Pizza Dough

I was a bit under the weather this weekend and actually spent most of my Saturday asleep. (Thanks to my mom for babysitting!) Baking was not in the cards for me, however, I did find the time Sunday afternoon to make homemade pizza. 

Since my new stand mixer has a dough hook, I have been dying to use it. We are big fans of pizza and I often make it homemade, though I always use a bought quick crust mix. I came across a recipe for Fool-Proof Pizza Dough on a great food blog, Lauren's Latest, and decided to use it for my dough hook initiation. It was fabulous!

Lauren actually used the recipe to make Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks (Yum!), which bodes well for this much crust, but if you are are a thinner crust kind of family like mine, this recipe could really make two pizzas.

Lauren also had a great tip for helping your oven give pizzeria style results and again she hit a home run!  

Just put a pizza stone (or an inverted cookie sheet) in your oven and set your the temperature to preheat as high as it will go. (Mine maxes out at 500.) Press out your dough on a sheet of parchment paper (be sure you don't stretch it bigger than the surface you are baking it on) and transfer it right to the stone, parchment paper and all. (Once you transfer it, cut off any excess paper so that it doesn't hang off the side touching the wire rack. Mine started to singe a bit and my kitchen got smoky!) Bake for 9-12 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

The crust comes out perfectly crisp on the bottom while nice and chewy throughout. I will never cook homemade pizza any other way. Thanks, Lauren!

If I wasn't feeling so cruddy I would have more pictures than the one above. Lauren's awesome post covers the recipe and all the steps in beautiful photographs. Click here to check it out!

See you next time with Mini Valentine Cupcakes!

10 Cup Cookies

Copyright © To Bake or Not to Bake 2012

This isn't a very pretty cookie. It's flat, yet bumpy. It doesn't photograph well.  If you're going for looks, you'll have to search elsewhere. (It was a tough photo shoot. I kind of know how Nick Nolte's mug shot photographer felt.)

Now, if it's personality you're after, THIS is the cookie you want in your corner. It's chewy, full of flavor and I promise you can't eat just one.

Upon taking a bite, a priest once said, "Wow. I need to go to confessions after eating this." True Story. They are THAT good. 

A family friend gave this recipe to my mom years ago. It's very easy, it makes A LOT of cookies and they are always a hit. This cookie has never lets me down. 

10 Cup Cookies

1 Cup butter, softened
1 Cup flour *
1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup Brown sugar, packed
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Raisins
1 Cup Walnuts
1 Cup coconut
1 Cup oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

Cream together butter, sugars, peanut butter and eggs. 

Mix in flour, baking soda and powder. Incorporate remaining ingredients one at a time. 

Drop rounded tablespoons onto a non-stick or parchment lined cookie sheet. 

Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes. 

Let the cookies rest for about 10 minutes before transferring from the cookies sheet as they are somewhat fragile until they cool. 

(Here's a secret: Yes, cookies are heaven right out of the oven and these are  tasty while still warm, but they are absolutely at their best the next day.)

Feel free to alter this recipe if you need to. If you can't have nuts or don't like coconut, just double one of the other ingredients or add a cup of something else. Be creative! (I once used toffee chips in place of the coconut and I often use dried cherries because I am not a huge raisin fan.)

*Since the flour is really just there to hold all the other ingredients together (not necessarily to give this cookie lift) you could easily get away with gluten free flour.

Enjoy!

For the Love of Pinterest

Petit Fours pinned to Cake Ideas

You've probably heard me mention Pinterest a few times. Heck, you have probably heard lots of people talking about it. You may have friends you haven't seen in months because they've been glued to their computer for days on end, zombie-eyed with disheveled hair.

It's the new crack.

It's the website equivalent of Justin Bieber.

It's bigger than Pajama Jeans. 

It's...okay, I'll stop. I could do this all day.

For those of you not familiar with Pinterest, it's a virtual bulletin board for all the wonderful internet finds you want to hang onto. Recipes. Crafts. Clothes. New products. Favorite websites. You name it. You find it on the internet, you can save it on Pinterest.

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Mix pinned to Food Gifts

Anything found online that is of interest to you can be pinned onto boards in categories you create. (See how they did that? Interest + Pin = Pinterest! I absolutely love it!! I'm a cheap date. What can I say?)

Your friends can follow you and, in turn, you can follow others to see what fabulous things they come across.

It's great because you can access your Pinterest account from any computer with internet. Just log into Pinterest like you would Facebook and there are all your treasures! No more contemplating dinner saying, "What was that recipe I wanted to try?," only to realize it's saved in your bookmarks on your computer at WORK. (Yes, this has been me many, many times.) Now, you can pull up that recipe on your computer at home, your iPad or any mobile device.

It's also great because you organize your pins by naming the individual boards in your collection. (Ah, organization. Makes a girl happy.) A few of mine are, Cupcakes, Cooking Tips, Crafts for Kids, Books I want to Read, and Products I love.

Hulling Strawberries With a Straw pinned to Cooking Tips

I have been introduced to so many amazing cooking blogs as a result of Pinterest. I have tried lots of recipes and have a wishlist of baked goods I want to create and share here. I have a board for Cooking Tips and one for Cake Decorating tips that have both already saved me more than a few times. I have found beautiful decorating ideas, coloring pages for kids, uplifting quotes and more.

I could go on and on about all the reasons I love Pinterest. (Seriously. Call me. We'll talk for hours.)

Liquid Sidewalk Chalk pinned to Crafts for Kids

To join, you have to request an invitation. You can do this on the website but it takes a while to get a response. It's much quicker if it comes from a current member so feel free to email me and I will send you an invite.

Keep in mind, once you have an account you need to install the "Pin It" button to your browser. There are detailed and simple instructions on how to do this under the "About" tab.

If you want to follow my pins, just click the "Follow Me on Pinterest!" link above my profile picture to the right. I will "follow" you right back! Also, feel free to click to my "Pin It" button located at the bottom of each post if you want to share something or come back to it later!

Happy pinning!!

Practice, Practice, Practice

Mmmm...aluminum with Crisco. My favorite.

My aunt, Joanna, has been decorating cakes for as long as I can remember. She is self taught and does beautiful work. It's always a treat to see her latest creation! I asked her last week if she would be willing to teach me some basics next time I am in town. In the meantime, she suggested a great way to practice piping: shortening and an inverted cake pan. So genius! (Apparently, that is how cake decorator newbies are trained.) It's ideal for four reasons:

1. The consistency of the shortening mimics that of icing.
2. The cake pan gives the feel of decorating on an actual cake.
3. Perfectly good buttercream doesn't go to waste.
4. Neither does the shortening. Just scrape it from the pan and use it over and over.

So last night, I gave it a go. I did as Joanna instructed and dove right in, piping away, changing  out tips and free-handing just to see what kind of shapes I could make. The picture above was my fourth attempt. (If you like this "masterpiece," you should have seen the three before it!) Each time, I just tried to fill up all the empty space on the pan to get in as much practice as possible, not concerning myself with the design as a whole. It was about learning how to hold and maneuver the bag while getting a feel for what designs each of the tips can produce.

This was my first experiment with a piping bag and I found it to be so much fun. I am a big fan of this practice method because I could just clean my "canvas" and start over many times without the commitment of a finished cake that I wasn't happy with. Decorating is definitely a skill that requires practice and patience. I am incredibly eager to learn all I can and I can't wait to have a finished cake to post for you guys. Until then, lots of other fun and tasty baked goods will be keeping you company.

Next up, Ten Cup Cookies!

Cake Balls

All photos Copyright © To Bake or Not to Bake 2012 (Unless otherwise noted)

One night last week I baked a cake for a friend of mine. Nothing fancy, just a simple sheet cake. When the timer went off, I checked the cake but it wasn't quite done. The center of it still jiggled as I slid out the oven rack.  It needed just about 10 more minutes, I figured, so I sat down at my computer just to check my email. Before I knew it, I got caught up in editing pictures and a half hour had went by. The smell of the cake jolted me out of my concentration. I ran frantically to the kitchen and saved it from the oven. Amazingly, it wasn't as bad as it should have been. The edges were indeed burned to a crisp but the interior of the cake was unharmed. Though the cake as a whole was not (in my opinion) edible, I was determined to do something to salvage what I could and decided to make cake balls.

Cake balls are really just three ingredients: cake, icing and chocolate to dip them in. I have to be honest here. As simple as the ingredients make them sound, to me, they are very time consuming and I have a hard time getting them to look as clean and pretty as the pros do. But they are always a hit and very fun treats to eat!

This is how I make mine:

Cake Balls 

1 sheet cake (1 box mix, prepared)
1 container of icing 
Melting chocolate *

Crumble the cake into a mixing bowl. Microwave the icing for about 20 seconds (just enough to soften it a little) and stir. Pour over the crumbled cake. Mix well. (I also added 1/2 a cup of mini chocolate chips since I had some on hand.) Put the mix in the refrigerator for about an hour to make it easier to work with, then form into round 1-inch balls. (I use a small scoop to divide out the portions so that they are equal in size and then just rolled them in my hands to give them a good round shape.) Place rolled balls onto a parchment or wax paper-lined cookie sheet and then into the freezer for a couple of hours or even overnight.

Prepare your work area by laying out a few sheets of wax paper. Melt your chocolate according to package directions. Dip the cake balls into the chocolate, shake off any excess and place on the wax paper. Sprinkle with embellishments and allow to set up. 

The dipping is where things get a bit hairy for me. I always use a plastic fork with the middle tines broken out to dip the balls. It works pretty well, but I have a few issues. (I don't have any photographs of my mistakes so I hope what I say next makes sense.)

The first issue I have is that the excess chocolate tends to hang out on the fork and then transfer to the wax paper leaving a big messy puddle of chocolate around each ball that I then have to cut off once they set up. The edges are not very clean and pretty afterwards, but I remedied that this time by placing them in the decorative candy papers. It's all about improvising!

Second, when transferring the dipped cake balls to the wax paper they don't want to leave the fork very willingly. I used a toothpick at the very bottom of each one to help coax it off, but what sometimes happens is that in the process of pushing it off the fork, the ball tends to roll a bit causing any sprinkles or embellishments to be on one side of the ball rather than just on top.

Even though these were a bit challenging for me (I am open to any suggestions and tips!**) I love the learning process and photographing the finished product. In the end, I thought they turned out quite nice. And, I am told, delicious to boot! The compliments more than make up for all the hard work.

*I have mentioned before that I use the bark/chocolate that is packaged in its own tray to make things easier. Also, I used the white chocolate and tinted some of it different shades of pink. Colored candy melts work, too.

**My boss gave me a great tip this morning. She uses toothpicks to dip round treats. Insert the pick, dip the ball, gently shake off the excess the pull it out once it's on the wax paper. Most of the time chocolate will fill in the tiny hole, but if not, just dip the toothpick back into the chocolate and fill it in. I will definitely try this next time!

Ain't She a Bute?

Not a fan of the picture, but you get the idea.

Here she is. Johnny's birthday present to me. I couldn't be happier. She is even more glorious than I ever imagined and I don't just mean her looks. Yes, she matches my kitchen walls perfectly in pistachio green but, wow, does this mixer make my life so much easier. I was an old school hand mixer gal and I have officially been reformed.

Thursday night I made a sheet cake (more on how I corrected that mega fail later) and I was ecstatic that the batter could be mixing on its own while I cleaned up my work space. What the what?! (In my best Liz Lemon voice.) You mean all this time I could have been the queen of kitchen multitasking? No more standing there holding my hand mixer while grocery lists write themselves in my head. Never again will I  stretch over to stir something on the stove only to lean the mixer just a bit too far sideways spewing batter onto my cabinet doors. And being able to clean up while the mixing is being done for me? That just made my year. Look out, world. Efficiency has moved into my kitchen and she's here to stay. 

White Chocolate Strawberry Fudge

Copyright 2012

This recipe is ridiculously easy. I had heard of two-ingredient fudge before, but only in chocolate form. I found this version at one of my new favorite sites, Cookies and Cups, and the recipe lends itself to so many flavor combinations!

2 Ingredient White Chocolate-Strawberry Fudge

1 bag white chocolate chips

1 can strawberry icing

Melt the chips in the microwave. Start with one minute, then stir and follow with 30 second increments stirring in between. Once the chips are almost completely melted, keep stirring until the last bits finish to avoid having to microwave again and risk scorching. 

Once melted, stir in the frosting. Pour into a greased or foil-lined 9 x 9 pan. Allow to set up before cutting (about 1 hour).

See? How easy is that?! It would be fun to experiment with different flavors. Peanut butter chips with Funfetti frosting and sprinkles. Butterscotch chips with cream cheese frosting. White chocolate chips with lemon frosting. Mint chips and chocolate frosting. I could do this all day...