Tomorrow is my six-month anniversary for living in Germany and I've been baking up a storm! I've been having a blast here and can't imagine living anywhere else. That's not to say I don't miss home. If I could, I would fly all my family and friends here and house them in my tiny bedroom (I'm sure my roommate would love that). Another part of home that I miss are my cookbooks. The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Baking with Julia, The Cake Bible...there are so many books sitting perched on my shelf at home gathering dust. But since I left all of my oh-so-precious cookbooks and baking books at home, I've found the internet a very useful place to gather recipes. Here are a few recipes that I've tested while I've been here, along with pictures (if I took them) and modifications (if I made them):
Being at such a high altitude I had to adjust proofing and baking times, as well as baking temperatures. Unless you are living in the Alps like I am, I wouldn't worry too much about the adjustments. Also, I added some diced jalapenos and cheddar cheese to give it an extra kick. I say add however much you want!
Jalapeno Cheddar Hamburger Buns
There isn't any coconut extract in this pie, and since I've never made a coconut cream pie before I thought the coconut flavor would be lacking. I almost added some extract, but instead toasted an additional 3/4 cup of shredded coconut and added it to the layer between the egg mixture and the whipped topping. The end result was kickass!
For this recipe I left out the cinnamon. I wanted to make sure the espresso flavor got as much bang for its buck as it could. I brought these to a work party during Christmas time and everyone loved them! They're super easy to make too.
Cappuccino Fudge
I really wish I would have taken a picture of these (although there is a great picture on the blog that I got them from). The contrast of the dark chocolate and the peanut butter rolled inside is really nice, and these were really tasty. Great recipe!
all over the internet, but I found the recipe at chowhound.com
My good friend Corinne made these as a cake topper for our friend Richard's birthday (that's for another post). She decided to roll them in powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, which was a good decision considering they were already sweet. And wooooooo did they get you drunk! There is only 1/3 cup of rum in the recipe, but for some reason they were potent! Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the birthday boy...
Crunk cake with midnight rum balls
These turned out really well. I did however have to add a lot more bread crumbs than is recommended in the recipe - probably an additional 1 to 2 cups. Just make sure that the patties hold together really well before frying them. Also, I used cilantro instead of parsley because...well, I don't have a reason. I love cilantro.
Ina Garten on foodnetwork.com
I often go to Ina to find a good recipe, both savory or sweet. She didn't disappoint with this one - I'll be adding this to my permanent stockpile. I omitted the walnuts and the coffee granules, but I'm sure the tart would taste just as good with them. I decided to top the dessert with chocolate-covered strawberries and add some strawberry ice cream as well. The richness of the tart and the subtle flavor of the ice cream went well together.
Brownie Tart with Chocolate-Covered Strawberries and Strawberry Ice Cream
My friend Rachel planned to make an amazing vegetarian lasagna the other night for dinner and when I asked her what she wanted me to bring for dessert, she replied, "something with chocolate, caramel and peanut butter. I love all those things!" I didn't want to break her heart and tell her that we would go into a sugar coma if I combined those flavors, so I tried to make it work. I decided to make a no-bake peanut butter pie, and the recipe I found was really easy to do. The pie had a good peanut butter taste, but was still very light. Once that was frozen I added a layer of chocolate ganache on top (sort of like a buckeye pie if you will), and when I served the dessert I drizzled some homemade caramel on the plate before placing the pie slice on top. Voila! Three very strong flavors that could work in harmony thanks to a great pie recipe.
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