Monday, November 22, 2010

What else for Thanksgiving week, but pumpkin pie?

I'd like to start this week's blog by wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for this year, including all the support that I've gotten from everyone reading this blog! I'd also like to thank all of my family and friends for supporting me in whatever I do and being there for me. And what a better way to thank people than to bake and let them try everything for free? I hope all my taste testers have enjoyed everything so far and are looking forward for more to come.

If anyone is wondering how my second attempt at the Italian custard cream went... it didn't, and neither did my third. It's frustrating me so much that something that should be so simple is giving me such a headache. I think I'm going to put it on the back-burner and attempt to retry it between my trip to DC and trip to Israel this winter break. I'll just have to find baked goods that don't use the cream to bring with me on those trips.

So since this week is Thanksgiving what better dish is there to make than pumpkin pie? I was originally planning on baking one and bringing it to my family dinner on Thursday, but my mom kept on telling me that no one would really eat it, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from making it at all. I decided to start the Thanksgiving spirit a little early on campus and bake it for today. I brought the pie to my office, the student union, class and let anyone who wanted have a piece.

I guess I should give a little background on my experience with pie. I've never made a pie before, let alone make the crust (which has a strange reputation of being so difficult.) The amount of times that I've eaten pie could probably be counted on one hand, and I don't like pumpkin so this week was presenting a challenge of it's own. The challenge was that I was not familiar with what I was baking and how things should look or taste. Despite not being a pie connoisseur, I found Buddy's recipe to be very user friendly and accessible.  Don't believe what you read and hear about making a pie crust, because I can tell you that after you make one on your own, you're going to wonder why you would ever buy one. I also worked with spices that I've never touched before and this recipe really took my level of baking up one notch. Overall the reviews of the pie were positive. The average grade was an A-/B+ and some of the comments I received were...
"I love pumpkin and it was delicious."
"Perfect balance of spices." "All-spice and clove were a little overpowering."
"Delicious! I like the texture of the crust; it seemed to have a great balance between the moisture and the crispiness."
"Crust=perfection!"

Even though I don't eat pumpkin pie, I think it turned out pretty well!




I've been asking the question, what would Buddy do? a lot when seeing new situations and not having things turn out like I think they're supposed to. This time I had some extra dough when I put the crust in the pan, so I asked myself, what would Buddy do? and I came up with a solution. I don't know if he would approve of my solution, but I did what worked for me, and I think it all turned out right in the end. I'm learning that a lot of baking is about trusting your instincts while also following the rules, which I think is a good lesson in life. Happy thanksgiving everyone!


Any comments, suggestions, requests, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I also changed the restrictions on comment posting so anyone should be able to post now. Sorry for the inconvenience before!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I've managed to complete my first recipe on this journey. As you may be able to guess from the title- I made chocolate chip cookies. If you're my friend on facebook, or follow me on twitter you might be surprised to see cookies here. If you're wondering why people might be surprised it's because I announced over the weekend that my first recipe was going to be cream puffs, but sadly that did not go as planned. Last night I tried to make the Italian Custard Cream used in the cream puffs, but it just did not turn out the way it was supposed to. :( I'm going to keep on trying until I get it right! Even at this moment there is another batch in my fridge, which I hope sets. If you have any tips or would like to try to help me figure it out, that would be awesome!

Now to this week and what actually happened... Since starting this blog a week ago I came up with the idea of providing a grading sheet to everyone that eats the baked good of the week. This way I get feedback for myself, for everyone else and maybe I'll add it to my permanent list of baked goods. So as I mentioned before, this week was all about the chocolate chip cookie (well only after my failed first attempt at the cream puff.) Making these shouldn't have been a big deal, and honestly the recipe was very simple and easy to complete, however making these became a moral dilemma for me.

If you know me pretty well, then you know that my family's specialty is chocolate chip cookies. We have our own secret family recipe, and these cookies are known far and wide. Basically the only way you can get our recipe is if you marry in. Believe it or not, my mom is the creator of the giant chocolate chip cookie cake and used to bake these cookies day in and out. I grew up baking this recipe for as long as I can remember and have never even attempted to try another recipe because why fix something that isn't broken? However, the time has come to try something new, and I must admit- it is delicious.

Carlo's Bake Shop's chocolate chip cookie recipe is very basic and something most people should be able to do. It doesn't take long and the results beat anything that comes from a store-bought package. As soon as I saw the batter coming together, I had a feeling that this recipe was solid. I wanted people to get the full effect of the cookie, so once they were out of the oven and cooled for about 20 minutes I brought a tray over to my student union and gave anyone who wanted a cookie and a grading sheet. Out of 16 people who graded the average was clearly an A! Some of the comments I received were...
"Generous with the chocolate. Nice and crisp around the edges, but still chewy and soft in the middle."
"Excellent texture-- soft in the center, crunchy edges. Good amount of chips-- nice and melty!"
"Yummy. Perfect blend of crunch and softness."

Here's what the final result looked like:



So I guess I can make these again. It's not the same as making the secret family recipe, but it sure is a crowd-pleaser. Now if I can only figure out this Italian Custard Cream... Next week is Thanksgiving, so you might be safe to guess that a pumpkin pie will be appearing in the near future. Even though this week didn't go as originally planned, I still feel confident that I can do this and bake some of the best treats around!

Any comments, feedback, suggestion, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Beginning the adventure

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my first blog! My name is Catherine and I am currently a college senior. As some of you may know, one of my favorite TV shows is "Cake Boss" on TLC.  Just yesterday I got Buddy's book and have already been engrossed in the content. In case you're not familiar, Buddy is the "boss" on "Cake Boss," and character both on the show and in the kitchen. At the end of this book is a recipe section. Another pastime of mine is baking, and am always looking for a new recipe and challenge in the kitchen to add to my repertoire. Thanks to a suggestion from my roommate, Stacie, I have decided to embark on a journey to bake every recipe that Buddy includes in his book.

I will be blogging every step along the way, including challenges and reviews of the recipes based on my own palate as well as anyone else I can convince to try a sample. I don't know how easy this will be, but I'm excited for a new project. My goal is to complete 1 recipe/dish a week until every recipe is completed.

Hope you will come along for this adventure and see if I can truly be my own "cake boss!"