Flourless Chocolate Torte #2

This recipe is from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible. Some consider Ms Beranbaum to be the authority on cakes, so I decided to trust her torte recipe. Her books are wonderful because they explain the science behind what's going on in your baking.

This Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte is different from the other recipe because the egg yolks and whites are whipped together, therefore the cake doesn't rise as much- it remains down and dense in the pan. It is not cooked very long, and the chill time is key. Here, more than ever, quality chocolate is very important.

I used 3/4 Ghiradelli, and 1/4 Valrhona Chocolate. Valrhona costs $15.00/lb! I don't know if that combination is quality enough, but I sure did try to honor the recipe and stay on budget. I've read that a lot of people favor Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

Preheat to 425 degrees

Ingredients:

1 pound bittersweet chocolate (if using extra bittersweet, add 3 T sugar to the eggs)

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

6 large eggs

8-in springform pan (I used a 9, but didn't adjust baking. Maybe I should have)

Butter pan, wrap outside with aluminum foil if seepage is a concern.

Also prepare a water bath to keep the texture creamy.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, or in a glass bowl set over simmering water. Again, don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Set aside when smooth and melted.

In another glass bowl, heat the beaten eggs over the water until just warm to the touch. Stir constantly to prevent curdling. Remove from heat and beat with the whisk attachment in stand mixer until it triples in volume, and soft peaks form; about five minutes. (if using a hand mixer, let heat a little longer)

Fold half of the eggs into the chocolate, then fold in the other half, mixing until just blending, taking care not to deflate the eggs. Pour into prepared pan, and bake in a larger pan so it is surrounded by 1 in of water.

Bake for 5 min at 425, then loosely cover with aluminum foil and bake 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely (the cake will be loose, but that's okay.) When cool, refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

To unmold, wipe the sides with a hot, damp towel, and run a thin utensil around the edges of the tort. Release the springform, then wipe the bottom of the pan with the hot, damp towel. Invert on a plate, then reinvert on the serving plate.

You can store this up to 2 weeks in the fridge, but don't freeze, as it changes the texture.

Serve at room temp; it is amazing with raspberries.

My only complaint is that when chilled, some of the butter separated from the cake in the little crack lines, which is not very attractive.

This recipe is good, but I think I will go on to try others.

Flourless Chocolate Torte #1

When the man asked me for a chocolate torte, I said "Sure" without a second thought, nevermind I'd never made one before. Fortunately, I decided I had to try out some recipes before I delivered the final product. This is recipe number one, from Williams-Sonoma.

Ingredients:

15 oz Bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped. (I used semisweet, and wasn't entirely pleased with the results.)

2 1/4 sticks butter, cut into small pieces

7 egg yolks

9 T sugar

1.5 T dark rum or espresso (I used rum)

1.5 t vanilla extract

pinch of salt

5 egg whites, room temp

raspberries, for serving

Preheat oven to 300. Grease a cake pan or springform, and dust with sugar or cocoa powder

Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler. Stir often. (See my make-shift double boiler below. Apparently, the water isn't supposed to touch the bottom of the bowl when melting chocolate). Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, beat together egg yolks, 6 T sugar, rum, vanilla and salt on medium high speed using a hand or stand mixer. Beat until very thick and pale, 3-5 minutes. Gradually pour in the chocolate mixture and beat until well blended.

In a large, clean bowl, beat egg whites using hand or stand mixer. (It's important that there is no oil or grease or yolk in the bowl, because if there is, the whites won't whip up to full capacity). Whip for about a minute, then gradually add the remaining 3 T of sugar and continue to mix until stiff peaks form; about 2 minutes.

Scoop half of the egg whites into the chocolate, and stir until combined. Then stir in the second half, trying not to lose too much air from the egg whites. Fold just until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake at 300 until the center is moist, but not liquid, about 40 minutes.

Let cool on a rack for half an hour,then remove from pan. Let chill for at least four hours.

Now, this is what the bottom of my torte looked like, because it puffed up really big while baking, then settled down into cracks and cracks. I actually thought this looked nice, but wouldn't sell at the restaurant so I turned it upside-down and added ganache on top.

If I made this again, I would run a knife around the edges when it came out of the oven so that it could settle without cracking quite so much. I would also serve it at room temp, right side up and I would use better chocolate.

BBA Sourdough Fail

It was a beautiful rainy day, and after several days of preparing my sourdough starter, i was ready to bake.

The previous night I mixed the barm I'd been fermenting with flour and water to make the starter. You can see it above in a plastic bag. Below, you can see how I cut it up into pieces and mixed it with flour, salt and water to make the dough.

The next step was to let rise at room temp for 3-4 hours, until plastic wrap. Maybe the starter was bad, or maybe this is where I went wrong, because I only covered it with a towel, and at the end of 3.5 hrs, it had not risen very much and had a crust on top.

Undaunted, I carried on, dividing it into two boules, which I also set under a towel to rise for an hour.

After an hour had passed, they hadn't rised at all, and we were late for Chinese Thanksgiving* at Fred's house, but I decided to bake them anyway. I went through the whole process of spraying and steaming the oven, and in the end, I just had to turn off the oven and hope they were done.

When we came back that night, this is what we had:

Pasty, dense excuses for bread. And when I looked inside, the crust that has formed during the first rise remained, hiding inside the loaf like an alien, ready to burst forth...

Needless to say, I will have to try this again.

*Chinese Thanksgiving. A tradition that Fred and his friends started in college, where friends get together sometime near thanksgiving and order chinese food and eat on the floor. This was last sunday. I brought a chocolate torte to get feedback on, and we ordered just about every chicken dish that the place had.

Thanksgiving week!

Thanksgiving Pie on the Porch!

Sorry I've been sort of MIA here; it's been a crazy Thanksgiving week. I had 6 cake orders, in addition to normal baking for the restaurant and the in-laws coming and my first cooking of the Thanksgiving meal.

I was mad excited to have so many orders. I drove around with Linda the day before thanksgiving, trying to drive Eric's stick shift smoothly, delivering my goods. I made 2 Hummingbird cakes, a PB Cup cheesecake, a Banana Cake from Cakelove, a Gateau de Crepe, and a flourless chocolate torte. Let's just say it was a stressful 36 hours.

I was invited into a couple of the residences, both extremely unique slash ridic by Augusta standards.

One man makes couture mosaic belt buckles that he sells at high end craft shows and have been seen on stars at the CMAs. (picture him with long graying hair pulled back in a low ponytail, hit denim shirt half untucked and the glint of buckle just visible below his slight paunch.) He energetically gave me the tour: he showed me a Starry-Night painted refrigerator, a black casket-turned wine closet, a creepy framed decaying receipt for a slave sale and countless gem-encrusted butterfly belt buckles. He was so impressed that I pulled through with the torte, that he payed me 20% extra, kapow!

One woman has turned her home into a shrine for the arts, and she does not discriminate; she loves art of all kinds. Her entryway is full of African masks, her kitchen decorated in a south-west theme with blue tile counters and tastefully distressed cabinets with Anthro pulls, the front of each step on the stairway leading to the upper level are lined with mish mash of painted ceramic tiles, and livingroom walls covered, simply loaded with oil paintings, each overwhelmed by massive and ornate gold frames. Linda, the art historian, was drawn to the carved Moroccan chest supporting the 4 ft wide TV. She said it reminded her of the sarcophagi that she studies.

The rest I delivered to the restaurant, quiet on the eve of Thanksgiving, which meant I could finally relax.

Oh, no wait. We still had to have our own Thanksgiving.

We roasted our turkey upsidedown and overnight at 225. It turned out well. I used Martha's recipe for Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie, and I couldn't have asked for better pie, also her honey-glazed carrots and gravy. When in doubt, I turn to Martha. And she rarely fails.

Our love nest where we slept while we gave our bed to the parents:

Our couches make a square when pushed together! Separate, they are very nice too.

And now, in the aftermath of Thanksgiving, my house is cleaner now that it ever has been before, thanks to Linda Fuchs.

The Fuches taking a computer break:

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Cupcakes by Cakelove...Fail

I'm already plotting new cherry cupcakes, because this one failed so spectacularly. I'm envisioning a Ben n Jerry's Cherry Garcia inspired cupcake.

The flavor wasn't awful, but what the heck do you do with an inverted cupcake?

Perhaps someone can tell me: Was the recipe bad? Did I somehow screw up the recipe? Could this have been solved by not overfilling the cupcake papers?

This cupcake featured chopped dried cherries, cherry puree (made by boiling sugar and frozen cherry puree), chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

Undoubtedly, the best part of the experience was Italian Meringue Buttercream with Cherry Puree. Make the IMB recipe, and add about 1/4 cup cherry puree. It's beautiful.

The cupcake bowls provided a space to slather on about 3 times as much frosting as necessary, but while this cherry frosting was killa dilla...too much is too much.

Fail :(

Mojito Cake by Cakelove

As we know, Mojitos are one of the best uses for rum. And there are a lot of fantastic uses for rum, as my roommates and I explored our senior year of college.

Examples:

Hot Rum Spiced Cider

Rum-nana Pancakes

Rice Pudding flavoring

Actually, flavoring just about any dessert. Also any drink or icecream.

We thought that buying the massive jug of rum would be more cost effective and last us a long time. It did not, because it's very presence inspired us to add it to almost everything we ate or drank.

Anyway...why not a mojito cake? Thanks, Cakelove!

Preheat to 350. Prepare two 9 in cake pans.

Ingredients:

12 oz AP flour (or 2 cups plus 2 T)

1/4 cup potato starch

1 t salt

1/4 vanilla powder (I omitted this.)

1/4 t baking soda

3 whole cloves, ground (I used pre-ground)

1/3 cup oven dried mint (place mint leaves in an aluminum foil pouch. poke holes with a fork. bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Crush with fingers and remove stems. )

Whisk together and set aside

2/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup half and half

3 T dark rum

2 t vanilla extract

1 t molasses

1 t lemoncello (I was unable to find this at our liquor store, so I used

1 lime, zested (to add to the butter and sugar) and segmented (meaning cutting the juice pods away from the white segments holding them to the middle. So you have just juice pods and no strings or tough parts) (add the juice pods to the rest of these ingredients)

Whisk together and set aside

8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

18 oz (2 1/4 cups) extra fine sugar

2 t minced lime zest

4 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and lime zest in a mixer at low speed until light and fluffy, about 5 min.

Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, fully blending each.

Add the dry and wet ingredients, alternating in 3 to 5 additions, in about a minute (don't linger over this step.) Scrape the mixer, and then beat on medium for 15-20 sec.

Pour into cake pans and bake about 30 min, until a knife or skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean.

I saved some batter and made myself a couple cupcakes:

While your cakes are cooling (don't remove from the pans until they are cool, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate), make your Rum Italian Meringue Buttercream (recipe in previous post).

Doctor up your layers, pile them on, do the crumb coat, chill, and then glop on the frosting. You may want to garnish with mint leaves and Raw Sugar.

Be sure to serve at Room temp. This cake is a little denser, and is in fact called a pound cake in the book. So for the cake an icing to be soft, pull out of the fridge about an hour before serving.

"Mr. Banana Legs" by Cakelove

Here is the second attempt at the Banana Cake from Cakelove; this time i followed the recipe to the letter AND used my NEW KITCHEN SCALE!!! And really, why would you dirty all those cup measures when you could just pour everything into a bowl on a scale?

This cake lived up to the hype- it was lighter and more cake-like than any banana baked good I've ever had. Also, I discovered Rum Flavored Italian Meringue Buttercream, which may be the best thing I've ever had in my mouth. True story.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 min

Ingredients:

AP flour: 10 oz (or 2 cups)

potato starch: 1 T (I found this in this "healthy" section of Kroger, near the bulk grains.)

turbinado sugar: 1 T (I used Sugar in the Raw)

salt: 1/2 t

baking soda: 1/4 t

nutmeg: 1 whole (I used ground, not sure how much it is supposed to be)

* Mix these ingredients together and set aside

6 oz very ripe bananas (the book claims this is three, but according to my NEW KITCHEN SCALE, it is not quite 2. I went with the weight rather than number of bananas.)

3/4 cup half and half

1 T dark rum

* Blend or food process these ingredients for 30 sec or until smooth and set aside

6 oz (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened.

21 oz (or 2 3/4 cup) extra fine sugar

4 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

Directions:

Cream the butter and sugar together at low speed until pale and fluffy, 3-5 min. Add the eggs and yolks one by one, blending fully between each. Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients, in three to five additions. Add them quickly, don't bother waiting until each is fully blended. Do it in about one minute. Then blend at medium speed for 15-20 sec to "develop the batter's structure."

Spray the bottom of two 9 in cake pans, and divide the batter between the two. Bake until a skewer comes out clean, and remove from oven. Let cool for 30 min before removing from pan. Let cool completely, and refridge until ready to use.

Meanwhile, prepare the ganache and frosting. For the Ganache, as always, heat one part heavy cream then pour in 1.5 parts chocolate, let melt, and stir til smooth.

Then move onto the FANTASTIC FROSTING. And if you have a mixer, so easy.

1-1/4 cup sugar, divided

1/4 cup water

5 large egg whites

1 pound (4 sticks) butter, softened

3 T rum, or whatever other flavor you want to use.

In a small saucepan with a lid, combine 1 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water. Stir thoroughly and put the lid on. Heat at medium-high heat while you put 5 large egg whites in your mixer. Whip these up into stiff peaks, which should on take a minute or two.

Keep an eye on your sugar. You don't want it to turn golden, but you do want it to reach the temperature of 245. I don't have a candy thermometer, so I wait til I think it's about to turn gold. Is it the best system? Probably not. Has it worked so far? Absolutely.

When stiff peaks form in the eggs, add 1/4 cup sugar, while the mixer is running. When the sugar in the pan is hot enough, slowly add the syrup to the egg whites, again, while the mixer is running.

Reduce the speed to medium and run for about 5 min, until the mixture has cooled.

Add the softened butter, one tablespoon at a time. When all is added, increase the mixer speed to high again for a couple minutes to make sure the frosting is smooth. Add your flavor, in this case, RUM:) Aaand you're done!

To assemble:

Remove the cake from the fridge, and doctor it up with a knife. You might want to rub off all the brown parts- the overdone crumbs. You might want to cut off the top of on of the cakes for an even layer.

Then brush the tops of each layer with Chocolate Ganache, and put sliced bananas on what will be the bottom layer. Put these in the freezer for a few minutes to harden the chocolate so it's easier to spread the frosting on it without making choco-streaking frosting.

When it's ready, spread a thick layer of meringue on the bottom layer, and then place the top layer. Spread a thin "crumb coat" of frosting over the entire cake, to seal in any troublesome crumbs. Refrigerate or freeze for 5 or so more minutes to harden the coat.

Finally, spread the meringue all over the cake, making interesting textures or keeping it smooth. And you're done!

Final Thoughts:

1. DEFINITELY serve this cake at room temp. The frosting becomes harder and somehow brittle when cold. It is a constant conundrum that the cakes at the restaurant have to be stored in the cold case, and so are not served at the optimal taste temperature.

2. The cake, the ganache and the frosting are all amazing, phenomenal, even when they exist by themselves. When combined, there is somewhat of a disconnect. To me (and Eric, who usually declines to comment on such things), they don't exactly complement each other- the frosting is very light, but does fight for attention with the denser cake. So maybe you and I can find different uses for these delicious elements. That said, it's still a great cake and worth the time and the calories.

I have a Wheeeeeeeeeel!!!

It CAME it came it came it came it came it CAME!!!!!!

ONE day after I ordered it, the nice fedex man brought it to my door.

And I am thrilled, and we are de-grossing the basement to make a nice home for it.

I can't move it with out Eric's help.

Pics of the studio to come! It's almost ready.

Hummingbird Fail

I made a tiny cake to test out my first experiment in the search for fluffy hummingbird cake.

It turned out to be less than flavorful, and pretty dense. When combined with creamcheese icing and pineapple between the layers, it wasn't bad, but I threw it away because I didn't want to give it away (and own up to baking it) and I didn't want to eat it all myself.

I tried making a variation of the "Mr. Banana Legs" cake in the CakeLove cookbook.

Things I probably did wrong:

1. Butter and eggs weren't quite at room temp

2. Mixed ingredients too long

3. Measured, rather than weighed ingredients. And this guy's a stickler for weighing.

4. Added some pineapple; about 4 oz. Then thought, maybe I'll throw in

5. An extra 1/4 cup flour. Who knows what that did to this cake.

In general, CakeLove's batters are full of liquors, special ingredients and specific instructions. I'm going to try making the banana cake recipe to the letter in the next couple of days, and hopefully it will turn out with the desired texture and flavor. I'll post the recipe with that batch.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Here we have co-worker Angela and the Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Red velvet cupcake recipes vary from source to source; they may be very chocolate, tiny chocolate or vanilla cakes, but they are always pumped full of red food coloring, and have the reactive combo of vinegar and baking soda. (Remember the vinegar and baking soda in your 3rd grade science fair volcano? Put that schooling to action with this lava-like batter.)

It was fun dumping in massive amounts of food coloring. It looked like a crime scene. And the next morning I found fluorescent dye stains all over my white countertops from the leaky bottle of food coloring. Fortunately, should this happen to you, I can tell you that a minute soaking under bleach lifted the stain completely away.)

I used Martha's Recipe from the Cupcake book.

(and I used all purp flour instead of cake. Sorry, Martha.)

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
5. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

Triple Layer Mousse

Normally, I am not such a fan of mousse, but I love the salted caramel in this, and the flavors combine very nicely.

They were a hit at the restaurant.

I adapted this recipe from Tartlette.

and I'll let you check out her blog for the recipe, but I do have a few notes:

1. When making the vanilla base, don't let the egg mixture boil. It curdles something digusting and will set into something like grainy, grits-looking, hard-set jello. This is different from pastry cream, which you do boil. I suppose the difference is gelatin in mousse and corn starch in pastry cream. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

2. Also, I let my mixtures cool until they were really set- I even put my vanilla base in the fridge. I think this was a mistake, because it became chunky when blended with the chocolate and caramel. My chocolate was also pretty hard. I think it would nice nice if everything was on the warm side of room temperature, because then you might have a shot at pouring the layers into your ramikins. (Her pictures show layers that are smooth as if poured- I had to pipe mine in.)

Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

I love an excuse to use blueberries in a recipe, so when I saw this buttermilk cake on Smitten Kitchen, I knew it would be mine.

Plus, it doesn't require icing or tart shells or pastry cream, and I needed something to take to the restaurant fast.

A couple days ago, the bread baker at the restaurant told me that a man who owns a good restaurant downtown had a piece of this cake, and pronouced it perfect in every way.

I doubled the batch and made MUFFINS. They were all gone in about 5 minutes, thanks to the husband. And this man is picky when it comes to baked goods. I am not so picky. If no one else eats it, then I take it upon myself to finish the job. Anyway, I'm glad when Eric takes one for the team and consumes the calories himself.

I used frozen fruit this time. The fruit crazing on the tops of the muffins was just lovely. Like little maps of rivers and lakes.

Recipe

found on Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet Mag, June 2009

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz)

• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.
• At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.
• Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar.
• Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

UPDATE!

Oh. MY. Gosh.

I have just discovered that Hovind is being held in a prison in EDGEFIELD, SC which is only 45 minutes away from Augusta!!!

I am going to visit him.

Witness my childhood beliefs take a nose-dive

Some of my favorite things are the show Unsolved Mysteries, creature-sightings and other outlandish theories.

I started this post because I just found a great website about the 2012 Apocalypse theories. Lots of articles and suppositions to browse through.

I can't say that I believe in most conspiracies, alien sightings, end-times predictions, but I find these mysteries and the people who consider them all to be very fascinating.

That said, I do firmly believe that:

Dinosaurs still live today, even if on a small scale in the depths of jungles and the ocean.

The Loch Ness Monster is a dinosaur.

And here's where my internet browsing debunked all my reasoning behind those beliefs. And I couldn't stop it!

I get most of my information about dinosaurs from Dr. Kent Hovind, a creationist who I saw speak in a week-long lecture series at a church in Chattanooga, TN when I was a little girl. My parents bought the videos of these talks, and I studied them religiously in my formative years.

Clearly, it makes perfect sense that the flood explains much of our world's geography, and that Noah brought little dinosaurs on the ark. Apparently, there was a water canopy surrounding the earth in the atmosphere that shielded the earth from harmful rays and provided optimal temperate climate for the dinos to grow. This canopy broke to cause the flood, and thereafter the dinos couldn't grow as large and were eventually mostly killed off by dragon slayers. (Hence, stories of firebreathing dragons are true, too.) It fits together perfectly when he's the only one talking, for sure.

I guess my confidence in Dr. Hovind was first shaken started while I was going to school at Virginia Tech, on one fateful night when I was seriously disillusioned after hearing Dr Hovind speak at a creation-evolution debate.

He is, in fact, a bit of a jerk. Also his theories are definitely not as sound as I once thought them to be.

And according to a quick google search, he is actually currently serving a ten year prison sentance for some rather bizarre white-collar crimes that mostly include tax evasion. Also (my, this is degrading quickly) he believes some rather outlandish conspiracies about our government, the ones that may be true but I'd rather not consider.

So Kent Hovind is not the scientific genius I once believed him to be. It appears a lot of people really dislike him and he's rather a fraud. It's strange because his voice still sounds so familiar, and it still kind of reminds me of kermit the frog.

Here's his ministry's slightly delusional POV.

And here's wikipedia's take.

and here we have freehovind.com

this is a site that debunks many of Hovind's theories.

All that said, I still really like the idea of dinosaurs surviving. I may have to go try to prove their existence myself. Look for more internet proof to come on The Fox Fix!

Is this a random thing to post on a baking blog? Perhaps. Have I lost all credibility? You tell me.

Beer Bread

This bread is the perfect fall-type bread, the ideal companion to soups of a hearty nature. I have thank my best friend Leah's family for introducing me to this sweet, springy loaf.

Also, it's easy. Did I mention that part? So simple, it's just....

3 cups flour

3 t baking powder

1 t salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 bottle of your fave beer (miller highlife is good)

Mix it all together and pour into a greased loaf pan, then bake at 350 for 30-45 min. It will be light golden brown. Enjoy!

I love this bread with White Turkey Chili and with Butternut Squash soup. (Recipes to come). Make it for your meal tonight; it will become a staple in your diet.