Simple Snickerdoodles -Jenna

These are fool-proof snickerdoodle cookies that I use all the time.  These are the best middle of the night cookies when you're tired of grading papers and need a break!  (Little rule of thumb: never bake anything that's a challenge or new really late at night, it never turns out well.)  The ingredients are as follows:

1 box of yellow cake mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 teas. cinnamon

 (for rolling cookies in)

All you do is combine the cake mix, vegi oil, and eggs into a bowl. 

Mix with a rubber spatula until combined.

It will be a pretty pliable dough; not too wet or dry. 

Next, roll dough into balls about an inch in diameter. 

Combine the sugar and cinnamon into a bowl, then roll the balls

 in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. 

Place onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.  (The magic number for me is 10 minutes, but every oven is a bit different).  It makes about 3 dozen cookies.  They are chewy, and fluffy, and perfect little cookies! 

Liz-Bread

Cheap Store Brand Flour!!

SO today it ice rained... which means I baked a lot!  I tend to bake and cook a lot anyway, but with everything being canceled because of the Ice/Snow Storm, I baked an unusual amount.   
I made bread, which is one of my favorite things to do when I have a few hours.  I'm not sure where I got this recipe, but I got it from some book that has long gone back to the library.  It is the best bread I've ever made.  It's a classic french loaf, which means that it has water, flour, yeast, sugar and salt in it.  I'm a bit of a cheap cook, so I don't use awesome stone ground artisan flour, but I've heard that the better the flour the better your bread will be.  That being said, this bread is awesome with the really cheap store brand flour that I use.
This is the kind of bread that I can eat almost a whole loaf in one sitting...

French Bread
2 Cups Warm Water
1 1/2 TBSP Active Dry Yeast
1 TBSP Sugar
5ish Cups Flour
1 TBSP Salt
a bit of oil
An egg for glaze with a bit of water (actually important for that shiny brown color I want my bread to be!)

Mix Water Yeast and Sugar.  let stand a few minutes, add 2 cups flour and the salt. Beat till smooth, a minute or so. add flour till dough forms a ball and clears the sides of the bowl.  Knead dough for 5-8 minutes adding flour to the edge of the work surface and flouring your hands so that the dough doesnt stick to you too much.  dough should not be sticky. 

Puffy Dough

Put a bit of oil in the bottom of a bowl; put dough into bowl and flip over once to lightly coat dough with oil.  Leave in bowl and cover with plastic wrap to let rise. Let rise for about an hour till its doubled in size and looks really puffy.
Deflate dough and divide into 3 sections, then shape dough and place onto baking sheets.  Shaping is best done by flattening the dough into a rectangle then rolling it up into a baton/baguette shape.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.  Let loaves rise while oven heats, then beat an egg and add a bit of water (2 TBSP) to the egg and brush the loaves with the egg.  Place Loaves into oven and turn oven down to 400 Degrees F immediately. 
Bake for about 35 minutes, till the bread is a pretty brownish color and sounds hollow when you tap on the bottom of the loaf (which will be hot when you pick it up to tap it, so be careful).

Wonderful Bread

Jenna

    I figured it would be good to kind of introduce myself a bit more and explain what I cook, and why I cook.  I am the single one of our trifecta, and I actually don't cook at all.... I bake :)  I am a graduate student and therefore have no time to cook really (and I don't like it anyway!)  Cooking completely stresses me out because I have no idea what to add or what would make my food taste better.  I am a baker- I like things that are straightforward.  I like recipes that will tell me exactly how much to add of what.  I know I said I don't have time to cook, but time to bake is soooo much different.  I bake when I get stressed out, so usually around 11 or 12 at night when I am grading papers or writing one of my own.  I don't really have any professional experience with baking, but I do enjoy it and have started to even make some money on the side with my cakes.  Every time I make a new cake it's an adventure and I am never sure what to expect, but it generally seems to work out.  So, my portion of the blog will be only desserts.  I will share with you what has worked for me and what hasn't.  My methods may be a bit unconventional, and not for the faint of heart, but I hope to give you some ideas and give you the courage to make something crazy!  I am going to attach some pictures of my previous cakes before the creation of this blog to give you a general idea of what I am talking about.  I won't put too many up right now so as not to crowd the blog, but I will put up more every once in a while.  If you have any questions about them, just let me know!



Taken from the book: What's New Cupcake



Little Mermaid

Steak and Baked Potato Cake