Random moosages as I see fit.

I forgot last week.  Sorry.  But here are two things that I made over the course of that time!

Brownie butter cake

I made a the brownie butter cake kind of as a fluke.  A coworker sent me a photo and recipe of the cake one day when I was not planning on baking because it was really pretty.  And it is.  And I was inspired to bake.  So I did.  And you see my results above.

I will have to say that the texture is…off-putting.  The difference in texture between the brownie, which is dense and fudgy and actually quite good, and the cake, which is much lighter, was really weird to me when eaten in the same bite.  And obviously you have to eat them in the same bite because otherwise why would you layer them like that?  I mean yes, for presentation, but if it’s only for presentation, that’s stupid.

I will also say that I did not follow the recipe exactly.  I didn’t agree that there was no vanilla in the recipe.  While I don’t like the taste of vanilla on its own, in desserts, and especially chocolatey desserts, it adds a depth of flavor.  It’s subtle but it’s there.  Also, I added some salt to the brownie batter because salt helps bring out the flavor of chocolate.

The butter cake was ok.  It’s not really something I would want to eat on its own, I don’t think.  But it wasn’t bad either.

As for the texture difference, I’m not really sure if there’s anything you can do about it.  There’s no leavening in the brownie mixture, but then again, you don’t really want there to be any leavening.  You don’t want the brownie to rise underneath the cake.  That would kind of ruin the look.  So then that means the brownie is incredibly dense.  And cake is supposed to be lighter and airier, and the butter cake layer definitely is.  And so you have this weird incongruity of texture.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be making this again.  I might make the brownies by themselves, with some leavening.  But brownie butter cake.  Check.  Done and moving on.

Turkey, cheddar, jalapeno stuffed pretzels

Now the pretzels, I liked those quite a bit.  This also ended up being another thing that same coworker sent me.  And again I was inspired to make them.  I ended up substituting out the Swiss and ham for cheddar and turkey because that’s just what I had on hand.  I did have jalapenos though.  Mostly because I like cheddar jalapeno focaccia.  I didn’t have poppy seeds, so there’s none of that.  And I used kosher salt on half of them as a garnish.  I didn’t think it was necessary.  Pickling salt would have looked better, but again too much salt and unnecessary.

The pretzels were nice and chewy.  I think next time I’ll add more cheese to the mix.  I would also really like to try the ham and Swiss variety.  I really like ham and Swiss.

Oh and I used milk to brush over the tops of the pretzels.  I’m not a fan of egg washes because I always have leftover egg.  And then what do you do with that?  I guess you could make a very small serving of scrambled eggs.  But with milk, I can just give whatever is leftover to the dogs.  They love milk.  But technically it’s not necessary for browning.  You should get that nice deep brown color from the baking soda bath.  Milk would be more for flavor.  I’ve done butter before too.  But then it’s super buttery.

So, I went and made a thing. What was supposed to be cinnamon rolls ended up being a whole loaf of bread. Not that I had actually started making cinnamon rolls and then halfway through decided to turn them into a loaf of bread. I made that decision before I started. I didn’t really feel like making a roll and then cutting everything up. I kind of just wanted to plop it into a pan and be done with it. And also, I had found this recipe from the Pioneer Woman that I wanted to try out. So I did.

This wasn’t really less work than making cinnamon rolls. Or at least, it’s not quicker than making cinnamon rolls since there’s so much time spent proofing dough. The end result looks very nice though. Very pretty loaf of bread. And it smells wonderful. However, I think next time I might change the cinnamon sugar mixture to brown sugar and cinnamon. I might even up the sugar content a bit. I added more cinnamon as per usual, and left the sugar the same. I think the bread could be a little sweeter. Oh, and I just brushed milk over the top of the loaf for browning. I didn’t want to crack another egg.  Also, I think I might try and incorporate buttermilk into this recipe next time too.