Hello, 2009!

Last year, I made several food-related resolutions. Here is a review and whether I have accomplished them:

1. Make espresso-based drinks as good as the coffee houses - I was fine until the frother on my espresso maker broke. It's clogged and I cannot unclog it no matter how many times I've tried cleaning it.

2. Make Baked Alaska - I still haven't gotten around to this!

3. Eat something new - I've had fresh beets, collard greens, and catfish.

4. Bake a pie from scratch - I have several times.

5. Bake biscotti - It was one of the Tuesdays With Dorie challenges.

Four out of five isn't bad at all. This year's resolutions will be:

1. Make Baked Alaska - I'm still determined to make this.

2. Decorate cookies and/or cakes and be proud - This involves me actually buying a decorator's kit. Any suggestions? Maybe I'll ask for it as a birthday gift in May.

3. Share my goodies more often - I'm always hesitant in sharing outside of my family and close friends because I'm afraid they won't be good enough.

4. Eat more locally - I didn't start doing this until my trip to Savannah, GA. Now I'm more open to eating at places that aren't a national chain. I'll have the opportunity again when I go back to Washington, DC in March and Nashville, TN in May. If you have been to those places and have suggestions as to where I should eat, let me know.

5. Be better at food photography - Tastespotting and Foodgawker are photo snobs, and as much as they piss me off, I'm still trying to get my photos on their sites because they bring in major blog traffic. I know my pictures aren't the best, but I've seen pictures just as good or even worse than mine.

Winding Down 2008

Here's one last holiday cookie recipe for 2008. This cookie needs time to chill in the refrigerator because it softens quite easily, but once cut and baked, they look beautiful. Although these look nice on a holiday cookie tray, you could probably make these any time during the year, maybe even change up the flavors and color.




Mint is one of my favorite flavors. I decided this holiday to give in and buy peppermint extract. I used it in my peppermint bark and these cookies. I was going to do cupcakes, but my brother brought home a cookie tray from his work, so we were over our heads in sweets.


Chocolate Mint Pinwheels




1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp oil
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp peppermint extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1-2 drops green food coloring

1. In large mixing bowl, beat sugar, butter, water, oil, 1 tsp baking powder, vanilla, and peppermint extract at medium speed until creamy (2-3 minutes). Reduce speed to low. Add flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and salt. Beat until well mixed (1-2 minutes).

2. Remove half of dough. Add melted chocolate to one half and food coloring to the other half. Shape each half into a rectangle and wrap in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Roll out each rectangle thin but not too thin. Place green rectangle on top of chocolate rectangle. Gently press together. Roll up, jelly roll fashion. Refrigerate for another 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut roll into 1/4-inch slices. Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7-9 minutes or until set. Cool completely.

Makes 12 cookies.

Source: Land-O-Lake's 5th Annual Holiday Cookies, 1998 p.24

Tuesdays With Dorie - Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. For Christmas dessert, I made Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. And boy did she mean tall. She called for a 9 inch pan with 2 3/4 inch tall sides. Otherwise, you'll be left with extra filling. And look how much filling mine made:


9 inch cake pan, 3 small springform heart pans, and 4 ramekins

So if you don't have the appropriate pan and not feeding a crowd, I suggest cutting the recipe in half. Since I wasn't accounting for the extra pans, I only made the crust for the small heart pans (which I was originally planning to serve). I don't know if water accidentally got into the bottom of the pans, but my crust was a little soggy. The filling was amazingly creamy (and rich!) I used all heavy cream, but next time I may do 2/3 heavy cream and 1/3 sour cream. Also, I opted for plain cheesecake. Now that the recipe is successful, I will experiment with the flavors. It did take a lot of time and beating though! Since I only have a hand mixer, my arm was sore.

Some of the TwDers experienced cracked tops. Fortunately (and surprisingly!), mine weren't. This was my first cheesecake completely from scratch.


Tall and Creamy Cheesecake




Thanks for this week goes to Anne of Anne Strawberry for picking the recipe. You can find it on page 235-237 of Baking: From My Home To Yours or on Anne's blog.

Chocolate Covered Cherries? Not Exactly...

I love chocolate covered cherries. I could probably eat an entire box myself, so whenever I stumbled upon this recipe at school one day, I knew I had to make them for Christmas. I tweaked the recipe a bit because there wasn't enough liquid holding the dough together. I also cut it down to one dozen because we are dealing with enough cookies already. Some of the recipe reviewers suggested using the chocolate cherry kisses Hershey makes to bring the whole recipe together, but since we already had regular kisses in the house, that's what I used. Make sure you put enough chopped cherry in the dough because the bites without the cherries lack some of the cherry flavor.

Cherry Chocolate Blossoms




1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 Tbsp maraschino cherry juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
2-3 drops red food coloring
2/3 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp maraschino cherries, chopped
12 chocolate kisses, unwrapped

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine powdered sugar, butter, juice, almond extract, and food coloring. Add flour and salt. Mix well. Stir in chopped cherries.

2. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Immediately top each cookie with a kiss, pressing down firmly to flatten out cookies. Remove to cooling rack.

Makes 12 cookies.

Source: Recipe Zaar

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Now that Christmas is only a few days away, time to get some serious holiday baking finished. If you are pressed for time or just too tired to make any more cookies, you can make this easy Peppermint Bark. It also lets you relieve some stress because you crush the candy canes (although I had some trouble).

Peppermint Bark




All you do is melt white chocolate, mix in crushed peppermints and a little bit of peppermint extract, spread it on some wax paper, and let chill for about an hour or so. Once it is hardened, you break into chunks. Perfect when company arrives on short notice.

Source: Recipe Zaar

Another Giveaway!

Every year, we spend lots of money for the holidays, whether it's presents, hosting parties, or baking cookies. Head on over to Zesty Cook and win yourself a $100 Amazon gift card (or $100 Paypal deposit)! I know I sure could use it!

The Spirit of Cupcakes

Well, I'm home from school for the holidays, although it doesn't feel like it. I'm slowly regaining my spirit after an incident last week, but that's life for you. And although lately a lot of my baking has been a flop, I did somewhat make cupcakes. I put too much batter in because the overfill resulted in a flat and brittle top. At least they tasted good, especially with peanut buttercream on top.

I halved the recipe and got 6 cupcakes. The recipe below makes 12 cupcakes and without leftover frosting. To halve the 3 eggs, use 1 egg, 1 Tbsp water, 1 1/2 tsp oil, and 1 tsp baking powder.

Also, did you know maraschino cherries get their flavor from almond extract? Seriously. When you come across almond extract, smell it. If you are not a fan, sub the almond for more vanilla.

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Buttercream



Cupcakes
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Peanut Buttercream
2 2/3 Tbsp peanut butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-3 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

3. In another bowl, beat together both sugars and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture, stirring by hand until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Scoop batter into prepared liners. Bake for 28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs and a little melted chocolate. The tops will not spring back when touched. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan before removing to cooling rack.

5. Peanut Buttercream: Cream peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until desired consistency is achieved. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Both recipes make enough for 12 cupcakes without leftover frosting.

Sources: Cupcake, Frosting


Evil alien cat?


Don't know if you can tell, but Murray's eyes are closed.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

So this week's TwD was Dorie's Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies. This recipe is perfect for the holidays because who doesn't love using cute Christmas cookie cutters (try saying that fast!)? I used butter again because I had some to use. I can't believe some of you only use butter to bake! I would except margarine is much cheaper.


As my dad said, they're naked!!
Did it make a difference? They tasted like the sugar cookies I usually make with margarine. I found nothing special about Dorie's version, but next time I may play around with different flavorings, such as lemon zest.


Moose!! The only one without broken legs/feet/antlers

And it's probably obvious, but I am not a decorator haha I did have some help from my best friend.








I cannot figure out what shape the non-sprinkled one is...


Thanks to Ulrike of Kuchenlatein for picking a nice holiday cookie. You can find the recipe in Baking: From My Home To Yours on page 146-147 or on Ulrike's blog.

Moosey Tip #3

Note to self: fresh spinach shrinks when cooked. A lot. My main dish turned into a side dish.

Also, I do not like rum. It made me waste my precious Coke because I couldn't stand the taste.

That is all.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Linzer Sables

This is probably the first time I baked with real butter. I had it in my mind that you must use butter for all shortbread and sable recipes. Otherwise, it will not come out that great. Did anybody use margarine and still got great results?

Don't have linzer cookie cutters? No problem! Use a regular cookie cutter (round, flower, heart, whatever). Then with a toothpick, create small holes in the center of half the cookies. You may need to redo the holes after baking because if the dough is too warm, they will spread and make the hole smaller. For the nuts, Dorie offers a variety to use, so I used walnuts. They need to be finely ground, so use a food processor.



These cookies were amazing! I don't know if it was the butter or the "sandy" texture of the dough. I halved the recipe because there was too much junk in the house, but that was a bad idea. Even my mom kept asking for more (usually she hates my food). I used apricot filling (not jelly but that baker's dessert filling stuff). For the powdered sugar, I dipped the cookie tops into a small bowl before sandwiching together. I would suggest keeping these in a container because overnight, they got soft.

Linzer Sables




Thanks Noskos of Living the Life for picking awesome holiday cookies! You can find the recipe on pages 134-135 of Baking: From My Home To Yours or Noskos' blog.

Round 3 For Winning...

I'm still determined to win Marye's Hershey basket! Are you? Enter for a third time this week at Baking Delights.