This week I did a lot of baking. Baking is my favorite, and I had the time since I'm off work and school for the holidays.
I made Cotswold-Chive Scones, which I adapted from Ina Garten's recipe for Cheddar-Dill Scones. I had Cotswold in the fridge, which is an English cheese similar to Cheddar. It has onions and chives in it, which give the cheese so much flavor. The cheese is delicious, and so were the scones. We had them for breakfast with fried eggs, bananas, and mandarin oranges.
I also baked vegan chocolate cupcakes. I used the recipe Chocolate Cupcakes for Almost Everybody, which is from the NY Times. I have minimal vegan baking experience, so I am not very comfortable doing it. We went to a party at a friend's house, who is vegan for New Year's Eve. I like to bring something vegan when we go to her home to respect her choices. And honestly, it's a fun challenge. It's easy to make cupcakes taste great with butter and eggs. These cupcakes were delicious! The cake itself was great. I would absolutely make it again. I added coffee to both the cake and the glaze, which added an excellent depth of flavor. The glaze was very thin and somewhat sweet. However, I put the glazed cupcakes into the fridge for an hour or so, and the glaze firmed up slightly. The cupcakes tasted EXACTLY like a Hostess cupcake. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not, but nostalgic. I would make them again but probably with a different frosting. I found a recipe from Sarah Kieffer for Vegan Peanut Butter Frosting. I think that looks awesome.
Now about the real show stopper. I made Raspberry Star Bread on New Year's Day. I started the dough a few days before and proofed it in the refrigerator. For the dough, I made an Amish-Style Milk Bread. The dough was incredibly easy to put together. The Raspberry Star Bread was delicious. I will definitely make it again. I used store-bought Bonne Maman (my favorite) raspberry preserves. The star bread would also be good with cinnamon-sugar, chocolate, or any flavor of preserves. The star bread only used half of the dough so I made a loaf with the other half. The loaf didn't turn out quite as well. The top exploded. I don't think the bread was under proofed, which can cause the explosion. I think I rolled the loaf too tightly. I'm not 100% sure though. Even though technically it could have been better, it still tasted great.
And finally, we got the most fantastic butter from our local cheese shop, Rodolphe Le Meunier. It's a french salted butter that is so delicious. Sometimes, you just need to buy fancy butter.
Next week is my last week before classes start. We have a busy week, but I'm going to be making MY favorite Roast Chicken with Bread Salad, which is a recipe inspired from Zuni Cafe in San Francisco.