Baking Addiction

I've had a lot of people ask me what got me so into baking so I thought I'd share.

My mom always makes our birthday cakes, we choose a box flavor and then she makes homeade icing. For years everyone has raved about our birthday cakes. They never disappoint, but she'd also draw something that we had liked or been into that year on the cake. She'd color the frosting herself and then build up 3D Barbie lands, draw soccer players, disney characters and more on them. It was always fun to see how she'd done it and then we were allowed to cut our own slice wherever and however big in the cake we'd like (which usually meant in the middle and the whole head of Eeyore or something) For Christmas she'd homemake all our cookies and we'd use that icing again to decorate sugar cookies.

When I finally started getting time in college I started baking too. I make Joshua a pac man cake one year, and a topsy turvy cake of a bicycle riding up a hill. I started trying brownies from scratch and then baklava and truffles. My passion for baking started to grow the more free time I had. So when I finally graduated and we had our own kitchen and my Agatha (kitchenaid mixer) I finally let loose and let myself try everything I've been pulling recipes for over the years.

If I get home a few hours before Joshua I usually bake something, I always bake for small group, I'll stay up until 2am so I can finish my loaves of bread, and I'll beg for a reason to make fancy cupcake flavors for someone or something at work. Baking has become a happy place for me, where I am rarely afraid to try something new and I have time to myself to think and knead.

I bake usually twice a week, I send most of it to work with Joshua or peddle it off to neighbors, but I love the creative outlet it allows me, how I can tweak a recipe and see how it turns out, the messes I get to make, and all the chopping, melting, whisking it takes to get to the end.

And that's it, my baking addiction. Well really hobby but you get it.

O and these cookies are crazy amazing!

Nutella Stuffed Cookies w/ Sea Salt:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp of salt

2 sticks butter; room temp

1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar; packed

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbs plain greek yogurt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark chocolate chinks

1 jar of Nutella; chilled

Sea salt for sprinking on top

1   whisk flour, soda, salt in a small bowl

2   melt butter in a small saucepan, whisk often, let it get foamy and brown

3   pour butter into a large bowl, add sugars and beat together

4   beat in egg, yolk, vanilla, yogurt

5   add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated

6   fold in chocolate chips

7   for best results chill in fridge for 1 hour

(they are easier to make if they are chilled but I just kept doing mine in batches I was too impatient to wait a whole hour, I left in fridge for 1/2 hour, make a cookie sheet full put them in unti the others were done and repeated)

8   preheat oven 350 degrees F

9   grab a small handful of dough and press it into a flattened circle, place a tsp of

     nutella inside and fold it back into a ball making sure you seal all edges

10 repeat with the rest of the dough

11 flatten all the balls slightly and gently

12 bake for 9-11 minutes, when you remove them to cool sprinkle them with sea salt

 

Joshua tried these and just kept repeating yum! Thank goodness I need to keep them all around until Wed for small group or they'd all already be in our bellies!