Recipe #15 – Croissants

You know Tiernen must really not feel well if she’s giving me the chance to do a guest blog post, especially about something as important as croissants.  I like croissants a lot…Tiernen LOVES them.  Truthfully, it is probably only because this is a text medium and not an auditory one because there’s no chance she would let my poor, non-French pronunciation of these iconic little pastries show up on anything she was doing Martha related.

We decided to do the croissants because we had a long weekend and because the baking had been on hiatus while we were in California. In short, we were highly motivated and ambitious.  When we started I figured it could be a great bonding thing…or the end of our marriage. I didn’t see a lot of in between.  Since I’m posting here, you have a pretty good idea which it was.

Recipe #14- Brown Sugar Pound Cake

OK, so I need to start out by saying one thing, I don’t like cake– at all.  Jeff loves pound cake, so I thought I would make this one for him and Martha has it in the book and so I was going to make it at some point, right?  That being said, what in the world is with this recipe??  This made almost twice as much as Martha said it would!!  It was like I had pound cake coming out of my ears, it was never-ending.  I made something to be nice and look what happens?  Why can’t this happen with chocolate chip cookies or something like that???  OK, now that I got that out of my system, the cake– because of the brown sugar it’s not really very pretty and I decided to try baking it in a regular non-stick baking pan and in a silicone baking pan (since I certainly had enough batter, right) and there were DRASTICALLY different outcomes.  The silicone seemed to work a lot better and certainly came out of the pans better than the normal non-stick.

Recipe # 13- Breton Biscuits

So, I wanted to make these because they were really pretty in the book and I knew they would be a pain and I know I need to get some of the more “painful” one’s out of the way at some point.  So, I figured that these would be good– hard, but not too hard.  Tedious, but not too tedious.  So, off I went to make Breton Biscuits.

Recipe #12- Raspberry Jam Crumb Bars

First, I apologize for not updating sooner, I was in California for a week and before we left I just didn’t have a chance to add these three.  So, here goes.  These were really good.  A little labor intensive, but they make a lot and if you don’t mind something that takes time then these are definitely something you should try!

Recipe #11- Double-Chocolate Brownie Cookies

OK, so I’ll just say this: BEST COOKIES EVER!!  They are like little brownies in a cookie.  If you have them warm when they come out of the oven then you have to have a glass of milk with them.  I didn’t add the nuts (Jeff didn’t want them), but Martha says that walnuts are optional.  These are relatively easy, but you do have to melt the chocolate and then add it to the sugar and then beat in the eggs, flour etc. before you add chunks of chocolate.  The battery on the camera was almost dead, so I didn’t really take any pictures, sorry!

Recipe #10- Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake

So, Jeff loves cherries and it was his birthday, so I decided to make this for him.  I have to be honest, I haven’t tried the cake.  Yes, I have tried the streusel, but no, I haven’t tried the cake.  Jeff and his co-worker’s tell me that it’s very good, though.  The topping is very good- that I can say.

I cheated on Martha- Peanut butter filled chocolate molten cakes

No great write up here, but it was really good and the end result was pretty, so I thought I would post a picture.  This was from the 2009 Food and Wine Cookbook.  It was really rich, but good and relatively easy to make.  If anyone wants it there are also options for caramel, raspberry and marshmallow fillings.

Peanut butter filled chocolate molten cake-- to die for!

Recipe #9- Corn Bread

For the long weekend we decided to make barbecue and in honor of all things “Southern” I decided that this was the time to make corn bread.  Really, what better time– smoked, pulled pork, southern green beans and Martha’s corn bread?  I was a little skeptical because normally I’m not a big fan of corn in my corn bread, but this recipe might convert me.  That being said, I don’t know that I would make this instead of doctoring up the Jiffy the way I usually do.  See, while I may have married a Southerner, since I am not actually from the South I am not a fan of using Crisco and this recipe calls it.  However, if you don’t have the aversion to shortening that I have then this recipe definitely is worth trying.

Recipe #8- Rugelach

To continue my weekend of baking I decided I would try rugelach.  My mother loves it, but I’ve never really cared one way or the other about it.  I have to admit that I wasn’t so enthusiastic about it then and I’m not so pumped now either.  It’s not “bad,” I just don’t love it and there’s a lot to it to get something I don’t love.  I would make it again if someone else wanted it, but if it was just me, probably not.  Martha said to use currants or chocolate.  I used chocolate– really, is it an option?  I guess if I had used currants it would be the breakfast food my Mom likes, but since I used chocolate it’s definitely the cookie Martha calls it.

#7- White Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Buttercream

OK, so let’s start with two words: NEVER AGAIN!!  We were going to dinner at Mary’s house and I was thinking about what to make for dessert and I just knew, it was obvious- CUPCAKES!  When I saw this recipe with the pink frosting it was perfect- for those who know her, you know why, for those who don’t, just take my word for it.  So, I start looking at the recipe and I start wondering what I have gotten myself into, but despite my dislike for cupcakes, I do love my Cupcake, so I went ahead and well, you will see…There will be lots of pictures, b/c there were lots of steps and I think I still might be too traumatized to live through it again.