Pumpkin Pie - No Sweat!

Have you ever been puzzled about making pumpkin pie? Why in heaven's name does it always "sweat" (develop beads of moisture) and how do I get rid of it?

I did some searching for the answer and the most popular suggestion was to pat it dry with a paper towel! Not really an option in my opinion.

I may have accidentally stumbled upon an answer. We had prepared a mix for two pumpkin pies and only had an order for one. We then froze the mixture for the second pie.

We got another order this week, so defrosted the frozen pie mixture in the refrigerator. We made our homemade crust and poured the mixture in. To our surprise, after baking and sitting to cool we noticed that there was virtually no "sweat" on the top of this pie.

Give this a try and see what happens. It will also cut down on prep time if you have your filling made ahead.

Happy Baking!

Valentine Sugar Cookies

It is never too early to get a start on some Valentine treats for this year.

Try some of these easy heart shaped sugar cookies. After cooling, ice with royal icing (Wilton has a very reasonably priced meringue powder that makes easy icing - you can find it at Walmart) and decorate with more icing, sprinkles, or cinnamon red hots!

Packaging Cookies for Holiday Shipping

Getting ready to ship some cookies for the holidays? The first thing you should really purchase is a simple food sealer.

This picture shows our ever popular spritz butter cookies ready for the mail. You can seal them in a party/treat bag or we have found the easiest thing to use is the popular zip lock snack bags.

We pack all of our spritz in this manner (over 8,000 so far this year!) as well as any other cookie we may make that is 2" or smaller.

For larger cookies (i.e., iced sugar cookies, gingerbread men, etc.) seal them individually. This will help preserve freshness and the recipient only has to open one cookie at a time! Place two cookies back-to-back and roll in a narrow strip of small bubble wrap. Then place carefully into your shipping box.

Always place a piece of bubble wrap at the bottom of your box (we always use USPS Priority Mail boxes - extremely sturdy and FREE!). Fill in any spaces with packing peanuts. Be sure to not pack your cookies too tightly - we don't want them to get smashed before they even get in the mail!

Happy Baking and Shipping!

Upper Crust Tip for Tarts

Since the beginning of summer, we have been baking these delicious tarts. We have tried and tried to make a fruit pie (apple, cherry, apricot, peach, etc.) where the top crust will not separate from the filling. We were thinking it had to be the filling that was shrinking - not so. It was the crust that was rising.

Mystery Solved! We are passing this tip onto you so you won't have to struggle like we did.

After filling your pie and applying the top crust, simply sit another tart pan on top (be sure to put a piece of Non-stick foil underneath).

Bake for 45 minutes with the tart pan on and finish the last 15 minutes with it off. Your result will be like the beautiful tart pictured above where the upper crust is sitting right on the apricot filling!

We have not tried it yet with a full-sized pie, but will report back after our first attempt.

1,000 PAGEVIEWS!

We thank all of you who have visited our blog.

We just reached 1,000 pageviews!

Holiday Spritz Cookies - Never Too Early to Order!

High quality cookies at a fair price.

We sold over 4,000 of these cookies last holiday season.

Order early - let us know when and where to mail - and we will put you on our baking calender!

Holiday Christmas Spritz Cookies eBay Listing

Green Velvet Cake Anyone???

Who says you need to bake a red velvet cake? After all, the delicious flavor is not from the food coloring.

We had a special occasion this weekend and decided to make a green velvet cake with purple cream cheese icing! It was heavenly.

We have added the link to Cake Man Raven's Red Velvet Cake recipe below. The only change we make is in the amount of oil used. Instead of the 1.5 cups of oil stated in the recipe, we only use 1/2 cup of oil and 1 cup of margarine.

Be creative and create any color combination you like. We have also made it plain white and it was great!


Cake Man Raven Recipe

Street Sales 9/29 and 9/30

We will be back on the street this Thursday and Friday from 1pm - 6pm (or until sold out).

Menu includes:

Individual 4-1/2" pie tarts (sweet potato, oatmeal, chocolate chip, pumpkin, cranberry cherry, fresh blackberry, almond pecan, and apple). These are not tiny pies! They are equal to a slice of pie for only $2.50!!

Strawberry shortcake cups - made with Portland strawberries - for only $2.00.

Cookies for $1 - (Oatmeal Raisin, Cinnamon Spice, and Snickerdoodles - 4/pack and our best selling Almond Butter Spritz cookies 9/pack).

Stop by and give us a try - look for the Bakery Sale signs near N.E. 96th and Prescott.

Street Sales Items This Week

We will be back on the streets this Thursday and Friday from 12Noon - 6pm (or until sold out).

Menu includes:

Individual 4-1/2" pie tarts (sweet potato, oatmeal, chocolate chip, cranberry cherry, fresh blackberry, peach, and apple). These are not tiny pies! They are equal to a slice of pie for only $2.50!!

Quick breads - banana and zucchini carrot for $5/loaf.

Cookies for $1 - (Peanut Butter 4 pack and Oatmeal Pumpkin Raisin 3 pack).

Stop by and give us a try - look for the Bakery Sale signs near N.E. 96th and Prescott.

Street Sales 9/15 and 9/16

Now that the weather has cooled down (let's hope it doesn't rain!) we will be back on the streets this week. Menu includes:

Individual pie tarts (sweet potato, almond pecan, fresh blackberry, apricot raspberry, pumpkin, peach, apple).

Quick breads - banana and zucchini.

Asst cookies - (almond butter spritz, peanut butter blossoms, iced sugar cookies).

Stop by and give us a try - look for the Bakery Sale signs near N.E. 96th and Prescott.

New Air Delight Hershey Kisses

Have you all heard about the new Air Delight aerated Hershey kisses?

We were delighted to find them on sale and, coupled with coupons, were able to get a great deal on a couple of bags (as a small bakery we are always happy when we can save money!).

We thought that we would try making our peanut butter blossoms with these news kisses as the weather has cooled down.

To our surprise, they have been sitting out for hours and the chocolate has not firmed back up as the "normal" Hershey kisses do. How sad - we will not be able to use these for our cookies after all :-(

But, they still taste great!

No Street Sales This Week

We have decided that the upper 90's is probably a bit too warm to be selling baked goods!

See ya next Thursday and Friday.

Street Sales 8/25 and 8/26

We will be on the street again this Thursday and Friday selling your delicious baked products.

Stop by for some Strawberry Shortcake or Apricot Pie - YUMMY!

Open from 1pm - 6pm.

Look for the Bakery Sale sign near 96th and NE Prescott.

Jumbo Muffin Liner Idea

Do you love to bake jumbo muffins as much as we do; but hate the expense of the jumbo muffin liners??

Well, I have just discovered that you can use pastry tissues (the tissues you find in the small square boxes in the donut displays at your local supermarket) instead of the liners.

They come 1,000 to a box and cost less than $2.00!!!

We buy ours at our local Cash & Carry store. Hope you can find some too.

Street Sales 8/18 and 8/19

Will be selling on the street again tomorrow (8/18) and Friday (8/19) starting at 1pm. Mini pies (cherry, apple, pumpkin, sweet potato, peach, almond pecan), banana bread loaves, and assorted cookies.

Look for the "Bakery Sale" signs at 96th and NE Prescott.

SWEET POTATO PIE SPECIAL THROUGH 8-31

Remember this month you receive an automatic $1.00 off your sweet potato pie order if you mention our Blogspot or Twitter page.
Sweet Potato Pie eBay Listing

$1 OFF SWEET POTATO PIE SPECIAL

This month we have a special pie offer happening! If you order 1 sweet potato pie you'll receive an automatic $1.00 off your order!

Just hit the eBay icon to the right and you will be taken straight to the Sweet Potato Pie listing.

Once you purchase your Pie, please wait for us to send you an invoice with the reduced price.

Then all you have to do is sit back, wait for your Pie to arrive, and enjoy!

Cheesecake Tarts - Oh My!

Our newest creation are these wonderful little (well, not so little - 4.5") cheesecake tarts. Pictured are our homemade lemon curd cheese cake tarts and fresh cherry cheesecake tarts.

Prepare your favorite pie crust recipe and pre-bake. The first layer is a cheese cake filling. Mix together 3 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, 2T sugar and any flavoring you might like to add. We LOVE fresh zest so added lemon zest to the lemon tarts.

Place a layer (about a 2 oz scoop) of the cheesecake mix in the bottom of your pre-baked crust. Chill.

Once cold, you will have an easier time putting on the topping of your choice - lemon curd (we used Ina Garten's recipe from foodnetwork.com), cherry, raspberry, blueberry, etc.

We also made the cute little stars from our leftover crust!

Give them a try - can be made in these tart pans or a full-sized pie plate.

MORE BAKED DOUGHNUTS!

We have been having a great time experimenting with our new doughnut pan!

We have discovered that you can bake any doughnut instead of deep frying them. This time we got a sour cream doughtnut recipe from the internet and simply baked them at 350F for 12 minutes.

After cooling we iced with our homemade vanilla and chocolate buttercream icings!

Delicious and only a fraction of the calories of their fried counterparts!

LAYERED CAKE CUPS

Who doesn't love a layered cake; but, it is not always the most portable dessert.

We have come up with a great idea that we also used at our last street sale - Layered Cake Cups!

What we did was bake our cake (red velvet is pictured) in a large muffin/cupcake
pan. You can then cut each cupcake into 3 or 2 layers. Place your first layer in the bottom of a 9oz plastic cup and top with a layer of icing. Continue with the other layers and finish with your yummy icing.

You can freeze your cupcakes and make yourself a nice layered cake cup whenever you have a craving!

You can purchase the cups at your local grocery store. They also make lids that cover the cups that can be purchased at a restaurant supply store or you could cover with some press-n-seal or saran wrap.

A hint about red velvet cake: It is not the food coloring that makes the cake so yummy, so we make a variety of velvet cakes (yellow, green, pink, and even white). They are just as delicious as the traditional red velvet and they take much, much less food coloring and will not have such an adverse affect on your digestive system :-)

BAKED BRIOCHE DOUGHNUTS

Brioche baked doughnuts! What a brilliant idea. We thought we would try to make a doughnut that was a bit healthier than the normal doughnut deep dried in oil. We love to make brioche and have made cinnamon rolls with the dough before. So, we thought, why not try making baked brioche donuts!?!?

By the picture you can tell they came out GREAT! Simply cut out the doughnuts after the first rise, cover and let double in size again. We put a roll of foil in the middle to keep the hole open. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes and cover with your favorite topping/glaze while still warm.

These doughnuts have the texture of a danish and are not sweet at all.

I had mine with my morning coffee - what a treat!

Banana Bread Fingers Anyone???

Was anyone else lucky enough to get a corn dog maker for Christmas?? Well, I was! And, look what I decided to make - banana bread fingers!!

They are the perfect size for a quick breakfast or snack. Just pop them in the microwave for a quick 10 seconds for that fresh out of the oven smell and taste.

And, if you are a "dunker" like me, these are PERFECT!

Aluminum Foil Liner

Have you ever wrestled with foil as you try to line your pan....only to get crumpled and torn aluminum foil? Well, I have also. Every Christmas as I lined my pan with foil to make fudge, I would fight with the foil.

I have now learned how to make this task a lot easier so I thought I would pass it on to you.

Turn the pan over that you want to line and place the foil securely on the OUTSIDE of the pan. Once you have formed it onto the outside of your pan, simply take it off and place on the inside of your pan. The perfect fit! No more crumpled and torn foil.

If you have not tried it, I would recommend Reynolds new No Stick aluminum foil. It works great.

Hope this tip helps some of you and Happy Baking!

Easter Egg Nest Cookies

A perfect combination for the holidays - jelly beans and cookies!

We make these delicious cream cheese cookies with jelly beans in the "nest".

Bake the cookies halfway and then make an indentation in the middle. As soon as they come out of the oven, press the jelly beans into the center.

DO NOT BAKE THE COOKIES WITH THE JELLY BEANS IN THEM!

Let cool and enjoy!

Uses for new Philly Cooking Cream Original

Have you tried the new Philadelphia Cooking Cream Original? We love it and think it tastes a lot like creme fraiche for a fraction of the price (especially if you find a great sale and can match with coupons!).

If you look at all of the recipes associated with this new Cooking Cream you will probably notice, like we have, that most of them are for chicken dishes.

Well, if you use your imagination, you can come up with more great uses. It makes for a GREAT creamy macaroni and cheese and today we subsituted it for the sour cream called for in these yummy apple cupcakes. Needless to say, they came out super moist and DELICIOUS!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

In checking my competition on eBay one day, I noticed that someone had left feedback that "the cookies were good, but all of the kisses had fallen off"! Not my idea of a great peanut butter blossom cookie.

Thought I would share our process for ensuring that the Hershey kisses stay on top of your peanut butter cookies. First and foremost, find yourself a great peanut butter cookie recipe. When the cookies are fresh out of the oven, immediately push a kiss into each cookie (do NOT bake with the kisses in the dough). Wait about 30 seconds (no longer or the chocolate will be too soft!) and go back to each cookie and give the kiss a gentle twist. As you can see by our picture, this forms a ring of chocolate "glue" that will keep your kisses on the cookies.

Give our cookies a try at PB Blossom eBay Listing

A few tricks for a great Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

It has taken us many, many years to finally perfect our cream cheese pound cakes. I remember once when we had our small coffee shop and were baking 6 pound cakes at one time. ALL of the cakes fell! What a disaster and utter disappointment not to mention the cost of all of those wasted ingredients!

Over the years, we have discovered a few things that make the difference and produce a nice, fine-textured cream cheese poundcake every time (you never want to have a "sad streak" in your cream cheese poundcake!):

~~Use a high quality cream cheese. We usually are not food "snobs" but it makes a world of difference. Do not try to save money by buying cream cheese in a large block.

~~Use unbleached flour for this pound cake and make sure that you sift your flour before adding to the mixture.

~~Bake your pound cakes in tube pans, not bundt pans. Makes it a lot easier to remove the cake after baking.

~~This cake needs to be baked low and slow. We bake ours at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes!

Good luck with baking your Cream Cheese Pound Cake! But, if you would rather have us bake for you, visit our eBay listings.

A Baker's Best Friend

Have you ever struggled to get your brownies out of the pan or had your cookies stick to the cookie sheet? I know how you feel. We searched high and low for a way to get our yummy lemon bars out of the pan in one piece. The solution - REYNOLDS PARCHMENT PAPER!

Parchment paper has become our best friend in the kitchen. We always put parchment paper on our cookie sheets. We never use anything to grease our sheets, just put down the parchment and you are ready.

Another great thing is the fact that you can use a sheet of parchment paper over and over. If it gets a bit messy, just wipe it off and use it again and again.

Hint: Look inside the box and most of the time there will be a great coupon for your next purchase!

Sugar Cookies

If you would like your sugar cookies nice and soft like these sand dollar cookies, bake them as soon as you prepare the mix.

If you measure out dough with a tablespoon it will give you a nice sized cookie. We made the sand dollar decoration by pressing a cookie gun disk into the dough before baking!

If you would prefer to cut out your sugar cookies and have them resemble those yummy bakery sugar cookies you need to wrap your dough in plastic wrap and freeze (at least overnight).

Let the dough sit on your countertop for about 30 minutes before you are ready to prepare. You want the dough to be cold, but still pliable. Roll and cut out in shapes desired.

Almond Butter Spritz Cookies

Almond Butter Spritz Cookies

Seems as though folks can't get enough of these cookies! Our secret is BUTTER - no matter what your recipe calls for - be it margarine, shortening, etc. - always use BUTTER!

We also have an old fashioned hand operated cookie press. Have tried the new fancy electric ones and there is no comparison. Takes a little work, but worth the effort.

We bake most cookies at 350 degrees but these are best baked at 400 degrees.

Good luck!
Spritz Cookies eBay Listing

Welcome to Oma's Bakery

1. Key Lime Pie


2. Pecan Pie


3. 
   
   Butter Spritz Cookies
   
   
   These are our most popular items for the month of February. Please visit us on eBay and Twitter. Thank you

Key Lime Time!

WELCOME TO OMA'S BAKERY

Seems to be the time for Key Lime Pie! Lots of orders coming in. 503-257-4019 hartstarts@live.com