(Sydney Slone  Hour 1) ;- Home Made Caramels!

                  Recipe: 1 1/2 sticks of butter
                               1 cup light corn syrup
                               1 cup sugar
                               1 can sweetened condensed milk
                               1 tsp vanilla extract
Heat first 3 ingredients in a pan over medium heat, bring to a boil for 3 minutes, Slowly add the sweetened condensed milk, Stir contentiously while boiling and heat until 245-250 degrees or until the caramel looks like caramel color (if you don't have a candy thermometer), when temperature reaches 250 degrees take off heat and add the vanilla extract and pour in to a buttered 8*8 glass pan. At the very end you take wax paper out and cut pieces into the wax paper and twist the sides and you can have one whenever you want. ENJOY!!!!!!
                                      I used the Muffin Method. It was a little different then the one we use in class but i still stirred in the ingredients one at a time all the dry ingredients like I used butter and mixed it with the liquids and put the dry ingredients together and waited for the right temperature for then i can the next ingredients for the finishing product. well if you have the buttered pan ready and all your ingredients measured and opened in makes the process much easier and you wont burn anything. what we learned in class you grab all your ingredients and the right measuring tools and go up and grab all the stuff and have all of it it makes your work super easy. I would say that more things with chocolate and peanut butter and rice crispies use the muffin method.

Appearance- soft color,geewy, smooth like glass.
Taste- tastes like vanilla brown sugar mix, a creamy taste.
Texture- smooth, makes my mouth water, sticky but delicious.
Aroma- does not smell like anything but a vanilla caramel.
                                                Would i make this again? Yes because it tastes to good and i love caramel. I learned that always watch what you are making so it doesn't burn and clean up after yourself.

Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce

Alyssa Bartling

Hour 1

Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce

Ingredients

Cranberry Cake

1 1/2 T. butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. salt

1/4 c. water

1/4 c. evaporated milk

1 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 heaping cup ground cranberries

Butter Sauce

1/2-1 c. evaporated milk

1/2 c. butter

1 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

Directions

Cranberry Cake

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8x8 pan (or can be made as muffins).
2. In a food processor, chop cranberries until finely ground. 
3. Cream together butter and sugar.
4. Mix water, salt, evaporated milk, flour, baking soda, and ground cranberries into the creamed butter and sugar.
5. Bake cake for 20 minutes.
6. Let cool.

Butter Sauce 

1. Add evaporated milk, butter, sugar and vanilla into a saucepan.
2. Heat to a boil.

Preparation Method

For this recipe, I stuck fairly close to the original and only tweaked small things. The only changes that were made were baking the cake longer and adding more vanilla to the sauce. When I first checked the cake after 20 minutes, the middle was still undercooked. So decided to leave the cake in for 10 more minutes. My reasoning for adding more vanilla to the sauce was that the flavor wasn't very prominent with only 1 teaspoon. In this recipe, I had to use the creaming method, which is what we are currently using in class. The creaming method ensured that my final product was not going to have any larger pieces of sugar or butter throughout the cake. The creaming method also makes the cake light and fluffy. The reason creaming makes the cake fluffy is that the abrasive sugar is cutting tiny holes into the fat, creating bubbles and move volume of fat.

Critique

In my opinion, the cake was average, it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible. The final appearance was so-so. The cake hadn't risen as much as I wanted it to so it looked dense and flat. The taste was delightful. It was sweet with the butter sauce, but the cranberries also gave tart/sour note to the cake. I've had this cake before and the flavor wasn't as strong as it normally is, which might be because are cranberries were a little old.  The texture, was horrid. Even with the extra 10 minutes in the oven, the center was still a little underdone and raw. Even after eating a few bites from the middle, I had a stomach ache. The edges, on the other hand, were cooked just right. Overall, the cake was very dense, which isn't very appealing. The aroma of the cake was wonderful. When the cranberries were baking in the cake, it made the whole house smell like Christmas. The butter sauce was just a great, it had a very sweet and vanilla scent.

Assessment

Honestly, I would not make this cake again. The texture was off, the taste of the cake was lackluster and just the overall dessert was uninspiring. The butter sauce was great, but didn't seem to pair well with the cranberry cake. The cake itself just has an odd flavor, it's very tart in comparison to other sweeter cakes. But this recipe taught me many things. It taught me that when you cream butter and sugar, it can look more like wet sand than what we usually see in cookies. This has to do with cakes and cookies having a vastly different ratios of butter to sugar. The recipe also taught me that even if your product looks done, it isn't always totally cooked. Normally, it is thought that, especially with cookies, that even when it is out of the oven it can still cook until done. That as obviously not the case here, as even with extra time and carry-over baking, the cake still was undercooked in the middle.

Bossk Brownies by Jack Bruckner

Bossk Brownies

Recipe

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing baking dish

2/3 Cup all purpose flour

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 Cup packed brown sugar

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 Cup white chocolate or butterscotch chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 inch square baking dish.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Set aside.
3. Put the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in one large bowl. Using the electric mixer set on high speed, beat together until well blended and creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and stir with the wooden spoon until blended. Stir in the chips.
4. Pour into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
5. Using pot holders, put the baking dish in the preheated oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
6. Again, using pot holders, transfer the dish to the cooling rack. Let cool completely. Makes about 16 brownies.

Preparation Methods

For my second baking project, I decided to bake Bossk Brownies. Another recipe found in my Star Wars cookbook. The picture in the cookbook of the brownies enticed me to make them. I actually used two different baking methods when making these brownies. First, I used the muffin method. The Muffin Method has the baker measure all the dry ingredients separate and mixes them in a separate bowl from all the liquid ingredients. The liquid ingredients are then mixed in their own bowl and eventually the dry gets added to the wet and combined. Again, no over mixing because I didn't want too many air bubbles to be in the mixture. Too many bubbles means too much gluten is forming. I remember when Ms. Wilson used the Muffin Method when she made pancakes for the class.

The other method I used when making these brownies was the Creaming Method. Creaming is used for aeration which creates tiny 'seed' bubbles in the fat. Creaming increases the volume of the fat. In this case the butter was creamed with sugar which acted as an abrasive, cutting holes into the fat. The Creaming Method has 8 steps: measure all the ingredients, dry goods except sugar should be mixed in a separate bowl, beat fat with sugar in a separate bowl, add eggs, mix then add in dry ingredients, stir and bake. I used the creaming method at school while making oatmeal raisin cookies.

Both methods were needed to make sure that the brownies turned out.

Critique

The recipe says that brownies should bake for about 25 minutes. I found that they needed more time because when I inserted a knife in the center to check, it came out all gooey. I had to bake the brownies for another 7 minutes. So it took 32 minutes total for the brownies to be done. They smelled really chocolatey. I added white chocolate chips instead of butterscotch because I like chocolate better. After the brownies cooled and were cut, the outside top was crispy and the middle was gooey, but not runny. The flavor was rich and chocolatey. The texture was dense, not crumbly. The brownies were a really dark brown color with white chips showing on the side. I especially liked the chips in the brownie because they added a different color and were chewy. I did change the way I greased the pan. I used Pam cooking spray instead of butter. It was less messy. I don't think that changed anything with the flavor of the brownies.

I would make this recipe again. I could tell that they were home made because they had more of a chocolate flavor than a box mix. More rich. I liked baking these and liked eating them even more! Just like at school, it's fun to bake and then do a taste test to see if it turned out.

~Jack, Hr 2

Mos Eisley Morsels by Jack Bruckner

Recipe

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing the baking dish

2 C all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

3 large bananas

1 large egg

2 TBS vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking dish
3. put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt into a sifter. Sift the ingredients into a large bowl
4. In another large bowl, thoroughly mash the bananas with a fork or a potato masher, add the egg, vegetable oil and vanilla and stir until well blended.
5. Add the flour mixture with a rubber spatula and mix the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top of the batter with the spatula
7. Using pot holders, place the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Using pot holders, transfer the dish to a cooling rack and cut into squares. Makes 12 morsels.

Preparation Method

In my first attempt at baking at home, I made Mos Eisley Morsels which are little squares of muffin-like food. I found the recipe in my Star Wars cookbook. Because the directions called for mixing the dry ingredients separate from the wet ingredients, I used the Muffin Method. There are 5 steps to the Muffin Method. I followed all five steps: measure all ingredients, pulse or sift all the dry goods together, whisk or stir all the wet ingredients together, fold the wet ingredients into the dry and combine & pour combined mix into a pan to bake. It's ok to have lumps in the batter. I did not over mix. If you over mix the texture could become uneven because over-mixing creates gluten and gluten makes more air bubbles.

I didn't change anything from the recipe. I did use a knife to insert after baking to make sure it was done, instead of using a toothpick. It took exactly 30 minutes to bake. You are suppose to cut the baked good into squares so that they are considered 'morsels'. You could eat them as a snack or dessert.

Claire Schmitt - Pumpkin Bread

Claire Schmitt

Pumpkin Bread

Recipe 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups sugar
• 1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
• 2 large eggs
• 1 15-ounce can 100% pure pumpkin (I use Libby's)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease two 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pans with butter and dust with flour (or use a baking spray with flour).
2. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices in a bowl; use a whisk to mix well and set aside.
3. In large bowl of an electric mixer, at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until just blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until very light and fluffy, a few minutes. Beat in pumpkin. The mixture might look grainy and curdled at this point -- that's ok.
4. At low speed, beat in flour mixture until well combined.
5. Turn batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly, and bake for 65 – 75 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let loaves cool in pan about 10 minutes, then turn out on wire rack to cool completely. (If the loaves stick, run a plastic knife around the edges of the pan to loosen them.)
6. Fresh out of the oven,the loaves have a deliciously crisp crust. If they last beyond a day, you can toast individual slices to get the same fresh-baked effect.
7. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Preparation Method
9. The method this recipe used was the muffin method. The muffin method is when the idea is to mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another. You then pour the wet over the dry and combine, mixing as little as possible. It is perfectly fine to have a lumpy mixture before baking, because over mixing will cause air bubbles to form and make larger air pockets rather than small ones like this bread is supposed to have. You don't want to over develop that gluten!!! You see this in this recipe because when you mix the wet and dry together, you only want to mix the two until they are just combined, and no more than that.
10. I did not really change this recipe much. If anything I used a fork to wish together the dry ingredients because our whisk was in the dishwasher and I have no patience to wait. Another thing I did was spray the inside of the pan with pam instead of with butter, and I didn't notice any difference than the picture that the author pictured and mine, which was a good observation.  The reason I did this was because my dad was all up in my business and didn't want me to open up a new box of butter. Oh dad. 
11. Basically, I followed this recipe almost exact. It baked for about 68 minutes total before I tested it and the tooth pick came out clean. And trust me, this recipe is definitely worth trying! :)
12. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Critique
14. ✰✰✰✰✰
15. Appearance- The pumpkin bread was a brownish orange color. It had uniform small holes when you sliced it and a dark crust. It looked moist and dense also. Another thing was the crust was cracked (split open) and glossy looking. All in all, the appearance was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!!!
16. Taste- The taste of this pumpkin bread was spiced and sweet. It definitely tasted sugary with hints of buttery goodness. This pumpkin bread also had a savory note along with the sweet one. Along with this, it tasted pumpkin-y and fresh. The taste was very pungent and strong (and delicious!(; ) 
17. Texture- The texture of this bread was soft and dense. It was very moist, too. It had a textured inside with the air bubbles (small and uniform) and the thickness of the bread. Also, the top was sort of slimy because of all the tasty moisture this bread had.  
18. Aroma- The aroma of this bread basically filled my entire house with a spiced and sweet scent. It was so strong that you could almost taste the deliciousness. Also, the aroma was savory, not too salty and not too sweet, just in the middle. 
19. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20. All in all, I really enjoyed this baked good and already have sent the link to my grandma because i'm certain she will love it as much as we did at my house. I definitely recommend this recipe also and want to see if other peoples will turn out as good as mine did! This is for sure a new Schmitt favorite!

Brittney Bragg > Pumpkin Rolls

                            Recipe:
Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

Filling:

 

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

 

1. PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.
2. COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
3. BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.
4. BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.
5. COOKING TIP:Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

                                                               Making the Cake
      
                For my second home study I decided to make pumpkin rolls with cream cheese filling.

When making this recipe the first thing I did was make the cake while following the recipe. First, I

added the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in my kitchen aid mixer on

medium speed until all the ingredients were incorporated. Once all the ingredients where

incorporated I added the eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and flour into the mixture and mixed on medium

speed until all the ingredients were completely mixed in. Once the batter was done I thinly spread the

batter on a cookie that had parchment paper laid on top of it and placed it in the oven. After 8 minutes

in the oven I took the cake out and, while it was still hot, I flipped the cake onto a towel that was

sprinkled with powered sugar and rolled the towel up into the roll. While the cake was cooling in the

towel I started to prepare the filling. First, I cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in the

mixer on medium speed until everything was mixed together and was creamy smooth. After, the cake

completely cooled off and the filling was finished, I unrolled the towel and the spread the icing on the

cake. Once the cake was fully covered in icing I rolled the cake off the towel and placed it on plastic

wrap and placed it in the fridge for a couple of hours and then cut it up to be served.



                                                        Tasting the Pumpkin Roll

                        
               After baking and cooling the pumpkin rolls it was time to evaluate them. For the

appearance of the pumpkin roll: the cake itself had a very bright orange color, lots of tiny cracks

from the cake being rolled up, and then it also had a very messy looking cream cheese icing because

after cutting the roll the icing started to come out. The next part of my evaluation was the aroma part:

for the smell of the cake it was very sweet and it had a very strong pumpkin smell to it. After

evaluating the aroma and appearance of the pumpkin rolls it was time for the actual tasting part of

the evaluation. For the taste part of the evaluation I thought that the cake was very pumpkiny and had

a very very sweet taste to it and had soggy almost gooey center which I thought to be almost

unappealing but other than that I thought the pumpkin rolls overall had a lot of flavor and texture.

Which leaves me to the texture part of the pumpkin rolls. The pumpkin rolls to me , I thought the

was dry and crumbly but the inside of the pumpkin roll was gooey and squishy. Even though some of

the textures and tastes of the rolls were a little off I thought that this overall experience worked really

well and I would definitely attempt to make more variations of this recipe some day.
                                   

 

Brittney Bragg > Rolled Halloween Sugar Cookies

                                             Recipe   
Ingredients:                                                            Yield: 5 dozen

Dough:

• 11/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Icing:

• Any cookie icing from a local grocery store.

Directions:

1. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

      
                                                             Making the Cookies

            For my first home study I decided to do sugar cookies, but sugar cookies for Halloween. I

figured it was going to be hard since I had never made homemade rolled out sugar cookies before, but

it turned out to be easy and super fun. First, I found a recipe and decided which cookie cutters I

wanted to do and took out the butter. I took out the butter a couple of hours before I started making

the dough, because for most cookies the butter needs to be at room temperature so you can cream in

into the other ingredients to create nice smooth cookies. After the butter was at room temperature I

 prepared the cookies just like the recipe directed: cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs and vanilla;

 stir in flour,  baking powder, and salt; then I placed it in the fridge over night. For sugar cookies the

dough HAS to stay cold to keep it easy to work with, because once the dough is warm it begins to

become sticky and will be very hard to roll out. So, when making these cookies I took out medium

sized portions of the dough at a time to keep the rest of the dough cold. After rolling the dough out

I sprinkled the tops of the cookies with sugar to give it a nice sugary crunch to the top, and then

placed the cookies in the oven and removed them from the pan to cool. I repeated these steps until all

of the cookies were baked. Once the cookies were all completely cooled I took decorated the cookies

with some cookie icing I got from the grocery store to make them look like Halloween cookies.   


                                                           Evaluating the Cookies

           After baking, cooling, and decorating the cookies it was time to evaluate them. Starting with

appearance: the cookies were really smooth on top with a light brown color around the edges of the

cookies and had a golden brown color on the bottom. The brown parts of the cookie not only give the

cookie an appealing look but it also gives the cookies more flavor and texture. For the texture part of

the evaluation: the cookies were very soft and had a lot of airy almost completely crumbly texture to

it. When it came to the texture I felt that this specific recipe and the time it had been in the oven

really played a major role in making the cookies smooth, soft, and chewy. The aroma part of these

cookies was a sweet almost caramel like scent, but it was a very balanced sweet smell: not too sweet

and not too less of an amount of sweet smell. When it came down to the actual taste of the cookie I

felt that this was the "perfect" sugar cookie. It had just the right amount of sweetness, not gooey but

not crunchy either , just the right amount of flavor from the browning in the oven and just a tad bit

of saltiness to contrast the sugar which really balanced out the cookies. The cookie it's self I thought

was really good although the cookie icing on top added almost too much sweetness to the cookie, but

other than the icing I liked the cookie. Overall, I think that these rolled out cookies were a success

and I would definitely try to make them again.