u/Sara_MadeIn

We planned to do burgers on the grill last weekend but the weather had other plans. Welcome to central Florida in the Summer! lol decided to pivot and do them inside in a frying pan, and tbh they turned out perfect!

Looks like storms forecast for Saturday again, so we'll probably be doin our dogs indoors this way too. haha

PS: Did you know that this weekend will be the last July 4th on a Saturday until 2037? So make sure to listen to Saturday in the Park by Chicago and soak it in.

This is the first time I've made an apple slab pie and honestly it's my new favorite way to do apple pie - it cuts so easily, so you can even serve it up as apple pie "bars", like a finger-food dessert. I'm excited to bake another one this week and bring it to a cookout next weekend. I have a feeling it's going to be a big hit with the nieces and nephews. lol

Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 10 tbsp chilled vegetable shortening
• 8–10 tbsp ice cold water

Finish

• 1 egg + 1 tbsp water (egg wash)
• Turbinado sugar

Directions

1. Whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar.
2. Cut in the cold butter and shortening with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.
3. Add the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing just until the dough comes together.
4. Divide into two portions (60/40), shape into rectangles, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Longer is better!

Apple Slab Pie (13x9 Baking Slab)

Filling

• 5–6 medium apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Toss the sliced apples with the sugars, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla, and lemon juice.
3. Cook the apple mixture in a saucier or large fry pan over medium heat for about ~10 minutes, just until the apples begin to soften and the juices thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool.
4. Roll out the bottom crust and fit it into a 13x9 baking dish, leaving a slight overhang.
5. Fill with the cooled apple mixture.
6. Add your top crust, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake at 425°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven to 375°F and continue baking for 30–40 minutes, or until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
8. Cool for at least 3 hours before slicing for the cleanest cuts.

PS: I highly recommend serving with a scoop of vanilla blue bell ice cream!

First time making apple pie in my baking slab and will 100% be making this again and bringing as my cookout contribution next weekend!

Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 10 tbsp chilled vegetable shortening
• 8–10 tbsp ice cold water

Finish

• 1 egg + 1 tbsp water (egg wash)
• Turbinado sugar

Directions

1. Whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar.
2. Cut in the cold butter and shortening with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.
3. Add the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing just until the dough comes together.
4. Divide into two portions (60/40), shape into rectangles, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Longer is better!

Apple Slab Pie (13x9 Baking Slab)

Filling

• 5–6 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Toss the sliced apples with the sugars, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla, and lemon juice.
3. Cook the apple mixture in a saucier or large fry pan over medium heat for about ~10 minutes, just until the apples begin to soften and the juices thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool.
4. Roll out the bottom crust and fit it into a 13x9 baking dish, leaving a slight overhang.
5. Fill with the cooled apple mixture.
6. Add your top crust, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake at 425°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven to 375°F and continue baking for 30–40 minutes, or until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
8. Cool for at least 3 hours before slicing for the cleanest cuts.

This cuts so easily, and can be served as "apple pie bars" to feed a crowd or lots of little ones. No forks required! However, I think it's best served with vanilla ice cream and I highly recommend Blue Bell.

Well, I am only two loaves in to my sourdough journey, and I did not expect such an emotional rollercoaster. lol
I accidentally let this dough overproof, which lead to me completely spiraling last night as I fought to shape it into something "ball adjacent" all while it ripped and exploded and tested me in every way possible.

This morning, it looked a lot better than I expected, so I practiced my wheat leaf scoring and decided to see if the dutch oven could work its magic. 50 minutes later, I had a loaf! And after patiently waiting three more hours, I cut into it and was pleasantly surprised with the crumb... especially for how close I came to throwing it away last night.

I just shared this over in the breadit sub, and I think it's worth saying it here, too. The one thought that stands out to me above all others right now is this: the sourdough journey is not linear. And that's okay.

Here's my recipe and steps I took:
500grams of bread flour
375 grams of water
100 grams of active starter (I lovingly named her Margaux)
10 grams of salt

Mixed flour, starter, and water at 7:45am
Rested 30 minutes then worked in the salt
Four sets of stretch and folds (every 30 minutes)
Then I let it rest until I thought it looked properly jiggly and domed...
Attempted to pre-shape around 4:30pm (a little too late it seems haha)
Put it in the banneton in the fridge overnight
Preheated my dutch oven this morning at 450 for an hour
Pulled it from fridge and floured/scored it cold
Directly into dutch oven at 450 with lid on for 30 minutes
Took the lid off and baked another 15
Let it cool for 3 hours on the rack before slicing!

So I finally made my first sourdough loaf last week, and I was generally pleased with how it turned out. For the most part, the areas I wanted to improve were cosmetic - so I set out over the weekend to make loaf #2 with extremely high hopes.

I was beaming with confidence through my four sets of stretch and folds and looking forward to the spectacular and instagram-worthy improvements I was certainly about to make. (record scratch noise) ...And then I left the dough on the counter top a little bit too long.

I began to suspect it had over proofed while attempting to pre-shape it. One blow out lead to another giant explosion of tension and it became nearly impossible to handle. (I too was becoming increasingly impossible to handle and having a little meltdown at this point). After taking a quick rest, for both me and the dough, I returned to shape it - and promptly ripped it completely in half. I basically threw a very un-smooth and very un-instagramable dough blob into the banneton and put it in the fridge, hoping for an out of sight out of mind situation. lol I continued to pout for the rest of the night.

This morning I got up, and was pleasantly surprised to find it looking like something one might consider bread-to-be!! I held my breath and dumped it out onto the parchment paper and while it wasn't perfectly round, it didn't completely flatten out either. I figured at this point what do I have to lose, so I practiced my wheat leaf scoring and tossed it in the dutch oven.

50 minutes later, I had a loaf! The ear wasn't much to speak of, but I guess that's to be expected with very little tension remaining after the pre-shaping explosion. The crumb was not bad at all though and it tastes fantastic!

Last night, I was fighting for my life, and truly ready to retire from sourdough forever, but turns out this sourdough thing is kind of addicting... These loaves taste 10,000 times better than my previous easy breads. I guess this is one of those high risk, high reward type of hobbies. haha.

Also, a lot of the sourdough people of social media make it look so easy, so I just wanted to jump in and say from what I've learned so far, the sourdough journey isn't linear. lol

PS: The last picture (the collage) is of my first sourdough loaf last week. You can see where the bread sling caused a big light stripe on the crust. Which crumb do you think looks better between the two loaves? I definitely think the first one looked better, but the second one would make a better sandwich bread.

The original genius recipe and concept came from A Cozy Kitchen's Peach Cobbler Brownie recipe and I just made slight adjustments to fit my 3x19 ceramic baking slab.

Here are the amounts I used for my slab version:

1 cup + 2 tbsp butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup freeze-dried peach powder
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 7/8 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups diced peaches (1.5 folded into batter/.5 saved for the top)

White Chocolate Peach Glaze:
1 cup white chocolate chips
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp peach powder
Pinch of salt

Earlier this week I made baking slab peach cobbler brownies? blondies? a buckle situation? Whatever you choose to call it, these were AMAZING. Topped with a white chocolate peach glaze and brown sugar crumble. Y'all. This might be the dessert of the Summer.

The original genius concept came from A Cozy Kitchen's Peach Cobbler Brownie recipe and I just made slight adjustments to fit my 3x19 ceramic baking slab.

Here are the amounts I used for my slab version:

- 1 cup + 2 tbsp butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup freeze-dried peach powder
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 7/8 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups diced peaches (1.5 folded into batter/.5 saved for the top)

Glaze:
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp peach powder
- Pinch of salt

Emotional damage: I baked my most beautiful loaf yet... or what would have been my most beautiful loaf. The parchment paper tore when I was lifting it out of my dutch oven and I dropped it! Top side down on the floor! My heart absolutely dropped with it. Of course it's cracked all over and smashed the ear, but you know what you live and you learn...

3 1/4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 cups water

Picked up way too many peaches and this giant peach cobbler was the obvious solution. Used a brown sugar crumble topping, baked in my 12 inch skillet, and served with blue bell vanilla ice cream, of course.

Finally got my sourdough starter fed, and I'm working on getting her ready for her first bake.

In the meantime, I'm still having fun with no knead loaves in my dutch oven. I took a few pieces of advice y'all gave me from my last post on this one, and saw some big improvements!

1. I used some wheat flour with the bread flour and did a longer ferment (2 day) which definitely improved the flavor!

2. I approached scoring with (maybe a little too much? lol) confidence. This time I made sure the loaf knew who was holding the razor blade, which I think did result in an easier cut, but maybe too deep for the middle one because it did tear on one side as you can see in the pic.

Next time, I'll just more flour on top before baking for better contrast with my scoring and try for 1/2 an inch for my center cut to avoid another blowout.

Here's what I did this time:
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 cups water

Left at room temp for ~6 hours, then popped it in the fridge for a two night bulk proof!

Very excited to try my first sourdough loaf later this week! Thanks again for all the advice.

Made myself a nice little dinner and dessert over the weekend. Peach cobbler & chicken pot pie. I don't bust these gratins out often enough. Honestly the perfect size if you're cooking for yourself and want just a little bit of leftovers. I saved half of the cobbler for my other half. But that chicken pot pie was GONE by the time he got home from work. haha so good.

These were harder to stop eating than I anticipated. lol Scroll for process pics!!

I'll share the recipe I shared in r/baking below:

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup ap flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp of salt

Graham crackers to line your baking slab/pan
2 tbsp melted butter to brush onto graham crackers

1 bag of mini marshmallows

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Line a 9x13 baking dish/slab with parchment paper.
2. Arrange whole graham crackers in even layer across pan (you might need to break a few and that's fine!) Brush lightly with melted butter
3. In a saucier or sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate together over low heat. Remove from heat once melted.
4. Whisk in sugars. Add eggs one at a time and then stir in vanilla.
5. Fold in flour, cocoa, and salt until just combine (don't over mix!!)
6. Pour batter over graham crackers and spread evenly
7. Bake 28-30 minutes, or until edges set and toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.
8. Remove from oven and cover with mini marshallows.
9. Put back in oven for 2-4 minutes, until marshmallows puff.
10. Finish with a kitchen torch or a QUICK trip under the broiler (but watch them like your life depends on it if you go that route. haha)
11. Let cool completely and chill for a while before slicing.

Notes:

chilled brownies will cut much easier!
Spray pam on a paper towel, wipe on sharp knife and clean knife between cuts.
Cut straight down (don't saw! the marshmallows will be amess!)

I have been craving s'mores lately, but haven't had access to a campfire. Luckily these scratched that itch for me!

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup ap flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp of salt

Graham crackers to line your baking slab/pan
2 tbsp melted butter to brush onto graham crackers

1 bag of mini marshmallows

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Line a 9x13 baking dish/slab with parchment paper.
2. Arrange whole graham crackers in even layer across pan (you might need to break a few and that's fine!) Brush lightly with melted butter
3. In a saucier or sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate together over low heat. Remove from heat once melted.
4. Whisk in sugars. Add eggs one at a time and then stir in vanilla.
5. Fold in flour, cocoa, and salt until just combine (don't over mix!!)
6. Pour batter over graham crackers and spread evenly
7. Bake 28-30 minutes, or until edges set and toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.
8. Remove from oven and cover with mini marshallows.
9. Put back in oven for 2-4 minutes, until marshmallows puff.
10. Finish with a kitchen torch or a QUICK trip under the broiler (but watch them like your life depends on it if you go that route. haha)
11. Let cool completely and chill for a while before slicing.

Tips for slicing, chilled brownies will cut much easier! Spray pam on a paper towel, wipe on sharp knife and clean knife between cuts. Cut straight down (don't saw! the marshmallows will be amess!)

First time I've ever made brownie batter in the saucier and it was perfect! The curves made whisking and folding everything together super easy, especially scraping down the sides. Bonus points for one less bowl to wash.

I have made several loaves of no knead bread in my dutch oven over the last week - and nobody told me how addicted I was going to become to experimenting with my recipe and hydration and shaping techniques! lol

I feel OKAY with where my crumb is at, but I do want more flavor, so my next one I'm going to do a 2 day ferment. I also bought.... sourdough starter!!! I'm so excited to start my sour dough journey. I feel very late to this party, but so happy to be here anyway. hah.

I know I need to work on my lame skills too. Scoring feels like a real challenge for me and I am in awe at all the beautiful leaves and shapes I see y'all creating.

Any tips on making a more flavorful no knead loaf or any sour dough pointers are welcome!

Here's the no knead recipe I have been using:

3 3/4 cups of bread flour
2 tsp of salt
3/4 tsp of instant yeast
2 cups of warm water

ps: I do have a scale but the batteries are dead, so I asked the internet for a recipe in cups. I know it's better to weigh

Seared chicken thighs, shallots, white win, stock, dijon, cream, and parsley.

The sauce honestly stole the show here. If you make this, some fresh bread for sopping is a non-negotiable. I'm telling you!!

Here is the recipe I followed. Next time I'm going to preheat the cast iron longer and try to crisp that skin a little more. I got impatient. lol

Finally got my new cast iron and decided its first cook needed to be something fun. (Full disclosure: I do work for Made In, but I had to wait for this skillet just like everyone else lol)

Marinated skirt steak overnight for carne asada, charred corn for elote, and roasted tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, and garlic for salsa. I boiled the corn first, then finished it in the skillet for some color before cooking the meat.

Really happy with how everything turned out, especially the crust on the steak and the char on the corn. I didn't season the pan first (just went with the factory seasoning out of the box) and it handled everything beautifully.

Had a few slices of brioche that needed to be used up, so I made a small batch of French toast this morning.

Used a stainless skillet over medium-low heat with butter. The browning ended up really even and the custardy center from the brioche was exactly what I was hoping for.

Topped with strawberries, blueberries, powdered sugar, and a little maple syrup.

French toast is always one of those things where I'm like 'man that was so easy, why don't I make this more often???' lol

Had some brioche that needed to be used up, so I made a small batch of French toast for myself this morning.

Used a 12 inch stainless frying pan over medium-low heat, added butter and when it foamed I let the pan work it's magic. The browning ended up really even and the custardy goodness from the brioche was exactly what I wanted.

Topped it off with strawberries, blueberries, powdered sugar, and a little maple syrup... As a wise man named Tom Haverford once said, "treat yo self".

Made smoky chipotle barbacoa in the Dutch oven on Monday and used the leftovers to make a ‘grown up’ grilled cheese for dinner last night. I added oaxaca cheese and homemade pickled onions and threw it all on some brioche. This would have been better on sourdough, but this is what I had! Lol

Cooked on low in stainless because brioche browns pretty quickly from the butter and sugar in it. Also used the best grilled cheese hack: throw a lid on for a minute after flipping to help the cheese melt before the bread gets too dark.

Oh and I mixed a little chipotle adobo into crema for dipping which I hiiighly recommend.