Baked Churros

One thing I haven't quite figured out for this blog is timing posts for the holidays. Getting holiday recipes tested, photographed and posted in time for all of you to make them for the current holiday. Time just gets away from me and the next thing I know, I'm posting a Thanksgiving pie recipe in December. Too late! So far this year I've missed it on Valentine's Day and Easter. OK, room for improvement, I know. When I saw this post for Baked Churros on Pinterest I decided to end my losing streak and author a timely post for Cinco de Mayo.

Aside from the fact that I'm a good week away from Cinco de Mayo and this recipe is fitting, I couldn't pass up the chance to make churros. I really love churros but I hate to fry food at home. Notice I didn't say I hate fried food, I said I hate frying food. Big dif. I love fried foods but they are just such a pain to make at home, so messy and too much clean up. So a baked version of the churro seemed doable. Really it's pretty much a choux paste like is used in a cream puff or eclair. It just doesn't expand quite as much but the technique is basically the same. Check it out. . .

A Study In Almond Paste

If you've been with the blog from the beginning, can you believe it's been 3 years, YIKES, you may have read my post Mandelhoernchen Melancholy. If you haven't, read it. It is the story of a spectacular kitchen failure. Yes, they happen and they're part of becoming a better cook. And, it's taken me 3 years to revisit that failure. I avoided it at fist because I was gun-shy about the whole thing, the wasted ingredients, the futile effort, the wounded ego. Then I just kind of got side tracked with other recipes and forgot the whole thing.

Flash forward 3 years and I stumble upon the Woodland Bakery Blog and can't wait to try almost all of Gretchen's recipes. Low and behold, many of them use Almond Paste. And I'm a cheapskate, I don't want to spend ten bucks on 7 oz. of dry crumbly grocery store Almond Paste when I can get blanched almonds for $7 a pound. The cheapskate in me overrode the perfectionist in me and I decided to give homemade Almond Paste another go. Seriously, it's been over 3 years, time to get back on that horse and ride. I picked what looked like to viable options and decided to test them out. . .

3-2-1 Cake

So when I came across this recipe it was called "1-2-3 Cake". Which is kinda an accurate name for it, but kinda backwards to me. (You'll see why later.) So I'm renaming it "3-2-1 Cake". A subtile difference yes, but it makes sense. At least in my mind. A mind that craves rules and order, and there must be order. Opps, didn't mean to let some of my crazy slip out. Just ignore. Anywho. . .

My co-worker recently had a child leave home for college. Although "T" will be a dorm dweller, she'd still like to occasionally cook. Unfortunately her kitchen resources are limited. As my co-worker doesn't "Pinterest", smart lady, "Pinterest" is web heroin, I hipped her to all the "mug/microwave" dessert recipes on Pinterest, for her dorm residing child. As we looked over them the one stumbling block was always the list of ingredients. Sure, all the dry ingredients could be assembled in packets and shipped with "care packages" but the egg and oil seemed to be the problem. Then I came across this recipe which just uses a couple of cake mixes and water. Huzzah! Problem solved.

Crusty No Knead Bread

More appropriately this post should be titled; "The Bread That Changed My Life". I'm not kidding you, it has. I almost certainly won't be buying anymore rustic loaves of bread from the grocery store. I am declaring myself the official bread bringer of ANY dinner party to which I am invited. And, I have ditched my attitude towards bread making. This bread is that good and that easy. 

Seriously, I've had an attitude about baking bread. It always seemed like such a hassle. All the rising and punching down and rising again and shaping and resting and rising and baking and bla bla bla. With two teenagers, a husband in grad school, a job, a blog and two crazy dachshunds, extra patients for baking bread is in short supply. Then I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and it didn't look too bad. No kneading, I was skeptical but I thought I'd give it a try. There was still some waiting and resting and rising but I realized, to quote The Dude, "that my thinking on this had become very uptight." So I rethought the whole timing and rising thing and gave it a whirl. 

Note: you need a heavy, lidded, ovenproof pot for this recipe. I used my Le Creuset French Oven which worked beautifully. I know, I know, they are way expensive, but if you can swing it, they are the best. Really its a "Magic Pot" if you ask me. But, you can use any pot that can take the heat and can be covered.