KAF’s Herb and Garlic Bubble Loaf

I got a King Arthur Flour Catalog a few weeks back, and on the cover was this LUSCIOUS looking loaf of bread, they called it a “tear & share”.
For the first time in our entire marriage, my husband actually read this food magazine (I get several) and brought it over to me.

DH: Look at this! Can you make this for us? This looks really good, I love homemade bread!
Me: Sure! It does look good, doesn’t it!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/herb-and-garlic-bubble-loaf-recipe

I gathered all of the ingredients, re-read the recipe; I even did TWO “live chats” with KAF’s Baker’s Hotline with a few follow questions that weren’t clear to me.
I followed the recipe as well as the helpful information that I received on the chat line… 5 hours later (I took my time and didn’t rush the process) we sat down a dinner to what looked and smelled heavenly!

The Bubble Loaf was cracker-like on one side and the inside was very doughy and unappealing.

That goodness the Chicken Cacciatore over Rigatoni was outstanding.

After everything was cleaned up for the evening, my husband gives me a big hug and says, “Well, ok that was a no-go, what new recipe are we going to try next?”
AWW! He’s such a love!

Crostata Two Ways

Crostata, Galette, Pie, whatever you want to call it, it tastes pretty dang good!

I do recall telling everyone about what my husband calls “Your Apple Pie” .   I found two lonely Apples in the `fridge that sorely needed to be eaten or pitched out, I opted for pie.

I also found a quart of fresh Cherries that got pushed to the back of the ice box, so I figured, let’s make two pies.  I do not own a Cherry Pitter, so used my paring knife to pit the fruit… have you ever done that?  My hands were cramping up by the time I got through all of them, one by one!

This was the first time that I’ve ever made a fresh Cherry Pie and I’ll be doing it again.

YUM!  That was so worth it.  Now, if we only had some Vanilla Ice Cream.

The Best Coconut Pound Cake, NOT!

I love anything Coconut, so I ordered a small bottle of Coconut Flavoring from King Arthur Flour, along with a new Bundt® Pan.

I found this recipe, “The Best Coconut Pound Cake”, on a social media site and figured I’d give it a go.

It sure smelled good and looked okay I guess.

I made the icing and toasted some Shredded Coconut to go on top.

I can’t say exactly why we didn’t care for this cake, we just didn’t.  One bite and unfortunately, it got chucked into the garbage can… it wasn’t even good enough to share with the next door neighbors, I didn’t want to subject them to this cake.

I’m not going to post the recipe nor the author of it, but I will say that this is the second recipe that I’ve tried of hers and both were FAILS!

Disappointing

Baked Chocolate Donuts

I’ve been eyeing up this Wilton 6-Cavity Donut Pan for, well, ever.  Not long ago, I was out and about with Missus Dear Friend on one of our “Girlies Day Out”.  We went into Bed Bath & Beyond and what was calling my name?

What the heck, it’s only $9.99, I should be able to make a decent baked, rather than fried donut, right?  I followed the directions that came on the pans sleeve…

Icing makes everything better, right?

The first batch, I think I filled the pan a bit too much, there isn’t a hole.  Maybe the icing would hide that.

The next batch looked pretty, but the texture was off, they were too airy (can you see those huge pockets of air?).

This Sunday’s Brunch was disappointing.   It’s a good thing a made a BIG pan of Bacon too.

Conclusion:  We’ll need to look for a different recipe maybe, but we will try again.

Snickerdoodles For A Fund Raiser

So we’ve been in our new home for just about 6 months now and the other week we had our first solicitor knock on our front door.  Both my husband and I went to open the door, mostly curious because not many folks have done so.  Here stands a very nervous pre-teen little gal, talking a mile a minute.  Neither of us understood a word she said, so I smiled real big and said “Hi, my name is Auntie Doni, what’s yours?”  That sure helped, she took a deep breath, smiled and obviously calmed down enough to explain that her school’s soccer team was trying to buy new uniforms and needed to raise the money to do so.  “Whatcha got?” I asked, and she produced a list of different frozen cookie doughs for sale, at what I felt was a fair price.  Ya know, I’ve never had a Snickerdoodle before, so we bought a box of those.

A few evenings later that darling little Miss came back to deliver our box of cookie dough.  “Let’s fire up the oven!” my husband proclaimed, okey dokey pal.

Meh, they were alright I suppose.  I baked them all off and made up three packages of cookies to share with our neighbors.

Triple Chocolate Half-Sized Bundt® Cakes, One To Eat and One to Share

I love Bundt® cakes!  For the most part, they’re moist and tasty.  I even have more than one type of Bundt® pan, with another one on its way.

I saw a recipe somewhere for Chocolate Bundtlettes, heh, I have a pan like that!

But as I thought about the recipe, I figured I could one up that!  I’ll make the cake in my Half-sized Bundt® pans and then guild the lily farther.

 

Triple Chocolate Bundt® with a Deluxe Ganache Frosting

1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix

1 box Instant Chocolate Pudding (the small one)

1 1/3 C. Vegetable Oil

4 Eggs

½ C. warm Water

1 C. Sour Cream

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350⁰

In a Stand Mixer or using a Hand Mixer, combine all of the ingredients until smooth, excluding the Chocolate chips, stir those in last.  The batter with be like thick pudding.  Using a Baking Spray, grease the two Half-sized Bundt® pans; immediately pour the batter evenly between the two pans (I use a scale to be accurate).  Bake for 20-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Place the cakes on a cooling rack and set aside until completely cooled and then turn them out (I run a disposable plastic knife around the edge of the pan first) on to the rack, fitted in a sheet pan.

Now comes the fun part, frosting and decorating those two cuties!

I wanted a bumped up Ganache Frosting, so I kinda winged it.

Deluxe Ganache Frosting

1 C. Chocolate Chips

1 C. Half and Half (or Cream, we use ½ & ½ in our coffee)

½ C. Shredded Sweetened Coconut

½ C. Chopped Pecans

In a glass bowl, heat the ½ & ½  in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, just til hot but not boiling.  Add the Chocolate Chips and stir gently until all of the Chocolate is melted.  You might need to “nuke” it again for a few seconds.

Pour the still warm Ganache over the two cakes; sprinkle the Coconut and Pecans into the Ganache, pressing very lightly in so that they stick.

Slice and enjoy with a cup of coffee or a big glass of cold milk.

I took one of the cakes to our next door neighbors and put the other one into our Covered Cake Plate.

It should keep for 4-5 days, that is if you don’t devour it!

ENJOY!

More Lemons, Meyer Lemon Bars

I think my brain is stuck on Lemons just now…

Meyer Lemon Bars

For the crust:

1 ¼ C. All purpose Flour

½ C. Powdered Sugar

1 Tbsp. Corn Starch

½ C. softened Unsalted Butter

For the filling:

3 Eggs

1 ½ C. Granulated Sugar

The zest of 1 Meyer Lemon

½ C. freshly squeezed Meyer Lemon Juice (approx. 2 Lemons)

½ C. All purpose Flour

Extra Powdered Sugar to dust the tops later

Preheat the oven to 350⁰

Line an 8×8 square pan with parchment paper.

I almost forgot to remove the Alligator Clips before I put this in the oven 😀

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the crust with a whisk; cut in the Butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it’s crumbly (I used a Food Processor, it’s faster and easier).

Transfer the mixture to the pan and press the dough firmly into the bottom of the pan; bake for 10 minutes.

Whisk together the filling ingredients, minus that extra Powdered Sugar; pour the filling mixture over that still hot crust and bake for another 25 minutes or until the filling is set.

Cool on a rack to room temp and then refrigerate uncovered for at least 2 hours.

Dust the top liberally with that extra Powdered Sugar and slice, how good does that look?!

*Cooks note: If you can’t find Meyer Lemons, regular Persian Lemons are perfectly fine, just a little bit more tart than Meyers.  I like to freeze Meyer Lemon juice in half cup portions when they’re in season, November through March.

ENJOY!