ABC - Dark Chocolate Eclairs

This is somewhat of a bittersweet blog post. Not only is it the last ABC blog post of this year, it's also the last recipes post from this year's recipe source, King Arthur Flour. For this occasion, I chose something special, a French pastry called Eclair. These pastries are so versatile. After they're baked, they can be filled with all sorts of flavored pastry creams, or simply whipped cream.

King Arthur Flour has the recipe on their website as well as step-by-step pictures for making the pastry.

Eclairs and cream puffs filled with dark chocolate pastry cream and chocolate glaze

As I mentioned in my last blog post, starting January 2015, we will be baking recipes from the wonderful blog, Scientifically Sweet, written by food scientist Christina Marsigliese. I am very much looking forward to that :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls

I can't help but love Fall. The changing of the colors around us, brisk weather but not too cold (except for late last week where the temps dipped below freezing, brrr), and of course baking with apples, pumpkins and lots of spices. Last month's Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread was a big hit with the ABC bakers. This month we moved on to another Fall favorite: pumpkin. Although pumpkin played a big role in these dinner rolls, let's not underestimate the other side kicks: craisins (and for some of us, golden raisins too), and lots of warm spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves. I'm talking about this month's Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls. They're soooooo good! Thanks to a tip from my ABC buddy, Paula, I doubled the spices in the recipe, which transformed these dinner rolls into something even more fabulous.

They may look humble but these babies pack a big flavor punch!

This is making me feel a bit sentimental. All (well, most) King Arthur Flour recipes have been so good to us these past two years. But, as the song goes, "every new beginning comes from another beginning's end". I'm sure this won't be our last time baking KAF recipes in our kitchens. But for right now, I won't say goodbye yet. I'm very much looking forward to making next month's Chocolate Eclair recipe. Are you?

With that, I have an announcement to make. Starting in January 2015, we will be baking recipes from the wonderful blog, Scientifically Sweet, written by food scientist Christina Marsigliese. Her recipes are awesome, and I really dig her scientific approach to baking (yes, I'm a nerd, if you didn't know already).

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread

Whether we like it or not, summer is over and fall is here. I love baking in the fall. Apples and pumpkin everywhere. The smell of warm spices wafting through the air in the kitchen. While perusing through King Arthur Flour's recipes, I came to a screeching halt when I saw this recipe and knew it would have to be a Fall recipe choice for us ABC bakers.

So this month's ABC recipe for Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread is like one big braided cinnamon roll with the addition of apples. It looks so beautiful when it comes out of the oven, trumped only by the wonderful taste. For me, and others who tasted it, it was love at first bite :o)

Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread slices (loaf #2). Yum!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Roasted Vegetable Focaccia

With the abundance of fresh vegetables this month, I figured that this month's ABC challenge from King Arthur Flour, Roasted Vegetable Focaccia, would be a great way to use of those yummy veggies. I made this bread over a period of three days (by choice) which worked out great. Most of that time is inactive time anyway. I let the starter go for about 24 hours. Then made the dough and let it retard in the fridge for about 16 hours. Then shaped the dough and topped it with veggies and let it rise at room temp for about 3 hours before baking. Very simple, and very delicious.

Yummy zucchini focaccia bread sticks!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Scones

A few ABC-ers had asked if we could bake Scones for our June challenge. After browsing through several recipes for scones on the King Arthur Flour website, I settled on a "basic" scone recipe that allowed for choosing your own add-ins. I had it all figured out: coarsely chopped almonds, dried cranberries, and lots of orange zest. Then one day I was grating fresh ginger to cook with and I thought, "what would pair well with ginger in a scone?" Before too long, my mind wondered off to a land of plump raisins, the aroma of freshly grated orange zest, and beautiful specks of finely shredded carrots. Boom! That's how my Gingered Carrot Cake Scones were born :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - English Digestives Biscuits

Growing up, I ate a lot of Digestives. They were cheap and readily available at any grocery store. When I came across the English Digestives Biscuits recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, I knew I had to give them a try. That's exactly how they landed on our ABC recipe list for this month.

English Digestives. Yum!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

Light Rye Bread

Do you like to bake your own bread? I know I do!! Only recently, did I start baking with rye flour. Being that it's a low(er) gluten flour compared to bread flour, I was a bit intimidated by it. Of course, I imagined the worst: little to no rise, or a sunken loaf. Of course, none of that happened when I baked this lovely Light Rye Bread from the King Arthur Flour website. I did make some changes to the recipe which you'll find at the bottom of this post.

Light and fluffy texture!

ABC - Tuscan Coffeecake

Two mini Tuscan Coffeecakes

What's a Tuscan Coffeecake, you ask? This fruit and nut studded coffeecake/bread really stood out when I was looking for a King Arthur Flour recipe for our ABC February challenge. Although I don't have European-style flour (and assumed that most of you wouldn't), the recipe says that you can use all purpose flour as well, so it was a GO :) I also find the KAF blog posts very helpful. You can find a lot of step-by-step picture there.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all good health and good food in 2014 :o)

I just realized that we're starting our 5th (yes, FIFTH!!!) year of ABC baking! Wow, time flies. But I couldn't have done it without you! A big Thank You to all the ABC members for baking their hearts out every month.

Is there a better way to kick off a new year of ABC baking, than to bake with chocolate? Add some cream cheese to the mix and you have a recipe for a decadent dessert! I love brownies and I love cheesecake. When I saw the recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies in the King Arthur Flour catalog a little while back, I knew I had to put them in the ABC list. So, here we are...

Mocha Cheesecake Brownies

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels

If memory serves me right, my first (and only) pretzel was from the local mall a few years back. It was pretty decent. Soft, with a slightly chewy interior and a light crisp on the outside. When I saw that King Arthur Flour had a recipe for Soft Pretzels, I knew I had to try it.

Clockwise starting at the upper left corner: Cinnamon-Sugar, Sea Salt, Cinnamon-Sugar, Poppy Seed/Sea Salt

A survey among the ABC bakers, resulted in the following... In the year 2014, we'll continue to bake from the King Arthur Flour website! The 2013 KAF recipes were such a big hit, that we'd like to continue the KAF fun for one more year. So, if you are a KAF fan or just like to bake (and don't want to purchase a book), come join us! :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Crusty Apple Pie

Do you also associate Fall with apples? I love apples and I love baking with apples even more. Hence, this month's ABC recipe: Crusty Apple Pie from King Arthur Flour. What's not to like about cinnamon sugary apples hugged by a beautifully golden and flaky crust made with butter and cream cheese?

Slice of Crusty Apple Pie

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

When I selected this recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread a few months ago, I anticipated my garden producing more zucchini than we could possibly eat and share. Unfortunately, the weather this year has been a bit off, and our zucchini plants didn't react to it too well. The only ones that survived were those that produced yellow squash. I briefly considered using them but then I thought, having yellow specks in the chocolate bread might look weird. The green specks sort of blend in. Luckily, I found some zucchini at the store that was locally grown , so that's what I went with. I've had zucchini bread before, with the usual spices, but I had never combined it with chocolate until now :o) This was another winner by King Arthur Flour.

Double chocolate zucchini muffins and mini loaves!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Savory Cheddar Chive Scones

Scones don't always have to be sweet. So when a King Arthur Flour employee recommended the Cheddar Chives Scones to me, I knew I had to give them a try. I knew I'd be pleasantly surprised. I still remember making my first savory muffins (caramelized onions - check, sage - check, cheese - check). They were amazing. No wonder they're in the top 3 of popular blog posts on Hanaa's Kitchen.

Savory scones with goat cheese, chives, garlic, and capers!

I picked this recipe for the month of June because I knew I'd have fresh chives in my garden by then :o) I loved walking over to my garden and snipping a bunch of fresh chives. They smelled so good!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - English Muffins

I can't tell you how long I've been wanting to make English Muffins. So it should be no surprise that they "accidentally" landed on the recipe list for the Avid Baker's Challenge :o)

You don't have to be British to enjoy these! :o)

As you might know, we're baking King Arthur Flour recipes this year for ABC. It's always nice when a KAF recipe is accompanied by their blog post for extra tips and (step-by-step) pictures. Needless to say, these English Muffins were incredibly tasty and fairly easy to make. I doubt I'll be buying the store bought ones again.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Cheese-stuffed Crusty Loaves

Happy April Fool's Day!! This month's ABC recipe is no joke: Cheese-stuff Crusty Loaves. As you might know, the ABC bakers are baking recipes from the King Arthur Flour website.

Two cheese-stuff crusty loaves

Although mine looked like beehives filled with liquid cheese (haha), they sure tasted ridiculously good. I filled my loaves with a mixture of Colby Jack and Mozzarella cheese, dried minced onion, garlic powder, dried basil, and some special green olives from Morocco marinated in a spicy Harissa sauce.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - No-Knead Chocolate Cherry Pecan Bread

Chocolate Cherry Berry No-Knead Bread

This month's recipe for the ABC bakers was the ever-so-popular No-Knead bread. The King Arthur Flour recipe we made was a Chocolate Cherry Pecan bread. I made some changes by using mini chocolate chips and instead of just dried cherries, I used a mix of dried cherries and other berries (cranberries, blueberries and strawberries). Since I can't eat pecans, I simply omitted them. I briefly considered substituting almonds and although I love almonds, I'm not too crazy about them in bread because they get a bit soggy.

There may have been a bit of confusion around this KAF recipe. The recipe on their site differed slightly from the recipe on their blog. They have a pretty good explanation as to why that is. I decided to go with the recipe in the blog because I liked the step-by-step pictures :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Panettone Muffins

Happy New Year everyone!

Panettone Muffins

I hope everyone is ready for another year of ABC. This year is different in that we're not baking from a book, but rather from the King Arthur Flour website. The first recipe this year is the Panettone Muffins. I've only had Panettone once when my friend Jenn (Knitty Baker) and I decided to do a virtual bake-together. I liked it a lot so when I saw this muffin variety on the KAF website, I knew it had to be on the ABC recipe list.

If you'd like to bake along with ABC, please email me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com.