the making of a bienenstich

just a few snippets from one of my baking adventures while in Sweden last year....the topping did not turn out quite the way it should have, but my German friends told me it was still quite a successful first attempt. :)

first weeks

so....when I once again have a kitchen I can freely bake in whenever I want....things happen, apparently! I was afraid that with working in the kitchen for 40 hours a week, I might be sick of baking and things like that and not want to do it for myself. However! Wonderful discovery! (or dreadful one, where my wallet is concerned...dang Sweden is expensive for buying baking ingredients....oh how that makes me miss home..) This has not been the case! I still feel like baking for myself in the evenings just as much. Probably because then I get to decide what I'm making, and I get to experiment and get fancy or crazy and not care about what time the clock says... :)

Other discoveries. Korean cuisine really doesn't involve baking at all. So Koreans don't even know how to bake really. So my wonderful S. Korean roomie has requested that I teach her how to bake......uhh...well of course! So for her first lesson, we went for some Salted Caramel Brownies from Smitten Kitchen. (of course. Where else do I get baking recipes from?)



Salted Caramel Brownies

(http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/02/salted-caramel-brownies/) 

Makes 1 8×8 pan of brownies which you can cut into 16 2-inch squares or 25 smaller squares

Caramel
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (or salted, but then ease up on the sea salt)
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or 1/8 teaspoon table salt, more to taste)
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Brownie
3 ounces (85 grams) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt or 1/8 teaspoon table salt
2/3 cup (85 grams) all-purpose flour

Make caramel: Set a square of parchment paper over a medium-sized plate. Lightly butter or coat the parchment with a spray oil, just as an added security measure.

In a medium, dry saucepan over medium-high heat, melt your sugar; this will take about 5 minutes, stirring if necessary to break up large chunks. By the time it is all melted, if should be a nice copper color; if not, cook until it is. Remove from heat and stir in butter. It may not incorporate entirely but do your best. Stir in cream and salt and return saucepan to the stove over medium-high heat, bringing it back to a simmer and melted again any sugar that solidified. Cook bubbling caramel for a few minutes more, until it is a shade darker.

Pour out onto parchment-covered plate and transfer plate to your freezer. Freeze until solidified, which can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes in a decent freezer to 40 minutes in my terrible one.
Meanwhile, or when your caramel is almost firm, make your brownies: Heat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment, extending it up two sides. Butter the parchment or spray it with a nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together until only a couple unmelted bits remain. Off the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted. You can also do this in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula.

Assemble brownies: When caramel is firm, remove it from the freezer and chop it into rough 1-inch squares. Gently fold all but a small amount of caramel bits into batter. Scrape batter into prepared pan, spreading until mostly even. Scatter remaining caramel bits on top. Bake in heated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool thoroughly — a process that can be hastened in the freezer, which will also produce cleaner cuts — and cut into squares or other desired shapes.


There were however a few problems that I feel I must blame on the somewhat limited (primitive?) baking supplies that this kitchen is stocked with.....I mean....I don't even have an 8x8 or any variety of square baking pan. this is the only cake pan, or pan even close to that size that I have. Also...the oven doesn't have wire racks... It just has flat pans in it to hold the pans in it. And it cooks much hotter than was expected.. So the final result of these brownies, while tasty, was not quite as hoped. They were a bit burned on top and the caramel definitely did not stay on top and barely get melted as was supposed to, but it all ended up in the bottom. So they were a gooey tasty caramel-y mess (I wish I would have added a bit more salt too though..) but not super pretty. I can't wait to be able to try something like this again when I'm home again and have my proper kitchen again... :) However my wonderful Korean is already convinced now that baking is for her and that she wants to do more of it. So in that way, these brownies were definitely a success regardless of how they came out looking!

where life has taken me...and the baking continues..!

So it has been a long time. But perhaps this summer I will find time to update this more often and better. Where has life taken me? I'm no longer a cashier...at the end of September, I hopped on a plane and it decided to take me to Sweden. I ended up at Holsby Torchbearers Bible School from September til the end of May. It's been really good, and just an overall interesting and challenging time here. I've learned a lot in so many areas of life. One thing I have missed the most though, is definitely the fact that I've lived in dorm and I haven't been able to just bake whatever I want whenever I want. I've been lucky in that I've still gotten to bake some, but it's  never like it was at home of course in my own house and own kitchen... But somewhere along the lines (around the end of March) I made the decision to stay here and work in the kitchen for the summer. (In the summer they have many summer camps and things like that.) School ended at the end of May, I went and traveled for 18 days with my sister, and now here I am, back at Holsby, ready for a summer of working in the kitchen!

Today was my first day of being a Holsby kitchen girl. :) I definitely was a little freaked out before I got to the kitchen to start....I've never been responsible for cooking or baking for so many people in such a setting before, ahhh! But it all went quite well! Pancake day....and then preparing for the huge Midsummer's event tomorrow. So this means my day was spent baking Kanel Bullar and Shortbread cookies.

Ta ta for now....I'll update more with some of the other lovely things I've baked while at school. Including some German cake...and introducing all my German friends to some very strictly North American cakes!

chocolate bread pudding.

This recipe came from the newspaper at Thanksgiving time and honestly, right now I'm not sure where it has gone. But it was so good it is still deserving of its own post, that once I find the recipe again I will update with the particulars.. :)

time for catch up.

My apologies for not posting very many baked things lately. Work has gotten slightly crazy with my hours, so I don't spend nearly as much time baking as I did before. A lot of weeks I don't even end up having any days off. And then of course there's also that wonderful thing called "little exercise + lots of yummy baking to eat = gaining weight" which is suddenly starting to catch up with me. Not cool. But my feeling is that eating a lot of prepackaged food is to be blamed for that, and not baking. Back to eating (somewhat) healthy!
So now it's time to catch up on some of my favourite things I've baked in the past couple of months. :)

Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie

Now that I've switched to working behind the customer service desk at work, I'm rarely on till other than doing others' breaks. But when I am, I always find it dreadful how many amazing looking food magazines they put there. The pictures on the fronts make me want to buy them all....even the low fat cooking ones. Weird. The August issue of Bon Appetit was too much for me to resist though. That pie on the front...brilliant. I'm still debating attempting it for Thanksgiving dinner. [as is obvious, no one in the family likes pumpkin pie anyway..]

Inside though, are several other pie masterpieces begging to be given a shot as well. And I can never really resist peanut butter and chocolate together. Anyway, got to try it when I finally got a day off work last week. [now waiting to get another day off....next Thursday. Gotta love 13 days in a row of work, yeah.]

But About the pie. It really was fussy with all the "mix this in mixer, then put it in the pot and cook a little, then back in the mixer for this long, then back to the pot...." and the instructions really weren't the best. I'm sure I didn't get the custard part of it cooked quite long enough. Being chilled it still turned out decently enough, but to be remembered for next time.. [because a pie this great probably actually will make it onto my rather short "to make again" recipe list.] Also, the Honeycomb candy was a disaster. It took 3 tries to get something useable. First try I burned it, second try I didn't cook it long enough before adding the baking soda for it to harden at all, and the third try, while ok, still wasn't cooked quite long enough. They didn't give any time guidelines for how long to cook it, just said "cook til it's a pale amber colour." That might work if you're using the clear corn syrup, but when you're using dark coloured stuff, it's a pale to dark amber colour the instant you mix the ingredients together.. Anyway, around 5 minutes give or take a little bit is what I eventually figured out to be close to right. It is ridiculously addictive stuff once you finally get it right.
Oh, and, don't believe it when it says a 9 inch pie. I knew I shouldn't believe it, but stupidly gave it a try anyways and it totally overflowed and I ended up making 3 tarts with all the extra filling. Not that that's a bad thing either. Also, it insists that you should use semi-sweet chocolate for the top and not to use very dark of stuff, but I used unsweetened baking squares and only added maybe a tablespoon of sugar to it and it was wonderful. The pie and candy are so sweet that it really doesn't need the chocolate to be very sweet at all. Anyway, the recipe had some issues, but the result was definitely worth it. Your need for a peanut butter/chocolate fix will not be disappointed. :]
Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie

Grape Focaccia with Rosemary

It's been awhile, but here goes updating more often now that summer is over. Wait...I didn't just say that, did I? It really doesn't feel like summer ever even came to Calgary, let alone having what DID come already be over.. Plus the few days it did actually get hot here, I was at work. [Or playing with my new laptop...yay!] Always work. Sad. But in a month's time, I'll be a supervisor at work. So I guess that will make it worth it.

Anyways, as for baking, I really haven't had the time or energy to do much over the summer. You know, just this and that..and things I forgot to even take pictures of. Like a birthday cake for my co-worker...which she and everyone who got to try it loved. :]

But being that I currently spend most of my life inside a grocery store and the weather is once again of the variety that makes me feel like using the stove, when I saw the concord grapes show up at work, I knew it was time to try this one finally.
[Seriously, does this picture look as though the grapes were seedless? No. They weren't. The packaging lied. I was unimpressed.]

I think this recipe must be pretty fool proof. My sister and I both made it on the same night. Apparently I can't read recipes anymore, as I added all 6 tablespoons of olive oil to the dough when only 2 were supposed to be put in..and she cooked it so long she almost set off the smoke alarm with it. Yet we both declared it to be a success. Although it's agreed, it would probably taste better if you didn't use all whole wheat flour. It kinda competes with the other tastes going on.
Speaking of which...sweet, salty, and savoury. The three S's. You get them all in this crazy stuff. Yet somehow it all works. And just leaves you wanting more...and more..and more.. Though you're actually not really sure why.