Valentine's French Bread

As mentioned in previous post Valentine's Cupcakes, Jerry and I were spending Friday, February 13, 2015 together baking Valentines gifts for our neighbors.

The Cupcakes were just one part of our gift.  The next part was Homemade French Bread.

We started with French Bread since it would need time to rise and we needed to make 2 loaves.  Jerry made one loaf and I made one.

We used a recipe from a friend and of course, the Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer....to do the mixing and kneading.

If you cannot read the recipe above, and would like a copy, please email me and I weill send it to you.

I am warming up the Kitchen Aid Mixer Bowl before adding the warm water, yeast, etc.

Using a Candy Thermometer to test the warmth of the water the yeast will go in.

Jerry is getting ready to mix and knead the dough!
 (with the help of the Artisan Kitchen Aid)

 My dough being punched down and then I covered it with towel for 2nd rising.

 Jerry's dough before being punched down.

Jerry punching down that beautiful dough

 After the second rising, we each rolled out the dough to be about 15" x 4" and then rolled it up to be the loaf.

 Rolled up loaf. ...before being put back on cookie sheet for final rising.

Final rising

Picture of one of the loaves right before being put in oven to bake.

Beautiful Homemade French Bread!

See next post about the Valentine's Pasta

Valentine's Cupcakes

Today is Friday, February 13, 2015. .... One day before Valentine's Day.

Jerry had a holiday from school so we had what we called Fun Friday!!!!  We were busy!

Sidenote:  I apologize for the Valentine Cupcakes, Valentine French Bread and Valentine Pasta being linked up to parties for the week of February 16.  I make the gifts usually day of Valentines and cannot post them before:)

We wanted to make Valentines Cupcakes for 3 of our neighbors.....

So, using the Joy Of Cooking recipe, we made Vanilla Cupcakes.

Above is the ingredients.  If you click on the link above photo, the recipe is on that page.

We put the cute cupcake papers in the muffin tin.  I had leftover decorative toothpicks from last year.

Ingredients...I always think pictures of the ingredients look so nice and colorful.

Jerry is zesting the lemons from our fabulous Meyer Lemon Tree for the cupcakes.

Jerry is whisking the Lemon Zest, Flour, Baking Powder and Salt to put in the Kitchen Aid Mixer

 The cupcakes baked really well.  they are cooling before we put on the homemade frosting from the recipe.

 We made a heart out of them.

 Following the recipe, we made the frosting and decorated the cupcakes with the white frosting and Jerry sprinkled red sprinkles on each one.

 More decorating.....

This is a really pretty tray we found at the 99 Cent Store.  We bought 3 since we were making gifts for 3 neighbors.

 Decorated cupcakes in pretty tray.

 Closeup of the frosted and sprinkled cupcake...they turned out so pretty.

 Added the leftover heart decorated toothpicks to six of them.  Put 6 more regular toothpicks in the other cupcakes so the cellophane paper would not stick to the cupcakes.

Jerry painted this pretty heart on a one sided Valentine's Card that we put with the gift.  Click here to see tutorial for it from Grow Creative Blog.  I plan on painting some of our blank cards with this beautiful heart.

Jerry delivered these 12 pretty Valentine's Cupcakes to our neighbor.....they were happy!!!

and so were we........... 



(Now we will make more to add to some Homemade Pasta and Homemade French Bread in a gift to some other neighbors....see Bread here and final gift here,including bread .)

First French Bread

Wednesday
February 11, 2015

The day I made my first homemade loaf of French Bread.

Of course I had help from my friend Wendy who is an excellent cook and baker.
Must also give credit to my new Artisan Kitchen Aid that I purchased a few months ago.

It was fun.

Served it with Rachel Ray's recipe for Spaghetti and Meatballs...delicious recipe! and green salad with romaine and butter lettuce (butter lettuce adds so much flavor to a green salad).

Plan to make more this weekend!

Oh...it also tasted delicious!

More Cookies!!!..Gluten Free

We buy the gluten free organic rolled oats from Trader Joe's.  I noticed on the package there was a recipe for gluten free oatmeal cookies and decided to give it a try!

I don't think the photo of the recipe came out very clear...It is as follows:

1/4 C Butter

1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda

3/4 C Sugar

3 Cups Trader Joe's Rolled Oats

3/4 C Brown Sugar

6 oz Chocolate Chips

2 Eggs

1/2 C Sunflower Seeds or Chopped Walnuts

1 tsp Vanilla

1 C Peanut Butter

I used the Cacao Nibs in place of chocolate chips

Preheat Oven to 350 deg.

In large bowl combine sugar, brown sugar, and butter and beat until creamy.

Add eggs, vanilla and baking soda and mix well.

Add peanut butter and mix.

Stir in oats, chocolate chips and nuts.

Place teaspoon full of dough on lightly greased cookie sheet about 2" apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes until lightly brown around edges.

GOOD COOKIES

Delicious Blueberry Coffee Cake

A few days ago, I was craving some kind of dessert so I raided the cupboard and found some Trader Joe's Whole Grain Baking Mix.  On the box was a recipe for Blueberry Coffee Cake...however, I did not have any buttermilk as called for in the recipe.  I had some Greek Yogurt (also from Trader Joe's) and from information online found out it could be substituted for the buttermilk by adding water to thin it out to the consistency of buttermilk.

I gathered the ingredients........all from Trader Joe's........

Following the recipe on the box I put the Baking Mix in a bowl (however, was a little short of the 2 1/2 cups of mix so added a little flour also.  Then added one cup of the thinned out Greek Yogurt that was mixed with one egg and 3 tbs of oil; plus 1 cup of applesauce that I decided to substitute for the sugar.

I stirred in the frozen blueberries...about 1 cup and tasted the batter.....a little sour so I added about 6 tsp of Trader Joe's Organic Sugar. 

After greasing the baking dish, I poured in the batter and baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.....

It was actually delicious......It was like a heavy bread that wasn't very sweet but still tasted very good.  I sent some to my neighbor and she enjoyed it also.

Next time I am going to make it into a loaf as it was delicious being toasted for breakfast.........

It is all gone