Hood River Weekend

I am spending the weekend with my brother Ken and it was a day of variety! We started by going to a fruit stand where I got over 40 lbs of apples in my three favorite varieties. I made Apple Crisp and dried some apples this afternoon...I ate about half the slices before the apples were done! mmm mmm good! Not a new recipe, but a goodie nonetheless! I ate deer sausage for lunch and elk pepperoni this afternoon...and Chantrell mushrooms (why I was so adventurous I do not know!)




We went horseback riding and I got up to a trot quite a few times...and I am already sore! It was such a nice day for a ride and the fall leaves here are super beautiful!





After dinner and chores, we carved some pumpkins and I think they turned out really well!!! Now I am ready for bed...but did I mention that I got a two hour nap in this afternoon! It was GOOD!






Hopefully I will make lots of new recipes to share this week!

Long Lost Cooking Challenge

I have been slacking on my posts more thank I have been slacking on my recipes. I have not kept up with the 5 recipes per week, but I will still accomplish my goal of all recipes in 50 weeks. So what have I completed in the last month??? Cream cheese frosting, Chocolate toffee cake with chocolate mouse, toffee, and ganache, Creme caramel, Apple crisp, and quite a few repeats of recipes I have already completed. Once people try something they want me to make it over and over again. While I enjoy making things that people enjoy, I need to get back on track with the challenge. The weight loss is going well. I have lost almost 20 lbs! Christine came to visit from Virginia and she chose two different cakes. I went grocery shopping and came home with fat and sugar!
I thought I would be ambitious and make them both for her, but a fever had other plans and I did not want to cook when I was sick...for obvious reasons. I did manage to make the Chocolate toffee cake and it got rave reviews. It was too sweet for me but a winner in teh cookbook challenge because it took 4 total recipes to make the cake!!!


I made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...the carrot cake was my usual recipe rather than the one from this cookbook, but I did make the cream cheese (mmm mmm mmm) from the book!


I used Apples in the Fruit Crisp recipe and it was very easy to make and I could see myself making that recipe over and over again!!! I used my apple peeler, slicer, corer on the apples and had enough apples for the recipe in no time!


I made Creme caramel for Friends dinner and Matthias was my photo subject of the evening. The recipe called for whole egge whereas creme brulee is just the egg yolks. I thought the creme caramel tasted too much like eggs and was blan other than that. Some people, who also like flan, really liked the recipe. i might try the caramel at the bottom of the creme brulee and see it that is better!!! The concept of creme caramel is cool though. You put the liquid caramel in the bottom of the ramekins and then pour the custard over the top and baked. The longer you let the custard cool, the more caramel that spills over the custard when you take it from the ramekin!!!

Traffic

I am stuck in traffic!!! My drive home thus far has taken almost 3 times as long and I am only halfway home. Traffic is backed up where 3 roads converge ...i can see my apartment and could probably walk there in 15 minutes...and I am wearing shoes that would be fine for a hike...tempting!
Michelle

FAILURE

My last post was about Berry Cobbler and I worte it and the cobbler was cooking. After it had finished cooking, we let it cool and then cut into it.....it was really juicy....too juicy! The taste was great, but I probably should have cooked it a bit longer. I had not planned to make every recipe successfully it was more that I just wanted to try every recipe...but failure kills me. This past weekend I attempted Berry Cobbler again. this time I washed the berries and then let them dry on paper towels. I also cooked the sauce just a bit longer so it was thicker. I cooked the cobbler longer than the recipe sugggested unitl the top was really brown but not burnt. I let it set up for an hour or so and then cut into it. Again there was still a lot of liquid. AAARRRGGGH! The taste is good and it goes great with Vanilla bean ice cream.

On another side note...what happens when you find a recipe you like and you make it over and over again??? That is what I have found with the Chocolate cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting. While it is definitely a crowd pleaser it does not help me in my quest for five recipes a week!!! Pictures to follow!

Raspberry Cobbler

Reporting again from the Hunacek household, I checked off a Berry Cobbler from the list tonight. I like cooking at someone else's house because I get to go home to a clean kitchen!!! Raspberries were buy one get one free so that was the berry of choice. This recipe is great for a dinner party because it was really quick to prepare and then I popped it in the over for 45 minutes...would be great to cook during dinner and be ready to serve was after dinner! They say to serve this with homemade vanilla bean ice cream, but I went the quick way by picking a carton out of the freezer section at Safeway.
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Italian Plum Tart...aka whisk, whisk, whisk

I made an Italian Plum Tart this morning at Mike & Melissa's. I taught Isaac the importance of whisking as I was making the pastry cream layer for the tart. I gave him a whisk so we both could whisk and I would say "whisk, whisk, whisk" and he would smile and giggle! It was pretty cute! I used the plums that Melissa had been given "free" rather than Italian plums and I think they were not as sweet. I do not like plums in general but I did try the finished product.


The process to make the plum tart was fun. I rolled out of bed this morning and made the crust and put it in the fridge while I got ready...that is odd to think about..."oh, yeah I made a tart this morning before I took a shower". I had never dealt with plums and I had to cut them in half and put them on a pan layered in butter and sugar. I am good at make pastry cream and this time it was the consistency that I had been expecting...I think it was because I did not have to cool the cream before putting it in the pan. I got to use a mortar and pestle to grind up the almonds to put in the pastry cream.


The juices from the plums began to bubble and the tastes melded together. I served the tart with a little dollop of whip cream which melted over the tart. It was a nice dessert but a little tart (a second use of the word "tart"). Moving forward. I have now made 13 recipes...more fruit dishes this week!!!

Help Wanted: Dishwasher

This weekend my kitchen exploded! At the beginning of this challenge I anticipated the great desserts, the self restraint challenge and even the cost to my budget (which is adding up nicely), but I did not anticipate how hard it would be to keep my kitchen clean. I completed 7 recipes over the weekend and my kitchen is still recovering. It needs a lot of attention this evening and definitely needs to be spic and span clean by this weekend and before I attempt any more desserts. It does not help that my dishwasher takes what seems like 3 hours to complete a cycle and even then it does not always do its job. Whining aside, I made three fabulous desserts this weekend!!

Yellow Butter Cake with Quick Buttercream Frosting

For my friend Megan's birthday, I made her a Yellow Butter Cake with fresh Strawberries and vanilla buttercream frosting. I cannot believe this cake looked as good as it did when I was finished because the process was fraught with near disasters. This is a dense cake and I could definitely notice this in the batter. I filled the two cake pans a little too full and watched as they rose over the top of the cake pans...this made my baking time a bit longer and I was afraid they would be dry in parts and not done in the middle. The cake finished baking and I let them sit for a few minutes before attempting to remove them from the pans. It was not as clean of a transition as I am used to and the fact that the cake pan gets wider at the top does not help matters. The cake sides were a bit crumbly and I hurriedly cut them, sealed them in syran wrap and put them in the freezer while I cut the berries and made the frosting.

Has anyone heard of Mascerated Strawberries? It does not sound as good as it really is!!! My cookbook suggested pairing this cake with mascerated strawberries and a vanilla buttercream frosting and it had a picture to die for!!! I could not find any mention in the cookbook on what I needed to mix with or do to the strawberries so I looked online and got to work!! I mixed 1/4 c Triple Sec and 1/4 c sugar with a bowl full of cut strawberries and an hour later when I could not wait any longer, I started assembling the cake using these delicious strawberries...they were good!!

The title of the frosting was Quick Buttercream, but I had to make a pastry cream base and put it in the fridge for a half hour...QUICK??? And then I had to cream the butter for 10 minutes. I can definitely drive to the store and get a few tubs of frosting faster than make this frosting, but in the end, I loved this frosting!!! And once I creamed the butter, the rest of the recipe came together fairly Quick. I also use the Italian buttercream recipe from this cookbook and I always stress out because you have to cook it than add the hot syrup to the egg mixture and completely cool it before adding the butter and the hopefully after the mixer runs for ten minutes, frosting forms. This recipe i can see results before I start to panic!! That is a good thing in my world! As I mentioned earlier, I had to make a pastry cream base and let it cool. This was a similar recipe to the pastry cream in the fruit tart, but I whisked away from the beginning and it had a smoother consistency than my last attempt but after it cooled it was a solid consistency rather than my (again)anticipation that it would be more like pudding. Do I just have a false sense of what it should be like or am I cooking it too long???

Fresh Fruit Tart

My goal of 5 recipes a week was accomplished almost solely from this recipe. I tallied four recipes in the creation of this fresh fruit tart. The creation consisted of a Berry Sauce, Pastry Cream, fresh fruit, and Pate Sucre.




Berry Sauce-
The recipe called for a berry liquor and I spent another bit of time in the liquor store for baking supplies...I have been to three different places so as to not look like an alcoholic (haha, just kidding it happened to depend on where I was in the Tri-cities). I pureed some fresh raspberries, sugar and berry liquor until it thickened and then I had to strin it into a bowl. At first, just the thin liquid came through the strainer and I thought that the berry sauce had failed, but I slowly used a spoon on the bottom of the strainer and the thick sauce began to emerge. The berry seeds soon clogged the strainer but I got enough sauce for the recipe that I gave up on the strainer and dumped the seeds. I put it in the fridge and moved on to the Pastry Cream.


Pastry cream-
When I think of pastry cream, I think of something with a consistancy of pudding. This was a vanilla bean pastry cream that set up faster than I was anticipating. I was doing other things in the kitchen and realized by cream mixture was already think and I started whisking in an attempt to not burn the bottom. I think I caught it just in time, but the mixtures was probably a bit overdone. I put it in the fridge to cool and started working on my crust pate sucre.

The Crust-
I have had trouble in the past with dough of all kinds. I will be a pro by the time I finish this book!! The Pate Sucre is a sweeter crust and everything went beautifully until I had to roll it out. The book said to make an 11" circle, but as you can see a circle is not what I managed. Luckily this was going in a tart pan and nobody could see where I patched in pieces here and there.


I used red respberries, golden raspberryies, blackberries, and blueberries on top of the pastry cream (under the berry sauce). My initial thought was to drizzle the berry sauce in a fun pattern over the berries, but the first attempt resulted in less than desireable results so I decided to cover the whole tart...which covered my hard work on the berries, but by the time I served the tart the berry sauce settled and revealed the berry pattern. It was delicious even though I typically do not eat any of the berries that were on top of the tart.

I do love my Pampered Chef Tart Pan! Everything I bake seems to slide right out of the pan.

I had some leftover crust so I decided to make a few little tarts as well. My little tart cups worked awesome. I sprayed them and then stuffed in the crust and baked them until they were almost golden. I put the remaining Pastry Cream in the bottom of the cups, drizzled a little berry sauce and topped it with blueberryies and whipcream...a little bit of goodness in one bite!!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake with Mocha Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

I made a "Heavenly" chocolate cake with a mocha chocolate frosting this past weekend. The same thing happened this time around as the last time with the cake doming in the middleand making it hard to get four good layers. I made it work but think I will make the buttermilk chocolate cake when I am making chocolate cake in the future. I had a point in making the frosting where I thought it was ruined. The recipe called for instant espresso powder and I decided to use a shot of espresso rather than the powder. The second I put the espresso into the smooth melted chocolate it dried up and the texture was no longer smooth and silky. I added the mixture to the butter and eventually the frosting creamed back up and smoothed on the cake beautifully. I attempted white chocolate curls for the first time and they became white chocolate shavings...I read how to do the curls in another cookbook and will have to practice!!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Orange-Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

The next cake in the cookbook was a buttermilk cake. From what I have tasted so far, it is okay, but that is what I thought about the last cake. I like the orange flavor in the chocolate frosting. I think that the combo will be great, but I will wait until tomorrow to taste it. Again the frosting was really easy to make and the texture is so smooth. I made the cakes last night, cut the layers in half (but did not separate them)and then froze them.
Next time I will split them before I freeze them because it was not the easiest task to pry the two layers apart tonight.
I finally got the layers apart and assembled my four layer cake with frosting in between each layer. Four layers of this chocolate cake might require some milk!

Post Taste Test Opinion: I got some great reviews and some people thought that last week's cake was better and some that loved the slight orange flavor. "Wonderful! I found the tangy taste from OJ and Triple Sec make this very unusual. This is even better than the last one which is quite a feat! Absolutely fabulous!"

My Opinion: I like it, but there was not enough Orange flavor for me...it was a delicious dessert but not too orange.

Why am I doing this challenge? I am not doing this challenge for the gratification that people like my baking but more for the challenge of making all the recipes in the book, developing some favorites, and proving you can eat sweets and lose weight. I do like hearing people's opinions when they start talking like a food critic...not just that it is good but more that the cake has a soft texture and the frosting is super smooth or about the sweetness or tartness.



I have decided to skip a few recipes for now to take advantage of the fresh fruit in season so the next few posts will be berries, peaches, and plums. I am having a good time just looking at the recipes in this book and pairing things up to make it easier to get in about 5 recipes per week! Hope you are enjoying the pictures.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake w/ Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

One thing that is nice about a dessert cookbook is that you can knock out a few recipes for one creation. Last night's creation was old-fashioned chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.I made the cake up ahead of time so I could cool it and divide the layers. My cakes mounded in the middle so I was not able to get four flat layers, but I will try again paying more attention to how my batter is in my pans. I cut the topes of the cakes into cubes and built a chocolate cake pyramid with layers of whipped topping in between. This was my first taste of the cake at is was good...but I have had better...even from a box. Not that this was not a good cake because it is but I may add some chocolate chips or maybe infuse the cake with hot fudge or caramel.
This was my first successful attempt at making chocolate frosting (besides the jiffy just add water froting). I think watching as I put in the ingredients was half the fun.
I am using my Grandma's old mixer to do the frosting and it worked beautifully! The frosting was so creamy and spread nicely onto the cakes. I got a little taste of the frosting to see if it met my expectations. It reminds me of a creamy ganache rather than a super sugary frosting. I am excited to see what my co-workers say as they devour it.





Post Taste Test: I tried a sliver of the cake and it was really good. I got great reviews from my co-workers.
Absolutely phenomenal! It was rich but light all at the same time – almost like a mousse. I could eat it every day - thanks so much!

Very Good! Thanks and make more please.
I call this recipe combo a success. I was thinking of what I could do to make it even better!!! I thought about some fresh fruit and a dollop of whipped cream.