Baking Crazy!

    So, I'm a really random person and like to just try stuff for fun as far as like crafts, cooking, and baking. I can't bake cookies, well I can only bake pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I'm also not great with cupcakes, the last homemade ones I attempted I used 2 sticks of butter instead of one (they were so heavy and gross). I looooove baking cheesecakes! My favorite is pumpkin, or maybe even peanut butter cup. Now I want cheesecake lol.

    Anyway, I'm going off track here! I was going to start off with the fact that I've discovered baking doughnuts and I've been at it for a week now like every other day lol. The thing is I don't like doughnuts, but I really enjoy making them for my family to eat. I found a cool doughnut pan for the oven at Michaels and I got it for like $6.40 after taxes because I had a coupon. Pinterest is my fuel source for all of these baking attempts, I pin recipes like they are going out of style! It's not my fault that there are a bazillion baked doughnut recipes on there just waiting to be tried. The first few I made were born of cake mix and buttermilk and I must say they were pretty good considering my dislike of them in general. The first batch were made with funfetti cake mix and a sugary glaze on top. Since the weekend I've made the funfetti ones, devils food, and two homemade batches; one being chocolate, and the other cinnamon. Everyone's eating them so I guess they are good, but I'm not sure since doughnuts are kind of yucky in my opinion. They are fun to make though, it's like I'm the queen of breakfast food or something in this house now. I think I'm going to attempt red velvet, and spice cake doughnuts next... Then I'll probably get bored and go back to cheesecakes since those take a lot more time for me to make and I enjoy trying to one up myself each time I make a new one.

I apologize for my complete randomness as far as my word smithing and hope at least one of you made it to the end !

Do any of you go crazy with baking anything? I expect a lot of people go nuts around the holiday with cookies and stuff but who knows?

One more thing that doesn't really matter but I'm going to go out on it anyway! I make a huge mess when I'm in the kitchen, I get flour and other baking essentials all over everything. I absolutely love the mess and the cleanup though! It's something I'll never understand, it just happens even when I try to be tidy.

Oh, man, doughnuts! I've been wanting that pan, too (I think my kids may be getting it for this year for Christmas). My MIL taught me about making doughnuts years ago and even now, she and I get together every year the weekend before or right after Doughnut Day to make doughnuts. I don't care for deep frying and she knows it. So she makes the doughnut dough, then I roll them out, cut them, and I fry them while she goes into the living room and reads the newspaper . It's the only way I'm going to feel more comfortable around deep frying and she says some things need to continue. She's in her early 90s now and I guess I'm the one she has chosen to honor certain traditions in the family. Which is fine with me! 

I love to bake! I just dearly love to bake. Whether it's cookies or breads or muffins or rolls or cupcakes or whatever, I love being in the kitchen. I make some darn good sticky buns, too. I love trying out new baking recipes. Many of my favorite cookbooks are baking books. We do a lot of pizza and I love to play with pizza dough. Come apple season, there are apple pies, apple brownies, apple dumplings, apple-you-name-it.

I love to collect different baking pans, cookie cutters, and cookbooks. 

Cheesecakes. Rick just love cheesecakes. I know how to make a ton of different cheesecakes. But I hate the stuff. Cheesecake has always been something that I think is diseased and should be declared illegal. Man, I hate cheesecake. But he loves them, all of them. And so do his parents, so I must make cheesecake. (Cream cheese and sour cream.....I will bake with them, but I can't stand to eat either.)

And wait til the holidays roll around and I start talking about cookies. Rick is a Cookie Monster from way back, so there are always cookies in the house, but Christmas is a time to shine. I usually start Thanksgiving weekend and I bake cookies pretty much every night from then until around the middle of December. We always mail out cookie boxes to friends and relatives. Rick leaves to bowl, I turn my classic rock on, and til he gets home, there are cookies everywhere. I have found that making 3 or 4 cookie doughs one night and stashing them in the fridge and then baking them the next night works the best. There are days when I get up in the morning and don't leave the kitchen for the entire day.

I am not a neat baker by any stretch. I try and, most of the time, it's not too bad. But there are times where there's flour from one end of the kitchen to the other. And there are times when one of the cats has been known to have flour scattered on his or her fur. The cats love to be in the kitchen when I'm baking. I think it's because the oven makes the kitchen so warm and they like the warmth, especially on those cold winter days.

One of my dreams has always been to open my own cookie shop. I need to hire somebody to take care of the customers though because all I want to do is bake cookies. 

Can you make only cake donuts in the donut pan, or can you make the yeast ones, too? 

You know, I'm not sure, SwampWitch. Everything I see for this type of pan only talks about cake-type donuts. Which would be fine, too, as Rick likes any kind of donut. I'll have to check around; it I find anything out, will let you know. If you see anything, please post!

I love baking, but I know if I make donuts, I'll never stop making them and I'll just eat till I explode. I like cakes, brownies, and cookies. Bonus if they go well with ice cream.

while i enjoy cooking, i absolutely love baking! i usually have some baked item -- cake, pie, blondies, cookies, etc -- on hand. this summer i've been occasionally making jello w/fruit, but it's not the same as home baked desserts. currently i'm working through the last of last falls apple chunks (from my freezer), and made a nice apple crisp yesterday.

i pre-measure the dry ingredients for my baked items ahead of time, and place a label in the containers (listing the recipe name and the ingredients). so the day i bake, i just need to measure any wet ingredients, combine with dry ingredients per the recipe, place in the pan/pie plate/etc, and bake. well, and then tidy the kitchen counters and wash the dishes.

i don't tend to make too much of a mess in the kitchen when i bake usually. the messiest it gets is when i'm rolling out pie dough or working with bread dough.

My favorite thing to make is bar cookies of any type.  They are so moist and they have the added benefit of being easier and quicker to bake than other types of cookies.  

I didn't think anyone disliked cheesecake.  I love cheesecake but it has too many calories, it has to be an every once in awhile treat for me.  

I have more of a fat tooth than a sweet tooth, but if it's a fatty desert like cheesecake then I'm in heaven!  I also like making the classic Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies as cookie bars rather than cookies, but my goodness are they rich.  I LOVED them as a kid and I'm not a chocolate-crazy person.  Now I'm craving them.

I've never made donuts, but I've made fritters. YUMMM!

I don't really care for baked donuts though. I prefer them deep fried. I figure if I'm going to have donuts I'm going all out!!

Now you have me wanting to make donuts!  LOL

I find as I get older that my cravings tend more toward the salty than sweet. I even find that while I love chocolate, I often pick something other than chocolate from the dessert menu, often something apple or lemon.

So far as baking goes. I made some red velvet cupcakes on  Saturday for bridal shower and they turned out yummy.  I don't back cakes from scratch because I don't really care for the texture of scratch cakes all that much.  I prefer to use boxed mixes and doctor them up. I always use melted butter in place of the oil, and water in place of the milk for those who might be lactose intolerant.

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/12/how-to-make-boxed-cake-mixes-taste-homemade.html

Next week I'm making a vanilla cake with lemon cream cheese icing, covered with fondant for my brother's wedding. And that is the extent of my baking for the foreseeable future.  lol  That's the most baking I've done in over a year!

Denice said:

 
My favorite thing to make is bar cookies of any type.  They are so moist and they have the added benefit of being easier and quicker to bake than other types of cookies.  

I didn't think anyone disliked cheesecake.  I love cheesecake but it has too many calories, it has to be an every once in awhile treat for me.  

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It's a texture thing with me, the cream cheese. Many cheesecakes are simply too dense. And I really hate the taste of cream cheese (sour cream, too). I'll bake with both of them and, if there's not a lot of cream cheese in the food, I can usually eat it. Small cookies, for example; we make spritz cookies with cream cheese for the holidays and I can eat those. I can make dips that call for a wee bit of cream cheese. But a cheesecake with 24 ounces of the stuff is just ridiculously cheesey and dense and I can't eat it. I just can't. I'll bake a sour cream coffee cake or rolled cookies with sour cream and I can eat them. But I will never, ever put sour cream on a baked potato.

When I started dating Rick, his mom invited me to dinner. And, of course, she made a New York cheesecake for dessert. I had one bite and it was all I could do not to gag. Rick saw that I was having trouble and he ate my dessert, too. I can bake cheesecakes with no trouble (although I don't even like to touch cream cheese) and there are a ton of cheesecakes that I can make. Just please don't ever ask me to eat any. Now there is a peanut butter hot fudge cheesecake that I can tolerate....it has only 8 ounces of cream cheese, so it's not real dense, plus it has all the peanut butter and nuts, and it's topped with a hot fudge sauce. I can eat it, if I have to. One year for Christmas, I made a tiramisu cheesecake. Well! I thought everybody was going straight to heaven from all the oohs and ahhs from that dessert. And I refused to even touch it. Ick. Just ick.

As for sweet or salty, when I make my nut brittles, I'll spread the hot caramel out on a cookie sheet. And then I immediately sprinkle sea salt onto the top of the brittle. You have that sweet caramel with the nuts and then you have the crunch of sea salt (kosher salt will work, too). It is so good! I have a chocolate buttercrunch snack that I toss some sea salt onto the top of that, too. The chocolate, the salt. It is simply decadent. (And no cream cheese or sour cream  )

I was craving a donut so bad that I went to a coffee shop and ordered an apple fritter!  LOL

I found an interesting recipe for peach cobbler bars and can't wait to try it, hopefully this weekend. I'd like to make a batch of peach dumplings, too, while I'm into peaches.

@Winchester -- peach cobbler bars and peach dumplings sound good! i'm just working up my grocery shopping list for september, and figuring out how many apples i'll need to make apple butter as well as the recipe you shared for chunky apple sauce. i'll buy enough that i have plenty of apples for eating raw too.

Oh, I just love apples. I eat a Granny every single day. 

If you make apple butter (Are you going to do it in a crock pot? That's how I make mine), how about making some apple butter BBQ sauce? You can make it, freeze it in small containers and then get it out as you need it. Apple butter BBQ sauce is really good on any kind of pork or ham. Even on chicken. I tried it last year for the first time and it was delicious.

@Winchester -- i used to be able to eat the tart apples, love the crispin (mutsu), but now the tart ones seem to make my teeth...hurt (for lack of a better way to describe the sensation). so now i eat honey crisp, cortland, ginger gold, and similar. i love apples too. i get all excited when it gets close to apple season starting, like now.

on the road i live on, apple orchard trucks are a very familiar sight. the trucks move the crates, then the apples in crates, then 18-wheeler length trucks with open tops filled with fresh apples. there's a pick ur own apple orchard up my road too, which should be open for picking in late september.

yes, i'll be making my apple butter in the crockpot. apple butter bbq sauce sounds delicious, but i rarely use bbq sauce. i'm just one person, so never bother with grilling. i'll be buying a nice fresh ham from the meat market in september, so will have tons of ham (it should get me through the winter and next spring, at the least) so maybe i'll make a batch. and i do occasionally make pork bbq, so i bet the apple butter bbq sauce would taste very good with that. do you have a recipe for the apple butter bbq sauce that you might be willing to share? i bet a jar or two would make a very nice christmas gift for friends too.

i noticed on my unopened cases of ball canning jars that some sizes are freezer safe. almost all the jar sizes i have are freezer safe, so i'll be using those to freeze the apple sauce, apple butter, and apple butter bbq sauce in. i'll sterile the jars, fill them, let cool on the counter, place the lids and rings on them, cool them well in the fridge, then move them to the freezer.

Mutsu! Oh my, I just love Mutsu apples! They are my absolute favorite apple! I know what you mean about the tartness of the apples and what it does to your teeth. One of my GFs says that happens to her with Granny Smith apples.

I will look for the recipe that I use for the apple butter BBQ sauce. I'll be making more this fall. 

There's a huge orchard down around the Gettysburg, PA area that we go to; they have the best Grannies. They have a ton of different apples, including Mutsus, and I usually buy 3-4 bags of various apples in each bag; the best apple pies are made from a variety of apples. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. For years, Rick and I went to Connecticut to visit a GF and to pick Mutsu apples at an orchard there.

But then my brother and SIL talked us into going with them a couple of years ago (we didn't really have the money for a trip to Connecticut as we had just finished our kitchen redo) and it's become kind of a family thing now. It's a one-day trip with my brother and SIL (and this year, my sister and BIL are also going along) to buy apples, to do a bit of shopping, followed by a nice dinner out before coming home. We have a great time. We'll probably go around the end of October; my brother just called me a couple nights ago to ask me if we were still planning on going. http://www.hollabaughbros.com/ That's actually where I got the idea for apple butter BBQ sauce. I bought some there and thought, "Well, heck, I can make this!"   

My MIL swears by Paula Red apples for pie. She also likes Ida Reds, but her favorite is the Paula Red. There's a local orchard that sell Paula Red pick-offs, they're like second quality apples which are perfect for pies. 

i agree! i've read that the best pies and sauces are made from a variety of apples, so that's what i do too.

that sounds like a very nice outing, a very nice day -- buying apples, a bit of shopping, then a nice dinner before heading back home.

Here you go. I use a combination of these two recipes. I can't tell you exactly how I do it, because it's different, depending on the apples I use and the sweetness of the apples. Sometimes I'll chop an onion or two very very fine and saute it, then add other ingredients to the sauteed onion for the sauce. Tasting as you go is key. Again, it's because apples are different and even the same kind of apple is different every year. Too little rain, too much rain, coolness, heat, it all changes the apple taste a bit. So as I add this and that, I always taste. Let it simmer for a minute or two and then taste. Adjust then taste again. I hope that makes sense.

Easy to freeze, too, in small containers, so that you can use it quickly. Apple butter BBQ sauce is good on pork, on ham, and even on chicken. I've used it as a salad dressing when making a salad topped with some grilled chicken or grilled pork tenderloin. Spoon it on your pulled pork sandwich or on a ham sandwich. 

Apple Butter BBQ Sauce

1 cup apple butter (either jarred or your own apple butter)
1 cup tomato sauce (You can halve this amount and then add 1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce, if you want)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar (Can omit if your apple butter is really sweet)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice, ground
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (Optional, but I usually include)

Stir all ingredients into a medium sauce pan together until well combined. Heat on medium to bring the sauce to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring on occasion. Taste as you go as any BBQ sauce is perfect the way you want it and you may need to adjust accordingly.

Apple Butter BBQ Sauce

1 cup apple butter (either jarred or your own apple butter)

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)

Mix all ingredients in medium bowl. Store covered in refrigerator at least 1 hour before using. Can be refrigerated for a couple of weeks.

That's kind of like using the apple butter in place of molasses and/or brown sugar.

@Winchester -- thank you for sharing your apple butter recipe! i've got making apple butter bbq sauce in my plans for this fall.

i'm thinking that i'll can it, because i plan on gifting my brother/his family with some for christmas and it'll be easier to transport sealed up in a jar.