De Baking Psychopath

"Necessity is the mother of invention," the saying goes. In my case, necessity usually comes in the form of needing to get rid of some ingredient that I've hoarded. In this case, the culprit is raisins. I'm not a huge fan of raisins; they tend to be tough and get stuck in teeth, so the only way I accept them is when they are cooked or baked so they are plump. I had been itching for awhile to try a cinnamon raisin bread sometime for the reputation of the glorious toast, and finally I decided to take the plunge! This recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book does not disappoint! The dough is plush, soft, and stretchy. The crust is buttery and crisp, the raisins juicy, and the cinnamon gives it such a wonderful smell and flavor. And yes, the toast was phenomenal! The peanut butter and marmalade sandwich made with this bread was probably the best PB&J I've ever eaten. I definitely will put all those raisins to good use with this bread. R...

So awhile back, my friend Shannon gifted me a great big jar of applesauce from her last big batch , and I used some of it for some awesome baked oatmeal , but I was even more excited to try out an applesauce cake recipe with the remainder! This cake is lightly sweet, very moist, and oh-so-fragrant from the ample oat-cinnamon streusel lining the bottom and rippling through the middle of the cake. It kept very well for several days in an airtight container, and if anything, developed more apple-y character and moistness over time! It is a splendid anytime cake and very versatile. Applesauce Cake with Oatmeal Streusel (adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes ) Ingredients: Streusel- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1 cup old-fashioned oats 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits or grated and chilled Cake- 2 & 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar 2 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 ...

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I visited the Biscoff Coffee Corner to score a gigantic tin full of the addictive cookies, which I first encountered on Delta Airline flights. Biscoff cookies are just the product name that the European company Lotus gave to their version of the popular Belgian and Dutch cookies, speculoos.  Speculoos are thin crispy shortbread-like cookies that are lightly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and other spices. Traditionally they are molded and are served for St. Nicholas's feast, but they are now popular and available year-round. They are not readily found in the US, but ironically, a cookie-based spread (think somewhere between Nutella and peanut butter in consistency) has exploded onto specialty supermarket shelves recently and taken the blogging world by storm. As is my m.o. these days, when I become addicted to something, I try to find a suitable copycat recipe so I will never run out of the precious delicacy. And so this is ...

This year for National Bundt Day and our department's yearly fall luncheon, I made the Double Apple Bundt Cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my home to yours . The double apple comes from shredded fresh apple and apple butter in the batter. Instead of raisins, I added 1 cup of frozen cranberries. And to frost it, I topped the cake with my favorite caramel frosting . In full disclosure, this bundt was a Frankenstein bundt! I unmolded the cake when the recipe said I could, but it was so steamy and delicate that I totally cracked it into several pieces trying to get it onto my cake carrier! Good thing the frosting covered up all the seams! Luckily no one really noticed or cared, but they did notice the taste. It was sooo good: moist, full of sweet apple and spice flavors, the tart cranberries were a great contrast, and the caramel frosting just reinforced the fall apple flavors. I got a lot of good feedback and requests for the recipe.  Happy Bundt Da...

For the most part, I'm a morning person. This means that on any given weekend day, I am usually wide-awake by 7 or 8 am (with help from my hungry cats, of course) and have to get out of bed due to an inability to return to sleep and a restless mind. Once the cats are fed and my OCD tendencies to clean up around the kitchen are satisfied, I find myself in the mood for making brunch food. And since I can usually count on a couple hours before the hubby drags himself out of bed (can you guess he's a night owl?), I can get a good start on something delectable to surprise him for his (late) breakfast. Usually I go for making a batch of pancakes or French toast, but one recent weekend, I had my mind fixed on cinnamon buns. A soft and fluffy yeasted bun would be ideal in texture, but with this baking powder-dough version on my radar, the compromise in having a non-traditional coffee cake-like texture was perfectly acceptable in exchange for the advantage of savin...

Ok, this was another get-rid-of-sour-cream recipe. But boy, it's so good I'd probably go out to buy sour cream just to make it. The texture of the cake can only be described as plush . Moist, soft, with a crunchy and fragrant cinnamon swirl in the middle and top. You can also feel good about making this recipe since it boasts a reduced-fat and -cholesterol profile (no egg yolks and reduced fat sour cream) and lots of good-for you cinnamon, and you could even swap out the flour for whole wheat pastry flour to give a little more fiber. Whatever the reason, it's a yummy addition to any holiday brunch or weekday morning breakfast! Sour Cream Coffee Cake (adapted from Cooking Light Magazine ) Ingredients : 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (can decrease this if you like--it's for the topping) 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large egg whites 1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (o...

I have discovered bread pudding! For whatever reason, I always thought it would be heavy and dense and like a rock in your stomach. Then I thought about it. It's basically bread soaked in custard and baked. Sounds like baked French toast. How bad could that be? I asked an American co-worker, has he ever eaten bread pudding? What is it like? His answer ("It's moist and custardy, like French toast!") gave me the encouragement I needed to try this recipe. The source of this recipe is the same as the Jewish Honey Cake featured a few posts ago: Kathleen King (of Tate's Bake Shop) via her monthly recipe newsletter. I usually just tuck these recipes away in my "Recipes" e-mail folder, but the recipes from these past two months' e-mails demanded to be made immediately. The chilly weather recently heralded the beginning of pumpkin massacre by baking throughout kitchens all over the US. This recipe gave me a great opportunity to participate in the bloodshed an...

Zucchini season marches on! So here is yet another variation on the fabulous and versatile quickbread to try while the squashes overrun the markets or your garden. This zucchini bread comes from the cookbook Tartine , brought to us by the founders of the famous San Fran bakery of the same name. The interesting twist to this recipe is the addition of orange marmalade to the batter, which the authors say adds a complementary layer of flavor to the bread and contributes to the moistness of the cake. And this baby is Moist--almost pudding-like in its moistness, due to the high ratio of zucchini to flour in the recipe. It isn't too sweet, and the deep brown crust that develops on the outside (especially the sugar-encrusted top) is rich and crunchy when fresh from the oven. It is also paler in color than previous zucchini breads featured on this blog, due to the use of only white sugar. The biggest problem I had with the flavor profile of this bread was the almost overwhelming flavor ...

This is going to be the last post for awhile, due to a conglomerate of circumstances. The next eight weeks are going to be a flurry of activity: scrambling to write a grant proposal due in early August (and all the references, protocols, documentations, and hassle that come with it), in the middle of which taking a 2-week international trip back to the ROC in mid-late July for my grandmother's 80th B-day bash, closely followed by two conferences/retreats in mid-August that run right into each other (so that I have to leave the first one early and hightail it back just in time for the second one)... ...just wake me up when it's all over. I'm going to so need a vacation after all of that. A good friend of mine from high school was in town this weekend, and I wanted to have an edible gift for her to take home. Not only that, I wanted something that would travel well for a long road trip home and would go well with a good cup of tea, as my friend is a fiend for tea. So I wh...

There are many reasons why this pie came into existence: 1) Two gigantic cans of pumpkin puree kept whispering to me every time I opened my baking cabinet (they had been hastily stockpiled back in the Fall when I'd heard about the Great Pumpkin Shortage, not realizing that it did not affect my area...) as well as two graham cracker crusts, 2) there was not one single from-scratch cookie or muffin left in the house and it was starting to drive me insane, and 3) when given the choice between pumpkin muffins and pie, Michael chose pie. (I might make muffins anyway, shhh!) The cheesecake layer was...inspired. I was going to divide my pumpkin pie filling between the two graham cracker crusts, and I somehow intuitively knew (by my super ninja mental calculation skillz, of course) that there would be a little extra volume to spare in each crust, so I figured, why not add a mini cheesecake layer?? And because pumpkin swirl cheesecake is SO yesterday, I decided to keep the chee...

Have I mentioned that I love breakfast/brunch foods? Maybe once or twice... Interestingly though, this is the first coffeecake I've ever made. This particular blueberry coffeecake has been on the to-do list for ages, ever since I saw it on the blog Burghilicious . I love blueberry quickbreads, period. Muffins, tea breads, pancakes, etc. And the fact that this recipe comes from a bed and breakfast inn increases the appeal of the recipe exponentially for me. I love the romance and homeliness of tried-and-true B&B classic recipes. They emanate an aura of history and homemade comfort food. ...and of course, the two tablespoons of cinnamon in the topping of this recipe was calling my name. Loudly. So one weekend, as I was pondering what to do with the last dregs of a bag of frozen blueberries, I decided to make it. The recipe can be found here . The only change I made was to substitute half the flour for whole wheat pastry flour. This coffeecake was hearty/dark/rich wit...

A good friend of mine gifted me with an awesome set of safari animal cookie cutters for my recent birthday , and as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to put them (as well as the animal cookie cutters I already owned) to good use. My first thought: animal crackers!! Although I do have a more traditional recipe for little cookie/crackers that remind you of the store-bought little treats, I instead decided to go with a heartier sweet biscuit for my first animal cookie foray. Can you find the following animals below: cat, bat, elephant, mouse, zebra, frog, lion, giraffe, bear? Hint--you may have to tilt your head up to 180 degrees upside-down for the correct perspective for some of the shapes. These cookies were designed to be gnawed upon by teething babies, but they've got enough flavor to satisfy the discerning adult palate as well. They are lightly sweet, hearty from the wheat germ, faintly citrusy and cinnamony, and a suitable complement to a cup of coffee or tea...or a sippy ...

Hope everyone had a warm and safe new year's weekend! Many things to look forward to this year: World Nutella Day--February 5 Research conference in CA in February Chocolate Chip Cookie Week (!) --March 7-15, during which happens to be my birthday! 9th anniversary of our relationship First trip back to the Motherland in 3 years in July, for the grandmother's 80th birthday And of course more baking to be done!! Most of what I've done recently is make this holiday snack mix by David Lebovitz over and over again, but it's sooooooo good.... And in other pursuits, I've picked up knitting again...only to be reminded why I don't knit much anymore (other than the fact I don't have much time to devote to it)--the cats love to play and gnaw on the yarn all day...