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Week 25: Swedish Midsummer - Neapolitan

This week is Swedish Midsummer.  After doing research the key thing to a Swedish Midsummer party (or any dessert this time of year) is strawberries.  I did not want to do a cake, with fresh strawberries.  Cakes are just not my thing.  I won't be having one at my birthday party, because I would rather make other desserts. Back to this week.   I was going to make pound cake, then slice it and layer it with whipped cream and strawberries.  Peter asked for blueberry muffins in the morning.  So I made blueberry muffins. Well now I had a layer for my Neapolitan.  We did not need to have a pound cake in the house.  I had eaten most of the cookies from last week.  Now I just need another layer, that did not require me to go to the store.  I decided on making a cream cheese frosting. Here is my Blueberry Muffins, Strawberries, Cream Cheese Frosting Neapolitan:  The test run with no filling. Half way built. Can...
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Week 26: Eid al-Fitr - Manalsama (walnut-filled pastries)

       It took me a while to find what I wanted to make.  I ended up renting a book from the library.  It is  The Complete Middle East Cook Book by Tess Mallos.  I ended up making a cookie.  The main recipe is a date filled cookie, there is an alternative that is walnut filled.  That is what I decided to make. It is basic batter similar to a pie crust.  There is no sugar in it.  The walnut filling is where most of the sugar is.  The recipe says to knead the walnuts and sugar (all the ingredients) into a paste.  I do not know how that is supposed to make a paste.  Some of my walnuts were old (and I assume less oily).  I added more oil halfway through stuffing the cookie but it did not help.  I have no idea how to make that into a paste.  It was very hard to fill the cookies, the walnuts kept crumbling out.  I have so much left over walnut and sugar. I am currently eating it with a ...
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Week 24: Carmel - Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread.  Balls of dough stuck together with sugar.   I want to find a way to write around the picture.  I will figure it one day, maybe, if I care enough.  This will be a picture blog. I made my own bread (of course can't buy stuff on a baking challenge)  It rose!! (is that the rigth rose?) I had to put it in the refrigerated because I wasn't ready to use it just yet.  The reason the photo looks like it does is because there is flour on the lense.   Balls of dough in bunt pan.  "Look at my hand there is sugar and cinnamon on it."  "  It is yummy" It rose!  There is a plum dessert in there also. It fell apart. It was good. Really good. I will make it for you sometime.
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Week 23: The Philippines

Well, I went for the bread.  As much as the Champorao (Filipino Chocolate Rice Pudding) sounded interesting and easier.  My mom was coming over and I asked her to bring bread crumbs if she had them I would make the bread if she didn't or was already on her way I would not. As usual, the recipe seems simple, but it never is with bread.  I watched a few youtube videos of people making Pandesal.  I was trying to figure out what the texture should be.  I am glad a did.  The dough was too wet so I added more flour.  It worked out well.  The dough wasn't too sticky and the finished product is not too dense.  It turned out well. I weighed out the flour wich worked well with Kenny.  He could put in as much flour as he wanted.  Then he went potty and I finished it for the most part.  My mom and Linda came over and entertained the kids while I finished up.  Went to lunch while the bread rose. Now for the pictures! ...
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Week 22: Brunch - Blueberry Muffins

When you run out of baking powder the muffins tend to be dense.  This was a torture to make.  I decided to distract Kenny for crying for no real reason by making muffins.  I don't know why I thought that was a good idea.  Kenny wanted to scoop out the flour the amount he thought was good.  He was really upset when I remeasured his sugar (he scooped the same way).  He got even more upset when I put in the salt, he wanted to pinch a bunch of salt to put in the mix.  I said no.  The worst thing I did was dish out the batter into the muffin tray.  Through out most of this Piper was crawling around the kitchen.  She was at my feet, touching the oven, getting her fingers crushed in a drawer, and more.  At this point she started crying.  Kenny was crying because I had fill the muffin cups that he wanted to fill.  Kenny and I sort of worked it. After I yelled stop crying everyone, I picked up Piper, finished dishing the muffin, an...
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Week 21: Royal Icing - Sugar Cookies

These were made for ANdrea's baby shower.  They are Alton Brown's sugar cookies.  I had to buy meringue powder because I didn't want to use raw eggs.  It is way harder then I thought to make royal icing.   And I only did an ok job at making it.  It was too thick. They stopped looking like feet after being iced.  So I stopped icing them.  It tasted good.
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Poland: Week 20 - Kolaczki

Ok well, these are the Polish Kolaczki.  They are made of butter, cream cheese, and flour.  I cut the recipe in half because I did not need 5 dozen.  The dough didn't taste good.  Probably because of the lack of sugar.  The dough tasted better when I rolled it out in sugar.  This is something I have learned in the last year and it does make cookies taste sweeter than when rolled out in flour. Why writing this is easier than writing a blog.  Basically, I am just writing it for you.  So I don't care about spelling or grammar as much.  It is also an easy way for me to keep track of what I have done.  Anyways on the to the food. This is not how they are supposed to look.  They said to roll it out 1/4".  I did an egg wash instead of an egg white wash.  Maybe that was the problem. I don't know.  Also underdone. Second batch. Some stayed closed so that is good.  They also look more done. ...
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