Recent Baking Adventures

Fall 2018 - Apple Fritter Bites. Whoa, these were way too easy to make considering how unhealthy and delicious they are. Recipe here, best when fresh.

Jo's Birthday cake, made to her specifications. "Strawberry cake with vanilla frosting, and blueberries on top."

January 2019 - We got snowed in for a week, so to stave off cabin fever, I baked a few recipes from Mastering The Art of Baking. 

Palmiers (made with homemade puff pastry):

(Not as good as I hoped they'd be.)

Hot Cross Buns:

The recipe called for an apricot jam glaze, but as I had no apricot jam, I used strawberry instead. You can see the difference in color in the first picture. After baking:

These were very rich and filling, and tasted like British Christmas. I did use candied citrus peel (homemade) as the recipe called for, but if I made them again, I'd leave it out. It's not my favorite flavor.

Focaccia:

SO good. End of story.

Micah's Birthday cake (the smash cake, which he didn't actually smash):

And in mid-March, I made 8 dozen lemon cupcakes with raspberry buttercream for a baby shower:

Love and Butter,

Leah Joy

Catching Up on Some Baking Adventures

Caleb bought us a deep fryer, which was a super delicious decision, though perhaps not a very healthful one.

I tried to make doughnuts. The ones pictured below were my first attempt. They tasted good, but they were too dense. They were a very cakey doughnut, and I wanted a light yeast doughnut.

My second attempt was the Pioneer Woman's recipe. They were so good, I didn't even get a picture of them. :)

In sort-of-related news, here's Chloe's birthday cake from this Spring. I've been experimenting with different piping techniques to add some variety to my cakes.

I really like how this one turned out!

Love and Sugar,

Leah Joy

Cinnamon Roll Couronne

Any other fans of The Great British Baking Show?

I was fascinated when they made couronnes, and wanted to make my own. I found a recipe for a cinnamon roll version, which sounded way better than anything they made on the show. I mean, come on. Cinnamon and sugar... Mmmm....

Once I got it into a ring, I took a picture, just in case it turned out horribly. I wanted to be able to see that it had been pretty at least at one point. :)

But it turned out beautifully!

And it sliced into beautiful cinnamon rolls.

While it was a lot of work, it's a beautiful result, and I would definitely consider making it again for a special occasion.

The only thing I would do differently is make some sort of rim around the edge of the baking sheet to catch all the oozing butter/sugar goodness. A lot of it dripped to the bottom of the oven and made the whole house smell like burnt sugar.

Mmmm....

Bonus picture of some football brownies I made for the Super Bowl. The laces were piped with a powdered sugar icing in a zip-top bag.

Love and Cinnamon,

Leah Joy

Christmas Truffles (2017)

And now for an out-of-season Christmas post!

Many of you may be familiar with my 'Cookie List'. It began in high school, as a way to give something to my friends, even when I couldn't afford a gift. It has since morphed into a way to give gifts to co-workers and church friends. (Read a better description here.)

Last fall, Caleb started a new job. At his previous job, he had a very clearly defined department, and it was easy to bring in a box of goodies for each person in his department. In his new job, the office is a very open space, and bringing in a box for just a few people would be, well, rude. Not wanting to make up boxes for all 30-something people in his office, we decided on a truffle buffet! (I know, right!)

Jo helped me bring in and set up a beautiful display of truffles. (It was also a great chance to meet some of Caleb's co-workers.)

Jo got to try one, too. Mmmm....

We also brought in a bunch of little paper-board boxes so they could pack some up to bring home. It was a big hit, and we plan to do something similar this year!

Love and Chocolate,

Leah Joy

Mastering the Art of Baking: Brioche Buns, Meringue Cookies, and Soda Bread

This June, I had a day where I just really wanted to bake, so I picked a few recipes from my book and kept going until we ran out of eggs and flour. Here are the results.

I started with the recipe for brioche buns. These are delicious, which is probably because in addition to being a yeast bread, they also have a ton of butter and eggs thrown in. Because all of these ingredients retard the yeast (thanks, Paul Hollywood), brioche takes FOREVER to rise. By the time these were ready to bake, I had run out of eggs for the glaze, so they don't look as pretty and shiny as they should.

However, they tasted amazing. So rich, tender, buttery, flaky... mmmm.

They took a lot of work and time, so I won't be making them regularly, but for a special occasion? Absolutely.

Next, I made meringue cookies. Have you ever had a meringue cookie? I hadn't, and had no idea what they tasted like, or what their texture was like. Well, I love them! I want to make them all the time. (And yet I don't, because I'm lazy.)

I decided to pipe them into roses just because I can. And roses are prettier than dollops.

For the record, anytime I think about meringue cookies, I think it in Michel's accent from Gilmore Girls. (S2:E7 when he tells Lorelai he'll come and pick her up if she gets him low-fat American cheese and a meringue cookie.)

Finally, I made Irish soda bread. Everyone else loved this recipe, but all I could taste was baking soda, so this was not a winner for me.  But it was fun to make.

Love and Meringue,

Leah Joy

Easy Party Treat: Brownie Skewers

Need an easy party dessert that looks more impressive than a pan of brownies?

I mean, I love brownies, but every now and then, I go to a party where a pan of brownies seems like a cop-out dessert. Like, you couldn't have tried any harder?

(Hey, imagined heckler! Those brownies are from scratch!)

Enter the brownie skewer. I did not invent these, but I'm a big fan. I made a large quantity for a large party, and they were a big hit. I actually baked 2 whole 9x13 pans of brownies to cut into 1-1.5" squares. I added marshmallows and fruit to add some color and variety.

Aren't they pretty?!

I also made THM-friendly ones by making THM brownies and skipping the marshmallows.

(I wasn't kidding when I said I made a lot. I filled two trays!)

Love and CHOCOLATE,

Leah Joy

4th of July Treats

I've decided to stop apologizing for posting things here months after they happen in real life. Reminder to self: this is not a fancy lifestyle blog; this is a record for myself, and anyone who cares to share in it is welcome.

So, I have a bit of a history of attempting ambitious recipes for the 4th of July. I don't normally make a lot of themed foods, but the 4th of July and Christmas are my weaknesses.

This year, after watching lots of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, I wanted to attempt a roll cake. I found this recipe/pattern over at Sugary Winzy. Her directions were super clear and helpful! (She also has several other great 4th of July treat ideas I want to try in the future.)

When I pulled the roll cake out of the oven, I immediately rolled it up inside a tea towel, per the instructions. But I think I left it a little longer than I was supposed to (because I have a toddler), and when I unrolled the towel, my cake was in 6 pieces! However, I decided to not give up, and when I rolled it up with the cream, it all stuck together. The cake still has huge cracks, but I'm not in a baking competition here.  I really like how the colors turned out.

As for flavor, it was good, but not great. My family and I are kind of cake snobs, because we have such good recipes that we usually make. But you can't make just any recipe for a roll cake. 

If I made this again, I would try to get the colored portions much thinner. I'm not a fan of food coloring; besides the ingredients list, I think it adds a funny flavor. In a cake this thin, that flavor was more noticeable to me. You can see below that the colored portion is probably a little unnecessarily thick.

Here's a picture of a slice of it. It had been sitting out for several hours at this point, so most of the cream had soaked into the cake.

I also made my own puff pastry to make pizza pinwheels. I used the puff pastry recipe from Mastering the Art of Baking by Anneka Manning.

Of course, these aren't 4th of July themed at all, but they were still very delicious. You can find a recipe for this sort of thing all over the internet.

As for anyone who tells you puff pastry is hard to make, they are probably misspeaking. Unless you live somewhere incredibly hot, like the Equator or the Sun, it's not hard to make - but it is time-consuming. I made this in July in Michigan, which, granted, is not the hottest place in the world, but it was in the 80s. Just keep putting your pastry back in the fridge between turns to keep your butter from melting. The recipe said to refrigerate for 20 minutes between turns, but I let it go 30 minutes because of the heat.

Once I had the pastry ready, I rolled it out on parchment, then quickly put it back in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then I applied the sauce and toppings, quickly rolled it up, then put it back in the fridge for a bit while I got the next step ready. I brushed the whole outside of the log with a tiny bit of olive oil and sprinkled with Italian spices and then - you guessed it - put it back in the fridge for a while.  After that, I sliced them, and then put them back in the fridge one last time while I preheated the oven.

These were amazing, and lasted about 20 minutes at the party. I also brought semi-homemade pizza sauce for dipping.

I highly recommend making your own puff pastry. It is not difficult; it just requires patience.

Love and Fireworks,

Leah Joy

A New Series: Mastering the Art of Baking

For my birthday in 2015, my brother and his then girlfriend (now wife!) gave me this beautiful cookbook from my Amazon wishlist.

I'd found it at the library while shelving. Normally, I'm not one to want to own cookbooks. I get most of my recipes from the internet, plus I find it hard to justify all the space a cookbook takes up when I only like 3 of the recipes.

However, this book is different. I started to flip through the pages, and realized I wanted to make almost every recipe I saw. To be fair, there are several recipes I will never make because I hate feta cheese, but for the most part, I felt like I was looking through a magical book.

Mastering the Art of Baking by Anneka Manning:

(Isn't it beautiful?!)

A few months after my birthday, I gave birth, and I never got around to trying a recipe from the book. I felt like this was something I needed to be able to give a lot of attention to, and I just hadn't had that attention.

Until this spring, when I blocked off a weekend to learn to make choux pastry (and eclairs from that pastry).

Here's my first batch of piped eclairs:

Unfortunately, even after being baked much longer than the recommended time, they were still quite raw inside when I sliced them open. I'm sure they were safe to eat, but no one really wants a doughy eclair.

And this is the part where I have to apologize and promise to work harder to take pictures in the future. I honestly just forgot. I got caught up in the baking, and then the eating, so I have no pictures of the finished product!

At this point, I was upset, but decided to try again. This second time, I tried to cook more liquid off on the stove. After being baked, however, they were still raw inside (though not as raw as the first attempt). This time, I sliced them all open, scooped out the worst of the insides, and then put them back in the oven to dry out the insides that way.

Though unorthodox, this worked. I still hope to figure out what was wrong with my recipe, and have a few other things I can try.

Rather than filling them with the traditional creme patisserie, I instead filled them with whipped chocolate ganache. I glazed them with a simple chocolate glace frosting, just like the book suggested.

Because of the ganache, these were very rich, unlike a traditional eclair, but I thought they were delicious, as did everyone who got to try one.

Love and Ganache,

Leah Joy

P.S. Reminder to self: MAKE THESE AGAIN.