SMS Recap - Top Ten

SMS, or Sweet Melissa Sundays, was the very first online baking club I joined back in the spring of 2009. At the time, Lorelei of Mermaid Sweets, was running it, and later Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More took over. Both girls did a great job organizing the club activities and keeping everyone in line :o) Thank you for making my first baking club so much fun!

I have baked a total of 37 recipes from the book. Some were good, some not so much, and some were just phenomenal. Now that SMS has come to an end, Gloria suggested that we each post our Top Ten SMS recipes. Great idea, Gloria. It was hard to narrow it down to only 10. I looked at my notes and my husband's rating to help me compile the Top Ten.

Don't forget to check out the Top Ten list of other SMS bakers.

State Fair 2011: entries and results

For those of you who have asked me about pictures of my State Fair entries, thank you for your interest (and your patience) :o) If you've visited my blog a few times, you know I like to tweak recipes. I've done so in all of my State Fair entries as well. So whenever you see a link to the source of the recipe, keep in mind that I made some changes.

Without further ado, here they are:

Vegetable Bread (3rd place - ribbon): Carrot Zucchini Banana Oatmeal Bread with Walnuts (aka Many-Splendored Quick Bread from Rose's Heavenly Cakes). The bread I entered has walnuts in it but I forgot to take pictures of it.

Dark Bundt Cake (4th place - ribbon): Minty Chocolate Bundt Cake (adapted from CookiePie's recipe via Epicurious).

Plain brownies (4th place - ribbon): Fudgy Brownies, unfrosted, no nuts (adapted from Nick Malgieri's SuperNatural Brownies).

Layered Bars (5th place - ribbon): Double Decker Walnut Bars (adapted from Flo Braker's Congo Brownies). This entry evoked the most "emotions" in my husband when I told him the results: "What?? Fifth place?? Those are really really good!" Ha ha.

Banana Bread (no ribbon): No Nuts Banana Bread (adapted from The Cake Bible). I baked this a couple of times but forgot to take a picture of the loaf I entered. The above picture is that of Banana Bread Revision 1 :o)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (no ribbon): Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from America's Test Kitchen).

Dark cookies, flattened before baking (no ribbon): Molasses Cookies (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Molasses Cookies).

Snap Thursday - Rose

My friend Jenn over at Knitty Baker came up with this wonderful idea: Snap Thursday. Every Thursday she'll be posting 1-2 pictures she took of interesting (non-food) stuff. I've decided to join her in that journey because I really need to work on my photography skills (big time). So today I have for you a picture of a beautiful cream-colored rose, straight from my flower garden. I took the picture after it rained so you can still see some water drops on the petals. Lovely!

ABC - Neapolitan Bars

Our second August recipe for the Avid Baker's Challenge club was chosen by Lynnette of Dessert Divine. She has baked almost every ABC recipe since she joined, always with a lot of excitement, so I wanted to say thanks by having her select a recipe for all of us to bake. She chose Neapolitan Bars from Flo Braker's Baking For All Occasions. It's basically a multi-layered bar that starts with a buttery crust, topped with raspberry jam and green-tinted frangipane, and later covered with a rich chocolate glaze. I love almonds so I couldn't wait to get started on this one.

I made my own almond paste using Joe Pastry's recipe (I've made it once before - it was so easy/quick/more delicious than any store bought almond paste, that I vowed to always make it from scratch). The bars came together easily. My only beef with the recipe was that it took too many steps and too much waiting (maybe I'm growing old and impatient, ha ha). I also had issues making the frangipane in the KitchenAid. It remained crumbly no matter what I did. I wasn't about to take more time to press it through a medium sieve, so I dumped everything in the food processor and in less than 20 seconds, voila, the frangipane was whizzed to perfection :o) I was surprised Flo didn't have us use the food processor for that and should have followed my instincts on that one right away (after all, that's how I've made frangipane in the past).

ABC - Congo Brownies

For this month's ABC recipe I wanted something quick and easy so I picked Congo Brownies from Flo Braker's "Baking for all Occasions". This recipe couldn't have been easier (or tastier for that matter). I really like my KitchenAid standmixer but every once in a while I enjoy making a quick dessert that only requires a bowl and a whisk. This was one of those desserts. Since it's made with melted butter, I could even use my butter straight from the freezer (time-saver!!!).

If you're wondering, what are Congo Brownies, you're not alone. I have no idea where the name came from but basically it's a brownie that consists of two layers; the bottom layer is a blondie and the top layer is dark chocolate brownie. I made these last week and took them with me to the bake sale. I decided to call them "Double Decker" brownies :o) They were a huge hit. I did manage to save a piece for hubby and myself otherwise I wouldn't have much to talk about in this post :o)

Look at that fudginess in the middle and the crunchiness on top!

Here are my tasting impressions: the bottom layer was buttery and caky with wonderful caramel undertones from the (dark) brown sugar. The top layer was super chocolaty and fudgy. The crunch from the toasted nuts (almonds) added a nice contrast. Definitely a winner!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby enjoyed his Double Decker brownie very much. He gave it a 9 out of 10!
• Changes to the recipe: omitted the salt in both layers and used salted butter (hubby accidentally bought salted butter instead of unsalted, so I figured this would be a great way to use it without any negative effects). I subbed half of the granulated sugar in the brownie layer with dark brown sugar. I think it gives brownies a slightly chewier texture and it keeps them most. Instead of "hiding" the nuts (almonds for me) in between the two layers, I thought the nuts deserved to be noticeable and that's why I put them on top. Because of that change, I decided to forgo the chocolate glaze/drizzle on top.
• If you'd like to give these brownies a try, you can find the recipe on Cookstr.com. You won't regret it!
• Don't forget to check out the ABC blog roll.