A Late Night with Cherry Stained Hands

Oh Friday. The day before Saturday. Most weeks Fridays really have no meaning to me. Since I was thirteen and working, Saturdays were a required work day...People would say "Oh! It's Friday! Aren't you excited for the weekend?" I'd roll my eyes (I'm good at that) and smile. "Eh. Saturdays don't mean a ton to me. I work in Retail." Having a different day off during the week is GOOD, but not as nice as the ability to sleep in on a Weekend with the rest of the world.
THIS weekend, however, is different. I SOMEHOW managed to have a rare Saturday to myself. No work...no solid plans...I can't remember the last time I've been able to say that. I might just stay in comfy clothes all day...do a little cleaning...walk the Pooch...who knows?
Last night I decided would be my baking night. Both roommates gone until late...whole place to myself sounded so nice. I had found a recipe that I wanted to try earlier in the week...super simple as far as ingredients go...a nice sour cream based pastry...filled with fresh summer fruit. The original recipe had the pastries as individual fruit "handkerchiefs", but I decided to make the dough into one good sized Fruit Crostata. Yum.
On the way home, I stopped at my local Trader Joe's. GOD I love that place. Great new things to try all the time, plus nice, high quality stuff. I had to find a good fruit for the crostata filling. The plums looked amazing...so I got those and a bag of ripe red cherries. Perfection!
Now normally when I bake, as we've seen, I throw on some music to set the mood. Last night however, I needed silence. Lots of spacious room with no sound to keep my focused on my pastry and my own thoughts about life lately. Nothing better than baking out problems.
I started out by cutting the fruit and mixing it with a bit of lemon juice. Nothing better than fresh summer fruit.

I was a little nervous about the dough. The original recipe called for it to be mixed in the food processor. Now I own one. I love it, BUT it really wasn't up to this job. Not the smallest size but not the biggest either. Putting 2 cups of flour and 2 sticks of butter PLUS sour cream and other things would NOT have fit. I would have ended up with flour and butter all over cherry cabinet doors. Perhaps the Dog as well. Haha. Instead...I went the old fashioned way. Hands. Someday when I'm rich and famous I will own a giant food processor AND a dough cutter, but I'm sure still want to cut butter with my fingers. Last night...it was primitive. And I loved every minute.
There is nothing like cutting butter into flour with bare hands. Not going to deny it. Definitely a frustration releaser. A relaxer of sorts.

Before

After

Dough Ball!!

While the dough firmed up in the fridge (very sticky and soft) I relaxed on the couch with the Dog, all while eyeing my growing pile of laundry that I had been ignoring all week. I'll get to it when I get to it. Can't we invent something that does laundry automatically? Jeesh!
Dough came out of the fridge and was rolled out on a VERY well floured parchment. This stuff, even chilled was stickier than any dough I'd seen...massive amounts of flour were used and spread on the floor. Sugar added to the fruit and a little egg wash and more sugar on the dough....GOOD TO BAKE.

Before

After about 25 minutes in the Oven.

I so wanted to cut into this right when it came out of the oven. It was 11pm and my bed was calling, yet I just wanted a little taste. I DID, however wait, and brought it into work today. (The ladies loved it) The crust was very flaky and buttery. Yum yum yum. This is, to me, one of my best projects yet. I might have to start bringing this to family functions. My step-mom LOVES cherries. I know this would be good with whatever other fruit is in season at the time. Its definitely a cool alternative to a regular pie. Maybe someday I'll make the individual "handkerchiefs" like the recipe called for. I like my addition of the cherries.

Recycled Recipes and Ebola. Tasty? You Betcha!

This past week's project was a bit hard to decide upon. Again. Hmmm. Gotta UP the creative thinking. After re-reading my last post I realized that that phrase sounds hauntingly familiar. I had an EXTRA tough week at work, covering for my boss who was away on vacation. We always plan and prepare for the worst, but SOMETHING always happens that we didn't think of. Someone in another state decides to get Ebola and be out indefinitely or an Executive decides that the week everyone is on vacation is the BEST time to do a surprise visit. Greaaaaaaaat. I can't even tell you how many times I felt like burying my head back under my bedsheets at 6am and calling it quits. God Bless my Boss for being on vacation. She really needed some time off. It was just one of those weeks--I know we all have them. Because of my foggy head, I had a hard time coming up with something I had the energy to create....Everything I have stored in my brain to make, came slowly dripping out in a mush pile. One day it was an idea to make an artisian-style bread, with sun-dried tomatoes and kalmata olives. Another fleeting thought was "Ooooh! Profiteroles! With ice-cream!" NOT exactly easy to tote to a store for my co-workers to sample. I had a dream early on in the week that I was supposed to make an apple pie but I kept burning it in the toaster oven. A. I will EVENTUALLY make a pie..(or even minis...those are cuter and more fun...hehe) and B. Why the Heck would I be using my TOASTER oven to bake a pie?? I have a nice giant gas oven! Clearly my brain wasn't functioning.
A few months ago I had gotten a request from someone I work with, to make cinnamon rolls. Up until this point I had never attempted a yeast based dough or even considered that. So...that first time...I cheated. Yep. Out and out used a celebrity chef recipe for Cinnamon rolls that used....*gasp*...frozen dough. I was slightly ashamed. My co-workers seemed to love them, but somehow I knew I could do better.
This past week I decided to try them out, from scratch. I prepped a yummy cream cheese frosting the night before. Super Easy. Super Tasty. I also prepped my dough that night. I was pleased that it rose the way it was supposed to. Smelled SO good. I stuck it in the fridge overnight and pulled it out at around 4 am so it would be nice and room temp for the rolls. Cinnamon, sugar, and butter...then let the rolls proof for another hour before I baked them off. I was a bit sad that both of my roommates were away/already at work that day. The smell that they would have woken up to was incredible. (Sorry Ladies!)

I need to really better my camera skills but these are RIGHT out of the oven.

Love the caramel that melts on the bottom of the rolls.

Perfection.

Right before I left for work I slathered on the cream cheese frosting. Nummers.

Even though I was tired, these little babies turned out pretty well. SO much tastier and moister (is that a word?) than the ones with the frozen dough. (Duh)

This week WILL be markedly different. I've already decided what to make, using inspiration from another blogger that I have found in my travels.

Time to power through another long week. Lets hope no one gets decapitated or stranded on a desert island, so I don't have to finagle the schedule for staff coverage. :)

Neil Young and Muffin Tins

Here we are folks. Blog post number 2!!!!! I had sort of a tough time deciding this week, what to make for my first "official" baking post. There are so many ideas floating in this head of mine, it was hard to pin one down. Bread? (After all that IS in the blog name!) Something complicated, like puff pastry??? Or easy like rugelach? Funnily enough, some of my preliminary readers decided for me. "Chocolate Peanut butter cheesecake?" (Mentioned in the first post) "I want THAT!" Okay okay. I pinned down last night (Thursday) to do my project. This week has been one of the longest in history (all 27ish years) that I can recall. No one was happy with me. Everyone needed something different. Complain and bitch and change and whine. Seriously. By Thursday night I felt like if one more person wanted me to fix something I was going to lose it. Who was a cranky Chicky this week? Yep! This girl.
I came home to a BLISSFULLY empty apartment. Just Me, My Dog, and Baking. BTE. (Best Time EVER...Learn it. I'll use that abbreviation a LOT) Now don't get me wrong...I'm lucky when it comes to roommates. A. We're all Katies...and that's just cool in itself... and B. We all get along so its not a chore living with two other Chickies. Sometimes, however, just coming home and being alone to crank up the music while you work is just what a girl needs after a frustrating week!
I have a sort of routine when baking. I'm pretty organized- All ingredients out on the counter, with measuring spoons, and cups and bowls etc. If I use it, it goes back in its proper place. Cleaning up is just SO much easier that way. I am NOT however, one to follow directions to a tee. Now with baking, most measurements need to be exact. Your Chocolate Chip Cookies will be runny if you use 4 sticks of butter with 2 cups of flour vs 2 sticks. This clearly isn't an issue for me...I pretty much stick to the rules....BUT when it comes to flavorings and additions...I like to play around with that in recipes...but that's a whole other story. Most of the flavors in this dessert came together after careful experimentation. Who doesn't like Peanut butter and chocolate??
Because I like to take my time I am NOT one to set the oven to the right temp right away. ALL that does is cause pressure to hurry the heck up and mix and chop and measure blah blah. PRESSURE! Oh MY GOD the OVEN IS ALREADY AT TEMP! I need to get these in! I'm wasting Gas!!! AAAAK! Nah. I'll set the temp when I'm good and ready.
Making a cheesecake does take quite a few steps...making MINIS...well add a good amount of time to that and that's how long it takes. Haha. Time and concentration was exactly what I needed last night....while making the crust and carefully flattening it into the muffin tins I was listening to Edith Piaf...beautiful haunting French vocals..(If you haven't seen La Vie En Rose I HIGHLY recommend that movie. It's about Piaf's life.) However beautiful and haunting that music is...it became very depressing, very quickly. On to Lady Gaga! Yeah! Mixing cream cheese and eggs! Dancing! (My Dog all the while looking at me as if I'd gone insane) Once the filling was complete (AND I could finally be comfortable pre-heating the oven) I needed a music change. Onto a Norah Jones/Beatles/Neil Young mix. (Odd combo, I know). Sometimes my music needs to be mixed. I ever so carefully measured my filling (cream cheese, p.b. chocolate chips, eggs, vanilla etc) into the cups and popped those babies in the oven. Now with a big, normal sized cheesecake (9 or 10") you cook it for about an hour or so, and until the middle is JUST a bit soft. Small ones take sooo much less time...these are PERFECT at around 15 minutes total. Trust me...I learned this by trial and error. Quite a few times I had to stick em back in the oven over the years. Better a runny mess to cook more, than overdone. Yuck.
By the time I was done and ready to photograph, so much stress had been mixed and baked away. I could see it being smashed up in the sink's garbage disposal with the egg shells....baked into tiny creamy morsels of peanut butter cheesecake goodness. Ahhhh...THIS is what I live for every week. Putting my energy into something that MATTERS to me. Something that ultimately makes people smile.
Now....as I am still unsure of the overall format of this blog, I do not yet know if I will be posting recipes. It really depends on you, who are reading this. Want a recipe??? Leave a comment. :)

Pre Crust and Filling. I love the White on Stainless.

Peanutty, Chocolatey, Crust Goodness

A flat glass (Or in my case a metal shaker) makes that crust flat and picture perfect.

Hmmm...Might be time for a nice, new spatula??

Right out of the oven....Can I eat it NOW?

A meh Picture. But you get the idea. YUM

Pretty little side view. Someone's roommate was waiting PATIENTLY on the side of this shot for a taste!