OHMYGOD - Where's The Flaccid Sea Creature??

Kids! I don't know what the hell has possessed me, but I've baked. And not for a Daring Baker's challenge, either. I baked on my own. WTF? Here's what I'm thinking.. ya'll should run out and buy lots of bottled water, saltine crackers, canned goods and toilet paper (never be without toilet paper!!). Dig yourself an underground shelter in the back yard and prepare yourself for some kind of natural disaster. I don’t bake unless it’s a DB challenge! Something bad is surely going to happen! And bread! Lord almighty I NEVER bake bread on a whim or on my own - NEVER. This disaster is going to be a doozy – I’m tellin’ yas! Wait.. don’t go getting all panic stricken just yet. I still have my usually long ass story to tell. Come back. Sit down. Join me in a glass (or twelve) of your favorite alcoholic beverage.. believe me, it’ll calm those shaking hands. Or is it just my hands that are shaking? Whatev. Anyhoo, something made me finally bake THIS RECIPE again. Go look. Because if you don't go look you won't understand what a wonderment this baking adventure was. Seriously. GO. LOOK. Did I lie? Is that not the most frightening things you've ever seen? It's like science fiction and pornography combined. And I ate those bad boys. All 4 of them. In like a week. If even. It was the best damn cheesy bread I've ever had and at that juncture in my life I didn't think anything could be as good as Panera's Asiago bread. But those 4 cheesy baked monstrosities were phenomenal. I kept saying that I would make them again.. but baking is sooooooooo fakking stressful for me. The Baking Gods hate my ever-livin guts. They laugh at me at every occasion. They mock me at the drop of a hat. They sneer and point at me while whispering behind my back. I don't know what the fakk I ever did to piss them off, but I obviously did. And now, what? 2 years later? Something possesses me to make them again. I made the starter last Thursday night. I was unsure how far ahead you can make a starter, so I enlisted the advice of my bread baking guru, Mary. She told me I can make it a few days ahead, which eased some pressure as I knew I wanted to make it this weekend, but was unsure of the exact day. HAR! Yeah.. in other words - how long could I procrastinate before my started died and I chickened out? Gah. Well.. come to find out the Baking Gods were watching - AS PER FUCKING USUAL. You see, the recipe calls for instant yeast. I didn't even comprehend that.. I used active yeast. So after 15+ hours (I had to work on Friday), it hadn't gotten very bubbly and pretty much looked just like a wad of dough. Not good. So I got on the King Arthur website and with an expert. It was immediately pointed out that I used the wrong yeast. Duh. I thanked her and then realized… Baking Gods – 1 / Lisa – BIGFATFUCKINGZERO. I didn't have instant yeast, so I sweet talked my beloved Hubbs into running out to get me some. Bless his cotton socks. Soon I had the correct yeast and more bread flour. I started again - this time around 6 a.m. Saturday morning. I figured it’d be good to go around 2ish that afternoon, then I’d make the dough and allow it to rise until Sunday morning. Way longer than what’s called for, but I’ve read that if you let your dough rise for a long time, the better the flavor of the bread.. and hell, any excuse to actually put off baking it. Yeah, the memory of the smoke detector going off and black billowy smoke spewing from my oven the last time I made this bread was pretty damn strong. Well my powers of procrastination are pretty damn.. uhmm.. powerful. I managed to conveniently “forget” the starter on Saturday afternoon. And Saturday night. On Sunday morning I remembered it and said to myself, “Hey dipshit, you need to make the bread today.” And then I blocked it out again. I had plans with my girlie friends to go shopping at Trader Joe’s.. and I’ve been out of Tejava tea for a month. Nectar of the (non-baking) Gods, I tell ya! So my mind was conveniently “elsewhere”. :P When I got home Sunday afternoon, I put away the groceries, poured myself a big glass of tea and got the flour out. I was going to make the dough! Go me! Making the dough took roughly 5 minutes. Mmmm hmm… 5 whole fakking minutes of my time. A spare 5 minutes that I just couldn’t seem to find all day Saturday and most of Sunday. You see this is how my mind works. And believe me, I know I ain’t right. Knowing full well how delicious the bread would end up, I still did everything I could to drag my big fat feet in making it. It’s like I’m a glutton for my own punishment. What. The. Freeg? Before I went to bed Sunday night, I punched the dough down because obviously I wasn’t going to make the bread. Today was a rare morning.. I actually woke up after my husband. That happens maybe twice a year? And I’m usually sick.. but whatev, I woke up later and the first thing out of his mouth wasn’t the usual grumble-speak “mrn’ng” or even “is the princess FINALLY up?” it was, “My goodness, doesn’t that freshly baked bread smell delicious?” What an ass. This was his way of telling me that the dough had been sitting out far too long and if I was going to bake bread then I better shit or get off the pot. Visual there.. sorry. Moving along.. A lovely collage of basically the same photo of the mini loaves/buns.. *slurp* I finally made my bread today. FOUR days after making the first batch of starter. FOUR. I had made two batches of dough so that I could make the mini “loaves” and a couple regular sized loaves. This time I cut the mini loaves much thinner.. and they came out more like bun size, which was perfect. Smaller means that the insides can’t rise out from the base reminiscent of the alien bursting out of that guy’s chest. I didn’t make flaccid geoduck/penis this time. They turned out bakery beautiful! I was AMAZED. I know today is a holiday for us in the US, but uhmm.. is this also a holiday for the Baking Gods? Or did I just take so damn long that I fooled them into believing that I’d never actually bake the dough?? Either way.. it all turned out great! Even the regular sized loaves, which I was unsure of because I hadn’t attempted that last time. Today is a day to mark on the books. Today I BEAT THE SHITE out of the Baking Gods. Today I made myself proud. Today something horrible is going to happen.. so really now.. get off your asses and start digging up your back yard. You can thank me for the head’s up after it’s all over. ;) xoxo

Betty Please, Pick Up Your Crackers!

Holy cow.. it's another Daring Bakers challenge post! Firstly, a huge huge THANK YOU! and WELL DONE! to our lovely hosts, Natalie of Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From The Fishbowl. As you might tell from Natalie's blog title, she bakes gluten free and Shel bakes vegan - so this month we all had the opportunity to step outside our comfort zones and do the same if we wished. This was not mandatory, as us regular old wheat flour and butter lovin' people could bake this recipe without taking a walk on the wild gluten-free side. BUT we did have to come up with a vegan dip or spread to slather our crackers in as a bonus challenge.. which was very cool as well! There was so much we could do to personalize our crackers/dips and still stick to the recipe as written. I heart that. :) But I can't say I was much of a Daring baker this month as I did end up choosing to play it safe and made the Lavash Crackers with your every day bread flour. Then again.. any day I'm in the kitchen baking - it's always ALWAYS a DARING experience. First off let me say.. I need kneading lessons. Big time. I do not know the proper way to knead so I have no idea if I was doing good or doing really bad. The crackers turned out tasty, but I haven't the faintest if they turned out "Lavash" or not.. course even if I did know how to knead, I wouldn't know if my crackers turned out like they should as I've never had a Lavash cracker before a week ago! Go me! The rolling of the dough was like a dream.. I suck at rolling too.. I couldn't roll out dough in a circle, square or rectangle to save my life. Even if I shape the shit first! Which I did - into a rectangle! But the minute I started rolling it started to look like fakkin' Sicily. Yanno.. boot shaped?? Jebus. So the "diamonds" I had intended to cut were uhh.. leaning and unsightly. Gah. I rolled the dough super thin - you could see the counter top in areas underneath.. but they still poofed up a bit in the oven. So the center of the sheet of crackers was a bit chewy and the edges were hard. I didn't really get much of a cracker feel. Although we did find a few that were crisp. But all of it was very tasty - even considering I went all Plain Jane and just sprinkled some Maldon sea salt on top. :) For my bonus vegan challenge, well.. I used this opportunity to do a test run in the making of homemade jam. You see, I've decided that not only will I be catering my own wedding reception with the help of my friends, but I'm also going to make my own wedding favors.. jam. Everyone will receive a wee jar of jam and a wee bag of shortbread cookies to go with. Actually that's pretty laughable considering how much I tend to set things afire. Uhh.. I might have to put the Creampuff in charge of the shortbread. :P Anyhoo.. the jam. I went with a small recipe for peach jam. Basically peaches, sugar and lemon juice and that's it. The recipe said to only cook for approximately 25 to 30 minutes but at that point I still had syrup with chunks of half hard peaches in it. I ended up cooking the jam for well over an hour. The nice thing about it was that I could stir every few minutes and not worry about the peaches sticking to the pan. Until... About 5 minutes before that jam was done.. I turned my back on it for FIFTEEN SECONDS - TOPS! - and that mother hummer burnt on me. I swear, I turned my back to wring out the towel, turned right back and continued stirring, but all my peaches were stuck to the bottom and had turned a most appetizing shade of puke brown. Fakkers. While this was happening, my 2nd sheet of crackers was in the oven. Mmm hmmm.. anyone care to guess where this is going? To hell. That's where it's going, gone and went. Burnt my 2nd sheet to a rock hard brown. It was at this point that I started to laugh.. once again that familiar zing that starts deep down in my tummy and travels up until my cheeks burn a bright red and I question my sanity in thinking that I can bake. :P What got me giggling was this reminded me of two of my most favorite women on the face of this planet - Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney. You know.. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight! Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!" Ya'll remember the diner episode? Lenny inherits his uncle Lazlo's diner and Laverne & Shirley end up working in it - Laverne was the short order cook and Shirley was the waitress.. fakkin hysterical. Laverne calls Shirley "Betty" the whole episode and all you keep hearing over the PA system is Laverne saying "Betty Please.. Pick Up" At first it's going well and then they get really busy and both are lookin' a little worn, to say the least - Laverne's cooking is starting to look scary and at one point there is a table of biker chicks demanding their hashbrowns.. of course Laverne burns them and the next thing you hear is, "Betty Please.. Pick up your.. hashblacks." BAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! I am so Laverne! Okay well you hadda be there.. but that's what popped into my mind when I saw my burnt crackers and burnt peach jam. It was classic. :) Well to sum up the whole experience - the first batch of crackers were edible and tasty, but not very cracker like. The jam didn't look like peach jam, but there was no burnt taste to it so if you closed our eyes you'd know you were eating peach jam. heee! The two together were excellent because of the salty bread/cracker and the sweet fruit jam. And I learned more very valuable lessons - do not even breathe during the last 5 to 10 minutes of cooking your jam.. just stand there and stir. And do not attempt to bake crackers (or anything for that matter) while making jam. :P Thanks for another fabulous challenge, gals! I never ever would have made crackers at home if it weren't for The Daring Bakers! You can make them too! Just go to Gluten A Go Go and Musings From The Fishbowl for the recipe - both the original and the gluten free recipes. :) xoxo

Garlic Knots with Girth

I had a play-date this past Sunday.. It was with a bunch of my best baking friends, also known as the Bakeanistas. Which is funny all by itself.. we’ve been dubbed the Bakeanistas as if we’re some kind of group or club, but it’s not like that – we’re just a bunch of friends who like to hang out on Skype and bake while gossiping, chatting and pretty much making asses of ourselves. Good times.. good times.. This round of baking was all about garlic knots and gutter minds. And interesting combination, don’t you think? This month’s gang was made up of moi, Sara, Mary, John, Marce, Chris, Helene, Kelly and Tanna. Unfortunately, Ivonne, Laura, Ben, and Stephanie couldn’t join us.. and they were missed. But the rest of these ladies.. holy schnikeys, kids.. what a bunch of dirty birds! Why, I was simply shocked and appalled by their behavior! My virgin ears and eyes will NEVER be the same! Jebus, I look over there and there’s one of ‘em talking about the wine (at 10 in the morning) and the girth of the wine pourer! Over here is another one talking about the girth of the boy toy! Right in front of me there is yet another one spouting off about house hold chores performed by their hubby and how she’s going to feel the girth when she pays back the favor.. I mean.. MYGOD. Buncha hussies, I tell ya. And then there’s me.. sitting there just watching it all, my jaw firmly placed in my lap.. my eyes as big as saucers.. silently praying for my mommy.. it was just shocking. SHOCKING. Well as politely as I could, I excused myself from the group to make the dough for my garlic knots. Mary, our resident bread guru, found another yummy recipe from the fine folks at King Arthur Flour - this time it was Soft Garlic Knots. Although they looked extremely yummable, as we were talking about them, I mentioned that there is an absolutely HORRIBLE little Italian restaurant here in town where the food SUCKS but their garlic knots are TO DIE FOR. How they could strike pure gold with these lil garlicky knots of crispy and soft dough baked to perfection and then strike out so horribly with the rest of their menu, I have no idea.. but that's neither here nor there.. what matters is, while describing them to Mary, she recalled a recipe that she thought would be almost identical to the restaurant's knots.. so I decided to forego KA this time, and go with Bon Appetit's (Saveur) Butterhorn recipe. Everything went really well.. and my dough more than doubled in volume on that first rise.. I punched it down and gave it a few turns, then let it rise again.. then it was time to shape dough balls into knots and although they were very lovely in their poofiness, even though I couldn’t get them to brown – wondering if I should have given them an egg wash before baking? Unfortunately they were nothing like the restaurant’s garlic knots. For what they were though, they were okay. I wasn’t a big fan of the texture.. kinda biscuit-y.. I’m not a biscuit fan, obviously. But Hubbs loved them so they sure won’t go to waste! Believe it or not.. that's a baked knot (slathered in garlic butter) :P The rest of the baking session went from bad to worse.. so being the good and prim lady that I am, I excused myself for the rest of the day as I had my sister coming over for birthday dinner and I wanted to be able to function rather than have my brain rot out from reading their filthiness.. I just thank the baby Jebus that I don’t act the way they do.. sheesh. Okay so maybe this post hasn’t been exactly fair to my cohorts of the kitchen.. my friends.. perhaps I’ve been a little harsh in my reaction to their online shenanigans. But.. well.. they insulted me! Can you believe that?? I’m deeply hurt over what happened and maybe I’ve let that pollute this post.. Dear Readers? (I’m so Stephen King) You help me decide, okay? I sent them all a few lovely photos the next evening.. tasteful photos, I might add. One of which was one of my wedding photos. They all LAUGHED! Now seriously, can you understand why I might be a little miffed? *sniff* Here.. take a look for yourselves.. What?? What THE HELL is so fakkin funny?????? Screw this. I’m going to go find comfort in my Becks’ arms.. he always seems to make me feel better. Whatev. xoxo

What Happens When a Bakeanista Crosses a Geoduck and a Flaccid uhh..

penis? Well she gets the best damn cheesy bread she's ever had.. YES you heard me, PANERA. It blows your Asiago bread right outta the water! Last weekend, in between our monthly trip to the West Side Market and Trader Joe's, plus a jaunt to the local greenhouse for the biggest basket of purple & white petunias we could find for Mommie's Day.. was a late blooming starter, lots of flour and even more CHEESE. The newly named "Bakeanistas" got together again for a day of baking and chit chatting on Skype. Wondering who the Bakeanistas are? Just a fantabulous group of sexy women including Mary, Sara, Ivonne, Helene, Laura Rebecca, Kelly and Stephanie - oh and me! Wondering what cheesy bread it was that we baked? Check out this step by step tutorial for Gruyère-Stuffed Crusty Loaves and the recipe can be found here. Knowing full well that this recipe called for a starter that was to be made the night before, I sent out a call for help from my other Bakeanista sisters - "SOMEONE PLEASE REMIND ME TO MAKE MY STARTER ON FRIDAY NIGHT!!" I knew damn well that without a reminder, I'd completely forget to make it. And because these ladies are AWESOME, I received, not one but TWO reminders on Friday to make my starter that night. PHEW! Thank goodness for reminders! Have I ever told ya'll about the two month period last year that I left Nigel at home on his grooming days? If I did tell ya'll that story - do you remember how I stuck post-it notes on the front door, the door to the kennel that Nigel and his sister, Chloe, sleep in during the mornings AND the post-it I stuck on the inside of my car windshield? Okay well, admittedly, I didn't stick the post it on the windshield until the 2nd month, since I had forgotten him the prior month. And do ya'll remember how I got 3/4's of the way to work when I realized that my goreous son was still sitting at home wondering WTF? Mmm hmm.. I woke up Saturday morning - BAKING MORNING - like I normally do (at the butt-crack of dawn), made my coffee, let the kids out for their morning constitutional, filled up assorted doggie and kitty food & water bowls, sat down at the PC with lists upon lists of things that needed to be taken care of.. and promptly blowing said lists off so I could read new email.. when at six bells this shudder of terror crept down my spine. HOLY SHIT I FORGOT TO MAKE THE STARTER LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God, Thank God, Thank God, and Hail Mary, I knew I couldn't start baking until later than the rest of the gals because of the monthly grocery shopping extravaganza. So I bound down the hallway, bouncing off walls, to the kitchen and slapped that shite together. I noticed how dry it was and was kinda taken aback, as every starter I've had to make (hehe every.. like I've made TWO now and one of those died a horrible death that I try not to think about) has been spongy and wet. But oh well.. no time to dwell! I put her in a warm place and went about my usual morning routine and then left for shopping with Hubbs. I didn't get to participate in much chit chat this month, which was a bummer because I missed all talk of vajayjays, exploding mammories and other unsavory topics that usually trip my trigger. Dammit. So in between TJ's and the greenhouse, we stopped home to unload the car and I made the dough. Left it to rise while we visited my mommie and when I got home I rolled it out and filled it with cheese, then rolled it up into a considerably long log. Another hour or so later, I cut the log up into 4 "mini" loaves (so not mini!) and pulled apart the outer layers so the cheesy goodness would have plenty of room to bubble up and out like the most delicious lava from a volcano I've ever seen. Into the oven they went and back to the office I went to chat with Kelly and Mary for a bit.. I was also doing something else, but I can't recall what it was at this moment. Regardless of what it was, it wasn't too long after my cheesy volcanos went into the oven that I started to smell an all too familiar scent when I'm baking bread.. smoke. Dear sweet jebus the smoke alarm went off next. Gah. I ran to the kitchen to find puffs of billowy black smoke emerging from the back of my oven - WHAT THE FUCK, BAKING GODS??? CAN YOU GIVE ME A BREAK JUST ONCE???? I took the loaves out and was more than alarmed to see that they had morphed into what can only be explained as a cross between a geoduck and a man's flaccid hoo-haw. I KID YOU NOT, kids. The Baking Gods were having another belly bustin laugh spree at my expense ONCE AGAIN. Helene's vajayjay-looking bread had nothing on these pornographic sea monsters. Oh hells no. I ran back down the hallway in a frightened panic (you always know when I've been baking - that frightened panic takes over) and pounded out the words on my keyboard to Mary.. "OHMYGOD THERE'S SMOKE EVERYWHERE AND MY BREAD LOOKS LIKES LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF DEBBIE DOES DALLAS - HELP!!!" Mary calmly asked how high my oven was (425º as per instructions) and then recalled that I had a hot spot in my oven from when she was here back in October of 2007 - so she advised me to turn down the oven to 375º, and put them back in. They might take longer to bake, but at least they'd stop smoking. And the funny thing was.. the loaves, other than their embarrassing appearance, weren't burning.. nor was the cheese erupting from them like.. well.. GAH we will not discuss what the oozing cheese looked like - but the oven itself was smoking. So I did as she said and by the time I got back to the office, she and Kelly and I think Helene was there at that point, came up with a couple conclusions.. I had sprayed cooking spray on the parchment paper (no, didn't do that) - my oven was smoking because it might have just been cleaned and the heat was causing the residual cleaner to smoke (BINGO!). These gals are so smuckin' fart! :D Hubbs had cleaned the oven out with soap and water a couple days before and it looked as if a lil soap residue was still there. PHEW. The rest of the baking process went beautifully - it did take an extra 10 minutes for them to bake through, but I was rewarded with the most AWESOME tasting cheesy bread that I've ever had. The outside had just the right crispiness, the inside was soft and gooey and the flavor.. ohhhh the flavor! Gruyère is the BEST cheese to bake with, in my humble opinion. This is one of those recipes that I can not recommend enough. The dough was a snap to make and very easy to work with.. not sticky at all and it rolled out beautifully. Now it might not be the prettiest loaf of cheesy bread ever, but that just adds to the rustic charm of it. We (and by "we" I mean ME) inhaled the first loaf that afternoon.. I shared the 2nd loaf with him the following day and froze the other two.. they did not last longer than a week as I just toasted up the last of it this past Monday. My only advice to you would be to either double - nay triple - this recipe so you've got plenty in the freezer to get you through until next cheesy bread baking day. ;) Thanks so much to my sexy bread bakin' mamas - I can't wait for the next Bakeanistas adventure! Love you all SO MUCH! :) xoxo PS - Sorry that my post is a couple days late.. but the good news is I can sit for almost an hour now without having to request help to get outta my chair! hahahaa! Fakkin' sciatica. Gah. xoxo

Oh That Julia...

I'm on 4 hours sleep and 2 cups of exceptionally strong coffee right now. As my dad use to say.. I don't know if I'm punched nor bored. Whatever that meant. But I always remember him saying it when someone didn't know what the fakk they were doing. HAR! Bread. Yeast. Lisa. Panic. Nail-biting. Nerves. Dropping things. Kitchen prayers to the Yeastie Gods. Bread makes me sweat. Yanno? I don't really know why as it is truly an easy thing to make. My Gawd, prep time is like 1.5 minutes and the rest is just days of waiting. Okay well maybe I'm exaggerating some.. but it feels like that's the usual scenario when I'm baking bread. Hurry up and wait! And holy bejesus this recipe was all about the wait. First rise.. 4.5 hours. The recipe called for 3 hours (I believe? I'm mental right now, kids!) but my dough had not tripled so I let it go an extra hour & a half. Second rise.. 3 hours. Again, I went over because my yeasties were taking their own sweet fakkin time. My guess is the house was a bit chillier than normal, although I can not be sure as I baked my bread a couple weeks ago and can't remember exactly what I did or what happened. I CAN NOT REMEMBER WHAT I WORE TO WORK YESTERDAY - DO NOT JUDGE ME. Now before I go on.. lemme thank our lovely hostesses, Mary of The Sour Dough and Sara of I like to cook, for a great challenge! And thank YOU wee baby jebus, for whispering into Mary's ear "NO sourdough.. Lisa still hasn't gotten over killing her last one." :P ***crickets*** Moving right along... So what I do remember is that things went along swimmingly, other than the retarded rises. But it was at the shaping and final upside down rise that everything went to hell in a handbasket. My first boule was not "tight" - I didn't grasp the concept of rolling/passing it between my palms to get that tight membrane once I flipped it over. I did a little better with the 2nd boule, but in the end this is what I got: And no, those are not my silicone breast implants laying on a bed of flour and covered in plastic wrap. YOU'RE NOT FUNNY. I don't have breast implants!! The return of the phantom Smudge. :P Mmm hmmm.. pretty farkin flat they were. Which is exactly the way my boules from the Potato bread challenge turned out as well. 'Sup with that? Am I fondling my faux breasts too aggressively? My boules did rise once they hit the heat, but they were still pretty tiny. I should have made just one big round French-named shape. BUT all was not lost, although thin and mammory-like looking, they were delicious. We thought a tad bit on the salty side, but we love salt.. so that was a good thing. The crust was crisp and chewy and the inside had lots of bubbles, which I adore. And strangely, as most ppl would say the bread tasted excellent after first cut, we think it was 1000x's better the next evening as garlic toast. Best garlic toast we've ever had! So much so, that I froze the 2nd boule for our next spag & balls night. :) There you have it my friends.. a rather uneventful (at least I think?) challenge.. the fear is all in my mind which is silly because making bread is nothing to be scared of. Great big thanks to Mary & Sara.. you gals rock! Can't wait for March's challenge.. I hear it's going to be delightful! ;) Okay.. I'm done.. go start clickin' - over there -> well over 600 amazing blogs to choose from! And start planning accordingly now.. close to 800 next month kids. :D The Daring Bakers.. We WILL rule the planet one day!! MUAHAHAHAHAAA! Can you imagine? A world filled with nothing but bakers. Wait. What's that? Ohhh.. that's just my hips and ass sobbing. :P xoxo HOLY CRAP - I forgot to mention.. Argh. Sleep.. blessed sleep.. I forgot to mention that this recipe is from none other than the lovely Julia Child and if you'd like the recipe, click on over here for it. :)

Can I Really Bake Bread..*gulp* by Myself?

That's what I was thinking pretty much the whole 3 weeks I procrastinated on this challenge. Even though when Helene and Mary were here, they taught me how to do this.. it's not hard! It's just scary! And I really can't pinpoint why. So this was my very first bread baking on my own.. oh yeah.. this is November's Daring Baker challenge (if you were just dropped down on this planet and didn't realize it. hee!) and frankly, I don't think there could be a better written recipe for me to start off with. I had the jitters, yes. I consulted my guru, most assuredly. But.. I felt confident that I could do this. Mmm hmm. So what was it like? The making of the bread was easy and quite rewarding. I really enjoyed getting my hands in there and kneading the dough (although my shoulders and upper arms weren't as happy) for what seemed like hours. hahahaa! No, it wasn't that bad.. but definitely a skill I need to condition myself for. Yanno, calisthenics, deep breathing exercises, weight training.. har! Okay so I haven't reached that zen place that true bread bakers achieve when they are elbow deep in dough, maybe one day? But, not only was it rewarding that I was making my very own bread.. but this dough also had another great purpose. It gave me 2 extra hands! Yes.. this dough is so sticky that when I needed to grab something, such as a wooden spoon, spatula or my bench scraper all I had to do was lightly waft one of my hands over the object - the sticky dough would suck it right up and hold on to it for me! I kinda felt like a magnet actually.. by the time it was all over, I had kitchen utensils, the recipe, my camera and my dog, Nigel, firmly attached to my appendages. I decided, since I was so confident, that I'd make 3 different shapes or flavors with the very soft and sticky dough. Which, by the way, was made with bread flour and white whole wheat flour as your Queen of Dorkdum did not have any AP in the house (unbelievable!) and was not venturing out at the crack of dawn to a grocery store. (I KNOW! I broke the damn rules. I am totally going to get yelled at.) I wanted a boule - specifically one that looked like Gracie's. As if. Then I wanted a rustic, free-form shaped loaf flavored with Nicoise olives (Hubbs couldn't find Kalamata olives, which is what I really wanted) and Gruyere cheese. And finally, I wanted rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Ohhh and by the way, I decided to bake bread for the very first time, by myself, on Thanksgiving morning. You know, when I didn't have to cook/bake all freakin' day long for my family's dinner. NOT. I mean seriously, am I a fakkin glutton for punishment or what?? Well, okay, it wasn't THAT bad.. Hubbs pitted and chopped the olives for me. ;) Check out the brand new towels.. aren't they gorgeous? Almost as gorgeous as the gal who gave them to me. :D Anyhoo.. as I've been saying.. everything went pretty much seamlessly.. UNTIL.. *shudder* until I put my boule and my olive/cheese loaf, on buttered baking sheets, into my smokin' hot 450º F. oven. And when I say, smokin' hot, I mean.. two SMOKING hot, butter burnin' baking sheets.. Oh yeah. And it was the black pillowy kind of smoke. You know, the kind that chokes and sets off the smoke alarm - as well as the built in ventilator on the microwave that's mounted above the oven.. which is louder than the fakkin smoke alarm? GOD. I could not see OR hear for a good half hour. What does one do when her buttery baking sheets start to smoke? Well she opens the door, and remembers that her guru said there is a hot spot on the right side of the oven. So that is what must be causing the smoke! I'll just move the left baking sheet over to the right and move the right over to the left of the oven and that way I'll make it through the 10 minutes at super high heat without any more smoke! Brilliant!! Mmmm hmmm... Yeah.. no, that didn't work. So now I'm opening my oven door for the third time, taking out the smoking and now black charred baking sheets and searching frantically for my pizza stone (hello? She had a stone this whole time??).. sliding the pizza stone in.. running to the pantry to look for cornmeal.. throwin' a handful of it on the pizza stone (oven door open this whole time) and then move my amazingly NOT burnt breads to the stone. Turn the fakkin oven down to 375º, open the door a FOURTH time, and spritz a lil water in there for good measure. People! I should NOT be left alone in a kitchen with a 450º oven!!!! She looks puffy here, but that's only because my camera lens was a centimeter away. hee! So my nice round and puffy boule? Well she ended up being a disc. Yeah, well what did I expect, eh? The olive/cheese bread turned out beautifully though - although I put way too many olives in it, so it was quite salty.. which I didn't like, but the rest of my family loved it. I gotta tell ya though.. the Gruyere was AMAZING in this bread.. I will make a Gruyere only loaf as one of my loaves next time. The rolls were next and they were baked in two buttered Pyrex baking dishes. They turned out beautifully in shape, height and color - with no smoking! What'd I think about the final product? Well.. unfortunately, this wasn't the bread for me. I was really hoping for a chewier crust and I did not like how the crumb was so "tight", if that's a correct term? I prefer breads like Italian and French or even the No Knead bread, where there are nice open holes as opposed to a bread like commercially baked sandwich breads. Do you know what I mean? I also know that the opening/closing of the oven door and the use of bread flour and white whole wheat flour played a major factor in my bread not turning out the way I had hoped. Not to mention, my family loved all 3 - I was the only one who was disappointed. So this weekend, in between running here and there, I stopped in to the local mega mart and stocked up on AP flour and more yeast - as well as Kalamata olives, roasted garlic and sun-dried tomatoes - this bread will be made again, this time with the correct flours and the knowledge learned that buttered, metal sheet pans aren't exactly the best way to go when baking something in a high temp oven. Sheesh. Hi! I'm the Smudge! Am I driving you crazy yet?? Did I mention that this month's hostess is a gal who I hold close to my heart? Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups decided on this recipe and she did a most excellent job helping everyone out throughout the month. Thank you SO MUCH Tanna! You were a fabulous hostess and I for one, was more than happy when I saw you had chosen bread.. I was hoping someone would soon and I got my wish. =) xoxo Well all I can say now is.. there's plenty of reading and drooling available regarding this recipe - check out the ever growing Daring Baker Official Blogroll and enjoy the trip! PS - I almost forgot to mention!!! I was TRAUMATICALLY WOUNDED that day! I can not say for sure this horrible event happened while making my bread or while making the various yummies for Turkey Day dinner.. as I did not even realize it happened until the flap of skin (ewww.. sorry) caught on a dish towel. Here is my photographic proof that maybe I'm not the best person to cook with on a day when I've got numerous items in the oven, the mixer, the cutting board, the fridge, etc. Say a prayer that my thumb will live through this. Please. The silhouette of my wounded thumb in front of my monitor as I was talking with Helene and Marce on Yahoo.. we may or may not have been discussing a very disgusting (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww) topic at the time. No. I will not tell you what it was. :P xoxo

SHF No. 33 - Tropical Paradise

To be honest, when I saw that my fellow Daring Baker and sweet friend, Mary of Alpineberry was hosting this month's Sugar High Friday with the theme of Tropical Paradise, I was kinda bummed. I'm not so much a tropical kinda gal. Show me a dessert menu that has all but one tropical flavored dessert and I can almost 100% guarantee you that I will pick whatever that one lonely non-tropical treat may be. This doesn't really make good sense as I adore tropical fruits and to a gal from Ohio, The Armpit of the Midwest, that means mangos, papaya, pineapple and coconut. I love them all.. and I'd probably love those fruits deemed tropical that I've never had or heard of. So go figger, eh? But I really wanted to show support to Mary so I went in search of a tropical-like dessert. What I came up with might not SCREAM tropical, but for me - it was a walk on the wild tropical side. Staring at my fridge, which is jam packed with HUGE zucchini from our garden, I needed to use some up as the next round was ready to be picked. Of course, my first thought was zucchini bread because you can use up a lot of zucchini that way. But zucchini bread isn't exactly a tropical statement, now is it? Yeah, not so much. But.. whatsay you add a lil coconut to the mix? Or hell.. be adventurous and add a LOT of coconut to the mix! Still probably not a dessert I'd see on any given menu in say, Hawaii, but for Ohio - holy hell, we're visiting white beaches, palm trees and sipping a fruity beverage complete with lil paper umbrella via my kitchen! Wooo! (Pathetic, I know) What I simply adore about this bread is that I screwed with the ingredients and it still came out as THE BEST zucchini bread I've ever had. Who knew coconut could jazz up your run of the mill zucchini bread? I originally found this recipe on allrecipes.com and after reading the first 15 or so reviews, I figured I'd give it a shot. Well as we all know, I'm trying desperately to drop a few 1000 pounds. Okay so mebbe not so "desperately", but I'm really trying to change the way I eat and the way I think about food. So when looking at this recipe I see the ingredients call for 1 c. sugar and 1/2 c. veg oil. I decided to try to lighten that up. I cut the sugar down to 1/4 c. and added 1/2 c. of Equal. I cut the oil down to 1/4 c. and add 1/4 c. of pearsauce. Yes, pearsauce. It's like applesauce only it's made with sausage. HAHAHAHAHAAAA!! No, really it's made with pears. Duh. Fanfarkintabulous, kids! I also increased the coconut to 3/4 c. and replaced the currants with a mix of raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries and blueberries (from Trader Joes *swoon*). This loaf of moist and fruity deliciousness is just tropically enough for me to submit it to this month's Sugar High Friday. Thanks for hosting Mary! And I hope your back feels MUCH MUCH BETTER!! Coconut Zucchini Loaf Courtesy of Carol and All Recipes Makes 1 loaf 1 egg 1/2 c. vegetable oil (1/4 c. canola oil + 1/4 c. pear (or apple) sauce) 1 c. white sugar (1/4 c. sugar 1/2 c. Equal) 1 c. grated zucchini (2 c. grated zucchini (skins on)) 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/2 c. flaked coconut (3/4 c. coconut) 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (I omitted them) 1/2 c. currants (3/4 c. raisin, golden raisin, dried cranberry & blueberry mix) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9" x 5" x 3" inch loaf pan. In small pan boil one cup water. Add currants or raisins, and boil for two minutes. Drain. In mixing bowl beat egg, oil, and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. In another bowl, measure flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, coconut, walnuts, and currants or raisins. Stir to combine thoroughly. Pour all at once over batter in mixing bowl. Stir to moisten. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn out on rack. Cool and wrap. My Notes: At 40 min. my bread was getting pretty brown, so I capped the loaf pan with aluminum foil. At 50 minutes this bread was done, so check often after 40 min. I made another batch and got 12 muffins from it. I baked the muffins for 18 - 20 min. at same temp. Keep an eye out if you are a zucchini bread fan.. because my garden is chock full of zucchini with no signs of stopping any time soon, I'll be experimenting with different flavors of bread to try and use most of it up. :) xoxo

Bagels... Bageljacks... Bagelcakes.. Bageldiscs..

Hey Hey! It's that time of the month again.. The Daring Baker June Challenge post! WOO! Have you missed us?? Ya'll might guess from the subject of this post, that this month's DB challenge didn't go so swell for me. Imagine that, eh? Before I get into this kitchen disaster, I want to stress to ya'll that this was NOT the recipe's fault (meaning this recipe is NOT possessed by Beelzebub).. this recipe, when executed properly, will give you big beautiful bagels. And the best tasting bagels you've ever had. Even when you totally screw up, your bagels will still be so flavorful! Flat as pancakes.. but still wayyyyy yummy! ;) This particular kitchen disaster did not come with exploding batter, aliens invading my kitchen, or a need to start drinking heavily half way through.. I believe this is a good recipe - an excellent recipe actually.. especially if you are a more advanced baker with lots of experience in using yeast and working with dough. BUT, for someone like myself who is not at all familiar with making bread or other yeast doughs, I believe it's a recipe that you really need to make twice. Once to make all your mistakes and take notes.. and the second time to produce amazing bagels. I'd call this recipe and excellent "teaching" recipe. Seriously, I learned A LOT about yeast and dough this month. And that's what it's all about, eh? =) I haven't made my 2nd batch yet - but I will, you can be assured. And I am confident that my next batch will be perfect. This month's challenge was hosted by our lovely, Jenny of All Things Edible, and the beautiful Freya of Writing At The Kitchen Table. They decided that June would be a month we step away from the sugar and dive right into the savory. Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels is the recipe they chose and a fine recipe and choice it was. I was tickled when I saw what we'd be making because I am so afraid of working with yeast. My only experience with it is my Auntie's pizza dough, which I make a few times a year. So badly I want to be the kind of gal who makes her own bread items every week. There is NOTHING like fresh bread, is there? So yeah, the thought of working with yeast and having all the support the wonderful Daring Bakers give backing me up - I knew I'd at least get a lil closer to feeling comfortable working with yeast & dough. And they did not disappoint! The support was amazing - thank you everyone! A plain Bageljack No, my bagels did not turn out well in the looks department. They ended up being flat as pancakes and/or flapjacks and/or compact discs, etc. But like I said, they were the best tasting bagels I've ever had - and I've had a lot of bagels. I feel I know why mine did not turn out though.. and it's much more than my just being a moron. ha! The recipe says and I'll quote here: "Soon you should have a nice stiff dough. It will be quite elastic, but heavy and stiffer than a normal bread dough. Do not make it too dry, however... it should still give easily and stretch easily without tearing." I obviously don't know what a normal bread dough feels like, so I kinda guessed.. meaning I stopped adding flour once the dough stopped being sticky. Mistake No. 1 I should have kept incorporating the flour until I used up the whole 8 cups the recipe called for. Instead I think I stopped at around 6.5 - 7 cups. Ohhh it was flexible alright.. but not very heavy or stiff. In fact it was quite soft. After you knead the dough you put it into a lightly greased bowl and allow it to double in size.. my pizza dough takes about an hour to double.. therefore I didn't even check my bagel dough until an hour had passed. Ooops! I should have realized that the FOUR TABLESPOONS of yeast might quicken that rise time just a tad.. as you can see, she not only doubled - but I believe she tripled and/or quadrupled. hahaha! Mistake No. 2 Yes that is cat food/water bowls you see.. No she did not jump up on the dryer while the dough was rising - covered - because I was running the dryer, which scares the bejebus out of her. MUAHAHAA! Check your dough after 20-30 minutes - don't let it rise too much. After your dough doubles in size, you are to punch it down.. and where this recipe says "punch" it's not kidding. You really need to punch most of the air out of it.. this step was great in relieving some tension from a chaotic week at work. ;) After you punch it down, you divide it up into 15 (I got way more than 15) hunks o'dough, to which you will shape into bagels. There are two methods to shaping.. the first being the "dough-centric" method.. where you make a long cylindrical "snake" of dough and wrap it around your hand into a loop and then mash the ends together. The other is the "hole-centric" method, where you shape the dough into a rough sphere, then poke a hole through the middle with a finger and then pull at the dough around the hole to make the bagel. I went with the "hole-centric" method. Although I do not feel this is a mistake, as it obviously works for many people, I think I would have been better off going the "snake" route as it would have helped to push out even more air. 'kay once that's done, you let them sit for about 10 minutes. They will begin to rise slightly. Ideally, they will rise by about one-fourth volume... a technique called "half-proofing" the dough. By the time I had finished shaping my last bagel, my first bagels had sat for closer to 15 minutes. They did not rise by 1/4th volume. They easily doubled in size. Just shaped / On their way to raw bagel balloons Mistake No. 3 The next time I make these bagels, and I will, I will work with sections of the dough, keeping the unused dough in my fridge. I will only work with enough dough for about 4 bagels and I will shape them, let them sit for a few minutes and then throw them into their water "bath" to cook. I will not even touch the rest of the dough until those boiled bagels have been set on a clean towel to cool. Which brings me to - Mistake No. 3A Work in small batches (especially if you are baking these on a high humidity day) from the shaping to the boiling steps. Not only did my bagels "half proof" way longer than they should before hitting the boiling water, but they proofed MUCH TOO LONG after that as they were sitting there getting bigger and bigger on my counter waiting for their turn in the water.. Small batches, kids.. small batches. Another thing to keep in mind is - once your bagels hit the boiling water, they should drop to the bottom of the pot and then slowly and "gracefully" (hee!) rise to the top. The recipe says if they do not sink and only float, you will get a more "bready" bagel. Mine were all floaters - and I don't know why that is.. maybe it's because I didn't get out enough air? I have no idea. But my bagels did not turn out more "bready" regardless. hehee Wrinkly prune-like floaters / Sad, sad mf'in bagel like blobs From the boiling water, you set them on clean towels and once they are cool enough to handle you transfer them to a cookie sheet that has been dusted with corn meal. It's at this point where you can add your toppings if you so desire. I desired. I made 1/2 doz. plain, then 3 sesame, 6 with sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic and fresh basil and 6 brushed with a pear/cinnamon jelly that I melted and topped with cinnamon sugar. (as if I could go all savory!) Mistake No. 4 Only use toppings that won't burn to lil charcoal crisps. Sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil will turn into charred pieces of squickiness when baked on top of a bagel - next time, they'll go in the dough! (we weren't allowed to add anything to the bagel dough on our first batch, to keep them in check with the Real Honest Jewish Purist people, but we could go crazy on subsequent batches that I just didn't get to yet) Behold! My bevy of Bageljacks! All crispy on the outside, chewy and warm on the inside - fresh from the oven.. SO GOOD. Unfortunately, the next day they were so rubbery that I couldn't even pull a piece off to gnaw on. So I had to chuck them. Hubbs, the omniscient baking God (he can barely toast bread) said it was because I stored them in ziplock plastic bags over night and that I should have just left them out. I dunno, maybe he was right.. course I won't be admitting that to him anytime soon. *evil gril* And so it is with mucho grande thanks to Jenny and Freya for hosting a fabulous challenge! And to all my fellow DB friends - your unwaning support is the ONLY THING that gets me through some of these challenges.. I thank you kindly. =) 'kay.. git! Go check out everyone else's posts! There are plenty to see - we keep growing bigger and better with each and every passing month! xoxo

What Does A LOT of dough + A LOT of butter + 183 E-mails Make?

Why A LOT of fun & giggling, of course! Ohh and there was also a dash of panicking and then finally the outcome: Croissants! Warning: Heavily photographed post ahead.. Cute lil buttery soldiers aren't they? Aww yes, kids - the five SEVEN of us kooky gals are back with this month's baking assignment cross-post. It all started when two gals were craving a good pretzel. After that a few other gals decided they'd like to join in on the fun so we had five gals craving a good biscotti, which was great! And what's happened since? Oh yeah, babies.. another two gals wanted in on the fun and we welcomed them with open arms! Ohh that flaky goodness! This month's craving was slightly more involved than our past baking adventures. To say the very least. God. We had 1 gal who had made croissants once before in her baking class and two gals who use to make croissants for a living.. and then - well.. we had 4 gals who didn't know what they hell they were doing. har! And so we formed an e-mail support system - you know, a way to ask if the step you were working on was similar to their experiences.. or a way to share a tip or a blunder that you had experienced. Mmm hmm.. or it could or could not have went like this: From: Lisa To: Ivonne, Peabody, Helen, Brilynn, Veronica, Jenny Subject: The bad juju is starting ALREADY!! "Ugh! Last week when I made my preferment it was of batter like consistency - tonight, it's like dough??? I double checked my measurements of 3/4 c. milk 1 TB yeast & 1 1/3 c. flour. How did this happen? Should I make new? I'm panicking people! xoxo" From: Ivonne To: Lisa, Peabody, Helen, Brilynn, Veronica, Jenny Subject: The bad juju is starting ALREADY!! "Hi Lisa, I made my preferment earlier and mine was also like dough. I let it rise for 2 hours and it rose very nicely into a puffy sponge that smelled strongly of yeast. It was very similar to the sponges that we made in baking class so I'm thinking that this is okay. Ivonne" Notice the difference in tone between the two? She was my pillar, that Ivonne. That was Friday night, and that was just 2 of the 16 replies for that thread. When it was all said and done (around 11 pm), we had all discovered that Ivonne was going to be waking back up at 4 am to start her dough as she had classes all day Saturday, and Helen was thinking about doing bad things to her husband when he announced surprise guests were coming the next night for a dinner party: From: Helen To: Lisa, Ivonne, Brilynn, Peabody, Veronica, Jenny Subject: The bad juju is starting ALREADY!! "I can't sleep....I debated getting up early and then form my dough and go run, but I'd be to obsessed with it while running and might lose focus. Then I have to train 3 clients in the afternoon and hubby just told me about a dinner party for tomorrow night. I could have killed him. "Hello! Croissant Freaking Weekend here!" I might do the dough between work and dinner and roll it at night. I might be the last one posting.... BTW, the day for our post is the 30th right?! "Courage" everybody!" heheheee! But Saturday was a new day and we were all up early talking about what we had in store for the rest of the day. There was going to be a lot of dough in our small mixers and the possibility of mixer engines dying a painful death because of it. There was going to be a lot of rising time, a lot of folding time and a lot of time to sit and think and panic in between steps. Some of us were concentrating so hard on the steps to good croissant making that this soon came through the wire (cable?): From: Jenny To: Lisa, Ivonne, Peabody, Brilynn, Veronica, Helen Subject: It's going to be a good juju day! Dammit! "Just about to go pull my preferment out and get moving - also been distracted trying to figure out where the regular milk disappeared to for the kids cereal (seriously, the entire jug is missing!)" Followed a few hours later with, From: Jenny To: Lisa, Ivonne, Peabody, Brilynn, Veronica, Helen Subject: It's going to be a good juju day! Dammit! "Well I just ran into my first problem - my mixer was definitely not big enough for this - I thought I was going to kill it with that max of 4 minutes of mixing, even when I kept turning it off to pull apart the dough (so I knew it was elastic because it kept springing back together!) And fyi, the missing milk was found, in the kitchen cupboard where the mugs are, probably sitting there since 4pm yesterday, where I probably put it. I've never done that before, so I think I was very, very distracted with my croissant prep at the time!" hahahaha! Veronica was holding her own so far, but soon we found out she was having a different problem all together: From: Veronica To: Brilynn, Jenny, Lisa, Helen, Ivonne, Peabody Suject: Re: It's going to be a good juju day! Dammit! "I just formed my rectangles and refrigerated them. Those are great notes Lisa. I'm going to write mine down too. My cat is playing a guest starring role in this. He has been driving me crazy since last night. I bought a new pastry brush yesterday and washed it and left it to dry. He got on the counter (which he isn't allowed) and ran away it . The hubby ran after him and carried him back and he still had the pastry brush in his mouth (kinda like a dog with a stick). Had to wash the pastry brush real good again. This morning he woke up with me and has been watching me make the dough. I'm guarding my ingredients and utensils like a hawk!" After seeing Pashmi, I dissolved into a fit of giggles.. har! Later that morning, to my surprise, we received an update from Ivonne that went a lil something like this: From: Ivonne To: Helen, Brilynn, Veronica, Jenny, Peabody, Lisa Subject: How I Learned to Hate Croissants! "Good morning my friends! I got up at 5:30 this morning to roll out the croissant dough. I finished about 10 minutes ago. To begin with, I found the dough very difficult to roll out. While the butter was distributed nicely and didn’t really pop through or anything, it took some serious upper body strength to roll out this dough. (Note to self: visit gym.) Once I rolled it out, I then divided it in half lengthwise, because I decided to make mini-croissants instead of regular sized ones. When I rolled out my second batch of dough, I also divided it in half lengthwise and made croissants with one half and chocolate ones with the other. Mainly because I got tired of cutting and rolling croissants. In total I would say I got about 30 mini croissants and about 20 chocolate ones. I’ve attached a few pictures. While this was an interesting process, and I’m glad I did it, I honestly can’t see myself making croissants at home on a regular basis. To begin with, and perhaps this is a commentary on our hectic lives, my schedule just doesn’t fit the steps it takes to make croissants. Secondly, it’s damn hard! Thirdly, I’ve got some amazing pastry shops within driving distance that make kick-ass croissants. But I’m glad we tried! Kisses to us!" My pillar? Although not nearly fallen, was showing signs of crumbling. hahahaa! So you kind of get the idea of what we were going through, yes? THREE days of croissant making is a ride that I enjoyed immensely due to the constant chit-chatting through e-mail. It was also a ride I doubt I'll be taking again any time soon, even if my lil croissants turned out flakey, buttery and delicious (especially the pain au chocolat and pain au jambon, fancy French speak for croissants filled with chocolate and croissants filled with ham and gruyere cheese). As Ivonne stated above, croissant making just doesn't fit in with most of our lifestyles these days - personally, I had to pause the movie I was watching like 4 times! Sheesh! =) From: Lisa To: Ivonne, Brilynn, Veronica, Helen, Jenny, Peabody Subject: Re: I'm done! "Okay well.. I don't know if I've done a foolish thing or not.. I did a very quick search on the net for advice.. got 1/2 that said you could freeze the dough after rolling but before proofing and got 1/2 that said you should freeze after proofing. Knowing that pizza dough and croissant dough are not even remotely the same - I still decided to go the route of my pizza dough - which is, after it raises the first time, I freeze individual amounts before the 2nd rise. So that's what I did.. instead of proofing that first batch, I threw them into the deep freeze. The 2nd batch is proofing now.. I did some mini plain, some mini chocolate and some slightly bigger than mini ham & cheese. I'll send you pictures after I bake them later this afternoon. I can't thank you gals enough for all the support and giggles and panic we've shared! Although I hope, nay PRAY, that next month's project is much more simple - I hope we all manage to bake again on the same day so we can "discuss" throughout the process. :D Ivonne and I discussed briefly last night - about everyone submitting one suggestion for next month's project and then we'll hold a vote. After the vote we'll start a list of the "losers" for future projects so hopefully we'll get to make everyone's suggestions. How does that sound to you guys? xoxox" Yes, I froze some for enjoyment on a later date and yes, it appears that this monthly cross-post isn't nearing an end anytime soon.. HOORAY!! =) Everyone, at this point, had agreed that next month's baking adventure will be less involved - some were a lil more than agreeable: From: Jenny To: Lisa, Helen, Peabody, Veronica, Ivonne, Brilynn Subject: Re: I'm done! "So next month we are doing something simple, right? Like micorwave popcorn? :-)" From: Peabody To: Ivonne, Helen, Lisa, Veronica, Brilynn, Jenny Subject: Re: I'm done! "Now you all know why I groaned when you said this is what we were doing. Next to cream puffs these are my least favorite...and I have made them a ton." Thankfully, Peabody had made her croissant earlier in the week, as she had a mishap over the weekend and hurt her leg! Ugh! We're all hoping she's feeling better =) So, after 183 e-mails, roughly 12 pounds of butter, 389 pounds of dough (that might be a slight exaggeration) and aching shoulder, back and stomach muscles we were done, sated and very, very happy croissant bakers. :D