It was one of my friend’s birthdays on Saturday, and she loved the carrot cake that I had made for Thanksgiving here – it’s just not your normal run of the mill sort of cake found in these parts (and it doesn’t even require brown sugar!). So I busted out the same recipe I used before, thinking how easy peasy this would be…I’d just bake it in a 9X13 pan because that’s easier to serve a crowd with than a round layer cake.

After leaving it in the oven for over an hour, then letting it sit for like 30 more minutes, I had the oddest icky sticky mess of cake that I had ever seen. What on earth had gone wrong? Then I decided to read back through the comments, of which there are hundreds, only to find that most people had cut the amount of oil back to a cup or less (when it called for a cup and a half). Grrrrr. I probably did that last time. So back I went for another pound of carrots at the grocery store.

Over-oily, sticky disaster. I even thought maybe I could salvage it with some sort of cake ball, but it was too oily to even do that!

This time it looked MUCH better. On top of cutting back the oil, I also squeezed quite a bit of water from the shredded carrots, toasted the walnuts and removed the paper-y skin (no pecans here), and practically tripled the spices. I made the 9X13 pan, but was afraid it was a little much, so I made another smaller one that I will leave for the bday girl to enjoy all on her own.

Thank heavens. Two flops in one day would have been too much.

As far as the cream cheese frosting, I used a stick of butter, 8 oz of cream cheese, and heaven only knows how much powdered sugar. Enough to make it the consistency I was looking for. And voila. People were still talking about the “bizcocho” the next day. Success once again.

Walking through the market in Santander can be very dangerous. Well, no, make that walking through ANY market can be dangerous…for me, everything looks so pretty and fresh and colorful and sometimes things just jump out at me even though I have no idea what I’m going to do with them. Like once, I came home with like a 5 pound head of cauliflower – it was so perfect with the outside leaves on it and everything, I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture. But it sat on the shelf in the fridge, staring at me for probably three weeks? Maybe four? And I never did anything with it. Ooops.

But when lemons look pretty and shiny and bright yellow and accidentally leap into my bag to come home with me, those I can do something with. Aside from using fresh lemon juice on salads and in ice water, I was looking for an easy way to make something lemony, and as always, something share-able. These are some of my faaaaavorite cookies, but sadly coconut does not have a very big fan base here, so I decided to take the route of mini loaves instead.

I had seen this recipe - or variations - posted in quite a few places, and it sounded extra lemony and delish so I gave it a try.

Triple Lemony Mini Loaf

So here’s the thing. I hesitate to knock anything about a recipe because 9 times out of 10, I’m completely sure it has something to do with baker error. Especially when something TASTES really good. That was the case with these. I skipped the lemony-glaze because sometimes that’s just a bit much for me, but aside from that, and making them in mini-loaf pans, I followed the recipe as it was written. And what I found was that the flavor was really good – super lemony and tangy – but that the bottom part of the cake was sort of crumbly and dry, and that the top part was a little sort of sticky or something from the syrup.

I concluded it was probably because: 1) I didn’t poke the holes in the bread all the way to the bottom for the syrup to distribute all the way through the cake, 2) I didn’t use all the syrup, and 3) I could have left the mini loaves in a little too long because I was really just estimating using a cake tester to see if they were done. The other thing is that I’m still not convinced that ingredients in Spain are exactly the same as they are in the states. Maybe the flours have different consistencies, who knows.

Anyway. The BF really liked it, and he usually tells me when something is not quite right. Not sure I’ll make these again, or if I do, maybe I’ll make some tweaks and see what happens.

BUT, lucky for me my mother had mailed me some a while back, so out it came for a batch of cookies. I searched around for a while and came across this recipe, which caught my eye because her pictures looked EXACTLY like the snickerdoodle of my dreams. And also because I, too, have struggled with making them just right.

A couple different attempts...

As you can see from the picture, they did not all come out the same…the first batch flattened a little too much. I was thinking maybe it was because the dough or the cookie sheet wasn’t chilled enough. So I did a couple things…I adjusted the oven temp slightly (it’s tough to tell what 176C is on my oven…), left the dough overnight and picked up again in the morning, and then I actually popped the cookie sheet in the freezer, rolled all the balls up, took it out, lined ‘em all up and put it in the oven. Although they all tasted REALLY good, I liked the texture of the second batch better. They were a little less crispy, a little more like the picture that caught my attention in the first place.

Oh, and maybe I added more cinnamon too?

I have to keep experimenting too…I’ve read that European butter has a different water content, and this can impact your baking results. Might have to read up a little more in that.

For one Friday Feast (as I like to call the Fridays when I cook), I was hankering for baked chicken. Plus, I was looking for an excuse to go to the market in Santander and ask them to butcher one up for me. Okay, it was more the latter than the former. Yay, so fun. This Lemon and Rosemary Chicken from one of my favorite blogs, via Saveur, was easy and yummy, and made for some good leftovers. I may have – as I always tend to – undersalted it a bit, but that is easily remedied.

Lemon-y, garlic-y, rosemar-y, and easy. Some of my favorite "y" words.

I also made this Zucchini Soup, even though it wasn’t the end of the summer. But when it is, I might make it again. Another easy soup, an excuse to use my hand blender (I mean, I lugged the 8 pound converter overseas, I have to use these things once in a while!), and definitely a good way to use a bounty of the summer vegetable. Oh, and also good cold.

My lame-o attempt at making it pretty. But taste is more important, right? Pretty comes second.

I made these little cinnamon breads, but for the life of me I can’t find the recipe I used. I’ll eventually come across it and add it to this post, shame, they were really good. Duh. That’s what I get for posting-procrastination.

Sigh. Apparently I couldn't manage a decent picture either. Adding these to the re-do list. Oh right, when I find the recipe.

THEN, I made these little breads. I know, I have a thing with my little bread pans, BUT, it makes it so easy to keep one and give two away, ya know?? Anyhoo. I was searching for something coffee flavored and came across these Coffee Walnut Chocolate Chip Muffins. So many good things in one place, right? I know. Plus, she has a beautiful blog with beautiful pictures. I made a coffee glaze for them and everything. But I was otherwise sort of disappointed. They were lacking some oomph. Toasted, with butter, sure…but everything is good toasted with butter. Maybe I’d add a lil more coffee next time? We don’t have instant here, so I may have underdone it…I’d try them again though.

Pretty, no? I wanted to like them more. Oh, and look, my pretty little red child in the corner. That's always worth a smile.

THEN (I know, I know, I gotta do this more often), it was almost Valentines Day, which they only sorta-kinda celebrate here, in an  its-an-American-fake-holiday sort of a way? But we went out for a little V-Day dinner, me, C and two other girlfriends. I’ve never liked the day really, so we made it more about being silly. Better, no? I digress. I thought red velvet cupcakes would be appropriate, but I didn’t have enough red food coloring. So…they were more or less just chocolate cupcakes really, but that’s okay, because chocolate is good on Valentines day too. I used this recipe.

I heart sprinkles.

And THEN, I wanted to bake something but I was having fears of snarfing all the dough before it actually went into the oven (please tell me you have those days), and the only safe thing in that realm is something with bananas. I actually keep bananas here just for that reason. I don’t like anything about them…the smell, the taste, the texture…nothing. And  I had made banana bread before (but neglected to take pictures, so it’s not here…I heard it was really good though…hahahaha), so I thought these looked fun. Plus making something with brown butter is an easy solution when you haven’t softened any out of the fridge. Anyhoo. I thought they looked a little blah on first glance, and the brown butter glaze turned into a paste (which, FYI, is not fixable by adding milk…durh), so I added chopped up walnuts and a little lemon glaze. Those looked prettier. But then finally I decided to make them into whoopie pies with some Nutella buttercream . My taste testers said those were the best ones, but still not award winning. I will say though that this Nutella buttercream was ridiculously good and what I didn’t use for the whoopie pies had to go down the sink. Me in the house with that stuff? Noooooo. Nope, no way.

I wish I liked them more, cause they're cute. But the buttercream won this round.

And that’s that. Gotta stay on top of this a little better, geez Louise, if for nothing other than to not lose the good recipes!

For weeks I’ve been weighing my love for all things warm and gooey and cinnamony with my ongoing battle with yeast breads, and finally decided to give in and give this lovely looking Cinnamon Pull-Apart bread that has been all over the foodgawking universe a try. And after round 1, I think it’s safe to say the score is Yeast Bread 1, Lynne 0.

I don’t know what my problem is, though I’m absolutely sure its baker error. I followed the recipe exactly, let the dough rise the first time in a nice little warm spot in my kitchen until it doubled in size. And when I deflated it, I was left with the same completely sticky dough as I had started off with, no nice lovely little pillow of goodness. So, I ended up adding what I am sure was WAY too much flour, just to make it workable, and even then I had to roll it out in between two pieces of parchment because it would not stop clinging on to my rolling pin for dear life. And then I probably didn’t roll it out thin enough.

Once I finally fought it down, the rest was relatively easy, but I think the damage had already been done. I was also baking it in three mini-loaves, which I took out after about 25 minutes – and that might have been a few minutes too long. The flavor was good, but instead of the delicate pull-apart layers I was expecting, the bread was sort of dense and a little bit dry. I mean, yes, it was edible, and certainly better after being warmed up a bit, but it was not exactly what I was hoping for. I will try again.

They still looked cute though, right?

Total crapsville picture, I'll admit it was an afterthought. I must have been overwhelmed by cooking happiness or something.

I had lasagna on the brain, but didn’t really want to do regular lasagna, so I came across this recipe and thought it sounded like a nice twist. And, as I always have to consider what I can and can’t find here, it seemed simple enough (although finding ricotta cheese proved a bit more difficult than I had anticipated). I also wanted something I could cut down fairly easily since there’s just two of us.

I ended up making quite  few changes, on initial taste it was lacking a lot of flavor – could have been because I wasn’t using kale, so I omitted the garlic and olive oil – but it turned out really well. Even though I cut it in half (for the most part), it was still twice what we needed, so I’ve popped the rest in the freezer and we’ll see if it freezes well!

Vegetable Lasagna Rolls with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Adapted from Mother Thyme

Ingredients

• 10 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente and drained
• 250 grams ricotta cheese
• ½  cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (plus additional for sprinkling on top)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
• ½ large egg
• 20 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
• 1/4 cup finely grated carrots
• 1 TBS oregano
• Generous amounts of salt and pepper
• Roasted red pepper sauce (recipe below)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   (If making Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, start with that first as oven needs to be at broil).  After peppers are roasted reduce heat to 350 degrees).

In a medium bowl combine ricotta cheese, egg, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, oregano, spinach and carrots, and a heavy dose of salt and pepper.

To assemble vegetable rolls.  Lay one lasagna noodle on a clean surface, add desired amount of mixture to one end of the noodle.  Roll the noodle up with mixture.  Continue to assemble each roll until all mixture is used.

Lay a thin layer of sauce on the bottom on 8×8 baking pan.  Place lasagna rolls in pan, seam down, and top with sauce, reserving some for pouring over before serving.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake for 10 additional minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 red peppers
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup skim milk (or 1%, 2% or whole milk)
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• Oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Set the oven to broil.

Toss red peppers with a splash of olive oil and place on a pan. Broil for approximately 10 minutes, turning peppers regularly, until all sides are charred black. Remove the peppers and let them cool down a bit. When you can handle them, remove the skins (they should slide off easily), slice the peppers into wedges and remove the tops and seeds inside.

Place roasted red peppers in food processor or blender and blend until pureed.

In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat.  Add flour to melted butter and stir until melted is incorporated into flour.  Slowly pour in milk and continue to stir until mixture is thick.  Stir in mozzarella cheese until melted followed by red pepper puree.   Stir until blended.  Remove from heat.

March? The last time I posted here was in MARCH? Good grief. Well, admittedly, I’ve had a few things going on since then. You can read all about it, but in a nutshell, I live in Spain now. I know, right??? SPAIN. And as one of my New Years Resolutions, I promised myself I would get back to baking and back to this blog on a regular basis.

Baking in Spain is a little different. Aside from the basic measurement conversions, most of which I’ve solved with my kitchen scale and by bringing back my measuring cups and spoons from the states, I haven’t quite nailed down all the ingredients. I DO know what we lack…for example, first and foremost, light brown sugar. I found a store here that sells dark brown sugar, but since I mostly use light, I’ve taken to ordering it from amazonuk. Other things…cream of tartar, fresh or frozen cranberries, canned pumpkin (YES, I know, I can make my own, it was just easier out of a can, what can I say), fresh sage, pecans, sour cream. The white chocolate here is a little different. In any case, I am finding my way and doing my best, and I treat every baking adventure like an experiment.

Today’s experiment was brought on my some crazy craving I have had for citrus flavored cakes, and after searching, oh, like six gazillion recipes, I opted for this one…primarily because I had all the ingredients on hand. And also because I haven’t yet brought back my bundt pans with me and this made a nice little recipe that could fit into three mini-loaf pans (which I did bring back!).

Yummmm,, just look at all that crunchy zesty citrusy sugar....

Verdict: DELISH. I didn’t end up making the glaze as thick as it said, and although I made the full recipe for the topping, I didn’t nearly use it all. Like Jessica says, the orange zested sugar hardens on top after they’ve sat for a bit, and it adds such nice crunchy top. I love them in these little pans and I imagine in a normal size loaf pan or, like she shows in her beautiful blog, perfect little muffins.

Filed under Keeper.

It’s good to be back.

SO. Take two. WITH flour. These are light and crumbly and remind me very much of Mexican Wedding Cakes, but even lighter. And they are sort of addictive, so off to work they will go tomorrow!

Yumsville choice, Tianne, thanks! Check out her blog for the recipe!

I did like the slight honey flavor, but otherwise found these sort of disappointing. If I was going to make a chocolate cake, there are way better recipes out there for it (Dorie’s got a couple!!), and if I’m going to make brownies, well…same thing. These weren’t gone from the kitchen until way late in the afternoon, so my guess is that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t love them!

Always good to try something new though!! Thanks to Suzy for hosting this week!!

Okay, so based on ingredients on hand, my TWD recipe this week morphed into what I would more call an Orange Cranberry Muffin. No currants (I swapped out orange flavored dried cranberries), and no lemon oil. BUT, still a very yummy texture and a nice citrus-y kick, so overall I would deem these a success!

Check out Lauryn’s cute blog for the recipe and her scrumptious looking muffins!