The Cooking of Joy

Philadelphia Style Chocolate Ice Cream

2012-02-04T09:06:00.000-06:00

In preparation for Christmas baking, I'd bought a half gallon of Horizon cream at Costco. I know a half gallon seems ridiculous, but it's so reasonably priced that I can't help myself. Anyway, I ended up only making one batch of caramels for Christmas, so I was left with a lot of cream. Enter the chocolate cake kick, all with lots of ganache and whipped cream! And still I was left with about 4 cups of cream!

I don't usually think of ice cream in winter in Wisconsin, but since it's been a pretty warm winter and I had four cups of cream on my hands.... I started browing the Perfect Scoop. I tried both the vanilla philadelphia style ice cream and the chocolate. My 4 year old's favorite ice cream is vanilla, which is perfect for his shirts! And the vanilla was very good. The chocolate though. The chocolate is incredible! It's rich, dark, chocolaty and perfectly scoopable from the freezer! I used El Rey Bucare 58.5%, and it was really perfect. Usually I like going for a darker chocolate, but it's what I had on hand, and I don't think I would use darker next time. I do have Lebovitz's truffles and thin mints as add-in's for next time though!

Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

2012-02-03T20:55:00.001-06:00

So I've been on a bit of a chocolate cake binge lately. We've stayed with our favorites (the double chocolate layer from epicurious and Toba Garrett's chocolate fudge) for the last couple years, so I thought it'd be fun to look around again. And this last cake in the chocolate cake streak was prompted by a late-night craving, so I tried Martha Stewart's one-bowl chocolate cake. I was amazed at the little oil in the recipe, and in the end, I was disappointed. The cake rose like crazy and domed, so maybe I overbeat. It was a tough cake and not very chocolaty. The frosting was good, but seemed to be a mismatch with the cake. I might like the cake better with maybe whipped cream instead of a dense ganache type frosting. The frosting I would try again on a denser cake. So here's the last little piece.

It was fun to play around a little, and we got a couple new favorites with the Chocolate Cloud Roll and the Chocolate Orange Cake.

Chocolate Cloud Cake Roll

2012-02-01T20:25:00.004-06:00

I've never made a jelly roll before, but was inspired to try so I went to Beranbaum's Cake Bible and the Chocolate Cloud Cake Roll. I've found Beranbaum's recipes to be really helpful when trying something new. Her directions are always specific enough that I feel like I know what should be happening. And this cake roll was amazing! It was quick and easy to put together, and the quick baking time made it convenient. It rolled so nicely (sorry for the night-time photo), and it was very light eating. The next day I added a quick ganache and it was like a big swiss cake roll, but really good. I can't wait to try again and make a pretty one!

Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Orange Ganache and Orange Buttercream

2012-01-31T12:30:00.000-06:00

So it's a bit of a ridiculously long title, but it's a review of this recipe from the yellow Gourmet cookbook, so I thought I'd keep the name. I've been looking at this cake for years now and finally got around to making it.

I made the cake and ganache as directed, and adapted the buttercream a bit. I'd made the lemon raspberry wedding cake from the same cookbook a couple years ago, and I thought the buttercream was very heavy, so just lightened it a bit. I made the orange curd as directed, and then added half the curd to swiss meringue buttercream with one less stick butter than usual (4 whites, 1/2 c sugar, 2 sticks butter).

The buttercream was perfect - not too over-the-top orangey, and not too dense and heavy (leaving out the extra stick butter). The cake itself was tender and fine, nice and chocolaty, not too dense or light or crumbly. The orange ganache was my favorite element, though. I'm thinking of trying some truffles with the ganache. Altogether we really liked this cake - rich dark chocolate brightened with a little orange. This is a new grown-up favorite!

Final TWD: Kids' Thumbprints

2011-12-27T16:59:00.000-06:00

The Kids' Thumbprints are the last recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours, and Dorie's hosting for us this week. We tried the playing around version with the chocolate chips, and they're a cute little cookie!

I joined TWD in October 2008, and I started this blog to join. My first recipe with the group was the Lenox almond biscotti, and I got to try some things I'd never heard before like the blanc-manger and the dacquoise. Baking has given us some new favorites, and since this is the final TWD, I thought I'd share the recipes that were highlights for our family:

Pumpkin Muffins love the muffins made with butter, light and rich
Sweet Cream Biscuits so much easier than cutting in butter, and they rise reliably
Tiramisu Cake pretty cake, loved the mascarpone frosting
Tourtely Apple Tart those apples and browned butter!
Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia favorite tall brownie, dense and rich
Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownie favorite thin brownie, reminded me of ones my parents made when I was a kid
Espresso Shortbread not too sweet, and so quick and convenient to make ahead and freeze

I've so enjoyed the chance to bake along!

Polar Bear Cookies

2011-12-14T11:17:00.000-06:00

I'd originally made the bears to go along with some onesies for a friend, but I couldn't get them to look baby themed, so I tried just giving them little eyes and a nose, and I think they turned out kind of cute! They're just rolled fondant and then Wilton candy melts piped for the eyes and nose. I tried making cookies this way a couple years ago, and they're so easy! They don't lend themselves to details, they're better for simple designs, but they're quick, quick to dry for packaging so the cookies stay soft, and they travel well.

And here is the little treat plate for our neighbor. I tried the easy cheater fudge from Martha Stewart that was really good (with El Rey Icoa), and I used their idea of adding the crushed candy cane on top. My opinion is the candy cane is fine if you eat all your fudge by day two. Otherwise, you want to keep your fudge covered so it doesn't dry out, but that makes your candy cane sticky and messy. So that's turned into a day-of cute idea for me. I'll use candy cane bark for sharing from now on, I think. The scones are another Martha Stewart recipe and are my favorite and so easy because they can be made ahead and frozen, and then just baked whenever. I'll try giving them a post all their own soon - they're a perfect holiday morning breakfast!

Christmas Puzzle Cookies

2011-12-11T22:10:00.001-06:00

So this isn't the prettiest picture ever, but I was packaging them tonight, and wanted to get a picture in so this would make sense. I thought Martha Stewart's gingerbread puzzle was a fun idea for little treats to go along with little gifts for the godchildren. I knew going in that I'd not do all the royal and just use white icing, to meet the kids' diets.

So a couple of tips from my first experience....

I didn't actually read the directions on Martha Stewart, which said to cut the cookies while still warm. Instead, I cut them before baking. Of course, they spread a little, so the puzzle's not a perfect fit, but the edges are cleaner. I think if doing it again, I'd cut before baking, but I'd just be more careful not to scrunch the openings (like for the points of the star) when transferring the dough to the cookie sheet.
I used the top of a gladware container to cut the outline, and then either used a cookie cutter or just cut the puzzle pieces.
I was also really glad that I put each cookie puzzle with all its pieces together on the cookie sheet and then onto separate plates to cool. I had put two cookies together in a container after cooling, and it was way more difficult to put together than I would have guessed. When cutting them, I kept thinking I should try making the designs more difficult because these are going to be way too easy to put together. But even with the icing, they (surprisingly) take a little effort.
From how they look in the end and how they fit together, I think I liked the ones that have a cookie cutter cut-out in the middle. I think I like the idea of the star and the tree in the top right corner, except that the star has no icing. For puzzle difficulty, though, the bottom left, which is random pieces like the Martha Stewart example, would be my pick.

I think these ended up kind of fun, and I'm hoping to do another batch for my kids!

TWD Bittersweet Brownies

2011-11-15T09:09:00.001-06:00

These were great brownies! They were so easy to throw together, they weren't super chocolaty,but they were nice and dense. And they're very kid-friendly. Thanks to Leslie of Lethally Delicious for this week's pick!

TWD Honey Scones

2011-11-01T19:44:00.003-05:00

I love scones. And these were incredibly easy to pull together. I had the four-year-old cut the butter in with his hands, which he loved (I'm going to remember this for all biscuits and piecrust, for family :-) ). We left out the nuts, baked half and froze half. I love that scones are perfect for make-ahead. These were very tender, not very sweet, and great with jam.

Thanks to Jeannette of the Whimsical Cupcake for this week's pick!

Grape Jam

2011-10-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

We have a few grape vines in our yard, and we were excited that they produced this year. These seeded grapes are good for eating, and they taste 'grapey'. I always thought grape candy was a made-up flavor, but these grapes actually have the real grape flavor that the candies try to taste like. I wanted to try a jam without pectin, so I tried this Grape J am from epicurious.

I started with trying to get the seeds out of each individual grape, but after about 40 grapes, I gave that up and just popped them out the skins, pureed the skins, and then simmered and strained the grape. Look at all those seeds! Much easier!

It took a while to boil down, but I ended up with 2 half pints of jam, which the kids have loved. I'm looking forward to trying again next year!

Strawberry Lemon Marshmallows

2011-10-06T08:12:00.001-05:00

I'm really excited about the idea of a marshmallow with a fruit swirl. My disclaimer is I have no idea of safety or shelf life issues. So please keep that in mind with my enthusiasm :)

So I've been wanting to do a lemon marshmallow with a blackberry swirl for a couple years, and finally decided to try the swirl, even though I didn't have the blackberries. I used my favorite lemon marshmallow recipe - Emeril's lemon marshmallows, and then strawberry jam made with certo. After I'd poured the marshmallows in the pan to set, I just swirled the jam in.

I really liked the flavor - very much like the idea of the summer strawberry lemonades. Not much jam is needed. I didn't measure, but I think less than 1/4 c for an 8x8 pan. I made an effort to swirl into the marshmallow, so the jam wouldn't be exposed. The jam is a little sticky when cutting, but even after a week the jam didn't seem to make the marshmallow weep at all. The idea of the fruit swirl is really exciting to me, and these turned out really well.

Since making these, I have seen Talanian's dulce de leche marshmallows, with dulce de leche swirled in a vanilla marshmallow. I would think that these would similar shelf-life wise. I've never tried pate de fruit, but I think I should try and see if there's any middle ground where I could do a swirl with it. This seemed to work ok for a first attempt, and I'm looking forward to playing around some more with the idea.

Royal Icing Butterfly Cupcakes

2011-09-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

I thought we needed some cupcakes to celebrate a friend's new baby girl. I've done the royal icing butterflies a few times before , but long enough between each time to forget how quickly the royal sets! So my decorations are always raised, but they're still cute enough. These are the easiest to make, though I do cheat a little. I use Peggy Porshen's template in her Pretty Party Cakes, and pipe the wings on waxed paper. Here are the dried wings

But then I skip the whole folding the cardboard, piping the body step. If I were going to use the butterflies on fondant, I might have to do that. But here, I just stick the wings in the buttercream and then pipe the body over.

Along with the butterflies, I tried piping "baby girl" to make them more obviously baby-ish. First, that was too much text for one cupcake, and second, girl without a dotted "i" looks like grl or gurl, and neither of those were what I was really going for. But the baby turned out great! I was amazed that they stayed together!

For these I used the double chocolate cake from epicurious, Rosenberg's buttercream and Lesley's royal icing with meringue powder.

TWD Cocoa Salt and Pepper Shortbread

2011-09-20T07:47:00.004-05:00

These reminded me of Maida Heatter's Black Pepper Brownies. The pepper was a little stronger in these cookies, and I think I liked the drier texture with the pepper than with the fudginess of the brownie. Since I wasn't sure going in, I made half with the pepper and half without. The ones with the pepper, I could hardly taste the salt. But the ones without the pepper, the salt really stood out, like the World Peace cookies someone had mentioned in the comments. It's not my favorite cookie of Dorie's, but tasting both, I realized I kind of do like the black pepper.

Thanks to Tia of Buttercream Barbie for this week's pick!

Lime Pie Paletas and Ice Cream

2011-09-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

We've been on a popsicle kick here, and while I was on the library's reserve list, I started searching for some of Fany Gerson's recipes online. One that seemed perfect was her Lime Pie Paletas
I didn't use the graham cracker crumbles, though I'm sure those would be a fun texture. Without, these were still a great treat - creamy, not too rich, tart. I love the lime.

I'd tried David Lebovitz's Vietnamese Coffee ice cream, and with the sweetened condensed milk, it stayed perfectly scoopable. So I thought I'd try the same with some of the Lime Pie recipe and ran it through the ice cream maker. It also was the perfect consistency. I think I almost liked it as an ice cream more - though I think I'd try the crumbles on top next time. We'll definitely have this again next summer, and probably some throughout the year!

TWD Classic Brownies

2011-09-13T20:40:00.001-05:00

This is not the most amazing brownie picture ever (they were still warm from my last minute baking), but these are some very rich, chocolaty brownies.

I tried half with the walnuts and half without:

I don't usually like nuts in brownies, but then the espresso powder with the walnuts sounded pretty good, so I figured I'd try both :)

The brownies are very rich and dense, but thin. I think these are the only brownies that I like better with the nuts. The ones without seemed like they could do without a TB or two of the butter, but the ones with the walnuts were great!

Thanks to Anne of Anne Strawberry for this week's pick!

TWD Chocolate Spice Quickies

2011-09-13T17:25:00.004-05:00

I'd actually gotten these baked on time, but then was late in posting, so I'm a week behind on these. The quickies were quick to put together - it pretty much all gets thrown in the food processor. The flecks are little bits of almond. These were really great warm. They'd be great holiday cookies with the spice, how easy they are to pull together and the make-ahead nature (they're rolled in a log for slice-n-bake, and then they need to chill at least 4 hrs). I'll be keeping these in mind for around the holidays!

Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for the pick!

Baked Donuts

2011-08-26T13:40:00.000-05:00

Ever since seeing the sweet potato donuts on the cover of Food & Wine, I've been wanting to try to make baked donuts. But as I started looking, the reviews for those sweet potato donuts said they were a little tough. I could imagine the sweet potato making them a little heavy, so I started looking for alternates, and settled on this recipe from 101 cookbooks.

The dough came together easily, and the rolling and cutting was quick, too. I made do with a canning ring and a 1M piping tip since I didn't have a set of round cutters. These worked pretty well!

In the end, the kids loved these. They were pretty good, but they were definitely rolls with icing. The donuts themselves were too big for one person to finish, and really it's the icing that carries the roll. The donut holes were the perfect proportion of icing to roll. We'll be making those again!

Bread and Butter Pickles

2011-08-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

For the last year I've been looking forward to making my own pickles. So at the farmers market this past week, I got 7 lb of pickling cucumbers for $5. The $5 is incredible to me, and it reassures me when I look out at the backyard garden and see the deer lounging :)

As I looked more closely at the recipes I'd marked, I realized 7lb makes a lot of pickles. I ended up scaling down a couple of dill ones from the Ball book, and then found Simply Recipe's bread and butter pickles, which used 2 1/2 pounds and was perfect to use up the remaining cukes.

The bread and butter are the pretty ones on the left. They're great pickles. They're not too sweet and have a little bite, I think from the pepper. My husband, who does not like bread and butter pickles, loved these and ate most of a pint the first night. I may have underestimated how many I should have made!

Pineapple Paletas

2011-08-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

Going along with our fun with ice pops, we tried these pineapple paletas. The recipe made them seem a little futzy with the pureeing and straining, but it actually was all pretty quick. And really none of the steps required any special attention or skill, so they were easy to throw together. And, I really liked these! They're sweet and acidic, very bright, and perfect for a hot day!

Avocado Ice Pops

2011-07-27T07:22:00.000-05:00

So living in a 1912 house (read: no a/c) this last week forced us to look for less-than-contemporary ways to cool down, and I was thrilled to find all sorts of fun recipes for ice pops! And as a reaction to all the artificial coloring loaded, high fructose corn syrup sweetened pops the kids had already eaten, I started with Fany Gerson's Avocado Ice Pops. I used a hand-me-down mold from my mom, but for some reason when I last put them away, I didn't pack the handles with the mold. Anyway, popsicle sticks and some handi-wrap to keep them in place worked great!

The popsicles took about 7 hours to freeze, and I was so excited to see they kept their color! They're nice and light with the lime, and the avocado is creamy and rich, and a little herbal. The whole family loved these, and with the prep only taking 5 min, I'm seeing these will be a new favorite!

Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet

2011-07-26T09:06:00.004-05:00

I've been looking forward to this week's TWD! I've only made "chocolate" sorbet with cocoa powder, so I guess I've really only made cocoa sorbet before. For this week, I used El Rey Bucare 58.5% for my chocolate, which I think was a good balance. The sorbet is pretty sweet, but not too sweet. I also subbed rice milk for the milk. It's what we have on hand, and David Lebovitz's recommendation for rice milk in his strawberry vegan ice cream was good enough for me.

This was a nice sorbet. It was very rich. It ended up a little grainy, but that may have been my choice of chocolate. It was still pretty tasty, and I love desserts like this that make me feel like I'm being a little healthier :)

Thanks to Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon for this week's pick!

Strawberry Salsa

2011-06-30T21:00:00.000-05:00

The strawberries are just now starting to ripen here in Wi, and we had the perfect day to go picking. It was warm and breezy, and the strawberries are amazing! The perfect size, just ripe, firm, not watery.

We tried a new farm this year for picking, Polzin farm in Cedarburg. The kids always beg for their popcorn at the farmers market, but I didn't even realize they grew strawberries til this year. It's a great farm, just roadside signs, not a commercialized/wagon-riding/playscape/petting zoo farm. I loved it!

So with our perfect strawberries, one of our favorite recipes is this strawberry salsa from Gourmet magazine. Gourmet says to use store strawberries since they're firmer, but we've liked it with our local ones, too. We just use store-bought chips, and for easier eating, I just cube the avocado. To keep it prettier, it's nice to make up the salsa, and then add the avocado cubes either in the center or around the salsa. We usually end up just mixing it up and making it a meal :)

More Birthday Cakes :)

2011-06-29T20:53:00.007-05:00

So still not getting the baking in....but we had the family party for both kids. Even though we combine the party, I feel like I need to at least give them each their own cake! This year, the girl wanted hello kitty in purple, and the boy wanted spiderman. We scaled back quite a bit from other years, thankfully, as cleaning took a little longer the day before, so all the food (including baking the cakes) was the day of. So the cakes are a little rough, but still happily homemade :)

I have to say that I love Toba Garrett. The girl's was Toba's chocolate cake, and the boy's was her yellow. Both are favorites of mine. But then a rushed new discovery was her meringue powder royal, which was so simple to whip up with a fork, took the black color perfectly and dried quickly. Apparently some people think royal with egg whites tastes better than that with meringue powder - I've never compared, but I'd be surprised if anyone could tell the difference on a cake.

Even when it's all rushed, and the cakes are rough, I really enjoy making them. I'm hoping to start setting aside time to indulge in this hobby more often :)

Dinosaur Birthday Cake

2011-06-17T19:53:00.007-05:00

I've not had much time to bake lately, but my youngest turned four this week, so we had to have a cake. He wanted a t.rex cake, and as we browsed flickr, this was his favorite. He loved the baby t.rex :)

So we didn't need quite that much cake, so our version's only one tier, but we had to have the baby, and I thought the idea of the t.rex eating the cake was pretty cute, too. Mine isn't so much t.rexy as general reptile-y. And my adult t.rex is especially rough as I did everything at once and just used fondant (no gumpaste). But the kid liked it :)

Maple Cornmeal Biscuits

2011-05-17T02:39:00.003-05:00

I know Dorie warned about this, but my biscuits turned out really flat! I made them to go with chili, and that was nice, but we really liked these just with jam.

Thanks to Lindsay of A Little Something....Sweet for this week's pick!

TWD Basic Marble Loaf Cake

2011-05-03T14:48:00.005-05:00

For this week's TWD, I used the chocolate-orange combination. It was really nice! It was so easy to throw together, and a nice afternoon snack for the kids. For the grown-ups sometime, I'm hoping to try the coffee-cardamom!

Thanks to Carol of The Bake More for this week's pick!

Banana Cupcake

2011-04-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

I had a few bananas ready for baking, and the perfect amount for this Banana Cake. Which was really just to satisfy a craving for some cream cheese frosting. I made some maple glazed walnuts to try to make them look a little more like cupcakes than muffins, just in case the frosting wasn't enough!

They were nice - the cake recipe translated well to cupcakes, they were nice and moist, not too sweet, and not too strongly banana-y. The cupcakes without frosting really could pass for muffins. And maybe even a drizzle of cream cheese icing, and they'd still look ok for breakfast :-)

TWD Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

2011-04-26T08:18:00.000-05:00

Dorie has made me love shortbread. Before Baking I'd only tried standard vanilla, which I liked, but the brown sugar pecan and the espresso-chocolate have made me appreciate the variety possible. I'll now intentionally select a shortbread recipe, instead of using it only when I realize I'm out of eggs :-)

Dorie also seems to like using cornmeal, and I've not been entirely converted there. So for this week I subbed cornflour for the cornmeal, which seemed to work out well. I was a little rushed so they spread a little, but these were still tasty cookies!

Thanks to Valerie for this week's pick!

TWD Tourtely Apple Tart

2011-04-19T09:38:00.005-05:00

Still without a pie or tart tin, I decided I'd try doing a slab pie version in a 7x11 pyrex. I used a half recipe, and I forgot to sub out for the nuts for the crust, but otherwise I tried going by the recipe. That crust dough is incredible - I kept sneaking bits out when I was rolling. I love almond extract! When I was growing up our local Baskin Robbins used a little almond extract in their buttercream for their ice cream cone clowns. I loved those clowns.

So this tart/pie was a little more grown up than frosting ice cream clowns, but it was very nice! The kitchen smelled fantastic after adding the apples back to the browned butter. These were very easy to eat, and I justified quite a few snacks :-)

Thanks to Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake for this week's pick!

Whoopie Pies

2011-04-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing recipes for Whoopie Pies for years, but have never had one. I happened to have some marshmallow creme, and I've been saving this America's Test Kitchen whoopie pie recipe. So I figured it was time to finally try them - having marshmallow creme on hand had to be a sign!

They were really quick to put together, and the frosting is addicting! It's nice and light and all butter (no margarine or shortening). I hope this isn't insulting to whoopie pie lovers, but the texture and flavors reminded me of like a chocolate zinger or fudge brownie round, except this was really good. It's like what the junk food would want to be. They were so light and tender, and they look so homey. I don't know how they'd travel, but these seem like they'd be great summer or picnic desserts. The kids would love them, and any adults who have a sweet tooth :-)

Espresso Brownies & Candied Walnuts

2011-04-08T12:06:00.000-05:00

These are some fantastic brownies. Usually I like really dark, rich brownies - anything cake-like is not going to work. I've loved all of Maida Heatter's brownies that I've tried. And they usually have ended up rich and fudgy and perfect :-) I've had her Espresso Brownies marked since I got the cookbook(Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever), and now I finally got around to making them.

These aren't like any of her other brownies that I've tried. They are dark and light and tender, really beautiful! They're much more grown-up brownies. The only drawback is that they're so light it's really easy to just keep eating. They make a jelly roll pan's worth, and they're best the day of making. They're definitely a new favorite!

And because they look a little unphotogenic by themselves, I'm tacking on these Candied Espresso Walnuts here. We've been loving these - making about two batches a week. I've used Penzey's ceylon cinnamon, which I like, it's nice and bright. They're not the prettiest, but they're so easy to make, and too easy to eat!

TWD Coffee Ice Cream Tart

2011-04-05T16:04:00.006-05:00

This tart sounds amazing.

And I'm hoping to try again this summer - coffee, chocolate, and almond is a favorite combination.

This go around, things just didn't seem to be working for me. I don't have a tart pan, so I figured I'd just sub a pie pan, but I couldn't find it. So I figured a muffin tin would be fine. As I was putting the sugar cannister back on the shelf, it slipped and fell on the bottle of vanilla and the glass butter dish, which then shattered. I had the food processor open with the crust dough at this point, so then I was imagining shards of glass in my crust. I figured I'd bake them off anyway just for show, and just threw the muffin tin in the freezer. Then the three year old opened the freezer to sneak a popsicle, and the muffin tin fell out along with a glad plastic container of some soup that then shattered plastic onto the muffin crusts. Amazingly, the crusts stayed in the tin (and none of the stuff hit the kid on the head). I still baked them off, added the chocolate here and a little praline frozen yogurt.

I'm definitely going to have to try this one again, because it sounds like something we'd love.

Thanks to Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought of the Day for this week's pick!

Pecan Powder Puffs

2011-03-29T10:09:00.003-05:00

These are one of my dad's favorite cookies, and we'd always have them at Christmas. The recipe is very similar, except the nuts are much finer in Dorie's version. I was a little rushed, so they only chilled about a half hour, and they still held together and baked well. These were really nice and tender, they're great little cookies!

Thanks to Tianne of Buttercream Barbie for this week's pick!

TWD Citrus Sunshine Muffins

2011-03-15T00:59:00.003-05:00

These were really nice muffins! I had to make some substitutions. Somehow I only had 1/2c of ap flour in house, so I decided to make a half batch and subbed white whole wheat for the other 1/2 c. Then I had purchased currants, but I think they got used for someone's oatmeal, so I subbed craisins in. These were really nice muffins, though. Even with the whole wheat, they had a great texture, very fine, and we always like craisins. I love Dorie's muffins, I think it's the butter :-)

Thanks to Lauryn for this week's pick!

Maple Syrup Snow Candy

2011-03-02T07:15:00.010-06:00

I just finished reading Little House in the Big Woods with the kids, so when we got snow last week, we tried making maple syrup candy. Our approach kind of ended up being like Ma's earlier Christmas candy with the molasses, only using the maple syrup like Grandma during the sugar snow.

The Joy of Cooking said to bring maple syrup to 230-233 to turn it to sugar, which took about thirty minutes. While I was getting the syrup going, the kids went out and packed the cake pans with snow. When it got to 233, I took it off the heat and whisked it until it thickened some. Then, even though Laura and Mary get to pour the syrup on their snow, I decided I'd do the pouring.

I was afraid if I poured too much in one spot, it would melt through the snow, so I ended up with lots of little strings. The syrup doesn't end up melting it, though, so next time I'd try making more little quarter-sized pours to make for easier eating. It turned out very soft and sticky. The little bits of syrup that were left in the pan did turn into maple sugar. If we do it again, it'd be fun to get little saucers for sugar like from the book - it'd be a little neater kid-eating, too!

The best picture I got of the actual candy - pretty unappealing, hm? It did taste much better than it looks :-)

TWD Chocolate Pots de Creme

2011-03-01T20:46:00.004-06:00

I was very last-minute with this week's TWD, and being distracted I missed skimming the foam. And then the plastic wrap melted in the oven (why did I follow the recipe there?!). And yes, this photo is the best I could do.
Due to the melted plastic, we're not eating all of these, but I scraped the top off of one, and it was pretty incredible. For all the cream, it still felt light. Very chocolaty. These were very nice, and I'll have to try them again sans plastic wrap :-)

Thanks to Christine of Black Cat Cooking for this week's pick!

Meyer Lemon Granita

2011-02-25T19:07:00.000-06:00

For the first time ever, I found Meyer lemons! I kept debating how I should use my precious four lemons, and finally decided to try a sorbet, and then still couldn't find my freezer insert, so I went with a granita instead. I found Steingarten's Meyer Lemon Granita.

It was nice - not too sweet, a little floral, very light. I hope to find them again and try everything I didn't get to - lemon curd, lemonade, candied, ice cream and maybe something savory.

TWD Toasted Almond Scones

2011-02-22T06:28:00.000-06:00

These were not the overly sweet muffin-y type of scone. They felt a little oily with all of the ground almonds and butter, so I might cut some of either next time. These were great with jam, and the kids even liked them with peanut butter (I didn't try that myself).

Thanks to Mike of Living Out West for this week's pick!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2011-02-14T13:30:00.000-06:00

Every Valentine's my mom would make my grandma's Waldorf Red Cake in the shape of a heart. We looked forward to this cake every year. The past few months, my husband's not been eating any meat, dairy or eggs, and I don't need a whole cake to myself, so I started looking at cupcakes to scale down and share. For cakes, I like butter better, but for cupcakes, it seems like oil helps it stay together a little better. They're so small, they dry out pretty quickly on their own, and less mess is always nice.

Then out of curiosity, I thought I'd compare a vegan recipe with a traditional one. I used the Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and an adaptation of Bakerella's red velvet cake that looked so moist, it'd have to be good for cupcakes. The Crimson Velveteen are a vegan recipe, but I just used my standard pantry, so mine aren't actually vegan. I didn't have liquid food coloring, so for both I subbed about 1/4 tsp Wilton no-taste red gel paste. Clearly 1/4 tsp isn't enough color for either recipe!

The vegan Crimson Velveteen had a
lot of cocoa for a red velvet recipe - 2Tb for 12 cupcakes - and a lot of vanilla - 2tsp. Most recipes I've seen for this scale would use 1/2-1TB cocoa. So even with more food coloring, I don't think these would ever be red. They had a great shape, not too domed. I'm always amazed with the vegan recipes that they can rise without any eggs. They were very vanilla and very moist. Almost too moist for me, but I usually like a little drier cake, I guess. Next time, I'll cut back the cocoa to probably 1/2TB and then also try cutting back the oil to maybe 1/4 c.

I made a half batch of the traditional recipe and cut the oil back to 1/2 c (from 3/4c). The traditional had a finer crumb and had more body. They were also sweeter, which seemed strange since they had the same proportion of flour-sugar.

So I don't think either recipe was perfect, but with some variations, I'm sure I'll use both again!

Clementine Marshmallows with Honey and Cardamom

2011-02-10T21:09:00.002-06:00

I love homemade marshmallows. Especially Emeril's Lemon ones. So while I was in the marshmallow-making mood, I remembered I'd also been wanting to try cardamom in marshmallows, and honey, and then we had some extra clementines sitting around....so they all got thrown together :-)

I used Emeril's Lemon recipe as a base, and played around with subbing clementine for lemon and honey for some of the corn syrup. I only made a half batch which uses just one gelatin packet and fits perfectly in a 5x9 loaf pan (that's one and a half batches in the photo above). The marshmallows were nice and smooth and balanced, the honey was not overpowering and the clementine was mellow (compared to how I imagine an orange marshmallow might be). They're a little more grown-up than the lemon marshmallows, even though the kids ate most of them - I'm guessing marshmallows of almost any flavor would be a hit with the kids. They reminded me of the holidays and cider, these would be really nice next December!

Clementine Marshmallows with Honey and Cardamom
Oil a 5x9 loaf pan and dust with 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and potato starch.

In mixer bowl combine:
1 envelope gelatine
1/4 c clementine juice (for me this was 3 clementines)

In saucepan combine:
1 c minus 2 TB sugar
4TB honey
2 TB corn syrup
1/4 c water
2 cardamom pods, crushed
2 strips clementine zest (about 3/4"x1 1/2")
Bring to a boil and cover for about 4-5 minutes. Take off cover and watch for temp to come to 250F. When it reaches 250, take off heat, add to gelatin mixture and mix for 6-8 minutes until marshmallows start to get a bit stringy from the edge of the bowl and the beater and starts to keep its shape. Pour marshmallows into loaf pan and let sit overnight.
Next day turn out onto cutting board dusted with powdered sugar and potato starch and cut with dusted chef's knife.

Pepin's Pickled Vegetables

2011-02-09T16:00:00.000-06:00

I loved The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, and made my first decent roast chicken and then stock from La Technique, so I like looking for Jacques Pepin's other cookbooks in the library (I always preview cookbooks before purchasing). This time I found his Simple and Healthy Cooking.

We've been trying to eat a little healthier around here, and browsing through, pickles seems like they could be a nice quick savory snack (and healthier than say Harvest Cheddar SunChips). The vegetable pickles were so pretty, and looked so easy, that we made a family trip to the grocery store picking out all our favorite veg.

We made a half recipe and made a few changes. I left out what we couldn't find (juniper berries and fresh tarragon) and didn't prefer (fennel and zucchini). We really liked them, and we're on the second batch already. These will be a nice, easy standard recipe for quick pickles.

Adapted from Jacques Pepin's Pickled Vegetables in Simple and Healthy Cooking
6 oz carrots
6 oz cauliflower
6 oz red bell pepper
4 oz turnip
2 oz green beans
6 cloves garlic
2 1/2 c water
1 c distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 TB salt
1 1/2 TB sugar
6 whole cloves
1/2 tsp allspice berries

Makes 1 qt and 1 pint jar. Cut all in sticks or florets. Thinly slice garlic. Pack veg in jars (alternating to make it pretty if you want...and which we skipped).
Bring water, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves, and allspice to a boil, and boil gently 5 min. Pour liquid to cover the veg in the jars.

TWD Bourbon Bread Pudding

2011-02-08T07:35:00.000-06:00

No bourbon here, but a very vanilla-y bread pudding! I only did half the recipe with the bread on hand, though I think I might have underestimated how much bread I really had since this bread pudding was drier than others of Dorie's I've done. It was a very cozy, homey dessert! Thanks to Sharon of Simply Southern for this week's pick!

Mom's Lemon Bars

2011-02-02T21:52:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid, my mom made these bars quite a bit for pot lucks and picnics and such. Being a kid, I'd always go for the chocolate (not that different than today!), and I'd pass on the lemon bars. But the last few years in winter, I've gotten on a lemon kick. This year, I remembered her bars.

I think it's the first time I've tried making them. They're quite sweet, but I love the shortbread crust and the tart curd. I'm kind of amazed at how smooth they are and how nicely they set. It helps to wait til they're entirely cool before cutting, otherwise I learned they're a bit sticky. These were perfect for my lemon craving!

Mom's Lemon Bars
Mix and press into a 9x13 pan:
3/4 c butter
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 c flour
Bake 15 min at 350.

Mix:
3 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
3 TB flour
1/2 c lemon juice
Pour over hot crust. Bake 15-20 minutes at 350.
Cool and cut bars. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cool and refrigerate til serving.

TWD Great Grains Muffins

2011-02-01T01:03:00.000-06:00

These muffins were rich, very buttery, but not too sweet. Instead of dried fruit, I used the cranberries that I'd used for my try at Martha Stewart's cranberry vodka minus the orange. I was a little worried that my cooled butter solidified in little bits after adding the buttermilk, refrigerated maple syrup and eggs, but it all evened out when added to the dry ingredients.

I liked the grains, and they had a nice and crispy crust. Next time I think I'd leave out the cornmeal (like the Lenox biscotti) since it seemed to make them a little gritty. The kids liked them quite a bit, and they'd be nice as part of a brunch.

Thanks to Christine of Happy Tummy for this week's pick!

Dorie's Espresso Shortbread

2011-01-29T16:59:00.006-06:00

These are some great cookies! I'd missed them for TWD when we didn't have a kitchen, but these are easy and tasty grown-up cookies. Not sweet, and not too espresso-strong, not too rich. The bittersweet chunks are perfect. Quick to mix together, and easy for a make-ahead and bake later. They're also not messy eating, so they're great for any grown-up kind of get together. I'll be keeping these in mind for quick and easy dessert!

Cocoa Brownies

2011-01-28T20:07:00.003-06:00

So the other night after having made a couple loaves of sandwich bread, the bagels, and homemade pizzas, I figured I might as well use the oven since it was on and make some dessert :-) But after the baking of the day, I wanted something easy, so cocoa brownies. No melting chocolate, less messy (I'd also buffed out and oiled the butcherblock counters that morning), they'd be perfect. And I never line my brownies with parchment when we're eating at home (course, then that's why my cuts look like they do up there). Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of Alice Medrich's cocoa brownies looked like it got good reviews, and with only 7 ingredients (no nuts in my brownies) it looked perfect!

I only used 8tb of butter (10 just seemed like they'd be greasy), and they were still plenty buttery for me. These are pretty good cocoa brownies. Like SK described, they are fudgy. And they're very sweet, and sticky and gooey. There's a little hint of caramel in the background. But even though they look nice and dark, they're not deep or chocolaty. Like the difference between fudge and ganache. I think I'll be sticking to the brownies with bittersweet, even if it means I need to melt the chocolate :-)

Here are a few I've liked and will make again
Rick Katz's brownies for Julia and Chocolatechic's review and the recipe
the Baked brownie
and though not a true plain brownie, Maida Heatter's Santa Fe brownies

Reinhart's Whole Wheat Bagels

2011-01-26T09:36:00.003-06:00

I tried making bagels once about eight years ago, I think, and they were a disaster. Doughy and tough and heavy. I think I used the BH&G cookbook recipe, which I'm sure would work fine for most people, and maybe might work for me now that I have a little more experience making bread. But this go around, I wanted a whole grain bagel, and Reinhart seems to be the man for bread. I'd gotten his Whole Grain Breads cookbook for Christmas, and thought this would be a fun one to start with!

From one recipe I got 8 bagels, about 3 3/4 oz each. I clearly need to work on my shaping (like my hiding of the pinch in the first photo?). The four on the left I pulled into balls and then poked the hole. The four on the right, I rolled into snakes and pinched together. The shaping is still on the to-do list :-). I was excited they were all floating in the first 10-15 seconds, and they ended up pretty light for all whole wheat. I did use KA white whole wheat, so that probably helped some, too. I also just used honey, the malt syrup will be on the list for next time! It seemed to go pretty quickly, lots of little steps, so it's a great project for a day at home!

TWD Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly, Sour Cream Bundt Cake

2011-01-25T02:56:00.003-06:00

I liked this snack cake. It has a nice crisp crust (maybe from getting overbaked a bit!), and nice soft crumb. That crust and the soft interior are my favorite parts of a fresh bundt! And I'm sure it would be great as a bundt, I just wasn't sure where my pan was yet...

I made quite a few substitutions on this. I only made a half of the recipe, and though I thought for sure I should only use my 8x4 loaf pan, the 12c bundt recommendation made me go for the 9x5, so it ended up a little flat. I subbed buttermilk for sour cream, and clementine peel for orange. I also left out the raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg in my swirl.

Thanks to Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort for this week's pick!

TWD Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

2011-01-18T02:50:00.000-06:00

I really liked these muffins! I love the zest and sugar step.... what would be a candy that would taste like that smells? Or how could I use lemon sugar? Lemon marshmallows are the closest I've gotten. I love fresh lemons, and I found meyer lemons for the first time this weekend, though I'm saving those for sorbet :)

These muffins were rich and light and not too sweet (though no icing). I'm sure we'll be making these again!

Thanks to Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness for selecting this week's recipe!

Parisian Apple Tart

2011-01-17T18:30:00.004-06:00

These apple tarts were selected for TWD about a year and a half ago, but I couldn't find any good puff pastry at the time, so I waited. And this year our Trader Joe's had their all butter puff pastry in stock! These were really quick and tasty and cute. Mine got a little dark on the bottom, but they tasted great and would be a perfect easy dessert.

And a very belated (June of 2009) thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart!

Reno update

2010-09-29T12:28:00.006-05:00

Just a few newer demo pics to make myself think we're actually making some progress. You can see our appliances waiting behind the curtain :)

The big excitement today was the dumpster was picked up and our driveway's being poured!

Kitchen work

2010-08-04T23:38:00.003-05:00

We moved into this old 1912 (or 1917 according to another source) farmhouse in January, and though we had some things taken care of before we moved in (plumbing, asbestos in the basement), we got the flooring and ceiling tiles (thankfully only in one room) tested after we moved in. And also, thankfully, only the kitchen vinyl turned out to have it.

The previous owners back in the remodel of '65 laid the vinyl four inches under each of the cabinets. So we had the cabinets all taken out, too. We were a little disappointed the vinyl was glued so well that we couldn't save the birdseye maple below, but now we have an open slate :)

The soffit was removed today, and that alone make a huge difference in how the space looks. And I've been crazily reading the kitchen forum on GardenWeb and looking up period kitchens, trying to find a layout that will be clean and give me a nice counter workspace. It's only 12x13, and it gets segmented by the applicances pretty quickly. I'll be missing a few TWD's, but I'm looking forward to getting a kitchen put back together and baking again this fall!

Parties

2010-08-03T16:55:00.006-05:00

Last Sunday we had our kids' joint birthday party with the family. I took pictures of the cakes before, but then after realized there was no card in the camera - ahhh! My three year old got another Thomas, and my six year old wanted Hello, Kitty. The kitty cake was on two 8 in rounds of the famous epicurious double chocolate cake with Rosenberg's buttercream and Michele Foster's fondant using El Rey Icoa for the white chocolate version. There were pastel and bright pink double daisies around and single for the border. So you can imagine those :)

I cheated and bought a tube of Pillsbury for the cookies, but I had no idea how much they would spread. I probably could have cut them down, but I thought the edges would be too rough. And with all the other party prep, I just decided it looked good enough :) I used Toba's glace icing, and it was fantastic! It seemed much easier to use and tastier than royal. I'm looking forward to trying it again this fall, maybe some cute harvest cookies :)

Mixed Berries with Mascarpone-Limoncello Cream

2010-07-14T07:43:00.002-05:00

This was the simplest and one of the best desserts of the summer so far! It's just berries - here our strawberries we picked and then black raspberries and red currants from the garden. The recipe calls for raspberry jam, but I used the strawberry-currant jelly I'd made, and even reduced it to a couple of TB (I also left out the extra sugar for the berries). The cream was so easy, I overbeat it a bit, but we'll definitely be having this again!

TWD Brrr-ownies

2010-07-13T00:10:00.000-05:00

Not the most photogenic pic, but these were great brownies! I layered the brownie, patties, brownie, instead of chopping - I keep thinking I'd read a Maida Heatter recipe like that, but I've not been able to find it again. Anyway, I loved that the brownies are dark, dense and rich, but they don't feel too sweet. I pretty much ate them all myself :)

Thanks to Karen of Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life for this week's pick!

Strawberries!

2010-07-07T15:18:00.001-05:00

The kids love strawberries, and the first time we went picking, we got one flat that was gone by the next day. The following trip we got two flats, and I was able to play around a little :)

First I got to try Gourmet's Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, and then a strawberry sorbet. Both were incredibly easy, only required a few ingredients, and didn't require any cooking. The sorbet was the favorite, I think because we has such great berries. It was almost a little sweet, next time I'll cut back the sugar to 1/2 c. The ice cream was my husband's favorite, though I ate most of it :) I liked it best right out of the machine, soft-serve-ish. It ended up getting a little icy, but that was also after a couple days.

Strawberry Sorbet
4 cups strawberries
3/4 sugar
2 T lemon juice
Puree all in food processor and freeze in ice cream maker.

I also tried Ferber's Strawberry and Red Currant Jelly with Whole Strawberries and Black Pepper. I really liked the flavors, the strawberry-currant was almost raspberry-like. The jelly below set well, but by the fruit, it was syrupy. I'm not sure how I can fix that, but the kids and I like it anyway :)

TWD Tart Noire

2010-07-06T00:04:00.006-05:00

This wasn't my most successful TWD ever - my crust was still in the oven when through miscommunication, the oven was turned to broil :)

It doesn't even look like a crust - it looks like a flat, burned, shrunken pancake. I can't believe how much it shrunk!

Anyway, I made 1/4 recipe of the ganache, which was incredibly rich, very smooth (even with the bubble), very dark. I managed to eat the whole cup while watching old tv on netflix. Thanks to Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life for this week's pick!

Kind of healthy drop biscuits

2010-07-01T15:09:00.003-05:00

We've not been able to get our schedule to work with the weather and when the farm's open, so we ran out the other night and picked 10lb of strawberries in 20 min. We got back, made some freezer jam from the certo box, and for dinner the next night we had biscuits and jam :)

This biscuits were the basic drop biscuits from America's Test Kitchen's Family Baking Book, with the exception that I replaced half the ap with white whole wheat. They were still nice and tender, and the www made them feel a little healthier.

We're hoping to get out again this week as the season's ending, because after one strawberry-rhubarb pie, one batch of freezer jam, one strawberry/currant jelly and the kids eating like crazy our flat's already gone.

Simple Drop Biscuits (adapted from ATK's Family Baking Book)
1 c ap flour
1 c white ww
2 t powder
1/2 t soda
1 t sugar
1 c buttermilk
8 TB butter
Melt butter and let cool. Whisk dry ingredients together. Stir buttermilk and butter together til butter clumps, stir into dry ingredients. Scoop onto baking sheet and bake at 475 for 12-14 min.

TWD Vanilla Cakes

2010-06-29T00:11:00.002-05:00

No rum here, but we did have cakes! I used vanilla extract, no beans. Even so, this was great plain. I had some whipped cream and strawberries, but the cake went too fast to try them :)

Thanks to Wendy of Pink Stripes for this week's pick!

Raspberries and Currants

2010-06-27T23:00:00.006-05:00

We moved in January, so we've been discovering a lot about the new yard. Like the 28 rhubarb plants. And six beautiful red currant bushes. I need to learn about pruning them, but even with some neglect, they're producing. I'd never been able to find currants til a farm stand last summer, and we loved them - out of hand, jelly, tarts, pies. I was thrilled to find we'd have our own!

And most exciting for the kids were the raspberries bordering the garage and the self seeded plants randomly around the yard. We kept watching and kept watching, and I couldn't figure out why they weren't ripe - they were such a beautiful, rich red....and then one turned black :)

I'm reading of jams and jellies and thinking of freezing, but so far I've not been able to beat the kids to them! Hopefully I'll get a chance to make something to post about :)

TWD Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

2010-06-22T16:45:00.004-05:00

This TWD pick worked out perfectly for us! My son turned three last week and asked for chocolate cake and vanilla frosting and Thomas. I was thrilled that the cake would match the TWD schedule! (though I'll have to try the whole choc frosting/jam combo another time). It was a nice solid cake and it held up really well to the carving and fondant.

I used Wendy's Thomas tutorial for pics on shaping the cake which were really helpful. One thing I learned if I try this again was to purchase ready-made black and red fondant. For the black, I added cocoa powder that made it taste pretty good, though it got a little crumbly. Even with the tasty cocoa fondant, I think I'd prefer a trip to Michael's for some Wilton with a five and three year old along than have to knead black or red again. :)

I thought this cannibalistic-ish pic was just a little funny....

The picture looks a little rough, my husband kept sneaking off little slivers leaving a very appealing crust of fondant. But I wanted to make sure I got a quick picture before it was all gone! Thanks to Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes for this week's TWD pick!

TWD Tender Shortcakes

2010-06-09T16:17:00.005-05:00

Again I got these done ahead of time and just didn't get the post up (I need to work on my schedule here). Anyway, I made the full batch, which made some huge shortcakes!

They ended up having to bake longer and got a little dark, but the family loved these anyway :)

Thanks to Cathy of the Tortefeasor for selecting this week's recipe!

TWD White Chocolate Brownies

2010-06-01T14:39:00.004-05:00

After reading the comments, I skipped the meringue and just made a batch in an 8x8 pan. I also made a couple of substitutions - blackberries and lemon zest for the raspberries and orange and one less tb butter.

These were interesting, they stayed very soft and almost a little custardy and a little greasy. I think the lemon-blackberry needs a lighter cake. The brownie base is a fun idea, though, I'm looking forward to seeing what others did with it!

Thanks to Marthe of Culinary Delights for this week's pick!

TWD Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

2010-05-24T22:41:00.008-05:00

Last night got a little busy, so I missed posting, but I had made little pies! I am not a fan of the banana-chocolate combo, and generally I don't like coconut in desserts, so I made a few substitutions :) The crust I kept the same, and only bananas on top of the pie (not in).

I also tried a version with Breyer's Heath ice cream and a little cocoa powder that was pretty tasty.

Thanks to of spikebakes for this week's pick!

Poodles

2010-05-21T08:35:00.003-05:00

I got Greweling's Chocolates and Confections and some molds for Christmas, and I just got to try playing around a little!

Based on what I happened to have, I tried the Poodles, but I molded them instead of dipping and rolling in the chocolate curls, so it probably doesn't seem to make sense that these would be called Poodles. Anyway, the cream's infused with coffee, then used in the ganache. It was my first time using a polycarbonate mold, and it got incredibly messy. And I had trouble keeping the chocolate in temper, working with a smaller amount. I'm not sure how I'll change that yet... but in spite of it all, they were pretty tasty :)

TWD Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

2010-05-18T06:09:00.005-05:00

I didn't get a pic til the very last piece -we really liked this bread pudding! My changes were no apple butter (not having it in the pantry) and to tear the bread instead of doing the slices, I've never had great luck with slices all getting soaked. I love traditional bread pudding and was a little hesitant about the apple variation, but we really liked it. I think that they were caramelized first made them a little less like biting into a baked apple in the middle of the bread pudding. It was still cold here, so bread pudding was perfect!

Thanks to Elizabeth of Cake or Death? for this week's pick!

Kumquat Marmalade

2010-05-04T08:45:00.004-05:00

I *do* like marmalade! :)

This kumquat marmalade is great (especially on the whole wheat brioche from HBin5)! It set just right, sweet and tangy and citrus-y. I'll have to try others again next year.

Now on to the 28 rhubarb plants that came with our new backyard (this is just one bed)....

Tea Party!

2010-05-03T20:47:00.005-05:00

My daughter's Daisy troop had a Teddy Bear Tea Party last weekend, so I had to find a girly dessert to bring!

I've done the Peggy Porshen royal icing butterflies before, and it worked out a little better. I tried doing too many at a time and my pink icing was too thick, so the wings weren't as fine, but it worked out anyway. I cheated, too, and didn't bother putting them together on the folded paper, I just made the wings, stuck them in the icing and then royal iced the body. The bodies are still wet here, but had dried by the time we got to the party an hour later.

I used Toba's Moist Yellow Cake for the cupcakes. One recipe makes about 27-28 cupcakes. They're fantastic, though at least in cupcake form, need to be eaten the day of, otherwise they dry out. They're pretty great cupcakes same day.

The frosting's a double batch of Rosenberg's buttercream that's available online as a mocha version (just omit the water and coffee). We love the buttercream, and have eaten plain with fruit, because we're so health-minded :)

The tea party was cute, the girls were all dressed up, posing with their teddy bears. Fun little tea party!

TWD Chocablock

2010-04-27T09:00:00.001-05:00

We love cookies around here. They never last long. I'd added Trader Joe's 72% chocolate, craisins and chopped almonds for my add-in's. I'm not a big fan of oatmeal cookies or cookies with fruit in them (why is there something healthy in my cookie!). The family seemed to like these - they went quickly, except for the one last cookie no one wants to get blamed for eating.

Thanks to Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet for selecting this week's recipe!

Three Citrus Marmalade

2010-04-22T14:19:00.002-05:00

I've never really liked store bought marmalade, but I thought (like some other things like blueberry pie) maybe I'd really like homemade. I had some grapefruit and oranges (and the kids had moved on from their citrus kick), and I just happened to have a couple lemons, so I figured it was a sign to finally try making marmalade.

The fruit looked so pretty and fresh. Ferber calls for 1 3/4 lb oranges, 1 3/4 lb grapefruit, 2 lemons, and 3 3/4 c sugar. Only the flesh of the oranges and grapefruit is used, and is diced. The whole fruit of the lemons is sliced. The recipe boils the fruit, lets it sit overnight and then boils to set the next day. On the second day I boiled just the juice first, and then added the fruit to temp. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong but I was not able to get it to set. Then the next day, this was some stiff marmalade. I tried some, and it's a little too bitter for me, but it could be I just don't like marmalade. I loved the look of the lemon slices, and thought the jars were pretty. I have some kumquats which are either going to be candied or I'll have another go at marmalade :)

TWD Sweet Cream Biscuits

2010-04-20T00:17:00.000-05:00

I was thrilled with these biscuits! I used 1 3/4 c Trader Joe's ap, and 1/3 cup Softasilk. This is the first time I've gotten biscuits to start to look like biscuits! They usually end up as little rocks. These certainly weren't perfect, but they're the best I've done so far. These were soft and light-ish at least :)

Thanks to Melissa of Love at First Bite for selecting this week's recipe!

HBin5 Bread Braid #9

2010-04-15T08:07:00.000-05:00

This is my second try with the Gluten-Free Olive Oil Bread, and this time the kids ate it! (Here's my first attempt - the kids didn't like how white the bread was).

For this try, I subbed only about 1/4 c of the brown rice flour with buckwheat flour, and I added about 2 TB of molasses. We like the whole grain breads around here, so this loaf has been our best so far!

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

TWD Swedish Visiting Cake

2010-04-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

I was so excited about this cake! The book's photo is beautiful, I love the sliced almonds, and the name sounds like a recipe I'd get from my grandma. I was little anxious thinking a 1/2 tsp was a lot of almond extract, but it was perfect. I was also a little worried that after I'd poured the batter in, I realized the recipe actually called for a 9in pan, not a 12 in. Who knows where I got the 12 in from, but it amazingly seemed to still work, still making a cake (instead of a pancake). And I love the look of a cake (or anything really) in a cast iron pan :)

I loved this cake, the kids loved this cake, and it was so easy. We'll definitely be making this one again. Thanks, Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs for the great pick!

America's Test Kitchen Classic Yellow Cupcakes

2010-04-08T16:37:00.000-05:00

I had to make some cupcakes for a sock hop at my kid's school, so I decided to go with a basic kid-friendly yellow cupcake with a traditional powdered sugar chocolate buttercream. I used the Classic Yellow Cupcakes recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, since I've found America's Test Kitchen recipes to be good standards. The cupcake was good, but not really notable. I've seen lots of recommendations for a CI yellow cake, so maybe I'll try that one next time. The buttercream is from epicurious, and it was perfect for the basic cupcake craving.

Easter cookies

2010-04-02T09:39:00.001-05:00

I signed up to bring cookies for my kid's Easter party at school yesterday (and the reason for the late-night photo). I wanted something easy but cute - so bunnies and chicks with minimal decoration :)

I'd tried making bunnies and eggs last year with royal icing, and while the eggs looked pretty and the bunnies were ok, the cookies got hard and stale. This summer I'd tried making onesies cookies with this fondant for icing, and I loved that there's no wait time for drying and the cookies and frosting stay soft. And rolling and cutting out the fondant is so much faster. I used Wilton chocolate wafers for the piping. Again, little wait time. I was able to package everything up ten minutes after piping. So convenient!

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

2010-03-30T19:12:00.000-05:00

We're getting some warm for us weather here in Wisconsin (it's supposed to be 70 tomorrow!), so I'm breaking out the ice cream maker :)

Earlier I'd made RLB's lemon curd, using the adding the butter at the end idea. I had a cup leftover, which ended up being perfect for a half batch of Sherry Yard's lemon curd ice cream. I got the proportions from a discussion board, originally it's from The Secrets of Baking. I left out the lemon juice as I didn't have any lemons on hand.

I really liked this - it was easy, already having the curd made, I didn't have to make a custard. It was smooth, almost like a custard instead of ice cream. I'll be keeping this one in mind for the summer!

Lemon Curd Ice Cream
1 cup lemon curd
1 1/2 c whole milk
1 c whipping cream
pinch of salt
Whisk together, chill, then churn.

TWD Coconut Tea Cake

2010-03-30T16:42:00.000-05:00

I made the base of this cake without the shredded coconut. I've never really liked the texture of coconut in baked goods or candy bars. I really liked the coconut milk, though, and made a powdered sugar-coconut milk glaze. Since some of the top stayed in the silicone pan, I glazed the bottom. Which I think I like better, that crispy part with the glaze, mmmm. I love the idea of some lime, too, for next time.

I added a little basic blueberry sauce (thaw 1 1/2 cups wild blueberries, reduce juice til thick, add a TB of lemon juice and sugar to taste - I added about 1 TB). This was a great cake, and a great base for "playing around". I'm looking forward to making it again!

Thanks to Carmen of Carmen Cooks who picked this week's TWD recipe!

Yellos gf cupcakes

2010-03-28T21:37:00.001-05:00

Another of my efforts to bake gluten free. The little ones wanted some yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, so I found these Gluten-free Yellow cupcakes from allrecipes via cakecentral. CakeCentral has been a great resource for me. The bakers there are very helpful, and it's fun to browse everyone's projects!

Anyway, the cupcakes went ok. They fell, so they didn't look as nice as the photos on allrecipes. I find the rice flour to have a little bit of metallic aftertaste. I'm hoping to try experimenting with some other flours, and just picked up some millet flour yesterday (though I passed on the $12 quinoa flour, I think I may have to purchase a mill).

These were nice and light, though. And leveled and decorated in cake form, I'm sure they'd be a great cake!

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Waffles

2010-03-21T12:55:00.000-05:00

In our search for gf breakfast foods, I found these fantastic gf waffles! I used the flour mix suggested of 2 cups White Rice Flour, 1 cup Potato Starch, 1/2 cup Tapioca Starch, 1-3/4 tsp Guar Gum, and have also subbed in some brown rice flour. With our changes:

Gluten-free waffles

Whisk together
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 c millet flour
1 c potato starch
1/2 c tapioca starch
2 tsp guar gum
3/4 tsp salt
2 TB baking powder
1 TB sugar

In a separate bowl, beat to soft peaks
4 egg whites

In a separate bowl, beat together
4 egg yolks
3 cups milk (we've used rice, almond or soy)
1/4 c oil
1 tsp vanilla

Add dry ingredients to wet, reserving the egg whites. Blend and let stand for about ten minutes.
Using a rubber spatula, combine egg whites. Bake on waffle iron. In our four square belgian waffle iron, the recipe makes about 20 squares (or five rounds on the iron).

TWD Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

2010-03-16T20:52:00.000-05:00

Inspired by the candied kumquats in the P&Qs, I subbed some candied lemon peel for the raspberries, and I thought it turned out nicely, very mellowly lemon. I also just used a pie crust I had in the freezer, and used my muffin tin for minis. So quite a few subs in all, but these were great little snack "tarts". Also like the comments, I was surprised by how brownie-ey these were! I'm looking forward to trying this one again this summer with some good raspberries!

HBin5 Bread Braid #7

2010-03-15T12:35:00.000-05:00

For the HBin5 Bread Braid #7, we had the Avocado-Guacamole bread and Pesto Pine Nut bread. Both hearty, snack-able breads!

No substitutions for the avocado bread, and my husband liked it. It was ok for me, I liked the hint of garlic. I think maybe I need to try it with some cheese...

For the Pesto, I subbed walnuts for the pine nuts, and I used Trader Joe's pesto. My dough turned out really wet for this one, so my loaf is a little odd. I think this would be great with a pasta dinner. It was good right out of the oven, but I liked it even better toasted with some butter. I think this could be great for sandwiches, too!

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

SK granola bars

2010-03-12T18:59:00.000-06:00

This isn't gluten-free, but it is a wheat-free recipe. The kids love the granola bars, and they are amazingly convenient, but I'd really like it if it was all real food in those bars!

When I saw Deb's granola bars I figured I've give them a try. For my two cups of add-ins, I used craisins, raisins, shredded coconut, unsalted sunflower seeds and slivered almonds. My husband loved these, so I think I'll be making them again for him. About my recent efforts to make a decent granola bar, my daughter asked, "Do we only get the baked ones now?" That and the fact that she only ate one bite told me these were a no-go. Not so much a bar for my kids, but I'll be making them again for the grown ups!

Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

2010-03-11T22:52:00.000-06:00

I love thumbprints, and I was thrilled to see these selected! I wasn't able to get this in by Tuesday, but I still really wanted to try these, so here's my belated TWD. These were incredibly easy to throw together.

My biggest challenge was finding the right jam. I didn't have any raspberry in my freezer, so I tried a peach-honey-cardamom, raspberry-blueberry, red currant jelly and lemon curd. The peach and berry were just plain sweet, and I couldn't taste the jam at all. The lemon curd was good, but the red currant was by far the best. Maybe because it looked prettier than the curd :)

Thanks to Mike from Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude for the great pick!

GF Korovas

2010-02-28T17:22:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-28T16:18:00.000-06:00

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

2010-02-25T13:53:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-23T17:17:00.000-06:00

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

2010-02-19T10:28:00.000-06:00

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

2010-02-19T10:19:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-16T11:45:00.001-06:00

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!

2010-02-13T21:32:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-11T09:07:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-09T05:40:00.000-06:00

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

2010-02-05T14:09:00.001-06:00

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...

Healthy Bread!

2010-01-29T14:56:00.000-06:00

I've loved Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and I've been using a version of the master subbing 2c of white whole wheat that we've really liked. I've noticed though, the kids really like a softer sandwich bread, and I really like the idea of using more whole grains. So I was thrilled when I received Jeff and Zoe's Healthy Bread!

The first we tried was the master, and then the whole wheat flax seed. My husband's loves flaxseed, so that's been the favorite here :) (That's the wwflax in the front and the master in the back).

I'm really excited about the book - especially the gluten free and whole grain and the pumpkin brioche.

A little off topic, my birthday was almost a month ago now, but I go the best gifts this year!
Greweling's Chocolates and Confections
Shott's Artisan Chocolates
Ferber's Mes Confitures
Carroll's Home Cheesemaking
Smith's Making Artisan Cheeses
Jeavon's How to Grow More Vegetables...
Rodales Successful Organic Gardening: Vegetable and Fruit & Berries
some chocolate molds - half sphere, tablet and the hexagonal dome
I'm so excited! I can't wait to get everything painted around here so I can play!

Cinnamon sugar biscotti

2010-01-13T12:35:00.000-06:00

So we ran into some plumbing issues that delayed the whole move until this past Sunday, instead of before Christmas, but we'd already switched our phone and internet so.... I'm really behind :) I've not yet found my copy of Baking, but it looks like there are copies online, so hopefully I'll be back for TWD next week!

Finally, here's one treat from Christmas that I think I'll be making year-round. We really liked these
cinnamon sugar biscotti
from epicurious. I ended up leaving off the cinnamon-sugar dusting, just for cleaner eating with the kids. They smell wonderful while baking, perfect for snow days!

Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake

2009-12-29T17:50:00.000-06:00

So these aren't the prettiest pictures ever, but I had to show one of only two cheesecakes ever that haven't cracked! I'd always heard not to beat the cream cheese too much, but I think maybe I've always been afraid of that so never mixed it enough. I'm not sure, maybe I'll only make this cheesecake from now on :)

And here's a slice the next morning. Again, not a great picture or great cutting, but a very tasty piece of cake!

Thanks to the Tea Lady of Tea and Scones for this week's pick!

Gingerbread Truffles

2009-12-22T14:01:00.001-06:00

I wanted a chocolate to go with the little holiday plates for the neighbors, and my fudge didn't work, so I tried going for truffles. I used the Gingerbread Truffles on epicurious. The reviews were very helpful, the ganache sets very firm, so they're a bit tough to roll. I wasn't ambitious enough to temper the chocolates, so I just rolled in a mix of cocoa powder, powdered sugar and nutmeg.

I loved these! My husband and his friend thought they'd be great without the gingerbread flavor. But these were my favorite treats this year!

Puppy Cookies

2009-12-11T20:06:00.000-06:00

We have a fantastic neighbor who is so good to our kids, so I wanted to make a little something for her "kids" for Christmas. I'd made a recipe from the vet many times before, but that cookbook's packed up already, so I looked online and found DogTreatKitchen.com. Such a fun site! I tried the
Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits, and they worked great! The dough was very easy to work with, and I liked that it didn't have any dairy or egg. I don't know if it's true, but I'd think these might have a longer shelf life. It is more like a roll or bread dough than a cookie dough, so the bigger cutters seemed to work better. The trees were great (the reindeer's antlers didn't work so well :) ). This one's so easy - definitely a keeper!

Molasses Spice Cookies

2009-11-24T18:24:00.000-06:00

So I kind of cheated, in that I made these as drop cookies and just chilled them on the sheets in the fridge for 15 min or so. But they turned out great! Nice and soft and great flavor! Thanks to Pamela of Cookies with Boys who selected this week's recipe!

Things have been a little busy here. We've a friend who's staying with us for a while, and we're probably moving mid-December, only a few blocks away, but a different town and (obviously) house. And then all the regular life stuff :) I'm hoping to still keep up with at least two of the Dec recipes - Dec looks to be a fantastic month!