Seventh Post

This blog is probably going to be very unorganized, mostly because I cant clearly remember making some of these things, it's been too long.

First, the Chocolate Caramel Brownies and the Classic Blondies: I made these for a small family gathering at my aunt's house. The carmel brownies were fun to make; you pour half the batter in the pan, place Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate with Caramel Filling Squares in a single layer on top, then cover the squares with the remaining batter. My family loved them. I had expected that a few brownies might be eaten, but most of them were gone by the time I left. I ended up taking the pans home and leaving the brownies for them to finish off. My uncle requested that I make these with mint filling squares for Christmas. I also made the Blondies, as I said earlier, and they were also good. I was a little worried while I was making them because the white chocolate started to seize. When chocolate begins to burn, or water is added to it, it will develop a grainy texture that is difficult to work with. However, when I added the chocolate to the batter, everything seemed okay. The Blondies were cake-like in texture, with semisweet chocolate chips. They weren't quite as popular as the caramel brownies, but they were still pretty good.

Next came the Chocolate-Almond Layered Cheesecake. The almonds aren't actually in the cheesecake, as the name suggests, but in the crust. To make the crust, you need to roast the almonds, place them in a food processor with the vanilla wafers, and grind them until they are finely ground. I managed to leave them in too long, and made almond-wafer butter. Good thing I had extra almonds and wafers! The actual filling was a cream cheese mixture, divided in half, with melted chocolate added to one part. The chocolate batter was on the bottom and the plain batter was on the top. I served the cheesecake at my cousin's wedding rehearsal dinner. The whole thing was eaten.

While I was at my mom's house, I made Buttery Breakfast Scones with Chocolate Chunks. I made my own chocolate chunks by melting chips into a puddle on tinfoil and chopping it when it had cooled, because buying a 15.5 ounce bag of chocolate chips is cheaper than buying two 4 ounce bars of chocolate. The glaze for the scones was difficult to apply because I didn't have a pastry brush, but mostly the scones were very easy to make. They were sort of like a very fluffy chocolate chip cookie. I also made a Layered Chocolate Pie with Chocolate Curls. The pie took a lot of steps to make, and would have been easier if I had two mixers. It also used a package of instant vanilla pudding mix, which seems strange to me. I think that the chef who wrote this recipe realized that the first layer took so much time, he could cheat on the second layer and nobody would care. If you don't know the flower I drew with whipped cream, you don't know me. As for how it tastes, I never got a chance to try it, but my mom said she likes it. 

We seem to be running out of summer, and I haven't been able to try nearly as many recipes as I would have liked to. I did gain five pounds, though, which is good because I don't weigh enough to give blood. I'll be off to Orchestra camp soon, so no baking or internet access. I can't even bring baked goods to Orchestra Camp! I don't do drugs, I don't see why they have to punish the rest of us for things some morons like to do. Well, thats enough for now! Bye!