Tag Archives: what’s baking

What’s Baking Roundup: Doughnuts

Posted in chatter, what's baking by

whatsbaking

I mentioned on Friday that I was the host of the latest round of What’s Baking. The theme was baked doughnuts and I was drooling as everyone emailed me their submissions. A new, delicious doughnut in your inbox every day can be a dangerous thing.

I love the What’s Baking rounds because I love seeing what everyone did with the theme – there’s always so much variation. This round brought together any kind of doughnut you could want. Something perfect for Spring? Try Lemon Blueberry Dounuts. Want something indulgent? Double Chocolate is the way to go. You can check out everyone’s creations below!

evabakes

Baked Double Chocolate Donuts from Eva at Eva Bakes

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1546/24908637759_93b325e99e.jpg

Baked Sour Cream Donuts from Jaida at Sweet Beginnings

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K-2pYpFGqF8/Vs6Y0d61LvI/AAAAAAAAEA4/2uUzuxiylz4/s400/BrownieDonuts.JPG

Brownie Donuts with Peanut Butter Glaze from Nicole at Cookies on Friday

http://www.theredheadbaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/smores-donuts-3.jpg

S’mores Donuts from Coleen at The Redhead Baker

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oU7-2vTce5U/VsieR2Tz2eI/AAAAAAABIsE/C_ebNDVQNdI/s400/brown.sugar.bourbon.maple.glazed.doughnut.pinterest.jpg

Brown Butter and Bourbon Maple Glazed Doughnuts from Nicole at Cookaholic Wife

http://www.hezzi-dsbooksandcooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/baked-lemon-blueberry-donuts-4.jpg

Baked Lemon Blueberry Donuts from Heather at Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks

kyleecooks

Mini Baked Donuts with Raspberry Glaze from Kylee

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1506/25250763246_8e73e843e9_z.jpg

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts from Me

Thank you, everyone, for baking up some doughnuts with me this round!

What’s Baking: Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts

Posted in breakfast, Uncategorized by

whatsbaking

Another round of What’s Baking is wrapping up, and I was lucky enough to host this time! I picked doughnuts as the theme because, well, doughnuts are awesome.

Usually, it takes me a bit to get things from the kitchen to the blog, but these lovely things came out of my oven this morning. They were delicious. I felt like I’d walked into a doughnut shop – the smell, the warm goodies. Every Friday should start out like this!

Be sure to stop back Monday and see the roundup of all the lovely doughnuts my fellow bloggers made!

CinnamonSugarDoughnuts

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
(from Sally’s Baking Addiction)
Makes 8

1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 large egg
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a doughnut pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the first six ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the next four ingredients. Whisk the 2 Tbsp. melted butter and vanilla extract into the wet ingredients. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry, until thoroughly combined.

Transfer the batter to a large zipper-top bag and snip the corner to make a piping bag. Pipe into the doughnut pan to make them 3/4 of the way full. You can spoon it in, too – but piping is neater!

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are lightly brown. Remove to a cooling rack.

Melt the 1/2 cup butter in a small bowl. In another small bowl, whisk together the 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. When the doughnuts are cool enough to handle, dip in melted butter and then cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Serve immediately. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

Baked Blueberry French Toast

Posted in breakfast, what's baking by

We celebrated Mark’s birthday this past weekend with a trip to Boston to visit family and friends. It was an awesome, albeit busy, weekend without much birthday fuss – aka, perfect for him. The last few years, I’ve made him French Toast for breakfast on the weekend of his birthday because it’s his favorite. Knowing we’d be away, I baked up the traditional breakfast a few weekends ago when we had a lazy morning. He loved it.

Baked Blueberry French Toast

Continue reading →

Flourless Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Posted in bread and muffins, dessert, vegetarian, what's baking by

whatsbaking

The theme for this round of What’s Baking is pumpkin – perfect for the season! Since I knew I’d be posting my pumpkin recipe this month, I wanted to pick one that would fit in with October Unprocessed. I actually made them last month and these aren’t totally unprocessed – I used a chocolate peanut butter and chocolate chips – but subbing an appropriate nut butter and leaving out the chocolate chips would easily bring them into line.

I’m going to be making them again soon. Like, probably today.

You can check out the roundup of other pumpkin goodies later this month on Carrie’s Sweet Life.

FlourlessPumpkinPieMuffins

Flourless Pumpkin Pie Muffins
(from Running with Spoons)
Makes 9 Muffins

1/4 cup nut butter
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
6 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375F degrees and spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.

Add all of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips to a blender and blend on high until the oats are gone and batter is smooth and creamy. Stir in chocolate chips then pour the batter into prepared muffin pans.

Bake until the tops of your muffins are set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean,about 10-12 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

What’s Baking: Baked Triple Berry Pancake

Posted in breakfast, vegetarian, what's baking by

whatsbaking

The latest What’s Baking theme was baking with summer produce, which immediately make me think of berries. We grow our own strawberries and blueberries in the backyard and regularly buy raspberries and blackberries when they’re in season.

I whipped up this pancake as a special breakfast this morning. We’ve been quite busy the last few weeks so being able to sit down to a nice breakfast together felt like a treat. I also liked that the batter was mixed up in the blender – for some reason, this felt particularly easy.

We ate this with whipped cream (me) and syrup (Mark), but I also think honey drizzled over would be fantastic!

You can check out what other bloggers made for the theme in a recap later this month on Blissfully Delicious.

BakedBerryPancake

Baked Triple Berry Pancake
(adapted from Recipe Girl)
Serves 4

3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. lemon zest
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup blackberries
1/4 cup chopped strawberries
Whipped cream, syrup, honey or powdered sugar, for serving

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.

In a blender, comine the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt. Pulse until well combined.

Heat a 12″ cast iron skillet over high heat. Add the butter to the skillet and let melt. Once melted, pour the batter into the skillet and top with berries. Transfer the skillet to the oven.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until puffed and cooked through. Serve with whipped cream, syrup, honey or powdered sugar over the top.

What’s Baking Roundup: Cheese

Posted in what's baking by

whatsbaking

The April theme for What’s Baking, picked by me, was cheese. Because, who doesn’t love cheese? And, there are so many options, I was excited to see what people did with it!

Colleen from The Redhead Baker made these gorgeous Goat Cheese and Chive Gougeres. It’s a savory take on the cheese theme and they’re totally drool-worthy.

goatcheese

My cheese dish was sweet – the other end of the spectrum. We really enjoyed this Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.

StrawberryCreamCheeseCoffeeCake

Ali from Sparks from the Kitchen will be hosting for May – be sure to check out what dishes get baked up later this month!

What’s Baking: Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Posted in cake, dessert, what's baking by

I got to pick the theme for this month’s What’s Baking and picked cheese. Of all the cheese recipes I have marked to make, I kept coming back to this one. It just looked so good.

And, it was. This is all from scratch – even the jam – so it takes a little bit of time and effort, but it’s so worth it!

Check back later this week to see what other cheese delights got baked up!

StrawberryCreamCheeseCoffeeCake

Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
(from Food Wanderings in Asia)
Makes 1 8″ round cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into chunks

1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sour cream (not low fat)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, cut into pieces
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. water
1.5 tsp. cornstarch

 

Chop the strawberries and toss them with sugar. If you want a more jam-like layer, finely chop the berries. I wanted distinguishable berry pieces in mine so I just gave them a rough chop. Heat them in a saucepan until they release their juices – about 5 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and cornstarch. Add this to the strawberries and stir to combine. Cook a few minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

 

Using a mixer, combine the cream cheese, sugar and egg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour and sugar. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Remove 3/4 cup of the crumbs and set aside. To the remaining crumbs, add in the baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir.
In a medium bowl, beat together the sour cream, egg and vanilla until well combined. Add this mixture to the large bowl of crumbs and stir until just combined. It will be lumpy.
Grease or line an 8-9″ springform pan. Press the cake batter evenly into the bottom, letting it rise up 1/2″ on all sides, making a well. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the well. Top with strawberry jam. Sprinkle with reserved crumbs.
Bake for 45-55 minutes, until golden brown on the sides. Let cool for 20 minutes before removing sides of the pan and letting cool completely.

Irish Cream Double Chocolate Cookies

Posted in cookies and bars, dessert, what's baking by

whatsbaking
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This month’s What’s Baking theme was Irish Cream – perfect for the holiday. We’re not Irish, so it’s not a big holiday for us, but I do use it as an excuse to invite our family over and make a big pot of beef and Guinness stew so making an Irish cream dessert for our get together was a no-brainer.

Irish cream liquor is not something we regularly keep in the house (and, since I’m pregnant, I’ve been trying to avoid buying bottles that will just sit around) so I was excited that these cookies use Irish cream coffee creamer instead of liquor. It ends up giving the same type of flavor, but was much easier for just one recipe – a win-win. These cookies were soft and fluffy and had just a nice, subtle Irish cream flavor. I’m sure I’ll be making them for future St. Patrick’s Day parties!

You can check out the rest of the Irish cream dishes other bloggers baked up on The Redhead Baker later this month.

IrishCreamCookies

Irish Cream Double Chocolate Cookies
(very slightly adapted from Something Swanky)
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Irish cream coffee creamer
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.

Using a stand mixer, beat together the butter and shortening. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy. Beat in the egg, creamer and vanilla.

Mix in the flour, baking soda and salt until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Rolls into 1″ balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

What’s Baking: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted in cookies and bars, dessert, what's baking by

whatsbaking

This month’s What’s Baking theme, hosted by Sandra from She Cooks and Bakes, is favorite childhood treats with a modern twist. My favorite childhood treat, hands down, was chocolate chip cookies. I loved coming home from school to find fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for snack. Sometimes, Mom would even make them before school and we’d get them in our lunches. Cookie days were always awesome days.

Making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies seemed like the perfect twist, considering the season and how popular everything pumpkin is now. It also seemed appropriate since I wouldn’t touch pumpkin as a kid, but as an adult I’m loving the flavor. These are a perfect, more grown-up version of one of my childhood favorites.

PumpkinChocolateChipCookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from Cooks.com)
Makes about 2 dozen

1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Line two cookie sheets.

Dissolve the baking soda in milk. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, sugar, oil and egg until well combined. Add in flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt, baking soda mixture and mix well. Stir in vanilla until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoon-full onto the cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until beginning to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and let cook for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container. These are best enjoyed the next day.

What’s Baking: Italian Rainbow Cookie Cake

Posted in cake, dessert, what's baking by

whatsbaking

This month’s What’s Baking theme was Chow Ciao Italiano, chosen by Nicole from Seven Ate Nine. We do a lot of Italian baking around here, but instead of sharing something that is a favorite, I wanted to make something that was different from our usual rotation. And I’d had this cake bookmarked forever and needed an excuse to make it.

I love the Italian rainbow cookies. Whenever we get cookies from the local Italian bakery, they’re my first choice – and the first I grab off of cookie platters. The idea of those cookies in a cake was just too exciting to pass up. Much to my delight, this was pretty spot-on. It was delicious and had all the flavors of my beloved cookies. It also looks gorgeous – perfect for a special occasion.

To see what everyone else made for Chow Ciao Italiano, check out Nicole’s blog later this month!

ItalianRainbowCookieCake

 

Italian Rainbow Cookie Cake
(from Always Order Dessert)
Makes 1 9″ cake

3 sticks of butter, softened
1 1/2 c. granulated white sugar
6 large eggs
12 oz. almond paste, grated with a box grater
1 T. pure almond extract
1 c. milk
3 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
3 t. baking powder
Red, green and yellow food coloring
1/4 c. seedless raspberry jam
1/4 c. apricot preserves
For the ganache:
1 c. heavy cream
12 oz. semisweet chocolate

Butter and flour three 9″ cake pans and place a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of each. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat for 3 more minutes. Add the grated almond paste, almond extract and milk, and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the almond paste batter and mix until combined. Separate the mixture evenly into three bowls and dye each bowl a different shade (one green, one yellow, one red). Pour each into individual pans, making sure to smooth out the top.

Bakefor approximately 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack. Remove the parchment paper and let cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the ganache by heating 1 cup of heavy cream in a small saucepan just until bubbles start to form around the edge. Turn off the heat and pour over the chocolate in a large bowl. Stir continuously until melted completely and smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

To assemble the cake, start with the pink layer of the cake  on the bottom and spread the raspberry jam over the top until it nearly reaches the edges of the cake. Top with the yellow cake and spread the top of the yellow cake with the apricot preserves. Top with the final green layer. Use a spoon to pour the ganache over the cake, using an offset spatula to even the sides and make sure the cake is completely covered. Use as much ganache as you need. Let sit at room temperature in a cool spot for 1-2 hours until completely set.