What are you baking today? | 2014

[Addie]

Every time one of you posts that you made Cake Mix Cookies I think "I have to try those". Well, I tried them yesterday. Let's just say that Himself isn't much of a sweets/desserts eater, and yet he's managed to eat two cookies to every one of mine! Quick, easy, and yummy. They're a veritable trifecta of dieting disaster!

I sometimes make the Betty Crocker cookie mix peanut butter ones. A favorite of the family. Cookies don't last long around here. If I tell just one of the kids I made cookies, by nightfall, gone. Every last one. My daughter sends her husband to get her share, and the two boys clean up the rest. Cookies and ice cream. Good Grief! What a bunch of hungry horrors I have. Who is going to make the cookies when I am gone?

 

[biscotto]

Apple Oatmeal BarsEasy Apple Oatmeal Bars Recipe - Health News and Views - Health.com


They were Ok, nothing special.

 

[Addie]

For the past year I was lucky if I wanted to just cook for the sake of feeding myself. But the cool weather is here and that autumn crisp air is making my oven scream to be utilized. Blueberry pie sounds just about right now.

It is that time of year again. They will be having the National Donation to Your Local Food Bank and the mail carriers will be picking all the bags of canned goods up. Our mail carriers here in Eastie, will be dropping them off at the church. That means plenty of pumpkin for me. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies. Even pumpkin cheesecake! It seems like nobody wants to bother cooking with pumpkin, so the church gives all the cans of donated pumpkin to me. I don't even have to ask. They make the delivery right to my door. Ah yes, my baking juices are running again.

 

[Andy M.]

I'll be making a quick and easy chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache topping to take to my sister's for dinner tonight.

 

[Addie]

I'll be making a quick and easy chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache topping to take to my sister's for dinner tonight.

I am coming with you. I won't be long. I just have to take a shower, do my hair, decide what I am going to wear and iron it, on second thought, never mind. Just go without me.

 

[Andy M.]

I made an apple galette today. First time. It was OK.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

It will probably be delicious next time Andy. I've made a galette three times. First time was wonderful! Next two? Meh. Haven't bothered since. Good luck next time!

 

[GotGarlic]

Not sure how you made the galette, but I add cinnamon and vanilla extract to the filling and sprinkle turbinado sugar on the egg-washed crust. We liked it a lot. Now that it's getting cooler, I want to do more baking.

 

[Andy M.]

Not sure how you made the galette, but I add cinnamon and vanilla extract to the filling and sprinkle turbinado sugar on the egg-washed crust. We liked it a lot. Now that it's getting cooler, I want to do more baking.

This is the recipe I used.

Country Apple Galette Recipe - Jacques Pépin | Food & Wine

I'll try it again. I thought of sprinkling sugar on the crust when it was too late.

 

[licia]

I wish my grocery store stocked the very pretty crystal sugar that is sometimes put on pastry. I see it on their baked goods but don't find it in the bakery aisle.

 

[bakechef]

I wish my grocery store stocked the very pretty crystal sugar that is sometimes put on pastry. I see it on their baked goods but don't find it in the bakery aisle.

You can get sanding sugar in small amounts in the cake and cookie decorating section of Michael's and AC Moore craft stores. They even carry the large crystal Sparkling sugar.

I bet if you asked the bakery for some, they sell it to you, or even give you a small amount.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

This is the recipe I used.

Country Apple Galette Recipe - Jacques Pépin | Food & Wine

I'll try it again. I thought of sprinkling sugar on the crust when it was too late.

For comparison, this is what I used. Apple and Calvados Tart Recipe | Epicurious.com along with this pastry recipe: All-Butter Pastry Dough Recipe | Epicurious.com
While the filling was great all three times, the pasty was best the first time. That's when I sprang for the high-end butter Plugra. Since it costs as much as a pound for a half-pound package, I tried two different butters the second and third times. Not as good. What brand of butter do you use for rich pastry Andy and GG?

 

[Andy M.]

Typically, for a pie crust, I use 50/50 butter and shortening.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

For most pies I go to my usual Good Housekeeping all-shortening one, but the galette recipe included an all-butter. I'll have to try the half-and-half way next time.

 

[GotGarlic]

I use Pillsbury's. I should try making my own pie crust some day.

 

[Addie]

I always try to keep a packaged pie crust on hand. This month I went to MB and the only brand they carried was Pillsbury. They also carry a local one, but they still hadn't finished stocking all their shelves after the walkout. Hopefully, they will have the one I like next month. I really don't care for Pillsbury. It just doesn't have any flavor. There is no salt in it and it taste so flat. So now when I have to get it, I sprinkle a light layer of salt on it before I put it in the pie dish.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I wish my grocery store stocked the very pretty crystal sugar that is sometimes put on pastry. I see it on their baked goods but don't find it in the bakery aisle.

Ask at the bakery, some managers are very good about selling you some of their items they use.

 

[msmofet]

Typically, for a pie crust, I use 50/50 butter and shortening.

I used to do butter and shortening but now I use lard and butter. I keep butter and lard in the freezer, when I want to use it I grate it on my micro plane into the flour. Much better. I also put some wheat germ and salt in the crust.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

msmofet, I've looked to buy lard because I remember how flaky my great aunt's pie crusts were. All the ready-to-use lards in the grocery stores have ingredients that are hard to pronounce. No-go, unless I find it in one of the many ethnic grocers in the general area. I don't bake enough to go through the fuss of rendering my own. At least that long-ago function my GA performed seemed to be a fuss.

I make from-scratch buttermilk biscuits for the first time today. I book-marked three recipes to try; this one actually looked the least-promising. If THIS one turned out so good, I can hardly wait to try the other two. They were flat, but they were good.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

My husband's birthday cake