I Love

I love Baking.
Not too much more to say about that.
Hot from the oven, covered in turkey, or avocado, or (if I feel like being really naughty, and then taking some drugs) butter.

Snow Day

Listening to this little lady playing and singing carols from her new book smell of whoopie pies baking for the final day of Alleluia Choir (the 3-5 year-old choir I get to sing with on Tuesday afternoons) until after Christmas.
How did you spend your snow day? if you had one, that is.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving for me is all about family, and I am filled with gratitude that I can spend the day with most of them.
The notable absence today will be my sister, look for her this morning on TV, she'll be a balloon handler at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
I hope your day is filled with wonderful things, and pie.

Free-form Apple Tartlets

First of all, thank you all so much for your encouraging comments about my photo!
I feel very loved.

I was invited to a pARTy yesterday and I made these little apple tartlets and some plum tartlets to bring along.
These are a great little dessert to make with kids.
The Elder Hug-a-Bug was very helpful with the stirring of the filling as well as the forming of the tartlets.
Also, these are a good project for people like me who don 't have very much skill with the detail work of pie-making.

To make these first cut up some fruit, sprinkle said fruit with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon and mix, then you roll out pie crust to an eighth of an inch, cut into 4 pieces, prettily arrange the fruit in the middle of a piece and pull the dough up around the edges.
Chill the tartlets while the oven is heating up.
Then bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar, then bake another 15 minutes.

I used an amazing pie crust from Cook's Illustrated which uses a mixture of flour, butter and shortening along with vodka and water for moisture.
Apparently the vodka inhibits the gluten production and makes the crust more tolerant of handling.
The first time I made this crust I bagged the shortening and just used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, since it's basically margarine that tastes like butter.

I'll share photos of the project from the pARTy later today, I still have some assembly to finish.

Monday

I worked the last 7 days, and will work this evening, but until then I have at least 8 hours of free time.
My plans so far call for a little of this -fixing up this guy -
and probably lots of park time.
What's on your plate today?

Summer Baking

I don't know what it is about Summer that makes me feel like baking.
Maybe it's already so hot, that having the oven on doesn't really matter.
Anyway, I had some friends ask if I would share the recipe for the deep dishes from yesterday so here it is.

Deep Dish CheesePizza from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

(I have said it before, you have got to get this cookbook! Every recipe I have used has been perfect.)

1 russet potato (about 8 ounces) peeled and cut into 1" chunks
3 3/4 cup flour, plus more for the counter
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
6 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for bowl
1 cup warm water

1. Cover the potato with water in a small saucepan and simmer until the potato is cooked through, 10-15 minutes. Drain, and when it's cool enough to handle, run the potato through a food mill or ricer. Measure off 1 1/3 cups lightly packed potato and put to the side.
2. Mix together1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup water and yeast. Let it proof for about 10 minutes and add flour, salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, remaining water, then the potato.
Mix with a dough hook for a minute or so and then let the dough rest before kneading on a floured surface for 5 minutes.
3. Online, they suggested letting the dough rise in the oven using this method.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees, let heat for 10 minutes then turn off the oven.
Place the kneaded dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof the dough in the oven (which is now turned off) until doubled in size (45 minutes to and hour)
4. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
5. I used cake pans, so the next step is to divide the dough in half.
Oil the two pans using 2 tablespoons of olive oil per pan.
It seems like a lot, but it works well to make a nice crispy crust.
6. Press the dough into the prepared pans, and push up the sides of the dough to the top of the pan.
7. Here I missed the next direction which is to par bake the crust: generously prick the dough with a fork reduce the oven to 425 and bake on a preheated pizza stone until dry and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Then top the par baked crust and bake another 10-15 minutes.

What I did was top the raw dough with my sauce and "cheese" (I have to use the vegan stuff, yuck.) and baked the whole thing at 500 for 20-22 minutes.

When it came out I shook some dried basil on the top, since the vegan cheese has no flavor, and then we let it cool and the kids devoured it.

I will definitely use this recipe again, in fact the dough was so light and fluffy that I think it would be a great bread.
That's on my agenda for today, and I think I'll add some caramelized onions to the dough with a little fresh thyme.

Maybe I'll post some photos of that bread, if it works out.

Update: I made another batch of the dough, added a cup of caramelized onions with some rosemary and baked it in a dutch oven like the NY Times No Knead Recipe.
I can't wait to have a taste!
Have a fun weekend!

Yummy Cake

I made this cake tonight, and it was too tasty to keep to myself.

Fluffy Yellow Cake from Cook's Illustrated with Non-dairy substitutions

2 ½ cups cake flour , plus extra for dusting pans
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon table salt
1 ¾ cups sugar (12 ¼ ounces)
10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks , melted and cooled slightly
½ cup Tofutti Better than Sour Cream , room temperature
½ cup Rice Dream
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks , room temperature
3 large egg whites , room temperature

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch-wide by 2-inch-high round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 1/2 cups sugar together in large bowl. In 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.

2. In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. With machine running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to bowl and set aside.

3. Add flour mixture to now-empty mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment. With mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape whisk and sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.

4. Using rubber spatula, stir 1/3 of whites into batter to lighten, then add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Lightly tap pans against counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.

5. Bake until cake layers begin to pull away from sides of pans and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cakes from sides of pans with small knife, then invert onto greased wire rack and peel off parchment. Invert cakes again and cool completely on rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

I also used the Foolproof Chocolate Frosting

10 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) Earth Balance, softened (60 to 65 degrees)
1 cup confectioners' sugar (4 ounces)
¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa ( I just used what I had on hand)
Pinch table salt
¾ cup light corn syrup (I used the end of my golden syrup, about a quarter cup, then made up the difference with corn syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces vegan chocolate chips , melted and cooled slightly

Instructions

In food processor, process butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl, then add chocolate and pulse until smooth and creamy, 10 to 15 seconds. Frosting can be used immediately or frozen until needed. If frozen, leave out on the counter for an hour before using. (I used my kitchen-aid, I don't own a food processor)

I got about 2 times the frosting than I actually needed.

This is partially due to the fact that I filled the cake with sliced, sugared strawberries.
Please, go forth and bake this cake.
It's really tasty.
Even my hubby, who avows that he hates chocolate frosting, really liked it.

baked

What time is it?

Donut time.
It's been over a year since the last time, and I may need to cut myself off already.

Is This What Stir Crazy Looks Like?

I have been unusually crafty these past 4-6 days, and it just occurred to me that it might be from a lack of running around outside.
Over the weekend there was a huge influx of pictures on my friends' flickr pages of food and bread and more bread and a little more bread, so I was inspired to pull out my copy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and get baking.
I put up the dough last night, and this morning I made fresh pita for the kids breakfast.
They weren't too impressed, frankly, but I felt like Laura Ingalls, so that was fine with me.
They were, however, all eaten before I had a chance to take a photo.

Next I decided to whip up something that would go with dinner.
Unfortunately that is almost gone as well.
This is the Prosciutto and Olive Oil Bread, but I didn't have prosciutto so I used breakfast sausage.
Still quite yummy.
I have high hopes of cinnamon rolls for breakfast some day this week, so stay tuned.

Somebody Stop Me

In an effort to use up some leftovers this afternoon, I made some pumpkin whoopie pies.
They were really tasty, but too easy to just keep popping one more...
I had to pack up the bulk of them and take them out of my mouth, I mean house.

O.K. New Rule -
No more marshmallow cream in the house.

Pie

We're not great gardeners.
In the spring and early summer we're pretty gung-ho with the planning and the digging and the plant purchasing, but we always stall out mid-August or so.
This leaves the garden to do what it will, and this year, for the first time ever, we got a pumpkin.
It never grew very big, and it ripened a little earlier than I anticipated.
Too early to be a Jack-o-Lantern, but really too small to be one anyway.
The Elder Hug-a-Bug requested some pumpkin pie this morning so that's what we did.
It was delicious. Thanks Garden.

It's not my fault

I put the blame solely on Meg from Elsie Marley.
Here I was, minding my own business, reading blogs and I came across her photo of homemade oreo cookies.
Well, what could I possibly do but make some too?
I couldn't find the recipe I had used in the past for whoopie pies, but Google never lets a girl down, and I found one I could use in a pinch.
The secret to the deliciousness of this confection is the filling, which is a blend of shortening (If I could eat dairy I would use butter, but as it is I used vegan buttery sticks) sugar, vanilla and marshmallow fluff.

Mmmm. These are deadly.
I will try to freeze some of them, otherwise I will eat them all.

Good Loaf

I don't know if it's the rainy weather we've been having, or the feeling that with the end of Summer and the coming of school, Fall is near, but I am in the midst of 14 hours of bread-baking frenzy.
Last night at 8:30 (why? I don't know) I made up a loaf of wheat bread from the recipe on the back of the King Arthur Flour bag, as well as throwing together the ingredients for no-knead bread.

I didn't end up baking the wheat long enough (who'd a thunk that at 10:45 PM I wouldn't have the best judgment about baking times) and I had a big dead spot in the center of the loaf.

Well, if life gives you underdone bread, make croutons.

Long, long ago I was a bread baker at Cafe Latte and we would use the day-old bread to make croutons for the salads and soups.
I tried to remember the recipe, here's what I could come up with after 9 years-

I sliced the bread, sprinkled a little olive oil, added a little kosher salt, onion powder and oregano and baked them in a low oven, 250 degrees or so, for about 20 minutes.

Since the bread was fresh it took a little longer to dry out fully, but I think these will be quite tasty on a salad for dinner tonight.

The no-knead just came out of the oven and it is questionable whether this will make it to dinner tonight.

the recipe

Hi,
I haven't had much to say lately, and I may not for a little while.
However, as the question was asked, here is the recipe for the cake in the previous post.

Classic White Layer Cake (from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)

1 cup whole milk, at room temp
6 large egg whites, at room temp
2 tsp almond extract (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat two 8 or 9-inch or one 9 by 13 inch cake pan(s) with vegetable spray and line the bottom(s) with parchment paper. Whisk the milk, egg whites and extracts together in a liquid measuring cup and set aside.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Beat the flour mixture and butter together with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture resembles moist crumbs, 1 to three minutes.

3. Beat in all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture. Increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth, 1 to 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed. Beat in the remaining 1.2 cup of the milk mixture.

4. Give the batter a final stir using a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake(s) comes out with a few crumbs attached, 20 to 25 minutes for the round cakes, 25 to 30 for the sheet cake, rotating the pan(s) halfway through baking.
I highly recommend everything in the this cookbook. The beauty of the test kitchen is that they figure out why stuff works, and what doesn't. I usually follow their recipes to the letter, though with my new dietary restrictions, I had to make some modifications.

For my cake I used soy milk and vegan golden buttery sticks to replace the dairy (sniff), and as I can no longer have tree nuts either (sob), I couldn't use the almond extract.

I was going to use all vanilla, and then I remembered that vanilla extract is made the same way that I made my fruit liquors. So, I substituted 3 tsp of plum liquor for the almond and vanilla. It gave a light fruity taste to the cake that I quite enjoyed.

The topping was straight up jam.
We went to the farmer's market last week and bought a bunch of strawberries and the Elder Hug-a-Bug and I made some freezer jam. I used about 1/2 cup in the center and about the same on top.

The texture of this cake is really light and moist. It may be my favorite cake.
It is perfectly spectacular with whipped cream and fresh strawberries cut up, sprinkled with sugar and kept in the fridge for an hour.
It would also be a good cake to frost, though frosting is not my forte, so I never do it.

My needles have been very busy lately, so there should be a knitting related post coming soon, but until then I will just keep putting up pictures.

Make the cake.
It's really good.

More green knitting, etc.

First of all, can I just say how irritated I am with my DVR?
We are always putting the kids to bed during Lost, and so we always tape it.
Shouldn't the DVR know that a show is going to run late? Shouldn't it know that a major character, even one I don't particularly care about, getting shot is something that the viewer would like to see?
Oh well, it's a good thing I have you fine folks to keep me in the know.


Second, I have been off Dairy for over two months now and today I tried baking some cookies with vegan butter.
They're o.k. there is a little aftertaste that I can't quite identify, but I like cookies, so all in all I am pleased.

Third, it is May!!! I almost missed this fact, and faithful readers will recall that I have one May Day ritual, I crank up the Lusty Month of May from Camelot and sing along at the top of my voice.

Check.

It is a little windy today, but that didn't stop the Hug-a-Bugs from having a super time at the park this morning.


And fourth, I began a new knitting project on Tuesday.
It's the Elizabeth I pattern from Alice Starmore's Tudor Roses book.


The yarn is Thirteen Mile Sportweight in color Moss.
I am really loving this knitting.
It's mostly stockinette, so it's pretty mindless, which I love.

Enjoy May Day!
Jess

A New Era

Well, it's official, my body no longer wants me to have dairy.
I went through a couple of days of moping, but I think I can handle it.
Today I tried baking with soy yogurt, and the results are not so different that I have to give up baking.
That was my big fear, that I would have to give up all of the things that I like to eat like cookies, bread, cake, biscuits, all the things that are super good for you, just kidding.
I have decided to cut back on those things anyway, since I would probably feel better without all of the added padding afforded by that kind of diet.
I made banana bread today, the kids like it and I don't mind it so I think we're back on track.

Have a pleasant Monday,
Jess

second time's the charm

I have recently been aware that no cold lasts 15 years, and maybe the reason that I have constant post-nasal drip and coughing is the dairy in my diet.
So, yesterday, I made the decision to cut out dairy for a week or two to see if I feel better.
All day yesterday I had moments of dumbness, like "I am a little munchy, how 'bout some cheese? Oh, right, or some yogurt, hmmm, Chocolate?...nope."
My hope is that this will abate over the course of the next couple of weeks.

I did not, however, give up all dietary fun, and this afternoon the Hug-a-Bugs and myself made a batch of dairy-free cupcakes.

I used the recipe from this book for Emergency Snacking Cake.
I had hoped to make a wacky cake from my Grandma Pearl's recipe, but I couldn't find it.

It went o.k. even though we hit a few snags.

The first is the tiny fit thrown by the Elder when the only apron was going to the Younger, even though I made it for her when she was three.

In an attempt to diffuse the situation I threw together a new apron for the Elder.
Because of an earlier ribbon-buying spree, I had about a yard of cute flower twill tape in the stash and I sewed it along the top edge of a kitchen towel.
Easy make, easy wear, easy care.
The apron situation sorted, we began on the batter.There was enough excitement (and I use that term loosely) making the batter that I forgot the baking soda.
Well, cupcakes don't rise without leavening.

So while the kids ate their lunches, I made a quick second batch and they came out perfectly.

I didn't like these as much as my grandma's recipe, but they do well in a snacking emergency.

I leave you with a hint of spring,My mom took some cuttings from her lilac bushes and put them in water a week or two ago, and her front window is full of greeny goodness, I just had to do the same.
It sure is nice to see something green and growing.

Have a fun afternoon,
Jess

Celebration Breakfast

I am sick.
Blurgh.
I am so sick that I woke up at 4:30 this morning and took a shower.
Then I thought, I should probably throw those clothes into the dryer.
Then I thought, I have about 2 hours before anyone's awake, maybe I should make some cinnamon rolls and we could have an Inauguration Day Celebration Breakfast.
So I did.
I found a recipe for Orange and Blueberry rolls, but as the Hub doesn't care for blueberries, and I had none, I omitted them and just made Orange and Cinnamon rolls.
They were tasty.
And, after a lovely nap at about 2, I am ready to start living with hope and virtue.

Enjoy the day,
Jess

Happy New Year!

There has been a lot of activity 'round here of late.
We have made the transition from beds in rooms to beds in closets, mostly without a hitch.
My crafting space has moved upstairs, and the kids toys are now installed in its place

I have been baking up a storm.

These little babies are from an Alton Brown recipe with his chocolate glaze, so good.
The recipe makes enough glaze for about 60 dozen doughnuts, but I only made two dozen, so we have about two cups of fudgy sauce left over which should be perfect for sundaes.
There were, of course, many, many cookies.
All of which, apparently, were eaten before they could be documented.

This weekend is the last hurrah before we resume our regular activities.
The Hubster goes back to work and the kids go back to school next week.
I guess I am ready for it, but this break didn't seem quite long enough.
I hope that everybody had a relaxing and productive break, if you were able to have one, and here we go forward into 2009.
Jess.