Blueberry Tart

Today, as promised to my husband, I made him a Blueberry Tart. My inspiration was from the Joy of Cooking (75th edition) book, but I changed some ingredients around. I made a chocolate cheesecake on sunday but it was eaten before I had a chance to take pictures of it so that will have to wait again.

Let's get started!

The dough:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks) softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the flour and sugar until mixed. Add the softened butter until the dough resembles little crumbs of dough (about 2 minutes of mixing by electric mixer). Place the dough into a tart pan and spread it out to the sides and up the sides of the pan. Poke holes in the dough so that steam may escape during baking. Bake the pan at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool after baking. Turn your oven down to 325 degrees F.

The filling:

2 cups fresh blueberries (you can used thawed drained blueberries too)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cream cheese, cut into pieces

In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until combined. Place the sugar and cream with the eggs. Add the cream cheese and combine. Finally, add the blueberries. Place the filling into the prepared tart pan. Do not overfill. Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour. Watch your crust!! It could start to burn towards the end. Also, watch the top of your tart as it might burn as well. If that is the case, simply bake for 45 to 50 minutes instead of the 1 hour. Let cool before serving and enjoy with some vanilla ice cream.

Verdict:

I think I should have used the sour cream like the original recipe asked. I did not have any sour cream and had cream cheese instead. It made the tart have a creamy filling but it wasn't sweet like I expected it to be. I would like to have put fresh blueberries on top if I had some. That is an option for the future. The crust was thick around the edges, so it made it a little hard to cut through. All in all, my husband gave it a 9. I, myself, give it a 7. I was a little disappointed with the way it looked in the end, but that's something else to strive for with round 2. Enjoy!

-Joanna

Oatmeal Banana Bread

When you're bored, baking is therapeutic. Well, at least for me it is.

So, to cure my boredom, I made Oatmeal Banana Bread. The recipe I used was a variation from the famous Joy of Cooking cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cups sugar

3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 large ( or 2 small) eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 bananas)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-1/2 by 4-1/2 inch loaf pan.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, and salt.

In a bowl of an electric mixer (or a handheld one), cream the butter and sugar until lighter in color. Then, add the beaten eggs, and after incorporated, ass the mashed bananas. Mix well.

Finally, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, adding the next part after the incorporation of the previous part. Do not over beat!

Transfer the batter into the greased pan and into the middle rack of the oven.

Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then depan, and cool completely before slicing.

Verdict:

My husband gave this bread an 8 out of 10 points, but then again he hadn't had too many banana breads thus far. I would say that the crumb was soft, not hard, but still slightly crumbly, as all breads are. The softness of the bread made it appealing to the taste buds and not too dry. The banana flavor was distinct in the bread, which I loved. I hate banana breads that don't even taste like bananas. The top browned perfectly to the point where it gave that slightly crunch as you bit into it. It wasn't very sweet, but still slightly sweet enough from the sugar and the bananas in the batter. Finally, the oatmeal it always a good thing!

I liked this recipe overall. I would most likely change the all-purpose flour to whole wheat flour in the future. I would also make this recipe vegan at one point by using soy margarine instead of butter and substituting the eggs or just getting rid of them all together, which in turn would make it low-fat, but wouldn't give it the nice rise that the bread had.

Ah, the versatility of eggs.

I hoped you enjoyed this recipe and will make it in the future. The Joy of Cooking version uses lemon zest and omits the oatmeal. I love oatmeal, but if you don't omit it in the batter. Enjoy! Let me know how yours turns out!

Also, if you have any requests for recipes, comment, please!

-Joanna

S'more Brownies

Cupcakes are coming soon, but not quite yet.

I did this recipe for my husband when he wanted some brownies. Now, I didn't want to go the traditional way, and decided to look for a recipe that spiced it up. What I found was a recipe by Food Network's Kitchens. The picture on their website it much prettier than mine, but I could not get around the stickiness of those marshmallows, which ruined a lot of the shots!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• pinch of fine salt

Brownie:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter (+2 tablespoons if needed extra for crumb bottom, see recipe)
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (or 4 oz unsweetened chocolate morsels)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Topping:

• 4 cups large marshmallows

Put an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 by-8-inch square baking pan with foil so that it can hang over the edges by 1 inch. This will help you lift the brownie goodness out of the baking pan.

Next, make the crust. Butter the foil with some of the melted butter lightly. Stir the rest of the butter together with the crumbs, sugar, and salt in a bowl and combine well. Make sure that the crumbs stick together lightly so that they may be able to be pressed into the pan bottom. If you think you need more butter, add 2 more tablespoons of melted butter, and mix. Press the crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 20 minutes.

While the crumb is baking, place the butter and chocolate in a medium microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave for 1.45 minutes. Stir to melt. If the chocolate is not completely melted, place in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir gently to incorporate the melted butter and chocolate into a homogenous mixture. Stir the light brown and white sugars, vanilla and salt into the melted chocolate. Add the eggs and beat to make a batter. Add the flour and stir until just incorporated. Do not over-beat.

When your crumb bottom is done, pour the batter into the pan. Bake until the top is crispy and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and carefully position a rack about 6 inches from the broiler and preheat on low. Layer marshmallows across the top and toast under the broiler until golden, (keep an eye on it, it can go quick), about 2 minutes. Cool on a rack, gently removing the brownies from the pan using the aluminum flaps. Carefully separate any marshmallow from the foil and fold away. Cut into 12 (2-inch) squares.

(Copyright 2007 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved)

I modified the recipe from the original just a bit, but not by much. Those Food Network Kitchen know how to put a twist on brownies.

Review: The brownies came out great! They were a bit on the sweet side, but I think that was because I used semi-sweet morsels rather than unsweetened. The marshmallows came out very sticky, so it was hard to cut through for nice pieces, because it would pull and stick to the other marshmallows, ruining the "prettiness" of it all, but hey, it's brownies. My batter did not rise as much as I would have liked to be have risen. But, overall. I loved this recipe. I would probably change a few of the ingredients next time. Maybe change the marshmallows to either smaller marshmallows or that marshmallows whipped topping, but don't put it under the broiler. I would also like to try it with whole wheat flour. Enjoy!

Blackberry Coffee Cake

So, I decided to cheat and bake before finals as a way to relax. I know I was supposed to make cupcakes but those take too long and I didn't have much time today. Cupcakes on monday or tuesday.

Not the prettiest thing in the world, but still looks good!

For the coffee cake, I decided to tweak the recipe because I didn't have blueberry filling, but it worked out just the same. I've made this recipe before for a Pot-Luck before but with fresh blueberries and raspberry topping. This recipe was from my KitchenAid cookbook: Great Baking and More.

Recipe:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (sifted)

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cups (1&1/2 sticks) butter, chilled, and cup into small pieces

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

18 oz (2 1/4 cups) blackberries

Optional:

• instead of milk, you can use buttermilk
• add macadamia nuts to the crumbly topping
• use margarine instead of butter
• use 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1 3/4 cups all purpose. I didn't have whole wheat today so I used all all-purpose.
• any fruit topping you want, you can add any fruit you want and/or pie filling
• for the crumb topping, use 3/4 cup of the reserve flour, not 1/2 cup like the recipe says. I felt that it wasn't enough. Or just make a little more.

Instructions:

Put in the all-purpose flour, brown sugar, and butter in a bowl of an electric mixer. Using the flat beater attachment, turn the speed to stir (low) and mix until the butter is about the size of peas, which is about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl. Remove 1/2 cup (see optional above) of the flour mixture and set aside to be used as a crumb topping. Next, add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the flour mixture. Turn the speed to stir (low), and mix for 30 seconds. Add the milk and the egg. Continue to mix on stir (low) just until moistened, about 30 seconds. Don't over-beat! (If you over-beat, there will be too much gluten formation and the cake will come out tougher.)

Spoon the batter into a greased 13x9x2-inch baking dish. (Remember, it you're using a glass container, lower the oven temperature down by 4 degrees. Glass bakes things faster than aluminum pans.) Drop filling by tablespoons in top of batter. Swirl the filling into the batter. Sprinkle the top with the crumb topping of the reserved flour mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious (sorry, Alton).

Nutritional Facts:

Now for the nutritional assessment! Those of you who rather not know how much fat and calories is in the piece of blackberry coffee cake, I do not suggest you read the next portion!

Serving Size: 1/16 of a cake *see note below

Calories: 242 calories

Protein: 3 grams

Carbohydrate: 29 grams

Fat: 13 grams

Cholesterol: 37 milligrams

Sodium: 198 milligrams

Overall, I really liked this coffee cake. It was the right balance of sweetness and tart from the berries. It was slightly moist, crumbly, but not too dry. What I probably would change for next time, though, is the height of the cake. It was smaller than I anticipated, so maybe tweaking the recipe so that the chemical balance of the ingredients create a higher rising cake. I would definitely make this coffee cake again, and perhaps even use a crumb cake topping instead of just the flour mixture to give it more crunch to the top. The blackberries made the top squishy, which, I thought, was good anyway. A little crunch would have been nice.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this recipe and will try to make it. Feel free to comment with questions or advice. It's a basic coffee cake recipe. I've made ones before with sour cream or cream cheese added too. Gotta love food science. Thanks for reading!

-Joanna

*Note about serving size. A serving size means that all of the nutritional information listed corresponds to the 1/16 piece of cake that you made. It doesn't apply to the entire cake. Multiply the grams and calories by 16, and then see how many calories and grams there are in the entire cake. Whenever you see serving size, be cautious of the things that are in the product. This applies to all food nutritional labels that are used in the USA. They all have serving sizes.

Sneak Peak!

College has me busy with finals, but don't worry, new recipes are on the way after May 17th. My next recipe will be a white cupcakes per request of Amelia. I hope this will be the "great" recipe she's looking for. 'Til then, happy experimental baking!

-Joanna

Chocolate Cupcakes Version #1

Easy enough, right? It takes the right recipe to get the perfect chocol

ate cupcakes. They have to be moist, not too crumbly, not too hard, but just the right texture and consistency. This recipe wasn't it.

Recipe - courtesy of Baking by Love Food.

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup superfine sugar

1 1/4 cup self-rising flour

2 eggs

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1 oz semisweet chocolate, melted

confectioners sugar

Frosting:

4 oz cream cheese

4 oz butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Frosts 20 cupcakes.

Pros:

• Good chocolaty flavor.

Cons:

• Batter was too thick.
• Too crumbly - I had to keep my hand under the wrapper to keep the crumbs from falling onto the ground.
• Didn't rise as well as they should have. I did fill the cups 3/4 of the way up, but still, hardly a rise.
• Frosting was too sweet. - Maybe less powdered sugar?
• Frosting was too soft. - Need to find a new recipe for cream cheese frosting. This wasn't it either.

Next time, I would probably not use this recipe. If you decide to make these cupcakes, let me know how yours come out!

*April 25, 201o

Introduction

Hi there.

I decided to start a blog because it seems like every time I make a recipe from one of my many baking books, I forget what I thought of it or what I wanted to change about it.

So, here is the beginning.

The beginning of a recipe journal that will hopefully aid in developing my own recipes and improving others through first person experience. I will also try to post pictures of the baked goodies. This will also give you, the reader, an opportunity to share your comments and your wisdoms of food science or food speciality.

Feel free to comment. Both good and bad reviews and/or advice welcome, especially if you've recreated my posted recipe - *see note below*

Thank you, and Enjoy!

*Special Note*

Some of these recipes may have allergies/allergy ingredients associated with them. Try at your own risk! I am not responsible for anyone getting sick or having an allergic reaction from trying a recipe.