I Heart Faces - Week 33 - Nostalgia

The theme for this week’s photo challenge at I Heart Faces is “Nostalgia”.



Amanda was always fascinated with our back door and the wild and glorious world she could see through the glass. She loved the flowers, the birds and especially the squirrels that came to eat peanuts I had left on the sill.

This photo's exposure is not the best, but I still love how the afternoon sun bathes her face in a warm glow. And if you look close you can see two different reflections of her face. The obvious one is on the back door, but look above her head and to the right you can see another reflection in the glass door of the curio cabinet.

The picture is nostalgic because on August 29, 2005 the door, garden, animals and even the house were all casualties of Hurricane Katrina. I get a little sentimental every time I look at these old pictures and wistfully wish I could turn back time.

Ginger Blueberry Scones

I had a grueling baking schedule planned for this past weekend but the glorious weather lured me away from my kitchen. Early Sunday morning the temperature was 61 degrees and 50% humidity. In New Orleans! In the middle of August! Crazy, freaky weather.

I did manage to keep myself inside long enough to bake one item: Ginger Blueberry Scones. They just took a few minutes to mix and bake, and then I sat on my patio (with a blanket) and had breakfast Tea & Scones.



Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose sifted flour
* 1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling tops
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
* 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
* 1 teaspoon lemon zest
* 1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing tops
* 2 large eggs

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, ginger, and salt. Note: if you like a sweeter scone (like me), use 1/3 cup of sugar instead of the listed 1/4 cup, if you like really sweet scones, use 1/2 cup of sugar. If you want coffee cake instead of scones, use 3/4 cups of sugar. If you want... well you get the idea.

3) Add the cold butter to the flour mixture and using a fork, your fingers or a pastry blender, cut the butter until the largest pieces are the size of small peas.

4) Stir in blueberries and zest.



5) In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and eggs.

6) Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the cream/egg mixture.



7) Stir lightly with a fork just until the dough comes together.



8) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3 or 4 times. Don't over mix or the scones will be tough.

9) Place the mound of dough on a baking stone and pat into an 8" round about 1-1/4 inch thick.

10) Brush the top with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

11) Using a floured knife, score the top of the dough into 8 wedges. Only cut half way through the thickness of the dough, don't cut all the way through.



12) Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. I like mine extra golden brown so I baked it another 5 minutes.



13) Remove baking stone from oven and using the score lines previously made in dough, cut the scones apart.

14) Transfer the scones to a wire rake to cool. Or just eat them hot like me.

TWD - Applesauce Spice Bars

This week's TDW (Tuesday with Dorie) challenge was Applesauce Spice Bars on pages 117 and 118 from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Individually I like all the ingredients in this recipe, but I wasn't wowed by the finished product. I found it too moist and wet, especially after the second day. I loved the glaze (it tasted just like pralines), but I think a maple cream cheese frosting (pictured above) would have been a better match with the spices.

Do I sound negative?

I don't mean to be discouraging, a lot of people love these bars, but I just like 'cakier' baked goods. If I tried it again, I would add more flour to the batter, include a crisp shortbread crust, and pair it with a maple cream cheese frosting. I guess I would also have to come up with a new name, because if I made all those changes they wouldn't be Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars anymore. :)

Here are the apples, raisins and pecans waiting patiently for their dip in the batter.

The dry stuff...

Everything all mixed together...

Just out of the oven. I cut the recipe in half, and baked it in a 8" x 8" pan.

Cooking the glaze.

On the TWD website a lot of people mentioned that there was not enough glaze so I cooked twice as much (yum). They also mentioned that the glaze was thin and runny, so I cooked the syrup an extra 2 minutes. I may have gone overboard the cooking, because my glaze was a little brittle after it cooled.

The finished Applesauce Spice Bars with Brown Sugar Glzae.

TWD - Brownie Bites

This is my first Tuesday's with Dorie baking challenge, and what a yummy challenge it was. Brownies are my favorite food, and little brownie bites are my favorite form of brownie. No mess, no crumbs, just pop the whole thing in your mouth and enjoy. Pure chocolate bliss, want one?



The Brownie Bites were also a breeze to prepare. Melt the chocolate, butter and sugar over a low fire.


After the chocolate mixture cools, add the egg and vanilla.



Blend the chocolate-egg mixture with the flour. I added nuts too.



Bake in a mini muffin pan for 14 minutes, carefully remove the BB's from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.



Dip the tops of the BBs in melted white chocolate. This was the only part of the recipe that I had problems with. I used white chocolate chips and they would never melt to a "dipping" consistency. I finally just spread the white chocolate on top. Not perfect looking, but still very tasty.



Side note: While roaming around my backyard snapping pictures of my BB's, I noticed something in my viewfinder…


Did you see him? Upper right corner of the picture. A beautifully butterfly sipping nectar from a bougainvillea. I think it is a Swallowtail, but I'm not positive. Here is a close-up. Isn't he/she beautiful?

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

I'm a big fan of Alton Brown and the Food Network's "Good Eats" show. I love Alton's quirky skits and how he uses cheap, everyday props to explain the chemistry behind the cooking/baking process. The episode on Overnight Cinnamon Rolls was one of my favorites, but I have to be honest I was too intimated by the whole yeast/proofing/rising thing to give them a try. Until this past weekend that is.

Ta Da. Behold my Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. Not too shabby, Eh?

The process WAS time consuming, but not too difficult.

First mix the eggs, sugar, butter, and buttermilk .


Add half the flour along with the yeast and salt.


Mix the dough until still soft, but not sticky.


Turn the dough out of the mixer and kneed by hand for 30 seconds. Place in a bowl for the first rising. I had a moment of panic at this stage. I was already cooking something in the oven and the microwave, so I couldn't put the dough in there to rise. It was a rainy, humid day and the AC had the house downright cold.

Where to put the dough?

I was stumped.

I don't bake bread often (meaning never) so I don't have any tricks to fall back on. In my panic I put the bowl inside the dryer. I sorry, sorry, sorry, but it was the only warm place in the house! Is that unsanitary? Is that totally gross? I had the bowl tightly covered and the dryer is brand new (about a month old), but I still whisper to myself, "How could you DO THAT?"

Once I was finished with the microwave, I transferred the (still tightly covered) bowl from the dryer to microwave for the rest of the rising cycle. I'm so embarrassed.

Next I rolled out the dough and sprinkled it with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Then rolled the dough into a tube and sliced it into twelve parts.

Into the buttered pan the rolls went and then into the refrigerator for an overnight stay.

The next morning, the rolls along with a pan of boiling water went into the cold oven for 30 more minutes of proofing.

And then the baking. Here they are just out of the oven. Warm and amazingly fragrant.


And the final product.

In the final analysis AB's Overnight Cinnamon Rolls were good but not great. I found them a little bready and they didn't have enough ooey, gooey, sticky filling for my taste. I read almost all of the 225+ reviews this recipe received on the Food Network page and found a few reasons why my cinnamon rolls weren't "to-die-for" [#1 The first rising needs to be longer than 2 1/2 hours (some suggest up to 8 hours). #2 Roll the dough really thin (too thick and the roll will taste bready), #3 more filling WITH pecans].

Next, and there will be a next time, time they will taste awesome.

I Heart Faces - Week 29 - Silly Faces

Week 29 – “Crazy, Funny, Silly Faces” Photo Challenge Fun!

I recently found the web site, I Heart Faces, that sponsors a weekly “fun” photo challenge. Here is my entry for "Silly, Funny Faces".

Amanda, Ace Fighter Pilot in Training...

And in the "pet" category, a fleeting visitor to my garden.

Raspberry Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

I've made these Raspberry Shortbread Cookies several times and I'm always amazed by their tender texture and delicate balance of almond, butter and berry flavors. Delicious.

The only thing I don't like about these cookies is how much they spread! The edges thin during baking and turn brown and crisp. From an visual point of view the brown edges aren't very appealing, so I trim them away using a knife or cookie cutter. But don't throw the crispy scraps away! They make a great topping for ice cream.



Any suggestions on how to stop these cookies from spreading? I've tried re-chilling the raw cookie dough balls after filling them with jam but that didn't help.

I've baked them on aluminum pans, baking stones, on parchment paper and silpat, but they spread everytime.

HELP!

But regardless of the spreading phenomenon, they taste darn good.

Pralines

Pralines are one of my favorite sweets (right up there with brownies). But you know what? They are nearly impossible to get just "right". A perfect praline is creamy and smooth and melts in your mouth like butter. Its texture is firm but not brittle, and feels like silk on your lips.

Glance at any praline recipe and you will see a simple list of sugar, butter, liquid, and of course pecans. But a praline's complexity lies not with the ingredients but with the cooking process, or the cooking temperature to be exact. Too hot and the pralines will be brittle, not hot enough and they will be grainy. A candy thermometer is supposed to take all the guess work out of the process, but don't believe it. Thermometers are like a broken crutch: use it at your peril.

Here is my latest batch of pralines in the final stage of cooking. The thermometer read "soft ball" stage, which according to various source can range between 234 and 238 degrees F.


When the correct temperature is reached, the pralines are removed from the heat and whipped until the syrups starts to stiffen and turn cloudy. After just a few stirs, I noticed a slight graininess developing in the mixture.


But as usual, I was in a rush so I ignored my misgivings and started spooning the pralines onto the pan.


I let my babies cool for just a minute and then popped one into my mouth (there is nothing like the feel of half molten sugar burning the roof of you mouth). I chomped the praline into bits and allowed it to dissolve on my tongue. Sh#@! I could feel the grains of sugar in my mouth. The pralines had not reached the correct temperature.

I was torn. What should I do?

Where they good enough to serve to my guest?

No!

A big fat double NO.

I'll feed you DRY cake any day, but I will not stoop to serving grainy pralines.

So back in the pot they went for another try.

Crush them up and add just a little bit more milk. Cook them to the correct temperature (I went to 242 degrees this time) and pretend that the flop never happened.


So what was the problem?

Why were my pralines grainy?

I always test my thermometer's accuracy before I use it, so that wasn't the problem. Was it the humidity? The position of the moon? The value of the stock market?

I don't know why pralines are sometimes "off", but to my frustration it happens quite often.

Maybe one day (when I have more time for experimenting), I'll discover the secret to a foolproof praline.

Until then I'm gonna start using two thermometers.


Just a side note: to test the accuracy of your thermometer, place it in a pot of plain boiling water. At sea level it should read 212 degrees F. If it registers above or below that number, make the necessary adjustments when cooking the pralines. And remember at higher altitudes to subtract 1 degree for every 500 feet above sea level.

Open Wide - Incoming Brownie

I have tried hundreds of brownie recipes with tempting names like Outrageous Brownies, Ultimate Brownies, Better-Than-Sex Brownies, and honestly my favorite (don’t tar and feather me) is Betty Crocker’s Triple Chuck Supreme Brownie Mix. Yep, just rip open the box, stir in some water, oil and eggs, and bake for 40 minutes. That's it.

Look at those hunks of chocolate...

That moist, cakey texture...

Thank you, Betty. I'm in brownie heaven.