Tori’s Writing Hole

of fresh baked bread is like heaven’s perfume. Or at least what I’d imagine it to be. No chocolate, no lilies or other flowers - heaven is bread, steaming hot, in an oven.

I made challah bread again today (I’ll post the recipe below) and it smells fantastic. However, today’s specimen is not really picture-worthy (just a three braid, but it puffed a lot and looks sort of deformed). I love baking bread, even though I cheated and had the bread machine knead the dough for me.

In that bready smell, I imagine so much more than just food. I think about how my Mom’s mom used to bake white bread each week from scratch for their family. I think about how baking is so important to me, yet I really don’t need the kinds of food (even bread) that I bake. It’s so silly, but sometimes I feel more connected to scent than sound or sight for triggering memories.

I got this Challah (is it supposed to be capitalized? Darn my shikza brain) bread recipe from Dine and Dish, and while I know it would be easier to not braid the stuff and just bake it in a loaf pan like she does, well, I love a challenge.

Bread Machine Challah

3/4 cup warm water
1 large egg
3 tablespoons margarine, cut up (I use butter)
3 cups bread flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1. Add the water, the egg, the margarine, flour, sugar, salt & yeast to bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
2. Set the machine to the dough cycle
3. Once the dough cycle is complete, remove the dough from the machine and place in a lightly sprayed loaf pan.
4. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
5. Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes or until brown on top and hollow sounding when tapped.

Here’s how I do it instead - I remove the dough from the machine and divide into three equal pieces. I oil up my hands and the dough (using canola oil spray) and then spray a baking sheet. I stretch the dough into strips, and braid - tucking the ends under. Then, the dough rises covered with a tea towel for 30 minutes.

When risen, I beat an egg and wash over the challah, then bake as directed.

OK, here’s a picture. I know you wanted one:

So try your own heaven! (See, told you it was deformed!)

Tags: baking, bread, home, heaven

Ok, so way, way in the past (January 19 to be precise) I made a cake for Stephen (the dearest)’s birthday. I will now share with you my cake-y wisdom.

It was my first time making a coconut cake, and I wanted to do it right. I went through a few of my favorite recipe haunts and found one that seemed plausible at Epicurious.com - the Coconut Layer Cake (reprinted here).

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I substituted cake flour at the rate of 1 cup plus 2 tbls per cup of all purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)* (The brand I found was Karumba)
4 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Pinch of salt

Cream Cheese Frosting (see below)

4 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Preparation

At Shubox Cafe, this dessert is known as Awesome Coconut Cake, aptly
named by one of the cafe’s best customers. To make this recipe, you’ll
need to buy one 15-ounce can of sweetened cream of coconut. Some of it
is used in the cake; be sure to save the rest for the Cream Cheese Frosting.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans
with 2-inch-high sides. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2
teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat
sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until
fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in
dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another
large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold beaten egg whites into batter.

Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester
inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cakes in
pans on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to
loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

Place 1 cake layer on cake plate. Spread 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting
over cake layer. Sprinkle 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut over. Top
with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of
cake. Sprinkle remaining coconut over cake, gently pressing into sides
to adhere. (Coconut Layer Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover
with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 2
hours before serving.)

*Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide.

This is the result:

Of course, this wasn’t as simple as I thought - many steps, and I think I might have beaten the egg whites a bit too stiff. The final cake was dense, but not too dense. I did have one more hurdle - frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

2 8-ounce packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation
Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until fluffy. Add butter and beat to
blend. Add sugar, sweetened cream of coconut and vanilla extract and
beat until well blended.

*Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide.

And the final result:

In all, a decent cake - but probably not one I’d repeat. Way too much work for the result. But the birthday boy did like it!

Technorati Tags: cake, coconut, baking

I need to diet. And I’ve really, really been trying. But before I started this round of diet hopes, I made a cupcake that was so good, I’m still drooling over it. Really. I think there’s a little drool on the keyboard right now. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but oh, my - so so good. And I will share.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa container)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa or HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350º and grease two regular sized muffin tins. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt
in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of
electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Portion batter into a measuring cup and pour carefully into muffin tins. You’ll get about 20 cupcakes if you fill to top (optimal if you want nice bakery style cupcakes). Bake for about 25 minutes and check with a toothpick - you may need more time depending on your pan. Remove cupcakes from tins ASAP - about five minutes of cooling time will work. Let cool before frosting.

White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (from Food and Wine)

• 1 c softened butter
• 1 c confectioners’ sugar
• 12 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter at
medium speed until creamy. Beat in the melted white chocolate. Add the
confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and beat at low speed, scraping the
sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy.

Frost cupcakes and try not to inhale them all yourself. Try. I’m not promising you won’t.

Technorati Tags: baking, chocolate, cupcakes, delicious

Well, I’m between semesters here, can’t bake and I feel a bit lost. It’s strange, the hustle of Christmas and the holidays seemed too much, but now that they’re gone I’m left feeling empty. Time to write, to pull up my brain strings and get some fiction flowing! I just hope I can. Perhaps Virginia’s next Flash Fiction Carnival?

I’m crafting a bit, knitting, and I plan to crochet my father some things, but I *don’t* seem to have time, or at least the concentration, to do those sort of things. Feh, must be winter.

I made my curry special a couple of nights ago (my sort of bastardized chicken curry with potatoes, which is pretty healthy as I use boneless, skinless super de-fatted chicken and let the potatoes cook down for their own thickening) and I made chapatis! These are flatbreads popular in India, but also West Africa and many other places. I didn’t have chapati flour, so I used bread flour, which left them ok, but a bit lacking in flavor. Some reduced calorie butter spread helped. My cast iron skillet was the perfect thing to crisp them up. No pics, sadly.

There will probably be two posts today, as Julia did something AMAZING (well, at least to her parents) and I have to share it like the proud mommy I am.

Technorati Tags: writing, cooking, fiction, Indian food

What’s that you say, dear reader? Just been yearning for another post about my daughter’s bathroom habits? Well, I’m proud to say that we have a little girl who, with just a few accidents aside, has been trained to make water and dookie in the potty. She has the Dora™ and Hello Kitty™ panties to prove it. I have spent countless hours kneeling against the side of the bathtub, and still make frequent trips into the bathroom for false alarms, but she keeps most pairs of underwear dry, and only needs to wear a Pull-Up at night, just in case (these stay dry as well).

Oh, but there are so many other things to talk about. Cakes I have baked (and eaten) - I will post about a delicious Dark Chocolate Cupcake with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting once I get the pictures off of the camera. But the season for baking and cooking and eating the yummies is over. Diet season is once again upon us - and I shall be trying the Weight Watchers again.

So - I will be writing once more about… writing. And food that is, shudder, good for you. And possibly kid stuff not involving urination. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: potty training, toddler, bathroom, baking, chocolate