Tuesday, March 2, 2010

"It's bananas: b-a-n-a-n-a-s!"

It was fun making the banana bread with chocolate chips last night. (The best part was smashing the bananas!)

I adore chocolate chips, and loved their slightly bitter addition to the banana bread.

Oh, the bread! It was warm, with soft bananas, melting chocolate, and was moist throughout the slice with a slightly crunchy top!

In the future, I'll try the bread without the chocolate chips and will bake them in muffin tins.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Bring on the chocolate!

The Double Chocolate Chip Cookies will take care of your chocolate craving! (Pg. 71) My mother made these delightful cookies this morning and they are perfection!

I observed her as she threw this recipe together in 15 minutes, while I wrote. We waited as they baked and then cooled...24 minutes is a long time to wait while your nose is being teased by melting baking chocolate.

The result...slightly crunchy edges...softy-warm-yum in the centres!

Thank you!

Dear Babycakes,

I appreciate you checking out my blog! Your recipes and shop in NYC are inspiring! I'm enjoying baking through your cookbook and my family and friends are benefiting from my endeavours. :o)

Congratulations on your new Babycakes LA location! I'm sure it will be a great success!

I look forward to visiting you in New York this fall.

Fat Pants Time!

The Double Chocolate Fat Pants Cake (pg. 106) was a blast to make! I liked the chocolatey cake-brownie layers and cookie crumbles! The finished product looked the same as the picture in the book minus Jason Schwartzman holding the cake.

The icing didn't turn out like I remember it tasting in NYC because I didn't let it sit in the refrigerator long enough to set up properly (6 hours).

Word to the wise: Don't rush the icing making process...let it do it's thing!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Another Keeper

Page 79 features the lovely Brownie Gems. They're moist by themselves, but I prefer them with a warm and rich ganache poured over the top. The recipe suggested their sauce/icing which I haven't tried.

I made these in a regular-size muffin tin, not mini muffin-size. Sadly, I don't have a mini tin, but the regular size worked well!

Raspberry Change

The Blueberry Muffins (pg. 33) became raspberry muffins because I had bought them fresh and they needed to be used...so yummy! I mashed half of the raspberries (in my hands, I'll admit!) before adding them to the batter along with the other half of whole raspberries.

These muffins are a Spelt flour base (again, not gluten-free but easier for some to digest!). The batter was tasty, the muffins were even better! Warm, light, cakey-fluffy, sweet and tart (thanks again to the fresh raspberries).

The baking time was exactly what the book suggested! The muffin tops didn't rise, but they baked evenly.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Gooey?

Read each recipe all the way through before you start. It really helps with the Apple-Cinnamon Toastie (pg 58). Roast the apples (pg 27) with cinnamon, agave nectar and lemon juice while you're putting the bread batter together. It helps the process go more quickly.

The comforting scent of cinnamon wafted throughout my kitchen as it baked for the time suggested. I'm establishing the fact here and now that my oven is officially wonky. I ended up baking the bread for double the amount of time allotted! The moral of this story is: check your treats often and don't trust your oven. The bread was amazing, though a bit under cooked in the center.

I added extra roasted apples- a good alteration, I thought.

Unusual ingredient in this recipe: Arrowroot. Like Xanthan Gum, arrowroot is a thickening agent and a pure starch; a carbohydrate with no protein value.

This recipe doubles well!

Thankfully, garbanzo-fava bean flour can be substituted for rice flour, which is what I'll try next time. :o) I don't like "beany" bread (glad I tried it once, though.)