Recommended Baking Adventures Oct 2013

Fall is officially here. It’s been a great excuse to make some delicious food, and even host a fancy birthday dinner party!

Oatmeal Bread: My mom gets most of the credit for this one. Recipe to be posted/linked soon!

Apple Pie: We were lucky enough to go apple picking on a gorgeous fall day, and a good portion of our haul turned into apple pie. Loosely based off the Mark Bittman Apple Pie Recipe, but with a crumble topping. We even made several little ones (6 inchers) and froze them, so will be able to enjoy them for the next couple of months!

Chocolate Ginger Bark: Inspired by one of my classmates, this treat was the perfect end to an epic dinner party. (Full menu below) I took the minimalist approach: chop candied or otherwise preserved dry ginger (I did about 1/2 cup), melt dark chocolate  (I did 1.5 bags of chocolate chips and it made 70% of a pan) in a faux double boiler, and pour melted chocolate into a baking pan that has been coated with wax paper. My goal was to make the layer as thin as possible without making holes. Some of the ginger went below the chocolate, and some was sprinkled on top. This then cooled in the fridge for a couple of hours before being broken up. Super easy, very pretty, and delicious. Win!

Epic Dinner Party: Full list of recipes may be included at a later date. Suffice it to say that Julia Child’s creamed spinach and her hollandaise are killer.

Recommended Baking Adventures Aug-Sept 2013

I’m starting to love our new kitchen. (Pictured below.) I was originally skeptical because the cabinets are awkwardly sized, there’s not a ton of counter space, and the oven is almost too small for our baking pans. A few knife racks and an IKEA kitchen island later, things are looking up! These are some of the most successful adventures in the new kitchen.

Aforementioned new kitchen.

First Challah: A combination of this recipe and this video. The video is especially brilliant. I chose the four strand braid. The wash is a combination of honey and egg. I specifically wanted a small loaf, so the recipe quantity was great for us, but might add more sugar or other flavoring next time. The round shape is in recognition of Rosh Hashanah, which we celebrated last week. Happy New Year!

First attempt at challah, and braided bread overall. The video tutorial is amazing.

Vegan Scones: We became responsible for breakfast for a small gathering, and needed to make sure we were conscientious of food allergies. (No one in this group had gluten allergies.) The solution: vegan, nut-free scones! As with all things vegan and amazing, Isa Chandra Moskowitz was my champion. The recipe I used was from Vegan Brunch, but this recipe from her website for marionberry lavender scones is very similar. These scones are scrumptious. For real. They may even be better than the buttery, creamy ones I usually make. I used rice milk, which doesn’t curdle, and they still turned out deliciously.

] These are a variation with raisins, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves.

UPDATE: I tried these again with whole wheat flour, soy milk, and subbed chopped apples for the raisins. They were less sweet, but still delicious! A little heavier overall. 10/6/13

Knitting Project #4

This is the first real pattern I’m following, and it requires the use of a stitch marker, row counter, increasing stitches, decreasing stitches, short shaping rows, making button holes and counting stitches!

About button holes: One part of making a button hole is binding off stitches (BO) to make  the bottom edge of the hole. To bind off stitches, you use two stitches– one carries down the row and one slips off and makes that nice edge. It’s pretty easy if you’re binding off an entire row, but when you’re counting stitches, it’s unclear if you make one or two additional stitches before you start binding off. In this pattern, you make two if you want it to be symmetrical. I’ll experiment with this on patterns going forward.

Stage One

Stage Two! (It’s a little ruffled because of the short shaping rows.)

It’s done! Now to find some buttons…