Baking Bucket List – Update #5

Yikes, it’s been six months since my last baking update! For any new readers, back in February, I created a Baking Bucket List – a list of baked goods to attempt over the next year or so. There are 25 delicacies on the list and I was crossing a few off every month. Then, I realized I made a lot of the easy crowd-pleasers first and kept avoiding my list when I went to bake something new hehe. With just a few months left before baby arrives, I’m hoping to get close to crossing everything off my list before then!  You can check out my first update here, my second update here, my third here, and my fourth here.  

#6 Irish Soda Bread: My bread category is a killer. Why oh why did I put fancy French bread like croissants and baguettes on there? They’re hard! So, I avoided them once again and decided to try Irish Soda Bread. During our trip to Ireland, I gobbled this stuff up every time we ate a meal. It tends to be a bit bland though, so I went for King Arthur Flour’s Americanized version instead : )

Luckily I discovered a few snack packs of raisins in the cupboard that I originally intended to use in homemade trail mix (that never happened), so I was able to follow the recipe as is. The end result is a slightly sweeter, cakier version of Irish soda bread that’s quite delicious. 

 

#13 Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake – When October rolls around, it’s simply a requirement to bake something pumpkin-y! Luckily, that coincided perfectly with the cheesecake selection on my list. Usually I bake chocolate-y cheesecakes such as chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake or smores cheesecake, so I wanted to branch out a bit. I turned to Google which led to The Gold Lining Girl’s website for her cheesecake recipe. 

I made one small substitution – gingersnap cookies for the crust instead of pecan shortbread cookies. Purely because I had leftover gingersnaps in the house. One less thing to buy – hooray! Everything else I left exactly the same. Cheesecake is one of those desserts that seems intimidating but honestly doesn’t require a lot of steps. This recipe is even easier than others because you don’t need to bake the crust first. It all comes together and requires just one bake, with the simple addition of the streusel topping toward the end.

The cheesecake turned out quite well and I particularly enjoyed the creamy pumpkin filling. However, if I make it again I would change the streusel topping. In my opinion, pecans aren’t the best option and can easily develop a burnt flavor in the oven. I absolutely adore an oatmeal based topping like the kind used on apple crisp, so I would attempt a version of that instead.

 

#18 Millionaire’s Shortbread: The Great British Baking Show gets all the credit for introducing me to this dessert. This classic combination of shortbread, caramel, and chocolate was featured more than once on this delightful show and it is one of the concoctions that actually seemed attainable! Here’s the recipe I found online from Sugar Spun Run. 

Although this is a multi step process, the hardest part is just waiting for all the components to cool. A basic shortbread cookie base is topped with homemade (but not finicky) caramel and finished with chocolate ganache. You don’t even need a candy thermometer for the caramel, so give it a whirl! 

I consumed almost this entire pan (I was nice and gave a piece to my mom), but I’m already planning to make it again soon. It’s that good. The recipe is perfect as-is to please any dessert lover. It is quite rich, so those of you who can only handle that in small doses, just cut smaller pieces. For the rest of us, a hearty square is a terrific ending to any day. 

 

 

Have you tried baking any of these desserts before? What should I bake next?