This month has been a bit hectic. You would think with Summer and all there would be more time but that hasn't happened yet. I thought one of the other girls had posted already this month, but somehow with one cross-country move and one very pregnant sister things have been a bit unorganized so we didn't have all our ducks in a row. That said, I am going to make the Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies sometime this week. On Friday night I was cleaning the front of my oven with my handy steamer and was trying to get under the glass to get some of the gunk out when the entire piece of glass fell out and shattered all over the floor. Thankfully I was the only person in the kitchen at the time and it only gave me a small cut on the top of my foot. I found a replacement online but can't use my oven until it comes. Ooops! The part should be here tomorrow so my goal is to post but do so a day late.
If you want the recipe now, head on over and check it out here. My review will be coming soon!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
TWD-Caramel Pots de Creme
What doesn't sound good about a dessert with the words "caramel" and "creme" in it? I would have been crazy to pass on this one! Funny thing is, I totally forgot that I needed to make it so we had our minimum of 2 posts this month. Things have been busy with the end of school and what not so this afternoon I remembered and got right to it. Thankfully, I had all of the ingredients in the house and didn't have to run to the store. We had whole milk thanks to having a 15-month-old in the house. We had heavy cream thanks to a yummy fruit crisp we had after dinner on Sunday. And, of course, we had plenty of sugar, eggs and vanilla. We keep the pantry well-stocked around here because I can't seem to go more than a few days without getting the baking bug and wanting to make something. It's a good thing we have neighbors who love it when we share our goodies!
I decided to half the recipe so there was enough for sampling but not too much, resulting in overindulgence! The recipe was simple and came together quickly. The most time-consuming part was caramelizing the sugar. I followed Dorie's instructions to use plastic wrap over the top while the custards baked, unfortunately it didn't work very well for me. Maybe my plastic wrap was too cheap? When I removed the pan from the oven, the plastic wrap had split down the middle right between the two holes I had put in it. Thank goodness it didn't melt and ruin the dessert! I pulled off the plastic as soon as it came out.
The pots de crème came out of the oven a bit darker than I thought they were going to be. I wonder if it had something to do with the plastic wrap not really doing it's job? It didn't seem to affect the flavor in a negative way. The custard was creamy and had the a subtle hint of the caramelized sugar. It was delicious!
This is a recipe I would definitely make again when company came for dinner. It was simple, quick and amazingly good. If you are interested in the recipe, which I'm sure you are, head on over to Peggy's blog.
Until our next post! Happy Baking!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake
I am not sure why but this one always caught my eye when flipping through Dorie's book over the last few years. Maybe it is because I LOVE brown sugar. It smells good and as a child I used to sneak spoonfuls or finger fulls of brown sugar whenever it was out on the counter. The best part of making this recipe is that my house smells like brown sugar at it's best. Anyone who walks into my house can smell the sweet aroma. I almost don't want to make dinner, because I don't want to mix beef and cumin in with brown sugar. Maybe we will have to stick with something not as smelly....hmmm pancakes anyone.
This cake uses ground walnuts as part of the dry ingredients and I could not help but add some chopped walnuts to the cake as well. I left out the almond extract and prunes, neither are to my liking. The cake tastes as good as it smells. I may have to give some away tonight. A whole bundt cake will not work well in this house. The hubby is trying to lighten his load to say it best and the kids never like anything that is truly delicious. Who can I bring this to?
Now to figure out my next baking adventure. My 4yr old turns 5 on Saturday and has requested a Rudolph the red nose reindeer cake. She mentioned it at Christmas and I thought I would cross that bridge when it came (hoping she would forget), but here I am trying to figure out how to make a Rudolph cake and I am not the best at making decorative cakes. Wish me luck. If you have any ideas please comment and let me know what you would do.
If you are interested in making this bundt head on over to Pantry Revisited by Peggy.
This cake uses ground walnuts as part of the dry ingredients and I could not help but add some chopped walnuts to the cake as well. I left out the almond extract and prunes, neither are to my liking. The cake tastes as good as it smells. I may have to give some away tonight. A whole bundt cake will not work well in this house. The hubby is trying to lighten his load to say it best and the kids never like anything that is truly delicious. Who can I bring this to?
Now to figure out my next baking adventure. My 4yr old turns 5 on Saturday and has requested a Rudolph the red nose reindeer cake. She mentioned it at Christmas and I thought I would cross that bridge when it came (hoping she would forget), but here I am trying to figure out how to make a Rudolph cake and I am not the best at making decorative cakes. Wish me luck. If you have any ideas please comment and let me know what you would do.
If you are interested in making this bundt head on over to Pantry Revisited by Peggy.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
TWD-Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies
When April sent out the email with the April recipes, the name of these little cookies caught my attention. I don't know why but I'm glad they did. They were a snap to put together. I didn't roll them out in a sheet as the recipe suggests, instead I rolled them into a log and then cut them before baking. The sweet, lemony smell was divine. As I write this they are cooling upstairs. I'm not sure if I will get to tasting these tonight or if it will have to wait until tomorrow. With Easter I am a bit sugared out and as lovely as these smell, and I'm sure taste, I just don't have it in me to eat anything else sweet!
If you are interested in the full recipe, head on over to Valerie's blog.
Happy Baking!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
TWD: Chocolate Ice Cream Tart
One day Late:
I finally got this done. It took a lot for me to get this done. Between kid craft projects, play dates, playing at the park, and cleaning up after EVERYONE I got this done. It isn't pretty, but it is pretty good. I was a little disappointed that the edges of my crust got a little darker than I wanted. I probably should have covered the crust in tin foil as well as the base. I thought the crust would be hard, but when I tasted it, it was fine.
The original recipe was for Coffee ice cream. I don't love the coffee flavor, but of course I do love chocolate. After I had already made the crust I had a stroke of genius and thought it would be amazing with a butter pecan ice cream and replace the almonds in the crust with pecans. Seriously I have got to try that. I love the salty sweet taste of butter pecan icecream.
If you are interested in the recipe head on over to Domestice Deep Thought of the Day.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs
We have all had these, I promise. Surely on a plate of Christmas goodies from a neighbor, a church function, or even a wedding. There is a reason we have all had them, they are delicious!
This was my first time making them and I was pleased at the ease I had throwing them together. What an easy make for such a delicious treat. My mother in law makes these, but in a crescent shape. They are beautiful. I am sure we established long ago that I am not a baker that easily makes the end result beautiful, but I can make it delicious. Since we knew what to expect with the taste I did change things up a bit just for fun. I covered half the cookies in powdered sugar per the recipe and then of course I can't make a treat without throwing some chocolate into the mix. I dipped the other half in chocolate. After tasting them my husbands comment was, "Why didn't you cover the whole thing in chocolate, this is good." So we were fans of the chocolate. Surprisingly so my kids liked the powdered sugar version better and I think I did too, but they were both delicious and I found myself popping one into my whenever I walked by. Yum!
My little gal always likes to make her presence in my pictures. Funny girl!
I think what makes these cookies so amazing is the amount of butter as well as the ground pecans mixed in as part of the base of the cookie. Pecans are such a sweet and soft nut packed full of flavor. You just can't go wrong.
If you want to give these beauties a try you can visit Buttercream Barbie for the recipe.
This was my first time making them and I was pleased at the ease I had throwing them together. What an easy make for such a delicious treat. My mother in law makes these, but in a crescent shape. They are beautiful. I am sure we established long ago that I am not a baker that easily makes the end result beautiful, but I can make it delicious. Since we knew what to expect with the taste I did change things up a bit just for fun. I covered half the cookies in powdered sugar per the recipe and then of course I can't make a treat without throwing some chocolate into the mix. I dipped the other half in chocolate. After tasting them my husbands comment was, "Why didn't you cover the whole thing in chocolate, this is good." So we were fans of the chocolate. Surprisingly so my kids liked the powdered sugar version better and I think I did too, but they were both delicious and I found myself popping one into my whenever I walked by. Yum!
My little gal always likes to make her presence in my pictures. Funny girl!
I think what makes these cookies so amazing is the amount of butter as well as the ground pecans mixed in as part of the base of the cookie. Pecans are such a sweet and soft nut packed full of flavor. You just can't go wrong.
If you want to give these beauties a try you can visit Buttercream Barbie for the recipe.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Buttermilk Oat Pancakes & Buttermilk Syrup
These are our most favorite pancakes. I serve breakfast for dinner at least every other week around here and sometimes I even serve breakfast for breakfast. I know I am kind of a lazy mom and do cereal most mornings in order to get kids off to school and such. But sometimes I will make a double batch of these one morning and put them in the fridge and my kids have pancakes everyday (score!).
Two of my biggest issues with pancakes and well most breakfast food is 1 there are not enough good whole grains and 2 sugar. I don't like to start my kids and myself off with a big heaping amount of sugar. So this recipe certainly solves problem number one. It uses oats and wheat flour and very little oil and buttermilk as actually pretty good for you. It doesn't solve problem number 2 with the sugar intake. Every kid/adult loves syrup, right? Well we started about 4 years ago serving yogurt on our pancakes. Some do call us weird (uhum...Liz), but it makes me feel a little better about what is going in their mouths (let's get this straight, I am not perfect, we still have honey nut cheerios and frosted mini wheat's on the off days). I am not such a horrible mom that my kids never experience syrup on pancakes, they can have syrup on their last one if they want and lucky me sometimes they don't.
I found this recipe in our a church cookbook that was made last year on using oats.
Enjoy!!
Buttermilk Oat Pancakes
1 c rolled oats
1 c buttermilk
1 c wheat flour *see note at bottom
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons oil
Combine oats and buttermilk, let stand 15 min. Add flour, sugar, baking
powder, baking soda, and salt to oat buttermilk mixture. Mix together the water, egg, maple syrup, and oil. Add wet ingredients to flour/Oat mixture. Stir until blended. You can add more milk or water for consistency Pour on hot
griddle. (I use a 1/3 c batter to pour on griddle).
I 1 1/2 x or 2x this recipe for a family of 2 adults and 3 kids.
*note - with the flour, if I have wheat flour that has been ground from white wheat kernels I do the whole amount with wheat flour. If I only have wheat flour ground from red kernels I add either half or 3/4 wheat flour and half or 1/4 white flour. The taste and texture are just a little more doable for kids this way.
And after my spiel about sugary syrup if you are looking for an amazing syrup for your pancakes try this. Liz sent me the recipe and here is what she said about it.
Here's one more reason to buy buttermilk! I've been out of regular syrup and so I whipped this up this morning and I don't know if Mike will go back to Mrs. Butterworth!
Buttermilk Syrup
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda. Bring to a boil, and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.
Two of my biggest issues with pancakes and well most breakfast food is 1 there are not enough good whole grains and 2 sugar. I don't like to start my kids and myself off with a big heaping amount of sugar. So this recipe certainly solves problem number one. It uses oats and wheat flour and very little oil and buttermilk as actually pretty good for you. It doesn't solve problem number 2 with the sugar intake. Every kid/adult loves syrup, right? Well we started about 4 years ago serving yogurt on our pancakes. Some do call us weird (uhum...Liz), but it makes me feel a little better about what is going in their mouths (let's get this straight, I am not perfect, we still have honey nut cheerios and frosted mini wheat's on the off days). I am not such a horrible mom that my kids never experience syrup on pancakes, they can have syrup on their last one if they want and lucky me sometimes they don't.
I found this recipe in our a church cookbook that was made last year on using oats.
Enjoy!!
Buttermilk Oat Pancakes
1 c rolled oats
1 c buttermilk
1 c wheat flour *see note at bottom
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons oil
Combine oats and buttermilk, let stand 15 min. Add flour, sugar, baking
powder, baking soda, and salt to oat buttermilk mixture. Mix together the water, egg, maple syrup, and oil. Add wet ingredients to flour/Oat mixture. Stir until blended. You can add more milk or water for consistency Pour on hot
griddle. (I use a 1/3 c batter to pour on griddle).
I 1 1/2 x or 2x this recipe for a family of 2 adults and 3 kids.
*note - with the flour, if I have wheat flour that has been ground from white wheat kernels I do the whole amount with wheat flour. If I only have wheat flour ground from red kernels I add either half or 3/4 wheat flour and half or 1/4 white flour. The taste and texture are just a little more doable for kids this way.
And after my spiel about sugary syrup if you are looking for an amazing syrup for your pancakes try this. Liz sent me the recipe and here is what she said about it.
Here's one more reason to buy buttermilk! I've been out of regular syrup and so I whipped this up this morning and I don't know if Mike will go back to Mrs. Butterworth!
Buttermilk Syrup
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda. Bring to a boil, and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.
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