Midnight Crackles

This was my first time melting chocolate on the stove top. I also got to use another one of our amazing Le Creuset pot/pans so that was fun.

 Melt the butter, brown sugar and chocolate in the pan. Add the eggs and dry ingredients and you get a nice shiny dough.

After about an hour in the fridge you are ready to bake... she says it's ok to leave it in the fridge for up to 2 days but I read a few reviews and multiple people said it was best to bake right after the hour so the dough didn't get too hard.

No problems baking...

Roll the dough into little balls, give em a quick pat to smoosh them down and in the oven they go.

My verdict: These cookies are eh. I would think between the melted chocolate and the cocoa powder they would be super chocolately but they aren't. Good texture but they just didn't blow me away.

Corniest Corn Muffins (in Corn Town)

Corn Town is a great addition to the title of this recipe... it just flows.

Jeremy bought me a nice glass bottle of buttermilk so I had to take a picture of all of the ingredients to show it off.

This is a super easy recipe. Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl... mix the wet ingredients until well blended and combine.

My muffins didn't rise as much as I think they should have. Also, Dorie suggests you put the muffin tin on a baking sheet. In my oven, I think that made it so the bottoms of the muffins weren't able to get any color.

They did however taste great... this will for sure be a repeat recipe.

World Peace Cookies

These are fun to make... chop the chocolate, mix the ingredients, roll them into logs in plastic wrap and put them in paper towel tubes for at least 3 hours.

They have fleur de sel in them which just has to compliment the chocolate in a really nice way.

I tried a warm one and it was excellent. These cookies are best when completely cool so I cannot wait to eat one in an hour. They could probably have used another minute or two but I like chewy cookies so I think they will still be great... sorry Jer.

Perfection Pound Cake

You really have to want some pound cake when it's time to make it because it takes a while. First... use good butter. Better than average butter. The recipe calls for 8oz of butter. We had 5 3/4oz of Vermont and Cheese Company in the house so I used that and the rest was good ole Giant brand unsalted butter. The butter and eggs must be warm... beyond room temperature. So that takes a while...

Then you beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Once that's pale and creamy you add 4 eggs, 1 at a time, beating for 2 minutes in between each egg. So 13 minutes of mixing. Baking has not helped me with my patience just yet... I sit there tapping my fingers, washing dishes, tapping some more and I still stop it a few seconds early. I'll work on that.

I forgot to take a before picture but it looked like it would be good.

It seemed to come out okay.

Cut it open and it looked and tasted great.

Apparently pound cake is better the next day so it's sitting all wrapped up in plastic wrap waiting to be yummy tomorrow.

*Update*
Next morning Jeremy made this:

He said it tasted good however it wasn't the most buttery pound cake he had ever had. I imagine I can play around adding a bit more butter next time I try to make it.

Brown Sugar (No Pecan) Shortbread Cookies

It really bugged me how unsuccessful my baking weekend was turning out to be... golden brioche disasters, two tries on the blondies before I got them right and then my dark brown sugar shortbreads were not up to snuff. I took my lazy butt to the store to buy light brown sugar so I could try these again.

In the book, Dorie tells you to sing the word "sandy" in your head as you are mixing these together because the whole point is you don't want to work the dough too much and you want it to be very sand-like when it's done. While I didn't sing (maybe I should have) I really tried to make sure I worked with a quickness.

The dough seemed to turn out better. I put it in the fridge for about 3 hours and then decided to give it a try. Or if I'm being honest I was being impatient and wanted to go relax upstairs, watch Big Brother and read my book. I digress...

So, I laid them out on the tray and they certainly looked more like shortbread. I left the dough a little thicker this time and it was way less sticky than the dark brown sugar version so I thought I might have had a shot.

The recipe calls for 18-20 minutes but I baked these for about 16 and they were already starting to brown so I took them out.

While these are miles better than the first version they are still not right. They are not keeping their shape.
I searched the internet hoping I would find people who had similar issues and what they did to fix them. I learned two things:

Dorie has a shortbread cookie recipe from last year (this book came out in 2006) on her website and she tells you to put the dough in the freezer for an hour. This makes so much more sense to me as the refrigerated dough was just too soft. In the time it was taking me to cut it and put it on the baking sheet it was already losing its shape. The second thing I learned was a girl mentioned how much trouble she was having with hers and she figured out she was overmixing the butter and brown sugar in the first step which was allowing the butter to be light and airy instead of just smooth and creamy.

Again this is why I'm doing this. I followed the instructions... beat the butter and brown sugar for 3 minutes. Pretty sure it really only needs half that time. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more. I think it needs to be frozen for at least an hour.

So I'll try again and hopefully find the outcome I am looking for. While at times it can be frustrating that I am doing things incorrectly or I think I'm doing it right and it stills comes out wrong I am having a really great time with this. I'm already feeling more confident in my abilities. Maybe not as a baker but for sure as a problem solver.

Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread Cookies

If you know me personally or if you've read my previous entries you may have already guessed that I left the pecans out of this recipe. 

The recipe called for light brown sugar. I had just ran out so I used dark brown sugar... big mistake... HUGE. The recipe calls for you to refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours but she mentions the longer the better. Mine was in the fridge for about 6 hours. 

This is what it looked like when I was cutting it to put it on the tray:

 So, yeah... not right. Too dark, too soft but I decided to continue because this journey is all about lessons and I needed to know how they would turn out. I got them all prepped and ready to bake:

And then they came out like this:

They did not hold their shape and the edges burned. My notes were that I needed to use light brown sugar and use the ruler on the dough scraper I have to make more uniform cookies. 

Chewy Chunky Blondies Round 2

While waiting for my shortbreads to chill in the fridge (more about that mess later) I decided to go ahead and make the blondies again. This time I used semisweet chocolate chunks, milk chocolate chips and the sweetened coconut. I baked them for 55 minutes and they came out just right. That is a pretty significant difference from the 40 min she had in the recipe but that's kind of the whole point of this blog. I'm learning how to use visual cues to know when things are done instead of following the instructions exactly.

Waiting for these to cool was the worst part... after the last ones came out so under cooked I was really hoping for a good outcome. I could tell from how brown the edges were that I should be ok but you never know. I think they came out just right.

Chewy Chunky Blondies

After the Golden Brioche disasters of the earlier part of the day I felt the need to redeem myself. I am not a butterscotch fan but I figured I'd try to stay as true to the recipe as possible especially because I omitted the walnuts... enough with the walnuts already. Probably too soon to be mad at the walnuts, huh? She's going to hit me with a lot of walnut recipes, isn't she? Ugh.

So I made the blondies... I was so excited something actually came together properly in the mixing bowl that I forgot to take the "before" picture.

They looked pretty good when they came out of the oven... and it smelled super yummy.

The recipe said to cook for 40 min. I cooked for 42 but I'd say based on what they look like when I cut them I needed to cook for at least another 5 minutes.

Butterscotch chips, chocolate chunks and sweet shredded coconut make up the sweetness in this and they balance each other out really nicely. I might do these again tomorrow and cook them the appropriate amount of time. I bet they will be amazing... maybe I'll use chopped up chocolate bar. And milk chocolate chunks instead of butterscotch. I will move on to another recipe but since this didn't come out the way they should I believe it's deserving of a do-over.

Golden Brioche Loaves... Attempts #1 and #2

As you can see by the title things have not been going well with this recipe. I became Little Miss Cocky and decided I should jump right into making a yeast bread. HA... yeasted bread laughs in my face.

The dough forms into a nice ball at the beginning. Then you have to add 3 sticks of butter, 2 tbsp at a time, and mix for another 10 min when the dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl.

Attempt #1

This dough is the opposite of pulling away... this dough has separation anxiety and is hanging on for dear life. I decided to wait the hour for proofing to see if maybe it would miraculously turn into normal bread dough.

One hour later:

Um... nope. So after throwing that away, washing all the dishes and steeling myself for round 2 I decided to try again. I read the recipe (had Jeremy read it with me just in case I missed something important) and decided to make 2 adjustments. The first being that I would wait a bit longer to mix the yeast into the water and milk in the first step. The second being I would use colder butter. Her recipe called for room temperature butter but still slightly firm.

The second time seemed to go better. The dough came together nice again before the butter addition. I started to add the butter and tried to coax it along with the spatula. I let it mix for 11 min after everything was incorporated and it just never got to the point of pulling away from the sides of the bowl but it was closer so I figured I should see what happens.

Attempt #2

You can see it is more firm than the first batch but still not right.

One hour later:

I am for sure getting somewhere here. There are some dough like qualities to this mixture but not enough. It's not doubling in size either.

After throwing out batch #2 Jeremy suggested I look up other brioche recipes and see if there was a misprint in the book (always so supportive and willing to blame someone else... thanks Babe). What I found was someone who used this exact recipe but with more instructions regarding the yeast. They say to mix the water and milk and make sure they are between 105 and 115 degrees. Pour the yeast in and let it sit for 5 minutes then mix to dissolve.  After that the recipe seemed to be the same but if I was doing something wrong with the yeast it was never going to work.

Attempt #3 will probably be next weekend as I have to let it sit overnight so it's a good Saturday project.

Yeast will not beat me...

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

First thing: the name of this cookie is too long. It should be called Bonnie's New Favorite Cookie.
Again no nutmeg so I added extra cinnamon and they came out like little perfect cinnamon, milk chocolate (shout out to Jeremy) oatmeal thin crispy dreams. I am a big fan...

Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

I had a bit of trouble with these... there was butter in the bottom of the mixer bowl that didn't make its way into the batter. They have a nice crunch with a good sugar crust. I don't have nutmeg on hand so I added a dash of cinnamon instead. I can't say I even know what nutmeg tastes like so I don't know if it leaves the cookie lacking. As always I hate nuts in my cookies so I would like them better without but these came out pretty tasty.

Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

These are a variation of the basic biscuit but instead of 2c of flour you add 1c flour and 1c stone ground yellow cornmeal and some maple syrup. I worked at cutting the butter in... I think I did a much better job this time. I also used a spatula to incorporate the ingredients after the fork mixing which seemed to help finish it off better than last time.
They came out nice and crunchy on the outside and the cornmeal gave it a nice texture inside. There was a slight maple flavor but I'm not sure it made a very big impact.

My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies were easy to make. I've made a few different recipes before and they always seemed off. I followed her recipe exactly (even setting the kitchen timer for each addition to the mixer) and I think that made the difference. We also only ever had dark brown sugar before and I now understand why it matters to use light when the recipe calls for it. I got to chop a lot of chocolate and that made me happy so I added a pic.

She says to bake for 10-12 min. The first time I baked for 12 min. They came out with dark, crispy edges and bottoms. Jeremy said they were his kind of cookie which meant overdone for my taste. Next batch was 10 min and though the edges and bottoms were brown the tops were too soft. So just like Goldilocks I found my perfect porridge at 11 min.
I didn't use nuts even though the recipe calls for it because, well, I don't like them in my chocolate chip cookies and I'm the baker. I'm sure you walnut lovin freaks out there will enjoy them as they ruin a perfectly great cookie.

Thin, crisp and a bit chewy is the way Dorie describes them... I can't explain them any better. Jeremy's last comment was that they'd be great with milk chocolate. I am on a semisweet kick right now but I'm sure he's right. I can't believe I just put that in print.

Basic Biscuits

I figured I would start with something simple. Six ingredients... whisk the dry together, work in the butter, incorporate the milk, roll out dough, cut out biscuits and bake.
I need to work on my "cutting in the butter" skills. I almost bought a pastry blender today but I didn't like the one at the store. I might need to invest in one.
The biscuits seemed OK when I put them on the baking sheet (with my new silpats on them... they make me feel fancy) but they didn't rise enough. Her recipe said they should be puffy. I would say mine rose slightly... more like a 3 month preggo belly instead of a 7 month one.
The outside had a nice crust and the biscuits that had some rise did seem flaky inside.
I made notes in my cookbook and I'm already excited to try the next recipe. I will repeat these soon and see if I can get them right but I wouldn't consider them a failure... more like a work in decent progress.

Please allow me to introduce myself...

I've always wanted to say that.
Hello, my name is Bonnie. I am 31 years old and just recently started baking. Cooking never went well for me. I never wanted to put something in a hot oven... the kitchen was literally too hot so I stayed out. I'm not so good with the whole little dash of this, a pinch of that thing. I am a rule follower. I read the manual for everything I buy, I'm the girl reading the rules to a board game to her drunk friends and I obey most laws. It seems baking is right up my alley. Follow a recipe with exact measurements and everything should turn out just fine.
After a long three years my boyfriend Jeremy and I recently finished completely gutting and creating our new kitchen... just one part of our entire house remodel. Since then I've been having a great time learning how to bake.
Now for my personal challenge... bake everything in a baking cookbook. I did some research and there was one book pretty consistently in every website's top cookbook listing. Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From My Home To Yours" is my choice. I'm planning on writing an entry for every recipe... I'll post some pictures and write about my experience. I'm looking forward to sharing my stories of success, failure and do overs and I am hoping through this process I will become more confident in the kitchen.
My adventure begins today...