easter and a whole lot of baking

What a weekend!  I baked up a storm and loved every minute of it.  At one point, I was whipping cream in a daze and realized I was thinking of how much I love being a baker.  There truly isn't anything I'd rather do with my life then bake up delicious treats to share with those I love.  Aside from making a chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream as dessert at our Easter dinner, I made two desserts for a friends dinner as well.

 

Cheesecake topped with whipped cream and strawberries.  This was one hell of a cheesecake let me tell you.  11" and 2 1/2 lbs of cream cheese later, I sure hope they enjoyed it!

Angel food cake with lemon curd and mascarpone cream topped with strawberries.

I have no idea how I managed to pull off baking everything I did this weekend.  I got home from work on Friday and then started a marathon in the Grob kitchen.  I started with a strawberry buttermilk cake for Josh (I've got a post coming up with details about this one.  Yum!) because I knew how much he wanted something that wasn't lemon or chocolate.  And because I really love him, instead of just whipped cream to go with the cake, I went all fancy and made him pastry cream.  He was in heaven.

 After that came lemon curd for the angel food cake, then the mascarpone cream, the most intense cheesecake ever, and then finally the angel food cake.  That was absolutely enough for one day.  

Saturday morning was spent finishing the angel food cake and cheesecake before they were picked up at noon.  Then a wonderful afternoon with my husband and then the McLean family dinner.  

Moving on to Sunday, the Grob family dinner where I baked a chocolate cake (thank you duncan hines... there are times when using a mix comes in UBER handy!)   The cake may have been from a mix, but I made the swiss meringue buttercream myself.  What a delicious combination! 

Then, just for fun, my mother in law Lori and I decorated the cake with gummy bears.  It truly was such a wonderful weekend filled with great food, lots of family, a whole lot of love, and because it wouldn't have been as delicious without it,  dessert.

I hope your Easter was as sweet as mine!

lemon tarts

I've made a lot of lemon things lately.  Josh was so kind as to point that out to me, and seeing as he hates lemon, (and chocolate, another ingredient I've used a lot lately) I know he's going to be thrilled when I get off this lemon train.  But until then...

Ever since I made lemon curd the other week I've been really interested in trying another recipe and doing it again.  This time I used the recipe from joy of baking.  

The end result was thicker and full of rich lemon flavour.  

Sweet Pastry Crust

from joy of baking

1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Place the butter in your electric mixer and beat until softened. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated.  Add flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Don't overwork or the baked pastry will be tough. Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

 

Have ready 8 - 4 inch (10 cm) tart pans. Divide the pastry into 8 pieces and then, on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece of pastry to fit the tart pans. The pastry should be about an inch larger than pan.

When the pastry is rolled to the desired size, place on top of the tart pan. Gently lay in pan and lightly press the pastry onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Roll your rolling pin over the top of the pan to get rid of excess pastry. Cover and freeze for about 30 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Place the 8 unbaked tart shells on a baking sheet and bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until the crust is dry and a light golden brown. If the bottoms of the pastry shells puff up during baking, just lightly press the pastry back into shape. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Lemon Curd

from joy of baking

3 large eggs

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)

4 tablespoons (56 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon (4 grams) finely shredded lemon zest

In a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest until blended. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce).  This will take approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted.  The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Cover immediately (so a skin doesn't form) and refrigerate for up to a week.  

cake batter cookies

I had a lot of left over cake mix after making the cake mix rice krispie squares, and on the same website I got the recipe for the squares was this recipe for making cake batter cookies.

So many sprinkles, love love love.

They smelled delicious out of the oven, that's for sure!  They were delicious too, and a great way to use up more of the cake mix.  

Cake Batter Cookies

from gimme some oven

6 oz (170g) cake mix

1/4 cup vegetable oil or canola oil

1 egg

Mix all together and bake on baking sheet for 10-12 minutes at 350.

I added sprinkles and white chocolate to mine. 

orange almond scones

A scone and tea at half past three, makes the day a little bit brighter. - Still Game

I love scones.  I love buying scones, I love making scones, I love eating scones.  I love savory scones and sweet scones.  I love scones with butter and I love scones with jam.  

These scones are an adaptation of the cranberry scones I made last year.  

Orange Almond Scones

adapted from the sweet hearth

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tb fresh orange zest

8 Tb unsalted butter, frozen & grated & frozen again

1/2 cup slivered almonds

Milk to brush tops of scones

Whisk together the milk & yogurt until uniform, then place bowl in the fridge.

Whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, zest and almonds. Then, using your fingers, lightly toss in the butter till it’s evenly dispersed.  Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture & stir till it’s just combined.  Then, pull it together into a ball, knead it a couple times, & roll it out on a good & floured surface until it measures about one square foot, adding flour as needed.  

Using a bench scraper or a good spatula, fold the dough onto itself in thirds as you do before placing a letter in an envelope.  Then fold that rectangle into thirds again, creating a rough square.  Place the square back into the bowl & refrigerate for about 15 minutes.  Don’t clean up your work surface just yet.

After it’s chilled, take the dough square, & roll it out again into another one square foot, still using flour as needed.  

Using that bench scraper or good spatula, roll the dough up, jelly-roll-style & flip it seam-side-down.  Use your hands to coerce the log into becoming a rough 12 x 4 inch rectangle with a relatively flat top.

Then, with a sharp knife, cut the rectangle into four equal 3 x 4 inch small rectangles. & cut each of those on the diagonal to end up with eight triangles.

Transfer them to a lined baking sheet, brush the tops with milk and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden.

♥

rocky road cookies

 

I made this cookie batter with chocolate chips and pretzels last week and they were to die for!  Sadly I have no pictures, only the fondest of memories of how delicious they were, but it did leave me with ideas on what else I could bake into this amazing dough.

Again with the marshmallows, I feel like I'll never use them all up!  So these road cookies were born out of the same desire as the rice krispies I've baked so many times lately... I am still not even half way through the collection, but I'm getting there.

 Combine butter white sugar and brown sugar.

Cream together and then add egg and vanilla and combine.

 

Add flour baking soda and salt and combine.

Add chocolate chips and nuts.

Note: DO NOT ADD THE MARSHMALLOWS! Ignore the picture, just trust me.

 

Mix it all together and form into balls.

Bake for 8 minutes at 350.

This is why you should not add the marshmallows to the dough.  They melted and basically burnt onto the pan.  What a disaster it was to get them off the cookie sheets... such a disaster that this is the crumbly mess (of deliciousness mind you, but crumbly mess none the less) of cookies with the marshmallows baked right in.

 

Instead, mix the chocolate chips and nuts into the dough, form into balls and then place 2-3 marshmallows on top of each cookie.  That way they bake on top of the cookie and don't end up in a crumbly disaster (of deliciousness) like the above picture.

Rocky Road Cookies

 from back to basics

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup slivered almonds

about 1 cup of mini marshmallows, maybe a bit less

Cream together the sugars and butter until light and fluffy. 

Add the egg and vanilla and mix into creamed mixture.

Add the flour, baking soda and salt and combine with creamed dough.

Add chocolate chips and nuts, roll into balls and then place on baking sheet.  Add 2-3 marshmallows to the top of each ball and then bake for 8-10 minutes at 350.

Note: It depends on your oven but I have never baked them more than 8 minutes.

Maybe next time I'll use festive Easter M&M's instead of rocky road...  Just a though.

Happy baking!

chocolate flower pots

It's spring and it's making me so happy.  Cupcakes, bright colours and sprinkles also make me happy, so naturally I figured out a way to combine them all.

I just got these silicone flower pot cupcake holders from the christmas tree store while I was visiting my mom and sister in the states.  Super cute. 

Side note: That store is awesome, I wish we had them in Canada.

I also got to try out a recipe I found that makes 4 cupcakes.  So convenient because I really didn't want to eat the cupcakes as much as just decorate them, so there was no waste.  Realistically though I can't imagine chocolate cupcakes would ever go to waste around here, but still.

One of the things we did for my bachelorette party was decorate cupcakes with marshmallows to look like flowers.  (We also decorated phallic shaped cookies, but that's not really appropriate for this blog, so we'll just stick with the flower cupcakes.)

Side note: I'm a little bit closer now to diminishing my marshmallow stock pile!

It's so super easy.  All you need is sprinkles and mini marshmallows.  Cut the marshmallows diagonally and dip the sticky side in the sprinkles.  That's it.  

4 Chocolate Cupcakes

from dessert for two

1/3 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon white vinegar

1/3 cup flour

4 teaspoons cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoons canola oil

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 4 cups of a muffin tin with paper liners.

Pour the milk into a small bowl. Add the vinegar and let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the canola oil, vanilla and brown sugar. Add the dry ingredients to the oil and brown sugar mixture in two batches, alternating with the milk mixture.

Divide the batter between the 4 muffin cups and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted

comes out clean.

Welcome back spring.

pizza dough by hand

You'd think working at a pizza store right now that I'd be tired of pizza.  Not so much.  I've been meaning to make my own dough for a while now, but because I don't have my mixer these days (I'm spoiled), I just haven't gotten around to it.  I'm glad I finally decided to.

Pizza Dough By Hand

from emeril lagasse

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F.)

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour plus more if necessary

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine yeast with water, olive oil, salt and stir well to proof. After 5 minutes, add half of the flour and mix well to thoroughly incorporate. Add all remaining flour except 1/2 cup and mix well with your hands. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead dough for at least 5 and up to 7 minutes, adding enough additional flour as necessary to form a smooth and elastic dough. Dough should not be sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled 2 or 3 quart bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, usually at least 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. and if you have one, place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven.

Divide dough into 2 portions (for 2 (12-inch) pizzas) and form into balls. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and cover with a damp towel. Let rest for 15 minutes, then transfer to a lightly floured surface, shape as desired and roll out to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Transfer dough to a pizza peel and top with toppings of choice. Transfer to the preheated pizza stone and bake until crispy and golden brown, usually 12 to 18 minutes (depending on the toppings). Remove from the oven with a metal peel or spatula and serve immediately.

What I topped this pizza with was garlic and olive oil as the base, tomatoes, red onions, basil, mozzarella cheese and a bit of italian seasoning. 

It was delicious.  Even Josh who isn't a big fan of tomatoes approved.