The Clumsy Baker

Last Thursday was my first day with absolutely nothing to do. No studying, no family dinner dates, nada.

So I decided to try baking again. And I made these http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/cranberry_honey_spice_pinwheel_cookies.html

and some of this cranberry orange bread http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/cranberry-orange-bread-2/Detail.aspx
I was so excited about not having anything to do, even shopping at Wal-Mart in the December madness was fun!

I am REALLY enjoying baking. But I am BAAAAD at it...here are a few examples of just how bad...


So, when I baked last week, I used every single prep bowl we own. Because I'm a smidge OCD/anal-retentive and it was fun for me. But the clean up was a bear, so this time, I decided to just go slowly and put everything into one bowl when prepping the bread. Flour, good. Sugar, good. baking powder, good...oh wait, that said three TEASPOONS, not tablespoons. Try to scoop white baking powder out of white sugar was difficult to say the least, so when I baked the cookies, I spread everything out into seperate bowls. Lesson learned.

Still on the bread, I decided to double the recipe. I paid close attention...and then apparently got distracted at some point. I got to the last step and started to fold in the fresh cranberries. I thought to myself, "well, this seems difficult" and "hmmmm, i don't think this batter is going to pour into the loaf pan like the banana bread batter did last time" So I double check the recipe...yep, I neglected to double the liquid ingredients. OOPS. So I picked 50 fresh cranberries out of the thick dough, added the liquid, mixed, and it was perfect!


For the cookies...I took my time and laid out every ingredient. I didn't have a single problem with these cookies! And let me tell you, if you have the time, you should really try these, they were so very good! So good, I'm going to make another batch today! It claims it makes 90, last time, I got about 50 out of the recipe...so I'm going to try to slice them more thinly today.

Off I go to the grocery store for ingredients...in the SNOW! I woke up this morning to a beautiful surprise of three inches of snow!

I'll probably post again later today or tomorrow about today's baking expedition!