Boy, this was challenging! I wasn't sure how my bread would turn out but as you can see from the photos, I managed to get through the November Daring Baker's Challenge in one piece. Honestly, I was semi-panicking throughout the process because my dough was soooo soft and sticky and hardly manageable that I almost threw in the towel (and threw out the dough!) half-way through. But, like any other Daring Baker would, I trudged along, determined not to quit and actually, my curiosity on how the dough would turn out got the best of me (thank goodness). I decided to make a black olive foccacia and some mini loaves, and to my amazement, the end-products were delicious! I've never baked a potato bread (or tasted one) before so I really did not know what to expect. What I got however was worth all the hard work and perseverance. Thanks Tanna of My Kitchen In Half-Cups, for thinking up this month's Potato Bread challenge! (If you'd like to try your hand at this recipe, click here).
Yes, I know there's only one cupcake photographed but trust me, I did make enough cupcakes for 2-4 people today. I just didn't take a group shot of them. You see, I finally made something from a cookbook I was given some time last year called Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. It's perfect for those of us who may have a craving for say, vanilla cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting, but don't want to deal with baking a dozen of 'em and having to eat more than one, goodness forbid! This basic vanilla cupcake recipe yielded 4 cupcakes and not only were they a cinch to whip up but they were also just right for me as I'm running awfully low on both sugar and flour these days! Anyways, I added some cream cheese frosting and topped the cupcakes off with some unsweetened, organic coconut flakes that I found at Whole Foods the other day. Be as creative as you'd like, or as non-creative because these actually tasted quite delicious plain too. Happy baking! 
all of you who have visited my humble food blog and have left me such supportive and sweet comments. Today I'm fortunate enough to be spending the Thanksgiving holiday with the people I love and I hope you will do the same.
With Thanksgiving and Christmas (yikes!) just around the corner, I've been thinking more and more about baking cookies and which ones I'd like to make and give away as gifts. So today I tested out a Snickerdoodle recipe. Now I've tasted this cookie before but this was the first time I've ever actually made Snickerdoodles. The recipe, which I found in a cookbook called Simple Joys of Friendship is quite simple and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and bake. The end result is a cookie that is soft, slightly chewy, slightly sweet, and one that goes perfectly with a hot cup of tea. The cinnamon flavor of the cookie made my boyfriend think of Apple Jacks Cereal when he tasted it. Though not the most exciting cookie appearance-wise, the Snickerdoodle is quickly becoming one of my favorite tasting cookies and I'm definitely going to include this one for my holiday baking.
I don’t ever recall making Rice Krispies Treats when I was a kid. I think it’s because we preferred Captain Crunch and Count Chocula over the plain, boring rice puffs that snapped, crackled and puffed when you poured milk over them. Nowadays though, my preference to indulge in overly-sweetened cereal has pretty much diminished, and thanks to a recent sale at the supermarket, I found myself with a couple boxes of Kellog’s Rice Krispies in my kitchen. So when I came across this recipe from the New York Times on a revamped RKT, I was curious to give it a whirl. Interestingly, this new recipe upped the butter factor (2 entire sticks versus the 3 tablespoons in the original recipe), as well as increasing the amount of Rice Krispies (one 12 ounce box versus six cups). The new recipe also calls for caramelizing the butter (hence the name of the recipe!), which means you have to keep a close eye while melting the butter, being careful that it does not burn. I’m not the the biggest fan of RKT’s in the first place, but I still thought this version was pretty good. It certainly was easier to handle when placing the mixture into the baking pan and patting it down. The end result is a firmer, crunchier treat that has a nutty kind of flavor. I suppose if you are looking for the familiar, chewy texture that you get with the original recipe, you’ll be a tad disappointed with this one (that’s how my boyfriend felt). On the other hand, I brought some to work to get my co-worker’s opinions and found that most of them liked this version a lot more. Hmmm, go figure. Well, if you do give this recipe a try, I’d love to know your thoughts. For now, I think I’ll just stick to pouring my rice krispies into a bowl, slicing some bananas on top, and dousing it with some cold milk.
It's amazing how such a simple recipe can be transformed into a dish that is so deliciously comforting, isn't it? That's what happened when I baked this classic rum cake the other day. You might have seen this recipe or baked it yourself at some time. Or perhaps it was a favorite in your household growing up like it was in mine. My mom baked this cake often and it reminds me so much of her and of my childhood. When I took a bite, all I wanted to do was curl up on my sofa with a big blanket, a glass of milk, and all the wonderful memories I could conjure.
Maybe it’s because of my fondness for the color orange, but I’
The first time I ever made these cookies, my boyfriend told me they were “the best” cookies I’
I recently acquired a copy of Alice Medrich's Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts and was eager to try out a recipe this weekend. The cookbook itself is quite lovely with beautifully photographed, mouth-watering creations that simply look, well, not so low fat. I wasn't sure where to begin with this cookbook as everything from the chocolate marble cake to the walnut truffle cookies sounded divine. There's even a few non-chocolate recipes in the book too like lemon bars and a cranberry tea bread (as in Christmas gifts)! So, I started where any good baker would: with the brownies. Alice writes that these brownies are "gooey" yet at the same time have less fat than your run-of-the-mill brownie. There are only 5 tablespoons of butter in the recipe (as opposed to perhaps 2 sticks of butter in the more traditional kind), and instead of using bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, Alice uses Dutch process cocoa powder. I was determined to bake a brownie that looked as delectable as the chewy-gooey brownie she had photographed in her book. Unfortunately, things didn't really turn out as I hoped. For one thing, my brownie was not chewy or gooey. It was more on the cakey side which is not how I like my brownies (I know there are many of you who like a cakey brownie, and that's fine, but not my preference). The brownie was also a bit on the dry side and though quite chocolaty in taste, didn't really have anything special in flavor for me. So what happened? Well, I believe I made a couple mistakes which, after reading more on the "art" of baking in the low fat ilk, makes more sense now. One thing I did was I cut back on the sugar. The recipe called for 1 and 1/4 cups of sugar and thinking I was making a wise decision, I used only 1 cup. Alice writes that sugar "contributes to moistness and moisture retention", and in a recipe where the fat is already lowered, the role of sugar becomes even more prominent. The second mistake I believe I made was to overmix the batter which can contribute to the tough texture of my brownie. Lastly, I think I overbaked the brownies. The baking time for these brownies ranged from 20-25 minutes and even though I baked for twenty minutes, it was still a bit too long for my oven. I have to say though, the brownies were not a complete failure. They are still okay if I don't think of them as a "brownie" but maybe as a chocolate tea cake. Plus, I learned quite a bit from my brownie misadventure. I learned that baking itself, whether low fat or not, truly is an "art" as well as a science, and the next time I attempt one of Alice Medrich's recipes, I better follow it to a tee!
