Garlic Twisty Bread

This is my secret pleasure. I love to make this bread. It was the first bread I ever made and since then I've probably made it close to fifty times. When at college the bread would be devoured within minutes of coming out of the oven. Now that there's less folks in the house I get yummy left overs for a few days.

The recipe comes, of course, from my beloved KitchenAid book. Here is a digital copy:
http://www.food.com/recipe/garlic-pull-apart-bread-221695

I started with these quality ingredients:


I half the provided recipe to make only one loaf at a time. I included this photo of measuring out the 5 1/2 cups of flour because if I have learned that anything is a key to my baking success, it is using beautifully level scoops like this one:


After combining the liquid ingredients (and using a candy thermometer to watch the temperature), I put on my KitchenAid's pour-shield and began adding the liquids to the yeast/flour mix.


No matter how I pour, when dragging it out over 30 seconds, the yellow-ish part of the mixture (the butter) always goes in first and the last ten seconds are always much more white (and milky). But it comes out just fine.

The bough is usually mostly clung to the middle by the time the "add remaining flour" instruction pops on, but I always throw another 1/4 cup of flour in and watch it incorporate itself. Then once it's well blended in I wait the last 2 minutes of kneading.

When I lift the mixer head, the dough is all stuck on the hook, I start at the top of the hook and just pull the whole ball off. I pat it smooth and put it in a greased bowl to rise.


That hour does a world of difference - look how big it gets!


Then it's time to roll it out flat, add the garlic butter and slice:









My fingers were too buttery to take photos as I twisted each piece I cut, but I just twist each piece around my finger before lining them into a well greased loaf pan. I do cut more than 16 pieces now...sometimes as many as 30, but generally around 22 or so.

Once the loaf is assembled, it looks like this, and needs to rise again for another hour:


Then after an hour of rising and a half hour of baking (half way through I tented foil very loosely over the top to keep it from scorching), it came out of the oven looking beautiful!!

Chocolate Cream Pie

Since my pie crust recipe calls for two crusts, I made another single crust pie - Chocolate Cream. The recipe is from my Kitchenaid book, but I was unable to find it with a google search. It is a recipe for Vanilla Cream Pie with a list of variations at the bottom, the first being Chocolate.

So...here is my recounting of the Chocolate version of that recipe (with photos!)

1 cup sugar, divided
6 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp, plus 1/8 tsp salt, divided
2 & 1/2 cup milk
3 eggs, separated
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 baked 9" pie shell


Combine 1/2 cup sugar, flour and 1/4 tsp salt in heavy saucepan. Add milk and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, about 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
(this looked really gross. I took photos of it, but I deleted them. It was *very very* thick)

Place egg yolks in mixer bowl.


Attach bowl and wire whip to mixer. Turn to Speed 8 and whip 1 minute. Slowly stir small amount of milk mixture into yolks.
Add yolk/milk mixture to saucepan.


Cook over medium heat 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add margarine, chocolate and vanilla:


Set aside to cool. (I put it in a room temperature bowl with saran wrap and placed it in the fridge until it was cool to the touch throughout.)


Pour into baked pastry shell. (I stirred the chilled mixture before spreading [not pouring] it into the prepared pie crust)


(Note the lovely and oft mentioned Kitchenaid book on my recipe stand in this photo)

Place cream of tartar, remaining salt and egg whites in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and wire whip to mixer. Gradually turn to Speed 8 and whip about 1 minute or until soft peaks form. Turn to Speed 4. Gradually add remaining sugar and whip about 1 minute, or until stiff peaks form. (It took me almost three minutes to get stiff peaks, but boy was the result worth the extra time!)

Lightly pile meringue on pie and spread to edge.



Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
(It looked absolutely amazing coming out of the oven!!)


And a little slice looked so nice!

Pie Crusts

I always get compliments on my pie crusts. This is the first of three posts I'll upload today. I made the two pie crusts and then made an Italian style Cheesecake (or a Ricotta Pie) and a Chocolate Cream Pie, but more on those later.

For right now, lets focus on the crusts.

I followed this Kitchenaid recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/kitchenaid-pie-pastry-7546


Every time I make this recipe I need to use about 8 tbsp of cold water, but the crust comes out delicious.

So I started with these ingredients:


And then I cut the butter and shortening into small pieces:


Once the dough held together slightly I split it into to equal piles, patted them into balls and wrapped them in saran wrap:


I refrigerated both balls for longer than 15 minutes, flipping them occasionally.

When I was ready to use them I rolled them out in between floured sheets of waxed paper:


They both rolled out to more than large enough for my 9" Pyrex pie plates:


I fit the crust perfectly into the plate and trimmed off all of the excess:


Then I took a fork and crimped the edges beautifully:


How deliciously perfect looking!!!

Brownies

I love making brownies. I don't eat them, so I don't stick my fingers in the batter and I don't eat the crumbs that come off as I prepare them, but I really love the smell and the process of homemaking them and my lovely little brownie story.




I always loved making stuff "from scratch" or "the hard way." I called my dad once and asked him how you make brownies not from a mix. His reply? "You don't."




Well this is how I make brownies:

http://www.food.com/recipe/fudge-brownies-kitchenaid-mixer-448883 > from the KitchenAid mixer book.




I started with these quality ingredients:






I melted and then cooled the chocolate and I took some photos of that too, but they weren't that great. However, when I creamed together the butter and sugar, I got some really great shots. And the egg action shot is truly amazing. So....here's the process in action:












After all the eggs were added it was quite creamy and I tried to be a bit artistic as I added the cooled chocolate from the freezer.










Then I added the sifted together remaining ingredients for a few more artsy shots and then prepped the pan for the oven.








In the pan before baking:




And 45 minutes of baking later:




Sliced it up a bit (the recipe says it makes 36 brownies - I made 15!) and served to a chorus of delight!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not a whole lot of text needed for this entry, the photos tell the story beautifully.

I used half of this recipe from my Kitchenaid book:
http://www.food.com/recipe/kitchenaid-chocolate-chip-cookies-443024

I forgot to include the chocolate chips during the ingredient photo, so they got their own little shot with an adorable monster sneaking a quick pose in. I'm also trying to get more action shots in, so you'll see a lot of progress. Any comments are welcome of course, and as always thanks for viewing. Enjoy!




I cut the butter into smaller pieces to help it soften and combine easier.





By the time of the first "scrape the bowl" there was still visible chunks of butter:



By the time of the last scrape the bowl however, the batter had reached a smooth consistency.


Time to add the sifted together dry ingredients:



This made the batter nice and thick:



Time to add those chocolate chips Stitch was guarding!


And look how adorable the tiny rolled out cookies look on the greased and tin foil lined cookie sheets!




An in the oven shot:


AAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDD......::drumroll please:: The finished product!