Tag Baking

Baking – Madeleine attempts…

brilliantviewpoint 30 Comments

January is the perfect time to bake. For Christmas, my daughter gave me a madeleine pan. I was excited to make them. Sadly, after two failed batches, I’ve given up, not forever, but for now.

If you know madeleines, you can tell from the photo that they aren’t right. I can hear the Chef’s critique now as he/she bangs the madeleine on the table and breaks it in half. Good, you got the hump, but they didn’t rise properly, too dense and too brown on the edges, turn the heat down. TRY AGAIN!

There are so many recipes out there, it was hard to choose one. For the first batch, I went with Martha Stewart’s recipe. As madeleines are tricky, I thought Martha’s recipe would be full proof. Maybe it is, but not for me, I got a fail!

I then tried “another” recipe. I don’t remember which one, I randomly chose one. Again, somewhat similar to this batch. This makes me think that “maybe” I’m not whipping the eggs/sugar enough. BUT I feel PROUD of myself for getting the hump. That’s a big deal with a madeleines. You have to have the hump!

If you haven’t tasted a madeleine. they are a nice cookie type cake. There is debate on what they are called. They are like individual cookies; however, the texture is clearly a cake.

So, stay tuned. I am determined to get them right. Maybe I’ll try again next week. It’s just painful in this tough economy (groceries so expensive) to waste ingredients, but baking takes practice.

Cheers to getting it right the NEXT time!

Brownie Recipe – the “healthy” way…

brilliantviewpoint 14 Comments

Lately, so many social media posts feature “healthy” alternatives to our beloved favorites, ie brownies! As I watched the videos, the recipes looked easy, few ingredients and final product looked delicious. I felt compelled to give it a try. We’re all trying to find healthier alternatives to old recipes, right?!

Drum roll please…

Have you ever thought of making brownies with three ingredients, ie no eggs, no flour, no oil or butter, just bananas, almond or peanut butter and cocoa powder? I would never have thought this possible. You can see from the end result, they “look” delicious and like normal brownies. So, visually, they are appealing.

Now, for the taste. HUM…

No question about it, they were definitely extremely chocolatey. I liked that.

However, the texture was a bit strange. As there is no flour, they were a bit gooey. I know, you can argue that there are normal brownies with a gooey texture, but these just seemed different.

I needed some outside food critics. My daughters were happy to be taste testers. The brownies looked good, why wouldn’t they try them! You KNOW it’s not perfect, when they say, “ W E L L… they have a very strong banana taste and the texture is different.”

Of course, at first I defended my brownies as perfect, selling them on how chocolatey they were. At some point, I had to concede. YES, they had a strong banana taste, nothing wrong with that if you like bananas. However, we were expecting the old fashioned “brownie” taste in a healthy form.

So, would I make them again? I don’t think so. I’d rather make the real deal and plan for those extra calories.

A brownie should be ENJOYED, not re-invented! Laughing…

Merry Christmas! Angel blueberry scones…

brilliantviewpoint 9 Comments

I decided to surprise my daughters with some blueberry scones. I made them into Angels. They were very good; however, I should have taken them out a little sooner. I haven’t baked in a while, so I was a little rusty on the timing. STILL the Angels were a big hit.

My daughter made protein waffles. Interesting ingredients: vital wheat gluten, oat flour, fat free cottage cheese, egg whites, some water. Before you shake your head, they were good. I would not have known they weren’t made from a waffle mix. They were delicious, very filling.

It’s fun to do some baking, home cooking for the holidays.

Wishing you ALL a very Merry Christmas Eve / Day!

Baking – Put the masks back on?

brilliantviewpoint 10 Comments

It looks like our mask freedom was short lived. Back to wearing masks indoors even if we are vaccinated. So, with that in mind, I thought I might as well brush up on my baking skills. Fall is coming, who knows what will happen in September. If we are house bound again, back to cooking/baking at home.

I haven’t made peanut butter cookies since I was a child. I’m not a vegan, but I saw this recipe on The Simple Veganista. So easy, seven ingredients in one bowl. Mix and bake.

If you live where there is hot weather, you should let the cookie dough set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes; otherwise, when you put the cookies on the cookie sheet, and into the oven — they melt and all blend together.

I would have been so dismayed, if I looked in the oven window and saw a sheet of peanut butter cake, instead of individual cookies. Another tip, I used a cookie scooper, so cookies look uniform. However, my cookie scooper is medium size and even though I used a fork to press the cookies down, they were chunky and took longer to cook.

Final Result — Excellent!

BONUS – so fast to make, little cleanup!

Pizza in a MUG? Breakfast Burrito in a MUG? Cooking just got easier.

brilliantviewpoint 17 Comments

Recently, I was doing a search for mug cakes. I found this site by Irish Chef & Baker Gemma Stafford, Bigger Bolder Baking, that had a pizza in a mug recipe. I watched the video of her making the mug pizza, it sure was quick and easy. I admit, I would never have thought of that. In fact, she has 100 different mug recipes. So many creative ideas.

She had one video where she was making pancakes with her husband. He was doing the video taping. She’s definitely a perfectionist and was bossing him around, that was funny. The pancakes looked yummy too.

So, if you are still stuck at home and need some fresh cooking/baking ideas, mosey on over to Bigger Bolder Baking. Chef Gemma will dazzle you with healthy exciting spins on old recipes. Also, she just started a Knead to Know podcast. When I go walking, I’ll listen to that.

Happy cooking! (Isn’t that what Chef Pepin says. He has good videos too.)

Baking/cooking – BEST mixing bowls

brilliantviewpoint 17 Comments

Years ago, I had white mixing bowls like these in the photo. They were wonderful. They came in three sizes and were very durable. Having small children, I didn’t have to worry that the bowls would break. I mixed everything in these bowls from pancake/cake/ brownie/cookie batter to meat balls, mac ‘n cheese to… you get the idea. These were my “go to” mixing bowls.

Tragedy struck. I lost my bowls. One day I went to get a bowl and couldn’t find them. I searched HIGH and LOW, they were no where to be found. I felt like a little kid who had lost the favorite pair of shoes. So, I thought — HOW could this have happened. Then I remembered, I had moved. Somehow in the move, bowls were gone.

Those bowls had been old, true, but they still worked. Now, I was forced to use other bowls. I tried using glass bowls, metal bowls, ceramic bowls… ahh, it just wasn’t the same. I longed for my white bowls. When shopping, I looked for these plastic bowls, they weren’t the same.

UNTIL, I walked into Crate & Barrel the other day, looking for a loaf pan.

Suddenly, my eye caught this pretty green moss color. Walking over I couldn’t believe it!  MY bowls — my bowls — I found them! Prettier in pale green, shinnier than my old worn out bowls.

My gosh, COVID worked a miracle! Without COVID I would not have shopped for a loaf pan, which brought me to my mixing bowls.

MORE GOOD NEWS!

83DFD0C6-B190-41DC-8340-69BB5C6A40C6

The reason I liked these bowls so much was because they were named after Danish Princess Margrethe. Now, I understood why I felt like a Princess using these bowls all these years…

SURPRISES — MIRACLES — THEY DO HAPPEN!