My Blogging by Mail package arrived a couple of days ago, all the way from Australia. It was sent by Silver from Dragon Musings, another mom with three young kids. All three of my kids were quite excited to see what was in the package especially since the box was decorated with Winnie the Pooh.
Inside the box were -Tim Tam biscuits, an Australian cookie that I had heard about but never tried. These particular ones are pink inside and only are sold in October. -A large bag of Mixed Berry Brownies. Even though they had traveled for 10 days, they were still very good, brownies definitely travel well. -A bar of Mixed Berry Chocolate and the recipe for the brownies so that I can make them myself -A package of Cadbury chocolates with Australian animals on each wrapper for the kids (Gina loved the picture of the Tasmanian Devil, though she keeps calling it a bear) -A diary for 2009 (this will definitely get a lot of use) -A recipe magazine. I love cooking magazines and can't wait to read this one. -A can of Spam. She had read on my blog that I had never tried Spam so now is my chance.
Thanks again to Silver. I really enjoyed getting this package and I'll be checking out your blog whenever I get a chance.
A while back I came across this group called Baking GALS. It is a group of bloggers who organize bakers to send goodies to soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afganistan. Each group sends to one specific soldier who then shares all the treats with his buddies.
This afternoon I made Blondies with Andrew's help. The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and it is very easy. I had grand plans to make another kind of cookie but that never happened. I did buy lots of other stuff to fill the box and the kids donated their Halloween candy.
In addition to the Blondies pictured below, I also am sending several packs of gum, two bags of peanuts, two packs of dried mango from Trader Joe's, two boxes of granola bars, lots of Halloween candy and today's Sunday edition of the San Jose Mercury News. The box goes in the mail tomorrow.
I needed to bring some kind of treat for Gina's Halloween carnival at school and originally I was going to bake some kind of cookie. Then I saw these cupcakes on a local blog and changed my mind. They are called Tombstone Cupcakes. In the original posting, the cupcakes are black bottom cupcakes while I opted for the Betty Crocker mix this time. I did make my own chocolate frosting. The original posting also used homemade shortbread cookies. I knew I wouldn't have time for that so I bought Oatmeal cranberry Dunker cookies from Trader Joes. They have white chocolate drizzled on them which created a nice effect. I couldn't find chocolate wafer cookies at the store so I used chocolate bunny graham crackers and crushed them finely for the dirt. I also made a few little marshmallow ghosts.
Chocolate Frosting (from alpineberry blog) - I doubled this (makes about 1.5 cups frosting which is enough to frost 12 cupcakes)
2 ounces (4 tbsp / half stick) unsalted butter, softened 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (either natural or Dutch-processed is fine) 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 2-3 tbsp milk or water 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Beat butter and cocoa powder until mixture is soft and well combined. Add the confectioners' sugar, 2 tbsp milk and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Add the last tablespoon of milk if frosting is too stiff.
Once again I'm late doing this challenge and posting about it. This month's challenge was to make pizza dough and then top it with any toppings. Rosa at Rosa's Yummy Yums hosted the challenge and the recipe comes from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. The kids love pizza so this was a good one to try. I haven't made pizza dough before, but it was really easy. I didn't bother with the big mixer, it was easy to mix by hand and then knead until smooth. I did have to plan a bit ahead since the dough needs to rest overnight in the refrigerator and then come out 2hrs before baking. In the past I've used a rolling pin to make pizzas but I decided to try tossing the dough. I wasn't able to get pictures but nothing got dropped. Just stretching it out over two fists got the dough pretty thin in the middle but still round. I used Trader Joe's pizza sauce and cooked up some mushrooms and bacon for the toppings. I used to love having bacon pizza as a kid, it was always a real treat. Gina enjoyed helping put her pizza together. It was definitely a crowd pleaser (there were a few grumbles that we were missing olives) though I would like to try out some different pizza dough recipes to see how they compare.
Has a month gone by already? This months challenge contained no butter, eggs, or cream, very unusual. We were challenged this month to make a vegan dish. Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and co-host Shelly, of Musings From the Fishbowl, chose Lavash Crackers from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread, plus we were asked to make a vegan dip to go with it. I had thought of doing this challenge this past week when I had a meeting to go to, but made something else. I figured I would get to it sometime this weekend, because it isn't quite the end of the month. I was quite surprised to see post about this challenge when I was browsing a few blogs. Today is the deadline??? I guess I should write the deadline on my calendar next time, because I totally missed that it was supposed to be today.
The recipe for the crackers was very straightforward and easy to put together. Gina helped me measured everything out and mixed up the dough. She had fun kneading it and resented it when I insisted that I get a turn at kneading the dough too. I didn't have bread flour so I used all purpose flour. I'm not sure how that changed the texture since I don't have anything to compare it to.
The dough rolled out very easily. I sprinked it with sea salt, cut it into diamonds and baked it for 15 minutes. The middle part was definitely thinner and browned more quickly. The pieces around the edge were thicker and more bread like. After the crackers cooled a little, I broke them apart. Some were very crispy and thin, others were a little thicker and softer, more like pita bread. They were all yummy though.
I didn't have time to make a dip to go with the crackers, but I picked up some hummus from Trader Joe's to go with them. I think all the crackers were gone in about half an hour. I will definitely make this again.
Here is the recipe:
Lavash Crackers
Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers
* 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
* 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
* 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
* 1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar
* 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
* Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings
1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.
2. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Bre … ong-Enough for a discription of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
or
2. For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), and slightly tacky. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).
4. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.
or
4. For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Lay out two sheets of parchment paper. Divide the cracker dough in half and then sandwich the dough between the two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough until it is a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. Slowly peel away the top layer of parchment paper. Then set the bottom layer of parchment paper with the cracker dough on it onto a baking sheet.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).
6. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.
The Omnivore's Hundred is an eclectic and entirely subjective list of 100 items that Andrew Wheeler, co-author of the British food blog Very Good Taste, thinks every omnivore should try at least once in his life.
I've seen it on several blogs now and so here is my version.
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions. 2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. 3) Red text any items that you would never consider eating. I added this next one 4) Italicize items that you think you have had, but you're not sure.
This months Daring Bakers challenge was to make Chocolate Eclairs. It was hosted by Meetak from What's for Lunch Honey and Tony Tahhan. This sounded like a great challenge. I love eclairs for one and the last time I made Pate a choux was when I was about 13 years old. That time I made a ring of dough that puffed up very nicely and then filled it with chocolate mousse. The center of the ring was filled with cut up strawberries. It was delicious!
I had great plans of making the eclairs with a non-chocolate filling and adding in some fresh fruit like bananas, but then the weekend got away from me and I only had time to make the recipe as given.
The dough came together fine. When I got to the point of piping the dough onto baking sheets , I realized the tip that I had was a little on the small side. So I used it and made very petite eclairs. This worked out well since I was planning on taking them to a party that evening. I used a star tip instead of a plain tip and I liked the wavy effect on the finished shells.
I had grand plans of making splitting the pastry cream in half and making one part rum flavored and the other half chocolate, but in the end, I decided the added chocolate gave it a better texture for filling. I still added 2 Tbsp of rum which made it delicious! I had never made pastry cream before, but it turned out very well. Since the recipe uses cornstarch, the filling went from runny to very thick in an instant and I was lucky I didn't over cook it since I was trying to melt the chocolate at the same time (a little step that I had initially overlooked).
For the glaze, I didn't want to deal with the multi-step process that was part of the original recipe since I was running out of time . The original recipe called for making a chocolate sauce that was then incorporated into a glaze with more chocolate. Instead, I made a simple glaze of bittersweet chocolate and cream, heated together to melt the chocolate. It turned out fine and my daughter had fun helping me glaze all the tops while I filled the bottoms with pastry cream. The finished product was wonderful, and was a hit at the party.
I love to cook and read about cooking though I don't cook as much as I used to now that I have three kids. So this blog is an attempt to keep track of what I do cook and how my efforts are received by my sometimes very picky kids. Gina is 7, Andrew is 5 and Dylan is 3.
My Blogging by Mail package arrived a couple of days ago, all the way from Australia. It was sent by Silver from Dragon Musings, another mom with three young kids. All three of my kids were quite excited to see what was in the package especially since the box was decorated with Winnie the Pooh.
