A Year of Baking

It's been a hectic year full of fun, travel, work, play and yet still lots of baking in between. I just haven't taken the extra time to catalog much of it here. I have enjoyed trying all kinds of fun recipes - usually to make something sweet for dessert when we have friends over and sometimes just to try something new.

This past year, I tackled making croissant dough again, piping beautiful pillowy meringue on tarts, decorating holiday cookies with royal icing and a few things in between. Nothing was perfect, but all of it was fun. It was a way to exercise some creative energy, focus on doing something that made me happy and feel good about sharing something with others to enjoy. I often have wondered why I spend hours pouring myself into baking projects in my very little down time, but my sister recently shared this Huff Post article with me where psychologists explain the benefits of baking for other people. It's so true and after what I've been through in life and to help focus on something beyond the daily stresses of work life, baking has been it for me.

I made a few banoffee pies, including this one with the buttery Digestive biscuit crust and chocolate flakes sprinkled on top. 

I love baking with berries and made this blackberry clafouti for dessert one evening. 

We always have this homemade pecan, coconut and dried cherry granola in the house - whether it's to snack on or top our yogurt for breakfast. 

I've always loved lava cakes and tried a new recipe a few times for these molten chocolate cakes. 

In the summer when we were not up for a heavy chocolate dessert, we made homemade ice cream topped with lemon curd, blackberries and homemade candied pistachios. 

In the autumn after we picked apples, I made this tarte aux pommes for a dinner party. 

With my mum from England, I like trying different kinds of scones, so I made these two kinds of fruit scones and several batches of cinnamon chip scones (not pictured). 

 I love making cakes of all kinds for people's birthdays (and even my dog's birthday) I made a few more cakes after the unicorn this past year.  

This was a pumpkin cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting. 

Our dog, Tootsie, turned 13 and reaching that age deserved a two tier cake!

I love sticky toffee pudding and cake and made this amazing sticky toffee cake with caramel sauce and sea salt. 

I have made my own croissant dough before, but this time I tried making pain au chocolat.  Not perfect, but all my work and they sure still tasted good. 

We had extra lemon curd so I made some lemon curd tarts with meringue piped on top. I have made meringue before, but experimented with getting it the right consistency and piping it in different patterns on the tarts.

 We had our annual homemade cinnamon rolls at Thanksgiving and Christmas this year - all cozy by the fire. 

 I also did lots of fireside cookie decorating at the holidays including these snowflakes, ginger people and ornaments with royal icing.  

I had some white chocolate to use and tried these white chocolate blondies with raspberries and cream. 

I took an amazing puff pastry class and made this puff pastry pear tart with caramel sauce. We also made cheese straws and I used the puff pastry I brought home to make chicken pot pie topped with puff pastry. 

There's a lot more baking in store for 2019. I look forward to learning lots more and trying new projects. 

Brioche Loaves

In our household, my husband is usually the one making the bread.  But, I make the brioche.  I haven't made it for a few years though and the last time I made it, I recall it being an easier experience.  Perhaps it was that I had less distractions and was not multi-tasking as much as I seem to be now. 
We bought a loaf (for $11!!) at the farmers market a few weekends ago and I told myself that I would just make it myself next time.  Now, I know why they were selling it for $11 for a small loaf. I think I would sell the loaves I made for $50 as there is a lot of patience, care and TIME that is involved in making it.  It's SOooooo worth it though.

I used the Martha Stewart brioche loaf recipe. However, her recipe didn't indicate how to form the loaves, so while I kneaded the dough, I had fun watching a few brioche fanatics on YouTube.

I made the dough the day before, let it rise a few times and then let it sit overnight. I wasn't able to get to it right away the next day so it was left all day in the refrigerator until I had time to get to it in the evening. So, it was a bit sticky, but I worked with it to see what would come of it anyway.

I made one large loaf and two smaller loaves. One with the balls of brioche dough and one where I braided it slightly.

This is before rising:

And after rising:

(with how sticky the dough is, I was happy it did!)

They baked very nicely and the internal temperature read of 205 degrees was spot on.  While my dough was not as smooth this time, I was really happy with how they turned out (and taste!).  We have had brioche toast, brioche french toast, brioche sandwiches and with the remaining loaf, I'm planning to cut it up in cubes and save it to make stuffing for Thanksgiving.  How decadent will brioche stuffing be?!

Blueberry Muffins

I've typically always enjoyed making blueberry muffins with cornmeal. However, I came across this recipe for blueberry muffins with sour cream and thought I'd try it. I was up before the entire house one morning and started making them for breakfast. 

There's nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of baking. Those are the kinds of memories at home that I want my daughter to remember - waking up to my smile greeting her and the smell of baking on a cozy weekend at home.

Christmas Cinnamon Rolls

It was our third annual Christmas cinnamon rolls and they get better every year. There is nothing better than a cozy home decorated for the holidays and the smell of cinnamon rolls baking. I again followed the Paula Deen cinnamon roll recipe and the dough turned out nicely. I again rolled them using brown sugar instead of white sugar. I did try a lighter cream cheese frosting recipe this year though that turned out even better.

Recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 oz. cream cheese

7 T. unsalted butter, softened

1/2 t. vanilla extract

2 T. milk

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar

1/4 t. salt

Beat together the cream cheese and butter with a mixer until creamy. Mix in vanilla and milk and gradually stir in the powdered sugar and salt until smooth. 

Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

I tasted the best ginger molasses cookie at a cider mill a few years back and have sought the perfect recipe since. As a Christmas gift, a colleague left me a 1/2 dozen cookies in my office and the perfect recipe was found. I profusely thanked them for the cookies and nicely asked for the recipe so I could recreate the gingery goodness myself. I was so appreciative and happy when they simply sent me the link to this amazing recipe. If you want a perfectly balanced ginger molasses cookie with a little spice, a crunch on the outside and chewy on the inside, this Epicurious recipe is the one. It's even worth chopping up the candied ginger into tiny little pieces to get this taste.

Within a few days, I went home to my nice new kitchen to make them prior to Christmas and gifted some to my colleagues at the office so I wouldn't eat them all myself. I don't know about serving them with apples and cheddar as the recipe mentions, but a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee is perfect.

Thanksgiving Baking

While my amazing chef of a husband is preparing the turkey and sides, I was busy doing all the baking for our Thanksgiving meal. For a family of five we had enough pie to last us for a few weeks. We enjoyed a homemade apple pie, pumpkin pie and I also made brioche rolls to have with our feast. I was thoroughly enjoying fall baking in our brand new kitchen even though it was more than we needed.

For the apple pie, I much prefer a crumble topping.  Can't decide between apple pie and apple crumble - make an apple crumble pie!

Recipe for Apple Crumble Pie Topping:

3/4 C. all-purpose flour

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/3 C. brown sugar

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

Mix together the ingredients until combined and crumbly and cover the top of the apples.

I used the Ina Garten mini brioche roll recipe and it was fairly foolproof to make. I could not find my brioche tins anywhere, so I made three small balls of dough to place in each muffin tin. to make the three clover rolls and they turned out quite nice. I had enough brioche to make a few mini loaves and used the extra to make brioche french toast the next morning.