New Year's Resolution take 4: Sugar on top!

I'm back!!! 

The reason I haven't been blogging is I started to feel very guilty that I was baking all these awesome desserts that my husband with Diabetes shouldn't be eating. I still baked, but it was mostly for holidays, potlucks or I brought the sweet stuff to work (much to the frustration of those dieting).

I toyed with making sugar-free desserts, but I had a big problem. I don't like fake sugar and it doesn't like me back. I find most alternative sweeteners to be disgusting/icky after taste, make my stomach hurt and/or they give me a migraine. 

So I'm taking the middle road. My New Year's baking resolution for 2016 is to make desserts that are (mostly) sweetened with fruit and to make it taste amazing, put a little of something sugary-sweet on the top!

I started my new journey with Banana Oat Bars. (click the link for the recipe) The recipe recommends some optional mix-ins. I choose to add ground walnuts to the batter for some protein (carbs+protein is a good plan for anyone with blood sugar issues) and my sugar-on-top ingredient was mini chocolate chips.

The recipe can easily be adjusted to be made paleo, kosher parve, vegan, gluten free and nut free. You could also skip my sugar-on-top option and be on the clean-eating wagon. Whatever works for you.

The reason to make these bars:
1. I could give them to my kids for breakfast -- guilt free!
2. They tasted like gooey banana bread. Nuff said.

Now Bake That!

Blazing hot blueberries

Another month, another type of donut. At the end of July, I wanted something summer-y. Seasonal. I selected sour cream-blueberry drops. I know, "drops" sound like candy or cookies. Really they are donut holes. Blueberry filled, cinnamon flavored donut holes.

Like last month, I used the recipe book: Donuts by Elinor Klivans. 

I had some issues with the dough. It ended up really dry. I just mixed in some milk until the dough was not so dry. Actually, the dough was super sticky. I tried to use a metal spoon to scoop it out as directed, but found it easier to use a cookie sized, ice cream scoop. You shove three blueberries in the middle, making sure the dough completely covers the blueberries so they don't make a suicide jump into the oil while you fry them.
Then pop them in the oil for a little swim and afterwards, sprinkle them in powdered sugar.

They ended up absolutely fantastic, but just to warn you….the blueberries are blazing hot! Like little blue fire bombs. When you get over burning the roof of your mouth, they tasted like sweet, fried, blueberry muffins. 

I made a batch of plain ones next and they were excellent too. Then I figured cinnamon flavor would be really good with butterscotch chips. The next batch I traded out the blueberries in one batch. You guessed it. Blazing hot butterscotch! Also amazing.

Now Bake That!

Hush up for hush puppies!

I know that hush puppies are not *technically* donuts. If you haven't guessed so far, I do take family requests for food to heart. So when my husband asked for hush puppies, I couldn't, just couldn't, say no.

Though I don't agree with her personal/political views, Paula Deen does know how to make something fried. I used her Hush Puppies recipe off the Food Network website. 

They were okay. I don't think it was the recipe. I think I just don't like onions in my cornmeal. I also thought they could be more crispy. Next time I will make them smaller and forget the onions.

Now Bake That!

Long John Junior Bacon

Once again, Saveur magazine was my guide to this month's donut adventure. I made mini Long Johns with bacon or... 

Long John Junior Bacon! Sounds like something I would get at Jack n' the Box or something.

I hear you ask, why mini? Simple. I wanted to try them various ways. Some with custard filling, some without, some glazed with chocolate, some with maple glaze, some with bacon, and some without. 

First things first: THEY WERE AMAZING. I was very sad when I realized that I was done making them. Second, I can't think of one good reason not to put bacon on them. Even if you have to have turkey bacon, tofu bacon or kosher beef bacon, they were perfect perched on top of the donut. Crunchy, salty with sweet and chewy.

As for the recipe, it was a little weird compared to other recipes so far. I had to melt crisco with boiling water. I also used a whole packet of yeast, which seemed like a lot for a batch of donuts. They didn't even rise that much. I only use one teaspoon with several of my bread recipes and it turns out great. I'm thinking I can cut back on the yeast for  raised donuts too. 

The best tip was for how to fill the donuts. I used a skewer and poked two holes on opposite sides of the donut, pushing the dough inside to the edges to make a well. Instead of using a pastry bag to pipe in the filling, I used my cookie press with the decorating tips. The press looks like a caulk gun. Not just for bathrooms boys and girls! Anyway, the main reason I use the press is I think makes it easier to control. In addition, I'm a mom of boys, it is just a whole lot of fun to shoot food from a caulk gun.

The Maple Glaze recipe was also from another section of the very same Saveur magazine. My glaze turned out paler compared to the picture in the magazine, so I must of did a poor measuring job or something. Not that it mattered, it was still delicious. The maple flavor is subtle. It is more of a maple aftertaste, which was perfect with the bacon! Didn't overpower it. Just FYI, the recipe makes a lot of glaze.

My friend and I brainstormed other good uses for that leftover maple glaze. She came up with cinnamon rolls, french toast or drizzled on bread pudding. All wonderful ideas. I just grabbed some graham crackers I gave those a whirl. They were yummy.

Now Bake That!

New Year's Resolution Take 3: Donuts!

Last week I was wondering if I should bother doing another baking quest, I kept missing months. I had a really tough and busy year in all areas of my life. I wasn't sure if I should bother.

Then I got pumped up again. Several friends asked me about what I was going to make this year. Strangers asked me if I had a New Year's resolutions and I found myself on the "no resolutions but learn a new skill" soapbox. Of course, we all should keep working on being healthier and give up bad habits. It's just not as fun or delicious! So I'm sticking to my ongoing baking quest even though I really struggled this year fitting in the time to do it.

The tough part was figuring out what to make. I like to pick stuff that I struggle with or have no clue where to begin. I was considering layer cakes (like fancy ones or the ones that a Grandma would make), pastries, bars or donuts. I narrowed it down to donuts and cake. I was still torn.

I did an informal poll amongst my friends via text message and Facebook to help me decide. 
Drum roll....

I'm making donuts for 2014!

Right now I drive 15 minutes to get decent donuts from one of those little mom and pop places called Baker's Dozen in Overland, Missouri (they don't have a website). Ya know...where it's owned by local. Where the only other thing they sell are beverages. No barista with multiple sentence, complicated orders. It's coffee (regular and decaf) and a refrigerated case with soda, juice and milk. Most importantly, they have real donuts. Crispy on the outside, tender and fluffy on the inside. Not greasy. The kind I want to know how to make. 

Cake donuts. Raised Donuts. Fritters. Iced. Glazed. Sprinkled. Sugar coated. Spiced. Savory with sweet.

I have tried homemade donuts only once before. I made them for Chanukah years ago. I used vegetable oil and fried them in a dutch oven on my stovetop with a candy thermometer. I struggled keeping the temperature constant. The oil got too hot at some point and it broke my candy thermometer.  They also had a weird vegetable oil aftertaste. The kind that coats your tongue in a gross way. 

My plan is to make donuts that would make Homer Simpson murmur dreamily (mmm. Donuts). I had a couple of things to figure out first.

Deep fat fryer
I need to make sure I don't have to worry about stocking up on candy thermometers. I did a little research on the best fryers thanks to an article in March 2013's edition of Saveur which did a whole feature on donuts. Then armed with coupons we bought the Waring Pro at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Different oil
I want to get rid of that greasy aftertaste. Saveur listed several to try (Canola, Safflower, Peanut). I am going to try them and figure out my favorite. 

Attempt 1: Top Pot Sour Cream Old Fashioned Donuts
I found the recipe on The Messy Baker's blog. I made a couple of adjustments. I tried them with peanut oil. Instead of rolling them out, I hand shaped them (Saveur tip) so they wouldn't be too tough. 

I made them unglazed, with chocolate icing and sprinkles (my youngest's preference) and regular vanilla glaze.

Honestly, I thought they were just okay. The good news is that they weren't greasy. What was wrong though? I don't know if it was the nutty flavor of the peanut oil that I didn't like. Perhaps it was because I found the crispy outside-fluffy inside ratio was off (too crispy). I might have cooked them too long. Or even though I didn't roll them out, they seemed sort of tough. I also didn't get the glaze right. It wasn't translucent. Anyway, I have all year to figure it out.

However, my husband liked the crunchiness. My youngest gave them a 7 (out of 10). So not bad for a first try.

Now Bake That! (or fry it)

Slightly sour December

Well not quite "December". I'm a few days late. Sorry readers! Anyway.

Sourdough bread. It seems intimidating. In fact, it's been so intimidating that I have been putting it off all year. So I decided I need to find a simple version of it. I found it....Alton Brown's Knead Not Sourdough!

The lack of kneading wasn't what attracted me to the recipe. My 6qt Kitchenaid mixer is my iron work horse. It's the lack of complicated, multiple steps that drew me in. You mix it and leave it on the counter for 19 hours.  Then roll it a little in some flour and let rise it again in a tea towel. Since I just got home from holiday traveling and I'm behind on my deadline, sign me up for simple and easy!

This is what it looked like after resting for 19 hours. Super bubbly.

Okay, it wasn't with some, um, issues. You have to preheat a dutch oven and then pull it out and slide the fermented dough in it. It stuck on an edge and I decided to give it a quick shake to get it in. I forgot to use hot pads. Oops! I burnt my thumb and finger. Burn gel, five bandaids later and a set of latex gloves and I was ready to keep on going.  

Now I did one extra trick, which I learned from making ciabatta. The bread is first baked with dutch oven's cover on. Then you uncover it for the last 15 minutes of baking. When I uncovered it (with hot pads on this time), I sprayed my oven walls with water using a squirt gun to create steam and to make that crispy crust. 
Here are the results:


The squirt gun trick worked. The crust was crispy and chewy and the insides fluffy.

My husband said it was amazing! He also warned me that the loaf might be "missing" in the morning. 

Compared to sourdough I have had other places it didn't have a super strong sourdough flavor. Probably because it wasn't made from an aged starter. Slightly sour worked just fine though because it tasted amazing to me too!

Now Bake That!

Breakfast bread: English muffins

Okay, I missed both September and October. We were out of town way too much. There was just no way. No way at all! Anyway...on to November.

I love breakfast for dinner. Since I work, I usually cram a yogurt and a bar for breakfast during the week and then weekends get crazy with the kids' activities. This leaves little time for a real breakfast. You know. Real.

So one weekend night I made English muffins. I know it says "muffins" which is not what you think of when someone says they are making bread, but it uses yeast. So it's bread enough for this quest. I got the recipe from Alton Brown.

It was interesting to pan fry the dough before putting them in the oven for the rest of the baking process. You have to be careful and watch them when frying. The cornmeal can burn quickly.

After we made the muffins, we made eggs and built sandwiches. So awesome I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the sandwich. They were gobbled up so fast!

Now Bake That!

Parker house roll sliders

I missed June due to out of town guests and travel. No worries right? We were having an impromptu party for the 4th of July. We were grilling sliders so I decided to make rolls that could be used as buns. I used this from Baking Illustrated cookbook, which I won't violate copyright law to reprint on my blog. However, you can also find the recipe here via Bobby Flay on the Food network website.

They were excellent! Super buttery and yummy.

Now bake that!

Braiding brioche

This month I chose to try: Brioche. Looking at the recipe itself, it looks like fancy schmancy challah really...with butter.

I admit it. The only reason I made brioche is so I can make it into something else...

Now the tricky part was how to shape it. There were all sorts of options. Put it in a loaf pan, shaped pan, etc. I decided to go easy. I braid challah in a round for Rosh Hashana so I did the same for the brioche. 

So pretty!

It made killer french toast.

It also was incredible for bread pudding, which became my husband's birthday dessert (he doesn't care for cake).

Now bake that!

All booked up

One of my co-workers is retiring. She is the librarian for our Assistive Technology-Instructional Materials library at the Special Education collaborative I work for.

Not only is my friend super amazing, we spent some fun times outside of work going swing dancing so I wanted to do something extra, extra special for her retirement. It helped that we had two parties for her.

Our first party was at the office. I made her a Kransekaka (I have made it before, see the link here for Rings of Glory for more information). I tried a different recipe, nearly identical to this link from Artic Grub.

The difference from the online recipe is that I made chocolate icing and put on little flower shaped sprinkles. Traditionally you put a bottle of wine inside. But I didn't want anyone to get in trouble at work, so there is a small bottle of lemon flavored Perrier inside.

Later in the month we had a party outside of work at a local bar and grill. Here is where I got more creative. Since she is a librarian, I made books on a stick!

Here is how I made them:

1. I made a from scratch, yellow cake in a cookie sheet (or jelly roll pan, which is what we called them growing up) and cut them into rectangles




2. I melted a few candy melts in a bowl. I dipped the sticks into the candy and then poked
the rectangles. I froze the cake pops for 30 minutes.
 

3. I dipped the cake pops in white candy melts and let them dry. Sorry no picture of that.

4. Then I cut the sugar sheets into rectangles with a kitchen scissors.


I wrote on a few of the sugar sheet rectangles with Wilton writing pens (food coloring). Treating the candy melts like glue, I spread a little of melted candy on the cake pop. I wrapped the cut sugar sheet around the cake pop like a book cover.

 

5. Then I rolled out some shape-n-amaze edible dough and cut out book mark shapes with a knife. I used a little melted candy as glue again to keep the bookmark on the cake pop.

Ta-da!

Then I ran out of sugar sheets! Here is the bad part about baking at 11pm at night. No store with sugar sheets would be open. So I had to improvise. I rolled out some of the shape and amaze and used it as book covers. I used scraps of yellow sugar sheets to make yellow bookmarks.

The best was that my friend LOVED the the cake pops and they were completely personalized to her.

Now Bake That!

Crazy Creepin' Creeper Cake Pops

There is something you should know about most boys I know under the age of twelve. They're all addicted. 

To Minecraft. 

Yep. That fuzzy block shaped, animated video game featuring Lego inspired robots, sheep, spiders, diamond swords and creepers has invaded my life. It is on my phone, my husband's phone, my iPad, my husband's iPad, my laptop and our Xbox. The only good part of this game is now my youngest child has something in common with his cousin who lives two states away, whom he sees only once a year and is five years older than him. These two boys talked two hours about Minecraft. Whoa.

My oldest child was turning ten this year. He chose to have his first sleep over birthday party this year. The theme was of course...video games. Not that it was really a theme, just justification for creeper cake pops. After some surfing on google images, I made my own.

 

Molded cake pops are my second choice. I prefer cutting my cake into shapes. I baked a from scratch yellow cake and using a ruler, cut cubes.

  

 2. I melted a handful of candy melts from Wilton and dipped each stick into the cake. I froze the cake pop in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then I melted the rest of the green candy melts. I dipped and then let it dry.


3. Then came the conundrum. How do I get the faces on there? I tried two methods using Wilton products: Shape-n-Amaze and Cookie icing in a glue shaped bottle. I actually thought the cookie icing looked nicer (it was shiny). However, the Shape-n-Amaze was far easier to do, so I went with that for the rest of the cake pops.

I don't know why I fussed. The kids didn't care. They were thrilled they were creepers!

Now Bake That!
  



 

Stick it!

My son had his first baseball game today. 

So in honor of all 7 year olds trying to bat with a machine pitcher, I made soft pretzels for April's bread baking adventure!

I used a recipe I had my eye on for awhile from Cook's Illustrated, soft pretzels. However, if you don't get Cook's Illustrated or have the Baking Illustrated cookbook, I searched and found a similar recipe on about.com Homemade soft pretzel bites. The main difference in the recipe is Cook's Illustrated used honey instead of sugar and some of the quantities are different.

Anyway, I prefer pretzel sticks. So instead of rolling into snakes and making knots, I just cut the dough in 12 pieces and stretched it out before boiling. I made cheese sauce from velveeta and milk. Basically the same sauce on the box for Mac n' cheese.

My parents were visiting from Minnesota and were super happy to help trying them out. They were awesome!

Now Bake That!

Sweet abandonment

My husband games. He plays video games. He does role playing online computer games. He plays card games and occasionally a board game or chess. And as geeky as it sounds, Dungeon and Dragons. Or something like it. The cool thing about him gaming is he comes home in a good mood. Not the "Packers-just-won-a- football-game-exuberant-happiness" mood... but rather chipper.  It's also an excuse for me to bake! He has taken various treats to this group, bringing me back empty or nearly empty containers.

We both got out of work late so I was rushing around when he got home. Unfortunately he was home for just a few minutes before declaring he only had 15 more minutes before he had to leave again. I panicked. I was only half way into my new recipe I just found for Caramel Butter Bars. I quickly whipped up a pan of rice krispie treats made with homemade marshmallows (I had made marshmallows last week for s'mores). My husband took the rice krispie treats and I was abandoned with an entire pan of these sweet beauties:

You know it smells good if I couldn't wait to eat one before snapping a picture.

Note: I left out the sea salt by accident. They were wonderful even without that added complexity. Well there was an entire pound of butter in it, so it was destined for yumminess.

Now Bake That!

Biga deal

I've been playing it safe by making easy recipes. As my co-worker says, it was time to put on my big girl boots. I had to push my skills forward. Even if I had to throw away bread.

I picked an intermediate recipe from a book I got as a gift from my mother-in-law by Maggie Glezer: Artisan Baking. It's an excellent book but the recipes are intimidating. I had tried a beginner recipe in the past for Bialy and it took me awhile to feel comfortable with the recipe. 

This recipe for Ciabatta was two full, oversized pages. And that was after three pages of introductory information. I was freaked out. I was going to try to make a pre-ferment called a Biga. Which is like a sourdough starter but uses store bought yeast, not sourdough yeast. Whatever sourdough yeast is. According to Ms. Glezer, there are five different kinds of pre-ferments: poolish, scrap dough, biga, sponge and mixed starter. Some are Polish, some are Italian, and some are French in origin. Whatever. I love Ciabatta so I will do what I need to do.

The purpose of the pre-ferment is to have flavorful bread without additives. 
The biga is made up of several kinds of flour, yeast, and water. It's super stiff and kneading it was difficulty. Like a trying to knead sticky silly putty. You cover it up and it rises (aka ferments) for 24 hours.

I let my bread rise in one of two places: my oven with the oven light on and that I preheated for a few moments to 100 degrees and then turned off (I use a thermometer. I try to get it around 75 degrees) OR my laundry closet with the pocket doors closed and when the dryer is going. I chose the oven this time for most of the job and planned on switching to the laundry closet if necessary. I was worried that I would forget about my poor biga sitting in my oven for a whole day. What if I wanted to bake a pizza or something and forgot about the sleeping biga? I wrote myself a note on a sticky, "Mind the Biga". Paranoia isn't all bad. Who wants to cook dough in a mixing bowl with press and seal and a kitchen towel? 



After that full day of rising, it is time for step two. In a mixer you add more flour, yeast, salt and water and mix it with the biga. The dough that is created is the opposite of the biga. This is a wet dough. Wetter than anything I've used before. You scrape it out and wrap it up again and let it rise again for another 4 hours. However, it's not like making the biga, where you mix it up and leave it. It's a needy dough. I have to pull out of the bowl, all gooey and stretch it and fold it up like a piece of paper. It's called turning the dough.  Turning is instead of "punching down the dough". The purpose is to develop gluten. 

You do it four times, twenty minutes apart and when you are done it rests for the rest of the rise time. I was worried though. The directions said that the dough would stiffen up a bit with turning and it didn't. It still seemed just as soft and sticky to me. Maybe I let it rise too long (over-ferment)! It was the one thing in the pages of background info that you had to watch out for.

After all that fun it almost fills up my huge bowl and has some giant bubbles.

I had no idea that the bread is going to be huge. I was worried it wouldn't fit on my baking stone or while it baked it would fill up my oven and shove out the edges like a cartoon. I put it in the oven anyways. I wanted a crispy crust. I pulled a trick I learned from making baguettes, which was putting a pan of water underneath and spraying water on the walls of my oven.

My worries about over-fermenting were unfounded. The outcome was fantastic!

Crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Biga success!

Now Bake That!

Choly Challah Batman!

When my kids were born, I started buying challah nearly every week. We would use it to celebrate Shabbat on Friday night and then eat amazing french toast or grilled cheese the next day. I normally bought the challah from a local bakery. I would reserve it ahead of time because they ran out so frequently. Then one day in 2007, I forgot to reserve one and arrived at the store too late. I went to a grocery store and they were out of it too. Then I tried for the local kosher bakery and they were closed! (They moved to a new location but of course didn't write it on the sign on the door). Arrgh!!

Clearly the universe was trying to tell me something.

I started to drive to another store. Then I had an idea at the red light (My husband likes to call these vehicular epiphanies). I said to myself, "Screw it!! I have a package of yeast at home. I'll just go make it." 

It was the best thing I ever did.

From then on, I made it several times a month. I swear our friends agree to come over for dinner on a Friday just to have some fresh out of the oven. I use it as currency for my neighbor who helps put our kids on the bus in the morning. My challah obsession is why I picked bread as my year long baking quest this year. It's the only bread I know how to make and I just had to push the envelope. So even though I am going to make a new recipe each month, I had to blog about my recent challah story because I did something I never thought I would do. 

I made 12 loaves. In one day.

Oy.

I made it for my bus-helping neighbor's daughter's wedding. I used my neighbor's double oven as well as the one I had at home. That meant I was walking back and forth with dough and bread on my street. I'm sure it looked weird.

They turned out pretty! They were even prettier at the wedding reception.

About baking supplies: You can do this receipe without fancy stuff. However, I have had my best results using some toys. Consider getting a kitchen scale, parchment paper, a square shaped pizza stone, King Arthur Bread Flour, a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, Pampered Chef adjustable measuring cup (for the honey), and a candy thermometer. If you are using a stand mixer, read the manufacturer's instructions to find out the setting and time for using the dough hook. My 6 qt Professional Kitchen Aid kneads on setting 2 for two minutes.


Recipe:

Betsy's Challah
*makes two small loaves
1/4c water between 105-110 degrees
1 tsp quick acting yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/3 c honey
2 eggs
600g of bread flour (4 cups)
10g kosher salt (roughly 1 1/2 tsp)
1/2 c warm water
Additional flour for kneading
1 egg 
1 tsp water

Using a candy thermometer run the water in your sink until the it reaches between 105-110 degrees. Measure quarter of a cup of water and stir in yeast and sugar. Set aside and allow to get bubbly, about 5 minutes. While the yeast is waking up, work on the rest of the dough. Using a kitchen scale and a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, measure and pour in oil, eggs, honey, flour and salt into the mixer bowl. When the yeast mixture is completed, start your mixer on the lowest setting. While its running, pour in the yeast mixture and then the other 1/2 cup of warm water. Turn the mixer up a level (mine is level 2 for kneading bread) and knead for 2 minutes (or what your mixer's instructions suggest). Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and/or cover with a towel. Place in a warm area to rise for 1 1/2 hours (I put mine in the oven with a pan of hot water in it.) Punch down the dough and let rest for 10 more minutes. Turn the dough on a floured surface again and divide into 6 pieces. Braid three pieces at a time making two small loaves. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Either place in the fridge overnight or back into the warm place for 45 minutes. 

30 minutes before you are going to bake, place a small pan of water in the oven (I put it on the bottom rack). Place the pizza stone in the oven on the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you used the fridge to do the second rise, pull the baking sheet out of the fridge and place it on the counter while the oven preheats. Whisk together 1 egg and 1 tsp of water. Brush onto both loaves. Using the parchment paper, slide the dough onto the stone (you can bake it on the paper). Bake for 30-35 minutes. The loaves should be golden brown and sound hollow when you tap them.



 
Notes:
No stand mixer? Work on your arm muscles and knead the bread for 10 minutes.
No pizza stone? It's okay to bake it on a baking sheet. 
No parchment paper? Grease the pan with vegetable oil or use non-stick spray.
No King Arthur Flour? You can use unbleached all-purpose or a different brand of bread flour.
No adjustable measuring cup? Enjoy cleaning the honey stickiness!
Want to make dinner rolls instead of loaves? This recipe will make 18-20, 2 ounce rolls. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now Bake That!
 

New Years Take 2: The Yeast Beast

This year my New Year's Resolution is (drumroll)....to tame the yeast beast!

Yeah, you know what I mean! 

BREAD!

This means once a month I am going to try a new bread recipe. Like my pie challenge, I'm not a true nube to bread making. I make Challah, Bialy and on occasion, pizza. But mostly I make Challah. Typically I do it Thursday night and let it do its second rise in my second fridge. When I escape work Friday, I do not open my garage door and promptly slip into the suburban mom uniform (yoga pants and a cotton T while holding a Starbucks/red wine). 
I put my pizza stone in the oven and start preheating. 
And when its all in the oven....then I put on those yoga pants. They're just so comfy!

As awesome as my Challah is, I'm well aware that I am still just making beginner stuff. I wanted a challenge again. Making pies was like doing a half marathon. Bread making will be like a full marathon. Except with a stand mixer and wearing Danskos clogs.

To get ready for this crazy project, I attempted to plan ahead. When I was at my in-laws during winter break I dug through my mother in-laws cookbooks. She has four shelves of cookbooks. Two books deep. I found several books and then I started read. Then I started to freak. What is a biga anyways? A poolish? Ferment? Sponge? Starter?

Wednesday Thursday Friday! (WTF) 

What did I get myself into? I decided to be kind with myself and start with something my level and move from there.

Recipe:
Eat Well Baguettes 

I didn't have fancy baguette pans. So like any good Occupational Therapist, I made them out of whatever was nearby: aluminum foil. Not just for tin foil hats anymore folks! I shaped them and placed it on a piece of parchment paper for easy sliding on the pizza stone later.

They worked. 

Sorta.

Here are my baguettes after its second rise before I slashed them. 

I go to slide the production onto the pizza stone and the baguette in the back tumbles onto the lower rack of my oven. Eek! I rescue it, figuring it just has a more rustic look. 

Here is how they looked after baking:

Funny thing is you can tell the one on the left looks a better than the other two, even though it took a tumble.


The problem with my homemade pan? I didn't spray them or sprinkle them with flour or line them with parchment paper. They stuck to the bread. I had to peel the foil off the bread like those annoying wrappers that encase laffy taffy candies.

I'm buying a real baguette pan next time.


I ate some bread straight out of the oven with a wee bit of butter. They were great! Then I used it to make meatball subs for dinner. My oldest child loves meatball subs.

Now I can make a sub sandwich 500 times better than Subway.

Now Bake That!

The key to my finale: Key Lime Pie

My last pie for 2012: Key Lime. It's my husband's favorite. Plus it seemed right to start with a citrus cream pie and end with one. 

I broke the "rules". Many baking experts say if you are making something for the first time, follow the recipe perfectly and then tweak from there. I looked at five different recipes online and just made it up. My hunches on the quantities worked out and it tasted amazing.

The whipped topping is a little free style. To get the canned whipped cream look, I put my home made whipped topping in my cookie press with a pastry tip. Anything that shoots out whipped cream by a trigger gets any child's attention. My oldest son (who is 9 and a budding foodie) begged me to let him help. Honestly, I got a little frustrated with him at first because he wanted the whipped cream to be a gigantic mound, but we negotiated the design and it turned out pretty.

Recipe below. Note we like our citrus pies a little on the tart side. If you like things really tart, I recommend only putting whipped cream on the edge and increase the zest to 2 tbsp. If you like your key lime pie a little sweet, I would increase the sugar in the crust to 1/2 cup and omit the zest. I use a glass 10" pie pan, so if your pan is smaller, you will need to adjust the amounts.

Thanks to everyone who helped and supported me with my New Year's resolution to make a pie a month. It's been a blast!

Betsy's Key Lime Pie
crust:
2 sleeves graham crackers
1/4 c sugar
1 stick butter, melted
filling:
2 egg yolks
2, 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c sour cream
1 tbsp key lime zest
1 c key lime juice (about 40-45 limes)
topping:
1 c whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crust: Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Grease a 10" pie pan with PAM and wipe off excess spray. Break the crackers into chunks in a food processor. Pulse until crackers are crumbs. Add sugar and pulse a few times. While the processor is running, pour in the melted butter until it looks like wet sand. Press crust into pan and bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool completely before filling.

Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Mix egg yolks, condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and zest in a bowl with a whisk until completely blended. Pour into cooled crust and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour and then put the pie in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours until chilled through.

Topping: Mix whipping cream, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Beat on high with an electric mixer until peaks form. Either place in a pastry bag/cookie press with a fluted pastry tip or spread on the top of the pie. 


Now Bake That!