Just Baking

Luck of the Eater

Hannah Kaminsky — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:00:53 +0000

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, an excitement fills the air. People are preparing their most impressive green outfits, planning meals of “traditional” corned beef and cabbage (bleh), and most importantly, stocking up on the libations. You don’t need much of an excuse to drink around here, but this holiday seems like the perfect reason to get totally smashed, so that seems to be the point of the whole day by the time one reaches college. Of course, I don’t drink and am not even the least bit Irish, so this holiday has typically fallen through the cracks for me. To be perfectly honest, I still don’t know what it’s all about or how one is supposed to celebrate without imbibing great quantities of alcohol, but I’ve decided that I want to pay my respects to the celebration in the only way I know how: By baking!

Setting aside the sugar after having overdosed a bit on marshmallows, it was high time to get something green back into my body. And what could be more appropriate for St. Patrick’s day than green clovers, after all? Smuggling a handful of spinach into the young dough, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not about to fulfill anyone’s daily requirement, but it did add some lovely flavor and just a hint of natural coloring.

Even if this holiday doesn’t hold much significance for me, just pulling those lovely golden buns out of the oven was cause for celebration. Finally, a simple sort of bread that is cooperative, easy, and incredibly tasty, appropriate for more than just special occasions, too. Even my mom was taken aback by how “buttery” they were! For all those who are yeast-phobic, give this one a try - You might just find that your luck will improve. It’s no coincidence that they embody such a fortuitous symbol!

For the recipe, continue on to BitterSweet!

[This article was written for BitterSweet and the Well Fed Network. Please do not use elsewhere without permission from the author.]

Crumbling Under the Pressure

Hannah Kaminsky — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:00:59 +0000

Talk about bad luck; Baking up a storm with less than a day standing between me and the ice cream party in Brooklyn, and disaster strikes. It’s a long story, but let me just tell you that I found myself with a sink full of glass and one less baking dish in my pantry. Flooded with regret and a mild sense of panic, having just broken a dish that had been a part of our family for even longer than I had been, a stunned silence pervaded my mind as I dropped each shard of glass into the trash bin, one by one. What to do, what to do. After a few moments of spinning my wheels unsuccessfully, the truth was became evident: I needed a new baking dish, as there were simply no others big enough to accommodate this crumble. Well, I was soon to find out that this was easier said than done.

Arriving at the local baking supply shop with a sense of urgency and my patient mother in tow, I searched fruitlessly for a matching dish. Employees soon came to my aide, offering up alternatives when the perfect pan didn’t present itself. A roasting pan? No, wrong shape. A jelly roll pan? No too shallow. So we departed with a bit more desperation than before, and ventured to the restaurant supply store. A myriad of fun gadgets and tools presented themselves, and I couldn’t help but poke a bit… But still, no baking dish. Off to investigate at a home supply store… but then, easily distracted as I am, I found myself in a spice shop instead. And then a Whole Foods. And then back at home, with no pan at all but plenty of groceries instead! Curse my wandering mind…

Finally, after going back out a few hours later once the sun had disappeared from the horizon, I secured an acceptable substitute- The only catch was, this model was much bigger than the original, and so the recipe had to be enlarged to follow suit. I must warn you, this makes a huge helping of dessert, and I feared that I would end up taking a good bit of it back with me after the party. Much to my delight and surprise, it was actually the first thing to go, even served cold! So, if you’re hosting a crowd and want an easy dish that will leave a smile on your guests’ faces, this one’s for you.

To get the recipe, continue on to BitterSweet!

Birthday in a Jar

Hannah Kaminsky — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:00:05 +0000

As the resident baker of my friends and family, it suddenly became my job to make the cake any time a holiday or special occasion arises, and that means I make a whole lot of birthday cakes. Multi-layered masterpieces, humble 6-inch rounds, and of course those ubiquitous cupcakes, each request was as fun to fill as it was to deliver and see the recipient’s happy face. In the days of commuting to school by train, this was no problem, as a cake in a box was no hassle to carry for those short 15 minutes in transit. More recently though, it hasn’t been nearly so simple; As more and more friends are “met” though blogging, keeping up with all of the dates is one thing in and of itself, but the issue of giving a treat to someone hundreds of miles away is no picnic either. Sure, cookies travel well, but who’s heard of a birthday cookie? It’s all about the cake and you know it.

As luck would have it, I happened to stumble upon Angry Chicken while blog-hopping a month ago, and this particular post really hit a chord. Although the Christmas gifts were already packed and on their way, this page was quickly bookmarked for future reference, as such a brilliant idea would surely come in handy sooner or later. Turns out this assumption was correct, as there I found myself, poking through my closet in search of a decent jar with a lid (And in my mess of craft supplies and forgotten junk, that’s not as easy as it might sound, by the way.) Washed, cleaned, and full of batter, I tossed that jar into the oven just like any other cupcake, and watched with great delight as the contents rose perfectly to the top.

Luck must have smiled on me here, as I was in one of those rebellious “I don’t wanna measure anything because I’m sick of keeping these meticulous notes all the time!” sort of mood. Fully expecting this thing to start spewing chocolate goo all over the insides of my oven, the results were a wonderful surprise, and I hoped they would also prove delicious! To make sure that it didn’t dry out in transit, a generous splash of Kahlua was in order right before packing it up, and then I could just hope for the best. Thankfully, it sounds like the birthday girl that this was intended for had a wonderful day, and if my cake could play any role in that happiness, then this is definitely a practice worth keeping.

Season’s Eatings

Hannah Kaminsky — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:00:24 +0000

As sorely tempted as I was to bake my heart out in the form of holiday cookies, time simply slipped away while I wasn’t looking, leaving me to watch on in green-eyed envy as everyone else I knew pull tray after tray of golden dough from their ovens. Besides the time commitment involved, I couldn’t for the life of me narrow down the winding list of possible treats to include in a platter. Sugar cookies, thumb prints, biscotti, shortbread, gingersnaps - Seriously people, how do you make a decision here? Still, there were sweet gifts to be made for friends and family, and so a day before the appointed exchange, it seemed inevitable that an untraditional approach would be in the cards. I could only hope that the recipients would still appreciate my offering of…

Cinnamon buns.

Just think about that for a moment: Soft and warm from the oven, cinnamon and sugar rolled into every fold of tender dough, drizzled with an ample amount of maple icing. What’s not to love? A delicious indulgence appropriate for the season, I could think of nothing more comforting than a pan of these delectable buns, fully baked and ready to be devoured after just a hot minute of micro-love.

I must admit though, a certain blog post that happened to pass through my radar was quite an inspiration for this gift, so I can hardly take credit for it. Easily veganized, slapped together with such ease that the most difficult step is waiting for the dough to rise, it was one lucky find. In no time at all, I had seven decorative pans filled to the brim with plump rolls… And I have to say, there weren’t too many protest to be heard when those cinnamon buns were distributed into the hands of loved ones. Truly, the gift that keeps on giving is one that is both a treat for the baker and the partaker!

So in case you’d like to start a new tradition for next year, click on over to BitterSweet for the recipe with all of my changes and substitutions included. I must warn you however- This makes a lot of cinnamon buns, so unless you have a good amount of people on your “nice” list or a house full of hungry guests, you might just end up eating an unreasonable number of those addictive rolls yourself.

[Written for BitterSweet and the Well Fed Network. Please do not use elsewhere without permission.]

Ice, Ice, Baby

Hannah Kaminsky — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:00:50 +0000

Flipping through the pages of innumerable baking catalogs that all feature the same immaculately clean kitchens, state-of-the-art appliances, and flawlessly decorated cookies, even a five-year old could tell you that these images are all fake. Staged, meticulously constructed down to the very last crumb; Those cookies that look so incredible on the page could even plastic, for all we know! So why is it that despite the knowledge of this visible lie, I always work myself up into a frenzy, trying to recreate those impossibly perfect sweets? Because when a theme so powerfully tied to the season and holiday nostalgia keeps popping up, taunting me with my lack of decorating skills, well… If for no other reason, it’s because I want to prove to myself that I can too decorate like the best of them.

Of course, my results fall far below that standard, but I think I’m finally making some progress in this field. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never actually tried icing cookies quite like this before, choosing instead to just slap different colors of goopy sugar all over dry cookies instead. That being said, I would love to give other wannabe cookie artists 10 small tips that would have been helpful to know before I got started myself! It was a long process of trial and error, but I think that there are some important lessons to be learned here, starting with…

1. Go big or go home. If you’re going to go all out and make intricately decorated cookies, don’t plan on making a million little morsels to stack up on a plate as gifts. Instead, make just one or two bigger cookies for each person you want to treat. It will make the cookies all the more special, not to mention create a whole lot less work for you.

2. Quality tools matter. Yes, you already know this, but it bears repeating. If you don’t already have some basic metal tips and disposable pastry bags, BUY THEM. Consider it a holiday gift to yourself! I start out using a wimpy little plastic sandwich baggie, hoping to save my quickly dwindling supply of pastry bags, but I was paid back for my cheating ways quickly- The bag burst before I finished decorating even a single cookie, and a good portion of the table, floor, and myself were covered in sticky sugar icing.

3. K.I.S.S: Keep it simple, stupid. The whole point of going all out for intricately iced cookies is to impress your friends and loved ones with incredible patterns, but if the whole design starts to go awry, simplify. Fill in open shapes that are bleeding too much, do fewer lines if they don’t end up fitting, but whatever you do, don’t panic. Additionally, I would suggest starting out with easier patterns to begin with until you get the hang of it. Worst comes to worst, you’ll get a couple of ugly but tasty cookies to snack on while you work.

4. Know before you go. You’re raring to go, excited to get started, but put on the the brakes for just a minute and think about what you’re doing. Have a picture in your mind of what you want the finished cookie to look like so you don’t end up becoming a deer in the headlights with icing dripping all over the place. Envision the final outcome as a guide to your design, but don’t be afraid to change it up as you go along, too.

5. Let it flow. If you’re squeezing the bejebus out of our pastry bag to get a thin stream of icing, STOP, before you put someone’s eye out with a blob of projectile frosting! You should only need to apply gentle pressure to the bag while twisting the extra plastic above the icing mass so that it doesn’t spurt out the top. After decorating for a while, the icing will begin to harden and gunk up the tip, so make sure you keep a sewing needle or paper clip nearby to poke it clean.

6. Ice away. No, I don’t mean “just go ice the darn things already,” I mean, ice away from your body. I don’t know about you, but when there’s a giant pastry bag headed straight for me, I can’t see a darn thing around it; For all I know, I could be icing the table! Stop and turn the cookie if you have to, but always make sure move the bag outwards in order to clearly see your full shape and the path you want the icing to follow.

7. Keep it up. Moving in between lines and switching over to different areas of the cookie, make sure to turn the bag of icing so that the tip is pointed upwards. Otherwise, the icing will continue to dribble all over your finished work, and everything else in a 5-foot radius. Trust me on this one.

8. Start at the beginning. Personally, I always like to start by tracing the outline of my cookie, just so I can get a better idea of the shape in the first place. Sometimes the baking process will cause the cookies to spread and distort a bit, so it helps to see exactly what shape you’re working with here.

9. Take your time. I didn’t have any cookie cutters here at school with me, so I ended up doing an extra step- Sculpting each and every cookie by hand (They always say that no two snowflakes are alike…) which means it took me even longer to finish. All said and done, from cutting to baking to decorating, it took me three hours to complete one dozen cookies. I know, it’s a little bit crazy… But with the help of cookie cutters, I bet you can shave a good hour, hour and a half off of that. Just don’t plan anything time-sensitive afterwards, okay?

10. Have fun with it. Don’t stress out, this is is supposed to be an enjoyable, relaxing project after all! But you knew that I was going to say that, right?

While I certainly didn’t attain the level of perfection displayed by “professionals,” I’m still quite proud of my end results. Don’t forget, you can also go crazy with color if you so choose- My limited supply of kitchen staples left me without dyes, so I just went with a simple, elegant while. It’s all up to you… So now go forth and ice those cookies! Just don’t blame me for the mess that may follow.

[This article was written for BitterSweet and the Well Fed Network. Please do not reproduce it else where without permission from the author.]

Rescuing Sunken Cupcakes

Hannah Kaminsky — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:00:53 +0000

Quickly piling flour, sugar, and spices into the mixing bowl, cranking up the oven, and doling out paper liners at the speed of light, I had no time to stop and think about what I was really doing- Baked goods were expected to appear at a party in just a few short hours! Deciding instantly upon the best sweet concoction, cupcake would take no time to slap together and everyone loves them. The only caveat: It’s a good idea to measure your ingredients. “Why, who on earth would go about willy-nilly and not measure their ingredients?! Don’t you know that could lead to some horrible cupcake tragedy?” Um…. that would be me.

So, out of the oven came these mini cakes that looked like ground zero for multiple atomic bombs, and I only have so much time before the whole family piles into the car and takes off for Grandma’s house. Crap. Okay, should you ever find yourself in this sort of mess, don’t panic: go back to basics and think, what makes everything better? Chocolate, of course!

Good, good, they’re looking better already! Fill up those cavernous indents with ganache and I seriously doubt anyone would complain. Give ‘em a quick chill in the fridge, and you’re ready to cover up your error with a nice thick pile of creamy frosting. No one will be the wiser to your baking faults! If you’re not so keen on chocolate or just want something a little different, I’m betting that a good dollop of jam would also fit the bill quite nicely.

Then, just to tie it all together, a cheerful nonpareil makes it look like you intended to include a chocolate filling all along. Nice work, now you don’t have to come to the party empty handed!

[This article was written for BitterSweet and The Well Fed Network. Please do not reproduce elsewhere without permission from the author.]

Festive Fall Cakes

Hannah Kaminsky — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:00:08 +0000

Making seasonal baked goods doesn’t need to be a complicated or difficult ordeal. Forget the intricate designs, because with just basic shapes and a bit of whimsy, I can bet that anyone can appreciate the effort just as much. Take for instance these pumpkin cakes! All you need to do is mix up your favorite pumpkin cupcake recipe and instead of using muffin tins, just pour it into mini-bundt pans. (A recipe that yields one dozen cupcakes will give you approximately six mini-bundts, depending on the size of your pans) The stems and leaves are simply molded out of marzipan and colored with either food dye, or for a more natural approach cocoa and matcha make good brown and green colorings, too. Now I know that I’ve clearly designated my pumpkin cakes here as another Halloween treat, but I’ve just got goblins on the brain is all. Of course this same idea would be great to use all throughout fall, and could possibly make a fun addition to your Thanksgiving dinner table just as well!

[This article was written for BitterSweet and the WellFed Network. Please ask the author directly for permission to reproduce it elsewhere!]

The Proof is in the Pudding [Bread]

Hannah Kaminsky — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:00:57 +0000

Okay, you got me - So I’m a day late in celebrating World Bread Day which was designated as October 16th, but as any baker will tell you, good bread takes time. Of course, I did end up making a quick bread, but it was the planning that took the most time and set me behind schedule. Seeing practically every foodie in the blogosphere talking about this date for weeks, surely it would be hard to miss it, you might argue, but truly it was just an unfortunate chain of coincidences that postponed the party. If I finally had time to turn on the oven, the sun wouldn’t be out [to capture the best pictures, lest I fail you dear readers with sub-par food porn!] If the sun decided to come out, I wouldn’t have enough ingredients on hand.

If I had enough ingredients… And so it went, that nothing was happening in the kitchen except for defrosting the occasional frozen waffle under the broiler.Just as the window of opportunity seemed to be closing, the sun emerged from behind the clouds and incredibly, everything I needed to make a delicious, easy bread was right there, waiting to be combined and baked! Finding a box of instant butterscotch pudding with no animal products on that bright, early morning was truly the catalyst, an incredible treat in and of itself. While I had originally snatched up a package just for a quick snack, inspiration struck and that sweet, powdery mixture found it’s way into a quick bread instead.

Soft, delightfully chewy around the edges, and hinting of caramel undertones, I don’t know if you even need the chocolate chips to make this easy treat irresistible. Of course, it certainly didn’t hurt to include it, either.

Butterscotch Pudding Bread

1 Cup Soymilk
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Granulated Sugar 1/4 Cup Canola Oil
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 3.5-Ounce Package Instant Butterscotch Pudding
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 350 °F and liberally grease a medium loaf pan.

Combine the soymilk and vinegar and let the mixture stand for a few minutes to curdle. Use your stand or hand mixer to mix it on a high speed, until it becomes nice and frothy. Then add in your sugar and oil, mixing again to combine. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda and powder, and salt. Slowly incorporate these dry ingredients into the wet, pausing so that the mixer can process everything. Finally, toss in your chocolate chips and stir to distribute.

Pour your batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until golden brown on the outside and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the loaf rest for at least 15 minutes before moving it to a cooling rack. Tempting as it may be, try to resist cutting it until it has fully cooled, and do use a serrated knife!

Briefly toasted to just barely re-melt chips and warm a thick slice through, there are few other breakfasts [or lunches, or snacks, or desserts] that can compare.

[This article was written for BitterSweet and the Well Fed Network. Please contact the author directly for permission to reprint elsewhere!]

Muffin Mayhem

Hannah Kaminsky — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:00:34 +0000

Considering how many people talk about the dreaded “freshman 15,” you would have to assume that there’s actually good food to be found in college, right? Well, maybe on some campuses, but that’s certainly not the issue here. No matter the time of day, trips to the dining hall prove futile, yielding a wilted salad of pale greens and perhaps a few sad slices of cucumber, but little more. Despite their desire to be vegan-friendly, the dining services are anything but, and I’ve been forced to scavenge for meals elsewhere. Of course, I’m sure it’s been obvious by my lack of food posts that this quest could hardly be considered successful by a long shot. Lacking either ingredients or equipment to cook with, baking has been a pipe dream, since regular cooking has been about as easy as performing brain surgery with a dull sewing needle.

Hungry not only for the finished product but for the process that I find so soothing, the alchemy of turning flour and sugar into delicious works of art, even the most impossible odds couldn’t prevent me from trying to bake for long. Smuggling out some ripe bananas from the cafeteria one day, I realized that I could finally scrape something edible together, provided those unreliable ovens in the dorm would cooperate. Starting with a basic banana muffin recipe from VegWeb, it wasn’t long before the mad baker in me was tinkering around again, not content to leave well enough alone even with the barest minimum of ingredients on hand. Luckily, when I saw that the batter was mixing up into a somewhat dry concrete-like substance, I happened to have a jar of pumpkin butter on hand, and a delicious new recipe was born, just like that.

Rising to the challenge both figuratively and literally, the perfect mountains of batter gave me hope for the dismal dining situation. Sure, banana bread has been done a million times in a million different ways so I could hardly say this is anything to write home about, but after such a severe deficit of baked goods, just one bite made a whole month of miserly meals worth swallowing. With just a bit of ingenuity, patience, and a whole lot of sugar, perhaps this arrangement can still work after all… And considering the note that was left on my door after sharing these around the dorm, it seems that the other girls think so, too.

Banana Pumpkin Spice Muffins

2 Ripe Bananas
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Canola Oil
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
2/3 Cup Pumpkin Butter

Rolled Oats
Cinnamon

*This makes a small batch since I don’t have tons of pans with me, so I got 6 standard muffins and 4 minis, but feel free to double this to make more than a dozen. Also, I can’t say that this oven is completely trust worthy since there’s no internal thermometer, so I would just keep a close eye on your muffins while they bake.

Preheat you oven to 350° F and either line a muffin tin with papers or coat it with cooking spray.

Mash your bananas thoroughly and add in the sugar and oil, stirring to combine. Toss in the cinnamon, salt, both flours, baking powder and soda all at once, and mix just enough to moisten all of the dry ingredients, but there’s no need to be too thorough. Finally, add in the pumpkin butter and stir that well, being careful not to over-mix. The resulting batter should be rather thick.

Spoon the batter into your prepared tins, mounding it up generously in the centers. Sprinkle oats and cinnamon on top as desired, and bake for 15 - 25 minutes until golden brown, and a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack and enjoy.

[This article was written for BitterSweet and the Well Fed Network. Please ask the author directly before reprinting elsewhere!]

Peace Offering

Hannah Kaminsky — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:00:44 +0000

Feeling for all the world as if I had just swallowed a ton of bricks, the dread of leaving for school grew only more powerful as the hours passed, my days in a comfortable home numbered and quickly slipping away. There wasn’t a thing I could say to express my jumbled emotions, no matter how I tried to talk through it, ignore it, or try to keep my mind off it; I’m simply no good at keeping anxiety at bay. Laying awake in bed, pondering what on earth might make my mind at ease, there was only one answer that kept coming back, echoing through the depths of that tired brain, but I was desperate enough to try anything.

Early the next morning, before the first light had even filtered in through my bed room window, the oven was already cranking away at full speed. Yes, baking does calm me down, and even better, I could make a treat for my new roommate and perhaps bribe a few new friends to think of me kindly. Still reeling a bit from my last baking venture, successfully signing off on a full half-dozen new recipes, there would be no fancy-pants decorating or masterful creations here, but instead something that I myself might find comforting if dropped in an unfamiliar place with only odd eatables around. Subtracting as many ingredients that might be offensive as possible, I arrived at the perfect recipe that needed only to be veganized: Dorie Greenspan’s Korova Cookies, also known as Peace Cookies. Considering how I planned to use them as a crutch to be accepted by my dorm mates, I could only hope that they might become peace offering cookies as well.

…And can I tell you? I think I made a lot of new friends already.

Korova Cookies

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets

1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup + 3 Tablespoons Margarine
2/3 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
5 Ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, Chopped

Begin by beating the margarine in your stand mixer just to soften it up a bit, and then cream in both sugars, salt, and vanilla, mixing until creamy and fully combined. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder, and slowly sift these dry ingredients into the mixer. Stir on a low speed until just combined, and toss in the chocolate chunks. Again, mix very little in order to simple distribute the chocolate, but manipulate the dough as little as possible. It should still seem rather dry and crumbly.

Divide the dough into two lumps, press them together gently to form two logs, and wrap them up in plastic wrap. Place them in the fridge to chill for at least one hour.

Once thoroughly chilled, go ahead preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Slice the cookie logs into 1/4 inch rounds- Don’t worry if you mush them into strange oval shapes, as you can easily reform them with your hands after placing them on the prepared baking sheets. Be sure to give the cookies plenty of room to breathe, since it should be no problem fitting them all on both sheets with lots of space between each. Bake them for 12 - 14 minutes, and although they will not look completely done, they will no longer be so shiny on top and appear to have firmed around the edges. Leave the cookies on the sheet to cool so that they can finish cooking and solidifying. This will leave you with a delightfully soft and chewy cookie!

[Supposedly makes about 36 cookies, but I only got 18.]

[This article was written for the Well Fed Network and BitterSweet. Please to do not reuse without express permission from the author.]