I’m going to need you to do a little something for me this weekend.  

Yes.  It’s Wednesday.  We’re planning ahead.  This is important.  

I think you and I should make it a point to seriously relax this coming weekend.  See… it might be our last chance to really take it easy before the new year.  Before we know it we’ll be swept away by Thanksgiving, festive flavored lattes, contemporary holiday music, visiting relatives, cranberry cocktails and company parties.  

This weekend though… this weekend we can take it easy.  

To help us with our plan, I’ve come up with the perfect weekend breakfast:  yeast risen waffles with maple and black pepper bacon.  

We’re taking it slow this weekend.  Are you in?

**But wait!  You don’t have a  waffle iron?  It’s ok.  These Milk Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes with a side of Maple Black Pepper Bacon should put  you in an equally great food coma.  Not to worry.

Yeast risen, overnight waffles are pretty stellar.  

Make the batter Saturday afternoon, let it rise on the counter for an hours or so.  Cover and refrigerate until you’re ready for breakfast on Sunday morning.  

On Sunday I stirred my batter a bit and let it to rest on the counter for an hour to come to room temperature and rise a bit.

The batter will be goopy, but don’t let that deter you.  These beauties bake up crisp and full of yeasty, maple sugar, nutty flavor.  Adding white whole wheat flour adds a touch of nuttiness to compliment the brown butter.  Yes… these waffles are full of character.  

Don’t even get me started on the bacon.  It sweet and spicy and… bacon.  It’s inherently perfect.  

Weekend Waffles

     adapted from King Arthur

     makes 2 big square (four sectioned) waffles, enough for 2 and a half people.

     Print this Recipe!

1 1/2 cups whole milk

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted until browned bits appear

3 Tablespoons maple syrup (the real stuff or simply use brown sugar)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Heat the milk until it is hot but not boiling.  Place it in a large bowl (you’ll need the room for expansion) and mix in the browned butter, maple syrup (or brown sugar) salt and vanilla extract.  Stir until the mixture has cooled to lukewarm.  Add the eggs, flour, salt and yeast and stir all together.  If there are a few lumps, that’s fine!

Cover mixture with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  The mixture will begin to bubble.  

You can cook the waffles at this point, or place the batter in the refrigerator to rest and develop flavor overnight.  

Remove the batter from the fridge about an hour before you’d like to eat breakfast.  Stir the batter and let it come to room temperature.  When ready to cook, preheat the waffle iron and spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Add 1 1/2 cups of batter (depending on the size of your waffle iron) and cook until golden brown.  

Top with butter and syrup and anything good. 

Maple Black Pepper Bacon

     this couldn’t be easier!  thanks for the recipe Rachel!

as much bacon as you’d like

maple syrup (the real stuff)

black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.  Place bacon strips on sheet, close but not overlapping.  Drizzle with maple syrup, about 2 or 3 Tablespoons per 10 bacon strips.  Sprinkle with as much black pepper as you like. Bake for 10 minutes then remove pan from the oven and carefully flip bacon strips over.  Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes or until the bacon reaches your happy point of doneness.

These eggs aren’t the only thing that’s scrambled.  

My brains…. also pretty scrambled right now.  

As far as I see it, there are two solutions to the scrambled brain mess that I’ve got going on inside my head right now: a whole weekend worth of sleep or a bag of fun size Snickers bars.  

Aaaand Snickers it is… but first, let me show you what I eat morning, noon and night:  scrambled eggs.  

Are you picky about how you cook your eggs?  Maybe a little?  That’s no crime… everyone likes their eggs a different way.  I’m more of a dry scramble kind of girl.  Here’s my step-by-step guide to eggs for one.  

Start with good quality eggs.  Fresh medium or large eggs from the farmer’s market are mighty fine.  

 Break three eggs into a bowl. 

Beat eggs lightly with a fork.  

Melt just over a tablespoon of butter in a pan over low heat.  Add eggs and stir eggs immediately and constantly with a wooden spoon.  

It may take 3 to 4 minutes for the eggs to become just set but still creamy.  At this point add a scant tablespoon of heavy cream,  a small pat of butter and a generous pinch of salt.  Continue to stir.

When eggs are scrambled to your liking, remove from the pan, top with a touch more salt and fresh ground pepper, and serve with buttered toast.  I garnished my eggs with nasturtium petals (they’re pretty), but chives are also lovely.

((Yes… I just wrote a post about scrambled eggs.  That just happened.))

I cleared out my cooking cupboard and piled everything up on a table… I’m trying to make a point.  

I think it’s important you know that you don’t need cabinets full of fancy equipment to make glorious things happen in the kitchen.  

I think it’s important you know that I don’t have the most, biggest, nor the best equipment in my kitchen.  I do seem to have enough… and I’m scrappy enough to make things work.  

Let’s talk kitchen gear:  what you must have and what you might want to have on hand.  

Aaaand, go!

Joy the Baker Kitchen Must Haves:

A good mixer.  I have a fancy Kitchen Aid… but any good stand mixer will do.  You don’t have to drop hundreds on a mixer to get a good one.  

Half sheet baking pan… for cookies and roasting veggies and making blackberry pie bars.

Standard Muffin pan… for all the muffins and cupcakes you could ever want.

Loaf Pan… an 8×4 or 9×5 will do ya just fine. 

Bundt pan

Pie pan… glass or metal, whatever you prefer.

Round cake pans… either 8-inch or 9-inch. 

9×13 baking pan… brownies, please.

Metal nesting bowls… get these for super cheap from a restaurant supple store.  

Sifter… I use this one for just about everything from draining pasta to sifting dry ingredients.  

One good, soul saving spatula that is heat resistant, sturdy and brightly colored.  God bless this William Sonoma spatula of mine.  I love this thing.

A microplane.. for zest, for nutmeg, for Parmesan cheese, for garlic… for everything. 

Wooden spoons… preferable inherited from your grandmother.

Metal measuring cups.

Teaspoon and tablespoons spoons.

Tablespoon metal ice cream scoop… for perfect cookies. 

Candy thermometer.  

**  Here’s a fun secret.  When shopping for these essentials stay away from Crate and Barrel and other fancy shops.  Find a good (often dusty) restaurant supple store in your area and shop for the basics there.  Cheap cheap cheap and quality that can stand up to commercial kitchen use.  It’s where all of my metal bowl, sifter, sheet pans, loaf pans and measuring cups come from.  

Joy the Baker Might Wanna Haves:

Vintage Tube Pan.. thrift store shopping people… thrift stores.

French Press… I suggest baking only after you’ve had your morning coffee.

Mini muffin pan… for cuteness.

6-inch round cake pans.

Pretty glass storage containers… thrift store finds.  

Fancy casserole dish that can go from freezer to oven to dishwasher and back again.  

Box grater… my secret weapon when it comes to scones.

Metal tongs.  

Plastic bench scraper… the little flexible white kind, 

Pastry cutter… but I always end us using my fingers, don’t you?

Ice cream maker… if you’re really feeling fancy.

Pretty measuring cups… because pretty just makes you feel good sometimes.

With a few quality pieces, restaurant supply store finds, thrift store gems and some pretty and colorful touches, I’ve made my kitchen into a functional and pretty darling place.  It’s not supposed to be daunting… it’s just pans and spatulas!

Let’s take a quick minute to talk about buttermilk.  

What is buttermilk?  Buttermilk is a slightly sour milk.   The sourness of buttermilk comes acids in the milk, most notably, lactic acids.  Because the proteins in buttermilk are slightly curdled, buttermilk is slightly thicker than regular milk, but not quite as thick as cream.  Buttermilk is also usually much lower in fat than regular milk and cream.  

Say you wanted to make some butter and buttermilk waaaaay back in the day.  First you’d take your fresh milk from the cow, let’s say a big old bucket full… and you’d leave it out at room temperature for a few days.  After a few days the rich cream would separated and formed a thick layer on top of the milk.  During these few days, the milk would fermented a bit from the lactic acid forming bacterias in the milk.  Gross?  Not at all!  The bacteria produced would help lower the pH of the milk and protect with milk from icky microorganisms, making the butter easier to churn.  Once the butter is churned the residual liquid that’s produced…. that’s buttermilk!  

Nowadays, buttermilk is a whole other production.  Cultured buttermilk, as it is called in the United States these days, is a pasteurized milk product.  Instead of letting the milk ferment naturally, most dairies now add a culture of lactic acid bacteria to produce the same thickening and curdling of the milk.  Many dairies also add tiny yellow colored flecks of butter to simulate the old fashioned product.

Buttermilk is an important part of baking.  The acidic milk combined with baking soda in a recipe is a baker’s dream.  See… when baking soda is combined with the lactic acids of buttermilk, the soda releases carbon dioxide that when heated, released tiny bubbles that expand and lift and lighten whatever you’re baking.  

But what if you’re plum out of buttermilk?  There are solutions…. let’s talk. 

In a pinch and you’ve run out of buttermilk?  

Lemon and Milk 

In a 1-cup measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon juice.  Top the lemon juice with with skim, low fat or whole milk.  Stir and let sit for two minutes.  After two minutes, your milk is both acidic and curdled.  Perfect!

Yogurt and Milk

Mix 3/4 cup plain yogurt with 1/4 cup of milk.  Stir and make it a quick substitution for buttermilk.

Milk and Cream of Tartar

Mix 1 cup of milk with 1 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar.  To ensure that the mixture doesn’t get lumpy, mix the cream of tartar with 2 Tablespoons of milk.  Once mixed add the rest of the cup of milk.  Cream of tartar is an acid and will simulate the acidic environment of buttermilk in a pinch.

Friends.  

This is important.

I need you to hold your pinky up for me.  We’re about to make a very important promise to one another. 

I need you to promise me that you’ll never. ever.. ever… ever buy a store-bought pre-made pie crust again.  Don’t do it.  Promise me.  

Those store bought pie crusts are full of all sorts of mystery fats, trans fats, dirty fats, mean fats… you don’t want all that mess in your pie!  

Besides… I’ve come up with the pie crust recipe of your dreams.  Seriously.  Fluff the ingredients in a bowl, throw in some moisture, then press the dough directly into your pie pan.  No chilling.  No rolling.  No stress.  I’m looking out for you.  

If you’re scared of pie, I’ve got you’re back…. promise… lemme show you. 

The problem that I have with most No-Roll Pie Crust recipes on the Internet is that all of them simply use oil as the fat.  Where’s the butter?  Let’s not shun butter just because we’re not rolling the pie dough out!  Butter is an important part of pie dough.  It lends a little lift and loads of flavor.  

My No-Roll Pie Crust recipe is a brilliant compromise.  I mixed cold butter with vegetable (I used almond) oil, and the secret ingredient: a touch of cream cheese for binding and creamy flavor.  The result is a crust somewhere in between a pie crust and a tart shell.  It’s slightly sweet, browns beautifully, has a lovely hint of butter and a crisp texture from the oil.  This dough is perfect for a custard pie or a pumpkin pie.  

To pre-bake the pie crust for a chocolate cream or banana cream pie, line the chilled pie crust with foil, weigh down with beans and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes covered.  Remove the foil and beans and bake for 4-6 minutes uncovered until golden brown.  

If you don’t need to pre-bake the shell, chill the pie crust in the pie plate in the freezer while you make the pie filling.  Buttermilk Pie with Warm Blackberry Sauce?  Yum.  Pumpkin Pie!?  Heck yes!  Coming soon!

Remember… this is only a bottom crust recipe.  A top crust would involve some rolling, which would involve a different recipe.  We’re keeping it simple. 

What’s in my quick pie crust today!?  A Good Old Fashioned Sugar Pie.  

Easy No-Roll Pie Crust

     makes 1 9-inch pie crust

     Print this Recipe!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup (4 Tablespoon) frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used almond oil)

1 Tablespoon cream cheese, at room temperature

2 Tablespoons cold milk

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.  Whisk together.  

Add frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater and tablespoon of cream cheese.  With your fingers, work the cream cheese and butter into the flour mixture, breaking the butter and cream cheese up until they’re in well incorporated into the flour.  Some butter bits will be tiny, other the size of small peddles.  The dough may even begin to some together in a rough, sandy kind of way.  

Combine the milk and oil.  Whisk together.  Add all at once to the flour and butter mixture.  With a fork, begin to combine the ingredients, making sure that all of the flour mixture is introduced to the liquid.  The mixture does not need to come together into a ball.  Leave it a bit shaggy and dump the dough into a clean 9-inch pie plate.  With your fingers,  press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides.  Try to get the dough as even as possible, but don’t worry too much about finger indentations.  You can’t fight that.  

Place the prepared crust in the freezer while you preheat the oven and prepare your filling.  If you’re going to pre-bake your crust, heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line the chilled pie crust with foil, weigh down with beans and bake for 10 minutes covered.  Remove the foil and beans and bake for 4-6 minutes uncovered until golden brown.  

If you need an unbaked pie crust, simply remove the crust from the freezer once your filling is made, fill your pie and place in a preheated oven.  Bake according to your particular recipe.

Good Old Fashioned Sugar Pie

     from Sweets

     makes 1 9-inch pie

     Print this Recipe!

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 cups evaporated milk

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

In a large saucepan, combine the granulated and brown sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, slat and nutmeg.  Mix well.  Add the eggs and yolk and combine well with a whisk.  Gradually stir in the milk until well blended.  

Turn the flame onto medium heat and cook ingredients, stirring constantly until the filling is thick and bubbly.  This took me about 7 minutes.  

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract.  

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack until ready to serve.  I like this pie best cold from the fridge.

Can I tell you a secret?  Sometimes I lack all confidence in the kitchen.  It’s true.  Sometimes a project will keep me up at night.  Sometimes the ingredient list will just baffle me.  Sometimes I hold my breath as I incorporate the ingredients, or I second guess myself and reread the recipe with every turn of my spatula.

It’s the absolute truth.  Sometimes I just need someone to hold my hand through a new recipe… or I at least need to be allowed to throw my hands up and call uncle at any point during the process.

I tell you all this so you know that when I stepped in the kitchen to make pasta this past weekend… well… I was totally intimidated.  I wasn’t sure I could pull this off.

I know… I know… everyone was telling me how easy it was.  Frankly, I was convinced they were liar liarpants.  For real.  Handmade pasta!?  Easy?  Not possible.

Well, let me be honest.  Pasta isn’t as entirely easy as everyone would have me believe.  That’s not to say it’s impossibly hard…. not at all.  For me, making pasta by hand just involves a little talking to myself, a big area where I could throw flour all around, a rolling pin and willingness for a good arm work out, and a few hours set aside for doughing… mostly just patting it, talking to it, and walking around the house showing it to whatever family member would pay attention to me.

The end result is beyond… BEYOND comforting.  The process was super satisfying, and really?  So Much Fun!  Pasta!  I made pasta!  Daaang!  I’m going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for this one.  Don’t mind me… I’ll be done in a minute.

Pasta is pretty straight forward.  Flour and eggs, mixed, rolled, cut and boiled.  But.  And there’s always a but.  What kind of flour do you use?  There’s 00 flour.  There’s semolina.  There’s all-purpose flour… and don’t even get me started on the combinations!  I used all-purpose flour because I wanted to experiment with a recipe that you could easily replicate at home.  We’re in this together, right?

There is one thing worth noting…. this one is a big deal.  Pay attention to egg size with this recipe from Mario Batali.  All of the baking recipes that I post call for large egg.  Large eggs are standard baking practice.  This recipe calls for extra-large eggs.  You’ll need that added moisture.  It’s important.

Here’s a snazzy step-by-step followed by the recipe and official instructions.  Yea?  Yea!

Six eggs and a dash of olive oil in a flour well.  Things are about to get good.

Whisk up the eggs and slowly bring in the flour.  Cool.  I’m totally playing with my food!

Coming together.  Getting there!

This might just be a ball of dough!  Almost!  Dang I’m good.  Confidence is growing.

I had a lot of the initial 5 cups of flour left over.  I decided that was ok.  I dumped the excess in the trash.  So there.

The sixth and final cup of flour got sprinkled on the counter and put to  work inside the pasta dough.

But I even had some of the last cup of flour left over!

Excess flour is fine fine fine!  Look how pretty this dough ball is!

After a 30 minute rest it’s time to roll this beast out.  Roll and roll and roll….

and roll and roll… until I just couldn’t roll anymore.  Then it’s time to slice.

Slice and slice and slice and slice.

What do you think?  Your turn?

Want a little YouTube courage?  I watched this video before I started my pasta adventure. It was nice to see a visual.

Homemade and Handmade Pasta

recipe from Mario Batali

serves 6

Print this Recipe!

5 to 6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour
6 extra-large eggs
3/4 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Make pasta dough:

Put 5 cups flour in a 12-inch-wide mound on a work surface. Make a 6-inch-wide well in center (down to work surface) with fist. (The outer wall should be 1 1/2 to 2 inches high.)

Break eggs into well and add oil. Beat eggs and oil together with a fork, then gradually beat in flour from inner side of well wall, keeping wall intact while mixture is runny, until it comes together in a cohesive, kneadable mass (about two thirds of flour from mound will have been incorporated).

Knead dough with floured hands, incorporating just enough flour on work surface until dough no longer sticks to hands. (It will still be a little tacky; you will have flour left over.)

Set dough aside and scrape up and discard flour from work surface

Lightly reflour work surface using some of remaining cup flour and continue to knead dough, reflouring hands often, until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes more. (Dough should still be slightly tacky.)

Form dough into a ball, then dust well with flour and wrap in plastic wrap. Let dough rest 30 minutes at room temperature.

Rolling out the Pasta:

Here’s where the arm work out comes in.

Unwrap the dough from the plastic wrap.  If the dough is sticky.. mine was… just dust it with flour.  Cut the dough in half, put half on the big clean counter where you’re going to roll the pasta out, and rewrap the other half so it doesn’t dry out.

Lightly dust your work surface with rice flour or a little bit of all-purpose flour.  Slowly and evenly begin to roll the dough out.  Flip and twist the dough on the counter top to ensure that it isn’t sticking.  If spots are sticking, lift the dough and lightly dust the surface with flour and continue rolling.

How thin do you need to roll the dough?  Thinner than you think, it’ll plump up when cooked.  I rolled mine thin enough so that I could vaguely see a magazine cover when placed under the dough.  It should be thin enough to see something under it.  Yea?

Once rolled out, take a pizza cutter and cut strips in your desired thickness.  I made fettuccine sized noodles, but you can go just thinner for linguine or fatter for pappardelle… or even fatter for lasagna noodles.  Just eyeball it if you have a steady hand.  You can do it!

Once sliced, I loosely piled up the fresh noodles with just a bit of flour so they didn’t stick.  I re-floured and fluffed them every once in a while just to make sure they didn’t stick.  Loosely cover the cut noodles with plastic wrap and begin to roll and cut out the other half of dough.

Don’t want to cook your pasta right away?  Want to store it?  Here’s how!

Cooking your Pasta:

Once all your pasta is rolled and sliced, bring 8 quarts of water to a boil.  Add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt to the boiling water and add half of the cut pasta.  Cook for 1 or 2 minutes until al dente.  Remove cooked pasta from boiling water with tongs, and drop in the other half of cut pasta to cook.  Drain all of the cooked pasta in a colander.  Do not rinse.

Sauce?  How about a big ol’ Bolognese?  Recipe coming soon!

Cake flour.  Let’s face facts:  I never have cake flour on hand when I need it.  Luckily, there’s a super easy way to turn good old all-purpose flour into cake flour, lightening your cake crumb, making it super soft and delicious.    Maybe you already know this trick.  It’s a good one.  

Here’s a step by step.  From me to you!

How to Turn All-Purpose Flour into Cake Flour

Step One:  Measure out the all-purpose flour that you’ll need for your recipe.  

Step Two: For every cup of flour you use, take out two tablespoons of flour and return it to the flour bin.  Throw the cup of flour (minus the two tablespoons) into a sifter set over a bowl. 

Step Three:  Replace the two tablespoons of flour that your removed with two tablespoons of cornstarch.  

Step Four:  Sift the flour and cornstarch together.  Sift it again, and again and again.  The cornstarch and flour need to be well incorporated and the flour aerated.  Sift the flour and cornstarch mixture about five times.  Look at that!  You just made cake flour!

I love a good weekend project, especially when that project involves my fingers in loads of cookie dough.

I’ll admit that I may be waaaay behind the times on this trick.  It’s the sort of trick that super moms have on lock to make them look even more awesome than they already are.  Since I haven’t yet produced other people with my body, this trick is just now hitting my radar.

The idea is this:  one day… (say, maybe a lazy Saturday morning) whip up a couple batches of your favorite cookie dough.  Dollop that cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, all close like.  Throw the entire cookie sheet into the freezer.  Freeze the dough balls, then throw them into a zip lock bag and back into the freezer.  You know what that means?  All you have to do is flick on the oven and throw in a few dough balls anytime you want fresh baked cookies!  Dang this livin’ is easy!

This frozen dough ball situation is key and here’s why:

You and the family can have  fresh baked cookies any and every night.

Surprise guests?  No problem at all… you just happened to be whipping up a batch of fresh cookies.  Taaadaaa!

Bake ‘em directly from frozen…. do it!

Frozen dough balls in the middle of the night?  I won’t tell a soul.  Can I be honest?  I eat the dough balls more often than I actually bake the cookies.  In fact… be right back.  Dough ball for breakfast.

Full disclosure:  I’ve eaten three cookie dough balls in the writing of this post.  I’m not done yet.

You might also try these recipes for you cookie dough freezing pleasure:

Oatmeal Cherry White Chocolate Cookies

Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

White Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from King Arthur

makes 2 dozen cookies

Print this Recipe!

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour, or regular whole wheat flour if you’re feeling extra nutty

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1-2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts, again… if you’re feeling nutty.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl, whisk it together and set aside.  Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar and softened butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat until creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Add vanilla extract.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition.  Add dry ingredients all at once and mix well.  Fold in chocolate chips and nuts if using.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.  Drop cookie dough by the tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet.  Place them very close together so that as many cookies balls as possible fit on the tray.  Put the cookie sheet in the freezer and chill dough balls until frozen through, at least 3 hours.  Remove the sheet from the freezer and place dough balls in a freezer safe bag and place back in the freezer until ready to bake.

When ready to bake cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Place frozen dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Leave a few inches in between the cookies, giving them room to spread.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or  until golden and irresistible.

Bust out the booze friends!  I’ve got a weekend project for you!

We’re making our very own vanilla extract!  Why?  Why make your own vanilla extract when you can just buy the stuff in a teeeeeeny tiny bottle at the grocery store for close to ten whopping dollars?  Hm… see what I did there?  I seem to have answered my own question.

Homemade vanilla extract only requires a handful of things.  Come on… we can totally rock this.

First let’s talk vanilla beans.  Yea… they’re a tad bit expensive, but totally worth their weight in… vanilla.

There are a lots different varieties of vanilla beans.  So many varieties all with their own subtle nuances… it can be a bit overwhelming.  There are beans from Madagascar, Mexico, Tahiti, Tonga… just throw a dart at the map and they just might produce vanilla beans there. Ok.  I’m exaggerating.   Different beans from all over the globe have different characteristics.  We could talk about this for days… seriously.  Here’s a brief brief brief run down of my favorites.

Madagascar beans are powerful, dark, full vanilla flavor beans.    Tahitian beans remind me of vanilla figs- fruity and floral.  The Mexican variety has just a hint of sweet creaminess.  How’s that for brief?

What beans are you going to choose for your vanilla extract?  Where are you going to get them?  Use exactly any bean you want!   Maybe you’ll buy them online here.  Use exactly whatever you can get your hands on.  Mix and match!  It’s your world.  It’s your extract.

This is going to be so easy!  Let’s get started!

I started two types of vanilla extract.  One jar is filled with vodka and  Mexican vanilla beans (on the left above) while the other jar has bourbon and Tahitian vanilla beans (on the right, silly).  I’m beyond excited!  I’m ready to bathe in this stuff.

Print these instructions!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own vanilla extract:

- A mason jar, or some other clean, super sealing container.

- A high-proof alcohol like vodka, bourbon or rum.  We’re talking 80 proof.

- Three vanilla beans per cup of alcohol

- A dark spot to store the jars.

-  Two months.  That’s how long it takes to create vanilla extract!

Here’s how:

Use a sharp paring knife to cut lengthwise down the center of the vanilla beans, leaving about an inch at the top of the vanilla bean uncut.

Put the vanilla beans in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid.  I used mason jars.

Cover the beans completely with alcohol.  It’s three vanilla beans per cup of alcohol, so if you use 2 cups of vodka split open six vanilla beans and throw them in the jar.

Tightly cover the jar and give it a good shake.  Store in a cool dry place for two months.  Give the bottle a good shake every week or so, just so you don’t forget all about it.

After two months have passed, your vanilla extract should be ready for your favorite chocolate chip cookie or pound cake recipe.  You might also want to put the extract in cute, tiny bottles and give them to your favorite baker friends.

I think we should all sit down and have tea and cookies today.  Tea and cookies and a little chat and laughter in the late afternoon sun.  What do you think?  Are you in?

In the past few days, my inbox has filled with emails from people with big, arms-up-in-the-air, life questions.  If you’ll allow me to paraphrase, they go something like this:

Dear Joy,

This might sound totally weird and crazy, but I think I’m going to get laid off from my job soon, and I’ve always wanted to be a baker and I was wondering if you could tell me… what the heck to do next.

Sincerely yours,

Ok… first things first… let’s hug it out.  That will help.  Next, you should know, as I’m sure you already do, that I don’t have all the answers.  Not even close.  I am a firm believer in the idea that if you go after what you love, in a balls-out, take-no-prisoners kind of way, you succeed.  Succeed?  Heck yes!  Because you’ll be ultra happy that you’re, in the very least, doing something you love.

So!  If you want to be a baker… do it!  Bake every day!  Bake and bring cookies into the office job that might not be your favorite place in the world.  Bake and try to sell to the coffee shop down the street.  Bake and give it to the local homeless shelter.  Bake and blog about it.  Read books about baking.  Talk to bakers about baking.  Take a cheap cooking class at the community college.  Ask to apprentice one (very early) morning at a local bakery.  Dive in.  It’s what I did, and if I can scratch out a living in the kitchen every month, I think you can too.  On the real.

This concludes today’s installment of My Two Cents.

Now… how about cookies?

These Lemon Cloud cookies just about melt in your mouth.  They’re simple and delicate with a slight bite and romantic texture.  You can either flavor them with lemon or orange.  I think they’re just heavenly served with a warm cup of tea.

Lemon Cloud Tea Cookies

The Modern Baker

Print this recipe!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon or orange extract

1 teaspoons finely grated lemon or orange zest

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

Combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed.  Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until light, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Batter may look broken and curdled.  Beat in the extracts and zest.

Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a few good turns with your spatula to bring it all together.

Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on a pan lined with parchment paper.  Space the balls about 2-inches apart.  After all the cookies have been placed on the pan, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough.  Bake the cookies until they spread and become golden, about 20 minutes.  Slide the parchment paper off the pan to cool completely.

Makes 48 tiny cookies.

Keep the cookies between sheets of wax paper in a plastic container with a tight lid.