And I am a bit behind, as has been the case so often this year!  Post will be up by this weekend.  Post not going up at all, because of a too-busy schedule.  But I did make homemade cherry strudel last year!

Another figure-friendly entry this week, featuring only three-and-a-half sticks of butter!

This week, Beth of Supplicious decided on Chipster-Topped Brownies on pages 94 and 95 from Baking: From My Home to Yours.  In theory, I should have really liked these, and they were good, but my two layers blended together giving me sort of a chocolate chip cookie bar.  I had a chance to use my Bakers Edge pan, a gift from my in-laws, and I did love the chewy edges that it produced.  In sum, it is not what I had hoped for, but I’m not complaining about chocolate chip cookie bars, if you get my drift.  Ah, the trials and tribulations of baking!  (Update:  my husband LOVED these, and has asked me to put them on the repeat list.  They are better after a day or two in the refrigerator.)

Let me back up a minute.  This recipe consists of two components:  a brownie layer topped by a chocolate chip cookie dough layer.  I mean, really, what’s not to like?  After reading the experiences of others, I knew I was going to want more chocolate chip cookie, so I made the full batch of that, and halved the brownie layer.  I didn’t mess around with the one egg/one yolk thing for the cookies – just used two eggs.  I also added a bit of espresso powder, 1/2 tsp., to ratchet up the chocolate flavor of the brownies.

They were perfectly baked in 50 minutes – the top was golden, not burned, and the brownie layer was not overdone.  And even though the picture shows two distinct layers, the two components blended together, and I really can’t taste the brownie at all. Other bakes had better luck by baking the brownie layer for about 10 minutes, then adding the cookie layer.  One problem I did NOT have was an underdone brownie layer, and I suspect that the pan I used, plus halving the batter amount, had something to do with that.

If you want to givel these a try, I recommend giving the brownie layer a head start in the oven before adding the cookie layer. Be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see how others faired!

This week, the BBA group, which is baking its way through Peter Reinhart’s classic, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, made Artos, or Greek Celebration Bread.  Originally, I had planned to make Christopsomos, which includes fruits and nuts, but as you will see, my brain was on cruise control while I was making this bread, and I completely forgot to add them, even though they were sitting on my counter.  I also used the poolish option in the recipe.

I won’t keep you in suspense:  I loved this bread.  Phenomenal flavor, and while it baked it perfumed the entire house. Lesson learned:  pay attention when you’re baking, or you will over-proof your dough.  My sourdough-only breads (I don’t use any commercial yeast in them at all) take a long time to rise so, out of habit, I was a bit absent-minded when I was making this, and let it rise for an hour longer than it should have.  When I wandered into the kitchen again, an ENORMOUS loaf of dough greeted me.  I popped it into the oven, and was surprised to find that it did not collapse, at least not right away.  That happened while the bread cooled on the counter, but I still had a gargantuan loaf of bread on my hands.  You can compare the size in this picture to my kettle and my 6-quart Dutch oven (sorry the pic is a tad blurry):

It was at least six inches high, and about a 10 inches across.  My husband’s eyes bugged out when he saw it.

Here is a photo of the slight collapse:

I will definitely make this bread again; it’s easy, and packs an enormous flavor wallop.  The bread is delicious plain or toasted.  And be sure to make simple glaze, because it send the loaf over the top.  I had orange oil on hand, instead of orange extract, so I used 1/4 tsp. of that in the glaze.  I sprinkled flax seeds on top because I couldn’t find my sesame seeds at the time.  I have since tracked them down.  All three pounds of them.  One can never have too many sesame seeds on hand.

You can find a list of those participating, here, and you can find the recipe on-line, here.   Until next week, when we bake bagels, which I’ve never made before, so I’m looking forward to it!  And please check out Susan’s bread baking roundup every Friday:  Yeastspotting.

When you’re a member of about, oh, six or seven cooking groups (I lose count), you have things like mascarpone, butter, and premium chocolate laying about the house.  That’s just the way it is.  So, after a recent Tuesdays with Dorie tiramisu cake, I had some mascarpone left over.  Mindful of keeping my girlish figure, I decided to make brownies.  BWA HA HA!

These brownies got better after a day or so, and while they were moist, I like them a bit fudgier.  My husband said the same thing, and proceeded to eat most of them, and he’s not even a chocolate person.  I used 70% chocolate because I usually think brownies are too sweet, but I think next time, I’ll mix in some semi-sweet chocolate to smooth things out a bit.  Thanks to Linda at Tender Crumb, who found the recipe via Teanna’s Spork or Foon?  And she found the recipe at Recipezaar.

If you want to join me for Frugal Fridays, just email me with a link to something you made using what you had around the house.  You didn’t have to have made it in the last week, but you did have to blog about it in the last week.
continue reading "Frugal Fridays – Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies"

This week Kelly of Baking with the Boys selected Fresh Mango Bread for us to bake from Baking: From My Home to Yours.  I thought that I had everything on hand, but Fate interceded, and I had to cobble the recipe together.

First, I thought I had enough mangoes:  two from the store, and two from a friend’s tree in Florida.  I had to throw the store mangoes out because they were so nasty they were an affront to all mangoes.  I lived in Hawaii for almost 13 years and I had a mango tree, so I know a good mango from a bad one.  The Florida mangoes were perfumed perfection, but together they only gave me a little over a cup of fruit, instead of the required 2 cups.  So, I threw in some canned crushed pineapple.

Second, I couldn’t find my ground ginger, so I subbed two tablespoons of diced crystallized ginger.

Third, I realized – in the middle of baking – that I’d used up all my limes, an extraordinarily rare event around here since I have a citrus obsession.  Remedy:  lemon zest.

Fourth, I decided to use my industrial strength Vietnamese cinnamon, so I cut back on that, too, as recommended by Penzeys.

Fifth, I nixed the raisins and added some chopped walnuts.

Finally, I cut back the oil to 1/2 cup from 3/4 cup.  I made up the difference with more crushed pineapple.

The loaf baked to a deep golden brown in an hour and fifteen minutes.  Let me tell you, folks, this smells wonderful when it’s baking.  The top had little bits of caramelized pineapple peeking out.  I had some left over passionfruit buttercream (yes, after a year, it was still good!) from a previous Daring Bakers challenge, so I rather absent-mindedly smeared my first slice of the mango bread with some of it.

DING! DING! DING!  Flavor explosion!  Taste perfection!  I’m writing down everything I did, because I loved this bread and I want to make it again.  None of the spices overwhelmed the moist bread, everything worked together, and the passionfruit buttercream was literally the icing on the cake.  Definitely on the repeat list!  Check out Kelly’s blog for the original recipe, and the TWD website for the blog roll.  My adapted recipe after the jump . . .
continue reading "TWD: Mango -Pineapple Bread with a Little Passionfruit on the Side"

Here I go again, joining another baking group.  Natalie, of a Pinch My Salt decided to bake her way through Peter Reinhart’s classic, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, and about 200 of us around the world decided to join her.  First up:  Anadama Bread, to which I say, “where have you been all my life?”  This, folks, is the answer to the fluffy homemade loaf that I’ve sought from time to time, even though I usually go for dense, artisinal breads.  This bread is easy to make, shape, and eat, particularly toasted, with some butter and homemade marmalade.  Yum.

I halved the recipe, and found myself wishing that I had made both loaves.  I used Gold Medal Bread flour, King Arthur Organic Cornmeal, and Grandma’s Unsulphured Molasses.  I also discovered that the freezer is, indeed, a  time capsule:  I found a five or six year old unopened foil bag of SAF yeast (this was from a time before I bought my yeast in bulk), and decided to live dangerously and use it.  If it didn’t work, I figured I’d tweak things.

Well, it worked all right.  The thing was ALIVE I tell you, and because I’ve been baking bread almost exclusively with some lazy sourdough starters, some of my breads have taken up to 17 hours to rise.  This one had no such problem. In fact, my entire experience with this bread brings to mind another classic:  this scene from Young Frankenstein, one of The Greatest Movies Ever Made.  I’ll wait while you take a look at this short clip.  You won’t regret it, I promise.  “WOOF!”

I also  baked  it in an 8×4-inch pan instead of a 9×5-inch pan, resulting in a dramatic rise.  Sort of like the muffin top you get when you put on a pair of too-tight jeans.

This is a great loaf of bread for beginners and experienced bakers alike.  You can find a list of those participating, here, and you can find the recipe on-line, here.  I highly recommend you get this classic book for your baking library.  Until next week, when we bake Greek Celebration Bread!  And please check out Susan’s roundup every Friday of all things wonderful made with yeast:  Yeastspotting.

There are so many chocolate pudding recipes out there. Quite a few of them are rich, tasty, and require the use of numerous bowls and the tempering of egg yolks. Well, I’m here today to free you from all that. Today, I introduce you to the chocolate pudding recipe of my childhood, which I made throughout my teenage years. And I found it on the side of the Argo cornstarch box all those years ago.

This is sooo easy, and you can use any combination of milk that you like and have on hand:  milk, half-and-half, some cream (don’t make it with only cream).  You can mix it up in one pot, and you’ll only have to clean some measuring cups, spoons, and a strainer, besides the pot and spatula.

Your family will not care that it didn’t take you an hour to make this, because it will taste better than those packaged pudding mixes, and you’ll be able to sit down and enjoy it with them, instead of washing a bunch of dishes!  And who couldn’t use a little chocolate now and then?

Want to join me for Frugal Fridays?  See the instructions, here.  Recipe after the jump . . . .
continue reading "Frugal Fridays, and an Easy Chocolate Pudding from My Childhood"

If you read food blogs, then you’re probably aware of the Daring Bakers, a group that started a little over two years ago.  The brainchild of Yvonne and Lis, it started small – just a group of bakers who wanted a new baking challenge every month.  The group grew to include thousands of bakers all over the world, recently launched a new web site, and this month initiated the Daring Cooks, which will focus on cooking challenges.  My decision to participate in this group certifies that I have lost my marbles.

I have been crazy busy this year.  And yet I blog, participate in The Daring Bakers, Tuesdays with Dorie, Pies with That (are you sensing a baking addiction here?) and, far too occasionally, I join the Bread Baking Babes and Bread Baking Day.  I also decided to sign up for Recipes to Rival last year, because I figured that woman cannot live by yeast, flour, butter, and cream alone.  Last week, I went round the bend and, cackling like a lunatic at my computer, I hit “send” and joined Natalie’s new endeavor, baking through the Bread Baker’s Apprentice (for this, I blame Susan of Wild Yeast Blog, because she wrote about it.  If I hadn’t read her blog, a regular addiction, I would have remained blissfully ignorant).

Despite all this, moved by an unfathomable force, I joined in the Daring Kitchen’s maiden voyage and made ricotta gnocchis.  Lis and Yvonne chose the recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant. What a great choice!  I grew up making potato gnocchi at home, and I hadn’t made them in years, an oversight I’ve been wanting to remedy.

After reading about the troubles others had if they didn’t drain the ricotta enough, I made sure – or thought I made sure – to drain the ricotta.  It still wasn’t enough, so I added a couple tablespoons of flour and a little extra parmigiano reggiano to help these little guys hold together.  I grated a little lemon zest into the mixture, as well as some salt and pepper. I threw together as simple tomato sauce, and topped the whole thing with a little more parmigiano reggiano.  I have to say, after the whole draining-the-ricotta thing, these dumplings are really fast and easy to make and cook.  And want to hear something funny?  I used a tub of frozen ricotta that I had stashed away a couple months ago.  So now you know – the recipe works with frozen, thawed ricotta.

The verdict?  Wonderful taste, just wonderful.  Somehow I hit just the right of lemon zest – enough to enhance the mixture, but not enough to overwhelm it.  Texture?  It was light and fluffy, but I think I’m a potato gnocchi gal at heart, and that’s probably what I’ll stick with in the future.  I like a tad more density to my gnocchi. But I am so glad that I gave this a try.  If you’d like the recipe, check out Lis’ blog, or here, and the Daring Kitchen website to see the results of the other cooks.

This week, Babette of Babette Feasts picked Tartest Lemon Tart on page 336 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.  In my ongoing effort to reduce the calories in our diet derived from butter just a teensy bit, I made the filling and ditched the crust.  I used organic, thin-skinned lemons, and didn’t blanch the peel or remove the pith, something other bakers had to try because the filling was too bitter.   I think organic lemons or Meyer lemons are definitely the way to go with this tart – it is fabulous, one of my new Dorie favorites, but then I’m a sucker for citrus.  So how did I eat this? Scooped it out onto some toast.  WHOLE WHEAT toast, which cancels out all the butter, sugar, and eggs in the lemon curd.

Here is a picture of the egg yolks I used – do you see that really bright orange one in the top right-hand corner?  That’s an organic egg from truly free range chickens.  I haven’t seen a yolk that orange since I went to Europe.

Some final thoughts:  this tart would be fabulous with a shortbread crust, and it also freezes very well.  Definitely on the repeat list.  To see what other bakers made, check out the TWD blog, and Babette’s Feast for the recipe.  Next week:  mango bread!

I recently realized that I had not baked a sourdough bread this year.  It’s May, and that’s how busy I’ve been.  Because baking bread is one of my favorite things to do, I knew I had to remedy this situation, and fast.  Opportunity presented itself in the form of the Bread Baking Babes (BBBs) and Mary’s pick this month:  Ethiopian Injera.

For those of you who may not know, the BBBs are a group of bread baking aficionados the world over, who get together once a month, and basically bake the heck out of a recipe until they get it “right.”  They then share their results and wisdom with everyone else, and issue a general invitation to others to bake the bread and blog about it.  I was lucky this month because they extended the deadline so that folks could find teff flour, the prime ingredient in Ethiopian injera, a flavorful flatbread.

I told myself that this was a Sign, and that I would put pedal to the metal and make this.  So I ordered some teff and got started.  After a day, I wondered why my starter wasn’t bubbling.  I then realized that I had purchased four POUNDS of TEFF GRAIN, not flour.  Needless to say, I’m going to be eating a lot of teff porridge in the near future.  Sigh.

I zoomed around and found a bag of teff flour at my local emporium of many overpriced items, aka Whole Foods. After that, I didn’t have any problems thanks to Mary’s excellent instructions.  I had planned on making an Ethiopian meal (I’ve never had Ethiopian food), but time got away from me.  So, I decided to make the injera and improvise.  As an aside, I looked down and was met by the steady gaze of Daisy, who appeared to like the smell of what I was cooking.

A few minutes later, Gus joined her.  Yes, I gave them wee bits of injera.

Boy, am I glad I made this.  I tasted the first little bread after it had cooled, and I loved the flavor.  Tart from the sourdough, but with an earthy taste, as well – it was delicious.  Rather absent-mindedly, I drizzled some extra virgin olive oil on it as I continued to make the breads, and I experienced a flavor explosion in my mouth – the injera actually made the olive oil taste fruitier and richer.  Since I hadn’t made any curry, Ethiopian or otherwise, Master Chow fished out some left over coq au vin from the fridge and threw together a meal, and informed me it was pretty good with the injera.  In the intereste of research, I gave it a taste.  ZOUNDS!  The injera made the coq au vin taste better.  What was it about this little African bread that enhanced the flavors of Mediterranean and French foods?  Two culinary worlds collided in my kitchen, and the results were fabulous.  I will now add teff to my growing collection of flours, just in case the urge strikes to make this again.  Injera will make a repeat appearance in my kitchen!

Be sure to check out Mary’s blog for links to the other participants, and Susan’s Yeastspotting roundup every Friday!
continue reading "The Bread Baking Babes, Ethiopian Injera, and when Foods Collide"