the joys of baking

I am such a good sister. I made the 2 lb loaf of Challah into two pretty (kinda not) even loaves
here they are. one is larger than the other but what the heck, she only feeds two people... if that sometimes. Pep and Grandma came over to learn the ropes of parenting two teenage girls today and it was pretty fun... mostly we just sat around and listened to stories.
they all liked the bread and i only have a quarter of the bigger loaf left.
Tomorrow i'm making a chocolate cake for Laura's birthday. using the tried and loved recipe out of the old joy of cooking book that Sarah found. So nothing really exciting about it really, but i'll find something cool to do with it. :) something quite original... or not. probably just something tasty. rasberry jam in the middle? whoooooo knows

so Sarah this is your loaf...We'll probably end up mailing it out on monday... i hope it's not too stale. It's like a little baby :)

stupid stupid editing

okay. so this is my second try at Challah and i definitely think it came out better this time.
though.. my pictures are a bit scrambled. i just got so sick of screwing around with them; they just wouldn't go right.

so what do you think?

what's next???

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/sugar-puffs/


these?

or


http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/grasshopper-brownies/


these?

any ideas?

bun in the oven

CHALLAH!
whooo! it's in the oven as i type. I'm pretty excited, this is the second bread I've done by hand.
and i kinda screwed it up at first but eh. ... i hope will be good anyway.
10 minutes left. I just peeked at it, it is by no means the prettiest bread ever made. but it is beautiful. :)
i'm just a little proud of it.




so what do you think?

Aaahhh

Well finally the cinnamon rolls make their first appearance. The thing about these rolls where that i made the dough special... and by special i mean completely by hand (with a little help from my kitchenAid mixer). I've never made dough before and with my mum's help it came out wonderful despite I ran out of all-purpose and had to fall back on some wheat flour.

As you can see my(mum's) handy dandy mixer in mint condition :) hah, yes that is a rubberband holding the lock latch. This is possibly the best machine in existence

This is after the dough rose? rised? for about a half an hour. i was really excited to see that it came out the same way... if not better than the bread machine dough. I'm quite proud of this little ball of sticky buttery goo

while the dough is rising i made the caramel sauce hmmm caramel sauce hmmmm. okay anyway. low heat till the sugar is completely dissolved. always stir. don't leave it a lot for anything less than a burning house. after you're done cooking it pour it in the bottom of a big ol' buttered pan or not so big . as my pictures show... it looks like a brownie pan if that helps...

so now rolling it out; it was pretty easy to do this but it wouldn't stick completely to the counter... too much flour? so i wet the tips of my hands with warm water and wetted the four corners' undersides.
it was easier than pie.

then mixed together butter(melted), brown sugar, and cinnamon. I just sorta dumped it on there and slathered it around. then started rolling it... starting with the short side... that sound right so far? then i set it out on the dryer in the utility room (it's quite cold out there, but not as cold as the fridge) to rise overnight. I preheated the oven to 350F and popped them in for about 30 minutes. there is nothing, absolutely nothing like the smell of freshly baking... anything actually. And i felt really good about eating them because i made them... the whole thing not just the filling but all of it :)

hmm, i am so hungry right now. stupid school :( when you first pull them out of the oven they are still bubbling like crazy and I let them sit for like 2 minutes... i don't know why i just do. i just a thatched rack and a and a cookie sheet

under it ( i put waxed paper on between the rack and cookie sheet to catch the molten caramel that drips down.) put the rack with the cookie sheet and wax paper over the rolls and invert the pan over the three things. BE CAREFUL!!! If you get the caramel on your skin... it may burn your skin off, i don't really know i have never done this, actually be sure to use oven mitts ( well you should anyway as you just pulled the pan out of the oven duh)

Beautiful no? And all brought to you by the goodness of my mother's heart... or

rather her camera. :) thanks Mum.

so now we've inverted the pan of MOLTEN hot caramel topped cinnamon rolls and now you have to let them cool for about 20 minutes fighting all the while the compulsion to shove your face in them... remember MOLTEN!!!( that's what i have to tell myself everytime)

i also made a confectioner sugar based glaze. it had 1 cup sugar 1teaspoon of vanilla, 1 table spoon of cream ( or milk) and then i used a bit over a spoonful of cream cheese. then just stir it all together.. if it still doesn't come together give it like 5 seconds in the microwave.

and the end product... except due to crappy (or my lack of knowledge knowing how to work mom's camera) lighting they don't look as good as they actually looked

coming up...

Cinnamon roll pictures!
I'll probably post them tomorrow in third hour.
till then, good day.

so lately

I've been trying to learn how to do everything! I started to study Hindi about a week ago it is the best thing ever!
i thought it would be hard but so far it's been alright. it is such a beautiful language.

and i've been sucking up recipes like crazy.
i made something today out of the Potato and rice book i got from the library, it was very very good. well good in a potato and egg way i suppose, as i'm not a big fan of eggs this was surprisingly good.












it had one onion, a clove of garlic, a pepper, about 4 small red potatoes (boiled then fried up with the others) and 4 eggs. it was really easy just boil the potatoes in their skins until just tender. heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium skillety type thing and toss everything but the eggs in it and cook till you think they're done.
don't let the garlic burn! i add the garlic after everything else, because i didn't want it to get too done. beat the eggs together then pour the eggs over the cooking vegetables. stir this together a little to coat all of it, but don't make scrambled eggs! let the eggs set a little over the heat. Heat up the broiler in your oven and just toss the skillet in the oven till the top of the mixy is golden brown. i put just a little bread crumbs over the top before i baked it. And i topped it with white cheddar after.
it needed salt but the overall opinion was that it was good.

now i'm making cinnamon rolls. i make them fairly often so it's no big thing. but this time i want to make them without using the bread machine. it's working pretty well.
the only question is Caramel sauce or no Caramel sauce....
hmm tough question? NO
always use the Caramel sauce, ALWAYS!