Stay tuned for....

I thought that I would give you a little taste of what's to come for next weeks post!

Stay tuned for THIN MINT COOKIES!!!!!

Don't they just look so so so yummy! I have to say that I am a sucker for thin mints 

Berry Pie

So my grandma (we call her Oma, which means grandma German) makes dolls, and she has a group of her friends that come over every Tuesday and they do their crafts and such things. She always makes them lunch and dessert. So I have decided that I am going to make her weekly desserts. 

This week?

Berry pies.

So in the beginning there was pie dough (Look at the post Best Pie Dough! for the recipe) Does anybody know why you have to let your pie dough 'rest'? Well let me tell you, since there is a good amount of butter and crisco in the pie dough you don't want it to get 'soft'. You need to put the dough in the refrigerator so the butter and crisco have time to get cold again. 

I make my pie dough in a food processor. It cuts down the time and the mess. It takes all of five minutes to make.

 After it is all mixed you take the dough, dump it on some plastic wrap form it into a ball and pop it into the refrigerator. 

(this is my wrapped up dough)

After about 4 hours of being in the refrigerator I took out the dough and squished it into a disk (while still in the plastic wrap). Once it is in a disk or the size of a dinner plate you are good to go to un-wrap it. Make sure you have a floured surface so the dough doesn't stick to it. 

In my multiple attempts at making pie dough I have learned a few tricks. One DON'T HOLD THE DOUGH!!! It warms up the butter and crisco thus making it soft again. And the second trick, if you have to handle the dough hold a bag of ice for about 10 seconds to make your hands very cold (it basically helps keep the heat away). 

Next up, roll out the dough. This isn't that hard. Flour your surface, flour your rolling pin and get to rolling out your pie dough. 

All I recommend is roll it out thin, not super thin lets say about an 1/8 of an inch. 

This is my rolled out dough

Now its time to cut out your pie shapes. Or if your just doing a typical 9 inch pie just roll out the dough to be about 10 to 10 1/2 inches in diameter. 

Now for the filling. I took frozen blackberries and blueberries. I put them in a pot and that's how I: 1, defrosted them and 2, reduced them. They cooked down and I got a ton of juice out of them. I then strained the berries and put the them back onto the stove to cook down some more. While those were cooking down I took the juice and thickened it with corn starch (this makes the berries thick, like jelly). 

The berries before they cooked down

The berries after they cooked down and I added the thickener, and a little sugar. 

I filled my individual pies with this and then topped them with a whole blackberry. I baked them for 5 minutes and then took them out and covered the top with an egg wash and added some sugar. 

After the the 5 minutes

This is the finished product

The pie tasted so good. It was a perfect combination between sweet and tart. 

I hope you enjoy! And with the perfect pie crust recipe and my tips you should be able to make some wonderful pies!

I would love to know what you are thinking! Leave your thoughts in the comments box or I'm always open to some questions, so ask away! I guarantee a response within the day!  

Best Pie Crust!

I made a pie a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say that it was the best pie that I have ever made. I didn't have a very good pie crust recipe, so I googled an easy recipe. There were hundreds of  recipes that had tons and tons of ingredients that simply did not have. So I went to food networks website and searched pie crusts, and lo and behold Paula Deen's was the easiest pie crust that I could find. The dough was AMAZING! I chilled it overnight instead of 30 minutes. The dough was really hard so I just held it in my hands for a minute or two and then I started to knead until it got soft enough that I could roll it out. This recipe makes two 9-inch pie crusts (a top and a bottom). I got three 3 1/2 inch pies (so 6 pieces. 3 tops and 3 bottoms). I made a berry pie, I put them in the oven for about 6 minutes then pulled them out and put an egg wash on the top and sides then sprinkled them with sugar. They were in the oven for a total of 10-15 minutes. They came out golden brown and very flaky. In other words they were delicious. 

The one on the top is the bottom and the one of the bottom is the top. The top piece had a vent hole

This is a filled and finished pie. (Before baking)

These are the three pies. Aren't they pretty?

 

I have decided to include the pie crust recipe. 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

• 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar

• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold

• 12 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed

• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions

Have fun making the pie crust! Like I said it is super easy to make.

Paula Deen's Pie Crust

I used a food processor to make the dough. It cuts down the time and its easier to clean (well I think so).  

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide thedough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to 11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Well this is my first blog post. And I have to say that it is quite exciting! I feel like I am taking the traditional time route by putting my first official cake entry in at 11:45 PM - ish. 

Lets get these ovens and mixers turned on in the hopes that they with start my wonderfully exciting and slightly scary journey through the wonderful world known as baking. 

I start my journey with a flourless chocolate cake. This recipe came form the book The Cake Book by: Tish Boyle. I have to say that it was probably one of the easiest cakes that I have ever made. It had about 5 ingredients! 

You tell me, can you think of an easier cake recipe that tastes better than this one??

I don't think that you can. 

I started off with gathering my ingredients, all 5 of them (it was such a tasking job haha). I had six 6-ounce ramekins. I buttered them and then dusted them with sugar (normally you would do the dusting with flour, but since this is a flourless cake you use sugar instead, and plus the sugar gives the outside a nice crunch). 

(Sugared ramekins)

After I sugared the ramekins I cut up 9-ounces of semi-sweet chocolate (that was a task in its self). I put the chocolate in a medium sized bowl and added 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter and put it on top of a simmering pot of water. This created a double boiler. 

(before melting)

Once the chocolate melted I whisked in 1/4 cup sugar and 4 egg yolks, and set it aside. 

I'm not very good at telling when egg whites are foamy or at soft and stiff peaks. But I did good this time. I whipped the egg whites into stiff peaks and the folded them into the chocolate. This formed the cake batter. I put the batter into the ramekins and then put them on a cookie sheet. 

(The batter in the ramekins)

Once they were put on the baking sheet I put them in a pre heated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The tops of the cakes came out cracked (that's how they are supposed to look). I let them cool for about a minute or so and then ran a knife around the sides to loosen them. I took a plate put it on top of the ramekin and turned it over so the ramekin was upside down on top of the plate. Then I slowly took of the ramekin, and dusted the cakes with powdered sugar they were complete. 

(That's what they looked like after they came out of the oven while still in the ramekins)

And now I present to you, the finished product.

This cake was moist, light and airy and most of all super chocolaty. I ate it plain, but I do recommend having it with some french vanilla ice cream.

I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed baking and writing :)

You can find the recipe in the book:

The Cake Book by: Tish Boyle

About Me!

About Me!

My name is Mackenzie. I am a high school student who is an aspiring baker. 

In the past couple of years I have had a lot of health issues. I love to bake and to do things for others. But I have decided I needed to do something for myself. So I thought about all of the different possibilities. Creating a blog I have to say was not on my list, until I saw that my cousin Amanda was writing one. So in being curious I looked at her blog and I loved it. I loved the idea of being able to write down all of your thoughts and document your creations. 

I once saw the movie Julie & Julia. Just like me, she wanted to do something for herself. Her idea? Write a blog about Julia Child’s cookbook. She cooked her way through every recipe and then wrote about it. 

So I decided that is what I am going to do. Being an aspiring baker I picked up two baking books; 

1. Classic Home Desserts

2. The Cake Book

Not only will I just be blogging about those two books, I will show the work that I have already done and some of my other projects.
I hope you enjoy reading, but please hang in there with me because as you might know it takes time and patience to bake and then to write; and I am very new to the whole blogging experience. 

It may take me a couple of tries to get this up and running the way I want it. 

Wish me luck and enjoy reading!

(love this!!)

PS. 

I strongly believe in giving the author all the credit, so in saying that I will not be providing the recipes I use. The only recipes that I will provide are the ones that I find on the internet.
 I encourage you to go out and buy the two books I have listed above if you like what you see.