Thanksgiving 2013

Very grateful for the chance to share today with my awesome family. We were missing a few... . But they were never more than a thought away. Other than eating late due work schedules, sick people and our car getting broke into, our day was filled with traditions, family stories and fun! One of our traditions every year is to try a new recipe... This year, I decided the recipe would be the breakfast treat to share while we watched the parade. (Another family tradition!) 

SOOOOO, I decided to make homemade "Salted Caramel Bacon Donuts" I keep hearing rave reviews about bacon & salted caramel this and bacon & salted caramel that. Anyway, after searching for several months for good recipes, no luck! I came up with my own, Here are the results.... They were delicious!

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp buttermilk
• 1/4 tsp salt
•  2 cups cake flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
•  2 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp butter cut
• 3 tbsp sea salt
• 2 cups caramel sauce frosting
•  1/2 lbs. cooked bacon (crumbled)
•  Lightly spray pan.And set aside. In bowl shift flour, cocoa , baking soda, and baking powder. Mix in sugar and salt, add in butter using your fingers to blend everything together. In a small bowl, mix egg, buttermilk and vanilla. Then add to flour mix and fold together.
•  Pour batter in donut pan so that it's 1/2 full and bake for 8-10 mins.
•  Once bake take out and cool. After it has cool, drizzle caramel sauce over donuts and sprinkle sea salt and crumbled bacon over the top.

TTT's - National Cake Day

As we starting planning for our National Cake Day celebration, we had a hard time trying to decide which cake we wanted to make. So we returned to our heritage and tried to recreate an old Buttermilk Chocolate Cake from my Childhood.

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Instructions
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan and set aside.
   In a medium bowl, shift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
   In a medium mixing bowl, cream together sugar, eggs, buttermilk, applesauce, oil and vanilla.
   Next add flour mixture to egg mixture and fold together until well blended. Stir in the boiling water by hand, mix well, the batter will look runny, but it will work.
   Pour evenly into floured pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
   Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to decorate. (I just leave mine in the pan and frost the top).  This cake is very delicious by itself, served either slightly warm or chilled!  We frosted this cake with our new salted caramel frosting and added sprinkles. but I remember it being served with cherry pie filling and whipped cream.

"Tuesday's with Dorie"... Double Chocolate Cookies

Our recipe today was Dori's Double Chocolate Cookies found on page 329 in the "Baking with Julia"

Love these cookies... simple and sweet goodness that works both as a drop cookie and a rolled freezer cookie. They make great gift or sack lunch cookies because the hold there shape very well and yet stay soft and chewy. We love to dunk them is milk!

"Tuesday's with Dorie"... Rustic Pumpernickle Loaves

I finally have a day to call my own and I was so excited to finally get back into the swing of "Tuesday's with Dori". I have missed spending time being creative in the kitchen... :(

So today we were challenged to make the Pumpernickel Loaves that can be found on page 95 in the "Baking with Julia". I have made pumpernickel bread before and this recipe was easy but a little time challenging for me with all the steps and then hanging the bread. And I was majorly disappointed, after going to all the work, that my bread was a little dense and tasteless. I think I will try the recipe again, but at this point I think I like my other recipe much better. This is the first recipe that I have tried that I was a little disappointed with.