September 11, 2017

September 11, 2017

Big Baking Day!!

Wow we baked so much today and it was a little crazy!

Blueberry Muffins:
First of all, I learned that these muffins are not at all like your average box of muffins. They are temperamental and much more delicate! I found that they were actually really hard to make. Mine turned out as blue, misshaped, inconsistent balls of disaster. I definitely need to try that recipe again. One extremely important part of making blueberry muffins is to wait until the very last second possible to take out the blueberries. Also, even though I was trying REALLY HARD not to under mix my ingredients, I need to make sure my melted butter and eggs are better incorporated. It really wrecks the muffins otherwise. When I someday make these muffins correctly I would like to add lemon to it. Lemon blueberry is a fabulous combination.

Scones:
I actually was very impressed with my end result on these. The production and preparation went really well and it was really straightforward. I think one key component is making sure you have unmixed chunks of butter so that you get the flaky biscuit. Also the folding/mixing process is important so that you can incorporate everything but into layers. I would have loved to add golden raisins and cinnamon. I thank that would have been very yummy.

Pecan-Cranberry Bread (Date-Nut Bread):
So because everyone took the dates and nuts before I could get any, I made pecan-cranberry bread. You were not a fan of the results overall but my bread turned out pretty decently. I made the same mistake that I did with my blueberries and under mixed my batter. I think I was just so concerned about over mixing it that I hardly mixed it at all. So next time I will incorporate my batter better. I don't think I will adjust the recipe anymore, I wasn't a huge fan of it so I probably wouldn't make it ever again.

Crumb Coffee Cake:
This would have turned out almost perfectly but I didn't put enough chunky strussel on top. Next time I will add more. I think it might have been delightful to add some walnuts to the batter. I love nuts with everything and the coffee cake with nuts would have been fantastic. Since I didn't get to taste my cake, I assume that it tastes good and that it went well.

WHAT I LEARNED:
Today I learned a lot about MIXING... Mixing is very important if it s not done right it can really change a recipe. Butter melting, eggs cooking separately, and chunks of flour make for a really gross dessert. I was not impressed with those aspects of my baking today but I learned how to make it better for next time.