the twelve days of Christmas: day twelve

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Our infamous family Christmas stollen, made by the Majewski/Fry baking team featured above. Delicious down to the last raisin.

Gifts FOR the baker included my highly sought after ice cream maker (YAY!), fun new recipe books, an adorable apron and a very cool present from my husband that I can't wait to hang in our kitchen. The letter pictures are all from various places around Indy, including one from my favorite bakery.

Merry Christmas!


Stay tuned for many more baking adventures in 2012...
 

the twelve days of Christmas: day eleven

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

The best frosted sugar cookies ever made. (According to my parents - who have to say that.)

The cookies above are a tribute to Greg and I's first Christmas together as a married couple. We celebrated by eating them immediately. Then there are the traditional bell, star and tree shaped varieties. Here they are sans frosting.

We made a few fun additional shapes as well. Bears, for instance:

And Emma, of course:

And now for a picture that needs no words. My mother inhaling cookies as soon as we walked in the door yesterday. What else would you expect?

Merry Christmas Eve to all, and to all a good cookie.  

the twelve days of Christmas: day ten

On the tenth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Many Christmas gift tins filled with delicious cookies made by yours truly.

 After a few test runs, I am happy to say that I have perfected my peanut butter cookies topped with ganache and my double chocolate peppermint cookies. And the best (and happiest) news is: I was paid for my hard work! Yes, it was my first official sale and it felt great. But don't worry, I'll still have plenty of free samples around for my loyal readers.



Here are a few more enticing looks:

 

Spread the word: order forms will be available soon.  

the twelve days of Christmas: day nine

On the ninth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Heart-shaped lemon poppy seed muffins.

These are for you, Dad. They're making the journey to Fort Wayne tomorrow. And they were made with love.

Also, now we don't have to eat mom's store bought donuts for breakfast.

the twelve days of Christmas: day eight

On the eighth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Mexican wedding rings. (Or whatever you call them - this is the name I learned for them growing up.) 

Flour, butter, sugar and pecans have never tasted so good. The extra coating of sugar on the outside makes this statement a fact.

As you may have guessed, my cookies are a bit on the large size...

So it's a good thing we're eating these rings and not wearing them on our fingers.

the twelve days of Christmas: day seven

On the seventh day of Christmas, my baker gave to me....

Peanut butter cookies decorated with chocolate ganache.

This was a test batch for an upcoming project. Stay tuned for the final product when we get closer to Christmas.

Now let's move on to what you've all been waiting for. Why does my husband continue to amaze me everyday? Is it because...


1) He designed a cookie with a chocolate drawn Emma?

or b) he managed to get covered in chocolate after helping me decorate cookies?

You decide. I pick both reasons. :)

the twelve days of Christmas: day six

On the sixth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Eggplant parmesan with a side of pasta.

Another delicious dish made by my husband, who never ceases to amaze me. Just wait till you see what happens on day seven...

the twelve days of Christmas: day five

FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!

 

Sorry, not from this Christmas countdown. Although belting out this day's tune was always my favorite (in a deep, boisterous voice of course.)

On the fifth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Five peppermint baked meringues.

That's right, more peppermint spritz. Tis the season after all. This was my first time baking meringue and I may have over-pepperminted the things a bit, but they are the perfect after dinner mint.

Here's what they looked like before two hours in the oven.

 

p.s. I stole the present under the plate of meringues from under our tree, and it has my name on it... Any guesses on what it could be??

the twelve days of Christmas: day four

On the fourth day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Double chocolate peppermint cookies.

Mmmm... This is a recipe that I sort of invented. It's definitely a must for chocolate lovers. And the hint of peppermint gives it a nice spritz of holiday spirit. 

See? Spritz. Another batch of these cookies will be made soon. Stay tuned to find out why.

the twelve days of Christmas: day three

On the third day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

Three stuffed peppers covered in melted cheese.

This one is courtesy of my chef-in-the-making husband. And they were delicious. 

Happiness note: No French hens were harmed in the making of these peppers.

the twelve days of Christmas: day two

On the second day of Christmas, my baker gave to me...

A homemade cookie with two scoops of ice cream. 

And chocolate syrup. And sprinkles. I hate to add that because I think it almost rhymes without the toppings. But let's be honest about what we're eating, okay? Do I hear a New Year's resolution in the making? Also, I resolve to put homemade ice cream on my cookies next year. IF Santa comes through with that ice cream maker next week...

the twelve days of Christmas: day one

There seems to be a debate over when the official "Twelve Days of Christmas" start and end; however, it makes me most happy to start them today, with the final and twelfth day ending on Christmas. Henceforth, I will be providing you with a baker's gift each day for the next twelve days as a Merry Christmas gift. And mostly just to update you on what I've been up to over the last month. Some might call it a Christmas miracle!

On the first day of Christmas, my baker gave to me....

Soft rolls with poppy seeds on a pear tree.

Errr, no pear tree. Just yeast. And yes, the rolls actually puffed up fairly well in our cold house.

 

And they tasted as good as they look.

I'd send you one if I could. But Greg ate them all.

cold day comforts

Welcome to winter. I'm writing this post while cuddled under a blanket with the dog trying to keep warm. Our heat is temporarily out of service so it's only 59 degrees in our house. Also, it's snowing outside. Sigh. I guess I wasn't kidding when I said I'd be turning on the oven to keep us warm... Speaking of baking (and warm delightful things), I recently made a batch of my infamous banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. I used mostly silicone bake ware this time and was very happy with the results.

So was my BFF Kristy, who received a tin of cupcakes as a belated housewarming gift. Along with some wine to wash them down with of course.

Here she is ready to devour the first one. It's heart-shaped. Xoxo.

I made a cake with the leftover batter that wouldn't fit in my muffin tins. To be truthful, I had plenty of muffin tins, but not enough oven room. Happiness note to self: my dream kitchen has a minimum of three ovens. Anyways, according to all of my taste tester co-workers, a few days in the fridge makes this baked treat even better. Duly noted.

Two weekends ago I made pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. I used a recipe from one of my school pastry books and ended up with quite a large bowl of batter. This is how it all started.

The recipe called for honey and molasses, along with a large amount of sugar and butter. But remember, there was a vegetable involved, so let's just call things even on the health chart.

Next time I would use more chocolate chips, but it was a successful first try for this recipe. And second try actually. I saved some of the batter to bake off more muffins later in the week. The second round of muffins tasted even better than the first batch. Below is an example of how to make these muffins (or anything really) even more delicious.

Add a side of ice cream and chocolate sauce. Preferably homemade ice cream, but I am not the proud owner of an ice cream maker just yet, so this vanilla bean ice cream is store bought. Perhaps I can add home made ice cream to my plates in 2012? Only Santa Claus knows the answer to that question. And I plan on leaving him a plate of cookies next month to make his belly even jollier. Just in case he doesn't read my blog. 

tricky treats

The belated birthday cupcakes I made for Greg last week turned out to be somewhat of a tricky treat. These Hot Chocolate Mexican cupcakes have a lot going on, and the recipe is not kidding when it says to fill the cupcakes only 2/3 full before baking. My “bake them big” instinct kicked in and the results were interesting…

Hello cupcake overflow. Luckily, I was able to cut off the excess filling and frost around the imperfections. 

And we ate the scraps, so nothing went to waste. 

Even though the preparation was a bit tricky, four different kinds of chocolate in one dessert is definitely a treat. Especially when there are Reese’s peanut butter cups involved. These cupcakes get their name from the combination of chocolate, cinnamon and chili powder in the frosting. Don’t worry – I used low fat cream cheese in there as well. And while there were no candles in the cupcakes, a round of happy birthday serenading did occur. Emma howled along.

The other treat over the weekend was the carving of our first pumpkins. Here they are coming home from the farm.

 And sitting happily on our porch after a good de-gunking and carving session.

 And lit up to scare the neighborhood children. Any guesses on which pumpkin belongs to whom?

We toasted the pumpkin seeds to crispy perfection and they made the perfect salty snack. This weekend I will be making chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, but not with our purchased farm pumpkins. They’re busy on the porch scaring children, remember? Also, local squirrels appear to enjoy snacking on them since a few teeth and eyeballs are now missing in action...

who's counting?

One year of pastry classes. Hundreds of pastries. Fifty blog posts. Another term is over.

I have successfully completed my term on specialty cakes and frozen desserts and I have several images to share with you, but first I want to say that I can't believe how far I've come in a year. Do I still have a lot to learn and experience to gain? Yes. But I am amazed at and proud of all of the time and hard work I've put in over the last year that have gotten me to this point. Our final practical last Saturday was two plated frozen desserts and while I was a bit nervous during the process, I also really felt like I nailed it. It's a great feeling to do something you love, actually know what you're doing (and why) and then receive praise for the end product. And a few critiques to work on for the future.

The final two weeks of the term involved more fancy cakes, including the Julianna which I don't have a picture of, all of which have many components and details that go way beyond the simple birthday cake that you're used to. The alternating layers of sponge cake, syrup flavoring, ganache, Italian butter cream and a variety of other filling/topping options, made me long for a simple white cake with white butter cream frosting. Hmmm...perhaps our one year wedding anniversary cake could be eaten nine months early? Doubtful, but I am already excited about it.

My group assisted Chef by making a tiramisu and opera cake for an event at the school this Monday. I was also able to practice my cutting skills to get the fifty pieces we needed out of each cake. Cutting skills practice included cleaning and then heating the knife with a blowtorch after each cut to ensure a clean cut was made every time. Happiness = using a blowtorch confidently without worrying about burning your fingers off. After a few tries, I became a pro. Here are the mini-cakes.

 

Two weeks ago, we made a deliciously tart passion fruit sorbet. Sorbet has way less fat than ice cream, but a heck of a lot of sugar. Mary Poppins would sing gleefully about this spoonful.

Our frozen mousse for our practical was whipped up as well. We chose a raspberry brandy flavor since we also had to pair it with our mango icecream for our bombe plating. The flavor was subtle, but the mousse turned out smooth and creamy after sitting in these molds in the freezer for a week.

And that brings us to the final practical. The plating presentation for desserts can have as much variety, color and tastes as an individual wants, however, I am one to keep things clean and simple. I like a splash or two of color, but nothing crazy or overpowering. I think the food should speak for itself. With that said, here is my frozen bombe dessert presentation.

What you see here is a mango ice cream bombe with a raspberry brandy mousse inside and candied lemons on top. The dessert is sitting in crème anglaise with raspberry and mango sauce accents and shells of whipped cream around the bottom (a requirement). The sidekick is a curled piece of tuile cookie holding a piece of chocolate. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the bombe after it was cut open, but unfortunately I did not. To make up for that, here is my frozen mousse dessert presentation.

My last (and favorite) dessert of the term is a raspberry brandy flavored frozen mousse topped with a curled tuile cookie and a spring of mint (fresh raspberries would have been included if we had them). There is also a side of crème anglaise with mango and raspberry sauce accents and three absolutely scrumptious almond macaroons. These cookies were so good that I was worried Chef was going to eat all of our nice looking ones before plating time! He did not; however, he did eat two of these while grading my desserts (which I took as an extreme compliment). Next time I would go a little less heavy on the crème anglaise, but overall, I was proud of my desserts and so were the chefs. A fabulous way to end the term!

I will not be in the school kitchen for the remainder of the year, but I will be keeping our home kitchen quite busy. Bonus: the oven will help us heat up our drafty old house. It's a win-win situation. First on my list are Greg's slightly belated birthday cupcakes this weekend. Stay tuned for pictures of the birthday boy blowing out a cupcake candle...or 27.