Fried Egg and Bacon - Cookies!

WOW it has been a while since I posted.

I've still been baking and attempting to decorate, but "life" has all but eliminated my blogging time. But I started a new (less stressful) job a few weeks ago, so hopefully I will have more time to post my successes and failures.

Here are some cookies I baked for Thanksgiving. Not very traditional I know but I saw them at a work luncheon and I had to give them a try....

The egg portion is sugar cookie and the bacon is pretzel sticks. Too cute. Or at least I thought so.

The yoke was the most difficult part to make. I made flattened balls of cookie dough and after baking I dipped them in yellow-orange icing and allowed them to dry. I then used a little icing to glue the yokes to the main cookie and then flooded the main cookie with white icing.

And voila... A sure fire way to get your kids to eat eggs!!!

TWD: White Loaves

Hello Tuesday! Tuesday with Dorie that is. Today is the start of a new baking adventure using the world famous book Baking with Julia. This week's TWD selection of White Loaves is brought to you by Laurie and Jules. You can find the recipe on Jules' blog.

So how did my loaves fare? Take a look...

Lovely, puffy, loaves. Loaves so full of yeast I feared they would take over my kitchen.



Just out of the oven. Can't you just smell the aroma of freshly baked bread?



Ah, bread. If it weren't for you I would still fit in my pants!

TWD: Apple Nut Muffin Cake

Dorie had a kitchen emergency and turned her Apple Nut Muffins into cake. I did the reverse and turned Dorie's Apple Nut Muffin Cake into muffins!

Yum. Apples, nuts, raisins, nothing says Fall like apple desserts.



This week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection was made by Katrina of Baking and Boys.

Thanks, Katrina, for a winning selection!

TWD: Cocoa Salt and Pepper Shortbread

This week's Tuesday with Dorie selection was made by Tia of Buttercream Barbie. I was intrigued by the thought of salt & pepper in a sweet cookie so I quickly baked up a batch, but...



...I wasn't impressed. The salt & pepper that I sprinkled on top added a surprising kick when you took a bite, but the cookie itself was kinda dull. I ate a couple and thought, "These just aren't worth the calories."

Maybe they needed more sugar (they weren't sweet at all). Or maybe they needed more cocoa. Hard to pin-point the problem, but they were definitely not a "keeper".

Sorry Dorie. This is the first recipe from the book that I didn't care for...

TWD: Clasic Brownies

I tend to prefer cakelike brownies over fudgy brownies, but these fudgy little gems were pretty darn good. Dorie Greenspan in "Baking from My Home to Yours" describe them as "Fudgy but not gooey, intensely chocolaty, dry on top and melty in the middle." That about describes them perfectly.

Many thanks, Anne, of Anne Strawberry for making this week's TWD selection. Go to Anne's web page for the recipe and check out TWD - Tuesdays with Dorie for links to the other "Classic Brownies" renditions.

Amanda's iPhone Cake

My 10 year old niece wanted an iPhone for her birthday. Her dad said “NO, absolutely positively NO”, so I made her an iPhone cake instead. She got a kick out of it, and her friends did too.



I can't believe it, but this is the first decorated cake that I’ve made in over a year and a half. It has been a rough, rough 18 months. To emotional and upsetting to think about decorating cakes, but I’m hoping and praying that things will get better.

Anyway the cake is half red velvet and half chocolate fudge. I made the app icons out of polymer clay and the rest of the decorations are made from Wilton’s fondant. Yuck!! I think that stuff tastes like flavorless wax, but a kid at the party actually loved the stuff. Weird kid.



Here are the app icons coming together. The assembly wasn't hard, but it was very time consuming. I think I spent about 8 hours making all the 17 app icons. My favorite is the "Map". It has little tiny roads, an interstate sign, and a red push pin. Too cute.

TWD: Golden Brioche Loaves

Dorie Greenspan's Golden Brioche Loaves have long been on my baking "to do" list, but it took Margie of Tea and Scones to push it to the top of my baking agenda. Margie selected the recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie's weekly baking assignment. Check out Margie's blog for the recipe and TWD for other version of this French classic.

So how did my first attempt at Brioche go??
Well not too bad, it baked up slightly darker than "golden", but it still had a great taste and light, pillowy texture.

So here it the life cycle of my Brioche (in pictures of course)...

Step 1: Yeast, water, milk, flour, and salt after a few quick pulses.


Step 2: Add the eggs.


Step 3: Add the butter, a little bit at a time. This step took FOREVER. Who would have thought it would take so long to incorporate the butter into the dough.


Step 4: All the butter incorporated into the dough. Beat for about 10 minutes till the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.


Step 5: Transfer to a bowl, and let the "rising" begin.


Step 6: A few hours later, let the "rising" end.


Step 7: Cut the dough into two (or four) equal pieces. (I didn't have two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans so I used four mini pans. ) Cut each piece of dough into 4 equal pieces and roll into logs.


Step 8: Arrange 4 logs crosswise in the bottom of each pan. Sticky, sticky dough.


Step 9: Leave the dough at room temperature until the dough almost fills the pans. Oops, my loaves rose a little too much.

Step 10: Bake the loaves until golden brown. I cooked mine for about 25 minutes and they came out a bit too brown and a little dry. So next time I would stop at about 20 minutes.



So like I said, a little dry and a little too brown, but not half bad for my first loaf of Golden Brioche!!!

TWD: Cream Scones

Light, moist and delicately crumbly. This simple scone has lovely taste and wonderful texture. I had one and then another, and when no one was looking, I had a third.

And apparently I wasn't the only one to think these scones were amazing, cause all 12 of these little beauties disappeared in just a few minutes.



Thanks Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu for an excellent Tuesdays with Dorie selection. It is now one of my favorites. Check out Lynn's site for the recipe or find in on page 17 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours.

PS: I did make a few minor modifications to the recipe. I used 7 tablespoons of butter instead of 5, I used 4 tablespoons of sugar instead of 2 (plus I sprinkled some additional sugar on top), and I added a teaspoon of almond extract. I baked them for 19 minutes (my oven runs hot) on a baking stone.

I hope yours turn out as amazing as mine :)

TWD: Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I've been a bad blogger lately :(

I've been baking goodies once, twice and even thrice a week, but not blogging about any of them (bad, bad, blogger). What can I say: work, life, parties, holidays, watering my drought parched lawn, lots of things have gotten in the way.

But today on this sweltering July 4th afternoon, I made some mid-year resolutions...

1) I will blog on everything I bake,
2) I will stop using my treadmill as laundry line and start exercising again, and
3) I will try to see the good in people and situations. Note to self: stop being so negative.

So here is my first blog in a while, TWD's Chocolate Chunk Muffins. So good, so chocolaty, so moist and delicious. Thanks, Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles, for a great selection.



Next week Cream Scones (yummm, my favorite).

TWD: Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

Not much to look at, but mighty tasty nonetheless.



Many thanks Lindsey from A Little Something... Sweet! for selecting this week's TWD recipe: Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits.

Think cornbread, think scone, then think of them merged together. Yes, that's it! That is what these little gems taste like. Crumbly and soft with just a hint of sweetness. Very good. Too good to eat just one.

Thanks, Lindsey, for a great selection.