Tragic Sandwich

Tag: baking

  • Baking with Baguette

    Earlier this week, we were in the living room. Baguette came around the corner from the kitchen, waving a wooden spoon and saying, “Let’s bake a cake.”

    From that point on, she refused to bake a cake. I would ask, and she would reply, “No, thank you.”

    But tonight, I asked again, and she said, “Yes. YES.”

    So she mixed (turns out she’s pretty good at mixing), and I poured the batter and put the cake pan in the oven, and then I frosted and she helped with sprinkles distribution.

    This is either the BEST idea ever for Share Day at day care, or the WORST idea ever for Share Day at day care.

    Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and multicolored sprinkles

    UPDATE: Good news! Her teacher was totally cool with getting a surprise cake. (I made sure to take in as many paper plates and plastic forks and spoons as I could find, so that she didn’t have to scrounge.)

  • Fall Cooking: Apple Bread

    One year, when I lived in New Jersey, my alumni club went apple-picking. It was the first time I’d gone, and I went a bit overboard in terms of variety and quantity. In an attempt to put them to use, I began baking. And since I lived alone, I took what I baked to the office. After a couple of days, one of my co-workers sent me an email that said, “This is a lot of baking. Is everything okay?”

    I answered, “Yes. I just have a lot of apples.” And she said, “Well, then, keep baking.”

    Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I found a couple of recipes that I liked, including an apple walnut coffee cake–I should make that again someday–and apple bread. And it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who liked it. I sent a loaf to my brother at his office (the most reliable destination for packages at that point). And when I called him to ask about something else, the department assistant said, “Are you the one who sent him that apple bread? Every time I walk by his office, it smells so good.”

    I said, “Tell him I said to give you some of it,” and she said, “You know, I think I will.”

    She did, and it turned out that my brother liked it so much that it’s become a fall staple. If we’re together for Thanksgiving–unfortunately, we weren’t this year–I make a loaf and take it with me. I’ve been known to send it to him and my sister-in-law, although this year we’ve had so much going on with Baguette that I didn’t manage to get that done.

    However, it turns out that the mother of one of Baguette’s friends is having Baby #2 a little ahead of schedule–but with enough time to share some freezer food with her. So today, I’m making apple bread.

    Apple Bread

    Ingredients
    1-1/2 cups flour
    1/2 tsp. salt
    1/2 tsp. baking soda
    1/4 tsp. baking powder
    cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (I use a lot)
    1/2 cup vegetable oil
    3/4 cup sugar
    2 eggs
    1/2 tsp. vanilla
    1 cup peeled and chopped apple

    Instructions
    1. Grease and flour a loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
    3. In a bowl, mix oil and sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
    4. Combine dry and liquid ingredients.
    5. Stir in apples. Pour into prepared pan.
    6. Bake 50–60 minutes.

    Cool completely on wire rack before removing from pan.

  • Too Many Apples

    Apples in Hardanger

    So Honest Mom wrote about 12 Signs It’s Fall in Suburbia, and #1 just got me.

    Have you ever been apple-picking? You know, where you drive somewhere far away and pay to pick apples off the tree?

    When I lived in New Jersey, my alumni club organized a trip to a (reasonably local) apple orchard. I drove three women I’d never met before to a vaguely rural section of New York, where we and several other cars full of people paid good money to pick apples.

    As I discovered when I got home, a lot of apples.

    It was clear that I would have to come up with a use for these apples. And so I began to search the Internet. I found a few recipes and whipped up a batch of apple bread, which I took to the office the next day.

    There were still apples.

    So a day or so later, I baked an apple coffee cake and took that to the office.

    At this point, one of my co-workers IM’d me, asking, “This is a lot of baking. Is everything okay?”

    I assured her that everything was fine, I’d just been apple picking.

    Then I made more apple bread and shipped it to my brother in Texas. When I called to let him know to expect it, the receptionist asked, “Are you the one who sent him that apple bread? His office smells so good!” Now my brother makes me bake him apple bread every year.

    You can pick apples here in Southern California, but it’s quite a drive from us, and I think we’ll wait until Baguette is a little older. Plus every time I’ve gone, I’ve missed the actual picking part and have just bought a bag of apples. It’s a long way to go to not pick apples.

    So, with no further ado, here’s something to do with your too many apples:

    Apple Bread

    Ingredients
    1-1/2 cups flour
    1/2 tsp. salt
    1/2 tsp. baking soda
    1/4 tsp. baking powder
    cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
    1/2 cup vegetable oil
    3/4 cup sugar
    2 eggs
    1/2 tsp. vanilla
    1 cup peeled and chopped apple

    Instructions
    1. Grease and flour a loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
    3. In a bowl, mix oil and sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
    4. Combine dry and liquid ingredients.
    5. Stir in apples. Pour into prepared pan.
    6. Bake 50–60 minutes.

    Photo by Tecfan, via Flickr.