TWD:BWJ Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

BUTTERMILK CRUMB MUFFINS

These muffins were fantastic!  Super easy and I was not expecting such a plain, and simple muffin to be so tasty.  But they were great.  I am not a huge fan of baking with shortening, so when I make them again, I will make them with butter.  They were also very sweet, even for a sweet tooth like mine, so I my try to ease up on the sugar next time.  If you use butter, line the pan with muffin liners as they stick!

Recipe was tried "as is", except for adding a bit of vanilla, which I make no baked good without.  Thanks for hosting Alisa from Easier than Pie for hosting!  For the recipe, head to hear blog!

TWD: BWJ Cheddar Cheese Bagels

So, I was excited about this recipe.  Homemade bagels is something I might not attempt if it weren't for the baking group that I am a part of.  Maybe because there are bunch of steps, or maybe because I am just lazy.  Regardless, of the gazillion of reasons I could come up with for why I would not make them, I had to make them.  And my family and I are so glad that I did.

I read the recipe carefully this time, so I wouldn't do a major screw up.  And of course, I could not make  just a plain old bagels.  First, I subbed half whole grain flour because I don't do white if I can help it. To make up for the loss of gluten, I added 4 tsp. of vital wheat gluten the mix.  I didn't get the rise I wanted in an hour, but it seems like that is the trend with me right now.  Wondering if my house is too cool, or my yeast is on its way out???

I split my dough in half and mixed cheddar cheese in half, sprinkling some on top for baking.  The other half, I kneaded 1tsp. of cinnamon and 1/3-1/2 cup of raisins in at the end, then made a yummy streusel topping for baking.  My kids loved the topping.   I also made the holes a little smaller so it would hold a bit more of the topping while baking.  I was going for a Panera like bagels, and uhile it fell short, it was still certainly delish.

One last thing, I did not bake for the initial 25 minutes it called for, but reduced it to 20, because it was getting a bit too brown for my liking.

For this recipe, buy the book.... or you check our host Heather's website.

TWD:BWJ Pumpkin Pecan Loaves

TWD:BWJ PUMPKIN PECAN LOAVES

P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.  yup.  That is what I did.  I meant to make this last week.  Then this weekend... then yesterday I finally delved in.

 Now I knew this was a yeast bread, because I had looked at the pictures.  And I even read the recipe.  But when I read cranberries, I thought craisins.  A blond moment perhaps.   Or maybe a Polish moment.  No matter what kind of moment it was... I obviously was not all there.  So, the obvious thing...  I used craisins.  A whole lotta them.  So my loaf is about 50% dough, 50% raisins, craisins and nuts.

Now to the bread.   First off, I hate walnuts.  Really don't like them.   Serisously...  makes me do the "eww!" shiver thinking about eating them.  But I love pecans.   Easy substitute.  Walnuts out, pecans in. 

Next, 3 small loaves? Crud!  I don't have small bread pans.  A medium and normal one will have to do.

Made the dough.  Shoot!  It needs to chill overnight.  How did I miss that?  I can still post it on Tuesday.  So here, I am.  Posting.  See?

One last hiccup.  My bread was not rising.  The dough feels glorious, and looks good.  How can it breath with no air?!? (short musical intermission- Jordan Sparks... how can it {the bread} breath with no air?)  Sorry, back on track here.  Rising.  None.  Got it?  Good.


So this is my story.  This is a lovely, though lengthy, recipe.  And I am sure if I could follow directions it would have been incredible.  Alas, I can't.

Glad it was forgiving, and still tasted delightful.  It did rise enough so it was light, and not a brick, so bonus there.  Glad I have more than one loaf too, because if I had only one, I might not share.  ;-)  I would love to make this one again with the real cranberries.  Really yummy!

Anyway...  Thanks to Rebecca, from This Bountiful Backyard, who was our lovely host, who can follow directions a whole lot better than this Rebecca.  If you want to see how good you are at following directions, head on over to her website for the recipe.

TWD: BWJ Whole Wheat Loaves

TWD:BWJ WHOLE WHEAT LOAVES


So, after my last complete failure with a recipe from Baking with Julia, I was looking forward to something I couldn't screw up.  Well, I spoke, or thought, too soon.  I added 1/2 cup too much flour, so I had to go back and add a few TBSP of water to make it a bit more pliable.

 I had to hand knead this bread because my kitchen aid was seizing up (may have had something to do with the excess flour),  and after 20 minutes of kneading, I am happy to report that my arms are now bigger than my husbands.  Just kidding, but I did get a great arm workout.   If I had known, I might have skipped the gym.

Anyway, I opted to make one of my loaves cinnamon raisin swirl, rolling it into a large rectangle, slathering with butter and sprinkling with cinnamon, sugar and raisins.  My kids ate it for dessert tonight.  We really loved both the plain and cinnamon swirl loaves (my kids preferred the cinnamon swirl treat), and even with my little hiccup, they both rose up and baked up beautifully.  A very tender bread, that had a very good flavor.  I did not have the malt extract that the recipe called for, but used a TBSP of molasses instead.

This is a pretty easy recipe that I could see myself making again and again.  Because of copyright, we are encouraging people to buy the book.  But if you want the recipe, go on over to our hosts blog reels.  Thanks to Michele and Teresa for hosting.

TWD: BWJ Popovers

TWD: BWJ POPOVERS

Today my Army husband was taking off to play army in a land far away.  He was able to have the morning "off" to prepare for his voyage.  I didn't get to these earlier, so I decided to make them this morning.  I have always wanted to make popovers.  But they seemed so complex, finicky and difficult.  Not that I had ever looked at a recipe for them.  It was a bread, which meant leaving right?  Wrong.  Mine would never "popover" like they are supposed to,  right?  Wrong.

These are possibly the easiest "bread" I have ever made.  We had them for breakfast with raspberry jam, butter and honey and fresh strawberries.  I liked them with just butter.  Lots of it.  These little beauties are best eaten warm right out of the oven.  They have a light, flaky, delicate crust and are hollow on the inside with a custard like bread stuck to the crust.  We enjoyed them.

The ones in the popover tin came out much better than the muffin tin that it said you could use.  I would not use the muffin tin again.  The difference is clear, no?  And the bottoms of those cooked in the muffin tin were burnt.

I used my normal flour mix from my canister, which is a mix of all purpose, whole wheat white and oat.  I also did not cook the full time at 425.  I took off 3 or minutes because it was getting too brown.

Seriously though, these are sooooo easy!  Enjoy!  Thank you to Paula and Amy for hosting.  Clink on the link for the recipe!

TWD:BWJ Blueberry Nectarine Pie

After the last Baking with Julia disaster of a day, I was excited to try another.   We are gearing up to go up to NY to visit family, so amidst packing and cleaning, I am baking! I love the combination of peaches or nectarines with blueberries, so I was sure this filling was going to be delicious.  

This was a very easy pie to throw together.  The crust was incredibly flaky, though too salty for my taste.  I also found it very soft when rolling out.  I put it between wax paper dusted with flour, and it worked perfectly.

 It says to let the pie sit for 30 minutes to set up.  Mine was still like soup.  But a delicious pie overall.  I love the combination.  I would rather have my peach cobbler (which I have made with blueberries in it) any day over this.  Because even though I like pie okay, it is not my fave dessert am not a huge fan.

If you want the recipe you can check out our host's blogs!  Thanks to  Liz and Hilary for hosting.

TWD: BWJ Semonlina Bread

The day I made this bread is a day I wished had not happened.  The day before we were to leave on a family vacation, I had started my bread early and it was on it's last 2 hour rise.  My husband was going to drop our recyclables at the dump, and my 7 year old son was helping.  I am vacuuming and my husband called the house phone telling me to come out "now".  I immediately think the worst, that he hit one of the kids while backing out.  So morbid... while walking out, praying and bracing for something bad, I walk into the garage to my 7 year old screaming and a pool of blood.  Thank the Lord it was a gash in the leg and not something worse, but still, pretty bad.  A bit panicky, my husband is holding the gash closed, while I go inside to find some medical tape.  I grab some rags, get a seat for my son to sit in and my husband does a masterful butterfly job.

We all load the car (the bread is the last thing on my mind!) and go to the ER, which was a 30 minute drive.  And a orthopedic surgeon, a procedure, 12 stitches, lots of screaming, and a 5 hour ER visit later, we head home.  I get home, preheat the oven, bake the bread, which was pancaked at this point. And I didn't score it in my haste to bake it... bread baking 101 failed.

I know this is a food blog and that's gross, but some might want to see the carnage.

We tasted the bread.  Honestly, not sure if I would've liked it anyway.  Found it too salty, especially with salted butter on top.  It was better with some honey.  So, be impressed.  Be very impressed.  Not that the bread is pretty or well done, but that it was baked at all.  A day I would like to forget.

If you want to try, you can get the recipe at our hosts websites. Thanks to Anna and Renee for hosting.

TWD: BWJ French Berry Cake

I couldn't call mine strawberry as the recipe is written, because I did raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. 

So, at first glance, I thought this recipe was going to be a piece of cake (no pun intended).  A closer look revealed a little more fuss than the average cake.  I read the directions like 10 times because I did not want to screw it up.  I rolled up my sleeves and dove on in.  First dilemma, what pan to use.  There were complaints in the blog reel about the cake not being thick enough to get 3 layers.  Because I am a do-be do-right, I wanted those 3 layers, but was scared not to use the 8" pan the recipe said to use.  I threw caution to the wind and I opted for a 7 inch pan, rather than an 8 inch (bigger is not always better ;-) with a removable bottom.  SCORE!  I got a 2 1/4" cake rather than and 1 1/2".

My cake came out great, even with my normal little mistakes here and there (like dumping 2/3 of the flour in instead of 1/3).  I did one and a half batches of the cream topping, which was barely enough, but really the perfect amount, because there was none left over for me to dunk my head in.

There was some leftover berry juice from making the cake and we put it up on some vanilla ice cream.  OH-MY!  It reminded me of the "himbeer-bomchen"  we used to get at the ice cream shop, in Germany.  A raspberry topped ice cream sundae.  Amazing.  Better than the cake really.

But, we really loved this cake.  I felt like I was eating something out of a fancy bakery because it was pretty and it tasted great!  Would love to make this one again.  If you want to make it, you can get the recipe from our hosts websites.  Thanks to Sophia and Allison for hosting!

TWD:BWJ Oasis Naan

I love naan!  Mostly because it is bread.  But I love to go out to eat at Indian restaurants and get garlic naan in particular.  My whole family fights over it, and there is never enough to go around.  This week we were supposed to make oasis naan.  It is similar to regular but sprinkled with coarse salt, scallions and cumin or coriander.  I am not a huge fan of coriander or cumin, so opted for fresh garlic and cilantro instead.

I was excited because I have some flavored coarse salts I wanted to try.   This seemed like a great opportunity.  I wet them down, smeared the crushed garlic over them, sprinkled them with salt, scallions and cilantro and baked them.

Now, while this bread was very good (because it is bread mind you, and I have never met a bread I didn't like), I do not think this compared with real naan.  With real naan, they use a screaming hot oven, like a brick oven and it gets almost burnt in spots.  I also found this bread tougher than traditional naan I have had.  Now don't mistake my critiques for not liking it.  It got eaten.   We liked the crunch of the coarse salt and loved the garlic!   I also got about 12 pieces instead of the 8 the recipes spoke of.  I also formed mine more like traditional naan.  I also brushed them with butter when they came out.  We enjoyed them with some homemade tzaziki!

Will I make it again?  Probably not.  I was disappointed that I didn't really get much browning, even after cooking for 8 minutes (the longer cooking time).  Plus, I buy a fabulous frozen garlic naan from Trader Joe's that is hard to beat for at home use.  And when I want the real stuff, we will just go out to eat.
Thank you to Maggie and Phyl for hosting!  You can find the recipe at their blogs or in our fabulous cookbook!

TWD: BWJ Hungarian Shortbread

I debated on whether I wanted to make this recipe.  First off, I am not a huge shortbread fan.  Even sweet shortbreads are kinda MEH! in my book.  The second is I am not a huge rhubarb fan and this stuff had a layer of it in the middle.  And third, because this thing has a pound of butter.  I like butter, don't get me wrong, but a whopping 4 sticks would about send anyone over the edge.

  Again, commitment and resolve enter the picture.  Push through the pain.  Do an extra spin class at the gym for that one taste test bite.  And seriously, you know I am committed if you have ever done spin class.  I am sure it is somewhere in the classification of torture.

Super simple recipe.  I mean, seriously easy.  I jazzed up the shortbread by adding the zest of a lemon and 1 tsp of lemon extract because I love lemon with fruit stuff.  And I thought it needed way more fruit, so I almost doubled the amount called for.  I did it in a 9x13, half blackberry/raspberry and half strawberry/rhubarb jams.

So, the verdict.  First bite... slather it on the thighs.  The next bite, right in the gut!... you get the picture.  Was it good?  Was it worth it?  Um.. yeah.  I didn't want to like it.  I really didn't.  But. I did. Sigh.  By the way, the lemon was perfect in it.  And I cooked mine for 45 minutes, not 40. 

Thanks to our lovely hosts Lynette and Cher for hosting.  Check out the recipe and their great pictures on their sites.

TWD: BWJ- Lemon Loaf Cake

LEMON LOAF CAKE

I had made a meyer lemon bread about 2 weeks ago.  So, I was looking forward to making this so I could compare.  I read the description of the bread and thought it sounded great.  She described it as a kind of pound cake.  I whipped it up in no time and I added 1/2 tsp. of both vanilla and lemon extract for good measure.  I then made a homemade glaze, using 1 TBSP melted butter, about a cup of powdered sugar and the juice of one of the lemons.  I then added 1/2 tsp of lemon extract to that.

Waiting for it to cool enough for the glaze was a bit painful.  I persevered.  I drizzled.  I waited again.  Man, I hate waiting.  Especially when the whole house smells of lemon.  I cut.  I take my photos.  (Are you one the edge of your seat?  Riveting stuff, I know.)  The texture seems lovely, like a pound cake.  I bite.  I am disappointed.  It was spongy.  Not sure where I went wrong, but was not a fan.   I know I didn't mix too much... followed the directions.  I just loved the crumb of my lemon bread so much more (more delicate and so much more moist.)

Now, don't get me wrong.  The whole thing was gone in a day.  A family of 6 will do that.  We topped it with strawberries, and it seemed better that way.  The amount of lemon flavor was great.  Just a texture thing.  If you want to try it out, check out our hosts pages or the cookbook, pgs. 251-252 in Baking with Julia.  Thanks to Truc and Michelle for hosting.