TWD: Buttermilk Scones

These blew me away.  Seriously.  I only knew scones as sad dry pucks of dough that needed good coffee or tea to . After the kids and I made the Irish soda bread and loved it, I should have had a clue but I was still so surprised. These came out so light and flaky and we loved the lemon peel. Only one revision I would make next time would be to add less sugar in the dough. While I didn't think they were overly sweet my husband thought they were just slightly so. Blueberries would be extraordinary in these!

TWD: Vanilla Chiffon Roll

This is one of those recipes I wish I had saved for a holiday. It was time consuming but totally worth it. I used a good quality vanilla which made the taste perfectly balanced but I was disappointed with the color of the cake.  I would have liked there to be a greater contrast between the color of the cake and the mousse.  I also think that I overfilled the roll with mousse and would have gotten a more defined pinwheel look if I had used a little bit less. And I could have had a substantial dessert with my dessert! The walnuts added a liqueur essence to the mousse; my husband and I loved it but the kids were not as big of fans. I might actually make that mousse on its own.  The kids loved the cake and wanted to just have it on its own or with strawberries.  We started to daydream about making the chiffon cake in replace of shortcake in June with berries.

TWD: County Bread

This was an easy recipe for a busy long weekend. I made the sponge quickly on Saturday night and put in the refrigerator overnight and most of the next day.  This smelled divine out of the oven.  I could not wait until it was fully cooled to cut into it. The texture and yeast aroma was wonderful.  Next time I would just do the wheat and bread flour. Because I left the sponge overnight and more, I got a fabulous sourdough taste.  I thought the small amount of rye was more distracting to the sourdough and hearty wheat chewiness then a great addition.



After two basketball games, grocery shopping, a visit to my mom and three loads of laundry I was ready to put this together with Sarah during the Patriots Colts playoff game. My stand mixer did all the work and it went to rise again.




Miraculously I had one of those bread baskets the recipe called for.  My and my husband's obsession with King Arthur Flour store pays off again.



The dough was wonderful and easy to work with.  I easily turned over on top of the peel. Next time, I will not slash so deeply; the baking razor that I have works too well!



I baked it on my stoneware deep dish pizza pan.



I love how the flour from the bread basket stayed even after baking.



Was even better toasted the next day!

TWD: Gingersnaps

I'm not a fan. The taste was reminiscent of ginger but no snap.  A devil to roll and then transfer.  I would not make again.  I'm in a pattern to have one holiday Baking with Julia not turn out.  Last year the Gingerbread was a nightmare for the tongue. I made the White Bread Loaves to soothe my baking soul.





 

TWD: Challah

Challah perfection.  Honestly a great recipe.  We gave a pipping hot loaf as a host gift for a holiday party at a neighbor's house.  The other loaf was devoured on Christmas Day morning and later in the day alongside the Pumpernickel with smoked salmon.

TWD: Pumpernickel Loaves

So many ingredients! Very good just cooled, sliced, toasted and slathered with butter.  I froze one of the loaves and served on Christmas Day with a smoked salmon and a lemon caper cream cheese.  Delish!

TWD: Double Chocolate Cookies

Dark chocolate brownie cookies is what these should be called.  My husband loved these, not too sweet.  My brother's niece (my niece-in-law?) Shannon ate about 10 of these on Christmas day; very much a hit.

TWD: X - Cookies

Broad Brook Bakers have been absent for a while. We've been doing some of the recipes but I've had a difficult last quarter of 2013 in terms of work/life balance.  Enjoy the next few back to back blog entries (they may seem more like twitter posts!)...we've made up some ground and hope to take the rest of the break to fully catch up. 

We did these together back in October.  The kids were not crazy about the ingredients for the filling so we used poppyseed. 

The kids loved making these but thought they were rather plain. I felt the same although they were tasty with a cup of Earl Gray tea.

TWD: Blueberry Muffins

This is the second time I've made blueberry muffins this summer. The first was with fresh New Jersey berries. We gobbled these up faster than I could make them. The second time was a few weeks ago for this Tuesdays with Dorie entry. With this batch I used frozen berries.  The taste is the same but it is hard to prevent most of the berries from sinking to the bottom.












Regardless of frozen or fresh they are hard to keep around. They are delicate, buttery and filled with berry goodness.

What's not to like?

TWD: Johnny Cake Cobbler

After eating the Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas for dinner we had this for dessert.  I had planned to make ramekin-sized portions but having received an invitation for sitting by a neighbor's fire pit I decided to make a large one and share. 



I used peaches that we picked last year and froze, blueberries that we did the same and fresh raspberries and blackberries. 



I loved the crunchiness of the corn meal in the top crust.  The best was when it was still warm but whipped cream makes everything still good if there is any left over.

TWD: Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas

We had high hopes of keeping up with our baking while on our August vacation by the beach.  I took pictures of the recipes on my smart phone before we left. I did lots of cooking with the kids and with my husband.  On one of our first days my son picked Swedish meatballs of all things for dinner.  We were going through the frozen food aisle at the one of two grocery stores on the island. Nathan happens upon the Stouffer's section and is captivated by the Swedish meatballs. We ended up making a homemade version that we assume now will be in our monthly dinner rotation.  We simply did not get the call to bake again until we returned.



I let the sponge go for about 4 hours and when I opened up the plastic wrap there was that wonderful yeasty beer-like smell.



For the first time in quite a while my husband assisted.  He's our family pizza maker so it was apropos.



I used tomatoes from our garden.  Our crop this year has been scant but the fruit that we have are a wonderful quality.



I put the pine nuts on ours and for the kids I left out.



We added a generous drizzling of olive oil and some feta cheese after we plated.




We all enjoyed.  I would reduce the amount of whole wheat flour next time we make this.  I liked the bit of bite that the whole wheat gave but I would have preferred a more tender dough. We loved the combination of the lamb with the tomatoes, garlic and shallots.  We will likely make on a rewind but make some tweaks here and there.