bake 52: week 29- Lattice Top Peach Pie

This week we made Lattice Top Peach Pie.  I ended up making two, and the first one browned on the top a bit faster that I would have liked.  I thought I would solve that by covering the pie with foil, but then I forgot to take the darn stuff off and the pie was so soggy!  The book warned us that the lattice top wasn't just for looks- it let the juiced evaporate correctly for a firm pie.  Oops.  I kind of bombed this week.  But it was tasty!  :)
Visit Talesha here: http://otherthingsnice.blogspot.com/2012/07/bake-52-week-29.html for the recipe!

bake52: week 27- Cinnamon Rolls!

Valerie was our hostess this week and she chose cinnamon rolls!  I LOVED these and they were a hit with the family, as well.  I have a regular cinnamon roll recipe that I make- it's our tradition that we have homemade cinnamon rolls the morning of Saturday General Conferences- and so I wondered how this would be different.  

It came together quickly:

And baked up beautifully:

DELISH!  These seemed a bit denser than our traditional recipe but I really loved the texture.  I did have to add about 4 tablespoons extra flour to get the dough to come together, which seemed like a lot!  I can't ever tell if that is just normal in baking because of our elevation or if I am doing something that makes dough runny. :)  I also had to bake it a bit longer than the recipe suggested, but I have noticed my oven just runs a little on the slow side in every recipe.  All around- a great pick!

Visit Valerie for the recipe!  

bake52: week 27-- Fresh Fruit Tart

This week for bake52 Amanda was our hostess and we made a Fresh Fruit Tart!  It was yummy, and I loved heading out to my backyard to pick fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries!  I felt like a farm mama.  Loved it.  

 Making the crust-

 Making the pastry cream-

 Baking my tart crust- do I need another package of pie weights or what? Just one isn't cutting it! :)

 Yum!  My girls were so impressed, they thought it was so pretty!!

Great pick, Amanda!  Visit her here for the recipe!

bake 52: week 26-- Black & White Cookies

Janet was our host this week and we made Black & White cookies.  

The cookies were SO soft-- the cake flour really made them wonderful.  We loved the consistency.  The lemon threw me off- I am just not expecting it with a chocolate frosting.  It had grown on me by the time I'd finished my cookie, though!!

{cooling cookies}

{all done!}

Such a nice looking cookie! 

Visit Janet here for the recipe!

http://wannaberedheadbaker.blogspot.com/2012/06/bake-52-week-26-black-and-white-cookies.html 

bake 52: week 25-- Southern Style Cornbread!

Hello everyone!  I am so excited to be hosting bake52 again this week.  

As I was looking over the recipes in our book, one stuck out to me: Southern-Style Cornbread!  I was born in south Georgia and all of my family, with the exception of my parents, still live down there.  Ryan and I have lived in Utah and Arkansas during our married life and are settled down back in Utah.  I do love the south, though-- especially the FOOD!  :)  My parents will be retiring in a few years and moving back to Georgia, and at that point we will be the only ones in my family who don't live in there.   I am sure I will find lots of reasons to make cornbread and pretend like we are in the south!  

I love cornbread, and am so surprised every time I order it here in Utah-- it is served sweet and with a heavy dose of flour in it, making it resemble more of a cake than what I was used to being called cornbread!  It's fun to me to see how different regions seem to interpret a recipe.  I prefer a savory cornbread to a sweet one.  

I saw this recipe didn't have flour or sugar in it, and got excited.  I was hoping this would be more like real, savory, southern cornbread, and I was excited to find out!  

Here are the ingredients assembled:  

  You get your skillet warming in the oven and toast the yellow cornmeal on a baking sheet:

 Then you soak the toasted cornmeal in buttermilk:

 And add oil to your frying pan until it starts to smoke:

 At that point, you add your butter to the hot oil until it is melted.

I have to tell you-- while this was going on, my ten year old had some of the neighborhood boys over, and they were eating pie at the kitchen bar while I was doing this step.  One of the boys remarked, "I don't think I've ever seen my mom fry butter before!"  Which really cracked me up.  So excited to go down in neighborhood history as the crazy lady who fries butter!!  Ben went on to explain that I was in a baking group for really good bakers that his aunt put together and we test recipes for new cookbooks.  {Ha- did you know that was what you were up to, ladies??}  He then said the group was called Bake51.  I told him it was actually Bake52, and the boys all laughed like that was the funniest thing ever.  I guess it sounded really random to them and so they made up other names we could use for our group- my favorite was Moms96a.  Apparently, the ten year old male crowd is baffled by what we are working on this year!!  :)

Anyway, you fry up your butter:  ;)

 Whisk it into the cornmeal mixture with the rest of your dry ingredients and two eggs:

 And transfer it back into your frying pan:

 Bake it in the oven:

 AND ta-da!  You have cornbread.

 Cool in the skillet, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

In the end, it wasn't quite the recipe I've been looking for.  The Georgia cornbread I love is a bit moister and slightly more salty.  I love how darn cute it is in the frying pan, though, so I think I will tinker with this recipe and see if I can find just what I'm looking for.  It shouldn't be hard to make it saltier-- what are your recommendations for making it a bit moister?  

Here is the recipe!  Thanks for participating and I hope you enjoyed this week!!

SOUTHERN-STYLE SKILLET CORNBREAD

Both stone and fine ground cornmeal will work fine in this recipe.  We prefer to use a cast-iron skillet here because it makes the best crust; however, any heavy 10-inch ovenproof skillet will work fine.


2 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 chunks
 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

1. Adjust the oven racks to the lower-middle and middle positions and heat the over to 450 degrees. Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet on the middle rack and heat for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, spread the cornmeal over a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven on the lower-middle rack until fragrant and lightly golden, about 5 minutes.

2. Carefully transfer the toasted cornmeal to a large bowl and whisk in the buttermilk; set aside.  When the skillet is hot, add the oil and return it to the oven until just smoking, about 5 minutes.

3. Remove the hot skillet from the oven, carefully add the butter, and gently swirl to incorporate.  Pour all but 1 tablespoon of the hot oil butter into the cornmeal mixture, and whisk to incorporate.  Whisk in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt, followed by the eggs.

4. Quickly scrape the batter into the hot skillet.  Bake the cornbread until the top begins to crack and the sides are golden brown, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating the bread halfway through baking.  Let the bread cool in the skillet for 5 minutes, then gently flip out onto a wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

bake52: week 24-- Cinnamon Swirl Bread!

First of all, I want to start this off with a big apology for scaring everyone yesterday over on the bake52 facebook page.  I am EXTRA ready to host next week!!  Sorry for jumping the gun and thinking that I was hosting this week and letting everyone panic that they had made the wrong thing!  Seriously.  Natural blonde over here.  {well, mostly natural these days!!}  :)  Sorry Bekah, I wasn't trying to skip your fabulous week. Well, maybe I was, but not intentionally!  :)  

I got to work about 7 pm last night on my bread and was so lucky that this wasn't a recipe that spanned days to complete!!  I guess if I was going to get my weeks mixed up this was a great week to do it!  

Cinnamon mixture assembled.  Eggs and milks whisked.  

Flour going in the mixer, adding liquids.  I doubled the recipe to have some extra to give away.  I knew from the start this was going to be yummy!! :) 

 You let your assembled dough rise, the roll it out.  Add cinnamon, roll up, and let rise again.

 This smells AA-MAY-ZING baking last night!!  My ten year old wouldn't go to bed, he was too excited and wanted a bite so badly!  It was cute.  The loaf for us was devoured this morning before I got a picture, but here are the mini loaves I made to give away:

This bread was such a great pick.  It is one I will definitely be making again and again!  I think my favorite thing about it was that the cinnamon was not like cinnamon roll flavor {although I do love that, too!}  It was yummy cinnamon bear like cinnamon flavor.  So delish and almost a touch spicy.  Thanks for hosting, Bekah!  You can visit her here for the recipe.  

bake52: week 23-- Coconut Macaroons!

This week's bake52 is hosted by the fabulous Emily over at Jepsen Family!

She choose Coconut Macaroons.  I don't know that I have ever tried these anywhere before-- and I have been missing out!  These were super yummy and SO easy to make!!  

 pulse some coconut in your food processor

 then pulse the egg mixture.  Combine with coconut, refrigerate, and form!  

 right out of the oven.. 

 ... and I totally had to dip mine in chocolate!

YUM!

I tried one before dipping the rest in chocolate and it was good, but reminded me so much of coconut shrimp!  I bet you could roll the shrimp in the mixture and it would be so good.  For a dessert, I really loved the addition of chocolate.  So did the kids. :) 

I don't know about you girls, but I am learning so much and having so much fun with our group this year!!  I can't believe we are half way through!  I would like Amanda to know how grateful I am she put this all together.  I say it all the time, but seriously-- I have the BEST sister in law in the world!  She makes up for the rest of the crazies in the family. :) ha!  

{I'm just kidding!  Not that any of them read this!}

I am hosting next week, we will be exploring my southern roots and making up some CORNBREAD!  

Thanks for hosting, Emily!!  You can get the recipe here: 

http://jepsenfamily.blogspot.com/2012/06/bake-52-coconut-macaroons.html

also- I wanted to invite you girls over to my family blog: mollycoddlemama.blogspot.com  Leave me a comment with your family blog, I'd love to follow it, too! 

going digital

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/cox-family-memories-2010-7618359

After years of being a paper scrapbooker, I have tried a couple of different so-so attempts at converting to digital scrapbooking.  I have photoshop and several kits of digital papers I like, but as I get into it, it seems to take me forever and I can't get any albums done!  The end result is that I have been so behind on our family albums.  Like crazy behind.  As in, Ben and Leah look at volumes of our family scrapbooks that they are the stars of and Gracie asks, "Where are the books about ME?" ha!

This summer my goal is to get caught up.  I thought that the way I would do that is using a simple book making software online {like shutterfly or something}.  As I looked into it, I found a site I hadn't heard of before: mixbook.com.  I started working on it and LOVE IT!  I am so excited about how nice it is to work with and how much freedom I have in making each page as custom {or not!} as I'd like it!  I started my 2010 family album on Monday and now- 100 pages later-- it's done and on order!  Woo-hoo!  Now, I did work pretty obsessively on it all week, but I now know the program inside and out and I can't wait to start on 2011!  I really may meet my goal of being "caught up" with my scrapbooking by the end of the summer!  You can click on the link above to visit my book.  Gracie is going to be thrilled that there is finally a book that has pictures of her in it!!

bake52 week 21: Multigrain Bread

Jennifer was our hostess this week- and she chose Multigrain Bread!

 Mine turned out ok-- I loved the flavor, but I was making it at the same time I was trying to get a scout out the door and I think I let it over rise.  It kind of looks like the "Don't make this mistake!" loaf from the cookbook! :)

The bread came together nicely, I liked using the 7 {or 5 in this case!} grain cereal as the multigrain base for the bread.  It really had a deep nutty flavor which I enjoyed a lot.  I will be making this again-- on a day that is a little less crazy and I have a chance to be more attentive to my rising dough!

It was a hit, and my son kept telling me that it tasted just like my lasagna!!  I wasn't sure what to think about that-- were his taste buds off or is my lasagna just awful??!?!  Who knows!!

Thanks Jennifer!!  Wonderful pick.  Visit her for the recipe!

bake 52 week 20-- Macaroons!

Betsy was our bake52 host this week!  Check out her blog for the recipe here.

I was really excited to try Macaroons!  They sound so sophisticated and complicated and I was happy to discover that they are fun and easy!

I love how the recipe mentioned that the dough would be "gloopy", what a word.  But it really was a gloopy batter, so I'm glad it mentioned that so I didn't wonder if I messed up!

Gloopy batter!

Finished-- and delish!  What a hit with the family!  

Thanks Betsy!  Get the recipe here: 

secretreader.blogspot.com