TWD: Lemon Loaf Cake
| April 17, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cakes, TWD |
Welcome to another delicious edition of Tuesdays With Dorie: Baking With Julia!
Our Hosts This Week Are: The Beauty of Life & Treats. Please give them a visit & you will also find the recipe there.
I’ve been looking forward to baking this loaf for a few weeks now. I love just about anything lemon and love the smell of it even more. I did not anticipate having any issues with this recipe. The recipe was simple, straightforward and it really only took about 5 minutes to whip up as long as you made sure to bring several of the ingredients to room temperature and have your lemons zested.
The least fun part for me was getting the zest from the lemon. My hubby was kind enough to take over doing that while I measure out and started putting it the rest of the ingredients together. The recipe stated to “butter” the loaf pan then flour it but instead I used my baking spray with flour. At first I was not sure if there would be issues and there was not.
It came together nicely and it smelled amazing even before it started baking. My oven can be tricky at times but it came out perfect at 55 minutes. It was a little darker than I expected it to be, at least the edges but no matter, it was not burnt, it looked and tasted wonderful! It says to cool the loaf but when it comes out of the oven so hot and lemony, it is hard to resist cutting into it immediately but give it a while.
It also tastes great several days after baking, as long as you wrap it tightly in plastic wrap.
Feta And Spinach Quiche
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Pies |
I meant to post this yesterday, when I made that statement I had forgotten how busy my Friday was to be, especially my internet time. We attended a retirement ceremony for our friends. 24 years of service to the United States Navy! It was amazing, the very first I’ve been to. My friend warned me to take some kleenex but I failed to do so and I really needed it, such an emotional ceremony for everyone. Good times.
I lovingly remember the very first time I made, well…tried to make a quiche and failed miserably too! What I got wrong, incredibly wrong was the spinach part. I thawed the frozen spinach and kind of just added it to it. It was a jiggly, disgusting mess and for the life of me, could not figure out where I had gone wrong. Water.
Water is your enemy in a quiche and of course I know that now. You really need to strain it. Like even when you think you can not get another ounce of water from it, I promise you, you can! I did not have any cheesecloth around so the next best thing was a clean kitchen towel! It took a while but it is worth it in the end.
We cut into it a little before it was fully set as it was for dinner and time ran away from me, so we tasted it about 1 hour out of the oven. It was delicious. We refrigerated it after that for a while, till it was fully set. Do you have a favorite quiche recipe?
| Feta And Spinach Quiche |
- 1 Recipe Single Crust Pie Dough
- 5 large Eggs
- 2 cups Half-And-Half
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 cup Crumbled Feta
- 10-ounce package Frozen Spinach
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Line a chilled pie crust with a double layer of foil and fill with pie weights.
- Bake pie dough for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven.
- Put oven rack in the lower middle position and decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Crust MUST still be warm when you add the filling!
- Whisk eggs, half and half, salt & pepper in a large bowl. Mix in spinach.
- Stir in Feta till just combined.
- Place warm pie shell on a rimmed cookie sheet and carefully pour in filling till it is 1/2 inch from top of crust.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes or till center is soft set and a knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean.
- Let the quiche cool for 1-3 hours. Serve slightly warm or fully cooled.
America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
| April 12, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Baking Cookbooks |
I have to wonder if I am the last person to know/find out about this gem of a baking cookbook? Apparently it’s been around since 2008 and I just now found it, well a few weeks ago. Once every few months I browse the tiny & I do mean TINY bookstore we have here on base, to see if there are any new or different cookbooks out, or baking cookbooks.
I am normally disappointed and don’t find anything different or they are all about fish. I am not a fish fan, yuck! My favorite cookbook is a baking one though. When I don’t find something here I get online and shop Amazon. Online shopping is what I do 99% of the time due to where I live.
Right now it is just me and my husband but I do a lot of baking for others and when I saw this cookbook pop up I read it had over 750 recipes with pictures too! Anyone who knows America’s Test Kitchen also knows they include many great baking tips. I was thrilled when it arrived and I made a quiche yesterday that I will be sharing with you tomorrow!
Good stuff, a great amount of different recipes as well as some great classics and many with variations which can help when you may be stumped or looking for something different. Incase you are wondering, this is not a paid post or anything of the sort. Just a happy baker with her new baking cookbook!
TWD: Pizza Rustica
| April 3, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under TWD |
Welcome to another delicious edition of Tuesdays With Dorie: Baking With Julia!
This Week Our Hosts Are: Capitol Region Dining & The Place They Call Home, where you can also find the recipe.
Well, I almost thought I’d never get this post up today! I’ve been sick, so sick that I forgot the recipe was due this week. For some reason I thought I had till next week! I would have already made this on Sunday, as I never wait till THE day to make it. I had a few things going against me, being sick & the fact that the Commissary is closed on Monday’s…So I had to wait till early this evening to get to the store.
I was worried about not being able to find some of the cheese ingredients and I could not be upset if I could not as I live in Japan and can only work with what I have. So it was a mad dash to the store, happily I was able to find everything I needed for the filling. I was pleased that I would not have to sit this one out.
I was smart and made the crust dough this morning and my sweet hubby helped me gather all the filling ingredients and off to the oven it went! I want to say that I was thrilled with this crust. How simple it was to throw all ingredients into the food processor and hit a button! It was perfect.
I was worried about rolling it out after the dough had been very chilled in the fridge all day but all I had to do was work it a little and warm that butter right back up by kneading it a few times. Rolling it out was easier than I imagined as well. I think I can honestly say I’ve never made a lattice top on anything before, if I have I certainly do not remember it. It came out beautiful!
The ingredients were as simple as using a rubber spatula to “mix” together everything and plop it into the pie plate. The recipe did not state to do an egg wash on the crust, but I always try to with pie crusts. I tested a small piece of the dough and it was super sweet. From reading some posts earlier in the day some people took issue with how sweet it was and did not think it complimented the filling. I could not wait to find out for myself.
I ended up baking mine for about 2o minutes longer than the suggested time. I did this only because I know my oven and things seemed to be baking extra slow on 350 degrees but it came out perfect. I have to admit I forgot to butter my pie plate before laying the bottom crust down but in reality it made no difference, the pie cut really easily and came out no problem.
It smelled amazing and I did take a taste of it. I am a picky eater and so not really my thing but I needed to taste it just to see. While I would not sit there and eat a big piece, it was actually delicious! The crust was just perfect with the filling in my opinion. My husband loved it and had several slices, stating he loved the taste of the crust with the fillings, not to sweet for him.
I do plan on making this again and when I do I will make a few small changes such as using mushrooms and spinach. Thanks for visiting 
Been To Long
| April 2, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Life |
So sorry it has been so incredibly long since my last post. This icky sick I’ve had for 3 weeks now really has had me down and out. I’ve coughed 24/7 for 3 weeks, everything aches, I am exhausted due to lack of sleep and there for my baking has suffered immensely. I have just not had the energy and have been trying to sleep as much as I can during the days because in the evenings I seem to feel worse and just can’t sleep.
I am still here and will be baking this week. I seem to maybe be on the mend, a little less coughing or hacking. It’s hard to believe it is already April and we’ve already gotten more snow with the prospect of more to come soon! It’s funny because we go from 60 degree weather to in the lower 30′s and snow, within the span of one day.
I hope I’ve not lost all my readers & I hope you understand and things will go back to normal baking, lots of it once I am all better! I hope you are all baking and creating yummy things!
TWD: Irish Soda Bread
| March 20, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Quick Breads, TWD |
Welcome to another delicious edition of Tuesdays With Dorie: Baking With Julia!
This week our hosts are: My Culinary Mission & Chocolate Moosey. To see everyone who is participating & to visit their blogs, you can find us all HERE.
I have heard, seen and read about Irish Soda Bread before but before joining this group I’d never made it or tasted it for myself. I am a bit of a snob when it comes to bread. I know what I like. Even with quick breads I have particular tastes and so I was not sure how I’d feel about this one.
I decided to make it for our St.Patrick’s Day dinner which we actually had on Sunday. The ingredients could not be any more simple. 4 of them. That’s it. Hard to mess up, in my opinion. I Googled & went on Pinterest to see how they are supposed to look & forged ahead. I noticed in our book that adding dried fruit or nuts is non-traditional and not necessary.
Since I go by the book I did not add anything extra, although I would recommend it in hind sight. It took only minutes to pretty much “throw” together and about 50 minutes in the oven. I was very unsure about the whole thing, most likely because I am picky. Also, I hate buttermilk. I prefer to never use it or rather taste it.
It seemed to bake perfectly & I waited till dinner to cut it open. You are supposed to let it completely cool and it supposedly dries as hard as a rock in hours after cutting, so it’s pretty much something you eat, finish or throw out in one day. I had high hopes for this bread.
Sadly this Irish Soda Bread did not meet my expectations. It looked delicious, smelled alright but again, buttermilk is not my friend. It looked absolutely gorgeous when I cut it open, the texture was wonderful. When I tasted it, I knew I’d never be making it again, unless someone else would like for me to make it for them.
For me, the taste was awful and I can only imagine that has to do with the 2 cups of buttermilk in it. I was disappointed that I would not enjoy eating this with our corned beef dinner. Surprisingly my husband did not even enjoy this bread. So in our home, it was a no-go. I think this bread might be an acquired taste.
I enjoyed making this bread and of course am looking forward to visiting everyone’s blogs & interacting with everyone in this great baking group!
If you would like to make this bread you can visit our hosts this week, which you can find at the top of my post, or you can purchase the book Baking With Julia.
Best Coffee Cake
| March 11, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cakes |
Saying something is THE best is chancy. It is a opinion of course. I did not personally name this THE best coffee cake but in all honesty, it’s the best I’ve had in my 32 years of living on this earth. I’ve been searching for “the” coffee cake that would put others to shame, that would make me want to bake it every time I thought about it, and would be the most moist cake ever!
I was not sure what I’d find out there. Baking land has much to offer and everyone’s opinions are very different. I had some time to spare, to try and find the perfect coffee cake, one to bake for a breakfast every Saturday morning. I saw someone else’s picture of this coffee cake and my mouth watered and I decided IT was the one to try.
Very simple to make. I’ve made coffee cakes with a crumble topping and nothing compares to this crumble topping, it was magnificent. It was a much thicker batter than I was expecting, so it made it a little more challenging to fold in the stiff egg whites. I chose to line my pan with aluminum foil to make it super easy for release to cut it outside of the pan. I am sure you could use parchment paper as well.
It took everything in me not to cut it open right from the oven. I wanted to wait & let my husband try it first. Had I tried it sooner, I would have ate more, much more of it. It is that good! I have nothing negative to say about it. The texture was moist and perfect. The topping delicious! I used dark brown sugar instead of light. It was incredible. I would have to agree, up to this point, the best coffee cake I’ve had the pleasure of making and eating!
| Best Coffee Cake |
- Cake:
- ~~~~~~
- 1 1/2 sticks Butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cup Sugar
- 3 cups Flour, sifted
- 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/4 cup Whole Milk
- 3 whole Egg Whites, beaten until stiff
- Topping:
- ~~~~~~~
- 1 1/2 sticks Butter, softened
- 3/4 cup Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 tablespoons Cinnamon
- 1 cup Oats
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt.
- Beat egg whites and put aside.
- Cream sugar and butter.
- Add flour mixture and milk alternately just until combined. Do not over beat!
- Fold in egg whites with a rubber spatula.
- Grease a 9X13 baking pan. Or line it with foil or parchment paper and grease it well.
- Use a pan with high sides.
- In another bowl, combine topping ingredients with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
- Sprinkle over top.
- Bake 40-45 minutes, or until no longer jiggly in the center.
Make sure not to over beat, just combine. You do not want a rough and tough cake!
Folding in the stiff egg whites was a little more of an issue than I thought as my batter was very thick.
Bread Machine Pizza Dough
| March 9, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Doughs |
It is Friday afternoon here in Japan! At our house, Fridays are pizza night! I search and search for the perfect pizza dough. Right now I have two favorites. This bread machine one and the Olive Oil Pizza Dough. My husband really loves this one and so I’ve been using it for weeks now, every Friday. It is simple, you let the bread machine do all the work.
It has a wonderful taste and it makes quite a bit of dough, so much so that we end up having to toss some if it, as we only make 1 square pizza for the two of us. You can make this deep dish, regular and with a little work you can also make it thin with a crisp! How we like it changes it seems every week.
You can easily make it and toss it into the fridge, in a freezer bag for up to 24 hours which makes this an even more convenient pizza dough recipe. Just let it rest for 20 minutes once you remove it from the fridge before making into your pizza.
How are things in your neck of the woods? Is it screaming Spring around where you live? I am sad to say I am starting to see Spring arrive here in Japan. I want to hold onto wonderful cold winter just a little longer! I see green grass, heck after having feet of snow for months it is interesting to see the grass, never mind it is actually green!
I’ve got my balcony door open today, letting chilled, but fresh air into my home. I enjoy that. Are you ready for Spring??
| Bread Machine Pizza Dough |
- 1 1/2 cups Water
- 1/4 cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- 3 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
- 2 teaspoons SAF Yeast
- Or
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Bread Machine Yeast
- Put all ingredients into bread machine pan as follows: Liquids, Dry, Yeast.
- Select Dough cycle on your bread machine.
- When the dough cycle is finished, remove dough from pan.
- Use immediately or place in a freezer safe bag for up to 24 hours in your fridge.
- Roll out dough and bake according to your recipe.
You can freeze the dough for up to 3 months.
Keep in the fridge in freezer safe bag for up to 24 hours.
If kept in fridge, let dough sit out and rest for 20 minutes before rolling.
TWD: Rugelach
| March 6, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cookies, TWD |
Welcome to another delicious edition of Tuesdays With Dorie: Baking With Julia!
I have to be honest, I thought Rugelach was going to be much more crazy & harder to make than it actually was. I think sometimes cookbooks over complicate processes, leaving you to wonder if you will have an epic fail or if you will be pleasantly surprised. I am pleased though that there were parts of this recipe you could do a day or two ahead of time. Makes it more appealing, just incase something goes wrong and you have to start over.
Although, I know some of you make the recipes way ahead of time anyways, so you would have more than enough time for a retry. I tend to start on the Sunday night before it is due. I was very iffy about this cream cheese dough & three sticks of butter! I don’t want to hear another complaint about Paula Deen, Ha! As this was my first time making Rugelach I had no idea how anything was suppose to look or taste, that panicked me a little.
Doing a search on the internet produced oodles of images and they were all different. I saw many of them “folded” like a croissant, but I am not doing any adjustments or changing the recipes, I am sticking right to what it says. Deciding all the fruits and nuts to use was pretty simple as I did not have a huge choice due to where I live. I also made my own levkar which was an easy thing to make and there is no way I would have found any pre made here in Japan!
The only real uncertainty I had was how to bake them. I know what the book said, cut side down but I was not sure that was the proper way to bake them, so I baked most of them cut side down but also baked a few with the seam side down. I was not sure if the filling would spill out cooking seam side down and I really was not sure what would happen baking them cut side down. It seems to me, the choice really was yours with little to no difference.
I again enjoyed making and participating in this group and look forward to the next recipe! Do yourself a favor and make a batch of these, they are absolutely delicious!!!
If you are interested in the recipe, it can be found HERE with one of our hosts for this week. I also encourage you to purchase the book HERE.
Wilton Mini Donut Pan
| March 4, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Doughnuts/Donuts |
It seems to me that recently donuts, baked donuts are all the rage these days! I came across them on accident really, reading all my baking blogs I follow. I though, GREAT, just great…another pan I must have! This seems to happen to me more and more, every year. I know it is not a necessity to have such pans because there is such thing as yeast donuts. Of course you could argue that baked donuts are healthier, therefore you *need* this pan. Just seeing all those cute, little, colorful minis made my head spin. Of course you can also purchase the normal size pan but if you read my blog, you know I bake for hubby to take stuff to work to give to everyone, especially the single sailors, so mini is perfect, portioned and practical. So, I ordered one pan from Amazon, Incase you are wondering, I am not being paid or compensated to write any of this, this is my own free doing.
I have a suggestion though, if you purchase one of these, you might as well go and purchase a 2nd one too. Most of the donut batches make 4+ dozen, so it will move quicker having two. I tried this pan out the other day with a test batch and I had awesome results. I just ended up ordering a 2nd pan and well, one of the regular size donut pans. I guess it might have made sense to purchase two regular ones as well but first I want to try it out and see if it is worth me purchasing another one. I did not try the recipe that comes with the pan yet. I tried one I found on Pinterest and it was very good, could have used a tad more flavor but it was just a basic vanilla.
I was very curious as to how long to bake them. You will find most recipes say….way to long for my oven at least! The first dozen I made came out beautiful but well done, more done that I wanted. I had baked them as long as the recipe said. For my oven it was way to long and I ended up baking the rest for only 5 minutes and did not leave them in the pan for another 4-5 minutes, I immediately removed them from the pan onto a wire rack. Another suggestion, if you are wanting to make a plain vanilla glaze and want it to be bright white, don’t use regular vanilla extract, you will have to use the clear one or it will look more like a maple color. I imagine it would not matter if you color the glaze.
In other news, I’ve been busy…hence my absence here, which I am not thrilled about. Already almost 5 days into March and my last post was the 27th of last month. Work will do that to you though! I am hoping to get some more baking in this week though as I am only working 1 day this week! We are having strange weather here. I am not sure if winter is trying to wrap up or make a slow exit. We did get a little more snow this weekend and it snowed a little today, a few days before that it was in the 40′s melting the feet of snow on the ground. I’d prefer it to stick around for a while longer.
Mini Oreo Cookie Cupcakes
| February 27, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cupcakes |
It is Monday morning for everyone in the states while it is rounding out the end of the later evening here in Japan. In a few short hours it will be a brand new day and maybe another baking adventure! I finally was able to get a job here on base & while that makes me very happy, it will severely cut into all of my baking time! TGIF? I think so. But, right now it is only the very beginning of the week.
Landing this job was a really quick thing, in only a few short days I was hired and I worked all day today! It was a very longish yet fulfilling day. Since I am not working tomorrow I need to try to take advantage of now precious baking time and I am thinking a homemade garlic bread to go with our dinner tomorrow night.
If you have not noticed, I am in love with anything mini. Partially because they are just cute and secondly, minis feed a lot more people at a time and since I send them all into work with hubby, the more, the better! So mini it is! These were very tasty and even more delicious the next day.
| Mini Oreo Cookie Cupcakes |
- ~Toba’s Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe~
- 2 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 1/4 cups Sugar
- 3/4 cups Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Cocoa
- 2 1/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
- 2 1/4 cups Buttermilk
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 6 oz. melted Semisweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 package Oreo Cookies
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- ~Oreo Crumb Buttercream Frosting~
- 1 cup Butter
- 1 cup Shortening
- 2 lbs. Powdered Sugar
- 1 envelope Dream Whip
- 1/2-1 cup finely ground Oreo Cookies
- 1 bag Mini Oreo Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Measure and add all ingredients except the 6 oz. melted semisweet chocolate chips. mix until blended.
- Add melted chocolate and beat for 3 minutes.
- Spoon into mini muffin tins by 1 teaspoon.
- Bake 12-18 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- ~Oreo Crumb Buttercream Frosting~
- Cream butter and shortening till light and fluffy.
- Slowly mix in powdered sugar and dream whip.
- Beat until fluffy.
- Add in ground oreo cookies, till evenly blended.
- If to thick add one teaspoon of milk at a time.
- Add a mini oreo cookie to the tops of each mini cupcake.
Classic Cheesecake
| February 24, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cakes |
There has only been one time I’ve attempted to make a cheesecake. Yes, really! It was while I was dating the man who is now my husband. I had help making it too as I had never done it before and it seemed very involved. I somehow remember not liking the taste of it myself. So, 10 years pass and I all of a sudden get the desire to attempt another cheesecake.
I hate to admit it but we’ve just been buying that boxed, really easy, throw it in the fridge not really a “cake” stuff. It is a taste we both love but I thought it was time to revisit the cheesecake. Was I really missing out on a good thing? Well for one of course all the extra crap that is put into non homemade goodies.
I was a bit worried about all the “cracking” while it makes the cake look less pretty, it does not change the taste. So many recipes say all kinds of different stuff about keeping it in the oven to cool, baking it in water, refrigerating it for 7 hours or more before serving. The list goes on. There is no family recipe so I had to just choose and hope it tasted great.
I went with a plain cheesecake because I am picky, yup. Plus I did not have anything to throw on top of it. While the whole process was simple, I was unsure of the water bath baking, so this time I skipped doing that. It came out wonderful, even if it did have a few very ugly cracks on top of it. I think next time I will try a few different methods. It also did not want to cut as “pretty” as I had wanted it too, so I have some things to perfect. Do you have a favorite cheesecake recipe?
| Classic Cheesecake |
- 1 1/2 cups Graham Crackers Crumbs
- 3 tablespoons Sugar
- 1/3 cup Butter, melted
- 4 packages (8oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 4 Eggs
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Combine graham cracker crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, press into bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
- Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla till fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time. Do not over-work eggs.
- Pour over crust.
- Bake 55 minutes, till the center is almost fully set but has a little jiggle.
- Turn off oven and let cake cool before removing.
- Remove rim and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees if using a dark, nonstick springform pan.
TWD: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets
| February 21, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Tarts, TWD |
It is only Tuesday but boy have I had my bake on already! I have much to share this week but today I am going to talk about these cute, and very sweet, rich, chocolatey tartlets. I must confess, I’ve had the cookbook “Baking With Julia” for several years now. I found while living in Florida at a 2nd hand book store.
I am fond of anything Julia, especially baking. I imagined this cookbook would be a challenge. If you are not familiar with any of Julia’s cookbooks then I suggest you do, you are missing out. I’ve made several recipes that have been very involved and I think that is why her baking books are something I visit rarely, I do enjoy a challenge but sometimes I do not have hours to devote to yummy things.
I was excited to join the “bake along” group, “Tuesdays With Dorie; Baking With Julia“. It is a huge baking experiment for me and I find it exciting, a way to expand my baking knowledge, share with others who are participating and I am sure I will have some rough times baking through this cookbook but I welcome the challenge!
I found these tartlets very easy & enjoyable to make. I did not change anything in the recipe. I made the chocolate dough on one day, baked the tartlets on the 2nd day and then I finished them this morning. I actually ended up using smaller tart pans & I only had two of them. I made a total of 6. The recipe was pretty straight forward and I found I had no issues. They have a wonderful taste and texture. My husband also loved them and said some ice cream or cool whip would taste great with these on the side.
For the recipe you can visit the hosts for this week or purchase the book!
Tuesdays With Dorie: Baking With Julia
| February 19, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under TWD |
I was made aware of the Tuesdays With Dorie group by a few blogs I’ve been following the last few years. I had wished I had known about it before it began so I could have participated. So I believe it was maybe in November when I was made aware that they had finished the cookbook they had been doing and would be starting a new group “Baking With Julia” in February 2012.
I was super excited, being a baker and I love Julia! I’ve made several recipes from her books and I own almost all of them. I was thrilled when I realized I already owned the book and would not have to wait on it to get here if I needed to order it. Time passed by and about 1 week ago I panicked because I had remembered all of a sudden the group was to have started in February and here it was the 2nd week already.
Going to the site I saw I had already missed the first recipe of the group bake along. I was upset as I really wanted to be part of it. Longer story short, the rules state you need only make 1 recipe out of the two per month to be able to stay in so I was signed up and happily I am working on this weeks recipe, to be seen at a later date.
I am pretty sure if you would like to join in before Tuesday, you could still ask to join in the fun too! If interested get moving and click the button at the top of this post! Happy Baking
Fluffy White Frosting
| February 17, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Frostings/Fillings |
I think a better way to describe this frosting could be light, airy, whipped. Yes, it is also fluffy. I guess I just don’t like using that word, haha! Sorry for the less than grand picture of said frosting. I did not think about posting this separately when I just took a quick shot of it in the bowl. You can also see it paired with the heart shaped mini Devil Food Cakes I posted yesterday.
I usually love using my favorite buttercream which is not light but fluffy and a little weighty for sure. You really can not compare a buttercream to this “fluffy” one, they are too different. Both wonderful and both useful for different things. Since I was making the cake for my husband I put extra thought into his tastebuds. He is not the biggest fan of buttercream and likes it on certain things.
As soon as I whipped this up, I knew he would LOVE it! It is not overly sweet, you can easily change the flavor from a vanilla to any of your choice and since it is bright white it is also very easy to color. I decided to keep it snow white. When he tasted it his eyes lit up! I knew I had found a winner. He said that for him this frosting would be best as a filling. I have to agree, thats why I used it between each cake layer.
If you like to use a lot of frosting I would suggest making a double batch of it. Also, when it says to beat it for 7-10 minutes, do it for the full 10 minutes. Do you have a favorite frosting?
| Fluffy White Frosting |
- 1 cup granulated Sugar
- 1/3 cup Water
- 1/4 teaspoon Cream Of Tartar
- 2 Egg Whites, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- In a small sauce pan stir together sugar, water, cream of tartar.
- Cook on medium-high heat till sugar is dissolved and mixture starts to bubble.
- In a medium mixing bowl whip the egg whites and vanilla till you get soft peaks. Slowly add sugar mixture till stiff peaks form about 7-10 minutes.
Best to use egg whites at room temperature.
Make sure to beat for the full 10 minutes for the stiffest peaks.
Devil’s Food Cake
| February 16, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cakes |
How was everyones Valentines Day? Mine was wonderful then ended in a painful BANG on icy concrete having to be scraped off said concrete by my loving husband. Ohh what a night! I am still recovering from the nasty fall. I smashed my ankle, then my knee got the brunt of it, splitting it open. Lovely stuff really. I am stiff and can not move really well but all should heal just fine!
Now, onto the happy stuff! Ohh, incase you are curious I got beautiful flowers, small chocolates, a video game and a cute stuffed froggy. Speaking of love..were we speaking of love? Today my husband proposed to me 11 years ago! So in honor of both days I wanted to make him something super sweet. I love making “smaller” sized cakes when it is being made for an individual person. So I decided upon a 3 tier mini heart shaped cake.
I don’t remember the last time I made a devil’s food cake and thought it should be amazing, well we all hope everything comes out amazing on the first try, right? Sometimes I am lucky, others..not so much. This recipe is a winner though. It is rich, it is dark, very moist and all together yummy. It will now be my go-to when I am wanting a devil’s food cake although just because I found a go-to does not mean I won’t give other recipes a try, I’m a baker!
Tomorrow I will be posting the recipe for the frosting if you are interested in the one I’ve paired with this delicious cake.
| Devil’s Food Cake |
- 9 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
- 1 1/2 cups Cake Flour (not self-rising)
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 4 ounces Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 large Eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup strong Coffee
- 1/2 cup Whole Milk
- 3 4inch mini Heart Shape Pans
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Spray the 3 tins with Baker’s Joy or any other spray or you can also use butter.
- Sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
- I another bowl of either your electric mixer or hand mixer beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time till fully incorporated.
- Mix together the milk and coffee.
- Stir in the dry ingredients with the wet.
- Pour into prepared heart shaped mini tins. There will be excess batter so you may want to make a small round cake or some cupcakes on the side!
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
I normally do not frost a cake till the next day. After the cake is fully cooled I wrap it tight in plastic wrap to let the cake settle overnight and frost the next day.
Do not make the mistake of overfilling the small mini pans or you WILL have a mess in your oven. This happened to me on my first try of making these. I say fill them no more than half way!
For a 9-inch cake heat oven to 350, Bake for 25 minutes or till toothpick comes out clean.
Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes
| February 14, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Cupcakes |
It is Valentines Day here in Japan! So, Happy Valentines Day to all! Tonight we have some plans to go out to a Japanese restaurant and I have a few goodies to give my love. How about you? Any plans or do you skip Valentines Day? We don’t make a huge deal about the day but we usually get each other a little something and do dinner out.
I thought you may be interested in how the Japanese celebrate Valentines Day, I find it very interesting! If you have a special tradition, please share it as I love to learn other cultures and traditions as well!
Most people assume that Valentines day is mostly a “woman’s” holiday where it’s the man whom is usually the gift giver, whether it be chocolates, cards, flowers or anything else. This does not ring true here in Japan though. It is rather a “men’s” holiday. It is when women throughout Japan go shopping and usually purchase beautiful boxes of chocolates for pretty much any man they desire including their spouse, significant other and even bosses and co-workers.
Last week I was out at one of the Japanese grocery store, Universe and they had their massive display of candies and boxes of chocolate!! They had so many beautiful boxes of chocolate, in all shapes, sizes and gift wrapped for you already. The prices started at around 550¥ and up to well over 1500¥. I am not sure what any of the pretty chocolates were or what may be inside of them but hey…chocolate IS chocolate and I am sure they are divine!
Don’t worry though, there is a “day” for women here too when men give them gifts. It is called “White Day”, when the men return gifts to the women they received one from, one month earlier on Valentines day. Very interesting if you ask me. The top 5 gifts for men to get their woman on White Day are:
- Necklace
- Ring
- Handkerchief
- Flowers
- Stuffed Animals
| Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes |
- For The Cake;
- 2 1/2 cups Cake Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons Red Food Coloring
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Distilled White Vinegar
- *For The Frosting*
- 8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
- 5 tablespoons unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/2 cups Confectioners’ Sugar, sifted
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Line mini cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.
- Beat on medium speed until it is well blended.
- Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Divide the batter evenly, about 2 teaspoon per mini cupcake liner.
- Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove to wire rack, let cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting. combine cream cheese and butter. Beat on medium speed until well blended and smooth. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated.
Be careful as when mixing anything with food coloring. I used some paper towels to “cover” my bowl as I was using my mixer to mix all the red food coloring and did so again when mixing in the dry ingredients to prevent it from flying everywhere.
I made the frosting ahead of time and I suggest putting it in the fridge till you are ready to use it.
Hard To Come By
| February 8, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Baking |
I am still here, cooking with a little less baking. Some weeks baking is on the lower side. It all depends on what’s going on in our life. Next week I will have some Valentines goodies to share with you. I’ve been finding recently that I really have to oder many ingredients online. I find this rather annoying living in Japan. I am lucky if items come within 1 week, the norm is usually 2 weeks. So sometimes I can not make what I desire and I have to wait. Like now. I have several things on order and I hope they come soon.
I was lucky to have found a few of the more “unusual” ingredients here on base, like Almond Flour. However, Gluten Flour had to be ordered and not just a bag of it but a store shelf of it pretty much…I have enough of it to now last me for like the next 2 years. I can not find any Rye Flour here, so I had to order.
One thing I really miss about the states, if one store was out of what I needed, there were at least another 10 stores around me to go check, not the case here but I am dealing with it the best I can. Hard to believe we have almost been living in Japan for 9 months! Time has flown by a little. Where you live, do you find it easy to get ingredients that you want or need or do you have to purchase off the internet, or is it a mix?
Crusty Italian Bread
| January 30, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Breads |
How was everyones weekend? Were you lazy like or did you tackle many things? I like lazy-like from time to time and this weekend was a nice easy one, in part due to the snow. We venture out in town much less when we get big snows. As of the the time I am writing this post, it has started snowing again!
I did manage to bake more breads this weekend. Oh how I love fresh bread! I am sorry I’ve been on a bread kick for a while now. It is just so amazing, so many different kinds and most of the time, easy to make! Have no fear, I will be baking up some sweet treats in the very near future. On Friday’s I will now be doing the “Aloha Friday” meme and all my questions will have something to do with baking, so I hope you will join in and share!
I have a huge love for a crusty bread, wether it be a French or Italian loaf. Over the years I’ve been making a pretty involved French loaf that is pretty crunchy when first out of the oven but softens pretty soon after. So I’ve been on the hunt for a new favorite crusty bread. I believe I have now found one! It is Italian and SUPER crusty. It has a beautiful, chewy center. Perfect for some butter or whatever makes your mouth sing.
This dough is all made in your bread machine. I know, I have been on a bread machine kick too. As much as I love all the processes of doing everything by hand, sometimes it is nice to find a wonderful recipe that you can make when you are super busy and don’t have the time or energy to put into but want something amazing!
| Crusty Italian Bread |
- 2 cups Warm Water
- 4 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Yeast
- Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl; add water. Mix until all the flour is incorporated and has formed dough.
- Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise 4 hours.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- On a well floured surface, pour dough out the dough, handling the dough as little as possible. You don’t want to burst the bubbles.
- Shape your dough into your desired shape, place on prepared baking sheet.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place a oven-proof dish with 3 cups of water in it on the bottom rack.
- Bake for 35-60 minutes, depending on how dark you like your bread.
Aloha Friday
| January 27, 2012 | Posted by imathomebaking under Aloha Friday |
If You Would Like To Play Along, Please Click The Button!
My Question This Week Is:
Do You Make Homemade Bread? If So, What Is A Favorite Recipe Of Yours? If Not, Why?
My Answer Is:
Yes, I do. Several times a week. I think it is much healthier than store bought and tastes so much better. I am currently still trying to find my favorite recipe, although there are many I love and enjoy.
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