And the Baker keeps baking...

Only this time she took process pictures too. So enjoy. The Baker decided (as she is wont to do) that she liked muffins that she found at a bakery (called, in this particular instance Great Harvest) and made them. They're sold as white chocolate chip, cinnamon and apple muffins, but she made them without cinnamon chips. She calls them 'Apple Muffin Blondies,' which almost sounds like it could be the name of a band or something. She will also not be disclosing the amount of cinnamon contained in the recipe (probably because if she did, you might think her crazy.)


And now time for the partial recipe:

1 cubed apple
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (though it'd be ok to substitute soy milk or yogurt or cream or a little less milk if you added 1/8 tsp white or apple cider vinegar)
1 egg white
1/3 cup powdered white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 pinches each of salt, baking powder, and baking soda
2/3 cup quick oats
2/3 cup flour (or maybe a bit less)
2 small handfuls white chocolate chips
Then bake them between 15-30 minutes at 340F.

The non-baker bakes

So, a while ago, the non-baker decided to spend a hot day eating and cooking and baking. She want over to a friends and they warmed up Polish sausages and caramelized some onions and had some great hot dogs.

After that, she and her friend decided that they should make a side dish and on the advice of her friend cooked up some scallion pancakes. They were delicious and super easy to make.


But this was not the end of the cooking/baking adventure. They also planned on making a pear-gruyere pie, since the non-baker is exceedingly fond of pie and cheese. However, while shopping for ingredients, the non-baker had forgotten to buy cheese and so they decided to make a poached pear pie instead. It turned out to be absolutely delicious.

The bleeding banana cake

Yes, the title above is how this cake was initially described to me. A bleeding banana cake. It was baked because the baker, despite her talent for creating exactly whatever cookies she's in the mood for, did not feel like eating her creation. And she loathes bananas. She tends not to want to get within a smelling distance of them since they make her sick. So I'm almost surprised that she was able to bake the cake at all.

And here's the recipe:
2 egg whites
vanilla
milk
whip this all together until it's super whipped and has bubbles
add a pinch of salt
a pinch of baking soda
a pinch of baking powder
a bit under 2 cups of whole wheat flour
about 3/4 cups of white sugar

bake this in a circular ceramic bowl for about 20-40 minutes at 340F
take this out, add the slices of banana and the warm up frozen berries and put them on top

She also notes that it's better to serve the next day.

And even more chocolate

And again, you'll see the theme continues, though this one actually has a cute story. She baked a cake decorated with apples doused in orange blossom water. She then drizzled the whole thing in a dark chocolate-bourbon sauce.

It was later delivered to a neighbor of ours to thank her for letting the baker try on the neighbor's mother-in-law's dress from the '20s that the baker hopes to get to wear for a special occasion.

And, here's the recipe:
1-2 cups whole wheat flour
enough white flour to make it the right texture
maybe 3-4 overflowing table spoons of homemade applesauce
a large pinch of baking soda
a large pinch of baking powder
a small pinch of salt
about 3/4 of a cup of white granulated sugar
about a stick of butter
and a teaspoon-ish of vanilla

She then placed thin apple slices on top in an aesthetically pleasing pattern and sprinkled white sugar on it. She baked the cake at 340F for about 18-28 minutes.

The dark chocolate bourbon sauce on top has cocoa powder, white sugar, nutella, bourbon, and a TINY TINY bit of cream cheese and the same amount of butter. She only put the chocolate on once the cake had cooled.

In which I continue to update the archives

So, her next set of pictures to me were also chocolate themed. Here's a hint: if she's baking things that she has no interest in eating, expect to see plenty of chocolate and bananas.

As per her description, this is the recipe for, as she terms them, "snicker-doodle styled peanut butter cookies":

1 egg white
a bit of apple sauce
a teaspoon of vanilla
half a cup-ish (maybe more) peanut butter
almost a quarter cup-ish (maybe) of white sugar
same amount as white (or likely less) of brown sugar
a cup or less of white flour
a large pinch of baking soda
barely any salt (since the peanut butter was salted)
half a pinch of nutmeg
half a pinch of cinnamon

then she rolled the balls in a mixture of dark cocoa powder and white sugar and then smashed them with a fork in the 'famous peanut butter cookie style' and baked them for 8-10 minutes at 340F

And she starts to take pictures

So I bug her to start a blog and what do I end up with? Her permission to start a blog on which I can post the pictures of the food she keeps baking and sending me pictures of. So, I think part of the goal with this was to bake a dessert that she had no interest in eating. This is a chocolate cream cheese-iced carrot cake and chocolate cream cheese-iced vegan banana muffins that were hand-delivered to a cousin of ours as a special treat.