November

 Hey guys, its Bread Week! 

So in my trip to Oregon at the end of September, I ended up watching an episode of The Great British Baking Show, which I had seen on Netflix, and did not have much interest in.  That one episode changed my mind, and now I'm a bit hooked.  Each episode it a different bake theme: pastry, chocolate, cake, BREAD, biscuit, etc.  

I didn't make just bread in November, but because of the connection and success, I had to.   This Star Bread was another that's been in my back pocket since January.  I was extremely hesitant due to past failures with yeast based baking (bagels and pretzels), but with the success of this I might have to see if Sam has some recipes for these, or use this dough recipe to make the two failures again.

I was ecstatic when the dough rose.  I'm pretty sure the other two times it did not, and that could have been because of this Arizona heat, (it has cooled down a bit since) my water could have been too hot, or the yeast could have been dead.  This dough doubled in size and I was thrilled!  

The easy-ish part, rolling out each layer (although they weren't all uniform) and layering them.  I should have stuck with her suggestion and used a cup to create the center (instead of a star cookie cutter) because that center, lets be honest could be better.  It also could have helped with the twisting.   So once everything is layered, you cut to make sixteen pieces, to then tie/twist together.  Some of these twists look better, and again I feel like could be better if the center was a bit more uniform.  You twist two pieces together twice, which is easy enough but some of those twists I thought I was going to break the dough and disconnect it, it never did thankfully.  After those twists we pinch the ends together firmly, my ends aren't the prettiest, I know, but first try is never going to be perfect.  

Her suggestion for a filling is cinnamon sugar, but it could always be savory, put some cream cheese, or any type of cheese, chocolate, jam.  The possibilities are endless.  Easy to eat, and will make again! 

Next is my redemption!

If you recall I attempted apple pie last year.  I might have bought a starter kit for making the crust, and probably just found something that looked good on google last year.  Due to this Star being a success I hoped that Sam, or one of the other baking blog websites I've used these past 11 months would have something I could use, and she did.  

Not only did she have an apple pie recipe, but also a crust recipe!  Her only apple pie recipe was Dutch, which is more a crumble topping then a second layer of crust, and after last year I was okay with that.  I also have to say, the handy dandy apple peeler, slicer, corer that my mom got me came in handy, for slicing all these apples. 

  Bottom crust came out okay, although seemed a little undercooked to me.  I went through her recipe, and as I was about to put it in the oven I watched her how-to video, the same as the instructions which was nice I was just concerned my topping was too crumbly or not crumbly enough if that makes sense.  I had used my food processor to make the crust dough, and I'll admit a bit lazy to clean it out and use it for the crumb topping so I used my pastry blender, so my concern was it wasn't blended enough.

Just wish I had even out my apple slices a little more, the pie did seem a bit uneven.  I do have to say, Sam was right, I could just eat the crumb topping and be happy.

Probably end up using this recipe again next year.  If I'm still making pies then.

Now for the cook!  I didn't forget this time, although I did forget the picture.  

Butternut Squash curry, from Beth at Budget Bytes.  I was a little hesitant on making because my boyfriend isn't the biggest squash fan, unless its spaghetti, but he went for it because it was curry, although he did say we could have done potatoes instead.  

It was my first time making curry, we did have most of the ingredients (including the curry powder).

For sure a strong flavor, and maybe I chose the wrong pan, because it got pretty messy, but it came out okay and there was plenty of leftovers.  

It didn't seem to hard to make, so I might have to try another curry recipe in the future.