Mihow » baking

Elliot Has A Bath In The Kitchen Sink

mihow — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:27:52 +0000

Isn’t he cute? I’m biased, it’s true. But I want to eat him every minute of every day.

He’s now 9 months old! Why does time fly so fast after you have kids? SLOW DOWN, LIFE.

Mom It Down: Easiest Peanut Butter Fudge Ever

mihow — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:41:58 +0000

I was craving fudge on Sunday, specifically peanut butter. So I read through a few recipes and came up with this one. The original recipe was taken from All Recipes and I modified it a bit. Anyway, it’s just too damn good and easy not to share. I don’t have any photographs because my card reader seems to be broken. Forgive me for that. But it’s super easy. I promise.

What you will need

Saucepan
Mixer
8 x 8 square pan
wax paper (optional)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar

Fill mixing bowl of KitchenAid with powdered sugar. Set aside.

Melt butter in your saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and milk. Stir often. Let the mixture boil and after it boils let it go for 2 minutes. It will bubble up quite a bit.

After 2 minutes or so, remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla extract. Stir up until mixed well.

Pour liquid over powdered sugar.

Using the KitchenAid beater attachment, mix that until all the powdered sugar is incorporated.

Spoon into your square pan, evening out as much as possible. Cover the surface with wax paper. It’s going to be oily. That’s normal. Refrigerate. You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

Oh my goodness, there are none. This recipe could not be any simpler. I had fudge within the hour.

Variations

I bet adding some peanuts or chocolate chips to this recipe would be divine. If you try it, let me know.

In other news

I’m still pregnant. Duh. Last night I had this weird sensation that I was going to go into labor. Obviously that didn’t happen. I’m not sure how much more my pelvis can take. It feels really bruised and I find walking more and more impossible. Granted, it doesn’t help I had to dig my car out of an igloo of snow yesterday. Yeah, that was fun.

But enough listening to me bitch; go make some fudge!

Mom It Down: Homemade Deodorant!

mihow — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:36:27 +0000

I can be really stinky. Unfortunately, my armpits (and feet!) are my biggest culprits. I used to go weeks and weeks without having to wear deodorant. But something changed in my late 20s. (I blame hormones. I blame them for everything.) Nowadays, unless I want to fill up an entire subway car with my stink, I have to wear something.

I am forever searching for a natural deodorant that actually works. I have tried Toms of Maine and it just doesn’t work. (It works for my husband, however.) By the end of the day I end up smelling like an onion sandwich.

Old Spice works (and they offer a stick without aluminum) but they are owned by Proctor and Gamble and I try not to support P&G whenever possible. The Old Spice sticks are also filled with other questionable ingredients, so I’m not pleased with them either.

I’ve also used Arm and Hammer deodorant. But the sticks include chemicals such as propylene glycol. And I’m a little bit wary of propylene glycol (PG). While I’m pretty certain that it won’t cause harm in small amounts, industrial strength PG is used in engine coolants, antifreeze, paints, enamels and varnishes.

I always come back to the same question: If I can find something completely “natural” that actually works, why not try it? (Plus, the hippie in me gets a boner for such things.)

Last Friday, friend and twitter contact Mary wrote about making her own deodorant. I’ve always wanted to try this, but never really researched it. So I reached out to Mary and she totally came through. (Thanks, Mary!)

Today I’d like to share that homemade deodorant recipe with everyone. While this doesn’t fall in with my usual “Mom It Down” recipes, it’s pretty awesome. (And it is actually edible! But don’t eat it, because that’s weird and I can’t imagine it tastes very good.)

One more thing I should mention: I put this stuff to the test yesterday. I had an 8-hour pastry class, one where I spend all 8 hours standing next to and over many, many hot ovens. Plus, we’re made to wear long-sleeve, chef jackets. Guess what? It worked!

What you will need

Saucepan
Spoon

Ingredients

2 tablespoons shea butter
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons corn starch

Mom It Down!

Put everything into a saucepan.

Over low heat, mix until melted and milky in color.

Remove from heat. If you’re adding a secondary smell, add it now.

Pour into a lidded container. (I made a label for the one made with patchouli because I’m a dork.)

Put it into the refrigerator to firm up.

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

The refrigerated mixture will be rather hard—the consistency of very cold butter. At room temperature, it will loosen up a bit. This is perfectly normal. Mine ended up being the consistency of lotion as did the one I made for my husband.

The smallest amount goes a long way.

Shea butter and coconut oil can be pricey. The good news is, they go a long, long way. I reckon you could get a good year’s worth of deodorant out of one container of each. In the end, I know it’ll be MUCH cheaper than buying deodorant sticks all the time. And your body will thank you.

One last thing from Mary: she mentions that baking soda can irritate freshly-shaven skin. Please keep is in mind, ladies. I would wait a little bit after shaving to apply it.

Variations

As mentioned earlier, feel free to add essential oils to your mixture. I did one all-natural (smells like cocoa butter) for Toby and one using a dash of patchouli for myself. (Might as well turn the hippie up to 11, right?) Be warned, however, that some essential oils can irritate the skin. I would suggest testing any oils before adding them to the deodorant.

As usual, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

NaBloPoMo: Mom It Down: Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

mihow — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:55:14 +0000

This could very well be some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had. But I’m a terrible judge of food right now. You could hand me a buttered Saltine and I’d rave about it.

Anyway, these are great. My son gobbled them up. And they’re easy to make.

(Please note: I used my iPhone to snap the pictures, so they aren’t perfect.)

What you will need

Bowl
Skillet
Whisk or spoon (or both!)
Hungry family

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (low fat)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mom It Down!

Put your dry ingredients into a bowl. Give that a quick stir.

Separate your egg white.

Add all the wet ingredients to the flour mixture.

Whisk that up.

In a hot skillet, spoon in your pancake batter. Heat until they bubble, flip, heat some more.

You’re done.

Feed child, self.

Overcoming Obstacles

There really aren’t many obstacles here. I reckon if you wanted to you could omit the egg white-only part and just toss in two eggs. But the egg white makes it nice and fluffy

If you don’t have any buttermilk, simply add a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring cup. (Vinegar works best, but either will do.) Top off with milk to equal one cup. substitute that for every one cup buttermilk.

Please note!

This batter keeps really well. I make the recipe above and place the leftover batter in an airtight container. We have fresh pancakes for two or three days. :] It sure beats that frozen crap!

Variations

Spice these babies up if you wish! Add some chocolate chips or bananas, they’re really versatile. We tossed in a few ground flax seeds one day. The sky’s the limit, my friends!

As usual, any questions and/or comments let me know.

Brioche! And My Recent Busy Days.

mihow — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:04:14 +0000

Forgive me in my delay (yet again) in updating. The Etsy feature has sent me so many new customers and orders, I don’t know which end is up anymore! Don’t get me wrong, I am ecstatic by the turnout. But holy CRAP have I ever been busy!

I’ve been making lollipops for days and days straight. It’s a good thing Em is in school three days a week so I can run out and make candy. But this is exactly where I want to be. I could not be happier with the way things are going right now.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Pastry school!

We’re learning all things bread at school, which has been awesome. Bread (and candy!) is ultimately why I decided to go back to school to refine my baking/confectionary skills. I love bread. It’s just so alive and amazing. Plus, the variety! It’s never-ending.

We went from studying the direct method of bread-making, to the sponge method. We’re now onto brioche and donuts. Oh yes, you read that right: donuts.

I don’t have recipes to share just yet, but I do have some pictures!

Sadly, I have none of the donuts as they are all in my Toby Joe’s tummy. (This fact is hilarious, as Toby Joe doesn’t like sweets. I found his weakness! Ha!)

I’ll have a Murray post up later today. He’s taking the morning off. (And his Mama is off making lollipops.)

Featured Seller On Etsy!

mihow — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:23:08 +0000

My friends! I am so happy to report that I’m the featured seller on Etsy! I know, right? AWESOME!

These Internet breakthroughs don’t happen to me very often, so when Adam contacted months ago asking if I’d be interested in the opportunity, I nearly peed my pants. I am just so freaking pleased to have been asked to do this! I don’t even care if anybody actually buys anything! ;]

So, please pop by and check out it!

Gluten Free, Super Healthy Flax Seed Cookies

mihow — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:25:35 +0000

I know this is a repeat, but it bears repeating as these are a little gem in my Mom It Down series and I just keep coming back to them. Why? Let’s see: they’re super healthy. They’re made made without sugar. They’re gluten-free and they’re full of flax seed and protein. Oh! And they taste great!

You seriously can’t go wrong with these cookies. Just this morning Em asked me if he could have cookies for breakfast and I was all, “Sure you can have cookies for breakfast!” And behold, he had three cookies for breakfast paired with a glass of milk. Awesome, right? My extremely picky child even likes these. He and his father eat them up like they’re treats. And I suppose they are! But they’re super healthy treats! AND I JUST CAN’T WRITE THAT ENOUGH, PEOPLE! You should make these for your family.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick)
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 cup whole almond meal
1/4 cup soy protein powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Mom it Down!

Take your unsalted butter out of the refrigerator a while before starting. It should be room temperature—super soft. I usually put mine directly into the mixer.

Preheat oven to 350.

Add honey, vanilla, and egg. Stir that up until it’s creamy. It might be a little lumpy. That’s OK. Once you add the dry ingredients, the batter will smooth out.

In a separate bowl, or directly into a two-cup measuring cup, add all the dry ingredients.

Add that to your mixer.

Spoon walnut-sized balls onto a cookie sheet.

Flatten each one down usig your fingers, a spoon, or a spatula until they are about half their height.

Bake for 10-14 minutes. (Mine used 13 both times.)

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

If the dough is too sticky, you can refrigerate it for 15-30 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, add a little bit more soy protein powder.

Variations

I wish to change the original even more. I might glaze the tops with maple syrup or honey before baking. Also, I think serving these alongside some jam or preserves would outstanding—specifically, strawberry or raspberry. YUM!

I’ve used Booker’s bourbon instead of vanilla and it works perfectly.

P.S. Sorry I haven’t updated in, oh, like forever. We were in Disney last week and I’ve got some stuffs going on. I hope to write more now that things have settled down a bit.

Mom it Down! Creme Anglaise (ICE CREAM!)

mihow — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:50:02 +0000

Last weekend we had our practical in school. I did well. Granted, I practiced a great deal ahead of time and failed once or twice as well. Our practical included a written test; we also had to create a flourless chocolate soufflé as well as creme anglaise, which is the base for french ice cream.

I gotta admit to something. Up until this exercise, I never, ever would have opted to eat an egg-based ice cream. But this is damn great stuff. For those unfamiliar (as I was), you can’t taste the eggs at all. I guess I ignorantly thought you’d be able to! It’s just ice cream, rich, creamy ice cream. It’s wonderful.

Today, I’d like to share that recipe with you.

What you will need

Medium-sized saucepan
Whisk
Strainer
2 Bowls
Ice Water

Ingredients

1 pint half and half (or 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup milk)
1/4 of a vanilla bean
4 ounces of sugar
6 egg yolkes

Mom It Down!

Separate out your yolks. Whisk them together. (I saved my whites to use for egg white omelets and/or egg-white based desserts like meringue.)

Combine half and half, sugar and scraped out vanilla bean in a saucepan.

Bring it to a boil. Remove from heat. (Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of the next few steps because it all happens so fast that I didn’t have time to stop with the camera. Next time, I’ll get Toby Joe to take them so that every step is featured.)

Combine 1/3 of the hot mixture into the yolks whisking the entire time. (You want to temper the eggs but not scramble them, hence the constant whisking.) Add that mixture back into saucepan.

Continue to heat that mixture over medium heat for 30 to 60 seconds stirring the entire time. You do not want the mixture to boil. YOU DO NOT WANT TO OVERCOOK IT. You do not want the eggs to cook. (It’s easy to do!) The mixture will thicken a bit. Once that happens and it’s coating the sides of the pan or you’re able to run your finger over the back of a metal spoon without the liquid coming back together again, you are done! Strain it immediately into a bowl over ice. The strainer will collect some pieces of cooked egg. This is normal. Let that cool and then refrigerate overnight.

You’re ready to make your ice cream! And damn is it awesome.

Feed to kid.

Overcoming Obstacles

The key is to not overcook the base. So keep an eye on it. It really should be thick and ready to go in a minute. If you remove it from the heat and it doesn’t seem thick enough, then just go ahead and put it back on. It’s better to undercook and then reheat it right away than to overcook it. Because once it’s overcooked, there’s no saving it.

Creme anglaise is super easy to do, once you get the hang of how it’s done. And the whole process (including the egg separating and prep of ingredients) takes about 15 minutes tops—less if you’re good at separating eggs. :]

Variations

Flavor the ice cream however you want! Simply omit the vanilla and add whatever flavor you might want. You can also add chips or nuts, but do that by hand after the ice cream is made and ready to serve.

Divinity and Peanut Brittle

mihow — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:18:09 +0000

We’ve been studying sugar for the past several weeks, which has been particularly awesome for me since I’m a lollipop maker. I’ve learned a great deal more about how to deal with molten sugar. I’m sure I’ll have more to report about that after this weekend, whenever we cover a few more key desserts. In the meantime, here are a few pictures.

This is called Divinity. It’s apparently southern. I am not a fan of pistachios, which is what this recipe called for, so I used chopped walnuts and candied ginger instead. It’s delightful, believe it or not. :] I’m excited to do variations of this for the holidays. I picture some pretty great color combinations.

And of course, a favorite of mine: peanut brittle!

Man, this is good stuff! My teeth don’t usually agree, but it sure is tasty. And other than being a pain in the ass to spread out before it hardens, it’s super easy to make.

I’ll ask on Friday if it’s OK to publish recipes. I want to share them. I can’t imagine it’ll be a problem, but I should check. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures! And if you’re in the neighborhood, swing on by. I have far too much candy!

Mom It Down! She Made A Strawberry Sorbet

mihow — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:20:47 +0000

We studied flourless soufflés last week in class, both fruit and chocolate. By the end of the day, we weren’t able to finish baking everything, so I had some strawberry-flavored simple syrup left over. I took it home and turned it into a sorbet. It’s outstanding. Sweet and outstanding.

Anyway, today I want to share this simple recipe with you. (Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of the process, but it’s so easy you really don’t need them.)

What You Will Need

Ice Cream Maker (I have a KitchenAid attachment. Worked perfectly.)
Food Processor (I reckon you could probably do this by hand, but having a processor is just so much easier.)

Ingredients

5 ounces of sugar
2 fluid ounces of water
Pint of strawberries

Mom It Down!

Remove the stems from your strawberries. Add them to your food processor and mix ‘em up real good. Put the mixture aside.

In a medium saucepan, slowly heat water and sugar. You want the sugar to dissolve completely. You do not want the mixture to boil.

Once the liquid is perfectly clear and all the sugar is dissolved, stir in your strawberry mixture. Heat that up for about 5 to 10 minutes. Again, just a simmer. Don’t boil it.

Let your mixture cool a bit and then add it to a lidded container. Put that in the refrigerator to cool. (I left mine in overnight.)

Once the mixture is cooled completely. You’re ready to start the slow churn in your ice cream maker.

I set the timer for 30 minutes and checked on it from time to time. It definitely took the full 30 minutes. It could have gone a bit longer, but I was impatient. :] Once it’s at a consistency you’re pleased with, spoon the mixture into a plastic container and freeze.

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

This is the easiest thing ever. It’s right up there with the time I started making applesauce. If you like sorbet and you have an ice cream maker, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be making this delectable snack at home. It’s so easy! It just takes a little time, not your time, but waiting time.

Variations

This could probably be made with less sugar. Remember, the base of this recipe was to be used for a flourless soufflé. It was meant to end up with eggs and baked. So, it’s on the sweet side! Not that we’re complaining. Even Toby Joe, anti-sweets guy, was eating it up! And your kids will love it.

Of course you can substitute any fruit you’d like. YUM!

Meringue and Praline Buttercream Sandwich.

mihow — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:35:38 +0000

We’re studying eggs this week. It’s been one hell of an eye-opening week to say the least. I’m floored by how much I’ve learned already. And I’m floored by how much I should have known and did not. I’ve been making so many mistakes all these years! Ah well, that’s why I’m in school, right?

Anyway, yesterday we made a bunch of things with egg whites, some with yolks too. This was one of our creations. I’m not crazy about meringue, I’ll be honest. But these are really quite good. And the filling is just delightful if I must say so myself.

I’ll try and post more recipes and pictures from class. We’re covering the basics right now, like why things go wrong and what makes them go wrong. For example, during the lessons on leaveners (baking soda, powder, etc) we spent an entire class making muffins using different variables. What happens if you add buttermilk instead of milk? What happens if you omit baking powder or soda altogether? You get the picture.

Anyway, wow we’re doing much the same with eggs. It’s been hard work but super enlightening.

Egg fact! Did you know that brown eggs and white eggs are the same in almost every way but color? The only difference between the two is they come from different breeds. Granted, brown egg chickens tend to eat more food. I reckon that could be why large industrial farms tend to lean more toward white egg-laying chickens. Anyway, don’t worry about color! The best thing you can do is buy your eggs from a local farmer—avoid the big farms entirely, solely because they’re terrible to and with their birds.

All this time I thought white = bad, brown = healthier. NOT SO. Thought I’d share. :]

Mom It Down: Chocolate Angel Food Cake SUCCESS!

mihow — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:30:04 +0000

I revisited the failed angel food cake from last week and had great success with it. It turns out, the many things I had done wrong were indeed to blame. If you follow the directions, it turns out pretty amazing if I must say so myself.

This recipe combines three different angel food cake recipes I have seen over the years. I took a few things from all of them and ended up with something pretty great. I hope you enjoy it too!

What you will need

10-inch tube pan
Mixer
Working brain

Ingredients

12 eggs (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mom it Down!

Put egg whites in your mixer and let them warm to room temperature. (I have cut corners here a bit and things turned out fine, but it’s best to get them closest to room temperature as possible.)

Preheat oven to 350.

In separate bowl, sift together flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder. (Or see my shortcut at the end of this post.)

Once eggs are close to room temperature, add extract, salt and cream of tartar. Using the whisk attachment, beat that until it’s bubbly.

Add granulated sugar. Mix on high until it forms hard peaks.

Slowly spoon in flour mixture about 1/4 cup at a time. (You can slowly beat this with your mixer using the flat beater attachment. Just go slowly.)

Spoon mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Sprinkle with almond slices.

Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes.

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

I always try and sprinkle the top of my angel food cakes because it covers up the cracks and other blemishes. :] I know. I cheat. But it also adds a wonderful flavor. The almonds come out slightly crunchy—so good! And they go really well with chocolate.

Also: I mentioned above you can use your flat beater attachment to spoon in the flour mixture. It’s up to you. I usually do a mixture of both—starting with the attachment and then moving on to doing it by hand.

Lastly, if you don’t have time to sift the flour mixture together, which is what you’re supposed to do, you can easily use a wire whisk and just give it a good stir, breaking up the big chunks.

Variations

Next time, I want to try more cocoa and add chocolate chips to the top. I almost did that this time, but was worried that they might be too heavy. I wanted to make sure this worked before getting too groovy. Now that I know it does, I’m going to purchase some of the miniature chips and add them to the top.

I also think there’s room to add some other flavored extracts, but again haven’t messed with this too much yet myself.

I should mention that the only thing I changed was that I used regular, all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. I reckon using cake flour would make it even fluffier.

As usual, let me know if you have suggestions and/or questions!

I’m On Alpha Mom!

mihow — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:09:47 +0000

Check it out, my friends! Alpha Mom featured my tutorial on how to make homemade lollipops! Stop by and say hello!

Is it OK to be super geeked about this? Because I am. I’m thrilled. A big thanks to Alpha Mom for the opportunity!

Lollipops By Mihow (What I’ve Been Doing.)

mihow — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:10:27 +0000

It may seem like I haven’t been baking much lately. But that’s not the case at all, my friends! I’ve actually been in the kitchen more so than ever. You see, I’ve been making lollipops. The whole adventure came on suddenly but has proven to be rather amazing. And, get this! I’m going to be selling them any day now!

Here’s the skinny: A couple of weeks ago, I revisited hard candy. It had been years since I made candy, and I don’t remember that being all that rewarding so I thought I’d give it another go. This time, I didn’t give up. Yes, I hit a few roadblocks and yes those roadblocks were frustrating, but within a week, I had this down. I had a lollipop created without corn syrup (something I insisted on) that tasted rather good! That’s when I began to play with different flavor combinations—combinations found in cuisines all over the globe. (It helps to have a husband that can cook!)

So I made a bunch of flavors. Some were great, some not so much. But I kept going and going until I ended up with some pretty remarkable flavor combinations. And they’re really beautiful to look at as well. Excited, I put them up for sale on Etsy and sold hundreds of bucks worth of lollipops within the first couple of hours. I was shocked and totally geeked about it. But we decided I moved a little too fast. And since Toby Joe and I like to do things the right way, we refunded all of the money we made, sent out a few freebie packages, and immediately started the process of getting all our paperwork in order; we should be up and running within the week.

In the meantime, go to my Etsy shop and mark it a favorite.

All of my lollipops are made without corn syrup. They are all vegan. They are all really quite beautiful to look at. And they are all made with a great deal of love. I combine flavors such as pink peppercorn and watermelon; oranges, sesame oil and hot peppers; bananas and peanut butter; mango, Tabasco and lime. There’s even one for the youngsters called The Box Office that combines butter with actual popcorn. Kids go nuts for this one, NUTS!

But that’s not all! We have over 10 flavors at the time this was written and more on the way. I do hope you’ll stop by. I can’t wait to offer tongue workouts to all. ;]

I will be back with Mom It Down next week—like the real deal. I have a peanut butter cookie that simply must get some recognition.

Mom It Down: Whole Wheat Flax Seed Bread

mihow — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:10:24 +0000

I literally googled “Flax Seed Bread” and took the first recipe that popped up changing only one thing. This is super easy. Labor is next to nothing. The most time involved is waiting for the sucker to rise.

What you will need

Bread pan
Mixer

Ingredients

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups of warm water
2 tablespoons honey (original recipe called for 1/8 cup sugar)
1 tablespoon canola oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaxseed meal
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour

Mom It Down!

Dissolve yeast in (1 3/4 cups) warm water in the mixer. Let that sit until bubbly. (Five minutes.)

Add honey (or sugar), salt, flaxseed meal, and 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Stir that up with a spoon until it looks like this:

Attach the bread hook to the mixer.

Add the rest of the flour and let the mixer do its thing for 10 or more minutes.

Form the dough into a ball.

Coat a bowl with oil and let the dough sit for 2 hours or until it’s nearly doubled in size.

Once it’s doubled, punch it down and roll it into a loaf. Place in a 9 X 5 oiled bread pan. Let that rise for an hour, (less if you’d like, more if you have time).

Preheat oven to 350, bake for 40 – 45 minutes.

Let it cool. Slice and eat with some butter! Yum!

Overcoming Obstacles

I have to admit, I often do not let my dough rise as much as it should. I know. WORST BREAD BAKER EVER. But, yeah. I tend to cut corners here and there. My bread is often denser than it probably should be. (Well, with exception of this bread recipe I posted over a year ago.)

Variations

I substituted the sugar for honey. I reckon you could substitute agave as well. I haven’t thought to change much with this yet, but probably will in time as I bake it more often. But if you have suggestions, do share!

Also: vegan friendly! (Unless you don’t do honey, then hit the sugar or agave.)

As usual, comments, suggestions or critiques are welcome.

Mom It Down: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting.

mihow — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:19:05 +0000

In anticipation of the “Storm of the Century”, I was in a baking mood this weekend. Well, the storm never came, but the baking sure did. I baked a few things. And I was very pleased with both outcomes. This week, I’ll feature the cake.

I am a little surprised with how well this turned out because I combined three recipes into one. And, if you skip the whole melted white chocolate part, it’s super easy.

The recipe below features melted white chocolate. Had my husband not been home, I probably would have omitted this step because it requires watching the stove more than my son.

What you will need:

9 x 9 cake pan
mixer

Cake

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
2 eggs (best at room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 – 3 oz. melted white chocolate (optional)

Mom it Down!

The Cake

Preheat your oven to 350.

Grease a 9 x 9 cake pan.

Put half stick butter in the mixer and let that sit until it’s nice and melty. Add your sugar. Cream those two together.

Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract.

If you have a double boiler, melt the white chocolate. I do not. So I used a Pyrex measuring cup and a pot of boiling water.

It did the trick quite nicely.

Add flour and baking powder intermittently with the milk and melted white chocolate.

Give that a good mix to make sure it’s all creamed together.

Pour that into a cake pan. You’re done!

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes. (I checked mine at 30 and gave it just a few more minutes until it was nice and golden.

The Icing

I have a confession. Yesterday, whenever I set out to make this cake, I wasn’t going to make my own icing. I know! Terrible. You see, I haven’t had much luck with icing. Aside from the vegan icing I made for the cupcakes last year, I haven’t been too pleased with the outcome. I’ve made some ganache and it just didn’t appeal to me enough to do it again. Plus, I always end up with too much and then having to throw it out. I thought I’d just have Toby Joe pick me up some trashy store-bought icing. He did.

The biggest mistake one can make in this instance is to read the ingredients as well as the nutritional information. Needless to say, I immediately looked to the Internet in search of yet another chocolate icing recipe; one I could make with what I had available. I found one on All Recipes and modified it ever so slightly. It’s nothing short of awesome. No lie. It’s great stuff.

What you will need

Mixer

Frosting

2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons milk (add more if you need to)

In a bowl, combine sugar with cocoa powder.

In mixer, beat your butter until it’s creamy. (You’ll want this to be as close to room temperature as possible.)

Add flour and cocoa powder mixture intermittently with the milk. If you need to, you can add more or less milk to reach the desired consistency.

Add that to cooled cake. You’re done!

Give the child the spoon to lick.

This cake rules. I have one fan for life.

Overcoming Obstacles

Again, if you don’t have the time or desire to melt chocolate, I recommend skipping that step altogether. I can’t imagine it would matter too much. I only added it to mine to give it a little more vanilla flavor.

I haven’t personally tried with this recipe, but I bet you can freeze the batter and bake it at a later date. I have done this with cupcakes in the past and have had success with it. That way, you can split the two steps especially if you don’t have someone around to amuse the little one. You’ll just want to make sure it’s thawed entirely before baking. (Do not quote me on this as I haven’t tried yet!)

Variations

I imagine that this recipe would go great with a vanilla frosting. Also, feel free to make cupcakes. But I reckon you’ll want to lower the baking time down to 20 – 25 minutes.

Doubling this recipe is an option as well if you wish to make a layered cake.

Also, vegans! I cracked open a bloody egg on Saturday night while making pancakes for Em and damn near vomited into the bowl I was using. I know what eggs are. I know where they come from and what they become if we don’t snatch ‘em up right away, but I try and block all of that out most of the time. (This is something I can’t do with most meats.) Anyway, staring at bloody egg was not something I dealt with all that well. I am seriously considering giving up eggs and dairy, so I may try a vegan version of this next. I can’t imagine it’d be that hard. But who knows?

Mom It Down: Vanilla Meringues

mihow — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:38:53 +0000

I had a bunch of egg whites that needed to be used, so I googled “things to do with leftover egg whites” or some such nonsense and found a bunch of meringue cookie recipes. So I combined some of the things I read and gave it a go. Twice.

I’m quite pleased with the flavor and the consistency; they taste like marshmallows! And for those of us who try and avoid the consumption of gelatin, this is really quite awesome. But after two batches (three attempts at baking) and a few adjustments, I’m having a little trouble with them sinking as they cool.

I made two batches: the first batch I may not have beat the eggs as much as I should have, so I had a go at it again this morning. (Had the egg whites, figured, why not?) The second batch turned out much better, but still sunk a wee bit. Anyway, you can probably tell the difference between the two batches in the picture above. If not, let me know.

I still think this is a recipe worth sharing as they taste wonderful. And this is by far one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever done. I even used a pastry bag and a special piping attachment to make the dollops—it’s still easy.

What you will need

KitchenAid mixer (wire whip attachment)
Baking sheet
Parchment paper (or a Silpat)
Pastry bag with piping attachment (optional)

Ingredients

4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mom It Down!

Preheat oven to 275.

Place some parchment paper on a cookie sheet (or a Silpat). Set aside.

In mixer bowl, add eggs, salt and cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. (Of course, I didn’t get a shot of this stage.)

Slowly add sugar. Beat more until stiff peaks form.

You’re done!

Fill a pastry bag (or you can use a spoon or a freezer bag with the corner snipped). Add dollops onto your cookie sheet.

Bake for 35 minutes.

When you’re done, turn the oven off and crack the door of the oven. Let them cool while in the oven. This will lessen the sinking.

Overcoming obstacles

Like I said, in order to keep these from falling as they’re cooling, it’s best to keep the humidity as low as possible, so keeping them in the oven to cool is your best bet. My second batch still sunk a bit, but not nearly as much as the first.

Make sure your eggs are beat enough. I believe my first batch may have fallen more because I did not. The second batch held its form much better than the first because I beat the egg whites a bit longer.

I’ve also read, this morning, that you can bake at a much lower temperature (200) with the oven door cracked. I haven’t tried this, but figured it’s something I should mention.

Variations

I added vanilla to this instead of what the original recipe called for, which was lemon extract. So, feel free to substitute the vanilla with lime, lemon or orange zest—or all three! I might try this with almond as well. And I hear they make a great holiday treat by grinding up some peppermint.

Egg white experts! What are some other ways to avoid sinking? I am all ears. Learn me something, Internet.

Mom It Down: Vegan Chocolate Walnut Banana Muffins

mihow — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:49:27 +0000

Toby was vegan for a long, long time. And I love to bake. So, after we started dating, I learned how to make a few vegan treats. That’s how I discovered this recipe. And boy does it ever bring back fond memories.

I started making these in 2002, right after Toby Joe and I moved from New York down to Washington, DC. I made them weekly (sometimes more often). This was our breakfast staple, and our after dinner treat. There are a great deal of recipes from that time, but this one was our constant. Over the weekend, I made it again. Twice.

The first batch is on the left, the second on the right.

This is how they look on the inside:

The first batch was way off. I was confused. What had gone wrong? Well, I changed two things: I used a different egg replacer and a different vegan butter.

This is what I used for the first batch:

I was floored by how different the muffins turned out. They were flat and dense and way too moist no matter how long I baked them for. They weren’t at all what Toby Joe and I had remembered.

Given that I had made this recipe probably a hundred times before, I couldn’t believe how messed up they were. So I made another batch yesterday morning and have decided that when it comes to vegan baking, it’s best to stick with ingredients you know. The butter I used (shown below) still wasn’t my first choice. I would highly recommend, if you’re going to try this, that you pick up some Canoleo. While the second batch was MUCH better, they weren’t exactly what they used to be, and we still prefer the taste and texture of the ones I used to make with Canoleo.

So, I’m going to give you the recipe with the products I think you should use.

What you will need

Mixer
Muffin tins

Ingredients

1/2 cup Canoleo margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 egg equivalent Ener-G egg replacer
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 cup soy milk
2 ripe bananas
1 cup chocolate chips (or to taste)
Walnuts (however many you’d like)

Mom It Down!

Preheat oven to 350.

Add butter and brown sugar to the mixer. Mix that up until very creamy. Add egg replacer.

Mix that up. Add flour, baking powder, and soy milk. Stir it up.

Add bananas. Give that a stir. Add chocolate chips and nuts.

Fill muffin tins 2/3 (or more).

Bake for 35 – 45 minutes or until golden brown and inserted knife comes out clean.

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

There really aren’t many to report here. They are just so super easy.

Variations

I think I remember substituting one cup of white flour for whole wheat. It’s been a while!

Feel free to omit the nuts or the chips or both.

Also, these can easily be turned into a loaf. Bake that for an hour. (But I would keep in eye on them starting at around 45 minutes.)

Next time, I’m using Canoleo and I will likely use regular Silk as opposed to the light variety.

Vegans or those who are allergic to eggs: Have you found certain egg replacers better than others? Do share! Also, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Mom It Down: Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.

mihow — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:52:54 +0000

If all things go according to plan, I’m going to start selling a few of my baked goods at a local business here in Brooklyn. It’s not going to be much, but I’m excited. I love baking but I need people to eat all of this stuff! So, this works out really well for me and hopefully makes people smile as well. All that said, I’m currently putting together a list of baked goods that travel well, sit pretty and taste great.

Today I made lemon poppy seed muffins. I hope to make these regularly for this new adventure. It’s simple and I don’t think I’ve ever met a person that doesn’t like lemon poppy seed muffins.

I should mention that the original recipe was taken from The Food Network. All I did was tweak the process.

What you will need

Muffin tins (regular sized or miniature)
Mixer (not necessary but easier!)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs (room temperature if possible)
4 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/2 cup milk

Mom It Down!

Preheat oven to 375.

Place the unsalted butter into your mixer. Let that sit for a bit so it’s easy to spread.

Grease your muffin tins.

In a separate bowl, add flour, salt and baking powder. Give that a quick mix. Set aside.

Add sugar and zest to the butter in your mixer. Beat that up until it’s creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each one. Remove bowl from mixer. Add the poppy seeds.

Measure out 1/2 cup milk. Add flour in three stages adding the milk in between. Stir it up, but be careful not to over mix.

Fill muffin tins at least 2/3 full.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Overcoming Obstacles

I used a canola spray on my muffin tins. It was much quicker than having to butter each one. They popped right out—simple and without a mess.

Also, my eggs were not at room temperature and they turned out just fine. But, next time I will plan ahead and let them sit out. But just an FYI: they will work cold if you’re in a hurry. ;]

Variations

Vegans! These can easily be made vegan. Just use an egg substitute and substitute soy milk for cow’s milk.

I’d also like to try a version using orange zest. In time. In time.

As always, please let me know if you have any suggestions and/or comments.

Mom It Down: Mini Cheesecakes

mihow — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:02:20 +0000

Cheesecake is tricky. But when it’s good, it’s worth the frustration. Cheesecake can crack, cave in, or just taste bad. And even when you think you’ve got it figured out, someone tells you they prefer New York style over the Italian variety or vice versa. Maybe they don’t like it baked, and someone else hates when it is. The point is: there are a LOT of different ways to make a cheesecake. I personally prefer the creamy, sweet variety. That’s where this recipe falls. But it can be temperamental.

Today’s recipe is not the easiest when one was has a child to tend to. It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just time consuming. I wouldn’t turn this into a weekly thing. But it’s really quite nice for special occasions. I’m planning on baking some for a party we will be attending next week.

What you will need

Mini muffin pans and liners
Food processor
Mixer

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
5 tablespoons melted butter

Cake

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Mom It Down

Line mini muffin tins with papers. Set aside.

For the crust…

Using your food processor, grind up graham crackers until you have a cup. Transfer to another bowl and set aside. Grind up your walnuts. (A handful of walnuts turned into a little more than 1/4 cup.) Add your graham cracker crumbs and give that a quick stir. Add all the rest of the dry ingredients. Give it a stir. Add the melted butter. Put some into each mini muffin paper and delicately push it down. Set aside. (You do NOT need to pre-bake the crust in this case since the size of each cake is so small.)

You’re done.

For the cake…

Preheat oven to 350.

Add sugar and cream cheese to the mixer. Beat it until creamy. Add sour cream, vanilla, flour and heavy cream. Beat that. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating between each one.

You’re done.

You can distribute the batter any way you’d like. I used a pastry bag because it mess-free. (TIP! If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can cut the tip off one corner of a large freezer bag and use that.)

The batter will settle. If it doesn’t, you can either smooth it down using a knife or lightly tap the bottom of the muffin tin onto the counter.

Bake for 20 minutes. DO NOT open the door if you can help it. Turn the light on and keep an eye on them. If it looks like the outsides are browning too much and too quickly, lower the temperature a bit. I ended up lowering mine to about 340 the first time because I got worried.

When the time is up, turn off the oven and open the door a little bit. You can either let them cool in the oven with the door ajar, or if you’re worried about someone getting burned by the oven (like the cat), you can remove them and let them cool on the counter. That’s what I did. After they were perfectly cooled, I put them in the refrigerator to cool for several hours.

Since every single last cheesecake I made yesterday sunk at least a little bit (some even cracked, I’ll get into that a bit later under “Overcoming Obstacles”) I used that opportunity to add a dab of fresh strawberry jam.

Overcoming Obstacles

I took the original recipe from All Recipes. It was for one large cheesecake. I knew I wanted to make mini muffin-sized cakes, so I thought I’d give it a go. There was a great deal of the criticism that the cakes cracked and/or fell in on themselves. This did happen to me especially with the larger sizes. I read that you have to lower the temperature and I did that for batch two. I lowered it from 350 to 320 and it still fell and cracked—worse even. The good news is, not one of my mini muffin-sized cheesecakes cracked. They did fall in on themselves a bit, but not too much. Plus, I knew I’d be adorning them, so this actually worked out quite well.

I made two larger ones (shown below) and they both cracked and sunk in a great deal. But here’s the skinny: they tasted freaking fantastic. And you guys know how I feel about how things look, right? I’m not planning on winning awards for these. They look OK and they taste awesome. So who cares? Here are pictures of that cake. (Keep in mind, I pre-baked the crusts below for 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.)

Not the best looking cake, right?

But OMG so good. One bit in and I totally didn’t care what it looked like anymore.

I’m still very much learning all things cheesecake. In fact, last week I tried a non-bake variety and HATED it. It’s not often I throw out desserts, but that entire cake went into the trash. It was terrible, in my opinion. I will not be attempting the non-bake cheesecake ever again. Not my thing.

Otherwise? I love the stuff, but man can it be temperamental. I am researching ways to overcome the whole cracking situation and judging by what I’ve read so far this is a common problem that people are constantly trying to work out through trial and error. I do plan on doing this again and very soon so I will keep you posted on what I find. In the meantime, feel free to school me on this, cheesecake veterans; I’m all ears.

Also, these did freeze fine overnight. I thawed them to room temperature and baked a batch the following day—it worked out perfectly. So, you can always cut your day in half if you’d like.

Variations

Haven’t gone there yet! I want to try and perfect the technique first. (So, it’s likely I’ll never try a variation. heh.) Again, learn me something, Internet.

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 tablespoons butter, melted
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Mom It Down: Homemade Xmas Ornaments

mihow — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:38:12 +0000

Last week, Emory and I had fun with flour. We made christmas tree ornaments! I hadn’t done this since I was a kid, so my skills were rusty at best. But, boy was it ever fun!

I know this recipe isn’t edible, but if you’re anything like me, you’re looking for ways to amuse a toddler during the cold winter months. So I thought that given the season, I’d share this as today’s Mom It Down.

What you will need

Cookie sheet
Cookie cutters
Cabin fever
A little bit of patience

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups warm water

Mom It Down!

Sift the flour and salt together. Add the water. Mix it up.

When the dough begins to form, you can start using your hands. If it’s too sticky, add some more flour.

Please note: You’ll want to knead the dough for as long as possible. (At least 10 minutes.) You don’t want the dough to rise while it’s baking.

Roll out some dough for yourself and give some to your little people too. My son made a huge mess. He loved it.

Also, this will happen:

And they will likely make this face:

And they’ll probably go in for seconds. And then you may have to take the dough away from them before they get a bellyache.

But I digress…

Roll the dough out as thin as possible. (The handprint on the far right in the picture below is far too thick and inconsistent; that one rose way too much. I lost the handprint almost entirely.)

We did a few hand prints as well—you know, for the grandparents. (The one below was still a bit on the thick side. I ended up redoing this one and rolling it out even thinner.) Don’t forget to add the ribbon holes!

Preheat oven to 250.

If time permits, let them sit out on the counter for an hour or so to dry out.

Bake for at least an hour. (I let mine bake for a bit longer. I wanted them good and hard.)

We haven’t been able to find any food shellac. (I have no idea if that’s what it’s called.) We used poster paint because that’s what we had.

This week, we’ll buy some ribbon and finalize them. I’ll post pictures of them when we’re finally done!

Overcoming Obstacles

The longer you let them sit out before baking, the lighter in color the dough will be at the end. And the thinner you roll out each ornament, the less of a chance each one will rise and/or crack.

I have to admit, we had several mishaps before we got to anything decent. With the first batch, I hadn’t rolled mine out thin enough so the moisture from the inside began to crack the outsides. It was definitely a learning experience! The good news is, he couldn’t have cared less about all my technical difficulties. He just wanted to play and paint. That said, we’ll probably give it another go this week. I think I have a better understanding as to how this is done and goodness knows we could use the indoor activity!

Variations

I read somewhere that someone added a little spice to the dough so they would smell great while baking. I haven’t tried this. I figure if I want to smell that, I’ll make me some homemade applesauce since it’s so freaking easy!

More than ever, I’d love any suggestions and/or pointers on this. Don’t hold back! Learn me something new, people.

Mom It Down: Lady Grey Cookies

mihow — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:05:40 +0000

This is a perfect cookie for Santa. They’re easy to make, bite-sized and not too heavy. They remind me of Royal Dansk butter cookies. Plus, they go really well with a hot cup of tea or a glass of milk.

I lifted this recipe from Twinings and modified the technique ever so slightly. I hope you find it as easy as I have!

What you will need

Mixer
Cookie sheet

Ingredients

1 stick (4 oz) butter
1/2 cup (4oz) sugar
1/4 cup water
4 Lady Grey teabags
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp lemon zest

Mom it Down!

Take 1/4 cup hot tea water and add four Lady Grey teabags. Let that sit for a bit. The bags will absorb a great deal of the water. You should be left with a concentrate that’s at least 1 tablespoon. (We used loose tea and therefore made 1 big bag.)

While your tea is steeping, cream together butter and sugar.

Add egg and lemon zest.

Add tea concentrate. Mix that up. Add flour (half cup at a time) and baking powder. Mix that until dough forms.

Remove the dough from the mixer. Flour a board and roll out your dough. It will be wet to the touch, so you should do this quickly. I feel it’s easier to form it now rather than wait until it’s chilled. It’s up to you.

Loosely wrap it in Saran wrap and refrigerate for at least several hours or overnight.

Later

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. If necessary, reform the dough into a nice circle. Cut off cookies up to 1/2 inch thick. (Thinner the crispier. I mixed mine up a bit.)

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 12 – 15 minutes. (Mine needed 13)

You’re finished!

Overcoming Obstacles

I can’t really think of much that gets in the way here. They really are simple. I already included What I feel makes these even easier by forming the cookie dough before it’s chilled. This cuts down on forming the dough later.

Variations

I want to try these using chai. (Remember the chai muffins I made last spring?) I’m also thinking combining orange zest with Lady Grey’s lover, Earl would work well. In fact, I kind of want to try these using a bunch of our favorite teas. We’re tea lovers over here.

These cookies are so versatile, I think you could steer them in several different directions when it comes to flavor. But Lady Grey works perfectly.

These can also be made vegan really easily.

As usual, let me know if you have any comments or suggestions! And thanks to Twinings for the recipe!

Mom It Down: OMG! Homemade Applesauce

mihow — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:25:07 +0000

I can’t believe how easy it is to make applesauce! I know. I know. You seasoned applesauce-makers are probably thinking, “Dude, you’re an idiot, it’s just apples, some stuff and a little heat.” File this one under: Things I should have started doing a long, long time ago.

So, how did I finally arrive here? I tend to go overboard at the farmer’s market. Being that close to such fresh produce makes me lose all sense of scale. Suddenly huge bags of chestnuts and bunches and bunches of rhubarb are items I simply must have. Forget the fact that I haven’t ever roasted chestnuts before, nor have I baked with rhubarb. Doesn’t matter. I’m like a Black Friday shopper when it comes to the farmer’s market.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I ended up bringing home way too many apples. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m still sorta dieting, so baking an apple pie or some apple crisp was out of the question.

What was I going to do with all these apples? Applesauce for my son!

What you will need:

Saucepan
Peeler
Knife

Ingredients

4 large apples (I used five smallish ones)
1/2 cup water
up to 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mom It Down!

Peel, core and chop up your apples. They can be all different sizes! You’re gonna mash the suckers later.

Add the apples, water, sugar and cinnamon to the saucepan.

Cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Mash them up.

You’re done! You have fresh applesauce. Serve it straight away and treat it as a dessert, or chill it and serve it to your kid as a snack. So good!

Overcoming Obstacles

PLEASE NOTE: If there’s a great deal of water left over after they’re done stewing, pour a bit out. I emptied a bit of water. You want to leave some liquid; it will thicken up a bit later. But use your best judgement. Pouring out some of the liquid will not take away from the flavor. Trust me on that one!

If you buy one of those fancy peelers, this recipe is an absolute cinch. Like, it’s so easy, you’re going to start feeling terrible EVER buying store-bought applesauce again.

Variations

I haven’t messed with this yet. It’s really quite great on its own, however, I think I will cut way back on the sugar next time and see how it goes. It’s not super sweet, but I think the apples and cinnamon might stand on their own. Or maybe I’ll go with just a couple of tablespoons of sugar. I’m also thinking brown sugar might be something to try, but not nearly as much.

And believe me you, there will be some bourbon added to this in the future. I was worried about serving it to Emory with a bunch of booze in it, so this one has been approved for those 21-years and younger.

Please enjoy! And for those of you that have been making homemade applesauce all along: WHY DIDN’T YOU EVER TELL ME?

Mom It Down! Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies.

mihow — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:21 +0000

I’m sorry I didn’t get this up yesterday. The days have been a little nuts lately and pretty much all of my attention has been devoted to Em. Anyway! I have some more gluten-free goodies today!

Here’s the skinny: I recently cut sugar out of my diet and most carbs as well. It’s been weeks worth of salads, nuts, tofu, veggies, low fat cheese, and more fake meat than you can shake a stick at. The good news: I’ve lost 6 pounds. The bad news: baking has been difficult. And while this diet isn’t forever, I’ve decided to play around a bit with healthier baked goods. Baking without sugar, heavy cream, flour and the like has been a learning experience to say the least. But I am enjoying the newness of it. I’m not sure how long I’ll continue eating this way, but for now I figured why not share?

And so. These oatmeal cookies are sugarless. They are instead sweetened with honey, molasses and agave nectar. They are also wheat and gluten-free. (I think!)

What you will need

Cookie sheet
Mixer (optional but easier!)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (very, very soft)
2 teaspoons bourbon or vanilla extract (I used bourbon)
1 egg
3 tablespoons agave
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon molasses
1 cup almond meal
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup soy protein powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Add butter, sweeteners, bourbon or extract, and egg into the mixer. Stir it up until creamy. (It will likely be a wee bit lumpy. Normal.) In separate bowl, add all dry ingredients. Mix that up a bit with a spoon. Add it to the mixture. Until it looks a bit like this:

Spoon balls onto baking sheet. Flatten with your hand.

Bake for 11 – 14 minutes. You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

These are super duper easy, so there isn’t much to cut back on. The only thing I can think to say is let your butter warm to room temperature in the mixer itself. Cuts back on cleaning.

Variations

The flavor of these babies are really nice, however, the consistency is a bit dry. That said, I think they would do nicely with some dried fruit, maybe some raisins? It’s up to you. My husband prefers to use some jam on the side. That works too.

A Special Note

Hey all you wheat-free folks! I would love to read your suggestions and/or criticisms. I am a novice with this type of baked good, so please, don’t hold back! Learn me something new!

Mom It Down! Gluten Free Flax Seed Cookies

mihow — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:58:31 +0000

Today’s Mom It Down is going to be a bit different. There are two recipes below: the first one includes the use of artificial sweeteners, which is what the original recipe called for. The second recipe is modified based on the fact that neither my husband nor I can get over the taste of the Splenda. I have tried to bake with Splenda before. I want to like it, but it always leaves a strange taste in my mouth that can linger for an hour or more. Is this something Splenda eaters get used to? Is this something everyone experiences? I do wonder.

Also, you’ll have to correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure these aren’t only low-carb but I think they’re gluten free as well. Let me know!

I’m going to give you both recipes. The first one includes the artificial sugars. The second one is my modification. Please note: I prefer the modified version because I am not fond of the Splenda aftertaste.

What you will need

Cookie sheet

Ingredients

Artificial Sweetener Version

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick)
1 egg (as close to room temp as possible)
5 tablespoons Splenda
1 teaspoon Stevia
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 cup whole almond meal
1/4 cup soy protein powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon lemon peel (optional)
pinch of salt

My Modified Version (No artificial sweeteners)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick)
1 egg (as close to room temp as possible)
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 cup whole almond meal
1/4 cup soy protein powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Mom it Down!

Take your unsalted butter out of the refrigerator a while before starting. It should be room temperature—super soft. I usually put mine directly into the mixer.

Preheat oven to 350.

Add sweetener (honey if you’re making my version, artificial sweeteners if you’re making the original), vanilla, and egg. Stir that up until creamy. It might be a little lumpy. I found that’s OK. Once you add the dry ingredients, it will smooth it out.

In a separate bowl, add all the dry ingredients.

Mix that up using a spoon.

Slowly add that to your mixer.

Spoon walnut-sized balls onto a cookie sheet.

Flatten each one down usig your fingers, a spoon, or a spatula until they are about half their height.

Bake for 10-14 minutes. Mine used 13 both times.

You’re done!

Please note: Since these cookies have flax, they need to be kept in the refrigerator or the freezer. I put mine in the fridge because they will be gone within a day or two.

I should probably mention that my son loves the modified version of these. (I didn’t give him the artificial sweetener version.) He consumed two this morning alone.

Overcoming Obstacles

If the dough is too sticky, you can refrigerate it for 15-30 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, add a little bit more soy protein powder.

Variations

Last night I ran out of vanilla extract during the second batch. I used Booker’s bourbon instead. It worked perfectly. Yay booze for baking!

I’d love your thoughts and/or suggestions for this recipe. It’s a work in progress for sure. More and more I want to find healthier/less-caloric sweets to serve to my expanding waistline as well as to my son. And while I’m not necessarily opposed to using artificial sweeteners, I would rather stick to “natural” ingredients. I’m all ears.

Mom It Down! Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Scones

mihow — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:39:28 +0000

My husband doesn’t particularly like sweets. So yesterday whenever he looked at me and said, “These scones might be the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten.” I knew I had succeeded. Finally!

That should tell you how good these are. I converted my husband—at least for a day—with these scones. They are so good. They have the perfect crispiness on the outside and the perfect amount of moisture on the inside. And they’re easy!

What you will need

Mixer
Baking sheet

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 teaspoons almond extract
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Mom It Down!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Butter a cookie sheet.

Cut up the unsalted butter into cubes. Place it back in the refrigerator to cool.

In your mixer, add the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Give that a quick stir.

Add your butter.

Stir that up until it’s crumbly.

In another bowl, add the buttermilk, eggs and almond extract.

Add that mixture to the flour mixture and stir it again.

If you’re using hazelnuts, chop them up however you’d like. I used a food processor.

Add that to your dough. Mix it up.

Add the chips.

Remove the dough from the mixer. It will be very sticky, seemingly unmanageable, but it’s not. Roll it into a ball so that you can easily form it into an 8-inch disc on the buttered cookie sheet.

Take a pizza cutter or a knife and cut that into 8 triangles.

You’re done! Bake for 17 – 20 minutes.

Overcoming Obstacles

When combining the wet ingredients, I measured out the buttermilk in a measuring cup and added everything to it. Less dishes to clean!

Important! Since these scones are cooked together (like a pizza) the middle might need a little more work after the 20 minutes are up—while the inside is nice and crispy the inside might be a little too wet. If you insert a knife and you find this to be the case, simply remove the scones from the oven after they are finished. Turn off the oven! Pull them each apart with a knife and then put them back into the (cooling off) oven for another 5 – 10 minutes. If that doesn’t make sense, please let me know in the comments section and I will explain better.

Variations

I haven’t messed with these yet because they are so close to perfect as is, but feel free to leave the hazelnuts out. You can also substitute the chips for whatever dried fruit you might like.

As always, please let me know if you have any comments and/or suggestions!

Original recipe taken from All Recipes and modified slightly to suite my taste buds.

Help Me?

If you like the Mom It Down posts, I’m wondering if you might be able to help me. I’m trying to figure a better way to organize the recipes I’ve covered. Do you have any suggestions for making this easier to use or navigate? If there are any comments about ways to make this particular section more useable, please let me know.

Mom It Down! Quick Rosemary Dinner Rolls

mihow — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:16:58 +0000

These dinner rolls have a touch of sweet, a touch of spice and a touch of homemade goodness. They’re relatively quick to make (for yeast rolls) and quite easy as well.

These rolls will go with just about anything and although I refer to them as “dinner rolls” they work pretty well with breakfast as well. (Trust me. I just finished one with a touch of butter. YUMMY.)

What You Will Need

Mixer (optional)
Muffin tins

Ingredients

1 Package dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
Chopped rosemary (to taste)

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water.

In the mixer, add egg, oil, sugar and salt. Give that a quick stir. Add yeast and water and rotate that a few times.

Add flour. Mix it up.

Add chopped rosemary. (I use dry rosemary.)

Fill generously greased muffin tins half way and let it sit in a warm place until about double. (I have cut corners here, folks. All is well if you do.)

Makes 10 rolls.

Preheat oven to 400.

Bake for 15 minutes. You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

I mentioned earlier that the dough can be unruly while trying to distribute into the tins. But it does work. It might help if you slightly flour your finger tips. I used a spoon and spooned each one in. They were rough on the top, but all that goes away once they’re baked. What I’m trying to say is don’t worry TOO much about how they look before they’re baked.

If you don’t have a lot of time and you aren’t able to let them rise until doubled, you can cut corners a bit. I have put them in the oven after 45 minutes rise time. I would TRY and give them at least a half an hour to sit, however.

Variations

I feel that these would be great with a touch of orange zest or maybe even some lemon. The next time I make these I’m definitely trying some orange. They seem to ask for it. :]

As usual, please let me know if you have any questions and/or suggestions!

Mom It Down! Spelt Crackers

mihow — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:13:54 +0000

These crackers are made from spelt flour, ~~so I reckon they’re even gluten free~~. The time and money invested in this recipe is absurdly little. Gone are the days I drop 5 bucks for a box of organic crackers. These are perfect for kids! They’re also super healthy.

What You Will Need

Standard Cookie Sheet (12 x 17, I think)
Rolling Pin
Bowl
Pasta cutter (optional. Shown below.)

Ingredients

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
Seeds of your choice (I used sesame)
Coarse sea salt (optional)

Mom It Down!

Preheat oven to 350.

Dissolve the salt in the cold water. Add flour and mix it up until a ball forms. Use your hands and knead it for a bit.

Take your cookie sheet and flip it over. Flour the surface. Grab the ball of dough.

Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough until it covers the cookie sheet. Keep adding spelt flour so the dough doesn’t stick.

Coat the top with cold water. If you have a spray bottle, use that. I did not so I used my hand. Add seeds and salt (if using). If you feel like it, score the crackers. (I used a pasta roller for this.) Also, poke each square a few times with a fork.

Bake as is for 20 to 25 minutes. (But make sure to keep checking it after 10. Mine usually uses 20 minutes.)

Let cool on the sheet. The edges will rise up. That’s perfect!

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

The thinner you roll out the dough the better. They REALLY snap if they’re thin enough.

Also, make sure you poke each pre-baked cracker with a fork. If you don’t, you risk a great deal of sticking.

If the very middle sticks, just use everything around it and toss the very middle piece.

You don’t have to score the crackers, but they break easier if you do. If you don’t score them, they’ll look a bit more rustic. Not that that’s a bad thing!

Variations

You can use poppy seeds, rosemary, salt and/or salt crystals, ginger, garlic—pretty much anything you fancy!

Also, they are great with jelly, butter, peanut butter or (especially!) hummus.

Let me know if you have questions or comments!

(The original recipe was taken from The New York Times.)

Mom It Down! Halloween Cookies: Skull & Crossbones, Black Cats

mihow — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:25:58 +0000

I love Halloween. Actually, I love every holiday but there’s just something about Halloween. Perhaps it’s the time of year? The fact that you get to be someone else for a day? I don’t know. But some of my most fond memories take place right around Halloween. And to this day I’m unable to sit in a public library without conjuring up thousands of memories surrounding Halloween.

I first discovered this recipe 4 years ago while I was trying to find a sugar cookie base for my annual Christmas Story Leg Lamps. (Remember this?) The problem I was having was that most every recipe left me with too weak of a cookie and these cookies were to be mailed to many different people. The good news is, the leg lamp (in the original story) breaks and the father is devastated, so I just went with it. I sent everyone one large leg lamp cookie surrounded by a bunch of smaller (and therefore more stable) cookies as stuffing material.

So, while trying several different types of sugar cookies (and I tried a LOT of recipes) this recipe was my favorite. It was the sturdiest and the easiest to manage.

Since then, I’ve been using this recipe for every holiday. You simply can’t go wrong with it. If you’re a lover of holiday, cut-out cookies, I highly recommend bookmarking this baby.

What you will need

A cookie-cutter (Something spooky!)
Cookie sheet
Rolling pin
Mixer

Ingredients (For the cookie)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients (For the icing and decor)

Milk
Powdered sugar
Food coloring (in this case, black)
Decorative icing (in this case, yellow)

Mom It Down!

Remove the butter from the refrigerator. Let it sit in the mixer until it’s room temperature and easy to spread.

Add your sugar. Mix that together until it looks like this:

Add the vanilla and eggs. Stir it up!

Add flour, baking powder and salt. Stir that up. The dough will become a bit unruly for the mixer. I used my hands at that point and formed it into a big ball. Cover it with saran wrap and refrigerator until chilled.

If you’re splitting this up, you’re done. Put that in the fridge for the night and clean up!

Please note: This does not have to be done the day before, you can do it day of and let it sit for an hour or two, but I like splitting this up due to total time involved.

The next day…

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove the dough from the fridge. Cut a piece off the large ball and put that on a piece of parchment paper. Let it sit for a minute or two until it becomes a bit more manageable. Begin to roll out the dough until it’s 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out your cookies until you have very few non-useable scraps left.

Place cookies on a cookie sheet at least half an inch apart.

Bake at 350 for 6 to 8 minutes. (Mine used up all 8!)

Let them cool until you can safely remove them without breaking them. Place them on a wire rack to cool entirely.

Decoration Time!

I mentioned before that I don’t use measurements while making my icing. I just eyeball it. If I have too much powdered sugar, I add more milk and vice-versa.

Remember: you need a LOT more powdered sugar than milk. Start small and work your way up. Trust me when I say that a little milk goes a long when when dealing with powdered sugar.

My base (just powdered sugar and milk):

Dip or paint your cookies in white.

Add black food coloring to some of the white base.

Dip or paint that onto your cats (or whatever it is you’re creating).

Let that dry.

Add the eyes and faces. Finish the scary cookies! (Thanks to TobyJoe and his many years of practice drawing skulls and penises.)

You’re done!

Overcoming Obstacles

I like to break this recipe up into a three-parter because it works out better for me that way. (First: dough; Second: baking; Third: decorating.) Just do what works best for your schedule.

Also, you can give the kid something to do too! I have these baking pens. I gave Emory one of the skull and crossbones and let him go to town on it.

He had a blast. And then he ate it. :]

Use sugar instead of flour while rolling the dough. Not too much! But it does the trick and keeps the dough from sticking.

Roll your dough out on a parchment paper. It’s much easier to manage. Some people even bake the cookies on the parchment paper instead of peeling them off and transferring them to the cookie sheet. That also works, especially if you have delicate cookies (like the leg lamps!) These didn’t need that, though. They didn’t have too many areas conducive to tearing.

Also! Feel free to freeze the dough. I did that this time so I could make more cookies as we near Halloween.

Variations

I’ve made theses using orange zest. (For Easter). I have added almond extract to Christmas cookies. I’ve also added lemon zest for anytime cookies. I’ve used half whole wheat pastry flour, (not for any other reason other than I ran out of all-purpose). It worked just fine.

As always, let me know if you have comments and/or suggestions!

Mom It Down! Pumpkin Spice Muffins (Not So Healthy!)

mihow — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:14:33 +0000

Internet: I love the fall. I love it. I love everything about it—the clothing, colors, smells, foods, everything.

This recipe screams fall to me. These muffins aren’t particularly healthy. If you want healthy, try this recipe from last week. But these muffins are awesome, in my opinion. And your house will smell amazing.

What you will need

Muffin Tins
Mixer

Ingredients

3 cups flour (I used pastry flour)
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1 can of pumpkin (15 or 16 oz)
2/3 cups oil
3 eggs
1 – 2 cups of raisins

Mom It Down!

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix pumpkin, eggs and oil in mixer.

In another bowl combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and spices.

Add that to the pumpkin mixture. Stir it up for a few rotations then add the (optional) raisins.

Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full.You should get an easy 12 large muffins from this recipe. I actually had some left over!

You’re done!

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.

Overcoming Obstacles

I bet you can just dump everything into the mixer instead of messing up another bowl. I can’t imagine why it would be a problem. See the comments section, might not be a good idea.

I had a little trouble getting my muffins out of the pan last night, so if you have the liners, I might suggest using them to line the tins. I don’t like doing this because it seems wasteful if I don’t need them. But these babies did NOT want to let up. However, it’s important to add, I did not have any trouble in the past getting them free. I have no idea why last night posed such a problem. Anyway… make a note of it.

Another way around the possible sticky factor (which, remember, only happened to me once) might be to lightly dust the oiled tins with flour. Up to you!

Variations

Feel free to use an actual pumpkin. If you do, grab a small sugar pumpkin.

You might omit the raisins or add in some nuts. It’s very versatile. Also, if you want it to be healthier, replace the oil with apple sauce and use egg whites instead of whole eggs. You can literally cut the sugar in half—or down by even more. The way I came up with the healthier version to these muffins was by forgetting the sugar all together. My husband loved it. I wasn’t too crazy about it. To each their own taste! But, yeah, cut the sugar down by however much you want. Really!

Also, you can add one cup whole wheat flour to 2 cups all-purpose. I used pastry flour yesterday because I needed to clear out space in the refrigerator. But all-purpose works awesome as well.

Again, hit me up with suggestions or questions!

Mihow » baking

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