April 30, 2013 - Peanut Butter Cookies

Well tonight I decided it was time to bake something with peanut butter.  A knew from looking before that there was a recipe for peanut butter cookies, so I settled on them.

The recipe was pretty basic cookie recipe, although I did have to make one modification.  I typically only buy unsweetened natural peanut butter, and in the description for this recipe it basically flat out says use the sweetened stuff.  But since I didn't have a choice I went for it with the natural.  The dough came out great and I rolled out the cookies and flattened them with the fork prong method.

I think the smell of these cookies baking is awesome.  I love anything with peanut butter, so I have to admit these cookies are very very hard for me to pass up.  See here's the deal.  I really enjoy working out and trying to eat healthy, so thoughout this process I have been trying to do my best to not completely binge and eat everything I make (sweets and carbs are definitely a weakness of mine).  So far I've been doing good at this task, but tonight was definitely a challenge with these cookies.  While I did try a bite of one, I stayed strong and stopped with that bite!

The texture was great with a slightly crunchy outside and soft, chewy inside.  I'm sure that the flavor would have been a little sweeter with the other peanut butter, but to be honest I loved them just the way they came out with the natural butter.  So 17 recipes down and only a couple hundred more to go.  The journey has only begun!

April 29, 2013 - Soft Pretzels: Salted, Sugar Coated, and Cheese Covered

I was in the mood to make something other than a dessert tonight, so I paged through the book to see what I could make.  I found the recipe for Soft Pretzels, but I was a little skeptical since they are in the "Yeast Breads and Rolls" chapter and I had yet to make anything out of this chapter yet.  But this was a good place to start.

After reading through some of the other recipes in this chapter, I had noticed that most of them require hours and hours and hours of rising and resting and rising some more.  This one was nice because it only required about two hours total of rising time, which was perfect for the amount of time I had.

 

I mixed up the dough and let it knead in the mixer for about 6 minutes, then let it do its rising thing.  This was a great scenario because the recipe makes 12 pretzels, and there are three variations (salted, cheese covered, and sugar), so I decided I was going to knock out this recipe and all of it's variations at once.  After the dough finished rising I divided it up, rolled it out and shaped the pretzels.  Then they went into a blanching bath for a few seconds.

 

I topped four of the pretzels with salt, four with grated cheese, and the other four I kept plain.  Into the oven they went.  They came out with an awesome golden brown color.  The four left plain I coated with butter then sprinkled with vanilla sugar. 

 

Salted



Cheese Covered

Sugar Coated

These puppies turned out awesome.  They had the perfect texture of a soft pretzel and each version had its own really great flavor.  Definitely a recipe I will be making again sometime soon (maybe add some jalapenos next time to the cheese covered!).

 



April 27, 2013 - Chewy, Fudgy Triple-Chocolate Brownies

I felt like making some brownies today, so of course I took this as an opportunity to check another recipe off my long list and make the brownies out of the Baking Illustrated book.  I took a look at the recipe and it looked pretty basic and quick.  That's one of the nice things about brownies, mostly all recipes are pretty easy.

 

I thought this recipe was cool because it incorporated three different types of chocolate:  Semi Sweet, Unsweetened, and Cocoa Powder.  All three of these melted with butter and then whisked together was the start of this recipe.  Yes, the smell of that combination was incredible.

 

 

Whisk the melted chocolate into some whisked eggs, sugar vanilla and salt, stir in the flour and into the pan it went.  Literally, this recipe took about ten minutes to get in the oven.  Sometimes that's the best kind of dessert to make!

A quick stint in the oven and these bad boys were done (minus some cooling time before cutting).  There's something awesome about making a batch of brownies, and then diving right on in for a bite.  For me, that fudgy, chewy, rich chocolate flavor of a brownie is unbeatable.  They have always been one of my favorite desserts ever.  I can still remember going to my Grandma's house when I was little and she would always have fresh baked brownies...and they were always perfect.  I'm sure that's where my love for them came from, and every time I eat one they always make me think of her.

 

 

April 25, 2013 - Classic Irish Soda Bread

A couple of days ago, I tried my hand at the Black Forest Cake recipe.  This was, more or less, a complete failure.  The recipe the in book uses a chocolate Genoise (which, if you are like me you had never even heard of before) as the base cake, cut into three layers.  Let's just say I could just barely get mine into two layers.  It was so dense and overly chewy, when it is supposed to be a light and fluffy cake.  I would say this was my first complete failure.  While I did finish it through, all but one slice ended up in the trash.  However, I'm even more determined now to get that cake right, but I will save that for another day I think.  Tonight, I decided to make peanut soup for dinner (I LOVE peanut soup), and I wanted a bread to go with it.  I flipped through the bread recipes in both the Yeast Breads chapter and the Quick Breads chapter, and I decided on the Classic Irish Soda Bread.  I didn't have a ton of time, and as this is not a yeast based recipe, it didn't need all the long rising and resting times, so it was a perfect fit.

 

Let me preface this by saying I have never ever made any type of bread in my life, so this was an entirely new experience for me.  Although, based on this recipe I think this was a pretty good one to start with.  After whisking my dry ingredients together, I added the butter and buttermilk, then turned the dough out onto my floured surface.  This is where I become completely lost.

 

 

Having never made a bread loaf before, I had naturally never had to knead anything before.  To make matters worse, this recipe specifically talks a lot about using "light hands" and not over kneading.  Oh boy.  Thank goodness my sister was close by to give me some pointers as I dug my hands in and took a stab at my first kneading process.

 

 

I got the dough into a pretty good shaped round disc, although I probably could have done a little better job at joining it cohesively together.  Overall, though, for a first time I was pretty proud.  With as many bread recipes that are in this book, I will have plenty of time to work on perfecting this process.  The top was scored and into the oven it went.  I was incredibly happy with how this bread turned out.  The exterior was crusty and browned nicely, and the interior was nice and dense, but not at all dry.

 

For a first try at a bread, I am pretty happy.  I'm actually pretty excited to branch out and try some of the yeast based bread recipes (I am a big fan of rye bread!).  Now if I could just make a decent Genoise cake....



April 22, 2013 - Fudge-Almond Macaroons

Who said I had to wait long to make one of the variations of the Almond Macaroons?  Since they were so quick to make the first time, I figured why not mix up another batch tonight.  I settled on the Fudge-Almond Macaroons.  And holy moly was I glad I did!

Basically, the only difference with these versus the Almond Macaroons being swapping out some of the almonds in exchange or Dutch-processed cocoa powder and a bit of salt.  The rest of the process was the same.  The end result is basically the same.  A crispy cookie on the outside with a softer, chewier middle.  But what a difference in the taste.

A deep, dark chocolate flavor really goes so well with the almond, and I just can't get enough of the texture of these cookies.  I had never made any type of macaroon before this journey, let alone eaten many, but I can safely say they are definitely becoming one of my favorite cookies out there.

So I am 11 recipes in and I have already learned a lot and made multiple things that I never made before.  This is an exciting process, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

April 21, 2013 - Almond Macaroons

Well while the Pound Cake was in the oven I was feeling a little ambitious so I started paging through the book to see what else I could whip up quick.  Amazingly enough, I found a recipe with only four ingredients - and i just so happened to have all four.  So I started mixing up some Almond Macaroons.

These really are an awesome tasting little cookie, and again what is so awesome is you get such a great flavor and texture with so little going into it.  I mixed up the batter and rolled them out onto the cookie tray, and just as the Pound Cake was coming out of the oven, these went in.

The smell alone of these was awesome, let alone the great almond flavor.  Crispy on the outside, and still chewy in the middle, they were perfect.  I didn't have quite enough almonds to make a whole batch, but recipe was easy to cut into 1/3's so I made 2/3's of the batter, and it came out great.  I am definitely looking forward to trying the other variations of this recipe.

Speaking of the recipe variations, I realized something today.  I've decided to go back on my statement in a previous post...where I said I was only going to bake the base recipes - I am now going to bake every recipe in the book, including all variations.  Ambitious? Yes.  Am I up for it?  Absolutely!

April 21, 2013 - Classic Pound Cake

So I had to work all this past weekend, so I didn't have much time for baking, but Sunday night I felt like I should go for something, just something relatively straightforward (I didn't feel like anything too complicated).  So I went for the classic Pound Cake.

 

With only a handful of ingredients and steps involved, this was just the recipe I was looking for to try.  I had some issues getting my butter softened correctly.  It came straight out of the fridge so I was trying the whole "microwave it on very low power" method, and it still ended up melting slightly.  Luckily, it didn't have any real negative impact on the end product.

 

 

The cake came out of the oven a perfectly gold color, and the middle was the perfect blend of dense yet still slightly light and fluffy.  A nice end product to finish the day with.  





April 19, 2013 - Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So here we are, and I am finally caught up and live.  My sister, brother and law, nephew and myself were going to get some take out for dinner tonight.  So of course I needed to make something for dessert.  I didn't feel like taking a ton of time, so I went back to the "Cookies, Brownies, and Bars" chapter and went for a true American staple: Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Who doesn't love a chewy cookie of any type, but especially chocolate chip.  The batter was pretty straightforward, which was a nice, and quick to mix up.  The recipe also has you make pretty big cookies, so it was also nice to not be spending my whole night putting cookie trays in and out of the oven (yeah yeah, I have a really small oven!).

These cookies turned out delicious.  They had a great chewy texture and a great flavor.  As with many recipes in this book, there is always a base recipe (for example, in this case Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies), and then there are sometimes variations of that recipe (again, in this case Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut and Toasted Almonds, and Black and White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans).  After giving it some thought, I think my initial goal will be to make every base recipe first, then go back and start through the variations.  Seven recipes down, 343 more to go!

**I would also like to take this opportunity to give credit where credit is due.  95% of all of the amazing photos so far have been (and will continue to be) taken by my sister, with a few from my brother in law as well.

April 18, 2013 - Quick Cinnamon Buns with Buttermilk Icing

So I took a few days off, let everyone get caught up on the other baked goods, then went in for my next go round.  I decided to go with something out of the "Quick Breads, Muffins, Biscuits, and Scones" chapter, and Quick Cinnamon Buns caught my eye.  The recipe looked pretty basic, and since I had little to no experience with any of the mentioned items in this chapter, it looked like something good to start with.

I had a bit of a revelation while making this recipe.  I got my dough all mixed up and spread out...

Put my pre-mixed filling on top....

 

And started to roll it into a nice and neat log.  Let's just say I wanted to throw the thing across the room by the time I was done with that process.  The dough kept tearing, my hands were sticking, and I seriously didn't want to look at the stupid thing anymore.  Luckily my sister was there and helped talk me down a bit.  Then she helped me realize something else.



Imagine working in a test kitchen.  Imagine being one of the cooks who worked to develop Baking Illustrated.  Imagine how many times they had to screw up and tear their dough to develop the best possible recipe.  All right, all right...my torn dough wasn't such a big deal anymore (which, I might add, I realized I probably should have just put more flour on my working surface than I did and that problem would have never happened).  So i sucked it up, finished rolling and cutting and got them in the oven.

These were a huge hit with everyone.  My brother in law went on to mention that if I made these every day that would be fine with him.  So lesson learned:  If I screw up once or twice, remember how many times the authors of this book screwed up in the process of developing it (I mean come on, they even write about their screw ups before every recipe!).

April 14, 2013 - Classic White Layer Cake with Butter Frosting and Raspberry-Almond Filling

Did I happen to mention the 14th of April was a busy day of baking?  While at my grandparents one of my great aunts was mentioning she was has been looking for a good white cake recipe, but nothing she had tried came out right.  I blabbed quick that I had one that I could send her.  Of course, I had never made it, I had just glanced at it in the book and thought it looked awesome.  So after my grandparents it was off to my parents for dinner where I quickly realized I better make this thing before I go sending a recipe I had never tried myself (although, coming from this book, I was about 99.9% sure it would be great, I just used it as another excuse to bake something).

I had baked some cakes in my life, but never something quite like this.  With a raspberry filling and a great almond flavor, it was unlike anything I had tried (baking wise and eating wise) before.  The cake was light and full of great almond flavor, and the raspberry added a great flavor to the whole experience.

 

I really like to bake cakes.  They are pretty quick, fun to assemble, and who doesn't love a slopping huge piece of cake for dessert?  Needless to say I sent the recipe to my great aunt, and I hope she has the success with it that I had. 

 

 

My poor family, by this point they now had a cake, chocolate cream pie, and some biscotti to eat.  I figured I'd take a day or two off and let them catch up.

April 14, 2014 - Lemon-Anise Biscotti & Spiced Biscotti

Sundays in my family often includes a trip to my grandparents house for a visit.  So of course I had to bake something to take along.  And it just so happens that my grandparents love them some biscotti.  Perfect fit, yet once again something I had never made (there's definitely going to be a trend along those lines throughout this whole journey).  Not to mention, I had some big shoes to fill: my mom makes absolutely incredible biscotti.  Nevertheless, it was time for me to give it a go....and the first batch was an epic failure.  Burnt on the bottom, completely raw in the middle, and way too small.  In the trash it went, and back to the drawing board went me.

There are four recipes in the cookbook for biscotti, but I decided to go with the first one:  Lemon-Anise.  Definitely the most basic and I figured a good place to start.  After go around number two, they came out a success.  I realized quickly what failures I made the first time:  The loaves were not wide or long enough, and I tried the greased pan method instead of parchment paper.  This time, they came out perfect.  Crispy on the outside, slightly chewy in the middle.

I was so proud of them (and since I had a little more time on my hands) that I decided to bake another batch.  But I wanted to try a different kind.  I glanced at the other recipes, and quickly realized I had nothing I needed for two of them (I knew I DEFINITELY didn't have any lavender lying around), but I did just so happen to have everything I needed for the Spiced recipe.  I read the recipe and realized I even had what just enough rum and raisins to kick it up with some rum soaked raisins (which, yes, does follow my rule because it is an optional add in to this recipe!).  Since the raisins needed at least an hour to soak, I took the girl out for a quick walk (as you can see below, she was pretty bored at this point).

So another walk in and I whipped up another batch of biscotti batter.  Using the lessons learned from the first two batches, this one went much smoother.

After the two batches were done, cooled and bagged up I was ready for the verdict: my mom.  She tried one of each and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up.  That was good enough for me.

 
Two biscotti recipes down and two more to go....I just need to make sure I have some of those fancier ingredients handy (where the heck do you even buy dried lavender blossoms???)