About Me: Baking

Have you ever realized how every person has their 'thing'. Or their list of things. A hobby that they love, a trait that everyone notices, a certain product they have to have? We all have our 'things', and I thought it would be fun to share the things that make me, well, me. It is a fun way to share a little but about the way I am and how and why I do things the way I do them. I figured I would start off with something pretty basic so here we go:

Baking. 

I would bake all day, every day, if I could. I can cook as well, but I wouldn't deem myself a chef. If the recipe calls for sugar, sweet, and lots of calories, I am all about it, though. I have decided that baking is kind of my thing. I love finding new recipes, using new ingredients, and experimenting with new flavors. Of course, I am all about the basics too. Brownies? Yes please. Every weekend is a little bit happier with a pan of brownies waiting in the kitchen. Or Special K bars. Ridiculously easy to make, and ridiculously good to eat. Sometimes you can't go wrong with the tried and true favorites.

I also absolutely love baking new things. I love showing up to holidays or parties with a new recipe I am trying out and hearing what everyone thinks. I have had my flop recipes that I would never make again, and I have found some keepers for life, too. I love love love food, but nothing is better than dessert. And yes, replacing your dinner with dessert is totally acceptable. 

A few favorite recipes that have been total successes for me:

1. Caramel apple pie. According to Mike this is the best dessert I have ever made. A mans taste buds don't lie.

2. Banana bread brownies. I DARE you not to eat the entire saucepan of frosting. 

3. Chocolate cherry shortbread cookies. I have added these to my holiday baking each December, because they are red. And delicious.

4. Sugar cookies.. Ok this is a basic recipe, but after a few that provided me with burnt, average cookies that stuck to the pan, I can tell you these roll out and bake up AMAZING.

5. Caramel chocolate trifle. My new favorite thing is putting a bunch of delicious ingredients on display in a pretty glass bowl. These recipes are easy and fun to look at!

6. Black and white cookies. Another newer recipe I have tried out. These are a fun alternative to more traditional cookies, and totally delicious.

I hope to share new recipes as I find them like I had once intended, because it is always great to hear from a person who has actually tried the Pinterest recipe to know if it is worth the time or not! I love baking, and am happy to be the taste tester on all of those fabulous recipes Pinterest teases us with!

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Caramel Apple Pie

Anyone who knows me knows of my love for baking. No day is complete without a little something sweet. I may or may not have stopped at Mickey Ds on the way home from night class and be enjoying a chocolate shake while watching the VS fashion show. Makes sense, right?

Due to my love of baking, my husband has tasted many, many different concoctions that I have tried out. Most he likes, some he doesn't, and some I get the thumbs up and a 'definitely make that again'. For Thanksgiving this year I decided to make a caramel apple pie. Of course, I hit up my go-to recipe book, pinterest, made a few slight tweaks, and ended up with the following recipe. It looked and smelled good enough, but I did not expect the response I got from Mike, which was:
"This is hands down the best dessert you have ever made. EVER."

I debated adding more apples, cutting back the amount of topping, or just making little tweaks. I was forbidden. "Don't. Change. One. Thing. It is PERFECT." Ok that makes it easy. So, from the mouth of my man, here is the recipe to the best apple pie. EVER.

Ingredients:
-premade pie crust (of course you can try out making your own, but this girl aint got time for that)
-8 sliced granny smith apples, peeled and cored
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping
3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil

Caramel
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
OK so to start get out your pie crust. Poke some holes in that crust with a fork so you don't get any bubbles while baking.
Combine your apples, brown sugar, corn starch, and cinnamon, and pour the mixture onto your pie crust.

Combine all of the topping ingredients in a large bowl and mix by hand until crumbly. *make sure you get all of those coconut oil bits broken down and mixed well.
Pour the dry mix over the top of the apple mix and pie crust.
Bake for 45 minutes. Depending on your oven, the pie will get brown, watch it towards the end to make sure it doesn't burn.

While the pie is baking, make the caramel sauce.
Combine sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan on the stove.
Cook and stir often, until the mixture turns a deep, golden color.
Remove the mix from heat and add the butter first, then the cream, then the vanilla (one at a time).

Allow the pie and the caramel sauce to cool completely.
Pour that delicious caramel over the top of that delicious pie (use as much as you want, I really don't think you can have TOO much caramel).

Enjoy!
Do any of you have any favorite recipes or desserts you always get requests for!?

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Friday Favorites!

Especially as my maternity leave winds down (cue sad music here) I have had plenty of time to enjoy clothes, recipes, and hobbies that I typically don't have time for when I work. Nothing beats wearing jeans on a Tuesday over the typical business casual attire. Only one Tuesday left *sigh* I just keep telling myself how blessed I am to be able to enjoy a full 12 week maternity leave. If work gets too rough I suppose I just need to find a reason to take ANOTHER maternity leave, right? ;-)
Without further ado, I have decided to put together my most recent favorite things/wants, as I love everything fall I will likely have a new list of Friday Favorites every week in the near future!

1. Black and brown boots. Riding boots are the greatest in the fall, and I LOVE how brown and black being worn together is such a trend right now.

Oh Michael Kors. Constantly creating things I love and cannot afford.

These are currently on sale at Macys, and Target has an affordable option as well!

2. Buffalo shirts. Flannel in general.

Flannel and boots. Love it. Sometimes I look at what we are wearing and realize it is basically the stuff we used to make fun of as kids. 90's grunge, but without the grunge. I can dig it; if bell bottoms were allowed to make a comeback, flannel can, too. And it's warm, you can't go wrong.
Great versions available here and here. LOVE me some Gap and Old Navy. They also make almost everything in a tall version. Fellow 6-foot ladies, holla! And did I mention, extra 25% off of everything today!
3. Sparkly pumpkins. I already posted a tutorial here, but I just blinged out another pumpkin and am obsessed. My front entry is looking fantastic, slowly but surely I am adding some seasonal touches around the home.

If anyone is looking for a sparkly pumpkin, let me know. I may be obsessed with this new project, and I can only have so many pumpkins covered in glitter around my house. ;-)

4. 'Mashed banana' recipes. Here. And here. I love that they can be used to make 'healthy' alternatives, and as of late I never manage to eat them before they get ripe, resulting in lots and lots of chocolate banana muffins. The recipe says 100 calories, so I may be guilty of eating 2 at a time, at 2am after Jackson wakes me up. He gets a midnight snack, I should too, right?
5. Colored skinny jeans. So much fun, especially in seasonal colors. After the pastels of spring and brights of summer, it's time to say hello to burnt colors, browns, yellows, and deep reds. Love this version here.

Corduroy, another trend I mocked as a child. Maybe I should make a list of all the fashion trends I have laughed at that ended up in my closet.
6. Baby smiles. You know I just had to throw one of these in :-)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

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I try Pinterest recipes, some are seriously up to the hype.

Last weekend was technically the first weekend of fall (because Labor Day is the last day of summer, right?) and it felt like it! Friday was just perfect. If I could bottle up the weather and have every day of the year be just like that, I would. The little man did NOT sleep well the night before, so we had a lazy day. He went down for a nap around lunch time, and I decided to try out a Pinterest recipe. I had plans to run to the store for whatever goods I might need, but after our rough night I just didn't have it in me to take my babe out of his crib. Besides, he has to learn how to sleep in there eventually! So, I looked in my kitchen and saw..ripe bananas. I turned to my desserts page on Pinterest and found this. And I actually had every single ingredient on hand, which never happens. Ready, GO.

Let me tell you, this recipe is every bit as good as it is made out to be. The frosting is seriously so delicious, I was tempted to just eat spoonfuls and not put it on the dessert. I displayed some self control, and most of the frosting ended up in the right place.

I will point out the recipe calls for an 11x15 pan, which I don't have, so I just went with a 9x13. This made these very un-brownie like (not a bad thing). I would 100% say my finished product was a cake. That is fine by me, because really I can never say no to cake.

Ingredients:

Brownies:

1.5 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened 

***I only had 1 stick of butter and the frosting also calls for it, so I substituted 1/2 cup coconut oil. Tasted great and a little bit healthier!

2 eggs

3-4 ripe bananas, mashed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

***I didn't have walnuts, so I threw in some pecans instead

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1.5 tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. milk

1. Heat oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Grease your baking pan.

2. Beat together sugar, sour cream, butter(coconut oil) and eggs until creamy.

3. Add in bananas and vanilla extract.

4. Add flour, baking soda, and salt.

5. Add nuts.

6. Spread into pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (For the 9x13 pan, I upped my bake time to 30-35 minutes).

7. For frosting, put stick of butter in a saucepan. Heat over medium until boiling. Let the butter turn a light brown, and once this happens remove from heat immediately.

***I was unsure about this, but if you watch it closely, you will see the change in color from yellow to brown. If you let it go too long, it will turn into 'burnt' butter, not good.

8. Whisk in the butter, vanilla extract, and milk.

9. Spread frosting over the brownies while they are still warm (this will help it spread smoothly). 

I would make these every day if I could. They make a great dessert, but would also be awesome with coffee/at a breakfast event. SO GOOD. I can't get over it.

For more awesome recipes, check out lifessimplemeasures.blogspot.com/

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Labor Day baking session

As we finally get into somewhat of a routine with a baby, I felt the need to do some baking. I LOVE to bake. I also love trying out new things and discovering new recipes. After hearing someone mention they had been craving black and white cookies, I was intrigued. How had I never heard of these? I did some hunting (on Pinterest of course) and found lots of recipes for these mystery cookies I had never heard of. I found a recipe that looked good, bought up the ingredients (most of which are likely already in your pantry) and dove in.

I was a bit surprised at how time consuming they were to make when it was all said and done. They weren't the most tedious thing I had ever baked, but they definitely are NOT your quick batch of chocolate chip cookies. For the 200th time since receiving it as a wedding gift, I was SO grateful for my kitchenaid mixer. To think I used to cream butter and sugar BY HAND. I am not sure how I survived, really.

One thing I really liked about these cookies was the slightly citrus flavor from the lemon extract. It added just a touch of additional tartness to contrast the more rich flavor of the icing. I would definitely make these cookies again, when I have a whole afternoon open, and perhaps once I have a baby that can take a bottle who doesn't demand a meal as I am halfway through icing ;-)

Ingredients:

 

Cookies:
4 cups cake flour (I could not find cake flour at the grocery store, but I found a conversion online to use all purpose and subtract 2 tablespoons per every 1 cup. This worked fine for me!)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. lemon extract
1 cup milk

Glaze (both the white and dark)
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
5 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
milk, as needed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the cookies, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In large mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar gradually, and beat on medium/high for about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Blend in the eggs, vanilla, and lemon extracts.

On low speed, blend in the flour mix and milk, alternating between the two, starting and ending with the flour mix. (so, add 1/4 the flour mix, 1/3 the milk, the next 1/4 of the flour mix, etc.)

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place six 1/4 cup globs of dough on each sheet (12 cookies total). This will use half of your batter (you will end up baking two 'batches', 4 sheets of cookies, for 24 total cookies). Moisten your fingers with water and gently press the dough into disks 2.5 inches wide and 3/4 inches thick.

Bake the cookies for 20 minutes, switching the racks the two sheets are placed on half way through a the 10 minute mark. Cool completely before icing.

Icing:

Using a double boiler, or placing a bowl over a saucer of boiling water, melt down the chocolate. Set aside. (I found this shouldn't be done TOO soon, to ensure the chocolate doesn't harden.

Bring the corn syrup and water to a boil. Remove from heat and add the confectioners sugar and vanilla.

Add 3/4 cups of the glaze to the chocolate and mix well.

To ice, begin with the white glaze and frost half of the BOTTOM of each cookie. I read this and it seemed strange, but after completing them it makes sense, as the bottom provides a nice, flat surface to ensure you get the 'black and white' effect. Allow the glaze to harden, about 10-15 minutes.

Repeat the process on the other side of the cookie with the chocolate glaze.

Store in an airtight container.

 

mid icing/process, baby decided he was hungry, so Mike took over icing the chocolate side. at least a few cookies still turned out semi-pretty..ahh, a man's decorative touch.

 

These were definitely tasty. They are also big cookies, so they would be great to bring to a party or to make when you have guests. I usually pack up half of anything I bake almost immediately to be given to family, and these big, low calorie cookies were no exception. Their bellies (and my waistline!) always thank me!

 

Source: http://www.annies-eats.com/2011/08/26/black-and-white-cookies/



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