I’ve been wanting to get involved in the Royal Foodie Joust* (see the Foodie Blogroll thing on the right) for awhile but before this month either the ingredients were too precious for me to play around with or I just didn’t have the time. 
And I almost didn’t have the time this month – I forgot about it until 2 weeks ago, but we were busy preparing for a family trip, and then when we returned we were so busy catching back up on work that the week just flew past – but it kept floating around in the back of my mind, so I decided to try anyway, even if I couldn’t actually enter the contest. Luckily for me, the deadline was extended a few days, so today I gathered up my ingredients and all of the random possibilities that had been parading through my mind. The result totally surprised me! Read the rest of this entry »
Posts tagged cinnamon
Banana Pancakes
Brad and I both woke up late this morning. He’s the kind of person who wakes up at 7:30 on a regular basis without an alarm clock, while I’m the kind who could happily sleep 10 hours a night and still want a nap later, so when my alarm went off at 8:30 and he was still lying motionless next to me, I kept hitting snooze until he got up – at 9:30. If he’d gotten up earlier, I would have had to get up too so that he wouldn’t starve while waiting for the promised pancakes. It was lovely that both of us got to sleep in.
Old-Fashioned Coffee Cake
Recently, while reading Vintage Cookbooks, I decided to pull out one of my old cookbooks. Since I’ve been going through a phase of wanting to throw every excess thing away (especially books) in preparation for my potential return to university, I figured I should try baking something from it to see if it was worth keeping.
I have two old cookbooks: one is from the very early 1900s but it’s in storage;
The book with the original recipe
Apple Pie Math Muffins
Last night, Brad and I went over to his sister’s house so that his brother-in-law could help me with some of the math I’ve been studying for the GRE. We were a little worried about inviting ourselves but his sister told his mom (his mom is the only one who openly shows emotion on a regular basis so she’s always the middleperson) that she hoped we wouldn’t stop coming over after I was done with the GRE.
One of the things I’m really terrible at is fractions, which may sound kind of ridiculous coming from someone who loves to bake. And there is a certain comfort in fractions – they make more sense to my visual brain than decimals. It’s just the crazy things they do to each other in mathematic equations that confuse me, because I want them to stand on their own.
So I’ve been concentrating on one of my shortcuts in an effort to get myself used to playing with fractions, a shortcut that I wanted to share with you.
Halloween Apple Treat
This was originally posted on my other blog, What If. I’m moving it – and all of my baking posts – here in the next few weeks.
I stumbled across this recipe for something called an “apple brown betty” recently and, per my addiction to all autumn-oriented baked goods, had to make it.
Pumpkin (Muffin) Donuts
This was originally posted on my other blog, What If. I’m moving it – and all of my baking posts – here in the next few weeks.
ManPants and I are a little obsessed with baked items made with pumpkin. It’s not the reason we love fall so much, but it is definitely high on the list.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a recipe for pumpkin donuts. Fortunately, this meant my first true experiment – attempting to combine my pumpkin muffins with a pumpkin-less donut recipe.
Not-so-Experimental Shortcut Pumpkin Muffins
This was originally posted on my other blog, What If. I’m moving it – and all of my baking posts – here in the next few weeks.
I confess: this isn’t so experimental. It is in the sense that the delicate chemical interactions of baking always require some care, and that I see my baking as edible chemistry experiments. But ManPants is thoroughly addicted to these and so requests them every chance he gets. He doesn’t even have to speak; he has a look that says, “pumpkin muffins, please.”
I’m surprised I don’t have the recipe memorized yet. But I do have some shortcuts.
Experiments in Stollen
My younger brother came to visit right before Christmas. He seems to have a fear of failure, plus a lack of confidence in his own abilities. So the last couple of times he’s come to visit, I made him make bread with me – one of the hardest, and therefore most satisfying, things a person can do in baking.
This year, since it was so close to Christmas, we made Stollen. Read the rest of this entry »
Experiments in Snickerdoodles
Snickerdoodles have been my favorite since I was a kid. I used to pester my stepmom to make them for me all the time. Kind of like sugar cookies with an extra coating of sugary, cinnamon-y goodness, I introduced Brad to them this year and he’s been hooked ever since. So while these are ostensibly the start of my Christmas baking, we are of course going to save some for ourselves.
