Good Noms gets cheesy

It's my birthday this week, and I made myself a cake. It's a really simple recipe.
Cheesecake:
Crust-

• Graham crackers (one of the three individually wrapped packages in a box)
• Butter - 1/2 stick

Cake-

• Cream cheese - 3 packages
• Egg - 1
• Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can
• Vanilla

Blend the graham crackers in a blender or a food processor. Alternately, crush them in a plastic bag. Melt half the stick of butter and mix it with the graham crumbs. Press into the bottom of a round springform or pie pan.

Blend the softened cream cheese with the can of milk. Do this before you add the egg, otherwise the cream cheese will clump and become coated in the egg and you will have trouble blending a homogeneous mixture. Add the egg and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, checking after about 40. The cake will become firm, the center will be almost set. Let cool almost completely, then refrigerate for several hours, for best results overnight.

GASP! A regular Wednesday Post!

Oh ho! I wasn't full of talk yesterday! I'm still in New Jersey, spending time with my family, and I still don't have my camera cord, so you'll have to wait to see how yummy these cookies look until I get back to LA on the 4th.

Today my mom and I baked our traditional cookies: Russian Teacakes. These are small, powdery, butter and sugar cookies that taste really, really good. We make them before Christmas most years, but since I didn't get down until right before and we had so many things to do, we baked them right before New Years instead this year :)

You will need the following:

1 cup (2 standard sticks) of butter (this recipe is easily made vegan by substituting margarine. But my personal opinion of margarine is extremely low. Butter is where it is at!)

1/2 cup powdered sugar (aka 10x, aka confectioner's sugar, depending on where you are from)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat that oven to 400 degrees!

First, soften the butter either in the microwave, or if you are like me when I am in my apartment and do not have one, by heating it very carefully over the store. Do not melt it. Just get it nice and creamy.

Then mix the butter, the powdered sugar and the vanilla until it is a delicious cream with a very similar texture (and indeed, the same ingredients) to my homemade frosting.

Next, add the salt and stir, then add the flour about a half cup at a time, continuing to stir it in. At some point, you may need to abandon your spoon and use your hands. The texture once all the flour has been added will be more powdery and flaky than doughy. This is OK.

Next, add the nuts. If you are going to chop or grind your own nuts, try to get them to about the size of an M and M mini (NOT A REGULAR M and M!) When you add the nuts, the texture will change and the dough will be easier to deal with.

Now, roll the cookies into one inch diameter balls. These cookies do not spread, so make them look like you want your cookies to look. You can also make them into finger shapes, but we never do that. Balls are easier for the last step.

Bake the cookies for ten minutes at 400 degrees. Take them out right away and go on to the last step.

Get two plates. Cover one plate in a big pile of powdered sugar. While the cookies are still pretty hot, roll them in the sugar so they get totally covered on all sides. Then put them on the other plate, from which they will be picked up and eaten by your adoring friends and family.

OM NOM NOM!

The Smell of Home Made Bread is like Heaven on Earth

I find there is something so satisfying in baking a fresh loaf of bread that doesn't quite compare to any other baking project one can do. Watching your dough rise and knowing that you made it correctly is so satisfying. Not to mention how good fresh dough smells as it rises in the kitchen.
I love using this recipe to make fresh dinner rolls (great for bringing to dinner parties). However you can also use the same recipe to make a tasty loaf of white bread! It might not be as good for you as wheat bread but its still better then store bought brands. This dough is great because you can use it in so many different ways!
If you make bread a lot (I make it quite frequently) you know what a pain kneading dough by hand can be. I prefer a little bit of a cheat and I use the dough setting on my bread maker. Since this is the way I do it this is the way I am going to give the directions. However if you are a hands on person simply make the dough by hand as you normally would (or look up how to do so). Without further delay...

Super Easy and Totally Tasty Dinner Rolls!
1c Water (75-80 F)
1 large egg
4 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
3 1/4 c bread flour
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbs butter

If you store your yeast in the fridge (I have a big jar) take the 2 ¼ teaspoons out and place in a dish. Set this aside. The yeast will warm up a bit making it more active when you put it in the bread. Follow your bread maker directions for layering your ingredients. Mine go into the machine in the order above. My one suggestion is your flour. As you can see I use King Arthur flour. I LOVE this flour and use it for everything I bake. Their flours are unbleached, not tampered with, and are produced by real people on real farms. I think this makes a big difference.

Ok so you get your mixer going. I find that I need to add one additional tablespoon of water to my dough as it mixes or it is too dry. See what your dough looks like and if its not sticking together nice then add a bit more water. Now let your bread machine do all the work (unless of course you are mixing by hand then you get to work!).

Before Rising and After Rising

After its done you will have a nice smooth dough. Take a 13x9 pan (metal is best but glass works too. I actually bake in 2 8x8 metal pans) and lightly grease. Pull off small bits of dough and form into balls. I like to take the soft side of the dough and fold all the edges under so your rolls look nice and smooth. Place into pan and let rise (cover them with a towel to there is no draft). I let them double in size which takes about an hour in a warm kitchen.

The Rolls before Rising (I didn't take a post rise picture)

While they are rising preheat oven to 350. When ready baste the tops of the rolls lightly with butter and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. When they are nice and golden brown on top test to make sure they are done (I use a tooth pick). If they are then take them out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then take them out of the pan. Eat them! NomNomNom!

These are excellent for bringing to dinner parties!

Good Noms bakes bread

The recipe I am using today is brought to you by Bob's Red Mill. On one hand, I like Bob's Red Mill because they produce a huge variety of whole grain and minimally processed and organic foods that are commonly available in most grocery stores, on the other hand most of it costs so much that you will look at a 5 pound bag of store brand enriched bleached cocaine-white flour that's on sale for like 2 bucks and say to yourself "How bad can it be?"
But all that aside - here is Wheat Bran Cranberry Quick Bread
Ignore the butter, it snuck in there somehow without me knowing.

• 2/3 cups flour (I used the all purpose store brand kind)
• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cups wheat bran
• 2/3 cups brown sugar
• 2/3 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cups chopped nuts (I used some pecans I had left over and a bit of walnuts)
• 2/3 cups chopped dried cranberries (if you buy a 6oz package of Craisins, then about half)
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cups milk
• 2/3 cups orange juice
• 2/3 cups melted margarine or vegetable oil (I used apple sauce)

By the way, these are the best way to spend $10 at Target (or what have you).

I find them a bit awkward for everyday things, but for things like brown sugar these little canisters are the best. They are airtight and the sugar never hardens.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients and nuts. Stir cranberries, egg, milk, oj, apple sauce (or oil) into flour mixture, stir until just combined. Pour into greased 9x5x3 pan and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until center is firm.
Alternately, place all ingredients into the bread machine that you tried to get your mother to give you for about a year and she refused with the excuse that she might use it (before that it sat unused for maybe another 3 years) until she finally gave it up in the order specified by the manufacturer. Select "quick bread" setting (this just means that there is no extra rise time because we aren't using yeast.)
The bread turned out well. It's sweet, with a great shot of sour when you bite into one of those cranberry bits. It was still a bit too sweet for me (unless I'm baking cookies, cake, or something else that is deliberately supposed to be sweet I like no more than a hint of sweetness). I'd cut the sugar down to 1/2 a cup next time, maybe even less.
Overall it's moist, dense, with a nice grainy texture (the nuts and the bran probably help with this). PS - I imagine this bread would be as delicious vegan with the omission or substitution of the egg.

Good Noms bakes

I've been craving chocolatey minty cookies ever since Tu and I finished our Thin Mints. My search for recipes proved difficult, as there are practically zero recipes not involving Andes mints or not being a regular cookie with mint chips.
So I present to you - Chocolate Mint Snow-top cookies.
I found this recipe online and thought I'd give it a try
it calls for:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 package (10 oz) mint flavored chocolate morsels. They didn't have these at any of the stores I normally shop, so I used Nestle dark chocolate and mint morsels. Set 1 cup of these aside from the rest.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• I also added 1/2 tsp peppermint extract (not pictured). The chips didn't smell/taste that minty, and I wanted to feel the coolness. Keep in mind though that the extract is pretty strong, so don't overdo it.
• Confectioner's sugar (optional)

Combine the dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Melt 1 cup of chocolate pieces. The best way to do this is over a double boiler, or whatever it's called when you put a smaller pot into a pot of boiling water. This minimizes your chances of burning. If you are feeling ballsy (or are thinking to yourself that you'll just take your chances since these are going to be baked into a cookie anyway), pile them into a microwave safe container and after the initial 30 seconds, microwave at 10-15 second intervals, testing after each one. Once I made the mistake of thinking that since the pieces were still keeping shape they weren't melted enough. I want you to know that through the pure magical power of deliciousness chocolate and candy will keep shape even if it's all liquid inside. So poke it before to make sure, or else you'll burn it.
Now you'll want to break out your Kitchenaid (remember me singing its praise a few posts ago?) Beat in melted chocolate, vanilla, peppermint, eggs, flour mixture (in increments). Or you can do it by hand. I did this time (my mixer is indisposed). Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
Cover and pop in the freezer for the duration of time it takes to watch an episode of cheesy anime on Hulu. Preheat the oven to 350. Then roll your dough into 1 inch balls. The recipe says to then roll them in powdered sugar. I did this for the first batch (I only own one cookie sheet, shameful, I know). I found that it did absolutely nothing, because by the time the cookies are done baking, the sugar (assuming you got a nice, even coat) will completely dissolve and become invisible.I got sort of a clumpy coat' so you can see some sugar on them, but I skipped the sugar bath for the two subsequent batches. The cookies bake for about 12 minutes, or until cracks appear in the top. I undercooked the second batch a little, they are flatter and darker than the first batch.Yes, I have eaten nothing but cookies today, and yes I did get sugar on my lens taking this last photo. I like these cookies a lot, they have an excellent minty flavor, nice round shape (if you bake them long enough) and a delicious crispy yet soft on the inside texture.