Pumpkin Rolls
It's almost a religion...for me

When I first saw a pumpkin roll I thought to myself, well wait a sec, what is that crazy looking orange cake looking masterpiece on the dessert table trying to masquerade as a larger version of the Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll? A pumpkin roll, the baker of the marvel in front of me exclaimed! A what? Yeah, I wasn't one of those kids who grew up with Yule Logs like some of my readers therefore a rolled cake that was not produced by the Little Debbie Company (Corporation?) was something that I was not at all familiar with!

Since I was first introduced to the veritable eye catching dessert that is the pumpkin roll, and all rolled cakes for that matter, I have been making a variation of the pumpkin roll for the holidays. I used to make it more times a year, but these days it's reserved for Thanksgiving. 

During the first several years of which I made the pumpkin roll it was always trial and error. Some of them came out great, while others came out pretty flat or even square and not visually appealing at all. After roughly 15 years of practice, yes I'm serious, I'd consider myself somewhat of an expert on making the pumpkin roll.

The recipe that I use is a variation of the pumpkin roll recipe found on Libby's Pumpkin website. The link to a recipe that I would recommend can be found at the following link.

A few of the things I change from the recipe found on Libby's website is, forget about 10x15 pans, I don't even know where to find a 10x15 pan. The jelly roll pans that I have are 12x17 and they are all I have ever used when making Pumpkin Rolls. Also, let's talk about cheesecloth. Do you have paper towels? Do you have some powdered sugar to sprinkle enough of to cover said paper towels? Good! Then do you don't need any fancy shmancy cheese cloth either! I also don't use nuts, I'm not much of a nut person when combined with pumpkin, but if you're into nuts - go ahead and add some!

A fairly simple recipe turns out to be incredibly beautiful with practice and practice only. I can only tell you the following; You need to spread the batter as evenly as possible on your parchment lined 12x17 jelly roll pan and for heaven's sake do not over bake it. You don't want it to crack. Also, flip it over as fast as possible straight from the oven onto the aforementioned powdered sugar covered paper towels and roll it up as tightly and as fast as you can! Let it cool. I will repeat, let it cool! If you try to spread the delicious filling/frosting while it's still warm it's not going to roll up looking pretty and let's be honest, for a dessert like this one, looking pretty is the goal. I'll tell you though, I've made pumpkin lovers out of non-pumpkin lovers with this recipe. I've had people tell me there isn't pumpkin in that - I hate pumpkin! Some people just don't have the penchant for pumpkin like I do, I suppose. 

Feast your eyes on the splendor that was this years pumpkin roll sliced up below on a dessert platter for Thanksgiving. Ordinarily I sprinkle it with powdered sugar before serving, but I just didn't think that it was necessary this year! 

The Ultimate Brownie
The Baked Brownie

Every year, out of the many things I am responsible for at the Thanksgiving feast is the dessert selection. Some of the recipes featured on the dessert platter this year have been featured on my blog previously. Of the few that haven't, the first one I want to tell you about is the Baked Brownie. 

I found out about the Baked folks by accident when scrolling for recipes on another website. Since I found out about them, I have purchased both of their cookbooks and am eagerly anticipating their third cookbook of which they are currently working on! The cookbooks for purchase can be found here and here. I highly recommend both of them and bake out of them often. 

I am not a huge fan of Oprah Winfrey, well let's be honest, I'm not a fan of Oprah Winfrey at all! But, when I was scrolling the website of Baked some time back I found out that the Baked Brownie has been named, many times, as one of Oprahs favorite things. I guess it's been featured on one of her past programs where women's heads explode as they are made privy to what Oprah covets at that given moment. Ordinarily I wouldn't put much stock in what Oprah deems as good, but when I tell you this brownie is good - that adjective just doesn't seem to be enough to describe it. Grand would be more like it or rather, the best brownie you've ever tasted might be more appropriate. The brownie recipe I used can be found on page number 117 in the first of the Baked Cookbooks entitled Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. 

The recipe starts out with relatively simple ingredients, but it's all about the quality of chocolate and cocoa powder. The ingredients I used are displayed below. Please note that the bag of brown powder looking sinister is a bag of the greatest cocoa powder (in my opinion) which is Valrhona. When you're lucky, Central Market will carry it in their bulk section and these bags is how you buy it. It's expensive, but it is worth it! If you live outside of Dallas, several websites carry it as do several specialty markets. 

The combination of the ingredients using the double boiler method is really important. It is not necessary to purchase a pricey double boiler. A good medium sized pot with a metal bowl or pyrex bowl on top of the simmering water will work just fine. 

There aren't many other pictures to show you. The one tip that the Baked folks give in the cookbook is that an over baked brownie is not a Baked Brownie so keep a close eye on the brownies when cooking and for the love of God please do not over mix! 

I know in the picture above they look like a pyrex pan of any other brownies, but when you cut into them you will be a believer! What you end up with is a brownie that looks something like this. A welcome chocolate bite for the Thanksgiving dessert tray. 

A picture of the dessert tray is below. The orange-y loaf pictured is the Baked Pumpkin loaf that I have told you about previously on this blog. The other, well, you'll just have to wait for my next blog to read about it! 

Testing, Testing, this is only a Test!
Pumpkin Pie - Test Recipe for Thanksgiving

Most of my readers know by now that one of my greatest fears in the dessert, but more specifically the pastry world, is the pie! Not just any pie, but the pie with the rolled crust. I have only tried to make one pie previous to this one and it is safe to say that it was a nightmare. The inside was tasty but the crust was tough and obviously had been overworked. 

Thanks to a friend I learned some new techniques for constructing a good rolled pie crust and I was EXTREMELY pleased with the result. The link for the pie crust that I used can be found at the following link - it is actually technically a pate brisee. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I actually know the difference between pie crust and pate brisee. It looked like pie crust to me, it tasted like pie crust to me. So to me, it will henceforth be referred to as pie crust. 

Below are the ingredients that I used for the pie crust. Fairly simple and straightforward. 

After mixing the pie dough in the Cuisinart Food Processor and splitting into two equally sized flat mounds of dough, wrapping in plastic wrap and chilling out in the fridge for an hour I was ready for my chance! Actually more like chomping at the bit, for my chance to test out my newly learned skills for rolling pie dough. It worked!

I had every intention of making the dough like shown in the picture in a fluted fashion but unfortunately I had forgotten the tip and cut the dough too short so I just made it pretty simple. Hey, at least it looks homemade, right?

As instructed in the recipe I pricked it all over with a fork and placed in the freezer for a bit and then "blind baked" it in the oven for a little bit with pie weights. Below is how it turned out. I had also forgotten the tip regarding pie crust shrinking when baked. Hey, I did clarify that this recipe was only a test, right?

All and all I found it to look pretty good and tasty! I began constructing my filling not realizing that the filing was meant for a deep dish pie, therefore I had some filling left over. The recipe for the filling itself can be found at the following link. Below the ingredients for the filling are pictured. 

The filling baked absolutely beautifully and the finished product was delightfully delicious! I will absolutely be making another, hopefully more visually appealing, version of this pie for Thanksgiving this week! 

A perfect slice of pie for me after cooling in the refrigerator over night. So yummy!

I highly recommend this recipe with a dollop of lightly sweetened homemade whipped cream! 

Granit House Rolls

Like Parker House Rolls, but better!

Parker House Rolls are something that everyone in America grew up eating at their respective dinner tables. They are just a standard yeast roll that, when you bake them, stick together so that you have to pull them apart to make them an individual roll. I've begun to see them more on Cooking Shows on TV. Just recently they were featured in a sweet/salty dish, on the finale of Top Chef Just Desserts.

The recipe for the rolls themselves comes from one of my savory cooking idols, Bobby Flay. A little over a year ago I had the opportunity to meet him. He was here in Dallas for a book tour for the 'Throwdown' book. After waiting for over two hours in line, I had the chance I had been waiting for which almost rendered me speechless. I was standing face to face with Bobby Flay. What was I going to say to him? Was he going to be nice? All of these questions rattling off in my head at a million miles per hour as I was whisked over by a staffer of the book store to have my meet and greet and get picture with THE Bobby Flay. The picture is awful (of me) with Bobby Flay looking like a statue. I'm sure that he has a standard stance for all photo ops but for me it was a dream come true to get to meet him and get my book sign. So what did I say to him? I told him that I had eaten at his restaurant (Bar Americain) in New York City a few weeks prior and that I enjoyed it as well as the fact that I was an aspiring cook myself. He grinned and nodded and said thank you. I'm sure he probably didn't even hear what I was saying, but at least he was nice! After the signing I bounded home, so excited with my new book that he personalized to me with my own name! 

Fast forward 24 hours after the book signing, we have a dog who is quite the character. Sometimes you can leave something sitting on a the coffee table and he won't bother it, other times you would think that it is his mortal enemy number one. So what was his mortal enemy number one this day? You guessed it! My newly signed Bobby Flay Cookbook personalized to me was in shreds on the floor. It was heartbreaking. I immediately e-mailed the e-mail address I found on Bobby Flays website explaining what had happened. I also sent several tweets to Bobby Flay himself hoping and praying for some sort of reply. I didn't want a new book for free, I was willing to pay for it, I just wanted a new book that was not in shreds. I wish I could tell you that I heard back from him and/or his staff but I never did. To this day, I still have the torn signature page from the book that is written to me and has Bobby's signature. Hopefully one day I'll get to meet him again and tell him the story of the book that my dog Atticus did NOT welcome into our home. 

Onto the rolls. I know I've written a lot in this blog so I'll be as straight and to the point as possible. The recipe for the rolls can be found at this link  - Why did I call them Granit House Rolls instead of Parker House Rolls? This past Saturday when I wanted to make these as a test recipe for our family Thanksgiving I realized I didn't have any whole milk in the house. What did I have? Heavy Whipping Cream - so I used that! 

Below are the ingredients for the Parker House Rolls - The milk being replaced by Heavy Whipping Cream in this case.

I'll be honest with you, the construction of the dough was rather unusual to me since I am not a seasoned bread maker. The dough when it was "done" in the mixing bowl was still incredibly sticky but I pushed on and continued to knead the dough for the 5 minutes and I don't know what magic or science happened but the crazy sticky dough became one huge ball without barely a quarter cup of flour added during the kneading process. Amazing!

The Dough took about an hour or so to rise on the first rise. I mistakenly did not take a photo of the dough after rising, only before (pictured above). 

The recipe states that it makes 24 rolls. I instead, chose to make 47, yes, 47, smaller rolls. Here they are before the second rise.

I have to say there really isn't anything like the smell of fresh bread cooking in a home, heavenly!

The rolls straight from the oven were brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with salt.

A closer look at the inside of the roll - dense and absolutely delicious without that "yeasty" taste. 

Verdict? These will absolutely be making an appearance at our Thanksgiving table this year. Well, not these exact rolls, but a new fresh batch. Hopefully those turn out just as well as these! 

Tres Leche or Cuatro Leche

You be the judge!

A friend of mine who I work with had her Birthday recently (by recently I mean in October). I promised her a cake, but due to some delays on my part the cake was slightly belated. 

Her favorite cake is Tres or Cuatro Leches cake. I chose to make Tres Leches Cake, which conversely, due to the ingredients used, could be referred to as a Cuatro Leches cake. Leche is Spanish for milk. Tres of course being Spanish for three and Cuatro being Spanish for four. The milks used in this case are whole milk (I used 2%), evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk...topped with heavy whipping cream combined with sugar and whipped into fluffy peaks for a fresh whipped cream topping. 

The first time I tried a Leche cake was at a restaurant here in Dallas called La Duni. I haven't been there in quite a while but to tell you the honest to goodness truth the only reason I would want to go back there is for the Cuatro Leche cake. If you want to make it yourself you can certainly try. They have published the recipe at this link - I personally didn't want to make this exact cake for my friends birthday but it is certainly the inspiration. Perhaps some time I will try my hand at La Dunis famous cake. At this time however, I don't have a kitchen torch - hint hint hint for my family, friends and husband alike! The holidays ARE coming up, you know!

The recipe used for the cake can be found at the following link. I wavered between this recipe and a recipe found on the Pioneer Woman's website. I finally chose this recipe because of it's ratings. 

The ingredients for the sponge like cake are very simple - most people would have these ingredients laying around the house. The recipe recommends using a Pyrex dish to bake the cake for accurate baking time. My cake baked in just about 30 minutes using a Pyrex dish. A note is made in the recipe that if you choose to use a metal pan the cake will cook much quicker or in about half the time. 


The ingredients for the cake itself are displayed below.

I have got to say something, God bless my Kitchen Aid Mixer. I know I've talked about it before but I must say it again. Whipping the eggs for 4 minutes in a recipe like this with a hand mixer would be just boring and you would obviously have to stand there. I am a baker who is constantly on the go! With the Kitchen Aid I simply turned the mixer on high and walked away for about 4 minutes. At that point I was able to combine the flour, salt and baking powder mixture. By the time I returned to the mixer the eggs were fluffy and pale like they were supposed to be! A baker/cooks dream all in one, an appliance that does something for you hence leaving you time to work on other components of a recipe is truly irreplaceable in my humble opinion. 

While the cake was in the oven baking I got the tres leche mixture put together. Below are the 3 milks I used. 

Once the cake came out of the oven it was fluffy and perfectly spongy looking. I took out my aggression of the day and poked it all over using toothpicks and then slowly poured the delicious milky mixture over the cake and let it really soak into the cake. 

Here is a picture of the cake right after it came out of the oven.

And a picture of the cake after the tres leche mixture has been poured over it. Can't really see a difference? Neither can I, but it is there, I promise you it's there! 

At this point I went ahead and loosely covered the cake and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours to let it get not just cool, but cold so that it could be topped with the fresh whipped cream. 

The whipped cream ingredients are simply 2 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1/4 cup of sugar. I added a touch of vanilla for a little bit more complex flavor. I took care not to add too much vanilla as the color could have easily been an off putting brownish white. I don't personally believe in using clear vanilla extract. Something about that just seems wrong to me. Vanilla beans are brown - how on earth a vanilla extract that is clear could be "natural" is beyond my scope of understanding. 

Here is the cake ready to be taken to work.

Secret weapon standing by. Dulce De Leche which is a mexican caramel like topping that I could honestly eat out of the can with a spoon. 

The cake when served was topped with a slight bit of Dulce De Leche for a little bit of sweetness and difference of texture. Absolutely delicious though the Dulce De Leche straight from the can was rather thick. If I chose to make this cake in summer I would absolutely add fresh fruits to serve it which I feel would be phenomenal. This time of year though I don't really like the in-season fruit selection in the local markets. 

I have to say that the cake tasted okay the first day eaten, about 18 hours after being made. The next day, however, approximately 36 hours after being made the cake was phenomenal! I took a picture of the cake on Day one and Day two and I cannot really distinguish between them in photograph, but in taste, you definitely can! I have shown both pictures below! My surprising suggestion would be that when making this cake waiting to serve it until about 36 hours after baking/making which is rare for a cake. Usually I'm all about making a cake and serving it as fresh as possible!

Day One: 18 hours after making. 

Day Two: Roughly 36 hours after making. 

I would have to say I am pleased with how this recipe turned out and I would absolutely make it again myself and recommend to others. 

A couple of more blogs are forthcoming over the next couple of days! 

Fresh Apples vs. Apple 

I will miss the genius of Steve Jobs!

Apples, I'm going to be bold enough to say are the greatest fruit! Remember the old adage "An apple a day keeps the Doctor away." Yes, I do too! My Mom and Grandmother used to hound me when I was younger about eating apples. It wasn't until later in life that I discovered that you can sneak apples into the deliciousness of baked goods and I contend, counts as your apple a day to keep the doctor away. Hey, as long as your using fresh Organic apples, why the heck wouldn't it count, right?

Sadly, while I was planning my apple dessert for this past weekend it was announced that the genius Steve Jobs passed away as a result of his long battle with Cancer. Everyone who knows me (and my husband) personally knows that I have a big Apple obsession! I love all things Mac/Apple! I have a MacBook Pro that I write this blog on, an iPad, an iPhone and that's not even talking about my husbands collection of Apple products. Apple is superior, Apple is just better! Steve Jobs was the genius behind Apple and as everyone knows was a true innovator. I can't wait to read his authorized biography that is coming out later this month and read about his life. He had apparently only contributed to and authorized the biography, not for us (his fans) but for his children, so that they could know him. How amazing is that? Apples the fruit and Apple the company! Both great in their own way. Only one suffered a great loss this past week.

One of my favorite Apple recipes is a Giada De Laurentiis' recipe for her fresh Apple-Walnut Cake. Apart from the brown sugar, the main sweetening agent in the recipe is Maple Syrup! Please do NOT confuse Maple Syrup with Pancake Syrup! These two items are very different.

The recipe for the Spiced-Apple Walnut Cake with Cream Cheese Icing can be found here. I would imagine that if you are not fond of the spices used in this recipe that you could mix it up a bit or omit the spices entirely, but I cannot vouch for how the cake would taste without the spice combination in the recipe. I personally follow this recipe to the letter.

The ingredients for the cake itself are displayed below. Always remember to use a tart apples such as Granny Smith for baked apple recipes (most baked apple recipes anyway).

I was trying to be artistic with an apple display, perhaps I should take a photography class and/or maybe get a better camera?!

Here is the naked cake fresh out of the oven, The recipe states that it should take 55 to 60 minutes to bake, mine took longer. I don't know how much longer because I kept on testing the cake and finding it was still wet, and setting the timer for another 10-15 minutes each time. As I mentioned previously in this blog, you're just want to going to bake it until it's done. That applies for this recipe as much as any of the others. 

The Icing ingredients are displayed below. Giada suggests adding a bit of water to the icing in order to thin it out and make it pourable. I prefer for the icing to be a bit thicker therefore I do not add the water, but if you want to add some water to make it more pourable I can't imagine that would be a bad thing (just be careful not to add too much water).

The finished cake with the fresh icing having dripped down the sides is displayed below. Yum!

Now, after icing it I put it in the refrigerator to let it set up a little bit. The icing does not harden when refrigerated, but it gets a little bit more firm.

Upon slicing, you see the fresh bits of apple and the Icing adds just the right amount of sweetness. My Aunt Eileen is holding a slice of the cake below.

Everyone who tasted it complimented the cake! It is moist and the fresh bits of apple are absolutely delicious studded throughout. I hope that, if you make it, you enjoy it as much as we did!

More Fall Inspired Recipe Fun!

Pecan Pie Bars for my boss/friends Birthday.  

 

How few of us are lucky enough that we can call our boss at work a friend? Are you raising your hand? Not many of you are I would imagine. I am lucky that my boss, we'll just call him P, is a great friend of mine. I consider him to be a friend in lots of ways and I feel very fortunate (most days) that he is my boss. I know many people have a boss who they don't like and don't respect. That is not the case with me. I have known P for roughly 5 years of the almost 10 years I've worked at the company. Not all of that time he was my boss, but in the past 3 years or so we've become closer and what I would classify as friends. I even adore his soon to be wife so that's a special added bonus!

 

What do I do for my friends for their Birthday's? What I do best! That's baking! P's Birthday is today, Friday, September 16th. I know from him telling me previously that his favorite dessert is Pecan Pie. My irrational fear of pie and more specifically rolled crust prevents me from, at this time, making a bonafide Pecan Pie - so I made him the next best thing. Pecan Pie bars from an old recipe found on a glorious website where a lot of the recipes from the old foodie magazine, Gourmet, can be found.

 

Let's talk for a moment about the original bad boy of the "foodie" magazine. It made the culinary world seem so glamorous! I used to have a subscription to it when it was still being published and would always marvel at the articles, recipes and most notably the photography within. The magazine was eventually replaced on the market by the lesser known Bon Appetit magazine. These days there are so many culinary magazines in the United States it's hard to keep them straight sometimes. I personally maintain subscriptions to Bon Appetit, Food Network Magazine as well as Food & Wine. I will sometimes purchase single issues of Cooks Illustrated and Saveur if the articles within interest me on any particular month. I balance this out with subscriptions to Shape and Fitness. Hey, a girl who loves to cook and bake must, in my opinion, be in shape as well! 

 

So here we go. I've never made these pecan pie bars before you can find the recipes for the crust here and the pecan part here.

 

The ingredients for the crust are displayed here. It's always fun when I get to use my full sized Cuisinart Food Processor. I do love my Cuisinart!

The crust came together rather nicely and I was able to press it in pretty easily. I put it in the refrigerator for a little while prior to baking it because if it is like any other shortbread the butter needs to be as cold as possible to cook properly to form a flaky crust instead of a brick like crust.

  

The ingredients for the pecan part are displayed below. You will notice that the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of honey. Typical pecan pie does not contain honey, at least not the recipes I'm used to. I replaced about half of the honey this recipe calls for with light corn syrup. I simply eyeballed it in a 1/3 cup sized measuring utensil.

Combining the ingredients for the pecan topping was very simple. I kept my pot on the stove on low/medium heat so as not to overcook any of the ingredients. The goal being to simply heat to combine the ingredients and then let them bake in the oven.

 

Working quickly I poured the hot pecan topping onto the hot shortbread crust and then put it in the oven as fast as possible and I waited until it was hot and bubbly and look what we have here!

 

With a recipe like this you must let the bars cool completely in their pan before cutting them or else they will just fall apart and become a gooey mess. After baking them on Thursday night I allowed them cool uncovered for about 20 minutes and then loosely draped the pan with foil for the remainder of the evening. When I woke up this morning is when I actually cut them into squares.

 

Don't they look gorgeous! Who doesn't love a Pecan Pie Bar for breakfast? Okay maybe it was a little sweet for breakfast but you didn't honestly think that I wasn't going to at least sample one did you? What they tasted like closely resembled a pecan pie but I found that the pecan pie topping to shortbread crust ratio might have been a little off. I think that I could tweak this recipe and increase the pecan pie topping to a thinner shortbread crust and it would be Pecan Pie Bar perfection!

Here they are, in their tupperware container ready to be gifted to P. I think he liked them, I hope he liked them! Though he did mention something about them possibly causing a diabetic coma. 

Until next time which will be soon! 

 

 

What's shakin'? Bakin' that's what!!!

Pumpkin Bread   

Hello from Dallas! I know it's been a while since I last baked and/or blogged and I'm ready to get roaring to go again! Of course the day in which I chose to bake happened to be the 70th day that Dallas hit above 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) in 2011 - meaning, we beat the record set in 1980. Not something I'm going to be quick to celebrate though.

Since I last blogged I'm sorry to say I haven't really baked anything. This brutal heat in Dallas has been a killer with some cooler temps we received last week which made me think of all things PUMPKIN. Yes, Pumpkin! A notoriously sweet ingredient that can be surprisingly used in savory recipes as well! My husband, prior to meeting me, swore off pumpkin as some sort of wicked gourd out to do him harm! I had promised him I wouldn't fail him in my recipes, and to his surprise, I was correct! He, along with many of my friends and family now love it when I'm in the pumpkin frame of mind. The time is now!

We have talked about my adoration and love, etc. for the folks over at Baked Bakery in Brooklyn! Ahhh, Matt Lewis is my favorite. He and I are old buddies, I'll tell you this, we go way back, we went to different high schools together. Did you get it? Hah! Yes, I'm feeling a little silly, but Matt is the type of guy who I just KNOW I would be friends with if I lived up North! Namely, in New York City or one of the surrounding Burroughs!

In the first of the Baked cookbooks, Matt shares his Mothers recipe for Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips. I don't really LOVE the mixing of pumpkin and chocolate so I personally choose to leave out the chocolate chips. What you get out of the pumpkin bread recipe is truly amazing! The most moist pumpkin bread you've ever tasted with just the slightest punch of spice - it makes you wish it were Fall/Winter year round when you take the first bite of this bread still warm out of the oven. I plan to unveil some more Pumpkin recipes later on as we officially arrive in Fall, but this is a jump start!

The source for this recipe is the cookbook, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. The recipe I use can be found on page 43-44. You can buy the book here, I highly recommend it along with the second Baked book! I just found out recently that the folks at Baked are working on their third book but sadly it isn't scheduled to be released until next Fall! Oh well, at least we have something to look forward to for Fall of 2012!

The ingredients for this recipe are displayed here. If you notice, I am using white eggs for this round of baking. The organic eggs at the market I was shopping at recently looked a little bit gross. The eggs looked almost as if they were bastard eggs masquerading as Organic eggs, I didn't trust them, therefore I went with my second go-to which is Egglands Best Eggs. Supposedly they don't force their hens to imbibe all sorts of crazy chemicals and they are in my humble opinion the purest of the non-organic egg variety out there!

Moving on!

One ingredient that they leave out in the ingredient list but is important as can be is the use of water. It's only a little bit and is listed in the instructions. The first time I made this loaf I was not sure if it was a mis-print or not and went ahead and added the suggested water. I still add it every time I bake this bread and I can't imagine it without it! I would imagine, that if I were to be feeling particularly adventurous that the water could be replaced for another liquid, but water is what I'm going with today.

Word of warning: When you taste the batter before putting it into the oven you might think it tastes a little salty, trust me on this, follow the amount of salt the recipe calls for and that saltiness that you taste will magically disappear when baked. Not sure how it happens, but you're just going to have to trust me here, well, trust Matt Lewis' Mom that is! 

Fresh out of the oven, oooohhh, this is where the child in me comes out. It is so hard for me to wait to cut into these beauties - obviously all recipes for almost anything baked will tell you to wait until it cools. Ahhh, if only I could. I won't lie to you. I cut a little piece to try. YUM!!

Here's a couple of slices of cooled bread. You can't see the moisture and decadent-ness but it's there! Oh, I promise you it's there and....it's husband approved! My husband likes to say that this is like Starbucks Pumpkin Bread, but way better!

More blog posts coming your way soon, I promise!

Tiramisu for my 30-ish Birthday 

If you are frequent reader of my blog, you know that in the Spring my husband and I visited Italy. The food there was nothing short of extraordinary. For my Birthday this year I wanted to make Tiramisu, but to my surprise most authentic Italian recipes for Tiramisu include raw eggs. Raw eggs make me inherently nervous, I'm sure I consumed plenty in Italy in the desserts there, but as I've talked to you about before; food standards in the United States are FAR different than food standards in other countries. 

On my mission to locate a recipe for Tiramisu that was by an actual real live Italian Chef, I decided I would go to a resource, Twitter. I knew it was HIGHLY unlikely that she would respond, but I wrote to the source of the recipe I wanted to use (found at this link) Giada de Laurentiis. Surprisingly, within less than 2 hours of writing her, she responded! This extraordinarily talented Chef who is busy with a million things and has over 350,000 followers on Twitter wrote back to me! Here's what she said and I did what she said.

The link to her Raspberry Tiramisu can be found here. The only way that I deviated from this and the original recipe is the heavy cream in place of the raw egg yolks - I did not add vanilla. I found  the finished filling came out delicious and I have to say I felt a little safer eating it.

Below are the ingredients displayed that I used to create my masterpiece. I chose to purchase pre-made lady fingers for my first attempt at Tiramisu - next time I think I will try making them. I was in a bit of a hurry when taking the photo because of my excitement so I failed to include in the picture the bottle of rum (what Giada recommends) and Sugar. I only show the box of Nespresso capsules that I used to brew the strong espresso. If you notice, I used the "Roma" variation. I seem to think it's the most Italian of the bunch!

Instead of my beloved kitchen aid mixer I chose to use a hand mixer for the heavy cream/sugar combination because the instructions specifically state soft peaks for the heavy cream. In my opinion, it is a fine line between soft peaks and firm peaks so I personally found it easier to do it the "old fashion" hand mixer way stopping several times to see if I had made it to soft peak status. If you really wanted to go old school you could use a whisk, which would be an arm workout to the extreme!  

The combination of marscapone and the heavy cream whipped with sugar was truly heavenly. I couldn't help but notice that it was missing the yellow hue that the Tiramisu in Italy had - egg yolks - I'm sure there were egg yolks! But this tasted excellent and pretty darn close! It's amazing to me when replicating Italian dishes how simple the ingredients for (most of them) truly are!

The naked Tiramisu is displayed before you. I put it in the fridge and let it "set" overnight.

Before heading to my Mom's house for my Birthday celebration with my husband, family and of course my nephew Asher I dusted the Tiramisu with Valrhona Cocoa Powder and I shaved a Lindt 70% Cacao Chocolate bar (with a vegetable peeler) for the top. The finished product looks pretty darn yummy if I do say so myself. You will notice that I used a smaller dish than Giada recommends, I personally like a thicker cream layer and knew I would accomplish this with a smaller dish.

I had some trouble cutting it and it sort of fell apart, below is the best picture I could get. If you notice, the Tiramisu was served on Handy Manny Plates! Handy Manny is a cartoon here in America and is my nephews favorite so my Birthday Dinner and Dessert were served on matching Handy Manny plates. There were even Handy Manny napkins! I felt pretty special!

Note: Asher, my nephew, did not get to eat the Tiramisu because of the coffee and liquor content but he did say it looked pretty. He had another dessert.

National Creamsicle Day!
August is a FUN month of National Food Holidays!

I have been enjoying the National food holidays during the month of August. Most recently National S'Mores Day brought back fond memories of childhood. Now with today being National Creamsicle Day I think back to days of hearing the Ice Cream truck outside playing it's music in our neighborhood and running outside as fast as I could to catch up to the truck and get an ice cream. As a child of the 80's I remember one of my favorites was the Pac-Man Ice Cream which had a gum ball as it's "eye!" Another close favorite was the Creamsicle.

Creamsicles are a frozen popsicle with a vanilla ice cream center covered with a orange flavored ice. Truly yummy, especially for orange lovers!

I wanted to capture that flavor of creamsicle in a baked product and I chose a cupcake. While I will not tell you the recipe because I created it myself, it is a tender delicious vanilla flavored cake topped with an orange buttercream. I used a fresh organic valencia orange for a little bit of it's zest and of course it's delicious juice to make a truly decadent orange frosting. I added a touch of orange gel food coloring and a garnished the cupcakes with little edible round sprinkles. I love an understated garnish on cupcakes. I'm not much for fondant and other stuff like that which is probably because I can't stand the flavor of it! 

Below are some pictures that I hope you will enjoy of the finished cupcakes. A friend of ours came to the house tonight and he gave these cupcakes his stamp of approval! 

I think these would be a fun cupcake for fall as well! Perhaps a little bit of orange flavor could be added to the cupcake base itself for an all orange cupcake. 

The inside of the cupcake is so moist and and not overwhelming in vanilla flavor, just a base cake that any flavor could be added to. Essentially a blank canvas of a cupcake if you will. 

HAPPY CREAMSICLE DAY! It's not too late to celebrate! 

Homemade Pizza - Round 3
Whatever blows your hair back!

There are few things in the World of cooking that really get me going, blow my hair back so to speak. Pizza is one of them. If you have read my previous blogs regarding at home Pizza making attempts I promise not to bore you with a repeat of what I've talked about before.

This particular occassion in Pizza making follows the same recipe for the dough that I used in attempt number 2 but this time I made my own sauce. As you know by now I follow lots of food blogs and draw my inspiration from several of them. The recipe for sauce came from Serious Eats which we last spoke about when I made the homemade tagalongs. To say this pizza sauce is a revelation is not giving it enough credit. It is truly amazing. The only change I made from the original recipe found at this link are as follows; I did not add sugar because I used San Marzano tomatoes that I feel are sweet enough on their own and I let it go "slow and low" for about 2 hours instead of the recommended 1 hour. I feel that the sauce I ended up with was so delicious I could have eaten it with a spoon straight from the pot itself. 

Displayed below are the ingredients I used to make the sauce. I promise, if you spend the extra money to purchase a 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes you will thank me!

I have found when making sauces for anything Italian it is so easy to cross the line between not enough onion and too much onion. One of the many things I loved about this particular recipe is that you cut the onion in half, put it in the pot, let it cook down with the sauce and then ultimately take the onion out at the end. What you are left with is truly the perfect level of onioniness (yeah, not sure that's a word) that even people who swear they won't eat anything that's touched an onion will love this sauce.  

A perfect picture of the sauce is below. I had already put it in the tupperware container before I realized I hadn't yet taken a picture. I also took a close up to try to show you the perfect texture of this sauce - not too watery! I hate sauce when it's too watery.

The dough, as I told you before is the same recipe I used before but here is the dough in it's raw form. I put it in the refrigerator immediately when I was done making it as I suggested previously. It did just fine!

This time, I  did what a "home pizza maker" community online suggests which is to allow the pizza stone to heat with the oven at 500 degrees for roughly 30 minutes before putting the pizza pan directly on top of the stone itself. The theory behind this is that the air in the oven may very well be at the temperature you want it to be at but the stone takes a little longer to heat all the way through. With the goal being a crispier crust this time I believe the longer heating of the oven helped me to achieve my goal.

Once again, I seasoned up the pizza dough pretty nicely

Topped with homemade tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Fresh basil is standing by to be put on the pizza straight out of the oven.

Finished pizza! Ooohhh La La! I think this is the best looking one of the bunch. Pizza is crispy but still not all the way there. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever get exactly where I want it to be because I don't have a wood burning oven - maybe some day!

Tastes good too! Even the husband loved it! Not Italy, but close.

Until next time my friends...