Happy Administrative Assistant's Day!

Lorrie wanted to do something for the admin assistant in her area at work, which meant I was baking something. Her job was to find a decoration for the top. She was hoping to find some of the Peeps chicks somewhere but what she came home with was even better. She found these marshmallow ice cream cone candies with pink, yellow, and white "ice cream" colors. I think they turned out pretty good.

The cupcake used the same yellow cake recipe I used for the Easter Bunny cupcakes. I've made this enough now that I'm comfortable with the recipe and what I need to do for them to turn out good. The frosting came from a can which I then colored yellow and pink. I had gotten marshmallow fluff too in case we had different candies but didn't use it. I think the white nonpareils just gave it a nice touch.

There were well-received and tasted really good. Lorrie has already mentioned she wants to do these again.

Trouble Free Cake Mix

I was in TJ Maxx the other day looking for some cupcake decorations and I saw this pan:


It caught my eye because I've almost purchased pans that allow you to make the cookies-on-a-stick and this was something along those lines. This was unique because of the shape and it showed other cookies beyond sugar cookies. The picture above is the back of the box. It shows three recipes: crispy rice treats, a protein bar, and trouble free cake mix. Nevermind the whole concept of a protein bar on a stick (you know, for those fussy, hard to please, scrawny children), I'm looking for a good trouble free cake mix recipe. So I go for a closer look and see this:



"1 Box cake mix - any flavor"  Well, there ya go. I wish I would have seen this pan sooner, I could have saved all that money on cookbooks...



Sorry about the photos. They were taken on my camera phone while the store's staff was giving me a variety of looks from puzzlement to annoyance.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

The final item in our Easter baskets were these cherry spelt muffins. My whole "trying to make something healthy" mania was in full swing here. I had purchased the spelt flour a little while ago to try it so somehow I thought giving an experimental muffin as a gift was a good idea. The cherry idea came from Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer. Yep, I made a muffin based on a beer. In fact, it was a beer that sorely disappointed me so I made a muffin based on a beer I didn't like. Yep, that should have told me how this would go.

The first batch I made went like this: Only used half of a cup of cherries and soaked them in the Kirschwasser alone. Didn't like that flavor overall so I added the tart cherry juice. I wanted to use honey for this recipe but instead of measuring out 1/2 cup I measured 1 cup and didn't notice until I had mixed it with the eggs so I had to start over at that point and oops, out of honey so I'm using brown sugar instead. Mix it up and bake it. Cool them off and have a bite...of the half of the muffin not permanently attached to the muffin paper. And you really only tasted the spelt. *sigh* I couldn't use these as a gift.

So while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I tried again. This time I doubled the amount of cherries and added a little vanilla and also used some of the cherry juice in the batter. The batter itself was really light. It was good to not use the paper lining the second time because having the crust around the muffin gave it more structure and gave it a little tooth versus the airy center.

But again taste was an issue. If you had a muffin with a number of cherries in it then it was just as I imagined, cherry complimenting the spelt flavors. If you didn't get enough cherries, it was a decent dinner roll.

I liked them but I think there are better ways to implent this. First, it was a light, wet batter which I think would work well for pancakes, especially the stuffed varieties. Baking these without the papers reminded me of the stuffed pancakes using a pan like this.Instead of adding the cherries, use jam in the center. But if I was to stick to muffins, I would probably go more to the savory ingredients. When I worked at the Deli, we had a bacon and cheese muffin that I think would work well using spelt.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

Makes about 12 muffins

2 1/4 cups spelt flour
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried cherries
2 Tbls. Kirschwasser
2 Tbls. tart cherry juice

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Soak the cherries in the Kirschwasser and tart cherry juice for up to an hour before using. Do not get rid of the liquid when you are done soaking the cherries.

Combine the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the cherries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the cherries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Healthier Blackberry Oat Muffins

The second baked good in the Easter basket was a version of my blackberry oat muffins. My mother had commented on how they sounded good the first time I made them so I included them this time, but with a little twist. This recipe I tried reducing the oil and sugar a little bit. I like the original batch I did but I wanted to see if I couldn't reduce some of the ingredients I thought might have used a little too much of. Well, that and I wanted to switch this to use buttermilk instead of whole milk.

I thought these muffins were pretty good. Seemed very similar to the first batch. My parents loved them and we got compliments from Lorrie's cousin.

I did try this batch again later and they didn't turn out. Basically they were overmixed and then overbaked so be careful of both (besides being bad for muffins in general overmixing made this recipe purple from the blackberries, which then meant it really didn't brown until it was way past done). I knew better but went ahead and did it anyway.



Blackberry Oat Muffins
differences from the original recipe are highlighted

Makes about 12 muffins

3 1/2 cups (11 3/8 oz) oat flour
1 cup (3 1/2 oz) instant oats
1 Tbls. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup (4 3/4 oz) sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Combine the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the blackberries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the blackberries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

If you came to my site on Easter (or scrolled down a bit I guess), you were greeted by a picture of the finished army of these cupcakes. This was the first part of the Easter baskets Lorrie and I created. Originally, I hadn't planned on doing these. As Easter approached I assumed I'd be doing cut-outs again in rabbit and egg shapes. I changed my plans when I decided to try to do some things with less sugar but I still wanted a couple things in the basket that still were pure, unadulterated sugared-up treats.

I used a yellow cake recipe for the cupcake base. Lorrie and my uncle can't have chocolate so that's always in the back of my mind and something I plan for. I've used this recipe before for cupcakes and I know it tastes good. Going forward though I think I will look for something else. This recipe tastes good and is easy enough to make but still it is much more dense than I would prefer. I think I can do better.

I spent a lot of time trying to think of how to decorate these. I had the idea to do an Easter basket theme right away but it was trying to figure out the execution of it that took a while. My first thought was the Peeps chicks, but when I saw the packages and the actual size of each chick, I knew there wouldn't be room for anything else. It had to be the bunnies. I liked the malted milk robin eggs over any of the jelly bean options at the store and they stayed in the theme well as the decorated eggs in the basket. The grass was something I didn't expect to find or use. I used green-dyed coconut last year for the grass and wasn't going to give it a second thought this year until I found this new candy grass right next to the Peeps at Target. Made from potato starch and corn starch, the grass really didn't have much flavor but worked as an alternative to the coconut. Plus, I hate coconut so I was really going to try anything else. I think I spent the longest time brainstorming on how to stick all this on the cupcakes. I didn't want strong flavored frostings and some just don't hold well. In the end, I used marshmallow creme as the frosting. This worked really well. A little dab on the bottom of the Peeps bunny held it in place, for the most part. The marshmallow creme as frosting actually worked very well and was rather easy to put on and spread. Much easier than some of the frostings/glazes I've used in the past. Some did dribble down the sides and it did melt slightly in the sun but really, frosting makes a mess too.


Yellow Cake
from page 352 of the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Makes 12 cupcakes

12 Tbls. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 oz) sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs plus 2 yolks
2 3/4 cups (11 1/2 oz) unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk, buttermilk, or yogurt (I used buttermilk)

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until the batter is fluffy. This should take at least five minutes. Also, make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature. This is a requirement for making a butter cake.

Add the eggs and yolks one at a time. Beat thoroughly before adding the next. Then slowly fold in a third of the flour, then half of the milk, then another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the last of the flour. Only stir until mixed. Overmixing will reduce the volume of air trapped in the butter and sugar.

Pour into your greased or paper-lined cake pans or cupcake pans. Cooking times vary by shape but the cupcakes took about twenty-five to thirty minutes and rotate the pan 180° about twelve minutes in. Cool in the pan for about five minutes for cupcakes and ten minutes for a cake and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Easter Baskets

Lorrie likes to bring little baskets of gifts when we visit family and of course, I enjoy baking something for it. Easter is definitely one of those times. Last year's baskets were collections of sugar cookie cut-outs in Easter themed shapes. Rabbits with green-dyed coconut for grass, Easter bunnies with licorice whiskers and candy eyes, robin eggs, etc. (I took pictures but only one turned out.) But my dad is diabetic and a dozen sugar cookie makes me feel like a bit of an enabler.

So this year, I tried some different things in the baskets. A couple of 'Easter basket' cupcakes, a version of the Blackberry Oat muffins, and something new, a Cherry Spelt muffin. A couple of sweet things but a little more healthy and a lot less sugary. Other things in the basket to round it out were a small stuffed animal and a Peeps candy container filled with sugar-free jelly beans.

Happy Easter

from the Peeps bunny army!

March 2007 Just Baking Round-Up

My "Look, I post somewhere else" round-up of posts I did as editor at Just Baking in March.

Mar. 2 - A Good Breakfast - Repackaged version of my Northwoods Bran Muffin post for a new audience.

Mar. 6 - Quinoa - Brief overview of Quinoa and its uses.

Mar. 14 - Something Different - Date bars. Hmmm, sounds familiar.

Mar. 15 - Help for the Beginning Baker (and Cook) - It's just amazing on what you can get free at Cook's Illustrated Online.

Mar. 28 - In The News - The latest buzz - pizza can be healthy.

Mar. 29 - Baking is Learning - I express my surprise at how well this recipe worked.

Mar. 30 - A Phenomenon Reexamined - The news about how to make healthier pizza made me think of another news event.

I had a very busy month.


*Update* - As Just Baking no longer exists, I have removed the actual links but left the post names as a source for ideas

Peanut Brittle

I've been waiting for a chance to try this recipe from Kate Zuckerman's book The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelle, and a "Food Day" at work tomorrow is the perfect excuse. I like this book a lot; it's well written and contains a ton of information and tips. She shares the pastry chef perspective and that adds so much to a recipe that a novice like myself can understand more than just ingredients and cooking times but also methodology, presentation, and repeatability.

This recipe is a perfect example. Just about every peanut brittle recipe I've seen is basically boiling the sugar, adding the nuts, cooling in a pan, and then breaking into pieces. No frills. The steps Kate lays out allow for variation at certain places while still maintaining your ability to recreate a well-finished piece. Cooling the caramel and grinding it allows you to change nuts within the same batch. Want to do some almond and some peanut? No problem. Another benefit of grinding? It gives you more control over what the final product will look like so you can make circles or tubes instead of broken glass-like pieces. That's just a great way to impress your friends.

Following this recipe made me feel more like a "chef" than a cook, if I may be so bold so obviously I can't recommend this book enough.


Thin and Delicate Peanut Brittle
from page 204 of the The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelleby Kate Zuckerman

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup ground peanuts
1/4 tsp. finely ground sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350° F and prepare a 11"x17" baking pan with parchment, nonstick baking pad, or aluminum foil.

In a small, heavy-bottomed pan combine the water, sugar, and cream of tartar and heat over high heat. When the mixture begins a rolling boil, reduce the heat to about medium-high. Once the color changes to a golden brown caramel color, remove from the heat and pour into the prepared pan to cool.

Once the caramel has cooled, break it up into small pieces. Use a food processor or coffee grinder to grind the caramel into a fine table sugarlike consistency. Combine this with the ground peanuts.

Prepare your baking pan again. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan and spread very thin (1/8 inch thick). Bake the candy for about 4-6 minutes, until it melts and bubbles. Remove from the oven and evenly sprinkle the salt over the candy. Let cool and break into pieces to serve.

This will keep for up to 2 weeks in a sealed container in a cool, dry place. Humidity will rob this brittle of its crunch.

Irish Dairy Bread

I believe this is the first time I've recognized St. Patrick's Day by baking something instead of drinking something. Previous celebrations took place in various drinking establishments, the best being a little country bar just north of Milwaukee actually owned by an Irishman and not some dork wearing a plastic green hat and calling himself "O'Lucas" all night. But hanging out at Finbar's wasn't about getting drunk. You were there with friends, having a great time, enjoying the atmosphere of real Irish music and food.

Now one of the things you may get during an Irish meal is a couple of pieces of soda bread. This bread is dense but tasty and requires few ingredients and just a little bit of time to make. The leavening is performed by the reaction between buttermilk and baking soda so there's no yeast and no waiting for the dough to rise. I have to admit I was impressed how much this bread rose too. Many muffins use the same buttermilk-baking soda reaction but they don't double in height like this bread did (near the end off baking it came dangerously close to the rack above it).


Irish Dairy Bread
from page 122 of the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Makes one 9-inch loaf

4 cups (17 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 375° F and prepare a baking sheet or cast-iron pot by lightly flouring it.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and whisk together thoroughly. Add the butter and distribute the butter evenly through the flour mixture. Create a hole in the center of the flour and pour the buttermilk into it. Stir to combine the ingredients.

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface. Once the dough comes together, form a ball and then press down until it is about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Cut an "X" into the top and place in the pan. If you are using a cast-iron pot with a lid, put the lid on. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes (for baking sheet) to 40 minutes (for cast-iron pot). Once done, cool on a wire rack. Do not cut until completely cooled.

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I've submitted this to Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte and her St. Pat's Day: Green or Irish round-up. I found this blog when I first started reading food blogs, it always has great pictures of bread which I imagine probably taste pretty good too. She also has many of these events, with my favorite, the culinary Advent calender (2005 and 2006).

Blackberry Oat Muffins

A couple of weeks ago, the question was posed to Lorrie on what she would do if she couldn't have wheat and would have to lead a gluten-free lifestyle. She loves bread and pasta and she thought it definitely would be very tough. I don't think she was aware of all the resources available online with recommendations and recipes for gluten-free food. So my next trip to the store, I picked up some gluten-free flours. Oat flour was among them. Now I was thinking that since oats aren't wheat, that means gluten-free. I went ahead and made these muffins, thinking I was making something without gluten. Later, after talking to Lorrie about bringing some in for a coworker with Celiac Disease, I double-checked the recipe and the ingredients to be sure. I was using Bob's Red Mill oat flour and when I examined the package, I couldn't find the gluten-free blurb. I thought this was odd and went to the website and found they did not consider it to be gluten-free. Apparently Bob's has a whole facility devoted to gluten-free products and oats are not processed there so their oats are processed in the same facility as wheat, thus contaminating them. I learned something new.

These muffins came out great. Slightly dense and moist, the flavor was wonderful. The blackberry and oat flavors complimented each other well. I had mentioned to Lorrie that she can take them to work and she told me no, we would be keeping these to ourselves. We did and I don't feel bad about that at all.


Blackberry Oat Muffins

Makes about 12-14 muffins

3 1/2 cups oat flour
1 cup instant oats
1 Tbls. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Combine the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the blackberries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the blackberries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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These muffins were submitted to Sweetnick's for her ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday feature. This is also now a post at Just Baking as well.

Biscuits in a box

A while back an activist blogger made some disparaging remarks about a fellow blogger's site. Specifically about the site's subject, Rachel Ray. You don't have to love Rachel (or Sandra or Paula or Emeril etc.), but making comments like that blogger did in a public forum was uncalled for. She had her own blog; she should do it there. Well, the same thing bothered Mimi at French Kitchen in America, who declared March 15th "Biscuit Baking Mix Day" and this is my entry.

I thought I would do some variations of biscuits, nothing too complex. I always liked the sweet biscuits - cinnamon, raisins, lots of frosting so that was my direction. Now, one had to be apple, my favorite fruit. The other one, peach, was inspired by a post I read the other day.

The apple was a Granny Smith, the Bisquick mix was the regular one, and I tried a new Amish, non-homogenized, organic milk. The apple cinnamon is the one with the darker glaze, the "Peaches and Cream" biscuit has the lighter glaze, and the biscuit in the background is the regular biscuit just prior to it being smothered in sausage gravy.

Both biscuits turned out well. The biscuits themselves were a little flour-y and needed the glaze to get each fruit's full flavor.

Apple Cinnamon Biscuits

For Biscuits
3 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup diced apples
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbls. sugar

For glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
apple cider

Preheat the oven to 450° F and prepare 2 baking sheets if you are doing small biscuits. Combine all biscuit ingredients in a medium bowl and turn out onto board "floured" with Biquick mix. Knead 10 times. Roll out the dough to about a half inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. I used the smallest from my set (1 1/2 inch I believe) for a more bite-size biscuits.

Bake for 10 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pans 180° and switch the pans on the racks. The biscuits are done when they are a golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon and then add the apple cider until the glaze reaches the consistency you would like. Dribble the glaze over the biscuits.


"Peaches and Cream" Biscuits

For Biscuits
3 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup diced fresh peaches
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbls. sugar

For glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
peach juice

Preheat the oven to 450° F and prepare 2 baking sheets if you are doing small biscuits. Combine all biscuit ingredients in a medium bowl and turn out onto board "floured" with Biquick mix. Knead 10 times. Roll out the dough to about a half inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. I used the smallest from my set (1 1/2 inch I believe) for a more bite-size biscuits.

Bake for 10 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pans 180° and switch the pans on the racks. The biscuits are done when they are a golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

In a small bowl put the powdered sugar and then add the peach juice until the glaze reaches the consistency you would like. Dribble the glaze over the biscuits.

Who eats all the stuff you make?

I get asked this question occasionally from friends who've seen the site. Sometimes it's me and Lorrie. More often than not though, it's Lorrie's coworkers. They get many of the bars, cookies, muffins, and candies I make. Some of the things were made specifically to celebrate some achievement at work for Lorrie, like the orange cookies in the picture. Others were just recipes I wanted to try or an item I needed to make for another site, like the heart cake.
Don't get me wrong, Lorrie and I get our share but neither of us want 2 dozen cookies sitting around just begging to be eaten!

But there is an additional benefit for me. Feedback. How things taste, how they look, etc., I hear what they liked and what they didn't. I can't do better without it.

Thank you. It really is appreciated.

Apple Pizza

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the whole wheat pizza crusts I made. Well, one crust was used for the regular pizza, the other I used to make a dessert pizza. If you get a dessert pizza from one of the big pizza chains, you're probably going to get a can of pie filling on a crust with some kind of crumble and icing. I tried avoiding that. Instead I used thinly sliced apples and cranberries and topped that with a granola and brown sugar crumble. It really is a version of a tarte fine, a French tart of puff pastry with thinly sliced apples.

This pizza came out really well. I poached the apples in a simple syrup to prevent browning (I was cutting the apples well before I was baking) and to add sweetness. I was a little worried about the crumble because I winged it but it turned out good. The whole wheat pizza crust worked well because its savory flavor and hint of spice cut the sweetness of the other ingredients very well.

Apple Pizza

Makes 1 pizza

1 crust
2 large apples (I used Granny Smith)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the simple syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water

For the crumble
1/2 stick butter (room temperature)
1 cup granola
1/2 cup light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 425° F. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and put on medium-high heat. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and let the syrup simmer. Slice the apples as thin as you can (this was a good excuse for me to try my new mandolin). Put the apple slices in the syrup and turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Once the syrup starts boiling again, remove the apples and let them drain and cool.

Once the slices are cool enough to handle (careful,boiling sugar is just as dangerous as boiling oil), layer them on the pizza crust. Sprinkle the cranberries on top of the apple slices.

In a medium bowl combine the butter, granola, and light brown sugar. Use a fork or a knife to "cut" the crumble up into little pieces and sprinkle over the pizza.

Place in oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly, slice, and eat!

Checking in...

I'm still here, just been busy. My computer crashed last weekend and the good news/bad news is I had some data backed up, some data I was able to squeeze out of the old computer, and now I have a new computer I have to reload software/data and reconfigure to my liking.

Also Lorrie has been feeling a bit under the weather so I've been spending more time with her.

I have baked and have posts in mind and will post them when I have a chance.

February 2007 Just Baking Round-Up

Just highlighting some of the posts I did as editor at Just Baking in February (and one from January) that didn't appear here.

Jan. 31 - Amaranth Flour - Brief overview of Amaranth flour and its uses.

Feb. 6 - In The News - Baking in the news round-up. Layer cakes, madeleines, personal achievement, baking competition, and Ace Of Cakes.

Feb. 7 - A note from the editor - Introducing myself and direction of Just Baking.

Feb. 12 - Welcome to Valentine’s Week - All the Well Fed Network sites ran posts with Valentine's Day themes.

Feb. 16 - A Tip For Your Heart - Tip on how to make a heart cake without a heart pan.


*Update* - As Just Baking no longer exists, I have removed the actual links but left the post names as a source for ideas

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

A common dinner for Lorrie and myself is a couple of individual pizzas. I'll get a package of flatbreads from the store and a couple of toppings to put on them. Flatbreads on the pan, toppings on the flatbread, oven, bake, pizza. Pretty simple but tastes great. The past couple of weekends I've been creating my own flatbreads for the pizzas. The recipe I'm using is based on a whole wheat pizza recipe in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. Honestly, I could tell you I researched the recipes and chose this one because of so-and-so reason but really I chose the recipe because it didn't use pre-ferments or need to sit overnight. The usual ingredients for our pizzas are garlic, olive oil, spinach (wilted in a hot pan first), sliced tomato, and provolone cheese.


Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
based on the Herbed Whole Wheat Pizza with Mushrooms and Spinach on page 134-136 of the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains cookbook.

Makes 2 12-inch rounds

3 3/4 cups (15 oz.) white whole wheat flour (I used the King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat)
1 Tbls. + 1 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 cups (12 oz) cool water
1 Tbls. honey
1 Tbls. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbls. dried oregano
1 Tbls. dried basil
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

In a medium bowl put 2 cups of the flour and all of the yeast. Measure out the water and add to that the honey and stir until it's combined. Add the water-honey mixture to the flour and yeast and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for an hour.

After the hour, remove the plastic wrap and add in the remaining ingredients and mix. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes or so. Stop kneading when the dough is shiny and elastic yet soft. Have a baker's bench knife handy to help if the dough sticks because you don't want to over-flour this. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover, and let sit for another 90 minutes. After about 90 minutes the dough should have doubled in size.

Once this second rise is done, turn the dough out onto the lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a round. Cover these rounds and let them rest for another 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375° F (with a baking stone if that is what you use). Roll each round out to a 12-inch round and put on your pan, baking sheet, or parchment paper. Use a fork to prick the crust all over (if you look at the first picture you will see the dough puffed up; I missed this step the first time through). If you want a traditional end crust, roll up the edges. Bake the crusts individually for 10 minutes and remove from the oven.

At this point you have 2 crusts for use. Use immediately or let cool completely and freeze. When you add your toppings and bake, bake the pizza at 425° F.

Lemon Squares

On nights when temperatures are below zero, it's hard not to let the mind wander and think about warmer times. When I do this, my thoughts drift towards the approaching spring season. My first round of golf for the year may only be a month a way, time to start hitting the driving ranges. Garden planning should begin now. It won't be totally pitch black when I leave work. While I like the colors and hues of winter, when I think of spring I start thinking of bright colors like yellow. This is the reason when I saw this recipe for lemon bars, I thought of spring.

Lemon Bars
from the Spring 2007 issue of The Baker's Companion magazine, page 47.

Crust
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 oz.) powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Topping
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 oz.) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (4 oz.) lemon juice
1/4 cup (1 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. lemon zest (2 lemons worth) or 1/2 tsp. lemon oil
powdered sugar for sprinkling

While preheating the oven to 350° F, grease a 9x9 inch (or similarly dimensioned) pan.

Make the crust first. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt and mix thoroughly. Cut in the butter using your fingers or a pastry blender. Mix until the crumbs are coarse. Put the crumbs in the pan and press to form the crust. Bake this for 20 minutes. It's done when the color is a light brown.

For the topping, cream the eggs, sugar (granulated), and lemon juice until it's smooth. Fold in the flour, lemon zest or oil, and salt. Pour this over the crust once it is finished with the pre-bake and bake for another 25 minutes. These bars are done when the topping appears set. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan. Just before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

A tip for one of Lorrie's coworkers: Use a cookie cutter or a stencil to give the sprinkled powdered sugar a shape.

Almond Honey Caramel Chews

These candies might just be the best thing to ever come out of my kitchen. Better than the sugar almonds. Better than any cookie I've ever made. Heck, better than anything to come off of my grill.

The flavor and texture is incredible. A little crunchy when you first bite into them that dissolves into a wonderful caramel and almond chewy candy with a hint of honey. These are perfect for a party, be it a Super Bowl party or just having friends over.

These are not hard to make, they just take time. The cooking process is slow so there is no worrying about the candy heating or cooling too fast.

Almond Honey Caramel Chews
from page 193 of the The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelleby Kate Zuckerman

Makes about 50 candy pieces

14 oz. (about 4 cups) sliced, blanched almonds
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 sticks (16 Tbls.) butter
3/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbls. light corn syrup

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. They are done when their color is brown and there is a noticeable nutty smell. Take out of the oven and place in a bowl.

Prepare a 12x8 inch pan (or a pan with a similar area) by greasing the pan and placing parchment or aluminum foil on the bottom.

In a heavy bottomed pan with a candy thermometer attached, combine all the ingredients but the almonds and heat over medium-high heat. Make sure the pan can hold four or five times the initial ingredients. I used a 4 qt. pan and it nearly overflowed when it reached the boiling point. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once the color changes to a light golden brown, reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue cooking until the temperature reaches 260° F, stirring about every two minutes. Once it reaches 260° F, remove the pan from the heat.

Fold in the almonds. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan. Bake the candy for 10-12 minutes. It is done when air bubbles appear all over the candy. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for at least 4 hours.

Carefully cut the cooled candy into desired shapes.

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Also appearing at Sugar Savvy.

A real treat, Kate Zuckerman found my site and left suggestions for variations of these candies! Check out her comment in the comment section and her wonderful site PastryChat. She mentions my attempt at her recipe here. Very cool!

Changes over at Just Baking

As of this past weekend, I have taken over editorial duties at Just Baking. I'm looking forward to the task ahead. That said, things shouldn't change much here or there. So c'mon by and check things out!