What to do with the excess?

Greetings from a very frosty and icy Sweden. After successfully cleaning our flat this morning and watching a super cheesy chick flick on the couch (total waste of brain cells) I decided to do something better with my time this afternoon. And what could be better for a baker's time then baking? Totally rhetorical question. Because I am a believer in using almost any food before throwing it out, I have had sitting in my refrigerator for the past two weeks, some yogurt that my husband didn't like the taste of. Yogurt is great in many things and my favorite thing to use it in are muffins! I have a great muffin recipe and love to make super giant muffins...you know the ones you buy at Starbucks or any other cool coffee place. Today's muffin mixture was my own concoction. The yogurt I had was flavored with apples and quince (never heard of this fruit until this yogurt, for more information...search wikipedia). The original muffin recipe I have, calls for berries, but since I didn't think this flavor of yogurt would go well with berries, I substituted pears instead. Adding a couple teaspoons of cinnamon and some oats to the whole thing, it turned out to be a really nice combination of flavors and smells. So if you are like me and don't like to waste any food, or if you just happen to have some extra yogurt sitting in the fridge, might I suggest that muffins are the way to go! Fresh and hot out of the oven these muffins are a winner! And this was a brilliant way to get my wonderful husband to eat something that he wasn't fond of from the beginning.

Until my next post try some new combos of food...you might just find the next best thing!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Frosty and icy weather is perfect for baking!

Everything has a shade of blue due to the frozen state.

 Fresh, warm, yummy muffins straight out of the oven

See the cracks...this means your muffins have baked
perfectly!

Yummy goodness!

 Six large muffins...perfect for a small group of friends
or you can freeze them as well.

Recipe for muffins ( I substitute the berries if I don't have any, also I use flavored or plain yogurt)

2 eggs
2 dl yogurt or sour cream
1dl butter or margarine (softened)
5 dl flour
1.5 dl sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 dl berries or cut up pieces of fruits
1-2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1.5 dl oats (optional)

Whisk the eggs and sugar together. Mix in the yogurt and butter, then add the berries/fruit bits. Batter will be lumpy. Blend in dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, batter should be thick. For large muffin form, 2-3 tbsp. of batter in each. For small muffin form 1-2 tbsp. of batter. Bake at 300F or 225C for 15-20mins. Muffins should look cracked on top.
Have fun!

Favorite Chocolate Cake

Greetings from a very white and snowy Sweden. I read on CNN yesterday that 49 of the 50 States in the U.S. have snow on the ground...seems like a lot of places are getting hit with this wintery whiteness. I like this time of year, but after spending most of my days very cold, I am ready for spring to come soon. As it does, baking helps warm me up, both from the heat of the oven and the work I put into it. For today's endeavor I decided on what I would say is my favorite chocolate cake. It's one that I have done several times and have blogged about it before. Even though it's nothing new, it's delicious taste will melt in your mouth. Tomorrow's recipients of this scrumptious cake will have satisfied their taste buds with each passing bite. Since I think this cake is so yummy, it's hard for me to not want to eat the creamy, smooth batter up completely. But since I know those indulgences result in bloated stomach aches within the hour...I have refrained...mostly. =) I cannot help lick a little bit of the left overs and make sure that it's something I would feed others, which I will have you know is partly an excuse in order to taste this rich, divine chocolate goodness. To give it an even more appealing taste and pleasure to the customers, I add a creamy frosting, drizzled on top!
 
Until my next post, delight your taste buds a little bit more.
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Here is the recipe for the Dark Chocolate Cake:
Ingredients:
2 cups boiling water
1 cup cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp.baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter (softened)
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp.vanilla

In a medium bowl pour the boiling water over the cocoa and whisk until smooth. Let cool. (could be up to 20 minutes)In another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture alternately. Put in round pan and bake for up to one hour at 175 C or 300 F
For frosting I mix powdered sugar, butter and a little milk. I drizzle it on top, so my measurements are not always the same. You don't want to make it too thick or too runny...just in the middle somewhere. Good Luck!

Creamy Lemon Goodness

Greetings from my kitchen! Today was a day off for us here in Sweden, so my husband and I have been taking it quite easy and relaxing. We just returned from a scrumptious lunch with my husband's boss and his wife and several others. After eating all the delicious food, I hardly feel like baking, but tomorrow sixteen people are expecting something mouth watering. For today's baking endeavor I have decided on Creamy Lemon Bars. Being the baking nerd that I am, I am signed up to received two recipe emails from Martha Stewart daily. I even have a Martha Stewart folder in my email box to help keep track of it all...a sign of a real nerd I know. However, time after time I get awesome ideas from this lady and I am proud to say that nearly 100% of the time I have succeeded. This time I am trying a rather easy recipe. It consists of only 6 ingredients and the portion says it's for 16...I am hoping so since I only have enough for one batch. Here's hoping! Lemon cakes, bars, cookies, etc. are amongst my favorite desserts. With their tangy, citrus zing I love the sense my taste buds experience when I bite into something lemon. Perhaps it's the effect of being forced to eat lemons when I was baby...thus producing entertainment for the onlookers, whatever the cause, I thoroughly enjoy lemon flavored things. If you like lemon things as well, be sure to try this super easy recipe.

Until my next post, let your taste buds experience the goodness of life!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Sugar, butter and salt mixture

Smooth and silky

Only 6 ingredients for this delicious treat

Adding the flour

At first this mixture will be crumbly

After a little while of mixing, you can pick
it up and press it together to form the crust

Press into the pan and poke with a fork all over

Egg yolks













Eggs and condensed milk

Lemon juice added, I just used concentrate instead
of real lemon juice from lemons. I think it works
the same

Nice and creamy look

Readied crust

Filling and crust ready to be baked

Oven time!

Creamy Lemon Bars Recipe

Ingredients

Makes 16

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides; butter paper.
2. Make crust: Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add flour, and mix on low just until combined. Press dough into the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of prepared pan; prick all over with a fork. Bake until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Make filling: In a large bowl, whisk together yolks, condensed milk, and lemon juice until smooth. Pour over hot crust in pan; return to oven, and bake until filling is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
4. Refrigerate until filling is firm, about 2 hours or up to 3 days. Using paper overhang, lift cake onto a work surface; cut into 16 squares, and dust with confectioners sugar.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Creamy Lemon Squares - Martha Stewart Recipes

Charred Failure

At this current moment our flat is totally engulfed in the smell of charred cookies. That's right...I said charred. Here's my realization at this point...which is nothing new to me...you win some and you lose some. Today is New Year's Eve and we are having some friends over for a small get together. As both my husband and I are pretty tired and he is not feeling 100% we decided not to kill ourselves by being major party animals this year. Our plans exist of dessert, games and fun with some friends. Dessert...that's what I am good at right! I mean I love thinking of new things to make, finding new recipes, trying new things...I get such a kick from it. So I ordered a new baking book, a classic Swedish book called 7 types of Christmas cookies. There are not only 7 recipes in this lovely, little red and white checkered book. It is filled with holiday cookies and most I have never done. So you can imagine..from a baker's heart...that getting a new recipe book and trying a new cookie would be "like the best thing ever!" Yesterday I flipped through the book and found a Danish cookie recipe that called for all the ingredients I currently had, so I thought this Danish cookie is a freaking winner. It's the easiest recipe I have ever done. It consists of three...yep...three ingredients. Marzipan, powdered sugar and one egg white. Please somebody tell me how you can go wrong with only these ingredients? As I mixed these things together, it looked relatively cookie-like and I was happy to have such a simple thing to make for a party. I stuck them in the oven and waited. After just a few minutes the smell of almost done cookies started to drift in the air. I ran to check on them, because the recipe said to bake them for 15 minutes. They were probably in there for around 5. When I went in, I immediately realized something went COMPLETELY wrong...and I was utterly shocked, since it was only...ahem...three ingredients. The content of this Danish cookie had all melted together to form a huge rectangular cookie-bar thing and it was bubbling. Well since it didn't look totally done, I thought I would leave it in there. My big freaking mistake. Not several minutes later, I smelled charred cookie smell...which we all know smells the same no matter what kind of cookie you are baking...charred sugar STINKS!!! I ran into the kitchen and found my...what were supposed to be nice Danish cookies for New Year's Eve...turned into a black bubbling mess. At least it wasn't for a customer...that would have been tragic. However, I am still a bit peeved that my first attempt at my new cookbook has ended in such a way. Next on my list for this evening are brownies...wish me luck!

Until my next post, have a Happy New Year and try not to burn the kitchen down.
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Grand Raspberry Trifle part 2 The Completion!!

Greetings from my bean bag chair, where I am sitting in my living room. Right now my mind and my body are super tired and unfortunately what awaits me in the kitchen is a massive mess of sugar substance and cake bits. I have pushed it off long enough, choosing instead to watch an episode of The Biggest Loser. I really like that show, but seem to have trouble watching it online. It inspires me how people who are obese, can work so hard and lose their weight, as well as, their health problems. I enjoy watching the transformations!

Now onto my baking project today. Yesterday I posted about the Raspberry Trifle that I was beginning. I had to make two pound cakes, before I did any trifling. So today began the process of putting the 17 trifles together. It was a total mess of stickiness, but since I enjoy assembling these things, the sticky hands were worth it. The counter on the other hand, had no idea what hit it. I had cake bits strewn from left to right, up and down, raspberry jam and berry mix in droplets, which seemed to smear everywhere, cream that wanted to creep down the sides of the wine glasses, and lemon sugar juice dripped on everything. Needless to say, if you don't like getting messy or if you are able to perfect the technique, I might suggest an easier project. In the end, to my satisfaction, these 17 trifles looked gorgeous and ready to savor. The colors of creamy cake, deep red raspberry and white cream layered are really very pretty. Now I need to go and deliver these to the people who will be enjoying them for their evening's dessert!

Until my next post...go ahead and make a mess!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Grand Raspberry Trifle part 1 (The pound cake!)

Greetings from my kitchen! As I look outside, I am no longer delighted by the glories of a white winter. As of last night, the lovely snow began to melt and it has been very rainy most of the morning. I personally think this is when winter becomes long and boring. However, baking never stops, even if the weather sucks. Today for my baking endeavor I have begun the first step of what I hope will eventually turn out to be a delicious Grand Raspberry Trifle. The recipe calls for your favorite pound cake, but since I don't usually want to buy those pre-made things, I decided to make a pound cake, which from the taste of the batter, seems to be a success.
This trifle will be for about 20 people who are finishing up their first term before Christmas holidays. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart.com, who is surprised?! The pound cake is also from that site,  I will include both recipes in this post. I will be serving this trifle in individual wine glasses, which I think makes it elegant and classy. I will not be able to finish the whole thing tonight, so this is a bit of a long process for me, but if you can do it in one shot, then it shouldn't take you that long. The pound cake, can be purchased pre-made if you choose for that, otherwise the recipe says it takes roughly an hour to bake them. Other preparation time is 20 minutes. This will look beautiful on a Christmas spread or for your holiday parties.

Until my next post tomorrow, where I will be sharing about Christmas candy...enjoy the sites around you!
Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Today's Pound Cake:


Mixing the butter and sugar for 5 minutes. The recipe
said 8, but I was afraid my mixer would overheat. This
part is supposed to be light and fluffy.

Adding the 9 eggs in 4 parts.

Adding flour, mixture then begins to become
more stiff and heavier

Batter will be heavier and very smooth

Ready to go in the oven. The recipe says to put in bread
forms, but I only have one, so I put it in this form as well.
Since you are going to cut the slices anyway and set them
into the wine glasses or glass container, it doesn't really
matter which baking form you use...in my opinion.
But don't tell Martha!

Recipe for Grand Raspberry Trifle:

English trifle can be made in one large dish or several small dishes. Ours combines fruit, jam, juice-drenched pound cake, and whipped cream. To make individual raspberry trifles, follow steps 1 through 3. In each of 10 glass serving dishes or wineglasses (1 1/2-cup capacity), follow procedure in step 4, making only two layers in each glass.

Ingredients

Serves 10

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 4 cups raspberries
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 pounds favorite pound cake

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and lemon juice to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool.
2. In a small bowl, combine jam with 3 cups raspberries, mashing slightly. In a large bowl, whip cream and 2 tablespoons sugar to stiff peaks.
3. Slice pound cake 3/4 inch thick; brush both sides of slices with lemon syrup.
4. Fit 1/3 of slices snugly in the bottom of a 4-quart trifle dish or other glass bowl, trimming edges if necessary. Gently spread top of layer with 1/3 of raspberry mixture, and then 1/3 of whipped cream. Repeat to make two more layers; garnish with remaining cup raspberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 24 hours.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Grand Raspberry Trifle - Martha Stewart Recipes

 

 

Recipe for the Pound Cake:

 

Ingredients

Makes 2 cakes

• 1 pound (3 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 4 sticks softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 9 large, room-temperature eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans. Combine all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 8 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla extract.
3. Lightly beat eggs, and add to mixer bowl in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each and scraping down sides. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until just incorporated. Divide batter between pans. Tap on counter to distribute; smooth tops.
4. Bake until a tester inserted into center of each cake comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire rack.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Classic Pound Cake - Martha Stewart Recipes

 

 

What to do with all these plums?

Good evening and greetings from my busy kitchen. I am sitting here currently waiting on a Plum Galette to finish baking and my husband is reading the newspaper. The dishes are piled...to my utter annoyance...but I am taking a break to blog a little here. A few weeks back, I purchased a basket of purple plums at the local grocery store. I really like plums, so I was happy to get a good deal on them. When I brought them home we noticed that they were not quite ripe enough to eat, so we set them in our fruit bowl which sits in our kitchen window and waited for them to be ready. A few days later, I grabbed one during the day and thought...surely they are ready to eat now, but as I bit into it, I was sadly disappointed as they were completely tasteless. We waited some more days and this time my husband took one to enjoy and again to a sad ending, the plum had no flavor. We concluded that these plums (not from Sweden) were picked WAY too early and would never taste much. Since I don't believe in throwing out food if it's still edible (thanks mom for that!) I looked around for what I could do with 20 plums. I found a recipe for a plum sufflé, but unfortunately that called for dry plums. So I finally googled "What to do with all these plums?" and found a great recipe. I love google for the soul reason that you can ask your question just the way you are thinking and 9 out 10 times there is some site that will help you. I found a recipe for something called Plum Galette. With a crust that you would use for an apple pie you place the plum mixture in the middle of the crust and then fold up the sides to make it look like am open pie. I think the whole thing sounded pretty good and it was perfect timing, as I was asked to bring a dessert to a Christmas party tomorrow night. So now I have rid myself of these virtually tasteless plums, in hopes that in this pie they will taste delicious! Now the only question is "What to make for dinner?"...

Until my next post...turn your hopeless foods into a treat!

Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Dough is prepared

 

 

 

 

The plums are sliced and ready to be mixed

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slices of plums

 

Dough in the pan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plum Mixture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plum Galette!

 

 

 

 

 

Time to bake!

 

 

 

 

 

Plum Galette Recipe

The amount of sugar needed depends on the tartness of the plums. If all you have are fairly ripe, and therefore fairly sweet, plums, use a little less sugar and add a little lemon juice.

Ingredients

1 recipe pate brisee pie crust
6-8 tart plums, pitted and sliced (about 1 1/4 pounds net)
1/4 cup raisins (preferably golden)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Zest from one lemon
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup sugar

Method

1 In a medium sized bowl, gently toss the plum slices with the raisins, pecans, lemon zest, flour and sugar.
2 Preheat oven to 375°F. If you are using homemade chilled pie dough, remove it from the refrigerator to let stand for 10 minutes before rolling out.
3 Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out the pie dough to a 13-inch round of even thickness.

4 Place rolled-out pie dough in the center of a small-rimmed, lightly buttered baking sheet. Place plum mixture in the center of the pie dough round, leaving a border of 2 inches on all sides. Fold the edges of the pie crust up and over so that circle of the filling is visible.
5 Place in the middle rack of the oven. Bake at 375°F for 40-50 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and the filling is bubbly. Cool on a rack for an hour before serving.

Makes six servings.