sometimes when there aren’t enough constraints, things like this happen:
it’s my abstract bunny cake. BING, IT’S LIKE THE BLUE WINDOWS! anyway, it was another chocolate cake… came out a little sweet i thought – probably will put a little less moistening syrup next time.
next cake i’ll try some new flavors 
we finally had a chance to try the atk pizza dough recipe. it’s in the atk family baking book and atk best new recipe (and probably some of their other books). the one in best new recipe has some extra background and also instructions on making the dough with a standing mixer, so those are the ones i’m putting here.
we forgot to get a pizza stone, but i remembered an episode of good eats where alton brown said you can buy a stone or tile from the hardware store for way cheaper, so we ran to home depot to look around. most of the tiles were glazed or sold in packs or too small so there weren’t many choices. the one we got was 18″ and seems like it did a pretty job:
well, actually, it got a crack in the middle, but we figure we can just leave it in the oven and it’ll be ok. it was only $3 anyway. next time maybe we’ll invest in a pizza stone.
pizza dough (standing mixer instructions)
makes enough for 3 medium pizzas
1/2 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 envelope (2.25 tsp) instant yeast
1.25 cups water, at room temperature
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups (22 oz) bread flour, plus more for dusting the work surface and hands
1.5 tsp salt
olive oil or nonstick cooking spray for oiling the bowl
1. measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. add the room temperature water and oil and stir to combine.
2. place the flour and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle. briefly combine the dry ingredients at low speed.
3. slowly add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix at low speed until a cohesive mass forms.
4. stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook. knead (level 2 on my mixer) until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap.
5. let rise until doubled in size, 1.5-2 hours. press the dough to deflate; it is now ready to use.
comments: our dough was really sticky, couldn’t really work with it, so we added a little more bread flour and it was ok. probably added a little too much liquid. anyway, we put on pepperoni, mushrooms, calamata olives, pizza sauce from our freezer, and cheese:
oh right, you’re supposed to heat the stone in the oven at 500F for 30-40 minutes before you bake, and then the pizza bakes until the cheese is golden brown in spots (8-12 minutes). using parchment paper is another good tip from atk. it makes it a lot easier to transfer the pizza in and out of the oven, and if you are using a questionable pizza stone like us, you can have more peace of mind.
pizza dough is kinda hard to shape so one came out like south carolina and the other one was kind of like a sombrero. it was exciting. besides, this dough was really tasty – crisp and chewy!, so maybe you’d want a higher ratio of crust than a round pizza. you could make like a star pizza
the dough is actually very easy to make, just have to give it time to rise, and then gotta give the stone time to heat up in the oven. i told cameron next time we should try putting on some vegetables… maybe like margherita YUM.
yesterday i finally had cookie success! it was quite exciting
thick and chewy chocolate cookies
from the america’s test kitchen family baking book
2 cups plus 2 tbsp (10 2/3 oz) AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp (1.5 sticks, 6 oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed (7 oz) light brown sugar
1 cup (3.5 oz) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups (9 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1. adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325F. line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. in a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. (make sure not to overbeat at this point, or else the cookies will come out flatter, a little crunchy on the outside, and not as chewy – kinda like the CDS cookies, if anyone remembers those from caltech). beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until compbined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
3. reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. mix in the chips until incorporated.
4. working with 2 tbsp of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 15-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking.
5. let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
comments: yay! i finally managed to make a soft and chewy batch of cookies. i tried this recipe a couple months ago, but they didn’t come out soft and chewy. it’s because i didn’t weigh the ingredients! here’s how they looked:
they tasted good and everything, but they weren’t the soft and chewy kind of cookie. they were the kind that is more crumbly and hard. i consulted harold mcgee, and as i suspected, a higher flour ratio leads to a more crumbly cookie. also, the cookie won’t spread out as much and keeps the shape of the batter better. another interesting fact that explains what the brown sugar is for – “other forms of sugar – honey, molasses, corn syrup – tend to absorb water rather than crystallize, so when heated they form a syrup that permeates the cookie, helps it to spread, and firms as it cools, making it moist and chewy.” hmm, also a higher proportion of whole eggs makes cookies more cake-like. the book also has typical ratios for various types of cookies and doughs. thanks, harold mcgee!
anyway, this time the cookies came out just like the pictures in the book, and they tasted soft and chewy there is definitely something magical about a warm freshly-baked cookie.
here are our three plants:
doris – first plant we bought, from home depot. she looked very hearty so we thought she would enjoy life on the lanai.
boris – we bought him from the hba fun fair (fundraiser at cameron’s school). cameron named him.
allison – we also bought her at the hba fun fair. cameron wanted to name her gigantor, but i wanted to name her allison (to support allison iraheta on american idol!).
so far everyone has been pretty happy on the lanai. i think we might need to transfer boris and allison to bigger pots eventually. this week we’re going to try to start planting some thai basil. we’ll see how that goes.
finally, here is our awesome solar-powered cow:
see? his tail wags back and forth with solar polar. cutest cow ever.
1. i can’t bake cakes without a scale. flour gets packed, unpacked – i’ve heard some methods where first you whisk the flour, then scoop and level with knife, but it still feels inexact to me… guess this is where my chemistry background is an influence? anyway, now i use the scale whenever i bake. the conversions i use the most are on a post-it note on the fridge:
butter: 1/2 cup = 1 stick = 1/4 lb. (4 oz) = 113 g
ap flour: 1 cup = .28 lb. (4.48 oz) = 125 g
cake flour: 1 cup = .20 lb. (3.2 oz) = 90 g
hmm, apparently ATK has slightly different conversions for the flour:
ap flour: 1 cup = 5 oz
cake flour: 1 cup = 4 oz
i haven’t decided which are more accurate yet… i’ll update if i read anything new
2. almost any batch of buttercream can be saved, according to dede wilson (author of wedding cakes you can make). i wish i had read the part before i threw away 2 batches that i thought were ruined! it was a little too hot that day, and i think some of the butter melted, so the buttercream got all watery as i started adding in the butter so i stopped adding the butter and tossed it. anyway, the next week i tried again and used butter that was still cold – it still got a little watery, but listening to dede, i added in all the butter. it got kinda chunky (from the cold butter), then got smoothed out after i let it beat in and warm up a little. anyway, rule of thumb is chill if it is too hot/soupy, warm if it’s too cold/chunky. don’t throw it away!
3. when icing the cake, the buttercream has to be really smooth and creamy. if not, just let it warm up a bit more because it’s just a waste of time to try to ice with buttercream that isn’t totally smooth. i wasted lots of time on the first wedding cake because of this!
4. i find dede wilson’s cakes a little on the small side, so now i usually do 1.5x the recipe. the slightly thicker cakes are easier to work with and give me a little room for error (like leveling the cake, etc.).
5. i really like chocolate cake. those tasty crumbs from all the cakes were not wasted buttercream is also great. the kind i make is italian buttercream, which is really light and delicious.
6. to me, real flowers (as long as they’re not poisonous) are the best decoration. it’s so much work to make edible flowers, and usually the results pale in comparison to the real thing. often comes out real artificial too. and not like they taste really good. that would be a different matter entirely if they were delicious edible flowers. my friend told me now days there are also nice artificial flowers, so that’s an option too.
7. don’t forget the moistening syrup! sometimes i have trouble remembering to put the syrup on every layer… cake syrup frosting, cake syrup frosting. just gotta keep repeating it to myself.
8. hey my co-worker told me costco butter is not good… has anyone heard that? so far it has been ok for me, but maybe i should research better butters.
9. speaking of quality, i’ve found that egg quality is very important. i had some trouble with some mainland eggs… now i always buy fresh local eggs (2.5 dozen large from ka lei is about $7).
10. don’t use a hammer when putting a wooden dowel through the whole cake. i did that, and then when i got to the wedding, i couldn’t get it out! good thing that hydrangea was there to conceal it.
i think that about sums up what i’ve learned so far. i’m sure i will pick up more things as i bake more. let me know if anyone in honolulu needs some cake…