2017 Edition - What are you baking?
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Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
I finally ran across my Mom's recipe for banana bread. In our house, though, it's always banana nut bread. We like the addition of walnuts, although I bet this would be good with pistachios, too. I'll have to buy enough bananas on my next shop so that three of them can go ripe-ripe.
It tastes like memories...
It tastes like memories...
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Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Coincidentally, SO is making banana nut muffins today while I'm off helping out my sister with her financial advisor. We prefer muffins to breads as it's a form of portion control for those of us who only know how to stop eating when the food runs out.
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Baked this yesterday - I was supposed to make a cherry tart for a potluck but accidentally made a double recipe of crust. No worries... Today we have a cheesy onion tart to have for dinner. Oops...
Tart filling:
1 can cherry pie filling
1 can sour pie cherries
2/3 C dried cherries soaked a little in kirsch
handful of sliced almonds
1/4 C sesame seeds
pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg
grated lemon rind
Tart filling:
1 can cherry pie filling
1 can sour pie cherries
2/3 C dried cherries soaked a little in kirsch
handful of sliced almonds
1/4 C sesame seeds
pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg
grated lemon rind
I finally ran across my Mom's recipe for banana bread. In our house, though, it's always banana nut bread. We like the addition of walnuts, although I bet this would be good with pistachios, too. I'll have to buy enough bananas on my next shop so that three of them can go ripe-ripe.
It tastes like memories...
Down South, we use pecans. As a teenager, I could walk around our neighborhood in autumn, and pick pecans up for free. The neighbors didn't mind, since pecan trees were everywhere.
Here in Dallas, they are not as common, and people here frown upon folks picking up pecans from their yards, even if they aren't going to use them.
My wife was the baker, I was more of a cook. I don't have a sweet tooth, but her banana pecan bread was really good. That, and I do love fresh from the oven bread. Fresh bread and a slab of butter, and I'm a happy camper.
I got the house and the dog in the divorce, and I can buy bread.
CD
I finally got a (bad, sorry) picture of my homemade blackberry pie. I've been on a pie making frenzy (I can only bake so many months out of the year in Vegas). They've all tasted good but this is the closest one that's looked like an actual pie.
Okay, I just have to ask. Why is it hard to bake a pie in Las Vegas?
CD
Smokeydoke
Senior Cook
It is very hot and very dry. Of course you can do it, the professional bakeries all do, but it's just a hassle, so I don't.
And I feel like my oven is off in the summer, I swear my chicken always burns in the summer. But I too lazy to recalibrate it.
Smokeydoke
Senior Cook
My latest pie experiment, sour cherry pie from Art of Pie.
Hey, I'm getting better! It doesn't look awful (except for the burnt crust) and it tastes delicious!
Hey, I'm getting better! It doesn't look awful (except for the burnt crust) and it tastes delicious!
Okay, I get it now, I have customers in Phoenix, and I also do business in Vegas, but it is always in the winter.
My Phoenix customers tell me how it is "dry heat," but 112 degrees of dry heat is still really, really hot.
Just buy a black car, and you can cook your chicken on the hood.
CD
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Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
The pie does look good. 
And the most important part is that it tastes great. Enough ice cream could hide the dark crust...
There's an easy fix for the burnt crust the next time you bake a pie. At the rate you're going, I would guess the next one gets turned next week.
Rip off a couple strips of aluminum foil. Connect the short edges together to make one long strip of foil. I put two strips face-to-face, turn the short edge a couple of times to seal. Then crimp the long strip of foil around the edge of the crust, and pop the pie into the oven. Remove the foil about 15 minutes before the pie is due to be removed from the oven.
Alternately, you can put the pie in the oven "naked" and check the crust as it bakes. If it looks like it's getting brown and the pie still have some baking time, you can take the pie out and add the foil. Since I prefer doing this when the pie and plate are cool, I just put the foil on first and take my chances.
And the most important part is that it tastes great. Enough ice cream could hide the dark crust...There's an easy fix for the burnt crust the next time you bake a pie. At the rate you're going, I would guess the next one gets turned next week.
Rip off a couple strips of aluminum foil. Connect the short edges together to make one long strip of foil. I put two strips face-to-face, turn the short edge a couple of times to seal. Then crimp the long strip of foil around the edge of the crust, and pop the pie into the oven. Remove the foil about 15 minutes before the pie is due to be removed from the oven.
Alternately, you can put the pie in the oven "naked" and check the crust as it bakes. If it looks like it's getting brown and the pie still have some baking time, you can take the pie out and add the foil. Since I prefer doing this when the pie and plate are cool, I just put the foil on first and take my chances.
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
I could use pecans up north if I want. Being a
When I was a kid, Mom would sometimes use black walnuts. We could go walnut picking for them in a ravine near an aunt and uncle in Lakewood, then Dad and I would take the nuts up to the 3rd floor attic and lay them out on old sheets. Dad would check them until it was time to take the outer hull off. We'd spend a sunny day up there peeling the leather-like hull and leave the nuts in the inside shell up there for another week. Then we'd bring the nuts back down to the kitchen to crack and pick. I don't know if the nuts needed that week of extra curing, or Dad's fingers needed that week to recover! I do know that it took almost a week to lose all of the stain from the outer husk.
Hmm, I just remembered I have some black walnuts I bought in OH sitting in my freezer. Extra 'nanners getting bought when I grocery shop tomorrow!
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
My nephew has a huge, very old black walnut tree just outside his bedroom window. One year he collected a whole bunch of them. Let them sit in his garage for a long while and when he was ready, sliced them on his band saw, bought some leather thongs and made a belt with the aged, varnished slices of the shells. His niece loved the belt and uses it to this day. Fifteen years later.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
I'm going to take another shot at hamburger buns/rolls today. Last time they came out great except for the shape. They were too tall and not big enough around. So this time I'll shape them differently.
Mad Cook
Master Chef
Hope it tastes as good as it looks, GG.I made marmalade for the first time the other day and DH said it would be great with English muffins. I've been meaning to make this recipe, so that was a good nudge
Here's the recipe I used: English Muffin Toasting Bread Recipe | King Arthur Flour
Smokeydoke
Senior Cook
There's an easy fix for the burnt crust the next time you bake a pie. At the rate you're going, I would guess the next one gets turned next week.
Just curious, what is "turned"? Because if it's a mistake, I'm sure I'll make it.
And thank you for the advise about the crust, I'll try that next time.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
It was delicious, although it didn't have the nooks and crannies it's supposed to have. But it made wonderful sandwich bread. I need to make it again
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
Oops! Editor error. A little slip with my snip. When I wrote the original version, it read "...next one gets turned OUT next week..." Oops! "Out" should not actually have been taken, well, out!Just curious, what is "turned"? Because if it's a mistake, I'm sure I'll make it.
And thank you for the advise about the crust, I'll try that next time.
And...you're welcome for the tip about the crust. My Mom and great Aunt did that back when I was a kid, so it's been a trick that has worked for decades and decades and...
Kaneohegirlinaz
Wannabe TV Chef
I was thinking exactly what CG was to prevent those pesky dark crusts.
I found this recipe:
Cinnamon Swirl Donut Bread | Lauren's Latest
It looked so luscious, but meh.
I added some chopped Pecans, but this recipe is not a keeper for us anyways.
Maybe I just had to high an expectation.
I found this recipe:
Cinnamon Swirl Donut Bread | Lauren's Latest
It looked so luscious, but meh.
I added some chopped Pecans, but this recipe is not a keeper for us anyways.
Maybe I just had to high an expectation.
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
Choosing between baking a loaf of bread or dressing appropriately for public to go out to buy one, I opted for baking at home in my slop clothes. I made a loaf of country white, doing the kneading/first rise in the bread machine and finishing it off by hand and oven. The crust was perfectly crispy, the way Himself likes it. The inside was pillow-soft, the way I like it. I have no idea how I managed to get it that way! 
I made a loaf of country white, doing the kneading/first rise in the bread machine and finishing it off by hand and oven. The crust was perfectly crispy, the way Himself likes it. The inside was pillow-soft, the way I like it. I have no idea how I managed to get it that way! 
