Blueberry Muffins

These were quite delicious imho. I made blueberry muffins using regular white flour and they were so much better than when I use white whole wheat flour. They did have quick oats in them and I snuck in some cracked wheat. The cracked wheat was in exchange for wheat germ, which I'm told is not a valid substitute. I don't even know what wheat germ is and they didn't have it at Henry's, so cracked wheat seemed like the next best thing. The cracked wheat added a crunchy texture to the muffins which I enjoyed. There were about 2 cups of fresh blueberries in them, when the recipe called for 1. I liked the fact that they were overly stuffed with blueberries. This is the recipe that I used.

Here's just one more picture, just for kicks:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I made some oatmeal raisin cookies after I tried some at Trader Joe's the other day. The Trader Joe's ones were firm and crisp, which I liked. That is what I was going for with these but these are softer and thinner. I don't know how I would even make them thicker because they spread out in the oven and I don't have any control over their thickness. I think these would be better thicker because they fall apart easily. I do like the taste of them though. I used 1 stick of butter and 1/4 cup of canola oil instead of 1.5 sticks of butter (because I ran out of butter). I hope I find a recipe that yields thicker and firmer cookies! This is the recipe that I used.

Orange Cranberry Muffins

I decided to make muffins again because I didn't feel like doing any work. This is a different recipe than usual, from my humungous baking cookbook that I haven't looked at too much yet. So this is the first thing I've made from that cookbook. The recipe required buttermilk but I didn't have any (because who has buttermilk on hand or is willing to go to the store?) so I substituted it with milk and a little (balsamic) vinegar. Balsamic vinegar because I didn't have any regular vinegar. The recipe called for orange zest, orange juice, typical baking ingredients and blueberries. I used dried cranberries instead of the blueberries, and they plumped up in the baking process. I don't like the muffins that much. I think that they are dry and I just don't really like the orange with the cranberry. I don't typically like orange flavored things much in general (although I do like oranges on their own). Plus I used whole wheat white flour and that taste is just not good. These at least weren't very cake-like, which is good. I shall continue my quest to seek a delicious muffin recipe.

Here's another picture of the suckers:

Pizza. You're doing it wrong.

I messed up when I was making pizza. I was using the pizza stone and in the process of transferring the pizza to the pizza stone using the paddle, I messed up and got a lot of pizza sauce on the pizza stone and part of the pizza was falling off of the pizza stone. I still let it cook though, and it turned out alright. Part of the dough was very soft due to the excess pizza sauce. The pizza didn't get nice and bubbly like it did last time. It was still tasty. I put some feta cheese on top and that was delicious, I think it needed more though.

Here are the toppings: garlic, tomatoes and spinach.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I made whole wheat sandwich bread from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads". The process took two days. The first day I made two separate doughs, each with its own unique ingredients. The next day I combined the two doughs, added some extra ingredients and let it sit for about an hour. I then put the dough into the loaf pan and let it sit again for an hour before I put it in the oven. It is a fairly complicated procedure but the result was pretty good. It did taste like bread, and it didn't taste as doughy as my bread has tasted in the past. The downside to baking your own bread is that you have to slice it yourself. I wanted to use this bread in my sandwiches that I take to school but it was hard to cut a perfectly thick slice. I usually cut slices that were too thick and my sandwiches ended up very bready. I would still prefer store-bought whole wheat sandwich bread to this bread, but it's a step in the right direction. I hope to try a more exciting recipe from that book next.