Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sour Cream/Cottage Cheese Coffeecake

Yes it is necessary to put sour cream/cottage cheese in the lengthy title because that is the whole reason I made this! I had a bunch of fun baking substitutes in my fridge that I wanted to use up before the went bad. Things like buttermilk, sour cream, and cottage cheese. How fun would it be to substitute theese in a recipe and see how it turns out?

I would love to start tweaking recipes and even creating my own. As a young blogger, I have always followed recipes to a tee and hardly ever stray from the beaten path. But as I'm growing in my skills I want to start getting creative! This was a small small start, but hey it's something!

It was a great texture, and it didn't even contain the signature streusel that coffee cakes usually do. I loved the chocolate chips throughout; they definitely made this cake. Of course I can never leave well enough alone, so I made myself a cinnamon confectioners sugar glaze, but you honestly don't even need it.

Nom Nom!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sour Cream/Cottage Cheese Coffeecake
inspired by The Food Librarian

Cake
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cottage cheese
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon table salt

Filling and Topping
2 cups or 12 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. If not nonstick coated, cover the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper. Set pan aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together into a separate bowl. Alternately mix in sour cream and cottage cheese and then dry ingredients into butter mixture until both are used up and the batter is smooth and very thick. In a medium bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter.
In a small dish, whisk together sugar and cinnamon for filling and topping.
Spread half the cake batter in the bottom of prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of cinnamon-sugar mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Dollop remaining cake batter over filling in spoonfuls. Use a rubber or offset spatula to gently spread it over the filling and smooth the top. Sprinkle batter with remaining cinnamon-sugar and remaining chocolate chips. With the palm of your hand, ever-so-gently press the chocolate chips a bit into the batter. No need to submerge them, you just want to make sure they adhere bit.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Granola

I just love eating granola with my yogurt in the morning. Straight yogurt just doesn't feel right to me. I love having contrasting textures in my foods, and granola fits the bill perfectly! For my first attempt at making granola, I went to a health food blog I certainly trust to steer me in the right direction! Healthy Food For Living.

I only made three slight changes. Instead of cashews, I used walnuts. Instead of puffed brown rice cereal, I used chex mix. And instead of dried apple pieces, I use real apple chunks! Note: Good idea if you plan on eating this over the first few days. Two weeks later, you will find mold...

Apple Cinnamon Baked Granola
found at Healthy Food For Living

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups puffed brown rice cereal (I used Chex Mix)
6 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon 
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, or almonds (I used walnuts)
1 cup chopped dried apple rings (Use real apple chunks with caution as I mentioned before)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Measure the oats and rice cereal into a large bowl, set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the applesauce, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk until very smooth.
Pour wet ingredients over cereal and stir until evenly coated. Spread mixture on the prepared cookie sheet in an even layer.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove sheet from the oven, stir the nuts into the granola, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the granola is golden brown and crisp.
Remove granola from the oven, toss with the dried apples, and cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Hello...? And Cinnamon Rolls!

Wow. It's seriously been so long. I mean I had an intense Spring Musical to deal with that did phenomenally, and then there was when our computer crashed=( Thank goodness for the web enabled phone I got for my birthday in January. I seriously don't know if I would have made it the week and a half. But I'm back! (I know I said that last time, but this time I mean it!) Though my blogging skills have been mediocre as of late, I promise my baking has been doing just fine. For example:

Oh yeahhhhh. Those are indeed cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. And guess what? I made them again about a week or too later. It is completely necessary. Andddddd, I have some ideas for new twists on cinnamon rolls that I can't wit to try and then show you guys. (I actually tried one of my ideas and let's just say it didn't work out too well. I burned it completely.) So, make some cinnamon rolls, and sit back and wait for the blog posts to come rolling in! In my absence, you won't believe the number of these cupcakes I had to bake. In fact, some just came out of the oven less than an hour ago.

Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe given to me by my mother. I will NEVER EVER use another recipe. This one is perfect. Same with the icing. NOTHING beats it.

Dough
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/3 white sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups of flour

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the rest of the ingredints and mix well. Knead into a ball. Let rise until doubled in size. When ready, roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. Spread with filling.

Filling
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Spread butter evenly over dough. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over dough evenly as well. Roll dough up. Slice roll into 1 inch slices. Place in a parchment paper lined pan. Let rise again until doubled. Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Icing
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 oz. cream cheese
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Beat until fluffy. When rolls are hot, spread lots of icing on them.

Tip: To make these the night before,skip the final rising step. Let rise in the fridge overnight and bake them in the morning.

Oatmeal, Cinnamon Chip, and Pecan Cookies

Hi all=) So the past few days I have been sick. Like REALLY sick=( Even as I type this post I'm still only just recovering. That being said, food is the last thing on my mind. I've barely been eating and I prefer to just sleep all day and watch tv. But I wanted to keep you guys updated and let you know what's going on with me.

Don't worry, my lovely boyfriend has been taking amazing care of me=) When I was starting to feel like I could eat again he made me tomato soup and the best grilled cheese sandwich ever! Whole wheat bread with swirled Colby jack cheese. Mmmmmmmm=) And he even skipped his after school track practices to bring me chicken noodle soup and OJ. He's the best!

Even so, I have this recipe I made before I got sick and I wanted to share it with you. You probably have all the ingredients for in your house. I knew I wanted to use up my cinnamon chips so I saw this recipe and adapted it to accommodate my needs. They have a great texture, and it has been awhile since I've had a good oatmeal cookie. We loved the flavors and though chocolate chips were called for in the original recipe, I liked the cinnamon chips better because combined with the pecans it tasted like candied nuts. Kinda. They are just really good so you should try them!

Oatmeal, Cinnamon Chip, and Pecan Cookies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup chopped pecans
10 ounces cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about three minutes. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in the oats, pecans, and chocolate chips.

Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

Banana Cinnamon Chip Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Topping

Well I've gone a little longer than I wanted to without posting anything. Not good. But I'm back and enjoying a lovely snow day=) I mean I was all for the good weather to start coming, but why not end the snow season with a bang? Is it a bad thing that I constantly check the 15-day forecast on my phone everyday? I don't think so. I just can't wait for the warm weather to start and stay here! But enough about the weather, let's talk about what you really came here for: the food.

This here loaf of bread was a recipe I went searching for. I found a couple good cinnamon chip bread recipes, but they strongly suggested only the use of shortening, and I didn't want to use that. But, lo and behold, I was able to find one and make it and post it here for you! I love using the cinnamon chips that Ingrid sent me any way I can.


Freezing bananas before the go bad is one of my favorite tricks! I can then pull them out of the freezer whenever I need to and let them thaw for me to use. This was exactly what I did for this recipe. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, which is a definite plus.

The cinnamon sugar topping seems like a lot, but it adds the perfect crunch on top. I love taking a bit with crunchy pieces and soft pieces. Because let me tell you, this was a moist bread! It wasn't dry but it left enough room for a generous slab of butter on top;)


Banana Cinnamon Chip Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Topping
from Two Peas and Their Pod

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup cinnamon chips

For the cinnamon sugar topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pan with cooking spray. Dust it lightly with flour and set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix the bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Add in the flour mixture and carefully stir. Don’t over mix. Add in the cinnamon chips and gently stir.
4. In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon.
5. Add the batter to the loaf pan and smooth out with a spatula. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar topping generously over the batter.
6. Bake bread for 50-60 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack.
7. Let bread cool for 1o minutes and then remove from pan. Cool, slice, and enjoy.

Monkey Bread

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Here's a scrumptious breakfast recipe to try for a special day like this=)

Monkey Bread is a dangerous, dangerous thing. It's right up there with cinnamon rolls and it's just as hard to stop eating once you've gotten started. It is something you can really only make once a year, two times tops. It's evil. Pure evil. Yet, at the same time, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.


If you have some left over dough (which I did), then this is what you should do. Have a brief talk with yourself and decide that this will be your annual monkey bread allowance. It is truly best to make monkey bread with homemade dough as opposed to store bought. It's so much more satisfying and healthy, but to each his own.


I will admit its not that fast to make. The process of dipping in butter, then the sugar mixture was a tad tiring. But it's all worth it, trust me. And once you put the cream cheese glaze on top, all bets are off. You turn into an animal. You cannot be tamed.


Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze
found at Butter + Cream

Dough:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, divided (2 tablespoons softened, 2 tablespoons melted)
1 cup milk, warm (around 110 degrees, but don't sweat having a precise temperature. Just try to make sure it's warm to the touch, but not hot)
1/3 cup water, warm
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 package or 2 1/4 teaspoons rapid rise, instant or bread machine yeast (I used rapid rise)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
2 teaspoons table salt

Brown Sugar Coating:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick or 4 ounces), mleted

Cream Cheese Glaze:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons powdered sugar, plus extra if needed
2 tablespoons milk, plus extra if needed
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Get oven and pan ready: Adjust oven rack to medium-low position and heat oven to 200°F. When oven reaches 200, turn it off. Butter Bundt pan with 2 tablespoons softened butter. Set aside.

Make dough: In large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar, and yeast.

To proceed with a stand mixer, mix flour and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook.
Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. (The dough should be sticky but if it is too wet to come together into anything cohesive, add an additional 2 tablespoons flour.) Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball.

To proceed by hand, mix flour and salt in large bowl. Make well in flour, then add milk mixture to well. Using wooden spoon, stir until dough becomes shaggy and is difficult to stir. Turn out onto lightly floured work surface and begin to knead, incorporating shaggy scraps back into dough. Knead until dough is smooth and satiny, about 10 minutes. Shape into taut ball and proceed as directed.

Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a tablespoon of neutral oil. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with more cooking spray or oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in warm oven until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.

Make brown sugar coating: Place melted butter in one bowl. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in a second one.

Form the bread: Flip dough out onto floured surface and gently pat into an 8-inch square. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces. Separate them from the rest of the “grid” as you cut them into small pieces.

Working one at a time, use a fork to dip each piece in melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip back into bowl. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then layer balls in Bundt pan.

Cover Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in turned-off oven until dough balls are puffy and have risen 1 to 2 inches from top of pan, 50 to 70 minutes.

Bake bread: Remove pan from oven and heat oven to 350°F. Unwrap pan and bake until top is golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes (no longer, or you’ll have trouble getting it out) then turn out on platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Make glaze: Beat cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth and light. Add milk and vanilla, then taste and adjust — you’re looking for something that tastes equally tangy and sweet, and texturally thin enough to drape over the bread but thick enough that it will not just roll off completely.

Drizzle the glaze over warm monkey bread, letting it run over top and sides of bread. Serve warm.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

I mentioned cinnamon ice cream would be a great pairing for the apple pie I just made. Oh, and it was! I have posted this cinnamon ice cream recipe before, but I did not include pictures=( And to be completely honest, I didn't take any better ones this time around either. I can't figure out how to photograph ice cream! If anyone has any pointers, It'd be greatly appreciated! I'm not very good at food photography as it is. I'm not patient enough to get a good photo of my food because I'm too excited to try it!


I've always wanted to make ice cream sandwiches! This incidentally did not make that good of an ice cream sandwich, if I'm being honest. The cookie was way too hard and the ice cream spilled all out the sides. Also, it was hard to detect the gingerbread flavor once it got cold=/

But... add this to a slice of apple pie or have it on it's own! I love how quick this recipe is and how little involvement it has. It's a good solid recipe.

Cinnamon Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 teaspoons cinnamon (I put more in hehe)

Combine heavy cream and sugar then stir in milk. Add in vanilla and cinnamon. Pour mixture into you ice cream maker.

SIMPLE!

(The Big) Apple Crumble Pie

I guess I should get this started! I have a lot of recipes to post from Thanksgiving, and as usual, not a lot of time to post about them=( It is Thanksgiving break for me, but.....

I'M GOING TO NEW YORK ON MONDAY!

You may have remembered me mentioning this in previous posts, and now it's finally time!

To refresh your memory, here's the basic need-to-know's of the trip:

My school's Honors Chorus was asked to participate in composer Tim Janis's American Christmas Carol concert on December 2nd at Carnegie Hall in New York. It is a live concert composed by Tim Janis featuring many soloists and a 200 person student choir (that's where we fit in!) Since we learned about our trip back in March, we've had to memorize a ton of music. 10 pieces in all. All are Christmas inspired and I can honestly say I like them all.

Here we all are at PBS filming Tim Janis's Celebrate America in Pittsburgh, where we first got to meet him. (I'm on the right side, second row, second one in!)

Some Highlights of the Trip:
-Ferry over to Liberty Island and Ellis Island
-See Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera
-Visit the Empire State Building
-Time Square, Macy's shop windows, and St. Patrick's Cathedral
-See West Side Story
-Guggenheim Museum and Planet Hollywood
-See Marry Poppins
- And... a SURPRISE??

We leave the 29th, and return the 4th. It's going to be amazing. The best part is I get to share it with some of my closest friends=) Oh, and I'll do my best to take some food pics. If the food is worthy enough!


Okay, now on to the recipe at hand. The Pioneer Woman and Joy the Baker. Two of the most amazing food bloggers out there? Quite possibly. And what happens when you team them together in a recipe? You, my friends, are about to find out.



As I thought of the desserts I would choose for Thanksgiving this year, my family gave me the general consensus that there MUST be pie. There ended up being 3, but we'll get there. First up, was an apple pie. I chose a "dreamy" version that I saw on the Pioneer Woman's blog. I liked how there was a bit more to the pie than just throwing you apples in. In this recipe, you also make a creamy filling to pour in as well. That intrigued me so I knew I definitely wanted to try this one out.


Where does Joy come in? Well... the Pioneer Woman's pie dough recipe involves crisco, which is a no-go for me. I have already tried Joy's pie crust recipe and I knew I loved it, so I went with it instead. It NEVER fails. I might be getting ahead of myself, but it is the flakiest butteriest pie crust ever. It's pretty fool proof as well. I do believe that for this being my second time around it was a bit easier to make as well, naturally. I love this pie crust recipe, and you should too.
Note: You will have to half her pie crust recipe since you only need 1 crust as there is a crumble topping.


This was not too hard to put together. I did it over three days just because I felt like it. I made the apple filling one day, the crust another, and then put it together on the third day.
NOTE: I made one boo-boo. For some reason I cooked my apples in the cinnamon sugar mixture beforehand on the stove. To remedy this, I reduced the cooking time a tad, but otherwise I don't think it affected the outcome.


Served up with some cinnamon ice cream or whipped cream, this was luscious. It had more to it than your average apple pie thanks to the creamy filling. Secret time: We ended up finishing this pie before it was even Thanksgiving Day. Whoops!


Dreamy Apple Pie
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
1 whole Unbaked Pie Crust

Filling:
3 whole Large (4 Or 5 Small) Granny Smith Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Sliced Thin
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
1 cup Heavy Cream
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/8 teaspoons Cinnamon

Topping:
7 Tablespoons Butter
3/4 cups All-purpose Flour
1/2 cups Brown Sugar
1/4 cups Pecans (more To Taste)
Dash Of Salt

Preparation Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out pie dough and place it in a pie pan. Decorate the edges as desired.

Add apple slices to a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over apples. Pour apples into pie shell.

In the bowl of a food processor (or you can mix by hand) combine butter, flour, sugar, pecans (chop if you’re not using a food processor), and salt. Mix until everything comes together in clumps. Pour topping over apples.

Attach foil to the edges and lay a piece of flat foil loosely over the top of the pie. Place pie pan on top of a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for one hour. At the end, remove foil and allow to finish baking and browning. Can bake for up to 15 or 20 minutes more if necessary.

Remove from oven when pie is bubbly and golden brown. Serve warm with hard sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream.

Joy's Pie Crust
from Joy the Baker
makes a double crusted 9-inch pie crust

2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter
2 1/2 (12 ounces) cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (5 to 6 ounces) buttermilk

1. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes. Measure out the buttermilk and store in the refrigerator to keep it cold (you could even put it in the freezer for a few minutes too).

2. Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Take the cold butter from the freezer and toss it with the flour mixture.

3. Dump the cold butter cubes and flour mixture onto a large work area for rolling. With a rolling pin, roll the mixture, flattening the butter cubes with the flour into long, thin, floured butter sheets. Work quickly to ensure that the butter stays cold. Below is what the rolled butter and flour look like after I’ve gathered them together on the work surface a bit.

4. Place the flour and flattened butter back in the large bowl and chill for 10 minutes. When the butter is cold, remove the bowl from the refrigerator, make a small well in the center of the flour and butter mixture. Add the cold buttermilk to the bowl all at once. Begin to bring the dough together with one hand ( keep the other hand free to answer the phone). Moisten all of the flour with the milk, using your hand to break up large clumps of milk and flour. The dough will be rather shaggy, but you can add another tablespoon of buttermilk, if you see that all your flour isn’t moistened. Form the dough into two disks. The disks will be rough, and hard to shape together, but once they rest in the fridge for an hour, they’ll be easier to roll out.

5. Chill the dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator. At this point, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three weeks. For freezing, roll the dough out into sheets and wrap them in plastic film.

6. Roll out the top crust large enough to cut a 12-inch circle.

Transfer the pie filling mixture to the pie shell. Moisten the border of the bottom crust by brushing it lightly with water and place the top crust over the filling. Trim the overhang of the top crust so that there is only 1/2-inch of overhand. Tuck the overhand under the bottom crust boarder and press down all around to seal it. Crimp the border using a fork or your fingers and make about 5 evenly spaced 2-inch slashes starting about 1 inch from the center of the pie and radiating toward the edge. Cover the pie loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1 hour before baking. This will chill and relax the pastry, preventing shrinking.

Carrot Spice Bundt with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I know it's almost after after National Bundt Day, but I still got bundt fever! The Food Librarian has so many good bundt recipes that it's hard not to want to make then all. Slowly but surely I'd like to pick away at her list, but I definitely don't have the will power like her to tackle them all in such a short amount of time!

This carrot spice bundt seemed look a good one to tackle and I was really interested in trying a lemon cream cheese frosting to pair with it. I made this four a bingo at my school as well. In all honesty, I'm not very good at picking items for bake sales. I do believe most people enjoy a good slice of carrot cake (or at least I'd like to think so), but it's not always the best seller at a bake sale. People want fun cookies, brownies, dirt cups (ohh yeah), pumpkin logs, etc. But a large slice of brown cake isn't the belle of the ball amongst the others. Which is sad=( 'Cause let me tell you, this cake was good.


(Confession: I treated myself to a certain amount of this batter before placing it in the oven. It was the best cake batter I have ever had. So nutty and sweet. LOVE.)

I made this while babysitting one evening, and it was super easy. Only one mistake happened... The recipe says to butter the pan, but it does not say to flour it. I made a bundt not too long ago and remembered flouring it, so I was slightly put off upon reading that (or lack thereof). I went ahead with only buttering it, but then it led to this problem whenever I returned home with my bundt to invert it:


Hmmm. It was the night before my bake sale. Yikes! But I am not easily defeated. I fought for this cake! So careful maneuvering allowed me to lift out the stuck part and place right on top. With a little frosting, no one would ever know;)


Carrot Walnut Cake
found at The Food Librarian

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup olive oil

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 large)

3/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Preparation

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl until well blended. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, oil and eggs in large bowl on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add flour mixture, beating just until blended. Fold in carrots and walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 1 hour.

Invert cake onto plate. Cool completely. Drizzle icing over top of cake, allowing icing to flow down sides. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt (Yes, that is the word chocolate)

So for those of you new to my blog, I must confess I am not a chocoholic by any means. For those of you who have been with me a while, you already knew this. You may notice I don't really have any chocolate-y items on my blog. Though there are rare instances. But sometimes you really need to go out of your comfort zone, right? Often (always) members of my family complain to me about never making chocolate items. (*cough my dad and sister cough*) So, I decided to appease them.


I just love browsing through The Food Librarian's countless numbers of bundts. If you haven't already heard about her obsession with them, go check it out asap! She's so crazy (about them) that she's, for the second time, making 30 straight days of bundts leading up to National Bundt Day. How cool! I think it's super amazing and so I've realized I haven't made a bundt in quite a while. In honor of her, I am making 2 bundts for National Bundt Day this Monday. The first I chose was of the chocolate variety and one she called her absolute favorite. If I was going to pick a chocolate cake to make, why not the best?


I guess my dislike/fear of chocolate, among many other aspects, is the fact that it will be too dry and crumbly. Eww. This cake, however, was so far in the other direction. With the aspect of cinnamon involved, I knew it couldn't be too bad! And let me tell you, this cake was delicious. Yes, I just called a chocolate something delicious and I swear I'm in my right state of mind. I loved how the cinnamon worked with the chocolate and the glaze I made was a perfect pair. I honestly must have glazes or frostings with most of the cake type things I make.


This cake was gone in 24 hours, no lie. I think it turned out beautifully and held up well. I was really pleased with the taste and... I may be a slight chocolate convert. I can't say I've fallen in love with chocolate, but I definitely may be willing to give it a chance more often. This means you may be seeing more chocolate items popping up, but let's not get too eager;)


Ps-This recipe is SOOO easy. One pan and one bowl. It's real fast too.


Cinnamon Chocolate Bundt
found on The Food Librarian

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/4 c plus 1 T (or 5 T) cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 c buttermilk
1 t baking soda
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

Instructions:
1. Bring to a boil in a pot: Water, oil, butter and cocoa
2. In a large bowl, combine together with a whisk: flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon
3. Add the chocolate mixture to the flour and mix until combined.
4. Add the buttermilk and baking soda and mix.
5. In a small bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla. Add to the batter and combine.
6. Pour batter into greased 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan (I prefer to use Pam with Flour or Bakers Joy) and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes (the original recipe says 25 minutes, so start checking then).
7. Cool in pan.
8. Top with a dusting of powdered sugar or a simple glaze of powdered sugar and milk or water.

Okay, so for this lush glaze I was mentioning... I didn't have any powdered sugar in the house, so I had to look up a very strange recipe for a type of glaze that didn't use any. This is what I ended up doing:

Ingredients:
6 tbsp butter
3 tbsp corn syrup
1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp or so cinnamon

Melt butter, corn syrup, and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla and cinnamon. (I had a minuscule amount of powdered sugar left that I threw in as well.)

Pretzels... Again

So I already told you I'm in love with that bread book my aunt lent me. Some dang good bread right thurrrr. Anyways, I was browsing through the amazing and tempting recipes in the book and I wanted to make them all! But, I saw the pretzel recipe, which also subs as a bagel recipe, and thought it would be interesting to try out.


As you may (or may not) know, I have already made pretzels once before. Oh sweet, sweet success. It was in the midst of a snow storm as well. They came out pretty frickin' fantastic for my first time. The dough was so so nice to work with, making my job very easy. They tasted great and it was sad to see them go. I really enjoyed them plain, but the cinnamon sugar variety has been haunting me ever since. From that one day in February up until I made this second batch, I have been dreaming of these cinnamon sugar pretzels.

The exact day I decided to make the pretzels, the lovely Joy came out with a pretzel post and a walk through video. Uh-oh. Now I'd be seeing everyone trying out her recipe and mine would go up and be compared.. oy vey! I was nervous to try out this very different recipe, so I decided to only make four. Two cinnamon, two regular.

The dough sucked. It was so terrible to work with. It was really just the fact that I could not get it to roll out for me!! I would apply pressure and roll and roll and roll and the dough wouldn't do anything thing. I had to use brutal unadulterated force. Then, when I boiled them and such, they took on weird indents and lumpy shapes. Not cool. In hindsight, could this be from not enough flour? Maybe I didn't give it enough structure? I was just nervous to make them dense or tough. I'd rather have gooey any day.

All in all, my mom said she didn't get a strong "pretzel" taste from them. She said it was very bread-like? I don't know exactly what she meant. See, she had a regular one and I ate the uber cinnamon-y sugar-y ones. I normally would never say anything like this, but: I put on too much cinnamon sugar. I also made a vanilla glaze to dip in. SUGAR OVERLOAD. Oh my goodness, I could feel the sugar rush in my veins. I thought they weren't bad. However, anything doused in cinnamon sugar and then dipping in a sugar-y vanilla icing has to be good, right? So my judgment was impaired. But, if we weigh they amount of grief the dough gave me and the ugliness of the pretzels, I'd have to say I wouldn't use this recipe again.


(Is it bad that on more than 3 occasions I kept typing "sinnamon suger"?)

With pretzels it is important to remember they do not keep well. If you're planning on making them keep in mind that unless your whole family plans on eating a dozen pretzels in one day you probably should keep your batch on the small side.

Soft Pretzels
from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

The dough:
1 pound of bagel dough (recipe given within book)
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water)
coarse salt for sprinkling
extra flour for dusting kitchen towel
corn meal or whole wheat flour for pizza peel or baking stone

The boiling pot:
8 quarts boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cream of tartar


1. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 3-ounce piece of dough (about the size of a small peach). Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Elongate the ball, dusting with additional flour as necessary. Roll it back and forth with your hands on a flour dusted surface to form a long rope approximately 1/2 inch in diameter and 12 inches long.


2. Twist into a pretzel shape by first tying a knot, then looping the ends around and joining them back to the loop. Repeat, forming as many pretzels as you want to bake.

3. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450, with a baking stone placed near the middle of the oven. Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising pretzels.

4. Keep pretzels covered loosely with plastic wrap as you repeat the process to make the rest. Let the pretzels rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.

5. Prepare the boiling pot: Bring a large saucepan or stockpot full of water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the baking soda and cream of tartar. Drop the pretzels into the simmering water one at a time, making sure they are not crowding one another. They need enough room to float without touching or they will be misshapen. Let them simmer for 2 minutes and then flip them over with a slotted spoon to cook the other side. Simmer for another minute.


6. Remove them from the water, using the slotted spoon, and place on a clean kitchen towel that has been lightly dusted with with flour. This will absorb some of the excess water from the pretzels. Then place them on a peel covered with whole wheat flour. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt.


7. Slide pretzels directly onto the hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. Bake with steam for about 15 minutes, until deeply browned and firm. If you want crisp pretzels, bake 5 to 10 minutes longer.

Don't laugh at my ugly pretzels. I've made better!