HOLLA

One of my friends made challah this week and I was totally inspired.  Not only is it tender, moist, and great for french toast, it also justifies saying "HOLLA" all day long.  Which I am for.  I added same orange marmalade and cardamom just for fun.

Braids are beautiful

I always thought that the lovely golden crust of egg wash is from the yolk, 

but it is really from the proteins in the white.  

In other news, we got "Jerusalem:  A Cookbook" for a late wedding gift, and I am super excited to cook my way through it.  It also has beautiful photos.  The first thing we made was a meaty, grainy casserole with tahini lemon sauce.   Mmmm.

Whatever Scones

I generally don't enjoy bakery scones.  You know, the sweet, monstrous triangles whose textures somewhat resemble a rock.  I like moist, tender scones:  those that are more like fluffy biscuits than small pastries.  This scone recipe is like that, with the added bonus of being able to mix in whatever the heck you are hankering for.  Thus the name.

In other news, I'm learning the Dvorak keyboard.  This is mostly curiosity-driven; I want to see how fast I can pick it up.  I'm sticking with Qwerty a work, so I can still get things done.  Needless to say, typing at home is slow going.

Whatever Scones

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 1/3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup veg oil
• 6 Tbsp honey/maple syrup/sugar/any combo
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 2-3 cups stuff*

*I used 

• 1 cup chopped apple
• 1/2 cup chopped cranberries
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup coconut shreds
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 400F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat.
2. Mix flours, sugar, leavening, salt, cinnamon, cornmeal, and oats.
3. Add the oil, honey, eggs, and yogurt and mix halfway.
4. Stir in the stuff.
5. Drop 1 1/2 to 2 inch blobs onto prepared baking sheets and flatten slightly.
6. Bake for 18-22 minute, rotating pans halfway through.

A New Muffin Year

We've had a pretty excellent Christmas and New Years.  We spent a week at home in Minnesota spending time with friends and family and making and eating delicious foods.  One of my family parties featured an "ethnic" theme, with dress-up encouraged.  We're special.  Every time we go home for a bit, I get excited to move back there and spend more time with family.  They my peeps.

We were hoping to have an epic ski season, as both our schedules enable us to work from wherever for this year only.  However, Ullr seems to have different plans.  Not much is open, and for the week that my parents and sister were out, there was only 1" of snow total.  Oh, the sadness of our little first-world problems.  In the meantime, I've rediscovered my love of skate skiing.  And Matt comes along too.  He's less efficient, which works out pretty well for pacing.  Also, nordic is a lot harder at 9,000 ft than it is in Minnesota.

We're back in Boulder and just getting into the swing of work again.  I'm writing like a fiend and trying to finish up all the last experiments that haven't been working for the last 9 months.  Somehow, I still adhere to the irrational belief that they will work this semester.

After coming home from a week of vacation, we had almost nothing to eat at home, so whipped these up.  While I'm not usually a proponent of weenie baked goods, there are remarkably moist and delicious.


Morning Glory Muffins

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup mashed banana + applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots (about 2 smallish)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease 12 muffin cups
2. Mix the flours, oats, sugar, soda, and salt together.
3. Mix the yogurt, bananapplesauce and egg in a separate bowl and add it to the flour mixture.  Stir until blended, but don't overmix.  
4. Stir in raisins, carrots, and coconut.  You can add nuts too if you like.
5. Fill the muffin cups full and bake 20-25 minutes.  

New Favorite Brownie Recipe

I've been an avid fan of the baked brownie recipe for quite some time now.  I like the idea of a brownie with copious amounts of melted chocolate involved.  I have even become a bit snobbish, looking down on lowly brownie recipes who's chocolate flavor is supplied by cocoa powder alone.  So when I saw this recipe in Bon Appetit this month, I was intrigued.  Mostly because there is only 1/3 of a cup of flour, which has to be a good thing in a brownie recipe.  

I like fudgy brownies.  In fact, I frequently ask myself why I bother to bake them in the first place, since the batter is so darned delicious.  (Usually, I decide that the baked form is more easy to transport and distribute.   Usually.)  I have been known to leave a 1/2 inch edge of crusty discards all along the outside of the brownie pan.  Despite--or maybe because of-- the lack of melted chocolate in this recipe, they were incredibly fudgy.  Now if you're one of those people who likes edge-brownies, I don't really know what to say.  But you can come eat my garbage if you like.  

Cocoa Brownies

adapted from Bon Apetit

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup flour
• dash (<1 cayenne="cayenne" li="li" optional="optional" pepper="pepper" tsp="tsp">

1. Prehear oven to 325.  Line an 8x8-inch pan with tin foil and grease it.  
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Let cool.  Mix sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl, and pour the butter in, whisking as you go.  Whisk in vanilla and beat in eggs, one at a time.  Stir in flour and cayenne until just combines
3. Bake until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached (I don't bake it this long. . .), 25-30 minutes.  Transfer pan to a wire rack, and let cool completely.  

I swear licking the bowl isn't the only reason I make brownies.

In other news, we had an epic date night at Zoo Lights

Hitched

Hi friends!  Matt and I got married a week ago in Boulder, CO.  We made some yummy granola for favors (ha. . . Boulder) and I thought I'd share the recipe.  The wedding was awesome.  We self-officiated at the top of Flagstaff Mountain in the presence of close family.  You can see some pictures here:  http://www.haggerling.com/


Granola
from Epicurious

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut*

3 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt

1/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup assorted dried fruit

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; toss. Spread on prepared sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes, about 40 minutes. Place sheet on rack. Stir granola; cool. Mix in fruit. Can be made 1 week ahead. Store airtight.

A Romanian Pastry

I work with the coolest people. One of them is a Romanian mother of two, with whom I joke that we'll open a pastry shop together when academia doesn't work out. She makes an array of delicious desserts on a semi-regular basis (though I'm not sure where she finds the time), including a many-layered dobosh torte, walnut bars, and these. Matt has always been partial to anything resembling a linzer torte, so I asked for the recipe. We're planning to have a baking session sometime where I can learn all her secrets. She's also on my committee, which is awesome.

Dough

• 2 2/3 c. flour
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• zest and juice of one lemon
• 4 yolks

Filling

• 2 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar

1. Combine the flour and sugar and zest in a both. Cut in the butter until the mixture is like coarse sand. Stir in the yolks and lemon juice until the dough just holds together. It should be dry, but should hold together when pressed.
2. Divide dough into 2/3 and 1/3 and form into discs. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour.
3. For the filling, bring the raspberries and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thick and jam-like. Remove from heat.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F
5. When the dough is chilled, take out the 2/3 piece and roll it out to fit a 13"x9" pan. You may have to let it warm up a little before it is rollable. Butter the bottom of the pan and place the dough in it.
6. Spread the raspberry filling over the dough, and stick it back in the fridge.
7. Take out the remaining 1/3 of the dough. Roll it to about 10"x5" and cut into 1/2-inch wide strips. Take the pan back out of the fridge and layer the dough strips in a lattice pattern. You don't have to weave them. The angle and frequency of the lattice strips will depend on how you rolled and cut the top dough.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the top is slightly browned and the jam is bubbly. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Making the lattice top

Pumpkin Cookies

Summer arrived in Colorado about a month and a half ago. I was home in Minnesota last weekend, and the trees were budding. This place is crazy. Matt and I have been doing wedding preparation type things. And Ultimate season is starting, which means I get to wear my garish homemade pink tractor skirt (and yes, this fabric is available at JoAnn's)! And that I can bake for frisbee friends.

Today's special is pumpkin cookies (more like pumpkin muffin tops, really).

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

from AllRecipes

Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with partchment paper or silpat. (Or not, if you're ill-equipped).
2. Mix together oil, egg, sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin until well-blended
3. Add flour, leavening, spices, and salt in a pile on top and mix them together a bit before stirring into the wet ingredients.
4. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookies sheets (supposedly makes 36, my batch made 22 because I got overexcited about large cookies). Bake for 15 minutes or until tops are slightly browned. Cool completely.
5. In the meantime, make the icing. Combine all ingredients but the milk, and add enough milk to make it drizzly. When cookies are totally cool, drizzle the icing over them.

Berry Cake

One of Matt's most endearing qualities is his tendency to get fixated on things. We've been talking about doing cake tastings for our weddings, with a particular mind to our favorite Whole Food's cake, Berry Chantilly Cream. Then our friend Erin texts us a picture of a white berry cake that she made. And we're fixated. We originally thought we'd make a king cake for Carnivale/Mardi Gras. Then we remembered that king cakes aren't really that tasty. So the berry cream fixation came back up.

We've been working our way through tasty recipes in our new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (amazing!) And it turns out there is a strawberry cream cake recipe! Score.


In other news, I bought some excellent knobs from Anthropologie on discount. I frequently wander the store looking at the bizarre collection of knobs, knick-knacks, and dishware. So a sale rack was hard to resist. I thought I'd make a rack to hang my numerous necklaces on so that I could use the top of my dresses for something other than a pile of necklaces. And I finally got around to it. I got a foot of baseboard for a buck at Home Depot and sanded it to make it look weathered. You know, cause that's in.


Strawberry Cream Cake
from Cook's Illustrated

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 large eggs (2 whole and 3 separated), room temp
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 Tbsp water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• pinch cream of tartar

1. Grease a 9-inch cake pan or springform pan, line with a parchment paper cut to fit the bottom and grease the parchment. Reserve 3 Tbsp sugar. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks, butter, water, and vanilla until smooth.
2. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy on medium-low. Increase speed to medium-high and whip whites until soft and billowy. Add the reserved 3 Tbsp sugar and whip until soft peaks form (about 1-2 minutes). Stir one third of the whites into the batter, and gently fold in the rest.
   
3. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes. Let cake cool 10 minutes, then invert and let cool completely out of pan, about 2 hours.

• 2 pounds strawberries (or other berries)
  
• 4-6 Tbsp sugar (depends on sweetness of berries)
  
• 2 Tbsp kirsch
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 cups heavy cream, chilled.

1. For the filling, halve 24 of the strawberries for garnish and mix the remainder in a bowl with 4-6 Tbsp sugar. Let sit one hour. Strain juices and reserve. Pulse the berries briefly in blender or food processor. Simmer reserved juices and kirsch over medium-high until reduced to 3 Tbsps (3-5 minutes). Pour reduced syrup over berries, add salt and toss.
2. For the whipped cream frosting, whip cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Ad heavy cream slowly while mixing and ship on medium-high until stiff peaks form.
   
3. To assemble, cut the cake horizontally into three layers.
4. Place one layer on a plate, place a ring of 20 strawberry halves around the outside (tops out) and fill with half of the filling. Frost is 1/3 of the whipped cream. Repeat with the second layer. After placing the third layer, frost the remaining cream on top and garnish with remaining berry halves.
   

By the way, the frosting is the best ever.

More chocolate please

I've been doing a lot of crafting in the last few months. I never really got into knitting (too ADD?), but when a friend recently showed me how to wire wrap my own earrings, I went a little nuts. And once I had an absurd amount of dangly earrings, I needed a better place to store them than on the bathroom counter. Here's my solution. Fine black plastic mesh in a picture frame. I feel so clever. Now I have to stop making earrings. I am also planning to make a wedding quilt in lieu of a guestbook. Not that I've ever made anything using a sewing machine unless I was supervised by a pro seamstress. We'll see how that goes in a few months.


I'm always looking for a cookie/brownie that maximizes chocolate per bite while not getting dry or otherwise unpleasant. I've had this recipe on my "to bake" list for a couple of months now. Not sure how I only just made them. Yes, they do take the equivalent of two normal-sized bags (24 oz.) of chocolate chips per batch. I didn't try the recipe that calls for 42 oz. Patience, grasshopper.


Chocolate Chubbie's
adapted from Sarabeth's Bakery

• 1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (or 9 oz. bittersweet + 3 oz. unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 12 oz. (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (or with half pecans)

1. Position racks in center and top third of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Put the butter in a metal bowl and melt over the water. Add 12 oz. of chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes to cool.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a little bowl.
   
4. Whip the eggs with your fancy mixer or whisk until foamy. Add sugar and vanilla and whip for 3 more minutes until very thick and pale yellow. Beat in the lukewarm chocolate mixture. Gradually stir in the flour mixture by hand. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips and nuts. Dough will be softer than most cookie dough.
   
5. Scoop batter by 2 Tbsp-fulls onto pans, placing them 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake, switching positions halfway through, for 17-20 minutes, until the edges are set. Don't overbake them (though the batch I overbaked was delicious once you gummed them a bit. . .). Cool completely before storing.
   

Oops. The cookie that broke obviously needs to be culled from the pack.

Changes

Hi there,

I wanted to let you all know that I'm not renewing my breadsandthreads.com domain, but this blog will still be accessible at breadsandthreads.blogspot.com. And I now have yet another blog. Matt and I are getting married this summer, and we started a blog about our wedding plans, which we hope to continue after we're married to keep everyone up to date on our lives. It's at Haggerling. I will still post recipes to this blog.

We had an amusing experience at Whole Foods yesterday. Boulder is funny. We were getting a sample of bread, and the lady behind us said "Does this have yeast in it?" Matt and I both looked at her like she was crazy. The woman giving samples checked the ingredients: wheat flour, salt, sourdough starter. . . No yeast. Matt felt the need to clarify that sourdough starter has yeast, and that is indeed why the bread is not a brick. The woman who asked felt the need to inform us that people have been using sourdough starters for centuries and seemed satisfied that there was no yeast in the bread. Really?

Fun with Dad in Denver

Sometimes people in Colorado are surprised that I am dedicated to moving home to Minnesota after finishing this dumb degree. Sure, Colorado is amazing, and I very very blessed to have the opportunity to live here for a few years. But Minnesota is home. Or more accurately, Minnesota is family. Almost my entire extended family lives in the Twin Cities area. And most importantly, my parents and siblings are there. Probably for good. We're a bunch of homebodies.

I am very lucky in that my family members come to visit Colorado pretty often. Conferences, ski time, and mountain time are all prime chances for visits. For example, my dad was in Denver this weekend for a conference, and my mom is here next weekend.


Dad and I went out in Denver for the afternoon yesterday. We visited the Denver Art Museum, which is in an awesome, castle-like building. They had a pretty cool Asian exhibit, and a Western American section, which I've never seen before. I also had my first Tattered Cover experience (awesome local bookstore). Went out at to the Corner Office and got a bowl of fried, salted peppers for an appetizer. And holy crap, my phone camera has a flash. . . This picture was after we had eaten about 1/3 of them. They were so addicting.


Dad ordered the signature chicken and waffles, and we both had a difficult time processing the maple syrup + chicken combo, but it was delicious. Even more delicious was my fresh tagliatelle with bolognese. So good in fact, that I scarfed it down before taking a picture. While walking about earlier, we saw a Johnny Rocket's, and decided after dinner that we needed a milkshake. Milkshakes!

And the best part of being a milkshake is that when you get a milkshake, you get TWO MILKSHAKES.

Halloween the fun way

Halloween was way more awesome when we were little. You got to dress up in order to walk around outside and get candy. These days, it seems like people dress up in order to go into cramped indoor places with loud music full in order to get beer and hang out with drunk people. Total lose. Matt and I spent yesterday in our jammies making deliciously seasonal soup and playing computer games and reading Winnie-the-Pooh (ok, that was just me). Hard to think of a better way to spend a day/evening.



The deal with this recipe is you get to make your own strudel dough i.e. phyllo dough. Phyllo has always been one of those mysterious ingredients that seemed impossible to make on your own. Not so. Haha

Apple Strudel

For the filling:

• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 6 Tbsp toasted bread crumbs
• Rind of 1 lemon
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 8 cups finely chopped apples (~6 apples)

1. Combine ingredients.

For the dough:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 tsp vinegar
  
• 2 tsp melted butter

1. Combine ingredients and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is silky, adjusting water/flour content as needed.
   
2. Brush the surface of the dough with melted butter and roll as thin as possible.
   
3. Stretch the dough being careful not to tear it. If it tears easily, it probably needs more kneading. The dough should stretch an unbelievable amount, to about a square yard.
4. Cut the edges off of the dough, as they will be think and bulgy.

For assembly:

• 6 Tbsp melted butter

1. brush the dough with melted butter and place filling is a log on one end. Carefully roll the strudel, making sure that the ends are covered with dough. It's ok if the dough rips, as you'll have a lot of layers. Brush the rolled strudel with more melted butter and bake for 20 minutes at 400F, then at 10 350F for 10 minutes.
   

adventures in chai

I have a strange relationship with tea. Namely, I'm an Asian girl who doesn't like tea. Sometimes, I'm curled up on the couch with a book when the weather is yucky, and I think. . . hey, some tea would be nice. And it never is. I do like sweet milk tea though. When in Nepal or India, I always was excited for tea when I visited someone. Since moving to Boulder, I have become a major fan of Bhakti Chai, which is a local type of chai that is sold in a lot of coffee shops around. It is wonderfully spicy and gingery. (Yes, I know the predominant flavor in chai is supposed to be cardamom, not ginger. But I don't like cardamom.) I've been a little worried about being disappointed with chai for the rest of my life. So I tried making it at home. I plan to use even more ginger next time.

Bhakti Chai Concentrate Imitation

• 4 cups water
• 5 black tea bags
• 4 inches fresh ginger, sliced (~1/2 inch diameter)
  
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 piece star anise
• 6 cardamom pods
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup crystallized ginger pieces, sliced.
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  

1. Put tea bags, sliced ginger, cinnamon, anise, cardamom, and pepper in a medium saucepan. Add water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 miunutes.
2. Meanwhile, oil your chefs knife and slice the crystallized ginger as thin as you can. Combine the crystallized ginger and sugar in a food processor and pulse until large pieces or ginger are broken up.
   
3. Turn off the heat and add the ginger-sugar mixture. After 5 minutes of steeping, remove the tea bags, and let the spices steep for another 30 minutes. Strain and store in the fridge.
   
4. Combine with equal parts milk and serve hot or cold.
   

Progress

This picture is a lot more exciting that it might look. This week was a big milestone in my PhD project, as I started my field project. I've been working on developing a new antimicrobial concrete coating and finally finished some samples to place in a manhole. Yay! It's something that's been stressing me out since May, and it feels really good to get things rolling.

We had a night on the town last night (Barnes and Noble and the Pearl Street Whole Foods). I should probably never be unattended in a bookstore, as I get way too excited about many things and disturb other patrons. Like illustrated books covering all of science. And crayons (not sure why they had crayons). And bookends.

Village Baker's Holiday Cranberry-Orange Bread
from A Passion for Baking

• 1/3 cup warm water
• 5 tsp rapid-rise yeast
• 4 to 5 cups flour
• 3/4 cups warm milk
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp orange oil (I used zest)
  
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries (I used dried)
• 3/4 cups minced chocolate chips

1. Dissolve yeast in water and let stand 2 minutes to dissolve. Add 1 cup flour and milk, butter, eggs, salt, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest. Add 3 cups of flour and knead, adding more flour as needed, for 10 minutes.
   
2. Form dough into a ball, oil, and let sit covered in bowl or on counter for 30 minutes to an hour until doubled.
3. Grease a 9-inch springform pan, and place it on a baking sheet.
   
4. Gently deflate dough and press into a rectangle. Dump cranberries and chocolate on top and fold into the dough. Let the dough rest 15 minutes and then shape into 12 balls. Arrange the balls in the pan. If you like lovely browning, brush with a whisked egg. Cover with plastic wrap and proof 45-60 minutes.
5. Prehead oven to 350F. Bake bread until browned, 40-50 minutes. Cool.
   

mmm delicious.

More Pumpkings!

The great pumpkin scare of 2010 and the general shortage on the east coast had some of us here in Boulder nervous about pumpkin supply. So when I saw canned pumpkin in a grocery store out of town last weekend, I went a little nuts. Turns out, cans have been appearing in local King Soopers this week. Scare averted. But we still had a large quantity of pumpking and a plethora of ideas of how to use it. So a couple of girl friends and I got together yesterday for a whirlwind pumpkin party.

Results: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, Iced Pumpkin Zucchini Bread, and Pumpkin Cookies with Maple Frosting. The only thing better than baking alone is baking with awesome friends. Friends who promote batter sampling.


In other news the chinook winds have picked up and it's crazy windy and chilly in town. Tomorrow is Ultimate Club Regionals and the forcast is not positive. It should feel like ultimate in Minnesota. I'm prepared with 5+ layers and a huge thermos ready to be filled with spiced cider.


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
adapted from Annie's Eats
Makes 24 muffins

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin puree (will need a big can)
• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 4 Tbsp cold butter

1. For filling, blend cream cheese and powdered sugar. Roll into a log with 1 1/2 inch diameter and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
2. Grease or line with muffin liners 24 muffin wells. Heat oven to 350F
3. Make the struesel: Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter in a small bowl and blend until combined.
   
4. For the muffins, mix dry ingredients (flour, spices, salt, and soda) together. Mix the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil in a separate bowl. Carefully fold the dry into the wet, being careful not to overmix.
   
5. Spoon about 1 Tbsp batter into each muffin well. Cut the cream cheese log into 24 equal pieces and place one in each well. Top the muffins with remaining batter. Sprinkle a little struesel on each muffin.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

My Favorite Month

Happy October. Matt and I went up to the mountains for a mini-vacation this weekend to catch the end of the turning of the aspen leaves. We had an awesome time hiking, biking, and mostly lazing around. Watching movies in the afternoon is one of my favorite activities because it means that you don't really have to be doing anything.

We had the last pickup for our farm share last week. It's been pretty fantastic and I have already signed up for next year. We'll miss our amazing tomatoes and potatoes. That is, after we work our way through our backlog (4 weeks of beautiful, small, colorful potatoes).

I made two loaves of brioche to leave at the mountain house for french toast throughout the ski season (Middle-class french toast = 1 stick butter per loaf). We made a preliminary round of Alton Brown's french toast (mmm half-and-half), which was very tasty, even for the girl who doesn't like french toast. We also made a batch of the baked brownie to freeze and bring to the ski hill. I'm looking forward to many 2pm brownie breaks on the lift. I separated them into edge and middle brownies, because then I can feed the edges to the crazies who like them. Here's how I dig into a pan of brownies:

Apples!

A room-sized work at MOMA

I went to New York this summer, and in my non-bloggingness, forgot to talk about it. I was visiting a good friend from high school/college/travelling abroad and it was my first time in the city (well, since I was 10). I spent a lot of time wandering about the midtown area. MOMA was amazing, as was the natural history museum. We got rush tickets to Memphis (which won best musical last year), which was excellent, especially at BOGO student prices. I love musicals.

Food highlights included Caracas arepa bar, a gyro from "the best" Halal cart, a bagel from H&H with salmon spread, a chocolate chip cookie from Levain (yum!), red bean ice cream from a cute place in Chinatown, and a Kosher Indian dinner that we cooked. Cooking kosher is hard. But kind of fun. For one night.

This guy is a pro dog-walker. Really.

I've been eyeing this apple "cake" recipe for several months. It's really a pie baked in a cake pan. But kind of a tart because it's open on top. I love that it takes 10 apples. I brought it to a pasta dinner for my frisbee team and it was rapidly consumed. On that note, I played frisbee at practice this week for the first time in 3 months. Wooooooo! My physical therapist says that my hamstring is almost totally normal again. Too bad I missed the end of this season, but I'm going to be raring and ready for next year.

Rougemont Apple Pastry Cake
adapted from A Passion for Baking

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold butter, in chunks
• 5 Tbsp ice water

• 10 large apples, cored and slices
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. For the pastry crust, mix flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until grainy. Add ice water and mix gently until just combined. The dough should be dry and shaggy, but should hold together when squished. Place into a bag and refrigerate for at least an hour.
   
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Brush a springform pan with melted butter and place on a baking sheet. Roll the dough into a circle and fit into the bottom and sides of the 10-inch springform.
   
3. Toss apples with sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Fill the crust with the apples (you can make them pretty if you like). Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake 60-75 minutes until apples are soft.
4. For vanilla sauce, mix melted butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour and cinnamon. Pour over the hot cake. Make sure you get the sauce into all the nooks and crannies. Bake another 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight before serving.

Happy (late) Mid-Autumn Festival

Moon cakes are the traditional treat passed around during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. They are also one of my favorite pastries. Matt got me a moon cake mold a couple of years ago, and I've made several batches. This recipe is the best yet. I like red bean paste filling, but I'm particularly fond of sweet red bean stuff. You can use other sweet fillings too. When I was in Beijing, my European friends took a couple of months to realize that the brownish stuff oozing out of the pastries in the window was bean paste and not chocolate. This was a serious disappointment for them, but not for me.

Forming the cake without mangling it is tricky.

Moon Cakes

• 2/3 cup corn syrup or simple syrup
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 can black or red sweet bean paste
• 1 egg
  

1. Mix the first 4 ingredients together to form a soft dough. Divide into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Flatten each ball into a circle using plenty of flour to keep it from sticking.
   
2. Place a tablespoon of into each dough circle and gently place into the moon cake mold. Close the dough over the filling and whack the mold to get the cake out.
   
3. Bake cakes for 15 minutes at 350F.
4. Brush with an egg wash made from one beaten egg with 1 Tbsp water and bake another 15 minutes until golden.