SMS - Cinnamon Peach Jam (no Peach Muffins)

For those of you interested in the State Fair Baking Contest results, please click HERE.


This week's SMS recipe, Peach Muffins, was chosen by JoVonn of The Givens Chronicle. You can find the recipe for Peach Muffins HERE. Don't forget to check out the SMS blog roll.

After my hectic baking marathon for the State Fair, I wanted to take a small break from baking (a VERY small break, mind you!). A few days ago I did buy peaches with the intention to bake peach muffins but today was one of those days where I wanted to take it easy and not do much. Since I hate to throw away food, I had to do something with the peaches before they went bad. The Sweet Melissa Baking Book came to the rescue. I decided to make half a batch of Cinnamon Peach Jam. It's delicious! I'm sure these preserves would have tasted great on peach muffins!

Peeled peaches right after a hot water bath

The peaches and cinnamon stick are cooking away

Thick and delicious goodness after just 25 minutes!

Yummy, delicious peachy-ness! Bon appetit!

State Fair 2009 results. Drumroll please...

I appreciate all the "good luck" wishes I have received over the past week regarding the items I entered at the State Fair baking contest. Without further ado, here are the results with accompanying pictures. Enjoy!

Bran Muffins (didn't place)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (2nd place - red ribbon)

Blueberry Muffins (didn't place)

Espresso Pound Cake (didn't place)

Caramel Turtle Bars (didn't place; won a blue ribbon last year)

Jam Thumbprint Cookies with Raspberry Jam and Chopped Almonds (didn't place)

Fudge Brownies (2nd place - red ribbon)

Banana Bars with Apricot Glaze and Chopped White Chocolate (2nd place - red ribbon)

Triple Chocolate Espresso Cookies (didn't place; won a blue ribbon last year)

Moroccan Butter Cookies with Chopped Almonds (didn't place)

Date-filled Cookies (1st place - blue ribbon) which you might remember from a Date Cookie Throwdown with my boss from a while back

Peanut Butter Cookies (1st place - blue ribbon)

Ghirardelli Chocolate Championship - Mocha Caramel Tartlets (didn't place); an original recipe that I created for this contest

Mocha Caramel Tartlets - puff pastry, caramel, ganache, and espresso whipped cream

The other 2 items I entered are Angel Food Cake and Oatmeal Cookies. Click HERE to see my previous post with pictures. Neither one placed, unfortunately.

All in all, I'm happy with the results. Considering there are about 2000 entries across all categories, I don't think I did too bad :o) And because I did well in the Bars & Cookies category and used C&H sugar for all entries, I also won 2nd place in the C&H contest. This means I won 20 lb of C&H sugar. Not bad, huh?

SMS - Mom's Banana Apple Bread

This week's SMS recipe, Mom's Banana Apple Bread, was chosen by my friend, the lovely Joy, of Hot Oven, Warm Heart. She couldn't have picked a better recipe (especially for those of us short on time). The batter came together quickly and it tasted delicious.

The batter is ready for baking (hey, what's that small piece of brown parchment paper in the upper left corner doing there?)

Moist and tender banana bread with small chunks of caramelized apple, with just the right amount of warm spices. Check out Joy's always-fun-to-read blog for the recipe (click here to go straight to it).

That piece of parchment was supposed to go inside these pans. Doh! (did I go through this all this trouble just so I can eat the bread straight out of the pan?)

Please, please release from the pan in one piece when I turn you over. Yay!!

Although I'm very pressed for time, after having turned in 14 baked items at the State Fair this morning and only sleeping 6.5 hours on Saturday, I just couldn't sit this week's SMS challenge out and disappoint Joy. She raved about this bread so I had to make it. Thanks for picking such a great recipe, Joy!! It's definitely a keeper.

Yum! Excellent banana goodness emerged!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby hasn't tried it yet so will try to update this post in the next couple days with his input. I liked the bread a lot. My only critique would be that it's a tad too sweet for me. I'm thinking it's from the sugar in the bread + the sugar added to the apples. Next time, I'll cut the sugar a bit.
• I cut the recipe in half (which was easy to do) and baked the batter in two mini-loaf pans. Baked these for about 38-40 minutes. One loaf is for taste testing and the other I wrapped in plastic wrap and foil and froze.
  
• My changes: doubled the amount of cinnamon, used half white sugar and half brown sugar to better match the caramel flavor in the apples, and used 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice.
• Used Joy's tip on cubing half the apple amount and grating the other half. That was an excellent tip. I highly recommend it.
  
• Don't forget to check out the other SMS bakers.
  

Truffle Varieties and Ideas (no SMS)

Although I skipped this week's SMS challenge, which was Hazelnut Truffles, I wanted to share with you pictures of truffles I have made in the past. I have played with various flavor and texture combinations and they were all very tasty. My base recipe for truffles is from a book called The Ultimate Candy Book (absolutely love this book). As for the variations, you just let your imagination and creativity run wild :o)

Annie of Living Life Foodcariously chose this week's SMS recipe. You can find the recipe here. Don't forget to check out the creativity of other SMS bakers during truffle week.

Simply roll ganache in cocoa powder for a big, dark and bitter chocolate punch followed by the smooth and creamy chocolate ganache finish

Raspberry-flavored ganache truffles coated with finely chopped good-quality white chocolate

Almond-flavored ganache truffles with unblanched toasted almonds for a nice crunch

Mint-flavored ganache truffles coated with finely chopped good-quality milk chocolate

Vanilla-flavored ganache truffles dipped in tempered good-quality milk chocolate
(these were wedding favors for a friend)

Angel Food Cake and Oatmeal Cookies

This past weekend I made my first Angel Food Cake. Like anybody else, I didn't want to waste my time trying just *any* AFC recipe. I wanted to try a recipe from a trustworthy source. Rose Levy Beranbaum came to mind. Her book, The Cake Bible, contains a recipe for a chocolate-version of an AFC but I was specifically looking for a white AFC recipe. I contacted her through her blog and she was kind enough to share with me the recipe for a white AFC from her upcoming book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes (fall 2009). Isn't that cool?! If you're interested in the recipe, you can find it here.


This was not only my first time baking an AFC, it was also the first time tasting one. When I smelled it, it has something familiar about it but I couldn't put my finger on it. After a little while it came to me: it smells like a cross between cotton candy and marshmallows. The texture was absolutely wonderful. Soft, tender, really moist, and light. It just melts in your mouth.


I shared some of the cake with my friend and her family on Saturday. I also took some of the cake to work today. Everybody loved it.


I also baked oatmeal cookies. Michelle from Flourchild was kind enough to share her blue ribbon recipe with me. To bring out more oat flavor out of the oats, I decided to toast them in the oven before adding them to the dough. I think it made a difference. I also used turbinado sugar to roll the cookies in (instead of granulated sugar). The cookies tasted great! Even without raisins or nuts. They were nice and chewy without being too sweet. Thanks Michelle!

SMS - Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

*** update ***
8/3/2009: as promised, here's the update on how these two PB cookies did at my workplace. The SMS PB cookie won (10 votes) whereas the TWB PB cookie got 5 votes. In general, the comments were that the PB flavor in the TWB cookie was too strong (as intended as it contains no butter). Then there were some who voted for the SMS PB cookie but commented it could use a bit more PB flavor (but not as much that it would become a TWB PB cookie). So I think my next revision will be: reduce butter by 25% and add 25% more PB. It was fun and everybody was more than willing to participate in my "little cookie survey" today :o)


This week's SMS recipe was chosen by Stephanie from Ice Cream Before Dinner. Her recipe of choice was Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies. You can find the recipe HERE. I have to admit, that sounds really good. Too bad I can't eat them due to peanut allergies but I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will enjoy these cookies very much. Thanks Stephanie!


I cut the recipe in half and ended up with 13 cookies (1 oz each). The only thing I added to the recipe was vanilla extract (not sure why you would want to make cookies without vanilla, but that's just my opinion). I also took this peanut-butter-cookie-making opportunity to try another PB cookie that was on my to-try list (PB is the only fat used - no butter) ever since I purchased The Weekend Baker. I've borrowed this book from the library multiple times and then decided to just buy it. Made several recipes from it, including Emergency Blender Chocolate Cupcakes (as the name implies, they're a breeze to whip up and taste delicious). Someday I'll have to post it here. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book.



Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby liked both cookies. Although he liked the SMS PB cookie (9 out of 10), he preferred the TWD PB cookie as it was more moist (9.5 out of 10).
• Added vanilla extract to the recipe.
• Baked 1/2 a recipe and got 13 cookie which I baked for 15 minutes at 325.
• Used natural peanut butter for both recipes.
• Will update my blog tomorrow to let you know how my coworkers liked both cookies.
• Check out the other SMS bakers to see how they liked the PB cookie.