I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday filled with loving family & friends and lots of great food! =)
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Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A sweet anniversary
When I first started blogging, I'd rarely made caramel--maybe once. It scared me, quite a bit in fact. But over the past two years, I've made it many times, including here and here, and with very messy results here. Thanks to all that experience, sugar syrup no longer scares me the way it did.
The verdict? These are really, really good. Sweet, yes, but the salt helps a bit with that. I've already made two batches because I gave away most of the first one as well as part of the second. That's probably a good thing, since I've had to restrain myself to not eat them all. How can you go wrong with pecans and brown sugar and bourbon? =) They've been a hit with everyone else who's tried them, as well. If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe here. I definitely recommend it!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
12 Days of Cookies - Day 12 - Holiday Sugar Cookies
When I started this project, I didn't expect that my 12 Days of Cookies would take 20 to finish. =) But I'm very glad that I did it. One of the best reasons is that I discovered a bunch of great blogs to read in the process. The bakers participating in this baking extravaganza are an amazing bunch. I love reading about everyone else's experiences, good and bad. It's been neat to compare results on the recipes that we have in common. And reading some of the other posts definitely influenced my final list. There are actually a few more that I had planned to bake, but I ran out of energy and substituted easier recipes instead. I'll be sure to share them when I do get a chance to make them.
Now for cookie number 12! As I mentioned in my last post, I ended up making a lot more cutout cookies than I ever would have thought--five of the twelve. I was worried at first that these Holiday Sugar Cookies and the Christmas Cutout cookies would be too similar. But they aren't. While the Christmas Cutouts seemed kind of bland to me, these had a lot more flavor. In addition to the usual suspects (butter, flour, salt, a bit of baking powder, an egg and some vanilla), the dough also has brown sugar instead of white as well as a bunch of nutmeg. By this point, I'm pretty comfortable with the whole process for this sort of cookie--mix the dough, chill the dough, roll out the dough, cut shapes, chill cookies on the pan, bake. I liked this dough because unlike some of the others, it didn't get rock hard when chilled, probably because of the brown sugar. I thought it was pretty easy to work with, though I made sure I worked quickly, since most rollout doughs get soft pretty fast.
The verdict? I really like these cookies. I like nutmeg a lot, especially when freshly grated, so I really enjoyed the flavor of these. The nutmeg paired nicely with the brown sugar. I took the easy route in decorating, with a simple glaze (the same one I used on the Spice Rollout Cookies) and some colored sugar. They're tasty plain as well, but more fun when dressed up a bit. I still have a bunch of plain ones that need to be decorated, as well as some dough in the fridge, so I might finally try my hand at more fancy decorating, with royal icing. We'll see.
I'm actually a little bit sad to be done. But I've got a few more holiday cookies and other treats to make and blog about, so stay tuned. I also realized that I missed acknowledging my 200th post, which was on Day 1. And my blogiversary is coming up in just a few short days. So I want to come up with some way to celebrate. I'm really happy that achieved one of my goals with this whole project, which was to get excited about blogging again!
I'm actually a little bit sad to be done. But I've got a few more holiday cookies and other treats to make and blog about, so stay tuned. I also realized that I missed acknowledging my 200th post, which was on Day 1. And my blogiversary is coming up in just a few short days. So I want to come up with some way to celebrate. I'm really happy that achieved one of my goals with this whole project, which was to get excited about blogging again!
Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings
Sandy of At the Baker's Bench
Friday, December 18, 2009
12 Days of Cookies - Day 11 - Christmas Cutouts
These turned out to be great for what I needed them for. Quite a while back, I agreed to help out with the holiday party for Brianna's first grade class. I planned to bake cookies, like I did last year. And I did bake cookies for eating--I made another batch of the chocolate candy cane cookies. But as we were planning a couple weeks ago, I got an email from the party organizer asking if I could bake cookies for decorating. We decided simple rounds would be best, since we were supposed to avoid reference to any particular holidays.
I mixed up the dough Tuesday night and baked the cookies Wednesday night. (The party was on Thursday.) The dough was very straightforward to make--the usual mix of butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, an egg and some vanilla. The only unusual ingredient was a bit of sour cream. I didn't bother dividing up the dough; I just flattened it out and wrapped up the whole thing in plastic wrap. When it was time to roll, I cut the dough in half with my bench scraper and worked with one piece at a time. I totally missed the part in the instructions about using sugar on the counter when rolling out the dough. I just used flour. The dough was a bit hard to roll out--I had to let it warm up quite a bit before rolling. And even then, it had a tendency to want to break when I was rolling. But I got my circles cut out, put them on parchment lined baking sheets, and chilled them on the pans for 10-15 minutes before baking. I baked them for close to 15 minutes before they started to get any color around the edges.
decorated by one of the kids in B's class--I don't know, you can still see the cookies... =)
If you'd like to give these a try, you can find the recipe here. And be sure to check out the other bakers participating in the 12 Days of Cookies to see what they've baked up recently! =)
Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings
Sandy of At the Baker's Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project
Monday, December 14, 2009
My weekend project
This is a significant post for several reasons. For one, this makes the 12th post I've done this month, which is a new record. I've done 11 several times, but never more than that. And I'm not done for the month, what with at least two more holiday cookies, not to mention some TWD recipes and some more bread. This also marks my return to posting about the BBA Challenge. Hard to believe it's been over two months since I posted my variation on the Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. I did make the next recipe, English Muffins, in mid-October. I wasn't that happy with how they turned out, though, and don't feel like remaking them right now, so I'm just going to skip posting about them.
I've been procrastinating on the Focaccia for quite some time, and it took a couple of different things to finally get me back on track with BBA. One was that our annual Christmas potluck with the Italian genealogy group coincided with a full weekend off from work (both Saturday and Sunday!). I knew that the focaccia recipe made a large quantity (a half-sheet pan, 13"x18") and that it would be perfect for a crowd (so we wouldn't eat it all ourselves). The second was that I signed up for an evening class with Peter Reinhart here at Central Market in January! I'm very excited about going, and the anticipation has me re-energized about bread baking. The class is mainly about his new book, but I'm hoping that if I take my copy of BBA maybe he'll sign it for me. =)
Anyway, on to my recipe notes. The main thing that had me putting off this bread was the fact that it takes two days. Since I finally had a Saturday off, though, I figure it was time to tackle it. It turned out that the whole process wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I used my mixer for the dough, first with the paddle for the initial mixing, then with the dough hook for kneading. I did have to add a bit of additional flour to get the dough to clear the sides of the bowl. After the mixing, it was mostly waiting. You stretch and fold the dough, then wait a while before doing it again, several times. Then the dough is gently spread in the pan by using fingertips to dimple the dough, with the help of lots of herbed olive oil. I went with a simple rosemary and garlic oil, since rosemary was the only fresh herb I had on hand. Here's what I used:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (nothing fancy)
1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
Once the dough was in the pan, it was covered with plastic and placed in the fridge to develop flavor overnight. That was Saturday night. On Sunday morning, I took the dough out of the fridge early, since the recipe says that it needs about 3 hours to proof. It got some more herbed oil and more dimpling. At about 2 1/2 hours, I realized that the dough was starting to try to escape from the pan. So I quickly turned the oven on to preheat, and dimpled the dough one more time to deflate it just a little. Once the oven was ready (500 degrees F), I put the pan in, turned down the temp to 450 degrees F as directed, and baked it for 10 minutes. Then I rotated the pan and baked it for 10 minutes longer, at which point it was starting to brown nicely. I took it out of the oven and immediately took the focaccia out of the pan and carefully transferred it to a rack to cool.
The verdict? This stuff is good. Really good. But it would be hard for it to be bad, with all that oil adding flavor. =) I assume everyone at the potluck liked it--it disappeared very quickly. The girls and Jamie all liked the focaccia a lot, so I have a feeling I'll be making it again soon. I'd like to experiment with some different herbs as well as other toppings. If you'd like to try this one for yourself, get your hands on a copy of the book. You won't regret it. And don't forget to check out some of the other bakers who have taken on the BBA Challenge.
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (nothing fancy)
1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
Once the dough was in the pan, it was covered with plastic and placed in the fridge to develop flavor overnight. That was Saturday night. On Sunday morning, I took the dough out of the fridge early, since the recipe says that it needs about 3 hours to proof. It got some more herbed oil and more dimpling. At about 2 1/2 hours, I realized that the dough was starting to try to escape from the pan. So I quickly turned the oven on to preheat, and dimpled the dough one more time to deflate it just a little. Once the oven was ready (500 degrees F), I put the pan in, turned down the temp to 450 degrees F as directed, and baked it for 10 minutes. Then I rotated the pan and baked it for 10 minutes longer, at which point it was starting to brown nicely. I took it out of the oven and immediately took the focaccia out of the pan and carefully transferred it to a rack to cool.
The verdict? This stuff is good. Really good. But it would be hard for it to be bad, with all that oil adding flavor. =) I assume everyone at the potluck liked it--it disappeared very quickly. The girls and Jamie all liked the focaccia a lot, so I have a feeling I'll be making it again soon. I'd like to experiment with some different herbs as well as other toppings. If you'd like to try this one for yourself, get your hands on a copy of the book. You won't regret it. And don't forget to check out some of the other bakers who have taken on the BBA Challenge.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
12 Days of Cookies - Day 10 - Cranberry-Orange Drop Cookies
While I made the cookies last night, I waited until this morning to take pictures. I've been having a lot of fun coming up with ideas for festive holiday food photos. And I really enjoy reading everyone else's 12 Days of Cookies posts and getting new ideas for pictures from them. For today's post, I had some help from my resident food stylist:
Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings
Sandy of At the Baker's Bench
Saturday, December 12, 2009
12 Days of Cookies - Day 9 - Holiday Biscotti
I decided that an extra ounce of flour wouldn't cause a complete disaster, and proceeded with cutting the logs into pieces. I cut on the diagonal so I'd get longer pieces. Rather than laying the biscotti pieces on their sides on two sheets, I left them standing up and was able to fit them on one sheet. I had to bake them a bit longer (about 25 minutes) for them to start to brown, but it was worth it since I didn't have to mess with turning the pieces over. Once the biscotti had cooled, I coated one end of each piece with dark chocolate. (I took a poll, and Brianna and Gillian both voted for dark instead of white chocolate.)
Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings
Sandy of At the Baker's Bench