Getting ReadySo this week I was feeling special so I decided to make two recipes. Well it wasn't planned but I will explain in a second. Earlier in this project my dad said his only request was chocolate eclair cake. He said he hadn't had it in so long and it reminded him a lot of childhood so this week was mainly for him. I got all of my ingredients at Dollar General this week which was nice because it was cheap. All I needed was vanilla pudding, cool whip, and gram crackers. So once I made the cake I told one of my friends and he really wanted me to make my cookies. These cookies are called monster cookies and they are what got me into baking. I always have the ingredients on hand so I didn't have to worry about that aspect. I have made them so many times that I have the recipe memorized so those were really calming and easy for me. So this week was pretty simple and this is how it went. Lets Get BakingOverall both of these recipes were pretty easy. The cake required no actual baking in the oven. I started with thawing out the cool whip. Again this week, it tested my patience. Who knew it took so long for cool whip to thaw? I waited a good 30 minutes and then just gave up. So I mixed the pudding and let it sit for 5 minutes then mixed in the cool whip with it. After this I laid down the gram crackers on the bottom of the dish and then put the mixture of pudding and cool whip on top and continues to make layers until the dish was full. At the end I melted chocolate icing which was unusual for me. I had to be very careful because if I were to spill it I would have burned myself. But I did not. I poured it on top of the cake and let it sit in the fridge for twelve hours. After that I was done. Besides the twelve hour waiting, the whole process probably took 20 minutes which was really nice. The next day I decided to make cookies because my friend really talked me into it. I really didn't feel like it if I am being honest but I decided it wasn't that hard and I hadn't made them in forever. These cookies were absolutely delicious and they were gone within 10 minutes of me finishing them. Mr. Barkers Rating: 8/10 Landon Novak's Rating: 8/10 (Considering they tasted it on Wednesday and it was made on Friday) ConclusionI thoroughly enjoyed this week even though it didn't challenge me that much. Both of my recipes turned out well and tasted amazing. Since people have started to figure out I am doing this project and I am getting many requests. I have gotten requests for apple cinnamon pie, red velvet cake, and a few more things. Next week I don't know what I am going to make. However, I will find a recipe and hopefully succeed. One thing I realized this week is that when I bring my deserts to school I need to bring more utensils. I hope that next week goes as well as this week did and I continue to learn the art of baking.
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Before the KitchenThis week I had no idea what I wanted to make. I was tired of making sweets if I am being honest. Don't get me wrong, I have a huge sweet tooth. But I wanted to try something new. I was talking to one of my friends about my situation and she requested soft pretzels. She gave me a recipe that she had tried multiple times and said it tasted really good. I was really excited for this because it reminded of 2020, which is really weird I know. During 2020 I made so much bread and it is also when I started to love baking. So once she gave me this recipe I was 100% going to use this one. The BakingBaking the pretzels started with finding the ingredients. It didn't need very many ingredients but yeast is hard to find. I found a lot in my cabinet but it was all expired. Finally I called my grandma and she gave me some. After that I made the dough, I had to let it sit for one hour. Once it had risen, I had to to make pretzels shapes. This was the part that my friend had warned me about. She said it was pretty hard. Luckily I figured it out after about the fourth try. The recipe made a total of eight pretzels and after I made them I had to boil them then put them in the oven. When they came out of the oven I got really worried because they were stuck to the pan. The recipe did not tell me to grease the pan but I did anyways and they still got stuck. After I finally got them off, they tasted really good especially warm. My brother ate four out of the eight so they were at least a success in his eyes. ![]() Just ignore the half eaten one because I forgot to take a picture before my dad took one of them. Next Week?I have already had many requests this week for what I should make next week. I have been asked to make chocolate eclair cake, monster cookies and many other things. So as of right now I have no idea what I am going to do. I kind of want to find a recipe that is a little more complicated then what I have done so far to see if I could handle it. But overall this week was a success and I am looking forward to next week.
PreparingThis week I figured that since my cookies didn't go as planned last week, I would try pound cake. I have made a lemon pound cake one time and it was fairly easy. I found a recipe for a vanilla pound cake online and I already had all of the ingredients from what I did last week and just everyday stuff I use. I read the recipe before hand this time to make sure I knew what was coming next after each step to prepare myself and prevent as many mistakes as I can. After I read it I began baking. Time to Mix For this recipe there was only 5 ingredients for the cake batter. Sugar, butter, vanilla extract, eggs, and flour. So overall is seemed pretty simple. When I started mixing batter the hardest part was patience. Most of the past desserts I have made were pretty quick and I didn't have to focus for very long but this one was the complete opposite. The first step required me to mix sugar, butter, and vanilla extract for eight minutes. Luckily I have an standing mixer but those were the longest eight minutes of my life. Once that was over with I had to mix each of the 4 eggs individually into the batter and then the whole cake had to cook for an hour. So needless to say this recipe tested my patience but the old saying is true. Patience is key because this week my cake turned out really good. I even made a glaze to put on it at the end and it turned out delicious. Since last week I think I have learned a lot even though it has only been one week. My family tried my cake and they said it tasted really good so I am satisfied with this recipe this week. It tasted good and looked good!
PlanningDuring the second week of Genius hour I started to dive into the actually baking aspect of this. Since I already knew how to make some cookies I decided to start with something I knew and make cookies this week. Since I knew this I began researching what type I wanted to make. I did not want to make any average cookie like chocolate chip. I looked up special cookie recipes and found a s'mores cookie recipe. It seemed pretty simple and I already had most of the ingredients. In the KitchenThe first thing I did was lay out all of my ingredients in order to keep myself organized. Everything was going very well and the mixing process took about 45 minutes. Most of it was pretty similar to what I already knew about making cookies but there was a few ingredients that made it different. For example, I mixed gram crackers in with the flour but still mixed the wet and dry ingredients separately then combined like I did in all other cookies I have ever made. When I finished the mixing I baked them. This is where everything went very far downhill. I baked them for seven minutes like the recipe said but when I took them out they did not look right. I accidentally made a very thin cookie cake. All of the cookies grew together and did not firm up at all. They were also extremely thin and you could not eat them with your hands, you had to use a fork. When I tasted them they tasted amazing but they just weren't cookies. Overall this is a tasteful fail. A total of two cookies are shown here |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2022
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