this week

I tried something new this week - I made German raisin bread. I've never made raisin bread before. It tastes pretty good and I'm not a big fan of raisins.
I also made a raspberry jelly roll - the "Joy of Cooking"'s recipe. I have to remember to get the wider Reynolds Wrap for the jelly roll pan. That would make it easier to transfer the cake to the towel.
I also made a pumpkin cheesecake bar. It was on the back of the box for the pumpkin bread. I didn't realize I didn't buy any pureed pumpkin until too late (I forgot again today) and I had a hankering for pumpkin.
Last week's brownies were quite the hit. Will made sure he got the remaining brownies on Thursday "so they don't go to waste". So this week I used the basic Hershey recipe using the Ghiradelli cocoa, the normal amount of eggs and butter with one addition - a very ripe banana. That seems to give the brownies a more cake like consistency.
I finally dumped out my sourdough starter. it had mold growing on top of it. I don't think sourdough is my thing but darned if I don't see another recipe for sourdough and start thinking "I could do that". I'm still thinking about it...

baking action this week

Let's see, it's a bit of comedy of errors;) I made popovers again and I used cake flour. However, I did not compensate for the difference in weight between cake and all purpose flour and the popovers didn't. They still tasted good, but they were sort of muffiny.
As for the brownies....I used 1/2 cup applesauce to replace 1/2 cup butter. They came out cakey. Then I added a topping - the "Mississippi Mud" frosting from Paula Deen. I think it's a bit too heavy for the brownies. However, Will did manage to say "it's a bit too much" while eating the brownie, so there you are.
I made the raspberry puff pastries from the King Arthur folks. It turned out great. This time, I cooked the raspberries for the filling. I do need to seal the pastry properly because the filling spills out. It was still pretty good.
No cakes this week. Hmm, I must be slipping.....

late posting

I baked last weekend, but I probably wasn't 100%. I made oatmeal raisin cookies for my honey - and they turned out lacelike. Still tasted good, but very thin. I think the dough was too wet.
Then I made brownies - the same brownies I've made a gazillion times and I made a mistake. I put a half a teaspoon of baking _soda_ in instead of baking _powder_. I baked them anyway, but they didn't seem to rise as much. However, all were eaten so it must have been good.
Then for my 26th wedding anniversary, I decided to make a special meal at home - center cut boneless pork chops (one of the honey's faves), a baked potato, corn on the cob and popovers. I haven't made them for a long time and I had to retrieve the pan from where I had stored it. So far, so good. I used "The Joy of Cooking" recipe for popovers, it's my favorite. They rose just fine, browned nicely... and the bottoms stuck to the pan. *sigh* I guess I didn't have my baking mojo this week or something. But they still tasted good. I will really have to grease those pans down the next time I use them.
Right now I'm thinking about making the puff pastry from the "Baking Sheet" - that worked out well for me. before. Or maybe I should open a box of Pillsbury crescent rolls, maybe I won't mess that up.
_enjoy_

the baking action

Not too much this week, I'm afraid. I was very sluglike this weekend. I made brownies, with 5 eggs instead of 6 and a heaping tablespoon of Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa added to the Nestle's cocoa I've been using. I also added a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. I thought about topping it with chocolate frosting, but I decided it would be _too_much_chocolate_. I know, who would guess that I'd think something had too much chocolate?
And I made a blondie, which really just looks like a giant chocolate chip cookie pressed into a brownie pan. And that's what it tastes like. My younger son Will claims he's never had a blondie before, so once he has one, he won't be able to say that anymore.
That's it for now....

Pineapple Cake Crisis and baking action this week

First, the pineapple cake crisis. Last Sunday, I made a pineapple pound cake from "The Baking Sheet" and took it to work. No special occasion, just felt like taking a cake to work. I get into work about 6:30am and put the cake on the table. Not a big production, just what I normally do when I bring a cake in.
About 8:45am, the cake was gone. Just a few crumbs remained where there once was a cake. I always believed in "first come first serve" and wasn't that concerned about it. I found out that not everyone feels the same way I do about "first come first serve".
Three of my coworkers came in after the cake had been devoured, one of which happened to be my supervisor. Well, that didn't work so well for me. She gave me the cold shoulder treatment as well as the hairy eyeball. Oh well, I've been ignored before so I wasn't impressed.
But on Tuesday night, I made 2 more pineapple pound cakes, split one onto 2 small (6 cup) Bundt pans and one went in my regular tube pan. I took them in Wednesday and guess what? My supervisor talked to me like I was her long lost best friend;) It's silly but there you are.

For baking action this week, I made the brownies with Nestle cocoa using the Hershey recipe. I cut out 1 egg and didn't replace it with any other liquid. I mixed frozen mini-marshmallows into the batter. I thought about putting icing on them but I got too lazy to do that. They taste pretty good, nice and fudgy and the marshmallows are a good touch.

For my honey, I made him a pineapple pound cake. I guess the whole house smelling like pineapples was an influence.

That's it for baking. I didn't make any bread (too humid), but maybe next week - or not...

Have a good week.

hot & humid

That's not only the weather outside but the weather in my kitchen;)

I didn't bake too much this weekend. It was, of course, hot and humid and work kicked my butt. So I used the "usual" Hershey recipe except a couple of tweaks. I added the cocoa in with the melted butter and sugar mixture to start with instead of later with the flour. I substituted 2 tablespoons of milk for 1 egg. I also threw part of a candy bar in with the melted butter, a Ghiradelli candy bar that has orange in it. Not the whole thing, maybe about a quarter of the candy bar. The brownies have a soft but not wet texture and a good chocolate taste. I'm still using the Nestle's cocoa because I still have a lot of it left.

I made the pineapple pound cake (from "The Baking Sheet" to take to work. I don't know why I'm taking it to work, I guess it's because last week was ugly and all of us need a little cheering up. Or fattening up, I don't know which;)

I didn't make any bread this week. Just didn't feel like it. Maybe next week I will. In a few weeks, the heat and humidity will be almost over with and I might feel like baking bread then.

Take care.

8/16/09 baking

It is hot and humid now in my part of the world, but that's the way it is usually this time of year. Here's the breakdown on all the excitement in baking this week.

It was a rough week at work, a lot of drama and of course, coming back from vacation. So Thursday night, I baked a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Turned out pretty good.My sons came over on Saturday and ate some of the cake.

The brownies this week was the "usual" Hershey's recipe - but I browned the butter in a frying pan, than mixed the cocoa with it. It seemed to make the brownies chewier with just a slightly richer taste.

The cake this week - it's a vanilla cake that is flavored with seedless raspberry jam as well as raspberry extract. The frosting....well, that's sort of a swiss meringue type (at least that's what Martha Stewart calls it). It's a mixture between a 7 minute boiled frosting and buttercream. I added the raspberry flavoring to the frosting as well. The frosting was very runny. I don't know if it was the humidity or the heat, but it just ran off the spatula and down the counter onto the floor. I wasn't too thrilled about that, but it was easy to clean up. I put the frosted cake in the fridge so maybe the frosting will set up there. At least I hope so. I did remember to put a bigger plate under the cake so I wouldn't have to hose frosting out of my fridge. That wouldn't have made me happy.

I also made my brother a cake for his "cake of the month". It's a pineapple pound cake with pineapple glaze. I made the regular size Bundt pan as making 2 small cakes doesn't work. I end up giving one cake to the birds. So he will either have to take it to work and share it or freeze it. I will be making the traditional birthday cake for him this week - maybe. Two cakes in a week might be too much.

Poop! I forgot to get sour cream when Iwas at the grocery store. I was planning to make more puff pastry. I'll just try to remember next time I'm shopping.

Gee, I hope they make a movie of this blog;) I could use the money. I wonder is Roseanne Barr would play me?

Later