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Food Friday – July 2017 King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge- Blueberry Hand Pies

21 Friday Jul 2017

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I have come to love the week’s where we share our experiences with King Arthur Flour’s Monthly Bakealong Challenge.  I don’t have to figure out what to make and, often times, I am encouraged to make something that I may not have chosen to do on my own.  The July Bakealong Challenge, Blueberry Hand Pies, is one of those things that I probably would not have been drawn to immediately.  Pies are not “my thing.”  I love to eat them, but have never enjoyed making them as much as I do cakes, bread, or cookies.  My experience with this month’s Bakealong Challenge has changed my experience a bit toward the positive.

On first reading, the recipe may sound a little tedious, perhaps even daunting in that you first have to make the blueberry filling, make the crust and then cut all of the pieces, and then finally assemble the individual hand pies.  This is one of those recipes where the words are more cumbersome than the actual process of making the pies.  And, even if the process feels a bit cumbersome to you, the final product is well worth the effort!

The crust for these hand pies is rich, containing a full cup of butter as well as sour cream.  The dry ingredients are whisked together, the butter is cut in and then the sour cream is added.  The recipe says that once all of the ingredients are combined the dough should be turned out on a floured board and it should come together “with a few quick kneads.”  It definitely took more than a few quick kneads for me to get the pastry to come together.  I resisted the urge to add a little more liquid.  Eventually I had a nice crust that was easy with which to work.

For the blueberry filling, either fresh or frozen blueberries will work.  I used frozen because all the fresh blueberries at our house were used to top yogurt or in morning smoothies.  The berries, along with some lemon juice, sugar, salt, and a thickening agent are cooked down over medium heat.  They must cool to room temperature before the pies can be assembled.

I made my crust and put it in the fridge to chill while I made the filling and waited for it to cool.

To assemble, the pastry dough is rolled out to a 14v14 square and cut into sixteen 3 1/2″ squares.  Because I am a perfectionist, I used a 3 1/2″ square cutter for this step,  You can also use a ruler and a pizza cutter.  A heaping tablespoon is placed in the center of eight of the dough squares.  The edges of these pieces are then brushed with whisked egg.  The top pieces of the pies must be vented.  I used a small scalloped cutter to cut a hole in the center of each top.  I then placed the top crust, as well as the cut out piece, atop each of the eight pies.  The decorative aspect of the particular cutter that I used was lost in the baking.  something a little more pronounced, a star or a heart, might be a little prettier in the end.  The tines of a fork are used to seal the edges of the two pieces of crust.  The tops are then brushed with more of the egg mixture and sprinkled with sparkling sugar.  The pies are then transferred to a parchment lined baking sheet at baked for 18-20 minutes.  I split the difference and set my timer for 19 minutes.  The pies were perfectly done at that point.  I share this because I often have to cook things a bit longer in my oven.  So, if your oven tends to be “hot” you may want to check your pies before the eighteen minute mark.

I must say that the Blueberry Hand Pies were a HUGE hit with my husband.  Let’s just say that after my daughter and I sampled a pie, the other six were gone in two days.  Weber is not a big sweets person.  I think the fact that he enjoyed these so much is because the filling is not overly sweet; they are just sweet enough.

This recipe has been deemed “A Keeper.”

 

I am in complete agreement with Kris, I too have come to love the Bakealong weeks for the same reasons – I don’t have to think about what to make, and it does make me try something I may never have thought to make on my own. With this month’s Bakealong Challenge recipe though, for the Blueberry Hand Pies, the funny thing was I’d had the recipe printed off for a couple months and placed in my “to try” folder of King Arthur Flour recipes. I was exceptionally pleased to see it for this month’s Bakealong Challenge as it gave me the push and excuse to get it out and get going on it!

I won’t go into to much repetition here on the hows  – Kris did an excellent job describing the process, there was nothing different there for me! I too had that same thought of “a few kneads?”, when trying to get the crust ingredients to come together – and  I too resisted the urge to add more liquid, lol. I really loved working with this dough, though, it was so easy, even despite the work to get it to come together. Rolling was really easy, it wasn’t sticky and it wasn’t too dry, it was just right for easy working. They also came together easily, I used a ruler to cut my squares and my tablespoon cookie scoop to plop the filling in the middle. I used a knife to cut the steam-vent patterns on the top crust squares, sealed them up, brushed the top with beaten egg and dusted with regular table sugar because both of my guys dislike the large sparkling sugar. They don’t care for the crunch. I on the other hand love it, but since I was making these mostly for them, I chose the sugar they like.

And to say they like them, I think, is an understatement. Jeremy has eaten almost every one of them. I have only had a half, lol! The other night when I was getting his lunch together for him as he was running late, he didn’t ask if I put FOOD in it, he was more concerned with whether or not I put in the HAND PIES! It was hilarious. He’s declared them better than PopTarts, lol, which I take as a high compliment to be sure! I already have all kinds of fruit variations running through my head for these, they are just so perfect for easy eating and travel! No need to cut, no need for plates or forks etc. My next experiment with them is to try freezing the baked pies for future eating – to take a day and stock the freezer with them.

I, like Kris have discovered these to be a keeper, and something I will make often. I am so glad that this month’s Bakealong Challenge was the Blueberry Hand Pies recipe, it was fun to make and even more fun to eat! And there are oh so many variation possibilities!!!

And here’s a link for the walk-through and just the recipe:

Blueberry Hand Pie Walk-Through

Blueberry Hand Pies

Food Friday – I Love It, I Love It Not

24 Saturday Jun 2017

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from Tracey G.

I absolutely love June – it’s one of my favorite berry seasons – strawberry!!! We have a few local u-pick berry farms, and this time of year people go pick, then sell them on the sides of the road for a nominal cost.  Totally worth it to me to not have to do the work to reap the rewards of fresh, local berries with flavor! Much more reasonably priced than the grocery store berries and way tastier too, since they weren’t picked and shipped across country to me, lol.

So, I found this recipe for Strawberry Cream on Shortbread in King Arthur Flour’s Mixed Bag recipe category under “Fruit Desserts”. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it! But I didn’t have any fresh berries to work with, the local sellers hadn’t appeared yet – I was rather bummed until I read in Tips From Our Bakers, to feel free to use frozen berries! Yes! I was good! I always have them on hand, either ones I’ve frozen myself or store-bought frozen strawberries. Game on! It worked out perfect – I had everything I needed to make this on hand! They even have a Strawberry Cream on Shortbread walk-through as well!

The recipe is easy to follow and the ingredients are simple. Perfect combination! For the crust you need: Butter, powdered sugar, salt, flour and vanilla. The filling ingredients are: strawberries (fresh or frozen), lemon juice, sugar, plain gelatin, water and heavy whipping cream.

Mix all the ingredients for the crust, and press into your prepared pan. And here you have a choice, either a 9-inch square or a 9-inch round springform pan. Since my 9-inch square pan was busy, and I wanted a prettier presentation – springform it was! The crust took a few extra minutes to bake, but no big deal.

While the crust was cooling, I made the berry-mixture. In a blender you combine the berries, sugar and lemon juice. After you soften and melt your gelatin in the water by heating gently either in microwave or on the stove, you add it to the blender. Blend until it’s all processed well together. You then refrigerate the berries, stirring every 15 min until they are moundable on a spoon. They said approximately 45 minutes, but it wasn’t quite that long for me. When they are ready, you whip your cream until stiff peaks form. Then, you carefully fold your berry-gelatin mixture into it thoroughly, and spread on your cooled crust. Refrigerate until ready to serve and give it time to set.

To serve you can garnish it with fresh berries or crushed sweetened berries – or both! This is most certainly something I will make again, and likely often since I can use frozen berries. This was one of the best desserts ever and it’s super easy!! I also noticed that by using fresh chopped strawberries to garnish, that their juice in combination with the shortbread crust, was very strawberry shortcake-esque!! Wonderful! I will be making Strawberry Cream on Shortbread a permanent entry into my recipe book!!!

 

from Kris B.

Let’s just chalk this week’s recipe up to an exercise in self-realization.  I must say at the outset, I don’t like blue cheese.  That, however, is not part of the week’s self-realization; I already knew that thanks to a bout of food poisining caused by blue cheese salad dressing while on a college wind ensemble tour over thirty years ago. I still carry a grudge!  So why then did  I choose to make a Blue Cheese Spread?

I may have mentioned in a previous post that my husband and I spent our honeymoon in Vermont.  In addition to enjoying a day on the King Arthur Campus in Norwich, VT., we also spent a day on Bonnieview Farm with the Urie family making artisan cheese.  As a reminder of our fabulous time on the farm, we now subscribe to a monthly delivery of cheeses made on Bonnieview Farm.  It just so happens that this month, we had an abundance of blue cheese.  Because I don’t eat it at all and even Weber, who likes blue cheese a lot, can only it so much of it at a time, I needed to find some way to use it.  This is how I ended up with King Arthur Flour’s Blue Cheese Spread, a recipe found in their Mixed Bag collection.

The Blue Cheese Spread is simple to make.  Cream cheese and honey are combined using a mixer until fluffy.  Then the crumbled  blue cheese, thyme, and freshly ground  pepper are added.  Heavy whipping cream is then used to thin the spread to achieve  the desired consistency.  I didn’t mind making this recipe because Weber did the part I wasn’t keen on; he crumbled the blue cheese.

Here’s where the real moment of truth occurred for me.  I had a hard time photographing the cheese dip in a way that it looked minimally palatable let alone delicious.  Despite trying different angles and dishes and garnishes, it just never looked “right” to me.  I finally realized that the reason I couldn’t “make it work” is because I had no relationship with the food itself.  I always choose recipes for things that I will enjoy eating.  My “reward” for making and then shooting the food is then getting to eat it.  I know.  Sad. But oh so true.  This is probably an indication that I would not ever make a good professional food photographer.  You want me to photograph oysters???  I don’t think so!

Despite all that, the word from Weber, who does like blue cheese, is that the Blue Cheese Spread is quite tasty.  The one thing that I might do differently is add more thyme.  It is barely noticeable in my recipe.  Also, I probably should have made the accompanying crackers, but I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for that either.

My final word on this recipe is that if you like blue cheese, try it!  Word on the street is that it’s quite good.

Blue Cheese Spread from King Arthur Flour

 

Food Friday – May 2017 King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge: Berry Blitz Torte

19 Friday May 2017

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from Kris B.

When I first read the recipe for Berry Blitz Torte, this month’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge, I was not sure that I was onboard for making this one. It contains two things, meringue and pastry cream, of which I am not overly fond. I even texted Tracey and asked if we could ditch this month’s Bakealong recipe for one of King Arthur’s bundt cake recipes instead since King Arthur has deemed this year the Year of the Bundt Cake. Because Tracey is a braver soul than I, she said we should go ahead with the Berry Blitz Torte, So we did. One of us has to be the grownup in this outfit and it is not me!

This recipe has three components – the cream, the cake, and the meringue. On first reading, the more lengthy then usual recipe may seem a bit daunting, but when the instructions for each individual component are taken individually, the process is rather simple. The pastry cream is made first and placed in the refrigerator to chill while the cake and the meringue are made and baked.

Two 8″ cake layers are made. The recipe says that the batter will barely cover the bottom of the pans. This is true! Spread the batter evenly in the pan and move forward in faith. Lol! This thin layer of batter is then topped with the meringue, cinnamon sugar, and slivered almonds. The cakes cook for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. After cooling for a few minutes in the pans, they are then turned out onto a rack to finish cooling. This involves an interesting flip-flopping with the layers. They are first turned out meringue side down, causing some of the almonds to fall off, and then flipped again so that they are right side up. The almonds can then be replaced. I was grateful for no cake casualties in this flip-flop process!

The Berry Blitz Torte should not be assembles until right before you are ready to serve it. To assemble, a layer of the cake, meringue side up, is placed on a serving plate. All of the pastry cream is then evenly spread across this layer. The berries are placed atop the cream. And then finally, the second layer of the cake goes on top. I used peaches instead of berries as they are a favorite at my house and they sounded good with the cinnamon and almonds used atop the meringue.

The assembly of this dessert was the most difficult and disappointing part of making this recipe. I think that my cream was a bit too gelatinous. Though I used the amount called for in the recipe, this may be due to too much corn starch. The consistency made it a challenge to spread evenly. The recipe gives the option of whipping in some heavy cream before spreading. I opted not to do that. Even without adding that extra volume, I had more cream than seemed necessary. I placed a generous layer of thinly sliced peaches on top of the cream. When I placed the final layer of the cake on top of the peaches, I realized that there was nothing to hold it in place. Basically, it was free floating across the peaches. I wondered if had I used berries would they have sunk into the cream, providing a little bit of cream to work its way up and stabilize that top layer? I’m fairly sure that with the consistency of my cream, the berries would have rested on top just as the peaches did. In hindsight, I would have reserved a few dollops of the cream and placed it on top of the fruit to hold that top layer in place.

The greatest disappointment came when I tried to slice this cake. I basically ended up with a cake wreck. ? All the layers went slip sliding away in different directions. Fortunately, I was making this just for the blog and not as a dessert with which to try and impress anyone. Everyone at my house ate it and said that it tastes OK, but no one seemed overly impressed. In my opinion, a nice pound cake or angel food cake topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream would have tasted better and been a whole lot less work!

I’m glad that I gave the recipe a try as it forced me to use skills and make things that I probably would not choose to do without some prodding. I wish the final product had been a little more satisfying. Every recipe can’t be a winner. And so, we look forward to the June Bakealong Challenge hoping for a better outcome!

If any of you try this recipe, and I hope that you will, please share your experience with us.

 

From Tracey G

This month’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge, the Berry Blitz Torte, really WAS  a “challenge”! I am one of those that darn it, I want my creation to look JUST like the photo of the original recipe. And well, it just didn’t quite happen that way for me!

I won’t go into the “making process” too much, because Kris did a really great job with that, and if I do it will be really redundant, but, I can & will relate my experience. And for some reason, the 2 days I had to work on this recipe were THE two hottest days of the year so far, both in the 80’s. I think that was strike one against me!

As Kris said, when you break it down into its individual steps, it’s super easy to execute. Pastry Cream, check. Cake batter check. Meringue to put on top of cake batter layer, check! So, into the oven the cakes go, wearing their sliced almond and cinnamon sugar top layers. When they came out, they were poofed as they said they would be and yes, they did deflate as they cooled as they also stated they would do. Only mine really deflated. I didn’t have those wonderful  high meringue sides that the photo did. But as I said, it was the hottest day of the year so far, in the 80’s, and I am sure it wasn’t really friendly and/or conducive to good and pretty meringue sides, but it bummed me out anyway.

I made my pastry cream and baked my cakes the day before I assembled it. It was a few hours in the kitchen project and I knew I’d run out of time as I had to go pick up Harry at the bus stop, so I saved the assembly for the next day. That is something that this cake held up to well, sitting overnight waiting for finishing.

Of course, the next day was another 80 degree day. What the heck was Mother Nature up to???  As it’s still too early in the year to have the AC out and installed, by the afternoon it was reaching 80 in here. I did choose to add the 1/2 cup of cream that they suggest, you simply whip up the 1/2 cup and then fold into your pastry cream. Ok, all good. But then, I said to myself “wow, that’s a LOT of filling…but, it’s what they call for so, okie dokie…” Well, I should have listened to my gut instincts and maybe used 1/2 to 3/4 total of the filling. It was a sloppy mess. LOL! Oh my gosh, and at the point I realized this was NOT going well, it was too late. I have no idea how much I lost out the edges when I put the other layer on top. And I too had the issue of my top cake layer just “floating” on the berries, I used the raspberries as they did in their photo. So, I took the top layer carefully off and smooshed some custard over the raspberries, with my small offset spatula, so they’d sort of be buried in the cream, and help hold the top on. And once again, lost more filling out the sides, lol.

When it was time to cut the cake, I had the same trouble that Kris did – it did NOT cut well at all, lol. It just ended up smooshing apart more. There were no pretty slices of this at all, lol. I am so glad I managed to capture a fairly decent shot of it uncut, as, I can’t tell you how many slices I tried getting to look even somewhat neat and tidy for a photo! Oh my gosh, I finally realized that it was an exercise in futility. I was not going to get that lovely piece for a photo, now that I had probably cut 5 of the 8 servings/pieces that the recipe suggest you’ll get.

We all had a piece of it for our dessert yesterday evening, and it was rated just “Ok”, nothing that they’d request me to make. But, I will say that we each had another piece this evening for dessert, and it was better, Jeremy and I both came to that consensus  – so, I’m not sure what to think, lol. I did mention to Kris I may like to try this one again in the Fall or Winter, when the temps are cool/cold and the humidity is down!! Not to mention the 2nd time around I’ll be ready for the battle of the filling – I’ll know not to use the whole shebang, lol. Maybe save some for another use, or whatever, but don’t, I repeat, DO NOT use it all in the middle of the cake!

Would I make it again because I wanted to? I don’t honestly know. Like I said, I do want to revisit it in different weather conditions, and if it works out better then, it might be a winter special occasion cake, although the berries won’t be very tasty that time of year, I guess it would be a trade-off!

But, all in all, I do look at these monthly challenges as a way to use baking/cooking muscles I don’t use very often. It’s fun to branch out and try something I might not think about trying or might not think I can even do! That’s rather fun to say, “yep, I did it! It may not be pretty, lol, but I tried and I know I can now do it better the next time!!”

Food Friday – Piece of Cake

05 Friday May 2017

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from Tracey G

For this week’s “Cake” category offering, I wanted something simple – but not too simple. I wanted a few pieces to put together, but not an elaborate fancy-shmancy confection of towering proportions or frilly decor, something in between. After searching and searching, I landed upon this recipe for Victoria Sandwich Cake. It really caught my attention – firstly, it had the look I was after – pretty, but not too perfect, it would have the “homey” look and feel. Then I noticed it used self-rising flour! Yes! One more way to use my self-rising flour that I ordered from King Arthur Flour because I wanted their brand and couldn’t find it here (and it was very much competitively priced on their website!). And lastly, I noted that I had ALL the ingredients on hand. I was so happy! LOL! It was a trifecta of perfectness for me! It was rather handy as well with those ingredients – 2 of them that I had on hand, the apricot jam and the heavy whipping cream, I had bought for other recipes. I was able to use up the heavy cream before it went bad, and the apricot jam, well, I couldn’t remember what recipe I’d bought it for (that’ll teach me to not write things down!)!

It also has a fun bit of history, as it was named after Queen Victoria, and it’s first incarnations were as a loaf and then sliced, but it’s long since morphed into the round layer cake it is today, and, it’s a staple in the English baker’s recipe collection. From what I understand there’s also quite a few variants out there with this recipe as well – as far as the fillings go, the jam and the whipped cream. A buttercream instead of a whipped cream and your favorite jam flavor.

On to making the cake. It was almost too easy. Seriously. Since the cake batter uses self-rising flour, there’s very few ingredients: self-rising flour, eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract. Although, those two extracts are optional, as they are an addition to this recipe that isn’t in the classic version. You start by creaming the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs one at a time. After the eggs are completely incorporated, you add the extracts then finally the flour. Divide the batter between two 8-inch round cake pans that have been lightly greased (I greased and used a parchment round in the bottom for extra insurance).

One of the final steps, if you desire, is to brush the top of the cake with simple syrup (or a syrup flavor of your choice) and then add a sprinkle of coarse sugar for some crunch and sparkle, I used the King Arthur Flour Sparkling Sugar. While the cake was baking, I made up my own simple syrup. I used the King Arthur Flour Simple Syrup recipe, but it’s a basic recipe no matter what  – just sugar and water in a one to one ratio. You combine, cook & stir until sugar is dissolved, then let boil for 3 minutes with no stirring. After it’s finished, you let cool to room temperature. This worked out perfect, because by the time I got to the point in the recipe where you brush the cake, my syrup was perfectly cooled and ready to go. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

After you get your cakes out of the oven, you cool in pan for a few minutes then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely. I waited until they were completely cool before I made my whipped cream mixture, so it would be fresh when needed. That’s also a very simple procedure, whip the cream, while whipping sprinkle in the sugar. When it’s rather stiff and well blended, you stir in your vanilla. That’s it!

Now is the time for assembly. One layer of the cake goes on the plate, spread with your jam. The jam is then covered by the whipped cream as another layer. Top with the other cake layer. Once it’s built, brush the top of the top layer with the syrup and sprinkle on the coarse sugar if desired! That’s all there is to it.

On to serving… I refrigerated it for a little bit before I cut it, just to make it easier on myself for cutting, but I honestly couldn’t say if it made a difference or not, as it was pretty easy to portion and slice. Was it due to the refrigeration? I’m not entirely sure! They recommend that it’s best the first 12 hours, and state that it’s still good though through 2 or 3 days, and I believe that! I had it yesterday on the day it was made, and I had a serving today, and it was still just as yummy. As there’s still half a cake left, I’ll get to sample it again tomorrow and see how it’s holding up! I’m sure it will be just fine…. 😉

from Kris B

I have to say right up front that I am not one who has jumped onto the gluten-free eating bandwagon as a way of life[ so, I have done zero intentional gluten-free baking.  However, in an effort to broaden my thinking and my palette, I decided to try a gluten-free cake this week.  I wanted a recipe that was simple, but sounded good.  One that didn’t have a lot of sweet, but had some.  Too much sweet is definitely something that I need to eliminate from my everyday eating.  As I perused recipes on the King Arthur Flour website, This Strawberry Almond Flour Cake seemed to fit the bill.  It uses almond flour, eggs, sugar (only a 1/2 cup), salt, baking powder, vanilla, optional coconut flour, and strawberries (or fruit of your choice) as a topping.  Armed with this recipe, I was ready to bake my first gluten-free cake.  I would be lying if I told you that I was not a little bit skeptical about the outcome of this particular baking adventure.

The recipe begins by having you separate four eggs.  The yolks are beat with sugar and vanilla and set aside while, in a separate bowl, you then beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.  In a third bowl, the dry ingredients are whisked together.  The egg yolk mixture is then mixed into  to the dry ingredients.  Once fully incorporated, the egg whites are added to this mixture 1/2 a cup at a time.  Once all of the ingredients are fully mixed, you have a light and fluffy batter that is ready to be poured into an 8 inch cake pan and baked for 30-35 minutes.  This last step is the only place where I encountered any difficulties with this recipe.

I don’t have an 8 inch cake pan.  Who knew?  I have 6, 9, and 10 inch pans, but no 8 inch pan.

I debated with myself about whether or not to use the 6′ pan because, although all of the reviews of this recipe on the King Arthur website praised the taste of this cake, several of them said that they felt that the cake was too thin.  Having read that, I figured that if I was going to use the 10″ pan, I would have to increase the batter by maybe half???  Since I had no experience with gluten-free baking and how the batter would behave, I did not feel comfortable making these kinds of adjustments first crack out of the barrel.  I them remembered that I have an 8″ cast iron skillet.  That should work. Right?  I adjusted the my baking temperature down from 350 to 325 degrees since cast iron hold more heat than aluminum cake pans.  I poured my batter into the prepared skillet and hoped for the best.

Thirty-five minutes later, well actually 40 minutes because the cake cooled in the pan for five minutes, the cake released from the skillet beautifully and turned out onto a plate with no casualties.  It was a nice golden color with just a tiny bit of crispness on its edges.  Since this cake does not get iced, that crispness gave it a little “shape.”

Once cooled, the Strawberry Almond Flour Cake is topped with strawberries and/or the fruit of your choice.  I did top mine with a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar.  I actually did this more for the photo than for the eating of the cake.  This added sugar is certainly not necessary.

I photographed the cake.  And then it was time to eat it.

I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!!!

This cake is absolutely scrumptious!  It is a bit more dense than a regular yellow cake, which is fine with me, but ts texture is not quite like that of a pound cake either.  This may be the best “yellow” cake that I have ever tasted.  That is saying a lot because my favorite kind of cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting; I have sampled lots of different yellow cake recipes in my fifty-five years!  To say that this may be the best is saying a lot for this recipe.  I found the thickness of this cake just fine, not to thin as was mentioned in the reviews.

I did eat the cake with the suggested berry topping.  The fruit combined with the light sweetness of the cake itself was just the right amount to give me the feeling of having had a nice treat, but not the guilt from indulging in a super rich dessert.  But…I am not above trying it with chocolate frosting next time.  I’ll happily garnish it with strawberries so that the cake doesn’t suffer an identity crisis. 🙂

Seriously…even if you are not a gluten-free eater, you have got to give the Strawberry Almond Flour Cake a try!

8 inch cake pan from King Arthur Flour…just in case you don’t have one either.

Happy baking!

Food Friday – Breakfast Goodness

15 Saturday Apr 2017

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from Tracey G

I fell in love with King Arthur Flour’s Essential Goodness Sour Cream Coffeecake Mix when I made it for one of our mix testing Fridays. I then had run across this recipe for Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake on their website, and it sounded extremely similar – so I knew I had to make it to find out if it was a close approximation of that tasty mix.

After reading through the recipe, I decided I would have to “modify” the batter just a little bit. The recipe didn’t call for nutmeg, and that was a big flavor in the mix, so I added some, freshly grated, to my batter. The whole recipe was simple – and used ingredients that I always have in my pantry:

  • Flour
  • Granulated Sugar
  • Brown Sugar
  • Baking Powder
  • Salt
  • Cinnamon
  • Cocoa Powder
  • Butter
  • Eggs
  • Milk
  • Sour Cream
  • Vanilla

There’s a few steps, but they’re straightforward – you mix up the topping, the filling and then the cake. Once you get them prepared, it’s time to put them all together. Here’s a link to the walk-through on their blog: Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake Walk-Through.

To get started with the assembly, in your greased 9×13-inch baking pan, layer half the batter. Top that first layer with your filling mixture, then smooth on the rest of the batter. You take a butter knife at this point, and swirl the batter – not to mix it up, but as if you were making a marbled cake. Bake at 350° F, for about 55-60 minutes. After it’s baked you allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting and serving out of the pan. There’s also a recommendation that you can add a drizzle of icing on it to “dress it up” a bit, which is what I did for mine. All that involves is powdered sugar and milk to make it, I did add a teensy bit of vanilla to mine to just give it a little “extra” flavor!

All in all, I would say it’s definitely worth the effort – which isn’t much, just a few steps, but nothing complicated whatsoever! It’s received very good reviews around here, from all of us. As I said, it doesn’t call for nutmeg, that was my own addition to bring it close to their mix that I love, but regardless with or without it’s a wonderful coffeecake – to enjoy with coffee or not!!

 

from Kris B.

If you are like me, you are looking at the name of this bread, “Broonie,” and wondering what the heck that is!

A broonie is gingerbread made with oatmeal.  Commonly called a “Broonie Orkney,” this treat originated in the Orkney Islands, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, UNited Kingdom where the staples for bread are corn, barley, and oats.

The above definition is from The Dellomano Blog.

I must admit that until preparing for this week’s blog post, I had not heard of Broonie. My original intent for this post was to try one of King Arthur Flour’s many waffle recipes.  We got a fancy waffle maker for Christmas and have been working our way through various recipes for both sweet and savory waffles.  As seems to be the way of things in my life these days, the time to make, and perhaps more importantly to eat, waffles just didn’t present itself.  I am a church musician and this week is the busiest time of the year.  As one who is “a planner,” I am not always great at changing direction at the last moment, but I am learning.  Since breakfast was the topic of the week, I searched the King Arthur Flour website for something that looked both do-able and tasty.

This Broonie recipe caught my attention because it uses oatmeal I am a serious oatmeal fan.  Also, the day that I was baking, Weber was struggling with a stomach bug of some kind and I figured ginger might be good.  Despite the fact that I was short on time, I welcomed the chance to try something new.  I’m glad I did.  This stuff is DELICIOUS!

Broonie is a quick bread so its leavening comes from baking soda – no yeast and rising necessary.  That was a definite positive for me!  The dry ingredients (oats, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, brown sugar, baking powder, and ground ginger) are first whisked together in a large bowl.  You then cut in 8 TBS of butter.  In a separate bowl, the wet ingredients (eggs, molasses, and buttermilk) are also whisked together and then poured into the dry ingredients.  Once combined, the batter is poured into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan and baked for 65-70 minutes.  Done!

Well, sort of…

The loaf cools completely in the pan before removing it.  The recipe suggests that once the loaf is completely cooled, turn it out of the pan, wrap it, and wait over night before slicing.  This is not a bread intended to be eaten hot out of the oven…another lesson in patience for me!  Because I didn’t want to risk the Broonie crumbling and thus making it difficult to get a decent photograph of it, I waited until the next day to slice it.  In case you are wondering, it sliced beautifully and tasted awesome with a dab ob butter on top.  A little marmalade might have made a nice addition, but I had none.

The Broonie has a chewy texture with a slightly sweet but not overwhelmingly so flavor.  In my opinion, it has more of a bread texture than the cake-y texture of the sweeter gingerbread with which most of us are familiar.  The King Arthur website also suggests that Broonie can be topped with yogurt and jam for breakfast or a scoop of ice cream for dessert.  I have not tried either yet, but I have a half a loaf of Broonie in the kitchen begging to be eaten.  A trip to the grocery store for ice cream may be in my future!  What kind of ice cream do you think would be best served atop a slightly ginger flavored bread?

I did make one slight alteration to the recipe.  It calls for the addition of 1/2 cup of crystalized ginger.  Though I do like the flavor of ginger, I am not a fan of “chewy” things, like raisins and other dried fruits, in my baked goods so I left out the crystallized ginger.  It is still sitting on the kitchen counter; maybe one day I’ll be brave a try it because I know that I will make this recipe again.  In fact, it may become a staple food in our house!

King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Broonie

Food Friday – Luck O’ The Irish: Cake and Bread

10 Friday Mar 2017

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from Tracey G.

This week, as we’re approaching St. Patrick’s Day next Friday, we thought we’d do a couple recipes with a bit of Irish “flavor” either figuratively or literally, lol. I saw this Chocolate Stout Cake and knew, instantly, that I had to make it! And after reading the Chocolate Stout Cake Walk-Through, any from-scratch cake-making doubts I had were gone.

Maybe it’s that 13% Irish DNA match in me (that I never knew existed!), but I love Guinness, and I always have – it’s my favorite stout, and probably my favorite beer as well. (But, I must say it’s tied with Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, another favorite!) So, what could be better than making a chocolate cake where a main ingredient is stout? Nothing I say, I love stout and I love cake, let’s put them together! And as if one needs one, it’s a great reason to pick up some Guinness for the fridge…

The recipe was really easy to do, even though I had to do mine in parts, lol. I made the cake one day, and then frosted it the next. And it didn’t hurt a thing, it all turned out beautifully in the “end”.

The original recipe makes a HUGE cake, very tall etc. But after reading all the way through and on to the “Tips From Our Bakers” that’s included at the tail end of the recipe, I discovered a smaller version. It gives you amounts to scale back the cake and that’s what I did – and it’s still a big beautiful cake!

With the scaled down version all the steps and whatnot, are the same – just in less quantities. The butter gets melted into the beer, and the cocoa powder gets added to that mixture. I did use regular cocoa powder as it was all I had on hand for the project, and it’s still lovely and tasty. While that mixture is coming to room temperature, you beat the eggs with the sour cream together. In another bowl you whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Once the stout/cocoa powder/butter combination has cooled, you mix that into the sour cream/egg mixture. Then, you add in the flour mixture.

When your batter is mixed, you divide it amongst your pans. I used two 8-inch round pans, as again, that’s all I had. I does call for 9-inch rounds though, so I had some extra batter left over that I made 6 cupcakes out of! Always fun when that happens, lol.

The frosting is a ganache – simply it’s hot, heavy cream poured over chopped chocolate and mixed until the chocolate is melted and smooth. I used  bittersweet chocolate chips for this, as again, that’s all I had on hand, and it worked wonderfully. I did have to microwave my mixture a couple of times at lower power to “warm” it up, as it was chilly in the house and even the hot cream didn’t stay hot long enough to melt all the chips.  Then, after you get it stirred smooth, you refrigerate it for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally and checking the thickness. You want it to cool/chill enough to be spreadable as a frosting. Once it reaches spreading consistency, you put about 2/3 cup on your first layer, smooth it out and top with your second layer (or second layer, then more ganache, then 3rd if you used 8-inch pans etc). After you’ve done that, with the rest of the ganache you frost the top and sides. The ganache was super easy to work with, very forgiving and easy to make look pretty! I’ve never used it in this capacity, usually I make my chocolate truffle centers out of it.

The cake is rich and moist, so for me, a small sliver went a LONG way for serving! I loved it, and I know Jeremy did too as he had TWO pieces – the regular kind of size piece of cake! This recipe will  most certainly have a spot in “the book”, it’s a great dessert/cake and for me something even better – a scratch cake that turned out as it was supposed to! I have a long track record for failed from-scratch cakes – thank you King Arthur Flour for helping me look like I know what I’m doing!

Chocolate Stout Cake

Chocolate Stout Cake Flourish Walk-Through

 

from Kris B.

I am still reeling from the crazy roller coaster of a week that we have had with our sick elderly black lab.  He is doing well thanks to lots of veterinarians and techs who cared for him during his five-day hospitalization.  I have to say that this week I would much rather be eating Tracey’s Choco;ate Stout Cake and drinking a Guinness or two than cooking something of my own, but that would be a little irresponsible, so I opted to try a very simple recipe for Irish Soda Bread…easy and for me, bread is the perfect comfort food.

Because the rising agent in this bread is baking soda, Irish Soda Bread requires no rise time.  The dry ingredients are mixed together in one bowl, the wet in another.  They are the combined, kneaded a little, and then the dough is shaped into a flat round and placed in a nine-inch cake pan to bake.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread consists of only a coarsely ground whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.  There are many “Americanized” recipes that use white flour and add sugar and raisins making it more cake-like than bread.  This particular recipe splits the difference between the two.  It does use currants, which gives the bread a hint of sweetness.  This recipe also calls for a bit of bread flour to be mixed with the whole wheat flour, an egg, and butter, ingredients that are not called for in an authentic Irish Soda Bread recipe.

This recipe for Irish Soda Bread is dense, but not too dense and sweet but not too sweet.  Served warm with a pat of butter, it made a hearty afternoon snack.  Reheated for 20 seconds or so in the microwave and then spread with a little butter and some apple butter or orange marmalade, it becomes a nice breakfast bread.

The only small issue that I had with making this Irish Soda Bread was with the baking time.  The recipe calls for the bread to bake for 45-55 minutes at 400 degrees.  Though my oven normally requires things to cook toward the maximum end of specified cook times, for some reason I set the timer for 45 minutes.  It was a good thing.  Even before the timer went off, the top of the bread was starting to get overdone.  I was baking on the middle rack.  Next time I make this recipe, and I will make it again, I will drop the rack and see if that fixes my problem.

This is a great recipe if you want to add a little touch of Irish to your life!

Irish Soda Bread recipe

Mix It Up Friday – February

24 Friday Feb 2017

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Happy Birthday, Tracey!

from Tracey G

YAY – IT’S MIX WEEK!! I love mix week as much as I love Bakealong week, lol. I guess they both provide me with a couple things I love to do – play with a mix and make something from scratch, and by doing so with either, I’m usually trying something I’ve not had before or not made myself before. Either way, it’s fun stuff!

This week I chose the King Arthur Flour mix for Malted Milk Chocolate Cupcakes + Frosting Mix.

I chose it because yesterday was Harry’s birthday, and today is mine, so I thought cake/cupcakes would be appropriate for celebrating! This particular mix is only available at Target according to the King Arthur Flour website. And that’s exactly where I bought this one! I didn’t know at the time of purchase though, that that was the case. And I’m probably in the minority when to it comes to having a challenge regarding the availability of a Target store, lol – my closest one is about 2 hours away! So, hopefully you will have a much easier time getting a box or two!! Next time I may pick up a few because this box made only 6 cupcakes – which actually was a good amount, but there may be a time when I’ll need a few more than 6 and extra package or two might come in handy!!

This was a super easy mix to prepare, and it turned out well despite the fact I totally messed up the mixing directions! I didn’t realize the error of my ways until after I had dumped everything into the mixer bowl… I was just trucking along, gathering and adding as I would with any other cake mix, and I was about to flip on the mixer on when I noticed that, uh oh, I did it all wrong, lol. If I recall correctly the directions were to mix the butter and the cake mix first, then add in the egg, then add in the milk. Well, I just added everything in and turned it on because at that point I couldn’t take them all back out, lol. But I have to say, despite that accident the cupcakes came out just fine. The icing was easy enough to mix up too – just mix it in with the butter and little bit of milk it calls for, adjusting milk amounts accordingly to get the consistency you’d like. It’s just that simple, lol.

The cake was yummy and the frosting was equally yummy. I must say I absolutely loved the frosting, it had a really great malted milk ball taste. I am a huge fan of malted milk ball candy Whoppers, and this really fit the bill for that sort of flavor!! This is a definitely-will-make-again mix!!

Malted Milk Chocolate Cupcake + Frosting Mix

King Arthur Flour Website

 

from Kris B

King Cakes are a tradition of carnival season, the time lasting from Epiphany (January 6th)  through Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins, which this year is next Wednesday, March 1.  The recipe for King Cakes has evolved over time as various countries and cultures have adopted the practice of celebrating Epiphany with a King Cake.

The King Cake tradition is thought to have been brought to New Orleans from France in 1870.   A King Cake is an oval-shaped bakery delicacy, crossed between a coffee cake and a French pastry… It’s decorated in royal colors of PURPLE which signifies “Justice,” GREEN for “Faith,” and GOLD for “Power.” These colors were chosen to resemble a jeweled crown honoring the Wise Men who visited the Christ Child on Epiphany. In the past such things as coins, beans, pecans, or peas were also hidden in each King Cake.  Today, a tiny plastic baby is the common prize. At a party, the King Cake is sliced and served. Each person looks to see if their piece contains the “baby.” If so, then that person is named “King” for a day and bound by custom to host the next party and provide the King Cake.

When my girls were little, they would always be the “lucky” one to find the prize in their slice of cake.  That meant that I was the “unlucky” mom who had to make the cake for the next year’s celebration.  There was a rule in our church that the same person would not be responsible for the cake two year’s in a row.  That meant the same kid could not “win” two consecutive years.  That did not take into account two kids and one mother!  I think I made King Cakes three or four years in a row!  Well…that’s not exactly true.  I’m certain that at least a couple of those years, I bought the cakes from a local bakery.  I wish the King Arthur Flour King Cake Kit had been there for me back then!

Notice that this is called the King Cake Kit.  The fact that it is a kit seems to mean that it requires a little more from us than does a mix.  The King Cake is constructed in three parts – the dough, the filling, and the glaze and sugar.  The dough requires only the addition of yeast, a stick of butter and water.  Because this is a yeast dough, it does have two rise periods.  The first is 30 minutes and occurs before the filling is added.  Where I was caught a little off guard with this kit was with the filling.  The filling for King Cakes is one of those things that is diverse and flexible, everything from cinnamon sugra to fruit and nuts.  The King Arthur King Cake Kit uses an almond paste filling.  The can of almond paste is included in the kit, but the instructions call for it to be mixed with butter, almond extract, sugar (none of which are included), and 2 cups of soft white fresh bread crumbs.  This ingredient brought me to a screeching halt late one night when I thought I would get a little ahead of the game – bake late at night and photograph early in the morning.  We don’t eat white bread unless it is homemade and there was none of that in the house at this point.  Fortunately, I had read through the complete instructions before starting so put off the baking until morning after a trip to the grocery store.  (I wasn’t going to bake bread just for some bread crumb!  Call me lazy.)  Once I got the bread and made the bread crumbs, the King Cake went together easily.

The dough is rolled into a rectangle, the filling layered on top and then it is rolled like you would do when making cinnamon rolls.  The rolled “log” is placed on a baking sheet and then formed into a circle by pinching the ends together.  A circle is the traditional shape for a King Cake.  The cake then rises again before it bakes.

Once baked, the instructions call for the cake to cool for an hour before adding the glaze, which is provided as a dry mix that requires the addition of 2 TBS of either milk, half and half, or heavy cream.  After the cake is glazed and while the glaze is still sticky, the traditional purple, green, and gold sugars (included in the kit) are sprinkled on top of the glaze in alternating stripes around the entire cake.

NOTE: The King Cake should be placed on the intended serving plate before the glaze and sugar are added.   This encouraged me to be neat when I was adding the glaze and sprinkling the sugar.  Just know that you may not end up with a drip-free, crumb-free, or stray sugar granule-free serving plate! 🙂

This kit, and most commercial bakeries making King Cakes, do not include the traditional plastic baby or trinket in their cakes.  There are legal issues in that these small figures pose a choking hazard and also can be hard on the teeth when stumbled upon unexpectedly.  I know that the last time one of my girls got the piece of cake with “the baby,” it was a green Skittle, a safe for swallowing and for your teeth alternative.  To this day, we laugh about the King Cake with the alien baby Jesus…perhaps a little sacrilegious, but a fun memory nonetheless.

Sadly, because the King Cake Kit is seasonal, it is no longer available on the King Arthur Flour website.  Sorry!  If, however, you feel the need to make a King Cake between now and the start of Lent next Wednesday, here is a link to a scratch King Cake recipe from the King Arthur Flour website.

 

Food Friday – February King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge: Dark Chocolate Eclairs

18 Saturday Feb 2017

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Hello all! I am flying solo this week for our Bakealong Challenge/Food Friday. Kris has out-of-town company visiting and had a hectic week schedule to boot, so since I owe her bigtime for helping me out while I was down with strep-throat, I totally wanted to help her out and make her life easier this week and give her a break! She deserves it and deserves to have fun with her visitor! Thank you again Kris, you saved my behind the past couple weeks! Love you my friend!!! 

 

This week it’s the King Arthur Flour February Bakealong Challenge recipe! I know I have said this more times than I can count, but I truly do enjoy these challenges. And I say that because most of the time they truly are a challenge, getting me to make something I never have, plus things I’d never even thought to make! This month’s, the Dark Chocolate Eclairs are one such never-thought-to-make recipe. They were always something bought in the bakery – certainly not something I myself could make! Well, I am here to tell you that it is a VERY doable. I was so proud of myself for creating these little lovelies in my very own kitchen. The Dark Chocolate Eclairs Bakealong Walk-Through on KAF blog, makes it even easier to follow along!

The ingredients were simple, even if I had stuck with the original ones called for in the recipe, lol. I’d read a few of the reviews for this Challenge, and one stuck in my head that thought the filling was too bitter, so it was suggested to try using semi-sweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened chocolate. That’s what I did, and I just used the semi-sweet chocolate chips I had in my pantry. I also used my own Hershey’s Cocoa Powder I had, not the Dutch Processed – I am just recovering from being sick for 2 weeks with strep, and wanted to make it as simple on myself as I could! The only things that I had to purchase special for this recipe, were a couple of items I don’t always have around – whole milk and heavy cream. The whole milk is for the chocolate cream filling and the heavy cream is for the ganache – the chocolate glaze coating. Everything else, was on hand –  eggs, butter, flour, water, cornstarch, regular cocoa powder, light corn syrup and granulated sugar.

I did mine in stages as well (I’d read through the walk-through blog post for this and it’s stated it works well that way if you need it to!) – and this recipe is a champ for that sort of thing! I made the eclair shells and the pastry cream one day, then the day I was going to photograph them, I put them together and made the glaze. Let me just say that photographing them was harder than making them! LOL!

I had never made a pastry cream (in this case I kept thinking of it as homemade pudding, because that’s what it tasted like every time I had to taste, for quality control purposes you know, lol) and it was much easier than I thought! The eclair pastry I’d had experience with as it’s a pate a choux and that’s what we made as part of the Kringle in the December 2016 recipe challenge! I actually got to use a skill/technique again, and I felt pretty confident! I used a pastry bag with no tip, just a cut end, to pipe the eclair pastry batter/dough, and they even recommend using an ordinary ziptop bag with a hole cut in the corner – it was easy peasy either way! I also piped in my chocolate cream filling with a 1M Wilton tip for prettiness AND easiness. You could use the ziptop bag thing again for that, or spoon it in etc. For me, it was less-messy and faster to pipe it in, and the bonus effect of it being pretty, lol.

The glaze was very simple to make and a recipe/technique I was very familiar with, a simple ganache. I use ganache to make my homemade chocolate truffles, so it’s definitely something I’m really used to making, and honestly, even if it was the first time I’d ever made it, it’s a very simple thing to do! I drizzled my glaze on top of my put-together eclairs, just because I wanted to, lol. It was purely and personal choice, you can dip the cut tops in the glaze if you like.

All in all, this recipe was a lot of fun to make and I feel like I added another skill to my repertoire – I CAN make eclairs! Yay me!! And you can too!! Seriously! It does make a lot of shells, so I am going to make a 1/2 batch of the Vanilla Pastry Cream to use them up, I do have some chocolate left as well, but I really want to try my hand at the regular pastry cream – if I can nail that, I’ll never have to buy custard-filled-anything again, I can just make my own! LOL!!

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