Behind the Curtain

From scratch baking project #2

My friend Nikki came to visit from Atlanta a few weeks ago and while she was here I took advantage of having an extra pair of arms around and made oatmeal bread. Her arms were quite necessary as kneading can get quite tiring and becomes much fun with someone else around. I don't have a bread stone or a bread machine and I ended up finding it quite difficult to locate a simple stick-in-the-oven recipe. Thankfully I eventually did and boy, did it come out freaking delicious. We kind of messed-up with letting it rise before baking it, but it still turned out grand. Note to anyone who wants to bake bread themselves, keep the dough warm during the yeast rising process. Due to winter weather, we ended up having to place it on top of the oven while it was pre-heating in order to keep the yeast all happy and uppity. For those not keen on oatmeal bread, I also found this other bread recipe that looks tasty. I may have to try that one next.

Butter Cookies

After looking at the final cost of my weekly grocery bill, I decided to start making certain things on my own. First on the list...cookies! This is my first attempt at making butter cookies and woowee are they yummy. I used a recipe from Epicurious, but here it is for your baking pleasure.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1  cup sugar
1  large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Garnish:  coarse or sanding sugar*; or melted chocolate (see cooks' note, below)    

Preparation
1) Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 6 with a handheld.

2) Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Form dough into a 12-inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough in plastic wrap. Chill dough on a baking sheet until firm, at least 4 hours. (To roll cookies into balls, see link to Epicurious recipe.)

3) Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Cut enough 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick slices from log with a heavy knife to fill 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging slices about 1 inch apart (chill remainder of log, wrapped in plastic wrap). If garnishing with coarse sugar, sprinkle slices with it.

4) Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes total. Cool on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies with remaining dough on cooled baking sheets.

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There are some variations you can do on this recipe: Almond Spice cookies and Lemon cookies. Next on the baking list, bread!

Chocolate Covered Thesis

I've been taking the first days of the year in relaxation, baking, knitting and reading. I'm hoping to store up this calm feeling so as to have extra for when classes start again. I'm not sure if it really works that way, but there is no harm in trying. I'm leaving to Savannah today to begin my last quarter of coursework. Its exciting and scary all at the same time. Finishing my courses means I'm closer to completing my masters, but it also signals the beginning of many qualifying exams I need to pass within my department as well as the commencement of my thesis. I've already started putting together my committee and hope to have them solidified by the end of this month.

I'm not one to have new year resolutions, but I do set goals for myself. Most of the ones I have are extensions of life changes I have been attempting since a few months ago, but I would like to add some big, pie-in-the-sky goals to my list. For those who would like to do the same, but are not sure how to, check out Gala's post on how to set amazing goals.

(Photo is of Orange Chocolate Cupcakes I made from the recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.)

Pretty Lunch

I love this Flickr group Brought My Lunch, from Jeffrey Yamaguchi (author of the awesome 52 Projects).

His words about the group:
"This is a photo group to showcase the lunch you brought to work. The goal is to create an incentive to 1) bring lunch to work (instead of buying expensive, less healthy meals around the office) and 2) to bring better lunches to work, lunches that are worthy of not just eating, but photographing. It's also nice to just break out the camera and use some company time to take photos and connect with a photo community."

I don't technically go to "work," but it doesn't mean I'm not tempted with buying my lunch rather than making it myself. Hope you enjoy!

The pumpkin of my eye

I made another batch of cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. This time I experimented with the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip recipe and topped it with cinnamon glaze. They are quite delicious and have been nice during this Fall-like weather.

A few weeks ago I also made the Cookies & Cream cupcakes, which had thick crushed Oreo topping. I made two dozen and I was amazed at how quickly they were eaten up. Surprised, in fact, which is why I wasn't able to get a photo of them. I'll have to make them again, because they were nice looking (and tasting).

Orange You Glad I Baked?

Terrible joke for a title aside, last night I whipped up some Orange Chocolate cupcakes, and they were damn delicious. My cupcakes testers (also know as friends & roommates) agreed that they were much more scrumptious than the Currant Cupcakes I made a while back.

For those interested in making these, the recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and I topped it with their orange buttercream frosting. I only got 7 cupcakes out of the mix though, so next time I'll have to double it and maybe even add some orange liquor.

Cracking the Lavender Code

I didn't finish any knitting projects while I was traveling. In fact, I now have two "in process" projects, which just annoys me. My sewing machine has not been touched all summer, which also bugs me, but I just haven't felt inspired to craft. No, baking and cooking has been invading my mind more than knitting and sewing.

Right now I am in the process of trying to crack the recipe for Milk & Honey's lavender cookies. Rather than the plain ol'cookie, Milk & Honey sandwiches two lavender cookies with a dollop of some sort of lemon cream. I found a recipe for the lavender cookie part, but am still searching for something that will mimic the thick filing type consistency of the original. I may try experimenting with thickening the lemon curd in this recipe.

Until then, maybe I'll just try making this recipe of root beer float cupcakes. Oh, how yummy sounding!

Ode to a Cupcake

After seeing many yummy looking cupcakes made from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I finally picked myself a copy. Although I am not a vegan, I am quite pleased with this book. May be the best baking book purchase I've made in a long while.

I still had a lot of currants left, so I decided to alter a couple of the recipes to make a cupcake that would use up the rest of my currants. The cupcake recipe is a variation on the Chai Latte Cupcake on page 109 (I excluded all the spices, as they suggested when using Earl Grey and added the currants) while the icing recipe is a variation on the Rosewater Glaze on page 118. They turned out quite yummy, but not too pretty to look at. (I didn't fill the cups up enough, so they didn't pop-out as I hoped.) I'll have to work on my presentation! And please excuse the dark picture – just as I finished the rain came pouring down and hid away the happy ol' sun. Here are the recipes of my alterations:

Earl Grey Currant Cupcake with Raspberry Glaze (Vegan)
Cupcake Part
1 cup vanilla soy milk
4 bags or two tablespoons Earl Grey tea
1/4 canola oil
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 all-purpose flour*
3/4 whole wheat pastry flour*
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
* Or omit whole wheat pastry flour and use only all-purpose flour, 1 1/3 cups

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. Heat soy milk in a small saucepan over medium heat till almost boiling. Add tea bags, cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. When ready dunk teabags a ew times in soy milk and squeeze gently to extract any soy milk before removing. Discard tea bags. Measure the soy milk and tea mix and add more soy milk if it is less than 1 cup.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, orange zest and tea mixture until all yogurt  lumps disappear. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt into wet ingredients. Fold in currants and keep mixing until large lumps disappear; some small lumps are OK. Fill tins full and bake about 20 to 22 minutes until a sharp knife inserted comes out clean.
4. Makes sure cupcakes are completely cool before adding topping or it will melt.

Raspberry Glaze
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon margarine
2 to 3 teaspoons soy milk
1/2 teaspoon raspberry lemonade juice (or any other juice that strikes your fancy)
1 teaspoon crushed currants

With a fork, cream together half of the confectioners' sugar and margarine until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add in soy milk, crushed currants and juice, and beat in remaining confectioners' sugar. Mixture should have consistency of thick batter with a satiny sheen. Adjust consistency if needed by beating small amounts of confectioners sugar or carefully dribbling soy milk.

Currants, How I Love Thee

The currants at the local farmer's market have been taunting me for some time now. Yesterday, I finally bought two little pints of them, one of white currants and one of red currants, with the goal to find a very yummy recipe to do them justice. I couldn't find one that pleased me, so I decided to make a variation of my own using this recipe as a base. This is what I ended up with:

Currant Mini Tea Cakes
Makes about 18 mini-cakes
INGREDIENTS
    * 1/4 cup butter, softened
    * 1 cup sugar
    * 2 eggs
    * 1 1/2 cups milk
    * 1 teaspoon orange juice
    * 1 cup all-purpose flour
    * 1 cup whole wheat flour
    * 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    * 1 cup fresh currants

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk and orange juice. Combine flours and baking powder; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in currants.

2. Transfer to greased muffin pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove and place fresh currants on top of each muffin for decoration. Place in oven for 15 more minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Use knife to remove sides from pan and a spoon to un-stick bottom. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.

The mini-cakes turned out pretty darn delicious (as approved by my boyfriend and his roommate). I was surprise just how flavorful they were, of which I think is entirely due to that fact that I used fresh currants rather than dried ones (as the base recipe calls for). The fresh currants made the inside very moist and wonderful. 

I made two batches: one normal style and one with vanilla added in. The vanilla didn't vastly improve the flavor, but if you are a fan of vanilla, go ahead and throw it in there.

Bleeding Heart Bakery

Yesterday it was raining something crazy in Chicago. I got stuck in a good downpour while running errands and decided to duck into a bakery for shelter. It ended up being Bleeding Heart Bakery, which I have been meaning to check out since I got back in town. It is the first USDA certified organic bakery in the US and has labeled itself as punk rock pastry.  (Apparently it is extremely hard to get the 100% organic seal - your foods can't even be delivered on a truck that has non-organic food on it.)

I wanted to get a good sampling of what they offer, so I ordered a bunch of things to take home and have over the next few days. So far I made it through the raspberry scone and this raspberry and pecan crumble thing, shown in the picture above. They were both freakin' delicious. Like, seriously some of the best baked goods I've ever had. Sweet sassy, I can't wait to eat the other stuff I bought. If you are in Chicago, I highly recommend you stopping by Bleeding Heart (on the corner of Chicago & Damen) and get yourself a little slice of organic pastry heaven.