New kitchen toys!!

Oh how I love the holidays!! My hubbie and I, full of love that we are, can never wait until the big day when there are lots of presents under the tree. So we shower each other with gifts slowly throughout the month. So, today, on Present Day 3, look what magical wonderousness I received!!!!



Oh I can't wait to make about a million things with this baby!

Mini Apple Pies

So, I mentioned that every major holiday I make an apple pie, because I love it. A boutique cupcake kiosk opened in my mall right outside the store I work in. They sell tiny pies too and so I got it in my head that I could make tiny pies instead of one large one this Thanksgiving.

So, I used this recipe:
http://mamasgottabake.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/mini-apple-pies/#comments

And I started with these quality ingredients:



For the first time ever I bought two different brands of apples - more on how it turned out later. :-)
I started by peeling and cutting the apples into edible slices:



I appear not to have taken any photos of beating the dough in the mixer, but here's the ball after it cooled in the fridge slightly:




I cut the ball in half and rolled it out on a well floured board, flipping it several times:



I then made circles on the dough approximately the size of my muffin tins and cut about a half inch wider than that with a pizza cutter:


I fit the circles into well-greased muffin tins:



Then I filled them with the the apple mixture which had been marinating during this crust process. I filled the cups very full, basically overflowing.



Then I rolled out the other half of the dough and cut it into 1/2" strips to make lattice-tops.



After lacing the tops, I brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top:



Coming out of the oven, the tops were perfectly golden brown:



The mini-pies popped right out of the tin onto the plate:



I heated them slightly and served them with ice cream. They were perfect and amazing! I want some right now....yummie time!

Banana Pudding

Every holiday I make an Apple Pie, because I love it, and I always make a second dessert, for everyone else's tastes. I let my husband choose this Thanksgiving and he asked for banana pudding. This is an ironic name for what I made, since the pudding part was, in fact, vanilla rather than banana, but nonetheless, it went over splendiforously. Everyone who ate it had seconds.

I reviewed several recipes before selecting one, and this one was the first I selected from this website, but I'm going to say here again, that I really enjoy the format their posts follow. Though, I dislike internet video so I don't watch the videos. So, I picked this recipe:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/BananaPudding.html

I started with these quality ingredients:


I started with the 1/3 cup of sugar, the salt and the cornstarch


I cracked the first two eggs right into my large glass mixing bowl. This third one, I separated, and used only the yolk:


I whisked in the eggs, yolk and the 1/2 cup of milk:


I followed the recipe's advice about rinsing my medium saucepan with cold water.I then put the rest of the milk and the remaining sugar I heated into the pot over a medium heat:


Milk really fills the pan when it boils, I got this shot at just the right time as I was taking the pan off of the stove:


I slowly poured the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture while whisking.


I transferred this new mixture to a large saucepan and heated it over medium-low heat for about 4 minutes.


After whisking in the vanilla and butter, I poured the pudding through a strainer (which was hard and messy) into another glass bowl, covered it and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next morning I took out a fancy glass serving bowl I have and lined the bottom with vanilla wafers. I spooned in some pudding. Then I made a ring of fresh banana slices and another layer of cookies, then more pudding. I followed this pattern until the pudding was gone, which was, thankfully, right around when the bowl was full. :-)



Bon Appetit!

Lemon Bars

My Uncle loves these Lemon Bars, and I am sure that your family will too. So bake them along with me!

I used this recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/LemonBars.html, I really like the way they talk about the ingredients and the item in the descriptions before the recipe on this website.


I started with these quality ingredients:


I started by creaming together the butter and sugar:


After adding the flour and salt, I pressed the dough into the bottom a new pan I just bought - a beautiful 8x8 glass oven-ready Pyrex dish.

I cooked it at 350 degrees for 19 minutes and snapped this photo while it cooled on the wire rack:


While the crust was in the oven, I zested my lemons:


And then I juiced them by hand. I poured the juice through a fine strainer into the measuring cup to remove any seeds or pulp.


I creamed the sugar and eggs together, however I did not take a photo of this. I used Speed 6 for just under a minute. I added the lemon juice and zest and used the Stir Speed for only 20 seconds or so. I scraped the sides of the bowl and added the flour:


I folded the flour in by hand. This is my favourite, mystifying baking word. "Fold in..." my KitchenAid cookbook has a glossary of cooking terms in the back and I learned early on that it is fairly literal. I gently turned the batter until the flour was well disbursed.

I then poured it over the semi-cooled crust:


And after 19 more minutes in the oven, the filling was set and looked perfect. I cooled them on the wire rack overnight.

In the morning I cut them into 16 squares and they came easily out of the glass pan. I dusted them with sifted confectioner's sugar, and boy do they ever look tasty!

New York Style Cherry Cheesecake

Hey everybody!

As the holidays near I'll just be bake, bake, baking away. Here's the first of my many treats, my hubbie's favourite - Cherry Cheesecake. This is the recipe that I used:
http://donna-diegel.suite101.com/cherry-cheesecake-recipe-graham-cracker-crust-a79126

I used these quality ingredients:


I started by finely grinding the graham crackers in my food processor:


Then I melted some butter:


And mixed it with the sugared graham cracker crumbs:


I pressed this mixture into the bottom of my greased and foil-lined springform pan. Check out Rainbow Brite doing the robot next to the pan.


Then I put the cream cheese into my mixer bowl,


and creamed it:


Next I added the lemon zest, cornstarch, and sugar:


After adding the eggs and vanilla, the batter was quite creamy,


but after I added the heavy cream,


it was straight up fluffy! I poured it on top of the prepared crust (unfortunately the flash didn't go off---can't win them all):


The cheesecake looked PERFECT when it came out of the oven! Man does that pan of hot water do the trick!


I put it into the fridge almost immediately, and in the morning there were cracks on the top, but the filling covered them nicely.




Yum-o-licious!

Promoting Others

They just opened a boutique pop-up cupcake shop outside my store in my mall. I'm feeling in the mood to promote others.

I like this lady's page on facebook - Hugs & Cookies XOXO, she's always got these innovative challenges. She was polite enough to allow a link to my stuff on her blogspot, so here's a link to her's - she's amazing, check her out for sure!
http://cookiesxo.blogspot.com/2011/11/take-5-bars.html

Double-Decker Butterscotch Brownies

There is this beautiful photo of these double-decker butterscotch brownies on the cover of my Kitchenaid recipe book. I just had to make them right away. So I did. I've made them a few times since then, they're a truly decadent treat I love to give out as a pick me up when I'm feeling particularly baker-y.

So, here's a digital record of the recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/double-decker-butterscotch-brownies-158990

I started out with these fine ingredients:

I used vanilla too, but forgot to include it in the photo.

I started with the butter, sugar and vanilla in my mixer bowl:

See the happy smilie face?

I creamed them together for a bit:


Then I beat in the eggs and it looked so creamy:



After I added the cocoa and flour, I spread the brownie batter onto a foil-lined pan.


While the brownie was cooking, I mixed the butterscotch glaze. Enjoy these action shots:



As soon as the brownie had cooled some, I spread the glaze onto it:


Then before the glaze was totally set, I cut the whole thing in half and stacked it on itself:


Then while the double stack was cooling, I prepared the chocolate ganache:


I poured on the ganache from a ziploc bag with one snipped corner in a zig-zag pattern.




MmMmMmmmmm looks sooo tasty!!