A successful event deserves brownies!

Hello Sweets,

I hope you all are having a spook-tacular Halloween!  I love this time of year.  The smell of the seasons changing, seeing all the little ghosts and goblins dressed up, and nothing says fall more than a fresh loaf of baked bread :)  Yup that's right, I finally succeeded with the whole wheat honey bread!!!  I either had a bad batch of yeast, or it didn't activate.  Either way, we now have two fresh loaves of bread, and the house smells absolutely divine.

Aren't they purdy :D

After last nights fail, I was feeling a little defeated, and somewhat frustrated.  So of course, I started looking at some of my favorite foodie websites, and came across a recipe for homemade brownies.  Now I don't know about you guys, but brownies always make me feel better lol, and I decided to bake them alongside the bread, just in case I had another mishap.  Now they didn't fall out of the pan easily, so they're not pretty, but they are pretty tasty lol.  Ok, on to the recipe, because that's why you came here after all!

Cocoa Brownies (via The Food Network)

Ingredients

soft butter, for greasing the pan

flour, for dusting the buttered pan

4 large eggs

1C sugar, sifted

1C brown sugar, sifted

8 ounces of butter, melted

1 1/4C powdered cocoa, sifted

2Tsp vanilla extract

1/2C flour, sifted

1/2Tsp salt

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 300F.  Butter and flour an 8" square pan.

2)  With an electric mixer, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow.

3)  Add both sugars and mix well, add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

4)  Pour batter into the pan and bake for 45 minutes.  Use the tried and true toothpick method to see if the brownies are done.  Check in the middle as that is the last part to bake.

5)  When it's done, remove to a rack to cool.  Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

yummy!!

Now believe it or not, this was my first time baking brownies from scratch.  How sad is that? lol  They are so much better this way than store bought or boxed brownies, and it is very simple and quick too!  What is your favorite sweet to bake?  My favorite recipes are the ones that are passed down through families.  With my family, it was chocolate chip cookies, lemon meringue pie, zucchini bread, and banana bread.  My grandmothers banana bread is so moist, and the crust has this nice thin layer of crunchy goodness to it.  When she finally gave me the secret recipe, the first thing I did was make some "jen-ifcations" lol, which means I added chocolate chips and eventually even peanut butter!  I always bring my baked goodies to my grandparents, and she has always liked the changes I've made :)

Now I know this is somewhat of a short post, but tomorrow will be longer as I will be making not one, not two, but three different recipes tomorrow (yikes I'll be one busy little girl).  This is in preparation of the Texas AAA 500 race.  Nathan's family has season tickets, so we will be spending the weekend down at the track!  This also means my posts might be a little spaced out more so than usual starting on Friday.  I am thinking I might do a couple of race themed posts about what we did, and what we ate.  This will sound silly to most of my American readers, but I had never been tailgating before last April when we went to my first NASCAR race EVER, and they bring all sorts of yummy food to cook out in the parking lot before and after the race (when you're waiting for all the cars to vacate the parking lot).  Needless to say, and to Nathan's surprise (but he loves it), I love tailgating and even the races too!  Just another thing the love of my life and I can do together, plus we are the cutest racing couple ever lol, just kidding, but no really we are ;) .

See, wasn't I right :p

Now have a haunting good evening, and enjoy all the little kids that come to your door tonight.  Until next time........

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

With baking there is no fail, only lessons to be learned

Hello Sweets,

 Today's post is about the lessons that can be taught to you in your kitchen, and to show that all of us, both experienced and not, can make mistakes, and not let them discourage us from doing what we love!  I chose to venture down the road of homemade bread today.  This wasn't my first attempt, but it was sadly my first fail. :(  But I will not let this discourage me.  I will attempt this recipe in the next few days, but until the success, I have decided to still post about my fail in hopes that it will perhaps not only help others, but also encourage all of you to keep trying.

So what did I try to make you ask?  Whole Wheat Honey bread, similar to what they serve at The Cheesecake Factory.  Nathan took me there on our anniversary back in August.  I had never been there before, and he thought that was crazy considering my love of cheesecake (hmmm definitely another post topic lol), and needless to say, their food was delicious!  Our entrees were savory.  Nathan had the Southeast Asian Caramel Chicken, and I had the Chicken Fettuccine mmmm good!

This part is going to sound silly, but next to their AMAZING cheesecake, was the whole wheat honey bread they bring you when you sit down.  Usually I am more partial to the white bread served in restaurants, only because a lot of restaurant's brown bread is sort of dry, but at The Cheesecake Factory, their brown bread is to die for.  Of course being the ever loving girlfriend, I have been scouring the Internet for a recipe that comes close, and I think I finally got one worthy lol, and go figure, the first time trying was a disaster.  This will not be the last time you'll see this recipe (or one close to it), as I am determined to make this delicious bread!  Now onward to my silly little catastrophe :p 

Honey Whole Wheat Bread (via Raegun Wear)

Ingredients

3/4C warm water

1/4C molasses

1 1/8C all-purpose flour

3/8C wheat flour

1/2Tbs cocoa

1/2Tbs sugar

1Tsp instant coffee

1/2Tsp salt

1/2 packet of yeast (1 1/8Tsp)

1/2Tbs oil

1 egg white (optional)

oats (optional)

Directions:

1)  Dissolve the coffee in the water.  Add yeast and let bubble.

I think this is where I went wrong, I waited but never got bubbles :(

2)  Add sugar, cocoa, salt, and oil.

3)  Add 1/2 the flour and the molasses and knead.  Continue adding flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Doesn't exactly look appealing lol

Note:  You want sticky but manageable dough.  The stickier the dough the softer the bread will be.

Definitely sticky :)

4)  Allow the dough to rise until it doubles in size.

I was hoping it would rise, but alas it did not

5)  Shape into rolls or loaf.  Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with oats.  Allow to rise again.

my sad little brick lol

6)  Bake at 350F for 20-35 minutes (time depends on size of roll or loaf).  To tell if it's done, pick it up and thump the underside, it will sound hollow when finished.

FAIL!!

Well alas, sadly my bread did not end up rising and stayed a small little brick of ingredients lol at least I can laugh at my own mistake! Although it didn't rise as expected, it did however, turn out to be just as delicious as the bread I used as a template, if not more. 

I hope this "fail" blog shows everyone to never give up when you don't succeed, and don't ever let that be the 'end all be all' for your kitchen excursions.  And when you really feel frustrated, pull up this blog post and laugh at my silly blunder, and give yourself the credit you deserve and try again!  Until next time.....

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo