Kirby Macaroons

Ingredients for Cookies:

• 3 large room temperature eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for Raspberry Butter Cream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 cup of room temperature raspberries

Directions for Cookies:

1. Sift 2 cups of powdered sugar into a large bowl
2. Sift 1 cup almond flour into the same bowl
3. Whisk together ingredients until thoroughly combined
4. Separate egg yolk from egg whites
5. Pour egg whites into another large bowl
6. Beat eggs for 4 minutes
7. Add sugar gradually while continuing to beat for 4 minutes
8. Add salt to egg & sugar mixture
9. Add pink food coloring & mix until thoroughly combined
10. Pour the powdered sugar & almond flour mixture slowly into egg & sugar mixture & gently fold 50-60 strokes *Careful not to over or under mix
11. Scoop batter into zip lock bag & cut the tip
12. Put parchment paper on cookie sheet 
13. Squeeze batter onto the parchment paper about 1-1 1/2 inch in diameter
14. Tap cookie sheet down on table so air bubbles surface to prevent lumpy cookies
15. Leave cookie sheet for 30 minutes while preheating oven to 300ﾟ
16. Bake for 20 minutes on top rack

Directions for Raspberry Butter Cream Frosting:

1. Beat butter in a large mixing bowl for 4 minutes until light & fluffy
2. Add powdered sugar gradually & continue to beat for 30 seconds
3. Mash raspberries in sifter until all the juices are in another small bowl
4. Pour 2 table spoons of the juice into the large bowl 
5. Scoop frosting into another zip lock bag & cup the tip

Final Directions:

1. Decorate Kirby faces with icing
2. Squeeze frosting into center cookie
3. Place another cookie on top

Analysis:

     For the cookies, I used the biscuit method, and for the butter cream, I used the creaming method. I really liked these French macaroons, but they were a bit too sweet. Mixing was really important because for the butter cream, you only wanted to mix it until it's light & fluffy or you'll get the wrong consistency. I thought the overall appearance was nice. I got the correct pink tone I wanted for Kirby. The top of the cookies were smooth & not cracked. I especially liked the raspberry butter cream frosting. I didn't get any of the seeds into the frosting either since I mashed it  using the sifter. It was a bit chewier than I had hoped but I still liked it. You can smell the warm raspberries when they came out of the oven. Eventually, I made more macaroons & played with the colors. So yes, I would make these again.

-Melody On Hour 1

Cake Pops

For this month I decided to make cake pops because the day I tried one in class I couldn’t wait to try and make them myself. That day I ran home from school and stopped at Cub for supplies, then got to work.

            The overall product turned out deliciously amazing and my family could not keep their hands off of them. The taste of the final product was extremely rich and chocolatey. The texture was hard on the outside, due to the hardened chocolate, however the inside was soft and creamy. The aroma of the product was fresh cake, right when the cake was done, but after they had been covered in chocolate they didn’t really have a smell. I’m not gonna lie, the appearance could’ve been better, but I figured it’s the taste that counts. After they were dipped in chocolate I put sprinkles on them, however two of the cake balls couldn’t get covered in chocolate because we ran out of enough. While baking this product, I was able to use a lot of skills that I had learned in class and was surprised at how much I had remembered. I made sure not to overmix the batter and greased my pan properly, although I didn’t have shortening at my house. I also used the video we had watched in class to help me make the cake pops. I also have to add that my favorite part of making them was crumbling up the WHOLE cake into a bowl, it was pretty fun. Also after I added the frosting into the crumbs it looked and tasted like a dough. However, I can’t bake something without there being any obstacle. I didn’t have the cake pop skewers or anything close to that to use to dip the cake balls into chocolate. Toothpicks weren’t the best alternative so I was forced to use my hands and got a little messy.

            Although I had to endure some struggles, I really enjoyed doing this project and am always amazed at how much I can apply what I’ve learned in class to everyday baking at home.

Recipe: I didn’t use a particular recipe, I just baked a yellow cake from a box then made them from memory from the video we watched in class

Ingredients:

-Box of yellow cake

-Vanilla frosting

-Chocolate chips

-Sprinkles

Lemon Bars Hour 1

1 cup butter, softened

 1/2 cup white sugar

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 4 eggs

 1 1/2 cups white sugar

 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

 2 lemons, juiced

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust.

Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven. The bars will firm up as they cool. 

This recipe uses a mix between the muffin method and creaming method, which surprised me. The creaming method first starts by mixing together the butter and sugar. The sugar acts as an emulsifier and spreads and breaks down the butter in order to aerate the butter. Then eggs are added and/or other liquids and finally the dry ingredients. This will create a creamy like batter, except this was somewhat more like a dough..I started by making the batter/dough into a glass pan and let it bake. Then I mixed together the liquid portion and waited for the batter to be done baking. I the poured the liquid on top and stuck it back in the oven. I then let this bake for the said time and took it out of the oven when it was done. Once it was cooled, I sprinkled powdered sugar on them and cut them into squares. The bars ended up tasting delicious. They were tangy, but still sweet and had a really nice texture. They were also crumbly, which helped make them that much better. They also made my house smell really yummy and fresh.

Strawberry Shortcake Hour 1

3 pints fresh strawberries

 1/2 cup white sugar

 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

 4 teaspoons baking powder

 2 tablespoons white sugar

 1/4 teaspoon salt

 1/3 cup shortening

 1 egg

 2/3 cup milk

 2 cups whipped heavy cream

Check All Add to Shopping List

Directions

Slice the strawberries and toss them with 1/2 cup of white sugar. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour one 8 inch round cake pan.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. With a pastry blender cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack.

Slice partially cooled cake in half, making two layers. Place half of the strawberries on one layer and top with the other layer. Top with remaining strawberries and cover with the whipped cream.

In class, one method we learned about was the biscuit method. This consists of mixing dry ingredients together and then proceeding to cut in your choice of fat until small crumb-like pieces. You then must make a well in the middle for the wet ingredients and incorporate them until just combined. When I read this recipe, I was surprised to see that it indeed used the biscuit method instead of the creaming method. Following the recipe was pretty easy, but I accidentally didn't make a well when I added the wet ingredients. This didn't mess up the cake at all in the end. When it was baking, the cake smelled pretty good, but didn't seem like it would have any flavor. Once I took it out of the oven, I waited for it to cool and then proceeded to cut it in half. I then placed strawberries on one layer and put whipped cream on top and topped that with the other layer, which I then topped with strawberries and whipped cream again. Overall, the cake tasted really sweet, which I wasn't expecting since the cake itself was somewhat bland. 

NUtella Cupcakes

Angie Lelyukh

May Blog: Choclate Cupcakes Frosted with Whipped Nutella Frosting

Often times when I crave cookies, by the time I actually make the cookies, Im so you are so full of the cookie dough I dont want the cookie itself anymore. Like wise, when making the Nutella cupcakes I ate so much Nutella I could even push myself to eat one cupcake and had to leave it for the next day.
 The recipe I used for the homemade butter cream frosting included the following:

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ⅔ cup Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut spread
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Pinch kosher salt (up to ¼ teaspoon, to taste)
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer a fixed with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and powdered sugar on low until well-blended. Add the Nutella and increase the speed to medium. Beat for two minutes.
2. Add the vanilla extract and salt and whip for an additional 30 seconds.
3. Add the whipping cream and beat for about one minute, until the frosting lightens slightly in both color and texture.
   
   

I did not like the frosting as much as I though I would because you could barely taste the Nutella, but you could taste the powdered sugar and the butter very strongly.
The appearance was a light brown color, like a soft creamy tan and very fluffy

The texture of the butter cream was very fluffy and smooth

The aroma consisted of a strong butter and confectioners sugar with a hint of the chocolate hazelnut smell,

Something I forgot to do before making my frosting was read through the recipe so I completely forgot about timing the stuff and accidently beat step 2 for 2 minutes instead of 30 seconds, I do not think that it made too much of an impact on my frosting because it still had the right texture / volume at the end. Based on what I know, The most important step that would have caused me overcream my buttercream would have been step one

For the actual cupcakes I used the following recipe:

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Frosting:
8 cups confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
Food coloring, for decorating
Sprinkles, for decorating

Directions
For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a measuring cup, mix together the milk and vinegar to make sour milk. In a large bowl, add the cocoa powder and hot water and mix together with an electric hand mixer. Add the soured milk, granulated sugar, shortening, vanilla extract and eggs, and mix together. Next, add the flour and baking soda and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Place cupcake liners into a cupcake pan and fill each halfway with batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.

For the frosting: Whip 4 cups of the confectioners' sugar, the butter and vanilla extract with an electric hand mixer until smooth, while slowly adding the milk.

Add food coloring to achieve desired color and the remaining 4 cups confectioners' sugar.

Frost the cupcakes and top with sprinkles

 

They looked like normal cupcakes with a little bump, and brown. As for the texture they were soft, airy and fluffy, but according to myself, the cupcakes were kind of dry to taste. I was going for moist, crumbly, sticker cupcakes but they ended up being a bit more dry than I wanted to. I am not sure if it was the recipe or not but I think that i left them in the oven for a minute too long because every time I stuck the toothpick in a cupcake it came out with batter so I kept adding on time until I think I overcooked them and let out too much moisture from the batter. To me, they also had a funky after taste, almost like there was too much baking soda but i measured it out correctly so i am wondering if it was the effect of the vinegar with milk. Other than that, the coca flavor was just right and pleasantly melted in the mouth
After I topped them with frosting and added colorful sprinkles they were very appealing to the eye because of the bright colors of the sprinkles.

Overall my friends thought they tasted great, but I felt like the frosting was a little over-powering for the cupcake itself. If i were to make these again I would add in more Nutella for a stronger taste in the frosting and try out a different recipe for the batter to find something more moist. 

"Fabulous" Chocolate Chip Cookies by Bridget Thomas

"Fabulous" Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 3 dozen

 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup candy-coated chocolate pieces

1/3 cup peanut butter chips

2 teaspoons honey

1 pinch ground cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and honey. Stir in the dry ingredients, then fold in the chocolate chips, chocolate candies, peanut butter chips and nuts. Drop dough by teaspoons onto an unprepared cookie sheet.

3. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are golden around the edges. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

 

I made these cookies for my friend's birthday and they were amazing! I have made many types and variations of chocolate chip cookies but nothing like this. These cookies had peanut butter chips (which I didn't use) and M&Ms which I haven't made in cookies. I modified the recipe because I did not want to find the peanut butter chips and we did not have walnuts. Aside from that, the cookies, while baking, spread out and looked kind of like they were burnt around the edges but they were perfectly chewy and not so moist that it is oily but it wasn't dry. It was just right. I followed the recipe to the tee. They came out amazing and the dough wasn't too bad either! The cookies were really good and they get rave reviews from everyone! I'm so glad I made them. They were just right and hit the spot.

Rainbow Cupcakes & Homemade Frosting-May Blog

Recipe:
2 & 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting:
1 Tablespoon water
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I was at a friend's house and we decided to make cupcakes. Her mom loves to bake so she had a recipe for the cupcakes and frosting along with all of the correct ingredients in her house. For these cupcakes, we used the muffin method so we began by mixing all of the dry ingredients together. We combined the milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla together and then the mixture to the dry ingredients. We whisked all of the ingredients together until it was smooth. However, the batter was extremely thick and similar to the texture of yogurt so we slowly stirred in water until it was a thinner combination. I think this happened because we didn't sift the flour before measuring and adding it to the bowl. We separated the batter into 5 cereal bowls and mixed in a different color of food coloring into each one. Instead of bigger cupcakes, we made miniature ones so they cooked a little faster. We put a little of each batter into each muffin tin in the pan. This was the part that took the longest but they turned out looking very cool. After baking in the oven for 12 minutes at 375 degrees, we let them cool and made the frosting by beating the ingredients together until the mixture was light and fluffy. It tasted very sweet and sugary but it made the cupcakes have a perfect combination of creamy and sweet. The cupcakes were very tender and moist, but also very crumbly. They were extremely crumbly because of the cake flour, but the smell and taste were very inviting.

Strawberry Shortcakes
3 ½ cups AP flour, plus more for surface (15.75 oz)

1/3 c. + 1 T. granulated sugar SEPERATED (2.36 oz)

4 t. baking powder

1 t. fine sea salt

 

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces (6 oz)

1 large orange, zested and juiced

1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing (8.4 oz)

½ cup whole milk (4 oz)

_______________________________________

2 T. turbinado sugar

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2 pints strawberries, hulled and quartered lengthwise

2 ½ c. whipped cream

DAY ONE

1. In a heavy duty mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, add flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix on low speed to combine.

2. Add butter and zest, and mix on low until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 2 minutes. Add cream and milk and increase speed to medium; mix until dough comes together.

3. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface, lightly knead a few times, and shape into a rectangle about ¾” thick. Cut out dough circles using a 3” round cutter and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
   DAY TWO

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

5. Lightly brush tops with heavy cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. 

6. Bake until shortcakes are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool (can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days)

7. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine strawberries, orange juice, and remaining 1 T. granulated sugar. Gently stir together. Set aside. (TEACHER WILL DO THIS STEP)

8. To serve, halve shortcakes horizontally with serrated knife. Place bottom halves on individual serving plates and top each with a dollop of whipped cream, some berries, then another dollop of whipped cream. Top with remaining shortcake halves.
   
   Fresh Whipped Cream           Yield 4 cups

2 cups heavy cream

¼ cup sugar

1 t. vanilla (optional)

Method

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine heavy cream and sugar. With either a hand or stand mixer, beat mixture together on a lower level. After a minute, increase the speed and continue to beat mixture until very soft peaks form.

2. If you are using whipped cream as frosting, beat it for an additional 30-60 seconds or until soft peaks form.

3. If you are using vanilla, stir in by hand with a whisk at this point.

4. Best if used immediately. Can be stored for up to 24 hours in refrigerator.

A week before we did this lab in class, I decided I would be making a nice meal for Valentine's Day to show my parents that my brother and I loved them. Eating strawberries is about as appealing as eating charcoal to me, but my parents and my brother love them more than anything.

So I got the recipe for strawberry shortcake from Ms. Wilson and went to the store on a walk home from school a few days before Thursday, the day we were planning on, to pick up strawberries, oranges, and a REV roll-up for my father's lunch. After all of this was put in the fridge safely, my brother and I got to work.

The screw-ups started when we first began with all of the ingredients. My brother, Trevor, was in charge of measuring and combining the dry ingredients. The sugar, baking soda, and salt were fine, but when it was time for the salt, there was a little mix-up. The recipe, it turned out, was in units set for a scale. I didn't really take this into account, and neither did my brother, so he took out a small shot cup to measure... in fluid ounces. I didn't figure this out until later, so we'll get to that. We put all the dry ingredients together and set them aside for the next day. We were also making waffles for breakfast, so we put together the dry ingredients for that.

We mixed up the recipe a lot, which probably did mess up and cause the results we ended up with.

The same night we put together all the dry ingredients, we tried our hands at creating the whipping cream. Again, we were totally ignorant, because we thought that heavy whipping cream meant cool whip. We tried the whipping cream, but it was more like whipped goo. We couldn't even try to squirt it out of anything because it was so much a liquid. The day before, when I had gotten the recipe, Ms. Wilson said to make sure we had soft peaks, but it was just dripping, so I knew that was wrong. I also figured it was wrong when we used a whole container of cool whip. We put it in the fridge, and I prayed it would thicken, but it never did.

The next morning, we made the waffles and tried to squirt some sugary liquid of what we had made on them. The final product for the whipping cream attempt wasn't awful tasting, just weirdly textured. The waffles ended up well, and we went to school stressing about the time restrictions we had that night.

When we got home from school, Trevor and I got to work and made even more mistakes, which were earth-shattering at the moment, but now I see them as hilarious. We made pasta as the meal, and that ended up fine, though the alfredo sauce separated, but that's a different story. The strawberry shortcake, however, was a big mess.

I got all the ingredients together again to finish up the strawberry shortcake. The orange zesting was something I had never even tried, and I have a feeling I did it very wrong. I took the orange, washed it, an used our huge cheese grater to sheer off bigger chunks than needed of orange peel. I got all the other ingredients except the heavy whipping cream, because by now I had found out that cool whip was not synonymous with it. So I quickly googled 'heavy whipping cream substitutes' and came up with a milk-and-flour mixture that did not look quite as I had expected. I combined all of the combined dry ingredients and combined liquid ingredients in our large blue mixer. I mixed until the only chunks were the orange bits.

When I tried to take out the mixture to knead it, it was like trying to knead vomit. It had the gooey texture of vomit, and didn't smell fantastic, either. It also looked like it, and it made me want to vomit myself. I was on the verge of a breakdown from all of the messes I had made when just trying to show my parents we loved them.

My dad has always been the cook in our family, and from here he tried to work out how much flour we needed to add, because he could clearly see that that was the issue. There was no real substance there. He figured it all out as best he could through a very complex math equation that made me dizzy. From there I kneaded the dough and made the small cakes, but I think all the extra processing of the mixture overdeveloped the gluten, and the end product was NOTHING like the spongey cakes that my babysitting client, Jack, gets in a little strawberry shortcake kit.

The end product was tough, like eating the scones a few weeks before. We added the strawberries, but all that could be tasted, at least to me, was the orange peel chunks. It looked like cheese bicuits, again because of the orange bits. The added "whipping cream" made it look like a milk volcano with chunks of red lava spewing all over. There was no distinct smell, and the end product was very disappointing.

I think the reason the end product was so awful was because of the lack of communication and underestimating the importance of picking through the recipe with a fine tooth comb. The huge mistakes along the way made this Valentine's Day very memorable. I will probably never want to make or eat strawberry shortcake again. I really wish I would have just made cookies or mint brownies as I had originally planned, but making this dish taught me how I need to make sure I have the EXACT things the recipe may call for before I even consider making it. I am glad my dad was there to help save me, and I'm very glad I had a "soux chef" (Trevor) there with me, too.

Pizza Dough - May

Ingredients
7 cups strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour or 5 cups strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour, plus 2 cups finely ground semolina flour
1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
2 (1/4-ounce) packets active dried yeast
1 tablespoon raw sugar
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 1/2 cups lukewarm water

Sift the flours and salt onto a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a large measuring cup, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands - this is called punching down the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straightaway, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas - this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.

Timing-wise, it's a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don't roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though - if you are working in advance like this it's better to leave your dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there's 1 less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 1/4-inch thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted aluminum foil. You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with plastic wrap, and pop them into the refrigerator.

     For the month of May, I decided to make pizza dough so I could make a pizza for my family to eat for dinner. To create pizza dough, you have to use the straight dough mixing method, which is where you combine all the ingredients in one bowl and mix to combine. This is used mainly when making bread dough.
     So to start off, I gathered all the ingredients and placed the yeast, sugar, olive oil into the water. This would create fermentation, which would allow gas bubbles to be made, leading to a rising baked good. Then I combined all the ingredients to form a dough ball. With this ball, I kneaded it for a while, then I let it rest on the counter. After an hour, I took the dough and punched it down, then I let it sit for another hour. Now the dough was complete. So I rolled out the dough into a circle, and put the sauce and cheese on it and baked it.
     When it came out of the oven, the smell was salivating. I got so hungry right then and there, because the cheese was perfectly golden and gooey on top of the pizza, and the smell reminded me of a pizzeria like Punch Pizza. I cut everybody a piece, and when I tasted it, I instantly loved it. The crust was nice and tender, and wasn't chewy or bland. The sauce added to the overall incredible taste of the pizza. All in all, I think I did a good job making the pizza dough, and the final product, the pizza, turned out into a great meal that night.

Cupcakes: May Cooking Assignment, Cassandra S.

      For my monthly cooking assignment, I decided to make vanilla cupcakes. I topped them with homemade butter-cream frosting, sprinkles, and crushed up Hershey kisses.

      To make the batter for these delicious cupcakes, I used the cake mixing method. It was identical to the one we used in class. For example, we had to whisk together the dry ingredients and then combine those with the wet ingredients. I had to mix the ingredients together until they were completely combined. Like the cake recipe we made in class, there was sour cream listed as an ingredient.
     I did notice a couple of mistakes I made. First of all, the recipe called for room temperature butter, but because I'm so impatient I just put it in the microwave to make it similar to room temperature. Another mistake was that the recipe asked for room temperature eggs, but I didn't want to wait for them to warm up. The final mistake I made was that the recipe said to evenly divide the batter among the cupcake liners, which I tried to do, but It wasn't very equal. This caused some of the cupcakes to be overcooked. Overall, the mistakes probably effected the final product in some way, but not enough to impact the taste.
     I didn't intentionally change anything in the recipe, but I was a little skeptical about mixing the sour cream into the batter. I also noticed that the batter was a lot thicker than any cupcakes that I've ever made. I'm guessing that was because I've never made cupcakes from scratch, just from a box. 
     The cupcakes were a pale golden brown. They tasted super sweet, especially because of the butter-cream frosting, which was a huge success! The cupcakes smelled amazing. My kitchen smelled exactly like a bakery; sweet and warm. Overall,  I would definitely make them again. I learned that when a recipe says "evenly divide the batter", you have to make sure you actually follow that rule.

INGREDIENTS:

Vanilla Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
½ cup sour cream
1 large egg , room temperature
2 large egg yolks , room temperature
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin/cupcake tin with paper or foil liners.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add butter, sour cream, egg and egg yolks, and vanilla; beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.

3. Divide batter evenly among cups of prepared tin. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature before frosting.

Classic Vanilla Butter-cream Frosting

Author: Savory Sweet Life

Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time:  2 mins

Cook time:  3 mins

Total time:  5 mins

Serves: 2.5 cups

 

Classic American Butter-cream frosting. This recipe uses powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and milk. This is a great recipe for decorating and piping on cupcakes and cake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!) Ideal texture should be like ice cream.
• 3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Instructions

1. Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

Angie Lelyukh
Hour 2

                                                     Homemade Pita Bread

Ingredients for 8 pita breads:

For the sponge mix:

1 pkg dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1 cup warm water (about 90-100 degrees F.)

1 cup (4.5 oz by weight) all-purpose flour

Then:

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 to 2 cups all-purpose flour, or until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms (about 8-9 oz by weight)

*Let rise about 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Form 8 small, round loaves, let rise 30 minutes. Roll out and let rest 5 minutes before grilling.

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/search?q=pita+bread (Directions) 

I have found that I enjoy baking while watching how to make videos and I found a great website -- Foodwishes.com -- that does not include any written directions but only videos with Chef John, At home, I made grilled pita bread because I wanted to try something new and wanted to stuff them with something yummy. Pita bread is a yeast bread therefore, I used the straight dough method. When making the pita bread I realized that the waiting time including fermentation, and bench proofing plus extra waiting time on the side was about 3 hours which more than the typical bread and looking at the recipe I realized that it was because one of the main ingredients that helps yeast grow -- sugar, was absent so I was very tempted to add a tiny addition of sugar to speed up the process. I also got impatient while waiting for the fermentation to take place so I boiled hot water and put in a pan in the bottom of the oven to help create heat which in fact did speed up the process. Also, I was a little afraid that they were going to turn out dry because I felt like I added in too much flour at once in the mixer but in the end they ended up being done well. The only thing I was disappointed with while making the pita bread was at the end they did not seperate like they were suppose to so I had to cut them open. Although they were not gushing with flavor because they are only a floury paste, they were still delicious because they had a pinch of salt to them and the olive oil gave them a nice flavor. On top of that, the texture was perfect, they were crispy/toughish on the outside but when bitting in to them they were warm, soft and fluffy. The ended up looking nothing like pita breads but more like dough that was fried, a pale color with the spots of  brown on the sides (the sides they were grilled on). 

Overall, I though this proccess was very lengthy for only 8 pita breads so If I were to do it again, I would double or even triple the reciepe. 

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies

             For this home baking assignment I decided to make sugar cookies because we have recently been making cookies in class. I found an easy recipe online and tried using skills I learned in class to make them turn out better.

            Making the dough was pretty easy and I remembered the trick of putting the dough in the refrigerator for a while so the dough can become thicker, however, I grew a little impatient and probably should’ve left it in there a while longer. The taste of the final product turned out really sugary although I used the instructed amount. The texture was really crisp edges with a soft center and they turned out chewy. The aroma was so alluring and made the whole house smell of fresh cookies. The appearance of the final product turned out alright, but it could’ve been better. I should’ve left the dough in the fridge longer so they would’ve been thicker. After making the first batch I refrigerated the rest of the dough so the next batch would be thicker. I then took the extra dough and portioned and froze it, like we learned in class, so I can make a fresh batch whenever I would like.

            Using skills I learned in class while making my cookies really took my knowledge of baking cookies to the next level. It also allowed me to identify mistakes I made and allowed me to fix them at the same time.

            

Recipe:

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients-

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions-

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Cherry Scones

Cherry Scones

            For my home baking assignment I was in an unfamiliar kitchen in Florida so due to the ingredients that were already in the kitchen I decided to make scones. I found a recipe for cherry scones and figured that since the first time we made them in class it didn’t go so well, I should try to redeem myself by making them again on my own.
            The final product overall turned out good and I had little obstacles in the process. The taste of the final product was plain, as scones usually are, but with bursts of salivating flavor when you tasted the cherries. The texture was moist in the center but flaky layers on the top, creating the perfect scone. The aroma of the final product was delicious, it smelled like cherries and bread fresh out of the oven. The appearance turned out pretty good, although some scones were bigger than others. While I was mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, I remembered watching a video in class where they made a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and poured the wet ingredients into the center, so I did it as showed in the video and it worked better than just pouring it in. I also remembered how to fold the cherries into the batter from class, (I think that’s where we went wrong in our group) and was more gentle folding them in, which worked better.

Throughout the course of this assignment, I learned that I can take skills I use in class every day and apply them to my every day life at home. In conclusion, I think that this assignment has been extremely beneficial to my learning because it allowed me to use skills that I learned in class to further extend my horizons.

Recipe:

Cherry Scones

Ingredients-

2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp table salt

¼ cup sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup regular butter, melted

2/3 cup dried cherries, thinly sliced

Directions-

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar; mix well and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and melted butter. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined.

Drop 12 equal two-inch mounds of batter on prepared cookie sheet about 1-inch apart. Bake until tops just start to turn golden, about 12 to 15 minutes. Yields 1 scone per serving.

Kit-Kit and m&m double-layered cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter (unsalted)

1 & 1/2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 containers of vanilla frosting (depends on how much is needed)
2 bags of individual Kitkat bars
1 bag of m&ms

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.

3. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Beat in the eggs one at time and then stir in the vanilla extract. 

5. Pour in milk and mix together with flour mixture just until the batter comes together.

6. Pour half of the batter into each of the 9-inch round pans.

7. Bake for 25-30 mins. 

8. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the pan.
9. Use vanilla frosting to cover the top and sides of one cake, and then stack the other on top of it.
10. Cover the whole double-layered cake in vanilla frosting.
11. Stand Kitkat bars vertically lining the edges around the cake. Cover the top of the cake with m&m's and enjoy.

A traditional birthday in my house usually ends with a delicious ice cream cake celebration from Dairy Queen. However, I decided to make my dad a cake when it was his birthday. I saw this really interesting cake on pinterest and wanted to try to make it. Surprisingly,  it turned out very well for my first time making a homemade cake. I was going to use chocolate frosting because I figured that the cake would be too chocolately and rich for people's desires, so I used vanilla instead. It was still very rich and sugary, but it tasted very delicious and was gone the next day! The recipe called for cake flour, but I had to settle for AP flour. As a result, the cake was very dry instead of moist and delicious and didn't hold together as well as I thought it should have. It was extremely crumbly, but thick at the same time. However, it tasted delicious. The cake was perfect to satisfy a sweet tooth with just a few rich bites of a light and fluffy cake, creamy vanilla frosting, and sweet taste of chocolate and crunchy Kitkats.

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Sweet and Simple Lemon Tart

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

1/2 cupbutter, softened

1/4 cupsifted confectioners' sugar

1 cupsifted all-purpose flour

1 cupwhite sugar

2eggs

2 tablespoonsall-purpose flour

3 tablespoonsfresh lemon juice, or more to taste

2 teaspoonsgrated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoonsalt

3 tablespoonsconfectioners' suga

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan.
2. Combine butter with 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar in a bowl until smooth; stir in 1 cup flour. Press dough into prepared baking pan; pierce crust with fork in several places to prevent crust from puffing up during baking.
3. Bake crust in the preheated oven until slightly golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool.
4. Whisk white sugar and eggs in a bowl; stir 3 tablespoons flour into mixture and add lemon juice, lemon peel, and salt. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into baked tart crust.
5. Bake until filling is set, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool and dust with 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar.

          In class we learned about tarts, when we first began I had no idea what a tart was. After we made mini tartlets I found them quite delicious and decided to make a big tart on my own time at home. To my surprise we already had a full sized tart pan at home. I began the recipe a little after 9 (after work) and ended up finish almost at 11! Speak of time consuming!
           After my tart finally finished baking in the oven, I topped it with raspberries in the center and sprinkled it with powdered sugar, my family was anxiously waiting while watching a movie. I let it cool for 10 mins before I sliced it up and gave each person a slice.
         When I tasted the tart, it was a lot more sour than it was at school (not much of a fan our sour) and it made sense after I thought about it because the tartlets at school were surrounded by dough and there was little filling where as at home, it was a lot of sour filling and not much dough/sweet crust because they were slice. Unfortunately, the crust is my favorite part of a tart or pie so I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Also when I was shopping for the ingredients I only bought one lemon so I could not get enough lemon juice squeezed out and ended up replacing it with the lemon juice that comes in the bottle which may have effected the strong lemon taste of the tart. Lastly, the next morning after it completely cooled it cracked, reading online and looking at other people's blogs online I noticed that many other had the same problem and a few people recommended to add more sugar or bake at a higher temperature.  Overall, if I were to bake at another tart I would make it something other than lemon.