GF Korovas

Another foray into gluten-free baking :) I saw Deena's gf version Korovas on her blog, and was really excited to try them. Her photos are gorgeous!

Mine not so much, but the cookies are still pretty good. They have a great texture and they went pretty quickly here.

I'm really hoping to try experimenting with a variety of gf flours. For me, the rice flours seem to have a bit of a metallic aftertaste. But really, with all this chocolate and cocoa, it's hard to tell :)

HBin5 100% WW with Olive Oil

So this is definitely not gluten-free, but my timing with baking was off here, so we had a gluten-for-grown-ups day :)
















My Aloo Paratha. This reminded me of some samosas I'd made from an old Vegetarian Times cookbook, except this was better. I used Penzey's Maharajah Curry powder and about 1/2-3/4 tsp salt (down from 1tsp). It was flavorful, almost a little salty, I'd reduce the salt to 1/2 next time. This is something I'll make for myself again!















My steaming Southwestern Focaccia with Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese. This was the favorite of the guys in the house. I love goat cheese, so I was looking forward to this one, too.















My loaf that I rushed and didn't allow to fully rise and then also got cut before the photo (so my sad little loaf and the tiny photo so hopefully you can't see quite as well just how sad the loaf is). It might not be a fair judgment from this loaf, but I think we liked the master and the wwflax better as loaves. The ww with olive oil is a great base for flatbread, though - I'm sure I'll use it again!









Visit Michelle at Big Black Dog to see how all the other bakers did!

SK chocolate souffle cupcakes

Just after making our gluten-free trial goal, I saw these amazing cupcakes.
These were fantastic! We skipped the whipped cream, and I know they don't look like much, but they're so good! My husband compared them to cheesecake in how rich and dense they were. And still, they're light. We've already made them twice - we'll definitely be making them again!

Gluten-free Breads

We're trying a little gluten-free here for a few weeks, so my first bread attempt was from Healthy Bread in 5. I loved how it turned out, good texture and flavor. It was very moist, almost biscuit-ish. I thought this was really good. My kid said, "it's too white." Any other time I'd be proud of raising a kid who prefers whole grains.

So for round 2, I tried an almond flour and soda raised bread from elana's pantry This one didn't win either. It's more like a quick bread, much denser.

So, I'm hoping to play around with the HBin5 recipe, varying the flours. And I'm very open to suggestions!

Dorie's Chocolate Pudding

I'd not yet joined TWD when the chocolate pudding had been selected, and I had a few extra yolks so I thought I'd do a little catch-up. I was a little messy in the pouring, but this was delicious! Very rich, kid-friendly, and easy (I skipped the processor step and just whisked away). I'll definitely keep this in mind for any time I have a couple extra yolks. Great comfort food!

Gluten-free Girl's brownies

I lost the adapter for my real camera again, so please excuse the extra-rough photos :)

I'd made these brownies from Gluten-free Girl's blog last year for a friend but never got a photo. I remembered really liking them at the time, so I figured they'd be a good brownie recipe for us for now. They are really good. The rice flour can sometimes have a funky aftertaste, but with all the chocolate, it's really not noticeable. They're my favorite kind of brownie, the rich, dense, Katherine Hepburn kind :)

My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Normally chocolate chip cookies are our everyday cookies, and I make them with half flax/half butter so I don't feel as guilty. I'd forgotten how sweet and fine regular choc chip cookies are!

These were great cookies, I liked how they were soft. I'd add just a little more flour next time, but these were great cookies!

Kait of Kait’s Plate for this week's selection!

Ordering Seeds!

Living in Wisconsin allows me plenty of time to browse the seed catalogs. The Seed Savers Exchange catalog becomes my favorite reading material. But today was the big day - the kids and I narrowed down our choices and ordered!

Our goal for this coming season is to try to grow as much as we can ourselves, and continue to support the local farmers for things we can't, like eggs and dairy. Something I think is a little funny about the zoning here, only 1.5 acres is required to have a horse, but for a chicken, 10 acres is required. Hmm. Anyway, we're looking forward to starting our seeds and all of the gardening this summer!

Pumpkin Brioche

This is the third bread I've tried from Jeff and Zoe's Healthy Bread, and it's the first sweet bread. I've used their brioche recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 many times, mostly for cinnamon rolls, but I'm still looking to do their lemon curd/blueberry ring. Anyway, this pumpkin brioche was fantastic! It was moist and rich, but not overpoweringly pumpkin or spicey. And as much as I liked it plain, I loved it as french toast. That was just from the first loaf.
















The second I made into their cresents (just rolling the dough, sprinkling with 1/2 brown sugar, 2 t cinnamon and 2T butter). These were fantastic. Everyone loved them, and we'll definitely be making these again!

Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

Thanks to Tanya of Chocolatechic for this week's TWD pick! I loved these brownies! Maybe I overbaked or maybe I just really like gooey brownies (which I do, cakey brownies are not my thing), but these turned out great! I used unsweetened and 70% and they were a little sweet, but I loved that they were so tall and dense. They reminded me a lot of the Katherine Hepburn brownies, only three times taller. They weren't too photogenic, but that didn't bother me too much :)

Pound Cake

So in this new-to-us 1912 home, we have a lot more space (and an acre to play!), but no dishwasher or disposal. I've found this has made me far more conscious of what we're throwing away and it's also made me appreciate the one-bowl recipes. I'm not a big fan of clean up.

We still like our desserts around here, so I looked through CI's Family Baking Book's chapter on snack cakes. I've only made pound cake maybe once before, but this one really turned out well! We all liked it, very buttery but not greasy, fine crumb, moist. This is definitely one we'll be having again - the photo's all we had left this morning! I'd like some ginger or lemon variations, too...