Get ready to drool, this a foodie post. Let's start with, I love to bake. Most Wednesday nights I bake something to take to work. I started bringing home baked goods to work after the pandemic to bring people into work and I've gained quite a following amongst my co-workers!
Where does my love of baking come from? My mom loves to bake (not from scratch) but she bakes a sweet bread, muffins or something at least twice a week for her and my dad and she baked while I was growing up. My paternal grandmother was also a baker, and she did everything from scratch! My fondest memory and the recipe we've passed down through the family, is her apple pie. My nieces have learned the recipe, I bake at least one a month and take one to my dad.
Grandma alway made streusel topped apple pies. The recipe is hand written by me, I was probably in 5th or 6th grade. My nieces have copies of this recipe. Over the years, I've substituted the margarine with half butter and half Crisco, I also add a tablespoon or so sugar in the crust. She always pushed it in the pan, I've learned to roll it, fold it and roll it again to get a flakier crust.
I have several recipes that I add, subtract and re-use over and over again. One of my favorite recipes is Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer cake https://smittenkitchen.com/2011/05/strawberry-summer-cake/ it is so versatile! I change the fruits, depending on what is in season, I add streusel to the top or demara sugar, so easy and always sooooo good!
I almost never use strawberries, plums, apricots, nectarines, blueberries... it take less than 20 minutes to put together and an hour to bake!
I also love trying different coffee cakes, blueberry lemon, lemon tea cake, apricot buttermilk, I see recipes and save them on my Pinterest page.
Sweet breads, based in variations on Betty Crocker's banana bread and pumpkin bread, lemon cake... all good! Sometime I add chocolate chips, sometimes, I add nuts, sometimes craisins, whatever I happen to have in the pantry.
My repertoire is not limited to just cakes, I make no knead yeast breads, fritatta's, pizza's. I was always afraid to make bread, yeast scared me... but the no knead bread makes it easy and it is tasty!
I am a huge fan of "The Great British Baking Show" and all of the kinds of baked goods they have to make... on your mark, get set, BAKE!!!
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