We need this thread here. Who has baked recently?
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I'll just leave you with my last peach pie.
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I know I touched on this before, but it hit me again as I was looking at the dozens of frozen cookie dough balls, pints of untouched ice cream, and bags of unopened potato chips. Weeks go by without thinking about these foods at all. I'm definitely not resisting urges to eat them all at once or using special strategies to stop eating them if I start. For the entire time that I was restricting what I ate (30+ years), I assumed that if I quit actively controlling my food, boredom eating, emotional eating, and extreme hunger would take over and I would get huge. Here is how I described myself in my own self-talk and in several jillion blog and message board posts: I have no off switch. I will eat until I explode. I can't control myself around certain foods. Once I start eating, I can't stop. I want to keep eating even when I'm very full. I eat when I'm bored, anxious, happy, sad, and for a million other reasons. I like to numb out with food. I gain weight quickly if I don't restrict. If I let myself eat whatever I want, I only want sugar, salt, fat, and fried food. In my mind, there was zero chance that I could maintain a healthy weight without actively controlling my food intake. I was sure of it because anytime I stopped dieting Iād feel totally crazed and my weight would jump quickly and dramatically. Iād think, well, this is how I am when I donāt restrict. Eating intuitively or to appetite may work for other people but itās obviously not going to work for me. My appetite is out of control. Of course, I'd be thinking this after ten days, or three weeks, or two months of giving myself a little more freedom and a lot of guilt. That's not long enough to convince a body that's been hungry for decades that everything is ok now. Extreme hunger was still in full swing. Emotions were still running high. When you've been in a prolonged energy deficit, or you've been nurturing a scarcity mindset, or you're gearing up to restrict again soon, any reason to eat is a good reason according to your body. That doesn't mean its broken, or you're broken, or you're doomed to a life of lettuce and nutrition software. Turns out I was a hopeless emotional eater and an enthusiastic storer of body fat when I was chronically underfed. It's crazy what happens when you're not anymore. You realize that you meant to bake and eat some of those cookies three weeks ago but still haven't gotten around to it. You go out to eat, get exactly what you want, and share some of it because you're too full. You forget to eat part of your work meal but don't notice until you find it warm and squishy in your lunch box the next day. You're home alone with the television for ten hours and it doesn't even occur to you to have a food party. I don't know that I would have believed this without experiencing it. ALL of my evidence was to the contrary, but in hindsight it makes sense. I was hungry. That's it. My body had a lot of stuff to repair from years of overtraining and undereating, which required more food over longer stretches of time than I deemed ladylike. But now that it's finally getting everything it needs, holy hell, I do have an off switch! A good sturdy reliable one! It's interesting to consider that all that emotional eating, boredom eating, habitual eating, addictive desire, mindless eating, everything I used to call it, everything I most feared, only exists if I restrict my food. It was so intense and so seemingly real that I couldn't just go with it and wait to see what happened. I let off of the restriction incrementally. As long as I continued to move in that direction, things continued to get better. A particularly helpful approach was to only focus on right now. At this meal I'm going to eat what I want until I'm satisfied. That goes better than telling old stories about what I always do, or making plans about what I'm going to do from now on . Deal in the right now, and if right now you want to restrict, include some deliberate element of doing the opposite. Maybe you will order the salad at dinner but share a dessert too. Or you will eat the veggie omelet, but with plenty of cheese. Deliberately messing up any kind of "perfect" eating keeps you from feeling either deprived or out of control. You're going to make this meal as satisfying and enjoyable as possible. That's it. It's excellent practice and you get to do it multiple times per day, which builds skills and confidence quickly.
I love the new site! A fresh start. I missed you all! (And I just saw you can add emojis, which is excellent š) I've been baking. Just baked these cookies, and they turned out beautifully. Halved the recipe because I didn't want 32 cookies! https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/peanut-butter-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Those look fabulous, jazz! I've loved pretty much everything I've made from Sally's Baking Addiction. Handle the Heat is another favorite.
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I baked this delicious lasagna last night! It was a new recipe for me. I usually make an all meat and mozzarella cheese lasagna which is good, but really heavy and I always feel like garbage after I eat it. This is Cooking Light's Classic Lasagna with Meat Sauce recipe. It made 6 very generous portions which was the perfect amount for our family of 5.
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I began to bake Christmas cookies, pies and lefse over the weekend. Note the large misshapen kisses in the front. I ran out of kisses and had to make a few of my own. Of course my melted chocolate chi/butter kisses are quite a bit larger!
Ooh, Christmas cookies! Those look good, [@julieberg525]. If I were choosing one for myself, Iād definitely grab one of the big bloppy ones. More chocolate = better. [@sunshine] The lasagne looks amazing. I havenāt made any in a long time. I need to get on it, or order some.
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I made a mini coconut cream pie yesterday. This smashed piece with too much whipped cream looks like a Pinterest fail, but it was spectacular. I love toasted coconut.
No pictures but I baked 2.5 dozen chocolate chip cookies and 4.5 dozen double chocolate chip cookies this afternoon as part of my Christmas Baking adventures.
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I'll be sure to take pictures next weekend when I bake the next 3 batches of cookies.
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Ultimate pecan chocolate chip cookies. These are drool worthy. I made them smaller than suggested and with mini chocolate chips so there is chocolate in every bite. This is a keep recipe. https://www.dessertfortwo.com/ultimate-pecan-chocolate-chunk-cookies/
Mmmm, those cookies look fantastic! Chocolate in every bite is important. I worry about such things myself. Itās sad when you get a cookie with three chips in it.
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My husband and I have been eating a banana or two each per day, so Iām buying an absurd number of bananas every week. Today, I noticed three spotty ones nearing the end of their lifespan, so I decided to bake with them. I made these Quick & Easy Banana Muffins from Sallyās Baking Addiction. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/banana-muffins/ I added a rounded cup of chocolate chips, no nuts. They were fantastic!
I've been entrusted/asked to bake a cake for a friend's (small) wedding! She's asking for a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. I want to do a big and slightly outlandish cake, I'm thinking 3-4 layers. Any recipe suggestions? I've found some promising ones on brown eyed baker, pioneer woman, and epicurious but it's so hard to know!! If anyone has a go-to chocolate cake or one they've tried and enjoyed, would appreciate it!!
https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/black-magic-cake.html. This is a no fail chocolate cake that my family has used for years. It is very moist.
I made my sister's wedding cake!!! It was a massive project and stressful at times but I loved it. It was a white chocolate mud cake. Good luck!!
Yay!! Thank you both so much. Luckily it's a very small wedding, ~20 people. She's asking two people to make the cakes, so that eases some pressure:)
I was also going to suggest the Hershey's Black Magic Cake. I've made it many times. It's a winner.
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I use this recipe to frost it: https://addapinch.com/perfect-chocolate-buttercream-frosting-recipe/ I use Hershey's Special Dark cocoa in both recipes. It gives it a dark, dark color and rich flavor, that and the espresso powder. I was skeptical of that ingredient, not being a coffee drinker, but it's critical for a rich chocolate flavor. There's no coffee taste to it at all, just amazing chocolate.
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I'm thinking about making myself a Black Magic Cake for my birthday next month.
I've been birthday baking! I made a batch of Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies from Handle the Heat. At first glance, this recipe looks really fussy with two kinds of flour and the multi-day chill time, but it's so easy and the cookies are so delicious! I actually like that you make the dough in one session and pull it out and bake it on another day. It makes both processes seem quick and easy. These cookies are huge and extra chewy thanks to the bread flour. I used a 3 tablespoon scoop. Plus, they're almost more chips than cookie. Yum!
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Then I made the Chocolate Olive Oil Cake from Smitten Kitchen. That is a terrible and unappetizing name for a wonderful cake. They're also called "wacky cakes," which is what I've been calling it. It's based on recipes from The Great Depression that don't include eggs or butter because those were expensive and hard to come by. It's a single layer baked in a 9-inch round cake pan. There are only like seven ingredients, one bowl, no mixer. The recipe called for a cup and a half of water or coffee. I used espresso. My husband and I both had two pieces after dinner. We probably won't be able to sleep. š He was highly skeptical of the no eggs or butter situation but ended up loving it. The cake is super moist. He said it reminded him of Hostess cakes, which makes sense. I'll bet there are no butter or eggs in those either! LOL You can't taste the olive oil at all, or the espresso. It's super chocolatey, and I love the shiny frosting. I will definitely make it again.
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Anybody else been baking lately? Any good recipes to share?
That cake looks delicious! I'm bookmarking that recipe to make at some point.
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Today I baked chocolate chip cookies. We have had cookies of some sort in our house since Christmas. But before we went away on our trip we ran out of cookies and I didn't have time to bake any. Well let me tell you we have all been missing our post-supper cookies the past 4 days! So I baked up a batch tonight. I use Mr. Fields Cholesterol Free Chocolate chip cookies. I don't care about the cholesterol part, I just love the recipe. It's fairly easy to make and they are DELICIOUS!
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Not really baking per se, but I made Lasagna tonight. I've been making Cooking Light's Classic Lasagna with Meat Sauce at least every other weekend this winter. It is insanely good and worth all the effort it takes to make.
I've just discovered the most amazing pie crust recipe. It's the Smitten Kitchen Extra-Flaky Pie Crust.
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https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/03/extra-flaky-pie-crust/
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It's a butter crust, which I've had terrible luck with in the past. For some reason, mine have always come out tough compared to shortening crusts. This recipe uses a sticky and wet dough that seems like it will never work. (Actually, when I made it as written, weighing the flour, it wasn't sticky and wet enough, so I added another splash of water.) Once you chill it and the butter hardens, it's easy to work with. The big super secret is that you fold the dough up like a business letter before you roll it out. This gets the flakey layers started. It was so perfectly tender, buttery, and flaky. I was amazed! It almost reminds me of puff pastry, or a croissant.
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I made a cherry slab pie with it. I've never made a slab pie. I feared it would overflow and I'd have a big cherry puddle mess on a cookie sheet, but it came out perfectly. I followed Deb's sample pie recipe but used canned cherry filling instead of rhubarb. You can also make two standard single crust pies or one double crust pie with the recipe.
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Behold!! š
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Yay, my login works now!! I've made this twice in the past couple weeks, both presents for family:
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/spiced-gingerbread-loaf/ It's amazing. I skipped the glaze because both people I made it for don't like glaze. It doubles nicely, too!
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Baking cookies for my brother soon too who is headed out of town for work for two months, so I want to make him a big batch he can freeze. Was thinking of these, but any other suggestions are welcome! https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/peanut-butter-cup-surprise-monster-cookies/