you can see, I had this one all ready to take to the park with me this afternoon, but the thought of my own vanilla extract made me ditch that idea (shame I wasted a paper bag):

Six vanilla beans (I have tahitian vanilla beans onhand, got them for a great price off the internet, shop around, you can find them too!):

Split your vanilla beans down the length like so:

Place the beans in a glass jar of some sort (I used a pint jar):

Pour vodka over to cover and let sit to steep for at least two months in a cool dark place (covered tightly, shaking it up once in awhile). The longer it sits, the stronger it will be come. Great for cookies (or I suppose you could make your own vanilla vodka with a few less beans just placed straight in the bottle and steeped until it is the flavor you like)!

*Note the vanilla beanie goodness in every fleck floating!

Like what you see? Sponsor me!

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Stay Tuned.....In My Next Post I'm Going to Show You..

2007-07-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

How to make your own vanilla extract! It's quite easy, as you will see in half hour. In the mean-time-in-between-time, why don't you check out First Book and see what a wonderful charity it is. Then, maybe feel free to sponsor me, even just one dollar, one pound, one euro, one Canadian Dollar will help! I'm currently at about $177...would be really nice if I could get that amount up to $200!

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Mr. Wooden Figure Guy Says

2007-07-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Sponsor me, or else! I apologize for his threatening stance, it's just that when he imagines a world where children are unable to have their own books, he gets all crazy!

Seriously though, go on over and check out Blogathon if you don't want to sponsor me
, perhaps you can find another blogger who is blogging for a charity you would like to support.

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This Will be My First Warning....I Should Have Warned You Earlier!

2007-07-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

I will be posting silly stuff today and lots of photos. This photo is an example of what you will be finding from time to time. Good quality blogging, that's what I go for every time! There really was a point behind this photo. G (that's my husband) has had this duck since I've known him. I first met the duck when visiting him in London and have been living with the duck since G moved to the States in October 2005. I've never actually seen the duck in water, so I was wondering if he floated. He does, but he is a bit top heavy....That is all for now!

please sponsor me...

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First Book, or, What I'm Blogging for Today

2007-07-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

As I've been mentioning, I'm participating in Blogathon today. I'll be posting 49 posts in 24 hours in the hopes of raising some money for First Book. A charity that really has my heart, as I am a lover of books and I feel that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to read and to own books. I love that this charity starts people off early in life with both of these opportunities by providing children with the ability to read and own their very first books. I'm hoping that by blogging today we will be able to raise enough money to put quite a few books into the hands of children. I think you should go over to First Book's website and have a look, as I'm sure I'm not doing them much justice with my words! Then once you've see how great a charity they are, you can go here to sponsor me! Now I'm off to get a few things ready for baking!

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That Blueberry Pancake Recipe

2007-07-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

Just for any of you that may be interested, I found the recipe for those here.
They were very very tasty!

It's now light out here, the birds are singing and I'm considering moving myself outside as it's going to be a gorgeous day here.

I'll be back in half hour. Don't forget to check out the other bloggers who are giving a good amount of time to help out the charity of their choice!

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Has it already been 2 1/2 hours?

2007-07-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

The time does keep ticking away! I do want to thank my latest sponsor, adding $30 to the total for First Book. I also want to thank everyone else who has kindly sponsored me so far! With your help we can get some books into the hands of children who otherwise may not be able to own their own.

I can't believe I only have 21 1/2 hours to go! Well, that really sounds long right now and I'm even feeling a wee bit tired already (I think I've mentioned I'm not a morning person).

Now, I would like to draw your attention to the Magic 8 Ball posted up there....If you have any questions about life, love, or what I might bake next, go ahead and ask in comments, and I will consult my magic 8 ball and let you know the answers (note: the magic 8 ball isn't always the most reliable source, but it can be fun)!

And now for my shameless shout SPONSOR ME PLEASE!

see you in half hour!

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Blogathon Breakfast!

2007-07-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

If you guessed blueberry pancakes from my last post, you would be correct! Now I'm going to eat for a bit....

Blogathon 2007 Post #4! Go Me!

2007-07-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Why am I posting so much today, you ask? What could I possibly be doing? Well, I'm joining some 561 bloggers today for a 24 hour Blogathon. What's in it for me? Nothing but the pleasure of helping out a great cause. I'm blogging for First Book today and I hope if you have the ability that you will consider sponsoring me!

I'm about to make breakfast...can you guess from the photo above what I will be making?? If not, here's another one for your consideration:

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Waking Up is Slow Business

2007-07-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well, for me anyway. I plan on starting breakfast soon. The first hour has gone by very quickly....

As I look for a recipe, here's a mugshot of me taken just a few moments ago...I don't wake up well, so be kind.

See you in half hour!

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One Thing I've Learned So Far...

2007-07-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

The half hour for these posts comes up quickly. I've also learned that I'm still not a morning person. Slowly waking up here. I've taken a few photos already for your viewing pleasure:

a few of my provisions for the long day:

and my dark work area starting the day...I predict it getting messier as the day goes on, and lighter!

That's it for this installment! Feel free to go ahead and sponsor me and my charity First Book if you can spare just a few bucks! See you in half hour, I hope to have breakfast started in a bit.

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And So It Begins....Blogathon 2007. Good Morning!

2007-07-28T06:01:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my version of Blogathon! For the next 24 hours I'll be posting every half hour for your enjoyment. That will be 49 posts in 24 hours! What do you have to do during this time? Well, all I ask is that you comment from time to time to help encourage me and that you strongly consider either sponsoring Me as I try to raise money for First Book (a great Charity that provides children of low-income families with the opportunity to learn how to read and own their very first books) or to head over to the Blogathon Blog List and choose someone who is blogging for another charity that is close to your heart. There are a lot of awesome Bloggers giving their time today, so please help support us!

How will I be posting today? Well, you can expect quite a few photos, I'm stocked up for some easy baking (going to try to do quick easy things) I'm prepared to answer any baking questions that any of you might have (if I don't know the answer, I have a plethora of books at my disposal and will gladly have a look through them. I'll answer what I can. I may find some interesting baking tips from time to time and post them as well. I do expect I might have a few random babbling posts as time passes and it becomes the wee hours of the morning, so I do hope some of you will be kind enough to offer encouragement even when I'm making no sense!

So, let's get this show started! Enjoy my photos that I take throughout the day, enjoy the baking that I can share with you and most importantly, help out First Book by sponsoring your favorite Barmy Baker! I'll see you in half hour :D (and I must say the computer screen is mighty bright at 6am!

Blogathon 2007: Please Sponsor Me!

2007-07-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

I recall reading other blogs that were participating in Blogathon in the past and thinking that these people were nuts. Well, this year I'm going to go ahead and add myself to the list of crazy bloggers. I was a bit late signing up (I forgot to put the reminder on my calendar) Beginning at 6:00 AM Pacific time on Saturday July 28th, I will be posting every half hour for 24 hours straight. What would possess me to do this? Well, the opportunity to raise some money for a wonderful charity. I've chosen to blog for First Book. First book is a charity that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to learn to read and to own their first new books. You can get much more information from their website. I could not imagine life without the ability to read. Reading gives you so many different options. You can learn (a new recipe, perhaps?), escape daily life with some neat fiction, read about what is happening in the world around you. Without people learning and loving to read us bloggers would really have no place on the internet. So please join me on Saturday the 28th, tune in for baking posts and photo posts and possible whacky sleep deprived posts. Comments of encouragement will be most welcome. Most importantly, please please please sponsor me at this link. You will have to sign up for an account there, but you can keep your information private, it's free and it's so worth it! It's a great cause and even if you can just give a few bucks, every bit counts. Thanks! See you then!

Banners are thanks to the people here. Thank you!

Oh yes, have I mentioned that you can sponsor this blog here?

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Topsy Turvy Plum Ginger Cake (aka: Upside Down Cake)

2007-07-26T12:02:00.002-07:00

Summer finds me wanting to buy every sort of seasonal fruit I can get my hands on. I'm always overwhelmed (and really overjoyed) by the gorgeous mounds of ripe fruits at the local farmer's market. I've had a pile of plums sitting in my kitchen for the past few days, because there are not enough to make jam out of (I really must make some jam soon) I've been juggling around a few other things that I could do with them. A few have been eaten as is and the rest I've decided to turn into one of my favorite cakes (I have a lot of favorite cakes, if you haven't noticed already). Now, I've always had pineapple upside down cake but have never tried any other fruit in it myself. I suppose I've always been worried that the pineapple would be the only fruit to work in this cake because it's very acidic and tart, any other fruit would be too sweet to work in the wonderful brown sugary bottom...er..top. But I decided to give it a try anyway. I found a recipe at Epicurious and didn't change much (I omitted the almond extract, as I'm not a big fan of it) and I'm adding a few little bits of crystallized ginger, cause I figure plums and ginger can't be too bad of a combo.

Plum Ginger Upside Down Cake (adapted from Epicurious recipe)
Makes one 9" cake round.

The Top (or...uh...I mean bottom for now...top later):

6 Tbsp (3 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
6 large plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 6 wedges

The Cake Bit:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup finely diced crystallized ginger (I actually found some candied
non-crystallized ginger at Trader Joe's and used that..it's great for snacking too, much less sugar than the crystallized)
6 Tbsp (3 ounces) unsalted room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

whipping cream to dollop on top if you so desire

______________________________________
-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-low heat stir together the 6 ounces butter, the brown sugar and honey until everything is melted together into a nice goopy sauce.

-Pour this mixture into a buttered 9" circular cake pan. Arrange the plum slices on top of this in whatever pattern you desire (as you can see from my photo, my plums were just a wee bit too juicy, I think I would have been better off with a bit less of the goo with such juicy fruit).

-Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl, set aside.
-Cream together butter and sugar.
-Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and crystallized ginger.
-Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing just until blended. Spoon batter evenly over plums (I did have to spoon this, then gently spread it out a bit, the batter is fairly thick and I did not want to disturb my plum pattern).
-Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean (you may want to place some aluminum foil under the pan to catch any dribbles), about 1 hour 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool in pan 30 minutes.
-Using a knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Place platter atop cake pan. Invert cake; place platter on work surface. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently lift off pan.
-Serve warm with a dollop of whipped cream, or with some ice cream or just plain.

Wonderful dessert for a light summer meal. I did have one small problem with this, but it was due to the fact that my plums were overripe. Because they were so soft and juicy, they kind of dissolved into the topping. I also strongly recommend a 9" spring form pan or something similar, my cake pan was not tall and the cake rose and spread out giving me a mushroom top! Appearance not as nice as I would like (still quite pretty), but the flavor was still outstanding.

Happy Baking!

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"Walk the dog"

2007-07-17T01:03:00.001-07:00

and "around the world" are probably tricks you wouldn't want to try with these Yoyos. I've been wanting to make these cookies since I first saw them in Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri. I tend to burn myself out on cookies after my Christmas cookie extravaganza and I don't want to make another cookie for a few months after. I've had these bookmarked since I came across this recipe. I did contact my friend Graham, who has lived in Australia for a good portion of his life, about Yoyos and he informed me that they are extremely morish. That was enough of an endorsement for me! He also said that he favors the plain filling to the lemon filling, but I'm a bit partial to lemon myself, so that is what I made. I'm very curious to make these with a chocolate ganache filling next, I think they will be quite tasty.

Yoyos: (adapted from Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri) The book says this makes 30 cookies, but I'm wondering just how small the cookie scoop was that got that sort of yield. I doubled the recipe and got 48 half cookies yielding 24 cookies once they were filled.

Cookie Dough:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 ounces (12 Tbsp) unsalted room temperature butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
__________________________
-Heat oven to 350f. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
-Cream the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla together for about 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
-Add the flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder and mix to blend.
-Scoop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets leaving about an inch of space between. Using a fork dipped in flour, press a criss-cross pattern onto the top of each cookie.
-Bake for 12 -14 minutes or until the cookies are a light brown color.
-Cool the cookies completely on a rack.

The Lemon Filling:
3 ounces (6 Tbsp) unsalted room temperature butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
______________________
- Cream together the butter and powdered sugar, add the lemon juice and blend well.
-Spread a bit of the filling on the bottom half of one cookie and top it with another cookie so the cross marks show out.
Enjoy!

I must agree with Graham, these cookies are very morish indeed! Although for more lemon flavor I would recommend a bit of minced lemon zest in either the cookie or the filling.

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Casual Cake?

2007-07-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

Banana cake, is it just another way to use up old bananas or is it an excuse to buy a few extra bananas? I like to think it's a fabulous excuse to buy that bigger bunch of bananas. A good banana cake with some cream cheese icing hits the spot when a sweet snack attack occurs. This is great for a casual dessert when company drops by or just as a lovely addition to any picnic. It's a no frills dessert that banana lovers will gobble up. Sure you could dress it up with caramelized bananas or a Foster's sauce, but sometimes it's nice to have a simple cake with straightforward flavors. This is another one of my Gram's recipes that I've tweaked just a little bit and the recipe for the cream cheese icing can be found here (minus the coconut and nuts mentioned...well, I am not using them for this, but they certainly wouldn't be bad with this cake).

Gram's Banana Cake:

2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
__________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f. Prepare two 9" cake rounds with a parchment circle on the bottom and pan spray on the sides and bottom.
-Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
-Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk, set aside.
-Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing to blend after each addition. Add the mashed bananas and mix to combine.
-Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternating between the two, starting with 1/3 flour, mix, add 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix, add another third of the flour, mix, add the remaining buttermilk, and follow with the last of the flour. Mix until the flour has just become blended in.
-Evenly distribute the batter into your prepared baking pans (I used a regular sized ice cream scoop to do this and got about 5 scoops per pan) and bake for 12 minutes, rotate the pans front to back and bake for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cakes are a nice golden brown and spring back when the top is touched lightly.
-Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then invert out of pans and allow to cool thoroughly on a rack.
-Prepare the cream cheese icing (you could use the recipe from the post listed above, or you could make your own, or even a simple icing of butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla would work).
-Slice the layers lengthwise giving you four layers. Spread the frosting thinly between each layer, ending with a nice coating on top. You can also do the sides if you wish, I just really like the casual look without the sides coated in icing.
-Cut a big slice and enjoy with coffee, tea, milk, or whatever you like!

Happy Baking!

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Bread Baking Day #1: Bread with Herbs Roundup!

2007-07-04T11:57:00.001-07:00

31 bakers from all over the world made some gorgeous breads. The wonderful Zorra has posted the round up here at Kochtopf. Go on and check it out, there are many lovely breads that are just asking to be made! Becke, of Columbus Foodie will be hosting the second Bread Baking Day and will be announcing the theme on July 6th.

Happy Baking!

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Bread Baking Day #1: Bread with Herbs

2007-06-29T09:52:00.002-07:00

When I was invited by Zorra of Kochtopf to participate in Bread Baking Day, I thought "what a great idea". Finding myself in a bit of a bread baking rut lately this seems like a great way to pull myself up out of it and bake some great bread! The theme for this month's event is herbs which is perfect as I've found my garden overrun by the sage and rosemary planted last year. I decided to make a biga (a pre-ferment dough, recipe found here) yesterday and then progress with some form of bread today. Feeling a bit experimental, I decided to just wing it and see what I could come up with. Leftover brown and wild rice in my refrigerator combined with the herbs, flour, yeast, water, biga and lots of love gave me a wonderful bread that just begs to be toasted and spread with some nice goat cheese and the leftovers (if any of it is allowed to go stale) will make for a great stuffing of some sort.

Sage Rosemary and Wild Rice Bread: (makes 2 large Boules)

1 recipe of Biga
1 cup cooked wild rice and brown rice blend (this should be cool or at room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups cool water
1/2 cup chopped fresh sage
1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 tsp salt
5-6 cups unbleached bread flour (you want enough to have a smooth soft elastic dough)
kosher salt to sprinkle over the loaves right before they bake
_______________________________
-About an hour before baking, pull your biga out of the refrigerator, cut it into 8 or 9 pieces and let it rest, covered with plastic wrap) for about an hour to remove the chill.
-In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the biga, rice, yeast, sugar, water and olive oil until the biga is a bit broken up.
-Add the flour, salt and herbs, mix until the dough forms a ball and then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (as smooth as the rice will let you make it) about 10 to 12 minutes. The dough will be fairly soft, but not tacky.
-Form the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl large enough to allow for the dough to double, that has been sprayed with pan spray or lightly coated in oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow to rise for about an hour and a half until double in bulk.
-Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently press to de-gas. Cut the dough into two equal parts and form it into boules (boule is French for ball or round). If you don't have a baking stone, place the boules onto a sheet pan that has been sprinkled with cornmeal (if you don't have cornmeal, you may also just spray it with pan spray, I find the cornmeal gives a nice bit of crunch on the bottoms of the loaves).
If you do have a baking stone, place the boules onto a baking peel or a cutting board sprinkled with cornmeal (I don't have a peel, so I use a cutting board that is big enough to hold both loaves and is wide enough to fit into my oven). Allow the loaves to rise for about an hour and a half until just about doubled in bulk. While the loaves are rising, preheat your oven to 450f, and if you have some way of getting steam in your oven, set that up as well (I just use a really old saute pan placed in the bottom of the oven, it's allowed to heat up with the oven and when it's time to bake, I pour a bit of boiling water into the bottom of the pan...using loads of caution, as steam burns are really not fun at all).
-When the loaves are ready to bake, spritz the tops with a little bit of water, sprinkle on a little kosher salt and score the loaves in whichever pattern you like.
Slide the sheet pans into the oven, or slide your loaves onto your baking stone, add your steam, if you are able to, and bake for about 20 minutes at 450f. After 20 minutes, lower the temp to 400f and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes. The loaves are ready when they are a lovely brown and feel lighter than they look.
-Take from the oven and cool on a rack.
-Slice and enjoy!

I am very happy with how this turned out. The crust was gorgeous brown, chewy and crisp and the crumb was nicely open with bits of chewy rice and wonderful herb flavor. Happy Bread Baking!

Thank you to Zorra for hosting this wonderful event! I hope to participate in many more in the future.

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Makin' Whoopie...

2007-06-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't been watching reruns of "The Newlywed Game" (hopefully I haven't given any of you strange flashbacks to the show...we used to watch it when I was a young baker), I'm talking about Whoopie Pies. I have seen Whoopie Pies before and I always wanted to try them out. So, imagine how happy I was to find a recipe for them in Chocolate American Style by Lora Brody (a book I am just now beginning to appreciate). These little cakes look very promising with their deep dark chocolate rounds filled with billowy marshmallowy filling. These are just wonderful when you are having an attack of the sweet tooth. Easy to make and very very satisfying. The name is fun to say to boot, so really, you can't go wrong! These could also be perfect for a picnic as they last a while, are individually wrapped and are crowd pleasers.

Whoopie Pies (adapted from Chocolate American Style by Lora Brody) Makes 9 large pies, 18 smaller ones:

For the cakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour (5 ounces..I used the weight measurement instead of volume for this one)
3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk (I used buttermilk instead of the whole milk and lemon juice cause I love the moisture buttermilk brings to the party)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract (or a little more if you like, I used 3 tsp or 1Tbsp of it)
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
__________________________
-Heat oven to 350f. Prepare two sheet pans by lining them with parchment paper.
-Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a medium bowl, set aside.
-Mix the milk, lemon juice and vanilla together and set aside (the mixture will thicken and curdle while it sits).
-Cream together the brown sugar, butter and egg until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer down to low and begin to add the flour and milk mixtures alternately. Starting with 1/3 of the flour adding 1/2 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the milk and then the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until just blended.
-Measure the batter out with a 1/4 cup (if you want 9 large pies) or about 2 tbsp each for smaller pies. Drop this batter onto the prepared sheet pans leaving about 2 inches between the cakes. Tap the sheets gently on a counter before baking to remove a bit of the air.
-Bake the cakes for 12-15 minutes (shorter time is needed for the smaller cakes, I'd say 8 to 12 minutes) until they are firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheet pans.

Filling:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups marshmallow cream or fluff ( I tried this with marshmallow cream, but it did not work out for me. I ordered the fluff and it really did make a difference....maybe it was just to warm here that one day for cream..)
2 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste if you have it on hand to add little beautiful vanilla specs to the filling)
___________________________________________
-Place everything but the vanilla in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat everything until it is blended, then stir in the vanilla.
-Spread half the little cakes with this mixture, then top with the other half of the cakes.
The Whoopie Pies may be wrapped individually in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to a week. I love to make these for road trips or picnics, they would be perfect for the Fourth of July. Next time anyone asks you where the best place to make whoopie is, you can smile and reply "in the kitchen, of course!".

Whooooooopie!
Happy Baking.

This post can also be seen at Just Baking.

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Strawberry, Meet Rhubarb. Rhubarb, this is Strawberry.

2007-06-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

I think that whomever it was that introduced these two should stand up and take a bow. What a beautiful working relationship they have. The sweet strawberries compliment and balance the tart astringent rhubarb. The two are just perfect for each other. While I do enjoy these baked together in a bubbling pie, my favorite way to have them is baked on top of a simple cake base. This is my Grandmother's Kuchen. It works well with any ripe fruit baked on top, but the strawberry and rhubarb remind me of summer days spent playing hide and seek in her backyard with my sisters. We'd go inside to cool off and sometimes we were lucky enough to have the kuchen as a snack, although more often it was served as a dessert. It's wonderful on it's own, but also lends itself well to a dollup of whipped cream.

Gram Danning's Fruit Kuchen: (makes one 9x9" square cake pan, or one 9" cake round)

1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (or buttermilk, I am using buttermilk in mine)
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
sliced ripe fruit of your choice to cover the top of the batter (peaches, apricots, plums, strawberries, rhubarb, most fruits work very well with this)
cinnamon and sugar mix to cover the fruit
4 tbsp of butter to dot
_____________________________________
-Heat oven to 350f.
-Cream together the butter and sugar, add the egg and mix to blend.
-Add the milk, flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just blended.
-Spread the mixture into a greased 9x9 inch cake pan (or cake round or I used a 9" tart pan) and top with the ripe fruit. Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over the top (can be generous or light with this, depends on the ripeness of the fruit....I used a bit more today because of the tartness of the rhubarb). Dot the top of everything with the 4 Tbsp of butter.
-Bake the cake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the cake is done and the fruit is bubbly.
-Cool and enjoy!

Happy Baking!

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Savory Cauliflower Pie

2007-06-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

Most of the time when we think of baking, we are thinking of cookies and cakes and breads. Usually forgotten are things like quiche, savory bread puddings and the like. One savory baked dish that I have loved since Mom first made it for us in our late teen years is Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Potato Crust. There are no doughs to mix up in this recipe, and it's really quite simple to make once you have everything chopped up and ready to go. Now that I'm married to an ovo-lacto vegetarian (I still like a little meat once in awhile but it is slowly being phased out) I find this dish to be a great dinner that we can sit down and enjoy together. It also makes for wonderful leftovers and even tastes great cold! It could be loosely termed a quiche except that the crust is made of grated potatoes and the filling is much more vegetable than eggs. The eggs are just there to hold things together. This recipe has been adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. The eggs in the recipe can be replaced with egg substitute, the cheese can be substituted with lowfat cheese or cheese substitute, basically this can be changed around to suit your needs.

Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Potato Crust:

Crust:

2C (packed) grated raw potato (I love this with yukon gold potatoes, but Idaho bakers will do lovely)

1/4 C grated onion

1/2 t. salt

1 egg white lightly beaten

flour for your fingers

a little oil

_______________________________

-Heat your oven to 400f.

-Generously spray a 9 inch pie tin with pan spray (the potato crust does tend to stick).

-Combine grated potatoes and onion, salt and egg white in a small bowl and mix well.

Transfer to the pie pan and pat into place with lightly floured fingers building up the sides into a nice crust.

-Bake for 30 minutes, remove from the oven, brush the crust with a little oil and return to bake for about 10 minutes more. The oil will help crisp up the crust a bit. Remove from oven and turn your oven down to 375f.

The Filling (I make this while the crust is baking):

1 medium head of cauliflower chopped small

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp olive oil or butter

1 tsp thyme leaves (I used dry, but if you want to use fresh just up the amount a bit)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/2 to 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

__________________________________

-Heat the olive oil or butter in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic. salt, pepper and thyme,

and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower, stir and cover. Cook

until tender, stirring occasionally (about 8-10 min.)

-Spread half the cheese onto the baked crust (it is ok if the crust is still hot). Spoon the sauteed

vegetables on top, then sprinkle with remaining cheese. Beat the eggs and milk

together, and pour this over the top (this mixture will not completely cover the cauliflower, but it is enough).

-Bake 35-40 min, or until set. Serve hot or warm.

We love to have this with a big salad on the side or a nice hunk of cantaloupe. I think this would be a fabulous brunch item as well.

Happy Savory Baking, I'm off to have some dinner!

Time to Make the Doughnuts (Donuts?)

2007-06-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

Doughnuts, or Donuts. However you spell it they are tasty. They are not something one should make a regular diet out of, but in moderation they won't kill you. I don't believe I've had a doughnut in a few years so it seemed like now was as good a time as any to make some. I prefer the yeasted glazed doughnuts to the cake ones (although the cake ones are quite nice also). I have found that Alton Brown, of The Food Network, has a wonderfully delicious chocolate glaze that works beautifully on these. I also did a few jelly filled donuts just to round out the batch because if they have fruit in them, they must be healthy, right?

Yeasted Donuts:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast(1/4 ounce, one packet)
1 1/4 cups milk, warmed to about 100f
1 cup (8 ounces, 2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
5 cups flour (I used 5 1/2 this time, you want a soft dough, but not so soft that you cannot knead it...so you might need a bit more or a bit less flour)
Oil for frying (I used a vegetable oil)
_______________________________
-Mix yeast and milk together and let it sit about 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast begins to bubble.
-Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the salt.
-Mix in the flour alternating with the yeast mixture, so you are beginning and ending with the flour (1/3 flour, 1/2 yeast mixture, 1/3 flour, 1/2 yeast mixture, remaining 1/3 flour). You may need a little more flour if the dough seems too soft for you to knead.
-Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (you may use your mixer with a dough hook attachment if you prefer, but I figure hand kneading is relaxing, and you'll burn calories while doing it thus justifying the need for a doughnut).
-Let rise, covered, in a bowl lightly sprayed with pan spray until doubled in bulk.

-On a floured surface, roll out about 1/2" thick, cut into rounds or squares, or whatever shape you like, I did the traditional round with the hole in the center for the glazed doughnuts, and just a plain round for the jelly filled (I didn't have a cutter specifically for doughnuts, so I used a drinking glass and a cannolli mold to cut out the centers).
-Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let double in bulk again.
-Heat your oil to 375f in a heavy bottomed saucepan deep enough for the doughnuts to be able to rise to the top and float (you also don't want the oil up to the rim of the pan, you only want your pan filled halfway at most for safety).
-Carefully add the doughnuts to the oil. Brown on one side and turn the doughnuts
over to brown the other side (the best way to turn these is with two chopsticks, but tongs will work. Make sure when you turn your doughnuts over that you turn away from you so any oil that might be cheeky and splash, splashes away from you). Depending on the size of your pan you can do up to 3 doughnuts at a time. Drain the doughnuts on some paper towel. Glaze while still warm. If you fry up the holes (and why wouldn't you fry up the holes?), put some sugar (powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, coconut, etc...) into a brown paper bag and when the holes come out of the oil, put them in the bag with the sugar and shake it up to coat them. You can also fill your doughnuts with a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip and filled with jelly or your favorite custard filling (lemon curd is quite good in these, yum).

Alton Brown's Chocolate Doughnut Glaze (can also be found by doing a recipe search on Food Network):

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk, warmed (I did not have whole milk so I used half heavy cream half 1% milk)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
____________________________________________
-Place the butter, milk, corn syrup and vanilla extract in a saucepan and heat over medium until the butter melts.
-Turn the heat to low, add the chocolate and whisk until smooth.
-With the pan off the heat, whisk in the powdered sugar until smooth. Set glaze over a bowl of warm water to keep it fluid and dip doughnuts immediately.
-Allow the glaze to set up for about half hour (yeah, right....just try to resist the goodness) and eat!

Happy Baking...er...frying!

This post will also appear at Just Baking.

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