Caramel Apple Cake

Happy Halloween! This year for the work party I knew I wanted to do something with the rest of my Mutsu apples, and thought of caramel apples in cake form in the shower one morning. A quick internet search revealed several delicious-looking recipes, but this one won because it was simple, and I needed to make a double batch!

I won't retype the recipe into my blog, since you can find it everywhere online, like here.

Candy Corn Failure

Happy Halloween! I was originally planning to bring this to a work party, but I'm going to have to make apple cake or something else, because I don't think I need to try a recipe more than two times!

Ever since I saw the Cakespy post on homemade candy corn, I have intended to try making this sugary treat. I couldn't believe the response from people.

"Why would you do that?"

"Ugh, I hate candy corn."

"Isn't that just corn syrup and coloring?"

As anyone who knows me knows, these types of comments only made me want to make candy corn from scratch that much more!

I tried for the first time last night, using Cakespy's recipe as written. I got about 3 minutes into the cooking time and my instincts told me to pull it off the heat, but I didn't listen. Well hello, following my instincts lesson. Nice to see you again.

By the time the mixture had even partially cooled, it was all dry, crumbled, and impossible to get out of the pan. Total failure, I didn't even take pictures.

In the comments of Jessie's original post, there was a link to a similar recipe in The Washington Post, which included a cooking temperature instead of just minutes. I was just about right with my gut reaction the first time around, because the mixture reached 225 at 3 minutes in.


The next stage is the other part of the recipe that hasn't worked well, where you let the mixture cool. The recipe says 30 minutes to an hour, but I only waited 30 and that wasn't enough time to work with the mixture before it was too dried out and crumbly to properly knead and work color into. I was only able to make candy corn with about 1/4 of the mixture, and even that didn't stick together very well between the colors. I think the value of the commercial candy corn made by machines instead of by hand is that they can add color to magma-hot boiling sugar without fear of injury. I'm just not sure that this recipe is a great idea for the home cook.

Or maybe my sugar just boils hotter than anyone else's. :)

The Pizza Dough that Broke the Mixer

I had it in my head that I wanted pizza with carmelized onions, blue cheese, and barbecue sauce. I usually make the Peter Reinhart recipe, which is fantastic, but I always get into trouble if I don't plan a day ahead. And sometimes you just have to have pizza right that minute!

One of the cookbooks I use a lot for baking is A Passion for Baking. I'm not going to include the recipe here because you should buy it for yourself, but I had to try the recipe that claimed to be the "best pizza dough ever."

I think the true secret to her claim is the method - you barely mix the ingredients together and let it sit and bloom, and after shaping the crusts and putting on the ingredients it rises one last time. I'm not sure if this attempt is a fair representation, because my Kitchen Aid of less than two years of age's motor QUIT while kneading the dough. I was frazzled and didn't knead it any longer after I got the bowl down, but I think it had already gone for the recommended 5 minutes.

The funny thing is, I don't even mind kneading dough, and actually enjoy it. I was just sticking to my guns of using the recipe as written the first time.

So the dough didn't have as much give to it as the Reinhart dough, and I really had to struggle to roll it out as thin as we like it. While baking it puffed up quite a bit, and was chewy and thick. The toppings combo was delicious (although you can see in the picture that I may have gone overboard when 'carmelizing' the onions), although the crust was pretty dominant. Knowing what I know now, if I made this recipe again I'd use a lot more sauce to help the balance.

In the meantime, I'm approaching Thanksgiving, and always do more baking in the fall, and I need to get my mixer fixed! There is a certified technician in town, so cross your fingers!

Breton Apple Pie

I had a beautiful bag of Mutsu apples from a little farm stand between Flat Rock and Hendersonville, NC, just begging to be made into a delicious baked good for fall. Mutsu apples are a cross between Golden Delicious (for sweetness) and Indo Apples from Japan (a sturdy baking apple similar to Granny Smith, from what I can find out), so I thought they'd hold up well in a pie.

In this Breton Apple Pie from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, the apples are prepared and cooked on the stove before they are spooned into the crust. The crust had more of a sugar cookie taste to it than pie crust, and looked beautiful when it came out of the oven.


The springform pan I baked this in is pretty dark, so I should have thought to turn the oven temperature down by 25 degrees. Since I didn't, some of the bottom of the crust got darker than I would have liked. I didn't have any other 10" pans. Malgieri says this recipe is freezer-friendly, and I think the next time around I might make it in a 9" cake pan instead. That way I can use a few less apples but end up with a slightly higher "pie."

Boston Cream Pie

Something Nathaniel said in passing yesterday as I was making my grocery shopping list made me announce, "That's it, I'm going to make a Boston Cream Pie." I hadn't ever made one from scratch. Who knows what triggered it?!

I used the yellow cake recipe that I used earlier this week for cupcakes, and froze one layer for later. I used Gale Gand's pastry cream recipe for the filling, which used up almost all the egg yolks I had leftover from making the perfect party cake the other day. Nice when it all evens out.


I topped it with a slightly runny ganache, but it was good - homey. In the slice you can even see the vanilla beans in the custard.

Hey, if you've been following JennyBakes in Facebook, I discovered that the notes aren't importing. While I try to talk to a real person at Facebook to get past my error message, I may start manually posting to the page. But you've missed a lot if that's the only way you see me. Sorry about that.

Baby Shower Cakeage

One of my co-workers is having her first child, and I was asked if I could make a cake for the work shower. I had been wanting to play more with the chocolate work that I tried earlier from The Whimsical Bakehouse so I decided to make little ducks and frogs to go with her colors of yellow and green.


For the cake itself, I went with Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake, which truly is the perfect party cake. I've never made it exactly as written - there was "Da Lime in Da Coconut" version made for a Daring Bakers challenge, and the Peanut Butter and Jelly version from my birthday last summer. This time around I used the basic cake recipe, but omitted the coconut from the assembly stage, and used lemon curd instead of raspberry jam. So it was definitely lemony but still delicate, and the color accompaniment was nice. Unfortunately it was gobbled up so I don't have any pictures of the inside!


I mentioned I had planned frogs so I could do yellow and green, but I didn't have any chocolate-friendly coloring in green. So I made purple frogs instead. I used my go-to yellow birthday cake recipe for the cupcakes, which I don't think I've ever blogged! I might as well include it here. It uses a cake mix as the base (shh, don't tell) but is so tender and delicious! I think both the cake and frosting come from The Cake Mix Doctor which I used all the time when I worked at a tearoom where we had to come up with new ideas a lot. I don't own a copy myself, but have used this recipe for years! All I have written down is the ingredients, no instructions, but just use the usual cake instructions (350 F, the usual range for cupcakes vs. layers, and mix everything together for frosting.... haha, amazing what those of us who bake all the time take for granted!).

Basic Layer Cake
1 cake mix (I usually use yellow, pudding in the mix, not butter recipe)
1 cup whole milk (or whatever you have on hand, nonfat, buttermilk, etc)
8 tbsp butter, melted (or oil, but butter tastes better)
3 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla

Fluffy Chocolate Frosting
8 tbsp butter, room temperature
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup whole milk (or whatever)
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt <--- don't leave this out!

Pumpkin Nutella Bread

Pumpkin Nutella Bread
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

We keep getting hints of fall and I had bookmarked this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod to make once I had Nutella and pumpkin in my pantry at the same time. I couldn't get the recipe out of my head, so that didn't take long.

It tasted really good, but all my Nutella clumped at the bottom when cooking. I did make it all in one loaf unlike their mini loaves, and that might have provided more stability for the chocolate!

Sweet Potato Pie with Rosemary Cornmeal Crust

Sweet Potato Pie
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

This may seem a bit out of season, but I used rosemary from my garden, so that ties it into summer.

The recipe is from Southern Living. The crust is all-butter, requiring some extra chilling steps, but has a nice crunch to it with the cornmeal inside.

This wasn't really my thing. I probably wouldn't make it again, but at least I can say I have made this southern staple at least once!

G.O.R.P. Cookies

A while back, we had eBook Boot Camp in the library, and I needed an appropriate snack. What do you have for boot camp other than G.O.R.P. (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts)?

Exactly. So I made these cookies. Because of the high amounts of sugar, these are crunchy, not chewy the way I prefer. That didn't stop other people from eating them!

G.O.R.P. Cookies

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine, room temp
1/2 cup butter, room temp
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups oats (I used non-instant)
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup roasted peanuts
3/4 cup raisins

Cream together sugars, margarine, and butter. Add eggs and mix well. Add vanilla. Gradually mix in dry ingredients. Stir in peanuts and raisins by hand. Drop by spoonfuls on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet, and bake for 12-14 minutes at 350.

Baking for Attention

I read Post Secret every Sunday, and while I did not submit this postcard, it made me smile.

I'll post again soon! Work has been crazy, but I have a cookie break coming soon for my student workers....

JennyBakes is on Facebook

For a long time I have had my baking blog posts update automatically to my Facebook page, but because of the way Facebook often doesn't work, sometimes my wall would get inundated with posts all at once. And since I don't post much to my wall it would look like all I did was bake and read!

My solution was to create a separate Facebook page for JennyBakes. If you're more likely to check Facebook before your blog reader, feel free to add me there!

Leftovers - Banoffee Parfait

Banoffee Parfait
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

After making alfajores this past week, I had some unfilled cookies and some dulce de leche left over. I knew this was exactly what I needed for banoffee pie, so I whipped up some cream and sliced some bananas and layered them with the two leftover ingredients.

To be honest, it was way too sweet for me, but the first bite was delicious.

Alfajores

Alfajores are a shortbread-sandwich cookie originating in South America, often with dulce de leche in the middle and rolled in coconut or powdered sugar. I have been wanting to try making them ever since one of my virtual friends, who is originally from Paraguay, brought them up in passing. She got me really curious about them and even shared her Dad's recipe! I used a slightly altered version of it, after doing a bit of looking on the web, adding some cornstarch and egg yolks (which she said he often does anyway).


First I needed to make the dulce de leche. I had often heard you can make it using cans of condensed milk, boiled in a pot, but that freaked me out a little, so I looked around until I found a recipe that didn't come with kitchen-explosion warnings. I didn't really know what color I was going for, but I'm suspecting I could have and should have baked it longer.

Because here's the thing. I'm pretty sure the cookies were spot on - they are dense and a little crumbly and very much a shortbread texture. But the dulce won't stay inside, even after cooling all night and chilling in the fridge. It oozes out the sides making an embarrassment of the coconut I tried rolling them in. I still took pictures of their shaggy selves, but I expected the caramel to be a thicker layer on the inside. (Should have cooked it longer).


With some of the cookies, I tried jam in the middle. If anyone has a magic formula for sandwich cookies, I'd love to hear it. When they are this substantial they are impossible to eat without everything oozing everywhere!

Racines Cake

Racines Cake
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

When we were in Black Mountain, NC, last weekend, we stopped in at Chocolate Gems, a local artisan shop with high quality chocolates. They use mostly Belgian chocolate but had a few truffles and a few other items from Black Mountain Chocolate, where a man does hand-crafted chocolate, single-origin. So at the shop they had some cocoa nibs for sale in little bags, and I remembered a recipe I had seen in Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz.

I made the cake, which while it has quite a backstory, is really just your typical flourless chocolate cake, and topped it with the cocoa nibs as urged in the recipe.

I'm not sure what to think. I found the cocoa nibs a little.... strange. Maybe they were not finely chopped enough. But it was a little like munching on cake topped with chocolate flavored tree bark. Nothing like on the movie Chocolat where Vianne gives a woman cocoa nibs to improve her marriage and it sounds so delicious and romantic (but now I think owwww).

Still, it is more interesting to make a cake with a story. Between David Lebovitz's story of finding the recipe on the mens' restroom wall at a Parisian restaurant, and my story of using local artisan chocolate, maybe you'll want to try it too. The recipe is actually freely available on Lebovitz's blog, although his cookbook is getting a lot of hype, so you might as well pick it up. I still haven't had a perfect culinary experience from it, but I shall keep trying.

Thai Tea Cookies

Thai Iced Tea Cookies
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I love Thai iced tea. Well, I love iced coffee from that region more, but the iced tea with its orangey color has a special spot in my heart. Sometimes we buy the Tessa Thai Tea powder, which I can't find anywhere online to link to. It could be that David Rio, the tea company that used to make it, isn't doing so anymore. That would be a shame, it was an easy guilty pleasure.

On the side of the box was a recipe for Thai Tea Cookies. I couldn't get it out of my head so I whipped up a quick batch yesterday. They are chewy and sugary but full of flavor, and my student workers devoured them. If you don't like coconut, you won't like these. And vice versa. :)

Thai Tea Cookies
1 stick (8 tbsp/4 oz) butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup Tessa Thai tea powder
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup shredded coconut

My simplified instructions:
Cream butter with sugar and tea powder. Beat in egg. Lightly mix in dry ingredients and stir in coconut. Chill dough for 30 minutes. Bake at 300 F for 10-12 minutes (I baked mine for 14). Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Happy Blogiversary to JennyBakes!

Four years ago, my first post was peach cardamom crisp, so I decided to recreate it today in tribute to four amazing years of blogging my baking. I made a smaller version with fresh SC peaches, and kind of threw the ingredients together for the crisp part, but it was a nice reminder of where everything started.

Thanks for reading! And for eating. :)

Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Cake

Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Cake
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I have been collecting cookbooks as souvenirs for at least ten years now, and it can be a great way to revisit a place in your kitchen. In 2000, Nathaniel and I were driving across the country around this time, from Oregon to Indiana, so that I could go to graduate school at Indiana University. We stopped at a bed and breakfast in Prairie City, IA. I remember it was out in the middle of nowhere, that the rooms were decorated with quilts and painted saws, and that the owners brought up a lot of morbid topics over breakfast. We also went to the Iowa State Fair because that is like "THE" state fair, but it was the hottest weather we had yet to experience as wimpy Northwesterners, and we didn't last long.

Before we left the house, we purchased a cookbook called "Sampling Iowa Treasures Cookbook," which professes to include recipes and trivia from bed and breakfasts in Iowa. I actually find it to be one of my staple breakfast cookbooks, because who knows hearty breakfast fare more than Midwestern bed and breakfast cooks?

I picked this recipe because it only made one round cake pan of breakfast cake, and the idea of adding oatmeal intrigued me. I only had about a cup of fresh blueberries from the garden and picked the recipe because it only called for that. The cake was okay. I am uncertain about the oatmeal because while it did add a nice chewy texture, I'm not sure that is what I expected when I took a bite. Just a simple, quick breakfast cake letting the blueberries shine.

Blueberry-Oatmeal Breakfast Cake
from The Grey Goose B&B in Adel, IA

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cooking oil
3/4 cup milk*
1 egg
1 cup frozen blueberries **
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
2-4 tsp milk

Grease 8" round pan and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small mixing bowl, stir together egg, milk, and oil. Add all at once to dry mixture. Stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake coffee cake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes, or until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes.

Icing: In a small bowl, stir together sifted powdered sugar and enough milk to make icing of drizzling consistency. Serve warm. Serves eight.

*- I used buttermilk because I had a bunch on hand.
** - I used fresh berries, but tossed them with a bit of flour to try to get them not to sink to the bottom. The picture only shows them on the bottom, but they were at varying levels throughout the cake.

Hummingbird Cake

Monday I had to finish my annual report and the ceiling of the music library started pouring water halfway through the afternoon. Let's just call it a stressful day, one that could only be cured by baking a cake. (I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this?)

I had hummingbird cake in my head, although I hadn't made one in years. I did a Google search and Art Smith's version kept coming up repeatedly, so even though it was on Oprah.com and I have a love-hate relationship with her, she did bring me the best mac & cheese recipe ever. Hoping against hope that Oprah knows food, and so should Art Smith after seeing him on Top Chef Masters, I went with it.

I'm so glad I did. This cake was light and airy and flavorful and I will definitely make it again. Next time around I will probably bake the cake in three layers because that would add to the delicacy, and these layers were THICK. It also made it harder to ice; I'm pretty sure half my icing went between just too layers. I should have evened them out but just went for the rustic feel.

One thing that is hard to plan for is knowing how many bananas you'll need for 2 cups of bananas. I had four regular bananas and it wasn't quite 2 cups, so bring home at least 5!

Categories: Cake, Cream Cheese, Banana, Pineapple, Pecan

A Tale of Two Blueberry Crumb Cakes

Throughout the summer at the library where I work, we have weekly events hosted by different departments. As the only adult in the music library, I got to take one week on my own. I live in the south, and it is hot and humid here, so that ruled out anything frozen or chocolate. Back in January, I pledged to make more recipes with seasonal ingredients, and blueberries have been in peak season around here. Perusing the cookbooks on my shelf, I found several recipes for blueberry crumb cake, and decided to pit Dorie Greenspan's and Nick Malgieri's recipes against each other.


Nick Malgieri's recipe comes from The Modern Baker. It is a rich cake with a topping of blueberries and crumblies. You can tell I burned the bottom a bit - I had to bake it ten extra minutes to get the tester to come out clean. I think this is partially because the blueberries are layered on top instead of being throughout the cake, creating this sort of moisture density that the batter on top didn't deal with very well. The visuals of Nick's cake are impressive, though, because you can see the berries clearly without it being cut into.


Dorie's recipe, from Baking: From My Home to Yours, had a little bit of cinnamon in the batter as well as the addition of nuts in the crumb mixture. The berries get mixed into the batter, so they are found throughout the cake. I doubled the recipe so I could bring two of the same size to work.

I mixed up a big batch of iced coffee concentrate, because to me a slice of blueberry crumb cake and a glass of iced coffee sounded perfect on a humid southern afternoon. I was hoping for a thunderstorm but it didn't happen until later.

So whose cuisine reigned supreme? Among the library staff and faculty, there wasn't a clear winner, and I saw people taking seconds from both pans. To my taste, Dorie edged Nick out in the end because there was just more flavor going on, and the cake texture was more to my liking.

Diva Chocolate Cake

I had a lot of people express to me that they hoped I didn't have to make my own birthday cake, but these people are always treated to a look. A look that says, "I'm a baker, of COURSE I make my own birthday cake." This year I decided it needed to be a cake with so many different chocolate elements that it could only be called a diva chocolate cake. I think the only part that I imagined that didn't end up on it were chocolate curls, but I either ran out of time or wasn't sure they'd hold up well in the humidity and then in the fridge.

I pulled different elements for this cake from different cookbooks, then added a few twists of my own. The cake layers are based on the cake from the Devil's Food White-Out Cake in Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, although I used semisweet chocolate for the melted and added a bit of Grand Marnier to the batter. I loved her description of it, saying that it is good room temperature but that it gets fudgy when it is cold, so I thought it would be a great pairing with mousse between the layers, since it would spend some time in the fridge.


The mousse is based on a recipe in A Passion for Baking, which has really become my go-to cookbook. But I didn't just want straight chocolate. Nathaniel and I were trying to say what we would pick for our favorite cold dessert ever, after watching the new show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network. We agreed that the milkshakes that we used to get at Coffee People, a northwestern coffee shop that no longer exists in the version that made ice cream and milkshakes to match its drinks. I used to order cappuccino borgia, which was mocha and orange and I've never been able to duplicate it, believe me, I've tried. Their velvet hammer was a very close second. If you went there during that era, I'm sure you know what I mean. But I decided to mirror the flavors of the cappuccino borgia milkshake in this mousse, by adding instant espresso and more Grand Marnier to the chocolate mixture before folding in the whipped cream.

After everything chilled I poured over a ganache and did a simple white chocolate design on top, topping everything with three chocolate covered strawberries. We had slices for my birthday, but I cut too generously, and neither of us could finish. This is a tiny-slice tasting cake, for certain. And it tastes even better after spending the night in the fridge!

Time to Make the Donuts

French Crueller
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

Or is it doughnuts? Neither spelling works for me.

I've had my eye on the recipe for French Crullers in A Passion for Baking for some time. Can you really make donuts without frying them in oil? My house is divided.

These are made by making a Pâte à choux and piping it onto a few pans, then baking and glazing them. They were quick and delicious! I'd make these again.

Cookbook Review - Simply Spectacular Cakes

Cookies
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

When I first got my copy of Simply Spectacular Cakes, I thumbed through it in awe at the precise and beautiful cake and cookie creations. I was a little bit intimidated, actually.

I started with these beautiful cookies. I had never tried royal icing before, and decided to do all monochromatic to make elegant little tea pots. The cookie recipe was good, making nice sturdy sugar cookies. The icing was easy to make and use.

But then there were the cakes. I kept "intending" to make something spectacular. I even went all the way to the one store in my town (the largest city in my state, actually) that has a good selection of cake decorating supplies, and still couldn't find everything I'd need. Not knowing enough about using fondant and gum paste, I wasn't sure what could be substituted, and I was completely hopeless at finding liquid fondant at all. Despite the detailed listing of ingredients and tools for each recipe, I was left not knowing how to substitute or wing it. Sad, because I really wanted to make the cute little cherry blossom petits fours on the cover for my birthday!

This cookbook is beautiful and has some great ideas - but I'm not so sure I can get behind the "simply" part of the title. Spectacular, indeed. To make the best use of it, you should find a good cake decorating vendor that has such things as liquid fondant, since the author does not provide recipes for some of the required parts. What she does provide are detailed step-by-step instructions that are helpful at instilling confidence. Many of the steps are illustrated. And by the way, I'd still like to go for the most complicated recipe, just to say I'd done it, but I need a few names of places to order supplies from. If you know of a place, please leave me a comment!

Categories: Cookbook Review, Cookies

Intrepid Baking - Croissants

In January, I made some culinary resolutions for 2010, and I haven't done much with them. I decided this was the weekend I'd make my third laminate dough - croissants! It is a 2-3 day process, so I started Friday night and finished today at noonish. I used the recipe from Baking with Julia, because that has been my primary resource for my other pastry endeavors, including puff pastry and danish pastries. It made sense to go ahead and make the triumvirate!


If you follow me in Twitter, you have read about my journey. Rather than post a photo of it, I'll link to each step. There are many. First I made a yeasted dough and prepared a butter layer (over a pound), and chilled them separately overnight. The incorporation of the dough and butter are what make croissants a laminate dough, since the process creates the many layers that we look for when we bite into a flaky croissant. At first, you literally fold the dough around the butter and roll it out. Between each roll and fold (or, a "turn,") the dough has to be chilled for two hours or so, because it needs to stay cold. Otherwise it could get greasy and unpleasant. I did all the turning and rolling out on the second day.

After all the turns, the dough gets a final double fold, sometimes known as a wallet fold, before its last rest. At this point I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge overnight. Croissants, at least this recipe, are a bit troublesome if you are trying to make them fresh for breakfast, because the completed pastries have to sit for four hours at room temperature before baking. Rather than get up super early on a lazy weekend, we decided that croissants would be just as good at lunch. I do wonder if I could have made the croissants and then put them in the fridge overnight.

The third day, the dough was sufficiently chilled and was ready to be rolled out. I cut it in half like the recipe recommended, and rolled it out to 24x14 (ish). Making croissants would be a great arm workout, actually, if you didn't eat the final product. I had decided that half the dough would be made into standard croissants, and the other half would become pain au chocolat. The first half was rolled out thin, folded in half, and cut into triangles. The scraps get incorporated into the croissants too, so nothing is wasted. The dough is then unfolded and the triangles and diamonds are cut in half, so the half batch of dough yields about 12-14 croissants.

The most difficult stretch was stretching the dough. The recipe said to be firm and really grasp it, but when I did I tore through. I used more of a pizza dough technique where I pulled gently and used my knuckles to slowly stretch the dough. The goal was to stretch it to twice its length, which I tried to do but didn't always manage. Then a bit of the scrap dough gets added before rolling the croissant, to add some plumpness to it when it bakes and give it that croissant shape. The croissants are left to rest uncovered, after being washed with an egg wash, for about 4 hours.


The other half of the dough was formed into pain au chocolat, which is a little easier than croissants, because you don't have to do any dough stretching. You simply roll out the dough to the same thinness, cut it into strips, and wrap each one around a piece of chocolate the same width of the dough. I used Maya Gold chocolate from Green & Black's because it is organic and I thought the citrus and spices would be a little surprise from the typical chocolate croissant. Plus, all G&B chocolate has a pattern of thin strips, making it easy to break into the perfect size for pain au chocolat. I used bittersweet for half of them, which I think is a little too dark for this pastry, even though I read it was the classic chocolate to use.

The verdict? Amazing. The recipe was perfect, the croissants had that crunch that is so often missing from commercial products (because they are not using butter!), and it was worth all the effort. We had a few with brie for lunch today, and look forward to munching on and sharing the rest.

Categories: Chocolate, Croissant, Pastry, This Felt Amazing

Cookbook Review - The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto

I was happy to get a copy of The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto, because perfecting cold things like ice cream, gelato, and sorbet are on my to-do list for the year.

The recipes in the book span from the predictable and expected to the creative, the type where you want to make them just to taste what it might be like (black sesame!?). I chose to try the nocciola (hazelnut) gelato because I have a big bag of Oregon hazelnuts in my freezer that I'm always looking for a recipe for, and I wanted something that was a little more "authentic." It was a few extra steps to prep the hazelnuts, but the end result had so much flavor, I'd say it was worth it. There are two base recipes in the book for gelato (regular and chocolate) and this was a good example of the plain base.


I also wanted to play around with a sorbetto recipe, because I hadn't yet tried anything non-creamy in my ice-cream maker. Mangoes looked terrific at the store, so mango it was! The sorbet(to) was full of fruit flavor, which makes sense since it was simply mangoes and simple syrup.

I'm still learning how long to leave mixtures in the ice-cream maker before putting them in the regular freezer for a few hours, and I think I've decided that stopping around 25 minutes where everything is still a bit soft, and not as much has hardened on the sides, is the best strategy. That is what I did with the gelato and it was still soft and creamy a few hours later from the freezer.

I'm sure you'll see more recipes from this book throughout the summer. I was very happy with the simplicity of the plain base, and there is so much room to be creative with it! I also want to try granita, which there was a chart for at the end of the book.

If the name sounds familiar, Ciao Bella is pretty standard in grocery stores these days. But you can't beat the taste of making it at home (plus it is cheaper in the end!).

Categories: ice-cream, Hazelnut, Mango

Red Velvet Brownies

Red Velvet Brownies
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

A co-worker is moving north, and we decided her going away party should be all southern food. I'm not sure what dessert says southern food more than red velvet cake, except maybe banana pudding (which was also present!). But I didn't want to make cake. I decided to try to make red velvet brownies instead.

This is my own recipe, combining a few recipes together, so please credit me if you post it.

Red Velvet Brownies

4 large eggs
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks butter)
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 oz red food coloring, poured into 1/4 cup, which should be filled to the top with water

Cream cheese icing (use your favorite, I just dumped things together until it looked okay, but mine was too runny)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Melt butter in microwave with corn syrup until you can easily stir them together. Set aside.

Put eggs, sugar, salt, cocoa, vanilla, and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed for 3-4 minutes, until smooth and viscuous.

Add corn syrup and melted butter mixture and mix on low speed for one minute. Mix in flour. Slowly add dye/water mixture and mix for about one minute. Scrape down bowl.

Pour batter into a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan (otherwise known as a "half sheet" pan).

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Frost with icing and cut into squares. Makes 3 dozen 2" square brownies!

Rhubarb Fling

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I resolved back in January to be more intentional about baking with seasonal ingredients, and then almost missed rhubarb season! That would have been a shame.

It isn't as if I haven't played with rhubarb before. There were crisps, muffins, coffee cakes, and even mousse, but I had neglected what most people think of as standard rhubarb fare - the strawberry rhubarb pie.


I have always been skeptical of strawberry rhubarb pie. I'm not afraid of rhubarb and its tartness, and always thought strawberries were trying to cover it up. Just the same, I went on a hunt for a recipe. The only ones I could find were regional midwestern cookbooks, and I found several good looking recipes from Wall Drug in South Dakota, and The Black Hills Rosemalers Recipes book. I skipped the one that included maraschino cherries, despite its claim to being a "State Fair Award Winning Recipe."

Since this recipe started with uncooked fruit put into the pie crust (I used Julia Child's from Mastering the Art of French Cooking), rather than making some kind of gummy jammy mixture, the end result was quite lovely. Both the flavors of the strawberry and the rhubarb came through, and it seemed somehow light. (But please believe it is NOT light!)


I ended up with enough leftover rhubarb and crust either to make a few little tarts or one large tart, barely. So I decided to try the Rhubarb Custard Pie recipe from the Black Hills cookbook, with a few modifcations. Mainly I cut the recipe in half, cooked it in a tart pan, and didn't add a top crust. It had intrigued me originally but I felt obligated to do the standard pie first. I'm glad I got to do both, because this is the one I'd make again in a heartbeat. The sweet custard is a beautiful taste pairing with the sweet-tart rhubarb.

I'll include the original recipe, and you can do what I indicated above if you want to try making it in tart version.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

4 cups rhubarb (chopped)
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. butter

Make pie crust for 2 crust pie and line 9" pie plate. Mix rhubarb, sugar, and flour and put in pie tin. Beat eggs and milk slightly and pour over rhubarb mixture. Put on top crust or lattice top and dot with butter. Bake at 400 F for 50-60 minutes or until nicely browned. After 25 minutes, reduce heat to 350.

Cinco de Mayo Brownies

Cinco de Mayo Brownies
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

Here it is, the ocho de mayo, and I haven't yet blogged these brownies. My new guilty pleasure food show is What Would Brian Boitano Make? He makes food that isn't difficult, and it is funny to see what he dumps into a bowl and calls it a teaspoon. (It isn't supposed to be funny, but he is way off!). He made Fudgy Gooey Brownies on a recent episode, and I liked them because they included ancho chili powder, cayenne pepper, and coffee.

They also included salt sprinkled on the top. I believe I have already ranted at least once about this salt trend that I hate, but to paraphrase no way was I adding salt to my brownies. Even the kosher salt used in the recipe instead of regular made the salt a more prominent flavor than I would have liked. I don't get this trend, can't wait for it to pass!

Living in the south and not wanting to wait on a mail order, I couldn't find chili powder that was ancho-specific and chili-only. Here chili powders come with garlic and onion, and I just couldn't see that being very good in a brownie. So I omitted the chili powder, used the cayenne pepper, and doubled the espresso powder in the recipe.

The one in the picture has coffee buttercream on it, an experiment i did but ultimately I thought they were best plain. I had a few funny reactions from people who didn't read the sign and were not expecting spice. The funniest comment I got was, "I think something might be wrong with me but my tongue has been on fire since I ate one of your brownies!"

Study Day Cake

Study Day Cake
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

Today is study day at Furman University, so I needed a cake that would inspire studying! I made a dense fudgy cake with coffee buttercream. Coffee to wake the students up and chocolate to help them remember (we just won't talk about the pending sugar crash).

The cake recipe came from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, and the coffee buttercream is a Nick Malgieri one I had on hand from December 2007.

Chewy Chunky Blondies

Chewy Chunky Blondies
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

It is nearing the end of the semester, and student workers need fuel to finish papers and get through "Oratorio Week" (they are performing Bach's Mass in B Minor on Friday).

I've been wanting to make more recipes from Baking: From My Home to Yours, and this was a quick bar cookie recipe. Seriously, this is one of the best books for home bakers out there, buy it.

I put chocolate chips, coconut, and hazelnuts in mine, because that's what I had on hand. They would have been even better with some butterscotch or toffee.

Wow, I haven't been posting much, because I haven't been baking much! I have been gardening like crazy though, and you can follow that adventure on the Greenhorn Gardeners Blog.

Daring Bakers March 2010 - Orange Tian

Orange Tian slice
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I would like to give myself the award for Officially Not Procrastinating For Once on the Daring Bakers Challenge, as I had this done the first week of March! The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

From what I understand, a tian can be sweet or savory, and is probably what you are having in a nicer restaurant if it looks like the layers of something were in a ring before you get it. I didn't have enough smaller rings or cookie cutters, so I made it all as one dessert in a springform pan.


The recipe calls for oranges, and I used a combination of navel and cara cara (also a kind of navel, but pinker in color). The combination was unintentionally striking on the top layer! It looks like grapefruit, but was all sweet and orangey.


My favorite part of this recipe was the chance to make orange marmalade, which I hadn't done before. Of course, the directions said to cook until it reached jam consistency, rather than giving me a number of minutes, and I thought it meant until it was jammy and still HOT. So I ended up scorching some of the orange rind, and the final marmalade was almost a soft candy, but the burnt flavor was actually nice and the rest was good on crackers and toast.


The tian had four layers - the pate sablee crust, which is like a cross between pie crust and sugar cookie, the marmalade, stabilized whipped cream, and the oranges in caramel mixture. Then you drizzle an orange caramel sauce on top. Yes, I said caramel sauce, my old nemesis. It worked out okay this time.

Over all, this was way too sweet for me to want to make it again, but it did look pretty.

Vegan Baked Goods in San Diego

Stephanie at Stephanie's
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

This was intended to be a fantastic review post of Stephanie's Bakery in San Diego, where I was this last week for the Music Library Association Annual Conference. Unfortunately, despite nothing on their web site to the contrary, and no signage at the bakery itself, they were not open the three different times I tried visiting throughout the week. I hope they are just on vacation, and have a beach-town mentality that doesn't always think to put up a sign, because the idea of a vegan bakery that serves fantastic lunch and dinner sounded amazing! My friend Stephanie, pictured, is not the Stephanie of Stephanie's, but was also disappointed. She is a vegan living in California who has been to Stephanie's before, and was looking forward to going back.


I know this picture is very blurry, but I was delighted to meet a new music librarian who says she has been following JennyBakes for two years or so. I tried whisking her away on a bakery adventure to Stephanie's. We still had fun, but not as much as we would have had if we'd actually had a bakery to review.


There was vegan food to be had in San Diego, even baked goods. I ate several times at the OB People's Food Co-op, with the grocery on the first floor and fantastic deli on the second. I bought their cookbook, so you might see some of their vegan recipes in this blog in the near future. This goddess bar, for instance, was fantastic.

Categories: Bakery, Vegan