By Jeanne, on November 10th, 2011
The sun may have come out for an hour or two today. But mostly the blue-tinted sky had an ominous look about it. There’s another storm brewing. Last Friday, we had a glorious thunder and lightning storm that filled up our rain barrel in no time flat. The mountains still show patches of white snow among the evergreens, a sure sign that it’s been a chilly week. Just perfect for curling up on the couch with a cat at my side and a mug of tea and an orange oat scone on the coffee table in front of me.
Continue reading “Orange Oat Scones” »
By Jeanne, on June 27th, 2011
Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.
Are you still looking for that perfect arm workout? Or perhaps you’re searching for that zero-net-calorie dessert. Well, look no more, because made-from-scratch baklava is the answer! It will have you on your feet in the kitchen all day, running from stove to countertop to oven and back. You’ll be completing the near-impossible task of rolling dough into paper thin sheets. You’ll easily burn more calories making it than you gain by consuming it. And since every killer workout has an element of pure torture, you won’t even be able to enjoy the baklava until it sits overnight.
Continue reading “Daring Bakers Challenge: Maple Walnut Baklava” »
By Jeanne, on March 14th, 2011
For us bakers, it’s never difficult to figure out how to celebrate Pi Day! The most important component of any halfway decent Pi Day celebration is pie. Pie is the obvious choice, not only because it shares a name with the popular number, but because of its traditional circular shape. There are infinite (like pi!) ways to create a pi-themed pie. I’ve decided to forgo any circular pie references in favor of creating a custom shaped pi filled with tangy sweet blood orange curd.
Continue reading “Blood Orange Curd Pi” »
By Jeanne, on November 27th, 2010
The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
There are still apples for sale at the local orchards, which means that they are still working their way into many of my baked goods. For this month’s challenge we were given the opportunity to choose the flavor of our crostata so I used one of my old favorite flavor combinations: apples and cranberries. I’ve always loved cranberry juice and all its varieties (straight-up cranberry, cran-raspberry, cran-grape, cran-apple, etc), though I don’t seem to drink it as often anymore. Cranberries just aren’t as popular in California as they are in Massachusetts, with all its cranberry bogs. But I can still find fresh cranberries at the store so there’s nothing to stop me from baking with them!
Continue reading “Daring Bakers Challenge: Cranberry Apple Crostata” »
By Jeanne, on September 10th, 2010
The aroma of nutty whole wheat pastry crust, browning butter, and melting cheese hung in the air as this galette baked. I resisted the urge to pull it from the oven before it was finished baking. Quickly and carefully, I transferred the piping hot galette to a fresh piece of parchment paper for its photo shoot. I snapped a few quick (blurry) photos, then got to work slicing and eating this galette. When you make this for yourself, you’ll understand.
Continue reading “Swiss Chard Galette” »
By Jeanne, on June 8th, 2010
I’ve got a problem. I’m obsessed with fresh berries from the farmers’ market. I simply can’t leave without a pint or two or three of strawberries. This past weekend, as I approached my favorite berry farmer’s table, I spied the blackberries! Perfectly ripe and sweet, I knew they wouldn’t last long. If I didn’t use them right away they’d be eaten.
So, what to make? My first thought was muffins, but I make those way too often. I’m a little burned out on muffins. A quick perusal of my cookbook collection yielded a spark of inspiration: scones!
Continue reading “Maple Blackberry Scones” »
By Jeanne, on May 27th, 2010
The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.
Assembling this pièce montée made me feel just a bit like a French pastry chef. Part of the fun of the Daring Bakers group is that we get to make many different recipes that some of us have only dreamed of making (or never dreamed of being able to complete)! A pièce montée is a dessert that I’ve admired on other blogs and in cookbooks, but never would have attempted under my own pretenses. Yet here it is, my latest masterpiece!
Continue reading “Daring Bakers Challenge: Pièce Montée” »
By Jeanne, on November 27th, 2009
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchenby Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
I am officially a Daring Baker, and this is my first challenge! I’m not sure that I would ever have attempted to make cannoli on my own. That’s why I joined the Daring Bakers…to bake outside the box (er, mixing bowl?).
Continue reading “Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli” »
By Jeanne, on November 21st, 2009
Ah, gingerbread. The smell of the holidays. I figure that it’s time to start baking with gingerbread when the stores have their holiday displays up. I’m pretty sure that they used to wait until after Thanksgiving to deck the halls. But yesterday I found myself in the middle of a winter wonderland as I did some (what I thought was “early”) Christmas shopping.
Continue reading “Gingerbread Scones” »
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