Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Roll

Well years ago I attempeted a Chocolate Roll. But the cake tore and did not work. So I figured why try again. There are lots of other things that turn out that I can make. So years later I think to myself time to overcome this fear. I was so stressed making this dessert. Partly cause I was affraid it would not turn out. Also I was making it for Christmas Dinner with my side of the family. So it had to turn out. I found a great recipe on line. Here is the link http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Dessert/Chocolate/recipe.html?dishID=3337

The recipe called for vanilla ice cream. But I thought to myself that candy cane ice cream would be very festive. So as we have an ice cream maker and making ice cream is very easy I went on line to find a recipe for that. I did here. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/peppermint-ice-cream-recipe2/index.html

The ice cream turned out great. Was a very strong minty taste which I did not like. I don't really like mint. Then dday came and I had to make the cake. I did lots of crying and being stressed. But the cake turned out great. The whole dessert was not as hard as I thought. I would definately make this dessert again. If you have never made a Chocolte Roll before its really not that hard to do. Oh and it tasted soooo good. Did not notice the strong taste of the mint in the ice cream in the cake. I wish I had more to eat. I served the slices of cake with a dolip of whip cream and sprinkled a bit of candy cane on the  whiped cream. So if you are an adverntursome cook give this a try. You won't regret it. Also if you don't have an ice cream maker you can just buy ice cream at the store. You can also find candy cane ice cream. Blessings!

All Day Bake a Thon

Hey all! So yesterday my niece and I did an all day bake a thon. What a lot of fun. The plan was to make 6 kinds of cookies doubling each batch. Well my niece arrived here at 10 am and we started baking at 10:30 am. First I made my gingerbread dough as it needed to be chilled for 2 hours. Then my niece made these fabulous Chocolate Kalua and Pecan Cookies. She got the recipe from a cooking magazine. Definately my favourite cookie of the day.Then we moved on to me making Super Gooey Chocolate Drops. Tasted good but were very soft and crumbly. Ben suggested that they would be good ice cream toppings. From there on to my nieces Malted             Maddness cookies.                                                                                       Kalua Cookies

They are a choclate cookie with chocolate icing on them, then crushed Malt Balls. Very good but very sweet.

 Then I made Whipped Shortbread cookies. Bens moms recipe. Ben just loves these cookies. They are a very soft shortbread they melt in your mouth. Delicous. By this time it was 7 ish at night and we were pooped. So we figured that to make the last 2 batches we would be up to like 12 am and we were not interested in that. So as we were going to be seeing each other the next day in the evening we decided that we would make our cookies the next after noon at our own houses and exchange them  that evening. Which we did. I made my ginigerbread and my niece made chocolate macarrons. I had a great day hanging with my niece. That was a real blessing to me. I think that will be my best Christmas present this year. I love all my nieces and nephews so much. They are all really precious to me. Thanks Brianna for such a wonderful day. :o)

Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Kalua + Pecan Cookies
1 cup butter, 1/4 cup kahlua liqueur, 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1tsp baking soda, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Combine butter and sugar; cream on high speed. Add eggs 1 at a time, and kahlua beat till smooth. In a seprate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa. Add to butter mixture and mix to incorporate. Stir in nuts and Chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoons on to cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Have you made these?

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/holiday-icebox-cookies?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/christmas-cookies#slide_1

So tell me have you made pinwheel cookies before? I would love to make these ones by Martha Stewart. They look so fun and colourful. But I am scared to death to make them. I need to overcome this. So maybe this season is the one. I phoned a friend who has made pinwheels before and asked her if she could help me. So I wait for her response. But tell me have  you made them and what has your experience been. Any tips for me? They are probably not nearly has hard as I think.

Cookies Cookies and more Cookies!!

I am so excited for Saturday December 11th to come. My niece has asked me to bake Christmas cookies with her. So she is coming to my house and we are going to bake 6 kinds of cookies but doubling all the recipes. So thats like 12 batches of cookies. We start at 10 am and go until we are done. How ever long that will take. My niece is picking 3 kinds to make and brining all the ingredients for those and I am doing the same. Nothing to challenging here. Well maybe the baking all day long. That may be a challenge. We will plaly the Christmas tunes and watch Christmas movies as we do it. So I will definately post pictures. Maybe not saturday as when we are all done I maybe ready to flop. Wow that will be a lot of cookies. I wonder what my single niece will do with all those cookies? I do need to get back to some challenges here. I am starting to feel better so what is my excuse. Ben really wants to make a gingerbread house. That scares the poop out of me. But I have always wanted to do one so maybe this is the year. Also I am bring the Christmas dessert to my familys Christmas celebrations. So that I have decided is going to be a challenge. But I will tell you about that in a different post. More closer to Christmas. So tell me what is your favourite Christmas cookie? Do you bake at Christmas time? Here is a great site for some new Christmas baking I am making 2 kinds from here both chocolate ones. Mmmm chocolate! http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/christmas-cookie/index.html

Yeast Bread a flop

So I thought today that I would try and save my family money by making homemade bread. Well I started with my stir bread which is a no fail bread. Always turns out and tastes so good. For recipe check an earlier blog entry. Then I moved on to attempt Harvest Brown Bread. Which went well I thought. Although I don't ever make yeast bread. So I don't really know what I am doing. But hey it is good to try new things. My heart was in the right place. Well as you can see here the bread sunk. Can bread do that? It looks awful. As long as it tastes good. Then it was not a total loss. Oh I hope we can still eat it. Any one out there know why this happened? Did I add to much flour? Did I kneed the dough to long? Did I not let it rise enough? Did I punch down the dough to much? I have to know and try again. This bread will not beat me! I will have the victory of a nice loaf of bread. Well off to go and slice it and see if it tastes any good. Never give up keep trying. If at first you don't succeed try try again. Blessings

You know the phrase less is more? Yeah well I forgot it when I made this eggnog bread. Tip when oiling your pans just put a small amount of oil in. Really less is more. LOL But this loaf is not a gift so we will live. Its just not very attractive. So I found this recipe thanks to Teresa. She sent me this link to a Christmas baking site. In there I found this eggnog recipe. I tried it tonight. I thought that this recipe would make great christmas gifts. But I wanted to try the recipe first to see. I could not wait till it fully cooled to taste test it. The smell of the bread was driving me crazy. It smelt so good. I don't like eggnog at all and wondered how I would like the bread. I loved it. It tasted great. Reminded me of a yellow cake.  Ben really liked it and said it tasted like cake donuts. Will make excellent gift. You know for all those Sunday school teachers and the like.  I can make mini's with my Christmas bread pan. Wrap with saran wrap and tie with a bow. Attach a note to the bow and you have a lovely little gift. Here is a link to the recipe. If it will post. Blessings

http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec0786.asp

Donut Day!!

Ok these are my Pumpkin Cake Donuts with the Cream Cheese frosting. The donut dough was really easy to make to minutes really. Then it had to sit in the fridge for 2 hours. After that we had to roll out the dough and cut it out. While doing this we had filled my moms wok with oil and turned it on high to get the fat hot. Then once the oil was ready we put the dounts in. They cooked for about 3 minutes on the one side then we had to flip them over to cook on the other side. We had the donut making down to a science. My mom has made lots of donuts. So it was an easy choice to ask her to help me. We had plastic containers lined with paper towels so as soon as the donuts came out of the oil then you put them in the paper lined container. So the paper towel could soak up the excess oil. Then we let mine cool and my mom worked on her yeast  dough donuts. They took 1 + 1/2 hours to rise once they were made then hers had to be rolled and cut out then back for more rising. Now they were ready for the hot oil. Hers took about the same time to cook. Frying in the oil really takes a short time. Then her donuts were drained on paper towels then right into a sugar glaze then to drain on to paper towels again. Then into a container. Hers were now ready to eat. Mine needed there icing on them first. The cake donuts tasted good.  But it was a lot of work. Well it would not have been if we had just made the one kind. But as we made two kinds it took a really long time. It felt like there was barlely any time to breath. I was working by 8:30 am and did not stop until like 5 pm. I had a bit of a break for lunch and a bit of time on the computer. Long day. Worth it though cause now I can say I MADE DONUTS!! I never thought in my life that I would make donuts. They just seemed to daunting but they really are quite easy. The oil always made me nervious. Still does. I don't like cooking with hot fat. So if you love donuts and have never tired to make them you should not hard at all. Get a few friends or family together and have a blast. Then do what I did have a donut party and invite people over to help you eat them. What fun!

Blessings

                                                 These are my moms yeast donuts. YUM!

Some yeast donuts my kids decorated! 

Donut Making Finally!!!

Hey every one I am finally up to donut making. So tomorrow is the day. I am making a Frosted Pumpkin Donut. It is a cake donut with a cream cheese frosting. Sounds so delicious. My mom will be making her famous Glazed donuts. Which is a yeast donut. YUM!! Oh and I love donut holes!! So I will tell you all about my experience tomorrow. Well maybe. It will be a busy day with the donut making and the donut eating party. Blessings

Holiday Mini Loaf Pan

This is the mini loaf pan I bought last year after Xmas on Sale. So have not had the chance to try it out yet. I can't wait.  Nordic Ware pans are not cheap but are a great investment. They are a very well made and high quality pan. Tip is buy them just after a big holiday or season and you can get them at 1/2 price. This pan was regular $40 CDN but I bought it for $20 CDN.

Christmas baking and other stuff

So I finally baked something. I have not baked anything in a long time. My back pain has kind of taken over my life. But last night I made Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Plain but good. I want to get back to more baking and more baking of challenging things soon. I know what is wrong with my back finally. I have Osteoartritis. So now its just a matter of figuring out how to manage the pain. Well keep checking back one of these days I will do something challenging soon. Oh I have been planning out my holiday baking list. I love holiday baking. It is so fun. We have already started playing the Christmas music. I think this year I will try some new things. I like to change it up. I have my favourite things I bake every year. Like gingerbread cookies. Its not christmas with out them. Shortbread cookies. Bens mom makes a whiped shortbread cookie. So it makes it really soft. Not the hard kind of shortbread. Very good but I also really like the hard kind too. I found a recipe this year for chocolate shortbread that looks really good. I love making cookies. But I will also make some breads. I am going to try Eggnog bread. That sounds good. Oh and I bought this really cool pan last year that makes mini loafs with Christmas shapes. Its a nordic ware pan. I will find a pic and post it I love Nordic Ware stuff. They make a great product. I am also doing something different this year. My niece asked to have a day of Christmas baking together. I am so looking forward to that. What a  great gift. So we will be spending a day together baking all day. I hope and pray that I can last the day. She will be bringing ingredients for 3 kinds of cookies and I will bring ingredients for 3 kinds of cookies. Then we will double all the recipes and each bring home 6 differnt kinds of full recipes. I am not so sure what my single niece will do with all those cookies. But she said that she could find a place for them. We as a family will eat some and I always love giving a bunch away. Oh I can't wait. We will play christmas music for part of the time and as our computer is in the dinning room which is right beside the kitchen we will also watch Christmas movies. Should be a really fun day. So what about you? Will you be doing Christmas baking? Do you have some favourite recipes? What are they? Well have a great time as you think about what to make and do for Christmas.
Blessings :o)

Hopefull

Well I think I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a long haul but I am slowly starting to feel better. Ben asked me when I was going to reschedule the donut making. I said maybe next Friday. November 20th. But we will see. I am feeling a bit better. But my house has fallen a bit apart. So I am itching to clean it up. I have done some but so want to do more. If I do to much at once then I get back pain again. So baby steps. I printed off a recipe for Wild oatmeal cookies. They sound good. Chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal in them. I don't usually make mine with oatmeal, why I don't know. I really like oatmeal in my chocoalte chip cookies. Kids want to light a fire and roast weiners and eat smores. For those that don't know what a smore is let me tell  you. You take two cookies comonly graham crackers a piece of chocolate and a marshmellow. You roast the marshmellow over the fire then put it and the chocolate between the two cookies. Ben figured that why not just make chocolate chip cookies. You then get your chocolate and cookie all in one. They are quite tasty and very sweet. I think people do graham crackers over other cookies is cause they are thin and light tasting. So you can eat more smores. With thicker cookies you would not eat as many. So I will keep you posted on any baking going on over here. Blessings

:o(

I am very sad. :o( I hurt my back really bad in August and it has not healed yet. My back has really been acting up this week. I folded laundry tonight and am now in agony. So I called my mom much to my sadness and cancled the donunt making for tomorrow. Oh well maybe next week I will be up to it. Also I made 4 loafs of bread on Tuesday but was not able to make any more. I had dreams of making 9 loafs. Oh well some times life does not go as planed. Physio tomorrow. I pray that helps. Nothing else I have tried has. I want to get back to life. To baking again. Just to be able to do regular things. But do keep checking. I will post something again. Blessings!

Great Find

Hey I found a great conversion chart for baking conversitions. Check it out under my blogs I am following.

Dounut making? I thought I was making bread!

So thought today o.k. I need to get back to making more stuff. I thought I should make a pile of bread and stick it in my freezer. Well I went to mennonitegirlscancook site and found lots of great bread recipes. But they all called for quick rise yeast. Of which I don't have. Oh well I guess I won't make bread today. But I can make pizza dough. I have made that alot and found out a friend of mine makes her pizza dough in big batches and freezes them. So I figured since I can't make the other doughs I would at least be able to make something today. I then thought that I would look up quick breads in the same site and see what they had. Well as I was looking I found a recipe for pumpkin dounts. They sounded soo good. Before I knew it I had phoned my mom who is an excelent donut maker. I have never made donuts before just consumed them. Booked her to come over on Friday October 30th in the afternoon. I am excited about this. Except that my mom said since we will have the oil going already we may as well make yeast donuts as well as my cake donut recipe. That is a lot of donuts. I will need to have a donut eating party. Also I do want to make bread. So it willl be a week with lots of challenges going on. Hey Angela is a pumpkin donut challenging? I hope my blog inspires  you to try something new. Whether that would be with baking or something else in life you have been afraid to try. Know that anything is possible. You can accomplish great and mighty things! Blessings

Madelines Birthday Cake

So this is Madelines birthday cake. We saw this cookbook called Princess Spa Cookbook and Madeline fell in love with it. I thought that a spa party would be a great birthday party. So that is what we went with. We bought her the book for her birthday and of course everything we made had to come from the book. So on the cover was flip flop cakes. So that is what I made. I am really happy with how they turned out. I think Madeline will love them. Madeline loves lemons so I made a lemon pudding from scratch that I filled the inside with. Pudding was so easy to make really took no time at all. Then just made a buttercream frosting. In pink and purple just like the book. The cake was one I had not made before. It was a white cake. What was different was that it required me to beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Then fold that into the batter. I had never made this cake before because of the extra step of beating the egg whites. More just because I was intimidated by beating egg whites. There are different stages to beating egg whites and you have to know what each stage looks like. Thankfully I had a book that told me. But when the cake was all said and done I thought it just tasted o.k. But with the pudding and the icing it will  taste good. But I forget how long it takes to ice a cake. I had started at 9:30 pm and thought I would be done in no time. Well when I was finally finished it was 11:30 pm. So much for going to bed early. Oi! Ben hung out with me as I iced the cake for moral support. I always get a bit stressed when icing cakes also when cutting them into shapes. So Ben thanks! You are a real sweet heart. Well I am off to bed. 

Keepin ya posted

Hello All,

Just writing to keep you up to speed on what is going on with me. I have been doing lots of regular baking but nothing much to post on here. I will be making my daughters birthday cake this week so keep your eyes peeled for that. Also I have a friend who had put the challenge out to me to make something with pumpkin. So I will do that challenge next week if all goes well.

Blessings

Make a Smilebox recipe

Stir Whole Wheat Bread

 

So today we are celebrating my moms birthday with everyone. Brothers family is hosting and my sisters family was to be joining us as well. As siblings we decided on potluck. I was to bring dessert and my sister was to bring bread and salad. But as she got sick this weekend and is not able to come I decided to help out with her portion of potluck items. So I chose to bring bread. I thought hey I had found this great recipe in Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog that I would make that. It is the easiest bread imaginable. I had made it once before. So I have posted the link. If the posting of links works. If not just look on the side pannel and click on Mennonite girls can cook and click on yeast breads. Then look for the name I titled this blog. I will tell you what I do different. I like 100% whole grain breads. So I do all whole wheat flour no white and for the 5 or 7 grain cereal I use Red River Cereal. That is if  you live in Canada. I don't know if you can get that any where else in the world. But last night when I whiped up this bread. Which takes like no time at all. I forgot to add the Red river cereal and it turned out just fine. I also have not added the sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Parlty because I don't have them in my home and my husband  does not like crunchy things in his bread. I have also found that when you mix everything together it is very wet. So I add more flour. maybe about 1 cup more. Then I divide it in to 2 balls and pat it into my bread pans. Great bread. So easy. I will try to make a more challenging bread but hey it  tastes good and why do we always have to go to a lot of work when we bake? Some times it is necessary for sure. But some times not. Don't miss understand me. I am not an instant person. I always make my cake from scratch. As I do my whiping cream. I am not a mix person. Nothing wrong if you are. But I find homemade is better and does not take that much longer to make. Just my opinion. So if you love bread give this a try. Let me know if you do and what you think.

The Winner is..../The Joys of Baking

So for all those who voted thank you. :o) The winner is Banana Lemon Layer Cake. Turned out o.k. But not as well as I had hoped. In my opinion a person is most critical of there craft. What ever that is they make. It may look great to someone else but to the person who made it they see every flaw. So I want to share with you some cake baking tips. Things that I have learned along the way and some very recently learned. Picture #2 you can see a big crack in it. The reason for that is that I took the cake out of the pan too soon and did not let it cool long enough in the pan. Very important that your cake cool in the pan before taking out. I knew that but the recipe I had said to take it out at 5 minutes. My better judgement told me not to listen to the book. But I didn't and you can see what happened. No one will know that happened unless they read my blog. Cause icing covers a multitude of sins. Even if It broke in half it could still be salvaged. Once cake is cooled and you are ready to ice put cake in the freezer for 1 hour. What that does is freezes all the cake crumbs so when you ice your cake  you don't have to worry about getting cake crumbs all in your icing. That is a trick I learned recently. Wow is all I have to say. I think about when I will go to make my daughters bday cake and I cut out the shape it always creates crumbs. Now I don't have to worry about them.  Well I thought I had more tips but my brain has drawn a blank. So when it comes to baking cakes I feel pretty confident in the making of them. Well most kinds. But the icing of the cake that is where I need more experience. I felt that this cake today looked plain, blah, boring and like a beginner did it. The taste is good. As I had to trim the edges of the cake and oh there is always extra icing so I should make sure that they taste good. They do. The cake wasn't anything  special but the icing sure was good. Again I am probably too critical. Well that is this experience on to others yet to come. Hmm what next. Oh yeah hey I made some home made bread. Must tell you about that. Next blog entry.

Oi!

So I had wrote about being very busy. Well I still am. I have had a crazy week. I have double booked my self 3 times. I almost never do that. Then yesterday I was suppose to take someone out to coffee and I forgot. I can't believe it. What a crazy life right now. Then get this on Tuesday of this week I was to pick a cake to make for my moms birthday and write out the ingredients on our grocery list. Well as I am at the store shopping I realize I forgot. Oh great so now I am going to have too go back to the grocery to get my cake ingredients. Oh well her birthday party is not till Sunday Oct. 4th. So I am o.k. Not like I forgot all together. I still have time to redeem my self. Unless I forget yet. Yikes! The way this week is going I could see it happening. Also my daughters bday is coming up. So I need to get ready for that. But what about all the challenges I planned on doing? Oi! I had really wanted to make bagels last week but that never happened. Then I thought I would do it this week. But still has not happened. Ugh! Kids were all excited about that. We all really like them. Ben told me last week that he really likes cinnamon and raisin ones. Tried to convince me to buy some at Costco. But I told him that we should not get any. I had planned to suprise him with some. Oh well. I will eventually make them. But first my moms bday cake. She told me today that she really likes desserts with lemon and coconut. So I am debating between making Banana Lemon Layer Cake or Coconut Lime Layer Cake. So which to make? Any opinions? Ben would tell me to make the banana one, as he dislikes coconut. But as the cake is not for him and my mom then his opinion kind of doesn't matter. But it does still. I love him and I care what he thinks. But I did make a chocolate cake once with coconut frosting and Ben did eat it. I guess the chocolate out weighed the nasty coconut. Can't go to wrong with chocoalte can you? So put your vote in for which cake I should make. They both seem pretty easy to me. The only thing is that the coconut cake has a seven minute frosting and I hear that is a finiky frosting to make. So i have never made it. Another one of those why make if it might not turn out. When there are so many more icings that taste good and I know they will turn out. So mabye for that reason I should make the coconut. So cast your vote and I will decide tomorrow. Hey if this blog inspires you in any way let me know. I would love to hear about it.

Confidence

So I made another pie today. I feel pretty confident about making pies. Well the easy ones I have been making. The one where you make your pie dough right in the pan. So easy. See earlier post for recipe. Today I made rhubarb pie. Seems to have turned out. I hope? I am a little bit leary as to when these things are suppose to be done. Recipes just say the length of time and look for brown colour on top. With a cake I like that I can stick a toothpick in it and see if any cake sticks to it to tell me it is done. Or cookies you lightly touch the top and if it bounces back then they are done. But pie? I can't do either of those things. Oi! Oh and guess what? I read last time I made a pie to bake on a cookie sheets. Pies tend to oze out all over the bottom of the oven. But did I remember the cookie sheet? Yeah right at the end as I went to open the oven. Oh well a little too late then. Phew not to big a mess. Oh well the more I make pies the more I am likely to remember. But my husband Ben told me the last time I made a pie that he did not like them much. WHAT!? How can you not like pie? He also does not like popcorn? I find that so odd. Yet he loves movies? Don't popcorn and movies go hand in hand? I love you honey! But you got to admit that it is pretty odd that you don't like popcorn. Right? LOL Well if you have not tried pie baking yet give it a try and impress a loved one. My nephew when he was like 13 asked his mom if he could make a pie and she said sure. So he got out the cookbook and made one. I heard that it was really good too. Way to go Nicholas. See you never know what you can do until you try. So go create something and tell me all about it. I would love to hear from you. Promise I will make something new soon.

Make a Smilebox recipe

Busy!

Hello all

Sorry not much has been happing on the baking front. Things got a bit crazy around here. First I recked my back last Saturday. It still is not better yet. Then I am the head librarian at my church and they planed last minute what they are calling a ministry fair. So I have had to prepare for that. Then this weekend my husbands work is treating all its employees and there spouses/partners an all expense paid trip to Saskatoon Saskatchewan. Woo Hoo! Should be a good time. Kids don't come. I love my kids dearly but it is nice to get a break. My mom and a wonderful niece will be watching them for us.  I have had a very crazy week. So no time for baking. But stay tuned. I will be back at her next week. Blessings to you all. :o)

Make a Smilebox recipe

Birthday cake Challenge?!

Yikes so my daughter and I were talking about her birthday today. It's a little ways away but I like to plan in advance. So she wants to make cards at her party. Great I love card making. I can handle that. Then I say what kind of cake would you want. She says a mailbox. Mailbox? I am thinking are you crazy? But I look on line and yup there are pics of mailbox cakes. Oi! I am not sure I am up to the task. I need step by step instructions. I can not find any. Invent it myself? Yikes! I am not sure about that. Hmm. maybe I can convince her that she wants something else. Or maybe I will do it. Hmm dilemma's dilemma's.

I DID IT and YOU CAN TOO!!!

 

I am so excited. They worked!! I was thinking at a couple of points they would not work. First I found a recipe in my cookbook Betty Crocker Cookie Book. Then got to work on making them. But when they were done they did not look quite right. Dry and crumbly. But I thought maybe if I squish it together with my hands then it will be fine. I thought though I better double check the recipe that I added everything. Well would you look at that. I forgot to add the egg. Oh brother.  Well good thing I found out now. So I added that and everything came together beautifully. So now to get out the cookie press. I read the instructions how to use it, tthen proceed ahead. I take a bunch of dough and shape it into a log, then shove the log inside the press. pick a shape and screw on the top. Then we are good to go right? I start to press the dough out but nothing happens. It comes out but in a jumbled mess. What is this. Oi! Doesn't work why did I try again. So I phone a friend who bakes alot maybe she has used on of these before. But to my luck she is not home. Then I get a brillant idea. Youtube! They have a video for everything. So I check and sure enough they had a video on how to use a cookie press. I watched 3 videos and went to work. To my delight it WORKED!!! You have seen the picture as proof. Hurray!! I can make spritz cookies. Woo Hoo!!!! I am tickled pink. Well off to making the lemonade. Lemonade and Cookie stand opens at 3:00pm and as it is 2:30pm I better get going.

Cookie Stand Today

Hello everyone. I thought my only challenge this week would be the bread I am going to attempt. But my kids want to have a cookie stand. Which is like a lemonade stand but you sell cookies instead. We may sell lemonade too. But lemonade and cookies don't really go together. I make all kinds of cookies and feel quite confident in the making of them. But one I can not. I bought a cookie press years ago. A really nice one. I have posted a pick of one if you don't know what a cookie press is. Found the pic at Williams and Sonoma. Great cooking store from the U.S.A. Where I bought mine. But have never been able to get them to turn out. Well I will try again today. Spritz cookies which is what a cookie press cookie is called look really good. You can make all kinds of shapes. So I will post later how they turn out. I am trying a different recipe then I did in the past. Another thing that I tried a few times and gave up. But today victory!! I hope. Or I just give my cookie press away. If any one has used one of these and has tips or recipes to pass on I would appreciate it.

Check it out!

So check out the video I found on Rachael Ray's site. Awesome video. She bakes Eclairs on her show and explains why she never bakes. But in this show she does and is overcoming her fear of baking. So encouraging.
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/eclairs/

I am not alone

So get this I am at my girlfriends house today. Told her about my blog. Why I was doing it. To overcome my fear of baking certain foods. Well do you know what she told me? She said did you know Rachael Ray (who is on t.v. and has a  cooking show.) does not bake. Can not bake? She said that Rachael Ray has said that on her show. She had a guest on her show who made a cake and showed Rachael what to do. Wow Rachael Ray can't bake? I just assumed if you have a cooking show on t.v. and have many cookbooks that you would be able to bake. Hearing that made me feel like I was not alone in my struggle. I make the things that I am good at. I avoid the things that I am not good at. Found out that others do that too. Even famous chefs. Now I don't know why Rachael does not bake. Could be for other reasons completly. But I think we feel better when we know we are not alone in our struggles. Sure you know others struggle with the same things you do. But sometimes you feel so alone in it. It feels good when you hear that you are not alone. Not that you want others to struggle. That is not what I am saying.  Know that what ever your fears are or your struggles that you are not alone and that their are others out there just like you. You are not alone and you can overcome them. May God  grant you the courage to do so. Blessings

So I figured it out!

I thought to myself today I have had a lot of dessserts lately. I better try something different. So I am going all out different. The recipe is called Kugelhopf with Walnuts, Bacon and Herbs. Kugelhopf is a type of bundt pan. But as I don't own one of those I will make the bread in my regular bundt pan. Picture in my book looks really good. So I shall keep you posted as to how it turns out. The cook book you see is the one I will be using. Great looking book. It gives you step by step pictures of everything. They have a whole series of cookbooks.

Challenge?

So I think what I am doing is pretty challenging. But then when I told my sister today what I was doing she set out another challenge for me. She said I think you need to create something. Make up your own recipe. What is she thinking. Why do you think cookbooks were invented. So I don't have to invent things. Hmm? now she has got me thinking. I am a person who likes recipes. Recipes are my friends. Ben told me one time that he heard some one say (don't remember who), that the reason there are more male chefs is that they tend to more be able to experiement when it comes to cooking. When there are more women bakers because baking is something that is more exacting. What do you think about that? In our house that is very true. I love cookbooks and recipes and baking. I don't enjoy cooking other foods as much. Where Ben does not like baking much at all. He has done it but does not like it as much. He wants to create things. Experiment with foods. You can create in baking too but with in certain perameters. So to create something of my own or not? That is the question. I have never aspired to write a cookbook. I just love buying them or receiving them as gifts. If I were to create something what would it be? Compelling it is. Will take more diliberation. I need to figure out what is my challenge for this week? Any thoughts for me?

Blueberry Streusel Cake

 

So this is the cake I made today. Not much to look at. But tasted great! Easy to make too. I like the pie I made the other day better.Ben thought this was better then the pie. He is not that found of pie. I did not know this. But I guess I would have not know this as I like never make pie. Well should clarify Ben is not a fan of fruit pie. But likes other kinds. So that's it for another day. Well we will see what creation I come up with for this week.

Blueberry Cake with Streusel Topping

Hello again.

So today I am going to make a blueberry cake. I was flipping through one of my cookbooks the other day and stumbled upon this recipe. I had never seen it before. I don't know how that is possible. It sounds so good that I am going to make it. Does not look hard to make but I thought I would include it anyways. You may want to give the recipe a try. Kyla you are in luck I shall have leftovers for you. I thought I would always have way to much that we could not eat it all. So I told Ben that he would take leftovers to work. But that has not happened yet. Maybe this coming week I will make something for him to take. But the guys at work don't know I promised dessserts. So its all good. Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Blueberry Cake with Streusel Topping

Streusel:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), cold

6 tablespoons Butter (3/4 stick), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch 2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries or free flowing frozen ones.

Place the dry streusel ingredients in a food processor bowl. Drop in the butter and pulse until small crumbs frorm. (this can also be done in a medum mixer bowl with a pastry blender.) Set Aside.
Prheat oven to 375oF. In a large miser bowl, cream the softened butter. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg, and beat well. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. add to the butter mixture, alternating with the combined milk and vanilla, with the mixer on low speed.Stir in the blueberries by hand. Spread the batter evenly in an oiled 8 inch square cake pan. Spoon the struesel topping evely over the batter, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Let cake cool for 15 minutes, then cut into squares and serve warm. 

Arr!

So as you can see from my previous blog the link did not post. So I will just right it out and you will have to go find it your self if you are interested in reading it. I don't know why it did not work. Oh well.
http://www.finecooking.com/articles/pie-pans-tart-pans.aspx

Pan what's in a pan

So I was rereading a recipe I found on line, in Food Network by Emeril Lagasse. I made my crumb crust from this one. Its called Strawberry Crumb Pie. This is the one with the cream cheese crust. Sounds so good! But my problem with it is I need a tart pan. Tart pan? Why not a pie pan? I don't own a tart pan. According to Julia Child's Cookbook I got from the library Baking with Julia. She said every begining baker needs a 9inch and a 10 inch tart pan. Oh bother. LOL Check out the article I found on the issue. I will also post a pic of the cookbook.  I have fallen in love with it. Not hard for me as I LOVE cookbooks. Ben can attest to that. He says we have to many. I say you can never have to many.

 

Oh and as I was looking up this cookbook I found another one that looks fabulous too. The same author as Baking with julia. Check it out. I will be sad to have to return the Baking with Julia to the library. Oh hey I should check if they have Paris Sweets. Then my return won't be so sad. LOL

Blueberry Pie Yum!

 

So here is my blueberry pie. It is too die for. Oh it is sooooo good. Sorry Ben if you are reading this and have not had any yet. I will bring you a piece as soon as I entered my blog. I had my party here tonight and all the ladies said it was great. So that was encouraging. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I will definately make pie again. This pie dough turned out really good and was so easy to make. Why would you ever roll out pie dough? I guess if you like the pie crust on top. I much prefer a crumb topping. I will though attmept the rolled out pie dough.  I found a recipe today for blueberry nectarine pie. That sounds so good. Also I found a pie dough that calls for cream cheese. Yum that sounds good too. So it can only be onward and upward from here. Right? Really if you have never made pie before give my recipes a try and let me know how it goes for you. I know you will have success. Oh here is the recipe I used for my crumb topping. I got it from Emril Lagasse. I often go to foodnetwork.com and look up recipes. I have found some good ones on there. 

Crumb Topping

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup oatmeal

4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly

Combine  the 1/3 sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and the oatmeal in a small bowl and toss to combine. Add the melted butter and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Then spread evenly over whole pie.

I altered Emerils recipe. I did not have the time to wait. All this chilling is that really necessary? No its not. So what I did was mixed the dry ingredients together and cut in 4 tablespoons cold butter. Then I immediately put the crumb topping on top. Voila great pie!

Bluebery Pie!

So I am excited. I am going to try pie today! I have always been affraid of pie making. I have made pies before. The ones with a graham crust. Those are easy. But today I tackle pie dough. Well I chose to start with an easy recipe. Then I will move on to actually having to roll out dough. Doing 2 crusts and doing fancy top crusts. But for now I will do the easy crust and a crumb topping. My mom tells me that a crumb topping has less calories then a pie dough does. That is a positive thing. Also I prefer the crumb topping. I think it tastes better. So today I will be using these 2 cookbooks. The first one is Cooking from Quilt Country. A fabulous Amish cookbook. I love it. By: Maracia Adams


This is where I get my pie dough from. Then I will be using another favourite. Better Homes and Gardens Pies and Cakes. Where I will get my fillling from. My mom uses this cookbook all the time. She has had her copy for a long time. I think hers is falling apart. My mom swears by it. (she doesn't literaly swear though. Not my mom.) I found my copy a few years back at an antique sale. If you like pie and cake baking this is a must have.

So I will now give you my recipes. I don't normally give out recipes if I have never made them before first. But as I know these are both fabulous cookbooks then I will.

Pat in Pan Pie Crust

Makes Pastry for a single-crust 8- or 9-inch pie


11/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons all -purpose flour
11/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cold milk

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the pie pan and mix with  your fingers until blended. In a measuring cup, combine the oil and milk and beat with a fork until creamy. Pour all at once over the flour mixture. Mix with a fork until the flour mixture is completely moistened. Pat the dough with your fingers, first up the sides of the plate, then across the bottom. Flute the edges. Shell is now ready to be filled. If you are preparing a shell to fill later, or your recipe requires a prebaked crust, preheat the oven to 425o F. Prick the surface of the pastry with a fork and bake 15 minutes, checking often, and pricking more if needed. Variation: For a 10~inch shell, use2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons sugar;1 teaspoon salt; 2/3 cup vegetable oil; 3tablespoons milk.

Blueberry Pie

Prepare pastry for 2 crust 9-inch pie and line pie plate with pastry. Combine 4 cups fresh blueberries with 3/4 to 1 cup sugar, 3tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel,dash salt, and if desired, 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg. Fill pie shell. Drizle with 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice; dot with 1 tablespoon butter. Cut slits; adjust top crust; seal. Bake at 400o for 35 to 40 minutes.

So off I go. Those who are coming to my Close to my Heart party tonight will get to taste the pie. All others you will just get to look at the picture. Which also will be nice. Or maybe it will inspire you to make your own pie? Please if my blogs inspire you in any way I would love to hear about it. Blessings to you all.

Dutch Oven Cherry Clafouti

Ingredients

• 12 ounces fresh or frozen cherries
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Butter, for the Dutch oven

Directions

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F or prepare charcoal for cooking outdoors by heating coals in a chimney starter until hot and ashy.
Butter the bottom and sides of a 5-quart Dutch oven. If using fresh cherries, rinse, stem and pit the cherries. If using frozen, place the cherries into a colander and allow to thaw completely before using. Discard the juice. Spread the cherries evenly over the bottom of the Dutch oven.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until frothy and lightened in color. Add the milk, vanilla and flour and whisk to combine. Pour the batter over the cherries.

Oven baking:

Bake on the middle rack, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

Outdoor coals:

Place 18 to 19 coals on a Dutch oven table. Place a cooling rack, or other wire rack, that is at least 2-inches high, directly over the coals. Place the Dutch oven on the rack directly over the coals. Cover with the lid and place 22 to 23 coals on top. Cook with the lid on for 25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
Allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the Dutch oven, slicing and serving.

Recipe by: Alton Brown 

Cherry Clafouti Continued

So dessert has had its 30 minutes to cool and it comes time to remove it from the pan. It stuck like glue. I had greased up the pan like the recipe said.  So I scrap it out of the pan and it certainly does not look like something you would serve to guests or anything. Its edible. But not very much. Although my daughter really liked it. That was encouraging. The recipe had said to cook it in a dutch oven. Which I don't have. But a bunch of other recipes I had looked at today said to bake it in a fry pan. So my fry pan can go in the oven so I try that. I wonder if the fry pan was to big and the batter spread to thin. Next time I would make in a round cake pan. More grease in the pan too. Also my cherries had sugar on them so I thought I don't need to add extra to the dish. That was a mistake. The bread part tasted not so good. The cherries tasted like I had never added sugar to them. Oh well next time I would add the sugar. Over all I think it turned out. Its a nice light dessert. Would taste good with whip cream.

Cherry Clafouti

So today I was talking to my mom and said I have cherries frozen in my freezer with sugar added to them. I was thinking of making pie with them. She said no no make Cherry Clafouti. Cherry Clafouti? I have not heard of that. I will give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion. So I go and google it and come up with lots of recipes. I decided to go to Food Network. I really like some of there recipes. I find one in there from my favourite t.v. chefs. Alton Brown of Good Eats. Great show. Any ways really easy recipe. Not much of a challenge for me. But something I have never made before. So I gave it a try. I will be posting a pic of it. But not sure how to include with my post. I am still learning. The name of the dessert makes it sound challenging though doesn't it? I am not sure how it is too look or taste for that matter. We will try it with supper tonight. If it tastes good I will post the recipe. I made it in a fry pan but I think you could make it in a round cake pan. Or square for that matter. I had phoned the store where we bought the fry pan from and asked if our fry pan was oven safe. The guy said yes. But don't forget the handle will get hot. Thanks I will remember that. I forgot. It was sitting on my oven once it was done and I thought to myself fry pan handle will not be hot. Oh right it was just in the oven. OUCH!!! But I ran my hand under cold water all is well. I pray I don't do that again. So the adventure begins.

Baking Challenges

So I have been pouring over my many cookbooks and thinking what to tackle? Some things I already know. Others came to mind as I fliped through the pages. Others were things I had tried once and they did not turn out so I never tried them again. But I will now. So here is a list of  the things I am thinking of. I may add to the list as time goes on. Pies. Crusts seem intimidating to me. Why? I have made them before and they turned out. I also want to experiement with with different types of crust tops. Icing. Not the making of but the decorating with. I have a piping bag and tips but how do I use them? What do all the different tips do. I can't wait to find out. Or maybe I can. It maybe on of the later things that I try. Angle Food cake. I love eating it but I have tried making it once and never again. Do I own a flute pan? Jelly roll tried this once and was so disappointed as to how it turned out. Oi what a disaster. But that was like 14 years ago. I saw a recipe for it with ice cream in it that sounds good. Tarts. Once I master pie dough tarts should be an easy thing. Danishs. I made them once and they did not turn out so I gave up and never tried again. Bread in its different forms. I have made before with not to bad turn outs. But I never make it. I like to stick to things I can do well when baking. But if it looks a little complicated for me, (I do make complicated things but of things I am comfortable with.) then I don't make it. Until today! Here goes nothing.

Here We Go!

Hello All!

So the other night I saw the movie Juile Julia. I loved it. I highly recommend it. If you like cooking of course. After watching the movie I was inspired to overcome fear in my life. One of the things that scares me is baking. For those of you who know me you will be thinking that I am telling a lie. In fact I am not. I love baking and am very good at some types of baking. But there are some types that scare me. So I thought to myself that I want to overcome my baking fears. Juile in the movie cooks her way through Julia Childs cookbook Mastering the art of French cooking. Julie challenges her self to make ever recipe in the cookbook. Even the ones that scare her. She does not let her fear stop her. So I will be blogging my baking escapades. I have not decided how I will do this. Will I pick on book and cook all the way through? Or just randomly pick things in my vaste aray of cookbooks and make them. But picking the scarier things for me of course. I am thinking that for me once a week I will make some creation and post it here. So join me on my journey of over coming fear. Maybe I will inspire you to over come fear in your own life. Or maybe you will discover a love for baking and realize that it is fun and easy. I do believe that any one can bake. Also please bare with me as I have never done a blog before. So I am ironing out kinks and things. Also have not found a pick of me that I like yet so I just posted a cake I had made for my daughters 3rd birthday.