Maple Bars for Breakfast (Move over, Paula!)

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MmmmMAPLE Bar

By now you know that I will eat just about anything if it’s dipped in maple, filled with maple, or has maple in its top ten ingredients. I didn’t ask for this addiction…just playing the cards that were dealt me. So (because I’m so rational) to celebrate a two pound loss at the weekly weigh-in of my weight watching club today, I decided to sabotage myself and make MAPLE BARS!

A truly fresh maple bar disappears in your mouth before you have a chance to chew, which is heaven. Pure heaven. I’ve also been known to eat maple bars that were so stale the only redeeming quality was the icing – which is all that matters, really. That’s where the maple flavor is…the pastry is just there to guide the icing to your mouth.

Even if you aren’t stoked about making fresh, warm, succulent maple bars, please scroll to the bottom of this blog. I’ll show you how to make a REAL breakfast sandwich. This started out as a spoof of Paula Deen’s horrifying video about making a hamburger with glazed doughnut buns, and turned into a new guilty favorite. Yummy and disgusting at the same time!

A good way to use those pesky leftover maple bars!

I found a maple bar recipe I liked on Food.com, and of course I tweaked it a bit. A little more sugar, a little more water, a little less cinnamon, rolled out a whole lot thinner…etc. If you have absolutely no trust in me, (pfffft!) here’s a link to the original. Maple Bars  This is probably a really old recipe because it has you scald the milk, which you rarely see anymore in recipes. They did it years ago (mostly to kill any bacteria) but it can make a little bit of difference in the rise of yeast breads, so we’ll do it just in case.

Grab your apron and let’s make some…

MAPLE BARS!

1-1/2 cups milk (2% or whole milk is best. I added a little half & half to my 2%)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
peanut oil (if you prefer to fry them)

ICING
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon maple flavoring (like Mapleine)
Milk

  • In a small pan on medium-high heat, scald the milk. To do this, let the milk heat until there are bubbles all the way around the outer edge, but catch it before it boils. Remove from heat.
  • Add 1/3 cup sugar, shortening, salt, and cinnamon. Allow the mixture to cool down until it’s lukewarm.
  • In a large bowl (I use my stand mixer) combine the warm water, yeast, and ½ teaspoon sugar. Let it sit until bubbly – about 5 minutes.
  • Mix the lukewarm milk mixture into the yeast mixture. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well.
  • Slowly add the flour, mixing until combined. Knead well–5 minutes with stand mixer using the dough hook, or 7-8 minutes by hand on a lightly floured surface.

    Nice, soft, elastic dough.

  • Set the dough to rise in a large oiled bowl, turning once to coat the dough with oil. Allow to rise until double–about an hour. Punch down.
  • Roll out the dough into a rectangle. The dough should be a little less than ½ inch thick. Trim off the rounded edges to get nice straight sides, and cut into 12 rectangles. They will look thin, but trust me…they puff up like crazy when they’re cooked!

    Cutting out maple bar dough with a pizza cutter.

These can be baked or fried – they’re wonderful either way, though I’m partial to the texture and flavor of the fried version.

The bar on the left is baked, and the one on the right is fried. Your call – both are delightful!

If you want to bake them, space the dough evenly on a cookie sheet. cover with a dishtowel and allow them to rise for 30 minutes. They’ll still look a little skinny, but don’t worry! Heat the oven to 425 F.  Bake for approximately 8 minutes, (until golden brown) and move them with a spatula to a baking rack to cool.

If you want to fry them, just leave them right there on the counter. Cover with a dishtowel and allow them to rise for 30 minutes. Pour at least 2 inches of peanut oil in a large pan and heat to 350 F. Drop in a few pastries at a time, giving them lots of room to move around. Once the bottom is golden, flip the bars over. If yours are like mine, they’ll have minds of their own and might insist on flipping right back over. Don’t let them win! When both sides are brown, remove and drain on paper towels. Move to a baking rack to cool.

Fry, baby…fry!

To make the icing, mix the powdered sugar, butter, salt, and Mapeline in a medium bowl. Slowly stir in milk until it’s the consistency you want. (Make it thick for spreading, or make it thin for dipping.) I really like to use an electric hand mixer for this…it comes out so smooth and creamy that way.

Maple frosting makes me swoon!

Ice the bars (if you haven’t already eaten the icing) and leave them uncovered so they can dry a bit. If you plan to store them, cover them loosely; they’ll get really gooey if they’re covered tightly with plastic wrap or foil. My guess is they won’t be around long enough for that to happen!

Barely warm and beckoning to me…I obey.

So…I was watching this video of Paula Deen making a hamburger. She used two glazed doughnuts for the buns and added a fried egg and bacon. If that wasn’t funny enough, I saw her lick her finger while she was putting it together, and then she gave it to the other gal to eat. Here’s a link:  Paula Deen’s Mess  Even as I was busy being grossed out, I was thinking: “now if she had only used breakfast sausage…” Oh-oh, you know what’s coming, don’t you?

Oh, yeah. Slice the maple bar. ADD SAUSAGE!

And EGGS!

And BACON! Over the top? At this point, does it really matter?

A breakfast masterpiece! Move over, Paula!


Pimping out my Blog

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Okay, folks…I’m going to shamelessly pimp out my blog, and try out for Blogger Idol.

There are amazing prizes, of course, but best of all is the chance to encourage thousands (dare I say millions?) of people to crack out the butter and cream and let the flour fly!
Did I mention prizes? There’s a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Blog 2 Print voucher, Ghiradelli chocolate package, a premium edition of Dragon, a Newman’s Own organics package, and more.

I’ll do anything for chocolate!

Check it out! And if you’re feeling kindly, jump right in there and leave a comment on Blogger Idol. You aren’t voting, exactly – it’s more like a show of support. OK, it’s actually more of a popularity contest. But remember the important thing: one of the prizes is CHOCOLATE (which is almost as good as a blue ribbon!) Here’s the link:
Blogger Idol

I’ll keep you posted on Facebook!

Will Blog for Bagels!

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Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, bagels are versatile and satisfying. Today I actually may have gone past “satisfying” and be on the road to “sick”, because I just can’t stop at one, especially when they’re warm and tender.  Well, the inside should be tender; the outside must be very chewy.

Fresh from the oven, and irresistible.

I love them toasted in the morning, with a fruit and cream cheese spread. I love them for lunch, piled with turkey breast, tomato, cream cheese and avocado. I love to turn them into little mini-pizzas for dinner. I haven’t come up with a bagel dessert yet, but just give me a moment…

The best bagels take time – preferably with an overnight rest in the refrigerator before being boiled and baked the next morning – but the recipe I am giving you is an easy one and can be completed in a couple of hours. It’s a tough dough and can withstand a little abuse, so you won’t have to hurry, or worry about keeping things chilled, or try not to “overwork” it.

If you are a bagel virgin, you might want to make them plain the first time, just to get the hang of it. Next time (and there WILL be a next time) you can add goodies to the dough: raisins, cinnamon, cheese, onions – whatever you like. The plain bagels can be topped with sesame seeds, cheese, poppy seeds, garlic, or onions, or brushed with an egg wash to make them shiny. They can also be left “au naturale,” which would be my bagel of choice.

Without further ado, I present:

BAGELS
Makes 12 large bagels.

1 package active-dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon salt (I use Kosher)
4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon baking soda (for boiling the bagels)
Cornmeal

      • In a large bowl, gently stir together the yeast, granulated sugar, and warm water. Let sit until bubbly (about 4-5 minutes.)
      • Stir in the brown sugar, salt, and 2 cups of the bread flour. Mix well. If you’re using a stand mixer, switch to your dough hook. Add the remaining bread flour slowly, mixing well. This will be a very stiff dough, but you don’t want it too dry OR too sticky, so feel free to adjust the amount of flour or add a little more water if necessary to get a nice, elastic dough.
      • If you are working by hand, put the dough on a floured board and knead for 7-8 minutes. If you are using your mixer to knead, allow it to knead for 5-6 minutes.

        Bagel dough, ready to rise.

      • Place the dough in a well-oiled large bowl, turn the dough to coat with oil, cover with a dishtowel, and allow it to rise for approximately an hour–or until doubled.

Bagel dough, ready to roll.

  • After the rise time, punch the dough down and separate it into 12 equal pieces. Take each piece and make it into a ball. It’s hard to explain, but I keep tucking the messy parts under, and kind of “scooch” the ball across the surface of the counter (don’t you hate it when I use these technical terms?) to make it as smooth as possible on the top. You can roll it around like clay, too…whatever works for you. The goal is to get 12 smooth balls that are at least close to the same size! Don’t worry if it takes a while and the first few balls look like they might be growing; that won’t hurt a thing.

“Scooching” the dough into a ball.

  • Oil or grease two cookie sheets. Lightly coat one sheet with cornmeal. (Keep the cornmeal out – you’ll need it eventually for the other cookie sheet.)
  • Ready? Flour your thumbs. Uh huh, that’s what I said. Poke one thumb right through the middle of a dough ball, put your other thumb through the hole from the other side, and…twiddle your thumbs so they’re going around each other, stretching out the bagel hole. Now stretch the bagel gently to make the dough as even as possible all the way around. Make the hole big– at least an inch and a half across–because when the bagel bakes it will puff up and most of the hole will disappear.

    Make a hole with your thumb.

    Twiddle those thumbs!

    Stretch the dough out evenly.

  • Place each bagel on the cookie sheet without the cornmeal. Cover with a dishtowel and allow the bagels to rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime:
  • Heat the oven to 450 F.
  • Fill a large stockpot more than halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add the baking soda.
  • Drop a few bagels in at a time, making sure they have plenty of room to bob around. I can comfortably cook 4 at a time in my stockpot. Let them cook for about a minute and a half on one side, then flip them over to cook on the other side for another minute and a half.

    A plump bagel, dropping to its doom.

    Dance, Bagels…dance!

  • Using a slotted spoon or a “spider” (see picture), place each bagel gently on the cornmeal covered cookie sheet.

    Lifting the bagels onto the cookie sheet, using my “spider”.

    If you are adding any toppings (sesame seeds, cheese, poppy seeds, etc.) sprinkle them on while the bagel is still wet. If you decide to skip the toppings and want a shiny appearance on your bagels instead, brush them with an egg wash (one egg and a teaspoon of water, mixed well) at this time. You will put 6 bagels on each sheet, so when the first cookie sheet is filled, sprinkle cornmeal on the other cookie sheet as the bagels disappear into the pot of boiling water and space becomes available.

  • Bake for approximately 15 minutes, turning the pan once halfway through the bake time. They should be a nice light golden color when ready. Cool on a rack.

Want to see what happens when you space out and let the bagels bake for 5  minutes too long?They’re still yummy, but definitely too dark. 15 minutes should be just right!

Well, I refuse to cook dinner tonight because I’m stuffed from “sampling” bagels. Hey, it’s an occupational hazard. Not sure that’s going to fly with the spousal unit; (who is pathetically eating a slice of cheese right now because he “HAS to eat SOMEthing”) but I say…let him eat bagels!

 

Shortbread Heaven

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Freshly baked shortbread.

“Do as I say, not as I do” never applied more perfectly than at this moment. I’ve been making shortbread cookies for decades, yet still managed to totally screw up the directions today. I was busy baking something else and thought it would be wise to multitask by measuring out the shortbread ingredients at the same time. Hah!

I knew that the butter and sugar were supposed to be mixed first and then everything else  added, but I was moving like a whirling dervish and went right ahead and dumped all of the dry ingredients together into one bowl. That meant the butter and sugar weren’t mixed until fluffy, and it was hard to get the dough to come together, so I had to add a couple of teaspoons of milk to coax it into cooperation. But (you know what’s coming here, right?) it still turned out fine!

Here is a recipe for basic shortbread, which has a sweet buttery flavor and a delicate texture that melts in your mouth. Perfection. But because I can’t help tinkering with perfection, I was compelled to dip the cookies in dark chocolate and sprinkle some of them with nuts. They look very elegant, and taste like sin.  (And yes, I’m leaving the two teaspoons of milk in the recipe because it made it easier to handle and didn’t affect the texture.)

Chocolate dipped shortbread. (Or…gilding the lily!)

SHORTBREAD COOKIES

2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups butter, softened
2 teaspoons milk or half & half
2 egg yolks
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cornstarch

  • Heat the oven to 350 F.
  • In a large bowl, combine powdered sugar and butter.  Beat until light and fluffy.
  • Add egg yolks and milk, and blend well. (If using a stand mixer, you may want to switch to the dough hook at this point.)
  • Add the flour, cornstarch and salt. Stir just until the mixture forms a smooth dough.
  • Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter.  Alternately, you can also roll the dough into small balls and press with a cookie stamp, or put the dough through a cookie press. These will not spread on the cookie sheet, so you can put them close together.

    Using a cookie stamp with an apple design.

  • Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 9-12 minutes, just until golden brown around the bottom edges.  Cool on the pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

It’s almost impossible to guess how many cookies this recipe will make; it depends on the size of your cookie cutters and how thinly you roll them. I can confidently say that it makes a buttload ton of cookies! At least 48 good sized ones – probably more.

If you want to jazz them up a bit, you can sprinkle them with coarse sugar before baking, or wait until they’re baked and cooled, then dip each one in melted chocolate, lightly scraping the bottom of the cookie against the bowl to remove excess chocolate. Place them on a waxed paper covered baking sheet to harden. I always pop mine in the freezer for just a few minutes, which speeds things up and helps keep the chocolate from “blooming” (getting little light colored spots on it.)

Dipping the shortbread in dark chocolate.

If chocolate covered shortbread isn’t enough to make you deliriously happy, here is one more variation. Because of my love affair with maple, I had to try making a maple flavored shortbread, and am tickled with the results.

Frosted maple shortbread cookies.

To make these, use the shortbread cookie recipe above, except substitute 2 teaspoons of Mapleine (maple flavoring) for the 2 teaspoons of milk. When the cookies are baked and cooled, cover them thinly with icing and drizzle them with a brown maple accent. Here’s the icing recipe:

ICING FOR MAPLE COOKIES

3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon powdered egg whites (“Just Whites” or Wilton’s “Meringue Powder” work well)
1/2 teaspoon “Mapleine”
small pinch of salt

  • In a medium bowl, beat together the powdered sugar, water, and powdered egg whites with a mixer for 2-3 minutes. Remove 2 rounded tablespoons of icing to a small bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon of Mapleine, and set aside.
  • Add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to the white icing in the medium bowl until it’s thin enough to spread onto the cookies easily. You may use a knife, but I prefer a pastry brush.

    “Painting” the cookies with icing.

    Because of the powdered egg whites, this icing will become very firm, so only use enough to cover the cookie with a thin layer.

    • Put the maple icing from the small bowl into a zipper bag and cut a tiny bit off of one of the corners. Drizzle or pipe a design on the cookies, and allow them to harden completely before storing in an airtight cannister. These can also be frozen.

      Piping maple accents on iced shortbread.

    I think my culinary trip to Scotland is over for now. Be glad this is a baking blog, not a cooking blog, or I’d probably feel honor bound to give you a recipe for Haggis!

    Guid cheerio the nou!

Sassenach Scones

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An iced pumpkin ginger scone.

With a family name of “Douglass” on my mother’s side and my married name of “McKinnon”, being enamored of scones is almost mandatory; with shortbread coming in a close second. I think my obsession with all things Scottish stems from the frustration of being denied a bagpipe in my youth, though in all fairness, my folks did try to get me lessons–but were refused because I was a girl. That’s okay…I probably would have ended up with even chubbier cheeks and been the dork bringing up the rear in the high school band.

If your only exposure to scones comes from a booth at the fair or a trip through Starbucks, you’re missing a whole sensory experience of combined flavors and textures. Fair scones are wonderful; basic biscuit-like pastries that melt in your mouth. I have nothing bad to say about fair scones, except that you can only indulge in them once or twice a year. The Starbucks scones I’ve tried, however, aren’t worth the exorbitant price they charge. They come in a variety of flavors, but are crumbly, cold, and taste like leavening. Bleh.

Most store-bought scones are made with the American taste bud in mind: too sweet and sometimes too salty. We expect to bite into a pastry and have it scream “sugar!” This is fine if you’re eating a cupcake (don’t even get me started on Costco muffins) but is really not what a scone is all about.

One of my favorite scone recipes is from an old Pillsbury cookbook. I refrained from playing with the recipe, faithfully presenting it here in all its glory. OK, a few teeny tiny changes. Somewhere along the line small cans of evaporated milk switched from 5.33-oz. to 5oz., so I changed that. And I bumped the oven temperature from 400 F to 425 F. Oh, and sometimes I leave out the currants, and I changed the instructions a little…but those are the only changes I made, honest! This recipe makes a lovely basic scone, perfect with butter and jam, and would also be ideal for strawberry shortcake. I love crunch, so I bake mine at least 20 minutes, and sprinkle the scones with lots of sugar before they go in the oven.

CURRANT SCONES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold butter
2/3 cup dried currants (optional)
5-oz. can evaporated milk (chilled)
1 egg

  • Heat the oven to 425 F.
  • In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; blend well. Using pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.

Blending the butter into the dry ingredients.

  • Stir in currants, if desired.
  • Combine evaporated milk and egg; add all at once, stirring just until moistened.

Add liquids to dry ingredients.

  • Mixture will be a little dry. With your hands, knead it a couple of times to bring it together to form a ball. Place dough on a floured cookie sheet and flatten into a circle, about 1 inch thick.
  • With a floured knife, cut into 8 wedges, cutting straight up and down. You may leave the dough as is, or separate the wedges with a spatula if you prefer crunchy sides.

Scone wedges, separated for crunchy sides.

        • Sprinkle with sugar and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve warm with butter and jam!

A warm scone with butter and homemade raspberry jam.

Now, see? Wasn’t that easy? They’re just a glorified biscuit, waiting for butter and jam. Or in a perfect world, clotted cream. Unfortunately we live out in the sticks, and (just my luck) the closest store to us appears to be completely out of clotted cream.

With fall rapidly approaching, I find myself dreaming up recipes for comfort foods. Here’s a recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Ginger Scones that made my husband fall down and kiss my feet. Yeah, yeah…slight exaggeration. But he did eat his way through a lot of test scones, since it took me three attempts before I was happy with the outcome.

Spicy Pumpkin Ginger Scones

Spicy Pumpkin Ginger Scones

2/3 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup cold butter
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger,(you’ll find this in the spice aisle)
Milk or cream to brush on finished dough

      • Heat the oven to 425 F.
      • Lightly flour a cookie sheet.
      • Mince the crystallized ginger and set aside.

Mincing crystallized ginger.

    • In a small bowl, mix together the pumpkin, cream, and egg until well combined. Place in the refrigerator to keep cold.
    • In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
    • Cut the cold butter into small cubes and toss in the bowl of dry ingredients. With a pastry blender or two butter knives, work the butter into the flour. It should be crumbly – you don’t want to see any chunks of butter.
    • Stir in the minced crystallized ginger.
    • Add the chilled pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients all at once. Stir just until combined. You may need to use your hands to gently knead it into a ball.
    • Place the dough on the floured cookie sheet and press into a circle approximately 1 inch thick.
    • With a floured knife, cut into 8 wedges, cutting straight up and down. You may leave the dough as is, or separate the wedges with a spatula if you prefer crunchy sides.
    • Brush with milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar.
    • Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
    • Cool on rack.

Spicy Pumpkin Ginger Scones, fresh from the oven.

If you like your scones frosted, make a simple icing by adding milk , a teaspoon at a time, to a cup of confectioner’s sugar until you get the desired consistency. I like to add a few drops of vanilla (or booze) too. Drizzle it on when the scones are almost cool.

Since I now have bagpipes droning in my head, I guess I’ll have to continue with the Scottish theme and give you a shortbread recipe in my next blog. Soon!

May the best ye hae ivver seen be the warst ye’ll ivver see.
May the moose ne’er leave yer girnal wi a tear-drap in its ee.
May ye aye keep hail an hertie till ye’r auld eneuch tae dee.
May ye aye juist be sae happie as A wuss ye aye tae be.
I

Children in My Kitchen!

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My granddaughters are staying with us for two weeks, and today was “baking day”, also known as “what the hell was I thinking” day.

Though gingersnaps and dog biscuits might sound like a rather strange combination, the cookie recipe offered lots of opportunities to measure and mix, along with the fun of forming the dough into little balls and rolling them in sugar. The dog biscuits provided the required rolling pin and cookie cutter action, and made my spoiled dogs very happy.

Here is a picture of my sweeties as we start to bake:

My sweet little cooks.

Hair back, aprons on, and hands washed, we started with the gingersnaps. One thing was critical…when it came to taking turns, the recipe was carefully scrutinized and everything had to be absolutely fair and equal. If Sophie added the sugar, Taunee got to add the flour. “HEY! Why did she get to put two spoons of ginger in and I only got to put one spoon of cinnamon?” Explaining that one tablespoon equals 3 teaspoons just muddied the waters. Thankfully, a distraction and a quick move to the next step was successful.

I’m going to give you my gingersnap recipe, with the proper instructions for mixing and baking them. Then I will tell you how we did it.

GINGERSNAPS

1 1/2 cup shortening
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 1/2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3 teaspoons ginger
3 teaspoons cinnamon
White sugar for rolling the balls of dough in

In large bowl mix shortening, sugar, eggs, and molasses together thoroughly.
Add dry ingredients and stir well.
Chill for at least an hour.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll dough into small balls (about a level tablespoon of cookie dough) and then roll them in white sugar.
Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving at least 1-1/2 inches of space between each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a rack. The cookies will flatten when they come out of the oven, and should have little cracks on the surface.

Now…here’s how it actually went.

I took the first turn, because getting shortening in and out of a measuring cup is even difficult for me to do, and I didn’t think I could stand watching the struggle. Sophie went next, capably adding the brown sugar. Taunee got indignant because Sophie also got to add the eggs. NO FAIR! She was appeased with getting to pour in the sticky molasses. “Pour” is probably not entirely accurate. She slowly drizzled it over the ingredients in the bowl. I let her put the first cup of flour into a separate bowl, and then Sophie took over.

As Sophie measure the remaining four cups of flour into the bowl, Taunee entertained us, distracting Sophie, who lost count of how many cups she had put into the bowl. When I suggested we start over, she was sure she had only put three in, and added another cup. Both girls were amused by the way the ginger came out of the teaspoons, making “eyes” in the flour. Naturally, the tablespoon of cinnamon had to be added in a curved line to make a smiley face.

Spicey smiley face in the flour.

The girls did a waltz with a graceful dip in the kitchen. I called them back to attention.

We turned the stand mixer on and mixed the dough. I’ve made these cookies for decades, and knew that this batch didn’t look right. Oh-oh, we should have re-measured the flour.

Whoops. Just one extra cup of flour did that?!

So…these are not mathematically correct ratios, but we threw in two tablespoons of soft butter, half of an egg (yes, that was interesting), a drizzle of molasses, and a pinch of baking soda, and mixed it again. Much better.

Sophie loved the dough. It’s a good thing I know where our eggs come from, because she kept sneaking bites. Taunee tried it and decided it wasn’t bad, which is pretty good coming from a girl who will only eat “white cookies!” I must say that if I were to rate cookie dough, this would be in first place, with chocolate chip cookies in second and peanut butter cookies in third.

We didn’t have the patience to wait for the dough to chill, so we just baked it at room temperature. I scooped the dough out of the bowl and each girl formed some into a ball and rolled it in sugar before putting it on the cookie sheet. Taunee wanted to taste the sugar stuck to her hands. Mean Grandma made her wash her hands again. These girls had spent the previous afternoon playing in the mud and loving it, but Taunee was really bugged by the sugar on her hands, so we got an assembly line going, with Sophie wielding the cookie scoop and Taunee rolling the dough into a ball – or sometimes more like a football! I rolled them in sugar. Everyone was happy, and the cookies were a little crunchier than usual, but still very good. Whew.

Now, on to dog biscuits!

My dogs are spoiled; they will eat Milk Bones, but grudgingly. They appreciate yummy homemade dog biscuits far more. I don’t pretend to understand canine nutrient needs, and must stress that these are treats. They usually get one each morning, and sometimes one at night. At least they don’t have unpronounceable ingredients in them, and they’re fun to make. That absolutely makes it worth the effort. I do know that the chia seeds are very good for their skin.
The girls just like to make them because they can use the little dog bone cookie cutter. That works for me!

I usually just “wing it” when it comes to making these biscuits, but measured the ingredients this time so I could pass it on to you. Here it is:

Dog biscuits, ready for the oven.

HOMEMADE DOG BISCUITS

6 pieces of bacon
2 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup chicken (or beef) broth
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup grated cheddar cheese (optional)
3 tablespoons chia seeds (or you could use ground flax)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup white flour
½ cup wheat germ
2 cups wheat flour

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
Brown the bacon, saving the grease. Chop the bacon into small pieces and place it and the grease in a large bowl. A stand mixer works best for this because it will be a heavy dough.
Add the eggs, milk, broth, peanut butter, cheese, and chia seeds to the bowl and mix well.
Add the baking powder, white flour, and wheat flour to the bowl and mix until combined. The dough should hold together. If it is crumbly, add a little more broth. If it is too sticky, add a little more wheat flour.
Roll dough out to desired thickness and cut with a cookie cutter. Place on cookie sheet (you don’t need to leave space between biscuits – they won’t get larger) and bake for one hour. Reduce heat to 225 degrees F. Bake for another hour, or until the biscuits are very hard. Allow to cool completely before storing.

Cutting out dog biscuits.

What’s a day in the kitchen without a flour fight? Then a dip in the kiddie pool while Grandma finished cutting out and baking dog biscuits, followed by a bath so the paste didn’t harden and turn their heads into pinatas, and of course…washing dishes.

Flour fight!!!

The not-so-fun part of cooking and baking…DISHES!

I want these girls to love creating wonderful messes in the kitchen, but I’m not a very good mentor. I don’t have half the patience I did when my children were young, and have to really work at not taking over (“Here, let Grandma help you”) when I see a bit of egg shell falling in the bowl, or a wobbly hand measuring flour into a bowl. Cooking with the girls confirms the reason I always scoot people out of my kitchen – it’s nearly impossible for me to follow a recipe or plan my next move when anyone is talking to me,or singing or dancing or whining or giggling or fighting or…well, I’m sure you understand.

Raspberry Pie

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This is speed writing at its best, so don’t expect me to be clever and charming. My two young granddaughters are here for a couple of weeks and there is little time to sit and write, but we did find time to make this yummy pie for a friend’s housewarming party.

Raspberry pie, decorated for a housewarming party.

8 year old Sophie couldn’t quite get the hang of the pastry blender, so we used our (clean) fingers to blend the shortening into the flour. Also, I didn’t take time to chill the pie crust pastry, and we were working at mach speed, but we were still tickled with the results. I’m sure Martha Stewart wouldn’t have dripped any raspberry juice on the top crust, and Paula Deen would have used lard instead of shortening, but you have to admit it looks appetizing.

 

Crust components for my pie.

For the house we pressed pie dough into a mold I use for chocolate houses at Christmas, and created a lattice crust. For the lattice, I drew a circle a little bigger than the pie pan on the counter with a pencil, put a piece of waxed paper over the circle, and wove the dough, then trimmed it to size. Hearts around the house instead of the lattice would have been cute, and much easier. Of course, we thought of that after the pie came out of the oven. Oh well.

I love to create designs and scenes in pie crust. Here are pictures of two pies I’ve made using that technique. The pie with the farm scene won a blue ribbon at the fair, even though the little pig in the center started sinking into the “mud” on the drive to the fairgrounds, and was just barely sticking his snout out by the time we got there. Maybe it was cuter that way!

Scenic pie crust.

Farm scene on a huckleberry pie. (Use the raspberry pie recipe, but swap out huckleberries if you’re lucky enough to find a lot of them!)

My go-to pie crust recipe has been around forever. It goes by different names, but is usually called “Never Fail Pie Crust.” I usually have a psychological need to prove that I am inept enough to screw up anything that says it’s foolproof, but this recipe actually is a gem – and turns out flaky every time, even when I’ve had to re-roll it.

Never Fail Pie Crust
(makes 2 crusts)

1 cup chilled shortening
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vodka (or vinegar if you prefer)
1/4 cup milk

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in the shortening until it looks like coarse crumbs.

Mix vodka into milk. Combine all at once into flour mixture.

This can be rolled into crusts immediately, or flattened into disks and placed between sheets of plastic wrap and chilled first in the refrigerator.

Raspberry Pie

Pastry for two pie crusts
5 cups raspberries
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup MINUTE tapioca, preferably ground in a coffee or spice grinder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Milk to brush on the pastry
Coarse sugar crystals (optional)

Roll out half of the pastry dough and place it in a pie pan. Fold the edge under, flute it, and place the pan in the refrigerator. Roll out the other half of the dough and form it into strips for a lattice crust, or cut out shapes to “float” on top of the pie. Get creative here! Refrigerate.

In a large bowl, combine the raspberries, sugar, tapioca, salt, cinnamon, and lemon juice and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes to soften the tapioca.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the pie pan from the refrigerator and pour the berry mixture into it.
Top with your dough designs. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar crystals, if desired.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and continue cooking for approximately 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Let it cool to lukewarm, then serve with a little vanilla ice cream. Do the happy dance!

I have to admit that I’m not a real fan of pies, which is probably why I am just now discovering how much fun they are to make. It’s been all about cakes and cookies for me because that’s what I love to eat, and because my crusts were always hit-and-miss…not exactly inspired. I usually opted for a crunchy streusel topping if I did make a pie, because I couldn’t trust myself to make an edible (or attractive) top crust. If you have the same concerns, try this pie crust and watch your confidence soar!

On my next blog, the kids are going to take over the kitchen. Yikes.

MAPLE PECAN CAKE

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Maple Pecan Cake (with rum!)


Talk about “The Agony and the Ecstasy!” My emotions (that’s a nice word for temper) vary from minute to minute when I’m baking and decorating a cake. It’s not that I’m a diva…I just don’t deal well with distractions, and the phrase “GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!” has echoed throughout the house more times than I care to admit. I’ve had more than my share of cake disappointments over the years,  though I wouldn’t call them failures since I usually managed to patch them up and turn them into something presentable-if not prizewinning. Happily, there have also been enough rousing successes to keep me coming back for more!

No celebration is complete without a cake, and that cake should be baked with love, rather than selected by its past-pull date at the grocery store. The exception might be a wedding cake; I’ve done a couple of these, and they are a royal pain in the ass rear. I’d definitely leave that for a professional – one who has teams of kitchen workers to clean up the gargantuan mess.

Every cake doesn’t have to be a creative masterpiece, but once your ideas get flowing it’s comparable to what I imagine an artist sees in a blank canvas: endless possibilities! My goal is to make a cake that’s so lovely no one will be able to cut into it. There have been some beauties, but never one that stopped the knife from descending. Yet.

If you’re used to cake recipes that begin: “empty 1 box of yellow cake mix in a large bowl”, you’re out of luck here. We’re going to make this baby from scratch, and when you take a big bite of maple-rum goodness, you’re going to thank me! (When you step on the scale…not so much.)

I love, love, love maple. My favorite treats are those little maple sugar candies from Vermont that are pressed into the shape of maple leaves or Santa Claus. They’re so rich you have to nibble them very, very slowly. One year I made them myself by boiling down pure maple syrup and pouring it into special little rubber molds. They turned out great, and I sampled them. I sampled them a lot. It was years before I could face anything maple again.

I’m happy to say that I’m fully recovered, and here is the perfect cake to prove it! (You’ll want to make one to celebrate the first day of fall, or to serve at Thanksgiving.)

MAPLE PECAN RUM CAKE
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups white sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons maple flavoring (“Mapleine”)
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/8 cup rum (or skip this and reduce the flour to 3 cups)
1 cup chopped pecans (more for decoration if desired)

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

  • Prepare two 9 inch cake pans. You may simply grease and flour them, but I prefer to spray them with a flour-oil combination like “Baker’s Joy”, then put a 9 inch round of parchment paper in each and spray them again lightly.
  • Thoroughly cream the butter and sugar together. It should be very light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added. Stir in the maple flavoring.
  • Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk separately, in 3 additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the buttermilk. (This means you’ll add a heaping cup of flour mixture and mix until combined. Add 1/3 cup buttermilk, mix until combined. Repeat until it’s all gone.) Stir in the rum, then fold in the pecans.
  • Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes, and then turn out on rack to continue to cool completely.

Put one cake on serving platter, flat side up. Cover with buttercream frosting. Place the other cake over the frosting, flat side down. Don’t worry if the top is domed a bit – this is one cake that doesn’t need to be level. The maple topping will “flow” better if it’s a little rounded.

Note: The top photo is a 3 layer cake, smothered in chopped pecans. You’ll have to make two batches of cake batter to make it look like that. (Freeze the extra layer for midnight snack attacks.) At the bottom of this blog is a photo of a two layer version topped with white chocolate leaves.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
1 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons cream

  • With an electric mixer on low speed, beat butter and powdered sugar together until thoroughly blended.
  • Add the vanilla and cream and mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. If you need to adjust the consistency for spreading, use a little powdered sugar or cream to thicken or thin the frosting.

Once cake is frosted, top with maple icing. Ladle warm (not hot!) icing…or pour it right out of the pan, if you’re brave…on the center of the cake top and, with a knife or spatula, encourage it to cover the top of the cake completely and ooze over the edge. It hardens rapidly in the pan, so work quickly, but don’t despair if this happens. You can always reheat it very gently on the stove, adding more milk if necessary.

MAPLE ICING
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring (Mapleine)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons cold milk if necessary

  • Boil together brown sugar, milk, and butter for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool slightly.
  • Add vanilla, maple extract, and powdered sugar. Beat well to avoid lumps. This should be thin enough to ladle onto the top of the cake and have it drip appealingly over the edge, but not so thin that it pours down the sides all over the plate! Add a little cold milk if necessary, and stir well, cooling as much as possible without letting it harden.

 

Maple Pecan Cake decorated with white chocolate leaves.


Decorate however you wish. Consider candy corn, chopped or candied nuts, or (if you can find them) those lovely maple sugar leaf candies from Vermont! I drew leaf shapes on waxed paper and outlined the leaves with white chocolate. Once it hardened, I filled in the shapes with melted white chocolate in various autumn colors. Simple and fun!

The best thing is, there should still be plenty of rum left in that bottle to toast a perfect cake!

Biscuits…mmmm…biscuits!

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Buttermilk biscuits

My husband was whining for biscuits and gravy. To be specific, he actually wanted sausage gravy with lots of chunks of meat in it, and biscuits. Before I hear from all the states below the Mason-Dixon line about what should go into this glorious, fattening, sinful dish, remember that this is a baking blog and the subject is:

BISCUITS, Y’ALL!

Biscuits should be fluffy, flavorful, and fresh. (Yes, I love alliteration.) Oh, and large! Burly, not dainty. There are as many opinions about what makes a perfect biscuit as there are people who bake them, from: “I prefer my biscuits to pop out of a can”, to: “I only use leaf lard and whole organic buttermilk.”

If you’ve read my other blogs, you know that I don’t always follow the rules when it comes to baking. I’m going to backpedal just a bit here, and say that if you want light, tender biscuits, your results will be better if you conform just this once. If I can, you can! Use very cold ingredients, don’t over-mix, and try to cut the biscuits out with surgical precision.

Would you like to know what not to do? Don’t accidentally use 4 teaspoons of baking soda instead of baking powder. The first time my son-in-law came for dinner I proudly served biscuits. Very pretty biscuits. One by one I watched each person take a bite and then return the biscuit to their plate with a pained look on their face. When I tried one for myself I quickly realized my mistake. We probably looked like a support group for hydrophobia sufferers. He has never let me forget those poor biscuits.

My experiments with fats in biscuit recipes have included bear fat, lard, butter, and shortening. They all worked well, though I didn’t get as much “loft” with the butter. Since many people have an irrational dislike of lard, and you might not find bear fat on the shelf at the grocery store, (I rendered it myself. Seriously! Gross and stinky, but the end product is a beautiful white “lard”) you will probably decide to use shortening, butter, or a combination of the two. As much as I hate to use “vegetable” shortening, I’ll admit it makes flaky biscuits and pie crusts. And face it, we’re not going to pass these babies off as healthy, any way you look at it!

If you insist on having biscuits that are perfectly smooth and uniform (bless your heart), by all means get out your rolling pin, but I prefer to handle the dough as little as possible, patting the dough into the desired thickness. This makes a more rustic looking biscuit, but  I’ll choose texture over appearance any day. Remember: a light hand makes a light biscuit!

I really, really suggest you buy a biscuit cutter if you don’t already have one. Drinking glasses are a nuisance; they suck your dough up and you have to pry it back out, which is very traumatic for the biscuit dough. If you must use glassware, use something thin, like a wine glass or crystal goblet. Whatever you use, the most important thing to remember is to press the cutter down and lift it up. Don’t twist, or you’ll make it harder for the dough to rise.

Biscuits never taste as good the next day, even if you reheat them. The recipe I’m going to share with you makes twelve jumbo biscuits, so if you don’t need that many, put some uncooked biscuits into a heavy zipper bag and pop them in the freezer. You can bake them without thawing if you’re in a rush – just give them a few extra minutes.

Hopefully I haven’t scared you off. Hello? Hello? Please come back, it’s not that complicated! Try this recipe once and you’ll be hooked, and never buy those nasty rolls in a can again. You will add five years to your life by not waiting in suspense for the “POP!”  I read recently (and don’t remember where…so much for giving proper credit) that opening up a can of dough is the adult equivalent of a kid’s jack-in-the-box toy. Cut back on the adrenalin rush by making your own biscuits!

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

3 cups all-purpose flour (a good quality flour is best, like “King Arthur” brand)
1 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening, chilled!
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1 egg

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the shortening and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter. (You can also use 2 knives or even your finger tips. Just dip them into ice water before blending so you don’t melt the shortening.) So many recipes say it should look like “coarse meal.” Since I don’t know what they’re talking about, I just cut it in until you don’t see any chunks of shortening bigger than a pea. Good enough.

Cutting the shortening into the flour mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, milk, and egg. Pour it onto the flour mixture and stir until it’s consistently moist, with no big pockets of flour.
Drop the dough into the center of a heavily floured board or counter. Flour your hands and turn the dough over a couple of times to cover with flour. With your hands, gently press the dough to a 3/4 inch thickness.
Flour your biscuit cutter. Press down, then pull straight up. Repeat, cutting the rounds as close together as possible.

Cutting out biscuits.

With a spatula, move them, almost touching, onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Don’t re-roll the leftover dough. Just bake the scraps. Calories don’t count if they’re just scraps!
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are a rich golden brown.

Serve ’em hot with butter, honey, fresh jam, or…

SAUSAGE GRAVY

1 pound bulk breakfast sausage
3-4 tablespoons flour
2 cups half and half
Pepper to taste
1 cup milk (if needed)
Brown the sausage on medium heat, crumbling it as you stir. Add 3 tablespoons of the flour and cook for a minute. If you can still see grease, add the other tablespoon of flour. Lower heat to medium low and stir for 2-3 minutes to cook the flour. Slowly add the half and half, stirring constantly. Add the pepper and cook gently on low for at least 30 minutes. If it starts to get too thick, add milk a little at a time.

Sausage gravy – heavy on the sausage!

STRAWBERRY ZUCCHINI BREAD

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Strawberry Zucchini Bread with lemon glaze.

I’m sure the comparison has already been made, but when I think of zucchini season I think of Lucy and Ethel working at the chocolate factory, stuffing candy anywhere they could, while the chocolates just kept coming faster and faster and desperation mounted. If you’re too young to remember that episode, or don’t even know who I’m talking about, check out YouTube. All you have to do is type in “Lucy and Ethel” and the first thing to show up is the chocolate clip!

Yes, roll up your car windows and don’t answer the door; it’s zucchini time! Those bad boys double in size overnight and just keep producing. It took me just one gardening season to learn I only needed to plant a few zucchini plants in the garden each year. We love zucchini fritters, stir-fries, baked zucchini, and fried zucchini with cheese. But most of all, we love zucchini bread! Banana-zucchini, oatmeal-zucchini, chocolate-zucchini, and (drum roll, please) strawberry-zucchini!

Quick breads are…well…quick! The loaves of Strawberry Zucchini Bread have to bake for an hour, but the preparation time is twenty minutes, tops. You don’t need a mixer, just a bowl, a spoon, and two loaf pans. I jazzed my loaves up by stirring a little lemon juice into a cup of powdered sugar and glazing the tops once they’d cooled. I like the appearance of a frosted loaf, and I have a ferocious sweet tooth.

If you aren’t “fortunate” enough to have a never-ending source of zucchini, you can substitute a cup of mashed bananas for the zucchini and double the cinnamon. Throw in a few blueberries if you like, or white chocolate chips.  Experiment and have some fun with this; you can never have too many loaves of quick bread in the freezer!

Here’s how you do it:

STRAWBERRY ZUCCHINI BREAD
Makes 2 loaves

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries
1 1/2 cup zucchini, grated
1 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 F.
Prepare two loaf pans by greasing and flouring them (or by spraying with a combination oil/flour spray like Baker’s Joy)
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs well and stir in the oil, lemon juice, vanilla, strawberries, and zucchini.

Stirring liquids into the flour mixture.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Fold in the walnuts.
Divide between two loaf pans and gently smooth the top. If one pan has more batter than the other, that loaf will be a little bigger–and no one will care! Don’t fuss.

Divide batter between two prepared loaf pans.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove pans from oven and allow bread to cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before turning out and cooling completely.

Quick breads are much easier to cut when they’re chilled. And for the record, I think this is one of those baked items that tastes better the next day, so hide one of the loaves, quick!