Failures and Successes (in that order)

Fourteen hours ago I started out to ambitiously make breakfast breads for about 25 people.  A Thanksgiving day tradition at our church is that the youth group plays football against the Elders and Deacons before the service (which starts at 9:30) in the church yard.  Then after the game they come inside grab a quick bite and then most head home to shower and return in time for church.  On the list were also two pies for Thanksgiving that needed to be made.

I started with a double batch of Pumpkin Streusel Muffins and substituted butter for oil (which I thought was at church but turns out was in the van).  While they were baking I made a double batch of Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins once again using butter instead of oil.  I smelled some smoke but thought it was something spilled on the bottom of the oven.  After pulling out the pumpkin muffins I put in the banana muffins.  As the first batch was cooling on the wire racks I noticed half were burned on the bottom.  GRRR. . .I don't burn things, what was going on?  Then I REALLY smelled smoke and a few seconds later we discovered that our apartment does have a working smoke alarm!  The whole batch was burned. I think the butter (which I hadn't melted) went into the muffin cups in lumps, promptly melted, overflowed and ran to the bottom of the muffin tins.  I think the hot oil on the outside of the muffin papers just cooked them too much.  If anyone else has any theories I'd be glad to hear them!

I took a break and moved on to making two pie crusts and wrapping them in plastic to chill.  I rolled one out and started to "blind bake" it.  This is a technique to keep the crust from getting soggy because of the pumpkin pie.  Take the crust put foil in it and fill it with something heavy (I used a pound of dry beans).  Bake it for 25 min at 325 and then take the weight and foil out of the crust and continue to bake for 15 min.  While the crust finished baking I made the Pumpkin Pie mix and set it on top of the stove to warm and then filled the crust with the warm pie filling.  While that pie was baking I started the Pecan Pie, rolled out the crust, filled it then popped it in the oven.

I now had just a few muffins for breakfast and it was afternoon. . . Thankfully I had some Zuchinni in the freezer so pulled that out to thaw while I took a breather.  The pies both looked good (hallelujah!).

Made a batch of Paula Deen's Zucchini bread like I've made before.  Then I sat down and watched Peter Pan with Lydia while I peeled apples for a double batch of criss cross apple crowns (also from a previous post).  While they were baking I made a double batch of banana bread.  I pulled the ccac out of the oven and put in the banana bread to bake.  Fig walked in at 9:30 and said "It smells good in here! Oh! I like those can I have one?"  He said they tasted great! 

I'm a little worried about the banana bread.  It was the end of a long day and I had run out of all-purpose flour so I used whole wheat bread flour.  There wasn't anymore brown sugar so it's short a bit of sugar and I used baking powder instead of baking soda because I'd run out of that too!  I'll have to let you know how it all turns out. . .

Good night moon.