Not your ordinary biscuit...

Ok, on to the next order or business: biscuits. I love a good biscuit. All that buttery goodness...Mmm... OR, with some gravy for breakfast! That is one of my most favorite breakfast dishes!!! Man I could go for some biscuits and gravy right now, even though it's almost 5 in the evening. ANYWAY, you get the picture. Biscuit=love. Not my all time love or anything, just love. So I was pretty excited to find out that we'd be making biscuits in lab class. And these weren't just any ordinary biscuit. No, no, no, they were super savory biscuits, with olive oil, and chives, and cheese...pure bliss, I tell you. So, to start, here's what they look like:

Yes, you can just see that chives and cheesy goodness! And the recipe is pretty simple, which is definitely a plus. You just combine the dry ingredients, combine the liquid ingredients, and mix together, just like the muffins. Okay, here's the recipe. You should DEFINITELY try it!

Savory Drop Biscuits

All purpose flour 4 1/2 oz.
Baking powder 1 tsp.
Baking soda 1/4 tsp.
Salt 1/2 tsp.
Smoked paprika 1/4 tsp. (You can do regular paprika also, but the smoked is REALLY good)
Fresh chives, minced 2 Tbl.
Swiss cheese, grated 1 1/2 oz. (The recipe actually calls for cheddar, but we used Swiss- you can use whichever you prefer)

Buttermilk 3 1/2 oz.
Olive oil 1 oz.

Really simple, mix together the dry ingredients, then mix together the liquid ingredients. Then combine the liquid into the dry until completely combined- the dough will be soft. Scoop your biscuits onto a parchment lined sheet pan (or half-sheet pan). Bake at 450 degrees for approximately 12 minutes until golden and firm to the touch.

Totally easy, right? Yeah, I thought so too. I think these would be awesome with like a barbecued steak. I hope you like these as much as I did. Enjoy!

Coffee Cakes Galore

So, I realized I had a bit of a late start, since I waited to get my background up to start some posting, so I have some catching up to do. I'll be doing new posts quite frequently until I can get caught up to the now. So now, where were we? Ah yes, the second lesson in my baking class was coffee cake. Mmm...probably THE best breakfast baked good EVER. All that brown sugar, all that streusel, all that BUTTER. To top it off, we added sour cream to our recipe, making the coffee cake more moist and flavorful and THAT much better. In fact, it was so good, when my mom tried it she asked me to make it again for breakfast that Friday (actually, she asked me to start making breakfast EVERY Friday to get some practice, to which I happily agreed). I admit, the picture does the coffee cake no justice at all (my group had to use a camera phone pic since none of us was equipped with an actual camera), but you get the idea.

Well, guess it doesn't look that bad...but it doesn't look as good as it looks when you cut into it. I'll have to make it again soon and show you a better picture.

Here's the recipe: Again, in weight measurement, which I know isn't ideal for some people, but if you have a scale, I suggest you give it a try! Also, a side note: the recipe says to use room temperature eggs. When doing this, don't leave your eggs out for a while to make them room temp...they may go wrong. If you put them in a bowl and run hot water over them and let them sit in the hot water for one minute, you'll have your room temp eggs!

Butter, room temp. 8 oz.
Sugar 4 oz.
Brown Sugar 4 oz.

Eggs, room temp. 5 oz.
Vanilla extract 1 tsp.

Pastry flour 10 1/2 oz. (Again, I used all purpose and it worked just fine)
Baking soda 1 tsp.
Baking powder 1 tsp.

Sour cream 8 1/2 oz.

So first you dump your butter, sugar, and brown sugar in your mixer (use the paddle attachment if you have it), and cream together until light and fluffy. Then you add the eggs in stages. Add one-half your eggs, then mix to incorporate it into your sugar mixture, then add the rest and mix again. Add your vanilla. Then sift together your dry ingredients (your flour, baking soda, and baking powder). Now all you have left are your dry ingredients and your sour cream. What you do next is add them, alternating between dry and liquid. So you add half of your dry ingredients to the mixer until it's well blended. Then you'll add your sour cream and mix until THAT'S blended. Then you add the rest of your dry ingredients. Only mix until it's all evenly incorporated. We don't want to over mix it.

Aaaaand, here are the recipes for the cinnamon streusel that goes in the middle and the streusel crumb topping:

Cinnamon Streusel

All purpose flour 2 oz.
Brown sugar 4 oz.
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp.
Butter, melted 3 oz.

Combine the dry ingredients. Stir in the melted butter until crumbly.

Streusel Crumb Topping

All purpose flour 4 oz.
Brown Sugar 3 1/2 oz.
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp.
Salt 1/8 tsp.
Butter, firm 3 oz.

Combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until crumbly.

Now all that's left to do is pour half of your butter in a greased and floured pan, add the streusel, pour the other half of the batter, and sprinkle your crumb topping on top! Bake it in your conventional oven for approximately 35-45 minutes at 375 degrees, and BAM, you have scrumptious sour cream streusel coffee cake!

That wasn't so hard...this blogging business, on the other hand...I need to get a move on, yeah?

Muffins, anyone?

I have to say, muffins are probably one of the best breakfast foods out there. No joke, the muffins can take on those english muffins any day of the week. That's why I was pretty excited to learn that not only would we be having an actual lab the very first day of my baking class, but we'd be making blueberry muffins!! That's SUCH a good first lab...something nice and familiar in a big intimidating baking class...and your very first hands-on cooking class. If it was something like pate-a-choux (there will be a later post on that, don't worry), I'd probably run out of the room crying...you can't throw weird French terms at me on the first day!


So I came home and told my mom all about the muffins. I didn't have any for her to try...One, because she doesn't even LIKE blueberry muffins, and two...because I ate both of mine... What? Don't look at me like that, I was HUNGRY. But I did promise my mom I'd make muffins of the same recipe, only with chocolate chips instead of blueberries.

So here they are...or at least one of them is:

Ta Da!! I know, it looks delish, right? And the creative stylings with the props was done especially by my mom (she's pretty crafty...and artistic. As you can see in her photography). No, I did not use that exact chocolate in the muffins...but that was the only chocolate we had, seeing as I used the rest of our chocolate chips for these babies. Would you like the recipe?

Here it is:

Now, please note that the recipe calls for pastry flour, but all purpose flour works just as well. That's what I used in these specific muffins. Also note that the recipe has weight measurements, as my instructor Judy tells us that this is the most accurate way of measuring. Please feel free to let me know if you'd like me to convert it to cups for you.

Pastry flour 8 1/2 oz.
Baking powder 2 tsp.
Salt 3/4 tsp.
Sugar 6 oz.

Vegetable Oil 2 oz.
Melted Butter 1 1/2 oz.
Eggs 3 oz.
Milk 5 oz.

Now, this recipe says to use 4 oz. of blueberries, and I guess if you wanted you could use 4 oz. of chocolate chips...but I just put as many as I want! There's no such thing as too much chocolate, right? Right!

Now, Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Whisk together oil and melted butter, then whisk into the eggs and milk.
Using a rubber spatula, fold together the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Add the chocolate chips (or blueberries if you'd like) when the batter is mixed halfway. Only mix a few times, just so the liquid is incorporated into the dry- batter should be rough and lumpy.

And finally, bake at 400 degrees for approximately 18-28 minutes, depending on the size of the muffins.

And, voila! You have muffin yummy goodness! Man, it's almost midnight and I'm ALREADY ready for breakfast!

Lets get this party started!!

As you can see (or maybe you can't...we've been having a few "technical difficulties"), my new background is UP!! And, if I do say so myself, it looks awesome! Way to go, Broc for making an awesome background! WOOO! Now all I need is my banner/header! *hint hint*

Now the festivities can BEGIN!

New Beginnings

And I say "New" beginnings because I've attempted this whole blog thing before. It was for cake decorating specifically and I thought it was time to start over since I'm broadening my horizons. I have quite a few pictures to share with you guys so far, but I'm waiting until I can get my background and stuff set up. My boyfriend Broc is a photoshop PRO, no joke, and is going to help me create my own blog stuff! So, until then, you'll just have to deal with my picture less rambling (I love to talk, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch), and use your imagination to picture the yummy goodness I've created so far. Sit tight, folks. As soon as I get my background, there will be pics!!

Heh heh...I think I'm liking this blogging thing already. =)