Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread

As we all know, I have the biggest kitchen crush on Joy Wilson, a.k.a. Joy the Baker. To my delight, she has teamed up with King Arthur Flour to host a "Baking Bootcamp". She is creating four different recipes using four different kinds of flour, and challenging her readers to make these recipes. Post pictures of your creations to instagram, with the hashtag #bakingbootcamp, and you're entered into a contest to win a year's supply of King Arthur Flour and a baking essentials package, put together by Joy herself. None of this is anything but awesome.

For her first recipe, using all-purpose flour, Joy has created a Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread. I'm not going to post the recipe, since I didn't make any changes. You can check it out on her site by clicking the link above. I will post some pictures I took of the process, and my finished product.

Yeast, milk, sugar, egg, melted butter = bubbly, yeasty soup.

After mixing and kneading, you end up with a neat little ball of dough to put in a bowl and let rise for an hour.

Cinnamon, butter, sugar. Perfect sweet, cinnamon-y filling you can make while the dough is rising. 

 

Spread the filling evenly on the rolled-out dough and place the rinsed and dried berries.

 

Roll up the dough, and cut in half, leaving about an inch connected at the end. 

"Braid" the dough and form a circle. Joy describes how to do this in depth. It's easier than I expected!

Quickly and carefully pick up the braided dough and place it in a cast iron skillet (or pan of some kind.) This was also easier than expected, but I can see the potential of it going badly. 

Brush the top with a beaten egg to get that perfectly browned top, and bake for 25 minutes, and you have a pan full of heaven. 

Let it cool and add a little powdered sugar, and it's perfect! It's so good! Like a big cinnamon bun, with a pop of fresh fruit.

Even if you aren't interested in the "Baking Bootcamp", you should treat yourself to this. I thought the recipe was a little intimidating, but it was a lot simpler than it seemed, and totally one of those recipes that makes you feel proud and accomplished.

Again, you can find the recipe here. Joy also has step-by-step instructions with pictures, which was really helpful!

Enjoy!

Something New

Alright, so it's been three months since I've posted anything. What are you gonna do? Work has been all-consuming, and I haven't been doing anything remotely interesting. I saw a community theatre production of Les Mis this past weekend, but I couldn't write a whole lot of positive things about it, so I decided to abstain from a review.

I have barely been cooking and haven't even thought about baking, let alone try a new recipe. Well, this afternoon I woke up (hey, don't judge, I'm on night shift tonight) and saw these three sad brown bananas on my counter. This happens fairly regularly... I buy a bunch of bananas, eat two or three, and forget about them until they're far too mushy for my liking. Today, instead of throwing them away, I decided to turn them into bread.

I started leafing through cookbooks, looking for a recipe. Turns out, I don't have any walnuts or pecans, so Banana Nut Bread was out. I was decided on plain old Banana Bread when I came across a recipe for Banana Bundt Cake. Ooh! Something new and different! I got excited about trying something new, so I pulled out every cookbook and just started looking for the word "banana". There was a recipe for Chocolate Chip-Banana Bars that was intriguing, but a little plain. Let's improvise!

So I took bits and pieces from a couple of different recipes and threw in a few of my own ideas, and we have "Chocolate-Covered Banana" Bars.

"Chocolate-Covered Banana" Bars

Ingredients

3/4 C. unsalted butter, softened

2/3 C. white sugar

2/3 C. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 ripe bananas

1 C. all-purpose flour

1 C. whole wheat flour

1/4 C. cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

12 oz. bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

powdered sugar to serve

Method

- In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add in the vanilla. Beat in the bananas until well-incorporated, and no chunks remain.

- Add in the flours, cocoa, baking powder, and salt all at once, and stir until well mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips.

- Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

- Remove from the oven and let cool. Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

They're very thick, cake-y bars. Plates and forks might be called for. They're also delicious!

Hopefully this is the start of a new wave of baking in my life. Let's hope you hear from me more often!



Enjoy!

Baked Coffee Cake French Toast

I made french toast for supper! What? I'm an adult. I can eat whatever I want.

I'm back in Virginia after two weeks at home in PA. I didn't want to run to the grocery store today, and I happened to have everything I needed to make this. Plus, I got to use my new cast iron skillet that I got from my gram for Christmas!

My time at home was wonderful! I had planned on staying for a little over a week, but it turned into two weeks when I couldn't make myself leave! I took lots of pictures, and there may be a post soon about the places I went and people I saw while I was home! It's funny how all through high school and college, I just wanted to move away to somewhere fun and exciting. Now, I'd rather be there with my family and old friends.... Maybe I'm growing up or something? Huh.

At least I'm not so grown up that I can't have french toast for supper!

Baked Coffee Cake French Toast

(adapted from the Joy the Baker cookbook)

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

10 slices of slightly stale whole wheat bread

4 eggs

1 1/2 C. vanilla soy milk

1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/3 C. sugar

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Topping:

1/2 C. flour

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 C. cold butter 

Method

- Melt the tablespoon of unsalted butter in a cast iron (or any oven-friendly) skillet. Coat the bottom and sides of the pan with the butter. Remove from heat.

- Cut the bread diagonally. Arrange the slices of bread in the buttered skillet, pointed side facing up. 

- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla until well-incorporated. Pour the mixture over the bread in the skillet, covering every slice as much as possible. (The bread will not be submerged.)

- Cover the skillet tightly with plastic wrap. (My wrap wouldn't cling to the cast iron, so I added a lid, too.) Refrigerate for anywhere from an hour to overnight. 

- When you're ready to bake, place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

- For the topping, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Using a fork, work the butter into the flour mixture, until it is coarse and crumbly.

- Remove the soaking bread from the refrigerator, uncover, and top with the crumb mixture. 

- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the custard in the bottom has set and the tops of the bread have started to toast. 

- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Scoop into bowls and top with powdered sugar or syrup.

This really is heavenly. The bottom turns into a kind of custard-y bread pudding. The part sticking out turns into buttery, cinnamon-y toast. It really would be great for breakfast or brunch. Especially since you can do everything the night before and just throw it in the oven in the morning. But... it was just as good for supper!

If you don't do the whole soy milk thing, the original recipe calls for 1 C. of whole milk and 1/2 C. of buttermilk instead of the soy milk and lemon juice. I've just been on a soy milk kick lately. I'm starting to like it better than cow's milk, so it's all I have on hand and I'm trying to substitute it in recipes. 

Enjoy!

Super Bowl S'mores

February is my month off from work. Since I'm a "seasonal" employee, I can only work 10 months out of the year. I have February off, and then another month sometime this summer. It's kind of glorious. Being away from work for a couple of weeks now has made me realize how much I bonded with some of my coworkers, though. There are a few people that I really miss!

A few days after our last day of work, I went to a Super Bowl party. I really didn't care about the actual game, but it was my last chance to hang out with most of my work friends before they went back to Florida until next season. I was also excited about the commercials, half time show, and the food! My hosts made buffalo chicken dip, baked beans, mac & cheese, cocktail weenies, amazing home-smoked bbq pork loin, and a glorious peanut butter pie.

My contribution was a couple of cases of beer, and these Red Velvet S'mores Bars.

They're soft and gooey and super sweet. I think they were a big hit, and I ate many more than I'm willing to admit. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, these would be great to make for someone special, too!

I got the recipe from Sugarcrafter. I didn't make many changes, because they were pretty perfect already. Although, I have to say... when I was eating the last one, I decided to experiment. A little peanut butter made them super-mega-awesome.

Red Velvet S'mores Bars

Ingredients

1 1/2 C. graham cracker crumbs

6 Tbsp. butter - melted

1 1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. softened butter

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 C. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3 heaping Tbsp. cocoa powder

2 Tbsp. red food coloring

2/3 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 C. marshmallow fluff
bag of marshmallows

Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom and sides of an 8"x8" cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.

- Combine the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter, then press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.

- Combine the cocoa powder, red food coloring, and 1 tsp. of the vanilla in a small bowl. It will create a red paste. 

- With an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add in the remaining tsp. of vanilla.

- Beat in the cocoa powder paste until the batter is a solid red. Add in the flour and salt, mixing until almost combined. Finish mixing by hand, and fold in the chocolate chips. Spread the batter over the graham cracker crust in the pan.

- Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the brownies are set.

- Remove from the oven and drop on the marshmallow fluff by spoonfuls while the brownies are still hot. Once the marshmallow is warmed and softened, spread it evenly. If it's difficult to spread, you can cover the pan for a minute or so, to soften the marshmallow.

- Preheat your oven's broiler. Cut about 18 marshmallows in half and lay (cut side down) on top of the marshmallow fluff. Place the pan under the broiler for 20-30 seconds, until the marshmallows are golden-brown. (Watch them carefully... they can go from brown to burned in the blink of an eye!) Let them cool completely before cutting.

They're super gooey... hence, difficult to cut. I just powered through. Coating your knife with nonstick spray can help. You could even put them in the freezer for awhile to harden up the marshmallow before cutting. They're totally worth it, though. They're sweet and delicious and decadent. Take them to a party, make them for that special someone, or heck, just make them as a treat for yourself!

 
Enjoy!

Pumpkin!

I love pumpkin. Pumpkin anything. Pie. Muffins. Coffee. Doughnuts. Ale. Ice Cream. Bread. Cake. So I got a couple of cans of pumpkin last week and went to town. I made the Pumpkin Bread from my fall baking list and I tried a homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Now there's a story behind the latte. The day I made it, I had been out and about all day, shopping and running errands and such. Well I decided I had a wicked craving for a pumpkin coffee. So I pull up to the Starbuck's drive-thru and order a Pumpkin Spice latte. The man on the other end of the speaker replies that they are out of Pumpkin Spice for the day. Worst Starbuck's ever. So I drove away. I figured I could still hit up Dunkin' for a pumpkin coffee. Wrong, apparently. I came to find out that my Dunkin' had closed and been all but torn down. At that point, I gave up.

So that's my story. I was forced to make my own pumpkin coffee from scratch. It turned out to be a good thing, since both the bread and the latte came out fantastically, if I may say so!

Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 5 eggs
- 1 1/4 C. vegetable oil
- 1 (15oz) can pumpkin
- 2 C. flour
- 2 C. sugar
- 2 (3oz.) pkgs. cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix (not instant)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. salt

Method
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs for about a minute. Add the oil and pumpkin, and beat until smooth.

- Combine the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt with a whisk.
 

- Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture. Mix until just combined.

- Pour the mixture into 2 greased loaf pans. (I cut the recipe in half, so I only used one.)

- Bake at 325 degrees F for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

- Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pretty simple recipe, but super delicious. It doesn't have great measurements to conveniently cut in half, but it's do-able. The eggs were the hardest, since it's weird to try for 2 1/2 eggs, but I pretty much just used 2 eggs plus one yolk. Maybe it's easier to just make the full recipe and freeze one, or give one away!


Pumpkin Spice Latte
Ingredients (Single Serving)
- 1 C. milk
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp. allspice
- 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. canned pumpkin
- 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
- 1 C. very strongly brewed hot coffee

Method
- In a small saucepan over med-high heat, warm the milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, pumpkin, and brown sugar until steaming (but not boiling!).

- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

- Pour the milk mixture into a large blender and blend until frothy. (Be very careful when blending the hot liquid. It will expand rapidly. As a precaution, take the insert out of the top and just cover the hole with a kitchen towel while blending, so the lid doesn't blow off!)

- Add the milk mixture to the strong hot coffee, in a large mug. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve!

It was the perfect fall day treat! I actually made a pumpkin pie last weekend, too, but I was in a hurry and didn't take any pictures. Oh, well... I'm sure I'll make it again soon! 'Tis the season - go forth and make something pumpkin-y!

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Banana-Nut Muffins

I've been in the kitchen! A lot lately, actually. I have a few recipes to blog about, I just haven't had the ambition to sit down and write. I made these muffins a couple of weeks ago to share with my coworkers. I was going to make mini-muffins out of them, but it would have taken forever, so I went with normal-sized. Now, I know that these weren't on my fall baking agenda, but I had ripe bananas to use up. They turned out to be pretty perfect, and the recipe is really simple!

In other news, I visited Howl-o-Scream last weekend. I went with a couple of friends from work and we made a day of it. During the daytime, we rode all of the roller coasters and caught a couple of shows. We even stayed after dark, when the scare-actors come out and the haunted houses open. I went through all 6 haunted houses. And survived. I know, I even shocked myself! It was incredibly fun, and everyone in the greater Virginia area should check it out!

 Anyway, with no further ado...

Whole Wheat Banana-Nut Muffins
(Adapted from the Banana Nut Muffins recipe on www.simplyrecipes.com.)

Ingredients
6 overripe bananas, mashed
2/3 C. melted butter
1 1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. espresso or strong coffee
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 C. all-purpose flour
1 C. whole wheat flour
2 C. chopped walnuts

Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas with a wooden spoon, in a large mixing bowl.

- Mix in the sugar, eggs, espresso, and vanilla until well incorporated.

- Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture, then stir in. Add the cinnamon and stir until blended.

- Add all of the flour at once (all-purpose and whole wheat), then stir until it is just incorporated. (Make sure there are no pockets of flour left, but don't over-mix it!) Fold in the chopped walnuts.

- Line a couple of muffin tins with cupcake wrappers. Fill them about 3/4 of the way full with the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack, then store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen muffins. You could sprinkle sugar or cinnamon-sugar on top. You could also probably substitute a can of pumpkin for the bananas and have a much more fall-y pumpkin-nut muffin. Get creative!

Enjoy!

Touches of Fall

I know, it's been three weeks since I've posted. No apologies. A) I've been super busy at work, trying to get the park ready for Halloween. B) I really haven't had anything exciting to post about. But. Now fall is in the air. We all know how I feel about fall.

We've been installing Halloween decorations in the park for weeks, so it's seemed like October for awhile. Now that it's getting cool at nights, fairs and festivals are starting, and I have some autumn decorations up, fall is totally here.

Last weekend, I planned on going to the New Kent County Fair and/or the Hampton Bay Days festival, but then I was lazy and had no one to go with, so I didn't. At the end of the month, the VA State Fair starts, and I'm totally going. Since I missed the Harvest Festival back home, and I probably won't make it up for the Bloomsburg Fair, I gotta get my funnel cake and gyro fixes somewhere!

Howl-o-Scream is finally open at Busch. I might go to the park during the day sometime while it's running. The whole nighttime thing with fog and chainsaws and haunted mazes doesn't really enthuse me. You should go check it out if that's your thing, though. We worked hard to get it up and running!

 ^ Ireland. There's a whole "Fiends"/mad scientist thing.

^ Festa Italia. Clowns.

^ England. Crows, and a death shroud on the clock.

^ New France. Spiders. I didn't actually help with the bridge at all. I was in a lift putting them in trees and on buildings. 

^ Scotland. Pumpkins, scarecrows, and hay bales. There is still hay all over my life.


I actually didn't work in Italy, France, or Germany at all, so I don't have pictures. Italy is the "Lady of the Gardens", France is rats and skeletons, and Germany is vampires. It all looks really good and I have comp tickets left. Just saying.

I haven't started to decorate my apartment for Halloween yet. I have some fall decorations up, though.

Right now, I have 4 different fall-scented candles burning. It smells amazing. Like Yankee Candle threw up in my apartment. That's a good thing. Trust me.

I also have my fall baking list figured out. Now, under the best circumstances, I only get about half of my list made. This year, with my lack of time in the kitchen, I'll be lucky to get a quarter of it done. I have a normal schedule for awhile now, though, so maybe I'll get some stuff made.

- Georgia Pecan Pie
- Caramel Bread Pudding
- Sweet Potato Brownies
- Maple Cream Tart
- Maple Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel
- Pumpkin Bread (I've totally never made plain old pumpkin bread!)
- Apple and Berry Crumble Muffins
- Everything Caramel Corn
- Caramel Apple Pudding with Gingersnap Crust
- Spiced Pumpkin Doughnuts (These have been on my list for the past 3 years. :-P)

It's a little ambitious, and unless I take some of it to work, I'll gain about a hundred pounds, but I'll get some new recipes tested and blogged about if it kills me! I've actually been cooking some, but nothing fancy or blog-worthy. Just stuff like sausage and fried potatoes, strawberry shortcake, tacos.... Nothing that takes effort, basically. Now with a normal person's schedule, hopefully I'll make myself get back in the kitchen more!

So to recap... fall is here. It's glorious. Get out and enjoy it!

Birds' Nests

I haven't really been baking much lately. Nor have I been hiking. There's not much to talk about with the move yet. Hence the lack of blogging this past week or so. But. I'm itching to write a post, so I'm pulling out this recipe. I made "Birds' Nests" for Easter, and took pictures and everything, but never actually wrote the post. So here's a bit of a delayed Easter post. Happy belated Easter?

(There were Rice Krispie Treats, too, but just plain old run-of-the-mill Rice Krispie Treats... with M&Ms on top. Nothing to blog home about.) 

They're called "Birds' Nests" because of the "eggs" (jelly beans) on top. If you leave the jelly beans off, then they're "Haystacks". They're usually only Birds' Nests at Easter/springtime; the rest of the year they're Haystacks, in my kitchen anyway.

I don't think I'm going to post this in regular recipe format. Mostly because there is no set ingredient list, and they're super-mega-easy to make. In their most basic form, all you need is a bag of baking chips (chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, whatever) and a bag of Chow Mein noodles. My favorite is butterscotch. You melt the chips over low heat (or in a double boiler to make sure they don't burn), and very carefully stir in the Chow Mein noodles, breaking as few as possible. I also usually stir some peanuts in. (I didn't at Easter because my youngest nephew is allergic.)

So to recap... melt chips, stir in noodles (and nuts, if so desired). Then you drop spoonfuls on to baking sheets covered with wax paper or foil. Shape them into nests/stacks, and place some jelly beans on top if you're going for the nest theme.

At Easter, I did half butterscotch and half chocolate. So I split a whole bag of Chow Mein noodles into two, and used half a bag each of butterscotch chips and chocolate chips. 

After you have them all spooned out and shaped, either set them in a cool place for a couple of hours until they harden, or put them in the fridge for half an hour to an hour until they're set. 

I made a little dessert tray with my Nests and Treats. Of course, I also had pies and a cake. This was just a little... appetizer... dessert... tray...? They were pre-dessert desserts. Appesserts. That's totally a thing. Go with it. When I write my cookbook, maybe I'll have an Appesserts section. These will probably be in it.

These are a great little treat because it's impossible not to like them, they're totally versatile, and they're sooo simple. You can make them into whatever flavor floats your boat. You can add in anything you want, or just leave them at two ingredients. How could you not love this recipe? Go forth and make some Birds' Nests/Haystacks to share. Also, spread the word Appesserts. It really needs to catch on.

Enjoy!