Cranberry Walnut Boules

So I don’t really remember what number bread this is – walking to bread book to count recipes – ok number 11. As a side note I just saw a massive raccoon jump out of a tree and then turn around and climb another. Back to the bread. This enriched bread was very sweet in my opinion. I think it would make a nice holiday gifty bread, but not my favorite for just a normal day.

I did deviate from the recipe by not adding as much lemon extract as it called for and I am really glad I did so. I think this bread would have been way to lemony and not cranberry and walnuty at all had I used the amount called for. My grandparent’s liked this bread as did my dad, which was surprising since he doesn’t like lemon flavored stuff and sticks to the adage that “Lemon is for tea”.

As a side note to this bread, the week after I made it Publix was advertising the same bread in their circular and dang if it wasn’t $5 a loaf. I may seriously need to go into the bread baking business.

Dry ingredients all measured out.

A little melted butter.

After the R&R.

Getting ready to knead in all the cranberries and walnuts. This was a major operation because there were so many things to be worked into the dough that my poor mixer was feeling overwhelmed.

Getting ready for the first round of R&R.

Shaped into individual boules.

These loaves baked to a beautifil golden color.

Hmmm Christmas gifts maybe?

Next Up: English Muffins

I’m behind

I admit I haven’t posted lately, but I promise I’ve got some good ones coming soon. I did take a small week long bread baking break – a bread a week can become tedious, but I’m back to baking and have plenty of pictures to show. I also managed a quiche and a 14 layer birthday cake so prepare yourselves for some good stuff to come.

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl

Ahhh cinnamon raisin swirl bread – you were so wonderful sounding and smelling and even tasting, but must you require raisins?

Overall this was really simple bread to make. It only took one day and was very easy to mix and shape. The cinnamon swirl was optional, but I decided it was neccessary. The raisins although not neccesary, but I did include them since some people do like them. If you were not wanting such a sweet bread, it could be made without the swirl and would make wonderful french toast (In case you didn’t know by I now I like french toast – hence why I mention it at least every other week.).

Yummy buttermilk

Pre- kneading

Getting ready to rise.

Definitely doubled in size.

Trying to roll it out to a semi-rectangular shape.

Cinnamon swirl sprinkled all over.

Ready for the final rise.

The pretty loaf ready to be baked.

The not so pretty loaf ready to be baked.

A little over browned maybe but still yummy.

The poor little not pretty loaf - he tasted good though!

A long time coming.

The other day I was on the phone with someone and they mentioned needing to check my blog to see my final cake I did back when I was in cake decorating classed. I dawned on my that I had not actually ever posted my final cake and that I needed to do so. So late as it may be I present to you the process of making fondant roses, covering a cake with rolled fondant, and the final presentation. Enjoy!

Me working with all my tools. This process involves a lot of rolling, cookie cuttering, and feathering. Oh and don't forget the painting and molding too!

Step 1: Roll to desired thickness and size. There is actually a math formula that tells you how large to roll the fondant so that you make sure to actually cover the entire cake.

Step 2: Flip icing over the top of cake, while letting your mother photograph you while wearing your worst pjs.

Step 3: Peel back the rolling mat.

Step 4: Smooth.

Step 5: Smooth and stretch down the sides.

Step 6: Trim off excess.

Not really a step, just a little extra bonus view of the bottom.

Step 7: The final product. A nice smooth cake.

The final cake

A close up - yes there are 40 handmade flowers on that cake and yes the cost of a professional cake is actually acurate.

Sweet (Not Southern) Cornbread

This week for the BBA Challenge, I baked cornbread. This cornbread was very moist, very sweet, and relatively easy to make. While Mr. Reinhart offers countless praises to this bread and many ties to Thanksgiving, I found that it does not conjure up those moments for me. Since I am from the South, I would say that while this bread was veyr good, I won’t be making this at Thanksgiving or Christmas for fear of being laughed out of the house and loosing my privilages to eat cornbread dressing. Maybe if I disguised it as sweet a sweet corn cassarole I might be allowed to pass it off in the food line, but I think I will just sticky to our regular palate and keep this (corn)bread under wraps here in our house.

Cornmeal and buttermilk soaker that is mixed up the night before.

flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and a little bit of salt

eggs

honey and melted butter

honey, butter, and eggs

honey, butter, and eggs mixed with the cornmeal soaker

The final batter all mixed together.

nice and crispy

Be on the lookout for Cinnamon Raisin Bread this week.

Cheesecake Marbled Brownies

The treat for cheesecake and brownie loving humans and squirrels alike! This is the recipe I alluded to earlier this week in reference to the squirrel that ate my Tupperware in order to gain access to the brownies. These are definitely the best homemade brownies I’ve found yet. The recipe came from Smitten Kitchen, which you should all go check out because she has some amazing recipes. The only changes that I made was to split the cheesecake batter in half since I decided to double the recipe.  The original recipe says it yields 16 2-inch thick brownies, and I think it would if you used all of the cheesecake batter in one recipe. I wanted to make more though since we were sharing at the camp out so I made to brownie batter and only one cheesecake batter and they were still fine.

Brownie Batter Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter; cut into pieces
• 3 oz unsweetened chocolate; chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour

Cheesecake Batter Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese ; very well softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Plus 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to sprinkle on the top

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and butter a 8 inch square baking dish.
2. Make the brownie batter: Heat butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan (I used a double boiler set-up to avoid burning) over low heat. Whisk occasionally and heat until just melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Whisk in flour until just combined and spread into baking pan.
3. Make cheesecake batter: Whisk together cheesecake batter ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Dollop over brownie batter and then swirl with the tip of a butter knife.
4. Sprinkle  chocolate chips over the top and swirl again.
5. Bake brownies for about 35 minutes or until the center is set.
6. Enjoy

A little double boiler action going on.

cheesecake batter

Pre swirl dollops

A banner day

This morning on the way to pilates class I saw a giant blimp flying over the hospital. Oh boy it was making some “blimping” good time (haha I crack myself up sometime)! Then on the way home I encountered a giant stuffed walrus standing on someone’s front porch. This is for real – he was standing on his back flipper fin thing. Oh and in case you were wondering I am not crazy.

Cinnamon Rolls or Sticky Buns…

…that is the question. Last week my BBA challenge gave me the option of doing either cinnamon rolls or sticky buns. I prefer cinnamon rolls – my dad prefers sticky buns. Being the loving and kind person that I am I decided to make a few of both and boy am I glad I did.  Up till this point in my life I have only eaten one sticky bun and it was mediocre so naturally I gravitated toward cinnamon rolls. I can safely say that after last week I may have been converted to the sticky bun club. These were AMAZING.  I think we all could have eaten an entire batch (not that we actually would or anything crazy like that!), but we all exercised adult restraint and withheld.

So I know that according to my own self imposed time table I am late! I do however have a good excuse so please let me explain. I made these late in the week to take on a camping trip with us. It was also very hot last week and people who know me well are aware that I like cooler weather.  I was in a foul mood about the weather and therefore could not blog (no bloggy inspiration in me).  On Friday we left for our camping trip – it was HOT. I don’t like hot weather, I was already feeling sad about no fall weather, and it was crazy hot at the camp ground. I dealt pretty well until it was time to go to bed. I think I maybe slept an hour and that was just from pure exhaustion. I was so miserable. On Saturday we played until it rained (I don’t know that I have ever been so grateful for rain) and then we played some more – there was also plenty of rain songs sung. Anyways, that night as I lay in my little tent getting splashed my random rain drops because I had to leave my window open to get air, I prayed that God would either deliver me from the heat and take me or change the weather. He changed the weather and boy am I glad – talk about answered prayers. Reciting the story it seems silly, but on Saturday night when I prayed it I was very serious. I guess it will serve as my reminder for a while that God does still listen and answer our prayers and that he cares and wants the best for us. Oh and I guess it is also something for me to hold on to that he must have a purpose for me here on earth since he went with option 2 instead of option 1.

So onto pictures of the bread. I must confess that there are no pics of the finished cinnamon rolls simply because I didn’t get a chance to take one before we left the house and I had other issues to contend with while camping – such as a crazy squirrel trying to eat thru one of my favorite little tupperwares to get to my cheesecake swirled brownies (which I hope to post about later this week).

Mixing up the dough - there is no preferment so this one only takes a day.

sticky sticky sticky

Getting ready for the first rise.

Afer a couple of hours - this dough had some serious rise!

Rolled out in a semi rectangular shape and spread with butter. Geometrey was never really my thing.

I did deviate a bit at this point because I spread a thin layer of butter over the dough and then sprinkled on the cinnamon sugar filling.

Waiting to be sliced.

This is what makes the sticky buns into well sticky buns. You mix butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup and spread it all over the bottom of the pan. I choose to sprinkle on some pecans for good measure and if you really wanted to you could even add raisins or craisins.

Getting ready for their last little rise before baking time.

Right out of the oven - check out that oven spring.

Since sticky buns are technically baked upside down I had to turn them right side up for their unveiling.

Aaaaahhhhh don't they look yummy?

I'll let you in on a little secret...they were yummy.

So there you have the sticky buns. Cinnamon rolls are made the same way they are just cooked without the butter/sugar mixture on the bottom and they have a simple white icing drizzled over them. On thing I should note is that I did deviate from the original recipe because it called for lemon flavoring. We don’t really care for lots of lemon flavoring and after reading other people’s comments about the lemony taste of their buns I decided to substitute vanilla instead.

This week’s bread is supposed to be cinnamon raisin swirl bread, but I am skipping to next week’s corn bread instead to go with our hambone soup. I will come back to the cinnamon raising swirl next week.

I love truffles.

I’m a little late on this recipe, but I guess better late than never. When C and K came to visit last month K brought some recipes with her to try out. Among those were multiple reicpes for truffles. We choose to make hazelnut truffles because we were able to locate some hazelnuts, which are not native to the south and are kind of hard to come by here.

Anyways, we found some hazelnuts and since you can get hazelnut liquor, we decided to make the truffles. However, we forgot to go to the liquor store before it closed. I my own defense I am used to living in a college town and was beyond shocked to learn that in Alabama not only does the State sell the liquor, they close at “normal business hours.” This left us in a bit of a predicament and wondering what to do. Our final idea – go to the bar and ask for a shot! C and I went into the local bar and I informed that bartender that I would like to buy the smallest amount of Frangelico that he could sell me. After looking at me like I lost my mind I kindly explained that we needed a tablespoon for some truffles, but I would kindly take a shot if that was the smallest amount available. After assuring the bartender of my intent, and with a promise to bring him a truffle C and I left the bar with a shot in hand. Oh and as for the flimsy agreement the bartender and I had, we did take him a truffle the next night much to his enjoyment.

Here is the recipe adapated from Eggs of Sunday:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 8 oz of good quality milk chocolate, chopped (We actually tweaked the recipe at this point and used – 4 oz semisweet, 4 oz white, and 8 oz bittersweet.)
• 8 oz (1 cup) heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Frangelico or hazelnut flavoring (we used a whole shot – I didn’t think 1 tablespoon gave a strong enough flavor)
• chopped hazelnuts; for coating

Directions:

1. Chop the chocolate and place in heatproof bowl.
2. In a saucepan bring the cream to a bowl.
3. Once it begins to bowl stir in the hazelnut and pour the warm cream over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes.
4. Stir the chocolate cream mixture until it is smooth and then place it in the fridge for about 3 hours or until the ganache is firm, but scoopable.
5. After 3 hours, scoop 1 inch balls of ganache and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and chill overnight.
6. The next day roll each truffle in hazelnuts (or cocoa powder or other topping)

This recipe makes approx 32 truffles.

Here are some picture for you to enjoy so let me know if you have any questions.

Our mise en place - including our shot glass!

All the chopped chocolate waiting to be made into truffles.

The ulu knife that we used to cut the chocolate.

Bringing the cream to a boil.

Frangelico

Melting the chocolate.

All getting ready for a little fridge time.

Lookin good.

Our very first truffle that we delivered to the bar!

Toasting our hazelnuts

Decorating with hazelnuts and coconut - notice the use of red and pink.

The three different truffles.

All the hazelnuts.

Please notice C's creation that just happens to stick out like a sore thumb.

Say Ciao to Ciabatta

Ok….I know I’m running a bit behind this week, but I was having internet troubles all weekend and then when it started working the Auburn game was on and it was getting good and my Tigers needed all the help they could get so..no blog.

Speaking of the Auburn game let me tell you what happened around this house. The game was not going well in my opinion and then the next thing we know Auburn is coming back. Those little guys fought for their lives and it paid off. Anyways at one point I look over and my mother is standing up yelling at the “young man” to run. I promptly told her that her age was starting to show because she felt it necessary to refer to the twenty something player as “young man.” Her other great moment came near the end of the game during a rather intense moment of the game. Mother was wearing her sweet new orange mumu house coat and I sort of jokingly told she needed to be giving off some juju. She then stands and proceeds to tell the WV quarterback to fall on his butt. Lo and behold if the sucker doesn’t just fall on his rear but also fumbles the ball. That is some serious juju in that mumu people. My knew motto may in fact be “Don’t mess with the mumu juju.”

Now back to ciabatta, which is the whole topic of this posting. The ciabatta bread was one of the hardest to mix and lets just say it may or may not have looked like a light dusting of snow in the summer in my kitchen. Once I finally got the dough together, I was worried that it might be hard to work with because of the wetness of the dough, but  I was pleasantly surprised to find that with enough flour the dough worked out nicely. The stretch and fold method used for the dough was interesting, I think I could have done something differently because my dough wasn’t stretching evenly. Oh well. 

The taste of ciabatta was very nice – the texture didn’t have the holes that I am used to seeing but it tasted wonderful. I think I would reccommend this bread as a fall/winter bread with a nice chowder or creamy soup. The next time I make it I am definitely adding some cheese to it just see how it is. Anyways, enjoy the pictures.

 

Poolish after fermenting for about 4 hours.

Ball of dough after mixing. There are no pics of the mixing process because I was fighting off a flour storm.

 

After the first stretch and fold. Once again no pics because I was covered in flour and I needed both hands to do the stretch.

 

After a little resting and rising (R&R) time.

Two of my loaves sitting in a couche.

 

After a little more R&R in the couche.

This bread required a steam oven to set the hard outer crust (this is considered a hearth bread). In order to accomplish the right enviroment I had to heat the oven to 500 and pour hot water into the cast iron skillet and then slam the door shut and let the steam set the crust.

 

A nice warm loaf with a crispy crust right out of the oven.

A few decent air pockets - I wanted some more, but maybe next time.

Next up: Cinnamon Rolls/Sticky Buns. I’m making a few of each that way we can all have the ones we want and we can run a bit of an experiment and then then give our professional opinions about which one is best.