A Lazy Saturday

Two Saturdays ago my little family needed some outside time so we grabbed some Passionfruit Teas from Starbucks and headed down to Lake Morton. We just layed in the grass, fed the birds and chatted. It was bliss.

I have pictures of me at this same lake when I was little. Love things like that.

My loves.

I love how she grips things with her feet. She must be part monkey.

Afterwards I took some photos of Autumn in her new headband! I absolutely love it. You can purchase one at PraireHen's etsy shop here.

Tres Leches Cake!

First of all, I'm so sorry it's been forever since I've blogged. I've been a little busy with some home updates (i.e. painting almost every wall in my home) and it's been taking up all of my time. Now that the painting is done I hope the blogging and baking can commence. That said, I made a not new- but one of my favorite desserts this week; Tres Leches Cake.

With the gloriousness of Mangos coming into season, I had to make this Weiland family favorite. I got this recipe from a Food Network Magazine and with a few tweaks, it's absolutely incredible.

Photograph by Con Poulos

Here's the official link to the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tres-leches-cake-with-mango-recipe/index.html

But I'll also insert my comments into the recipe here.

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil, for greasing
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups whole milk (I didn't have whole, so I used 1%. Whole is probably better, but mine turned out just fine)
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (Again, I didn't have this. I used all-purpose)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12-ounce can evaporated milk
• 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon dark rum (I used light rum because that's all I had. Again, turned out fine)
• 2 large ripe mangoes
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Ground cinnamon, for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with vegetable oil and line the bottom with parchment paper. (I never understood how to do this. I skipped the lining with parchment paper. If you can figure that part out, more power to you.)

Make the cake: Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer until pale and slightly thick, about 6 minutes. Slowly beat in the melted butter, then beat in the vanilla and 1/4 cup whole milk.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Sift the flour mixture over the egg mixture, then gently fold together with a rubber spatula to make a thick batter. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Run a knife along the edges to release the cake from the pan.

Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 2 cups whole milk, the evaporated milk, condensed milk and rum in a bowl. (Now, the first time I made this I followed the recipe exactly and I had way too much milk mixture. My cake would have floated away. This time I made 1/2 the mixture but it probably could have used a little more.) Pierce the warm cake all over with a fork, then pour the milk mixture gradually and evenly on top, letting the cake absorb the liquid until all is used. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

Before serving, make the topping: Peel, pit and dice the mangoes. (I used Honey Mangoes) Puree half the mangoes in a blender with 2 tablespoons sugar. Transfer to a bowl and fold in the remaining diced mango.In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar with a mixer until soft peaks form. Slice the cake; top each piece with the whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve the mango topping on the side

The cake is like a mixture between a cake and a custard - but don't let that throw you off. It's AMAZING. A big two thumbs up.

Give me sleep or give me death!

My daughter is almost 7 months old. Recently she's been waking up every 1-2 hours during the night. I tell myself these are precious times and that soon she will be sleeping through the night but can I also not want to kill myself when the night is a blurry up and down dance of feeding, bouncing, patting and changing? My friend Tiffany mentioned the MO, "Give me Sleep or Give me Death!" and I sarcastically adopt it as my evening mantra.

I really don't mind her getting up. Once, twice... even three times. I actually enjoy feeding her. But after the 5th feeding I start to think evil thoughts like, "Seriously? You can't STILL be hungry," and "I wonder if I just let her cry if I could fall asleep through the noise." Even though I'm slightly (ok, not-so-slightly) complaining about her getting up, I'm not really asking for advice. My husband and I don't believe in the cry-it-out method for several reasons and so we're willing to put up with waking up. I just do miss sleep and I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will get 8 solid, uninterrupted, glorious hours of sleep again.

It's funny what motherhood does to us women. So much changes. And if you would have told me any of that before I birthed my daughter I would have rolled my eyes. But it's true. I never thought I would be a huge advocate for not getting an epidural. I never thought I'd be for co-sleeping. (I honestly thought this was super weird and unhealthy). I never thought I'd be willing to sacrifice so much to avoid giving her formula. I'm not judging anyone that gets an epidural, doesn't co-sleep or formula feeds. I can understand doing all of those things. My decisions are personal. But if you're curious, I'll tell you why I've chosen the things I have.  I'm also incredibly grateful that I get to stay home and watch her grow. She changes daily and I'm so thankful that I don't have to miss all of those "firsts" and that she will grow up to know me so well, and vise versa.

I NEVER thought I'd be a stay-at-home mom either. And I do still work from my home, but my job as a mom takes way more time than I thought it would and my job-job is always on the back burner. In fact, my busy days that require me to work a lot are a love-hate scenario because I love what I do but I have realized I have less patience for Autumn. I end up getting frustrated with her faster and ignoring her more often, and I don't want to be an absent parent even if I am physically there.

I guess it's just funny as I reflect on the last 6 and a half months and think about what I thought motherhood would be like before Autumn was actually born. It's harder but more amazing than I thought it would or could ever be. I have to pray and lean on God a lot. It's scary that I'm partially responsible for this young little life.

And now for something less heavy and a little more sweet...

Strawberry Shortcakes!

This time of year is perfect for this delicious dessert. And it's super easy too.

Strawberries:
Slice and mix in about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar

Buttermilk Biscuits:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Buttermilk-Biscuits-232187

Whipping Cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4-1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
splash of vanilla

Combine and beat with an electric mixer or kitchenaid mixer until it forms stiff peaks. Delish!

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this but it was SO good. The biscuits had a hint of a salty taste that complimented the sweet perfectly. My husband said that we can't buy the premade shortcakes ever again because this was so much better.

Enjoy!

Plum Cakes

As soon as plums came into season I knew I wanted to try a new recipe; Plum Cakes. It sounded SO delicious. And I love plums so I knew I couldn't lose. The cake batter was a little complicated but it was an easy task for my KitchenAid mixer. I put the batter in little souffle cups and pressed half of a pitted plum into each one and put it in the oven. I had my doubts over how much the little cakes would rise but they did just fine. I decided to make some homemade whip cream to go with them (the easiest recipe ever. Take 1 cup heavy whipping cream and about 1/2 cup powdered sugar and beat with an electric beater until stiff peaks form). After tasting these cakes, both my husband and I said they didn't even need the plum. It was good but I didn't think they were worth the effort. I give them three stars.

I'm on Bloglovin'

Find me!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/2401016/muffintop?claim=hycz2ssbxj8">Follow my blog with bloglovin</a

I'm a compulsive baker.

I’ve been wanting to learn how to bake. Not just “follow the recipe on the chocolate chip bag” bake, but serious Cordon Bleu bake. I’ve been baking more and more this past year and I love figuring out how to do things that used to intimidate me; like bake with yeast, make a pie crust from scratch and not follow recipes to a T. I’ve also become a mom this past year and I have found a calm within baking. It makes me feel productive when I haven’t had time to do other things like take a shower or put on real pants that day.

So this is my blog. Hopefully it will be a journey of me becoming a real baker, be a release for my creative energy and a way to continue my education… with butter.

yum.

Crispy Cocoa Cookies

I got a new recipe book titled, “Baking with Julia” for Christmas and I would like to bake my way through it. Not to copy the Julie from the movie, Julie and Julia, but to honestly just learn how to bake. So for my first documented recipe (I made the Hungarian Shortbread for Christmas but didn’t take any photos) I chose Crispy Cocoa Cookies. I chose them for two reasons, one: I wanted to make a cookie and two: it was one of the only recipes in the book that I already had all of the ingredients for. Like I said before, I’m a compulsive baker.

So here goes…

Creaming the butter, sugar and cocoa…

Flour mixture…

Combining the two. This is where my daughter developed an unrational fear of the hand mixer (she’s four months old) so I had to stop and calm her down. It was either a fear of the mixer or a dislike for the cocoa smell. I refuse to believe it was the latter.

I didn’t have milk that the recipe called for so I had to use heavy whipping cream. I figured it could only make the cookies better. More fat = better taste, right?

Rolling out the dough. I didn’t have a circle cookie cutter, like the recipe called for so I used a heart one that was my great-grandmothers. She said to cook them for 10-12 minutes. I always air on the side of undercooking with cookies because I like them softer. I hate when the bottom burns. I found that 9 1/2 – 10 minutes was perfect for these guys. Because they are SO thin, it was easy to over-bake them.

And… the finished product:

These little cookies are delish! They taste so light that you can eat about ten before realizing that you need to stop. Definitely a do-over. YUM.

Recipe: Crispy Cocoa Cookies from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, pages 312-313

Calzones!

So this week I tried something I’ve never done. I made my own pizza dough. It was interesting. Throughout the whole process I was pretty cynical and kept thinking, “this isn’t going to work. there’s no way this is going to work. we’re going to have to go eat at McDonald’s.” But actually it wasn’t a disaster… here’s how the process went…

On Monday I started the dough. I had to mix the yeast and flour together and let it “rest” for 8 hours.

Then in the morning I added the rest of the ingredients. It said to add 2.5-3.5 cups more of flour. I added about 4 cups and it was still SUPER moist and sticky. I had to add even more and ran out of flour. I was pretty nervous that it took so much and was convinced I had screwed it up from the start.

This was my baking/cooking partner for the day. Isn’t she cute?

After the dough rested and rose, this is what it looked like:

Yeah. So you can see where I was doubting myself. On to the calzones!

Sautéing mushrooms with olive oil and garlic and spinach in the other pan.

It always looks like so much spinach but it cooks down so much.

I rolled out the dough and put it on the calzone mold. Now I’m supposed to be able to just fill this, fold the mold and press it together and then transfer it to the stone to cook. I did that. and this happened: (forgive the blurry photo)

*&(@ calzone mold. From then on I made the dough a little thicker and pre-folded it myself. I used the mold to just seal the edges of the calzone. Then I made the sauce.

I just make my own sauce. It’s super easy. A can of each of these, a few  spices, simmer & done. Kind of in-between jarred sauce and completely homemade.

After baking for 12 minutes at 500 degrees, they were done.

I was actually pretty surprised; they were great! I definitely didn’t think making the dough from scratch was worth it, but I’m glad I know HOW to do it and that it came out without us having to make a late dinner trip for fast food. I think next time I make calzones I’ll do a different filling with a little more cheese too, although this one was tasty.

Yay for another baking triumph!

Tomorrow I’m going to try to make a danish. Results to come!

Danish Braid (a la Julia Child)

This week while I was up for trying new dough recipes, I made a danish pastry. The picture in the book looked so beautiful that I had to try my own. The dough itself was easier than the calzone dough and while it had to rest in the fridge, I basically just had to add all of the ingredients together and wait.

So when I was done waiting, I made the confectioners cream and jam for the inside.

The jam was super easy. It was basically just fruit (I used strawberries and blueberries), sugar and lemon juice. The recipe told me to cook it in the microwave, which I highly doubt is from the mouth of Julia Child, but nonetheless, it came out great and was super easy.

Then I rolled the dough out and put the jam in the middle and topped it with the cream.

Then I cut slits down the sides and folded them over the filling alternately to make a braid.

Brushed the top with egg whites and sprinkled some sugar and almonds on top…

And it was ready for the oven. I have to admit I was feeling pretty good about myself here! Call Martha Stewart!

Oh Heaven!

I can say without hesitation this is the best pastry I’ve ever made. It even tops my berry pie. The almonds add a great dimension to it and the berry jam is soooo delish. Jason and I have consumed it in entirety in two days. Needless to say, I will be making that again!

Recipe: Danish Braid from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, Page 205