Pretzels - Taste & Create

For Taste & Create this month, I was paired with foodie plus 4. There were lots of yummy recipes to choose from. But I couldn't resist the pretzels. I love stadium pretzels and these looked so good. I was going to make some mustard dip to serve with them but have been very unmotivated lately...especially with my blogging. So we are eating them plain. They are good. And so easy too. I was shocked at how much they taste like the real thing.

Pretzels
Makes about 12 medium pretzels.

1 package active dry yeast
1/8 cup warm water
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/3 cup light brown sugar
5 cups flour
6 cups water (for boiling)
12 Tbsp. baking soda
lots of coarse or kosher salt

Preheat oven to 475°F.
Sprinkle 2 baking sheets with coarse or kosher salt and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/8 cup warm water.
Stir in remaining 1 1/3 cups warm water, brown sugar, and flour.
Mix until smooth, then knead dough (with the kneading attachment on your mixer or by hand on a floured surface) until smooth and elastic (about 3 minutes).
In a wide saucepan, boil the water with baking soda.
Divide the dough and start rolling the pieces like a pencil. Shape as desired.

Gently lower pretzels into boiling water (we did two at a time) and let cook for about 20 seconds or until dough is slightly yellow in color.

Remove pretzel with a slotted spoon and place on salted baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt, and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Thanks for the delicious recipe my fellow Taste & Create partner. I am also going to have to try that poundcake that I had a hard time passing up too. It sure looks like a diet killer and I just couldn't do that one since I have been a good girl and working out all week. But I will someday soon.

You Capture. 4th of July and Food

If you can believe it, I chose not to photograph any food for the challenge this week. All of my shots are from the 4th of July parade. My youngest has been sick since the 3rd but we were lucky enough to get to the parade.

My 3 favorite guys enjoying the parade.

This is such a neat shot. One of my favorites! If you look closely at the reflection in the bumper of the fire truck, you can see both of my boys covering their ears as the siren is being blared as it drives by!! I love it.

Be sure to head over to Beth's for the other You Capture participants.

Tribute To Katherine Hepburn Brownies - TWD

Lisa from Surviving Oz chose the recipe this week after she designed a fabulous logo for TWD. Check it out along with the recipe HERE.

The recipe is Katherine Hepburn brownies. They were good. Even though I did not really follow the recipe as Dorie suggested. I skipped the cinnamon and nuts. I also used espresso powder in place of instant coffee and only used half the amount.

The brownies are super fudgey and moist. Go ahead....try them. You won't be disappointed.

You Capture. Photographer's Choice.

This week's challenge for You Capture is a photo of your choice. I chose this picture of my youngest, Brady, after he fell asleep during our bike ride last weekend. He was pretty tuckered out after not having a nap for the second day in a row due to our camping trip. He was also up very late the night before trying to fall asleep in the tent. He managed to sleep like this while we took a 6 mile bike ride. His head kept hitting my back and I really have no idea how he slept?!

Check out the other "Photographer's Choice" selections at Beth's.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!!

Breakfast Cookies - CEiMB

I was the lucky one to choose this week's recipe for Craving Ellie in My Belly. Sara and Nick wanted to allow some older members to be able to choose again, thus starting at the top of the list. Thanks!! I chose these yummy breakfast cookies.

Breakfast Cookies
2007 Ellie Krieger

Serves:
12 cookies, serving size 1 cookie

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup (1 small jar) strained carrot baby food
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup bran cereal flakes
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted in a dry skillet for 2 minutes, until fragrant and chopped

Directions
Place rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Combine butter, oil and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed, scraping down sides if necessary, until sugars have dissolved and mixture is light in color, about 1 minute. Add egg, carrot puree and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, flakes, raisins and walnuts and mix over low speed just until incorporated. Dough will be slightly sticky and less cohesive than traditional cookie dough. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using between 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter, form a ball and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining batter, leaving about 3 inches between cookies. Wet hands and use palm of hand to flatten cookies until about 1/4-inch thick. Bake for 12 minutes, until cookies are fragrant but still soft. Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cookies are good. However, walnuts are not a hit in our house. So I used chopped peanuts instead. I think that next time I will completely exclude any nuts. I think that they would be perfect without the nuts. Unfortunately, I was the only one in my household who liked the cookies. The boys don't like nuts or raisins. And my husband thought was scared of the baby carrots. I just froze them and am going to pull them out one at a time to enjoy for breakfast.

Thanks for baking these along with me!

Perfect Party Cake - TWD

This is quite the party cake. I will make this one again in a heartbeat. Carol of mix, mix, stir, stir chose this party cake. It is a white, lemony cake layered with raspberry filling. The frosting is made with a buttercream and topped with shredded coconut.

You can find the recipe HERE or on pages 250-252 in Dorie's cookbook. It really is not that difficult of a recipe to bake and put together.

I baked the cake in celebration of my friend's birthday. We went camping together and I brought it to the campsite. It seemed to be enjoyed by all. When I make it again I plan on using some other frosting though. The amount of butter used is literally shocking! I will also skip the coconut next time. I just am not a big fan. Other than these two minor issues, it is a great cake.

My VERY late Taste and Create

I need to apologize to Eat Me, Delicious. I am sorry for my tardiness for Taste & Create. I had such a hard time picking something to make from your delicious blog (I enjoyed your blog with all the pictures of your cat. We are big kitty lovers here and yours is adorable). There were so many potential choices that I wanted to make and narrowing down my pick was difficult. I have numerous bookmarked to make in the future. I actually did bake my selection on time but I didn't get around to posting it last week.

In the end I chose the Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake. This is one fantastic recipe. I am a sucker for poundcake. But this specific poundcake is the absolute best I have ever tasted. Seriously. It was that good. It may not look like anything from my picture but we finished every last crumb. Please check out the link above for what the bundt cake should look like. Her cake looks wonderful and beautiful. Mine not so much!

I obviously didn't follow the recipe and tried to remove it from the pan way before it was ready to come out. I had to get my son to T-Ball practice and was rushing around. I tried to get it un-molded almost immediately upon taking it out of the oven. Big mistake. Huge. The cake came apart into numerous pieces. At the end of the day it really didn't matter though. It was so DELICIOUS! The boys loved it and my husband and I couldn't leave it alone. I will be making this one for my dad who is a poundcake hound as well.

Here is the recipe:

Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake

Makes one 10 inch bundt cake, serving 12

Cinnamon Streusel Swir
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Buttermilk Pound Cake
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 cup buttermilk

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325F. Grease the inside of a 10 inch Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour.

Make the Cinnamon Swirl:
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt, breaking up any large lumps of brown sugar. Add the melted butter and stir until blended and crumbly. Make the Pound Cake
3. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 4 minutes. At medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract and orange zest. At low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until combined.
5. Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the batter. Scrape the remaining batter on top and smooth it into an even layer.
6. Bake the cake for 65 to 75 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes (obviously this is so important!!).
7. Invert the cake onto the rack and cool completely.