My First Teacher Orientation!!!

I'm here, I made it, I finally have my own class of awesome, amazing, inspiring 3rd grade kids with autism. I couldn't be more excited. This is the whole reason I even started a degree in special education, sat through all of the classes about all of the other disorders, syndromes, and learning disabilities, all so that I could eventually have my very own class of cuties!!! This past year was the first time in four years that I hadn't worked with autistic kids and the whole year I felt like something was missing, and now I've found it.

This past week we had teacher orientation. All of the new staff introduced themselves and something interesting about themselves not connected to education and guess what I talked about! The blog, of course, which was perfect because I had brought some cookies along with me. Super yummy, chock-full-o-goodness, crispy yet chewy cookies. 

They're called Rocky Road cookies, and correct me if I'm mistaken but I remember rocky road including marshmallows. Well this recipe does have almonds and white chocolate chips inside of a yummy chocolate cookie, but no marshmallows.

I ran into one big, gigantic problem on the way. Whilst cleaning the oven in my new apartment I got a bit overzealous and decided "Why not use oven cleaner on the nasty, greasy outside of the oven as well?" I'll tell you why not, because it rubs any numbers, dots, little oven pictures off of the dials and then you can't tell what temperature or mode the oven is on. Uh oh.

Can I tell you something awesome about living with room mates? Two heads, or in our case four heads, are better than one. One of my room mates figured out that if you looked at the dial from the side while the light in the kitchen was on you could see where the dots and numbers once were, and thus I found myself marking off the increments with a white-out pen. 

I feel like MacGyver

So now with my oven dial repaired, kitchen stuff moved in, and first day jitters, I was ready to bake. And I'll give you the recipe so you can as well.

Rocky Road Cookies
Taken from The Pastry Affair


1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup AP flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt (this measurement always confuses me, what if you have gigantic hands? Or tiny hands?)
2/3 cup white chocolate chips (like always I added more)
3/4 cup sliced almonds (added more here as well, silly me)

Preheat your oven to 175C. Hopefully you haven't rubbed off the numbers so you won't have any trouble with this step.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add this mixture to the wet mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in the white chocolate chips and almonds. I think that marshmallows would be a great addition as well.
Spoon onto a baking sheet and flatten slightly with your hand. Bake for 8-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container at room temperature.
Enjoy!

Shabbat and a Sheva Brachot

Ok, so I haven't posted in a looooooong time, but I do have an excuse, I haven't really had any time to bake for quite a while now, but all that is about to change.

You can't even tell which has raisins and which has chocolate chips, it's a surprise!

This past Shabbat was my last in the old apartment. I am currently writing this post in the beautiful, airy, sunshiney kitchen of my new apartment! Yay! Seeing as I was in the middle of moving, finishing up at my old job, starting my new job, and just all around busy, I decided to make something easy for dessert, and what's easier than cookies? I love making cookies, and for me they tend to be fail proof. These oatmeal cookies are chewy on the inside and just the right amount of crispy on the outside. Twice I've been asked for the recipe, which I can't take any credit for, just something I happened to find on Allrecipes.com.

The recipe calls for only raisins, but due to popular demand I always make half with raisins and half with chocolate chips. Any add-ins would do just fine. Also, I didn't have light brown sugar so I used dark brown and they came out just fine.

P.S. When I realized that I needed to make an extra dessert for a friend's Sheva Brachot this week I made these again. I'll post soon about the cake I made for them as well.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
adapted from Allrecipes

3/4 butter, softened (I always use margarine, as generally things need to be pareve)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins (I divided the dough and added about 3/4 each of raisins and chocolate chips to each batch)

Preheat oven to 190C.
Cream together the butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. In a separate bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat the dry mixture into the butter mixture.Stir in the oats and add-ins of your choice.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. I found that 8 minutes worked the best for my oven.
Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack.
Cool completely and enjoy!

Housewarming Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Last week two very good friends of mine moved into a new apartment, and it's about time! For a year they have been living in a studio smaller than a dorm room. It was always fun going over, but it usually involved sitting on their bed to watch a movie, or crowding around one side of a desk to eat sushi, which is not fun. But those days are long gone. I went over on Saturday night to see their new place and, as is tradition, have some sushi. With the exception of the extensive stenciling done by the previous owner, it is very cute and very spacious. Not only is it spacious, it has an amazing kitchen with all the cabinets a girl could dream of, and this girl can dream! I guess it's a good thing they have a great kitchen because my friend has a blog. Actually, her blog, Fully Baked, was a big push for me to finally start one. So I thought it was only right that I would bring along a baked good for them to enjoy. 

We have had cupcake wars before, which she won with her amazing Boston Cream Cupcakes, so I thought I would make something that nothing could compete with. In the end I made them a Cinnamon Swirl Cake which, when drizzled with a vanilla glaze, tasted just like a Cinnnabon. I only had a small sliver, but it was delish. I left them lots of leftovers so they could have some yummy cake with their morning coffee.

 I substituted sugar coated pecans for roasted pecans, which was an awesome idea, if I may so myself. 


Cinnamon Swirl Bread
taken from Mangio da Sola

1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (or soy milk)
1/3 cup cooking oil


Cinnamon mixture
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup sugar

Vanilla Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp milk (or soy milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional, I would use a little less)


Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a loaf pan. Mix together the ingredients for the cinnamon mixture and set aside.
Mix 1 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat the egg and then stir in the milk and oil. Make a well in the flour mixtures and then add the egg mixture. Stir until just mixed, making sure not to overmix.
Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon mixture. Repeat.
With a wide spatula, swirl the mixtures together with a circular motion up and down.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until done. Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, and then pop it out and let it completely cook on a wire rack.
Once cool mix the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the top.
Enjoy!

For a girl allergic to chocolate

This past Shabbat my room mate and I decided to stay in, for the third week in a row. Her reasoning was "I'm in the middle of finals and I dont have to the energy to travel for Shabbat." My reasoning was "I'm too lazy to go anywhere so I'll just stay home." And so we found ourselves together again for a very romantic evening of schnitzel, carrot kugel, anagrams and rummikub. She had invited a few friends over for lunch, of whom one happened to be allergic to chocolate. Allergic to chocolate?!?!?!?! How does she ever find fulfillment in life? Doesn't she feel like something is missing?

I have a friend who gripes about the obsession with chocolate desserts. "There are so many options other than chocolate, yet people always want something with chocolate!" she cries. And it's true, if you look at her blog you will find very little chocolate desserts but a multitude of fruity confections. So after getting over the initial shock of a life without chocolate, I mosied on over to her blog, For the Love of Bread, to search for a suitable dessert. After some browsing I found an Apricot Nectarine Buckle, perfect to use up all of my slightly overripe apricots hanging out in the fridge.

I found that the batter wasnt enough so I made another half-batch.

Don't the pieces of fruit look just like gems?

I may have pushed the fruit down a little to hard as well, but I liked the surprise of finding a chunk of apricot in the cake, rather than on top.

Apricot Nectarine Buckle

adapted from Williams-Sonoma (and taken from For the Love of Bread) 

3-4 apricots

3-4 nectarines

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 sticks margarine or butter, softened

1 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling

2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 180C. Grease a 9 inch springform pan and set aside.

Slice the fruit. The recipe calls for slicing the nectarines into fourths and the apricots into thirds, but I didn't do well in math so I just sliced 'em up willy nilly.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a separate bowl beat the margarine and sugar together until uniform and creamy.

Add the vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour mixture all at once and mix to form a thick batter.

Spread batter into the prepared pan and then top with the fruit, gently pressing them down into the batter (or harder if you want fruity surprises like me!) Sprinkle some sugar on top and bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Don't forget to rotate, especially if you have a weird European oven like me, which tends to be MUCH hotter in the back.

Enjoy!

The school year is done, REJOICE!

June is finally over. In Israel the school year starts September 1st and runs all the way through to June 30th, ten whole months. While children in America are out on break mid-June, some even in May, here in Israel they continue to go to school as temperatures, humidity levels, and tempers skyrocket. Nobody, neither student nor teacher, wants to be in a sweltering classroom with a faulty air conditioner. Tel Aviv summers are especially brutal, which is why I will be spending this one in an office with the holy grail, central air.  

No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air.

In my opinion the above can be applied to these Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins. And ten points if you can tell me who said it...

The manager of my branch of the English school is leaving so we had a goodbye party for her. She asked me to make something for her party, and after some diligent research on Tastespotting, I found these amazing Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins.

Naked little muffins waiting to be dipped in buttery, sugary goodness

While being slightly more labor intensive than most baked goods I have attempted, it was well worth it. They were delicious, and very, very bad for you. But, as long as I choose to ignore the fact that they are soaked in butter and then rolled in cinnamon sugar, the deliciousness far outweighs the cholesterol. They were so good that the hostess asked me to leave her a few for breakfast the following morning, and I graciously obliged.

It's okay, I didn't let them drown, I'm a trained junior lifeguard

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

adapted from Kokocooks

¾ c sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ c vegetable oil
¾ c milk
1 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar Topping (I tripled the topping, and I would suggest you do too)

2 Tbs melted butter

3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C.  Lightly coat a muffin tin with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and egg. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Pour dry mixture into the egg mixture and stir to combine. Add vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla, stirring until just combined.

Divide batter evenly into muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes clean, about 15-18 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove muffins from tin. Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave. In another small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Dip the muffin first into the butter and then roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Enjoy!

The Brit loved it...

That, my friend, is a chocolate cupcake with Irish cream buttercream. A few weeks ago my roommate and I decided to stay in and make a dairy meal, so I decided to take advantage of it and make these cupcakes, and lasagna, but for now we'll focus on the cupcakes. I thought they were okay, but my roommate, the Brit, was OBSESSSED! She ate at least ten cupcakes over the course of the weekend, and thank God, because my trainer would not be happy if they ended up in my stomach. 

The recipe I used made a lot of cupcakes. The recipe said it would make sixteen, but I ended up with about thirty. A friend told me afterwards that Israeli cupcake liners are smaller than American ones, so this may be to blame, but who's complaining? I had a naked cupcake, and it was delicious. The perfect moist crumb with a rich chocolate flavor. The buttercream was not my favorite, but it was an experiment. I switched out the vanilla for Irish cream extract, and it was a bit too strong. I think next time I would try half and half of the vanilla and the Irish cream extract. But after messing around a bit with a piping bag they looked beautiful! 

Here's the recipe!

Chocolate Cupcakes

from Ladan

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter (or margarine), softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk (or soy milk)
• 
  
• Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners and set aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
• 
  
• In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk and beat well. 
• 
  
• Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 

Irish Cream Buttercream

adapted from Buttercream Icing

250g butter, softened

1 teaspoon Irish cream extract (or an extract of your choice)

5 cups of powdered sugar (you may need less depending upon the consistency you are looking for)

2 tablespoons milk

Cream together the butter and Irish cream extract. Blend in the sugar a cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk until light and fluffy. Keep it covered until you use it.

Welcome

Hello!

At the behest of a few friends of mine I have finally started a blog. It is intended to be a baking blog, though I am known for going off on tangents so we'll see where it goes.

Enjoy!