oops.

Well, little baking blog. I'm not sure anyone reads you, and I don't really up date you...

BUT THAT WILL HOPEFULLY CHANGE!

Baked Before Class v2.0
Coming late December 2010 - January 2011

get ready.

winter break = lazy

bakin' in the kitchen. i miss that island.

Yes, winter break was very lazy in terms of blogging...but not baking! I have photos somewhere of all of my baking adventures, but to sum them up in a few words:

baking cupcakes (with amazing chocolate frosting) and white chocolate peppermint bark with Mom, Wendy, and Lauren. So much fun!

skeleton gingerbread men with Molly and our moms. A tradition! Not only did we make gingerbread, but lemon kiss cookies as well! inspired by this site, although we didn't use their recipe.

an attempt at making black and white cookies. The actual cookie was pretty tasty...the glaze not so much. These will be attempted again some day. The edges are slightly burned but you could never taste it. Our oven is a strange beast.

mmm, lemony black and white cookie dough.

Martha Stewart Tiramisu cupcakes on New Years! Not bad...definitely have to try it again

lots of chocolate chip cookies.

As for my return to baking on campus...I made the best cookies last week! They're cappuccino fudge crinkles, which are deliciously chewy cookies rolled in sugar. The recipe was simple and produced great cookies that didn't last long. Find it here. My cookies didn't look quite like that but it was probably because I didn't have cocoa powder like I thought I did. Instead, I used some mocha powder Casey had and they turned out great.

I also made banana oat muffins two nights ago with this recipe. I really like their site; the photography is gorgeous. And the muffins turned out well! although I realized I used half a cup of banana instead of the whole cup. Still taste great, but with that full cup they'll have a richer banana taste. Breakfast just got better.

It's good to be back on campus! Classes are off to a good start and are going well. I've signed up for a Co-Op shift and will hopefully have a radio show with Claire, so extracurriculars will be exciting! And I plan on some more exciting baking...as soon as I pick up vanilla extract.

love.

vegan cookies and crazy cupcakes.

Last night, Casey, Deanna, Liam, Andrew, and I made vegan chocolate chip cookies. Although, we made a first batch from a different recipe and they were awful. It only tasted like the chocolate chips we put in them. But the second recipe, from Everyday Dish, was great and worked so well. And they were fantastic. Needless to say, they're gone now after 24 hours later.

And now...something from thisiswhyyourefat.com

CUPCAKE KEBABS!
real baking will commence over break for now....finals.

<3

winter break baking #1

These scream me. I will make them!
LOOK AT THESE!
I'm so excited!
<3

A challenge!

Can you really compete with Girl Scouts?
As of now, not really. But one day I will. And I'll win.

A week ago (two weeks ago? I can't keep track of time!), I tried my hand at some homemade thin mints in our crowded kitchen. Look at that! People just don't clean up in communal kitchens and it's so annoying. Okay, so maybe some of that stuff is mine (the blue bowl, measuring cups, chocolate chips, and tin foil, but otherwise the dirty dishes in the background are NOT mine!) but it was so crowded in there. Anyways.

I had time to bake and this cookie recipe took a lot of time. You need to make the dough, roll them into logs and freeze them for an hour or so, and then slice and bake. Pretty simple, but time consuming. I started baking with Danielle and we embarked on the task together.


The batter is interesting. There's no egg and it's very, very dry, but you just have to keep mixing it until it becomes dough. Towards the end, I just ended up sticking my hands in the chocolate mix and kneading it by hand. Worked just as well but it definitely didn't feel like cookie dough. But it tasted alright! Chocolate and peppermint extract...can't go wrong. After the dough was finished, I rolled them into the logs and, well, let's just say Danielle and I couldn't help but laugh.

Seriously. I mean, come on. It's funny looking! You know what we were thinking.

Actually, I could have made them thinner, definitely, since Thin Mints are, well, thin. And they're not soft cookies so biting into a thick homemade thin mint might hurt. After freezing them for an hour, I sliced them and placed them on baking sheets and waited. They're funny little biscuit-cookies. They don't expand and take shape like normal cookies. These guys, they just get a little harder, but not much. After the baking time, we took them out of the oven and let them cool. they looked like little hockey pucks, but luckily were much softer than one.



Of course, Thin Mints have a chocolate coating on top. Before we began dipping the biscuit-cookies in melted chocolate and butter, Danielle and I tried a plain one. Not bad. Although next time, maybe I'd up the peppermint extract and chocolate because I think some of the peppermint was lost in the baking process. After the cookies were cooled, we began dipping, which was probably the most fun. Who doesn't like melted chocolate? We set them on tin foil and carried them to the freezer to set (that required so much teamwork it was crazy). And that was my first foray into thin mints.

You might be wondering how the held up? Well...the feedback I got was basically all the same: good, strange, hard cookies but ultimately, like a thin mint. As for me, I'm not too sure. All that effort for an alright cookie? One day I'll try 'em again and slice the cookies thinner, but they did taste good, especially with a generous chocolate coating over them. People did eat them (although not as much as muffins or other cookies I've baked), so I'm happy. A good experiment and challenge overall.

The recipe was found here, and her thin mints look so much more authentic than mine. Definitely the slicing.

Oh, and look! It's almost Thanksgiving! Can't wait to get home and see friends and family and bake in a real kitchen.

<3

Speed Baking

A few weeks ago I was sent Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix from William-Sonoma in a package of Halloween candy from my mama! And so tonight I finally baked them since I'm running low on granola bars for breakfast and muffins are always great. And I have free time tonight while so of course I'm gonna bake.

I used the recipe they had on the side of the packaging for muffins, a slightly different procedure, and they baked for exactly twenty minutes. And they were good. Really good. Moist and pumpkiny with bits of pecan. Shared some with Casey, Claire, Danielle, Zoe, Josh, and good conversation ensued. That's the thing about baking, especially in dorms: people come together.

And now, mornings are going to be that much nicer with a muffin before class.
Also: floor birthdays mean more treats. Casey and I just got chocolate cupcakes made from the Bon. Oh, the Bon...eh. But it's a cupcake and sweet and tasty nonetheless.

So, what we have here are pumpkin muffins for the beginning of November. It's been sunny here and gorgeous with leaves swirling everywhere. It's felt a little like home, but wetter. And it's really nice.

<3

update: vegan banana muffins

Baked those guys again yesterday afternoon. Used a bit less batter in the muffin tins and got a full dozen this time. They tasted just as fantastic as they did the first time! So it wasn't a fluke :) Had twelve yesterday at 3:00ish, and now there are only four left.

<3