Making Whoopie

It’s that time of year again… birthday season! My husband Stephan and I have a very unusual coincidence when it comes to our birthdays. His is today (Christmas Eve) and mine is tomorrow (Christmas Day.) What are the odds? It is honestly not fun to have your birthday on or close to Christmas. You get combo presents… you get birthday presents wrapped in paper with Santas on it. Lastly, your birthday is overshadowed by someone else’s birthday. :P However, I do like that we get to celebrate together. This year I bought Stephan a really big expensive present and made it a……. combo. Yes, it is a faux pas, but Bose makes really expensive man toys! Sorry honey! Actually, we both received the best present ever this year, a wedding we photographed this summer was just published in InStyle Weddings!!!

Instead of making a traditional cake, I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Filling. Our photography studio has been very busy this month with last minute photo shoots and holiday cards and there just wasn’t the time to make a real birthday cake. It’s OK, though. Stephan really doesn’t like traditional birthday cake. I only made them in the past because it seemed like the right thing to do. So this year, I not only combined his birthday and Christmas present, but I combined his birthday cake and a Christmas cookie. Yeah, I know… not cool. I’m definitely not winning the wife of the year award! Thankfully, the whoopie pies are really yummy and made up for the lack of birthday-ness!
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December 24, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

5 Critiques

Your Daily Bread

I’ve noticed every time we return home from our annual visit to Germany, my husband is a little depressed. At first, I thought it was that he missed his family… then I thought it was the weather… Finally, I realized it was the bread. Of course, he does miss his family and he hates the heat in South Florida, but the bread is what causes his sadness upon each return. The bread in Germany is amazing. His parents go out each morning to a local bakery and bring home a few brochen (small bread rolls) for us to eat for breakfast. You could say this spoils us… especially when we get home and the bread is awful here. The only way to get really good bread here is to find a great European bakery close to where you live or make it yourself. I’ve given up on finding a great European Bakery. They don’t seem to exist in South Florida… :(

So to keep a happy hubby, I set out to make bread more often. I have tons of bread baking cookbooks, but most recipes call for a two or sometimes three day process. Well, that is a little difficult with my busy life. I came across this book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. Fabulous bread that takes you only 5 minutes to prepare? Rrrrrright. I thought it was a hoax… how can bread that is not kneaded be any good?!?!? Well… here’s the thing, IT IS GOOD! AND it really only takes 5 minutes of active time to bake fresh bread. I’m a believer, and we’ve been eating fresh bread more often (than we should! lol) I highly suggest everyone who likes bread to go out and buy this book… its totally worth it!

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November 4, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery

10 Critiques

Oatmeal, Cranberry and Raisin Cookie

Now that my vacations are 0ver, I’m putting my time back into the good old blog. I’ve missed the whole blogging experience in the past 6 months or so. Not only have I been slacking on my own blog, but I’ve also slacked when it comes to visiting my favorite blogs. I feel like I’ve been on a deserted island without the blogosphere. I’m definitely ready to remedy that! I’m now officially free from my day job and am working with my husband Stephan in our photography studio, Maloman Photographers. If anyone locally needs some amazing images, definitely check us out!

When I first started blogging back in 2007, I had the plan to make easy food that tasted good. This cookie recipe is just that. Simple. Quick. Tasty. What’s not to like?

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October 6, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Sweet Tooth

10 Critiques

Looks can be deceiving

Hello from Deutschland!!! We’re currently in Frankfurt, Germany visiting Stephan’s family. The temperatures have been up in the high 90’s for weeks in South Florida, so this is perfect timing to leave for a few weeks! I haven’t been cooking since I got here as my mother in law is a fantastic cook, but this is a little something I made before I left for vacation. We’ll be off to Prague, Vienna and Munich next week and I plan on blogging the good eats we find along the way!

So… on to the tasty treat. Although this looks like a sweet treat, it is not. This cookie has one of my favorite savory ingredients… caramelized onion. There’s something magical that happens when you cook boring old onions in a little bit of butter. It turns into a sweet and caramel colored delicacy. You do have to be patient… very patient when caramelizing onion, though. Expect to spend the better part of an hour if you want perfectly caramelized onions. If you try to rush it, you’ll end up with a bitter tasting end result. Believe me… been there, done that!
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September 5, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery

17 Critiques

Use it or lose it or

I’m sure I’m not the only one who buys fruit and then forgets to eat it. We’ve been on this big fruit kick and actually starting buying fruit from Costco. Surprisingly, the quality there is better than the grocery store close to my house. The drawback is a dozen apricots are hard to eat before they go soft. I had about 10 apricots that were on the cusp of going bad and decided I’d make a quick dessert to use them up. This yummy cherry and apricot crisp takes about 5 minutes to prepare and another 20 to bake. Even better… its pretty healthy! My type of dessert!

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August 7, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Sweet Tooth

14 Critiques

I Pita the Fool

I’ll admit it, I’m a fan of Mr. T. I used to watch the A-Team as a kid… anyone else? Hmmm… I think I just showed my age. For a short time used I even used the “Mr. T” voice on my GPS. However, I got tired of him calling me a fool if I missed a turn. Its all fun and games until you really start to feel like one! lol!

Anyway, I had some free time last week and decided I was in the mood the bake. After thumbing through my cookbooks, came across this recipe for pita bread. Since I had all of the ingredients on hand, pita it was! This was my first time making it, and I even impressed myself. Who know pitas were so easy to make and yet SO complicated looking! It really is fascinating how you can put a thin, flat piece of dough on a hot surface and it will balloon and turn into a beautiful pita. The best part is the dough is good in the fridge for up to a week. This means you can have fresh pita at your whimsy… Now THAT is good stuff, my friends!

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June 11, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Vegetarian

17 Critiques

How ’bout them apples?

So it is time for the Daring Bakers to reveal the tasty treat for the month. I almost didn’t do it this month as we photographed 7 weddings, and one of them was my big brother’s. Here are some pics of my bro’s wedding that my fabulous photographer husband took for anyone out there interested! I now owe hubby a weekly batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies for the next few months. He’s quite the bargainer!

Luckily, I had a few free hours and a well stocked pantry to make the challenge. I just happened to have all of the ingredients required to make this apple strudel. Oh other than fresh breadcrumbs… I used panko and don’t think that was the right choice. Still turned out tasty, however. I also used almonds, as I always have them on hand. The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

As usual with all of my Daring Bakers challenges, I don’t include the recipe. They are just too darn long and I am too OCD to just copy and paste it into my blog. It wouldn’t look like the rest of my recipes, and that is sadly upsetting to someone anal retentive like yours truly. You can find the full recipe at one of the host’s blogs above. You can also see all of my past Daring Baker Posts here. I served it with Creme Anglaise (Vanilla Sauce.)
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May 27, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Daring Bakers, Sweet Tooth

21 Critiques

Mawwiage is what bwings us towgethew

That is a Princess Bride quote for those who think my spell check is not working…

It’s been too long since my last post… I’ve been busy as usual. My brother and his longtime love got married this past weekend at a fabulous little boutique hotel, The Water Street Hotel in Apalachicola, FL. I spent almost a week up in Tallahassee with the family before the wedding, a nice relaxing vacation for me. It was a real treat for me to be a guest at a wedding and not photographing it like we do every weekend. I did make their cake, which I will share photos of soon, and Stephan did the photography. I haven’t seen the wedding pictures yet, as Stephan keeps them under wraps until he’s ready to unveil. Unfortunately, I fear that he got a picture of me doing “the ugly cry” when my bro and mom were dancing. Gosh darn it!

These cookies really have nothing to do with the post… I made them a few weeks ago and have yet to blog them. I purchased a big ass bag of almonds at Costco and will be including almonds in everything I cook for the next few months. I love almonds, so that will be just fine for me! These cookies are very similar to the snowball cookies, but I think have a better flavor since they contain almonds instead of pecans. They are very easy and quick to prepare… my kind of cookie!

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May 16, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Sweet Tooth

8 Critiques

Bulls Eye!

The daring baker challenge this month was cheesecake. We were given total creative freedom in this challenge, which I love! The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I ended up using a slightly different recipe, as I prefer to add sour cream instead of heavy cream to my cheesecake. Also, I wanted to make the bulls eye design that results from two different colored batters. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic before I cut into it… duh! But it still looks really cool with the layers. Lastly, I always bake my cheesecake at a low temperature (325 degrees) in a waterbath. I detest overcooked cheesecake!

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April 27, 2009 | Filed Under Bakery, Daring Bakers, Sweet Tooth

43 Critiques

Blondies Have More Fun

Its been a long time since I’ve made blondies. Years and years. I don’t understand why, though. They are SO easy and so tasty. Even more, my hubby loves the simplicity of them. Believe it or not, he doesn’t like the fancy cookies I make, and begs me to make “regular” cookies. So I’ve vowed to make more blondies in the future. The original recipe called for macadamia nuts, but my grocery store only carried salted macadamia nuts. Way too salty for a cookie, even when rinsed. Been there, done that. I found unsalted cashews and am so happy I did. They were a great flavor in the cookie… just as good as macadamia nuts. So you can use either one in the recipe.

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