The Dragons' Bakery

A Silent Kitchen

2013-04-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

A moment of silence for those injured or killed in the attack on the Boston Marathon and the events surrounding the capture of the coward alleged to have set the bombs.
My kitchen has been quiet this week. I haven't done any baking, with or without Ruth and company. I live within the Boston metropolitan area, though far enough away that I wasn't directly affected by the events that unfolded last week. However, Boston is as much 'home' to me as the city I actually live in is.
I've walked through the area where the bombs went off. I've been treated at two of the hospitals that took in the injured immediately after the explosions. I'm really not sure what else to say.
What a lot of people outside the region might not be aware of is that the bombs went off on Patriot's Day, the holiday that celebrates the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Incidentally, the suspect was captured on the actual anniversary of the beginning of the war. (The first battles took place at Lexington and Concord in the early morning hours of April 19, 1775.)
I really can't think of what else to say. Boston will bounce back of course; in many ways it already has. I am still a bit shaken (and a lot mad) as a result of the events. I am sure a great many people in New England are. For now, the kitchen is quiet. Next week will be back to normal. I'm going to hunt for a treat that's either originally from Boston or is a particular favorite in Boston for next weeks' recipe.
If there's a recipe you'd like to see, please e-mail me (Miaka). Thanks.

Brownies

2013-04-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

"We're going to make another classic 'cookie' this week," I told Ruth as he came in. "Brownies!"
He nodded. "A good choice. I thought you were working on a variation with white chocolate?"
"Um, I haven't quite got the recipe right yet. One of my friends thought the last batch was cornbread."
"Needs more chocolate?" Ruth suggested.
"Yes. I'll show you when I get the recipe right," I promised. "I need a better name for them, too."
"So we shall make regular brownies this week."
"Indeed we shall! These are a very popular treat, though I've always thought they're more cake than cookie. They came to widespread popularity in the Roaring 20's, at least according to the book my recipe comes from."
"In our world," Hi-chan pipes up, "they were invented when a chocolate cake fell in but there wasn't time to re-make it."
"Or so the story goes," Ruth remarked. "There isn't enough leavening agent in them for that story to really ring true."
"No one's really sure how they came to be made the first time here either, but they're tasty anyway!"
The recipe we're using is from a Betty Crocker 'Cookie Book' that's part of my Mom's cookbook collection. I think this edition came out in the 1960's. Classic cookies change very little over the years, though, and the recipes are all still good. Let's get started!

Here is everything we need for brownies. The recipe is fairly simple. I've chosen a cocoa-based recipe to save us the hassle of melting chocolate on the stove. Ruth is sitting on the sugar. The copper canister next to him is flour, while the cocoa powder is on his other side. In front of the cocoa, Black is rolling eggs into the baking powder. On the other side, Red pushes the bottle of vanilla into the salt. The silvery brick Hi-chan has brought is shortening.

The tools! Black has decided that the cooking spray makes a good perch from which to see everything. Ruth has brought two mixing bowls, a mixing spoon, and an 8x8inch baking pan (about 20x20cm). This one is glass, but the material isn't important. (We use glass whenever possible because it makes it easier for the twins to see.) Red has the measuring spoons, of course, and Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups.

First we need to grease the pan. Ruth takes care of this while I hold the pan for him.
If you don't have cooking spray, spread a little bit of butter or margarine as evenly as possible over the bottom and sides of your baking pan.

While we're taking care of the pan, Black gets started by preheating the oven. Brownies bake at 350°F (180°C).

With the preliminary prep work out of the way, let's get started mixing up ingredients! Hi-chan helps me dump the shortening in. Our recipe calls for 1/2 cup (95g), but we're using 2/3 cup (125g) because extra shortening makes the brownies more moist and I had 2/3 of a stick left over from another baking project.

Black adds 1 cup (200g) sugar. Hi-chan is hanging out on top of the bowl again.

My turn to add something! Two eggs go in the bowl.

Red is pleased to add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. The vanilla helps bring out the sweetness and chocolate flavor of the brownies.

Ruth stirs it all up. Don't be too worried if there are clumps of shortening, they'll melt in the oven. Do make sure none of the clumps is larger than a pea, though, or you'll have spotty brownies.

Black adds 2/3 cup (96g) flour to the smaller bowl. (We did tear out the bowl before adding anything.)

Hi-chan is having fun helping add 1/2 cup (56g) cocoa powder. "Chocolate that we don't have to melt!" she chirps. "Doesn't taste good by itself, though."
"It's powdered unsweetened chocolate, Hi-chan," I explain. "Of course it doesn't taste good straight out of the box."

Red's turn again. In goes 1/2 teaspoon salt...

... and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Ruth stirs the dry ingredients together carefully.
"Why are you going so slow?" Red asks.
"Flour and cocoa powder are both very light and inclined to fly," he explains. "Since I want them to stay in the bowl and not fly around, I have to stir slowly. If I go fast, the mix will go everywhere."

Now it's time to mix it all together. Black has decided that nothing interesting has happened to the bottom of the bowl, so she hopped up on the can of baking powder to see over the rim. I held the bowl of dry ingredients for Ruth while he carefully coaxed the powdery mixture out into the larger bowl with the shortening mixture. Hi-chan opted not to sit on the rim in order to avoid getting a face full of unsweetened powder.

It takes a bit of stirring to get all the dry ingredients worked in. The batter is only slightly more liquid than cookie dough when it's all mixed together. Ruth has just finished stirring.
"Thick stuff," Black remarks. "Looks tasty, though. How do we get it out of the bowl?"
"Carefully and with help," I tell her. "Why don't you go get the pan?"

Hi-chan helped the twins bring the pan over from the other side of the stove, and now they've all found good spots to watch as Ruth coaxes the batter out of the bowl I'm holding for him. It comes out slowly and plops into the pan in a glob.

Once all the batter is in the pan, I hand Ruth a spatula so he can spread it out. Make sure to tuck the batter into the corners of the pan, or it won't get there at all. Brownie batter is very much inclined to stick together.
"Looks yummy," Black comments.
"Wait until it's baked," Ruth tells her. "Then it will be even more yummy."

With the batter all spread out, it's ready to bake. Ruth places the pan carefully into the oven. These should go in about the middle of the oven.

As Ruth closes the oven door, Black sets the timer for half an hour. 30 minutes should be enough time to bake the brownies, but if it isn't put them back in for a couple minutes.

The timer has gone off and the brownies look delicious! Ruth and I pull them out and set them on top of the stove to cool.

Black sets a timer for 10 minutes to give the brownies a chance to cool. This is only an approximation, and cooling times may differ.

"It looks so delicious," Red says. "The timer went off already, can't we have some now?"
"Yes, but you can't eat the whole thing," Ruth insists. "We have to cut them first. Miaka, may I have a knife?"
"Of course! Don't drool on the brownies, ladies." This comment gets me pouty grumbles as I turn away to grab the requested knife.

Everyone is eyeing the brownies hungrily as they wait for Ruth to finish cutting them into 16 squares.

Mm, brownie!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2013-04-08T16:00:00.000-04:00

"We have another Reader Request, Ruth!" I told him as he came in.
"Excellent! What are we making today?" he asked, flying over to sit on my shoulder.
"+Paul Chang would like us to make some chocolate-chip cookies."
"Ah, a classic recipe." Ruth nodded. "I had been thinking we should do those at some point. Though I wonder if the recipe was created in the same manner in your world. In ours, it was the result of a Fae prank."
"Probably not quite," I explained. "Though there are some competing accounts of how the recipe came about. All the stories I've heard agree that they were invented by Ruth Wakefield, who owned the Toll House Inn of Whitman, Massachusetts. The disagreement in the stories is over how precisely the chocolate ended up in the cookies. One account has chocolate bars falling off the shelf to land in the dough and getting chopped up by the electric mixer. I'm rather disinclined to believe that one for two reasons: one, the chocolate bars would have been wrapped in paper, and two, this was the 1930s and I doubt they really had electric mixers in that time period."
"Electric mixer?" Ruth asked, slightly confused.
"Something like my stand mixer," I explained and he nodded in understanding. "Another story speculates that the recipe wasn't exactly an accident--that she was trying to come up with new recipes. The most common story, and the 'official' one as told by Nestle, is that she was trying to make a type of cookie that was chocolate all through, but ran out of the chocolate she normally used, and possibly also out of time to melt the chocolate, so she chopped up bars of Nestle chocolate and dumped them into the mix, expecting the chocolate to melt."
"Except it doesn't quite work that way," Ruth continued the tale for me. "Chunks of chocolate will generally hold together unless carefully melted, and they certainly won't distribute chocolate evenly throughout the dough."
"Exactly. However they came to be made, the cookies were a hit and have become a classic."
"Let's make some!"
This recipe is the one my family used when I was growing up. It's slightly changed from the recipe in the Betty Crocker 'Cookie Book', as we don't add any nuts.

Here we have the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies! Brown sugar is being ignored while Ruth stands on the white sugar and leans in to look at the flour. Red has brought the vanilla, and Black has corralled the egg next to the baking soda. Hi-chan has brought the shortening and dropped it on the bag of chocolate chips.

We need a cookie sheet and wire cooling racks, of course. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups, while Black has spoons for shaping the cookies. Red has the measuring spoon, of course, and Ruth has brought two bowls and mixing spoons.

Black sets the oven to 375°F (190°C). It should have plenty of time to warm up while we mix up our dough.

We need 2/3cup (410g) shortening. Cutting it on a marking is quite easy. Hi-chan and Red hold the stick of shortening in place while Ruth makes the cut and Black watches to make sure he's cutting it in the right place. If your shortening comes in a tub, try filling a liquid measuring cup with 1/3 cup water and then adding the shortening until the water hits the 1cup mark. Don't forget to drain off the water before you add it, though!
Pardon the odd angle of this photo, Neko-kun was behind the camera and is considerably taller than me, so he got something of a bird's-eye view.

Hi-chan helps dump the shortening into the bowl.

Next we add sugars. Black dumps 1/2 cup (96g) white granulated sugar into the bowl.

This is followed up immediately by 1/2 cup (100g) packed brown sugar. ('Packed' means that you squish it into the measuring cup. It'll come out as a solid clump like you see in the picture.)

My turn now, as the next ingredient in is 1 egg.

Now Red gets a turn, adding in 1 teaspoon (5mL) vanilla.

Mix it all up now!
"Hi-chan, you're going to get bopped in the nose," Red warns.
"I like the view from the top of the bowl, though," Hi-chan mumbles, pouting. She gets down after Ruth and I both shoot her a look, though. "Fine."

It's starting to look like cookie dough already! This won't hold together if we bake it, though.

Hi-chan takes charge of adding 1 1/2 cups (150g) of flour, which pulls her out of her pouting.

I glance at the recipe to see what goes in next. "Ack, we forgot the salt!"
"I'll get it," Ruth volunteers. A moment or so later, he's back with the salt I use for baking. "Whoo, that's a bit heavy to carry."
"It's at least as big as you are, Ruth," Black remarks. "Not like at home."
"Thank you, Ruth," I tell him, taking the salt to measure it out. "Ready, Red?"

"Yup! Measuring-spoon time!" Red chirps as he comes over to carefully take the 1/2 teaspoon of salt from me and adds it to the bowl.

I refill the same 1/2 teaspoon measure with baking soda, and Red happily adds it to the bowl. That's all the dry ingredients!

Ruth stirs the dry ingredients together while everyone watches. Hi-chan has decided that the bag of chocolate chips makes a nice, if rather lumpy, cushion.

Now we add the flour mixture to the shortening mixture we made before. I hold the bowl for Ruth as he carefully scrapes it out, making sure to get all of it.

Everyone watches as Ruth stirs the dry mix in. Now we have cookie dough! It clumps up pretty nicely on the spoon. One more thing to add before we're ready for the oven.

Chocolate chips! Can't have chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips!
"Woah," Red remarks. "Those are massive chocolate chips."
"They are a bit bigger than I was expecting," I admit. "I'm sure they'll work though. Oops, Hi-chan, we don't need the whole bag!"
"What?" Hi-chan glances up at me, looking a little confused. "But the recipe calls for one package of chocolate chips."
"Does it want a different size package, Miaka?" Black asks.
"Yes. The recipe is expecting a 6-ounce bag of semi-sweet chips," I explain. (170g) "That bag is 10 ounces of darker chocolate, and those chips are about twice the size I expected. Personally, I'd like a bit of cookie with my chocolate chips."
"Ah, I see." Hi-chan stops pouring. "Is that good?"
"That should be plenty," Ruth assures her. "I'm sure they'll come out delicious."

"Um, Hi-chan," Ruth sounds a little bit annoyed. "I can't stir while you're standing in the bowl."
"Just trying to make sure we have enough chips," Hi-chan insists.
"There's plenty, Hi-chan," I assure her. "You don't want to be mixed into the cookies, do you?"
Hi-chan makes a reluctant grumbling sound, but she gets out of the bowl.

With Hi-chan finally out of the way, Ruth mixes the chocolate chips into the cookie dough. There's plenty of chocolate. Now we're ready to shape the cookies!

Of course, first we need a place to put the cookies. Everyone pitches in to get some parchment paper on the baking sheet.

One dozen cookies fit on this sheet. The spoons weren't cooperating with me, so these are hand-shaped; rolled into balls and lightly flattened into position. Make sure to leave 1-2 inches (3-5cm) of space between the cookies, as these will expand when baked. If you put them too close together, the cookies will blend into one another. That can be fun if you're planning on it, though.

Ruth puts the first tray of cookies into the oven. They look really tasty already!

Black sets the timer for 8 minutes as Ruth shuts the oven door. The cookies should be a delicate golden-brown when they're done. If 8 minutes isn't enough, put them back in for 2 more minutes and check again.

The cookies are just starting to brown around the very edges, with a lovely gold-brown starting on top. Ruth pulls the finished tray out so we can put the second sheet in.

The first batch is on the cooling racks! Be very careful picking these up, as the chocolate chips do melt a bit and they're quite hot. Everyone is eager to dig in! Let's wait for them to cool a bit, and for the next batch to come out, though!

The second batch just came out and got added to the racks... and Black got tired of waiting.
"Mmm, chocolate," she murmurs, sticking her face into one of the large partly-melted chips.
"You're going to get it all over your face," Ruth warns.
Somehow, I don't think Black cares...

Enjoy!

Sablée Cookies

2013-04-02T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Sablée Cookies!
I'd been meaning to make these for a while, since they looked interesting. I got a cookie press for Christmas and the cookbook I got the recipe from (Baking, by James Peterson) had instructions on how to make them with a cookie press.
"Ah, this is a sweet crust for tarts," Ruth said, looking at the recipe. "I've never tried making cookies out of it, though. Generally I use it for tarts, especially those made with fruits that have more of a bite. It's also quite good for cheese tarts, and is the crust for Sugar Pies."
"Sugar Pies? That sounds interesting," I remarked. "I don't think I've heard of that pie flavor before."
Ruth laughed. "You have to have a well-developed sweet tooth to properly enjoy them. Sugar Pies are quite popular with some of the Fae who visit often, especially those whose primary task is to tend gardens. They're nicknamed 'Flower Fairies'."
"Do they help the bees?"
"They often keep bees, yes," Ruth explained. "I think you're picturing them a lot smaller than they actually are, Miaka. Flower Faries are... hmm, I'm not sure I have a good reference in your world. Well, an adult Flower Fairy would probably not be able to see over your kitchen counters, but would still be comfortable in one of your chairs."
"Child-height?" I suggested. "Let's see, you use Imperial, so... about 3 feet tall?" (Just under 1 meter.)
"Yes," Ruth agreed. "That sounds about right. The tallest of them is a little bit shorter than the twins, although that reference doesn't carry to your world. Not that any of this has much at all to do with the cookies."
"I'm very good at getting off track, Ruth. We should get started, though."
Here we go!

You can see the cookbook in the background as we go about getting everything that goes in these cookies together. Ruth has the salt (he's standing on it) and the cake flour. Hi-chan is making her way across the powdered (confectioner's) sugar to the canister of all-purpose flour. (One of the boxes of powdered sugar was almost empty and I wasn't sure there would be enough in it.) Black is herding the whole egg into the two sticks of butter, and Red has the egg yolk. One of the eggs broke as I was trying to take it out of the carton, but the yolk was still just fine, allowing me to salvage it.

We'll be using the stand mixer with its paddle attachment and the larger bowl. Since the mixer takes up most of the counter it's on, here's everything else we'll need.
Red has the measuring spoon, as usual. He seems to like the scale; apparently the glass is comfortable to stand on. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups and is rather curious about the cookie press. Ruth is rather intrigued by this tool. "I don't have one of these at home. I've seen them, but ours look a bit different," he says. "Perhaps I should look into purchasing one."
"What do these discs do?" Black asks.
"Those go in the end of the cookie press. The dough is pushed through them to make fancy designs," I explain. "You'll see it in action later."
Behind everyone is the cookie sheet, with the sil-plat mat. I haven't had a chance to try out the mat yet, and this seems a perfect time. Normally I use parchment paper for cookies, but that won't work well with a press, as the dough will stick to both paper and press, causing a mess when you try to pull the press away.

Ruth adds 2/3 cup (80g) cake flour to the mixer bowl to get us started. Hi-chan has found a nice perch on the rim of the bowl.

Black gets to add 1 1/3 cup (160g) all-purpose flour, for a total of 2 cups (240g) of flour. The mix of cake and all-purpose flours is to make sure that the cookies come out nice and smooth. You may need to adjust the proportions depending on the gluten content of the flour you're using.

Hi-chan takes up the measuring cup next, adding 1 cup (100g) of powdered sugar. It's really hard to tell what's sugar and what's flour in the bowl.

Red, Captain of the Measuring Spoons, adds 1/2 teaspoon salt. He also objects to my teasing, apparently not finding it as funny.

With all the dry ingredients in, Ruth turns on the mixer to combine them. Everyone else has found a perch of sorts where they can watch the mixer go. Watching things swirl is entertaining, especially when no one is exhausting muscle power to do it.

Hi-chan helps me add 2 sticks of butter, since we need 1 full cup (226g).

With the butter added, it's time to mix it in, so Ruth turns on the mixer on low speed.

Except this turns out to be a problem, as the flour mixture sprays out. He promptly turns it back off.

"I'm sorry, Red! Are you alright?"
"Pfflph." Red says, shaking his head. "Pleh. Yeah... pleh... flour by itself isn't tasty. The sugar is good, though. I need a shower..."
"I'm sorry! That was my fault. I forgot to cut up the butter. Let's get you rinsed off, Red..."

While Red is getting rinsed off, I take a pastry blender tool and cut the butter into the flour mixture, under the watchful eyes of Hi-chan and Ruth. "There. I think we can try again without it going all over the place."
"Please add a little more sugar and flour, Miaka," Ruth asks, "we did lose a good bit with that mishap."
"Of course," I assure him, grabbing the box of powdered sugar.

With Red clean and the mixture corrected, it's time to try turning the machine on again to mix it up. It should work a lot better this time.

Black sets the timer for 2 minutes, as it should take about that long to get the butter fairly well mixed in.

Now we're ready to add eggs. Red is having a little trouble adding the egg yolk--it doesn't want to come out of the prep bowl!

Once Red finally gets the egg yolk into the bowl, I add in the whole egg.

Now we're ready to mix it all together! Ruth turns on the stand mixer to low while Black sets the timer for 2 minutes again. Ruth will keep an eye on things and gradually edge the mixer speed up to medium-low as everything is incorporated. We don't want more flying-powder mishaps!

After about 2 minutes, the dough has come together! Ruth turns off the mixer and moves to get a closer look.
"Excellent," he says. "It's ready for shaping."

Black goes to pre-heat the oven. There's plenty of things to be done before we can get the cookies into the oven, so it should finish pre-heating about the time we're ready to put the cookies in. These cookies bake in a 350°F (180°C) oven.

The first thing we need to do is pick out a disc to put in the cookie press, which will shape the cookies. Hi-chan and the twins poke through the discs available, each having various preferences and suggestions, though they all immediately rule out the cone-shaped tree, declaring it "Too Yule; wrong time of year for that." In the end, everyone agrees on Black's favorite, which looks a bit like a coin and should make some pretty cookies.

With the disc in place, the next order of business is to load up the cookie press with dough. Ruth supervises this from behind the stand mixer. Only about half the dough will fit in the press at once. I've rolled the rest into a ball to add later.

The press is a bit too big for Ruth to properly wrap his arms around, so the dragons all gather around to watch me pop out cookies. This is the first time I've used the cookie press, so I'm still working out how to operate it properly. Well, even if the cookies end up in funny shapes, I'm sure they'll still taste delicious!

Here I've pressed out about as many cookies as I think can fit reasonably on the tray. I'm starting to get the hang of the press.

Ruth helps me slide the tray of cookies into the oven to bake. Sorry about the blurry photo.

Black sets the timer for 12 minutes, though these cookies may need as much as 14-15. Bake the cookies until they're just slightly starting to brown at the edges.

Here we have finished cookies, with just the lightest hint of brown at the edges. Excellent! They look really tasty, don't they?
"Shouldn't we get them off the baking tray so we can run another batch? There's still a lot of dough left," Hi-chan points out.
"Good idea," I tell her. "Let's get the cooling racks set up." Everyone hurries to help.

All the cookies are done, now! So here we have the wire cooling racks loaded up with tasty sablée cookies. Black is trying to sneak a bite.
"Wait for them to cool off all the way," Ruth scolds lightly. "You'll enjoy it more if you don't burn your tongue."
"It's a lot easier to taste things with an unburned tongue," I remark. "Temporarily-dead taste buds are the worst part of a too-hot drink."
"Wouldn't taking a cold drink fix it?" Red asks.
"Not quite, Red. The cold will help to kill the pain, but it won't get the dulled taste buds working again."
"That doesn't sound like fun at all," Hi-chan remarks. "Why would you drink something that is too hot?"
"Generally by accident."

Cookies cooled off and plated up! Om nom nom, yummy! Everyone is too busy chowing down to make any comments.

Ruth's Recipe!

2013-04-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today we're making... what are we making today, Ruth?

What is all this?

Well, you've gathered quite a few things, but these ingredients seem really random. Rice, whole-wheat flour, dried cranberries, Karo (corn) syrup... "Why do you have both brown sugar and molasses? There's molasses in brown sugar already."
"There is?" Black asks. "Oh. Well, maybe it's not enough molasses."
"I wanted dark brown sugar, but you only have light. So we add extra molasses," Ruth explains.
"I suppose that makes sense," I reply. "Um, Red, you do know that's mint extract, not the vanilla, right?"
"That's what Ruth asked for," Red tells me. He sounds a little confused as well.
All this, plus white chocolate M&Ms, sliced almonds, and marzipan. "I don't get it, Ruth. What are we making? You didn't give me a recipe, and I don't see how all this goes together at all."
Ruth looks up at me and starts laughing. "Indeed it does not, Miaka. The recipe is April Fool!"
"It is a Fae tradition," Hi-chan explains. "Mostly just an excuse to pull pranks like always, but one day of the year when no one gets punished for pranks."
"Robin gets away with pranks all the time, though," Black points out.
"Like the time with the pants," Red adds.
"That sounds like a story you'll have to tell me..."

April Fool! So there's no recipe today! Look forward to Sablée Cookies tomorrow, though!

Oatmeal Cookies

2013-03-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Oatmeal Cookies! I got this recipe from a friend a few years back when I was looking for a good way to use up oatmeal quickly. These are quite tasty!
"It's just oatmeal in these?" Red sounds a little confused.
"No raisins or anything?" Black adds, agreeing with her twin that such a thing sounds strange.
"Yup! Just plain oatmeal cookies. Really good oatmeal cookies, though," I assure them.
"Hmm," Ruth remarks. "I suspect these might be popular with Centaurs and such folk..."
"Wouldn't you have to substitute something else for the butter and egg, though?" I asked.
"Why?" All four dragons looked a little confused. "What's wrong with egg and butter?" Ruth asked.
I squashed the slight sense of embarrassment--they're all quite well aware that I know very little about their world. "Um, nothing. I just... well, horses can't eat animal products, as far as I know, so I figured centaurs and such would be the same way."
"But the 'camel' thing the djinni brought liked cookies," Red told me. "I wonder if it would like these?"
"I shall have to keep a stock on hand, in case a djinni stops by again," Ruth said. "Then we could find out."
"You're going to have to tell me about the camel and the djinni at some point," I insisted. "Let's bake first, though."
"Lets," everyone agreed.

Here we have everything we need for the oatmeal cookies, except for the nutmeg. Somehow we all forgot to get the nutmeg. Black has decided that the oats make a good perch, from which she can see everything going on. Hi-chan has claimed the brown sugar for her perch. The copper canister in the center-rear is flour, while the one behind Ruth is white sugar. Ruth has brought the butter. Yes we actually need 2 1/2 sticks of butter. Tucked behind Ruth is the baking powder, with the salt next to and slightly behind it. Red has the egg, and next to him are the cinnamon and vanilla. It looks like a lot, but the recipe is actually pretty simple to put together.

Far less equipment to mess with. In the far back are the wire cooling racks, tucked behind a cookie sheet. It's a good idea to have at least two cookie sheets on hand for this, so that you can rotate them out. Ruth has the bowl and spoon. Make sure you have a big bowl, or you won't have enough room to stir everything in. Black is perched on the parchment paper, partly hiding behind Red with the measuring spoons. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups.

Black gets us started by setting the oven to preheat. These cookies want to be nice and toasty, so warm the oven to 375°F (190°C). It's still chilly here, so I'm glad to have the oven going and warming up the kitchen.

Butter holds these cookies together, so Hi-chan starts by adding 1 1/4 cup (282g) to the bowl. Make sure you take the butter out of the fridge a bit early, so it has time to warm up a bit. Warm butter is softer and a lot easier to work with. If you don't have enough time, you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds, though more than half a minute will melt it and that isn't what you want right now.

Ruth breaks up the butter so that it'll be easier to stir everything together.

Black adds 1/2 cup (100g) of white sugar. Just normal granulated sugar, nothing special about it.

"It stays in the cup shape," Black observes as she finishes adding 3/4 cup (177g) packed brown sugar.
"It has been compacted into the cup," Ruth explains. "That is how one measures brown sugar."
"Why is it brown?" Red wants to know.
"Brown sugar contains molasses," I tell him. "That's what gives it the colour, as well as a slightly different flavor from regular, or 'white', sugar."

Uh, Hi-chan, do you really need to be right there while I'm stirring?

With all the sugar in the bowl now, Ruth creams it together with the butter, making sure it's all mixed as thoroughly as he can get it. Black seems almost as interested in the shadow of the bowl's rim as in the mixing.

I crack one egg neatly into the bowl, which Ruth promptly mixes into the sweetened butter.

Red's turn! He really loves the measuring spoons. In goes one teaspoon of baking powder, followed by...

...one teaspoon of cinnamon, not quite entirely leveled off because we like cinnamon a lot, and then...

...one teaspoon of salt, measured much more carefully. Adding too much salt by accident can really ruin a batch of cookies.

Hi-chan jumps in for a turn, managing to add one teaspoon of vanilla with no measuring-spoon mishaps.

Black claims the honor of adding the last bit of spice, one quarter teaspoon of the nearly-forgotten nutmeg.
Hi-chan is back up on the bowl rim again.

"Hi-chan, please get off," Ruth asks her. "I don't wish to hit you in the nose and I need to stir."
Hi-chan grumbles a little, but complies. "I like the view from the top better."
"Yeah, but from the side you're not risking a bruised nose," Red points out.

To stop Hi-chan's pouting, I convince her to come help me measure out the flour and add it in. She's quite pleased to add 1 1/2 cups (211g) of flour, especially as it gives her a chance to be up at the edge of the bowl again.

Now that Ruth has stirred in the flour, it's starting to look like cookie dough. Just one more thing to add.

Can't have oatmeal cookies without oatmeal! Ruth takes the honor of adding the eponymous ingredient. "Of course the star of the show turns up last," Black teases.
"It's the prerogative of the lead actor, since the show can't start without the star," I joke.
"Well, now we have all our players in place," Ruth says as he adds the last of 3 cups (275g) of oatmeal. "Time to get the show on the road, isn't it?"

One last session of mixing presents us with this nice cookie dough. Yum! This part is ready to go, but needs a place to go!

Everyone pitches in to roll parchment paper out onto the cookie sheet. This is the fastest and easiest way to prep a baking sheet, but greasing it works as well. The cookies will slide off the parchment quite nicely, though, so it's my first choice.

Pull out a couple of spoons and use them to plonk balls of dough about 1 to 1 1/2 inches (2-3cm) in diameter onto the tray, making sure to leave 1 1/2 to 2 inches (3-4cm) between them, as these cookies will flatten out a little and you don't really want to run them all together. It's a touch harder to share them if you have to cut them apart first. Uh, the littlest ones seem to have misunderstood slightly. These aren't shaped cookies...

Ruth slides the sheet of cookies into the oven to bake.

Black sets the timer for 9 minutes, to be on the safe side. The recipe calls for 9 to 11 minutes, but ours ended up taking more like 12 or 13.

Ruth pulls the first sheet of cookies out of the oven! "Mm, these look quite tasty," he says. "I am looking forward to trying them!"
"They're quite good," I tell him, "and they got rave reviews from Archi's coworkers the last time I made them."

We carefully piled the cookies onto the cooling rack. Hi-chan and the littles are trying to sneak bites, while Ruth points out that they'll taste even better accompanied by a glass of milk or tea... but no one seems interested in getting a drink. Yummy cookies!!

Tosca Cake

2013-03-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

"Hey, we have a recipe that was requested by a reader!"
"Really?" Ruth asked, sounding excited. "Our first Reader Request?"
"Yes indeed!" I told him happily. "Kain has asked us to make Tosca cake. Here, she sent us a link." I pulled up the recipe to show him.
"Ah, the measurements..." Ruth trailed off, looking a little worriedly at the metric measurements listed.
"I can convert them, or just use the scale," I assured him.
"The temperatures as well?" Ruth asked, still a little concerned. "Those do not look like the temperatures at which your oven runs."
"They're not; these are in Celsius."
"Well, if you're sure it will work, it does sound like an interesting recipe to try." Some of his enthusiasm started to return. "I've never seen a recipe like this. Where is it from?"
"This is a Scandinavian recipe, from the farthest north-east part of Europe that isn't Russia. See, it says this cake is especially popular in Sweden and Finland."
"Ah!" Ruth smiled broadly, excited again. "It's always fun to try new recipes from far places. Let's get baking!"

Thank you, Kain-san, for requesting this recipe! Let's get started!

As with anything, we need our ingredients to get started! Red is playing with butter and the scale, while Ruth watches from his post atop the canister of flour. Apparently the bottle of milk makes a good resting-post. Hi-chan has the sliced almonds and an eye on Black chasing the eggs. The smaller canister is sugar, and the baking powder is in the middle with no one paying attention to it.

Since the recipe is in metric and I do have a scale and plenty of prep bowls, we opted to measure everything out ahead of time. Ruth has the milk and butter; Black is still chasing the eggs around. Red insisted on taking charge of the baking powder because it's in a measuring spoon. Hi-chan is attempting to sneak between the flour and sugar.

Here we have pretty much all the equipment we need for baking the cake. Archi is cutting out a circle of parchment paper, so that isn't here, but Ruth has the cake pan and whisk, while the others check out the glass mixing-bowl.

Before we get started mixing, let's preheat the oven!
"But what temperature does it want?" Black asks, confused. "It says 180 but your oven doesn't do that."
"350°F," I tell her. This one I know off the top of my head because a lot of things bake at 350°F (180°C).
"I have not seen a recipe in this 'metric' system of yours before, Miaka," Ruth explains. "All the recipes I've found in Draconaria are in the same Standard System of Measurement, the one you usually use."
"The Imperial System is confusing," Archi grumbles softly.
"Conversions are certainly easier in metric," I agree. "We have to live with what we've got, though. This is actually the only country that uses Imperial measurements much anymore. Everywhere else they use the Metric System."
The dragons all look a little perplexed and comment that this seems odd, so I promise to teach them Metric when we're not in the middle of baking something.

We need to butter the pan and line it with parchment. Archi cut the parchment out while we were getting things ready, so now the twins are maneuvering it into place. You do want to use the butter, even though you're putting paper over it, as the butter acts as glue, keeping the parchment paper in place. Otherwise it'll roll up or fall over.

And here we have the pan all set to go! Now we need to make the batter to put in it.

Red helps me pour in the sugar, about 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (60g). Once that's in, I add two eggs.

Ruth takes up the whisk to carefully beat the eggs into the sugar. The picture actually shows the end of mixing, a nice light-yellow frothy sweet-eggs substance.

Red tips the half-tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) of baking powder into the cup (100g) of flour. Black is keeping a close eye on the proceedings. Of course, it's more fun to watch the powders move around from the bottom of the bowl, apparently. Red carefully mixes the baking powder into the flour.

With the flour and baking powder sufficiently combined, Red adds some of the dry mix to the egg mix. Ruth suggested adding it in thirds so as to make mixing easier.

Black pours in 1/4 cup (50mL) milk. Liquids can be added all at once, since we don't have to worry too much about mixing them into this, and they'll help mix the dry ingredients in.

Hi-chan helps me tip in 1/3 cup melted butter (80g). It took about 30-40 seconds on high in the microwave to melt it.

With that all the way stirred in, it's time to add more dry mixture. Red has that under control.
(right) Now everything is mixed in and our batter is ready to pour. This is a slightly thicker cake batter than I'm generally accustomed to, but it flows well enough.

Hi-chan and the twins find good perches to watch from, and Ruth and I work together to pour the batter into our cake pan. The recipe calls for a 20cm (8 inch) cake pan, but the only ones I have are 23 cm (9 inch). We'll get a slightly flatter than intended cake, and possibly a thinner coat of topping. It shouldn't affect anything else, though.

Tap the pan on the counter a few times to encourage the batter to spread out evenly. Everyone is taking one last look at the batter before Ruth puts the cake into the oven.

Black sets the timer for 20 minutes. "This doesn't seem like enough time for a cake to get all the way baked," she comments.
"It's probably not," I tell her. "Twenty minutes will get it firm enough that we can pour on the topping and it won't sink, though."
"Oh, right!" Black giggles. "I forgot about the topping."
"Well, it's time to make the topping now, so let's get everything together," Ruth says.

Here we have all the ingredients for the topping, neatly measured out. Black is perched on the measuring cup of milk, while Hi-chan is keeping an eye on the sugar. Ruth has the sliced almonds and the butter. The butter doesn't need to be melted, but I was on a roll with the microwave. Red is keeping an eye on the flour, once again because it's the only item we're using a measuring spoon for.

We don't need much for mixing up the topping. The twins are keeping an eye on the ingredients at the back of the counter while Hi-chan and Ruth bring the saucepan and mixing spoon.

Ruth puts the pan on the stove while Red turns the correct burner on to low heat. We're not trying to cook this, just melt the butter and warm things up a little.

Now let's mix up the topping! Ruth is keeping the pan in place while Hi-chan helps me add 5 tablespoons (75g) butter. I probably shouldn't have melted it, but it isn't going to hurt anything.

Ruth helps me pour in 2/3 cup (100g) sliced almonds. The recipe calls for 'flaked' almond, but 'sliced' is the closest my local grocery store sells. I think it's the same thing, though.

Now for the sugar. We've measured out 1/4 cup (50g) and Hi-chan is enjoying helping to pour it in. "Now we have Sweet Almonds!" she comments, laughing.

Ruth keeps a close eye on Black as she adds 1/4 cup (50mL) milk. "Don't fall in," he warns.
"I won't!" Black insists. "It's fun to watch it pour out."

Red's turn at last! He happily adds 1 tablespoon of flour. That's everything we need for the topping!

I hold the pot still for Ruth while he stirs everything together. This won't produce a consistent mix, but you want to mix the flour and sugar in with the butter and make sure the almonds are all coated. Leave the completed topping to bubble softly on the stove-top until the timer for the cake goes off.

When the timer goes off, Black goes for the controls to raise the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C) while Ruth pulls the cake out of the oven. Time to put the whole thing together!

Ruth carefully pours the topping onto the partly-baked cake.
Once the topping is out, Ruth and I work together to spread it carefully over the whole surface of the cake, doing our best to make it as even as we can. I think we did a pretty good job of it, don't you?

Ruth puts the topped cake back in the oven, which hasn't quite finished heating up to the new higher temperature yet.

Still at the controls, Black sets the timer for 10 minutes, so that we can keep a decent eye on the topping. We're trying to toast the almonds and set the praline around them, but we have to be careful that they don't burn. It might take a bit longer than 10 minutes. I think ours actually took more like 15.

Everyone crowded around for a good look at the cake as soon as it came out of the oven. I let them stare at the top for a minute or so while I pulled out the wire cooling rack.

This cake is best served at room temperature, so everyone is admiring it while it cools. Well, Ruth and Hi-chan are admiring it. Looks like the twins are trying to decide if they can snatch a bite.

Mmm, yummy cake! This is fairly simple to make and really delicious. I see why it's such a favorite! {Om-nom-nom} All the dragons are too busy eating to say anything more than "Mmm!"

Make-Ahead French Toast

2013-03-11T16:00:00.001-04:00

Today's recipe for Make-Ahead French Toast comes from About.com. (Link will take you directly to the recipe.)
This isn't our usual fare, but it is baked, and this was a slightly crazy week for Archi and myself, which threw Ruth and the others for a bit of a loop as well.
"French toast sounds interesting," Ruth remarked. "I don't think I've done that before. What is it? And why is it called 'French'?"
I blinked, a little surprised at the question. "Um, I'm not really sure. No one seems to know if it's actually a French recipe, and it's got several different names in various languages. The French themselves tend to call it 'pain perdu' which means something like 'lost bread'. It seems to have been invented originally to use up stale bread without it tasting stale."
"Reclaiming stale bread?" Ruth asked, sounding intrigued. "That sounds like a good recipe to know. May we try it?"
"Sure!" I agreed. "It works best with extra-thick cut bread, or dried out or stale bread. Probably work even better with thick-cut half-stale bread."
"All your bread is wrapped up in 'plastic', though," Ruth pointed out.
I smiled. "If I pull some bread out of its plastic and stick it in the oven, I can dry it out a little fairly quickly." Sticking it in the oven keeps anything from getting at it, but still lets it dry. If you really want to speed things up, put the oven on very low heat, about 200°F/95°C.
So, with our dried bread prepped, let's get started!

Here we have nearly everything we need for the Make-Ahead French toast. I say 'mostly everything' because the bread is still in the oven drying--if you use fresh bread with this recipe it'll get really soggy and want to fall apart.
Ruth has the cinnamon and is standing on the brown sugar. Hi-chan has woven herself between the cream and vanilla to make sure Black has the eggs well in hand. One of the eggs rolled in front of the nutmeg and hit Red in the wing as he was wrangling the measuring spoons and measuring cup. "Hey!" Red objected. "Watch where you're rolling those!"
"It escaped, sorry!" Black apologized. "Why are you putting things in the baking dish anyway? Don't we need that to mix stuff in?"
"Oh yeah," Red answered sheepishly, picking the measuring spoons back up. "I forgot." Everyone started laughing.
"Well, it isn't like there's much counter space to put things on anyway," I reassure the small dragon.
It's probably a good thing the plastic wrap didn't get brought over--there's no space for it! Of course, we've also forgotten the whisk.

Once everything is pulled back out of the baking dish, Black perches herself on one handle to supervise while the others wrangle the four eggs.

Ruth hands me each egg, and I carefully crack them into the dish. Black finds the spread-pattern intriguing.

Ruth likes the whisk best for beating eggs. Make sure the yolks are broken and mixed in quite well with the whites.

Hi-chan adds 1/2 cup (118mL) of cream. You can use milk instead (same amounts), I just wanted to use up some of the cream.

Black happily adds 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (60g). She giggles as it lands with a soft plop beneath the measuring cup. Everyone else seems more interested in watching the spread pattern of the cream.

Red takes charge of the measuring spoon to add 2 teaspoons of vanilla. This gives a nice touch of flavor to the French toast. "Oh, that's neat," Red remarks, watching the pattern the vanilla makes in the milk as it spreads out.

Red also insists on being the one to add the cinnamon, and neatly dumps in 1/4 teaspoon. Spices can be adjusted to taste. Archi and I both like cinnamon, so that quarter-teaspoon was a touch bit heaping.

"Oops," says Hi-chan as she loses control of the 1/4 teaspoon measure. "I didn't mean to add the spoon."
"Hi-chan!" Red objects, upset. "You were only supposed to add the nutmeg!"
"Sorry... I'll fish it out."
"No fish!" Red yelps. "Just nutmeg! And no spoon either!"
Hi-chan gives Red a confused look for a moment. "What fish? I'll get the spoon out. The nutmeg is in already at least, and there isn't anything else we need that measuring spoon for."
"Fortunately," I agree, grabbing the spoon before Hi-chan has a chance to. "And the spoon washes easily enough, Red, calm down." He continues pouting.

Ruth sets the whisk down long enough to add a pinch of salt. He really likes the whisk!

The salt was the last of the ingredients that go in the 'batter', so Ruth takes up the whisk again to mix everything together. Make sure it's all mixed in well so you get a consistent color throughout, or you'll wind up with patchy French toast that won't taste quite right. The picture was taken just as Ruth finished mixing.

I pulled the partly-dried out bread from the oven, and the dragons immediately pounced on the chance to inspect it. "It isn't a thick cut," I explain, "but this should work well enough."
"Dry bread!" Black observes as she hops up on the end piece.
"So this is the kind of bread you use for 'French toast'?" Ruth asks, watching the others make a close inspection. "It looks like normal bread."
"That's sort of the point, Ruth," I explain. "Actually, you can make French toast with any kind of bread you want. This bread just caught my eye in the bakery section of the grocery store. Any slightly-dried bread will make decent French toast. I've heard of making it with cinnamon-raisin bread, which would give a really rich and very cinnamon flavor to it."
"Ooo, that sounds yummy," Hi-chan agrees. "Maybe we should try that sometime at home, Ruth!"
Ruth nods. "I'd have to scale the recipe up significantly, but it could be a good thing to add to the menu."
"It's made of dried-out bread," Red says, still trying to wrap his head around the idea. "This is definitely dry bread. Ruth usually throws away the dried-out bread. Mom saves it to feed to birds."
"You could probably feed half the birds in Draconaria City with the dried-out bread from Baked Treasure," Ruth remarks. "I'd rather let other people have a chance to feed the birds."

Four slices is all I can get to fit into the baking dish I have. Hi-chan is having fun making sure the bread is decently submerged on one side. Red has decided he doesn't care to risk dipping his wing in the egg mixture, and Black is trying to decide if she wants to jump down or not.

The bread needs to soak on this side for about 3 to 5 minutes, so Red sets a timer to make sure we don't forget to flip it.

The timer went off, so now Ruth is flipping each piece of bread over, so that the other side can soak.

Everyone is looking at the flipped bread, which is now coated with the egg-mixture. Wait, where's Ruth? Oh, he went to get the plastic wrap.

Black holds one edge of the plastic wrap down while the others stretch it over the baking dish and cut it. With the soaking bread thus covered, it's time to stick it in the fridge. Since this is 'Make-Ahead', the idea is to make it up the night before so that it can be baked up for breakfast in the morning with very little prep.
That's it for today! The next part will start in the morning...

You didn't really think I'd cut the post off there, did you? Of course not. From here on out, it's the
Next Morning.

Black sets the oven for 375°F (190°C). It needs a bit of time to heat up while we get everything ready.

Peel the plastic wrap off the baking dish and toss it out, as its job is done. Everyone is taking a moment to look at the soaked bread. "It doesn't look dry at all now," Red remarks.
"No it doesn't," I tell him. "That's the point. Now we bake it."

Everyone pitches in to line a cookie sheet with aluminium foil. Once they're all out of the way, I spray it with non-stick cooking spray. You do need the non-stick spray, or you'll end up with foil stuck to the finished French toast. I'm all for getting plenty of minerals, but that's not the way to do it! If you don't have non-stick spray, use a little bit of oil, butter, or margarine to coat the foil, creating a thin barrier that keeps the egg-mixture from attaching itself to the foil.

Use a pancake turner or other spatula to pick the bread up from the baking dish and place it on the prepared pan. This is the point at which bread that isn't dried enough will fall apart the most. Soggy bread can be rescued, but it's easier to just prevent the problem from occurring by using dried-out bread. Make sure to place the slices of bread a bit apart on the sheet, so that they don't stick themselves together when baked. You want about a half inch (1cm) or more between slices.

Once the oven is preheated, Ruth puts the pan of egg-mix-soaked bread in. Don't worry if some of the egg-mixture has leaked out of the bread, that's normal. It's also why you don't shove the bread all together on the pan.

Black sets the timer for 10 minutes. Like pancakes, the French toast will need to be flipped halfway through cooking. Each side gets 10 minutes.

Everyone gathers to watch Ruth flip the half-cooked bread over. (Black blends into the top of the stove slightly, as it matches her coloring.) This is where you'll find out if you used enough non-stick.
Now they go back in the oven for 10 more minutes!

After the second 10 minute stint in the oven, our French toast is ready to eat! Let's plate it up!

Mm, French Toast! You can top it with quite a number of different things. Jam, marmalade, powdered sugar, or various types of syrup. My home is in sugaring country, so we tend to top it with pure maple syrup from a local sugar-house. Dig in, everyone! Oh, wait, let Ruth cut you a piece first.

Anise Cookies

2013-03-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

Today's recipe is Anise Cookies!
These were a request by a friend of mine. When he sent me the recipe, the quantities startled me, because it makes a lot of cookies! Ruth, however, nodded approvingly. "This is a bakery recipe," he said. "I work with things in this quantity all the time at Baked Treasure back home."
"A whole dozen eggs for a single recipe?" I asked, still startled.
Ruth nodded. "I don't buy eggs by the dozen for the bakery, Miaka. I buy eggs by the case. Dozens are much too small a unit when you're making things to sell. I don't have time to keep running to the store for more eggs. Or flour, sugar, butter, and other staples."
"You never said anything about that before!"
"Well, the size difference does skew things a bit, so no one has thought to comment on it. Also, you're only baking at home, to feed a few people. Baked Treasure sees a couple thousand customers on a slow day."
"Ah, you have a point." I thought a moment, running the math in my head to cut the recipe in half. "Might be fun to make something the way you're used to for once. I don't have a big enough bowl, though."
"That could be a problem," Ruth agreed. "Your kitchen is too small to store the type of bowl you'd need anyway. I'd lend you one from my kitchen, but the trip through the Portal would shrink it the same way it shrinks us."
"I can probably borrow a bowl from my Mom." That solved the issue, and so I decided to go ahead and make the recipe as written.
That said, let's go!

"Is this a big enough bowl?" I set it on the counter, and all four dragons hurry to inspect it.
"Oo, a perch!" Black exclaims, claiming it.
"Nice and deep," Hi-chan says, climbing on the side.
"Wow, it looks so much bigger over here," Red says, positioning himself opposite his twin.
Ruth looks into the bowl and nods. "Yes, this should do nicely. Based on a size comparison between the bowl and yourself, Miaka, I would guess this is the same size bowl I usually use in the bakery."
"All of the bowls at Baked Treasure are a lot bigger than any of the ones Mom uses at home," Black remarks.
"Your mother is cooking for four, not hundreds." Ruth hops down from the edge of the bowl. "Let's start baking."

Here is everything we need for this recipe! There aren't very many ingredients, but we need quite a lot of each one. Black has perched herself on the baking powder, while Hi-chan has claimed the eggs. Ruth has lined up the sugar and flour, with the oil in front of them. Red is marveling at the pile of anise extract. "Six bottles?" he asks.
"Each bottle is only one ounce," I explain.
"How come it doesn't come in bigger bottles?" Black wants to know.
"Good question," Hi-chan answers.
"Most extracts only come in small bottles like this," I tell them. "I suppose a restaurant-supply store might sell bigger bottles, but I have to rely on what's available in the grocery store."

Cookie pans are waiting on the stove, where no one will trip on them. Black has perched herself on top of the cooling racks; we actually have all three tiers set up today, since this recipe makes about 9 to 10 dozen cookies. Hi-chan has a mixing spoon, and has positioned herself to give a good view of how big that bowl is. Red has the measuring spoons, as usual. Ruth has positioned himself between the liquid measuring cup and the sifter. We also have a whisk for beating the eggs, and a measuring cup for sugar and flour.

Ruth watches as I crack all 12 eggs into the bowl. We'll have a lot of high-angle shots this week, because the big bowl is a bit tall.

Hi-chan and the twins have decided that the top of the cooling racks makes a good spot to watch from as Ruth beats the eggs.

The recipe calls for a pound of sugar (about 2 cups) so I pulled out the scale. Black and Hi-chan keep an eye out so that we get the right amount. Red came over after we finished measuring and pushed the button to switch units, showing that we have 455g of sugar.

Ruth is keeping an eye on things as Hi-chan helps me add the sugar. The twins have gone back to the cooling rack perch to watch.

Red and Black help measure out the oil. We need 1 1/2 cups, which is 355mL. Always read a liquid measurement at the lower edge of the thick line on top (it's called the meniscus and is caused by surface tension). Make sure you put your eye level with the measuring cup you're trying to read, as different angles can give you an inaccurate measurement.
Black claims the task of actually pouring the oil into the mixture, while Red goes back up the cooling rack to watch. Hi-chan is trying to decide if she wants to climb back up there or not.

Ruth takes up the whisk again to mix the sugar and oil into the beaten eggs.

Red helps me add about 2 cups (300g) of flour. We'll add more later.

Now it's time to add the flavoring. Six bottles means each of us (four dragons, myself, and Archi) gets to add a bottle, so I've passed them out. Hi-chan and the twins look so cute, excited about pouring in their bottles.

Ruth adds the first bottle, and Black waits until last to add hers. Wow, that is a powerful and distinctive scent. "Time to swap the whisk out for the spoon," Ruth declares. "I want to stir this all in before we add more."

With everything stirred in, it's time to add the baking powder. Red is pleased to take up the spoon! We're using the tablespoon instead of the teaspoon, because it will fit in the can of baking powder and 4 tablespoons is less work for the same measurement than 12 teaspoons. (There are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon.)

Ruth stirs the baking powder into the mix. It doesn't look much like cookie dough yet. We're about to change that.

Now we need to go from the soupy batter we have (above) to something we can actually shape (at right). This is going to take quite a bit of flour! The recipe calls for about 12 cups total, as needed for the consistency. I'm not sure how useful the estimate is, because I just added flour until I got the dough where I wanted it. Be prepared to use most of a 5lb (2.27kg) bag of flour. The recipe's estimate comes out to about 4lbs (~2kg).

Ruth holds the sifter while Red turns the crank to work it. The flour needs to be added a little at a time through the sifter and then mixed in. Our flimsy plastic mixing spoon quickly proved not to be up to the task, so I got my hands into the dough. Once the dough is thick enough to be shaped by hand, cover it and let it stand for 10 minutes.

Now is a good time to preheat the oven. Black sets it to 375°F (190°C), then wanders off investigating the spilled flour and the lights.

While the dough is resting, everyone pitches in to spread parchment paper over the cookie sheets so they'll be ready to put cookies on.

Now we're ready to shape up the cookies and set them on the sheet! Shape the dough into smallish balls, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches (2-3cm) in size. Try to keep them all about the same size so they'll cook evenly. Smaller balls will give you more cookies, but they'll be smaller. Red is making sure there's enough space (about 1 1/2 inches/3cm) between each cookie on the tray, because they will expand a little. You can make funny shapes if you like. I did mostly just balls because I had a lot to make.
I have medical gloves on because I didn't want to have to keep washing my hands, and it gives me a surface the dough isn't quite as apt to stick to.

Ruth helps put the tray of cookies into the oven.

Black sets the timer for 10 minutes. Each sheet of cookies should cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the tops are light golden brown.

The first sheet of cookies just came out of the oven! The twins are debating sneaking a bite. "Wait until they're frosted," Hi-chan suggests.
Of course, we have to make the frosting first.

So, here is everything we need for the frosting! We'll make it in the stand mixer because it mixes fast. Ruth has perched himself between the kettle and the sifter. Hi-chan brought the powdered sugar. Since this is a 1lb (453g) box, we need all of it. Black has brought the tiny round sprinkles, while Red has the teaspoon and the vanilla. (If you made larger cookies, you might be able to use jimmies on them instead of the round things.)

Ruth holds the sifter while I pour powdered sugar in. Crank it up!
Now we have a pound of sifted powdered sugar, the base for our frosting.

Red adds a teaspoon of vanilla extract for flavoring. You can make this glaze-like frosting in any flavor you like. I've chosen vanilla because it goes well with anything. (The recipe actually requests lemon flavoring.)

Ruth adds hot water from the not-quite-boiling kettle. Use just enough hot water to achieve a spreadable consistency in the frosting; it will probably take less than 1/2 cup (118mL). Once the water's in, it's time to turn on the stand mixer!

This is the consistency we're looking for. It's a bit runny at the moment, but it will thicken as the water cools. You can make it thicker if you like, but this will make frosting the cookies pretty easy.

This is why I made it a little runny--easy to dip the cookies into the frosting! This way I don't have to spend forever with a knife trying to frost my cookies.

Red is supervising the addition of sprinkles to decorate the finished cookies. The frosting will dry very fast, and the sprinkles won't stick to dried frosting, so shake them on right away!

Now we box up the cookies! "These boxes are rather deep for this type of cookie, Miaka," Ruth comments as Red and Hi-chan arrange cookies in the bottom of the box.
"Sorry," I tell him. "These are all I have at the moment."

Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

2013-02-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

Today's recipe is Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies!
These are really simple, but very delicious! The recipe comes from 'The Taste of Home Cookbook'. There is no flour in this recipe.
The cookies are so good that they were gobbled up before anyone had a chance to take pictures of everyone enjoying them! Sorry about that.
Let's get started!

We only need 24 kisses, so I opened up the bag and everyone is helping to count out the right number of kisses.

Here we have everything we need. Well, the cookie sheet is a little hard to see, as it got set on the stove where it wouldn't be in the way of the work-space The cooling rack and sugar have been shoved to the back, the measuring cups are lined up in front of that, and Red has brought the vanilla. Black is minding the egg, Ruth has the peanut butter, and Hi-chan is watching the carefully-counted chocolate kisses. The measuring spoon and our bowl have been left at the front corner. We're ready to start!

Black gets the oven on preheat for us. 350°F (~175°C) is pretty common for cookies, and quite a few other things as well.

Ruth starts scooping peanut butter out into the measuring cup. We need 1 full cup (260g). Once we've filled up the measuring cup, Black hops up on the edge of the peanut butter jar for a look. "Wow!" she says, "That's a lot of peanut butter. This was full when we started."

Peanut butter goes into the bowl. Use the same knife you scooped it out of the jar with to get all the stuck-on bits out of the measuring cup. Don't worry too much about the bits you can't get, though.

Hi-chan helps add 1 cup (200g) sugar. Red and Black are enjoying the fact that the clear glass bowl makes it easy to see what's going on.

Now we cream the peanut butter and sugar together, until they're very well mixed. Ruth is just finishing that as everyone else looks on and gets ready for the next few steps. Red really likes measuring spoons...

Since none of the dragons can actually handle eggs very well in our world, I get to crack the egg into our mix while they watch.

Everyone crowds around to watch Red add the teaspoon of vanilla. Ruth is waiting on top of the jar of peanut butter because it gives him a good vantage point.

Mix it all together! It should start to pull away from the bowl and ball up a bit around your spoon when it's mixed well enough. It'll be a nice cookie-dough consistency, good for rolling into balls.
The picture at the right shows the fully-mixed dough, ready to be rolled up!

Before we roll up our cookies, we need a place to put them! Hi-chan and the smaller dragons have the parchment well in hand! Rolling it out is fun.

We have this set up like an assembly line. I roll up a ball of dough, a little more than an inch (3cm) in diameter, and hand it off to a dragon to position on the cookie sheet. Make sure to leave about 2 inches (5cm) between cookies, as they will expand a bit as they bake.

Ruth slides the sheet of cookie balls into the oven.

The cookies bake for 10-12 minutes, so Black sets the timer for 10 minutes. Always start with the lowest time and add more if needed.

And they're done! The tops are just slightly cracked, and they've puffed and flattened a little. Ruth helps me pull them out of the oven.

Press a chocolate kiss into the tops of the cookies right away, while they're still a bit soft on top. The remaining heat will help the chocolate to melt slightly into the surface of the cookie, holding it all together. Ruth is in charge of positioning kisses once the others get them unwrapped. "I love unwrapping presents!" Red exclaims, tearing foil off a chocolate kiss. Everyone laughs.

Once the kisses are on, the cookies need to cool for about 5 minutes. In the mean time, let's get the cooling racks set up!

And now we have cookies on the rack, waiting to be completely cool.
They got devoured too fast to get a picture of everyone enjoying them...

Moist Sponge Cake

2013-02-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

Today's recipe is a moist sponge cake! This comes from Baking by James Peterson. It's a plain and simple recipe, unflavored and using baking staples, so it's good to make anytime. It can be frosted in several different ways, but it's also go with no frosting at all!
Air is the only thing holding this cake up, as it contains no yeast or other leavening. We'll be making a one-layer 9 in (23cm) round cake, about an inch (2.5cm) tall. If you have the right tool or good enough skill with a knife, you can cut the cake in half and make it two layers. I've made it plain.
This is also a good recipe to use for a rolled cake, by making it in a parchment-lined sheet pan instead of a round pan. Ruth and I are still discussing what filling to use, so expect to see a rolled cake sometime in the next month or two.
Let's get started!

This cake does require a little bit of prep work--it calls for the eggs to be warmed. Ruth is supervising from the top of the cake flour as the others get the eggs ready. Black is reading the directions on how to warm eggs quickly.

Red and Hi-chan have a bowl full of eggs--we need 6 warmed eggs for this recipe. That's lots of eggs! Beating them gives the cake its lift.

To warm the eggs quickly, we need to soak them in hot tap water for 5 minutes. Hi-chan and Black are pouring hot water over the bowl of eggs while Red gets the timer going.

Once the timer goes off, pour the water out. Careful not to lose or break your eggs! Please excuse awkward pictures, we made the cake while Archi was at work so we didn't have our cameraman. I've tried to use only the best shots, but I've still got only half my attention on the camera.

Prep work's done, now for the real thing! Here are all the ingredients. Ruth has brought the cake flour and is standing on the sugar. Hi-chan brought heavy cream, though milk could also be used in this recipe. Black has the butter and Red got the vanilla.

We'll be using the stand mixer (a new addition to the kitchen) for this. Ruth got the bowl and I've already attached the beater we'll be using. Hi-chan has the round cake pan. Black has brought a saucepan and Red, as usual, has the measuring spoons--and the one measuring cup. We also need a liquid cup measure, which no one remembered about until we were ready to add the cream.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (~175°C) for the round pan. (A sheet cake requires a higher temperature--400°F/205°C.) Black has this under control.

Ruth is helping me butter and flour the cake pan. Parchment paper can be substituted for this step, but I didn't feel like fussing with cutting out a circle.

Red adds 1tsp (5mL) vanilla extract to the saucepan.

Black helps me add 1/4 cup (60mL) of heavy cream. Use the same amount of milk if you'd rather.

Hi-chan dumps in 3 tablespoons (45mL) of butter.

Ruth stirs the mixture over medium heat, paying careful attention so that the cream doesn't burn.

Once the butter is completely melted (as shown above), turn off the burner and take the pan off the heat.

We'll come back to this in a bit, for now we'll let it cool.

Now we go back to the eggs we warmed up earlier. We need 3 yolks, so I set about separating the eggs. Due to camera handling, I haven't got an action shot here.

Three egg yolks in the bowl. Hi-chan is trying to come up with a good jolk. (Or a bad pun...)

Three whole eggs go in, and Ruth joins Hi-chan for a look while the smaller dragons argue over the measuring spoons.

Well, they seem to have resolved their disagreement. Black adds 3/4 cup of sugar and Red adds the additional 2 tablespoons. (200g total)

Ruth turns the stand mixer on, all the way up to high. Hi-chan has decided that the top of the mixer makes a good observation point, while Ruth elects to watch from the side. It'll be at this for a while--let it mix for 5 minutes or more.

The egg mix should look like this when you lift the mixer--it's called the 'ribbon stage'. That ribbon of egg mix stays visible for about 5 seconds before dissolving. This may take more than 5 minutes to achieve; ours ran for 8 minutes.

Take the bow of sweetened eggs out of the stand mixer and carefully add the cream mixture from before, pouring it into the side of the bowl, very close to the edge. Again, the awkwardness of these shots is due to the lack of a cameraman.

Fold the cream into the eggs quickly but gently--you don't want to knock the air out or you'll have a flat cake. Remember that the air you just put into the eggs is all that lifts the cake.

Sift in 3/4 cup (130g) of cake flour, one-third at a time, and fold it into the batter. Make sure the flour is all the way mixed in before you add more! Everyone else is watching as Ruth and I handle this. Yes, the orange thing is a mesh strainer--I don't have a sifter. This works much the same way, though I have to push it through the mesh by hand; I use the back of the measuring cup (the 1/8 measure is the only one that fits in the opening of the cake flour bag).

Once all the flour is folded in, pour your cake batter into the pan. Here we have a pan full of cake batter, and dragons who are tempted to steal a taste of the batter!

Now the cake goes into the oven (my cake pan leaked!) and Black sets the timer for 25 minutes.

When the timer goes off, test the cake! If it's firm to the touch, it's done. If not, give it a few more minutes.

It's done! Ruth helps take it out of the oven, then keeps an eye on it while it cools for 10 minutes. I've distracted the others with cleaning up.

We're lucky I have a cast-iron frying pan in the oven, as it caught the batter that leaked out of my cake pan. So now we have cake and spare cake. I'll let this cool for 10 minutes too before I do anything with it.

Ruth supervises as I remove the pan, flipping the cake over by carefully sandwiching it between two cooling racks. Be very gentle when doing this, or you'll end up with squished cake. Well, it's going to get a touch smashed this way anyhow. Not much I can do about that. Once the cake was all the way out, the others came over to investigate. Black has found the tasty crumbs.

A slice of cake, with Pumpkin Spice ice cream (from Walpole Creamery) to go with it. This cake goes well with anything, but the ice cream is truly excellent stuff! (It's also a local creamery, so I'm sorry if I am teasing you.) Dig in, everyone!

Temporary Hiatus

2012-11-14T16:00:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to keep things up through November, but it looks like life is getting in the way. Check back again in December for more adventures Baking with the Dragons! We need a bit more time to organize our recipes and the kitchen, so that we have things all set. National Novel Writing Month is also throwing a bit of a wrench into things, as Archi and I both write, so we've been very much focused on our efforts to complete the challenge of getting fifty thousand (50,000) words on paper in thirty (30) days.
Ruth is working hard on picking out recipes that will be just right for the Winter Holidays, so look forward to some excellent treats next month!
See you in December!

Unbaked

2012-11-05T15:08:00.001-05:00

I am very sorry to report that there is unlikely to be a post at all this week. My back has been throwing a temper-tantrum all weekend, and until I get it under control I cannot bake.

Halloween Special: Jack-O-Lantern Pie

2012-10-31T16:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween, everyone!
Today we have a special recipe, Jack-O-Lantern Pie! We also have some special guests, classmates of Red and Black. As none of them is old enough yet to have chosen a name, they'll be addressed by colour: Blue, Green, and White.
The base recipe for this is from the back of the can of Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin. Since we're baking in Mom's kitchen, with seven dragons and two brothers along for the ride (and no Archi, as he's at work) we'll use frozen pie crusts. You can easily substitute the pie crust recipe from the Apple Pie if you'd rather make your own or can't find a frozen crust. Keep in mind that pumpkin pie only needs one crust, though, so you'll have leftover crust. Perhaps you could add a stem!

Let's get started!

Ruth is standing on the sugar because it gives him a good view of everything, and with twice as many dragons working under him as usual, there's a lot to keep track of! Black has taken over the salt for a perch, settled between Blue on the evaporated milk and Green on the cinnamon. Hi-chan has the ginger and the whole carton of eggs, though we only need two eggs. We'll sort that out later. Red has brought the nutmeg by mistake, because I managed to get everyone confused about the spices. White is bringing in cloves just behind him. They're almost lined up in front of the can of pumpkin. Ruth found it rather amusing that the recipe was on the back of the can.

Here are the things we need to get started! Ruth brought the larger bowl, White has the smaller. Black
has most of the measuring cups, though Green grabbed one of them to jump in. Hi-chan brought a spoon
to stir with, and Red has the measuring spoons. Blue brought a fork for beating eggs.

Green suddenly remembered that we needed to open the cans, so he hopped out of the measuring cup and
went to get the can opener. This one doesn't look anything like mine, but it'll still work. We'll see it in action later.

To make the face, we'll be using chocolate--Wilson's chocolate melts, because they happen to be easy to work with. In order to make sure they melt evenly, we're using a warm bath for the glass melting dishes. Ruth is adding water so we can get the heat turned on. This is the warming part of Mom's slow-cooker, with the lid of it turned upside-down to hold the water.

Hi-chan is helping me pour the chocolate melts into the dishes for melting down. We have dark chocolate and black candy melts. It takes a bit for the chocolate to melt, so we'll be keeping half an eye on that while we put the pie together, and we can draw up the faces while the pie is in the oven.

Let's get started on the pie! First we need to preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Hi-chan has that under control, as Mom's oven is built a bit differently than mine.

Blue won the choosing-game the little dragons played, so he gets to add the first ingredient, 3/4 cup (150g) sugar. Ruth holds the bowl still and keeps an eye on the other four small dragons as they figure out who's up next.

Looks like Black is up! He's quite familiar with this, so adding 1/2 teaspoon salt is no sweat, though the measuring spoon isn't quite the same as the ones he's used to at home.

Green gets to add 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Red's turn! 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, easy as pie! White has jumped up to watch from the side of the bowl.

Last but not least, White gets his turn and adds 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. That's all the spices!

Ruth stirs everything together until we have a nice even tone without any blotchy spots. We want the spices to all spread nice and even through the whole pie.

Now we need two eggs. Looks like the little dragons are having fun with them! I'm almost sorry to take away their toys, but we need to add them to the pie.

Well, they didn't really mind at all. They've all found a perch so that they can see over the rim of the bowl to watch Neko-kun crack the eggs into it.

Neko-kun holds the bowl for Ruth while he beats the eggs. This might be easier in a smaller bowl, but we're doing it in the large one to save on cleanup.

The eggs are all beaten up now, and the younger dragons are looking closely to memorize what it looks like so they'll know when to stop beating. Yellow on yellow is a little hard to see in the picture, sorry.

Now it's time to mix in the sugar-and-spice (and everything nice?). Ruth uses a spoon to coax it out of the small bowl while the others watch. White commented that it was like watching an hourglass in fast-forward, which everyone thought was a good joke.
"Rather sweet hourglass, isn't it?" Green suggested.

We need to open that can of pumpkin now, so Hi-chan has that electric can-opener that Green brought over. This one goes all on its own and knows when to stop. Place it on top of the can to be opened, making sure to line up the inside rim of the can opener's bottom along the outside rim of the can to be opened. It has a magnet that will keep it from escaping. Once it's settled, push the black button Hi-chan has her paw on, and go for a ride! Well, Hi-chan went for a ride. The little white can-opener spins itself around the edge of the can, neatly separating the top from the sides. When there's nothing left for it to cut, it'll stop on its own. I snapped the picture just as it stopped, with Hi-chan still grinning wide--she rather enjoyed that ride!

With the can of pumpkin now open, Hi-chan claims the sugar canister as a perch to watch Ruth pull the pumpkin out with a spoon. Neko-kun is holding the can still for him.

Time to take up the mixing-spoon again! Ruth paused to mug for the camera as he finished stirring the spice and the pumpkin into the eggs. Looks like Red is pretty eager for a taste!

Ruth picked Black to help open the can (12oz/354mL) of evaporated milk. First we punch a big triangular hole in one side, as large as the pointed end of our bottle/can opener will make. This is the side we'll actually pour from. Then, rotate the can one half-turn (180°) and make a smaller hole in the opposite side to let air in. If you forget to make the smaller hole, it'll take longer for the milk to pour out, and it will glug like a soda-bottle held upside-down. Looks like Ruth is going for a taste of the milk! Well, we do need to be sure we're using quality ingredients!

Everyone returns to their perches, and Hi-chan pulls White up to sit next to her after he fell a couple times from his perch on the side of the bowl. This time Neko-kun handles the stirring while Ruth adds the evaporated milk. We need the whole can, but pour it in a little at a time to make it easier to mix.

Black and White suddenly remember that we forgot to pull the pie shells out of the freezer! Yugi-kun gets the pie crusts out for them, and Black and White get a ride back to the island where all the baking is going on.

Everyone is back in place, and Ruth has finished stirring up the pie filling. Yugi-kun opened the package of pie crusts and has one ready and waiting behind Ruth, who is taking a break to smile at the camera again. I think he likes seeing me behind the camera. (Usually it's Archi with the camera.)

Everyone watches as Ruth carefully pours the filling into the waiting pie crust. He's very focused! Behind Ruth, Yugi-kun is excited to get the pie in the oven.

With the pie crust filled up, Neko-kun brought out a pie-baking ring, which serves roughly the same purpose as the cookie sheet I use at home. The five small dragons held the ring still while Hi-chan pushed the pie into position. Now it's all set to go into the oven!

Hi-chan sets the timer for 15 minutes (it changed down just before I could snap the picture). Pumpkin pie requires a temperature change in order to set correctly, so it starts out at 425°F (220°C) for 15 minutes, and then we drop the temperature. Do not skip this, or your pie will not set.

While the pie starts baking, we start drawing up the features of a jack-o'-lantern face to decorate it with. The dragons are all fascinated with the chocolate triangles of eyes and nose, and the strange shape intended to become the mouth. It takes time for the chocolate to set, even when you lay it out fairly thin, as we've done here. (Neko-kun and I did the drawing-with-chocolate part.) Black has found a random pile of chocolate and wants to snag a bite. Ruth would rather he didn't.

The timer went off, so now we get to drop the temperature of the oven down to 350°F (175°C) so that our pie will set properly. Green takes care of changing the temperature.

Blue jumps in to reset the timer. The pie will take an additional 40-50 minutes at the lower temperature in order to bake through.

Waiting is always the hardest part. Ruth found some of the cat's toys, so they're all playing catch, or various other games with the balls. Green is trying to snap at the bell in the middle of the yellow ball.

The timer rang, so Ruth has the pie partly out of the oven in order to test it with a knife. Clean knife means the pie is done! Now we just have to let it cool, then top it with the chocolate face!

And here we have the finished pie, with the chocolate face in place! Jack-O-Lantern Pie is a great Halloween dessert! Everyone is looking forward to digging in.

Mm, pie! Although there isn't quite enough room for seven dragons around one slice of pie. Ruth is trying to work out how to wedge his way in without hurting anyone. We forgot to bring whipped cream, though.

Hope you have a great Halloween!
Monday's post may or may not be delayed due to the aftereffects of Hurricane Sandy, as she messed with a lot of the power lines in my area this past Monday night. Since my oven is electric, I can't bake very well without power. It shouldn't be a problem, but I figured a warning was in order just in case.

Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake

2012-10-29T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake!

This one is somewhat related to dragons, actually, being from the Enchanted Forest. Not to mention being loaded with chocolate, which the dragons I know all adore. You can find this recipe in the appendix of Patricia C. Wrede's Book of Enchantments, a collection of 10 excellent short stories on various topics. The last story in the book is 'Utensile Strength', the tale of the Frying Pan of Doom and the source of this recipe. I highly suggest reading the book!

So let's get started!

There are quite a few things we need for this, not the least of which are three different kinds of chocolate. Since it's a cake, we need flour (the larger copper canister in the back). We also need both brown sugar (bag with clothespins) and white sugar (smaller copper canister). Ruth has brought the chocolate milk (or 'milk from a chocolate cow, if you prefer) and stuck it behind the salt and butter. It's in a glass bottle because we've decided that milk from the local dairy tastes better than the store or national brands of milk. Red brought the vanilla extract, and Hi-chan has the bag of chocolate chips. Black rolled in the eggs and is getting them safely tucked between Hi-chan and the bottle of blackstrap molasses. Behind that, we have our third chocolate--unsweetened cocoa powder. We also need a little baking soda (on top of the cocoa powder) so we don't have a completely flat cake.

Here we have all the things we'll need to put the cake together! Ruth has brought two glass bowls, as
some of the dry ingredients need to be mixed separately before getting added to the whole thing. He's brought along his favorite spoon as well, and decided that the scale makes a good stool. We don't precisely need the scale, but it's good for conversions. Next to Ruth and the bowls, we have cooking spray for greasing our cake pan. We're using a 13" by 9" (33 cm by 23 cm) rectangular cake dish--glass because that's all I have. I've set my electric hand-mixer in the cake pan, as it's a bit too heavy for any of the dragons. Hi-chan has measuring cups, and Red has the measuring spoons he so adores. Black seems to be having fun pushing in the liquid cup-measure.

The instructions say to begin by having the prisoners get a good fire going and pile shields around it to hold in the heat, since you're expected to be making this after a good battle. Being in a mundane kitchen, Black takes care of setting the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Now we need to grease and flour our cake pan (which we're using in place of a shield). This is a working-together job, as Archi holds the pan still while I hold the can still and Ruth gets to push the spray-nozzle. After the pan is well-greased, we put a bit of flour in it and shake it around to coat.

We need 1/2 cup (113 g) butter or margarine, which is an entire stick if you're using stick butter. Hi-chan is getting the butter out of its wrapping while I hold it still. A neatly wrapped stick is a lot easier to deal with than trying to measure out a spear head's worth.

Once the butter is in the bowl, beat it until it's fluffy. Even Ruth isn't big enough to handle the hand mixer well, so the dragons hold the bowl still and watch while I beat the butter into fluffy submission.

Red adds 1/2 cup (80 g) packed brown sugar. He's using the 1/4 cup measure twice, because the 1/2 cup measure didn't fit into the bag of brown sugar very well. Since I know my fist is smaller than Archi's, there's no chance of it being the right size to measure the sugar! I'd rather not play guesswork too much in baking, it can upset the chemistry and result in failed cake.

Hi-chan gets to add 1/2 cup (100 g) white sugar. The 1/2 cup measure has no problem fitting into the sugar canister.

After making rather a mess in the attempt to beat everything together with the hand mixer, Ruth took over with the spoon to mix the sugars and butter. More control, less mess, sweet mix. I think the whole mix is too dry for the mixer to deal with happily.

Everyone watches as I crack two eggs into the bowl with no dropped shell. You do not want stray bits of eggshell in your cake. They may be an excellent source of calcium, but they don't taste very good and tend to poke your tongue in a rather uncomfortable manner.

With the eggs added, the hand mixer is cooperating again. Fortunately the dragons are content to hold the bowl and watch the batter spin as I mix it for them, as each of the next few ingredients needs to be mixed in thoroughly before adding the next.

Red adds 2 teaspoons (10 mL) vanilla extract. He was able to pick the spoon back up when he dropped it. The 'good splash' of vanilla will enhance the taste of the chocolate.

Black jumps at the chance to add the 'Secret Magic Ingredient'--2 tablespoons (30 mL) blackstrap molasses. Do make sure you get blackstrap molasses, which has been boiled three times and has a more robust flavor than regular molasses. I'm sure regular molasses will work, but it won't taste quite the same. Once this is all mixed up, we set it aside and grab the other bowl.

Ruth takes charge of adding 1 cup (140 g) flour to our smaller bowl. This is the base of the dry ingredient mix. I still don't think my fist is a good measuring implement. (The original recipe wants 'two or three fistfuls of flour'.)

Hi-chan adds 1/3 cup (33 g) unsweetened cocoa to the flour, the first of three types of chocolate getting everyone excited.

Red added the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, but the spoon got away from him just as Archi snapped the picture, so he's pouting, and ignoring my reassurances. The original author of this recipe must have huge hands, because he describes this measurement as a 'pinch'.

Since he was upset about dropping the spoon, I let Red add the 1 teaspoon baking soda, even though he'd just added the prior ingredient and I try to make sure everyone gets an equal turn. Black didn't mind, though, so it was all good. Red got his confidence back as he was able to hold the spoon steady this time.

Ruth's turn now, stirring it all together! I think we probably should have used a slightly larger bowl. Oh well, Ruth is good at being careful not to spill. This is how your mix should look when it's done, a nice even chocolate colour all the way through. Don't get too worried if you miss a spot, though, you'll have another chance to get it all mixed up in a minute.

Now we add a little of our flour mixture into the butter mixture we'd set aside. Don't add it all at once or you'll have quite the mess on your hands when you go to beat it in.

Measure out 2/3 cup (160 mL) milk from a chocolate cow, or chocolate milk if you can't find a chocolate cow. This is chocolate form number two, so add it bit by bit to the mixture, alternating between flour-mix and milk and mixing after each addition, until both are completely mixed in.

Archi and I decided we had to try a little of the chocolate milk to make sure it was yummy enough, so he poured us each a cup. Hi-chan decided she wanted a sip of mine. Red wants a sip too, but isn't sure he can manage to grab one without falling in. I got a smaller cup out to let the little ones have a taste. Ruth was more interested in getting the milk into the cake.

Once all of the flour-mix and milk is mixed in, it should look about like this. Now it's starting to look like it'll actually make a decent-sized cake!

Hi-chan is very excited to add our third chocolate--a full 6 oz. (170 g) package of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Since I don't have a second-best sword to hack a hunk of chocolate to bits with, I buy the chocolate already in bits. Red and Black both appear to be trying to figure out if they can get away with stealing a chocolate chip.

The dragons watch me mix everything in together one last time, making sure that the chocolate chips are well-blended with the rest of the batter. Now we're ready to pour it all into the baking pan!

Now to make it look like a cake! Everyone grabs a good spot to watch from, Black finding a nice perch on the handle of the pan, and Ruth grabs a spatula to help him coax the batter out into the pan while I hold the bowl still for him. Mmm, chocolatey.

This isn't a runny batter like most cakes, it's thicker and more like brownie batter, so Ruth uses the spatula to spread it across the pan and tuck it into the corners. This way we'll have a nice smooth cake, instead of a gooey mess in one spot and burned edges from the unbalanced way it landed in the pan.

Now we put the cake into the oven. Ruth doesn't seem to be sure he wants to let go just yet. I have to close the door or it won't cook, silly! Dragons really like chocolate.

The cake needs to bake for about 35-40 minutes, so Black sets the timer for 35 minutes (it starts counting down right away, Archi just wasn't quite fast enough with the camera today). Anytime a recipe gives a range, always start with the shortest time and add more if needed. You only want to bake something for as long as it needs, no longer. Now, we wait.

The timer went off, so it's time to pull out the cake. Ruth is having fun helping! Remember, dragons may be heat-resistant, but you aren't! Make sure to use an oven mitt or towel to keep from burning your hand when you pull something out of the oven.

Red grabs the cake tester and marches out to the middle of the cake to use it. Since our cake is flat and solid, there's no record of his passage. If it were a fluffy cake he would've left marks. The cake tester came out clean, so we know our cake is done, and it just has to cool. Make sure it's well cooled before trying to cut it, or the pieces will fall apart and the gooey chocolate chips will get everywhere and make a grand mess. Chocolate stains are one of the harder ones to get out of clothing, so you're better off waiting just that little bit longer so that you can eat your cake without getting it everywhere.

Cut the cake and dig in! Yummy! Anyone want some whipped cream or powdered sugar with that? Guess not, they're too busy eating cake.

Apple Pie (part two)

2012-10-24T16:00:00.000-04:00

In which we finally get to actually eat pie!

Welcome back, everyone! Sorry for splitting this recipe, but I really wanted to use all these pictures without overwhelming anyone. Red and Black were very excited and kept doing cute things that just begged to be included!

Today's recipe is Apple Pie! I wish I could tell you where I got the recipe from, but I'm going from a page photocopied out of one of my mother's recipe books, and I have no idea which book! I guess the simplest explanation is that today's recipe comes from my Mom; it's the one she always used for apple pie when my brothers and I were little. (None of us are little anymore, I'm the only one left that's shorter than Mom!) Mom always used frozen pie crust, though, to save on time and effort and digging out a pie pan. Hi-chan, on the other hand, loves rolling out dough.

Let's get started! Well, pick up where we left off, at least.

Filling:

Here we have everything we need to make the pie filling! Red has the cinnamon, and Black brought nutmeg. Hi-chan is squeezing herself between the cut-up apples and the salt. Ruth brought butter and landed on the canister of sugar. The taller canister next to him is flour. I really ought to find the rolling-pin a better home.

And here is equipment! Red brought the measuring spoon, as usual. Hi-chan brought the pie plate (we have a 9in/23cm deep dish) and a knife for cutting the top slits. Black has balanced the cup measure on the edge and is trying to see his reflection in the glass of the pie plate. Ruth brought out a nice glass bowl for mixing in--everyone has decided that we prefer the glass bowls because you can see everything in them, which is especially beneficial when you're not tall enough to see over the rim easily.

We need the oven at 425°F (220°C). Black likes working the oven controls, so he's got that covered.

Black jumped up to get the sugar, too. Red is enjoying being able to watch through the side of the bowl as 3/4c (175g) sugar is added. Hi-chan poked her head over the side just because she can.

Red's turn now, adding 1/4c (36g) flour. Black is more interested in getting the nutmeg to add next.

Red measures out 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg to add, as he likes the spoon and Black has gotten distracted observing the ingredients already in the bowl.

Hi-chan's turn now! After adding the 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, she decided that the measuring spoon would work just fine for mixing, too, and dropped the end of it into the mix. Red is annoyed with her for that.

Hi-chan is ignoring Red's pouting and left the spoon in the mix while everyone watches Ruth add a dash of salt. 'Dash' isn't an exact measurement, something less than 1/8 teaspoon. Ruth is adding a shake or two from the salt shaker that normally lives on the table. Do not bring out the big salt canister for this, it's not worth it.

Red is still pouting, but Ruth decided that Hi-chan was right and the measuring spoon should work well enough for stirring our spice mix. Saves on how many spoons get washed. This is what the mix should look like once it's been all stirred together--nice and uniform, with no blotchy patches.

Crust Prep:

With our filling mostly complete, I coax Hi-chan and the smaller two over to the other side of the oven to spread flour on the counter so we can roll out the dough for the bottom pie crust. We'll need somewhere to put the filling once Ruth has it all mixed together! In the background, I'm putting flour on the rolling-pin so the dough doesn't stick to it.

Now we pull the dough we made yesterday out of the fridge and play with it a little until it's a comfortable temperature. (Either my fridge is set a little too cool or I just have no tolerance for cold...) This will make both crusts, so we need to separate it into two balls, one slightly larger, as I've shown in the picture. The larger ball will make our bottom crust, while the smaller will become the top crust.

Hi-chan loves playing with the rolling-pin! Red and Black are monitoring the size of the rolled-out crust--or at least, that's what they're supposed to be doing. Looks like Black is trying to figure out if he can sneak a bite.
Roll from the center out to an edge, changing which direction you're moving with each pass of the rolling-pin. You want the crust to be about two inches (5cm) or so larger than the rim of your pie pan--remember that it has to cover the bottom and the sides! It should end up about 1/8 inch (3-4mm) thick. I forgot to measure how thin ours got.

Now we drop the freshly rolled dough into the pie pan! Move it carefully so that it doesn't tear. Everyone is pitching in to spread the crust evenly through the pan, making sure it's tucked into the corners. Having extra draping over the sides is normal, we'll take care of it later.

Fill Up:

While the others are rolling out dough, Ruth adds the sugar-and-spice mixture to the apples. I'm not sure exactly how much chopped apple we ended up with, volume-wise, but the scale said we have 1.15kg of apple bits. The recipe asks for 6 cups for this size pie, so we probably have more than it actually wants.

Ruth mixes the apples and spice mix together, making sure all the apple bits are coated with sugar-and-spice to the best of his ability. Don't worry too much about missed bits, baking will even it out as long as you start with something fairly well mixed.

Everything is all set, so now Ruth pours the pie filling into the prepared shell. I'm holding the bowl for him. The others are holding the pie pan in place--though I still think Black is trying to steal a bite of raw pie crust...

Some of the apple bits didn't quite manage to stay in the pie shell. Red and Black are eager to gobble up the spilled bits!

With the pie filled, we just need to top it off with one more crust. Hi-chan and I are having fun rolling it out, while Red and Black are arguing about whether it's big enough yet.

Once we draped the top crust over our piled-high filling, we rolled the excess of the bottom crust up to meet the top crust and create the edge of the pie. Hi-chan is pressing the crusts together, creating a much more interesting pattern with her paw than a fork would make.

Bake:

With the crusts neatly joined, we're about ready to put the pie in the oven, but first we need vents for the steam to escape! Everyone pitches in to hold the pie still while Ruth cuts a few vents into the top.

Red and Black are helping Hi-chan put strips of foil on the edges of the pie, to protect the outer crust from cooking too fast, and thus getting burnt. They sell reusable pie shields that serve the same purpose, but I don't happen to have any, so foil makes an excellent substitute.

With the vents cut and the foil in place, the pie is ready to go into the oven! I've put it on a baking sheet to make it easier to move without risk of spilling.
The cast-iron frying pan is in the oven to keep the temperature more consistent--we have an electric oven.

Black sets the timer for 25 minutes, as the pie needs to bake for about 40 to 50 minutes, but the foil needs to come off for the last 15 minutes. This will remind us to take the foil off.
It's about now that I remember we forgot to dot the filling with butter before adding the top crust. Oh well, the pie will still be good.

Hi-chan and the little ones got all covered in flour again. Plenty of time to clean up now, though, so they get a shower! Hi-chan loves the water.

The timer went off! Time to take the strips of foil off the edges. Ruth has that well in hand. If you're not a dragon, you don't want to touch the metal pans or the pie itself with bare skin! Dragons are naturally heat-resistant, it comes of having the ability to breathe fire--or possibly of having scales, in Hi-chan's case.

Black sets the timer again, for 15 minutes this time so the pie can finish baking.

Waiting is the hardest part. Everyone wants to eat some yummy pie, but it's not finished yet. The cleanup is, though. Ruth made a ball out of the discarded foil from the crust-protecting strips, hoping to distract Red and Black. It seems to be working, as they've started up a game of catch.

The pie is done, yay! I pulled it out of the oven and Red and Black immediately abandoned their ball to go running over for pie, except it's still piping hot! Hi-chan cut them off before they could hurt themselves. "You have to wait for it to cool off a little first!" scolds Ruth. I cut off the whining by setting the timer for 10 minutes and promising that when it went off again we could all have some pie.

Ruth gets to do the honors of extracting the first slice of pie! The pie server doubles as a knife for cutting the pie.

Pie's here! Dig in everyone! Mm, yummy! Does anyone want some whipped cream to go with it?

Apple Pie (part one)

2012-10-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Apple Pie! Well, at least we'll be preparing the crust and getting the apples cut today. Looking through the number of pictures, I decided it might be wiser to split the recipe in two parts. We'll craft the filling and put the whole pie together (and eat it!) tomorrow.
Our pie crust recipe comes from the Taste of Home cookbook, and is simply called "Classic Pie Pastry". I've chosen this one because it was very easy--only four ingredients. My mom always used frozen pie crusts because she didn't like making them.
Let's get started!

Crust:

There are only four things we need to mix for pie crust. Ruth brought the water. Hi-chan has the flour. Black has decided that the salt makes a good vantage point, and Red has dragged in the stick of shortening. We like to use stick-shaped shortening because it's easier to measure.

Of course, there's more equipment that we need than ingredients. Then again, we won't need the rolling pin or pie plate just yet. According to the recipe, the dough will want to sit in the fridge for a bit once it's mixed, so that it becomes easier to work with. Black and Hi-chan are a little ahead of the game. Ruth has brought our mixing bowl--medium-sized is good, enough room to work in but not huge. Red has taken advantage of Hi-chan bringing in the pie plate, as it makes a good place to line up measuring and stirring equipment. 1 cup measure, tablespoon, a fork for mixing with, and the 3/4 teaspoon measure.

Let's get right into it! Red manages to add 2 cups of flour (280g) without any mishaps or spills--at least not anything major.

Black adds 3/4 teaspoon of salt. White one white doesn't show up very well, but the salt is there.

Now we need 2/3 cup shortening (140g). Since we have the stick type, we can cut it along the line rather than messing with measuring cups and water. (The usual trick for measuring tub-type shortening is to put water, we'll use 1 cup for this example, into a liquid measuring cup and add shortening until the water level rises to the amount of shortening needed. In our example, we'd add shortening until the water read at 1 2/3cup. Of course, you then have to pour the water out before you can add the shortening to your mix!)

We don't need to add the paper, so Hi-chan and the little ones are having fun unwrapping the shortening, sort of like opening presents!

With the paper gone, we dump the shortening into the bowl. Since the recipe asks for the shortening to be 'cut in', we use the fork to break it into small chunks, almost as though we were getting butter out of a tub to spread on toast, except that nothing comes out of the bowl. You really do want to use a fork for this, it makes the process a lot easier. Most mixing spoons have thick edges that will 'mash' more than 'cut'. Ruth is very focused, as this does take a bit of concentration to get right, especially when your mixing bowl is as big as you are!

We want to combine everything until we get a crumbly mixture, which should look about like this. It sort of looks like crumb topping now, doesn't it? We're not quite done yet, though.

Now we get ready to add some water! Of course, I poured too fast and it splashed all over. Not a problem, though, it's only water. Make sure you're measuring into a tablespoon, as you only want a little at a time.

The recipe calls for about 6 to 7 tablespoons of water, and the measure is given that way because you want to add only one tablespoon at a time. If you add too much water, your dough will be gloppy and not roll out well. If you don't add enough water, you have crumbly dough that won't hold together at all. Hi-chan is helping me add the first tablespoon of water, while Ruth holds the bowl in place.

As you stir in the water, you'll notice it starts to actually look like dough. Keep going a little at a time. Patience is the key to excellent pie crust. We're looking for the dough to start to ball up on its own. This isn't quite there yet.

This is what it looks like when the dough begins to ball up. See how it sticks much more to itself than to the bowl or the fork? It's really coming together now!
"To make sure you get it right," Ruth says, "you have to test it. Pull out a little bit and play with it. If it moves well, then you know you're close."
"How do you know for really sure, though?" Red asks.
"You have to taste it, actually," explains Ruth.
"Really?" Hi-chan looks rather skeptical.
"Taste it?" Black chimes in. "Oo, let me! Please?"
"No fair, I asked first!" Red pouts.
"And how will you know what you're looking for?" demands Hi-chan.
"Needs a little more water."
Ruth glances up at me. "A bit dry, is it?"
I nod. "Only a little, though. I think this is our last tablespoon."

The ball of dough is all set, so we cover it up with plastic wrap and set it in the fridge for about a half-hour to make it easier to handle. In the meantime, we better clean up all that spilled water! It actually made quite the mess. Hey, that's no reason to go throwing the towel on the floor!
"But it's wet and we're done with it!"
"If you leave it in a heap on the floor, it will get stinky! Let Miaka throw it in the laundry!" Hi-chan scolds.

Apple Prep:

With the counter cleaned off again, it's time to start getting things ready for the filling, which means apples! We have a good half-dozen fairly sizable apples from the farmer's market. We'd meant to go apple-picking, but my back wasn't cooperating. This is plenty of apples for a pie, though! Archi bought about 4lbs, which is nearly 2kg! The cores have to come out, and so do the bruised spots (they got a little banged around) so our actual yield of cut-up-apple will be a bit less, but still plenty.

This time it's Ruth who's jumping ahead of things and skipping a step! I don't think that corer is going to work on that apple, either. It's too big an apple!

Here we have things we need to prepare the apples! Hi-chan brought the peeler, and Red and Black have each brought a different type of apple corer. Red's will only remove the core and will work on any size apple. Black's will also cut the apple into sections, but won't work on the largest of our apples, like the one Ruth is hanging on to. I'll bring the sharp knife over in a bit, and we've already got everyone on the cutting board. Let's do this!

Of course, due to dexterity issues, I get stuck with the job of doing all the peeling and removing bruised spots. Once I peeled the largest apple as best I could, I positioned it on the cutting board so Red could spear it with the corer! Looks like everyone's having fun. Although Ruth might still be pouting...

Well, Ruth cheered right back up when I asked him to cut the apple up into chunks with the knife.

Getting the corer through the apple doesn't necessarily mean we got all the core-bits out of it. Sometimes we miss some seeds. Red is perfectly suited to making sure all the seeds are out.

Here we have a smaller apple, which works nicely in the slicer-corer. Red and Black have this job handled quite well. Teamwork!

Slowly but surely we'll fill up this bowl with the apple slices! Ruth and Hi-chan can hardly wait!

See you tomorrow to make the filling and bake up our pie!

Recipe Checking

2012-10-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

I dropped the ball, and we don't have an actual recipe up today. Come back this time tomorrow for some Apple Pie.

I am very sorry about not having the actual bake and recipe up today, but this weekend hasn't been very good. I've been under the weather all weekend, and indeed half the week. That's no good for baking. There will be Apple Pie tomorrow, and check back again around Thursday or Friday (same time as usual!) for a bonus recipe that'll be an absolute must for chocolate-lovers!

Moroccan Stuffed Squash

2012-10-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Moroccan Stuffed Squash!
This recipe comes to us from a mailing list, PureWow recipes. Find it here. It's adapted from a recipe in "The Sprouted Kitchen" by Sara Forte (Ten Speed Press).
This is a savory recipe, something for dinner or a side-dish instead of a dessert dish. It's a vegetarian but not vegan recipe--there's cheese in here.
Let's get started!

Once again, there are a number of things that go into this dish, so I've split up the ingredient lists. Ruth has brought in the acorn squash, though one of them is hidden under the parsley and behind the package of mint. The round reddish fruit next to Hi-chan is pomegranate. Black brought the lemon and then got distracted--he's positive he has forgotten something. Red brought in the quinoa. The orange juice sort of got shoved in the back and forgotten about--maybe that's what Black is looking for.

Here's the rest of what we need, once again in front of the forgotten orange juice. Black has decided that the coconut oil gives him a good vantage point to observe the others bringing in the spices and such. Ruth brought in the feta cheese and set it next to the salt and coconut milk. Hi-chan and Red have the rest of the spices arranged--paprika, cumin, coriander, and black pepper.

And of course we can't cook without measuring cups and spoons! Hi-chan has those under control. Ruth brought the medium-size saucepan and its lid, along with his favorite stirring spoon. Black has the aluminium foil, and Red has lined up fork, knife, and spoon on the edge of the baking sheet. Wait, we're not ready to eat yet! We do need these for getting the squash prepared, though. Of course, none of us remembered to grab the knives and cutting board...

Step one is to preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Black likes to work the oven controls.

Let's line the baking sheet with aluminium foil to make clean-up faster and easier. Everyone is helping out!

Now that the oven is warming up and the pan is ready for us, let's start cooking! First, we need to cut each squash in half lengthwise. Ruth is holding the squash still for me while I cut it. The skin of the squash is pretty tough, so I do need both hands on the knife like this, and I press my whole weight into it--none of the dragons weigh enough in our world to accomplish that part of the trick.

With the squash cut, we need to get the seeds out. Ruth scoops them out with the large spoon while I hold the half-squash over the compost bin for him, allowing him to dump the seeds with a minimum of mess.

Once all four squash-halves are cleaned out, take about 1 tbsp (roughly 15 mL) of coconut oil and rub it over the exposed surfaces of each piece. Ruth is handling this with the knife, as our coconut oil is solid like butter.

Place the squash cut-side-up on the baking sheet and sprinkle on a pinch or so of salt and pepper, to taste. We want to bring out the flavor of the squash, not overwhelm it. Doing this over the pan means less clean-up later, as whatever doesn't make it onto the squash will be caught by the pan.

Now that the squash is seasoned, turn each piece over so that the cut sides are down, as Hi-chan has just finished doing. Ruth has jumped right in to the next step, poking a few holes in the skin of the acorn squash with a fork, to let steam escape as the squash cooks.

I put the squash in the oven as Black set the timer for 20 minutes so we don't accidentally overcook it.

With the squash in the oven, it's time to get to work on the stuffing! Red sets the burner to medium-high heat. Hi-chan already put the medium saucepan onto the burner.

We need the whole 13.5oz (400mL) can of coconut milk. Ruth was having a little trouble holding the can, so I gave him a hand to pour it into the pot. Once it's all in there, we add a pinch of salt and pepper (to taste) and wait for it to come to a gentle (not rolling!) boil.

As soon as the milk starts to boil, Ruth adds 1c (170g) of quinoa. Make sure you're using plain quinoa, as we'll be adding our own set of spices to it later. Check the 'bulk foods' section of your grocery store, or perhaps your local health-food shop, if you're having trouble finding plain quinoa.

As soon as the quinoa is in, Ruth puts the cover on the pan, to trap in all the moisture. Quinoa cooks much like rice, so we now turn the heat down to low and leave it there, covered, for about 15 minutes while we get other things ready. The parsley and mint need to be chopped, and we have to get the seeds out of the pomegranate.

Hey, the timer went off on the squash! Now we pull them out and Ruth handles flipping them over to expose the cut side. They're starting to look good already, and they aren't even done yet! Once they're all flipped, they go back in the oven for about another 10 minutes, so that the whole squash is cooked all the way through.

Now the timer on the quinoa has gone off, so Ruth takes it off the heat. Leave it covered and let the quinoa steam for another 5 minutes without the heat before you start adding the rest of things to it. The burner you just took it off is hot, though, so be careful not to step on it! Burns aren't fun.

Now that the quinoa is done steaming, Black is adding 2 tbsp coconut oil. We'll be mixing up the stuffing right in the pan, no need for extra bowls.

Red adds 1/4 tsp cumin to the oiled quinoa. Mm, spices!

Hi-chan has 1tsp paprika, which will give it a bit more color as well as nice flavor. Not too much color, though.

1/4 tsp corriander is the last dry spice, and Hi-chan has that under control too, while Ruth gets ready to stir and I've pulled the smallest two for another project.

Ruth is mixing the spices into the quinoa evenly before we add the colorful ingredients. At this point the quinoa should have an even color throughout. Don't mix too long, though, we don't want our quinoa all squashed up!

Red is the perfect size to help pull the seeds out of the pomegranate. He's having fun where I found mostly frustration. Pomegranate seeds are about the same size as a corn kernel or a pea, and they squish pretty easily.

"Cheese!" Hi-chan grins at the camera as she adds the 1/2c (80g) feta cheese. She finds the pun amusing, especially since she usually tells the camera "ni!"

We've managed to extract 1/2c of seeds from that pomegranate! About half the seeds in the medium-size fruit I bought went into the cup Ruth is pouring into the stuffing mix. (I was going to measure it on the scale, but I lost my tare because it took too long to get the seeds out of the fruit!)

Black helps me add 3tbsp of chopped parsley. We put it in the little bowl to free up the chopping board. The actual recipe calls for cilantro instead of parsley, but I've made the substitution because I don't care for the taste of cilantro. The two herbs are similar enough that it won't really change anything.

Red is knocking the last of the 2 tbsp lemon zest out of the other little bowl.

Since the mint was the last to get chopped up, Ruth scrapes 2 tbsp chopped mint leaves off the cutting board into the mix.

We used the smallest bowl again to measure 2 tbsp orange juice so it wouldn't get spilled. Hi-chan is tipping it in while I help her control the bowl.

With everything in the pot, Ruth stirs it up carefully, until it is just combined--we don't want this all the same straight through anymore! This is stirred well enough. It looks tasty!

The squash are out of the oven, and Ruth has grabbed the knife to test them and make sure they're cooked all the way through. Poke it gently with a knife in the thickest part, if the knife slides in easily to the skin, your squash is all done!

Everyone gathers around to watch as Ruth scoops stuffing into the squash halves. Don't be stingy, now, fill them all the way up!

Here we have 4 stuffed squash halves! You can garnish them with a bit of extra feta cheese and some rough-chopped toasted pistachios, but we've left that off because our squash are already very overflowing. There's still stuffing left in the pan, too! Why? The recipe asks for medium-size squash, but I forgot that when we were at the grocery and bought small squash. Oops.

Plate it up and dig in! Ruth is trying to figure out how to grab a bite without hitting anybody by accident. Black found the stuffing that fell off when the squash was put on the plate and has claimed that for himself. This is good stuff! Archi was a bit surprised at the sweetness of the pomegranate seeds, though, as it's the first time he's ever had them and he wasn't really expecting it.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

2012-10-08T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Pumpkin Pound Cake!

This is from the Better Homes and Gardens collection of "Fabulous Fall Cake Recipes". What a great way to

celebrate the harvest! Check out the whole list here.

Prep:

We need a lot of different things for this recipe! I've broken the ingredients up into two groups for pictures, as it was hard to see them all in one picture. Ruth is sitting on the white sugar, the taller canister next to him is flour. The bag with all the clothespins that's right in front of Ruth is the brown sugar, and Hi-chan has managed to herd the eggs into a safe spot. Labels are fairly visible on the baking soda, shortening (under the baking soda), salt, and can of pumpkin.

The smaller dragons have gathered the raisins, chopped walnuts, maraschino cherries (Black decided they made a good perch), and spices: cinnamon (tall bottle), cloves, and nutmeg.

Of course, there's also a lot of equipment involved. I've included the cooking spray as 'equipment' because it's only used for greasing the cake pan--a Bundt or 'fluted tube' pan is used for this cake. Black is apparently on the lookout for good perches today. We need two different mixing bowls, so I have a silver bowl and a yellow one. Across the yellow bowl the dragons have set the spoon and spatula. On top of the silver bowl is my electric mixer. Ruth has brought the measuring cups, Hi-chan has the measuring spoons, and Red has decided that he rather likes the cake tester.

Let's get started! First, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Black has that well in hand.

Grease and flour your Bundt (fluted tube) pan. First, you spray the pan all around with the cooking spray. If you don't have cooking spray, spread a little bit of butter or margarine throughout the pan.

To flour the pan, we need to put flour in it. You don't need very much; Black is only using a measuring cup because it makes a convenient scoop. Use about a handful, and then shake it lightly all around the pan so that it sticks to the sides where you greased it earlier. Tap any extra flour out into the sink or trash can once the pan is well coated.

Mix:

Shortening mixture:

Hi-chan has added 1 cup (200g) of sugar and a plastic measuring cup to the bowl. Whoops!

Ruth adds 1 cup (180g) of brown sugar to the bowl, without dropping the measuring cup. In the background, the smaller dragons are getting the shortening out.

I like to use the stick shortening rather than the stuff in the tub because it's a lot easier to measure. Red and Hi-chan are holding the stick still for Ruth while he cuts on the line for the 3/4 cup (140g) that we need. Hi-chan then assists me in adding the shortening to the bowl--the wrapping makes this tricky for the dragons.

Next we need 2 eggs, which are a bit awkward for dragons to handle here, so Red and Black roll them up for me to crack into the bowl.

That's everything that goes in here for the moment, so it's time to pull out the electric mixer! Ruth tried to use it, but it's too big and heavy even for him, so everyone found a good place to watch while I beat everything for 2 minutes on medium speed.

At the end of 2 minutes, it should look like this. Everything is smooth and uniform in colour--no clumps. Now we set this bowl aside while we mix dry ingredients in the other bowl.

Flour mixture:

Black likes the flour today, even though he doesn't get to play in it. 2 1/2 cups (300g) of flour into the bowl, making the base of our dry ingredient mix.

Red adds 2tsp (10mL) baking soda.

Hi-chan has the cinnamon, another 2tsp (10mL).

Black brings over 1tsp (5mL) ground cloves.

It's Red's turn again, he adds 1tsp (5mL) nutmeg...and the measuring spoon. "Butterfingers," he grumps.

"I think everyone has the dropsies today, Red." That's at least the third thing that's been dropped, though only the second time something that doesn't belong in the cake landed in the bowl.

Black has the salt, 1/4 tsp (1.25 mL). That's the last of the dry ingredients, so we can stir them all together now.

While the others are combining spices with flour, Ruth gets to open up the can of pumpkin. We need 15oz (425g) which is the whole can.

Ruth is best suited to stirring, so the others brought the bowl over once he finished opening the pumpkin. Now the flour-and-spices mixture is nicely combined, all one colour with no blotchy spots.

Now to put it all together!

Cake base:

This part needs to be done in stages and involves a bit of juggling different things, so the dragons are watching me add a little of the flour mixture and a little of the pumpkin.

Then they move to better vantage points to watch me mix things up. The flour-mix and pumpkin need to be added to the original shortening mixture alternately, a little at a time.

Beat on low speed for about 10 seconds after each addition of flour and pumpkin until it's combined. Doing it this way reduces the chance of making a huge mess with the flour, and makes the mixing go faster and more easily. Don't add too much at once, though, or you'll still end up with a flour-all-over mess.

Once all of the flour and pumpkin are mixed in, your batter should look like this. The volume has roughly doubled from the shortening mix we started with.

Flavorful bits:

Hi-chan likes pouring things out of bags, so she's got the nuts and raisins. These don't have to be measured quite as precisely, but you want about 1 cup (150g or so) of each.

Ruth adds the cherries, as the sieve would be awkward for any of the others. There's about 1 cup (150g) of chopped maraschino cherries here. Well, drained and halved cherries, which works well enough.

That's everything, so now we mix it all together. Ruth is using the spatula to mix so that nothing gets left out due to being stuck on the side of the bowl.

Bake:

Ruth and Hi-chan hold the pan still for me while I carefully scoop the cake batter into it.

Black watches me smooth out the batter so that it's even through the pan and will cook well. Once that's done, it's all set to go in the preheated oven! This cake bakes for about 1 hour but will need to be checked for doneness at the end of that time.

Once the cake has been in the oven for an hour, test it with a toothpick or cake tester, as Ruth is doing. Stick the tester into the cake about halfway between the walls of the pan, then pull it back out. If the tester comes out clean, your cake is done baking! If not, give it about another 5 minutes in the oven and try again.

Once it's done, let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before trying to take it out of the pan.

Serve:

Part of the cake got stuck in the pan, though I'm not sure why. Sometimes that just happens. Oh well, it may be messy, but it's still yummy cake! Once out of the pan, make sure to let it cool down all the

way before you dig in!

If you like, you can brush the cake with orange juice and sprinkle it with coarse sugar (or maybe coloured sugar) for extra flavor and decoration, and then garnish it with more maraschino cherries. Since our cake had already come apart, we decided not to mess around with juice.

Time to dig in! Yummy cake! There should be enough cake for about 14 to 16 servings, depending on how big a slice everyone grabs. This cake went over very well with the group of friends I shared it with.

If you have any leftovers, they can be refrigerated for about 3 days, or wrapped in foil and frozen for up to two months.

Chocolate Puddle Cookies

2012-10-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Chocolate Puddle Cookies!

This recipe comes to us via the 'Goons With Spoons' section of the Something Awful forums. (Archi thought it looked tasty, and the dragons agreed! They like chocolate.)

It wasn't until we actually started collecting the ingredients that I realized this recipe doesn't call for flour--these are gluten-free cookies! They're certainly loaded with sugar and chocolate, though!

We do need powdered (confectioners) sugar, which seems to substitute for the flour. There are two boxes because one was almost empty. Salt is a staple in most baking recipes, and we do need a little for these puddle cookies. Black has decided that the cocoa makes a good vantage point. Red brought in the pecans (you can use any kind of nut, but you do need them or the cookies won't hold together) and then caught one of the eggs. Hi-chan was having a blast rolling them around. I'll be separating them later, as we only need the whites. Ruth has the vanilla, which is the only other wet ingredient. Again, two bottles because one was almost empty.

And here's all the various equipment. A nice big bowl, a spoon to stir with, a cookie sheet and some parchment paper. Ruth likes the whisk. Black brought one measuring spoon, while Red is somehow managing to carry the other two. Then again, Hi-chan looks a little precarious with those measuring cups.

So let's get started! Ruth refused to relinquish the whisk, so he's waiting for it to be time to stir. Hi-chan managed to get the powdered sugar--2 cups (200 g)--into the bowl without getting it everywhere else too.

"I dropped the spoon!" Red sounded upset. He calmed down after I rescued it for him. 1/4 teaspoon salt added with only a slight mishap.

Black added the cocoa powder he'd been so interested in. 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (42 g). Make sure you're using unsweetened cocoa powder--there's plenty of sugar in this already!

And now it's Ruth's turn, finally! Mix it all together.

This is what it looks like when it's all mixed correctly. It should be the same colour throughout the mix--no blotchy!

Hi-chan is having a blast adding the nuts. Red seems to be having plenty of fun just watching. The recipe asks for 1 1/2 cups (225 g) of toasted walnut or pecan, chopped in half. I used about a cup (150 g) of pecan pieces and it came out fine. I wanted to save enough to make an extra batch, since this recipe only makes about 10 cookies, and I was planning to share them with my 8-member gaming group.

Ruth mixes the nuts in as Black and Hi-chan argue over the coveted canister perch.

Well, the stopped arguing long enough to get the eggs we'll need next. Red is working on cleanup, and I think Ruth is goofing off. We need 2 egg whites and no yolks.

Separating eggs is a lot easier when they don't do this. The first one broke nice and clean into two little cups, so separating it was a breeze--until I broke the yolk. Fortunately I caught it in time to prevent any yolk from actually getting into the bowl. This one was just a mess, though the yolk remained intact, and I did eventually get the white into the bowl.

Seems they've settled the question of the canister. Black is happily adding 1/2 tablespoon (12.5 mL) of vanilla extract. (For some reason the recipe lists this as 1 1/2 teaspoons, but it's the same measurement.)

Ruth is back in action again, stirring it all up! Since there isn't much liquid in this recipe, and no flour, the dough is really thick and sticky. Make sure to hold the bowl in place while you're stirring, or it will dance all over your counter and nothing will get mixed. There is enough liquid to blend everything, but only just, and it really won't look like enough when you first start mixing! Just keep going.

The recipe wants you to bake the cookies on a 'silplat or other non-stick mat'. I don't have anything like that, but a plain cookie sheet covered in parchment paper will make a fine substitute. You should be able to find parchment paper in your local grocery store (the baking aisle) for less than $5 a roll. Paper in the oven is perfectly safe as long as you're not cooking above about 425°F (about 220°C). Paper does ignite at about 451°F (232°C)--thus the title of the book by Ray Bradbury--so if you want to bake hotter than that, use something else.

Each cookie should use about two tablespoons of batter, dropped like so onto the sheet. Make sure to leave some space between cookie-drops, as they'll expand during baking. Of course, the dragons are far more interested in the piles of chocolate than they are in me dropping them. The level of coordination required to do this with the spoons is unrealistic when you can't wield both spoons on your own.

Here are the cookies, all set to go in the oven! Bake them at 320°F (160°C) for about 12 to 15 minutes. When they're done, the tops will be glossy and crack a bit--like a drying mud puddle.

Fresh out of the oven! Aptly named, aren't they? Drying puddles of chocolate. Let them cool for 5 minutes before you try to move them. If they're still sticky when you try to move them, pop 'em back in the oven for a few more minutes and try again.

Now that they're cool, Ruth has grabbed the spatula to move them off to a plate! Hi-chan is ready to assist--though I'm not sure if she's more eager to help move them or to sink her teeth into one.

Black is trying to decide how many he can eat without getting caught.

Red is counting to make sure all the cookies are there.

Plated cookies. Dig in, everybody!

Yum!

Bubbly Pie

2012-09-24T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is Bubbly Pie! A favorite at Gathers on Pern, though I've modified the shape slightly because I don't really have the right equipment to craft the normal tarts or Gather-pies. The recipe is pulled from The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern.

Crust:

First, we get the ingredients together. For the crust, we need flour (Ruth is sitting on it), sugar (the smaller canister), water, salt, and butter.

We need 2 tablespoons (25 g) of sugar. Red handles adding that to the bowl.

Next, we need 2 1/2 cups (300 g) of flour. Hi-chan is spotting for them as the smallest two work together on adding it.

Black adds 1/2 teaspoon of salt on his own.

Now we need to mush in a stick of butter (1/2 cup, 120g) with a fork. Red is watching me handle this--the particular direction and level of pressure required make it too difficult for the dragons.

Ruth takes care of adding 1/2 cup (120 mL) of water.

Now it's time to mix everything together really well. My husband Archi steps in for this because the dragons' hands are too small and my shoulder is acting up again.

The crust is completed now, so Ruth and Hi-chan set it aside so we can start on the filling.

Filling:

Here's what we need for the filling! Hi-chan brought the lemon juice, but Red shoved the cinnamon in front of her face. She didn't notice until after the picture was taken. Ruth brought the blueberries. That copper canister is the sugar. Black is apparently entranced by the writing on the tub of margarine.

First we add the blueberries to the bowl. Ruth is having fun pouring them! Black got distracted by a stray bit of crust-dough. If you're using fresh blueberries you need about 5 cups (750 g). Since these are frozen, one bag (1 lb, 454 g) will do it.

I got Black's attention back by asking about the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. He was happy to add it.

Ruth got the cup of sugar, since he can do it by himself, but it would have taken two of the others to get it. (1c / 200 g sugar)

Now to mix it all together! Ruth is good at stirring. Hi-chan is laughing from her perch on the flour canister You can just see Black's wing in the bottom there--he's re-reading the recipe again.

This is actually an in-between step. Ruth's working on getting the lemon juice open while Hi-chan and Red are cleaning up in the background.

Hi-chan volunteered to actually add the 2 teaspoons (10 mL) lemon juice once Ruth got it open. Since she hadn't added anything yet, I made him let her have a turn.

That's the last step for the filling until we add it to the pie. Ruth opted to sit out of the next portion, as he's not too keen on mess.

Shaping the pie:

We need a floured surface to roll out the crust on! Spreading the flour is fun, but definitely messy! I'm lucky I didn't get it all over my shirt! I took my rings off so they wouldn't get flour or dough caught in them.

Now that the surface is floured, we roll out the dough! Hi-chan and the smallest two are having a blast with the rolling-pin.

I put the bottom crust into a pie plate for them, and they lined up to watch as I poured the filling into it. Looking tasty! This is about the point where I started to deviate from the recipe as it's given. The directions tell you to section the crust dough into smaller pieces, either six for use in either small tart pans (which I don't have) or a couple dozen 3-inch (7-8cm) circles for 'gather pies'. (Hand-held pie-pockets similar in size to the ones you get at McDonald's.) I don't have any cookie cutters, so I decided I'd do one bigger pie.

Hi-chan spreads the filling out evenly, so that there isn't a pile of it in the middle. Red is thinking of stealing a bite of filling before it gets baked, and Black is trying to decide how much of the dough remaining for the top crust he can eat without getting caught.

Hi-chan's paw makes a much more interesting sealing-pattern than a fork. She really likes working with dough.

Ruth gets to cut the steam-escape holes in the top crust, while the others watch make sure he's doing it correctly.

Here's the completed pie, just about ready to go in the oven. That's a pat of butter in the middle, because I forgot to put it on top of the filling before I put the top crust on, and didn't remember until after Ruth had cut the steam-holes.

For the first part of baking, wrap the edges of the pie crust in aluminum foil to keep them from cooking too fast. I think pie-shields will do that trick, but I don't have any so I use foil. Not the prettiest solution, but functional.

Clean-up:

And now it's time for clean-up! Flour-y dragons...

...get a shower.

Hi-chan is hogging the towel.

While the dragons get their shower and then dry off, I get the rest of the kitchen cleaned up. Dishes go in the dishwasher, and the counters get swept down (remember all the flour?) and sprayed with white vinegar and wiped with a paper towel to clean them. Not that clean-up is really all that interesting.

Pulled the pie out to take the crust-covers off. Ruth balled them up for me, so they'll take up less space in the trash can.

The directions say it doesn't take long for the pie to cook, but I forgot that the directions are for several smaller pies, not one big pie. I kept having to put it back in the oven again.
Tarts want a 375°F (190°C) oven for 10 minutes with foil and then 8-12 minutes without. Gather-pies don't need foil at all, and want a 400°F (205°C) oven for 20-25 minutes. Both say to bake until the crust turns golden-brown and serve hot.

Enjoy!

And here we have finished bubbly pie! Dig in, everybody!

Ruth is more interested in Klah.

Meet the Dragons!

2012-09-21T00:07:00.001-04:00

Allow me to introduce the dragons who are starting the bakery with me!

This is Ruth. He's playful yet patient and doesn't much care for getting messy. He loves mixing and stiring, though! For anyone who's read much of Pern, yes, he's named after Lord Jaxom's dragon. At the moment, Ruth bears the distinction of being the tallest of the Bakery's dragons.

Ruth with a ball of aluminum foil.

This is Hi-chan, though her full name is Higashiko, which means 'East Child' and fits her well as she is an Oriental dragon. She's quite strong, which is useful for pushing things around, and doesn't in the least mind getting messy--partly because she really enjoys taking showers! She loves to get her claws all up in the dough, but you won't see her mixing as much. She says that indoor winds are more difficult to manipulate, which makes flying without wings more tiring.

These two, the smallest of our dragons, haven't picked out names yet. They're both quite open to suggestions, so please comment or e-mail with any name suggestions you have for either of them. Until they pick names, I'll be calling them 'Red' and 'Black' in descriptions. Red likes spoons and measuring out dry ingredients. Black likes to check the recipe twenty times as we go. I think Black only actually reads about one line at a time, though, as they're both impatient to get started!

These two are a bit tough to get a close-up of, since they're so small. It keeps coming out fuzzy. I'm not sure if that's more my fault or the camera's.