bake 52: week 9-- Babka

Michelle was our host this week for bake52!  She chose babka- a polish sweet bread.  I think I had heard of it before, but wasn't sure what it was exactly.  

OOoooh, Babka.  Let's just say this-- it's a good think I'm not Polish.  For if I had discovered my intense love for you back in my youth, I'm sure I would now weigh 400 pounds!  This is one of those recipes I am going to have to execute some serious willpower to avoid making weekly. :) 

I went totally rouge on this recipe, too!  Refrigerate 10 hours??  Forget that!  I wanted the babka for that evening-- so I just stuck it in the freezer for about 5 minutes and pretended that was the same thing.  I also completely forgot to do the egg wash step at the end-- it had been baking for about 20 minutes before I even realized I'd skipped a step!!  So I was really nervous that my babka was going to be terrible-- but thank heavens this is a very forgiving recipe!  It was DELISH!!  

My two babka's, fresh out of the oven.  {Who else loved the tips on pan lining???  Perfect!  They popped out of the pans beautifully!! I love bake52!!}

Close up of the babka yumminess!

... and a shot of the inside, swirled to yummy perfection!!

I am so in love with babka!  It was a huge hit with our family and our house guest we have this week.  I was actually planning on taking a loaf over to our neighbor, and my little guy about tackled me as I headed to the door to prevent it from leaving.  We had no problem taking care of two loaves!!  :)

Head over to Michelle's blog for the recipe!!

bake 52: week 8-- Peanut Butter Cookies

 This week Jennifer is hosting bake52 and she selected Peanut Butter Cookies!

I was so excited to make these-- I love peanut butter cookies!!  This recipe intrigued me-- it has you chop up whole roasted peanuts and use extra crunchy peanut butter, two things I'd never done before with my cookies! 

 They looked good going into the oven...

 ...and smelled AMAZING while baking! 

 

These passed our scrutiny!  We loved them and they are so flavorful!  The salt from the chopped peanuts really blended well and was yummy with the sweetness of the cookie.  I'll be making them again!!  

 Visit Jennifer here for the recipe! 














 

bake 52: week 7-- Pizza

 This week we baked-- PIZZA!

THIS. WAS. SO. YUMMY.

At first I was wondering if I would ever really bake my own pizzas from scratch when I know I can get one for five bucks at our local place in town-- but hands down, this was the yummiest pizza I've eaten!!  It is SO simple and I think that's why I love it so much.  I like simplicity. :)  You bite into it and can clearly taste cheese, tomato, and garlic.  It was just so yummy.  My husband and kids loved it too!!

The more I thought about it, I realized two things:
1. It's pizza, but it's not that crazy unhealthy.  Good oil, wholesome ingredients, and I actually cut the cheese in half because I didn't realize the dough would make two pizzas-- and it was great that way!  I think I'll keep making it with half the cheese. :)
2. Talk about budget friendly- every ingredient is something that I usually have on hand in my food storage {sometimes I run out of cheese, but that would be the only thing}, so a super inexpensive way to feed the family.  I'm always on the lookout for a staple recipe like that!

 The recipe calls for using a food processor to make the dough, but I don't have a food processor with a dough blade so I just used my mixer and it turned out great. :)

You also make the sauce-- crushed tomatoes, a little olive oil, and garlic.  This smelled amazing.  I think I was shocked- it was almost too easy!

My youngest little miss has fallen in love with helping me in the kitchen.  I had to joke that I know she must love baking- it's really the only time she listens to her mama!!  Anytime I'm in the kitchen, though, she comes running and wants to help me.  I love it.  She liked trying to roll out the pizza dough this week.

Here are our pizzas, all ready to pop in the oven-- as I mentioned before, I didn't realize I was making two pizzas when I started {I really should read things all the way through before I start!!!} so I ended up only having enough cheese on hand for one pizza.  I split it and used it for both- and I thought it was fine!!  I really liked it that way, actually.  

 Fresh out of the oven....

 

SO DELISH!   I will be using this again and again!!  I can't wait to try variations and see what works well. 

Betsy was our host this week and will be posting the recipe later tonight on her blog.  http://secretreader.blogspot.com/

bake52: week 6-- Challah

 Jennifer at ZollyZoo  was our host this week for bake52 and she chose Challah for us all to bake! 

I found this article on Wikipedia and learned a little bit more about Challah.  I'm kind of a nerd like that but I liked reading the history and meaning behind what we were making!! 

 Here is a picture of what the recipe described as the dough sticking to the bottom of the bowl but not the sides.  I was nervous it wouldn't really do this, but low and behold, there it is!!

I always have issues with underdone bread.  I think it's because I'm so scared of burning it-- but my family has consumed more than their fair share of gooey bread!  I finally came across one of these babies-- an internal probe with an alarm!!  I LOVE IT!  Bread is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees.  I took these picture because without that probe, I would have taken the bread out waaaay too early- with almost 14 minutes left and with it only being at a temperature of 140 degrees-- because look at how golden brown the top was already!! 

It's like kitchen magic or something, but when my timer went off that the bread's internal temperature was 200 degrees, the oven only had 3 minutes left to cook.  It's like they tested these recipes or something. :) 

 I have the cutest bread "basket" that my neighbors gave me for my last birthday-- I love that thing and use it all the time!  It was the perfect size for the Challah! 

 The bread sliced up well and was DONE all the way through!!  SUCCESS!! :)  No more gooey bread!  {Unless it's banana bread-- we have to have that gooey!!} 

 It was browned well but cooked all the way through.  It had a great texture and mild flavor-- I think the real "wow" factor here is the fancy braid.  It sure looks impressive, but there is an easy trick to it!!  Visit Jennifer to see how to make it and for the recipe!

 Thanks, Jennifer, for picking such a fun recipe! 

bake52: week 5-- 7 Layer Bars

Hello everyone!

This week's baking adventure is being hosted by Jesse of Diaries of a Cookaholic.

If you've never been to Jesse's blog, you must start with her post about cooking a lobster.  It was the funniest thing!!!  You can also see in that post that she has the cutest little blonde haired blue eyed baby boy.  My blonde haired blue eyed baby boy turned TEN this past weekend, so looking at those pictures may have made me a little heartsick!  It seems like he really should still be that size.  Sigh.  

Jesse picked 7 layer bars for this week-- and they were simple and delicious!  I doubled the recipe to have a pan for our family and a pan to bring to a church meeting- and they went over well in both places!

 They are super sweet and yummy.  We all loved them!  Great pick, Jesse!

 Visit Jesse for the recipe!