De Baking Psychopath

Remember my quest to recreate the walnut rolls of my youth ? These came very, very close to the right texture and sweetness! I think I would just need to omit the cranberries, substitute in a little bit of whole wheat flour, and knot up the rolls, and I'd be dang close to the original.  But enough about my nostalgic quest, these rolls were awesome in their own right. The walnuts and cranberries are always a great flavor combo, and the softness and stretchiness of the bread made these some of the best rolls to come out of my oven. They made a really welcome and enjoyable addition to Thanksgiving dinner and next-day breakfast, both by themselves or slathered with butter. Walnut Cranberry Rolls (adapted from Brown Eyed Baker , original source Bon Appetit magazine) Ingredients : 3 & 1/2 cups bread flour (more may be needed later) 1 tablespoon light brown sugar 1 & 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast  1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 & 1/2...

I live in "Stiller Country"...where the blood of its inhabitants run black and gold. Although we aren't crazy sports fans, we do follow the Steelers for the entire football season and we like to do a lot of armchair coaching all throughout. The great thing about the fanaticism of Steelers' fans is the sense of regional culture that makes living here unique. And the Steelers...well, let's just say that you can count on them to make any season full of drama and suspense. In light of the upcoming Super Bowl, there have been parties (and rallies) throughout the city to celebrate the amazing opportunity for the Steelers to possibly win their seventh Super Bowl ring. My department was no exception, and we were told to bring "tailgating food." I guess tailgating food = cake to me, because what I decided to make was a black and gold swirled bundt cake. I used the Orange Ricotta Pound Cake with Marmalade Glaze from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. You c...

These gingerbread biscotti were a last-minute addition to my Christmas cookie baking. They are a quick way to get all that gingerbread cookie deliciousness in many servings without all the chilling and dough rolling and cookie-cutter mess. In fact, I might just prefer this nut and ginger-studded biscotti over the relatively one-dimensional traditional gingerbread cookie recipe on any given day. The gingerbread flavor is strong, rich, and satisfyingly crunchy. The recipe comes from Fine Cooking and can be found here . The only change I made was to use about 1/3 cup of chopped crystallized ginger rather than the dried apricots. Whichever dried fruit you prefer or have on hand would probably be yummy.

Sugar Cookies from Baking: From my home to yours "Toffee" cookie bars from Pioneer Woman More sugar cookies... Single-headed gingerbread men Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies Milk chocolate-dipped anise biscotti, Jess's mum's recipe Only edible gifts from me this year...

A week or two before Rosh Hashanah, I received my Recipe-of-the-month from Kathleen King, the owner of Tate's Bake Shop in Southampton, Long Island. In this edition, she presented her version of Honey Cake, a traditional sweet eaten for the High Holidays. I'd never heard of Jewish honey cake, but in looking over the recipe, it seemed like an interesting combination of flavors. There's a full cup of coffee, some orange juice, and ground almonds in addition to the obligatory honey (a full cup of it!). I decided to make some for my advisor, and her being sensitive to extra sugar, I kept the honey but substituted all the rest of the sugar with Splenda, and I tried to decrease the glycemic index even more by using mostly whole wheat pastry flour. The cake was wonderfully moist and deep in flavor. I accidentally over-baked the little loaves I made by 5 minutes and you could not tell at all. Sweeten up your year with this tasty cake. Mazel tov! Honey Cake (adapted from Kathleen...

Nutella. Nutty, chocolatey, gooey, thick...great on toast, on Triscuits, with jam, on ice cream, straight out of a jar. The lovely ladies at www.nutelladay.com started this world holiday in 2007, and it's kept on growing since. I decided to make my own Nutella in honor of the holiday, and I tried the following two different recipes. The first recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Spread is from Gale Gand, found via Phe/Mom/enon. The recipe can be found here . In your food processor, puree the 1 cup toasted, peeled hazelnuts until smooth (you probably will need to add the 2 tablespoons of oil to get it to smooth out). Add the 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and continue processing. To the puree, add the 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder and blend until smooth. Then add 12 ounces of GOOD QUALITY milk chocolate, melted in a double boiler or in the microwave and cooled briefly. Blend until smooth. Transfer to heatproof jars/containers and let cool. It will set up and bec...

This year's Thanksgiving break symbolized freedom to me: four days that I refused to think about labwork (to the best of my ability) while I enjoyed the company of friends, family, cats, and leisure reading. A high school classmate of both Michael and myself came to visit us this Thanksgiving. We had a grand ol' time around the 'Burgh as well as venturing out to Cleveland for an inaugural visit. But before the three of us headed out, we spent Thanksgiving Day cooking while the Macy's Day parade blared in the background. First up, Michael prepared two roasting hens for our main course. We've come to prefer non-turkey options as neither of us particularly enjoys turkey, and I am not a lover of white meat in general, so a more reasonable option for small groups such as a turkey breast was not appealing. He used this recipe from Allrecipes.com and roasted our hens until an internal temperature of 180 degrees (about 4-5 hours for our 3 and 1/2 lb hens). Although the...