Battling My Sweet-Yeasted-Dough Demons: Paul Hollywood's Brioche

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For some reason, every time I decide to make something sweet that's yeast-based, whether it's challah or gooey butter cake, the elements contrive to work against me and the thing turns out to be a huge flop.  I end up nervously hovering over my dough, waiting for it to double while I curse the rain and wish I had ever seen what doubled dough should look like so I could be sure I'd recognize it when it happened.  And usually I give up and bung it in the oven after waiting an hour past the recommended time, and usually that ends up being a mistake and I can only guess that my dough was under-proved... I don't have this problem with savory breads (but maybe it's just that it's less noticeable when they're a bit under-proved, and they're just a bit denser which isn't such a big deal in my book), but the sweet doughs always seem to elude me.

So I'm not sure why, when Bloomsbury asked me to test a recipe from Paul Hollywood's new book, How to Bake, I chose brioche.  It's everything I'm crap at: a sweet dough, with more ingredients than your average bread, and a recipe that requires planning, patience, and 2 days to babysit your kitchen.  And yet, somehow, once I saw the photo of that fluffy, gorgeous, golden crown of deliciousness, I just couldn't get it out of my head.

Making a great thing even better: Momofuku-esque Chocolate Cherry Cookies

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There are times when you think a recipe just can't get any better.  It's gone beyond 'tried and true' to be a real favorite, not just a go-to but something people talk about for days after the product of said recipe is gone.  The ingenious combination of chocolate chips, oats, and dried cherries in a cookie is one of those recipes for me.  People never expect it, and they always rave about it once they've tried it.

But then.  I tried something new with it.  I know, blasphemy, but I was curious!  For months, I've been watching other bloggers try the Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie recipe, and I keep wanting to try it but we never have the required snack foods lying around (mostly because on the rare occasions that we do, I eat them all before I can think of doing anything else with them).  But last week, I really wanted to bake something special for my porter – who'd saved me in a really horrible, ambulance-requiring moment – and I decided on my awesome cherry chocolate cookies, with a Momofuku twist.

For Broseph: Snickerdoodle Blondies

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When my brother read last week's post on savory things, he was less than thrilled.  Even though he loves ceviche, it seems he reads this blog for the sugar and butter, not the olive oil and salt (mmmmmmm salt).  So, for my brother, because I love him (yes, I said it, don't blush, now!) and because he makes me laugh more than anyone else I know: snickerdoodle blondies.

It's no secret that Snickerdoodles have always been a favorite of mine.  They're sweet without being too rich, spiced without being too spicy, and just the right combo of soft and chewy.  Not to mention how easy they are.  But you know what's even easier?  Blondies.

Signs of summer: Strawberry Shortcake

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Is there anything that better represents summer (to Americans) than strawberry shortcake?  Now, I wasn't one of those lucky girls who had treats and sweets all summer long, but strawberry shortcake was one of the few sweet things my mom could get on board with.  My dad loved it, and we used to 'make' it for him for breakfast in bed on fathers day, with storebought shortcakes, canned whipped cream, and fresh berries.  I'm pretty sure it knocked our sloppy pancakes out of the park.

How much more could I POSSIBLY love bread?!

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Tons more, as it turns out.  Who knew that making bread myself would make it taste that much sweeter?  Or, saltier, if we're talking about my sea-salt-crusted preference.  Anyway, I'm sure it has less to do with the hard work than with the delectable smell of baking bread, which makes my stomach growl and my boyfriend harass until the loaf comes out of the oven and we inevitably ignore the instruction to let it cool completely before slicing.  Whether we're missing out on something by slicing too early, I'll never know, because I doubt we'll ever be able to wait to break open a loaf like this:

Never let it be said I'm not a woman of her word: handmade wholemeal bread.

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My beautiful rosemary and sea salt topped loaf.

Well, I did it.  Last Sunday (as in, a week ago yesterday– yes, I know.  Sorry), with no big plans looming and the weather forecast to be a swath of grey with intermittent nubbins of snow, I rolled up my pj sleeves and got to work.  And, as promised, at no point did the beautiful KitchenAid mixer come into play; this was strictly a forearms and wrists kind of operation.

Be careful what you wish for, or: how I managed to make a dish-/time-saving instrument take forever and use a million dishes.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (that was a choir of angels, FYI)

Yes, folks, I'm afraid I must stop whining (or cut back, at least), because today my lovely and CRAZY boyfriend bought me a kitchenaid mixer!!!  

Today, we went to Divertimenti, one of our fave kitchen stores, so that I could finally use my gift certificate that the bf bought me a year ago.  I had my heart set on a tube pan, so I could make angel food cake (because I had conveniently forgotten that I needed an electric mixer to whip the egg whites, or maybe I was just planning on buying a crappy hand mixer... yeah I think that was the plan), and I found something called a Kugelhopf, which looked good enough and was surprisingly inexpensive.  That left me with some money on my card, so I also picked up a super awesome french press travel mug to help get me through the long nights of class.

And I was all set, as far as I was concerned.  And then the bf dropped the bomb: despite our agreement that we would NOT buy each other gifts for V-day (ok, so I broke it first, but I got him a little thing!), he had made up his mind to get me my heart's desire, a Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer. 

Now, two things caused me to punch him in the arm:

In defense of inactivity.

Pin It Sooo.... I know I haven't posted in a really long time.  And I feel bad for that, I do.  Especially when every other blog I follow seems to have like 6 million readers a day and at least one 2010 Bloggie nomination, and I'm so consumed with envy at their success that I'm tempted to be ultra-petty and make a point of not visiting said blogs just to cut their stats down by one.  BUT I'm not quite that much of an asshole.  Slash I'm too obsessed with their amazing blogs to stop.  Slash I fully realize, in the logical, non-green parts of my brain, that their blogs rock and mine are just ok.  There are some reasons for this, some of which are admittedly all my bad, and some of which are not.

First, my bad: I don't write nearly often enough.  I mean, not even once or twice a week.  WHAT IS THAT?  You would never see a Bloggie nominee who posts as sporadically as I do.  So on that note I'm a bad bad blogger.  And I'm sorry.  I'M SORRY.  Really!  Yeesh, you guys are tough.

Now, onto happier complaints, the things that AREN'T my fault: