blueberry cornmeal butter cake (smitten kitchen)

My boyfriend's mom recently bought me the Smitten Kitchen cookbook by Deb Perelman that I've been eyeing at the bookstore. It was a graduation gift along with a Sur La Table gift card! So, almost immediately after getting the cookbook, I flipped through and decided to make something easily shareable that was meant to be cut into small-ish pieces.

The blueberry cornmeal butter cake was perfect, as it yielded 16 squares of cake and there's on average 10-15 people in my office on any given day. Plus, since it has blueberry and a crumble top (things I love to add in my baking,) I just couldn't resist.

Although the recipe called for a lot of ingredients, most I already had. The unusual ingredients were 1/3 cup of sour cream, 1/4 tsp lemon zest, and 2 cups of blueberries. I realize that some people probably don't have cornmeal lying around, but I like to make homemade pizza and put cornmeal down on the baking sheet, hence I have plenty of cornmeal!

Also, the great part of this recipe is that you don't have to chill the dough or set anything funky aside. I think it's great when you can turn on the oven, make the recipe, then start baking immediately.

This cake was pretty light, so I ate a piece for breakfast the morning after I made it. But it would also work great for a summertime dessert.

One day, I'd love to have my own cookbook or book of travel photos and stories or a memoir of the great love story that my boyfriend and I share. Therefore, I won't post the recipe, but instead encourage you to buy the Smitten Kitchen cookbook or rent it from the library and make photocopies. The recipe, so far as I could tell, wasn't on the Smitten Kitchen blog. This makes sense, because some people would never go get the book if the recipe was online. But I would because seriously, this book is beautiful!

It's really starting to feel like summer now that I'm baking so many more new recipes. Yay!

teacup & cupcake sugar cookies

Like most students, I get a lot accomplished during finals week. Although the tasks accomplished tend to be anything I picked up while procrastinating. Instead of buckling down and studying or writing a paper before the deadline, I'm shopping for holiday gifts, cleaning up my apartment, and of course- baking!

It just so happens that my work had its holiday party this week, during finals, so I had to bring in a dessert for the potluck party. Because my office is mixed with Jewish and Christian celebrators, I didn't want to make Christmas cookies that were shaped like Santa or trees. So I went to Michaels and picked up some cookie cutters that were cute -teacups, teapots, and cupcake shapes- and decorated them with green and red icing. Here's the allrecipes.com recipe that I found for the sugar cookies:

INGREDIENTS: 

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 

2 cups white sugar 

4 eggs 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

5 cups all-purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 teaspoon salt 

DIRECTIONS: 

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in  eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and  chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight). 

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. 

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

This recipe was so easy! I made the dough around 11:00 am, went to a final, and came back home around 5:30 pm and the dough was chilled perfectly. It wouldn't have been very hard to make homemade icing, but I didn't want to buy all the food coloring that I probably wouldn't use again until next year. Therefore, I just bought tubes of icing that you can squeeze right out onto the cookie.

After applying the icing, I put all the cookies on a cookie sheet, uncovered, into the oven overnight. Don't turn on the oven! Just keep them there. By the morning, the icing had hardened just enough where it wouldn't get messed up during the transportation of the cookies. And let me just say, they were absolutely delicious! Perfect sugar cookies! Many thanks to my awesome KitchenAide Mr. Mixer!

sunday night homemade pizza

Although I am a Chicagoan and deep dish pizza is always my pizza of choice, it's nice to relax at home and make homemade pizza. Sundays are a big day of baking in my house, so why not add some pizza dough to the mixings?

Around 4:00 pm, my boyfriend, James, and I started making pizza dough:

1.25-2 cups bread flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 envelope of instant dry yeast

1 tsp kosher salt

3/4 cup water, warm

2 tsp olive oil

1. Combine the yeast, sugar, and water and stir. Let sit for at least 10 minutes on a warm space (windowsill on a sunny day or on top of an oven on 200 degrees) while the yeast activates.

2. Combine bread floor, salt, and 1 tsp olive oil in the mixer bowl. Using the dough hook mixer attachment on your KitchenAid mixer, keep on speed 2, and mix. Slowly add the yeast mixture. Add a little bit of flour if your dough is too sticky. Add a little bit of water if dough it too dry.

3. Rub the other 1 tsp of olive oil around in a medium bowl. Put the dough into the bowl, knead out any air, then let sit for at least an hour. When the dough has doubled in size, it's ready to bake!

The pizza dough recipe above makes one 14 inch pizza. For 1 pizza, you will need:

1 ball of pizza dough

2-3 cups of crushed tomatoes (more if you like)

1 tbs oregano

1 pinch salt

1 large bag of mozzarella shredded cheese

Toppings optional:

1/4 onion, chopped fine

3/4 cup sausage cut into fourths

1. Optional: Sautée the onion in a fry pan in a little bit of olive oil- just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. After 3-4 minutes, add the sausage. Cook on medium heat for 5-7 minutes.

2. Spread a little bit of cornmeal or olive oil onto the 14 inch baking sheet so that the pizza won't stick too much. Spread the pizza dough onto the baking sheet so that it is even all around.

3. Spread the crushed tomatoes evenly on top of the dough. Sprinkle oregano evenly on the tomato sauce. Spread 3/4 of the mozzarella cheese on top the sauce. 

4. Optional: Add the sausage and onion onto 1/2 of the pizza. Then sprinkle more cheese on top.

5. Cook at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

6. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting the pizza. Then, enjoy!

I like to cut my pizza into big squares and enjoy it with a beer. I found it to be the perfect dinner to wrap up my weekend!

monday morning blueberry banana bread

Blueberry banana bread, cooling in the pan

I like to make banana bread once a week when my bananas are nice and ripe. There's not many people in my office who like to cook or bake, so I like to bring in a treat on Monday mornings that we can all enjoy. And of course, I always make a little extra for me and my boyfriend!

The recipe that I used was very easy, so long as you have a KitchenAid mixer! I found this particular recipe on allrecipes.com. Here it is:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 
  

• Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Beat in bananas. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. Fold in blueberries.
  2. Pour into three greased 5-3/4-in. x 3-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

  
  

  The recipe said that it would make 3 loafs but I made one very full loaf and 4 medium sized muffins. The muffins I ate for breakfast with my boyfriend, James. And loaf came to work with me. Everyone loved it!

  
  

  

  Blueberry Banana Muffins

first batch of cookies and a photo shoot

Here's how the photo-shoot turned out!

My boyfriend, James, and I love chocolate chip cookies. I don't ever try anything fancy when it comes to these cookies because the recipe on the package always comes out perfectly. Here's the one I follow from the Trader Joe's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips bag:

Mr. Mixer at work

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup softened butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 package chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, salt and baking soda and set aside. Combine brown sugar, sugar, softened butter, and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add eggs and beat. Add dry ingredients and mix. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake!

I cannot even explain how much easier baking is with Mr. Mixer! I cut down a lot of time and arm pain and it was just plain fun! Because my grandma bought me Mr. Mixer, I wanted to send her an extra special thank you note. So James and I set up a photo-shoot of me and Mr. Mixer using Instagram. Then we sent it the photo on a postcard, using Postagram, which is now on it's way to my grandma in Georgia!

bringing mr mixer home: no easy feat

My name is Britney Broccoli and I love to bake. Baking is a rather expensive hobby and some of the best recipes take all day to bake, so finding the time and funds for baking require careful thought in my life. This summer, I'm working full time in human resources for a not-for-profit company, downtown Chicago. In late August, I will be back to undergraduate, full-time classes at Roosevelt University, finishing my senior year and working part-time at the not-for-profit. But because I love baking, I make time for it.

That's why I ordered a KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus Mixer last weekend. This model is currently on clearance on many websites and stores because KitchenAid is discontinuing the 5 plus model. I ordered mine at Carson's, where it was the only model on clearance from $480 to $260. This is an amazing deal! I can barely find refurbished mixers this cheap.

On Thursday morning, I got an email from Carson's with my mixer's tracking number. The UPS tracking site allows you to see where and when your package checks into the various destinations. It went out at 2:00 am Thursday and by 8:00 am was in Chicago "on-route for delivery." I was so excited! My boyfriend, James, mentioned that he always used to see the UPS truck on our street between 4:00 and 5:00 pm before he started his full-time job. So he decided to leave work an hour early, at 4:00 pm, to try to catch the UPS man.

Our apartment is in Lakeview, a 20-30 minute commute north from downtown. When he got home, he saw that the UPS man attempted delivery at 4:00 pm, a mere 20 minutes before James got there. The note that the UPS man left had a number to call if you want to pick-up your package at the Chicago UPS location. James called and the employee at UPS told us we could pick-up my mixer between 8:00 and 9:15 pm. So James came back to the loop, met me when I got off work, and we ate up the time by visiting the brand new city Target on State Street.

Upon closer examination of the UPS store's address, we realize it isn't 1600 Jackson, where we wrongly assumed, thinking that it would be in the loop. It was 1600 Jefferson, which is not that far, but has no good route by which to travel when you rely on public transportation. But we already committed to this venture, so we had Panera Bread for dinner and made our transfers from the Orange line south to Roosevelt and then to the Roosevelt bus going west. 

From Roosevelt road, you can see the UPS trucks pulling into the long street made up of dozens of UPS buildings. And of course, the customer entrance is at the very end of the street, as far as the eye can see. Though it seemed like miles, I google mapped the place, and it was only about half a mile. 

We finally reach the right building and there are 2 entrances. The one to the left is a dark grey, beaten-up door with what looked like a hand written sign above it. The entrance to the right had 2 glass double doors with a handicap ramp. Since it had no sign, we went to the left door. Immediately, you could feel the heat of the tiny room. Almost every seat was filled and all eyes went towards James and me with a strange look. Before we could make it to the counter, the employee asked us for our zip code. I said, "60657." She said to go into the other entrance.

The other entrance led to a much larger room with windows and air conditioning. It was like some kind of old, segregated, "whites only" entrance, and it made James and I very uncomfortable. This room was only for the north side zipcodes. 

That aside, the employees were very nice. They originally tried to tell me that the package wouldn't be here today, but I told them that I spoke to someone on the phone. They double checked, and the employee changed his mind. The package would be there, today. It was 8:00 pm. We talked to a woman who lived on Southport and chatted about the hassles of shipping. She was waiting for shoes that she had to wear for a wedding, and her and her husband were leaving town the following day. Her husband was waiting in the car outside, after a long day of work, with a growing appetite. 

At 9:15 pm, our packages finally come out. The mixer is 30 pounds and big all over, and I beg James to get a taxi but he insists on making use of our 7 day unlimited CTA passes. I brace myself for the many transfers ahead of me.

About half way down the long UPS street, the woman with the shoes passes us and waves. After a couple more stop signs, the car stops for a few seconds. Then they U-turn and pull up the curb by us. They realize that they aren't going far from where we live and offer us a ride. At that moment, I was touched by the kindness of strangers. I was so very happy.

They drop us off at Clark and Belmont and we brought my mixer into our home for the first time. As James ripped through the boxes, unloaded the mixer and the attachments and the manuals, I thought how our long night had all been worth it. We gave my mixer the name Mr. Mixer, wiped him down, cleaned the bowl and attachments, tightened some parts, loosened others, and he was ready to go. We fell asleep almost immediately when we got into bed.

And that is how Mr. Mixer got to our home, which also has a name - the Broccoli Bungalow.