2018 Edition - What are you baking?

[bethzaring]

I got a hankering for chocolate cupcakes today. I always use high altitude recipes for baking!

 

[Addie]

Tomorrow is my baking day. Two wreath cakes and one apple pie. Heaven forbid there should be no apple pie on a holiday.

 

[salt and pepper]

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[Andy M.]

Great looking cheesecake, Joey. Blueberry topping is my favorite.

 

[JustJoel]

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So when are you gonna be opening your cheesecake shop? Will you be doing shipping?

 

[pepperhead212]

I baked a batch of sourdough rye today, which I started 4 days ago. Usually it would only be 2-2 1/2 days, but I had to refresh some really old starter, but fortunately, the firm starter will live just about forever, and come back quickly. Tomorrow will be my cookie day (dough is all made up), so I figure I'll have the bread on hand to make some sandwiches on, to feed our appetites quickly and simply.

 

[pepperhead212]

I baked a light load of cookies today - only about 650! lol I used to bake a lot more - 3-4,000+ - but not as many people to give them to any longer, and not as many around to help me with them.

I first loaded up 6 full sheets, while heating the oven up, which takes a while.
2018-12-23_10-47-15 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This was the first batch, unloaded from the oven:
IMG_20181223_201747686 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The smaller of my two "cookie scoops". I use whichever will slide under 2 or 3 rows of cookies. Makes it much faster!
IMG_20181223_201950514 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sesame, and a few barley cookies on a cooling rack:
IMG_20181223_203732630 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This was the last of what I baked - 2 recipes of habanero gingersnaps. I used a mix of 2 parts chocolate habaneros and 1 part aji dulce, so that I could use more, for more flavor, and not get it too hot.
IMG_20181223_215955844 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

All of these were icebox, or slice and bake cookies - Barley (substituting rolled barley for oatmeal), sesame, chocolate sables, Tennessee Icebox (a butter cookie with light brown sugar), and the habanero gingersnaps.

 

[pepperhead212]

More baking today - a requested one, the only one I have to take to the dinner tomorrow! I'll still take a bunch of those cookies from above, even though they don't "want any".

Caramel sea-salt brownies, before baking:
Caramel sea-salt brownies, before baking by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Baked:
Caramel sea-salt brownies, baked by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The first year that I made these, over 3/4 of the tray was eaten before the dinner. After that, I left them in my car until after dinner!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Pumpkin pie for Christmas dessert. I just wasn't in the mood for making crust, but I soldiered on and mixed one up on Christmas eve. Let it rest in the fridge overnight. After I got it into the pie dish, edge all up above the rim of the plate and perfectly fluted, I decided to blind bake it for a bit. Last time I blind baked a crust for quiche, the bottom was still doughy. Maybe because I used foil and pie weights? Got Garlic said she doesn't use weights, justs docks the crust. So that's what I did this time. Um, GG, was I supposed to do something with the sides of the crust before putting it into the oven? I didn't have time/room to freeze it, but it had just come from the fridge only 5-10 minutes earlier. Anyway, the pretty pinched edge was slumped all the way to the bottom, creating a perfect ruffle around my puffed-up-anyway bottom part of the crust. After pushing and patting and encouraging the crust to rise up the sides a bit, I poured in as much filling as I could fit, right up to the bottom edge of the flute. Baked the extra as pumpkin guts in a Pyrex casserole dish. Lets just say the crust was better than my early attempts, and not as bad as Pillsbury pastry sticks, but still left much to be desired (like a flaky crust). The filling was good! And the whipped cream covered all of the sins.

 

[Addie]

Oh dear, CG. The most important time of the year that you want everything to be perfect. The main thing is that everyone enjoyed it.

I do not like crust along with bread. So I am one of those folks who buy that crust already made. My Market Basket carries a premade crust with a Spanish name. That is the one I always buy. It is cheaper and does taste better. I used to try to make my own crust, but no matter what recipe I used, it was always a failure. So I gave up. Why drive myself crazy. I have enough problems in like to be adding another one.

I am glad though that you were able to rescue the crust enough to finish your delicious pie. Happy Holiday Season to you and yours.

 

[GotGarlic]

CG, I'm sorry your pie crust didn't work out I've only made homemade crust twice and I didn't have that problem. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it got too warm while you were crimping it. I'm glad you were able to save it.

 

[GotGarlic]

I made a couple of baguette-style loaves from no-knead bread dough a couple of days ago. This batch had aged for over a week, so they have great flavor. I think toasted slices of one to use to sop up the garlicky, lemony wine butter from the Moules Marinières we had yesterday.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I'm not doing a lot of baking here in Ohio, but I did manage to find a few bread ingredients that I haven't been able to locate back home. Also got me a big bag of bread flour. At least I'll have something to look forward to when we return to MA.

We also bought several cheeses that either aren't in MA or at least easy to find - longhorn, Guggisberg baby Swiss, farmer's, and brick. And snack foods. Couldn't pass up Christmas colored malted milk balls and chocolate covered Christmas tree pretzels at half price.