Babka

Week 9

This week's host was Michelle she choose Babka. Recipe on pages 110-120 of our book.

Before we get started I have to give a big thanks to my great neighbor Jen who let me borrow her standing mixer. This recipe noted that kneading the dough by hand was not an option so I was going to sit out this week. :( Low and behold my good friend Jen came to my rescue. Yea, I was looking forward to baking this recipe.

Looks so yummy! Cinnamon, sugar, and nuts for a filling. I can see why she picked it. To start I will comment on the finished product above. The bread picture in our book was nice and round. As you can see my bread didn't turn out that way. I didn't expect it to be perfectly round because the book instructed us to cut the dough into slices and arrange side by side in pan. I do like the design that came out of the oven though, looks unique.

This recipe took two full days to complete from start to finish. WAY to LONG if you ask me. The timeline, on the other hand, made me really excited to eat the bread. On the other other hand, I was nervous to eat. A standing mixer was required because of the high butter content in the bread. Yikes! The recipe also called for one cup of sour cream, not to mention sugar on top and a ton in the middle. Sounds a little to much for me. Putting that aside I slaved over this bread and it smelled really good.

Yes, I know the left loaf looks demented. Of course, I didn't have the proper equipment to make this bread, like the right size pans. So, I improvised and squished them in the two pans I had. 

There it is dough that has been rising for close to 24 hours in the fridge. It said it wasn't supposed to rise much because of the high amount of butter. That didn't make my mouth water when I heard that. Now to roll the dough. This was very difficult because it was so cold and made the dough so hard.. I had my husband do it. (I needed his strong muscles.) After the intense rolling I enjoyed putting fillings on, rolling the dough up, and cutting it into pieces.

I had to laugh at my demented bread! LOL But I thought the other loaf looked pretty, so it made up for the demented on. I covered the breads up in the middle of the baking with tin foil because, as you can see above, they got very dark on the outside very fast. Good thing the recipe warned us of this because I usually don't check my baking in the middle. I set the timer for the lowest amount and wait for the buzzer.

Doesn't look done does it? We ate the ends and then I put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes. Totaled the max amount of minutes for baking this recipe and it was still doughy in the middle. Maybe, that was a user mistake, thinking back to my small bread pans. Well, we'll have to slice and toast before we eat, I guess.

We all had a piece and liked it. . .what's not to like, right. After a piece I could feel the heaviness of the bread.  All I could think of was where is my homemade cinnamon bread. It's lighter, easier to make, and just all around better. They were right, it's a very dense bread and not our favorite but I was happy to give it a try. That's the point of the baking club. This is a recipe that won't be made again.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Let the dough get closer to room temperature before rolling out after it's been in the fridge for a day. This will make the dough easier to work with.
2. Why do all the recipes in this book want us to grease and plastic wrap over bowl to let dough rise? I just use a towel and put in a warmer place.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Week 8

This week's host was ME! I choose to bake Peanut Butter Cookies. Recipe on page 157 of our book.

A couple of weeks ago Jesse hosted the 7 Layer Bars. Before her post she introduced herself and told us Bake 52 group a little about herself and her family. While reading her post it made me feel a little better about our group. It's great to know all of you through baking and it was even better to know a little about Jesse's personal life and maybe more of you to, in the future. So thank-you Jesse. After that being said I will tell you a bit about myself.


I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Moved to Utah to attend LDS Business College where I studied Interior Design. After college I met my husband and got married, had kids, and never left. You know the story. Her I am living in Layton, Utah while the rest of the family is in Canada. That's life, right! I have two kids under three which makes life pretty busy. Not to busy to learn how to bake, which I am sure they are enjoying. My husband is going to school and manages an employment agency while I stay a home with the kiddies. I also do color consultations on the side for fun. Gotta keep some of the schooling up to beat. (LOL) I heard about Bake 52 from my neighbor and good friend Jen Zollinger.You can probably guess that I don't know any of you personally but have had and will continue to get to know all you amazing bakers through this club.
There it is. . . time for my weeks of posting!

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Trying to decide what to bake for my week of hosting, I asked for my hubby's opinion and he suggested cookies. We're the family that has a sweet tooth for cookies. While flipping through all the other amazing goodies in the book I kept going back to the cookie section. I guess you can say that's our favorite treat. Whenever we have a sweet craving it's almost always for soft and chewy homemade cookies. I have been searching for a great Peanut Butter Cookie recipe for years now. I have found a couple that made it to the top three and this is one of them. My only concern is the amount of sugar and butter that it calls for. Although, it does make way more then 24 cookies, so maybe it's not to bad. When I bake them again I will experiment on those ingredients. I am always looking for a way to make my baking a bit more healthier (if that is possible with baking).

HERE WE GO!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2  cups (12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1        teaspoon salt
• 1/2     teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2     teaspoon baking powder
• 16      tablespoons (2sticks) unsalted butter softened
• 1        cup packed (7 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1        cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1        cup extra-crunchy peanut butter
• 2        teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2        large eggs
• 1        cup (5 ounces) dry-roasted salted peanuts, chopped fine

Recipe
 

Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middles positions and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. 

Beat in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. 

I used smooth peanut butter. Only because that is what was in our house. It worked great as, I am sure, crunchy would to.

Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, on at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.

Crushed Peanuts using my blender

  Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chopped peanuts until just incorporated.

Working with 3 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Following the photo, make a  crosshatch design on each cookie with a fork.

I think the ball is about 3 tablespoons. I say this because we had about 50 cookies. In the book their cookies look a normal size but with how much dough the recipe made I don't know how they came up with only 24 cookies. Maybe 24 very large cookies. Oh well. If you don't have a big family you could bake half the dough and freeze the other have so you don't have so many cookies at once.

Bake the cookies until the edges are golden and the centers have puffed and are beginning to deflate, 10 to 12 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. 

I only baked them for 10 minutes. It is so dry in Utah I find that when I bake anything the smallest amount of time suggested is usually plenty.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.


I am very pleased with the outcome. I did choose one of the more simple recipes in the book and lets be honest, you can't really screw up cookies. Especially when we have baked things like cheesecake, Challah, and Quiche that have turned out fabulous.

Don't they look wonderful! That night we enjoyed soft and chewy peanut butter cookies, that the whole family loved. I really enjoyed the crunch of the peanuts used in this recipe.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Enjoy with milk!
2. Who came up with the idea to crosshatch peanut butter cookies? It's great!

Basic Pizza Dough

Week 7

This week's host was Betsy she choose Basic Pizza Dough. Recipe on page 137 of our book. Baking instructions of page 139 of our book. The books baking instructions are for a cheese pizza. I couldn't help but add to the cheese pizza recipe since it looked so boring.

It was a relief to know that this week's recipe choice was something I could make for dinner. (Kill two birds with one stone.) There is something to say about homemade pizza. It always tastes better then take out. It's also not difficult to make and you can personalize it as you please. For me that means, the more vegetables the better.

Making the dough was fairly simple. I choose to do half whole wheat flour in my dough. It makes me happy when recipes have that option because my choice is always to add whole wheat flour. This way I am certain it won't mess up the outcome and taste of the finished product. 

Being a part of this baking club and not having a food processor or stand alone mixer seems to be a problem. I should of for seen this, right? Since the recipe wanted you to use a food processor with dough hooks I had to improvise. That means doing it by hand. I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Then used my hand to mix the dough in the bowl until it all stuck together. After I removed the dough to a floured surface and kneaded until dough was smooth, about 5-10 minutes. After this process I continued to follow the books instructions.

After the dough was finished rising I cut it in half. The recipe made enough for two pizza's, which is to much for our family, so I wrapped half in plastic wrap to freeze. The dough will stay good for up to a month in the freezer. Ya for another quick meal within the next month.

I rolled the dough out into a circle as instructed by the book. Nice circle eh! HA. Then remembered that I didn't have a round stone ware for baking pizza. Hmm. . .

back to a rectangular pizza in a baking pan. Maybe not as pretty as a circle but still tastes the same, right. Obviously I had to re-roll the dough to fit the pan and then use my hand to mold the dough exactly to the rectangular shape of the baking pan. Once that was done I was ready for my sauce a toppings.

SAUCE:  Half a bottle or one small can of store bought pizza sauce of your choice. Two cloves of diced garlic, 1/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce, and mix together.

TOPPINGS: Half of an onion, one green pepper, one tomato, pepperoni, fresh Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.

YUMMY! Time to bake.

Looks great and tasted great to. The crust didn't taste any different from the other pizza dough I make from scratch. That disappointed me. I guess it's because I was expecting something different then the normal, maybe a higher class crust.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Pizza dough isn't very technical as the recipe describes in the book. I felt like it was pretty flexible even though I didn't have all the proper equipment.
2. My crust was not as fluffy and soft as I would of liked. Is that because I didn't have a pizza stone to bake it on?

Challah

Week 6

This week's host was Jennifer she choose Challah. Recipe on page 113 & 114 of our book.

Doesn't that look so yummy! Who doesn't like bread? I ate three pieces right out of the oven. I have never heard of Challah before but it kinda tastes like a sweeter french bread. It also gives a great presentation. I am not a professional but I think it turned out beautiful. The braid, sesame seeds, and contrast from dark to light in the creases is what gives this bread it's own look.

Now to break down my opinions and obstacles about baking this bread.

The recipe indicated that we needed a stand alone mixer. Of course I don't have one, but it's on my wish list. The alternative methods to replace the stand alone mixer were to use a food processor or hand mix. I don't have a food processor either and the hand mixing method was not very intriguing. As you can see, in the picture above, I decided to try my dough hooks on my electric hand mixer. Lets see. . . that was joke. The problem with this method is part of the dough clung to the hooks, then worked it's way to the top,  stayed there leaving the rest of the dough unmixed, and the other part spinning round and round the dough hooks. Who ever thought of this invention wasn't to brilliant or I am doing something wrong when mixing.

As you can see I had no choice but to revert back to the hand mixing method. It wasn't that bad as expected. In fact it was easy. It suggested to knead the dough for 15-25 minutes till it was smooth and elastic. By 15 minutes or less my dough was smooth and elastic. There you go, don't be intimated by getting your hands in the dough once in a while.

P.S. My two year old took the picture above. Good job eh.

After the dough rises for about a hour and a half or so. You get to braid the dough. Fun! One larger and one smaller. As you can see my larger one is a lot more prettier then the smaller. Thanks Jen for giving us a heads up to not flour the surface very much while rolling your ropes. This dough didn't stick to the counter at all for me, which I am happy about. Also, adding more flour just made the dough more rough until you kneaded it all the way in. To get that great shape you saw earlier you simply place the braids on top of each other.

I really only had one problem. Last week we were told to line the baking dish with foil and I choose not to.  Still don't know if the bubbling of the milk was because I skipped this step or not. This week I wasn't about to skip any steps. The recipe said to line the baking sheet with parchment paper, so I did, as you can see the wax paper stuck to the bottom of the bread. No fun to get off! I think it would of been better if I just greased the baking sheet instead. The thing is I baked the bread for 26 minutes and at that time it was done, maybe a little to done. The recipe said to bake the bread for 30 to 40 minutes, so why at 26 minutes did my bread bottom stick?

It all turned out in the end. The bread was a success as you can see. Ha ha it wasn't gone that fast but it was sure that good. I loved the crunchy outside and soft inside.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Don't let the bread cool for two hours if you want to eat a warm slice out of the oven.
2. What does everyone like to put on their Challah homemade bread?

7 Layer Bars

Week 5

This week's host was Jesse she choose 7 Layer Bars. Recipe on page 215 of our book.

Yummy Bars! I love bars. All the ingredients to this recipe looked so yummy. Chocolate, toffee, toasted coconut, and toasted pecans with a graham cracker crust. How could they not taste good. I have been under the weather this week with a bad cold so I procrastinated baking until last night.

I bet your are looking at the picture above wondering why it bubbled and skinned. That is the sweeten condensed milk. When milk gets to hot a layer of skin is formed on the top. That is what happened to my bars accept it wouldn't peel off. I also think the milk didn't drain down into the bar like it appears to do in the picture of our book. The only solution to my baking problem is that the recipe said to line the baking dish with tin foil. As you can see I skipped that step. I guess my thought was, it wouldn't make a difference . To give myself the benefit of the doubt I was sick with a cold which made my head all foggy, so I wasn't thinking clearly.

Bake 52 group: What did your bars do?

Overall the bars tasted good but a little to sweet for my taste buds. 

There is one other thing I did differently. The recipe called for milk chocolate to be melted a spread over the graham cracker crust. I used dark chocolate chips instead. Then used them again later in the layering of the bar which the recipe called for. I don't think that made a difference. Chocolate chips are chocolate, right.

Note: I had to use dark chocolate of course! There is nothing better then the bittersweet taste of really dark chocolate.

A Tip & A Question:

1. When baking something new always follow the recipe exactly. Unless you are a professional baker.
2. What does lining a pan with tin foil do to baking other then save you from cleaning a big mess?