Bake 52 Week 9: Babka

 Babka.  I've never heard of it until now.  I had no idea what to expect.  I would consider it to be a dessert bread.  The dough is very sweet and there is cinnamon, sugar, and walnuts rolled into it.  Raisins are optional.  It was delightful.  I thought it was a beautiful bread.  I felt very accomplished when I pulled it out of the oven.  It tastes amazing!  I will definitely make it again when I want to impress someone.  The recipe makes two loaves, but I only made one.  I made crescent rolls with the rest of the dough, like Amanda did. My only problem was that my loaf was a bit doughy in the middle.  Did anyone else have this problem?

I would definitely recommend this recipe, and here is the link:  http://michellefavrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/02/bake-52-week-9.html

xoxo

j

Bake 52 Week 8: Peanut Butter Cookies

sigh Cookies.  

I love cookies.

This peanut butter cookie recipe is pretty standard.  Butter, sugar, extra crunchy peanut butter, flour, crushed peanuts... etc.  There is nothing about it that will wow you, but it's a great basic recipe.  Here's the link to the recipe.

xoxo

j

Happy V-day

 Holy cow, there are so many cute Valentines Day ideas on pinterest right now.  I have intentions to do some of them.  However, I was supposed to bring treats to a kids club and I needed to find something quick and easy.  These rice krispie treats took me about 20 minutes from start to finish.  The white stuff is just melted white chocolate chips with a little oil.  I just put it into a sandwich bag and pipped it onto the rice krispie treat.  I saw some way cuter versions of this on Pinterest, but again, they were still too time consuming.  I took what I liked from them and made an easier, quicker version.

xoxo

j

Betsy's Caramel Corn (the soft kind)

My friend, Betsy, just gave me this recipe.  It's the soft kind of caramel popcorn.  It is gooey, and oh so good!  I brought it to a girls movie night, and the girls raved about it!  Thanks for the recipe Bets!

Betsy's Caramel Corn

1/2 c butter

2 c brown sugar

1 can condensed milk

3/4 c Karo syrup

Combine all and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. stirring consistently, boil 4 min. (you can stir in a tsp of vanilla after heating if you like here also) Pour

over popcorn (probably 2-4 bags) and mix well.

xoxo

j

Bake 52 Week 6: Challah Bread

I have something to admit.  This is the first time that I have ever made bread all my myself, EVER.  Yep.  I have always had a huge fear of making bread.  It just seemed so time consuming, which it was.  When I first looked at the recipe for Challah bread I felt completely overwhelmed.  I thought to myself "maybe I'll just skip this week".   But I didn't, and I'm glad.

I was really dubious the whole time I was making this bread.  The dough was really dense.  Maybe that is how all bread dough is.  I wouldn't know.  So I let it rise, but it was still so heavy.  Then came time to do these crazy braids.  They really were crazy.  The whole thing was looking so ugly, and I almost quit several times.  Surprisingly, The bread came out of the oven looking and tasting great!  I was shocked!!!

 It did get slightly over cooked.  I blame that on my husband.  I had to go somewhere, and I was left with no choice but to leave the cooking part up to him.  So considering the situation, it turned out just fine.

By the way, Challah bread is a jewish bread.  It's pronounced Halla.  The CH is silent.

Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.zollyzoo.com/inthekitchen/2012/02/08/bake-52-week-6-challah/.  Here are my pictures.

See what I mean?  UGLY!

And double ugly 

Not so bad!

I'll take it!

Today I made bread!  That feels good to say!  Maybe I'll do it again someday...just maybe.

xoxo

j

Bake 52 Week 5: 7 Layer Bars

Hi everyone!  Today I am hosting for Bake 52!  Before I get to the actual recipe, I want to give a little introduction about myself for my new Bake 52 friends.  My name is Jesse.  6 months ago I moved to Boston where my husband is attending Harvard Business School.  I've been thrown into a completely new lifestyle here in Boston.  I'm still trying to get used to the hussle and bussle of life.  I've been trying new things every day.  I even tried cooking a live lobster, though I don't recommend it. Here's the link if your're interested. I also have a one year old son named Woodson.  I am originally from South Dakota.  That is where I met Amanda (the Amanda who is in charge of Bake 52).  She was actually my youth leader at church like 9 or 10 years ago.  I thought she was super cool (and still do).  Now i'm all grown up (well sorta, i'm 25) and I'm happy to say that we kept in touch and we're still friends.  She even drove like 3 hours to come to my wedding reception!  Little did I know that we would have so much in common today!  Anyways, I love to cook and hate to clean.  My kitchen is messy about 60 % of the time.  But i'm a germaphobe, so it's not bacteria messy.  Just regular messy, cluttered.  I also love to play games.

Ok, it's recipe time.  The actual recipe is near the end of this post.

I decided to choose the 7 Layer Bars and here's why.  My Mom makes the best 7 layer bars EVER.  However, she always makes it up in her head so it's not written down anywhere.  I have tried making them twice, and failed both times.  It was time for me to find a 7 layer recipe of my own.  I've gotta say, this recipe was not a fail, and not a disappointment!  It's pretty similar to hers, except that there are no rice krispies or heath bits in my Moms recipe.  I thought both were great additions.  My Mom makes her bars with butterscotch chips.  I knew that I would miss those, so I went ahead and added them to this recipe.  It's totally worth it.  They are so yummy in these bars and i'm not even a butterscotch fan.  Just trust me.

I was a little worried after reading Rachel Howard's (it's TroyandRachelHoward on Facebook) post on the Bake 52 FB page last week.  She said that they were too gooey.  I decided to stick to the recipe and put in the normal amount.  I'm glad I did.  They were perfect for me.  I'm not really sure what she was talking about, because they were the same consistency as our Mom's recipe.  Oh yeah, did I mention that Rachel is my sister?!?  So I can say that cuz she's my sis.  :) She has a really cute blog called familyeverafter.blogspot.com.  Check it out!

So all in all, I was really pleased with the outcome of this dessert.  These bars are really decadent, but so good.  I made them for my husband's birthday on Monday.  He said that they were better than any birthday cake he's ever had!

And now, for the recipe!  I have two versions of the recipe.  First is the whole recipe written out with no pictures.  Underneath that is the  recipe directions with my pictures incorporated.  Also, any notes that come from me are NOT italicized, and are in bold.  You'll notice in the pictures that I halved the recipe.  Hope you like it!

7 Layer Bars

Makes 24 bars

Ingredients

1 cup Chocolate covered toffee bits (heath brand)

12 whole graham crackers, broken into 1-inch pieces

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped fine  I used milk chocolate chips

1 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped coarse

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips (I did a little less pecans and semisweet chocolate chips because I added butterscotch chips)

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted

2 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk 

I used the entire amount of sweetened condensed milk, minus a few tablespoons because I did not scrape the can.

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.  Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 by 9 inch baking pan with a foil sling and grease the foil.

2.  Process the toffee bits to a fine powder in a food processor, about 10 seconds.  Add the graham cracker pieces and continue to process the mixture to fine crumbs, about 30 seconds.  Drizzle the melted butter over the crumbs and pulse to incorporate.  Sprinkle the crumbs into the prepared pan and press into an even layer with the bottom of the measuring cup. Bake the crust until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.

3.  Remove the crust from the oven, sprinkle with the milk chocolate, and let sit until the chocolate is softened but not melted, about 5 minutes.  Smooth the softened chocolate into an even layer.  

4.  Layer the Rice Krispies, pecans, chocolate chips, then coconut into the pan, in that order, pressing on each layer to adhere.  Whisk the condensed milk and vanilla together and pour this mixture evenly over the top.  Bake the bars until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

5.  Let the bars cook completely in the pan, set on a wire rack, about 2 hours.  Remove the bars from the pan using the foil, cut into squares, and serve.

Directions with pictures:

1. Line a 13 by 9 inch baking pan with a foil sling and grease the foil.

 2.  Process the toffee bits to a fine powder in a food processor, about 10 seconds.

  Add the graham cracker pieces and continue to process the mixture to fine crumbs, about 30 seconds.

  Drizzle the melted butter over the crumbs and pulse to incorporate.

  Sprinkle the crumbs into the prepared pan and press into an even layer with the bottom of the measuring cup.

Bake the crust until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.

 3.  Remove the crust from the oven, sprinkle with the milk chocolate, and let sit until the chocolate is softened but not melted, about 5 minutes.  Smooth the softened chocolate into an even layer.  

Sorry, I got carried away and forgot to take a picture of this step

     4. Layer the Rice Krispies, pecans, chocolate chips, then coconut into the pan, in that order, pressing on each layer to                                  adhere.

 Whisk the condensed milk and vanilla together and pour this mixture evenly over the top. 

Bake the bars until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

5.  Let the bars cook completely in the pan, set on a wire rack, about 2 hours.  

  Remove the bars from the pan using the foil, cut into squares, and serve.

xoxo

j