Lemon Sticky Buns

There are desserts meant to be eaten with a fork and knife. Some need a spoon, others a straw. But some desserts are really meant to be grabbed with both hands - however sticky, gooey and messy they may be. This is one of those desserts.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Have you ever had about 8 hours free? No? OK, then you might want to skip this one. Well, perhaps not 8 hours, after all I did somehow get a haircut and watch a fair amount of television in the middle of all this kitchen activity. So set aside a Sunday or snow day (just kidding, no more!) or a day when you play hooky to create these chocolate and peanut butter filled pretzels.

Cinnamon Buns

I would be an irresponsible baking blogger if I waited any longer to share this recipe with you. One more day, without you being able to bake these irresistible bites of heaven. Tastier than anything you can buy at a certain chain restaurant, better than what you can find in a blue and white square box, these cinnamon buns are about to me the best thing about your Sunday brunch. 

 

Triumphant Victory: Chocolate Babke

Things don't always go my way - and certainly not always in the kitchen. People ask me often what the biggest disaster I've had in the kitchen is. And while there is that time where I boiled eggs and forgot about them for an hour, leaving pieces of egg and shell in all corners of the kitchen, and the multiple times I've dropped cakes and cookies, I'd still probably say chocolate babke. After being asked by my mother to make chocolate babke for her birthday, I spent hours whipping up a recipe I'd found only to find it...inedible. Hard a rock, dry, tasteless, completely awful. I'm not sure if it was the yeast or the recipe that was at fault, but I'm inclined to believe both.

And then - I returned triumphant, with my crowning glory, a dessert that could only be termed complete bliss - a successful chocolate babke.

To Babke and Bust

I haven't had a total kitchen meltdown for a while now. Which means either I'm getting better or I'm not being very adventurous. Presumably the latter. But this latest endeavor falls squarely in the "mistaking" category. A failed, hard-as-a-rock, completely inedible babke - chocolate yeast cake.
This disaster actually happened a couple months ago, for my mother's birthday, but like many things (books, shoes, furniture) it got lost in the post tree shuffle. The fact that this was for an "occasion" makes the failure even more acute.

I have a healthy fear of yeast. And by healthy fear I mean I cower in the corner shivering when asked to bake with it. It's scary. It's alive. And sometimes, it doesn't work. The instructions for this recipe require the yeast to be mixed with warm water and left for ten minutes, when bubbles should form. How many bubbles? What size bubbles? How close together are the bubbles? Bubbles bubbles?
Sorry, where was I? Right, yeast. Well, I don't know if the yeast was the problem here, or I over kneaded, or under kneaded, or didn't roll it out well enough, or any combination of the above, but this was totally inedible. And I had a hunch it wasn't going to turn out well earlier. But stupidly, as usual, I persevered. And was not rewarded. Seriously, it was impossible to even saw through this thing.
What was even worse was that the recipe made two! Luckily, this was not the only dessert in the making for my mother's birthday weekend, and I had a trusty Dorie Greenspan recipe also on hand that delivered, as usual. But more on that later!
Since this happened I have been too afraid to try babke again, but there is a Smitten Kitchen recipe I have my eye on that may be in my future. Maybe.

Tip of the Day: Know when to give up. And don't use old yeast! It only has a shelf life of 3 to 4 months.

Cinnamon Bun Muffins

I've been reading Joy the Baker's website for a few months, and she has some great-looking recipes. I made her low-fat oatmeal muffins once, and when I saw this recipe for cinnamon bun muffins, I immediately wanted to try them.

But, well, if you came here looking for me to crash and burn once again...you're in the right place. This recipe is basically a cinnamon bun - yeast included - with a little less waiting and dough working. And baked in muffin tins. Sounds good so far, no?

I rarely work with yeast, since what little experience I have with it, has proven that yeast dough products deteriorate quickly. While they're good the first day, by the second day the drop off is significantly noticeable.

Anyway, I didn't let that stop me, and I set out to create these muffins. I was a little concerned working with the yeast, and mixing it with warm milk to "activate it." Since I really haven't worked with it much, I had no idea if it was doing the right thing, but I went ahead anyway.
Here's the dough, waiting patiently to expand.

At this point, you're probably assuming that something with the yeast went horribly wrong, and they either blew up to three time their size or sat in the muffin tin as hard little balls - but that simply isn't the case.

Instead it was the streusel, the innocent little mixture of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, that turned my muffins into disasters.
I patiently followed the directions that said to press the streusel mixture down into the batter...
But, when I snuck a peak about halfway through the baking process the mixture had melted and spread all over the muffin tin, and was barely inside them at all.

Not easily discouraged, I let them finish anyway, and when they were cool I mixed up the icing and drizzled it on top. Since the tin was already such a mess I figured I might as well ice them in there anyway.

And yes, I ate one first.

Of course we ate every muffin, and they weren't bad, but something definitely went wrong. The next day, they were a lot drier, but after a quick zap in the microwave, they are certainly improved.
Moral of the story? Who knows. Sometimes with my disasters, it is clear what went wrong, but there are also times like these, where I'm just not sure what I didn't do.
One thing is for sure - in my house - even the mistakes get eaten.

Tip of the Day: Your yeast is working if it starts to bubble in the warm water after a couple minutes. Be patient!

Recipe: (from Joy the Baker)

Dough:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp active dry or rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm milk
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Filling:

2 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or cream

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Combine yeast and warm milk, in a cup.

Pour the milk, oil, vanilla and egg into the flour mixture and stir until smooth.

Divide batter into 12 greased cupcake tins.

Mix together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl.

Sprinkle over the muffin tins and press down in to the dough.

Place the pan in a cold oven, turn it to 350F, and bake for twenty minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool before topping with the icing.