Bake! Chocolate meringue tart

Gr. I purposefully left a mini tart so I could take a photo this afternoon.

And then forgot about it until it was dark again.

This only being home for one hour of daylight is killer on the food photography. 

This weekend's Bake! pick was Margaret's; she picked chocolate meringue tart (or chocolate marshmellow pie, as my kids called it).

This one should've been easy, except that my little guy who is usually asleep by 7:00 was up until 9:30 last night, which meant this was definitely a case of distracted baking.

For the tart crust, NM calls for flaky pastry crust. I had a tart crust in the freezer, just labeled "tart crust," so I'm not sure which recipe it was (or even from which book, Modern Baker or Bake!). Either way, I divided it in half, used half to make three 4" crusts, rolled them out (easily!), and put them in the fridge to chill. (I used the other half to make this apple tart that Nancy posted earlier today; perfect for a bit of left-over tart crust and a few leftover apples.)

Meanwhile, I made the chocolate cream (a half-batch, which filled the three mini tart crusts and a large-ish ramekin): whole milk, sugar, half-and-half, corn starch, eggs, and bittersweet chocolate. Margaret had a problem with her cream not setting up...mine went the other way. It was really close for a long time...and then something happened with the little guy and when I looked back, it was so thick I could barely stir it. I was worried that it would taste curdled or lumpy, but the texture was actually perfect.

I baked the mini tart crusts until they were golden. Unfortunately, I forgot to weigh them down with beans, so they shrunk up quite a bit in the oven. While the crusts and chocolate cream were cooling, I made the meringue.

This part did not go so well. I'm not sure what happened, as I've used NM's method of heating the egg whites, sugar, and salt, and then whipping them before with great success. But mine never thickened up (check out Margaret's for a look at how beautiful and full-bodied it should've been), and again I was dealing with the little-guy-who-wouldn't-sleep, so I just gave up and dumped it on top of the chocolate. I think because of the lack of fluffiness, my meringue took a lot longer to turn golden in the oven.

It didn't matter. Hubby gobbled his mini tart right up. He said that he's normally not crazy about meringue, but he loved the crust and the chocolate, and the meringue had a more marshmellowy texture that was actually quite yummy. So despite everything, a success!

Bake! Ekmek, Turkish flatbread

Our next Bake! pick was chosen by Andrea, and she picked Ekmek, basic Turkish flat bread. This was made with NM's basic Middle Eastern flatbread dough (bread flour, salt, yeast, water, and olive oil). The dough was extremely wet and hard to handle, but once again proved to me the power of the stretch-and-fold. When it finished mixing, I had to basically pour it into the bowl. After twenty minutes, I scraped it onto a lightly-dusted counter and gave it a stretch-and-fold...instantly I could see and feel the dough strengthen.

Although NM says not to let the dough rise for too long, there was no way I could make the bread in one day with the teaching-coaching-momming schedule, so I stuck the basic dough in the fridge. This afternoon, I pulled it out and continued with the rest of the Ekmek recipe: preshape the loaf, let it rest, stretch it into a long oval, dimple it, and bake. It worked out perfectly, even with the overnight rest.

I served the bread with our favorite Indian-spiced chicken with tomato chutney, and I haven't seen a meal disappear off the table that quickly in a long time!

As a sidenote: I was a little confused because the basic dough recipe says "makes enough for several flatbreads," but the ekmek recipe says "use one batch of basic dough, makes one loaf." I ended up using a full batch of the basic recipe to make a large ekmek loaf, and the pictures look just like the book, so I think that I made the right choice!

Happy Halloween from Smaug the Dragon and Bob the Builder!

Bake! Thin-crusted pizza

Our Bake! pick for this week is thin-crusted pizza, and it was picked by ME! :)

I actually picked this recipe because my dad loves pizza, but prefers thin-crust, and since none of my trusty pizza crust recipes are for thin-crust, I've never been able to share homemade pizza with him. But then we ended up having a bunch of people over for dinner, and we ate it all up! No fear, though: this recipe is super easy and super tasty, and I guarantee we'll make it again.

This morning, I made the dough, which only consisted of whisking flour with salt, yeast with water and oil, and then mixing the two together. The dough rises for an hour or until doubled (mine took a little longer), is folded over a few times to smooth it out, and divided. I divided mine into three 364 g portions (to fit on my 10x15 baking pans), floured the pieces, wrapped them in plastic, and stuck them in the fridge.

When we got home from our afternoon adventures, I pulled two pieces of dough out of the fridge, oiled two pans, and used my fingers to spread the dough out as much as possible.

I used NM's simple tomato sauce, and then topped the pizzas with a sprinkling of olives, pepperoni, mushrooms and onions. I ended with grated mozzarella and asiago. The pizzas baked for 9 minutes. Seriously, so quick and easy! A perfect meal for having friends over: both the crust and the sauce can be made ahead of time and the assembly was much easier than doing our usual individual pizzas.

The pizza got rave reviews from everyone. The crust was crispy and had great flavor. Check out Margaret's post for her beautiful margherita pizza!

Pumpkin pie ice cream and Bake! ox tongues

Right after I went on my baking/dessert hiatus, I stumbled on David Leibovitz's post for pumpkin ice cream. Each week when we picked up our squash-overwhelmed CSA box, I would click back over to the recipe and drool. I'm normally a chocolate-chocolate-chocolate girl, but for some reason, I have been obsessed by the idea of ice cream that tastes like pumpkin pie.

And today was the day! Today was our annual orchard/pumpkin festival trip with some good friends and their little ones, and we decided to come back to our house after the festival for dinner. I needed a dessert, and what better treat after a pumpkin festival than pumpkin ice cream?

I still had some pumpkin puree in the freezer, leftover from my pumpkin muffins (post tomorrow!), so I was able to skip the roasting-the-squash step. I started organizing for DL's recipe, and then said, "I wonder if Jeni has a recipe for pumpkin ice cream so I can skip the egg/custard part?" and sure enough, she did! Her recipe calls for Chinese five spice, and first of all, I didn't have it, and second of all, I really wanted a more pumpkin pie flavor. So this is what I came up with:

Pumpkin pie ice cream
adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and David Lebovitz

3 1/8 cups (800 g) half-and-half (both Jeni and DL call for a combination of whole milk and cream, but half-and-half was all we had in the house)
2 tbsp (33 g) milk
1 tbsp + 1 tsp (13 g) cornstarch
3 tbsp (43 g) neufchatel cream cheese, softened
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 c (85 g) honey
3/4 c (180 g) fresh pumpkin puree
2/3 c (135 g) packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp (22 g) light corn syrup
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves

1. Whisk the softened cream cheese with the salt in a large bowl. Then whisk in the pumpkin puree and honey. Set aside.
2. Combine half-and-half, brown sugar, corn syrup, and spices in a large sauce pan. (Use a 4 qt saucepan. I tried a smaller one and it boiled over!) Bring to a roiling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes.
3. Whisk two tablespoons of milk with cornstarch.
4. After the milk mixture has boiled for four minutes, turn off the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil for one minute, stirring with a heat-proof spatula.
5. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese/pumpkin mixture, whisking until smooth.
6. Strain the mixture into a gallon zip-top plastic bag. (I actually strained it into a measuring cup and then poured it into the bag to limit the mess.)
7. Put the bag into an ice bath for 30 - 60 minutes until cool. (Or put in the fridge overnight.)
8. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Freeze in a container for four hours.

I decided that we needed a little cookie treat to go with the ice cream, and Phyl's Bake! pick of ox tongues seemed like the right choice. So I took a small piece of puff pastry from the freezer (about 200 g), rolled it out in some sugar, used a small round cutter to cut out small circles, rolled them into ovals, chilled them, and baked them for about 15 minutes until the sugar had caramelized.

This ice cream was a huge hit! In fact, the entire quart disappeared in one night, and one of our friends' little ones kept saying, "More? More?" after the container was empty. It tasted just like pumpkin pie filling, only in ice cream form. The ox tongues were perfect; a little piece of sugary buttery goodness to round out dessert.

Check out the layers!

Bake! Mini apple lattice tarts

Kayte's pick for our next Bake! recipe happened during my September baking hiatus. But with the weekend bringing a new month and a trip to the apple orchard, I knew that it was time to make......apple lattice tarts!

I had four mini tart doughs stored in the freezer, so I used those, even though they were cookie dough crusts instead of the flaky dough crusts that were called for. I figured they'd work just as well, and I was right. The dough was enough for three mini tarts and the lattice topping.

This may have been the easiest apple pie-type filling recipe that I've ever encountered. I simply peeled, cored, and chopped the apples, and then tossed them with a sugar, flour, and cinnamon mixture. Finally butter is dotted over the filling and strips of dough are placed on top to create a lattice. Easy-peasy. I made a third of the topping, which was enough for my three minis, plus a little ramekin of extra filling. They baked for about 35 minutes, and were absolutely delightful.

Bake! Truffle brownies

So August is officially our Bake! catch-up month, but knowing how crazily busy September will be with school starting up again, I decided to bake ahead a bit.......I needed a dessert to bring to a family cabin barbecue this weekend, so I let hubby pick from upcoming Bake! recipes. He choose the one for the first week of September which was picked by the newest member of our little group, Glennis: truffle brownies.

We've already baked the Florida brownies, which were to-die-for, and I have to say that the truffle brownies are just as dangerous.

Because we were going to the family barbecue, I made a full recipe (a 9x13 pan); unfortunately, the little girl got sick and we ended up spending the weekend hanging out at home. Hubby and I did quite a bit of damage to the pan. Luckily the girl was better by today and we were able to do an abbreviated trip to the cabin...saving ourselves from eating the entire pan....which we could've easily done.

At home, I served the brownies with Jeni's vanilla bean ice cream (via Food and Wine), which hubby declared the best vanilla ice cream he'd ever eaten. He was such a fan, in fact, that I've finally broken down and ordered her book.

Bake! Coconut cakes

My next Bake! rewind recipe is one that Kayte, Phyl, and Margaret made shortly after they started baking through the book: individual coconut cakes.

I cut the recipe in half, and with my slightly-larger mini-muffin pan, I made nine cupcakes. My little girl helped me. First, she stirred together a bit of sugar, a tiny bit of flour, and some coconut (I used sweetened and cut the sugar a bit). Then she whisked egg whites, salt, lemon zest, and melted butter. Once combined, we filled the muffin pan, and she sprinkled a bit of coconut on the tops.

The kiddos didn't like them (I think it was a texture issue), but the hubby and I both thought they were tasty little treats!

Bake! Danish apple strudels

This week's pick from Bake! is mine! :) Knowing my dad's fondness for Danish and given that this is his birthday month, I picked individual Danish apple strudels.

The most challenging part of this recipe was doing the math. ;-) I didn't want to have too many sweets around, so I cut the strudel recipe in half (to make four four-inch strudels), which meant cutting the dough recipe in fourths (the strudel recipe uses 1/2 of the Christel's Danish pastry dough).

I've already made the quick Danish pastry dough, which is a yeasted dough, and used it in both Danish cheese pockets and Danish apricot pinwheels. I found this recipe to be easier than the other and the dough very easy to work with. You simply combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Cut in unsalted butter. Pulse in whole-milk ricotta and egg yolks until the whole thing forms a ball. The dough behaved exactly as it was supposed to, spent a night resting in the fridge, and was very easy to roll out this morning.

Last night, I also made the strudel filling, another super easy recipe: cook down granny smith apples, sugar, and cinnamon; add some currants. Again, I let them rest overnight.

The strudels took about 20 minutes to roll out and shape this morning. My dough was nowhere near as neat a rectangle as the pictures in the book, but because you flip the rolled strudel over (seam-side down), no one would ever know! They chilled in the fridge for an hour, baked for 25 minutes, and cooled for about two seconds.

These were really yummy. In addition to preferring the process of making this Danish dough, I also really enjoyed the taste and texture of the finished product. As for my dad's opinion? He only got one little tiny bite because apparently apple strudels are my step mom's favorites...guess I should've made the full recipe!

Bake! flashback: Tiger rolls

Being already overwhelmed with my commitments to The Modern Baker Challenge and Mellow Bakers, I was not eager to join a new baking group, so when Kayte and Phyl started baking through Nick Malgieri's Bake! I was happy to sit back and watch........Until the recipes they were baking and posting became more and more irresistible, as did the fun they were having with their Twitterbakes.

I am so happy that I caved and requested Bake! for my birthday, as it quickly became one of my very favorite cookbooks. But, because I joined in late, there were several recipes that I missed, and the group has decided to use the month of August to catch up.

My little guy saw me writing "soup" on our weekly dinner calendar and requested a bread: "white with flour on it." (He means something along the lines of ciabatta or baguettes.) I thought back to the first recipes the Bake! group made and realized that I'd never gotten around to tiger rolls; they seemed like a perfect accompaniment to soup.

This recipe uses NM's one-step bread dough, a bread made with bread flour (I subbed in some white whole wheat flour), salt, active yeast, water, and olive oil. The method is very similar to the unkneaded six-fold French bread that I just made: mix, stir, rest, stir, rest, fold, rest, fold, rise. It was very quick and easy.

After its rise, the bread is divided into twelve rolls (mine were about 64 g per roll), and then it's time to mix up the topping that gives tiger rolls their name. This is a Dutch crunch, as we made for the BBA's Vienna bread, although this time I actually went out and purchased rice flour. The topping is made from active yeast, water, sugar, salt, olive oil, and rice flour, all whisked together, allowed a brief rest, and painted on the rolls. The rolls rise for a bit and then are baked for 25 minutes.

This recipe was incredibly quick: 2:00 start time, 5:30 dinner time, and even allowed us a quick trip to the park. We all loved these rolls; with a little butter, they were perfect with our soup, crunchy crackly crust, fluffy inside. I planned to use the rest for sandwiches for lunch tomorrow, but my little guy asked, "Mom, can we have soup and tiger rolls for dinner again tomorrow?" so I guess it's leftover night at my house!

Here are Kayte's tiger rolls, Phyl's tiger (or giraffe) rolls, Andrea's tiger rolls.

Bake! Golden sour cream layer cake with chocolate buttercream frosting

Our next recipe from Bake! is golden sour cream layer cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, chosen by Phyl for his birthday weekend. I'm not going to be around that weekend, however, and we were hosting a double birthday get-together today (for my stepdad and my nephew), so I decided I'd try out Phyl's cake...you know, just to make sure it was a good choice. =)

I cut the recipe in half, which made two perfect 6" cakes. It was an easy recipe, although because the milk and eggs in NM's butter cake recipe were replaced by sour cream and egg yolks, the batter was really, really thick. I checked mine after 20 minutes and the cakes still looked very light, so I continued to cook them for another seven minutes. I think they actually could've been taken out several minutes earlier...so note to future bakers: this is just a really light cake which never looks done, so use the poking the center test instead of color to judge doneness!

This morning, I made half of NM's basic buttercream, a recipe I've made many times before, always with great success. Even though I followed the recipe exactly, just as I always do, this frosting was much runnier than usual. It was the first time that I flavored it with chocolate, but I actually think that the bigger problem was the weather; I've only made this recipe in the winter, but today, it is hot and humid. I put the cake and the frosting in the fridge for an hour and then was able to frost the cake. Because it was so hot, I did end up keeping the cake in the fridge until it was time to eat.

The cake sliced so easily and perfectly that I was convinced that it was, in fact, overcooked. But when I took my first bite, I was happily surprised: the sour cream really kept the cake moist and gave the cake a rich, full flavor, much more interesting than a traditional yellow cake. The chocolate buttercream was a delicious accompaniment, as was the mint oreo ice cream that we served it with. This will be my go-to recipe for a basic yellow birthday cake from now on!

Bake! Devil's food bombe

The next recipe that I baked from Nick Malgieri's Bake! was devil's food bombe, chosen by Margaret to celebrate her birthday on Father's Day weekend. We were out of town that weekend, and when we returned, I just didn't have a cake-worthy occasion; hubby and I do not need a giant cake just sitting around waiting to be eaten.

So when my mom and stepdad agreed to come over for dinner tonight to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary with us, I figured it would be a good time to try it out. Hubby hates raspberries (I know, crazy, right?), so I had him pick up some strawberries to use instead. Happily, Kayte had already made this recipe and scaled it down, so I just used her math: half the cake recipe fit two six-inch pans and perfectly filled a 5.25" tall, 3.25" deep bowl (my 1 quart glass mixing bowl).

The cake was easily thrown together last night, with unsweetened chocolate, boiling water, white sugar, brown sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, safflower oil, sour cream, vanilla extract, and an egg. My two six-inch cakes baked for 32 minutes and popped easily out of the pans. After cooling them, I wrapped them up and stuck them in the fridge, figuring they would be easier to cut if they were chilled a bit.

This morning I assembled the cake, which only took about 25 minutes. The cake is thinly sliced and then patched together to line the bowl and separate the layers. In between the layers of cake, I dolloped sweetened whipped cream (I made a half batch, which was 2 cups of whipping cream, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and I had quite a bit left over) and strawberries. NM gives the option of sprinkling rum, too; I was curious about the flavor, but didn't want too much alcohol since I knew I'd be serving the cake to my kids, so I just sprinkled a tiny bit on the outer layer of cake and none of the rest. I had about 1/2" slice of cake left, which fit perfectly as a cap over the top. Then the cake went into the fridge until this evening, when I dumped it out of the bowl and finished it with more sweetened whipped cream.

My mom took her first bite while I was photographing the cake outside and all I could hear was, "Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! This is sooooooo good!" Seriously, this cake was ah-maze-ing. The devil's food cake was moist, chocolately, with just the hint of rum. Together, with the whipped cream and the strawberries...well, I just don't have the words to describe how good it was. The little girl said, "Mommy, this was the best cake ever of my life." And hubby said, "Next time I have to take something in to work, this is what you're making!" Thanks, Margaret, for such an excellent pick!

Bake! Citrus-scented chocolate tart

Marthe chose the citrus-scented chocolate tart for her Bake! pick.... Although it's not technically on the schedule until the beginning of July, I will likely not be baking much for the next few weeks, and we had our end-of-the-year staff picnic today, so it seemed like the perfect time to try it out.

This tart starts with the cocoa version of the sweet pastry dough. Given my success with the sweet pastry dough, I was excited to get a more workable chocolate pastry dough than the one I tried for the tartlets last weekend. Things seemed to be going well as I mixed up the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, and egg (I made a half recipe for one 10" tart) in my food processor. I refrigerated the dough for a day. Sadly, once I began the rolling-out process, this dough gave me the same sticky, rippy problems I had with the other chocolate pastry dough. It actually really reminded me of the troublesome cookie dough crust; I ended up having to do a lot of piecing together to cover the pan. I much prefer the basic sweet dough and the rich pie crust for ease of rolling and transferring.

Anyway, after I got the tart dough in place in the pan, I set to work on the filling, which was easy and smelled heavenly. It was all mixed in a saucepan: half-and-half plus sugar, and then butter and semi-sweet chocolate, and then eggs and salt, and finally lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice, vanilla extract, and a bit of triple sec.

Mine baked for almost twice as long as specified in the recipe; it just kept looking jiggly and the instructions say "bake until the filling is set." I was surprised by the mousse-like texture of the final product; I was expecting something a little more solid.

The tart looked a little plain, and I didn't have any orange slices to use as a garnish, so I made a simple chocolate-butter mixture and drizzled some over the top, just to jazz it up a bit.

This tart was delicious. With my massive sweet tooth, I loved that it was made with semi-sweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet called for in many of NM's other recipes. My kiddos both loved it, as did hubby. One of my friends at the lunch today said, "Oh, my, the flavor just explodes in your mouth! This puts the rest of the food here to shame!" which I thought was quite a compliment. =) Even my dad, who doesn't like chocolate, said it was excellent (although too chocolately for him, of course).

Bake! Strawberry cream cheese crumble tart

I'd never noticed what an alliterative cake this was until I was typing in the name: strawberry cream cheese crumble cake. How very appropriate for an English teacher!

Anyway, hubby's school had an end-of-the-year barbecue yesterday, and despite my sadness that he's done with school while I still have TWO FULL WEEKS left, I sucked it up and agreed to bake. When I asked hubby what he wanted me to make, he started listing off his favorite recipes, none of which were appropriate for a barbecue: bagels? scones? pizza? Seriously?

So rather than get into a big fight, I told him to look at our up-coming recipes for our Bake! twitterbakes and choose from there. He thought they all looked good, and then settled on this upcoming weekend's pick, by Kayte, strawberry cream cheese crumble tart. Looked good to me!

It was pretty easy to make the components the day before. NM cautions us not to assemble it ahead of time, although you can make all of the parts early.

The crust was the cookie dough crust. Normally, when I see that crust, I sub in his sweet tart dough which has been much more successful for me. The cookie dough crust and I did not get along when I made the Parisian fruit tart. However, that was from The Modern Baker, so I thought that maybe I'd have better luck with the one from Bake! It was easy to mix up in the food processor: slivered almonds, confectioners' sugar, flour, salt, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and egg yolks. I pulsed and pulsed and worried that it was never going to come together and form a ball...but have faith, because eventually it did. The dough felt much better than the one from MB, not so crumbly, and I stuck it in the fridge as instructed. However, when it came time to roll it out, again it started breaking and tearing and I ended up having to piece it together. It was fine...definitely way easier than my last experience, but I still prefer the sweet tart dough for its supreme ease of rolling. And like the last time I made the cookie dough crust, it was quite crumbly.

The cream cheese filling is easy: cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, all mixed in the trusty stand mixer. The only issue I had with this one is that I made it early, left it in the fridge over night, and when I went to scrape it into the tart, it was way too hard. Because it's so easy to whip up, I think I'll just make it the day-of next time.

The crumb topping was a bit odd: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and chopped slivered almonds, all combined with melted butter. Then the whole thing is placed on a baking sheet and baked for 20 minutes. (It's supposed to be baked at the same time as the crust, but I hadn't read ahead to know that the crust benefits from an overnight rest - in the pan - before baking, so I baked it the morning-of...something to remember for next time!) This was my least favorite of NM's crumble topping, and I'm not sure why. It felt like it wasn't sweet enough. Or maybe it baked too long.

Anyway, the baby girl and I assembled the whole thing before the barbecue: baked crust, spread with cream cheese mixture, cut fresh strawberries, more cream cheese mixture, crumble topping, a dusting of powdered sugar, and a strawberry placed on top (the baby girl did that part).

This was a huge hit at the party. People were still raving to hubby today ~ except those who didn't get any, who complained. =) My hubby managed to grab one piece for photographing before it was all gone, and the four of us split it. Although it wasn't my favorite, the rest of my family loved it.

Bake! Danish apricot pinwheels

Finally!!! Our grocery store finally had apricots yesterday, so I was finally able to make Andrea's Bake! pick: Danish apricot pinwheels. I've never purchased fresh apricots before...or eaten them (I don't think), so I was really curious.

I still had a pound of quick Danish pastry dough in the freezer (from the Danish cheese pockets), so this recipe was actually pretty easy to put together.

For the filling, I mixed ground almonds, unsalted butter, sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, vanilla, and flour.

Then it's assembly time: roll out the pastry dough, cut it into four-inch squares, and then form the pinwheels. Dollop a heaping teaspoon of the almond filling in the center, put half of a fresh apricot on top, and fold alternating corners of the pinwheels to the center. You're supposed to use a one-inch circle of dough in the center; I don't have one, so I used a mini-heart. It looked pretty cute! I was surprised by how easy the assembly actually was.

The pastries rest for a bit and then bake for 20 minutes. Then they're sprinkled with a healthy dose of powdered sugar before serving.

These were pretty yummy. The apricots were a little bitter, which contrasted nicely with the sweet from the sugar and the pastry crust. Are apricots always slightly bitter or were these just not ripe yet? I couldn't taste much of the almond filling; I had a bunch of it leftover, so I think next time, I'd up the filling until I'd used all of it. A fun breakfast treat!

Bake! scones

Saturdays are my days to get up with the kiddos. They got up especially early today (we were downstairs by 5:30), and while I can usually get an hour or so of quiet cuddle time, today, they were up and at 'em, ready to turn on the lights, eat breakfast, and play. What's a tired mommy to do? Bake some scones, of course!

Our Bake! pick for this weekend was cream cheese scones, chosen by Glennis. (Don't worry, I'm still planning to make Andrea's pick from last week: Danish apricot pinwheels...but our grocer said their grower had a slow start and we won't have fresh apricots until the very end of May.) I really love scones, so the cream cheese scones were one of the first recipes I tried when I got this book for Christmas.

Unfortunately, I was the only one who liked them, and they weren't among my favorite NM scones. (The kiddos hear "scones" and instantly think I mean their favorite "butternut chocolate chip scones"...they get upset if I say "scones" and that's not what I make. And yes, they really say "butternut" instead of "butterscotch" and I think it's so cute that I just can't correct them.)

So I decided to do a flashback instead and bake the first recipe that Kayte and Phyl baked from Bake!, back before I'd gotten my book: orange and almond scones. Figuring that the kids still wouldn't like them (the lack of chocolate chips factor), I made a half batch. They were easy to throw together: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, pulsed in the food processor. Add some almond paste, then some butter, and finally the liquids (milk, egg, and orange zest).

The scones are patted into a circle, cut partially apart, brushed with an egg wash, sprinkled with almonds (all except two for the kiddos), and then we gave them a small dusting of turbinado sugar (great task for the little ones).

As instructed, I cooked them for 15 minutes and then cooled them for a few minutes more on the tray. And then I went to separate them into individual scones...and they were still raw inside!!!! Argh!! I quickly turned the oven back on, separated them all, and put them back in for another five minutes with fingers-crossed.

It worked! Five minutes later, they were much darker and cooked through. I really liked these...I loved the hints of almond and orange, and the slight sweetness. The kids gobbled up their almond-free ones...even without chocolate chips! Now I'm just sad that I only made a half-batch...thankfully it will be easy enough to whip up some more. =)

Bake! Strawberry chantilly cake

Our next recipe from Bake! was chosen by Kayte: strawberry chantilly cake, in honor of her birthday.

NM says to wait until you can find perfectly ripe, local strawberries. I knew I'd have a loooooong wait (we had snow flurries yesterday at our May Day parade, after all). I could've made the Victoria sandwich variation, like Andrea did; it also looks wonderful.

But my baby sister just got accepted into nursing school (yay!!!), and she had a barbecue this weekend. I really wanted a fancy cake to celebrate, so I decided to just use our grocery store strawberries and cross my fingers that they were sweet and flavorful enough.

I copied Kayte, who's been raving about her little 6" pans, and picked up a couple of 6" cake pans. They were so fun! I used a half batch of the yellow cake recipe; I was initially worried because it seemed like so little batter in each of the pans, but I think the pans are just overly deep because the layers ended up being perfect (I actually weighed them to be sure I had the same amount of batter in each pan; I've never done that before, but I will do it from now on...so much easier than eye-balling it!).

The morning of the party, I made the whipped cream. I made 2/3 of the whipped cream recipe, but I had a lot left over. Next time, I'll just make 1/2 batch. Then I layered: one layer of the cake, a coating of whipped cream, slices of strawberries, more whipped cream, the other cake layer. And then whipped cream around the outside. To celebrate my sister's new career, I used the strawberries in an attempt to create the red nursing cross symbol on top...it's the thought that counts, I guess! ;)

The cake was a big hit. We ended up with a bigger crowd than expected, so I had to serve skinny slices...I was able to get 12 slices from the 6" cake. The cake itself was a yummy recipe, and you can't go wrong with strawberries, whipped cream, and cake!

Bake! Carrot cake

Our next Bake! recipe is the Best and Easiest Carrot Cake, chosen by Phyl.

I was hoping to make this one this weekend, but we really really didn't need any more sweets in the house. And then there was the incident yesterday morning of (briefly, but scarily) losing the little girl at the zoo...by the time I got home, I was not exactly in a baking frame of mind. But peer pressure is a wonderful thing, and my Twitter friends assured me that baking was exactly what I needed to feel better.

So I made a batch of carrot cake mini-cupcakes. This really was a super easy recipe: mix flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; then combine the dry ingredients with melted butter, brown sugar, and safflower oil. Add grated carrots and chopped pecans, fill the muffin cups, and bake!

I made 1/2 batch of the recipe which perfectly filled the 24 cups in my mini muffin tin. I baked them for 26 minutes, which ended up being too long. I think I'll try 22-24 minutes next time. I made 1/3 of the cream cheese frosting recipe; next time, I'll make 1/2. I didn't have quite enough for all of the cupcakes, and the frosting was very yummy.

Even slightly overdone, the cupcakes were not at all dry and were really tasty. Hubby and I both brought plates to work today, and they met with rave reviews. And both of our plates had a few missing cupcakes because the kiddos spotted them this morning; both kids loved them (although they did ask us to take the nuts out).

I have a fancy-schmancy carrot cake that is very rich (and very time-consuming); this one might not replace that one for fancy occasions. But this is definitely the best easiest carrot cake recipe!

(No carrot cake cupcakes survived for a daylight photo op; check out Kayte's blog for pictures of how pretty this cake can be! )

Bake! empanadas

As I mentioned in my last post, Marthe chose empanadas for this week's Bake! Twitterbake.

We opted to try the chicken variation. The filling (picadillo) was made from potatoes, onion, red pepper, garlic, chicken thighs, cumin, tomato puree, salt, water, white vinegar, green olives, and chipotle chili powder. (I skipped the capers.) It was time consuming, but not difficult to make.

The puff pastry was easy to use. I rolled it out, chilled it, and cut it into eight circles. Dropped the filling in the center (I used about a 1/4 cup), crimped it together, and baked them for about 30 minutes.

My hubby loved them and the baby girl ate all the filling. I thought they were pretty good, although I think I prefer our normal pasty recipe (from Cook's Country, made with leftover pot roast). Mostly, I was just impressed by how perfectly flaky, layered, and buttery my puff pastry was! I think I'll use it to make pasties next time.

Oh, and with the leftover scraps, I rolled them out in sugar and then tried the corkscrew shaping method that Nick Malgieri demonstrated on Martha Stewart. We liked them as much (more?) than the elephant ears yesterday, and I'm a little worried...they are so delicious and so quick to make, I'm afraid they might appear here frequently!

Another fear bites the dust: puff pastry

Not only have I never made puff pastry before, but I've never even cooked with it. Whenever I see it in a recipe, I get annoyed that they want me to use store-bought when I could just make my own...but then I've never made my own. It's a vicious cycle.

And I knew that it was a little intimidating...something about rolling butter and flour 500 times, keeping everything cold, if you breathe wrong, it all melts together and is ruined.

But I also knew that it was coming up in our Modern Baker Challenge. Andrea, Phyl, and Sara have already made the puff pastry and elephant ears, and seeing their results really made me want to try it.

And then Marthe picked empanadas for our next Bake! twitterbake, and they're made with puff pastry. Looks like today was the day!

I used the recipe from Bake!, although it looked pretty similar to the Modern Baker one. I mixed up flour, salt, and half a stick of sliced cold unsalted butter in my food processor. Then I switched to a bowl, where I added tiny pieces (1/4 inch) of more butter. Cutting the butter into those tiny pieces was actually the most time-consuming part! I started folding in cold water until I could push the dough together and then I began the press and fold sequence. It seemed like the instructions in Bake! are much easier than the traditional puff pastry, but a little more involved than the instructions in Modern Baker. I was a little worried about whether I was doing it correctly, but by the third turn, I felt like I had the hang of it. My dough looked like this before I put it into the fridge, and I couldn't see any of the layers I was supposed to have:

But after an hour of refrigeration, I cut off a piece to use for the elephant ears, and I saw this:

Layers! Sigh of relief!

Also, while I was waiting for my dough to cool, I found a link on Nick Malgieri's website to a video of him demonstrating the puff pastry recipe from Bake! on Martha Stewart. It was so helpful!! I will definitely have it by my side the next time I make puff pastry, and I hope other beginners watch it, too.

The rest of the elephant ear preparation was easy. I rolled out the dough in sugar, folded it over on itself per the instructions, and put it back in the fridge. Then I sliced the dough into 1/2 inch segments, dipped them in sugar, and placed them on my silpat-covered jelly roll pan. The only issue was that they took way longer to bake than they were supposed to and I needed my oven for dinner...they ended up taking about 20 minutes or a little longer.

These were easy and awesome...I'm really glad I only made part of a batch because they were all gone within a couple of hours. Yum!

Bake! Chocolate chip cookies

This week's Bake! recipe was chosen by Andrea, and she selected chocolate chip cookies. According to Nick Malgieri, these are the ORIGINAL chocolate chip cookie, based on the original Toll House recipe.

In this house, we love cookies, we love chocolate, we love chocolate chip cookies...this was a no-brainer. I will admit that I haven't experimented much with chocolate chip cookie recipes since I discovered our perfect recipe, which is based on the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook's recipe.

Like Phyl and Andrea before me, I left out the walnuts, agreeing that they don't belong in chocolate chip cookies. NM says to make sure your butter is softened, but not too much or you'll end up with flat cookies; my butter was barely soft at all and my cookies were still really flat. I experimented with cooking times: 10, 11, or 12 minutes. They were varying degrees of golden to deep golden. Usually, I like softer, thicker cookies, but the ones that cooked a little longer had an awesome, chewy, almost toffee-y quality that was pretty addictive.

These were totally unlike our usual chocolate chip cookie, but were so good in their own right. I'm not sure I'd make them for gifts or a gathering, as their looks were very unpredictable. But I'm positive we'll make them again for us!