Daring Bakers': Quick Bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I made banana bread for my quick bread. I used a recipe from Cooking For Seven, but omitted the nuts.

White Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Duo Challenge Day Coffee Cake

Blueberry Crumble Coffee Cake

This past weekend, I made this coffee cake for a potluck picnic and bbq. I knew I wanted to make something with fruit because it's summer. Originally, I was thinking about grilling pineapple, but finally settled on a blueberry coffee cake because the last coffee cake I made came out so yummy. This blueberry version came out delicious as well...moist and chock full of blueberries. There was almost a 1-1 ratio of blueberries to batter.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe. I used 1.5 the recipe so I could make a 9x13 cake.

Blueberry Crumble Coffee Cake

adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:
Streusel
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbs granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
 pinch table salt
6 tbs unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened

Cake
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tss baking powder
15 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs , room temperature
6 cups fresh blueberries, washed

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. Add butter and mix with hands (squeeze pieces of butter so they break apart) until mixture resembles wet sand and no large butter pieces remain. Set aside.
2. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with 2-inch sides with nonstick cooking spray, line bottom with parchment, and spray again with nonstick cooking spray. 
3. Whisk flour and baking powder in small bowl to combine; set aside. 
4. In standing mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter, sugar, salt, and lemon zest at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes; using a rubber spatula, scrape down bowl. 
5. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time; beat until combined, scraping the bowl as necessary. Beat in vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. 
6. With mixer running on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat until flour is combined, but don't over mix. Using a spatula, gently fold in blueberries until evenly distributed.
7. Transfer batter to prepared pan; with rubber spatula spread batter evenly to pan edges and smooth surface. Sprinkle streusel over the batter by squeezing handfuls to form a clump and then breaking the clump and distributing evenly.
8. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes. Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Cut into squares and serve. 

MY Birthday Jelly Roll Cake

Happy Birthday to Me

For my birthday Ryan and I made a Strawberry Jelly Roll Cake. It was a light airy sponge cake with a strawberry whipped cream filling. It was really yummy and a nice light cake overall.

The recipe is from Joy of Baking (again!). We used strawberries instead of raspberries. The strawberries came in a 16 oz package so we just added the puree to the whipped cream until it tasted right. 

Birthday Strawberry Jam Bars

Gooey Jam Bars

To celebrate Kevin's birthday I made him Strawberry Jam Bars because I remembered him liking raspberry ones I made a long time ago. I followed the recipe pretty closely but I think I used the whole jar of jam (the recipe calls for one cup of jam, but my jar of jam was a little bit more than that).

I think this recipe is quick and easy and a crowd pleaser...who doesn't love jam? You can change up the jam to whatever you have on hand or whatever you like best. Also, they have a good amount of rolled oats in them so they trick you into thinking they are healthy (with a stick of butter plus all that jam they really aren't that healthy...).

Once again the recipe comes from Joy of Baking!

Fallin' for Fried Apple Pies

Fried Apple Pies Covered in Powdered Sugar

This is a really late post, but for Halloween I decided to make Fried Apple Pies. Apples are definitely a Fall fruit so I thought it would be perfect for a Halloween celebration. While they are somewhat 'reminiscent of McDonaldss apple pies I can't tell for sure as I can't remember ever eating a fried apple pie from McDonalds! 

The recipe came from here and I made just a couple changes. I used about a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean. Also, with 5 apples I ended up with a lot of extra filling. I thought my apples were just regular sized but I guess they were on the larger side. I would maybe cut this down to 4 apples (it would be better to come up with an amount in cups...). Besides that, after a couple of pies were fried they were opening up at the seams. Ryan suggested we poke holes in the tops and this definitely helped stop them from expanding too much and opening.

They were pretty tasty even though they were not fresh out of the oil when we ate them. I'm sure they would have been even better piping hot!

Birthday Key Lime Bars

Pretty, Pretty Birthday Lime Bars!

For Madi's birthday I decided to make Martha Stewart's Key Lime Bars. They have a graham cracker crust which I think really complimented the creamy key lime filling. I think I like the graham cracker crust more than a shortbread crust usually found on lemon bars so I might try using this with a lemon bar filling on top. 

This recipe was quite simple, but for me one measurement was really off. The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of key lime juice and says it will take over 20 key limes, but it only took be about 10. I'm not sure if my limes were just extra big or extra juicy, but I would buy extra limes just in case. Also, I'm not sure how necessary the extra 2 1/2 tablespoons of graham cracker crumbs are, but I put it in. I only garnished a couple of the bars with limes because they were being transported but I wouldn't eat the lime garnish anyway so it isn't necessary.

Here is the recipe!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Ryan

Buttermilk Cupcake with Strawberry Mousse and Swiss Meringue Buttercream

So I made cupcakes for Ryan's birthday, but they didn't come out well so I'm not going to post the recipe. The strawberry mousse was yummy and so was the frosting...which is basically Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue Buttercream with a little less sugar. I was very sad they didn't come out well, but hopefully I will try a new cupcake recipe soon.

YUM

SO GOOD!

I just bought Nutella and strawberries at Costco and I wanted something sweet. This is the easiest, but tastiest sweet treat. It's silly to even put a recipe. Just slice and toast baguette, spread with Nutella, top with sliced strawberries and ENJOY!

Lemon Bars

Stack of Lemon Bars

I hadn't baked anything awhile and I wanted something quick and easy to make. These lemon bars were just that. I made the crust and while it was baking I made the filling by hand, with just a whisk. It goes back into the oven for a little bit and then they need to cool. I found that they tasted a lot better after they had cooled for awhile in the fridge rather than room temperature/from the oven. These didn't come out super lemon-y, but pretty tasty nonetheless.

Here's the recipe...my changes were more lemon juice and I let them cool in the fridge before cutting and dusting with powdered sugar.

Lemon Bars

from the Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tbs flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbs lemon juice (I think I used closer to 3 tbs)

1 tsp grated lemon peel

Confectioners' sugar to garnish

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, butter and confectioners' sugar. Pat into an ungreased 8-in square baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
2. For filling, in a small mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add the sugar, flour, baking powder, lemon juice and peel; beat until frothy. Pour over the crust. Bake 25 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Cut into bars.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Poppy Seed Bread in the Sunshine

Inspired by the giant Costco poppy seed muffins I made a loaf of lemon poppy seed bread! This bread version was a lot more lemon-y than the muffins, but still very tasty. The batter came together quickly and then baked for about an hour. After it was done baking I poured a lemon-sugar syrup over the bread and after it was cooled I wrapped it in plastic wrap. Then it sat overnight so the syrup could soak in.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
3 tbsp poppy seeds
12 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla extract, and milk.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and poppy seeds until combined.
4. Add the softened butter and half of the egg mixture and mix on low speed until moist. Increase the speed to medium and beat for one minute.
5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining egg mixture and mix for 30 seconds.
6. Pour the batter into the pan.
7. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. If the top of the bread is getting too brown during baking, cover with aluminum foil.
8. When bread is done, remove and cool on a wire rack. Poke holes in the top of the hot loaf and brush or spoon half of the lemon syrup over the top. Cool the bread for 5 minutes and then turn it out upside down. Brush/spoon the rest of the syrup over the bottom and sides of the bread. Set bread upright and let cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and let the bread sit overnight before slicing.

Lemon Syrup

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated white sugar

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and lemon juice to a boil and stir until all the sugar dissolves.

Celebrating the New Year

Lemon Mousse with Blackberries and Raspberries
(Picture Courtesy of Ryan Mak)

Here is the recipe for the Lemon Mousse I made for New Year's Eve. The recipe was pretty simple. First you make a lemon curd from eggs, sugar and lemon juice. Then you just have to whip up some cream and fold them together. This dessert was very light and lemony. I topped the mousse off with fresh berries, but since the berries aren't really in season I think it was better without them.

The recipe can be found on Pastry Pal's website. I followed the recipe exactly except for the fact that I doubled both the lemon curd and mousse. To serve, I spooned the mousse into fancy, little plastic cups and topped with a few berries.

Cranberries Part 2

Here are pictures of my second recipe with cranberries. They are Cranberry Upside Down Muffins from Joy of Baking. These two pictures are from the ugly batch. The other ones were prettier, but I didn't have time to take pictures of them before I took them to a potluck.

It's Cranberry Season!

For me, Thanksgiving means cranberries! I don't eat them during the rest of the year, but at Thanksgiving the stores of full of bags of fresh cranberries. The only things I've cooked with cranberries are cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and cranberry-orange scones once, maybe twice. This year I got really excited about the cranberries for some reason and planned to make two cranberry recipes this week. First, this buttery and delicious Cranberry-Orange Scone and later this week a Cranberry Upside-Down Muffin.

This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's recipe. I followed it relatively closely...the major difference is that I took out an entire stick of butter! Reviews for the recipe said that it was still tasty even without the extra stick of butter. With this alteration I thought that the scones were as buttery as they needed to be.

The recipe, with my changes, follows after the pictures...and I'll be sure to post the recipe for the Cranberry Upside-Down Muffins soon after I make them =)

Cranberry-Orange Scones
adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
2 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
2-3 tbs grated orange zest
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 egg beaten with 2 tbs milk, for egg wash
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus 2 tbs
4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions:

1. In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest until thoroughly combined.
2. Add butter and mix slowly until the butter is in small bits.
3. Combine the eggs and heavy cream then add the mixture to the mixer on low speed. Mix until just blended.
4. Mix the dried cranberries with 1/4 cup of flour.
5. Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface (you don't want it to stick!), add the cranberries to the dough, and knead cranberries into the dough. Form the dough into a ball.
6. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 3/4-inch thick square. Make sure to flour the rolling pin and your hands.
7. Measure out an 8x8 square and cut out with a knife. Cut into 4 squares, cut the squares into triangles and lastly, cut each triangle in half (to make two triangles). You'll have 16 small triangles. (Alternately, use a square or circle cookie cutter to cut out your scones to your desired shape and size.)
   
8. Collect the dough scraps, rollout again and cut more scones of equal size.
9. Place the scones on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.
10. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash (egg and milk) and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
11. Bake scones for 18-22 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and the insides are firm to the touch.
12. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes.
13. In the mean time, whisk together the confectioners' sugar and orange juice. Add more sugar, if necessary, to get the right consistency.
14. Drizzle as much as you want over the scones.

Enjoy!