I decided to share Rick’s cold and so I have been down for the count. Things that I have fallen behind on prey upon my mind while I am sick so I at least am catching up on writing while I am falling farther behind on other things like actually cooking or baking.  Sorry my friends from Tuesdays with Dorie, Craving Ellie in My Belly and The Cake Slice Bakers -I have no posts for you this week- I’ll try to catch up next one. If I make no sense -please blame the cotton wool between my ears. I feel as though I am under water.

I forgot to post my Operation Baking GALS package this round AND I forgot to take a picture of the contents of the box so you just get the outside and a picture of the granola I made for our Navy hero  Brandon this time. I sent some really healthy treats. In the package are:  Home made Granola, Ginger snaps, Flax/whole wheat Crackers, Peanuts, Peanut Butter, Nutella, Fruit Leather, Chap Stick, Mentos, Cliff and Kashi Bars, a Salt Lake City Magazine, playing cards and a Robert Ludlum Novel.

Granola

• 10 cups rolled oats -I use organic

• 1 cup unsweetened dried coconut

• 1 cup slivered almonds

• 1 cup shelled walnut pieces

• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

• 3/4 cup dried cherries

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

• 1/2 cup dried blueberries

• 1/3 cup oat bran

• 1/4 cup flax seeds

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

• 1/2 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 2 teaspoons Cassia Cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3 Tablespoons vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup Pomegranate juice (use POM brand)

• Hot water to moisten if needed

Preheat the oven to 300F. Put the oats, coconut, nuts, seeds, bran and fruit into a giant bowl, mix with your hands or a spoon until well combined. In a medium bowl or blender, mix the applesauce, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and pomegranate juice together. Pour over the oat mixture and stir to combine, mix well. Squeeze and see if small clumps will hold together, if not , add enough hot water to moisten the mix until it does. Spread on a full size or two half size baking sheets and bake for about an hour and a half or up to two hours. Stir every 20-30 minutes turning it over gently so you don’t break the clumps. When golden and fragrant and dried through, remove from the oven an cool. Store in an airtight container. 

I hope Brandon enjoys it.

I was part of Team Spatulas and Corkscrews  round #4 hosted by the lovely Donna at Spatulas, Corkscrews and Suitcases. We have a new website over at Operation Baking GALS and a new sponsor. You can all join in baking and sending packages to our service men and women or even just donate so that those who are willing to bake can have some of the costs of shipping the packages defrayed. Thanks to Susan at She’s Becoming Doughmestic  for starting the whole ball rolling.

As for my other blogging friends- I’m sorry I’m behind- go on- I’ll catch up soon- I promise.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie  recipe is Kugelhopf chosen by lovely Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl. The recipe can be found  on pages 61-63 of “Baking:From My Home to Yours” by Dorie Greenspan.  It’s a lovely brioche type dough studded with raisins  er…dried cherries, plums and apricots for me as (you probably know by now) I only like raisins on a limited basis.

The dough is easy to make and produces a lovely, buttery, very slightly sweetened bread. I have a steamed pudding mold that I planned to use to bake it in but couldn’t find. Rick has been working his hind quarters off out in the shop trying to get some woodworking projects for friends completed- so I didn’t feel like bothering him to help me locate the box that pan is stored in the basement. I ended up using a tube pan intended for angel food cakes and it was a bit large so I got a slightly flattened end result. I’ve been so busy lately that I had to take my dough with me to work to raise before baking so that I could bake it off at a reasonable hour. It was kind of funny to have the pan nestled in a drawer at my desk next to my portable radiator, dough rising away for the last 2-1/2 hours of my work day.

All in all, I give it a thumb’s up -very yummy. Thanks to Yolanda,  Dorie and also to Laurie the creator of TWD.

Kipling thinks Kugelhopf is a very curious name for something that smells so much of lovely butter!

Time for Tuesdays With Dorie again! This week the recipe, chosen by Grace at Piggy’s Cooking Journal, is Rugelach from pages 150-151 of “Baking: From My Home To Yours”, by Dorie Greenspan. These were fun to make and are quite delicious. Dorie says to make the recipe your own by adding or changing and so that’s what I did. I changed the recommended raspberry or apricot jam to (of course) cherry- this time using Chokecherry Jam. I changed the currants to finely chopped dried Montmorency Cherries, used Alpaco Valrhona 66% bittersweet chocolate chopped finely and slivered almonds for the nuts. I think the combination is delicious. Rick called me to say he wished he’d taken more than two for his morning break at work. I think that’s a winner!

As usual, I didn’t have room in my fridge for a baking tray so I wrapped them well and put them outside in the cold on the hood of my Jeep to chill before baking. Luckily my neighbors are used to such wackiness from me and don’t call to inquire as to why I have foods in various stages as hood ornaments. Mind you- this only works in Winter- okay cold Fall. I could probably have let them chill a bit longer but it was approaching 9:00pm and I had other things to do.  On baking two of mine fell apart but we sacrificed them to the tasting Gods and considered it good.  I invite you to go on over to the TWD blogroll and check out all the other tasty treats there. A special thanks to Laurie from Quirky Cupcake for starting TWD, to Grace for choosing the Rugelach and ultimately to Dorie for such a great book!

Here we are at a Tuesday again (my don’t the weeks fly by?!) and it’s time for Tuesdays with Dorie. This week’s recipe is Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes chosen by the lovely Clara of IHeartFood4Thought .

These cupcakes are not overly sweet. They use both cocoa powder and melted bittersweet chocolate plus some buttermilk for moistness-although I thought they could have used a bit more- maybe it was me. Finished with a simple glaze of melted chocolate, butter and a tiny amount of confectioner’s sugar I find them to be more of an adult taste than your usual cuppies. The recipe also makes a manageable size at 12 cupcakes only. You can find them on pages #215-216 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  I used Valrhona Alpaco 66% Feves- an outstanding chocolate that is already in pieces (feves) that are easy to measure and to melt- my friend Jeff was kind enough to let me have a 3 kilo bag of Alpaco at what (I’m sure) was cost minus. He’s a great friend and a great chef- XO Jeff!

My only problem is that I have Favourite Fudge Cake and next to it all other chocolate cakes seem to pale by comparison. Rick always takes a bite and says “Good- but not as good as Favourite Fudge Cake!” So, although the recipe is delicious and I highly recommend it - I will still be using my old standby when it comes to chocolate cakes. Go check out all of the other TWD crowd’s Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes here.