Giveaway!

That's right, we have a giveaway for you! It's a $40 gift certificate to use at CSN Stores. They have more than 200 online stores and a ton of things to choose from! Including furniture, dining room sets, home decor, baby/kids stuff, pet supplies, cookware and so much more!
All you gotta do is leave a comment on this post and tell me what you would use it on! I personally would go for some cookware! Here's a link to the stores so you can take a look! The only rule is 1 entry per person. The deadline is this Saturday night at midnight. Sunday morning the winner will be announced! Don't forget to leave your email address!!

Turtle Bread

I was looking through this 1980 Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook that my mom gave me a while back and spotted this recipe. Instantly I thought of the cute little turtle bread's i've seen at Boudin Bakery in SF. This recipe starts out with a sweet dough that can also be used for other things such as raisin bread, hot cross buns, kolacky, coffee cake and cinnamon rolls. However I decided to use all of the dough to make several turtles. The taste is similar to the Hawaiin sweet bread and has a nice fluffy texture. I didn't realize how big these would end up! I was going to attempt to make other things along with the turtle, but my artistic skills aren't that great. This really would be something fun to do with kids though. Just make the dough and they can create whatever they want and get to it eat it after! And don't forget to enter the giveaway here for your chance to win a $40 gift certificate to CSN Stores!

Sweet Dough

1 c. sugar

1 t. salt

3 packages active dry yeast
2 c. milk

1 c. butter or margarine
2 eggs

8-9 c. all purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast and 2 c. flour. In saucepan over low heat, slowly heat milk and butter until very warm (120-130 deg F). Butter does not need to melt. With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium; beat for 2 minutes more, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.

Beat in eggs and 2 c. flour; continue beating 2 minutes more occasionally scraping sides of bowl.

With spoon (big wooden one, prefferably), stir in enough additional flour (about 4 1/4 c.) to make a soft dough.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Shape into a ball.

Turn over in greased large bowl to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place until dough is doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. On lightly floured surface divide into pieces as recipes direct. Cove; let rest 15 minutes.

Turtle Bread

The 2 below are my dough turtles after assembling before the final rise and baking. PS- it's the same turtle it all 4 pics

1/4 c. Sweet Dough

1 egg

water

(**see notes on how to assemble at bottom)

Prepare sweet dough. Cut off 1/2 cup piece from dough; set aside. Shape remaining piece into 5-inch oval ball. Place on greased cookie sheet.

Roll reserved piece into 7 inch rope. From rope cut 2 inch piece for head; with scissors, snip eyes and mouth. Cut four 1-inch legs from rope; snip toes. Make pointed tail with remainder. Assemble body and shape shell.

Beat egg with a little water; brush turtle and let rise until doubled. Preheat ovento 375 F. Bake 20-25 minutes until browned.

**Assembling the body: Tuck head, legs and tail under oval ball and pinch to seal.

Shaping the shell: With scissors, snip designs in top of body. Pinch edge to resemble shell.

Angel Food Cupcakes

I wanted to make a light treat to take to lunch with some friends so I went to the store and saw that strawberries were on sale. I decided these cupcakes would be perfect. It worked great since everything is already portioned out, no need to take the cake, whipped cream and berries seperately.

Angel Food Cupcakes

Annie's Eats

Yield: 24 cupcakes (I had a little more than 24)

Ingredients:

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

12 large egg whites

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions:

Adjust oven racks to the two lowest positions. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar and the salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with the vanilla and cream of tartar on medium-high speed until soft-medium peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula, being careful not to deflate the batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners and bake for 12-15 minutes or until light golden. Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with whipped cream and fresh berries.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today we went up to Santa Rosa and ate at Guy Fieri's restaurant, Johnny Garlic's. It was really so good! All the food we saw looked amazing and the taste was no let down. There were a lot of things we wanted to try, we wish there was one closer. Anyway, we didn't have a happy baby for most of the trip, she didn't want to be in her carseat, and when she wasn't, she wanted to be runnin around, not strapped into her stroller or ergo. Can I just tell you how crazy she made us?? Throwing fits in Best Buy when I tried to hold her or stop her from running away, screaming in the car because she wanted out of her seat and she was hungry and tired yet wouldn't eat when I tried to feed her. I always find it a little funny when people are surprised when I say she's like this. Sometimes when people are around she'll be good and cute, but other times she's very dramatic and will go crazy if you stop her from doing what she wants. It's a good thing she's cute. That was a long rambling, i'm sorry, you can tell what kind of day it's been. So when we got home and put her to bed, all I wanted were some cookies and to relax. In my file of "need to make" recipes these were the ones that I had everything for and were fast and easy. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary, but that's what's best sometimes. Something familiar and comforting. And they were good, I ate a whole batch by myself.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

moms who think

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2 Tbsp. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 cups of uncooked old fashioned oats

12 ounce package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions :
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugars in large bowl until creamy.
3. Add eggs, milk and vanilla extract; beat well.
4. Add combined flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and chocolate chips; mix well.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
6. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes for a chewy cookie or 12 to 13 minutes for a crisp cookie.
7. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute; remove to wire rack to cool completely

Poptarts

I don't remember the last time I had a poptart, it's been a while. I've seen recipes for homemade poptarts around the internet and decided to give em a try, especiaaly since they had such good comments and ratings. These don't really taste like poptarts though (that could be good or bad depending on your feelings for them). I kinda like poptarts, even though I never really eat them. The crust on these tasted just like the hand pies crust. One major thing I noticed though is poptarts have a frosting/glaze on them, these did not. I'm sure you could easily find or make one if you desire to though. They were fun to try and I made a few variations including strawberry jam, chocolate (using mini chocolate chips), a smore's (mini choc. chips, marshmallow creme and graham cracker crumbs) and brown sugar. However I don't think this is a keeper for me. If I want poptarts, I'll buy them. If I want a good pastry/dessert i'll make something else. I'm usually up for trying a recipe atleast once though. However, Matt really like them and when I told him what I thought he said, "What? you're crazy! These are as good, if not better than poptarts!" He really liked them and wanted to make sure I put that in here.
Poptarts
King Arthur Flour

(I do realize they're not very attractive, I guess I need some work with my pastries as my hand pies were pretty homely looking also)

Pastry:

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk

Cinnamon Filling:
1/2 cup (3 ¾ ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling

Variation: Instead of brown sugar and cinnamon, fill the tarts with a tablespoonful of chocolate chips/Nutella.

Or with jam filling: 3/4 cup (8 ounces) raspberry jam, 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

To make the jam filling, mix the jam with the cornstarch/water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Use to fill the pastry tarts.

Make the dough:

Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it, with pecan-sized lumps of butter still visible. Mix the egg and milk, and add it to the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive.

Divide the dough in half; each half will weigh about 10 ounces. Shape each half into a rough 3" x 5" rectangle, smoothing the edges. Roll out immediately; or wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Make the filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8" thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9" x 12". Laying a 9" x 13" pan atop the dough will give you an idea if you’ve rolled it large enough. Trim off the edges; place the scraps on a baking sheet, and set them aside, along with the 9" x 12" rectangle of dough. Roll the second piece of dough just as you did the first. Press the edge of a ruler into the dough you’ve just rolled, to gently score it in thirds lengthwise and widthwise; you’ll see nine 3" x 4" rectangles. Beat the egg, and brush it over the entire surface of the dough.

Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each marked rectangle. Place the second sheet of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around each pocket of jam, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Cut the dough evenly in between the filling mounds to make nine tarts. Press the cut edges with your fingers to seal, then press with a fork, to seal again. Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries.

Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.

Remove the tarts from the fridge, and bake them for 25 to 35 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and allow them to cool on the pan.

Yield: 9 tarts.
Notes: You can sprinkle the dough trimmings with cinnamon-sugar to make a wonderful snack. While the tarts are chilling, bake these trimmings for 13 to 15 minutes, till they’re golden brown.

You can also make a whole wheat variation by sub. 1/2 or all of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour.

Or you can make savory tarts by adding cheese, egg or whatever else you think sounds good as a filling.

Bretzel Rolls

I thought these looked really good when I saw them on smitten kitchen and knew I was going to have to try them soon! They tasted just how I imagined, they're like a pretzel but with a lot more dough to crust ratio. I like the crust of the prezel a lot, but this is a roll afterall. Speaking of pretzels, I made some amazinggg pretzels a couple weeks ago, I wasn't planning on posting them but I think I will. Anyway, give these a try. I liked them better a couple hrs later better than I did hot of the oven, they were chewier.
Bretzel Rolls


(These are best eaten the same day as a regular pretzel is, but they will be fine for up to 2 days stored uncovered).
***I was out of cornmeal, so I didn't use it-dang weevils. But I haven't seen them since the last incident I wrote about. Thanks to throwing out all my flour, storing new flour in the freezer and putting bay leaves around the pantry.
***I also used regular dry active yeast, 1/2 T. in place of quick rising. It will just take a little longer for your dough to rise, about 1 hr. instead of 30 min.
***I slit the tops of the rolls just before putting them in the boiling water then a little bit again after I took them out of the water.
***I also liked a little garlic salt on them after cooking, but that just might be me being weird.

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 envelope quick-rising yeast or 1/2 T. dry active
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (about) hot water (125°F to 130°F)
Cornmeal
8 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white, beaten to blend (glaze)
Coarse salt

Directions:
Combine bread flour, one envelope yeast, one teaspoon salt and one teaspoon sugar in food processor and blend. With machine running, gradually pour hot water through feed tube, adding enough water to form smooth elastic dough. Process one minute to knead. Grease medium bowl. Add dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then towel; let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 35 minutes (or longer is using regular yeast).
Punch dough down and knead on lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide it into 8 pieces. Form each dough piece into ball. Place dough balls on prepared surface, flattening each slightly (I forgot to flatten, they turned out fine). Using serrated knife, cut X in top center of each dough ball. Cover with towel and let dough balls rise until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes (or more).
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a baking sheet or sprinkle with cornmeal. Bring 8 cups water to boil in large saucepan. Add baking soda and 2 tablespoons sugar (water will foam up). Add 4 rolls and cook 30 sec per side. Using a slotted spoon, transfer rolls to prepared sheet and arrange X side up. Repeat with remaining rolls.
Brush rolls with egg white glaze. Sprinkle rolls generously with coarse salt. Bake rolls until brown, about 25 min. Transfer to cooling rack and cool 10 min. Serve them warm or room temperature.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

We all know there's about as many chocolate chip cookie recipes as there are stars in the sky. There were so many things about this one though that caught my eye and I had to try it. And i'm so glad I did! I loved the sea salt sprinkled on top as well as the coarse salt in the dough. It was just enough to compliment the sweet. The bittersweet chocolate was also a really nice touch; it was rich and satisfied the chocolate craving really well. These are definitley worth making, the hardest part is waiting 24-36 hrs while they chill in the fridge, but in the end you'll be glad you did :)

I baked mine after 25 hrs. I was going to wait longer but then realized I needed them sooner than expected. I did the first batch the reccomended size but did the rest smaller, since I didn't really want huge cookies.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

New York Times via.Two Peas and Their Pod

(^ cookie the reccomended size of 3 1/2 oz. of dough ^)

(the rest I made smaller like above ^)

Ingredients:
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks, at least 60 percent cacao content
Sea salt

Directions:
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Mix butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 min. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24-36 hrs. Dough may be used in batches and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hrs.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-oz. mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes (be careful not to overbake as I did with a couple of the batches. When they're slightly brown take them out and they will darken as they cool). Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 min, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.