This week’s Baked Sunday Mornings selection was Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Budino, which is essentially a fancy name for pudding. However, I did not make it. Instead, I made another dessert in the pudding/custard family that I had missed back in January, Malted Milk Chocolate Pots de Crème. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: desserts that do not pair well with ice cream are generally not requested by Josh, so I do not make too many of them. Of the two, I thought the pots de crème may be better received. I can’t say for certain that Josh wouldn’t have liked the pudding, but I can say that these creamy cups of chocolate decadence were quite a hit here.
This recipe called for milk chocolate, and with very few exceptions, such as m&m's, we definitely prefer dark chocolate and I almost always sub a darker chocolate for milk. I think the Baked boys may have me sold on milk chocolate in the appropriate contexts, though, as the pots de crème were just perfect. It probably helped that I used a high quality chocolate (they had one ounce bars of Valrhona chocolate at Trader Joe’s and I bought two to make a half recipe of the pots de crème).
You can find this fabulous, not to mention both easy and impressive, recipe here on the Baked Sunday Mornings site and this week’s actual pudding recipe can be found here.
I have been looking for ways to fit more hours into a day. Unfortunately, since that is seemingly impossible, I have taken it upon myself to make the most out of the twenty four hours a day we have. I had always been an evening exerciser; however, I have been transitioning to morning workouts (though I do still like to run with Josh and Eloise some nights). As a result, I have more time in the evening to make dinner and hang out with Josh and Eloise, which is awesome. Another result? I wake up early almost all the time now, and when I woke up at six on Saturday morning and didn’t need to be to Spin class until eight, I decided it was a good time to make the dough for this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings treat, Chocolate Ginger Molasses Cookies. I halved the recipe, which has gotten easier to do since I measure most ingredients in grams these days. When I saw how crumbly my dough was, I was concerned that my early morning brain had miscalculated an ingredient or two because the dough did not look good at all (I checked and it sounded like the other bakers had similar issues). I also generally do not love chocolate and ginger together, so I had pretty low expectations for this recipe.
I was pleasantly surprised on two counts: the dough rolled out easily when I went to make the cookies yesterday evening and they were very tasty! I think I don’t like when a heavy chocolate base is saturated with ginger, but the flavors where well-balanced in these cookies. They were also nice and light in texture, perhaps as result of the shortening. I haven’t had a chance to make the glaze and decorate them yet - perhaps later today. I doubt I would make these again, but it’s nice that the recipe was not a total wash. My dad and sister always give me fun Christmas gifts and the squirrel cookie cutters were actually part of a dog biscuit set. I may not use the dog bones or fire hydrants for human treats, but squirrels are cute enough for human use.
For the recipe and to see how the other bakers’ treats turned out, please visit the Baked Sundays Mornings site. And have a great Sunday!
I’m super late with this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings post! (And
last week’s for that matter, which I made but didn’t post about since I was
busy making another cake last Sunday and I wasn’t all that excited about how it
turned out – the cake or my photos. It
looked like a big piece of toast with Nutella on it.) This week’s selection was Cheesy Focaccia with
Carmelized Onions and Sauteed Spinach. We
have pizza for dinner almost every Friday here.
We didn’t this week, though, since in an attempt to see a few of the
nominated films before the Oscars, we actually went to see Silver Linings
Playbook (really good) on Thursday and I had to bump a planned dinner to
Friday. So this is my long-winded way of
saying that we lucked out that this week’s recipe was rather pizza-esque and we
essentially got to have pizza this week anyway – yay!
A while ago I decided the most difficult aspect of yeast
breads was timing. I’m usually pretty
good at finding ways to work around rise times so I’m not just sitting around
waiting, but I kind of felt like the focaccia (anyone else always mix up where the
double-C is supposed to be in that word?) took over my afternoon. I possibly misunderstood the instructions? It seems like I could have done the final
rise in pan while the oven heated, which by that point felt like it took
forever. Anyway, once I took the
bubbling bread out of the oven and tasted the bread, I totally forgot about my
frustration – it’s that good. I have to
say, although the bread is covered in two of my favorite toppings, I almost
think it would have been better without them.
Next time!
I made the bread yesterday, and then I warmed it up in the
oven and served it during the Super Bowl.
It reheated beautifully and everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I am looking forward to checking out more
cheesy goodness via the roundup on the Baked Sunday Mornings site.
After missing a couple Sundays, then having somewhat of a recipe fail last week with the banana fritters, I was happy to see Lemon Pistachio Cornmeal Muffins on the schedule for Baked Sunday Mornings this week. Why? Because I had made them right after I got Baked Elements and loved them! In fact, this rarely happens with baked goods, but I think I may have eaten more of them than my husband.
I don't always like the grittiness of cornmeal, but I think it works really well in these muffins with the combination of ground-up pistachios in the muffins and the larger chunks of nuts on top.
These muffins are definitely worth a try, especially right now during citrus season. You can find the recipe here on the Baked Sunday Mornings site and click here to see if the other bakers liked these muffins as much as I did.
Happy Sunday and 2013! After missing the past two Baked Sunday Mornings recipes, I am back with Bananas Foster Fritters. Two weeks ago was shortbread, which I wanted to make, but could not fathom more cookies after Christmas. Then I missed the pots de creme last week because I was sick, not to mention the fact that it was my birthday and cake was essential. (One of my goals for 2013 is to not overdo it on baking and have superfluous treats around.) Here is a photo of the fabulous birthday cake Josh made me. Per my request, it was a peanut butter cake with marshmallow filling and chocolate frosting, and he made the entire thing himself - no help from me at all.
When I told Josh what the recipe for this week was, he said he was wondering why I came back from the grocery store with very ripe bananas (we are generally very good at letting them get overly ripe ourselves, which then “forces” me to make banana bread). The book has notes not to fear frying. Sigh. I’m sorry, but I do. I decided dive into this fearlessly, and unfortunately, had a few issues. The oil had no trouble getting to 375 degrees, but I had a bit of trouble maintaining it, leading the first round I fried to be overdone on the outside and too doughy on the inside. Subsequent batches did turn out better and Josh enjoyed having a doughnutty treat for breakfast today - don’t worry, I skipped the rum dipping sauce. I know that if I kept practicing, I would be able to master deep-frying, but honestly I am content to enjoy doughnuts and french fries outside my home.
Please be sure to stop by the Baked Sunday mornings site to see how the rest of the bakers fared. I am looking forward to many more baking adventures with the group this year!
This week’s Baked Sunday Mornings selection is Holiday Spice Cake with Eggnog Buttercream. I was a little nervous about how I was going to market this one since Josh doesn’t really care for eggnog. Since it didn’t involve a buying a carton of eggnog, I thought maybe I could get away with just calling it a spiced buttercream (and bringing it to my family if he didn’t end up liking it). I ended up telling him what it was, though, and he ended up liking the buttercream, which is good, since due to stormy weather conditions and my family living an hour away, I am not shopping with my mom and sister today as I had planned. :( Josh informed me he would be glued to the TV until 1 PM, but would then go shopping with me once it has been determined if he has won his fantasy football league’s super bowl. I can’t face the holiday crowds alone!
For those of you who are not in the baking group, the reason the buttercream looks so speckled is because there is cinnamon in nutmeg in it, not because I am an extremely messy froster and got a ton of crumbs in it, though admittedly there are probably a few. I made a half recipe of the cake in six-inch cake pans, and two thirds of the buttercream recipe. I once ran out of frosting when I halved the recipe, so ever since then I always make at least two thirds or even the whole recipe to eliminate potential frustration. I find frosting cakes challenging enough as it is.
This would be a superb dessert for Christmas dinner: not too fussy and very festive, not to mention delicious. I need to bring a dessert to my extended family’s holiday gathering on Christmas, so this selection was a week early in terms of the baking group schedule. The recipe can be found here on the group website and be sure to check out what the other bakers thought of this cake.
I am not the best about planning ahead with the recipes for Baked Sunday Mornings. Josh's office had a holiday cookie exchange earlier this week. After much deliberation, I made these Speculoos Buttons, which were on the cover the December issue of Bon Appetit. However, after baking this week's Baked Sunday Mornings selection, Spicy Brownies, on Saturday, I realized they would have been a perfectly acceptable treat for the cookie exchange. The good news, though? They were both excellent recipes! I would definitely make the speculoos again (and probably will before the holiday season is over) and we loved the brownies.
I have made the famous Baked Brownies from the first book numerous times, and think they are pretty much my ideal brownie: fudgy, but not gooey and perfectly proportioned in terms of sugar, butter, and chocolate. Not to mention they do not have any annoying fussy steps and do not get many dishes dirty. The spicy version is a fun twist and I am also looking forward to trying the peanut butter variation. I made a half recipe in an 8x8 pan, which took 25 minutes to bake rather than the 30 recommended for the 9x13 pan. I also omitted both kinds of ginger that were in the recipe because I am not big on the chocolate/ginger combination. We had the brownies warm with vanilla ice cream last night, which was fabulous of course. I do have to say that when I sampled one today, I thought it was even better, since the spices had a chance to settle.
To see how the rest of the group fared, please visit the Baked Sunday Mornings site, where you will also be able to find the recipe.
