Hawaiian Bread

I'm feeling much better than last post, which was pretty mopey. I apologize; I don't want this place to be full of negativity. But I also don't want to hide my emotions. It's about striking a balance, I suppose. So...let me tell you about my job. I'm a real baker now. Not that I haven't always been real, but you know what I mean. I get up between 4 and 5 in the morning and start whipping out scones, biscuits, and muffins. It's fast paced, time sensitive, and I love it.

A part of me can't believe that I'm doing what I've wanted to do for so long. My dreams are coming true. And yeah, it's been a lot of work, a lot of trawling through job postings and a lot of rejection. But I did it. And now, I feel like I can take on the world. 

I don't bake bread at work (maybe in the future?), but I make a lot of it at home. We go through it pretty quickly, which I love, because it means I can make lots of different kinds. Hawaiian bread is easy, lightly sweet, and makes killer hamburger/sandwich buns. Or, if you're like me, toast it and break out your secret Biscoff stash. It's worth it. 

Hawaiian Bread
(This amount made a smallish loaf and 6 rolls) 

4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs
1 1/3 cups pineapple juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 teaspoon ginger
2/3 teaspoon vanilla
2 (1/4 ounce) envelopes yeast
1/3 cup butter, melted

Beat the eggs. Add the pineapple juice, sugar, ginger, vanilla, and butter.
Place flour. Stir in the egg mixture until well-combined. Sprinkle in the yeast, one packet at a time, and mix. Blending with a spoon will be hard, so you may have to use your hands. Make sure it is thoroughly combined. Alternatively...use a stand mixer. The dough will be soft and kind of sticky.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
Place in greased and floured loaf pans or shape into rolls. Cover and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or golden brown.

Brazo de Mercedes

Moving is hard. I've never actually picked up my life and moved, at least not in this way. I've lived in a dorm and a different country, but I've never had to pay bills, set up internet, or set up a piece of IKEA furniture (it SUCKS). This is more...permanent. Real. It can be scary, and a little bit lonely (I'm so glad I have my roommate), but I have people who really care about me in my life. Transitions will never stop being difficult. So I just have to wait and let time settle things down. 

That up there is my kitchen. It's not the biggest or flashiest, but it belongs to me. I can put whatever I want in the cabinets, I can make sure it stays clean. So I think it's wonderful. I didn't get a chance to bake in it until last night, since I've been running around crazy like a headless chicken, trying to get my life in order. I went straight home and packed immediately after graduation, and made the drive up here after a week. 2 SUVs full of stuff, 5 hours on the road, and 3 trips to IKEA later, things are finally resembling normal. 

Before I left, I wanted to give myself a baking challenge. I'd never made a rolled dessert before, and had a bunch of eggs that needed to be used, so I found this recipe for Brazo de Mercedes on Jun-blog (check him out, he takes great photos!). Brazo de Mercedes is a Filipino dessert comprised of a layer of sticky sweet meringue rolled around vanilla custard. I was so pleased that nothing went horribly wrong--rolling cakes isn't so bad! I especially enjoyed my slice cold, straight from the freezer.

Keep your eyes peeled for posts from my new kitchen! 

Brazo de Mercedes 
from Jun-blog

For the custard
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup water
8 egg yolks
 
For the meringue
10 egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the condensed milk, butter, vanilla extract and water in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until well combined, about 5 minutes. Beat the egg yolks in a small mixing bowl. Place the mixing bowl over a double boiler over low heat. Gradually pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the yolks, stirring to prevent curdling over low heat until the mixture has the consistency of a custard. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Line a 14 x 16 in cookie sheet with greased parchment paper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. make the meringue by beating the egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the meringue forms stiff peaks. It is important not to overmix the meringue. Then gently fold in the vanilla extract.
Spread the meringue evenly on the lined cookie sheet to form a 1/4-in thick layer. Tread a cake decorating comb lightly on the surface of the meringue to create a ridge pattern. Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 20 minutes or until the meringue has set.
Remove the meringue from the oven and invert it onto another sheet of greased parchment paper. Peel away the parchment paper on the top and spread the custard evenly on top of the cooked meringue. Roll it carefully to form a log. Brush the top of the log with softened butter and brown again in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the log from the oven and slice thinly.

Daring Bakers! Pão de Queijo

I am a college graduate now. I can no longer call this a blog about messing around in a dorm kitchen, because in a few days I'll be moving into an apartment with my own kitchen. College was wonderful, and helped me to discover what kind of person I am, and who I want to be. That process doesn't ever stop, but these four years have been some of the most formative of my life. 

That would be me.

I don't really do goodbyes, and I'm trying not to be sad. The people that matter most in my life will stay in my life. Yes, I'll miss not being able to walk next door or down the street just to stop by and say hello to my friends. That will be hard. And no matter how many times I return to campus, nothing will ever be the same as when I was a student. But that can't be a cause for sorrow. It's time to keep moving forward. And I'll be able to have experiences I never did in school. Dinner parties and movie nights in my apartment, concerts and farmer's markets...

I promise I will keep you updated on my life. The blog is not going to stop. Now on to business...Pão de Queijo. I love saying this. It basically means cheese bread in Portuguese, and is enjoyed in Brazil. I've actually had something like it before, from a mix my sister bought. These are gluten free, crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. The secret is tapioca flour, which is actually pretty cheap. Check out the Asian food aisles of your grocery store for a bag that looks like this. Try them out if you please.

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge took us on a trip to beautiful Brazil! Renata of "Testado, Provado & Aprovado!" taught us how to make Pao De Queijo, tasty cheese buns that make the perfect snack or treat, and that will make your taste buds samba!

Pão de Queijo

250 gm (2 cups) tapioca starch (If you have access to sour tapioca, you can use 250gm (2 cups) of each)
1/2 cup (125 ml) whole milk
1.5 tablespoons (20 gm) butter
1/2 teaspoon  salt (or to taste depending on how salty your cheese is)
1 1/2 cups (125gm) Monterey Jack Cheese (I used a mix of mozzarella and parmesan), coarsely grated
2 large eggs


Heat milk, butter, and salt in a small sauce pan until it comes to a boil. Watch closely as it may boil over. Remove from heat and set aside.
Sift tapioca starch into a large bowl.
Pour the boiled (hot) mixture over the tapioca and start stirring with a fork. The milk mixture will not be enough to form a dough yet. You will have a lumpy mixture, that's what it is supposed to be.
Keep stirring with the fork, breaking down the lumps as much as you can, until the mixture cools down to warm.
At this point, preheat your oven to moderately hot 400° F/200° C/gs mark 6
Add the grated cheese to the tapioca mixture and mix well, now using your hands.
Add one egg at a time, mix with your hands until dough comes together. I suggest you lightly beat the egg with a fork and add little bits until the dough comes together into a soft but pliable dough. You only have to knead it a bit, not as much as you knead a yeasted bread. It's OK if it is slightly sticky.
Form balls with the dough and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat or lightly greased with vegetable oil. If necessary, you can oil your hands to make shaping easier. The size of the balls may vary from small bite-sized balls to the size of ping pong balls. They will puff up quite a bit after baking.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until they just start to brown on the bottom. You may have golden spots of cheese on the crust. Don't over-bake as they will get hard and bitter.
 Serve hot or warm. If you don't want to eat them all immediately, form the rest of the dough into balls and freeze it. 

To My Second Family.

I have, inevitably, been changed again. I'm sitting here at my desk, back at school, trying to figure out how to put into words what has happened to me this week. It's difficult to explain...words fail a little bit. Oh, I went on a service trip and made some new friends? That's nice. But that devalues the experience. I have learned. I have learned that I have a spirit that needs to serve, in my own unique way. I have realized how I have been waiting for a community of like minded individuals to share my life with. 

People are strong, so much stronger than even they might know. I saw it manifested in the resilience of the homeowners we served, so thankful for their lives even though their houses had been ripped apart, possessions scattered to the winds. I saw it in my beautiful new family, so willing to open up and tell their deepest stories to people they met days ago. They make me laugh and cry. They break my heart with the painful experiences they have gone through, then put it back together with their kindness towards a world that has sometimes been unfair to them. Everyone is so much more complex than I could ever imagine. Even the people I thought I had all figured out. 

I struggle to express my love for my new family. Nothing seems to have enough power. To those of you reading this, know that I care so deeply for each of you, so much deeper than I can express. Life is magnificent and tragic and more than I ever could have hoped for. I'm a little scared for the future, but right now, I'm settling into a feeling of peace. I can face the future. We can face the future. 

Scenes from my Life - Senior Year Edition

Haven't been around much lately, I'm sorry. I made some killer pumpkin pie dip and a peanut butter and honey crumb cake, but didn't post them...it was too dark for pictures, and people just wanted to eat...you get the idea. Sometimes life doesn't want to be a blog post. I was all ready to post about baked apples, but I didn't like how they turned out, and I didn't want to pretend they had. Not blogworthy. So I thought I'd do another scenes from my life post. Is that okay? Let's go!

 My school is pretty. I love how much this spot can change depending on the season or even the time of day.

 

Jesse James Days. He was caught here, so they have bank robbery reenactments every year in the beginning of September. Small town quirks.

 

Pastry chefs at school got bored and made a Minecraft brownie castle I guess? 

 

 Oh hey, Brooklyn! I went on some lovely fall break adventures. Despite having visited NYC many times, I had never actually been to Brooklyn. I already can't wait to go back.

 

Aw yiss, fighting dinosaurs. I had never been to the Museum of Natural History before. There is so much to explore!

 Sigh. Nothing like a good, real bagel.

 

Another strange small town quirk. M&Ms are made in Hackettstown, New Jersey!

 Richmond, Virginia! The weather was unusually cold and wet, but we made the most of it.

Pizza. Pizza bigger than my face. Pizza too big to fit on one plate. I have been waiting for you for so long!


Regular blog posts will return soon. Hope you enjoyed this interlude!

The Wedding Cake

Normally around this time, I would be blogging about some cool Daring Bakers thing I made, but I didn't have time this month since I was kind of busy trying not to get engulfed by frosting. So if you're interested in this month's challenge, I'll redirect you to Hannah's blog. Go say hi, she's nice.

Anyway, wedding cake. I can't believe I did it. I'm honestly still kind of in shock. But you know what? I feel like I can conquer the world know. At least the baking world. I made a cake for one of the most important days of someone's life and it wasn't a disaster. In fact, people liked it. Really liked it. Sorry if I'm bragging. Getting a big head over one's achievements is unbecoming. I would love to show you some pictures if you would care to look! 

 

Some action shots my mom took. Thanks, mom! I'm looking kinda haggard at this point. If you're wondering what I'm doing, I was measuring a wooden dowel that I proceeded to saw down to size, then stick in the cake for structural stability.

Piping a border around the top layer of cake. Or at least, posing so it looks like I am. I'm sure my face would have been much more scrunched up and hideous if I was actually in the act of piping. The cake is sitting on a cake circle, which is on a non-slip shelf liner, which is on a pizza stone, which is on a turntable. Innovation!

The mostly decorated cake hanging out in the fridge. I'm freaking out at this point because I'm afraid some catastrophe could occur before the wedding, leaving me cakeless.

But it didn't! It survived! Hooray! I spent the twenty minute car ride in the backseat, hunched protectively over the cake. I should probably mention that the cake itself was vanilla with raspberry buttercream in the top layer, vanilla pastry cream in the middle, and chocolate ganache in the bottom. Yum.

The end. I'm so glad I now have this experience under my belt. If any of you are thinking of making a wedding cake and don't know where to start, I would highly recommend Heather's tutorial. It really helped me get a grasp of portion sizes, correct timelines, and other techniques.

350 Cupcakes

The masses have been getting antsy with my lack of posting. I apologize. This has been a weird summer for blogging. I came into it all inspired and motivated from my time abroad, only to find that I just...didn't have time for everything I had hoped to accomplish. Blogging got pushed to the side as I spent most of my weekdays working, too tired to blog by the time I got home. And my weekend baking aspirations had to be put on hold; instead I spent that time being shuttled back and forth from the Mayo Clinic (family health issues, I won't go into details). Now the summer is almost over and my posting level is at all all time low. Honestly? It scares me. I don't want the drudgeries of everyday life sucking out my will to bake and write. When life simply becomes a routine, it's time to stop and reassess. 

I won't say that I haven't accomplished anything. Some of you may know that two weekends ago I made 350 cupcakes for a wedding. It was one of the most fulfilling (and yeah, stressful) things I have ever done. I'm still a little in shock that I did it all by myself without any major disasters. The kitchen was coated in a fine layer of sugar for a few days after, but that was easily remedied. Would you like to see some pictures of my work? 

After all the cupcakes were made. Oy vey.

I am so happy that nothing collapsed, melted or got crushed on the car ride over or in the heat!

Looking much calmer than how I felt. Kind of a fake smile though.

So there you go. Keep your eyes open for more wedding cake, and more posts in general (I hope) in the future.

One Year

Hey....hey guys...it's my blogiversary! The first of hopefully many! I'm so excited to have made it this far. I couldn't have done it without you readers. I'm so grateful to everyone who encouraged me to start this blog up when I was feeling unsure about whether or not I should commit to this, and to everyone who kept me going even when it felt like no one (not even myself) cared. I don't have some sort of commemorative recipe for this occasion, unfortunately (it's been kind of busy around here) but my birthday is quickly approaching, so I promise to post something delicious and celebratory. 

In the meantime, I'd like to share some highlights of my blogging year. 

1st post - Mayan Chocolate Sparklers 

I still love these so much, but don't often get the opportunity to make them. They inspired me to start the blog, I think.

The most popular post was...Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I don't blame ya, it's a perfect flavor combination. But I think the data was somewhat skewed, because this post was featured on the Secret Recipe Club, therefore getting more attention than most of my other posts. Before I started participating in SRC, the most popular post, by a landslide, was....

Mountain Dew Pancakes. You guys are a bunch of weirdos. But I'm glad that's my blog audience, a bunch of weirdos. We'll all get along fine here.

The post I am most proud of was the Vanilla Roses Cake. It made me realize that I can decorate, and people appreciate the work I do. It's a really good feeling.

Guys, I'm so happy. I feel like we've come a long way together, and I still have a long ways to go, so I hope you stay with me.

Oh, and I bought myself a blogiversary present. My own domain name. It's okay to keep your old bookmarks and things (you'll automatically get redirected) but I have a new home at www.adustingofsugar.com :)

Thanks for the great year,

Rebecca