Gingerbread!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Facebook posts galore. There's a tree on each profile page, photos of tablescapes. I'll get behind if I don't find decor!

At least, that's how I felt this weekend. I had already planned to hang ornaments on my little Christmas tree when the week finally came to an end, but after seeing how far along my Facebook friends and real-life neighbors were in getting their Christmas spirit on, I felt it was time to do some holiday decorating and spontaneous Christmas activities of my own. I decked out my front yard tree in lights, watched a Yule Log video on Netflix, and decided to bake gingerbread cookies!

Now I've made gingerbread cookies before, but I didn't know if my experimental take on a recipe from childhood was necessarily the best gingerbread cookie recipe out there. Also, I love finding tried and true, tested recipes online. So I did a web search and stumbled onto The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies on Food.com (special thanks to gingerkitten D for the post). I chose this result because the recipe had five stars, and I had all the ingredients.

It's a good thing I gave it a try--these cookies were delicious! Not too hard, not too soft, and the perfect amount of sweetness whether you frost them or eat them straight out of the oven! It fulfilled my craving for gingerbread and for holiday cheer--I even made my first (terrible, tiny) gingerbread house! Now you can make one too!

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour (I used self-rising flour since I had it)

1/4 teaspoon salt (I put in just slightly less)

1 Tablespoon ground ginger

1 and 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

6 Tablespoons softened, unsalted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup molasses

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1.) In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, stirring to combine. In a separate, larger bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and egg with an electric mixer on medium speed until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add in the molasses and vanilla, and continue to blend.

2.) Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches, beating with the electric mixer to combine until the flour disappears each time (be careful as the flour and the batter are likely to fly out of the bowl!). Once the flour is all incorporated and no longer visible, make sure the dough is just sticky enough to form into a small lump (I added a couple of Tablespoons of milk to help). Divide the dough in half and wrap each lump in plastic cling wrap to sit out at room temperature for about 2-3 hours.

3.) Place one lump of dough onto a sheet of parchment paper and begin to roll it out with a plastic rolling pin sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Once the dough is flat and thin (about 1/4-inch thick), you can cut out your cookie shapes with your favorite gingerbread men or other cookie cutters. Place them on a sheet of parchment paper about an inch apart each and then freeze for approximately 15-20 minutes to help keep them from spreading in the oven.

4.) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Transfer the parchment paper with the cold cookie dough to a baking sheet and bake the cookies for approximately 7 minutes (watch them carefully so they don't burn!). If you want to make a gingerbread house, save the second lump of dough to roll out and cut into squares (dough should keep in the fridge for up to four days if you're too tired to make it all at once, like me). Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 2-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cookies are room temperature, you can frost them with your favorite colored icing.

I should warn you that making gingerbread cookies is pretty time consuming (you have to wait for the dough to sit at room temperature, wait for the cookies to chill, wait for the cookies to bake, and then wait for the cookies to cool to room temperature again so you can frost them without melting the icing). BUT, I will say they're totally worth it. I gave away non-iced but fresh-from-the-oven cookies to friends, went out to watch football, and came home to room temperature cookies I could frost and eat immediately.

Christmas cookies always feel festive, but gingerbread just has that extra special holiday feel. And despite the time it takes to make them, they're actually quite easy to put together. Now, making a gingerbread house--that's a LOT harder than it looks.

Pumpkin Cheesecake!

I wanted to try something new this Thanksgiving. I usually make exactly two pies: pumpkin and pecan. Facebook also cheerfully reminded that five years ago for Thanksgiving I made two pumpkin pies, two pecan pies, cranberry sauce, and a sweet pumpkin dip. This year brought about a stressful week right before Thanksgiving, and I asked my mom if I could be free of pie duty this year. She was happy to take on our pumpkin and pecan pies so that tradition could continue and to help me out.

But I can't stay away from baking for long. I soon found myself wondering if maybe I should try that Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe I'd been saving for weeks from FoodNetwork.com. I'd purchased all the ingredients (twice) and still had yet to make it. I thought maybe Thanksgiving would be the perfect time.  Maybe baking would be the ultimate stress reliever as it had been for me in years past. And so I threw it together, following the Pumpkin Brulee Cheesecake recipe fairly closely but with my own style, and enjoying the whole process.

Ingredients:

8 sheets of graham crackers (honey, not cinnamon)
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
12 ounces low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar (light)
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup low fat Greek yogurt
2 eggs
2 egg whites
15 ounces (one can) pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour again)
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mash your graham crackers into tiny pieces and crumbs (I placed the graham crackers in a plastic baggie and then mashed them with a meat mallet, carefully so as not to hurt the counter). Pour graham cracker crumbs into a bowl and mix in 1 Tablespoon of white sugar, 1 Tablespoon melted butter, and 2 Tablespoons water. Mix until the graham crackers are moistened and can be pressed into the bottom of a pie tin. I like to press mine in with a plastic baggie over my hand lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

2.) Bake the pie crusts 10 minutes and set aside to cool completely. Then in a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, brown sugar, 1/3 cup white sugar, and salt. Beat in the yogurt, egg, and egg whites. This can all be about medium speed. Lower the speed and add pumpkin, flour, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice. Keep the speed low, then stir with a spatula to fully combine.

3.) Pour the batter over the cooled crusts and bake in the center rack for about an hour (check about five minutes before to make sure it's not burning too much). Place on a trivet to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.

4.) Top with whipped cream or other toppings of your choice. I skipped the actual "brulee" part of the original recipe (lacking a torch) and went for a whipped cream border instead!

Thanksgiving was a great success with the immense help of my mom, the help of my brother, and my small pie contribution. It held together, didn't taste overdone (despite the browning on top) and was a delicious dessert to enjoy with family!

Biko Rice Cakes!

Another one I made back in February but only just had time to post:

You may have seen some of my previous posts on various Filipino desserts (kutsinta, halo-halo, and bibingka)--they're so delicious. But I'd never attempted to make one of my other favorites that I've had at many a party before: Biko Kalamay

Basically a sweet rice cake, biko is a delightful mixture of coconut, rice, and syrup flavors, held together in a rectangular package.

All the recipes I've found online sounded a little intimidating, but this one for Biko with Latik syrup from Russian Filipino Kitchen was exactly what I needed.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups uncooked rice
1 and 1/4 cups water (for cooking the rice halfway)
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar (1/2 cup for the latik syrup, the rest for the biko cake)
4 cups coconut milk (1 cup for the latik syrup, the rest for the biko cake)

Directions:

1.) After rinsing your uncooked rice in a pot (until the water turns clear), drain the sink water, place the pot on the stove, add the 1 and 1/4 cups cooking water, and bring the pot to a boil.

2.) Once the water has boiled, lower the heat to medium low and cook until the water mostly evaporates. Remove from heat and set aside. The rice should only be cooked halfway at this point.



3.) Make the latik syrup by mixing 1 cup coconut milk and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a separate pan. Bring the pan to a boil and then adjust the heat to medium low as well. Cook for 10 minutes, constantly stirring until the syrup thickens (mine didn't get super thick, but it still worked in the end and tasted great!). Remove from heat and set aside.

4.) Finish the biko cake by mixing 3 cups of coconut milk and 1 cup of brown sugar in a separate pot and bringing to a boil. Add the rice to the milk/sugar, and then mix again. Cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring constantly until thick.

5.) Remove from heat and transfer to a rectangular or square baking dish (glass or aluminum works well). Flatten the mixture and drizzle with the syrup as a topping. Cool to room temperature (the longer the better) before you cut the cake into squares and serve. Top with toasted coconut.






My first attempt at toasting coconut flakes was not the best (see below), so I'll leave you to find your own recipe for that one!



You'll fall in love with this unique treat--though my version is still not nearly as good as authentic biko made by Filipino chefs!

Rice Pudding

I can't remember the exact date of this attempt, but I do remember how delicious it was! Catching up with unposted recipes, I give you, Rice Pudding!

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 cups milk (I used Lactose-free 1% and fat free--Lactaid brand)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg (beaten)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:


1.) Combine the rice, 1 and 1/2 cups milk, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until thick, about 15-20 minutes.

2.) Add in the last 1/2 cup of milk, egg, and sugar into the mix, stirring constantly. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

3.) Top with cinnamon and garnish with a cinnamon stick. Refrigerate 6-8 hours to serve cold.

Found on Allrecipes.com under Old Fashioned Creamy Rice Pudding.

Cranberry Scones

After some time off for a summer staycation, I returned to work refreshed and also ready for a coworker's surprise bridal shower! I had volunteered to make heart-shaped scones, perfect to get in the mood for wedded bliss. Allrecipes.com came to my rescue again with a recipe for simple scones. I needed a recipe with sour cream instead of buttermilk since I couldn't find it in any of my go-to grocery stores this time of year (June--I guess buttermilk tends to be holiday seasonal). I also attempted self-rising flour once again, though you can definitely make them with all purpose or whole wheat pastry flour. Finally, I substituted Craisins (dried cranberries) for the raisins or currants, since I've had them in scones before and the bright red color is another great symbol of love. Thus, my Cranberry Scones were born!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (or self-rising flour)

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder (omit if using self-rising flour)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (omit if using self-rising flour)

1/2 teaspoon of salt (cut back to about 1/4 teaspoon if using self-rising flour)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter (the original recipe recommends it being frozen, but just keeping it at the back of my fridge worked fine for me)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup sour cream (I used lowfat Tillamook brand)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda if using, and salt. Use a cheese grater to grate the butter into flakes, then slowly add it in with your hands. Stir in the cranberries.

2.) In a separate bowl, combine the sour cream and egg with a fork until smooth. At this point, you can also add in the almond extract for extra flavor. Then slowly add the sour cream mixture to the flour mixture until the dough starts to form. Use your hands to get the dough fully formed and shaped into a ball (if too sticky, add a little more flour).

3.) Shape the dough into hearts (I made two elongated lumps and squished them together in a "V" to make a heart shape) and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake approximately 15-17 minutes or until golden but not too brown. Cool slightly (about 5 minutes), then remove from the sheet and serve warm.

The directions on Allrecipes.com give options for making Cranberry-Orange Scones, Lemon-Blueberry Scones, or even Cherry-Almond Scones, which gave me the inspiration to add almond extract--and I think that's what really makes these scones pop! The bride-to-be loved the treat and took the extras home to her groom, who ate about six in a row. I'd say that's a success!

Banana Donuts

While I admit I'm a bit behind on my baking blog posts, I certainly haven't been behind on my baking. I made these delicious Banana Donuts on June 27, during my summer staycation off from work. I can't remember the exact motivation for donuts--perhaps I had browning bananas at the time, perhaps I just wanted to make something delicious to deliver to my mom. Either way it was a fun endeavor with a pleasing result.

In attempting to make my banana donuts, I knew I wanted to find a recipe where I could use self-rising flour. I still had some leftover that my mom had given me after making Jamie Oliver's deliciously easy pancakes for Valentine's Day, and I wanted to put it to good use. A quick search found me a great recipe from King Arthur Flour with directions on how to adapt it for self-rising flour. I cut the baking soda, lowered the amount of salt, and included the cinnamon since I was using bananas and they pair well together. I then borrowed a quick cinnamon-sugar recipe from the website Kitchn, and had the donuts ready in no time.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 and 1/4 cups white sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups mashed bananas
2 cups self-rising flour

For the topping:

1/4 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the bananas.

2.) Slowly stir in the self-rising flour until the batter is smooth but still has some lumps of banana. Pour the batter into a donut pan (sprayed liberally with nonstick cooking spray) until nearly full.

3.) Bake approximately 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the donut comes out clean or with a tiny bit of crumbs attached. Remove from oven and loosen the edges with a plastic knife. Wait 5 minutes, and then transfer the donuts to a wire rack.

4.) While the donuts are warm, dip them into a bowl filled with the cinnamon-sugar mixture topping. Coat thoroughly, then turn over and coat the other side. Serve while warm, if possible, though the donuts taste good at room temperature as well.

Perfect Pancakes by Jamie Oliver

My mom sent me this Tweet from Jamie Oliver (celebrity chef extraordinaire) months ago, along with a care package of self-rising flour. Turns out it is the easiest way to make pancakes when you're craving them, and they always turn out fluffy and light! Try adding blueberries, chocolate chips, or other additions to customize to your tastes. Perfect!

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk (I use fat-free or 1%, lactose free milk by Lactaid)
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1.) Whisk ingredients together. Pour onto a hot griddle that's been lightly coated with canola oil (you can tell it's ready when a drop of water placed on the pan starts to sizzle). Allow the edges of the pancake to harden and then flip it. Cook another minute or so, checking the underside for doneness.

That's it!

I saved this recipe for Valentine's Day (I had a lot planned and didn't want to lose time on an extensive, complicated endeavor), and poured the pancakes into a silicon heart-shaped mold for a breakfast filled with love. And chocolate chips. It worked great and gave me plenty of time to set up gifts, make bacon (another way to show your love), and get ready for a date at Gameworks. But really, you can use these pancakes for any occasion!

Green Sour Cream Pound Cake for St. Pat's!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's the one day out of the year where my baking can match my clothes. Green, after all, has always been my favorite color. This year St. Patrick's Day also fell within the week of Spring Break at the college where I work. It's fairly quiet on campus, which makes it the perfect time to bring in treats to colleagues who have been working so hard to make it to mid-semester.

So I knew I would be baking something green well before the day arrived. I just wasn't sure what. I wanted to make something from scratch and use the ingredients I had. I'm not sure how the idea of "pound cake" came into my head--it must have popped up in my Internet search for recipes using self-rising flour (I had a leftover container my mom gave me for pancakes). But most of the those self-rising baked goods also called for buttermilk--which I did not have. In my fridge, however, was a small tub of sour cream. I knew this could be a good substitution for some baked goods. In fact, a few donut recipes appeared when I modified my search for self-rising flour and sour cream. But I was most drawn to a post for Sour Cream Pound Cake from farmflavor.com. It might take a while to bake, but sounded super easy to put together. And the instructions on my green food coloring bottle said I only needed to add 1/2 teaspoon into any cake batter to get that green tint. Perfect! My St. Pat's Green Sour Cream Pound Cake was born.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter (16 Tablespoons), softened but not melted

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups self-rising flour (sifted)

8 oz. sour cream (I use Daisy Lite)

1/2 teaspoon liquid green food coloring (I used McCormick)

Optional strawberries, green, grapes, whipped cream, and green frosting to decorate

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a very large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric or stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each, then add the vanilla and mix again.

2.) Alternate adding flour and sour cream until all ingredients are combined. Add the green food coloring last, mixing until thoroughly combined.

3.) Pour the batter into your pan of choice (that's been heavily greased with butter/flour or nonstick cooking spray). The original recipe calls for an hour and a half bake time for a tube/bunt pan. For my shallow book-shaped pan (slightly larger than 9x13 inches) I had to cut that baking time down significantly, checking after 30 minutes (still too wobbly), and ultimately baking only about 40-45 minutes total, until the top and edges were slightly brown and a toothpick inserted into the center came out clean.

4.) Remove the cake from the oven and let cool to room temperature before refrigerating overnight. Serve the next morning with strawberries, GREEN grapes for St. Paddy's, and any whipped cream or icing you choose.

I was a little nervous bringing the finished product to work the next morning after baking. Would a green cake be appetizing? Would the center be too solid or not solid enough? Despite a clean toothpick test, I hadn't cut into the cake or baked any side cakes to try first since the batter was just barely enough to fill my pan. And I didn't want to ruin the look of the finished cake before my coworkers saw it.

Turns out I didn't need to worry! The cake received rave reviews by my supervisor, our administrative assistant, and all the librarians and staff that had a piece. Nearly half the cake was gone by lunch time! The center was moist, the flavor was sweet, and I now have a go-to pound cake recipe for any time of year!

Classic Cinnamon Rolls

In my family, I started a holiday tradition upon which we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning. And I bake them. The smell and the taste is wonderful to wake up to on such a special occasion, and it gives me something to do in the early hours I'm up before the rest of my family now that I'm past the age of present peeking (mostly). The last few years I've utilized pizza dough to create Easy Breezy Morning Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas breakfast--which are always fun to make, delicious to eat, and don't require yeast (so they get done a lot faster since the dough doesn't need time to rise). But before I discovered this pizza dough hack, I made my yeast-less cinnamon rolls with biscuit dough. And while that recipe has remained a family favorite for years--my handwritten version safely tucked within a fat, orange binder with other old school, paper recipes--I've never actually posted it here. But when this year's Christmas rolled around and I just couldn't find whole wheat pizza dough at my local grocery stores (or any pizza dough, really), I went back to the classic and made cinnamon rolls that hearkened to my early years as an unofficial baker. 

I'll call these my Classic Cinnamon Rolls. It turns out the original recipe (which I adapted slightly) comes from a Cooks Illustrated recipe by Raquel Pelzel, published May 2002 (That's where I got some of the language like "shaggy" dough and "wet sand"). My mom had copied the pages with diagrams to know how to shape the rolls correctly (which are probably safely tucked away within her own recipe binder). But since I don't have those original copies, special thanks to Ed Santiago for his recipe archive scans of the pages:

Ingredients:

For the dough:
Flour (for dusting)
2 and 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 Tablespoons melted butter

For the filling:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon melted butter

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for the dough. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk and melted butter for the dough.

2.) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until a shaggy dough forms, about 30 seconds. Then knead the dough until it is smooth and not shaggy. Pat into a 12x9-inch rectangle and spray the top of the dough lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

3.) In another bowl, combine the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt for the filling. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture resembles wet sand. Then take half the mixture and pat a thin layer onto the rectangle of dough, pressing down but not too deep.

4.) Roll the dough into a log, crimp the edges, and cut into your desired amount of cinnamon rolls. Lay them into a round cake pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkled with the other half of the filling mixture (save just a little to sprinkle on top of the rolls as well). Press the rolls flat and dust the tops with the cinnamon mixture.

5.) Bake the rolls for approximately 23 minutes, checking early for even browning. Remove from the oven, let cool at least 5 minutes and then ice with your favorite icing. If you don't have a recipe, it's easy to make!

From my previous cinnamon roll recipe, here's a simple Icing Recipe:

Combine 1 cup powdered sugar with 2 Tablespoons of your favorite milk-like product (soy creamer, buttermilk, half and half, or just plain milk). Be careful when you pour the sugar, then stir thoroughly. Drizzle over slightly cooled cinnamon rolls and you're done!

Now for some pictures of the process!

Yes, the outfit is a must!