Coming up...

for week #3: Pumpkin Scones with Spiced Glaze! Can't wait to try them!

Last weekend I finally got up the nerve to make Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. It had always seemed like a very big task and I was nervous about making them. Actually, for some reason, the scariest step seemed the first-- scalding the milk. How do you do that? How do you know if it's scalded? Is it warm enough? Did I get it too warm? But I decided to face my fears and I was rewarded greatly!

In her cookbook, the Pioneer Woman gives step-by-step instructions along with pictures. I am very much a visual person, so I am thankful for these pictures. I'm not sure whether I did the milk-scalding business right or not, but they seemed to have turned out all right.

Waiting for the dough to rise


After the dough rose for an hour, I mixed in more ingredients and then started rolling them out on the table. I decided to make a half batch for my first endeavor because she said the full amount would make 40-50 rolls!!! We definitely didn't need that many sitting around. I rolled out the dough, poured on melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Then I rolled it back up, with the butter and filling oozing out -- a good sign according to PW!-- and then sliced them up. I was a little nervous because they were quite a variety of sizes and I was afraid I hadn't done something right and they wouldn't set up. But when we came back home, they'd had PLENTY of time to rise I'd say...



Sorry for the shadow-- I'm still working on the whole photography thing.



I ended up getting four pans worth of rolls. They baked for about 13 min. in the oven and they came out beautifully...



While they were baking, I mixed up the icing that I would be drizzling... no... pouring onto them once they were out of the oven!


Powdered Sugar

Butter

Maple Extract

Coffee

Milk

I just salivated...

So they came out of the oven, I poured on the icing and gave them about 44 seconds to cool before I scooped one out of the pan to try. I had heard so many things about these rolls, would they live up to their high expectations? ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY YES! I seriously wanted to eat the entire pan. If there was any way I could have justified doing so, I would have. Nevertheless, I ate two of those gems and decided I would never make cinnamon rolls out of a can again. Why had I ever thought that was ok? Why did I ever choose that shortcut? What have I been missing all this time?

These! These are what I've been missing! Ooey, gooey, delicious, and lovely!



You will see these again. Mark my words.



I plan to try to her variations-- orange marmalade, caramel apple, and perhaps even the chocolate chip version. When the holidays arrive, I intend to make more, many more! Pioneer Woman promised hugs and kisses and squeals of delight from any and all who try these, so I intend to make that happen. Wouldn't you want one?



Maybe it's time to go ahead and get that last pan out of the freezer...

To life... full of cinnamon rolls, THESE cinnamon rolls!

Fourteen for Fall- Recipe #2

Mom made a delightful choice for this week's challenge-- Pumpkin Cheesecake! The recipe comes from Tracy at Sugarcrafter.


But before I continue on, I want to finish giving the results from the Caramel Apple Cake from last week. If you want to check out my sister's review, you can visit her blog here: http://mystrongestlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/fourteen-for-fall-week-1.html. As for my mom, she gave this review of the cake: "It is delicious! I made it this PM. Very smooth texture and festive fall spice tasting. The kitchen smells wonderful!!" So if you hadn't decided to make it yet, maybe those reviews will win you over!

Back to the cheesecake...

I must admit, I have never made a cheesecake on my own before. I don't even own a springform pan. Honestly, I was always a little intimidated by the water bath - how are you supposed to do that without getting the cake wet in one of those spring form pans? And you wrap the bottom in tin foil? And you use boiling water to set in the pan that goes around the cheesecake that is covered with tin foil? It all seemed like a very big project. But when I saw that this recipe simply had you bake it without all the extra steps, I was even more excited to make it!

Because of all the baking over the weekend and the amount of food in my kitchen, I decided to go ahead and halve the recipe. I had a 'conference' with my mom and she said it wasn't necessary to buy a springform pan either, so I decided to forgo that for now as well. Usually I don't like to make many changes, especially on something so new, but I decided it would be ok.

The crust had only three ingredients and was quick to put together. Even though I halved the recipe, I think maybe I should have kept the crust recipe the same. I've heard from other bloggers that many of them double the recipe for crust unless they do less cheesecake. For this particular one, I feel that would be a good idea. More crust is a must!


The cheesecake part was whipped up with ease in my trusty kitchen-aid (thanks again Mom!). I guess maybe I've baked cakes too long, but the mixture was more smooth and pourable than I expected. I decided to use an 8" cake pan. It was a good size in my opinion. Here it is right before going in the oven.



During my 'conference' with mom she had advised that I reduce the original temperature of the oven and also cut the time in half for baking. So I baked the cheesecake at 400* for about 7 minutes. Then I opened the oven door, let out some heat, turned down the temp. to 200*, and then closed the oven door. The full recipe stated to bake the cheesecake at 450* for 15 min. and then reduce the temperature of the oven to 200* and bake for an additional hour. So I checked mine at the 30 min. mark and it didn't seem done. The recipe said the edges would be set and the middle would be wiggly-- but how wiggly I wondered? So I texted my sister and she said it would be almost like jell-o. Even with that, I still ended up leaving it in for the full hour and I think it was just right. It was still pretty wiggly which made me nervous, but I trusted the "jell-o theory" and took it out to cool.



I let it cool down, then covered it and placed it in the refrigerator. I didn't try a piece until the next day! I'll admit, the springform pan would have made it much easier to cut and remove the cake. But all things considered, I thought I got a pretty good-looking piece out.



I don't have a ton of expertise in the area because cheesecakes are usually special occasion desserts. But overall, I really enjoyed the cheesecake. It wasn't too pumpkin-y, which I thought was in its favor. You could still taste the pumpkin, but it wasn't overpowering which was nice. I didn't have any cardamom, which the recipe called for, so I'm not sure how that would have factored into the spice factor. I felt that there probably could have been a smidge more cinnamon and nutmeg, but, as I said, if the cardamom had been in there it might have been a different story. Sugarcrafter recommends drizzling some caramel sauce over the top, we didn't try this. I wanted to eat my first piece without any topping and after eating in plain, I don't think I miss the caramel on it. I might try one piece with it, but I think it would take away from the goodness that comes from the cheesecake alone.

**If you want to read my sister's review, check out her blog here: My Strongest Life. Mom said she enjoyed the cheesecake. She thought the ginger in the crust was an interesting addition and that it helped tie together the crust with the spices in the cheesecake. She also lacked cardamom and would be interested to see how this changes the overall taste of the cheesecake.**

I was very happy with how my first cheesecake turned out. Seems like lots of people have problems with the cheesecake cracking and such, but there was no such thing here. I believe I will save this recipe for sure and bring it out for special occasions.

To life... full of cheesecake without cracks and water baths!

The Joy of Baking with Friends

Over the weekend this happened:



and a little bit of this:



Look tasty? It was!

On Saturday a couple of my friends came over to bake with me. Occasionally I like to have a baking day where I make several things that are in my saved folder "Recipes I Must Try." You see, this folder is bulging and continues to grow as I find more recipes I seem to feel I "must try". But instead of making all these things and having them all to myself, baking with others helps with 1) cost! 2) time 3)consumption. All very important! The girls came over around 2 pm and we began...

I had already mixed up the cookie dough balls and put them in the freezer. These babies needed to freeze 4 hrs+ to overnight, so into the freezer they went




The recipe said it would make 9 large balls, so I figured, oh I can get a few more so we can share. Holy cow-- I got 27! I can't imagine having eaten one if I had only made them into 9!! It would have been the size of my fist!


Anyway, Stephanie showed up and she started to work on the sugar cookies for her hubby's birthday. She mixed them up and got them in the oven about the time Tara arrived and we set to making the pie.


Graham Cracker crust: Graham crackers, butter, peanut butter, sugar!


Tara got to working on the Peanut Butter Filling- milk, cornstarch, sugar, egg, peanut butter, and some more wonderful ingredients.



At this point it may seem that I was doing nothing, but I was bouncing around, doing bits here and there. I really was helping, there was just no picture proof!

We baked the pie crust for a few minutes in the oven

and it came out looking marvelous.

We let it cool a bit before pouring the filling in and setting it in the fridge.



Then we went to work on the cookie dough balls. Even though they had been in the freezer for over 12 hours they still hadn't frozen into solid balls. So the process of dipping them in the hot, melted chocolate was a bit tedious...

and messy...

and delicious!




Look at the final results!

Finally we made the chocolate whipped cream for the top of the pie!



This was the only thing that was not our absolute favorite. It wasn't very sweet, but we figured it was supposed to counteract the sweetness of the pie filling and crust--which it did! All together it tasted wonderful!




It was a very fun afternoon! Thanks for coming over to bake with me girls. I hope we can do it again soon!



This week for my Fourteen for Fall Challenge, my mom has picked Pumpkin Cheesecake! I'm very excited because 1) I have never made a cheesecake before and 2)this is a recipe hubby wanted me to try for the Fall. Come back on Thursday to see how it turns out.

To life... full of afternoons spent baking with friends!

Fourteen for Fall- Recipe #1

Easy Caramel Apple Cake. It made my kitchen smell just like Autumn!!



I'm so excited to report that my sister and mom are going to join my in my challenge. I'm not sure if they'll both be able to do every week, but they're joining in the fun! Let's start the review...

First up, I enjoyed this cake for it's simplicity, thus the title of the recipe! But you literally mix all ingredients minus the apples and topping in one bowl.

These--


Go here


You add the chopped apples and stir gently. Then pour them into a bundt pan! **This is the first bundt cake I've made!!**



The cake baked for about 45 min. in my oven. Then I mixed together caramel and milk and let it set up a bit while the cake cooled.

I was probably a bit hasty in putting the topping on because the cake was still warm and the caramel sort of pooled all over-- but I was getting anxious to go to bed! Regardless, I tried a piece around 10:15...


It was warm... Mmmmm... and caramelly! The cake was light and moist, not dense like I always assume bundt cakes will be. I had a pretty small slice of cake, but I still got a couple pieces of apple. So I felt that the amount of apples was great. I really enjoyed the cinnamon and nutmeg in the cake and especially loved the smell as it was baking in the oven! The spices definitely got me ready to usher in Autumn!! I think I will definitely make this cake again. I have only tried one piece so far, but am ready to try another this afternoon! I brought it to work to share and hopefully get some feedback as well. Thank you--My Baking Addiction-- for sharing a recipe I will continue to make during my future Autumns!!



To life... full of sugar and spice and everything nice!

Fourteen for Fall

Today I came up with a fun idea! As you all know, I read many, many food blogs. I always see the various cooks/bakers/chefs challenging themselves with different things, ex. Tuesdays with Dorie. I don't feel I'm quite up to those challenges yet, but this morning I thought of my own personal challenge. There are so many fall recipes I'm wanting to try, I decided that I am going to challenge myself to make one new fall recipe each week of the season!! Now, there are only 13 weeks of Autumn, but I figured I could try to fit one extra in there at some point--you know, provide myself with more of a challenge. I'm thinking this will be very exciting and push myself to make these things instead of just saving them all up!

I will plan to debut a new recipe each Thursday, starting this Thursday, September 23rd since it's the first, full, official day of Autumn! Are you getting excited? I am! Does anyone want to join me? Sister? Mom? Just a shout-out, let me know what you think... you could even do like every other week or something!

One thing I have learned from the blogs is that you don't always have to make the full recipe. So I'll probably cut some of the recipes in half. Plus, I'll plan on bringing some to work for people to evaluate as well.

I tried my hand at Pioneer Woman's Flat Apple Pie this weekend and it was wonderfully delicious! (I'll try to post a picture soon--although the picture isn't great). The pie crust was flaky and awesome. Will most likely be my permanent pie crust recipe! Regardless, I think I'm going to start off my Fourteen for Fall challenge with Easy Caramel Apple Cake. Come back on Thursday to see how it turns out!

To Life... full of new challenges!

One Year of Blogging

I realized today that I was probably getting pretty close to my one-year anniversary of blogging, so I went back and found my first post-- September 12, 2009. What?!? I had totally missed it. I didn't realize I had started that long ago! So I guess today I'll write my "Anniversary Post".

I have run several races in the past year and discovered that I really enjoy running! I have begun baking more and more and realize that it has become a passion and a gift that I enjoy sharing with others. I have been reading more than ever and feel more well-balanced and glad that I'm not letting my brain rot by staring at the TV screen (at least as much). I have traveled to several new places around the U.S. and Europe and believe that more traveling is ahead of me. I have learned that talking to new people isn't as scary as I thought it was--although I still struggle getting up the nerve! My relationship with God has grown and matured and even though I feel closer to Him now than a year ago, I know there will always be something to learn and strive for. I love my hubby even more than I did a year ago and feel like we may understand each other just a smidgen more :o) definitely a work-in-progress!! I plan to continue blogging about the various goings-on in my life and hope you will enjoy them as well. Thank you for reading my blog this past year!

To life... full of self-reflection.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great time in Colorado Springs over the Labor Day weekend! We drove through the night on Thursday, so we had all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and then part of the day on Monday! We did lots of fun things while we were there. Some of the highlights:

Hiking in the Foothills


Playing Pictionary

Eating at Fargo's

A Baby Shower for my cousin due in a few weeks!

Sis and I baking

**although we can't take credit for this particular cake. Fortunately our aunt had a back-up in case the altitude wreaked havoc with ours... it did, so our German Chocolate Cake became a trifle :o)**

Dad's Surprise Party!



Running our Marathon Relay!

Pre-Race Team Photo


Post-Race Team Photo

Our team did awesome! Our total time was 4:29:16!! My leg was 6.75 miles and my goal was to do it in 70 min. My time ended up being 69:19! So even with dealing with the altitude I was able to beat my goal!


All in all, it was a terrific weekend with lots of wonderful memories made! It was a great kick-off for fall and a nice break from work before we settle in to the routine until Christmas. I'll be back soon with some recent baking photos.

To life... full of food, family, Fargo's, flops, free time, Fall, and fun!