As one can probably tell from the tag cloud one of my favorite hobbies is to bake. I really like being able to create something that looks and tastes amazing, especially when things in my life are stressful. It is relaxing somehow. This past year has been marked by moving away from my standard recipes and experimenting with more complex recipes. I think that I must talk about it a lot because for Christmas my wonderful loved ones gave me things like aprons, cook books, a baking book, and (wait for it) my very own Kitchen Aid mixer! The mixer was a gift from my husband David. It is bright red to match our tea kettle (red is also one of my all-time favorite colors; if it wasn’t for David this whole house would be full of red) and has a bowl-lift mechanism instead of the standard way of the top hinging upward. It looks so big on my kitchen countertop! I feel quite spoiled even having an automatic mixer but it is kind of wonderful at the same time. Inspired by it’s size and color the mixer has been christened Clifford. Of course, I couldn’t wait to use it so here was breakfast the day after Christmas:

Whole wheat blueberry muffins! Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.eatmedelicious.com/2008/02/whole-wheat-blueberry-muffins.html

Last week I had some friends over to decorate Christmas cookies. In preparation for this event I decided to find the best sugar cookie recipe that I could. I pulled two classic books- Martha Stewart and Joy of Cooking and then went online to trusty ol’ Allrecipes to find the top-rated recipe. I baked a small batch of each of these recipes and then took them over to my husband’s work. David, several of his co-workers, and the lady at the front desk all ate the cookies and voted which cookie was most to their liking. The end result was a tie between Martha Stewart and Allrecipes. The consensus was that if they were only to eat one cookie that Martha Stewart was the way to go, but if they were going to eat more than one that the Allrecipe recipe would better. I think this was because the Martha Stewart recipe was a bit sweeter than the rest. For those of you also baking this holiday season here is the link to the Allrecipe sugar cookies (they were the one that got my vote. Mostly for the consistency and the not-too-sweet taste)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Rolled-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx?prop31=2

And for you Martha Stewart/sweet cookie lovers here is her sugar cookie recipe:

4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, room temperature    3 cups sugar    2 large eggs      1 tsp pure vanilla extract     1 1/2 tstp salt    5 cups all-purpose flour

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, vanilla, and salt; mix until well combined. Add flour in two batches, mixing until just incorporated. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface, divide in half and pat into flattened rectangles. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 1 week.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters and place on prepared sheets. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and firm to the touch, about 15 minutes. (of note, I found this only took about 12 minutes).

Enjoy!

    Autumn used to be one of my favorite seasons. I love the feeling of the crisp cool air when you step outside in the morning and the kaleidoscope of coloring on the trees. Since my move to the “wet” side of Washington state I have found that I do not like the season at as much as I used to as it brings the cold, wet weather that just settles and then stays for months and months. But there are still many redeemable qualities of the season. One of my favorite things about fall is that it also brings back the desire for foods such as hot beverages, soup, and bread. I love hot food. There is something  more comforting and wonderful about food that is warm that just isn’t found in things like summer salads and grilled hamburgers. Making warm autumn fare makes the house smell homey and warms up the kitchen. So, in celebration of autumn’s appearance here in the Pacific Northwest I spent some time last week baking bread. The first bread that I tried was quite simple. It was a very basic French bread from my trusty Joy of Cooking book. It turned out a little bit chewy, but I was actually kind of impressed that this was the result of flour, yeast, water, and salt:

     My next attempt was much more fancy and probably a bit over my head, but I gave it a shot anyways giving the excuse that we hosted community group last week and we had to serve something. Living up my Martha Stewart baking book for one last time before it was due back at the library I put together a home made cinnamon raisin bread. I had actually intended to leave the recipe in this blog post, but I didn’t get to posting soon enough and had to turn the book back to the library. Here is a picture of the dough just before I rolled it up

And the finished product. It was a big hit at community group and with David’s coworkers so no one must have noticed that I forgot the butter until after I had kneaded the dough :)

    Yesterday David and I were assigned to making dessert for a community group pot luck. Wanting to make the best out of the last little while that I had Martha Stewarts’ baking book I decided to make a peach-blackberry galette. It looked a bit fancy, but I decided to give it a try anyways. I followed the recipe very carefully and when I had gotten pastry dough put together and the fruit prepared and made the pastry it looked perfect! It was exactly like the picture! I was so excited that I danced around the kitchen and called David on the phone to exclaim to him how beautiful it was.

    The creation of that which is beautiful is one of the things that I really enjoy about baking. When I am done I have something delightful and my house smells like a home. But what it made me think about yesterday afternoon while on the phone to my husband was the passages in Genesis 1 where God proclaims what He made to be good. I thought about the great amount of delight I take in making ingredients come together into something to eat and enjoy and how much greater God’s joy and delight must have been in creating the universe out of nothing and then calling it good. I don’t suppose I think much about being a creation of God and the delight that the creator has in a creation; but God must delight in us so much more that I delight in a pastry. It’s crazy to think about the God of the universe caring that much about us. Did he dance around heaven when He created man and exclaim to the angels- isn’t it beautiful?

The highlights of this week include getting locked in a bathroom stall at the gym and shrinking (accidently) one of my favorite shirts. All kinds of things to bring me down so I am sure glad that I started my week by baking. On Tuesday my good friend Brenda came over and we made chocolate covered gingerbread cakes from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. I checked this book out at the library during my two weeks of bronchitis in which I was not allowed to work and went on a baking frenzy. Other items that I baked included: whole wheat, oat and apricot scones and chocolate shortbread fingers. All delicious. But the recipe that Brenda and I made on Tuesday really takes the cake ;) It looked very fancy, but I couldn’t quite get my camera to focus well. Here is a pic of Brenda and Eden with the finished product:

After laboring all morning we ate one, of course. Here is what Eden thought about it: