Brainstorming

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but got sidetracked by a really crappy work week (and that's being polite about it).  I've mentioned before that I want to eventually open my own bakery.  For the past few weeks, I've been trying to figure out how to go about making that really happen.  I don't really have any investment capital to speak of, so finding a store front is pretty unrealistic, at least at this point in time.  It makes more sense for me to start by running it out of my home, get some experience, build a customer base, and then expand from there.  But... how do I do that?

I asked my mom (she is pretty much my go-to whenever I need some real advice) and she said to just people that I'm starting to sell my stuff and that they should see me when they need something for birthdays, holidays, get-togethers, etc.  She said that way, I can start with friends and family and then (hopefully), word of mouth will take care of the rest.  That's a wonderful idea but really.. that's it?

Seems to me it can't be that easy.  If that really is all I have to do, then I guess this post does that, since I really do want to start selling and growing my business (or creating my business, I guess). I mean, I guess I don't really know any OTHER way I would start a bakery, but doing it my mom's way just sounds way too easy.  In an effort to take her advice to heart, I asked my friends on facebook to tel me what their favorite bakery treat is and what they feel is a fair price to pay for it, but I only got 8 responses from the 140 or so people that had access to it, so.... not really very helpful at all.

Honestly, I'm still not really sure what to do.  Is it really as easy as just telling people? 

Anyone else have any experience in this? Either baking or something similar? How'd you start?

Blueberry Pie Bars

This year, after a lot of begging and groveling and talking-into, my 80 year old gramma consented and let Joe and I (and Josh!) make Thanksgiving dinner.

Now, I really wanted to make everything from the scratch.  Like, everything: food, sides, desserts, you name it.  But, my gramma is a stubborn little lady (this is where I get it from), and had already bought a few desserts, thus limiting my ability to make a ton of yummy things.  Alas, this didn't stop everyone from making requests.  Unfortunately, gramma didn't give us the go-ahead until the Monday before Thanksgiving, and there was no way I was going to the grocery store to get.. well, anything.  I already had a can of blueberry pie filling AND frozen blueberries, so this was perfect.

Boy, I Love Thin Mints!

I don't have a recipe for you today.  Instead, I want to talk to you about Girl Scout cookies.  Specifically, Thin Mints.  I'm drooling already.

My coworker's friend's daughter is selling Girl Scouts cookies this year.  I mentioned it to Joe and he was like "tell me when and how much, I'll start saving money now!"  Last weekend, my coworker sent Joe a text and told him she was taking orders now.  I didn't really know this until I brought the money into work, but apparently, we are getting 12 boxes of Thin Mints, a box of Samoas and two other things that I can't remember.

Joe has requested - nay, demanded - that I make something with some of the Thin Mints.  We already know to stash them in the freezer, but I guess that's just not good enough.

So far, I do have a couple of ideas, including thin mint truffles, thin mint chocolate chip cookies and thin mint scones (side note: I just mentioned this last one to Joe and he got all perky and intrigued).  We're getting LOTS of boxes so I'm sure I'll be able to make at least a few of the ideas I have.

How do you like to eat your GS cookies? Straight from the box, or do you like to do something special with them? Tell me all about it, I'd love to hear!

Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

I have a confession to make.

I am a chocoholic.

Not too surpringly, I have to have some chocolate every day.  Not a lot, but at least a piece or two.  I try to keep emergency chocolate it in my car and my desk at work (admit it, we've all done it!), but it usually doesn't last long enough to constitute "emergency".  I'm not biased against any chocolate: white, milk, dark, the damn cocoa beans themselves - just give it to me!

Since my brother, Josh, and I are really close, it should come as no surprise to anybody that he is also a chocoholic.  For his birthday a couple of years ago, I made him these amazing cupcakes.

Recipes and pictures ahead! (FYI: I put the cupcakes and frosting as separate printables in case you only want one or the other!)

Chewy Ginger Snaps

I know the title says chewy ginger snaps, but I want to start this post with a question.  I have tons of recipes - cookies, cupcakes, candy, Jewish food, etc.  I'm basically just picking what to post about at random, but I have so many things to choose from?  Is there anything in particular you want to see next?  Comment below and let me know if there is!

Now that that business has been taken care of...

Chewy ginger snaps.

Joe spent pretty much the entire month of November asking me to make ginger snaps.  Begging is more like it.   I think I told him about 100 times that I didn't have all of the ingredients (I'm looking at you, ground cloves and ground ginger). After a couple of weeks of this, he brought me home a bag of crystallized ginger chips as well as the spices that I needed (and also two candy bars, but that has nothing to do with this story). I guess he just wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Follow the link for the recipe, photos and my review!

Italian Bread

One Monday in October, work was closed because of a declared State of Emergency due to Hurricane Sandy.  I was bored out of my skull, and my boyfriend suggested I make bread.  Before looking up recipes, I looked through the cabinets to make sure I had all of the ingredients.  I did, so I hurried off to my laptop to try and find a fairly easy and fail-proof recipe.  Instead of finding one recipe I liked, I found three. The problem was that I liked different parts of them.  I liked some parts of the actual recipe, some parts of the method, some parts of the timing.  They were all more or less the same, so I decided to take the parts I liked from each of them and create my own (I do this fairly often).

My mission was successful, and I've made this bread 3 or 4 times since then.  It's sort of time consuming in that it takes a few hours to make, but you spend most of the time waiting for it to rise, so there's really a lot of down time where you can clean up the mess you've made or throw in a load of laundry or practically pee yourself over excitement for making bread for the first time (I chose the latter).

Click below for the recipe and some photos!

Cannoli Cupcakes

I meant to post this yesterday, but I've been working on my resume and stuff (preparing for a worst-case scenario at work) and time got away from me. I actually wasn't planning on these being my next post, but when I posted the photo on my Facebook, everyone started going bananas, so I figured I should share it with the world :) Cannoli shells are typically pretty light, but I always thought that was kind of silly. At least at the bakeries around here, those little shells are STUFFED and don't really hold up to the heaviness of the cream.

I wanted something that had the same flavors but with a little more oomph to it. These cupcakes are fairly dense, so if you're looking for a really good, fluffy yellow cake recipe, this probably isn't it. I do have a few that I'm looking at, so if I ever DO find a good yellow recipe (and I'm convinced it's out there, damnit!), I'll definitely share it. I've been comparing my recipe to some other that claim to be fluffy like the box mixes and I think I just need to cut back on the eggs and add a little more moisture. I'm planning on trying that out soon, so I'll report back as soon as I have some results.

In keeping with the cannoli theme, you'll notice that I did also try to fill the cupcakes. To do this, I just cut out little cones from each cupcake once they were cooled completely. Well, I say cones, but they really came out more square-shaped since that was a little easier for me to manage. The only thing I didn't account for was the mini chocolate chips getting stuck in the hole of my ziploc bag that I was using for piping the cream. Next time, I'll just need to cut off a bigger end piece than what I did before and I think it will be okay. If you have a piping bag, make sure you use a tip big enough for the chocolate chips to fit through, but truthfully, it will probably still get clogged. The best thing to do might be to use a small knife or something and try to fill the cupcakes that way.

I also found that I had more cannoli cream than I had cupcakes.  So, I'd say you should either a) be more generous with the cream, or b) eat it with a spoon (thanks mom!). 

Without any further ado.. cannoli cupcakes!