TWD: Best Ever Brownies

We started out with fine Guittard chocolate. I used some of the chocolate from the first recipe (the chocolate truffle tartlets from back in February.)




Lots of sugar. It does call for unsweetened chocolate so you have to make it sweet.



Lots of butter.  The chocolate smelled so good as it was being melted.  




Sarah had her first sleep over the night before, one of her neighborhood friends.  The two of them helped me put these together.



The eggs were somewhat of a challenge to fold into the chocolate.  



The recipe was very forgiving; I was not very gentle in my folding technique.



I had to try them (almost) right out of the oven.  The inside was like chocolate lava cake - gooey, wonderful....




I cut the brownies in small rectangles and shared with the neighbors.  These are rich and delicious.  Brownies from a box have their place but if you want - decadence -  here it is.



The next day we heated the brownies up in the microwave for 20 seconds and had ice cream on the side - I paired it with coffee.  Not a dessert I could eat every day but a real treat. If making specifically for kids, I would use less "sophisticated" chocolate.  The younger folks liked these but for my daughter in particular, these were almost too rich.

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie friends!

 - Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

When Nathan was three years old he absolutely went crazy over the blueberry muffins shown on the next page of this recipe in Baking with Julia.  But for the past few years, Nathan has turned his nose up at them and has kept asking for a simple cinnamon muffin.  These muffins were exactly what he wanted and he loved them. Simply wonderful, these muffins.




We added a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter but other than that we kept to the recipe.  




We didn't add an overabundance of the crumb topping because we didn't want them to be too sweet. 




Sarah liked the muffin top the best; she thought that it tasted like a cookie. I'm thinking that a future Rewind might be buttermilk crumb muffin tops, I have one of those top only pans.

As I ate my muffin on this quiet Sunday morning, in the back of my mind was a familiar taste, memory and texture.  My husband remarked that he too had this same feeling and was it perhaps that they tasted - in a much more grown-up way - like Hostess brand Cinnamon Crumb Cakes. I begrudgingly agreed that he was onto something. Upon further thought, how wonderful to be able to remember a childhood food memory by tasting a grown-up version that has only improved on the memory of the original.

Cheers,
Broad Brook Bakers 

TWD: Rewind.....Sticky Buns and Popovers

I froze half of the brioche dough from back in May when we made the Pecan Sticky Buns. We loved this breakfast treat so much that I could hardly contain my excitement at the possibility of these flaky wonderfully gooey buns. I woke up earlier than usual to start the rising. 




I removed the dough from the freezer and performed the suggested steps.  Unfortunately, this brioche dough did not rise properly (even with additional time) or retain it's flaky texture when baked.  I take full responsibility for the fair result.  The recipe states that the dough can be kept in the freezer for up to one month.  Next time I will heed those instructions!



Hot out of the oven the buns were still pretty good.  But again did lack a good number of those flaky layers that were evident on the first go-round back in May.



We could not help ourselves but to whip up a batch of the perfect popover recipe from Baking with Julia.  Always a success and never any left...

Warmly,

Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Bagels

Knowing that this past weekend was going to be a busy one, Sarah and I worked on the dough for the bagels on Thursday evening.  There was plenty of time to rise for the one hour and then I placed into the refrigerator for it's two and a half day rest.



We bought high-gluten flour from King Arthur Flour. We didn't add the pepper to the dough because I was thinking we might make a few cinnamon ones, which we did end of doing.



As with every yeast bread, I had to stop Sarah from pinching too many bites of the dough.




First rise at room temperature.





The dough rose substantially in the refrigerator by the time we were ready for the second half of the project on Sunday.  The dough had a wonderful texture and was easy to work with.  The first batch, Sarah and I shaped into the rings and the second batch we had help from two of our wonderful neighbor friends.



Boiling was the most fun.  So easy! And they really expanded in the water.



Sarah's friend, La'Shion helped sprinkle the poppy seeds on some of the bagels.




Baked, yummy, chewy goodness.




I sliced up a few and we ate right away.




The next day we sliced some up and ate out of the toaster.  

I think bagels are well-worth the time spent to make home-made.  I strongly suggested others to splurge on the high-gluten flour. Not sure if I can eat a Dunkin Donuts bagel ever again.  Simply not worth the calories in comparison to this recipe.

Look out for our re-wind recipe near Halloween.

Until next time,

Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaves

My husband was a full-fledged Broad Brook Baker for this recipe.  He procured the mini loaf pans at the King Arthur on-line store and saw to it that the loaves went in and out of the oven before our son's travel soccer game. Tuesdays with Dorie has become a wonderful family affair.  His assistance on this go around made a lot of sense because this combination of flavors is one of his favorites.



Sarah did the stirring.  Loves this job.



Cranberries are beautiful fruit.  The ones I bought were incredibly tangy and tart; this is the way Jason loves them!



The description that the bread would be somewhat like a brioche was very accurate.  The texture was wonderful and you could easily pick up the hint of pumpkin.



This bread is jammed packed with fruit and nuts.



It took almost 3 hours to get to the proper temperature for the second rise.



I ended up dividing the bread into four and they still rose great.



I love the mini loaves; they are just so darn cute.



I had some out of the oven but I very much preferred toasted the next day.  I froze a couple of the loaves and will enjoy all throughout October. I loved this combination of flavors but I want to try and make this same bread to make a pumpkin cinnamon swirl version.  I've almost made up my mind that this will be my end of October rewind recipe.

Until bagels....Broad Brook Bakers signing off.

TWD: Whole Wheat Bread

This past weekend was very busy so it was wonderful to have a recipe that could be made on Monday. Sarah, Nathan and I got home and got right to work on this bread.



One of my all-time favorite smells is yeast.  I have a love affair with bread.



I was worried that this amount of flour would overwork my KitchenAid but it ended up mixing with no problems. I ended up using 3 cups of bread flour and 3 cups of whole wheat flour with about 3 tablespoons more during the kneading process.



The recipe called for malt extract. We looked up getting this from King Arthur flour but it only came in large quantities.  Apparently malt extract is used in the beer making process. My husband found that you could substitute malt for molasses.  Combined with the honey that the recipe already called for, the sweet taste came  through wonderfully but delicate in nature.



The bread was not baked until after the kids went to bed so they enjoyed in the morning.



I couldn't resist sneaking a couple of slices while the bread was still warm.  

Onward to cranberry walnut pumpkin loaves.  If anyone is looking for the size tins recommended and for the high-gluten flour for the bagel recipe, we placed an order from the King Arthur flour on-line store.

Warmly,
Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Nectarine Upside-Down Chiffon Cake

It may be called nectarine above but we used peaches.  We have a local peach, apple and vegetable farm.  I bought two boxes of almost-the-end-of-season peaches.



Next time I make this recipe I will slice the peaches a bit smaller. The peaches held up beautifully in the cooking but I like them to be a bit on the softer side. This picture is Sarah pretending to slice the peaches on her own; please no worries I did this job.



We used a bundt springform pan.  This in the end was not one of my best ideas. 



Big slabs of butter.  What could be better.  



The end result was very much like granola.  Next time I would cut down on the sugar for the recipe but it was very good to eat on it's own.




Sarah discovered that she loves meringue. The batter of this cake was very good.



We came back from the day before school open house to the cake ready to plate and eat.



Here's a slice.  Again, the bundt pan was not the way to go.  Some of the pieces came out perfect like this.  But half the cake never made it on the platter.  I'm beginning to think this blog is fine-tuning us more as food stylists than bakers!




Can't resist showing off some lavender harvested the same day. Lavender and peaches are a wonderful smell combination.



See you later this month .....whole wheat bread.