Back to the grind

Hey readers! Sorry for not blogging regularly over the past month. Being on my last winter break threw off my schedule, but I am now back into the swing of things and that includes baking! I mentioned briefly before that I was going to visit Carlo's bakery, but like most of my plans this break the snow prohibited me from going. I am however going THIS Friday to pick up a birthday cake that I ordered for my nephew who is turning 1 this week!

As promised I attempted to make the Italian Custard Cream again over break, and guess what? It didn't work. 4 times is not the charm. I looked and compared Buddy's recipe with a bunch of others, and I am convinced that there is an ingredient missing from my book. Maybe I'll get a chance to ask Buddy or someone on Friday, if not a very confused e-mail to them will just have to do. The main reason that I am more than determined to figure out the custard cream is because a bunch of the recipes for this blog call for it as a component, and I can't let the blog down! I made a promise to bake all the recipes, and I very well intend to keep that promise to the best of my ability.

So as I mentioned before I finally got a chance to try a new recipe for the first time in quite some time (major apologies to any loyal readers I might have.) I chose to make Pecan Wedges for the beginning of this new semester. Once again, I've never made anything like these before, but it was a fun experience for me to try. It wasn't Buddy's easiest recipe, and I'm not sold that they turned out the way they were supposed to, but I made something! The directions Buddy gave were easy to follow, but the measurements for the dough didn't make sense with what my product was. Like any great baker, I improvised to make the recipe work for me (instead of me working for it.) I think my favorite part was making the pecan filling, which involved me making caramel. Pretty cool. My biggest complaint is when I was cutting up the pieces they kept on falling apart. It was only after they had been in the fridge for a little while did they maintain their shape and taste.

Overall my taste-testers of the week seemed to enjoy them. The average grade received was around an A-. Some of the comments were:
"Good, except the breaded part tasted a little dry, but pecans were just the right type of crunchy."
"Moist and delicious!"
"Yum! This is like a better pecan pie- all the flavor, but not overly sweet!"

'Nommmm."

After not baking for some time I was a little nervous to get back into the swing of things, but once I dived in it felt great! Besides for the messiness and the fact that I don't love nuts, this was a fun recipe to make. I'm not sure I'll add it my repertoire of baking for the future, but I accomplished something new and that's always good to be proud of.

Keep posted to the blog for a full update of my trip to Carlo's Bake Shop and more recipes to come in the near future! Also don't forget to comment and tell your friends.

xoxo