Evolution

I was really excited to see this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick!  Patricia of Life with a Whisk chose one of my favorite recipes in the book--Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones.  This recipe is a good example of why I love to bake and why I love Dorie's books.  One of the best things about her books is that she gives so much more than just recipes.  I love reading all of the stories and tips that she puts in the headnotes.  And almost every recipe includes one or more variations to "play around" with.  I love playing around. =)

The first time I made this recipe was not long after I got my copy of Baking From My Home to Yours and joined the group.  While unofficial, it appears to have been the sixth recipe I made from the book.  My first attempt is shown here, from way back in March 2008.  That was the first time, but there have been many more since.  My girls especially like it when I make them with chocolate chips.  My favorite variation has probably been the cinnamon chip ones.  Besides the chips, I also used white whole wheat flour in place of some of the all-purpose.  There have been times when I didn't have buttermilk, so I substituted yogurt.  And while the version in the book is plain, we almost always top our scones with something, either coarse sugar or most often glaze.  

The glaze came in handy when I made the scones this morning.  I decided that I was going to make them again just for this post, and was going to go back to the original recipe.  It wasn't until I was looking at some of the comments on the Leave Your Links page that I realized that I'd never tried the Playing Around idea for this recipe.  My girls love "dried plums" so that sounded like a great addition.  But I was so busy snipping up prunes with my kitchen shears and supervising Gillian as she mixed the dry ingredients that I totally forgot to add the nutmeg!  Glaze to the rescue--I grated the nutmeg into some powdered sugar, added a bit of vanilla, and added enough milk for a thick glaze.  

One more thing--besides the variations in ingredients, I found it interesting that I've changed one other thing over time as I've played with this recipe.  In the first post mentioned above, I used volume measurements for the ingredients, same as in the book.  By the second post, I'd switched to using weights, in ounces.  Here's the latest incarnation of the ingredient list...

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones

1 large egg

115 grams cold buttermilk

225 grams all-purpose flour

135 grams rolled oats

70 grams vanilla sugar (or just regular)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (unless you forget)

140 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

dried plums (I forgot to weigh them)

Oh, and the verdict?  I really enjoyed these with the prunes.  Gillian did as well, after she got over her disappointment at the lack of chocolate chips. =)  They were well-received at work, too.  I'm sure I'll make these many more times, and who knows what other variations we'll try.

If you'd like to make these for yourself, you can find the recipe on Patricia's blog.  And to see what everyone else did with these scones, check out the Links!

Baking for the enemy

One of the side effects of doing lots of baking is that I'm often looking for others to take baked goods off my hands.  It was pretty easy a few years back when I worked with a larger staff--there were always plenty of people willing to eat sweets, even if a few were avoiding them.  With our current staff of 5 or 6, I worry sometimes about bringing things too often.  So I also take baked goods to the day care teachers, and send them to school with Brianna for her teachers.  I try to find other outlets as well, but they don't come up very often.  

Last week I finally had a chance to catch up on one of the recent TWD recipes that I missed--Brown Sugar Bundt Cake, picked by Peggy.  I thought about halving the recipe, but decided to go ahead and make the whole thing, using pecans and cinnamon chips.  I was going to take some to work and to the daycare.  After sampling some cake, though, I only took it to work, so I could keep more at home for us. =)  I haven't seen something disappear that fast in a while--it was a big hit with my coworkers.  The part I kept at home disappeared pretty quickly too, and I failed to take any pictures!  So of course, I had to make it again.  

As it turned out, last week I spent a couple days helping out at another branch, so I decided to take some of the second cake to them.  At one point, someone called from my branch to ask me a question.  The person who answered the phone informed my coworker that they were planning to keep me at their branch so I could continue to bake for them.  When I got on the phone, I was informed that it was not acceptable for me to be supplying baked goods to our "competition."  I had no idea that people were so possessive about cake. =)

The verdict?  My coworkers aren't the only ones who loved this cake--I ate more than my fair share of it.  Part of me wants to try some other variations, while the rest of me just wants to make another one that's the same. =)  I love the whole brown sugar/pecan/cinnamon combination.  This is definitely one of those cakes that just keeps getting better, too.  Not that it survived that long either time so far.  The first time I made it, I asked Gillian if we should add a glaze or just go with it as it was.  Surprisingly, she said we should skip the glaze, and she was right.  The cake is just right without it.  

I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but didn't change that much.  As I mentioned, I used pecans for the nuts.  I skipped the almond extract.  Instead of the fruit, I added about 140g of cinnamon chips.  My cake only took 50 minutes to bake.  If you'd like to give this one a try, head over to Peggy's blog for the original recipe.  To see what other fun variations people came up with, check out the Links.

That's how the biscuit crumbles

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is from Lindsay of A Little Something...Sweet!  She picked Maple Cornmeal Biscuits for us to make.  This was a great recipe for me to get back on track with TWD--quick to mix up, and quick to bake.  Gillian was quite happy to help me with the mixing, too. =)

The verdict?  Sadly, I didn't like these as much as I hoped to.  I like cornmeal and maple syrup, but unfortunately, my biscuits turned out kind of dry and crumbly.  I'm not sure why.  The only change I made was to use soured milk (milk plus vinegar) in place of the buttermilk, because I didn't have any. (Oops, never mind. That was another recipe I made over the weekend. These used regular milk.)  Maybe I had too much cornmeal.  Maybe I baked them too long (though it was only 14 minutes).  The flavor was good, so I might play around with the recipe next time to get a better result.  I'm thinking of adding an egg to get a more scone-like texture.

If you'd like to give these a try for yourself, Lindsay has the recipe.  And to see how everyone else fared this week, check out the Links.  

MIA

(not pictured - Z-pack and Mucinex)

Just a quick post so all my fellow TWD bakers won't think I've totally disappeared.  This is how I spent my day, at least the part of it that I wasn't at the doctor's office or asleep on the couch.  I've had the same annoying cold for over two weeks.  Since it started getting worse again instead of better, I figured I'd better actually go see someone about it.  (Thanks to Nancy and Abby for helping convince me via Twitter this morning.)  You know it's gotten bad when I voluntarily take time off work--I'm staying home tomorrow, too.  =)

I will catch up soon on the recent recipes that I missed, since I've been reading lots of rave reviews of them.  In the meantime, it's back to the couch for me.

Let's do the twist

I hope all you moms out there had a great Mother's Day.  Amazingly, I got to stay in bed all the way to 7:30am!  It's nice that my girls are now old enough to fend for themselves for a little while in the morning.  They were camped out in Brianna's room, waiting for me to get up.  Unlike last year, they apparently hadn't come up with any sort of plan to make me breakfast.  That's just as well, since last year they neglected to let my husband Jamie in on the plan until the morning of Mother's Day.  =)  Being of sound mind (sometimes, anyway), I had already come up with my own plan anyway, and done most of the work the night before.

A few weeks ago I was at the library with the girls, and decided to wander through the cookbook section.  I'm not as fortunate as my friend Tracey; my library doesn't have nearly as many as hers does, especially newer ones.  But I stumbled across an older book (2008, so not -that- old) that caught my eye.  It was The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread.  I had heard of it because Tracey posted a recipe from it a little while back.  Joanne Chang also mentions Amy's Bread in her book Flour, which is one of my current favorite books.  It turns out that the books are similar--home recipes for bakery favorites.  I like the writing style of both, which is what usually leads me to purchase a cookbook.

Once I had the book at home, I read through the whole thing.  Am I the only one who likes to read cookbooks for fun?  I think the people at work have finally gotten used to me doing it on my lunch breaks. =)  I made mental notes of recipes that I wanted to try sooner rather than later, and the one at the top of my list was the Cinnamon Raisin Twists.  They're made from a sweetened dough that contains cinnamon and raisins.  The dough is layered with some butter and brown sugar and then cut into strips that are twisted before baking.  The recipe can be completed in one day, but I broke it up into two.  I completed the recipe up through shaping the twists, but rather than doing the final rise, I stuck the pan in the fridge for the night.  (The recipe calls for two sheet pans for baking the twists, but I crammed them onto one pan since I couldn't fit two in the fridge.)  On Sunday morning, I took the pan out and put it into my slightly warmed oven so that the final proof wouldn't take too long (it ended up being about an hour since I started with cold dough).  Once the twists were puffy, I took them out, preheated the oven, and baked them for about 25 minutes.  

The verdict?  These are fantastic!  Sort of cinnamon roll meets raisin bread.  The only problem I had was that they were too big for any of the small plates we have. =)  Everyone here loved them.  I ended up taking about half of the pan to work today and they were well-received there as well.

I'm definitely going to make these again.  The book also has recipes for some savory versions.  I have plenty of cookbooks already, but now this one is going to the top of my wish list.  Unfortunately, my library doesn't have the first Amy's Bread book; I'll have to see if I can find a copy at one of our local bookstores so I can see if I need that one, too.  

For lots of other yummy yeasted treats, be sure to check out Yeastspotting and the BYOB bakers.  

What's buggin' you?

I was having a rough day when I got to work on Friday.  I was trying to leave it at home, but as soon as someone asked me if I was okay, I realized that maybe that was easier said than done.  I was missing my mom, a lot.  Long-time readers of my blog may recall that my mom died three years ago, in March.  While the date on the calendar has some significance, what really sticks with me is the fact that it was on Good Friday.  And of course, that date changes from year to year.  Even though I knew it was coming, it still surprised me a bit how emotional I was feeling.  (It shouldn't have, when I think about how stressful this year has been so far.)

I always think about Mom on the night before Easter as I'm filling baskets for the girls.  She was the one who taught me to count everything that I put into the baskets, down to the last jelly bean.  Why, you ask?  Because siblings are competitive, and will immediately notice any differences in who got what.  In fact, one of the first things Gillian did Sunday morning was pull everything out of her basket and count it.  I don't think she actually compared it to what Brianna had (she was just proud of her counting skills), but you can bet B would have said something if she thought G had more of anything. =)

Just in case the candy wasn't enough sugar for the day, I wanted to make something yummy for dessert on Easter.  I've been searching for a good vanilla pound cake since I got my latest batch of vanilla beans.  I've made several recipes and always end up with the same thing--cakes with good flavor but a dry mouthfeel.  To find new recipes to try, I've been using a nifty new tool that I discovered thanks to Jessica of cookbookhabit.  It's called Eat Your Books, and basically provides you with a comprehensive index for the cookbooks already on your shelves.  It doesn't give you the recipes, just helps you figure out where to look.  When I searched for "vanilla pound cake" I got 23 results from my 98 cookbooks.  A few were obviously recipes that utilize pound cake as an ingredient, and some were for other flavor variations that included vanilla in the ingredient list.  But I got about a dozen recipes for what I was really looking for, a basic vanilla pound cake.  I've already tried a few of them that weren't quite what I was after, and this time decided to check out the recipe in Joanne Chang's Flour.  

What appealed to me about this particular recipe was that it uses melted butter folded in at the end, rather than the creaming method.  I've made a similar recipe in the past, the Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes from  Baking From My Home to Yours.  Both recipes use the same mixing method.  First, you whip together sugar and eggs.  Even though Chang's recipe says to mix the vanilla bean seeds with the melted butter, I took a page from Dorie's book and rubbed them into the sugar before I started mixing.  Once the egg mixture is really light, you gently fold in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) and then fold in a mixture of melted butter and some heavy cream.  

Part of why I wanted to make a dense cake like pound cake is that I thought it would be perfect in my new pan--I found this adorable bug pan when I was at Costco on Saturday.  It only holds a total of 3 cups, so I put the rest of the batter in one of my mini (2-cup) loaf pans.  The bugs baked for 20 minutes, while the loaf took 30.  (One thing to note--all of my pans were filled a bit too much, so next time I'll probably fill the bugs a bit less & put the extra batter in a 3-cup pan.)

The verdict?  This is an excellent pound cake recipe.  The finished cakes had a nice tight crumb and a great texture--not too dry.  I'm already thinking of different ways to change up the flavor of the batter and other pans to bake it in (I have a couple of mini bundts as well as my madeleine pans--which I think would be good since the cakes had humps on the backs).  The shapes were a big hit with the girls--they had fun debating which one to eat first.  They split the butterfly and the ladybug--both shapes that were symmetrical, so that there wouldn't be fights over who got the bigger piece. =) (another thing I learned from my mom)

I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of Flour.  I've really enjoyed everything I've made from it so far.  If you want to try this particular recipe, you can find it here on Rose Levy Beranbaum's blog.  The vanilla bean variation is at the end of the recipe.  

If you can't stand the heat...

..you definitely don't want to come to Texas in April.  Two days running now, we've had highs in the mid-90s.  Blech.  It's way too early for this.  I know that everything is air-conditioned here, but to be honest, I still don't want to bake when it's 91º at 7pm.  Especially after having to spend time outside watering the yard.  Have I mentioned that I hate anything to do with yard work?  I also hate getting letters from the home owners' association because the lawn is brown.  Do they know that we're in a drought?  Do they know that we should be under watering restrictions, assuming we aren't already & I just haven't heard about it?  Grrr.

Okay, rant off.  You can't tell it's sore subject, can you? =)  So on to a much more pleasant topic, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.  Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake picked A Tourtely Apple Tart for us to make this week.  As you've probably noticed, I didn't exactly make a tart.  I meant to make this recipe over the weekend with Nancy and Tracey, but ran out of time and energy.  By the time Monday night rolled around, so had the aforementioned 90-degree temperatures, and there was no way I was going to have my oven on for a couple hours.  So, much as I like Dorie's tart crust, the tart part went out the window.  

But by this morning, I did have the time and energy to at least tackle the filling.  It's a lot like making applesauce.  Chunks of apple, some brown sugar, a bit of nutmeg, and a couple tablespoons of liquid get cooked together until the apples are almost soft enough to break down when pressed with a spoon.  For my liquid, I got to use something from my most recent King Arthur order, Boiled Cider.  I also added a big pinch of salt.  I admit, I took my apples almost to the point of applesauce, and mashed them up some.   After the apples are cooked (and the liquid is allowed to reduce), you mix in some browned butter and vanilla, and some raisins (and nuts, if you're into that, which I'm not).  Yes, my kitchen smelled amazing this morning.  

The verdict?  Well, I love the filling, so now I really need to make the whole tart. =)  I'll probably do it this fall, if not before, when I can try it with some of my favorite apples (not that I dislike the Macs I used today).  It took me a few minutes to realize that what the filling reminds me of is baked apples, the way we made them when I was a kid.  After coring the apples, we'd fill them with a mixture of raisins, brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon, held together with some butter.  This filling tastes kind of like that, though better because of the browned butter.  Mmm.  I'll probably make just the filling again soon, and pair it with some ice cream as my friend Kayte suggested.  

If you'd like to try the tart for yourself, you can find the recipe on Jeanette's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of this recipe, check out this week's Links.