Tea and Scones

The most popular flavor of ice cream in the United States is…..VANILLA!!! Yes! That’s correct – vanilla. But despite it’s popularity, vanilla has a bad rap! People can have a vanilla personality – blah! boring! Vanilla usually refers to a lack of…

“adj. Informal.
Lacking adornments or special features; basic or ordinary: plain vanilla stock options; a plain vanilla wardrobe.”

People say that they like “plain ol’ vanilla”. If that is true, then they better by-pass Dorie’s Vanilla Ice Cream,’cause it is anything BUT plain. It is a heavenly treat. A collection of flavors that blend together smoothly and deliciously.

I made this for the first time about three weeks ago. It was good. It was easy. My custard even worked!!! I served it over warm from the oven “Dump Cake”. (Yes, I’ll give the recipe – it’s a ‘Southern thang’!!) I followed the recipe exactly. It was really good. I knew I had to make it again.

Last night when I made it again, I played with it and added the honey as Dorie suggested. (I only made 1/2 the recipe, cut the sugar in 1/2 again and added the full amount of honey – 1/3 cup). Just right. AS it finished churning I added a little more so that there are small ribbons of honey running through the cream (even tho’ YOU can’t see it.) And then poured just a little more over the top.. AAAAHHHH!!!!!!.

Perfect!!

Thanks to Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu for this weeks TWD pick. Perfect for this time of year.

Be sure to visit the other TWDers for their take on this tasty dessert.

Dump Cake!

First you dump (thus the name….) a couple or more cans of drained peaches into a baking dish (size is completely up to you depending on how much you want).
Then you sprinkle yellow cake mix over the top (dry out of the box – again, it’s up to you depending on how much cake you want on top – 1/2 a box, whole box).
Sprinkle the cake mix with melted butter – takes about 2/3 to 1 stick unsalted.
Bake at 350 until the cake mix on top is nicely browned and some of the peach juice bakes up into the crust. Probably about 20 minutes or so. The cake mix gives you a crumble top.
DONE!!!
Easy! Quick! Sweetly delicious!

“Y’all come back now -ya heer.”

You won’t find many cookies coming from this kitchen. If I rank desserts in our house cake would be first, pie second, ice cream with everything and cookies on the bottom. That is just the way it is. So, when I read the challenge for July from the The Daring Kitchen was cookies, I knew they would last forever in my house. I saw 1/2 a recipe in my future. And it wasn’t a cookie that really interested the MEN in the family. Here is the story.

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

These cookies were really easy to put together. But in the beginning they looked a lot like my eclairs piped onto a cookie sheet – the Daring Bakers Challenge of August, 2008. (Below)

Then I popped them in the oven and they came out looking like —

And I was supposed to make SANDWICH cookies from these??? **SIGH**
(Fill in rest of story here…..) but in the end they actually turned out alright.

I made 1/2 of the cookies with coco with chocolate filling and those were pretty good. But, overall, I don’t think I will make these again. I made them over a week ago and there are still some left, even tho’ I made only 1/2 of the recipe.
Interesting to make, but not a keeper. The cookies seemed a little heavy. Maybe if I left out the lemon they would be more popular in this house.

But go visit the other Daring Bakers and see how there Milan Cookies came out.

CAKE!!! CAKE!!! That is all I have been hearing. The Blanc-Manger did NOT go over well. Ice cream is great, but the Guys want CAKE!
So, I made CAKE!Well, sorta….

These are Martha Stewart’s Yellow Butter Cupcakes.

Living February 2009

3 cups cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
9 ounces (2 sticks + 2 Tbl) unsalted butter, softened (Yeah 9 OUNCES) Sounds like Paula Deene
2 1/4 cups sugar (never said they were low cal…)
5 large eggs + 3 large yolks, at room temp (or low fat…)
2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin pans with paper liners.
Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Cream butter and sugar with mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Reduce speed to low. Mix remaining wet ingredients in another container.
Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet, ending with dry.
Scrape side of bowl and fill each cup 2/3 full
Bake cupcakes until centers test dry, or about 20 minutes.
Cool on racks. Will keep, covered, for up to 3 days.

I used her basic butter cream icing for some. Swirled chocolate in some. Frosted some with chocolate. All Good!!

Martha’s Basic Buttercream

12 ounces (3 sticks) butter, softened
1 pound (4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp pure vanilla

Beat butter on medium-high until pale and fluffy.
Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating after each addition, about 5 minutes
After every 2 additions, increase speed to high for 10 seconds and then lower to medium.
Add vanilla and beat until smooth.
Use immediately, or refridgerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temp and beat until smooth).
Enjoy!

These are pretty good, not spectacular. But good.

Elegant! Cool! Easy! Fairly (sorta kinda) Low Carb – just in case….! That describes this weeks TWD dessert. Raspberry Blanc-Manger chosen by Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy.

Or in my case STRAWBERRY Blanc-Manger

We are not raspberry people. Just about any other fruit disappears in this house, but NOT raspberries. So I had to decide what fruit to use. Peaches maybe? – nice, soft, sweet?
Manderine Orange – too acidic! Blueberry, maybe? Nah! – too blue for this. Strawberries - perfect – and I had some on hand. And I already had some Strawberry Coulis! The Kitchen Gods had spoken.

This was easy to put together – if YOU CAN READ!!! Which, as I have said before I evidently CANNOT!! I had already cooled the almond milk (which I could have drunk alone, by itself….) and then discovered I had cooled it too soon – forgot the vanilla. Not wanting to take a chance – I reheated to boil and added it in and THEN cooled. Whipped cream. Strawberries. Nothing to it. I put a little coulis in the pan (I used my Wilton oval instead of a round pan) and then slathered in the ‘filling?’. That wasn’t such a great idea. Made it too sloppy on top. It was good, well, Okay, but we didn’t care for it much. Can’t explain why when all the ingredients alone are good, but… who knows. It is not a keeper. Maybe with Peaches??

Well, go visit the other TWDer’s and see what they did with the Blanc-Manger.

OOPPS!! Almost forgot – using Strawberries – the total carb count was about 140 grams. Just in case…..

Basically, there are only two of us in the house now. I say basically, because my 18 year old son is still at home, but he isn’t always here for meals, so often I cook for just us two. Not easy moving from cooking for three or four (or five cause he IS 18) to just cooking for two. Desserts are especially hard because I like them gone in a day or two. Downsizing is the answer, unless you can find a smaller version recipe. There is one magazine out there that is quite helpful – Taste of Home’s Cooking for One or Two - which is where I found this recipe.

Blueberry Cake Cups
1/4 cup AP flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
Dash salt
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbl butter, melted
1 cup blueberries, divided

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
Stir in milk and butter until just moistened.
Divide half of the berries between two 10 oz. ramikins
Top with batter and remainder of berries.
Bake 375 for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.

I like blueberries, but I don’t really love them, so I substituted sauteed apples and mixed in a few blueberries. It would have been really tasty warm from the oven and topped with vanilla ice cream, but I was already full of Bar-B-Qued Chicken, so….. Next time!!

If you are weak or squeamish, you may want to visit another site at this time. If there are impressionable children in the room, you may want to hide there eyes. Even the strongest of you may NOT be able to handle what you are about to see!!!

I WARNED YOU!!!
If you opened your bread machine and took this out, you may want to give up bread making altogether.

So! I put all the ingredients in like I always do (Recipe coming). Closed the lid. Set the machine on Rapid. All good. All the same. Takes about 2 1/2 hours on Rapid Bread. Went back after 1 3/4 hours. And there, in the machine, is a half baked container of — INGREDIENTS. Not a beautiful baking loaf of bread. INGREDIENTS!!!. What’s a baker to do? Yes, I SHOULD have checked it earlier, but had so many things to do. Machine was too hot to start another loaf. So. I. Waited. (Now, you may not want to read this…) I used my hands, mixed all the pieces of half baked bread and ingredients together, turned the machine back on and Baked Bread.

I have to tell you: The bread was completely useless for sandwiches. But it tasted GREAT!! Heavy?? Yes!! Small?? Yes!! But very flavorful with some butter slathered on. I just hated to waste 4 cups of bread flour.

As I slowly recovered from PTBBS (Post Traumatic Bad Bread Syndrome) I put another loaf in the other bread machine. That was not a good idea.

I bought a bread machine at a flea market about a year ago. Haven’t used it much. Maybe a loaf or two. They came out fine. This is the first time I have used it where a loaf rose wildly. Yes – WILDLY! Must have been some really good yeast. It was like a small volcano building in the machine. Great!! I love tall, tasty bread. But it WOULD NOT COME OUT OF THE MACHINE!!!. I finally had to cut, well almost, the top off. When the top came out, so did about 1/2 of the top layer of bread.

I could NOT figure out why the bread would not come out until I looked at the top of the pan. It was not square. Nope!! It was larger at the bottom than at the top. Stuck!!! Now I know why the machine was so cheap. But not to worry. DH stretched out the top and now it IS square!!

1/2 of the second loaf of bread is sandwichable. And the rest will get eaten – with butter, or jam, or plain.

Needless to say, they are NOT going to yeast spotting!!!

Bread Machine Basic White Bread
1 1/2 cups milk (recipe actually calls for 1 1/2 cup water + 2 Tbl dry milk, but….)
4 1/4 cups bread flour
3 Tbl sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbl butter
2 tsp active dry yeast

Select basic setting.
Add ingredients to the pan according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When cycle ends, remove bread and place on rack.
Allow to cool before slicing (Yeah!! Right!!)
I also used 3 3/4 cup bread flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat in this loaf and it added just a little change in flavor (only because I ran out of bread flour!!!)Bread has good crumb!!

Almost forgot, this is easy to add flavors to. I have added Italian seasoning, garlic powder, etc. Good Bread!!

Okay!!! Now that I have your attention. You will notice that it is not a picture of Dorie’s Brioche Plum Tart!! I still have some of that fantastic Carrot Cake from Dorie (and this is a catch-up) and this Zucchini Bread left. I just couldn’t bring myself to make a tart as well.

Zucchini Bread
- recipe from Colorado Farmer’s Market Cookbook.

3 eggs, beaten
2 cups sugar (I used 1/2 sugar and 1/2 Splendra)
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup veggie oil
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup shredded or grated coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, vanilla, almond extract and oil. Blend well. Add in zucchini.
Sift together dry ingredients. Blend with egg mixture. Fold in nuts and coconut. Divide the batter between 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake 1 hour. (This will also make 1 regular loaf and 3 mini loaves or 6 mini loaves.)

I served the Carrot Cake with Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream.
Of course, THEN I was in an ice cream mode, so I made some more

The recipe for the Cheesecake Ice Cream came from Megan of My Baking Adventures. And I added about 1/2 – 2/4 cup of pureed strawberries. Can I tell you HOW GOOD this was??? And next time I want to add some graham cracker crust to the ice cream itself. I could have eaten the whole container BY MYSELF. But I shared – a little!!!

And THEN because I was in Cheesecake mode – I made this:

Regular cheesecake layered with chocolate, then caramel, then chopped pecans on top of the crust. (One mistake – don’t use a ganache that will harden LIKE A ROCK – makes it hard to heat) I also swirled a little chocolate in the cheesecake itself.

Had enough yet??? Okay. UNCLE!!!

But I will leave you with just a photo or two!!

The ONE good thing about summer in the Deep South!!!

My apologies to Denise of Chez Us for not baking with her this week.

Thanks for taking the time to come by for a visit and a bite!

The African Queen and Humphrey Bogart! The Philadelphia Story and Cary Grant, AND Jimmy Stewart! The Lion in Winter and Peter O’Toole! And of course Spencer Tracey — nine movies. Great leading men! Great movies! And all with Katharine Hepburn. **SIGH** Love the old movies – especially hers.

And so, evidently, did Dorie. Because this weeks recipe, chosen by Susan of Surviving Oz. is Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies.

The Chocolate. The Walnuts. The Cinnamon. These were wonderful.

Easy
Intense Chocolate batter
Dark and Dense.
Lots of flavor.
They looked so good – in the pan!

They stuck to the paper!!

EGAD!! I sprayed. I used wax paper.

They Stuck to the Paper.

I felt like Tess in Woman of the Year.

“Sam is eventually woken by her noisy manual incompetence in the kitchen, and cruelly uses her lack of dexterity to make his point that Tess is incapable of being a conventional wife.”

They look soooo good. They taste FANTASTIC!! But….

THEY STUCK TO THE WAX PAPER!! EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!

Well, except for five I managed to salvage intact!!!

And served with Dorie’s Chocolate Ice Cream (which will be a pick one day, I’m sure — It Is Good!!!)

Changes I made:

Don’t like coffee, so I left out the Esspresso.
Used the Mexican chocolate which already has cinnamon in it.
I baked for 40 minutes for them to be done – finally.

HOORAY!! also, for Susan who also designed the new logo for TWD. And it is wonderful!!

Post Script: I visited most of the TWDers this week. This was a very popular recipe as only about 10% of our members didn’t make them.

GOODIES!!
I have learned to love new kitchen goodies and gadgets! I go to that department in the stores first, now. I wander thru the cook books, kitchen ware, appliances. I love the ‘discount’ stores that sell discontinued items at lower costs.
So, I went to see my Mom and managed to vist 3 of my favorite stores – Marshalls, Ross, and World Market.
Imagine my joy to find these at Marshall’s:

Now I can make Dorie’s Madeleines.
And then off to World Market:

And I tasted it – not bad!!!

But nothing from Ross’s – not kitchen anyway. Maybe next trip.

Finding these was almost as good as that rectangular tart pan on sale at Williams Sonoma.

Zuchinni!
Between our garden and that of a friends I have my own CSA box – sorta…Zucchini! from our garden and Corn! Tomatoes! Cucumbers! from his!! So last night we had fresh corn on the cob and Zucchini Fritters!!

Zucchini Fritters
Claire de Lune, Denver via Colorado Farmers’ Market Cookbook

2 Tlb peanut or canola oil, plus more for frying
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4/5 small to medium zucchini, coarsely grated
2 Tbl chopped fresh basil
2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 Tbl flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Pinch Cayenne
Creme fraiche or sour cream to garnish

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until trtanslucent. Place the onions in a large mixing bowl. Cool to room temperature, then add the zucchini, basil, and Parmesan; mix well. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the onion mixture along with the eggs, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Mex well and let sit for 10 minutes. (My advice: let the grated zuchinni drain for a few minutes before adding to the mix.)I also added, as per suggested, bread crumbs for extra texture and it did improve the flavor.
Preheat oven to 200 F. Heat 1/4 inch oil in a large cast iron skillet or non-stick skillet until hot enough that a drop of water pops and sizzles. Spoon enough of the fritter batter into the oil to make 2- to 3-inch circles. With a metal spatula, flatten the fritters into disks (My advice: Spray back of spatula with Pam so the fritters don’t stick and flatten them quite thin.) Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove fritters to a paper towel-lined plate and keep warm in the oven. Continue with remaining batter. Serve the fritters warm with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream.
Really good!My daughter gave me this cook book and it has some great fresh recipes in it.

GADGETS!!
And for my birthday…..

My family loves me….