Photoset
May 29, 2012
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Mamma’s Bread

I don’t have the recipe that we followed but we made the dough the night before that involved a combination of yeast, flour, sugar and eggs… maybe? I can’t remember. And then we let the dough rise in the fridge overnight.

I then woke up way too early on a Saturday, and found my mother in the kitchen rolling out the first loaf of bread. We spooned out melted butter and cinnamon and sugar, and then added crushed walnuts and dates. After that the dough was ready to be rolled up, sliced and then put in the oven (off) to rise for another couple of hours.

We turned the oven on at the beginning of our family brunch and both my mom and I forgot about it. One of the loaves got a little too much lovin’ from the oven. And we forgot the egg-wash and left out the almond flavored sugar glaze… and it was all very typical to the baking experience that started with a floury mess. But all was well. I’m really glad I got to share that time with my mom. I also got some of her old cookie recipes that I can’t wait to try out. I did get to enjoy my Mamma’s Bread for the following week as breakfast, snack and dessert. 

Tags: sally lunn coffee cake bread baking my mom sweets breakfast brunch

Photo
May 23, 2012
26 notes
Strawberry and Rhubarb Frankenpie by Cora and Tyler I used this great website to figure out how to make the lattice top. I highly recommend it. The pictures and instructions are very helpful and clear. 

Strawberry and Rhubarb Frankenpie

by Cora and Tyler

I used this great website to figure out how to make the lattice top. I highly recommend it. The pictures and instructions are very helpful and clear. 

Tags: pie rhubarb dessert sweets baking food lattice pie

Text
May 23, 2012

Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb

(it’s a theater thing. right? someone please tell me I’m not making that up)

Last week I baked in my old apartment for the last time. Well, maybe not the last time, that kitchen is just upstairs and maybe I’ll have a crazy baking project where I need 2 ovens and my old roommate will be okay with it, but that’s beside the point. It was the last time that I baked there while it was the kitchen to the apartment that I lived in.

Tyler and I made another collaborative pie with rhubarb from his parents garden.  

He worked on the filling and I made the crust. I didn’t have my simple pie dough recipe, because I put all my baking books in a box and the book with the recipe was at the bottom so I googled a simple pie dough and kind of improvised from there.

I couldn’t fully remember what I was supposed to do… making the dough by hand, what it was supposed to feel like, etc. (only having experience making 2 or 3 pies before) It was really warm in the kitchen, too, so that also played a factor in what I was calling our FRANKENPIE!

But that’s okay, because nobody sees that once the filling is in. I also wanted to try to make a lattice top (a first for me), and the dough was a little finicky for that too. 

However, the pie made it into the oven fine, and despite it’s messiness, it came out tasting great! 

Tags: pie rhubarb baking sweets dessert food

Photoset
May 02, 2012
9 notes

Pictures from the final week of Advanced Techniques in Baking: Sauces and Review (yes, I’m finally finished with the pictures from the class which ended more than a couple of weeks ago)

As a group, we made Saint-Honores (pictured bottom right), which I can’t even remember how to pronounce. I happily volunteered to work on the Pate a Choux, which I loved making in my very first baking class and piped out a whole army of little guys (top left picture).

The Saint-Honores we made involved Pate Sable (or Quick Puff Pastry), Pate a Choux, Mousseline Pastry Cream and Caramel. I loooovvved watching the caramel change colors, I think it’s so beautiful. While pretty interesting looking, I found the Saint-Honores difficult to eat when put together, but enjoyed lots of tasting throughout the process.

Tags: Cambridge School of Culinary Arts pastry saint honores caramel sweets dessert

Photoset
April 30, 2012
4 notes

Pictures from that chocolates class. That class actually involved no baking, but I still found the stuff really interesting. I want to visit Taza Chocolate now, (even though it’s a totally different process) and learn some more chocolate related stuff. I’m actually not crazy about chocolate, but it’s such a different process, so I’m intrigued.

It’s been over a month since I took the class, so I don’t have much else to say at this point, but I wanted to share some pictures anyway. 

Tags: chocolate Cambridge School of Culinary Arts sweets

Text
April 11, 2012
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The cookies that kept on giving…

Well, sort of. 

A couple of weeks ago I made a gigantic batter of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Now that I see this picture and think about it, it was probably a little too big for my Kitchen Aid. But good ol’ yellow (I’ve never called it that before) did a darn tootin’ good job.

I wanted to make the cookies for a co-workers birthday, but thought to double the recipe and freeze the extra it so I could quickly bake up some cookies at a later time. I was already baking at 9:30 on a school night, so I decided to make it worth it. I had never frozen my own dough before (at least I can’t remember), but I grew up on the store-bought, break-and-bake/eat-it-before-it-ever-makes-it-to-the-oven-stuff so thought it can’t be too different. 

Well, it worked out and the cookies were enjoyed baked “fresh” 2 more times. 

Tags: cookies baking sweets cookie dough

Photoset
March 29, 2012
3 notes

Advanced Techniques in Baking, Week 3: Cakes II

Back in December, in the first series of baking classes I took, I made my very first cake. It was a layer cake, and I thought that was pretty tough by itself, trying to make it look nice and not chopping it up and such.. but I really liked making it. I then started looking at cakes in stores and wondered how the heck they get the edges so darn smooth.. well, last weekend, at the CSCA, I learned how…

They use cake rings! I have wondered what those rings were for, seeing them hanging up in kitchens, before, and now I know It’s quite a process (bake the cakes, slice the cakes, fill a different ring with the frosting, put down a layer of cake, soak it, frosting, cake, soak, frosting… etc.) But it lends to a mighty pretty cake. (I also put together a second messy cake really quickly without building it in a ring because I had a lot of extra frosting and cake but class was finishing)

Tags: Cambridge School of Culinary Arts cake sweets baking sugar dessert margarita

Photo
March 26, 2012
3 notes
You can eat a lot of sweets, but don’t forget to take care of your teeth! It’s probably obvious I consume a good amount of sugar, but I also take pride in that I take pretty good care of my teeth. Growing up I had a lot of cavities… like more than I can remember. I used to HATE the dentist, I had to literally be dragged out of the car. It was a combination of knowing I probably had a cavity and my fear of needles. As an adult, I’ve had my fair share of tooth decay, but the number and frequency has greatly reduced. The sugar consumption has probably stayed the same but I try my best to drink a lot of water, brush twice a day, and at night I also floss and use a fluoride mouthwash. However, right now, I have a small ache.. I have a visit with my dentist soon, but I’m a little worried that this time I might not be smiling on my way out.  In other news… I’m baking right now. Well, it’s in the oven already, and I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but that’s beside the point. I should be writing progress reports, and I swear I’ll get to them in a bit. But I haven’t baked at home in a while and I was really missing it. Last week I was so busy that I dropped my laundry off to have someone else do it (I wasn’t home long enough any night to get it done and I was running out of many necessities). Anyway, the zucchini is on it’s last leg before I have to toss it, so I had to use it. 

You can eat a lot of sweets, but don’t forget to take care of your teeth!

It’s probably obvious I consume a good amount of sugar, but I also take pride in that I take pretty good care of my teeth. Growing up I had a lot of cavities… like more than I can remember. I used to HATE the dentist, I had to literally be dragged out of the car. It was a combination of knowing I probably had a cavity and my fear of needles. As an adult, I’ve had my fair share of tooth decay, but the number and frequency has greatly reduced. The sugar consumption has probably stayed the same but I try my best to drink a lot of water, brush twice a day, and at night I also floss and use a fluoride mouthwash. However, right now, I have a small ache.. I have a visit with my dentist soon, but I’m a little worried that this time I might not be smiling on my way out. 

In other news… I’m baking right now. Well, it’s in the oven already, and I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but that’s beside the point. I should be writing progress reports, and I swear I’ll get to them in a bit. But I haven’t baked at home in a while and I was really missing it. Last week I was so busy that I dropped my laundry off to have someone else do it (I wasn’t home long enough any night to get it done and I was running out of many necessities). Anyway, the zucchini is on it’s last leg before I have to toss it, so I had to use it. 

Tags: sugar the dentist teeth sweets

Photoset
March 25, 2012

Advanced Techniques in Baking, Week 2: Meringues

Above you see an inside-out Almond Joy ice cream sandwich. A coconut cookie with a chocolate almond ice cream, with pieces of almond, chocolate dust and feuilletine crumbs on the outside. I MADE ICE CREAM, for the very first time! it was super cool!

I didn’t even know what a meringue was before this class. Like, I had no idea what we would be making, or what it would look like in the end. I’m still not entirely sure what it is, but I do know that it has to do with a combination of egg whites and sugar and it takes many forms and there’s a lot you can do with it. 

Tags: meringues baking Cambridge School of Culinary Arts ice cream sweets dessert chocolate

Photoset
March 16, 2012
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I forgot to post this the other day! These are some little nummy bites I made with my left over pie crust. I brushed on some melted butter and then sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar. I also just happened to have some toasted nuts in the pantry and threw some of them on top and rolled them up.

They were much better warm… and probably could have used more butter, but that didn’t stop me from eating all of them, by myself.

Tags: pie crust sweets sugar baking