First (Successful) Loaf!

We ran out of bread on the weekend.

The children were away at camp, so I decided to figure out how to bake my own.

I tried making a "no knead" bread from Mark Bittman--all I got as a bitter brick.

For my second attempt, I spent some time on the internet reading about yeast and so on. I found this lovely article in the Guardian and decided to try the recipe at the end.

(I didn't have a Vitamin C tablet, so I left that out.)

It makes the most delicious toast.

I made another loaf yesterday--and it was even bigger. I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up, but it is nice to know that I don't have to worry about running out of bread ever again.

Yummy Muffins

I did a google search for "light muffins." This site with this scrumptious recipe for Lemon Blueberry muffins came up.

I modified it to 1/2 whole wheat flour = 1/2 white flour (as I always do) and added probably 3/4 cup of frozen "Feildberries." (blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and yes, blueberries).



Heaven.

(PS. This post is really just an excuse to show you a photo from my awesome new camera!!)

Reverb#6: Make

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

Hooray for Gretchen! The last thing I made was a pound cake about an hour and a half ago. It is for a special dinner I'm making for my Mom tomorrow. Shhh, don't tell, but we're going to have a "simple and easy" Trifle with our Roast Beef. (The Trifle was supposed to be made with pre-made Sara Lee pound cakes, but I checked two grocers here and neither carried them (or, indeed, anything remotely plain like a pound cake.) Nothing for it but to make my own. I had planned on doing that with my daughter as part of her "baking class" but she was at a Girl Guides Pool Party tonight.

I followed this ratio recipe. I loved the simplicity of it. And yes, I weighed out the butter, sugar, and flour--just to be in the proper spirit of the thing.

Is there something I want to make?

Absolutely.

How about Days 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of my December Daily?

(Yikes, typing it all out like that is awful. I hadn't realised I was that far behind! I've gotten very discouraged with my current camera though.)

I have also been working on the calendar project: and I need to get that done and put in the mail yesterday, too.

I will catch up on Sunday and Monday.

Yes. That's the plan.

Thanks Gretchen!

Baking Porn

These are the most wonderful Raspberry muffins, ever. Of course, I'm not terribly experienced in the ways of raspberry muffins, but when I was forced to borrow i Tablespoon of baking powder from my neighbour, I was happy to send her back two of these in return. I sent them over with Aurelia who reported back that Mrs. D said she'd never had a Raspberry muffin before. Never? She has twice as many bushes as we do: does it all become jam?

Anyway, here they are.



The recipe is from this blog. I made a few modifications, as noted.

Beat together:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt-- I didn't have any plain, so I used 7% M. F. sour cream, instead.
  
• 2-3 T. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. melted butter
• 1 t. vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix or sift together:

• 2 c. all-purpose flour --I used 1 cup all purpose and 1 cup whole wheat, as I usually do.
  
• 1 T. baking powder
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1-2 t. lemon zest
• 1 t. salt

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix until thoroughly moistened. Then fold in:

• 2 c. raspberries (frozen is fine, just don’t thaw them too much before mixing them in, or you’ll end up with bright pink muffins)

Pour into 12 large muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

This made quite a stiff batter, and required fourteen muffin cups: not twelve.

I actually used a real lemon. I thought it was time to introduce Aurelia to the concept of "zest." (I didn't know anything about it until my twenties.) And I knew she'd have fun working with the zester. She did--but she asked me, "Why is it called zest?" I had no good answer.

Raspberry-Banana Loaf



I wondered how this Raspberry Banana Bread would turn out. The reviews on the web site were mixed. First, I reduced the bananas to two. Unfortunately, mine weren't as ripe as I like them to be. The resulting dough was much too stiff to fold raspberries, so at the last minute I quickly mixed in two tablespoons of apple sauce and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. That helped immensely. I also made a sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg crust. It took only 50 minutes in the oven.

The recipe is from here. As I won't make it again and don't recommend it, I won't cut and paste. However, my son, who is an extraordinarily picky eater, pronounced it "not bad."

Nonetheless, I'm anxiously waiting for more berries to ripen so I can try a Raspberry-Orange Loaf/Muffins and the Zesty Raspberry Loaf mentioned above.

Oh dear. This diet may be well and truly lost. I just found a recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Bundt cake. And it is Aurelia's ninth birthday on Tuesday.

His Turn

The Strawberry Shortcake Cake disappeared all too quickly, even though I had to actually ask my husband if he liked it. He had the audacity to refuse my offers of a second piece after supper. And then again he refused one before bed. You know what he said? He said he didn't want to go nuts eating it as I'd spent three hours making it.

So, it was most definitely time to bake another treat. One that wouldn't take me three hours. And hey, it was the long weekend. But this time, I decided I'd put the boy through his paces as my sous-chef.

I turned to another recipe from the Pioneer Woman: Sigrid's Carrot Cake. It was interesting to compare the cream cheese icing recipes. Both contained the same amount of cream cheese, but different amounts of butter and icing sugar. I preferred this one: lots and lots of the creamy cheesy taste.

Baking with a boy is a little different than baking with a girl. The boy isn't all that interested in creaming and mixing things. But, using a knife? And a grater?

Yes. Tools.



He grated.


And grated.


He gave it his greatest effort.



It looked wonderful.


It took forever to bake though. That might have been because I was roasting a chicken on the bottom rack while this baked above. I had to keep inserting a knife into the center.

Needless to say, it fell. When I asked my Mom "how can I keep my cakes from falling?" she just shrugged.



Oops. Looks like there might be a bit of painting to do.

By the time I thought to take the picture, we'd already, ahem, had dessert. With seconds. And my Mom took the middle "fallen" bit. "More icing," she said.



It makes a great breakfast too.

Adventures in Baking

I have been reading far too much of the Pioneer Woman's website lately. So, as a "I'll make it up to you" sort of treat, I decided that Aurelia and I would make her "Strawberry Shortcake Cake" this afternoon.

Yep.

I figured it would take all afternoon--and it did.

But it almost didn't happen at all.

It started out uneventfully. I mixed the dry ingredients and showed Aurelia how to "sift" them with a fork. Next, we meticulously measured out our nine tablespoons of butter. Then, I got out the sugar and Aurelia was happily pouring it into 1/2 cup measures ("How many 1/2 cup measures do we need, sweetie?" "Three," she answers. "Yup." I reply. There. That was math for today) when she turns to me and says, "Mommy, I don't think we have enough."

"What?"

Sure enough, the last 1/2 cup measure is only 3/4s full.

"We can make do, " she says.

"Um, no, oh dear." I don't know if we can. I'm not that sort of cook. If the recipe says 1 1/2 cups, then that is what we must have and not a smidgeon less. But the grocery store on the corner shut down this winter for renovations and never re-opened--and I have no car and my bicycle seat scares the pants off me.

"We'll go over to Mrs. D and ask her if we can borrow a cup of sugar," I say. I hate to beg, but this is clearly an emergency even if of the most prosaic kind.

We stand on the doorstop, measuring cup in hand and ring the doorbell.

Mrs. D is not home.

"Well, Daddy should be home in about an hour," I say, soothingly. "We can wait until then."

Her face fell. It was terrible to see. All the joy in life was gone forever.

Then, I had a brainstorm. Without saying anything to her, (Though, truly, how could that face fall any further?) I went over to the cupboard, and lo and behold there was the sugar bowl. And praise be, it was full.

I don't like creaming together the butter and the sugar, though.
Fortunately, she does.



She's a happy girl. "Mommy, I've been creaming for eight years," she positively chirps.
Well, not quite eight years. I did wait until she was old enough to stand before I taught her how to do it.

Not ten minutes into the oven, though, and disaster strikes.
We hear a hiss.
We hear a small plop.



Oh my word. The cake pan is too small. I chose the nine inch cake pan all right--but oh dear. There was nothing I could do but watch it ooze over the side and bake uselessly at the bottom of the oven.



After that, things were fairly uneventful. Aurelia and I did the dishes in between each step as we ought. I was quite proud of that.



The pan wasn't too bad either when it came out of the oven--and it was a cinch to clean after someone ate all the caramelized cake off the bottom of the pan.



Then, it came time to make the icing.

Now, anyone who doesn't live in the States who has used recipes not written for the rest of the world has learned certain conversions. In this recipe, I made sure to convert 1/2 pound of cream cheese to grams (so I would know how much to buy) and the "sticks" of butter into cups.

But until that moment, I had not noticed that PW's recipe called for 1 1/2 lbs of icing sugar. 1 1/2 lbs? What do you mean, pounds? What, do you all have little weigh scales in your kitchens, or what? What is this with giving measurements by weight instead of by volume?

So a frantic web search ensues. It turns out, that would be about 0.6 Kilograms. But that still doesn't tell me how many cups I need! Fortunately, there's a recipe for "Basic butter icing" on the package. It calls for two cups. I figure, we'll try that and see how it goes.

It went well.



Taste Test: Ironically, it is a bit sweet. And I missed that cake on the bottom of the oven! I think a little lemon zest in the cake batter would not go amiss, next time.