It's Fall.. Time for apples, pumpkins, and cinnamon!

  This time of year is probably my absolute favorite! The colors, smells, and tastes of Autumn are so heartwarming. The weather is perfect too. I love being able to throw on a sweater, hat, and scarf and go for a cool, relaxing, not humid walk. I'll admit it, I do purposely step on every leaf that I can just to hear the crunching sound (hehe).

                                                           http://www.365waysprogram.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/leaves.jpg

  Of course, what is Fall without baking? I get excited when I see apples and apple cider in the store. I start thinking about all the things that I could bake. I can almost smell the cinnamon and apples just standing near them in the store. I imagine making apple pie, skillet apple pie, apple turnovers, apple galette, fresh applesauce, and baked apples.

                                                         http://www.kitchensurvival101.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/apple-cider.jpg

  One of my favorite things to bake with apples are apple fritters. So simple to make but loaded with Fall flavor. There is nothing like having a hot cup of coffee and a fresh apple fritter in the morning.
You will eventually notice that one of my go-to recipe providers will be +America's Test Kitchen . I really enjoy all of their recipes and I feel like I can trust their recipes to always have a positive result. America's Test Kitchen has a cooking show called Cook's Country where they do more traditional recipes. In their Feb/Mar issue they tackled reinventing homemade apple fritters so that they would be full of apple flavor. I had never made fritters before so I was nervous about them turning out but Test Kitchen makes everything clear and easy to understand. After tasting the fritters, I was extremely pleased with the result and couldn't wait to share them with my family. Definitely the best tasting fritter I've ever had. The flavors are way better than anything you could buy from a grocery store bakery. Taking the time and work to make them is well worth it!

  I highly recommend that you try these apple fritters. Below is the recipe from America's Test Kitchen. Enjoy!    

Ingredients

For the Fritters

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup apple cider
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 cups vegetable peanut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Glaze
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup apple cider
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon groud nutmeg

Directions:
Spread prepared apples in single layer on paper towel–lined baking sheet and pat thoroughly dry with paper towels. 

Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in large bowl. Whisk cider, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract in medium bowl until combined. Stir apples into flour mixture. Stir in cider mixture until incorporated.

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat to 350 degrees.  Use 1/3-cup measure to transfer 5 heaping portions of batter to oil. Press batter lightly with back of spoon to flatten. Fry, adjusting burner as necessary to maintain oil temperature between 325 and 350 degrees, until deep golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer fritters to wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet. Bring oil back to 350 degrees and repeat with remaining batter. Let fritters cool 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk confectioners’ sugar, cider, cinnamon, and nutmeg in medium bowl until smooth. Top each fritter with 1 heaping tablespoon glaze. Let glaze set 10 minutes. Serve.

Experiments.. Some successful and some not.

 I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. I love trying to create something new and delicious. I'll tell you about some of my successful experiments and a few of my unsuccessful ones.
I'll start off with the failures first.

 I enjoy popcorn a lot, I like eating all different kinds of popcorn. One day I was at the store and I saw a package of pop rocks. I bought a package because I hadn't had any in a long time. When I got home there was a basket of plain popcorn sitting on the counter. That is when I got the idea to try and make pop rocks popcorn. I started out by making a marshmallow syrup like what you would use to make popcorn balls, then I dumped all of the pop rocks into the syrup and coated the popcorn and baked it for an hour. The result was a fail. The pop rocks melted in the oven and no longer had the popping to them.
 After a while I decided to try to make the popcorn again but change when I added the pop rocks. I made the syrup, baked the popcorn, and after the popcorn was done, I sprinkled the pop rocks onto the popcorn. I was hoping for a better result this time but the pop rocks wouldn't stick to the popcorn. It tasted really good if you could get some of the pop rocks with the popcorn. It was sweet, fruity, crunchy, and had the popping from the pop rocks. If only I could find a way to get the pop rocks to stick without ruining them.
Oh well, on with the next failure.

 It's been a few years ago, but I tried making brownies with a peach frosting. It may sound strange but I had to try it anyway. I made a quick pan of homemade brownies then I started with the frosting. We had some ripe peaches laying around so I cut them up and cooked them with a little bit of sugar. The peaches released a lot of syrup so I removed the peaches from the syrup. I made a simple butter cream frosting and added some of the peach syrup to the frosting for flavor. I frosted the brownies and then topped it with the cooked peaches. Unfortunately the peaches still released some liquid and it made the frosting separate. While I thought that the brownies tasted good, it sure didn't look good. 
Ok, enough with my mistakes. I'll tell you about two simple but successful experiments.

 I got this idea from +Dairy Queen ice cream cakes. In the middle of the cakes there is a crunchy chocolate layer, not exactly sure what it is. I love anything with mint and chocolate so I decided to try to make something similar to the DQ crunch by using thin mints from the girl scouts (or you could use grasshoppers made by keebler) and Smuckers magic shell ice cream topper. I crushed up the thin mints by putting them in a large ziplock bag and used a rolling pin. After the cookies were all crushed, I put them in a bowl and pour the magic shell onto the cookies and mix up till the cookie crumbs were all coated. I then got a scoop of vanilla ice cream and sprinkled some of the cookie mix on top. The result was delicious. The magic shell hardened when it got onto the ice cream so it was a nice, minty, crunchy, ice cream topper.

 My next experiment was messy but fun and easy. I found a grocery bag in our pantry with bags of white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and a jar of peanut butter. I laid everything on the counter then looked in my refrigerator, I found some heavy whipping cream and Reddi Wip. "Perfect", I thought. I knew exactly what I was going to make. I started making a triple mousse dessert.
I started off by making a quick peanut butter mousse by just mixing the Reddi Wip with some peanut butter until it was light a fluffy. Next, I made a double boiler and melted the milk chocolate chips, then I added more Reddi Wip to the melted chocolate until that was fluffy also. Finally I took the heavy whipping cream and microwaved it until it was hot, then put in some powered gelatin that I had softened with a little water. After I whisked the cream and gelatin until it was smooth, I added the white chocolate chips and stirred it until the chocolate melted. I let the white chocolate mix cool then I mixed it with Reddi Wip until it was fluffy.
   

After I had all my mousse made, I began to layer it in a pan. I put the peanut butter mousse on the bottom, then the chocolate mousse, and finally the white chocolate mousse on top and I let it chill over night in the refrigerator. When I woke up in the morning, I had a very yummy, light, creamy, smooth dessert (yet not so nutritional) for breakfast.

So, after all the things that I have experimented with, a few things managed to turn out.
I hope that you try creating your own desserts. You never know, they might actually turn out to become something genius.

Have a nice night!

Pumpkin Streusel Loaves

A few months ago a friend asked me to make her pumpkin streusel loaves out of a +Paula Deen magazine. The picture of the loaves looked amazing so I was very eager to start baking them for my friend. I got all of the ingredients and started to mix them up. Everything was going great and I was following the recipe to a T. I panned up the batter, put the streusel on top, then put them in the oven all ready to bake. I noticed on the recipe that it says to bake the loaves for 30 minutes.

 I used to work as a cook before and I've made pumpkin bread and banana bread a LOT and I know that most breads take an hour or more to bake, so I thought that 30 mins was a bit strange. After 30 minutes of baking, I checked the loaves. It was just what I thought, the loaves were no where near being done and the streusel sunk down in the middle of the batter. I put more time on the loaves and I baked them for 75 minutes and they still weren't done in the middle. It was like a buttery mush. The loaves never did rise either. 

Another friend of mine that is a cook suggested that maybe my baking soda was bad so I bought new baking soda. I decided to do some research on the pumpkin streusel loaves first before I tried it again. What I found out is that in every other recipe, the streusel called for 1/4c. of fat and 1/2c. of each dry ingredient, while Paula's recipe called for only 1/4c. of each dry ingredient. So I modified the streusel recipe and started making the bread again (with the new baking soda). Again the bread took an hour to bake and the streusel sunk down in the middle but not as bad. I was very disappointed and decided to try to find another recipe for bread. After looking at several other recipes, I also noticed that in the batter recipe Paula calls for 1c. of fat but in other recipes I was looking at, they only called for a 1/2c. of fat. I wish I would have taken a picture of the loaves the first time I made them.

So what I learned from +Paula Deen is that she really really loves butter. So beware of this recipe if you do try it. Below is Paula's recipe for Pumpkin Streusel Loaves.

After doing all that research, I finally found a recipe that looked good. Thanks to +Bakingdom Blog. The perfect pumpkin streusel loaves recipe.. FINALLY! Below is a loaf of bread after following the +Bakingdom recipe. It rose perfectly and tasted great. It was perfectly moist too.

Here is the recipe from +Bakingdom Blog :

Pumpkin Bread
with Cinnamon Pepita Streusel Topping
Makes 6 mini loaves, or 3 7×3-inch loaves

Ingredients

FOR THE BREAD
3 1/2 cups (445 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup (125 ml) canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
1/2 cup (127 grams) brown sugar, packed
4 eggs (or 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds combined with 3/4 cup (187 ml) water, for vegan/dairy free)
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
2/3 cup (167 ml) water

FOR THE STREUSEL (optional, this bread is still amazing without it)
1/2 cup ( 127 grams) brown sugar
1/2 cup (63 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup pepitas (or pecans, walnuts, or any other nut, chopped)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (half a stick or 56 grams) unsalted butter, melted (or margarine for vegan/dairy free*)

*when buying margarine for vegan/dairy free usage, be sure it’s actually vegan. I prefer Earth Balance

To make the bread: Preheat oven to 350 degrees (165 C). Lightly spray 6 mini or 3 7×3-inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray with flour, or grease and flour each one; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the oil and apple sauce. Stir in the sugars until combined, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Stir in the pumpkin until thoroughly combined. Stir in the water. Sprinkle about half of the flour mixture over the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the remaining flour mixture, and mix just until no streaks of flour remain. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and set aside while you mix the streusel topping.

To make the streusel: In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon together, whisking until thoroughly combined. Stir in the pepitas or nuts. Drizzle the melted butter over the mixture and stir with a spoon until you have a mixture that resembles lumpy wet sand. Do not break up the clumps too much.

Divide the streusel evenly between the pans, sprinkling it over the top of the bread batter to cover it completely.

Bake mini loaves, three at a time on a rimmed baking sheet, for 20 minutes. Rotate the pans, front to back, and bake for another 20 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If making large loaves, bake all 3 7×3-inch loaves on a rimmed baking sheet for 25 minutes. Rotate the pans, front to back, and bake for another 25 to 27 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving, preferably longer, if you can.

I hope you try bakingdom's recipe. Here is the webpage: http://www.bakingdom.com/2011/09/pumpkin-bread-streusel-topping.html  

Thank you, +Bakingdom Blog for an awesome pumpkin streusel loaves recipe!! :)

The smells and sounds of baking

The best parts about baking for me are the smells and sounds. You are preparing a delicious dessert, you put it in the oven all ready to bake, then you clean up the mess that you made. All that hard work makes you think whether taking the time to bake was really worth it or not. You think, "Wouldn't it have been easier and faster if I just bought this at the store?" Then you start to smell the wonderful aroma coming from the oven that just makes your mouth water in anticipation of the delectable dessert. That is the moment when you realize that all of your hard work was well worth it. Smelling something baking in the oven makes you feel proud because it is something that YOU made. It is because of your hard work that that smell is flowing out of the oven. Now I said that not only smells are the best part of baking but the sounds too. I feel like the sounds of baking are under appreciated. Whenever I pull something out of the oven, I just listen to the sizzling and crackling that comes from the hot dessert. I love that sound! Next time you are baking a cake or cookies, stop and listen to the sound of them as soon as you pull them out. Whenever I make cinnamon rolls and pull them out of the oven, the hot caramelized syrup is bubbling in deliciousness. The sound the syrup makes, makes me want to tear into them right away if only they weren't sizzling hot and wouldn't burn my mouth. I wish that I could capture those smells and sounds in this blog so that everyone could enjoy what I love. 

This is my first blog, so I hope that you enjoy my future posts and pictures and I hope that I have motivated you to find a passion for baking like I have. Goodnight!