Stacey Makes It

Okay, I know how I said I hate beer bread , but it turned out to be a lie.  Beer bread is lightning fast compared to regular yeast bread and it's also yummy.  But, my food-loving friends, there is a little secret to making yummy beer bread that doesn't taste like salty cake.  Shhh... it's bread flour. Bread flour makes beer bread chewy and delicious.  Here is my new favorite recipe that I've finagled through a myriad of experimenting. Stacey's Cheddar Onion Beer Bread Ingredients 2c bread flour, organic 1c whole wheat flour, organic 1 tbs baking powder 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 tbs sugar, organic 1 tsp dried dill 4.5 oz cheddar cheese, shredded or cubed small 12 oz beer (I use the cheap Simple Times stuff from Trader Joe's) 2 tbs olive oil, organic 2/3c onions sauteed/caramelized in 2 tbs butter (2 small yellow onions, or 1 large) Loaf pan First, chop the onions and caramel them in the butter and then set them aside.  Then preheat the oven to 375F. ...

So, these muffins were an experiment with olive oil.  Really I wanted to call them olive oil muffins, but even though I used EVOO, you could barely, if at all, taste it.  I suppose that means it was a success?  Perhaps if I want to showcase the olive oil more, I should use more of it, but this was really a test to see if I could start baking desserty type stuff with olive oil versus other types of cooking oils. Olive oil smells and tastes a little nutty to me, so I thought almond meal might go well with that flavor.  Then I happened to have some overripe bananas, so that's how that happened.  And everything tastes good with chocolate chips. I guess if I wanted to give them the title they deserve it would be... Stacey's Banana Chocolate Chip Almond Olive Oil Muffin Ingredients 1 1/2c unbleached white flour, organic 1/2c brown rice flour, organic 1c almond meal/flour 2/3c granulated sugar, organic 1 tbs baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 t...

I know, it's been a really long time.  In my defense, I work for Yahoo! and things have been weird so I've been doing a lot more work type stuff.  But, this Memorial Day weekend, I've been visiting a lot of family and friends and have been making some goodies. I decided to use the chocolate cake recipe from Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate and edit it into cupcakes.  So here's my version: Stacey's That Chocolate Cupcake with Strawberry Fan Ingredients: 2c granulated sugar, organic 1c unbleached white flour, organic 3/4c whole wheat flour, organic 3/4c dagoba unsweetened cocoa powder, organic 1 tsp salt 1.5 tsp baking powder 1.5 tsp baking soda 2 eggs 1/2 c sunflower oil, organic 1 c lowfat milk, organic 1/4c boiling water Frosting / Ganache Ingredients: 6 oz heavy cream, organic 1c granulated sugar, organic 1 tsp vanilla bean paste 5 oz Scharffen-Berger 99% unsweetened chocolate 1 stick unsalted butter,...

Since I started writing a lot, I haven't had a lot of time to cook, and so I've started defaulting to making all sorts of rice crispy treats because they only take 15-20 minutes to complete.  This is my new favorite recipe for rice crispy treats. Stacey's Minty Chocolate Rice Crispy Treat Ingredients: 1/3c peppermint candies, crushed (I used candy canes) 2 tbs butter, organic 2c marshmallows, plain 1-2c chocolate mint marshmallows (if you can't find these, just substitute regular marshmallows)  4c cereal (I use a mix of rice crispies and corn flakes from TJ's) 1/2c-1c chocolate chips (I used a mix of milk and semisweet, but you can use whatever you like) 5-6 drops peppermint oil 4-qt. pot 11 cup pyrex baking dish, or an 8x8" baking dish, oiled I even took process pictures for you - I haven't taken these in a long time.  So, I found these marshmallows and I felt like using them in something where they became melted and unrecogniza...

My friend asked me to make something St. Patrick's Dayish for today even though St. Patrick's Day was Saturday. Stacey's Bailey's Brownies Ingredients: 1 stick unsalted butter, organic 2 oz unsweetened 99% chocolate, Scharffen-Berger 1c sugar, organic 1/3c brown sugar, organic 2 eggs 1/4c Bailey's Irish Creme Liqueur 2/3c unbleached white flour, organic 1 tbs whole wheat flour, organic (you can use regular flour) 1/4c cocoa powder, organic, Dagoba 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/3c semisweet chocolate chips, Guittard Stacey's Bailey's Ganache Ingredients: 3/4c mix of 64% dark / 38% milk Guittard couverture chocolate Organic Heavy Cream (enough to cover the chocolate in a measuring cup - probably 1/3c?) 1/4c Bailey's Irish Creme Liqueur 9x9" baking pan or cake pan, lined with foil and buttered Preheat oven to 350F.  Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together.  Then add the sugars, eggs and 1/4c liqueur.  Mix the d...

I finally had some time to make more cold-process soap.  Hooray! I intended on making 4 lbs at once, but then since I'm so smart, I didn't realize until I measured all the oils / fats that it wouldn't all fit in my soaping pot.  I ended up having to remeasure out half of it once it was all melted and make two separate batches.  So, instead of having to figure out that all this stuff doesn't fit in a 4-qt stockpot like I did, here is the halved recipe for 2 lbs. Here are the soap qualities. Soap Bar Quality Suggested Range Your Recipe Hardness 29 - 54 44 Cleansing 12 - 22 16 Conditioning 44 - 69 53 Bubbly 14 - 46 30 Creamy 16 - 48 43 Iodine 41 - 70 57 INS 136 - 165 147 I always aim to make sure conditioning is fairly high up.  I won't go through all the process steps again since it's the same as the M...

So, one of my boyfriend's co-workers "can't eat anything that comes from a cow," meaning no milk products.  I'd think that would mean no dairy, but he can eat eggs.  Anyway, he likes brownies and I thought I'd try and come up with a brownie recipe. Stacey's Cow-Free Brownie Ingredients: 1/4c coconut oil, organic 3/4c cooking oil 3 eggs, organic 1 oz 99% unsweetened chocolate (Scharffen-Berger) 2 tsp vanilla bean paste 2c sugar, organic 1c unbleached white flour, organic 2/3c unsweetened cocoa powder, organic (Dagoba) 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1c semi-sweet chocolate chips (make sure there are no milk products in here) Preheat the oven to 350F. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave with the unsweetened chocolate.  Add the cooking oil and mix.  Add the eggs and vanilla bean paste and whisk with a fork. Then mix in the sugar. I wish I mixed all the rest of the dry ingredients separately and then put it in, but I didn't - I threw ...