Sunday, September 20, 2009

non baking related giveway

Must be a military wife to enter.




Sunday, September 13, 2009

Rustic Italian Bread

This is probably one of my favorites. And one of the easiest I have made. It is not to time consuming and always turns out. Good for a first time yeast baker. And to think, I just saw the recipe on the back of my flour bag.

For flour by the way, I prefer Pillsbury bread flour and I use red star yeast in the jar.

Here is the recipe

For those who dont know , the word recipe will continue a hyper link you can click on.

I made this for dinner for tomorrow night. We are having chili and I like a good bread with it.

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Garlic Knots

I made these for dinner tonight. I just making spaghetti for dinner but wanted to make it a little more fancy, for lack of a better word. So I found this recipe .

I am not kidding you when I wanted to eat them while baking. They smelled so good.

I sampled one and very good. I want to figure out a way to make it garlicky and buttery throughout.

The dough was sticky, but a bit of flour cured that.

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

soft pretzels

I love soft pretzels. Really , who doesnt? So I saw this recipe and decided why not?

Well, my review. GREAT. Easy. I have already eaten two. I used butter to brush them with and used kosher salt. Tastes like the mall pretzels. Just not as pretty. But who cares what they look like. I will definitely make them again.

Side note - when boiling them, they became real mushy, be careful removing from pot.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

From Scratch Brownies

I am a brownie lover. Oh ok, fine, I admit it. I am a chocolate lover. Tonight, I wanted brownies. No mix in the house. I decided to make some from scratch. I had h.ersheys cocoa in the cupboard so I went to there website and found this recipe

My honest review was they were just ok. I didnt frost mine. I may be wierd, but I am not a fan of frosted brownies. Anyway, they were fine. Nothing great and grand. A mix is just as good.

I will try to make some from scratch again. Just a different recipe.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

cinnamon swirl raisin bread

This is our absolute favorite. Makes 3 loaves and we go through all of them in about a week. I freeze two and take them out after the other one is used up. Makes great toast.

This dough is a large dough. The recipe calls for 8 cups of flour so my mixer works hard on this one. But it is so worth it.

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basic white yeast bread

This was the first bread I ever made. A simple white. And the first time it was good, but not super. It was a little yeasty tasting. Just needed more kneading. I have corrected that and it is a favorite now.

It is easy and the recipe is easy to follow. I make it a lot but switch it up with a heavier white I will blog about sometime. This white is very light, like store bought basic white.

The one thing about homemade bread. It does not last super long. I have to use a loaf When a recipe makes more than one loaf I just freeze the extra loaves.

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Chocolate Chip Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

I subscribe to a few cooking magazines. Some more gourmet and some simple living magazines. In this month's Bon App.etit there was this recipe . I love chocolate chip cookies and Jay loves cherries. So a perfect combo for our house. I was helped today by my little 4 year old friend. It was easy for little kids because their were a lot of dry ingredients for little hands to put in the mixer.

I made the dough without the cherries first. I baked half without the cherries. Then I added in half of what the recipe called for in cherries. And, they are better with the cherries. Not that they are bad without the cherries . But the cherries add an interesting tartness to the cookie. And what I really liked about them, they are not super sweet . Definitely a new cookie recipe I will keep around.

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Recipe Review : Donuts

So who doesn't love donuts? Since I have been baking more, I decided to try this recipe .

Overall, I was impressed. Even my husband commented that they were better than he thought they would be . Makes me feel good as he is my worst critic some days. They were easy to put together.

Now to be honest, I do my mixing and most of kneading in my counter top stand mixer. Makes life easier for me.

I did feel the donuts were a little heavy and the glaze was OK , but did not wow me. Next time I will use a different glaze. Probably do a few in chocolate and add in some sprinkles. I will make them again, for sure. It has been requested that I do .

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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Blogging from my kitchen

I recently discovered the art of baking. I have always baked. Love it. But I baked from mixes mainly. Now I have time and am baking from scratch. Breads, cakes, cookies, you name. From scratch. Life has been hectic and baking is my therapy. Cheaper than seeing some and tastes a lot better too.