BakeBakeBake

This is a lovely and fairly easy dessert which can be made in advance and frozen - I made it today for Sunday lunch, when we have family coming over. Sliced peaches work well because they can be arranged so nicely, but it would be very easy to adapt to almost any fruit. The frangipane filling is from this recipe and to my almond-crazy family (you should see the amount of marzipan on my aunt's Christmas cake) is pretty much ambrosia. I like mine with the peaches set into the frangipane, but if you want them more arranged on top add them on after the tart has already baked for half an hour or so.



( Recipe under cut )

This was my first time properly baking bread, so I thought it would be good to ease myself in with something not requiring long rising times or complicated preparation (it's based on this recipe, which is supposed to take half an hour, although they aren't quite that quick). The rolls came out well - quite dense and flavourful, and very good toasted. The tomatoes can be replaced with sundried tomatoes if you prefer, and the amount I've given for the chilli pickle should be subject to variation based on how hot yours is; I used a pretty spicy one and three teaspoons gave a flavour that was noticeable but not that hot.



Ingredients
- 450g wholemeal bread flour
- 300ml warm water
- 75ml olive oil
- 2 sachets/tablespoons dried yeast
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 3 tsp chilli pickle

Instructions
- Combine the water, oil, sugar and yeast and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Use a dough hook to mix in the (sifted) flour, salt, egg, tomatoes and chilli pickle and knead the dough for five minutes with the mixer on medium speed.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured chopping board and shape it into 12 balls.
- Place them on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and slightly crisp to the touch.

For all of us that remember neapolitan ice cream - this cake is those tastes, only in cake form. Brownie bottom, Strawberry Cheesecake filling, Vanilla Bean cake top.

For the recipe (it's long, but not complicated), including a .pdf of it, head on over to my blog. Or, continue reading.


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Oh my, these are delicious! The crust is buttery and crunchy with oats.
The filling is full of rhubarb and topped with crystalized ginger.

Lots more photos and info at The Alchemist.


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Hi fellow bakebakebakers,

I'm planning to make lemon-poppyseed muffins for a uni meeting on Thursday but time will be short then. So I was wondering if it works to make ahead the batter tomorrow and then put it into the fridge until I bake it the next day.

I'm also a bit worried the lemon juice or rind might turn it bitter after some time. Could this happen?

If you've tried this with a muffin batter before and have some experience, I'd be glad to hear your advice.

Thanks a lot.

xx Sun

So in my post on apple fritters I mentioned that this past semester I cooked, as a part of a team, Sunday brunch for the members of my co-op. Because Sunday is traditionally a day for several members of the house to sleep in or be hung over we only had to prepare a buffet for about half the house, say 30-35 people. At the end of the semester several people complimented us saying that Sunday brunch was the best meal of the week. One of the most common reasons they said that was because of the apple turnovers I baked about every other week. Well I can tell you I was doubly flattered. These turnovers are bit time consuming to prep and are easiest to assemble quickly with at least two people but they are very tasty. Once again the recipe the recipe was modified from one on allrecipes.com and is scaled to produce 45 servings, that way people at my co-op could have seconds if they wished.

Also keep in mind that because the co-op kitchen is designed to feed between 70-80 people three times a day it is basically an industrial kitchen. We even get inspected twice a year. (This past February we earned a 97). Therefore the baking sheets and ovens are rather oversized and I can do things like put 45 turnovers in the same oven at the same time. Heck I could double the recipe and do 90 if I used our second oven. This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you make the full recipe you'll probably be able to put 9 turnovers per standard sized baking sheet and one sheet per oven so you'll need to do about five full trays. Granted because they cook in about 10-12 minutes it's not totally horrible but still, I thought people might appreciate a heads-up.

Now that I've finished blathering, here they are.


( Apple Turnovers )

Okay, as soon as I read this month's theme was South America I had to post something. I have many ideas and I think I'll be posting them too, as soon as I make them, but I posted a recipe for a South American dish on a blog I had last year and I am sharing it here now. 

Originally posted by foodstory at Aidina's carrot cake for my granny

Need help BBBers! A friend wants almond cake cupcakes for her daughter's graduation open house. Her family-favorite sheet cake recipe that she normally makes did not do well as cupcakes. It was too... I dunno. Heavy I guess is a good word. I've been trolling through the archives looking for an almond cake recipe and the only thing I saw was a "box mix then add almond extract" recipe and I just don't want to do that unless there are no other options. Does anyone have a favorite almond cake recipe to share? Or would I just add almond extract to a yellow or white cake recipe and if so... how much? I personally can not stand almond anything so I don't have anything "almond" in my recipe repertoire.


ALSO I am looking for a peanut butter cream recipe to use as a filling for some peanut butter cupcakes I'm making for a bday party this week. Anyone happen to have a good one?


Now for the ethical question. I never use shortening in frostings because... ew. But a couple of weeks ago I did some cupcakes and it was very hot and humid so for the first time ever I swapped 4 tablespoons of shortening for butter into a buttercream recipe that called for 16 tablespoons of butter. The question- can you still call it buttercream? I mean I would never lie about it. If someone asked what was in it I would def tell them that I swapped a couple of tablespoons. But can you still call it buttercream if it's not 100% butter?

Thanks in advance!

It's rhubarb season here, and this time of year I find myself wondering what tasty things I can do with it besides making a crisp/crumble (I've already make three of those). When searching for a birthday dessert to make for a coworker who loves rhubarb, I ran across this recipe on Epicurious. At first I passed it by, thinking 'too complicated'. But...it looks so pretty and pink and...downright girly, I thought. I just had to give the instructions another look. Turns out it wasn't too bad. In spite of my lack of a lot of experience messing with gelatins and mousses, and this taking me days to make in stages between working/sleeping, it came together nicely. The cake is so moist buried in the mousse, and with its strawberry filling. The mousse alone is wonderfully creamy with just the right amount of rhubarb flavor.


( Recipe and pics )