How many pans is too many?

I have TOO MANY PANS. Or at least, my cupboard thinks so. I need a hard hat just to open it. It's a freakin' construction zone...for cake. Or something.

I'm trying to figure out how to organize it. I almost need to have separate slots for each item in order to keep it straight. Perhaps writing it out will help with that.

Lets take an inventory shall we?

Cookie sheets (2)
Cooling racks (3, on legs)
Muffin tins (1 large, 1 small, 1 mini)
Round cake tins (2- 9")
Round springform pans (1- 8", 1- 9", 1- 11")
Square cake tins 9"x9" (1 glass, 1 metal)
Rectangular cake tins 9"x13" (1 glass, 1 metal)
Bundt pan (1)
Mini cheesecake pan (1)
Glass pie plates (1)
Disposable metal pie plates (5+)
Disposable metal meal containers (5+)

So maybe not THAT many. But it is a lot don't you think? Considering I don't own a pizza pan, or a fluted pan...It's a little much

Guess what's on my Christmas list this year...DONUT PAN. I think I'm pathological  Why would anyone need a donut pan? Its justified by saying that I can't eat donuts unless I make them myself (due to a corn intolerance that makes it impossible to buy anything with icing) right? But then again, one might ask why I needed a mini cheesecake pan, and I will respond by saying that I have used it more times then my spring-form pans. Mini cheesecakes are amazing, and delicious AND you generally only eat one (...an hour), which is waaaaay less then a slice off a 9" cake. So perhaps a donut pan would get used more then you would think! I hope there are low-fat donut recipes, or I may be on the hunt for new pants soon.

Ginger Soft Cookies and more

The first cookie I think of when people say 'Christmas' is the ginger cookies. They hold a very special place in my heart. It's a delicious place.

These cookies are chewy, soft and flavourful. They are also really really easy to make. I'm eating one right now. For breakfast.
...
I am now on my second breakfast cookie. You should be too.

Resolutions

Today when I get home I will be brining a turkey. I will also be making a coconut cream pie, squash, eggs benedict, cream puffs, and possibly some kind of rum based something.

Hopefully I can manage to take pictures and make posts of all of these things. Hopefully I will get a camera for Christmas so they won't all be iPhone pics :P! These are my pre-New years resolutions.
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Baking and Other Amusements

I baked things today. Lots of things. Approximatly 8 dozen of one and two dozen of another, I'm pretty sure I have been baked into traction.

I sometimes forget I started this blog. But I remembered today, and that's what matters! Though I didn't remember until halfway through baking the last cookies. Sorry about that. I'll try to do better. Or not.

Today's baking is brought to you by The Annual Staff Potluck at my work. For some reason I thought it would be really impressive if I made mini cheesecakes. GLUTEN-FREE mini cheesecakes. Sometimes I over qualify my abilities. I do make a mean cheesecake though, so follow along if you're interested. There's cookies too. Are you following now? How about cake? Cannibal chocolate chips?

This is what happens when you bake lot. I also own a dishwasher. I warned you.

This is Kahlua Chocolate Cheesecake. In mini form! Its even more delicious with the Gluten-free crust I made. I think.

I used the crust recipe from a lovely blog called The Pioneer Woman. I'm sort of in love with her. In a completely platonic way of course, at least that's what I tell myself.

The wonderful part about this is that it's not modified to be gluten-free. Unlike many recipes that are GF, this recipe was not intended as a "replacement product", but more created to be exactly what it is, a pecan crust with chocolate mixed in. Oh and Kahlua. It gives the dessert an earthy taste, and cuts the richness a bit too.

The Pioneer Woman uses it as a base for her Mocha Silk Pie which I definitly did not make yesterday andforgottotakeanypicturesof. She does not bake her crust, but  I did. The melted chocolate holds things together. I also added butter which I'm not sure was wise, but whatever. It was delicious, and it gave me the idea to use this crust with my cheesecakes so some GF people could enjoy cheesecake with me! But not people with nut allergies. Or dairy intolerances (sorry guys). Also I might have added cocoa to the recipe only to find on the label that it might have come in contact with wheat. *SIGH*. I  really have to get better at this.

Lets just get this over with shall we?

Kahlua Chocolate Cheesecake (Semi GF)

Modified from THIS RECIPE (yes, I chose the only Cheesecake recipe to include flour in it. I just left it out. I choose recipes based on the ratio of ingrediants. In this case I wanted a double recipe for easy addimadition and multayplacation. and I had 4 pkgs of cream cheese so this worked out well. Also, it had Kahlua in it which I was planning on adding anyways. FATE.)

Ingrediants

CHEESECAKE

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. Cream cheese (room temp.)

2/3 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
Kahlua to taste
1 cup miniature chocolate chips

CRUST

1 cup Pecans, Finely Chopped/Smashed
3 tbsps Sugar
1 ounce Semi Sweet Chocolate, Grated. OR 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips, Chopped
1 tsp Kahlua
1/4 c melted butter

 
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
 
Make the crust. Combine chopped pecans, sugar, and grated or chopped chocolate. Stir with a fork to combine, add in Kahlua, stirring until combined. Stir in butter. Press mixture into the bottoms of muffin tins, best when lined with foil liners (I used paper and they were fine, though the wrappers do not hold them together well so be careful).


Beat cream cheese, and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. And for the Gods sake put on an apron you slob (I forgot this step). Blend in liquor. I used what was left in my mini $3 bottle after the crust. Melt chocolate chips; add to cream cheese mixture  1/2 a cup at a time, until blended. Place 1 cookie in bottom of 12 paper lined muffin cups. Fill to top with cream cheese mixture. They puff up while baking so do not over-fill. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until set. Let cool in pan then remove to wire rack.

These freeze beautifully. You can garnish them with whatever you like, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, anything.

Stay tuned for Ginger Cookies and more random acts of baking!

Revival

So wow, I suck at commitment right?

The absolute master of starting projects and the forgetting about them almost instantly. I think I have short term project loss. It's a thing. Look it up.

I need routine is all. As long as I can work projects into my routine, it's all good. Then it's like breathing. Or eating. I think eating is probably more accurate. I'm pretty sure I eat more than I do breathe. I should probably get that checked out.

SPEAKING OF EATING

I'm good at eating, did I mention that? I also pretty good at LIFE commitments like friends and stuff. Why is that? Baking, that's why. Don't ask questions. I just know these things.

Today I shall bake for you... Absolutly nothing. My life commitments may suffer for it, but strangely all this eating>breathing buisness is making my waistline expand. I have to go to the pool and do five THIRTY FIVE MILLION laps and then sit in the hot tub for an hour.

Snazzy.

Happy Easter!

There are flowers on the table (and even a tablecloth *gasp*!).

There is sunshine coming through the windows.

Everything in the fridge is pastel.

There are many brightly coloured crumpled up foil wrappers on my floor.

YEP. It's Easter! And all the chocolate is gone. Damn it. I think I hid a bag with a handful left in it somewhere around here...

Its a perfect Easter weekend, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and the neighborhood kids are indoors hunting for eggs (Ahhh the blessed quiet...I mean. Sweet little angels.) There is pink lemonade and pastel coloured marshmallow treats in my fridge. I am going to bake a ham, with whipped garlic potatoes and homemade caesar salad. There will be cake afterwards, and possibly a wine I picked up at the LCBO that said 'good with ham!' on it. 

It's really too bad I have all this homework. 

Maybe i'll post some pictures if I can borrow a camera, the house is too cute to handle. 

Easter Baking?

I fail at Easter baking.

I couldn't think of anything seasonal that I felt I could make. I'm great with Christmas, Birthdays, Valentines Day, and Halloween, but Easter had me stumped.

I suppose I could've made hot cross buns, but honestly I find them incredibly bland. I could've made some fruit dessert, but as it turns out one of my guests for Easter dinner hates all kind of berries (which is pretty much the only fruit I have at the moment), and my room-mate has a wheat intolerance so that cut out any kind of cake unless I wanted to run to the bulk barn and buy loads and loads of random flours and xanthan gum or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I love to make baking that she (and my mother) can both enjoy, just not at the last minute. I work well with the familiar.

As it turns out my room-mate was going to make a Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Cake anyways. I felt left out. I'm a baker! I need to bake. Or at least...make dessert. I'm a desserter. How can I make an entire Easter dinner with no Karen's Big Delicious Dessert at the end? I'm very selfish. I love to hear how much people love my baking. I'm crushed when people don't like it. I don't care about cooking, because honestly I'm a horrible cook.

So I cheated. I made Karen's Famous Delicious Dessert That Everyone Loves, But Me.

Yep. It's not even mine. I combined various recipes one of which is from DOUBLE WIDE KITCHEN.

Its the infamous Peanut Butter Marshmellow Squares. Everyone loves them. Okay even I love them. Just not after I've made them for some reason. I think it has something to do with eating all the leftover butterscotch. If I see these at a potluck, they're the first thing I grab. Honestly I think its the bright colours. I'm like a magpie. Maybe I should add edible sparkles or something.

My mother never made these for me, we weren't a sweets family, and these are SWEET. SO I looked them up online a year ago, and it turns out they are the easiest thing to make. ever. Easier than rice krispies.

Watch this.

Karen's Famous Delicious Dessert That Everyone Loves, But Me.


1/2 c Butter
1/2 c to 1 c Peanut Butter (depending on you're love of the stuff. I used 1 cup)
1 package (300g or 12 oz or 1-1/2cups) butterscotch chips
1 bag of brightly coloured marshmallows (not those boring white ones!) 


Melt butter in saucepan. Add everything but the marshmallows, stir until melted over lowlowlow heat. This takes about a minute. Cool for a minute. Stir marshmallows in quickly, pour into lined 9x13 pan. DONEZIES.

Let cool. I keep mine in the freezer. They don't get too solid so you can pull them out, cut off a slice and put them back. That way they last forever. FOREVER. I have a friend who will come over specifically to eat these. Honestly...like the brownies one of these is too much for me. They are so sweet. They hurt my stomach. And my mouth. But they love my soul. Well maybe loves a strong word. But that's all that matters right? We'll see if they go well with Lemon Cake tomorrow :).