Holiday Baking 2011

A quick rehash of this season's holiday cooking: because I've been a negligent blogger.

My last Thanksgiving treat - leftover cranberry sauce bread. I view such recipes as a reason to make extra cranberry sauce, not get rid of it!

I also made the standards: cinnamon rolls, pecan pie...

apple pie...
and pumpkin pie, not pictured this time around.

My main Christmas baking this December was gingerbread men. Lots of gingerbread men:

But for the holiday dinner, I made up a three layer cake from this recipe - a caramelized apple spice cake with brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream:

The finished dessert (and yes, that is a pie in the background as well)!

Gingerbread Waffles

In December, my friend Cherie hosted a Chaos Cooking event. The idea is that everyone comes bearing ingredients, and cooks. It's kind of a demented potluck.

Since Cherie owns a waffle iron, I decided to make peanut butter waffles, with grape jelly and bananas to top:


I was inspired, and asked for a waffle iron as a holiday gift:

For my first homemade waffles, I decided to keep the holiday going and make this recipe for gingerbread waffles.

Waffles are very similar to a quickbread recipe - wet ingredients (butter or other fat, eggs, milk or other liquid, andin this case, some molasses) added to dry ingredients (flour, leavening, spices):

Ready to go:

The leftovers, ready to make like Eggo and go in the freezer for weekday breakfast!

Whole Wheat Cheddar Bread

Whole Wheat, with salt, ready for yeast and water:

Kneaded, rolled, and cheesed:

And ready to rise:

Alas, it did not rise well. Too much cheese? It was delicious anyway.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I tried a new sandwich bread recipe, involving a loaf that I was not to knead, really, but stir vigorously, and knead a little bit. Here's that dough:

Risen a bit:

And then it went into the fridge for a day, and got giant!

The resulting light, fluffy, 100% wheat loaf was delicious...even though I didn't grease my pans well:

Cheesecake Blondies

Instead of a regular chocolate base for cheesecake...cheesecake blondies:

First, the blondie batter - lots of rich brown sugar and butter:

Then the cheesecake:

And a swirl!

Cracked Wheat Bread

Back to some bread, especially since I haven't posted in a while!

Bulgar. The base for this cracked wheat bread published by the NY Times:
Do not be fooled - this recipe is...more complicated that the much more famous "minimalist" loaf!

It involved a sponge, a dough, lots of rising...

More rising...

And when all was said and done, I probably need to make it again to get my loaves a bit lighter. But the flavor of this one is amazing, and worth another baking!

Chocolate Ginger Banana Bread

I don't know why I didn't think to combine these three of my favorite things before - chocolate, ginger and bananas:

But a friend shared a quickbread recipe for just that. All mixed up and ready to go:

It didn't last 24 hours. And I didn't share!

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Rice Krispie Treats are delicious and simple, but I rarely take the time to melt the marshmallows and make them:

But when you add peanut butter, like here, I just can't resist. I already have another bag of marshmallows in the kitchen, ready to go!

Bread I Like: Peter Pan Doughnut Shop

A few classics from one of my favorites, Peter Pan:
Every doughnut I've ever had from Peter Pan has been a well done classic, but I keep returning to the chocolate coconut. This one here, together with a classic cruller, composed a post run snack!

Maple Oatmeal Bread

Oatmeal, I've said before, is my favorite kind of sandwich bread:
This recipe from King Arthur adds a little Northeast flavor to one of my favorites.

Here's the dough, ready to rise - note, I did not add the "maple flavor" suggested in the recipe - just 100% maple syrup:

And risen. Magical:

Ready for the oven:

Lemon, Coconut and Ginger Energy Bars

The recipe and full details of these lemon, coconut and ginger energy bars are over at Taste As You Go:
Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It may be a little cheesy, but hearts and valentine's day do go together, so I made up this recipe to celebrate:
Tempted as I was to use a blueberry jam filling, I stuck with the raspberry jam so that I wouldn't be presenting friends with black hearts.

These cookies are not very interesting until they get shaped, but here is the butter, sugar, peanut butter and eggs, all creamed together:

The dough, rolled into balls and flattened:

And with preliminary heart indentations:

And the finished cookies, after baking, filling and baking again.

Pumpkin Muffins

I like to make muffins and freeze them for a quick breakfast hot from the microwave. If they last that long, that is:

These pumpkin muffins, like all good fall flavors, start with a good dash of cinnamon and other spices. I particularly like to add a bit of clove and nutmeg:

Muffins are (usually) quickbreads, made with an oil or (applesauce as a substitute) but this recipe called for butter, creamed with sugar. yum!

Once the eggs and dry ingredients were mixed in, the final step was chopped pecans and golden raisins:

Straight into the oven:

Whole Wheat Cheddar Biscuits

I love cheese:

So I added some to a biscuit recipe, instead of using all butter for the fat:

Ready to bake:

And melted, ready to serve: