Fall Baking and Apple Coffee Cake

Even though it is September, and there was that one morning last week where I had to have my seat warmer on, it really doesn't feel like fall in north Texas.  It was 96 today.  Ugh.  Nevertheless, I have decided to plunge ahead into everything autumnal, and with any luck, the weather will follow me in.

My pinterest searches of late, have to do with halloween and Thanksgiving crafts that R and I can do together.  I'm looking at Thanksgiving recipes and cute halloween treats.  I've also been whipping up some pumpkin spice lattes, although I think the ginger I'm using might be a little too coarse.  So, I'm definitely ready for fall.  And, in honor of that, this weekend I made a delightful apple coffee cake.  I didn't change the recipe much.  Just a tweak here and there....

Apple Coffee Cake
adapted slightly SimplyRecipes.com

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 medium Cortland or other baking apple, peeled and sliced (I chopped mine)

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9-inch square baking dish with or pie pan with a 4-cup capacity. (I used 2 small loaf pans)
2 In a medium bowl, whisk vigorously together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3 In a separate small bowl, mix 1/4 a cup of the sugar with the cinnamon, set aside. (I added all this to the batter)
4 Using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Beat in the egg until blended. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk, beating after each addition until just combined.
5 Pour half of the batter in the bottom of the baking dish. Lay the apple slices on the batter so they just cover the batter (you may have to overlap some slices). Sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, reserving a teaspoon or two to sprinkle on top. Spread the rest of the batter over the apples. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar on top. (I added the chopped apples to the batter, and mixed it all together.  I also mixed up some brown sugar, 2 T butter and oats, to sprinkle on to of the loaves.)
6 Bake the cake for 25 minutes or until it is golden brown and apples start to bubble at the edges. (I baked for about 20 min)

 

Overall, they turned out pretty good.  I didn't get a chance to cut them open, because I have a standing order for breakfast food every Sunday.  But, I'm sure they were beautiful on the inside too!

I have much more fall baking to do, so be prepared.  Also, next month I'll be posting a Harry Potter week of food and fun.  Be sure to stop by!!

Shoulder to Cry On

I've been having trouble with my son. He started kindergarten this year, and just hasn't been handling it very well. He absolutely knows better than to yell at his teacher, or hit his teacher. He knows it's wrong to push other kids and make fire truck noises during class. He knows there are consequences for his actions, but it doesn't seem to faze him. I'm at my whit's end, and feel like the worst mother in the world because of his behavior. I cringe every time the phone rings, praying it's not the school calling again. My family is supportive, but unhelpful. They've never had to deal with this before, and honestly, it's not their burden to carry. It's mine, and mine alone. So, I'm sending my woes and fears out to all of you. Not expecting help, just needing to voice my concerns, instead of keeping it inside all the time.

Olympics and Daring Bakers' Challenge: Crackers!

So, all the buzz lately has been about the Olympics.  And, understandably so!  I've been counting the days since January!  I remember watching as a kid, and loving it (I think it was only every 4 years back then), but when I moved out on my own, and had nothing better to do than sit on the couch for hours on end, is when I truly started to appreciate it.  Then of course, 4 years ago, watching the infamous Michael Phelps do what no other human has accomplished before....well, that's just good stuff!  Every time my soon-to-be 5 year old son watches, he says "That's me!", whenever someone wins.  Of course, he also thinks he's an Autobot.  Uhh...yeah.

Ok, on to crackers.  This month's challenge was to do 2 different types of crackers, 2 different ways.  I don't have a pasta roller attachment for my mixer, so my options were a bit limited.  I've had this Rosemary Sea Salt cracker on my pinterest to do list for a while now, so this seemed like the perfect time.

Rosemary Sea Salt Crackers
from Pastry Affair

I did not alter the recipe, except for maybe the cooking time.  Mine seemed to cook in less time.  It was a beautiful dough to work with.  It came together nicely, and wasn't sticky or too dry.  Just perfect.  The recipe called for large grain sea salt, but all I had was finely ground.  They were still tasty.

For my second cracker, I decided to do a graham cracker.  I chose Alton Brown's recipe, because, hello....it's Alton.  Need I say more?  That being said, I was thoroughly disappointed with the recipe.  Everything from the taste to the instructions, and to the end product.  This is not something I would repeat.  Ever.

Graham Crackers
adapted slightly from Alton Brown

The only change I made to the recipe was to sub wheat flour, for white.

The recipe calls for ingredients in weight, not volume, so here I am, weighing out my ingredients.  I know they say it's more accurate that way, but seeing as how the recipe was a dud, I'm having my doubts.  I decided to shape the dough into a log, and use the slice and bake method.  I'm not sure if this was my downfall, or if it was using the wheat flour, but it did not turn out well.  The recipe says to bake for 25 min, but mine were burnt to a crisp after that.  I tried again, for 10 min, and they turned out ok.  But, the dough was so coarse and didn't really taste the way a normal graham cracker tastes.  Of course, I'm just going by the store bought taste/texture, but those store bought ones are pretty darn good!  Anyhoo, here they are.  Mission complete, if not totally successful.

Magic Mike and Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Let's talk movies.  I love movies!  I get to escape the real world for a couple of hours and be entertained at the same time.  It's a win/win!  I love comedies, action, drama, sci-fi, romance...eh, not so much on that one, but most anything that isn't a horror movie, and I'm there.  I even saw The Artist, which is a silent film, and loved it. 

 So, as any red blooded American woman would do, I happily plunked down my hard earned money to watch Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum strip down in Magic Mike.  (Ok, so I wanted to see Joe Manganiello too.)  I was expecting to see hot ass, and that's what I got!  Unfortunately, that was all I got.  Now, I like a good strip tease as much as the next girl (and, I can TOTALLY see Tatum stripping in his former profession...he is extremely good at it, and perhaps should consider going back to it), but...as in all relationships, I was kind of hoping for a little more.  Maybe an actual plot that didn't suck?   Obviously, I was asking too much.  <sigh>

Also, as in relationships, when you're disappointed in one area, chocolate is always a comforting friend to turn to.  These chocolate covered strawberries rock.  I didn't really use a recipe.  I just kinda winged it.  Here's what I did.

First, I washed and dried these beautiful summer berries.  Delish by themselves, but everything is better with chocolate!  While these were drying, I heated up the chocolate.  You can use a double broiler or the microwave.  Be very careful with the microwave though, or it will cook your chocolate.  I used probably half bittersweet chocolate, and half semi-sweet. 

Once that was melted and the strawberries were dry, I was ready for dipping!  At first I tried sticking toothpicks into the strawberries, then after dipping, I stuck them in an upside down colander to dry.  That way, they wouldn't get that flat side on one side of the chocolate.  But, after doing a few, I decided to heck with it.  They were going to be on a platter anyway!  It's totally up to you.

After the chocolate was dry, I heated up some white chocolate to drizzle over the top.  I used a parchment cone to do this, but you could easily use a spoon, piping bag or bottle.  Whatever you prefer.

A few things to remember.  These are best made the day of your event/snacking.  After a while, the strawberries start to leak their juices, which in turn makes the chocolate a little juicy.  Still good eats, but not as pretty.  Also, WAIT for Magic Mike to come out on Blu-Ray/DVD.  Then, you can just watch the first 30 min of the movie and not torture yourself with the rest of it.

Happy eating!

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Battenburg Cake

On to my second Daring Bakers' Challenge!  Ok, ok....I know it's been a month since I last posted, and I'm sorry.  I've been busy, what can I say?  Also, I know this post is a day late for the challenge....and again, I'mreallysorry.  Forgive and forget?  <whew>  Ok, good.  I'm glad that's not hanging between us anymore.

So, this month's challenge (pretend it's still June) was Battenburg Cake, which is something I had never heard of.  At first, I was a little daunted by the challenge, thinking back to those checkerboard cakes that were so popular in the 90's, but after reading through the instructions, I thought the best approach would be to jump in with both feet.

The variations on Battenburg cake are seemingly endless.  You can do just about anything!  Which, also makes it harder to narrow the choices down.  With the upcoming 4th of July holiday approaching though, I wanted to do something red and blue, with the outer white(ish) marzipan.  Very festive, I thought.  I started with the basic recipe that was given on the Daring Bakers' website.

Battenburg Cake
Adapted slightly from Mary Berry's "Baking Bible"

I added chopped fresh cherries to the red batter (with some red coloring), and chopped fresh blueberries (with some blue coloring) to the blue.  I had hoped that the fruit would color the batter enough not to use artificial colorings, but no luck.  Oh well.

Making the cakes was pretty easy. I used a strawberry/blackberry jam that I had made earlier this month to hold them together.  What I found the most difficult, was the marzipan.  I've never worked with it before, and found it a little dry. Let's just say, I did the best I could.  =)

Anyway, this month's challenge probably isn't something I'd do again.  At least, not until I get a little more experience with marzipan, but it was fun to do once.

Hope you enjoy!

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Challah

Daring Bakers' Challenge:  Challah!

This is my first Daring Bakers' Challenge.  I have made Challah before, but not this particular recipe.  And, of course, I had to tweak it a bit (don't all bakers do this?).  So, let's just jump right in!

 I used a bread machine to mix everything and do the kneading for me.  Honestly, who wants to stand around and do that all day?  Anyhoo.....the original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of raisins, but I wanted to mix in a couple of other things too.  I hope that's still in keeping with the kosherness of Challah.  My apologies if it's not.  So, I added about 3/4 cups of raisins and 3/4 cups of dried cranberries.  I also threw in about 1/4 cup of chopped pecans, just because they had been sitting on my counter, giving me the evil eye for about 2 weeks now.

Ok, so wet ingredients, dry ingredients, and away we go!  An hour and a half later, voila!

I did actually knead in the cranberries, nuts and raisins by hand.  Give me some credit!

 For shaping, I used the spiral method, instead of braiding, just to save time.

It was a beautiful dough to work with.  Very smooth, and not sticky in the slightest.  It reminded me of the German bread Stollen, which I often make at Christmas.  But, unlike Stollen, Challah is not as time consuming, and still very tasty!

I hope everyone enjoys my variation, and I look forward to next month's challenge!

I just looked up from my desk, and noticed it's raining.  Like, really raining.  And, my windows are down.  Great.  That pretty much sums up my life.

On to better things.  Let's talk granola.  I have found, that a cup of vanilla yogurt (choose your preference) with granola will tide me over until lunch.  And, it's delicious!  And, mostly healthy!...depending upon what you put into your granola.  I am always looking for shortcuts in the kitchen (and out, let's face it), but I don't want to eat processed or fast food.  So, every month or so, I'll whip up a batch of homemade granola, and voila, instant breakfast!  Here is the basic recipe I use.

Trail Mix Granola
adapted from Home Made Simple

3 c. organic old-fashioned oats (I use steel cut, from Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 c. organic coconut oil
1/4 c. organic agave nectar
1/8 c. organic brown sugar
1 t. organic vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. organic cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. add-ins, like dried fruit, nuts, coconut, seeds, etc.

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together oil, nectar, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.  Pour over oats and toss well.

Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring every 5 minutes.  Let cool completely, then transfer to a large mixing bowl and stir in add-ins.

Divide evenly into re-sealable bags or store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

(Disclaimer:  You might notice from the pictures, that I baked the fruit with the granola.  I would NOT recommend that.  It tends to get a bit hard.  And, by hard, I mean burnt.  FYI.)


Easy peasy.  I love the versatility of this recipe.  Of course, I adapted the original recipe to sub coconut oil for canola, and agave nectar for honey.  It also called for 1/4 c. of brown sugar, which made it WAY too sweet, especially if you're trying to lower your sugar intake.  So, I  halved the sugar, although I still think it's a little sweet.  But, if you, like me, are putting this over yogurt, then you might want it a little sweeter if your yogurt is on the tart side.  It wasn't until about 5 or 6 years ago that I actually started liking yogurt.  So, comparitively, it's still a new food for me. 

As for the add-ins, here's where you can really have some fun.  Just use whatever you have on hand!  I had cherries, sunflower seeds, unsweetened coconut and chopped almonds.  But, if you want to make it a little more appealing for the kiddos, throw in some M&M's, or maybe mini chocolate chips.  Give it a try.  You'll never go back to store bought granola again, I promise.