I'm on a Roll!

Bread# 2 is a no knead sourdough recipe.  I'm on a sourdough roll, er I'm having a boule!   Ok all terrible puns aside this one had a much lighter crust and I think I like it better than the painful 24 hour knead by hand version.  It only takes like 4-6 hours and was so easy!







This came from the godfather of no knead bread recipes, Jim Lahey, of the Sullivan Street bakery.   Here's the recipe: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-27/new-york-s-bread-master-teaches-you-how-to-make-easy-sourdough   I didn't have whole wheat flour or bread flour so just used all unbleached AP flour, and I didn't have wheat bran so I used regular flour.   It spread out a bit while I was letting it rise (I was at the park) so when I got back I just had to deal with the fact that it was larger than the pot and it has wrinkles on the sides from where I dropped it in, parchment and all.  I also still cannot get scoring down, but this recipe is a keeper!   Delicious!

My first Sourdough bread

I've been nurturing a starter from a friend since Tuesday and today I've finally had some success with bread.  This loaf was about 24 hours in the making and required a lot of kneading.  I added the salt in a step too soon so I'm wondering if that's what caused me so much kneading and I still didn't get a windowpane.   It was good though!  I'm going to need to figure out a better way since I had to get up at 1AM to shape the loaves due to my getting a late start!   I also need to figure out how to score the bread better, my serrated knife did nothing.

Easter Baking 2018

Has it really been over a year since I've posted anything?   I guess so!  I was busy baking, I made a plain lamb bread, a cranberry pecan lamb bread and a bunny cake for Easter.  Also still proofing is a rosemary garlic bread that I put in the fridge while I went over to my in-laws house for Easter Brunch.   The kids helped me mix up this no knead recipe from Artisan Bread with Steve on YouTube

Artisan Bread with Steve's No Knead bread in a pan

It's so easy I might start making more bread at home!  It just requires patience.

I'm also hoping the techniques will work with the sourdough starter that a friend is giving me.  Hopefully I'll post about that soon :)

More vegan macs with coconut cream ganache

Some pink pandas made from the floral frosting recipe and the honey and butter tutorial on you tube. Baked these for 35 min at 225F turned off oven and left for 15 min.  Per the tutorial at Avocados and Ales The panda feet were slightly stuck to the parchment but the cookies came off fine. Lavender macs made with aquafaba from floral frosting's recipe but baked in a preheated oven at 225 for 25 min and turned off oven and left for 15 additional minutes.
The ganache was made with Trader Joe's coconut milk, one can to approx 3.5 cups of Kirkland chocolate chips which are supposed to be vegan.

For the shells I used 1 can of Trader Joe's garbanzo beans reduced to slightly less than 1/3 cup with Trader Joe's Almond Flour which is really super fine compared to their Almond Meal.

I also used the Floral Frosting tutorial and changed my macronnage technique slightly as per the video. I had to smooth some tops down with a wet finger which took much much longer to dry, by adding sprinkles it was easier to disguise some little piping marks that did not settle down, I added the sprinkles immediately and when the macs were nearly dry I was testing them on the spot that was sticking up and it flattened slightly

Finally I found to dry macs sooner you can preheat your oven to 320 F, then turn it off, open the door and rest the baking tray on the door for 5 min and then rotate for 5 min, this sped up the drying time but still allowed them to have feet, no shells cracked from not having dried enough. Here's the full description from the Kitchen Guardian

Chocolate bunny pound cake

Retro Easter bunny cake with appropriate filter. Made with a recipe from mid century menu.

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Vegan macarons with coconut cream ganache

Vegan macarons with a coconut cream ganache.   Made with aquafaba.   Amazingly I think these are better than my egg white macarons.   I had a little help and used a different oven and parchment paper.   I'm really excited about the possibilities for these gluten free and vegan cookies

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Cookie Monster's Special Cookies and the Sesame Street Cookie Stamper

Recently I fell down the rabbit hole that is google while looking at cookie cutters.  I found a blog post http://www.bitofbyrd.com/2012/03/sesame-street-party-favors.html with the most adorable set of vintage Sesame Street Cookie cutters so I made it my mission to find a set on ebay.  I made cookies for my son's birthday.  Since I learned just about everything there was to know about this rare cookie stamper set from Wilton and Pillsbury, I have discovered that the recipe for Cookie Monster's Special Cookies is no where on the internet.  Seeing as his famous recipe from the Sesame Street Treasury (and other books) is everywhere I thought I'd share this recipe for those of you with a bit of nostalgia for your old set, or those looking for a cinnamon flavored Cookie Monster cookie.

My notes are to use powdered sugar instead of flour when rolling out the cookies, make sure to dust the top surface of the cookie dough in addition to dipping the cutter in powdered sugar between cutting out each cookie. Failure to do so will mean that cookie dough will get caught in the crevices of your cookie stamp and will force you to dig out each sticky bit with a toothpick.  I do not recommend using flour when rolling out the dough.  I tried it on the Oscar cookies and they really tasted of flour after baking, whereas the Count/Cookie Monster/Grover cookies came out with a pleasant sweet cinnamon taste.

These images are hosted on flickr so please feel free to click on the recipe and download a higher resolution file for your baking use.

Grouch Cookies for a Messy themed birthday party

Cookies made with the Sesame Street Cookie Stamper

Cookie Monster looks lovingly on his fresh made cookies

Instructions for the Sesame Street Cookie Stamper

Cookie Monster's Special Cookie Recipe

More instructions, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Baking Time

Final Message from Cookie Monster

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Pumpkin Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches

Check it out! My Pumpkin Waffle Deep Fried Ice Cream Sandwiches were featured both on FoodBeast in the Cravings Section and Instructables in the Food Section!


The Captain's Waffle

Loaded with Deep Fried Ice Cream flavored Deluxe Ice Cream from Ralphs, and made with Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix. An awesome dessert, or an even more incredible Breakfast!
My Waffle

Lighter on the ice cream but sprinkled with large sugar crystals. An incredible crunch on this fall treat!

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Chocolate Cake for the Captain!

Chocolate cake for the captain

A very happy birthday treat for the captain.

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White Peach Yogurt Bundt

A white peach yogurt bundt, modified from this recipe http://aspicyperspective.com/2010/05/farmstand-fresh.html
I love making this cake, it's rich and fruity.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love award-winning Shutterfly photo books. Start your own today.

I've always wanted to write my own book on Macarons but figured it would never happen, but thanks to Shutterfly I've made my own personal book and it looks like the real deal, I can't wait until it gets here :)

Macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies

Macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies


I was really craving chocolate chip cookies so I made these and used the macadamias from the freezer, a long ryone ago I actually peeled and dried and then had shelled some macadamias, but they have been hidden in the freezer forever, still delicious though!

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Dolma

Dolma


I'm not sure where I'm getting these bursts of energy, but when I saw the grapevine had new leaves I decided to make dolma, here it is ready to bake.

Almost done


At this point I thought it was done but I really needed more time, the recipe I used didn't specify a temp so I went with 350 & i should have gone with 450

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Raspberry Lime Rickey Macarons

Raspberry Lime Rickey Macarons


For this month's mac tweets, color my world challenge I made pink and green macs. Usually I don't color my macs so brightly so this was something new to me. I also made the mistake of making two batches (I should have just done one cut in two) so it was a long afternoon/evening of baking! However I'm really pleased with the colorful results!

I sandwiched a chocolate ganache with a tiny bit of raspberry jam which I mixed with lime juice and sugar and powdered sugar. I dubbed these raspberry lime rickey macarons as when I was a small child there was an ice cream shop in my home town (still is) and people would order this raspberry lime soda all the time. I had a blast making these for the Color my world challenge!

Raspberry Lime Rickey Macarons


Side view

Raspberry Lime Rickey Macarons


These were acting like dominos when I set up the photo shoot so i also did one of them fallen down (and added some more to show off the color).

Cornice and mini macs


I couldn't resist making some tiny macs for Cornice and mini Cornice, my pullip and mini pullip dolls.

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Just spotted

Macaron wine


I was shopping at Ralphs and saw both macarons and macaron wine. I might have purchased some macarons but they had no price. I also wanted the wine for after the baby comes but it is a much better deal if you buy 6 bottles and I just had this vision of everyone thinking I was a pregnant wino. I guess I'll have to go back with the captain to buy this later, but I'm thinking of a wine and macaron party after the baby comes and we've had a chance to recover from being zombies.

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Macaron Croquembouche

Macaron Croquembouche


For the PJ crop that I attended on Saturday I made a macaron croquembouche which was filled with a vahlrona chocolate ganache and raspberry preserves.

I have to say these were the best I've ever made, and they were very similar to those I enjoyed in Paris at Pierre Herme...I'm really cracking the code on getting the texture just right.

In the light of day


It's so hard to capture color so I took a photo in the morning before the crop.

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Happy St Paddy's Day

Cherry Almond Scones


It's a day late but I made some scones and couldn't find my round cutter so I used my shamrock cookie cutter. I added some leftover ground almonds from my macaron making and dried bing cherries. Yum!
Happy belated St Patrick's Day!

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Happy Pi Day!

Raspberry Pi Pie Croquembouche


Happy Pi Day! In honor of Pi day (3/14) and for a contest on instructables, I have made a raspberry pi pie croquembouche. I hope everyone enjoys it at the party I'm going to.

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Baby Shower Macs - Macaron Day Challenge

Baby Shower Macs


For the latest mactweets mac challenge I wanted to make a macaron croquembouche, however I struggled with these macs, since it had been so long since I had made any, half of them bled together (piped too much batter) and by the time i got it together some of them started to wrinkle...they were also not the color I'd hoped so I ended up putting them on a pretty cake plate.

ready for my close up


I also had trouble with my ganache, I tried using valrohna chocolate for the first time and it did some weird thing where all the oil separated out from the chocolate, so this is just regular semi sweet chocolate chips...but they tasted just like they should, so perhaps I'll save the croquembouche for another day. Actually I ended up making one out of mini pies for a different celebration instead.

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Fat Tuesday

King cake


We had a potluck at work and I didn't let the fact that I've never even tasted a king cake deter me from making one. It was really easy, the dough is pillsbury crescent rolls and the filling is strawberry pie filling and a cream cheese mix. I couldn't make a g ood purple frosting so I joked with the captain that out kind of looks like a green bay packers cake. Everyone loved it at work and I even hunted down a little plastic baby to bake inside. It was such a hit I made a second, undecorated one last night as the recipe I used only used half a can of pie filling and half a block of cream cheese.

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