Baking Ban!

Yes, it's true. I have been banned from the one thing I thought was keeping me sane. Baking. And cooking. And any preparing of food for another person besides myself. And, seeing as this is a baking blog, there will most likely be a lack of posts starting today. Occasionally, I might be able to sneak by with some cookies or cupcakes. But for now, I don't have any other options. It's been lovely blogging in the kitchen with you all, and I really am devestated it has come to this. Don't leave completely, because I will definitely still be here. I just won't bother you as often as I normally do.

Lots of Love,
Colette Todd

Brown Sugar Muffin Glaze

In my post about Apple Muffins, I mentioned glazing the muffins I made. Here's the recipe for Brown Sugar Muffin Glaze.

Brown Sugar Muffin Glaze
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons water

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. With this recipe, I noticed that after you mix everything, the sugar tends settles at the bottom. I had to mix it before I drizzled it over every muffin, but it was worth it. The Apple Muffins aren't the only time I've used this glaze. It definitely is a great glaze to just whip together at the last moment.

Sugar Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

As I mentioned in my last post, it was my dad's birthday. We were at the store, and he saw packages of processed muffins. Well, those muffins can make cravings, so he asked me to bake him a batch of muffins over the weekend. The weekend came (and his birthday) and I still hadn't made muffins. So I got up early before church yesterday to make him some muffins. It turns out we were almost completely out of sugar, so I made these sugar free muffins. I used a recipe, so I'll put up that recipe, although my muffins are a little different. I used less honey and put in the tiny amount of sugar that we had. Anyway, here are the ingredients.

Sugar Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 2 cups diced apples (or raisins)
• 1/4 cup canola oil

I love baking with oats. I have no idea why, but I love mixing them, the different textures, smelling them, and just looking at them while baking. So these were definitely fun for me to make. Especially since the first thing you do is mix all your dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Put it aside for now. 

Now, combine the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. Keep mixing until you have a smooth mixture. Here's me, being a klutz and spilling the wet ingredients all over my recipe. Like I said, I woke up early on a Sunday morning to cook these, so I probably was not at my best. Take your wet ingredients and pour in the apples, or raisins, if that's what you chose. Mix them into the mixture. Pour the entire mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. As always, your muffin batter should be just a bit lumpy. 

If you would like, you can use muffin liners, but I usually don't, and I obviously didn't here. If you're like me, grease your muffin tin and spoon the mixture in. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

My muffins tasted good, but when I pulled these out I couldn't help but laugh. Most of them were the same size, for the exception of the tiny, undersized muffin in the middle.

At the last moment, I decided to whip up a muffin glaze and put it over these. I was a little bit worried that they would be too dry, and I definitely think the glaze helped. Here's the link to it.

Coconut Cream Meringue Pie

Hello everyone! It has been so incredibly hot and gross outside lately, I haven't done much baking. Apologies for the blog neglection! But, I did make something the other day that will hopefully be a recipe to cool you down. Coconut Cream Pie. Not only does this make for a very nice summer dessert, it just so happens to be my dad's all time favorite dessert, and it was his birthday the other day. So I whipped this up for him (quite literally) and it turned out amazingly.

Coconut Cream Meringue Pie


Ingredients


Filling:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 cup chopped coconut
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) pastry shell, baked

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped coconut

First thing you're going to do is combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium- sized sauce pan. Stir in the milk until it has a smooth texture. Turn on some heat and stir it until it's thickened and more on the bubbly side. It might actually start to make funny noises at this point. Some of my bubbles tried popping and exploding on me. If this happens, you know your heat is too high. Reduce the heat and cook and stir for 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat completely. Take a small bit of your mixture and add it to your egg yolks. Put everything back into the saucepan, including the eggs, and bring it to a gentle boil. Don't forget to keep stirring! I know, your arm is tired, but this does burn very easily, so be careful. Keep it at the boil for about 2 more minutes. Remove from heat again. Now, you're finally going to add in your coconut, butter, and vanilla. Keep on mixing until the butter is melted. That should only take a minute or two. Gently pour the filling into the crust. 

Okay, I know, it may not look very appetizing right now, but oh my goodness did it smell good. I wanted to just eat the whole thing right then. But, this pie has a process. And next is the meringue. Meringue is always so much fun to make and decorate with, so I was pretty excited about this step. Take your egg whites and put them all in a mixing bowl. Beat them with the cream or tartar on medium. I did mine for about 3 minutes, and that's when softer peaks began to form in the whites. When this happens, add in the sugar, a tablespoon at a time. I love hearing it get thicker when you first add in the sugar. Eventually, peaks should start to form that are glossier and stiff enough to almost hold their shape. Take the meringue and top it over the hot filling. I chose to use an icing bag to cover mine. I was a little disappointed when the meringue drops started to melt over the filling when I piped them because they all lost their swirly shape that I love so much. But, I just went around in circles with the meringue until the whole pit was filled. Sprinkle the meringue with the coconut to give it an extra kick of flavor. 

Bake the pie at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. The top of mine had browned perfectly at 14 minutes.

You know it's done when your meringue is golden on all the edges. This is definitely one of my favorite looks on desserts. Golden meringue just looks so yummy and pretty. Anyway, when it is brown, place it on a cooling rack as I have here. Keep it there for about an hour. You don't want to mess up the top, so the cool time is longer. When it's done on the rack, refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Mine stayed in the fridge overnight, and the next day we celebrated my dad's birthday with a barbecue and pie. Everyone absolutely loved it and I was very pleased with the results. 

Happy baking!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Cookies

Sweet, salty, soft, crunchy, savory... All in a cookie !
Today, I was in a cookie mood. It's been a while since I've whipped up a batch, and thought, "Why not?" Not only that, but my brother is away at camp and he loooves getting treats in the mail. So, these are for him.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Cookies


Ingredients
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1 1/2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
-1 1/4 cups sugar
-1 cup of peanut butter, chunky or smooth (I used smooth)
-2 eggs
-1 cup chocolate chips
-crushed pretzels

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together your flour and baking soda.

 Beat the butter, sugar, and peanut butter on medium until it's light and fluffy. This should take about 5 minutes. Don't slack on this part, it should be fluuuffy.

(See how nice it is?)

Add your eggs, one at a time. Beat after each addition so that the mixture stays nice and smooth. Slowly add your flour and baking soda mix, and keep beating on slow. Throw in your chocolate chips at this point. If desired, you can also put in some chopped peanuts.

Now comes the fun part! Crushing pretzels. I didn't put a measurement on the pretzels, because it's your decision how many you want to put in there, and what size you want them to be. I'm going to say I, roughly, used about 5 cups, crushed. All you do is crush them with your hands until they're the desired size.

Now, get a ball of your batter and drop it into the crumbs. Ready to get a bit messy? Roll the ball around so that you have enough pretzels to surround the dough completely. Push some into the dough to get a nice crunch later on.

Most of mine came out looking pretty nicely. I put them on trays and threw them in the over for about 15 minutes each. They came out so nicely!

Weren't too big, not too small, and the sweet/salty contrast is amazing. I'm going to wrap up a bunch of these and send about half of the batch to my brother. He'll be excited.

Although, I must admit, the cookies came out great, this recipe made soo many.Oh well! More cookies for us.

Cheese and Onion Focaccia Bread

I've been on a bit of a bread kick lately, and was heading over to see my grandparents, so I decided to bake a loaf. Both of my grandparents are very picky, so I settled with something I knew I could make. Cheese and Onion Focaccia. This bread is usually very pretty, flavorful, and just overall great.

(This one actually burned a tiny bit in the oven, which explains the darkened onions on top.)




Cheese and Onion Focaccia


Ingredients
-3/4 cup of water (room temp.)
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 cups bread flour
-1 tablespoon sugar
-1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
-1 medium onion, sliced
-garlic clove, minced
-1/8 cup butter
-Italian seasoning
-1/2 shredded cheddar cheese
-grated Parmesan cheese

In a bread machine, place the first 6 ingredients in the order suggested by your manufacturer. Set machine to 'dough' and let it run. After a few minutes, check on the dough and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour, if needed.

When your cycle is done, take it out of the machine and set in a lightly greased pizza pan. Pat it into a 10 inch circle. When doing this, I would recommend putting flour over your hands so the dough doesn't stick. Cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place. I usually just put it in the oven. (Not turned on!) Wait until it doubles, about 30 minutes.

While your dough is rising, put the butter in a skillet and let it melt. Saute your onions and garlic in it for about 20 minutes, or until the onions have taken on a nice brown color. I threw some garlic seasoning over mine while they were cooking. When they're just about done, mix in your Italian seasoning and cook for 1 minute longer.

When your bread has risen, take it out. Using the end of a wooden spoon, make indentations in your dough about 1 inch apart. Top with the onion and garlic mixture. Sprinkle your cheeses all over the dough, or until covered. Bake the bread at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.

This bread is great when it's just out of the oven and still a bit warm. Even throw some spaghetti sauce on top of it. My grandparents loved it. Have fun !

Watermelon Shark!

I realize this isn't exactly baking, but it was a ton of fun! We had a family get together, and I decided to make a fruit... dish. So, I wound up making this guy. The watermelon shark.

Swedish fish stuck in his teeth and all, he was definitely a big hit with everyone at the get together. And the best part is, he wasn't even that difficult to make!

First, we sliced off a chunk of the bottom to put him coming up on an angle. This also provided something for him to stand on. Next we took a marker and drew where we wanted to make the mouth. Getting the shape right was hard. It took a few rounds of cutting and slicing to get it to look how we wanted. Next came the fun part. Scooping! Using an ice cream scoop/melon baller, I got most of the watermelon outside of his mouth. This included the top section. Then, using a paring knife, we made a fine cut about an inch from where his mouth was. We peeled the green skin off to show his teeth. This was harder than we thought it would be, but the result came out alright in the end. Maybe not as even as I would've liked, but it was barely noticeable. Then we just made diagonal cuts all around his mouth, and before you knew it, Mr. Shark had 2 rows of pearly whites. I then grabbed one of the scraps from cutting out his mouth and shaped it into a fin. Using 2 toothpicks, I put it right in the middle of his back. Again, using toothpicks, I stick 2 grapes in for his eyes. We then filled him back up with fruit, threw in some Swedish Fish just for fun, and he was set!