December 18, 2009

You know what freaks me out? Don't laugh…but, the baking isle at the grocery store really, really freaks me out.

I know that sounds weird, especially on the ‘tail end' of BigSis talking about her huge Bake Sale success! Once again, proving the point that we are as different as we are alike.

BigSis probably gets excited when she shops for baking supplies.

Me; I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack.

AND, I'M NOT KIDDING!

I'm not even exaggerating.

I shouldn't even admit to this.

I'm completely intimidated.

I don't know where anything is.

I'm nervous as a cat.

I feel like a total moron!

Every. Single. Time.

Yesterday, on my list of things to do was to buy the ingredients for the goodies I was going to make for our neighbors. I was going to make the Peppermint Bark recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and the Almond Toffee recipe from Anna of Cookie Madness.

Both of these recipes did NOT require very many ingredients. You'd think it would be simple. I usually have better results with candy making versus baking, so I was feeling pretty good about my choices until I read over the recipes a little more closely. I got a little nervous when I realized that I needed to temper the chocolate for the Peppermint bark, so I had to email BigSis a question about that. Then, I read where Anna even admitted that she sometimes screws up her toffee after having made it for over 20 years! Yikes! I'm thinking I'm in over my head, again.

Yet, I was determined to make these two candies so I made a special trip to the store and I was in a hurry, as usual. I quickly picked up the candy canes and the parchment paper, which was luckily on an end cap, then I head down the baking isle. First of all, there are way too many different types of chocolate to choose from and they're all expensive! I needed 14 ounces for the bark so I did my best to pick the right bittersweet chocolate and grabbed four of the 4 ounce bars.  Last on my list for the bark was the white chocolate. Where the heck is the white chocolate? Why isn't it right with the regular chocolate? Did regular grocery stores not carry it? Did I need to make another trip to find Michaels for the special kind of chocolate that melts? I dunno.

Now, I'm irritated. I started to call BigSis, like I do 90% of the time I find myself on the baking isle, but I realized she was still at work and it would be really dumb to bug her with such a stupid question. So, I put the candy canes and the bittersweet chocolate back and scratched the bark off my list! I already had pecans at home, so I grabbed baking soda and two bars of semi-sweet chocolate for the toffee and checked out.

So, when I finally got home from the store, I started some chicken and veggies for homemade soup and got out some garlic, rosemary, olive oil, and Camembert cheese to make an an appetizer version of a Jamie Oliver recipe I found in Food Network Magazine.

Ahhh…back in my comfort zone.

The Baked Camembert turned out so good that SirHoney and I single handily devoured the entire thing before dinner! Hopefully I got a few decent photos that I can share with you later!

I have to make the toffee today when I'm not rushed and don't have two hungry guys hovering over me acting like they haven't eaten in weeks.

If you don't see a post about the toffee in the next few days, you'll know that I screwed it up and my neighbors will probably be getting fudge for Christmas. (I don't think I've ever messed that up.) But, then again, that would require another trip to the baking isle and I don't think I'm up for that!

~LilSis

December 17, 2009

We still have donations coming in following Monday's SPCA of Texas Bake Sale, so I'm not telling you yet how much money we were blessed to collect!  Maybe by the weekend I can let the cat out of the bag.  Not that I would ever put a cat in a bag; that wouldn't be very humane.  Unless I had to do that to get the cat out of a dangerous situation and couldn't do it any other way.  ^..^  Do I have a touch of rambling Christmas delirium?  Think so.

I also have some recipes that you have to make if you're trying to figure out what to bake for Christmas!  These were my favorite things to make for the bake sale, but it occurred to me that they are also awesome things to make for Christmas gifts.  I'm not burned out on baking yet – weird, I know – so I may make more of these before we hit the new year since we had nothing left after Monday's sale!  I would feel comfortable mailing all of these except for the Snowballs.  They're a little fragile so keep them at home.

• Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies: plain, with mint Oreos, or with chocolate chips and walnuts.  I know I talk about these ALL of the time, but they're my favorite brownies and I love them.  We sell the HECK out of them at bake sales.  Not because of my baking prowess, but because it's an awesome recipe!

• Vegan Pumpkin Bread: no one believes there are no eggs or dairy in this bread.  It's moist and flavorful, and absolutely one of my favorites.  I have to add walnuts.  Have to.

• Fudge: chocolate, cinnamon and peanut butter.  Just use the regular fudge recipe on the marshmallow cream jar, and substitute cinnamon chips and peanut butter chips for the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I like to pour the fudge into little silicone molds with Christmas shapes.  When they're cool and set, you can easily unmold them, sprinkle with sparkling sugar (brown on gingerbread boys, green on Christmas trees, and red on stockings).  For a final touch, add some royal icing accents here and there.  For the sale, I packaged them two different shapes to a treat bag: one chocolate and one cinnamon or PB.

• Pecan Pie Bars with Chocolate and Bourbon from the Pastry Queen: these got a little oozy, but they were fudgey and boozy, so who the heck cared?  Nobody!  I love the original flavor of these, and was shocked that I loved this over-the-top variation even more.  Wicked!

• Chocolate Mint Snowballs: based on RecipeGirl's Snowballs. I used mint chips and pecans instead of peanut butter chips and peanuts.  Roll these in green sugar and powdered sugar, and pack in a cute treat bag with a ribbon, or a box with a window so you can peek at them.

Happy baking, little kitchen elves!

~BigSis

December 10, 2009

I've been talking about it for a while, but in case you haven't heard, our Bake Sale benefiting the SPCA of Texas is coming up on Monday.  This Monday! Great googly moogly!  So much to do in so little remaining time!

We want this to be the best sale we can possibly put together for the SPCA, and we're pretty much driving ourselves wacka-doodle-doo over it.  That's what happens when a few OCD perfectionists come together on a project they're passionate about I guess, but we've created a really stressful week for ourselves.

Hissy-Fit Photo by Vaughan

I freaked out big-time yesterday and had a little hissy fit about some things that weren't going the way I wanted them to.  By the end of a really long frustrating day, I was about to cry and decided to just go to bed and start fresh this morning.

I was thinking that bunches of us are hissy-fitting this time of year, not just me.  I sometimes wish I could be more lackadaisical and nonchalant about things instead of giving myself an anxiety attack trying to get it all done.  The challenge I think is how to arrive at a balance; how do you be more nonchalant and less compulsive without turning into a full-blown procrastinator who doesn't get things done?   I have no idea since I'm not good at balance and moderation; I'm all or nothing about everything I do.  When it comes to the bake sale and other things I care about, it's 100%-full-blown-all-I've-got.

How do you manage to achieve this kind of balance in your life?  I really want to know.  When I start melting down like this, all I know to do is try to slow my breathing down.  It does seem to help.  Also taking a minute to focus on what's really important helps a bit too.  Am I freaking about something that even matters?  Probably not.  Am I making too much of this right now and overreacting?  Probably so.

If you have any tips on this topic, please send them on.  I betcha I'm not the only one doing the Hissy-Fit Freak right now!

~BigSis

December 2, 2009

Cherry-Pecan Meringue Bars

Gearing up for the SPCA Bake Sale, I had one more promising recipe to taste-test.  Like the Double Chocolate Peppermint Bars I tested recently, the inspiration again was Carole Walter's “Great Cookies” – a James Beard Award winner and IACP winner.

These bars took a little doing – about an hour to put together – and are a touch too fussy for the Bake Sale.  You have a brown sugar shortbread base, with a cherry filling and a meringue pecan topping.  The combination of flavors was great, especially if you're a nut lover.  All in all, pretty delicious, and lighter than a lot of the things that come out of my oven this time of year!

So, these bars gets thumbs up for flavor but don't get invited to the Bake Sale!  I'll be making Cookie Madness' White Chip Raspberry Bars for the sale again, since they were well-received last year.  You get a similar zip from the berry jam (I use my homemade cranberry jam) with a nutty complement from sliced almonds.  If you double Anna's recipe, it fits nicely in a 13 x 9 pan, and will give you 12 healthy-size bars.

If you have a little bit of time on your hands, do try these Cherry-Pecan Meringue Bars.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Cherry-Pecan Meringue Bars
(adapted from Great Cookies)

Filling:

1 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup water
1 cup cherry preserves or jam (I used homemade cranberry jam)
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of salt
2 Tblsp POM Wonderful juice (the original recipe called for Cherry Heering liqueur which is a bit pricey, and unnecessary IMHO)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 13 x 9 pan with nonstick foil.

Place the cherries and water in a small saucepan. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes or until cherries are tender and almost all of the liquid has evaporated.

Add the rest of filling ingredients. Bring to a boil. Place the mixture into a food processor and pulse 5-6 times. The mixture should still have some texture, rather than being a puree.  Chill mixture for 30 minutes or up to 1 week.

Crust:

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (I used salted)
1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1-3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Place the butter in a medium saucepan and barely melt over low heat, remove from heat and allow to finish melting. Set aside to cool to tepid, then stir in brown sugar. Blend in the flour and salt all at once.

Drop 8 spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared pan. Press dough evenly into bottom of pan. Bake at 350 for 15 to 17 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes then spread the cherry filling evenly over crust.

Meringue:

8 oz pecans (2 cups chopped)
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the pecans in a food processor and add 1 tablespoon of the sugar and pulse 3-4 times, or until finely chopped. Set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until frothy.  Add the salt.  Increase the speed to medium high and beat until firm but not dry. Add the remaining sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, taking about 1 minute.  Add the vanilla and beat 30 seconds longer to form a shiny meringue. Fold in 1 cup of the chopped pecans.

Spread the meringue evenly over the cherry mixture, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining pecans. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack. Remove from pan, using the foil to lift it out, and cut into bars.

~BigSis

November 30, 2009

You know how some people always say that this or that is a “hot mess”.  Have you ever wondered exactly what a hot mess is?  What does a hot mess look like?  Wonder no more…voila!

This, my friends, is a bonafide hot mess.  No, this is not what I was going for.  Ha!  Not even close.  I was aiming for a variation of Peabody's Hazelnut Honey Cookies.  A few of her commenters mentioned trying almond meal in place of the hazelnut flour.  I thought, well, hecky darn; I have an endless supply of dried almond meal since I've been making my own almond milk for months now.  Why don't I conduct a little experiment with the almond meal substitution, and report back on my marvelous success; much to the delight of Peabody and her readers!

Instead, I have to fess up to my failure hot mess and submit my name to the Baker's Hall of Shame.

Where did I go wrong?  I subbed agave for half of the honey but I don't think that would cause a disaster of this magnitude.  I also added a tablespoon of cocoa powder, and even added an extra half cup of almond meal since the mixture seemed loose.  Little did I know, it had only begun to be loose!

When I first looked into the oven, the cookies seemed to be spreading a tad, but on the second look…good gravy!  I had a sea of bubbling, bumpy, grainy goo.  Not what I was going for at all.  😀 Looks a bit like the surface of the moon or Mars, doesn't it?

I think the problem was with the almond meal.  I probably should have only substituted almond meal for part of the hazelnut flour.  I also might have goofed in using the almond meal in it's coarse state.  Maybe it would have behaved better if I had pulverized it.  I'd certainly like to pulverize it, now that I've wasted those tasty little cherries and other ingredients!

It was a fun little experiment, even though it flopped.  If you try something new, you have to be prepared to fail sometimes, right?  Thank you, Almond Meal Gluten Free “Cookies”.  You gave me the best laugh I've had in ages!  😀

~BigSis

November 15, 2009

Did you know that today is National Bundt Day? I probably wouldn't have known it if I hadn't been reading The Food Librarian. Thirty days ago, The Food Librarian started a project called I Like Big Bundts, a mission to make a different bundt cake every day for 30 days leading up to today. Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

I think this project got my attention because I also prefer baking a cake in a bundt pan. I don't bake a lot of cakes but for some reason I have better luck using a bundt pan versus a regular 13 x 9 pan or round pans. I like bundt pans for some of the same reasons The Food Librarian says she likes baking with a bundt pan.

There are some terrific bundt cake recipes on The Food Librarian that I will try in the future, but for today's cake, I didn't want to start from scratch. (Hopefully we don't have anyone reading this that is appalled by the use of a cake mix.)  🙂

This Eggnog Spice Bundt cake, posted recently by Evil Chef Mom, in her very clever way, really caught my eye and I knew right away that I'd be trying it soon. I don't care for frosting, so I love that this cake is just sprinkled with powdered sugar. I decided that this would be the perfect cake for me to bake today for National Bundt Day.

I've had quite a few baking fiascoes, so I always get a little nervous when I bake something. If that sounds weird, then call me weird, but it's true. Here goes!  (fingers crossed).  🙂

First, I get all my ingredients out and when I went to get my bundt pan, it was no where to be found. Missing In Action. I know I didn't loan it to anyone. WTH? What happens to a bundt pan? I have no idea where it went. Luckily, my friend, D saved the day by loaning me hers.

Next, I proceed with mixing in all the ingredients. I don't know how I managed to raise a child that doesn't like nuts, but since my son doesn't care for them, I omitted the 1 1/3 c. pecans that were called for in the original recipe. (I would have loved the pecans in this cake.) Since I omitted the pecans, I felt like adding a few little extra ingredients.

So, I added the grated carrots and zucchini and since I love cinnamon, I added a little cinnamon. Then, I found a vanilla bean in the pantry and thought that sounded good, so I scraped out the inside of a half of a vanilla bean and threw that in.

Since I added extra moisture with all the grated carrots and zucchini, I decided to cut back the yogurt to 3/4 cup instead of a cup.

So far, I think it's going pretty well. I've got it all mixed together, so I pour the batter into the sprayed bundt pan. I glance over the recipe one last time and realize that I didn't take the eggnog out of the fridge so it didn't get added in. Sheesh! (No wonder I thought the batter was a little thick. You would think that I could have glanced at the recipe before I put the batter in the pan!)

I dump everything back into my mixing bowl and add the eggnog. Of course, the batter has some of the Pam spray on it at this point, but I didn't figure it would hurt anything, so I just wiped the pan out, sprayed it again and poured in the batter. And, guess what? It turned out great! (Hallelujah!!)

The bottom line is that this cake turned out very moist and spongy and tasty and yummy and everyone loved it!

Trust me when I say that this is not something my family sees on our dinner table very often.

Eggnog Spice Bundt Cake
(adapted from Evil Chef Mom)

1 (18 1/4 ounce) box of carrot cake or spice cake mix
1 (4-serving) box instant cheesecake pudding
3/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup light eggnog
3 eggs
3/4 c. grated zucchini
1/2 c. grated carrots
1/2 vanilla bean
1/4 t. cinnamon
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a nonstick Bundt pan with cooking spray. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, yogurt, oil, eggnog, and eggs in a large bowl. Mix until creamy. Stir in grated carrots, zucchini, cinnamon, and vanilla bean. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. When cool, dust with powdered sugar.

One thing I really love about a bundt cake is that you can get away with serving it for breakfast. It's almost considered more of a coffee cake. How perfect would this be served for breakfast along with a nice cup of coffee?

~LilSis

November 8, 2009

We're already gearing up for our Third Annual Bake Sale, which will be held on December 14th.  This is the second year that 100% of the proceeds will go to SPCA Texas, and we're beyond excited to get crackin' and bakin'!  We have a lot of work ahead of us: shopping, baking, wrapping, labeling, transporting, and promoting, but we all agree that we have more fun doing this than pretty much anything else all year!

The little-baking-team-that-could this year is me, SisMama, my coworkers K and SAA, and K's sister L.  Our goal for the one-day sale is $3000 again!  Last year, our final total was $3055, so we're hopeful we can exceed the goal again. We're not totally crazy though, so the goal isn't increasing!

To help us reach our goal again for the SPCA, we could really really use your help!  We know what recipes worked for us last year – and which ones didn't move – but we'd love to know what your favorites are.

Pretend that you went to a fund-raising bake sale at Christmas to buy cute packaged homemade gifts to give to your babysitter, hairdresser, postman, Bunco friends, kids' teachers, kids' friends, Secret Santas, etc.  What would you like to find?  Traditional items like gingerbread, pound cake, biscotti and sugar cookies?  Or indulgent items you might not make yourself like almond toffee, fudge, pecan pie bars, and fancy brownies?  Would you be interested in something savory like a spicy snack mix or nut blend?  Or something else altogether?

Maybe you've had some great success yourself with certain items at bake sales.  What works best for you?  Or maybe you have specialties that you think would be an awesome hit at a Christmas bake sale?

If you have ideas, please pass them on to us!  Thanks in advance from us – and all of the animals at the SPCA – for your suggestions!

~BigSis

October 30, 2009

Just in case you didn't get enough chocolate overload from the Texas Sheet Cake, this recipe should definitely send you into fudgey orbit!

Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Outrageous Brownies are my go-to brownies.  I love them with walnuts and chocolate chips (cause there isn't enough chocolate in them already!), but on holidays I love to make them with Oreos instead.  It's an idea that came from Joe at Culinary in the Country.  For the SPCA Bake Sale last December, I made them with Christmas Oreos and they looked adorably festive.

So here we are at Halloween.  I don't celebrate Halloween, other than taking photos of the furkids in hats; when they let me. This year, they didn't let me.  I found the cutest little pirate hat with black ringlets for them, but would they wear it?  Heck, no.

Oh, yeah, and I like to bake.  Just give me an excuse…holiday, Monday, rain, sun, whatever.  Any reason.

This recipe makes a huge amount of fun, crunchy, rich, and cutely Halloweenie brownies.  Go make some friends.

~BigSis

October 28, 2009

This is not cake.  I know that Cook's Country calls it cake, but it's not cake.  It's a slab of rich, dense, ooey-gooey chocolate decadence.

Cook's Country Texas Sheet Cake

I baked this for my boss's birthday, and I think it went over well! The usual Texas Sheet Cake or Sheath Cake is delicious. In fact, it's SisMama's signature cake and the one we all request for birthdays. It's a lighter cake than this though. Both recipes contain cocoa powder in the batter and icing, but this Cook's Country version also includes a half pound of semisweet chocolate in the batter! That's where the fudginess comes in!  I'd call this more of a brownie, but whatever you call it, I call it yummy!

Texas Sheet Cake
(Cook's Country)

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Chocolate Icing
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 18- by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Whisk eggs and yolks, vanilla, and sour cream in another bowl until smooth.

2. Heat chocolate, butter, oil, water, and cocoa in large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Whisk chocolate mixture into flour mixture until incorporated. Whisk egg mixture into batter, then pour into prepared baking pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack.

3. For the icing: About 5 minutes before cake is done, heat butter, cream, cocoa, and corn syrup in large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Off heat, whisk in confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Spread warm icing evenly over hot cake and sprinkle with pecans. Let cake cool to room temperature on wire rack, about 1 hour, then refrigerate until icing is set, about 1 hour longer. (Cake can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.) Cut into 3-inch squares. Serve.

BigSis Notes: I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the batter and used Penzeys Mexican Vanilla, so I used about 1/3 less than the recipe called for.  I used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream in the icing, salted butter rather than unsalted, and toasted walnuts on top in place of pecans.  I baked my cake in a 13 x 9 glass pan, and it took 35 minutes. Cut these pieces small; this stuff is rich! This cake is best at room temperature OR nuked for just a few seconds!  Wowee!!  😀

~BigSis

October 12, 2009

I made the grievous error of going to Sam's Club the other day when I was really hungry.  You know how that goes…you buy everything you see.  Weird thing is that this time I was just buying massive quantities of produce instead of the junk that usually calls your name when you're shopping hungry.  So I ended up with – among other things – a nice big bag of 8 Fuji apples.  Could I ever in my life eat 8 apples before they went bad?  Heck, no.  I don't know what I was thinking.

I did have to get thinking about how to use all those apples when it became clear their number wasn't diminishing on the counter.  The first thing that came to mind was an apple cake since it's fall now.  I grabbed my King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and chose their Apple Cake.  Bad thing is it only took 2 of the apples; good thing is they didn't have to be peeled!

The cake is gone now, and I'm still not sure if it came out right or not.  I really need to email the folks at KAF.  The recipe called for a little over two cups of flour and a couple of sugar, but the only moisture was from 2 eggs and a soft stick of butter.  When the recipe said to turn the batter into the pan, I didn't have batter.  I had a sandy sugar/flour mixture that looked more like a shortbread crust than a cake batter.

I scoured the internet, looking for a clue as to what might have gone wrong, if it did.  I couldn't find any online recipe corrections, or anyone discussing any issues with this recipe.  So, not knowing what else to do, I went ahead and baked the apple sand, hoping for the best but expecting a mess.

Apple Cake…as it should be?

I baked it for 45 minutes as directed since I had no idea of what it should look like once it was done.  As the apples cooked, they gave off some moisture of course, and the pan did start to look a bit like a cake.

In the end, when it was done and cooled, the cake was gooey and I presented it to my coworkers as an “Apple Cake/Cobbler/Sort of a Thing” that should be nuked for a few seconds and eaten warm.  The flavor was really good, but the appearance was a little…ummm…rustic?  The whole cake was eaten, but in all honesty, some of my coworkers would eat cat food on a cracker.

I'm still wondering what happened.  I did leave out the crystallized ginger since I don't like it, the raisins since I'm allergic, and the nuts since I was out, but I don't think any of those changes could have caused the weirdness I experienced.  Other than that, I'm 100% sure that I followed the recipe exactly.  If I messed this up, or if it's supposed to be this way, that's ok.  I just want to know!  Have any of you tried this recipe?  If so, how'd it come out?

Super Gooey Apple Cake

BTW, if you do the math, I still had 6 apples to deal with so I made a batch of crockpot apple butter last weekend.  Guess how that came out…

~BigSis