Obsessed!

I have a new obsession.

Well, let's call it a hobby so it doesn't sound creepy.

I recently tried making homemade bagels and I am hooked!

Despite the abundance of bakeries here in Germany that offer a variety of fresh breads and baked good...the bagels are MIA. I have a good friend that works at my school who mentioned how she really misses having good bagels for breakfast, so I told her that I would figure out how to make them for her. After looking up some recipes, I realized that I would need yeast, which I was not able to find here. I am sure it's here, but I just can't find it, which is common for some baking products I am used to from the states. When I was home for Christmas, I got a jar of instant yeast, so I was really excited to try out the recipe.

I used the recipe and video from this link to learn how.

Surprisingly, it was really easy and fun!

I decided that I want to make a little tradition of making homemade bagels every Sunday. I have experimented with several different kinds so far and they have all come out pretty good. I double the recipe to get a total of 16 bagels, so I put a few in a bag for three of my friends at school and bring them to work on Monday morning.

So far I have made:

plain

everything (with onion, sesame seeds, and caraway seeds...couldn't find poppy seeds)

chocolate chip (the chips also had to be brought in from the U.S)

cinnamon raisin with cranberry

German gingerbread with chocolate

cranberry

cinnamon sugar

pumpkin spice with raisins

I just keep adding different yummy ingredients to the dough to see how they come out.

For some reason the act of making homemade bagels seems somewhat oldschool to me, yet it's the perfect activity for our quiet Sundays because nothing is open here on Sundays. I love the process and I love sharing them with friends. My husband even asks to have some to bring to work for his buddies.

Here are some pics of how it's done...

German gingerbread with chocolate

cranberry

pumpkin spice with raisins

before baking

***

after baking

and what goes great with warm bagels fresh from the oven?

Nutella.

mmmmmm.....

What is your favorite kind of bagel? I need some ideas for what to try next week!

I heart Monsters

Monster cookies that is.....

I was a little nervous about my baking venture today (see previous post) given the different German ingredients and using an oven that measures degrees in Celsius instead of Farenheit, but they came out perfectly if I do say so myself. I only made 6 (they were ginormous) and bagged up the rest of the dough to send home with my girlfriends since I don't have a freezer. The recipe is supposed to make 24 jumbo cookies and unless you have a some teenage boys that frequent your house, I can't imagine making all the cookies at once. Six was plenty and having more of those puppies lying around the house would be dan-ger-ous!

Snaps for Ashlee's recipe! I would definitely make these again!

How fun to use seasonal/red & green/pink & white M&M's too!

This is an image of a "professional" cookie from the cookie shop I used to work at in college.

Hopes's Cookies are the best!

These is one of my cookies

slightly larger, but lookin' good!

I think I just need to work my M&M placement on the tops!

Adventures in Baking

Can you guess what I am doing today??

I haven't made any real food in my kitchen yet because I am gearing up for some major baking today because it has been TOO long since I have played Betty Crocker!

I went to the grocery store this morning to pick up all the ingredients and it was like a treasure hunt! The kinds of things that you easily locate and plop in the cart are hard to find when you are looking for the item names in German! I translated the ingredient names and both baking soda and baking powder translate to the same word, Backpulver, even though they are very different and cause different results when added to baked goods. Luckily, I made friends with another American woman who gave me the rundown on some of the differences between American ingredients and their German counterparts.

I never would have looked for this, but vanilla comes in little vials like perfume samples.

Apparently it is very potent, so you can just add a very little bit.

The Backpulver, which is baking powder, comes in little packets like yeast. Baking Soda is called Natron and comes in a box, but it still looks very different than it does in the U.S.

I was really happy to find M&M's because I want to make this recipe for Monster Cookies from Ashlee's A Year in the Kitchen blog. She is awesome and the desserts she makes always look amazing! These cookies use peanut butter, M&M's, chocolate chips, raisins, and oatmeal in the dough in addition to all the other typical stuff.

A little bit of everything for a delicious bundle of cookie joy! Mmmmm. Can't wait!

I am also thinking of making a batch of oldie but goodie chocolate chip cookies too. Surprisingly chocolate chips are actually quite hard to come by when you live in Germany unless you have access to a military base or you hunt down a store that sells American products (which are really expensive...and I have heard about stores like that, but have yet to actually see one). My friend went to England over fall break so she picked up these babies for me...

dark chocolate bits of gloriousness

I absolutely love baking and if I weren't a teacher, I think I would want to have a little shop or business that would allow me to bake all day and make adorable, fun little treats. How fun would that be?

What is your favorite thing to bake?

Back to School Treats

How cute are these?

Bakerella

If you do not already know about Bakerella you must check out her latest blog post. Not only does she present the most amazingly delectable treats, but today's post included a very touching story that is a must read!

I promise you will love her!

For the Love of Cake!

Usually I like to promote ideas of how to stay healthy, but I'll admit, I do have an obsession with baking. I got this idea from Bakerella.

I don't know her, but I want to BE her. She makes the most amazing creations that not only look like art, but based on  the recipe I tried, taste AMAZING!

 The pictures below are of her "Cake Balls." I made them with carrot cake and cream cheese frosting this time and I have also made them with vanilla cake and vanilla frosting as well as chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. 

Bake a cake in a 9X13 inch pan according to the directions. Let it cool and then crumble it.

Add a can of frosting (any flavor you like). If you make your own frosting use 2 cups.

The cake and frosting mix to become a thick, sticky "batter." Roll the batter into small balls. I think of them as dessert meatballs. The batter gets all over your hands, so I find it helpful to wash your hands frequently. When they are a little damp, the batter does not stick as much and it's easier to roll the balls.

Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze.

Once the balls are frozen, they get dipped in melted chocolate. I tried semi sweet morsels and those worked well, but I found the baking chocolate that comes in round discs to be much easier. These melt great in the microwave which I found easier than using a double boiler. 

I just used a spoon to dip each ball in the melted chocolate and then I put them back on the wax paper. The type of chocolate shown hardens within minutes.

I really liked the chocolate cake balls a lot, but the carrot cake kind came out good too. It just depends on what your favorite cake/frosting combo is. There are also lots of different colors of melting chocolate that you can purchase at a store like Michael's Arts and Crafts or JoAnn Fabrics, so you can make them look really cute for a baby shower, birthday, or any other special occasion. The colors are usually vanilla flavored, but I also saw peanut butter ones which I am thinking would go great with chocolate cake. 

It is also fun to add some color with sprinkles or cake decoration when the chocolate is still melty. 

Check out Bakerella's site and you will be astounded at her variations and how talented she is! Cake balls are the easier version, but she also does cake pops and cupcake pops.