Overnight Panetonne

When I saw a post for Overnight Panetonne on Karen's Kitchen Stories, I knew I had to make it. I made the starter quickly and went to bed. I ended up not baking the Panetonne the next day but the day after, which only improved the taste. This was a challenge by the Bread Baking Babes on Facebook.

Soft, tender, lightly sweetened and studded with dried fruit!

ABC - Croûte d’abricots with Lavender & Honey

The August recipe for the ABC club was the Croûte d’abricots with Lavender & Honey. Although I left out the lavender, it still tasted awesome. So awesome in fact, that I baked this recipe twice: one time with apricots and one time with raspberries.

First time: made half the recipe in a 6" round pan

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Apricot & Almond Olive Oil Cake

This month's recipe for the ABC bakers screams summer to me: Apricot & Olive Oil Cake. Shortly after I had picked this recipe for our August challenge, I ran into some beautiful organic apricots at Trader Joe's. Since they don't last very long, I decided to bake the cake early and not wait till August :o)

Yummy cake!

I've always wanted to make a cake with olive oil so this was my chance to do so. Since I only have extra virgin olive oil, I mixed it with canola oil  50-50, fearing that it would otherwise be too overpowering.

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Hazelnut Rocher Cake

That's this month's ABC recipe. Of course, I had to convert it to an Almond Rocher Cake where I replaced hazelnut meal with almond meal.

Some ABC folks reported crumbliness issues, so I set out to make just half the recipe using my 6" round pan and fix the crumbly texture by adding more egg to the recipe. The weather was really hot so I quickly decided to forego the creamy filling, and serve it as a tea cake instead. This worked out really well. I took it to work where everybody loved it. Honestly, I loved it too and so did hubby who's normally not a chocolate fan. Would I bake this again? With my modifications, you betcha!

Almond Rocher Cake with an apricot glaze and finely chopped European milk chocolate

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

BOM: Fig and Almond Bread

This is my first time baking along the Artisan Bread Bakers on Facebook and I'm already late (sorry Phyl!). Better late than never, right? BOM stands for Bread of the Month and is hosted by blogging buddy, Phyl. For September's BOM he chose Nick Malgieri's Fig and Almond Bread. This recipe is a sneak preview from Nick's upcoming book, to be published in 2012. This recipe came with weight measurements which scored points with me right away but even without that, I'm a big Nick Malgieri fan. Judging from this recipe alone, I'm already looking forward to his new book.

Bread studded with apricots and almonds

 

ABC - Apricot-Almond-Berry Buckle

This month's recipe for the ABC of the Month is the Apricot-Almond-Berry Buckle. As you might know, we're baking from Flo Braker's wonderful book, Baking for All Occasions. When I saw this recipe, I knew this would be a perfect summer cake. Although Flo uses fresh apricots, raspberries and boysenberries, she specifically tells you to use whatever fruit is in season and available to you. There's no way I would find fresh apricots worth buying here in MN, so I looked for frozen ones to no avail. I ended using canned apricots that were pretty decent. For the "berry" part of this cake, I used blackberries and blueberries.

A slice of fruity goodness

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Monica of Sweet Bites to the ABC of the Month baking group. I know Monica from our weekly baking group, Heavenly Cake Bakers. She's a great cook and baker. And like myself, she too has a slight yeast phobia :o)

If you're a Flo Braker fan, or just love to bake, please feel free to join our monthly baking group. Sign-up is easy. Just email me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com.

HCB - Chocolate Apricot Layer Cake with Lacquer Glaze (Wedding Anniversary Cake)

This week's recipe for the Heavenly Cake Bakers was the Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze. I decided to transform this week's HCB cake into a layer cake... our wedding anniversary cake to be exact :o) The recipe says to fill the roll with chocolate ganache. Unfortunately, my husband is not a huge dark chocolate fan so I wanted to use something else to fill my layer cake. A while back I came across a white chocolate mousse recipe in Tish Boyle's book, Chocolate Passion, that caught my attention. I'm glad it did because it is phenomenal.

Apricot Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

I was in the mood for something “healthy” to snack on so I decided to make these oatmeal muffins. The last time I made these muffins, I used dried apricots and almonds. This time around I substituted sweetened dried cranberries for the almonds to make the muffin fruitier. The original recipe uses the oats as-is which is what I did when I first made them. I wanted to try something new and decided to grind them finely, to give the muffin a less coarse texture.

These muffins are not overly sweet (which I enjoy). They are wholesome and delicious. Wrap the muffins in a couple layers of plastic wrap and freeze them, to enjoy them later. Just take however many you need from the freezer, pop them in the microwave for a few seconds and you’ll have a great, fresh muffin.

Apricot Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Recipe adapted from Blue Ribbon Baking by Marjorie Johnson

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup old-fashioned oats, ground (I used a spice grinder)

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

½ cup dried apricots, chopped (cut into small pieces with scissors)

½ cup sweetened dried cranberries

2 tsp turbinado sugar (natural raw sugar) for decoration, optional

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Line a 12-muffin pan with paper cups.
• In a medium bowl, combine ground oats and buttermilk. Let sit while getting other ingredients ready.
• Combine the apricots and cranberries in a bowl and cover with hot water to plump them up. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• Add brown sugar and egg to the oats and buttermilk mixture. Whisk until smooth.
• Drain the apricots and cranberries. Add to batter and stir to combine.
• Add flour mixture to the batter and stir to combine for about 10 seconds. Do not over mix.
• Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup about ¾ full.
• Sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on each muffin.
• Bake for 19-24 minutes or until a skewer inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.

Yields: 12 muffins.

Happy Baking!