Quick Notice

So, yes, I have been faithfully sticking to my challenges for the last five weeks. It's just... Life happens. I've been really busy, and haven't been able to upload all the pictures (and yes, this is harder than it sounds, since I have a sister moving out who is constantly taking it with her to her house).

Anywho, just wanted to note this isn't forgotten~

Week 8

No dessert last week, as it was my grandmother's birthday and, quite frankly, I didn't feel like making anything (I had to study for an SAT)


(yeeah, didn't feel like putting up a fancy picture xP)

This Week: Grown Up S'mores

With, you guessed it: alcohol.

Well, a little big anyway. It called for two tablespoons of Kahlua, two tablespoons of white creme de cacao, and two tablespoons of brandy. Instead, I did two and a half tablespoons of Kahlua, the full cacao, and one and a half tablespoons to make up for the liquid of the brandy.

I also got a little thrifty since this recipe called for a creme brulee torch... Instead I put it right underneath the broiler for a couple of seconds. The result? Fantastic. Very rich and creamy and cookie, but my personal favorite was the graham cracker crust. The alcohol in the chocolate was a little two strong for me after a while, so the rating dropped to about a 3 1/2 for me. The rest of the family loved it, though.

Family Rating:4.3

Week 7... AKA Two Friggin' Weeks Ago

This Week: Grilled Pound Cake Chocolate Sandwiches (With Ice Cream)
Ack, it's way late! Sorry, I was super busy these last two weeks/completely forgot xP. Anywho, not much to say about this dessert. It was... Meh. The pound cake itself (the same recipe as when I made the cinnamon croutons with the chocolate soup) was awesome, but I think the author asked for the slices to be too thick (an inch each). When it was being grilled, the heat wasn't reaching the chocolate. Later, we finally figured to just melt the chocolate in the microwave and spread it on the grilled pieces of cake. Again, good... but not noteworthy.

Family Rating: 3

P.S. As for a personal note likewoah! I've just readThe Secret Life of Bees (fantastic book by the way.... And movie), and I'm currently experimenting with honey as a facial and tonight as a means to lose weight. They say that a spoonful of honey an hour before bed helps keep off fat... As for the facial, I've been doing it a week and have seen so-so results. Perhaps it takes longer? Would like to read up on all of this....

Another Late Post... Week 6

Sorry about that. Just haven't gotten around to making this one :( So, FYI this is from LAST week.

This Week: Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes with Caramel Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting



I know what you're thinking, especially as a fellow mayonnaise hater: "Mayo in a cupcake? Eww.". And yes, the recipe required not a tablespoon, not a fourth of a cup, not even a half a cup, but a full, loaded cup. However... It turned out really good. Couldn't even taste it, but I think what it did do was add moisture to it.... Yum.

As for the frosting... Meh. I had higher hopes. It didn't turn out the right texture, which I think is because I used a whisk to beat it in (seriously, I hate that there's a difference between a whisk and a beater). Moreover, I think I was a little grossed out because it used a LOT of butter (I guess hence the name "buttercream"). It all turned out okay, and I kind of want to make it again to see if it would turn out different; but as it was, the recipe was WAY too detailed and long. And strange. Very strange. As in put-a-bowl-of-egg-and-sugar-into-a-boiling-pan-of-water-strange. Yeah.

Family Rating:3.25

See you next week! (Or... tomorrow!) ;)

Week 6... Woot?

So, this week was Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecakes with Sweetened Whip Cream and Shortbread Spoons... *large intake of breath* AKA the very items on the cover! ^3^



Yeah, the spoon (along with the others) didn't turn out as perfectly shaped as O'Conner's; but hey, she cheated! She has these special spoon cookie cutters. These were made by hand, baby, and I think they turned out pretty darn swell D:< (... Plus yummy xP)

All in all, I say I must approve of this creamy deliciousness being on the cover- and this is saying something, because I don't even likecheesecake. I confess, it was a rather... odd recipe, since before putting the ramekins into the oven you had to pour boiling water into the dish and cover with aluminum foil, THEN bake it. Other than that... the whole thing was pretty easy- just a lot of pouring and re-pouring due to some little mistakes =_='.

As far as the spoons and whipped cream goes, they were really easy... And yes, I used an actual whisk for the cream this time :)

Family Rating: 4.25 because my dad didn't like it too much (craziness!)

New Update:... I've decided for it to be a surprise for each "next week's" recipe :D See ya!

Week Five (February 7th)

I know, I know, once again I was a little late in posting, yada yada... However, this is the first official post of my blog that I'll be posting less than a week after I make my dessert! *clap clap clap*. Anywho... On with ze show!

This week's recipe: Best One Bowl Chocolate Chunk Cookies

... AKA Jill O Connor's take on chocolate chip cookies.



They turned out pretty darn tasty. If you're looking for an easy recipe in the book, hands down this will be the winner (indeed, just as the name has it, it only uses "one bowl"); however, if you're looking for that unique, "wow factor" SCMG dessert... This is probably one of the last. Most might think it a little annoying that the author chose to put such a cliche recipe in her book, but frankly... I kind of think EVERY good dessert book needs that classic cookie, that little piece of baked goodness that anyone, anywhere, anytime will be drawn to.... Y/N?

Then again, maybe it's the fact that I still deem O Connor as one of the great baking goddesses after those brownies that makes my opinion a teensy bit biased.

ANYWAYS. The recipe did have it's own little twists to it: the pecans were toasted (actually, this was my first time having a cookie with pecans... I recommend it), the measures for the dough drops were a 1/4 CUP measuring tin (I have never seen such big mounds of cookie dough look so lovely).



Overall, it was good... Just not anything different.

Family Rating: 3.5

On a note not related to baking.... I JUST FOUND OUT I WAS GOING TO JAPAN! (yay!) I'm really excited =0)
And another note... I got my license! :D :D :D :D So, if you're on the road, don't worry, I'm not too bad of a driver.... Unless you're a pedestrian. Then you should be a little afraid.

Next time: Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake Pots.

Week 4 (January 31st)

The Triple Layer Chocolate Silk Martini (say that five times fast)


(I'm actually kind of pleased with how this picture turned out :D)

...So, this recipe hit a few little snags, but other than that, it was both really good and (relatively) easy. The mixture of each of the chocolate had very little alcohol, so you could barely taste it (the fact of which my family loved). One of the problems that happened first was finding the alcohols to use. See, my family has an extremely small collection of booze, and even that is only used when guests come. So, we had one of the vodkas needed-rasberry flavored, for the dark chocolate mix)- but were missing the vanilla- and chocolate (Godiva)- liqeuor. We went to Winco in search of small, cheap bottles considering we only needed two tablespoons of each. We found neither. They only had regular-size bottles, and they each cost $20. Not willing to pay the price (and I don't blame her), my mom got the idea of using Kahlua instead of the vanilla liqeuor and mixing chocolate coffee creamer with vodka in place of the Godiva. So, that's what I did (although I made the cream/vodka mixture more creamer)- and it turned out totally fine. Who says you need the right kind of booze to make something delicious?

The second little mishap came with the milk chocolate and white chocolate mixtures. Each layer had to be creamed until thick, and the first- the dark chocolate- came out exactly as it should. When I tried the milk chocolate, however, it didn't thicken as easily. Seeing it not going anywhere, I thought perhaps that was the consistency it was supposed to have, poured it into the glasses along with the first layer, and moved on. The white chocolate, however, did the exact same thing. The layers are supposed to be just that: layered. But when I poured the third in, well.... It sank into the second. This ruined one of my final plans, which was to make the desserts look pretty with three chocolate chips (white, milk, and dark; these sank like quick sand D:>). The problem, I realized later, was that I didn't use a whisk, just a normal beater. Anywho, as I said before, it turned out really good anyway. My dad even said it was his favorite so far- and he's the one that hates alcohol the most. In conclusion, yes, it was good enough to make again :)

Family Rating: 4.25


Next Week: Best One-Bowl Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies Bye! <3

Week #3 (January 24th)

This week: Spanish Hot Chocolate with Churros

BTW, these were made Sunday, I just wasn't able to post them.




Umm.... Yeah. So here's the story:

Basically, the recipe calls for pastry bags and a certain tip to go along with it, aka very large "star" shape. I searched around everywhere around my town that could possibly have it, you can even ask my poor mother who drove me everywhere to find it. Alas, I had to settle on a rather small one found at Michaels, and was disappointed once I found out what qualifies a "large". Later, when I got to using them, the churros... didn't exactly shape as they normally should. Let's just say that my dad dubbed them "turd-os".... Need I say more? Finally I just lost patience and put them into the fryer by the spoonful xP

Other than that, they really did taste like churros, just not with the crispy edges. Overall, I've decided to call this a success since they technically tasted the same... However, I don't think I'll make them again until I have the right equipment :)

As for the hot chocolate, it was really good. Actually, it was a little like the chocolate soup from last week. Really thick and yummy, but it was even more awesome with the churros dipped in. The author says so herself, but the cocoa really could just be a dunking sauce for them all alone.


The un-churros with my half-downed hot cocoa... Delicious!

Next time: Triple-Layer Chocolate Martini. Bye!

Week Two (January 17th)

So this week's challenge, as I announced last week, was dark chocolate soup with cinnamon-pound cake croutons and ice cream. And it went... okay. Surprisingly. See, this was one of those recipes that has that certain note saying something along the lines of this: "Stir and do this and this.... BUT IMMEDIATELY TRANSFER RIGHT AFTER THIS HAPPENS OR IT WILL FREAKING BURN.

Ahem. Yes, this is obviously an overexaggeration; but these kind of recipes always put me so on edge that I usually just opt to make some culinary-affectionate cookies- the ones that will always love you no matter how much you stir its dough or drop in a forgotten ingredient (for me, it's usually eggs) later than you should have.

However, a deal's a deal and, quite frankly, the soup looked delicious in the picture. As it happens, it did indeed turn out fantastically good with a rich, creamy texture (look at me, trying to be a food-snob judge from Iron Chef, haha), but I had my scares. The first came when I had just created the "caramel" of the recipe, when it's supposed to be boiling and turning into a different color (yes, this was the moment I was talking about above) and I have to then transfer and quickly stir in half-in-half. Just I was pouring in the half-in-half, it hissed, and the liquid caramel shot up and made this souffle... thing that I couldn't stir. I thought I had actually screwed up the recipe, and kind of stood there in shock wondering what I should do. Luckily, the caramel melted and broke apart in the pot when I heated it, so that returned me from panic-mode to normalcy. Then I had a little bit of impatience when the chocolate was melting, as the soup didn't look oh-so-pretty and "SCMG" as it was in the picture- part of this was due to my suspicion that I used normal expresso powder as opposed to instant. Anyways, the soup was pretty darn yummy, just really rich- a true chocolate-holic's dream :)


The pound cake I made the day before for the croutons. A very good recipe, but took a little longer than the book said it would. The author said I could have just bought one, but that would go against one of my new rules below....

The cinnamon-croutons before I put them in the oven. They would have been great without the soup, too.

Aaand the soup itself. Yes, it's blurry, and trust me, I'm beating myself up over it. Hopefully next week, I'll be able to photo shop my pictures to make them as appeasing as they really are :D

Family Rating: 4

That's all.... Next week: Churros with "Outrageously Thick Spanish Hot Chocolate"

Bye! <3

Week One (January 10th)

I started today with the very first page: Heart of Darkness Brownies.


(Don't worry, it made much more than this) Not a hard recipe, actually; just a lot of ingredients and a bit of time. No more difficult than normal brownies or cookies. Anyway, I will tell you that one of the ingredients inside the brownies were Snickers bars, and THEY TURNED OUT DIVINE.

.... Ahem. With a beginning like this, it's going to be one helluva (awesome) challenge.

Family Rating: 5

Next week: Dark Chocolate Soup with Cinnamon Pound Cake :)

The Beginning *DUN DUN DUN*

So, to start out this wonderful blog, here is my little introduction and rules :)

How It Got Started
All right, so one day I was flipping through this random website when I caught site of this book: http://www.amazon.com/Sticky-Chewy-Messy-Gooey-Desserts/dp/081185566X

Like any other sane person, the first thought that popped into my head was omfg, that looks delicious... and thus proceeded to buy it from Borders. I showed it to my dad, who basically had the same dazed, drooling expression I did when I first looked through it. Then, he got this great idea...

We had recently rented the movie Julie and Julia, which is about a story about a woman who cooked her way through the culinary genius, Julia Child's cookbook. So something popped into my dad's head: What if I baked my way through this book? I honestly love to bake (especially sweets xP), so I definitely wouldn't mind. Of course, I would not be baking everyday, as our house would be drowned in cookies and pies and cakes (oh my!), and the family would be seriously obese. Thus, I decided that Sunday would be my baking day (nicknamed "SCMG Sunday": Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey Sunday), and, since I don't use this livejournal nearly as much as I want to or should, I will put all of the pictures and names of the recipes I'll be baking.

Copyright Stuff, etc.
Before you ask, no, I will not be putting the actual recipes on here. If you want to try the recipe, then go out to your bookstore and buy the book so you can taste the mouthgasmic deliciousness (even if you don't bake, the book will make you happy just looking at it :P). Also, I acknowledge the fact that Julie Powell got a publishing deal after she did her amazing blog, and by no means am I trying to replicate what she did. This is simply something that I will be doing for fun, something that I'll enjoy sharing with everybody. With that said,to ze rulez!

Rules
-Anything that Jill O'Connor suggests I could make myself, I will make myself.Especially if she includes the recipe in her book. For example, for the pound cake croutons above, she said I could buy a store-bought pound cake or make my own, then proceeded to tell me her "favorite recipe". Needless to say, I followed the rule. The only exceptions to this rule will be if it requires something I don't have that is way too expensive. Take the flours she suggests- she says that almond flour can be made myself using a food processor, but neither I nor my family are willing to buy such a hefty investment. So, for the sugars and flours, I will stick to store-bought unless I can find another way...
-I will mostly go in the order the pages go, but I am allowed to go ahead for a recipe/make more than one in one day- if it's for a special occasion.You see, my family hosts Easter every year-and, since it's Sunday- I will be making this these couple of recipes (meant to be together) for appetizers, and make this one dessert for my aunt's traditional "Coffee Club" we have... That's all I'm going to say for now ;) Also, there's the matter of the very last recipe of the book. I'm thinking of having a little party with a couple of friends once this is done, and the last recipe, it's... Well, it looks mouth-water-worthy, of course, but it's more of a snack. And I figure: If I'm gonna actually do this, I wanna go out with a bang. So, I will personally save a dessert from the book that I'll keep secret from everybody until I make it xP
-Some of the recipes can be eaten on say, Monday instead of Sunday if the recipe calls for it.This is because some of the recipes call to be left overnight; one in particular says that the sauce has to wait two weeks to fully "ripen" in flavor. This also goes for baking the day before or so as well. Basically, the point is this: when it's not both, there will be either baking or eating on Sunday, but there will always be pictures :)
-I am allowed to skip a few Sundays if it's absolutely necessary.I've signed up for a Japanese exchange program in the summer (fingers crossed, hopefully I get in!), and right after that, I'll be going to Hawaii for my grandparents' fiftieth anniversary ( :3 ), thus missing from home a few Sundays. Of course, I'll be committed to this every time humanely possible, but I believe I'm entitled to have a life too xD

As far as other stuff (not necessarily rules), my dad also got this idea of having a "family rating" for each recipe... Will do :)
And, since I'm kind of curious about how many ingredients I will completely go through, I'm going to keep tabs on each one and calculate it all at the end of the challenge. It's something I'll probably feel guilty about... But kick myself for notdoing, you know?