Jessica's Bake Off Challenge

Today I am going to share with you three of the random-ish bakes I did over the summer. All three were meant to fulfill Bake Off challenges... Except I didn't write down the recipes. Regardless, one was nearly a complete failure, and only one came out amazingly well. Therefore, it is no loss that I shall have to try to recreate them, and in one case, very much improve on it. I will try not to distress you too much, dear readers, so I will start with the bake in the middle of the pack... a white peach and raspberry pie. This bake was meant to fulfill the double-crusted fruit pie signature challenge from Series 4, Episode 4. I was very excited about this pie because I love white peaches. They are only available during summer months, so I went a little crazy with them for a while. For the double-crusted white peach raspberry pie, the fruit is mixed with white and brown sugar, a little lemon juice, some spices, and a little cornstarch as a thickening agent. The slits are cu...

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the long delay since my last post. I was digging in Israel over the summer, and then was focused on doing some baking for a friend's wedding last week. I did do some extraneous baking over the summer, but unfortunately was a bit too lackadaisical to write down the recipes I developed for most of the bakes. This post and the next three or four will be dedicated to the various bakes I accomplished during the summer (and other miscellaneous tidbits), and then I shall be celebrating the new series of The Great British Bake Off ! Once I am back in the baking swing of things, I will be devoting my time to challenges from this new Series 10 of GBBO . I just finished watching the first episode of the new series, and have determined that I must accomplish one bake from each episode- AND post about it- before moving on to watch the next episode. As of right now, I am already drying some fruit to make a fruitcake a la Series 10, Episode 1's signature ba...

I am finally getting around to posting a little bit about my annual Pi Day party (March 14, 2019). Pi Day is my favorite secular holiday- and it might even beat out a few religious holidays. It is also Vincent's and my anniversary. And yes, we did have wedding pie instead of wedding cake. Be prepared to see more Pi Day party posts in future years. I made a lot of food. In previous years, I have served only pie, but I did set this party around suppertime. Therefore, I served some savory food as well... Including some savory pies. Since I keep kosher, and cannot serve dairy and meat products simultaneously, this was a fully meatless shindig (albeit with some fish). I served appetizers of mushroom and tomato basil bruschetta, inarizushi, sushi, three types of deviled eggs, and Greek salad. I also made a pasta primavera as a non-pie main dish and a side of asparagus. And then there were the pies (not all of which are seen above). Unfortunately, I was super busy and did not ac...

Welcome to my blog. I, Jessica, have had a long-time love of baking, and would like to share it with you. How did this start? My Savta (my grandmother) would let me help her bake cakes and brownies when I visited her house as a child. Looking back, I realize we were just making boxed cakes, and she only really let me stir... But it was a start. Years later, though, she started me with baking from scratch. When I was a teenager, she taught me how to make my great-great-grandmother's mandelbrodt recipe. Ever since, I have insisted on baking almost everything from scratch... and I have had to make mandelbrodt for my Savta every time I visit. Let's fast forward a few years to university. I first heard about The Great British Bake Off  (henceforth referred to lovingly as GBBO) when I did a semester abroad in Nottingham in 2013. Sadly, I was in Nottingham in Spring, and did not see the show. When I went back to England for a Master's, though, I watched GBBO and quickly became...