When life hands you lemons

It's 11:30pm, and I'm still up.  J headed up to bed, but I didn't feel wound down enough to sleep yet.  Then I realized that I hadn't had my nightly mug of tea yet.  I'm drinking Christmas Morning, which may not seem appropriate for a late night in July, but it's one of my favorites.  Normally I'd be stressing about getting enough sleep, since I tend to get up early for work, but I'm on vacation for a couple more days.  It's amazing how much better I feel, after getting a decent amount of sleep and some naps in over the past few days.  I needed this break.  A lot.

There has been so much going on.  When I saw my mother-in-law a few weeks ago, she commented that she could tell I'd been busy with work because I hadn't been posting here much.  (The fact that we were having the conversation in person is an indication of how crazy things have been, since that wasn't really planned.)  She's right.  When I'm just stressed about work, or stressed about my personal life, I can usually manage.  But both have been kind of out of control, which tends to make me shut down.  I do what I have to in order to survive on a daily basis, but that's about it.  Fortunately, I think I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm starting to feel creative again, which I haven't in quite a while.  One nice thing about having some vacation time is that I've had a change to play around in the kitchen, and I actually feel like writing about some of it.  (So hopefully you'll see some more posts after this one!)

Right at the beginning of this month, one of the work stresses sort of resolved itself.  I'm taking on a new position, which will mean more stress in the short term, but it's a better sort of stress that what I've been dealing with for several months.  It's a pretty big change for me, since I realized that I'd been in my previous role for 7 years.  New location, new people, lots to adjust to.  (plus I'm still helping out my old team for most of this month)  But I'm excited about the change, and I realized that having new (to me) employees has an advantage--more taste testers!  My new team is over twice the size of my old one, so even if some are on diets, there will be others willing to eat baked goods. =)

We had a staff meeting last Monday, and I figured that bringing dessert would be a great way to get off to a good start with everyone.  I wanted to bring a couple of things--something chocolate and something not.  Fortunately, I already had an idea for the non-chocolate one, from one of my favorite sources, King Arthur Flour.  They featured a recipe for Molasses-Raisin Cookies on their blog recently.  I love raisins and spice cookies, and was looking for a good excuse to try the recipe. 

The recipe is pretty straightforward to make, using the creaming method.  The one unusual step is that you put the dry ingredients and raisins in the food processor and pulse to chop up the raisins.  I generally avoid using my food processor because I hate to wash it, but I was intrigued by the idea of the small pieces of raisins blending into the cookies better.  So I pretty much followed the recipe as written.  I did make my cookies bigger than the recipe said to--I used my #40 disher, and got two dozen.  Because they were bigger, I baked them for 13 minutes.  I also skipped the coating of sparkling sugar.  Since the blog post suggested lemonade to go with the cookies, I whisked together some lemon juice and powdered sugar and drizzled the glaze over the cookies.

The verdict?  These cookies are awesome. I took them to the meeting along with a batch of brownies, and the cookies were the clear favorite.  The lemon glaze was nice with the spices in the cookies, although I kind of wish I'd applied it with a heavier hand. =)  I can definitely see how these would pair nicely with lemonade.  I like raisins, but since they're chopped up, they're not very noticeable, and might sneak past the raisin haters if you don't tell them they're there.  The cookies definitely wouldn't be the same without them.  I'm seriously considered making another batch of these cookies just so I can crumble them into a batch of lemon ice cream.

If you'd like make these cookies for yourself, you can find the recipe here at King Arthur Flour.

Sugar and spice and everything nice

One of the things that I love about blogging is all the great friends that I've made.  I'm especially glad that some of my bloggy friends convinced me to start using Twitter--it's so fun to bake along with each other.  It's also so nice that there's usually someone around pretty much any time of the day (and well into the night) if I need someone to talk to.  As wonderful as that is, though, sometimes it's nice to talk to someone in person.  Which is why I was so happy to have lunch with my friend T when I was off from work last Friday.  I have a new--male--manager, and she's currently working in an office full of guys.  So we both really wanted needed some girl time. =)  Of course, I can't show up for a lunch date empty-handed, so I decided to bake some cookies. 

Chocolate is good, but this time of year I'm more in the mood for spices.  When you think fall, you probably think cinnamon first, but my favorites are actually nutmeg and ginger.  I go with nutmeg more for cakes or muffins, but ginger is perfect for cookies.  So I turned to one of my favorite ginger cookie recipes, Double Ginger Crackles from Fine Cooking.  I first made these cookies shortly after they appeared in the magazine, around the holidays in 2005.  I've made them many times in the past 6 years, yet somehow I've never included them here on my blog!  Time to fix that. 

You start by creaming butter and granulated sugar, then add molasses, an egg, and a bunch of diced crystallized ginger.  I admit, I add about a quarter cup, rather than the 3 tablespoons that the recipe calls for.  Then the dry ingredients--flour, baking soda, salt and a hefty dose of ground ginger--are stirred in.  The dough is scooped out by the tablespoon (I use my #70 disher), and rolled into balls.  The balls are coated in more granulated sugar, then baked on a sheet lined with parchment paper.  The dough can be rather sticky right after mixing, so I often chill it first.  The dough doesn't get rock hard like some, probably thanks to the molasses.  The recipes says to bake at 350º for 12-14 minutes, but mine are usually done in about 11 minutes.  

The verdict?  We all love these cookies.  I still can't believe that I haven't blogged about them before.  They have a wonderful texture--slightly crisp around the edges, and chewy in the middle.  One thing to watch out for--the dough itself is very tasty, so some of it may never make it to the baking sheet.  The cookies are actually more flavorful cool than warm, so be patient and let them cool completely.  If you manage to keep them around for a few days, the ginger flavor continues to intensify.  I haven't tried it, but I bet these would be great for ice cream sandwiches.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe here at Fine Cooking.  

Beard on bread

Isn't technology great?  The photo above is a picture of my breakfast, as it was sitting next to my laptop one morning.  There's a card table in my living room, which is the home of whatever jigsaw puzzle Brianna is working on at the moment.  It's also the most common resting spot for my laptop.  I love wifi, and the flexibility of being able to move my computer around the house--especially onto the kitchen table. =)  (Our desktop computer is also in the kitchen, but isn't quite as convenient.)  I recently bought myself an iPod touch, and already I'm spoiled by the fact that it's even more portable than the laptop.  I'm still trying to make the most of it, though.  Any good suggestions for apps that I really need to have?

Speaking of things we need to have, good bread for toast is definitely high on the list.  I don't really like typical "sandwich bread" for sandwiches.  Give me some ciabatta or slices from a sourdough batard.  But those loaf pan breads with a soft crumb are the ones I reach for when making toast.  I have several that I really enjoy, but I like trying new recipes as well.  Thanks to some of my Twitter buddies, we're all trying new things, in fact.  We decided to focus on a different chef each month and make some of their recipes.  We're posting pictures of the things we've made as our Twitter avatars for the month.  Since I blog about baking, I'm looking for baked goods from each of the chefs.  For February, Nancy picked James Beard.  I was happy to find that there are a lot of his recipes online.  It didn't take me long to narrow down my choice to some sort of bread.  As it turned out, my final pick was from Beard on Food, rather than Beard on Bread.  

Since I was thinking about toast and breakfast, Oatmeal Bread sounded like a really good idea.  I hate eating oatmeal as cereal (it's the texture that I don't like).  But oats in baked goods are fine.  The recipe is pretty straightforward, and it gave me a chance to use my dough whisk.  I did make a few adjustments.  I only have instant yeast on hand, so that's what I used, reducing the amount to 10 grams.  I used a weight of 125 grams per cup of all purpose flour.  The recipe calls for 9"x5" loaf pans, but I used my 8 1/2"x4 1/2" Pyrex pans.  The recipe makes two loaves, and I added a cinnamon raisin swirl to one.  After patting the dough out into a rectangle, I sprinkled it liberally with cinnamon sugar and raisins.  Then I rolled it up and put it into the loaf pan.  I also sprinkled the top of the loaf with more cinnamon sugar before putting it in the oven.  The baking time of an hour seemed a bit long to me, and sure enough, my loaves were done sooner.  The plain loaf took 40 minutes, and the raisin one baked for 50 minutes. 

The verdict?  This is definitely excellent toast bread.  I especially enjoyed the raisin version.  Gillian was happy to help me eat it, too.  As I expected, Brianna liked the plain version better.  None of us liked it all that much for sandwiches, but that's okay.  More for toast that way. =)

Want to try this one for yourself?  You can find this recipe (and lots of others) on the James Beard Foundation's website.  

Pantry raid

One of the reasons we picked the particular floor plan for our house was the kitchen.  After living in apartments for many years, I was incredibly excited at the prospect of having more than enough kitchen cabinets and a fantastic pantry area with plenty of shelves.  When we moved into the house, I had quite a bit of kitchen gear already, but was looking forward to actually having room for more.  Well, eight years later, I've done a pretty good job of filling things up. =)  In fact, my old cookbook shelf is now home to some of my more interesting to look at stuff (madeleine pans, tart pans, etc).  And thanks to blogging--and especially being part of groups that challenge my skills and get me to bake new things)--these days my pantry is also filled to overflowing. 

Bread baking alone has dramatically increased the variety of flours and grains that I keep on hand.  All-purpose, bread, whole wheat, white whole wheat, rye, semolina, oats, cornmeal...the list goes on.  And then there are the various sugars and other sweeteners.  Don't even get me started on the chocolate!  Then there's the category that really came in handy this week--I have quite a variety of dried fruit.  I never would have guessed that I'd use it so much in baking all sorts of things, and the girls love to eat it, too.  The reason the fruit was so good to have on hand is that this week's recipe (chosen by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet) is Chockablock Cookies.  As you might guess from the name, these cookies have all sorts of great stuff mixed in.  No problem at all for someone with a well-stocked pantry. =)

I did make a few changes this week, both with the method and the ingredients.  I took the easy route in making these cookies, and did the mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.  That's my favorite method for mixing up cookies, especially drop cookies.  As any long-time reader of my blog could predict, the first thing I ditched from the recipe was the coconut.  It's not allowed in my house, except under extremely special circumstances. =)  I also decided to leave the nuts out, since I knew Brianna and Gillian would be more likely to eat the cookies without them.  I don't mind nuts in some things, but wasn't in the mood for them, either.  I decided to go for a variety of dried fruit, thanks to the abundant supply in the pantry.  I used half a cup each of chopped dried mango, dried cranberries, and chopped prunes.  Yes, prunes.  My kids love them (to the point where I really have to make sure they don't eat too many, as that would have unfortunate consequences), and thanks to Dorie, I've discovered that they're great with chocolate.  I know a lot of people substituted for the molasses, but I like it, so I kept it, using the mild stuff.  I also used all butter, rather than a mix of butter and shortening.  After mixing up the dough, I used my #40 disher to portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  I ended up with a total of 40 cookies, and baked them for 16 minutes.

The verdict?  Pretty good.  There are a few more things I'll change if I make these again, but they were good.  I like molasses, but it seemed like these needed something more.  I don't like cinnamon with chocolate, but I think I'll add some ground ginger next time, since it pairs well with the molasses.  Along those same lines, I think some chopped crystallized ginger would be a good addition, too.  B liked the cookies, but isn't a big fan of the cranberries, so I'll probably leave those out.  The mango was great, and I like it with the chocolate.  It was hard to detect the prunes, but I'd probably leave them in, especially since my kids are big fans.  All in all, a fun cookie to play around with some more.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, I highly recommend getting your own copy of the book.  For this particular recipe, you also find it over at Mary's blog.  And be sure to check out what everyone else did this week, here.  

12 Days of Cookies - Day 6 - Ginger-Orange Stars

Wow.  I've just about made it to the half-way mark.  I'm sitting here trying to decide how I feel about how it's going.  So far, I've managed to post every day.  That's a pretty good accomplishment.  But I thought I was going to be able to get and stay farther ahead, and that just hasn't happened.  Funny how that works, with a full-time job and two kids. =)  As I mentioned, I had to work yesterday, but I prepped dough to bake in the evening.  For today, I figured I'd be able to get a couple new cookies made, no problem, since I was home all day.  And maybe bake some bread and other stuff as well.  Wishful thinking on my part.  I neglected to take into account the time I was going to spend grocery shopping, for one thing.  And then there's my part-time (verging on full-time) job as referee...  *sigh*  And I've barely gotten started on the Christmas decorating.  I'm looking at a totally naked Christmas tree in my living room right now. =)  But hey, at least the girls picked up their toys and my husband vacuumed the living room so I could actually put the tree there.  And I did get a nap, which I desperately needed.

So this is going to be kind of short so I can get to bed.  For today's cookie, I made the Ginger-Orange Stars.  They're another roll-out sort of cookie.  For all of these that I've made, I've only baked a portion of the dough, so my freezer is getting quite well-stocked.  This will come in handy in a couple weeks, since I'm on vacation the week of the 21st.  I'll be able to bake fresh cookies to give away as gifts.  This one is the smallest batch that I've baked, though, since I only made a handful of cookies so I could get some pictures.

At first glance, the ingredient list is similar to that of the Spiced Roll-out Cookies that I made on Day 1.  But there are some differences.  The recipe calls for dark molasses instead of mild, which contributes a stronger flavor.  It also has only an egg yolk, rather than a whole egg.  There's plenty of ginger, and I just  got some new powdered ginger, so it's pretty strong.  And there's orange zest--I used a satsuma, since that's what I had.  I chilled the dough for about 8 hours, but it still had a little give to it when I took it out to cut off a piece to roll out.  I quickly cut out some stars, transferred them to a baking sheet, then chilled them for about 5 minutes before baking.  I baked the cookies for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.  After letting the cookies cool a bit, I decorated them with icing made from powdered sugar, a bit of water and a couple drops of orange oil.

The verdict?  Again, I'm still trying to decide.  They're more of a ginger snap--they have a crisp texture.  The molasses flavor is quite strong, as is the ginger, but I can't really taste the orange in the cookies.   Even with the bit of orange in the icing, it was hard to detect.  Maybe I didn't use enough zest; I didn't measure it all that carefully.  I'm going to bake more of these so I can sample them again.  If I make these again, I think I'd like to try them with mild molasses so maybe the orange flavor will be more prominent.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, 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 for today!

Andrea of Andrea's Recipes

(honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)

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

A is for Anadama

I've gone and done it.  I joined another baking group.  It's all Cathy's fault. =)  A couple weeks ago I saw a post about a group that was planning to bake their way through Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I have the book, and I've made a few recipes from it, including a couple of Daring Bakers challenges.  But my initial thought was "I have enough to do already, and I don't know if I want to commit to another group."  So I decided not to participate.  Then Cathy sent me a message on Facebook and asked if I was going to join the group.  And Nancy emailed me, as well.  So here I am.  =)  Yes, Mom, if all my friends jump off the bridge, I'll be right behind them... =)    

The group was started by Nicole of Pinch My Salt.  You can read the whole story here.  I'm sure I'll write more about the group later, but it's already taken me three days to get this post done, and I'm not sure how much more I can do before the coughing and sneezing do me in... =)  (gotta love 2 1/2 year olds who bring home germs from daycare...)  

The premise of the group is simple.  Start at the beginning of the book, and bake each recipe in order.  So we start with A, and Anadama Bread.  It's a sandwich loaf sort of bread, made with cornmeal and molasses.  I didn't have coarse grind cornmeal, like polenta, so I just went with the cornmeal I had on hand.  (it's from the bulk bin at Central Market, so not sure what brand)  And I used Brer Rabbit mild flavor molasses.  For the flour I used King Arthur bread flour.

You have to start the day before, but the first day is very quick--mix some cornmeal with water, cover it and leave it overnight.  Mine sat on the counter for almost 24 hours.  For most of the time, it looked like cornmeal sitting in water.  But toward the end of the time, it started to get bubbly.  My best guess is it was from random yeast floating around in my kitchen, since I bake a lot of bread these days.  It smelled okay, so I kept going.

Next you make a sponge by mixing the cornmeal soaker with part of the flour, the yeast and more water.  That sits for an hour or so until it's bubbly.  Then you add the rest of the flour, salt, molasses and a bit of butter.  I used my stand mixer for the mixing and kneading.  I did have to add a bit more flour while it was kneading to get the tacky but not sticky dough called for in the recipe.  When the dough was done kneading, I decided that I wasn't going to manage to finish that night, so I put the dough in one of my rising buckets and tucked it in the fridge to rise overnight.

The next morning, I took the dough out and let it warm back up.  The recipe says it makes two large (24 ounce) or 3 small (16 ounce) loaves.  I only have the smaller loaf pans (8 1/2" by 4 1/2" Pyrex pans), and only two of those.  Plus, I knew that I would probably give some of the bread away.  So I shaped two 16-ounce loaves.  With the remaining dough, I made 8 2-ounce rolls and placed them in an 8-inch round cake pan.  

I didn't have any problem with the dough rising.  Once it came up to the tops of the pans, I put everything in the oven for 40 minutes (rotating after 20 minutes), at which point it registered 190 degrees F on my instant read thermometer.  I removed the bread from the pans and let it cool.  (Oh, and I had sprinkled cornmeal on top before baking.)

The verdict?  Jamie and I liked this, but Brianna wasn't a fan.  Gillian didn't seem to have a strong opinion either way.  The bread is very good toasted, and made a nice tuna sandwich. =)  I took the rolls to the daycare (easy to portion!) along with some flavored butter (it would have been honey butter, but I was out of honey, so I used golden syrup).  I figured they'd appreciate me bringing something that wasn't loaded with sugar and fat for a change... =)  

Next up is Artos - Greek Celebration Bread.  And to see how others fared with the Anadama Bread, check out Nicole's post, here.