Baking: My Survival Tool

While Pat's been gone I've done a lot of baking to pass the time. Too much, probably, considering the extremely small size of our freezer and that Niamh can't eat eggs. I think my pants are feeling a little bit snug. No wonder:

-chocolate pudding from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: fabulous! though perhaps making a double recipe was a mistake, even though we did have four extra people for dinner that night. There was an obscene amount of pudding.

-St. Louis gooey butter cake from Smitten Kitchen: delicious! Loved the top, but am not sure about the bottom. Wondering how the top would taste on top of the blondie recipe from Baking Illustrated. That might be too rich. Will have to try on Pat's next business trip, which is all too soon.

-whole wheat apple muffins from Smitten Kitchen: wonderful! I did have a problem with the batter curdling when I added in the yogurt. This has never happened to me before, so I didn't pay much attention to her warning. I think next time I'll follow the muffin mixing method from one of my Cook's Illustrated cookbooks. In spite of the curdling, the muffins were very, very good.



-thick chewy granola bars from Smitten Kitchen: (yes, I'm on a Smitten Kitchen kick at the moment. I don't see it ending in the foreseeable future either, because while writing this post coconut milk fudge has caught my eye.) really, really good! Next time I think I'll try adding a bit more almond butter to see if I can make the granola bars stick together just a little more.


-corn muffins with cheddar and bacon from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book: so-so. Could not taste the cheddar or the bacon. What was the point?

Several of the recipes called for corn syrup which can't be found in Switzerland, so I've been using wheat syrup as a substitute. Seems to work fine!

I wonder if Europe uses wheat the same way that America uses corn. I couldn't really find any info about it with a quick google search.