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.