Baking with Julia

I recently received my copy of "Baking with Julia" and decided to jump right in and make croissants.
Nothing like starting out with something simple and easy, right?

Actually the arrival of the book was at a perfect time. I had mentioned in front of one of my Starbucks partners that I had never made croissants at home. He seemed a bit incredulous at that (he is often the recipient of much of my baking adventures) and said I should make some.  I was planning on scouring the web for a croissant recipe when I got home that afternoon. So, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I stopped by the post office to find the copy of "Baking with Julia" in my mailbox.

I made croissants once during a class at Sur la Table. I have attended many classes there, most with my daughter and that was a class we took together. We made plain croissants, chocolate croissants, and a ham and cheese croissant. I remember us doing some work, but, most of the work is done ahead of time so that there is time for the class. The class was 2 hours long and I can attest to the fact that it took me A  LOT  longer to make the ones I made. Days in fact! Two of them!

My boss at Starbucks is a coupon queen and she recently gave me three pounds of butter, one of them a European style butter. That is the butter I used for the croissants

First roll after adding butter

I definitely gave my poor old Kitchen Aid mixer a run for her money. I made two batches of dough for the croissants. I have one batch in the freezer for a another time. I am glad I made two batches as all the things I learned to do and not do will make the second batch even better.

 I think  know for me one of the hardest thing was waiting between turns. I wanted to see how they were going to turn out. Rolling, folding, wrapping and chilling took several hours between each turn and by the time I got to the part where I was waiting for them to rise before baking, (deep breath!) I ended up rushing that rising a bit.

Croissants are a lot of physical labor. It's real work rolling the dough out into 24x14 inch rectangles, not once, not twice, but 4 times! Counting the final rolling out before cutting them into triangles or strips, depending on whether you make butter or chocolate croissants.

I made both. I'll admit I have trouble not going overboard. I am a bit obsessive/compulsive so of course I made butter and chocolate. It really wasn't that much more involved. Just cutting the dough differently and chopping up some bittersweet chocolate. I need to find where to buy the sticks of dark chocolate you can use when making croissants.

With all the work involved, all the hours waiting in between, I would still make them again. My house smelled amazing while they were baking. I shared them with a couple of my friends and got rave reviews on them, especially the chocolate ones. My two grandkids, who came to stay this weekend (they are 6 and 4) couldn't get enough of the plain ones. Buttery. Flaky. Better than any store bought ones, in my opinion. Try them!

Brownies!!

I don't work on the weekends. Well, I don't work at Starbucks or Home Depot. I do work at home, doing things like housecleaning or laundry. You know, the usual things. I used to work weekends. Almost every Saturday and Sunday. Then, two years ago, I had back surgery and while recovering I decided that when I went back to work it was only going to be Monday - Friday. I figured if my bosses valued me, they would take me whenever I was available. And, they did. So, I now work Monday thru Friday from 6AM to 4PM. That's at both jobs. 5 hours at Starbucks, an hour off and then 4 hours at Home Depot.

But, I digress. This post is supposed to be about brownies.

While scrolling through my Facebook feed a week or two ago, I stumbled across a link to Peanut Butter Cookie Brownies. The pictures looked amazing and I saved the link for a time when I could make them. That time was yesterday afternoon, after I finished making my Pineapple Upside-down cake.

The recipe for the brownies was actually two part. You made a brownie recipe, either a box version of your favorite brand, or in my case, a scratch recipe for brownies.

 Once that was made, I made the peanut butter cookie recipe. The recipe, that I will post at the end of this post, called for baking the brownies in a 9" pan. I wanted to surprise my Home Depot coworkers with them so I needed more than what a 9' pan would yield. I made them in a jelly roll pan.


















Anyway, aside from the different pan, I basically followed "The Little Kitchen's" recipe.

These brownies are amazing! Super chewy, moist and delicious! I used King Arthur's black cocoa powder in place of dutch processed and it gave the brownies a darker, richer depth than regular dutch cocoa would have. I used Ghirardelli  bittersweet chocolate in the brownies. It's my favorite brand of chocolate.

Give these brownies a try. I promise you won't be disappointed.

https://www.thelittlekitchen.net/peanut-butter-cookie-brownies/

Pineapple Upside Down Cake, in a cast iron skillet

I recently joined a group on Facebook called Cooking with Cast Iron. I own two Lodge cast iron skillets, one 10" and one 12". I hadn't been using them, haven forgotten about them. They were in the bottom of a cabinet, just waiting to be brought out into the light again.

So, after joining the group, I've been making an effort to use them. I've made many dinners in them. Pork Chops with Apples, Goulash, Tuscan Sausage and Peppers. The list goes on. However, I haven't done many sweet things in them.

A little back info to this post is that I work at Starbucks. I work with a bunch of really great people and I often bring in "tasty treats", as one coworker calls them, for the gang. I satisfy my baking urges and I don't have all those fattening things here in my house, with only me to eat them. :)

Friday one of my coworkers suggested Pineapple Upside-down Cake as a tasty treat for Monday. I realized that while I have made Peach Upside-down Cake (my Mom's recipe), I had never attempted a pineapple version. Challenge accepted. :) And, while I usually make my Mom's recipe in a cake pan, I decided to use my 12" cast iron pan instead.

The recipe was a simple one. Butter in the pan. Brown sugar on that. Pineapple slices over that.

 A quick batter mixed up and poured over top. I used the liquid from the pineapples for the liquid in the recipe and added a teaspoon of vanilla.












 Baked for about 25 minutes. I let it cool for about 5 minutes and them flipped it onto a cake circle as I have no plates large enough for a 12" cake.



It turned out very well. Delicious, actually. Edges have a little bite of bit to them. That crunchy kind of bite that comes from sugar caramelizing around the edges of a pan. Adding the pineapple juice as the liquid was a good move because it also added a little extra flavor. While I think I still prefer my Mom's peach version, this was pretty darned good. I think the crew at Starbucks will be happy come Monday morning.

http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/pineapple-upside-down-cake-in-iron-skillet-42861#activity-feed

I've made some changes!

I used to post to this blog every week. I was part of several baking groups and loved reading other blogs, trying new recipes, taking pictures. Being part of a community.

The man I was married to made some negative comments about the time and money I was spending baking and blogging and I stopped. Stopped blogging. Stopped keeping in touch with friends I had made. Stopped a lot of things.

In April of 2016 I suddenly woke up so to speak and decided I no longer wished to be married to the man I had lived with and been married to for 26 years. I asked for a divorce. Moved out. In other words, I stopped. Stopped allowing someone else to control my feelings, my likes and dislikes, my time.

With my divorce settlement I bought a cute little single wide 3/10 of a mile from a beautiful lake (I can walk my kayak down to the boat launch) and started living again. My divorce was final January 30,2017.  I am now spending time with my children and grandchildren, without worrying about hurrying home or upsetting someone. I spend time with friends without hearing judgement about them. I travel when and where I want. Some of those things I did when I was married, but I was always worried he might get mad if I stayed too long, or remind me of whatever at a later date.

I wish I had done it years ago.

Of course, years ago I didn't feel like I did on that day in April when I decided I couldn't spend another 26 years being where I was. Years ago I was still trying to be a good wife and homemaker. I still loved my husband and wanted to do whatever to make him happy. Unfortunately, my husband didn't feel the same about his wife. But, it's all good. Things happen when they are supposed to happen. And, rather than look back and say I should have, I look forward and say what should I do today.

So, after what, 6 years away, I am back. I plan to post pictures of things I bake and things I cook. I plan to blog about trips I take and things I see and share pictures of those things. Because I want to. Because it will make me happy. And, because I have missed it.