TWD: Baking with Julia - Lemon Loaf Cake

Man have I been slacking! I have missed my last two baking post that I am supposed to do for my Tuesdays with Dorie. I did bake one of the recipes WEEKS before I was due to blog about it and then was a complete airhead and didn't remember to post the picture and what I thought about the recipe! SO...even though its really late I thought what the heck I will blog about it anyway!

This Lemon Loaf cake is similar to a pound cake and can be completely made without any fancy stand mixers or any other kitchen gadget. Just you a whisk and a bowl! The cake was moist and delicious. Some other bloggers reported that they hardly tasted the lemon but I didn't think that at all. I think if I were to add more zest it would have been a little overpowering but that's just me. :)

A few other people added a nice glaze to the top of their loaves and I wish I would have thought of that because it looked AMAZING! Oh well...maybe next time!

The two hosts of this recipe are Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life. They both have the recipe posted on there blogs for you to check out as well. OR page 252 in the cookbook Baking with Julia! Enjoy!! :) 

TWD: Baking With Julia - Rugelach

So I am back with another Tuesdays With Dori recipe. This week it is Rugelach, before having to make this recipe I didn't even know what Rugelach was! For those of you who are like me and never even heard of Rugelach let me help you out...it is a Jewish cookie/pastry made with a cream cheese dough and filled with dried fruits and nuts. They are usually made in a crescent roll shape but for this recipe we rolled it jelly roll style and cut them into pin wheels.

The recipe for these cookies to me was a little difficult and takes A LOT of time. Expect to spend 2-3 days with this recipe if you want to make them. For me, the hardest part was rolling out the dough. For some reason I can not get a hang of it and im not quite sure what I am doing wrong! Whenever I have to roll out dough by the time I am done me and the kitchen is covered in flour and I am left with dough that looks very sad! LOL Oh well hopefully by the end of this challenge that will be something I can improve on and not be such a disaster in the kitchen with!! Oh yeah one more thing...I think when I cut the cookies into pin wheels I cut them to big (they were suppose to be cut 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick) because when they were cooking some of them tipped over. So IF I ever make this recipe again I will stick more to 1 inch. :)

I filled my Rugelach with Apricot lekvar (homemade btw!) dried cherries, raisins and assorted nuts. If you want the actually recipe for these cookies head on over to either one of this weeks host and check it out. First is Jessica at My Baking Heart and then we have Margaret over at The Urban Hiker.

The end result for me was a pile of cookies that to me didn't look very good but luckily everyone who tried them thought they were great so I suppose that is a good thing, right??

TWD: Baking With Julia - White Loaves!

Today kicks off the very first week of the new Tuesdays with Dorie blog group that I am apart of. As I said before in my previous post we will be baking recipes from the Baking with Julia cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. Our first recipe was for you guessed it...White Loaves of bread! This weeks challenge was hosted by Laurie and Jules, the creators of Tuesdays with Dorie, and you can find a copy of the recipe here on Jules' blog - Someone's in the Kitchen! Every Tuesday when a recipe is due to be posted there will be a different host with a link to his or her blog to get the recipe OR if you are feeling really adventurous you could buy the book HERE and join in the fun! :)

Now the whole reason why I entered in this blog group in the first place is because I was  am hoping it will make me a better baker. I have tried to make homemade bread once before (it was a Barefoot Contessa recipe for Honey White Bread) and while it wasn't a complete bomb it wasn't fabulous either. Especially the 2nd loaf that I froze!

I have read a few of the other blogs that were posted today on the TWD:BWJ blog to see how everyone else did on their loaves and I have to admit it makes me feel a little intimidated cause most of these people can really bake and where commenting on what a breeze this dough was to put together. I mean I didn't think it was hard but believe me when I tell you I had flour EVERYWHERE by the time those loaves went into the oven! LOL

I was also a little worried about my stand mixer. Its new to me I have only used it a couple of times and one step of the directions said to "beat and knead at medium speed for about ten minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic." Well I read somewhere not to go over speed 2 when kneading and that you only have to knead the dough for like 5 minutes total or else you could burn up your motor. Does anybody know anything about this?? 


All in all I think it was a fairly successful recipe. I think next time I will definitely be trying a few of the suggestions to add a cinnamon swirl to one of the loaves that sounds delicious! Here is a picture of my White Loaves....  

Till next time TWD Fans....Happy Baking! :)

New Challenge!

So a few weeks ago I was perusing the internet for new recipes to try and I stumbled upon a wonderful blog called Amanda's Cookin'. Well in Amanda's "about me" column she was explaining how in 2008 when she started her blog she was still using cake mixes and cooking the same dinners week after week. She now bakes almost everything from scratch and gives the credit to a baking group she is apart of called Tuesdays with Dorie. Well my curiosity of this baking group had me stumble over to their blog to find out what it was all about.

Tuesdays with Dorie is basically a group of bloggers who bake there way through whatever cookbook is chosen and twice a month (always on a Tuesday) they post pictures of the recipe that you were told to make. You must make at least one of the recipes every month to be able to be in the group.

I just so happened to find this website in the nick of time because they are just now starting a new cookbook and were taking names of people who wanted to join. We will be baking recipes from the cookbook Baking with Julia by: Dorie Greenspan based on the PBS series hosted by Julia Child who I absolutely LOVE!

The first recipe will be posted on February 7th and I can't wait! I am going to the grocery store today to buy my ingredients. I am hoping that like Amanda this group will help me to try different recipes and flavors that I might not have tried on my own and help me to become a better baker! I just read the TWD blog this morning and they are up to over 300 bloggers who have signed up to be apart of this challenge! There's gonna be a whole lot of baking going on that's for sure. :)

I believe there is still time that if you wanted to sign up and join the baking group too you can just head over to the TWD link that I posted above!!