Helpful Tips for Baking

1. Fill a large hole or sugar shaker with flour and use that when needing to dust surfaces with flour or just pour out a tablespoon as you need it, this is handy way to keep a bit of flour on hand instead of digging in the flour bin.

2. Roll pastry on waxed paper. Before placing paper on work surface, wipe surface with a damp cloth to prevent slipping. Flour paper lightly, and with forefinger draw a circle an inch and a half larger than the pan you intend to use. You’ve seen pastry cloths with guidelines…and they really do help. When pastry has been rolled out, pick up paper pastry and all. Fit into pan, paper side up and then pull paper away from crust. Prevents tearing or stretching twist paper and pan. Another nice tip: You can also roll pastry between two sheets of waxed paper.

3. Keep brown sugar in a closed container with an apple in it, the brown sugar will stay soft and moist.

4. After crimping the edge of the pie crust, lift the edge of the crust gently all around with your fingers. This keeps the dough from sticking to the dish while baking and makes it easier to take out the pieces of pie.

5. Cookie & Cake Decoration: Keep a small amount of sugar in small glass jars, add a few drops of food coloring and shake jar. Keep several colors on hand. You can also use this technique on shredded coconut.

For more great tips check out 45 Cooking & Baking Tips Pin It

International Chocolate Day

And what best way of celebrating this day then with loads of chocolate..mmm. Below is a recipe for Chocolate-Oatmeal Chewies from CDKitchen.com where you can find even more delicious chocolate delights.

Chocolate-Oatmeal Chewies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter or regular margarine, softened
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
2 2/3 cups quick cooking or old fashioned oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 F. Beat sugar, butter, milk, and the egg in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix well using a wooden spoon. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in the center.

Cool for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove from cookie sheet and transfer to wire racks.

This recipe from CDKitchen for Chocolate-Oatmeal Chewies serves/makes 42

Pin It

Honey Bun Cake Pictures

So tonight I had the chance to make the Honey Bun Cake that I posted the recipe for earlier. I think it turned out pretty good. It did have that flavor of honey bun a bit when you eat the part with the frosting on it. Below are a couple of pics. I used a bundt pan to bake the cake in, so because of that, it took about 65 to 70 minutes to bake in the oven.

Click here for the recipe.

Pin It

I've Received An Award

I received a prestigious award today for this blog. A reader gave me the "Brilliant Weblog" award because she thinks my blog is great! Shawn is the author of the blog, Health To Home.

Now that I've received this award for my super, awesome, out-of-this-world blog, I have to pass the award along to some other blogs that I find worthy and are great reads. And to those that I have chosen, you can pass this along to the ones you think deserves this award.

Secret Thoughts and More
Heavenly Dessert Recipes
World of Mom
Picky Tiffany
Life-of-Lele.lumz Pin It