Baking A Sweet Life

Dorie may have gotten it right this time.  I’m willing to consider changing my opinions.  These pumpkin muffins were everything she promised.  They were fantastic.  I had hoped these would be sweet – but not too sweet; perfect for breakfast with a little butter and maybe a dab of honey.  I couldn’t trust myself with these, so I decided to make them as a thank you gift for my neighbors for dog-sitting.

Kelly of Sounding my barbaric gulp picked these for our weekly TWD recipe, and I’m so glad she did.  You can find the recipe at her blog.  I made only a few minor adjustments to the original recipe – I had no ground allspice on hand, so I withheld it.  Also, instead of using pecans I used candied walnuts, and lastly, instead of raisins, I used dried cranberries (I’m sorry – I’m just really head over heels for fall right now – sue me.) I also had leftover pumpkin puree that I had prepared from scratch when making my pumpkin cake, so it was nice to throw that in instead of the canned stuff that I’ve relied upon so heavily the last few years.
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I alluded to it in my last post – this so called buddy baking project.  HOW EXCITING! Charity, as you’ll soon meet, is my new blogging buddy, and together we’re going to work our way through Sherry Yards “Secrets of Baking“. This is a *fantastic* baking book with loads of useful instruction.  The best part is the way that its organized.  Its unlike any other baking book that I’ve ever seen.  Instead of having a cookie chapter, a cake chapter, etc, it divides desserts into their parent category, like ganache, vanilla sauce, brioche, etc, and then breaks these down into sub categories; and all this shows how these recipes are related.  Its a really fresh approach to the different categories of baking, and with her book, even the  most complex stuff seems boiled down into its most basic components.  I’m looking forward to tackling it – just in time for the holidays!

We both thought the idea of a mini interview would be fun so that’s what you’ll see here.  Charity’s answers are listed below, and my answers are at her blog, Sweet Charity Pie, so feel free to check them out!

And without further ado, here’s Charity!
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Is there a flavor that more defines fall than pumpkin? I think not. I think I’m often more excited about pumpkin than Christmas.  Sure, the gifts are nice, but the taste and the smell of pumpkin is nothing short of amazing.  To kick off the fall season, my new friend and blogging buddy, Charity of Sweet Charity Pie picked an appropriately themed cake for us to bake.  You see, we’re starting this buddy blogging project, where we are going to work our way through Sherry Yards “Secrets of Baking” and before we both had the book in hand, we wanted to get started.  I’ll explain more about our project in the next post or two, so stay tuned!
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Today is the World Day of Bread – and truthfully, is there a better way to unite hundreds of countries than to celebrate a staple.  This staple is evident in all ethnicities and religions.  Oftentimes in celebrations.  Thank you to Zorra for putting on this blog event to celebrate! “Let’s break bread together”…

Its story is rooted in our history.  I was just reading Jeffrey Hamelman’s book “Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes“. In the ingredients chapter he talks about rye and his surprise that true pumpernickel bread hasn’t enjoyed nearly the popularity that it maintains in Europe, despite the large numbers of European emigrants that we’ve seen in the last century.  It had never occurred to me to think of bread as crossing boundaries in that way; as would religion, or other family heirlooms.  But why wouldn’t bread? We’re raised on it. We celebrate with it.  Not long ago some people may have survived on it.  At the expense of sounding mellow dramatic, think of all the memories we’ve created while bread has been at the table.
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My experience with biscotti is limited at best.  I was never turned on by the whole idea of biscotti because to me it appeared to have the same texture as (very) stale bread sticks.  That and they’re not overly sweet and not overly savory, so their function seemed rather limited as well.  <enter complete and pure love for cappuccinos> What was I saying about biscotti? Oh yes – how perfect they are as dunkers for coffee and chocolately drinks alike.  I think what truly turned me off to biscotti in the past was that where its usually sold, its just plain old.  Fresh biscotti seems totally unheard of.  Its usually individually wrapped, loaded with preservatives, and sold months years past its expiration date. Luckily Gretchen of Canela & Comino gave me the chance to whip up some fresh biscotti, which I haven’t done in quite some time.
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SIGH! I don’t know where to start! I’m underwhelmed and disappointed! Sigh! I had such high hopes!  I was so excited when Tammy of Wee Treats selected the Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake! It had all the right components. Brownies. Caramel. Peanuts AND Cake! How on earth could this go wrong? In more ways then one!
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