Rosemary Focaccia

Since I had rosemary leftover from making the olive bread, I decided to continue this string of bread making with focaccia.

I enjoyed some fresh outta the oven with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

"Classic" Brioche

So I'm still getting the hang of baking breads... and the only previous encounter with brioche dough was in class for the Pain au Raisin.

I got the request to bake up the "classic" brioche rolls, you know, the ones with the little "heads" on top - "brioche a tete".

So I whipped up a batch of dough, let it slow rise in the fridge overnight, then baked it off the following day in the cute little fluted brioche molds. (BTW, those suckers are hard to clean. My hands got all scratched up from the edges.)

These came out pretty big for a "roll". But yummy!

Here is the brioche shaping tutorial I referred to when forming the "tete".

I obviously need to work on that still.

I worried that after all the work of rising and rolling the dough, it would end up just sticking to the molds. So after just a few minutes outta the oven, I ripped one sucker out just to ease my mind. AND OMG YAY. It came out no problemo!

 It did lose the "tete" though... but otherwise, I thought it looked very delish and beautifully browned - if not just a bit misshapen.

OH HI. I'M DELICIOUS BRIOCHE.

Vegan Carrot Cake

I had an interview with a vegan cafe/bakery, and I wanted to "wow" them with a sample. And as you all know, while I'm very diligent to baking from scratch, I've never touched the whole gluten-free, vegan, etc alternatives of baking. I live right next to a Sprouts which offers all the great alternatives needed though - so I wasn't completely lost!

The recipe from Hell Yeah It's Vegan! Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

Looks very "organic" and "natural" no?

Tough to get out of the pan. I made an oopsie. :(

But I was able to salvage some to create a nice sampler piece.

I like carrot cake. So the cake part was really good. Maybe a bit on the oily side.
The frosting didn't come out that great. It was edible - not the classic cream cheese frosting most people know. For me it was missing that "tang" of the cream cheese. I might try another vegan cream cheese next time. Plus I also ended up using a vegan butter (Earth Balance), that wasn't unsalted - oops. Double oops when the recipe calls for margarine.

Catch up!

Haven't posted in a while! Eek!

Been so busy having work issues and personal problems... as usual.

Plus I haven't baked anything new.

 Challah (Overdone since I got distracted by TV)

Olive Loaf

I hope to be more productive soon!

End of an era...

So my boss, and friend, has abandoned me at work where we've been together for 3+years. Off to do great things with her own company...

and while I still work towards my own goals of baking greatness... I, of course, had to express myself one of the few ways I know how:

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Class Day 10: Croissants, Choc Croissants, Apple Turnovers

After all the hard work from last week of rolling croissant dough and puff pastry... we were finally ready to bake them off!
Sadly, this was the last class this session. Part 2 will be starting up in August though!

Rolling the dough...

Shaping the dough...

 

Egg washing the dough...

Baked and ready to eat!

Making the apple filling...

Filling the puff pastry/brushing with cream & sprinkling with sugar...

Golden brown... and all done!

Ready to go home!

Petey!

It was Petey's bday... and sometimes as we get older and just go out for dinner and drinks, wrapped gifts sometimes seem to be overkill.

But because I heart Petey so... I made him a little something!

What could it be???????????

A blue rice krispy treat name plaque thing! 

I spread some white on the top just to make this letters pop. (Hey! That rhymes!)