summer pies

I've been enjoying the last flavors of summer by baking pies. It has been a delicious experience.

peach basil pie

The peach basil pie was inspired by this recipe. I was attempting a crostata but my kitchen got really warm so the dough started to get too sticky and I wasn't able to roll it out big enough for a crostata so I just decided to throw it in a pie pan. I think it came out quite nice for a traditional pie especially since I usually just bake crostatas. The crust was so buttery and flakey. The recipe called for lavender but I left that out because I just wanted to taste the peach and basil.

raspberry peach pie with a pecan oat crumble topping

The raspberry peach pie was a combination of three different recipes. I don't feel like I've found my go-to pie dough recipe yet so I've been experimenting with different ones each time I bake. For this particular pie I tried this dough recipe. I liked that the crust came out flakey but wasn't too buttery. I also found out that I really like mixing the dough by hand rather than using a food processor or even a pastry cutter. It's just really simple and easy to mix by hand and I agree that it gives you so much more control over your dough. This may be my go-to pie dough recipe. I'll have to try it one more time and then I'll let you know what I think. It'll be a good excuse to bake another pie.

I used this recipe for the filling. The only thing I changed was that I used yellow peaches instead of white. Also, I just measured out 6 cups of the peaches and raspberries and mixed them together. I don't know how many of each I ended up using.

And this was the recipe I used for the crumb topping. I followed this recipe exactly.

Summer…please don't leave. I'm not ready to say good-bye. Good thing I have a few pieces of pie still so I don't have to say good-bye quite yet. I hope you had a fun and relaxing Labor Day!

festive baking

eggnog chocolate chip via howsweeteats

cranberry banana nut via friendsfoodfamily

pumpkin cranberry via sweetpotatochronicles

I haven't done a lot of baking this holiday season, in fact, I think I've done more indulging in other people's delicious baked goodies than baking myself. But I was able to find time to bake these delicious loaves of bread: eggnog chocolate chip, cranberry banana nut, and pumpkin cranberry.

I'd still like to bake this bread, these cookies and this cake, but I'm really trying to embrace this saying.

butternut squash galette

In preparation for all the Thanksgiving baking I'll be doing tomorrow I've been practicing making pie dough from scratch. Instead of baking a sweet dessert like this I decided to bake something savory and found this recipe. There was a lot of prep work with this recipe and I do mean A LOT! Give yourself a full afternoon for this one especially if you don't make pie dough from scratch very often. But let me tell you that all the time put into making this galette will be worth it...it is delicious!

And if you want to know the difference between a crostata and a galette you can find out here. And don't these just look amazing?

I'll be sharing my Thanksgiving baking over the next couple of days. What do you make for Thanksgiving?

peach blueberry crostata

Practice really does make perfect. Although if I had it my way perfect would happen on the first try. Unfortunately, it never does for me so I'm slowly coming to terms with having to practice...a lot! My second attempt at baking a pie dough from scratch wasn't exactly perfect but I'm starting to enjoy this whole process of practicing especially when the results are so delicious.

The main thing I learned this time was to read all the directions before beginning- I shouldn't just scan them thinking I'll magically know what to do next. This was the first thing Patsy tried to teach me at our baking lesson. Obviously following instructions is right up there with practicing for me- I don't like it. I completely skipped the part about kneading the dough before rolling it out. The result was a sticky, gooey dough that stuck to my counter and eventually tore apart as I picked it up to put on the baking sheet. I tried adding more flour but didn't want to add too much and risk losing any of the flakiness of the crust. I had to re-roll it on the baking sheet to repair the parts of the dough that tore. It worked, I just wasn't able to roll it out as large as I would have liked. The crust didn't come out quite as flaky as I would have liked either, but I think I left it in the oven two minutes too long. Not too shabby for my second crostata ever!

Baking this peach blueberry crostata was my way of biding adieu to summer so the next one I bake will be welcoming back fall. Any fall flavor suggestions?

{all images via create.your.happy}

a lesson in baking

Last Sunday my friend Ivory and I had a baking lesson with her mother-in-law Patsy. The kind of baking Patsy does is the best kind of baking- from scratch! I've baked a few things from scratch but usually something doesn't come out quite right- whether it's the taste, texture, or appearance. Although Ebert will argue that whenever I bake it always tastes good. As I've mentioned here before I don't always have the patience for baking yet for some reason I still attempt new recipes. Baking is an art and a science that does not come naturally to me. This year, however, I'm determined to master some form of it. I've tried baking cakes now I'm switching to pies. I like pies better than cakes anyway. I've made pies before, I just cheat and buy a pre-made pie crust. I've never ventured into baking pies from scratch because I've always been daunted by making the crust. The crust is what makes the pie, it's the best part of a pie and if it's not good then you don't have a good pie (at least in my opinion). I'm happy to say that Patsy helped me get over my pie dough fear by teaching us how to make an apple crostata- a free-form, rustic type of pie. It was a fun day with two lovely ladies and now I feel confident about baking a pie from scratch. I just need to practice to get better at it. Ebert, I hope you're hungry!

sunday supper: german chocolate brownies

It was my father-in-law's birthday this weekend and instead of making a german chocolate cake, which happens to be his favorite, like I did last year I came across this german chocolate brownie recipe and just knew that I had to try it. I was hoping that my brownies would look like this....

via bakingdom

but, instead they looked like this.


They were still delicious though! However, I'm realizing that I just don't have the patience for baking. But, I'm sure I'll come across another recipe that I will just have to try, then I'll spend hours in the kitchen baking and once again come to the conclusion that I just don't have the patience for baking.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

bake a cake

I'm not sure what to do, so I'm going to bake a cake.

Heart Cake

via i am baker

Coconut Rainbow Cake via Sunshine's Kitchen

Olive Oil, Citrus & Rosemary Cake via mllenoelle

Neapolitan Cake via Sweetapolita

sunday supper: citrus desserts

This has been a busy baking week for me.

First, I made this wheat-free, gluten free Clementine Cake. It's a very simple recipe and quite tasty. I'm not much of a baker, so you know it must be easy if even I didn't mess it up. I really wanted to try this cake not only because it calls for just 5 ingredients, but also because you use the whole clementine, skin and all. I threw in a blood orange since I had one - a last minute and delicious addition. You could also use a combination of clementines and lemons, which I think would add a nice zing. The only thing I didn't like was that my cake had a bit of a crunchy texture. I think that was because I didn't grind up the almonds enough. Next time I'll just buy ground almond meal from Trader Joe's.

Clementine Cake via smitten kitchen

The next dessert I baked was a Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil. I served this with a scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and a Cherry Berry Compote. The tart turned out really tart. It had a zip, a zing, and a zang! Good thing I served it with the vanilla bean ice cream. I think the creaminess of the ice cream mellowed out the tartness quite a bit. Even though this dessert made my lips all a pucker it was still good. But, and there's always a but when I try a recipe for the first time, there were a few things about this dessert that didn't come out as well as I would have liked. First, the crust was all crumbly. I hate when the crust crumbles apart. I really need to work on my crust making skills. Second, the curd itself was not as firm as I would have liked. I think you can see this in the picture. My compote wasn't very good either. I didn't follow a recipe, I just winged it. Next time I'll follow a recipe. Also, I don't think I let it cool enough. And since berries and cherries aren't in season I used frozen- fresh fruit would have been better. Good thing I have every intention of making this tart again, hopefully next time it'll turn out better.

Lemon Curt Tart with Olive Oil

Happy Baking! Happy Cooking! And Happy Eating!

sunday supper: red velvet cake

It's been a busy bike racing weekend for me. I've been helping Ebert out with the ABD Winfield Criterium. Ebert is race director extraordinaire for this event. And, in case you didn't know, he is pretty much amazing at everything he does.

I can't believe that even with all the race preparations that I was still able to find time to bake a cake. Of course, I waited until the last minute to get all of my ingredients, so I was once again up late baking. That also happened when I baked the German Chocolate Cake a few weeks ago- I think I might need to start budgeting my time better. But, I ended up with yummy Red Velvet Cake for Ebert's dad Greg. Red Velvet Cake with Butter Cream frosting is Greg's fave and it was to celebrate his birthday.

I haven't eaten too many red velvet cakes myself, so I don't know how it compares to others. Everyone said they like it, so I guess I'll just have to trust their taste buds. I found this cake recipe from Pinch My Salt. The only thing I changed was that I used 1 ounce of red food coloring, instead of 2 ounces. I just couldn't use that much food coloring. And since Butter Cream frosting was requested I used this frosting recipe. Apparently, it's the best frosting you'll ever have!

Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pictures later. If not, Happy Baking!!!

sunday supper: german's chocolate cake

This is only the second cake I've ever baked from scratch, the first being a carrot cake. And, although, it was pretty delicious tasting it was not so pretty looking. Also, it was a lot harder to bake than I thought it would be. My egg whites never became "soft, droopy peaks" and I still don't understand how to "fold" ingredients.

But, at least now I know why it's called German (or correctly German's) Chocolate Cake. It has nothing to do with Germany, this cake is all Americana. The original recipe was created by a Texas homemaker and was first published in a Dallas newspaper in 1957. It called for "Baker's Sweet Chocolate" which is a baking chocolate created by Sam German back in 1852, hence the name German's Chocolate Cake.

Surprisingly, most foodie blogs are not using the original recipe. Instead, they're using David Lebovitz's recipe or some variation of his recipe. I'm not sure how similar his is to the original one, but the recipe I used was from 'always order dessert', which is an adapted recipe from David Lebovitz.

There are a few things I'm going to do differently next time -

Add more pecans to the filling.

Add more coconut and/or bigger coconut flakes to the filling: I used little flakes because I already had them. They're good in carrot cakes, not so good in German's Chocolate Cake.

Cook the filling longer so it's thicker: My filling was a tad runny, but that may have been because I needed to let it cool longer. Or maybe that's why I need to add more pecans and coconut.

Cut the filling ingredients in half: I had a lot left over. Of course, this would depend on if I want to try making thicker filler and what I do with the frosting (see below).

Make better frosting: I did not like my ganache at all- it was very bitter tasting. I'm not sure what to do to make it taste better, so I would either just try again and hope for the best, or I'd omit it all together and just put the filling all around the cake. You can never have too much coconut/pecan filling if you ask me.

Omit the syrup: I'm not even sure what it does to the cake. I didn't have a pastry brush, so trying to brush it on with my fingers did not work very well.

Make it a 2-layer cake, instead of a 4-layer cake: Part of the reason my cake didn't look pretty was because when I cut the cakes horizontally they ended up not being even. So, next time it will just be a very pretty 2-layer cake. Unless, I figure out how to cut cakes in half horizontally so they aren't all funky, lop-sided.

Happy Baking!