Baking With Julia

I was once a member of the Tuesday's with Dorie blogging group and I've joined again . The group will begin baking the recipes the recipes from Baking with Julia in February and I can't wait. My book is on the way. If you want to join, start by getting the book.



Then go and join the free group ,http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/. Happy Baking!!

TWD - Devil's Food White Out Cake

Thank you Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater for choosing Devils Food White Out Cake on page 247-249.

I had read that others had problems getting their cake to rise, but I didn't find that to be a problem for me. Mine rose and the top cracked. I wish I had taken a picture of the mess of me trying to cut the cake in half. I had crumbs all over trying to cut both of the rounds in half and trying to cut off the rounded mounds.
The frosting proved to be a little difficult for me. The temperature when cooking it just wasn't getting hot enough, then all of the sudden it was too hot. I guess it turned out okay, because the kids have NOT complained.
I put the cake in the fridge after I was done. It does give the cake more of a brownie texture when eaten, and I love brownies!

Christmas Eve - TWD, update #1

Okay folks....I've got my cheesecake in the oven. This is a TWD recipe, so I won't post any pics or go into details just yet. I'll wait until next Tuesday and actually be on the regular TWD schedule for once this month.

The cheesecake will have my ovens undivided attention for the next 2 1/2 hours, so I think I'll go and throw together either my breakfast casserole or the sausage balls.

Christmas Eve - TWD

Today, Christmas Eve, will be a busy day for me in the kitchen. I have a long to-do list and hope that all of it will be done before I go to bed tonight. I've already crossed one item off the list. My Tuesday with Dorie recipe, Real Butterscotch pudding. This recipe was chosen by Donna and can be found on page 386 in Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I whipped it up fairly easy this morning, but didn't exactly follow the directions. After reading lots of comments about small food processors making a mess of this recipe, I opted to leave it out. Instead, I whipped everything by hand until the very end. At the point of adding the butter, vanilla and scotch, I poured it all into my blender and used it to smooth out the consistency. I have to say that the smell of the pudding was wonderful and very hard to resist as I was pouring it into my individual bowls. The pudding is now resting in the fridge until later tonight when I will dig in.

I hope to be back later today with updates on how my baking and cooking is going. I plan to make a cheese cake (another TWD recipe), Cookies, Sausage balls or Sausage Pinwheels (or perhaps both) a Turkey if the crazy thing will ever thaw, a breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning and of course dinner for tonight!! I hope that's all, but I'm thinking I've forgotten something along the way. hmmmm......

TWD - Grandmas All Occasion Sugar Cookies

A big thank you to Küchenlatein for this weeks selection. This is a great recipe for December. I realize it's now Wednesday, but....here is my Tuesday with Dorie blog anyway...

I usually shy away from sugar cookies because rolling and cutting just isn't my thing. I'm not good at it and it frustrates me (perhaps I just need more practice). Anyway, I opted for the slice and bake method. I made the dough several days ago and placed it in the freezer. One suggestion on keeping the dough in a nice round log, is to save a paper towel roll and cut it open and put in inside. This way, you don't end up with a flat side. Once I was done with my dough and had 2 nice cookie logs, I realized I had NO empty paper towel rolls. It was time to improvise...lol. I had plenty of paper towels, so I used a full roll. It was kind of funny to watch me trying to stuff the dough into the full paper towel roll. Luckily I had the logs skinny enough to just fit. My dough stayed nice and round in the freezer and my paper towels are no worse off for being frozen.
Yesterday, I pulled out my logs and decided I would do the first half with colored sugar. I rolled the log in green sugar, sliced the cookies and then sprinked red sugar on top and baked. These turned out really well. I liked them so much that I almost did the same with the second batch. However, I resisted the urge to use the same route and opted for colored icing on the next batch. I sliced the cookies again and baked them plain. Once they had cooled, I made green Sugar Cookie Icing and spooned it onto the cookies. I then added colored sugar or bits of candy canes to some of the cookies and left others with only the frosting. I think they turned out great. I'm going to be making more of these this holiday season.

TWD - Linzer Sables

This weeks recipe can be found on page 134 or visit Dennis at his blog to view the recipe. I know it's not Tuesday, but I'm adding my December TWD baking blogs as I have time this month. It is a rather busy month you know.

The recipe was easy to put together and the end result was good. I did decrease the amount of cinnamon and ground cloves that the recipe calls for. Dorie said she liked hers spicy, but I don't like when cookies have too strong of those spices. I played safe and opted for less. The recipe calls for either Almonds, Walnuts or Hazelnuts (finely ground). I opted for Almonds and ground them up in my food processor. After adding all the ingredients in my mixer, the dough was rather dry, but I resisted the urge to add some additional liquid. Instead, I kept on with the recipe and rolled out the dough. After reading lots of comments on TWD about many bakers not being able to get enough cookies with the dough being 1/4 of an inch thick, I rolled mine out a little more.
Of course, some are thicker than others. I'm not good at rolling out the dough evenly yet. The edges are always a lot thinner.In the end, I was able to get 23 sandwich cookies. This is only 2 fewer than Dorie said she had. So, I think I did pretty well. I put raspberry jam in my cookies and the girls and I had lots of fun adding the powdered sugar to the cookies.
I think my cookies look very similar to Dorie's. What do you think??

TWD - Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Last week, I skipped out on TWD. I don't like rice pudding, so I opted to not make it.

This weeks selection was Thanksgiving Twofer Pie. It was really easy to make and mine turned out pretty well. However, I do wish that the recipe would have warned me that this pie will fill every bit of my pie shell. It did overflow in the oven, but luckily I followed directions and put my pie plate on a cookie sheet.

This is my VERY full pie before going in to the oven.

This is my pie fresh from the oven and on the cooling rack. It came out of the oven after my girls had gone to bed. They were very disappointed and wanted to have a piece before bed, but it was too late for them to wait.


Guess what I let the girls have as part of their breakfast. Yep - since they didn't get to try it the night I made it, they got it before school yesterday! Sarah liked it, but Ella didn't enjoy it as much. I certainly didn't want her piece to be wasted, so I ate it!! Yum Yum

Pumpkin Bread

My friend posted a pumpkin bread recipe on her blog (http://homebakedsweetness.blogspot.com/) and I gave it a try. I had never made pumpkin bread before. I've never really been much of a baker. I'd only baked cakes from box mixes a few pies for holidays, etc. This year, I've really started to try other things and I find that I enjoy it. My girls even loves to help me and make their own pies.

Here is the pumpkin bread from yesterday. I think I'll go eat another piece now!


Here is a picture of my ugly cake!! It is the first cake I did from scratch(back in the spring). It is certainly ugly, but it tasted sooooo good.
I made the same recipe for my mom in May. She was on her way to Charleston SC with my dad and came for a few nights. She was at my house for her birthday and I am honored to have been able to make her a homemade cake for her last birthday. She loved it.

In a sweets kind of mood!

In the past week, I've made 2 batches of homemade peanut butter candy. I was really missing my mom earlier in the week and that made me think of her peanut butter candy recipe. I had never made it before. I remember asking her for the recipe years ago but never made it. My mom didn't really ever measure and part of her directions was "cook it til it's done". When I asked "when is it done?", her reply was "you'll know when it's done, it will spin a thread". Of course I had NO idea what that meant, so I never used the recipe. Fast forward to this week, and I sat at my computer to google "spin a thread". I think it is the same as "soft ball stage". It turned out great. My kids love it and it reminds me of my mom. Perhaps my kids will think of me someday when they make this candy in their own homes.

Peanut Butter Candy (aka Peanut Butter Fudge)

2 cups of sugar
1/3 cups light corn syrup
1/3 cup milk
1/4 stick butter
2/3 cup peanut butter

Cook the sugar, corn syrup and milk until it "spins a thread", stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add butter and peanut butter and stir quickly until butter is melted and peanut butter is blended into the mixture.

Pour onto a buttered platter to cool.


I, of course, have to eat some while it is warm!!

Hodge-Podge

hodge·podge (hjpj)

n.

A mixture of dissimilar ingredients; a jumble.

I think that I should have named my blog "Hodge-Podge". It is certainly a mixture of dissimilar items (just like my life). Today will be no different. LOL

I received an email yesterday titled The Most Dangerous Cake Recipe in the World. I usually quickly read over this type of email and then hit delete. I'm not sure why I kept this one, but I'm sure glad I did. The email contained the following recipe:

Ingredients

4 tbsp self rising flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract

Directions

1 - In a large coffee mug, add dry ingredients and mix well
2 - Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Add the milk and oil and mix well
3 - Add the chocolate chips (if desired) and vanilla extract and mix again
4 - Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
(The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!)
5 - Allow to cool a little. Tip the cake out onto a plate if desired
6 - EAT!! (This can serve two if you want to feel slightly more virtuous

And...why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!!



This actually turned out very well!!! It was quick and easy. I wish that the chocolate chips would have been all throughout the cake, but they settled to the bottom of my coffee mug. Then when I tipped it out onto my plate, it acted kind of like a chocolate chip frosting (which is okay too!!). This is quite a lot for one person, so you can share. I was sharing with my youngest and she liked it soooo much that she acted as if she was going to stab me with her fork if I took too many bites!