Bakery in the Day Hooray

When Todd and I were trying to decide where to go for our anniversary, many things drew me toward Savannah.  The history...the architecture...the gnarled live oak trees...and the Back in the Day Bakery.  I've had this cookbook for a long time and everything I've baked from it has been amazing.  When we moved to South Carolina, I resolved to go there in person at some point. 

I saved it for the end of our second day, AFTER 16 miles of hiking, for guilt-free consumption.  Walking there made me feel even more virtuous, so I didn't have any qualms about ordering a giant oatmeal cookie sandwich with cream cheese filling, which was outstanding.  The bakery itself was in a slightly sketchy neighborhood, but had cute vintage decor.

I was surprised that they didn't have too many choices, especially for a weekend, but they did have lots of fresh-baked breads in another case.

The owners, Cheryl and Griff, were on-site, and Cheryl signed a coaster for me to stick in my cookbook.  Yes, I am a nerd!  Todd took my photo in front of the bakery, too, and I was nerdily pleased that Cheryl is in the picture, right over my left shoulder.

I'm all wet because it rained most of the day, and we hiked through it. 

When we came home, I decided to make something from the cookbook that I'd hoped I could sample at the bakery, but wasn't available:  the caramel-bottomed brown sugar cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze.

Before I made the dough, I made the caramel.  I love any excuse to pull out my candy thermometer! 
I mixed the ingredients and boiled them until they reached a temperature of 230 degrees F, then poured the soft caramel into the bottom of the pan.

Next I mixed the dough...love a good rise!

After the dough was ready, I rolled it out, spread it with butter, sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon, rolled it up, sliced it, and placed the rolls onto the caramel.

I put them in the refrigerator to rise overnight.

I baked them for 25 minutes and topped them with the glaze.  The rolls greedily sucked up the caramel and were absolutely delicious!

I would halve the caramel next time, I think, and probably use my tried-and-true cinnamon roll recipe.  All in all, though, a very tasty treat!

I've been baking - a lot - but I always seem to run out of space for recipes on my posts.  So I thought I'd put a few on here. 

Two weeks ago I made Cookie Dough Billionaire Bars from the Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook.  It's a layer of shortbread, a layer of caramel, a layer of cookie dough, and a layer of chocolate ganache.  It was good, but I ended up scraping off the chocolate ganache - it overpowered the bar.

Yesterday I made a 3 layer cake from the Sprinkle Bakes website.  It's a pretty daunting cake:  one layer Devils Food, one layer cheesecake, and one layer cookie dough.  Because the cheesecake fell a bit in the middle for me, it didn't stack prettily, even though I switched out the Devils Food cake for my favorite brownie recipe (more stabilizing).

Oh, yeah, did I mention that the whole thing was covered in buttercream?

No beauty shots here - this was taken with the aid of the refrigerator light, but at least you can see the layers!

The cake was absolutely delicious, but I think I might swap out the cookie dough recipe for the one that's in the Cookie Dough Lovers Cookbook.  This particular dough was made with a CUP of melted butter, and it was a bit heavy for me.  I ate very moderately all day and had just one sliver of it last night, and I still felt sugar-queasy this morning. Thankfully, I can always send it to Todd's work tomorrow!  Here is the original recipe if you want to give it a try! 

I also made a mini apple pie with some leftover pie dough from the freezer (chopped apples and sauteed in brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and cinnamon to taste for about 20 minutes on stovetop):

Another pie - an absolutely beautiful cherry pie last week:

I'll post the recipe soon.

A sweet loaf of bread made with leftover yellow summer squash:

And so, so many summer tarts, which is one of my favorite things to make.  Buttery tarts filled with caramelized onions, mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes, roasted squash, spinach...the combinations are endless!

I've started roasting a lot of chicken, too.  Todd eats the main parts and then shreds down the leftovers to be filler in soups, tacos, etc.  Brining the chicken (soaking it in salt/garlic/herb water for an hour before roasting) makes it super moist. Annie's Eats has wonderful directions here, and the roasted garlic/red wine sauce that you made with the leftover drippings is one of my favorites, so flavorful, perfect on bread or mashed potatoes (or just by itself!). 

For us, it's all about balance.  Todd and I have healthy lifestyles and eat very moderately most of the time, and treat ourselves to a little sweet nib after supper a few times a week.  I'll usually have just a bite or two of pie (for example) and I feel satisfied, and Todd, too, will have just a little slice.  It's been a long struggle to finally get to the point of 'de-criminalizing' sugar.  It's a huge personal victory for me to know that there's a delicious homemade pie in the refrigerator, all week long, and I don't feel compelled to guiltily pick at it.  If I crave, I have a bite, put it back, and go on with my life.  Happy day!  Overeating sugar torpedoes my workouts, which are fairly intense, and that helps keep me on track as well. 

I have one more Savannah post, about the amazing Bonaventure Cemetery.  I hope to get that out in a few days.  Have a great week! 

Padding, Pillows, and Plenty of Pudding

Before our current cold snap, I was able to get out in the yard and get some much-needed work done...under careful supervision, of course.

My sister brought over a big load of rich, healthy compost, which I'll till into our poor soil soon to add some much-needed nutrients.

Everything seemed to come to life at once. My autumn sedums look like miniature lettuce heads. They'll make a beautiful display in September.

I found another nice natural groundcover. This is persian speedwell...tiny blue flowers that spread in bright patches in our yard.

Blue is such a lovely color in the garden!

The columbines are making great headway. I expect to see stalks within two weeks.

Not to be outdone, the lilacs are showing bright green leaves all over. I simply can't wait until they bloom! I have the most beautiful bouquets in nearly every room in the house.

I found evidence of past life...some insect spent some time here in the fall!

Best of all, though, I found evidence of future life: the ground under our big pine tree is littered with tiny bits of fuzz, which the birds nesting above have dropped from their nests.

Lots of activity inside, too. Single flowers make beautiful displays in egg cups, assisted by a few pebbles within to help the stems stay upright.

Besides flowers, I've been thinking of more ways to bring some bright color into the house. I recently bought this pillow at IKEA for, I believe, around $10. I wanted to buy more, especially the blue plaid counterpart, but that could get expensive pretty quickly. How hard could it be to make my own? As it turns out, making a pillow is incredibly easy.

I found a man's button-up shirt at a thrift store that I thought would work nicely. Cost: .75.

I found an ugly old pillow that the cats had been kicking around on the front porch. Origin: unknown. Cost: free.

I placed the pillow on top of the spread-out shirt...

...and cut out around the pillow, making sure to leave a wide margin on all sides. I should've left a wider margin, but that was easily solved by removing the cover from the brown pillow to make it a better fit.

Then, I turned the shirt inside-out and simply stitched around the edges, making a nice, even square. I did this by hand, which took less than an hour. If you use a sewing machine, this would take mere minutes.

After your pillowcase is sewn, unbutton the shirt and turn it right side-out. Slip in the stuffing (or the pillow you're covering) and button the shirt up again.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's a pillowcase!

Or, if you prefer the flip side:

I'm really pleased with this less-than-$1 DIY project. The two pillows are complementary, I think, and make a good pair. I'm envisioning a whole stack of beautiful plaid pillows. All I need is a thrift store shirt!

I can't wait to go back!

My knitting needles have been clacking along, albeit slowly. I haven't had too much time to work on my cardigan, and certainly a sock yarn-weight cardigan takes much longer to knit than one knit with the typical DK- or worsted-weight yarn. I'm pleased with the way it's turning out, although I'm still a bit nervous about the modifications I'm making: lengthening the body, raising the neckline, and lengthening the sleeves, not to mention the size and gauge guesses. I will make it work somehow! I think it will be a perfect cool-weather cardigan.

Of course, I've been very busy in the kitchen as well. We just finished off the last of the coconut cream cupcakes, and my homemade butterscotch pudding with carmelized bananas and homemade whipped cream only lasted 2 days. But I did have time for another sweetie...any excuse to use my new tart pans!

From-Scratch Chocolate Pudding Tarts
Adapted from food.com
Serves 4

Pudding
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
4 - 6 tablespoons butter, melted

To make the crust, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and then carefully press into your pie or tart pan. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes.

For the pudding, mix all ingredients but the milk and vanilla together, and then add milk. Whisk until fully combined, and then microwave uncovered for 3 minutes.

Stir.

Then you'll continue to microwave in one minute increments, stirring after each minute. You'll notice after 4 or 5 rounds that a thick brown "skin" covers more and more of the pudding's surface each time. I usually stop once there's just a small bit of light brown remaining in the center.

Mix in the vanilla, and you're done! Note: if you like a sweeter pudding, add 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/4 cup sugar. I just prefer the "darker" taste of a less-sweet pudding.

Spoon the thickened pudding onto the graham cracker crust and refrigerate.

YUM! These cool in a few hours and are ready to eat. They're absolutely delicious. I've been making the homemade pudding for years - I'll never go back to the powdered stuff! - but this is the first time I thought to pair it with a graham cracker crust.

It's a good match.

You'll notice that I don't have a photo of the tart out of the pan and ready to eat...a certain someone likes these a little too much, I think! They didn't last long enough to photograph. That's all right...it's quick and easy to make more!

I hope you'll give them a try. Have a great week!