Tuesday, March 20, 2012

TWD: Irish Soda Bread

Keeping up with the baking group is the challenge but I have done two in a row. This Tuesday's was Irish Soda Bread. What better time to attempt this challenge than on St Paddy's Day. The kids had all come home for a beer tasting dinner Friday night. Sierra Nevada Beer was the brewery and was a fun evening had by all.
The next day being St. Patrick's day we planned a corned beef and cabbage dinner. What better time to try Irish Soda Bread. Jessica took on the corned beef and cabbage. The corned beef cooked in crock pots all day. The cabbage she grilled and then steamed with a little Guinness.
I pulled out the simple ingredients for the bread. Flour, buttermilk, baking soda and salt. I had a little helper, Wyatt and another helper that distracted the little helper!
The thing I worried most was doing too much. Stirring till it comes together begs the question, what does that actually mean??? I did the bare minimum than plopped the dough onto the counter for a little knead.
As you can see from the pictures it isn't exactly that smooth dough look that I thought it should have but again I didn't want to do to much.
Miracle of miracles it came out great. I did not add the currants I bought because I wanted it simple for the dinner. It tasted great with the corned beef and cabbage. The timing was perfect because it was hot for dinner. Everyone loved it. The grandson ate two buttered pieces happily. I will never know if it were to get hard sitting because there was none left!!
This was the simplest bread to bake. I can seeing doing this again and am exited to try some of the combinations I have seen on other blogs - sweet and savory.


Tuesday, March 6, 2012

TWD : Rugelach

I missed the last TWD which was Chocolate Truffle Tartlets. It would of been lovely to try (and eat) but instead I celebrated my birthday. There were plenty of goodies; macarons, chocolate bars,browned butter with salt cookies and a Miette Chocolate cake. I needed time to recover!
This TWD assignment was Rugelach. I have heard of them but never had one. Never actually seen one. The adventure was on. One thing I have learned with this recipe is that reading the whole recipe first is a must. If I had waited till Tuesday I would have dough to show.

The dough seem to come together okay. I thought all the butter and cream cheese would make the dough delicious to nibble but no. Salt was an after thought (remember read and read again) I patted them into rectangles, put in frig and called it day one. My Romba / Bear did floor clean up for me.

Day two, I read the recipe and realized again that I should of paid more attention to the recipe. I would not of had to buy apple butter (because googling in the grocery store I learned that was the closest item that came to lekvar). After reading again I realized I had what I needed to make lekvar. I also learned that I had Amaretto it just wasn't labeled as such. I rolled the dough out and with the help of a tape measure came close to 14 x 10 rectangle. Hopefully at the end of all this it will be SO much easier. Filled some of the dough with apricot lekvar and some with mini chocolate chips. Back into the frig end of day 2.

Day three, time for the egg wash and cinnamon/sugar/nut bath! After a 22 minute bake in the oven they came out looking just like the picture. Oh what a relief. I sat down with a cup of tea and plowed through four in no time at all. I don't know if they taste like they should but they did taste good and with a cup of tea a bit of heaven.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Pumpkin Pancakes

We usually make pancakes on Sunday mornings and this weekend I chose to do some pumpkin pancakes to change it up a bit. They were AMAZING!! Wyatt loved them too so we will definitely be making them again.

Here is the recipe:

2 cups of your favorite pancake mix
3 tbs brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (omit the pumpkin pie spice & vanilla if you use pumpkin pie puree as it is already flavored)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs vegetable oil (plus some additional for griddle)

Combine wet ingredients then add your dry ingredients and cook on your griddle or flat pan.


Super easy and super yummy!
Enjoy!