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Sundays with Macrina: Brioche
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:48:00 -0500

Keywords: Brioche , Macrina , Bread

Chris wanted to make Brioche, so we used the recipe in Macrina... all I can say is WOW! So buttery, so light, so..... mmmmmmmmm.
Sundays with Macrina: Brown Sugar & Almond Coffee Cake
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:13:00 -0500

Keywords: Cake , Macrina , Berries

On Saturday Chris was out with The Guys and I was kinda bored and couldn't decide what do to and I thought 'hey, I haven't baked anything in a while...' So I broke out the Macrina book and flipped through to find something that I could make with stuff I already had in the house. I found this Brown Sugar and Almond Coffee Cake that calls for fresh or frozen raspberries. Well, I had frozen mixed berries (raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) and I thought that was good enough. So I follow the recipe and it says I need a 9x9" pan to make this cake in. Well, I don't have a 9x9 pan, I only have an 8x8 pan. I poured it in and it was clearly too full and so I changed it to my higher sided round baking dish, thinking that it could at least hold it in if it puffed up a lot.

Well.....
I think the combination of the heavy almonds on top and the fact hat my oven is slightly tilted resulted in the almonds sliding off onto the bottom of the oven and making a huge mess. I really don't even think a 9x9 pan would have been big enough for the amount the cake rose.

This cake is delicious. It was super moist and really tasty. I happen to love almonds and almond flavored anything so it was perfect for me. I didn't really get a brown sugar taste from the cake and I probably would have named it Berry Almond Coffee Cake instead but either way, it was really great. My only complaint was that the berries sunk to the bottom, which I kind of suspected they would do. I thought about tossing them in flour to prevent this from happening but I thought that if I needed to do that, the book would have said so. Either way, yum. I will be making this again, but first I need to find a pan that can contain it properly :P
Sundays with Macrina: Fresh Fruit Muffins, Strawberry
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:50:00 -0500

Keywords: Muffins , Macrina , Strawberry

This is the first time I was unhappy with something I made from the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook. It was completely my fault though. I thought the muffins looked done, toothpick test came out clean and they were in the oven longer than the recipe said. I don't know if it was the weather that day or just me not doing something right but they didn't bake all the way through. Of course I didn't realize this until AFTER I'd given some to Vina and her husband.... ugh. The flavor of the muffin part was good, but I really didn't like the flavor that the strawberries added. They also made the cooked part of the muffins soggy and wet (I HATE the texture of soggy bread). I would probably make these again, maybe with blueberries or cherries, just to see if they come out better.
Sundays With Macrina: Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:02:00 -0500

Keywords: Macrina , Bread , Baking , Oatmeal

This week I wanted to try my hand at another bread from the Macrina book. There are a ton of recipes for stuff other than bread but you can really tell that bread is Leslie Mackie's passion.

I didn't get to take any pictures of the actual making of the bread, but it was really easy. I wanted to try a starter bread but I do not have a food scale and I think starter breads are really one instance where you have to use one. So I opted for this loaf instead.
And like everything else I've made from the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook, it was excellent. It came out really crusty on the outside (actually I think I may have baked it just a few minutes too long) and soft and fluffy on the inside. The only problem I had was with slicing it and that's just because I don't have a lot of experience slicing bread so my slices were THICK. I used this loaf all week for toast and to make sandwiches for lunch. It has a wonderful nutty flavor but its mild enough that it doesn't over power your sandwich. I don't know if you can tell but it also came out HUGE! Each slice was bigger than my whole hand with my fingers spread out. I think my stoneware pan, even though it says is 5x9, is not. I might try getting a metal pan but I really love the way the stoneware bakes.

I will definitely be making this bread again. It was SO delicious. I did leave off the oats that were supposed to be sprinkled on top... I really just forgot but also Chris doesn't like bread with 'stuff on it'.
Sunday's with Macrina: Morning Glory Muffins
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:24:00 -0500

Keywords: Muffins , Breakfast , Macrina

This week's pick from the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook was Morning Glory Muffins. They sounded hearty and energizing and I thought they would make a great on-the-go breakfast. The recipe is supposed to make 12 muffins, but I made jumbo muffins so it only made 6.

I don't usually start off with a picture of the ingredients but in this case the sheer amount of them is definitely worth the top picture. These muffins contain: raisins, nuts (once again I swapped pecans for the walnuts called for), carrot, apple, pineapple, flour, sugar, raw sugar, salt, canola oil, eggs, baking soda, coconut, cinnamon, and lemon juice, butter and vanilla. And then the prep work....

I soaked the raisins in hot water to make them plumpy...

Toasted and chopped the nuts....

Shredded carrot....

... and apple...

Juiced this amazing lemon...

Don't even get me started on how I forgot to take pictures of my first ever chopping of a fresh pineapple....
Mix it all together in the super secret Macrina way...

Fill the tins to the tippy top....

(and I mean full!)

Then bake!

Ok that picture isn't the best but I really couldn't wait to eat this muffin! They smelled SO good baking! I can't even begin to describe how tasty these muffins are. I thought that all of the different ingredients would be overwhelming, but they weren't. My only complaint is that they were kind of crumbly.... don't get me wrong that didn't stop me from gathering all the crumbs up and squishing them so I could make sure I got all the scraps :P Chris loved them, I loved them, they were absolutely worth all the work that went into them. I will definitely be making these again!
Sunday's With Macrina: German Pancake with Apples, Rum, & Brown Sugar
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:41:00 -0500

Keywords: Macrina , Brunch , Apple , Pancake

I picked this recipe to do first because Chris and I were looking for something fun to make for breakfast with stuff we already had in the house. The only thing we had to run out for was the apples. Also, because we wanted something a little heavier than a muffin or a scone.

Here's how it came together:

We had to substitute a few things for this recipe. The main thing was the rum. The recipe calls for dark rum, but we didn't have any and since we live in NY, liquor stores don't open until noon on Sundays. We only had Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Passion Fruit Rum in the house, so we used that. The other two things were minor. First, I don't own a 9" saute pan, I own a 10" saute pan so we used that. Second, we don't drink whole milk, we buy 2% milk so that's what we used.

Wet ingredients: eggs, milk, vanilla

Dry ingredients: flour, kosher salt, sugar

Melting the butter.

While that melts, mix the dry and wet ingredients together until there are no lumps.

Then you pour the batter into the saute pan

After it cooks for a few minutes and starts to brown around the outside, you pop it into the oven to bake.

Meanwhile, you take the cut up apples...

And mix it with the melted brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, rum mixture.

Stir to coat and then cook them for a little while.

This is what the pancake looked like right before I pulled it out of the oven. It kinda made me crack up.

Then it deflated a little and we poured on the apples and dusted with powdered sugar.

Wow. Soooo goood. The pancake wasn't too heavy and really had a nice flavor. It was a great brunch and so easy to make that we will definitely make it again. The only thing was that the apple mixture was a little on the sweet side, but we are blaming that on our choice to use the fruity rum instead of dark rum. We may try it with a different fruit next time. Maybe apricots.

I'm so glad I chose this for the first recipe! I had a really hard week at work last week and wasn't so much in the mood to cook but I thought, hey, this is why I decided to do this in the first place. Chris and I had a lot of fun making it (and eating it!) together.
Challenging Myself... with Macrina
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:03:00 -0600

Keywords: Macrina , Baking

I am going to bake my way through the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie. Cooking, in general, has always been something I love. When I was little I would pretend I had my own cooking show whenever I made something, even just PB&J. But baking... baking is my true passion. There is nothing like the feeling of taking something freshly baked out of the oven, the smell, the heat, the golden brown crust, the perfectly baked cake... it's like love in solid form. So why am I starting this adventure?

My job is stressful but it is not hard to do nor does it require a lot of brain power. Lately it has been a bit more stressful than usual because they are closing my office and moving my branch into another office to be shared with the team that is there from the company that took mine over. My boss is being moved to a different location than the rest of us, which leaves me as The One In Charge. So I've been working longer than usual hours and am a bit more stressed because of the extra responsibility and trying get all my work done while also doing all the things my boss normally does.

My point is that when I come home, I am mush. I don't use my brain at work, which I think is more tiresome than if I had to use a lot of brainpower. I do the crossword on my lunch everyday just so that I have at least 20 or 30 minutes of thinking to do during the day. I am not challenged at work. I do not have rewarding experiences at work. I mostly deal with complaints and problems, which can be wearing on the spirit. When I come home lately, I can't seem to get my brain to turn on to engage with Chris for more than watching TV. I'm cranky, I don't want to talk, I don't want to cook... I just want to put my pajamas on and veg out on the couch. Which is unfair to Chris and causes unnecessary stress on our relationship.

So what is the solution? Well, I can't just up and quit my job. It's a "good" job. So since I can't just quit, I've decided that I need to take matters into my own hands and challenge myself more. Do more things that require brainpower. (I also need to do more things that challenge me physically, but that's another topic for another day)

I've been reading through Carol Blymire's blog Alinea At Home, where she is cooking her way through the entire Alinea cookbook by Grant Achatz. She also finished cooking through the French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller. Carol is really inspiring. I really could go on and on about her blog but really you should just head over there and check it out.

So why Macrina? Because there are things in there that I have only dreamed of baking. Intimidating sour doughs, croissants and other pastries....Things that will be hard, possibly frustrating, might make me cry but will be ultimately rewarding. The breads in this book sound so inviting to bake. There are also cakes, cookies, muffins, tarts, pies... the works. I also love the section toward the back that has the Cafe Favorites with savory dishes that make your mouth water just by reading the title like Egg Scramble with Delicata Squash, Spinich, Smoked Provelone & Beurre Blanc Sauce and German Pancake with Apples, Rum & Brown Sugar.

So I am going to make at least one new recipe per week from the Macrina book on Sunday. I hope to come out of this adventure a bit more intuitive about bread baking, more confident about pastry and with experience in a broader range of baked goods. I also want to gain a sense of accomplishment and a better understanding of what my plans are for the future. I also, for at least one day a week, want to feel passionate about what I am doing.

Wish me luck!