Becky Bakes Beautiful Bounties

I really love to bake! I enjoy cooking but baking is really what I love to do.

I have discovered though some new uh.... joys.

I decided to bake a pie for the FORGE potluck tomorrow! YUM!!
And instead of using a pre-prepared crust I decided to make my own. I've never done my own pie crust before.

The ingredients started easy enough, flour, salt, shortening. and then I needed a pastry cutter to blend them together...but I don't have one of those!!
Fortunately they suggested using two knifes if you dont have one! :)

Phew! That was close!

The dough is done!

Then I needed to roll out the dough. Uh-oh! I don't have a rolling pin!!

Fortunately I DO have a smooth water bottle! It turned out to be pretty useful!
The rolling was pretty easy... The hard part was moving it into my pie pan. It kept falling apart and cracking!! It was aggravating. I finally got in there and repaired it the best I could.



Now it was time to make the filling. I decided pumpkin was fitting for the season.
Don't you hate it when you start something and realize you don't have a key ingredient? Well I forgot I didn't have any eggs...so it was off with the oven and off to the store for eggs.

15 min later I'm back in the kitchen finishing my pie.

Here it is going into the oven


And here it is coming out! (of the oven people! Come on!)


Lessons learned:
~I have taken advantage of my moms baking tools and I really need to get some of my own now i guess.

~You don't always need a mixer to make things. I've already made 3 cakes, 2 pies, cinnamon rolls and a few other things without one...but it would be nice to have one.

Here is one of the cakes I made recently by hand. And I mean by hand!
Remember NO MIXER

My mom asked me to make a cake for my brothers birthday. I wasn't sure what to decorate it as and I have this one "fancy" cake pan that is flowers in a pot.



To make it more "boy" friendly (a.k.a. no flowers) I made a bouquet of skulls.


You're welcome Alex :)

~Becky

My favorite toddler!

I was very excited to get a call from Alexis asking me if I would be interested in watching Emma and I totally was!

Brandon came with and we hung out with her for a few hours.



Emma showed me her moms hat. She looked very cute in it!





Emma was very happy to show me her room. I love the way her room is set up and everything is at her eye level (good job Alexis!!)



She showed me her table and her very own chair, which she was very proud of. And we colored on her white board.



Emma showed me her marble works.



And her animal stickers.



And her sponge numbers!



And a big red balloon!



We went downstairs and Emma showed me her friend Chloe.



Then she shared some snuggles with Brandon!

And that was pretty much our evening!

I Loved it!

Today is cinnamon roll day!!

A group of us made these delectable goodies today to share with each other (and the world) our products.

After a long morning i finally started my rolls! Alexis suggested using a little more flour than what it called for because they were really sticky. (Thanks Alexis :) )



To make my cinnamon rolls more personalized I added chopped walnuts. I don't usually like nuts in my food but I thought i'd try it out.



Here are my cinnamon rolls all cut out and put in my pie dish! I discovered I really need more counter space. I didn't have quite nine cinnamon rolls and they were kind of small but I didn't have a lot of space to stretch them out.



20 min later the delicious aroma of cinnamon and brown sugar filled the air and 30 min later delicious cinnamon rolls came out. Which I promptly drizzled my icing on! Mmmm...they are so good!



I think that I would add more cinnamon and nutmeg (which I didn't have today) to the filling and more brown sugar to the dough. Just a hint.

Here is the recipe for those that wish to make some! It is so super easy and i have a feeling that the basic dough recipe can be used for other things.


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Recipe:

Quick Cinnamon Biscuits

Adapted from The Moosewood Collective’s “Moosewood Restaurant New Classics”

Yield: 9 biscuits

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Biscuit Dough

2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Icing

6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
4 to 6 teaspoons milk or heavy cream
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. For the Filling: In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. For the Dough: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups cream, and stir until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. With your hands, fold the dough over a few times in the bowl, until the dough is smooth.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour your hands, and pat the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle, about 9 X 13 inches. Brush the surface of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of cream. Sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar topping.

5. Starting from the long side, roll the dough into a cylinder. Slice into 9 equal rounds. Place the rounds, cut side down, into an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish or a pie plate. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the biscuits are lightly browned.

6. For the Icing: While the biscuits bake, mix together the confectioners’ sugar and milk or cream until smooth. When you remove the biscuits from the oven, immediately drizzle them with icing. Serve warm.