Basic Sandwich Bread

When I first decided I wanted to learn how to make bread, I started with a bread machine and a recipe I found online.  I’ve been using the recipe for years now.  For the most part, the basics of the recipe haven’t changed, though I have tweaked it slightly to suit me over the years.  I use only unbleached white flour now as I like how it tastes the best.  I also like the consistency of the bread loaf.  I long ago quit using molasses as I find it makes my dough too gummy.  As well, I’ve graduated from the [...]

Sour Cream Lime Pound Cake

New Year’s Eve means different things to different people.  For some, it’s not New Year’s Eve if it’s not spent in Times Square.  For others, nothing is more horrific than spending December 31st with a huge group of drunken strangers in the bitter cold or in a club/bar.  Count me among the latter; I vastly prefer socializing in smaller, more intimate gatherings, and I’m also A-OK with spending time alone. Which is how I rang in 2011 … with a lime pound cake.  I happened to have a bottle of organic lime juice (yes, a bottle! It’s actually pretty decent- [...]

FBM Cookie Swap 2010

If it’s wrong to love homemade cookies, then slap the handcuffs on because I don’t ever want to be right.  This past weekend, I met with the Feisty Foodie, Hungry, and KC at Ōttō for a cookie exchange.   I don’t know why I didn’t think of this idea myself but am super glad Yvo brought it up.  It’s great to have friends who love to set up events like this! Look at this array of goodies!  My cookie booty is laid out on the holiday napkin Yvo used to wrap her Sea Salt Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies (just to the [...]

How-To: Measure Dry Ingredients

All these months of writing about baking and presenting you with recipes has been lots of fun, but I realized when I wrote about my essential kitchen tools (and Connie the Commenter confirmed my thoughts) that I assume everyone knows how to do the basics, like measure ingredients and read recipes. But not everyone does.  So I vow that every few weeks, I’ll do an instructional post.  Today, I’m starting from scratch. I’ve told countless kitchen-wary people that if they can read, they can cook and bake.  Most of the time, it works out pretty well. But not always.  Here’s [...]

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

It’s been a LONG time since I last made sugar cookies.  I don’t often bake them because they always come out crisp and I prefer softer, chewier cookies.  Maybe I’m instinctively preparing for a life of toothlessness because of all the sweets I bake.  When I saw that the latest Cook’s Illustrated included a recipe for Foolproof Sugar Cookies, I nearly fell over.  You see, this recipe is meant to be mixed by hand.  Super-appealing to those of us who don’t a lot of have counter space and have to lug out the stand mixer for every mixing job.  And [...]

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