What I have been doing lately? Baking, I mean it!

Happy Birthday to Jesus

I know, I know, “If you have been baking where are your posts?”, right?  It is just tough, I want everything to be perfect and I just need to get it through my thick head that nothing is or ever will be.  However, some things come close.  Close when you have three kids under 8 and a BIG extended family is just going to have to do.

Just stick an Oreo right in the middle and we are all done here.

Like the Cashew Toffee…I did make my Cashew Toffee for Christmas but o boy was that harder than anticipated and it was all my fault.  Instead of experimenting with a small batch of toffee to try and make it more P-Nuttle like, I did it with a double batch and ruined it.  So off to the store for more butter and cashews.  Then instead of making two double batches so I could more easily control everything, I put all my eggs in one basket so to speak and somehow missed my 300° mark and I could tell that I was losing it (I had added more sugar too, to try and make it less greasy. Perhaps that is why it maybe didn’t make it to 300° before breaking up).  It was starting to separate and I was starting to panic.  I don’t know what made me think to do it, perhaps all my attempts at caramel this year, but I added just a smidge or two of whipping cream and kept stirring till it looked nice again.  The effect made it more like an English Toffee, less buttery brittle like, which was fine by me and totally yummy.  However, just as I thought “crisis averted” as I was dumping my huge pot of toffee on my sheet pan, I got a sugar burn.  Did I have water standing by like they tell you when you are dealing with sugar, no.  Will I from now on?  Hopefully that question can be answered by the soon to be scar on my right wrist.

The bright spot that day, my sourdough!  My sourdough had been giving me problems all year.  I still never gave up on it.  The same day as the toffee, instead of throwing out some of my starter before feeding it again (I must’ve just had a feeling, really, because until earlier that week I hadn’t had a successful loaf in over a month) I put it into a separate container and fed them both.  Later that night, I went for three loaves and they all came out beautifully!  Christmas presents!  I did it again the next day for more Christmas presents.  The only thing I can think of that I did differently is that I used some unbleached flour to feed it.  I found a small bag at the 99¢ store.  I had seen some sourdough recipes call for it and I never needed to use it last year (I still miss that darn starter), I figured that for 99¢ I would give it a whirl and see if that would do the trick.  It sure seemed to.  I can’t wait till vacation is over because I am looking forward to making my weekly sourdough on Monday mornings again.

Three pretty sourdoughs for Christmas!

I did come out of the holidays with some great recipes.  For Angela’s school party, I made these really interesting cookies that I will share with you soon.  I actually didn’t think they would go over well, but I heard the kids couldn’t get enough of them and all of us sure liked them.  I made three cakes for Christmas because we were celebrating three birthdays: my brother, my cousin, and baby Jesus of course.  None of which I technically got to eat because we didn’t have dinner with my family but I mean, I baked them, I pretty much knew how they tasted.  For my brother it was a Cookies and Cream cake which I heard was a little on the sweet side and I probably should have made it with just chocolate cake instead of cookies and cream cake, that probably would have helped.  However, I came out of that with a whole new buttercream recipe and technique which I will share with you soon.  I loved it and have never had a more whipped creamier buttercream.  For my cousin, I made a chocolate cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  I have to be honest, I am not a fan of cream cheese frosting so I cut down on that a bit and switched it out for some whipped cream and there is a secret ingredient in this frosting which just boggled my mind.  I will make this frosting again and share.  The cake was awesome, so moist!  However for me as the baker of it, that made it a bit temperamental and I had to do it twice (it could be because the recipe was for a three layer 8 inch cake and I made some cupcakes and was going for just one 8 inch cake).  I am still searching for the perfect chocolate cake.  For Jesus, I just made a vanilla bundt with a chocolate glaze.  I heard this one was too sweet and that was my fault, I made the glaze more sweet than the recipe called for.  I was making it as if I was going to eat it, instead of how it was supposed to be and how I know my family would like it.  I also came upon a really good apple cake recipe that would have been great if I hadn’t added so many apples.  The recipe called for 3 apples.  Well, I had some BIG apples.  It just made it impossible for it to cook in the middle, although you could tell that the cake itself was lovely and the outsides looked AMAZING!  It was just a nice little cake.  I am going back to that one and will let you know the exact amount of apples, in cups.

Fan out a fresh strawberry on top and we are done here.

So no recipes today.  I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t been sitting on my hands.  I do have things I want to share I just want to do it in the best way possible.  Not perfect, but close.  My next post is my son’s 3rd birthday cake which will have that new buttercream technique I told you about.

Cupcakes for the kiddos!

My GeekyLink this week is in regards to Doctor Who.  The Christmas special was good.  Nothing too great but not awful that is for sure.  Perhaps they make us wait so long so no matter how it is, we think it is good.  My one qualm is that (“spoiler alert”) the dad lived.  I mean I know it is a Christmas special and all but lately there haven’t been many deaths on Doctor Who.  I mean there used to be so many references about how many deaths he was responsible for and some we would even see, some minor side character that was there for one episode or something.  Which is why this headline distresses me, Doctor Who’s Amy Pond set for “heartbreaking” exit.  I love Rory till the end of 2000 years and Amy is OK too.  I am ready to move on in companions, though.  In fact, I wouldn’t be sad if they left pretty much at the beginning of the new season.  However, I am wondering if the lack of peripheral deaths on Doctor Who will make them want to kill off one or both of the current companions and that distresses me.  I can deal with a parallel universe like Rose or just leaving like Martha (I thought they did but apparently not) but please no deaths or no Donna heartbreakers.  I hope the “heartbreaking” they are speaking of is just the fact that they are leaving and not the way they will leave, but I sincerely doubt it.

P.S. Happy New Year!

Pan Dulce, O Yes (and Doctor Who!)

If any of you have noticed the picture on my header, you know that these beauties have been a long time coming.  I have had this recipe for awhile now (actually a combination of two) but the closer I got to Christmas, the more urgent it got for me to make sure this particular recipe was what I wanted.  You see, in my family, along with lots of other Mexican families, having these with a hot mug of Mexican hot chocolate is a tradition of Christmas morning (along with tamales, of course).  Let’s just say, the kids go more for these.

Ready for first rise!

I know I have spoken about the glories of this food before in my Mexican Chocolate Cookies post.  Really, though, the awesomeness of Pan Dulce, especially for a kid, is not to be underestimated.  Whether they only eat the topping and give you back a half eaten naked sweet roll or get a little older and learn to appreciate it in its entirety dipped in hot Mexican chocolate, it is just a fantastic panadería (Mexican bakery) staple!

Once I score them, they will be ready for their second rise.

Me, being a little Mexican girl all grown up (with a BIG sweet tooth) can hardly believe that I actually baked these and had them taste authentic.  This has been a process.  First, I had found one recipe and I LOVED the topping but the bread was a big old mess.  Second, I found a recipe where the bread was FANTASTIC but the topping came out too hard.  It kept coming off instead of crumbling off.  So I knew I needed to combine them and I would get it right.  The only problem I had with these particular ones was the look.  The topping spread out a bit too much.  I think next time I will let them rise for about 30 minutes or so after I get them on the sheet pan and then put on the topping and let them continue rising.

Rising...

I don’t know whether or not I will be able to make these for Christmas morning (I have a few other things to bake for that day, plus a favorite Christmas Eve party to get to) but I wanted to get these up in case anyone else wanted to try.  However, like anyone who likes local ethnic food, I do have a few good panaderías that I frequent when the opportunity presents itself, so I am covered.

Dip it in your Mexican Hot Chocolate and then suck it out of the nooks and crannies! The only way to eat it.

My GeekyLink for this week is Doctor Who again!!!!!  Because as any Whovian knows, the Doctor Who Christmas Special (called The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, love it!), is coming up in one week, with the Best Of..Christmas Specials on Christmas Eve.  So here it goes…Doctor Who-Christmas Video Selection Box we get three clips and a prequel, check them all out!

Cinnamon Bread and Toast and French Toast, O My!

Well, I finally got back into the swing of things in terms of baking.  It turns out all I needed was one day with nothing on my plate (OK, a day and a half because I did have a baking fail with this recipe to begin with and I will show it to you).  I was able to make a couple of things and I still have more to do tonight for Angela’s school party tomorrow.  So, first thing’s first.

Cinnamon Sugar Much?

I was really at a loss for what to make.  I was overwhelmed with other recipes by other food bloggers, food bloggers that post more than I do, food bloggers that don’t have young children running around.  Finally, I decided on a bread.  Bread, I think is my “go to” when I just either don’t know what to make or for when feel like I can’t make something.  I wouldn’t say it comes easier, I just think overall, I like it better.

Ready for second rise!

I looked awhile for a recipe and I found one that I liked from The Pioneer Woman (who has 4 kids, no more excuses for me!) and even though she is awesome, I still managed to tweak the bread a bit.  I put some cinnamon in the bread itself and I used some bread flour in mine.  You wanna know where I made my mistake?  One of her pictures shows her cutting into her butter and the caption reads “start with 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) of butter”, well sometimes using my iPod to follow a recipe just messes me up.  I read it as 3/4 cup which is 12 tablespoons of butter.  Whatever.  I fixed it.  The funny thing is, I didn’t realize what I had done till I had decided that I just didn’t like my bread and wanted to try it again anyway.  I thought that I just didn’t let it rise enough (I didn’t, but that is beside the point if the recipe is off, right?)  Either way the bread tasted great but of course the one that was done right had a much better texture.

Can you tell which one is the baking fail?

This bread was a real winner with the kids too.  They LOVE LOVE LOVE  when I make cinnamon toast for breakfast and this was a new way for them to have it.  It is one of those recipes that means so much to me because the picky one likes it.  She even liked it as French Toast.

My GeekyLink for today is this article by MSNBC.com How NASA could get its groove back.  Now they could start by not using 90s book references to middle aged women but I digress.  It is a really interesting and fun article.

Thanksgiving and Birthdays, Triumphs, and Failures

This year, I didn’t really get to make desserts for Thanksgiving.  Which bummed me out but my family says that some people don’t cook so they can at least buy (!) and bring a dessert, whatever.  So I was not happy.  I really like the recipe I use for pumpkin pie and I was kinda bummed I didn’t get to make it this year especially since I was planning on making my own crust.  Then, I decided not to make one of my usual appetizers this year and my aunt wasn’t happy.  I love and usually make these Mini Pumpkin Tarts and I make chocolate ones too but I hate that I can’t fill the cups until right before we have to leave because if they sit too long they will become soggy.  Granted, there usually aren’t that many left to get soggy but I just wanted to try some new things.  So, even though I didn’t get to bake desserts I was still in charge of sweet appetizers, rolls and I did make some savory appetizers too.

I would have to say that my biggest triumph were the rolls!  O my goodness, so yummy, so perfect, I couldn’t believe that they came out of my kitchen!  I think I am going to write a post about them though, so no link yet.  Sorry, just a preview picture.

I made Bacon Pops as one of my savory appetizers.  These tasted great but were kinda messy to make, at least getting them into balls.  If I had a scoop that was half the size of my cookie scoop, it would have been way easier.  I thought that the sticks they use on the website were too big.  I just used toothpicks and it worked out fine.  I also didn’t use the apple slices to serve them because I didn’t want to have to deal with browning.  It is bacon, cheese, and basil, how much yummier and simpler could it get?  Easy to make ahead too, which is important when making lots of things.  I also made Broccoli Bites.  I added a little more seasoning to these and actually I think I added a bit too much.  I also had to add an extra egg because otherwise they would not have stuck together.  I would like to perfect these.  Overall, really easy to make though.

Pumpkin Pie Cookie with Brown Butter Icing.  This was after Thanksgiving and other cookies had been stacked on top of it.

Now on to the sweets!  I made Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing from Brown Eyed Baker.  There is a reason that these cookies are all over the internet.  They were like eating pumpkin muffin tops with the best icing in the world.  They are originally from Martha Stewart and the brown butter icing is DIVINE.  I had almost two tablespoons left after frosting all of the cookies (and it makes A LOT of cookies) and it was all I could do not to spoon it in my mouth.  One thing though, is I had to make these twice.  Both times I made them they needed more flour.  So if you make them, keep that in mind.  I also made, apple pie cookies from Smitten Kitchen.  These were a lot of effort but I really thought the overall effect was awesome and now I really want to try this crust in a pie.  It was crazy flaky and wonderful.  I also made some cream cheese cookies that I didn’t really like, I thought they tasted just like a regular sugar cookie so I am looking to adapt that recipe and maybe post about it.  I think a good cream cheese cookie would be worth it.

Apple Pie Cookie

We have three birthdays in our family from November 26 to December 1.  My brother didn’t come down so we didn’t celebrate his, so instead of something chocolatey I am sure he would have picked, I made my Mexican Chocolate Cookies.  I had to make these as extra, partly because my family was mad that I shared the whole first batch with my in-laws and they wanted some and partly because I made cheesecake and banana cream pie and not everyone is a fan.  First of all, quite simply if you are making any cheesecake other than Mixed Berry Cheesecake by Ina Garten, I don’t know what is wrong with you.  I actually didn’t put the berries on top this time, I made a caramel but I should’ve made the berries.  Every other time I have made this I do make the berries and everyone loves them on top.  At some point my oven shut off and so I had to wing it as to baking time to finish it but I actually think this is the best it has ever come out.  (Sorry, no picture!) That was for my Aunt.  For my Grandma, who is a big Banana Cream Pie fan, I made Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Ganache & Salted Caramel Sauce.  O yeah, I loved it!  My Grandmother loved it.  I thought the pastry cream came out so well.  I had to make the caramel twice but I got it to work.  But the stupid (yes, I said stupid!) graham cracker crust fell apart!  The pie looked great and tasted great too but you just couldn’t cut a slice of it, dangit!  I do think it could have stayed chilled longer but I don’t think that was the whole problem.  It just really chapped my hide that the most difficult elements of the recipe I got right, but the simplest was a failure.  I would have posted it, I think, if it had worked completely.

Whether I make this pie again, I don’t know, but I WILL make this pastry cream again!

I am happy to show you that even though I might not post as often as I should, I am still baking quite a bit, it is just that sometimes I forget to take pictures, truly.  I am sorry and I will try my hardest to do better.  It is all about time management and that is something I have never been good at, plus being a procrastinator doesn’t help.

My GeekyLink today is like the biggest news of the day, or it should be.  NASA’s Kepler Confirms Its First Planet In Habitable Zone, this is so awesome and the fact that there are about fifty more or so that they have left to confirm that might be out there as well is just super cool.  If you think that is too “out there” for you, just be glad it wasn’t Ancient Aliens!  Dang, I can’t watch (or at least I shouldn’t watch) it.  There is so much crazy stuff on that show and I LOVE it.

Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies and Trek Nation

To call these cookies simply Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies, is really just wrong.  These cookies are infinitely adaptable and I love them, not only for that reason but that they are, especially this time of year, mostly guilt free, just 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of butter.  You would think a guilt free cookie might turn kids off but my eight year old loves them.  She has been asking me to make them.  Unfortunately, I wanted to jazz them up a bit but she wasn’t having any of it.  So I made half for her with raisins (yummy, but boring) and half for me with craisins, semi-sweet chocolate chips (they now have dark chocolate chips which would be awesome in this but I didn’t have any on hand), and almonds.  O man, I couldn’t be happier with my jazzed up cookies and she was so excited when she came home from school and the cookies that she had been asking for were waiting for her.

Angela's batter, with just raisins

I can’t apologize enough for not posting more.  I know everybody is just as swamped as I am right now but I don’t want to post things that I just cook or bake.  I mostly want to post stuff that I cook or bake FOR YOU, so that takes a bit more time.  This weekend I hope to post a recap of some of the stuff I made for Thanksgiving and the Saturday following for which I baked some stuff up for my Aunt’s and Grandma’s birthdays.  I don’t think I’ll be posting recipes though, just pictures and links.  We’ll see…

They bake up so nice and clean and come off the pan so easily.

If you live out in Southern California you know that the last few days have been windy (to say the least).  Some of you may not know that my husband is a truck driver and he works nights (when the wind likes to blow harder).  The first night it was so bad that I couldn’t sleep.  I had major anxiety about him driving.  When he got home he says, “What is the worst that could happen, I tip over.”  I said, “OK, I guess you are right, but what if you take the mountain?” (He likes to take the Big Bear route.)  He says, “I did.”  Well, if he tipped over while driving a mountain route, that would be bad, right?  Which is precisely why I couldn’t sleep so I stayed up to watch Trek Nation, which is my GeekyLink for this week.  It was on the Science Channel and will be on twice more this weekend.  If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.  Mostly, it made me want to expose my Angela to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It is streaming on Netflix and she loves Doctor Who and Harry Potter and doesn’t mind watching Fringe.  Growing up it was sort of a big deal for me.  My brother and sister and I would watch it together and even my mom liked it too.  I just would like to share that whole history and future with her, I think she would dig it.