A bit of flour

 

 

I think its time I learned to make frosting. I need to be able to make a chocolate one for cakes and a sugar frosting for cinnamon rolls.

 

For the chocolate frosting, I’ll be trying the recipe that goes with Peabody’s chocolate cake. I’ll also be making a recipe from Martha Stewart’s cookbook, which has a picture on page 148 that looks amazing.

 

I’m excited. It’ll be so nice to be able to make my own frosting and not have to rely on store bought any more.

 

 

As for the sugar frosting, being able to make that will mean I’ll have options and I won’t be limited to a cream cheese frosting whenever I have cinnamon rolls.

 

I’ll start by grinding some regular sugar in my blender. Once its been powdered, I’ll add a wee bit of vanilla and a couple of dribbles of milk. 

 

In the past, my failures have been due to adding too much liquid. I tried to follow the recipes but I never seemed to be able to stop myself from adding more milk. It just seemed to need it.

 

But this time, I’ll add the teeniest tiniest bit of liquid.

October 23rd, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment

 

 

Have you ever been to the King Arthur Flour website?

Oh I love them. They have a great recipe collection and a message board.

 

However, the last time I was over there I wasn’t looking up recipes or checking out the message board. I was doing some online window shopping. And I saw all sorts of must haves. Specialty flours and measuring spoons. Baking pans and pie shields. oh man.

 

Another cool item is a dvd called Blitz Puff Pastry. That one I did not even try to resist. Into my shopping cart it went. And the free shipping was nice.

 

The funny thing is I had never even heard of blitz pastry before. I had heard of puff pastry, but not the blitz part.

 

When I got the dvd I watched it twice and headed off to the kitchen to make my first batch of puff pastry. It was very easy. I used it to make a few apple turnovers and a lot of twisty cinnamon sticks.

 

I had actually never made apple turnovers before. I figured they were just apple pies with a different shape, so I simply used the filling from an old apple pie recipe I liked.

 

After making and baking one, I determined that the filling did not go well with the dough. So I combed allrecipes.com for a proper apple turnover filling.

 

I found one, scaled down the recipe and proceeded to make and bake another turnover. It was a winner. (I love reader reviews, they save me so much time and energy, not to mention resources.) I made more filling, then added three more turnovers to the platter. After that, I switched gears, time for some twisty sticks.

 

They were also easy. But half way through I nixed the ‘twisty’. Too time consuming. But I did add cinnamon sugar to both sides of the dough before baking. It made such a huge difference in taste that I couldn’t afford not to do it.

October 22nd, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment

 

 

I’m going slowly as I continue my hunt for the perfect yellow cake.

 

For now, I’m turning from cakes to cookies. Chocolate cookies to be exact. I’ve tried the world peace cookies and I love them, but only when they are very thin and soft.

 

What I would like, is a chocolate cookie that can stand beside a chocolate chip cookie and hold its own.

 

I recently tried a contender from Martha Stewart’s Cookies.

 

As I was getting the ingredients mis en place, I kept rechecking the recipe and thinking “1 ½  cups? That’s an awful lot of sugar. Am I reading that right?”  

 

The recipe also had me working with melted butter. A technique, you may recall, that I am not yet comfortable with.

 

After mixing it all up, I baked two batches and froze the third. First batch was baked for 15 minutes. Second batch, for 11.

 

The first batch came out a bit more crackled on top than I like, and it was too crunchy. That’s why the second batch had a shorter baking time.

 

The second batch were smoother on top, but they still had a bit of crunch on the outside. The inside was softer but …

 

You see, when I began this recipe, I was hoping for a soft chewy cookie, throughout and all around.

 

So at this point I have a couple of choices.

 

One, I can tweak the original and see if that helps. Maybe add more sugar, (uh, no) more vanilla, or more butter. Or maybe use butter flavored shortening instead of butter. That would probably be my best bet, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing to the shortening what I did to the butter. I’d prefer to cream it. For me, this option would mean an entire recipe rewrite and I’m not sure its worth it.

 

Or two, I can take the parts of this recipe that I like and use them to transform my chocolate chip cookies into chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

 

Not really sure what I’ll do, but I’m leaning toward the latter.

October 21st, 2008 | Category: Desserts | Leave a comment

 

 

I had a bit more success with the Martha Stewart recipe. However, I must admit to tweaking it a bit.

 

I added half a package of vanilla pudding mix. A little more sugar. More milk. And a tad bit of brown sugar, but that didn’t seem to make a difference.

 

I taste tested with each addition and found that there was only so much I could do. It got to the point where, though I was adding more sugar, I was not noticing a difference. So after getting it as good as I could, I cupcaked it, then baked it, then cooled it.

 

As it sat on my table, the most noticeable difference was the work of the baking powder. Oh how I love baking powder. Then as it found its way into my mouth, the most noticeable thing was the buttery taste.

 

        I enjoyed this recipe and I’m glad I made the changes I made but its just not what I’m looking for.

 

So, regrettfully my search is not yet over. I really didn’t expect it to be after only trying two new recipes, even if they are recipes from Julia Child and Martha Stewart. I pretty much figured it would take me longer than a few days.

 

All that said, I’m still looking for a cake with

 

1)    a nice loose crumb and

2)    lots of moisture and

3)    and… well, I’m not really sure how to describe the taste I’m after

 

 I’ll need to get a box of Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines and make some notes.

October 20th, 2008 | Category: Desserts | Leave a comment

 

 

Well I’ve made cupcakes from the yellow cake recipe in Julia Child’s book. It only had a few ingredients, but the manner in which she said to mix things was new to me.

 

First, I was to drizzle warm browned butter into the egg and sugar mixture and then to ‘fold’ until everything had been incorporated.

 

I’ve never drizzled butter before. Creamed, yes. Drizzled, no.

 

Also, I’m not much for folding. I’m more of a mixer kind of gal. That said,  I did my best. However, I must admit, there is room for improvement.

 

Second, the recipe had neither baking powder nor baking soda. The whipped eggs were to act as the leavener.

 

I was a little concerned, because while I did resist the urge to use the mixer to incorporate everything, I knew that with every turn of the spatula, I was doing more harm than good.

 

Other than that, it all went off without a hitch.

 

Then into the oven, baked for 30 minutes, out of the oven, cooled for 20 minutes.

 

 

Conclusion:

The tops were nice and crisp and they had a lovely butter fragrance. But the cupcakes were very dense. I don’t believe they rose at all. (I really will have to work on the ‘folding in’ technique.) I won’t make any further remarks on the recipe until I have. But I will try others. Martha Stewart has one that looks promising

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday is a day of rest around here, so I’ll see you Monday.

October 18th, 2008 | Category: Desserts | Leave a comment

 

 

 

As you may recall, yellow cake is not my strong point. I can make a mean chocolate cake, but my yellow cake leaves much to be desired.

 

At one time, I was quite happy with it. It had taken me so long to create a homemade cake with the proper crumb, that taste had become an afterthought.

 

That time has passed. I am no longer satisfied with only being able to make a cake that looks good. Now my cake must have a couple of other characteristics as well. It must taste great and it must be super moist.

 

So the search is on, again. I’ll pace myself this time so I don’t burn out.

 

I think I’ll start with a recipe from Julia Child’s kitchen. Of course it will have to be frosted with store bought frosting until I learn to make my own. No matter, all in good time.

October 17th, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment

 

 

When I decided to get a pasta machine, I made a list of priorities.

 

First, the machine had to be able to get the dough very thin. I had become a champ at making dumplings and I probably would have wept openly if I purchased a machine that ‘helped’ me make more.

 

Second, it would be nice if the machine could cut the dough into various widths so that I could make capellini, and vermicelli, and linguini, and fettuccini, and all the other ‘ini’s’ whose names escape me at the moment.

 

Yeah, I could cut the dough myself, but I’m certain that after 10 minutes of trying to get the angel hair just right, I’d start to lose some things. Things like my sanity and my grip on reality. Important stuff like that. So um, yeah, cutters would be nice.

 

And third, I would love it if the pasta machine could make tubular pastas like macaroni, rigatoni, and penne. I figured that was a long shot but thought I should keep it on the wish list in case it was available.

 

Well, I shopped around and found a few impressive models. However, after much debate, with myself, I determined that the price did indeed matter and that while I did deserve the mega pasta maker 3000, I really didn’t need the mega pasta maker 3000.

 

I needed the v177 al dente and I got it.

I’m glad I did.

October 16th, 2008 | Category: Tools | Leave a comment

 

And I know just the one. The first step is to get everything mis en place.

 

I’ll need :

 

1 cup milk

¼ cup water

2 teaspoons vanilla

½ cup butter

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup sugar

5 cups flour

2 teaspoons yeast

 

 

Usually I’d add everything to the bread machine in the order listed and select the dough cycle. However, that’s quite a bit of flour for my machine, so I’ll start off with 4 cups. Once that has been incorporated, I’ll add the last cup.

 

Next, the topping.

 

For that I’ll need:

 

1 cup butter

½ cup sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

 

 

I mix it all together and refrigerate until later.

 

When the dough is ready, I remove it and cut it into sections with my dough scrapper. Then I form the sections into balls, placing them on a cookie sheet as I go.

 

The next step is to decide how many to bake. A dozen sounds good. The rest of the dough will go in the freezer. Once frozen, it will get put in a Ziploc bag and then go back in the freezer.

 

After that’s done, its just a matter of putting everything together.

 

I start by lining my baking pan with parchment paper, this will make clean up very easy. Then I spoon enough of the topping into my baking pan to coat the bottom. Next I place the buns in the pan, making sure to leave enough space for them to double in size, and then I cover them.

 

When they’re ready, I bake them at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Then I turn them out onto a platter to cool; thanks to the parchment paper, the buns come out without incident.

 

 

 

Conclusion:  Success.

I was aiming for great tasting ‘now’ sticky buns. It took me about three hours to make and bake these.

And next time, I’ll use the buns in the freezer and it will only take me an hour and a half.

I’m very pleased.

October 15th, 2008 | Tags: Recipe | Category: Breakfast, General | Leave a comment

       

        While I was making the cinnamon rolls with the brioche dough, I knew I was going to have to come up with a frosting for it. But, I put it off till the very last minute. Sugar glazes have never been my forte.

        I try and fail and usually just make a quick ’sweetened cream cheese’ something and spread it on top of the cinnamon rolls.

        Sure it tastes good and it serves its purpose, but I sure would love to master the powdered sugar glaze. It has a way of making cinnamon rolls look delicious and beautiful and … well, the way they’re supposed to look.

        However, I have found that getting a lovely looking topping does not have to be terribly elusive. Take for instance the sticky bun, an excellent alternative to the cinnamon roll. 

Here are a few of its finer points:

1. it allows me to put my sugar glaze issues on the back burner
2. it uses the same dough as the cinnamon roll, but takes less time to make
3. and it looks quite irresistible when plated, if I do say so myself

 

        You know, the more I think about it, the more I remember just how incredible sticky buns really are. I think I’ll go whip some up now. 

        However, as much as I loved the brioche dough, it took an awful long time to make and I want ‘now’ sticky buns. So it looks like I’ll be using a different recipe.

October 14th, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment