Not a Baking Post

but a writing one. October is less than twenty four hours away and the lead up to National Novel Writing Month begins. Especially exciting for this year is that NaNoWriMo is celebrating its ten year anniversary. I haven't decided if I will participate this year as school is so busy. The basic gist is that you have to write 50,000 words of original fiction in 30 days (November). That works out to about 1667 words a day. And it's tons of fun. It's the one writing contest that focuses on quantity, not quality so anything goes. Hey, I've won twice so if you commit to the daily word count, you can do it! Go ahead, try it. You know you want to.

Happy Birthday John!

For my brother: Happy birthday John! Thirty seven years ago today mom delivered you. Thirty seven years ago tomorrow I told her to take you back, I wanted a sister. Since then we have fought and commiserated. Schemed and rode roller coaster, living large one day at a time. There are still days you frustrate the hell out of me, likewise I’m sure. But I love you. I’m glad mom didn’t listen to me.

I made a cake for John and brought it to his office. I can’t post it yet, because it’s super secret. I’m part of The Cake Slice started by Gigi at Gigi Cakes and Katie at Apple & Spice. We’re baking recipes from Sky High: Irresistible Three Layer Cakes. It’s a fabulous book and I had fun baking the first cake. There was a small incident due to my husband distracting me, but I’ll post the story when I post the cake. John loved the cake and so did his co-workers. Look for the recipe and pictures October 20th.

Late night baking

Well, not too late. Around 9 last night I felt a bit peckish and there is a Dorie Greenspan recipe that I wanted to try ( in Baking with Dorie - I love this cookbook. Great pictures and recipes. I made my birthday cake from this).

So I pulled out the mixer and got down to it. I used malted milk balls from the nearby grocer because they don't carry Whoppers. next time I'll use the brand name stuff - I cut mine into quarters. During baking, the malted bit turns into caramel that can be a bit drippy, so be careful transferring them from the baking sheet to the rack.

Otherwise, Dave is busy painting. My father, brother and step mom are visiting next weekend and we're trying to get the house in some kind of order. At least there'll be treats. We're hoping to go apple picking with everyone, so with any luck I'll post a pie in a bit.

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops from Baking with Dorie by Dorie Greenspan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, position racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and silicone mats.

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup malted milk powder (or Ovaltine - regular or chocolate)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups chocolate covered malted milk balls, coarsely chopped
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, or 1 cup store bought chocolate chips or chunks

Sift together flour, malted milk powder, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Working with a stand mixer and paddle attachment, or a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. Mixture will look curdled but will come together when dry ingredients are added.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear in the batter. Mix in the milk, then add the remaining dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. The batter will look more like fudge than cookie dough. With the mixer on low, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the malted milk balls and chopped chocolate.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between spoonfuls. Bake for 11-13 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back after about 6 minutes. When done, the cookies will be puffed and set but slightly soft to the touch. Let the cookies rest for 2 minutes before transferring to rack to cool.

Repeat with remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

A gorgeous day

Beautiful day out today. Clear skies, low temps. There was some dew this morning and a huge spider web in the field, so I took my camera out and shot this cool pic. spiders make the bast subjects. Anyway, I found a recipe for blueberry crumb bars on Smitten Kitchen's blog http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/blueberry-crumb-bars/#more-531

Hers look much better than mine - I used the wild Maine blueberries and they're smaller. I think if I used the same berries again I'd increase the amount of berries and add some oats to the top layer. But they were delicious. And better chilled.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from All recipes and smitten kitchen

makes one 9 x 13 pan

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 and 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or you can use 3 cups all purpose and omit the whole wheat flour)

1 cup cold butter (2 sticks, I used unsalted)

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

zest and juice of one lemon

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

4 tsp cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, both flours, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

At last, the recipe

This is from my new favorite cookbook - King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. I've made a few things from it, but this coffeecake is the best. I've made it three times in as many weeks. and the guys at Norwalk's station 3 liked it enough that there were only crumbs left in the pan. I think it is excellent warm and microwave it for 10-15 seconds if it's cold.

Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook
serves 16

Streusel
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Buckle
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter (i used mine softened)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, grease and flour 9" square pan.

Streusel:
Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the butter and mix to form medium size crumbs. Set aside.

Buckle:
Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping sides of bowl down between each addition. Stir in half of the dry ingredients, then the milk and vanilla, scraping down the sides. Stir in remaining dry ingredients, then gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan, sprinkle streusel evenly over top.

Bake until cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes (it took about 55 minutes in my oven), let it cool in pan, on a rack.

Mmmmm, Blueberries.

So my mother went to Maine last week and brought me back wild blueberries. My absolute favorite. I spent this morning picking throught the little guys and tossing the mushy ones - an astonishingly huge number, but this late in the season I suppose it's to be expected. I ended up with enough to make some fab blueberry crumb bars and blueberry buckle coffee cake.

This is the coffee cake, its now cut up and frozen in the freezer awaiting a special occasion. I promise I'll post the recipe tomorrow - I have a ton of dishes to wash now.