Baking

Dark Chocolate Orange Scones

April 20, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Ever since I made Irish Soda Bread Cranberry Scones I have been thinking about making another batch with a twist. I loved the fluffy texture of the previous batch and I wanted to keep that going. I took the basic ingredients of the first recipe and added chocolate chips and orange zest. It was so easy with great results! The texture and consistency was just like before only with the added bonus of orange and chocolate. The orange zest and chocolate were balanced perfectly and it reminded me more of a dessert than a breakfast scone. These were a huge hit so I will definitely be making these again!

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Irish Soda Bread Cranberry Scones

March 13, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Whenever I’ve picked up store bought scones I’ve always been disappointed. This year with Saint Patrick’s Day around the corner I came across a recipe for these Irish Soda Bread Scones. Determined to like scones, I gave this recipe a try. The recipe was originally made as a full loaf bread so I don’t know how traditional these are to scone recipes. The fluffy, dense texture on the inside and the rough exterior was very scone-like. If it tastes like a scone and looks like a scone, it’s a scone right? It was fair enough for me, especially since these were so delicious. I loved the bursts of sweet and tart from the cranberries, which paired well with the caraway. Next time I might go a little crazy and add orange or lemon zest to the dough and see how that turns out.

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Chocolate Espresso Cookies

March 10, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Chocolate and espresso is a subtle combination. In many recipes a little espresso or coffee is added to enhance the chocolate flavor. The espresso compliments the chocolate and these cookies play on that idea very nicely. The batter is made with cocoa and espresso powders along with melted chocolate. Solid chocolate chips are mixed into the batter so any cravings you might have had for chocolate will probably be satisfied. After the cookies are baked the outside forms a glossy layer that cracks apart. The inside isn’t really like a normal cookie’s but rather like the inside of a brownie. I was really happy with how these turned out and next time I have a chocolate craving I know which recipe to turn to!

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Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

December 19, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

As far as decadent Holiday cookies go this recipe ranks pretty far up there in the decadence and the deliciousness! I am a big fan of salted caramel and combining it inside of a cookie sounded too good to be true. The cookie’s name makes it sound more complicated than it is and the recipe is really simple and doesn’t take long to throw together. These cookies remind me a little of chocolate lava cake especially when eaten soon after they’re taken out of the oven. The gooey caramel oozes out of the center and mixes with the outer chocolate cookie layer. The cookie just looks festive and almost snow covered from the powdered sugar on top.

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Lemon Meringue Pie with A Graham Cracker Crust

December 15, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Lemon Meringue Pie is a great option for a lighter dessert for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Lemon Meringue Pie is a two layer pie of lemony filling and light whipped meringue. It is a perfect balance of tart and sweet. The flavors definitely awaken the taste buds after a heavy holiday meal. I had never made Lemon Meringue pie but I had made meringue cookies before so I was familiar with half of the equation of this pie. The process of making the filling was also very similar to making vanilla custard for Vanilla Custard Pie. I had never tried this pie before so I did not know what to expect. I loved the tartness of the pie along with the fluffy, almost caramelized texture of the meringue.

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Cinnamon Raisin Pumpkin Bread

November 28, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

I really liked how my pumpkin quick breads turned out so I wanted to try out a yeast based pumpkin bread for good measure! Yeast breads do take a little bit longer so these kinds of recipes end up being good weekend projects. I decided to combine the flavor of pumpkin bread with the ingredients of cinnamon raisin bread. The joining of these two were really tasty! Since this recipe yields 2 loaves I decided to try out 2 ways of baking them. With one loaf I baked it free form and the other I baked in a loaf pan. The photo below features the free form loaf and I have to say I just like the shape and texture of it better than the pan loaf. The combination of the spices, raisin and pumpkin flavor were really delicious! It was really good toasted with a little maple butter spread on top.

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Thanksgiving Bread Recipes

November 18, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and this list features my favorite bread recipes for the big day!

Rosemary Herb Biscuits

Sour Cream and Dill Biscuits

Parmesan and Rosemary Olive Bread

Baked Bread Stuffing with Sage

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

November 10, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Sadly my favorite month of the year has been over ten days but I am still celebrating Fall with new pumpkin recipes! These muffins would like to pretend they are for breakfast, but they are so delicious they seem more like a dessert. The inside is light and fluffy with gooey bits of chocolate chips all over. The flavor of the pumpkin is mild, but definitely present. I added some yogurt into the batter which gave the muffins a fluffier, creamier texture. This recipe has lots of possibilities for variation–adding nuts or raisins would work well as a substitute for the chocolate. If you wanted to replace the yogurt with apple sauce that would work fine too.

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Golden Delicious Apple Crisp

October 27, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

October has gone by so fast it’s hard to believe. Just a few weeks ago I spent some time in a local apple orchard and picked up 8 pounds of Golden Delicious apples. Golden Delicious are suitable for both baking and eating, which makes them special as most apple varieties are good for just one or the other. I was excited to try these out using my mom’s classic rhubarb crisp recipe and just reducing the sugar to compensate for the apples’ sweetness. These apples had a honey-like sweetness with just the right amount of crunch and tartness to keep things interesting.

The crisp is a simple combination of oats, flour, sugar and spices, baked in the oven, and topped with whipped cream or ice cream. It was really good with the golden delicious apples. It will be hard to go back to store bought apples when the season ends!

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Caraway Rye Bread

May 4, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

It’s hard to find decent rye bread at grocery stores. That is part of the reason why I undertook this rye bread recipe. When I say ‘undertook’ I mean that it takes about 8 hours to complete so it is kind of an all day project. I enjoyed the process of making the starter, kneading, and watching the dough rise. It is neat to watch the yeast in action and at some point you realize that the bread is a live organism. The amount of yeast in this recipe is less than what I normally use for yeast bread. This is why the rye has a longer prep time than other recipes.

This recipe also uses a neat trick of tossing in a few ice cubes into the oven to create a more humid environment while the bread bakes. Even though the oven is humidified, the outside of the bread is golden brown and crusty, almost like a baguette crust. The inside is soft and the aroma of caraway and rye in the kitchen is fairly intoxicating!

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