A few handfulls of flour. A pour of olive oil. Some sugar. A pinch of salt. Dough.
A cut up apple. Shakes of cinnamon. Shakes of sugar. a couple of pads of butter. Filling.
Spread the dough. Pour on apples. Bake.
Recently in baking Category
one.
Easter is my favorite candy holiday of the year. I mean, Halloween is mostly just regular candy in orange wrappers. And Valentine's day is all about those disgusting Russel Stover heart boxes. But Easter brings out the good stuff. I mean, everything tastes better in bunny form (especially this ADORABLE bunny from Vosges Haut Chocolat). There are also peeps which I hate to eat but once proved would survive a year in your backpack, through a house fire, and through a couple of months in a car trunk with little to no damage). And you cannot count out Cadbury and their Creme Eggs and my personal favorite the mini egg, which is chocolate candy coating perfection.
Today I decided to try out the Great Easter Candy Baking Experiment 2009: Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies!
All I did was replace chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe with Cadbury Mini Eggs. But they are damned delicious.
two.
So I always remembered seeing this Alfred Hitchcock show when I was a kid. The episode was about a girl who had this doll that came to life. I looked it up last night and found it for free on Hulu! (I won't ruin anything else because you should go watch it because it is awesome.) Anyways, I find it quite ironic that this long lost TV show I haven't seen since I was 10 apparently began with Hitchcock talking about having a pie-eating contest.
three.
I am more than excited about Robert Irvine coming back to Dinner Impossible! Who cares that he lies on his resume, he made that show great!
four.
My reasons for saying no would be stupider than you'd think. My reasons for saying yes would be stupider than you'd think.
five.
Being woken up at 3am to your cell phone vibrating under your head can be very confusing.
I have a steadfast rule against baking from boxes. I would much rather put in a little effort and bake from scratch. Mind you, I have NONE of the qualities a baker needs. I am a complete wreck and get flour all over and don't measure properly and have no patience. But things usually turn out fine. I do have one major exception to that rule that is Jiffy muffins. Because Jiffy muffins (blueberry or corn) are both amazingly delicious. Anyways. So I wanted to bake for the Superbowl but don't have a lot of time (or money) so I decided to try out this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies from Betty Crocker via Bakerella. They looked soooo yummy. And, well, I figure if you combine two different mixes it's kind of equal to baking from scratch...right? (When I got to the store they actually had a one box mix for these exact brownies...so I get bonus points for not just buying that!)
I forgot how easy and quick and clean baking from a box is. I mean, I still screwed everything up by forgetting to soften the butter and then melting it in the microwave and then using it anyways.
I had to make them tonight because I am totally busy the rest of the weekend. Hope they taste good come Sunday! (but you have no idea how much I just wanted to take spoonfuls of it right out of the oven!)
Sometimes you spend $75 on ingredients for a cake only to taste the batter and think "huh, tastes just like the stuff from a box." And sometimes I really think people overestimate my artistic ability.
In any case, I spent the last two days baking. And my hands are currently three different colors. But I guess it came out OK.
Our American Heirloom Collection Turkey came with a couple of feathers in it. Those had to be plucked. Don't buy a turkey with feathers in it. Oh, and t's an 18-pound bird...for four people.
Tonight we made the buttermilk brine and set the turkey to soak overnight...
And I baked pumpkin spice cookies...but my family has already eaten almost all of them :-(
Val's Special Pink Piggy Brownies
Ingredients:
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
6 slice of maple bacon, cooked crisp and crumpled into small pieces
Frosting (see recipe below)
Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish, preferably glass.
In a saucepan over low heat, combine the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Heat, stirring often, until melted, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and salt. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until well blended. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir until just blended. Stir in the chips and bacon.
Pour the batter into the prepared dish and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out almost completely clean, about 30 minutes (longer if using a metal pan). Do not overbake. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Frost and cut into squares.
Pink Piggy Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. cream cheese, at room temperature
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 drops pink food coloring
Directions:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the butter and continue to beat for 2 to 3 minutes more. Add the confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time and beat until smooth and no lumps of sugar are visible. Add the vanilla and food coloring and beat until combined.
I still can't tell if this is delicious or disgusting. The frosting was kind of melty though and that made it really messy. It was definitely one of those things where you don't really realize that there is bacon in it until you pick something out of your teeth later and think, hmmm...where'd that come from?
1. i am wasting a whole netflix order for a 10 minute dvd
2. Wait wait wait wait wait....there is olympic WALKING?
p.s. I am SO changing my name spelling.
3. This site makes me laugh entirely too much.
4. Lord help me...I bought my negative six-month old niecephew a toy (s)he can't play with until (s)he's twelve months...but how can you pass it up when you see a CHATTER TELEPHONE!!!
5. I have gotten damn good at packing.
6. After seeing this for days on Serious Eats and being bored tonight, I decided I needed to make some Butterscotch pudding. I kind of fucked up the caramel...twice...in making it, but it turned out pretty tasty!
p.s. I really fucked up the caramel three times but the third time not quite as much.
1. Cake
Unlike a certain Mr. Tyler Florence on a certain episode of Iron Chef America, MY Buche de Noel turned out swimmingly. My buche (a traditional French "yule log" cake) actually turned out really well and, I say, redeemed me from last week's baking disaster. I slaved away on this puppy (please note, the cake contains no fluffy animals) all day, and really was afraid that it would completely fall apart. I also had no faith in the meringue mushrooms but the way they came together was uberawesome. I am very proud of my yule log. Check it out:
2. Presents
Between one tissue paper, two wrapping papers, two bows, four tags, four gift bags, and five ribbons, I managed to not wrap any of my gifts exactly the same!
presents for friends
presents for family
1. My gingerbread house is still in one piece! I decided against decorating though. Why decorate a crappy house with candy when you can just eat the candy?
2. Over the last 2 weeks I have fallen asleep almost every night with the tv and lights on at a pretty early hour.
3. Work holiday parties are always fun. Free wine and food (who can resist eggnog cheesecake bites on a stick), gossiping with coworkers, finding out who else is obsessed with the Hills, finding out who's going to get the drunkest...
4. Oh. My. God.
I think I am in contention for the worst gingerbread house ever made.
See, I lack the two qualities necessary to succeed in the gingerbread world: patience and precision. My dough was too crumbly. I didn't bother to try to make even, straight pieces. I didn't bother trying to make a slanted roof. I burnt the gingerbread. The icing was too runny.
The melted Jolly Rancher windows came out surprisingly nicely.
Trying to put it together I just kind of held the pieces in place and dumped as much frosting as possible over it in hopes that something would stick.
I just spent my entire day on this damn thing because the weather is too crappy to go anywhere and someone cancelled the ski trip I was supposed to be on right now.
If it survives until tomorrow I might try to decorate. Might.
Stay tuned for gingerbread watch 2007...
