Bake 52:caramelized onion tart with blue cheese and walnuts

I'm away from my kitchen and camera this week... so less pictures than normal.  But thanks to my fabulous sister and her GREAT (and newly remodeled) kitchen, I was still able to participate.

This tart looked really great in the book, and I was excited to give it try.  I don't know if I'd ever just try this on my own, probably because it doesn't seem very kid-friendly.  Thank goodness for 2 extra adults to help me finish this.  We all thought it was super yummy.

Start with a pizza crust.  I used this recipe here.  Good stuff.

Caramelize the onions.  Seemed like a lot, but they cook down a lot.

Add the cheese.   Bake.  Top with green onions.  Serve.  Mmmmm.  Super!

Check out the full recipe here.  Thanks for a great pick Michelle.

Bake 52: Multigrain Bread

Always like to try a new bread/roll recipe.  We LOVE bread around here.  This was a good one.

Started off softening a 7-grain hot cereal.  This is where the "multi-grain" comes from.  Softening in water.

Flour, whole wheat flour, yeast and salt set aside in mixer.

After it's soft, add honey and melted butter.  What's not to love here?

Then add that "multi-grain" mixture to the flour, with the mixer on.

Allow to mix.  It's a sticky dough.  I added about 4-5 Tbls extra flour.

Turn onto floured counter and knead...

into a nice ball.

Place into a greased bowl to rise.

After rising, back onto a floured counter it goes, and it's patted into a 9" square, roughly.

And then rolled, and pinched to stay together.

Place in a greased bread pan.  I felt like it was too much dough for just one pan, so I cut some off, and cooked that in another pan.

Let rise again.  Then brush with melted butter and sprinkle oats on top.  Just like store bought.

Bake.

Slice and enjoy!

I thought it was really yummy.  I'm sure I'll make it again, since I still have 7-grain cereal left.  Great pick Jennifer O.  Hope over to her blog for the full recipe.

Bake 52: French Macaroons

Totally late in getting this up.  What excuse is there really?  Life.  That's all.

Being completely honest, I wasn't too excited to make these.  I've seen lots of posts around blogland for these.  Usually they're pastel colored, and super cute.  They always look so good.   I've wanted to give them a try, but they always seem like a lot of work.  And, I wasn't sure I'd like them.  They're a meringue type cookie.  I'm not a meringue fan.  But, I'm happy to say, I liked them.  Really.

Here's the batter.  It was really thick.  Made with almond flour, egg whites, etc.  I'd never made anything with almond flour before.  Yum.  Good stuff.

The batter then gets put in a pastry bag.

And piped onto a cookie sheet.

Then with a damp finger, you smooth out the top of the cookie.  Let them sit for 1-2 hours to dry out a bit, so they don't end up cracked on top.

Make the buttercream frosting.

Frost cookies.  Sandwich.  Eat.  Enjoy.  Come back for more.

Go to Betsy's blog for the full recipe.

bake 52: New York-Style Crumb Cake

I think I've shared my feelings about cake here before.  So my slight skepticism is understandable.  But, lets take this piece by piece...

We start by making the crumb topping.  Here we've got some sugar, brown sugar cinnamon, salt, some melted butter, and some cake flour.

Here it is all mixed.  Now, it would have been a lot prettier, like the one in the book, had I used dark brown sugar.  Alas, I didn't have any, and didn't feel like making a run for the store just for that.  But, it still tasted super.  Set that aside.

Here's the cake:  Whisk the flour, sugar, soda and salt together.

6 Tbls. of softened butter.

Beat the butter into the flour, one piece at a time.  It was supposed to resemble moist crumbs.  I don't know.  But that's what I got.

Then we add eggs and vanilla.

Lastly the buttermilk is added.

Beat until smooth and fluffy.

The batter is put in a pan, previously lined with a tin foil sling.

The crumb topping goes on top.  The book had detailed instructions on how the crumbs were supposed to be rolled, so that they'd stay moist.  Mine didn't end up very round... but I'm thinking that maybe the over-all shape isn't so important?

Here's the cake right from the oven.  I was supposed to dust the top with powdered sugar.  I forgot to.

Looks nice.  I'm wishing I had the dark brown sugar in that crumb topping.  The pictures in the book just look so great!

It was good.  I REALLY liked the crumb topping, and may or may not have ended up taking very shallow bites of cake, resulting in high crumb to cake ratio.  Don't judge.

Check out the full recipe on Jenn's blog.  Great pick!

Bake 52: classic pancakes with flavored maple syrup

I really love pancakes.  So I knew this was going to be a great week!  It's also nice every so often to make something quick and easy.  These pancakes are just that.

Dry ingredients whisked together.

This is hard to see, but there's a well there in the middle of the dry ingredients.

Pour the wet stuff into the dry.

Stir carefully, leaving it lumpy.

Cook on a hot griddle.  The book explains that if the griddle isn't hot enough, you'll get pale, gummy pancakes.  Such a great tip.

Flip.  Cook a little more.  Place in a 200 degree oven to keep warm.


Berry Maple Syrup:

Frozen blueberries... cook them in a saucepan, mashing them, until the moisture has evaporated.

Add maple syrup, (the real deal, please),  lemon zest and salt.

Stir until slightly thickened.

Top your pancakes.  Yum.

I loved this pancake recipe.  I'll be making this one again.  Check out Jesse's blog for the complete recipe.