daring bakers: gingerbread house

I hadn't been able to do any of the Daring Bakers challenges this semester, so I was very excited to finish up all my work and discover that the December challenge was a gingerbread house! How exciting! I had a lot of fun putting this together and it was actually fairly easy. My (first batch) of icing was super thick and it made putting the house together a snap. My second batch was a little runny, but it wasn't too bad. It just made my snow covered house look like a melting snow covered house. It's a post-blizzard gingerbread house.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I used the Scandinavian recipe and like most found it to be very very dry. Even after a night in the fridge it was still crumbles so I splashed some water on it, kneaded it in, and then rolled it out. Eventually it came together and I didn't notice any shrinkage. Or if it did shrink, it uniformly shrunk which is no problem! I cut the recipe in half cause I wanted a cute little house anyway.

All in all, I had a lot of fun completing this challenge. It was a great way to spend a snowy afternoon!

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 375. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the front and back walls, roof, and side walls using cardboard or paper. (I used this template).

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place. (I rolled the dough out on a floured surface and cut out my shapes and transferred them to the baking sheet. I'm not really sure what this other business is about)

4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

ginger cookies

When I like something, I think I may like it a little too much. For example, lets look at my recent foray into gingerbread. In the last couple weeks I have made ginger cookies, iced gingerbread cookies, actual gingerbread and today alone I made a gingerbread house and a gingerbread cake. That's not too much, right?

I can't help it, but as soon as the delightful chill of fall turns into a serious cold weather (and snow!) all that I want are the warm spices of gingerbread. These ginger cookies are sweet, with a spicy bite of ginger, perfectly crisp yet still chewy and are a perfect cookie for a chilly winter day.


I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, reading my tea leaves, so I won't re-post it here. But head over there and try it for yourself, its super easy and adorably written. And don't worry, now that the semester is finally over, I'll be back to share the rest of my adventures in gingerbread!

mocha chocolate cake

Without a doubt, the best part of a birthday is the cake. And a good birthday, say a 21st birthday, calls for a special cake. A rich, dark, chocolatey cake covered in a sophisticated mocha buttercream. There's just no better way to show a little birthday love. And who could resist chocolate and coffee? No one.

So who did I go to for this recipe? Do you even have to ask anymore? It's always Martha. She never, ever fails me.

...Except for when she tells you to use two 8-inch cake pans, but somehow your cake batter is too much for those two pans and spills over and coats the bottom of your oven in cake. And burns. And creates a real possibility that your smoke alarm will go off. And there is a nor'easter happening outside, so if your smoke alarm did go off, everyone in your building would hate you forever.

Moral: Use bigger cake pans or save a little and make a couple cupcakes. Just don't listen to Martha. This one time, don't do what she says.

Anyway, I didn't actually get to eat a legitimate slice of the cake, but you can sure bet I nibbled on the pieces I cut off while leveling the cake...and dipped them into the extra buttercream. And yes, it was an incredible combination.


I love birthdays.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups Dutch process cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups warm water

Preheat oven to 350. Coat two 8x2* inch round cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper.

Mix together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs and yolk, milk, oil, vanilla, and warm water. Beat until combined.

Divide batter between pans and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Mocha Buttercream
from Martha Stewarts Baking Handbook

1/4 cup instant espresso powder
1/4 cup hot water
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces and at room temperature
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted

In a small bowl, combine espresso powder with hot water and stir until dissolved. Set aside.

In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, whisk together the egg whites and sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg white mixture until slightly cooled and stiff, and glossy peaks have formed. With your mixer on medium low speed, add the butter, several tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until smooth and fluffy. Fold in the espresso and chocolate mixtures and beat on low speed until smooth.

Note: I always make half this recipe (because I can't stomach using that much butter at once) and its always just enough.

pumpkin muffins

So very sorry I've been m.i.a these last couple of weeks! This semester is just a lot of work :( But let's not pretend that I'm so swamped in work that I haven't had time to bake. Because I have. I've been doing a LOT of baking these last few weeks. Just not quite enough blogging.

Anyway, onward, upward, and just in time for Halloween...I know you want to hear about pumpkin and how much I LOVE IT. I love it so much. I've been on a pumpkin baking spree lately: pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cookies with butterscotch chips, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pie (to come tomorrow for Halloween), but most importantly, my most favorite pumpkin recipe of all...

PUMPKIN MUFFINS!


Yes, I am that excited about them. These are the muffins that I liked even when I thought I didn't like pumpkin. These are the muffins that my mom would make dozens and dozens of (usually of the mini variety) that I would get in my lunch for the entire month of October. They are my favorite. I don't know where the recipe came from, I think it came from someone at my elementary school? So the story goes...

Enough talk...go make yourself the best muffins on earth.



Pumpkin Muffins

Dry Ingedients
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch cloves

Wet Ingredients
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2/3 cup orange juice
2 cups canned pumpkin

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Combine both. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (shorter if you go with mini muffins)

I made half the recipe and ended up with 20 muffins. I topped half with a toasted almond struesel (simply mix chopped toasted almonds, brown sugar, sugar, and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg together and sprinkle on muffins before baking)


See? So easy. Just remember the golden rule of muffin making: don't overmix the batter! Just mix it until the dry ingredients are just moistened.

black and white cookies

I was a little sad that I couldn't find time for the daring bakers challenge this month, especially since it was puff pastry! I've always wanted to try that. Nonetheless, I think I lived up to the spirit of "daring baking" by making something completely new this month: black and white cookies!

That's right, up until earlier this week I had never made a black and white cookie. I love them cause they're essentially little cakes, but in the shape of a cookie. And they are just so sweet and delicious. I also hadn't had one since my spring break trip to New York City, where we risked missing the bus back home just to get some good old black and whites before we left. So when the occasion for cookie baking arose, I dedicated my afternoon to a cookie baking extravaganza and it yielded some pretty delicious results.


Mini Black and White Cookies
from Gourmet Magazine

For Cookies:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg

For Icing:
2 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 to 6 tablespoons water
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350. Butter 2 large baking sheets.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and mixing just until smooth. Drop rounded teaspoons(for real. I was not consistent at all and mine are all sorts of sizes) of batter 1 inch apart onto baking sheets. Bake, switching positions of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are puffed, edges are pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 6 to 8 minutes total. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl until smooth. If icing is not easily spreadable, add more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as vanilla icing. Cover surface with a dampened paper towel, then cover bowl with plastic wrap.

With offset spatula, spread white icing over half of flat side of each cookie. Starting with cookies you iced first, spread chocolate icing over other half.

oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Sitting in the library all day, when the weather is absolutely gorgeous can not be good for the soul. Good for my grades, perhaps, but it was not the way I wanted to spend my Sunday afternoon. Instead of trying to even remotely understand the intricacies of Hindu dieties, my gaze kept shifting out the window, wishing I was outside enjoying the sun. So as soon as I got out of the library, I went for a bike ride.

I hopped on my red bicycle and got lost in thought as I rode throughout town. I thought about how I kind of, just a little bit, really really wished the Sartorialist was strolling through colonial Williamsburg because I looked pretty cute and I was riding a pretty cute bicycle. I thought about how beautiful the sun looked as it was starting to set, even blocked by a crowd of trees. I thought about how wonderful it felt to feel autumn beginning to sneak in. I thought about what on earth I could say about these cookies.

Honestly, all I can say is that they are delicious. They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside because they are a perfect combination of all my favorite cookies. They are the perfect cookie for the indecisive cookie monster, like me. They make me happy, just like riding my bicycle made me feel happy today.


Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 1/2 cups store-bought chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat the oven to 350.

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Working with a mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating only until blended. Mix in the chips.

If you have the time, cover and chill the dough for about 2 hours or for up to one day. (Chilling the dough will give you more evenly shaped cookies.) If the dough is not chilled, drop rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. If the dough is chilled, scoop up rounded tablespoons, roll the balls between your palms and place them 2 inches apart on the sheets. Press the chilled balls gently with the heel of your hand until they are about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 7 minutes. The cookies should be golden and just firm around the edges. Lift the cookies onto cooling racks with a wide metal spatula - they'll firm as they cool.

fyi, I made half this recipe and still ended up with lots and lots of cookies.

vanilla-chocolate cupcakes

Things I am currently loving:

* My apartment and its new name, Worthington upon the Banks. (Yes, Williamsburg and the English countryside are quite similar)

* The sunny and beautiful weather today

* My recent running habits (I can run! Far! Well, farther than before)

* New York Fashion Week starts soon. I can't wait to distract myself with pictures upon pictures of clothes for spring!

* The prospect of picking out a new coffee at TJ's, now that I've finished mine off

* The frosting still left over from these beautiful cupcakes I made last week:

After a bit of a love affair with Martha Stewart's basic yellow cake recipe(so fluffy! so good!), I finally decided to try the much talked about Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Amy Sedaris. I've heard it's the best cupcake recipe out there...and I've also heard they are dense and dull. My verdict? Pretty good. But I like Martha better. Nonetheless, these cupcakes were pretty awesome. I love love chocolate, but vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting is the way to go. No matter how many cupcake options there are, v/c is always my choice. It's the best.

Vanilla Cupcakes
from Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

"1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups of sugar

Beat well, then add:

Add 2 large eggs
2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla
½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 ½ cups of flour
1 ¼ cups of milk

Beat well, fill cups, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. You should get 24. I get 18, 'cause I'm doing something wrong. " (I got 21. Apparently I'm also doing something wrong)

I used the chocolate swiss meringue buttercream I used for the Dobos and they turned out awesome. Also awesome? The extra buttercream that I saved to snack on. Frosting for breakfast, anyone?

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
from Martha Stewart (I used half the recipe and had plenty--I've halved it below)

1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

Place sugar and egg whites in a heatproof bowl, set over simmering water. Whisk constantly till the mixture is heated and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Using electric mixture, whip until cool and stiff peaks form. With the mixer running, add butter one piece at a time, until completely incorporated. Continue whisking until a light, fluffy cream has formed. Fold in chocolate until well combined.

cinnamon sugar scones

When I don't know what to do with myself, I make scones. I know it's kind of a weird thing to do, but I find it so comforting and relaxing. It takes my mind off of everything going on and all I can think about is making that perfect scone and then eating it, still warm from the oven. It's probably not the best habit in the world, but it's better than smoking or something, right? Right.

I love making scones because they are the perfect accompaniment to a warm cup of tea(or perfect for a tea party, holla). I can think of nothing better than a steaming cup of tea in an adorable little cup and one of these cinnamon sugar scones straight from the oven. This might make me a little boring, but little moments like those are my favorite parts of the day. And they can fix a bad day real fast.

I got a little adventurous this time and decided to fiddle around with my favorite buttermilk scone recipe(from Baking with Julia) and adapt it into a cinnamony sweet treat. Now that I'm more aware of how certain things are made, I'm trying more and more to adapt and create my own recipes. This one isn't perfect, but I think they were pretty tasty. So here's a little scone-makin' tutorial. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Scones

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
6 oz cold butter
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients
2. Add the cold butter pieces to the dry ingredients and using your fingers, work in the butter until the mixture looks coarse
3. Stir in the half-and-half, milk and vanilla just until the mixture comes together
4. Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead very(VERY) briefly.
5. Divide the dough in half and pat each half into a round of about 6 inches in diameter. Cut each round into 6 pieces
6. Transfer scones to a baking sheet and sprinkle each scone generously with the cinnamon sugar topping. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving. Enjoy!

i love...

Anthropologie at home...

How much sweeter would baking be with one of these adorable aprons?



and of course these little gaggle of geese measuring cups...

If I decorated my entire home in Anthropologie, I don't think I'd ever want to leave the house again. So adorable.

daring bakers: dobos torte

Dear dobos torte,

I must admit when I first looked up the August challenged I was terrified of you. I read the recipe and immediately closed the window, debating whether or not to throw in the towel on Daring Bakers on only my second challenge. You looked scary. Your recipe was miles long. You required a lot of eggs. You caused me a little anxiety. So I went home. I made muffins, scones, and ice cream to avoid thinking about you. But then, while separating all those yolks from whites for my ice cream(cookie no-dough, make it right now) I realized why I started to participate in the Daring Bakers. To be daring, to challenge myself to make something new, to get out of my baking rut. So thank you, dobos torte, for getting me to try something new and a little complicated.

Love,
Julia

ps. You were delicious. Even with my editing, leaving off that wierdo caramel layer and using Martha Stewart's chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream recipe instead(I will write you a love note soon), you were just right.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

From the hosts...

"The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely."


find the recipe here: Daring Bakers August Challenge

chocolate chip cookies, take 1

With a cookie as classic as the chocolate chip, it's easy to get obsessed with finding the absolute perfect recipe. The New York Times even ran a spread on perfecting this beloved cookie. And who could blame them? The cookie is such a delightful blend of sugary, chewy, crispy, chocolaty goodness that it is no surprise how much debate has spawned over the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie.

Curious to join in on the hunt, I read up on recipes all over the place. Then, in my summer library cookbook frenzy, I found Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook. It's a small little book that I wouldn't have noticed had it not been placed next to the Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook(and how could you not pass that one by? SO CUTE). Between the cover photo, a seemingly mile-high stack of thin and crispy cookies, and Ina Garten professing in the foreward that these were the "best chocolate chip cookies you ever ate"...well, I had to try them out. And so, with Ina's words in my head, my search for the best chocolate chip cookies begins. It's not quite as serious as the NYT, but I'm determined to try out all those little variations on the cookie to find my favorite. It sounds like a fun challenge to me.

These cookies were pretty good. The flavor was absolutely amazing, the edges were crispy and the center perfectly chewy. I feel like I didn't quite do them justice, though. My cookies were extremely thin and I had trouble keeping some of them from crumbling apart. It may have had something to do with the fact that I didn't really try to make them uniform sizes, and I think this recipe really only works for cookies of the specified size. The ones that did end up being the right size were incredible.

yum, a bowl full of cookie dough...

Recipe
from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook by Kathleen King (also available here)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon vanila
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with Silpat.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the water and vanilla. Mix the ingredients until they are just combined. Add the eggs and mix them lightly. Stir in the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Don’t overmix the dough.

Drop the cookies 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets using two tablespoons or an ice cream scoop.

Bake them for 12 minutes or until the edges and centers are brown. Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

bonjour

image via weheartit

Welcome to the new blog! I promise it will be full of sweeter things once I get settled and start baking up a storm. Until then, I'd love suggestions for anything you'd like to see. Merci!